_Rome, Jan. 17, 1870._—It is a remarkable phenomenon that Pius IX., who is
every way inferior to his predecessors of this century in theological
culture, lets himself be so completely dominated by his passion for
creating new articles of faith. Former Popes have indeed had their
hobbies: some wanted to aggrandize and enrich their families; others, like
Sixtus VI., were zealous in building, or, like Leo X., in fostering art
and literature, or they waged wars like Julius II., or, finally, they
wrote learned works, and composed many long Bulls full of quotations,
etc., like Benedict XIV. But not one of them has been seized with this
passion for manufacturing dogmas; it is something quite unique in the
history of the Popes. Herein, therefore, Pius IX. is a singular phenomenon
in his way, and all the more wonderful from his hitherto having kept aloof
from theology, and, as one always hears, not being in the habit of ever
reading theological books. If it is inquired how this strange idiosyncrasy
has been aroused in the soul of a Pope who began his reign under such very
different auspices, as a political reformer, the answer given by every one
is, that it is the Jesuits, whose influence over him has been constantly
growing since he took Father Mignardi of that Order for his confessor, and
who have created and fostered in him this passion for dogma-making.
The displeasure and discontent of the Bishops finds constant nutriment in
the conduct of the _Curia_. They say that if these momentous propositions
had been laid before them in good time, some months before the opening of
the Council, so that they might have carefully examined them and pursued
the theological studies requisite for that purpose, they should have come
duly prepared, whereas now they are in the position of having to speak and
vote on the most difficult questions almost extempore. The attacks and
objections directed against the first part of the _Schema_ in their
speeches have not applied so much to the separate articles as to the
general scope and tendency of the whole, and I have not been able to
ascertain anything more certain about the matter, for the real elaboration
of the _Schema_, and discussion of its articles in detail, has to be
managed in the Commission; in the Council Hall it is impossible. As yet
there have been only long speeches on either side, as in academies or in a
school of rhetoric, which, for the most part, were not understood, and in
which the main question—what shape the decrees are to take, if issued at
all—was never grappled with.
On Friday, January 14, the debate on the _Schema_ opened. This is occupied
with the duties of Bishops—their residence, visitation of their dioceses,
and obligation of frequently travelling to Rome and presenting regular
reports on the state of their dioceses; the holding of Provincial and
Diocesan Synods, and Vicars-General. The duties of Bishops are the one
thing spoken of, and the design is everywhere transparent of increasing
their dependence on the _Curia_, and centralizing all Church government in
Rome still more than before. Archbishop Darboy observed on it, that it was
above all necessary, in examining this second _Schema_, to discuss the
rights of Bishops, instead of only the duties Rome assigned them. Cardinal
Schwarzenberg had really opened the debate in this sense, and he had the
courage to speak of the College of Cardinals, and the reforms it needed. A
simple Bishop would not have been suffered to do this, but they dared not
interrupt a Cardinal. The speakers who followed, too, had a good deal to
find fault with in the _Schema_, especially Ballerini, formerly rejected
as Archbishop of Milan, and now titular Patriarch of Alexandria, and Simor
the Primate of Hungary. This Prelate has protested so emphatically against
the _Schema_ and the treatment the Bishops have experienced at the hands
of the _Curia_, that the offer of a Cardinal’s Hat seems by no means to
have produced the desired effect upon him. There are said to be still
sixteen portions or chapters of the _Schema_ in reserve, so that the
authorities are already displeased at the length of the Bishops’ speeches;
and lately one Bishop gained general applause by saying he renounced his
right to speak.
We may gain some very valuable evidences in Russia and Poland as to how
Papal Infallibility is already conceived of, and what hopes and fears
respectively are entertained in reference to the projected new dogma. The
six or seven million Catholics of that empire are very variously situated,
and have different interests, and therefore, in some sort, opposite
wishes. Among the Polish Catholics, who are just now being denationalized
and Russianized, many are always looking out for the overthrow of the
Russian dominion, and the restoration of a kingdom of Poland. To this
party belongs Sosnowski, formerly administrator of the diocese of Lublin,
whom the Pope has admitted to the Council. He is to represent the whole
Polish Church at the Council, and is an ardent Infallibilist; he has
accordingly given a severe snubbing, by way of answer, to the Polish
priests who had communicated to him certain proposals of reform, with a
view of restricting Papal absolutism, to be laid before the Council. His
reply circulates here, and is also to be printed in a newspaper published
at Posen. Sosnowski represents to the Polish clergy that the emancipation
of Poland from Russia must continue to be the great object; and that for
this a Pope recognised as completely absolute and infallible is
indispensable. He appears to mean that such a Pope, being supreme lord
over all monarchs and nations, can even depose the Russian Czar, or at
least absolve the Poles from their oath of allegiance. He moreover assures
them that Pius IX. has told him he reckons confidently on this
emancipation of Poland from Russia. Here in Rome it is said and taught
that the Pope is supreme master even of heretical and schismatical just as
much as of Catholic sovereigns; for through baptism, whether received
within or without the Church, every one at once becomes his subject. And
we are reminded, in proof of this, how Pope Martin IV., in 1282, deposed
the Greek Emperor, Michael Palæologus, and absolved his subjects from
their allegiance, simply because he had made a treaty with the King of
Aragon. This explains why the Russian Government told the Bishops who
requested leave to attend the Council, that they might go to Rome, but
should not return. The 2,800,000 Catholics in Russia Proper, in the
ecclesiastical province of Mohilew, think very differently from Sosnowski.
A clergyman from thence said to-day, “If Papal Infallibility is made an
article of faith, put into the catechisms and taught in the schools, it
will bring us into a most difficult and desperate position as regards the
Russian Government and people. We shall be told that our Czar sits in
Rome, and that we obey him rather than the Czar at St. Petersburg, to whom
we only swear a conditional allegiance, holding ourselves ready to rebel,
if our infallible master at Rome absolves us from the oath; that we put
his commands and prohibitions above the law of the land and the will of
the Emperor. And thus, if Papal Infallibility is defined at Rome, it will
be almost equivalent for us to a sentence of death on the Catholic Church
in Russia, for everything will be done to undermine a Church regarded as
an enemy and standing menace to the State.”
Two new works have arrived here, each of which, in its own way, touches on
the great question of the day. The one is a book of Dr. Pusey’s, on the
relations of the English Church to the Catholic, where he declares that
making Papal Infallibility a dogma would destroy all hope of a reunion of
the Churches, or of the adhesion of any considerable section of the
English Church.(37) Manning has assured them in Rome of precisely the
reverse. The other work is the first Letter of the famous Oratorian,
Father Gratry, to the Archbishop of Mechlin, a pungent criticism on that
Prelate’s brochure in favour of Infallibility, and on his gross
misrepresentations of the history of Pope Honorius.(38) Gratry also
exposes the Roman falsifications introduced into the Breviary. It may
alarm the curialists, when they discover how all the most intellectually
conspicuous among the French clergy pronounce against their favourite
doctrine, and their design of imposing it on the whole Church, and how the
disreputable means employed for building up this system, by trickery and
forgeries, are more and more being brought to light.
The Pope’s attempt to reduce 740 members of the Council to complete
silence on all that goes on there has proved a failure, as might have been
foreseen. A great deal has come out, and the Pope manifests great
displeasure at it. In a conversation with a diplomatist, who asked him
how, with this rule, trustworthy reports could be sent to the different
Governments, he accused the French Bishops of violating the secrets of the
Council, and called them “chatterboxes” (_chiacceroni_). Accordingly, in
the Session of January 14, a more rigorous version of the order of
business was read, to the effect that the Pope had made it a mortal sin to
communicate anything that took place in the Council; so that any Bishop
who should, for instance, show a theologian, whose advice he wanted, a
passage from the _Schema_ under discussion, or repeat an expression used
in one of the speeches, incurs everlasting damnation! If your readers
think this incredible, I can only assure them that it is literally true,
and must refer them to the moral theology of the Jesuits on the foundation
of the Pope’s right to brand human actions, forbidden by no law of God,
with the guilt of mortal sin, at his good pleasure. A Papal theologian,
whom I questioned on the subject, appealed simply to the statement of
Boniface VIII., that the Pope holds all rights in the shrine of his
breast.