_Rome, Feb. 20, 1870._—The following classification of the French Bishops
here according to their parties may be interesting.
The French themselves distinguish three factions, Liberal, Ultramontane,
and the Third Party—_i.e._, those who have signed no address, and have
openly refused to do so. To the Liberal section belong Alby, Gaz,
Marseilles, Nizza, Cahors, Mende, Perpignan, Bayonne, Montpellier,
Valence, Viviers, La Rochelle, Luçon, Besançon, Metz, Nancy, Verdun,
Annecy, Autun, Dijon, Grenoble, Paris, Orleans, Rheims, Chalons, S.
Brieux, Vannes, Bayeux, Coutances, Evreux—thirty votes altogether.
The Ultramontanes are—Rodez, Aire, Nîmes, Angoulême, Poictiers (in the
superlative), Belley, St. Diez, Strasburg, Le Puy, Tulle, St. Jean de
Maurienne, Langres, St. Claude, Blois, Chartres, Meaux, Versailles,
Amiens, Beauvais, Rennes (a malcontent Ultramontane), Seez, Moulins,
Toulouse, Carcassonne, Montauban, Laval and Le Mans—twenty-seven votes.
In the Third Party, headed by the Cardinal-Archbishop of Rouen, are
included Périgueus, Bourges, Tarantaise, Cambray, Arras, Nevers, Troyes,
Pamiers, Tours—ten votes.
The Bishops of Digne, Fréjus, Toulon and Soissons are described as
doubtful.
The English Bishops are similarly divided. Manning has only been able to
get one single Bishop over to his side. Two, Errington and Clifford, have
signed the Address against Infallibility. Six, including Bishop Ullathorne
of Birmingham, form a third party, who decline to sign anything on either
side. It is the same with the Irish Bishops. The Romanized Cullen, whom
the Pope forced as Primate on the Irish Bishops, with the same view as he
imposed Manning on the English Bishops, against their will, is of course
an Infallibilist, and would rejoice to enforce this dogma, which they
detest, on the educated classes of Ireland by the help of the lower
orders. Bishops Moriarty and Leahy (of Dromore) have signed the Petition
against Infallibility. Archbishop MacHale of Tuam, and some others with
him, belong to the third party, while the majority of the Irish Bishops
see in Papal Infallibility a means for increasing their influence over the
people. What view the South Italian Bishops take is illustrated by the
following anecdote. An Italian statesman spoke to two of them about the
immoderate claims contained in the _Schema de Ecclesiâ_, and asked them
whether they really meant to assent to such decrees? “We cannot go against
the Holy Father,” was their reply. When he reminded them of the
independent attitude of the German Bishops, they replied, “They can take
that line, for they are rich.” Another of the South Italians amused the
Council by urging that the constant wearing of the long cassock should be
enforced, because Christ rose and ascended into heaven in that dress.
Since the _Schema de Ecclesiâ_ has been in the hands of the Bishops, it is
clear to all that the Council has been convoked simply for the purpose of
extending the power of the Pope and strengthening the influence of the
Jesuits, and that everything is designed to subserve this one end. The
Bishops are to forge chains for binding, first the secular powers, and
then themselves and the whole clergy with them. The feeling they are
possessed with is a bitter and painful one. They feel outwitted and caught
in a trap. They were summoned to Rome, without being told a word of the
objects aimed at or the matters to be dealt with; on their arrival they
were strung and fixed, like the keys of a harpsichord, into the great
conciliar instrument, and they find that they are to be used by the hand
of the mighty musician to produce tones which sound to themselves most
utterly nauseous. They know well enough that the most eloquent speeches
and most forcible arguments don’t change a single vote of the majority,
who would remain firm and unmoved as the rock of Peter if a Chrysostom or
Augustine was among them. In an outburst of disgust at the _Schema de
Ecclesiâ_, a German Prelate, formerly Roman in his sympathies, exclaimed,
“This _Schema_ deserves to be thrust down into hell.” One hears these men
congratulating their colleagues who stayed at home under a presentiment of
what was coming. The news of the adjournment of the Council, begun under
such evil auspices, would be welcomed by them with delight.
But these reports of an adjournment are rather wishes than hopes. The
prorogation would imply an admission that the Council had been a failure
through the fault of the _Curia_, in the perversity of the regulations it
imposed on the Bishops, and the extravagance of the measures it brought
forward. “Perissent les colonies plutôt qu’un principe”—this saying,
uttered in the Paris Convention of 1793, may often be heard here in
various applications. The world will be enlightened in a few days by the
publication of the new or altered order of business. It is not prorogation
that is the immediate business, but the subjection of the minority more
than ever to the rule of the majority and its wire-pullers who stand
behind it, the outvoting them by majorities.
In French circles a paper called the _Moniteur Universel_ is making no
small sensation. It contains a detailed account of the proceedings of the
Council, drawn up by a learned Frenchman residing here and under the
inspiration of French Bishops. It is thoroughly authentic and carefully
weighed—far the best and most accurate account of the Council in that
language. You may perhaps find room for the following, which substantially
confirms and partly supplements and rectifies my own statements:—
“The Council of Trent arranged the order of business for itself. In this
case just the contrary has been done: everything was pre-arranged and
imposed on the Council by the Pope, and even the secretaries and
scrutators were named beforehand. No initiative is allowed to the Bishops;
the Commission for examining motions is formed of the hottest
Infallibilists and members of the _Curia_, but the final decision is
reserved to the Pope. The proposers of a motion are not even allowed to
explain and defend it, so that the freedom nominally conceded to the
Bishops of proposing measures is rendered purely illusory. By the
composition of the four Commissions, elected from Roman lists of names,
all work of critical importance is kept in the hands of the few
Infallibilists chosen for the purpose by the _Curia_, to the exclusion of
700 Bishops, among whom are all the German Bishops who signed the Fulda
Letter to the Pope, and the most influential French Prelates. In short,
all Bishops not known to be thorough-going Infallibilists have been
systematically excluded from the Commissions. Very different was it at
Trent, where all the Fathers, divided into four Congregations, took a real
part in the work. We must add the monstrous disproportion of national
representation—the enormous and overwhelming preponderance of the
Italians, still further strengthened by the host of Vicars-Apostolic, who
can at any moment be deposed by the Propaganda without any legal
formality. Thus the Italian Bishops alone outnumber all the French,
German, Hungarian and North American together, though these last represent
a population nearly three times as large. The weakness of the two French
Cardinals, Bonnechose and Mathieu, who ought to have taken the lead, has
frustrated the attempt to unite the French Bishops in a national group.
Bonnechose consulted Antonelli, who said the French must not assemble in
larger bodies than fifteen or at most twenty together. The evil
consequences were at once shown in the elections.
“The Bishops are compelled by the Pope to hold their sittings in a place
where at least a third cannot understand a word that is said, so that,
_e.g._, Cardinal di Pietro long since declared he had not really
understood a single speech, and another Cardinal said that not twenty
words of all the speeches had reached his ear. A really searching
discussion and living interchange of observations and replies is out of
the question. No speaker can hope to produce any impression on this
audience. And thus the first _Schema_, which consists of 140 pages, was
the subject of general discussion for weeks without any detailed
discussion of the separate articles being arrived at, or any point
certainly ascertained, notwithstanding the number of speakers. The only
result was a great waste of time, bodily fatigue and a deep
discouragement. Had the object been to satiate the assembly with speeches
_usque ad nauseam_ it could not have been better managed. It would be
something if the Fathers could read the speeches they can’t hear, but
neither are they allowed to be read; the Bishops may not even print their
addresses at their own cost. Thus many of them are wholly deprived of the
opportunity of expressing their views, knowing that they will not be
heard.
“Vigorous preparations were made for two years before the opening of the
Council. There is matter enough for ten Councils, but it is only
communicated to the Bishops piecemeal, so that they can get no insight
into the connection and plan of the separate propositions. Thus a
ready-made Council has been put before 700 Bishops, which they are obliged
again to unstitch like a web. As the Bishops had no means of gaining
previous information, the Council is mostly deaf and dumb, and has at last
got driven into a narrow pass from which there is no exit without a
thorough alteration of the order of business. No one can say how it will
be with the examination of the separate articles of the _Schemata_, and
yet the Council ought to have most carefully weighed every word of decrees
which are to be imposed on the world under anathema.”