_Rome, March 8, 1870._—“Habemus Papam falli nescium!” The Bishops of the
Manning and Deschamps party are in raptures; all Rome, say the
Infallibilist devotees, is in the highest spirits. The great doctrine, on
which, as all the Jesuits and their disciples assure us, hinges the
salvation of humanity and the regeneration of science and literature, was
published on March 6 in the form of a supplement to the _Schema de
Ecclesiâ_. The Pope bears witness of himself that he is infallible as
teacher of the Church, and the great majority of the Council will readily
assent. Already they are exulting in that moment of triumph when the Pope
from his throne in the Hall, “sacro Concilio approbante,” and amid the
pealing of all the bells in Rome, will proclaim to the world that it is
now fortunate enough to possess an infallible teacher and judge in all
questions of faith and morals, guaranteed by God Himself. Day and hour for
the proclamation will be chosen with the greatest deliberation and
foresight, and here another ground for clinging so pertinaciously to the
present Council Hall comes out. It was thought quite incomprehensible why
“the master” insulted 750 aged men by compelling them, in spite of all
wishes and representations and the evidence of his own senses, to hold
their sittings in a Chamber so utterly unfit for the purpose. In a city so
abounding in churches and halls as Rome this seemed an act rather of
ill-tempered caprice than of hospitable care. It was known of course that
the previous expectations of the Vatican had been disappointed, that it
had been hoped the _Schemata_ would be received by acclamation or by
storm, as it were, without discussion, and that the Hall had been chosen
on the very ground of its acoustic defects being adapted to that end. Now
however a new recommendation of the Hall betrays itself. At a certain hour
on a clear and cloudless day the rays of the sun fall exactly on the place
where the Pope’s throne stands, so that Pius may hope, by help of careful
arrangements about the time, to stand in a glory of sunlight at the moment
when he announces to the world the divine revelation of his own
infallibility. It is on this wise, as we said before, that he has had
himself represented in the memorial picture of the proclamation of the
Immaculate Conception. At the Coronation of Charles X. of France doves
were let fly into the church. And so in Rome also a dove might be trained,
so as to make it hover above the Pope at the moment of his apotheosis
being proclaimed by his own mouth, which would make the effect quite
irresistible.
In this state of things the eyes of all men are turned on the Bishops
united, or rather not united but only assembled, in Council. The great
majority are much in the disposition of the Athenians, when Alexander sent
word to them that he had become a god, and wished to be worshipped as
such. The popular assembly cried out that, if Alexander really wished to
be a god, he was one. So say 300 Bishops: “We eat the Pope’s bread and
drink his wine and rest under his roof, so—let him be infallible.” And 100
Bishops say: “We are nothing but titular Bishops, with no dioceses or
flocks; from whom but the Pope do we get our titles? So—let him be
infallible.” Others again say: “We call ourselves Bishops or
Vicars-Apostolic by favour of the Pope, and during his good pleasure. Let
him then be infallible.” Lastly others say: “The _Curia_ has us in its
power, and we need it at every step; the Pope must be infallible, since he
desires it.” Thus we have 550 born infallibilists. And to them must be
added those whom the Italians—_e.g._, Mamiani—call more curtly than
courteously “gli Energumeni stranieri,” prelates of the Manning type _et
id genus omne_, who really take part as volunteers in this campaign for
the triumph of papal infallibility and the domination of souls. Many, like
Sieyès formerly, will vote “la mort et sans phrase,” but we shall read of
unctuous motives alleged by the volunteers for their votes. They want
infallibility for themselves as well as others; for themselves, because
then there will be no further need “to dig,” for which they have “neither
hand nor foot,” but all doctrines will be received ready made, measured
and cut out by the Jesuits and stamped and guaranteed as genuine in the
Roman printing-office; for others, because thereby every doubt or
suspicion or inconvenient demand in matters of doctrine will be summarily
got rid of and suppressed.
It is three months to-day since the Council was opened. Viewed from
without, the circumstances could hardly have been more favourable; in
national diversities and universality of representation the assembly
surpassed all former Councils, nor was it so obvious at the beginning that
under this bright outside was concealed a crying and iniquitous inequality
of representation, and that here again the mastery was placed in the hands
of the Italians. But how have all hopes been deceived now, and who had
thought of this lamentable upshot!
Lamartine desired of his age that Italy should produce “des hommes et non
de la poussière humaine.” For three months have these 750 prelates been
assembled—in theory the very flower of the Catholic world, the pastors of
180 million souls, men with a rich experience at their back. They were at
once separated into two parties, one of 600 and the other of about 150. On
which side are the men and on which the human dust? What have these 600
done in the three months they have been together, what have they brought
to an issue, and what thoughts or sparks of intelligence have been struck
out of this daily contact with so many high dignitaries from the four
quarters of the world? Their utter sterility, aimlessness and poverty of
thought—their passively resigning themselves to a mere assent to the
thoughts and words of others—all this, when watched close at hand, makes a
painful impression. It is true that European history since 1789 has
accustomed us to the infirmities and follies and the unproductiveness of
great deliberative assemblies; it has become an every-day phenomenon, and
in our days one’s expectations from an ecclesiastical assembly can only be
of the most moderate kind. There is no fear there of rash and hasty
decisions or revolutionary measures. But La Bruyere’s saying, “A great
assembly always becomes a rabble,” is verified even at Rome, and the
Italians of 1870 have already begun to emulate the example of their
ancestors in 1562. Just as the majority at Trent knew how to reduce a
disagreeable speaker to silence by wild cries and coughing and scraping
with their feet, so is it now at the Vatican Council. It is the
humiliating feeling of intellectual impotence and of deficiency alike in
knowledge, eloquence and mind, as compared with the minority, from whom
almost everything emanates that can be called life or thought in the
Council. They feel their abject littleness, in their thankless rôle of
being a mere echo of the _Schemata_ and Canons proposed, and having to
present in so unadorned and undisguised a form that “sacrificio dell’
intelletto” which the Jesuits so eagerly commend. The honour of being
afterwards lauded, as one of the 600 organs of the Holy Ghost at this
Council, has to be purchased rather dear. But we cannot in fact come to
close quarters and converse with these Bishops of the majority, without
being reminded of the reply of a Dane to a Frenchman, who said to him
(before the Revolution) that the highest Order in France was that of the
Holy Ghost. “Notre Saint Esprit est un éléphant,” answered the Dane. But
the situation is almost too serious for such thoughts.
A synopsis of the outstanding measures has been presented to the Council.
There are altogether 51 _Schemata_: 3 on “Faith,” 28 on “Discipline,” 18
on “Religious Orders,” 2 on “Oriental Church affairs:” of these 39 have
not yet been distributed, and 46 not discussed; 12 are in the hands of the
Bishops, of which 5 have been already discussed and are to be again
presented and examined, after being modified by the Commission. This is
obviously matter enough for two years’ work; yet the Council Hall and the
hitherto irresistible and invulnerable majority will conspire to push the
51 _Schemata_ expeditiously through the Council, unabbreviated and hardly
altered. If only the master at last praises and rewards his servants!
Meanwhile 34 French Bishops have signed a Statement of Protest against the
new order of business. I hear that the perversity of deciding doctrines by
counting heads is emphatically dwelt on. The same document has been
subscribed by 33 German Bishops, with certain additions. Cardinals Mathieu
and Rauscher, while professing their agreement, did not think it well to
sign. Some 10 or 12 Germans have accepted a shorter but more precise and
pointed address, maintaining the same principles. Some Orientals too have
signed, while the deliberations of the Americans, on the other hand, came
to no result.
Such declarations are necessary for the outer world and for the
satisfaction of their own consciences, but they can hardly be expected to
produce any effect, nor do the signataries themselves anticipate any
important change being made in the new _regolamento_. Would that their
representations were formal protests, declaring that they would take no
further part in an assembly lacking the necessary conditions of a true
Council! But neither the French nor Germans could resolve on that. It
would be hard even for a man like Dupanloup, who may be reckoned a leader
of the Opposition, openly to contradict his own earlier writings about the
Pope. The question suggests itself, If Pius, before his infallibility is
made a dogma, has said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” what will
he say when his apotheosis is accomplished? What words of human language
will suffice adequately to denote the sublimity of his position? A former
saying of a member of the Italian aristocracy, well known for his witty
remarks, occurs to me, “Gli altri Papi credevano esser Vicarii di Christo,
ma questo Papa crede che nostro Signore sia il suo Vicario in cielo.”
We live here in the place whereof Tacitus wrote eighteen centuries ago,
“Cupido dominandi cunctis affectibus flagrantior est.”(61)
If infallibility is defined, every member of the Roman Congregations has
the pleasing certainty that he possesses “divinæ particulam auræ.” Pius is
as firm and resolved as ever; the Jesuits have told him that, if the new
dogma produces any confusion and scandal in the Church, it matters
nothing—other dogmatic decisions have led to great confusion, but have
remained triumphant; in a hundred years all will be quiet. Father
Piccirillo, the editor of the _Civiltà_ and special favourite of Pius, has
consoled other prelates in the same way.
The _Schema de Ecclesiâ_ has been compared with the lecture notes of a
Jesuit Professor at the Collegio Romano, and the two are shown to agree
precisely. Even the most abject _Placet_-men of the majority feel rather
ashamed of this; they had not quite expected to be summoned to Rome,
simply in order to formulate the lecture notes of a Jesuit into dogmatic
decrees for the whole Church.
An individual so insignificant intellectually, that I never expected to
have any occasion for mentioning his name, and who is regarded in German
circles as the standing joke of the Council, a certain Wolanski, has just
been placed on the Congregation of the Index, as censor for German books.
He would be utterly incompetent even to transcribe the work of a German
theologian for the press. But in Rome they like, from time to time, to
give a kick of this sort to foreigners.
_Postscript._—I have just been put in a position to tell you something of
the contents of the episcopal protest against the new order of business.
In respect to the thirteenth article it is objected, that in former
Councils a method of voting simply designed to secure expedition (“eo
expedito modo”) has never been adopted—a form “quo nullus certe alius
gravitati et maturitati deliberationis, imo et ipsi libertati minus
favet.” It is added, that even in political assemblies the right is
granted of demanding that votes should be taken by calling names. It is
not rapidity of decision, but prudence and the utmost possible security,
that is the important point. “Quod in Concilio maxime refert, non est ut
cito res expediatur, sed ut caute et tutissime peragatur. Longe satius est
paucas quæstiones expendere et prudenter solvere, quam multo numerosiores
proponere et decurtatis discussionibus suffragiisque præcipitanter
collectis res tam graves irrevocabiliter definire.” The document goes on
to protest against the regulation for first counting the votes of those
who assent to the proposed decrees, and not till after this has been done
of those who reject them. This is quite wrong; “Cum in quæstionibus fidei
tutius sit sistere et definitionem differre, quam temere progredi, ideo
conditio dissentientium favorabilior esse debet, et ipsis prioritas in
dandis suffragiis excedenda esset.” The memorialists further desire that,
in the definition of a dogma or the establishment of a canon armed with
anathema, the votes should be orally given by _Placet_ and _Non placet_,
not by rising and sitting down. And then great stress is laid on the point
of dogmas not being decided by a mere majority but only by moral
unanimity, so that any decree opposed by a considerable number of Bishops
may be held to be rejected. The Bishops say, “Cum dogmata constent
Ecclesiarum consensu, ut ait Bellarminus,” moral unanimity is necessary.
There is a further demand or request of the Bishops, “ut suffragia patrum
non super _toto Schemate_ et quasi _in globo_, sed seorsim super unâquâque
definitione, super unoquoque Canone, per _Placet_ aut _Non placet_
sigillatim rogentur et edantur.” The Fathers should also be free,
according to the Pope’s previous arrangement, to give in their remarks in
writing. But the following is the most important passage:—“Id autem quod
spectat ad numerum suffragiorum requisitum ut quæstiones dogmaticæ
solvantur, in quo quidem rei summa est et totius Concilii cardo vertitur,
ita grave est, ut nonnisi admitteretur, quod reverenter et enixe
postulamus, conscientia nostra intolerabili pondere premeretur. Timeremus,
ne Concilii Œcumenici character in dubium vocari posset, ne ansa hostibus
præberetur, S. Sedem et Concilium impetendi, sicque demum apud populum
Christianum hujus Concilii auctoritas labefactaretur, ‘quasi veritate et
libertate caruerit,’ quod his turbatissimis temporibus tanta esset
calamitas ut pejor excogitari non possit.” On this we might however
observe with all respect, that a greater calamity is quite conceivable,
and that is the sanctioning of a doctrine exegetically, dogmatically and
historically untenable by an assembly calling itself a Council. The
Protest ends with these words:—“Spe freti futurum ut hæ nostræ gravissimæ
animadversiones ab Eminentiis vestris benevolenti animo accipiantur,
earumque, quae par est, ratio habeatur, nosmet profitemur: Eminentiarum
Vestrarum addictissimos et obsequentissimos famulos.”