_Rome, March 9._—The decree on infallibility appeared on Sunday, March 6,
just a year after the project was announced in the _Allgemeine Zeitung_.
The Bishops knew three weeks before, through an indiscretion of Perrone’s,
that it was drawn up. But its extreme and unqualified form will have taken
many by surprise. Men could hardly believe that the Roman See would
publicly confess so huge an excess of ambition, and itself court a
reproach of which the Catholic Church may indeed be cleared, but the
Papacy never. The circumstances preceding the appearance of this
composition, which will be a phenomenon in the world’s history, are hardly
less remarkable and significant than the text itself.
It was decided on February 21, at a meeting of the French Cabinet presided
over by the Emperor, to send a special ambassador to the Council. A
despatch to this effect was forwarded to Rome the same evening. The notion
so greatly displeased the Marquis de Banneville, that he delayed carrying
out his instructions and sent word of his anxieties to Paris. Here he said
quite openly that he could remain no longer, and must go to Paris to get
the decision reversed. He contented himself however with sending an
_attaché_ to France. At last, on March 1, the design of the French
Government was communicated to Cardinal Antonelli, and three days
afterwards, on March 4, the Marquis de Banneville came to receive his
reply. The Cardinal was unfortunately prevented by an attack of gout from
seeing him. And thus the answer has been given in the unexpected form of a
dogmatic decree.
Not less remarkable is the coincidence of the decree with the publication
of Count Daru’s Letter. Its publication, which proclaims to the world the
policy of the French Cabinet towards the Court of Rome, has excited the
greater sensation in Rome, as it could not have emanated from any ordinary
correspondent. The letter was only known to the English Government, and
there was no copy in England except in the hands of the Ministry. It
cannot be supposed that it would be offered for publication without the
connivance of Count Daru himself, and this conjecture is confirmed by the
tone of the _Français_, Count Daru’s organ, on the subject. It was open to
it to disavow the letters, which are addressed to a private individual,
and not, as the _Times_ incorrectly stated, to a French prelate. But
instead of seizing on this loophole, the _Français_ says that the private
letters of the minister contain nothing different from his public
despatches. What gives these things the greater weight is that they imply
the probability of interpellations, in Paris as well as in Florence, and
the ministry must be presumed to be determined to persist to the end in
the path it has entered upon.
But the clearest light is thrown on the act of the _Curia_, when we look
at its relation to the simultaneous movement among the minority.
The new order of business seemed to many calculated to bring the internal
split in the Opposition to the surface. To accept it was equivalent to
accepting the dogma itself. To reject it was to intimate the resolution
not to surrender the rights of Bishops, of whom St. Thomas says, “Obtinent
in Ecclesiâ summum potestatem,” and therefore not to recognise the Pope’s
infallibility. But it has just been explained in the most emphatic terms
in Father Gratry’s Letters, which are in the hands of all the Bishops, how
difficult it is to coquet with the Jesuit dogmas without falling into the
old Jesuit system of morality. However, this much desired division only
occurred on a very limited scale.
The Opposition resolved to protest against the order of business. The
Protest is said to have been drawn up by skilful French hands, and was
subscribed on March 4 by thirty-four French Bishops, and another, signed
by almost the same number of German Bishops, was presented to the Legates
two days later. A very high estimate is formed of its importance here.
According to the Roman view the majority of the Council has no better
right than the minority to proclaim a new dogma, for the right belongs to
the Pope alone, who can just as well elevate the teaching of the minority
as of the majority into a dogma. And therefore, in maintaining that no
dogma can be defined without the universal consent—the moral unanimity—of
the Episcopate, and that a Council which receives a dogma without that
consent is liable to be rejected as not free and Œcumenical, the Bishops
are not only protesting against the threatened encroachments of the
majority, but just as much against the claim of the Pope to define dogmas
by his own authority. I have lately cited the words of Pius IV. on that
point. In putting forward and defending their right and qualification to
be witnesses of the faith and representatives of their Churches, the
Bishops are not only vindicating a position very difficult to assail, but
at the same time shaking the principal foundation of the present Council.
In the first place the minority represent relatively far greater numbers
of Catholics than their adversaries, and in the next place the bulk of the
majority is artificially swelled by a crowd of prelates who really
represent no Churches and only bear witness for themselves. That many of
them have been simply created to give their services at this Council, is
notorious. According to the official Roman register, fifty-one Bishops _in
partibus_ were named between June 1866 and August 1869. By every one of
these creations the Pope has neutralized by his own plenary power the vote
of an Archbishop of Paris or Vienna; in other words, he has put some
favourite Roman monsignore on an equality, as regards the decisions of the
Council, with a venerable Church containing more than a million of souls.
The presence of such elements in the assembly gives grounds for doubting
whether it can be regarded as a real representation of the whole Church,
and so this declaration of the Bishops is like knocking a nail in the
coffin of the Œcumenical Council.
I have mentioned that the Protest of the French Bishops was handed in on
March 4. That day was the beginning of the decisive crisis for the
Opposition. The adhesion of the Germans was next awaited; it followed on
the 6th March, and their example is pretty sure to be followed by other
nations. The prospect of this danger, combined with the news from France,
brought the long preconcerted resolve of the other side to sudden and
immediate maturity. A few days before they had not intended to come
forward with the decree yet. But now the great object was to cut short any
further development on the part of the Opposition, and, if possible, to
hinder the German Protest. The existing situation seems even to have
influenced the form of the decree. For a moment the French middle
party—Bonnechose, Lavigerie, etc.—had fancied a professedly moderate
formula would be carried, but now the counsels of the most determined
infallibilists prevailed, and the Pope, in great visible excitement, gave
his assent to the decree in the form in which it has been published. This
took place on March 5. The decree is dated March 6. With the view of
stopping the German Protest, they did not wait for the next sitting to
distribute the printed copies to the Fathers in Council as usual, but sent
them direct to their houses. This was the answer to the protesting
movement.
Considering that none of the former addresses of the minority—some twelve
have been presented—have been taken the slightest notice of, there were of
course the best reasons for anticipating no better fate for this last. But
it has served another purpose. It was an intimation on the part of the
signataries that their patience has reached its limits. The Protest did
not indeed pledge them to any definite course of action. But it certainly
imposes on them the duty of not tolerating anything further of the same
kind, and not lending a hand to any decision affecting the whole future of
the Church, under conditions they have themselves declared to imperil the
authority and solidity of the Council. Either the Protest means nothing,
and the signataries are as persuaded of its worthlessness and insincerity
as their adversaries, or it means that they will not allow the great dogma
to come on for discussion unless they obtain an assurance that no dogma
shall be proclaimed by Pope or Council without a moral unanimity. The
_Curia_ have known how to give so emphatic an expression to their contempt
for the Opposition, that even the sharpest and bitterest words would show
less scorn and insolence than their act. By choosing the precise moment,
when the minority declare that their conscience is troubled and in doubt
about the legitimacy and result of the Council altogether, for bringing
forward the very decree which has all along been the main cause of that
doubt and trouble of conscience, they proclaim plainly and emphatically
that they know the Opposition regards its own words as nothing but words,
and that there is no earnest manly decision or religious conviction behind
them. The conscientiousness of the Opposition, _i.e._ of the most
distinguished French and German Bishops, could not be put to a prompter, a
more crucial, or a more decisive test.
How will this test be borne? How will the doctrine of the Church and the
honour of two nations be saved? The events of the next few days will
decide.