_Rome, March 15._—Livy relates that, in the battle at the Thrasimene Lake,
the combatants on either side, Romans and Carthaginians, felt nothing of
the earthquake under their feet. Here in Rome it is not so much the heat
of the contest that makes the great body of Bishops unconscious of the
moral earthquake which has begun to shake the Church, for there is no
strife in the ranks of the majority, and their intercourse with the other
party is very small. But every one thinks first of his own home and
diocese, and the Italians, Spaniards and South Americans—nearly 500
prelates in all—have abundant cause for reckoning on absolute indifference
and ease, on a passive and generally willing assent. In those countries it
is only money questions, the contest about Church property, that stirs
men’s minds. How much is to be left to the clergy or taken from them, that
is the question here. And the Bishops hope that papal infallibility will
give some added force to the papal decisions on the inviolability of
Church property.
Among the Opposition Bishops many are still in good spirits and full of
confidence. “We are too many, and we represent too considerable portions
of the Christian world, for our resistance to be ignored and our votes
thrust aside,” is what many of them still assert. But the dominant party
don’t admit this. Antonelli says: “As soon as the Pope promulgates a
decree with the assent of a great number of Bishops, he is infallible, and
therefore a minority of opposing votes need not be attended to.”
Naturally—for he, like other Italians, moves in the circle of papal
infallibility which he, as advocate and financier, considers to belong to
the “grandes idées de l’Église.” He would certainly, if asked, agree with
the view of Cardinal Jacobazzi, about 1530, that the Pope could hold an
Œcumenical Council with one Bishop only and issue an infallible decree.
The state of the case is this: if the decree is published by the Pope with
the assent of the majority of the Council, it is ruled that the gift of
infallibility has all along resided in the Popes alone, and that the
supreme authority in dogmas has only been derived to General Councils from
them, whether by their taking part in the proceedings or confirming them.
On this theory, even a very considerable number of opposing Bishops have
no rights; the Pope could issue a dogmatic decree with the minority
against the votes of the majority, for he and he alone would always be the
organ of the Holy Ghost. Either no reply will be given to the complaints
of the Bishops about the new order of business, any more than to their
previous memorials, or they will be told that it is reserved to the Pope
to settle whether a decree or _Schema_ voted by a majority only shall be
promulgated, since he, being alone infallible, can do what he pleases. In
this sense the silence of Section 14 may well be interpreted.
All the talk about “inopportuneness” is now quite at an end. I had
predicted that from the first. Any Bishop who wanted to discuss now,
whether it was the right time for making the new dogma, would be laughed
at rather than listened to. It has been decided by 500 Bishops with the
Pope that the decree is opportune, and in saying that the question is
about the truth of articles of faith, not their convenience, they have
reason and history on their side.
There are said to be 100 Opinions or Objections of the Bishops about or
against the _Schema_ on the Church, already in the hands of the Commission
of Faith. Among them is the memorial of an eminent German Bishop, whose
bosom two souls seem to inhabit, and who therefore occupies the singular
position at once of a friend of papal infallibility and an opponent of the
definition and member of the Opposition. He read his paper in the meeting
of German Bishops, and it was received with general approval, in spite of
the pungent comments it contained on the new order of business in
connection with the publication of the _Schema_ on infallibility a few
days later, as being a disgrace to the Council and the Church.
Count Trautmansdorff and M. Beust have received from Antonelli one of
those quieting and entirely conciliatory answers that clerical statesman
is so fond of pouring forth in all directions.(62) Its substance is as
follows: in theory, and as regards what the scholastics called universals,
where high and far-reaching principles have to be established, the Church
is inexorable; there she cannot abandon an iota of her claims, and must
draw and force home the sword of anathema. She must therefore necessarily
pronounce modern civilisation, with its freedoms, a medley of
soul-destroying errors, must raise the banner of coercion and forcible
suppression, and accordingly condemn freedom of religious profession and
of the press. But in practice—in Concordats and special Indults and
concessions of graces—the Pope is not so strict and inexorable; there he
is open to negotiations, and the separate Governments can obtain from him
as a favour the actual toleration of what in theory he most solemnly
condemns, of course only _durante beneplacito_, so long as it pleases him
and the Governments behave well and don’t deserve to be punished by the
withdrawal of their indults and privileges. And that is so long as
circumstances remain unaltered, for it is self-evident that, as soon as
the temper of public opinion and the political situation become such as to
offer any prospect of an ecclesiastical pretension being successfully
urged, the indult will be abrogated and the practice conformed to the
theory. Antonelli always has both pockets full of such distinctions
between the strict and hard theory and the mild and indulgent pliability
in practice, and no diplomatist leaves him without such consolation. De
Banneville has always been satisfied with the fare thus set before him by
the Secretary of State. Trautmansdorff has so far the advantage, that the
doctrines of Church and State imposed by the Court of Rome on the Council
give the Austrian Government a very convenient handle for declaring the
legal abolition of the Concordat, which is practically torn to pieces
already; for with a Pope who has become infallible and feels himself
called to be the supreme judge of right and wrong, though there may indeed
be an armistice, no real and genuine peace and no treaty is possible.
Moreover nothing can be more convenient and elastic than the theory
Antonelli expounds with all the unction of priestly diplomacy to the
representatives of the European Governments. It makes everything—persons
and institutions, governments and peoples—ultimately dependent on the
indulgence and favour of the Pope. By the higher and divine law, so runs
this doctrine, everything in the world should properly be differently
arranged; the censorship of the Holy Office, religious coercion and
clerical immunities, in a word the whole system of canon law, should
flourish everywhere in full vigour as in the States of the Church. But the
Vicar of God is merciful; he condescends to the evil condition of States
and of mankind, and does what is so easily done in Rome, he dispenses—for
at Rome obsolete laws are maintained simply to supply matter for
dispensations,—he declares his readiness to tolerate what in itself is to
be condemned, out of regard for the unfavourable circumstances of the age,
and thus all at last falls under the sceptre of the Pope, who rules at one
time by favour and dispensations, at another by strict law. Constitutions
and laws will be allowed to exist for awhile, and until further notice.
This however is no recognition of them, but only an “indult,” for which
sovereigns and statesmen and nations must be thankful while it lasts, but
which may at any moment be revoked.
The plan of acclamation, announced by the Jesuits as far back as February
1869, still counts many friends. There are 600 episcopal throats ready to
shout, and these prelates had the rather get the affair settled in that
summary fashion, because they would then be spared the hearing of things
which bring a blush to many a face. For the Opposition Bishops could bring
forward reasons and facts which, if once spoken in this place, would make
a powerful echo and come unrefuted before the present and future
generations. Of all possible questions that of infallibility is certainly
the one which can least be discussed here and before 275 Italian prelates.
What has happened in the last sittings, the exaltation of some and the
bitterness of others, gives no hope of a quiet examination, but on the
contrary leads us to expect that the majority will make the fullest use
either of their physical preponderance or of the new rights given them by
the Pope for reducing their adversaries to silence. Many who are resolved
to gratify the Pope’s desire by their _Placet_, are apprehensive that the
objections of their opponents might leave the unpleasant taste of an
unanswered argument in their mouths, and that the sting of a vote given
without adequate knowledge and examination might remain fixed in the
conscience of the Bishops. In this connection the answer of a North
American Bishop of the infallibilist party is significant. He said that he
remembered having heard, when in the theological class in his seminary,
that the condemnation of Pope Honorius by the Sixth Council meant nothing,
and now in his old age nobody could require him to study and examine the
question for himself.
Since the appearance of Gratry’s Letters, what is most especially dreaded
is the mention and discussion of the forgeries and fictions that have been
perpetrated for centuries past in the interest of the Papacy. Should they
really come to be spoken of in the Council Hall, one may be quite prepared
for Legate Capalti, even if he is not presiding, striking his bell till it
bursts. The Italian and Spanish majority would sooner let a speaker teach
Arianism and Pelagianism than touch on this sore. Cyprian, pseudo-Isidore,
Anselm, Deusdedit, Gratian, Thomas Aquinas and Cyril—these are now
terrible names, and hundreds here would fain stop their ears when they are
uttered. “Is there then no balm in Gilead, no physician?” Just now a
theologian or historian would be worth his weight in gold, who could
produce evidence that all these forgeries and inventions are genuine
monuments of Christian antiquity, and that the whole edifice of papal
absolutism has been built up with the purest and most conscientious
loyalty to truth. For this “horse” they would now, like Richard III. of
England, offer a kingdom. For the first time the world, with a free press
in full possession, is to accept a new dogma with all its extensive
belongings—to accept it in faith, at a time when historical criticism has
attained a power against which Rome is impotent, and when its conclusions
pass into the literature and the common consciousness of all thinking men
with a rapidity hitherto unprecedented. The works will soon be counted not
by hundreds but by thousands, which relate and make capital out of the
fact that from the year 500 to 1600 deliberate fraud was at work in Rome
and elsewhere for disseminating, supporting, and finding a basis for, the
notion of infallibility. If they imagine in Rome that they can escape this
power by means of the Index and similar fulminations, such as some French
Bishops have hurled at Father Gratry, that is like sending a couple of old
women with syringes to put out a palace on fire.
The leader and oracle of the infallibilists, Archbishop Manning, knows
something of the contradictions of history to his pet dogma. He has heard
something of the long chain of forgeries, but he demonstrates to his
associates by a bold method of logic, that it is an article of faith that
is at issue here, and that history and historical criticism can have
nothing to say to it. “It is not, therefore, by criticism on past history,
but by acts of faith in the living voice of the Church at this hour, that
we can know the faith.”(63) The faith which removes mountains will be
equally ready—such is clearly his meaning—to make away with the facts of
history. Whether any German Bishop will be found to offer his countrymen
these stones to digest, time will show.
Of what French infallibilists are capable has been evidenced in the case
of Bishop Pie of Poictiers, who is, next to Plantier of Nîmes, the leader
of this faction. He introduces into his Lenten Pastoral the history of
Uzza, who wanted, with a good object, to support the tottering Ark, and
was punished by being burned to death. The Ark, he says, is the Church and
its doctrine, and whoever touches it with the best intentions, be he
layman or priest, commits a grievous crime and audacious sacrilege, which
must bring down on his head the most terrible wrath of God. The animals,
which draw the waggon containing the Ark, are the Bishops. If then,
proceeds Pie, any of these oxen swerve from the road and kick
(_regimbent_), there are plenty more at hand to bring back the cart into
the right track, for—and here the oxen suddenly become horses
(_coursiers_)—all the steeds of the sacred cart do not stumble at the same
time. Thus does this prelate expound to his flock the position of the
majority and minority at the Council, and for their full consolation he
adds: “Moreover there is one supreme and divinely enlightened driver of
the cart, who is liable to no error, and he will know how to deal with the
shying and stumbling of the horses.” According to Bishop Pie therefore,
the waggon of the Church is sometimes drawn by horses—the Opposition who
make _sou-bresaut_ and _écarts_; sometimes by steady-going oxen—the great
majority,—and among these last the Bishop of Poictiers with amiable
modesty reckons himself. If the readers of the _Allgemeine Zeitung_ doubt
whether a highly respected leader of the majority and member of the
Commission on Faith has really written such nonsense, I can only refer
them to the document itself, which will no doubt be reprinted in the
_Univers_ or _Monde_.(64)
There are many indications that the wishes of the clique of zealots, who
wanted to get the infallible Pope made out of hand on St. Joseph’s day,
will not be realized, but that a longer interval will have to be allowed.
The _Schema_ “on Faith” prepared by the Commission, viz., by the
above-named Bishop Pie, and containing the philosophical and theological
matter for the Council, was to have been distributed last week, and even
Bishops of the minority had received professedly confidential notice of
it; but no such distribution took place. So the Session of this week too
will fall through, and it is not easy to see how this first fruit of the
Council can well be imparted to the expectant world before Easter. And
here I constantly come across the view that the postponement of the
discussion on the grand _Schema de Ecclesiâ_, with the article on
infallibility, is done with a purpose. The Opposition is still too strong
and compact; it is hoped that some members will be detached from it every
week, and that several will leave Rome; some Austrians are gone already.
Everything depends on making the Opposition so small and weak, that they
may be walked over, and may seem only to exist as a captive band of German
Barbarians to grace the triumphal procession of the Latins, and then to be
surrendered to those “exécuteurs des hautes œuvres de la justice de Rome,”
MM. Veuillot and Maguelonne, the editors of the _Univers_ and the
_Correspondance de Rome_.(65) This delay is of course a severe trial of
patience for the majority who are hungering after the new bread of faith.
I will not conceal that even among the highest Roman dignitaries the
infallibilist dogma provokes expressions of discontent. Are they honestly
and sincerely meant? The voting will show. The _mot d’ordre_ has gone
forth to correspondents of foreign journals, to say that the whole
Opposition is thoroughly broken up, and that some are deserting and the
rest running away. But as yet these are wishes rather than facts. As far
as I can see, the French and German Bishops, who wish to maintain the
ancient doctrine of the Church and reject the new dogma, hold firmly
together. Some Bishops said, directly after the publication of the
supplementary _Schema_ on infallibility, that their only choice lay
between a schism or a false doctrine; nothing else was left them except to
resign their Sees. And your readers would be astonished if I could venture
to mention their names—names of the highest repute.
The war of extermination against the Theological Faculties of the German
Universities is to be energetically carried on. The Bishop of Ratisbon’s
measure is only a premonitory feeler. Some particular exceptions however
might be made, as long as the chairs were filled by pupils of the Jesuits.
The German College is now to be the nursery for professors of theology and
philosophy at German Seminaries and High Schools. This reminds one of the
Alexandrian Psaphon, who kept a whole aviary of parrots, and taught them
to scream, “Great is the God, Psaphon,” and then let them fly, so that
they carried over land and sea the fame of his godhead. In Rome there is
fortunately an abundance of such aviaries. There are colleges here for
England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany and Hungary, Belgium, Poland,
and North and South America, and thousands of their inmates have already
been indoctrinated in Psaphon’s fashion.