_Rome, March 21, 1870._—A feeling of weariness, lethargy and disgust has
been forced on many Bishops by the treatment they have received and the
whole course of affairs in the Council up to this time. The news of its
dissolution would be welcome tidings to their ears. And not only
strangers, but many residents here, would joyfully hail their deliverance
from the existing situation; even one of the Legates said lately that, if
the Council were to be suddenly dissolved by a death, the Church would be
freed from a great distress. The Assembly Hall alone would suffice to
disgust a prelate with the idea of taking part in a Council for the rest
of his life. Yet they are obliged to sit hours in this comfortless
chamber, without understanding what is said. A sense of time unprofitably
wasted is the only result of many a sitting for men, to whom at home every
hour is precious for the care of a large diocese. They say that, for the
first time since Councils came into being, the Bishops have been robbed of
their essential and inalienable right of free speech on questions of
faith; that they are compelled to vote, but not allowed to give reasons
for their vote and bear witness to the doctrine of their Churches. They
complain that, though they can hand in written observations, no one but
the Commission of twenty-four knows anything about them, and that for the
Council itself and their fellow Bishops they can do nothing. The
Commission will perhaps present a summary report of a hundred of these
memorials and counter representations, according to the new order of
business. This means that the work carefully matured by a Bishop through
weeks or months of severe study will be summed up in two or three words,
and in the shape it is thrown into by a hostile Committee. If the Bishops
regard it as an intolerable oppression at home to have to submit their
Pastorals for previous inspection to their Governments, here they can have
nothing printed, even after it has undergone the censorship.
It is no mere phrase, when the Bishops say in their Protest against the
new order of business that their consciences are intolerably burdened, and
that the Œcumenical character of the Council is likely to be assailed and
its authority fundamentally shaken (_labefacteretur_). They consider the
arrangement for deciding doctrines by simply counting heads intolerable,
and they recognise as of immeasurable importance, and the very
turning-point of the whole Council (_totius Concilii cardo vertitur_), the
question as to the necessary conditions of a definition of faith binding
the consciences of all the faithful. The Pope wants to have a new article
of faith made by the Council, on the acceptance or rejection of which
every man’s salvation or condemnation is henceforth to depend. And now
this same Pope has overthrown the principle always hitherto acknowledged
in the Church, that such decrees could only be passed unanimously, and has
made the opposite principle into a law.
The Opposition Bishops are well aware that any regular examination and
discussion of the infallibility question is rendered impossible by the
nature of the Council Hall and the plan of voting by majorities. They have
therefore proposed to the Legates that a deputation of several Bishops
chosen from among themselves should be associated with the Commission on
Faith, or with certain Bishops of the majority, to discuss the form of the
decree, and that, when they have come to a common understanding, the
formula as finally agreed upon should be submitted to the vote of the
Council in full assembly. The authorities will not readily yield to this
demand on many accounts, and chiefly because what Tacitus said of the
Roman people 1800 years ago is well understood at Rome now, “Juvit
credulitatem nox et promptior inter tenebras affirmatio.”
It was a prudent foresight which led the Pope so strictly to prohibit the
Bishops from printing anything here during the sitting of the Council; the
Jesuits of the _Civiltà_ must retain their exclusive monopoly of free
speech. But such conferences as the minority wished for were no less
dangerous than printing, and would naturally lead to the grounds of their
decision being made public. They have been summoned to affirm, not to
deny, and “promptior inter tenebras affirmatio.” Meanwhile the Germans say
that a thorough sifting of the question is the first thing necessary to be
insisted upon, and that for two reasons: first to satisfy their own
consciences, and secondly for the sake of their flocks. For they would not
think it enough to enforce the new dogmas on the faithful of their
dioceses by mere official acts and by referring them to the authority of
the Council, which is ultimately reduced to the authority of the Pope, but
would feel bound to give them sufficient reasons for its acceptance; and
they have not been able to discover the cogency of these reasons
themselves. Pius IX. considers this superfluous. He feels his
infallibility, as he says, and therefore thinks it very scandalous that
the Bishops do not choose to be content with this testimony of his
feeling. However, the negotiations with the Legates about these
conferences are still going on.
It must be allowed that there is not the slightest exaggeration in the
words of the seventy-six protesting Bishops. It is strictly true that the
new order of business, if it is carried out, must raise the greatest
doubts as to the Œcumenical character of the Council among all thinking
Catholics, especially such as are familiar with the history of Councils.
And it is undeniable that this would excite a terrible disturbance in the
Church, a contest the end of which cannot be foreseen. The Jesuits are now
stirring the fire with the same assiduity and malicious pleasure as their
predecessors in the Order of 1713 and the following years, when the whole
of France and the Netherlands was plunged into a state of ecclesiastical
strife and confusion by the Bull _Unigenitus_, which they procured. They
enjoy such contests, and have always carried them through with the
merciless harshness which is peculiar to them, relying on the strength of
their organization. It may sound hard that the Order should so often be
reproached with making its members at once accusers and bailiffs, but they
would themselves consider this rather a note of praise than of blame.
The retribution for their conduct in 1713 and afterwards came in 1763 and
1773. But the Order, or at least its Roman members, who are all-powerful
through the favour of the Pope, have no fear of such consequences now. A
Jesuit can make a home for his theology, now here now there. If the Order
is driven from one country, it is received into another; its property is
moveable and can be transferred easily and without loss, and moreover it
possesses, so to speak, an itinerant mint in its carefully elaborated
skill in the direction of female souls, whether lodged in male or female
bodies. They are thorough adepts too in the speculations of the money
market, and manage their transactions in banknotes as successfully as the
most practised merchant, so that they are quietly but surely recovering
their prosperity in many cities of the Italian Kingdom, even in Florence,
while all other Orders have been suppressed there. So they are well
equipped and in excellent spirits for meeting the future. If their system
of doctrine is now raised to full dominion by Pope and Council, and if
they succeed in the next Conclave in procuring the election of a Pope
thoroughly devoted to them and resolved to carry on the present system,
the ship of the Order will ride majestically on the waves of future
events, and fear no storms. A thoroughly well-informed man has assured us
that the Pope said the other day to a Roman prelate, that “the Jesuits had
involved him in this business of the Council and infallibility, and he was
determined now to go through with it, cost what it might. They must take
the responsibility of the results.” A very similar statement was made by
the Emperor Francis I. He said that “he could not tell how his finance
minister would answer hereafter for having precipitated so many men into
poverty and misery by establishing a national bankruptcy.”
For the fourth or fifth time since the opening of the Council, the
ultramontane correspondents have been instructed to say, that the acoustic
defects of the Hall have been remedied through new arrangements. This is
not true; the speeches are never understood in many parts of the Chamber,
not even where the secretaries sit. Meanwhile the Pope has conceived a
desire to appear again in the midst of the Bishops and hold a Solemn
Session. Hitherto he has been invisible and generally unapproachable to
his “venerable brethren,” as he officially styles them. The last time the
assembly saw him was at the unsuccessful Solemn Session of January 6, when
the Bishops had to go through the useless ceremony of swearing oaths, in
order to fill up the vacant time. For Pius does not feel that there is the
slightest need for ascertaining the views of the Bishops about the
measures in hand, or their wishes and proposals, and hearing their report
of the state of Church matters in their own countries. He stands too high
for that. A French prelate remarked lately that the Council does not
thrive, because the Pope stands at once too near it and too far from it—so
near that he robs it of all freedom, so far that there is no community of
feeling and views and understanding.
There has never indeed been a period in Church history where it has been
made so palpably plain to the Episcopate how much the name of “brother,”
which the Pontifex gives to every Bishop, is worth, and how immeasurable
is the gulf between the “brother” on the Roman throne, the Pope-King, and
the brother in Paris or Vienna or Prague.
On the 16th a part of the first _Schema_ was distributed in a revised
form, and a General Congregation was held upon it on the 18th, at the very
time when the Pope was hearing a mass for Montalembert in reparation for
his treatment of the illustrious dead on the 15th and 16th. He wanted to
hold a Solemn Session on the 25th, and thought there would be some decrees
ready to be published. In defiance of the order of business the Bishops
had only a day and a half, instead of ten days, allowed them to get
acquainted with the revised text. However, so large a number of speakers
sent in their names, and so many new difficulties came to light, that Pius
had once more to abandon his design of proclaiming new articles of faith
on that day to the expectant world. It looks as if the fourth month of the
Council would pass by with as little result as the three first. Easter
Monday is already named as the period fixed for publishing the first
doctrinal decree. Meanwhile a new power has been introduced in the person
of the Jesuit, Kleutgen. He had been condemned some time ago by the Holy
Office on account of a scandal in a convent. But he has now been
rehabilitated, as the Jesuits have no superfluity of theologians, and is
to take part in drawing up the _Schemata_. The time fixed for sending in
representations on the infallibility decree has been extended for ten days
more, to the 25th. There is no lack of criticisms and counter-statements;
the Bishops, although foreseeing that their intellectual progeny will be
strangled directly after birth, seem anxious to gain the satisfaction of
saying, “dixi et salvavi animam meam.” The German Bishops remember the
assurances they gave at Fulda. The Archbishop of Cologne reminded the
faithful of his diocese, as late as Feb. 9, of this Pastoral, to set their
minds at rest. To-day, March 21, in view of the infallibilist _Schema_ and
the new order of business, he would no doubt hardly think it prudent to
say any longer to the Germans, “Be confident that the Council will
establish no new dogma, and proclaim nothing which is not written by faith
and conscience on your hearts.” The Germans will now be curious to see the
circumlocutions and explanations appended, in the fresh Pastorals compiled
after the fabrication of the new dogma, to the Pastoral issued from the
tomb of St. Boniface.
The Bishops should take care that they are not, like the eagle in the
Libyan fable, struck with arrows feathered from their own wings.
Banneville, who succeeded two men very unacceptable in Rome, Lavalette and
Sartiges, was amicably received, and found it agreeable to keep on the
best footing with Antonelli, and to treat the whole affair of the Council
easily and superficially. Whatever he said was always very mildly
expressed. It was so convenient to enjoy the favour both of the Pope and
the Secretary of State, and to be commended by the majority of the Council
as a pious and enlightened statesman. The differences between him and
Count Daru were accordingly inevitable. For Daru appreciates the extent of
the danger, not only as a statesman but as a zealous Catholic, while
Banneville’s one thought has ever been to please the Roman authorities, so
that a French prelate said to him shortly before his departure,
“Pensiez-vous que vous étiez ambassadeur auprès de Jésuites?” And thus at
last the necessity of instructing him has been recognised at Paris. But at
the same time Bishop Forcade of Nevers has been sent there, intrusted with
the mission of representing Banneville’s conduct to the Government as
exactly right, and advocating the views and desires of Antonelli and the
majority of the Council. He has told them at Paris that the majority do
not want to hear anything of the admission of a French ambassador to the
Council—which is credible enough—but that the Government has nothing to
fear from the decrees, for the Court of Rome would in any case respect the
Concordat. Antonelli, as may be seen, abides by his panacea. The only
question is whether they are disposed at Paris to be paid with such
diplomatic counters. Meanwhile it has been rumoured that Count Daru would
send a memorial to the Council. To the Council? Say rather to the Pope and
his Secretary of State. This putting forward of the Council, whose freedom
and self-determination the Roman Court is neither able nor willing to
anticipate, is a device which no one can take seriously. The Bishop of
Orleans in his last publication has pierced a hole in the mask, which
renders it nearly useless. He remarks (p. 54), “Whatever is to come before
the Council can only come through the Commission appointed by the Pope,
that is ultimately through himself. He is the master, the sole and
absolute master, with whom it rests to admit a proposal or set it aside.”
Antonelli says that no ambassadors can be admitted, for if it were
conceded to the French, it could not be refused to other powers, Austria,
Bavaria, or even Prussia. He is quite right there. It has been a main
object from the first with this Council to give a striking example of the
entire exclusion of the lay element in ecclesiastical deliberations. It is
just because the Governments and States are so deeply concerned in the
projected decrees, because their rights and laws and their whole future
are affected, that they are not to be heard or admitted. In presence of
the representative of his Government, many a Bishop would think twice
before assenting to a decree flatly contradicting the laws and political
principles of his country. And then the admission of ambassadors would
break through the mystery, and make the strict silence imposed on the
Bishops almost useless. A large number of them, and above all the entire
Opposition, would be very glad of this, but for that very reason the
ruling powers detest it the more. As a foretaste and practical
illustration of what the maxims of the _Schema de Ecclesiâ_ will lead to,
when made into dogmas, it is worth while to notice the decision issued by
the Pope and his Penitentiary in September 1869, when this Schema had just
been drawn up, on the question whether a priest could swear to observe the
Austrian Constitution. To take the oath absolutely was forbidden; he can
only take it with an express reservation of the laws of the Church,
and—which is very significant—he must state publicly that he only takes
the oath, even with this reservation, by virtue of papal permission. That
is a new and very important step on the road to be trodden with the aid of
the Council. Every clergyman is to be reminded, and to remind others, in
merely discharging a simple civil obligation, that he is dependent on the
Pope in the matter, and may not properly speaking swear civil fealty and
obedience to the laws without papal permission, not even in the
conditional form which makes the oath itself illusory. This is quite after
the mind of the Jesuits, who have always shown a special predilection for
the doctrine that every cleric is not a subject and citizen with
corresponding rights, but simply a subaltern and servant of the Pope. This
is a prologue to the twenty-one Canons of the _Schema de Ecclesiâ_.
I have just learnt from the _Kölner Volkszeitung_ that the chaplain of a
prelate here charges me with a gross falsehood in reference to the words
of the Pope. He appeals to the Paris _Union_, which has the words used by
the Pope, “Je suis la voie, la vérité, et la vie,” with the passage
inserted by the editor. I had cited the words from the _Observateur
Catholique_ of 1866 (p. 357), where they are authenticated by the
signature of an ear-witness, MacSheeby, and correspond entirely with the
statement of the _Union_. But in the _Monde_, which was not in my reach, a
totally different version is given, which has no similarity to that
authenticated by Roman correspondents in the _Union_ and _Observateur_,
and does not connect the words, “I am the way,” etc., with the Pope at
all. It must remain uncertain after this whether the version of the
_Monde_ or of the two other journals is the genuine one.