_Rome, March 28, 1870._—The Bishops who have attacked the new order of
business, because it brought into view the possibility of a dogmatic
definition being carried without the _consensus moraliter unanimis_,
received the desired answer in no doubtful form at the sitting of Tuesday,
the 22d. The measures of the _Curia_ for a month past have been
unmistakably contributing more and more to produce a worthy and
loyal-hearted attitude among the minority. After long dallying, Rome has
brought the secrets of her policy a little too boldly and conspicuously
into view. Hardly was the domination of the majority in matters of faith
fixed by the stricter _regolamento_, when the Pope had the proclamation of
his own infallibility proposed in the most arrogant form. On this followed
the attempt to press it to an immediate decision, and then the
determination to admit no ambassadors of the Governments. If these
proceedings were not enough to lay bare the perilous nature of the whole
situation, the Pope and the zealots of his party supplied the remaining
proof,—the former, by his conduct about Falloux, about Montalembert on the
day the news of his death arrived, about the Munich theologians in secret
consistory, and about the so-called Liberal or “half-Catholics” on every
occasion; the latter by their growing impatience about the infallibility
definition, and their assurances that there is no real opposition to this
dogma, and that, if there was, it could not hold its ground after the
promulgation had taken place. And so the opponents of the decree must know
at last that they have to deal with a blind and unscrupulous zeal, not
with a theological system carefully thought out and placed on an
intellectual basis; that the contest has to be carried on against the
whole power and influence of the Pope, and not, as had been maintained
with transparent hypocrisy, only against the wishes of the noisy and
independent party of the _Civiltà_ and its allied journalists. They begin
to use more earnest and manlier language, the language of clear
apprehension and conscientious conviction. If the comments handed in last
week on the _Schema de Ecclesiâ_, and the protests against any hurrying of
the discussion on it, were known to the world, the Catholic Episcopate and
the strong reflux current here would appear in a very different light from
what might be gathered from the previous course of things. Not a few of
these opinions drawn up by the Bishops breathe a truly apostolic spirit,
and deal with the Roman proposals in the tone of genuine theology. An
influential theologian of a Religious Order has pronounced of one of them,
that it exceeds in force and weight the treatise which appeared in Germany
last year, _Reform of the Church in Her Head and Her Members_.(69) It has
been urged by English prelates that it concerns their honour to resist the
promulgation of a dogma, the explicit repudiation of which by the Irish
Bishops was an efficacious condition of Catholic Emancipation. The
American Protest contains a more threatening warning than the German, and
the German is stronger than the French.
After these declarations the attitude of the minority was clearly defined,
and invincible by any foe from without. Their contention is, that no right
exists in the Church to sanction a dogma against the will and belief of an
important portion of the Episcopate, and that only by abandoning any claim
to such a right can the Council be regarded as really Œcumenical. To be
quite consistent, the minority ought to take no further part in the
Council till this point, on the decision of which they rightly hold its
authority to depend, is settled; for their protest implied the doubt
whether they were taking part in a true or only a seeming Council, whether
they were acting in union with the Holy Ghost or co-operating to carry out
a gigantic and sacrilegious deception. Yet the words expressly stating
this doubt, and making the distinct withdrawal of the theory of voting
dogmas by majorities a condition of any further participation in the
proceedings, were not adopted into any of the Protests. This implied that
the signataries would appear in the next General Congregation, that they
refrained from a suspicious attitude, and were unwilling to interpret the
ambiguous order of business _in malam partem_, until facts compelled them
to do so. A conflict which might have such incalculable results was to be
avoided, till necessity made it a positive duty; and that was not the case
as long as a favourable interpretation of the _regolamento_ continued
possible.
Thus the minority committed the strategical blunder of postponing a
conflict which they saw to be inevitable, and when they could not know
whether any more favourable opportunity for entering on it for the benefit
of the Church would occur in the future. There is hardly anything doubtful
or open to double interpretation in the order of business, when more
closely examined. Every Bishop sees quite clearly that it is specially
arranged for overcoming the opposition of the minority, and will be used
without scruple for that end.(70) And who knows how many members of the
present Opposition, if once the _Curia_ applies its last lever, will have
strength to resist to extremities? how many are ready, by humble
submission or by resigning their Sees, to quiet their consciences and
sacrifice their flocks to error? There are men among them better fitted
for the contest against the principle formally enounced in the revised
order of business, than for the contest against infallibility. The Bishop
of Mayence, _e.g._, passes for one of the strongest and most decided
opponents of the _regolamento_, which I mention as a point of great
importance at this moment. The resolve of the protesting Bishops, to avoid
the threatened conflict at present, can only be justified if another and
better opportunity for defending the cause of the Church occurs in the
future course of the Council and before any decision is arrived at. Had
they been willing, after handing in their protests, to go on quietly
joining in the proceedings, without doing anything to give emphasis to the
step they had taken, they would in fact have bent under the yoke of the
majority. They only needed to keep silent: that implied everything. For it
would necessarily be assumed that they had withdrawn or forgotten their
protests, and to continue to act upon and submit to the new order of
business themselves would imply that they had renounced their resistance
to any of its particular details. It was therefore all the more essential
for them to let it be clearly known how far their concessions would
extend, and what was their final limit. Unless they did this, they would
either seem not quite sincere, or would have really accepted the
_regolamento_ with its obvious consequences. The Council, the Presidents,
the Pope, the expectant Catholic world without, had a right to know their
real intentions, and whether they meant to adhere to their declarations.
The first voting on the propositions of the _Schema de Fide_ could not
fail to decide this point. Thus it became a necessity to put this question
of principle in the front at the reopening of the deliberations of the
Council.
Meanwhile the concessions of the Presidents and the majority on some
points had elicited a more friendly feeling in the Opposition. The
discussion on infallibility was postponed, and the first _Schema_ was
returned from the Commission with important modifications. Even the
shameful treatment of Montalembert could not altogether destroy this
conciliatory state of feeling. Ginoulhiac, the learned Bishop of Grenoble,
who was to be preconised as Archbishop of Lyons on Monday the 21st,
undertook on the 22d to meet the discreet concessions of the
infallibilists in a kindred spirit. He was indeed obliged to make his
speech on the Tuesday, though he had not been preconised on the day
before. The French, who have no Cardinal—for Mathieu’s custom is to go
away at any critical moment, and he was not then returned—had gladly left
to one of the Austrian Cardinals the less pleasing duty of declaring their
attitude towards the _regolamento_. Schwarzenberg did but slightly glance
at it in his speech and yet was called to order. Archbishop Kenrick of St.
Louis, one of the most imposing figures in the Council, touched on the
theme more closely, and dwelt on the office of Bishops as witnesses and
judges of faith, in the sense which forms the basis of the opposition of
the minority. Lastly, Strossmayer ascended the tribune, and then followed
a scene which, for dramatic force and theological significance, almost
exceeded anything in the past history of Councils. He began by referring
to that passage at the opening of the _Schema_, where Protestantism is
made responsible for modern unbelief—“systematum monstra, mythismi,
rationalismi, indifferentismi nomine designata.” He blamed the perversity
and injustice of these words, referring to the religious indifference
among Catholics which preceded the Reformation, and the horrors of the
Revolution, which were caused by godlessness among Catholics, not among
Protestants. He added that the able champions of Christian doctrine among
the Protestants ought not to be forgotten, to many of whom St. Augustine’s
words applied, “errant, sed bonâ fide errant;” Catholics had produced no
better refutations of the errors enumerated in the _Schema_ than had been
written by Protestants, and all Christians were indebted to such men as
Leibnitz and Guizot.
Each one of these statements, and the two names, were received with loud
murmurs, which at last broke out into a storm of indignation. The
President, De Angelis, cried out, “Hicce non est locus laudandi
Protestantes.” And he was right, for the Palace of the Inquisition is
hardly a hundred paces from the place where he was speaking. Strossmayer
exclaimed, in the midst of a great uproar, “That alone can be imposed on
the faithful as a dogma, which has a moral unanimity of the Bishops of the
Church in its favour.” At these words a frightful tumult arose. Several
Bishops sprang from their seats, rushed to the tribune, and shook their
fists in the speaker’s face. Place, Bishop of Marseilles, one of the
boldest of the minority and the first to give in his public adhesion to
Dupanloup’s Pastoral, cried out, “Ego illum non damno.” Thereupon a shout
resounded from all sides, “Omnes, omnes illum damnamus.” The President
called Strossmayer to order, but he did not leave the tribune till he had
solemnly protested against the violence to which he had been subjected.
There was hardly less excitement in the church outside than in the Council
Hall. Some thought the Garibaldians had broken in: others, with more
presence of mind, thought infallibility had been proclaimed, and these
last began shouting “Long live the infallible Pope!” A Bishop of the
United States said afterwards, not without a sense of patriotic pride,
that he knew now of one assembly still rougher than the Congress of his
own country.
This memorable day has already become the subject of myths, and so it is
no longer possible to define with certainty how many prelates were hurried
into these passionate outbreaks. Some speak of 400, some of 200; others
again say that the majority disapproved of the interruption. The
excitement was followed next day by a profound stillness, which was not
broken even when Haynald and the North American Bishop Whelan said very
strong things. It seemed as if a sense of what they owed to the dignity of
the Council and a feeling of shame had got the better of those turbulent
spirits. But enough has occurred to show the world what spirit prevails
here, and what sort of men they are who support infallibilism. That up to
this time this Council does not deserve the respect of the Catholic world,
is the least point; it is of more importance, that an internal split in
the Church is more and more revealing itself. Henceforth it will no longer
be possible to throw in the teeth of genuine Catholics their compromising
or dishonourable solidarity with error and lies, for this has given place
to an open and avowed opposition. On one side stands the small but morally
powerful band of those who accept Strossmayer’s noble words with head and
heart, on the other a crowd of “abject”(71) fanatics and sycophants. This
division is of supreme significance for the future course of the Council,
because it strengthens and consolidates the minority in their harmony and
determination, and obliges them to take a further step, as soon as the
majority have made it unmistakably clear that they will not acknowledge
and respect their claim to prevent a dogmatic definition.
The Presidents, by denouncing Strossmayer’s speech but not the
interruption of it, as it was their duty to do, gave evidence of an
undisguised partiality, and justly incurred the suspicion of sympathizing
with the shouters and not with the speaker, and thinking the proclamation
of infallibility allowable without the moral unanimity of the Council.
Accordingly a categorical demand was sent in to them to declare themselves
on this point, and, in case of their giving no answer, another last step
is reserved, which will have the nature of an ultimatum and will bring the
Œcumenicity of the Vatican Council to a decisive test. And so it may be
said that the Bishops of the minority have delayed but not wavered. The
moment for a decisive move, which may test the existence of the Council,
must come when a dogmatic decree has to be voted on. This crisis seemed to
have arrived on Saturday, March 26, when the preamble of the _Schema de
Fide_ was to have been voted on. Various amendments had been proposed, one
very important one by Bishop Meignan of Chalons, in which the Fathers were
designated as definers of the decrees, and another equally important,
implicitly containing infallibility, by Dreux-Brézé, Bishop of Moulins.
Moreover this preamble contained the obnoxious passages immortalized by
the glowing eloquence of Strossmayer. The antagonistic principles seemed
to have reached their ultimate point. Votes were to be taken on dogmatic
decrees before any agreement had been come to on the necessary conditions
of such voting. At the last moment the Presidents resolved to evade the
crisis. The very day before the sitting, Friday, March 25, Cardinal Bilio
went to the authors of the amendments and persuaded them to withdraw them,
and so on Saturday the text of the preamble was brought forward without
any amendment. Nor was there any voting on that either, but they passed at
once to the discussion on the first chapter of the _Schema_, in which the
Primate of Hungary (Simor) made an adroit and conciliatory speech as
advocate of the Commission on Faith. The debate then proceeded. By the
eleventh article of the new order of business, every separate part of a
_Schema_ must be voted on before the next can come on for discussion.
It was a breach of this rule to pass on straight to the first chapter of
the _Schema_, without having voted on the preamble. The Bishops asked
themselves what this meant. Was it intended, by the withdrawal of the
amendments and the abandonment of the discussion, to declare the preamble
tacitly accepted? Was it intended to correct that objectionable passage?
But the wording of the _regolamento_ was too strict to allow of that being
done except in the General Congregation. It seemed at any rate as if more
prudent counsels had prevailed and it was intended to avert the dreaded
contest on the main principle by concessions, so as to pass such decrees
as were possible, that they may be unanimously promulgated in the Easter
session. Thus time would be gained for loosening the compact phalanx of
the Opposition, and at the same time getting it more deeply implicated in
a compromising actual acceptance of the new order of business, in its form
as well as its spirit. This double danger is always imminent, but in fact
the Opposition as yet has suffered no loss.
We are at the end of the fourth month of the Council, and yet they have
not dared to put one decree to the vote. The amendments, which were so
obnoxious, have disappeared. The passage about unbelief being the
offspring of Protestantism, which Strossmayer assailed, will perhaps be
corrected, though in an irregular manner. The simple and sanguine spirits
among the Opposition Bishops exult over a victory obtained. One of the
most famous of them exclaimed, “It is clear the Holy Ghost is guiding the
Council.”