_Rome, April 10, 1870._—When it became known that the Solemn Session for
accepting and proclaiming the first dogmatic decrees was to be held, not
on the 11th April as first intended, but on the 24th, the question of how
this interval should be used came to the front. For the moment general
attention is directed towards Paris. The answer of Cardinal Antonelli,
drawn up by Franchi, Archbishop of Thessalonica _in partibus_ and one of
the most active curialists in the affairs of the Council, arrived there
March 24. According to the account of a French statesman, it produced the
impression of being intended for a mediæval king, who could neither read
nor write. The two main points in it are—(1.) that the _Canones de
Ecclesiâ_ contain no new claims and do not affect States which have a
Concordat at all, and (2.) that no ambassador can be admitted to the
Council.
The French Government oscillated a long time between the counsels of
different advisers. The Bishop of Nevers represented the middle party, at
whose head stands Cardinal Bonnechose; the Bishop of Constantine and
afterwards the Bishop of Coutances might, as members of the Opposition,
have come to a similar opinion. At first the plan found favour of not
sending any special ambassador to the Council, but accrediting the
ambassador to the Pope for the Council also. France would thereby have
gained the start of Prussia, for it was hardly to be supposed that a
Protestant diplomatist would claim the right of entering the Council. So
much more important became the question, whether the Marquis de
Banneville, who had meanwhile gone to Paris to justify his policy of
inaction, would be superseded, or sent back to Rome in this double
capacity, and therefore with increased powers. The latter course would be
a significant concession to the inflexible Pope, a decided gain for the
majority, and therefore a sensible blow for the Opposition. It would be a
practical proof that Rome had only to resist, in order to intimidate
France, and that the Imperial Government renounced all further
interference with the Council. That was so obvious that a host of
candidates for this weighty and honourable office were proposed to the
minister. Baroche is said to have wished for it; Cornudet, a friend of
Montalembert’s, was much talked of, as well as Corcelles and Latour
d’Auvergne, two men who seemed particularly well fitted to make the change
of persons more acceptable at Rome. For some time the Duke of Broglie had
the best prospect of it, who stands high among the Catholic laity as a
political historian and student of Church history and the Fathers, but as
a Liberal Catholic he belongs to the party the Pope hates above all others
just now. To appoint him would have been at once to identify the French
Government with the minority, and might, instead of conciliating, have led
to results most abhorrent to the amiable and pious character of the Duke.
It was also a prevalent opinion that qualifications should be first
attended to, and the best head among French statesmen be intrusted with
this important mission—that men should be chosen like Rouher or Thiers,
who had done service to the temporal power, but who stood quite aloof from
the internal feuds of parties. To accredit them would make the withdrawal
of the Romanizing Banneville less surprising and less irritating to the
_Curia_. The Bishops of the middle party wanted the place for one of
themselves. But they are not a body in much favour at Paris, and it was
intimated to them that the best qualified prelates are not to be found in
their ranks. Their representative, the Bishop of Nevers, came back in a
state of irritation from Paris, where he is said to have found only three
adherents of papal infallibility, two of whom were women. It is
conjectured that the third was the Nuncio Chigi, who has affirmed that all
Paris will illuminate the day the dogma is proclaimed.
The proposal for a Conference emerged again in the French Cabinet, but was
rejected as inappropriate, for it would necessarily betray the weakness of
a disunited ministry. At last the plan was adopted of sending a
preliminary answer to Antonelli’s letter, and waiting for the result of
this before fixing on an ambassador. And so it was resolved at the
beginning of April to draw up a note, which might at the same time be laid
before the other powers, and serve as the basis for common action. It was
communicated to the various Governments during last week, and is said to
have been brought to Rome to-day by the Marquis de Banneville. But the
Empress had meanwhile sent to Rome to get a more definite and authentic
report of the views of the Bishops. But the answer did not reach Paris
till after the note had been drawn up and despatched.
The only answer the minority needed to give was to communicate to the
Government the various memorials they had presented to the Council, for
these documents indicate the only policy which can be pursued with
success, and which must be pursued. They deal not only with purely
theological questions, but with the management of the Council, with
questions of freedom and right which concern the lay world as much as the
clergy. It is in the nature of things that the Governments should follow
the lead of the Opposition, for to fall short of this would be to
sacrifice their Bishops, while to go beyond it would be unjustifiable and
dangerous.
It has now been again declared on the part of the minority, that their
freedom is encroached upon by the order of business and the way the
Presidents conduct affairs. The changes they asked for were not made, and
their protests remained unanswered. In the opinion of many Bishops the
legitimate freedom of the Council no longer exists, and over a hundred
have said plainly that it would not be regarded as Œcumenical, if the
question of making dogmatic definitions on faith and morals against the
will of the minority is left doubtful. And this doubt, so far from being
removed, has been changed into certainty at Rome. The Presidents passed
over the demand of the Opposition in silence, although it threatened and
called in question the very existence of the Council; they did not protect
Strossmayer against the rude interruption which followed on his asserting
the necessity for unanimity, but rather sided with it. The official press
has openly attacked this view of the minority. Antonelli maintains the
right of the Pope to make into a dogma the precise contrary of what the
Council has unanimously accepted. According, therefore, to the well-known
declarations already made by the minority, the Council has lost the
character of Œcumenicity, and the See of Rome has abandoned the ground of
Catholicism.
The various States must direct their attention to these points within
these limits. They may pronounce in favour of the prorogation or
reformation of the Council, but they cannot recognise it under its present
conditions on any strictly Catholic principles. But to desire reforms now,
after the experience of four months, during which the dominant spirit has
manifested itself with such unscrupulous audacity, and after the
determination to force through the infallibilist system in doctrine and
practice in its crudest form by deceit and violence has become
unmistakably clear, would betray a rare simplicity. The whole thing is
settled by the question about majorities; and on that point, after what
has passed, Rome can hardly yield now without giving up her claims
altogether. An infallibility, which is subject to the veto of the minority
of Bishops, ceases to be infallibility; the condition of moral unanimity
in the Episcopate excludes it. And so the Council could not be saved
without involving the _Curia_ in a contradiction. A Council dominated by a
Pope who holds himself infallible is _a priori_ a nonentity. The
Governments can only help it by securing it a speedy euthanasia. If they
wished to act worthily and sincerely and in accordance with the gravity of
the situation, they would have to declare, in union with the most
influential Bishops, that the arbitrary and crooked way of managing the
Council makes the establishment of any important decrees impossible; that
the Vatican Council has lost all moral authority in the eyes of the world,
and that the best thing would be to put an end to it with the least
sacrifice of its dignity.
The Governments might use such language, but only after an open breach
between the minority and the Presidents. The minority must have spoken
their last word, and they have not done so yet. The interest of the
Catholic Church requires that the Bishops should have the necessary time
for forming and carrying out their resolutions, and that the crisis should
not be precipitated by a catastrophe. The Council can do no good by the
decrees fathered on it, but it has already done much good by the
declarations of different sections of its members, by the speeches of
individual Bishops, and the spirit manifested by a portion of them, and it
will do much more very shortly. More than once have words been spoken
there which have fired millions of hearts, have strengthened the bond of
love and unity among Christians, and have openly indicated the real
defects and the real remedies required for them. This seed of a better
future in the Catholic Church will not be lost, but will bring forth
abundant fruit. In each successive utterance genuine Catholic principles
have come out more and more clearly, as the progress of the combat has
forced them on the minority. The false problems, only hypocritically
pre-arranged to be laid before the Council, disappear more and more. It
becomes more and more clearly ascertained and acknowledged, that the
contest is one of first principles, for the maintenance of divine truths
and institutions against arbitrary violence and impudent deceit.
New declarations on the rights of the State and the conditions of a really
Œcumenical Council, directly condemning the new Roman system of the
Syllabus and Infallibilism, may perhaps appear in a few days. While in the
highest degree critical and threatening for the Council, they might form
the basis of sounder developments for the future. If particular States are
to bring the matter to a decisive issue, it seems desirable that the
Bishops should come forward with their resolutions designed to promote
this end.