_Rome, April 12, 1870._—Veuillot says, in the _Univers_ of April 2, that
there are three great “devotions” in Rome, the Holy Sacrament, the holy
Virgin, and the Pope. For the moment, and in regard to the Council and all
that concerns the _Curia_, the devotion to the Pope is of course the chief
affair. How that devotion may best be erected into the supreme law of
religious thought and feeling—how to effect that henceforth, in all
questions of the spiritual life, every one shall turn only to Rome and
take his orders and look for certainty from thence alone—this is the task
the Council has to achieve; all else is subordinate, or is merely the
means to an end.
Next to the Jesuits Veuillot is unquestionably the man to whom
infallibilism is chiefly indebted; and when it is made a dogma, a grateful
posterity must give honourable place to his name among the promulgators of
the new article of faith. He is much too modest, when he says his rôle in
the Church is only that of the door-keeper who drives out the dogs during
divine service. Veuillot is much more to his readers than any Father of
the Church. Continual dropping hollows out the stone, and for years past
Veuillot has been familiarizing his readers, in numberless articles where
the copious verbiage concealed the poverty of thought, with the notion
that papal infallibility is the first and greatest of all truths. His
journal is read even in Rome in the highest circles, and read by those who
read nothing else, except perhaps Margotti’s _Unità Cattolica_.
The _Univers_ is very successful in the business of stirring up the
inferior clergy against their bishops in the dioceses of Opposition
prelates, and getting them to present addresses in favour of
infallibilism. In the number of April 2, _e.g._, they are directed to get
their petitions for the new dogma sent here through the Paris nunciature,
and to take particular care that they are printed—“de plus, il importe de
les publier.” The _Monde_ has invented a peculiar means of advancing the
good cause. It announces that the Freemasons are the people who
disseminate writings against papal infallibility, and then intimates to
the Italian Bishops the important fact that the minority of the Council
are affiliated to Masonic Lodges.
The _Unità Cattolica_, the organ of Margotti, the Italian Veuillot, has
15,000 subscribers and 100,000 readers, and has more influence than all
the 256 Italian Bishops put together. Their pastorals are powerless as
compared with this daily paper, and they themselves are divided between
their fear of the powerful Margotti and their regard for the judgment of
the educated classes. But as most of these last are indifferentists, and
give no moral support to a Bishop, the journalists carry the day, who
treat every opponent of the pet Roman dogma as Veuillot does.
An Anglican clergyman named Edward Husband, who not long since became a
Catholic, has again left the Church, because the dispute about papal
infallibility and the extravagant _cultus_ of Mary were too great scandals
for him. It is only to the exasperation caused by proceedings at Rome, as
an English statesman has written word, that we owe the passing in the
House of Commons by a majority of two of a Bill for the civil inspection
of Convents, which had always previously been rejected. The minority had
done their best to avert it, but were overruled, and Newdegate—a person
who was hitherto almost regarded as a joke—triumphed. All reports from
England confirm the belief that this is only one symptom of the hostile
state of feeling rapidly spreading there. Among English statesmen there is
not one, within the memory of man, who has shown such sympathy for
Catholics and their Church as Gladstone, as neither have any had so
extensive a knowledge of theological and ecclesiastical questions. Yet he
too took occasion, during the debate of April 1 on the Irish Education
question in the Commons, to speak his mind on the tendencies of the Roman
Jesuit party. After quoting an unfavourable comment of his former
colleague, Sir George Grey, on the demands of the Irish Bishops, he
proceeded to say, with raised voice and in most emphatic tones, amid the
“loud cheers” of the House, that “events have occurred and are occurring,
in a great religious centre of Europe, of such a character that it is
impossible for a statesman to feel himself in nearer proximity with the
opinions of the Roman Catholic Hierarchy than he stood four years
ago.”(74)
I have already pointed out that, as soon as the new articles of faith are
defined, their effects will be manifested in the education question
throughout pretty well the whole of Europe. This enrichment of the creed
will at once be repaid with losses and humiliations of the Church in the
popular schools, and in the whole system of education. In England this is
making itself felt already. The agitation for secularizing the schools,
the immense majority of which have hitherto been denominational, gains
continually in force and range under the influence of the news from Rome.
The _Daily News_, _e.g._, said that the fact of ultramontanes desiring
denominational schools was quite enough to convince Protestants of the
superiority of secular and national schools. Yet Manning goes on asserting
in the Vatican, that the infallibilist dogma will be the powerful magnet
to draw Protestants by thousands into the Church. They are only too glad
to believe him.
You know already that the Roman Jesuits have declared it, in the last
number of the _Civiltà_, to be a wicked error to require moral unanimity
of the Council for a dogmatic decree. They call it a Gallican heresy to
make the consent of the whole Church, or the whole Council, a condition of
dogmatic decisions. A simple majority is quite enough, for it is
ultimately the will and mind of a single individual, viz., the Pope,
wherein resides the whole force and authority of the decision. If he
assents to the judgment of a minority of the Bishops, it thereby becomes a
law of faith for the whole Christian world; but if the majority is with
him, all shadow of doubt vanishes. Whenever a controversy arises, whether
in the scattered or assembled Church, it is the Pope’s office to settle
the difference by his decisive sentence, and to say, “This is truth:
whoever believes it belongs to the Church, and whoever believes not, let
him be accursed.” Once again it is clear that the Jesuits are of a
different mind from the rest of the world. The world supposes that the
Pope is to be declared infallible by the Council, and that only then will
this infallibility become an universal article of faith. The Jesuits of
the _Civiltà_, on the contrary, think that the Pope—and he alone—is
already and ever has been infallible, and that all authority in matters of
faith is merely a light streaming forth from him and merging in his
authority; the sole ultimate ground on which the Council, whether
unanimously or by a majority, can declare the Pope infallible is because
it knows that former Popes have held themselves to be infallible, and that
the present Pope believes in and “feels” his own infallibility. And thus
on the Jesuit theory we have the symbol of eternity, the snake biting its
own tail. Why must we regard the Pope as infallible? Because he says so,
and every one must believe his word on pain of damnation. Why must we
believe his word? Because he is infallible. And why are the Bishops of the
whole world summoned to Rome? To bear witness to this logic of the Jesuits
and the _Curia_, much like the compurgators in German law. The Pope
affirms, “I am infallible,” and the 700 Bishops affirm that he is a
trustworthy witness, and because he says so it is certain. The
infallibilist Bishops admit the new theory of the legal force of dogmatic
decrees of a majority. They too say, “When the Pope adheres to the
majority, the article of faith is already defined, and to reject it is
heresy.” They too revolve in the logical circle of the Jesuits.
“Infallibility is always on the side taken by the Pope.”
The pretence of impartiality maintained for some time by the Vatican, and
under which Antonelli sheltered himself against diplomatic inquiries and
warnings, has now been abandoned. The Pope has taken his side in the most
emphatic way; he feels and denounces as a personal injury every hesitation
about the projected dogma, and his expressions of displeasure grow
constantly bitterer, and are sedulously disseminated, so that many Bishops
are already terrified or driven into the infallibilist camp by the dread
of his biting reproaches, for his words are immediately spread about in
their dioceses and pass like a coin from hand to hand. Every work that
appears anywhere in favour of his pet dogma is rewarded and sanctioned by
a commendatory papal Brief, as being excellent, profoundly learned and
conclusive, while the opponents of the dogma are branded in these
documents as fools, blind or wicked assailants of what they inwardly know
to be the truth. The _Univers_ lately contained three such papal missives
on the same day.(75) Meanwhile the opportunity of an allocution is seized
for whetting the consciences of the Bishops of the minority, and telling
the world how impure are the motives of their opposition, and how virtuous
and noble-hearted are the prelates of the majority, the Italians and
Spaniards. On March 28, the _Osservatore Romano_ published a speech
addressed by Pius to the Oriental prelates and papal vicars of the Latin
rite, in which he said, _totidem verbis_, that in the representative of
Christ was renewed what happened to Christ Himself before the tribunal of
Pilate. Pilate suffered himself to be terrified by the assurance that, if
he delivered Christ, he was no friend of Cæsar, and gave him up through
fear of men. And so now, when the principles of eternal life and the
rights of the Church and the Papal See are at stake, they are attacked by
men who call themselves friends of Cæsar, but are really friends of the
Revolution. “Be united,” added the Pope, “with me, and not with the
Revolution, and be not misled by the desire for popularity and applause;
to me and not to public opinion must your minds be directed (_poiche
dovete tener rivolte le menti a me e non alla opinione publica_). Put no
trust in your own lights.” And he concluded, “On the basis of humility we
will fight for the kingdom of God, without despairing and without fear of
error.”
Thus does Pius lay bare the egotism and cowardice of the Bishops who demur
to infallibility. They are afraid of conflicts with the modern State,
which is the product of the Revolution, and are loath to alienate the
educated classes of the Church, which is mere popularity-hunting. Pius is
in earnest in what he says about humility, and applies it to himself as
well as others; he frequently says that he too is a poor sinner, who has
his place in the great hospital of diseased and sinful humanity, but with
this difference,—in all other mortals sin begets error as its necessary
consequence, but not with him. He is indeed a sinner, but in his case sin,
through a special miracle, has no influence on the intellect, and when he
feels his own infallibility, it would be presumptuous to dream of any
self-exaltation or flattering illusion.
It is of course understood that other and very various methods are also
being made use of to diminish the numbers of the Opposition. Leave of
absence is most readily accorded to them. It has become visible now to the
blindest eye that the infallibilist dogma is the real object of the
Council, for which alone it was convoked. The great aim hitherto in all
sessions and votings has been gradually and imperceptibly to bring the
Bishops to the point of practically accepting the decisions of the
majority on questions of faith, and to get them to let the critical moment
for protest and refusal of participation slip by unused. By this means
precedents are created, and when the crucial question of infallibility
comes on, they will be told that they have already virtually conceded the
principle, and it is now too late to deny it.
The Governments have made it quite clear that it is only encroachments on
the secular and civil domain, such as the relations of Church and State,
and especially the twenty-one canons, which give them any anxiety, and
have led them to make representations and protests. They disclaim all
intention of meddling with questions of pure dogma, and therefore leave
untouched the infallibilist theory, which Count Beust regards as a mere
internal question of Church doctrine. This admission breaks off the point
of all diplomatic arrows shot from Vienna, Paris, or anywhere else, for
with infallibility the _Curia_ possesses all it wants for the attainment
of its ends and the extension of its power over the social and political
domain. Prévost-Paradol justly remarked the other day in the _Journal des
Débats_, “The ministers who are so ready to let the infallibilist dogma
slip through their fingers seem not to consider that it comprehends
everything (_qu’il emporte tout_). If the Pope is declared infallible
to-day, he was infallible yesterday, and, if so, the Syllabus has
precisely the same force and validity as if the Council had confirmed it.”
So it is in truth, and moreover the Bulls and decisions of former Popes,
which claim absolute dominion over the State, become inviolable articles
of faith. And then again it seems to pacify the Governments that Antonelli
assures them he and his master are merely concerned with the theory, and
have no intention of at once putting the new articles of faith into
practice, summoning kings before their tribunal, overturning
constitutions, and abrogating laws. On the contrary the Pope, if his mercy
is appealed to, will look favourably on much belonging to the present
civilisation and order of the State; only of course all this must be
regarded as a mere indulgence which might at any moment be withdrawn.
Meanwhile at Rome the disclaimers of the Governments of any desire to
meddle with doctrine are sedulously made capital out of for working on the
Bishops. They are referred to in proof that the whole lay world has
nothing to say to this purely dogmatic question, and that the Governments
themselves treat the matter as politically innocuous, and the Bishops are
admonished to lay aside their foolish resistance to a doctrine which with
the power of the Pope will also so mightily increase their own.