_Rome, April 23, 1870._—The four chapters of the _Constitutio Dogmatica de
Fide_ bear in their ultimate shape such evident marks of the influence of
the minority, and so many concessions were made in them, that there is a
danger of overlooking the greatness of their defeat and their change of
mind, should they finally accept the supplemental paragraph mentioned in
my last letter but one. Although it was determined that the minority
should make no general opposition to this paragraph, there were not a few
Bishops who saw clearly enough its importance and danger. They consoled
themselves at first with the promise that the suspicious passage, which
clothed the Roman Congregations and the mischief they work in the Church
with conciliar sanction, would not be voted upon till the still incomplete
portion of the _Schema de Fide_ came on for final settlement. And when, in
spite of this promise, it was announced to be the general wish of the
Commission that the voting should take place at once, the opponents were
quieted by a written assurance that no new power was thereby to be given
to the Roman Congregations, and nothing to be altered about them, but all
to remain as of old. Gasser, Bishop of Brixen, had the courage to say, in
the name of the Deputation, that the passage did not refer to heresy,
though it expressly binds the Bishops to the observance of the
constitutions and decrees of the Holy See, not only in regard to heresy
(_hæretica pravitas_), but also theological errors and controversies. It
is incredible that any one could be deceived by such a ruse as this, and
yet it is a fact that not even forty Bishops made the omission of this
paragraph a condition of their _Placet_. As the Opposition seemed thereby
to be shrunk to less than five per cent. of the Council, the _Curia_ was
persuaded that it could get rid of them altogether by acting with spirit.
On April 18 appeared an admonition with the following passage: “It must be
remembered that according to the Apostolic Brief, _Multiplices inter_ (of
Nov. 27, 1869), prescribing the method of procedure in public Sessions, no
other vote can be given in them than a simple _Placet_ or _Non
placet_.”(90) The Fathers who had given conditional votes in Congregation
had to choose now whether they would accept the chapter unconditionally or
reject it “sans phrase.” It was foreseen that this alternative would
disclose the weakness of the Opposition, and that those of its number who
shrank from a decisive rejection would be won for the majority, for the
real test of an Opposition is not in words but acts. Protests which are
not answered, and speeches which are not heard, may be patiently borne
with, as long as all goes well in the public voting. The _Curia_ reckons
that the minority will not now dare to show itself, and thus the unanimity
will not be disturbed: and its consequent resolve might decide the whole
course and upshot of the Council. If the minority gives in here, it will
have suffered a first defeat, and must reconstitute itself on a new basis,
by taking part in decrees carried under anathema, which are against its
own convictions, it breaks with its past, accepts the responsibility and
solidarity of the Council and complicity with the majority. This is to
admit that all the petitions and protests it was thought necessary to
present in the interests of the freedom of the Council were superfluous
and aimless, and all the warnings offered of the threatened danger of its
œcumenicity being questioned, etc., unmeaning. For the Council to publish
anathemas implies the conviction that it is free, legitimate, and
œcumenical, and that the order of business is acceptable. The minority
thereby would themselves testify to everything they have hitherto
assailed, and the only thing left for them would be to insist on their
rights as guarded by the _consensus unanimis_. All other grounds for
calling the Council in question would be abandoned, and it might fairly be
doubted whether the Opposition would adhere to that after giving up so
much; at the same time it is morally certain that the Court and the
majority do not acknowledge that right.
During the General Congregation of the 19th, four Bishops, Latour
d’Auvergne, Dreux-Brézé, La Bouillerie, and Mermillod, went to the Pope
and requested him to have the decree on infallibility brought forward
directly after the Solemn Session of the 24th. They thought rightly enough
the favourable moment had come and all was now ready. Pius received the
Bishops, who came as deputies of the 400, with great distinction, and
replied that he would discuss the matter with the Presidents.
As it is impossible to see how the Bishops or the Governments could get
rid of the _regolamento_ when once it is fairly established, the
Opposition Bishops know that they will have to approach the great question
in the position they take for themselves to-morrow in the first solemn
voting, and with such power, unanimity, and influence as they thereby
establish their claim to. It is still open to them up to to-night to use
the present moment for a complete victory. They only need declare that
their protests and warnings were not idle words but seriously meant, that
the incongruities which endanger the freedom of the Council and suggest
doubts of its legitimacy must be got rid of before any decrees are
published under threat of everlasting damnation, and that until they are
listened to on this point they refuse to take part in any solemn voting.
But, as far as I know of the Opposition, the majority of them have no ear
or heart for such counsel; their grand object is to avoid any decisive
conflict, and so to-morrow they will simply yield,—to consider quietly
afterwards their future plan of campaign! Some have thought they might
save their honour and conscience by a written explanation of their vote.
In the public international meeting of the Opposition these plans were
rejected, but two rough drafts of the kind were proposed the day before
yesterday, one by the Germans, one by the French. Both are too strong and
dignified to find many supporters, and too weak to justify the Opposition
in the eyes of the Christian world.
It is the sacred duty of the Bishops in Council to bear witness to the
ancient doctrine of the Church, and to reform it when it has been obscured
by abuses in practice and in the rule of the hierarchy. The more abuses
there are, so much the more difficult, and so much the more indispensable
also is this reform. What the Catholic world expects of the Council is not
a fresh sanction, still less an increase, of these abuses, but the
deliverance and purification of the Church from them. But to accept the
paragraph which recommends obedience to the constitutions and decrees of
Roman Congregations is to make the fulfilment of this serious duty, on
which the fate of the Church hinges, impossible. For that paragraph will
confirm and clothe with new authority decrees which are a disgrace to the
Church and an injury to civilisation, wherein the confused morality of
dark centuries is taught and Christian morality denied; and that too
without any examination or discussion, any limitation or exception. The
Bishops will thereby degrade themselves to servants of the Roman
_prelatura_, and sink into accomplices of the Inquisition. We are told
indeed that the paragraph will not touch dogma, but for ethics and
practice it is almost more important than infallibility itself. It gives
full play beforehand for arbitrary caprice and paves the way for the
infallibilist dogma.
If we look into the future, the questions come before us of unanimity in
matters of faith, and of the confirmation and acceptance of the Council
throughout the Church. As to the latter, the Bishops will make it far
harder for the Governments to stand by them if to-morrow they virtually
repudiate their own protests. The question of unanimity remains as weighty
as before, and the gross errors of the _Civiltà_ in its attack on
Strossmayer’s vindication of the principle of moral unanimity in decisions
on faith has greatly lightened the task of two learned Bishops, who
undertook to put in a clear light the true doctrine of the Church on the
subject.
If the voting of to-morrow goes altogether in the sense of the _Curia_,
the inference will be that all the positions of the minority can be
turned, and that as they are resolved to avoid any collision, they may be
brought by skilful manipulation not to trouble the moral unanimity any
further. Many of them console themselves with the thought that they are
only sacrificing everything to peace and harmony, and are not responsible
for the undertaking they have been deluded into.
The propositions of the _Schema de Ecclesiâ_ give abundant room for
manœuvring. There are many opportunities for apparent concessions and for
dividing and perplexing the Opposition, and finally driving them into a
corner, so that in mutual distrust of one another they may abandon all
hope of making any successful resistance, and satisfy themselves that as
nearly everything has been given up already it is not worth while to risk
a catastrophe by taking any further step.