_Rome, April 29, 1870._—What I mentioned in my last letter as a pamphlet
of Cardinal Rauscher’s, is a printed memorial addressed to the Presidents
of the Council, bearing the title of _Petitio a pluribus Galliæ, Austriæ
et Hungariæ, Italiæ, Angliæ et Hiberniæ et Americæ Septentrionalis
Præsidibus exhibita_, and dated April 20th. It states that papal
infallibility is beset by many objections and difficulties, which require
an examination such as is impossible in a General Congregation. Among them
is one of supreme importance, bearing directly on the instruction to be
given to the faithful on the divine commandments and the relation of the
Catholic religion to civil society.
“The Popes have deposed Emperors and Kings, and Boniface VIII. in the Bull
_Unam Sanctam_ has established the corresponding theory, which the Popes
openly taught down to the seventeenth century under anathema, that God has
committed to them power over temporal things. But we, and almost all
Bishops of the Catholic world, teach another doctrine. We teach that the
ecclesiastical power is indeed higher than the civil, but that each is
independent of the other, and that while sovereigns are subject to the
spiritual penalties of the Church, she has no power to depose them or
absolve their subjects from their oaths of allegiance. And this is the
ancient doctrine, taught by all the Fathers and by the Popes before
Gregory VII. But if the Pope, according to the Bull _Unam Sanctam_,
possessed both swords—if, according to Paul IV.’s Bull _Cum ex Apostolatûs
officio_, he had absolute dominion by divine right over nations and
kingdoms,—the Church could not conceal this from her people, nor is the
subterfuge admissible,(94) that this power exists only in the abstract and
has no bearing on public affairs, and that Pius has no intention of
deposing rulers and princes; for the objectors would at once scornfully
reply, ‘We have no fear of papal decrees, but after many and various
dissimulations it has at last become evident that every Catholic, who acts
according to his professed belief, is a born enemy of the State, for he
holds himself bound in conscience to do all in his power to reduce all
kingdoms and nations into subjection to the Pope.’ We need not define more
precisely the manifold accusations the enemies of the Church might deduce
from this.
“This difficulty then must be most carefully sifted before papal
infallibility is dealt with. The Conference we demanded on March 11 may do
much towards clearing it up. But the question, whether Christ really
committed to Peter and his successors supreme power over kings and
kingdoms is, especially in this day, one of such grave importance that it
must be directly brought before the Council, and examined on all sides. It
would be inexcusable for the Fathers to be seduced into deciding, without
thorough knowledge and sifting, on a question which has such wide
consequences and affects so deeply the relations of the Church to human
society. This question therefore must necessarily be brought before them,
before the eleventh chapter of the _Schema de Ecclesiâ_ can be taken in
hand. It might, if you please, be separately treated. But, as it cannot be
adequately judged of without a thorough examination of the relations of
the ecclesiastical to the civil power, it appears to us very desirable
that the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of the _Schema_ should be
discussed before the eleventh.”
What first strikes one about this remarkable document is, that the German
Bishops belonging to the minority—Martin, Stahl, Senestrey and the
Tyrolese are of course out of the reckoning—are not represented here. Does
this indicate a real divergence of view or only a difference of tactics?
The former notion seems to me inconceivable. It is impossible that men
like Hefele, Ketteler, Eberhard and the rest should have any doctrinal
predilection for the system of papal absolutism extended over sovereigns
and the whole political and civil domain. Certainly they too are so
strongly opposed to the infallibilist dogma because it involves the
mediatizing of all kings and governments. I can therefore at present
discover no explanation of this phenomenon, and cannot allow any room for
the suspicion that the persistently active curialistic influences have
succeeded in dividing the German Bishops from the rest of the minority.
What will the Presidents do with a document so serious, so moderate and so
incisive? What have they done already? So far as I know, nothing. It is a
principle, and has now become an habitual practice with them, to leave all
representations and petitions of the minority unnoticed and unanswered.
The directing Deputation, which is intrusted with the entire control of
the Council, feels quite justified in adopting this line by the papal
ordinances.
The policy hitherto pursued by the Jesuits and the _Curia_ was, first to
extend to the utmost the comprehensive office of the Church, as legislator
for the nations and guardian of faith and morals; and then, by making the
Pope absolute master and dictator of the Church, to assign to him all that
had been claimed for the Church, so that he—acting of course in the
interests of religion and morality, but simply according to his own good
pleasure—should have every office, person and institution subject to him,
and that the final appeal in every cause should lie to his tribunal. Since
all this can only be secured and guaranteed by the infallibilist dogma,
the inferences on the relations of Church and State drawn by the opposing
Bishops form precisely the chief recommendation of that dogma in the eyes
of the Legates, the Italian Cardinals, the Spanish and Italian Bishops and
those of the French who are ultramontanes. They all say among themselves,
if not aloud before the world, “That is just what we want; our very object
is to get the doctrine on the relations of Church and State changed, the
independence of civil society and the civil power abolished, and the
complete temporal supremacy of the Church—_i.e._, the Pope—at least
gradually established.” It is not indeed advisable to say this as yet in
such explicit and unreserved terms, but the reason why the infallibilist
dogma is so opportune and indispensable is exactly because it implies
jurisdiction over the temporal sphere, which the Pope can according to
circumstances either leave unused and say nothing about it, or suddenly
draw forth for use like a weapon concealed under a mantle. He has dealt
thus with the Austrian Constitution; while he let alone other countries,
whose constitutional systems must have been partly at least a scandal on
Roman principles, he pronounced the Austrian Constitution abominable
(_nefanda_). And any one, who wishes to examine the practical significance
of this infallible judgment, need only go to the Tyrol and observe how it
has been already explained there to the inhabitants by their enthusiastic
clergy.
At the audience, when he presented the French note to the Pope, Banneville
expressed the wish of his Government that the discussion of the _Schema de
Ecclesiâ_ (with the chapter on infallibility) might at least not be taken
before its time—which was equivalent to saying, “At least give us time,
for the matter is not yet ripe for discussion.” Hitherto delay has been
for the interest of the _Curia_, for it was expected that the minority
would wither away and finally be extinguished; they trusted to the power
so often proved of the Roman solvents. The article of the _Civiltà_ which
told the prelates, “We care nothing for your talk about moral unanimity in
matters of dogma, and shall make the new dogma in spite of your
opposition,” was written _in terrorem_, and was meant to hold up before
the refractory the terrible perspective of a contest emerging in the
abortion of an impotent schism. The article has not in the main produced
the desired effect, for the Bishops still hold together and bind
themselves by writings and public declarations, and the number of those
who can no longer with any decency desert to the majority threatens to
increase. Now therefore it is the interest of the _Curia_ to allow no
further delay, but to bring forward the _Schema_ at once.
The Bavarian ambassador has presented the note of his Government, which
appeals emphatically to the attitude of the German Bishops who represent
in the Council sound principles on the relations of Church and State.(95)
It cannot indeed appeal to its own Bishops, for three of them are active
and fiery supporters of infallibilism and the supremacy of the Pope over
Kings and States. It was previously thought impossible for a German Bishop
to desire to see the day when the Popes could again grasp the reins of
temporal dominion which had dropped from their hands, depose monarchs,
give away countries, abolish constitutions, annul laws and dispense oaths
of allegiance. But this spectacle we now enjoy! For the pastors of souls
must be assumed to intend to make dogmas, not for a mere pastime or for
the enrichment of theological commentaries and text-books, but in order to
reduce the theory to practice.
Pius did not say, when receiving the French memorandum, whether he would
communicate it to the Council. But Antonelli has now stated that the Pope,
though President of the Council, will not find it at all advisable to do
so. That is only consistent, for every curialist regards the Council as
under strict tutelage, and in fact only existing by the will of the Pope
and living by the breath of his mouth. It is simply from care for their
health that he withholds so unsound a document from his Bishops. Antonelli
says he will not reply to it, as it contains nothing new, and merely
repeats the note of Feb. 20, which is not strictly true. He adheres to his
favourite distinction, “In theory we are inexorable, grasping,
high-flying, as Gregory VII. or Innocent III., but in practice full of
forbearance and compassion. We take account of human weakness and
blindness, and, if the Northern nations do not acknowledge the
prerogatives of our priestly absolutism, and desire to retain their
political and religious liberties in spite of our theoretical condemnation
of them, we shall not force matters to an open breach and shall make no
use of the old methods of compulsion.”
Now are the Governments agreed or not in reference to the Council? They
are no doubt all agreed in their aversion to the new dogma and the renewal
of the Syllabus, but there is a great difference in their practical
attitude. The rulers in some States mean to utilize the occasion for
bringing about the entire separation of Church and State, _i.e._, for
gradually extruding the Church and the clergy from all the positions of
public trust they still hold, and reducing the Church to the level of a
sect tolerated and as far as possible ignored by the State, and
secularizing education, marriage and family life. This is the attitude of
Belgium, Italy and Spain towards the Council. Out of Belgium there is no
country so remarkably indifferent about the Council and its decrees,
whatever they may be, as Italy, _i.e._, the Italian Government and many
millions of Italians. The statesmen there say, “We have no Concordats to
defend, for they have fallen with the old Governments; the State has no
longer any concern with religion and the Church, which are mere private
affairs of the individual. And thus the separation of Church and State is
already in principle accomplished.” I can vouch for the following saying
of a high public official there: “There are hundreds of us who do not know
whether we are among those excommunicated on political grounds or not. In
a dangerous illness we may send for a confessor, and then we shall find
out.”
The number of those who desire and aim at this complete divorce of Church
and State is legion. Their view predominates in the French cabinet since
Daru’s retirement, and most of them view what is going on in Rome with
satisfaction and hope. The more frantic and insolent is the conduct of the
Papalists, so much the better in their opinion, for so much easier and
more painless will the separation be for civil society. To make papal
infallibility and the Syllabus into dogmas is in their eyes a step which,
far from hindering, one should wish to see thoroughly effected. When the
Church is caught in this net, she must assume the full responsibility of
all doctrines and principles established by any of the Popes, and she has
herself pronounced judgment on their utter incompatibility with the whole
existing order of society. The State can then no longer go hand in hand
with her anywhere, and will dismiss her. It is impossible to be ignorant
that this view is widely prevalent, and is rapidly and powerfully
increasing.