_Rome, May 26, 1870._—The intellectual superiority of the Opposition has
made itself so sensibly felt in the course of the debate on infallibility
that they have visibly won in spirit and confidence, while a decrease of
the assurance of victory hitherto manifested by the majority is
observable. There is no sign yet of the breaking up of the Opposition or
the desertion of its members to the infallibilist camp. The Court party
had confidently reckoned on a considerable number of mere inopportunists
giving in and separating from the opponents of the actual doctrine of
infallibility, as soon as the dogma came to be discussed. The latter was
said to be a mere tiny fraction, who would eventually take fright at their
own impotence and come over. But as yet this hope has not been realized,
and there are many indications that it is not likely to be realized, for
the course of events and their experiences in Rome, as well as the
discussions, both oral and written, have converted inopportunists into
decided fallibilists. Cardinal Schwarzenberg has spoken with great power
and dignity, and even the most zealous adherents of the Roman dogma must
have been somewhat impressed by his declaration that its effect in Bohemia
would be to make the nation first schismatic and then gradually
Protestant. It at the same time illustrated the conduct of the Jesuits in
a way that will not be forgotten. When the Archbishop of Paris affirmed
that the much desired infallibilist decree was not one of the causes of
the Council, but its sole cause, every one felt what a bitter truth had
been uttered, and that the veil would thereby be torn away from that web
of untruths and dishonest reticences about the object of the synod, by
which the Bishops had been deceived and enticed as it were into a trap to
Rome. Veuillot indeed had openly said in his official organ at the end of
April, that to decree the new dogma was the principal and at bottom the
sole office of the Council. That was at the very time when about eighty
Bishops put out their strong protestation that they had come to Rome under
the erroneous impression, deliberately suggested by the _Curia_, that the
question of infallibility would not be brought before the Council; while
yet Cardoni had many months before, in the Commission on Faith, presented
by command of the Pope the report which has lately been printed, and the
whole Commission had agreed with him that papal infallibility should be
defined. That same Commission, with the Jesuit Perrone and Dr. Schwetz of
Vienna at its head, has now presented an address to the Pope urging the
definition of the new article of faith, without which those worthies think
they cannot exist any longer.
The infallibilist speaker who created most sensation was Cardinal Cullen,
Archbishop of Dublin. He gained the warm applause of his party by the
aggressive tone of his speech, in which he attacked especially Hefele and
Kenrick. He appealed to the testimony of MacHale to show that the mind of
Ireland has always been infallibilist—a glaring falsehood, as is proved by
the famous Declaration of the Irish Catholics in 1757 formally repudiating
the doctrine. And it made no slight impression, when the grey-haired
MacHale rose to repudiate the pretended belief in infallibility not merely
for himself but for Ireland. But it is certainly true that in former times
for more than a century the Irish people, like the Spanish, was victimized
to papal infallibility. Every Irishman or Spaniard, who knew the history
of his country, would recoil with horror from a theory which has borne
such poisonous fruit for both nations in the past and may be equally
injurious in the future. To acquaint the Catholic tenants in Ireland with
the infallible decisions of Popes about heresy and heretics would be
enough at once to increase ten-fold the agrarian crimes prevalent there,
and would be the surest means for reproducing such a massacre as occurred
there in 1641.
When Cullen replied to the Archbishop of St. Louis, “non est verum,” the
aged prelate requested leave of the Legates to defend himself briefly. It
was refused. Hefele was as little free to answer Cullen’s attack, and has
therefore had a pamphlet in his justification printed at Naples. A new
work by one of the most illustrious of the French Bishops is also expected
from Naples, designed to prove against the Jesuits of the _Civiltà_ the
necessity of moral unanimity for dogmatic decrees. Another Irishman,
Leahy, Archbishop of Cashel, said such absurd things in favour of the
Court dogma that his speech was considered a clear gain for the minority.
There are 89 speakers inscribed for the general debate, and not a third of
them have yet spoken. This opens out a prospect of the debate being spun
out to a great length, oppressive as the tropical heat is now become. The
_Curia_ still relies on the Northerners being tamed down. If only a good
many of them would emulate the example of the Bishop of Hildesheim, and go
away! The plan has often succeeded with English and Irish juries, of
locking them up, when they could not agree, till they found a true
verdict. But that won’t answer here. On the contrary the longer the debate
lasts, the more numerous the Opposition party becomes. At first many
Bishops thought they might fairly gratify the good and amiable Pius, who
won all hearts, even by making a new dogma, and give him the present he so
greatly longed for. But Pius has completely cured his former worshippers
of this disposition to make an article of faith “pour les beaux yeux du
Pape.” It has no doubt happened before that Italian Bishops have been
treated by the Pope like servants, hired for the day’s work and dismissed
again if they did not obey the orders of the _Curia_. One need only refer
to that parody on a synod, the fifth Lateran assembly, when Leo X.
propounded downright forgeries and untruths to his Italian Bishops, who
had to call themselves an Œcumenical Council, and dictated their votes.
But even there no one ventured to treat Transalpine Bishops—Germans,
French and Hungarians—with the insolent contempt now shown, to refuse even
a reply to their urgent petitions and representations, and to make them
drain the cup of humiliations and grievances to the very dregs. But the
great task to be achieved in the first months of the Council was the
kneading and manipulating the Bishops in all possible ways, so as to make
them feel the immeasurable gulf between the master and the servants, that
they might be more ready at last to sacrifice their episcopal dignity and
ancient rights on the altar of Roman supremacy. When once they have
assented to the infallibilist dogma, they neither can nor ought to be or
desire to be anything else but passive and unintelligent promulgators and
executors of papal commands and decrees on faith. That what is really
required of them is to abdicate their office as a teaching body and
themselves abolish their authority, Ketteler has lately declared without
reserve in the Congregation; and he is a man who has profited much by his
Roman schooling, though in a quite different sense from what his master
intended. The Roman system of drill does not succeed with Germans,
Hungarians and Americans.
A note received a fortnight ago from Paris by M. de Banneville, to be
communicated or read to Cardinal Antonelli, has created great excitement
here, owing to his studiously concealing it from his diplomatic
colleagues. Its substance is as follows: France renounces any further
interference with what is going on here, and contents herself henceforth
with taking note of the decisions of the Pope and the Council. The
Government has done its duty, as a friendly Catholic power, in seeking to
withdraw the Court of Rome from the perilous path on which it has entered.
The attempt has proved fruitless. The _Curia_ seems resolved to ruin
itself. France will maintain the attitude of a passive spectator, but
accepts the altered condition of things introduced by this declaration of
war on the part of the Roman Court. On the day of the definition the
Concordat ceases to be in force and the previous relation of Church and
State expires. The State separates itself from the Church and the French
troops leave Rome. Separation of Church and State means in France and
elsewhere that the budget of worship will be dropped, and the clergy must
be supported by the faithful. And here I may mention a fact which has come
to my knowledge on the best authority. When Count Daru was going to
despatch his famous memorial to the Holy See, he wished for an
interpolation in the Chamber on the attitude of the Government towards the
occurrences in Rome, and a friend of his applied on the subject to one of
the most celebrated orators of the Left, who declined, saying, “Rome fait
trop bien nos affaires pour qu’il soit de notre intérêt de lui créer des
embarras.” The contents of the note mentioned above are confirmed by the
words of a leading statesman at Paris, quoted by a Bishop who has lately
returned from thence, that for his own part he considered the separation
of Church and State in France inevitable. He had however assented to the
well-meant attempt of Count Daru to warn the Pope, and if possible deter
him from his short-sighted enterprise; but as that attempt had proved
futile, it remained to take advantage of the blunders of the _Curia_. So
enormous a spiritual power as the Court of Rome was aiming at was
incompatible with the possession of secular power, and accordingly the
French troops must be withdrawn from Rome, and matters left to take their
course.
Even now there is a wish discernible among Cardinals like di Pietro, Corsi
and Bilio, to discover some intermediate formula, while the party men,
like Manning, Pie, Cullen, and all who have been concerned in the
agitation and have staked their credit on its result, hold to the most
uncompromising form, as laid down in the existing programme. The latter
reckon on their overpowering preponderance of numbers, on the power of the
Pope, and the dread of ecclesiastical methods of coercion, such as
excommunication and the like, whereby all resistance will be certainly put
down. On the other hand, the Cardinals and members of the Papal Cabinet
just referred to prefer to set their hopes on the hazy views and yielding
temper of many Bishops of the minority, and think that an ambiguous
formula might serve at once to delude and divide them. Their watchword is
“conciliazione, un partito di conciliazione.” But all their ingenuity is
expended in the elaboration of a phrase which may contain in a somewhat
allegorical and obscure form the infallibility and universal monarchy of
the Pope. To this conciliatory section also belongs a man who understands
the greatness of the danger clearly enough, and who so lately uttered
words which have become notorious here: “This Pope began by destroying the
State, and now will close his career by destroying the Church too.” Yet
the speaker of these words does not scruple to use his high position and
influence for actively furthering the undertakings which must lead to the
catastrophe.
It is impossible for outsiders to form anything like an adequate
conception of the complication of views and plans and the multifarious
activity of the Roman _prelatura_. Things happen which must appear
incredible to every one who has heard of the proverbial skill and gift of
accurate calculation possessed by the ruling clergy here. Thus a member of
a powerful Order is sentenced to six years’ imprisonment by the Holy
Office on account of an occurrence in a nunnery here, the convent being at
the same time broken up and the nuns distributed over other convents. Yet
after scarcely two years’ imprisonment this man, who is unhappily a
German, is brought back here, and intrusted with the preparation of the
draft decrees for the Council, and now the Court trusts to its favourite
“segreto del S. Ufficio” for the cause of his sentence and of the
dissolution of the convent not coming to the ears of the Bishops, but in
vain. The matter has created too great a sensation, and the culprit is too
well known.
Meanwhile the minority are being plied with reasons, which are only
mentioned cursorily, or not at all, in the printed documents of the Court
and the majority. They are told that all their own interests depend on the
papal authority being preserved intact, and that the evils they fear from
the proclamation of the dogma cannot come into comparison with this common
interest. They are bidden to remember how far the Pope has already
committed himself in this matter; since John XXII.—more than 600 years
ago—no Pope has thrown the Brennus sword of his authority into the scale
to decide a question of doctrine, but Pius has cut himself off from all
possibility of retreat by his _Schema_, his conversations with many
Bishops, and his letters of encouragement and commendation to
infallibilist writers. He has declared, not once or twice but a hundred
times, that he knows and _feels_ his infallibility, and wills the Catholic
world to believe it. He might simply by a Bull condemn all who oppose it
as heretics, and how many of the Bishops would summon courage to resist
the Bull?
As yet these reasons, practical as they appear, have not produced much
effect. The Opposition grows visibly, and the speeches of its members have
produced an impression quite unexpected by themselves. The words of the
Melchite Patriarch, Jussuf, have kindled a flame among the Orientals too,
and there are Bishops who tell me they had not thought it possible for a
discourse in the Council Hall to produce so great a revolution of feeling.
But I will not conceal from you that you may find in Margotti’s _Unita_,
which draws its information from the highest authority, news in comparison
to which my statements must appear pure fables. He writes from here on the
18th of May, “The action of the Holy Ghost is beginning to be felt; the
Opposition diminishes daily. Cardoni has just issued his masterly work on
papal infallibility, and now every one comprehends that it is the sole
remedy and defence against the dominant pest of journalism and a free
press. We must have a Pope who, being himself infallible, can _daily_
teach, condemn and define, and whose utterances no Catholic ever dares to
doubt.”(102) So runs the statement in the _Unita_ of May 24. Inconceivable
blindness of past generations, who allowed whole centuries to pass without
needing or asking for a single papal definition! Henceforth the definition
wheel, which the Pope is to turn, is never to remain still for a
day—because of journalism.
Thus does civilisation increase the wants of men. Our forefathers had to
lead a joyless life without sugar, coffee, tea, alcohol and cigars, and
stood on so low a level of cultivation that they fancied they got on very
well without any infallible papal definition. But we, who are so
gloriously advanced, require besides bodily enjoyments many—if possible
very many—daily infallible definitions, and the Pope, out of sheer
inexhaustible goodness, is on the point of acceding to the earnest prayers
of 180 millions and opening the definition machine. Veuillot lately
declared it was high time that the fact of the Pope’s permanent divine
inspiration should be universally acknowledged; Margotti says that we want
not only this, but daily definitions.(103) In this noble rivalry of the
two Court journalists the Italian has evidently stolen a march on the
Frenchman.
In my former statistics the number of Americans was put too high and of
French too low. Only 23 Americans were lately calculated to belong to the
Opposition, to whom must be added 10 Orientals, 4 Portuguese, 10 Italians
and 5 Spaniards, making the whole minority over 120.