_Rome, June 18, 1870._—The great merits of Cardoni are at length to
receive their fitting reward. He has hitherto been only Archbishop of
Nisibis, a city that has long ceased to exist; he has now become keeper of
the archives of the Roman Church. He was the principal person intrusted
last year with the grand mystery of the fabrication of the new dogma,
which required for its success the strictest secrecy; the Bishops, with
the exception of course of the initiated, were to be drawn to Rome
unprepared and innocent of the design and then to be taken by surprise.
Had the real object of the Council become known in the spring of 1869, it
might easily have proved a complete failure. It was therefore intrusted to
Cardoni’s experienced hands, who managed matters so well in the Commission
that the Bishops were kept in the dark, and his lucubrations on
infallibility were first printed in April,—it is said after being
considerably altered by the Jesuits. The reward of Cardoni is a punishment
for Theiner, who has to suffer for his Life of Clement XIV. and for
communicating to some of the Bishops a paper on the order of business at
Trent. The archives are now closed to him, and he has had to surrender the
keys to Cardoni, though he nominally retains his office. Every German
scholar knows that Theiner, after coming to Rome, became extremely
reserved in his communications and very cautious in his own publications,
always suppressing whatever might excite displeasure there, and throw a
slur on the Roman authorities. It was much easier under his predecessor
Marini—as German and French scholars, such as Pertz, Raumer and Cherrier,
and the British Museum can testify—to get a sight of documents or even
transcripts, of course for a good remuneration. Theiner, who was
inaccessible to bribery, knew that he had an abundance of enemies and
jealous rivals watching him, and carefully guarded against giving them any
handle against him. But the original sin of his German origin clung to
him; he was not a Reisach and could not Italianize himself. There is great
joy in the Gesù, the German College, and the offices of the _Civiltà_!
Theiner’s great offence is his letting certain Bishops, viz., Hefele and
Strossmayer, see the account of the order of business at the Council of
Trent, showing the striking difference between that and the present
regulations and the greater freedom of the Tridentine synod. But Hefele
had seen the Tridentine Acts in the spring of 1869, and knew about it
without Theiner’s help.
Meanwhile there is no abatement of the bitter exasperation in the highest
circles. The three chief organs of the Court—the _Civiltà_, the _Unità_
and the _Univers_—have evidently received orders to vie with each other in
their descriptions of the “Liberal Catholics” as the most abandoned and
dangerous of men. For the moment nobody is more abominated than a Catholic
who is opposed to infallibility and unwilling to see the teaching of the
Church brought into contradiction with the laws of his country, which is
what they mean by a Liberal Catholic; such persons are worse than
Freemasons. The _Civiltà_ says they are more dangerous to “the cause of
God” than atheists, and have already proved so. We know how his
confessors, La Chaise and Le Tellier, explained to Louis XIV. that a
Jansenist is worse and more dangerous than an atheist.
In convents and girls’ schools the new article of faith is already strong
enough to work miracles. The _Univers_ relates “a miraculous cure wrought
through an act of faith in the infallibility of the Vicar of Christ,” at
Vienna on May 24. But that is little in comparison with the greater and
more difficult miracles which the dogma will have to accomplish. If the
English proverb is true, there is nothing more stubborn than facts; to
remove them from history or change their nature will be harder than to
move mountains. Here in Rome we are daily assured that the dogma has
conquered history, but these anticipated conquests will have to be fought
out, at least everywhere north of the Alps, and cannot be won without
great miracles. But the Jesuits have never of course been without their
thaumaturgists, and they have been able to accomplish the impossible even
in the historical domain.
The Pope seems peculiarly annoyed at some of the English Bishops opposing
infallibility, probably because Manning had told him that the English
above all others reverenced him as the organ of the Holy Ghost. He lately
broke out into most bitter reproaches against Bishop Clifford of Clifton,
before an assemblage of Frenchmen, most of whom did not even know him by
name, and accused him of low ambition, saying that he knew “ex certâ
scientiâ” the only reason why Clifford would not believe in his
infallibility was because he had not made him Archbishop of Westminster.
Yet there is perhaps no member of the Council whom every one credits with
so entire an absence of any ambitious thought. The spectacle of such
conduct on the part of the man, who for twenty-four years has held the
highest earthly dignity, produces a painful feeling in some, and contempt
in others.
It is indeed disgusting to see the Court party compelling men, most of
them aged, to remain here to the great injury of their health at a season
when all who are able to do so leave Rome, although many of them are
accustomed to a different climate and feel sick and exhausted. They are
treated like prisoners, and not even allowed a holiday without special
leave. No such egotistic and unscrupulous absolutism, as what now prevails
here, has been seen in the Christian world since the days of the first
Napoleon. If there were any persons here besides courtiers who could
advise the Pope, as friends, they would have to tell him that his credit
before the world demanded that an end should be put to this state of
torture, and the Bishops be allowed to depart, many of whom are already
dead. But, as was observed before, even Antonelli does not conceal his
impotence as regards the Council, and as to others, it may suffice to
acquaint Transalpine readers with one detail of Roman Court etiquette. If
the Pope sneezes, the attendant prelate must immediately fall on his
knees, and cry “Evviva!” in that position. Every man is at last what his
_entourage_ has made him, and Pius has for twenty-four years had every one
kneeling before him, and has been daily overwhelmed with adorations and
acts of homage, the effect of which may be read in Suetonius’ biographies
of the Emperors.
The affair of the Prince Bishop of Breslau, who was not allowed to leave
Rome, has been arranged, by Cardinal Antonelli ordering an apology to be
made. The regulations about refusing visas were only meant for the
Orientals, who are certainly detained in Rome against their will, but in
extending the same treatment to German prelates the police had exceeded
their instructions and must be severely punished. Förster answered that he
did not wish this, and that Cardinal de Angelis in his note had fully
approved their conduct. Meanwhile the same thing has been repeated: the
visa was refused to the suffragan Bishop of Erlau in Hungary, who wanted
to go to Naples, because he had received no permission from the Secretary,
Bishop Fessler.
The Franciscan, Hötzl, has made an explanation satisfactory to the
authorities, and is now again received into favour, but he is to stay here
for the festival of June 29, on which day, as Pius was at least convinced
a week ago, the proclamation of the new dogma with all imaginable pomp
will take place. We live in very humane times, and so the good Father from
Munich has suffered no worse martyrdom than the heat. He has been
instructed, the _genius loci_ has done its work, his Spanish General has
simply reminded him of certain rules of the Order—and so his conversion
has been very quickly, easily and happily accomplished. He was not even
threatened, I believe, with the Inquisition, and even there he would not
have fared as ill as Galileo in 1633.
You must allow me, before relating the events of the last few days in the
Council Hall, to recur to the occurrences of June 3, which I am now better
acquainted with, and which have proved to be sufficiently important and
eventful to deserve more detailed mention.
On the motion of Cardinal Bonnechose, who belongs to the middle party,
Cardinal de Angelis had asked the Pope, directly after the session of June
2, whether he would not permit the prorogation of the Council, in view of
the intolerable heat and the too long absence already of so many Bishops
from their dioceses. The reply was a decided negative; there should be no
adjournment till the infallibilist _Schema_ was disposed of. That was a
hint to the majority, which they used next day, as the wish to cut short
the debates had been loudly expressed for some days previously.
On the same day the Bishop of Pittsburg in North America spoke against
infallibility and defended the Catholics of his country, who had hitherto
known nothing of this doctrine, but were yet genuine Catholics in life and
practice and not in name only, like the Italians. Capalti immediately
attacked him and imposed silence. Bishop Dinkel of Augsburg followed.
Senestrey, Bishop of Ratisbon, in the previous sitting had assured the
prelates, who listened eagerly, that all Germany, so far as it was
Catholic, thought as he did, and that every one was deeply penetrated with
reverence for the infallible Pope, while it was a mere invention of
certain evil-minded persons that there were those in Germany who doubted
this divine prerogative of the Vicar of God. The astonishment was great;
they had heard so often that the aversion to the new dogma was most deeply
rooted and most widely spread in Germany. Dinkel pointedly contradicted
his colleague, and warned them against being misled by such tricks. He won
great commendation, and his Biblical comments were also found to be well
grounded and to the purpose.
Bishop Maret of Sura next ascended the tribune. He like others has made
advances since being in the Roman school. If he had to write his work on
the Pope and Council now, he would take a far more decided and bolder
line. It was not without reason that he pointedly distinguished the two
things, papal infallibility based and dependent on episcopal consent, and
the personal infallibility of the Pope deciding alone, as the real subject
of the controversy; for during the last few days there have been Bishops
who excused their adhesion to the majority on the pretext that they only
found the former kind of infallibility in the _Schema_. Maret then showed
in what a labyrinth the majority was on the point of involving the
Council. Either the Council was to give the Pope an infallibility he did
not yet possess, in which case the donor was higher than the receiver by
divine and therefore inalienable rights; or the Pope was to give himself
an infallibility he had not hitherto possessed, in which case he could
change the divine constitution of the Church by his own plenary power; and
if so why summon a Council and ask its vote? There Bilio angrily
interrupted him, exclaiming to one of the most learned and respected men
of the French clergy, the president of the Paris Theological Faculty, “Tu
non nôsti prima rudimenta fidei.” And then he gave the explanation I
mentioned before, that it did not belong to the Council to bear witness,
to judge and to decide, but only to acknowledge the truth and give its
vote, and then to leave the Pope to define what he chose by the
inspiration of the Holy Ghost. There could be no talk here of majority or
minority, but only of the Council. The majority applauded. Maret remained
quiet, and asked without changing countenance, after this effusion of
Bilio’s was at an end, “Licitumne est ac liberum continuare sermonem.”
Then all was silence, and he was able to finish his speech without further
interruption.
Hereupon followed the violent closing of the discussion by a decree of the
majority. The euphemistic language in which the _Giornale di Roma_
announced it next day was remarkable:—“Fù _terminata_ la discussione
generale intorno alla materia di fede, che cominciata con la Congregazione
del 14 Maggio, era stata proseguita per tutte le adunanze tenute nel
suddetto spazio di tempo, nelle quali ebbero parlato in proposito 65
padri,” etc.—such an obituary announcement as those which used to be put
into the Russian newspapers on the death of a Czar, and which led
Talleyrand to say, “Il serait enfin temps que les Empereurs de Russie
changeassent de maladie.”
At the international meeting at Cardinal Rauscher’s on the 4th, when about
100 Bishops were present, some of the bolder and more vigorous of them
thought they ought to show by observing complete silence that there was no
freedom at the Council. This view, as was said before, did not prevail;
and the alternative of a protest was again adopted. On June 6, when the
special debate began, Bishop Verot of Savannah in Georgia was the speaker
who incurred the peculiar displeasure of the Court party, and was
maltreated by Bilio. He objected to the words of the preamble “juxta
communem et universalem doctrinam,” as not being true, because the
doctrine referred to was not universal or everywhere received, but was
only the doctrine of the so-called ultramontane school. At this murmurs
arose, and Verot remarked that a previous speaker—Valerga—had been quietly
listened to while he talked for an hour and a half about the Gallican
school, and compared them with the Monothelite heretics; it was only fair
therefore to let him call the other school by its name. Hereupon Bilio,
who has assumed the rôle of _ex officio_ blusterer and terrorist,
interposed in his manner of a brawling monk, saying this topic had nothing
to do with the preamble, and could be introduced afterwards in the
discussion on the four chapters.
Bishop Pie of Poitiers had proposed to his colleagues on the Commission
_de Fide_ to put the article on infallibility, which was too crudely
worded, into a shape which all could accept, to which Manning and Dechamps
replied that it could not be improved upon, and they would allow not the
slightest change. And as they had a majority in the Commission, Pie’s wish
was strangled before its birth.
There is no want of restless activity and agitation in favour of
infallibility. The processions to obtain the gift of infallibility from
the Holy Virgin and the numerous Saints, whose bones and relics fill the
Roman Churches, march with sonorous devotion through the streets; the lazy
and lukewarm are urged not to remain idle at so important a time, and
there is no lack of intimations of the real profits which the dogma must
yield to the city. The Bishops of the minority must have had marble hearts
if they had continued proof against so many fervent prayers for their
conversion, and wished still to defend their Gallican citadel in spite of
the general assault upon it. The Roman parish priests have already
presented an address in favour of the dogma, but not—as I hear—till after
the opposition among them had been put down by the highest authority. And
now an urgent admonition has been addressed to the University Professors
either to signify their desire for the definition or resign their offices.
All who receive salaries here have long been accustomed to the soft
pressure put upon them from above, and are hastening, with a correct
appreciation of the importance of the wish of the authorities, to follow
lead. In the last few days we have had an address from 40 Chamberlains of
the Fathers of the Council who “prostrate at the Pope’s most sacred feet
earnestly desire to have the opportunity of sharing the wholesome fruits
(_saluberrimi frutti_) of infallibility and the exultation felt by all
true believers at the decree.” The text of the address is given in the
_Unita Cattolica_.
Meanwhile the chief Pontiff himself speaks in most emphatic terms. The
_Tedeschi_, notwithstanding Senestrey’s assurances, are in bad odour here.
A letter of the Papal Secretary in the _Univers_ of June 2 describes the
Opposition Bishops as _amateurs de nouveautés dangereuses_, and I
understand that in a letter to Chigi, the nuncio at Paris, the Pope speaks
of his infallibility as “that pious doctrine, which for so many centuries
nobody questioned.” This expression is peculiarly suggestive. That the
Pope uses it in good faith is certain, and that he has not gained his
conviction by any study of his own is equally certain. He has been deluded
by this monstrous lie, which no single even half-educated infallibilist
will make himself responsible for, and thus has been driven into his
perilous course. No one, who has but glanced at the official Roman
historians, such as Baronius or Orsi or Saccarelli, can possibly maintain
seriously that there has been no doubt for centuries about papal
infallibility. This saying lifts the veil and affords us a glance into the
workshop, where the Pandora’s basket was fabricated which has now been
opened before our eyes. Future theologians will know how to appreciate
that weighty saying, “no one for many centuries,” and I for my part would
say, like Gratiano to Shylock, “I thank thee for teaching me that word.”
Cardinal Schwarzenberg, who spoke on the 7th against the second chapter,
was not, I think, interrupted, as was however the Bishop of Biella,
Losanna, on the pretext that he did not keep to the subject. The old man
is a doubly unpleasant phenomenon to the Court party, both from his
boldness and clearness of view, and as being a living proof that even an
Italian may be a decided opponent of infallibilism. At the international
meeting at Cardinal Rauscher’s on the 8th it was determined that the third
chapter was to be especially attacked in the speeches.
This third chapter deals with matters of very pregnant import. It binds
the Bishops to the acknowledgment that all men are immediately and
directly under the Pope, which means that the so-called papal system is to
be made exclusively dominant in the Church, in place of the old episcopal
system, or in other words is to displace the latter, as it existed in the
ancient Church, altogether. Bishops remain only as Papal Commissaries,
possessed of so much power as the Pope finds good to leave them, and
exercising such authority only as he does not directly exercise himself;
there is no longer any episcopate, and thus one grade of the hierarchy is
abolished. The persons bearing the name of Bishops are wholly different
from the old and real Bishops; they have nothing more to do with the
higher teaching office (_magisterium_), and have no authority or sphere of
their own, but only delegated functions and powers, which the Pope or any
one appointed by him can encroach upon at pleasure. Even this is not
enough for Archbishop Dechamps of Mechlin, who has now proposed four
canons anathematizing all defenders of the episcopal system; this has
roused the suspicions even of several Bishops of the majority. These four
canons are so significant an illustration of the aims of the party that
they deserve to be put on record here:—
(1.) “Si quis dixerit Romanum Pontificem habere quidem in Ecclesia
primatum jurisdictionis, non vero etiam supremam potestatem docendi,
regendi et gubernandi Ecclesiam, perinde ac si primatus jurisdictionis ab
illâ supremâ, potestate distingui posset—anathema sit.
(2.) “Si quis dixerit talem potestatem Romani Pontificis non esse plenam,
sed divisam inter S. Pontificem et episcopos, quasi episcopi a Spiritu S.
positi ad Ecclesiam Dei docendam et regendam sub unico summo pastore etiam
divinitus vocati fuerint, ut in supremâ potestate totius Ecclesiæ capitis
participent—anathema sit.
(3.) “Si quis dixerit supremam in Ecclesia potestatem non residere in
universæ Ecclesiæ capite, sed in episcoporum pluralitate—anathema sit.
(4.) “Si quis dixerit Romano Pontifici datam quidem esse plenam potestatem
regendi et gubernandi, non autem etiam plenam potestatem docendi
universalem Ecclesiam, fideles et pastores—anathema sit.”