_Rome, June 23, 1870._—On reading the last document emanating from the
Council, composed by the most distinguished of the American Bishops, an
inexpressible feeling of astonishment comes over me, as often before, at
the new and unprecedented spectacle so boldly offered to the startled
world, and I again recognise the necessity of accounting to myself for the
condition of the Catholic Church which has made this possible, and
remembering that the position of the Papacy in the modern Church for some
time past has been hardly less novel and strange than this present
infallibilist Council.
The two great events of modern history, the Reformation and the
Revolution, have made the Papacy what it is,—the Reformation by forcibly
driving the Catholic half of Christendom into centralization, the
Revolution by removing the last remaining independent powers within the
Church, viz., the Gallican Church with the Sorbonne and Parliament. So it
came to pass that with the Restoration the Church was surrendered to the
discretion of the Papacy, just as at the same time the Roman States, by
the withdrawal of all provincial and corporate independence, became a
uniform and absolute monarchy. The very spirit of the nineteenth century,
without much help from Rome, contributed to the consolidation and
strengthening of this new system. The re-awakening and growth of distinct
Church feeling in powerful classes of the educated nations, the legitimist
ideas of the ruling classes of Europe, and later on the combined Catholic
and Liberal interest of the struggle against hostile bureaucracies and the
antipathy of parliamentary majorities—principles of reaction and
principles of freedom all alike in turn subserved the cause of the Church,
_i.e._, the Papacy. For although Papacy and Church were still not wholly
identified in fact, to say nothing of right, the times did not suggest the
need for distinguishing between them.
There was opportunity given, one might suppose, for a great display of
activity. A fresh creative spirit passed here and there through the new
world of the nineteenth century, and not least through the Catholic
portion of it, which produced in individuals many fair flowers of art and
science, and also of practical piety. It was enough to catch the
inspiration, in the sense of the age and of the eternal needs of mankind,
and as the wilderness blossoms under the hand of a gardener, there grew
out of the ruins of the Revolution a new era of rich Christian life. But
the destiny of Catholicism was to be the reverse. There was indeed then,
and is now, urgent need of an immense deal to be done in the Church; to
carry on the daily ecclesiastical administration by no means satisfied the
requirements of the age, but the Church herself needed and needs
reform—reform everywhere from the outer rind to the marrow. But reform,
whether in Church or State, generally results from the struggle of rival
forces. And the only power surviving in the Church possessed neither the
capacity nor the inclination for acts of world-wide import; it seemed to
have no sense but for the maintenance and extension of its own dominion.
Such Catholic works as the nineteenth century has produced did not emanate
from Rome, and were little if at all helped on by her. On the contrary,
Rome put a restraint on everything which did not serve directly as an
instrument of her power. Every germ of relative independence seemed to be
viewed with distrust. Here and there the intellectual labour of a lifetime
of Catholic study was simply extinguished. The youth of talent turned from
a path which led only to unfruitful conflicts. The once promising
seed-plot of original Catholic production became dry, and even the noblest
creation of the century, the female orders for nursing the sick, are said
by those best informed to show symptoms of decay. There was stillness.
From Rome one only heard a monologue. The Bishops’ Pastorals were its
echo, or were so long-winded and verbose that the simple and noble
language of the pronunciamento issued by the newly elected Bishop of
Rottenburg was quite a phenomenon. Men boasted of the Catholic unity,
which had never been so palpable and so undisturbed as in these latter
days, but it was a unity of sleep over the grave of intellectual and all
higher ecclesiastical life.
Who will bring us deliverance? asked every one who looked at things
independently of the mere force of habit with a clear eye. The answer was
that there was no longer any independent power anywhere but in the centre,
and therefore deliverance could only come from thence; the lever could
only be applied in Rome, and nobody but a future Pope was in a position to
do this.
How peculiarly are things disposed! In Rome they had all they could
desire. There has never been a time when Catholic Christendom lay so
submissively at the Pope’s feet. In fact he possessed practically the
prerogative of infallibility, for no one contradicted whatever he might
say. The Bishops were disused to learning; there was hardly among them a
theologian of note, and therefore they had no spirit for theological
convictions of their own. It seemed to be the office of their lives to
re-echo the Roman oracles. The daring project of defining the Immaculate
Conception met with hardly any serious opposition, though many Bishops
could not conceal from themselves that the faith of antiquity and the
belief of their own dioceses knew nothing of the new dogma. And then in
the Encyclical and Syllabus came a perfect flood of irrational and
unchristian propositions. What did the Bishops of Christendom, the judges
of faith, do? Some put a more rational interpretation on it, the others
took it all for granted as it stood; everywhere the new articles of faith
and morality were received as though all were in the most regular order.
That was in fact a situation without any precedent, and there was nothing
left to wish for but its continuance for ever. The talisman to secure this
continuance was discovered in the tenet of papal infallibility, and to
make this into a dogma and foundation-principle of the Church has been the
grand object to which the thoughts and measures of the last ten years have
been directed.
Even this last point might perhaps have been attained by adhering to the
practice which has prevailed hitherto of quietly collecting the votes of
the _Ecclesia dispersa_, and passing over the isolated opponents still
left to the order of the day. Why was the perilous plan of a General
Council adopted instead of this? Perhaps with the view of extruding and
getting rid of for the future all the doubt still attaching to the assent
of the Church dispersed; certainly in the full confidence, after all that
had occurred previously, that there was absolutely no demand the Bishops
would dare to refuse. The authorities felt in the position,
ecclesiastically speaking, of being able to challenge the Holy Ghost
Himself to say if He would refuse to set His seal to the deformation of
the Church.
All the world knows how the Vatican Council has been managed. It was as if
they wished to keep the Holy Ghost a prisoner, with eyes and ears
bandaged. But things did not go as they wished. On the contrary this
extreme step of the _Curia_ roused a reaction, which seems likely to lead
to a revolution that will take its place in history and introduce a
complete change in the future. Certainly the deliverance is coming from
the centre, but not as was thought and desired, not in peace but in storm,
not as a gift of the highest human wisdom but as a nemesis. For it is an
old law, equally prevalent throughout the Christian and Heathen world,
that pride will always bring its punishment.
We are already in the third stage of this movement. First came, quite
unexpectedly, protests against infallibility from the lay world, instead
of the accustomed clouds of incense, and then still more unexpectedly the
military obedience of the clergy was broken through by the most decided
intimations of conscientious sincerity and scientific conviction; and now
even the princes of the Church are putting themselves at the head of the
Opposition. There is still some difference between the Church dispersed
and a great assembly, many as are the restrictions imposed here by fraud
and violence on the free expression of opinion. The man of knowledge and
character, who would there remain alone and isolated, gains tenfold power
and energy here. Consciences are aroused. Many a Bishop who left home with
his head wholly or half involved in the haze of Jesuit doctrine, receives
the impulse here to unprejudiced study and is irresistibly driven to the
side of right and truth. Besides, it is no small thing to have seen the
state of things at Rome for six months with one’s own eyes.
We shall do well not to raise our expectations too high. The spirit of
slavery, which has become ingrained in one generation after another,
cannot be scared away in weeks and months from men’s minds and the conduct
of affairs. So much the more noteworthy is every increase of outward or
inward strength in the struggling minority at the Council. And so I return
to the work already mentioned, to remark that its contents justify us in
reckoning the author, the venerable Archbishop Kenrick of St. Louis, with
Strossmayer, Hefele, Dupanloup, Darboy, Schwarzenberg, and Rauscher among
the heads of the Opposition.
It is only matter of course that much which has often been said before
should be repeated here, which we may pass over, without however omitting
to notice the impression which the plain and practical nature of the
treatise is calculated to produce. What concerns us more nearly is the
distinctness and firmness with which the present claims of the _Curia_ are
repudiated, as, _e.g._, in pointing out the injury to episcopal rights
involved in the desired definition. “The Bishops,” says the author, “have
always been held judges of faith. But assuming that the Pope alone is
infallible, the Bishops may indeed assent to his judgments, but cannot
exercise any real judicial office, and thus lose a right inherent in the
episcopal office. But this right they are in no position to resign,
however much they might wish it, for its connection with the episcopal
office rests on the institution of the Saviour.” In another passage he
says, “Appeal is made to the number of theologians, who in the course of
ages have defended infallibility. But that does not make it an article of
faith. Divine Providence does not permit such opinions, when they have no
true ground or do not agree with the records of revelation, to become
articles of faith. It has been a view held for centuries that Christ gave
Peter and his successors supreme authority in secular affairs also. But
there is no one in our own day who does not reject and deplore it and seek
for an excuse for it in the circumstances of the age, except the Roman
clergy, in whose _Proprium Officium S. __ Zachariæ_ we read the other day,
that the Pope by his apostolic authority transferred the sovereignty over
the Franks from Childeric to Pepin. And yet the Popes have ventured to
make this usurped authority, so far as in them lay, into an article of
faith.” Then follows a reference to the Bull _Unam Sanctam_, and the
similar statements of Bellarmine and Suarez. “On the other hand,” Kenrick
proceeds, “we find at this Council some Bishops, of whom the present
writer is one, who have published and solemnly sworn to a declaration that
the Pope, at least in England, possesses no such power. This example might
teach those who are pressing for the definition of papal infallibility,
that even the most solemn papal decree, and though issued like that of
Boniface VIII. at a Synod, is null and void if it be not grounded on God’s
word in Scripture and Tradition. ‘Commenta delet dies, judicia naturæ
confirmat.’ ”
We may recognise in the tone of these remarks, with all their moderation,
an advance on the part of the Opposition to greater freedom and
distinctness of speech. And this impression is still more confirmed by
Kenrick’s judgment on the well-known proceedings in and out of Council.
“There is yet another argument used,” he says, “which I can only refer to
with reluctance. It is urged that papal infallibility is so vehemently
attacked by its opponents that, if it is not now declared to be an article
of faith, it is virtually admitted to have no foundation, and surrendered
to the daily increasing violence of its assailants without protection.
Those who so argue forget that they are themselves responsible for having
occasioned this deplorable controversy, by announcing to the astonished
world that at the Vatican Council two new dogmas would be proposed to the
faithful, papal infallibility and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin,
and in a similar spirit publishing works in England and the United States
on the Pope’s authority, with a view of preparing men’s minds for the
acceptance of these dogmas. In view of this temerity, which has not only
not been rebuked but has even been defended in Bishops’ Pastorals, and
with a clear perception of the unhappy consequences that must follow from
it, men, who deserve eternal remembrance and will obtain praise of God,
have lifted up their voice to remind the faithful that in matters of faith
no innovation is allowed, that papal infallibility as distinct from the
infallibility of the Church has no evidence of Scripture and Tradition,
and that the office of Councils is to investigate and not to carry decrees
by acclamation. And just because they speak the truth openly, these men
are reproached with stirring up the people by the very persons who would
eventually have interpreted their silence as assent and have used it as
ground for carrying out their own designs. Then again it is urged upon
good people that something must be done under the circumstances for
maintaining the honour of the Papacy, forgetting that Bishops should have
not circumstances but the truth before their eyes, and that it is as
little competent to the successors of the Apostles as to the Apostles
themselves to do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.”
In another passage, after dwelling on the preponderance of the Italian
prelates he proceeds, “If they wish to give the decrees of the Council the
character of the testimony of the whole of Christendom, without altering
the inequality of numbers of the representatives of different nations,
there is the precedent of the plan adopted at the Council of Constance
with the happiest results, viz., taking the votes by nations or languages
and not by heads. And this method would secure the speedier and better
settlement of the matters under discussion, for the Bishops of the same
tongue or nation know the needs of their Churches better and would
understand how to meet them; moreover they could express their views more
readily in their mother tongue than is possible in the General
Congregation where Latin is obliged to be spoken, which they have perhaps
lost their familiarity with through the long course of an active life, so
that they have either to keep silent or to speak under difficulties. And
by this means a discussion and searching examination would become
practicable, which must necessarily take place at a Council, but which is
wanting at the Vatican Council. There is indeed abundant opportunity for
making speeches, but the great number of Fathers and the order of business
imposed on the Council cuts off all opportunity for submitting any point
to a close examination by regular debate with one speaker answering
another. Five months have already passed since the opening of the Council,
with what result need not be said here. Meanwhile the question of the new
definition has roused a great excitement throughout the Christian world,
which is still on the increase; some desire the definition, others
emphatically repudiate it. Bishops have entered the lists against Bishops,
priests have written against their own and against other chief pastors,
and won commendation from the supreme authority for doing so. The journals
of both parties, with their not always true reports or at least crooked
reasonings, keep the whole world in a state of agitated suspense as to
what is coming. May one say to what all this will lead and what will be
the end of this violent tempest which has so suddenly risen in a clear sky
and seems likely to produce much mischief? They are certainly deceived who
fancy that the promulgation of the new dogma will at once lay the waves;
the contrary is far likelier. Those who would obey the decrees of the
Council will find themselves in a most difficult position. The civil
Governments will treat them, not without some plausible grounds, as less
trustworthy subjects. The enemies of the Church will throw in their teeth
the errors said to have been taught by the Popes or sanctioned by their
conduct, and will laugh to scorn the only possible answer—that they did
not promulgate these errors as Popes but as individual Bishops of Rome.
And then the scandalous Church history records of certain Popes will be
urged as so many proofs of the internal discrepancy of Catholic belief,
for men do not distinguish between infallibility and impeccability, which
appear to them inseparably connected.”
What Kenrick thinks the Opposition ought to do is not expressly stated,
but may be gathered from his language. He says indeed that “whoever does
not submit to the decisions of an Œcumenical Council does not deserve the
name of Catholic,” but he adds, “if the indispensable conditions have been
observed in holding the Council.” And he makes moral unanimity one of
these conditions. He does not allow the crude conception which seems to
prevail among the majority, that a Council has simply to vote and then the
world must reverence the result as the dictate of the Holy Ghost. The
infallibility of Councils is to him no miraculous work of inspiration, but
a simple result of the constitution the Church received from her Founder,
whose assistance will never fail her, if she remains true to Scripture and
Tradition and the agreement of the various particular Churches.
Kenrick and all the Bishops who hold firmly with him may meet the
impending decision in quietness and confidence, for the defeat of their
opponents is certain, whether they persist and define and promulgate the
new dogma, or retreat at the last moment. In the former case deliverance
will come through a catastrophe whose consequences defy all calculation.
And yet even in Rome there do not lack pious minds which, undisturbed by
these terrible dangers, desire to see the insolent enterprise carried
through, in the belief that the prevalent corruption can only be overcome
by a life and death struggle. “Quod medicina non sanat, ferrum sanat.”