Third Edition, Crown 8vo, 7s. 6d.
_The Pope and the Council._
By Janus.
_Authorized Translation From The German._
Opinions of the Press.
“Had the book been, as its title might at first seem to imply, merely a
Zeitschrift evoked by the exigencies of the present controversy, we should
not have noticed it here. It is because it has an independent and
permanent interest for the historical and theological student, quite apart
from its bearing on the controversies of the day, and contains a great
deal of what, to the immense majority of English, if not also of German
readers, will be entirely new matter, grouped round a common centre-point
which gives unity and coherence to the whole, that it falls strictly
within the province of this journal.”—ACADEMY, _October 9_.
“In this volume the main idea of the writers, the long fatal growth of the
principles which are now about to develop into the dogma of the Pope’s
personal and exclusive infallibility, is traced in full detail, with a
learning which would be conspicuous in any of the divided branches of the
Church, with a plain-speaking which few Roman Catholics have been able to
afford, and with a sobriety and absence of exaggeration not common among
Protestants.”—GUARDIAN, _October 13_.
“A profound and learned treatise, evidently the work of one of the first
theologians of the day, discussing with the scientific fulness and
precision proper to German investigation, the great doctrinal questions
expected to come before the Council, and especially the proposed dogma of
Papal Infallibility. There is probably no work in existence that contains
at all, still less within so narrow a compass, so complete a record of the
origin and growth of the infallibilist theory, and of all the facts of
Church history bearing upon it, and that too in a form so clear and
concise as to put the argument within the reach of any reader of ordinary
intelligence, while the scrupulous accuracy of the writer, and his
constant reference to the original authorities for every statement liable
to be disputed, makes the monograph as a whole a perfect storehouse of
valuable information for the historical or theological student.”—SATURDAY
REVIEW, _October 16_.
“It affords an opportunity for persons in this country to learn, on the
most direct authority, how the grave questions which just now agitate the
Church are regarded by members of a school within her pale, who profess to
yield to none in their loyal devotion to Catholic truth, but are unable to
identify its interests with the advance of Ultramontanism. Its aim is to
show that the object in chief of the coming Council is to elect Papal
Infallibility into an article—and therefore inevitably a cardinal
article—of the Catholic Faith. It purports to investigate by the light of
history this and other questions which are to be decided at the Council,
as well as to serve as a contribution to ecclesiastical history.”—MORNING
POST, _October 20_.
“The concluding words of the volume, coming as they evidently do from a
great leader of thought among German Catholics, are so startling and
suggestive that we give the passage as it stands, while exhorting our
readers to lose no time in procuring and carefully perusing the whole
volume for themselves.”—CHURCH HERALD, _October 20_.
“It is our intention to deal with this book hereafter as it deserves, for
we have reason to believe, we will not say to know, lest we should imitate
the vicious example of Janus, that the work is a fabrication of English
and German hands. Its name has been well chosen; Janus had two faces,
which nationally may mean English and German, but in morals signifies a
character not highly estimable for truth.”—TABLET, _October 16_.
“This extraordinary work should be read by the millions of Protestant
England, as the ablest and most authentic exposure of the ecclesiastical
and political despotism of Popery which exists in any language or any
country.”—ROCK, _October 20_.
“We feel, as we have already said, that it is hardly possible in a review
to give an adequate idea of the volume before us, considered merely as a
storehouse of facts on the Roman controversy, a value enhanced by the
circumstance that it is written by earnest but sorrowing members of that
Church, who desire, by its publication, to avert the progress of
corruption and to save the Church from the blundering threatened by the
action of the Council. We had marked many passages for extract in the
course of our own examination. Space, however, forbids our indulging
ourselves. We regret this the less because we feel assured that the book
which we have so imperfectly noticed will soon be in the hands of most
persons interested in the question which is debated.”—JOHN BULL, _October
23_.
“It is of great importance at such a crisis that the public mind should be
thoroughly informed as to the points on which the judgment of the Council
is to be asked, or, to speak more correctly, as to the monstrous claims of
the Papacy to which it is expected to give its formal submission.
Especially is it desirable to understand clearly the exact position
occupied by the ‘Liberal Catholics,’ men who are not prepared to forsake
their Church nor to declare war against all progress, and who, despite
many discouragements, still cling to the belief that it is possible to
find some mode of reconciliation between ‘Catholic’ principles and modern
ideas, and who resent such fanatical outbursts as that of Archbishop
Manning even more bitterly than Protestants themselves. We attach,
therefore, great value to a little volume just issued on the ‘Pope and the
Council,’ by Janus, which contains a more complete statement of the whole
case than we have anywhere met with.”—NONCONFORMIST, _October 27_.
“Beginning with a sketch of the errors and contradictions of the Popes,
and of the position which, as a matter of history, they held in the early
Church, the book proceeds to describe the three great forgeries by which
the Papal claims were upheld—the Isidorian decretals, the donation of
Constantine, and the decretum of Gratian. The last subject ought to be
carefully studied by all who wish to understand the frightful tyranny of a
complicated system of laws, devised not for the protection of a people,
but as instruments for grinding them to subjection. Then, after an
historical outline of the general growth of the Papal power in the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries, the writers enter upon the peculiarly episcopal
and clerical question, pointing out how marvellously every little change
worked in one direction, invariably tending to throw the rule of the
Church into the power of Rome; and how the growth of new institutions,
like the monastic orders and the Inquisition, gradually withdrew the
conduct of affairs from the Bishops of the Church in general, and
consolidated the Papal influence. For all this, however, unless we could
satisfy ourselves with a mere magnified table of contents, the reader must
be referred to the book itself, in which he will find the interest
sustained without flagging to the end.”—PALL MALL GAZETTE, _October 29_.
“It is very able, learned, compact, and conclusive. The subject of Papal
Infallibility is admirably treated, with a thorough mastery of Church
history. We commend it to the perusal of all who take an interest in the
progress of ecclesiastical questions, and wish to become more nearly
acquainted with the Romish Church, its doings, pretensions,
decrees—especially with the conduct of its successive heads. It is a
perfect storehouse of facts brought together with telling effect. Let the
voice of these German Catholics be listened to by enlightened Englishmen
of all creeds, and they will be in no danger of ensnarement from the
plausible rhetoric of Ultramontanism, whose principles are opposed to our
free institutions—to the glory and strength of England.”—ATHENÆUM,
_October 30_.
“In France, in Holland, and in Germany, there has already appeared a
multitude of disquisitions on this subject. Among these several are the
acknowledged compositions of men of high standing in the Roman Catholic
world,—men admittedly entitled to speak with the authority that must
attach to established reputation: but not one of them has hitherto
produced a work more likely to create a deep impression than the anonymous
German publications at the head of this notice. It is not a piece of
merely polemical writing, it is a treatise dealing with a large subject in
an impressive though partisan manner—a treatise grave in tone, solid in
matter, and bristling with forcible and novel illustrations.”—SPECTATOR,
_November 6_.
“It is, as all our readers know, a history of how the Papal claims have
grown from their modest germs in the _fifth_, down to their full
development in the _sixteenth_ century. This history, too, is accompanied
by a corresponding exhibition of the inconsistency of these claims with
actual facts. But the work is done with such elaborate care, and with such
a well-marshalled and complete view of the historical facts of the case,
that it may well be bought and read irrespective of the circumstances
which have called it forth. It is a full, able, and learned bill of
indictment against Popery proper.”—LITERARY CHURCHMAN, _November 13_.
“This book, characterized by great ability, singular grasp, and
scholarship, demonstrates, with proof infallible, that the Ultramontane
doctrine of the Pope’s infallibility is the centre of an arch based upon
error, raised by cunning craft, settled and cemented by shameless
treachery. And this most damaging exposure of Popery proceeds from divines
calling themselves ‘faithful Catholics.’ No Ultramontane is able to sneer
at the scholarship of the book; nor can they take off the edge of its
blows by ascribing it to the malice of Protestants.”—RECORD, _November
17_.
“Yet on this and other documents of the same kind, the whole fabric of
Papal power and assumption has been built up. The forged donations of
Constantine, Pepin, and Charlemagne are the title-deeds by which its
possessions are held, and the _Liber Pontificalis_, and Isidorian
decretals, are the authorities on which it rests for the assertion of a
power inconsistent alike with the rights of God and the liberties of man.
We know of no book in which the whole process is exposed with the same
completeness and in the same brief compass, and we commend it to our
readers as one from which they will derive an amount of valuable
information for which otherwise they might search in vain.”—ENGLISH
INDEPENDENT, _November 18_.
“The book before us is making England and Germany ring with valiant and
wise words of warning, which ought to make the representative of St. Peter
weep tears of honest grief over past and present, the crooked policy of
the one and the headstrong ambition of the other. As a rule, we may say
that anti-Papal literature is of the lowest grade of literary merit,
filled with illogical and inconclusive reasoning, and characterized by
ignorance, bigotry, and cant. The present work is a splendid exception,
severe in tone, but not unduly so, clear in statement, and unsparing in
its dissection of the contradictions involved in modern Ultramontane
theories. Its German authorship secures for it patient and exhaustive
treatment of the subject; its Catholic origin places its statements far
above the ordinary suspicions of unfairness, while it raises our
admiration for the love of truth, which could lead men to oppose so
bravely the current of popular Roman thought.”—CHURCH TIMES, _November
26_.
“Now, what this book of Janus proves is, that all these _à priori_ reasons
for Papal Infallibility are absolutely worthless. They are beaten off the
stage entirely and altogether. There is not the smallest atom of ground
for them to stand upon.”—CHURCH REVIEW, _November 27_.
“This work, written by continental Roman Catholics of the liberal school,
will be read in Protestant England with the deepest interest, and on more
accounts than one. Accustomed as we are so much to view this great Church
system of Rome with feelings of antagonism, it is well we should know and
learn to sympathize with able and earnest men within its body, who are
keenly alive to its weaknesses, and are anxiously seeking for light as to
how Christianity, as they have received it, may help to solve the
perplexities of the age. We should hope that no Protestant who reads this
able treatise will feel differently. At the same time, it has no little
value for us Protestants, in days when our Protestantism is so scornfully
arraigned among ourselves; for if anything can justify our position and
deepen our gratitude to a merciful Providence that has ruled our history,
it is a candid work like this, proceeding from what we must call the
opposite camp.”—CONTEMPORARY REVIEW, _December_.
“Rumour will, no doubt, be busy with its conjectures as to the name which
lurks beneath the _nom de plume_ of ‘Janus.’ We do not intend to offer any
contribution towards the elucidation of the mystery, unless it be a
contribution to say that the book bears internal evidence of being the
work of a Catholic, and that there are not many Catholics in Europe who
could have written it. Taking it all in all, it is no exaggerated praise
to characterize it as the most damaging assault on Ultramontanism that has
appeared in modern times. Its learning is copious and complete, yet so
admirably arranged that it invariably illustrates without overlaying the
argument. The style is clear and simple, and there is no attempt at
rhetoric. It is a piece of cool and masterly dissection, all the more
terrible for the passionless manner in which the author conducts the
operation.”—TIMES, _December 3_.