dogmatic decree had come back from the Commission so profoundly altered
that it was generally accepted by the bishops, but with a crudely
expressed sentence in the preamble, which was intended to rebuke the
notion of the reunion of Protestant Churches. Several bishops looked
upon this passage as an uncalled-for insult to Protestants, and wished
it changed; but there was danger that if they then joined in voting the
decree they would commit themselves to the lawfulness of the Regulation
against which they had protested. On the 22nd of March Strossmayer
raised both questions. He said that it was neither just nor charitable
to impute the progress of religious error to the Protestants. The germ
of modern unbelief existed among the Catholics before the Reformation,
and afterwards bore its worst fruits in Catholic countries. Many of the
ablest defenders of Christian truth were Protestants, and the day of
reconciliation would have come already but for the violence and
uncharitableness of the Catholics. These words were greeted with
execrations, and the remainder of the speech was delivered in the midst
of a furious tumult. At length, when Strossmayer declared that the
Council had forfeited its authority by the rule which abolished the
necessity of unanimity, the Presidents and the multitude refused to let
him go on.[390] On the following day he drew up a protest, declaring
that he could not acknowledge the validity of the Council if dogmas were
to be decided by a majority,[391] and sent it to the Presidents after it
had been approved at the meeting of the Germans, and by bishops of other
nations. The preamble was withdrawn, and another was inserted in its
place, which had been written in great haste by the German Jesuit
Kleutgen, and was received with general applause. Several of the Jesuits
obtained credit for the ability and moderation with which the decree was
drawn up. It was no less than a victory over extreme counsels. A
unanimous vote was insured for the public session of 24th April; and
harmony was restored. But the text proposed originally in the Pope's
name had undergone so many changes as to make it appear that his
intentions had been thwarted. There was a supplement to the decree,
which the bishops had understood would be withdrawn, in order that the
festive concord and good feeling might not be disturbed. They were
informed at the last moment that it would be put to the vote, as its
withdrawal would be a confession of defeat for Rome. The supplement was
an admonition that the constitutions and decrees of the Holy See must be
observed even when they proscribe opinions not actually heretical.[392]
Extraordinary efforts were made in public and in private to prevent any
open expression of dissent from this paragraph. The Bishop of Brixen
assured his brethren, in the name of the Commission, that it did not
refer to questions of doctrine, and they could not dispute the general
principle that obedience is due to lawful authority. The converse
proposition, that the papal acts have no claim to be obeyed, was
obviously untenable. The decree was adopted unanimously. There were some
who gave their vote with a heavy heart, conscious of the snare.[393]
Strossmayer alone stayed away.
The opposition was at an end. Archbishop Manning afterwards reminded
them that by this vote they had implicitly accepted infallibility. They
had done even more. They might conceivably contrive to bind and limit
dogmatic infallibility with conditions so stringent as to evade many of
the objections taken from the examples of history; but, in requiring
submission to papal decrees on matters not articles of faith, they were
approving that of which they knew the character, they were confirming
without let or question a power they saw in daily exercise, they were
investing with new authority the existing Bulls, and giving unqualified
sanction to the Inquisition and the Index, to the murder of heretics and
the deposing of kings. They approved what they were called on to reform,
and solemnly blessed with their lips what their hearts knew to be
accursed. The Court of Rome became thenceforth reckless in its scorn of
the opposition, and proceeded in the belief that there was no protest
they would not forget, no principle they would not betray, rather than
defy the Pope in his wrath. It was at once determined to bring on the
discussion of the dogma of infallibility. At first, when the minority
knew that their prayers and their sacrifices had been vain, and that
they must rely on their own resources, they took courage in extremity.
Rauscher, Schwarzenberg, Hefele, Ketteler, Kenrick, wrote pamphlets, or
caused them to be written, against the dogma, and circulated them in the
Council. Several English bishops protested that the denial of
infallibility by the Catholic episcopate had been an essential condition
of emancipation, and that they could not revoke that assurance after it
had served their purpose, without being dishonoured in the eyes of their
countrymen.[394] The Archbishop of St. Louis, admitting the force of the
argument, derived from the fact that a dogma was promulgated in 1854
which had long been disputed and denied, confessed that he could not
prove the Immaculate Conception to be really an article of faith.[395]
An incident occurred in June which showed that the experience of the
Council was working a change in the fundamental convictions of the
bishops. Doellinger had written in March that an article of faith
required not only to be approved and accepted unanimously by the
Council, but that the bishops united with the Pope are not infallible,
and that the oecumenicity of their acts must be acknowledged and
ratified by the whole Church. Father Hoetzl, a Franciscan friar, having
published a pamphlet in defence of this proposition, was summoned to
Rome, and required to sign a paper declaring that the confirmation of a
Council by the Pope alone makes it oecumenical. He put his case into the
hands of German bishops who were eminent in the opposition, asking first
their opinion on the proposed declaration, and, secondly, their advice
on his own conduct. The bishops whom he consulted replied that they
believed the declaration to be erroneous; but they added that they had
only lately arrived at the conviction, and had been shocked at first by
Doellinger's doctrine. They could not require him to suffer the
consequences of being condemned at Rome as a rebellious friar and
obstinate heretic for a view which they themselves had doubted only
three months before. He followed the advice, but he perceived that his
advisers had considerately betrayed him.
When the observations on infallibility which the bishops had sent in to
the Commission appeared in print it seemed that the minority had burnt
their ships. They affirmed that the dogma would put an end to the
conversion of Protestants, that it would drive devout men out of the
Church and make Catholicism indefensible in controversy, that it would
give governments apparent reason to doubt the fidelity of Catholics, and
would give new authority to the theory of persecution and of the
deposing power. They testified that it was unknown in many parts of the
Church, and was denied by the Fathers, so that neither perpetuity nor
universality could be pleaded in its favour; and they declared it an
absurd contradiction, founded on ignoble deceit, and incapable of being
made an article of faith by Pope or Council.[396] One bishop protested
that he would die rather than proclaim it. Another thought it would be
an act of suicide for the Church.
What was said, during the two months' debate, by men perpetually liable
to be interrupted by a majority acting less from conviction than by
command,[397] could be of no practical account, and served for protest,
not for persuasion. Apart from the immediate purpose of the discussion,
two speeches were memorable--that of Archbishop Conolly of Halifax, for
the uncompromising clearness with which he appealed to Scripture and
repudiated all dogmas extracted from the speculations of divines, and
not distinctly founded on the recorded Word of God,[398] and that of
Archbishop Darboy, who foretold that a decree which increased authority
without increasing power, and claimed for one man, whose infallibility
was only now defined, the obedience which the world refused to the whole
Episcopate, whose right had been unquestioned in the Church for 1800
years, would raise up new hatred and new suspicion, weaken the influence
of religion over society, and wreak swift ruin on the temporal
power.[399]
The general debate had lasted three weeks, and forty-nine bishops were
still to speak, when it was brought to a close by an abrupt division on
the 3rd of June. For twenty-four hours the indignation of the minority
was strong. It was the last decisive opportunity for them to reject the
legitimacy of the Council. There were some who had despaired of it from
the beginning, and held that the Bull _Multiplices_ deprived it of legal
validity. But it had not been possible to make a stand at a time when no
man knew whether he could trust his neighbour, and when there was fair
ground to hope that the worst rules would be relaxed. When the second
regulation, interpreted according to the interruptors of Strossmayer,
claimed the right of proclaiming dogmas which part of the Episcopate did
not believe, it became doubtful whether the bishops could continue to
sit without implicit submission. They restricted themselves to a
protest, thinking that it was sufficient to meet words with words, and
that it would be time to act when the new principle was actually
applied. By the vote of the 3rd of June the obnoxious regulation was
enforced in a way evidently injurious to the minority and their cause.
The chiefs of the opposition were now convinced of the invalidity of the
Council, and advised that they should all abstain from speaking, and
attend at St. Peter's only to negative by their vote the decree which
they disapproved. In this way they thought that the claim to
oecumenicity would be abolished without breach or violence. The greater
number were averse to so vigorous a demonstration; and Hefele threw the
great weight of his authority into their scale. He contended that they
would be worse than their word if they proceeded to extremities on this
occasion. They had announced that they would do it only to prevent the
promulgation of a dogma which was opposed. If that were done the Council
would be revolutionary and tyrannical; and they ought to keep their
strongest measure in reserve for that last contingency. The principle
of unanimity was fundamental. It admitted no ambiguity, and was so
clear, simple, and decisive, that there was no risk in fixing on it. The
Archbishops of Paris, Milan, Halifax, the Bishops of Djakovar, Orleans,
Marseilles, and most of the Hungarians, yielded to these arguments, and
accepted the policy of less strenuous colleagues, while retaining the
opinion that the Council was of no authority. But there were some who
deemed it unworthy and inconsistent to attend an assembly which they had
ceased to respect.
The debate on the several paragraphs lasted till the beginning of July,
and the decree passed at length with eighty-eight dissentient votes. It
was made known that the infallibility of the Pope would be promulgated
in solemn session on the 18th, and that all who were present would be
required to sign an act of submission. Some bishops of the minority
thereupon proposed that they should all attend, repeat their vote, and
refuse their signature. They exhorted their brethren to set a
conspicuous example of courage and fidelity, as the Catholic world would
not remain true to the faith if the bishops were believed to have
faltered. But it was certain that there were men amongst them who would
renounce their belief rather than incur the penalty of excommunication,
who preferred authority to proof, and accepted the Pope's declaration,
"La tradizione son' io." It was resolved by a small majority that the
opposition should renew its negative vote in writing, and should leave
Rome in a body before the session. Some of the most conscientious and
resolute adversaries of the dogma advised this course. Looking to the
immediate future, they were persuaded that an irresistible reaction was
at hand, and that the decrees of the Vatican Council would fade away and
be dissolved by a power mightier than the Episcopate and a process less
perilous than schism. Their disbelief in the validity of its work was so
profound that they were convinced that it would perish without violence,
and they resolved to spare the Pope and themselves the indignity of a
rupture. Their last manifesto, _La derniere Heure_, is an appeal for
patience, an exhortation to rely on the guiding, healing hand of
God.[400] They deemed that they had assigned the course which was to
save the Church, by teaching the Catholics to reject a Council which was
neither legitimate in constitution, free in action, nor unanimous in
doctrine, but to observe moderation in contesting an authority over
which great catastrophes impend. They conceived that it would thus be
possible to save the peace and unity of the Church without sacrifice of
faith and reason.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 370: _The North British Review_, October 1870.]
[Footnote 371: Fidem mihi datam non servatam fuisse queror. Acta
supprimere, aut integra dare oportebat. He says also: Omnia ad nutum
delegati Apostolici fiebant.]
[Footnote 372: Citra et contra singulorum suffragia, imo praeter et
supra omnium vota pontificis solius declarationi atque sententiae
validam vim atque irreformabilem adesse potestatem.]
[Footnote 373: Nous restons dans les doctrines de Bossuet parce que nous
les croyons generalement vraies; nous les defendons parce qu'elles sont
attaquees, et qu'un parti puissant veut les faire condamner. Ces
doctrines de l'episcopat francais, de l'ecole de Paris, de notre vieille
Sorbonne, se ramenent pour nous a trois propositions, a trois verites
fondamentales: 1o l'Eglise est une monarchie efficacement temperee
d'aristocracie; 2o la souverainete spirituelle est essentiellement
composee de ces deux elements quoique le second soit subordonne au
premier; 3o le concours de ces elements est necessaire pour etablir la
regle absolue de la foi, c'est-a-dire, pour constituer l'acte par
excellence de la souverainete spirituelle.]
[Footnote 374: Si hujus doctrinae memores fuissemus, haereticos seil cet
non esse infirmandos vel convincendos ex Scripturis, meliore sane loco
essent res nostrae; sed dum ostentandi ingenii et eruditionis gratia cum
Luthero in certamen descenditur Scripturarum, excitatum est hoc, quod,
proh dolor! nunc videmus, incendium (Pighius).]
[Footnote 375: Catholici non admondum solliciti sunt de critica et
hermeneutica biblica ... Ipsi, ut verbo dicam, jam habent aedificium
absolutum sane ac perfectum, in cujus possessione firme ac secure
consistant.]
[Footnote 376: Praxis Ecclesiae uno tempore interpretatur Scripturam uno
modo et alio tempore alio modo, nam intellectus currit cum
praxi.--Mutato judicio Ecclesiaemutatum est Dei judicium.]
[Footnote 377: Si viri ecclesiastici, sive in concilio oecumenico
congregati, sive seorsim scribentes, aliquod dogma vel unamquamque
consuetudinem uno ore ac diserte testantur ex traditione divina haberi,
sine dubio certum argumentum est, uti ita esse credamus.--Ex testimonio
hujus solius Ecclesiae sumi potest certum argumentum ad probandas
apostolicas traditiones (Bellarmine).]
[Footnote 378: Veniae sive indulgentiae autoritate Scripturae nobis non
innotuere, sed autoritate ecclesiae Romanae Romanorumque Pontificum,
quae major est.]
[Footnote 379: Ego, ut ingenue fatear, plus uni summo pontifici
crederem, in his, quae fidei mysteria tangunt, quam mille Augustinis,
Hieronymis, Gregoriis (Cornelius Mussus).]
[Footnote 380: The two views contradict each other; but they are equally
characteristic of the endeavour to emancipate the Church from the
obligation of proof. Fenelon says: "Oseroit-on soutenir que l'Eglise
apres avoir mal raisonne sur tous les textes, et les avoir pris a
contre-sens, est tout a coup saisie par un enthousiasme aveugle, pour
juger bien, en raisonnant mal?" And Moehler: "Die aeltesten oekumenischen
Synoden fuehrten daher fuer ihre dogmatischen Beschluesse nicht einmal
bestimmte biblische Stellen an; und die katholischen Theologen lehren
mit allegingr Uebereinstimmung und ganz aus dem Geiste der Kirche
heraus, dass selbst die biblische Beweisfuehrung eines fuer untrueglich
gehaltenen Beschlusses nicht untrueglich sei, sondern eben nur das
ausgesprochene Dogma selbst."]
[Footnote 381: Cujuscumque ergo scientiae, etiam historiae
ecclesiasticae conclusiones, Romanorum Pontificum infallibiltati
adversantes, quo manifestius haec ex revelationis fontibus infertur, eo
certius veluti totidem errores habendas esse consequitur.]
[Footnote 382: Cum in professione fidei electi pontificis damnetur
Honorius Papa, ideo quia pravis haereticorum assertionibus fomentum
impendit, si verba delineata sint vere in autographo, nec ex notis
apparere possit, quomodo huic vulneri medelam offerat, praestat non
divulgari opus.]
[Footnote 383: That article condemns the following proposition: "Romani
Pontifices et Concilia oecumenica a limitibus suae potestati
recesserunt, jura Principum usurparunt, atque etiam in rebus fidei et
morum definiendis errarunt."]
[Footnote 384: J'en suis convaincu: a peine aurai-je touche la terre
sacree, a peine aurai-je baise le tombeau des Apotres, que je me
sentirai dans la paix, hors de la bataille, au sein d'une assemblee
presidee par un Pere et composee de Freres. La, tous les bruits
expireront, toutes les ingerences temeraires cesseront, toutes les
imprudences disparaitront, les flots et les vents seront apaises.]
[Footnote 385: Vous admirez sans doute beaucoup l'eveque d'Orleans, mais
vous l'admireriez bien plus encore, si vous pouviez vous figurer l'abime
d'idolatrie ou est tombe le clerge francais. Cela depasse tout ce que
l'on aurait jamais pu l'imaginer aux jours de ma jeunesse, au temps de
Frayssinous et de La Mennais. Le pauvre Mgr. Maret, pour avoir expose
des idees tres moderees dans un langage plein d'urbanite et de charite,
est traite publiquement dans les journaux soi-disant religieux
d'heresiarque et d'apostat, par les derniers de nos cures. De tous les
mysteres que presente en si grand nombre l'histoire de l'Eglise je n'en
connais pas qui egale ou depasse cette transformation si prompte et si
complete de la France Catholique en une basse-cour de _l'anticamera du
Vatican_. J'en serais encore plus desespere qu'humilie, si la, comme
partout dans les regions illuminees par la foi, la misericorde et
l'esperance ne se laissaient entrevoir a travers les tenebres. "C'est du
Rhin aujourd'hui que nous vient la lumiere." L'Allemagne a ete choisie
pour opposer une digue a ce torrent de fanatisme servile que menacait de
tout englouter (Nov. 7, 1869).]
[Footnote 386: Non solum ea quae ad scholas theologicas pertinent
scholis relinquantur, sed etiam doctrinae quae a fidelibus pie tenentur
et coluntur, sine gravi causa in codicem dogmatum ne inferantur. In
specie ne Concilium declaret vel definiat infallibilitatem Summi
Pontificis, a doctissimis et prudentissimis fidelibus Sanctae sedi
intime addictis, vehementer optatur. Gravia enim mala exinde oritura
timent tum fidelibus tum infidelibus. Fideles enim, qui Primatum
magisterii et jurisdictionis in Summo Pontifice ultro agnoscunt, quorum
pietas et obedientia erga Sanctam Sedem nullo certe tempore major fuit,
corde turbarentur magis quam erigerentur, ac si nunc demum fundamentum
Ecclesiae et verae doctrinae stabiliendum sit; infideles vero novam
calumniarum et derisionum materiam lucrarentur. Neque desunt, qui
ejusmodi definitionem logice impossibilem vocant.... Nostris diebus
defensio veritatis ac religionis tum praesertim efficax et fructuosa
est, si sacerdotes a lege caeterorum civium minus recedunt, sed
communibus omnium juribus utuntur, ita ut vis defensionis sit in
veritate interna non per tutelam externae exemtionis.... Praesertim
Ecclesia se scientiarum, quae hominem ornant perficiuntque, amicam et
patronam exhibeat, probe noscens, omne verum a Deo esse, et profunda ac
seria literarum studia opitulari fidei.]
[Footnote 387: Quid enim expedit damnare quae damnata jam sunt, quidve
juvat errores proscribere quos novimus jam esse proscriptos?... Falsa
sophistarum dogmata, veluti cineres a turbine venti evanuerunt,
corrupuerunt, fateor, permultos, infecerunt genium saeculi hujus, sed
numquid credendum est, corruptionis contaginem non contigisse, si
ejusmodi errores decretorum anathemate prostrati fuissent?... Pro tuenda
et tute servanda religione Catholica praeter gemitus et preces ad Deum
aliud medium praesidiumque nobis datum non est nisi Catholica scientia,
cum recta fide per omnia concors. Excolitur summopere apud heterodoxos
fidei inimica scientia, excolatur ergo oportet et omni opere augeatur
apud Catholicos vera scientia. Ecclesiae amica.... Obmutescere faciamus
ora obtrectantium qui falso nobis imputare non desistunt, Catholicam
Ecclesiam opprimere scientiam, et quemcumque liberum cogitandi modum ita
cohibere, ut neque scientia, nec ulla alia animi libertas in ea
subsistere vel florescere possit.... Propterea monstrandum hoc est, et
scriptis et factis manifestandum, in Catholica Ecclesia veram pro
populis esse libertatem, verum profectum, verum lumen, veramque
prosperitatem.]
[Footnote 388: Il n'y a au fond qu'une question devenue urgente et
inevitable, dont la decision faciliterait le cours et la decision de
toutes les autres, dont le retard paralyse tout. Sans cela rien n'est
commence ni meme abordable (_Univers_, February 9).]
[Footnote 389: Gratry had written: "Cette apologetique sans franchise
est l'une des causes de notre decadence religieuse depuis des
siecles.... Sommes-nous les predicateurs du mensonge ou les apotres de
la verite? Le temps n'est-il pas venu de rejeter avec degout les
fraudes, les interpolations, et les mutilations que les menteurs et les
faussaires, nos plus cruels ennemis, ont pu introduire parmi nous?" The
bishop wrote: "Jamais parole plus puissante, inspiree par la conscience
et le savoir, n'est arrivee plus a propos que la votre.... Le mal est
tel et le danger si effrayant que le silence deviendrait de la
complicite."]