Letters From Rome on the Council

The 500 Infallibilists have good ground for their confidence. It is but natural, to begin with, that they should trust the magical power of those resources of the Curia they have themselves had experience of. And, next, they are well aware of their excellent organization, which has hitherto proved irresistible. They are commanded from two centres acting in common, the Gesù and the Propaganda. The Jesuit General, Beckx, if by no means in harmony with the line taken by the Civiltà, which has been removed from his jurisdiction, thinks and feels about the Infallibility question in strict accordance with the doctrine and rules of his Order, and knows how to hold fast the threads with the support and counsel of his assistants. Not a few Bishops, without knowing it themselves, get drawn and moved round by these wires which meet in the Gesù. If they cannot be commanded at once, they will be slowly but surely led into the right road by a chaplain or secretary or consultor devoted to the Order. The Propaganda, as we said before, provides for all missionary Bishops, and it again is inspired from the Gesù. The whole machine works so accurately that lately, in the selecting of a Commission, 450 voting papers contained the same names. So admirably is the discipline managed that many a Cabinet majority might envy this scarcely attainable ideal of the Council.

Third Letter

Rome, Dec. 19, 1869.– Since I have been here, breathing physically and morally the air of Rome, and have heard some of the most prominent Infallibilists, I can understand a good deal which was an enigma to me when in Germany. The leading spirits of this party believe in the advent of a new spiritual dispensation, a period of the Holy Ghost, which is to depend on the turning-point of this definition of Papal Infallibility. Archbishop Manning declared some years ago, in a speech received with enthusiastic applause by the Roman dignitaries, “La Chiesa Cattolica di oggidí esce tutta nuova del fianco del Vicario di Gesù Cristo.” This reference to the formation of the woman from Adam's rib is very suggestive, for Eve, by the Divine ordinance, was to be subject to the man, – and it includes the notion which I have met with in several quarters here, that the proclamation of the new dogma will be immediately followed by an outpouring of the Holy Ghost, and a renewal of the Pentecostal miracle. There will of course be this difference, that henceforth the Bishops will no longer speak with tongues, like the apostles and disciples on the day of Pentecost, but only with the tongue of the Infallible Pope, and will utter in this way the thoughts and words of the Holy Ghost. Hence not the slightest effect is produced when any one, say a German or Englishman, points to the terrible intellectual stumbling-block that will thereby be obtruded on the faithful, and the perplexity and inward alienation of so many thousands, and those too the higher and leading minds, which may be certainly foreseen. The gain will far exceed the loss; numberless Protestants and schismatics, attracted by the powerful magnet of Papal Infallibility, and the power of the Holy Ghost, hidden in Papal utterances, will stream into the Church – that is the sort of vision hovering before these men. And a man who believes in an age of the Holy Ghost cares nothing for what is said of the breach with the views and traditions of the ancient Church involved in the new article of faith: he thinks it quite in order that a new dogma should inaugurate a new era. Compared with such fanaticism, the speech of another Infallibilist leader, a Frenchman, at a public dinner, sounds sober, though in its way it is no less extravagant, when he assures us that the great connoisseur and discoverer of subterranean Rome, the Cavaliere de Rossi, has detected Papal Infallibility in the Catacombs, and whoever wants to see and appreciate it there, has only to descend into them.

Pius ix. finds that he can undertake what he likes with a majority so absolutely devoted to him and simply at his beck. The assurance, so often reiterated not long ago, that nothing was meant to be decreed which could disturb Governments or introduce conflicts between Church and State, seems to be already forgotten or held superfluous, and a number of Bishops, at a general audience, heard, not without consternation, from the mouth of the highest authority, the statement that the Syllabus must be made dogmatic: it would be better to yield in other points than give that up.

Meanwhile the Opposition grows visibly stronger, and men like Darboy, Dupanloup, and MacHale, Archbishop of Tuam,20 are not to be despised as leaders. They are not content with getting rid of Infallibility and the Syllabus, but strive for some freedom in the Council, and here they find sympathy even among the Infallibilists. For to have their hands so completely tied by the Pope's regulations, has surpassed all, even the worst, anticipations of the Bishops. That first gleam of hope, excited by the announcement that the Bishops would be allowed to propose motions, has speedily vanished. For it has become clear that this was merely intended to save the Pope from having to propose his own Infallibility to the Council, and provide for the motion emanating from the Bishops – according to the present plan, the Spanish Bishops. The right of initiation is rendered purely illusory by the fact that the Pope has reserved to himself and the Commission he has named, composed of the stanchest Infallibilists, the sanction or rejection of every motion. To this must be added the regulations for the order of business, and the naming by the Pope of all the officials of the Council, as well as the scrutators and presidents of Congregations or Commissions. This is an act of arbitrary power, and a gagging of the Council, far beyond anything attempted even at Trent. Yet at Trent the want of freedom was felt to be so great that for 300 years the Catholic world has manifested no desire to repeat the experiment of a Council. But what will be the impression made by the present Council, where the order of business is so managed as to make any serious discussion impossible? The strongest expressions of discontent come from the French Prelates, they feel how undignified, not to say ridiculous, is the rôle assigned to them, – of saying Placet to ready-made decrees – even more keenly than the Germans, who are also greatly disgusted. Attempts to protest against this oppressive code in the Congregation were suppressed by the declaration of the President, Cardinal de Luca, that the Pope had so ordained, and no discussion could be allowed on the subject. He would allow neither the courageous Bishop Strossmayer nor Archbishop Darboy to say a word on these intolerable restrictions. The whole scene made a profound impression.

On December 14 the two parties measured their strength and organization in electing the twenty-four members for the Commission de Fide, which is, of course, the most important of all. The Liberals were completely overmatched, and, notwithstanding their 200 votes, not indeed properly combined, failed to carry one of their candidates. Neither Dupanloup nor Hefele could be brought in. A list of names to be voted for from the Propaganda was handed to every trusted partisan; the Italians and Spaniards were also furnished with one, and so all the Infallibilist leaders appear on the list of the Committee, Manning and Deschamps, Martin and Senestrey, Pie of Poitiers, Reynier of Cambray, then some Italians, Spaniards, and South Americans, – these therefore are the flower of theological learning among the Bishops. One of these men they must keep their eye fixed on, for he seems called to take a place of supreme importance and honour in this Council, and if all goes well, will certainly be counted with the heroes of ancient Councils, Athanasius, Cyril, and Augustine. This is Mgr. Cardoni, Archbishop of Edessa, Secretary to the Congregation for examining Bishops, Consultor of several other Congregations, theologian of the Dataria, and President of the Ecclesiastical Academy. Yet this man was not long ago a very obscure personage, even in Rome, but as First Consultor of the Preparatory Commission of Dogmas, he composed the report or Votum of forty pages on Papal Infallibility. This is now printed and distributed, and serves as the basis for the discussion on the subject to be introduced in Council. Cardoni himself, as reporter, will discharge the necessary offices of midwife at the birth of the new dogma; he will have the last word if any doubts or objections are raised, and then at least 500 votes will proclaim at once the Infallibility of the Pope and the triumph of the greatest and most fortunate of Roman theologians. Cardoni will immediately be made Cardinal; as he brings this Divine gift to the Pope, he will himself partake in the enjoyment of what is so much indebted to him, and will reap the harvest of his labours.

Fourth Letter

Rome, Dec. 20, 1869.– It may truly be said that theology is now rare, very rare, in Rome. There is, of course, no lack of theologians; the Pope himself has no less than a hundred, chiefly monks; but if they were all pounded together in a mortar into one theologian, even this one would find some difficulty in getting his claims recognised in Germany. If any one here were to demand of the so-called theologians what, between the North Sea and the Alps, is considered the first requisite for a theologian, – the capacity of reading the New Testament and the Greek Fathers and Councils in the original language, – he would be ridiculed as a dreamer. And as to the theology of many Bishops, one is often reminded of the daughters of Phorcys, who had only one eye and one tooth, which they lent each other by turns to use. Not a few of them flutter about Infallibility like flies about a candle, in evident fear of getting burnt. But when the critical moment comes, they will vote obediently as the master whose power they have sworn to increase bids them. If the Prelates were even slightly acquainted with Church history, they would certainly recoil in terror from the maxims and doctrines their decision will recall from the realm of shadows they seem to have sunk into, and clothe again with flesh and blood. They would recoil from the complications and contests they and their successors must hereafter be involved in with all nations and governments, as forced executors of every infallible utterance of 256 Popes.

The sudden departure of Cardinal Mathieu, Archbishop of Besançon, is connected with the election of the Commission on Faith, which turned out so unfortunately for the Germans; the French Bishops after the previous consultation had divided their forces, the Infallibilists voting for Bonnechose, their opponents for Cardinal Mathieu. The defeated party wanted to protest against a scandalous intrigue about the election, carried on by a man whose name I suppress; and Mathieu's sudden departure was in order to avoid being mixed up with the conflict, and from disgust at the whole affair.

A singular incident not long since created some sensation and amusement in English circles. The English Bishops, like their Archbishop, Manning, are declared Infallibilists – a tendency first introduced among the clergy there since Wiseman's time, for before that Gallican views prevailed almost universally in England, and definite assurances were given on the subject at the time of Catholic Emancipation. And as Papal Infallibility implied necessarily the doctrine of the Pope's dominion over monarchs and governments, which was formally abjured —e. g., in the Irish clerical seminary of Maynooth – the Infallibilist theory was supposed to be shelved also. It chanced that lately the Pall Mall Gazette, which is much read even here, under the heading, “The Infallibility of the Pope a Protestant Invention,” quoted the following question and answer from a widely-used manual of instruction, approved by many Bishops, and highly praised even in Manning's journal, the Tablet, called The Controversial Catechism: – “Q. Are not Catholics bound to believe that the Pope is in himself infallible? —A. This is a Protestant invention, and is no article of Catholic belief; no Papal decision can bind under pain of heresy, unless received and prescribed by the teaching body, the Bishops of the Church.”

At the moment I am writing, there is a pause, but by no means a truce. Le Concile ne marche pas, mais il intrigue, I heard a Frenchman say this morning. The acoustic qualities of the Assembly Hall, which is the whole height of St. Peter's, make it quite unfit for use. If anything is to be proclaimed, it must be shouted at full pitch to the four sides. It happened the other day that the Bishops on one side were crying Placet, while those on the other side expressed their opinion by Non placet, quia nihil intelleximus. Pius ix., who was long ago made aware of the state of the case, really thought that all discussion was superfluous. And as the hall must be abandoned as utterly useless, the 120,000 scudi lavished on preparing it are wasted. There is no lack of funds, however; so much so, that 20,000 scudi have been spent already on laying the foundation of the memorial pillar of the Council. These things must make an indescribable impression on those who have heard most touching pictures drawn in the pulpit at home of the wants and poverty of the Head of the Church.

Antonelli, to whom the impossibility of carrying on the Council in this place has been represented, has now taken the matter in hand, and another chamber is to be found and got ready. A room in the Quirinal is talked of, or the atrium over St. Peter's in the Sistine. The latter would be an ominous place, for in the Sala Regia, which the Bishops must pass through to enter the Sistine, is Vasari's famous picture, painted by order of Gregory xiii., for the glorification of the massacre of St. Bartholomew. The contemplation of this picture, which now, since the publication of the nuncio Salviati's despatches, the Pope is proved to have ordered with full knowledge of the real nature of that horrible occurrence, and full intention of sanctioning it, might perhaps somewhat indispose the Prelates to vote for the articles of the Syllabus on religious coercion and the power of the Church to inflict bodily punishment. Antonelli means now to take up the Council in earnest. For him, indeed, who was formerly an advocate, the theological side of Infallibility has little interest; but he is too skilful and experienced a statesman and financier not to appreciate keenly the gain to be derived from the new dogma in all countries, in the shape of power, influence, and revenue. He understands well enough, and better than many statesmen this side the Alps, the incalculable consequences of having it henceforth taught and insisted on as a first principle in every catechism, public school, and country pulpit, that Papal decrees and decisions, not only in the domain of faith but of morals, the relations of Church and State, and the whole life of society, are absolutely infallible, – of its being made the first and crucial question for Catholics in all cases, What has the infallible Pope, either the reigning pontiff or one of his predecessors, decided on this point, or what will he decide if asked?

A Bull appeared yesterday, which, if read and understood, would create great excitement. It professes to abolish a part of the numerous excommunications latæ sententiæ,21 which the Popes have gradually accumulated; but virtually it is intended as a renewal or confirmation of the Bull In Cœnâ Domini, which Clement xiv. (Ganganelli) first dropped the custom of publishing annually, and which, from his time, had been regarded, everywhere out of Rome, as abrogated, though the Curia always maintained that it was binding in principle, as Crétineau-Joli shows in his Memoirs of Consalvi. I am only giving here the judgment of a friend who has read the Bull. If he is rightly informed, it is but the first link in a chain of decrees embodying the retrospective force of the anticipated dogma, for the saying will hold good then, “Quod fuimus erimus, quod fecimus faciemus.” Every claim once advanced must be maintained, every doctrinal proposition renewed, and so the living body will be chained to a corpse.

Desertions from the ranks of the Opposition to the majority of 500, must, no doubt, be reckoned on, and the renegades will say, like Talleyrand, that they are not deserting, but only coming in earlier than others. Whether these desertions will be numerous enough to reduce the minority to 40 or 50, as the authorities hope, will be determined when the question of opportuneness gets disentangled from the question of principle. For it requires more than common courage to make open profession of disbelief in the Infallibilist dogma at Rome, since the Pope, in his letters to Manning and Deschamps, has indulged in severe censures of those who question his infallibility; and every Cardinal and Monsignore is accustomed to express himself in the same sense.

Can this Council, then, which can move neither hand nor foot, be called free? Is an assembly free, when no speech can be made, no single decision come to, without the express permission of an external master? If this is freedom, there has never been an unfree Council. So I hear many saying, as well clergy as laity, and even Bishops. The Pope, of course, has not forgotten that, on the day of his election, sitting on the High Altar of that very church where the Council is now being held, he was adored by the Cardinals, and four days afterwards crowned with the triple tiara, with the words, “Scias te esse rectorem orbis.” It has been summoned to arrange and negotiate the transition from the previous condition of the Church to a new one. Till now, at least in theory, Councils were, or were supposed to be, assemblies deliberating and deciding freely. But, in the new condition of the Church, under the rule of Papal Infallibility, assemblies of Bishops are purely superfluous, or only useful as machines for acclamation. The present assembly stands midway between the old Church and the new, and participates in both. The vital breath of freedom and independence it is deprived of, but it is not yet a mere acclamation-machine: it can still dissent and say, Non placet. On the day when the new dogma is proclaimed, and the eternal city again, as in 1517,22 declares its joy by illuminations, the Synod will have killed itself with its own hand, and marched into the grave as the last of its generation. And just as when a knight died the last of his race, his shield was broken and his arms obliterated, so will the usual chapter De Conciliis be obliterated from the dogmatic manuals.

Fifth Letter

Rome, Dec. 23, 1869.– The Council is suspended for a while, for want of an available place of meeting, or is occupied only in studying the Schemata that have been distributed at home, and deliberating in different sections. The German Bishops have resolved to address a memorial to the Pope, protesting against being put into a strait-waistcoat by the regulations for the order of business, and claiming the right of proposing motions freely. They think it intolerable that every proposal, wish, or motion should have first to be examined, revised, and mutilated or changed at their pleasure by two Commissions, before it can even come on for discussion. And how are these two Commissions composed? Of course, the eight German Bishops who have already separated themselves from their countrymen, and prefer to associate with Spaniards and South Americans, hold aloof from this proceeding too. If I am correctly informed, a similar memorial has been handed in from the French Bishops; it was, at least, being circulated for signature during the last few days.

You will have received, or found in the French and English papers, the Bull of Excommunications I mentioned in my last. As I said before, it is a re-issue of the Bull In Cænâ Domini. Certain excommunications nobody paid any attention to are dropped out, as, e. g., of sovereigns and governments who levy taxes without permission of the Pope. But new censures of wide application have come into their place. In reading the Bull, one feels as if one had got into the thick of a tempest, so fierce and frequent are the lightning-flashes of the Vatican ban, darting and burning in all directions. If they were to be treated seriously, there would not be many houses in the cities of Europe that would not be struck. The Bishops are hit hard; one unpleasant surprise follows on another. While they are considering how to secure a minimum of freedom in the Council, they are suddenly overwhelmed with a hailstorm of excommunications, many of which are directly aimed at themselves, but all of which are to be administered and executed by them and their clergy. They are summoned to Rome, and hardly have they got there when this Bull of anathemas, drawn up without their knowledge or participation, and which thrusts the souls intrusted to them by thousands out of the Church, is sent to them; and the whole burden of it, with all its endless consequences and complications, is laid on their shoulders. They seem intended to drain the cup of humiliation to the dregs. The only persons pleased with the Bull, as far as I can see, are the Jesuits, who are in the very best spirits here in Rome, and see both present and future in the most rosy hues. The view of the pious Bishops is simple and unanimous: the more excommunications, so many more reserved cases and perplexed and tormented consciences. But the confessionals of the Jesuits will be doubly thronged, who are furnished with all sorts of plenary powers of absolution, and are thus made indispensable, and placed in a very superior position to the secular clergy. Moreover, the Bishops are deprived of the power of absolving from these censures. So each of these multiplied excommunications is worth its weight in gold to the Order, and helps to build Colleges and Professed Houses.

The Bull containing directions in the event of the Pope's death occurring during the Council was not issued by Pius ix. from any real anxiety to provide for such an occurrence, – for he enjoys the best health, and in all probability will falsify the old proverb, “Non numerabis annos Petri.”23 No one really supposed the Council would claim the right of electing in Conclave, as occurred once under totally different circumstances, after the deposition of a Pope (John xxiii.) at Constance. The real point of the document lies in the declaration that the Council is to be at once dissolved on the Pope's death, as a corpse from which the soul has departed. And this is a decisive intimation of the relations not only of the dead but of the living Pope to the Council. The Bull might be summed up in the words, “Without me you are nothing, and against me and my will you can do nothing.”

The opposition of German and French Bishops to the new dogma was more or less anticipated here; what was not expected was that the Orientals, numbering about sixty, and the North American Bishops, would pronounce against it. The former declare openly that no surer means could be found to throw back their Churches into schism, and place them under the holy Synod in St. Petersburg or the Patriarch in Stamboul. The Americans ask how they are to live under the free Constitutions of their Republic, and maintain their position of equality with their (Protestant) fellow-citizens, after committing themselves to the principles attested by Papal Infallibility, such as religious persecution and the coercive power of the Church, the claim of Catholicism to exclusive mastery in the State, the Pope's right to dispense from oaths, the subjection of the civil power to his supreme dominion, etc. The inevitable result would be that Catholics would be looked upon and treated as pariahs in the United States, that all religious parties would be banded together against them as common enemies, and would endeavour, as far as possible, to exclude them from public offices. One of the American Bishops lately said, “Nobody should be elected Pope who has not lived three years in the United States, and thus learnt to comprehend what is possible at this day in a freely governed Commonwealth.”

But even in the apparently compact and admirably organized mass of the 500 Infallibilists, softly whispered doubts are beginning to be heard here and there. Before the eyes of some of these devoted Prelates hovers a pale and warning ghost, called exclusion of the clergy and of Catholic instruction from the public schools. It would indeed be impossible to put more effective weapons into the hands of the powerful and increasing party who are aiming at this, than by giving its due prominence henceforth in all Catechisms to the supreme article of faith of Papal Infallibility, with some of its consequences expressed, and others left to be orally supplied by the teacher, so that boys and girls would be trained in full knowledge of the glaring contradiction between religion and the order of the State, the Church and the Constitution of their country.24 A Belgian layman here assured me yesterday that the result of the new dogma in his country would be a powerful movement against the position of the clergy in the primary schools; the gymnasia and middle schools they have lost already. One of the Belgian Bishops even is said to begin to be troubled with these apprehensions. And now a cry of distress is rising from England. The National Education League has published its programme for a system of compulsory education of the people, excluding all denominational teaching, and only allowing the Bible for religious reading. The English Bishops now in Rome, who are fanatical for the new dogma, may ask themselves if on their return home they could make a more acceptable present to the Committee of this already very powerful League than by issuing a corrected Catechism, enriched with the new article of faith. A penny edition of it would bring in hundreds of thousands of members to the League, and admirably further the design it now openly proclaims of “absorbing in a friendly way” the schools already existing.