Letters From Rome on the Council

The question now is, whether the minority of some 200 Prelates have spirit and harmony enough for a counter-address. On this thread the fate of the Catholic Church seems to hang. Pius ix. says, “As to Infallibility, I believed it as plain Abbé Mastai, and now, as Pope Mastai, I feel it.”29 He could therefore give us the best information, if he “feels” his infallibility, as to whether he only feels it when he signs a decree addressed to the whole Church, or also whenever his dogmatic anathemas, of which we possess such an abundance, are addressed to a single Bishop or national Church only. Meanwhile, if that large section of the Infallibilists who are fanatical get the upper hand, no distinctions will be admitted; the matter will be settled straight off by acclamation, and the Pope will be simply told, “Thou alone art always inspired by the Holy Ghost, whether speaking to all, to many, or to one, and every word of thine is for us the command of God.” Others naturally opine that the matter cannot be so easily arranged, but that the question must be taken up in good earnest and sifted to the bottom, that it may be demonstrated to the whole world that Infallibility admits of historical illustration.

In a conversation which took place to-day between two leading men of the opposite parties, a Belgian and a Frenchman, the former said, “Je veux que l'on discute à fond tous les textes et tous les faits.” The Frenchman answered, “Je souffre de penser que le Saint Siége va être discuté et disséqué de la sorte!” That is, in truth, a serious anxiety. To begin with, no discussion among the Fathers can be dreamt of so long as the Council Hall in St. Peter's is kept to, for the speeches made there already for the most part were not understood at all, or only by very few. What is heard is waves of sound, not words and sentences. But even if at last a room better suited for human voices and ears is found, the question of Infallibility would never be submitted to a regular and really free discussion. How would the Romance majority of Spaniards and Italians, who are the slaves of the Curia but the masters of the Council, and whose whole intellectual outfit is based on the scholasticism of the seminaries – how would they receive it, if an audacious German or Frenchman were to throw the light of history and criticism on the rambling Infallibilist evidences of, e. g., a Perrone? What scenes should we witness! The offenders would be reduced to silence, not only by the throats but the feet of the majority.30 Either the discussion will be broken off, when it is begun, or it will never be allowed to begin. And therefore so many favour the plan of acclamation; and it is related how Archbishop Darboy assured the Cardinal de Luca that such an attempt would be followed by the immediate departure and protest of a number of Bishops.31

Ninth Letter

Rome, Jan. 9, 1870.– The Opposition has become exceedingly troublesome. The successive gradation of Roman judgments about it is noteworthy. First, it was said that the Council ran like a well-oiled machine; that all were of one mind, and only vied with each other in their devotion to the Supreme Head. Then the local correspondents of foreign papers reported that something which looked like opposition was manifesting itself, but it was a mere drop in the ocean. So said the London Tablet and Weekly Register. Next they allowed there was certainly an Opposition, but it was already demoralized, or, as Antonelli said, must speedily fall to pieces. In diplomatic circles it was said that they were good people enough, but one must wait a little till the impressions of Fulda had worn off, and they had imbibed the spirito Romano; “il leur faut deux mois de Rome, et tout le monde sera d'accord.” One month more, January, has to pass, and then in February conversions and desertions will begin. Meanwhile, Simor, Primate of Hungary, Tarnóczy of Salzburg, and Manning, are favourites for vacant Hats. It is hoped that the first will split up the harmony of the Hungarian Bishops, and bring over some with him as trophies into the Infallibilist camp.

Cardinals Schwarzenberg and Rauscher – that is now become perfectly clear – have not budged an inch; both of them feel thoroughly as Germans, and are nowise minded to desert, cowardly and despairing, into the great Romance camp. Schwarzenberg has circulated an excellently composed treatise, which speaks out very judiciously on the real needs of the Church, and certain reforms which are become urgently needed, and emphasizes the perversity shown in the demand for the Infallibilist dogma.32 Cardinal Rauscher has done the same, and his treatise against Infallibility is now in circulation. Something more has occurred also: on the 2d of January, 25 Austrian and German Bishops, with Schwarzenberg at their head, subscribed a protest, drawn up by Haynald, Ketteler, and Strossmayer, which is said to have been read and talked over fifteen times before it gave entire satisfaction. They appeal to their inherent rights, not dependent on Papal grace, but on Divine institution; ready as they are to guard the rights of the Head, they must also demand that the rights of the members shall be preserved and respected; the forms and traditions of the Tridentine Synod should not be so far departed from. The tone of the document is dignified. Rauscher has not subscribed though he thoroughly agrees with it, it is said from considerations the force of which the other Prelates acknowledged. The petition handed in by 15 French Prelates for an alteration of the order of business the Pope has answered by a mere dry refusal. We shall soon see whether the Germans will meet with similar treatment; in the eyes of these Italians the most modest criticisms and demands are open rebellion. To many of the German and Hungarian Bishops even this Protest seemed too bold and audacious, and they have prepared another representation, with forty signatures, expressed in much more moderate terms. They entreat the Pope to be graciously pleased to allow them to inspect the stenographic reports, and to let the Bishops print their treatises on the questions laid before them without the censorship, for the information of their colleagues. Posterity will marvel at the humble submissiveness of these Bishops, and the wisdom of the Roman policy, which, after two years' preparation for the Council, provides a hall where all discussion is impossible, and furthermore prohibits the Bishops from inspecting the stenographic reports of their own speeches.

Some ten of the leading Bishops of different nations have formed themselves into an International Committee, so as not, for the future, to ask concessions of the Pope in the name of one nation only – the French or German. They wish that every Bishop should be admitted to speak in Congregation according to the order of inscription, irrespective of hierarchial rank or age, and that the speeches should be at once printed, and distributed to the Bishops before the next Session; and finally, that the Papal Commission for revising motions, which holds the whole Council in its hands, should be increased by the introduction of members freely elected. Some further requisitions which I am not acquainted with are said to be added.

Against these things, which make the Pope very irritable, two principal remedies are adopted. In the first place, an attempt is made to prevent any number of Bishops meeting together, either by direct prohibition or by announcing the displeasure of the supreme authority against those who take part in such separate deliberations, which are said to be revolutionary. And next, the Bishops are worked upon individually, and every one is watched and taken stock of, on the assumption that everybody has his price, if one could only discover what it is. Two examples of this may be cited here. One of the most distinguished German Bishops, who is free from the usual clerical vanity, and could neither be bought with titles nor with the cut or colour of a vestment, was quite lately accosted by the Pope – in full consciousness of his Vicarship of Christ – with the question, asked in the most affectionate tone, “Amas me?” What inference was attached to an affirmative answer need not be specified. The other case occurred somewhat earlier. Lavigerie, Bishop of Nancy, came to Rome coveting some striking mark of distinction. It seemed worth while to bind him closer to the Curia, and so an article of ecclesiastical dress was hit upon, which he and no other Bishop of the Western Church was to wear. It was called a superhumeral, and is described as a somewhat broader stole, thrown over the shoulders, and adorned with fringes, with two maniples of the shape of shields hanging down from it. The effect is said to have been enormous, and of course since then Mgr. Lavigerie is a profoundly convinced Infallibilist. “C'est avec de hochets qu'on mène les hommes,” said the first Napoleon; but it moves one's pity to look at Bishops who let themselves be led by the nose by these childish toys.

Very instructive considerations may be formed here on the representation of particular nations and national Churches at the Council. Frenchmen and Germans must practise themselves in the virtues of humility and modesty, and learn how insignificant they are in the Catholic Church, in all that concerns doctrine and legislation. There is the diocese of Breslau, with 1,700,00 °Catholics, but its Bishop has not been chosen for any single Commission, while the 700,000 inhabitants of the present Roman States are represented by 62 Bishops, and the Italians form half or two-thirds in every Commission. For the Kingdom of God, wherein the least is greater than John and all the Prophets, lies, as is well known, between Montefiascone and Terracina, and whoever first saw the light in Sonnino, Velletri, Ceccano, Anagni, or Rieti, is predestinated from the cradle “imperio regere populos.” It is true the 62 Bishops of this chosen land and people have not succeeded in restoring the most moderate standard of morality in their little towns and villages; there are still whole communities and districts notoriously in league with brigands – but the Council has no call to trouble itself with matters of that sort. There are the Archbishops of Cologne with 1,400,000, of Cambray with 1,300,000, and of Paris with 2,000,00 °Catholics, but any four of the 62 Neapolitan and Sicilian Bishops can out-vote these Bishops with their 5,000,00 °Catholics at their back. Thus the 12,000,00 °Catholics of Germany Proper are represented at this Council by fourteen votes. Their relative positions may be expressed in this way: in Church matters twenty Germans count for less than one Italian. And should a German indulge any fancy that his nation, with its numerous theological High Schools, and its learned theologians, might reasonably claim some weight at a Council, he only need come here to be cured at once of that notion. There is not in all Italy one single real Theological Faculty, except in Rome; Spain gets on equally without any higher theological school or any theology; yet here at the Council some hundreds of Italians and Spaniards are masters, and are the appointed teachers of doctrine and dictators of faith for all nations belonging to the Church.

Count Terenzio Mamiani has lately observed, in the Nuova Antologia, published at Florence, that in Italy there are not so many religious books printed in half a century as appear in England or North America (or Germany) in one year. And we must remember too that the theological literature published in Tuscany and Lombardy might almost be called copious in comparison with the nearly absolute sterility of the States of the Church. Here in Rome you may find a lottery dream-book in almost every house, but never a New Testament, and extremely seldom any religious book at all. It seems as though it were a recognised principle that, the more ignorant a people, the greater must be the share their hierarchy have in the government of the Church. And thus we have the question of nationalities within the bosom of the Church. Everything done here is but the expression of one idea and the means to one end, and this idea and end are that the spiritual domination of the Italians over the other nations, especially over the Germans and French, should be extended and confirmed. Above a hundred Spaniards have come from both sides of the ocean to let themselves be used as instruments of the Italians at the Council. They have no thought, or will, or suggestion of their own for the good of the Church. It is difficult to form a notion of the ignorance of these Latins in all historical questions, and their entire want of that general cultivation which is assumed with us as a matter of course in a priest or bishop. And up to this time I have always found here that the predilection for the Infallibilist theory is in precise proportion to the ignorance of its advocates. It has been deemed necessary still further to help on this immense numerical superiority, and so the Pope, as I am informed, has appointed during the two years since the proclamation of the Council 89 Bishops in partibus, whose flocks are in the moon or in Sirius.

And now for something about the course of procedure in the Council as to the Schema during the last ten days. There are only constantly speeches on each side, for a real discussion is impossible in the Hall, and it is obvious that it was chosen, and is still kept to in spite of daily experience, for that very reason.33 Some speakers, however, whom nature has endowed with a specially ringing voice, have made an unwonted impression. The most significant occurrence was Cardinal Capalti's interruption of Strossmayer's speech. The Bishop had touched on the novel and unconciliar form in which the decrees were to be published, as decisions of the Pope, with the mere approval or forced consent of the Council. It was an ominous circumstance that the assembly sacrificed by its silence the man who was speaking for its rights. Meanwhile there has been a wholly unexpected attack on the Schema by a host of speakers, so that Antonelli, on leaving the Council, said, in visible excitement, to a diplomatist who was waiting for him, that this could not continue, or the Council would go on for ten years. Strossmayer was followed by Ginoulhiac, the learned Bishop of Grenoble, who spoke in the same sense. The proportion of speakers against the Schema is overwhelming. In the Session of January 3, all four spoke against it, even the Patriarch of Venice. An impression was produced by the warning of the Eastern Patriarch, Hassoun, against embittering the Orientals, and driving them into schism by dogmatic innovations. The Italian, Valerga, named by the Pope to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, represented the Roman standpoint in its crudest form, but he had his speech read for him by Bishop Gandolfi.

It is now said to be certain that Darboy, Simor, and Tarnóczy have been apprised of the intention to make them Cardinals. As regards the two last, the abandonment of all opposition to the Infallibilist dogma, and to every other decree on faith in a Papal sense, is an indispensable condition. But with Darboy the case is different: the Curia must take him as he is or let him alone, for he cannot be bought at any price. The irritation, complaints, and sighs of the Pope at having to make this man a Cardinal, who will not yield or apologize, have already lasted some years. The Romanist party have published in a Quebec newspaper the Pope's bitter and reproachful letter to him, to which he made no reply. Darboy was and is resolved to be the bonâ fide Bishop of his diocese, the largest in the world, and will not admit any arbitrary encroachments or concurrent jurisdiction of the Court of Rome to annul his acts at its caprice. “This stinks of schism,” say the Romans here.34 And therefore, according to Roman notions, he is “a bad Christian,” for he does not believe in Papal Infallibility, and will not vote for it even as a Cardinal. Moreover, nobody sees better through the whole web of curialistic policy, with its artifices, small and great, and he shows not the slightest sympathy for it, so that in any case he will be a very inconvenient and unprofitable Cardinal. At the same time he is a man of rare eloquence, rich experience and knowledge of mankind, and easily outweighs ten Italian Cardinals in culture and learning. And the worst of it is that this bitter necessity of elevating Darboy has to be accepted with a good grace, for France wills it, and France must still remain the magnanimous champion of Rome and the Council. Some consolation is found for it in the now openly proclaimed apostasy of Archbishop Spalding of Baltimore, who has hitherto been wavering, for it is hoped that other American Bishops will follow his example.

If at the end of the first month we take a view of the situation, it is clear that the word “Council” requires to be taken in a very wide and general sense to include this assembly. It cannot be compared with the ancient Councils in the first thousand years of Church history, before the separation of East and West, for there are no points of contact. In the first place, the whole lay world, all sovereigns and their ambassadors, are entirely excluded from the Synod, which has never happened from the Council of Nice downwards. That was, of course, necessary, for even at Trent the French ambassador announced, on entering the Council, that his King had sent him to watch over the freedom of the Bishops; and certainly the ambassadors of Catholic Powers would have protested against the present arrangements and order of business, which give much less security than even at Trent. Here the Bishops are in a sense the Pope's prisoners. Without his permission they cannot leave the Council, they are forbidden to meet together for common deliberation, are not allowed to print anything till it has passed the censorship, or to bring forward any motion without the Pope's approval. It is the Pope who makes the decrees and defines the dogmas; the Council has simply to assent. Two rights only are left to the Bishops; they can make speeches in the General Congregation, and they can say Placet or Non placet. There is a quite luxurious abundance of means of coercion, impediments and chains; – with the Pope's 300 episcopal boarders, the 62 Bishops of the Roman States, the 68 Neapolitans, Sicilians, etc., all manœuvring with a precision a Prussian General could not wish to surpass on the reviewing-ground, the Curia might have fairly hoped to gain its ends, even were a little more freedom allowed to the Opposition section of the Assembly.35

Tenth Letter

Rome, Jan. 15, 1870.– On Sunday last the Pope gave audience to a great crowd of visitors, – some 700 or 1000, it is said, – at once, and took occasion to express before them his displeasure at the Opposition Bishops. He said there were some Prelates who lacked the temper of perfect faith, and hence arose difficulties, which however he, the Pope, should know how to overcome. In Church matters no attention was to be paid to the judgment of the world, as he himself despised it, for the Church's kingdom is not of this world. It has hitherto of course been held in the Church that the judgment of the world – that is, of their flocks, who constitute their own immediate world – is exactly what the Bishops ought to attend to very much, and to avoid giving offence to them and perplexing their consciences in matters of religion.

The prohibition to hold large episcopal meetings, communicated to the French Bishops only through Cardinal Bonnechose, is not obeyed either by the French or Germans, who continue to take counsel together. The united Germans and Hungarians have accepted in substance an address drawn up by Cardinal Rauscher, and on Sunday, January 9, bound themselves by a reciprocal obligation, with forty-three signatures, to vote against and combat in all conciliar methods the erection of Papal Infallibility into a dogma. The Austrian Prelates stand foremost in clearness, decision, and courage. Rauscher, Schwarzenberg, Haynald, and Strossmayer know what they want, are full of true love for the Church, understand the greatness of the danger, and are perfectly aware that no positive gain, nor any of the important reforms so urgently needed, can be expected from this Council – the Spanish and Italian phalanx is too strong and impenetrable for that, – but they hope, at least, by energetic resistance to ward off positive mischief from the Church.

The French on their part are active; Cardinal Mathieu, who returned to Rome, January 5, has opened a saloon in his house for the deliberations. Next to Dupanloup, Bishop Place of Marseilles, Meignan of Châlons, Landriot of Rheims, and Ginoulhiac of Grenoble, speak most decidedly. There are some thirty-five like-minded with them, and the inopportunists among them and the Germans are gradually coming to perceive that their position is quite untenable, and that to persist in treating Infallibility as a mere question of time and convenience, is to give their adversaries a safe and easy victory. But the Germans are further advanced in this conviction than the French. The now famous Infallibilist Address seems to have been simultaneously hawked about from two quarters, viz., by the trio of Manning, Deschamps, and Spalding, and by Martin and Senestrey. Who composed it, and how many Bishops have signed it, is still uncertain; the movement has come to a dead-lock, perhaps because the Spaniards, who talk of presenting an address of their own, don't want to sign it. Several Italians too refused to sign, and so the result has not been as satisfactory as was hoped, although it can hardly be doubted that the dogma will have 450 or 500 votes when it is laid before the Council.

It is a characteristic feature of the case, that throughout Italy prayers are offered in all the monastic communities still surviving, and in all zealously Catholic families, for the definition of the new dogma. The fact is mentioned in English journals, and I have heard it confirmed here. It reveals the patriotic feeling, that Papal Infallibility is an Italian possession more or less profitable to every member of the nation. “The Pope,” as one hears it said here, “will always feel and think above all as an Italian; his decrees are manufactured by a Court nine-tenths of whom, at least, are Italians, and with his infallibility under our management, we Italians shall be able to dominate and make capital out of all other nations, in so far as they desire to be Catholic.” The Italian is generally a good calculator. However, Italian priests and prelates feel and know right well what every nation and national Church owes to itself. If the Papacy belonged to any other nation, the Italians would never dream for a moment of acknowledging the system of Papal absolutism with its grand prop of Papal Infallibility. One soon observes, in conversing with these Monsignori, how they despise in their hearts the French and German Ultramontane Bishops, while at the same time admitting the correctness of their views, and praising them liberally for rolling in the dust before the infallible Curia, and crying out to the Romans, as that orator Ekebolius cried out to the Emperor Julian, “Only trample us under your feet, the salt that has lost its savour.”

Thirty-five German Bishops have declared at the beginning, that they are ready to subscribe the above-mentioned counter address against the dogma of Infallibility, pretty fully expressed in the form of a petition to the Pope, and among them are included those who were before of opinion that they had sufficiently discharged their duty by the letter they sent to him from Fulda. This is a praiseworthy example of harmony, but at the same time the greatness of the danger, which has now become evident to even the most trustful mind, is shown by the fact that all present at the consultation on this address bound themselves in writing to subscribe it. It is needless to say that the Tyrolese and the pupils of the Jesuits, with Bishop Martin, held aloof from the meeting.

Another proof was given on this occasion of the very different measure dealt to the two parties. The Infallibilist Address was at once printed, though everything else here has first to undergo the most rigorous censorship. The Roman censors would, of course, have refused their imprimatur to the counter address, and there was some scruple felt about printing it out of the country, as though by an evasion of the Papal laws, and so it cannot be printed at all. Even Bishop Dupanloup has been refused permission to print his answer to Deschamps. The address will probably be subscribed by the Bishops of each nation in separate batches, so that there will be five addresses, coinciding in substance. Forty-seven Germans and Hungarians are reckoned on – so many have subscribed already – and thirty-five French. The Anglo-Americans have somewhat altered the wording of the address, and say they can command twenty-five signatures. But what is most remarkable is, that a considerable section of the North-Italian Bishops from Piedmont and Lombardy now come out as opponents of Infallibilism, and give promise of twenty-five signatures for the counter address. The decisive point with them is their relation to the Italian nation and government, for the Infallibilist dogma must inevitably lead to a hopelessly incurable rupture between it and the Church. To these must be added six Irish and four Portuguese, making in all an Opposition of from 140 to 150 votes.