Austrian Catholics, whose bishops are anti-Ro- | bers. But in that Council numbers and learnman, that in the Council, as interpreters of the ing were combined on the one side, political Divine will, they counted for just as much. In so solemn and momentous a congregation as the Ecumenical Council it might be thought that learning and piety should outweigh num misrepresentation overweighted them upon the other. China, whose half-heathen parishes divide their worship about equally between the Virgin Mary and the god Josh, spake the will BISHOP DUPANLOUP. of God by the voice of fifteen missionary bishops, all creatures of the pope and devoted to his will. Germany contributed the most learned, France the most acute and versatile, intellects to the Council. And France and Germany, with one-quarter of the Roman Catholic population of the globe, and its chief learning, were represented in the Council by less than one-seventh of its members. Among the Italian representatives of the Jesuit order there were multitudes who could read no other language than their own and the cognate Latin. It was one of these fathers who maintained the infallible accuracy of the Roman Catholic pictures of the ascension, by asserting that Jesus Christ not only wore the vestments of the Roman Catholic Church when he taught in Palestine, but that he continued to be clad in them in the kingdom of his glory, sitting at the right hand of God the Father. Ignorant of science, ignorant of history, ignorant of the affairs which are going on in the outer world, not only like the Bourbons incapable of learning, but holding, unlike the Bourbons, as a positive article of faith, that learning is a mortal sin, the Italian theologians, monks of the Middle Ages, really belonging in the sixteenth century, though tossed by an inscrutable Providence into the middle of the nineteenth, are not even acquainted with the lore of their own church; can not, for the most part, read their Testament, nor yet the comments of the Greek fathers and the decrees of the Greek councils, in the original tongue. These men, of whom it has been said, "If the pope ordered them to believe and teach four instead of three persons in the Trinity, they would obey;" these men who have learned in all their life but one lesson-obedience; these men, creatures of the pope and subservient to his will, ecclesiastics without piety, theologians without learning, bishops without a charge-constituted the balance of power in the Council of the Vatican, and ruled it at their will. A single one of these subservient monks neutralized the vote, the voice, the learning of a Dupan loup with his cure of a million and a half of souls. Surely this was a new application of the Pauline principle, "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty; and base things, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and which are not, to bring to naught things that are." Yet let us not do the Jesuit fathers an injustice. They select their leaders as sagaciously as their rank and file. The latter are soldiers -that is, machines. The former are subordinate generals. They include some men of astute intelligence, a few of real learning; some honest men, blinded by superstitious piety; a few blinded by ecclesiastical ambition. Prominent among the latter was the leader of the infallibilist party, Archbishop Manning. Dr. Manning, the son of William Manning, M.P., was born in London in 1810, and took his degree at Oxford in 1830. Entering public life at the time when the Tractarian movement was giving prominence to the names of Henry Newman, Dr. Pusey, Isaac Wilberforce, and E. S. Ffoulkes, he acquired, by his public sermons against the claims of the papacy, a position in the Church of England which paved the way for his speedy promotion, when, in 1851, he left the church of his fathers for that of Rome. Married to Miss Wilberforce, sister of the Bishop of Winchester and daughter of the great philanthropist, he attested the sincerity of his convictions by abandoning his wife, who still clings to the communion of the Church of England, and whom, notwithstanding the decree of divorce which complaisant Rome has provided, he still continues periodically to visit. His face and figure interpret the man. His form is slender, his frame fragile, his forehead high, his pale and intellectual but fleshless face that of a profound student, his air and manner that of an English gentleman of unmistakable culture and high breeding; but the latent fire in his eyes speaks the ambition which Rome never quenches, but knows so well how to use. The friend and PIO NONO AND HIS COUNCILORS. companion of Gladstone, having ready access FATHER BECKX. If the two parties into which the Council was divided were unequal in size, they were yet more unequal in that strength which comes from positive conviction, definite purpose, and The Jesuitical faction was moral courage. well organized. It had recognized leaders. It had a definite aim. The Jesuits, who called It was necessary to prevent debate, the Council, called it for a definite purposethe promulgation of papal infallibility. That mum. purpose they were determined to accomplish, with all its possibilities of schism. It was necIt might create a schism in essary to exclude from the eyes and ears of the at whatever cost. For that result world every thing but the final utterance of the France, a schism in Germany. they were not unprepared. It was better to Council when threat, bribe, and flattery had rerule over a united church than to be a minori- duced the opposition to a feeble non placet. It was necessary to maintain, in a word, before All their energies were ty in a divided one. well ordered by a single powerful executive the faithful that appearance of unanimity which will. It is not the pope who is the supreme is the strength of the papal church, the absence The Jesuit fathers contrived adpontiff, but the "black pope," as even among of which is the almost fatal weakness of Protgood Catholics he is called. It is not Pius IX. estantism. A Protestant mind would naturally imagine who is infallible; it is Father Beckx, the head mirably the preparations for their campaign. of the order of the Jesuits. The anti-infallibilists, on the other hand, were divided in senti- that a council composed of the highest digniment, vacillating in purpose, timid in action. taries of the Roman Catholic Church, assemSome were genuine liberals; others, bitter ob- bled to sit in judgment on the most profound structionists, opposed the progress of the age, problems in human philosophy and theology, but, astute politicians, opposed yet more bitter- and to declare oracularly the truth of God to ly the supremacy of Italy in the councils of Eu- their reverential congregations, would be at A few courageous spirits denounced the least competent to frame the rules for its own The organization, to elect its own officers, and to doctrine of papal infallibility as false. greater number, acknowledging its truth, feebly determine for itself the subjects upon which doubted the expediency of declaring it.* To the universal church needs enlightenment. But them the Jesuit fathers replied that it was al- this only shows the perversity of the Protestant mind. The pope met the Council at the ways expedient to declare the truth. outset by the proclamation of a programme in accordance with which all their proceedings were to be controlled. 1ope. A little over five hundred resolute, determ- The infallibilists had a clear majority. But See Cardinal Ranscher's protest, for example: "It can not be opportune to exact of the Catholic nations, already exposed to so much seduction and temptation, heavier duties than were enjoined on them by the Council of Trent." The extreme courtesy of the holy father to the beloved and venerable fathers led to a degree of circumlocution in statement which our limited space forbids us to emulate. Stripped as follows: of all verbiage his allocution read substantially I, Pope Pius IX., alone have a right to suggest topics for the deliberation of this Council. You may offer them also so long as you offer nothing I do not like. You must reduce all propositions to writing. You must submit them to a committee of cardinals and fathers which I have appointed. They will examine and subWhatsoever passes our double mit them to me. To prescrutiny can come before the Council, nothing vent it the Council must elect, by secret ballot, else. There must be no discussion. In four committees. They will take cognizance | sand and thought she could not be seen. respectively of matters of faith, of ecclesiastical vain did the pope remonstrate. In vain did discipline, of the affairs of the regular orders, he remind the prelates of their solemn oaths. and of Oriental rites. If any discussion is pro- In vain did he proclaim the disclosure a mortal voked, the matter shall be reported to its ap- sin. The holy fathers had learned from the propriate committee and put into shape there. Jesuits how to take an oath with mental resIf any father wants to speak he shall give twen- ervations. The French government had corty-four hours' notice of his intention. Fathers respondents in the council chamber-so had shall speak in the order of their dignity. You the Prussian. What Rome whispered in the shall take oath not to disclose the proceedings ear, France and Prussia proclaimed on the in the council chamber till they are officially house-tops. One member of the Council was promulgated. And, finally, I mean to see these arrested and cast into prison. Whether he rules carried out, and have appointed five car- was a recreant bishop, or whether he was an dinals who will preside in turn at all your ses- impostor clad in ecclesiastical vestments, is not sions. clear. Other bishops, among them some, it is So, in effect, though in phraseology much said, from America, were ordered to leave the more voluminous, the most holy father to the Council and the city. But the reports did not council of beloved and reverend fathers greet- cease. It is believed that Archbishop Duing. Surely the sun has never looked down panloup kept the Emperor of the French adupon a nominally free assembly more thorough-vised of the proceedings of the Council, and ly under the control of a single man than the that Bishop Strossmayer performed the same council which assembled beneath the dome of service for Bismarck. And Dupanloup and St. Peter's under the delusion that to it was Strossmayer were not to be trifled with. intrusted the solemn duty of debating and ad- all events, while no official report of the counjudging any thing whatsoever. cil meetings has ever been given to the world, the materials for its history are perfectly accessible. An Italian official historian was appointed by the pope. But we need not wait for the product of his pen; the unofficial history is more trust-worthy.* There were men in this council-men of immeasurably stronger intellect and riper scholarship than the pope or any of his Italian advisers. They were restive under the indignity put upon them. But long habits of ecclesiastical subordination forbade them to resent it. They presented a very respectful-what to the Protestant mind would seem to be a painfully obsequious-petition for a modification of the papal programme. They simply requested that "the committee appointed [by the pope] for the preliminary examination of propositions introduced by members be reinforced by some fathers elected by the Council out of their own midst, and also that members introducing propositions be allowed access to the said committee to enable them to take part in the examination thereof." To this modest request, preferred by representatives both of the French and German church, the pope paid no attention. His contemptuous refusal did not tend to conciliate the signers. So, with growing bitterness of feeling, this Council of the most Holy Mother Church commenced its sessions. In one respect his holiness found himself utterly thwarted. It is not in the power of the pope, even in Rome, to build walls so high that the modern press can not scale them. The doings of the Council were reported from day to day. Detailed accounts of its more important sessions were published every week. Its most secret papers were brought to the light and held up before the gaze of Europe. In Rome alone were the sessions concealed from the public eye; for the Roman journals dared not even copy from the columns of their more enterprising German, French, English, and American contemporaries, and the Roman police banished the obnoxious papers from the Holy City. The ostrich hid her head in the At By way of expediting the labors of the venerable fathers, the pope had previously convened in Rome a committee of men learned in theology, who had been engaged for eighteen months in preparing a schedule of decrees to be submitted to the Council. The product of their labors is said to have filled eighteen large volumes. What in Protestant language would be called a "Confession of Faith," taken from these volumes, was laid before the Council. It was a singular document. But those who had read and pondered the pope's syllabus could not be surprised at it. It condemned freedom of conscience, denied the right of the individual judgment in matters of religion, anathematized liberty of speech, of the press, and of education, declared the subordination of the state to the church, and asserted that for those who are not within the true church of Christ there is no hope of salvation. It denounced rationalism, pantheism, materialism, and Protestantism in the same breath, classed them as forms of the same heresy, and subjected them to the same anathema. It denounced progress, not only in theology, but in philosophy, in science, in the whole realm of thought. It declared that the church was not only an infallible interpreter of the written Scriptures, but had the right to add to them the equally authoritative unwritten traditions, of which it was the custo The true history of the Ecumenical Council has been written by the newspaper correspondents, especially those of France and Germany. This material material statement except upon the concurrent testiwe have carefully examined, and we have made no mony of two or more independent witnesses. dian. It asserted that not only all questions | his grief, the governments of Europe took it of theology and of morals were to be determ-up. Count Daru addressed a respectful remonined by the dogmatic decrees of the church-strance from Paris, very respectful, for Louis it added that never in the progress of mankind Napoleon was about submitting his claims for had it come to pass, nor would it ever come to a third time to the suffrages of the French peopass, that the doctrines of science could be oth-ple, and it was desirable not to offend the Roer than such as had been ever held and taught man Catholic voters. The protests of Austria by the church. It was followed by a Schema and Prussia were less reverential in their tone. de Ecclesia yet more astonishing. This schema So long, said Count Von Beust, in effect, as asserted that the Holy Catholic Church is one, Rome confined itself to theology, the court of infallible, and divine; is necessary to salvation; Vienna had no inclination to interfere. But is intolerant only as the law of God is intoler- "it was different when the church was about ant of sin; is already presented blameless be- to claim a permanent and comprehensive powfore the throne of God, without spot, or wrinkle, er over the state, and to arrogate to herself the or blemish, or any such thing; is not the sub- right of deciding which of the laws laid down ject but the mistress and ruler of the state; by the secular power were binding on the subauthoritatively pronounces upon what is lawful ject and which not." When, carrying out that and what is unlawful in civil legislation; has principle, she ventured further to denounce libthe right of "ordering by its laws, and com-erty of religion, liberty of the press, liberty of pelling by antecedent judgments and salutary penalties, those who wander and those who are contumacious"—that is, that the Inquisition is a Christian institution of divine ordaining-and that the pope is the supreme and divinely appointed head of the divinely appointed church. The Schema de Fide was a challenge to the intellect of the nineteenth century. The Schema de Ecclesia was a challenge to the governments of Europe. instruction, civil marriage, and the amenability of the clergy to the civil code, as in the proposed schema she did, Rome took a course which would inevitably lead to a disastrous struggle between church and state. Count Von Bismarck was even more pointed. In a note singularly frank and plain-spoken he gave the German bishops fair warning that, if they voted for this insult to Protestantism, and this challenge to the freedom of the state, they could never return to their dioceses. The pope had appointed the 6th day of January, 1870, for the first public session. He an- Not even Pope Pius IX. was so infatuated ticipated an obsequious acceptance of the dog-as to do battle with the whole civilized world. mas which had been prepared. He was mis- Cardinal Antonelli replied, gracefully, to the protaken. On the 6th day of January, 1870, the testing powers, that the obnoxious schema must venerable fathers were still in the midst of be understood in a purely Pickwickian sense. heated discussions concerning it. The open-"There is a great difference," said his exceling session had given but little promise of har-lency, "between theory and practice. No one mony. The bishops, unable by request to secure a modification of the papal order of arrangements, had indignantly protested against them, and were silenced by the presiding cardinals. But it was impossible to restrain their indignant protests against a decree which placed Paris, Vienna, and Berlin beneath the yoke of Rome. The sessions were prolonged and stormy. More than once the angry voices of the disputants penetrated beyond the walls of the council chamber, and fell upon the ears of the auditors outside. More than once the session broke up in confusion. The Roman pon-enberg's defense of Protestants from the protiff never retracts, never admits an error. A Protestant assembly, if it had not been ready for the transaction of public business, would have postponed the session. The Ecumenical Council could do no such simple thing. The public meeting was held. It transacted no other business than an administration of the oath of office to men who had already taken it -many of them more than once in successive ordinations. will ever prevent the church from proclaiming the great principles upon which its divine fabric is based; but, as regards the application of these sacred laws, the church, imitating the example of its heavenly Founder, is inclined to take into consideration the natural weakness of mankind, and accordingly exacts only so much from human frailty as is within the power of every age and country to render." Which re- . minds us, though it does not belong here in our history, how Cardinal Catalpi calmed an angry session, imbittered by Cardinal Schwarz The minority, however, accomplished their purpose a prolongation of the debate. For, meanwhile, reports of the proposed decree were flashed across the wires to every state in Europe. To the indignation of the pope, the newspapers published the proposed decrees, and, to posed anathemas of the benign pope. "Pope Pius IX.," said Catalpi, " does indeed curse all Protestants, but it is by a formula. He carries them all in his heart." The considerate mother church, carrying out the principles of her devoted son, Cardinal Antonelli, concluded to defer somewhat more than she had done to the "natural weakness of mankind." The schema was withdrawn and amended. When it was finally carried it was purely dogmatic. It contained no declaration The history of this remonstrance and its unofficial presentation, too long to be inserted here, affords a curious illustration of the crooked ways of French diplomacy under the régime of that astute politician Napoleon III. |