The German Bishops cannot of course pledge themselves beforehand for the whole Council, for they will have at most only about 25 votes at their disposal – a small number in an assembly of 400 or 500 bishops. But if these 25 votes, which represent nearly eighteen million Catholics, and the whole of a great nation, remain united and firm, they are a guarantee that the new dogmas will not be decreed. For it is not majorities or minorities that decide on dogmas, but the Church requires the actual or approximate unanimity of the whole assembly. And it may be assumed as probable that the Austrian Bishops will not separate themselves from their German colleagues in these weighty questions, except, of course, the Bishop of St. Pölten, who already openly declares himself for the principal new dogma, and will therefore no doubt vote for it. It may, moreover, be confidently asserted that a considerable portion of the French Bishops will unite with the German Opposition against the new dogmas. And an Opposition so numerous and so compact will make it impossible for the Latin Prelates to carry through their pet doctrines, powerful as they may appear, if their votes are counted and not weighed.
From another point of view, too, the Pastoral is noteworthy and gratifying. It markedly discountenances that pessimism which for some thirty years past has characterized Papal documents, and which gave occasion to the observation that Pius ix. and his predecessor whine whenever they talk Latin. Occurrences in Italy, Spain, and Germany, and the history of the Austrian Concordat, with many other things, have led most of the clerical organs to take a gloomy view of the state of the world; and we frequently find them maintaining that a universal overthrow of the whole order of society in the Christian world, a universal deluge, is inevitable, but that the ship of the Church, the one asylum of safety, will float, like the ark, upon the waves, and then will begin a new order of things, and new period of history corresponding to the ultramontane ideal. In sharp antithesis to these gloomy pictures and predictions, the Bishops declare, first, that throughout the world the kingdom of God increases with fresh vigour, and brings forth fruit; secondly, that all attacks on the Church, and sufferings brought upon her, work for her good; and thirdly, that religious and ecclesiastical life is strengthened. Such a view as this is better calculated to arouse and sustain attachment to the Church and confidence in her indestructible powers of life and providential guidance than the opposite view, which exhibits to Catholics everywhere nothing but the humiliation of their Church and the triumph of her enemies.
The Bishops and the Council. (Allg. Zeit., Nov. 19 and 20, 1869.)
As the moment for the opening of the Council approaches, the excitement and disquiet, not only of Catholics but of all who concern themselves with the movements of the day, increases in view of so important an event. For the notion that the Council is merely an internal affair of the Catholic Church, and that its decrees will be confined to the sphere of the religious conscience, will be accepted by nobody who has heard of the projects entertained by the Curia, and who is not ignorant of the close connection of the Church with the culture of modern life, and the powerful position this gives her in the State and in the social order generally.
We may safely state that the Fathers of the Council are already divided into two camps, and that anxiety and painful uncertainty prevail in both of them. The occurrences of the last few weeks have brought out their opposite views and designs into sharp contrast. It is now known in Rome that a considerable number of Northern Bishops are not disposed to accept the rôle assigned to them of simple assent to ready-made decrees, and that the German Bishops, except those trained by the Jesuits, most decisively object to making new articles of faith. Many Bishops also dread the far-reaching consequences of Papal Infallibility, and the retrospective effects of the new dogma, and they know that the establishment of such doctrines would drive the educated classes of the country, if not into open schism, to an internal and lamentable breach with the Church. Accordingly, remonstrances have been forwarded to the Pope from three quarters – from the Prelates of Hungary, Bohemia, and Germany, – expressing the most emphatic desire that the Council should not be forced to any decision on Papal Infallibility, or on matters affecting the relations of Church and State, in the sense of the Syllabus. What reception this document met with in Rome may readily be divined from the great astonishment the Fulda Pastoral is known to have excited there, when a translation of it was laid before the Pope. It is now thought politic in Rome to deny the existence of these letters of remonstrance, but they have taken such effect that the highest authorities begin to hesitate, and ask themselves the question whether they have not gone too far in their confident assurance of victory. The idea of being able to carry the Infallibility dogma off-hand by acclamation seems at least to have been abandoned. It is understood that some less summary method of gaining their object must be resorted to, if it is to be gained at all. And hence at the last moment they have begun to look out for some Council Chamber where the Bishops may discuss the matters to be decided upon, for the chapels appropriated to the Council in St. Peter's are only designed for solemn sessions.8 It is said in Rome that the pungent remark of a Cardinal to the Holy Father has had something to do with the change of the original scheme of an acclamation. Pius ix. had asked his opinion as to the most effective way of carrying the decrees, and he replied, that obviously the theatrical effect would be greater if there was no debating, but simply decision by acclamation, as though by inspiration of the Holy Ghost. And thus the hope of getting the Council over in three weeks is also given up, and it is now expected to last to the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul.
The drawing up of the letter of remonstrance at Fulda is said not to have been such plain sailing. The Pastoral originally sketched out by Heinrich, Canon of Mayence, but to which important additions were made subsequently, was subscribed by all the Bishops, even those who had been pupils of the Jesuits, who consoled themselves with the belief that the dogma of Infallibility did exactly combine the conditions specified there as requisite for a dogmatic decree, and was really scriptural, primitive, and written on the hearts of all good Catholics. So their Jesuit masters had taught and assured them. But the secret document sent to the Pope had necessarily to be more explicit, and though it was limited to pointing out how inopportune the definition of new dogmas, especially of Papal Infallibility, would be, that was precisely opposite to what the Jesuitizers among the Bishops were convinced of. The Jesuits themselves lose no opportunity of proclaiming that nothing can be more opportune than this dogma, and from their own point of view they may be right enough, for the rich and ripe fruits of the dogma would fall into their own laps, and would help the Society to absolute dominion over science, literature, and education within the Catholic Church. The proposed dogma would give canonical authority to the Jesuit theology, and identify it with the doctrine of the Church, and the Order, or the spirit of the Order, would always be required for teaching and vindicating the new system. The Bishops of Paderborn and Würzburg therefore refused to sign, and the representative of the Bishop of Spires followed their example.
The scruples of these Northern Bishops were so utterly unexpected that they must have created great surprise at Rome. Their informant in the matter of the Infallibility dogma had assured the authorities, in the teeth of the Northern Prelates, and with the full concurrence of all the members of the Commission, that no fitter or more favourable time could be found for establishing the new dogma, for at no former period could the Court of Rome reckon so securely on the unconditional devotion of the Bishops, nor was there ever a time when they were so ready as at this moment to surrender before the Pope all exercise of their own judgment or independent examination. The remonstrances of the Hungarian, Bohemian, and German Bishops have of course poured water into this wine, to the no small astonishment and indignation of the Roman Prelates, with whom it is an axiom that nobody is a good Christian who does not believe the infallibility of the Pope as firmly as the divine mission and truthfulness of Christ. Accordingly, the Correspondance de Rome cast in the teeth of Prince Hohenlohe, that since all true Catholics already hold the infallibility of the Pope when speaking ex cathedrâ, a decree of the Council will only confirm what is universally known and believed.9 Let those good souls who flatter themselves that the Civiltà, with its expectations and demands, stands alone, weigh well the utterances of so well-known a journal.
The Austrian Bishops have not thought it well to follow the example of their Hungarian, Bohemian, and German colleagues. One of them, Dr. Fessler, is