GIFT OF THOMAS FORD BACON MEMORIAL LIBRARY AN INSIDE VIEW OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL, IN THE SPEECH OF THE MOST REVEREND ARCHBISHOP KENRICK, OF ST. LOUIS. EDITED BY LEONARD WOOLSEY BACON, WITH NOTES AND ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTS, INCLUDING : THE SYLLABUS OF HIS HOLINESS PIUS IX. THE PROTEST OF FATHER HYACINTHE. THE PROTEST AND SPEECHES OF BISHOP STEOSSMAYER. THE APOCRYPHAL "SPEECH OF A BISHOP.*' THE ACTS OF THE COUNCIL. THE APPEAL OF FATHER HYACINTHE. THE DECLARATION OF DR. DOLLINGER AND HIS ASSOCIATES. THE PROGRAMME CF THE ANTI-INFALLIBILITY, LEAGUE. AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORK. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. THE MATERIALS FOE THE HISTORY OF THE COUNCIL. Secrecy of Proceedings — Contradictory Statements- -A Decisive Document pages 5-13 CHAPTER II. THE OBJECT OF THE COUNCIL. The "Liberal Catholic" Party— Its Principles and its Men — Speeches of Montalembert— The Absolutist Party— Its Princi- ples as denned by the Prince de Broglie— Encyclical "Quanta Cuba," and Syllabus - 14-49 CHAPTER III. THE PREPARATION OF THE COUNCIL. Hopeful Expectations of the Liberal Catholics— Packing of Pre- paratory Committees— Manipulating of Public Opinion— Plan of Acclamation — Publication of Janus — Muzzling of the Press at Rome — Gratry's Letters — Fatheb Hyacinthe's Pbotest- 50-60 CHAPTER IV. THE COMPOSITION OF THE COUNCIL. Modern Revolution in the Constitution of the Episcopate— Present Dependence of the Bishops on "the Nod" of the Pope— Insig- nificant Minority in the Church represented by an Overwhelm- ing Majority in the Council - 61-65 CHAPTER V. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE COUNCIL. First Code of Rules imposed on the Council— Second Code— Ex- tinction of Conciliar Liberty— Protest of the Minority- - 66-70 CHAPTER VI. THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE COUNCIL. First Schema submitted, attacked by Conolly and Strossmayer, and withdrawn — Schwarzenberg's Desires for Reformation — 284720 4 CONTENTS. Strossmayer's Second Speech— Decree for Infallibility pro- posed — Great Speech of Strossmayeb — Immense Uproar — Deceitful Trick of the Managers — "Observations" of the Bishops — Decree passed by a Majority — Protest of the Mi- nority 71 -87 CHAPTER VII. THE SPEECH OF ARCHBISHOP KENRICK. [See Contents and Analysis on pp. 93, 91] 88-174 CHAPTER VIII. AN APOCRYPHAL SPEECH. Italian Origin of the Document— Relations of the Imposture to the Example and Moral Teachings of the Roman-catholic Church— The Pretended "Speech oar a Bishop in tiik Coun- cil m — No Papacy in the New Testament — Nor in Early Church History— la Peter the Rock ?— Former Popes Fallible— Peril of the Church 175 196 CHAPTER IX. THE ACTS OF THE COUNCIL. The two Dogmatic Constitutions— Canons on the Catholic Faith— Constitution on the Church— Chapter III. : On the Power and Nature of the Primacy of the Roman Pontiff — Chapter 1Y. : Concerning the Infallible Teaching of the Roman Pontiff — Retroactive Effect of these Decrees — Former ex cathedra Teach- ings now declared Infallible— I. Bull, Unam Sanctam — II. Bull, Cum ex Apostolatus Officio — HI. Bull, In Ccena Domini— IV. En- cyclical, Quanta Cura, and Syllabus — Former Atrocities of Popes now justified — 196-215 CHAPTER X. THE SEQUEL OF THE COUNCIL. Temporary Distraction of Men's Minds from Religious Subjects — Measures of the Court of Rome for conciliating or whipping in the Minority — The Quinquennial Faculties — Father Hya- cinthe's Appeal to the Bishops — Dollinger's Letter to his Archbishop — Political Bearings of the Infallibility Decree — Declaration of Dollinger and his Associates — Anathema and Excommunication — Programme of the ANTi-lNFALLrBrLiTY League— The Conflict Begun - 216-250 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. - CHAPTER I. THE MATEKIALS FOR THE HISTORY OF THE VATICAN COUNCIL. The Vatican Council of the year 1870, an event of in- terest to all, and especially to those of every Christian communion, who love the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ on the earth, is nevertheless the one event of re- cent times, the history of which is most disputed and most studiously concealed from the knowledge of the public. The Council was organized as a "secret society." At the opening of it an awful obligation was imposed, un- der severe penalty, " subpcena gram," on all its members, binding them to absolute secrecy in everything pertain- ing to the Council. The members were not allowed to communicate even with each other in print. Meetings for consultation of members speaking the same lan- guage, were interdicted. Owing to the extraordinary acoustical properties of the hall of the Council, it was rare that the transactions were heard, except by a small fi, : TCE VATICAN COUNCIL. part of the members. The stenographic reports of daily proceedings, transacted in an unfamiliar language, were not printed, nor otherwise submitted to the members of the Council, whether for their information or for the correction of the record.* In view of these facts, the bitter complaints of the bishops belonging to the majority, and in particular of Archbishop Manning, of Westminster, f of the incorrect- ness of the published accounts of the assembly. actually childish. To stimulate public curiosity and interest by every device of advertising — by announce- ments and manifestoes, by parades, processions, cos- tumes, tableaux, and fireworks, attracting a crowd from every part of the world to the doors of the Council, and then complain that the event was reported in the news- papers ; to lock the doors in the face of the public and shut off access to information by oaths of secrecy, and then complain that the reports are not exacts— is " like children crying in the market-place." If they wanted no reports, why all this advertising of a free show of parades, pantomimes, and pyrotechny to gather the loungers of two hemispheres in the piazza of St. Peter's ? Why not go quietly about their business, and have done with it ? If they wanted to be correctly reported, why not admit witnesses, or remove the seal of secrecy ? The * Ce qui se passe an Concile, 48, 59, 62. The trustworthiness of this.work is disputed by interested parties, and indorsed by others. The above statements, however, as well as most other statements made in it, do not depend on the authority of the writer, but are sustained by reference to unimpeachable authorities. t See his Pastoral, "The Vatican Council," pp. 1-33. Petri Privilegium, 3. One of the last acts of the Council was to adopt a violent protest against the reports in circulation concerning its doings. Ibid. 181. This protest, says Dr. Manning, was adopted "by an immense majority :" implying that a minority more or less considerable declined to impugn the correctness of the reports. MATERIALS FOR ITS HISTORY. 7 conclusion is inevitable : what the managers of the Council wanted was to be incorrectly reported. The thing which they had taken pains to secure was the wide circulation of partial information about their pro- ceedings. The thing which they had studied to prevent was the statement of the whole tr^uth. And yet, in the sweeping denunciation of all reports, of the Council as utterly untrustworthy and misleading, is to be remarked one significant exception. While the correspondence of the British newspapers is declared to be simply imaginative, founded on no authentic knowledge of the facts whatever, it is confessed that " the journals of Catholic countries," and especially the Augsburg Gazette, " understood what they were pervert- ing ; and that they had obtained their knowledge from sources which could only have been opened to them by violation of duty."* By this admission, the defenders of the Council against the charges of contemporaneous history waive the claim of superior knowledge, and re- solve the question at issue into a simple question of veracity between themselves and certain of their col- leagues and associates. The number of the witnesses is understood to be "by an immense majority" in favor of the Council. But the weight of their testimony is inevitably affected by the two facts : first, that interests which they deem infinite are pending on their being be- lieved ; and secondly, that authority which they hold to be infallible justifies them in acts of deception for the advantage of the Church, f * Archbishop Manning, of Westminster, Petri Privilegium, 3, pp. 2, 4. f S. Alphonsi de Lig. Compend. Theologice Moralis, auct. Ney- raguet, 141. "Z>e cequivocatione ." It is certified by the pope, ex cathedra, that the writings of this saint contain nothing contrary to sound doctrine. The distinguished Father Newman has, in his 8 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. Having these considerations in view, we may fairly weigh the various external testimonies to the character of the Vatican Council. These may be represented on the one side by two famous volumes " Ce qui se passe au Concile,"* (Doings in the Council,) and the "Letters of Quirinus ;"f on tliQ other side by the pastoral letter of Archbishop Manning, one of the ablest leaders of the majority of the Council. J The former are lull and detailed histories, not impar- tial indeed, but accurate and exact for the most part, in speaking of matters on which we have the means i >! ingthem, and affording thus a fair presumption in their favor as to matters on which the more than Masonic secrecy of the Council refuses us access to testimony. They show, citing authority wherever it is possible, that the Council was deprived of the freedom of originating measures and of consultation and discussion upon those measures which had been secretly prepared in advance, and enforced upon the Council ; that in many ways un- precedented in such bodies, the power of the poj:>e was brought to bear, both upon the Council as a whole and upon its individual members, so depriving it of the lib- erty which, according to the traditions of the Roman- catholic church, is essential to the authority of a gen- Apohgia pro Vita Sua, frankly purged himself, personally, of com- plicity with such morality. But this is not sufficient to protect his fellow-ecclesiastics from the irresistible inference that what they are required to accept as doctrine will be put in practice by tin im when occasion demands. * Published by Henri Hon, Paris, 1870. It is greatly to be re- gretted that no translation of this work is extant in English. f Kivingtons, London. Pott, Young & Co, , New York. X Petri Privilegium : Three Pastoral Letters to the Clergy of the Diocese, 1867-1871. By Henry Edward. Archbishop of Westmin- ster. London: Longmans. MATERIALS FOR ITS HISTORY. 9 eral council : and that at the same time, by processes utterly foreign to the genius and antecedents of that church, an outside pressure had been created by the systematic arts of the Jesuits and other orders cen- tering at Rome, the lower orders of clergy and the laity having been stirred up to affect and control the votes of the bishops set over them. Furthermore, the statements of these books concur with each other and with the common course of public report, in represent- ing that within the council-chamber the course of the majority towards the minority was in like manner domi- neering and tyrannical, and that the attempt of certain bold speakers of the minority to compel a hearing gave rise to scenes of outrageous disorder and confusion ; finally, that the result sought by the papal court and the subservient majority was reached only by the sud- den and peremptory shutting off of debate on the main question. Against these statements, made in the most circum- stantial manner, by persons admitted by their oppo- nents to have had access to the facts, the defence set up is a sweeping negative and a general denunciation of "all such things as have been uttered in the afore- said newspapers and pamphlets, as altogether false and calumnious, whether in contempt of our holy father and of the apostolic see, or to the dishonor of this holy synod, and on the score of its asserted want of legiti- mate liberty."* Archbishop Manning declares, with many bitter words concerning gainsay ers, that, "set- ting aside this one question of opportuneness, there was not in the Council of the Vatican a difference of any gravity, and certainly no difference vlmtsoever on any * Protest of the Council, signed by the cardinals president, Petri Privilegium, 3. 34. 181. 1* 10 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. doctrine of faith." " Never was there a greater unanim- ity than in the Vatican Council." " I have never seen such calmness, self-respect, mutual forbearance, cour- tesy, and self-control as in the eighty-nine sessions of the Vatican Council." " Occasionally murmurs of dis- sent were audible ; now and then a comment may have been made aloud. In a very few instances, and those happily of an exceptional kind, expressions of strong dis- approval and of exhausted patience at length escaped. But the descriptions of violence, outcries, menace, de- nunciation, and even of personal collisions, with which certain newspapers deceived the world, I can affirm to be calumnious falsehoods, fabricated to bring the Coun- cil into odium and contempt."* * Petri Prtotoghan, 3. 26-28. The writer proceeds to denounce as sheer, deliberate fabrica- tion, the representation of the Council as a "scene of indecent clamor and personal violence, unworthy even in laymen, criminal in bishops of the church ;" and to deny "that a tyrannical major- ity deprived the minority of liberty of discussion." These expres- sions receive great light from the speech of Archbishop Kenrick in this volume. The form of expression, " lean affirm" etc., is wor- thy of notice, in view of the approved principle of Roman-catholic morals thus stated by St. Alphonsus de Liguori: "If a man is asked about something which it is his interest to conceal, he can answer, No, I say : that is, / say the icord No. Cardenas doubts about this ; but saving his better counsel, he seems to do so with- out reason, for the word I say really has two senses ; it means to utter and to assent. We here employ it in the sense of utter. " Theol. Moralis, 4. 151. A full exhibit of the teaching of this approved and authorized treatise of St. Alphonsus on this point may be found in Meyrick's "Moral Theology of the Church of Rome," republished with an introduction by the Rev. A. C. Coxe, Balti- more, 1856. Archbishop Manning is believed by those who know him to be a man whose natural generosity and dignity of character would restrain him from such subterfuge. It is all the more important to be assured of this, as it becomes manifest that the religious teachings which he is required to accept do not so restrain him, MATEKIALS FOR ITS HISTORY. 11 In view of these flat contradictions and mutual im- peachments of veracity, it becomes most desirable, in order to come at the true history of the Council, to find some witness or document of decisive authority. The shorthand reports of its transactions and debates (if such speech-making as was permissible under the ex- traordinary rules imposed upon the Council by the pope may be called debate) are secreted in its archives, to be — not quoted, but mysteriously alluded to as some- thing that ivould be very decisive if it were allowed to quote them.* The lips of the multitude of witnesses are sealed with bonds of secrecy, which can be relaxed only by the dispensing authority of the pope, and will therefore be relaxed only in favor of the pope's own party ; so that "the bishops of the minority are bound to secrecy for all their lives, and the history will never be written except by those whose passions have precip- itated the issue." f One document, however, of remarkable character and unimpeachable authenticity, has providentially escaped from the secrecy that has been wrapped around most of the doings of the Council. It is from the pen of the ablest of the American bishops — Archbishop Kenrick of St. Louis. It was not intended to be seen by the public, much less by the Protestant public ; but was prepared, first, to be spoken in the secret assem- bly ; and when that was prevented by the sudden and but have, in fact, the contrary tendency. What can we believe from men who, on the question in hand, stand confessed before the public as being forbidden to tell the truth, under the most awful sanctions, and as having a standing license to deceive the public "for a good reason" — "and any honest object, such as keeping our goods, spiritual or temporal, is a good reason. " • * Petri Privilegium, 3. 32. f Cfe <7"> sc passe an Concile, p. G2. 12 THE VATICAN COUNCIL, unanticipated shutting off of debate, was printed, still in the Latin language, for private circulation among the bishops of the Council. Its testimony on the ques- tions of fact now in dispute before the public is entirely incidental, being in the form of allusions to facts of which the persons to whom it was addressed had been eye-and-ear witnesses. For this reason, its testimony is all the more impressive — is, in fact, decisive. It is possible to imagine one of the members of the Council, at a distance, in time and space, from the events of which he speaks, under the excitement of public dis- cussion, under the inlluence of a most unhappy system of perverted morality commended to him by "infalli- ble" authority, in the presence of readers who have no means of testing his statements, to make sweeping gen- eral assertions not corresponding with the truth. But it is not possible to imagine one of the members of the Council laying in print, privately, under the eyes of his colleagues, detailed statements or distinct and circum- stantial allusions which they personally knew to be false. What bearing, then, has this decisive document on the questions of fact at issue between the bishops of the majority as represented by Archbishop Manning, and those of the minority as represented in the "Let- ters of Quirinus," and in " Ce qui se passe an Concilet" The question is one of so much moment to a large part of the religious world, that the entire pamphlet of Arch- bishop Kenrick is now for the first time laid before the public, in this volume,* that every one may decide for * We had translated this speech from the private edition print- ed at Naples for circulation in the Council. But since this work was commenced, a copy has reached us of the " Documenia ad UJustrandum Concilium Vaticanum," published at Nordlingen by s Professor Friedrich of Munich, which contains Kenrick's speech, MATERIALS FOR ITS HISTORY. 13 himself. It is sufficient for the immediate purpose of this Introduction to say that on all those points (and they are many) of disputed fact between these parties, on which it gives light, it discredits the declarations of the archbishop of Westminster and the solemn protest of the majority of the Council, and approves the sub- stantial accuracy of the writings which they denounce as mendacious. This point being established, we may proceed with more confidence in our brief history. in Latin, together with other documents of the interior history of the Council, which tend still further to confirm all the allegations hitherto made of the oppression of the Council by the court of Rome, and of its entire lack of that liberty which, according to the traditions of the Roman-catholic church itself, is essential to the authority of an (Ecumenical Council. Only the first part of this important work is yet published. It contains : 1. The pamphlet on infallibility distributed in the Council by Bp. Ketteler, of Mayence, entitled Qucestio. 2. "La Liberti du Concile et V Infaillibiliti" by one of the high- est ecclesiastics of France, printed about June 1, 1870, to the num- ber of only 50 copies, for distribution to the Cardinals exclusively. 3. The Speech of Archbishop Kenrick. 4. Eight Protests by bishops of the minority, presented at dif- ferent times in the Council. 5. The Order and Mode of proceedings in the Council of Trent. G. Correspondence between Cardinals Schwarzenberg and An- tonelli ; and the former's " Desideria patribus Concilii (Ecumenlci proponenda. " 7. A Dissertation (in French) on a point of casuistry on which the writer seeks relief, at the hands of the Council, from the common rules imposed by Romish wri'ers of Moral Theology. 14 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. CHAPTER II. THE OBJECT OF THE COUNCIL. By one of the leading spirits of the Council it has been emphatically denied that "its one object was to define the infallibility of the pope."* And justly ; for the definition of infallibility was obviously not so much an end, as the means to an end. What was the defi- nite purpose in the minds of those who projected and controlled the Council was for a long time concealed from the knowledge of the public, and even of the bishops of whom the Council was to be composed. The Bull of Indiction of June 29, 18G8, dealt in the va generalities of promised blessings to the church and the world. It was not long before simultaneous opera- tions in all quarters, directed from a common centre, for the creation of a factitious public sentiment in favor of the notion of the infallibility of the pope, confirmed in the minds of that party in the church whose over- throw was contemplated, their suspicions of the real object of the convocation. Since the close of the Council all disguise has been dropped, and the tri- umphant majority acknowledges that the object all along has been to crush the "Liberal Catholic" party in the Roman-catholic church.")* AVhat is, or was, the Liberal Catholic party? It * Petri PrivUegium, 3. 34. f See (out of many examples) the Catholic World for August, 1871, in an article on "Infallibility." It alleges as the present reason for the definition of the new dogma that ' ' numbers of good and loyal Catholics were beginning to go astray after a so-called Catholic liberalism, and a clique of secret traitors was plotting a OBJECT OF THE COUNCIL. 15 may be described as the fruit of that revival of religion in the Eoman-catholic church of Europe, and espe- cially of France, which followed the transient stupor in which that church was left by the shock of the French Revolution. It was led by certain men whose noble- ness and purity of character, whose single-minded zeal for truth and righteousness, and whose unfeigned affec- tion towards the Roman-catholic church, (which, to their minds, represented the kingdom of Christ upon earth,) none but the most audacious partisans have ever dared to question. Such a one, in statesmanship and literature, was the late Count de Montalembert : such, in the pulpit, were Lacordaire and Hyacinthe ; and in the domain of theology, such was the foremost scholar of the Roman church, the illustrious Dollinger. The eulogists of Rome had no prouder names than these to boast in all their prodigious roll. What made these men liberals in the Catholic church was their serious, earnest apprehension of the fact — so painful, yet so prevalent throughout Roman- catholic countries — of the alienation of the great mass of thoughtful men from the only form of Christianity which they know.* It seemed to them a fact of sad and fearful significance, that all the interests of liberty and social improvement should have been unnaturally revolt against the holy see, disguised under the ambiguities and reservations of Gallicanism, " p. 593. The significance of this allegation cannot be fully appreciated without considering that for several years the Catholic World had been diligently commend- ing the men and the principles of the Liberal Catholic party to the American public, as representing the real liberality of the Eoman- catholic church, and its accordance with free government and American sentiment. * See the confession of Cardinal Schwarzenberg, in his ' ' Besi- deria Patribus Concilii (Ecumemci proponenda," in Doc. ad Ulustr. Gone. Vat, p. 285. 1G THE VATICAN COUNCIL. divorced from the gospel ; and that the church of Christ should have come to be identified, by its minis- ters and by the mass of the public, with abhorred sys- tems of civil and religious despotism, with the obso lete horrors of the Inquisition and the dragonnades, and with Certain modern abuses and corruptions which seemed to them to have no necessary connection with the church upon which they had fastened themselves. The voices of these eloquent and earnest men. as they sounded forth from the press. i*r«»m the rostrum, and from the historic pulpit of Notre Dame, while they bore brave witness lor God and Christ and duty, were affected with something of human and Christlike sym- pathy with the ills and the aspirations of the society in which they lived. "Their voiee was to the sons of men." It seemed a strange thing to hear from under the Dominican or Carmelite frock any word of gener- ous sympathy towards those who were seeking, even in a wandering and hopeless way, for liberty and improvement— any assurance that Christianity and the church were not necessarily committed to the side of despotism and public ignorance, of religious persecu- tion, the oppression of the conscience, the muzzling of the press, the gagging of public speech. There was a power in such utterances from the lips of Lacordaire and Hyacinthe, which not even the matchless splendor of their rhetoric could account for. The people who had learned to regard the church and clergy as their natural enemies, came in vast throngs about the pul- pit of Notre Dame, eager to listen to a gospel which, while it rebuked and refuted their errors, and had no tolerance for their vices, nevertheless refused to ally itself with the advocates of hereditary tyranny, or with the apologists of obsolete cruelty. OBJECT OF THE COUNCIL. 17 The three characteristic aims of the Liberal Catho- lic party can hardly be better defined than in the terms in which the illustrious Hyacinthe summed up the ten- dencies of his own preaching : 1. The reconciliation of the Roman-catholic church with modern society. 2. Not by compromise of convictions, but by points of common belief and practice, and by the spirit of charity, to draw together the various communions of Christian believers ; emphasizing the doctrine of "the soul of the church,"* which includes all holy and be- lieving souls, as distinguished from the body or corpo- ration of the church, which "holds many of the wolves within its fold, and keeps many of the lambs with- out, "f 3. To endeavor to bring back the Roman-catholic church toward the spirit of its early days. J These liberal sentiments were associated, neverthe- less, not only with Christian faith, but with a most hearty and loyal affection towards the Roman-catho- lic church, its theology and government. The liberal party was far removed from sympathy with that " Gal- licanism " which would limit the authority of the church, in its proper sphere, by the interference of any political power whatever. That famous maxim of Cavour, which is but the condensed expression of the universal American sentiment, "A free church in a free state," was an echo from the lips of Montalem- bert. And yet so ardent was the loyalty of this band of fer- vid Catholics towards the see and the person of the * St. Augustine. f Idem. X Father Hyacinthe's Discourses, vol. 1, p. 37. Putnam Sc Sons. 18 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. pope, that they braved the reproach of inconsistency that they might maintain with tongue and pen and sword that petty principality of the Roman state which both in theory and in administration was the most abso- lute contradiction to all their principles. It was due to Montalembert and his associates that the temporal power of the pope was restored to him by the arms of France, after its overthrow in 1848 : it was due to the same party that when later the same temporal power was threatened with something more formidable than rev- olution — with bankruptcy — the contribution of Peter's pence was organized which stayed the doomed and tot- tering throne a few brief seasons longer. Notwithstanding the fervent devotion of the Liberal Catholics to the Church of Rome, which they dncerery held to be the embodiment <>t' the kingdom <>i' Christ on the earth ; notwithstanding the fact that within their slender number they embraced the most illustrious names of contemporary Catholicism ; notwithstanding the eminent services which they had rendered to the pope and see of Rome ; it was impossible for their principles of civil and religious liberty to be conspicu- ously taught in a Roman-catholic country, without drawing fort^i against them the outcries and the organiz- ed opposition of the hierarchy and of the religious orders. It is difficult for us in America to comprehend the indignation which was roused, throughout the Roman- catholic hierarchy, by the enunciation in a "Catholic Congress," by a French nobleman, of doctrines of the rights and dignity of conscience, of religious liberty, of hatred to persecution and the Inquisition, which are familiar to American citizens as axioms of universal ac- ceptation. The words of Montalembert in an assembly of Catholics at Malines were these : OBJECT OF THE COUNCIL. 19 " Of all liberties which I have undertaken to defend, the most precious in my view, the most sacred, the most legitimate, the most necessary, is liberty of conscience. .... I must confess that this enthusiastic devotion of mine to religious liberty is not general among Cath- olics. They are very fond of it for themselves — which is no great merit. Generally speaking, everybody likes every sort of liberty for himself. But religious liberty for its own sake, the liberty of other men's consciences, the liberty of that worship which men denounce and repudiate — this is what disturbs and enrages many of us Are we at liberty, now-a-days, to demand liberty for the truth — that is, for ourselves (for every honest man believes what he holds to be the truth) and refuse it to error — that is, to persons who differ from us ? I answer flatly, No I feel an invincible horror at all punishments and all violences inflicted on man- kind under pretence of serving or defending religion. The fagots lighted by the hands of Catholics are as hor- rible to me as the scaffolds on which Protestants have immolated so many martyrs. The gag in the mouth of any sincere preacher of his own faith, I feel as if it were between my own lips, and it makes me shudder with distress."* In the United States it was possible for such senti- ments from Roman-catholic presses or platforms to pass without official rebuke, or even to stand unchal- lenged, and be ostentatiously put forward as the accept- ed doctrine of the Church of Rome. But in countries where opinion was divided, where great political inter- * The entire passage, which is full of genuine eloquence, is quoted in De Pressense's article on Parties in the Catholic Church in France, appended to volume I. of the Discourses of Father Hya- ciuthc. 20 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. ests involved in the maintenance of th< doc- trines of absolutism and persecution, were wont to count on the undivided support of the Romish hierarchy, it was not possible. The most that the Roman-catholic friends of civil and religions liberty in Europe could have hoped, for their opinions, was that they should be tolerated. But even this hope was disappointed. 41 * We have given above the position of the Liberal Catholic par- Lefined by themselves, it is well to add their account position of the opposite party, as briefly summed up in an article in the Gorrespondant, a few years since, by the Prince de Broglie. According to him the position of the ultramontane party is. "that the Church is the declared enemy (1) of hnm . (2) of modern soc'n ty. (3) of religious liberty, (I) of political liberty." 1. Enmity to Human Reason. " This enmity docs not display itself merely by the tone of detraction and irony with which it pursues all the efforts and acts of human reason, by its shouts of triumph on every occasion when reason stumbles and goes wrong. There are besides whole systems of philosophy connected, which .stop short of nothing less than denying reason the faculty of investi- gating even a shadow of truth without the aid of faith; and these arc Bystems around which ultramontanism throws all its credit and affec- tion. In a word, whenever these new champions of the church of reason, one would say that they saw passing before their i enemy whom they menace with every hostile look and gesture, and upon whom they are ever ready to precipitate themselves headlong." 2. Enmity to Modem Society. — "The same doctrines which in- culcate enmity to human reason, profess unmitigated hostility to the constitution of modern society as based on that reason. No one can therefore flatter himself that he can remain a member of the spiritual communion of Christians, and of temporal sod at present constituted in France, on the principles of 17S9 ; And this hostility between modern society and the church, so eagerly pointed out and insisted on by the infidel, the party we speak of accepts without the smallest hesitation, in all its bearings, and fol- lows out into all its applications. In its eyes, all modern society comes excommunicated into the world — no baptism can wash away the stain on its first origin. All is bad, anti-Christian, anti-Catho- lic, in the principles of modern society." 3. Enmity to Religious Liberty. — "In all that infidelity has repeat- ed on the subject, I do not remember ever to have met with any- OBJECT OF THE COUNCIL. 21 The speeches of Montalembert at Malines were pro- nounced in August, 1863. On the 8th of December, 1864, was issued from the Vatican the Encyclical Let- ter entitled " Quanta Cura" to which was appended the famous " Syllabus" of propositions condemned by Pope Pius IX. in various pontifical documents. In its terms, this edict applies to all liberal thought and opinion hi thing so precisely and accurately laid down, as what we may now read every day in the columns of the contemporary religious press. It has cut short all debate by a summary process, and has declared dogmatically civil intolerance to be an article of faith for every Catholic, and religious liberty to be heresy. The church chastises heretics by force, when she can — where she can — as much as she can. If she tolerates them anywhere, it is as one tolerates a necessary evil, with the intention only of freeing oneself from it on the first opportunity ; but she never can accept religious liberty as a principle of Christian duty. Intolerance is her right the mo- ment it becomes possible. No lapse of time can raise prescription against her — no promise bind her ; witness Louis XIV. and the edict of Nantes. Such is the theory we may now see every day professed by these religious controversialists. " 4. Enmity to Political Liberty. — "A stale calumny, which infi- delity itself blushed for, and now only ventured to whisper, con- sisted in representing the church as the natural ally of tyranny and the born adversary of all public liberty The new style of religious controversy of which we speak has resuscitated it, and in our. day of storms and disaster, hastened voluntarily to proclaim a solemn divorce between religion and national liberty Ultra- montane controversy has excommunicated liberty from the tribu- nal of religion herself, has preached absolute power as a dogma, has equally proscribed every guarantee of individual and civil lib- erty as the fruit of human pride, and abandoned every restriction preservative of public right. " Allowance may be made for this statement of the questions at issue, as proceeding from one of the parties to the controversj 7 . But the manifesto of the opposite party, in the "Encyclical and Syllabus," substantially accepts this statement. The issue made up between the two parties, to be tried in general council, was whether those sentiments which are the universal sentiments of American society and American Christianity are to be tolerated within the pale of the Roman-catholic church. 22 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. all parts of the world. It condemns ull those convic- tions concerning human rights and duties which under- lie the best results of modern civilization, and which are incorporated with all the habits of American thought and the fabric of American government. But the time of its issue; and the forms of expression used in it made it clear to men of every party that it was aimed at the Liberal party in the Catholic church. • It was unfortunate that a document in which the American people have so practical an interest should have been published at a time when all our minds were absorbed in the pending question of our national exist- ence. If it had been issued in a time of peace and quiet, its astounding enunciations would have produced a wholesome shock upon the public mind. But amid the excitements of that critical period, it slipped into its place among the documents of past history, with so little attention from the community that it is important for us to reproduce it here. ENCYCLICAL "QUANTA CUR A," AND SYLLABUS. To Our Venerable Brethren, the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, and Bishops of the Universal Church having Grace and Com- munion of the Apostolic See, PIUS PP. IX. HEALTH AND APOSTOLIC BENEDICTION. It is well known unto all men, and especially to you, venerable brethren, with what great care and pastoral vigilance our predecessors, the Roman pontiffs, have discharged the office intrusted by Christ our Lord to them in the person of the most blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, and have unremittingly discharged the duty of feeding the lambs and sheep, and have dili- gently nourished the Lord's entire flock with the words ENCYCLICAL AND SYLLABUS. 23 of faith, imbued it with salutary doctrine, and guarded it from poisoned pastures. And those, our predeces- sors, who were the assertors and champions of the august Catholic religion, truth and justice, being as they were chiefly solicitous for the salvation of souls, held nothing to be of so great importance as the duty of exposing and condemning, in their most wise letters and constitutions, all heresies and errors which are hostile to moral honesty and to the eternal salvation of man- kind, and which have frequently stirred up terrible com- motions and have damaged both the Christian and civil commonwealths in a disastrous manner. "Wherefore those our predecessors have, with apostolic fortitude, continually resisted the nefarious attempts of unjust men, who, like raging waves of the sea foaming forth their own confusion and promising liberty whilst they are the slaves of corruption, endeavored by their false opinions and most pernicious writings to overthrow the foundations of the Catholic religion and of civil society, to abolish all virtue and justice, to deprave the souls and minds of all men, and especially to per- vert inexperienced youth from uprightness of morals, to corrupt them miserably, to lead them into snares of error, and finally to tear them from the bosom of the Catholic church. And now, venerable brethren, as is also very well known to you — scarcely had we (by the secret dispensa- tion of Divine Providence, certainly by no merit of our own) been called to this chair of Peter, when we, to the extreme grief of our soul, beheld a horrible tempest stirred up by so many erroneous opinions, and the dreadful, and never-enough-to-be-lamented mischiefs which redound to Christian people from such errors : and we then, in discharge of our apostolic ministerial 24 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. office, imitating the example of our illustrious prede- cessors, raised our voice, and in several published encyc- lical letters, and in allocutions delivered in cons: and in other apostolical ndemned the prom- inent, most grievOUfl errors of the age, and avc stirred ii]> your excellent episcopal vigilance, and again and again did we admonish and exhort all the sons of the Catholic church, who are most dear to us, that they should abhor and shun all the said errors as they would the contagion of a fatal pestilence. Especially in our first encyclical letter, written to you on the !»th of No- vember, anno 1846, and in two allocutions, one of which was delivered by us in consistory on the 9th of 1>> her, anno 186 I. and the other on the 9th of June, anno 1862, we condemned the monstrous and portentous opin- ions which prevail especially in the present age to the very great loss of souls, and even to the detriment of civil society ; and which are in the highest degree hostile, not only to the Catholic church and to her salutary doc- trine and venerable laws, bat also to the everlasting law r of nature engraven by (xod upon the hearts of all men, and to right reason ; and out of which almost all other errors originate. Now although hitherto we have not omitted to de- nounce and reprove the chief errors of this kind, yet the cause of the Catholic church and the salvation of souls committed to us by God, and even the interests of human society, absolutely demand, that once again we should stir up your pastoral solicitude to drive away other erroneous opinions which flow r from those errors above specified, as their source. These false and per- verse opinions are so much the more detestable by how much they have chiefly for their object to hinder and banish that salutary influence which the Catholic church, ENCYCLICAL AND SYLLABUS. 25 by the institution and command of her Divine Author, ought freely to exercise, even to the consummation of the world, oyer not only individual men but nations, peo- ples, and sovereigns — and to abolish that mutual coop- eration and agreement of counsels between the priest- hood and governments which has always been propi- tious and conducive to the welfare both of church and state. (Gregory XVI. Encyclical, 13th August, 1832.) You are well aware that at this time, there are not a few who apply to civil society the impious and absurd principle of naturalism, as they term it, and dare to teach that " the welfare of the state and political and social progress require that human society should be consti- tuted and governed irrespective of religion, which is to be treated just as if it did not exist, or as if no real dif- ference existed between true and false religions." Con- trary to the teaching of the Holy Scriptures, of the church, and of the holy fathers, these persons do not hesitate to assert that " the best condition of human society is that wherein no duty is recognized by the government of correcting by enacted penalties the vio- lators of the Catholic religion, except when the main- tenance of the public peace requires it." From this totally false notion of social government, they fear not to uphold that erroneous opinion most pernicious to the Catholic church and to the salvation of souls, which was called by our predecessor Gregory XVI, above quoted, the insanity, (Encycl., 13th August, 1832,) (deli- ramentum,) namely, that "liberty of conscience and of worship is the right of every man ; and that this right ought, in every well-governed state, to be proclaimed and asserted by the law ; and that the citizens possess the right of being unrestrained in the exercise of every kind of liberty, by any law, ecclesiastical or civil, so that V.iti.Hii Council. ._ 26 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. they are authorized to publish and put forward openly, all their ideas whatsoever, either by speaking, in print, or by any other method." But whilst these men make these rash assertions, they do not reflect or consider that they preach the liberty of perdition, (St. Augustine, Epistle 10.*), al. 1G(>,) and that, "if it is always five to human arguments to discuss, men will never be want- ing who will dare to resist the truth, and to rely upon the loquacity of human wisdom, when we know from the command of our Lord Jesus Christ how faith and Christian wisdom ought to avoid this most mischievous vanity." (St. Leo, Epistle 164, al. 133, sec. 2, Boll ed. | And since religion has been banished from civil gov- ernment; since the teaching and authority of divine revelation have been repudiated, the idea inseparable therefrom of justice and human right is obscured by darkness and lost, and in place of true justice and legit- imate right material force is substituted, whence it ap- pears why some, entirely neglecting and slighting the most certain principles of sound reason, dare to pro- claim "that the will of the people, manifested by pub- lic opinion, (as they call it,) or by other means, consti- tutes a supreme law independent of all divine and human right ; and that, in the political order, accom- plished facts, by the mere met of their having been accomplished, have the force of right." But who does not plainly see and understand that human society, released from the ties of religion and true justice, can have no other purpose than to compass its own ends, and to amass riches, and can follow no other law in its actions than the indomitable wickedness of a heart given up to the service of its selfish pleasures and interests ? For this reason also these same men persecute with such bitter hatred the religious Orders who have deserved so ENCYCLICAL AND SYLLABUS. 27 well of religion, civil society, and letters ; they loudly declare that the Orders have no right to exist, and, in so doing, make common cause with the falsehoods of the heretics. For, as was most wisely taught by our predecessor of illustrious memory, Pius VI., "the abo- lition of religious Orders injures the state of public pro- fession of the evangelical counsels; injures a mode of life recommended by the church as in conformity with apos- tolical doctrine ; does wrong to the illustrious founders whom we venerate upon our altars, and who constituted these societies under the inspiration of God." (Epistle to Cardinal de la Kochefoucauld, March 10, 1791.) And these same persons also impiously pretend that citizens should be deprived of the liberty of publicly bestowing on the church their alms for the sake of Christian charity, and that the law forbidding "ser- vile labor on account of divine worship " upon certain fixed days should be abolished upon the most fallacious pretext that such liberty and such law are contrary to the principles of political economy. Not content with abolishing religion in public society, they desire further to banish it from families and private life. Teaching and professing those most fatal errors of socialism and communism, they declare that " domestic society or the family derives all its reason of existence solely from civil law, whence it is to be concluded that from civil law de- scend and depend all the rights of parents over their children, and, above all, the right of instructing and educating them. " By such impious opinions and machi- nations do these most false teachers endeavor to elimi- nate the salutary teaching and influence of the Catholic church from the instruction and education of youth, and to miserably infect and deprave by every pernicious error and vice the tender and pliant minds of youth. 28 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. All those who endeavor to throw into confusion both religious and political affairs. to destroy the good order of society, and to annihilate all divine and human rights, have always exerted all their criminal schemes, atten- tion, and efforts apon the manner in which they might, above all. deprave and delude unthinking youth, as we have already shown : it is upon the corruption of youth that they place all their hopes. Thus they never cease to attack by every method the clergy, both secular and regular, from whom, as testify to us in so conspicuous a manner the mosl certain records of history, such con- siderable benefits have been bestowed in abundance upon Christian and civil society and upon the republic of Letters ; asserting of the clergy in general, that they are the enemies of the useful sciences, of progress, and of civilization, and that they ought to be deprived of all participation in the work of teaching and training the young. Others, reviving the depraving fictions of innova- tors, errors many times condemned, presume with ex- traordinary impudence, to subordinate the authority of the church and of this apostolic see, conferred upon it by Christ our Lord, to the judgment of civil authority, and to deny all the rights of this same church and this see with regard to those things which appertain to the secular order. For these persons do not blush to affirm " that the laws of the church do not bind the conscience if they are not promulgated by the civil power ; that the acts and decrees of the Roman pontiffs concerning religion and the church require the sanction and appro- bation, or at least the assent, of the civil power ; and that the apostolic constitutions (Clement XII., Bene- dict XXV., Pius VII., Leo XII.) condemning secret so- cieties, whether these exact or do not exact an oath of ENCYCLICAL AND SYLLABUS. 29 secrecy, and branding with anathema their followers and partisans, have no force in those countries of the world where such associations are tolerated by the civil gov- ernment." It is likewise affirmed " that the excommu- nications launched by the council of Trent and the Ro- man pontiffs against those who invade and usurp the possessions of the church and its rights, strive, by con- founding the spiritual and temporal orders to attain solely a mere earthly end ; that the church can decide nothing which may bind the consciences of the faithful in the temporal order of things ; that the right of the church is not competent to restrain with temporal pen- alties the violators of her laws ; and that it is in accord- ance with the principles of theology and of public law for the civil government to appropriate property pos- sessed by the churches, the religious orders, and other pious establishments." And they have no shame in avowing openly and publicly the heretical statement and principle from which have emanated so many errors and perverse opinions, "that the ecclesiastical power is not by the law of God made distinct from and indepen- dent of civil power, and that no distinction, no inde- pendence of this kind can be maintained without the church invading and usurping the essential rights of the civil power." Neither can we pass over in silence the audacity of those who, not enduring sound doctrine, assert that "the judgments and decrees of the holy see, the object of which is declared to concern the gen- eral welfare of the church, its rights, and its discipline ; do not cla ; m acquiescence and obedience under pain of sin and loss of the Catholic profession, if they do not treat of the dogmas of faith and of morals." How contrary is this doctrine to the Catholic dogma of the plenary power divinely conferred on the sover- 30 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. eign pontiff by our Lord Jesus Christ, to guide to super- vise, and govern the universal church, no one can fail to sec and understand clearly and evidently. Amid so great a perversity of depraved opinions, remembering our apostolic duty, and solicitous before all things for our most holy religion, for sound doctrine, for the saltation of the souls confided to us, and for the welfare of human society itself, hare considered the moment opportune to raise anew our apostolic voice. Therefore do we by our apostolic authority reprobate, denounce, and condemn generally and particularly all the evil opinions and doctrines specially mentioned in this letter, and we wish that they may he held as rep- robated, denounced, and condemned by all the children of the Catholic church. But you know further, venerable brethren, that in our time the haters of all truth ami justice and violent enemies of our religion have spread abroad other impi- ous doctrines by means of pestilent books, pamphlets, and journals, which, distributed over the surface of the earth, deceive the people and wickedly lie. You are not ignorant that in our day men are found who, ani- mated and excited by the spirit of Satan, have arrived at that excess of impiety as not to fear to deny our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, and to attack his divinity with scandalous persistence. And here we cannot abstain from awarding you well-merited praise, venerable breth- ren, for all the care and zeal with which you have raised your episcopal voice against so great an impiety. And therefore in this present letter, we speak to you with all affection ; to you who, called to partake our cares, are our greatest support in the midst of our very great grief, our joy and our consolation, by reason of the excellent piety of w T hich you give 'proof in main- ENCYCLICAL AND SYLLABUS. 31 taining religion, and the marvellous love, faith, and dis- cipline with which, united by the strongest and most affectionate ties to us and this apostolic see, you strive valiantly and accurately to fulfil your most weighty epis- copal ministry. We do then expect from your excellent pastoral zeal that, taking the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and strengthened by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, you will watch with redoubled care, that the faithful committed to your charge " ab- stain from evil pasturage, which Jesus Christ doth not till, because his father hath not planted it." (St. Ignat. M. ad Philadelph. St. Leo, Epist. 156, al. 125.) Never cease, then, to inculcate on the faithful that all true hap- piness for mankind proceeds from our august religion, from its doctrines and practice, and that that people is happy who have the Lord for their God. (Psalm 143.) Teach them " that kingdoms rest upon the foundation of the Catholic faith, (St. Celest. Epist. 22, ad. Syn. Eph.,) and that nothing is so deadly, nothing so certain to engender every ill, nothing so exposed to danger, as for men to believe that they stand in need of nothing else than the free will which we received at birth, if we ask nothing further from the Lord — that is to say, if forgetting our Author, we abjure his power to show that we are free." And do not omit to teach " that the royal power has been established not only to exercise the gov- ernment of the world, but, above all, for the protection of the church, (St. Leo, Epist., 156 al. 125,) and that there is nothing more profitable and more glorious for the sovereigns of states and kings than to leave the Catholic church to exercise its laws, and not to permit any to curtail its liberty ;" as our most wise and coura- geous predecessor, St. Felix, wrote to the Emperor Zeno. "It is certain that it is advantageous for sovereigns, \Y1 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. when the cause of God is in question, to submit their royal will according to his ordinance, to the priests of Jesus Christ, and not to prefer it before them." (Pius VII. Epist. Encycl., Diu satis, 15th May, 1800.) And if always, so, especially at present, is it our duty, venerable brethren, in the midst of the numerous calamities of the church and of civil society, iii view of the terrible conspiracy of our adversaries against the Catholic church and this apostolic see, and the great accumulation of errors, it is before all things necessary to go with faith to the Throne of < trace to obtain mer- cy and find grace in timely aid. We have therefore judged it right to excite the piety of all the faithful in order that, with us and with you all, they may pray without ceasing to the Father <>f lights and of mercies, supplicating and beseeching him fervently and humbly ; in order also that in the plenitude of their faith they may seek refuge in our Lord JeSus Christ who has redeemed us to God with his blood, that by their earnest and con- tinual prayers they may obtain from that most dear heart, victim of burning charity for us, that it would draw all by the bonds of his love, and that all men being inflamed by his holy love may live according to his heart, pleasing God in all thing's and being fruitful in all good works. But, as there is no doubt that the prayers most agreeable to God are those of the men who approach him with a heart pure from all stain, we have thought it good to open to Christians, with apostolic liberality, the heavenly treasures of the church confided to our dis- pensation, so that the faithful, more strongly drawn tow- ards true piety and purified from the stain of their sins by the sacrament of penance, may more confidently offer up their prayers to God and obtain his mercy and grace. ENCYCLICAL AND SYLLABUS. 33 By these letters emanating from our apostolic author- ity, we grant to all and each of the faithful of both sexes throughout the Catholic world, a plenary indul- gence in the manner of a jubilee, during one month, up to the end of the coming year 1865, and not longer, to be carried into effect by you, venerable brethren, and the other legitimate local ordinaries, in the form and manner laid down at the commencement of our sover- eign pontificate by our apostolical letters, in form of a brief, dated the 20th of November, anno 1846, and sent to the whole episcopate of the world, commencing with the words, " Arcano divincB providential concilio," and with the faculties given by us in those same letters. We desire, however, that all the prescriptions of our letters shall be observed, saving the exceptions we have de- clared are to be made. And we have granted this, not- withstanding all which might make to the contrary, even those worthy of special and individual mention and derogation ; and in order that every doubt and diffi- culty may be removed, we have ordered that copies of those letters should be again forwarded to you. "Let us implore, venerable brethren, from our in- most hearts, and with all our souls, the mercy of God. He has encouraged us so to do, by sa3'ing : ' I will not withdraw my mercy from them.' Let us ask and we shall receive ; and if there is slowness or delay in its reception, because we have grievously offended, let us knock, because to him that knocketh it shall be opened — if our prayers, groans, and tears, in which we must per- sist and be obstinate, knock at the door— and if our pra} T er be united. Let each one pray to God, not for himself alone, but for all his brethren, as the Lord hath taught us to pray." (St. C} T prian, Epistle 11.) But, in order that God may accede more casilv to our and 34 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. your prayers, and to those of all his faithful servants, let us employ in all confidence as our mediatrix with him, the Virgin Mary, mother of God, who " has de- stroyed all heresies throughout the world, and who, the most loving mother of us all, is very gracious .... and full of mercy .... allows herself to be entreated by all, shows herself most clement towards all, and takes under her pitying care all our necessities with a most ample affection," (St. Bernard, Serm. de duodeoim prerofjafiri.< />. M. V., ex verbis Apocalyp. ;) and who, " sit- ting as queen upon the right hand of her only begotten son our Lord Jesus Christ in a golden vestment clothed around with various adornments." there is nothing which she cannot obtain from him. Let us implore also the intervention of the blessed Peter, chief of the apostles, and of his co-apostle Paul, and of all those saints of heaven, who, having already become the friends of God, have been admitted into the celestial kingdom, where they are crowned and bear palms, and who hence- forth certain of their own immortality, are solicitous for our salvation. In conclusion, we ask of God from our inmost soul the abundance of all his celestial benefits for you, and w r e bestow upon you, venerable brethren, and upon all faithful clergy and laity committed to your care, our apostolic benediction from the most loving depths of our heart, in token of our charity towards you. PIUS PP. IX. Given at Kome from St. Peter's, this 8th of December, 1864, 1 the tenth. anniversary of the Dogmatic Definition of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, in the nineteenth year of our Pontificate. ENCYCLICAL AND SYLLABUS. 35 The Syllabus of the principal errors of our time, which are stig- matized in the Consistorial Allocutions, Encyclicals, and other Apostolical Letters of our Most Holy Father, Pope Pius IX. I. PANTHEISM, NATURALISM, AND ABSOLUTE RATIONALISM. 1. There exists no divine power, supreme being, wisdom, and providence distinct from the universe, and God is none other than nature, and is therefore muta- ble. In effect, God is produced in man and in the world, and all things are God, and have the very sub- stance of God. God is therefore one and the same thing with the world, and thence spirit is the same thing with matter, necessity with liberty, true with false, good with evil, justice with injustice. (Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862.) 2. All action of God upon man and the world is to be denied. (Allocution Maxima q u idem, 9th June, 1862. ) 3. Human reason, without airy regard to God, is the sole arbiter of truth and falsehood, of good and evil ; it is its own law to itself, and suffices by its natural force to secure the welfare of men and of nations. (Allocu- tion Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862.) 4. All the truths of religion are derived from the native strength of human reason ; whence reason is the master rule by which man can and ought to arrive at the knowledge of all truths of every kind. (Encyclical Letters, Qui pluribus, 9th November, 1846 ; Singulari quidem, 17th March, 1856 ; and the Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862.) 5. Divine revelation is imperfect, and, therefore, subject to a continual and indefinite progress, which corresponds with the progress of human reason. (En- cyclical Qui pluribus, 9th November, 1846, and the Al- locution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862.) 6. Christian faith is in opposition to human reason, 86 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. and divine revelation not only docs not benefit, but even injures the perfection of man. (Encyclical Qui plwri- buB, Oth November, 1840, and the Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 18G2.) 7. The prophecies and miracles, uttered and narra- ted in the Sacred Scriptures, are the fictions of poets ; and the mysteries of the Christian faith arc the result of philosophical invest Igations. In the books of the two Testaments there are contained mythical inventions, and Jesus Christ is himself a mythical tiction. (Encyc- lical Qui 2>hn-ih>/s, Oth November, 1846, and the Allo- cution Maxima quidem, 0th June, 1862.) II. MODERATE nation aj.ism. 8. As human reason is placed on a level with reli- gion, so theological matters must be treated in the same manner as philosophical ones. (Allocution Sing atari qufidam perfusi, Oth December, 1854.) 0. All the dogmas of the Christian religion are, with- out exception, the object of natural science or philoso- phy, and human reason, instructed solely by history, is able, by its own natural strength and principles, to ar- rive at the true knowledge of even the most abstruse dogmas : provided such dogmas be proposed as subject matter for human reason. (Letter ad Archiep. Frising. Gravissimas, 11th December, 18G2 — to the same, Tuas libenter, 21st December, 1863.) 10. As the philosopher is one thing, and philosophy is another, so it is the right and duty of the philosopher to submit himself to the authority which he shall have recognized as true ; but philosophy neither can nor ought to submit to any authority. (Letter ad Archiep. Frising. Gravissimas, 11th December, 1862 — to the same, Tuas libenter, 21st December, 1863.) 11. The church not onlv ought never to animadvert ENCYCLICAL AND SYLLABUS. 37 upon philosophy, but ought to tolerate the errors of philosophy, leaving to philosophy the care of their cor- rection. (Letter ad Archiep. Frising. 11th Decem- ber, 1862.) 12. The decrees of the apostolic see and of the Ro- man congregation fetter the free progress of science. (Id. Ibid.) 13. The method and principles by which the old scholastic doctors cultivated theology, are no longer suitable to the demands of the age and the progress of science. (Id. Tuas libenter, 21st December, 1863.) 14. Philosophy must be treated of without any ac- count being taken of supernatural revelation. (Id. Ibid. ) N. B. To the rationalistic system belong, in great part, the errors of Anthony Gunther, condemned in the letter to the cardinal archbishop of Cologne, Ex- wniam (nam, June 15, 1857 ; and in that to the bishop of Breslau, Dolore hand mediocri, April 30, 1860. III. INDIFFERENTISM, LATITFDIXARIANISM. 15. Every man is free to embrace and profess the religion he shall believe true, guided by the light of rea- son. (Apostolic Letters, Multiplices inter, 10th June, 1851 ; Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862.) 16. Men may in any religion find the way of eternal salvation, and obtain eternal salvation. (Encyclical Let- ter, Qui pluribus, 9th November, 1846 ; Allocution, Ubi primum, 17th December, 1847 ; Encyclical Letter, Singidari quidem, 17th March, 1856.) 17. We may entertain at least a well-founded hope for the eternal salvation of all those who are in no man- ner in the true church of Christ. (Allocution Singulari quadam, 9th December, 1854 ; Encyclical letter, Quanta confieiamur, 10th August, 1863.) c8 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 18. Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion, in which it is possible to be equally pleasing to God as in the Catho- lic church. (Encyclical letter, Noscitis et rwbiacum, 8th December, 1849.) IV. socialism, cummin ism, BBCBSX sociktils, l;li;i.ic\l. - HIS, CLERICO-LIBERAL SOCIETIES. Pests of this description are frequently rebuked in the severest terms in the Encye. Qui pluribus, Nov. 9, 1846 ; Alloc. Quibus quantisque, April 20, 1849 ; Encyc NosciHa <1 Nobi8Cum } Dec. 8, 1849 ; Alloc. Singulori qvA- dam, Dec. 9, 1S54 ; Encyc. Quanto confidamut^ mcerore, Aug. 10, 1868. V. ERRORS CONCKKMNO THE CHUBCH AND HEB KK.liTs. 19. The church is not a true, and perfect, and en- tirely free society, nor docs she enjoy peculiar and per- petual rights conferred upon her by her Divine Founder, but it appertains to the civil power to define what are the rights and limits with which the church may exer- cise authority. (Allocution Singulari quadam, 9th De- cember, 1854 ; MuUisgravibusque, 17th December, 18G0; Maxima 35. There would be no obstacle to the sentence of a general council, or the act of all the universal peoples, transferring the pontifical sovereignty from the bishop and city of Rome to some other bisho}:>ric and some other city. (Id. Ibid. ) 36. The definition of a national council does not admit of any subsequent discussion, and the civil power can regard as settled an affair decided by such national council. (Id. Ibid.) 37. National churches can be established, after be- ing withdrawn and plainly separated from the authority of the Roman pontiff. (Alloc. Multis gravibusque, 17th Pec., 186*0 ; Jamdudum cernimw, 18th March, 1861.) ENCYCLICAL AND SYLLABUS. 41 38. Roman pontiffs have, by their too arbitrary con- duct, contributed to the division of the church into eastern and western. (Letter Apost. Ad Apostoliece, 22d August, 1851.) VI. ERRORS ABOUT CIVIL SOCIETY, CONSIDERED BOTH IN ITSELF AND IN ITS RELATION TO THE CHURCH. 39. The republic is the origin and source of all rights, and possesses rights which are not circumscribed by any limits. (Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862.) 40. The teaching of the Catholic church is o}:>posed to the well-being and interests of society. (Encyclical Qui pluribus, 9th November, 184G ; Allocution Quibus qnantisque, 20th April, 1849.) 41. The civil power, even when exercised by an in- fidel sovereign, possesses an indirect and negative power over religious affairs. It therefore possesses not only the right called that of exequatur, but that of the (so- called) appeUatio ab abusu* (Apostolic Letter, Ad Apostoliece, 22d August, 1801.) 42. In the case of conflicting laws between the two powers, the civil law ought to prevail. (Letter Apost. Ad Apostoliece, 22d August, 1851.) 43. The civil power has a right to break, and to de- clare and render null the conventions (commonly called concordats) concluded with the apostolic see, relative to the use of rights appertaining to the ecclesiastical immunity, without the consent of the holy see, and even contrary to its protest. (Allocution In consisloriali, 1st November, 1850. Mutt is r/raeibuxque, 17th December, 1860. * The power of authorizing official acts of the papal power, and of correcting the alleged abuses of the same, 42 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 44. The civil authority may interfere in matters re- lating to religion, morality, and spiritual government Hence it has control over the instructions for the guid- ance of consciences issued, conformably with their mis- sion, by the pastors of the church. Further, it pos- sesses power to decree, in the matter of administering the divine sacraments, as to the dispositions necessary for their reception. (Allocution /// oonsUforiali, 1st November, 1850 ; Allocution Maxima quidem^ 9th June, 1862.) 45. The entire direction of public schools, in which the youth of Christian states are educated, except (to a certain extent) in the case of episcopal seminaries, may and must appertain to the civil power, and belong to it so far, that no other authority whatsoever shall be recognized as having any right to interfere in the disci- pline of the schools, the arrangement of the studies, the taking of degrees, or the choice and approval of the teachers. (Allocution In consisioriali, 1st Nov., I860 ; Allocution Quibus lucttumssimis, 5th Sept., 1851.) 4G. Much more, even in clerical seminaries, the method of study to be adopted is subject to the civil authority. (Allocution Nunquamfore, 15th December, 185(5.) 47. The best theory of civil society requires, that popular schools open to the children of all classes, and generally, all public institutes intended for instruction in letters and philosophy, and for conducting the edu- cation of the young, should be freed from all ecclesias- tical authority, government, and interference, and should be fulry subject to the civil and political power, in conformity with the will of rulers and the prevalent opinions of the age. (Letter to the archbishop of Fri- bourg. Quum non sine, 14th July, 1864.) ENCYCLICAL AND SYLLABUS. 43 48. This system of instructing youth, which consists in separating it from the Catholic faith and from the power of the church, and in teaching exclusively, or at least primarily, the knowledge of natural things and the earthly ends of social life alone, may be approv- ed by Catholics. (Id. Ibid.) 49. The civil power has the right to prevent minis- ters of religion, and the faithful, from communicating freely and mutually with each other, and with the Roman pontiff. (Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862.) 50. The secular authority possesses, as inherent in itself, the right of presenting bishops, and may require of them that they take possession of their dioceses, be- fore having received canonical institution and the apos- tolic letters from the holy see. (Allocution Nunquam fore, 15th December, 1856.) 51. And further, the secular government has the right of deposing bishops from their pastoral functions, and it is not bound to obey the Roman pontiff in those things which relate to episcopal sees and the institu- tion of bishops. (Letter Apost. MuttipHqea inter, 10th June, 1851 ; Allocution Acerbissimum, 27th Sept., 1852.) 52. The government has of itself the right to alter the age prescribed by the church for the religious pro- fession, both of men and women ; and it may enjoin upon all religious establishments to admit no person to take solemn vows without its permission. (Allocution Nunquam fore, 15th Dec, 1856.) 53. The laws for the protection of religious estab- lishments, and securing their rights and duties, ought to be abolished : nay more, the civil government may lend its assistance to all who desire to quit the religious life they have undertaken, and break their vows. The government may also suppress religious orders, colle- 44 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. giate churches, and simple benefices, even those belong- ing to private patronage, and submit their goods and revenues to the administration and disposal of the civil power. (Allocution Acerbissimum, 27th Sept, 1852; Allocution Probe memineritis, 22d January, is.").") ; Allo- cution Cum scBpe, 26th July, 1855.) 54. Kings and princes are not only exempt from the jurisdiction of the church, but are superior to the church, in litigated questions of jurisdiction. (Letter Apost. Multiplier inter, 10th June, 1851.) 55. The church ought to be separated from the state, and the state from the church. (Allocution Acerbtigi- mum, 27th September, 1S52.) VII. ERBOBS I i CHBIgTIAN ETHICS. .")«".. Moral laws do not stand in need of the divine sanction, and there is no necessity that human laws should be conformable to the law of nature, and receive their sanction from God. (Allocution M lidem, 9th June, 1802.) 57. Knowledge of philosophical things and morals, and also civil laws, may and must be independent of divine and ecclesiastical authority. (Allocution Maxi- ma quidem, 9th June, 18G2.) 58. No other forces are to be recognized than those which reside in matter ; and all moral teaching and moral excellence ought to be made to consist in the ac- cumulation and increase of riches by every possible means, and in the enjoyment of pleasure. (Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862 ; Encyclical Quanta eonficiamur, 10th August, 1863.) 59. Right consists in the material fact, and'all human duties are but vain words, and all human acts have the force of right. (Alloc. Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862. ) ENCYCLICAL AND SYLLABUS. 45 60. Authority is nothing else but the result of nu- merical superiority and material force. (Allocution Maxima quidem, 9th June, 1862. ) 61. An unjust act, being successful, inflicts no injury upon the sanctity of right. (Allocution Jamdudum cer- nimus, 18th March, 1861.) 62. The principle of non-intervention, as it is called, ought to be proclaimed and adhered to. (Allocution Novo8 et ante, 28th September, 1860.) 63. It is allowable to refuse obedience to legitimate princes : nay more, to rise in insurrection against them. (Encyclical Quipluribus, 9th November, 1846 ; Allocu- tion Quisque vestrum, 4th October, 1847 ; Encyclical Nbacitis et nobiscum, 8th December, 1849 ; Letter Apos- tolus Cum Catholica, 26th March, 1860.) 64. The violation of a solemn oath, even every wick- ed and flagitious action repugnant to the eternal law, is not only not blamable, but quite lawful, and worthy of the highest praise, when done for the love of country. (Allocution Quibus quantisque, 20th April, 1849.) VIII. ERRORS CONCERNING CHRISTIAN MARRIA.GE. 65. It cannot be by any means tolerated, to main- tain that Christ has raised marriage to the dignity of a sacrament. (Apostolical Letter, Ad Apostolicce, 22d August, 1851.) G(y. The sacrament of marriage is only an adjunct of the contract, and separable from it, and the sacra- ment itself consists in the nuptial benediction alone. (Id. Ibid.) 67. By the law of nature, the marriage tie is not in- dissoluble, and in many cases divorce, properly so call- ed, may be pronounced by the civil authority. (Id. Ibid ; Allocation Acei'bissim urn, 27th September, 1852.) 46 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. 68. The church has not the power of Laying down what arc diriment impedimenta to marriage. The civil authority does possess such a power, and can do away with existing impedimenta to marriage. (Let. Apost. MultipHces inter, 10th June, 1851.) 69. The church only commenced in later ages to bring in diriment impediments, and then availing her- self of a right not her own, but borrowed from the civil power. (Let, Apis . An the 13th instant, we gave ont votes on the achrma of the first dogmatic constitution de EcdesiA GhrlsH. Your Holiness is aware that there were 88 fathers who, moved by stress of conscience and by love for the holy church, voted by the words "non placet," 02 others who voted by the words "plaed juxta modum," and finally, about 70 who absented themselves from the congregation, and abstained from voting. To these are to be added others who, on account of illness or other weighty reasons, have returned to their dioc For this reason, our votes have been known and manii Your Holiness and to all the world, and it has been made plain how many bishops approve of onr opinion, and in this way we dis- charge the duty and office inoumbenl upon us. Since that time, nothing certainly has occurred to change our views, but on the other hand many things, and those of the gravest character, have taken place, which have settled us in our determi- nation. We therefore declare that we renew and confirm our votes already given. Confirming, then, our votes, by this writing, we have decided to absent ourselves from the public session to be holden on the 18th instant. For that filial piety and reverence which, but a brief time since, brought our representatives to Your Holiness' feet, do not suffer us, on a question so closely concerning the person of Your Holiness, to say "non placet" openly to the pope's face. And furthermore, the votes to be given in the solemn session would be only a repetition of the votes already elicited in the gen- eral congregation. Without delay, then, we return to our flocks, where, after so long an absence, we are very greatly needed, on account of the alarms of war, and especially on account of their extreme spirit- ual wants ; lamenting that in consequence of the unhappy circum- stances with which we are surrounded, we are likely to find the peace and repose of consciences among our believing people bro- ken up. Commending, meanwhile, with all our heart, the church of God and Your Holiness (to whom we profess unfeigned faith and PllOCEEDINGS OF THE COUNCIL. 87 the hands of the pope. Two only, one of- whom was Bishop Fitzgerald of Little Rock in the United States, had the courage to be present at the public session on the 18th of July, and boldly give their public votes in the negative. The new doctrine was promulgated July 18, 1870, in the midst of a storm which darkened the church of St. Peter's. Within a few hours there burst over Europe a storm of war, which stayed not until it had swept away the throne of the infallible pope from un- derneath him. obedience) to the grace and keeping of our Lord Jesus Christ, we remain Your Holiness' most devoted and obedient sons. Rome, July 17, 1870. 88 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. CHAPTER VII. THE SPEECH OF ARCHBISHOP KENBICK. Whkn, on the third day of June, 1870, the deb of the Council on the main question were suddenly silenced, there remained on the list of those who hud signified their intention to speak, the names of some forty bishops who were still unheard. They were for- bidden by the rules of the Council even to print their views so much as for private circulation among the bishops; and the spiritual prohibition was reinf by police arrangements which Locked eyery printing- office in Rome against them. An American prelate, however, Archbishop Kenrick of St. Louis, refused to be thus gagged. Claiming a "divine right to express his convictions on this most important question to his fellow-bishops," he sent the carefully prepared manu- script of his Latin speech to a printer in Naples, where under the flag of an excommunicated king, might be found that liberty for the bishops of the church which was denied them in the States of the Church itself. The solid octavo pamphlet of one hundred pages which was the result of this enterprise, was distributed among the members of the Council with scrupulous care, lest, becoming known to outsiders, it might reveal with an undeniable mark of authenticity those facts in the interior history of the Council, which, when report- ed by irresponsible correspondents, it was so easy to deny with a show of indignation. Furthermore, that fatal forethought with which the opposition, by looking out constantly for a line of retreat, had constantly SPEECH OF ARCHBISHOP KENKICK. 89 weakened their own cause, was an additional motive for keeping the speech private. In case its earnest arguments should be disregarded or overborne by the majority, and the dogma be adopted, it was important to keep the bold statements of this "unspoken speech" hushed up, in order that the author of it might, if worst should come to worst, by-and-by avoid the em- barrassment of publicly repudiating his own printed words, and of accepting under constraint, what he could not be brought to accept by argument. It was vain to suppose that documents confiden- tially printed in editions of 700 could always be kept from the public. One of the copies of this speech has come, by a roundabout course, to our hands. For its intrinsic ability and its incidental historical value, it is entitled to be spread before the public without abridg- ment.* * Since this translation was written, a second Latin copy of the speech has come to hand, in Professor Friedrich's Documenta ad illustrandum Concilium YaUeanum. The original having been thus made accessible to scholars, we are excused from the necessity of cumbering this edition in English with the entire Notes and Appendix attached by the author to his work. CONCIO PETRI RICARDI KEMICK ARCfflEPISCOPI S. LUDOVICI IN STATIBUS FCEDElt ATIS AMERICA SEPTENTRIONALIS IN CONCILIO VATICANO HABENDA AT NON HABIT A O Timothee, depositum custodi, devitans profanaa vooam novitates et oppositiones falsi uominis scientiae, quam quidani promittentes circa Mem exciderunt. 1 Tim. vi. 20. 21. Non super uno Petro veruni super omnes aposto- los apostolorumque successorea, Ecclesia Dei aediflcatus. pAscHAsirs Radbertus. Lib. viii. In Matt. xvi. NEAPOLI TYPIS ERATRUM DE ANGELIS IN VIA PELLEGRINI 4 MDCCCLXX SPEECH OF PETER RICHARD KENRICK, ARCHBISHOP OF ST. LOUIS IN THE UNITED STATES OF NORTH AMERICA, PREPARED FOR SPEAKING BUT NOT SPOKEN IN THE VATICAN COUNCIL. O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profaue and vain bab- blings, and oppositions of science falsely so called, which some professing have erred concerning the faith. 1 Tim. 6 : 20, 21. Not on Peter only, but on all the apostles and their successors, is built the Church of God. Paschasius Radbebt. Book viii, on Matt. 16. NAPLES, DE ANGELIS BROTHERS, PRINTERS, 4 VIA PELLEGRINI. 1870. NOTE. The reason why this speech was not delivered, although prepared for that purpose, is this — that on the third day of June, at the close of the general con- gregation, a stop was unexpectedly put to the general discussion on the first schema concerning Catholic faith. Among forty bishops, more or less, who had entered their names as desiring to be heard, was the writer of the following. He has deemed best that his divine right of expressing his views on this momentous busi- ness to his fellow-bishops, and to others who are enti- tled to an interest in the Council, should be exercised through the press. But he has retained the form of a speech, and some matters that would be pertinent only in a spoken discourse. Eome, June 8, 1870. CONTENTS OF THE SPEECH. 1 Introduction : The occasion of the speech. I. The writer's "Observations" vindicated. [1. To allege that all the apostles, as well as Peter, are styled the foundation, does not impair the argument in favor of the pri- macy of the pope. 2. There is no argument for papal supremacy in John 21 : 16, 17. 3. The word faith in Luke 22 : 32 means only trust, and there- fore yields no argument for infallibility.] II. The universal jurisdiction of the apostles still continues in the whole body of bishops. [The argument of the archbishop of Dublin is suicidal. If the promise made to all the apostles is not fulfilled in their successors the bishops, then the promise made to Peter does not hold good to iris successors in the see of Rome. ] III. The scriptural proofs of the primacy of the Eoman pontiff brought to the test. [1. The primacy of the Roman see is proved by tradition. 2. It cannot be proved by Scripture : Exegesis of Matt. 16:18, 10 ; John 21:16, 17 ; Luke 22:32. 3. Resume of the argument.] IY. Views of the late F. P. Kenrick, archbishop of Baltimore. V. The assent of "the Church Dispersed." [1. The assent has a negative value. 2. Not sufficient for the definition of new dogmas. 3. Instance of the bull Unam Sanctam which proclaimed ex cathedra the doctrine of the subjection of temporal governments to the pope, and had universal assent, but is now generally, though not universally, repudiated, ] VI. Former views of M. J. Spalding, present arch- bishop of Baltimore. VII. Speech of the archbishop of Westminster. No substantial distinction between doctrine of faith and doctrine of the Catholic faith. 94 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. [Distinction between theology and faith. Councils are infallible in testifying, not in alleging reasons of opinion. This distinction has been lost sight of. Objection : This argument impeaches the doctrine of the im- maculate conception. Answer : This doctrine is not defide.] VIII. The Infallibility of the Pope has not been taught as a doctrine of faith in England, or Ireland, or the United States of America. [Whether true or false, it never oaa be made an article of faith,* even if the Council should define it. 1. It has never been so tanghf by (he church ; 2. But has been impugned by her, almost everywh ere but in Italy, and especially in England. Jr. -land, and the United Stat. s. 3. Even by the Pltramontanee it has been tanght only as free opinion. Instances: "Roman-catholic Principles;" Archbishop Spal- ding's Sermons. It is mentioned only to disclaim it, when alleged by Protes- tants. Testimony of Irish tradition. It was solemnly disclaimed when Catholic emancipation was in question.] IX. A Case of Conscience. X. The "Charisma" of Infallibility. XL The addition to the first Decree de Fide, [The trick played upon the minority. Sinister influences in the Council. Conclusion : The precipitation of the question a calamity to the church and the world. ] APPENDIX. A. Second Plenary Council of Baltimore. [Undue influence of the papal legate, and tampering with the record. ] B. The Committee on Faith. [Manipulation of Elections. Packing of the Committee. Ser- vitude of the Council.] Most Eminent Presidents; Most Eminent and Eight Reverend Fathers: The Most Reverend the Archbishop of Dublin, in his speech from this platform, has said some things by which my honor is sorely wounded. It was in vain that I begged permission of His Eminence the president to reply at once, at the close of his speech, or at least at the close of that day's general congre- gation. Therefore it is that, contrary to my previous purpose, I take the floor to-day to speak on the schema in general that is offered for our adoption; for I had taken for granted that everything pertinent to the subject would be more fully and forcibly said by others than I could say it. I entreat your par- don, most eminent and right reverend fathers, if I seem to weary you with a longer speech than I am wont to make. I only ask that you will grant me that liberty which (as Bossuet says) well becomes a bishop addressing bishops in Council, and having respect rather to the future than to the present — in the confidence that I will not wander from the scope of the schema, nor say anything which can give just offence to any one — least of all to the most eminent the archbishop of Dublin, to whom I acknowledge my very great obligations, to whom I have always looked up with respect, for these thirty years and more, and wliom I hope and trust I shall continue to respect to my latest breath. With which preliminary words I come to the subject. 96 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. I. The observations numbered one hundred and thirty-eight in the synopsis, on which His Eminence of Dublin so severely reflects, I acknowledge to be mine. I wrote in them nothing but wliat I thought, and (except so far as may appear to the contrary from the present speech) nothing but what I still think. Three points thereof have been attacked in terms of special severity by the most reverend ] (rel- ate. First, that I said, on page 217, that all the other apostles were designated by the same name of foundation which was applied to Peter; which seem- ed to him to impair the proof of the primacy of the Roman pontiff deduced by theologians from that word. The blame of this, to be sure, should not be laid on me, but on St. Paul and St. John. Rut that this was the furthest possible from my intention is proved by the words which I used, as follows: "The words of Christ, Thou art Peter, etc., certainly show that a privilege was conferred by Christ on Peter above the other apostles, so that he should be the primary foundation of the church ; which the church has always acknowledged, by conceding to him the primacy both of honor and of jurisdiction." I de- nied, indeed, that by virtue of that ward foundation the gift of infallibility was conferred upon Peter above the other apostles; since no mortal ever thought of claiming this privilege for the other apos- tles and then successors from the mere fact that they too had been honored with the same title of founda- tion. I then showed it to be a false inference that the stability of the church was derived from the SPEECH OF ARCHBISHOP KENKICK. 97 strength of the foundation, since Christ had signified that he would provide for each of these in some other way; that is, in the words, addressed to all the apostles, Peter with the rest, "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world." It is hardly fair to say that by this line of reasoning I had either assailed or meant to assail the common arguments for the primacy derived from Christ's words, " Thou art Peter," etc. But I shall show, by- and-by, that the most reverend archbishop himself, by the line of reasoning which he adopts in speaking of the other apostles, and their successors the bish- ops, not only impeaches this argument for the pri- macy, but utterly destroys it. Secondly, the archbishop of Dublin asserted, and that with emphasis, that what I had written about John 21 : 10, 17, was not true; to wit, that the words lambs and sheep which there occur in the Vul- gate version — from the distinction between which, by an argument more subtle than solid, some were wont to infer that both bishops and simple believers are committed to the pastoral care of the Roman pontiff as Peter's successor — corresponded to one and the same word, -npofiuTLa, in the Greek text ; and that therefore the argument was groundless. I can- not sufficiently wonder that the most reverend arch- bishop should have ventured to put forth such an assertion ; especially, as in talking about it, he seemed to get the word ^poparta changed for KpojSura. The Greek text revised a few years since, in accordance with the oldest manuscripts, by Tischendorf, (to 98 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. whom, if I remember correctly, the pope sent a letter of approval for the work which, after vast labor, he had so successfully accomplished,) shows that I was right. I have here the seventh edition, published in 1859, from which I will read the entire passage, add- ing to the successive answers of Christ, the Vulgate version of them,* so that you may plainly perceive that His Eminence of Dublin lias been affected in this matter by some measure of human fallibility. Let me add, that on the arch over the pope's throne in St. Peter's church, where these verses are displayed in Greek, you may read Kpop&na, but not qrfltra. In the little work D< Pontificia Inftdtibilitate, almost of the same tenor as the Ohs< rvations aforesaid, which 1 had printed lately at Naples, by a typographical error the word wpSpara occurs instead of irpopdna, as it was in my manuscript, and as it appears in the Sy- nopsis. But, after all, it is a fact that in the Greek text of Halm the same word irpopara does correspond to both the words, lambs and sheep, in the place cited. But the only difference produced by the variation of reading is this : In Teschendorf's text there is noth- ing whatever to correspond to the word sheep ; for npoSuTia means either little lambs or little sheep, but not sheep at all. But in the other text, of Halm, the word Kpo&ara signifies sheep; notwithstanding which the author of the Yulgate version chose to make a vari- ation, by rendering the same word irpopara in one case * John 21:15. Boone tu upvia fiov — Pasce agnos meos. 1C. UoiuaivE tu TipopuTiu fiov — Pasce agnos meos. 17. Boone tu Tzpoi3driu [xov —Pasce oves meas. SPEECH OF ARCHBISHOP KEN1UCK. 99 by lambs and in the other by sheep.* My assertion, which the archbishop of Dublin over and over again declared with such emphasis to be untrue, is shown to be absolutely true, whichever of the two readings is adopted. As to the Oriental versions cited by His Eminence, I do not care to speak, being satisfied to have demonstrated the truth of my assertion. But from what I shall say by-and-by, it will appear that it is of trifling consequence what sense we attribute to these words, since I shall easily show that (con- trary to what I had said in the Observations) no in- ference can be derived from them in support of the infallibility, or even of the primacy, of the pope. In the third place, the most reverend archbishop calls me to account for what I said concerning the word faith in Luke 22 : 32 ;f that that word was never used by our Lord to mean the system of doctrines, (in which sense alone it can afford any ground for an argument in support of papal infalhbility,) and not more than once or twice to mean that act of super- natural virtue with which we believe in God making revelation of himself. I asserted that by that word [* There is a decree of the Council of Trent in these terms: . . . . " The sacred and holy Synod . , . . doth ordain and declare that the said old and Vulgate edition .... be, in public lectures, disputations, preachings, and expositions, held as authentic ; and that no one is to dare or presume to reject it under any pretext whatsoever." Act. Cone. Trid., Sess. 4. How Archbishop Kenrick justifies himself in rejecting the Vulgate version of this text, in favor of the true reading and correct translation, we are not pre- pared to say ; but it is probably on the ground that this was not intended as a public exposition, but as a private and confidential communication to his fellow-bishops. Translator. ] f "I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not." 100 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. (as may be gathered from tlie discourses of the Lord) was almost always meant trust or confidena I showed that, in the passage cited, the word had this sense and no other, holding to the rale that the cus- tomary meaning of a word is to be retained, unless the context requires a different one — and in the pres- ent case the context favors the usual meaning. The most reverend archbishop said— perhaps not meas- uring the force of his words- that this assertion of mine smacked of the Calvinistie heresy ; in proof of which he adduced John 11 : 27, the words in which Martha professes her belief in Christ, which we arc compelled to understand concerning faith in the Catholic sense of the word. But the excellent bishop did not notice that in my Observation the question was not how to define the true nature of gracious faith as a "theological virtue," but only as to the force of the woi&fatih in its customary usage in the discourses of Christ. Out of twenty-nine passages in the gospels in which this word occurs, (which may be easily seen by consult- ing the concordance of the Lathi Bible,) there are only two— Matt. 23 : 23,* and Luke 18 : 8t— in which the word faith can possibly be taken in the sense of the theological virtue of faith. All the other passa- ges give the meaning of trust or confidence, ot faith of miracles. In Luke 22 : 32,J which is the passage in * . . . " The weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. " t "When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" t "I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not." SPEECH OF AECHBISHOP KENRICK. 101 question, this seemed, and still seems, to me to be proved to be the true meaning, both by the custo- mary usage of the word and by the context. And the most reverend archbishop has brought forward nothing in disproof of this statement.* • II. I now proceed to show that the archbishop of Dublin, by his course of reasoning, has emptied the words, " Thou art Peter," etc., of all the force which theologians have commonly thought them to contain. He denies that the bishops, as successors of the apostles, have that universal jurisdiction in the church which the apostles received from Christ ; which indeed is true if we speak of the individual [* It is pretty clear that Archbishop Cullen took the measure of his words more accurately than Archbishop Keurick gives him credit for. On the one hand, Kenrick is unmistakably and un- answerably right in the definition he gives of the "Word faith as used in the gospels. On the other hand, his antagonist is right in declaring that this definition smacks of Protestantism. For the authorized Roman-catholic definition of faith is the intellectual assent to certain dogmas as revealed. Now when Archbishop Ken- rick shows that the faith to which our Lord Jesus Christ promised eternal life is not that act which the Roman church exacts as the condition of salvation, but is really that act of committing oneself in trust and confidence to the Saviour, which is set forth by evangel- ical preachers as the way of salvation, he does certainly pull out one of the foundation stones on which the whole fabric of the Romish system is built. It is hardly possible to overrate the importance of this point. It is a cardinal point in the whole controversy. Grant the Romish definition of faith, and the Romish doctrine of justification easily follows ; for the mere intellectual receiving of dogmas does of itself neither justify nor sanctify. Grant this definition, and the fig- ment of an infallible tribunal of dogma, constantly sitting and emitting decrees, is necessitated. On the other hand, if the gos- pel definition of faith, as stated by Dr. Kenrick, is admitted, the gospel system of truth naturally follows. Tkanslatok. ] 102 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. bishops outside of a general council, but is not true if understood of the body of bishops, whether in council or not. If (he power given to the apostles, of preaching the gospel in the whole earth, is to be restricted to themselves, although it was given by Christ to continue "to the end of the world," it is impossible to prove that the privilege, whatever it may have been, conferred upon Peter in the words, " Thou art Peter," etc., descended to his successors, the popes. The argument, therefore, derived from these words in Matthew 16:18, 19, falls to the ground from the fact that the words of Christ in the 28th chapter, verses 18, 20, of the same evan- gelist, receive a less literal interpretation; for the question, in both passages, is on the power be- longing to the sacred ministry, and not on any sign of their divine mission, such as working miracles, speaking with tongues, or some other such gift. Either, then, the whole of this power of the ministry passed to their successors, or none of it ; and surely this last cannot be said. I have not, therefore, in- fringed upon the proof of the primacy from the words, "Thou art Peter," etc.; on the contrary, I have explicitly acknowledged that proof. But the arch- bishop, by denying that the universal jurisdiction granted to the apostles has descended to their suc- cessors, has done that very thing himself. I thus prove that all the ministerial privileges granted, whether to Peter or to the rest of the apos- tles, have descended to their successors ; making no inquiry at present what was the nature of these priv- SPEECH OF ARCHBISHOP KENEICK. 103 ileges, or by what sort of evidence they are proved to have been conferred. Whatever belongs to the sacred ministry in the church of Christ by the institution of its Founder, must belong to it always ; otherwise the church would not be such as he instituted it. Therefore those privileges granted to the apostles which concern the function committed to them, are the same now as when they were first conferred. This is equally true of those which were given to all, including Peter, and of that which was granted to Peter individually. On the day of the resurrection, Christ gave commission to all the apostles, always including Peter, in the words, *'As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you," John 20 : 21 ; and afterwards, when he was abcut to ascend into heaven, in the words, " Go, teach all nations," etc., Matt. 28 : 19, 20. But these words, addressed to all, concern them, not as if spo- ken to them individually, but to them, as constituting :i sort of college of apostles; which is clear from the fact that Thomas, though absent when Christ appeared to the apostles on the resurrection day, received (as all admit) the same commission and the same power of remitting sins as the rest. This apostolic college is constituted a moral person, which is to continue to the end of the world ; whose iden- tity is no more diminished by the perpetual succes- sion of its members, than our personal identity is affected by the constant change of the elements that compose our "bodies. Thus it stands ever before men a living eye-and-ear witness of those things 104 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. which Christ did and taught; so that it may always use the words of John, (1st epistle, 1 : 3,) " What we have seen and heard declare we unto von/' What- ever power, then, it had at its origin it has now: divine commission (" as the Father hath sent me ") and universal jurisdiction ("Go, teach all nations") must be acknowledged to belong now to the apostol- ic college. And if this be denied or even weakened, the whole Christian religion falls to the ground. From which I infer that the successors of Peter and the rest of the apostles, constituting the apos- tolic college, have every power now which they bad when the college was first instituted by Christ The individual bishops, taken singly, receive, by the ordinances of the college itself, only an ordinary local jurisdiction in their several dioceses. But the bishops, taken universally, have a universal jurisdic- tion; not in that sense exactly that the universal jurisdiction is made up by the sum of the local juris- dictions ; but that the bishops universally, whether dispersed and separated from each other, or united in a general council, constitute the apostolic college. Hence the words of Cyprian, " There is one episco- pate, an undivided part of which is held by every bishop,"" receive light and a ready explanation. If the most reverend archbishop of Dublin is not pre- pared to admit all this, at least he must confess that the several bishops united in General Council have [* "Episcopatus tmus est, cujus a singulis in solidum pars tenetur." The phrase is one often quoted from the treatise Ik Unit. Ec.cl, and much disputed as to its rendering. Tr.1 SPEECH OF ARCHBISHOP KENUICK. 105 universal jurisdiction. This jurisdiction the illustri- ous archbishop of Nisibis,* at the end of the second volume of the French translation of his History of General Councils, tries to show is derived by the bishops directly from the Holy Ghost, by virtue of their consecration, while he refers their local juris- diction to the Roman pontiff. But the school of theologians to which I adhere considers all episcopal jurisdiction to be held by the bishops by immediate derivation from Christ, but that the ordinary local restriction of it had no other origin than the ordi- nance of the church, in due subordination, neverthe- less, to the Koman pontiff as the head alike of the apostolic college and of the universal church. I say, therefore, that the words of Christ spoken to the apostles lose none of their force to the successors of the apostles ; and in this I lay down nothing which tends to weaken the argument which theologians are accustomed to deduce from Matt. 16 : 18, in proof of the primacy of the Koman pontiff. This argument I now proceed to examine. III. I beg you so far to indulge me, most emi- nent and reverend fathers, as to give me your calm attention while I say things which doubtless will not be agreeable to many of you. I am not about to set forth anything heretical or savoring of heresy, (as the remarks of the archbishop of Dublin may have led you to fear,) nor anything opposed to the principles of the faith, nor anything but what, so far as my slender abilities permit, I shall endeavor [ * Cardoni, one of the pope's theologians. ] lOo THE VATICAN COUNCIL. to sustain with solid argument. One thing I wish to give warning of: I speak for myself only, not for others; and I do not know but that what I am about to say may give dissatisfaction even to those with whom I take sides in the discussion of this question. If, in the course of my speech, I happen to speak too sharply on any point, remember and imitate the example of those leaders who were persuaded to patience by the famous saying, "Strike, but hear." I shall pav due respect to Their Eminences the mod- erators o( the congregation; but I will not be pat down by commotions.* The primacy of the Roman pontiff, both in honor and in jurisdiction, in the universal church, 1 ac- knowledge. Primacy, I say, not lordship. Bat that the primacy is vested in him as the successor of Pe- ter, all the tradition of the church testifies, from the beginning. And on the sole strength of this testi- mony I accept it as an absolutely certain principle and dogma of faith. But that it can be proved from the words of Holy Scripture, by any one who would be faithful to the rule of interpretation prescribed to us in that profession of faith which Ave have uttered at the opening of this Council,! and so often on [* Motibus aidem non cedam. The fact that the writer, prepar- ing his speech in advance, should deem it needful to announce this determination, suggests obvious inferences concerning the charac- ter of the sessions of the Council, and calls for explanation from Archbishop Manning. ] [f The "Creed of Pius IV." (see above, p. 73, note) declares: "I will never take nor interpret the Holy Scripture except in accordance with the unanimous consent of the fathers." Arch- bishop Kenrick goes on to say, with truth, that there never is any SPEECH OF ARCHBISHOP KENRICK. 107 other occasions, I deny. It is true that, following the principles of exegesis, I held the opposite view when I was writing the Observations which the arch- bishop of Dublin has attacked so sharply. But on a closer study of the subject, I judge that this inter- pretation must be abandoned. My reason for this change of opinion is the following : The rule of Biblical interpretation imposed upon us is this : that the Scriptures are not to be interpret- ed contrary to the unanimous consent of the fathers. It is doubtful whether any instance of that unanimous consent is to be found. But this failing, the rule seems to lay down for us the law of following, in their interpretation of Scripture, the major number of the fathers, that might seem to approach unanim- ity. Accepting this rule, we are compelled to aban- don the usual modern exposition of the words, " On this rock will I build my church." In a remarkable pamphlet " printed in facsimile of manuscript," and presented to the fathers almost two months ago, we find five different interpretations of the word rock, in the place cited; "the first of which declares" (I transcribe the words) "that the church was built on Peter : ' and this interpretation is followed by seventeen fathers — among them, by Origen, Cyprian, Jerome, Hilary, Cyril of Alexandria, Leo the Great, Augustine. "The second interpretation understands from such unanimous consent. Literally, then, the creed is a vow not to receive nor interpret the Scriptures at all — in which sense, there is no doubt that it is sometimes fulfilled with great faithfulness an 1 consistency. ] 108 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. these words, ' On this rock will I build my church/ that the church was built on all the apostles, whom Peter represented by virtue of the primacy. And this opinion is followed by eight fathers — among them, Origen, Cyprian, Jerome, Augustine, Theo- doret. " The third interpretation asserts that the words, 'On this rock/ etc., are to be understood of the faith which Peter had professed— that this faith, this profession of faith, by which we believe Christ to be the Son of the living God, is the everlasting and im- movable foundation of the church. This interpreta- tion is the weightiest of all, since it is followed by forty-four fathers and doctors; among them, from the East, are Gregory of Nyssa, Cyril of Alexandria, Chrysostom, Theophylact; from the West, Hilary, Ambrose, Leo the Great ; from Africa, Augustine. "The fourth interpretation declares that the words, ' On this rock/ etc., are to be understood of that rock which Peter had confessed, that is, Christ — that the church was built upon Christ. This inter- pretation is followed by sijctcot fathers and doctors. " The fifth interpretation of the fathers under- stands by the name of the rock, the faithful them- selves, who, believing Christ to be the Son of God, are constituted living stones out of which the church is built." Thus far the author of the pamphlet aforesaid, in which may be read the words of the fathers and doctors whom he cites. From this it follows, either that no argument at SPEECH OF ARCHBISHOP KENKICK. 109 all, or one of the slenderest probability, is to be de- rived from the words, " On this rock will I build my church," in support of the primacy. Unless it is certain that by the rock is to be understood the apos- tle Peter in his own person, and not in his capacity as the chief apostle speaking for them all, the word supplies no argument whatever, I do not say in proof of papal infallibility, but even in support of the pri- macy of the bishop of Kome. If we are bound to follow the majority of the fathers in this thing, then we are bound to hold for certain that by the rock should be understood the faith professed by Peter, not Peter professing the faith. And here I must be allowed to bring forward a signal example of a less ingenuous interpretation, presented in the little vol- ume lately published here at Kome, by an excep- tional privilege, by the reverend archbishop of Edes- sa, which, by the leave of that venerable man, I wish to speak of ; for in a matter of this importance we are bound to use the plainest words, if they are but true. The book is commended by a squad of eleven eminent theologians under the command of the learned Father Perrone, to the supreme pontiff, by whose permission, doubtless, it is excepted from the rule which prevents the bishops from communi- cating their views to each other through the press, unless they are willing to get the use of the press somewhere else than in Home. The two principal interpretations, which under- stand by the rock Peter, and Peter's faith, having been cited, and the observation being made that the 110 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. former was common before the Arian heresy, but that the other gained ground afterwards on account of the rise of the controversy on the divinity of Christ, the most reverend author proceeds -with Ids lucubration in the following words, pp. 7 and 8 : "But it will be obvious to any one who will take the following things into consideration, how mutually consistent are both these expositions of the gospel text. For the establishment and preservation of unity, Christ sets the person of Peter and his succes- sors in the primacy, as the centre, that all believers might be conjoined at once in unity of faith and of fellowship. But since unity consists not only in the fellowship of all belieyers, but especially in the one- ness of faith, which is greater than fellowship, it was absolutely necessaiy both that the foundation of the ecclesiastical structure should be laid, and that the centre of unity should be established, not in the mere person of Peter, but also in the faith which he preached. For if the foundation of the church were laid only in the person of Peter, and not also in the solidity of his faith, then, the faith of Peter failing, the unity of the church would be lost, and a plural- ity of churches would be formed upon the variation in the profession of faith. If therefore Christ wished the church to be one, in the unity of faith and fel- lowship ; if, in order to the perpetual preservation of this unity, he set the person of Peter in the relation of foundation and centre, it behooved him also to set Peter's most solid faith, which he professed and preached, as the foundation ; otherwise he would not SPEECH OF ARCHBISHOP KENRICK. Ill have attained the end wliich lie had set before himself in establishing the church. Wherefore, since both Peter's person and the faith which he preached are the foundation of the church, it is clear that that same rock-like firmness which is the glory of Peter's person is also to be ascribed to his faith, lest, without it, the whole building should tumble. Therefore both expositions of these words of Christ are happily in accordance with his intention in found- ing the church, and one of them serves to throw light on the other. Therefore the fathers of the earlier centuries, applying these words to the person of Pe- ter, not only do not exclude the second interpreta- tion, but by implication presume it ; for, admitting the person of Peter to be the immovable foundation- rock of the whole structure of the church, they are bound by implication to admit at the same time his faith also as standing in the same relation of founda-^ tion; since identity of faith is the foundation of the unity of the whole building. On the other hand, they who hold that Peter's faith is the rock laid by Christ for the foundation of the church, do not ex- clude Peter's person, but only teach more explicitly in what way Peter is to be understood as the reck and foundation of the church. Hence there are several of them who give both expositions, as may be seen in St. Augustine." To say nothing of the fact that the author takes for granted, in these observations, the thing in ques- tion, namely, that Christ founded his church on Pe- ter's personal faith, and that a consequence of this 112 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. is the infallibility of Peter's successors, I remark only on one point. Out of the passages of the fathers which he quotes through six or seven pages, there are many which are capable of being understood either of Peter professing his faith, that is, of Peter's subjective faith, or of the faith professed by Peter, that is, of Peter's -faith taken objectively. But to make his argument good for anything, the author had to prove that the fathers cited by him spoke of the subjective and not the objective faith of Peter — which he has quite neglected to do. It seems to me, after some thought upon the diversity of interpretations, that they may all be resolved into one, by taking into consideration the distinction between the foundation on which a house is built, and the foundation which is laid in the build- ing of it. The builder of a house, especially if it is to be a great house, and to stand a long time, begins with digging down until he comes, as the phrase goes, "to the live rock;" and on this he lays the foundations, that is, the first course of the building. If we admit this double meaning of foundation, all the diversity of interpretations disappears ; and many passages of Scripture, which at first might seem dif- ficult to reconcile with each other, receive great light. The natural and primary foundation, so to speak, of the church, is Christ, whether we consider his per- son, or faith in his divine nature. The architectural foundation, that laid by Christ, is the twelve apostles, among whom Peter is eminent by virtue of the pri- macy. In this way we reconcile those passages of SPEECH OF ARCHBISHOP KENIilCK. 113 the fathers, which understand him on this occasion, (as in the instance related in John 6, after the dis- course of Christ in the synagogue of Capernaum,) to have answered in the name of all the apostles, to a question addressed to them all in common ; and in behalf of all to have received the reward of con- fession.* In this explanation of the word rod; the primacy of Peter is guarded, as the primary ministerial foun- dation; and the fitness of the words of Paul and John is guarded, when they call all the apostles by the common title of the foundation ; and the truth of the expression used with such emphasis by Paul, is guarded : " Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, even Christ Jesus," 1 Cor. 3:2; and the adversaries of the faith are disarmed of the weapon which they have so effectively wielded against us, when they say that the Catholics believe the church to be built, not on Christ, but on a mortal man ; and (a matter of no small account in the present discus- sion) the underpinning is taken out from the argu- ment which the advocates of the infallibility of the pope by himself alone are wont to derive from a figurative expression of doubtful meaning — riding the metaphor to death — to prove that he received from Christ an authority not only supreme, but ab- solute. But whatever may be thought of this opin- ion of mine, it is obviously impossible to deduce from * S. Hieeonymus, in Matt. 16 : 15, 10. S. Augustinus, Enarr. in Psa. 108, n. 1. Idem, in Joannis Evangelium, 118, n. 4. S. Am- brosius, in Psa. 38 : 37. 114 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. the words, "Thou art Peter," etc., a peremptory argument in proof even of the primacy.* As to the other words of Christ to Peter, "Feed my lambs," and " Feed my sheep," it may be said that by that threefold commission Christ showed that Peter had not fallen, by liis threefold denial, from the privilege by which lie had been called to partnership with the apostles; and that this was continued to him in reward for the greater love he bore towards his Lord above the rest. As August ine says, "The triple confession answers to the triple denial, so that his tongue might give no less service to his love than to his fear, and so that impending death should not seem to have drawn out more from him than present life."* The argument adduced by Bellarmine, that the words "my sheep"' and "my kimbs" include the whole flock of Christ, and there- fore show that the power conferred by them extends to all, proves nothing at all. For they are no more general, nor do they any more express the idea of government, than those which Paul addressed to the elders at Miletus collectively : " Take heed to your- selves and to aV theflock\ over which the Holy Ghost hath made you bishops, to rulej (Troiuaimv) the church * After the above had been sent to the printer, I happened on n passage in Paschasius Radbert, which expresses the same idea in advance of me: "Licet super eodem fundamento primus ac si ca- put Petrus recte positus credatur, tamen in ea petra de qua nome.i sibi ex dono traxit, et super earn tota construitur, et constabilitu; ilia ccelestis Jerusalem, id est, super Christum, ut linn a permane.it in asternuni." Expos, in Matt., lib. 8, ch. 16. f In Joann. E vang. , ch. 123, n. 5. X Vulgate, Universo gregi. § Vuhjate, Regere. SPEECH OF AKCHBISHOP KENRICK. 115 of God which he hath purchased with his own blood." Acts 20 : 28 * That the words, " I have prayed for thee," etc., do not have the sense commonly attributed to them, but are to be understood of Peter's fall at the time of the passion, and his subsequent conversion, I have tried to show in my Observations. t " This in- * See S. Basil., Constit. Monastic, ch. 22, n. 5. S. Augustin., De Agone Christ iano, ch. 30. f The following is an extract from the Observations alluded to: • ' Neither is there any more value as a proof of papal inerran- cy in those words of Christ to Peter (Luke 22 : 31, 32) in which the advocates of this opinion think to find their main argument. Considering the connection in which Christ uttered them, and the words which he proceeded to address to all the apostles, it does not appear that any gift pertaining to the government of the church was then granted or promised to Peter, much less that the gift of inerrancy in the government of it was declared to him. It was a warning by which the Lord exhorted him to overcome the impending temptation to which he was going to be exposed, and at the same time an intimation that after his fall he should be con- verted and strengthen the rest of the apostles. Christ prayed therefore for Peter, who, as he was distinguished above the other apostles in his work, was sought above the rest to be sifted by Sa- tan, and was foreseen to be above the rest liable to lapse. Christ prayed for him that his faith might not fail —that is, that he might not wholly or for ever lose that trust by which thus far he had clung to Christ ; and that after his fall, coming to himself again, that is, being converted, he should add courage to the rest. This Peter did after the Lord's resurrection, when he announced the fact to the other disciples, as appears from the words, ' The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared unto Peter.' Luke 24:«3i. The words of Christ, then, are to be understood, not of faith as a body of doctrine, in which sense it is never used by the Lord ; nor yet of faith, the theological virtue by which we believe in God, in which sense it occurs in his discourses no more than once or twice, but of that trust by which, thus far, he had clung to him as a Master. And if a few of the early intei-preters, and the crowd of the moderns, have understood these words differently, and have found them to contain the conferring upon Peter of the office of 116 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. terpretation," says the author of the pamphlet printed in facsimile, "is one of great reputation and author- ity, given by forty-four fathers and doctors both of the most ancient and of later times." For so the words were understood through the first six centuries of the church. The fact that they afterwards received an- other meaning, seems to have grown out of the com- mon usage of ecclesiastical writers, of interpreting the words of Scripture in an accommodated sense instead of the literal sen In addition to the remarks on this subject is my Observations, I take pleasure in adding some tilings which seem to confirm my view of the meaning of' Christ's words. From the fact that the Saviour, after speaking to all the apostles and informing them that Satan had sought them, to sift them as wheat, turns then to Peter with the words, "I have prayed for tltee" — which must necessarily be understood of him alone, to the exclusion of the rest, since, after being converted, he was to strengthen the others — it is inferred that some peculiar thing was promised to Peter in these words. In fact this is true, but some- thing considerably different from the extraordinary gift commonly understood to have been promised to Peter in them. Can it be said that Christ prayed for Peter alone, but that he provided no safeguard for the others, about to encounter so great a peril ? How then does confirming in the faith his brethren, that is, the rest of the apos- tles and their successors the bishops, this does not impose upon other people any necessity of abandoning the simple and literal meaning. " SPEECH OF ARCHBISHOP KENKICK. 117 it come to pass that the others stood firm, unsus- tained by any extraordinary assistance, while Peter, for whom singly Christ prayed, so grievously fell? The true reason why the Saviour addressed the words to him alone seems to be this : He prayed indeed for all, as we cannot but take for granted. But to Peter he intimated, by directing his words exclusively to him, (just as, after Peter's answer in verse 33, he proceeded to say it more plainly in verse 34,) that he would deny his Master. Thus he warned him of his approaching fall, and foretold his conversion, and that by him the rest were to be confirmed. The Lord's words so understood give a clear sense. Be- side the repeated warning given to Peter, they con- tain the prophecy of his conversion; so that when Peter, having come to himself, clearly recollected it, it left no doubt in his* mind of the pardon which he should obtain, and thus saved him, it may be, from despair in view of his most grievous sin. Besides, the successive words addressed by Christ to Peter cannot be understood of his succes- sors without involving an extraordinary absurdity. The words, ""When thou art converted," certainly re- fer to Peter's conversion. If the foregoing words, " I have prayed for thee," and the following, " Strength- en thy brethren," prove that the Divine assistance and the office have descended to his successors, it does not appear why the intermediate words, " when thou art converted," should not belong to them too, and in some sense be understood of them.* [* There is an extremely telling stroke of covert sarcasm here, 118 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. In saying these things, I am not greatly affected by the accusation lately levied against me, without mentioning my name, by the right reverend bishop of Elphin (treading in tin* footsteps of the archbishop of Dublin) when he gave vent to his grief of heart that there should be any among the bishops who would not scrapie to take the texts of Holy Scripture and other citations in proof of papal infallibility, and interpret them in the sense accepted by heretics! "If these things," said that excellent man, "are done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" My answer to him and to others is this: Following the example of Iremens, Tertnllian, Au- gustine, and Vincent of Leans, 1 believe that the proofs of the Catholic faith are to be sought rather hi tradition than in the interpretation of the Scriptures.* " Interpretation of Scripture, '* says Tertullian, " is better adapted to befog the truth than to demon- strate it." Of the testimonies derived from tradition, there are some which, I think, will have to be given up ; as in the phrase of Iremcus on the superior authority which he is commonly thought to have as well as a substantial argument. It is more than implied that if the words impute to the popes Peter's commission and Peter's grant of divine grace, they must impute to them also Peter's con- version and therefore Peter's apostasy. It was quite unnecessary for the author to do more than suggest to his intended audience, that the popes might perhaps succeed better in vindicating their succes- sion to Peter by the signs of apostasy than by the signs of grace. ] [* This frank and unreserved acknowledgment would perhaps hardly have been made in a document intended for the promiscu- ous public. But it is sustained by weighty authorities in Roman theology. Some of these may be found cited by Lord Acton, p. 101] SPEECH OF ARCHBISHOP KENEICK. I1D claimed for the Roman church. But I have taken the responsibility of this concession, alleging sub- stantial reasons, which ought to be met, not with abuse, but with other reasons. It has seemed to me that nice refinements upon figures of speech had better be laid aside ; but I have appealed to the faith of the Councils and the fathers, which shows that such subtleties do not agree with the ancient doctrine and practice of the church universal, but rather contradict them. This method of reasoning is better fitted for bringing back Protestants into the bosom of the church, than arguments the very principles of which they reject ; and which, although they may seem impregnable to less intelligent Catholics, nevertheless are proved by the experience of the last three centuries to be ill adapted for putting an end to controversies. I close this part of my speech with a brief sum- ming up of the argument : We have in the Holy Scriptures perfectly clear testimonies of a commission given to all the apostles, and of the divine assistance promised to all. These passages are clear, and admit no variation of mean- ing. "We have not even one single passage of Scrip- ture, the meaning of which is undisputed, in which anything of the kind is promised to Peter separately from the rest. And yet the authors of the schema want us to assert that to the Koman pontiff as Pe- ter's successor is given that power which cannot be proved by any clear evidence of holy Scripture to have been given to Peter himself except just so far 120 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. as he received it in common with the other apostlt s; and which being claimed for him separately from the rest, it would follow that the divine assistance prom- ised to them was to be communicated only through him, although it is clear from the passages cited that it was promised to him only in the same manner and in the same terms as to all the others. I admit indeed, that a great privilege was granted to Peter above the rest; but I am led to this conviction by the testimony, not of the Scriptures, but of all Chris- tian antiquity. By the help of this testimony it appears that he is infallible; but on this condition, that he should use the counsel of his brethren, and should lie aided by the judgment of those who are his partners in this supreme function, and should speak in their name, of whom he is head and mouth. And yet there is no one but sees how far tins privi- lege falls short of the desires of those who, not with- out abuse of their opponents that stand in the old paths of the church, desire that the papal power, great by its divine origin, and since that, in the course of ages, enormously augmented, should be the sole power in the church.'' * In his Letter to the Archbishop of Paris, dated October 24, 1865, the pope claims for himself the ordinary power in the partic- ular dioceses. In the schema De Romano Pontlfice it is said that he has ordinary and immediate jurisdiction in the universal church. Since this is said without making any distinction be- tween ordinary or episcopal power and ordinary patriarchal or primatial power, it would seem to follow that the pope is actually ordinary or bishop of each several diocese of the Christian world. According to the author of the book On the Roman Curia, who lived at Rome for fifteen years, the pope is the exclusive ordinary of all the missions under the sacred congregation de Propaganda SPEECH OF ARCHBISHOP KENBIOK. 121 IV. At the opening of his speech, the archbishop of Dublin spoke in terms of the highest praise of an English work by my late brother archbishop of Baltimore, on "The Primacy of the Apostolic See;" for which I made due acknowledgments. But in the course of his speech it appeared to me that his com- memoration of the dead was a reproach to the liv- ing ; for he related how that thirty } T ears ago, more or less, he learned by the reading of it, that the do- ings of the Sixth Council in the condemnation of Honorius were nowise opposed to the notion of pa- pal infallibility. The most reverend the present arch- bishop of Baltimore afterwards made honorable men- tion of him, and quoted somewhat from his dog- matic theology, from which it might appear that there was no difference between the opinion which he himself so stoutly defends, and that which, in my letter to him, I asserted to have been my brother's Fide, so that there is no difference between vicars apostolic and the titular bishops set over those missions, except that the latter are ordinary and the former extraordinary vicars of the pope. Die Romische Curie. Bangen. Munster, 1854. Page 2G3. After the Concordats have been done away, which will not be long after the infallibility of the pope is established, all episcopal sees will be at the disposal of the pope alone, ad nutum ; and thenceforth all bishops will be vicars of the pope, liable to be removed at his nod— ad nutum ejus. Thus the church, from which civil society borrowed the form of representative government to which it owes the rights it has acquired, will exhibit an example of absolutism, both in doctrine and administration, carried to the highest pitch. A right reverend orator said, no long time since, that the papal power is, in government, absolute indeed, but not arbitrary ; be- cause it is always guided by reason — which evidently implies that the pope is impeccable. In fact, this is necessarily inferred from his infallibility ; for infallibility is a quality of the intellect, and the intellect is affected by the character. Vatican Council. (3 122 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. opinion. I have a few things to say of each of these bishops. I might prefer a serious complaint against the archbishop of Baltimore for having presented in a garbled and mutilated form, from this rostrum, the passage which has lately so often been brought be- fore the public. My brother's complete sentence is as follows: " On the other hand, that way of speaking is not to be approved, according to which the pope is de- clared to be infallible of himself alone; for scarcely any Catholic theologian is known to have claimed for him as a private teacher the privilege of iner- rancy. Neither as pope is lie alone, since to him teaching, the college of bishops * It is only fair to remember that the writer, as a Koman-cath- olic, had been trained in a system which justifies such things. See above, pp, 7, 8, 10. Many of what are charged as "Protestant frauds " have a Komish origin ; e. g., the Pope Joan story and the "Secret Instructions of the Jesuits." 17G THE VATICAN COUNCIL. Venerable Fathers and Brethren : It is not without some tremors, although with a conscience free and tranquil before the living and heart-searching God, that I rise to address this august assembly. Sitting here among you, I have followed with close attention all the ;ulholy courage ; let us put forth one mighty Vatican Council. 9 194 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. and generous effort ; let us turn to the teachings of the apostles, for aside from these we have nothing but error, darkness, and false tradition. Let us make use of our reason and understanding by taking the apostles and the prophets as our sole infallible teachers on that greatest of all questions, "What shall I do to be saved?" This being decided, we shall have got the foundation laid for our dogmatic system. Setting our feet firmly on the solid and chang< rock of the Holy Scriptures inspired of God, we will go boldly forth against the world, and like the ap Paul, in the presence of the free-thinkers, we will know nothing but Jesus Christ and him erueilied. AVe will conquer by the preaching <>t' the I ss of the cross, as Paul conquere I the orators of Greece and Rome, and the church of Rome will have its own glorious '89 ! You may protest, gentlemen, and cry "Anathema!" but you know perfectly well that you are not protesting against me, but against the holy apostles, under whose protection I would that this Council might place the church. Ah, if bound about with their grave-clothes they were to come forth from their sepulchres, would they speak to you in any different strain from mine ? What answer will you make them, when out of their writings I tell you that the papacy has departed from that gospel of the Son of God which they preached with such courage, and sealed with their generous blood ? Will you have the hardihood to say to them : "We prefer to your instructions those of our popes, our Bellarmines, our Ignatius Loyolas? No, no! a thousand times no ! unless you have closed your ears that you may not hear, and blinded your e$ r es that you PKETENDED "SPEECH OF A BISHOP." 195 may not see, and made gross your hearts that you may not understand. Ah, if He who sitteth in the heavens is disposed to make heavy his hand on us, as once on Pharaoh, he has no need to suffer the troops of Garibaldi to drive us out of the Eternal City ; he need only let us go on to make Pius IX. a god, as we have made the blessed Virgin a goddess. Pause, oh, pause, my venerable brethren, on that hateful and absurd declivity on which you find your- selves. Save the church from the shipwreck that threatens her, by seeking in the Holy Scriptures alone the rule of faith which we must believe and profess. I have spoken. God be my helper ! 196 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. CHA PTEB IX. THE ACTS OF THE COUNCIL. The Council, not yet formally concluded, but to all intents and purposes defunct, has left as a legacy to the Roman-catholic church, besides a history of scan- dals, and the hidden seeds of discord and weakness, two documents under the title of "Dogmatic Constitu- tions." The first of these, entitled " Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith," is of small consequence in ecclesiastical history, inasmuch as it treats, under four heads, of matters on which there was little difference among those who were likely to be affected by the authority from which it proceeded. The Roman-cath- olics did not need it, and the atheists, pantheists, and heretics against whom it was levelled were sure to pay no attention to it. It is sufficient to the purpose of this volume, omitting the verbose periods of the " con- stitution," to give the four chapters of Canons in which the substance of the constitution is briefly summed up negatively in the form of curses against the contrary errors. CANONS ON THE CATHOLIC FAITH. I. OF GOD THE CEEATOE OF ALL THINGS. 1. If any one shall deny one true God, Creator and Lord of things visible and invisible ; let him be anath- ema. THE ACTS OF THE COUNCIL. 197 2. If any one shall not be ashamed to amrni that nothing exists except matter ; let him be anathema. 3. If any one shall say that the substance and essence of God and of all things is one and the same ; let him be anathema. 4. If any one shall say that finite beings, both cor- poreal and spiritual, or at least spiritual, have emana- ted from the divine substance ; or that the divine essence, by the manifestation and evolution of itself, becomes all things ; or lastly, that God is universal or indefinite being, which by determining itself constitutes the universality of things, distinct according to genera, species, and individuals ; let him be anathema. 5. If any one confess not that the world and all things which are contained in it, both spiritual and material, have been, in their whole substance, pro- duced by God out of nothing ; or shall say that God created, not by his will, free from all necessity, but by a necessity equal to that whereby he loves himself ; or shall deny that the world was made for the glory of God ; let him be anathema. I II. OF REVELATION, 1. If any one shall say that the one true God, our Creator and Lord, cannot be certainly known by the natural light of human reason through created things ; let him be anathema. 2. If any one shall say that it is impossible or in- expedient that man should be taught by divine revolu- tion concerning God and the worship to be paid to him ; let him be anathema. 3. If any one shall say that man cannot be raised by divine power to a higher than natural knowledge and perfection, but can and ought, by a continuous 198 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. progress, to arrive at length, of himself, to the pos- session of all that is true and good ; let him be anathema. 4. If anyone shall not receive as Bacred and canon- ical the books of Holy Scripture, entire with all their parts, as the holy Synod of Trent has enumerated them,* or shall deny that they have been divinely inspired ; let him be anathema. III. OF FAITH. 1. If any one shall say that human reason is so independent that faith cannot be enjoined niton it by God ; let him be anathema. 2. If any one shall say that divine faith is not dis- tinguished from natural knowledge of God and of moral truths, and therefore that it is not requisite tor divine faith that revealed truth be believed because of the authority of God who reveals it ; let him be anathema. 3. If any one shall say that divine revelation can- not be made credible by outward signs, and therefore that men ought to be moved to faith solely by the inter- nal experience of each, or by private inspiration ; let him be anathema. 4. If any one shall say that miracles are impossible, and therefore that all the accounts regarding them, even those contained in holy Scripture, are to be dis- missed as fabulous or mythical ; or that miracles can never be known with certainty, and that the divine ori- gin of Christianity cannot be proved by them ; let him be anathema. 5. If any one shall say that the assent of Christian faith is not a free act, but is inevitably produced by the arguments of human reason ; or that the grace of God [* This enumeration includes the Apocrypha.] THE ACTS OF THE COUNCIL. 199 is necessary for that living faith only which worketh by charity ; let him be anathema. 6. If any one shall say that the condition of the faithful, and of those who have not yet attained to the only true faith, is on a par, so that Catholics may have just cause for doubting, with suspended assent, the faith which they have already received under the magis- terium of the church, until they shall have obtained a scientific demonstration of the credibility and truth of their faith ; let him be anathema. IV. OF FAITH AND REASON. 1. If any one shall say that in divine revelation there are no mysteries, truly and properly so called, but that all the doctrines of faith can be understood and demonstrated from natural principles, by properly cultivated reason ; let him be anathema. 2. If any one shall say that human sciences are to be so freely treated that their assertions, although opposed to revealed doctrine, are to be held as true, and cannot be condemned by the church ; let him be anathema. 3. If any one shall assert it to be possible that sometimes, according to the progress of science, a sense is to be given to doctrines propounded by the church other than what it has understood and understands ; let him be anathema. Therefore we,* fulfilling the duty of our supreme pastoral office, entreat by the mercies of Jesus Christ, and by the authority of the same our God and Saviour we command, all the faithful of Christ, and especially those who are set over others, or are charged with the office of instruction, that they earnestly and diligently * That is, the pope, ' ' with the approval of the holy Council. " 200 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. apply themselves to ward off and eliminate these errors from the church, and to spread the light of pure faith. And since it is not sufficient to shun heretical prav- ity, unless those errors also be diligently avoided which more or less nearly approach it, we admonish all men of the further duty of observing those constitutions and decrees by which such erroneous opinions as are not here specifically enumerated, have been proscribed and condemned by this Holy See.* The other constitution adopted, by the Council bears the title, u Firti Dogmatic Constitution on the Church <>/' Christ." After a page or two of preamble, begins the first chapter, entitled, " Of the. Institution <>/ the Apostolic Primacy in Bl r," which " teaches and declares that according to the testimony of the gospel, the pri- macy of jurisdiction over the universal church of God was immediately and directly promised and given to blessed Peter the apostle, by Christ the Lord." The page of scriptural argument with which this proposi- tion is sustained it is unimportant to produce, inas- much as the Council claims infallibility only in the d< >g- mas it enunciates, and not at all in the reasons it gives for them. Confessedly, the arguments by which it sup- ports its infallible dogmas may be every one of them fallacious ;f and inasmuch as in the present case they have been refuted in advance in the speech of Arch- bishop Kenrick,J it would be idle to transcribe them. [* This concluding paragraph is the one insidiously appended to the constitution "just to round it off handsomely," and after- wards treacherously claimed as a concession of infallibility. See above, pp. 83, 163.] \ See Archbishop Kenrick, above, p. 135. % See pp. 105-120. For the full text of these Constitutions, THE ACTS OF THE COUNCIL. 201 For the same reason, Chapter II., "On the Perpetuity of the Primacy of Blessed Peter in the Rowan Pontiffs," may be quoted "by its title only." We come to the real work of the Council only when we reach the last two chapters, which are as follows : CHAPTEE III. ON THE POWER AND NATURE OF THE PRIMACY OF THE ROMAN PONTIFF. Wherefore, resting on plain testimonies of the sacred Scriptures, and adhering to the plain and ex- press decrees both of our predecessors, the Roman pon- tiffs, and of the General Councils, we renew the defini- tion of the (Ecumenical Council of Florence, in virtue of which all the faithful of Christ must believe that the holy apostolical see and the Roman pontiff possesses the primacy over the whole world, and that the Roman pontiff is the successor of blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, and is true vicar of Christ, and head of the whole church, and father and teacher of all Christians ; and that full power was given to him in blessed Peter to rule, feed, and govern the universal church by Jesus Christ our Lord ; as is also contained in the acts of the General Council and in the sacred Canons. Hence we teach and declare that by the appoint- ment of our Lord the Roman church possesses a supe- riority of ordinary power over all other churches, and that this power of jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff, which is truly episcopal, is immediate ; to which all, of whatever rite and dignity, both pastors and faithful, both individually and collectively, are bound, by their duty of hierarchical subordination and true obedience, in Latin unci English, see Abp. Manning's Petri PrivUec/ium, 3. 182-210. 9* 202 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. to submit, not only in matters which belong to faith and morals, but also in those that appertain to the discipline and government of the church throughout the world, so that the church of Christ may be one flock under one supreme pastor, through the preserva- tion of unity both of communion and of profession of the same faith with the Koman pontiff. This is the teaching of Catholic truth, from which no one can de- viate without loss of faith and of salvation. But so far is this power of the supreme pontiff from being any prejudice to the ordinary and immediate power of episcopal jurisdiction, by which bishops, who have been set by the Holy Ghost to succeed and hold the place of the apostles, feed and govern each his own flock, as true pastors, that this their episcopal author- ity is really asserted, strengthened, and protected by the supreme and universal pastor; in accordance with the words of St. Gregory the Great : "My honor is the honor of the whole church. My honor is the firm strength of my brethren. I am truly honored when the honor due.to each and all is not withheld."* * Further, from this supreme power possessed by the Roman pontiff of governing the universal church, it follows that he has t]^e right of free communication * Letters of St Gregory the Great, book 8. 30, vol. 2, p. 919, Benedictine edition, Paris, 1705. [The disclaimer in this para- graph was plainly intended as a salve for the soreness of those bishops who had protested against this statement of the supreme and immediate jurisdiction of the pope in all dioceses, as being destructive of the dignity and almost of the function of the bish- ops. It was much to concede to him the supreme mediate jurisdic- tion, reaching the priests and laity through the medium of the bishop. But to concede to him the right of governing the priests and laity directly, over the head of the bishop, through legates and vicars apostolic, was to concede everything ; and well deserved to be repaid, at least with a few such civil words.] THE ACTS OF THE COUNCIL. 203 with the pastors of the whole church, and with their flocks, that these may be taught and ruled by him in the way of salvation. "Wherefore we condemn and reject the opinions of those who hold that the commu- nication between this supreme head and the pastors and their flocks may lawfully be impeded ; or who make this communication subject to the secular power, so as to maintain that whatever is done by the apos- tolic see or by its authority, for the government of the church, cannot have force or value unless it be con- firmed by the assent of the secular power. And since, by the divine right of apostolic primacy, the Roman pontiff is placed over the universal church, we further teach and declare that he is the supreme judge of the faithful,* and that in all cases the decision of which belongs to the church recourse may be had to this tri- bunal, f and that none may reopen the judgment of the apostolic see, than whose authority there is no greater, nor can any lawfully review its judgment. J Wherefore they err from the right course who assert that it is lawful to appeal* from the judgments of the Roman pontiffs to an (Ecumenical Council as to an authority higher than that of the Roman pontiff. * Brief of Pius VI., Super soliditate, of November 28, 1786. f Acts of the Fourteenth General Council, (Second of Lyons,) a. d. 1274. • X Letter VIII. of Pope Nicholas L, a. d. 858, to the Emperor Michael. [It is under this principle that the Roman-catholic church, which now ostentatiously disclaims the right which it for- merly as distinctly claimed, of attempting the overthrow of a sec- ular government by releasing its subjects from their oath of alle- giance, may, when the occasion arises, reach the same end by de- ciding that the oath is no longer binding and allegiance no longer due. The next paragraph, which declares the pope's sovereignty to extend not only to faith, but to morals, does (as this word is constantly used by Roman-catholic writers) expressly assert that the decision of such political questions belongs to the pope. ] 204 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. If then any shall say that the Roman pontiff has the office merely of inspection or direction, and not full and supreme power of jurisdiction over the univer- sal church, not only in things which belong to faith and morals, but also in those which relate to the disci- pline and government of the church spread throughout the world ; or assert that he possesses merely the prin- cipal part and not all the fullness of this supreme power ; or that this power is not ordinary and imme- diate, both over each and all the churches, and over each and all the pastors and the faithful ; let him be anathema. CHAPTEB IV. CONCERNING THi: IMALl.ir.I.r. TEACHING OF the ROMAN PONTIFF. Moreover, that the supreme power of teaching is also included in the apostolic primacy which the Roman pontiff, as the successor of Peter, prince of the apos- tles, possesses over the whole church, this holy see has always held, the perpetual practice of the church con- firms, and (Ecumenical Councils also have declared, especially those in which the East with the West met in the union of faith and charity. For the fathers of the Fourth Council of Constantinople, following in the footsteps of their predecessors, gave forth this solemn profession : The first condition of salvation is to keep the rule of the true faith.* And because the sentence of our Lord Jesus Christ cannot be passed by, who said, " Thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build [* This passage illustrates how closely the whole fabric of the Romish system is connected with that primary perversion which Archbishop Kenrick so well exposes in his Speech, pp. 99-101 ; the perversion of the word "faith" from its evangelical meaning of trust, to signify the acceptance .of dogmas.] THE ACTS OF THE COUNCIL. 205 my church," Matt. 16 : 18, these things which have been said are approved by events, because in the apos- tolic see the Catholic religion and her holy and well- known doctrine have always been kept undefiled. De- siring, therefore, not to be in the least degree separated from the faith and doctrine of that see, we hope that we may deserve to be in the one communion which the apostolic see preaches, in which is the entire and true solidity of the Christian religion.* And, with the approval of the Second Council of Lyons, the Greeks professed that the Holy Roman Church enjoys supreme and full primacy and preeminence over the whole Catholic church, which it truly and humbly acknowl- edges that it has received with the plenitude of power from our Lord himself in the person of blessed Peter, prince or head of the apostles, whose successor the Roman pontiff is ; and as the a£>ostolic see is bound before all others to defend the truth of faith, so also if any questions regarding faith sjiall arise they must be denned by its judgment. Finally, the Council of Flor- ence defined : That the Roman pontiff is the true vicar of Christ, and the head of the whole church and the father and teacher of all Christians ; and that to him in blessed Peter was delivered by our Lord Jesus Christ the full power of feeding, ruling, and governing the whole church. To satisfy this pastoral duty our predecessors ever made unwearied efforts that the salutary doctrine of Christ might be propagated among all the nations of the earth, and with equal care watched that it might be preserved genuine and pure where it had been re- ceived. Therefore the bishops of the whole world, ° Formula of St. Hormisdas, subscribed by the fathers of the Eighth General Council, (Fourth of Constantinople,) a. d. 8G9. 9M THE VATICAN COUNCIL. now singly, now assembled in synod, following the long established custom of churches and the form of the ancient rule, sent word to this apostolic see of those dangers especially which sprang up in matters of faith, that there the losses of faith might be most effectually repaired where the faith cannot fail.* And the Roman pontiffs, according to the exigencies of times and cir- cumstances, sometinus assembling (Ecumenical Coun- cils, or asking for the mind of the church scattered throughout tin; world, sometimes by particular synods, sometimes using other helps which divine Providence supplied, denned as to be held those things which with the help of God they had recognized as conformable with the sacred Scriptures and apostolic traditions. For the Holy Spirit was not promised to the successors of Peter thai by His revelation they might make known new doctrines, but that by his ce they might inviolably keep and faithfully expound the revelation or deposit of faith delivered through the apostles. And indeed all the venerable fathers have embraced, and the holy orthodox doctors have venerated and followed their apostolic doctrine ; knowing most fully that this see of holy Peter remains ever free from all blemish of error according to the divine promise of the Lord our Saviour made to the prince of his disciples : "I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not, and, when thou art converted, confirm thy brethren." This gift, then, of truth and never-failing faith was conferred by heaven upon Peter and his successors in this chair, that they might perform their high office for the salvation of all ; that the whole flock of Christ, kept away by them from the poisonous food of error, might be nourished with the pasture of heavenly doc- * Letter of St. Bernard to Pope Innocent II. THE ACTS OF THE COUNCIL. 207 trine ; that the occasion of schism being removed, the whole church might be kept one, and, resting on its foundation, might stand firm against the gates of heU. But since in this very age, in which the salutary efficacy of the apostolic office is most of all required, not a few are found who take away from its authority, we judge it altogether necessary solemnly to assert the prerogative which the only-begotten Son of God vouch- safed to join with the supreme pastoral office. Therefore, faithfully adhering to the tradition re- ceived from the beginning of the Christian faith, for the glory of God our Saviour, the exaltation of the Catholic religion, and the salvation of Christian peo- ple, the sacred Council approving, we teach and define that it is a dogma divinely revealed : that the Roman pontiff, when he speaks ex catkedrb, that is, when in discharge of the office of pastor and teacher of all Christians, by virtue of his supreme apostolic author- ity he defines a doctrine regarding faith or morals to be held by the universal church,* by the divine assist- ance promised to him in blessed Peter, is possessed of that infallibility with which the divine Kedeemer willed that his church should be endowed for defining doc- trine, faith, or morals ; and that therefore such defini- tions of the Roman pontiff are irreformable of them- selves, and not from the consent of the church. [* These various limitations are equivalent (as Bishop Dupan- loup has suggested in his Farewell Letter — Appendix to Father Hyacinthe's Discourses, vol. 2) to a definition of the fallibility of the pope on all other occasions than those of ex cathedra utterance. For instance, while the decree certifies that the insolent bull Unam Sanctum, which claims for the pope secular supremacy over all civil governments, (see above, p. 125,) is infallible and irreformable, i( .virtually warns us that the Allocution addressed to certain eccla- 208 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. But if any one — which may God avert — presume to contradict this our definition ; let him be anathema. The work of examining and comparing the enor- mous series of papal document 1 and genuine, to see which of them come within the terms of infalli- bility, is a work yet to be executed by scholars, 3 terms have been fixed with caution, in order to exclude the notoriously heretical teachings of certain of the ear- lier popes, as Honorius and Libcrius. According to siastics by Pius IX. in July or August, 1871, in whichhe distinctly repudiate! the doctrine of U poken by him as a mere man, and is not in the least to In- busted Speaking in this Allocution "as a private doctor," and then for.' I'alliUy, ho claims that the overthrow of governments by popes was never atti under the pretence of a divine right, hut only by virtue of the pub- tie law and usage of li and that the contrary statement is an Ugly calumny, designed to em 1 relations of the Holy See with civil governments. The claim is a timid tergiversation, extorted hy the threatening posture of events, and quite unworthy the author of the Syllabus. Another private doctor, whose authority far outweighs that of Dr. Mastai-Ferretti, to wit, Dr. Orestes A. Brownson, declares that " the power she [the church] exercised over sovereigns in the middle ages was not a usurpation, was not derived from the concessions of princes or the consent of the people, but it was and is hers by ight; and whoso resists it rebels against the King of kings." .... "All history fails to show an instance in which the pope, in deposing a temporal sovereign, professes to do it by the authority vested in him by the pious belief of the faithful, generally-received maxims, the opinion of the age, the concessions of sovereigns, or the civil constitution and public laws of Catholic states. On the contrary, he always claims to do it by the authority committed to him as the successor of the prince of the apostles .... by the authority of Almighty God." . . . "Either the popes usurped the authority they exercised over sovereigns in the middle ages, or they possessed it by virtue of their title as vicars of Jesus Christ on earth." Brownson's Quarterly Review, April, 1854. See the quotation more in full at p. 583 of a convenient book of reference, "Romanism as it Is," by Rev. S. W. Barnum, Hartford, 1871.] THE ACTS OF THE COUNCIL. 209 some Catholic scholars, no document of all the first twelve centuries of church history bears this charac- ter.* But according to others, of equal authority, there are instances of ex cathedra teaching as far back as the age of Cyprian and Pope St. Stephen, f The best that can be said is that it is still left by the Council a doubtful question, and probably one that can never be fully settled without a special papal revelation, what documents are to be reckoned as belonging to the new Bible of the Roman-catholic church. Four, however, of those which are most distinctly certified to the public, under the terms of the Vatican dogma, as infallible and "irreformable," demand atten- tion. I. The first is the bull Unam Sanctam addressed to the whole Christian world in the year 1302, by Boni- face VIII. , which teaches "that there are in the church and in its power two swords, the spiritual and the tem- poral : that it belongs to the spiritual power to estab- lish the temporal and to judge it when it is in the wrong ; so that if the secular power goes astray it is to be judged by the spiritual power ; if the inferior spiritual power errs, it is to be judged by the higher ; but if the supreme spiritual power errs, it can be judged by God only, and not by man ; and that this supreme authority, not human, but divine, is vested in Peter and * Quirinus, p. 131. t See the long Latin tractate by Bishop Ketteler of Mayence, entitled " Quwstio" in Documenta ad lllustrandum Concilium Vati- canum. Speaking of the pope's letter to Cyprian on the rebaptism of those baptized by heretics, the bishop (now a fierce adherent of infallibility) remarks : " If .there is any such thing as a definition ex cathedrd, this was one," and then proceeds to show that instead of being deferred to as infallible or even authoritative, it was op- posed with all his might by that apostle of the authority of the Roman see, St. Cyprian himself. Pp. 39, 40. 210 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. his successors ; and that every human creature is sub- ject to the pope by reason of sin."* II. Paul IV. issued with peculiar solemnity, and directly ex cathalra, his bull Gum ex Apostclatus officio.^ He had consulted his cardinals, and obtained their signatures to it, and then defined, "out of the pleni- tude of his apostolic power," the following proposi- tions : (1.) The pope, who as "Pontifex Maximus" is God's representative on earth, has full authority and power over nations and kingdoms ; he judges all, and can in this world be judged by none. (2.) All princes and monarchs, as well as bishops, as soon as they fall into heresy or schism, without the need of any legal formality, arc irrevocably deposed, deprived for ever of all rights of government, and incur sentence of death. (3.) None 1 may venture to give any aid to an heret- ical or sehismatical prince, not even the mere services of common humanity ; any monarch who does so for- feits his doroinions and property, which lapse to princes obedient tojthe pope, on their gaining possession of them. . . . JV. Such is this most solemn declaration, issued as late as 1558, subscribed by the cardinals, and afterwards expressly confirmed and renewed by Pius V., that the pope, by virtue of his absolute authority, can depose every monarch, hand over every country to foreign invasion, deprive every one of his property, and that without any legal formality, and not only on account * See above, in Abp. Kenrick's Speech, p. 125 ; and in "Fou- voir du Pape au Moyen Age," p. 571. Paris, 1815. t The account of this bull is abridged from Janus— Pope and Council— pp. 311, 312, Am. ed. , THE ACTS OF THE COUNOIL. 211 of dissent from the doctrines approved at Rome, or of separation from the church, but for merely offering an asylum for such dissidents, so that no rights of dynasty or nation are respected, but nations are to be given up to all the horrors of a war of conquest. EEL Far graver and more permanent consequences resulted from the other document,* the bull In Ccena Domini, which the popes had labored at for centuries, and which was finally brought out in the pontificate of Urban VIIL, in 1627. It had appeared first in its broader outlines under Gregory XL, in 1372. Gregory XII., in 1411, renewed it, and under Pius V., in 1568, it preserved its substantial identity, with certain addi- tions. According to his decision it was to remain as an eternal law in Christendom, and above all to be im- posed on bishops, penitentiaries, and confessors, as a rule they were to impress in the confessional on the consciences of the faithful. If ever any document bore the stamp of an ex cathedrh decision, it is this, which has been over and over again confirmed by so many popes. This bull excommunicates and curses .all heretics and schismatics, as well as all who favtftefcor defend them — all princes and magistrates, therefore, who allow the residence of heterodox persaais in their country. It excommunicates and curses all who keep or print the books of heretics without papal permission, all — wheth- er private individuals or universities, or other corpora- tions — who appeal from a papal decree to a future Gen- eral Council. It encroaches on the independence and sovereign rights of* states, in the imposition of taxes, the exercise of judicial authority, and the punishment of the crimes of clerics, by threatening with excommu- * Seo Janus, Pope and Council, 313. 212 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. nication and anathema those who perform such acts without special papal permission ; and these penalties fall not only on the supreme authorities of the state, but on the whole body of civil functionaries, down to scribes, jailers, and executioners. The pope alone can absolve from these censures, except in artieiUo mortis. . . . This bull was annually published in Rome on Maundy- Thursday for two hundred years and if it has ceased to be read out on that day, as before, since Clement XIV. 's time, still it is always treated, as Cre- tinean-Joly states, in the Roman tribunals and congre- gations, as having legal force.* TV. A fourth document on which authority equal to that of divine inspiration IS now declared to be con- ferred is the notorious encyclical Quanta Cura, with its appended Syllabus, This, the chief of the recent utter- ances of the chair of Peter, has already been transcribed in full upon the pages of this volume. f But in one, especially, of its censures, the infallibihty of this docu- ment is pledged to the vindication of all the monstrous and hideous usurpations and tyrannies of which the popes in all past ages have been guilty. The twenty- * The bull In i 'cunu Domini is quoted by Archbishop Manning as being in full force at this day, in / . 3. 19, note. But as if to repudiate in the most unmistakable terms the excuses otfered by those Roman-catholic apologists in free countries, who pretend that this " irreformable " and infallible bull has become obsolete, and that the Romish church has ceased to be a tyranni- cal and persecuting institution, one of the first acts of the reigning pope after the assembling of the Council was to fulminate a new bull, Apostolicce Skdis, '-virtually intended as a renewal or confir- mation of the bull In Coenu Domini." "Certain excommunications nobody paid any attention to are dropped out, as, for instance, of sovereigns and governments who levy taxes without permission of the pope. But new censures of wider application have come into their place." Quirinus, 100, 105. f See above, pp. 22-48. THE ACTS OF THE COUNCIL. 213 third article of the Syllabus stigmatizes as one of "the principal errors of our time" the statement that "the Roman pontiffs have exceeded the limits of their power or usurped the rights of princes."* 'What atrocities against the rights of man and the liberty of nations are hereby justified and claimed as within the just power of the popes for all future time, all history de- clares. According to the new dogma, the pope may by divine right give whole nations into slavery on account of some measure of their sovereign. He has the right to make slaves of a foreign nation merely because they are not Catholics. He has the right to rob innocent populations, cities, regions, or countries en masse, with the sole exception of infants and the dying, of all those services which he declares essential to salvation, merely because the sov- ereign or government has violated a papal command or some right of the "church. f He has the right to make a present of whole coun- tries inhabited by non- Christian peoples, and hand over * See above, p. 39. In the Letter Apostolic Multiplices inter, here referred to in the Syllabus, this statement is cited as the very- climax of the horrors contained in the book under censure. " Fi- nally, not to speak of a multitude of other errors, to such a pitch of audacity and impiety does he proceed, as to pretend, with nefa- rious insolence, that popes of Rome and (Ecumenical Councils have exceeded the limits of their power, and usurped the rights of princes, and also erred in definitions of faith and morals." fie- cueil des Allocutions consistoriales, Encycliques, etc., cities dans VEn- cyclique ct le Syllabus du 8 Dicembre, 1864. Paris, 1865. In this edition, published by the "printers to the pope," the French translation is untrustworthy, two significant clauses being sup- pressed from the single sentence above quoted. f Pope Clement IV., in 1265, "did not exceed his powers" when he applied this process to Charles of Anjou, sheerly to en- force the prompt collection of a debt. Janus, 12. 214 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. all rights of sovereignty and property in them to any Christian prince he may pin He has the right to incite princes, by promises of forgiveness of sins and heaven, to make war on the enemies of his secular authority. He lias the right to provide for the Inquisition by direct and personal legislation of his own, depriving those accused before the holy office of any advocate to defend them, authorizing the application of the tor- ture, obliging the magistrate to carry out the capital sentences of the Inquisition, prohibiting them to spare the life of any lapsed heretic, even on his con- version. He "does not exceed his powers" in forcibly de- priving heretics of their children in order that they may be brought up Catholics. He "does not exceed his powers" in releashi his pleasure from oaths of allegiance taken by a people to their government. He "does not exceed his powers" in absolving a sovereign from the treaties he has sworn to observe, or from his oath to the constitution of his country, or in giving full power to his confessor to absolve him from any oath he finds it inconvenient to keep. He " does not exceed his powers " when he assumes to dissolve the bond of marriage by declaring one of the parties to be excommunicated. The act of Pope Adrian IV., in delivering Ireland over to that subjection to the English crown from which it has never escaped, was within the power of the pope. And the act of St. Pius V., and of his successor Sextus V., which excommunicated Queen Elizabeth of England and invited her assassination, is justified by THE ACTS OF THE COUNCIL. 215 the Council as an act which it would be right to do again, under like circumstances.* * See Quirinus, pp. 634-653. Janus, p. 12. Bishop Dupan- loup, Appendix to Hyacinthe, vol. 2 ; with the references cited by each. All these, at the time of writing, were acknowledged Cath- olic writers. 216 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. CHAPTEB X. THE SEQUEL OF THE COUNCIL. The outburst of war which followed immediately upon the promulgation of the new dogma, and drove the terrified pope and court of Rome to an immediate prorogation of the Council, was not altogether an un- toward c\cnt to the Romish church. It swept away indeed, williin nin< the temporal sovereignty of the pope, which might otherwise have lasted a few months or years Longer. But it served to distract the minds of men from reflecting upon the monstrous act that had just been performed, and so to delay a little, and perhaps to mitigate, the inevitable revulsion of thoughtful minds in the Roman-catholic church from the " sacrifice of the intellect " which was now demand- ed of them ;n the much-abused name of Christian faith. Weeks and months passed by, and the agitations of an unprecedented political crisis, continued to absorb the intellectual activity of the world. No very alarming sounds of protest seemed to be heard from any quar- ter, and the abettors of the plan for the definition of infallibility, if perchance they had had at first some misgivings at the results of the work of their own hands, plucked up courage again, and made themselves merry over the forebodings of those who had prophe- sied damage and loss to the church in consequence of the definition. All this time, however, the court of Rome was not idle. THE SEQUEL OF THE COUNCIL. 217 When, in a political nominating convention, the more numerous of two factions has carried its point against the other by the use of expedients appropriate to that arena — the "previous question," the "suspen- sion of the two-thirds rule," etc. — and so has accom- plished by mere majority what, after all, it needs the "moral unanimity " of the party to make of any avail ; it becomes necessary, after the adjournment, to insti- tute measures for conciliating or whipping in the dis- affected. The situation of the successful party in the Coun- cil w r as very like this. If the threats made in the speeches and protests of the minority, and still more vehemently in their private conversation,* to denounce the Council as "void of truth and liberty," and to refuse assent to its decrees on tins ground, f and on the ground that no conciliar definition could make that to be true which is not true J — should be carried out by any considerable number, all the cost and pains that had been spent in assembling the Council and in for- cing through it the great schema, would prove to have been worse than in vain. The appliances at hand for bringing refractory ec- * Iu pursuance of the plan of this book, to make no statement except on the authority of credible documents, we have refrained from the allegation of many facts which tend to discredit, even to a Eoman-catholic mind, the authority of the Council, but which are demonstrated only by private testimony. It is notorious, and the fact is proved by the concurrent testimony of many inde- pendent witnesses, that the bishops of the minoritj 7 were profuse iu denunciation of moral and physical constraint, intimidation, bribery, and corruption, which they declared to have been prac- tised or attempted by the court of liome in carrying through of its scheme. The statement in the text is justified by reference to Quirinus, and Ce qui se passe au Concile, passim. f See above, pp. 70, 81, 82. % See above, pp. 85, 138. Vi.tioan Council. 10 218 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. clesiastics to terms of submission were not few. Some- times they were to be directly summoned to surren- der, under threat of deposition and excommunication. Sometimes the religious awe with which the authority of pope and council is regarded by sincere Roman- catholics might be trusted to work against t! oppression and outrage with which the dissentients had taken their leave* of Rome before the Council closed. Sometimes, doubtless, the consciousness that all hope of professional promotion was dependent on the good-will of that court of Rome which now de- manded the great act of submission mighl be counted on to torn the balance of some hesitating mind. But another process for enforcing absolute subservience to the central will had Long ago been prepared against just such emergencies, by which the court, without seeming to do anything at all, might in fact do i thing short of actual bodily compulsion. Among the enormous encroachments of the Roman see which in latter ages have swallowed up the last vestiges of the freedom of the bishops is that which is suggested by the phrase " quinquennial faculties." At the accession of each bishop to his office, papers are issued to him licensing him for five years from that date, and no longer, (unless the license be renewed for a like period,) to perform certain acts, without which it would be, in effect, impossible for him to continue the administration of his diocese. It is publicly and re- sponsibly charged, in Rome itself, before the very face of the pope's court, that the adhesion of the bishops of the minority was extorted from them under the pressure of the refusal otherwise to renew their "faculties."* * Letter to Mgr. Nardi, published in La Libertd, Rome, April 14, 1871. "You think that the question of infallibility is closed THE SEQUEL OF THE COUNCIL. 219 By one influence or another it was brought about that many, in fact, nearly all, of the bishops who had protested most stoutly against the dogma as incredible by the adhesion of many of the opposition bishops. You are mis- taken. The Council not having been concluded with the definiens subscripsi of all the bishops, the opposition may at any time be renewed. And well it may be, considering that the adhesions have been obtained in a manner of which you are not ignorant, that is, by means of moral violence. I will mention one case, by way of example. As the last Lent approached, the opposition bishops applied, like the others, for the renewal of their 'faculties' — for the popes now hold all episcopal powers concentred in their own hands. Well, what was the answer? That if they wished the faculties, they should humble themselves at the feet of the holy father, that is, give in their adhesion to his infallibility and exclu- sive jurisdiction. Thus many adhered, in order to escape the vexation of the Curia, and to make it possible to carry on the spiritual government of their dioceses." The letter, though anony- mous, is known to have been written by an eminent priest of one of the religious orders in Rome. In his speech before the Old Catholic Congress at Munich, September, 1871, Father Hyacinthe describes with great power and pathos the various forms of "mor- al violence " brought to bear on the will and even on the conscience, of those who in their hearts disbelieved the infallibility^ dogma, to induce an outward act of submission. Among the "faculties" or licenses issued regularly by the pope to bishops, on their application, empowering them to exer- cise functions pertaining to their office, the most important are those which are always conferred for the term of five years, and are therefore called "the quinquennial faculties." When the person intrusted with them dies or is promoted during the term, the fac- ulties do not descend to his successor, but must be applied for anew. They are enumerated in twenty particulars ; but the most important may be summed up under these six heads : (1.) The power of absolving in cases usually reserved to the pope ; also from heresy, apostasy, schism, and even (in Protestant countries) from relapse. (2.) Permission to have and read (in order to confute them) heretical and other writings designated in the Index of Prohibited Books ; and to allow the reading of them, with the same purpose, (under a prohibition to circulate them,) to other learned and dis- creet men. 220 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. and against the Council as being without liberty and therefore without authority, were induced, like the archbishop of St. Louis, to retract their words ; or else, like the bishop of Cleveland, quietly to retire from the administration of their dioceses. The first voice to break the silence was the same v >f one cry- ing in the wilderness, which had wakened the atten- tion of the whole world by a Protesi uttered from the silence of his Carmelite cell, one short year before. The following is FATHER HYACINTHE'S APPEAL TO THE CATHOLIC BISHOPS. Bona, absent in body, present in spirit) ristmaa, U WheH war broke out, like that thunderbolt which burst over the Vatican at the promulgation of the im- pious dogma, I hastened to write a brief protest. This duty fulfilled, I kept silence. I watched the sweeping off, as of the chaff which the wind driveth away, of those two absolutisms which, sometimes in mutual (3.) Permission to grant dispensations in case of certain im- pediments to marriage. (4.) Power' to absolve in case of secret crime, with the excep- tion of murder ; and to commute, or release from vows, duties of fasting, etc. (5.) Release from the obligation of certain of the more cum- brous formalities in conducting divine sen ice. (6.) The power of transferring these faculties to priests within the diocese. It is obvious that even those bishops who are not "remova- ble at the nod " of the pope, must nevertheless become quite help- less in their subserviency to him, as soon as their ' ' five-years' fac- ulties " expire. For a fuller account of the matter, see that standard Roman- catholic work, Wetzer und Welte's Kirchen-Lexikon, s. v. Fucul- men. THE SEQUEL OF THE COUNCIL. 221 league, sometimes in hostility, had so grievously op- pressed both the church and the world — the empire of the Napoleons and the temporal power of the popes. The abettors of the infallibility movement have not understood this religious silence to . which so many souls have restrained themselves, and which they above all others ought to have maintained ; pursuing that audacious policy which with one stroke has accom- plished both their triumph and their ruin, they busy themselves with noisy calculations upon the more or less prudent reserve of some, the more or less con- strained adherence of others. Such a misunderstand- ing cannot longer be kept up ; it would be wrong not to oppose what would otherwise result in establishing falsehood by prescriptive right. The political catastrophe which, especially for Frenchmen, might seem at first a reason for silence, becomes, if truly apprehended, an urgent motive for speaking and acting. I do not hesitate to say it, the question which at this very moment takes precedence of all others in France is the religious question. France cannot do without Christianity ; and yet she cannot accept Christianity under the forms of oppression and corruption with which it has been disguised. There- fore it is that she, even more than the Latin races in general, has been forced to live without religion, and consequently without moral power, between ultramon- tanism and infidelity, two foes of which she has taken but too slight account, and against whom she had need to fight not less, certainly, than against those who have invaded nothing but her soil. Suffer me, then, in the presence of the woes of my country and the woes of the church, to address the Catholic bishops of the whole world, and especially 222 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. those of them who look ujjon the situation as I do myself, and who, to my own knowledge, arc not few. Who am I that I should speak to them so boldly? But the illustrious Gersoii lias not hesitated to declare that in times of crisis the humblest woman has the right to convoke the (Ecumenical Council and save the church universal. 1 assume this right ; I perform this duty ; I conjure the bishops to put an end to that la- tent schism which is separating as by chasms, the depth of which is the more fearful as it is more unperceived. Above all, we need to be told by them whether the decrees of the late Council are binding on our faith or no. In an assembly the primary conditions of which are absolute liberty of discussion and moral unanimity of suffrage, bishops, respectable by reason of their number ami by their eminence in learning and in character, openly and repeatedly complained of ;tll manner of restrictions put upon their liberty, and finally refused to take part in the vote. Is it possible that, returning to their dioceses, and waking as it were from a long dream, they have acquired the retrospec- tive certainty of having really enjoyed, while at Rome, that moral independence of which they were not con- scious at the time? The supposition is an insult. We are not dealing here with one of those mysteries that are above man's reason, but simply with a fact of con- sciousness. To change one's mind in a matter of this sort would not be to submit one's reason to authority ; it would be to sacrifice one's conscience. Now, if this be so, we are still tree, after, as before the Council, to reject the infalhbility of the pope, as a doctrine unknown to ecclesiastical antiquity and hav- ing its foundations only in apocryphal documents upon which criticism has pronounced beyond all appeal. THE SEQUEL OF THE COUNCIL. 223 We are^till free to say, openly, loyally, that we do not accept the late Encyclicals and the Syllabus, which their most intelligent defenders are constrained to in- terpret in opposition to their natural meaning, and to the known intent of their author, and the result of which, if they were to be taken in earnest, would be to establish a radical incompatibility between the duties of a faithful Catholic and those of an impartial scholar and a free citizen. Such are the most salient points at which the schism has been effected. It is the right of every Catholic who cares for the integrity and the dignity of his faith, of every priest who has at heart the loyalty of his min- istry, to interrogate the bishops on these points ; and it is their duty to answer without reservation and with- out subterfuge. Reservation and subterfuge — these have been our ruin. *It is high time to restore in our church the ancient sincerity in religion which has so decayed among us. But, mark it well, the facts and doctrines which I have pointed out are connected with a great system, and, to reach the details, the remedy must penetrate the whole. The question is aggravated by the very excesses of the ultramontanes, and from this time forth the issue is to be this : whether or not the nineteenth century is to have its Catholic Reformation, as the six- teenth had its Protestant Reformation. Look, O bishops', upon the bride of Jesus Christ, whom you also have espoused, the holy Church, pierced, like Him, with five wounds ! The first, the wound in the right hand — the hand which holds the light, is the hiding of the word of God. That sacred volume, opened over the world to enlight- en and to fructify, why has it been shut up again in the 224 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. darkness of dead languages, and under then* ;il of the severest prohibitions? The bread of instruction and life which God had prepared as well for the poor as for the wise and learned, how has it been taken from them? It is vain to allege, l'<»r a pretext, the abuses of 1 and unbelief. Put the Bible in its true relation with science, by an intelligent exegesis, and they will have nothing to fear from each other. Put it in its true re- lation with the people, by a religions education worthy of itself and of them, and the Bible will become the safest guide of the people's life — the healthiest inspi- ration of their worship. The wound in the other hand is the oppression of intellect and conscience by the abuse of hierarchical power. Of a truth, Jesus Christ said to his apostles : "Go, teach all nations;" but he said also to them : "The princes of the nations exercise dominion over them, but it shall not be so among you !" Successors of the apostles, make haste to unbind from our shoul- ders that burden which neither we nor our fathers liave been able to bear, and restore that light and easy yoke to which we are invited by the love of the Redeemer ! And what shall I say of the spear-wound in the heart P I must call it by its name, for they who most suffer from it are those who most shrink from speaking of it — it is the celibacy of the priests. I speak not of voluntary celibacy, the more pleasing to God as it is free and joyous, like the love that inspires it — the por- tion of a few souls, called to it and sustained in it by an exceptional grace. But when it is extended indis- criminately over natures the most unlike and the most unfit — when it is imposed as an irrevocable oath upon their inexperience and enthusiasm, celibacy becomes an institution without mercy, and too often without mo- THE SEQUEL OF THE COUNCIL. 225 rality. The nations who look upon it as the exclusive ideal of perfection, throw contempt on the sanctity of wedded life ; and, debasing the family in comparison with the cloister, they reduce the family to a mere ref- uge for vulgar, or, at best, for earthly souls. The do- mestic hearth ceases to be an altar ! But the last wounds of the church, that cripple her feet when she would rest upon the earth, are these: worldly policy and superstitious piety. A policy the church must have, for she stands in necessary relations with the powers of this world ; but that policy is most completely expressed in the words of the Master : "I, if I be lifted up above the earth, will draw all men unto me." Is this that policy of the temporal power and the secular arm which makes the possession of cer- tain provinces in Italy and certain privileges in Europe the essential condition o£ the empire of souls, the pivot of the whole spiritual structure ? A policy as fatal to the church and the world as that Revolution which it subserves even while it is contesting it ! A policy the impotent, blind persistency in which it is now desired to exalt to the dignity of a dogma ! And yet there is no lack of spiritual force in modern Catholicism. It counts its devout souls by thousands ; it sees the no- blest works and virtues nourishing within its pale. Why is this piety, so touching and so genuine, too often handed over to the seductions of a mysticism without depth, and an asceticism without austerity- — so differ- ent from those that shed grandeur on the early Chris- tian centuries ? External practices of devotion — mate- rial practices, I had almost said — are multiplied with- out limit ; the adoration of the saints, especially of the holy Virgin, are developed in proportions and under a character which are alien to genuine Catholic feeling ; 10* 220 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. mid that worship of the Father in spirit and in truth, which Jesus made the soul of his religion, is sensibly diminishing among us. Such is the body of Christ, in the state bo which our sins have brought it on the earth — sins of the priests, as much and more than those of the people. O bishops, will you have no pity on us V Will you not apply some efficacious remedy? " Is there no balm in ( lilcad ? Is there no physician there ?" I pause. My heart is so burdened that I cannot go on. I know not what shall become of my poor word amid the shock of empires and the voice of blood going up from the field of carnage. But I know this : that, if it be not strong enough to speed the accomplish- ment of God's designs, it is faithful to declare them. And this, too, I know : that I do not separate my- self from the holy Catholic faith, nor from the church of my baptism and priesthood If her venerated chiefs shall heed my humble appeal, I shall resume at once, in obedience and in honor and loyalty, a ministry which has been the one passion of my youth, the one ambi- tion of my life, and which nothing but my conscience could haae forced me painfully to relinquish. If, on the contrary, they answer me only by their reprobation or their silence, I shall not suffer this to disturb me in my love for a church that is greater than those who govern it, stronger than those who defend it. Holding fast by the heritage left me by my fathers, and not to be rent from me by unjust and therefore invalid ex- communications, I shall devote to the preparation of the kingdom of God upon earth that free personal labor which is the common duty of all true Christians. HYACINTHE. THE SEQUEL OF THE COUNCIL. 227 From France, tossing in the agony of her terrible calamity, this touching appeal called forth no answer- ing voice. It may have seemed to the party of abso- lutism a mere cry of fruitless despair, the wail of a dying cause. For their heart seemed more fully set in them than ever to carry through their victory with a high hand. They proceeded to take rigorous meas- ures against the most illustrious of those scholars who, speaking in the name of theological science, had pro- nounced the doctrine of infallibility to be in contradic- tion to the facts of history, and the citations made in defence of it to be forgeries, interpolations, mutila- tions, and perversions. The venerable Dollinger was summoned by his archbishop to repudiate that which he solemnly believed to be the truth, and to enunciate that which he knew to be falsehood, under penalty of deposition and excommunication. The summons was answered on the 28th of March, 1871, by a memorial respectful in tone, but in its spirit a challenge to the hierarchs of the church to meet its scholars and doc- tors and disprove the indictment of fraud, falsehood, and oppression which he there put on record against them. • He declared himself ready to prove — First, that the texts of holy Scripture cited in de- fence of the decrees of the Council could not be so cited except in violation of the solemn oath, sworn by every priest, not to receive^ nor interpret the holy Scripture except in accordance with the unanimous consent of the fathers.* Secondly, that the assertion that the substance of the new decrees has been believed and taught in the church always and everywhere, or almost everywhere, * See above, p. 10G. 228 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. rests on an entire misapprehension of tradition, and a perversion of history, and is in direct opposition to the clearest facts and testimoni Thirdly, that the bishops of the Latin countries, who constituted the immense majority of the Council, had been misled on the subject of the papal authority by the text-books used in their theological ^training ; the passages quoted in these books as proofs being false, forged, or garbled. Fourthly, that the new decrees are in direct contra- diction to decrees of former (Ecumenical Councils con- firmed by popes. Fifthly, that the new decrees are incompatible with the constitutions of the states of Europe, and espe- cially with that of Bavaria. This brave letter concluded with the following wi >rt exist anywhere in the world, even anion-" the Mohammedans, because the sultan and the shah of Persia themselves acknowl- edge that their power is limited by the law of (iod ami the dogmas of the Koran. By the new decrees tin- pope is not only invested with dominion over the whole field of morality, but he determines — still by himself alone, and with the authority of an infallible master — what does and what does not belong to this domain, what principles are ot divine obligation, and also what interpretation and application it is best to give to them in particular cases. In the exercise of this authority, the pope is not bound to receive any approval outside of himself ; he is accountable to no one on earth, and no one may oppose him. Every one, prince or peasant, bishop or layman, is obliged to submit without condi- tion, and obey without contradiction his every com- mand. If such a power cannot be called unlimited and despotic, there never has been unlimited and des- potic power in the world, and there never will be. II. "We persist in our profound conviction that the Vatican decrees constitute a serious peril to the state THE SEQUEL OF THE COUNCIL. 235 and to society ; that they are incompatible with the laws and institutions of modern states, and that in accepting them we should be entering into an irrecon- cilable conflict with our political duties and oaths. In vain do the bishops labor, whether by affecting to be ignorant of them, or by attempting to interpret them in their own fashion, to destroy the incontestable fact of the existence of bulls and pontifical decisions which subject all powers to the will of the apostolic see, and which condemn in the most absolute way the laws most indispensable to the existence of modern society. The bishops are perfectly well aware that, by virtue of the Vatican decrees, they have no right to restrict pontifi- cal decisions, whether old or recent, by artificial inter- pretations, and that the contradictory explanation of one solitary Jesuit will outweigh that of a hundred bishops. In this very matter, the interpretations of the German bishops are in opposition to those of other prelates, particularly those of the archbishop of West- minster, Manning, who gives to the papal infallibility the widest imaginable extent.* And consequently, not- withstanding the reproaches addressed to us by the bishops, Ave consider ourselves fully warranted in say- ing that an infallibility such as it is wished to ascribe to the pope, and to him alone, without the intervention of any other party, should be styled a personal infalli- bility. This expression is perfectly exact, and in ac- cordance with the usage of speech, in which we com- monly call that power personal which is possessed and exercised by a monarch independently of the other authorities of the state. Thus, too, an official preroga- tive is called personal when it is so strictly and insep- arably attached to a person that he can neither divest * See above, p. 229. 23G THE VATICAN COUNCIL. himself of it nor delegate it to others. When we com- pare (which the German bishops have neglected to do) the condemnations pronounced in the Syllabus, (which has now become a decree invested with the papal infal- libility,) the solemn condemnation by the pope of the Austrian constitution, the simultaneous publicatio the Jesuits of Laach, Vienna, and Koine, who are niueli better informed than the German bishops on the inten- tions of the Roman Curia — when we compare all these with the Vatican decrees, we must be blind not to see an ably-concerted plan tor the universal monarchy of the popes. Our governments, our laws, and our politi- cal constitutions, everything pertaining to morality, the actions of each individual— everything, must hence- forth be submitted to the Roman Curia, its organs, and its legates, whether fixed or itinerant, whether bishops Or Jesuits. Sole legislator in matters of faith, disci- pline, and morals, supreme judge, sovereign, and irre- sponsible executioner of his own sentences, the pope, by virtue of the new doctrine, possesses such a pleni- tude of power, that the most ardent imagination can conceive of none greater. The Cerman bishops might well lay to heart the golden words pronounced at Munich by the Franciscan Occam in a situation analo- gous to our own : "If the bishop of Rome possessed a plenitude of power such as the popes falsely lay claim to, and such as many, through mistake, or in the spirit of adulation concede to them, all men would be slaves ; and this is plainly contrary to the liberty of the gospel law." III. We appeal to the testimony involuntarily borne by the German bishops themselves to the justice of our cause. If we openly and directly reject the new doc- trine which makes the pope universal bishop and abso- TOE SEQUEL OF THE COUNCIL. 237 lute master of every Christian in the whole domain of morals — that is to say, of everything that one may or may not do — the bishops, for their part, prove, by the different and contradictory interpretations given in their pastoral letters, that they apprehend clearly enough the novel character of this doctrine, and the repugnance it excites, and they make it plain that, at the last analysis, they are ashamed of it themselves. Not a man of them has had the r the priest, it is poverty, dishonor under the ban of interdict and the thunderbolt of anathema, the loss of this min- istry of the altar and of souls to which in youth he so joyously offered himself a sacriiice. For the layman it is injury in the good name and estate which are not merely his, but which he holds jointly with his wife and as a trust for his children. If he is an officeholder, he compromises his promotion under an ultramontane administration. If he ifl a representative, he hazards his election ; a physician or lawyer, his practi< merchant, his business connection: a citizen in any relation, his consideration with a great number of his fellow-citizens. Must I mention, in conclusion, one thing more painful still? — he hazards the peace of his Jireside and the sanctity of his shroud and bier!"* In the great Eoman-catholic state of Bavaria, and elsewhere in Germany, the governments refused to sus- tain the sentences of the hierarchy. Deposed ecclesi- astics, like Friedrich and Dollinger, continued to be recognized as holding their former offices, or, as a more emphatic rebuke to the bishops, were advanced in dig- nity. And while schoolmasters, thrust from their em- ployment for refusing submission to the new dogma, were restored and protected by the state, those bishops who had hastened to promulgate the Vatican decrees without the consent of the government, were sharply admonished that they had rendered themselves liable to pains and penalties for violation of public law. Thus * Speech of Father Hyacinthe at the Old Catholic Conference, Munich, September 23, 1871. THE SEQUEL OF THE COUNCIL. 243 Peter once more found that lie who takes the secular sword may perish by the sword. But a far more important matter than the attitude of the governments was the attitude of the peoples. And this was not slow in being manifested. Addresses of sympathy flowed in from every quarter to the men who were recognized as the leaders of the movement. To one of these were attached no less than twelve thousand signatures. And it was a notable thing to what a great extent these signatures represented, not in all cases the nobility or the wealth of the continent, but its thoughtfulness and learning. The new growth had struck deep root in the universities. As if to em- phasize the distinctive character of the struggle as an antagonism between ignorant devotion and enlightened faith, the bishops attempted to offset the moral effect of the multitudes of the Old Catholic addresses and popular assemblies, by gathering mass-meetings, which were made up in large proportion of that ignorant peasantry on whom the grasp of a priesthood is always found to be strongest. The growing movement necessitated a general con- ference for consultation ; and the assembling of such a body at Munich in September, 1871, marks the close of the brief but momentous first chapter of the yet unwritten and unenacted history of the Old Catholic church after its disruption from the Vatican or Neo- Catholic church. Of this meeting, it is sufficient that we record the document which, after long and serious debate, was finally adopted as a 244 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. PROGBAMME OF THE ANTI-INFALLIBIL- ITY LEAGUE. 1. A proper sense of our religious duties compels OS to cling to the Old Catholic tftith as laid down in Holy Writ and tradition, and to the Old Catholic forms of divine service. We therefore regard ourselves as legitimate members of the Catholic church, and will not be expelled from that church, nor do we renounce any of the civil or ecclesiastical rights belonging to it. As to the ecclesiastical penalties to which we have been subjected for adhering to the old faith, we declare them arbitrary and absurd; and shall not thereby be prevented from acknowledging ourselves and acting as true and Conscientious sons of the church. Taking our stand upon the creed contained in the Symbol of Trent, we reject the dogmas proclaimed under the pontificate of Pio Nono as contrary to the doctrine of the church and to the principles which have prevailed since the first Council was assembled by the apostles ; we more especially reject the dogma of infallibility and of the supreme, immediate, and ever- enduring jurisdiction of the pope. 2. We adhere to the old constitution of the church. We repudiate every attempt to restrict the right of the individual bishops to direct the religious concerns of their respective dioceses. We repudiate the doctrine contained in the Vatican decrees, that the poj)e is the only divinely-appointed exponent of ecclesiastical au- thority, such doctrine being at variance with the Canon of Trent, which teaches that the hierarchy consists of bishops, priests, and deacons, and that this hierarchy is instituted by God. We acknowledge the primacy of the Koman bishops as it has been acknowledged in ANTI-INFALLIBILITY LEAGUE. 245 accordance with the testimony of Holy Writ, and by the testimony of the fathers and councils of the old undivided Christian church. "We furthermore declare : (a.) That more is required to define dogmas than the dictum of some temporary pope, backed by the consent, tacit or expressed, of the bishops, who have taken the oath of inviolable obedience to their primate. A dogma to be valid must be in accordance with Holy Writ and the old traditions of the church, such as they have been conveyed to us in the writings of the recog- nized fathers and decrees of the councils. Even an oecumenical council, though it were- really oecumenical and possessed the formal qualifications which the late Vatican Council lacked, would not be entitled to enact decrees in opposition to the fundamental truths and the past history of the church ; nor would such illegal decrees be binding upon the members of the church, even though they had been passed unanimously. And we declare : (b. ) That the dogmatic decisions of a council must be in conformity with the religious belief of the Catho- lic people ; that they must agree with Catholic science and the original and traditional faith of the church. We reserve to the Catholic clergy and laity, as well as to theological scholars, the right to pronounce an opin- ion upon and protest against new dogmas. 3. Availing ourselves of the assistance of theologi- cal and canonical science, we aim at a reform of the church, which, in the spirit of the ancient church, is to do away with the abuses and short-comings now pre- vailing, and satisfy the legitimate wishes of the Catho- lic people for a regular and constitutional share in the direction of ecclesiastical affairs. We maintain that the reproach of Jansenism is 246 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. unjustly cast upon the church of Utrecht, and that, accordingly, there is no difference of dogma between ourselves and that church. We hope for reunion with the Greek, Oriental, and Russian churches, the separation of which from the Catholic church arose without any cogent reason, and is prolonged without there being any incompatibilities in dogma between us and them. If these reforms arc carried out, and the road of science and progressive Christian culture is steadily pursued, we expect that the time will come when an understanding will be effected with the various Protes- tant churches, as well as with tlic Episcopal churches of England and America. 4. In educating the Catholic clergy, we deem it in- dispensable that they should be introduced to the study of theological science. Considering that the clergy exercise a great influence upon the intellectual condi- tion of the people, and that we all are alike interested in possessing a pious, moral, intelligent, and patriotic clergy, we deem it dangerous that candidates for cler- ical honors should be brought up in a state of artificial seclusion from the culture of the age, as is now the case in the seminaries and other similar institutions directed by the bishops. "We demand aTlignified posi- tion and protection from hierarchical tyranny for the members of the lower clergy. We deprecate the prac- tice recently adopted by the bishops, in imitation of the French law, of arbitrarily removing clergymen from one parish to another ; (amovibilitas ad nutum.) 5. We are faithful to the political constitutions of our various states, because they guarantee civil liberty and the advance of the humanizing culture of man- kind. We therefore reject, from motives alike con- ANTI-INFALLIBILITY LEAGUE. 247 nected with the politics of the day and the history of civilization, the treasonable doctrine of papal suprem- acy, and promise to stand by our respective govern- ments in their struggle against ultramontane principles as reduced to dogma in the Syllabus. 6. As the present disastrous division in the Catho- lic church has been notoriously brought about by the so-called Society of Jesus ; as this order is, moreover, abusing its power, infecting the hierarchy, the clergy, and the people with tendencies hostile to culture, or- derly government, and national progress ; and as this order teaches and inculcates a false and corrupt system of morals ; we express our conviction thai peace and prosperity, concord in the church, and the establish- ment of proper relations between church and society will be possible only after the injurious action of this order has been arrested. 7. As members of that Catholic church which can- not be altered by the late decrees of the Vatican, and which has had its existence guaranteed and protected by the various states, we maintain a right to the secu- lar property of the church. 8. Bearing in mind that in the programme drawn up at Munich last Whitsuntide* we have already re- served our right, in the anomalous condition in which we are placed, to have the ceremonies of the church performed by priests under ecclesiastical censure ; that in the same programme some of those priests have declared their willingness to perform those functions ; that we are justified, by necessity, in thus going back to the apostolical times, when there were no distinct parishes ; that the having recourse to such priestly action is dependent on local circumstances and indi- * See above, pp. 232-240. 248 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. victual wants; that until such changes in the law can be effected as will satisfy these wants, Catholics adher- ing to the old faith of their church cannot be left with- out the legal benefit of certain ecclesiastical acts, the Catholic Congress resolves : (a.) That in all places where the want is felt, I •■ lar parish priests shall be appointed, the question whether there is a want being left to the decision of the local committees. (b.) We claim to have our priests recognized by the secular authorities as entitled to perform those gious functions on which civil rights are based, in accordance "with the existing legislation of many states, (c.) The various governments arc to be petitioned to accord us these rights. (<].) Having been placed in the condition in which we find ourselves, every Old Catholic is entitled to ask foreign bishops to perform the said functions for liini ; and when the right moment has come, we shall be jus- tified in procuring a regular episcopal jurisdiction. The paragraph of the foregoing paper most signifi- cant of immediate results, is the last, or eighth. It formed no part of the original draft brought before the conference by a committee of five great Catholic schol- ars, led by Dollinger. The thought of the decisive and almost irrevocable organic separation from that vast corporation which they had all their lives been wont to identify with the kingdom of God on earth, was utterly distressing to them ; and when the addi- tion was moved, they opposed it with all their might. Argument and persuasion might have failed to change their determination. But what these could not have done was wrought bv the malice of their enemies, blind- ANTI-INFALLIBILITY LEAGUE. 249 ly working out the plans of God's providence. Eighty parishes, which very early in the history of the contro- versy had declared their adhesion to the party of lib- erty, were lying under interdict ; the dead were refused Christian burial, and there were none to solemnize the rites of baptism and marriage. There was no alterna- tive. From the beginning, this work had marched on to this point under the guidance of no human forethought, its most active promoters seeming bound by a power that carried them whither they would not. Its chief human promoters have been, in fact, its enemies, "howbeit they thought not so." The history of its brief past helps us indistinctly to forecast its future, and to prophesy that the main interest of the Pro- gramme, which proposes to limit this new growth of religious thought by the Canons of Trent, will be mainly interesting to the future historian as an his- toric landmark from which to measure its advancement. Thus, briefly, ki a single one of its aspects, have we traced the history of two of the most momentous years in ecclesiastical history. And if our hearts and sym- pathies have constantly been with those who in the great pending struggle have been the champions of personal and national and ecclesiastical liberty, and of scriptural and historical truth, we would not do injus- tice to those on the other side who may have been fighting for conscience' sake. It is possible for us to recognize the fact which they behold so clearly, but which, with happy inconsistency, the "Liberal Catho- lic " is unable to perceive — that despotism, spiritual and secular, and falsehood to science and to history, arc the logical result of the premises with which they 250 THE VATICAN COUNCIL. start. We cannot refuse our respect to a certain moral dignity in the course of those whose steady advocacy of the fatal dogmas was not actuated by the spirit of faction nor by the solicitation and corruption of the Roman court, but by a steadfast fidelity to those; wretched principles which find their logical fulfilment only in just such conclusions. There is something to admire in the unmoved resolution with which, under such convictions, they went forward, in the face of signs of coming disaster that even a child could read. to enunciate and promulgate the blasphemous dogma which they were warned would revolt the intellect and conscience of even Roman-catholic Christendom. The only parties in the business towards whom it is impossible even for charity to find some feeling of re- spect, are the corrupt abettors of the dogma; and those of its opposers who, having known and declared it to be a falsehood, nevertheless proclaim their sub- mission to it, and under the threat of Rome consent to lend their active aid to enforce upon other men this "strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.'' THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY WILL INCREASE TO 50 CENTS ON THE FOURTH DAY AND TO $1.00 ON THE SEVENTH DAY OVERDUE. 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