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LECTURES

ON THE

(ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.

V

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

THE LIBRARY OF THE
DIVINITY SCHOOL

LECTUEES

ON THE

(ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.

LECTURES

(ECUMENICAL COUNCIL,

DELIVERED IN THE

CHUKCH OF ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST, BATH.

BY THE

KEV. J. N. SWEENEY, O.S.B.

" Whosoever keepeth the faith of the Connoils, to him be the peace of God,
through Jeans Christ, His Son." — S. Qregorhis Magnus.

LONDON :
CATHOLIC PUBLISHING AND BOOKSELLING COMPANY
(limited),
53, NEW BOND STEEET, W.
Thomas Booker, Manager.
1870.

PKEFACE.

¥ FEEL that I owe no apology for having deli
vered these Lectures upon the Council, though I
do owe an apology for publishing them. Delivering
them was a pastoral duty, undertaken in behalf of
those to whom they were addressed. Publishing them
is something beyond a pastoral duty, and seems to
suppose that they can be of further use, than that
which is implied in the work which each Priest owes
to his own immediate flock. But it has been at
the request of those who heard them, that they have
assumed a form in which they may be of more last
ing service to the people for whom they were pre
pared, and may perhaps be of interest to others also.
The task was undertaken without any intention of
publication; and as the Lectures were written out
after delivery, and had to be prepared for the press
during the very heavy and fatiguing labours asso
ciated with the Christmas solemnities, I feel that
there is about them an imperfection which would

VI PBEFACE.
probably have .been less striking, if greater leisure had
allowed of a more attentive preparation.
The great fact of the (Ecumenical Council of the
Vatican has given occasion to many publications, and
has formed a special department in theological litera
ture. There are many ways in which the subject
may be treated, and has been treated. I have se
lected what seemed to me the most practical mode of
presenting the subject, and the interest with which the
Lectures were followed, confirmed me in my opinion
that I had not adopted an unpopular course. If it
may appear that the Council is only taken as an
idea, around which to gather many principles and
questions of controversy, it must be admitted that
this is the use which has been made of this glorious
manifestation of the Catholic Church by those who
are .opposed to her claims, and that the Council has
shown how the Church is sharing with her Divine
Pounder the fate of being set up as a sign to be
.contradicted. The Council is a challenge, and it has
been accepted as such. Because the Church has
gathered together her forces in defence of the truth,
her enemies have had recourse to all their usual
devices, in order to resist and withstand her march
towards victory, and have tried to prevent the im
pression which such a splendid declaration of her

PBEFACE. Vll
power is calculated to create. It is on the side of
the Church against her opponents, that every one of
her faithful Children ought to be glad to be arraigned;
and all ought to be willing to do what lies in their
power to put the Council in its true light in the
view of those who are willing to see the truth as
it really is.
The Church is a mother to us all. She has claims,
most sacred and affectionate, upon our duty and our
love. In her days of sorrow, it becomes us to be
with her in sympathy, and not to abandon her cause;
and in her days of triumph we may claim our share
of the joy which attends her victory. A Council is
a victory. It is a victory over the world; for every
Council has strengthened that Faith by which the world
is conquered. As in the older Councils of Nicsea,
Ephesus, and Chalcedon, the Church gave a death
blow to heresies against which she then directed her
efforts, so, in spite of the confidence which the world
assumes in its present attitude against the Church,
future historians will, in numbering the triumphs of
the Church over the world, record the victory achieved
in the Council of the Vatican. May Grod, in His
mercy, grant that many may through its means be
brought to the Faith! And may He vouchsafe that
our present Holy Father, Pius IX., who, under the in-

V1U PREFACE.
spiration of the Holy Ghost, has inaugurated this
great work, may live to see its happy and glorious
results, which must follow from the deliberations of the
Fathers gathered around him, and which must attend
upon the prayers made without ceasing by the Church
unto God for him! Thus was St. Peter liberated by
an Angel from the hands of Herod, and spared to pre
side over the Council of Jerusalem ; and thus has his
successor been hitherto defended under similar perse
cution, and has been directed to commence — what we
pray he may witness even to its close — the Council of
the Vatican !
St. John's Pbioey, Bath.
February ±ih, 1870.

CONTENTS.

Lecture Pass
I. — Introductory. Definitions  1
H. — The Council of Jerusalem (Acts xv.) a Sanction and a
Model for future Councils  14
EH. — An (Ecumenical Council desirable in itself as a test of
Orthodoxy  28
IV.— An Oecumenical Council possible in the True Church only 46
V. — What the Oecumenical Councils have done  66
VI. — An (Ecumenical Council, the clearest Manifestation of Unity
and Catholicity  88
VII. — An Oecumenical Council the loudest protest against Actual
Error  107
YTTT. — An GEcumenical Council, the Eepresentative of the Gospel
against the World  128
IX. — The Eve of the Council. The work of Preparation . . . 150
X. — The Council at work. What the Council is actually doing 174
. XI. — The Influence of the Oecumenical Council on the Future . 196
XH. — The Duties of the Council towards us. Our Duties towards
the Council  218

THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.

LECTURE I.

INTRODUCTORY. DEFINITIONS.

All power is given to Me in heaven and on earth. Going, therefore,
teach ye all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe
all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and behold I am with
you all days, even to the consummation of the world. — Matt, xxviii.
18, 19, 20.
What a noble and majestic commission is this, given by
the Divine Redeemer of the world, when, for the very last
time, He called His Apostles together, spoke to them His
parting words, gave them universal and supreme autho
rity to teach, confirmed in them the power of the
ministry, assured them of His ever-abiding presence
amongst them, and then gently raising Himself from the
ground, blessed them, and ascended into Heaven ! For
these were the last words which He ever spoke upon
earth ; solemn words, as words on such an occasion must
have been ; words well weighed, as words must be which
come from the wisdom of God; words full of power, as
those must be which are backed by the Omnipotence of
God ; and words full of efficacy, as the future has shown
and will continue to show for ever.
That meeting upon Mount Olivet on the Day of the
Ascension, when these noble words were spoken, formed
B

2 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
what might not unfittingly be called the last (Ecumenical
Council held by our dear Lord during His visible sojourn
upon earth. And it was upon a mountain, apart from
all the distractions and vanities which were occupying
others, that He called His Apostles together to speak to
them upon the Kingdom of God. And what had been to
him that Mountain of Olives on which they were then
assembled ? At its foot lay the Garden of Gethsemani,
where He had commenced the martyrdom of His Passion ;
and at a little distance beneath stood that unfortunate
and thoughtless Jerusalem, red with the blood of many
martyred prophets, and probably at that moment discuss
ing, with all its pride and self-sufficiency, the failure, as
it would call it, of the attempt which had just before been
made within its walls, to establish a new Religion, and to
found a new Kingdom of God upon earth. Boastingly
might the people of Jerusalem point up to Calvary, and
show the spot where they considered all those hopes to
have been crushed; but they little knew of what was
going on meanwhile upon Mount Olivet, where He who
had conquered the world by the Cross, was claiming and
dividing His spoils, and was sending forth ambassadors
to assert His cause in every nation of the earth.
There is a principle, my dear brethren, which it is
important to bear in mind at the very commencement of
the task upon which we have now entered, and it is this :
that the life of Christ is ever and constantly being realized
and repeated in His Kingdom upon earth, so that what He
did when He was seen upon earth and conversed with men
(Bar. iii. 38) is being enacted over and over again in the
Church. He identifies Himself with His Apostles when
He declares that whoever hears or despises them, hears

LECTURE I. 3
or despises Himself; and in His very last words which
I have cited for you, He declares that He will remain
with His Church all days even to the consummation of the
world. Not only, therefore, does He by this constantly
abiding presence minister with the Priesthood, teach with
the Doctors, labour with the Apostles and Confessors,
suffer with the Martyrs, bless the solitude and add
efficacy to the vows and prayers of Virgins and Hermits ;
but all of these — Priests, Doctors, Apostles, Confessors,
Martyrs, Virgins, and Hermits — are but repeating in
union with Him what He had first of all done without
them, when He comprised the whole Church in 'His own
Person, and was setting the example that what He had
first done, His children and followers should do after
Him. "Whatever privileges and power the Church has,
she possesses because He to whom all poiver is given in
heaven and earth has given the same to her, and remains
with her; whatever trials and persecutions she has to
undergo at the hands of the world, these are her portion
because He has said : If the world hate you, hnow that it
hath hated Me before you (John xv. 18); and again : If in
the green wood they do these things, what shall be done in
the dry ? (Luke xxiii, 31.) This manifestation of power
on the part of the Church over the world, and of persecu
tion on the part of the world against the Church, is a
sign then of truth, in favour of those who profess to
follow Christ and to form His kingdom.
Give a religion with which the world sympathises,
Which gives as a sign of its mission its temporal prospe
rity, which ministers to human and corporal comforts,
which imposes few acts of self-denial, and urges but little
of the supernatural in its ministerial dealings ; such an
B 2

4 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
one bears no resemblance to the religion of Him, who
was always hated and persecuted by the world, and who
left as a heritage to His followers, a share in the same
sufferings which He had sanctified by His example. But
give a religion which is ever opposed by the world,
misunderstood and misrepresented, scoffed at, and held
in a mingled feeling of hatred and fear, over which the
world pretends to be triumphing, which is accused of
falling short of the world's political wisdom, and to be
behind the world's progress in civilisation, whose thoughts
are not the world's thoughts, and whose ways are not
ways of the world — this seems to be very like the religion
of those to whom our dear Redeemer once said — Be not
afraid, my little flock, because it hath pleased your Father
to give you a kingdom (Luke xii. 32), and whom He
gathered about Him upon Mount Olivet, whilst others
were boasting of their triumph upon Calvary.
But why do I commence with suoh a thought as this
when I am to speak to you on the (Ecumenical Council ?
It is because such a line of thought seems forced upon
us by the way in which the world has acted, and is acting
in regard to this great manifestation of power on the
part of the Catholic Church. What have been, and what
are the prophecies of the world in these times concerning
the Church ? In the month of June, 1867, the Bishops
of the Catholic Church assembled in great number from
every quarter of the globe in the City of Rome, in order
to celebrate with the Holy Father the eighteenth cen
tenary of the martyrdom of Saints Peter and Paul, an
event not forgotten by the Church of Rome at least,
though so little heeded elsewhere. When some months
before this occasion, the invitation to attend was issued,

LECTURE I.

the Press in this country ridiculed the idea, and<bughed at
the boldness or madness of the Pope, who had no certain
home of his own, inviting Bishops into a city of whidK he
had a tenure that was worth only a few weeks' purchase.
Yet, which was right, the Pope who summoned the
meeting, or the Press which ridiculed it ? Did not the
assembly meet triumphantly, and serve as a proof to all
who are not wilfully blind, of the love which binds the
Episcopate of the Church to the Chief Pastor ? And
when, on the occasion of that glorious gathering, the Holy
Father announced his intention of summoning an (Ecu
menical Council, what was again the attitude of the Press,
the organ of the world, and one of its great weapons
against the Church ? Untaught by previous experience,
and still shameless under a previous conviction of igno
rance and error, it laughed again, and criticised the
weak judgment of one who could dare to attempt such
an impossibility. And yet, what is the case ? We are
now close upon the eve of the assembling of the Council ;
its organisation has been formed ; and both sea and land
are already busy in conveying to the centre of Christianity,
Bishops who are hastening from the furthermost points
of the earth, to obey the call which has reached them.
Princes from India, themselves not Christians, are
sending the prelates in their dominions, bearing presents
to offer to the Great Father, as they call him, and repeat
ing, in some way, the act of the Epiphany, in verifying
the prophecy which has declared that all nations shall
come and offer their gifts before the Lord. Nor is the
world quiet and unobservant, or uninterested about the
event. The old Encyclical of 1864 is reprinted in the
chief organ of the Press, and is commented upon ; diffe-

6 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
rent series of articles appear again and again upon a
subjec* about which no one pretends to care, yet about
which none can rest. If it is of interest, then, to those
out of the Church, much more so must it be to us, to
whom everything that regards the Church is of the most
sacred and solemn importance ; and therefore is it that
for your sake I have undertaken the task upon which I
am now entering.
What is it, now, that we mean by an (Ecumenical Coun
cil ? Before giving a more strict and formal definition,
I may describe it as an assemblage of the prelates of the
Church under the Chief Pastor. We find, both in the
teaching and the conduct of our dear Lord and His Apos
tles, many instances of such an assemblage. I will briefly
call your attention to some of the occasions on which our
Blessed Redeemer gathered about Him His Apostles, and
addressed Himself exclusively to them, speaking to them
upon His Kingdom, or giving them doctrinal instructions
or special jurisdictional power, and thus forming and
perfecting them in their ministerial charge. In the tenth
chapter of St. Matthew, after the number of the Aposto
lical College was completed, He calls the twelve together,
gives them powers which are to be evidences of their
mission, and limits their jurisdiction to the lost sheep of
the House of Israel, who were to be the first objects of
their pastoral solicitude. In the sixth chapter of St. John,
after He had in a larger assembly of followers, promised
the Sacrament of the Blessed Eucharist, and the first
deniers of that Mystery had abandoned Him, because they
would not believe the doctrine of the Real Presence, even
when He taught it to them, turning to those who were to
be the first Priests and dispensers of this Sacred Mystery,

LECTUBE I. 7
Then Jesus said to the twelve : Will you also go away ?
And Simon Peter answered Sim : Lord, to whom shall we
go ? Thou hast the words of eternal life. (John vi. 68,
69.) In the sixteenth chapter of St. Matthew, we find
the twelve gathered about Him at Cesarea Philippi, and
after He has asked them what progress His Gospel was
making, and what men thought of Him, He gives St.
Peter the occasion of making his noble profession of faith
in His Divinity, and rewards him with the promise of
the primacy, and of the infallibility which was ever to be
his privilege. In Matt. xvii. we find the twelve dwelling
together in a kind of synod, with their Head, at Caphar-
naum. The collectors of the tribute come, and ask
Peter whether his Master was going to pay the tax ; and
then our Lord gives an opportunity to let the world know
that Peter was sharing with Him the headship of the
Church, when He orders that Apostle to pay the money
in their joint names : Give it to them for Me and thee.
(v. 26.) In Matt, xviii. He has His Apostles about Him,
when He promises to them the power of binding and
loosing, and foretels the future power of the Councils of
the Church, in words which theologians uniformly inter
pret of such power : Where there are two or three gathered
together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.
(v. 20.) In Matt. xx. He takes the twelve apart, and
communicates to them the secret of His future Passion.
At His Last Supper, to them alone He gives the privi
lege of assisting at the institution of the Adorable
Sacrament of the Altar, when He gives them also the
power of offering up the same Sacrifice which He inau
gurated at that time. After His resurrection He ap
pears to them when assembled together, and bestows the

8 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
power promised before of binding and loosing, when He
breathes upon them and says, Receive ye the Holy Ghost;
whose sins ye shall forgive, they are forgiven them, and
whose sins ye shall retain, they are retained. (John xx.
23.) Again, He comes, when most of them, but no one
else, were present, and after demanding in their presence
from St. Peter a triple profession of love, confers upon
him the plenitude of supremacy, in the threefold com
mission to feed His lambs and His sheep. (John xxi.)
And, lastly, we refer again to the event with which we
started, the last summoning together of the eleven — for
one had gone his way — upon Mount Olivet, when He gives
that majestic charge which has been acted up to and
faithfully obeyed in the Apostolical Church, from the
day that it was given even until now.
And in the history of the Apostles, as we read in
the book which records their Acts, we find the same
assemblages brought together on various occasions. In
the first chapter of this book we find the eleven abiding
together, in conformity with the instruction given to
them, and waiting in prayer for the event which was
fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost. They aggregate others
to them for the election of Matthias, when St. Peter,
presiding over them, orders the election. We find
(Acts v.) the twelve sitting in judgment upon Ananias
and Saphira; and in the next chapter, the twelve as
sembled together and ordering the election of the seven
deacons, who, when elected, are brought before them for
ordination and authority to act. We find them together i
when they depute their chief to go with St. John to
confirm the converted Samaritans. (Acts viii.) Tradition
tells us that it was in a general assembly of the Apostles

LECTURE I. 9
that they drew up and promulgated the Creed which
goes by their name. But Scripture, beyond the possi
bility of being mistaken, gives us an account of their
holding a Council, when they decided in Jerusalem upon
the non-necessity of observing, and imposing upon Gen
tile converts the ceremonial law of Moses — a most
important instance, but one which I need but mention
at present, as it will be fully dwelt upon in our next,
lecture. In the annals of the Church, too, we find repeated
instances of Councils — (Ecumenical or less general —
accordingly as circumstances arose to demand such
assemblages ; and such, in one form or another, are
ever going on in the Church. Diocesan Synods, or
Councils, are the gathering together of the clergy of a
diocese under the presidency of the Bishop, the head of
the diocese. Provincial Councils are the meeting of the
Bishops of a province, under the presidency of the Arch
bishop or Metropolitan. National Councils are formed
by the assembly of the Bishops and Archbishops of a
nation under the presidency of the Primate ; and General
or (Ecumenical Councils are formed by the summoning
of all the prelates of the Church, under the presidency of
the chief pastor, the Pope. The word (Ecumenical espe
cially implies all prelates in the whole habitable globe.
An (Ecumenical Council, therefore, means " a legitimate
assemblage of Bishops, summoned from the whole habit
able globe, convened, presided over, and ratified by the
Supreme Pontiff." With regard to the presidency over
such a Council, it belongs by Divine right to the chief
pastor, who may exercise this right either in person or
by substitute. Not the convocation or the presidency

10 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
only, but the final approval of the acts of the Council,
belongs to the Pope; and though a Council may be
(Ecumenical in its commencement and progress, it might
not ultimately rank as (Ecumenical, if anything occurred
to destroy its liberty of action, or if the Sovereign Pontiff
refused ultimately to ratify its acts * — just as an Act of
Parliament requires the Royal consent before it becomes
the law of the land. The nineteenth Council, now sum
moned to meet in the Vatican in December, is (Ecu
menical in its convocation : God grant it may continue
so through its progress, and be brought to a happy
conclusion, for the glory of God and the blessing of
the Church !
It is essential also for an (Ecumenical Council that all
Bishops having jurisdiction be called, and have full liberty
of action and discussion. Bishops are declared by the
Canon Law of the Church to be, in such a Council, not
counsellors of the Pope merely, but judges by Divine
right ; and at the end of the Council they join in signing
the acts and decrees with a defining authority. Hence
we see the untruthfulness of the statement repeatedly
made, with all that boldness and shameless ignorance
about ecclesiastical matters for which our English Press
is notorious, that in the future Council the co-operation
of the Bishops will be but nominal, and that its decrees
are already prepared and determined upon. Who is to
deprive the Bishops of their rights and their liberty, and
to control their judgment ? Can seven or eight hundred
* The"Theologia Wirceburgensis," in its Useful Treatise de Conoiliis Ecolesi-
asticis, makes a distinction, not usually observed, between (Ecumenical and General
Councils, and gives the title of General, but not Ojlcumenioal (" Concilia Generalia
non tamen CEcumenica"),to four Councils — viz., Sardica, a.d. 347; Pisa a.d. 1409-
Constance, a.d. 1418 ; and Basle, a.d. 1443.

LECTURE I. 11
men, of that noble and independent spirit which the
Catholic Episcopate has manifested in its resistance to
worldly aggression, yield to an overbearing spirit, if —
what is impossible when the Holy Ghost calls them
together and presides over them — any effort were
attempted to stifle discussion, and impede the exercise
of a right which the Holy Father has shown himself to
be foremost in declaring to be Divine, by the very fact
of summoning those who have been called to a share in
his pastoral solicitude, to weigh accurately with him, and
to determine what will contribute most to the glory of
God, the integrity of the Faith, and the salvation of
souls ?
The Council is a great event, and may well demand
at our hands all that interest which, as children of the
Church, we cannot refuse her. The world is interested
in this event — deeply and anxiously interested, although
it pretends to conceal its interest under an assumed tone
of indifference or ridicule ; and we must bestir ourselves
now, as the early Christians did in their time of struggle,
and offer prayer without ceasing for the Church and her
venerable head, that the Spirit of Wisdom may, as ever,
guide her in her deliberations, and the Spirit of Fortitude
defend her, and grant her victory in her labours against
sin and error. There must be a wonderfully attractive
power in Rome, and a wonderful susceptibility in the
Bishops of the Church, that they should be drawn
together into this centre, and leave behind them for a
time all those who are dearest to them, because the most
immediate objects of their fatherly care. But the Holy
Spirit has always manifested an organizing and unitiye
power of operation, from the day that He moved over the

12 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
waters at the first dawn of creation, and from the Great
Day of Pentecost, when He strengthened the Apostles,
and bound them together in a perfect bond of unity.
And it is the same Holy Spirit who will bind together
the pastors when gathered under their chief, and will
secure them — as He has so faithfully done until now —
from every danger of error.
Permit me, my dear Brethren, the expression of one
thought which may fill many a heart on the assembling
of this great meeting of the Bishops of the Church, and
in connexion with it let me take you back to Mount
Olivet. When upon the day of the Ascension, the Apostles
in obedience to the summons of our Divine Lord
assembled upon that mount, there were found but
eleven. One was missing, and you know what had
become of him. We cannot conceive that upon that
day, after the glory of the Resurrection had been
manifested, and the admirable Ascension was to take
place, anything like a feeling of sadness could come over
that Sacred Heart, which at the foot of that mountain
had once been broken with sorrow. But we may feel for
that absent one, and ask whether he may not have
prefigured the absence of churches which have fallen
away from unity, when a summons for a general meeting
of the Episcopate is issued forth, and they are found
wanting, and unable to obey the call. What is England's
state in connexion with this fact? For the first time
since the days of St. Augustine of Canterbury, the old
hierarchy founded by him exists not to receive or obey
the summons : its place knows it no more. Even in
Trent one representative of that hierarchy was present,
the Bishop of St. Asaph's; but now there is not one

LECTURE I. 13
remaining. But England will be well and gloriously
represented. With its youth renewed like the eagle's,
the hierarchy of England, the province of Westminster,
will send its members, and amongst them our own be
loved Bishop of Clifton.
Hear me, ye poor. I wish you above all to understand
me in what I am undertaking to say on a question which
you are sure to understand, because it concerns your
Church. Before commencing the Work on which I have
now entered, I hesitated for a time, and asked myself
the question : Will the poor understand me ? I am
speaking to you about the meeting of all the Bishops in
Rome, under the headship of the Pope. This is not hard
for you to understand, and you can be as much interested
in such a glorious cause, as any others of your fellow-
Catholics,. And all ye faithful, cannot you understand
what we are going to devote our attention to for some
weeks to come ? It is not, and it cannot be an useless
undertaking if it will increase your zeal and enlist your
fervent wishes and prayers in behalf of what must be
most dear to you, as it concerns your Church and the
cause of truth and of God. What you are especially
asked for, and it is the Father of the faithful that asks
you, is sympathy and prayer. And when your own
Bishop goes to represent you as his flock, bid him go
with your supplications to the throne of God to speed
him on. And when he Once more comes back amongst
you, and will again hold his hands in blessing over you,
his return from the holy assembly over which the Holy
Spirit will have presided, will bring you a stronger
conviction than ever, that you are of the body of Christ,
and of the household of the faith.

LECTURE II.
THE COUNCIL OP JERUSALEM (ACTS XV.) A SANCTION AND A MODEL
FOR FUTURE COUNCILS.
The Apostles and Ancients assembled to consider of this matter. — Acts xv. 6.
Evert portion of Sacred Scripture demands our vene
ration, and has a claim upon our interest, because it
has been inspired by the Holy Ghost, and has been
written for our instruction. For this reason, it is difficult
to attempt to make a comparison between one part of
Scripture and another; and we almost shrink from the
attempt, lest in doing so we might appear, in preferring
one portion, to be making ourselves judges of the works
of God, and to be setting a lower value on what is equally
perfect, inasmuch as it comes from the same wisdom, and
is placed before us by the same directing hand. And yet,
as each book of Scripture has been written for a motive,
accordingly as that motive may affect us to a greater or a
less degree, we cannot help being accidentally influenced
in proportion to that interest. Now, there is one book
of the inspired writings, which cannot but affect us with
very peculiar interest. The critical period of time which
it embraces in its history : the alternations of triumphs
and of suffering which are recorded in its pages : the fact
of its having been written by one who was also a writer
of a gospel, St. Luke the Evangelist of the Infancy of
our dear Lord, being also the Evangelist of the Infancy
of the Church : the gradual progress which we are able to

LECTURE II. 15
trace in it of a cause so dear to us, and of which we our
selves are now a party ; all this imparts a charm to the
beautiful book of the Acts of the Apostles, which gives it
a very special claim to a distinctive love. St. Chrysostom
calls the Acts of the Apostles the gospel of the Holy Ghost.
For as the four gospels record the acts of our dearest
Redeemer, and form the gospel of Jesus Christ, so
does this book tell us of the working of the Holy Ghost
in the Apostles after He had come down upon them upon
the Day of Pentecost, and had then taken up His per
petual abode in the Church which He was to guide and
protect for ever.
Let us for a moment throw ourselves into that first
age of our Church, and enter as we can into the spirit
and feeling of those who shared in her earliest struggles.
A work of destruction and of rebuilding was set before
them, as it had been set before the prophet Jeremias. Lo !
I have set thee this day over the nations and over kingdoms,
to root up and to pull down, and to waste and to destroy,
and to build and to plant. (Jer. i. 10.) The Apostles had
to look back upon the past, and forward into the future.
They might think of the days of their childhood, and
remember their early and dear associations with a system
now superseded, and with a temple which had now ceased
to be holy ; for we can conceive it to be true of them
what St. Paul said of his disciple Timothy, that they had
known the Scriptures and Jewish observances from their
infancy; but observances and ceremonies they had once
prized were now to be unheeded, for the old things had
passed away. They might also think of the days of the
visible presence of their Holy Founder amongst them,
when His words and acts compensated for everything,

16 THE CECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
and were a lesson and a security to them. They had
seen Him in active labours and deeds of mercy ; they had
seen Him in sorrow ; they had seen Him in his later days
of triumph. They remembered well, and never could
forget His instructions, His corrections, His warnings,
and His predictions ; and now that He was gone visibly
from among them, all these came before them, and marked
out their principles and their line of conduct. And they
also looked forward into the future, and knew full well
the duties they owed towards those that were to come
after them. They were perfectly aware that what ought to
be the case would be the case, that every word of theirs
would be taken as a rule and a law, and that every act
of theirs would be interpreted as a precedent ; as they
were under Christ the founders of a system which was to
be pursued for ever. What our Lord had said to them,
each of them might say to those who were to be their
followers : I have set you an example, that as I have done
you should do likewise. For the Church was ever to be
Apostolical. In their work of destruction and of building up, a
great and practical difficulty soon presented itself. How
was it to be met ? The universality of their commission
was the occasion of this difficulty ; for in this universality
consisted one great difference between Judaism and
Christianity. You know that Judaism was essentially
national. The Jews were a separate nation, a select and
privileged people; — well might they say with the Psalmist :
There is no other nation which hath its gods so close to it, as
our God is present to all our petitions. (Deut. iv. 7.) Inter
course with other nations was forbidden to them. And
even our dear Lord, in the first commission which He

LECTURE II. 17
gave to His Apostles, insisted on their acting upon this
prohibition, and limiting their labours to the Jews : Go
ye not into the way of the Gentiles, and into the cities of the
Samaritans enter ye not : but go ye rather to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel. (Matt. x. 5, 6.) And we find St.
Paul acting on the same principle ; for in Acts xiii. 46,
we read the awful words which he addressed to the Jews,
who had rejected the grace offered to them by his preach
ing and ministry : To you it behoved us first to speak the
word of God ; but because you reject it, and judge yourselves
unworthy of eternal life, behold we turn to the Gentiles.
But the last commission : Go, teach all nations, implied
that a total change was to come over the face of the
world. You shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in
all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the uttermost parts
of the earth. This was breaking in upon an old law and
tradition, and the order to go against what had become
an old prejudice. They had to preach to the Jews ; but
what they had to tell them was that the old ceremonial
law was done away with, and the new law of liberty from
what had become a bondage, was now to be enforced.
Baptism in water was to take the place of circumcision
in blood.
As long as all the converts were Jews, the difficulty did
not present itself, and there was an uniform mode of act
ing with them. They had been members of the old church
and subjects of the Old Law, and now they passed from
the shadow to the substance, from the figure to the
reality. But a Gentile, and a whole Gentile family,
comes to seek admission into the Church. Cornelius the
Centurion, a religious man and fearing God with all his
house, is divinely admonished to go to St. Peter, and seek
c

18 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
for instruction and admission into the Church. And St.
Peter is divinely admonished how to act in his regard,
not to look upon him as unclean and requiring any legal
ceremonies to cleanse him, but at once to baptize him,
and raise him to an equality with those who had been
Jews first, and had afterwards become Christians (Acts x).
For the first time since the days of Abraham, a period of
two thousand years, election and salvation are promised
and secured independently of circumcision ; and the very
rite so solemnly enjoined upon that Patriarch, faithfully
observed through all the intervening centuries, hallowed
by the patronage of our dear Lord Himself, and practised
upon the Apostles in their own infancy, is now declared
by authority to be unnecessary and to have been super
seded. This certainly was a religious revolution, but it
was one that had always been intended in the decrees of
God ; for the Jewish system was only to be for a time,
and was to give way to the more perfect system of Chris
tianity. Those Jews who were fully converted, like St.
Paul, and who accepted the whole faith, and submitted va.
all things to the discipline of the Church of Christ, saw
no difficulty in breaking off from the old system and
thoroughly embracing the new. But there were some that
were only half-converted, who, even in the time of the
Apostles, gave the trouble which such half-converts have
always occasioned; and these, still clinging to old pre
judices, and claiming for themselves the right of judging,
where they ought to have obeyed with simplicity,
interpreting Scripture on their own authority, protested,
and insisted that for Gentile converts the only way into
the new Church was through the old. And some, coming
down from Judea, taught the brethren : that except you be

LECTURE II. 19
circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot be
saved (Acts xv. 1).
Here, then, was a question of two things, about which
the Church is always keenly sensitive : it was a question
of Faith, and of Discipline. Of Faith, because to deny
the sufficiency of Baptism, was to deny the validity of an
institution of Christ, to be going against the solemn com
mission given to the Apostles to teach and baptize, and
was gainsaying that declaration, that he who believed and
was baptized should be saved ; and of Discipline, which
always goes hand-in-hand with Faith, and in which
the Church exercises her infallibility, and is anxious for
uniformity. And there were two courses open, either
of which had to be embraced at the expense of the other.
One course was to follow Scripture alone, the other was
to submit to the authority of the pastors of the Church.
Scripture was very strong in favour of circumcision, and
of obedience to the ceremonial law of Moses. Read
Genesis xvii., and you will see in what terms Almighty
God orders the rite of ciroumcision, declares (v. 13)
that it is to be a perpetual covenant, and that whatever
male child is not submitted to that rite, his soul shall be
destroyed out of his people. And remember, moreover,
that tradition was in its favour. It had a prescription of
two thousand years, and therefore Circumcision had been
established then for a longer period than Baptism has
been even now. Nor was there anything in Scripture
which clearly did away with the obligation of this rite.
Of course the noble epistles to the Galatians and the
Romans, in which the works of the law are declared to
be superseded, had not yet been inspired and written ;
nor were the Gospels even at that time a part of the
c 2

20 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
Bible. The Scripture position, therefore, was very strong,
and the authority of the pastors of the Church was but
of short-standing in those days. It was Divinely insti
tuted, certainly; but one mark of its Divine sanction,
which it possesses now, long-standing in spite of all
opposition, and success in its exercise, it had not yet
been able to acquire. Which of the two courses did the
Apostles pursue ? Did they cling to the letter of Scrip
ture, and allow others to follow their own interpretation
of it, or did they insist upon obedience to the teaching
authority ? We shall see what they did.
Now we come to Acts xv., and to the application of
the text which I placed before you at the commencement.
When those who came down from Judea into Antioch,
where St. Paul, with St. Barnabas, was preaching at
the time, insisted upon the necessity of circumcision on
the part of Gentile converts, the two Apostles con
tested with them ; but, being unable to convince them,
they determined to start off to Jerusalem, and to consult
the other Apostles and the elders on the question. And
the Apostles and the ancients assembled together to consider
of this matter. They assemble as men with judicial
authority, determined to close a matter of controversy,
and to decide upon a question of discipline, which
really involved an article of Faith. What a venerable
assembly was that, and how important, both on account
of the members who composed it, and of the act which
they were going to determine upon ! Already the
number of the original twelve was again diminished ; not
now by an act of apostacy, but martyrdom had begun to
do its work amongst them. Herod the king had stretched
forth his hand to afflict some of the Church; and he had

LECTURE II. 21
killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. (Acts
xii.) And those who were present might show signs of
their sufferings also. The venerable St. Peter might
have shown the marks of the chains wherewith he had
been recently bound, when he had been imprisoned by
that same Herod, but, through the prayers which had
been made for him without ceasing by the Church, had
been miraculously rescued by an angel. (Acts xii.) And
the zealous St. Paul, who had been changed from a per
secutor into an Apostle, who had already begun his
career of gaining whole cities to the Faith, breaks in
upon his labours, and leaves them for a time in order to
pay, after an interval of fourteen years (Gal. ii. 1), this
important visit to Jerusalem, and to meet in Council
many of the Apostles whom he had not yet seen since his
conversion. And what he did, the other Apostles in like
manner did, and leaving for a time the scene of their
preaching, they came together to consider upon the
practical question which had been opened for discussion.
What takes place in every Council takes place now.
The matter is fully discussed. We can imagine Ebion
and Cerinthus, who, according to St. Epiphanius, were
the leaders of the disaffected party, arguing their point
from Scripture, with all the earnestness and subtlety
which the enemies of the Church employ in their endea
vours to prove their own point against the authority
constituted by God. And from the words of the sacred
text, when there had been much disputing, it seems
probable that the orthodox side were equally earnest and
determined to defend the cause committed to them.
When every opportunity had been given of debating the
matter, Peter rises up and decides the question. He had

22 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
heard both sides, and he was now to speak judicially and
definitively. In his own case, as we have seen in his
dealing with Cornelius, he had obeyed the Divine injunc
tion given to him, and had not done what these objectors
from Judea were insisting upon. And now he cites his
own conduct, and states that as he had been chosen to
preach to the Gentiles, had been the means of spreading
the Faith amongst them, and had, in admitting them into
the Church, followed the example and influence of the
Holy Ghost, who had come down upon convert Gentiles
as well as Jews, and had made no difference between
them, he declared it to be unjust and a tempting of God,
to impose upon others a yoke and an obligation which
they themselves found to be now intolerable. It was the
Grace of Jesus Christ, and the means of infusing that
Grace, that was to save them, and not now the law of
Moses. And behold what follows when this venerable
voice was heard, and the judge had spoken : And all the
multitude held their peace. The much disputing is all over.
The decision has been pronounced, and the question is
closed for ever. Upon this question the whole multitude
still holds its peace, and bows in submission. Paul and
Barnabas entertain the Council with an account of their
labours, and edify and cheer them by telling of the
wonders done among the Gentiles, on whom those proud
Jews had been looking down. And in conclusion, St.
James, the Bishop of Jerusalem, who, though the Council
was held in his own diocese, had acknowledged in the
Assembly of Apostles and Elders the privilege of presi
dency to St. Peter, seconds the words of the Primate,
quotes the testimony of the prophet Amos as confirmatory
of the judgment which had been given, and proposes that

LECTURE II. 23
an encyclical letter, embodying this judgment, should be
sent round to the Churches, declaring what hath seemed
good to the Holy Ghost and to us. The letter is
accepted by the Churches with joy and consolation
(v. 31), and the discipline is everywhere followed.
Such, then, is the Council of Jerusalem. Its testimony
is decretorial, and of immense value; and it is well
referred to as a sanction and a model for every future
Council. How can any one, who looks on the Apostles as
founders of the Church under Christ, and who believes
that the Church is Apostolical, doubt its value ? The
Council is a sanction for all that have followed. For if
the Church were asked on what grounds she claims to
enforce her authority in her General Councils, she points
to the Council of Jerusalem, and shows her grounds
there ; for she is Apostolical, and claims a right to exer
cise powers vhich were bestowed upon the Apostles and
were exercisel by them ; and her office is perpetual and
universal. Tie commission given to the Apostles to go
and teach all nations, is a part of her commission, and
she is ever exercising it. And when, by the power that
is in her, she brings together men from every nation in
the habitable globe — and when these, drawn together
and sitting in deliberation, discuss and decide upon
questions of faih and discipline, send out their decrees,
and state what seems good to the Holy Ghost and them
selves, they art only doing what the Church of the
Apostles did, anl what that very same Church — as it is
still the Church Df the Apostles — has equal power to do
even now. Lool to the decrees of (Ecumenical Councils
which have been held in various years' of the annals of
the Church, and tou will see how they have always acted

24 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
on the same principle, and have exercised an authority
equal to that of the Council of Jerusalem. When, in
Nicaea, some three hundred years later, Arius renewed
the heresy of Ebion and Cerinthus, and denied the
Divinity of God the Son, the Redeemer of the world, the
Bishops and elders assembled in the first (Ecumenical
Council after the Apostolic age, to consider upon this
question, and under the guidance and influence of the
Holy Spirit, sent forth against that impious hej-esy those
decrees of anathema, which seemed good to ithe Holy
Ghost and themselves. When, a century later still, the
Patriarch Nestorius denied to the Blessed Virgin Mary
the title of Mother of God, the Bishops iind elders
assembled in the glorious Council of Ephesus — the third
(Ecumenical Council — and in like manner anathematized
that heresy, declaring what seemed good lo the Holy
Ghost and themselves. When, in the niAth century,
another Patriarch — Photius — denied the procession of
the Holy Ghost from the Son as well as from the Father,
the Holy Spirit, whose own cause was so clpsely at stake,
drew the Bishops and elders together in the fourth
Council of Constantinople — the eight! (Ecumenical
Council — and again declared what seemed good to the
Holy Ghost and themselves. And wheniin later times,
in the sixteenth century, Faith, Discipline, and Morals
were assailed by self-constituted reformers, who rejected
that obedience to authority which is thi stay and safe
guard of society as well as of the Churih, and who, by
their principles and their example, opeied the door to
all the evils which have followed sinci their time, the

Bishops and elders assembled in Trent

these questions; and in that eighteenth (Ecumenical

o consider upon

LECTURE II. 25
Council — the last which has as yet been held — con
demned, in words inspired equally by the Holy Ghost,
doctrines and principles contrary to faith and morality.
And now, in this nineteenth century of ours, when
licence is becoming bolder than ever, and the very well-
being and safety of society are threatened by that
disobedient and revolutionary spirit which prevails so
generally throughout the world, the Church steps
forward, as she has done before, and becomes the saviour
of society. The Father of the faithful calls the Bishops
and elders together, to consider upon great and important
questions, and under the guidance of Him who influenced
the deliberations at Jerusalem, at Nicasa, Ephesus, and
elsewhere, will declare boldly to the world what will seem
good to the Holy Ghost and themselves. And if the
Church be asked what authority she can have, thus
to call together the prelates dispersed throughout the
world, and how she can dare to pronounce judgment
upon the world, she can answer : "I am the same
who have for eighteen centuries been defending the
cause of truth and justice, who have been founded by
Him who came into the world to give testimony of the
truth, who have received the legacy to continue ever
doing what He did, and who have been assured by a
promise, which cannot fail in its fulfilment, that He and
His Holy Spirit are with me for ever. I am the same
who sat in Jerusalem, who issued forth a decree which
seemed good to the Holy Ghost and myself, and am
ready to do the same even in these days of little faith."
A bold assertion, it may seem; but yet made without
hesitation, and, as the future will prove, blessed in its
results, because it is made for the cause of God.

26 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
And the Council of Jerusalem is a model also for every
future (Eoumenical Council. Bishops and elders are
assembled together by a competent authority. For a
time they leave their ordinary sphere of labour, and come,
as St. Paul and St. Barnabas did, from active and zealous
solicitude, to join with their brethren in bringing wisdom,
piety, learning, and experience to bear upon the questions
proposed for deliberation. As St. Peter presided at
Jerusalem, his successor, either in person or by dele
gates, presides by Divine right over an (Ecumenical
Council. There is first of all, after prayer and invocation
of the Holy Spirit, full and free discussion. The matter
is then closed by the voice of the President, and then all
hold their peace. There is such a dead and solemn
silence in the Church, such a perpetual silence in regard
to what has once been decided in a Council, that the
matter is never opened again ; and a whisper of dis
affection would so disturb the silence, as to reverberate
throughout the whole Church, and excite a shudder of
abhorrence in every Catholic heart. The decrees are
then formally drawn up, signed by the Prelates, and sent
round in the form of an Encyclical to the whole world.
Everywhere they are accepted and obeyed with joy and
consolation by the children of the Church, and the work
of the Council is thus happily crowned.
Let me beg of you to read for yourselves in Acts xv.
this history of the Council of the Apostles, and you will
see how the first founders of Christianity established the
precedent, which has been followed in after-times by the
Catholic Church. You will be led to praise and to thank
God, for having in His wisdom and His goodness, in
stituted such a mode of defining and promulgating the

LECTURE II. 27
truth, and like the crowd which once witnessed a miracle
of our Blessed Lord's, you will glorify God who hath given
such power unto men. And whilst the Holy Father and
the Bishops imitate so faithfully the example of St. Peter
and the Apostles, and assemble together to consider upon
matters which so deeply concern us, it is for us to be
ready to accept with joy and consolation the message in
which they will communicate to us, with their blessing,
what will have seemed good to the Holy Ghost and them
selves. Authority on the part of the Pastors, and
obedience on the part of the people, must ever be linked
together. Their union was shown in the time of the
Apostles : it is a union blessed by God, and in His
Church it is destined to last for ever.

LECTURE III.
AN (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL DESIRABLE IN ITSELF AS A TEST OF
ORTHODOXY.
Obey your prelates, and be subject to them. For they watch, as being to render
an account of your souls. — Heb. xiii. 17.
There is a wholesome and a genuine sound about these
words, which must gain a welcome for them into every
Christian soul. Independently of their being inspired
words, they are words of such practical good sense, and
express a principle of such constant and universal appli
cation, that they must be accepted by all who have a love
for peace and truth. They express also that affectionate
bond, which, in the mind of our dear Lord, the Founder
of the Church, was ever to link together pastors and
people in His kingdom upon earth. For He has given to
His Church the features and qualities of a family, in which
the children are happy and confident and free from care,
because those, whom Providence has placed over them,
bear all the solicitude, and in return for a confident and
submissive obedience, extend an efficacious and protecting
care. When the prophet Isaias foretold of the future
Redeemer, he described the affectionate bond which
would for ever attach Him to His people. He shall
feed His flock like a shepherd; He shall gather together
the lambs with His arms, and shall take them up in His
bosom, and He Himself shall carry them that are with
young. (Isa. xi. 11.) You know (and who does not
know it ?) how this was verified in His own case, and with

LECTURE III. 29
what good reason He called Himself the Good Shepherd.
And as a founder would always wish to infuse his own
spirit into the work which he leaves behind him, the
commission which our dear Saviour gives to the chief of
His followers, tells what spirit He wished to leave when
He says to him: Feed my lambs ; Feed my sheep. And to
His Apostles He says, Fear not, my little flock. Well,
therefore, might the Apostles at the very outset, put forth
positively and insist upon the principle of subjection and
obedience, and say in one voice with St. Paul: Obey your
prelates, and be subject to them. For they watch, as being
to render an account of your souls.
We have seen what was done in the Council of Jerusa
lem, when a doubtful and difficult case arose. Our text was
fully and practically verified. The first prelates of the
Church, sensitively aware of their responsibility, in their
vigilance over those for whose souls they knew that they
had to render an account, and fully aware at the same
time that their decision would meet with a quick and
entire acceptance by those that were subject to them,
assembled together, weighed the question judicially, and
pronounced authoritatively a decree that became law and
was cheerfully obeyed. Doubtful cases may arise at any
time; and error may array itself in such an outward garb
as to be mistaken for truth, by those who have not the
power of discriminating for themselves. As the evil spirit
may present himself under the appearance of an angel of
light, error may sometimes assume the form of truth, and
it will require a means and a test beyond the reach of the
individual, to ascertain the reality. Is it not desirable,
therefore, that such a means and test should be accessible
in a matter of so great importance ?

30 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
One thing is quite certain ; and however much we may
differ on other questions, on this one thing we must be all
agreed, for we cannot differ upon it, and that is, that
differences do exist. And as we look into the nature and
character of these differences, we cannot help agreeing
further in this, that the differences are great, real, and
fearful in their consequences. The melancholy utterance
of St. Paul is constantly being verified : There must be
heresies. (1 Cor. xi. 19.) And if heresy is inconsistent
with faith, and faith essential to salvation, it must be of
importance to every one who values salvation, to have a
means of determining between two opposing doctrines,
which is of faith, and therefore pleasing to God, and
which is heresy, and therefore hateful to Him.
We maintain that those separated from us, fall short —
very short — of what, in matters of belief and practice, is
requisite for salvation. Mind, I say nothing of indi
viduals, I am speaking of the system. Take the Sacra
ments alone, and see how notable and how fatal is the
difference. Five out of the seven are denied ; and from
this denial and difference between us, can we say that no
important result follows ? Here, at the present moment,
we are assembled in the presence of the Adorable Sacra
ment of the Altar, and as soon as I shall have ceased
speaking to you, a striking difference will be manifested
between us who believe, and those who seem unwilling
to believe, that our dear Lord meant what He said,
when he promised that He would leave us Himself
under the form of bread, and when He fulfilled this pro
mise at the last supper. His words are : The bread that
I will give is My Flesh, for the life of the world (John vi.
52) ; and, again : This is My Body. We believe these

LECTURE in. 31
words, and, therefore, when we proceed to the beautiful
rite of the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, hun
dreds of us will bow down in loving adoration before this
wonderful Mystery ; others will gaze in ignorant astonish
ment at what will be to them perfectly unintelligible.
Yet the Blessed Sacrament has been now upon earth for
eighteen hundred years, and there are those who profess
faith in Christianity, and know no more of this great
reality, than the very pagans who persecuted our ancestors
in the first days of the Church. Can this be a matter of
indifference, or a question of theory only, when our blessed
Lord makes the very salvation of our soul turn upon our
practical acceptance of this article of our faith ? Life or
death is the alternative. He that eateth this Bread shall
live for ever, is the blessing of life upon those who believe
and adore. Except you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man
and drink His Blood, you shall not have life in you. This
is His own judgment upon those, who will not believe
what He has so solemnly and so lovingly declared.
And another practical difference of vital importance
exists with reference to that other Sacrament promised by
our dear Lord, when to the Apostles He said : Whatsoever
you shall bind upon earth shall be bound also in Heaven, and
whatsoever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed also in
Heaven (Matt, xviii. 18); and which Sacrament He insti
tuted, when, on the day of His resurrection, He breathed
upon His Apostles, and said to them : Receive ye the Holy
Ghost ; whose sins ye shall forgive they are forgiven them,
and whose sins ye shall retain they are retained. (John
xx. 22, 23.) Here again we maintain that our dear Lord
meant what He said, and that He really and indeed did
leave in the Church with His pastors, that power which

32 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
the Apostles' Creed calls " the forgiveness of sins." We
maintain that this Sacrament of Penance is of Divine
institution, is one of the Sacraments of the Gospel, is the
normal means for obtaining pardon, and recovering the
Grace of God when it has been lost, after Baptism, by
wilful sin; and therefore that they who reject it are
rejecting a special means instituted for their own sancti-
fication, and are as decidedly and presumptuously oppos
ing our Blessed Redeemer, as the Pharisees did when
they asked scornfully : How can this man forgive sins ?
and when they found fault with Him because He exer
cised the office of the Good Shepherd, in seeking for
lost sheep, and fulfilled the express mission for which
He had come, which was to call sinners to repentance.
Yet both in doctrine and in practice, this Sacrament and
saving institution is denied and resisted.
Take a third Sacrament, a wonderful proof of the
merciful character of our Lord, and of the help He has
left in His Church for the salvation of those souls for
which He shed His Precious Blood. It is a Sacrament
which concerns not so much the living as the dying ; a
Sacrament promised and prefigured, and afterwards
instituted and used, as we are assured in Sacred Scrip
tures. It is the Sacrament of Extreme Unction — the last
anointing of a dying Christian. This Sacrament is
prefigured, in those ministerial acts exercised by the
Apostles in their visitation of the sick, during the lifetime
of our blessed Redeemer, when He was instructing and
preparing them for future Sacramental duties. For so
we read in St. Mark : They anointed with oil many that
were sick, and healed them (vi. 13). Of the fact of the
Sacrament having been instituted, we have very expres-

LECTURE III. 33
sive evidence in the well-known words of St. James, one
of the eleven, to whom was given the commission : Teach
them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded
you. Faithful to his commission, and not overstretching
his apostolical power, as presuming to teach anything
else except what had been commanded, he gives the
order : Is any man sick among you, let him bring in the
priests of the Church, and let them pray over him, anoint
ing him with oil. (James v. 14.) Is this command to be
obeyed, or is it not ? And is there not here a difference
of the most fearful moment, between us who observe the
order, and those who never, never practise it, but allow
poor, helpless, dying Christians to go out of the world
unanointed and unaided by the very special means insti
tuted expressly for them ? We, at least, cannot look
upon this as a matter of small consequence, or as a
question merely of theory and indifference, when there
are at stake great realities which intimately affect the
salvation of souls.
And if, on the other hand, we are accused, as we
undoubtedly are, of adding in these and other articles of
our faith to the revelations of God, and to the primitive
doctrine of the Church, we are quite prepared to do
again what has been done in times without number, to
demonstrate that these, and all other doctrines at issue
between us, are clearly contained in Sacred Scripture,
have been handed down to us by faithful witnesses, and
therefore must be believed and practised. But if Scrip
ture be not enough to decide the dispute (and it cannot
be so if both of us maintain it to be upon our side), we
ought to have some other authority to appeal to, and some
test by which to determine between truth and error. I
D

34 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
have shown that Scripture does, if its sacred words have
any meaning, teach the Real Presence in the Blessed
Eucharist, the forgiveness of sins in the Sacrament of
Penance, and the duty of anointing the dying Christian.
But if such clear declarations of Scripture are not enough,
then we invoke some other tribunal, and we maintain that
such an one as is afforded by an (Ecumenical Council is
most desirable, and ought to be welcomed by all who are
really anxious to ascertain the truth. Is Christianity thus
to be torn asunder, and can it supply no remedy or pro
tection against the wounds with which it is threatened ?
If such were the state, our lamentation might well be like
that of the Prophet Jeremias : For the affliction of the
daughter of my people I am afflicted, and made sorrowful :
astonishment hath taken hold of me. Is there no balm in
Galaad? or is there no physician there? Why then is not the
wound of the daughter of my people closed? (Jer. viii. 21.)
I invoke some other tribunal in our own name and for
our own sake ; for it is not in accordance with our feehngs
to be anathematized, as we are, by our neighbours, as if
we had gone beyond the commands and wishes of God. I
invoke it for the sake of those who differ from us ; for we
cannot bear to see souls that we love to be wandering
from the truth, and to be lost because there is none to
reach to them a helping hand, and to rescue them from
ruin : so many, indeed, in our own country, that we are
inclined to cry out with Elias, that we are left almost
alone in our fidelity to God. I invoke it in the name of
our good God Himself; for it is His cause that is in
question, and His souls that are at stake. I invoke it in
the name of the Most Precious Blood which was shed for
those souls, and to which it ought to be applied through

LECTURE III. 35
the means instituted by Him, who so generously shed it.
in such abundant profusion for the salvation of the world.
I invoke it for the honour of the Adorable Sacrament,
which is profaned by those who remain in ignorance of
Its reality, until a voice be raised which can sound with
sufficient loudness, to bring into subjection those who are
as yet too deaf to hear voices which are already summon
ing them to submission, to faith, and to adoration.
And so we again ask : Is Christianity left unprovided
with a means of deciding, which we find to exist else
where ? Is the Church of Christ, founded by our dearest
Lord, and washed in His Precious Blood, less perfect
than every other institution which exists upon earth?
In human establishments there are tribunals formed by
the aggregate of high judges and decisive authorities,
whose utterances are decretorial, and from which there is
no further appeal. The instinct of mankind declares the
same, when it proclaims that " The voice of the people is
the voice of. God." We find the same also to have been
divinely affirmed in the Old Law, when Almighty God
commanded, even under the penalty of death, submission
to the judgment pronounced by the highest judges, in
matters of dispute or controversy between the children
of Israel (Deut. xvii.), to which tribunal our dear
Lord alludes when He tells the multitudes of their
duty of obeying those who sat on the chair of Moses.
(Matt, xxiii. 3.) And if there be not an equivalent obli
gation in the Christian Law, what can be the meaning of
St. Paul, when he orders obedience and subjection to the
Prelates who watch over us, and who have to render an
account of our souls ? Is Christianity less perfect, and
less able to apply a remedy to existing wants, than
D 2

36 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
human institutions, or the Old Law which was only a
figure of better things to come ?
That there is always existing in the Church, even inde
pendently of (Ecumenical Councils, a judicial power of
pronouncing in matters of controversy, is, of course, in
the Catholic system, beyond dispute. But as those who
differ from us refuse submission to the decrees of the
Church, we ask them whether it is not desirable that
there should be some such test of Orthodoxy provided in
matters of such vital importance as is afforded" in less
important instances. We put the case first only hypo-
thetically. Suppose that, by some power or other, all the
best and wisest men from every nation in the world ; men
who, by purity of life, previous training, and well-earned
experience, could show a claim to respect and confidence
— suppose that such men, uninfluenced by national pre
judices, because gathered from all nations, could be
brought together, and, under the guidance and influence
of the Holy Spirit, were to weigh maturely the questions
submitted to them, and then decide — and decide unani
mously — what the judgment should be, would it not be
unreasonable to withstand such a judgment, and to
pretend that one's own private opinion were preferable?
If our dear Lord has promised His Apostles, that when
two or three of them were gathered together in His name,
He would be in the midst of them (Matt, xviii. 20), what
will be the case when two or three hundred, as at Nicaea,
or five or six hundred, as at Chalcedon, or seven or eight
hundred, as probably will be the case in the forthcoming
Council, assemble in His name for His cause, and to
decide on matters which concern His glory and that of
His Church? And when to this supposition we add

LECTURE III. 37
another — that these who assemble are Prelates, whom
we are bound to obey ; who have responsibility over us,
and therefore watch, in order to be ready to give an
account of our souls, does it not imply a more imperative
duty upon our part to acquiesce in their decision, and to
fear resistance to them, as to an ordinance of God ?
But let us leave the sphere of hypothesis, and come and
consider what was done by our ancestors, when circum
stances arose which made such a tribunal as we have
imagined, to be a reality, with power to judge decisively
in a matter in which such a judgment was called for. In
our last lecture I told you of the Council of Jerusalem,
and described to you how, in a question of practical im
portance, the decision was safely arrived at in a meeting
such as we have imagined, when the Apostles and elders
assembled to consider upon the question which had arisen,
and pronounced the judgment which seemed good to the
Holy Ghost and to themselves. As Ebion and Cerinthus
arose to disturb the peace of the earliest days of Chris
tianity, so, in the beginning of the fourth century, arose
one who, in the earliest days of the external peace of the
Church, brought in discord, and denied the very central
truth of the Christian religion. Arius, a deacon of the
Church of Alexandria, was bold and blasphemous enough
to assert that our dearest Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
the only begotten Son of God, was merely a creature, and
was not God equal to the Father, and of one substance
with Him. What a shudder does not the mention of such
a blasphemy at once create amongst us, who glory in the
profession of our belief in the Divinity of Him, to whom
we owe all our peace in this world, and our prospect of
happiness in the next! And an equal shudder did its

38 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
utterance create in the days in which that heresiarch
dared to declare his error. It was instantly anathema
tized by the orthodox people who heard it ; but as the
crafty disputant had, by subtle arguments and other
unworthy means, gained over a considerable number of
adherents, and not a few bishops even had become
attached to his party, it was necessary that the voice of
the Church should proclaim loudly what was her orthodox
teaching, and by the mouths of many witnesses condemn
the rising heresy. Through the help and encouragement
of the Emperor Constantine, bishops from various quarters
of the globe assembled together, and formed the first
(Ecumenical Council of Nicaaa.
It was in the year of our Lord 325. There came to
gether three hundred and eighteen bishops, mostly from
the East, as that part of the world was chiefly interested in
the controversy ; but several attended from the West also,
to join with their brethren in the Episcopate, in condemn
ing a blasphemy which created horror wherever it had
been heard of. St. Sylvester was at that time Pope, and
being unable through age and infirmity, as some of the
old historians tell us, to attend and preside in person,
according to the right, admitted even at that time, of his
office to preside at a General Council, he sent three le
gates to act in his name, a Spanish bishop and two Italian
priests. We may well imagine the feeling which must
have filled the hearts of those who attended at this, the
first such gathering as had until that time been possible.
For those were the first days of the external peace of the
Church, when the world no longer persecuted it, or at
least, no longer in the same form which persecution had
assumed until then. And as we represented to ourselves

LECTURE III. 39
the gathering of the Apostles in Jerusalem, when the
hand of the torturer had begun to leave marks on those,
who went away rejoicing when they were able at the
public tribunals to suffer reproach for the Name of Jesus,
so now we find coming together venerable confessors
bearing the marks which .no lapse of time was ever to
obliterate, of wounds endured for the glory of Him, whose
Divinity had been assailed, and which they were eager to
defend. There were to be seen St. Potamon, bishop of
Heraclea, who had been blinded and lamed in the recent
persecution of Diocletian ; St. Paphnutius, of Upper The-
bais, also bunded ; and St. Paul, of Neocesarea, who had
been branded with hot irons on account of his zealous
defence of the Faith. These had come, all their infirmities
notwithstanding, from Africa and distant parts of Asia,
to assert a truth in favour of which they had shown their
sincerity by their long suffering. When the Council as
sembled and the proceedings commenced, Arius was asked
to state his doctrine regarding the Second Person of the
Blessed Trinity; and when he shamelessly declared his
heretical assertions, that He was but a creature, was not
God, was not equal to nor of one substance with the
Father, the astonished and indignant Prelates first of all
stopped their ears on hearing such unheard of blasphemies,
and wished at once to condemn him by acclamation. But
as they had assembled to act judicially, and to investigate
the question fully, they did not act with any appearance of
precipitation, but patiently heard arguments and explana
tions ; and it was after sitting at various intervals for two
months, that at last the false doctrine was fully and
solemnly condemned, and against the Arian heresy were
inserted in the Creed, as a more explicit and unmistakable

40 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
declaration of the faith of the Church, those details not
before formally announced in dogmatic words in the pro
fession of faith, though believed and maintained from the
beginning, which form one of the differences between the
expression of the Apostles' and the Nicene Creed. From
that time until now, has been sung forth by the Catholic
Church, what she will sing till the end of time, that Jesus
Christ is not simply Son of God, as the Apostles' Creed
announces, but that He is "Born of the Father before ail
ages : God of God : Light of Light : True God of True
God: begotten not made: of one Substance with the
Father : by Whom all things were made."
A test of Orthodoxy was wanted, and it was supplied.
It was not Scripture, simply, that was appealed to,
although the noble Gospel of St. John, written expressly
against a similar error, was decisive upon the point. But
something more was wanted. It was wanted to know
what the Catholic Church, dispersed throughout the whole
world, held upon the point ; and the voice of the whole
Church was certainly heard clearly and distinctly enough
in behalf of this central truth of Christianity. And what
we maintain is, that if there are differences between
ourselves and others — and would to God there were
none ! in such a case, if ordinary modes do not suffice to
decide on which side is error and on which side truth,
a general assembly of the Prelates of the whole Church
might, with all confidence, be welcomed as affording a
solution to doubts and difficulties, as able to affirm
what is to be held as true and to be rejected as false.
That which is so desirable is also possible ; and what was
done in earlier days can still be done, and is going to be
done. As there was a woe upon Arius because he still

LECTURE III. 41
remained obstinate, notwithstanding his condemnation by
the Universal Church, surely there must be a woe upon
those who will reject a judgment equally solemn with that
of Nicaea, because pronounced by the same authority and
under the same penalties. And the desirableness of such
a test can easily be shown by the admissions made, and
the professions accepted and published by the Established
Church in this kingdom, that Church which so widely,
painfully, yet practically differs from us, in those solemn
matters to which allusion has already been made. The
35th of the 39 Articles declares that "The Second Book
of Homilies doth contain a godly and wholesome doctrine;"
and this Second Book of Homilies says of the first Six
General Councils, that they "were allowed and received of
all men."* And it also declares of the Primitive Church,
during the period of those Councils, that it " is especially
to be followed as most uncorrupt and pure."t For thus
we argue : The Church of Christ, during the period in
which its doctrine was most uncorrupt and pure, deemed
it an expedient and desirable mode of preserving Ortho
doxy, and of separating what was false from her commu
nion, to hold General Councils ; and those Councils were
of such authority that they were accepted and universally
approved of. But the Church of Christ was Apostolical
then, and is Apostolical now, for the Church of Christ
always is the Church of the Apostles. And, therefore,
she is not overstretching her powers, but is imitating a
worthy example, if in order to preserve her Orthodoxy
and to drive off error, she does now what was done in
days of primitive purity of doctrine, and done for the very
* 2nd Book of Homilies, 2nd Homily, part 2nd.
+ Homily on Fasting, 1st part.

42 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
purpose of preserving that purity. In the Primitive
Church there was a power of convening these tests of
Orthodoxy, and men acknowledged that power and sub
mitted to the decisions which it secured. A Church which
does the very same now, which has that power, which
exercises it, which is recognised by the whole world in
that exercise, is certainly not unlike the Primitive Church,
and may well be trusted as a guardian and defender of
Orthodoxy. So great, indeed, is the influence of a judgment pro
nounced by the universal Church, even less solemnly
than in one of its (Ecumenical Councils, that the argu
ment grounded upon it, urged in the fifth century by
St. Augustine, has in our own days served to bring into
submission to the Church, one of the greatest among the
converts, whom, by the grace of God, these later times
have been so fertile in producing. Every age is the age
of converts, for the Church is always plying her warfare,
which is to bring into captivity every understanding unto
the obedience of Christ. (2 Cor. x. 5.) But in our own
country, there has been within the experience of every
one of us, an influx which has told' upon our numbers and
position in a very notable manner, so that it is impossible,
perhaps, for any Priest to stand, as I am standing now,
in the presence of a large congregation, without his eye
resting, wherever it may fall, upon the converts who
surround him. Foremost, nearly, amongst those who
have come over to us from amongst the Anglican clergy,
is one of the greatest intellects that the University of
Oxford has ever produced, either in former times or in
the present age. Many of you may remember the
sympathy elicited in his regard, and the indignation

LECTURE III. 43
against his calumniator, when the pen of a traducer
dared to accuse him of insincerity, and of encouraging
principles adverse to truthfulness. It was a happy fault,
however, on the part of the false accuser, as it served as
an occasion for bringing before the public the history of
a life well worth studying, and the working of a noble
mind in its search after truth. Just as St. Augustine,
at the time of the mental struggle which preceded his
conversion, was led to read the last argument which
gained him to Christ, by a voice calling out to him :
"Tolle, Lege" (Take up, and read); so did the same Pro
vidence which had evoked that voice, direct the hand of
this good father of the Church, for such he now is, to read
an argument of that same St. Augustine, in which he urges
with his immense power the force of the consent of the
Universal Church against his Donatist opponents. Securus
judicat orbis terrarum. (The entire world judges with
security.) These words seemed to act upon him as a
spell, and struck him with a power which he had never
felt from any words before. They kept ringing in his
ears, and gave him no rest till, through them, he made
the resolution of taking that step of submission to the
Church, which brought perfect peace to a soul till then
so filled with anxiety.* Depend upon it, when the whole
world will again speak, and with that solemnity which
will be attached to its utterance when given forth in a
General Council, its judgment will be perfectly secure,
and must be followed by all who will hear it. I can
imagine well that the instance which I have cited for
you, will one day be brought up in judgment against
those who still dare to delay in spite of such an example,
* Newman's "Apologia," p. 211.

44 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
and are deaf even when the Universal Church calls out
to them. God grant it may be followed by numbers
greater than have yet been influenced by it, and that it
may not be at a future day a reason for condemnation
against many, who can scarcely plead ignorance of their
duty when so strikingly brought before them !
Here, then, is our argument, and who can stay its
force ? The voice of Nature, the universal cry of man
kind, the principle of human laws, the prescription
of ages, the desire for peace and unity, and the
struggle against the anxiety and torture of religious
doubt, — all these conspire together in invoking a
judgment, which can inspire confidence and gain obedi
ence, and which can show itself to be in very
truth the judgment of God, because it is pronounced by
those whom He commands us to obey, as being placed
between ourselves and Him by His own appointment.
And when that venerable assembly is drawn together,
who will be able to resist its influence ? Surely there
can no longer exist that ignorance, which charity so
often urges as a plea on behalf of those who perhaps
may not have had the means of surmounting it. Surely
there can no longer be darkness, when men ought by the
brightness afforded to them, to be even dazzled into
submission. Can ignorance and darkness be considered
invincible, when Almighty God Himself appoints such a
special and practical means for dispelling both ?
What a fearful judgment must await those who will still
hold out against such an argument ! When Almighty
God will say to them : I gave you a Church to guide you,
and I gave it Marks by which you could not help telhng
it was My own Church. I gave you Prelates to watch

LECTURE III. 45
over you, upon whom I placed the responsibility of your
soul; but I wished you on that very account to obey them,
and to be subject to them. When the teaching of the
Church, dispersed throughout the world, but yet one,
because still under its one Pastor, was not enough to
convince you of your duty of submission, I repeated for
you the Day of Pentecost, and brought together into one
place, devout men and men of authority from every nation
under the sun, to convince you by their Unity, and yet
you withstood even such an evidence 
Oh, my dear brethren, God is a God of mercy, and it is
not for us to pronounce judgment in His Name. But He
is also the God of Truth, and we must not attribute to
Him a love of error. May His Mercy and Truth once
more meet together in behalf of souls redeemed by the
Precious Blood of His Only Son ! May they be brought
from ignorance into the knowledge of the Truth, and
ever show within the Church that obedience which is the
true source of peace here, and a safe pledge of happi
ness hereafter!

LECTURE TV.
AN (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL POSSIBLE IN THE TRUE CHURCH
ONLY.
In the last days the mountain of the House of the Lord shall be prepared on
the top of mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations
shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say : Come, let us
go up to the Mountain of the Lord, and to the House of the God of Jacob ;
and He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths ; for the
law shall come forth from Sion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
— Isaus ii. 2, 3, 4.
The truth which I shall have to demonstrate this evening
is closely connected with that to which we devoted our at
tention on Sunday last; and I must, in order that you may
. see the train of reasoning on which I have now entered,
show you the connexion between them. The proposition
which is to engage us this evening is this : — An (Ecumen
ical Council is possible in the true Church only. Our last
Sunday's proposition was: — An (Ecumenical Council is in
itself desirable as a Test of Orthodoxy. If our last
proposition is true, our present one bears its own truth
about it, and there cannot be required much effort to
bring it home to the minds of all. If a General Council
is desirable in itself, as I have proved, and if it is possible
in the true Church only, as I hope to prove, a point of
very great importance is secured for us, by the admission
of the excellence of that Church, which, in her office of
guardian of the Faith, has such means of preserving truth,
and of bringing it home to the minds of men. Starting
with the principle enforced by St. Paul, that it is the duty

LECTURE IV. 47
of all who profess to be Christians, to obey their Prelates,
and to be subject to them, who have to render an account
of their souls, we saw that a test of orthodoxy, which is
so loudly called for, is supplied. When called for else
where it is to be found. Nature and human law and
the Old Law supplied it, Was it to be found wanting only
in the true Church, the most perfect and sacred of all
institutions existing upon earth ? We saw that such a
test was wanted and was most loudly called for, because
there do exist most fatal differences between ourselves
and those separated from us, though we both bring
Scripture to our aid, to maintain the position which we
defend. I limited myself in these differences, which
might be multiplied so as to become tedious to listen to,
to the practical question of the Sacraments, and I showed
how in three of them, namely, the Adorable Sacrament of
the Altar, the salutary Sacrament of Penance, and the
Sacrament, especially instituted for the aid and comfort
of the dying, the Sacrament of Extreme Unction —
differences which cry for a solution, do exist ; and where
is the solution to be found, except in some authorita
tive judgment, such as can be pronounced in an as
semblage like an (Ecumenical Council? The Church
dispersed throughout the world can, indeed, pro
nounce such a judgment, but it might not so easily
be accepted, as when the judgment is forced upon
us in a concentrated form, when the Prelates who
are to answer for our souls, gather themselves together,
and in the most solemn and imposing manner declare
what seems good to the Holy Ghost and themselves.
We saw, too, how such judgments had been pronounced
and had been submitted to in the earliest times, and how

48 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
by them, as in the Council of Nicaea, orthodoxy had been
defended and error had been conquered. The Church
of England, in its authorized dogmatical declarations,
as in that which in its Thirty-nine Articles, it makes in
favour of the Book of Homihes, admits the value of such
decisions as tests of orthodoxy ; and so we concluded, as
reason forced us to conclude, that what the Church was
at one time able to do, she is still able to do, unless
Christ's promises and intentions have failed, and unless
the Church, founded upon a rock, has fallen to ruin, and
the gates of hell have, in spite of every security afforded
by our Lord, prevailed against her, and God Himself has
been conquered by the Spirit of Evil.
Observe now the immense importance of this conclu
sion, and see what we have gained. In the Church of the
Apostles, and in the Primitive Ghurch, that was done
which ought to serve as a precedent for future times,
inasmuch as the Church is always the same. Give a
Church which, in its defence of truth, and in driving away
error, does the very same as was done in those earlier
times, and for the very same purpose, under the very same
circumstances, and by virtue of the very same promises,
whose theory and whose practice are the very same as
have existed from the beginning, and you have an
evidence in favour of such a Church, and a safe criterion
by which to guide your judgment. But give one which
has lost the power possessed by the Apostolical and
Primitive Church, which cannot call together a tribunal
competent to pronounce in cases which must, and will,
and do arise, and it bears upon itself a mark that distin
guishes it from the Church founded by Christ, and by
Him invested with gifts which were intended to be per-

LECTURE IV. 49
petual. Such a Church is not His. And we need not
wait for the conclusion, or even the actual gathering of
the Council, to show the difference between a Church
which has the power, and one which has it not. The
Council, even as it is at present, in a state of preparation
and of possibility, is enough to mark the distinction. The
fact of summoning a Council is a challenge ; it is a throw
ing down the gauntlet ; let who will, accept it, and come
and measure strength with the Catholic Church ! Let
any other Church — I do not say succeed in calling a
council, and in bringing it into existence — let it attempt
to do such a thing. It is not usual to call spirits from
the deep, when they will not come for the calling.
In order to introduce to you the subject of this
evening's lecture, I have brought before you the words
of the Prophet Isaias, in which the glory of the Church
of the New Testament is celebrated. And first of all
one word upon the great prophet, whose testimony is so
important, whom Almighty God allowed, some eight
hundred years before the coming of our Lord, to see
and to write down the events of His Life and His
Kingdom. So clearly does he announce some of these
details, that St. Jerome does not hesitate to call him an
Evangelist ; and this idea is encouraged by the Church,
when she orders the Priest at Mass, and the Deacon
before chanting the Gospel, to pray that as Almighty
God cleansed the lips of Isaias with a burning coal, so
would He vouchsafe to cleanse the heart and lips of one
who is about to announce the good tidings of the Gospel.
He foretels the Birth from a Virgin Mother, the Adora
tion of the Magi, the Flight into Egypt, the character
of the teaching of our Lord, and His office of a Good

50 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
Shepherd : he tells of His miracles, the details and
bitterness of His sufferings, His death, His resurrection,
and His future judgment. Often does our dear Lord
quote him in reference to Himself; and therefore such an
authority must be of great weight, when it brings before
us what was to be the case in the days which now have
dawned upon us. In the last days, he says, the mountain
of the House of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of
mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and all
nations shall flow unto it ; and many people shall go and
say : come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and
to the House of the God of Jacob ; and He will teach us His
ways, and we will walk in His paths : for the law shall come
forth from Sion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
How literally are these words verified at all times by the
visibility and universality of the Catholic Church, the
Church of all nations, but especially by the General
Council now about to assemble in the city of Rome, in the
Vatican Basilica ! The last days are what the prophet
calls the days after the coming of Christ, the days of the
Christian Church. The mountain of the House of the Lord
on the top of the mountains, describes strikingly that noble
Church of St. Peter, on the Vatican Mountain, itself a
mountain of a house, in its colossal size and majestic pro
portions, standing aloft as if crowning the city beneath, as
we are told by those who have had the happiness of visiting
the Sacred City of Rome,* the Sion and Jerusalem of the
* Gibbon calls St. Peter's "The most glorious structure that ever has been
applied to the use of religion." And Byron thus addresses it : 
" But thou, of temples old and altars new,
Standest alone, with nothing like to thee
Worthiest of God, the Holy and the True." — Ohilde Harold.

LECTURE IV. 51
New Law. And the House of God is prepared; it is ready
to receive its God, when in the meeting of the Prelates of
the Church, He Himself, the Holy Spirit, the Spouse of
the Church, will come and fill it with His presence, and
preside over those who are assembled under His Head
ship. So St. John saw the new Jerusalem "prepared"
as a spouse to meet her husband. And we find, even now,
in the preparations for the Council, all nations flowing
in. For all Bishops are repairing thither, and the Bishop
represents his nation, the Church of his nation ; as St.
Cyprian says : " The Church is in the Bishop, and the
Bishop in the Church."* And two things particularly
does a Council attend to, doctrine and discipline. Doctrine
is represented by the law of the Lord, and discipline by the
ways of the Lord. And thus a description of an (Ecu
menical Council is in great and practical detail drawn
out for us in the words of the Evangelical Prophet.
When we maintain that none but the Orthodox Church
can realize such a desirable idea as an (Ecumenical Coun
cil, many reasons at once come to hand in support of our
proposition. It is only into the one house of the Lord,
visible and raised above all others, that all nations flow.
With good reason we may urge the truth of the saying of
our dear Lord to His Apostles : Where two or three are
gathered together m My name, there am I, in the midst of
them. (Matt, xviii. 20.) The blessing of drawing to
gether is ever allied in Scripture with truth : the curse
of dispersing is ever associated with error. Those are
His sheep which are formed into one flock, and gathered
into one fold; but those that are scattered without a
shepherd, and exposed to the ravening of wolves, are
* St. Cyprian, lit. Ixvi.
E 2

52 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
none of His. And the very word and meaning of " com
munion" implies the same, being a fellowship and a
holding of intercourse between those who are, by its
means, connected with each other. So great importance
do the great defenders of the Unity of the Church, SS.
Cyprian, Optatus, and Augustine, attach to the visible
bond of communion, that they apply it as a test of truth ;
and they conspire in affirming the principle, that inter
communion between various Churches, and communion
with the central Church, are exclusive signs of Ortho
doxy. Those are orthodox, and those only are orthodox,
who are thus united in holy fellowship together. These
two realities of intercommunion, and communion with
the central Church, are most manifestly shown in that
gathering together into one place, and under one pre
sidency, of the Bishops of various nations, which forms
a general Council.
The Roman Catholic Church (to use the name by which
our Communion is oftentimes styled) can, both in theory
and in fact, call an Oecumenical Council. It can do it in
theory. For the theory which it puts boldly forward at
all times, with all the eloquence and truthfulness of
Isaias, is that it is the Church of all nations. There is
some such Church upon earth, and there can be but one
such, and the Church in communion with Rome, is the
only one which claims to be that of which the Prophet
foretold. This Church maintains its own infallibility, and
proves it by those promises which Christ made to it,
which are still good and faithful, and must continue good
and faithful for ever. In this Church is ever kept up the
strict duty of obedience and subjection to Prelates, and
the submission of these Prelates themselves to the one

LECTURE rv. 53
Chief Pastor appointed by Christ as His Vicar upon earth.
This Church, therefore, maintains that it is one and the
same as the Church founded by Christ, that it has pre
cisely the same organization ; for as under Him all the
faithful were united under one Head, and with that one
Head the Apostles were combined together in govern
ment, so is it now. The faithful are under the Pi-elates,
who are kept in unity by their communion with the same
Head and centre. And this Church maintains, more
over, that it is visible, and perpetually visible. It is not
a secret society. In its profession of Faith, in its form
of government, in its outward worship and Sacraments,
and in the reality of intercommunion, it shows itself, and
it has its marks whereby it can be known and distin
guished. This is the theory of the Church : these are its
principles, of which it never is ashamed, and which it
proclaims loudly and fearlessly in the face of the world.
The Church, therefore, says what our dear Lord Himself
said : I have spoken openly to the world, .... and
in secret I have said nothing. (John xviii. 20.) With
such an authority, if error has to be condemned, the
Church can and does condemn it; and can gather its
Prelates together to consider upon the matter, and to
issue whatever conclusion it promulgates under the
guidance of the Holy Ghost, which presides over it, and
over it alone.
And, in fact, the Church of Rome alone has called, and
does call, (Ecumenical Councils. It has done it eighteen
times since the days of the Apostles, and is doing it now
the nineteenth time, in the nineteenth century. The
presiding Pastor of the Church, the Pope, the Bishop of
Rome, sends forth his mandate. He summons, he does

54 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
not apologetically advise, the Bishops of the world to
come to meet him in solemn conclave; but he orders
them, and by virtue of holy obedience, to leave their
flocks for a time, in order that with him they may, under
the guidance of the Holy Spirit, deliberate upon matters
of the highest importance for the spiritual good of the
faithful, and decree such things as the Holy Spirit will
dictate. It is a fact, however much disloyal or unbe
lieving persons may attempt to distort the evidence
afforded by the history of past Councils, that there is
not a record of any Council claiming to be Oecumenical,
or admitted to be so, which has not attained its title of
Qlcumenicity by the sanction of Rome. And if we leave
the past out of the question — though in the course of our
instructions we shall constantly allude to it — what does
the present reality attest ? Here, in the nineteenth
century, in the presence and under the eyes of the whole
world, there is a fact of an Oecumenical Council being
summoned, and in process of being realized. In point of
numbers, and in point of distance and diversity of place
from which the Bishops will come, no Council which has
preceded it will, in every probability, come near to it. A
feeble old man, to speak humanly, with seventy-six years
of life, and twenty-three years of a most anxious pontifi
cate pressing upon him, sends out an order signed by
the words, " I, Pius, Bishop of the Catholic Church,"
and instantly, as if electrified, every Bishop, of whatever
nation — even from the antipodes, for the first time— is
influenced, and yields cheerfully and instinctively, and
the great event becomes a reality. Pentecost comes
again, and devout men of every nation under the sun
are found together in the Jerusalem of the New Church;

LECTURE IV. 55
and the law will come forth from Sion, and the word of the
Lord from Jerusalem.
No other Church can do more, when it attempts any
thing of the kind, than bring together Bishops of a
nation. However numerous they may happen to be, they
will always be found to be nothing more than representa
tives of a limited place. St. Optatus and St. Augustine
taunted the Donatists with the fact, that though in North
Africa their numbers were great, and they could form
large assemblages, they were not known anywhere else
in the world, and shared not that prophetical declaration
in favour of the Church : I will give thee the nations for
thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for
thy possession. (Ps. ii.) Indeed, as an Oecumenical Council
is a protest against error, none but the true Church
could wish to face such a reality, for any other could
only meet with its own condemnation. Let any other
attempt it, and how could it take even the preliminary
steps of summoning such a Council ? Who would dare to
assert the possession of authority over all nations, as their
plea for calling upon the Bishops of all nations, to show
their obedience, and repair at a fixed time to the place of
meeting ? What a contrast to an Oecumenical Council was
that extraordinary exhibition of disunion and inactivity,
afforded by the meeting of English Bishops in September,
1867, called the Pan- Anglican Synod. Its very name is
uncatholic, and sounds like Judaism; it is merely na
tional ; for although the prefix Pan implies universality,
the epithet Anglican expresses, clearly enough, nothmg but
nationalism. A hesitating and compromising invitation,
not an authoritative and positive summons, is the note
which is to call them together, and when the trumpet

56 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
gives such an uncertain sound, no wonder that so few
prepare themselves for the battle. The second Arch
bishop in England refuses to attend, and several Bishops
in the kingdom do the same. And though the dominions
of England are so vast, that the sun never sets upon
them, only seventy, from all the world, can be brought
together. And when it was brought together, what was
its result ? Its acts may be summed up into three. One
is negative, one is positive, and the third is a work of
supererogation. Its negative act was, that it did not
attempt to close a single one of those practical and pain
ful controversies in reference to doctrine and discipline,
for which the Anglican Church is so notorious. Its posi
tive act was, that it had recourse to the usual cheap
means of purchasing a little popularity, and turning away
contempt for itself, by an attack upon the Church of
Rome, which it charged with three errors which have
never existed. And its work of supererogation was, that
it had its pastoral letter translated into Greek, and sent
to the Greek Patriarch of Constantinople, and has never
yet received an answer.
And now that we look back again upon the history of
that attempt of the English Church to do the work of a
Council, does it not seem that we are awakening a ghost
that has long since been laid, and to be calling back to
memory an almost forgotten story of the distant past ?
Yet, scarcely two years have elapsed since it was held in the
mighty English capital, and who thinks of it now ? Who
ever quotes its authority as having defined anything, or
given encouragement to a stricter observance of discipline
and morality ? Where are its acts enregistered ? In what
collection of Councils shall we read its laws and decrees ?

LECTURE IV. 57
Look at the Council of Trent — now, after three centuries,
as fresh and vigorous in its enactments as if it were
sitting as yet, and meeting, throughout the whole world,
with a cheerful observance of its solemn and practical
decrees. Look at Nicaea — now, after fifteen centuries,
swaying the whole world, which everywhere chants, in
universal chorus, its never-dying Credo. These last,
because they are the work of God ; but the poor, human,
national Pan- Anglican Synod is born and buried almost
in the same day.
Moreover, my dear brethren, to go a little more closely
and practically into the question, how far it would be
possible for the English Church to realize such a desirable
test of orthodoxy as an Oecumenical Council, let us ana
lyse the Church of England into the two greater divisions
of which it consists. Take the Low Church and the
High Church ; for that these two parties do exist in the
English Church, is as true as that there are two distinct
political parties in the English Parliament. The Low
Church party puts prominently forward the right of pri
vate judgment, and denounces everything like dogmatic
teaching by a living authority. How are such principles
possibly consistent with a belief in the authority of an
Oecumenical Council, and of an obligation of submitting
to its judgment ? And the High Church party, even in its
most advanced state, makes such a reality as a Council
equally impossible, and for two reasons. First, they
maintain the existence of only an invisible Communion
between the various branches which, they say, constitute
the Catholic Church. An Oecumenical Council is the
very contradiction of such a theory ; for such a Council
is the most striking and dazzling manifestation of the

58 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
Church as having an outward, visible, organized, bodily
existence, and seems to say, to the believers in such a
figment as a merely invisible intercommunion between
Churches, what our dear Lord said to His Apostles after
His resurrection : Handle and see, for a spirit hath not
flesh and bones, as you see Me to have. (Luke xxiv.
39.) And, again, the advanced High Church party make
an Oecumenical Council an impossibility, from the total
absence of all deference upon their part to those very
Prelates who ought to be its members. For it is a
notorious fact, that is thrusting itself on the notice of
all observers every day, that though those good and
earnest men who are anxious, as they themselves declare,
to exalt the character of the English Church, do express
great deference for those whom they now love to call
their Priests, they are the most out-spoken in opposition
to their Bishops. Their acknowledged organs of the
Press are over and over again attacking and criticising
their Prelates ; and the golden law of St. Paul, on which
we have already dwelt, Obey your Prelates and be subject
to them, is by them far " more honoured in the breach
than in the observance." Who clamours more loudly
than they in the case now exciting some interest, of the
Bishop designate of Exeter ? He is accused by them of
heresy, and other kindred faults ; and the whole of the
bench of Bishops that will hold communion with him
are involved in the same condemnation. Yet those who
thus protest, remain, and will remain in outward and
visible fellowship with this and the other Bishops. Why,
my dear brethren, SS. Optatus, Cyprian, and Augustine
would rather their right hand should be withered, and
their tongues cleave to their jaws, than remain in com-

LECTURE IV. 59
munion with those whom they declared to be heretics.
Their definition of a Church, uniformly and constantly
is, " a people united with the Bishop." With such feel
ings, how can an Oecumenical Council be possible, and
how can the voices of the Bishops be taken as the voice
of God ? And, therefore, with either High Church or
Low Church, a Council is with them an impossibility.
But what have I gained by proving this ? I have
gained this, which is so important to our question, that
that Church which in this country is most opposed to us,
cannot show that it possesses a power exercised in the
Primitive Church over and over again, and a power
which can call forth a test of Orthodoxy so desirable
as an Oecumenical Council. The Church of Rome can
do, and is doing, what was done in the good olden days
of primitive truth, and is doing it for the same purpose
— namely, for the defence of truth and the confutation of
error. It is to the true Church alone that is committed
the guardianship of truth and the deposit of Faith. A
Church which cannot, when circumstances demand it,
upraise its voice and proclaim aloud, so as to be heard
by all nations, what is to be followed and what avoided,
is not the Church of all nations, and is not, therefore, the
true Church which Christ made to be that of all nations.
We have a right, then, to challenge those who deny our
claims and assert their own, to prove their position or to
disprove ours, by any of those texts on which we have
grounded our instructions as far as we have hitherto
gone. Let them show, that they can go and teach all
nations to observe all things whatsoever Christ has com
manded. Let them show, that when weighty matters
and practical questions call for a judicial decision, they

60 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
have power to call together Prelates and elders to con
sider and pronounce upon them. Let them show that
they obey their Prelates and are subject to them, and
that they admit the right of these Prelates to watch over
them, as being to give an account of their souls. Let
them show that the noble prophecy of Isaias, regarding
the Church, is fulfilled in their instance, and that they can
point to all nations flowing to their Church, in order to
hear the law and the word of the Lord. And when they
can do this, they will be able to put forward a motive of
credibility which, as yet, they do not possess, and will be
establishing some claim to be looked upon as the true
Church of Christ. That the Church of Rome can answer
all these requirements, she shows by one fact, and that
is the fact of an Oecumenical Council.
One strange phantom we should imagine the Council
ought to dissipate for ever; and that is the question of the
validity of Anglican ordinations. Seven hundred anointed
Prelates, with the oil of their consecration glistening upon
their heads, whose God hath anointed them with the oil
of gladness above their fellows, might well, even in passive
silence, bid defiance to the approach of those unanointed
ones, for whom a share in the sacerdotal princedom of
the Church is so unmeaningly claimed. Among the
parables of our dear Lord there is one which might,
without any forced interpretation, apply its moral to
such claimants : it is the parable of the ten virgins.
Why were the five foolish ones rejected ? They had no
oil. You know how oil is always praised in Sacred
Scriptures, and how Almighty God has exalted it as a
Sacramental sign of joy, of richness, of light, of strength,
of activity, and of beauty. More than that, He has made

LECTURE IV. 61
it the symbol of the investing with wisdom'and authority,
those whom He has raised to privileged superiority above
others. Kings, and Priests, and Prophets were anointed,
and thus promoted to the dignity and the exercise of their
respective offices. You remember how Samuel when he
anointed Saul King of Israel, took the vessel of oil and
poured it upon his head, and said : Behold, the Lord hath
anointed thee to to be prince (1 Kings x. 1) ; and how
upon the death of Saul, David in his lamentations calls
down a curse upon the mountains of Gelboe, which had
witnessed his death, as though he had not been anointed
with oil. (2 Kings i. 21.) And you read how when Moses,
by the order of God, ordained Aaron to the Priesthood,
he anointed him, and how the fact is celebrated by the
Psalmist in words used by the Church in the consecra
tion of a Bishop, when it speaks of the ointment which ran
down upon the beard of Aaron. (Ps. cxxxii.) And again,
when Elias was come near to the end of his career,
the Lord said to him : " Thou shalt anoint Eliseus to be
prophet in thy name." (3 Kings xix. 16.) And so the
fact of anointing, or being anointed, is perpetuated and
sanctified by the name of Christ, taken by Him who came
to fulfil the triple office of King, Priest and Prophet ; and
the very name of Christian implies that anointing should
not be excluded from the ministerial acts of the Church
of the New Law. We find (Mark vi. 13) the use of oil
by the Apostles in their administration among the sick,
ordered to be perpetuated by St. James. (Chap, v.)
And so in the Sacraments of the Catholic Church we
find so frequently the use of oil. Baptism is, therefore,
called Christening, because in its solemn administration
oil is used : so, also, is it used in Confirmation, and in

62 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
Holy Orders, and in Extreme Unction. It is used in the
consecration of a Church, too, and is seen to be in per
petual use in its sweet privilege of burning before the
Blessed Sacrament.
Yet, in the Anglican Church, however high its position
and party, oil is still unused. Bishops, unanointed them
selves, do not anoint the priesthood; and the priests
unanointed, leave children, and those in later develop
ment, and those at the hour of death, unanointed also.
No oil is used at Baptism, though it is still called Christ
ening : none in Confirmation ; and the poor, helpless,
dying may call in vain for unanointed priests to come
and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord, and
prepare them to enter into the home of their eternity.
It is quite known that Archbishop Parker, the father of
the Protestant Hierarchy, was the first unanointed
prelate who filled the see of Canterbury, for he used to
boast that forms and ceremonies which had been used in
the consecration of his predecessors had had no existence
in his case.* And Bishop Barlow, his supposed conse-
crator, in words which brought censure upon him by
better-minded persons at the time that they were uttered,
expressed his disbelief in the necessity of any ordination
whatever. t So that precedents of nearly a thousand
* "Indeed, the Archbishop took~a pleasure," says Strype, the panegyrist of
Parker, " sometimes to recollect how he was consecrated, and that he was the
first of all Archbishops of Canterbury that came into that see without any spot
or stain of Popish superstitions and vain ceremonies required of all before hiin ;
without any bull of approbation from the Pope of Rome,'' &c. (Life of Parker,
vol. i., p. 122.)
+ Barlow, in a sermon before Henry VIII., had said : " That if the King's
grace, being supreme head of the Church of England, did choose, denominato,
and elect any layman (being learned) to be a Bishop, that he, so ohosen (with
out mention made of any orders), should be as good a Bishop as he is, or the

LECTUEE IV. 63
years had been departed from, and have never since been
observed by those unanointed ones, who pretend to be
successors of St. Augustine, St. Elphege, St. Anselm,
St. Thomas, St. Edmund, and other illustrious saints of
the Church of Canterbury. How, therefore, I ask, could
they pretend to the honour of ranking themselves among
the seven or eight hundred truly consecrated Bishops,
who, by the holy unction of the Priesthood in its pleni
tude, will gather together in the solemn Council of the
Vatican. Let me exhort you to read a case not at all
inappropriate, which you will find in the second chapter
of 1 Esdras. There we see how, after the seventy years'
captivity, when the children of Israel returned to Jeru
salem, the roll was read over of those that had been
carried away and now came back to their home. And of
some who claimed to be of the Priesthood, it is said
(v. 62) : These sought the writing of their genealogy, and
found it not; and they were cast out of the Priesthood. In
the gathering of the Bishops of the world in the forth
coming Council, each Bishop will have to show the
writing of his genealogy, and prove his consecration.
The consequences of a doubtful consecration and ordina
tion are too awful to be allowed to exist ; and it is not
the voice of the Church only, but the voice of those
whose interests are at stake in such a question ; which
ought to call out, that such as are unable to establish
best in England." (Collier, vol. ii., p. 135.) Such was also Cranmer's doctrine.
Of course, I do not mean, by what I have stated about Holy Unction, that
it is essential matter for Holy Orders; but my argument is, that those who
have, in such a point, broken off from the constant practice of the Church, are
not likely to have been particular about other points. Would a legal document,
drawn up by those who studiously avoided and hated technical law terms, be
likely to hold good in a contested case?

64 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
their claim to so high and holy an office, should forfeit
their claim, and be cast out of the Priesthood. It is
cruel and unjust to the souls of the people, to keep them
in suspense on such a matter, and to pretend that those
ministrations are valid, which are rejected by the Uni
versal Church; and it is unwise and uncharitable to
their own souls, for people to cling to a hope of a future
recognition of what has been unrecognized for many
generations. This is certainly an important evidence
against the claims of those who pretend to be on a level
with the Episcopate, which will assemble at the General
Council. Remember, all you whom it concerns, remem
ber the moral of the parable of the virgins. Whilst the
foolish ones were unprepared for want of oil, the Bride
groom came, and the wise with their provision of oil
entered the marriage feast ; and whilst the others were
seeking for what they wanted, the door was closed.
And on their afterwards trying to gain an entrance, they
heard the awful words of rejection : I know you not.
The same words may be one day said to you, if you still
reject the immense weight of evidence now brought
before you. Do not delay : you know not the day nor
the hour.
Here then is the end. There is wanting upon earth
some such test of Orthodoxy as an Oecumenical Council ;
for the differences which exist on the most important
and awful questions, call for a decision which such a
reality can pronounce. From the very nature of a
General Council, none can bring such a desirable reality
into, existence, except that Church which claims to be
the Church of all nations.' Such a Church is evidently
the true Christian Church. Prophecy, its institution,

LECTURE IV. 65
its early working, the voice of early Councils, and the
testimony of early centuries, when all admit that
doctrine was pure and incorrupt, all these combine
in investing it with the character which it claims, and
which we feel it ought to have. A national Church
and an Oecumenical Council are inconsistent with
each other : an Universal Church and an Oecumenical
Council are harmonious terms. Only one Church upon
earth claims to be the Church of the universe, and can
prove its claim. It is a fact, made all the clearer by the
very opposition that is made to that claim. Such a
Church has the power of aggregating; every other
scatters. He that is not with Me is against Me, and
he that gathereth not with Me scattereth, is a sacred saying
true of the Church, as it was true of Him who formed
the Church. There is, then, a choice before you be
tween a curse and a blessing. The curse is to be
scattered like a flock without its pastor. The blessing
is that which is expressed by St. Peter: You were as
sheep going astray, but you are now converted to the
shepherd and bishop of your souls. (1 Peter ii. 25.)

LECTURE V.
WHAT THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCILS HAVE DONE.
Remember the days of old ; think upon every generation. Ask thy father ,
and he will declare to thee, thy elders, and they will tell thee. — Deut.
xxxii. 7.
In the important subject upon which we have now fairly
entered, we are this evening to take a very decisive step
forward. We are not to deal with theory, as we have
had to do so much in our two last lectures, but we now
come to most solid matters of fact. We have seen that
an Oecumenical Council is, in itself, desirable as a test of
Orthodoxy ; and we have seen, again, that such a desira
ble reality is to be found in the true Church only. I
have now to open to you some of the annals of the past,
and to show you what Oecumenical Councils have done,
and how, in reality, they have been, what we feel they
ought to be, a means for ascertaining on what side was
truth, and on what side error. And in bringing before
you the consideration of the great work that has been
done in the past, by those majestic assemblies which the
Holy Spirit has from time to time drawn together and
presided over in His office of Guide and Protector of the
Church, I feel that we may conceive our Holy Mother,
the Church, to be addressing us in the words of the
great lawgiver of Israel, and bidding us, in a grateful and
reverential spirit, to remember the days of old, and to
think upon every generation that has gone before us.

LECTURE V. 67
The words which I have brought before you formed a
portion of the last song of that venerable Patriarch. He
was now a hundred and twenty years old, close upon his
death, and had already appointed Josue to be his suc
cessor, in leading the children of Israel into the land
which he had seen from a distance, but into which he
was not to enter. He recounts the blessings of Almighty
God towards His chosen people ; and if they wished to
have a proof of those blessings, he refers them to the
tradition of the past, and to the testimony of their
ancestors. Ask thy father, and he will declare to thee, thy
elders, and they will tell thee.
The Church, too, has her tradition, and is able to point
to a long line of those to whom has been committed, in
every generation, the guardianship of the Faith. Vene
rable now for her long existence upon earth, yet fresh
and vigorous as in the first days of her foundation, she
is able to recount her struggles and victories, and to show
the mode of defence she has pursued whenever an attack
has been made on the deposit committed to her custody,
and when the gates of Hell have vainly tried to prevail
against her. Ever on the watch and prepared, she has
at all times, even in her dispersed state, a sufficient gua
rantee for her safety ; yet, in order the more strikingly to
silence her enemies, and to pass on to future generations
in a more solemn form the record of her victories, she
draws together at times her forces, and acts with a more
concentrated power upon those who dare to oppose her.
This is what she has done in the various Oecumenical
Councils. Since the Council of Jerusalem held in the Apostolic
Age, eighteen such Councils have been celebrated by the
F 2

68 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
Church. There has thus been the average of one to a
century ; and now, in this nineteenth century, the nine
teenth Oecumenical Council is being gathered together.
Sometimes, accordingly as circumstances have required
them, they have followed more quickly upon each other.
Three were held in the twelfth, and three in the thir
teenth century. Sometimes the interval has been long :
three centuries intervened between the Apostolical Coun
cil and the first Oecumenical Council of Nicaea; nearly
three centuries again intervened between the last of
Constantinople and the first of the Lateran; and now
three centuries more have elapsed between the last Oecu
menical Council — that of Trent — and the Council of the
Vatican which is now in course of preparation.
During the first three centuries of the Christian era, it
was the will of Providence that the Church should be
doing its work — effectually, indeed, but secretly. The
Church, like its Founder, was to have its hidden life,
from which it was afterwards to emerge when the fulness
of time appointed in the decrees of Almighty God arrived.
The character of this period is strongly marked, and
differs from the periods which were to succeed it. It is
peculiarly the age of martyrs — not that any age in the
Church is, or has been, without martyrs ; but the
Christians during this hidden time were all living the
lives or dying the deaths of martyrs. Like the lion of
which the Prophet Ezechiel speaks (c. xix.), which went
about in his ravaging, and learnt how to make widows, the
enemies of the Church ravaged also, and learnt how to
make martyrs. The period is divided into the Ten Perse
cutions — the first under Nero, in which was accomplished
the glorious martyrdom of St. Peter and St. Paul ; and

LECTURE V. 69
the last under Diocletian, which proved how Catholic the
Church had become, as it witnessed heroes of the Faith
in almost every quarter of the globe, some of whom we
have already alluded to when speaking of the first Council
of Nicaea, and including in that glorious " white-robed
army" our own proto-martyr St. Alban. This age is
bounded by the Cross. At its commencement we see
the Cross upon Calvary, an object of ignominy to the
world, a scandal and a stumbling block to both Jews
and Gentiles. It ceases, indeed, to be an object of sight ;
but it is an object of faith, and affords fertile matter for
the preaching of the pastors, and for the quiet meditation
of the children of the Church. At the close of this
hidden period it shows itself again. It comes forth
from its hiding-place, appears in splendour to Constan-
tine, and conquers him to Christianity, at the same time
that it enables him to conquer all the enemies that
oppose him ; and is afterwards, through the pious
activity of his mother, St. Helen, our own country
woman, dug out from the place where we might imagine
that Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea had tenderly
laid it, to be kept until happier times, and is by her
enshrined and secured as the most sacred of relics.
During this time, indeed, there were heresies ; for there
has been no exception in any period of the Church
to that saying of St. Paul's, There must also be
heresies. But about these heresies there was a secrecy
which did not require more than the local opposi
tion that was made to them. And these heresies were
just of the nature that we might expect. Some Jews
and heathens, in their conversion to Christianity, only
half accepted the faith, and continued to cling to their

70 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
old superstitions. From among such half-converted
Jews, sprung up the Ebionites, who had already been
answered by the glorious Gospel of St. John ; and from
among Pagans, in a similar state of half-conversion, came
forth the Gnostics. Besides these, others also arose;
and by denying the fundamental Mystery of the Blessed
Trinity, they afforded the Church an occasion of entering
gradually upon the work of her dogmatic development
of doctrine, in declaring her Faith in this Mystery against
such impugners as Theodotus, Paul of Samosata, and
Sabellius. The Trinity, the secret Mystery of God, was
the truth attacked in this secret time ; and a more quiet
and secret opposition was sufficient to resist the attack.
Yet the defining power of the Church was then suffi
ciently shown ; and such defining power was necessary
to be manifested, in order to defend the truth actually
denied, and to affirm principles which, if left unasserted,
would leave confusion about the more outward and
glorious Mystery of the Incarnation.
When this hidden period had run its course, an altered
scene is presented before us. A great event occurs in
the conversion of the Emperor Constantine, and the
Church is now beckoned forth from the catacombs. The
seed, moistened by the blood of three centuries, shoots
up above the surface, assumes the form which it is to
bear to the end, and with its innate vigour, braces itself
against attacks which are to be directed against it.
Christianity is to be no longer the religion of individuals
and families only. It becomes a state religion, and with
the advantages, it inherits the perils incident to its new
and public position. The seed, which, we have said, after
an apparent death of three centuries had become visible,

LECTURE V. 71
though, in the glad hope with which it shoots from the
earth, it seems to have the promises of a steady and
certain growth unto maturity, yet on its very appearance
above the surface, becomes exposed to dangers it knew
not of before, when the earth which covered it screened
it, at least, from the inclemency of the weather, and
secured it against the ravages of blight. Paradoxical as
it may seem, yet it proved to be the case, that what
was a great blessing to the Church, became an occasion
of the greatest evil; and what was the heaviest curse,
gave rise to the greatest good. Liberty, for which the
Church is always praying, gave a cloak to heresy ; and
heresy, which the Church always abhors, when it now
became more outspoken, created the necessity of those
magnificent dogmatical definitions, in which the Church
boldly declared her doctrine in words which are still
sounding in our ears. The struggle of the Church is
now no longer for life, but for truth. The most subtle
and obstinate heretics that the Church has ever had to
deal with, arise at this time, and chiefly assail the second
great fundamental Mystery of the Incarnation. To more
outward attacks, a more outward mode of defence is
adopted ; and, ever solicitous about the trust committed
to her, the Church, fortified by the Holy Spirit, meets,
by an open resistance, the foes which openly assail
her. With this outward change in the circumstances of the
Church, becomes inagurated the period of the Oecumeni
cal Councils. Heresy and danger of relaxation called
upon the Church to assume an attitude of defence un
called for until now, and so we find her standing forward
in the solemn majesty of the dogmatical definitions drawn

72 THE C30UMENICAL COUNCIL.
up in protection of Faith and discipline. In a little more
than two centuries five Oecumenical Councils are held;
and it is in the East that the Church is called upon to
exert that outward power which she has at all times so
faithfully and so prudently wielded in defence of the
cause entrusted to her. From the commencement of
the fourth century down to the present time, eighteen
Oecumenical Councils have been held. The first eight
were held in the East, the last ten in the West. Two
main points have uniformly been attended to in these as
semblies : Faith and Discipline. In the earlier Councils
Faith has been the chief object of defence : in the later
ones Discipline ; but as both always go together, and as
the Discipline of the Church oftentimes is an expression
of her Faith, Councils, which have especially been called
together in order to defend a doctrine which called for
further definition, have also enacted Canons of Discipline;
and those which have been especially concerned in enforc
ing Discipline, have also dogmatically defined articles of
Faith. Compare, for instance, the first with the last :
Nicaea with Trent. In the first Council, assembled
especially in defence of the Divinity of our dear Lord
against Arius, besides anathematizing those who denied
that doctrine, and developing that portion of the Apostles'
Creed which affirms it, the Fathers fixed the time for the
observance of Easter, and drew up twenty other disci
plinary canons. And in the last Council, though it was
mostly engaged regarding Discipline, the articles ap
pended to the Nicene Creed, in that profession of Faith
generally known under the name of the Creed of Pope
Pius IV., but which is in reality the Creed of the Council
of Trent, show how a defence of the Faith against the

LECTURE V. 73
heresies of the time went hand-in-hand with the pro
tection of Discipline.
To summarize in a few words, for the better help of
the memory, the history of the past Councils, I may give
you the names of the eighteen Councils thus : — Of the
first eight held in the East, two were celebrated at
Nicaea, namely, the first and the seventh ; four at Con
stantinople, one at Ephesus, and one at Chalcedon.
These ranged from the year of our Lord 325, the first
of Nicaea, to the year 869, the date of the last of Con
stantinople. Then the seat of the Councils passed over
to the West. Of the ten that have been celebrated in
this part of the world, five have sat at St. John's Lateran
Church in Rome, and are called the Five Lateran
Councils; three sat in France, namely, two at Lyons
and one at Vienne ; one sat at Florence, and the last at
Trent. These have ranged from the year 1123, the date
of the first of Lateran, to the year 1563, the close of the
Council of Trent. You may thus notice what I observed
at the beginning, that three centuries elapsed before the
first Council of Nicaea ; nearly three centuries intervened
between the fourth of Constantinople, and the first of
Lateran ; and three centuries have again passed over
between Trent and this approaching Council of the
Vatican — called the Vatican, because, though held in
Rome where the Lateran Councils also sat, it is to be
celebrated in the glorious Basilica of St. Peter on the
Vatican. So great has been the work that has been
done by the Councils of the Church, that we find them
in every age appealed to as the great exponents of the
mind of the Church, and consequently as the interpreters
of the revelations of God. St. Gregory the Great — a

74 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
name which must be for ever venerated in England, on
account of the special interest he took in the conversion
of our country, and on that account called by our own
Venerable Bede, the Apostle of England — has left on
record his reverence for the first four Councils, for he
declared that he venerated them as he did the four
Gospels. The decrees and anathemas of Oecumenical
Councils have ever been accepted as decisive of Ortho
doxy ; and, therefore, after the first Oecumenical Council
of Nicaea, the Arians stood branded by a stigma which
was recognized universally as condemnatory of their
heresy. So also the Macedonians after the first of
Constantinople, the Nestorians after Ephesus, and the
Eutychians after Chalcedon ; and if to this day, a denial
of the glorious truths asserted and defended in those
Councils is ventured upon, we point to our fathers and
elders who were then assembled together, as the safe and
solid exponents of the same truths delivered in the
Gospels. Martyrs have not hesitated to die in defence
of the decisions of a Council, as the Apostles did for the
truths of the Gospel. How beautiful is the instance
recorded of St. Peter, the Dominican Martyr, in the
thirteenth century, who when bleeding from the fatal
wound of his executioners, recited the creed he had
been taught in his infancy !
What these glorious meetings have done, has been that
amongst other advantages which they have secured to
the Church, they have affirmed in the highest and most
solemn manner, the authority of the Church. The Pope
and the Prelates may not unfittingly be called the stand
ing army of the Church ; and, as such a security in any
kingdom is at all times available to keep down revolt, and

LECTURE V. 75
to establish safety in case a revolt should break out, so
at all times likewise is there existing in the Church a
sufficient guarantee for the safety of her children, in the
midst of any spiritual dangers which are possible, or
which actually present themselves. But there are times
when a country has to rally her forces, and, either by
acting on the defensive in time of an attack from a more
powerful foe, or by taking vigorous measures towards
suppressing insubordination at home, those on whom the
responsibility of the public safety devolves, have to take
measures adequate to the emergency. So is it, also that
the Church, when circumstances call for it, shows her
power, and exerts her authority most strikingly and
solemnly in the grand majesty of her Oecumenical Coun
cils, in which she denounces heresies which assail her
from without, and protects discipline against relaxation,
which may grow up within. Most notably do these
Councils show the reality of power contained in the col
lective Episcopate. For in the Catholic Church, at
least, there can never be anything else but an affectionate
deference and submission on the part of the people
towards those who watch over them, having to give an
account of their souls. And so essential is this bond
between Prelates and the people, that, as we have had
occasion in a previous lecture to affirm, the great Fathers
of the Church, defenders of her unity, have defined a
Church to be " the people united with the Bishop."
What a noble sight will be presented in the forthcoming
assembly, when Bishops from every quarter of the globe,
to the number, it may be, of more than eight hundred,
will come together with one mind, and will send out
their decrees with one voice ! Then will the world know,

76 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
if it pretend to ignore it at other times, that there is
upon earth such a reality as the Catholic Church, that it
has outlived the opposition of so many centuries, and
that the gates of Hell have not yet prevailed against it.
Then will those who, unhappily, in this country still differ
from us, though, apparently, approaching more closely
to us in their ritual observance of outward worship, see
how striking is the difference between us and them in our
attitude towards the Episcopate. Like those who seemed
to have been startled into the faith by witnessing miracles
greater than their own powers could achieve, they may
then well exclaim : Truly the finger of God is here ; and
with the admiring crowds who gathered about our
Blessed Lord, they may thank God, Who hath given such
power unto men.
What, again, has been done by the great Councils of
the Church is this : they have most clearly demon
strated what is meant by the development of Christian
doctrine. They have laid down the principle by which
we are able to answer those who object to the Catholic
Church, because her later creeds are more fully expressed
than her earlier ones, that there has been added by the
Church, doctrines to those originally revealed and com
mitted to her custody. The Councils have most mani
festly shown the difference between implicit and explicit
faith. The former is incapable of change or increase.
No new dogmas are revealed, or are superadded to those
which were deposited in the custody of the Church in
the days of the Apostles. But explicit faith grows ac
cordingly as the householder, to whom all is committed,
draws out of his treasury old declarations or new defini
tions of old truths, when the denial of heretics, or the

LECTURE V. 77
call of the faithful, demands the exercise of such a
power. The earlier Councils, in their defence of the
radical mysteries of the Christian Faith, spoke out thus
openly when circumstances demanded it. So, when we
compare the Nicene Creed, in its most perfectly expressed
form, taking in the additions made in the first Council of
Constantinople, and by the later defining power of the
Church, with the Apostles' Creed, we see how the Faith,
always remaining implicitly the same, became more fully
explicit in the Articles which concern the Second and Third
Persons of the ever Blessed Trinity. And in Jesus Christ,
His only Son, Our Lord, the expression of the earlier
Creed, though containing within it the whole truth, was
not considered a sufficiently full declaration of the unity
of Substance between Son and Father, to test the ortho
doxy of the impious Arian impugners of the glorious
Mystery of the Incarnation : and therefore the Nicene
Creed thus put forth this Article of our Faith : And in
one Lord Jesus Christ, Only-begotten Son of God, and born
of the Father before all ages : God of God : Light of Light :
True God of True God : begotten not made : of One Sub
stance with the Father : by whom all things were made.
And when the Macedonian heretics denied of the Holy
Ghost, what the Arians had denied of God the Son,
the same Creed, with additions supplied in the first
Council of Constantinople, stated of the Third Person
thus : And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Lifegiver, who
proceedeth from the Father, who with the Father and the
Son is adored and glorified : who spoke by the Prophets.
When, therefore, in the sixteenth century, the same
Church, which had thus developed her statements of faith,
when circumstances demanded it, was again called upon to

78 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
do the same in consequence of the denial of later heretics,
the principle was always observed, and to heretical
denials was opposed a distinct profession of the articles
attacked. The Creed of the Council of Trent, is there
fore tt) the Creed of Nicaea, what this latter Creed is to
the Creed of the Apostles. Let those who presume to
accuse the Catholic Church of adding to the doctrine of
the Apostles, because the Creed of Trent is more fully
expressed than the Nicene Creed, ask themselves whether
the Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople are to be con
demned, because, in their solicitude for the faith of the
Apostles, they outwardly expressed what the earliest
Creed always implied. Nicaea and Trent must stand or
fall together.
OUcumenical Councils have, moreover, as a consequence
of the motive which has suggested or necessitated their
assembling, served as tests of Orthodoxy, as we have fully
shown in our previous lectures. But they have done this,
not only at the time, or immediately after the time of
their sitting, but they serve as everlasting proofs of faith
and obedience. What has once been decided in a Council
as of Faith, is decided once for ever ; and the anathemas
pronounced in a Council against those who obstinately re
sist its decrees, are for all times, and are to be considered
as being, at the very present moment, levelled against
those who deserve them. Therefore we can understand
how perfectly in accordance with the principle of the un-
changeableness of faith, and the consequent supreme autho
rity of decisions in matters of faith, pronounced by the
highest judicial tribunal, was the answer recently given,
affectionately but firmly, by our Holy Father, to the rash
and strange proposal of a self-constituted representative of

LECTURE V. 79
Protestantism, to attend the Council, and argue in the
presence of the Prelates of the whole of Christendom, in
defence of heretical doctrines, which have been withering
under the condemnation of three centuries explicitly, and
under the implicit ban of eighteen centuries. So, when
this nineteenth Oecumenical Council shall, by the blessing
of God, have done its work, and have come to a happy
conclusion, as God grant it may ! its decrees will be
enrolled among the canons of the Church, and will be held
as a perpetual testimony of the teaching which is to be fol
lowed by future generations. For this Council, in perfect
harmony, as it will prove itself to be, with the past, will
have the power of influencing the future for ever ; and so
the text which we now appeal to as a guide for our duty,
will be equally applied to by generations to come ; and,
when they shall ask questions which the present assem
blage of the fathers of the Church will answer, it will be
said to them : Go and see what the Council of the Vatican
has declared : Ask your father, and he will declare to you ;
your elders, and they will tell you.
One necessary proof of Orthodoxy, evoked by these
great Councils, has been the great and important fact of
intercommunion between Churches united together into
one body, and the communion of each with the centre
acknowledged by all. The meaning of a Council of the
whole Church implies that there is such an union in the
parts, and such a connexion with one common centre.
And, therefore, when we wish to prove to those who are
now separated from us, that the very fact of their
separation from the Churches of the whole habitable
globe, and their severance from the trunk to which all
the others are attached, is a proof of their not being that

80 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
Church, which is One and Catholic, we point, for our
best illustration and most convincing refutation of any
claims which they may put forward to being the true home
of the Faith, to the Oecumenical Councils, in which the
fact of visible and real communion has been established
beyond the possibility of denial. Those who teach that
strange and unmeaning doctrine of a secret and unseen
connexion between branch Churches, have an argument
unanswerable against them, afforded by these great
manifestations of outward union. In a tree, between
the root and the branches there does intervene the
trunk. The root is invisible, as Christ is the invisible
Head of the Church, but the trunk is visible, and is
that which is immediately connected with the root, and
through which circulates that sap which is communicated
to each branch. Oecumenical Councils assuredly demon
strate the unreality of that branch Church theory, which
allows a constant course of outward disobedience to be
in harmony with inward union.
From what we have said, it will follow that we may apply
to the authority of past Councils with regard to some of
those questions at issue between the Catholic Church and
those who differ from us in this country. We will select
two which are most prominent amongst them : the Supre
macy of the Holy See, and Devotion to the ever Blessed
Virgin Mother of God. With regard to the Supremacy of
the Pope, Hmiting ourselves to the first four Councils,
those of Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon,
although efforts have been made, to show that the Supre
macy of the Pope has not been demonstrated in those
Councils, yet facts which are beyond dispute, and which
are too stubborn not to be recognized, place in a very

LECTURE V. 81
striking manner before us, what was the acknowledgment
of those early centuries in support of this essential reality
of the Church of Christ. In the first Oecumenical Council
of Nicaea, the legates of Pope St. Sylvester presided in
his name, and subscribed first, styling themselves as
deputies for the venerable man our Pope and Bishop Holy
Sylvester* These were Osius, Bishop of Cordova, and
two Priests, Vitus and Vincentius; and though there were
present the Patriarchs of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and
Antioch, they subscribed after the legates Of the Roman
Pontiff. In the second Oecumenical Council, the first of
Constantinople, we find the recognition of the Supremacy
of the Pope in a different manner. It had been sum
moned merely as an Eastern Council, to condemn the
heresy of Macedonius, who denied the Divinity of the
Holy Ghost. The Council was not Oecumenical in its
summoning, nor in its action or progress, but only be
came so when after its close three Bishops were sent to
Rome to Pope St. Damasus, who was at the time holding
a Council of the Bishops of the Western Church, to ob
tain his approval and confirmation, t The third General
Council was that of Ephesus, a glorious assemblage of
the Episcopate, in which the title of Mother of God was
vindicated for the Blessed Virgin Mary, and in which it
was clearly proved by the close and able arguing of St.
Cyril, that whoever denied her that title, virtually denied
the Mystery of the Incarnation, by dividing our Blessed
Lord into two persons, and thus asserting that He who
redeemed us was not truly God and man at the same
time. St. Cyril and the other legates of Pope St.
* Labbe, torn. ii. p. 60. t Ibid. p. 960. G

82 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
Celestine preside, and at the end the Acts are sent to
Rome for due confirmation. But the strongest evidence
of the immense power of the Bishop of Rome, and his
authority in condemning heresies and in defending ortho
doxy, is to be found in the fourth Oecumenical Council,
held in the year of our Lord 451, against the Monophy-
sites under Eutyches, who denied the existence of two
Natures in Christ. These heretics had succeeded in
gaining approval in a largely attended Council, held at
Ephesus, which professed to be Oecumenical, though only
called and presided over by Dioscorus, Patriarch of
Alexandria. But St. Leo the Great, then Pope, ordered
a Council to assemble at Chalcedon, and appointed three
Bishops and two Priests to preside as his legates. At
the opening of the Council, the Pope's legates stated that
they were commissioned by the Bishop of Rome, "the head
of all the Churches," to require that Dioscorus should not
sit in the Council, "for having presumed to hold a Council
without the authority of the Apostolic See, which never
had been done, nor was lawful to do." In this Council
of Chalcedon (admitted, remember, by the present Church
of England in its authorized declarations to be a Council
approved by all men), Dioscorus, Patriarch of Alexandria,
a man with such immense influence as to have controlled
a large Council and gained it over to his cause, is made
to stand forward as a culprit, and is condemned and
deposed by the authority of the Bishop of Rome. The
Pope's legates then, in the full assembly of Bishops to
the number of more than six hundred, pronounce their
sentence in these words : " The most holy Archbishop of
Rome, Leo, through us and this present Council, with
the Apostle St. Peter, who is the rock and foundation of

LECTURE V. 83
the Catholic Church and of the Orthodox Faith, deprives
him of the Episcopal Dignity and every sacerdotal
ministry."* Does the Pope at the present day pretend
to greater power than this ? Or (a question which
well deserves an answer) will the English Church admit
Rome now to have the power exercised in the days of
primitive purity of doctrine? This is what Councils
have affirmed upon one point at issue between our
selves and the Church of England.
Then, again, there is another doctrine of the Catholic
Church, a glorious doctrine, as we are glad boldly to call
it, in reference to which we stand in very marked oppo
sition to the Church of England — a doctrine intimately
connected with the great Mystery of the Incarnation;
and that is the doctrine which concerns the position of
the ever blessed Mother of our dearest Lord. This may
well serve now-a-days as a mark of the Catholic Church ;
for there is no doubt that, even more prominently than
that of Papal Supremacy, it is pointed at as a sign to be
contradicted by those who unfortunately allow themselves
to differ from us. One of the most ordinary protests, if it
may not even be called an universal protest, made by Pro
testants against the Catholic Church, is against our recog
nition of the honour due to Mary, of whom was born Jesus
who is called Christ. Directly a person acknowledges
himself in English society to be a Catholic, his attitude
towards the Blessed Virgin is brought forward as a
matter of reproach. Even the High Church party are
timid in asserting in practice, what they cannot deny in
theory, upon this article of Christian faith. Suppose, if
in order to test the orthodoxy of the Seventy who some
* Labbe, torn. iv. p. 425.
G 2

84 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
two years ago formed the Pan- Anglican Synod, it had
been put to them to sign the first anathematism of St.
Cyril in the Council of Ephesus, in which he pronounced
anathema to all who deny that the Blessed Virgin is
Mother of God, what would have been the result ? Would
the alarm have been less appalling, than if under the hall
in which they were assembled together, another gunpow
der plot had been contrived, to put a speedy end to all
their deliberations ? And yet go to the Council of
Ephesus, the third GEcumenical Council, one of those held
in the times acknowledged by the English Church as times
of primitive purity of doctrine, and one of the Councils
which the same Church declares to be admitted and ap
proved of all men, and you will read at its inauguration,
the words spoken by St. Cyril, the leading spirit of that
august assembly : " Hail, Holy Trinity, Who hast called
us together into this Church of Mary, Mother of God."
(For it was in a Church under her especial patronage that
the Council was sitting.) " Hail Mary, Mother of God,
venerable treasure of the universe, crown of virginity,
sceptre of Orthodoxy, abode of Him Who cannot be
limited to space ! By thee is the Trinity glorified, the
cross praised and venerated throughout the world ; by
thee the heavens rejoice, angels are gladdened, demons are
put to flight, and man recovers his claim to heaven."*
Mind, my dear Brethren, I am not quoting St. Alphon-
sus's " Glories of Mary," a work so much misunderstood by
those who have no faith in the Divine Maternity, and who
strain all its expressions into objections against us. I am
quoting the words of a Father of the Church, early in the
* Labbe, torn. iii. p. 583.

LECTURE V. 85
fifth century, spoken, and accepted enthusiastically in the
third Oecumenical Council. Could you expect to hear
these words spoken in the Abbey of our city ? Is there
a single Anglican Clergyman, who would dare to utter
them in this pious city of Bath ? And yet those who
refuse to sanction them, stand condemned on their own
admission; and if they had happened to have lived in
those days, would have been anathematized as Nestorian
heretics. Remember the anathema has never been re
voked, but is approved of in the Anglican Church ; and
therefore if they would have been heretics then, what else
are they now ? It is not I who speak : I am only telling
you what was done by the Council of Ephesus, in the year
of our Lord 431, in the days of "primitive purity of
doctrine." So strong on our side is the testimony of this
glorious Council, that the Protestant Bishop Burnet tries
to qualify it by stating, that " the whole world was then
filled with very extravagant devotion to Mary."* What
he calls extravagant devotion, was the devotion prevailing
throughout the world, fourteen hundred years ago. If
we apply our text, and ask our fathers and elders, what
answer shall we obtain ?
So strongly, indeed, does the testimony of what the
early Oecumenical Councils have done, tell in favour of
the claims and the present position of the Church of
Rome, that one of the most learned of those among the
Anglican clergy,t who, within the last few years have
acknowledged these claims and have submitted to them,
was induced to take the step by a challenge made to him
by one, who stands almost the first amongst that happy
* Burnet on Art, xxii. t The late Dr. Jerrard,

86 THE ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
company, to consult the records of the first four Councils,
and to see whether he could then possibly withhold his
submission to Rome. He accepted the challenge, read
the records, and became a Catholic. Would that others,
who so easily allow themselves to be misguided, would
have the industry to make the same investigation, for it
must be followed by a good result ! Would that they
would remember the days of old, and consult the genera
tions that have gone before them !
I have told you that it is not the first time three
centuries have intervened between Oecumenical Coun
cils. As Nicaea proved that three hundred years of
persecution had not crushed the life out of the
Church, so does the present gathering of Bishops in
its cheerful activity prove that the genuine Orthodox
spirit is as sterling as ever. We have just had an
evidence of it afforded in the news of the past week.
If there is any country in the world that boasts of a free
and independent spirit, it is America. There we might
expect to find men who would not be dictated to, or be
called away to attend the mere court of a foreign poten
tate. Indeed, the republican form of government which
prevails, and is valued there, would naturally create a
want of sympathy for that monarchical form which
obtains in the Catholic Church. And yet all the Bishops
of this free country are hurrying off to the Council,
followed by an enthusiasm unequalled, perhaps, anywhere
else in the world. And the Primate of that Hierarchy,
the Archbishop of Baltimore, has but just started, es
corted to the ship which was to bear him away, by fifty
thousand of the faithful — more than the adult population
of one of our largest cities.

Lecture v. 87
Depend upon it, my dear brethren, as we point now to
the Councils that have gone before, future generations
will point to this Council of the Vatican, as expressing
the faith and spirit of the nineteenth century of the
Catholic Church. And when all who are now upon
earth will have passed before the awful Judgment Seat of
Almighty God, this great event will be found to have
been set up, like our dear Lord, for the resurrection or
fall of many. Those who have been loyal to it will have
proved their Orthodoxy; to others, who have rejected
this immensely powerful evidence of truth, it will be
said — I know you not. Learn obedience from your fathers
and elders; do and believe what they tell you. And
among blessings for which you will one day have to thank
God, will this be found, that in His goodness and mercy
He has drawn together those who have to watch over
you as having to give an account for your souls, in order
to strengthen your faith and hope, and to give you an
other encouragement on your way to Heaven.

LECTURE VI.
AN (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, THE CLEAREST MANIFESTATION OF
UNITY AND CATHOLICITY. /
Not for them only do I pray, but for them also who through their
word shall believe in Me, that they all may be one; as Thou, Father,
in Me, and I in Thee . . that the world may know that Thou
hast sent Me. — John xvii. 20, 21.
In opening before you, in our previous lecture, what has
been done in the past ages of the Church, by those
majestic meetings of the Episcopate of the whole habit
able globe, which are called Oecumenical Councils, I told
you of their zealous defence of Doctrine and Discipline.
And after enumerating for you what these eighteen Coun
cils were, the first eight having been held in the East,
and the last ten in the West, I told you of the veneration
held towards Councils by the early Fathers, and how well
they have at all times deserved the same tribute. They
have always represented in the highest and most imposing
manner the authority of the Church. They have affirmed,
especially in the Greeds which they have drawn up and
promulgated, the principle of the development of Doc
trine, stating explicitly what was always implicitly be
lieved, when a denial on the part of heretics required
such a statement. They have served, not in theory, but
in the most palpably practical manner, as tests of Ortho
doxy, demonstrating in an unmistakable manner who are
in communion with each other, and with a central bond
of union, and who are not. They have nobly established

LECTURE VI. 89
the dignity of the Episcopate, and have afforded to the
Prelates, whom we have to obey, the opportunity of
showing how they watch over us, and how they are ever
under the sense of the responsibility they bear towards
our souls. And with reference to two points on which
the Catholic Church in these days and in this country,
is notably attacked — namely, the Supremacy of the Holy
See, and the honour of the ever blessed Mother of God,
we saw how an appeal to the very earliest Councils was
decisive in our favour, and how, when we remember the
days of old, and consult the generations that have gone
before us, they bear most positive and definite testimony
in behalf of our position.
This evening I shall have to show how the great event
now so close upon us, an Oecumenical Council, is the
clearest manifestation of those marks of the true Church,
Unity and Catholicity. And when I mention these two
qualities and marks of the Church, founded upon earth
by our dearest Lord, I mention what not only our own
ideas of that Church must press upon us as being es
sential to it, but what filled the mind of our Blessed
Lord, when He was instituting it to do His work, and
was fitting it as a Spouse to Himself.
In proof of His idea of His own Church, I have
brought before you words of His, uttered on the most
touching occasion of His life. He is making His fare
well address to His Apostles, on the eve of His death.
He is seated in Council with them for the last time
before His Passion. He has eaten His Last Supper, has
instituted the Sacrament of Love, has washed the feet of
His Apostles, end now proceeds to pour out the most
fervent feelings of His Sacred Heart in those words

90 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
which our own St. John, who was leaning on His breast
at the time, has recorded. He ends His address with
a prayer to His Father, a prayer for His Church, and
especially for the Unity of that Church. I pray for
them, 0 Father! whom Thou hast given to Me, for they
are Thine. Keep them in Thy name, that they may be
one, as We also are. Sanctify them in truth. As Thou
hast sent Me into the world, so have I also sent them into
the world. And not for them only do I pray, but for them
also who, through their word, shall believe in Me, that they
all may be one, as Thou, Father, in Me, and I in Thee ;
that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe
that Thou hast sent Me. Before proceeding more directly
to the proof of the proposition which I have announced,
I must say a word upon these marks of Unity and Catho
licity which our Blessed Lord has set upon His Church.
And first of all, with regard to Unity. Let us under
stand what is meant, and must be meant by this, as a
quality of the Church. It must have a meaning, and
it must be capable of definition, and therefore is not
a mere vague, indefinite something, which, implying
everything else, really excludes itself. It cannot, for
instance, be supposed that a Church which is One, is
made up of all manner of dissentient Churches, having a
power of repulsion instead of a force of attraction towards
each other. Three elements are required in the Unity of
the Church, and if any of these be wanting, I feel that
you must at once agree in pronouncing that the idea of
Unity is destroyed. There must be Unity in Faith, Unity
in Government, and Unity in Worship. A Church in
which these three elements are manifested, is not unlike
the Blessed Trinity, Three in One; and this our Lord

LECTURE VI. 91
wished His Church to be, that they may be one as We also
are. In the Blessed Trinity the Father and the Son are
one, because there is a bond of Union between Them, and
that is the Holy Spirit proceeding from both. And it is
this same Holy Spirit who abides in the Church for ever,
and maintains it in perpetual Unity. Take away from the
Church Unity of Government, you take away the work of
the Father, who is the Ruler of all things; take away Unity
of Worship and Sacraments, you take away the work of
the Son, the Lamb slain for our redemption, the object of
worship in heaven and on earth, to whom is due honour,
glory, praise, thanksgiving for ever, whose Precious
Blood is applied through the Sacraments for the life and
support of each of the faithful. Take away Unity of
Faith, and you drive away the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of
Truth, and the security against error for all times. Well,
therefore, did our dearest Lord pray for what was nearest
to His Heart, in reference to His Church, that it might
always continue to be what He made it, and that it might
prove itself to be His by this very mark : That they may
be one in Us, that the world may believe that Thou hast
sent Me. Is it making Unity too strict to require these
three elements ? Certainly it is not a strictness from
which the Catholic Church shrinks ; and what can be
stricter in point of Unity, than the Unity of God, to
which it is likened ?
And Catholicity, the mark claimed for the Church in
the Creed, the Holy Catholic Church : this is also an
idea which entered essentially into the plan of our Holy
Redeemer in founding His Church, and sending it out for
its noble and holy work. It was here, especially that the
Church of the New Law was to differ from the Jewish

92 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
Church, that of the Old. The Jewish Church was a
National Church : the Christian Church was to be the
Church of all nations. This is expressed by St. Paul,
when he says : This is good and acceptable in the sight of
God our Saviour, who will have all men to be saved, and to
come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Tim. ii. 4.) As
Unity has three elements essential to its existence, so has
Catholicity. The Church of Christ must be Catholic or
Universal in place : it must reach all nations, or else it
does not fulfill its commission. It must be Catholic or
Universal in the truths which it teaches : Teach all those
things which I have committed to you. And it must be
Catholic or Universal in time : Behold I am with you all
days, even to the end of the world. And, therefore, the
Catholic Church of to-day must in every quarter of the
globe, be one and the same with the Catholic Church of
the Apostles. That He might make His Church Cathohc
was, as St. John tells us, a motive of the death of our
Holy Redeemer. For after the High Priest Caiphas pro
phesied that it was expedient that one man should die for
the people, the Evangelist adds his own comment to this
unconscious prophecy : This he spoke not of himself; but
being the high priest of that year, he prophesied that Jesus
should die for the nation ; and not only for the nation, but
to gather together, into one, the children of God that were
dispersed. (John xi. 51, 52.)
Nor are Unity and Catholicity to be considered as
marks and qualities which are independent of each other.
They mutually imply each other. The truth which is one
is so in such a manner, that no accident of place can
alter it, and prevent its still remaining the same. And
being a necessary truth it ought to be recognized and

LECTURE VI. 93
to find its place everywhere. The three elements of Unity
imply Catholicity. There must be Unity in Faith every
where. There must be Unity in Government everywhere.
There must be Unity in Worship and Sacraments every
where. Imagine a place where Faith may be different,
it ceases to be One, and because the place itself is an
exception, it ceases to be Catholic at the same time.
Although it might appear that humanly speaking Unity
and Catholicity would each impede or prevent the per
fection of the other, it is not so in the Catholic Church.
It may seem easier to preserve Unity in a very limited
than in a very extended sphere ; and it may also seem
that national prejudices and jealousies would arise to
break up what might in one spot be kept together.
But in the works of God it is not so ; and in His Church
the one Spirit who presides over it draws all its members,
wherever they may be, into one ; and the Unity of this
Church is all the safer and the better kept, because it is
under the care of so many zealous defenders.
And as Unity and Catholicity are not merely qualities
of the Church, but marks also, they must be manifest in
the Church which claims them, or else they do not answer
the purpose of a mark. A tree is to be known by its
fruit : and fruit is certainly a visible, sensible, and
tangible evidence of the goodness or badness of a tree.
Unity and Catholicity, therefore, in the Church must be
visible, and, above all things, must exclude the manifes
tation of the contradictory qualities of dissension and
nationalism. A Church, which is divided within itself
and separated visibly from every other, cannot, whatever
other property it may have, lay claim to Unity. The
tree, Unity, cannot produce the fruit, dissension. And

94 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
that which is by its very constitution essentially limited
to one nation, whose supremacy is national and limited,
cannot be the Church of all nations, and claim to be the
Catholic Church, which is the Church of all nations.
Communion with one central reality, and intercom
munion between all the members, are, as we have before
had occasion to urge, proofs and tests of Unity and
Catholicity. This was always the argument of St. Au
gustine against the Donatist schismatics. They were
numerous in North Africa, but unknown elsewhere.
They rejected communion with the centre, Rome, and
no Churches held intercommunion with them. They
were not the One Catholic Church, because they could
not stand these tests. And when some of them, laying
claim to the name Catholic, pretended to a better know
ledge of the Greek language than the Saint, and asserted
that from its etymology it implied " one " or " whole,"
the holy Doctor answered that though he did not pretend
to be a good Greek scholar, he knew quite enough of that
language to be aware that the word Catholic meant " ac
cording to the whole," or " throughout the whole," and
that it belonged to that Church, of which our Lord said
that it was to witness to Him to the uttermost bounds of
the earth.* We may now proceed more immediately to
our proposition.
An Oecumenical Council is the clearest manifestation
of Unity and Catholicity. It serves to bring out these
two marks of the Church, both directly and indirectly.
Directly — for the very object of such a meeting is to
bring together into one place those that are dispersed
* S. Aug. apud Schrader de Unitate Romana, p. 2.

LECTURE VI. 95
into every quarter of the globe. The bringing into one
place is a manifestation of Unity : the fact of those who
are brought together having been dispersed in every
quarter of the globe is a proof of Catholicity. And
therefore, when, at the very commencement of our
lectures, I defined for you what was meant by an Oecu
menical Council, that it was an assembling together of
the chief pastors of the Church under their lawful head,
in such a definition we are but affirming the two great
qualities of Unity and Catholicity. And the constitution
of an Oecumenical Council, when it becomes a fact, and is
at its work, carrying out the object for which it has been
convoked, is the clearest possible manifestation of the
same two qualities. The qualities are, then, no longer
kept in the dark, or under a bushel — they stand forward
in an imposing attitude, and even force themselves upon
the notice of all who have eyes to see with. As at the
opening of our Parliament, when the Sovereign is sur
rounded by the Ministers and Members of both Houses,
there is a living illustration of the British Constitution,
so, in an Oecumenical Council, when the Holy Father,
the visible Head of the Church, is presiding, either in
person or represented by his legates, there is shown to
the whole world what is meant by a Church which claims
to be, and which really is, One and Catholic. And, again,
the special intention of each Oecumenical Council is either
closely or remotely connected with these two marks ; for
what the Church aims at in these assemblies is the
defence of the Faith, or the preservation of discipline,
and therefore she sends out, with one voice, her decrees
on these subjects of her solicitude into every quarter of
the globe. And what, in the last place, we have every

96 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
right to urge as a direct proof of the manifestation of the
Unity and Catholicity of the Church, is the success of
Oecumenical Councils in doing the work which has been
marked out for them. From the days of the Council of
Jerusalem, when the Apostles assembled together to con
sider upon the matter which then arose for debate, to the
Council of Trent, when circumstances arose which called
upon the Church to pronounce upon important questions
of Faith and Discipline, the decrees of these Councils
have been in force, and are always pointed to as of the
highest authority in the Universal Church. The Holy
Ghost has dictated them, and they are decisive, beyond
question, and beyond appeal. When, therefore, we take
Oecumenical Councils, not in the abstract and in theory,
but in practice ; when we consider what is their object,
what is their constitution, what has been the special
intention which has called each into existence, and what
has been the success of each Council, we have a very
strong direct evidence that these Councils have most
clearly manifested the Unity and Catholicity of the
Church. And always bear this in mind, my dear
brethren, for it is too important to be ever forgotten,
that that Church alone is the Church of Christ, which
can show about it the marks which He Himself stamped
upon it, and which possesses the qualities which He made
essential to its existence. If Oecumenical Councils, then,
prove these marks and qualities, they supply most im
portant evidence in a matter which is too sacred and too
intimately connected with all that most closely concerns
our salvation, to allow us to ignore their existence or to
question their importance.
But perhaps the indirect manner in which these Coun-

# LECTURE VI. 97
cils manifest Unity and Catholicity is even of more
practical importance, as it shows us how they have the
effect of declaring, in an unmistakable manner, who are
not in the Church of Christ. With reference to error,
truth is invested with a repelling power. It rejects it,
as it were, instinctively, and cannot hold communication
with it. A lover of truth necessarily hates falsehood,
and the moment he would compromise with it, he sacri
fices his character, and gives up his loyalty to principle.
Well does St. Paul exclaim: What participation hath
justice with injustice ? or what fellowship hath light with
darkness ? And what concord hath Christ with Belial ? or
what part hath the faithful with the unbeliever ? (2 Cor.
vi. 14, 15.) And although exclusiveness is sometimes
brought as a charge against the Catholic Church, and
the very decrees of Councils are censured because of
their anathemas against the errors which they condemn,
yet the Church, in her guardianship of truth, must keep
away the approach of error, or else be unfaithful to the
trust committed to her. If the Council of Nicaea had not
anathematized Arius and his followers upon their obsti
nate perseverance in error, it would have shown a
weakness and a vacillation which would have been im
possible under the superintendence of the Holy Ghost,
Who is the Spirit of Fortitude as well as of Wisdom.
To defend truth and to profess a love for it, and yet to
hesitate about the rejection and condemnation of error,
would be to imitate the sin of the first King of Israel,
for which he was cast off by God, and so severely
rebuked by Samuel. Saul had been made King, and
the defence of Israel had been entrusted to him. With
regard to the enemies of that kingdom, he was com-
H

98 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
manded by Almighty God to show no mercy — he was
not only to subdue them, but he was to slay them. But
because, in an hour of mistaken policy, he spared, when
he ought to have exterminated, he himself was rejected,
and the Lord repented that He had made him King over
Israel. (1 Kings xv.) And in like manner, in every
Oecumenical Council, Almighty God, who is a jealous
God, directs the Pastors of His Church so to defend
their cause, which is His cause, as to remove and to repel
all who are not members of His Kingdom upon earth.
So, in the present instance, as all who are really Pastors
are drawn towards that meeting which is under the pro
tection of the Spirit of Truth, those who are not of the
Church manifest their aversion, and can find no place in
this great gathering of Christendom. Their very exclu
sion, at the same time that it shows what they are not,
is an evidence, by their absence, of the orthodoxy of
those whom they contradict. Where Belial is not, there
is Christ.
An Oecumenical Council, too, affords one of the most
palpable means of dispelling the vain and unmeaning pre
tence to the glorious name of Catholic upon the part of
those who are out of union with the Holy See of Rome.
St. Augustine denied the title logically and heartily to
the Donatist schismatics when they ventured to claim it,
and especially on the ground that their want of visible
communion with Rome was fatal to their claim ; and in
like manner it is our duty to show our reverence for the
name which belongs exclusively to the One Church dis
persed, and yet united, throughout the whole world, by
consistently withholding it from those upon whom it
always sits uneasily, even when they dare to usurp it.

LECTURE VI. 99
Like a garment which was made for one person, it shows
that it cannot fit another whose form and dimensions are
completely different from those of the rightful and original
owner. For how often do we hear it said now-a-days by
persons who are out of communion with us : " We are
Catholics, but you are Roman Catholics " ? Our answer
is and ought to be : Are you in communion with the
Universal world? Are you in communion with that
centre acknowledged by the universal world? This
centre rejects you, and you reject it, and in the very
fact of this rejection consists your isolation, your nation
alism, and your position which is the very contradiction
of Catholic. If you are Catholic, why does an Oecumeni
cal Council not recognize you, for the terms Oecumenical
and Catholic are identical in idea ? Unless words are
intended, not simply to hide our thoughts, but to mis
represent the truth, there can be no greater abuse of a
term, or a more untrue assertion, than that the name
Catholic belongs in any way to those whose position is
un-Catholic and anti-Catholic.
I am bound, my dear brethren, in love for the sacred
cause of truth, and in respect for a holy and a venerable
name, to repudiate strongly and solemnly the claim of such
aspirants to a title which, in their inmost heart, they must
themselves .feel does not belong to them. And I am bound
to do it for the love of souls which are misguided^ and
may be led to imagine themselves rightful possessors
of another's property, unless the declaration is loudly
made that it is none of theirs. To be Catholic, means to
be in intercommunion, that is to say, to be in outward,
visible, and real fellowship in faith, government, and
sacramental ministry with churches in every part of
h 2

100 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
the habitable globe. To be Catholic, means to be in
acknowledged and practical communion with the centre,
Rome ; admitted to be the chief and centre by Churches
in every part of the universe. To be Catholic, means to
be the very contradiction to national, and therefore ex
cludes a supremacy which is limited to one nation. But
in all these points the Protestant Church, that is to say
the Anglican Church (for it means the same) excludes
the reality of Catholic, and why can it venture to put
forth a title to the name ? It is not in intercommunion
with Churches throughout the universe, and therefore is
not Catholic. It is not in communion with the Holy
See, the centre admitted by Churches in every nation^
and therefore is not Catholic. It is essentially national,
it is Anglican (to give it the softest name), it is under the
sworn supremacy of a national sovereign, and therefore
is not and cannot be Catholic. It claims no place, and
no place is left for it, in an Oecumenical, or Catholic
Council, and therefore is denounced in the face of the
whole world, as not being Catholic. And yet there are
those in this melancholy state of isolation, who say : "We
are Catholics, and you are Roman Catholics." And they
say this to members of that Church which is now mani
festing itself, through the glad testimony of the whole
world, to be the One Church of all nations.
But I will give you five decisive tests, by which the
falsity of the claim can be brought most evidently before
you. When you, my dear Catholic brethren, happen to
hear the claim made by Protestants to the name of Ca
tholic, ask them these five questions. First, ask them :
What is the Religion of England ? Is England a Cathohc
country, or is it not? Is the Religion herein esta-

LECTURE VI. 101
Wished by law, that which is always called and known
by the name of Catholic ? What does the whole of the
world say upon this point ? What is the universal testi
mony of historical or geographical descriptions of Eng
land, when its Religion is alluded to? My dear brethren,
would to God that England were a Catholic country ! It
once was so, but it lost its title to that name, at the time
of its severance from union with Rome, and has ever
since ranked foremost amongst the Protestant kingdoms
of Europe. And yet those who pretend that they are
Catholics, are of the religion of England, they belong to
its established Church, or perhaps to even a lower form
of Christianity, and cannot see the unreasonableness of
their claim, and the untruthfulness of their assertion.
Here is the logical way of putting it for them. I belong
to the religion of England : the religion of England is not
Catholic : but I am a Catholic. The value of this con
clusion shows what truth there is in the statement of
those who do not hesitate to express it.
Secondly, ask them : Are the Bishops of the Church of
England Catholic Bishops? Who has ever heard them
called by that name, or would they know themselves if
they happened to hear themselves so designated ? And
yet if the Bishops do not represent the religion of the
Church they rule over, who does? The rule of the
Catholic Church is described by St. Cyprian to be that
" the Church is in the Bishop, and the Bishop in the
Church." And what is very much to our point in this
matter is, that the more advanced High Church party,
better known at present as Ritualists, are the ones who
are most eager to claim the name of Catholic for them
selves, and to deny it to their Bishops. See, again, their

102 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
unreasonableness. They are members of a Church
which has Bishops who are not Catholics, and yet they
who are under these Bishops, whose clergy are ordained
by them and licensed by them, are not afraid to call
themselves Catholics.
Ask them a third question : Are the English Cathedrals
Catholic Churches ? I insist upon this question, because
we all know how, in these last few years, there has been
a move among some of the Anglican Clergy towards the
Catholic ceremonial, and hence their name of Ritualists.
But we are not to judge of the religion of a country
from the form of worship carried out in a few churches
here and there; but we go to those which are under the
authority of the higher powers of the Church, and judge
by them. Go into our Cathedrals in Catholic countries,
and you cannot mistake the religion that is professed
there. And until a Catholic form of worship once more
finds its way into the Cathedrals of England, the claim
to be called Cathohc by those who are under the autho
rities to whom the Cathedrals at present belong, is again
unjust and unreasonable.
Again, ask them : Are the poor of England Catholics ?
What is meant when we use the term, the Catholic poor ?
Does not everyone know that it means that portion of
the poor classes which belongs to us ? And yet it is
from the poor, more than the upper classes, that you judge
of the character, and that you pronounce upon the reli
gion of a country. The rich educated classes can be
trained into anything; and we know very well that
amongst them there is, in England, a fashion about
religion, just as there is about dress, or any other change
able accidents of society. The poor form the great

LECTURE VI. 103
bulk of the population, and the English poor are not
Catholics. Yet they have quite as full a right to call
themselves such, as those aspirants whom we are now
considering. But in this matter the poor are simple and
unaffected, and they do not aim at anything above them.
It is not, in reality, a part of my argument to allude to
the well-known failure of the Church of England in
influencing the poor towards religion, and yet that the
poor have the Gospel preached to them was an evidence
of the Divine mission of our Blessed Lord, as it is also
of His Church. The state of the poor is certainly a
testimony against the Church of England, it stands up in
judgment against that Church, and is at once a crushing
answer to those who belong to it, and yet pretend to say
that they are Catholics.
And the last question which you may ask of them is
this : Who calls them Catholics ? They sometimes, with
that timidity, and hesitation, and fear of not being be
lieved which always accompany a statement which is felt
to be untrue, call themselves Catholics, as we are now
considering in our argument. But who else calls them
so ? Do they even call each other so, except when they
are thrown upon their defence, and use the term in a
Protestant meaning, because it is used under protest
against us ? Ask any one of us, whom you might acci
dentally meet in the streets, or in society, if we are
Catholics. Our answer is clear and precise. We are.
Ask any of those pretenders to the name the same
question, and they can only answer with a compromise,
because they know so fully what is meant by the ques
tion, and how unsatisfactorily their answer suits it. If,
by universal consent and usage, the name is not meant

104 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
for them, why do they abuse terms, by forcing them to a
meaning which does not belong to them ? What uni
versal consent and usage decides for us is this : To be a
Catholic, and a Roman Catholic means one and the same
thing. No one but a Roman Catholic deserves the name,
and, as a fact, no one else can succeed in gaining it.
If, however, the name Catholic has a meaning the very
contradictory to that which is attached to it in the Creed
of the Apostles, and of Nicaea; if it means being a
member of a Church which is broken up into innumer
able divisions within itself, and is in separation from every
other Church ; of which one-half teaches what the other
half indignantly rejects and anathematizes ; of which
some members pretend to admit seven Sacraments, and
others, in conformity with their acknowledged formularies,
maintain that there are but two ; whose constitution is
essentially national, and which cannot embrace within
its pale men of all nations ; whose Bishops are not
Catholic, and are not accepted into loving fraternity by
the Episcopate of the whole habitable globe ; whose
Cathedrals have a service and a mode of worship peculiar
to themselves, and unrecognized by any other Church in
the universe ; to whose poor the name of Catholic is
never given, and which has been painfully negative in its
influence upon the poor ; which, when all other nations
send gladly their Bishops to an universal meeting of the
Pastors of the Church of Christ, stands aloof, unknown,
without a place, and is left solitary and shivering with
out ; — if by this is meant Catholic, then the Church of
England is pre-eminently Catholic, and may claim the
name. But then, words have changed their meaning,
and Catholic is exactly the reverse of what it has always

LECTUBE VI. 105
meant, and implies a quality which our Blessed Lord
never intended His Church to possess.
Perhaps, my dear brethren, I may seem to be severe
because I say this. Truth always seems severe to those
who possess it not, and who do not like, therefore, to
hear its absence brought home to them. You know that
our dearest Lord, meek and gentle as He was, said true
things which sounded very harshly in the ears of His
persecutors. When He stood bound as a prisoner before
the High Priest, and was questioned as to His teaching,
and gave an answer regarding the truth of His doctrine,
He was struck in the face, and answered, mildly : If I
have spoken evil, give testimony of the evil ; but if well,
why strikest thou Me? (John xviii. 23.) And if I am
only defending the truth, as God knows I am, and shel
tering the venerable name of Catholic against profane
abuse, bear with me, for it is my duty to uphold the
dignity of the Church, which alone is One and Catholic.
I do it for your own sakes, for I am protecting your
honour ; I do it even for the sake of those who wish to
claim a name, which they have not yet learnt to deserve.
To those who differ from us, I say in the fulness of my
heart : Love the name of Catholic, for it deserves your
love. I wish not to deprive you of it, but will gladly
share it with you. Take it, and be welcome to it ; but
take it on one condition, and it is the only condition on
which it can be given to you — take the name, but take
the reality with it. Be Catholics — become Catholics —
and then glory in calling yourselves Catholics.
May the great event, which is now so close upon us,
be the means of opening the eyes of many to the claims
made upon them by that Church, which alone shows that

106 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
it is One and Catholic, by the very fact of an Oecumenical
Council ! It is destined in the decrees of God to do
great things for His glory, and for the salvation of souls.
May it be set up, not for the fall, but for the resurrec
tion of many in Christendom ! May it hasten the end
so much wished for, and so earnestly prayed for by our
dearest Lord ! Through this good work may many
more be drawn to believe in Him, and be brought into
Unity, and thus share in the blessings of which the
Church is the minister and dispenser under God ! May
it contribute towards gathering into one those that are
dispersed, and bring them into the One Fold of the One
Shepherd ! And at the same time that, in its majestic
assemblage it will be manifesting to the world an example
of Unity, may it prove to all what a blessing it is to have
communion and fellowship with devout men of every
nation under the sun, and to be, both in name and
reality, a Catholic !

LECTURE VII.
AN (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL THE LOUDEST PROTEST AGAINST
ACTUAL ERROR.
There are no speeches nor languages where their voices are not heard. Their
sound hath gone forth into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of
the world. — Ps. xviii.
Amongst the most splendid prophecies in the Old Testa
ment, must be reckoned those which have reference to the
universality of the Christian Church. For to those Jews
who loved God, and who knew how He deserved to be
loved and honoured by all His creatures, it must have
been a sad and a bitter thought to see the whole world else
rejected, and themselves alone believers in the true God
and possessors of His Revelations. The privilege which
they possessed they might indeed well value ; and many
a heart and voice must have entertained with thankful
ness and sung forth with joy that saying of their great
legislator : There is no other nation which hath its gods so
close to it, as our God is close to us. (Deut. iv. 7.) But
yet, when they remembered two truths — when they
remembered that God was the God of the Universe, that
the earth was the Lord's and the fulness thereof, that He
deserved to be known and loved by all men ; and when
they remembered also that every soul was immortal, and
that each one of those who was ignorant of God, would
have one day to be judged by Him, they might well sigh
for better times, when not one nation only, but all peoples

108 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
should be brought to the knowledge and service of the
God of Israel. Therefore it was that Patriarchs longed
for the days which have now arrived; therefore did
Abraham, the father of all nations, desire to see the
day of Christ, and was glad when he was vouchsafed
that sight. Hence those languishing sighs : Send Him
whom Thou art to send. Drop down dew, ye heavens, from
above, and let the clouds rain down the Just One; let the
earth open and bud forth the Saviour. And Prophets sang
of the future days of glory and of accomplished hope.
Isaiah, as we have seen in a previous instruction, saw the
mountain of the House of God raised on the top of moun
tains, and all nations flowing unto it. Jeremias, the
figure of the Baptist, was made a Prophet unto the nations,
with the order to root up, and to pull down, and to destroy,
and to build, and to plant. Ezechiel saw the figure of the
four Evangelists in the active discharge of the work com
missioned to them. Daniel interpreted the dream of the
King of Babylon as representing that future kingdom,
which was to have no end upon earth, and was to bring
into subjection to itself every quarter of the globe. And
the Psalmist, in his beautiful and consoling songs, told
repeatedly of the same glorious time of triumph. In the
second Psalm, he sings of the Mystery of the Incarnation,
and of the subjection of the whole world to the Redeemer.
The Lord hath said to Me, Thou art my Son, this day have
I begotten Thee. Ask of Me, and I will give Thee the Gen
tiles for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the
earth for Thy possession. And in Psalm xviii., from which
I have cited the words which I have selected for the
text of this evening's instruction, the same universal sub
mission of the world is commemorated. The Apostles

LECTURE VII. 109
are foreseen doing their work of preaching in every
nation. There are no speeches nor languages where their
voices are not heard. Their sound hath gone forth into all
the earth, and their words to the end of the world. This is
not a human interpretation of these prophetic words, for
you know that the Holy Spirit Himself, through St Paul,
declares such to be their meaning. (Rom. x. 18.)
I bring these words, with the high sanction attached
to them, before you this evening in order to introduce
the proposition which we are to consider, namely, that
an Oecumenical Council is the loudest protest against
actual error. The truth of this proposition follows easily
and naturally after that which has immediately preceded
it. For if it is the case that an Oecumenical Council is
the clearest manifestation of the Unity and Catholicity of
the Church, its voice must be the best heard and must
reach further than any other. It is but one voice, for it
is the expression of One Church : and it is heard all
through the world, for it is the expression of the Catholic
Church, the Church of all nations. There is no confusion
or indistinctness about it, for this is excluded by Unity.
There is no weakness about it, for it has the power of an
universal chorus. Such a voice is best heard from a
Council; for although the Church always speaks deci
sively and strongly against error, it is in Councils that it
has spoken most loudly, and that it has silenced the
most exaggerated errors.
The mission of Christianity is a mission against error.
Our Blessed Lord declares this in many places of Him
self, and the Gospel repeatedly assures us of it. He
came into the world as the Light of the world, and the
object of this Light was clearly declared by the father of

110 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
the Baptist in his canticle, when he sings of the Orient
from on high Who hath visited us, to enlighten them that
sit in darkness and the shadow of death. For as error
is darkness, truth is light. The evil spirit is the spirit of
darkness and of falsehood, a liar and the father of lies :
he brought sin into the world by falsehood. The Holy
Spirit is the Spirit of light and of truth, and was sent by
our Blessed Lord to protect the work of truth for which
He Himself was ever labouring. I am the Way, and the
Truth, and the Life, might our dearest Saviour have well
said of Himself. And to Pilate He declares the reason of
His coming upon earth : For this I came into the world,
that I might give testimony to the truth. (John xviii. 37.)
And therefore every one that opposes His work is declared
by St. John to be taking up the cause of error against
truth. Who is a liar, but he who denieth that Jesus is the
Christ ? (1 John ii. 22.) And in spite of all the oppo
sition placed in His way by His enemies, we find our
Lord preaching without fear and speaking openly and
loudly upon the truths which He had come to com
municate to the world. Justifying Himself upon His
doctrine before the High Priest, He declares nobly : I
have spoken openly to the world : I have always taught in
the synagogue, and in the temple whither all the Jews
resort ; and in secret I have said nothing. (John xviii. 20.)
And though on occasions on which other charges were
brought against Him, we read the words : Jesus was
silent ; it is not the case when He is called upon declare
the truth in a question of doctrine, and to make a pro
fession of His Faith, such as would in after-times be
required from His followers.
The same is the case in the commission given to the

LECTURE VII. Ill
Apostles : Go and teach. What is taught ? Not error,
but truth. The human mind, under the influence of that
Light which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this
world, cannot give its assent to absolute error. It can
only accept it when placed before it under a guise of
truth. The tongue indeed can utter what is untrue, and
what the mind knows to be untrue, and here is the
wickedness of falsehood, which is an outward expression
consented to by the soul, of what it inwardly feels and
knows to be contrary to truth. It was a hard task that
was given to the Apostles to go amongst those who
loved darkness rather than light. They were to go as
lambs amongst wolves. They were to be persecuted,
and to be driven from city to city. But as their Founder
and Master had been put to death, because He loved the
truth and preached it, they were not to expect less to be
done in the dry wood, than had been done in the green.
And so in the very beginning of their mission we find
them openly and bravely asserting their principle. The
Spirit of Truth had come down upon them, and the
same was also the Spirit of Fortitude; for Truth is
always brave and outspoken. And when they had
already begun to gain many to the Faith, and signs
and wonders were accompanying them in their mission,
the authorities of Jerusalem intermixed persuasion with
threats, and begged them no longer to teach in the Name
of Jesus. But Peter and John answering, said to them : If
it be just m the sight of God to hear you rather than God,
judge ye ; for we cannot but speak the things which we
have seen and heard. (Acts iv. 18.) And the intrepid
St. Paul everywhere declares His mission to be that of
teaching the truth : his weapons were the word of God,

112 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
and the light of the Gospel. His severest denunciations
are towards those against whom the wrath of God is
revealed, because they have detained the truth of God in
injustice. (Rom. i. 18.) His warfare was to pull down
every height that exalted itself against the knowledge of God,
and to bring into captivity every understanding unto the
obedience of Christ. (2 Cor. x. 5.) With such a com
mission, and so nobly fulfilled, no wonder that the
Apostles were all of them also Martyrs; for what
means a Martyr, but a witness to the truth?
The work of Christ, continued through the Apostles,
was intended to be perpetual. The Apostles were
formed into a corporate association, in which vacancies
were to be filled up, " with a power to add to its num
ber." For as the labour increased by the spreading
of the Faith, workmen were required to gather in the
harvest. The work is always the same, and the power
of achieving it must also be always the same. The work
is the subduing of error, and the power is the preaching
of truth. It has been foretold, therefore, in a promise
solemnly enregistered, that the gates of Hell, which is
the kingdom of error, shall never prevail against the
Church, which is the kingdom of Christ.
Is there, then, or is there not, we ask, such a reality
upon earth as a Church, the Church of our Blessed Lord,
and in favour of which He has made so many promises ?
And if it does exist, what is its mission, except to do His
work, for which He founded it, to denounce and fight
against error, and everywhere to preach up and spread
the truth ? The Church meets me everywhere in the
Sacred Scriptures. I see it described in those magnifi
cent predictions of the Prophets which I have already

LECTURE VII. 113
placed before you. I see it again in its formation ; and
the promise of its future greatness and power is con
stantly brought forward in the Gospel. Our Blessed
Redeemer is inaugurating His work ; He is forming and
concentrating His forces; He is investing certain ones
amongst His followers with peculiar privileges, and
endowing them with powers until then never bestowed
upon man — powers of teaching all nations with every
security against error, powers of ministering followed by
super-natural consequences. The work which He esta
blishes, the kingdom which He founds, He calls His
Church. He says that He builds it upon a rock, and hell
is neyer to succeed in its efforts against it; He makes its
decisions so important, that He declares that those who
resist them shall be looked upon as heathens and pub
licans, cast away by God, and rejected by His people
upon earth. He declares of the Ministers of this Church,
that He hands over to them that plenitude of power
which had been given to Him by His Father, in heaven
and on earth, and that whoever heard or despised them
was, in very truth and deed, hearing or despising Him
self and His Father. He solemnly declares, in the very
last words He spoke upon earth, His determination to
remain with this Church for ever, even to the consum
mation of the world ; and after His Ascension He fulfils
in a striking manner the promise He had made of send
ing down the Holy Spirit, the bond of union between
Himself and His Father, to bind the Church with Him
self, and to secure it from all error, even to the end
of time. This is what I see running all through the
Gospel. And in the Acts of the Apostles, in which is recorded

114 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
the history of the earliest struggles of the infant Church,
organised and sent out to its work, I see again the reality
of this Church. The Holy Spirit, promised in the Gospel,
comes down ; and the Apostles, now confirmed in all the
gifts and privileges until then in abeyance, receive their
faculties and the use of their jurisdiction, and go out to
preach the truth in the world. Converts are made, and
what is said of them upon their conversion, is that they
were added to the Church. Fear in the time of trial,
joy in days of success, prayer on occasions of anxiety,
watchfulness on the part of Pastors, obedience on the
side of the people, all these are recorded as taking place
in the Church; and thus, these Acts are in reality
nothing but the first annals of the existence of the
Church. And in the inspired epistles, the Church comes before
me upon every page. I am told how Christ loved it,
and delivered Himself up for it, and chose it for His
Spouse, and left it without spot or wrinkle, in order to be
worthy of its perpetual and close alliance with Him. I
see the great office entrusted to it especially as a protest
against error, when it is called the pillar and ground of
the truth. And I find special praise given to those who
had accepted the preaching of the ministers of the
Church, not as the word of man, but, as it is indeed, the
word of God.
It is brought before me as an article of my Faith in the
Apostles' Creed, in which I am told to believe in the
Holy Catholic Church. And in order the better to secure
me against false pretenders, I find its qualities and marks
more especially designated in the Creed of the early Coun
cils, when it is called the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apos-

LECTURE VII. 115
tolic Church. I see it in existence now, and can no more
doubt it, than the existence of the sun which enlightens
us throughout the day. I see it both in the persons of
those who are happily its members, and who, through its
ministry, are working out their way to heaven; and I
cannot help seeing it thrust before me, even if I tried to
ignore its existence, by the importunate perseverance of
the attacks directed against it by those who are, unfortu
nately for themselves, its enemies and opponents ; for I
suppose it must be true that men do not, in these prac
tical days, fight against mere imaginary existences, but
they do fight resolutely enough against the Church. And
so, with all these evidences around me, I again ask, is
there or is there not such a reality upon earth as the
Church ? And what is its mission ?
The mission of the Church is the same as that of its
holy Founder — it is a mission against error. Those who
are against us will, I suppose, agree with us in this state
ment. Otherwise they stand self-condemned. They think
we are in error, and they certainly preach and teach
against us; and by this very fact they show that they
consider themselves bound in duty to preach against
error, and so affirm our proposition, that the Church's
mission is against error. But what I must insist upon
(listen attentively, my dear brethren, for it is very im
portant) is, that a Church whose mission is against error,
must itself be beyond error, and therefore infallible. Give
a Church which can err, and which must admit that it
can err (unless it asserts its infallibility), and it acknow
ledges that it is unequal to its mission, and it trembles
before its foe. A preacher of such a Church, if he told
the whole truth to those who sit under him, would be
i2

116 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
bound to say: " Take what I tell you with mistrust and
hesitation. I am a minister of a Church which may tell
you what is false. And when, in the name of my Church,
which has been established as a protest against Popery,
I tell that that religion is wrong, I may perhaps be wrong
myself, for I am no wiser than my own Church, and we
may both err together." If this is an unreasonable way
of putting out in full what a member of a fallible Church
must mean, wherein does its unreasonableness consist ?
The Church is either infallible, or it is fallible. If it is
fallible, and can err, then the statement which I have just
expressed is perfectly undeniable. If it is infallible, then
what I want to be admitted, is admitted — namely, that
the Church which has to conquer error must itself be
stronger than error, and beyond its power, and therefore
infallible. If Almighty God does give to His Church authority to
teach, and by teaching, to remove error, He is bound — I
speak with all reverence of His holy duty towards His own
truth — He is bound to protect it against error, or else it
is Himself that is conquered, for His truth is Himself.
You will see this, and you will see that I am not irreve
rent in making this statement, when I ask you, who be
lieve in the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, to answer
me this question. Can the Scriptures err ? I do not
say, can those who interpret the Scriptures happen to be
wrong in their interpretation ? but I say : Can the Scrip
tures themselves be wrong ? You answer, No ! positively
and indignantly. They cannot do so, for as God speaks
through the Scriptures, and they are the word of God,
He Himself would be in error, for His word is an expres
sion of His own thoughts. Here then our principle is

lecture vii. Il7
asserted : That which Almighty God uses as His own
means for conveying His truth, and for removing error,
cannot itself be fallible and perhaps in the wrong. Why
did the Prophets always speak the truth, and why were
they infallible ? Because God spoke through them, as
you say in the Nicene Creed, of the Holy Ghost, " Who
spake through the Prophets." Balaam was willing, ap
parently, to prophesy falsely ; but he could not do it. In
the work of prophecy he was infallible. And when the
wicked King Achab tried so unreasonably to force the
Prophet Micheas to prophesy otherwise than what God
had made known to him, you remember his answer : As
the Lord liveth, whatsoever the Lord shall say to me, that
will I speak. (3 Kings xxii. 14.) Here then our prin
ciple is affirmed that the Instrument which Almighty
God uses as His means for conveying truth, is equal to
its requirement, and does communicate truth without the
danger of error. And so the Church which is commis
sioned upon earth to do this work, the pillar and ground
of the truth, is necessarily infallible.
The illustrious Fenelon beautifully and strikingly de
scribes the difference between the real and effectual help
in his struggle against error, afforded to man in the
Catholic Church, and that which is pretended to be given
by those who leave the individual to judge for himself.
He represents a poor, paralysed man, helpless in his sick
bed, in a house which has taken fire. Four or five pre
tending sympathising friends come running up to him, to
give him the alarm, and tell him to rise at once and
escape as fast as possible. But a sixth one comes, and
raises him gently up, tells him to cling to him, and to
have confidence, and that he will soon lay him down

118 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
again in a place of safety, and does so.* Which of all
these is really his friend ? Is it any of those who only
increased his fears by their untimely visits, or is it not
the one who so truly proved his saviour ? So, in the
midst of errors which are ever endeavouring to ruin our
faith, and thereby our soul, who is it that grants us effec
tive help, and brings peace and confidence to our troubled
spirit ? Is it they who cry out, Peace, peace, and there
is no peace; or is it not rather that true and active
friend, raised up by Almighty God for the very purpose of
guiding and protecting us in the midst of danger ? When
thou shalt pass through the waters, I will be with thee, and
the rivers shall not cover thee ; when thou shalt walk in the
fire, thou shalt not be burnt, and the flames shall not burn
in thee. (Isa. xliii. 2.)
Nobly and successfully, certainly, has the Church ever
done her duty in behalf of the great cause committed to her.
But it is especially in her Councils that she has spoken
most loudly, and directed the strongest opposition against
error, at whatever time, and under whatever shape it may
have appeared. We have seen that when the Apostles
even, with their personal infallibility, could not so success
fully withstand in their scattered state the attack made by
those who were insisting upon what would have implied
the insufficiency of the Price paid for souls by the Preci
ous Blood of our Blessed Redeemer, they had recourse to
a more effective resistance within their reach, assembled
together in Council, and silenced for ever the troublesome
opponents that rose up against them. So also, in the
* Fenelon, lettre sur la Religion. Apud Deohamps, L'Infaillibilite et le Concile
General.

LECTURE VII. 119
Oecumenical Council of Nicaea, against the actual error of
the time, which attacked the very Divinity of the only
begotten Son of God, the Church spoke out so loudly
that its voice is heard distinctly still in the splended defi
nitions of the Nicene Creed. The Council of Trent did
the same; and its decrees and decisions against Pro
testantism are ever standing as a witness of what the
Universal Church in the sixteenth century — the same
as had spoken in Nicaea — declared against errors until
that time unknown, or, at least, almost completely
unuttered. As truth exists before error, inasmuch as error is but a
denial of a previously existing truth, the work of the
Church in her Councils has been the affirmation against
those who have denied them, of doctrines contained in
the deposit placed under the care of the Church at her
foundation. Therefore Councils never pretend to define
newly-revealed truths, but declare explicitly, as circum
stances may demand, doctrines revealed to the Apostles,
and treasured up ever since in safe custody. Against
those who presume to assert so positively, that the doc
trines defined against Protestantism in the Council of
Trent, were new in themselves, and before that time
unknown and unbelieved, you have this very week had a
striking and unanswerable testimony in our favour,
in the letter addressed by the Greek Patriarch of Con
stantinople to the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury.*
When invited by the Primate of the English Protestant
Church, to accept certain proposals and overtures of in
tercommunion, the Patriarch, in an answer quite charac-
* See Note A at the end.

120 THE C3CUMENICAL COUNCIL.
teristic, gives his reasons for refusal. Commencing with
expressions so complimentary, as to give an assurance
that something less complimentary is sure to follow, the
Patriarch selects certain articles of Faith, asserted in that
strange admixture of truth and heresy, which goes by the
name of the Thirty-nine Articles, and declares that whilst
they remain as the profession of the belief of the English
Church, the proposal made to him is impossible of accept
ance. The eternity of the Holy Spirit, in which the
Anglican Church agrees with us, and the doctrine regard
ing the Blessed Eucharist, the number of the Sacraments,
Tradition, the Authority of Councils, the Communion of
Saints, and the Infallibility of the Church, in all of which
the Anglican Church differs from us, are alleged as
reasons for denying the orthodoxy of Anglicanism, and
for refusing communion with it. But as the Greek
Church, on the authority of its Patriarch, agrees with us
in these articles which Anglicanism rejects, and in the
rejection of which it shows novelty, as the same Patriarch
testifies, we can point to this evidence as a clear proof
that what the Council of Trent declares to be of faith, are
not new doctrines, inasmuch as they are taught and
believed by a Church, which has been separated from
union with Rome for so many centuries. Observe the
great advantage gained by the Church of Rome through
the means of this correspondence. In the one point in
which the Greek Patriarch differs from us, the Enghsh
Church admits that we are right. In all the points in
which the English Church differs from us, the Greek
Patriarch admits that we are right. And so they each
admit that we are right, except on the points in which
they differ from us. Like the two witnesses who came

LECTURE VII. 121
forward to give evidence against our Blessed Lord, at the
time of His trial, their testimony is not consistent, and by
its inconsistency is a strong indirect proof of our ortho
doxy, as testified to by the Oecumenical Councils. It
would, indeed, be well if the English Church would take
the hint so quietly given by the Patriarch, and in their
confessions of Faith, would not indulge in accusations of
their neighbours.
If it is the case that previous Councils have most loudly
protested against existing errors, we may ask whether an
Oecumenical Council would have nothing to do now, and
whether error is so silent and inactive, as not to require
denouncing and subduing. Would that it were so ! The
numerous occasions on which the Holy Father has had to
condemn errors against religion, are a proof that the spirit
of evil is as active as ever in going about to seek whom
to devour, and that we must be strong in faith in order
to resist him. And the Syllabus of errors, drawn up in
1864, classified for the better instruction and caution of
the faithful what are the various kinds of attack made
now-a-days against the Church. In the tenfold division
therein contained, are to be found propositions of abso
lute Atheism, directed against the Almighty Himself, of
Rationalism directed against His Holy Revelation, of
Indifferentism against Religion, of Socialism and Secret
Societies against the very welfare of the human race;
propositions against the Church, against Morality, against
Education, against Marriage, against the Sovereign
Pontiff and all hierarchical authority. And although the
press in this country has most disloyally attacked this
noble protest against the spirit of wickedness, we can
scarcely conceive that any defender of morality would

122 THE ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
dare to affirm deliberately and fully a single one of the
propositions condemned, or at least accept the spirit of
those who have ventured to express them. But here
again Protestantism has shown its old antagonism to the
Catholic Church. What Protestantism seems unequal to
understand is, that Religion implies opposition to the
spirit of the world : that it is its duty to be constantly
affirming the supernatural against mere naturalism, and
defending Revelation against infidelity. In its attacks
upon us it goes hand in hand, and heart and soul in alli
ance with Rationalism. It proves itself to be nothing but
a mere human system, in which outward respectability and
standing well with the world, are held out as the highest
perfection. To define Protestantism to be Christianity
without the Supernatural, would be, perhaps, its truest
and most complimentary description.
It is well, probably, that the greater part of the faith
ful, inasmuch as the responsibility of actively defending
the Faith does not devolve upon them, are ignorant of
the lengths to which the enemies of the Catholic Church
have gone in their hatred against religion. Bishops who
have written their reasons for welcoming the present
Council, as intended in the designs of Almighty God to
provide a more effectual remedy against evils which seem
to cry to Heaven for vengeance, have made known to
what extremities in their own experience iniquity has
advanced. One of these illustrious Prelates, foremost
as he has been amongst the defenders of the Church in
France, the zealous and vigorous Bishop of Orleans,
mentions some amongst the fearful evidences of the
progress of Atheism and declared hatred against God
and His holy cause. He instances France and Germany,

LECTURE VII. 123
and does not omit pointing to the well-known increasing
infidelity in our own country. He states how here in
England the efforts of the lower classes to place them
selves above those whom Providence has raised over
them, are nothing more than a logical sequence of the
denial of the principle of authority. He gives an in
stance how the rejection of rehgion implies the abandon
ment of that love for our neighbour, which must enter as
an element into the well-being of society. When some
time ago, a fearful accident occurred at Metz, in the
explosion of the powder magazines in the neighbour
hood, whereby many families were plunged into the
severest affliction, and subscriptions were being organ
ized to afford relief, just because the word charity was
used in the appeal made in behalf of the sufferers, an
influential assembly of infidels refused to admit the
appeal, on this ground — that charity was a Catholic
virtue, and was not of democratic origin.* You can
scarcely believe the truth of this statement, and it is
certainly hard to believe to what lengths men will go,
when once they set up in hatred against God. You
know the first chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to the
Romans, and how the Apostle shows the enormities
perpetrated by those heathen philosophers, who changed
the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the
creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever
more : Amen. Such is the tendency of the present day,
and it is this wicked tendency which the Catholic Church
is determined to withstand.
And not the duty of individual to individual, but of
# Mgr. Dupanloup, Lettre sur le futur Concile, p. 27.

124 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
nation to nation, is equally ignored in these revolutionary
times. Not justice, but superior strength is allowed to
prevail. Weaker states are permitted to be crushed by
more powerful ones, without an act of sympathy or assist
ance from those who ought to protest against such usur
pation. The principle of non-intervention is fallen back
upon, when it is convenient to cite it, but shamefully de
spised, when the convenience is on the other side. So great
a want is there of the admission of principles of justice be
tween nation and nation, that even a Protestant society
has sent an appeal* to Rome, begging the Holy Father
in the Oecumenical Council to use his influence in restor
ing the Law of Nations, and inspiring between the king
doms of the world a mutual confidence which is now
so utterly lost. How ungenerous has been the outcry
against our Holy Father, the Pope, because he has stood
alone in his noble declaration that he cannot subvert laws
of eternal justice, and give up at the bidding of a dis
graceful democracy, the rights which he has inherited,
and which he is bound to transmit to those who succeed
him. Then, there is the matter of education, in which you,
parents, are bound to be interested. We Catholics in
England are now placed upon our defence, and are
obliged to use our influence against the first introduction
of a system of training up children without Religion.
Propositions approving of the total absence of religious
teaching in the schools of the young, have been con
demned by the voice and authority of the Holy Father in
that Syllabus which is so unpopular among the enemies of
* See note B at the end.

LECTURE VII. 125
the Church ; and this most important matter of education
has been declared to be one of the motives which have
prompted the calling together of the Council. And we
may well hope, that when the Bishops of the Church from
every quarter of the globe will have given their experience,
and will have learnt from one another, under the presi
dency of the Holy Spirit of Wisdom, the necessity of a
firm and organised resistance against the attempt to bring
up the rising generation in ignorance of the most neces
sary truth, which assures them that it can avail them
nothing to gain the whole world, if they come to suffer
the loss of their souls, — if the protest already made by
the Holy Father be not loud enough, it must make itself
heard when it will be taken up in chorus by the eight
hundred Bishops, who will be gathered around him in
the Vatican.
I have often felt that one of the most fear-inspir
ing chapters in the whole of the Sacred Scripture is the
thirty-third of the Prophet Ezechiel. It does not, my
dear brethren, concern each one of you in its most direct
application, but it most fully and deeply concerns the
Pastors of the Church. It tells the Watchman, ap
pointed by Almighty God over His people, what is his
duty, and the weight of his responsibility. If, when the
Watchman sees evil coming upon the land, he calls out
loudly, and raises an alarm, they who will not take the
warning, but allow themselves to be injured, must them
selves alone bear the penalty of their heedlessness. But
if, when he sees the evil, he does not call out, but allows
it to produce its effect, he will have to answer for the
consequence; and if any one perish, the Almighty de
clares : I will require his blood at the hand of the Watch-

126 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
man. None can say that our present venerable Holy
Father has been unwatchful, or has neglected to speak
out boldly and loudly, when necessity has required it. I
well remember, and many of you may remember the
same, how, at the beginning of his Pontificate, which,
by the blessing of God, and for the good of the Church,
has been extended to so great a length, when the Secret
Societies, his especial enemies, were endeavouring most
earnestly to ruin the principles and morals of the young,
he called aloud, with a plaintive voice which made itself
heard in every country of the globe : " They are taking
away from me all my young men." And it was in a spirit
of fidelity to his duty as Watchman, and of love for the
young, that he spoke out again so loudly in the condem
nations pronounced five years ago against the iniquitous
system of education encouraged in so many quarters.
And when now, towards the end of his career, he sees
evils menacing the whole world, and the powers of the
earth ungratefully ranged against him, who has stood
almost alone in opposing the revolutionary spirit of the
day, and who has had the manliness to resist unjust
demands so weakly conceded by others, he again calls
out loudly, and raises the alarm. Despoiled of four-
fifths of his provinces, and suffering therefrom a degree
of martyrdom at the hand of his oppressors, his spirit is
still equal to the occasion, and he shows it in that noble
effort he has so successfully made, in summoning around
him the Episcopate of the world. May all his wishes
be granted ! May the Lord hear him in the day of his
triumph, as He has heard him in the day of tribula
tion, and may the Name of the God of Jacob protect
him ! May his warning voice be heard in time, and may

LECTURE VII. 127
all men learn to acknowledge who has been their best
friend ! And to end, as the Prophet ends his chapter
of warning : When that which was foretold shall come to
pass (for behold, it is coming), then shall they know that
a Prophet hath been amongst them.

LECTURE VHI.
AN (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, THE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE
GOSPEL AGAINST THE WORLD.
If the world hate you, know that it hated Me before you. If you had
been of the world, the world woidd love its own, but because you are not
of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world
hateth you  In the world you shall have distress; but have
confidence, I have overcome the world. — John xv. ly. xvi. 33.
You know the disposition of our dear Lord : how meek
He was, how humble and forgiving ; and how true was
the character given of Him by St. Peter : Who when
He was reviled, did not revile; when He suffered, He
threatened not, but delivered Himself to him who judged
Him unjustly. (1 Peter ii. 23.) Well did St. John Baptist
call Him the Lamb of God, a name long before given to
Him in prophecy, when it was said that He was to be led
as a sheep to the slaughter, and be dumb as a lamb before
his shearers, not opening his mouth (Isaiah Iiii. 7) ; and
a name loved and perpetuated in the Church, when she
addresses Him as the Lamb of God who taketh away the
sins of the world. The thoughts of His Sacred Heart ;
the words which He has uttered and has left to be
recorded ; the mode of life, humble and simple, which
He adopted ; His meekness under injuries ; His patience
under persecution ; His obedience unto death, even to the
death of the Cross, all combine in fixing His character as
that of the gentlest and most loving one, that has ever
trodden this poor earth of ours. And yet there are

LECTURE VIII. 129
severe sayings of His that are enregistered in the Gospel,
and sayings which come upon us with the greater ap
pearance of severity, because they stand out in such
marked contrast to every other word which He has
spoken. We do not feel severity so much from those
who are always severe : we expect it, and we are prepared
to bear it. But to meet with severity at the hands of
one who is always mild and gentle, strikes us the more
strongly, and fills us with alarm, and awakens within us
a reflection upon the act which may have occasioned it.
Among the severe sayings of our dear Lord are those
which He has pronounced so strongly and positively
against the world. He came to bestow blessings upon
all ; yet He says : Woe to the world. He came to give
peace to all, for He was the Prince of Peace ; yet He
declares war against the world, and will have no peace
and friendship with it ; for it is of the world He is speak
ing when He says : I have not come to send peace, but the
sword. He came to pray for all, and intended to be ever
making before the throne of His Father that intercession
which is so powerful to save, yet He goes so far as to
exclude the world from His prayer ; for He even does not
hesitate to say these, perhaps the severest words He ever
uttered : I pray not for the world. (John xvii. 19.) Alas !
my dear brethren ! what is to come of those whom our
most merciful and loving Lord condemns ? against whom
He declares a constant war and an implacable aversion;
and of whom He so utterly despairs, that He will not
even pray for them ? And yet all this is true ; you read
it in the Gospel.
And he infuses the very same spirit into the Apostles.
He wishes them to imitate His character, to learn of Him
K

130 ' THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
because He was meek and humble of heart. He orders
gentleness under rebuke; patience under persecution;
forgiveness of injuries, praying for those who afflicted
them, and blessing those who spoke evil against them;
but with all this, no compromise nor peace with the
world. They were not to attempt to serve him and the
world at the same time; the two masters demanded
different kinds of homage, and they must make up their
minds to love One and hate the other. You see this
Apostolical spirit manifested in the noble-minded St.
Paul. He makes himself all to all — to Greek or bar
barian, to Jew or Gentile, he is equally a minister — and
is willing even to become an anathema for his brethren.
But yet what a bold attitude of defiance does he not as
sume when he is confronted with the world ! Far be it
for me to glory save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
by Whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.
(Gal. vi. 14.) This is the profession of faith and deter
mination with which the glorious Apostle started out to
accomplish the important work for which Almighty God
had made him a vessel of election. He had a twofold
work before him : he had to destroy the influence of the
world over himself, and he had to teach the Name and
love of Jesus, and thus to destroy the influence of the
world over others also. And it was necessary that he
should go forth nerved and armed for his labour;
that he should enter upon it with spirit; that he
should look upon the world as an enemy, which he
was determined to subdue; and consequently that he
should act upon a principle opposed to the spirit of
the world ; and that as the world was uncompromis
ing in its hatred to him, so should he make no over-

LECTURE VIII. l3l
tures to it, but pursue it and struggle with it even
to the death.
And to the Church is given the same commission. In
this also it is Apostolical : it must oppose the world as
the Apostles did. It must enforce maxims, and teach
lessons and practices contrary to the spirit and ways of
the world. It must make up its mind to be hated by the
world, and it must hate it heartily in return. There is
no fear of transgressing charity here. The law of charity
enforces love to God and our neighbour, but the world
holds no place in either of these categories. The Church
must make up its mind also to suffer at the hands of the
world, but must be patient and persevering under these
sufferings. It must not be surprised if such sufferings
come, but rather if they do not come ; for it is written :
In the world you shall suffer distress ; and again : They will
put you out of the synagogues : yea, the hour cometh, that
whosoever killeth you, will think that he doth a service to
God ; but these things I have told you, that when the hour
shall come, you may remember that I told you of them.
(John xvi. 2, 4.) Not patient only must the Church be
under its sufferings, but cheerful, and confident of its
ultimate victory, because He is fighting on the side of
the Church, Who says : Have confidence, I have overcome
the world. To be hated by the world, but to be hated be
cause of our Lord, and in company with Him, is not
a humiliation: it is the Church's glory. Hence the
Church has two things to plant in the midst of the
world: it has to plant the Gospel, and side by side
with the Gospel, it has to plant the Cross : that Cross
always a scandal, and a stumbling-block, and foolish
ness in the eyes of the world. The Gospel is the
K 2

132 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
lesson of truth : the Cross is the lesson of opposition
to the world.
When, then, I say, as I have to shew you this evening,
that an Oecumenical Council is the representative of the
Gospel against the world, you can well understand that if
such a Council represents the Church, it must be in an
tagonism with the world, and we must expect to find the
world arrayed in opposition to it. But let us understand,
as clearly as we can, what is meant by the world, in the
sense in which it is so much censured and anathematized
by our Blessed Lord. It must have a meaning, and it
must be important for us to know its meaning, lest,
perchance, it might be that we are allowing ourselves to
a greater or a less degree to be under its influence, to
be in friendship with it, and therefore to be against our
Lord, against the Gospel, and against the Church.
By the world, then, in the first place, we do not mean
this earth of ours, the place of man's habitation, and the
scene of his labours whilst he is struggling for eternity.
For although we constantly use the word " world " to
represent the " orbis terrarum," the habitable globe, of
course it is not in that sense that the Sacred Scriptures
hold it up as an object of our hatred. It has, indeed, by
the fall of our first parents, been changed into a vale of
tears, but yet its very sorrows have been sanctified by
Him, who came from Heaven to dwell upon it, and has
chosen it as His constant dwelling-place in the Adorable
Sacrament of the Altar. So far the world is irresponsible,
and is the abode of the just and the unjust, upon both of
whom the sun shines and the rain falls without any par
tiality. Nor again, does the world mean the whole of the
human race, responsible as it is. For in this meaning it

LECTURE VIII. 133
is an object of love to God, of Whom our dear Lord Him
self has said : God so loved the world, as to give His only
begotten Son for its redemption. (John iii. 16.) And in
this sense the world is an object of our love also, for we
are bound to love our neighbour as ourselves, and all
mankind enters into this glorious fraternity. In neither
of these meanings, therefore, is the world under the
censure of God and His Church.
But there is a sense in which the world is spoken of in
the inspired language of Holy Writ, as a special enemy of
God and of the soul of man. It is an enemy so positively
to be declared by Almighty God to be against Him, that
when we become His children in Holy Baptism, we bind
ourselves by oath to renounce it. Of each of us, when
that first of the Sacraments was administered to us, was
asked the question — Dost thou renounce Satan, with all
his works, and all his pomps ? And we promised that
renunciation as the condition of our admission into the
Church. By the pomps of Satan we mean the world and
all its maxims. And this we have repeated in the days
of our full consciousness, as often as we have ratified the
promises made in our name in those early days, and
have declared that " we renounce the Devil with all his
works, the world with all its pomps, and the flesh with
all its temptations." And it is of this world, with all its
riches, and honours, and pleasures, of which our Blessed
Saviour speaks when He contrasts it with the value of
the human soul, and says. : What can it profit a man if he
gain the whole world, and lose his own soul ? It is upon
the world in this sense that our dearest Lord pronounces
a woe, when He says : Woe to the world, because of scan
dals. (Matt, xviii. 27.) It is against this He has de-

134 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
clared a perpetual and a vigorous war ; it is for this He
will not pray, for it is past praying for. It is of this He
says that there is in it a quality which prevents the Holy
Spirit from descending upon it : The Spirit of Truth,
Whom the world cannot receive. (John xiv. 17.) Of it
He also says that the devil is the prince of this world.
(John xii. 31.) This is the world which did not know
Him when He came upon earth. This, He foretold,
would always hate the Church, as it had hated Him, and
would try to withstand its progress, as it had opposed
His. And it is of this world, in its bad and odious sense,
that Apostles spoke also, in such strict harmony with
the spirit of their holy Founder. This was crucified to
St. Paul, and he to it. Of this St. Peter says that it is
our duty to fly from the pollutions of this world, through
the knoivledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, lest
we be entangled and overcome. (2 Pet. ii. 20.) And St.
James : The friendship of this world is enmity with God.
(James iv. 4.) And against this, our own patron, St.
John, is ever railing; for, as the special lover of our
Lord, he must have been the special hater of the world ;
and so he says : Love not the world, nor the things which
are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity
of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world
is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of
the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father,
but is of the world. (1 John ii. 15, 16.)
The world, in this condemned sense, means the society
of those, who are regulated by maxims, principles, and
motives which are against God, Religion, the Gospel, and
the Church; who prefer temporal things to eternal; who

LECTURE VIII. 135
are sensual, proud, self-seeking, self-indulgent, self-willed;
who refuse everything like self-denial ; who are under the
influence, and constitute the influence, of human respect;
who fear men rather than God ; who are given up to the
desires of their heart, and, as St. Paul says, change the
truth of God into a lie, and worship the creature rather
than the Creator, who is blessed for evermore. Amen. Its
great aim and its great sin is to make us live and labour
for, it rather than for eternity and for Him who made us.
It is joined in an unholy alliance with the devil and the
flesh; and has such power that at times it seems to be
triumphing over God Himself, and to be bringing His
work to destruction. It persecuted the Prophets, and all
the just, from the time of Abel down to the time that it
shed a Blood which cried out more efficiently than his.
It legislates against the kingdom of God, and its kings
and princes have often stood up against the Lord, and
against His Anointed One. It has its hour, but it is an
hour of darkness ; and yet it seems to be gaining ground
at such a time, and to be achieving a victory over God.
The world seemed to conquer, and it boasted proudly of
its conquest, when it crucified our Blessed Redeemer. It
seemed to conquer when it put Stephen and the Apostles
to death. It seemed to conquer, when for three centuries
it was lording it over Christianity, and dividing epochs of
history into its various periods of persecution. And
though it has to yield at last when Almighty God shows
His power, and a glorious time of Resurrection comes
upon the Church, yet it fights again afterwards, and will
continue fighting even to the end. If such a world
existed in the days of Christ and the Apostles, cer
tainly it exists now; and if the Church had a hard

136 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
battle to fight then, it is not, assuredly, its time of
peace now.
The title which is given to the Church upon earth
describes its attitude with regard to the world : it is a
Church Militant. Our wrestling, says St. Paul, referring
to our time as well as to his own, is not against flesh and
blood ; but against principalities and powers, against the
rulers of the world of this darkness, against the spirit of
wickedness in the high places. (Eph. vi. 12.) The powers
which the world uses are those which concern time and
this world, not eternity. Hence it holds out riches and
temporal comforts and advantages which are associated
with riches. It has all the influence which comes from
that great and telling argument of human respect. Nor
has it ever hesitated to have recourse to the mode of
persecution which it can best adopt, as being most in
harmony with the spirit of the time. Certainly, the
world has not ceased to be a persecutor now-a-days.
Persecution need not consist in the infliction of physical
suffering : there is also a moral and social kind of perse
cution ; and it is in this that the world proves itself to be
at present so well practised. There is not about this kind
of attack upon the Church the openness and honesty, if we
may say so, of the old form of persecution ; it is still none
the less painful ; but for the comfort of those who have
to undergo it, we must add, it is also none the less meri
torious. Have converts nothing to suffer now-a-days ?
When friendships are broken asunder because one person
follows his conscience in embracing the faith : when
parents turn their children from their home, or visit
them with such constant taunts as to make that dwell
ing-place cease to be hke home, is there nothing painful

LECTURE VIII. 137
or trying herein ? Never were some of the prophetical
declarations of our Blessed Lord more true than in these
days of pretended Hberty ; for He has said : I have come
to set a man at variance against his father, and the
daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law : and a man's enemies shall
be they of his household. (Matt. x. 35, 36.) People
are sometimes astonished, and try to find a reason for
this unnatural treatment; but I think there is a clue
to it here, when we remember that those who follow
God and His Holy Gospel must in the world suffer
distress.
Then, again, look at the morality of the world, and at
its standard of perfection in virtue. Does it affirm a
single one of the Beatitudes ? Poverty, meekness, hu
mility, mercifulness, patience under reproaches, purity of
heart, are certainly not praised in the world : but the
Church is the rather censured and looked down upon,
because she inculcates all these habits, and preaches
them up as constituents of the true Christian character.
Temporal success and prosperity are held out by the
world, as a proof and as the reward of perfection. And so
we hear attempts made to show the advantage in these
respects of countries that are not Catholic over those that
are so. Babylon most probably made the same boast
against Jerusalem. You remember when our Lord was
tempted in the desert, how the wicked spirit, daring even
to approach the Son of God, offered Him the reward of
temporal glory and riches, if He would but fall down and
adore him. This may give us some idea of the reward
given to those who adore something else rather than God :
it tells us of the power of the devil over the world, as he

138 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
pretends to be able to give away all the kingdoms of the
world, and the glory of them. The world, indeed, has
never loved them, who have given up its tempting offers,
and have answered it : The Lord thy God shalt thou adore,
and Him only shalt thou serve.
Another way in which the world fights against the Gospel
and the Church, is in its misrepresentation of the doctrines
of the Church. We are oftentimes obfiged to declare that
there are two kinds of Catholics — there are those who
exist in reality, who follow the teaching of the Catholic
Church, approach to her Sacraments, practise her lessons,
and under her guidance are working out their way to
heaven. And there is another kind, but it is purely ima
ginary. It exists in the minds of those who have drawn
upon their imagination for everything that is false and
worthy of condemnation, and attribute the possession of
all these undesirable qualities to something that they call
the Cathohc Church. Whether such a Church exists any
where, we know not; but, assuredly, when we are de
scribed by those who are opposed to us, and have a state
ment of our doctrines laid before us by them, we simply
know not ourselves from the description that is given.
And, therefore, all converts know how utterly different
they have found the true and real Catholic Church to be
from what it had been pictured to them before their con
version. And we, upon whom so constantly devolves the
happy work of instructing converts, know what a consi
derable amount of time and patience is required in re
moving the shamefully false impressions, which previous
prejudice and misrepresentation had made upon them.
When our Blessed Lord was being tried before His
judges, we know how much false testimony was brought

lecture vin. 139
against Him. He forewarned His followers that the same
would be done in their case, and He blessed them for
the share they were to have in this feature of His suffer
ings. Blessed are ye, when they shall revile you, and per
secute you, and speak all that is evil against you, untruly,
for My sake ; be glad and rejoice, for your reward is very
great in heaven. (Matt. v. 11.) And so it is that we are
constantly thrown upon the defensive in our explanation
of Catholic faith and practice. Like the early Christian
writers, we are obfiged in our turn also to be apologists,
and are over and over again employed in doing nothing
else but answering objections, of which ignorance some
times, but misrepresentation more frequently, has been
the source.
As the Church is upon earth the kingdom of the super
natural, here is another way in which the world places
itself in antagonism against her. It is by the denial of
the supernatural. Well has St. Paul said : The sensual
man perceiveih not the things that are of the Spirit of God,
for it is foolishness to him, and he cannot understand.
(1 Cor. ii. 14.) Unless the doctrines of the Church, and
her very existence were supernatural, she never could
have survived the natural obstacles put in her way from
the time of her first foundation down to the present day.
And this ought to be a sufficient point to urge with
those who profess to believe in Christianity, and yet
make especial objections to Catholicity, because it does
not stoop down so low as to pretend to give nothing but
natural reasons for deeply sacred and mysterious doc
trines. Rationalism joins hand-in-hand with naturalism in
its opposition to the Church, as we know from constant
experience, and from the condemnation pronounced by

140 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
the Church against their combined assertions. Among
the first of the propositions condemned in the Syllabus
to which we have already referred more than once, and
probably among those to be condemned by the Council,
is this : " Human reason, without any 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."* And
thus, when the world calls upon the Catholic Church to
answer its questions, it commences with the word, How ?
How can man forgive sin ? How can the Body of our
Blessed Lord be really present in the Holy Sacrament of
the Altar ? And in its protests against having any spiri
tual authority exercised over it, the world teaches its
servants to say : " I am not going to be dictated to by
Pope, or Church, or Council. I have my own reason to
guide me. I have my private judgment, which I will sub
mit to no ruler. I have my liberty, which I prize, and
which I will defend against one that claims to exercise
dominion over my soul. This is the nineteenth century,
and instead of the Church leading us, as it pretended to
do in the dark ages, we must now compel the Church
to follow the progress of the world, and to reconcile itself
with modern civilisation." This all sounds very grand and
bold, my dear brethren, but, remember, it is the world
that says it. It is very unlike the saying of Him who
declared of Himself: I have come, not to do My own will,
but the will of Him Who sent Me ; and of His followers :
Unless you become as little children, you shall not enter into
the Kingdom of Heaven. Persevere in this, and you will
* Syllabus, attached to the Brief: Quanta Cura. — Prop. 3.

LEOTUEE VIII. 141
be lost. You will be keeping yourself under the patronage
of the world and at enmity with God. You cannot serve
both, and pretend to look upon both of them as your mas
ters. You will be past praying for, even by our most mer
ciful and loving Saviour, for He prays not for the world.
And then what is to become of you in eternity, when
time and the world will be no more ?
The world, too, in its contest with the Church, is ac
customed to take a high tone, and to be pretending to
boast of its victories. And yet what are they ? and how
lasting are they? If it had been the case that some of
those leading organs of the Press which in these days
undertake to lay down laws for the whole universe, and
to lead public opinion, had existed in the days in which
our Blessed Lord was living and labouring upon earth,
we can well imagine how they would have criticised and
condemned His mode of life, because it was so opposed
to the ways of the world. And we can well imagine
what a grand and telling leading article would have been
written in the chief periodical in Jerusalem, had there
been the convenience of publishing such productions in
those days, when the great event had been consummated
on Calvary. On that Holy Saturday morning, the day
after the Good Friday, men might have been seen in the
public places in that unfaithful city, comparing their
remarks, and asking each other whether they had read
what their chief record had stated regarding the event of
the previous day : how He Who had been pretending to
go against the spirit and progress of the time, and to
establish a new system amongst them, had been effec
tually conquered and silenced. There was but one man
of independent spirit, they would have added, among all

142 THE C3CUMEN1CAL COUNCIL.
His followers, who was determined not to be dictated to,
and his name was Judas. For the world always praises
up traitors against the Church ; and if it can only find
any one who is bound by sacred obligations and by
honourable ties to duty, to break through those ties, and
to violate against the Church what it would visit with
the severest censure if violated against itself, such an one
is praised by the world, and is held up as an example to
be admired and imitated. Such is the attitude of the
world against the Church. Meanwhile, what does the
Church do against the world ?
The Church is the kingdom of God upon earth, and
has for its mission to do battle against the world. There
is a triple alliance upon both sides. The Devil, the
World, and the Flesh, are opposed by the Holy Spirit,
the Church, and the Gospel. The Holy Spirit of Truth
is especially opposed to the wicked spirit, the father of
lies ; the Church is most directly opposed to the world,
with all its vanities and false maxims ; the Gospel, with
its lessons of self-denial, takes its stand in direct opposi
tion to the flesh, with its sensual and self-indulgent
principles. And the warfare which the Holy Alliance
desires to wage against its enemies is an open warfare.
The works of the Holy Spirit are those of light; the
works of the opposite side are secret and the works of
darkness. What a contrast, therefore, do you not find
presented between the conduct of the world, with its
secret societies, which are the curse of the present age,
and the glorious bearing of the Church assembled in
Council !
One fact which the Church manifests by the attitude
she thus assumes is, that she is not afraid of the world,

LECTURE VIII. 143
and why should she ? If God be for us, who is against
us ? was St. Paul's noble maxim, and it is ever the
Church's maxim also. And God is for her — the Holy
Spirit is in alliance with her, and surely there can be
no reason for her to fear. Our Blessed Lord and His
Apostles never feared the world. He was meek and
patient under its attacks, but He was resolute at the
same time. He conquered the world, and therefore He
says to us, Have confidence. Read in the tenth chapter
of St. Matthew the instruction He gives, in what, at the
very beginning of these instructions, I said might be
called the first Oecumenical Council, held by Himself
with His chosen twelve. He is sending them out upon
their work, hard and unpromising as it may have seemed
at the time, to the yet untutored and untrained labourers
who were to undertake it ; and though He teaches them
to manifest everywhere simplicity, mercifulness, a spirit
of peace and patience under suffering, yet fear He will
not hear of. Behold I send you as sheep in the midst of
wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents and simple as
doves. But beware of men. For they will deliver you up m
councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues.
And you shall be brought before governors and before kings
for My sake, for a testimony to them and to the gentiles. . .
And you shall be hated by all men for My Name's sake.
Fear them not. That which I tell you in the dark, speak ye
in the light. Fear not them that kill the body, and are un
able to kill the soul ; but rather fear Him that can destroy
both body and soul into hell. Thus was a spirit of forti
tude infused into the Church at its very foundation, before
the same gift was sacramentally confirmed on the day of
Pentecost. The bold and open position taken by the

144 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
Church in an Oecumenical Council, is the most outspoken
declaration, that she fears not the world, but is quite ready
for her contest against it.
In fighting against the world it is not against mankind;
it is not against society that the Church is combating.
Nay, it is for the benefit of men, and for the welfare of
society. The Holy Father declares that he fears for
society more than for the Church, in the attacks that are
made against peace and order. The Church cannot be
conquered, but society may be ruined. The Church can
have trials, and may seem to be in danger, just as the
Apostles felt themselves in danger when a storm arose
and Jesus was asleep in the boat. But He Who seems to
be sleeping, when enemies are active and watching, is at
once aroused by the call of prayer, and after the storm a
great calm ensues. But it is not always the same with
society. It has been ruined at times by the diseases
which have ravaged within, and it requires a helper ex
ternal to itself to resuscitate it from its ruins. And so
the Church wishes again to save society from the evils
which are threatening, and which can only be averted by
some power stronger than nature; and that is the power
which is exercised by Almighty God through the Church.
The Holy Father and the Church over which he presides,
certainly have had hard trials of late at the hands of the
world. We have seen the successor of St. Peter for a
time an exile from his dominions; we have seen the
greater part of his fair provinces robbed away from him ;
churches have been plundered; religious houses sup
pressed, and their members turned out upon the bleak
and unsympathizing world; infidel productions, having
for their theme and motive the undermining of the

LECTURE VIII. 145
radical principles of religious belief have been encouraged
and spread abroad among the people ; morality has been
reduced to a low and a sinking level ; the education of
the young has been tampered with, and an attempt made
— too successfully — to eliminate the religious element
from the training of the young ; principles of socialism,
which have for their object the destruction of that differ
ence in classes which a wise Providence has ordained,
and which is essential to society — all this has been going
on, and is going on. The Holy Father does not, as he
sees these evils, remain silent and inactive ; but he speaks
out openly, and calls for the friends of God and Religion
to gather about him, and thus to show who is on the side
of God and who is against Him. From all he asks for
an open declaration ; and with all the vigour and earnest
ness of Elias, he cries out for a clear profession of prin
ciple from every one : How long do you halt between two
sides ? If the Lord be God, follow Him ; but if Baal, then
follow him. (3 Kings xviii. 21.)
He wants comfort and encouragement. He wants his
fellow-defenders to cluster around him. It ought not to be
allowed for him to say, as the Prophet foretold our dear
Lord in His Passion would have to say, as He indeed
had reason to say : I looked about, and there was none
to help ; I sought, and there was none to give aid.
(Isaias lxiii. 5.) And therefore the Bishops, who are
the sharers of his solicitude, run with instinctive sym
pathy to him, and from all sides rally around him. They
offer the assistance which it is in their power to extend
to him, and, with a common faith and hope, join gladly
in the common struggle. And you, my dear brethren,
want the protection which is thus afforded you. You

146 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
may not yet be aware of the fulness of the danger which
is upon you. Children are sometimes sleeping in confi
dence, when parents' hearts are watching in sorrow and
anxiety ; for there is a danger lurking of which they are
not aware who have not the duty of watching, and it is
only by this watchfulness that it is averted. Others
have felt evils which it may be your turn to feel also
at some future time, and a future, perhaps, which is not
very remote. May it please God in His great mercy to
turn it away ! And if He does so, it will be because
the watchman has given the alarm, and men have
thus been placed upon their guard.
So effectual, indeed, is the warning and security
afforded by the Church in this summoning together
the chief Prelates of the Church, that the world meets
with discomfiture by the very fact of its nefarious pro
jects being brought to light. It is not the Church that
fears the world, but the world that fears the Church;
and it shows its fear in the impotent attacks it is making
upon the Council. It pretends to despise the Council,
but it cannot leave it alone ; it cannot be silent about it.
If the Council can do nothing, and is only a harmless
display of the weakness of the Church, why cannot the
world allow it to proceed in its work, unnoticed and
uncriticised ? The temporal rulers of Jerusalem, who
had the means, which they availed themselves of cruelly
enough, of inflicting suffering and imprisonment upon
the Apostles, were in their hearts afraid of these same
Apostles; and, therefore, we find them having recourse
to secret and underhand means to bribe them into
silence. And they beg them quietly, and in a pre
tended guise of friendship and confidence, not to preach

LECTURE VIII. 147
any more in a Name which had shown itself so power
ful. But they were little prepared for the answer, now-
a-days but too well known : Non possumus. We cannot
but speak the things which we have seen and heard. (Acts
iv. 20.) And so the battle is going on. It is not the
Church which is going to compromise now. It is quite
ready to suffer, for that is its portion here below ; but
it is not ready to yield, for that is not its portion either
here or hereafter.
In the seventh chapter of the Book of Daniel, the
Prophet tells how he saw thrones arranged, and the
Ancient of days seated in peace and dignity, whilst king
dom after kingdom was brought to ruin. So is it that
Almighty God waits in patience whilst nations rage, and
people meditate vain things against Him, whilst kings stand
up and princes plot together against the Lord and His
Anointed. v He will gain His own at last, in spite of all
that are arrayed against Him. He that dwelleth in the
heavens will laugh at them, and the Lord will treat them
with scorn. In one of two ways will God assuredly sub
due every individual soul, for after all they are individuals
that are presuming to withstand their own Creator. He
will conquer them, either by His goodness or His justice.
He prefers the former, and offers it ; but if it is refused,
He brings the latter into exercise, and from that no man
can escape. It is for us to pray that mercy may exalt it
self above justice, and that souls which have been bought
at so great a Price, may see their own value, and con
sent to be saved. And it is for the Church to labour
whilst we are praying, and in the voice of warning which
she will issue from the Council of her Fathers, it will be
hers to make known the alternative which awaits each
l 2

148 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
soul ; forgiveness and reconciliation with God, if any will
submit, and seek for it in the acceptable time which still
remains for them ; but otherwise — Perdition is thy own,
0 Israel!When, then, we see the conflict that is going on be
tween the world and the Church of God, we can have no
difficulty in understanding why our good and merciful
Saviour so much hated and so severely condemned the
world. The words which He spoke against the world were
uttered by Him eighteen hundred years ago, but it was
not of the world only as existing then that He declared
such evil, but He looked forward also into the future,
and saw the long and continued contest that was to be
ever going on against His own dearest work. He saw
the glory of His Father constantly being diminished by
the influence of the world, and well demanding, therefore,
that those who loved that glory should try to counteract
that influence, and labour for the greater glory of God.
He saw the success of His own cause impeded by the
opposition ever thrown in its way by the obstinate per
severance of the world. He saw souls being lost through
the power of the world, and because He loved souls so
dearly, therefore did He the more bitterly hate and blame
the world. No wonder, when He saw and felt all this,
that His Sacred Heart broke in Gethsemani, and that He
felt such desolation and sorrow throughout His Passion !
But, notwithstanding all this, He overcame the world.
He overcame it by His teaching ; He overcame it by His
sufferings and death ; and He displayed His victory in
the glory of His Resurrection. And the Church, too,
overcomes the world : This is the victory which overcometh
the world, even our Faith. The noble assemblage of the

LECTURE VIII.

149

defenders of the Church in their Council will show how
the Church is still filled with Faith, confidence, and love.
It will prove that the ancient spirit is not yet crushed
out, but that that Church, which has hitherto been able
to bear up under every trial, is destined to stand uncon-
quered to the end. For the Church cannot be conquered,
more than God Himself can be conquered by the enemies
who dare to oppose even Him. Even against God there
seem to be moments, now and then, when there is a
triumph of the spirit of evil, when His glory is tar
nished, and His cause seems not to bear promise of
success. It is the world's hour, an hour of darkness.
It is the time of the Passion. But the Passion runs its
course, and its Resurrection follows. The struggle has
been between the world and the truth; and, regarding
both of these, declarations have been written for our in
struction and our comfort. The one is : The fashion of
this world passeth away. And the other : The Truth of
the Lord remaineth for ever.

LECTURE IX.
THE EVE OF THE COUNCIL. THE WORK OF PREPARATION.
Stay you in the city, till you be endued with power from on high. — Luke
xxiv. 49.
That was a most eventful epoch in the career of the Apos
tles, which witnessed the withdrawal from amongst them
of the visible presence of their dearest Lord and Master.
Whilst He was with them, He was everything to them.
He had called them to His service, and had so attracted
them that they were glad to give up all things in order to
follow Him. He had instructed them in the Mysteries of
His kingdom, and had spoken openly to them, whilst to
others He spoke in parables, and in a less distinct man
ner. He had invested them with high powers, and had
made them partakers of that plenitude of authority
which He Himself, as Founder of the Church, had
received from His Father. All power had been given
to Him in heaven and on earth, and the same He gave
to them. For three years, which was the period of His
ministry, they were constantly with Him : they followed
Him from town to town ; and oftentimes, in company
with Him, retired from all active work to rest a while,
and to recruit themselves with new strength and grace
for further labours. But He frequently reminded them
that He would be with them visibly only for a short time,
and that when He had consummated the work which had
been appointed to Him He would leave them and return

LECTURE IX. 151
to His Father. And the time of parting at last came.
It was not the time of His Passion ; for He was to return
after that, and converse with them again. You may
remember how He said to them : A little time, and you
shall not see Me : and again a little time and you shall see
Me, because I return to My Father. The time in which
they were not to see Him, was the period which inter
vened between His Passion and His Resurrection. And
the time in which they were to see Him, was the period
between His Resurrection and His Ascension, and then He
was to go to His Father. And at His Ascension He did
go to His Father, and they were to see Him no more.
Never did a friend to a friend, or a parent to his children
speak more affectionately, or give more solid comfort at
separating, than He did when separating Himself from
His Apostles. And bravely and joyfully did the Apostles
bear the separation. And after they had seen Him start
from Mount Olivet upon His journey to Heaven, they
returned into Jerusalem with great joy. (Luke xxiv. 52.)
Why did they rejoice, and how could they rejoice after
such a parting ? It was because they were full of faith,
and of hope, and of love. There was no selfishness about
them, and therefore they rejoiced. They thought not
about themselves, or there might have been much reason
for sorrow at their state of desolation. Christ, the light
of their eyes, had been taken from them. And they
thought of Him and of His cause. They remembered
what sacrifices He had made for that cause, and they
were ready to make the same. And, therefore, they
went back into Jerusalem, determined to enter upon
their work with spirit, and to prepare for it with a great
heart and a willing soul. (2 Mac. i. 3.)

152 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
Their Blessed Lord had provided that their work was
not to come suddenly upon them. They were to have
time for preparation. An immense help was promised to
them, with which they were to be strong enough for their
task, and were sure of success. They were to go back
from the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem, and were to
wait patiently in prayer until the promise was fulfilled.
Weak and unready for their gigantic labour as they had
proved themselves up to that time, something was to
happen to them, which was totally to transform them.
Stay you in the city, our dear Lord said to them, until you
be endued with power from on high. And they did so.
They remained in prayer with Mary, the Mother of
Jesus; and you know how their obedience, and prayer,
and expectation were rewarded. The glory of Pentecost
is never to be forgotten ; and the power which upon that
day came down upon the Church has never been lost, but
as it supported the Apostles, so has it continued to sup
port all that have succeeded to their labours, and will
continue to support all, even to the end of time.
We are now close upon the eve of the Council, and
every Catholic heart is feeling itself to be drawn towards
that glorious assemblage of the Church, in which, in the
person of our respective Prelates, each one of us will find
himself to be present in some measure. We feel to be
almost in exile, in not being bodily present to share in
the glory of such a work. And just as the Prophet
Daniel, in the days of his absence from Jerusalem and
the Temple which he loved so well, used, in all his
prayers to turn himself in the direction of that Temple,
in order to pray with the greater love and fervour, so are
we inclined, although with the Blessed Sacrament in our

LECTURE IX.. 153
own beautiful Church, we have all that we can really
desire, to turn ourselves in the direction of the favoured
city, which the Holy Spirit is so soon to visit with His
lights and graces, and then to make known our peti
tions to our God.
And as we imagine ourselves to be staying in that city,
which, in the Christian world, is the city, as was Jeru
salem the city favoured and exalted in the olden time, we
feel ourselves buoyed up with hope, and, with a kind of
instinct, enter into the work of preparation. Every im
portant work requires preparation. As the wise man
tells us that to commence prayer without preparation,
is acting like a man who is tempting God, so do we see
the necessity of previous preparation upon the part of
man, when he is about to perform any of those acts in
which it pleases Almighty God to be using him as an
instrument and a secondary cause. On this same prin
ciple, the Church does not allow her greater Festivals
to come suddenly upon us, and to find us unprepared,
but by the institution of the vigil of a feast, she secures
previous thoughtfulness, and the putting on of the spirit
most in harmony with the occasion. The whole time of
the Old Law, indeed, was a time of preparation for the
New, as the Church so often suggests to us in this holy
and acceptable time of Advent, with its four weeks sym
bolical of the four thousand years during which the
world was sighing for its Redeemer, and calling upon
the heavens to drop down dew from above, and the
clouds to rain down the Just One. And as the great
event of the Incarnation was nearer to its accomplish
ment, we find the work of preparation more earnest
and active. The Precursor is born, and is sent, as his

154 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
father Zachary declares in his Canticle, to go before
the face of the Lord in order to prepare His ways.
And when our Lord, having come to His own, though
as yet unrecognized, is about to commence His mis
sionary work, and to inaugurate" the powers and Sacra
ments of the New Law, the same Precursor also goes
before Him as a preacher, the voice of one crying in the
desert: Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight His
paths. More than this, we see how the work of preparation
was hallowed and placed in prominent importance by the
conduct of our Blessed Lord in His own personal acts.
Having prepared for His Birth by forming the perfection
of His Immaculate Mother, He becomes incarnate by the
Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and is made Man. And
though He desires earnestly to run His course like tho
giant, and to go out upon His work of teaching and
gaining souls, as we see from the one recorded act of
His boyhood, the finding in the Temple among the
doctors, yet He makes almost the whole of His life one
of preparation, and at the age of thirty enters upon His
three years' career of outward labour. As far as His
Apostles and His Church were concerned, even those
three years had but a preparatory object. It was then,
indeed, that we were redeemed, and that the Church wass
founded ; but yet the first founders of the Church, under
Himself — for the Church is built on the foundation of
the Apostles — were not to have their full powers, nor to
enter upon their course, until they had been prepared
and tutored under His superintendence. And well do
we know, from reading their history in the Gospel, how
much they needed that preparation and course of train-

LECTURE IX. 155
ing. Even His Death, and His Resurrection and Ascen
sion which followed, did not complete the work, but
preparation was still needed. The Church was not to
be perfected until the Holy Spirit had come down upon
it, and this was not to be immediately after the Ascen
sion. The Holy Spirit had been promised over and over
again, and the Apostles might well sigh for His coming
to perfect them with His gifts, and then enable them to
go out boldly and fervently upon their noble task. But
what was to be the case ? The order is given to them to
suspend all active work for a time, and to go on with
their preparation. Stay you in the city, till you be endued
with power from on high. And for nine whole days after
the Ascension did they wait in prayer and patience with
Mary, the Mother of Jesus. Beautifully does St. Bona-
venture describe how the nine Choirs of Angels, upon
those nine intervening days, busied themselves in pre
paring the Apostles, each Choir of the heavenly hierarchy
taking one day under its care in fitting them for their
holy duty. And because they had been so obedient and
fervent in the work of preparation, therefore, when the
Holy Spirit came upon them upon the tenth day, He
found them ready to receive His gifts, and filled them
with Himself. They were all filled with the Holy Ghost,
and they began to speak.
For the great event which is now on the eve of its
accomplishment, a similar preparation has been, made
throughout the world. Whilst the Bishops are travelling
towards the city, and remaining in it, they and their
flocks have been engaged in preliminary prayer. We
have been celebrating that Novena, or nine days' devo
tion, in preparation for the grand Festival of the

156 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
Immaculate Conception, upon which the Council is
to commence its labours, and upon which we know
that the Holy Spirit will come down upon the assembled
Fathers, successors of the Apostles, and by His Presence
enable them to begin to speak, and to make declarations
of truth in opposition to "whatever errors they will be in
spired to denounce. How many thousands and thou
sands of invocations of the Holy Spirit have been made
throughout the whole globe during the period of prepa
ration ! And when, upon that great opening day, thou
sands will, in the glorious Vatican Basilica, again call for
a renewal of the blessings of Pentecost, those blessings
will not be withheld, but the tribunal will be made infal
lible, and the universe, which has been praying, will wait
in a spirit of submissive expectation for the decisions
which will be arrived at by the Holy Ghost and those
whom He will have inspired.
The preparatory acts of a General Council always
important as they must be, from what we have seen, are,
in the instance of the present Council, of peculiar inte
rest and importance. These preparatory acts may be
divided into two general classes : some are more remotely,
others more immediately, connected with the Council. We
will say a few words upon both of these classes. The
terms really explain themselves. The remote acts are
those which are performed some time before the opening
of a Council; the immediate acts of preparation are
those which more closely precede it.
The first remote act of preparation is that which is
connected with the authoritative summoning of the
Council. It is that which is called the Bull of Indiction,
or Convocation. This Bull, or solemn Pontifical Letter,

LECTURE IX. 157
ordering all the Bishops, under holy obedience, and under
the obligation of the oath which each Bishop takes at his
consecration, is always issued by the Pope, to whom
alone it belongs, to summon an Oecumenical Council, at
such an interval before the Council, as to give due time
to Bishops at great distances from the place of assem
blage, to make the necessary arrangements for leaving
their'dioceses, and to come prepared for the work of the
Council. In the present instance, the stages in the act
of summoning the Council have been these. In the
month of June, 1867, on the occasion of the gathering
of a great number of Bishops in Rome, for the eighteenth
centenary of the martyrdom of SS. Peter and Paul, one-
half of the Episcopate of the world being present, the
Holy Father intimated to them the expediency of an
Oecumenical Council, and expressed his intention of sum
moning one. In an address to the Pope, on that same
occasion, the Bishops unanimously, and in fervent terms
encouraged the Holy Father to carry out his resolution,
and assured him how joyfully, and with what entire
obedience, they would obey his summons. On the 29th
of June, in the following year, 1868, the formal summons
was issued, naming the place, the Vatican Basilica, in
Rome, and the day, the Feast of the Immaculate Concep
tion, the 8th of December, 1869 ; and thus more than a
year's notice was given, in order that to those living at
the greatest distance due time for preparation might be
allowed. This is the first remote preparatory act.
The second, which accompanies the first, is fixing
the place in which the Council is to be held. The
Council is to take its name from the place where it
sits, and thus an everlasting remembrance is to be

158 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
attached to it. Sometimes the Council is named merely
from the city in which it is held, as is the case in most
instances ; sometimes from the Church, as has been the
case with the (Ecumenical Councils held in Rome, called
the Lateran Councils, because they sat in the ancient
Basilica of St. John Lateran. The present, which is also
to assemble in Rome, is called the Vatican Council, be
cause its place of assemblage is the glorious Basilica of
St. Peter, on the Vatican. The eight earlier Oecumenical
Councils, as the matter considered in them particularly
concerned the East, were held in that part of the globe.
The ten later ones, which have, mostly had matters of
Discipline to consider, have been held in the West ; for
the East, after the schism of Photius, the Patriarch of
Constantinople, and his heresy against the Hojy Ghost,
sacrificed its claim as the place of assemblage for these
majestic gatherings of the Episcopate. One-half of the
Oecumenical Councils of the East, four out of eight, were
held in the capital of the East, Constantinople. One-half
of the Oecumenical Councils of the West, five out of ten,
have been held in the Catholic capital Rome, and now a
sixth is to be held there. It is obviously the fitting place
for such a meeting, and the place in which all the later
Councils would have been held, except for some obstacle
which prevented them. It was the place first suggested
and intended for the Council of Trent, but the disturbed
state of affairs made it out of the question afterwards.
The five Councils which had sat in the Lateran, had not
the opportunity which is now afforded by the splendid
Vatican Basilica, which has been completed only since
the Council of Trent. And the fact of this noble
Church standing upon the spot of the Basilica commenced

LECTURE IX. 159
by the Emperor Constantine, in the year of our Lord
325, the year of the Council of Nicaea, associates the
first with the present Oecumenical Council, and may
not unaptly be considered as symbolical of the spirit
which will animate this Council, which will again defend
the Divinity of our Lord, and the truth of His doctrines
against the actual assailants of the Church. In this
same Church also exists the shrine of the Apostles
Saints Peter and Paul ; and we may well conceive how
their brave and undaunted spirit will influence the Fathers
assembled in defence of the cause which they maintained
with such zeal against the world. We shall find St.
Peter again ruling in the Head of the Church, and St.
Paul vigorously^ acting in the members of the Council.
The place, once fixed for the holding of this Council,
has never been changed, and is now in readiness to
receive its illustrious guests.
Together with fixing the place of the Council, is asso
ciated another preparatory act, that of fixing its time.
Here, again, is a fitness which must be admitted to be
quite in accordance with all our sympathies. The festival
of the Immaculate Conception is a day of very special joy
to the Church in the time of the present Pontificate. The
question, which had not before been dogmatically decided,
has been defined by our present Holy Father ; and on the
fifteenth anniversary of the dogmatical definition, on the
festival itself, that which may be considered, in the ordi
nary ways of Providence, as the closing glory of a Ponti
ficate more than usually celebrated, is to be solemnized —
the opening of the Oecumenical Council, placed under the
especial guardianship of Mary conceived Immaculate.
The spirit of the glorious old Council of Ephesus must

160 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
be about the present Council also, and we may be quite
sure that a patronage so powerful will not be wanting to
it. What is wonderful, and what shows that the hand of
God is with the Council, is the fact that the time, the very
day, fixed originally has never been interfered with, and
during this week we are to see the accomplishment
of a fact determined upon so long ago. Many Councils
have been greatly impeded just at the time in which they
were to assemble, and the most noted amongst those
which have thus suffered and been affected, is the Coun
cil of Trent. This Council was some fifteen years in pre
paration, besides sitting for eighteen years. And though
the day originally fixed for the Council of the Vatican has
never been changed, we are not to suppose that the interval
has been one of repose for the Church militant. We have
seen that the Bull of Indiction or Convocation was issued
in June, 1868, and at that time, the 8th of December,
1869, was appointed as the opening day. And the day
has never been changed. Nor has it been a time of peace
as far as the holy City of Rome is concerned. What
Catholic can forget the Taattle of Mentana, and the igno
minious defeat upon that day of the insolent, but, as they
then proved themselves to be, cowardly assailants of the
Holy See? And that battle, in defence of Rome, took
place on the 3rd of November, 1868, a little more than
four months after the Bull of Indiction had been pub
lished. It is well known how, at the time of the attack
then made upon the Pope's dominions, it was intended to
inundate Rome with the blood of the Pope, and Cardinals,
and Clergy, and that the world in its battle against the
Church was to prove how it could prevent the assembling
of the Council in contemplation. It was again the chal-

LECTUBE IX. 161
lenge of the Philistines against Israel. And a huge Go
liath was put forward as the champion of the enemies of
the Church, exaggerated in the mind of a too credulous
world into the proportions of a giant, and with great
boasting defied the followers of the Holy Father to defend
themselves against his unequalled power. There went out
a man base-born — I am quoting, my dear brethren, from
the first Book of Kings — from the camp of the Philistines,
named Goliath . . . and he had a helmet of brass upon
his head . . and he had greaves of brass on his legs,
and a buckler of brass covered his shoulders 
And standing he cried out to the bands of Israel, and said
to them : Why are you come out prepared to fight ? Am not
I a Philistine, and you the servants of Saul ? Choose out a
man of you, and let him come down to fight hand to hand.
(1 Kings xvii.) But fortunately the spirit of David was
not wanting to the people of God, and against this arro
gant and profane scoffer of everything holy, many a
young brave volunteer went out, and on the glorious day
of Montana drove back the boaster. His war-cry had
been " Rome or Death." The gallant defenders of the
cause of God, amongst them some of our young English
Catholics, prevented the former of these alternatives. It
was not bravery that averted the latter. And now where
is that man whom even England one day welcomed as a
hero ? In a little out-of-the-way island, he remains in a
well-deserved contempt; and the Pope whom he attacked
is surrounded by the flower of the Episcopate of the
world. His wish has been carried out; his command
has been obeyed; and the Oecumenical Council is as
sembling in the Vatican.
One more among the remote acts of preparation to which
M

162 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
we will for a moment attend, is the declaring of the cause
which is to form the chief matter for deliberation in the
Council. This is always suggested in the Bull of Indic
tion. The Syllabus of condemned errors in 1864 gave a
sufficient intimation of the matter supplied by the enemies
of the Church for the deliberation of the Council; and the
Holy Father, in his letter commanding the attendance
of the Bishops, states what is to be their work when
gathered, with him, under the presidency of the Holy
Spirit. " It is well seen and understood by all," he says
to them, " by how fearful a tempest the Church is at this
time shaken, and with what great evils society itself is
afflicted. Bythe most bitter enemies of God and men, the
Catholic Church and her salutary doctrine and venerable
power, and the supreme authority of this Holy See have
been oppressed and trodden under foot, and all sacred
things despised, and ecclesiastical possessions plun
dered ; bishops, and most excellent men devoted to
the divine ministry, and men remarkable for their
Catholic spirit, in every way harassed ; religious houses
overthrown, and impious books of every kind, and pesti
lential journals, and most pernicious many-shaped sects
everywhere spread abroad; and the education of un
happy youth almost everywhere taken away from the
clergy ; and, what is worse, in no few places committed
to the teachers of iniquity and error. Hence, to our own
extreme grief and that of all good men, and to a most
deplorable loss of souls, everywhere impiety has been so
propagated, and corruption of morals also, and unbridled
licence, and the contagion of evil opinions of every kind,
and of all vices and depravities, and violation of doctrine
and human laws, that not only our most holy religion,

LECTURE IX. 163
but human society also, is miserably disturbed and
harassed." Oppressed, therefore, as the Holy Father
feels himself to be by such calamities, he determines to
draw around himself, both for his own consolation and
for the defence of the Church, and moreover for the
good of society which is also under his care, as the first
duty of society is its duty to God and religion, the
Bishops who are appointed under him, to rule the flock
which is entrusted to them.
There is somewhat of a striking coincidence between
the present Council, and the one which has immediately
preceded it, the Council of Trent, that both of these
Councils opened at the same period of the Ecclesiastical
¦year. The present Council is to open on the 8th of De
cember : the Council of Trent held its inaugural meeting
on the 13th of December, 1545. But a fortnight before
its opening, on the first Sunday of Advent, when many
Bishops had already arrived in Trent, and the work of
preparation was going actively forward, Father Dominic
Soto, an illustrious Dominican theologian, who was
present, preached before the Fathers who were then as
sembled, and took for his subject the Gospel of the Sun
day, which gives an account of the future general judg
ment of the world upon the last day. " This last judg
ment," he well said, " may truly be called an Oecumenical
and Universal Council, but it is one which will not have
to meet with all the obstacles and delays which have been
in the way of the Council now assembling. In what
state," he continued, " may we not now find the Church
for which Jesus Christ shed His Precious Blood, and laid
down His life ? The sun, the spiritual power, seems to
refuse to give its light. The moon, the temporal power,
m 2

164 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
is turned into blood by such prevailing wars : the stars,
the saints, are falling upon the ground, for their images
are desecrated and trodden under foot. It is therefore time
for us to arise from sleep, and to avert the justice of God."
The evils which that good father deplored, do not, we
hope, all of them, exist now ; but some of them are cer
tainly crying out for remedy ; and the Holy Father has
given the voice of warning. The evils which exist in the
world are too prominent to be ignored, and they must be
opposed and averted ; the alarm is given, the Church is
put upon her defence, and therefore it is that the Oecu
menical Council has been convoked.
Among the acts of preparation which more immediately
precede the Council, we may first of all name the gather
ing together of the Bishops. The Bull of Indiction, which
commands each Bishop to attend, is cheerfully obeyed,
and serves as a test of union with the Holy See. Each
Bishop at his consecration, in the oath which he then
takes, promises that when cited to a synod, he will obey
the summons, unless prevented by any canonical impedi
ment.* Such impediments of course, as age, infirmity,
accidental works of importance in their dioceses, a dis
turbed state of the country, and others such, will always
be existing to prevent the attendance of some. But out
of the whole Episcopate of the world, amounting at pre
sent to about one thousand, scarcely two hundred, it is
estimated, will be absent from the present Council. And
as we read the titles of those already arrived in Rome,
we are quite reminded of the Day of Pentecost, when
devout men of every nation under the sun had assem-
* Vocaius ad synodum, veniam, nisiprwpeditus fuero Canonica pr&gcditione. (Bon.
tificale Romanum.)

LECTURE IX. 165
bled in Jerusalem. Not only every nation in Europe,
but America, both North and South, in great numbers,
Asia, Africa, and our Antipodes in Australia send their
Fathers to unite with the Holy Father of the faithful in
prayer and deliberation for the good of the Church. And
on all sides, at the departure of the Bishops, we find
affectionate tributes manifested by their flocks. Whole
populations have, in some instances, poured out to bid
them Godspeed, but nowhere, perhaps, has the fervour of
the people shown in itself, more than in free, republican
America, as we have before had occasion to observe. It
is the first Oecumenical Council in which North America
has had an oportunity of being represented, and every
single Bishop is said to have started for the good work,
with the exception of one who remains to perform Epis
copal functions which may be called for during the sitting
of the Council.
Another act of immediate preparation is Prayer. This,
which was practised so fervently and constantly by the
Apostles in the interval after the Ascension, when they
were staying in the city, until they were endued with
power from on high, has been imposed as a duty upon
every one of us for some months past, ever since the
formal announcement of the Jubilee published in the
course of the summer of this year. In the address made to
the faithful of the whole world, through their Bishops, of
the Jubilee, which was to commence with the month of
June, and is to continue till the completion of the Council,
the Holy Father declared that he was himself ever mak
ing it an intention in his own prayers, that that Wisdom
which sits beside the Throne of God would be with him,
and work with him ; but in order that God might the

166 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
more readily grant what was prayed for, he begged all to
unite their prayers with his own ; and as prayer from a
pure and sinless heart is most acceptable, he took the
step most efficacious towards securing a penitential spirit
in his children, and granted an indulgence in form of a
Jubilee. Gladly have very many amongst you already
gained this privilege, and joined in the solemn Triduum
which had been ordered for the same end. Each day has
the Holy Spirit been invoked in the Holy Sacrifice, and
in your own private prayers ; and as the time has drawn
more closely upon us, you have been joining in the
Novena, or nine days' devotion, preparatory for the Festi
val upon which the great work is to be inaugurated. The
whole Church which prayed so anxiously for Peter when
in prison, and by prayer gained his wonderful liberation
by the Angel, has thus been supplicating for this one
object, and such prayers must be heard. And to prayer
is attached also the companion work of Fasting ; and
what Almighty God commanded through the Prophet Joel,
in order to obtain grace and mercy, has been very literally
followed. Sanctify ye a fast, call an assembly, gather
together the ancients. . . .into the house of your God, and
cry ye to the Lord. (Joel i. 14.) In the holy City of Rome,
therefore, the eve of the opening of the Council, as was
the case in Trent, has been announced as a day of strict
fast. To prayer is added, especially on the part of the
Fathers of the Council, the work of previous study, as
an act of immediate preparation for the Council.
Already for many months past a body of theologians
from various parts of the world had been summoned to
Rome to draw up the necessary preliminaries, and to

LECTURE IX. 167
have ready the voice of Sacred Scripture and tradition,
upon the matters which the Holy Father especially
desires to be submitted for deliberation and decision.
The Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of Wisdom, enlightens
the minds of the Bishops, but at the same time requires
upon their part that previous preparation which is im
plied in the proverbial advice, to aid ourselves in order
to secure aid from God. In many of the previous Coun
cils of the Church have been manifested the grandest
efforts of the human mind. What St. Athanasius did at
Nicaea in the arguments he adduced against Arianism,
and St. Cyril at Ephesus, in the one hundred and ninety-
eight arguments grounded on Sacred Scripture against
Nestorianism, other theologians, such as Laynez and
Salmeron, did at Trent. The letters, which many Bishops
have already published on the present Council, show that
there will not be wanting in the Council of the Vatican a
display of learning not unworthy of previous occasions ;
and however much the world may boast of its enlighten
ment and progress, it will find itself greatly outmatched
in the defence made against its assaults in the war now
about to be declared. Each Bishop brings with him the
tradition of his own diocese. He comes, well aware of
the difficulties to be surmounted, and well supplied with
prudent suggestions and practical advice upon the ques
tions at issue. No precipitate judgment upon any matter
therefore, can be arrived at. The comparison will be
made of many various experiences ; counsel will be asked
from and given by those best suited to give it, and there
can be then no room for regret at any decisions arrived
at and acted upon; for so says the Wise Man: My son,
do thou nothing without counsel, and thou shalt not repent

168 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
when thou hast done. (Eccles. xxxiii. 24.) If it be asked,
as it has been with some kind of profanity, what need
there can be of previous prayer and study in order to
secure an infallible decision from a Council, which is sup
posed, from its very nature, to be infallible, we find our
best answer in the text with which we started. Our
Blessed Lord promised and repeatedly assured His
Apostles, that when He returned to His Father He would
send down upon them the Holy Spirit, and that this
Spirit of Truth would guide them into all truth, and
would strengthen them in their struggle against the
world. Therefore it was quite certain that they were to
be endued with power from on high, but still they re
mained in the city, preparing themselves, that they might
be worthy of the great gift that was in store for them.
So even our Blessed Lord prayed for Himself, though He
was full of grace and truth ; for we are never to tempt
God by making ourselves unworthy of His graces, but
must always endeavour by prayer and preparation to
make grace abound in us more and more.
The Holy Father has already intimated another pre
paratory act of the Council, which has especial reference
to England. You may all of you have seen or heard of the
strange productions in the press, of a certain member of
one or other of the numerous sects, which are sheltered
in the Church which usually goes by the name of Pro
testant — a clergyman "from Scotland," as he has been
described by our Holy Father, in one of those letters in
which he shows that his watchfulness over the Church
allows him to condescend so low as even to notice this
self-constituted champion of the Protestant cause. And
you may remember how this champion, not believing in

LECTURE IX. 169
the Divine institution of Bishops, and not knowing the
Latin for a Priest,* wished to claim admission to the
Council, and pretended when there to overthrow, by his
superior Scriptural knowledge, that Church which is pro
tected against stronger attacks than his. And as the
Holy Father in a letter to the Primate of the Catholic
Hierarchy in England, stated that no admission could be
granted to such an aspirant, and that questions already
closed could not be allowed to be opened again, yet fear
ing that his message might be misunderstood, and that
it might be thought that there was no possibility what
ever for Anglicans who had difficulties to propose, having
a patient consideration shown to them, has appointed
beforehand a special commission to attend to any petitions
forwarded from members of the separated congregations
in England, and assures all of them with what affection
he, as the Father of the faithful, will receive those who
wish to enter into communion with the Church Catholic.f
England certainly owes, in the spiritual order, everything
to Rome. It was Rome that in very early times, in the days
of our British ancestors, sent missioners to labour here,
when the Pope, St. Eleutherius, in the year of our Lordl83,
assented to the request that was made to him by envoys
from Britain, and evangelised the country. It was Rome
that afterwards, some centuries later, sent St. Augustine
over, the founder of the Hierarchy which remained faith
ful till the days of the Reformation. It was Rome which
watched so anxiously over England in the days of trial
and persecution which attended upon that Reformation,
* He signs his name at the end of a letter, supposed to be in Latin, Joannes
Gumming, PresbyteWts.
t See Note C, at tbo end.

170 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
and which in our own times has reinstated the Hierarchy,
substituting Westminster for Canterbury. And now,
that many out of communion with Rome are yearning
for reunion, we find this same Holy See of Rome making
preliminary arrangements to remove obstacles, and to
encourage to a return any prodigal children who have
entered into themselves, and are willing to resolve to
arise and go to their Father, who is looking out eagerly
and affectionately for their return to unity. May God
grant that the Commission appointed may not be fruit
less, but may be the means of bringing many into the One
Fold of the One Shepherd !
But as an Oecumenical Council always has a defensive
work to perform, there is also a preparation going on upon
the part of those against whom the Church is placed upon
the defensive. There are certainly signs of very unwonted
activity in the camps of those opposed to us ; and all this
activity is evoked by the fact of the Council. Here again
the old truth is illustrated — that Protestantism would be
an impossibility only for the Catholic Church. If there
were no Catholic Church to protest against, Protestantism
could have nothing to do. Its work is but negative and
aggressive, and it presupposes the existence of the truth
which it denies, and of the body which it assails. The
protesting spirit of Pharisees implied the existence of the
sacred acts and lessons against which they were exerting
themselves, whilst they were constantly lying in wait to
entrap our Blessed Lord in His speech and His conduct.
We are therefore not surprised to see in our papers notices
of revival meetings, and earnest invitations to prayer
meetings, during the present crisis, as they style it.
High Church and Low Church, Dissenters, Presbyterians,

LECTURE IX. 171
even Unitarians, who can have no great love for Oecu
menical Councils if they have ever heard of the Council
of Nicaea, all these are combining their efforts, and trying
whether they cannot after all prove themselves too strong
for the prophecy which has declared, that the gates of hell
shall never prevail against the Church. For our Blessed
Lord certainly did say, when He spoke to St. Peter, that
against the Church built upon him those gates never
should prevail. Unconsciously, for a long time past, all
these enemies of the Church have been preparing matter
for the Council; and now when they discover that the
watchful eye of the Church has found out their plans, and
that a defence is to be organised against them, they be
come unusually active and zealous. You will find all
through the Gospel, that when our Blessed Lord per
formed a miracle, or declared a truth of unusual import
ance, the resisting power of the Pharisees became dis
played with more than usual zeal. If He cures a poor
palsied man, after having first absolved him from his
sins, they cry out in virtuous indignation : Who can for
give sins, but God alone ? If He foretels the Real Pre
sence of Himself which was to be one day perpetuated in
the Blessed Eucharist, they cry out in the same spirit :
How can this Man give us His Flesh to eat ? They profess
to be putting themselves upon the side of God, and yet
are attacking the very Son of God ; no wonder that some
pretend to be putting themselves upon the side of God,
and yet are attacking the Church of God. And as they
are vigorous in their attacks upon the Council, and in
the preparation which they are making against it, this
comes as an additional reason why we, children of the
Church, loyal and devoted as children ought- to be, must

172 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
take up her cause with the greater zeal, and in the con
flict which is going on, rank ourselves bravely and confi
dently upon the side of God.
Enter, then, with the Church upon the acts of prepara
tion, and feel, what is truly the case, that you are to take
a part in the noble work which will be inaugurated on the
happy Festival now so close upon us. The glory of God
has to be promoted against infidelity; the progress of
rehgion and faith against Rationalism ; the necessity and
the dignity of Divine worship has to be defended against
the spirit of Naturalism; morality and discipline are to
be insisted upon against sensuality and licentiousness;
the very peace and welfare of society have to be pro
tected against the unquiet and secret plans of Socialism ;
and the instruction and religious training of the young to
be guarded with all anxiety against those principles of
indifferentism and irreligion, which by one means or an
other the world is trying to insinuate into the rising
generation. Ought you not all to be proud to take a
share in such a cause ; and especially you, parents, ought
not you for the sake of your children, to do everything to
avert the spiritual Massacre of the Innocents, that you
yourselves may not have to join in the anguish of Rachel,
and lament overthe loss of souls so dear to you ?
Looking forward to the result of the noble work now
on the eve of its commencement, we can, and we must be
filled with cheerful confidence. Depend upon it, it is an
inauguration from which good will follow, and we are all
anxious to have a share in the victory which must be
achieved. Come, then, especially on the morning of
Wednesday next, and join then in spirit in the grand
ceremonial of the opening of the Council of the Vatican.

LECTURE IX. 173"
More hearts than bodies will on that morning be present
in that glorious Basilica, taking part in the good and
holy act by which that day will be held in everlasting
memory; and in addition to the fifty thousand voices
which will then take up the chant of the Veni Creator
and the Te Deum, fifty millions and more will be invok
ing the same Holy Spirit and joining in the same hymn
of thanksgiving and praise. In the presence of the
Blessed Sacrament, and in the Holy Sacrifice of the
Mass, which will be coincident with a portion of their
ceremonial, and in Holy Communion, we shall be equally
happy and blessed, and have essentially as true an object
to dwell upon in our fervent prayers, as those who may
accidentally be more privileged than ourselves. And
when in answer to so many invocations, and in reward of
such earnest preparation, the Holy Spirit will descend
upon the Holy Father and his fellow-counsellors — the
spirit of union, of wisdom, of strength, and of love — we
may be sure that these Apostles will be again endued
with power from on high, and will be the means of secur
ing the blessings for which in this Advent time we are
all preparing : Glory to God and peace to man.

LECTURE X.
THE COUNCIL AT WORK. WHAT THE COUNCIL IS ACTUALLY
DOING.
Rejoice always in the Lord : again, I say, rejoice. — Phil. iv. 4.
It was in these words of the holy Apostle St. Paul,
brought before us by the Church in the Epistle of this,
the third Sunday of Advent, that on the opening day of
the Council of Trent, on the 13th day of December, 1545,
the Bishop who preached the inaugural sermon, welcomed
the Fathers who were then assembled. " Rejoice, my
Fathers," he said, " rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice you, my
brethren ; and again I say rejoice, all of you. For the
acceptable time has now arrived, and the opening of this
Council, so long delayed, has at length, by the blessing of
God, been brought into reality."* But to us the words
are applicable with fuller force. We have greater reason
to rejoice, because the great event once determined
upon, notwithstanding the criticism and opposition of an
adverse world has never been delayed. Every obstacle
has sunk away, and the event has come happily to pass.
For two years and more, there has been an expectation,
that in resistance to the attacks made upon God and His
Church, and His Vicar upon earth, the whole Episcopate
of the world would combine, and defend the cause en
trusted to them. The world has been using its old accus-
* Labbe, vol. xiv. p. 990.

LECTURE X. 175
tomed weapons of its own wisdom : it has threatened, it
has ridiculed, it has prophesied ; but in spite of all its
opposition and endeavours, the event has come to pass,
and the grandest event to which perhaps the world has
ever witnessed, has come to pass. And now there are
gathered together eight hundred Prelates of the Catholic
Church, who are proving to the universe that Almighty
God knows how to fight His own battles, and to bring to
nought the plans that are contrived against Him. It is
written : There is no wisdom, there is no prudence, there is
no counsel against the Lord (Prov. xxi. 30) ; and the
world so far stands condemned and confuted : the Holy
Spirit has succeeded and has brought together those
whom He Himself has appointed to do His work upon
earth. Let us, therefore, rejoice; for God has con
quered. We are this evening considering, for the tenth time,
the great event of the Council ; and if it was with a
certain amount of hesitation and timidity that I first
entered upon our task — not because of the work, but
because of my inequality to it — my fear is now of an
other kind. I feel that I am under the influence of a
joy and an enthusiasm which is pervading the whole
Catholic Church, and there is required an effort to con
trol the feelings by which we are animated ; for there
is a spirit of triumph prevailing throughout the whole
Church in connexion with the great and holy event
which has been accomplished, and with the good and
useful labours which have now commenced. And you,
and I, and all of us, may well rejoice, because the cause
of God and of His Holy Church is now in a state of
triumph. We see it through the signs of joy manifested

176 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
in the City of Rome upon Wednesday last, and can almost
imagine that we hear the clanging of the bells, and the
thunder of the cannon, announcing to the world that the
Vatican Council has been opened. We see it in the full
attendance at Mass and Holy Communion, which we are
assured from every quarter marked the morning of that
glorious Festival. We see it in the angry spirit which
has revealed the feelings of confusion and humiliation
upon the part of the enemies of the Church. Press
and Pulpit have been active in this manifestation,
and have justified the question of the Psalmist : Why
have the Gentiles raged, and the people meditated vain
things . . . against the Lord, and against His Anointed
One ?
The Council has now commenced its work, and there
are many questions asked as to what the Council is doing.
The time of preparation has passed. The Bull of Indic
tion has been before the world for more than a year. It
has been obeyed ; and, as a fact, the Council really has
come into existence. But what is it doing ? Now that
the great and important fact has come to pass, what is to
come of it ? What is the Council doing ? Have all these
Bishops, from every quarter of the globe, come together
merely for nothing — to show their servility to a power
which they acknowledge to be over them ? Or have they
come together to do anything ? And if so, what ?
Therefore again the question is asked : What is the
Council doing ? I may answer this question in two
ways. To those who would ask it in a scoffing, and criti
cizing tone, and in a spirit of worldly boasting, I must
answer it in one way. To those who, as good and faith
ful children of the Church, interested in every movement

LECTURE X. 177
which concerns her and the good cause entrusted to her,
I may answer it in another and a fuller manner.
When, therefore, the world, in a tone of ridicule, asks,
according to its wont, what the Council is doing, I may
answer, as a good Christian answered a question asked in
a similar spirit in the days of Julian the Apostate. The
reign, short but severely trying, of that emperor was one
of unusually alarming anxiety to the Church. Forty
years had elapsed since the time of the Emperor Constan-
tine and the first General Council of Nicaea. There now
succeeded to the empire, Julian, who was destined, in the
mysterious ways of Divine Providence, to be a severe
trial to the Church. He found the laws of Christian
morality to be too strict for his notions and tenden
cies, and therefore he gave up the faith and gained the
name, by which he has always been known, of the
Apostate. He became also a violent persecutor of the
Church, encouraged the Arians in their heresy, and
adopted that kind of argument against religion, which,
in default of any other, is often considered very power
ful, namely, ridicule. The mode of life followed by
our Blessed Redeemer, who came into the world poor
and humble, and lived amongst the simple and the
rejected of the world, was especially an object of his
satire. Among his favourites was the philosopher
Libanius, who courted the favour of his master by
joining in his attacks and his railleries against the
Christians. This philosopher, meeting one day in
Antioch a pious Christian preceptor, asked him in a
scoffing tone: "Well! and what is the Carpenter's
Son doing now?" But he received an answer that
he little expected, a prophetical answer which was soon
N

178 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
but too awfully verified. " He is engaged at present,"
was the reply, "in making a coffin for the emperor's
funeral." And the coffin was wanted, for the next day
the apostate emperor fell in battle and died miserably.*
And when in this same tone of ridicule, the self-willed
world which cannot brook the dictates of a Council,
assembled for the cause of God and His Church, asks
what the Council is doing, we can answer that it is pre
paring to bury all the iniquitous principles which are
now-a-days being acted upon in so many nations of the
globe. But to those, such as you, my dear brethren, who ask
the question, what the Council is doing now that it is at
work, in a spirit of interesting inquiry, and for the sake
of an information which you are desirous to acquire,
because it concerns all that is dearest to you, I will en
deavour to answer the question in such a manner as to
satisfy your demands, and to enable you to give some
instruction to others who may put the question to you.
The Council is now doing its goodly work in a double
way. It is doing it passively and actively. I will
explain what I mean.
The Council is doing its work passively, but effectually,
in the mere fact of its having assembled. As yet it has
made no decrees, it has not commenced to anathematize
any errors, it has not made its profession of Faith. But
there it is in existence, like an army drawn up in battle
array, asserting by its very presence that it is ready for
its work, and that it defies all opposition, inasmuch as it
has Almighty God upon its side, and it is for His cause
* Theodoret Hist. Eccl. Book iii. chap, xviii. Apud Darras Histoire de 1'Eglise
vol. x. p. 161.

LECTURE X. 179
that it has been brought together. The world has an op
portunity of now seeing its own short-sightedness, and its
impotency against the Church. Its ill-boding prophecies,
its efforts of intimidation, its past declarations of impossi
bility, and its present manifestations of uneasiness at see
ing the Council really in existence, are evidences against
it, and in favour of the Council and the Church. All the
criticisms, the distortion of facts, the misrepresentations,
the imputation of unworthy motives, the attempts at ridi
cule which are found so prevalent in the untruthful and
unscrupulous leading organs of the press, all this really
opens men's eyes to the fact that the Church is succeed
ing, and that the world is mortified and angered at her
success. And yet the Council has not yet had occasion
to strike a single blow, or to utter a word. It has shown
itself in its majesty, and has confused its enemies.
For what is the fact, which the Council in its gathering
has proved and is illustrating? The Pope, claiming
power, as Head of the Church and successor of St. Peter,
has summoned men of authority from every quarter of
the globe, commending them by virtue of the obedience
which they owe him, to attend at a given place, on a
given day, and for a special purpose. The power has
been gladly, universally, and actively acknowledged and
obeyed, without a single' dissentient or protesting voice.
Those who have obeyed, and have come in person to
attend, have admitted that they came obediently as
fellow-members under one and the same Head. Those
who, through infirmity, or by just reasons of necessity,
have been unable to attend, admit by their asking
leave of absence, and stating their grounds for asking it,
that they unite in the same obedience, and acknowledge N 2

180 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
the same power. Here is a fact which the Council is pas
sively affirming in the mere reality of its existence.
And, now, as coolly and reasonably as possible, let us
try and account for the fact. There must be some mode
of accounting for it, for it is a fact, clear and palpable.
There must be a cause for it, either natural or super
natural. Is it merely a natural and human motive and
influence which bears upon all these men of such different
countries, with such a variety of national feelings and
prejudices, and which can succeed in thus drawing them
together. Remember, that those who have assembled,
very many of them having come from the greatest possible
distance, are not young men, in whom we might find a
spirit and love for adventure and change. They are,
most of them, from the very nature of their office, more
advanced in life, venerable, borne down, perhaps, with
the weight of cares at home in their dioceses, and
beyond the reach of a passing enthusiasm. One, the
Archbishop of Lima, asks exemption from attending,
having reached the patriarchal age of of ninety -four;
another has died upon his journey, broken down by fatigue
and old age. And of those who have arrived, and are
now doing their work in the Council, there are many
who have suffered, as St. Paul did in his labours for the
Gospel, perils by sea and perils by land, as if the very
elements would join in framing difficulties and obstacles
towards the accomplishment of the work of God. There is
nothing temporal to gain; but heavy expenses — not borne
now in most instances by the Governments of the nations
from which the Bishops have come — fall to the share of
those who have travelled to the Council. Is it possible,
then, to suggest any temporal or human motive which has

LECTURE X. 181
influenced them ? It is not a natural motive ; but a
supernatural power, even that of the Holy Spirit of Truth,
whose defenders and fellow-labourers are found in the
Catholic Episcopate, has drawn together into one spot,
those who even when separated in place, are united into
one body under one Head.
What else but an Oecumenical Council could succeed in
realising such a meeting ? Never before has the world
witnessed its equal, certainly in the number and diver
sity of nations now represented in the Holy City of
Rome. One Council, the second of Lateran, has exceeded
it in the number of Prelates attending, but none then
came, as they now do, from the very antipodes, and from
parts of the world at that time undiscovered or uncivil
ised. And all of these are coming to testify to the one
truth held uniformly throughout the globe, regarding the
Church and its supreme Head upon earth. We have been
assured that even our Holy Father himself has been as
tonished at the numbers that have attended. He expected
that some five hundred might have been able to join per
sonally in the work of the Council ; but the eagerness to
run to his assistance has been beyond his expectations,
and half as many again, and even more than that, have
gathered around him. It is, indeed, no mere local
question that is now in agitation. The whole world is
concerned equally and earnestly in the attacks directed
against a cause common to all, and felt as sensitively in
one nation as in another. And therefore it is that the
Church is now through the Council, showing her authority
in its fullest and most striking form. A Council may,
perhaps, not inappropriately be called a Sacramental
manifestation of the authority of the Church. There is

182 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
an outward sign of an inward reality. It is outward,
clearly appreciable, and undeniable in its reality; and
there is, beyond the possibility of question or denial, some
inward influencing principle which has brought it into
existence, and which gives efficacy to its operation. It
bears about it, therefore, an augury of its success ; and
we can clearly recognise the Hand of God in the work
which has been accomplished, and which in its mere
existence, before speaking a word, proves that in spite
of all opposition it must succeed.
In order to throw into a bolder relief, in this country
at least, the unanimous action of the Cathohc Episcopate,
and the notorious and shameful divisions and protesta
tions of those separated from us, the election, the con
firmation, and the consecration of a new Bishop, to a
vacant see in the Protestant Church in England has been
going on coincidently with the Oecumenical Council. On
the very morning of the magnificent ceremonial in Rome,
there was being enacted in a Church in London an event
of a very different description, one which, to those who
are not obstinately blind, must have given very clear evi
dence of the total want of union, and of anything hke
Catholic spirit in the form of religion, now established in
this kingdom. Eight hundred Bishops meet in Rome,
all in the strictest harmony upon every article of Faith :
one Bishop is to be consecrated in London, and there is
discord manifested on every side. One of his fellow-
bishops writes to try and convince him in "the tenderest
terms," that he has been conniving at infidelity, and has
made himself a responsible sharer in declarations against
Revelation. Another Bishop takes the lead in proceed
ings brought against the prelate-elect, at the time of his

LECTURE Xi 183
confirmation to the see to which the Prime Minister has
appointed him. But the legal representative of the
Primate of the Protestant Church declares that he has no
alternative but to pronounce in favour of the Elect, and
to confirm his election, because having been named to his
see by the Queen, the statute of Praemunire insists upon
his confirmation and consequent consecration. And thus
one who is tenderly told that he has been guilty of heresy
and infidelity must be placed in communion, in spite of
themselves, with other Bishops who charge him with these
faults. It must be done, the judge pronounces, because
the Sovereign wills it. Why, my dear brethren, we have
always thought that it was the Holy Spirit that presided
over the appointment of the Episcopate ; and it must be
so if St. Paul spoke truly when he thus declared to the
elders of Ephesus : Take heed to yourselves and to the
whole flock wherein the Holy Ghost hath placed you Bishops
to rule the Church of God. (Acts xx. 28.) What a con
trast is presented between the two scenes ! On one side we
find Unity and Catholicity : on the other discord and ser
vility to a merely human authority. Those who have de
scribed to us the grand Hall in the Vatican in which the
Council holds its sittings, have told us of the texts from
Sacred Scripture which surmout the entrance into it. Go
teach all nations. Behold I am with you all days, even to the
consummation of the world. There is a text which might
well be written over the tribunal, in which the Church of
England gives forth its utterances. I say it solemnly, my
dear brethren, for it was at a solemn time the words were
cried out. The text is this : We have no King but Co3sar.
Thus then is the Council doing its work, by showing
to the universe that there is such a reality as the Catholic

184 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
Church, and pointing out, in an unmistakable manner,
where that reality is to be found. God grant that many
may be drawn to acknowledge the claims of . such a
Church, and submit to its authority ! The very fact of
the Council being in existence is an occasion of grace,
and grace ought never to be resisted. But we must pass
on to our other answer to the question proposed, and
show the active work of the Council.
The world which cannot understand the ways of God,
nor the working of the Church of God, professes to be
astonished at thewant of wisdom and foresight which has
suggested the Council, and does not see the necessity of
such an assembly. But as the world is not in the secrets
of the Church, and certainly does not merit her confi
dence, we need not be astonished at its being left in the
dark upon this important matter. What was the use of
the Council, and now that it has assembled, what has it
to do ? This is the question, asked over and over again
by the organs of the world. If the meeting of the
Council is so harmless and unimportant an event, and if
it really can do nothing, why not leave it alone ? And
why is there so much uneasiness regarding it, and such
suspicious and criticizing inspection of its every move
ment, if it is simply a helpless and an impotent gathering
of feeble and uninfluential members ? The world would
much rather that matters should be allowed to go on as
they have been : all principles of truth and justice disre
garded : duties to God and religion despised and neg
lected : relations between man and man, and between
nation and nation, regulated not by maxims of eternal
justice, but by expediency and the will of the stronger
over the weaker. The world wants to have its own way

LECTURE X. 185
in all these matters, and wishes therefore to avert any pro
test upon the part of the Church, against wickedness which
is crying for remedy if not for vengeance. And, after all,
if any one ought to know what the active work of the
Council is to be, it is the world that ought to know it,
and which therefore need not really ask the question.
The world has cut out the work of the Council ; for I
have already had occasion to show you in our eighth lec
ture, that in the Council we find the Church assembled in
order to make a stand against the world.
There is, indeed, about the active work of the present
Council, a difficulty which has not existed in most of the
Councils which have preceded it. For in the history of
the past Councils we usually find that there was some
thing very definite to pronounce upon, and that the ques
tion for the Council was obvious and precise. When the
Apostles assembled at Jerusalem to consider this matter,
they had a special difficulty to deal with, and one clear
point to decide upon. When the first Council of Nicaea,
and the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon assembled,
the glorious Mystery of the Incarnation was the question
upon which to decide and to pronounce a definition.
Even in the last Council, that of Trent, there were many
articles of Faith that had been denied, and which the
Council had to defend ; but still there was something defi
nite in the denial, and an attempt to support the denial
by a reference to the revealed Word of God, as we can
see by the articles proposed in the Creed drawn up in
the Council, and promulgated by Pope Pius IV. But
the work of the Council now assembled is, not to explain
Revelation and to define truths contained in it, but it is
to defend Revelation itself against its numerous and

186

THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.

various assailants. It will have to labour at systematiz
ing a confused mass of declarations against Faith, Disci
pline, and Morality ; and then to put into something like
a definite form vague statements, which those who have
uttered and published them, have themselves been either
afraid, ashamed, or unable to express in terms which
can be grasped and openly dealt with. Error always loves
to assume the serpent form, but never more so than in
the attempts which it is making now-a-days, to gain men
from the truth and obedience to God. When, in their
future judgment, these poor souls, led away from the
path of duty by the influence brought to bear upon
them by the world, will be questioned why they went
against their conscience, and what they must have known
to be their duty, their only excuse will be that of our
Mother Eve, when she tried to mitigate her fault : The
serpent deceived me, and I disobeyed.
Against those vague and meaningless affirmations of
the world in favour of what it calls civilisation and pro
gress, words which it uses but cannot define, the Church
clearly sees what is her duty, and this is what the Coun
cil will have to maintain. The world finds Almighty God
in the way, and wants to dispense with Him. Laws of
justice are against what the world calls civilisation, and
they must be dispensed with and abrogated. Laws of
obedience are against what the world calls progress, and
they must be dispensed with and abrogated. Laws of
Faith in Revelation are against what the world dignifies
by the name of science, and these, too, must give way :
they must be dispensed with and abrogated. The Church
simply wishes to keep Almighty God in His own created
universe, and to give Him power and authority over His

LECTUEE X. 187
own creatures ; the world will not have His interference,
and wishes to drive Him out of His own dominions. It
has learnt to dethrone sovereigns upon earth ; and it is
wicked enough in its ambition to aim at dethroning the
Almighty. It is vying with the pride of Lucifer ; it says:
I will not serve. And the Church stands forward, as
St. Michael did, and takes his motto : Who is like unto
God? We can conceive, therefore, that into the active
work of the Council will enter the task of declaring to
the world, that there is no antagonism between Reason
and Revelation. Both deal with truth, and truth is one ;
both come from God, and God cannot contradict Him
self. He does not, and He cannot, teach one thing by
Reason, and its contradictory by Revelation. Strange
it may seem, but it is worthy of observation, that, the
Church, which admits both Reason and Revelation, sees,
and lovingly admits their harmony ; but the folly of the
world, which says in its heart, there is no God, denies
Revelation, and asserts a discord. That which admits
both sees the harmony, and defends it. That which
admits only one sees contradiction, and attacks what it
denies. Here, then, is where the world will be giving
work to the Council, and yet asks what will the Council
have to do.
To enter a little more definitely into the work of a
Council, we may observe that the Church always has this
threefold work, and that it will be actively engaged about
it in the Council. She has to protect, to defend, and,
when there is need, to attack. The Church has to pro
tect what is committed to her. The words of St. Paul,
so often cited, declare this duty : Take heed to yourselves
and to the whole flock, wherein the Holy Ghost hath placed

188 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
you Bishops, to rule the Church of God, which He hath pur
chased with His own Blood. Each Bishop has the pastoral
care of the diocese entrusted to him, and he has to exer
cise over it the office of the Good Shepherd. And when
all are united together in council, the whole Church is
gathered more compactly under their protecting care ;
and it is by the united experience afforded by such a
meeting of pastors that the flock is more surely sheltered,
and danger more effectually averted. The Church also
has to defend. The difference between protecting and
defending is this, that defending implies the presence of a
danger or an attack, against which the previous work of
protection has been substantially a safeguard, but yet
inadequate without a special effort of watchfulness and
zeal. The shepherd who has his flock always under pro
tection, exerts special means of defence when the enemy
is at hand. Both our Blessed Lord and St. Paul speak
about special times, when ravenous wolves will come and
attack, and try to ravage the flock : then is the time to
be on the defence. The Council now shows the Church
in such an attitude. And, though the world professes to
be scandalized at such a declaration, the Church has also,
in its proper season, the duty to attack. What is meant
by this ? The Israelites, in taking possession of the land
of promise, represent the Church in its work of propa
gating itself throughout the whole globe. They were to
march steadily forward, destroying the cities of those
who opposed them, and were to possess the land which
was destined for them by God, to whom belongeth the
earth and the fulness thereof. And so was it also with
the mission of Jeremias, who had to destroy as well as
to plant and to build. When, therefore, the Church, to

LECTURE X. 189
whom is committed the guardianship of the Faith, finds
it necessary to call down upon dangerous errors the
judgment and punishment of Almighty God, she declares
openly in her Councils that such errors, and those who
wilfully embrace them, are objects of hatred to God, and
deserve to be rejected by Him. This is done on the prin
ciple laid down by our Blessed Lord, that we cannot serve
two masters, but that we must love one and hate the
other, when such masters are opposed to each other, as
are God and the world. This is by no means the exer
cise of a new power on the part of the Church, as those
who resist her ordinances pretend sometimes to teach.
Hear what St. Paul says, in his zeal for the love and
truth of God : If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ,
let him be anathema (1 Cor. xvi. 22) ; and more directly
in defence of dogmatic authority on the part of teachers
authorized by God, he says : Though ive, or an angel from
heaven, preach a Gospel to you besides that which we have
preached to yon, let him be anathema. (Gal. i. 8.) And
in the early Councils, in which were defended the doc
trines of the Church upon the Mystery of the Incarnation
against Arians and Nestorians, and such like assailants,
the Fathers of Nicaea and Ephesus did not hesitate to
pronounce anathema, in the Canons of those Councils,
against all who refused to accept the Faith which they
had defined. And these are Councils, always remember,
to which the English Church is committed equally with
ourselves. What the Catholic Church always reminds us
is, that we cannot be one mind and heart with God unless
we love what He loves, and condemn what He condemns.
In the active work of the Council again, as it is a de
liberative assembly, every question that is brought before

190 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
it, just as in our own Parliament, is proposed, discussed,
and determined upon. Each question is to be duly pro
posed ; and as a Council affords a means of clearing up
difficulties, and suggesting and providing remedies for
evils which may arise in any quarter of the globe, each
Bishop has the opportunity of proposing his own ques
tions. His Holiness has already issued instructions
giving full liberty, and affording convenience to every
Bishop to propose what will be for the general good,
merely subjecting the proposal to the approval of a
previous committee, in order that every security may be
afforded that the time of the Council be not thrown
away, in considering questions which it would be un
necessary to discuss.
Questions which are proposed are also submitted to full
and free discussion. The questions are examined into,
and opinions are given freely upon every side, before the
matter is decided upon. Here is a point in which there
has been betrayed great ignorance, or a wilful misrepre
sentation of what the Council does in discussing a ques
tion. It is quite certain that in the Council of Jerusa
lem, after the matter in debate had been proposed, there
was much discussion upon the question at issue. And it
was only after much disputing, that the presiding judge,
St. Peter, closed the question, and all the multitude held
their peace. And we have also seen that although, in the
first Council of Nicaea, the heretical doctrine of Arius
that had to be condemned was so self-condemnatory as
to deserve immediate reprobation, yet the heresiarch was
patiently heard, and ample time given for full examina
tion of his teaching, before the Council pronounced its
anathemas. Those who will persist in attacking the

LECTURE X. 191
present Council seem not to understand the very obvious
fact that discussion before a judicial decision, and dis
sension afterwards are two very different things. And
when they see Catholic Bishops, with that liberty which
the Church always allows of discussing questions which
have not been defined, they only see difference, and ngt,
what is really- the case, a perfect unanimity in their readi
ness to be in perfect agreement immediately that the
defining voice closes the matter under consideration.
Discussion before a judgment is pronounced is construc
tive, and helps towards forming that judgment, by remov
ing difficulties : dissension after such a judgment, is
destructive, and inconsistent with unity and obedience.
Discussion goes before the judgment, seeking for the real
truth ; dissension follows after, and refuses to accept the
truth. Discussion implies liberty; dissension implies
self-will and an unsubmissive spirit. Look at the laws
by which our country is ruled, and by which its people
are kept in peace and harmony. They have been and
are framed after much debating, and after a full and free
opportunity has been given in our Houses of Parliament,
for the advocates and opponents to state their respective
views. But when once the law has passed, has received
that consent of the Sovereign which completes its enact
ment, those would not be called loyal subjects, who would
still stand out against the law ; or, at least, they must
make up their minds to bear the consequences of their
disobedience. But it is after the discussion, when the matter in ques
tion is determined upon, that comes the test of Orthodoxy,
and the manifestation of Unity. Then it is that not a
word of protest or disapproval will be heard upon the

192 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
part of those who profess to be Catholics and true chil
dren of the Church. We read in the history of the first
Council of Nicaea, that although at the commencement,
the party of Arius was not altogether despicable in num
bers, all were brought round to sign the profession of
Faith, and the condemnation of Arius, with the exception
of five, who, of course, by their refusal, shared in the
condemnation to which they refused to subscribe. Every
subsequent Council, and every defender of the dogmati
cal authority of the Church has heartily joined in the
decision of what they have loved to call the three hundred
and eighteen Bishops of Nicaea. Have patience, my dear
brethren, with the present Council. It has not as yet
commenced its full work. Discussions are going on, but
judgments have not yet been pronounced. Wait quietly
till the end, and you will see what will be the case. When
the message comes forth, and questions have been deter
mined upon, and the Fathers will have told us what hath
seemed good to the Holy Ghost and themselves, then will
be the time to pronounce whether there is not still in the
Catholic Church, and especially in the Episcopate, that
perfect and practical unanimity, which has been with the
Church from the beginning and will continue to the end.
The questions which supply matter for the active work
of the Council are in general reducible to the two heads
of Faith and Discipline. For to the Church is entrusted
the guardianship of both : she has not only to teach us
what to believe ; but she has to guard morality and to
lead on her children in the ways of godliness of life.
The decisions of Faith, directly they are made known, at
once bind the whole world, because Faith must be one
and the same everywhere. But decrees of Discipline

LECTURE X. 193
are to be enforced according to the circumstances which
may happen to affect times, persons, or places that they
may especially concern. Some may be universal, others
local ; but what is required, and what cannot be wanting
in a Catholic spirit, is that all must accept what the
Council, under the Holy Spirit, regulates for each. The
law has been given, and it must be obeyed, as it always
is in the Cathohc Church : Obey your prelates and be
subject to them; for they watch as being to render an
account of your souls. But it is perhaps to us, most
particularly, the clergy and the religious orders of the
Church, that the decrees of discipline may probably
most immediately and directly refer ; and if there is any
one who may be interested about them, it is not the world
which murmurs so much about what so little concerns it,
as ourselves who are so ready to accept with an obedient
spirit and a willing heart, everything that may regard and
encourage that greater perfection which the Church always
expects to find in those whom she guards as the very
apple of her eye, and to whom she always wishes to point
as illustrating that mark of sanctity which belongs exclu
sively to herself. I had occasion to cite for you in our
last lecture, when speaking upon the work of preparation
for the Council, the words spoken in the presence of the
Fathers of Trent, by the Dominican Father who had been
called upon to address them just on the eve of that
Council, and how he deplored the want of lustre in the
brilliancy with which this sanctity ought to be manifested.
The Council nobly, and boldly, and practically, did its
work in restoring this lustre, and we may hope that it
has since not been tarnished in any material degree.
Yet as the clergy are men, and not angels, they know
o

194 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
perfectly well, that they who bear the vessels of the
Lord, ought to be clean beyond all others, as the prophet
declares (Isaias Iii. 11), and to be as worthy as possible
of their high office, therefore does the Church manifest
her solicitude in their regard, and in her canons of
discipline regulate that which will tell upon their greater
perfection. And why do I say this, my dear brethren,
and seem to be confessing in the midst of you our own
necessities, but for the sake of showing the anxiety of the
Church with regard to all the objects of her responsibility,
and especially in regard to those who have upon earth
the work of God to do in maintaining His cause, and in
labouring for the salvation of His souls ? It is because
the Church so much values your souls, that she exerts
herself to increase the zeal and watchfulness of her
ministers to whom those souls are entrusted.
When, therefore, you have now witnessed the inaugur
ation of the good and holy work, which is sure to be to
you a presage of the best and richest blessings, have I
not a right to bid you rejoice, and to offer acts of praise
and thanksgiving to God, the Source and Author of every
good and excellent gift. Rejoice, then, and throw your
selves into those feelings of joy with which our good and
Holy Father, the Pope, must be animated, when he sees
his dearest wishes answered, and finds himself surrounded
by the Episcopate of the world, the sharers of his solici
tude, whom, in the language of St. Paul, he may well call
his joy and his crown. He has wept, and has been in
sorrow for us, for upon him is the solicitude of all the
Churches. It has been the dangers and evils which have
threatened us, and you, and your children, the dearest
pledges of God's love to you, which have filled him with

LECTURE X. 195
anxiety, and which now prompt him to adopt the most
efficacious measures in your behalf. How can he fail in
the grand and loving task upon which he has ventured ?
Every security and pledge of success is attending upon
him. God is with him : who can be against him ? The
Blessed Virgin, Mother of our dearest Lord, who was
with the Apostles, when they were assembled on the
Day of Pentecost, and the Holy Spirit filled them with
His gifts, she, whose Immaculate Conception he has de
fended and defined, is extending her patronage over him.
The very spot of the assembly is a presage of victory
and triumph. We are told in ancient history that the
Scythians, when in danger from the invasion of their
enemies, used to gather themselves together about the
tombs of their ancestors, and would then bid defiance to
any host that would dare to assail them. The shrine of
the holy Apostles, the Patrons of the City of Rome, is the
gathering place of the Fathers now assembled together,
and the spirit of St. Peter and St. Paul is with them.
With these securities, what is so happily commenced,
must be happily ended ; and the deliberations and de
cisions of the Council of the Vatican must contribute to
the glory of God, the good of the Church, the salvation
of souls, and though the world cannot see it, to the
well-being of society itself.

LECTURE XI.
THE INFLUENCE OF THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL ON THE FUTURE.'
What an one, think ye, shall this child be ? For the hand of the Lord was
with Him. — Luke i. 66.
This was the exclamation of surprise that was uttered
upon all sides, by those who witnessed, and those who
had heard of the wonders which attended upon the birth
and circumcision of St. John the Baptist. The time of
his birth was certainly a very eventful time. The Jewish
Church was evidently upon the eve of its dissolution, and
the whole world was in constant expectation of a great
crisis. For some four hundred years, since the days of
Malachy, no great prophet had risen in Israel : and what
he, the last of the prophets, had foretold, was close upon
its accomplishment. The priesthood of the Old Law had
become so unfaithful, that Almighty God declared that
He would no longer accept sacrifices or gifts at their
hands, but would institute another sacrifice amongst the
Gentiles, which was to be offered to Him in every quarter
of the globe, from the rising to the setting of the sun.
And now this child is born, whose birth causes such sur
prise, that every one asked the question : What an one,
think ye, shall this child be ? Wonders had preceded his
birth, and now accompany his circumcision. The same
Archangel Gabriel, who was soon to be sent upon another
embassy, to announce the birth of another Child, comes
to fortel His coming into the world. The doubting

LECTURE XI. 197
father, Zachary, is for a time punished by the loss of his
speech, which is miraculously restored to him, at the time
in which all burst out into their expressions of surprise.
It was evident that the Hand of the Lord was with the
child, and that he was being raised up for some great
work. And all these auguries were true : for you know
how great St. John the Baptist became : so great, that
some thought that Almighty God was again, after a long
interval, sending one of the great prophets to His people :
so great, that some mistook him for Elias, and even
for the Messias Himself. The wonders that attended
his coming into the world, excited and justified the ex
pectations of his future career, and that future proved
that the expectations were not disappointed.
With regard to the great event of the Council of the
Vatican which has just been inaugurated, it is the same.
Men are astonished, and are anxious to know what this
Council is to do, and what is to be its effect and influence
on the future. The work of preparation by which it was
preluded : the glory of its inauguration : the importance
attached to it by the Catholic Church which it represents:
the opposition that it has met with from the world against
which it is to protest : the taunts and criticisms of which
it is the daily object at the hands of those old enemies of
the Church, who cannot understand the ways of God :
all this suggests the question regarding its future in
fluence, which it will be useful and interesting to consider.
The Council is as yet in what may be considered its in
fancy and childhood. The only solemn and public act
which has been performed by it, is its opening. And
whilst the Fathers of the Council are at this time of pre
paration for the Christmas solemnities, preparing also the

198 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
matter which will in due time be proposed, deliberated
upon, and promulgated for our guidance and instruction,
we may devote our thoughts towards its future. The
Hand of the Lord is evidently with it. What an one,
think ye, will it become ?
This consideration of the influence of the Vatican
Council on the future is certainly not an idle or useless
task. It has been a motive in the calling of the Council;
for when the Holy Father has seen the spirit of impiety
which is now so prevalent, he has been eager to check its
advancement, and, as far as is in his power, to save the
future from consequences which must follow if no re
sistance be offered. We cannot indeed lose sight of the
fact, that in religion the future is a great reality which
. must be borne in mind. When we are reminded that we
have not here a lasting dwelling, but that we are seeking
for one that is to come ; when in the first lesson that we
were taught in our childhood, that God made us to know
Him, love Him, and serve Him here below, in order that
we might arrive at a possession of Him hereafter, the
principle is enforced of the all-importance of the future
as an influencing power in rehgion. But it is not so much
in this light that we are to consider the influence of the
Council on the future, though that future, the future of
eternity, will in the case of every one of us be affected,
accordingly as we accept it or resist it; but it is in the
light of its influence upon the future which still, in the
Hands of God, is destined for the world here below.
So much does the future of the Church, in this present
State of its existence, enter into the sympathies of religion,
that Almighty God has at various times inspired prophets
to record that future, and has Himself, through the Holy

LECTURE XI. 199
Spirit, ordered the history of the future to be written
down for our instruction, our caution, or our encourage
ment. At the moment of the sentence pronounced upon
our first parents for their fall, when the future might
weigh heavily and drearily upon them, it was lighted up
by the prospect of One that was to come, who was to
repair the evil committed and introduced by them, and
was again to unite man in friendship with his Creator.
Throughout those long four thousand years, before He
came that was to come, faith in His future coming was
essential for salvation, hope in His future blessings was
the stay and comfort of the children of Israel, and love
even for such a benefactor, warmed the hearts of Patri
archs who longed to see Him, and rejoiced in the pro
phetical sight which was vouchsafed to them. The New
Law is the future of the Old ; for all that Abraham and
the Patriarchs, that Isaias and the Prophets desired and
foretold, has now come to pass, and the earth has been
blessed by the presence of its Redeemer.
And in the New Law there are prophecies regarding
the future, which form articles of our Faith. Amongst
these is the indefectibihty of the Church. The gates of
hell shall never prevail against the Church : Behold I am
with you all days even to the consummation of the world :
the Spirit of Truth will abide with you for ever. These
are testimonies in favour of the future, and having been
solemnly spoken by our Blessed Lord, and enregistered
for us in His Gospel, we must believe them, for His
word will never pass away. And thus the future of
the Church, its permanence in spite of all opposition
and attacks directed against it, and its security from
error, are articles of Faith which we must accept, as

200 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
we hope for salvation through Him Who has founded
the Church.
The prophecy of Simeon, so soon after the Birth of the
Desired of Nations, proved how in the minds of prophets,
there was anxiety regarding the future of the Child,
Who was then brought to be presented in the Tem
ple. Well might the whole world at the Birth and Pre
sentation of its Redeemer, ask the question which was
asked regarding His Precursor : What an one, think ye,
will this Child be ? And yet how sad was the prophecy
which was then pronounced ! For after the aged Patri
arch, who had been waiting for the consolation of Israel,
and who was reserved for the enjoyment of the privilege
of taking the Child into his arms before he should see
death, had sung his song of thanksgiving, and had begged
to be then dismissed in peace, he altered his tone, and he
declared what the universe must have thought would have
been so improbable, that that Child should be set up for
the fall and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for
a sign to be contradicted. For the fall of many ! How
could that be ? He had come to redeem all : and how
could He be set up for the fall of any ? And yet it was
so declared of Him ; and thus the event which was one of
the joys of His Life, His being presented to His Father,
was also one of His sorrows. It is the fourth joyful
Mystery of the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin, but it is also
the first of her Seven Dolours. And did not His future
life prove the truth of the prophecy; and, my dear
brethren, does not the rejection of His Church, even
now-a-days, by those who must see its marks, and the
evidence of its divine institution, constantly prove how
truly the Holy Spirit showed to the good Simeon, what

LECTURE XI. 201
was to be the real character of the future of that Child
and of His Church ?
And the world, too, admits the importance of the future,
and in its actual and present defeats by the Church, it
pretends to be comforting itself by its future triumphs,
and by the proximate destruction of that which Almighty
God has declared to be indestructible. The world is
always prophesying well of itself, and is foreboding ill of
the Church. No doubt upon the day of the Crucifixion of
our Blessed Lord, the world not only rejoiced in the
triumph of that day, but also gloried in the future that
attended upon it. And as it put to death one Apostle
and Martyr after another, it was exulting in its victory,
and hoping that it was securing a safe and easy future for
itself. It has been so in every age. Hear what St.
Augustine said fourteen centuries ago, speaking about
the enemies of the Church, who were then pretending to
tell of its future. " They now see the Church, and they
say : She will soon die, and her name will disappear.
There will soon be no more Christians ; they have had
their day. And whilst they are saying this, I see them
dying every day ; and still the Church keeps alive, and
announces the power of God to all succeeding genera
tions."* Yet what is the case ? Does the presence of
eight hundred Prelates assembled at the voice of the
Head of the Church, prove that she is dead ? She is
being put to death constantly, most assuredly, but the
persecutors' knife cannot find out her vital part. The
Life is in the Blood, as Almighty God said to Moses;
and the Precious Blood in which the Church was formed
* See NicholaB, Etudes Philoaophiqnes, vol. ii. p. 604.

202 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
and perfected, goes on circulating still; and so the
Church says : We are being put to death, and yet behold we
live. So much for the prophecies of the world regard
ing the future of the Church.
The Church never denies, but is continually impressing
upon us the truth, that we have duties towards the
future, towards those that are to come after us. Pro
gress, that word which is used so frequently by the
enemies of the Church, as if it expressed their policy as
opposed to the Church, implies the future : it implies a
movement towards a point which is not yet attained.
The Church never denies, but is always asserting the
necessity of progress, both in the individual and in the
whole Catholic body. The struggle of the individual
towards perfection, which is not really attained in this
world, but is ever to be aspired after, so much urged in
the spiritual teaching of the Church, shows that she
knows the necessity of ever moving forwards towards
that more perfect way, and those better gifts of which
the Apostle tells us that we ought ever to be zealous.
(1 Cor. xii. 21.) And the gradual development of
the Christian Faith throughout the world, beginning
with Jerusalem and Samaria, and ending with the utter
most bounds of the earth, is the mission given to the
Church — a mission of progress, and a mission which re
gards the future. The great question of education, upon
which the Church is far more seriously solicitous than the
world, and to which sufficient intimation has been given
to us, that the Council will direct its anxious attention,
regards the future ; it is the paying by the present gene
ration of the debt it owes to the future. Parents, above
all, ought to know this, and to remember, that it is in

LECTURE XI. 203
their children that they are living in the future, and that
in their duties towards them they have a serious account
which the future is to score against them, if they prove
themselves negligent. Surely, my dear brethren, it is not
an idle nor an useless occupation, then, to concern our
selves about what is to come after us, and in studying
the great event of the Council to ask what will be its in
fluence upon the future.
In answer to the question, we may first of all point to
past Councils, and see how they have affected the future.
For the future has always been a great object in every
Council. Each of these assemblages of the Episcopate
of the Church has brought together the experience of
the past and present for the benefit of the future. When
a Council has condemned actual error, it has condemned
it once for all — it has condemned it for ever. The dog
matical decisions of an Oecumenical Council, being in
fallible, are immutable and irrevocable, and therefore
they bind the future. They are for all places, and for all
times. Look what the Council of Jerusalem did regard
ing the non-observance of the Old Ceremonial Law. It
closed the question, and closed it for ever. Look what
Nicaea, and Ephesus, and Chalcedon did in defence of
that glorious Mystery of the Incarnation, which, at this
Advent time is the object of thought and devotion
throughout the whole Church. Those Councils defined
for all times the meaning of the declaration of St. John
regarding this Mystery : Verbum caro factum est. And
when the privileged duty at any time devolves upon us
to explain or to defend this article of our Faith, our
hope and love, it is to the teaching in those Councils of
St. Athanasius, St. Cyril, and St. Leo that we always

204 THE ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
refer, with the same confidence and freshness, as if the
questions had been debated and decided upon in our own
presence. And the disciplinary enactments, in which Councils
are equally infallible, have always shown the future what
was the teaching and practice of the Church at the time
of their being decreed, and have, according to the inten
tion of the Church, bound the future, when the matter
was of such nature as to be for all time. Thus the first
General Council of Nicaea decided for ever the time for
the observance of the Paschal solemnity, that central
Festival, which, throughout the whole Christian world,
affects the day of the observance of the other moveable
feasts of the year. And the last of the Oecumenical
Councils — that of Trent — told so efficiently upon the
future by its vigour in the enforcement of discipline, that
it has well merited the gratitude of the three centuries
which have elapsed, since it manifested its zeal in labour
ing for the perfection of every branch and order in the
Church. The Episcopate, the Priesthood, the religious
orders, the laity — all are still under its happy influence,
and feel that they are living up to the perfection of their
state, when they regulate their conduct by its salutary
laws. How gloriously was the mark of Holiness in the
Church illustrated by the Saints whom that Council really
assisted in forming 1 The Chair of St. Peter has been
occupied by a succession of Popes remarkable for their
holiness and zeal for religion, one of them — St. Pius V. —
being ranked in the Calendar of the Saints. The Episco
pate has been honoured by St. Charles Borromeo, the
zealous promoter of the Council during its last sessions,
and the first to enforce its discipline in his diocese of

LECTURE XI. 205
Milan. The Priesthood is able to show among its mem
bers such servants of God as St. Philip Neri, St. Peter of
Alcantara, St. John of the Cross, St. Francis Xavier, and
many others of the followers of St. Ignatius Loyola, who
himself died during the period of the Council, after insti
tuting that society which has ministered so efficiently
towards the sanctity of the Church. And we may hope,
certainly with good grounds for confidence, that the work
of the Council of Trent will still continue, and be aided
by the impulse which will be afforded by the present
Council of the Vatican.
If it is the case, then, that in these days of little faith,
when there is organised against the Church all the power
that the world can command, we find a denial of the
most elementary and primitive truths of religion, and a
rebellion against principles upon which the peace and the
morality of social life depend, it is to the teaching, the
influence, and the example of the past Councils we refer
for help in the time of trial. Those Councils are still
affecting and defending the future. It is the fact of the
blessings which have followed in their train that has sug
gested the summoning of the present Council, and its
future is also to be marked by the benefits of which it is
intended, in the designs of God, to be the source for
generations to come. And, therefore, our Holy Father,
in the Apostolical Letter in which he summons the Coun
cil, points to the example and authority of his prede
cessors, and declares his intention to do for the future,
in arresting the progress of error, what the past has done
for us. It is not a transitory benefit he is wishing to
secure for the Church, but one that is to be permanent,
and to last even to the end of time. An ambitious aim

206 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
it may seem ; but yet, as it has been prophesied that the
Church is to last to the consummation of the world, and
as it is to be ever going on progressing through the
globe, the work of one of its Councils cannot be lost.
One of our English astronomers, in order to give an
idea of the immensity of space, has not hesitated to ven
ture the statement, that, although light travels with such
great velocity as to be almost instantaneous, it is quite
possible that there may be stars, at so vast a distance
from the earth, that their light travelling from the day of
creation, has not yet reached our planet ; but when once
it should happen to attain to us, it would continue to
shine like those other fixed stars, which glisten so bril
liantly above us on these dark wintry nights. So when
in the times appointed by His Wisdom, the Holy Spirit
sends forth upon the Church an additional ray of
light communicated through one of the Councils over
which He presides, it will not just appear and then
vanish again quickly, but will be for ever contributing to
the office of the Church, in enlightening those that seek
for peace and joy within the shelter of her home.
In its influence upon the future it is necessary to de
clare openly one thing which the Council will not do. It
will not pretend to make known any newly revealed doc
trine. For this is a point explained a thousand times,
and yet constantly misunderstood or misrepresented by
those who sit in judgment upon the Church, and accuse
her of novelty, and of defining as a doctrine of Faith, what
has not been revealed from the foundation of the Church.
Whenever the Church, either in Council, or pronouncing
infallibly out of a Council, upon a matter of doctrine,
declares what is to be believed as of faith, she does not

LECTURE XI. 207
pretend that a newly-revealed truth has been commu
nicated to her, and through her promulgated to the
world ; but she declares what has been held from the Day
of Pentecost in the deposit entrusted to her. She has
the power, as a teacher appointed by God, to declare
explicitly as circumstances may demand such a declaration,
what had all along been implicitly believed. Even the
Thirty-nine articles admit that the Church hath authority
in controversies of faith (Art. xx.); and whenever the
Church exercises that authority, which she undoubtedly
possesses, of closing a controversy by a judicial act, she
decides what must be accepted as a doctrine of faith, not
pretending that a new revelation has been made, but only
declaring what has been revealed from the beginning,
though its explicit knowledge had not until then been so
openly made known by her. Upon this point there are
two charges which are made against us, each of which
may be used to refute the other. We are accused of two
contradictory faults. We are accused of our love for
tradition, and are also accused of our introduction of no
velties in doctrine, because of the dogmatical definitions
of the Church on certain matters on which her judgment
has been sought and pronounced. If we are lovers of
tradition, then we are not lovers of novelty ; and if we
are favourers of novelty in doctrine, then we are not
followers and lovers of tradition. The two do not co
exist in the same individual. The Church does love
tradition, and treasures up the inspired words of St. Paul
as addressed to herself : The things which thou hast heard
of me by many witnesses, the same commend to faithful men
who shall be fit to teach others also. (2 Tim. ii. 2.) And
this very love of tradition is her security against novelty ;

208 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
for she acts upon that other saying of St. Paul to the
same disciple of his, St. Timothy : Oh, Timothy, keep that
which is committed to thy trust, avoiding the profane novelties
of words. (1 Tim. vi. 20.) So far is the Church resolute
against all novelty, that it is she, not Protestants, that is
pointed at and accused by the world of being in the way
of progress, and of teaching doctrines which the world
presumes to call too antiquated for these days of en
lightenment. This, then, is what the Council will not
do. It will teach no novelty.
Supposing it to be the case that there will be a dog
matical definition upon the question of the Infalhbility of
the Sovereign Pontiff, the Council will not pretend to be
making the Pope anything more than he has been all
along, since the days of St. Peter, but it will only declare
what he has been, and what the Church has ever admitted
in his regard. Terms will be defined; and the whole
Cathohc Church, with that instinct with which it is en
dowed, of accepting without doubt whatever the teaching
authority communicates, will be found in perfect unity;
not a single feeling will have suffered violence, because a
clearer intimation will have been given of the meaning of
our dear Lord when He appointed one to be His own Vicar,
and said to Him : Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I
will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not pre
vail against it, and to thee will I give the keys of the
kingdom of Heaven, fyc. Every Catholic knows that the
Church is infallible : he knows that the Church has its
Head upon earth, the visible Head of the visible Church;
He knows that it is through the Head that the Body
speaks, and that there cannot be any separation between
the Head and the Body. And therefore if it seem good

LECTURE XI. 209.
to the Holy Ghost and the Council to instruct the chil
dren of the Church upon the question, which may possi
bly arise, we shall simply be like children who are re
ceiving at the hands of one appointed to teach them, a
clearer explanation of what their Catechism tells them.
The object for which the present Council is assembled
ought of itself to gain for it from the future an eternal
offering of gratitude, and it must, in generations to come,
be held in constant benediction. In the opposition which
it is making against infidelity and existing impiety, as it
ought to conciliate to itself even now, the good-will of
all who love God and hate iniquity, it will certainly gain
this at the hands of those who come after us. The
future will show itself more grateful than many of the
critics of the Council show themselves to be now-a-days.
Who is there that ought not to desire that God should be
better known and loved, and that His cause should be
vindicated against those who assail it ? Who ought
not, when they think of the blessings which Chritianity
has brought into the world, to desire its further spread
and influence throughout the world ? Who is there, when
he remembers the great truths of Revelation, and how
the word of God is as a lamp to our feet and a light in our
paths, that would not stand up in defence of those truths,
and wish that that word should be better heard, and more
obediently followed by all men ? Who, when he calls to
mind how Christ loved the Church, as St. Paul reminds .
us, and delivered Himself up for it that He might sanctify
it (Eph. v. 25), would not for the sake of the Founder
of the Church, love His work and maintain its privileges?
Who, when he knows that he has a soul to save, and that
Sacraments have been instituted for the very purpose of

210 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
securing that salvation, would not seek to have those
Sacraments valued, as the channels to our souls of the
Precious Blood of Him, Who appointed them for our
use and sanctification ? Who also, when he bears in
mind the honour with which Almighty God vouchsafes
to treat His Saints, those marvels of His Grace, and
those heroes of the Faith which is common to us all,
but would be proud, through our very fraternity with
them, to rank himself upon their side, and to uphold
their claims upon the respect and love of all who hope to
be one day associated with them in heaven ? These, my
dear brethren, are noble aspirations, high and glorious
efforts; and they are the aspirations and will be the
object of the efforts of the Council of the Vatican.
And for these exertions the future ever will be and
must be grateful.
And yet, now that the Council has only just com
menced labours which have such a noble object in view,
how ungenerously do we find it attacked, and every
utterance which comes from it, criticised, censured, and
condemned by those who do not hesitate to be pretend
ing to place themselves upon the side of God, at the
same time that they are withstanding the work which He
Himself has been inaugurating ! To the outspoken and
revolting blasphemies, which have been pronounced and
assumed as the very motto of the enemies of the Church,
they have not a word of protest and censure to offer ; but
their eloquence and assumed indignation are all reserved
for expressions which they cannot understand, and upon
which they will not have the patience to become further
instructed. During this last week you have had a strik
ing instance of this shameless inconsistency. An un-

LECTURE XI. 211
authorized telegram from Rome attributed to our Holy
Father, when addressing the Council, the expression that
"the Church is stronger than Heaven." No context is
given which might explain the meaning of the expression,
but it is accused of being a blasphemous statement, and
many of the organs of the Press, especially that which is
acknowledged the chief amongst them, emulating the
zeal of the accusers of our Blessed Lord, who cried out :
He blasphemeth, what need we of any further evidence ?
have devoted all their energy against this declaration,
and have even assumed a tone of injured innocence and
outraged piety. At the very same time was published,
what was intended by him who wrote it, as a protest
against all interference of religion in the concerns of
mankind, an open declaration by a veteran French
infidel, just chosen as the president of a professedly
infidel society, that the motto of that, society should be,
" to be born without a priest, to be married without a
priest, to die and be buried without a priest,"* thus
binding themselves to exclude religion from any influence
over the commencement, the progress, and the end of
life. And this is a declaration which will have influence
against faith and morality. Why could not some indigna
tion be reserved in condemnation of such impiety, and why
could not a few words of sober and honest reprobation be
enregistered against what so loudly calls for the abhor
rence of all good men ? Though every paper prints this
unmistakable affirmation of infidelity, it is in vain that
you will seek for a leading article, or perhaps a word
even of censure. And yet that which had been so
violently condemned as a blasphemous assertion of the
* Answer of Raspail to the Free-Thinkers of Lyons.
p 2

212 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
good and holy Pontiff, whose own virtues and piety even
the bitterest malice has not been able to deny or question,
turns out, when time had been given for a more accurate
version to reach us, to have been but a commentary of
St. John Chrysostom upon that expression of our Blessed
Lord, in which He certainly does give to His own word,
and therefore to the Church which contains it, a kind of
indefectibihty greater even than that which has been
given to heaven, as a part of God's creation : Heaven and
earth shall pass away, but My word shall not pass away.*
(Matt. xxiv. 35.) Surely, this will help to prove to the
future that the present Council is sharing with every
other work of the Church, the censure of the world,
which is a clear sign of the blessing of God.
The Council will also prove to the future how in the
nineteenth century, in spite of every effort to coerce her
action, the Ghurch was a great reality, and was able to
show herself as such in her resistance to the usurpations
and tyranny of the world. It will prove that the office of
the Watchman of Ezechiel has been zealously exercised,
and that in days of little belief and much worldly in
fluence, the Church was not silent, nor submissive to the
dictation of the world. The accounts of this magnifi
cent demonstration upon the part of the Church, which
have been written in such unfair and angry spirit by the
paid panderers to popular prejudice in this country, if
they ever reach the future, will prove by their tone that
at the time of the gathering of the Council, the work of
Balaam was undertaken by those who were willing, for a
temporal reward, to distort facts and to curse, when in
* See the whole passage in the "Liturgical Year" of Abbot Gueranger,
Christmas vol. ii. p. 454, of Father Shepherd's translation.

LECTURE XI. 213
their conscience they knew that they ought to bless.
Only, such writers have not had the protecting Spirit
which ruled over that prevaricating Prophet, and which
made him, in spite of himself, declare the truth. They
are willing to do what Balaam seemed willing to do, but
could not. He was bribed to curse Israel, but he blessed
that people of God. These men are bribed to curse, and
they do it. But, in spite of themselves, now and then
the truth will come out, and they cannot help expressing
their wonder at a work, for which they cannot account
upon any human principles. The Council is proving to
the present generation, and will prove to every future
generation, how in these days the Episcopate has been
united to the Chief Pontiff, and how he has loved the
Episcopate; and how therefore both have shared the
same fate, and have received together the tribute of the
world's condemnation.
It will prove what Churches are Catholic and orthodox,
and how those who have pretended to that glorious name
of Catholic have, when unaccepted by the Council, proved
their own inability to bear that name. With regard to
our own kingdom of England, it will manifest how those,
who hold the names of the Sees once orthodox and united
to Rome, have been unrecognised in an assembly of the
Episcopate of the Universe, and how others, with titles
assigned by the Holy See, have succeeded to privileges
confiscated by a disobedient and rejected hierarchy.
Westminster will be in place of Canterbury. At Trent
but one of the old hierarchy attended ; but at the Vati
can, a goodly number of the newly-constituted province
of Westminster will be found gathered with their brethren,
the sharers of the solicitude of the Chief Pastor of the

214 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
Church. And we can well imagine how this will afford
an occasion for more abundant and more fervent prayers
than usual, in behalf of our separated brethren, that one
future consequence of the Council may be, the bringing
back again of this country, once the island of Saints, to
the fold of Unity, and attaching it once more to the rock
whence it has been severed. And as Judas Machabeus,
on the eve of a great victory over the Jewish Church, was
strengthened by a vision, in which he saw Saints who had
been gathered to their rest praying much for the people
(2 Mac. xv. 14), so may we encourage ourselves by the
assurance, that the Saints of Canterbury — Augustine,
Anselm, Thomas, and Edmund — will be praying much
for the people of a land, which they so loved on earth,
and must still be loving and watching over from heaven !
Day and night does our Holy Father, as he declares in a
special letter, pray that those in separation may return
and be gathered into their true home in the bosom of the
Church. May the future prove that such prayers have
been heard !
Are we hoping against hope when we cheer ourselves
on by the prospect of the blessings which the Council will
entail, in the curbing of the spirit of impiety, and in bring
ing back nations to the Faith ? If it were merely an act and
effort of human pohcy, such as have been the intended and
frustrated Congresses of Europe, we might despair of
success. But if it is the work of God, who is to de
spair ? If God be with us, we say again with St. Paul,
what matters it who is against us, and what is the obsta
cle we are called upon to surmount ? The hearts of men
and the destinies of nations are in His hands, aind it is
in His power to turn and sway them as He will, When

LECTURE XI. 215
nations have been in darkness and in the shadow of death,
He has raised up those who have enlightened and con
verted them, and what He has once done He can do
again. The Council is convened, and is praying, and
labouring for the enlightenment and conversion of those
who are in need of such a grace, and it feels confident of
its own prospect of success. It is not for us then, to be
faint-hearted and to despond, when our leaders and our
fathers are marching nobly forward to the victory. If, as
we know to be the case, the Council is called by God, is
presided over by the Holy Spirit, is holding its sessions
in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament, of Him who
said : Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consumma
tion of the world, if it is gathered around the shrine of
the heroic SS. Peter and Paul, if it is inaugurated and
supported by prayer, if it is attended by the anointed
Princes of the Church, who have come from every nation
under the sun, enriched with all the learning, and adorned
with all the virtues which have ever been the portion of the
Catholic Episcopate — then it must have a glorious future,
for it is evident that the hand of the Lord is with it.
And what are we to say, or rather what are we to
prove, regarding the influence of the Council upon our
own future. It must have the consequence of making us
more fervent and loyal, more than ever devoted to the
cause of God and His Church. If, after its labours and
prayers in our behalf, we do not become more faithful
children of God, more zealous members of the Church,
more determined defender^ of the powers, the rights and
the privileges of our Holy Father the Pope, more out
spoken and less timid in the profession of our glorious
Faith, more generous in making sacrifices for the good of

216 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
religion, more loving partakers of the Holy Sacraments,
and more persevering pursuers of all spiritual duties ; if
it will not make us, of the Clergy, more zealous for the
salvation of souls, and more cautious about our own
spiritual perfection, its success in our regard will be less
complete than it ought to be, and we shall have done some
thing towards frustrating its hopes and its auguries of a
glorious future. But this cannot, and it must not, be the
case. Through the head and heart of the Church, life
and vigour will affect every member ; and even the dry
bones, seen in vision by the Prophet Ezechiel, will again
be clothed with flesh, and they shall receive the spirit,
and shall live, and know who is the Lord.
The most practical question, after all, for us to consider
is, how will this Council affect each of us individually, and
pursue us in its future consequences, even into eternity.
It brings a responsibility, beyond any doubt, upon each
one of us. It shows each one, and shows him in" a clear,
unmistakable light, where is the Church. Remember
the words of Simeon, which I have already brought before
your mind, spoken about that Divine Child, the Founder
of the Church, that He was to be set up even for the fall
of many. And there are words of His own, spoken by
that Child in later years of manhood, when He had mani
fested Himself to men, and was doing His work openly
and strikingly, words which are astonishing, and which
must have sounded fearfully to those who heard them, as
they do to us who read them : If I had not come and
spoken to them, they would not have sin ; but now they have
no excuse for their sin. . . If I had not done amongst them
the works which no other man hath done, they would not
ham sin ; but now they have seen and hated both Me and

LECTURE XI. 217
My Father. (John xv. 22—24.) Our Blessed Lord is
here speaking of the consequence of rejected graces.
Why was He rejected ? Many were drawn from Him by
the influence of the world. Men spoke ill of Him : the
finger of scandal pointed at Him : and men loved dark
ness rather than the light. Why is the Church rejected ?
Why is the Council rejected ? There are found men who
will speak ill of it, and who draw disciples after them.
But in spite of everything, there it is. It stands forward
as a fact, a truth, and a light. It is intended for the
resurrection of all, though it may also prove an occasion
of the fall of many.
Let it not be so with you. Be loyal to it, if you are
Catholics. Be fair and just to it, even if you are not.
And what a happiness will it be for you, in the future
eternity to which you are speeding on, to be singing your
songs of thanksgiving in the courts of Heaven, for all the
graces and blessings of which it will have been to you the
rich and generous source. There, for all the days of my
hfe shall I be singing the praises of God, in return for all
that the Council will have done in my behalf. What it
did for me, was this. It showed me the Church: it
showed me Unity : it gave me a fixed certainty : it gave
me Faith : it put me on my way to Heaven : it secured
for me the possession of God : and has it not with Him
given me all things ! May there be many that will join
in this act of thanksgiving, and may there be many, even
amongst those here present ! Then will you sing, in the
fulness of your joy, what we have sung this . evening in
one of the beautiful Vesper Psalms : Confitebor tibi
DOMINE IN T0T0 C0RDE MEO, IN C0NCILI0 JUST0RUM, ET
•CONGREGATIONE.

LECTURE XII.
THE DUTIES OF THE COUNCIL TOWARDS US. OUR DUTIES TO
WARDS THE COUNCIL.
Gathering together the multitude, they delivered the Epistle; which when
they had read, they rejoiced for the consolation. — Acts xv; 30, 81.
This was the last and crowning act of the Council of
Jerusalem. It was an outward proof of the success of the
work which had been undertaken by the Apostles, when
they and the elders of the Christian Church assembled
together to consider upon the matter of dispute which
had arisen, and which by their authority they so effec
tually decided. I brought before you, in some fulness
of detail, at the commencment of the course of lectures
which I am concluding this evening, what plan it was
that the Apostles adopted and pursued in a debated
question; and how they established a model and a
sanction for future similar occasions. They summoned
a Council, which was presided over by their chief : they
discussed the question, and gave an opportunity for both
sides to argue and to be heard : they came to a practical
conclusion which was unanimously agreed to : they pub
lished that conclusion under the joint names of the Holy
Ghost and themselves ; and sending special messengers
with their encyclical letter, to the Churches which were
most effected by the question at issue, these messengers on
their arrival, gathering together the multitude, delivered the
Epistle ; which when they had read, they rejoiced for the

LECTURE XII. 219
consolation. This has always been the consequence of a
Council to the faithful children of the Church. Its effect
has been to remove difficulties : to quiet apprehensions
and anxieties : to comfort the sorrows of many who
have been afflicted, because of evils which have seemed
to threaten the peace of the Church ; and it has been
followed by the blessing of peace, and by the conquest
of those who have dared to stand up in opposition to the
cause of God.
I can well imagine what was the thought that occupied
the mind of the learned and holy Bishop, who was ap
pointed to preach the inaugural sermon of the present
Council. For, when on the Festival of the Immaculate
Conception, standing in the midst of the assembled
Fathers, he took for his text the last verses of Psalm
cxxv : Going they went and wept scattering their seed ; but
coming they shall come in joy carrying their sheaves; he
must have thought of the times of trial and anxiety which
have preceded the various Councils of the Church, the
time of sorrow and weeping ; and of the peace and
triumph over evil, which have ever followed their deli
berations, the time of joy and congratulation. For the
history of the Church is the history of a struggle; it
records a continual contest against the spirit of evil,
which is always trying to gain the ascendency, but
which, by the watchful vigour of the Church, is kept in
check, and is being constantly subdued. The time of the
contest is a time of trial : then follows a time of peace
and rest. So said our Blessed Lord in words which are
repeatedly meeting with their fulfilment : You shall have
sorrow, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. Such is
to be the case with the present Council. It certainly has

220 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
been preceded by a time of hard and bitter sorrow and
anxiety ; for no one who loves God and his Church can
help lamenting over the efforts of impiety by which the
last few years have been distinguished. But the Church
has prepared herself for the battle ; she has called her
forces together, and with the special aid from Heaven,
which a Council always secures, she looks forward with
confidence to a happy result. And we, too, my dear
brethren, all of us are engaged in the conflict, and inte
rested in the issue. We are called upon to declare upon
which side we stand — upon the side of God against evil,
or upon the side of evil against God. It is time for us to
understand what are our duties with reference to the
great fact of the Council; and these we shall see per
haps more clearly, when we first know what are the duties
which the Council has undertaken towards us.
The Council, by the very fact of its being convened,
admits that it has duties to perform. It is not a mere
idle demonstration ; but it is a gathering of the powers
of the Church in support of a holy cause. It affirms the
principle which, in the Catholic Church at least, is never
denied, that privileges imply duties, and that the posses
sion of power implies a responsibility for its use. And
it is not an act of presumption upon our part, children of
the Church as we are, and subject to those who form the
the Council, to say that those who are assembled thus
together, have their duties to perform in our regard.
Even Almighty God Himself, the great and independent
Creator and Lord of the Universe, has not hesitated to
take duties upon Himself, and to bind Himself by laws
which He Himself has enacted towards His creatures.
His sanctity, His truth, His justice, His mercy, regulate

LECTURE XII. 221
Him in His dealings towards us. He gives us His word,
and He promises to keep it : He gives us commandments,
and He binds Himself to reward us according to our
fidelity in their observance. He encourages us to return
to Him by repentance, and authorizes us to blame Him
even, if He does not receive us to pardon, as if He were
wanting in His duty. Come and, accuse Me, He vouch
safes to say : If your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made
white as snow. (Is. i. 18.)
And when the Only-begotten Son of God, equal to His
Father, came into this world for our redemption, He
came with duties upon Him. He was made obedient ;
and what else does this signify, except that there was a
law over Him to which He became willingly subject, when
He said : Behold, I come to do Thy will, 0 God? and
which He affirmed to those to whom He was- teaching a
similar duty of obedience, when He set His own example
before them, and said : I have come, not to do My own
will, but the will of Him that hath sent Me. At the time
of this happy Christmas Festival, you have not far to
travel to see how fully He acquitted Himself of His duty.
Your thoughts and your heart are in Bethlehem; and
when you ask why the Sacred Infant, whom you there
see, was born in such suffering, and surrounded by such
signs of poverty and abandonment, there is a short answer
which explains it. It was His duty. It was the will of
His Father, and He came to do that will.
And when He said to His Apostles, the first Pastors of
His Church : I have set you an example, that as I have
done, you should do in like manner, He imposed upon
them the law of obedience, the obhgation of fulfilling
duties. To the Church is committed the care of the out-

222 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
ward glory of God upon earth, and it has duties towards
that ; to the Church is committed the charge of its own
privileges and rights, and it has duties towards those ; to
the Church is committed the care of souls, and it has
duties towards them; to the Church is committed the
care of society itself, its peace and welfare, and it has
duties here also. Hear the words of St. Paul, in which,
in addressing the elders of Ephesus, in his farewell
words to them, he is asserting the existence of a duty,
not peculiar to them, but incident to their office, and
therefore incumbent upon all who hold that office : Take
heed to yourselves, and to the whole flock over which the
Holy Ghost hath placed you Bishops to rule the Church of
God, which He hath purchased with His own Blood. (Acts
xx. 28.) And, again, he bids us obey our Prelates, and
be subject to them : For they watch, as being to render an
account of your souls (Heb. xiii. 17), declaring, in these
last words, their duty and their responsibility. Certainly
the Church never wishes to shrink from the knowledge
and fulfilment of its responsibility. Each of its pastors
is always filled with a sense of what is incumbent upon
him, remembers what it is to bear the pastoral solicitude,
and is impressed with the necessity of aiming at a greater
perfection in what St. Gregory calls " the art of arts, the
governing of souls." And as the Council- is the aggre
gate of the chief Pastors of the Church, it may be called
an aggregate of responsibility, and has the very highest
and most responsible office devolving upon it. A sense
of responsibility is always an incentive to zeal. It makes
indolence an impossibility ; and the office of the Watch
man, in Ezechiel xxxiii., to which I have already had
occasion to allude, is allied with the pressure of those

LECTURE XII. 223
duties from which there can be no escape. When St.
Paul said that he who desires the office of a Bishop desires
a good work, he had in his mind, as the Holy Spirit then
suggested to him, the presence of all those high and
sacred duties which such watchmen are always bound to
discharge. The first duty which devolves upon the Council is its
duty to God. And though I am in reality speaking only
of the duties of the Council towards us, I must not
exclude this responsibility which is upon it. It owes
duties to God for our sake. It is between ¦ ourselves and
God. God has called it together to defend His honour
and glory, so outraged and so impiously attacked, but to
defend it for our sake. What matters it to Him? How can
it affect His essential glory or interfere with His happi^
ness, that His own ungrateful creatures, the work of His
hands, one day to be judged by Him, and, if they die im
penitent, to be condemned and punished by Him — what
can it matter to Him that they dare to stand up against
Him, and proclaim their independence, and take the
motto of the arch-rebel : I will not serve ? He who
dwelleth in the heavens will laugh them to scorn, as the
Psalmist declares. But it does matter to us. It is our
God who is attacked; and we are all roused, in our indig
nation, to become like so many Michaels, and to cry out:
Quis ut Deus ? Who is like unto God ? If His existence,
His dominion over His own creation, His revelation, His
attributes, are questioned and attacked, it does concern
us, and it concerns those that are dear to us. The pro
gress of infidelity concerns all of us very closely ; and it
is to save us from its aggression, to save society from its
influence, to save the very authors of such wickedness,

224 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
and to rescue them from the fearful consequences of their
pernicious principles, that the Council gives the voice of
warning and stands forward in the defence. In support
ing the mysteries of religion, and the principles and
truths of Christianity, against their assailants, it is pro
tecting us, as a parent protects its child against the
danger of poison, or screens it from the approach of a
fatal contagion.
The next duty of the Council is towards the Church.
It is a duty of self-defence ; for the Council is the Church.
The Church is the guardian of a sacred deposit, and it
must watch over its safe custody. She has received a
Mission from God, and she must execute it. Behold I
send you, our Blessed Lord said to the Church, when He
sent her upon that Mission. Her Mission is into the very
midst of danger, for she is sent as lambs into the midst of
wolves. No wonder, then, that under such circumstances
.the Church is bound to be on the watch against dangers
which are ever imminent. And here, in speaking of the
duties of the Council towards the Church, which are also
duties towards us, because we are of the Church, I might
in a few words remind you of what, in -this course of
instructions, I have brought before you. It was a duty
to the Church which made the Apostles and elders as
semble in Jerusalem, to consider upon a matter which
affected the integrity of Faith and the uniformity of
Discipline, as I explained at the very commencement.
It is a duty of the Church to preserve Orthodoxy of
doctrine, and to supply a test whereby it can be proved ;
and it is the true Church, alone, as we saw afterwards,
which is always sensitive upon this point, and which is
zealous and successful in applying such a test, as is

LECTURE XII. 225
supplied by an Oecumenical Council. These Councils
of the Church have ever done this in the past; and
we saw how, in the Creeds which the Church on such
occasions has promulgated, she faithfully fulfilled the
duties which in this regard she owed to her children,
and to those who wished to inquire - what was her
faith and practice. We then directed our thoughts to
wards those two distinctive marks of the true Church,
Unity and Catholicity, which a Gouncil brings into such
prominent rehef, and which it demonstrates at the same
time to be without the reach of any other body which
would venture to claim them. And if at any time error
became more than usually vigorous in its assault upon the
Church, and the gates of hell strove with unwonted efforts
to prevail against her, the Church has done her duty by
the loudest protest of one of her general assemblies.
Again : we saw how the world, the old and constant
enemy and antagonist of the Gospel and the Church,
always found in a Council a most efficient check and
resistance. And as error, and the world which is the
friend of error, are now exerting unusual efforts, we ex
amined what the present Council was prepared to do in
defence of the holy cause of God and His truth, and were
filled with confidence that the expectations raised by its
preparation could not and would not be frustrated. The
Council was ready to do its duty ; and, more than that,
we now see it in the actual performance of that duty.
We looked forward also to the future, and saw how the
Council recognised its duties towards future generations,
and towards our own individual future, in- the labours
which it has so loyally undertaken towards correcting
present evils, and thus preventing their further spread
Q

226 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
and influence. Thus does the Council recognise, and
thus does it fulfil, its duties towards the Church, and
through the Church towards ourselves.
Individually, to each of us, does the Council admit and
gladly discharge its duties. Just as with the angels of
God, whom He has appointed as ministering spirits, to
minister to those who are to receive the inheritance of salva
tion (Heb. i. 14), there is not only a general interest
amongst them, which manifests itself in their joy upon
the repentance of a sinner, but there is a special care in
their guardianship over each one of us, so have the Coun
cils, not only a general duty towards all the children of the
Church, but a particular care over each of us. I shall, in a
few moments, have to explain our duties, the duties of each
one of us, towards the Council. And as these duties are
of a relative nature, and are reciprocal, the Council does
for the individual something which binds the individual
in his duty towards it. And as Almighty God, in caring
for the whole universe, which is the work of His hands,
and is ever under His watchful government, yet watches
over each soul, and knows and treasures up the single
actions of each, as if this were but the only one He had
to keep under His charge, and gives His commandments
in the singular to each : Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God : thou shalt not kill : thou shalt not steal, SfC ; so
will the Council show its personal solicitude in our regard,
and through our Prelates who have responsibility over us,
bring home to each of us its instructions and its enact
ments in faith and morality.
Even to those who are, unhappily, outside the Church,
and do not recognise her authorithy over them, though she
claims it over all by virtue of the universal power given

LECTURE XII. 227
to her, even to such as these, the Council has its duties,
and it is ready to undertake them fearlessly, but affec
tionately. The Pope is the Father of human society, as
well as of the Church, for he is the Vicar of Christ, who
is the Head of all principality and power (Col. ii. 10) ;
and for this reason, the Church, ever anxious, as was her
Holy Founder, about those other sheep which are not yet
of the fold, is extending her solicitude over them, and
eager to bring them into the One Fold of the One Shep
herd. The Council, indeed, is already doing its work
towards this happy end. To those, both members of. the
Eastern separated Church, and members of Protestant
Churches nearer home, whom the Holy Father has in
vited to avail themselves of the occasion of the Council
to return to Unity, this duty has been shown, and,
if unavailingly with some, it has not been so with all,
and in the end, we hope, will have shown itself to have
been the means of the resurrection of many. Jansenist
Bishops from Holland, after a separation of two cen
turies, have gone over to Rome to make overtures to
wards submission. Anglican clergymen, in good num
bers, have gone, not through mere curiosity, or with a view
of being edified ; but they have gone like the shepherds to
Bethlehem, to see the word that has come to pass, and are
being influenced by the evidence which is forcing itself
upon them. And even those who have not left their
homes, but merely have heard, in a course of instruc
tions, or from other sources, what are the high motives
which have suggested the Council, and how nobly it is
representing the Church of Christ, have been gained in
many instances to recognise its claims, and to submit
to the Church. Even here, in our own happy congre-
Q 2

228 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
gation, the labours of your own pastors have not been
fruitless; but, by the blessing of God's grace, more
converts have been gained since the argument of the
Council has been placed before you, than perhaps in
any similar period since the consecration of our Church.
And as if to throw into still bolder relief the faithful
discharge of the duties which the Church owes towards
her own Unity, and which she is acquitting herself of in
the eyes of the whole world in the Council, it has pleased
Almighty God, in His wise Providence, to have allowed
that striking evidence of disunion in the English Church
to be going on coincidently with it, which in this very last
week has been completed. Notwithstanding all protests,
and charges of heresy and infidelity brought against him,
by Bishops, Archdeacons, and others of the Clergy and
laity, the Bishop-designate of Exeter has undergone the
Anglican form of consecration, and is now numbered
amongst the Prelates of the Church established in this
kingdom. This, surely, ought to serve as an evidence of
the total want of unity in such a Church, and must go
very far in increasing the want of confidence with which
its Bishops are regarded by the people. Place side by
side, the eight hundred Prelates now doing their glorious
work in Rome, and those who form the Episcopate of
the Anglican Church, and what a contrast is presented !
The former, drawn together under the Holy Spirit, by
the voice of obedience, are showing to the whole world
the Unity and Catholicity of the Church which they
represent. The latter, unrecognised abroad, and sus
pected at home, are showing by the total absence of
these qualities, that it can have no claim to be con
sidered as the One Church of Christ.

LECTURE XII. 229
We have thus far seen something of the duties of
the Council towards us. We now have to ask, and to
answer, a practical question: What are our duties to
wards the Council? We must have duties towards it,
and it is important to know and to practise them. For
the very reason that the Council acknowledges its duties
in our regard, and acquits itself of them so efficiently, it
has a claim upon us. The Council represents the Church :
it is doing for us what our Blessed Lord intended His
Church to be always doing for our spiritual good : it is
between us and Almighty God, appointed by Him to
legislate and labour for us, and therefore it is for His
sake we owe to it all that it claims at our hands.
First of all we owe obedience to the Council. The law
which binds subjects to superiors in the Catholic Church
is the law of obedience. We have repeatedly had to
enforce that maxim of St. Paul : Obey your Prelates, and
be subject to them, for they watch over you, being to render
an account of your souls. You owe the obedience of your
life and outward conduct to its enactments of discipline,
as far as the Council will declare them to be binding upon
you, and when they are made known to you by those
whose duty it will be to communicate them to you. You
owe the obedience of your intellect, which is the obedience
of Faith, to whatever decrees it may seem good to the
Holy Ghost and the Council to promulgate in matters of
Faith. And this obedience you owe, of course, because
of your duty to the Church, which the Council represents,
and which you are bound to hear and follow as you hope
for salvation. But remember, that this obedience you
owe even now. You are bound antecedently to the pro
mulgation of the decrees of the Council, whatever they

230 THE (ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
may be, to accept them with the respect and submission
due to the oracles of God. You are not to wait that you
may judge and pronounce for yourself, whether these
decrees will be in accordance with your own wishes and
judgment; but whatever they may be, your principle
must be this, that even now, beforehand, you accept
them, and will obey them. Just as Samuel was in
structed by the high priest, Heli, our duty is to say to
Almighty God, speaking to us through the Council :
Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. You can, assuredly,
see the reason for so acting, and can at once answer any
objection which might be raised against this antecedent
obedience, by those who may pretend to charge you with
being weak-minded, or with sacrificing your independence
of judgment in such ready and compliant submission.
Your motive of faith is in question ; and the authority of
the Church enters into that motive. You are satisfied that
the Church is infallible, and you must therefore accept
whatever the Church proposes to you. You state this
in your act of Faith, when, after enumerating certain
articles, you add this form: "Moreover, I believe whatso
ever else the Catholic Faith proposes to be believed ; and
this, because God, who is the Sovereign Truth, which
can neither deceive nor be deceived, has revealed all
these things to this Church."
If, therefore, any one should bring it as a charge
against you, as is sure to be the case, that you are unrea
sonable in pinning your faith to articles of which at pre
sent you may be utterly ignorant, and that it is against
the advice and command of St. Paul, who admonishes
that your service should be reasonable (Rom. i. 12), it
cannot be difficult for you to show that that faith alone

LECTURE XII. 231
is reasonable, and answers the meaning of faith, which is
grounded upon a motive which excludes doubt, and which
extends equally to every single article which we are called
upon to believe. Is not the service of a child to a parent
a reasonable service, which is practised cheerfully and con
fidently upon every command which is given, when the
child has once been convinced and knows instinctively
that the parent will never order anything that is contrary
to conscience. And if I ask you, as you may ask such
an objector, do you not believe everything that is con
tained in the Sacred Scripture, and are you not disposed,
beforehand, to believe everything, even in portions which
you may not yet have read ? What else can you answer,
but that such is your faith in the inspiration of the Holy
Word of God, that you bow down with the fullest and
most hearty submission to every word which thus cometh
forth from the mouth of God? When a good parent
says to a child, as our good mother the Church says to
us, giving us the Sacred Scriptures : Take this Book, my
child, love and venerate it, because it is the Word of
God; believe every article of faith which is contained
therein ; and practise as perfectly as you can every lesson
which it teaches. When, I would ask you — when does
a child believe the Bible ? Is it only after reading it ?
Does the child, whilst reading it, believe only as far as
he has gone, and suspend his belief upon portions as yet
unread ? Or does he read with such a disposition that
he is willing to believe all that he can understand, but
that he will hesitate and disbeheve whenever he may
meet with anything that may seem strange or difficult
to accept ? Upon persons who would read the Sacred
Scriptures with such a disposition, so disloyal and

232 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
suspicious towards the very Word of God Himself,
St. Augustine has expressed the opinion of every rea
sonable Christian, when he says : " You who in the
Gospel believe what you please, and disbelieve what you
please, are not behoving the Gospel, but yourselves."
The assent and obedience also which you are bound to
pay to the decrees of the Council, is not to be simply an
outward reluctant obedience, which you would pay, as if
it were imposed upon you as a penalty, but you must
give to them your interior assent. Faith resides in the
soul, not in the body. Both the understanding and the
heart have their office to fulfil in an act of Faith ; and as
the Council speaks in the name and with the authority
of God, you must give to its utterances upon faith and
morals, the tribute which Almighty God asks from you,
when He says : Son, give Me thy heart. As Faith ex
cludes doubt, and is the very contradictory of doubt, it
implies a full and confident bending down of the under
standing, and a ready and loving tribute of the heart, to
whatever is proposed to us by the authority appointed by
God. To give an outward submission, but reserve the
inward assent, would be giving to God the body without
the soul ; or at most it would be dividing our heart, and
offering to God what He will never accept — a divided
heart. We either do believe that a Council is infallible,
or we do not. If we do believe it (as every Catholic
must believe, inasmuch as the Council represents the
Church, which is infallible), then there is the reason why
it demands that interior assent which constitutes an act
of Faith. If we do not believe it, then we are renounc
ing Catholic Faith altogether, and I should then have to
argue with you upon principles, which it is not in my

LECTURE XII, 233
province to urge at present, as I am on this point
addressing myself to you, who are glad to be members
of the One Catholic Church.
Something more than this is also demanded at your
hands, my Catholic brethren, as a duty to the Council.
If you are true to your Church and your God, you owe
to the Council not your assent and obedience only, but
your loyalty also. You are not to be led away by a false
liberalism, and to think that you are showing yourselves
to be generous in your feelings towards others, by join
ing in any of those criticisms which the world is now
so freely and recklessly passing upon this work of God.
Do remember that there is such a sentiment as honour
which holds good in religion as elsewhere. What value
would you set upon the profession of friendship of one
who, when your character might be attacked, would
sit passively listening to the imputation of unworthy
motives, or to charges of discreditable conduct made
upon you, or would even join in encouraging sus
picions against your integrity? Do you look upon
the Church as a mother, and can you allow her to
be attacked, and her honour questioned and denied,
and you sit in cowardly silence, or compromising assent
to such charges ? The Council has assailants enough
from those outside the Church, without your adding in
. any way to the ungenerous assaults made upon her.
When the press in this country is attacking the Council
day after day, there is some danger of a wrong impres
sion being made with regard to it; but the danger
is only in proportion to your cowardice and want of
principle. The very fact of its being assailed, ought to
call for your zeal in its defence. And a poor, craven,

234 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
weak-hearted, disloyal, undutiful subject and child must
you be, if you can allow the Church to be condemned
and dishonoured, and you remain passive and unmoved
in her behalf. Do not forget that you are bound to
be just towards the Church, before you are generous
towards her enemies. I am speaking to you to-night
on the Festival of St. Stephen, the first Martyr of
the Church. He certainly was no compromiser; when
being charged with being a follower of Jesus of
Nazareth, he, in his turn, accused his enemies with
being His betrayers and murderers. We sadly lack his
spirit now-a-days ; but what a contrast to his noble soul
is that soft compliance with falsehood which loves to
call itself liberalism! Look at the example of our Holy
Father himself, the brave and glorious Pius the Ninth,
now happily presiding over the Council, which he has suc
ceeded in bringing into existence in the face of the most
cruel and ungenerous opposition ! What can you ever
have to undergo for the Church in comparison with the
wrongs and persecutions which have been heaped upon
him ? And are you not compounding with treason, when
you allow his cause to be attacked, and perhaps even
encourage those who speak evil against him ? Bear
in mind, then, that there is a question of your loyalty
on all these occasions ; and loyalty certainly is a duty
you owe to the Church.
And still one more duty must I urge upon you, my
Catholic brethren, towards your own Church assembled
in Council. You may remember that when the time of
the Passion of our dearest Saviour was drawing nigh, He
found it necessary to caution His followers against being
scandalized in His regard, when they would see the de-

LECTURE XII. 235
gree to which He would be humbled, and how He would
seem to be quite in the power and at the mercy of His
enemies. There was a fear that they might, in the ab-
jectness of His Humanity, forget His Divinity, and might
yield to the feelings of human respect, and by their pusil
lanimity add even to the bitterness of His sufferings.
You know how much the caution was needed, and how
true was the prophetic declaration of our Blessed Lord
on the night before His death, when He said : All of you
will be scandalized in Me this night. The Council is now
before the world, what our Lord was before His enemies :
it is held up as an object of reproach. Now, your duty is
not to be scandalized; not to think ill of the Council, be
cause the world speaks ill of it. You ought to be pre
pared to hear objections against it. It would not give a
sign of its being the work of God, if it did not share in
the reproach which the world is always heaping upon
Him. It has this in common with every truth of religion,
that it is open to objections that may be and will be
started against it. The glorious Mystery of the Incarna
tion, now the object of our special devotion, the Mystery
of the Adorable Trinity, the Mystery of the Blessed
Sacrament of the Altar, the very Mystery of the exist
ence of God — do you not know that all these have had
their impugners and objectors? And are they untrue
and to be rejected, because some have been found bold
and impious enough to argue and write against them?
Think of the poor crib and the ruinous stable of Beth
lehem, around and within which all your hearts are now
gathered together, and you will see how our Blessed
Lord was treated when He came into this world. He
came unto His own, and His own received Him not. Be

236 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
not surprised if it is exactly the same with the Council.
It is assembled for the good of the world ; but the world
knows it not, and will not receive it. But it is your duty
to be upon your guard ; not to be led by the world, but
to be prepared to find it, as it has taken care to show
itself, opposed as it always is, to the cause of God and
His Church.
And to any amongst you, my dear brethren, who may
not be members of the Catholic Church, who cannot
understand the necessity of the Council, and are not
inclined to sympathise with it, to you also I have a word
to say upon the duties which even you owe to the Council.
I have not hesitated to say that the Council has duties
towards you, and I have declared and shown to you how
it is prepared zealously and affectionately to discharge
those duties. And for this very reason you have duties
towards it. I must say, what may seem to be bold, and
yet, however bold, I do say it, that you cannot claim
exemption from these duties ; and they are binding,
solemnly binding, upon your conscience. Because you
do not recognise the authority of the Council, is that a
plea of exemption from its claims upon you ? Because
the fool hath said in his heart, there is no God, is there no
God ? And in the government of the world is Almighty
God to pass over unnoticed those who thus dare to deny
His existence ? Or, on the awful day of the General Judg
ment of the world, are those who have dared to stand
up against Him, to escape judgment, whilst those alone
who have bowed down before the great God of the uni
verse, are to be tried according to their works ? Will
not, rather, the very fact of that denial be brought up as
a charge against such infidels, and make them objects of

LECTURE XII. 237
the anger of Him, Whom they have pretended to ignore?
And, in hke manner, I ask, because some deny the autho
rity of the Council, does it prevent its being a Council,
and if a Council, the representative of the Church, and of
God, Who speaks and deals with us through His Church?
The Council is too great a fact to be ignored, and it is
not ignored. As the infidel acknowledges the existence
of God at the very time that he blasphemes against Him,
so does the world admit the reality of the Council, in the
fact of opposing it. Your duty is to treat the Council as
a fact, and against this no ignorance can be brought upon
your part as an excuse for dealing with it unjustly. You
are bound to treat it with fairness and justice, and if
you do not, you certainly will have one day to answer
for it.
One of the greatest champions of the Catholic Church,
against those who are opposed to it in this country, has
stated, and has proved that Fable is the basis of the
Protestant view, and that true testimony will not
answer the demands of those who resist the Church.
Never could those statements be better illustrated than
in the manner in which the great event of the Council
has been treated by those who are employed in the
Press of this country in giving testimony in its re
gard. The testimony is fabulous and is untrue. Again
and again it has been shown to be so, and yet stories
that are told are believed, and are perpetuated and
distributed by the circulation given to them. You
may remember, my dear brethren, and listen, be
cause it worth recalling to your mind, how you read in
the Book of Numbers (chap, xiii.), that when Moses sent
twelve spies to view the promised land, at the time that

238 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
the Israelites were close upon its borders, what was the
result of their visit, and the testimony which they bore.
They went into it from a desert, in which they had been
wearied out by the trials and privations of a forty years'
pilgrimage ; and as Moses was eager to hasten on the
stiff-necked people over whom he was ruling, by holding
before their eyes a view of the rich and fertile land des
tined for them, and now so close within their reach, he
appointed twelve messengers, who were to go over and
view the land, and to come back and give their testimony.
What did they see, and what did they say ? They saw
a land flowing with milk and honey : so luxurious in its
produce, that a single bunch of grapes served as a bur
den for two men to carry ; and there was everything
about it that ought to have answered the purpose of the
wise lawgiver, when he felt that a true description of its
blessings would stimulate the pilgrims on their onward
journey. But what was their testimony ? Ten out of
the twelve gave false testimony. They described it as
a land of giants, who devoured all its inhabitants; and,
with apparently no other motive but that they would
cling to their own way, rather than move forward in an
united and obedient body, they dissuaded their comrades
from going to take possession of it, and counselled them
rather to remain and perish in the wilderness, or return
back to the slavery of Egypt. No wonder that Moses and
Aaron, on hearing these false witnesses, fell flat upon the
ground, as if struck down with wonder, and that Josue
and Caleb, the two who told the truth, and described
the land as it really was, rent their garments in dismay.
My dear brethren — exactly the same is occurring now.
Out of all those who are sent as representatives of our

LECTURE XII. 239
Press into the land, which shows itself by unmistakable
signs, to be the home of Faith, loved and blessed by God,
ten out of twelve give false testimony. They pervert
the truth ; they invent and spread fables ; they show that
true testimony is unequal to their cause, and they try to
prevent, by misrepresentation, the immense moral power
which the Council, as an argument, is calculated to exercise.
Do not believe their testimony. The very tone in which
they write, the palpable contradictions into which they
are constantly falling, ought to make you suspect their
evidence. God will, beyond a doubt, call them to an
account for their untruthfulness ; and He will call you to
an account also, if you allow yourself, against the better
feelings of fairness and honesty which you must possess,
to believe falsehood rather than the truth.
And now, my dear brethren, having said thus much
upon the relative duties between the Council and your
selves, it only remains for me to exhort you to be as
faithful and zealous, on your part as you will find the
Council in the discharge of the high and holy office which
Almighty God has imposed upon it. It will not suffice
for you to know your duty : you must also fulfil it. I
have asked obedience, fervour, and loyalty from some : I
demand fairness and justice from all. It is the Church
which makes these demands, and she has a right to make
them. She has God's work to do, His cause to defend ;
and in such a cause she can afford to take a high stand
and to speak boldly. Yet she condescends, as God
Himself does, and she speaks invitingly and affec
tionately as He does. And as our good God, great
and powerful as He is, the Creator and the future
Judge of the world, even begs of a soul not to turn

240 THE OECUMENICAL COUNCIL.
away from Him, but to be just towards Him, in
making a return which He has a right to expect, so
does the Church, doing the work of God, represent the
spirit and use the words and arguments of God, and beg
you not to turn away, when it so deeply concerns you to
accept the invitation she holds out to you. The Council
is a fact ; it is an argument ; it is an evidence ; nay, more,
its very existence is to you a light and a grace, and it
will have to be answered for. Do not resist its influence,
but acknowledge it, and bow before a reality which you
cannot help admitting.
And now, 0 Lord, Almighty, I may say, in the beautiful
words of the Prophet Baruch, 0 God of Israel, the soul
in anguish, and the troubled spirit crieth to Thee. Hear,
0 Lord, and have mercy, for Thou art a merciful God, and
have pity upon us, for we have sinned before Thee. . . .
Remember not the iniquities of our fathers, but think upon
Thy Hand, and upon Thy Name. Hear, 0 Israel, the com
mandments of life : give ear that thou mayest learn wisdom.
Thou hast forsaken the fountain of wisdom ; for if thou
hadst walked in the way of God, thou hadst surely dwelt in
peace for ever. Learn where is wisdom, where is strength,
where is understanding, that thou mayest know also where
is length of days and life, where is the light of the eyes and
peace. These are blessings which are within your reach,
offered to you by God through His Church, and offered
by the Church through the Council. Take them, and
make them your own. And even if it be the case with
others, that they will not hear and obey the voice which
calls them, let it not be the case with you. But when
He that has made you because He loved you, and who
always will have you bound to Him by a law of love, asks

LECTURE XII. 241
you, pointing to those who reject His Grace and His
call : Will you also leave Me ? you will answer with
all the earnestness, sincerity and fervour of St. Peter :
Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the words of
Eternal Life.

NOTES

NOTE A.
From the Times of November 16th, 1869.
The following is a translation of a most important letter addressed by the
Patriarch of Constantinople to the Archbishop of Canterbury, in reply to
one written by His Grace to His Holiness, forwarding (as would appear)
a copy of the English Prayer Book.
The Patriarch's letter is dated September 26 (October 8, new style), and
was published in the Constantinople newspaper Neologos, on October 11
(23rd) :—
" Gregory, by the mercy of God, Archbishop of Constantinople, the new
Rome, and (Ecumenical Patriarch, to the Most Holy Archbishop the
Metropolitan of Canterbury, and Exarch of the Christians of the Angli
can Confession in Great Britain, the Lord Archibald Campbell: Peace
from God and brotherly salutation in Christ.
" Having received, with the greatest joj', the highly esteemed letter sent
by your Venerable Sanctity to our humility, we were moved to the inmost
heart, as was meet, both at the thanks you so kindly expressed to us for
the fulfilment of what was at once a Christian and canonical duty, in send
ing our Protocyncellus to the consecration performed by the most beloved of
God, the Bishop of Gibraltar, the Lord Charles Amyand, and also at the
communication, in a spirit of brotherly love, of your desire and prayers that
there may be upon earth one elect flock and one Chief Shepherd — our Lord,
uniting those that are divided, and guiding all, so that they may think and
speak the same thing, and work together for the increase of His kingdom.
" We also, night and day, praying our God and Saviour for these very
things, do not cease, on every occasion, both to rejoice and, so far as we can,
to co-operate readily in every good work and every good design tending to the
edification and perfection of our neighbour, and to the enlightenment and
common agreement of all, and to the unity that is in Christ Jesus. Nor do

notes. 244
we only pray for this; but we also expect and anticipate it from the common
Father, and from God the Saviour and His Spirit, when many shall be
taught, and the Imowledge of the most ancient and unadulterated orthodoxy
shall be extended which the primitive and Catholic Church of Christ delivered
to us, free from error, through the Apostolic heralds of God, and the God-
bearing Father, and the seven venerable and God-moved (Ecumenical
Councils. " But, as to the burial of your countrymen, be it known to your much-
desired Holiness that, even if we had not been expressly exhorted and
requested by any of the venerable British Bishops, we would of ourselves
have granted every permission to bury English strangers deceased within
our cemeteries, at the request of their relatives; well knowing that 'the
earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof.' This, then, we will much
rather permit for the future, from consideration to your Holiness, beloved
of Christ, and in recompense, as is meet, of the tribute of brotherly kind
ness, on the sole condition that no private right of property is in any case
acquired in the ground in which they are buried.
" Having very gratefully received the Sacred Prayer Book of your Angli
can Confession, presented to us by you, we have deferred an answer chiefly
on this account, that, having more leisurely perused this Ecclesiastical
Book, we might more accurately ascertain how far it inclines to or diverges
from genuine Evangelical and Catholic teaching ; and how far it confirms
that statement of the Preface (p. 7) that ' it contains nothing contrary to
the Word of God and to sound doctrine.'
" In the meantime, having gladly received the Encyclical Epistle pub
lished by the Anglican Bishops assembled two years since in England, to
which is prefixed the commendatory letter of your ever-to-be-remembered
Eminence, and perceiving from it that they distinctly confess and affirm,
simply and in general, that they hold firmly and immoveably the Holy
Scriptures as the Word of God, and that they maintain the Creeds of one
Holy and Apostolic Church, and keep pure and undefiled its ancient order
and worship . . and reject all novelty, and are endeavouring to publish
abroad in all the earth the saving preaching of the Gospel, — perceiving,
we say, all this so distinctly and generally affirmed in words, we rejoiced
greatly in our soul, suspecting the approach and dawn of the gathering
together in one and the same fold of the Lord, and the union of all the
spiritual sheep everywhere.
" But on descending to the particulars of the contents of the Prayer
Book and of the distinguished Confession of the Thirty-nine Articles con
tained in it,  since in the perusal of them, both the statements concerning
the eternal existence of the Holy Spirit and those concerning the Divine
Eucharist, and, further, those concerning the number of the Sacraments,
R 2

245 notes.
concerning Apostolical and Ecclesiastical Tradition, the authority of the
truly genuine- CEcumenical Councils, the position and mutual relations of
the Church on earth and that in Heaven ; and, moreover, the honour and
reverence due from us to those who are, in theory and practice, the heroes
of the Faith — the adamantine martyrs and athletes — since, we say, these
statements appeared to us to savour too much of novelty ; and that which
is said (p. 592, Art. 19), 'As the Churches of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and
Antioch have erred, so also the Church of Rome hath erred, not only in
their living and manner of ceremonies, but also in matters of faith,' deprives
the Eastern Churches of the orthodoxy and perfection of the Faith (let us
be permitted to say that accusations of our neighbour are out of place in
a distinguished Confession of Faith)— these statements throw us into sus
pense, so that we doubt what we are to judge of the rule of Anglican
orthodoxy. We would, therefore, pray with our whole soul to the Author
and Finisher of our salvation, to enlighten the understanding of all with
the light of His knowledge, and to make of all nations one speech of the
one Faith, and of the one love, and of the one hope of the Gospel ; that
with one mouth and one heart, as merciful children of one and the same
mother, the Church — the Catholic Church of the first-begotten— we may
glorify the Triune God.
" May His saving grace be with your Holiness, dearly beloved to us in
Christ, and with all the God-beloved flock subject to you.
" September 26, 1869."

NOTE B.
Protestant Address to the Pope.

Holy Father, —
Having long been endeavouring in vain to obtain from the Prelates and
Ecclesiastics of the several communions to which we belong either a resistance
to, or a condemnation of, acts, practices, and maxims, contrary alike to the
Word of God and the laws of man, we now approach your Holiness in the
hope that this branch of public disorder will not be neglected by your solici
tude, and that in taking the measures which you propose for the rectification
of the public judgment you will include those particular errors which we now
submit. The ancient relations of conquest and administration, which have connected
the Crown of Great Britain and Ireland with regions beyond the limits of

notes. 246
Europe, inhabited by Brahmins, Hindus, Mussulmans, and Pagans, have
exposed in these distant countries the integrity of Englishmen to more than
ordinary temptation. Treaties have there been violated, blood has been
unjustly shed, and injuries of various kinds have been inflicted upon innocent
persons. To justify these evil deeds, a maxim has been introduced and even
publicly proclaimed by the highest political authority of modern times, Sir
Robert Peel, that Christian men are not bound by the law of nations and the
dictates of justice in their dealings with those who are un-Christian and
uncivilised. In the execution of the deeds which have been covered by such a maxim,
and in the future prosecution of the like to which it invites, the spiritual
subjects of your Holiness have been, and will be, extensively employed.
We have ascertained that the Fathers of the Catholic Church, the Popes,
and the Councils, have repeatedly and authoritatively condemned and de
nounced such practices and such maxims as contrary to the Will of God and
to the laws of men, and as rendering all those who execute and abet the like,
cut off from the Communion of Christian men.
Considering that no State, however powerful, can be safe wherein such
practices prevail, considering that no man, however individually pious, can be
other than an infidel who does not in such a matter discriminate between right
and wrong; considering that all the religious bodies of Christendom have
ceased, in this respect, to teach the Law of God; we appeal to your Holiness
to declare anew, whether by your own authority or by means of the Council
about to be held, that law and those maxims which were declared and enforced
of old from the very seat on which your Holiness now sits, in order that those
may become a guide for the conduct of our fellow-countrymen who belong to
the Church of which your Holiness is the Head, and a bight to the whole
world. We have learned that your Holiness has refused absolution and religious
offices to those, being impenitent, who have, by a pretended act of their own
will, repudiated the duties of allegiance to our Sovereign, and who hold them
selves guilty of no crime when committing unlawful acts in obeying the orders
of those to whom they have sworn a blind obedience.
Considering that the acts and purposes of these misguided men amount to
no more and no other than that which constitutes the daily practice of all the
Governments of Europe, namely, that of taking the life of man without due
cause and without judicial warrant ; considering that it is by the effects and
by the example of such acts on the part of Governments who raise men either
voluntarily or by force, who discipline these men in the arts of war, who pay
them from the sweat and labour of the people, and who hold three millions of
such men, who are bound to a olind obedience, ready at every hour to devas
tate and destroy, that those private and insignificant persons have been

247 notes.
disturbed in their daily life and tempted into evil courses, to whom your
Holiness now refuses, because of such acts, the oflices of religion :
We pray and beseech your Holiness to deal in like manner with the same
sin in those who, at the present moment, are controlled by no tribunal, and
liable to no retribution.

NOTE C.
Letter from the Holy Father to the Archbishop of Westminster, concerning
those who are without the Catholic Church.
"Pius P.P. FX.
" To our Venerable Brother, Henry Edward, Archbishop of Westminster.
"Venerable Brother, —
Health and the Apostolic Blessing. Having said in the the letter
which we addressed to you, Venerable Brother, on the fourth day of Sep
tember last, that subjects which had already been carefully examined and
decided by an Oecumenical Council could not again be called in question,
that therefore no place could be given in the approaching Council for any
defence of errors which had been condemned, and that for this reason we
could not have invited non-Catholics to a discussion, we now learn that
some of those who dissent from our faith have so understood those words as to
believe that no way is left open to them of making known the difficulties which
keep them separated from the Catholic Church, and that almost all approach
to us is cut off. But so far are we, the Vicar upon earth, although unworthy,
of Him who came to save that which was lost, from repelling them in any way
whatever that we even go forth to meet them, and nothing do we seek for with
a more ardent wish than to be able to stretch but our arms with a father's
love to any one who shall return to us. And never, certainly, have we
wished to impose silence upon those who, misled by their education, and
believing their opinions to be right, think that their dissent from us rests upon
strong arguments which they would wish to be examined by wise and prudent
men. For although this cannot be done in the Council, there will not be
wanting learned divines, appointed by ourselves, to whom they may open
their minds, and may with confidence make known the reasons of their own
belief; so that even out of the contest of a discussion undertaken solely with a
desire of finding out the truth, they may receive a more abundant light to
guide them to it. And may very many propose this to themselves, and carry

notes

248

it out in good faith ! For it could not be done without great profit to them
selves and to others ; to themselves, indeed, because God will show His'face
to those that seek Him with their whole heart, and will give them what they
long for ; to others, because not only the example of eminent men cannot fail
of its efficacy, but also the more diligently they shall have laboured to obtain
the benefit of truth, the more earnestly will they strive to impart the same
benefit to the rest. Earnestly praying the God of Mercy for this "most happy
issue, we desire you to receive, Venerable Brother, the Apostolic Blessing
which, as a token of the Divine favour and of our own especial goodwill, we
most lovingly grant to you and to your whole diocese.
" Given at St. Peter's, in Rome, on the 30th day of October, 1869, in the
twenty-fourth year of our Pontificate, "Pros, P.P. IX."

FINIS.

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