Letters From Rome on the Council Part 28

"In France, in Holland, and in Germany, there has already appeared a mult.i.tude of disquisitions on this subject. Among these several are the acknowledged compositions of men of high standing in the Roman Catholic world,-men admittedly ent.i.tled to speak with the authority that must attach to established reputation: but not one of them has. .h.i.therto produced a work more likely to create a deep impression than the anonymous German publications at the head of this notice. It is not a piece of merely polemical writing, it is a treatise dealing with a large subject in an impressive though partisan manner-a treatise grave in tone, solid in matter, and bristling with forcible and novel ill.u.s.trations."-SPECTATOR, _November 6_.

"It is, as all our readers know, a history of how the Papal claims have grown from their modest germs in the _fifth_, down to their full development in the _sixteenth_ century. This history, too, is accompanied by a corresponding exhibition of the inconsistency of these claims with actual facts. But the work is done with such elaborate care, and with such a well-marshalled and complete view of the historical facts of the case, that it may well be bought and read irrespective of the circ.u.mstances which have called it forth. It is a full, able, and learned bill of indictment against Popery proper."-LITERARY CHURCHMAN, _November 13_.

"This book, characterized by great ability, singular grasp, and scholars.h.i.+p, demonstrates, with proof infallible, that the Ultramontane doctrine of the Pope's infallibility is the centre of an arch based upon error, raised by cunning craft, settled and cemented by shameless treachery. And this most damaging exposure of Popery proceeds from divines calling themselves 'faithful Catholics.' No Ultramontane is able to sneer at the scholars.h.i.+p of the book; nor can they take off the edge of its blows by ascribing it to the malice of Protestants."-RECORD, _November 17_.

"Yet on this and other doc.u.ments of the same kind, the whole fabric of Papal power and a.s.sumption has been built up. The forged donations of Constantine, Pepin, and Charlemagne are the t.i.tle-deeds by which its possessions are held, and the _Liber Pontificalis_, and Isidorian decretals, are the authorities on which it rests for the a.s.sertion of a power inconsistent alike with the rights of G.o.d and the liberties of man.

We know of no book in which the whole process is exposed with the same completeness and in the same brief compa.s.s, and we commend it to our readers as one from which they will derive an amount of valuable information for which otherwise they might search in vain."-ENGLISH INDEPENDENT, _November 18_.

"The book before us is making England and Germany ring with valiant and wise words of warning, which ought to make the representative of St. Peter weep tears of honest grief over past and present, the crooked policy of the one and the headstrong ambition of the other. As a rule, we may say that anti-Papal literature is of the lowest grade of literary merit, filled with illogical and inconclusive reasoning, and characterized by ignorance, bigotry, and cant. The present work is a splendid exception, severe in tone, but not unduly so, clear in statement, and unsparing in its dissection of the contradictions involved in modern Ultramontane theories. Its German authors.h.i.+p secures for it patient and exhaustive treatment of the subject; its Catholic origin places its statements far above the ordinary suspicions of unfairness, while it raises our admiration for the love of truth, which could lead men to oppose so bravely the current of popular Roman thought."-CHURCH TIMES, _November 26_.

"Now, what this book of Ja.n.u.s proves is, that all these _a priori_ reasons for Papal Infallibility are absolutely worthless. They are beaten off the stage entirely and altogether. There is not the smallest atom of ground for them to stand upon."-CHURCH REVIEW, _November 27_.

"This work, written by continental Roman Catholics of the liberal school, will be read in Protestant England with the deepest interest, and on more accounts than one. Accustomed as we are so much to view this great Church system of Rome with feelings of antagonism, it is well we should know and learn to sympathize with able and earnest men within its body, who are keenly alive to its weaknesses, and are anxiously seeking for light as to how Christianity, as they have received it, may help to solve the perplexities of the age. We should hope that no Protestant who reads this able treatise will feel differently. At the same time, it has no little value for us Protestants, in days when our Protestantism is so scornfully arraigned among ourselves; for if anything can justify our position and deepen our grat.i.tude to a merciful Providence that has ruled our history, it is a candid work like this, proceeding from what we must call the opposite camp."-CONTEMPORARY REVIEW, _December_.

"Rumour will, no doubt, be busy with its conjectures as to the name which lurks beneath the _nom de plume_ of 'Ja.n.u.s.' We do not intend to offer any contribution towards the elucidation of the mystery, unless it be a contribution to say that the book bears internal evidence of being the work of a Catholic, and that there are not many Catholics in Europe who could have written it. Taking it all in all, it is no exaggerated praise to characterize it as the most damaging a.s.sault on Ultramontanism that has appeared in modern times. Its learning is copious and complete, yet so admirably arranged that it invariably ill.u.s.trates without overlaying the argument. The style is clear and simple, and there is no attempt at rhetoric. It is a piece of cool and masterly dissection, all the more terrible for the pa.s.sionless manner in which the author conducts the operation."-TIMES, _December 3_.

FOOTNOTES

1 [It may be well to add, to preclude misconceptions, that both Letters and Articles are exclusively the work of Catholics.-TR.]

2 The weight to be attached to the _Civilta_ on all questions connected with the Council may be gathered from the Brief of Pius IX. of Feb. 12, 1866, printed in the _Civilta_, Serie vi. vol. vi.

pp. 7-15. The Pope declares that this journal, expressly intrusted with the defence of religion and with teaching and disseminating the authority and claims of the Roman See, is to be written and edited by a special staff to be named by the General of the Jesuits, who are to have a special house and revenues of their own. The previous censors.h.i.+p, as is known in Rome, is exercised with particular care, so that nothing appears without the approbation of the _Curia_.

3 [Cardinal Reisach was absent at the opening of the Council, and died soon afterwards, Dec. 26, 1869, in Savoy.-TR.]

4 [See Introduction to The Pope and the Council, pp. 1-4.-TR.]

5 [Cf. _The Pope and the Council_, p. 6.-TR.]

6 These fears, as is well known, were not realized at Fulda.

7 The Cardinal's subsequent att.i.tude has not justified this hope.

Freppel too, as Bishop-designate of Anjou, has now declared himself for the infallibilists.

8 This design does not seem to have been persevered in.

_ 9 Corresp. de Rome_, 1869, p. 384: "L'infallibilite du Pape, decidant en matiere de foi _ex cathedra_, c'est-a-dire comme maitre de l'Eglise etant deja admise par tous les vrais catholiques, un decret du Concil fera juste l'effet d'une confirmation d'une chose universellement sue et crue."

10 "Praesidentia auctoritativa dicitur ... insuper c.u.m auctoritate coactiva compescendi etiam per censuras ecclesiasticas, et alia juris media contradictores et rebelles et contumaces, prout ex const.i.tutione XI. Martini V., etc."

11 "Juramentum contra utilitatem ecclesiasticam praest.i.tum non tenet."-Lib. ii. t.i.t. 24, c. 27; s.e.xt. Lib. i. t. 2, c. 1.

12 Cf. "Ja.n.u.s," p. 230.

13 [The third Lateran Council.-TR.]

14 The Scotch p.r.o.nounce Latin much as the Germans do.

15 [Even this must be taken with reserve.-Cf. _infra_, pp. 174, 175.-TR.]

16 [Most of the rights originally inherent in the episcopate are now reserved to the Pope, who only allows Bishops to exercise them during good behaviour, by virtue of "faculties" renewed every five years. Cf. "Ja.n.u.s," p. 422, note.-TR.]

17 [This must be taken with some reserve, as will be seen further on.-TR.]

18 "Obligatam haerentemque sanctiori Pontifici velut in pectore Societatem."-Bolland, _Imago_, p. 622.

19 [The German College is conducted by the Jesuits.-TR.]

20 [Archbishop MacHale does not seem to have justified this antic.i.p.ation.-TR.]

21 Excommunications _latae sententiae_, as distinguished from excommunication _ferendae sententiae_, are those which immediately take effect on the commission of the forbidden act, without requiring any sentence of Pope or Bishop to be p.r.o.nounced.

22 When the news arrived from Paris of the abolition of the Pragmatic Sanction, _i.e._, of the reforms of Basle.

23 [This formula, often mistakenly supposed to occur in the Papal Coronation service, refers to the traditional length of St. Peter's pontificate-twenty-five years. No Pope has yet reigned to the end of his twenty-fifth year, and only one has entered on the beginning of it. Pius IX. completes his twenty-fourth year on June 16, 1870.-TR.]

24 [This point is forcibly dwelt on by Count Daru in his memorandum, which the Pope refused to lay before the Council.-TR.]

25 "Animas eorum qui in solo peccato originali, vel mortali actuali decedunt, in infernum descendere, pnis tamen disparibus puniendas."

26 "Imprimis itaque fide Catholica, tenendum est illorum animas," etc.

The author seems really to believe that the Rationalistic tendencies of the age can be cured with an emetic.

27 [Cardinal Reisach, who was formerly Archbishop of Munich, used to say he had almost forgotten how to speak German.-TR.]

28 "Supremam ideoque ab errore immunem esse Romani Pontificis auctoritatem, quum in rebus fidei et moram ea statuit ac praecipit quae ab omnibus Christi fidelibus credenda et tenenda, quaeve rejicienda et d.a.m.nanda sunt."

29 "Per l'infallibilita, essendo l'Abbate Mastai, l'ho sempre creduto, adesso, essendo Papa Mastai, la sento."

30 [This reads almost like a prophecy, when we remember how afterwards, and on slighter provocation than is here supposed, hundreds of the Infallibilist Bishops danced like maniacs round the pulpit when Strossmayer and Schwarzenberg were speaking, yelling and shaking their fists at them.-Cf. _infr._ Letter x.x.xii.-TR.]

31 [Archbishop Darboy's interposition stopped the conspiracy being carried out at the first General Congregation, and four American Bishops disconcerted a second similar plot on St. Joseph's Day, March 19.-Cf. _infr._ Letter x.x.xvi.-TR.]

32 "In specie ne Concilium declaret vel definiat infallibilitatem summi Pontificis, a doctissimis et prudentissimus fidelibus S. Sedi intime addictis vehementer optatur. Gravia enim mala exinde oritura timent tum fidelibus tum infidelibus. Fideles enim ... corde turbarentur magis quam erigerentur, ac si nunc demum fundamentum Ecclesiae et verae doctrinae stabiliendum sit; infideles vero novarum calumniarum et derisionum materiam lucrarentur. Neque desunt qui ejusmodi definitionem logice impossibilem vocant et ad ipsam Ecclesiam provocant, quae ad instar solis splendorem lucis suae monstrat quidem, sed non definit. Jure denique quaeritur, cui usui ista definitio foret, de cujus sensu, modo et ambitu ampla inter theologos controversia est."

33 [Monsignor Nardi said this _totidem verbis_ to an Anglican clergyman who was inspecting the Council Hall.-TR.]

34 "Questo puzza di schisma."

35 [Compare with this account of the freedom of the Council the letters of two French Bishops, published in the _Times_ of May 3, and the _Journal des Debats_ of May 10.-TR.]

_ 36 etudes de Theologie_, Janvier 1868, p. 26:-"Le Concile n'imposait rien a notre foi, qui n'eut obtenu a peu pres l'unanimite des votes.