The Express.
London, England, 1867-07-05 00:00:00

HAYMARKET.

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LONDON. FRIDAY, JULY 5.

THE four hundred and ninety Bishops who have
rallied round the Papal chair to celebrate the
eighteenth centenary of the martyrdom of Sr.
PETER declare, in an address to the HOLY FATHER,
that they believe and teach all he believes and
teaches, and they express their joy at the pro-
spect of an (Ecumenical Council to be summoned
in the autumn of 1868, from which they expect
abundant fruits. To the uninitiated in the mys-
teries there appears to be something like an in-
version of the natural order of things in this de-
claration of the bishops. The General Councils do
not compose the moat edifying chapter of the his-
tory of the Church, except, perhaps, to the philo-
sopher who loves to contemplate in no unkindly
spirit the aberrations and pretensions of our poor
humanity in its loftiest moods. Scandals, we
know, are among the things that " must come ;"
and an irreverent critic who wanted them for
illustration would find plenty of them
in a simple narrative of the acts of
those assemblies. But it is fair to remark that
in the midst of all these quarrels and contradio-
lions one characteristic may be traced through
almost all the Councils which have been held from
time to time to determine points' of doctrine or of
discipline. The Council has been supposed to
represent the collective mind of the Church, under
the inspiration, no doubt, of the Ho' SPIRIT.
There have been majorities and minorities—that
is the human element in such assemblies—unani-
mity has seldom, if ever, been attained. But the
voice of the hierarchy assembled in Council has
been the voice of the Church ; and their decisions
have been confirmed and ratified by the final
assent of the Pon, proclaimed by him, as the
Supreme Bishop, to the Catholic world, and en-
dorsed by his assent with the infallibility of his
authority, just as the decisions of an English
Parliament become law when they have received
the assent of the Crown. No disrespect to the
more exalted claims of the ecclesiastical preroga-
tive is implied in this analogy. Visible churches
militant here on earth can only work by human
instruments and in human ways, whatever may be
the sources of their inspiration. It seems that
in our present age of artificial restorations, which
would fain supply the absence of faith by a simu-
lated fanaticism, all this is changed. The Bishops
el the Church, assembled from all parts of the
habitable globe, begin by declaring their assent and
consent to whatever the POPE may believe or
teach, and the Pore graciously announces that in
the following year he will submit to the considera-
tion of an (Ecumenical Council, composed of these
same Bishops, certain propositions of doctrine and
discipline to which they have already subscribed in
advance. If anything distinguishes an (Ecumenical
from any other general Council, it is that its de-
crees are ratified by the Pope. In the present
instance the decrees of the Pope are to be ratified
by the (Ecumenical Council. This is a curious
illustration of the excesses into which the fanati-
cism of priests without faith is apt to fall. These
Bishops are as fantastic as a sect of painters who
go back to Chaser. for their models, or of musi-
cal composers who make the future of their art a
return to the simple chaunted dialogues of savage
tribes. Only, unlike the pre-Raphaolites and the
composers of the music of the future, they have
really notraditionsorprecedentsto allege in behalf of
their interpretation of the Papal infallibility.
There is nothing, we do not say in the practice of
the primitive Church, but in the practice of the
Church of Rome, from Gszoosr the GREAT to
GREGORY the Sirrearnea, which warrants such
an abdication of the functions and purpose of a
General Council before the solo personal authority
of the Porn; or, if that expression is too strong,
the authority of the Pore and the Sacred College.
A general or an (Ecumenical Council has always
been credited with inspiration from on high, but
that inspiration has been collective not individual,
and has been understood to come down from a
source higher than any earthly Pontiff. In rati-
fying and confirming the decision of a Council the
POPE has set his seal as the Vicar of CHRIST upon
the collective act of inspiration ; he has promul-
gated, not initiated, the decrees of the Church.

We dare say tle zeal of the bishops may be
ac:oun'ed for ; bot we doubt whether the dangers
of it will escape the solicitude of some sincere but
sensible catholic laymen. It may be accounted
for by the peculiar circumstances in which this
eighteenth centenary is being celebrated at Itomo ;
by the strained and critical condition of the Tem-
poral Power ; and by the disposition of generous
and loyal servants to testify their enthusiastic de-
votion and fidelity to a falling house which so
many powerful friends have abandoned. These
Bishops have come to Rome bringing costly
offerings from the congregations of the faithful in
all parts of the earth to the Papal Treasury,
and they feel impelled in the face of an inatten-
tive and incredulous generation to declare that
now, when the Holy Father has only a few thou-
sand mercenaries, of doubtful military value, to