The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-06-03
The Council Of Trent and the
Council Of the Vatican.

Inc council oil Irent while IL effected some
moral reforms, introduced, or rather stereotyped,
q new era of Ultramoutane exclusiveness in the
Church. For the previous two centuries the
cry for n searching reformation had waxed
louder and louder, and especially since the ma
npuvring of the Roman Court had frustrated
the endeayors of the Council of Basle to satisfy
H. Germany had all along been foremost In
urging the demand for free representative
Council. And when, at the beginning OF the
sixteenth century, an age of yet deeper proni-
Eacy was startled by the trumpet-tongued chal-
lenge of n professed hereto and schlsmatlc,
who united the call to holiness with scathlng
denunciations of what was at once the eentTe Of
corruption and the central See of ChristendoIn,
even Rome could no longer affect TO ignore the
crisis But she still adhered to her traditional
policy of evasion, and dallied till the remedy
came too late Between 1880 and 1910 n bona
fde SYNOD not dominated by Papal legates and
fairly representing all the national Churches of
Europe might have availed to stem the tide,
and secure reformation without precipitating a
schism. When at length, in 1915, Paul Ill re-
luctantly assented to the assembling of n Coun-
Gil at Trent, it was transferred after few
months on the idlest preteXts, to the Papal city
of Bologna, and soon afterwards separated for
sixteen years When it reasscmbled at Trent
in 1862, Professionalism had alreadymade its posi-
ton, and received the allegiance of half Europe
The Council met, not to satisfy or even seriously
to consider the complaints of the reforming
party, but to draw the reins yet tighter on the
necks of those who could still be cOerced into
submission. THE Germans" TO use the words
of the Atgeneine Zeit,Cng, might have applied
to their own treatment what on n later occa-
sion, the French diplomatsts said to the Dutch,
Nous trditerOnS chez UouS, sur UOuS et sans
UOus" 1t had been foreseen at Rome that the
German bishops as body, would be unable to
attend, and Brief of Paul III provided in de-
hance of all former precedents, that their proc
tors should have no votes. At The earlier scs-
sions of this Council, sitting in Germany
and claiming to be Gcumenical,
there was present not single German bishop,
bp bod no in
later sessions, one voting bishop and five proctors
without votes There small sprinkling of
French and Spanish bishops and two hundred
Italian bishops, who of course were practically
supreme. Moreover, votes were taken, not by
nations, as at Constance, but individually; and
ii was ruled, again in defiance of precedent that
the Papal legates should have the exclusive
right of deciding what questions should be
brought forward. Under these circumstances,
we cannot wonder at what ensued. The German
ambassadors of Ferdinand had demanded reform
in the Otrtd, the restoration of the chalce, the
marriage of priests, the revision of the breviary
which is full of exploded fables-the use of
the vernacular in public services, and the reform
of converts All these demands were seconded
by the Cardidal of Lorraine and the French
bishops, who also insisted on the superiority of
Councils to Popes, and wanted the DEGREES of
Constance and Basle I'm that sense to be con-
firmed Every one of these demands was either
evaded or refused. For the first time to quote
the words of Ranke, "the Catholic Church
(Vrtually) gave up all claim upon the East and
repudiated the Protestant half of Europe with
countless anathemas.'
Instructive distrust of the Teutonic peoples
had long, indeed and increasingly shaped the
policy of Rome, and had become matter of
public observation. Spanish jurists, like An
tonic Gomez, supposed it was ne Secretd EccleSi9
Inlperdtori reCelentlW. Hardly any Germans
received the red hat, and none except Cusa and
Schomberg were allowed any share in the Pom
tifcal Government. For the three centuries
during which the Congregation of the Index has
existed, though it has condemned German books
by wholesale, only two Germans, and those
monks in Roman converts have ever sat upon
1T. Nay, more, it seems that the inequalities of
earth are expected to be reproduced in Heaven.
For six centuries, among multitudes of Italian
French, Spanish and South American saints,
only two Germans have been canonized-Bshop
Benno who was recommended by his
extreme Ultramontanism, and Canisius, whose
membership of the Jesuit Order condoned
the stain of his birth. And who, asks the AHge-
nleine Zeitung, will dare to raise warning voice
at the council now proclaimed, at least two
thirds of which will consist of Romanizers, on
behalf of the twenty-five million German Catho- !
lies? Who will tell the assembled fathers |
plainly that the Germans are no longer the |
much-enduring people who bore the yoke so |
patiently till at last in 1917 it broke the cames
back that the Catholics of Germany, who are |
closely intermingled with Protestants, who are !
Versed in Protestant literature and enjoy free
dom of the press, cannot for very shame accept !
the tenet of Papal infallibility which throws |
contempt on Scripture, the ancient Church. his |
tory, and human reason?' Who will caution |
them against the fond illusion that n handful of |
Jesuits and their pupils, whose foreign educa-
tiOn has denatiOnalized all their feelings, are
trustworthy Interpreters of the national mind |
and who will remind them that if |
system of sheer terrorism COM
pels German theologians for the |
moment to bend their backs under the Caudine |
yoke of a newly-coined article of faith, it will |
never command their belief? To the last they |
will continue German in all their feelings and |
thoughts and will say ''E pur 81 nsuOUe! this |
Papal infallibility is an idle dream" When Leo !
X had made his Synod. of Italian prelates, POM
pously styled the Fifth of Lateran, decree the |
supremacy of the Pope over Councils, kings, |
and nations, thus reversing the DEGREES of Con- |
stance and Basle, he and his courters imagined |
that the Papacy had attained its zenith and that |
the world would be at its feet. A few months |
the door of a church at Wittenberg; ten years |
later Rome sacked by German army; forty |
years later half Europe had finally revolted from
her spiritual sway. This time no such outward |
conyulsions are likely to folio an Ultramontane |
triumph. "There will hea great calm" as Dr. |
Manning says, and the Jesuits and their allies |
will sing Hosannah. The world will leave |
them to their Pyrrhc victory-and its results |
From the. Council of Trent onwards their |
policy has been one of repression |
and terrorism. The Inquisiton and the Index
have done their work, as Dr. Dollnger pointed |
out some years ago, in destroying not only all
intellectual, but all theological energy In the |
countries where they have had free course. No
man can write what is worth reading under a
censorship; beneath its iron heel no grass can
grow" Theology shrank into the dry husks of
Bcholasticism and casuistry, biblical studies dis
appeared, history became perilous ground, and
the very name of criticism excited suspicion and
hatred. The learned Antonio Paleario was