The New York herald., 1870-01-16
The Pope and the Council-Tho Latest
and the Biggest Bull.


informs US that the Pope has begun to be
afraid of the assembled bishops. The latest
news is to the effect that the Pope is ''cha-
grined at the drift of the Council, and that an
early dissolution of the same is by no means
an impossibilty. The telegram has no doubt
been begotten by the latest Papal Bull, or
Brief, or what our readers choose to call it.
1t was our opinion that the Council was In
some sense convened in the interest Of what
the world has been taught to call common
sense certain circumstances gave us reason
to believe that we were right but facts, which
are stronger than hopes and beliefs, have con-
vinced us that the Pope and his cardinals are
proof against all reasoning and all sense,
whether common or uncommon.
The HERALD Of Friday printed the latest
Bull or Brief which has been issued from the
Vatican. It is, we observe, called Late Sem
tentiQ No one who has read that document
can refuse to admit that Pho Mono and his
friends have made q big mistake We do not
dwell on the fact that the Brief insults all the
bishops who, before October IL, either were in
Rome or had left all the ends Of the earth to
be in Rome, although the fact is deeply sug-
gestive. It might have been better If this
latest Papal manifesto had been issued some
six or ten months in advance. But policy is
policy. AS it is, we have no great cause Of
complaint. The Brief-Lat9 Sentents9-is no
more no less, than delicate Improvement on
the Syllabus The obnoxious character Of the
Syllabus is now well known to our readers.
Those who know the Syllabus know what we
have said of it. It carries us back to the Mid
die Ages. 1t does more. It says that the
age of Hildebrand was right, and
that the nineteenth century, the age of steam
boats, Of kilograms, of railroads, of printing
presses and of newspapers is all wrong We
can only say that if the Pope and the cardi-
nails, who, somehow in this case have not been
kind to the assembled bishops, have acted up
to the best Of their judgment they have not
been doing themselves justice in reading up
the facts. This latest manifesto is the
greatest indication we have yet had of the
persistently medieval character of the Papacy.
1t shows that nothing has been learned,
nothing unlearned in these nineteen centuries
Pope Plus TX, with the bishops of the
Catholic world around him, and with the full
knowledge that all the world, Catholic and
non Catholic, is watching him, has openly and
unqualifedly endorsed sentiments which are
neither more nor less than absurd. Bad as
was the Syllabus, the Bull of the 12th of
October makes it good or almost as good. In
other words, common sense is deplorably
wanting in both.
We are desirous of being on good terms
with our readers. We have no reason to be
or to feel otherwise. In this Ecumenical
Council business we did think that grand
opportunity presented itself to rectify the alb
surdities or nonsense of the ecclesiastical
world. This opinion we freely and unquali-
fiedly expressed. To this opinion we clung
through good report and through bad. It is
our sorrow to-day to have to confess that at
the Vatican, where the old slow-coach princi-
pie still rules, modern progress is called sin;
that if the law could be carried out there is
not a man of us who would not be excommuni-
Gated, and that Galileo, if he lived and talked
of the earth moving around the sun, would
run the risk of losing his head.
Only think of it. The man who does not
agree with the Pope and the old fogies who
occasionally breakfast with him and, perhaps,
dine; who never see newspaper, or who, If
they. do, hate it as they pretend to hate all
that is evil-that man is condemned. Not
only so-he is doomed. Read the Bull, the
Brief, or, if you will, the Syllabus. Where are
is no hope. So far as we are concerned we
have no great cause to complain. In our
hands we hold a plenary indulgence which
covers all the offences of this life, and which
secures for us safe entrance to the happier
world that lies beyond the present. We do
not, therefore, complain for ourselves. But
we cannot help thinking Of the many millions
of miserable mortals who are hopelessly
doomed. For our readers particularly, whom we
have led or misled-it does not much matter
which-we have special sympathy. We can
only say to them what we have often said to
ourselves, "The world moves on have faith
and hope"
SO far as this Ecumencal Council goes we
have not now word to say. It was big
idea to begin with. The conception was full
of promise. We have waited. We have
hoped. We have waited and hoped in opposi-
ton to facts. We only express our honest
conviction when we say that if the Pope finds
it necessary to dissolve it we shall not be sur
prised or disappointed. The Council is big
farce, grand archaeological show, revival of
Middle Age sentiment but who can say it is
more? If 1t is more, what is it? This, per-
haps-for the world there is no falling back.
We cannot again become children. No more
can the world. If the Pope can dispense with
railroads and their companions the NEW YORK
HERALD cannot.
Removal Of Justice Ledwith-What Is