The States and Union. [volume] (Ashland, Ohio) 1868-1872, 1870-04-06
The Eoumenioai Council.

The situation of affairs in Rome is
assuming a very interesting aspect
Cardinal Antonelli, the Secretary of
State Of Pope Plus the Ninth, has an
swered the French Minister of For
eign Affairs that the request of his
Government to be represented at the
Ecamenical Council by a special plen
ipotentiary, can not be granted-a re-
ply which is directly at variance with
all the usages and traditians of the
Catholic Church in regard to Ecum-
enical Councils, and, which can not
but excite the liveliest indignation in
France. The Imperial Cabinet, in
effect, as the well informed Paris cor
respondents, of the Cologne Grzshe
t~elegraphed to their journal day before
yesterday, has already resolved to
state in reply to an Interpolation
which the leaders of the Left are 60
ing to address to it with reference TO
the occupation Of the Pontifical States
by French troops, that the army corps
now encamped at Civitta Vecchia
shall be speedily withdrawn and it
is reported, also, on good authority,
that the Garibaldians ara already
stirring, to profit by hat event at the
earliest moment. Cardinal Antonel-
Ii, when he transmitted that naughty
reply to the French dispatch to the
Papal Nuncio at Paris, no doubt
counted upon the well known reluctance
of the Emperor Napoleon Ill to
break with the Holy See he counted
also on the influence Of the Empress, !
and all the bigoted persons whom she
has gathered around her during the
past fifteen years, and whose clamor
AID pernicious advice has SO often
exercised q decisive influence upon
the resolutions of the Emperor. But
Ill is no longer the ALSO
lutte master of France. He can no
dictate a policy in regard to
the management of foreign affairs d.
rectly at variance with the wishes and
views Of every Intelligent citizen of
He is now only a constitu-
tional monarch, and must obey the
will uf the French nation /; and the
is utterly opposed to yielding
another iota to the Unsuitable preten-
sions and assumptions of the Vatican
and the Jesuits. And, as regards the
influence on the Empress, and of her
ultramontane surroundings, it has
never been as powerless as it is at the
present time. 20, if Pope Plus the
Ninth persists in his refusal to admit
a French Plenipotentiary Extraordi-
nary to the Ecumenical Council, there
ia every reason to believe that q com
plete rupture will ensue between the
Vatican and the Cabinet of the Tuil-
Such a rupture, it may be conf
predicted, wsuld be immedi-
followed by the withdrawal of
two-thirds Of the French Bishops and
Archbishops from tho Ecumenical
Council. The German and Hungari-
an Bishops, in fact, are said to have
contemplated such n step for some
time past. The ign%oninious treat
which the most prominent men
among them have undergone at the
hands of the Vatican and fanatical
majority of the members of the Ecu
menical Council ever since they have
indicated their intention to oppose
the adoption of the infallibility dogma
would fully justify such a step on
their part. Not only have the letters
of these liberal Bishops been tempered
with at the Roman Postofice, SO that
most of them have deemed it expedi-
.nt to send them by trnsty messen-
gers to Florence, in order to have
them mailed there, but they have
been brow-beaten in the session of the
Council, and, the other day, Bisnop
Strossmeyer, the ablest and most elo-
quent Of the Anti Infallibilists, was
even subjected to personal indignities
and violently dragged from the trib-
une, a scenc unheard-of III any of the
Councils hal were held
in times gone by.
Further news from Rome will be
looked for with much interest. AS
the Pope and the Jesuits,
here is but little prospect that they
will back down from the defiant posi-
ton which they have taken. Non
possumms-CIn. Commercial.