The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-04-27

And when you place before me the prospect
of the exercise of your pastoral power, may |
still hope that you will prefer to employ IN
the first place towards me the finest most |
noble, most benevolent, and most Ohristlike |
attribute in this power-namely, the teachers |
Office. Should l be convinced 10y testimo-
mails aud facts, I engage myself to revoke |
publicly all that have written IN this matter |
and to coDfute myself. In any case the re- !
suits must he advantageous to the Church !
and the peace Of spirits. For tits not myself
alone who am concerned; thousands Of the
clergy, hundreds of thousands of the laity
think as I do, and f1d is impossible to &c.
cept the new articles Of faith.
Up to this day not single one, even Of
those who have signed a declaration Of sub
mission, has said TO me that he is really con-
vinced Of the truth of these theses. Ali my
friends and scquaintances confirm me in this
experience; mot single person believes 10
it, is what I hear day by day from all lips.
conference such as [ have proposed, and
the publication of the proceedings, will in
any case afford that deeper Insight which 80
many long for.
Perhaps your Exoelency will refer me to
the Pastoral issued recently by yourself, as a
source from which can draw sufficient in
struction ana correction of my opinions; but
I must confess that it has had exactly the
opposite effect upon me, and am ready to
prove that there is there long list of misun-
derstood, distorted, mutilated, and invented
! testimonies, which, taken together with the
suppression of the most important facts and
| counteTproofs, form q most unreal picture of
! the true tradition. IT is certain that the per-
son to whom your EXcellency intrusted this
| task did not invent these Qualifications,
| but has borrowed them in good faith
from others (Cardoni, for instsuce), but
| were it his desire to defend his work at the
! proposed conference, he would find me ready
! to prove my assertion in a few hours, or,
should not succeed in doing so, to make
| public apology to him. l would only ask for
| one condition in consideration of the import
ance of the matter, viz, that the Government
| be requested to allow a statesman, learned in
historical and ecclesiastical matters, to attend
! the conference. AS the case is one of the
highest Importance for all governments, il
may be assumed that this request would not
| be refused.
! There ia no want of precedents in the past
! history of the Church which show that my
proposal is in accordance with the principles
! as well as with the practice of the Church.
| In the year AL, conference of 2S6 Catholic
and 279 Donatist bishops held three sessions
under the presidency of the imperial officer
! of State, Msrcellinus, and the disputed doc
| trine was discussed, upon which the latter
decided in favor of the Catholic bishops In
the year 1893, Bohemian CaIxtines appeared
at the Council of Basel, and O. decree which
had been issued eighteen years before by the
! Synod of Constance as to the Communion in
one kind, was now submitted TO new dis
cussion and examination, the result being
that compromise (also acknowledged by
the Papal chair) which was O most
| important and fundamental concession
to the Bohernians, and one differing widely
from the older decree. A still great similarity
with the transaction proposed by myself is to
4z,,y 4 4I,1 So, 1l,l~x Al
! Fronoh bisto-y,- bst--oe.a tIae BisIaoE 1Hor
ron, of Evreux, and the Protestant statesman
and 8GCdnt, Du Plessis-Mornay, which took
place in the year 1000, at Fontainebleau,
under the auspices of King Henry " Here
| it was question as to the proof that Mornay
had fslsifed or incorrectly quoted a consid-
cradle number of authorities in his book
upon the Eucharist. Henry himself presided,
and the most eminent men Of both Churches
were present as witnesses. The conference
was interrupted after few days, and after a
number of Mornay's quotations had been ex-
amined, by the illness of the latter, but
caused, nevertheless, a remarkably favorable
effect for the Catholic cause in the excited
minds of that period.
Most venerable Archbishop, 1 leave en-
tirely to your own judgment which form you
will give to a conference SO much desired by
myself, and certainly so welcome to multi
tudes of German Catholics, and what persons
you will invite to attend or oppose to me; in
your diocese there is certainly no want of
professional theologians who will be glad to
accept your invitation. The practice of the
Church proves that a question Of faith is
just as much an affair of the laity as of the
clergy, and that the former may take part in
the scientific examination and establishment
of the Traditional fact which both Popss
and theologians have acknowledged. And in
this case, which is a matter for historical
proof, l am gladly ready to submit TO the
verdict of the most eminent historians of the
German nation aud Of the Catholic faith.
Such men as Flicker, Reumont, Hotter, Ar
meth, Kampschulte, Corn elius, Lorenz, We
gele, Aschbach, may judge whether my
proofs be critically and historically right or
not
Your Excellency was pleased formerly to
honor my book on the 'First Ages of the
Church Apostolical' with your approval, aud
it was generally considered among German
Catholics to be true picture of the time of
foundation. Even the Jesuitic- Ultramontana
party let it pass without censure. But if the
new DEGREES contain the truth then l have
laid myself open to the reproach of having
entirely misrepresented the history of the
Apostles. That entire section of nay book
which concerns the constitution of the earlier
Church, my description of the relation in
which Paul and the other Apostles stood TO
Peter-all is fundamentally wrong, and !
ought to condemn my own book aud confess
that l have neither understood Lul1e's acts OF
the Apostles nor their own Epistles.
The new doctrine of the Vatican invests
the Pope with entire plenary power (totam
PlenitudSHem .potestai) over the whole
nj IL