Year: 1869

L
bility Question.


| II is something deserving Of notice that


interest in the Ecumenical Council died out


with the conclusion Of its opening ceremonies.
| AS we had said again and again, the first day
was the grandest. Yet the first day was much


tanner than we had been led to expect. Com
| pared, indeed, with the great councils Of the


past it was dull and uninteresting business.
| But since the opening ceremonies were


reported to US by telegraph how few of us


have been giving a passing thought to the


Ecumenical Councill This want of interest is


no doubt partly explained by the fact that the
| Council adjourned almost as soon as it met.
| We cannot deny that interest in the case of
some is only suspended, and that it will revive
| again when the Council reassembies on the 9th
! of January. This, however, is true only of a
few. In the case of the great majority, in all
lands, it is dead concern. Not much was
expected from it, and less has come from it
than was looked for.


There were many who were slow to believe
that what we said of the plan and purpose of the
Council was true. The Syllabus was so alb
surd in itself and so antagonistic to the spirit
of modern times that Catholics, as well as
Protestants, concluded that there was too
much common sense yet remaining in the
Church to allow of its dogmatic confirmation.
The bodily assumption of the Virgin was not
more in favor, and the personal infallibility
dogma had but few friends. II was not to
bafn n Ia N
of Catholic Christianity that the Council had
been convened. 1t was well, we were told,
for the ungodly to sit in the chair of the
scorner and laugh but the result would put
the ungodly to shame. Other, higher and
nobler purposes had led to the convention of
the Council. The Council has met. 1t is now
on all hands admitted that it is intended to
dogmatically confirm the Syllabus and to pro-
claim the bodily assumption of the Virgin and
the personal infallibility of the Pope. 1t is
notorious that the liberal bishops of Germany,
France and Italy are as little reconciled to the
Council as ever. 1t is just as notorious that
all the Catholic governments of Europe are
stubbornly standing aloof 1t is undeniable
that the protesters We're not ignorant of what
the Council meant to do, and it is the general
opinion to-day that what the Council meant to
do it will do if it can.


So far as can be gathered from outside
efforts and from rumors of inside doings it
appears that the infauihitty dogma ia TO he
| the real stumbling block in the Council. The
opposition to it is widespread and includes
some of the most eminent churchmen and not
few personal friends of the Pope Since the
publication of 'Yhe Pope and the Council" by
Won Janus, work of great ability and re-
search, and evidently the work of many
Catholic hands and heads, and which has an
immense circulation both here and in Europe,
marked change has been visible in public
sentiment. In that work, by the skilful array
facts, the infallibility dogma is reduced to
simple absurdity. Other German works of
kindred nature and evidently from the same
source have followed. Catholic Germany, in
fact, may be said to be against
it. The French are more indifferent,
as is their wont in all matters that
relate to faith and morals. But some of the
French churchmen have spoken out plainly.
Witness Father Hyacinthe, the Archbishop
of Paris and thu Bishop of Orleans. There
is not single Catholic government in Europe
but is opposed to the dogma We have just
learned that to the bishops of Russian Poland,
have been sent to the effect that they must
vote against infallibiity. Even in Catholic
Austria the feeling is strong. One Austrian
archbishop, himself a cardinal, is reported to
have said that if he finds himself compelled to
accept the dogma of infallibility he will resign
his position and retire into private life; for to
go back to his charge would be but to go back
to schismatic clergy and Protestant flock.
The men who are opposed to this dogma are not
rationalsts or sceptics or Protestants. They
are, on the contrary, men who have the good
of the Church at heart Like Savonarola and
Erasmus and Fenelon of the past, and like
D0llinger and Hyacinthe and Montalembert Of
the present, they honestly and earnestly seek
to reconcile faith with reason, knowledge with
| belief and Of such men there are not a few.
In spite of all this opposition it is
| confidently believed that there ia power
enoush III Inc touhcH W pfociaim tuc uoBHa.
| DR.. Manning, Of London, pervert or convert,


which the reader will, is its most enthusiastic


advocate. II is his determination that the


dogma shall be proclaimed. He can count on
the support Of the whole ultramontane party.


The American bishops, it is said will go with


him to man; and among the bishops Of


Great Britain and Ireland there will scarcely


be single dissentient. On the 9th Of


January the Council will reassemble, and then


must come the tug OF war.


viii the Pope and his friends push their


purposes in spite of all oppositiona 1t will