Letters From Rome on the Council Part 29

L'obligation de croire est une chose si grave, le droit de lier les intelligences est un droit si auguste et si important, que les peres pensaient n'en devoir user qu'avec la plus grande reserve et la plus extreme delicatesse."

_ 37 Is Healthful Reunion Impossible?_ By E. B. Pusey, D.D. Rivingtons, 1870.

38 [Gratry's four Letters have been translated by the Rev. T. J.

Bailey.-(Hayes).-TR.]

39 [Cf. _supr._ pp. 90, 91. The _Tablet_ made the same a.s.sertions in both cases.-TR.]

_ 40 Adversus eos qui Sanctissimum R. Pontificis studium et Vaticani Concilii celebrandi necessitatem vituperant._ Romae.

41 [Some idea of it may be formed from the answer made some months ago by a distinguished English Prelate at Rome to an Anglican friend, who had quoted the words of one of the Opposition Bishops, "You need not quote _them_ to me; _they are no more Catholics than you are_,"-thus excommunicating at one swoop the very flower of the hierarchy of his Church.-TR.]

42 [The _Curtisanen_ were clerical place-hunters, who came to Rome to beg or traffic for benefices. Cf. "Ja.n.u.s," p. 341.-TR.]

43 [The Bull _Apostolicae Sedis_.-Cf. _supr._ pp. 100, 1, 5, 6.-TR.]

44 "d.a.m.namus perversas eorum cavillationes qui dicere audent externum quidem obsequium, non autem internum mentis cordisque a.s.sensum, R.

Pontificis judiciis esse praestandum."

45 It will of course be understood that the 300 boarders (cf. _supr._ p. 128) are divided among the Prelates mentioned above.

_ 46 Istoria del Concilio de Trente_, xix. 15. 3: "Facendosi quelle sole difinizioni nelle quali i padri conspira.s.sero ad un parere."

47 [Liverani published a striking pamphlet on the abuses of the _Curia_ some years ago.-TR.]

48 Joshua ix. 21.

49 Purgat. xxvii. 104.

50 "Ove accadesse collisione tra le definizioni del Concilio ec.u.menico e le leggi dello Stato, queste cesserebbero per ci solo di avere _qualsiasi_ vigore obbligatorio," p. 262.

51 So Pius VI., in his Brief of 1791, directed against the new laws of the French a.s.sembly for securing religions freedom. Therein the distinction is still drawn between heathen and Jews on one side and Protestants or heretics on the other, that the former cannot be compelled to receive baptism, but the others, "qui se Ecclesiae per susceptum Baptismi Sacramentum subjecerunt, cogendi sunt" (_Collect.

Brev. Pii VI._, Aug. Vindel. 1791, i. 34). Benedict XIV. declared the same before in 1749 (_Bullar. Mag._, Romae, ed. Coquel, T. xvii.

p. 272). And Pius VII. afterwards, in his Brief of 1803 (Kopp, _Die kath. Kirche des 19 Jahrh._, Mainz, 1830, p. 429). "According to Scripture, Councils and Tradition, heretics remain subject to the laws of the Catholic Church."

52 Job xiii. 7.

53 The idea is thrice repeated; "fideles tam seorsim singuli quam simul omnes officio ... verae obedientiae obstringuntur," is said once again in the _Schema_.

_ 54 Correspondance_, Paris, i. 247.

55 [A writer in the Cologne _Rheinischer Merkur_ of May 14, a newly started organ of Liberal Catholic principles, conducted entirely by priests, learnedly discusses the question "whether St. Thomas Aquinas taught Papal Infallibility," and comes to the conclusion that, in spite of the influence of these forged authorities on his mind, he did not.-TR.]

56 Navagero, _Relazione_, p. 389 in the Venetian Collection, ed.

Alberi, i. 7.

57 "Ammantar la pigrizia di superiorita, sottrarsi alla noja d'esaminar le quistioni col disprezarle, sono vezzi troppo communi in Italia, e il beffarsi di questi pesanti Tedeschi, che vanno a cercare la fin dei fini. Ma in tal caso ra.s.segniamoci a vederci trattati, da questi di negligenza e di spensierataggine quando accettiamo a occhi bendati carte, falsificate da tristi speculatori o da sbadati raccoglitori," etc.-_Archivo Storico Italiano_, 1860, xii. 19.

58 [It was originally intended for public use also, and is still recited publicly by Cathedral Chapters and religions communities.

Some portions of it, as Vespers and Compline, are often used in parish churches also, especially in France.-TR.]

59 [Cf. "Ja.n.u.s," pp. 60-62, 275-8.-TR.]

60 The proposal of two Rhenish Prelates for a common declaration against Dollinger's paper on Infallibility was rejected in the meeting of German Bishops. The chief opponents were Hefele, Eberhard, Raynald, Strossmayer and Forster, who maintained that, certain arguments apart, Dollinger represented in the main the views of most German Bishops on the subject. It was further insisted, in express repudiation of the stand-point of mere "inopportuneness,"

that the addresses already signed by the Infallibilists were directed in principle against the doctrine of the Church. The two Prelates declared nevertheless that they would not separate themselves from their colleagues who had signed those doc.u.ments.

61 Tac. _Annal._ XV. 53.

62 I take this opportunity of observing that the _Memorial Diplomatique_, which has the credit of supplying the world regularly with methodical fictions from Rome, has also given a spurious reply of Antonelli's to Beust's note. Perhaps one of your Paris correspondents can explain the rare persistency of that journal in habitually making game of the French with lies and inventions which are immediately exposed. Here in Rome many are disposed to seek the authors of them in the office of the _Civilta_ or in the _Gesu_.

_ 63 Pastoral on Infallibility of the Roman Pontiff_ (Longmans), p. 126.

64 It is also quoted in the _Journal des Debats_ of March 12. [This same Bishop opened the debate on the _Schema de Romano Pontifice_ by arguing that the Pope must be infallible, because St. Peter was crucified head downwards. _Cf. infr._ Letter xlvi.-TR.]

65 The _Unita Cattolica_ of March 12 makes its Roman correspondent say that to-day the Bishops are signing in crowds a Pet.i.tion to the Presidents of the Council, demanding that the discussion of the article on infallibility may take precedence of all other business, because they long to put an end at one blow to the scandal of the Liberal Catholics and Gallicans. But Margotti's journal at the same time urges patience on its readers, because decorum must be preserved, as far as may be.

66 [It seemed better to give the Letter itself, as published "by permission" in the _Standard_ of April 7, rather than to translate the secondhand, though remarkably accurate, paraphrase given in the German text. It addressed to Bishop Ullathorne.-TR.]

67 [Archbishop Errington was Cardinal Wiseman's coadjutor with right of succession, but was arbitrarily deprived of the post by the Pope, on his declining to resign it. His name was the first of the three sent to Rome by the Chapter of Westminster for the vacant Archbishopric on Cardinal Wiseman's death, the other two being Clifford and Grant.

All three were pa.s.sed over in favour of Dr. Manning.-TR.]

68 [This explanation, that the Requiem "was intended rather as a political demonstration than a religious act," was elaborately insisted on in the _Tablet_ of March 28, which added the guarded but equally gratuitous statement that "the Bishop of Orleans, _it appears_, intended to speak at the funeral service;" winding up with the somewhat remarkable comment that "the prudence and the charity (!) of Pius IX. have been equally conspicuous in the affair." The world hardly seems to see it.-TR.]

_ 69 Reform der Kirche an Haupt und Gliedern._

70 [The correctness of this prediction was conspicuously ill.u.s.trated in the _coup_ of June 3. _Cf. infr._ Letter lii.-TR.]

71 This word (_niedertrachtigen_) was lately used by a German Bishop.

72 The original text ran: "Qua sane benignitate ipsius ac providentia factum est, ut ex c.u.menicis omnibus Conciliis, et ex Tridentino nominatim amplissima in universam Catholicam Familiam utilitas dimanaverit;" the amendment of Dreux-Breze runs: "Qua sane benignitate ipsius ac providentia factum est, ut _licet omnibus Ecclesiae necessitatibus per ordinarium Summi Pontificis regimen et magisterium satis fuerit provisum_, tamen ex c.u.menicis omnibus Conciliis," etc.

73 [It is understood to have been Bishop Clifford of Clifton.-TR.]

74 See _Times_ for April 2, 1870.

75 [The English _Tablet_ and _Dublin Review_ have received similar papal commendations.-TR.]

76 "Relapsum flammi ex lege addixit," says the Dominican Bzovius in his Panegyric _Paulus V. Borghesius_, Rome 1626, p. 57.

77 [It will be seen that Simor, with the other Hungarian Bishops, eventually voted among the _Non-placets_ and signed their protest.

Cf. Letters lxiv, lxv.-TR.]

78 "Quoniam vero satis non est, haereticam pravitatem devitare, nisi ii quoque errores diligenter fugiantur, qui ad illam plus minusve accedunt: omnes officii monemus servandi etiam Const.i.tutiones et Decreta quibus pravae ejusmodi opiniones, quae isthic diserte non enumerantur, ab hac Sancta Sede proscriptae et prohibitae sunt."

79 "Schematis de fide catholica conclusio, quae incipit ab his verbis: _Itaque supremi Pastoralis_, etc., c.u.m de ea in ultima Congregatione generali non satis explicite actum fuerit, adhuc debet subjici Patrum suffragiis, antequam ad ferenda suffragia de toto Capite IV.

procedatur. Ideo monentur Reverendissimi Patres, ut nunc in finem _Emendationes de capite quarto_ hujus Schematis propositas etiam ad proximam Congregationem generalem sec.u.m deferre velint."

80 [Conditional votes, as will be seen, are not allowed in Solemn Sessions, but only a simple _Placet_ or _Non placet_.-TR.]