Letters From Rome on the Council. Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger
of the Synod. I mean the rigid secrecy. According to the last directions, all, bishops and theologians, are to maintain the strictest secrecy about everything, and the preliminary labours, as is well known, had to be carried on under the seal of secrecy of the Holy Office (the Inquisition). Nothing was communicated to the Bishops themselves, who came to Rome in complete ignorance of what they were to vote about – a procedure without any precedent in Church history. It really seems sometimes as if the object was to turn the Church topsy-turvy, and take pleasure in doing exactly the contrary to what the Church of earlier ages did when nearer her original foundation. Formerly the idea of a Council was associated with the notion of the fullest publicity, and the common participation of all the faithful; the deliberations were conducted with open doors, and all were admitted who wished to hear them, – for from the beginning all secrecy was strange and unnatural to the Church, which was distinguished from heathenism in the very point of neither having nor tolerating any esoteric doctrine or secret compact. But the Roman prelatura too shares the Italian predilection for making mysteries, – as evidenced in the number of secret societies in the Peninsula, – and then the Jesuits of the Civiltà, and their French and German copyists, had so solemnly promised that the Council would provide in its decrees a sure and effective remedy for humanity, sorely diseased as it is, and threatened with destruction. As yet we have waited in vain for any intelligible intimation of what this panacea is to be. Beyond Papal Infallibility and the Syllabus, nothing has transpired. Were the curtain to be drawn back at the beginning, and the secret betrayed, – that the much lauded panacea is only moonshine, and that the Council is not in a position to prescribe any other medicine to the patient named mankind than the usual and well-known remedies of faith, hope, and charity – the discord, already growing, would be still further increased. It is well therefore to lay the finger on the lips.
Meantime the Pope has united the most thorough-paced Infallibilists, Manning, Plantier of Nîmes, Pie of Poitiers, Mermillod of Geneva, and Deschamps of Mechlin, on a Committee said to be intrusted with the discussion of very important questions. Manning appears to be recognised as their leader by all the adherents of the new dogma, and Mermillod strongly supports him. Cardinal Pitra, the French Benedictine formerly intrusted with a mission, which proved unsuccessful, to the Archbishop of Rouen, Cardinal Bonnechose, has lately tried the same plan with the German Bishops. He began by describing the Bishop of Orleans as a mischievous teacher of error, and was obliged to hear, much to his surprise, that these German Bishops quite agreed with Dupanloup, and the Hungarians with the Germans. Thus all have taken their side, or will do so in the next few days. All the Spanish, Belgian, and English17 Bishops, the majority of the Italians, and a considerable number of the French, have ranged themselves under the banner of the new dogma. They all declare that it must now be decreed that every one, without exception, must inwardly believe and outwardly confess Papal Infallibility on pain of damnation; and all the more so, since Pius himself has now abandoned the reserved attitude he had maintained up to this time in presence of the diplomatists, and openly proclaims, that, being himself profoundly convinced of his own infallibility, he neither can nor will tolerate any further doubt about it in others. And thus the influence of this party is very powerful, and already preponderates; the whole mechanism of the Council, the order of business, the personnel of its officers, in short everything, is substantially in their hands, or will be placed at their disposal. All preparations were made in their interest, and all alternatives were foreseen. That great ecclesiastical polypus, with its thousand feelers and arms, the Jesuit Order, works for it under the earth and on the earth; Mea res agitur is its watchword.
On the other side, ready for the contest, and resolved at least to show fight, stand the German, Bohemian, and Hungarian Bishops, – with the exception, of course, of Martin, Senestrey, Fessler, and some others – and all among the French, American, and Irish Bishops who possess any culture and knowledge. These men still hope to see a portion of the Oriental Bishops – the real ones, not the mere Italian so-called Vicars-Apostolic – join their side, and there is indeed a very general anxiety as to what position the Orientals, especially the Armenians, will take up in reference to the great questions at issue. They would all like to keep the Church free from the millstone of the new dogma intended to be hung about her neck, though very few even among them have a clear perception of the momentous consequences it would entail, in science and literature, in politics, and in the relations of the Catholic Church to other Churches. But the whole party has wind and sun against it, and has to join battle in the most unfavourable position, on slippery soil, and confined to acting on the defensive under the greatest difficulties. The Infallibilists, from the nature of the case, are far clearer and better agreed, both as to end and means, than their adversaries, many of whom do not conceal their predilection for the dogma, though they tremble at the consequences of it. Moreover, many of them will allow themselves to be gained over before long, whether through devotion to Pius ix., or by the threats and enticements the Curia knows so well how to apply, and for which it possesses an inexhaustible treasury to choose from. There is, for instance, the honorary title granted by Rome to about 250 Bishops, solio Pontificio assistens, which seems to the short-sighted only fit for lackeys, but is in fact greatly sought after, and will be most graciously accorded to those who unconditionally surrender themselves. And then there are those manifold concessions out of the rich store of Papal reserved rights, special benedictions, and the like, so that there are always nine out of every ten Bishops who want one at least of these privileges.
We may readily conceive the excitement in the Jesuit camp. After the patient, indefatigable toil of years of seed-time, the harvest-time seems to them to be come at last. Up to 1773, their Order, from its numbers, the cultivation of its members, the influence of its schools and educational establishments, and its compact organization, was unquestionably the most powerful religious corporation, but at the same time was limited and held in check by the influence and powerful position of the other Orders. Augustinians, Carmelites, Minorites, and, above all, Dominicans, were likewise strong, and, moreover, leagued together for harmonious action through their common hatred of the Jesuits, or through the natural desire to escape being mastered by them. Dominicans and Augustinians possessed by long prescription the most influential offices in Rome, so much so indeed that the two Congregations of the Index and the Holy Office were entirely in the hands of the Order of Preachers, to the exclusion of the Jesuits. Since the restoration of the Jesuits this is completely changed, and entirely in their interest. All the ancient Orders are now in decline, above all, in theological importance and influence; they do but vegetate now. Moreover, the Dominicans have been saddled with a General thoroughly devoted to the Jesuits, Jandel, a Frenchman, who is exerting himself to root out in his Order the Thomist doctrines, so unpalatable to the Jesuits. The youngest of the great Orders, the Redemptorists or Liguorians, act – sometimes willingly, sometimes unwillingly – as the serving brothers, road-makers, and labourers for the Jesuits. And hence, now that they enjoy the special favour of the Pope, they have come to acquire a power in Rome which may be called quite unexampled. They have, in fact, become already the legislators and trusted counsellors of the Pope, who sees with their eyes and hears with their ears. To those familiar with the state of things at Rome, it is enough to name Piccirillo. For years past they have implanted and fostered in the mind of Pius ix. the views he now wants to have consecrated into dogmas, and have managed to set aside, and at last reduce to impotence, the influence of wise men, who take a sober view of the condition of the times. When the Dominican Cardinal Guidi, who was then the most distinguished theologian in Rome, freely expressed to the Pope his views about the projected Council and the measures to be brought before it, from that hour he was not only allowed no audience of Pius ix., but was excluded from all share in the preparatory labours of the Council, so that he remained in entire ignorance of the matters to be laid before it. But the Jesuits are also the oracles of many Cardinals, whose votes and opinions are very often ready-made for them in the Gesu. The Congregation of the Index, which they used formerly so often to attack, blame, and accuse of partiality, when their own works were censured by it, is now becoming more and more their own domain, though the chief places are still in the hands of the Dominicans; and this may gradually take place with most of the Congregations in whose hands is centralized the guidance and administration of Church affairs in all countries.
And thus, if Papal Infallibility becomes a dogma, what inevitably awaits us is, that this Infallibility will not merely be worked
[This must be taken with some reserve, as will be seen further on. – Tr.]