662 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



against which public opinion has employed all the 

 arguments derived from the necessity to defend the 

 basis of our national aims against whatsoever attack, 

 should prove so far victorious in the deliberations or 

 the Council as to be dictated to the world as the 

 standard of religious faith, and hence of political ac- 

 tion. Our population would we say it without the 

 possibility of a mistake look upon this as a revival 

 of old struggles, for it could never be quieted by an 

 argumentative process purporting to render the po- 

 litical bearing entirely independent of what it would 

 be taught to consider its religious duty. 



It is not impossible that the government of the 

 Confederation which has not been spared reproach 

 for not having timely opposed the justly or unjustly 

 so-called projects of Eome may lack that freedom 

 of action in religious aifairs which it has here- 

 tofore employed for the interest of the Catholic 

 Church. 



While making these observations to the Papal 

 chair we are by no means imbued with the ideas of 

 those whom the Roman court probably considers 

 its opponents. We have no interest in weakening 

 the authority of the Pope. As a friendly power, and 

 to render a new service to the Papal chair, we would 

 willingly assist, by the candor with which we dwell 

 upon our own difficulties and upon the dangler of a 

 religious crisis, in removing from the discussions of 

 the Council whater might compromise the altogether 

 satisfactory position of the Catholic Church in. Ger- 

 many. 



If we could flatter ourselves on having cooperated 

 in such result wo would not only be obliged for it to 

 the wisdom of the holy chair, but would regard it as 

 an additional motive to persevere in that position 

 which we have always maintained toward the Eo- 

 man court. Accept the assurances, etc., 



VON AENIM. 



The expectation that some of the bishops 

 would persist in their opposition to the doctrine 

 of papal infallibility, even after its promulga- 

 tion by the Council, was not fulfilled. The 

 two bishops who in the public session of July 

 18th, in which the final vote on the dogmati- 

 zation of the doctrine was taken, voted in the 

 negative (Bishop Eizzio, of Cujazzo in Naples, 

 and Bishop Fitzgerald, of Little Rock. Arkan- 

 sas), declared immediately after the adoption 

 and promulgation of the doctrine their uncon- 

 ditional submission. In Germany, the bishops 

 held in August a meeting at Fulda, and issued 

 a pastoral letter, in which they say : ""We de- 

 clare that the present Vatican Council is a 

 genuine (Ecumenical Council; that this Council 

 has as little as any other (Ecumenical Council 

 set up or created a new doctrine differing from 

 the old, but that it has merely developed, de- 

 fined, and expressly enjoined to believe the 

 faith which is contained in the tradition of 

 faith, and which has been faithfully guarded; 

 in fine, that its decrees have received a power 

 obligatory for all the faithful in virtue of their 

 solemn publication by the head of the Church 

 in a public session of the Council." Among 

 the signatures appended to this pastoral letter, 

 the names of some of the most prominent 

 former opponents of the doctrine did not ap- 

 pear. None of them refused, however, to sub- 

 mit to this decree of the Council; one of them, 

 the Bishop of Breslau, offered his resignation 

 to the Pope, but when it was rejected, he, like 

 all the other bishops, not only submitted him- 



self, but also insisted on the submission of the 

 priests and laity of his diocese. The most 

 noteworthy opposition to the new doctrine 

 proceeded from the Catholic scholars and 

 theologians of Germany. A considerable num- 

 ber of them, especially of the professors of 

 the universities, had fully committed them- 

 selves to the views expressed in the book of 

 Janus on " The Pope and the Council " (see 

 AMERICAN ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA for 1869), and 

 nearly all of them at first refused to change 

 their opinion after the promulgation of the 

 doctrine. Forty-four professors of the Uni- 

 versity of Munich issued toward the end of 

 July a joint protest against the doctrinal decree 

 of the Council. This protest was concurred in 

 by 15 professors of Freiburg, 9 of Breslau, and 

 many of other universities. On August 26th 

 and 27th a meeting was held at Nuremberg 

 of the theological professors of several uni- 

 versities, to agree npon a common course of 

 action. The meeting took the ground that the 

 Vatican Council could not be regarded as an 

 (Ecumenical Council; that the doctrine of 

 papal infallibility was null and void; and that 

 a new Council should be called, outside of 

 Rome. One of the participants in this meet- 

 ing, Prof. Michelis, of Braunsberg, called the 

 Pope a destroyer of the Church, whom the 

 Church ought to depose. At Cologne, a cen- 

 tral committee was formed to collect the signa- 

 tures of the Catholic Germans to a monster 

 protest against the validity of the Council, and 

 the doctrine of papal infallibility; but all these 

 movements utterly failed to produce the effect 

 which their originators had expected. Aj; the 

 close of the year, a few of the theological pro- 

 fessors were still refusing to sign the declara- 

 tion which the bishops demanded from them ; 

 a few Catholic papers, although the bishops 

 had warned them, were continuing their 

 attacks, and the joint protest had received a 

 few thousand signatures; but, on the whole, 

 the movement against the validity of the Coun- 

 cil and the doctrine of papal infallibility had 

 proved a decided failure. Outside of Germany, 

 hardly any opposition was shown to the decree 

 of the Council. The voice of Father Hyacinth 

 was heard once more, but it was soon drowned 

 by the din of war. In England, Lord Acton 

 published a pamphlet, in which he expressed 

 a hope for the continuance of the opposition; 

 but he met with no support. In Hungary, a 

 few enthusiasts thought of the establishment 

 of a national Catholic Church, but no sym- 

 pathy with their scheme showed itself among 

 the people. At the close of the year, the 

 Catholic world, with few individual exceptions, 

 had fully acquiesced in the decree of the Vati- 

 can Council. 



The anticipation of the occupation of Rome 

 by the Italian Government, and the suppres- 

 sion of the temporal power of the Pope, caused 

 the latter to request of the King of Prussia aid 

 to resist the Italian expedition. On September 

 8th, the King replied as follows : 



