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ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



deed, is the hinge upon which the whole question 

 between Catholics and all who dissent from them 

 turns, and from this dissent, as from a fountain, all 

 the errors of non-Catholics flow. "For, inasmuch 

 as such bodies of men are destitute of that living and 

 divinely-established authority, which teaches man- 

 kind especially the things of faith and the rule of 

 morals, and which also directs and governs them in 

 whatever relates to eternal salvation, so these same 

 bodies of- men have varied in their teaching, and 

 their change and instability never cease." If, there- 

 fore, your inquirer will consider, either the opinion 

 which is held by the Church as to the infallibility of 

 its judgment in defining whatever belongs to faith or 

 morals" or what we ourselves have written respecting 

 the primacy and teaching authority of Peter, he will 

 at once perceive that no room can be given at the 

 Council for the defence of errors which have already 

 been condemned, and that we could not have invited 

 non-Catholics to a discussion, but have only urged 

 them " to avail themselves of the opportunity afforded 

 by the Council, in which the Catholic Church, to which 

 their forefathers belonged, gives a new proof of its 

 close unity and invisible vitality, and to satisfy the 

 wants of their souls by withdrawing from a state in 

 which they cannot be sure of their salvation." If, by 

 the inspiration of divine grace, they shall perceive 

 their own danger, and shall seek God with their 

 whole heart, they will easily cast away all precon- 

 ceived and adverse opinions, and, laying aside all 

 desire of disputation, they will return to the Father 

 from whom they have long unhappily gone astray. 

 We, on our part, will joyfully run to meet them, and, 

 embracing them with a father's charity, we shall 

 rejoice and the Church will rejoice with us, that our 

 children who were dead have come to life again, and 

 they who were lost have been found. This, indeed, 

 we earnestly ask of God ; and do you, venerable 

 brother, join your prayers to ours. 



In the mean while, as a token of the divine favor 

 and of our own especial benevolence, we most loving- 

 ly give to you and to your diocese our Apostolic 

 blessing. 



Given at St. Peter's, in Rome, this 4th day of 

 September, 1869, in the 24th year of our Pontificate. 

 POPE PIUS IX. 



The Letters Apostolic of September 13, 1868, addressed 

 " To all Protestants and other non-Catholics." 



A second letter of the Pope, however, in- 

 forms the archbishop that any Protestants, who 

 may wish to discuss the points of difference 

 between them and the Roman Catholic Church, 

 may come to Rome, and that theologians will 

 be appointed hy the Pope, with whom they 

 may confer. 



The noted Protestant writer, Merle d'Au- 

 bigne, wrote a letter to Arthur Kinnaird, a 

 member of the British House of Commons, 

 in which he urges the Protestant world to re- 

 sume the work of reformation where, in the 

 second half of the sixteenth century, it was un- 

 fortunately interrupted. He proposed that all 

 Protestant Churches of the world should make 

 provision to set apart the 8th of December, 1869 

 the day when the Council would he opened 

 for religious services, in which points like 

 the following be discussed : Jesus Christ the 

 sole head of the Church; the Word of God the 

 sole source and rule of a Christian life ; the 

 righteousness of Christ and faith, instead of 

 works and superstitious ceremonies ; religious 

 liberty in the place of the Syllabus ; a general 

 priesthood in the place of monasticism and 

 celibacy. He also recommended special pray- 



ers for the enlightenment of those who still were 

 under the yoke of the Pope. He did not ex- 

 pect, he said, that the Roman Catholic nations 

 would soon join the Protestant Churches, hut he 

 hoped that yet a true Christian spirit might 

 cleanse the Church of Rome from its pagan and 

 Jewish elements, so that the Saviour might re- 

 sume in it the place which to Him alone belongs. 

 A number of Churches, though not, it seems, a 

 considerable one, acted on the 8th of December 

 in accordance with this proposition. In the Uni- 

 ted States the moderators of the two largest bod- 

 ies among the Presbyterians (the Old and New 

 School Presbyterians) sent, in accordance with 

 the resolutions passed hy the General Assem- 

 blies, a joint letter to the Pope, restating in 

 brief and mild words the great doctrinal differ- 

 ences which separate the Roman Catholic from 

 the Protestant hranches of Christianity. In Ger- 

 many, the Church Diet and several other so- 

 cieties passed resolutions explaining why, in 

 their opinion, there can be no hope of a re- 

 union of the Protestant denominations and of 

 Roman Catholicism, as long as the Pope occu- 

 pies his antiscriptural position. Only in the 

 Church of England a number of clergymen ex- 

 pressed a desire that their Church might be 

 represented in Rome, and treat with the Vati- 

 can Council about a reunion. 



Within the Catholic Church a profound in- 

 terest was manifested in the coming Council, 

 and more particularly in two questions which 

 the Council was expected to define the in- 

 fallibility of the Pope, and the relation of the 

 Church to the state governments. The bish- 

 ops all over the world notified by pastoral let- 

 ters the faithful of their dioceses of the Council 

 as one of greatest events in the recent history 

 of the Church from which they expected the 

 greatest results. In this respect they showed 

 an almost unexpected unanimity. Many of 

 them published their pastoral letters in the 

 form of pamphlets or of books. Most of them 

 did not directly refer to the great questions 

 which so much engaged the attention of the 

 Christian world. Some, however, seized the 

 opportunity to make a special plea for the doc- 

 trine of papal infallibility, the promulgation of 

 which they hoped would be among the most glo- 

 rious labors of the Council. Particular attention 

 was attracted hy the works of Archbishop Man- 

 ning, of Westminster, and Archbishop De- 

 champs, of Malines, in Belgium. By these 

 pleas in favor of infallibility, a few bishops 

 were induced to utter their dissent, denying 

 the opportuneness of promulgating such a doc- 

 trine. Foremost among them was the learned 

 Bishop Dupanloup, of Orleans, one of the most 

 famous bishops of the Catholic Church in 

 France. His pamphlet was chiefly directed 

 against the book of the Archhishop of Malines, 

 and, while it dwelt emphatically upon the 

 authority of the General Council and promised 

 an unconditional submission to any thing the 

 Vatican Council might decree, it undertook to 

 show that the reasons adduced by the Arch- 



