TO THE GENERAL OF HIS OKDKII. xli 



(larkf.>( and most decisive — ol" its earthly existence l-'or 

 llic first time in tlircc hundred years, an (Ecumenical 

 Council is not only summoned, ])iit declared necessiirv. 

 These are tiie expressions of tlie Holy Father. It is 

 nut at such ji moment that a i)reacher of the (Josi)el, 

 ^vere he the least of all, can consent to hold his peace, 

 like the "duml) dogs'' of Israel — treacherous guardians, 

 Avhom the prophet reproaches l)ecause they could not 

 l)ark. Canex mufi, non V((Ien/e.<t latvitre. 



The saints are never dumh. lam not one of them, 

 l)ut I nevertheless knoAV that I am come of that 

 stock— y/Zn' sandonini suniiis — and it has ever been my 

 ambition to place my steps, my tears, and, if need were, 

 my blood, in the footprints where they have left theirs. 



I lift \\\\ then, before the Holy Father and before the 

 Council, my protest as a Christian and a priest against 

 those doctrines and practices, which call themselves 

 Roman, but are not Christian, and which, making 

 encroachments ever bolder and more deadly, tend to 

 change the constitution of the Church, the substance, 

 as well as the form of its teaching, and even the spirit 

 of its piety. I protest against the divorce, not less 

 impious than mad, which men are struggling to accom- 

 ])lish between the Church, which is our mother for eter- 

 nity and the society of the nineteenth century, whose 

 sons we are for time, and toward which we have also 

 both duties and affections. 



I protest against that opposition, more radical and 

 frightful yet, which sets itself against human nature, 



