168 
ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING* 
The Rev. G. F. Whidborne, M.A., F.R.G.S., in the Chair. 
The Minutes of the previous Meeting were read and confirmed. 
The following paper was then read by the Author : 
ON THE DECAY OF ULTRAMONTANISM FROM AN 
HISTORICAL POINT OF VIEW. By Rev. Chancellor 
J. J. Lias, M.A. 
I HAVE been asked to give an account of the present condition 
of Ultramontanism from an historic point of view. There- 
can be no doubt whatever that a most extraordinary ferment is 
at present going on in countries formerly Roman Catholic, and 
especially in France, which has produced a crop of more recent 
movements, spasmodic and unrelated to one another, not only in 
France, but in Spain and Italy, and even in the United States, 
in South America, and in the Philippine Islands. Many of 
these movements are wild and unregulated, and not always 
destined to be permanent. But taken all together, they represent 
a state of chaos among the members of the Roman Catholic 
Church which is altogether unprecedented in the history of 
Christianity. Nor can the keenest foresight, nor the most 
powerful imagination, attempt to forecast the future of Christi- 
anity in these lands. In the sixteenth century, whatever the 
violence of the religious upheaval, the conflict was at least one 
between different forms of belief. In the twentieth century it 
would seem to be a conflict, not so much between different forms 
of religion, as between belief, non-belief, and downright unbelief. 
To such a pass has the rule of Rome brought religion in the 
countries over which she has so long had sway. 
* Monday, March 16th, 1908. 
