FIRST LETTER.

Rome, December 1869.-The Council is opened. It is, we may say, in full swing, and the situation has to a certain degree revealed itself. Two great questions are in every mind and on every tongue-first, "Wherein will the freedom promised to the Council consist, and how far will it extend?" and secondly, "Will Papal Infallibility be erected into a dogma?"

As regards the freedom of the Council, the position of the episcopate is in some respects better and in others worse than at Trent three centuries ago. Then the Italians had the most complete and undeniable preponderance over the Spanish and French Prelates, who were the only others that came into the reckoning at all. The opposition of the latter could at best only stop the passing of some particular decrees, but, generally speaking, whatever the legates and their devoted troop of Italian Prelates desired was carried, and as

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they desired it. The numerical relations are entirely changed now, and there is a far more comprehensive representation of National Churches. The Italian Bishops, even if unanimous among themselves, do not form a third of the whole Synod. But what they have lost in numbers is abundantly made up by the lion's share the Papal Court seizes beforehand for itself, and thereby for the Italian prelatura.

The first step taken, and the regulations already made by Pius IX. for the present Council, prove that it is not to follow the precedents of the ancient free Councils, or even of the Tridentine. At Trent all decrees still ran in the name of the Council. "The Ecumenical Tridentine Synod, lawfully assembled in the Holy Ghost, ordains and decrees, etc.," is the heading of every session and its decrees. Very different is to be the arrangement at Rome. There has already been distributed to the Bishops a Methodus in primâ Sessione Concilii observanda, which prescribes thus: "The Pope will hand over the decrees to the Secretary or another Bishop to read, who reads them with the heading, 'Pius, Episcopus, servus servorum Dei, sacro approbante Concilio, ad perpetuam rei memoriam."" After reading them he asks the Cardinals and Bishops whether they

assent. If all say Placet, the Pope declares the decrees carried "nemine dissentiente." If some answer, Non placet, he mentions the number, and adds, "Nosque, sacro approbante Concilio, illa ita decernimus, statuimus atque sancimus ut lecta sunt." This is the formula first introduced after Gregory VII.'s time, when the Papacy had climbed to its mediæval eminence. The first to use it was Alexander III., at the Roman Synod of 1079. It stands in glaring contrast to the practice of the ancient Synods for the first thousand years of Church history, which drew up and promulgated all their decisions freely, independently, and in their own name. Here the Pope appears as the author of the decrees, the one authoritative legislator, who out of courtesy allows the Bishops to express their opinions, but finally decides himself, in the plenitude of his sovereign power, as seems good to him. In another Papal document communicated to the Bishops it is said still more emphatically, "Nos deinde supremam nostram sententiam edicemus eamque nunciari et promulgari mandabimus, hâc adhibitâ solemni formulâ, Decreta modo lecta, etc." Meanwhile one concession has been made, which might possibly have some value :

1 [The third Lateran Council.-TR.]

the Pope has declared that, though the right of initiating measures belongs entirely to himself, he is willing to allow the Bishops to exercise it. This would give them the opportunity of at least bringing forward for discussion some of the worst evils-such as, e.g., what many of them feel to be the hateful nuisance of the Index-and preparing remedies. But then it must be borne in mind that on every question the Curia has at its disposal a majority of Prelates, who are its own creatures, and many of them in its pay. With the help of this troop of devoted followers it can get rid of every disagreeable proposal before it is even submitted to discussion.

The Sessions of the Council are solemnities only held for the formal promulgation of decrees already discussed and passed; the real business is done in the previous Congregations. Every Bishop who wants to speak there is to give notice the day before, but those who wish to speak without having given notice are not to be prevented. A congregation of twenty-four members is to be chosen by the Bishops from among themselves, for the purpose of specially investigating subjects on which differences of opinion have been expressed, and reporting on them. At least nine-tenths of the Pre

lates are condemned to silence simply from being unable to speak Latin readily and coherently through want of regular practice. And to this must be added the diversities of pronunciation. It is impossible, e.g., that Frenchmen or Italians should understand an Englishman's Latin even for a minute.1

There will no doubt be some subjects on which the Bishops may really speak and determine freely. But the moment a question in any way affects the interests and rights of the Roman Curia, there is an end of their freedom. For every Bishop has sworn not only to maintain but constantly to increase all the rights of the Pope, and it is notorious that at Rome, and in regular intercourse with the Papal Congregations, one can take no step without being reminded, directly or indirectly -by courtly insinuation, or rudely and openly,—of this oath, and the enormous extent of the obligations incurred by it, which embrace the whole range of ecclesiastical life. The Bishops then are so far free in Council, that no Bishop who expresses an opinion unpalatable to the Curia is threatened with imprisonment or bodily injury. Those Bishops enjoy a larger

The Scotch pronounce Latin much as the Germans do.

* [Even this must be taken with reserve.-Cf. infra, pp. 174, 175.- TR.]