Pope. This mischievous system had been adopted by a certain school, and the Schema before them was drawn up in accordance with it and in contradiction to all Catholic tradition. It placed the Bishops in the same relation to the Pope as priests occupied towards Bishops, which was unheard of. He protested against the whole system, and desired that in every dogmatic decree Holy Scripture and Tradition should be taken full account of the Pope needed the co-operation of the Bishops as representatives of tradition. It was utterly wrong to believe that the depositum fidei was committed to the Pope alone.

If the force and clearness of Ketteler's speech evoked deep and serious reflection, an amusing episode occurred at the close of the sitting. The Irish Bishop Keane of Cloyne ascended the tribune. There is a story told of a German city whose sapient councillors carried the sunlight out of the street in sacks to light their town-hall, which had no windows; and so Keane informed his hearers that St. Peter brought the whole body of tradition with him to Rome well stored up; here and here alone it was still kept, and every Pope took what was required from the stock which he possessed as a whole genuine and entire.

Those who wish to prosecute pyschological and ethical studies should come to Rome. Here they may observe how the three great powers of the world, as St. Augustine calls them, "Errores, amores, terrores,” work together in full harmony and activity; the last especially will aid the victory of the first-for how long He only knows who rules the destiny of man.

SIXTY-THIRD LETTER.

Rome, July 2, 1870.-The Pope's reported answer to those who spoke to him of the sufferings of the Bishops and their danger of death, and the consequent need for proroguing the Council, is passing from mouth to mouth. I should consider it a sin to publish it. Were it true, one would have to treat the man who could so speak as the Orsini treated Boniface VIII. in his last days. If it is not true, it is very remarkable that the Romans have no hesitation in circulating it and really credit their Pope with it. This and the disdain bordering on simple contempt with which the Romans look down on the Bishops are among the indelible impressions they will take back with them over the Alps.

In the sitting of 28th June Bishop Vitali of Ferentino in the Roman States first inveighed against the long speeches of the Bishops, and then broke into a dithy

rambic panegyric on his master, the Pope, who, like the Emperor Titus, was the "delicia orbis terrarum.” He was somewhat abruptly interrupted by the Legates in the middle of his rhapsody. Ginoulhiac, Archbishop of Lyons, who is the most learned member of the French episcopate after Maret, next delivered an ably and carefully composed speech, which was not interrupted. He appealed to the words and example of former Popes who had acknowledged-like e.g., Celestine I. in 430-that they were not masters of the faith but only guardians of the traditional doctrine, and that not singly but in unison with all Churches and their Bishops, as was clearly expressed in the decree. Pius VI., strong as was the pressure put upon him by France, delayed a long time the issue of the decree against the civil Constitution of the clergy of 1790, because, as he wrote to the King, the Pope must first conscientiously ascertain how the faithful will receive his decision. But a large section of Catholics were not at all disposed to receive this Schema, and the decree would evidently evoke the bitterest hostility to the Church where it did not already exist, and immensely increase it where it did. Pius VI. then said that, if the Roman See, the centre of the Church, lost its authority through exaggerating its claims,

all was lost. Pius IX. should take care that this doctrine did not become a snare to innumerable Catholics. He concluded by commending the formula of St. Antoninus, which requires the consent of the episcopate.

In the sitting of 30th June a member of the almost extinct third party among the French, Sergent, Bishop of Quimper or Cornouailles, came forward. He proposed adding to the Schema, which might then be accepted, words requiring the co-operation for decisions on faith of the "episcopi, sive dispersi sive in Concilio congregati." But he insisted on the superiority of the Pope to a Council according to the decree of Leo. x.,— or, as he said, the fifth Lateran Council, and defended the order of business imposed on this Council by Pius IX. But here he touched on a very sore place; the Bishops sit here under the continual conviction of having their hands tied in an illegitimate and tyrannical fashion, and knowing that the order of business is in direct contradiction to the independence of the ancient Councils. The Legates must have felt that the Opposition would say, "Hæc excusatio est accusatio," and that it would give the requisite handle for again renewing their written protests by word of mouth now at the decisive moment. Sergent was therefore called to order.