During his sojourn in Rome Bute had opportunities, which he was not likely to neglect, of meeting many interesting people, and hearing much at first hand, and from both sides, of the weighty matters under discussion at the Council. The prelate of whom he saw most, and to whom he was very sincerely attached, was Mgr. Clifford, Bishop of Clifton, who with the Archbishops of Paris, Vienna, and St. Louis, and Bishop Dupanloup of Orleans, were prominent among the opponents of the definition of Papal Infallibility. With the leaders of the opposite party also he had from time to time considerable intercourse, and in a letter addressed to {88} him nearly thirty years later by the venerable Cardinal Gibbons, now (1920) the sole survivor of the Fathers of the Council, his Eminence reminded Bute of a long drive he had taken with himself and Archbishop Spalding of Baltimore, a very strong pro-definitionist, and of their interesting talk on that occasion about the great subject of the day. Bute's own habit of mind, and the influence exercised on his judgment by Bishop Clifford, undoubtedly predisposed him to sympathise with those opposed to the definition; and he shared the apprehensions of many of his friends among that party--apprehensions not justified in the event--that the step if carried through might result in a serious defection from the Church. A subsequent letter from him, however, will show what with instant and edifying submission of heart and mind he accepted the decree when once it had been promulgated by the supreme authority which he never for a moment questioned. [Sidenote: 1870, Society in Rome]