Letters From Rome on the CouncilDöllinger, Johann Joseph Ignaz von
History
Letters From Rome on the Council
Döllinger, Johann Joseph Ignaz von
Popes -- Infallibility; Vatican Council (1st : 1869-1870 : Basilica di San Pietro in Vaticano)
The drawing up of the letter of remonstrance at Fulda is said not to have
been such plain sailing. The Pastoral originally sketched out by Heinrich,
Canon of Mayence, but to which important additions were made subsequently,
was subscribed by all the Bishops, even those who had been pupils of the
Jesuits, who consoled themselves with the belief that the dogma of
Infallibility did exactly combine the conditions specified there as
requisite for a dogmatic decree, and was really scriptural, primitive, and
written on the hearts of all good Catholics. So their Jesuit masters had
taught and assured them. But the secret document sent to the Pope had
necessarily to be more explicit, and though it was limited to pointing out
how inopportune the definition of new dogmas, especially of Papal
Infallibility, would be, that was precisely opposite to what the
Jesuitizers among the Bishops were convinced of. The Jesuits themselves
lose no opportunity of proclaiming that nothing can be more opportune than
this dogma, and from their own point of view they may be right enough, for
the rich and ripe fruits of the dogma would fall into their own laps, and
would help the Society to absolute dominion over science, literature, and
education within the Catholic Church. The proposed dogma would give
canonical authority to the Jesuit theology, and identify it with the
doctrine of the Church, and the Order, or the spirit of the Order, would
always be required for teaching and vindicating the new system. The
Bishops of Paderborn and Würzburg therefore refused to sign, and the
representative of the Bishop of Spires followed their example.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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