Meanwhile the minority are being plied with reasons, which are only mentioned cursorily, or not at all, in the printed documents of the Court and the majority. They are told that all their own interests depend on the papal authority being preserved intact, and that the evils they fear from the proclamation of the dogma cannot come into comparison with this common interest. They are bidden to remember how far the Pope has already committed himself in this matter; since John XXII.—more than 600 years ago—no Pope has thrown the Brennus sword of his authority into the scale to decide a question of doctrine, but Pius has cut himself off from all possibility of retreat by his _Schema_, his conversations with many Bishops, and his letters of encouragement and commendation to infallibilist writers. He has declared, not once or twice but a hundred times, that he knows and _feels_ his infallibility, and wills the Catholic world to believe it. He might simply by a Bull condemn all who oppose it as heretics, and how many of the Bishops would summon courage to resist the Bull? As yet these reasons, practical as they appear, have not produced much effect. The Opposition grows visibly, and the speeches of its members have produced an impression quite unexpected by themselves. The words of the Melchite Patriarch, Jussuf, have kindled a flame among the Orientals too, and there are Bishops who tell me they had not thought it possible for a discourse in the Council Hall to produce so great a revolution of feeling. But I will not conceal from you that you may find in Margotti’s _Unita_, which draws its information from the highest authority, news in comparison to which my statements must appear pure fables. He writes from here on the 18th of May, “The action of the Holy Ghost is beginning to be felt; the Opposition diminishes daily. Cardoni has just issued his masterly work on papal infallibility, and now every one comprehends that it is the sole remedy and defence against the dominant pest of journalism and a free press. We must have a Pope who, being himself infallible, can _daily_ teach, condemn and define, and whose utterances no Catholic ever dares to doubt.”(102) So runs the statement in the _Unita_ of May 24. Inconceivable blindness of past generations, who allowed whole centuries to pass without needing or asking for a single papal definition! Henceforth the definition wheel, which the Pope is to turn, is never to remain still for a day—because of journalism.