The _Schema_ has aroused manifold displeasure, even among allies of Schrader and his brethren, and men who, like them, are Infallibilists. What I hear said everywhere is that the whole thing is a poor and very superficial piece of patchwork, with more words than ideas, and, as the blind old Archbishop Tizzani said in the Congregation, is above all designed to stamp the opinions of the Jesuit school as dogmas, and to substitute a string of new obligatory articles of faith for the _theologumena_ or doctrines of the theological schools hitherto left open to the judgment of individuals. For a Society, like that of Loyola’s disciples, it is of supreme importance to possess in the multitude of new anathemas what will always supply abundant matter for accusations; it appertains to their “arcana dominationis” always to keep alive the fear of being charged with heresy. It makes other theologians dependent on the Order, and cramps their literary energies. And it must be borne in mind that there are no longer any powerful theological corporations which might meet the Jesuits on equal terms. Were the _Schema_ to be adopted, very few professors of Old Testament Exegesis could escape the charge of heresy, so far is the inspiration of the scriptural books, even the deutero-canonical, extended here for the first time. And thus it happened yesterday that there was no single speaker for the _Schema_, but all, beginning with Cardinal Rauscher, spoke against it; and Archbishop Conolly of Halifax said in so many words, “Censeo _Schema_ cum honore esse sepeliendum.” This of course has only been the beginning of the discussion, and we are naturally in suspense as to how it will proceed. But so much is already gained, that a spirit of independence is roused among the Bishops. Much is said here about the desertion of certain Bishops from the ranks of the Opposition, and new names are mentioned every morning, often with the remark that So-and-so has let himself be caught with the bait of one of the fifteen vacant Hats. These Hats are held here to be capable of working miracles. There is thought to be no more effective means of working the conversion of a hardened anti-Infallibilist than a decoration of that kind, and, in truth, the number might not be great of those who would say with Darboy, “Je n’ai point de rhumer de cerveau, je n’ai pas besoin de chapeau.” As long as fifteen of these Hats are suspended in the air ready to descend on a willing head, so long, every Italian is convinced, there can be no lack of conversions. The example of the Synod of Constantinople in 859 is quoted, where the Bishops were induced to vote for the deposition of Synesius by promising each of them separately the Patriarchal throne. Yet of the majority of French, German, Hungarian, and American Bishops, no one who knows them would expect this weakness; and so on closer inspection these rumours come to nothing. Even Ketteler, who had been given up for lost on