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)
even this Protest seemed too bold and audacious, and they have prepared
another representation, with forty signatures, expressed in much more
moderate terms. They entreat the Pope to be graciously pleased to allow
them to inspect the stenographic reports, and to let the Bishops print
their treatises on the questions laid before them without the censorship,
for the information of their colleagues. Posterity will marvel at the
humble submissiveness of these Bishops, and the wisdom of the Roman
policy, which, after two years’ preparation for the Council, provides a
hall where all discussion is impossible, and furthermore prohibits the
Bishops from inspecting the stenographic reports of their own speeches.
Some ten of the leading Bishops of different nations have formed
themselves into an International Committee, so as not, for the future, to
ask concessions of the Pope in the name of one nation only—the French or
German. They wish that every Bishop should be admitted to speak in
Congregation according to the order of inscription, irrespective of
hierarchial rank or age, and that the speeches should be at once printed,
and distributed to the Bishops before the next Session; and finally, that
the Papal Commission for revising motions, which holds the whole Council
in its hands, should be increased by the introduction of members freely
elected. Some further requisitions which I am not acquainted with are said
to be added.
Against these things, which make the Pope very irritable, two principal
remedies are adopted. In the first place, an attempt is made to prevent
any number of Bishops meeting together, either by direct prohibition or by
announcing the displeasure of the supreme authority against those who take
part in such separate deliberations, which are said to be revolutionary.
And next, the Bishops are worked upon individually, and every one is
watched and taken stock of, on the assumption that everybody has his
price, if one could only discover what it is. Two examples of this may be
cited here. One of the most distinguished German Bishops, who is free from
the usual clerical vanity, and could neither be bought with titles nor
with the cut or colour of a vestment, was quite lately accosted by the
Pope—in full consciousness of his Vicarship of Christ—with the question,
asked in the most affectionate tone, “Amas me?” What inference was
attached to an affirmative answer need not be specified. The other case
occurred somewhat earlier. Lavigerie, Bishop of Nancy, came to Rome
coveting some striking mark of distinction. It seemed worth while to bind
him closer to the _Curia_, and so an article of ecclesiastical dress was
hit upon, which he and no other Bishop of the Western Church was to wear.
It was called a superhumeral, and is described as a somewhat broader
stole, thrown over the shoulders, and adorned with fringes, with two
maniples of the shape of shields hanging down from it. The effect is said
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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