These interviews opened the eyes of Jules Favre, and convinced him that France could hope for no armed intervention. She must trust to herself, and put forth her utmost energies to defend her capital, to kindle the flame of patriotism in the population, and to raise new armies in the place of those that had been lost.
CHAPTER XXXV.
THE REIGN OF VICTORIA (continued).
The Vatican Council—Unusualness of the Occasion—Dr. Newman's Letter—Jesuit Influence—Dr. Cumming—Symptoms of Opposition—Opening of the Council—Inequalities of Representation—Order of Business—Production of the Schemata—The Doctrine of Papal Infallibility—Opposition of France and Austria—Withdrawal of the French Troops—The Ecclesiastical Opposition—Withdrawal of the Anti-Protestant Preamble—Adoption of the Constitution De Fide—Discussion on the Constitution De Ecclesiâ—Application of the Closure—The Dogma defined—Secession of the Minority—Confirmation of the Constitution—Victor Emmanuel determines on the Occupation of Rome—The Popular Vote—The Papal Guarantees—The Spanish Throne—The Savoy Candidature—Death of Prim—Paris after the Revolution of September—Jules Favre's Circular—Bismarck's Reply—The Negotiations at Ferrières—The Fortifications of Paris—The Investment completed—Thiers and Gambetta—Fall of Strasburg—Bazaine in Metz—An abortive Sortie—Emperor or Country?—Regnier's Intrigue—The Empress declines to be a Party—A Council of War—Boyer's Mission—Its Failure—The Army of Metz capitulates—A Riot in Paris—Thiers negotiates in vain—Abortive Sorties—The Army of the Loire—D'Aurelle de Paladines reoccupies Orleans—Reasons for his Inaction—He is ordered to advance—Chanzy's Defeat and Recapture of Orleans—The Second Army of the Loire—Garibaldi in the East—The New Year in Paris—Dispositions of the German Armies—Battle of Amiens—Faídherbe's Campaign—Bapaume—St. Quentin—An Unpleasant Incident—Le Mans—The Bombardment of Paris—The Armistice—Termination of the Siege—Bourbaki's Attempt—Action at Villersexel—The Eastern Army crosses the Swiss Frontier—The National Assembly at Bordeaux—Prolongation of the Armistice—Resignation of Gambetta—Preliminaries of Peace—Occupation of Paris—Acceptance of the Preliminaries—The Definitive Treaty—German Unity.
THE earlier portion of the year, of which the later months ushered in so much bloodshed and such dire calamities, was rendered memorable by the sessions of the Vatican Council at Rome, the first General Council of the Latin Church that Europe had witnessed since the Council of Trent. To England, indeed, as a Protestant country, the proceedings of a purely Roman Catholic council could not be of immediate and vital interest. Yet, besides the necessity and duty of watching keenly transactions tending to affect the faith and conduct of a large portion of that Christendom to which England also belonged, the closeness of her connection with Ireland, whose people zealously participated in the preparatory movements, brought the subject home to her in various ways; the questions themselves which it was understood were likely to come before the Council were of a remarkable nature; and a well-founded apprehension existed that the settlement of these questions in a particular way was likely to have large and wide-spreading political results. It will not therefore be out of place in this History, while keeping clear of anything like theological discussion, to insert a brief notice of the Vatican Council, showing in what circumstances and with what intentions it was called together, and describing how, after great and weighty opposition, a dogma issued from its deliberations that afterwards acted like a firebrand cast into the society of all Roman Catholic countries.
The (according to the Roman computation) twenty-second General Council was convened, by the Bull Æterni Patris dated the 29th of June, 1868, to meet at the Vatican on the 8th of December, 1869. The principal subjects for its deliberations were stated to be—the magisterium or supremacy of the Roman Pontiff, the relations between the State and the Church, and the deep-seated evils and corruptions of modern society, owing to the prevalence of revolutionary principles in religion, morals, and philosophy. Why the Council was summoned at this particular time, it was not easy to understand. Dissensions on questions of faith, threatening to terminate in schism, or which already had terminated in schism, appear to have been, in former ages of the Church, the invariable antecedents of the convocation of an Œcumenical Council. But in the present case there never had been a time in which greater unanimity in faith, or a more ardent spirit of loyal obedience to the Pope, had pervaded the Roman Catholic world. It had been indeed alleged that the rash speculations of some German professors at the universities of Munich and Vienna, the drift of which was to extend the authority of National Churches, and to set limits to the Papal sovereignty, supplied a natural occasion and a sufficient justification for the fuller and more exact definition of the Pontifical and Petrine privileges which the promoters of the Council desired to see recorded. Yet, at the time, little was heard of these speculations: they did not aim at popularity; they were not taken up as the watchwords of any important party in the Church. The non-necessity for, the inopportunity of, the Council—at any rate with reference to questions of dogma—was an opinion strongly entertained by many earnest and able Roman Catholics. "What have we done?" wrote Dr. Newman to Bishop Ullathorne, "to be treated as the faithful never were treated before? When has a definition de fide been a luxury of devotion, and not a stern, painful necessity? Why should an aggressive and insolent faction be allowed to 'make the heart of the just sad, whom the Lord hath not made sorrowful'? Why cannot we be let alone when we have pursued peace and thought no evil?... If it is God's will that the Pope's infallibility is defined, then is it God's will to throw back 'the times and the moments' of that triumph which He has destined for His kingdom, and I shall feel I have but to bow my head to His adorable, inscrutable Providence." Many were of opinion that the Society of Jesus—the members of which were numerous at Rome, were supposed to have great influence over the Pope, and were certainly very active in paving the way for the Council—saw in the extension and more precise definition of the Papal prerogatives, which the adoption of the dogma of infallibility would involve, an opportunity for strengthening that system of centralised and unquestioned power which they have done so much to establish in the Roman Church. "The dogma," it was said, "is intended to make the Pope the ruler of the world; but the Jesuits rule the Pope, therefore the master-influence for the future in that large section of mankind which is included in the Latin Church will be wielded by the Jesuits." Nor was this opinion as to the preponderating share assigned to the Order in the arrangements for the Council confined to Protestants. Soon after the commencement of the sessions, Bishop Strossmayer, a Croatian prelate, denounced the Jesuits before the assembled fathers as manipulating and directing the business of the Council in a manner liable to be disastrous to the interests of the Church.
Soon after the publication of the Bull convening the Council a Papal Brief appeared, addressed to all Protestants and non-Roman Catholics, informing them that a General Council was about to be held, entreating them not to rest contented with a position in which they could not be sure of their salvation, and urging them to reconciliation and submission. Dr. Cumming, of the Scottish Church, London, understood this appeal as tantamount to an invitation to the Council, and manifested an intention of attending at the Council at the time appointed and taking part in the discussion. The Pope, however, writing to Archbishop Manning, desired that "Dr. Cumming, of Scotland," should be informed that no opinions and practices that had been condemned by any previous Council could be again brought under discussion, and that the object of reminding Protestants of the Council was to induce them to reflect upon the instability of their religious position. In order that confusion might not characterise the proceedings of so numerous an assembly, composed of men of every nation, a large proportion of whom had never set eyes upon each other before, six commissions were appointed by the Pope, with orders to prepare and rough-hew the materials for deliberation in council on the several topics of Religious Dogma, Ecclesiastical Politics, Church Discipline, Monastic Orders, the East, and Rites and Ceremonies.
In Roman Catholic countries it was believed that the object for which the Council was convened was to declare the infallibility of the Pope; and for months before the Council opened great agitation prevailed. In France, Bishop Maret and Père Gratry, the Oratorian, published pamphlets impugning, not the opportuneness only, but the truth, of the doctrine in question. In Germany the celebrated Dr. Döllinger contributed to the Allgemeine Zeitung a short but weighty essay, "Against the Infallibility of the Pope." But of all writings of this class none attracted so much attention as an able work named "The Pope and the Council" that appeared under the pseudonym of "Janus." The object of the writer was to establish by reference to history the untenable nature of the claims now made on behalf of the Roman Pontiffs. The Governments of the Roman Catholic Powers became uneasy and sought information from Cardinal Antonelli as to the probable course that the deliberations would take; some of them also spoke of asserting a claim to send ambassadors to the Council, as in former times, for the protection of lay interests. But Cardinal Antonelli replied in smooth and conciliatory terms; he would not admit that the definition of the dogma of infallibility was probable; and with regard to the non-admission into the Council of ambassadors from Roman Catholic Powers, he justified it by the changed circumstances of modern times.