[279] Laynez so far succeeded in influencing the papacy by his method of interpreting Scripture, that both the Douay or Roman Catholic Bible and the Rheims Version of the New Testament contain an explanatory note whereby the papal meaning of the words "Feed my sheep" is given as infallibly true. It is there said that by these words Christ conferred upon Peter "the superintendency of all his sheep, and consequently of his whole flock; that is, of his whole Church." This does not go quite to the extent that Laynez did, by converting the word feed into govern, but so nearly so as to make a distinction almost without a difference. The Latin word "pasce" does not mean either to govern or to superintend—nor does the Greek word bὁσκε, but simply to feed. If Christ had intended to say to govern or superintend, he would have employed a word having that signification, which in the Vulgate would be either curatio or procuratio. He meant, therefore, spiritual food only—advice, counsel, instruction—excluding entirely the idea of either governing or superintending the opinions or consciences of any of the flock.
[280] John v, 39: "Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me." The words of the Latin Vulgate are, "Scrutamini Scripturas," and of the Greek, "Ερευυἁτε τἁϛ γραφἁϛ." Each means something more than "search the Scriptures"—that is, examine diligently, scrutinize—and the language is that of command. In order to change it into the mere statement of a fact, the Douay or Roman Catholic Version, and the Rhemish Version—which latter has the "imprimatur" or special preference of Archbishop Hughes, of New York, in 1869, and was printed under his direct auspices by the "Catholic Publication Society" of that city—each contains an explanatory note as follows: "Or, you search the Scriptures;" that is, that Christ merely announced to those present that they did so. This was manifestly done in order to base upon it the admonition which immediately follows: "'T is not a command for all to search the Scriptures, but a reproach to the Pharisees" for not receiving him of whom the Scriptures testified. This perverts the plain meaning; for at that time Christ did not mention the Pharisees, nor did he afterwards do so until he was teaching in the temple. And it was accomplished by adding the word "or" to make the note of equivalent meaning with the text, and the word "you," so as to make it appear that what Christ said was intended for only those he then addressed, and not for all mankind; whereas he undoubtedly intended the latter, so that each individual shall understand what they testify of him. The command is general, because the object is to edify and purify the conscience, and if he meant that others should search them for us and we accept as infallibly true their interpretation of the testimony, the effect would be to weaken, if not destroy, our own sense of personal responsibility. Christ could not have meant this, with reference to matters which concern the eternal welfare of the soul.
[281] De Montor, Vol. I, pp. 566-573.
CONCLUSION.
The triumph achieved by the Jesuits in the Vatican Council of 1870, by the passage of the decree of papal infallibility, inspired the most excessive enthusiasm among the ecclesiastical defenders of the temporal power. They vainly supposed that it was a special intervention of Providence to drive back the revolutionary tide and overwhelm the Italian insurgents who were seeking merely to establish their right to enact such laws as bear upon their temporal interests, leaving the ancient faith of the Church, as their fathers had maintained it for centuries, entirely undisturbed. Pius IX was present in the Council, and when the event was announced, excitedly exclaimed, "Consummatus est," considering, says the impulsive narrator, that Peter had spoken! The same author, as the historian of the Council, continues: "At that instant a terrific thunderstorm burst over the Basilica. It was occasionally enveloped in profound gloom, and the forked lightning darted through and made darkness visible, and peal after peal of thunder rumbled over the Council-hall and towering dome. All were awestruck at the convulsion of the elements, and at the mysterious breathings of the Holy Ghost, whispering, The pope is infallible!"[282]
If, at the seemingly inauspicious moment here described, when nature exhibited herself in frowns rather than smiles, the excitement had subsided sufficiently for calm deliberation, some fear of the Divine displeasure might have been kindled in view of the blasphemous pretense that a mere man, with all the impulses, passions, and ambitious vanities of other men, was the equal of God in all spiritual and temporal matters which concern the moral conduct of society and Governments, and the eternal welfare of the human soul. No body of men ever assembled before, in the course of all the ages, had ventured to announce so palpable a perversion of the teachings of Christ, whose whole intercourse with mankind was designed to teach meekness and humility as the distinguishing characteristics of a Christian life. Nearly nineteen centuries of the Christian era had passed without the consummation of such an infringement upon the primitive faith; and minds not filled with strange infatuation would have been likely to see in the thunder, the lightning, and the clouds, the manifestation of Divine displeasure rather than to have compared the scene—as this writer does—to that in the mount when the tables of the law were delivered to Moses. But no such deliberation then existed, nor did it attend the proceedings of the Vatican Council. The decrees were prepared beforehand under the dictation of Pius IX—like those made ready by Innocent III for the Lateran Council in 1215, assembled to condemn the pretended heresies of the Albigenses, to give renewed strength to his temporal power, to gloss over his usurpations, and give papal sanction to the horrible persecutions of the Inquisition. No amendments were allowed. An attempt was made to strike out the anathema, but as that would have been a surrender of the coercive power, it failed. The Council—as heretofore stated—was far from being full when the final vote was taken, many members having voluntarily withdrawn to signify their opposition to the decree, after having failed in every expedient to defeat it. Apart, however, from this want of unanimity, it is pretended that this doctrine of infallibility has been concealed, in some mysterious way, in the deposit of faith for all the years since the time of Christ, and not revealed, notwithstanding the untiring exertions of the ambitious popes to obtain its recognition! And all this, without seeming to realize that to say of this doctrine, as well as that of the Immaculate Conception, that belief in both is absolutely necessary to salvation in the next life, is equivalent to alleging that the millions who have died without the belief of either, and the other millions who have expressly denied and denounced both, have been, and will be forever, excluded from the presence of God!
This is a practical age, and the people of the United States, considered collectively, are conspicuously a practical people. They have become so by virtue of the fact that their political institutions have been so constructed as to require the personal participation of each citizen in the management of public affairs. But if the pope is, in fact, infallible, and possessed rightfully of the jurisdiction over faith, morals, and conduct, which that doctrine assigns to him, then the popular supervision over their affairs ends at the point where the papal and Jesuit supervision over them begins. Then, instead of continuing in the forefront of the progressive and advancing nations, we shall occupy an inconspicuous place among those by which progress is condemned as infidelity. The pope himself, who has sent Mgr. Satolli here to instruct us, seems to have forgotten—and there are multitudes of his obedient followers who care not to know—that the most that his ambitious predecessors, Gregory VII, Innocent III, and Boniface VIII, could accomplish by virtue of their assumption of infallibility, was to divide the membership of the Church into rival and infuriated factions—the Cisalpines and the Ultramontanes. The former adhered to the religion of the Gallican Christians by limiting the pope's supremacy to spirituals alone; while the latter, as he now does, extended it to absolute spiritual sovereignty to such a degree over the world, as includes all temporal matters concerning the interests of the Church and the papacy. The Ultramontanes traced this absolute sovereignty back to the lines of policy pursued by several of the most distinguished of the popes, but particularly to the bull "Unam Sanctam" of Boniface VIII, while the Cisalpines repudiated the authority of that bull. This issue gave rise to a protracted and angry controversy, which continued up till the Vatican Council of 1870, when Pius IX, more successful than any of his predecessors, was enabled to profit by his alliance with the Jesuits, and secure the triumph of the Ultramontanes. This he accomplished by causing the Council to revive the dogmas of all the popes who had gone before him, including, of course, Gregory VII, Innocent III, and Boniface VIII, in so far as they concerned faith, morals, and all religious duties and obligations. In the "Dogmatic Constitution," which authoritatively announces the infallibility of the pope, and was issued under the immediate personal auspices of Pius IX, special pains are taken to declare that this doctrine rests not only on the "testimonies of the sacred writings," but on "the plain and express decrees" of "the Roman pontiffs, and of the General Councils,"[283] notwithstanding no previous Council ever passed such a decree, and those of Constance and Basel expressly decided the exact reverse. Here, it will be observed, the popes are grouped together by the use of the word pontiffs in the plural, leaving the present to be compared with the former faith, by searching among the numerous constitutions, decrees, encyclicals, allocutions, and bulls of all the popes enumerated in the calendar of the Church. Thus the Ultramontanes and the Jesuits find their faith in the bulls and policy of Gregory VII, Innocent III, and Boniface VIII, but especially in the bull "Unam Sanctam" of the latter; and as they, with Leo XIII at their head, represent the victorious party in the Church, there can be no excuse for not knowing the religious doctrines of that party as they are embodied in the infallible utterances of that celebrated bull, and are now employed to justify the restoration of the pope's temporal power, and the enlargement of his spiritual jurisdiction in the event of their success.