It will thus be seen that during this month the council has steadily pursued the even tenor of its way, without any public session. In fact, no day has as yet been assigned even as the proximate date of the third public session. No one outside the council seems able to say precisely what progress has been made in discussing and disposing of matters. Still less can we say when the council will close. There seems to be a feeling that the discussions will continue until June, when the almost tropical heat of a Roman summer must set in. This will, of course, necessitate an adjournment until the close of October, when the bishops would probably reassemble to continue their work. Time only can show whether there is any truth in this prognostication. Some of the bishops, of a more practical turn of mind, or more desirous of returning soon to their dioceses, are striving to find a mode of conciliating the most perfect freedom of discussion with a more rapid progress in the matters before the council. The most sacred right in a council is freedom to state one's views on matters in controversy, and to uphold them by all the arguments in one's power. This right has so far been most fully enjoyed and freely used. No plan that would take it away would be entertained.
Every day in Rome now convinces a sojourner more and more strongly of the unity, the catholicity, and the sanctity of the church of Christ. Faith that heretofore was almost extinct beneath the ashes of worldly thoughts, here glows again and bursts into a bright flame. Elsewhere we believed these truths; here we seem to behold with our eyes, and to touch with our hands their reality. No one can be privileged to mingle with the bishops here without being impressed with their perfect unity in all things declared and taught by the church, and with the undisguised readiness or rather firm intention of all, to accept and to hold and to teach all that, under the light of the Holy Ghost, shall be declared of faith in this Vatican Council. If, during the discussion and examination, they may take different views, this does not disturb the cordial affection among them. They can array their strongest arguments without ever descending to personalities. They are chary of indulging even in witticism calculated to relieve the solemnity of the debate by a smile. In all the discussion there is not only the highest gentlemanly courtesy, but also that true charity and union of hearts which must accompany that unity of faith which they solemnly professed to hold, and which must, if possible, be confirmed and strengthened in this Vatican Council.
To be fully impressed with this perfect unity, one must be privileged to mingle somewhat with the bishops. But even the cursory glance of a stranger sees the evidence of the catholicity of the church presented by the gathering of so many bishops from so many portions of the world around the central chair of unity. We have already spoken of this in our former articles. We will now give a summary, almost official, which has just been made out, classifying the prelates who have attended, according to their nationalities and dioceses:
| EUROPE. | |
| Austria and Tyrol, | 10 |
| Bohemia and Moravia, | 5 |
| Illyria and Dalmatia, | 13 |
| Hungary and Gallicia, | 20 |
| Belgium, | 6 |
| France, | 84 |
| Germany, North Confederation, | 10 |
| Germany, South Confederation, | 9 |
| England, | 14 |
| Ireland, | 20 |
| Scotland, | 2 |
| Greece, | 5 |
| Holland, | 4 |
| Lombardy, | 3 |
| Venice, | 8 |
| Naples, Kingdom of, | 65 |
| Sicily and Malta, | 13 |
| Sardinia, Kingdom of, | 25 |
| Tuscany and Modena, | 19 |
| States of the Church, including cardinals, and also all the bishops from sees in those portions seized by Victor Emmanuel, | 143 |
| Portugal, | 2 |
| Switzerland, | 8 |
| Spain, | 41 |
| Turkey in Europe, | 12 |
| Russia, an administrator of a diocese who has escaped, | 1 |
| ASIA. | |
| China and Japan, | 15 |
| Hindostan and Cochin China, etc., | 18 |
| Persia, | 1 |
| Turkey in Asia, | 49 |
| AFRICA. | |
| Algeria, | 3 |
| Canary Islands and the Azores, | 3 |
| Egypt and Tunis, | 3 |
| Senegambia, | 1 |
| Southern Africa, | 4 |
| OCEANICA. | |
| Australia and the Islands of the Pacific Ocean, | 14 |
| AMERICA. | |
| Dominion of Canada, and other British Provinces of North America, | 16 |
| United States, | 49 |
| Mexico, | 10 |
| Guatemala, | 4 |
| West Indies, | 5 |
| New Granada, | 4 |
| Ecuador, | 4 |
| Guyana, | 1 |
| Venezuela, | 2 |
| Peru, | 3 |
| Brazil, | 6 |
| Bolivia, | 2 |
| Argentine Republic, | 5 |
| Chili, | 3 |
| That is, | Europe, | 541 |
| America, | 114 | |
| Asia, | 83 | |
| Africa, | 14 | |
| Oceanica, | 14 | |
| 766 |
Divided according to rites, they stand as follows:
| Latin Rite, | 706 |
| Greek Rite, | 3 |
| Greek Bulgarian, | 1 |
| Greek Melchite, | 10 |
| Greek Roumenian, | 2 |
| Greek Ruthenian, | 1 |
| Armenian, | 21 |
| Chaldean, | 10 |
| Syrian, | 7 |
| Maronite, | 4 |
| Coptic, | 1 |
| 766 |
Truly, it is such a gathering as no human power could assemble. Only the Catholic Church could effect it. No wonder that strangers from every clime, especially devout Catholics, have flocked to Rome these months as they never flocked before.
The splendor of the ceremonies of our holy church, as celebrated in Rome, especially in St. Peter's, is unequalled in the whole world. A gray-haired ambassador was present some years ago in St. Peter's at the celebration of high mass by the sovereign pontiff on Easter-Sunday. He had been present at two imperial and several royal coronations, where every effort was made to give a national magnificence to the ceremony; had witnessed several royal marriages, and grand court celebrations of every character. But he declared that every thing he had ever seen sank into insignificance before the grandeur and the sublime magnificence of that high mass. Never were the religious celebrations of Rome so magnificent as they have been and are during this council, when the sanctuary is filled with more than half a thousand prelates, Latin and oriental, in their rich and varied vestments. Strangers and Romans alike crowd the grand basilica. Yet the stranger often fails to see, what the Roman feels, as it were, by instinct, that all this effort at splendor and magnificence is purely and wholly a tribute of man to honor the religion which God in his love and mercy has given, and that no part of it is for man's own honor. If the stranger would realize this truth, which is the soul of the ceremonial of the church, he has but to follow these prelates from the sanctuary to their homes, and witness the simplicity and self-denial of their private lives. Perhaps he will be shocked at the unexpected discovery of what he would term discomfort and poverty.