[422] His name does not occur in the Acta Sanctæ Sedis for the third.
[423] Quirinus, p. 608.
[424] Acta Sanctæ Sedis. Friedberg, p. 47, says there were two hundred and fifty signatures, but this is evidently a mistake.
To the Close of the Special Debate on Infallibility, July 4—Proposal of the Minority to resist—They yield once more—Another Protest—Efforts to procure Unanimity—Hope of the Minority in Delay—Pope disregards the Heat—Disgrace of Theiner—Decree giving to Pope ordinary Jurisdiction everywhere—His Superiority to Law—Debate on Infallibility—Speech of Guidi—Great Emotion—Scene with the Pope—Close of the Debate—Present view of the Civiltá as to Politics—Specimens of the Official Histories—Exultation.
Any one who had observed the course of the minority in emergencies would have probably foretold that, under the new trial, they would feel indignant, would speak of doing something, and would end with a protest. So it proved. The very day of the forcible conclusion of the general debate, the French bishops met, and were favourable to some determined action.[425] But the next day, eighty congregated in the rooms of Cardinal Rauscher. The Hungarians, French, and Americans, with Strossmayer, Clifford, and Conolly, are named by Quirinus as recommending that the Fathers of the Opposition should cease to take any part in the Council, reserving themselves for the final vote, and should then give their Non placet. The Germans, however, always marplots, urged that the better course would be to adopt a protest, and continue to take part in the proceedings. This counsel prevailed. Rauscher drew up a form of protest, which was signed by some eighty prelates, and many of the bishops took a trip to Naples or elsewhere.
Among the things represented by Quirinus as having been said on this occasion, one was to the effect that in a Parliament speeches were of some use, for if they did not influence votes, they did enlighten public opinion; but in this Council, most of the hearers were, from their degree of culture, quite incapable of apprehending theological arguments, not to add that, in a moral point of view, many of them stood so low that even if convinced they would not act on their convictions. The ground taken in the protest is clear, namely, that the right of supporting their votes by a statement of reasons, is one which, by the very nature of a Council, belongs not only to some of its members, but to them all, and that such a right could not be taken away by any vote of a majority.[426]
The Hungarians now declared that they would take no further part in the debates. On the other hand, the Unitá Cattolica foretold how those who had written or spoken as Gallicans would be converted by a miracle of the Holy Ghost, even in the Council Hall; and as the Galileans had been constrained to speak in other tongues, so would the Gallicans be constrained to proclaim in that Hall before the astonished multitudes the doctrine they had gainsaid.