The Roman Pontiff is the Vicar of Christ. Therefore is he the continuator of the work of Christ in the world. He, standing in His stead, is the witness to the truth in the midst of us. Christ is the voice of the Father, and the Pontiff is the voice of Christ. The Father, in the fulness of time, spake unto us by His Son. The Son, after His return to the Father, continues to speak to us by His Vicar. Now, is it conceivable that a lie can ever be found in such a mouth, in such a word?—and if it could be found, would not the mission of Christ and the duration of His reign have vanished ipso facto? Affirming the infallibility of the Pontiff, therefore, means no less than affirming the duration of the reign of Christ upon earth.
Many who, on beginning to read this work, would have shrunk from interpreting language as to the Kingdom of Christ or the reign of Christ in the Jesuit sense, will by this time be prepared to see how a fallen faith which in effect brings down our Lord to the level of the Pope, must impress itself on the language of those who hold it. Any thoughtful man who will spend a few minutes in calmly setting out before his mind the ideas here shown to rule the mind of a Jesuit, will ever after attach a more definite meaning to the language of Ultramontanes when they speak of the Word of God, the Kingdom of God, the Christian civil system, or use any other terms, affecting the relative positions of the Pope and of the rest of the human race.
The writer of this article gratefully recognizes the surpassing zeal of France and her title to the first place among nations devoted to the Church. Those who form exceptions to the general devotion of France do not belong to her. The Opposition in the Council are called the new Arians, a clear analogy being discerned between denying to our Lord His divinity and denying to the Pope his place as the infallible representative of the Lord. The dogma, continues the Civiltá, would now come forth with the double advantage of an acclamation and a discussion. The famous petition for the definition, by a vast majority of the bishops, was indeed an acclamation, and to this had been added an ample discussion. It asserts that there never had been in the history of the world so full and exhaustive an examination of any question. The writer is unconscious of the fact that before changing a principle of law, or even a fiscal arrangement like a duty on corn, we slow English sometimes employ as many years as they had employed months in settling the source of all principles for ever. Not only so, but with us each new thread shot into the progressive web of the discussion is laid bare to every eye and to every magnifying glass that nature and art can lend. The Civiltá puts in even the word "ventilated" among the epithets denoting the unparalleled winnowing of this great question. Why, the Civiltá itself, during the progress of the discussion, readily told, indeed, who celebrated mass, who died, who received a title, a distinction, or a place, who got leave to stay away; but it did not even tell who spoke, much less anything about what was said. It gave not a word of information to the whole Catholic Church of what was proposed to be done with its creed, or of what the assembled bishops thought of the proposal. In the very same volume where these fine words are written, we have this specimen of the Civiltá's history, with which we connect one from Monsignor Guérin, as showing what free air will blow around the chairs of history in our colleges and around the tables of our editors when once dogma has achieved its Sedan (VII. xi. 237). "Our readers will be gratified"—a blundering English journalist would have commenced such a paragraph with apologies for not being able to tell his readers anything worth knowing, but the accomplished Jesuit begins with congratulating them on the amount of information he is about to give—"Our readers will be gratified to have under their eyes a view of how many spoke, or gave up the right of speaking, in the discussion on the 4th chapter,"—that is, on the great chapter containing the express statement of infallibility.
June 15, 1 Reporter and 2 Speakers.
June 18, 3 Speakers.
June 20, 1 Reporter and 4 Speakers.
June 22, 7 Speakers.
June 23, 5 Speakers.
June 25, 6 Speakers and 2 gave up their right.
June 28, 6 Speakers.
June 30, 6 Speakers and 2 gave up their right.
July 1, 6 Speakers.
July 2, 9 Speakers and 14 gave up their right.
July 4, 2 Speakers and 42 gave up their right.
The excellent Monsignor says (p. 113),—and it is for thoughtful men to spend a little time in forming a clear idea of what would be the condition of the world if its information on its supreme affairs was supplied in this fashion:—
There were General Congregations on the 8th of January, the 10th, the 14th, the 15th, the 18th, the 19th, the 21st, the 22nd, the 24th, the 25th, the 27th, the 31st, on the 3rd of February, the 4th, the 7th, the 8th, the 10th, the 14th, the 15th, the 18th, the 21st, the 22nd. An interruption of the General Congregations for a month; a resumption of the Congregation on the 18th of March, (thirtieth Congregation), the 22nd, the 23rd, the 25th, the 26th, the 28th, the 29th, the 30th, the 31st, the 1st of April, the 4th, the 5th, the 6th, the 7th, the 8th, the 12th, the 19th.
We do not know why this instructive method of writing the most important of histories, that of the process of making laws for the whole world, is not continued through and through. Vestments and processions, bulls or Papal briefs, are not in the same manner hidden behind Arabic numerals. Any one may, at the British Museum, feast his own eyes on a specimen of such luminous history. The seventh volume of Frond is the History of the Council. The student will find it a folio in sumptuous Morocco, with gilt edges, and paper thicker than vellum. He will find it faultless and very full in matters of rank, precedence, forms and ceremonies; each cope and favour, each lappet, and each heave of the censer is well and duly noted. But as to questions respecting what men thought, said, proposed, deprecated, or took delight in, the poor student may open three leaves in succession and find both sides filled with mere numerals, names, and titles.[441] One grave historical error is confessed in the corrigenda. On a certain occasion even the pen guided by the "radiance of infallibility" slipped so far as to say that their Eminences the Cardinals were to be in black stockings. The correction shows that "black slippers" were the proper words.
It would for a time have seemed as if the glories once foretold to follow the dogma had considerably faded from the eyes of the seers during the wearying months of debate. Now, however, that the goal was in sight, the vistas reopened, and if translucent clouds rendered the distant view indistinct, they greatly enhanced its splendour. Still there was no weak expectation that the great results would be instantly attained. As centuries were required to bring the Anti-Papal movement in society to the present pass, so was it calculated that centuries would be required to bring the counter-movement to its full development.
It is not to be believed that an event so glorious, and one brought about by God with dispensations so singular, is to remain confined within itself. It will be prolific of prodigious effects in every social sphere for the salvation of the nations. God does not work by accident, or set in motion great means for small ends. We do not hesitate to affirm that just as the subversive negations of authority which prevailed at the Council of Basle indicated the principles of the great politico-religious revolution of modern times, so the reparative affirmation of all the privileges of the See of Peter now so solemnly made by the Vatican Council will indicate the principles of restoration in every public and private sphere of Christendom. Hence in the series of the centuries this of ours will be a day blest and magnified as that in which, thanks to the Council held under Pio Nono, the light again dawned on an oppressed world wrapped up in the darkness of the Revolution (pp. 178-9).