To the Eve of the Great Session, July 18—A Fresh Shock for the Opposition—Serious Trick of the Presidents and Committee—Outcry of the French Bishops—Proposal to Quit the Council—They send in another Protest—What is Protestantism?—Immediate War not foreseen—Contested Canon adopted—The Bishops threatened—Hasty Proceedings—Final Vote on the Dogma—Unexpected Firmness of the Minority—Effect of the Vote—Deputation to the Pope—His incredible Prevarication—Ketteler's Scene—Counter Deputation of Manning and Senestrey—Vast Changes in the Decrees made in a Moment—Petty Condemnations—The Minority flies.
It might have been thought that incidents of public interest had now terminated. On the very next day, however, after the close of the great discussion, occurred a collision which, had the opposition been morally capable of saving anything, would have given it the opportunity of saving the Roman Catholic Church from falling into the condition of a body without any constitution, except the "inner light" of one man. It opened their eyes, perhaps not more widely, but once more. It smote their feelings, excited a momentary effort at action, and ended in a protest drawn up by Bishop Dinkel.
One Sunday the Fathers were studying sixty-two amendments proposed on the second chapter of the great Decree. It seemed awful work to decide so many points affecting the faith on a single Monday morning! But behold, in the evening come in one hundred and twenty-two amendments on the fourth chapter, to be voted upon on the Tuesday!
The procedure was on this wise. Amendments suggested, after being in the hands of the Committee, were reported in print, and then put to the vote. The Sub-Secretary said, The committee oppose the amendment: let those who oppose it stand up. Or, The Committee accept the amendment: let those who accept it stand up. So by scores at a time were questions settled on which men had had no chance of reflecting. Only once, says La Liberté du Concile, did the Fathers succeed in obtaining from the Presidents a delay. It was on the very occasion just mentioned, when they showed that the only time permitted to them to read over the hundred and twenty-two amendments to be despatched on the Tuesday, would be what would be left of the Monday after they had despatched no less than sixty-two. They did obtain twenty-four hours' extension of the time. "You are convoked on purpose to vote," says the writer, who, be it remembered, printed only fifty copies, for Cardinals alone, "and you have not time to study not even to read it over again" (Doc. i. p. 175).
If ever an important act was passed by an assembly it was the Canon which closes the third chapter of the great Vatican Decree. Quirinus hardly exaggerates its importance when he speaks of it, if interpreted by the rules of Canon law, as handing over the bodies and souls of all men to one. On July 5, the Fathers had in print before them a formula for this Canon, and three proposed amendments. The Bishop of Rovigo, as reporter for the committee, broke all rule first by saying that amendments No. 70 and 71 should not be voted upon, as the committee had adopted No. 72, with a modification. It would appear that, utter as was the disregard here manifested even of the Pope's own Rules as well as of the rights of the proposers of the amendments and of those of the Council, this was allowed to pass. But soon even that broken-spirited Opposition was roused. It was plain to some that what the Bishop read as No. 72 was not what was in print as 72. The Presidents wanted to put what had been read, but then, according to the Acta Sanctæ Sedis, arose Haynald and protested. Though the Council itself had no right to shape the amendments, the Rules required that all amendments should be put before it as they had been shaped by the committee, and it was for the Council to say Yea or Nay. Darboy also rose, and more fully entered his protest. The protest could not at the moment be brushed aside. Here was obviously a proposal differing from that of the committee, foisted in against all rule, and without notice. For once the prohibition against speaking to order had been defied. The Presidents, thrown into confusion, could not conceal the attempted trick; yet they durst not abandon the spurious Canon. They therefore said something about inadvertence, and withdrew it for the present, to be submitted to the committee, then to be printed and voted upon at another time.
The fact was that the difference between the two forms involved the whole question of jurisdiction between bishops and Pope. One form had been withdrawn by the committee, and an amendment had been accepted. The Pope was incensed. He ordered the third Canon to be altered back to the form which had been objected to, and even this was greatly strengthened. He never submitted the alteration to the committee, but sent it direct to the reporter to be then and there put to the vote instead of the Canon which stood on the printed Order of the Day. How great was the difference in the wording of what the Fathers had before them in print, and what was attempted to be palmed upon them, is obvious on reading the two—
| The Canon as it was in Print | The Canon as it was read and attempted to be put to the Vote |
| If any shall say that the Primacy of the Roman Pontiff is only an office of supervision and direction, and that his supreme jurisdiction over the universal Church is not plenary, but only extraordinary and mediate, let him be anathema. | If any one shall say that the Roman Pontiff has only an office of supervision or direction, but not plenary and supreme power over the whole Church, both in things pertaining to faith and morals, and also in those pertaining to the discipline and government of the Church dispersed through all the earth, or that he has only the chief portion but not the entire fulness of this supreme power, or that this his power is not ordinary and immediate, whether over the Churches all and singular, or over pastors and believers all and singular, let him be anathema. |