JANUS ON THE COUNCIL.* [FIRST NOTICE.]
THE coming CEcumenical Council, if it does no more, will be productive of a heavy crop of literature. In France, in Holland, and in Germany there has already appeared a multitude of disqui- sitions on this subject. Amongst these, several are the acknow- ledged composition of men of high standing in the Roman Catholic world,—men admittedly entitled to speak with the authority that must attach to established reputation ; but not one of them has hitherto produced a work more likely to create a deep impression than the anonymous German publication at the head of this notice. It is not a piece of merely polemical writing, it is a treatise deal- ing with a large subject in an impressive though partizan man- ner,—a treatise grave in tone, solid in matter, and bristling with forcible and novel illustrations. Who, then, can be this powerful master in knowledge—at once divine, canonist, and historian— who, under the pseudonym of Janus, steps into the controversial arena with so formidable a performance? It adds to the interest greatly that hitherto an impenetrable mystery surrounds the author's identity. The only thing certain is that this remarkable publication is due to the same hand or hands as -certain articles on the Council that appeared some months ago in the Augsburg Gazette, and instantly attracted much attention, while in Rome they caused intense annoyance. The irritation felt there was manifested by the readiness with which the mouth- pieces of the Roman Curia ascribed their authorship to a Roman 'Catholic writer of European reputation, whom the Jesuit faction has long been eager to hunt down as a renegade. The state- ment so recklessly indulged in is admitted now to be without foundation. In the preface to this volume, which is an amplifica- tion of what was distilled into the articles as quintessence, but an amplification with a vast array of learned evidence in support of the views only sketched in the artiales, we are assured that the composition is due to several hands. No doubt the statement is true. Indeed, there seems to us internal evidence in frequent inconsistencies of statement, of various hands having been at work. Topics touched upon in one place are reverted to in another in a manner that would hardly have been natural if the whole were the work of one mind, and that a mind of such vigorous faculties as are manifest in the substance of this treatise. The significance of this volume is heightened by its not being due to merely individual in- spiration, for we must take it thus as the manifesto of a school united by the bond of common and definite opinions,—the school of Liberal Catholics in Germany. The existence of such a school is naturally an enigma to many. It is not easy to comprehend the intellectual conformation that shrinks from joining a Protestant body, and yet is as forward as any Protestant in repudiating every noteworthy step taken for centuries by the Papacy and the Court of Rome. These Liberal Catholics would seem to fly in the face of all history, for almost every fact which the general world has come instinctively to identify with Catholicism, is by them pronounced to be a merely external and superfluous appendage that has been wilfully tacked on by the distorting action of usurping forces,—an appendage which, therefore, can and must be thrown aside if we are to recover the true Church. It may well seem at the first blush that distinctions of so subtle a kind can hardly be the outgrowth of sincere conviction or possess any practical force. Yet we have no doubt that the men constituting this school are quite removed from a spirit of casuistry ; while, as an historical agency influencing a great section of the religious world at this moment, we should be disposed to attribute no inconsiderable importance to this Liberal Catholicism. "We are partners in opinion," say the writers of Janus, "with those who, firstly, feel convinced that the Catholic Church must not stand in a hostile and repelling attitude towards principles of political, intellectual, and religious freedom and self-
determination [Selbstentscheidung] Secondly, we share the views of those who hold a great and thorough reform of the Church to be needful and indispensable, however long it may be put off. For us the Catholic Church is in no degree identical
a Der Papal und das Concil. Von Janus. Leipzig : E. F. Stelnaeker. • 1869. rlse Pope and the Council. By Janus. Authorized Translation from the German. London: Ellington. 1869.
with Papalism, and so notwithstanding an outward com- munion, we are yet inwardly and widely separated from those whose Ideal Church is one universal realm ruled spiritually, and if possible, also, bodily, by one monarch,—a realm of coercion and of pressure, whereby civil power lends its arm to the repre- sentative of clerical authority for the extinction or suffocation of every movement that may be distasteful to it." The authors of the book, "in common with every believing Catholic," testify to their conviction that a primacy has been vested in the Roman See "by higher prescription," but as distinctly denounce the transforma- tion of this right of presidency into an " Ituperium," and regard the creation of "a despotism by an absolute ruler" as having been the direct instrument that effected a disruption of the Church. In this view lies the pith of what is working in the minds of the writers of this book. Practically it resolves itself into an indict- ment of the whole historical process of the Papacy,—an indict- ment not new in terms, but certainly so when brought from the stand-point of a modern school which declines on principle to go out into the region of Protestant opinion. In this fact lies the originality and the probable importance of the phenome- non. The invective against Rome of minds in some sense loyal to it is not new, any more than the fact of a cry for reform raised by men who yet profess attachment to the Church of Rome. Such a cry has been heard repeatedly. It inspired the so-called Galilean principles ; it was heard in the beginning of this century in Germany, where, singularly enough, it was loudest in the Wurz- burg University, under the wing of a Prince-Bishop ; it found at the same time in Italy a prominent representative in Bishop Ricci of Pistoja. But then these movements were either specifically local, and as such stamped with a political type that cramped their general influence, or, as was the case in Germany, they were infected with the characteristic element of the age—religious indifference—a feeling of relaxation rather than of reform, which necessarily impaired their power in any positively religious sense. Now, from this defect the modern Liberal Catholics seem free. They are wolves in sheep's clothes, but beyond doubt are acting in good faith. They are animated with a decided affection for the Church of their profession, while keenly alive to what they deem its perversion. No doubt the fact will be difficult to realize. Many will be quite at a loss to understand how, in good faith—for in this lies the difficulty—men can profess Catholicism and yet impugn the most conspicuous features of its practical development. It is important to clear up this enigma, for in its solution lies the comprehension of the mind of the school. Probably the help of analogy will best serve the purpose. When, at the outset of the contest, the Parliamentary chiefs waged war in the King's name against King Charles, must they be set down as guilty of a de- liberate sophistry? Again, is it not comprehensible for all except those hidebound in densest narrow-mindedness that the writers of Essays and Reviews can with perfect singleness of heart consider themselves Churchmen, and that Dr. Temple can, without taint of prevarication, hold himself perfectly qualified to undertake the obligations of a bishop ?
As regards the probability of this Liberal Catholic school effecting practically anything for reformation, that is a question on which much may be said. History shows over and over again that though a school may fail of success in what it at- tempts, it may have contributed greatly to future success. Moreover, in speculating on the practical value which may be anticipated to attach to any general movement of Catholics who could accept the opinions of this treatise, it must be borne in mind that the substantive novelty of the view is of less importance than the fact of its utterance at this particular point g:If time in a form marked by the full impress of nineteenth-century criticism and science, and under the reflex of all that has happened in religion through and since the Reformation. For no one can think that Protestantism, in the concrete shape it assumed at the Reformation, is likely to exercise any further attraction on the body of Catholics who have hitherto resisted its action. Any reforming force, to have effect on this solid mass, must therefore find a new starting-point, if it is to prove a proselytizing and reforming influence. The writers of this book declare its object to bl." an attempt at awakening and giving direction to public opinio T. " The language they speak is certainly not marked by the ambiguousness of hesitating minds, or the vagueness of intellects that have not thought their subject through. In presence of a COOSCiOUEness of purpose so lucid as is shown in this book, together with the positive manifestation in every Roman Catholic country of kindred views, though these are yet but sporadic and have nowhere attained to a like precision of utterance, there is enough to induce us not to dis-
miss off-hand, as without intrinsic force, all these symptoms of a movement from within in the Roman Catholic community.
The writers of this volume distinctly avow that they write in the hope of preventing the realization of certain intentions that are entertained. In an introduction they affirm that they are in possession of the "whole plan of operation" prepared, and announce "that an English prelate whom we could name has engaged to move at the opening session an humble petition to the Pope" for the dogmatic promulgation of certain declarations, —a statement which, if it refer, as it doubtless does, to Archbishop Manning, has, however, been already authoritatively contradicted in the Tablet as purely fictitious. The declarations to be re- sisted are the dogmatic confirmation of the Syllabus, and the promulgation of two new articles of faith—the bodily assumption of the Virgin and the Pope's personal infallibility. To the examination of each point Janus devotes a section, but it is the last,—that affecting the infallibility question, which constitutes the special feature of the book.
It has been attempted by Catholics, like the Bishops of Orleans and Mayence, to explain away the practical bearing of the pro- positions of the Syllabus. Janus confines himself to exploding this sophistical argumentation. He shows by Papal deeds, not of olden date, but of our own time, that the intention survives to put in action, whenever this can be practically done, the principle of coer- cion and the inquisitorial prohibition of scientific inquiry. In 1851 the canonist Nuytz was censured because he claimed for the Church only the powers of spiritual jurisdiction, and in 1863 a clause was secured in the Concordat with the Spanish South American States whereby the civil power was bound to carry out every sentence pronounced by a spiritual Court. Equally false is it to pretend that the propositions in the Syllabus are compatible with practical tolera- tion (on any ground except unavoidable deference to necessity), in the teeth of various perfectly gratuitous reprobations of the free exercise of their religion secured to Protestants by the peace of West- phalia (reprobated, for instance, as late as 1789 by Pius VI.) ; the solemn declaration in 1805 by Pius VII. that heretics ought to be driven back into the fold by the loss of all their goods ; and Gregory XVI.'s condemnation of freedom of conscience in 1832 as being in- spired by a spirit of madness, —so described in an Encyclical which Pius IX. has incorporated in his own. Nor will the fetters imposed on intellectual freedom be less stringent. With the Syllabus for law, no one who ventures to impugn any single action of a Pope can fail by such censure to be guilty of heresy, so that Janus "earnestly recommends Catholic authors, who may have in preparation his- torical or merely legal works, to make public their inquiries and books before December 30, 1869. As regards the second point--the Virgin's Assumption—the matter involved would really seem utterly trivial. A Church that has already accepted so much on no autho- rity but an ipse (Unit, that has just swallowed the Immaculate Conception, and been endowed with a bevy of new saints, need not strain at the Assumption. The only feature of interest in this redundant article is that it should be one specially dear to the Jesuits, who have made Mariolatry a particular worship, and who therefore demand this dogmatic promulgation as a glorification of their teaching and their own superior insight into holiness. "As the Order expects from the Council an im- portant service, namely, the recommendation of itself as specifically qualified to assume the direction of gymnasia and higher educa- tional establishments, so it is particularly desirable and even necessary, that the moral doctrine of the Order,—this ever-gaping wound in its reputation,—should have the sanction of a decree of Council." Herein, says Janus, lies the motive for this otherwise quite unaccountable purpose at such a moment as the present. But neither the Syllabus nor the Assumptiqn are points to approach in their possible consequences the intended proclamation of the Pope's personal infallibility. In treating this point, Janus rises to the height of originality ; he has given here what before had not been written, a controversial history supported at each step by his own authorities of how the notion of personal infallibility was planted and fostered. But this must be reserved for a second notice.
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