THE NEW DOGMA.
I T is finished. Hurried by the approach of a war which 1 would have filled Rome with Italian troops, alarmed by the bitterness of a controversy which carried away even Car- dinals, sickened with the terrible and ever-increasing heat of Rome, the majority of the (Ecumenical Council have made one more dead heave ; and, on 13th July, the theory of Papal Infallibility was proclaimed by the representatives of Catholic Christendom a dogma of their Church. Hence- forward it is sin for any who recognize her authority—that is, for more than half the Christian world—to doubt that the Pope, when deciding ex catltedrd on matters of faith or morals, has always been, now is, and always will be, so overruled of the Holy Spirit that error is as impossible in his utterance as it would be in that of God. We have all along affirmed our belief that the dogma, which is but the logical completion of a doctrine which has been developing itself for ages, would in- evitably be accepted ; that the time had arrived when the half- hidden monarchy, which for centuries has controlled the Catho- lic Republic, must avow itself before the world ; that Pro- testants misunderstood both the extent and the character of the resisting forces,—and the result has proved the soundness of each and of all our conclusions. The opposition has put for- ward its utmost strength, has gone the length of threatening schism, has been backed even with menaces by every Catholic Power, has exhibited an astonishing superiority in intellect, eloquence, and learning, and has for reward been crushed by a vote of nearly five to one, a vote far greater than that which extinguished Arianism, a vote which may be accepted as irreversible. The only ground on which it could be reversed without destroying the Catholic system would be the allegation that the Council was not free,—an allegation which is not true, as every man there present could have shouted " Non placet I" had he been so moved,—and which, if true, could be affirmed only by another Council assembled under similar circumstances, subjected to similar intellectual influences, and pressed by the same necessity for the concentration of power. Nor can we affect to wonder, as most of our contemporaries do, at the triumph of the Papacy. They call the dogma new, but though not formulized as dogma, it has been accepted as fact by the Church for generations. The assent of the Bishops was held to be needful to any deci- sion of the Papacy, but the assent was never withheld. They declared that it was an insult to reason, but an Infallible Person is no more contrary to reason than an Infallible Book, and has the advantage of being able always to explain him- self and fit the application of truth to the necessities of the time. They said that faith must crack under so terrible a strain, and forget that, to an immense proportion of man- kind, to the majority of women, for instance, a straining exercise of faith, like a straining exercise of obedience, is a delight,—an effort which strengthens the quality itself as use strengthens a muscle. And finally, they argued that an impossible unanimity was essential to the promulgation of so immense a dogma, as if the Holy Spirit could not act through a majority as well as through an unanimous body,— as if the election of each successive Pope, which no Catholic doubts to be dictated from above, were not invariably the result of a conflict sometimes latent., but more frequently avowed. Nevertheless, though we conceive the result to have been sooner or later inevitable, and see clearly that most of the popular arguments against the dogma assume all the great points at issue—are, in fact, based on the theory that Catholicism is false—though we do not hope that the vote will be followed by schism, and though we can understand that it may produce in some quarters a strange revival of energy, we cannot but believe that it will produce terrible, it may be fatal results upon the Roman Catholic Church. The precise evils threatened may not, it is true, matter very much. The Liberal Catholics, it is said, may depart ; but Liberal Catholicism is almost a contradiction in terms, is at best the day-dream of a few learned men, and if all Liberal Catholics departed, the Church as an organization would probably be all the stronger. No Pope has ever suc- ceeded like this Pope, and he is a man of slight though shrewd intellect, no worldly attainments, and very limited theological culture,—much less, in all probability, than any one of his own chaplains. North Germany, it is said, may go, and it very likely will ; but South Germany went once, and went back again. What really matters to Rome is the loss of the people's devotion, the drying-up of that grand reservoir from which she has drawn through ages such an endless array of instruments and powers, and it is this loss with which the dogma threatens her. The masses never have been and probably never will be accurate theologians, but they are always keen observers of the appearance of things ; and this dogma, though it changes so little in reality, in appearance changes all. It re- places the vast, formless, mystical entity, the Church, which is never seen in the flesh, and cannot be cross-examined, which is like the universe in its aggregate invisibility, by an individual Italian who eats his dinner, and seems to observers a man like other men, and who can and will be watched by a million eyes eager to convict him of error. The substitution will operate as the introduction of a new book into the Canon would operate among Protestants, will compel them to criticize, and consider, and give reasons to themselves for believing in verbal inspira- tion, and consideration of that kind is always fatal to blind faith. The veil is torn away, and Catholic man- kind is not only forced to believe, but forced to acknow- ledge to itself, that it believes, that Mastai Ferretti, worthy and slightly humourous Italian of seventy, cannot make an official blunder about faith or morals ; and that his successor, be he whom he may, however different in mind, character, and training, must inevitably, upon all sub- jects, implicitly agree with him. The masses, who never blind themselves wholly to outward facts, will be more and more tempted to ask for proof that this man, whom they see described by a thousand pens as a man considering, scheming, arguing, perhaps plotting, is indeed the exponent of unerring truth ; and the silent scepticism of the South, the scepticism which is not religious but contemptuous, which does not encourage schisms or accept reformations, but quietly surren- ders belief, will receive a new and amazing impetus. Silently, without parade, without, it may be, giving up the offices of the Church, the people will retire from its pale, as, for example, the middle-class of France and Italy have done, until some event, perhaps trivial in itself, reveals to themselves the depth of their own unbelief. This event may be the proclamation of some new dogma by the Pope's own authority, or some de- mand of extreme inconvenience, or the consecration of some old idea which the world has given up—witchcraft, for example—while the priesthood has not. The world saw nothing extraordinary in the Church affirming through a Pope that to take interest for money was sin, because that affirmation was at that time in accord with the silly prejudice against renting out money entertained by all agricultural communities, whatever their creed ; but suppose Pio Nono to reaffirm that on the authority of his infallibility, continuing the while to pay interest on his own Debt. There would be no escape possible for the priesthood, no confusion to be created between the Papal authority and that of the Church, there would be a hard, unmistakable, infallible utterance on a high question of morals. And the utterance would be an utterance demonstrably wrong, silly,—an utterance of the kind which men, almost without reasoning upon it, feel that they cannot respect. Some such blunder, some such patent proof that the oracle can err, is sooner or later certain, for the Pope after this decree is under a temptation which it is scarcely in human nature to resist,—the temptation to use his new power, to settle once for all some problem or other which has hitherto perplexed mankind. Now he is restrained from blundering by a necessity, more or less felt, of consult- ing the episcopate,—then he will be alone, uncontrolled, and in theory uncontrollable, save by the necessity of apparent accord with his predecessor, which necessity would not be felt on any novel point. Whenever such an incident occurs, the Catholic community will become conscious that it has
ceased to believe that infallibility exists in any mortal, will say so, and will throw off, it may be with agony and effort, it may be with a mere movement of its shoulders, the chain of its ancient creed. This is the process going on every- where in all Catholic countries, except Ireland—where it has been prevented by Protestant social persecution—and it will be aggravated by the proclamation of the Dogma which its defenders believe is so greatly to strengthen the Church.
That dogma brings the first claim of the Church, the one without which she has no locus standi, down from the heavens to the earth, makes it visible, concrete—incarnates it, so to speak—and does this in the most realistic and inquisitive cycle through which man has ever passed. How is it possible to believe that faith in infallibility will not be diminished ?—and among Catholics everywhere one syllogism, at all events, is universally admitted. The Church is Christianity. If the Church is capable of error, Christianity is a delusion. It is not, therefore, only the Catholic Church, but Christianity, which in Catholic countries is threatened by the Dogma.
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