The most learned of Catholic theologians, Dr. John Joseph Ignatius
Dollinger, died yesterday week at Munich, at the great age of ninety ; indeed, in another seven weeks he would have completed his ninety-first year, for he wan born on February 28th, 1799. He had had an attack of influenza, which had not prevented him from going on with his literary work ; but it was followed by a stroke of paralysis, under which he sank at once. A perfectly orthodox, though a moderate and judicious Roman Catholic as regarded matters of doctrine up to very nearly his sixtieth year, Dr. Ballinger then began to oppose himself to the view that the temporal power was essential to the independence of the Papacy, and to advocate the surrender of the temporal power altogether, which made the late Pope Pio Nino regard him with great suspicion. Again, Dr. Dollinger strongly resisted the Ency- clical of 1864,—the one, if we remember rightly, in which the doctrines of the Syllabus on the relations of the Church to the State power were first promulgated,—and by that line of policy greatly embittered his relations with the Papacy. But it was not till the Vatican Council was summoned that he was recognised as the leader of the party opposed not merely to the opportuneness, but to the substance of the Vatican decree, and even then it was expected that if the Council passed the decree declaring the Pope infallible when defining a dogma on the subject of faith or morals with intent to teach the Church, he would submit himself to it like almost all its other opponents, for he had been a resolute supporter of the prin- ciple of the infallibility of the Church, and if a General Council could decree a falsehood, it would not be easy to say what the infallibility of the Church means. Nevertheless, Dr. Dollinger never gave way, though he bowed to the authority of the Church when, by its excommunication, it forbade him to Bay mass. The last sacraments were administered to him by Professor Friedrich, also an Old Catholic and a steadfast opponent of the Vatican decree.
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