That part of Dr. Newman's letter to Bishop Ullathorne which
expresses frankly enough his feeling about the definition of the dogma of infallibility has now been published, and expresses, or rather, we should say, will seem to most readers to express, a mental condition of considerable and even painful perplexity in the writer. It is true, he says, that "we are all at rest and have no doubts,— and at least practically, net to say doctrinally,—hold the Holy Father to be infallible ;" and also, "as to myself, personally, please God I do not expect any trial at all." Still, the whole tone of the letter is one of sheer dismay. He speaks of the definition as "thunder in the clear sky," and asks, "What have we done to be treated as the faithful never were treated before? "When has a definition de fide been a luxury of devotion, and not a stern, painful necessity ? Why should an aggressive, insolent faction be allowed to make the heart of the just sad whom the Lord bath not made sorrowful ?" And he speaks of the despair excited by the pros- pect as so great, that at one time a man will give up" all theology as a bad job," and recklessly believe henceforth" almost that the Pope is impeccable," and at another may be tempted to believe all the worst that a book like "Janus" says. "If it is God's will," the letter ends, "that the Pope's infallibility is to be defined, then it is God's will to throw back the times and moments of that triumph which He has destined for His kingdom, and I shall feel I have
'but to bow my head to His adorable, inscrutable Providence." No more powerful expression of dismay was ever penned. In his 'lectures on Catholicism in England Dr. Newman expressly explains Ito Protestants that Catholics believe the Pope to be infallible when speaking on doctrine ex cathedra. We hardly understand the revolution in his feelings. Speaking for ourselves, and, we imagine, most Protestants, the enormous difficulty,—the gulf that widens the longer you gaze at it,—is to believe in an infallible human organization at all. 1Ve should have thought an infallible head just a trifle easier to believe in than any other infallibility.
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