prescribed task, we were to find that in every particular it has acted in direct opposition to our humble desires,—the one inference which we should deduce from that circumstance would be, that our notions of what is desirable have been fundamentally mistaken from first to last.

But there is undoubtedly one broad distinction, between the question of Pontifical infallibility and all others. It is this and nothing else, which at the present moment gives a stand-point to bad Catholics, soi-disant Catholics, and avowed non-Catholics, in their united assault against the Church. We are very far indeed from meaning to imply, that there are not many excellent Catholics who deprecate the definition; we only say that it is also deprecated by those classes which we have mentioned. Our remark then is this. If a definition of Pontifical infallibility were withholden by the Council, acting freely and under no impulse of external pressure;—we should certainly take for granted, that the Church's highest good is best consulted by no definition being given. Yet it still remains obvious and undeniable that, on such a supposition, her ultimate interests would only be promoted, at the cost of giving a temporary enthusiastic triumph to her bitterest and most insulting enemies. For more reasons than one, our own confident expectation is that God will order events otherwise.

THE

ROMAN DOCUMENTS.

HERE are several documents this quarter, which our readers will be glad that we place on somewhat more permanent record than is supplied by a weekly journal. We begin with the translation of a Letter addressed by the Holy Father to F. Ramière, S.J.; which affords another instance of the severity with which he invariably censures the "liberties" of '89, when advocated as principles.

To our well beloved son Henry Ramière, priest of the Society of Jesus.

PIUS IX. POPE.

Well-beloved son, health and apostolic benediction.

A great number of peoples in the present day experience the bitterness of having abandoned the Lord, and of having shaken off the sweet yoke of His law. Would to God they might repent and enter into themselves; with this wisdom they would regain every blessing.

Unhappily they will not understand, that it is not in the power of man to

establish society on any other foundation than that laid down by its Divine Author and they labour with their whole strength to destroy this foundation; imagining that the progress and perfect happiness of society can only result, from the substitution of their false systems for this divine basis. They therefore give for basis to the social edifice certain supposed liberties, of which they need only call to mind the origin, the perverse nature, and the unhappy results, to understand that all their efforts must inevitably end in ruin, in revolutions, in shameful servitude, and in the most frightful evils.

Accordingly, having perceived from the contents of some of the chapters in the book entitled "Roman Doctrines on Liberalism, considered from the point of view of Christian Dogma and social well-being," that you have carefully treated this matter-We congratulate you on the freedom and courage with which you have elucidated truths, rejected by a great number, but absolutely necessary for the correcting of intellectual errors, and for the preventing of the greatest evils. If it cannot be hoped that your work will open the eyes of the blind and of their blind guides, We augur at least that it will enlighten those whose eyes are dim, and improve the vision even of the clearsighted.

With this volume you have offered Us another, for which We are equally grateful one in which you refute a widely-spread work. You have seized the author's own weapons; and have made him do battle to himself so successfully, that he has saved his adversaries the trouble of destroying an edifice, which you have forced him to demolish with his own hands.

We therefore give you with tender affection Our apostolic benediction as a sign of Our paternal goodwill, and as a pledge of divine favours.

Given at Rome the 22nd of January, 1870, the twenty-fourth year of Our Pontificate.

We proceed to give in the original the two principal proposals which have been submitted to the Vatican Council, for a definition of Pontifical infallibility :

I.

A Sacra Ecumenica Synodo Vaticana infrascripti Patres humillime instanterque flagitant, ut apertis omnemque dubitandi locum excludentibus verbis sancire velit supremam, ideoque ab errore immunem, esse Romani Pontificis auctoritatem, quum in rebus fidei et morum ea statuit ac præcipit, quæ ab omnibus christifidelibus credenda et tenenda, quæve rejicienda et damnanda sint.

RATIONES OB QUAS HÆC PROPOSITIO OPPORTUNA ET NECESSARIA CENSETUR.

Romani Pontificis, beati Petri Apostoli successoris, in universam Christi Ecclesiam jurisdictionis, adeoque etiam supremi magisterii primatus in sacris Scripturis aperte docetur.

"Les Contradictions de Mgr. Maret, par le P. Ramière."

Universalis et constans Ecclesiæ traditio tum factis, tum sanctorum Patrum effatis, tum plurimorum Conciliorum etiam oecumenicorum et agendi et loquendi ratione, docet, Romani Pontificis judicia de fidei morumque doctrinâ irreformabilia esse.

Consentientibus Græcis et Latinis, in Concilio II. Lugdunensi admissa professio fidei est, in quâ declaratur: "Subortas de fide controversias debere Romani Pontificis judicio definiri." In Florentinâ itidem œcumenicâ Synodo definitum est: "Romanum Pontificem esse verum Christi Vicarium, totiusque Ecclesiæ caput, et omnium Christianorum patrem et doctorem ; et ipsi, in beato Petro, pascendi regendi ac gubernandi universalem Ecclesiam a Domino nostro Jesu Christo plenam potestatem traditam esse." Ipsa quoque sana ratio docet, neminem stare posse in fidei communione cum Ecclesiâ Catholicâ, qui ejus capiti non consentiat, quum ne cogitatione quidem Ecclesiam a suo capite separare liceat.

Attamen fuerunt atque adhucdum sunt, qui, Catholicorum nomine gloriantes, eoque etiam ad infirmorum in fide perniciem abutentes, docere præsumant, eam sufficere submissionem erga Romani Pontificis auctoritatem, quà ejus de fide moribusque decreta obsequioso, ut aiunt, silentio, sine interno mentis assensu, vel provisorie tantum usquedum de Ecclesiæ assensu vel dissensu constiterit, suscipiantur.

Hâcce porro perversâ doctrinâ Romani Pontificis auctoritatem subverti, fidei unitatem dissipari, erroribus campum amplissimum aperiri tempusque late serpendi tribui, nemo non videt.

Quare Episcopi, catholicæ veritatis custodes et vindices, his potissimum temporibus connisi sunt, ut supremam Apostolicae Sedis docendi auctoritatem synodalibus præsertim decretis et communibus testimoniis

tuerentur.

Quo evidentius vero catholica veritas prædicabatur, eo vehementius, tam libellis quam ephemeridibus, nuperrime impugnata est, ut catholicus populus contra sanam doctrinam commoveretur, ipsaque Vaticana Synodus ab eâ definiendâ absterreretur.

Quare, si antea de opportunitate istius doctrinæ in hoc Ecumenico Concilio pronuntiandæ a pluribus dubitari adhuc potuit, nunc eam definire necessarium prorsus videtur. Catholica enim doctrina iisdem plane argumentis denuo impetitur, quibus olim homines, proprio judicio condemnati, adversus eam utebantur; quibus, si urgeantur, ipse Romani Pontificis primatus Ecclesiæque infallibilitas pessumdatur; et quibus sæpe deterrima convicia contra Apostolicam Sedem admiscentur. Immo acerbissimi catholicæ doctrinæ impugnatores, licet Catholicos se dicant, affirmare non erubescunt, Florentinam Synodum, supremam Romani Pontificis auctoritatem luculentissime profitentem, œcumenicam non fuisse.

Si igitur Concilium Vaticanum, adeo provocatum, taceret et catholicæ doctrinæ testimonium dare negligeret, tunc catholicus populus de verâ doctrinâ reapse dubitare inciperet; neoterici autem gloriantes assererent, Concilium ob argumenta ab ipsis allata siluisse. Quinimmo silentio hoc semper abuterentur, ut Apostolicæ Sedis judiciis et decretis circa fidem et mores palam obedientiam negarent, contendentes quod Romanus Pontifex in ejusmodi judiciis ferendis falli potuerit.

Publicum itaque rei christianæ bonum postulare videtur, ut Sacrosanctum Concilium Vaticanum, Florentinum decretum de Romano Pontifice denuo profitens et uberius explicans, apertis omnemque dubitandi locum præcludentibus verbis sancire velit, supremam ideoque ab errore immunem esse ejusdem Romani Pontificis auctoritatem, quum in rebus fidei et morum ea statuit ac præcipit, quæ ab omnibus christifidelibus credenda et tenenda, quæve rejicienda et damnanda sint.

Non desunt quidem qui existiment, a catholicâ hâc veritate sanciendâ abstinendum esse, ne schismatici atque hæretici longius ab Ecclesia arceantur. Sed in primis catholicus populus jus habet, ut ab Ecumenicà Synodo doceatur, quid in re tam gravi et tam improbe nuper impugnatâ credendum sit, ne simplices et incautos multorum animos perniciosus error tandem corrumpat. Idcirco etiam Lugdunenses et Tridentini Patres rectam doctrinam stabiliendam esse censuerunt, etsi schismatici et hæretici offenderentur. Qui si sincerâ mente veritatem quærant, non absterrebuntur sed allicientur, dum ipsis ostenditur, quo potissimum fundamento Catholicæ Ecclesiæ unitas et firmitas nitatur. Si qui autem, verâ doctrinâ ab Ecumenico Concilio definitâ, ab Ecclesia deficerent, hi numero pauci et jamdudum in fide naufragi sunt, prætextum solummodo quærentes, quo externâ etiam actione ab Ecclesià se eximant, quam interno sensu jam deseruisse palam ostendunt. Hi sunt, qui catholicum populum continuo turbare non abhorruerunt, et a quorum insidiis Vaticana Synodus fideles Ecclesiæ filios tueri debebit. Catholicus enimvero populus, semper edoctus et assuetus Apostolicis Romani Pontificis decretis plenissimum mentis et oris obsequium exhibere, Vaticani Concilii sententiam de ejusdem supremâ et ab errore immuni auctoritate læto fidelique animo excipiet.

APPENDIX

Novissimarum Provincialium Synodorum et communis Episcoporum Sententia de supremâ et ab errore immuni Romani Pontificis in rebus fidei et morum Auctoritate.

1. Concilium provinciale Coloniense, anno 1860 celebratum, cui, præter eminentissimum Cardinalem et Archiepiscopum Coloniensem, Joannem de Geissel, quinque subscripserunt Episcopi, diserte docet: "Ipse (Romanus Pontifex) est omnium Christianorum pater et doctor, cujus in fidei quæstionibus per se irreformabile est judicium.”

2. Episcopi in Concilio provinciali Ultrajectensi anno 1865 congregati apertissime edicunt: "(Romani Pontificis) judicium in iis, quæ ad fidem moresque spectant, infallibile esse, indubitanter retinemus."

3. Concilium provinciale Pragense, anno 1860 celebratum, cui cum Eminentissimo Cardinali et Archiepiscopo Friderico De Schwarzenberg, quatuor alii Episcopi definientes subscripserunt, titulo "De Primatu Romani Pontificis," hæc statuit: "Rejicimus porro errorem illorum, qui alicubi Ecclesiam Catholicam existere posse autumant absque unitatis vinculo cum Ecclesiâ Romanâ, "in quâ semper ab his, qui sunt undique, conservata est ea quæ est ab Apostolis traditio." (S. Irenæus adv. Hæres. 1. 3, c. 3, n. 2.) Sciens neminem, qui extra unionem capitis est, censeri

posse inter membra corporis Ecclesiæ, quam Dominus super Petrum fundavit et in ejus auctoritate solidavit. Confiteantur potius nobiscum et cum orthodoxis per orbem terrarum fidelium turmis sanctæ Romanæ Ecclesiæ Principatum et Pontificis Romani Primatum ; summâ, quâ decet, pietate nobiscum venerentur colantque Sanctissimum Dominum nostrum Pium, divinâ providentiâ Papam IX., ceu legitimum Principis Apostolorum successorem, Jesu Christi in terris Vicarium, supremum fidei doctorem et navis Christi gubernatorem, cui fidelissima obedientia animique assensus ab omnibus, qui ad ovile Christi pertinere volunt, præstetur. Declaramus et docemus, hanc Romani Pontificis auctoritatem a Christo Domino descendere, a nullâ proin hominum potestate vel concessione pendere, atque omni tempore et in atrocissimis Romanæ Ecclesiæ afflictionibus perdurare illibatam, prout etiam in carceribus et martyriis beati Petri perduravit."

...

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4. Concilium provinciale Colocense, anno 1860 celebratum, hæc statuit : "Quemadmodum Petrus erat . . . doctrinæ fidei magister irrefragabilis, pro quo ipse Dominus rogavit ut non deficeret fides ejus ; pari modo legitimi ejus in cathedræ Romanæ culmine successores . . . depositum fidei summo et irrefragabili oraculo custodiunt. . . . Unde propositiones cleri gallicani anno 1682 editas, quas jam piæ memoriæ Georgius Archiepiscopus Strigoniensis una cum ceteris Hungariæ Præsulibus eodem adhuc anno publice proscripsit, itidem rejicimus, proscribimus, atque cunctis Provinciæ hujus fidelibus interdicimus, ne eas legere vel tenere, multo minus docere, auderent."

5. Concilium plenarium Baltimorense, anno 1866 co actum, in decretis, quibus 44 Archiepiscopi et Episcopi subscripserunt, inter alia hæc docet: "Viva et infallibilis auctoritas in eâ tantum viget Ecclesiâ, quæ a Christo Domino supra Petrum, totius Ecclesiæ caput principem et pastorem, cujus fidem nunquam defecturam promisit, ædificata, suos legitimos semper habet Pontifices, sine intermissione ab ipso Petro ducentes originem, in ejus cathedra collocatos, et ejusdem etiam doctrinæ, dignitatis, honoris et potestatis hæredes et vindices. Et quoniam ubi Petrus ibi Ecclesia, ac Petrus per Romanum Pontificem loquitur et semper in suis successoribus vivit et judicium exercet ac præstat quærentibus fidei veritatem; idcirco divina eloquia eo plane sensu sunt accipienda, quem tenuit ac tenet hæc Romana beatissimi Petri cathedra, quæ omnium Ecclesiarum mater et magistra, fidem a Christo Domino traditam integram inviolatamque semper servavit, eamque fideles edocuit, omnibus ostendens salutis semitam et incorruptæ veritatis doctrinam."

6. Concilium primum provinciale Westmonasteriense, anno 1852 habitum, profitetur: "Cum Dominus noster adhortetur dicens: Attendite ad petram unde excisi estis; attendite ad Abraham, patrem vestrum : æquum est, nos, qui immediate ab Apostolicâ Sede fidem, sacerdotium, veramque religionem accepimus, eidem plus ceteris amoris et observantiæ vinculis adstringi. Fundamentum igitur veræ et orthodoxæ fidei ponimus, quod Dominus noster Jesus Christus ponere voluit inconcussum, scilicet Petri cathedram, totius orbis magistram et matrem, S. Romanam Ecclesiam. Quidquid ab ipsâ semel definitum est, eo ipso ratum et certum tenemus; ipsius