A IVeekly Newspaper and Re view. Voi. 35. No. 1554. L o n d o n , J a n u a r y 22, 1870. P r ice 3d. S tam p ed 6d.

[R eg iste r ed for T ransm issio n A broad.

C hronicle of th e W eek : The

Fathers of the Council — The Declaration by the Fathers—The Bishop of Southwark— Mr. Forster at Bradford — The Treaty with Prance— Red River— Pari» Gossip — Religion in Sweden— The Catholics in Bavaria— Civil Marriage ■—The Turkish N a v y— Present State of Judaism— Reform of the Bible— Misprints in the “ Tim es” —A Catholic Church in Oxford— A Serva di Dio in Italy— Persecution in Japan— The Abbé Gratry— &C-.&C................................................. 93 [Leaders :

Safety in Silence . . . . 9 7 The Canadian Difficulty . . 98

L eaders (continued):

The Irish Land Question “ Janus.”— No. VI. E ducation :

CONTENTS.

. 98 • 99

S hort N o t ic e s : Ancient Classics,

by Mr. Lucas Collins — The A c a d e m y ....................................106 C orrespondence:

X X V I I .— Duties o f Catholics in the Present Crisis . . . 101 A nglican M ovement :

Anglican Journals on the Council

— Jurisdiction— Dr. Temple . 102 R eview s :

The Dublin Review . . . 103 Hirell ...... 104 The Contemporary Review . . 105 Our Children’s Story . . . 106

Education o f the Catholic Poor . 106 Mr. Oxenham and the “ Dublin

Review ”..... 107 The Zouaves and the Papal De­

fence Fund ..... 107 L e t t e r from R ome ; The Council

— Society—Accommodation— Miscellaneous . . . . , 108 Jupiter Titubans .... n o The Papal Zouaves . . . . 1 1 0 O f f ic ia l D ocuments . . . m

D io cesan N ew s

•

B r it ish an d I r ish N ews :

Great Britain

. 114

I re la n d .................................... . 114 Foreign N ews :

R u s s i a ................................... • 115 M em oranda :

Religious .... .1x6 Literary . 116 Scientific . . . . .116 Weather.................................... . 116 Fine Arts . . . . .116 M iscellaneous •117

OF THE COUNCIL. T

THE FATHERS

C H R O N I C L E O F T H E W E E K .

‘‘H E numerous letters we receive from various sources in Rome show considerable variety of opinion. From one quarter we learn that the human element •comes out so strongly in some of the Fathers outside the Council Hall, that a sensitive and unwise or thoughtless spectator might easily be shocked and scandalized. We should be in no way astonished if the human element were strongly pronounced, and if angry expressions, sharp comments, unworthy plans, and vexatious agitations did from time to time betray the weaknesses and passions to which human nature is subject. I f this were ten times more the case than it is, it would probably be less than many of the most important early Councils had witnessed. A thousand men, for there cannot be a less number, in one way or other occupied in the settlement of the most momentous questions, would be more than men if they exhibited none of the infirmities of corrupt nature. And yet the very person who makes this remark, a layman, belonging as he does to the highest society in Rome, observes that, though an uninstructed witness might be sometimes scandalized, there is a remarkable sense of what is highest and truest spread abroad, and that the Council is evidently to be the instrument of a great work. The fact is, the Church is a body which is both human and divine; the weakness of the human element here upon earth can never be totally absent, nor can the divine. A bon mot is attributed to the Pope— a great many tons mots are fathered upon His Holiness, and we do not vouch for the authenticity of the present one; but he is reported to have said that “ there must be a phase when prejudice and passion struggle to get the mastery over sense and reason; and then a phase of reflection and reason, and finally the triumph of Grace and the Holy Ghost.” Si non e vero b ben trovato. On the other hand, another person thoroughly competent from habits of observation and intercourse with society in Rome, to form a judgment, tells us that what particularly strikes him is the unity as to all essentials among the Bishops, even outside the Council Hall, and the charity which pervades their mutual intercourse. And this is in accordance with the testimony of the correspondent of the Standard, who says, “ There can be no doubt that the Council is the most orderly, imposing, and dignified that has ever been held.” A person who has recently spoken with the Holy Father assures us, not only of his excellent health, but of the calm serenity and Apostolic confidence with which he views the whole course of events around him. He lives in an atmosphere above the dust a d turmoil which disturbs others. He is the Shepherd of shepherds ; he knows that he is the Vicar of His Lord ; the Fisherman sits calmly at the helm.

N ew S e r i e s . N o. 64.

The most important document that we have ton” bJ the yet published is, perhaps, the petition, signed by f a t h e r s . some 500 Bishops, begging that it may be de­

fined that “ the authority of the Román Pontiff is supreme, and, therefore, free from error when, in matters of faith and morals, he declares and defines what is to be believed and held, and what to be rejected and con demned, by all the faithful.” We gave, indeed, last week a very full abstract of it from the original Latin, of which we received a copy just before we went to press. I f we except the Spectator, which had also evidently got hold of the original, as it quoted from the Latin, none of the English papers seem to have received it till Tuesday, when the Times printed it, and two days afterwards said that it had been “ circulated under the seal of the strictest secresy.” It is now no longer a question of private individuals, of Catholic newspapers, and of an “ extreme ” Bishop here and there, men of “ exaggerated ideas,” asking for a definition and urging its opportuneness, but of above 500 Prelates pi tting their names to a declaration which declares in its m tives that a definition is “ opportune and necessary.” “ 'fo r merly many could have doubted the opportuneness of declaring this doctrine in the present GLcumenical Council, it would seem now to be absolutely necessary to define it." Our readers will find the full translation of this document in our Supplement- Vatican, and the original in the complete edition of the Vatican. The extracts which appear in the Appendix might be indefinitely increased. More than one of our correspondents bids us expect any day to hear of some decisive and definite act by the Council. Whether this will be by the acceptance by the Fathers, in the form of a decree, of the words heading the document, which they have now had time to weigh and consider, and which 500 of them have already signed as an extra-Conciliar act, we know not. Whether, again, it will be received at once by acclamation, and the scene of Ephesus be repeated at the Vatican, or whether it will be the result of long discussion, which we rather expect, we cannot tell. This only seems certain, that the Fathers intend plainly to declare to us the doctrine of revelation on the point of Peter’s prerogatives ; and that Mgr Dupanloup, after having strongly put forward his own view and that of his friends, will give an example of submission to the Divine voice of the Church, which will more than console all who have grieved at his late attitude of “ opposition.” THE BISHOP

OF SOUTH­

WARK.

Our readers will be glad to know that the Bishop of Southwark is actually able to work upon one of the Commissions of the Council. For long months he had not been free from violent internal pains, and the doctors had, we understand, despaired of his recovery. On the 14th of November began Mass at the Altar of the B. Sacrament at six o’c in preparation for his journey to Rome. Before t l t r ' was over the pain which had so long tormented

N E W S P A P E R