Page:William John Sparrow-Simpson - Roman Catholic Opposition to Papal Infallibility (1909).djvu/246

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IMMEDIATE PREPARATIONS
[CHAP.

to be absorbed. He was in correspondence with the Bishop of Orleans and the Archbishop of Paris. With this aim he wrote his Eirenicon, Is Healthful Reunion Impossible? The Belgian Jesuit De Buck corresponded with Bishop Forbes of Brechin. The Jesuit Father

"was certain that at Rome there was no wish for Infallibility." He ""maintained that every one at Rome was astonished to hear that the Anglican Bishops did not consider the command to attend the Council as addressed to them."[1]

Attempts were made by Newman to induce Pusey to visit Rome; or at least to get up a big petition and present it to the Holy See;[2] quietly observing at the same time that the sort of petition which he had in view "cuts off the subscribers to it from the existing Establishment;"[3] Newman also suggested that no Anglican Bishops should go. Pusey replied by enquiring why should not Newman himself go to Rome for the Council. Dupanloup invited him as his theologian. But Newman declined, on the pretext that he was not a theologian, and would only be wasting his time in matters which he did not understand.[4]

Not unnaturally, Pusey's penetrating criticism was:

"If they invited any, it should be Bishops. Theologians go to accompany their Bishops. They have ignored our Bishops, and ask any of us whom they may ask informally, because they will deliberately withhold all acknowledgement of the slightest basis upon which we can treat as a Church."[5]

"I have no doubt," Pusey added, "that the invitation to Rome is given in the hope that the imposing spectacle presented by the Council may bring about individual
  1. Liddon's Life of Pusey, iv. p. 186.
  2. Page 155.
  3. Page 182.
  4. Page 161.
  5. Page 180.