his theological labours. In course of time the orator was raised to the Cardinalate.
Nothing can better reveal the effect of this announcement on the minority than the terms in which the Archbishop of Paris denounced it in a letter to Cardinal Antonelli,[1] the Papal Secretary of State.
"This discussion of Papal Infallibility before all the other questions which must necessarily precede it, this reversal of the proper and regular procedure of the Council, this impulsive haste in a subject of the utmost delicacy, which by its very nature required deliberation and calm—all this," said the Archbishop, "was not only illogical, absurd, incredible, but it plainly betrayed before the world a resolve to coerce the Council, and was, to describe it correctly, utterly inconsistent with the freedom of the Bishops. To persist in this design would be nothing less than a scandal before the whole world. Those who advocate such excesses are plainly blind to considerations of prudence. There is such a thing as a justice and public good faith which cannot be wounded with impunity.
"I say from the depth of inner conviction," exclaimed the Archbishop,[2] that if decrees are passed by such methods as these, occasion will be given for the gravest suspicions as to the validity and freedom of the Vatican Council.
"That decrees can be passed this way is indisputable," he added. "You can do anything by force of numbers against reason and against right. But there is the sequel to be considered. It is then that troubles will arise for yourselves and for the Church."
Now the writer of this fervid denunciation was conspicuous for acuteness, tact, reserve, discretion, self-control. What it meant for such a nature to speak this way may be imagined. Nothing can better show
