United States of America, is more numerous than the hierarchy of any other race or language. There are not less than a hundred and sixty or seventy 'Teutonic' bishops in this 'Latin Church.' It is a mystery of God's providence that races and nations once in the Catholic unity should fall from it. But it was not Ultramontanism which separated the Lutherans of the West, any more than the Nestorians of the East. It was not the infallibility of the Pope, ex cathedrâ, which drove Protestants into schism. It was the denial of the infallibility of the Church which made them heretics.
We are often and confidently told that 'Ultramontanism can make little way with thinking men. The last resource is to appeal to the credulity or the ignorance of those who are afraid to think; and here lies the true explanation of that perplexing blunder, the Encyclical of 1864.'
The 'perplexing blunder' of 1864 gives me the occasion for which I have been waiting. In the touching recital of the last days of our illustrious Cardinal, we read these words. Hearing that some of the French bishops had ordered the Encyclical to be read to the people, he said: 'I am very glad the French bishops are standing out so bravely for the liberties of the Church. That will console the Holy Father very much.' He added that he had hoped to say something on it. 'The French bishops have spoken, but as yet I have said nothing.'[1]
- ↑ 'Cardinal Wiseman's Last Illness,' pp. 24, 25 (Burns).
