Josef Fessler

“ The Church is not a true and perfect Society, entirely free; nor is she endowed with proper and perpetual rights of her own, conferred upon her by her Divine Founder; but it appertains to the civil power to define what are the rights of the Church, and the limits within which she may exercise those rights. ”

“ Such a man is Dr. Schulte, Professor of Canon and German Law at the University of Prague, who has just published a pamphlet with this high-sounding title, 'The Power of the Roman Pontiffs over Sovereigns, Countries, Peoples, Individuals, according to their Doctrines and Acts, held up to the Light, in order to afford persons the means of making a true estimate of their claim to Infallibility.' Misleading indeed is the light this pamphlet holds up for our guidance, the subject being really presented to our view in a light wholly false and extremely repulsive. ”

“ If a layman rebels against the Pope or against the Bishops, because, as he says, the good of the Church is of a higher order of good than the momentary pleasure of the Hierarchy, and that he has no fear if his conscience is not alarmed, then I am compelled to make the remark that we Bishops too, and the Pope have a conscience, and that this doctrinal definition respecting the infallible teaching authority of the Roman Pontiff has been long and maturely weighed before God in prayer, and after long and earnest study has been declared with a quiet conscience ”

“ Moreover it is false that the civil liberty of every form of worship, and the full power, given to all, of overtly and publicly manifesting any opinions whatsoever and thoughts, conduce more easily to corrupt the morals and minds of the people, and to propagate the pest of indifferentism. ”

“ But if this assertion is made to represent as a fact that it is not the will of God, in the foundation of His Church, that the Pope and the Bishops should instruct and govern His Holy Church, and that the laity should listen to them in the Church, then is this a great misrepresentation of the truth. When, however, I say it is the will of God that the Pope and the Bishops should instruct and govern the Church, of course I mean to say this in that ordinary sense in which the words have ever been understood, and the thing practised in the Church. ”

“ The twelfth contradicts the insulting assertion that Papal decrees impede the progress of science. It does not touch the question whether, in any particular case, the act or decree of any Pope not speaking ex cathedrâ may have impeded the development of some particular scientific theory, true or otherwise; but condemns, as scores of learned Protestants have done ere now, the sweeping calumny of the enemies of the Holy See.
The thirteenth condemnation displays, even in a human sense, the most consummate wisdom. ”

“ For it is perfectly well known to every one who is acquainted with the literary works, both old and new, which have reference to this subject, that the advocates of the doctrine of Papal Infallibility, as well as its adversaries, appeal to the history of the Church and to its sources. History experiences the same fate that has befallen Holy Scripture. The advocates, as well as the enemies, of every particular Catholic doctrine on which, in the course of ages, dogmatic definitions have been pronounced, have always appealed to Holy Scripture. ”

“ But before dismissing the revolting subject it is well, in a brief digression, if such it be, to unfold something of the daring and impious system condemned in the seventh proposition. Christ, say its supporters, is a myth, like Prometheus. What is a myth? A hero of fiction? Not exactly; the myth will be in most cases an historical being, but whose real character can but faintly be made out through the haze of fable and legend which has thickened round it. ”

“ It can hardly escape the observation of any one who peruses this fourth chapter of the Council thoroughly and carefully, that the reasons given for the definition and the historical account of the doctrine are of immense importance for a right understanding of the matter. It was, then, very unfair of Dr. Schulte, to say the least, to extract from the chapter on Infallibility the bare words of the definition, and by so doing to leave the readers of his pamphlet in entire ignorance of all. ”

“ And even as the State claims the right of in validating civil contracts, when it deems it right for the welfare of its members, so the Church claims the right of imposing conditions without whose fulfilment the marriage contract shall be invalid. Wisely has she used her power, without creating confusion among those who do not recognize her authority. Among these conditions, one, which binds in most countries of Europe, is that marriages among Catholics are invalid unless made in presence of the parish priest and two witnesses. ”

“ For the bishops and the priests are quite aware that when there is no authentic explanation of a Papal ex cathedrâ utterance, the Theological Faculty, which has been for centuries engaged upon this question, has to be heard upon the marks of a real utterance; and that in reality the short de fide definition in the Vatican Council in its few words does but contain what the science of Theology has been this long time investigating at great length, with the full knowledge and admission of the difficult questions arising out of the history of ancient times. ”

“ Human reason, without any reference whatsoever to God, is the sole arbiter of truth and falsehood, and of good and evil; it is law to itself, and suffices, by its natural force, to secure the welfare of men and of nations. Ibid.
4. All the truths of religion proceed from the innate strength of human reason; hence reason is the ultimate standard by which man can and ought to arrive at the knowledge of all truths of every kind. ”

“ Of my own self God will, in the next world, require a reckoning of my life. To the doctrine of the Apostle (Rom. xiv. 12, 2 Cor. v. 10 [3] ) I hold fast, and will never shield myself under the responsibility of any one but myself.'
When then Dr. Schulte says, 'Neither Pope, nor bishop, nor parish priest, can bring me to heaven by his prayers, if I live not as a Christian and believe in Christ,' no doubt he states perfectly correctly that no one goes to heaven by another's prayers, if he does not believe in Christ and live according to his faith. ”

“ The best theory of civil society requires that popular schools, open to children of every class of the people, and generally, all public institutes intended for instruction in letters and philosophical sciences, and for carrying on the education of youth, should be freed from all ecclesiastical authority, control, and interference, and should be fully subjected to the civil and political power at the pleasure of the rulers, and according to the standard of the prevalent opinions of the age. ”

“ As they did before the Council, so now also afterwards, will the Popes summon Councils; ask the advice of the Bishops scattered over the world; use every means in their power to obtain a full understanding respecting that deposit of the Faith which has been confided to the Church. It will be according to this only and immutable rule of the Faith that they will decide, as if in court of supreme and last instance, and infallibly, for the Universal Church, all questions which can possibly arise on matters of Faith or Morals. ”

“ In force of a merely civil contract, there may exist between Christians a real marriage, and it is false to say either that the marriage contract between Christians is always a sacrament, or that there is no contract if the sacrament be excluded. ”

“ For the Fathers of the Fourth Council of Constantinople, treading in the footsteps of their forefathers, made the following solemn confession: "The first condition of salvation is to keep the rule of sound faith. And as the declaration uttered by our Lord Jesus Christ can never fail, [3] when He says, 'Thou art Peter, and upon this Rock I will build My Church,' so have the words there said actually come to pass, forasmuch as in the apostolical chair the Catholic faith has ever remained inviolate and its holy doctrine been celebrated. ”

“ In effect, God is produced in man and in the world, and all things are God and have the very substance of God, and God is one and the same thing with the world, and, therefore, spirit with matter, necessity with liberty, good with evil, justice with injustice. ”

“ The chief country of these difficulties was Germany, and what has been the spectacle presented to our view since the definition of In fallibility, and the publication of Bishop Fessler's pamphlet upon its true meaning? Those Bishops who doubted the opportuneness of the definition, or who in other ways hesitated to receive it, and who, for conscience' sake, absented themselves from the final and decisive session, [2] have since become the chief confessors and witnessess of the doctrine, before a cruel and persecuting government! ”

“ Now I find nothing in Scripture or Tradition about John Mastai Ferretti, and his election to the Popedom. Here is a truth which must needs be accepted for the acceptance of a dogmatical definition, yet is not itself an article of faith. ”

“ Fessler, a person is to draw the perfect removal of his apprehensions; no proof, no logical reason is presented to us that anything which a Pope solemnly enunciates, which he has had signed by the Cardinals and sent to all Bishops, may not have the weight of a definition in the sense of the Vatican Council,'—I thereupon point to the simple, literal, dogmatic, and logical explanation of the meaning of the definition of the Council in pages 55 to 60 of my pamphlet as the 'proof and logical reason' for my statement. ”

“ The prophecies and miracles set forth and recorded in the sacred Scriptures are the fiction of poets, and the mysteries of the Christian faith the result of philosophical investigations. In the books of the Old and New Testament there are contained mythical inventions, and Jesus Christ is himself a myth. ”

“ It is sufficient for us to direct attention to the fact, that when in the first and second parts of this proposition of the Syllabus, it is said that the Roman Pontiffs have, first, 'not overstepped the limits of their power,' and, secondly, that they 'have not usurped the rights of princes,' these assertions have no reference to a truth revealed by God, but bear upon historical events of a later period, which events have nothing to do with faith and morals, but only with the acts of the Popes. ”

“ The author of the censured opinion means to treat faith and reason on the same level; but the full pith of the condemnation can only be felt by those who have fathomed the almost godlike intellectual strength of mediæval divines. ”

“ Schulte proceeds to assert 'that only the Pope himself can define the subject-matter, the comprehensiveness, and the limits of an utterance ex cathedrâ.' This assertion is so far true, that it is certain that no human authority can prescribe any thing to the Pope in this matter. If, however, it is meant that the Pope, according to his own will and fancy, can at all events extend his infallible definition even to matters relating to the Jus publicum, to which the divine revelation does not extend, then he has laid the case before us quite erroneously. ”