Page:History of Freedom.djvu/519

 CONFLICTS WITH ROME

475

would not have been that which the Roman Court desired and intended, or, if made without explicit statement of its meaning, would have been in some measure deceitful and hypocritical. In the first case it would not have been received, in the second case it could not have been made without loss of self-respect. Moreover, as the writer was a public professor, bound to instruct his hearers according to his best kno\vledge, he could not change his teaching \vhile his opinion remained unchanged. These considerations, and not any desire to defy authority, or introduce new opinions by a process more or less revolu- tionary, appear to have guided his conduct. At this period it might have been possible to arrive at an under- standing, or to obtain satisfactory explanations, if the Roman Court would have told him what points were at issue, what passages in his book were impugned, and what were the grounds for suspecting them. If there was on both sides a peaceful and conciliatory spirit, and a desire to settle the problem, there was certainly a chance of effecting it by a candid interchange of explanations. I t was a course \v hich had proved efficacious on other occasions, and in the then recent discus ion of Günther's system it had been pursued with great patience and decided success. Before giving a definite reply, therefore, Dr. Froh- schammer asked for information about the incriminated articles. This would have given him an opportunity of seeing his error, and making a submission in foro inferno. But the request was refused. It was a favour, he was told, sometimes extended to men \vhose great services to the Church deserved such consideration, but not to one \vho \vas hardly known except hy the very book which had incurred the censure. This answer instantly aroused a suspicion that the Roman Court was more anxious to assert its authority than to correct an alleged error, or to prevent a scandal. I t was well known that the mistrust of German philosophy \vas very deep at Rome; and it seemed far from impossible that an intention existed to put it under all possible restraint.