Page:History of Freedom.djvu/543

 THE VATICAN COUNCIL

499

Efforts to establish this doctrine had been going on for years. The dogmatic decree of 1854 involved it so distinctly that its formal recognition seemed to be only a question of time and ieal. People even said that it was the real object of that decree to create a precedent which should make it impossible afterwards to deny papal infallibility. The Catechisms were altered, or new ones were substituted, in which it was taught. After I 852 . the doctrine began to show itself in the Acts of pro- vincial synods, and it was afterwards supposed that the bishops of those provinces \vere committed to it. One of these synods -was held at Cologne; and three sur- viving members were in the Council at Rome, of whom two were in the minority, and the third had continued in his writings to oppose the doctrine of infallibility, after it had found its way into the Cologne decree. The sus- picion that the Acts ,had been tampered with is suggested by what passed at the synod. of Baltimore in 1866. The Archbishop of St. Louis signed the Acts of that synod under. protest, and after obtaining a pledge that his protest would be inserted by the apostolic delegate. The pledge was not kept. "I complain," writes the arch- bishop, "that the promise which had been given \vas broken. The Acts ought to have been published in their integrity, or not at all." 1 This process was carried on so boldly that men understood what was to come. Pro- testants foretold that the' Catholics would not rest until the Pope was formally declared infallible; and a prelate returning from the meeting of bishops at Rome in 1862 was startled at being asked by a clear-sighted friend whether infallibility had not been brought forward. It was produced not then, but at the next great meeting, in 1867. The Council had been announced; and the bishops wished to present an address to the Pope. Haynald, Archbishop of Colocza, held the pen, assisted by Franchi, one of the clever Roman prelates and by

1 Fidem mihi datam non servatam fuisse queror. Acta supprimere, aut I integra dare oportebat. He says also: Omnia ad nutum delegati Apostolici fiebant.