Page:William John Sparrow-Simpson - Roman Catholic Opposition to Papal Infallibility (1909).djvu/224

 204 Infallibility. He had studied the history of the Church for thirty years; but nothing could be found for Papal Infallibility in the ancient Church. It could not be rightly discussed as merely inopportune, for it simply was not true. These assertions were opposed. Eventually a petition was sent to the Pope, declaring the doctrine inopportune by a majority of fourteen Bishops out of nineteen. Then, as a curiously incongruous sequel to their own grave anxieties, the Bishops set themselves to the work of re -assuring the German Catholics in a Pastoral which declared that an Ecumenical Council would not impose a new dogma, a dogma not contained in Scripture and Apostolic Tradition; that they were confident that no obstacle would be placed either to the liberty or duration of discussion in the Council's deliberations. The Pastoral, said a contemporary writer —

When the King of Bavaria read the Pastoral, he congratulated the Bishops on the line adopted, and expressed a hope that a similar spirit would prevail in the approaching deliberations in Rome.

On the other hand, a distinguished Prelate compared the opponents of Infallibility to the possessed at Gadara; and described them as crying piteously, "What have we to do with thee, Vicar of Christ?" No one, he said, would be deprived of freedom of thought or expression