Page:William John Sparrow-Simpson - Roman Catholic Opposition to Papal Infallibility (1909).djvu/251

] purpose. The value of the concession was qualified by the fact that the Congregation in question was selected entirely by the Pope, and was composed of Ultramontanes.

All the officers of the Council, including the five Presidents, were appointed by the Pope on his own authority; and their names were given in this Decree. The details of procedure were also therein defined. No Bishop was to leave without the Pope's permission.

This certainly was a striking document. The French statesman, Ollivier, says that "its novelty, its boldness, its audacity is only realised when compared with the proceedings at Trent." At Trent the Regulations were determined by the Bishops themselves.

When the Vatican Council began its work, several Bishops, including the Archbishop of Paris, attempted to protest against the restrictions imposed upon them; but the presiding Cardinal suppressed all objections with a declaration that the Pope had so ordained, and that his decisions could not be called in question. To this declaration the minority submitted. Thereby in effect they acknowledged the Pope's power to determine the Regulations. This has been called "the first of the feeblenesses, or to speak more indulgently, the resignations of the minority."

The actual product of the Vatican Council consists of two Dogmatic Constitutions known respectively by their opening words as the Constitution Dei Filius and the Constitution Pastor Æternus. Of these the former was proclaimed in the third Public Session, the latter in the fourth Public Session. The contents of the former are the doctrine of God, of Revelation, of Faith, and of the relation between Faith and Reason. The latter contains the Ultramontane theory