Page:William John Sparrow-Simpson - Roman Catholic Opposition to Papal Infallibility (1909).djvu/291

 ] Sees in Christendom, had left the city, and hastened away beyond the territorial dominions of Rome.

The last letter of the defeated minority called the Pope's attention to the number of disapproving prelates. To the eighty-eight who voted in the negative must be added the sixty-two others who expressed themselves dissatisfied; and, beyond these, another seventy who absented themselves, although present in Rome, and others still who had already left the city. The large element of disapproval would be obvious to the Pope, and also to the world. Since the hour when they recorded their vote against the doctrine, nothing had happened to change their opinion: on the contrary, much to strengthen it. Accordingly they now renew and endorse their declaration. Under these circumstances they have resolved to absent themselves from the Public Session of the 18th; their reverence for the Holy See not permitting them to proceed to an open refusal of a doctrine by which the Pope was personally affected. They would therefore leave the city and return to their dioceses with expressions of unaltered faith and obedience.

Among the signatures to this letter are the names of Cardinal Schwarzenberg; Darboy, Archbishop of Paris; Scherr, Archbishop of Munich; Kenrick, Archbishop of St Louis; Strossmayer, Bishop of Sirmium; Bishop Maret, Bishop Clifford of Clifton, Bishop Dupanloup, Bishop Hefele.

This final letter of disapproval, which sixty of the Bishops signed, was of course technically valueless. All speeches, protests, and letters count for nothing compared with the actual formal decision. If any protest were to have validity, it must be made precisely where the minority had not the courage to make it—in the Council at the final Session; to frustrate the