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The True and False Infallibility of the Popes, Will Speedily Appear in an English Translation, I Refrain from Doing So

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This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. http://books.google.com THE TRUE AND THE FALSE Infallibility of iThe Popes. A CONTROVERSIAL REPLY TO DR. SCHULTE. ST Dr. JOSEPH JFESSLER, Late Bishop of St. Fatten, in Awtria, and Secretary- General of the Vatican Council. A Work honoured by a Brief of Approbation from His Holiness Pope Pius IX. ftnuMlatcfe from fyc ttltfrt Coition VY PERMISSION OF THE EDITORS OP THE LATE BISHOP FESSLER'S WORKS. New York : THE CATHOLIC PUBLICATION SOCIETY, No. 9 WARREN STREET. i875- THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY CONTENTS. I. True and False Infallibility.— Fessler. II. Mr. Gladstone's Expostulation Unravelled. — Bishop Ullathorne. Submission to a Divine Teacher. — Bishop Vaughan. Syllabus for the People. JSx trad from a Brief addressed to Bishop Fessler by his Holiness Pope Pius IX. April vj, 1871. ' . Peropportunum autem et utilissimum existimavimus retudisse te audaciam Professoris Schulte incitantis saeculares Potestates ad- versus dogma Pontificiae infallibilitatis ab cecumenica Vaticana Syno- do definitae. Non omnes enim, inter laicos praesertim, rei indolem perspectam habent ; et Veritas luculenter exposita multas abigere so- let ab honestorum mentibus obliquas opiniones, saepe cum lacle haustas, aliosque confirmare in recta sententia et adversus insidias munire. Quamobrem si hujusmodi commenta refellere pergas, op- time certe merebis de sanctissima religione nostri. et Christiano po- pulo, quem, uti bonus Pastor, a venenatis pascuis abduces. Pergra- tum Nos tibi profitemur animum, cum ob volumen oblatum, turn ob amantissimas litteras tuas ; tibique amplam apprecamur obsequii de- votionisque tuae mercedem ' Translation. * . We esteem it a very opportune and useful thing to have beaten back the audacity of Professor Schulte, inciting as he does the secu lar powers against the dogmi of Papal Infallibility, as denned by the Ecumenical Council of the Vatican. For it is a matter the true meaning of which, not all men, and especially not all laymen, have a thoroughly clear understanding of, and the truth, when lucidly set forth, is wont to expel from properly constituted minds opinions which men perhaps have drunk in with their mother's milk, to confirm others in a right mind, and fortify them against insidious attacks. Where fore, if you continue to refute figments of this kind, you will deserve well of our most holy religion, and of all Christian people, in that, like a good pastor, you withdraw them from poisoned pastures We make known to you, then, the great pleasure ^you have giren Us, both by reason of the book which you have presented to Us, as well as by reason of your most affectionate letters ; and V£c pray that you \ 2 Papal Brief to Bishop Fessler. may receive a rich reward for your deference to Our authority and devotion towards Ourselves ' (Signed by the Pope's own hand) Note. — The fact of the Brief and its signature is derived from M. Anton. Erdinger, director of the Episcopal Seminary at St. Polten, author of the Life of Bishop Fessler, who sent a copy of it to M. Cosquin of the Fran$ais. to whom I am indebted for these important notices. The Pope's Brief is not given entire, as the remainder of it has re ference solely to local diocesan affairs. TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION. This important work of the lamented Dr. Fessler, Bishop of St. Polten, or more properly St. Hippo- lytus, in Austria, who was Secretary-General to the Vatican Council in the year 1870, and who, worn out with the fatigues of the Council, died two years afterwards, is now for the first time brought before the notice of English Catholics. Entitled by the good Bishop himself The True and False Infallibility of the Pope, it presents to the reader a perfect ' repertorium ' of all the stock objections and erroneous representations, both as regards the doctrine itself, and as regards the history of previous Papal rescripts and acts, that the fertile mind and extensive reading of Dr. Schulte, Professor of Canon and German Law in the University of Prague, could ingeniously pile together and misconstrue, in order to bring odium upon all Papal Bulls and Papal acts from, as he says, the time of Pope Gregory VII. These misstatements and misconstructions Bishop Fessler, with extraordinary labour and patience, has met and refuted one by one. The refutations re mained unanswered during the Bishop's lifetime, nor have we heard of Dr. Schulte having attempted any answer since his death, although he has gone on reiterating his former statements. It is the old story 2 Introduction. of 'mumpsimus." Nevertheless, as this particular mumpsimus is of German extraction, it has been thought that it would not be amiss, while German meets German in this strife of the True and of the False Infallibility, they should carry on the battle in English, that we, who have an equal interest in the issue of the contest, may hear both sides, and judge for ourselves which is the true and which the false. And it is this which constitutes the special merit of Bishop Fessler's work, that, in this properly German quarrel, it states fairly all that Dr. Schulte has to say on his own side, so that although we have not actually his book before us, we can hear him speak both in the titles of the chapters and in the propositions brought forward, all of which are given in Dr. Schulte's own words; thus the reader, be he Catholic or be he Protestant, may see for himself what has been said on the part of those who have tried to make Infallibility impossible, by the process of reduciio ad absurdum, and what by those who calmly and dispassionately have endeavoured to bring it back to its true significance. It is strange that, considering the general interest of the subject, the comprehensive character of the work, its general acceptation in Germany, and, last ly, the author's thorough knowledge of his subject, which his peculiar position during the Council, as its Secretary-General, enabled him to obtain, so valu able a work should have remained so long untrans lated. And this becomes the more remarkable when we consider that after the first edition had been sent to Rome, and there thoroughly examined and ap Introduction. 3 roved, the second and third editions were publish ed after the Pope himself had written to Bishop essler commending him for having, by means of is work, ' as a good pastor done good service to r holy religion,' and exhorting him to go on bringing back Christian people from poisoned pas- res ;' the particular ' poisoned pastures' indicated y the Pope being evidently those false and exagge- ted notions of Infallibility which Dr. Schulte and thers of his stamp have been engaged in propagat- It will be a further good result of the present con troversy if it brings us to see the danger of all exag gerated statements, even when made with good inten tions, for it is precisely to these statements that the now open adversaries of the Church appeal, in order to place the true doctrine before their dupes in an odious form. And this good result has already fol lowed from the French translation, edited by M. Em manuel Cosquin, editor of the Fra?i^ais. It has 'put the question before many, who had been made anx ious by exaggerated statements, in a way which ren dered it quite easy of acceptance.' The existence of this translation was, I regret to say, not known to me until my own translation from the original was com pleted ; in fact the editor kindly sent me a copy when he saw my advertisement of the pamphlet in the newspapers, accompanied with the obliging per mission to make jisfi. of his prefatory matter, his valuable notes from the ' Pastoral Instruction' of the Swiss Bishops, and the useful and comprehensive in dex at the end of his edition. As a most valuable 4 Introduction. confirmation of the position assumed by Bishop Fess- ler, I would refer my readers to M. Cosquin's two notes, which I have translated from the French, and appended to the second chapter of this work. ; That Bishop Fessler was really the exponent of the mind of most of the German Bishops, and in particu lar that his work exercised a special influence on the learned historian of the Councils, Mgr. Hefele, Bi shop of Rothenburg, will be sufficiently shown by the following letter, translated from the Gcrmania, the organ of the Catholics of Berlin, whose editor, Herr Majunke, although a deputy in the German Assembly, is now undergoing his sentence, as a confessor for the Faith, in a common German prison. Extract from the Roman correspondent of the Gcr- mania of Berlin, of Nov. 3, 1872: Rome, Oct. 26. ' The letter of Bishop Hefele, which has lately been published, gave rise to an explanation on the part of this prelate; as a result of which the follow ing information came to my knowledge, which, on account of its high importance, I think I ought not to withhold from your readers, and so much the more as it concerns our lately deceased and univer sally honored Bishop of St. Polten. Mgr. Fessler, who was on very intimate terms with Dr. Hefele, the Bishop of Rothenburg, sent to him, accompanied with a most affectionate letter, expressive of all those feelings which he entertained towards him as a bro ther in the episcopal office, a copy of the work which he had composed On the True and False Infallibility of Introduction.
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