Notes On Current Topics [pp. 371-382]

380 NOTES ON CURRENT TOPICS. [April,
in the United States, and nothing prevents them ftom openly professing their convictions. Why, then, this utter indifference?" There is
no doubt that, before the decision of the Council on Papal Infallibility,
he received great encouragement from this country as well as in Europe, with pledges of support. As far as the United States is concerned,
we:are permitted to publish the fdllowing statement, made to us by a
learned Professor in high standing in one of our Theological Seminaries
I saw Dr. D6llinger in October, 1870. He s~soke to me particularly of Father -` but alluded also to other members of the Roman
Catholic Church in this country, and among them to certain bishops
Father - encouraged, in a very decided and zealous way, opposition to the party that controlled the Council, and to the dogma of Infallibility. He made the impression on Dr. D6llinger that this opposition in America would be influential. He [the said Father -~
particularly and repeatedly comujitted himself to it. He pledged,
also, his review to the same waffare. I asked Dr. D. if I might repeat to others what he had said; he answered`Yes.' I then asked if
I might state it publicly; he replied in the same way.
The review, above spoken of, T/~e Catholic ~Vorld, gives a very peculiar kind of support to Di-. D6llinger. In Aug. 1871 (p. ~93), it
speaks of the "false and flimsy pretext of Dr. D., and the other rebels
against the Council of the Vatican, that they h~ve been excommunicated for adhering to the old Catholie faith which they have always
held." In an article (Nov. 1871) entitled I/~c Djliingcr Scandat, it
asserts that D6llinger himself foriuerly`~taught exactly what the Archbishop of ~funich requires him now to subscribe to," that is, the Vatican dogma of Infallibility; that he has been carried in~0 "a fatal gulf,"
"an abyss;" that he published "infamous articles" on the subject in
the Allgenicine Zcdnng, from the ioth to the I 5tii of March, 1 86~
and much iuore of tlie same sort. It is quite natural that Dr. D.
should have "a painful surprise" in view of such facts.
The Doctrinal J3asis ado~ted by the Wational Co~incil of the Congregatio;lal Chnrchcs, at Oberlin, 7Vov. 187 i.-The Oberlin Council
~vas a large and h~portant representation of the Congregational
Churches. The mode in which its members were elected made it
more nearly a representative body than the Plymouth Council of
1865. It adopted a constitution, defining the terms of union. The
article which is to be the doctrinal basis of this union reads thus: