The Vatican Council, Number Two [pp. 841-854]

T/ie Vat fran Council. 843
of Russia) were free to travel in ginally appointed. ~Ve may trust
peace; and they came at the voice of that the blessing of Heaven will conthe chief pastor. Fr6m the volcanic tinue with it, and that its results will
and coral islands of the Pacific, from be commensurate with the prayers and
Hudson's Bay and Labrador and hopes of the Catholic world, in proCanada, from Brazil, La Plata, and moting the glory of God, in establishChili, from the golden shores of Cali- ing the kingdom of Christ our Lord
fornia, from rugged New England and on earth, and in leading men to
the fertile valley of the Mississippi, Christian holiness and eternal life.
from mysteflous Egypt, and the clas- In our former article we gave an
sic isles of Greece, from the sacred account of the grand spectacle prehills and cities of Palestine and Syria, sented at the opening session. In
from the stricken remnants of Assyria the present one, we will speak of the
and Media, from Persia, India, Bur- general congregations, or committees
mah, Siam, and China, bishops were of the whole, as we would term them,
journeying toward the central city of in which most of the work is to be
the Catholic world. The antipo- done. The curious observer will find
dal Australia and New Zealand sent here many of those old rules and
still others. From every country of forms from which the modern and
Europe, Hungary, Bohemia, Illyria, civilized woHd has derived our existAustria, Prussia, Bavaria, and ~Viir- ing codes of parliamentary rules. It
temberg, France, Spain, and Portugal, is interesting to observe the points of
England, Holland, Belgium, Scotland, agreement and of disagreement. For
and Ireland, the Island of Saints, of later years, in our mundane parliathey came, not merely a few delegates, ments, the strife of party spirit, and
but it seemed the entire episcopal sometimes the necessity of settling a
body e;z massc. Distance and diffi- question by a given time, have brought
culties of tl~e journey were no obsta- in various devices unknown in those
cles; even old age and infirmities older and quieter assemblies for the
seemed to have lost the power of re- purpose of shutting off debate, or
taining these prelates at home. Among overcoming the reluctance of a minothe arrivals in Rome over a score had rity for a speedy vote.
passed eighty years of age, and one, An oecumenical council is, under
not the least vigorous among them, one point of view, a deliberative ashad reached the mature age of ninety-' sembly of the e~tire Catholic Church.
five. And so it came to pass, under The sovereign pontiff, who, as succesthe blessing of Heaven, il~at in this sor of St. Peter, the head of the aposnineteenth century, in whid~ even tolic college in the see of Rome, is
that profound statesman and excel. head of the Catholic Church and the
lent Catholic, Count De Maistre, once centre of unity, presides ex-qflicio.
said it would be simply impossible to As his right and his power were not
convene a general council of the bestowed on him by the church, but
church, all difficulties have vanished, were instituted by her Divine Founder
and without one hour's delay or post- as an essential part of her organization,
ponement, the Vatican Council, ex- it follows that they do not cease, or
ceeding all others save one in its suffer suspension, on occasion of; or
number of prelates, and far surpassing during the holding of a council.
that one in its intrinsic grandeur, was His office in reference to councils
opened in the majestic Basilica of St. has been recognized from the beginPeter, on the day and the hour ori- fling. A Council of Alexandria, in