from within, could move the Council a hair's breadth out of the course in which it was calmly and irresistibly moving to its appointed work.
The hopes and confidence of the miscellaneous alliance of nominal Catholics, Protestants, rationalists, and unbelievers, received its first sharp check when some five hundred Fathers of the Council desired of the Holy See that the doctrine of the Infallibility of the Roman Pontiff should be defined.[1] This event manifested a mind and a will so united and so decisive, as to reduce the proportions of the opposition, both numerically and morally, to very little. Still it was confidently hoped that some event, in the chapter of accidents, might yet hinder the definition; that either the minority might become more powerful by increase, or the majority less solid by division.
This expectation again was rudely shaken by the unanimous vote of the third public Session. The first Constitution De Fide had been so vehemently assailed, and, as it was imagined, so utterly defeated, that if ever voted at all it would be voted only by a small majority, or at least it would be resisted by an imposing minority. It was therefore no small surprise that the whole Council, consisting then of 664 Fathers, should have affirmed it with an unanimous vote. I well remember that when the 'Placets' of the 'opposition leaders' sounded through the Council Hall, certain high diplomatic personages looked significantly at each other. This majestic unanimity, after the alleged internal contentions of the Council, was as perplexing as it was undeniable. The World began to fear that, after all, the international opposition
- ↑ See Appendix, p. 163.
