for him the schemata, and when at last he desired to have some particular document,, he wrote openly to the Secretaiy of the Council to ask for it. The document was at once sent to him with the assurance that whatsoever he desired should be at once placed in his hands. The schemata surreptitiously obtained were without delay published in the Augsburg Gazette. One of the least scrupulous of these agents expressed himself in these words:—
The governments are by degrees acting an almost ridiculous part towards the Council. First boasts, then embarrassment, connected with meaningless threats; and at last the confession that the right time has passed by, and that the Curia has command of the situation. If German science had not saved its position, and been able to establish a firm opposition in the Council, even in contradiction to its own will, and kept it alive, and if our Lord God had not also set stupidity and ignorance on the side of the Curia and of the majority, the governments would have been put to shame in the sight of the whole world. Prince Hohenlohe, in fact, is the only statesman possessed of a deeper insight in this question, and by degrees he has come ta be looked upon as belonging to the minority.[1]
This inflated vainglory neither needs comment nor is worth censuring. But it proves to all what ought to be known, how the bishops of 'the minority' were pursued and harassed by men of a lower mind, some being of the priesthood, and others of the laity who gathered in Rome to conspire and intrigue against the Council. They were well known, and
- ↑ Friederich's 'Diary,' p. 202.
