4. The Syndicate of Naples was at last constrained, for the credit of the muncipality, to expel Prota and the whole staff of Emancipatore Cattolico from their free quarters in S. Domenico Maggiore. Your readers will appreciate the significance of this strong measure when I tell them that the Emancipatore Cattolico was an eager supporter of the Government, and that its editor is a very clever writer.

5. Mr. Meyrick knew all these facts, as he admits, "two years" ago. And yet he did not hesitate, at the last meeting of the Anglo-Continental Society, to put up Lord Harrowby to denounce, in language not usually current among gentlemen, all who ventured to expose any of the underhand doings of the society. I read Lord Harrowby's speech at Naples with extreme amazement, and it convinced me that the Reports of the AngloContinental Society are utterly untrustworthy. I spent more than three months at Naples last winter, and I declare, as the result of my own knowledge, that the last published Report of Mr. Meyrick's agent in that city is a ludicrous romance and that is the opinion of all Church-people at Naples.

In short, I went abroad predisposed in favour of the AngloContinental Society, and I returned to England with the conviction that the good (if any) which it does is infinitesimal; the mischief certain and incalculable.

And now I call on Mr. Meyrick to produce evidence on the strength of which he affirms that the scandals in connection with Prota "are an invention of the enemy to discredit an able writer and reformer." Who is "the enemy?'

M. MACCOLL.

July 80, 1868.

No. VII.-THE ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.

[The publication of the Pontifical Bull convoking an Ecumenical Council of the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the 8th of Dec., 1869--the festival of the Immaculate Conceptiontook place on the 30th of June, in the atrium of the Vatican Basilica. The College of Apostolic Prothonotaries, accompanied by a Pontifical Chamberlain and the Apostolic messengers, were present at the ceremony. One of the Prothonotaries ascended a pulpit erected near the great gate of the Basilica, his colleagues sitting within, and, after a fanfare of trumpets, read aloud the Pontifical Bull of Convocation, two copies of which were afterwards affixed by the messengers to the columns of the principal entrance. The text of the Pontifical Bull is as follows:]

"Pius, Bishop, Servant of the Servants of God, for Future

Memory.

"The Only-begotten Son of the Eternal Father, out of the great love which He bore us, descended from His celestial throne in order to redeem, in the fulness of time, the whole human race from the yoke of sin, and from bondage to Satan and the darkness of error, into which, by the fault of their first parents, they had long since miserably fallen. And He, not declining from the paternal glory, was born of the Immaculate and Most Holy Virgin Mary, and manifested His doctrine and the rule of life brought from heaven, attesting it with so many excellent works, and giving Himself up as an Offering for us and as a Victim to God in the odour of sanctity. And having vanquished death, He, before ascending into heaven to sit upon the right hand of the Father, sent His Apostles into the world to preach the Gospel to every creature, and gave to them the power of ruling the Church purchased by His Own Blood, and thus constituted what is the column and firmament of truth; and, enriched by celestial treasures, shows the certain path of salvation, and the light of true doctrine to all people. In order, then, that the government of the Church should ever be maintained in a right and well-ordered course, and that the whole Christian world should uphold one sole faith, doctrine, charity, and communion, He promised His aid unto the end of time, and chose Peter, whom He declared to be Prince of the Apostles, His Vicar on earth, and head foundation and centre of the Church; so that, invested with this rank and honour, and with amplitude of chief and full authority, power, and jurisdiction, he should feed the sheep and the lambs, confirm the brethren, rule the Universal Church, and be the gatekeeper of heaven, and arbiter to bind and to loose; the effect of his judgments remaining unaltered in heaven.

"And that the unity and integrity of the Church and her government might remain perpetually immutable, therefore the Roman Pontiffs, successors of St. Peter, sitting in this same Roman chair of Peter, inherit and possess, in full vigour, the very same supreme authority, jurisdiction, and primacy of Peter over the whole Church.

"Hence the Roman Pontiffs, using their pastoral care and authority over the whole flock of the Lord divinely intrusted to them by Christ Himself in the person of the blessed Peter, have spared no fatigue in making every possible provision in order that from the rising to the setting sun all people and all nations should have knowledge of the evangelical doctrine, and, by walking in the way of truth and justice, attain eternal

life.

"It is known to all with what unwearing care the Roman Pontiffs have sought to preserve the deposit of the faith, the

discipline of the Clergy and their holy and learned teachings, and the sanctity and dignity of matrimony, and to promote and extend the education of the youth of both sexes, to foster the religion and piety of the people and virtuous manners, to defend justice, and to assure the tranquillity, order, prosperity, and rights of civil society. Nor have the Pontiffs omitted, when they have deemed it useful, especially in times of great perturbation and calamity for our most holy religion and civil society, to convoke General Councils, to the end that, by consulting with all the Bishops of the Catholic world whom the Holy Ghost has appointed to rule the Lord's Church, they might by their united strength providentially and wisely ordain all those things that would chiefly serve to define the dogmas of the faith, dispel error already propagated, or that might thenceforward be propagated, illustrate and elucidate doctrine, uphold and reform ecclesiastical discipline, and correct the corrupt manners of peoples.

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It is already known and manifest to all how horrible a tempest now agitates the Church, and what grievous ills afflict civil society. The Catholic Church, her salutary doctrine, her venerated power, and the supreme authority of this Apostolic See are opposed and set at nought by the bitter enemies of God and man. All sacred things are contemned, ecclesiastical property is plundered, Bishops and honoured men attached to the Divine ministry and men distinguished for their Catholic sentiments are troubled in every way, and religious families suppressed. Impious books of every kind, pestilent journals, and multitudinous and most pernicious sects are spread abroad on all sides. The education of the unhappy young is nearly everywhere withdrawn from the Clergy, and, what is worse, is in many places confided to masters of impiety and error. Thus, to our poignant grief, and that of all good men, and with mischief to souls that can never be sufficiently deplored, impiety and corruption of manners have everywhere propagated themselves, and there prevails an unbridled license and a contagion of depraved opinions of all kinds and of all vices and immoralities, and so great a violation of Divine and human laws, that not only our most holy religion, but human society also, is thereby miserably disturbed and afflicted. In the heavy accumulation of calamities whereby our heart is thus oppressed, the supreme pastoral charge confided to us requires that we should ever increasingly exert our strength to repair the ruin of the Church, to heal the souls of the Lord's flock, and to repel the assaults and fatal attempts of those who strive to uproot from their foundation, if that were possible, both the Church and civil society. And truly, by the help of God, from the commencement of our Pontificate, we, conscious of our solemn obligation, have never ceased to raise our voice in our

consistorial allocutions and Apostolic letters, and to defend constantly by every effort the cause of God and His holy Church confided unto us by the Lord Christ, to uphold the rights of this Apostolic See, and of justice and truth, and to unmask the insidious devices of its enemies, to condemn errors and false doctrines, to proscribe impious acts, and to watch over and provide for the salvation of all the Lord's flock. And, following the practice of our illustrious predecessors, we have deemed it opportune to assemble a General Council, which we have already long desired, of all our venerable brethren, the Bishops of the whole Catholic world, who are now called to take part in our solicitude. These, our venerable brethren, prompted by the warmest love for the Catholic Church, and remarkable for eminent piety and for reverence towards us and this Apostolic See, anxious also for the salvation of souls, and excellent in wisdom, in doctrine and erudition, and greatly lamenting with us the grievous condition of sacred and profane things, they will hold nothing more precious than to communicate to us their judgment, and confer with us in order to provide salutary remedies for so many calamities.

"All these things have to be most carefully examined and regulated in this Ecumenical Council, more particularly with regard to all that in these evil times concerns the greater glory of God, the integrity of the faith, the respect for Divine worship, and the eternal salvation of men, the discipline of the Orders of the Clergy and their solid and salutary training, the observance of ecclesiastical laws, the amelioration of manners, the education of Christian youth, and the peace and concord of all. And, further, the Council must seek, by anxious study, that, by the help of God, all ills may be removed from civil society; that erring wanderers may be led back into the right way of truth, and that vice and error may be eliminated, our august religion and her salutary doctrine may everywhere be quickened by fresh life, and may still further extend their influence, and thus piety, honesty, probity, justice, charity, and all the Christian virtues may gather strength and flourish, to the great benefit of human society. None can ever deny that the strength of the Catholic Church and her doctrine does not alone regard the eternal salvation of men, but is essential also to the temporal welfare of peoples, and to their real prosperity, order and tranquillity, and even to the progress and solidity of human science-as the annals of sacred and profane history clearly prove by a series of splendid facts, and still constantly demonstrate. And since Christ the Lord so greatly consoles and comforts us with those words, For where two or three are gathered together in My name there I am in the midst of them.'-S. Matthew xviii. 20.

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"We cannot doubt that in the abundance of His Divine

mercy He would vouchsafe to be present at this Council, in which we shall be able to establish those things that in any way regard the welfare of His Holy Church. Therefore, after most fervent prayer offered up day and night in the humility of our heart to God the Father of light, we have judged it to be expedient that this Council should be assembled. For this cause, strong in the authority of God, the Father Almighty, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and of the holy Apostles Peter and Paul, which authority we represent on earth, we, with the counsel and consent of our venerable brethren the Cardinals of the holy Roman Church, by these present letters announce, convoke, and ordain the sacred Ecumenical and General Council to be holden in this our City of Rome in the coming year, 1869, in the Vatican Basilica, commencing upon the 8th day of December, sacred to the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, and to be prosecuted and conducted to its termination by the help of God, to His glory, and to the salvation of all Christian peoples.

"We therefore desire and command that our venerable brethren, the Patriarchs, Archbishops, Bishops, as also our beloved sons the Abbots, and all others who by right or privilege are entitled to sit in General Councils, and to manifest their opinions to the same, should from all parts repair to this Ecumenical Council convoked by us; and to this effect we invite, exhort, and admonish them, both in virtue of the oath that they have taken to us and this Holy See, and of holy obedience and under the penalties by law or custom decreed against those who fail to appear at the Councils. We rigorously ordain and prescribe that they shall be bound to attend this sacred Council unless withheld by some just impediment, which, however, must in all cases be proved to the Synod by the intermediary of legitimate proxies. We cherish the hope that God, in whose hand are the hearts of men, showing Himself favourable to our desire, may grant that by His ineffable mercy and grace all the supreme princes and governors, more especially Catholics of all nations, growing daily more conscious of the immense benefits which human society derives from the Catholic Church, and knowing that the Church is the most stable foundation of empires and kingdoms, not only will not impede our venerable brethren the Bishops, and others, from attending this Council, but will rather aid and favour this object, and co-operate zealously as becomes Catholic princes in all that may result to the greater glory of God and the benefit of this Council.

"To the end that these Our Letters and the things therein contained may come to the knowledge of all whom it may concern, and that no person may be able to plead ignorance of the same, and as, possibly, they might not securely reach all those