THE INFALLIBILITY DOGMA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume V, Issue 228, 27 September 1870, Page 2

THE INFALLIBILITY DOGMA.

To the Editor of the Nelson Evening Mail "Sir,— With much greater propriety might your correspondent "Catholicus" sign himself Punch, for how can anybody seriously understand his words, " as if the Pope needed any human arm to support his authority or infallibility," in the face of the fact, patent to all the world, that it is just this " human arm " which all Popes have ever needed, and upon which they have ever depended for support ? Your correspondent may 6neer at ironclads, chassepots, and needle guns, but does not everybody know that these are just the things to which Pius IX is indebted for his occupancy of St. Peter's " indefectible chair " to-day ? Where would he have been, during all the vicissitudes of the last 22 years had it not been for Napoleon's bayonets, which are now withdrawn ? Well, perhaps in "England," "Malta," or "Jerusalem," or perhaps, even in a "dungeon," but if so, how about " his despatches to his subjects in all the world," being " listened to and obeyed." Does your correspondent forget, or has he never heard, of the humiliation to which the same infallible Pius IX. was subjected by his most immediate subjects in 1848 ? Has he never heard how St. Peter's successor escaped from the " Eternal City " disguised with false whiskers, in fashionable hat and clothes, smoking a cigar with a jaunty air, and assisted in his flight by a woman, the wife of the Bavarian ambassador? Is he not aware that on that occasion his infallibility was half dead with fright, so much so that he could not answer the challenge of the sentinel at the city gate, and that had it not been for the prudence of his fair companion, who had taken care to be provided with a regular passport, it might have gone ill with him ? And when the fleeing Pontiff shot behind him, for the crushing of his rebellious children, that old missile excommunication, what were its effects ? " Our people," says an eye witness, " were exceedingly amused with the old farce of excommunication, they made an immense procession through the principal streets of Rome, having hoisted on a banner a copy of the Papal Bull. They went to the Piazza del Popolo, where they made a. solemn mock funeral in honor of the lifeless excommunication, and then the document was burisd in a very unclean place.' ? " The next evening," says the same witness, " a vast crowd gathered in the Piazza del Popolo, when a resolution was unanimously adopted, excommunicating the Pope."

Peter once drew the sword, see Matt. XXVI. 51, his master on that occasion said "All they thac take the sword shall perish with the sword." Does not the man who supposes himself Peter's successor fall under this condemnation ? I am, &c, Lex Talionis. Wakefield, Sept. 23, 1870. [We can admit no further letters on this subject. Ed.N. E. M.~\