l. Misunderstandings,
however, had now sprung up with Austria. The Austrian Reichsrath
had adopted laws introducing equality of civil rights for all the
inhabitants of the empire, and restricting the influence of the Church.
This produced on the part of the papal government an expostulation.
Acting as Russia had done, the Austrian Government found it necessary to
abrogate the Concordat of 1855.

In France, as above stated, the publication of the entire Syllabus was
not permitted; but Prussia, desirous of keeping on good terms with the
papacy, did not disallow it. The exacting disposition of the papacy
increased. It was openly declared that the faithful must now sacrifice
to the Church, property, life, and even their intellectual convictions.
The Protestants and the Greeks were invited to tender their submission.

THE VATICAN COUNCIL. On the appointed day, the Council opened. Its
objects were, to translate the Syllabus into practice, to establish the
dogma of papal infallibility, and define the relations of religion to
science. Every preparation had been made that the points determined on
should be carried. The bishops were informed that they were coming to
Rome not to deliberate, but to sanction decrees previously made by
an infallible pope. No idea was entertained of any such thing as
free discussion. The minutes of the meetings were not permitted to be
inspected; the prelates of the opposition were hardly allowed to speak.
On January 22, 1870, a petition, requesting that the infallibility of
the pope should be defined, was presented; an opposition petition of the
minority was offered. Hereupon, the deliberations of the minority were
forbidden, and their publications prohibited. And, though the Curia had
provided a compact majority, it was found expedient to issue an order
that to carry any proposition it was not necessary that the vote should
be near unanimity, a simple majority sufficed. The remonstrances of the
minority were altogether unheeded.

As the Council pressed forward to its object, foreign authorities
became alarmed at its reckless determination. A petition drawn up by the
Archbishop of Vienna, and signed by several cardinals and archbishops,
entreated his Holiness not to submit the dogma of infallibility for
consideration, "because the Church has to sustain at present a struggle
unknown in former times, against men who oppose religion itself as
an institution baneful to human nature, and that it is inop