ders for a probable
contingency; but he was soon followed by the Bishop of Nimes, who
thought the discussion of the dogma superfluous, and foreshadowed a vote
by acclamation. The _Civilta_ on the 6th of February gave utterance to
the hope that the Council would not hesitate to proclaim the dogma and
confirm the Syllabus in less than a month. Five days later the Pope
wrote to some Venetians who had taken a vow to uphold his infallibility,
encouraging their noble resolution to defend his supreme authority and
all his rights. Until the month of May Cardinal Antonelli's confidential
language to diplomatists was that the dogma was to be proclaimed, and
that it would encounter no difficulty.

Cardinal Reisach was to have been the President of the Council. As
Archbishop of Munich he had allowed himself and his diocese to be
governed by the ablest of all the ultramontane divines. During his long
residence in Rome he rose to high estimation, because he was reputed to
possess the secret, and to have discovered the vanity, of German
science. He had amused himself with Christian antiquities; and his
friendship for the great explorer De' Rossi brought him for a time under
suspicion of liberality. But later he became unrelenting in his ardour
for the objects of the _Civilta_, and regained the confidence of the
Pope. The German bishops complained that he betrayed their interests,
and that their church had suffered mischief from his paramount
influence. But in Rome his easy temper and affable manners made him
friends; and the Court knew that there was no cardinal on whom it was so
safe to rely.

Fessler, the first bishop who gave the signal of the intended
definition, was appointed Secretary. He was esteemed a learned man in
Austria, and he was wisely chosen to dispel the suspicion that the
conduct of the Council was to be jealously retained in Roman hands, and
to prove that there are qualities by which the confidence of the Court
could be won by men of a less favoured nation. Besides the President and
Secretary, the most conspicuous of the Pope's theological advisers was
a German. At the time when Passaglia's reputation was great in Rome,
his companion Clement Schrader shared the fame of his solid erudition.
When Passaglia fell into disgrace, his friend smote him with reproaches
and intimated the belief that he would follow the footsteps of Luther
and debauch a nun. Schrader is the most candid and consistent asserter
of the papal cl