not invited,
without making a violent demonstration in a direction they knew would
not be followed. The ultramontanes were even more eager than their
enemies to exclude an influence that might embarrass their policy. The
Archbishop of Paris, by giving the same advice, settled the question. He
probably reckoned on his own power of mediating between France and Rome.
The French Court long imagined that the dogma would be set aside, and
that the mass of the French bishops opposed it. At last they perceived
that they were mistaken, and the Emperor said to Cardinal Bonnechose,
"You are going to give your signature to decrees already made." He
ascertained the names of the bishops who would resist; and it was known
that he was anxious for their success. But he was resolved that it
should be gained by them, and not by the pressure of his diplomacy at
the cost of displeasing the Pope. The Minister of Foreign Affairs and
his chief secretary were counted by the Court of Rome among its friends;
and the ordinary ambassador started for his post with instructions to
conciliate, and to run no risk of a quarrel. He arrived at Rome
believing that there would be a speculative conflict between the
extremes of Roman and German theology, which would admit of being
reconciled by the safer and more sober wisdom of the French bishops,
backed by an impartial embassy. His credulity was an encumbrance to the
cause which it was his mission and his wish to serve.

In Germany the plan of penetrating the Council with lay influence took a
strange form. It was proposed that the German Catholics should be
represented by King John of Saxony. As a Catholic and a scholar, who had
shown, in his Commentary on Dante, that he had read St. Thomas, and as a
prince personally esteemed by the Pope, it was conceived that his
presence would be a salutary restraint. It was an impracticable idea;
but letters which reached Rome during the winter raised an impression
that the King regretted that he could not be there. The opinion of
Germany would still have some weight if the North and South, which
included more than thirteen millions of Catholics, worked together. It
was the policy of Hohenlohe to use this united force, and the
ultramontanes learned to regard him as a very formidable antagonist.
When their first great triumph, in the election of the Commission on
Doctrine, was accomplished, the commentary of a Roman prelate was, "Che
colpo per il Principe Hohenlohe!" The