ulse came from men who were
as independent as the chiefs of the opposition. The great Petition,
supported by others pointing to the same end, was kept back for several
weeks, and was presented at the end of January.

At that time the opposition had attained its full strength, and
presented a counter-petition, praying that the question might not be
introduced. It was written by Cardinal Rauscher, and was signed, with
variations, by 137 bishops. To obtain that number the address avoided
the doctrine itself, and spoke only of the difficulty and danger in
defining it; so that this, their most imposing act, was a confession of
inherent weakness, and a signal to the majority that they might force on
the dogmatic discussion. The bishops stood on the negative. They showed
no sense of their mission to renovate Catholicism; and it seemed that
they would compound for the concession they wanted, by yielding in all
other matters, even those which would be a practical substitute for
infallibility. That this was not to be, that the forces needed for a
great revival were really present, was made manifest by the speech of
Strossmayer on the 24th of January, when he demanded the reformation of
the Court of Rome, decentralisation in the government of the Church, and
decennial Councils. That earnest spirit did not animate the bulk of the
party. They were content to leave things as they were, to gain nothing
if they lost nothing, to renounce all premature striving for reform if
they could succeed in avoiding a doctrine which they were as unwilling
to discuss as to define. The words of Ginoulhiac to Strossmayer, "You
terrify me with your pitiless logic," expressed the inmost feelings of
many who gloried in the grace and the splendour of his eloquence. No
words were too strong for them if they prevented the necessity of
action, and spared the bishops the distressing prospect of being brought
to bay, and having to resist openly the wishes and the claims of Rome.

Infallibility never ceased to overshadow every step of the Council,[388]
but it had already given birth to a deeper question. The Church had less
to fear from the violence of the majority than from the inertness of
their opponents. No proclamation of false doctrines could be so great a
disaster as the weakness of faith which would prove that the power of
recovery, the vital force of Catholicism, was extinct in the episcopate.
It was better to be overcome after openly attesting their b