eyes of the bishops and of the world the indispensable condition of
liberty and legality, would be inevitably rejected. To avert a public
scandal, and to save the honour of the Holy See, it was proposed that
some unopposed decrees should be proclaimed in solemn session, and the
Council immediately prorogued.

At the end of March a breach seemed unavoidable. The first part of the
dogmatic decree had come back from the Commission so profoundly altered
that it was generally accepted by the bishops, but with a crudely
expressed sentence in the preamble, which was intended to rebuke the
notion of the reunion of Protestant Churches. Several bishops looked
upon this passage as an uncalled-for insult to Protestants, and wished
it changed; but there was danger that if they then joined in voting the
decree they would commit themselves to the lawfulness of the Regulation
against which they had protested. On the 22nd of March Strossmayer
raised both questions. He said that it was neither just nor charitable
to impute the progress of religious error to the Protestants. The germ
of modern unbelief existed among the Catholics before the Reformation,
and afterwards bore its worst fruits in Catholic countries. Many of the
ablest defenders of Christian truth were Protestants, and the day of
reconciliation would have come already but for the violence and
uncharitableness of the Catholics. These words were greeted with
execrations, and the remainder of the speech was delivered in the midst
of a furious tumult. At length, when Strossmayer declared that the
Council had forfeited its authority by the rule which abolished the
necessity of unanimity, the Presidents and the multitude refused to let
him go on.[390] On the following day he drew up a protest, declaring
that he could not acknowledge the validity of the Council if dogmas were
to be decided by a majority,[391] and sent it to the Presidents after it
had been approved at the meeting of the Germans, and by bishops of other
nations. The preamble was withdrawn, and another was inserted in its
place, which had been written in great haste by the German Jesuit
Kleutgen, and was received with general applause. Several of the Jesuits
obtained credit for the ability and moderation with which the decree was
drawn up. It was no less than a victory over extreme counsels. A
unanimous vote was insured for the public session of 24th April; and
harmony was restored. But the text proposed originally in