the Pope's
name had undergone so many changes as to make it appear that his
intentions had been thwarted. There was a supplement to the decree,
which the bishops had understood would be withdrawn, in order that the
festive concord and good feeling might not be disturbed. They were
informed at the last moment that it would be put to the vote, as its
withdrawal would be a confession of defeat for Rome. The supplement was
an admonition that the constitutions and decrees of the Holy See must be
observed even when they proscribe opinions not actually heretical.[392]
Extraordinary efforts were made in public and in private to prevent any
open expression of dissent from this paragraph. The Bishop of Brixen
assured his brethren, in the name of the Commission, that it did not
refer to questions of doctrine, and they could not dispute the general
principle that obedience is due to lawful authority. The converse
proposition, that the papal acts have no claim to be obeyed, was
obviously untenable. The decree was adopted unanimously. There were some
who gave their vote with a heavy heart, conscious of the snare.[393]
Strossmayer alone stayed away.

The opposition was at an end. Archbishop Manning afterwards reminded
them that by this vote they had implicitly accepted infallibility. They
had done even more. They might conceivably contrive to bind and limit
dogmatic infallibility with conditions so stringent as to evade many of
the objections taken from the examples of history; but, in requiring
submission to papal decrees on matters not articles of faith, they were
approving that of which they knew the character, they were confirming
without let or question a power they saw in daily exercise, they were
investing with new authority the existing Bulls, and giving unqualified
sanction to the Inquisition and the Index, to the murder of heretics and
the deposing of kings. They approved what they were called on to reform,
and solemnly blessed with their lips what their hearts knew to be
accursed. The Court of Rome became thenceforth reckless in its scorn of
the opposition, and proceeded in the belief that there was no protest
they would not forget, no principle they would not betray, rather than
defy the Pope in his wrath. It was at once determined to bring on the
discussion of the dogma of infallibility. At first, when the minority
knew that their prayers and their sacrifices had been vain, and that
they must rely on their own resources,