fall into such
various forms of religion, except that there are various types of mind
among them, very distinct from each other? From my testimony then about
myself, if you believe it, judge of others also who are Catholics: we do
not find the difficulties which you do in the doctrines which we hold;
we have no intellectual difficulty in that doctrine in particular, which
you call a novelty of this day. We priests need not be hypocrites,
though we be called upon to believe in the Immaculate Conception. To
that large class of minds, who believe in Christianity after our
manner,--in the particular temper, spirit, and light, (whatever word is
used,) in which Catholics believe it,--there is no burden at all in
holding that the Blessed Virgin was conceived without original sin;
indeed, it is a simple fact to say, that Catholics have not come to
believe it because it is defined, but that it was defined because they
believed it.

So far from the definition in 1854 being a tyrannical infliction on the
Catholic world, it was received every where on its promulgation with the
greatest enthusiasm. It was in consequence of the unanimous petition,
presented from all parts of the Church to the Holy See, in behalf of an
_ex cathedra_ declaration that the doctrine was Apostolic, that it was
declared so to be. I never heard of one Catholic having difficulties in
receiving the doctrine, whose faith on other grounds was not already
suspicious. Of course there were grave and good men, who were made
anxious by the doubt whether it could be formally proved to be
Apostolical either by Scripture or tradition, and who accordingly,
though believing it themselves, did not see how it could be defined by
authority and imposed upon all Catholics as a matter of faith; but this
is another matter. The point in question is, whether the doctrine is a
burden. I believe it to be none. So far from it being so, I sincerely
think that St. Bernard and St. Thomas, who scrupled at it in their day,
had they lived into this, would have rejoiced to accept it for its own
sake. Their difficulty, as I view it, consisted in matters of words,
ideas, and arguments. They thought the doctrine inconsistent with other
doctrines; and those who defended it in that age had not that precision
in their view of it, which has been attained by means of the long
disputes of the centuries which followed. And in this want of precision
lay the difference of opinion, and the controversy.