h's pale
are in the habit of thinking that she will make little if any advances
in our direction. The dream of a Pantheistic Rome seems so wild as
hardly to be entertained seriously; nevertheless I am much mistaken if I
do not detect at least one sign as though more were within the bounds of
possibility than even the most sanguine of us could have hoped for a few
years back. We do not expect the Church to go our whole length; it is
the business of some to act as pioneers, but this is the last function a
Church should assume. A Church should be as the fly-wheel of a
steam-engine, which conserves, regulates and distributes energy, but
does not originate it. In all cases it is more moral and safer to be a
little behind the age than a little in front of it; a Church, therefore,
ought to cling to an old-established belief, even though her leaders
know it to be unfounded, so long as any considerable number of her
members would be shocked at its abandonment. The question is whether
there are any signs as though the Church of Rome thought the time had
come when she might properly move a step forward, and I rejoice to
think, as I have said above, that at any rate one such sign--and a very
important one--has come under my notice.

In his Encyclical of August 4, 1879, the Pope desires the Bishops and
Clergy to restore the golden wisdom of St. Thomas Aquinas, and to spread
it far and wide. "Vos omnes," he writes, "Venerabiles Fratres, quam
enixe hortamur ut ad Catholicae fidei tutelam et decus, ad societatis
bonum, ad scientiarum omnium incrementum auream Sancti Thomae sapientiam
restituatis, et quam latissime propagetis." He proceeds then with the
following remarkable passage: "We say the wisdom of St. Thomas. For
whatever has been worked out with too much subtleness by the doctors of
the schools, or handed down inconsiderately, whatever is not consistent
with the teachings of a later age, or finally, is in any way NOT
PROBABLE, We in no wise intend to propose for acceptance in these
days."[386]

It would be almost possible to suppose that these words had been written
inadvertently, so the Pope practically repeats them thus: "We willingly
and gratefully declare that whatsoever can be excepted with advantage,
is to be excepted, no matter by whom it has been invented."[387]

The passage just quoted is so pregnant that a few words of comment may
be very well excused. In the first place, I cannot but admire the
latitude which the P