The history of the popes, from the close of the middle ages : drawn ...

296 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
It was remarkable that the only German bishop who was
present, Leonhard Haller, of Eichstatt, pronounced against
the chalice for the laity ; his colleague, Rettinger, Bishop
of Lavant, had left Trent in order to avoid coming to a decision.
All the opponents of the concession, however, insisted on the
fact that it was in the power of the Church to allow the recep-
tion of Communion under both kinds. When Abbot Riccardo
of Vercelli remarked that the request for the chalice had a
taint of heresy, the presiding legate reproved him and bade
him be silent.^
James Lainez, the General of the Jesuits, spoke on September
6th, as the last and most impressive of the speakers.
He elucidated the whole question from every point of view,
in an objective manner, treating it calmly, clearly, and with
scholastic acumen. He expressly pointed out that it was
merely a question of the practical appropriateness of the
concession, and that neither the judgment of the Council nor
the infallibility of the Pope were affected. His own view was
that it was not salutary to allow the chalice to the laity, either
generally or locally ;2 past experience had shown this, since,
when the Council of Basle and Paul 11. had allowed it, the
apostasy from the Church had not only not been prevented,
but even increased. Although the majority of the fathers
agreed with Lainez, a middle course was eventually adopted,
and the decision of the whole matter was left to the Pope.^
^ See Pallavicini, 18, 4. Cf. Ehses in the Abhandlungen
der Gorres-Gesellschaft, Jahresbericht, 1917, p. 44 (Cologne, 1918).
2 Cf. Grisar, Lainez und die Frage des Laienkelches, in the
Zeitschrift fiir kath. Theol., V. (1881) 672 seqq. ; VI. (1882)
39 seqq. ; Disput., II., 24 seqq. Grisar also gives particulars of
the other activities of Lainez at Trent. The General of the
Jesuits had arrived in the city of the Council on August 14 ;
he showed the utmost modesty with regard to the place he was to
occupy. See Bondonus, 561 seq. ; Boero, Lainez, 254 ; Canisii
Epist., III., 472, 531 ; Susta, II., 319, 334. All the discussions
about the chalice for the laity from August 27 to September 6,
1562, with many of the original votes are in Ehses, VIII., 788-909.
^ See the report of the legates of September 16, 1562, in Susta,
II.> 363-