Manning

So, in the face of this contradiction between his maximalism and his dismay at the pope’s ruling, he had no choice but to adopt Newman’s more minimalist interpretation. “The Decree of Leo XIII was absolutely true, just, and useful,” Manning said in painful embarrassment. “But in the abstract. The condition of Ireland is abnormal. The Decree contemplates facts which do not exist....Pontiffs have no infallibility in the world of facts, except only dogmatic. The [rent strike] is not a dogmatic fact, and it is one thing to declare that all legal agreements are binding, and another to say that all agreements in Ireland are legal.”