"Unless all the thoughts and devices (cogitationes et consilia) of men, and specially of men of study (literis addictorum), adhere immovably in the case of all Apostolical determinations without exception (in omnibus omnino determinationibus Apostolicis) to the firmness of that rock on which the Lord hath built the foundations of the Church, it is quite incredible into how many and great follies and insanities the activity (curiositas) of man's intellect is carried along a trackless way; and that the more, in proportion to the excellence of its strength and perspicacity."

So Pius IX., when repeating his condemnation of Günther, says :—

"The original censure of that philosopher's works by the Congregation of the Index, sanctioned as it was by our authority and published by our command, ought to have been amply sufficient, in order that the whole question should be regarded as having received its final decision (penitùs dirempta censeretur); and that all who glory in the Catholic name should clearly and distinctly understand, that obedience was altogether due, and that the doctrine contained in Günther's books might not be esteemed sound (sinceram haberi non posse)."

And at a later period he states, as a reductio ad absurdum of some proposition which he censures, that to uphold it would be to imply that his condemnation of Günther had been erroneous. Then again, so lately as December 19, 1861, in addressing the Archbishop of Malines on some philosophical controversies, connected with traditionalism, which had caused much excitement, he uses these words :

"Wherefore, expressing no opinion whatever on the merit of those doctrines which have excited the present controversy, and of which the definitive examination and judgment belong absolutely (unicè) to this Apostolic See, we will and command that, until this Holy See shall have thought fit to express a definitive judgment on this teaching, both their favourers and their impugners shall abstain from professing and defending any one of those philosophical and theological doctrines, as that which is the one doctrine, the true doctrine, the doctrine alone to be admitted and characteristic of the Catholic University (veluti unicam veram, et solam admittendam, ac veluti Catholicæ universitatis propriam)."

Here he undeniably implies, that whenever the Holy See should "express a definitive judgment on this teaching," the doctrine so determined will rightly be upholden, as that which is the one doctrine, the true doctrine, the doctrine alone to be admitted.

The strongest testimony, however, is yet to come. F. Knox (p. 52) quotes the following judgment of Pius IX. :

All philosophers who wish to be sons of the Church, and philosophy itself likewise, are bound in duty never to say anything contrary to the Church's teaching, and to retract those things about which she may have admonished

them. Moreover, We decree and declare that the opinion which teaches the contrary to this is altogether erroneous and in the highest degree insulting to the faith of the Church and her authority.

To this we may add, that the Roman Congregations have pronounced again and again on the very philosophies to which this writer refers; viz., the ontologistic and psychologistic. And this circumstance proves to demonstration, that in the Holy Father's judgment they are really connected with the Deposit. As to the theologians whom we quoted, he desires to see their text; we will add therefore a quotation from F. Schrader, who is certainly no mean authority.

What follows from the preceding facts? This, that in the whole range of human sciences, there is hardly one which is not bound up within the Supreme Pastor's magisterium. Bound up with the Church's Supreme Pastor and teacher of salvation is the whole of man-the whole of humanity [supernaturally] elevated. To humanity appertains the encyclopedia of sciences. This encyclopedia (so far as regards its connection with the Divine order), is moderated and tempered by his supreme magisterium; the Christian cultivator of science exercises himself therein with due regard to that connection, having to be taught and guided to life eternal by that Supreme Pastor; and therefore in the cultivation of sciences he permits himself nothing—whether as regards their object and matter, or their method and form,-which is opposed to the Supreme Pastor's express judgment, to his guidance, to his approval (nutibus).

The encyclopedia of sciences thus cultivated constitutes the Catholic university of sciences; and this was the idea, nay, the reality, of the ancient universities which once existed; and which therefore neither can nor ought to exist or even be thought of, without the Roman Pontiff's magisterium and action (p. 382).

Having now gone through our general range of subjects, we will proceed to contemplate the whole matter from a wider point of view. The infallibility possessed by the Church of this day comes down lineally from that possessed by the Church of the Apostles. When any man was converted by the Apostles, he believed, of course, in the infallibility of the then Church. But in what respect did he contemplate her as infallible? Was it chiefly-was it at all-in her definitions of faith? At all events not chiefly; at all events he chiefly contemplated her as infallible in her magisterium. For what is the ordinary and normal mode in which Christians were always to learn the Faith? F. Knox replies in his pamphlet with such singular force and clearness of language, that we are sure our readers will be grateful to us for giving them several extracts. We will only premise, that what he says con

cerning the Church of every succeeding age, was pre-eminently verified in the Church of the Apostles.

The ordinary and regular mode by which the Church labours to imbue her children with the faith consists principally in a direct and personal action exerted upon them one by one. To effect this, she possesses in her clergy a numerous and organized band of teachers, through whom she is able to reach and come into contact with each individual member of her flock, and thus to learn and supply the spiritual wants of each. By this means none of her children are left without a pastor whose duty it is to know his sheep personally, to watch over their well-being, and to feed them individually with the pasture of Catholic doctrine. In every parish the Church has established schools for the young, and she fails not to superintend with unceasing care the teaching which is imparted in them. She provides for the ordinary education of her clergy in seminaries specially destined for that object, and while she has always encouraged her children to a deeper and more scientific pursuit of truth in the universities of which she was the foundress or the foster-mother, she has never ceased to superintend with jealous eye the studies pursued in them, and to banish from them every doctrine and method which was not in perfect harmony with revealed truth. But besides this direct action which the Church exercises upon the flock-her ritual and liturgy, the fasts and festivals as they recur, processions, images, shrines, special devotions public and private, the disciplinary laws which regulate her organization, her monastic and charitable institutions-these and a multitude of other things of like nature, conduce powerfully though indirectly to the same end, since they serve to bring home to the faithful and so to teach them the truths of faith which they embody, and on which they rest. They are in fact a kind of incarnation of the faith; and when interpreted by the voice of the living teacher, produce a most powerful and abiding impression on those who live within their influence. This method of imparting the faith to Christians, partly direct and partly indirect, is what is called in technical language the Church's ordinary magisterium.

Next observe what follows.

But it may be asked what security have we that this vast body of teachers, none of whom are personally infallible, will transmit the faith to their disciples in its original purity, and not teach falsehood instead of truth? How does the Church's infallibility come in here to guarantee their teaching from all error? The security we seek lies in the position of entire dependence which the inferior clergy occupy towards the bishops in whose dioceses they live and teach. It is from his bishop that each one of them receives his mission to teach, according to the Apostle's words, "How shall they preach unless they are sent ?" (Rom. xv. 10.) It is under his bishop's eye that he teaches; and it is to his bishop that he is responsible for all he teaches. No supervision could be imagined more effective and no subordination more complete. Thus the bishops are the guarantees of the orthodoxy of their clergy's teaching. And with regard to the bishops themselves we have a

double security. First, in the principles of hierarchical subordination; for as the clergy depend on the bishop, so the bishop depends on the Pope; and as it is the bishop's right and duty to silence any of his clergy whose teaching is unsound, so it is the Pope's right and duty to impose silence upon a heretical bishop, and to take from him the portion of the flock which had been entrusted to him. Secondly, in the certainty which the promised assistance of the Holy Ghost gives us, that the Ecclesia Docens-i. e., the whole Episcopate in union with the Pope,-cannot err in the Faith, nor suffer even a temporary suspension of its teaching functions. What more effectual guarantee can be desired for the practical infallibility of the body of teachers through whose agency the Church imbues her children with the faith?

A convert, then, from Judaism or heathenism to Christianity, by the very fact of his conversion, regarded the Apostles as his infallible guides to Heaven; and regarded also the local superiors under whom he was placed, as trustworthy and unexceptionable witnesses to what the Apostles taught. What were the means given him by God for learning the dogmata of that religion, which he had happily embraced? He obtained this important knowledge by repeated acts of intellectual captivity; by humbly submitting his intellect to the doctrinal instruction given by the authorized superiors of his local Church; by regulating his interior life according to the rules and counsels placed before him; by uniting himself heartily with the spirit of that large practical and devotional system which surrounded him; in one word, by unreservedly surrendering himself to the new moral and spiritual atmosphere which he had begun to breathe. And his security against

It may

being led astray by all this, was the gift of infallibility which the Apostles had received, and by the light of which they directed their various local societies. The Church's infallibility doubtless was his one prominent thought, whenever he reflected on the instruction he was receiving. But what infallibility? The infallibility of her magisterium. Now what is meant by a definition of faith? be described, we suppose, with sufficient precision, if we say that it is a formula, prescribed by the Church's supreme authority, for the purpose of expressing with faultless accuracy some dogma taught by the Apostles; a formula which Catholics are thenceforward to use, as the one authoritative expression of that dogma; and by means of which, those intellectually competent to the task are to test the correctness and adequacy of their own dogmatic apprehension. Definitions of faith then, to say the least, did not occupy a very prominent place in the Apostles' history. In their time purity of dogma was assailed in various different ways; and doubtless there

are various precise dogmatic expressions in the New Testament, which were introduced for the very purpose of repelling those assaults. Still we shall hardly find in their time what we now call definitions of faith.* They once indeed held a solemn Council; but the formula which it issued was disciplinary and not dogmatic.† And assuredly when their disciples dwelt in mind on the Church's infallibility, it was on the infallibility of her magisterium and hardly in any sense of her definitions.‡

As it was with the Church of the Apostles, so also with the Church of the immediately succeeding period. A Catholic regarded the bishops, acting in union with the Holy See, as his infallible guides to Heaven; § and he regarded the local superiors, under whom he was placed, as trustworthy and unexceptionable witnesses of what Pope and bishops taught. In this, as in the Apostolic age, he learned the dogmata of his religion more and more fully, by surrendering himself more and more unreservedly to the Church's elevating and supernaturalising influence. The infallibility which he mainly contemplated was not the infallibility of her definitions, for such hardly existed; but generally of her magisterium.

We are of course the very last to deny, that under the circumstances of a later period, a large increase in definitions of faith became not only most important, but even essential. Here, again, we shall avail ourselves of F. Knox's admirable exposition.

The first and ordinary way in which the Church seeks to expel pernicious doctrine from the fold, is by impressing more earnestly than usual upon her children in her every-day teaching the doctrines of the Faith which have been specially impugned. And the deeper the Faith is rooted in their hearts, and the more completely they are possessed and animated by its principles, the more easy is it for the Church thus to nip error in the bud, and to cast forth the poison before it has had time to do much injury to the flock. It was in

*The Apostles' Creed-waiving all questions concerning its date-can hardly count as a "definition of faith." On the one hand, its wording differed considerably in different portions of the Church; on the other hand its aim was to give a general summary of dogma, not to express some particular dogma with accuracy and precision.

See the remarks in our last number, pp. 19-21.

If then, as some unsound Catholics singularly think, the Church's infallibility were confined to her definitions of faith, the Church of the Apostles, and of the immediately succeeding period, hardly possessed infallibility at all.

§ Some Catholics have a vague notion that the Church of the Apostles was infallible in some different sense from the Church of any subsequent period, because of Apostolic inspiration. We argued against this mistake last January (pp. 96-100).