etiam oecumenicorum, et agendi et loquendi ratione docet, Romani Pontificis iudicia de fidei morumque doctrina irreformabilia esse.

Consentientibus Graecis et Latinis, in Concilio II Lugdunensi admissa professio fidei est, in qua declaratur: "Subortas de fide controversias debere Romani Pontificis iudicio definiri." In Florentina itidem oecumenica Synodo definitum est: "Romanum Pontificem esse verum Christi Vicarium, totiusque Ecclesiae caput, et omnium christianorum patrem et doctorem ; et ipsi in beato Petro pascendi, regendi ac gubernandi universalem Ecclesiam a Domino nostro Iesu Christo plenam potestatem traditam esse." Ipsa quoque sana ratio docet, neminem stare posse in fidei communione cum Ecclesia catholica, qui eius capiti non consentiat, quum ne cogitatione quidem Ecclesiam a suo capite separare liceat.

Attamen fuerunt atque adhucdum sunt, qui, catholicorum nomine gloriantes, eoque etiam ad infirmorum in fide perniciem abutentes, docere praesumant, eam sufficere submissionom erga Romani Pontificis auctoritatem, qua eius de fide moribusque decreta obsequioso, ut aiunt, silentio, sine interno mentis assensu, vel provisorie tantum, usquedum de Ecclesiae assensu vel dissensu constiterit, suscipiantur.

Hacce porro perversa doctrina Romani Pontificis auc toritatem subverti, fidei unitatem dissipari, erroribus campum amplissimum aperiri, tempusque late serpendi tribui, nemo, non videt.

Quare Episcopi, catholicae veritatis custodes et vindices, his potissimum temporibus connisi sunt, ut supremam Apostolicae Sedis docendi auctoritatem synodalibus praesertim decretis et communibus testimoniis tuerentur.*

Quo evidentius vero catholica veritas praedicabutur, eo

* 1. Concilium provinciale Coloniense, anno 1860 celebratum, cui, praeter eminentissimum Cardinalera et Archiepiscopum Coloniensem, Ioannem de Geissel, quinque subscriperunt Episcopi, diserte docet: "Ipse

vehementius, tam libellis quam ephemeridibus, nuperrime impugnata est, ut catholicus populus contra sanam doctrinam commoveretur, ipsaque Vaticana Synodus ab ea procla manda absterreretur.

Quare, si antea de opportunitate istius doctrinae in hoc Oecumenico Concilio pronuntiandae a pluribus dubitari adhuc potuit, nunc eam definire necessarium prorsus videtur. Catholica enim doctrina iisdem plane argumentis denuo impetitur, quibus olim homines, proprio iudicio condemnati, adversus eam utebantur; quibus, si urgeantur, ipse Romani Pontificis primatus, Ecclesiaeque infallibilitas pessumdatur; et quibus saepe deterrima convicia contra Apostolicam Sedem admiscentur. Immo acerbissimi catholicae doctrinae impugnatores, licet catholicos se dicant, (Romanus Pontifex) est omnium Christianorum pater et doctor, cuius in fidei quaestionibus per se irreformabile est iudicium."

Episcopi in Concilio provinciali Ultraiectensi anno 1865 congregati apertissime edicunt: "(Romani Pontificis) iudicium in iis, quae ad fidem moresque spectant, infallibile esse, indubitanter retinemus."

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3. Concilium provinciale Colocense, anno 1860 celebratum, haec statuit: "Quemadmodum Petrus erat . . . doctrinae fidei magister irrefragabilis, pro quo ipse Dominus rogavit, ut non deficeret fides eius .; pari modo legitimi eius in cathedrae Romanae culmine successores positum fidei summo et irrefragabili oraculo custodiunt positiones cleri gallicani anno 1682 editas, quas iam piae memoriae Geor gius Archiepiscopus Strigoniensis una cum ceteris Hungariae Praesulibus eodem adhuc anno publice proscripsit, itidem reiicimus, proscribimus, atque cunctis Provinciae huius fidelibus interdicimus, ne eas legere vel tenere, multo minus docere auderent."

4. Concilium plenarium Baltimorense, anno 1866 coactum, in decretis, quibus 44 Archiepiscopi et Episcopi subscripserunt, inter ali a haec docet: "Viva et infallibilis auctoritas in ea tantum viget Ecclesia, quae a Christo Domino supra Petrum, totius Ecclesiae caput, principem et pastorem, cuius fidem nunquam defecturam promisit, aedificata, suos legitimos semper habet Pontifices, sine intermissione ab ipso Petro ducentes originem, in eius cathedra collocatos, et eiusdem etiam doctrinae, dignitatis, honoris et potestatis haeredes et vindices. Et quoniam ubi Petrus, ibi Ecclesia, ac Petrus per Romanum Pontificem loquitur et semper in suis successoribus vivit et iudicium exercet, ac praestat quaerentibus fidei veritatem; idcirco divina eloquia eo plane sensu sunt accipienda, quae tenuit ac tenet haec Romana beatissimi Petri cathedra, quae omnium Ecclesiarum mater et magistra, fidem a Christo Domino traditam integram inviolatamque

This is not the spirit of the Apostle, who in the excess of charity declared that he could desire "to be anathema from Christ " for his brethren according to the flesh, and yet, for the love of souls could say, "I would they were even cut off, who trouble you; "* because the purity of the faith is vital to the salvation of souls, and the salvation of the flock must be preferred to the salvation of a few.

I will touch but one other topic, and then make an end. The same prophets who foretold disastrous consequences from the definition, are now foretelling the downfall of the Temporal Power. Day by day, we hear and read contemptuous censures of the obstinacy of Pius the Ninth, who has ruined himself by his Non possumus, and sealed his downfall by the definition of his own infallibility. I do not hesitate to say, that if what is now happening had been caused by the definition, which is not the fact, yet any external trials would be better than an internal conflict arising from a contradiction of revealed truth. Gold may be bought too dear; but truth cannot.

Perhaps we ought not to wonder that the Protestant and anti-Catholic world should persist in declaring that Rome, by the definition of the Infallibility, has altered its relations to the world; or, as I have lately read, "disgusted all the civil governments of Europe." They do not know, or are willingly ignorant, that the doctrine of the Infallibility was as much the doctrine of the Church before as after the definition. The definition only declares

* Gal. v. 12.

it to be revealed by God. The relations of Rome to the Civil Powers are therefore precisely what they were before. If the Civil Powers 'are disgusted, it is only because the Ecumenical Council declined to swerve from its duty in compliance to their dictation; or because they can no longer affect to disbelieve that the Infallibility of the Roman Pontiff is the true and traditional doctrine of the Catholic Church. We are called superstitious, because we do not believe in the downfall of the Temporal Power; and obstinate, because we will not recognize the right of Italy to invade the Patrimony of the Church. Our superstition consists in this. In the history of the Church the Temporal Power has been suppressed, as the phrase is, over and over again. The first Napoleon suppressed it twice. The Triumvirate suppressed it in 1848. There is nothing new under the sun. The thing that has been, is the thing that shall be. We do not believe in the perpetuity of anything but the Church; nor in the finality of anything but justice. Sacrilege carries the seeds of its own dissolution. A robbery so unjust cannot endure. When or how it shall be chastised we know not; but the day of reckoning is not less sure for that. Of one thing there can be no doubt: the nations which have conspired to dethrone the Vicar of Christ will, for that sin, be scourged. They will, moreover, scourge one another and themselves. The people that has the chief share in the sin, will have the heaviest share in the punishment. We are therefore in no way moved. If it be God's will that His Church should suffer persecution, it will be thereby purified; but the persecutors will fall one by one.

Rome has seen the map of Europe made over and over again; but Rome remains changeless. It will see out the present dynasties of conquered and conqueror; suffering, it may be, but indefectible.

I have already said, that the definition was made on the eighteenth of July, and war on the nineteenth. Since that date, a crowd of events have hurried to their fulfillment. The French Empire has passed away. Rome is occupied by the armies of Italy. The peace of Europe is broken; never again, it may be, to be restored, till the scourges of war have gone their circuit among the nations. A period of storm has set in, and the rising waters of a flood may be seen approaching. If a time of trial for the Church is at hand, a time of ruin and desolation to all countries in Europe will come with it. The Church may suffer, but cannot die; the dynasties and civil societies of Europe may not only suffer, but be swept away. The Head of the Church, be he where he may, in Rome or in exile, free or in bondage, will be all that the Council of the Vatican has defined, supreme in jurisdiction, infallible in faith. Go where he may, the faithful throughout the world will see in him the likeness of His Divine Master, both in authority and in doctrine. The Council has thus made provision for the Church in its time of trial, when, it may be, not only Ecumenical Councils cannot be held, but even the ordinary administration of ecclesiastical government and consultation may be hardly possible.

Peter's bark is ready for the storm. All that is needful is already on board. Past ages were wild