dilecte fili, nonnullos esse inter catholicos, qui dum hoc nomine gloriantur, vitiatis penitus imbuti principiis adeo præfracte istis adhærent, ut non modo plane subjicere nesciant intellectum adverso hujus sanctæ Sedis judicio, communi etiam Episcoporum assensu et commendatione roborato; sed imo censentes societatis humanæ progressum et felicitatem illis omnino niti, Ecclesiam inclinare conentur ad sententiam snam, seque solum sapere arbitrati reliquam omnem catholicorum familiam aliter sentientem ultramontanæ partis nomine designare non erubescant.

Quam quidem insaniam eo compellunt, ut divinam ipsam Ecclesiæ constitutionem refingere aggrediantur et exigere ad recentiores civilis regiminis modos; quo supremi Rectoris ei a Christo præpositi facilius deprimant auctoritatem, cujus prærogativas expavescunt. Quamobrem prerniciosas quasdam doctrinas sæpius improbatas audacter in medium proferunt, uti indubias aut saltem plane liberas; corradunt e veteribus earum propugnatoribus captiunculas historicas, mutila scriptorum testimonia, calumnias Romanis Pontificibus affectas, sophismata quævis; eaque omnia, sepositis omnino solidis argumentis quibus centies explosa sunt, impudentissimi regerunt eo spectantes, ut animos commoveant, suæque factionis homines et imperitorum vulgus adversus communem cæterorum sententiam incitent.

Quo sane incepto, præter damnum invectæ perturbationis fidelium et detractarum ad trivia gravissimarum quæstionum, insipientiam audaciæ, parem deplorare cogimur. Nam si firmiter cum cæteris catholicis tenerent Ecumenicam Synodum a Spiritu Sancto regi, soloque Ejus afflatu definire ac proponere quæ credenda sunt, nunquam in animum inducerent, vel ea definiri posse uti de fide quæ revelata revera non sunt aut obsint Ecclesiæ, vel humanas artes impedimento esse posse Spiritus Sancti virtuti, quominus ea quæ revelata sunt et Ecclesiæ utilia definiantur.

Vetitum certe non ducerent, eâ qua decet ratione proponi Patribus 'difficultates quas huic aut illi definitioni obstare arbitrantur, ut lucidior e disceptatione veritas emergeret; at uno hujus acti studio, prorsus abstinerent ab artibus quibus captari solent in comitiis populi suffragia, tranquillique et reverentes expectarent supernæ illustrationis effectum. Utilissimam igitur operam Ecclesiæ te impendisse censuimus, qui præcipua ex ejusmodi scriptis refellenda suscepisti, eorumque simultatem, violentiam et artes eâ soliditate demonstrasti, eo nitore, eâ sacræ archæologiæ scientiæque ecclesiastica copiâ, ut, plurima paucis complexus, præstigium omne sapientiæ abjudicaveris iis qui sententias involvebant sermonibus imperitis; restitutâque veritate fidei, juris, et historiæ, cultis indoctisque fidelibus consulueris. Pergratum itaque tibi ob oblatum volumen profitemur animum; exitumque faustum et amplissimum ominamur lucubrationi tuæ. Ejus vero auspicem et paternæ nostræ benevolentiæ pignus Apostolicam Benedictionem tibi peramanter impertimus Datum Romæ apud S. Petrum die 12 martii 1870, Pontificatus Nostri Anno XXIV.

PIUS PP. IX.

Some translations of this Letter have omitted the words "uti de fide," and thereby materially affected the meaning of the sentence. [ED. D.R.]

Notices of Books.

When does the Church speak Infallibly? By THOMAS FRANCIS Knox, of 1867.

the Oratory.

Del Magistero Infallibile della Chiesa. Opuscolo di TOMMASO FRANCISCO KNOX, dell' Oratorio, tradotto dall' inglese. 1870.

WE

E have read with extreme pleasure the criticism on F. Knox's admirable pamphlet, which appeared in February in the "Civiltà.' We cannot do better than place the whole before our readers :

"We have only just received this little book, which treats of a subject of present interest; but we will not delay noticing it. The best way to give an account of this excellent work will be to insert at full length the introduction to the translation.

"To the reader.-Now that the Council has excited such a lively and pressing interest in the fundamental doctrine of Infallibility, we want a good treatise, learned and yet popular, short and yet full, on the whole question a book of this kind ought to be written, and, if well done, translated into different languages, and widely circulated. But who is to write it for the task is harder than at first sight appears. Such was the opinion recently expressed in conversation by several pious and learned ecclesiastics. But, interposed one of them, the book already exists, at least in English. It was written by F. Knox, three years ago, when Superior of the London Oratory, at the time when the controversy about infallibility was at its height; and it was very successful. Dr. Murray, of the College of Maynooth in Ireland, had handled the subject scholastically in his great treatise de Ecclesiâ. Dr. Ward had discussed it with greater fulness controversially in the DUBLIN REVIEW. F. Knox, availing himself of their labours, followed a simpler method; and, avoiding all scholastic and controversial expressions, produced a work, at once learned and popular, brief yet full; the very quintessence, so to speak, of doctrinal exposition. His little book, so well suited at the time to England, has come to be of general interest at the present moment. This then is the work to translate;F. Knox's work. These learned ecclesiastics did not take long to run through the treatise, and soon came to an unanimous agreement that it was the very thing they wanted. Why write another book? they said. Herein are treated the "subject" of infallibity, viz., the episcopate under the Pope and the Pope; the "object" of infallibility, both primary and secondary, in all its branches; the various ways in which the infallible teaching is communicated; the nature of its definitions and condemnations; and the obligation which it imposes. What more is needed? Everything is in this book, and all is well done. Not of course that this is the only good book on the subject; for the Council has led to the publication of other very good VOL. XIV.—NO. XXVIII. [New Series.] 2 N

books. Still this is first-rate in itself, and is on the whole the best we could choose. Something perhaps might be added to it, and something pruned away; but it is better to leave it as it is. It does not say much on the great question, which has just sprung up, about the Pope's infallibility, and still less about the opportuneness of its definition; for when it was written, the "object" of Infallibility was more discussed than its "subject." However, under the general head of the infallibility of the Church it says enough of the infallibility of the Pope. Besides there is an advantage in the circumstance that this treatise was written before the present discussion began; for what is now wanted is not a controversial but a doctrinal work, quite free from polemical tinge, and assailing no one. Enough. The book wanted is found. The translation is ready. To press then with it. Now you know, good reader, how and why the translation of this treatise has made its appearance. Read it, and you will be satisfied, we hope, that we were right.'

"Thus far the preface:-To show what our own opinion is, we will only state a fact. When F. Knox's little book first appeared, we were so much pleased with it, that we intended not merely to review it, but to give an epitome of it in our pages, as we did with Mgr. Manning's Letter on the Centenary; and nothing but extrinsic reasons made us lay aside or rather defer our purpose, and wait for the translation. As it is, we rejoice that it has been translated just now, at a conjuncture when its publication is so much more opportune. Let this suffice in praise of the book. We will only add, in praise of the translator, that he has done his part so well, that it reads more like an original than a translation."

F. Knox's pamphlet has also been noticed in a very silly article in the current "Quarterly Review." When we formerly reviewed it, we were at the height of our controversy with F. Ryder, and we considered the pamphlet almost exclusively in its relation to that controversy. We will now give a general analysis of its contents.

The author begins (pp. 1-7) with explaining the singular blessedness which Catholics derive from the Church's infallibility. Adam indeed, in his original state, was intrinsically incapable of forming any erroneous judgment. But the freedom from error enjoyed by Catholics flows from extrinsic not intrinsic causes, being based on the Church's infallibility; so that mankind possesses the liberty, which multitudes indeed disastrously exercise, of rejecting God's gift and plunging headlong into error. Catholics are better advised; and are preserved accordingly from intellectual delusions, not indeed on all matters whatsoever, but on those many and most momentous of all whereon the Church has spoken. F. Knox's first inquiry then is, whose utterance is to be accounted the Church's speaking; "in what person or persons does her gift of infallibility reside?" (p. 8.)

Look first at the Apostles themselves (pp. 10-13). S. Peter is set forth in Scripture as having received special promises individually, and an office in which others do not share; while on two occasions authority is given to all the Apostles, including S. Peter. Still "the powers they received in common with Peter could not undo the exceptional powers which Peter alone had received" (p. 12). "Peter's jurisdiction," therefore," was personal and independent of his fellow Apostles; while theirs was collegiate under him, and, as regards their individual exercise of it, wholly dependent upon him" (ib.).

But "what became of these two centres,"-it might be more apt perhaps to say "organs "-" of jurisdiction when the Apostles died?" (p. 13). "The individual Apostles, with the exception of Peter, left no one to succeed them; but, as the Apostolic College, in their corporate capacity," the bishops, teaching and governing in union with the successors of S. Peter, are in every age successors of the Apostles.

The following passage is admirably expressed, and of profound interest at the present moment.

"It is an article of the Catholic faith that the bishops of the Universal Church, under the Pope, are infallible in their pronouncements, when they speak as teachers of the faith to the flock of Christ. It matters not whether they teach collectively as they do when they are assembled in Ecumenical Council, or whether they address individually the several portions of the flock intrusted to each. What they all teach in either way is infallibly the truth, provided always that their teaching is in strict conformity with the teaching of the Sovereign Pontiff, their head. Pertinaciously to deny this would be to incur the guilt of heresy, and to forfeit the hope and name of Christian. It is not, however, of faith that the Pope alone is infallible; that is to say, it does not involve the sin of heresy to deny the personal infallibility of the Pope. For the doctrine of the Papal infallibility has not as yet been formally declared by the Church to be a dogma of the faith and contained in the revealed deposit. But there are many truths of which we may be certain, though we cannot have the highest kind of certainty concerning them, that of Divine faith. And again, there are doctrines which the Church, for prudential reasons, may not have seen fit to brand by a distinct sentence as erroneous, but about which she has so clearly manifested her mind that she cannot be said to regard them even as tolerated.* Such a one, as we shall now show, is the opinion denying the Pope's personal infallibility" (pp. 15, 16).

F. Knox proceeds to illustrate this statement by an historical account of the Gallican articles (pp. 19, 20). In particular (p. 20) he draws attention to the very important fact, that those of the French clergy, who had taken part in the Assembly of 1682 and were afterwards nominated bishops, could not obtain institution from Innocent XII., till they had declared to that Pontiff that they "grieved from their heart exceedingly, and beyond what could be expressed, for the things done in the Assembly of 1682."

The second question considered by F. Knox (pp. 24-48) is the objectmatter of the Church's infallibility. This question is solved by the simple process of observing what extent of infallibility the Church has claimed ; because of course it is involved in her infallibility, that she cannot claim a power which she does not possess. By applying this practical method, our author arrives very easily and safely at the conclusion, that the Church teaches infallibly "not only the truths directly revealed by our Blessed Lord to His Apostles whether explicitly or implicitly, but also every other branch of truth, speculative or practical, which has any bearing on revealed truth (p. 27). He then proceeds to specify various particulars contained in this general statement. Thus the Church is infallible in "truths explicitly or

*We slightly demur to this expression. Surely the Church as yet tolerates Gallicanism: though she accords it no more than bare toleration. [ED. D. R.]

implicitly contained in the original revelation"; (2) in all principles of morality (p. 31); (3) in dogmatical and moral facts (p. 31); (4) in political truths and principles, no less than (5) in philosophy and natural sciences, so far as these bear upon faith and morals; and (6) in theological conclusions. Dogmatical and moral facts again are subdivided by F. Knox into (1) the meaning of books in relation to the Faith; (2) the canonization of Saints; (3) general ecclesiastical discipline and worship; (4) approbation of religious orders; (5) condemnation of secret and other societies; (6) education; and (7) "facts which involve & principle of morality and its concrete expression " (p. 42). Never was there given a more complete and exhaustive enumeration; never a more hearty protest against the fundamental error, which would confine infallibility to definitions of faith.

"The object-matter of the Church's infallibility embraces primarily and directly all revealed truth, whether explicitly or implicitly contained in the revealed deposit; and secondarily and indirectly all natural truths, both of fact and speculation, which stand in such relation to revealed truth that error concerning them would tend to impair the integrity of the faith in the minds of Christians and to imperil their eternal salvation" (p. 53).

Thirdly F. Knox inquires, by what methods and instruments the Church fulfils her office of thus infallibly teaching her children. Normally she does so (p. 57) by a direct and personal action exerted on them one by one." She provides seminaries for the orthodox education of her clergy, and by means of her clergy she reaches her whole flock. Moreover her ritual and liturgy, her devotions, discipline, laws, and a multitude of similar things, bring home to the faithful a large body of truth.

But how does she teach her flock under exceptional circumstances? how does she guard it "against the invasion and corrupting influence of erroneous doctrines"? It will often suffice if she merely "impresses more earnestly than usual upon her children in her every-day teaching the doctrines of the faith which have been specially impugned."

"It was in this way that during the first three centuries of the Christian era, when persecution was incessantly winnowing out from among the faithful all half-hearted members, many heresies were withered up, and brought to an untimely end. And so too in the Middle Ages, when the whole framework of society was moulded upon the Faith, and in every department of speculation the truths of faith were regarded as absolute certainties to which all else must bend, erroneous doctrines were sometimes held in check for a long time, if not finally eradicated, by the mere force of the Church's daily teaching and personal influence" (pp. 59, 60).

But on the other hand heresies and errors will often arise, which, for various reasons, cannot be thus duly resisted by the Church's ordinary magisterium, but require special condemnation. This she sometimes pronounces by an Ecumenical Council. But such interventions must necessarily be rare, as Councils are but exceptions in the Church's history; and the ordinary instrument of censure has ever been Pontifical ex cathedrâ teaching. "The Sovereign Pontiff from the Chair of Peter has never ceased to lift up his warning voice time after time, in condemnation of the errors which