I have ventured to make these remarks in justice to the Popes of the middle ages, whose zeal for the extirpation of heresy has identified their names with this institution. If I cannot hope to relieve their memory of the odium which has been cast on it, it should be shared with their age; and they should be credited for their efforts to secure mercy for the penitent. A more tolerant spirit prevails at this time among all Christian nations, and death is no longer inflicted for the errors of the mind, even when threatening calamities to society. In whatsoever way it may please us to account for the change of civil jurisprudence, and of general sentiment, it is not just to embitter social feelings, by recalling the severity, or the cruelty of an Institution which has passed away, but acquiescing in the humane and liberal sentiments and laws of our own age, we should cherish kind feelings towards one another, and avoid all occasion of religious strife, which is most baneful to the common peace and weal.

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CHAPTER XXI.

PAPAL PREROGATIVES.

HAVING devoted so much space to the examination of historical facts in which the Popes exercised an adventitious power, it may be necessary to state distinctly their essential prerogatives. In the council of Florence, held in 1439, the Greeks concurred with the Latins in the following definition: "We define that the holy Apostolic See and Roman Pontiff hold the primacy throughout the entire world, and that the said Roman Pontiff is the successor of the blessed Peter, the prince of the apostles, and is the true vicar of Christ, and the head of the whole Church, and father and teacher of all Christians; and that to him, in the person of blessed Peter, full power was given by our Lord Jesus Christ, to feed, rule, and govern the Universal Church; as also is contained in the acts of Ecumenical councils, and in the sacred canons."* The primacy extends to the entire world, since the commission given to the apostles is to teach all nations, and preach the Gospel to every creature: but none are subject to it who have not by baptism entered within the pale of the Church. It is called by St. Chrysostom "the presidency of the Universal Church," which, he observes, Christ committed to Peter, after his fall.

In virtue of his office the Pontiff teaches with authority, and directs his teaching to all the children of the Church, wherever they may be found, pastors and people: he pronounces judgment on all, whose faith is suspected, to whatever rank they belong: he condemns heresy, wherever it may have originated, or by whomsoever it may be supported: he calls on his colleagues, the bishops, to concur in the condemnation he assembles them in council, to investigate and judge with him the controversies that are excited, or to concur by their harmonious judgment and action in rooting out condemned errors: he confirms and promulgates their definitions of faith, and he incessantly guards the sacred deposit of divine doctrine. All these acts have been

*Collat. xxil Conc. Flor. p. 985, t. ix. col. Harduin.

† Την ἐπιστασίαν της οικουμενικῆς ἐκκλησίας ἐνεχείρισε. Ad pop. Antioch. hom v. de pænit.

exercised in all ages of the Church by the Bishop of Rome, as successor of St. Peter: and have been universally acknowledged to be the prerogatives and duties of his office. "The Lord," says St. Leo, "wished this mysterious gift (of the Gospel ministry) to belong to the office of all the apostles in such a way as to place it principally in the most blessed Peter, the chief of all the apostles: from whom, as from the head, he wishes his gifts to flow to the whole body, so that whoever dares recede from the solidity of Peter, must know that he deprives himself of all share in the divine mystery. For assuming him to a partnership in His indivisible unity, He wished him to be styled, what He Himself was, saying: "Thou art Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church ;' that the building of the eternal temple, by a wonderful gift of divine grace, should rest on the solidity of Peter, strengthening His Church by this firmness, that neither human temerity can affect it, nor the gates of hell prevail against it. This most sacred firmness of this rock, which has been established, God Himself, as we have said, being the Builder, is assailed with impious presumption by whosoever attempts to infringe on his power, following passion, and abandoning the tradition of the ancients."*

It is the undoubted right of the Pope to pronounce judgment on controversies of faith. All doctrinal definitions already made by General Councils, or by former Pontiffs, are landmarks which no man can remove; but as the human mind may assail revelation in endless varieties of form, there must be always in the Church an authority whereby error, under every new aspect, may be effectually condemned. Nothing can be added to the faith originally delivered to the saints, but points contained in the deposit of revelation, may be expressly declared and defined, when the obscurity which may have existed as to the fact of their revelation has been dissipated. The assembling of a General Council is always attended with immense difficulty, and is oftentimes utterly impracticable. The Chief Bishop is, as Frederick William Faber remarks, "the natural organ of the Church," as Peter is styled by St. Chrysostom the mouth of the apostles. In pronouncing judgment he does not give expression to a private opinion, or follow his own conjectures; but he takes for his rule the public and general faith, and tradition of the Church, as gathered from Scripture, the fathers, the liturgies and other documents, and he implores the guidance of the Divine Spirit, and uses all human means for ascertaining the fact of revelation. It has been warmly disputed whether a solemn

*Ep. x. ad episc. per prov. Vien.

Thoughts and Sights in Foreign Churches.

judgment thus pronounced, wherein a doctrine is proposed to the Church generally as necessary to be believed, under pain of anathema, or an error is proscribed as opposed to faith, with the same sanction, may possibly be erroneous. The personal fallibility of the Pope in his private capacity, writing or speaking, is freely conceded by the most ardent advocates of Papal prerogatives; but his official infallibility ex cathedra is strongly affirmed by many whilst some, as the French assembly of 1682, contend that his judgment may admit of amendment, as long as it is not sustained by the assent and adhesion of the great body of bishops. Practically there is no room for difficulty, since all solemn judgments hitherto pronounced by the Pontiff have received the assent of his colleagues; and, in the contingency of a new definition, it should be presumed by the faithful at large that it is correct, as long as the body of bishops do not remonstrate and oppose it. The Pontiff never has been isolated from his brethren. The harmony of faith has been always exhibited in the teaching of the great body of bishops, united with their head. The authority of the Pope in matters of faith appeared most conspicuously in the fourth and fifth centuries. The decrees of Damasus, and Innocent, and the doctrinal letters of Celestine and Leo were hailed by bishops, severally, and in solemn councils, as the correct expositions of the mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation. For the maintenance of this faith the Pontiffs sent legates to the Eastern emperors, and councils urging it above all other things. Their indefatigable industry, their untiring solicitude, their disregard of every selfish consideration, when the integrity of faith was in question, are marked on every page of history. Faith evidently appears to be the vital principle of papal authority, which cannot cease to defend it. The plenitude of Pontifical power in all that appertains to the government of the Universal Church is affirmed in the Florentine decree. It is certain that this power must be used for edification, not for destruction for the interests of faith and piety; for the maintenance of order and unity; for the good of the Church. It is a government of justice, order, and law, to be conducted, not arbitrarily and capriciously, but according to established canons, or rules. It admits, however, of exceptions and dispensations, since the rigorous enforcement of uniformity in a government embracing so many different nations would render it intolerable. Whilst, then, the Papal authority should be exercised in conformity with the canons or laws of General Councils and preceding Pontiffs, unless the altered condition of things require a change of legislation, a dispensing power must exist, and be exercised by the Supreme Executive. Individuals, for a just reason, may be

freed from the observance of a general law, at the discretion of the Pontiff. The ancient usages of local Churches are to be respected, and their established order is to be maintained; but if the higher interests of the Universal Church require the suppression of a local usage, or if the existence of the local Church be in jeopardy, unless the order be changed, there is room for the exercise of Pontifical supremacy. The French hierarchy had flourished from the days of St. Remigius, when the fury of the revolutionists immolated several of the venerable prelates, and drove the remainder into banishment. The temples of religion were profaned, and the Christian worship proscribed. Amidst the anarchy there arose a daring soldier, who, in the name of liberty, grasped an iron sceptre, and offered to become the protector of religion; but only on condition that the exiled prelates should renounce their rights, and the Church of France should be reorganized conformably with the new civil divisions of territory. Pius VII. called on the bishops to make the sacrifice of their undoubted rights and just attachments, and using the plenitude of Pontifical authority, stripped those who hesitated, of all claims to their Sees, and gave to France a new ecclesiastical organization.* The extreme necessity of the case justified, in the eyes of the Church at large, this unprecedented act of Pontifical supremacy.

It is difficult to assign precise limits to a power which must be adapted to the exigencies of the Church in an endless variety of circumstances. There is plainly no authority to command any thing immoral: but within the limits of the Divine Law, and with due regard for the received usages of the Church generally, and of local Churches, the Pope may enjoin, in matters ecclesiastical, what he prudently judges to be expedient for the maintenance of order, the extirpation of vice, and the promotion of piety. His power is chiefly employed in maintaining the general laws already established, and in regulating the mutual relations of the clergy, and in mitigating the strictness of disciplinary observance, whensoever local or individual causes demand it. The faithful are sufficiently protected against the abuse of power, by the freedom of their own conscience, which is not bound to yield obedience to authority when flagrantly abused. The Pope only addresses conscience. His laws and censures are only powerful inasmuch as they are acknowledged to be passed under a divine sanction. No armies, or civil officers, are employed to give them effect; and in case of flagrant abuse of authority, he loses the only influence by which they can be

* See Bulls Ecclesia Christi 15 Aug. 1801, and Qui Christi Domini 29 Nov. 1801.