the part of the faithful. There is no doubt that our assent to the definitions of the pope must be true, sincere, and entire if the pope is the teacher of all Christians, if he possesses full power to feed and govern the flock, if dissensions on matters of faith must be decided by his judgment, and if we owe him true obedience. No less certain it is that the obli gation of assent is independent of the consent of the bishops. For it is in virtue of his own power, not. in consequence of the concurrence of the bishops, that the pope possesses ail those titles to our obedience and submission; and therefore the bishops themselves, being members of the one body, are subject to the head, and obliged to acquiesce in his decisions. Now, if the whole Church is bound to submit to the pope's decisions, these can never deviate from the truth; else the whole Church would be invincibly led into error, which is impossible.

Although the pope alone can give a final decision in matters of faith, it does not follow that the bishops thereby cease to be judges of the faith. True, they cannot, once the pope has pronounced his final judgment, bring about a contrary decision. But neither can a later council reverse the decisions of a former one concerning questions of faith or morals; nor would any one say that a general council on that account forfeits its judicial power. An infallible sentence may be judicially ratified, but cannot, owing to its infallibility, be reversed by another infallible tribunal.

b. The pope's infallibility follows from those passages of Holy Writ in which the primacy is promised to, and conferred on, St. Peter. It was the intention of Christ in founding His Church on St. Peter to secure its perpetuity (Matt. xvi. 18). Now, perpetuity implies exemption from error in faith (55); therefore Christ, by founding His Church on Peter, intended to insure its infallibility. But this end could be attained only in the supposition that Peter, who was to confirm his brethren, could neither err in faith himself, nor teach error to others. St. Peter, moreover, is charged to feed the whole flock (John xxi. 16), and receives with this charge the promise of the necessary assistance. But he cannot carry out the intention of Christ, i.e., preserve the true faith, unless he gives the flock to drink of the pure fountain of truth, not

of sources tainted with error. The prerogative of infallibility, then, or the assistance necessary for the preservation of the faith, would have been secured to St. Peter even though Christ had not especially prayed that "his faith might not fail" (Luke xxii. 32), or though He had not expressly promised him His continued assistance (Matt. xxviii. 20).

Since the infallibility of the pope in defining matters of faith or morals rests upon the assistance of the Holy Ghost, promised to him for that end, it is evident that this gift is not a permanent quality attaching to all the pope's actions, opinions, utterances. When we call the pope infallible in the exercise of his supreme teaching office, we no more attribute to him a divine quality than we do to the general councils, of whose infallibility in matters of faith and morals no Catholic ever doubted. In short, the pope is infallible in the same sense in which the councils are infallible, that is, in virtue of the divine assistance, not in virtue of personal qities.

c. There is no lack of testimonies of antiquity, either expressly ascribing infallibility to the see of Peter or attributing to papal decisions a weight which they could possess only in the supposition of their infallibility. If, as St. Irenæus declares (cf. 47), all other churches must agree with the Roman, it is evident that the latter cannot err in faith without bringing the whole Church into error. This being impossible, it is equally impossible for the Roman Church to fall into error. But the faith of the Roman Church is the teaching of its supreme head, since the flock follows the teaching of the shepherd. Hence the head of the Roman Church cannot err in the exercise of his supreme authority as teacher. St. Cyprian (Ep. 59 [al. 54] n. 14 ad Cornel) attributes the same prerogative of infallibility to the Church of Rome. How firmly St. Augustine was convinced of the infallibility of definitions of the Roman pontiff is shown by a discourse delivered before the people, in which he declares the Pelagian controversy to be at an end, since Pope Innocent I. had pronounced upon it (Serm. 131, n. 10). At the Council of Ephesus, Philip, the papal legate, made the following declaration, already quoted (47): "It has been known in all ages that St. Peter, the pilar of the faith, lives and exercises judgment in his successors."

A decision given by one who i the pillar of faith cannot but be considered infallible.

The doctrinal infallibility of the pope was unquestionably acknowledged in the Church from the earliest ages. It is only in the fourteenth century that we find it for the first time called in question. It was violently attacked by the Gallicans during the seventeenth century. The opposition was continued, chiefly in Germany, until the Vatican Council (1870) declared it to be an article of faith. Instances cited by adversaries of the Catholic Church to prove that popes have actually erred in doctrinal decisions are either historical misrepresentations or rest upon a misunderstanding of the object and nature of the decrees or decisions in question.

58. The infallible teaching authority of the Church extends to all matters appertaining to faith and morals.

What comes within the scope of the teaching office of the Church must be inferred from the Church's mission. Now, since the immediate end of the Church is the preservation and exercise of the Christian religion (38), all that directly or indirectly belongs to the Christian religion comes within the scope of the teaching office. What in nowise regards religion the Church does not consider within the competence of its teaching authority.

1. The Church can define infallibly what is revealed in matters of faith and morals. (a) Christ assured His perpetual assistance to the apostles, when He commanded them to preach the gospel, which contains His teaching on faith and morals (Matt. xxviii. 19, 20). Consequently, this divine assistance, and with it the Church's infallibility, extends to all the doctrines of salvation, whether they relate to faith or morals. (b) The Church has always claimed the right of proposing in its professions of faith the true meaning of revealed truths, and of imposing on the faithful the obligation of believing its definitions. If the Church did not possess the right,-in other words, if it were not infallible in its explanations and definitions, we could never be certain that it taught the truth; nay, by that very fact it would depart from the truth, by falsely imposing on us the belief in its infallibility. The same argument applies to doctrines on morals, which likewise pertain to salvation.

2. The Church can infallibly declare what is contrary to the teaching of revelation in matters of faith and morals.

Propositions opposed to the teaching of revelation may be of two kinds, according to the source from which they are derived. Either they proceed from a misinterpretation of revealed truth, or they rest on false inferences of reason, as if one inferred from natural science that the human soul is not a spirit.

a. If there is question of a false interpretation of a revealed truth, it is evident that the Church, to whom the deposit of revelation has been intrusted, can infallibly declare an assertion which is directly or indirectly contrary to faith to be really such. For he who is infallible in the knowledge and understanding of truth is also infallible in detecting and rejecting the opposite errors.

b. For the same reason the Church can infallibly declare a proposition which is contrary to divine truth to be such, though it be but a false conclusion of reason. For, since the Church is infallible in the knowledge and understanding of divine truth, it is necessarily infallible in rejecting every error contrary to divine truth, be its source what it may. For, by the very fact that a proposition taken from science is opposed to revealed truth it encroaches on the domain of the Church's infallible teaching office. And how could the Church guard the deposit of faith unless it had the power and the right to condemn errors which undermine faith, from whatever source they may spring?

3. The Church is infallible in judging of so-called dogmatic facts-facts necessarily connected with doctrines of faith or morals. It can infallibly declare not only what is in accordance with, or contrary to, faith and morals in the abstract, but also in the concrete: that such or such a particular statement is, or is not, orthodox; that such or such a book does, or does not, contain teachings contrary to faith or mor als. (a) For, since truth and error, so far as they come under the judgment of the Church, are nearly always expressed in a definite form of words, the teaching Church, if it is really a judge in matters of faith, must above all know and decide what is expressed in those given words. (b) Therefore we find that the Church from the earliest ages pronounced decisions upon the orthodoxy or heterodoxy of written confessions of

faith, and even on books. (c) The Church could not accom plish its mission of guarding the deposit of faith unless it were able to discover error with unerring certainty, and thus to point out those books that contain errors against faith and morals. Simply to prohibit books as dangerous to faith would in many cases not suffice to make them harmless; it is only by detecting the error and tracing it to its source that the Church can sufficiently guard its children against certain books and doctrines. The subterfuges of the Jansenists have shown the full significance of the doctrine on the Church's infallibility in regard to dogmatic facts.

From the extent of the infallible teaching authority to all questions of faith and morals it follows that the Church, and, consequently, the pope, is infallible also in decrees binding the whole Church in matters of divine worship and discipline, since these are in closest connection with faith and morals; that such decrees, therefore, can never contain anything contrary to faith or morals. The same infallibility extends to the canonization of the saints.

II. SOURCES OF THE CHURCH'S TEACHING.

59. Scripture and tradition are the two sources of the Church's teaching.

The Catholic Church is the dispenser of those truths revealed by God to mankind. We have now to consider whence the Church draws its teaching, or where revelation is deposited and preserved. We answer: from two sources- -Scripture and tradition. As these two sources contain the subject-matter of our faith, they are called sources of faith; and as they determine our faith, they are likewise called rules of faith. They are, however, only the remote or mediate rules of faith, while the immediate rule is the teaching Church (69).

The Council of Trent (Sess. IV.) teaches in express terms that the doctrine of salvation is contained in Scripture and in tradi tion. It declares both to be the sources of the Church's teaching, and of the faith, in order "that all may see on what evidences and arguments it chiefly relies in establishing the doctrines of faith, and in the reformation of the Church's discipline."

Protestants, first, practically rejected tradition; but subsequently they discarded it also dogmatically, making the Scriptures the only