14S INFALLiBILiTY. liar [. the Jesuits, the whole matter came before the French king and parlia- ment, from whose decisions we make the following extracts, in their own words, from their judgment, formed on six proposition8 respecting the power of the pope, two of which are given above :?" P?o body is ignorant of the efforts and artifice8 practised by the partisan8 of the court of Rome, above thirty years, to advance the power of the pope, by fictitious prerogatives, and to introduce into these parts of the world the new opinions of the ultra-montanes, (?'te?n,y.) And at length things have passed to such an excess, that, having insinuated secretly these false and dangerous propositions in writings, they have had the beldne88 to publish them, and insert them in theses to be publicly dis- puted and canvassed. This rashness has not remained unpunished, forasmuch as this august assembly, equally jealous of maintaining the royal authority, the rights of the crown, the liberties of the ?!ican church, and the ancient doctrine, to all which these opinions of the infallibility and superiority of the pope over a council are direc? opposite, has not failed to restrain these enterprises by the severity its arrSts, and even to punish the authors of them, 8o that one may say that these monsters have been stifled in their birth, and that these attempts have been 8o far from meeting with any success, that they have served only the more powerfully to confirm the truth, and to cover with shame the emissaries of the court of Rome. And since the six propositions contain not only the condemnation of every' thing that could establish any superiority of the pope in temporals, but also what- ever could be brought to support the chimera of infallibility, and also of an imaginary dependance of a council upon the pope; it being cer- tain that if the faculty does not believe that the pope is infallible, it must by necessary consequence believe that he may fail or be seduced into error, and corrected by a superior power, which can be no other than that of a general council and the universal church: and all the world being agreed that there must be a subordination, when one acknowledges that the pope is not above a council, it necessarily lows that he must be below it, and subject to its decisions, and to the observation of the canons." The parliament also considered the doc- trine of the pope's infallibility as "contrary to the ancient doctrine the church, the canons of general councils, and the liberties of the _,allican church? In the Romish confession of faith imposed on preselytes to popery in Hungary, drawn up bythe Jesuits, just previous to 18'29, and in the n?t?ee?A century, the second article is as follows :?" We confess and believe that the pope of Rome is the head of' the church, and that HR CANNOT Bishop Milner, in his famous work entitled ?f? o? c defines infallibility thus :-?" The infallibility of our church is the aid of ?)d's Holy Spirit, to enable her truly to decide what her fahh is, and ever has been, in such article8 as have been made known to her by Scripture and tradition."? He gives his opinion of the place of its location in the following words :--" A general council, with the pope at Its head, or the pope himself issuing a doctrinal decision, which is �Du ? F,e. l?t?, 17th cemL, p. 150. $ End of Coutroversy, p. 82. oigitize by Goodie
�
