in its liberty of action, and in the same breath, before the Council had assembled, to deny its Œcumenicity on the ground that it would not be free.
The book concludes as follows:
'That is quite enough—it means this, that whatsoever course the Synod may take, one quality can never be predicated of it, namely, that is has been a really free Council. Theologians and canonists declare that without complete freedom, the decisions of the Council are not binding, and the assembly is only a pseudo-synod.'[1]
This was written in Germany during the summer of last year. The English translation was published by a Protestant bookseller in London in the month of November. I bought the Italian translation in the same month in Florence, on my way to the opening of the Council. French and Spanish bishops told me, on arriving, that they had translations in their own language. And in Spain and Italy copies were sent to the bishops through the channels of those Governments.
We have here the latest example of passionless science.
Of the literary merits of the book, I will only say first, that for its accuracy a fair account has been taken in a pamphlet entitled 'A few Specimens of Scientific History from Janus;' and for profoundness that it is simply shallow, compared with Jewell's 'Defence of the Apology,' Barrow 'On the Pope's Supremacy,' Crakenthorp's 'Vigilius Dormitans,' Bramhall's 'Schism Guarded,' Thorndike's 'Epilogue,'
- ↑ Ibid. p. 425.
