in faith, every Pope obtaineth of the Holy Ghost for the benefit of the Church. And so the Pope, although he may err by personal error in his own private judgment as a man, and as a particular doctor in his own opinion, yet as he is Pope, the successor of Peter, the Vicar of Christ in earth, the shepherd of the Universal Church, in public judgment, in deliberation and definitive sentence, he never erreth, nor never erred. For whensoever he ordaineth or determineth anything by his high bishoply authority, intending to bind Christian men to perform or believe the same, he is always governed and holpen with the grace and favour of the Holy Ghost. This is to Catholic doctors a very certainty, though to such doughty clerks as ye are it is but a matter of nothing and a very trifling tale.'[1]
Campian, answering Whitaker, says, 'Nor, as you slander us, do we depend on the voice of one man, but rather on the Divine promise of Christ made to Peter and his successors, for the stability of whose faith He prayed to the Father. … "I have prayed for thee, Peter," He said, "that thy faith fail not." The fruit of which prayer, what follows plainly enough shows, belongs not to Peter alone, but to his successors also. … For since the Church was not to become extinct with Peter, but to endure unto the end of the world, the same stability in faith was even more necessary to Peter's successors, the Roman Pontiffs, in proportion as they were weaker than he,
- ↑ Confutation of a Book entitled 'An Apology of the Church of England,' by Thomas Harding, D.D., p. 335 a. Dedicated to the Queen. Antwerp, 1565.
