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conscience or demanding implicit obedience.[1] And possibly the Encyclical Letter of 8th December, 1864, is in the same position, though this seems more doubtful; but that this is not the view adopted by the Hierarchy of Quebec will be abundantly proven from their own official utterances, which seek to rivet the most extreme pretensions of the Syllabus on the consciences of their people, wholly disregarding the moderate and wise course of action laid down by Archbishops Lynch of Ontario and Connolly of Nova Scotia.
I have neither the ability nor the inclination to enter into the wide field of discussion which has been
- ↑ *Dr. Fessler says in the Preface to his work already quoted:—
"An Augsburg reviewer takes objection to my expression: 'It is by no means an established fact among Catholic theologians, that the Syllabus with its eighty propositions belongs to those definitions of doctrine which are to be characterized as infallible;' and is of opinion that in saying this, I show that the notes cannot be relied on, which I have given to make it plain how an utterance of the Pope may be recognized as ex cathedrâ. I, on the contrary, find that in this case, as in a hundred others, we can fully rely on the notes which have been given, for they are really good and sound notes; but yet, notwithstanding this, the application of these notes to particular cases may have its difficulties. It is the business of the science of theology to support the different views which may be taken of this question by such arguments as it has at its command, and probably in this way to bring it to pass that the right view should become the generally received view.
"Should this not take place, then the authoritative decision on the matter may at any time follow. Before the Vatican Council was summoned, a Catholic was bound to pay obedience and submission to the Syllabus; nor has the Vatican Council in any respects altered this conscientious obligation. The only question which could arise was, whether the Syllabus possesses those notes on the face of it, which, according to the doctrinal definition of the fourth session of the said Council, belong to an utterance of the Pope ex cathedrâ.
"The 'Syllabus,' as its title shows, is nothing but a collection of those errors of the age that we live in, which Pope Pius, in earlier Rescripts of different dates, has declared to be errors, and which accordingly he has condemned. The condemnation of errors, according to the traditional practice of the Church, is made in various forms; sometimes they are con-
