the Pontiff in the Council of Constance; the other, how little that Council was swayed by the errors of Gerson.
I. Tradition from the Council of Constance to the Council of Chalcedon.
But we are told that no one denies the rise of this opinion from the time of the Council of Constance. This, then, is one point of departure; and we will proceed to examine what was the faith of the Church before that date, ascending towards the source.
1. The first and least suspicious witness will be Gerson himself. He says, adulation 'concedes [to the Pope] that he is above law, and that it is no way possible that appeal be made from him, nor that he be called into judgment; nor that obedience be withdrawn from him, except in case of heresy. He alone can make articles of faith; he alone can deal with questions of faith, and the causæ majores; he alone, as has just been done, makes definitions, rules, laws, and canons; otherwise all that is defined, decreed, framed, or ordained by others is null and void. Nor can anything ordained by him be in any way whatsoever cancelled or annulled except by him alone; but he is bound by no constitution made by any whomsoever. If I am not deceived, before the celebration of the holy Council of Constance this tradition had so possessed the minds of many pedants rather than lettered men, that any one who should have dogmatically taught the opposite would have been noted and condemned for heretical pravity.'[1] But how should this be
- ↑ Gersonii Opp. tom. ii. p. 247. Ed. Ant. 1706.
