over the Universal Church, which it truly and humbly acknowledges itself to have received from the Lord Himself in Blessed Peter, the Prince and Head of the Apostles, with plenitude of power. And as before all others it is bound to defend the truth, so also if any questions arise concerning the faith, they ought by its judgment to be defined. … And to the same all Churches are subject, and to it the prelates of the same render obedience and reverence. But to this [Church] the plenitude of power so belongs that it admits the other Churches to a participation of its care. … By mouth and heart we confess that which the Sacred and Holy Roman Church truly holds, and faithfully teaches and preaches.'
The formula, which is inscribed Sacramentum Græcorum, runs as follows:—
'I, N., recognise the unity of faith which I have subscribed … as the True, Holy, Catholic Faith; I accept it and confess it with heart and mouth; and I promise that I will inviolably preserve the same as the Holy Roman Church holds, faithfully teaches and preaches; and in the same I will always persevere; nor at any time will I depart from it, nor in any way deviate or differ from it.'[1]
If any one, with these facts and testimonies before him, can continue to affirm, that the Articles of 1682 have any foundation in the two centuries before the Council of Constance, or that the doctrine now captiously and invidiously styled Ultramontane is a novelty, he is bound to bring, what as yet has not been offered, some evidence of his assertion.
- ↑ Labbe, Concil. tom. xiv. p. 512. 513. Ed. Ven. 1731.
