even in provinces remote and afar off, shall neither be treated of nor accepted, unless it be first brought to the knowledge of your august See, so that a just sentence may be confirmed by its authority, and that the other Churches may thence receive the original preaching as from its native source, and that the mysteries of saving faith may remain in uncorrupt purity throughout the various regions of the world.'[1]
This declaration of the African Synod, being read and approved in the first Council of Lateran, is therefore confirmed by its authority.
19. In the Pastoral of two years ago, I gave the evidence of the Sixth General Council, held at Constantinople in 680, in which the letter of Agatho was received as the voice of Peter. In this letter, addressed to the Emperor, after reciting the dogma of faith, Agatho thus speaks of the Roman See: 'Relying upon the protection [of Peter], this, his Apostolic Church, has never deviated from the way of truth in any way of error whatsoever; and his [Peter's] authority, as that of the Prince of all the Apostles, the whole Catholic Church of Christ and all the universal Synods always and faithfully have in all things embraced and followed. … For this is the rule of the True Faith, which, both in prosperity and adversity, this Apostolic Church of Christ, the Spiritual Mother of your peaceful empire, holds and defends as vital: which Church, by the grace of Almighty God, will never be convicted of erring from the path of apostolic tradition, nor has it ever yielded or been depraved by heretical novelties; but as it received in
- ↑ Labbe, Concil. tom. vii. p. 131. Ed. Ven. 1729.
