viro clarissimo Consule.'[1] This Profession of Faith was signed, it is said, by 2,500 bishops.[2]
Another version of this formula is given by John, Bishop of Constantinople, in a letter to Pope Hormisdas. It runs almost in the same terms, but in two passages it is even more explicit. After the words of our Lord to Peter, it continues: 'These sayings are confirmed by the effects, because in the Apostolic See religion is always kept inviolate;' and afterwards it concludes: 'But if in anything I should be tempted to doubt in my profession, I declare, by my own condemnation, that I myself should be partaker with those whom I have condemned.'[3]
21. From the third Council of Constantinople in the seventh century, which is received by the Greek Church, we will pass to the Council of Chalcedon, one of the four first General Councils received, at least in profession, by Anglicans, in the fifth. This brings us to the period of undivided unity, and therefore, as they admit, of infallibility. Now it is certain that S. Leo, in the most explicit language, claimed for the See and for the Successor of Peter an indefectible stability in faith. Two years ago I quoted his testimony, which is abundantly sufficient to prove this assertion. I will now add only two short
- ↑ Labbe, Concil. tom. v. p. 583. Ed. Ven. 1728.
- ↑ We have this on the authority of Rusticus, who wrote about a.d. 546. He says that the faith was confirmed 'per libellos sacerdotum forsan duorum millium et quingentorum, imperante Justino, post schisma Petri Alexandrini et Acacii Constantinopolitani. Rustici S. R. E. Diac. Card. Contra Acephalos. Disp. Galland. Bibl. Max. tom. xii. p. 75.
- ↑ Labbe, Concil. tom. v. p. 622. Ed. Ven, 1728.
