ages we have been reviewing there was a constant, universal, and unvarying tradition of the stability of the faith in the See and the Successor of Peter; and this world-wide fact will give us the true interpretation and value of the words of S. Irenæus, 'Ad hanc enim Ecclesiam, propter potiorem principalitatem, necesse est omnem convenire ecclesiam; in qua semper ab his qui sunt undique, conservata est ab Apostolis traditio.'[1]
If any one shall answer that these evidences do not prove the infallibility of the Pope, speaking ex cathedrâ, they will lose their labour.
I adduce them to prove the immemorial and universal practice of the Church in having recourse to the Apostolic See as the last and certain witness and judge of the divine tradition of faith. That they prove this no one will, I think, deny. Even those who imagine that Honorius was a heretic have never ventured to incur the condemnation of Peter de Osma, who affirmed that 'the Church of the City of Rome may err.' Even the Gallicans of 1682 professed to believe the See to be infallible, while they affirmed that he who sat in it was fallible. Thus far, then, we have the line of testimonies running up from the Council of Constance to the fifth century; that is, to the period of the four first General Councils, when as yet the East and West were united to the See and to the Successor of Peter. The thought that either the See or the Successor of Peter could fail in faith is not to be found in those thousand years. With all the events of
- ↑ S. Iren. Adv. Hær., lib. iii. 2. sec. 21, note 27. Ed. Ven. 1734.
