of the bishops of Africa, Innocent the First condemned of old the Pelagian heresy, so, on the consultation of the bishops of France, Innocent the Tenth proscribed by his authority a heresy directly opposite to the Pelagian. For the Catholic Church of that ancient time, sustained only by the communion and authority of the See of Peter, which shines forth in the decretal letter of Innocent to the Africans, followed by another letter from Zosimus to the bishops of all the world, subscribed without delay the condemnation of the Pelagian heresy. For it clearly saw, not only from the promise of Christ our Lord made to Peter, but also from the acts of the earlier Pontiffs, and from the anathemas launched just before by Damasus against Apollinaris and Macedonius, while as yet they were not condemned by any synod, that judgments for the confirmation of the rule of faith made by the Pontiffs, when consulted by bishops, rest upon a divine and supreme authority throughout the world; to which all Christians are in duty bound to render the obedience of the mind.'[1]
It is here to be observed that the condemnation of Pelagianism by Innocent I. without any General Council has always been received as infallible; and next, that the French bishops here declare the 'obedience of the mind,' that is, interior assent, and not only obsequious silence, to be required of all Christians.
On September 2, 1656, the bishops wrote to Alexander VII. almost in the same words. They call the letter of Zosimus 'a peremptory decree,' and
- ↑ Ibid. p. 190.
