Page:Petri Privilegium - Manning.djvu/277

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the world, both by those who believe the infallibility of the Pontiff and by those who believe the infallibility of the Church; and with the same universal joy and unanimity as the definition of the Immaculate Conception.

12. Because the definition of the ordinary means whereby the faith is proposed to the world is required to complete the Treatise 'de Fide Divina.'

13. Because the same definition is required to complete the Treatise 'de Ecclesia deque dotibus ejus.'

14. Because it is needed to place the Pontifical Acts during the last three hundred years, both in declaring the truth, as in the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, and in condemning errors, as in the long series of propositions condemned in Baius, Jansenius, and others, beyond cavil or question; and, still more, to make manifest that the active infallibility of the Church, between Council and Council, is not dormant, suspended, or intermittent; and to exclude the heretical supposition that infallible decrees are left to the exposition and interpretation of a fallible judge.

15. Because the full and final declaration of the divine authority of the Head of the Church is needed to exclude from the minds of pastors and faithful the political influences which have generated Gallicanism, Imperialism, Regalism, and Nationalism, the perennial sources of error, contention, and schism.

For these and for many more reasons, which it is impossible now to detail, many believe that a definition or declaration which would terminate this long