between the chief pastor of the Church and any, from the highest to the humblest, member of the flock of Christ on earth; the third, that this supreme power or primacy is not made up of parts, as the sovereignty of constitutional states, but exists in its plenitude in the successor of Peter.[1]
The fourth and last Chapter defines the infallible doctrinal authority of the Roman Pontiff as the supreme teacher of all Christians.
The Chapter opens by affirming that to this supreme jurisdiction is attached a proportionate grace, whereby its exercise is directed and sustained.
This truth has been traditionally held and taught by the Holy See, by the praxis of the Church, and by the Œcumenical Councils, especially those in which the East and the West met in union together, as for instance the fourth of Constantinople, the second of Lyons, and the Council of Florence.
It is then declared, that in virtue of the promise of our Lord, 'I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not,'[2] a perpetual grace of stability in faith was divinely attached to Peter and to his successors in his See.
The definition then affirms 'that the Roman Pon-
- ↑ In order to fix this doctrine more exactly, and to exclude all possible equivocation, after full and ample and repeated discussion, the words 'aut eum habere tantum potiores partes, non vero totam plenitudinem hujus supremæ potestatis,' were inserted in the Canon appended to this Chapter. I notice this, because it has been most untruly and most invidiously said, that these words were interpolated after the discussion. They were fully and amply discussed, and the proof of the fact exists in the short-hand report of the speeches, laid up in the Archives of the Council.
- ↑ St. Luke xxii. 31, 32.
