mation of the sense and effect of these three declaratory acts of Divine power. But I know that the Church has always so believed, held, and taught: and from its tradition nothing can make us swerve. The foundation thus laid in Peter's person abides to this day. The faith which was infused into him, not by 'flesh and blood,' but by the 'Father in heaven,' was sustained by the prayer of the Son of God, and is transmitted and impersonated in his successors. The faith of Peter is, by a Divine assistance, perpetual in the Church; and is therefore, by its intrinsic stability, indefectible and infallible. 'The Chair of Peter, then, signifies the place of the power and of the doctrine of that faith; which is the foundation for which Christ prayed that it might not fail.'[1] From this it follows 'that the Church, or See, or Cathedra, or Episcopate, or Pontificate of Peter in Rome, which things are taken for one and the same, to which the Roman Pontiffs succeed with the full authority and power of Peter, to bind, to loose, and to teach, derives its supreme power, as the Council of Florence decreed, not by concessions of Emperors or of Councils, but immediately from God.'[2]
From this special prerogative of the Roman Pontiffs descends the special prerogative of the Roman Church—that is, of the particular Church of Rome, with its
