teaching and ruling. The Roman Pontiffs, from the beginning, have issued decrees, sentences, judgments, condemnations, on faith, on morals, on universal discipline, without Councils, general or particular, or with the assistance of bishops chosen by themselves, or with their own clergy and theologians. And such acts of the Roman Church have always been received as objects of faith, and laws of Divine authority.
I need hardly stay to quote S. Irenæus, who lays down that all Churches must needs be 'in agreement' with the Roman Church;[1] or Tertullian, that it had the singular happiness of receiving the whole doctrine of the Apostles, together with their blood;[2] or S. Cyprian, that the faith of the Romans was commended by S. Paul, and that error in faith could never find access to them;[3] or S. Jerome to Pope Damasus, 'With you alone is preserved incorrupt the inheritance of the Fathers;'[4] or S. Augustin, 'Rescripts have come (from the Apostolic See): the cause is finished.'[5] I will quote only Theodoret, who sums up the sense of the Western Church while he bears witness for the Eastern: 'That most holy See has the primacy and leadership of the Churches in all the world by many titles, and by this above all, that it has continued free from taint of heresy; nor has
