Cologne, five Bishops subscribed, expressly declares: 'He (the Roman Pontiff) is the father and teacher of all Christians, whose judgment in questions of faith is "per se" unalterable.'
2. The Bishops assembled in the Provincial Council, held at Utrecht in 1865, most openly assert: 'We unhesitatingly hold that the judgment of the Roman Pontiff in matters which refer to faith and morals is infallible.'
3. The Provincial Council of Prague[1] in 1860, to which his Eminence Cardinal Archbishop Frederic de Schwarzenberg and four other Bishops subscribed, under the heading, 'On the Primacy of the Roman Pontiff,' decreed as follows: 'We reject, moreover, the error of those who pretend that the Church can exist anywhere without being joined in bonds of union with the Church of Rome, in which the tradition which has been handed down by the Apostles, has been preserved by those who are in every part.' (S. Irenæus Adv. Hær. l. 3, c. 3, n. 2.)
'We know that no one who is not joined to the Head, can be considered as a member of the Body of the Church which Christ founded on Peter and established on his authority. Let all then prefer to confess with us and with the multitude of orthodox believers spread over the whole world, the Headship of the Roman Church and the Primacy of the Roman Pontiff; let them, as is fitting, with us, reverence and honour with dutiful affection our Most Holy Father Pius IX., by God's Providence Pope, the lawful Successor of the Prince of the Apostles, the Vicar of Christ on earth, the Chief Teacher of Faith, and Pilot of the Ship of Christ, to whom the most exact obedience and internal assent is due from all who wish to belong to the fold of Christ. We declare and teach, That this authority of the Roman Pontiff comes from Christ our Lord, and that consequently it is dependent upon no power or favour of men, and remains unimpaired in all times, even in the most bitter persecutions which the Church of Rome has suffered, as was the case during the imprisonment and martyrdom of blessed Peter.'
4. The Provincial Council of Kalocza, held in 1860, declared: 'That as Peter was … the irrefutable teacher of the doctrines of faith, for whom the Lord Himself prayed that his faith might not fail; so his legitimate successors seated aloft on the Chair of Rome … preserve the deposit of faith with supreme and irrefutable powers of declaring the truth. … Wherefore we also reject, proscribe, and forbid all the faithful of this Province,
- ↑ This Council was not included in the original draught from which the Latin is taken.
