authority of the successor of S. Peter in ruling and teaching the whole Church on earth?
As to 'the Teutonic element,' a few words may be said. It would seem that some suppose the Catholic Church to be a system, like the Austrian or the British empire, in which nationalities are to play their part, balanced by constitutional checks. This Judaic notion began to rise when the idea of Catholic unity began to decline. The assimilation of all national distinctions to a higher type—the extinction, that is, of nationalities in Christ Jesus—eliminated Jew and Greek, Teuton and Latin, from the sphere of faith. It was the rise of modern nationalities which caused the great Western schism, for the termination of which the Council of Constance was assembled. The schism was healed, though the Council of Basle for a while re-opened it. The national spirit continued still to work, and in a part of Germany and England grew to a head, which in the sixteenth century issued in the Protestant schism. But for the Council of Constance, the greater part of Europe might have been involved. After the Council of Trent, a part of Germany, and England and Scotland, fell finally from the Catholic unity. But 'the Teutonic element' was not thereby lost to the Church. More than half of Germany is Catholic to this day. And the Anglo-Saxon race, in which Teuton, German, and Celt are mixed together, is spreading over a large part of the world. At this moment, the English-speaking episcopate of Great Britain and its possessions, with the
