Page:True and False Infallibility of Popes.pdf/12

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Introduction.
3

proved, the second and third editions were published after the Pope himself had written to Bishop Fessler commending him for having, by means of his work, 'as a good pastor done good service to our holy religion,' and exhorting him to go on bringing back Christian people from poisoned pastures;' the particular 'poisoned pastures' indicated by the Pope being evidently those false and exaggerated notions of Infallibility which Dr. Schulte and others of his stamp have been engaged in propagating.

It will be a further good result of the present controversy if it brings us to see the danger of all exaggerated statements, even when made with good intentions, for it is precisely to these statements that the now open adversaries of the Church appeal, in order to place the true doctrine before their dupes in an odious form. And this good result has already followed from the French translation, edited by M. Emmanuel Cosquin, editor of the Français. It has 'put the question before many, who had been made anxious by exaggerated statements, in a way which rendered it quite easy of acceptance.' The existence of this translation was, I regret to say, not known to me until my own translation from the original was completed; in fact the editor kindly sent me a copy when he saw my advertisement of the pamphlet in the newspapers, accompanied with the obliging permission to make use of his prefatory matter, his valuable notes from the 'Pastoral Instruction' of the Swiss Bishops, and the useful and comprehensive index at the end of his edition. As a most valuable