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 obligation; for, although by virtue of the authority conferred on it, it can enforce obedience and inflict punishment, its decrees are not "infallible." They can, however, be made so, according to ecclesiastical views, either by the subsequent express confirmation of the Pope by a brief in his name, as supreme head of the Christian Catholic Church; or by the decree of the Congregation being originally provided with the clause: "Sanctissimus confirmavit et publicari mandavit." But the decree of 5th March, 1616, is neither confirmed by a subsequent brief, nor does it contain that special formula; and, therefore, in spite of this decree, which declared the opinion of Copernicus to be "false and contrary to Holy and Divine Scripture," it might still be considered as undecided, and even probable, because the decree might be fallible, and did not entail the obligation to adopt its sentence as an article of faith.

This must also have been the view of the