Page:History of Freedom.djvu/521

 CONFLICTS \VITH ROIVIE

477

was felt, and \vho insisted, more than others, on their freedom. But the suspicion of such a possibility was likely only to confirm him in the idea that he was chosen to be the experimental body on which an important principle ,vas to be decided, and that it was his duty, till his dogmatic error was proved, to resist a questionable encroachment of authority upon the rights of freedom. He therefore refused to make the preliminary submission which was required of him, and alIo\ved the decree to go forth against him in the usual ,vay. Hereupon it was intimated to him-though not by Rome-that he had incurred excommunication. This was the measure which raised the momentous question of the liberties of Catholic science, and gave the impulse to that new theory on the limits of authority with which his name has become associated. In the civil affairs of mankind it is necessary to assume that the kno\vledge of the moral code and the traditions of law cannot perish in a Christian nation. Particular authorities may fan into error; decisions may be appealed against; laws may be repealed, but the political conscience of the whole people cannot be irrecoverably lost. The Church possesses the same privilege, but in a much higher degree, for she exists expressly for the purpose of pre- serving a definite body of truths, the kno\vledge of which she can never lose. Whatever authority, therefore, ex- presses that kno\vledge of ,vhich she is the keeper must be obeyed. But there is no institution from which this knowledge can be obtained \vith immediate certainty. A council is not à prlori æcumenical; the Holy See is not separately infallible. The one has to a\vait a sanction, the other has repeatedly erred. Every decree, therefore, requires a preliminary examination. A writer who is censured may, in the first place, yield an external submission, either for the sake of discipline, or because his conviction is too weak to support him against the weight of authority. But if the question at issue is more important than the preservation of peace, and if his conviction is strong, he inquires whether the authority