Page:History of Freedom.djvu/559

 THE VATICAN COUNCIL

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the higher authority of the Roman pontiffs." 1 A bishop who had been present at Trent confesses that in matters of faith he would believe a single Pope rather than a thousand Fathers, saints, and doctors. 2 The divine training develops an orthodox instinct in the Church, which shows itself in the lives of devout but ignorant men more than in the researches of the learned, and teaches authority not to need the help of science, and not to heed its opposition. All the arguments by \vhich theology supports a doctrine may prove to be false, without diminishing the certainty of its truth. The Church has not obtained, and is not bound to sustain it, by proof. She is supreme over fact as over doctrine, as Fénelon argues, because she is the supreme expounder of tradition, which is a chain of facts. 3 Accordingly, the organ of one ultramontane bishop lately declared that infallibility could be defined without arguments; and the Bishop of Nîmes thought that the decision need not be preceded by long and careful discussion. The Dogmatic Commission of the Council proclaims that the existence of tradition has nothing to do with evidence, and that objections taken from history are not va1id when contradicted by ecclesi- astical decrees. 4 Authority must conquer history. This inclination to get rid of evidence was specially associated with the doctrine of papal infallibility, because

1 Veniae sive indulgentiae autoritate Scripturae nobis non innotuere. sed autoritate ecclesiae Romanae Romanorumque Pontificum, quae major est, 2 Ego, ut ingenue fatear, plus uni summo pontifici crederem, in his, quae fidei mysteria tangunt, quam mille Augustinis, Hieronymis. Gregoriis (Cornelius M ussus), 3 The two views contradict each other; but they are equally characteristic of the endeavour to emancipate the Church from the obligation of proof. Fénelon says: c. Oseroit-on soutenir que l' Eglise après avoir mal raisonné sur tous les textes. et les avoir pris à contre-sens, ec;t tout à coup saisie par un enthousiasme aveugle, pour juger bien, en raisonnant mal?" And Möhler: .. Die ältesten ökumenischen Synoden ftihrten daher für ihre dogmatischen Beschlüsse nicht einmal bestimmte biblische Stellen an; und die katholischen Theologen lehren mit allgemeiner Uebereinstimmung und ganz aus dem Geiste der Kirche heraus, dass selbst die biblische Beweisftibrung eines für untrüglich gebaltenen Beschlusses nicht untrüglich sei. sondern eben nur das ausgesprocbene Dogma selbst," 40 Cujuscumque ergo scientiae, etiam historiae ecclesiasticae conc1usiones. Romanorum Pontificum infallibilitati adversantes. quo manifestius haec ex revelationis fontibus infertur. eo certius veluti totidem errores habendas esse consequitur.