Page:Petri Privilegium - Manning.djvu/282

Rh and grace to the world. The same evidence which proves the Catholic Church to be divinely founded, proves it also to be infallible; and the same evidence which proves the Church to be infallible proves the infallibility of the See and Successor of Peter. I have already said that the evidence for the infallibility of the See and Successor of Peter exceeds in explicitness and extent the evidence for the infallibility of the Church, without reference to its Head and centre. But this cumulus of evidence proves that the Church and its Head are the visible and audible witness, sustained and guided by a divine assistance in declaring the revelation of Jesus Christ to the world. It is not, therefore, by criticism on past history, but by acts of faith in the living voice of the Church at this hour, that we can know the faith. It is not by the fallible criticism of the human mind on the dubious, or, if so be, even the authentic writings of uninspired men, but by faith in the divine order of the Christian world, that God wills us to learn the doctrines of revelation. Unless historical criticism lead us into the presence of a Divine Witness, and deliver us over to His teaching, our highest certainties are but human. No historical certainty can be called Science, except only by courtesy. Even Theology, which may be resolved into principles of absolute certainty by way of faith, is not properly a science. It is time that the pretensions of 'historical science,' and 'scientific historians,' be reduced to their proper sphere and limits. And this the Council will