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Rh Council, and that its decisions are of no authority, do not allow yourselves to be led astray thereby, so as to falter in your devotion to the Church and in your belief and acceptance of its decrees; for such objections are wholly unfounded.

'Bound together in the unity of faith and love with the Pope, have the assembled Bishops, both those who in Christian lands administer well-established sees, and also those who are called to extend the Kingdom of God among the heathen in apostolic poverty, Bishops, whether they tend a larger or a smaller flock— these, as legitimate successors of the Apostles, have all with the same right taken part in the Council and maturely considered everything.

'As long as the discussions lasted, the Bishops, as their consciences demanded, and as became their office, expressed their views plainly and openly, and with all necessary freedom; and, as was only to be expected in an assembly of nearly 800 Fathers, many differences of opinion were manifested. These differences of opinion can in no way affect the authority of the decrees themselves; should even we not take into consideration the fact, that almost the entire body of the Bishops who, at the time of the Public Session, still maintained an opposite opinion, abstained in the said Session from expressing dissent.

'However, to maintain that either the one or the other of the doctrines decided by the General Council are not contained in the Holy Scripture, and in tradition of the Church—those two sources of the Catholic faith—or that they are even in opposition to the same, is a first step, irreconcilable with the primary principles of the Catholic Church, which leads to separation from her communion. Wherefore, we hereby declare that the present Vatican Council is a legitimate General Council; and, moreover, that this Council as little as any other General Council, has propounded or formed a new doctrine at variance with the ancient teaching; but that it has simply developed and thrown light upon the old and faithfully-preserved truth contained in the deposit of faith, and in opposition to the errors of the day has proposed it expressly to the belief of all the faithful; and, lastly, that these decrees have received a binding power on all the faithful by the fact of their final publication by the Supreme Head of the Church in solemn form at the Public Session.

'While, then, we ourselves with full and unhesitating faith adhere to the decrees of the Council, we exhort you as your divinely appointed pastors and teachers, and beseech you in love to your souls, to give no ear to any teaching contrary to this,