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Rh what value History has set upon it. The necessity of such a knowledge we readily admit, without, however, admitting that it will at all avail the enemies of the doctrine. For it is perfectly well known to every one who is acquainted with the literary works, both old and new, which have reference to this subject, that the advocates of the doctrine of Papal Infallibility, as well as its adversaries, appeal to the history of the Church and to its sources. History experiences the same fate that has befallen Holy Scripture. The advocates, as well as the enemies, of every particular Catholic doctrine on which, in the course of ages, dogmatic definitions have been pronounced, have always appealed to Holy Scripture. So it is with the appeal to history; but with this great difference—that we honour Holy Scripture as the divine source of our Catholic faith (though not the only source), whereas history, in so far as we consider it apart from that tradition which is one source of our faith, has only a human authority, and is amenable to the full force of the laws of sound criticism. Accordingly, history will furnish those supporters of the doctrine of the Infallibility of the Pope who wish to go to its very foundation with extremely valuable and rich materials. Those things which the adversaries of the doctrine adduce out of history, in order to assail it, will present us too with an excellent opportunity of placing in a right light what the doctrine really is, and of showing, by particular examples, in, what cases it derives support from such instances, and in what cases not. These records of the past will not then be, as our adversaries taunt us, 'a very disagreeable subject for us to contemplate;' say rather they