Page:William John Sparrow-Simpson - Roman Catholic Opposition to Papal Infallibility (1909).djvu/110

 90 2. That the Decrees of Constance on the supreme authority of the Council remain in full force in Christendom.

3. That the independence of the Church of France must be maintained.

4. That the decisions of the Pope are not infallible.

Here, then, is the essential point on the subject of Infallibility. It resides in the Universal Church, and not in the occupant of a particular See. As to this doctrine, says an able French historian, there was no real diversity of opinion in France. There existed indeed an Ultramontane party which, countenanced by certain powerful protectors, possessed a varying influence; but it never won the consent of the clergy in France, which at all times showed the strongest antipathy to Ultramontane ideas. The Declaration was signed by thirty-four Archbishops and Bishops of the Church of France. It experienced, says Bossuet's biographer, himself a Cardinal of the Roman Church, no opposition in the Kingdom. It did but reaffirm a doctrine which had been at all times dear to the University and theological Faculty of Paris.

But if this Declaration of the Assembly was congenial throughout France it was otherwise in Rome. "The Pope appointed a congregation to frame a censure of the propositions." Italian writers composed attacks upon them. One in particular was dedicated to