Page:William John Sparrow-Simpson - Roman Catholic Opposition to Papal Infallibility (1909).djvu/170

 150 his perfect orthodoxy on the subject of General Councils. Thus De Maistre's Ultramontane proclivities completely blinded him to the true nature of this form of Catholic self-expression. We should not gather from his depreciative words that the Spirit of God had anything to do with the Councils of Christendom. It is singular, moreover, that a leader of modern Extremist views should have written in this strain only twenty-six years before the Vatican Council.

De Maistre's treatment of the case of Honorius forms a most curious psychological study. The condemnation of Honorius by a General Council was to the Gallican School a conclusive proof that the Church which so expressed itself knew nothing of Ultramontane opinions on Papal Infallibility. De Maistre has a theory which we believe is entirely his own. He draws from imagination an account of what Honorius might, from an Ultramontane standpoint, be expected to have said if he had been living at the time, and had entered into the deliberations of the Council which condemned him. Here is the speech which Honorius, it appears, ought to have made:—

De Maistre could scarcely forget that the successor of Honorius, who on his theory ought to have made some protest against the Council's audacious treatment of their predecessor, omitted to make any. This is met with the remark that if certain successors of Honorius