Page:William John Sparrow-Simpson - Roman Catholic Opposition to Papal Infallibility (1909).djvu/262

 242 difficulties presented by history and the writings of the Fathers: the facts showing that there had never been unanimity or universality of consent on this matter in Christendom. Nor was it easy to see how a definition could be composed which would not leave space for numerous uncertainties and controversies as to its meaning and application to past and future events. And, among men disposed to accept the opinion, there were many destitute of that certainty of conviction which is an indispensable pre-requisite for imposing the doctrine, without grave moral injury, upon others as essential to be believed under penalty of eternal damnation. There was no hope of real unanimous consent; for it was impossible to deny that a large proportion of the Bishops was adverse to the definition. And hitherto in the Church of God it had never been the custom, nor is it lawful, to establish new dogmatic definitions without moral unanimity among the Bishops assembled in Council.

Another Bishop insisted emphatically that no consideration ought to move men to create an article of faith, except only a clear knowledge that God has revealed it, and that it is certainly contained in Scripture or Tradition. For a Bishop to vote this doctrine merely out of regard for the Holy See would be a mortal sin. There was no constant Tradition for Infallibility. On the contrary, the opposite opinion appears in numberless records. St Augustine is particularly clear, and seems to have had no conception whatever of the doctrine. Bossuet's Exposition could not possibly have been approved when the doctrine prevailed, for he only mentions the primacy.

Another, who protests his abhorrence of all endeavours to detract from the primacy of the Pope, was yet constrained to plead that nothing should be said in this