Page:William John Sparrow-Simpson - Roman Catholic Opposition to Papal Infallibility (1909).djvu/44

 24 the Universal Church, and in particular on the whole body of pastors whose duty it is to possess and communicate to others a complete knowledge of religion. Vincent considers the transmission of the Faith in its integrity the function not exclusively of the pastors, but also of the entire community of the Universal Church. His famous often quoted words must be quoted once again, for it would be impossible to express his theory in better terms than his own.

Nothing can be stronger than St Vincent's sense of the substantial immutability of the Faith. Nor is there any finer exposition than his of the principle of identity. What is perhaps even more remarkable, considering the period when he wrote, is his recognition that the principle of immutability requires to be balanced by the principle of progress. We have in his pages the earliest statement of the principles of theological development, drawn with a wonderful insight into its nature and limitations.

"But some one will say, perhaps—Shall there then be no progress in the Christian Church? Certainly all possible progress… Yet on condition that it be real progress,