Page:William John Sparrow-Simpson - Roman Catholic Opposition to Papal Infallibility (1909).djvu/51



case of Pope Honorius naturally occupied the attention of Roman Catholics more than any other instance of papal pronouncements, because it presented peculiar difficulties to the advocates of Infallibility. The literature created by this single case within the Roman Communion is enormous. We shall but represent its actual historical position in the development of the subject, if we treat it at considerable and even disproportionate length. For in reality it is no solitary incident. It reaches out into the Universal Councils of the Church. It shows the early conception of the relation between Council and Pope; what the Collective Episcopate thought of the nature of a papal definition of faith; what subsequent Popes thought of a predecessor's pronouncement.

To understand it we must revert to the conditions of Christian thought when the first four General Councils were completed. The Incarnation was then interpreted to involve two natures united in one Person. But the inferences which this statement required were not yet clearly thought out. The difficulty of the period was to allow full scope to the human nature in Christ. If there was one Person in Christ, then there must be one will, and that will manifestly divine. Accordingly it was supposed that His human nature had no human