Page:William John Sparrow-Simpson - Roman Catholic Opposition to Papal Infallibility (1909).djvu/78

 58 faculty of the University of Paris, was the strenuous advocate of the doctrine that the supreme authority in Christendom was the Council, not the Pope. They declared that things were come to such a pass, through the Schism, that on all sides men did not hesitate publicly to affirm that it was purely indifferent whether there were two Popes or twelve. Gerson, the celebrated Chancellor of the University of Paris, reassured men by asserting that the ultimate authority in Christendom was the entire Church and not the Pope. This teaching implies a denial of Papal Infallibility: and with this teaching the entire Church in France was identified.

The perplexity of the situation forced upon men's attention certain neglected aspects of ecclesiastical truth. It compelled them to consider, what resources, apart from the Pope, did the Church possess? The rival Pontiffs scandalising Christendom by their selfish indifference, as it appeared, to the Church's real interests, challenged reflection on the relation between the Papacy and the Church. Yet where was the authority competent to intervene? Theories of papal power had greatly developed since the age of Honorius. The Pope's practical ascendancy was very different from that which existed eight hundred years before. Habitual acquiescence in large practical assumptions made it harder now than in earlier times to find the true solution. The problem, therefore, absorbed the gravest attention of the ablest theologians of the day.

The Pope, said Gerson, is removable by his own voluntary abdication. This was historically exemplified in the case of Pope Celestine, who, while he abdicated the Papacy, is elevated among the saints. And if removable by his own act, he must be also removable by the Church, or by its representative, a General Council.