Norcan it easily be shown that, as matter of history, former Popes or Roman Catholic Councils have always proved themselves infallible. The Council of Trent will certainly not answer to the test in the opinion of any sincere Anglican. Later Popes have arrived at decisions distinctly contrary to those of their predecessors: a Pope has even been known to retract his own earlier judgment1. The only substantial argument in favour of the Roman claim, in whatever form it is put, rests upon the promises made in Holy Scripture to the Universal Church. But this reasoning assumes that the Roman Church, together with the Churches in communion with her, is identical with the Church Catholic. And this assumption again rests on another, viz. that the Roman Church, as inheriting the jurisdiction of S. Peter, is the Mother and Mistress of all Churches. Consequently, if it has been shown that no supremacy was given by our Lord to S. Peter or delegated by S. Peter to the Bishop of Rome, the infallibility of Rome has been sufficiently disproved. It vanishes together with her supremacy. 3. Infallibility of the Catholic Church. It may be well in conclusion to analyse the grounds on which infallibility is claimed for the Church Catholic. They are, principally (1) Our Lord's promises in S. Matth. xvi. 18 and xxviii. 20: "The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it (= My Church.)" "I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." (2) S. Paul's words in 1 Tim. iii. 15: "The House of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the Truth2. 1 Scudamore, England and Rome, 410-425. Cf. Pusey, Eiren. 305-318. 2 Cf. Bp. Ellicott (Comm. on Past. Epistles, p. 51), who speaks of these words as "defining with indirect allusion to From these texts it seems to be legitimately inferred (a) that the Church is the Divinely appointed depositary of the Faith, (b) that as a whole she can never fail, and therefore (c) that as a whole she can never lose the possession of any doctrine or practice essential to her existence. So far the promise has been verified by the history of eighteen centuries. But what assurance does either Scripture or experience afford of the inerrancy of any particular officer in the Church, of any particular branch of the Church, of any particular representative assembly of the Church, or of any majority of individual members of the Church at any one time living upon earth? Yet there have been utterances of the Church's voice to which such passages of Holy Scripture do certainly seem to promise security from error. At least, to use the well-known words of Vincentius Lirinensis, "in the Catholic Church we must especially be careful to maintain that which has been believed EVERYWHERE, ALWAYS and BY ALL, for this is truly and properly Catholic1." Such are, probably, the doctrinal decisions of at least the first four Councils, ratified as they have been by the consentient voice of Eastern and Western Christendom during more than fourteen centuries. It is impossible to believe that the promised Presence of our Lord can have had so little practical effect on the destinies of the Church as to be com nascent and developing heresies (see ch. IV. I sq.), the true note, office, and vocation of the Church; 'the Apostle calls her the pillar and basis, inasmuch as it would appertain to her to possess within herself the whole body of the Truth.' Theodorus. This is no more than the 'witnessing and keeping' of Article xx. 1 His words are, "In ipsâ Catholicâ Ecclesiâ magnopere curandum est, ut id teneamus quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus creditum est; hoc est enim vere proprieque catholicum. (Commonit. I. 3.) patible with error in essentials of faith and practice universally and persistently maintained. Perhaps it would be safe to hold that in general the chance of error diminishes in proportion to the catholicity and antiquity of the tenet. Certainly such a belief in the preservative power of our Lord's Presence over the Creed of Universal Christendom in no way involves the theory of Papal or indeed of Roman infallibility. CHAPTER V. OF THE CONDITION OF THE FAITHFUL DEAD. CHURCH OF ROME. "If any one saith that after the gift of justification has been received, to every penitent sinner the guilt is remitted and the debt of eternal punishment is blotted out in such wise that there remains not any debt of temporal punishment to be discharged either in this world or in the next, in Purgatory, before the entrance to the kingdom of Heaven can be opened (to him); let him be anathema." -Co. of Trent, Sess. VI. Canon xxx. "For those who are departed in Christ and who are not yet fully purified, it [the Sacrifice of the Mass] is rightly offered, agreeably to a tradition of the Apostles."—Ib. Sess. XXII. c. ii. "Whereas the Catholic Church, instructed by the Holy Ghost, has from the sacred writings and the ancient tradition of the fathers taught in the sacred Councils and very "Receive him [i. e. a dying child] into those heavenly habitations where the souls of them that sleep in the Lord JESUS enjoy perpetual rest and felicity."-Order for Visitation of the Sick. "Almighty GOD, with whom do live the spirits of them that depart hence in the Lord, and with whom the souls of the faithful, after they are delivered from the burden of the flesh, are in joy and felicity... hasten thy kingdom, that we with all those that are departed in the true faith of thy Holy Name, may have our perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul, in thy eternal and everlasting glory.' Order for the Burial of the Dead. recently in this Ecumenical Synod that there is a purgatory1, and that the souls therein detained are helped by the suffrages of the Faithful, but principally by the acceptable Sacrifice of the altar; this holy Synod enjoins on Bishops that they diligently endeavour that the sound doctrine concerning purgatory transmitted by the Holy Fathers and sacred Councils be believed, maintained, taught and everywhere proclaimed by the faithful of Christ."-Ib. Sess. XXV. "The power of conferring indulgences was granted by Christ to the Church, and she has even in the most ancient times used the said power, delivered unto her by God."—Ib. Sess. XXV. c. xxi. "The Romish Doctrine concerning purgatory, pardons (de indulgentiis)... is a fond thing (res futilis) vainly invented and founded on no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the word of God." -Article XXII. "The Sacrifices of Masses, in the which it was commonly said that the Priest did offer Christ for the quick and dead, to have remission of pain or guilt, were blasphemous fables and dangerous deceits."—Article XXXI. 1. Testimony of Scripture as to the Present State of the Dead. The orthodox Jews of our Lord's time believed in a present condition of reward and punishment, in which the souls of the departed await the Resurrection. This belief was abundantly sanctioned 1 Bellarmine's definition of Purgatory is as follows: "Purgatory is a certain place wherein, as in a prison, souls are purified after this life-such souls as in this life have not been fully purified; in order that they may thus obtain an entrance into Heaven whither nothing unclean shall enter" (De Purgat. I. I.) 2 Josephus represents the Pharisees as believing that "souls possess an immortal vigour, and that under ground there are punishments and rewards dispensed to those who in their lifetime practised vice or virtue: that to the one an everlasting imprisonment is assigned, while to the other is given the power of returning to life." The Sadducees, on the other hand, supposed the existence of soul to terminate with that |