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Church, the power of governing it, and of censuring and creating Popes. Hence the latter being terrified at the attempts begun at Constance, and prosecuted at Basil and Pisa, endeavoured to gain princes on their side, and then made concordates with them, by which they reserved to themselves the means of profit and advantage, while they resigned to the princes the points of power and jurisdiction. Thus the temporal authority has prevailed over the spiritual; still all those in the Roman communion who do not acknowledge the personal infallibility of the Pope, hold this opinion, that the infallibility is given by Christ to his Church; that in the interval of councils, it is in the community of the bishops and pastors; and that when a council meets, the infallibility is lodged with it. In opposition to this doctrine,

II. The Article asserts the fallibility of general councils.

The truth of this assertion appears from the following considerations: 1. From our ignorance as to the properties necessary to constitute a gene

The Concordat was substituted in the room of the Pragmatic Sanction by Francis I. at the instigation of Leo X. about the year 1514. In consequence of this change, the king was invested with the privilege of nominating to the bishoprics, and the Pope, on the other hand, obtained possession of the annates or first fruits.-See Burnet's Hist. of the Reform. v. iii. par. iii. p. 1-16. and Mosheim's Hist. v. iii. cent. xvi. c. 1. sec. i. § vii. note.

ral council. Before we can be called on to submit to the authority of a council, we must examine what it consists in; whether all the bishops must be present in person or by proxy, and what share the laity or the princes, that are thought to represent their people, ought to have in it. It is next to be considered, whether a general citation is sufficient to make a council œcumenical, though there be but a small number of bishops at its first opening. Again, it must be inquired, whether any attend as representatives, and if votes are to be reckoned according to the numbers of the bishops present, or of those who depute them; and whether nations should vote in a body, as integral parts of the Church, or every individual bishop by himself; and finally, whether the decisions of councils must be unanimous, before 'they can be esteemed infallible, or whether the major vote, though exceeding only by one, or if some greater inequality be necessary, such as two-thirds, or any other proportion. Now here are numerous questions to be settled, every one of which may fairly give rise to debate. We know that a mere name cannot make a council general; neither does it consist in the number of bishops that attend; thus there were

a Canus admits, that the major part of a council may err, but adds, that the Pope is not bound to confirm their vote. Loc. Theol. 1. 5. c. 5. But surely this is resolving the authority of councils merely into the infallibility of the Pope.

but a hundred and fifty bishops present at Constantinople, and even the number which was at Nice, to the amount of three hundred and eighteen, was far exceeded by the Arian council at Arimini. All the first general councils too were composed principally of Eastern bishops, a very inconsiderable number of the Western being present at them. On the contrary, the natural idea of a general council is a meeting of all the bishops of Christendom, or at least of proxies instructed by them and their clergy; and if this description be true, then it is certain that there never yet was a general council. From these observations, we are justified in concluding, that councils are not appointed by divine authority, since we have no direction given us from God, by which we may know what they are, and what is necessary to their constitution. And we cannot suppose that he has granted so great a privilege as infallibility to a body of men, with respect to whom he has given us no information.

But further, though we should yield that there is an infallibility lodged in the Church

2. This celebrated council, at which the Western bishops, to the anmber of 400, attended, was summoned by the Emperor Constantius, in the year 359; and, at the same time, the Easterns were assembled at Seleucia in Isauria. The success of the doctrines of Arius, which were established in these councils, was principally owing to the intrigue and authority of the Emperor.-See Sulpit. Sever. Hist. Sac. 1. ii. p. 418. and Fuller's Ecclcs. Hist. v. i. p. 263.

diffusive, so that in some part, it should always be preserved from error, yet the confining of this infallibility to the greater number of such bishops as happen to come to a council, is liable to similar difficulties. For their coming might be owing to various causes, to the circumstance of their living near to the place of meeting, their being more active, or more fit for intriguing than others. The confining infallibility, then, to the greater number of such persons, is the transferring it without authority from the whole body to a select company, who, of themselves, are the least likely to consent to the engrossing this privilege by the majority of their body, inasmuch as it is their interest to maintain their right to it free from management or fraud.

2. From our ignorance as to the manner in which they must proceed. Here it is necessary to learn, whether the infallibility is annexed to their vote, whatsoever their proceedings may be, or whether they are bound to discuss each point fully? The former cannot be asserted, unless it is pretended that they vote by a special inspiration. If the latter be admitted, then we must examine what constitutes a full discussion, and whether they have made it. And if in such

a Bellarmine admits that " a lawful council may err, if it does not proceed lawfully." de Concil. 1. 2. c. 7. Now, how are we to 'discover this, but by the exercise of our private judgment?

an inquiry we find opinions falsely represented,2 if books that are spurious have been relied on, and passages of Scripture manifestly misinterpreted, can we imagine that there should be more truth in their conclusions, than in the premises from which they were deduced? Thus, an immediate inspiration must be claimed, or private judgment be admitted.

3. From our ignorance as to the authority of their decrees. It is not decided whether these decrees have their authority immediately on being made, or whether the Pope's confirmatory Bull is previously necessary. If the latter be asserted, then the infallibility is not in the council, but in the Bull. If they are infallible before the confirmation, then the infallibility is wholly in the council, and the subsequent Bull, instead of confirming their decrees, derogates from them, since what is infallible cannot be made stronger, and the pretending to add strength to it implies that it is not infallible.

It may be objected, that human constitutions are so modelled, that there must be a joint concurrence before a law can be made; and though

a Bishop Burnet here alludes to the proceedings of the second council of Nice, which were so replete with fraud, forgery, and misrepresentation of Scripture and of the Fathers, that Lenfant calls them "a tissue of impostures."-See Preservatif. contre la Reunion avec la Siege de Rome, v. iii. Let. xvii. p. 440. Ed. Amsterdam, 1723.