should be put
forth as the arbiter of science. Let it be remembered that the exposure
of the true character of these books has been made, not by captious
enemies, but by pious and learned churchmen, some of them of the highest
dignity.

While thus the Protestant churches have insisted on the acknowledgment
of the Scriptures as the criterion of truth, the Catholic has, in our
own times, declared the infallibility of the pope. It may be said that
this infallibility applies only to moral or religious things; but where
shall the line of separation be drawn? Onmiscience cannot be limited
to a restricted group of questions; in its very nature it implies the
knowledge of all, and infallibility means omniscience.

Doubtless, if the fundamental principles of Italian Christianity be
admitted, their logical issue is an infallible pope. There is no need to
dwell on the unphilosophical nature of this conception; it is destroyed
by an examination of the political history of the papacy, and the
biography of the popes. The former exhibits all the errors and mistakes
to which institutions of a confessedly human character have been found
liable; the latter is only ton frequently a story of sin and shame.

It was not possible that the authoritative promulgation of the dogma of
papal infallibility should meet among enlightened Catholics universal
acceptance. Serious and wide-spread dissent has been produced. A
doctrine so revolting to common-sense could not find any other result.
There are many who affirm that, if infallibility exists anywhere, it is
in oecumenical councils, and yet such councils have not always agreed
with each other. There are also many who remember that councils
have deposed popes, and have passed judgment on their clamors and
contentions. Not without reason do Protestants demand, What proof can
be given that infallibility exists in the Church at all? what proof is
there that the Church has ever been fairly or justly represented in
any council? and why should the truth be ascertained by the vote of a
majority rather than by that of a minority? How often it has happened
that one man, standing at the right point of view, has descried the
truth, and, after having been denounced and persecuted by all others,
they have eventually been constrained to adopt his declarations! Of many
great discoveries, has not this been the history?

It is not for Science to compose these contesting claims; it is not for
her to determine wh