the path of this
doctrine is the case of Liberius, Pope in the middle of the fourth
century. He is accused--and to ordinary minds the accusation seems
just--of having signed an Arian formula, of having communicated with the
Arians, and of having anathematized St. Athanasius. He stood firm for a
while, but was exiled by the Emperor. During his absence Felix II. was
chosen Pope. Liberius, after a time was permitted to return; whereupon
the spectacle, so often afterwards repeated, was witnessed of two Popes
competing for the Papal throne. Felix, however he may have fared in
life, has fairly surpassed his opponent in death, since Felix appears in
the Roman Martyrology as a Saint and a Martyr under the date of July
29; while Liberius is not admitted therein even as a Confessor. This
would surely seem to give us every guarantee for the sanctity of Felix,
and the fallibility of Liberius, as the Roman Martyrology of to-day is
guaranteed by a decree of Pope Gregory XIII., issued "under the ring of
the Fisherman." In this decree "all patriarchs, archbishops, bishops,
abbots, and religious orders," are bidden to use this Martyrology
without addition, change, or subtraction; while any one so altering it
is warned that he will incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the
Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul. The earlier Bollandists, with this
awful anathema hanging over them, most loyally accepted the Roman
Martyrology, and therefore most vigorously maintained, in the seventh
volume for July, the heresy of Liberius, as well as the orthodoxy and
saintship of Felix. But, as years rolled on, this admission was seen to
be of most dangerous consequence; and so we find, in the sixth volume,
for September, that Felix has become, as he still remains in current
Roman historians, like Alzog, a heretic, a schismatic, and an anti-Pope,
while Liberius is restored to his position as the only valid and
orthodox Bishop of Rome. But then the disagreeable question arises, if
this be so, what becomes of the Papal decree of Gregory XIII. issued
_sub annulo piscatoris_, and the anathemas appended thereto? With the
merits of this controversy, however, we are, as historical students, in
a very slight degree concerned; and we simply produce these facts as
specimens of the riches contained in the externally unattractive volumes
of the "Acta Sanctorum." Space would fail us, did we attempt to set
forth at any length the contents of these volumes. Suffice it to say
t