infallible authority resided.
Most Catholics, even then, believed it to be a gift conferred by
Christ upon Peter himself [who alone is the _rock_], and upon each
Pope who succeeded him in his office, personally and individually, but
some were of opinion that, not the Pope by himself, but only "the
Pope-in-Council," that is to say, the Pope supported by a majority of
Bishops, was to be considered infallible. So that, while _all_
admitted the _Pope with a majority of the Bishops_, taken together, to
be divinely safeguarded from teaching error, yet the prevailing and
dominant opinion, from the very first, went much further, and ascribed
this protection to the Sovereign Pontiff likewise when acting alone
and unsupported. This is so well known, that even the late Mr.
Gladstone, speaking as an outside observer, and as a mere student of
history, positively brings it as a charge against the Catholic Church
that "the Popes, for well-nigh a thousand years, have kept up, with
comparatively little intermission, their claim to dogmatic
infallibility" (_Vat._ p. 28). Still, the point remained unsettled by
any dogmatic definition, so that, as late as in 1793, Archbishop Troy
of Dublin did but express the true Catholic view of his own day when
he wrote: "Many Catholics contend that the Pope, when teaching the
Universal Church, as their supreme visible head and pastor, as
successor to St. Peter, and heir to the promises of special assistance
made to him by Jesus Christ, is infallible; and that his decrees and
decisions in that capacity are to be respected as rules of faith, when
they are dogmatical, or confined to doctrinal points of faith and
morals. Others," the Archbishop goes on to explain, "deny this, and
require the expressed or tacit acquiescence of the Church assembled or
dispersed, to stamp infallibility on his dogmatic decrees." Then he
concludes:--"_Until the Church shall decide_ upon this question of the
Schools, either opinion may be adopted by individual Catholics,
without any breach of Catholic communion or peace."

This was how the question stood until 1870. But it stands in that
position no longer; for the Church has now spoken--_Roma locuta est,
causa finita_. Hence, no Catholic can now deny or call into question
the great prerogative of the Vicar of Christ, without suffering
shipwreck of the faith. At the Vatican Council, Pope Pius IX. and the
Archbishops and Bishops of the entire Catholic world were gathered
togeth