very poor logician. Until 1870, he was a practising Catholic, and,
therefore, like every other Catholic, he, of course, admitted that the
Pope and the Bishops, speaking collectively, were divinely supported
and safeguarded from error, when they enunciated to the world any
doctrine touching faith or morals. Yet, when the Pope and the Bishops,
assembled at the Vatican, did so speak collectively, and did
conjointly issue the decree of Papal Infallibility, he proceeded to
eat his own words, refused to abide by their decision, and was
deservedly turned out of the Church of God: being excommunicated by
the Archbishop of Munich on the 17th of April, 1871, in virtue of the
instructions given by Our Divine Lord Himself, _viz._: "If he will not
hear the Church (cast him out, _i.e._), let him be to thee as the
heathen and publican" (Matt. xviii. 17). He, and the few misguided men
that followed him in his rebellion, and called themselves Old
Catholics, had been quite ready to believe that the Pope, with the
Bishops, when speaking as one body, were Infallible. In fact, if they
had not believed that, they never could have been Catholics at any
time. But they did not seem to realise the sufficiently obvious fact
that, whether they will it or not, and whether they advert to it or
not, it is utterly impossible now to deny the Infallibility of the
Pope personally and alone, without at the same time denying the
Infallibility of the "Pope and the Bishops collectively," for the
simple reason that it is precisely the "Pope and the Bishops
collectively" who have solemnly and in open session declared that the
Pope enjoys the prerogative of Infallibility in his own individual
person. Since the Vatican Council, one is forced by the strict
requirements of sound reason to believe, either that the Pope is
Infallible, or else that there is no Infallibility in the Church at
all, and that there never had been.

Those who were too proud to submit to the definition followed, of
course, the example of earlier heretics in previous Councils. They
excused themselves on the plea that the Council was (_a_) not free, or
else (_b_) not sufficiently representative, or, finally, (_c_) not
unanimous in its decisions. But such utterly unsupported allegations
served only to accentuate the weakness of their cause and the
hopelessness of their position; since it would be difficult, from the
origin of the Church to the present time, to find any Council so free,
so rep