invoked, except under special and indeed we may certainly add, very
exceptional circumstances. And further--unlike other powers--it can
never be delegated to another. The Pope himself is Infallible, but he
cannot transfer nor communicate his Infallibility, even temporarily or
for some special given occasion, to anyone else who may, in other
respects, represent him, such as a Legate, Ambassador, or Nuncio.

"Neither in conversation," writes the theologian Billuart, "nor in
discussion, nor in interpreting Scripture or the Fathers, nor in
consulting, nor in giving his reasons for the point which he has
defined, nor in answering letters, nor in private deliberations,
supposing he is setting forth his own opinion, is the Pope
infallible." He is not infallible as a theologian, or as a priest, or
a Bishop, or a temporal ruler, or a judge, or a legislator, or in his
political views, or even in the government of the Church: but only
when he teaches the Faithful throughout the world, _ex cathedra_, in
matters of faith or of morals, that is to say, in matters relating to
revealed truth, or to principles of moral conduct.

"It in no way depends upon the caprice of the Pope, or upon his good
pleasure, to make such and such a doctrine the object of a dogmatic
definition. He is tied up and limited to the divine revelation, and to
the truths which that revelation contains. He is tied up and limited
by the Creeds, already in existence, and by the preceding definitions
of the Church. He is tied up and limited by the divine law and by the
constitution of the Church. Lastly, he is tied up and limited by that
doctrine, divinely revealed, which affirms that, alongside religious
society, there is civil society, that alongside the Ecclesiastical
Hierarchy, there is the power of temporal magistrates, invested, in
their own domain, with a full sovereignty, and to whom we owe in
conscience obedience and respect in all things morally permitted, and
belonging to the domain of civil society."[8]

Further, a definition of divine faith must be drawn from the Apostolic
deposit of doctrine, in order that it may be considered an exercise of
infallibility, whether in Pope or Council. Similarly, a precept of
morals, if it is to be accepted as from an infallible voice, must be
drawn from the moral law, that primary revelation to us from God. The
Pope has no power over the Moral Law, except to assert it, to
interpret it and to enforce it.

6. From this,