read throughout the whole
world, as being, by virtue of that fact, the one communion in which alone
there was salvation, and this upon the testimony of the Holy Scriptures
only. "To salvation itself, and eternal life, no one arrives, save he who
has Christ for his head. But no one can have Christ for his head, except he
be in His Body, which is the Church, which like the Head itself we ought to
recognise in the Holy Canonical Scriptures, nor to seek after it in the
various reports, opinions, doings, sayings, and sights of men."[49] But in
the whole book there is not one word about the Roman see, or the necessity
of communion with it, save as it forms part of the one universal Church. It
is not named by itself any more than Alexandria, or Antioch. Any one will
see the force of this fact who has but looked into the writings of late
Roman Catholic authors. He will see how unwearied they are in setting forth
the necessity of the action of the Roman see; how they consider it, and
rightly, the centre of their system; how they are ever crying, "Without the
sovereign pontiff there is no true Christianity."--_De Maistre._ The
contrast in St. Augustin is the more remarkable. The creed of the Council
of Trent says, "I acknowledge one holy, catholic, and apostolic Roman
Church, the mother and mistress of all Churches: and I promise and vow true
obedience to the Roman Pontiff, successor of the blessed Peter, Prince of
the Apostles, and Vicar of Jesus Christ." This is distinct and unambiguous:
just as much so is St. Augustin's "orbis terrarum." "For this the whole
world says to them (the Donatists,) an argument most briefly stated, but
most powerful by its truth. The case is, the African Bishops had a contest
between themselves; if they could not arrange between themselves the
dissension which had arisen, so that the wrong side should either be
reduced to concord, or deprived, and they who had the good cause remain in
the communion of the whole world through the bond of unity, there was
certainly this resource left, that the Bishops beyond the sea, where the
largest part of the Catholic Church is spread, should judge concerning the
dissensions of their African colleagues,"[50] &c. No doubt the Bishop of
Rome was one, and the most eminent of these Bishops beyond the sea; but St.
Augustin refers the decision of the Donatist controversy not to him
specially, but to the Bishops generally. This is the very principle, for
which the Eastern Ch