onviction as to the truth of
their views; but the Archbishop of Carthage, the sternest defender of
ecclesiastical unity and discipline which even the Church of the Fathers
produced, knew not that he had any such duty towards the See of St. Peter.

Nay, and St. Augustin knew it not either. It was no more the belief in his
day than in St. Cyprian's. The Donatists alleged against him in the
question of Baptism the authority of Cyprian in this great Council of
Carthage. This leads him to make a very important statement--"You are wont
to object against us Cyprian's letters, Cyprian's judgment, Cyprian's
Council: why do you assume the authority of Cyprian for your schism, and
reject his example for the peace of the Church? But who is ignorant that
canonical holy Scripture, as well of the Old as of the New Testament, is
contained in its own certain limits, and is so preferred to all subsequent
letters of Bishops, that no doubt or discussion at all can be held
concerning it, as to whether that be true or right, which is acknowledged
to be found written in it: but that the letters of Bishops which either
have been or are written after the confirmation of the canon, may be
reprehended both by the reasoning, peradventure more full of wisdom, of
some one in that matter more skilled, and by the weightier authority and
more learned judgment of other Bishops, and by Councils, if haply there has
been in them any deviation from the truth; and that Councils themselves,
holden in particular regions or provinces, yield, beyond all question, to
the authority of plenary Councils, which are made out of the whole
Christian world: and that former plenary Councils themselves are often
corrected by subsequent ones, when by some practical experience what has
been hidden is laid open, and what lay concealed is recognised, without any
puffing up of sacrilegious pride, without any haughty exhibition of
arrogance, without any strife of livid envy, with holy humility, with
Catholic peace, with Christian charity."[25] Here, where, in a _dignus
vindice nodus_, we should have expected some mention of the Chief See, and
St. Peter's rights, all is referred to the voice of Bishops in
Council,--that See, in which, according to Bellarmine, the plenitude of all
the power resides which Christ left in His Church, is not even spoken of.
He proceeds--"Wherefore holy Cyprian, the more exalted, the more humble,"
(in a matter for which he was excommunicated by the Pope,