the miserable doings of the sixteenth century have hid
its light to uncounted millions.

And, now, where shall I find that shining light, that overcoming power,
which my reason tells me to expect? I quote the words of one who sought
for many years and at last found:--

"This power, viewed in its fulness, is as tremendous as the giant evil
which has called it forth. It claims, when brought into exercise in the
legitimate manner, for otherwise, of course, it is but dormant, to have
for itself a sure guidance into the very meaning of every portion of the
Divine Message in detail, which was committed by our Lord to His
Apostles. It claims to know its own limits, and to decide what it can
determine absolutely and what it cannot. It claims, moreover, to have a
hold upon statements not directly religious, so far as this, to
determine whether they indirectly relate to religion, and, according to
its own definitive judgment, to pronounce whether or not, in a
particular case, they are consistent with revealed truth. It claims to
decide magisterially, whether infallibly or not, that such and such
statements are or are not prejudicial to the Apostolical _depositum_ of
faith, in their spirit or in their consequences, and to allow them, or
condemn and forbid them accordingly. It claims to impose silence at will
on any matters, or controversies, of doctrine, which on its own _ipse
dixit_ it pronounces to be dangerous, or inexpedient, or inopportune. It
claims that whatever may be the judgment of Catholics upon such acts,
these acts should be received by them with those outward marks of
reverence, submission, and loyalty, which Englishmen, for instance, pay
to the presence of their sovereign, without public criticism upon them,
as being in their matter inexpedient, or in their manner violent or
harsh. And lastly, it claims to have the right of inflicting spiritual
punishment, of cutting off from the ordinary channels of divine life,
and of simply excommunicating those who refuse to submit themselves to
its formal declarations. Such is the infallibility lodged in the
Catholic Church, viewed in the concrete, as clothed and surrounded by
the appendages of its high sovereignty; it is, to repeat what I said
above, a supereminent prodigious power sent upon earth to encounter and
master a giant evil."[B]

Such is the weapon placed by divine power in the hands of the Church for
her conflict with the world. And this being so, the inquiring