without delay, and before they can breed a pestilence and corrupt a
whole neighbourhood. But the complicated machinery of a great
Ecumenical Council, which involves prolonged preparation, considerable
expense, and a temporary dislocation in almost every diocese
throughout the world, is too cumbersome and slow to be called into
requisition whenever a heresy has to be blasted, or whenever a
decision has to be made known.

Hence we cannot help recognising and admiring the Providence of God
over His Church, in thus simplifying the process, in these strenuous
days, by which His truth is to be maintained and His revelation
protected. For the fact--true from the beginning, _viz._, that the
Pope enjoys the prerogative of personal infallibility--is not only a
profound truth; but a truth for the first time formally recognised,
defined, promulgated and explicitly taught as an article of Divine
faith. Consequently, without summoning a thousand Bishops from the
four quarters of the globe, the Sovereign Pontiff may now rise in his
own strength, and proclaim to the entire Church what is, and what is
not, consonant with the truths of revelation. This is evident from the
Vatican's definition, which declares that "THE POPE HAS THAT SAME
INFALLIBILITY WHICH THE CHURCH HAS"--"Romanum Pontificem eâ
infallibilitate pollere, quâ divinus Redemptor Ecclesiam suam in
definiendâ doctrinâ de fide vel moribus instructam esse voluit". Words
of the Bull, "PASTOR ÆTERNUS".

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 4: See _Life of Cardinal Manning_, vol. ii., p. 452.]