The Pope and the Church Considered in Their Mutual Relations, with Reference to the Errors of the High Church Party in England; With Reference to the Errors of the High Church Party in England (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1870. Excerpt: ... SECTION VI. THE ROMAN PONTIFF REGARDED AS SUPREME JUDGE OF HERESY DURING THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. ST. CYPRIAN AND POPE ST. STEPHEN. POPE Martin I. solemnly proclaimed in the Lateran Council that it belongs to Peter and his See to shut the Kingdom of Heaven against faithless heretics, and to pass judgment on all doctrines contrary to the Catholic faith and to the pure tradition of the Fathers.256 In that very age the great Confessor of faith, St. Maximus, announced the same maxim in the East, asserting that it is the Roman See which shuts the tongue of every heretic who proudly speaks against justice.257 It was then with good reason that various Popes, and especially Leo IX., reminded Michael Cerularius that to overthrow heresies had always been the work of the Apostolic See; and that this See had already destroyed as many as ninety heresies which had arisen in the East, defiling the purity of the Catholic Church.258 Pope Leo spoke the truth, and his language is the language of all antiquity, evidenced by historical documents. Careful and conscientious study of ecclesiastical history cannot lead to any other conclusion. It is said by Mr. Palmer, and Dr. Pusey repeats the remark, that even before the Council of Nicaea, more 256 In Cone. Lat., Seer. ii. (Labbe, t. vii., p. 162). 257 In Opusculis ad Marinum, Ex Epist. Roma scripta (Op., t. ii., p. 140. Edit. Migne). 258 Epist. i. Leonis IX. ad Michaelem Cerularium, na. vii., viii. (Labbe, t. xi., p. 1323). than ninety heresies were suppressed by the arguments and authority of Bishops and provincial Synods.259 But these writers are mistaken in supposing that if the voice of the supreme tribunal of Rome had been silent, the arguments and the authorities of the individual Bishops, or of their provincial Synods...