than twenty years he has been beset by enemies. And yet they are the true principles of Church government, transmitted by the Fathers, restored in the Councils of Constance and Basle, which are being attacked through him.[1] The example of Richer is intended as a warning to frighten the theologians of Paris from maintaining the doctrine of their fathers. Accordingly whatever his malicious opponents may contrive at this day, or may hereafter contrive against him, he prays that he may have the grace to forgive and the fortitude to resist. In this unhappy age in which truth is diminished among the children of men he registers his emphatic rejection of the theory that the Pope is the absolute infallible ruler of the Church.[2]
Undoubtedly this was the faith in which Richer died[3]
Another instance of the teaching of the French Church occurs in a book by Francis Veron, entitled The Rule of Faith, or a separation of those matters which are of Catholic faith from those that are not. Veron was Doctor of Theology in Paris, and died in 1646.[4] He quotes the doctrine of Trent and Florence. Trent committed him to the recognition of the Roman Church as the Mother and Mistress of all Churches; to the belief that the Roman Pontiff is Peter's successor and Vicar of Christ; and to the duty of obedience to his commands. The Council of Florence described the Pope as Head of the whole Church, and as Father and Teacher of all Christians; and affirmed him to possess a plenary power, such as is recognised in the Acts of the Ecumenical Councils, and in the canons. So much, then, Veron acknowledges as of faith. But
