Dr Milner describes it, indeed, as "drawn up in ungrammatical language, with inconclusive reasoning and erroneous theology."[1] And a vicar apostolic who first signed it afterwards withdrew his signature.[2] On the other hand, an influential section of the Communion placed the document in the British Museum, "that it may be preserved there as a lasting memorial of their political and moral integrity."[3]
The history of Irish Roman belief is similar. An Act for their relief was passed in 1793. It contains an oath which states that "it is not an article of the Catholic Faith, neither am I thereby required to believe or profess that the Pope is infallible."[4]
In an address to Protestants of the United Empire in 1813 by a Roman Catholic writer (Charles Butler), anti-Roman prejudice is reassured by the terms of the oath taken by Irish Roman Catholics:[5] "In the oath taken by the Irish Roman Catholics they swear that 'it is not an article of the Catholic faith, and that they are not thereby bound to believe or profess that the Pope is infallible.'"[6]
No less unmistakable is the language of a Roman Catholic Bishop in England in 1822:—
"Bellarmine and some other divines, chiefly Italians, have believed the Pope infallible, when proposing ex cathedra an article of faith. But in England or Ireland I do not believe that any Catholic maintains the Infallibility of the Pope."[7]
The Pastoral Address of the Irish Bishops to their clergy and laity in 1826 declared that it is "not an
