the view that Catholic writers are not bound only by those decisions of the Infallible Church which regard articles of faith. They must also submit to the theological decisions of the Roman congregations, and to the opinions which are commonly received in the schools; and it is wrong, though not heretical, to reject those decisions or opinions.
In a word, therefore, the Brief affirms that the common opinions and explanations of Catholic divines ought not to yield to the progress of secular science, and that the course of theological knowledge ought to be controlled by the decrees of the Index. Confronted with this Declaration of Authority, Lord Acton professed himself resolved "to interpret the words as they were really meant, and not to elude their consequence by subtle distinctions, to profess adoption of maxims which no man who holds the principles of the Review can accept in their intended signification." In this Brief—"It is the design of the Holy See not, of course, to deny the distinction between dogma and opinion, … but to reduce the practical recognition of it among Catholics to the smallest possible limits."
Consequently, the question arose, what future was possible for the Home and Foreign Review? Continued existence on unaltered principles meant reiteration of principles denounced at Rome.
"The periodical reiteration of rejected propositions would amount to insult and defiance, and would probably provoke more definite measures; and thus the result would be to commit authority yet more irrevocably to an opinion which might otherwise take no deep root, and might yield ultimately to the influence of time."
That this change of mind on the part of authority would be anything else than the far-off outcome of a
