his perfect orthodoxy on the subject of General Councils. Thus De Maistre's Ultramontane proclivities completely blinded him to the true nature of this form of Catholic self-expression. We should not gather from his depreciative words that the Spirit of God had anything to do with the Councils of Christendom. It is singular, moreover, that a leader of modern Extremist views should have written in this strain only twenty-six years before the Vatican Council.
De Maistre's treatment of the case of Honorius forms a most curious psychological study. The condemnation of Honorius by a General Council was to the Gallican School a conclusive proof that the Church which so expressed itself knew nothing of Ultramontane opinions on Papal Infallibility. De Maistre has a theory which we believe is entirely his own. He draws from imagination an account of what Honorius might, from an Ultramontane standpoint, be expected to have said if he had been living at the time, and had entered into the deliberations of the Council which condemned him. Here is the speech which Honorius, it appears, ought to have made:—
"My brothers, God has undoubtedly abandoned you, since you dare to judge the Head of the Church who is established to pass judgment upon you. I have no need of your assembling to condemn Monothelitism. What can you say that I have not said already? My decisions are sufficient for the Church. I dissolve this Council by withdrawing from it."
De Maistre could scarcely forget that the successor of Honorius, who on his theory ought to have made some protest against the Council's audacious treatment of their predecessor, omitted to make any. This is met with the remark that if certain successors of Honorius
