others were devised for a purpose; and he fixed his attention more and more on those which were the work of design."[1] The question raised by the mediæval fables of the Papacy became theologically of grave concern: "How far the persistent production of spurious matter had permanently affected the genuine constitution and theology of the Church?" From the fables, Döllinger advanced to the forged decretals. He studied "the long train of hierarchical fictions which had deceived men like Gregory VII., St Thomas Aquinas, and Cardinal Bellarmine."[2] "And it was," says Acton, "the history of Church government which so profoundly altered his position." Existing ecclesiastical developments had to be tested by the past; their value disentangled from the fictitious elements which contributed to produce them. The famous Canon of St Vincent of Lerins, the appeal to antiquity, universality, and consent, came to have increasing worth in Döllinger's mind. "He took the words of St Vincent," says Acton,[3] "not merely for a flash of illumination, but for a scientific formula and guiding principle." At first insensibly, but more and more definitely, Döllinger diverged from the axioms of the Ultramontanes. Catholic he continued to be throughout, and to the very last; but historical knowledge seemed to him impossible to combine with the popular Roman theories of the day. Under his intellectual rule the Munich School acquired immense ascendancy. It became the recognised centre of ecclesiastical learning, Catholic yet critical. And, above his colleagues, Döllinger became the adviser of the Church in Germany.[4] Montalembert attended lectures there, and Acton, rejected at
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CHAP. XIII.]
DÖLLINGER
189
