encounter difficulties. After systematising against the Gallican School the grounds of their belief, they endeavoured to meet the difficulties which required to be solved. These difficulties came from many sources. They came from Councils which on various occasions constituted themselves judges of teaching sent from Rome. They came from certain teachers who opposed other works to the doctrinal decisions of Popes. But they came, above all, from Popes themselves who were not always at the level required of their mission, and at times allowed themselves to be ensnared with error."[1]
Primitive evidence for Papal Infallibility is then admitted by some Roman writers to be meagre and disappointing.[2] A curious instance of this is found in the theologian, Melchior Cano. He says that the quotations given by St Thomas from St Cyril of Alexandria afford a much clearer evidence for this doctrine than that in any other patristic writer. But when he sought for the original passages they were not to be found. "This is the work of the heretics," he exclaims indignantly. "They have mutilated the writings, and erased everything that concerned pontifical authority." So Melchior Cano. To-day, however, it is universally acknowledged that these passages were interpolations by which St Thomas Aquinas was deceived. Thus Melchior Cano's clearest evidence is nothing else than a simple forgery.
