Page:William John Sparrow-Simpson - Roman Catholic Opposition to Papal Infallibility (1909).djvu/56

In the middle of the seventeenth century Holstein, afterwards librarian of the Vatican, found the MS. at Rome.^[1] Another MS. was found in the Jesuit College of Clermont in Paris. Holstein prepared an edition for the press. It should have seen the light in 1650.^[2] Nothing was wanting but approval of the censors. The approval was, however, refused, and the copies were consigned to imprisonment in the Vatican. The reason for this suppression is given by the liturgical writer, Cardinal Bona:^[3]—

 

"Since in the Profession of Faith by the Pope elect, P. Honorius is condemned as having given encouragement to the depraved assertions of heretics—if these words actually occur in the original and there is no obvious means of remedying such a wound—it is better that the work should not be published—præstat non divulgari opus."^[4]

 

Such was Cardinal Bona's opinion and advice.

Another learned writer, P. Sirmond, in a letter to Holstein, expressed himself with still more remarkable frankness:—

 

"It appears to me not so astonishing," said Sirmond, "that the Greek Monothelites should attempt to identify Honorius with their error, as it seems extraordinary that the Romans themselves, in the newly elected Pope's Profession of Faith, should have branded the name of Honorius together with the authors of heretical ideas, such as Sergius, etc., for having given encouragement to the depraved assertions of heretics. And yet such are the terms of that Profession of Faith, as I found it among the ancient formulas of the Roman Church. And this is the only reason which deterred me from

 

1. Rosière, xxxix.
2. Ibid, xviii.
3. Ibid, cxiii.
4. Ibid, cxiii.