of Divine Faith is therefore incomplete so long as the infallibility of the proponent be not fully defined.
12. The same is true as to the treatise de Ecclesia. The infallibility of the Church dispersed or congregated is matter of necessary faith. The infallibility of the eighteen General Councils in which the Church has been congregated is also of necessary faith. But the Church, during the last eighteen centuries, has done a multitude of acts by its Head alone. Are these acts infallible or not? For instance, the declaration of original sin by Innocent I., and of the Canon by Pope Gelasius; and more recently, of the Immaculate Conception by Pius IX. What does the treatise de Ecclesia teach as to the Head of the Church and his prerogatives? Are his declarations and condemnations in matters of faith and morals fallible or infallible? The question has been formally raised, and is of the greatest practical moment. Until it be solved, the treatise de Ecclesia is so far incomplete.
13. The practical importance of this question will be manifest at once by remembering that for three hundred years the Pontiffs have elaborately and expressly condemned a long series of propositions in theology and philosophy. The 'Theses Damnatæ' are very numerous. Now, are these fallible or infallible? Do they require of us the assent of faith, resting upon the Divine authority from which they emanate; or are they venerable utterances, to be respected indeed always, with assent if we agree with them, with silence if we do not? Has the
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