defer the definition to the future: the eighth, after the definition was made, to hinder its promulgation: the ninth—I will not say the last, for who can tell what may still come?—to affirm that the definition, though solemnly made, confirmed, and published by the Head of the Church in the Œcumenical Council, and promulgated urbi et orbi according to the traditional usage of the Church, does not bind the conscience of the faithful till the Council is concluded, and subscribed by the Bishops.
This last is the only remnant of the controversy now surviving. I can hardly believe that any one, after the letter of Cardinal Antonelli to the Nunzio at Brussels, can persist in this error. Nevertheless it may be well to add one or two words, which you will anticipate, and well know how to use.
1. A definition of faith declares that a doctrine was revealed by God.
Are the faithful, then, dispensed from believing Divine revelation till the Council is concluded, and the Bishops have subscribed it?
I hope, for the sake of the Catholic religion in the face of the English people, that we shall hear no more of an assertion so uncatholic and so dangerous.
2. But perhaps it may mean that the Council is not yet confirmed, because not yet concluded.
The Council may not yet be confirmed because not yet concluded; but the Definition is both concluded and confirmed.
The Council is as completely confirmed, in its acts hitherto taken, as it ever will or can be. The future confirmation will not add anything to that which is
