CHAPTER III.
THE TERMINOLOGY OF THE DOCTRINE OF INFALLIBILITY.
I will now add a few words respecting the terms which have been used, not only in the course of the last months, but in the traditional theology of the Schools, on the doctrine of Infallibility.
Certain well-known writers have rendered memorable the formula of 'personal, separate, independent and absolute infallibility.' It has not only been used in pastoral letters, and pamphlets, but introduced into high diplomatic correspondence.
The frequency and confidence with which this formula was repeated, as if taken from the writings of the promoters of the Definition, made it not unnatural to examine into the origin, history, and meaning of the formula itself. I therefore set myself to search it out; and I employed others to do the same. As it had been ascribed to myself, our first examination was turned to anything I might have written. After repeated search, not only was the formula as a whole nowhere to be discovered, but the words of which it is composed were, with the exception of the word 'independent,' equally nowhere to be found. I mention this, that I may clear away the supposition that in what I add I have any motive of defending myself
