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Introduction.

of 'mumpsimus." Nevertheless, as this particular mumpsimus is of German extraction, it has been thought that it would not be amiss, while German meets German in this strife of the True and of the False Infallibility, they should carry on the battle in English, that we, who have an equal interest in the issue of the contest, may hear both sides, and judge for ourselves which is the true and which the false.

And it is this which constitutes the special merit of Bishop Fessler's work, that, in this properly German quarrel, it states fairly all that Dr. Schulte has to say on his own side, so that although we have not actually his book before us, we can hear him speak both in the titles of the chapters and in the propositions brought forward, all of which are given in Dr. Schulte's own words; thus the reader, be he Catholic or be he Protestant, may see for himself what has been said on the part of those who have tried to make Infallibility impossible, by the process of reductio ad absurdum, and what by those who calmly and dispassionately have endeavoured to bring it back to its true significance.

It is strange that, considering the general interest of the subject, the comprehensive character of the work, its general acceptation in Germany, and, lastly, the author's thorough knowledge of his subject, which his peculiar position during the Council, as its Secretary-General, enabled him to obtain, so valuable a work should have remained so long untranslated. And this becomes the more remarkable when we consider that after the first edition had been sent to Rome, and there thoroughly examined and ap-