Church, and then afterwards with the doctrine respecting the relations between Church and State, or vice versâ; that reasons can be alleged on both sides; and that the view that the doctrine respecting the Pope ought to take precedence is, at any rate, a well-grounded one.
But it may be said that, had this question of the relations of Church and State taken the precedence, difficulties touching the Infallibility of the Pope would have then been examined. No doubt they would; and so they have been now, though not exactly in the form in which one portion of the Council wished and required. The discussion, which continued for many weeks, in which bishops of all countries took part, had this very object in view—viz. to throw all possible light on the subject when considered on every side.
But, continues Dr. Schulte, 'anyhow these difficulties have not all been properly solved.'
To this I answer: If before doctrinal matters were decided in the Catholic Church, we had always had to wait until all difficulties were cleared away, General Councils would have had a long time to wait. When the Council of Nicæa declared that the doctrine, 'The Son of God is very God,' was a dogma of the faith, all difficulties were so far from being cleared away, that during four whole centuries, in which period flourished the greatest teachers of doctrine the world has ever known—Athanasius, Hilary, Basil, Ambrose—those theologians had to put forth their whole strength in order to solve these difficulties. This has been the case with subsequent General Councils; and it is the excellent and all-important task of the science of theo-
