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The True and the False

extended over the whole orbis terrarum.' 'Non solum in rebus, quæ ad fidem et mores, sed etiam in iis, quæ ad disciplinam et regimen Ecclesiæ per totum orbem diffusæ pertinent.' Thus there are here distinguished four classes of matters as belonging to the province of things ecclesiastical, which fall under the supreme power of the Pope:

i. Matters of faith.

ii. Matters of morals.

iii. Matters of discipline.

iv. Matters of government.

In all these matters the faithful owe a true obedience to the Pope.

(4) Then in the fourth chapter, entitled 'On the Infallible Teaching Office of the Roman Pope,' the Council treats exclusively of the teaching power of the Pope—matters, that is, of the first and second class, faith and morals, not matters of the third and fourth class, i.e. discipline and government. Accordingly, it is only as regards definitions of the Pope upon faith and morals, that the Council defines, as a proposition revealed by God, that they possess infallible certainty by virtue of the unerring divine assistance promised to the Pope in St. Peter, i.e. as the successor of St. Peter. Cardinal Bellarmine had already made this distinction, speaking of the doctrine on morals as follows (De Rom. Pontif. lib. iv. cap. v.): 'Non potest errare summus Pontifex in præceptis morum, quæ toti ecclesiæ præscribuntur, et quæ in rebus necessariis ad salutem, vel in iis quæ per se bona et mala sunt, versantur.' What he then says further in this place refers to discipline: 'Non est erroneum di-