The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

238 APOSTOLICITY, OR PETER's PRDIACYmanists are by no means at an end. Granting that Peterdid possess this dignity,— granting that ho made Rome itsseat,—and granting, too, that he could and did transmit it tohis successor when he died,—Romanists have still to showthat this dignity has descended pure and entire to the presentoccupant of the pontifical throne.It is not enough thatthe mystic waters existed on the Seven Hills eighteen centuriesago; we must be able to trace the continuity of the channelwhich has conveyed them over the intervening period toour day. Pius IX. is the two hundred and fifty-seventh nameon the pontifical list;and, in order to prove that in him residesthe plenitude of pontifical power, the Romanist mustshowthat everyone of his predecessors was duly elected,—thatnone of them fell into heresy, or into simony, or into any othererror which the Roman councils have declared to be inconsistentwith being valid successors of Peter, or, indeed, membersof the Church at all. But is there a man living who has theleast acquaintance with history, who will undertake this, orwho, on the question of genuineness, would stand surety forthe one-half of those who have sat in the chair of Peter ?Is it not notorious that that chair has been gained, in instancesnot a few, by fraud, by bribery, by violence,—thatthe election of a pope has often led to the deluging of Romewith blood,—that men who have been monsters of iniquityhave called themselves the vicars of Him who was withoutsin,—that there have been violent schisms, numerous vacancies,and sometimes two, or even three, pretenders to thepopedom, each of whom has endeavoured to establish hispretensions by excommunicating his rival,—thus affording afine specimen of Catholic unity, as they have also done ofCatholic infallibility, when, as in cases not a few, onepope has flatly contradicted another pope, and that incircumstances where it was quite possible that both popesmight be wrong, but altogether impossible thatboth couldbe right? It is notorious also, that in many instancespopes have fallen into what theChurch of Rome accountsheresy, and have ceased, in consequence, not only to be