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

252 INFALLIBILITY.Protestants do, submission to the holy Scriptures. "Iought not to adduce the Council of Nice,"' says St Augustine,"nor ought you to adduce the Council of Ariminum;for I am not bound by the authority of the one, nor are youbound by the authority of the other.Let the question bedetermined by the authority of the Scriptures, which arewitnesses peculiar to neither of us, but common to both."Thus this father rejects the authority of fathers, councils,and churches, and appeals to the Scriptures alone.* Unless,then, we are good enough to believe that councils are infalliblesimply because they say they are so, we' must give upthis infallibility of councils as a chimera and a delusion.not unfrequently happens that councils contradict one another.How perplexing, in such a case, for the believer intheir inftillibility to say which to follow ! Noronly difficulty.Itis this hisIt has not yet been decided what councils are,and what are not, infallible. It is only in behalf of generalcouncils that infallibility is claimed ; but the list of generalcouncils varies in different countries. On the south of theAlps some councils are received as general and infallible,whose claim to rank as such is denied in France. " Whenthe Popish priests," asks Dr Cunningham, " of thiscountryswear to maintain all things defined by the oecumenicalcouncils, whether do they mean to follow the French or theItalian list VfThere are some E-omanists who place this wonderful prerogativein the Pope and councils acting in conjunction.Bellarmine, an unexceptionable authority, though on thesubject of the infallibility he delivers himself with somelittle inconsistency, says, "All Catholics constantly teachthat general councils confirmed by the Pope cannot err ;""and again, " Catholics agree that thePope, with a generalcouncil, cannot err in establishing articles of faith, or generalprecepts of manners."| " Doth the decree," asks Stil-* See Aug. De Unitate, c. xvi.t Stillingflcct's Doctrines and Practices, &c., by Dr Cunuingliani, p. 201.t Cell, de Couc, lib. ii. cap, ii.