We do not mean that his prerogative of infallibility is invoked upon
every trivial occasion--one does not call for a Nasmyth hammer to
break a nut--but it is always there, in reserve, and may be used, on
occasion, even without summoning an Ecumenical Council, and this is a
matter of some consequence. For, though time may bring many changes
into the life of man, and may improve his physical condition and
surroundings, and add enormously to his comfort, health, and general
corporal well-being, it is found to produce no corresponding effect
upon his corrupt and fallen nature, which asserts itself as vigorously
now, after nearly two thousand years of Christianity, as in the past.
Pride and self still sway men's hearts. The spirit of independence and
self-assertion and egotism, in spite of all efforts at repression,
continue to stalk abroad. And human nature, even to-day, is almost as
impatient of restraint, and as unwilling to bear the yoke of
obedience, as in the time when Gregory resisted Henry of Germany, or
when Pius VII. excommunicated Napoleon. If, even in the Apostolic age,
when the number of the faithful was small and concentrated, there
were, nevertheless, men of unsound views--"wolves in sheep's
clothing"--amongst the flock of Christ, how much more likely is this
to be the case now.
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