THE ROMANE CHVRCH.
CArd Bellarmine.o 1.1 The fift marke of the Church, is the succession of persons in the Romane Church, continuing from the time of the Apostles, vntill now: for that is the reason that she is called Apostolike. For if the ancient Fathers haue esteemed it so great an argu∣ment to proue the true Church, by the continuance of twelue, or twenty, or fortie Bishops; how much more ought we to esteeme the infallible succession of more then 200 Bishops? especially because we see that the other Apostolicke Sees are decayed and failed: that is to say, those of Antioch, Alexandria, and Ierusalem, wher∣in, after that those places were taken away from the Ro∣manes by the Persians and Sarrasins (sithens which time, there are nine hundred yeares past) there hath beene no succession, and if there were any, the same was verie ob∣scure.