The Divine Authority of the Church [pp. 158-169]

i885.] THE DIViNE A UTHORIrY OF THE CHuRcH.
decided that they possess this authority by exercising it frequently and without hesitation, and the church, in the ordinary
magistracy which she perpetually exercises, proceeds on it, as a
maxim and principle universally admitted and reduced to prac-m
tice.
The whole sum of the solemn, ex catkedrd doctrinal decrees of
popes and councils is contained within a very moderate compass;
it is known and received by universal and notorious consent of
all bishops and doctors, and easily to be ascertained by the instructed clergy and laity. If any individual, in his private capacity as a theologian, claims infallibility for any official acts of the
teaching authority which are not certainly and clearly authenticated as ex catkliedrd judgments, he is only expressing a private
opinion which does not make law. The opinions of single theologians, or of entire schools of theology, do not make Catholic
doctrine. The dogmas of divine and Catholic faith can be easily
ascertained by consulting any one of the best and most approved
text-books. Let any look for the propositions which are noted
as de fide catholica, and he will obtain a complete summary of all
the solemn judgments and definitions on the matter of revealed
truths which the teaching church has ever made.
It is true that what the church dispersed through the world
teaches by her ordinary magistracy as of divine faith has an
equal authority with her solemn teaching. Active infallibility is
always in the teaching church, passive infallibility in the body of
the faithful. The principal dogmas defined by the solemn acts of
the church were explicitly taught and believed as of divine faith
before the first cecumenical, council was convoked; and all the dogmas defined or definable have been objects of implicit faith from
the days of the apostles. But the definitions which have been
promulgated during the long series of Christian centuries have
so comprehensively embraced the totality and the component
parts of the deposit of faith, that it is difficult to say what the
church now actually teaches by her ordinary magistracy, as of
faith, which is not more formally and clearly declared and defined by her solemn judgments. That which still remains in an
implicit, undefined state, obscurely contained in Scripture, tradition, or the decrees of councils, in fact the whole contents of the
divine revelation down to its minutest details and most remote
consequences, though it all in itself pertains to faith, is not of
faith in respect to us. It must be made explicit in order that it.
may be understood in its true and certain sense as revealed
truth, and this cannot be, in an unerring manner, by a universal