Hence we cannot help recognising and admiring the Providence of God over His Church, in thus simplifying the process, in these strenuous days, by which His truth is to be maintained and His revelation protected.  For the fact—­true from the beginning, viz., that the Pope enjoys the prerogative of personal infallibility—­is not only a profound truth; but a truth for the first time formally recognised, defined, promulgated and explicitly taught as an article of Divine faith.  Consequently, without summoning a thousand Bishops from the four quarters of the globe, the Sovereign Pontiff may now rise in his own strength, and proclaim to the entire Church what is, and what is not, consonant with the truths of revelation.  This is evident from the Vatican’s definition, which declares that “THE POPE HAS THAT SAME INFALLIBILITY WHICH THE CHURCH HAS”—­“Romanum Pontificem ea infallibilitate pollere, qua divinus Redemptor Ecclesiam suam in definienda doctrina de fide vel moribus instructam esse voluit”.  Words of the Bull, “PASTOR AETERNUS”.

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 4:  See Life of Cardinal Manning, vol. ii., p. 452.]

CHAPTER III.

WATCHMAN!  WHAT OF THE NIGHT?

The most sacred deposit of Divine Revelation has been committed by Jesus Christ to the custody of the Church, and century after century she has guarded it with the utmost jealousy and fidelity.  Like a loyal watchman, stationed on a lofty tower, the Pope, with anxious eyes, scans the length and breadth of the world, and, as the occasion demands, boldly, and fearlessly, and categorically condemns and anathematises all who, through pride or cunning, or personal interest and ambition, or love of novelty, attempt to falsify or to minimise or to distort the teaching of Our Divine Master.  Without respect of persons, without regard to temporal consequences, without either hesitancy or ambiguity, he speaks “as one having power” (Matt. vii. 29).  And while, on the one hand, every true Catholic throughout the world, who hears his voice, is intimately conscious that he is hearing the voice of Christ Himself, “who heareth you, heareth Me” (Luke x. 16); so, on the other hand, every true Catholic likewise knows that all who refuse to obey his ruling, and who despise his warnings, are despising and disobeying Christ Himself.  “Who despises you, despises Me” (Luke x. 16).  Thus, the Sovereign Pontiff, as the infallible source of religious truth, becomes at the same time the strong bond of religious unity:  for, just as error divides men from one another, so truth always and necessarily draws them together.  In this way the Pope becomes the connecting link which unites over 250,000,000 of men:  and the foundation stone (or petros—­Peter) of the mystical building erected by God-incarnate ("Upon this rock will I build My Church,” Matt. xvi. 18).  He is the foundation, that is to say, which supports it, and keeps its various parts together, in one harmonious and symmetrical whole, and against which the angry surges rise, and the muddy waves of error for ever beat, yet ever beat in vain:  for “the gates of hell [Satan and his hosts] shall not prevail against it”.  Who doubts this denies the most formal and unmistakable promises of the Eternal Son of God, and makes of Him a liar.