We might give many instances of this, and quote from many sources, but let the following extract from London’s leading journal serve as an example.  It is no other paper than the Times, which makes the following admission on occasion of the Vatican Council which opened in 1869:  “Seven hundred Bishops, more or less, representing all Christendom, were seen gathered round one altar and one throne, partaking of the same Divine Mystery, and rendering homage, by turns, to the same spiritual authority and power.  As they put on their mitres, or took them off, and as they came to the steps of the altar, or the foot of the common spiritual Father, it was IMPOSSIBLE not to feel the UNITY and the power of the Church which they represented” (16th Dec., 1869).  Here, then, is the most influential journal certainly of Great Britain, perhaps of the world, proclaiming to its readers far and wide, not simply that the Roman Catholic Church is one, but that her oneness is of such a sterling quality, and of so pronounced a character that it is impossible—­mark the word, impossible!—­not to feel it.  Yet men ask where the Church of God is to be found.  They ask for a sign, and lo! when God gives them one they cannot see it, nor interpret it, nor make anything out of it:  and prefer to linger on in what Newman calls “the cities of confusion,” than find peace and security in “the communion of Rome, which is that Church which the Apostles set up at Pentecost, which alone has ’the adoption of sons, and the glory and the covenants and the revealed law, and the service of God and the promises,’ and in which the Anglican [or any other Protestant] communion, whatever it merits and demerits, whatever the great excellence of individuals in it, has, as such, no part”.  But this is a digression.  Let us return to our subject.

The incontestable value and immense practical importance of the Papal prerogative of infallibility have been rendered abundantly manifest ever since its solemn definition nearly forty years ago.  In fact, although the enormous increase of the population of the world has not rendered the position of the Sovereign Pontiff any easier, yet he is better fitted and equipped since the definition to cope promptly and effectually with errors and heresies as they arise than he was before.  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