[15b] Vid. Lab. tom. iv. p. 817.—Grier’s Epitome of the General Councils, pp. 61. 94.
[16a] Ruffinus, in his translation and abstract of the Nicene Canons, gives the sixth of them in these words: “The ancient custom of Alexandria and of Rome shall still be observed, that the one shall have the care or government of the Egyptian, and the other that of the suburbicary churches.”—Ut apud Alexandriam et in urbe Româ vetusta consuetudo servetur, ut vel ille Ægypti vel hic suburbicariarum ecclesiarum sollicitudinem gerat. Ruffin. Hist. lib. i. c. 6.—See also Bingham’s Antiquities, Book ix. chap. 1, sec. 9.
[16b] Universalitatis nomen quod sibi illicitè usurpavit nolite attendere:—nullus enim Patriarcharum hoc tam profano vocabulo unquam utatur.—Perpenditis, fratres carissimi, quid e vicino subsequatur cum et in sacerdotibus erumpunt tam perversa primordia. Quia enim juxta est ille de quo scriptum est; Ipse est rex super universos filios superbiæ.—Pap. Pelag. ii. epist. 8.
[17a] Nullus unquam decessorum meorum hoc tam profano vocabulo uti consensit: quia videlicet si unus patriarcha universalis dicitur, patriarcharum nomen cæteris derogatur. Sed absit, hoc absit à Christianá mente id sibi velle quenquam arripere unde fratrum suorum honorem imminuere ex quantulâcunque parte videatur!—Pap. Gregor. i. lib. iv. epist. 36.
[17b] Ego vero fidenter dico, quia quisquis se universalem sacerdotem vocat, vel vocari deciderat, in elatione suâ Anti-christum præcurrit; quia superbiendo, cæteris præponit.—Pap. Gregor. i. lib. vi. epist. 30. Attempts have been made to reconcile the language of Pelagius and Gregory, with the assumption, by their immediate successors, of the very supremacy which those two Popes so strongly reprobate. The utter futility of such attempts, the reader will see thoroughly established by Stillingfleet in his “Vindication,” part ii. chap. vi.
[19] “I would fain know whether there be any certainty that every Pope is a good Christian, or whether he may not be (in the sense of the Scripture) of the world? If not, how was it that Bellarmine should have cause to think that such a rank of them went successively together to perdition?”—Chillingworth’s Works, vol. iii. p. 359.
The same learned Cardinal whom Chillingworth here refers to, is very zealous throughout his works in defending Papal infallibility, and even ventures to affirm (Bellarm. de Pontifice Rom. lib. iv. cap. 5, in fine), “If the Pope could or should so far err, as to command the practice of vice, and to forbid virtuous actions, the Church were bound to believe vices to be good, and virtues to be bad.” The Pontiffs, whatever they may have thought of this extraordinary theory, seem in practice, by the Cardinal’s own account, to have availed themselves, in a considerable degree, of the privilege which he claims in their behalf.—See also Works of Henry More, p. 450.
[20a] “It were heartily to be wished, if he” (the Pope) “should once happen to be in cathedrâ, he would infallibly determine what is to be in cathedrâ ever after; for it would ease men’s minds of a great many troublesome scruples, which they cannot, without some infallible determination, get themselves quit of.”—Stillingfleet’s “Vindication,” p. 114.
[20b] For Bishop Stillingfleet’s argument to prove that no Pontiff has been canonically elected since the times of Sextus the Fifth, see his Vindication, part i. p. 116.
[21a] Romanus Pontifex per literas Montanistis communionem impertiit, quas, errore cognito, revocare coactus est.—Dupin de Antiq. Eccl. Dis. 5. p. 346. La Pape les Montanistes reçu dans sa communion, ce qui montre que le Pape n’étoit pas infallible.—Basnage, Hist. tom. i. p. 360.