Paganism failed to destroy Catholicism by persecution, therefore Catholicism is of divine origin.
Let us make an application of this logic:
Paganism failed to destroy Catholicism by persecution; therefore, Catholicism is of divine origin.
Catholicism failed to destroy Protestantism by persecution; therefore, Protestantism is of divine origin.
Catholicism and Protestantism combined failed to destroy Infidelity; therefore, Infidelity is of divine origin.
Let us make another application:
Paganism did not succeed in destroying Catholicism; therefore, Paganism was a false religion.
Catholicism did not succeed in destroying Protestantism; therefore, Catholicism is a false religion.
Catholicism and Protestantism combined failed to destroy Infidelity; therefore, both Catholicism and Protestantism are false religions.
The Cardinal has another reason for believing the Catholic Church of divine origin. He declares that the "Canon Law is a creation of wisdom and justice to which no statutes at large or imperial pandects can bear comparison;" "that the world-wide and secular legislation of the church was of a higher character, and that as water cannot rise above its source, the church could not, by mere human wisdom, have corrected and perfected the imperial law, and therefore its source must have been higher than the sources of the world."