by all
means be brought to the front. The fact that the Fathers of the Church
were not only her Doctors and Teachers, but also the living voices by
which alone her mind could be proclaimed to the world, and by which her
decrees used to be authoritatively promulgated;--this fact, I say, it is
which makes their words, whenever they deliver themselves, so very
important: their approval, if they approve, so weighty; their
condemnation, if they condemn, so fatal. But then, in the present
instance, they do not condemn. They neither approve nor condemn. They
simply say nothing. They are silent: and in what precedes, I have
explained the reason why. We wish it had been otherwise. We would give a
great deal to persuade those ancient oracles to speak on the subject of
these twelve verses: but they are all but inexorably silent. Nay, I am
overstating the case against myself. Two of the greatest Fathers
(Augustine and Ambrose) actually do utter a few words; and they are to
the effect that the verses are undoubtedly genuine:--'Be it known to all
men' (they say) 'that this passage _is_ genuine: but the nature of its
subject-matter has at once procured its ejection from MSS., and resulted
in the silence of Commentators.' The most learned of the Fathers in
addition practically endorses the passage; for Jerome not only leaves it
standing in the Vulgate where he found it in the Old Latin version, but
relates that it was supported by Greek as well as Latin authorities.

To proceed however with what I was about to say.

It is the authoritative sentence of the Church then on this difficult
subject that we desiderate. We resorted to the Fathers for that:
intending to regard any quotations of theirs, however brief, as their
practical endorsement of all the twelve verses: to infer from their
general recognition of the passage, that the Church in her collective
capacity accepted it likewise. As I have shewn, the Fathers decline,
almost to a man, to return any answer. But,--Are we then without the
Church's authoritative guidance on this subject? For this, I repeat, is
the only thing of which we are in search. It was only in order to get at
this that we adopted the laborious expedient of watching for the casual
utterances of any of the giants of old time. Are we, I say, left without
the Church's opinion?

Not so, I answer. The reverse is the truth. The great Eastern Church
speaks out on this subject in a voice of thunder. In all her
Patriarch