interposition
may not rightly take place; and again, questions may be of that
urgent nature, that an appeal must, as a matter of duty, be made at
once to the highest authority in the Church; but, if we look into the
history of controversy, we shall find, I think, the general run of
things to be such as I have represented it. Zosimus treated Pelagius
and Coelestius with extreme forbearance; St. Gregory VII. was
equally indulgent with Berengarius; by reason of the very power of
the popes they have commonly been slow and moderate in their use of
it.

And here again is a further shelter for the individual reason:--the
multitude of nations who are in the fold of the Church will be found
to have acted for its protection, against any narrowness, if so,
in the various authorities at Rome, with whom lies the practical
decision of controverted questions. How have the Greek traditions
been respected and provided for in the later Ecumenical Councils, in
spite of the countries that held them being in a state of schism!
There are important points of doctrine which have been (humanly
speaking) exempted from the infallible sentence, by the tenderness
with which its instruments, in framing it, have treated the opinions
of particular places. Then, again, such national influences have a
providential effect in moderating the bias which the local influences
of Italy may exert upon the See of St. Peter. It stands to reason
that, as the Gallican Church has in it an element of France, so Rome
must have an element of Italy; and it is no prejudice to the zeal and
devotion with which we submit ourselves to the holy see to admit this
plainly. It seems to me, as I have been saying, that Catholicity is
not only one of the notes of the Church, but, according to the divine
purposes, one of its securities. I think it would be a very serious
evil, which Divine Mercy avert! that the Church should be contracted
in Europe within the range of particular nationalities. It is a great
idea to introduce Latin civilization into America, and to improve
the Catholics there by the energy of French religion; but I trust
that all European races will have ever a place in the Church, and
assuredly I think that the loss of the English, not to say the
German element, in its composition has been a most serious evil.
And certainly, if there is one consideration more than another which
should make us English grateful to Pius the Ninth, it is that, by
giving us a Church o