it allowable, must be very great also. And
so Kenrick: "It is confessed by all Catholics that, in the common
intercourse of life, all ambiguity of language is to be avoided; but
it is debated whether such ambiguity is ever lawful. Most theologians
answer in the affirmative, supposing a _grave cause_ urges, and the
[true] mind of the speaker can be collected from the adjuncts, though
in fact it be not collected."

However, there are cases, I have already said, of another kind, in
which Anglican authors would think a lie allowable; such as when a
question is _impertinent_. Accordingly, I think the best word for
embracing all the cases which would come under the "justa causa," is,
not "extreme," but "special," and I say the same as regards St.
Alfonso; and therefore, above in pp. 242 and 244, whether I speak of
St. Alfonso or Paley, I should have used the word "special," or
"extraordinary," not "extreme."

What I have been saying shows what different schools of opinion there
are in the Church in the treatment of this difficult doctrine; and,
by consequence, that a given individual, such as I am, _cannot_ agree
with all, and has a full right to follow which he will. The freedom
of the schools, indeed, is one of those rights of reason, which the
Church is too wise really to interfere with. And this applies not to
moral questions only, but to dogmatic also.

It is supposed by Protestants that, because St. Alfonso's writings
have had such high commendation bestowed upon them by authority,
therefore they have been invested with a quasi-infallibility. This
has arisen in good measure from Protestants not knowing the force
of theological terms. The words to which they refer are the
authoritative decision that "nothing in his works has been found
_worthy of censure_," "censura dignum;" but this does not lead to the
conclusions which have been drawn from it. Those words occur in a
legal document, and cannot be interpreted except in a legal sense. In
the first place, the sentence is negative; nothing in St. Alfonso's
writings is positively approved; and secondly it is not said that
there are no faults in what he has written, but nothing which comes
under the ecclesiastical _censura_, which is something very definite.
To take and interpret them, in the way commonly adopted in England,
is the same mistake, as if one were to take the word "apologia" in
the English sense of apology, or "infant" in law to mean a little
child.

1.