that the Roman Catholics believe the doctrines of
their church to be unchangeable; and that it is a tenet of their creed,
that what their faith ever has been, such it was from the beginning,
_such it is now_, and SUCH IT EVER WILL BE." A copy of the eleventh
edition of The Faith of Our Fathers, published in Baltimore, Maryland,
in 1883, lies before me. It was written by Archbishop (now Cardinal)
James Gibbons, the highest authority of the Roman Catholic church in
this country. In page 95 he says: "It is a marvelous fact, worthy of
record, that in the whole history of the church, from the nineteenth
century to the first, no solitary example can be adduced to show that
any Pope or General Council ever revoked a decree of faith or morals
enacted by any preceding pontiff or council. Her record in the past
ought to be a sufficient warrant that she will _tolerate no doctrinal
variations in the future_." So the doctrine of her inherent right to
persecute and slay every one who disagrees with her, which has been
enacted by Pontiffs and General Councils and so carried out in the past,
is still in vogue and would now be enforced were it in her power to do
so.

While this statement of Gibbons' shows the unchangeable spirit of
Popery, still it is the basest presumption upon the historical knowledge
of the reader. The facts are that the _official_ acts of some of their
Popes and General Councils have been so far wrong that Romanists
themselves have been compelled to admit it. Thus the _sixth_ General
Council, which was held at Constantinople in 680, and which every
Catholic accepts as Ecumenical, condemned, in the strongest terms, Pope
Honorius as a Monothelite _heretic_. Let them attempt to deny it, and we
will bring forward our proof. Romish authors themselves admit it, the
well-known Dupin with the rest, as appears by the following extract from
his writings: "The Council had as much reason to censure him as Sergius,
Paulus, Peter, and the other Patriarchs oL Constantinople." He adds in
language yet more emphatic, "This will stand for certain, then, that
Honorius _was condemned_, AND JUSTLY TOO, AS A HERETIC, by the sixth
General Council." Dupin's Eccl. History, Vol. II, p. 16.

The Decretals of Isodore furnish another example of Papal infallibility
(?). For ages these documents were the chief instrument of the Popes in
extending their power and the proof of the righteousness of their
assumptions to excessive temporal authority.