ng or removing it,
and no other remedy is efficacious but that which it applies to
itself.[357] There can be no free philosophy if we must always remember
dogma.[358] Philosophy includes in its sphere all the dogmas of
revelation, as well as those of natural religion. It examines by its own
independent light the substance of every Christian doctrine, and
determines in each case whether it be divine truth.[359] The conclusions
and judgments at which it thus arrives must be maintained even when they
contradict articles of faith.[360] As we accept the evidence of
astronomy in opposition to the once settled opinion of divines, so we
should not shrink from the evidence of chemistry if it should be adverse
to transubstantiation.[361] The Church, on the other hand, examines
these conclusions by her standard of faith, and decides whether they can
be taught in theology.[362] But she has no means of ascertaining the
philosophical truth of an opinion, and cannot convict the philosopher of
error. The two domains are as distinct as reason and faith; and we must
not identify what we know with what we believe, but must separate the
philosopher from his philosophy. The system may be utterly at variance
with the whole teaching of Christianity, and yet the philosopher, while
he holds it to be philosophically true and certain, may continue to
believe all Catholic doctrine, and to perform all the spiritual duties
of a layman or a priest. For discord cannot exist between the certain
results of scientific investigation and the real doctrines of the
Church. Both are true, and there is no conflict of truths. But while the
teaching of science is distinct and definite, that of the Church is
subject to alteration. Theology is at no time absolutely complete, but
always liable to be modified, and cannot, therefore, be made a fixed
test of truth.[363] Consequently there is no reason against the union of
the Churches. For the liberty of private judgment, which is the formal
principle of Protestantism, belongs to Catholics; and there is no actual
Catholic dogma which may not lose all that is objectionable to
Protestants by the transforming process of development.[364]

The errors of Dr. Frohschammer in these passages are not exclusively his
own. He has only drawn certain conclusions from premisses which are very
commonly received. Nothing is more usual than to confound religious
truth with the voice of ecclesiastical authority. Dr. Frohschammer,
havin