nce, and that objections taken from history are
not valid when contradicted by ecclesiastical decrees.[381] Authority
must conquer history.

This inclination to get rid of evidence was specially associated with
the doctrine of papal infallibility, because it is necessary that the
Popes themselves should not testify against their own claim. They may be
declared superior to all other authorities, but not to that of their own
see. Their history is not irrelevant to the question of their rights. It
could not be disregarded; and the provocation to alter or to deny its
testimony was so urgent that men of piety and learning became a prey to
the temptation of deceit. When it was discovered in the manuscript of
the _Liber Diurnus_ that the Popes had for centuries condemned Honorius
in their profession of faith, Cardinal Bona, the most eminent man in
Rome, advised that the book should be suppressed if the difficulty could
not be got over; and it was suppressed accordingly.[382] Men guilty of
this kind of fraud would justify it by saying that their religion
transcends the wisdom of philosophers, and cannot submit to the
criticism of historians. If any fact manifestly contradicts a dogma,
that is a warning to science to revise the evidence. There must be some
defect in the materials or in the method. Pending its discovery, the
true believer is constrained humbly but confidently to deny the fact.

The protest of conscience against this fraudulent piety grew loud and
strong as the art of criticism became more certain. The use made of it
by Catholics in the literature of the present age, and their acceptance
of the conditions of scientific controversy, seemed to ecclesiastical
authorities a sacrifice of principle. A jealousy arose that ripened into
antipathy. Almost every writer who really served Catholicism fell sooner
or later under the disgrace or the suspicion of Rome. But its censures
had lost efficacy; and it was found that the progress of literature
could only be brought under control by an increase of authority. This
could be obtained if a general council declared the decisions of the
Roman congregations absolute, and the Pope infallible.

The division between the Roman and the Catholic elements in the Church
made it hopeless to mediate between them; and it is strange that men who
must have regarded each other as insincere Christians or as insincere
Catholics, should not have perceived that their meeting in Council was
an im