versal Bishop blasphemous and
Antichristian, expressly on the ground that it is a wrong done to the
Universal Church, to every Bishop and Priest: "If one is universal, it
remains that you are not Bishops;" declares, moreover, that St. Peter
himself is only a member of the Universal Church, as St. Paul, St. John,
St. Andrew, were other members, the heads of different communities. This
may be said to be the precise logical contradictory of De Maistre's
assertion, that "the Pope" is "the Church," in which he assuredly only
expresses the Papal idea. Rarely, indeed, is it that any controversy,
appealing to ancient times, can have a testimony on all its details so
distinct, and specific, and authoritative as this: and yet it may be said
no more than to crown the testimony of the six centuries going before it.
That during this period the Bishop of Rome was recognised to be first
Bishop of the whole Church, of very great influence, successor of St.
Peter, and standing in the same relation to his brethren the Bishops that
St. Peter stood in to his brother Apostles; this, on the whole, I believe
to be the testimony of the first six centuries, such as a person, not
wilfully blind, and who was not content to take the witness of a Father
when it suited his purpose and pass it by when it did not, would draw from
ecclesiastical documents. I have set it forth to the best of my ability, as
well where it seemed to tell against the present position of the Church of
England, as in those many points in which it supports her.

What then is our defence on her part against the charge of schism? It is
simply this. That no one can now be in the communion of Rome without
admitting this very thing which Pope Gregory declares to be blasphemous and
anti-Christian, and derogatory to the honour of every Priest. This is the
very head and front of our offending, that we refuse to allow that the Pope
is Universal Bishop. If the charge were that we refuse to stand in the same
relation to the Pope that St. Augustin of Canterbury stood in to this very
St. Gregory, that we refuse to regard and honour the successor of St.
Gregory with the same honour with which our Archbishops, as soon as they
were seated in the government of their Church, and were no longer merely
Missionaries but Primates, regarded the occupant of St. Peter's See, I
think both the separation three hundred years ago, and the present
continuance of it on our part, would, so far as this question