of schism is
concerned, be utterly indefensible. But this is _not_ the point. It may
indeed be, and frequently is, so stated by unfair opponents. The real point
is, that, during the nine hundred years which elapsed between 596 and 1534
the power of the Pope, and his relation to the Bishops in his communion,
had essentially altered: had been, in fact, placed upon another basis. That
from being first Bishop of the Church, and Patriarch, originally of the ten
provinces under the Praefectus Praetorii of Italy, then of France, Spain,
Africa, and the West generally, he had claimed to be the source and channel
of grace to all Bishops, the fountain-head of jurisdiction to the whole
world, East as well as West; in fact, the 'Solus Sacerdos,' the 'Universus
Episcopus,' contemplated by St. Gregory. There is a worldwide difference
between the ancient signature of the Popes, 'Episcopus Catholicae Ecclesiae
Urbis Romae,' and that of Pope Pius at the Council of Trent, 'Ego Pius
Catholicae Ecclesiae Episcopus.' It has been no longer left in the choice
of any to accept his _Primacy_, without accepting his _Monarchy_, which
those who profess to follow antiquity must believe that the Bishops of
Nicea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon, Augustin and Chrysostom, the
West and the East, would have rejected with the horror shown by St. Gregory
at the first dawning of such an idea. And, whereas Holy Scripture and
antiquity present us with one accordant view of the Universal Church
governed by St. Peter and the Apostolic College, and, during the first six
centuries at least, as the Bishop of Rome is seen to exercise the Primacy
of St. Peter, so his brother-Bishops stand to him as the College of
Apostles stood to St. Peter: instead of this, which is the Church's divine
hierarchy, instituted by Christ Himself, the actual Roman Church is
governed by one Bishop who has an apostolical independent power, whilst all
the rest, who should be his brethren, are merely his delegates, receiving
from his hand the investiture of such privileges as they still retain. If
St. Gregory did not mean this by the terms 'Solus Sacerdos,' 'Universus
Episcopus,' what did he mean? That the Pope should be the only Priest who
offered sacrifice, or the only Bishop who ordained, confirmed, &c. is
physically impossible. Nor did the title of the Bishops of Constantinople
tend to this: but to claim to themselves jurisdiction over the co-ordinate
Patriarchs of the East, as the