me of doctrinal development in the Catholic Church.
If there is any one thing more manifest in her ecclesiastical history
than others, it is her extreme slowness and caution in final
pronouncement, and the general wise treatment with which she has
fostered the growth of mental development, so excellent in itself, so
erratic in its courses, and so needful of her strong guiding hand.

Indeed, it has been used as a reproach against her that Rome has
originated nothing. It is true. It was not her function. She was
instituted as the guardian of the Apostolical _depositum_ of faith, over
which, of course, her control was supreme; and her jurisdiction was to
extend over all other subjects, because they necessarily touched this.
But without citing other names, St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas
stand forth as the formers of the western intellect. Men saintly in
character they were, but they had no special relations to the central
See, and were only fallible mortals like the rest of their fellows; yet,
as I say, they are to be counted the very originators of modern
Christian thought. Rome did nothing but stamp their teachings with the
seal of her approval. So was it throughout. Her work has been to check
and balance the erratic courses of the human mind, allowing it free play
within certain limits, but firmly preventing its suicidal excesses. How
tenderly has she dealt with schismatics; how forbearing has been her
conduct in regard even to the worst heretics; patiently hearing all they
had to say, allowing the force of their plea where it was possible, and
only casting them out when they proved incorrigible.

Most Protestants suppose that whereas there are two religious principles
at work in Christianity, private judgment, and authority, they have all
the private judgment, while we are weighed down by an unmitigated
authority. Nothing could be more false. This aspect of Christianity is
complete without them; they represent simply a negation, and no positive
force at all. Show me the doctrine that Protestantism has originated,
and it will then deserve to be treated in a philosophical manner. It
has had no innate life, nothing to develop from, and has simply withered
down from the first, until now the advance guard of it has reached the
shadowy ground of natural religion, and Mr. James Antony Froude, its
special champion in its past acts, can write that it is dead. On the
contrary, when I view the external aspect of Catholicism