all hateful in themselves, all working for truth in the result, and verifying St. Paul's language about heresies. But it required another Council to throw out the bane of "Monothelite" refinements upon the now inveterate heresy of Eutyches. The Sixth and last General Council assembled (November 7, A. D. 680) in the "Trullus," or dome-crowned hall of the palace, in New Rome. Constantine the Bearded was Emperor, and presided in person with dignity. It is gratifying to find that far down in the seventh century the Easterns still led the whole Church, and were able to close the period of Ecumenical Synods with entire fidelity to the spirit of Nicæa. Their testimony settled the Messianic controversies forever. Sifted to the bran, the Scriptures were found to have given no uncertain sound. The Christ of the Gospels was the God-man, perfect in his divine nature and perfect in his human nature; our "elder brother," and yet the Father's Consubstantial and Co-eternal Son.

26. RATIFICATIONS.

But, as bearing on subsequent histories, these auxiliary Councils yield an emphasis to the action of the entire synodical series, which is invaluable to the Catholic of our ages, who is called to resist the heretical system of Trent, and of its flagrant successor, the late "Council of Sacristans," and the decrees of Pius IX. Observe that a hundred years after the ambitious theory of Leo had been dismissed with ignominy at Chalcedon, Catholicity

1 The late Archbishop of Paris (Darboy) gave it this name.

knew nothing of it in doctrine or discipline. Rome herself had repeatedly ratified and confirmed all that had been done in spite of her, and now she was forced to set her seal, with final and conclusive force, against the Leonine assumptions. At this date, then, there was no Papacy. But note the clinching facts which follow.

The Fifth Council was called, not only without reference to any authority of the Bishop of Rome, but against his sullen and stubborn remonstrance. Vigilius, by name, was censured in its acts, and died soon after in disgrace; but not before he had humbly subscribed to its decisions, and ascribed his own previous opposition to the instigation of Satan. The unprincipled Pelagius, who had been his accomplice, and very discreditably became his successor, also subscribed to the Council, and enforced its acceptance; but he too died soon after, and has left a name stained with the taint of an unlawful intrusion into his office. Both were Bishops of Rome, but it is evident they were not Popes.

27. THE FINAL JUDGMENT.

And now comes the final judgment of the Catholic Church as to the Bishops of Rome. This Trullan Council, called without any warrant from Old Rome, and presided over by the Emperor with universal approbation, closed its work by a memorable act, of which even Bossuet and the Gallicans have recognized the vast significance. Honorius, Bishop of Rome, had patronized and defended the Monothelite heresy, but his successors had tried to

cover up his errors and to make out an apology for his course. This made matters serious. The Council had to examine his letters, and their final decision was, that "in all things Honorius has followed the opinions of Sergius, and has sanctioned his impious (Monothelite) teachings." His letters were ignominiously burned, his name was subjected to perpetual anathema, and Leo II., his successor (A. D. 682), not only ratified this solemn testimony, but added his own, condemning Honorius because, instead of "purifying his apostolic see by the doctrine of apostolic tradition, he had yielded its purity to defilement by a profane betrayal of the faith." Over and over again have the Bishops of Rome ratified this anathema, as required by the forms of the Liber Diurnus, which every pontiff was for ages obliged to sign on his election. There is no escape from the conclusion; and with. this one fact before us down falls the entire system of Trent, and all that has been based upon it since, more especially in the decrees of the late Pope addressed to his "Vatican Council." To impute any "supremacy," or "infallibility," to the Bishops of Rome, is to destroy the whole Catholic system, and to justify all the heresies and schisms they have taught, including those which the Church, in her Great Synods, has so mightily rebuked.1

28. WHO ARE CATHOLICS.

"When shall we see the Church," said St. Bernard, "as it was in the ancient days?" Should 1 See Note Q'.

Rome herself return to catholic unity, and to unfeigned love of truth and right, who would grudge to her the old canonical primacy? Let her Bishops follow St. Peter's example and humility, - who would deny to them anything that St. Peter himself ever received in the way of honour and filial affection? Not I, for one. But so long as the recent Latrocinium of the Vatican presumes to enforce a creed which the fathers never knew, and to rend the Church with new divisions, followed up by anathemas most impious and profane, "let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering.” We are the Catholics, we who accept no innovations, we who cry out with the Nicene fathers, "Let the ancient customs prevail." The great contemporary exponent of the Four Councils is Vincent of Lerins. His "Commonitory" is the voice of the fifth century as to the rule of faith, and the echo of the Synodical Period. It shows that he only is the Catholic who maintains the truth as professed from the beginning, “always, everywhere, and by all." No matter how few in number, if they stand by antiquity. A hundred and twenty souls once made up Catholicity. Such was Athanasius when "all forsook him and fled," when he stood against the world.

LECTURE IV.

THE CREATION OF A WESTERN EMPIRE.

I. THE BREAKING UP OF OLD ROME.

URPOSELY I have avoided choking my sub

PURPO

ject with the intensely interesting, but mystifying, details of the breaking up of the Roman Empire in the West. Hardly was the Christian. metropolis founded on the Bosporus, when the Goths and Vandals began to make their terrible names known to the Empire, and to receive their momentary repulse from Constantine. The inundations of barbarism were stayed till the great Theodosius had left a divided sway to his sons. The triumphant siege and pillage of Rome by Alaric begins a new period of history for the world. Augustine trembled in Africa before the downfall of an imperial system long supposed to be eternal, the last development of law for mankind. He composed his "City of God" to illustrate the only durable empire, and to disprove the outcries of the heathen remnant in the West, that the contempt of Numa's gods had occasioned the disasters of the age.