What I have now advanced is admitted by all theologians, as
appears from the following axiom of Cardinal Bellarmine, a member of
your Society: "General and lawful councils are incapable of error in
defining the dogmas of faith; but they may err in questions of
fact." In another place he says: "The pope, as pope, and even as the
head of a universal council, may err in particular controversies of
fact, which depend principally on the information and testimony of
men." Cardinal Baronius speaks in the same manner: "Implicit
submission is due to the decisions of councils in points of faith;
but, in so far as persons and their writings are concerned, the
censures which have been pronounced against them have not been so
rigourously observed, because there is none who may not chance to be
deceived in such matters." I may add that, to prove this point, the
Archbishop of Toulouse has deduced the following rule from the letters
of two great popes- St. Leon and Pelagius II: "That the proper
object of councils is the faith; and whatsoever is determined by them,
independently of the faith, may be reviewed and examined anew: whereas
nothing ought to be re-examined that has been decided in a matter of
faith; because, as Tertullian observes, the rule of faith alone is
immovable and irrevocable."
Hence it has been seen that, while general and lawful councils
have never contradicted one another in points of faith, because, as M.
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