Note 26 — ON PAPAL INFALLIBILITY.

“The low Romanists who are distinguished by the name of Cisalpines, (for serious differences exist, it appears, even in the very bosom of privileged inerrancy,) not only deny the personal infallibility of the Pope, but hold also that for heresy or schism (to both of which, we find, the alleged fallible head of an infallible body is actually liable,) he may be lawfully deposed by a general council. Such being the case, they must, on their own principles, inevitably hold the infallibility of a general council even when not sanctioned by the papal confirmation: for it is quite clear, on the one hand, that no prudent Pope, at least, would ratify the sentence of his own deposition, or confirm the decree which pronounced him to be a schismatic or a heretic; and it is equally clear, on the other hand, that no general council could infallibly pronounce the Pope to be a heretic or schismatic, himself all the while stiffly denying, as of course he would deny, the offensive allegation, unless such general council, independently of any papal ratification, were itself constitutionally infallible.”—Faber’s Difficulties of Romanism, p. 247, 248.