as well as genuine developments, and what are sometimes called "corruptions," that is, exaggerations of true ideas. There are developments based on the acceptance of spurious authorities, which are of course themselves spurious. Opinions have flourished for centuries, though without receiving any authoritative sanction, and have passed away. Such, for instance, was the once universal belief in a millennial reign of Christ on earth, founded on an expectation of His speedy return, which, for wise reasons doubtless, the Apostles were suffered to entertain. It was not till this belief had gradually died out, that room was left for the doctrine of Purgatory to occupy men's thoughts. St. Paul had spoken of the fire that should try every man's work, four centuries before the full significance of his words began to be apprehended. We have the first intimations of the doctrine, as now held, in St. Augustine's De Doctrinâ Christianâ, but stated only as a conjectural view. So, again, as regards the state of the lost, St. Augustine felt no scruple in consigning unchristened infants to endless torments. No theologian holds such an opinion now. In the fifteenth

Loretto as "bringing to an issue the assumption of a particular Church to direct the conscience of the world," (Stanley's Sinai and Palestine, p. 443); and Lord Macaulay could use "a believer in the blood of St. Januarius," as a synonym for a Catholic. That miracles were to continue in the Church, and cannot therefore be rejected wholesale on à priori grounds, though no point of faith, is a direct inference from such passages of the New Testament, as Mark xvi. 17, 18, John xiv. 12, Acts ii. 17, sqq., not to insist on Old Testament prophecies. Probably Dean Milman is right in saying, (Hist of Jews, p. xx.) "Men believe in miracles, because they are religious. I doubt their becoming religious through belief in miracles."

See an article in the Christian Remembrancer, for Jan. 1847.

century the Council of Florence defined, that those who die in actual or only in original sin will be eternally, but unequally, punished. Later theology teaches, that the punishment of the latter consists solely in their not attaining to the Beatific Vision, for which they have no capabilities, and is consistent with the highest enjoyment of natural beatitude. Balmez applies the same principle to the case of adults, especially among heathen nations, who die with their moral and intellectual faculties feebly developed, and may be regarded as children in character and responsibility. The extreme predestinarian theory, into which St. Augustine was finally driven in his controversy with the Pelagians, but which he would probably have modified had he lived longer, remained for twelve centuries a floating opinion in the Church; it was not till it had been formulized into a system by Jansenius, and had become the rallying cry of a powerful theological party, that it was authoritatively condemned.' Another opinion which has widely prevailed among Catholics, though borrowed originally from Protestants, but which is now known to be untenable, is a belief in the verbal inspiration of Scripture, first dogmatically laid down in the Formula Consensus Helvetica in 1675, but previously maintained by the great body of the

I am not forgetful of the controversy raised as to St. Augustine's real meaning; but there can be no doubt that the language of his later writings gave, to say the least, very plausible support to such views as those of Gotteschalk in the ninth century, and of the Jansenists afterwards. Sainte-Beuve, in his History of Port Royal (vol. ii. p. 129), quotes "one of the most eloquent of the Catholic orators of our age," as saying; "Il est vrai qu'il ne pouvait s'empêcher de croire que sur tout un ensemble de points le grand docteur, tout grand qu'il était, avait poussé à l'extrême et avait sans doute erré."

Reformed. Biblical criticism is yet in its infancy, and discoveries like that of the Codex Sinaiticus (now established beyond dispute) may seriously affect it. Should the controversies of our own day ultimately lead to some definition of the meaning and limits of inspiration, or the nature of future retribution-subjects on which the Church has hitherto been silent-this in its turn would open out fresh sources of speculation in other directions. Thus, even a false or imperfect development may have a relative importance, and fulfil a providential office in the evolution of divine truth. There are opinions, again, which prevail, and have prevailed for centuries in the Church, but which have been expressly excluded from a place among articles of faith. Such is the very common belief in a material fire of Purgatory, which, though frequently ranked by Protestant controversialists among Catholic doctrines, was declared, at the Council of Florence, to be matter of opinion only, and has never obtained in the East.1

A further contrast may be drawn between development of doctrine and development of practice, though there is, of course, a close analogy between them. Here again my meaning will be best explained by illustration. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," is the statement of a principle of which the Franciscan and Cistercian Orders were a natural and legitimate expression; yet more than a thousand years intervened between the utterance

See Bellarmine De Purg. Lib. II. c. 11, who expressly denies, on this ground, that it is any article of faith.

of those words from the sun-crowned brow of Tabor and the time when Francis of Assisi drew up his rule of 'holy poverty,' or Bernard, in the flower and prime of youth, turned his back on all the endearments of a happy home to bury himself in the solitude of Citeaux. Or take the famous passage (Matt. xix. 12), which contains in germ the idea of celibacy as a Christian grace, and consider how gradual was its institution as a rule of life. At the close of the fourth century, Pope Siricius censured the marriage of the clergy in the Western Church; but though forbidden, it was not made invalid till the time of Gregory VII., and in many parts of Europe, especially in England and Wales, it continued to be very common. So, again, sacramental absolution was ordained by our Lord for the remission of post-baptismal sin; but the rule of annual confession was first laid down by the Lateran Council in 1215, and accordingly from that time forth we find frequent mention of 'confessors' in royal or noble households, whereas before, 'chaplains' only had been spoken of. Kneeling at elevation in the Mass, and when the Blessed Sacrament is carried to the sick, was not ordered till the close of the thirteenth century, and the procession of Corpus Christi, first instituted by Urban IV. in 1264, only came into general use after the Council of Vienne, in 1311, though the belief in the Real Presence had, of course, prevailed all along. In the early ages, again, it was customary for all the clergy to communicate at the bishop's mass; the practice of every priest saying his own mass after

wards became universal in the West, but the doctrine of the Holy Sacrifice remains unchanged.' So far the analogy between doctrinal and practical developments seems complete; but there is an important distinction. A dogmatic development, once authoritatively sealed by the judgment of the Church, can never pass away, except as being merged in a higher and fuller realization of the same truth. But practical developments are from their nature variable, though the principles they spring from are not. The religious consecration of virginity, as a state of life, is a principle implied in the words of our Lord and his inspired Apostle, but particular rules about vows of celibacy may vary with variations of time and circumstance. The adoration of Christ in the Eucharist follows immediately from the belief in His Presence, but the methods of external worship need not always be the same. Absolution

When daily celebration became general is a disputed point. The language of Acts ii. 46 seems to imply that it was the custom of the Apostolic Church, but Dr. Döllinger understands the passage differently (Christenthum, p. 351), from there being no later evidence of such a rule for some centuries. Wilberforce (Doctrine of the Holy Eucharist), argues the other way. Attendance at the Holy Sacrifice on Sundays and festivals was undoubtedly of universal obligation from the first.

2 It is quite possible, of course, for the same theological language to be at one time accepted, and at another rejected by the Church, according to the sense in which it is understood, as happened with the term Spooúσios. Thus again, St. Cyril's famous dictum, uía púvis Toû beoû λóyov σeσapkwμévn, was received by the fifth General Council, and is explained and defended at length by Petavius in its orthodox acceptation, as used by the writer against Nestorius ; but it was abused by the Eutychians in the service of their opposite heresy, and could not safely be adopted in public teaching now. So the formula, "One of the Trinity suffered in the flesh," was condemned by Pope Hormisdas, and accepted by his successors, but in different senses.-See Petav. De Incarn. v.