Now the FACT, again and again asserted by the Tridentine Fathers, is this.

ALL the doctrines and ALL the practices, which they, the Tridentine Fathers, have decided to be true and obligatory, were ALWAYS the received doctrines and practices of the Church Catholic, in EVERY age, without ANY variation, from the very time of Christ and his Apostles who were themselves the first original inculcators of such doctrines and such practices, down even to the time in which they, the Tridentine Fathers, lived and flourished.

Nor, be it carefully observed, do they barely assert the FACT before us, as a fact.

acknowledgment, wish to draw back from it; he may be promptly met with proof positive.

The second Nicene Council, which sat in the year 787, roundly asserted the FACT; that No one of the antecedent Fathers had ever styled the consecrated eucharistic bread an IMAGE of Christ's body: and, upon this precise ASSERTED FACT, the members of that Council built the doctrine of a material or substantial presence of Christ in the consecrated eucharistic elements. Concil. Nic. ii. act. vi. Labb. Concil. vol. vii. p. 448.

449.

Yet, by Eusebius and Theodoret of the Greek Church, and by Ambrose and Gelasius of the Latin Church, all of whom flourished anterior to the year 787, the consecrated elements had, even verbally, been denominated the IMAGE (Eikov and imago) of Christ's body and blood. Euseb. Demons. Evan. lib. viii. c. 2. p. 236. Theod. Dial. ii. Oper. vol. iv. p. 85. Ambros. Offic. lib. i. c. 48. Oper. col. 33. Gelas. de duab. Christ. natur. in Biblioth. Patr. vol. iv. p. 422.

The Tridentine Fathers professedly likewise build, upon the ASSERTED FACT in question, their own specific decisions. Therefore, they inevitably make the truth of their decisions to rest upon the anterior fundamental truth of An asserted fact in history'.

Under such a statement of the matter; a statement, be it duly remembered, made not by me

1 SEMPER hæc fides in Ecclesia Dei fuit. Concil. Trident. sess. xiii. c. 3. p. 124.

Ideo persuasum SEMPER in Ecclesia Dei fuit: idque nunc denuo sancta hæc Synodus declarat. Ibid. sess. xiii. c. 4. p. 125.

Pro more in Catholica Ecclesia SEMPER recepto. Ibid. sess. xiii. c. 5. p.

125.

Universa Ecclesia SEMPER intellexit. Ibid. sess. xiv. c. 5. p. 148.

Persuasum SEMPER in Ecclesia Dei fuit: et verissimum esse Synodus hæc confirmat. Ibid. sess. xiv. c. 7. p. 153.

Sacræ Literæ ostendunt, et Catholicæ Ecclesiæ traditio SEMPER docuit. Ibid. xxiii. c. 1. p. 279.

Cum, Scripturæ testimonio, apostolica traditione, et Patrum UNANIMI consensu, perspicuum sit:-dubitare nemo debet. Ibid. sess. xxiii. c. 3. p. 280.

Cum, igitur,-sancti Patres nostri, Concilia, et UNIVERSALIS Ecclesiæ traditio, SEMPER docuerunt:-sancta et universalis Synodus prædictorum schismaticorum hæreses et errores-exterminandos duxit. Ibid. sess. xxiv. p. 343, 344.

Tridentina Synodus,-Sacrarum Scripturarum et sanctorum Patrum ac probatissimorum Conciliorum testimonia et ipsius Ecclesiæ judicium et CONSENSUM secuta, HÆC STATUIT, FATETUR, Ibid. sess. v. p. 12, 13. Vide etiam sess. xiii.

AC DECLARAT.

p. 121, 122.

but by the Tridentine Fathers themselves: it is obvious, that the ASSERTED FACT must be substantiated, ere the decisions be admitted; it is obvious, that, until the ASSERTED FACT be substantiated, the cause is not ended.

Nothing, therefore, can be at once, both more absurd in itself, and more contrary to the very declaration of the Tridentine Fathers, than to assert, with Dr. Norris and Dr. Doyle, that the CAUSE is ended while the FACT yet remains to be substantiated: nothing can be more disgracefully evasive, than to decline all discussion of the peculiarities of Romanism, on the miserable plea ; that The principles of the Reformation have been finally set at rest in the Council of Trent.

On the very ground taken up by the Tridentine Fathers themselves, we say: PROVE YOUR ASSERTED

FACT.

Dr. Norris and Dr. Doyle reply: ROMA LOCUTA EST; CAUSA FINITA EST!

II. To ascribe the inconsistency of Dr. Doyle and the Principal of Stonyhurst to all the gentlemen of their communion, were an unfairness of which I would in no wise be guilty.

Both Mr. Berington, and the present Bishop

of Strasbourg Dr. Trevern, have felt the imperative necessity of establishing the FACT, before they could plead the DECISIONS.

Hence, with whatever success, they have alike manfully set their shoulders to the wheel: the one, in his Faith of Catholics confirmed by Scripture and attested by the Fathers of the five first centuries; the other, in his Amicable Discussion on the Anglican Church and generally on the Reformation.

Of each of these two writers, the object is the same: namely, AN ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FACT AL

LEGED BY THE TRIDENTINE FATHERS.

Their respective efforts I certainly deem a most lamentable failure: but still, so far as they are personally concerned, they have done nothing more, than what they felt themselves compelled to do. Upon all those who have made such matters their study, the Council has called, to establish, by historical testimony, the FACT which the Council has asserted. I readily admit the invitation to be somewhat appalling: but the theological world will only, on that account, the more sincerely respect the undaunted courage of the two chivalrous individuals who have so promptly

undertaken the adventure. If they fall in the lofty quest, they at least fall in the very act of performing their knightly devoir.

III. In the spring of the year 1825, an english gentleman of family and fortune, Mr. Massingberd of Gunby Park, with whom I have not the advantage of being personally acquainted, forwarded to me, from the south of France, a copy of the Amicable Discussion of Dr. Trevern, formerly Vicar-General of Langres, then Bishop of Aire, now Bishop of Strasbourg.

The copy, thus transmitted to me, was accompanied by a letter in which Mr. Massingberd spoke, in the highest terms, of the Bishop's personal character; represented his Work, as having produced a very considerable sensation among the travelling English Laity; and, with a degree of perhaps flattering earnestness which I could scarcely have anticipated, requested me to answer it.

On perusing the Work, I found, that Dr. Trevern's general argument, in favour of the Church of Rome and against the Church of England, was, in brief, to the following effect.

That which was taught by Christ and his Apostles, and that which was believed by the strictly

a