When a general council cannot be sum moned, or when it is not deemed neces sary, the general government of the church is conducted by the pope, whose decisions in matters of discipline are con sidered paramount, though particular sees and countries claim certain special privi leges and exemptions. In matters of faith it is admitted that if he issue a de cree, as it is called, es cathedra, or as head of the church, and all the bishops accept it, such a definition or decree is binding and final.* The discipline or reformation of smaller divisions is performed by provincial or diocesan synods. The first consist of the bishops of a province under their metro politan; the latter, of the parochial and other clergy under the superintendence of the bishop. The forms to be observed in such assemblies, the subjects which may be discussed, and the extent of juris diction which may be assumed, are laid down at full in a beautiful work of the learned Benedict XIV., entitled De Sy nodo Dicecesana: The acts and decrees of many such partial synods have been published. and are held in high esteem among Catholics ; indeed, they may be recommended as beautiful specimens of deliberative wisdom. Such are the de crees of the various synods held at Milan under the virtuous and amiable St. Charles Borromeo.
IL The laws of the Catholic church may be divided into two classes; those which bind the interior, and those which regulate outward conduct. This distinc tion, which corresponds to that above made between doctrinal and disciplinary decrees, may appear unusual, as the term laws seems hardly applicable to forms of thought or belief. Still, viewing the Catholic church under the form of an organized religious society, and consider ing that it professes to be divinely au thorized to exact interior assent to all that it teaches, under the penalty of being separated from its communion, we think we can well classify under the word law those principles and doctrines which it commands and expects all its members to profess.
Catholics often complain that doctrines are laid to their charge which they do not hold, and in their various publications protest against their belief being assumed upon any except authoritative documents; and as such works are perfectly accessible, the complaint is reasonable and just. There are several works in which an accurate account is given of what Catholics are expected to believe, and which carefully distinguish between those points on which latitude of opinion is allowed, and such as have been fully and decisively decreed by the supreme authority of the church. Such are Veron's Regula Fidei,' or Rule of Faith, a work lately translated into English, and Halden's Analysis Fidei.' But there are documents of more authority than these ; for example, the Declaration' set forth by the vicars apos tolic or bishops in England, in 1823, often republished ; and still more the ' Cate chism us ad Parochos,' or Catechism of the Council of Trent,' translated into Eng lish not many years ago, and published in Dublin. A perusal of such works as
these will satisfy those who are desirous of full and accurate information regard ing Catholic tenets, of their real nature, and show that the popular expositions of their substance and character are gene rally incorrect.
The formulary of faith, which persons becoming members of the Catholic church are expected to recite, and which is sworn to upon taking any degree, or being ap pointed to a chair in a university, is the creed of Pins IV., of which the following is the substance:— The preamble runs as follows • "I, N. N., with a firm faith believe and pro fess all and every one of those things which are contained in that creed which the holy Roman church maketh use of." Then follows the Nicene creed.
" I most steadfastly admit and embrace apostolical and ecclesiastical traditions, and all other observances and constitu tions of the same church.
" I also admit the holy scriptures, ac cording to that sense which our holy mother the church has held and does hold, to which it belongs to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the scrip tures : neither will I ever take and inter pret them otherwise than according to the unanimous consent of the fathers.
" I also profess that there are truly and properly seven sacraments of the new law, instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord, and necessary for the salvation of man kind, though not all for every one, to wit : baptism, confirmation, the eucharist, penance, extreme unction, holy orders4 and matrimony : and that they confer grace; and that of these, baptism, con firmation, and orders cannot be reiterated without sacrilege. I also receive and admit the received and approved ceremo nies of the Catholic Church, used in the solemn administration of the aforesaid sacraments.
" I embrace and receive all and every one of the things which have been defined and declared in the holy Council of Trent, concerning original sin and jus tification.
" I profess likewise that in the mass there is offered to God a true, proper, and propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead : and that in the most holy sacrament of the eucharist there is truly, really, and substantially, the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ; and that there is made a change of the whole substance of the bread into the body, and of the whole substance of the wine into the blood, which change the Catholic church calls transubstantiation. I also confess that under either kind alone Christ is received whole and entire, and a true sacrament.