OR, EXPOSITION OF THE DOCTRINAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CATHOLICS AND PROTESTANTS, AS EVIDENCED BY THEIR SYMBOLICAL WRITINGS, BY JOHN ADAM MOEHLER, D.D. DEAN OF WURZBURG, AND LATE PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MUNICH. TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN, WITH A MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR, PRECEDED BY AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE STATE OF PROTESTANTISM AND CATHOLICISM IN THE DOCTRINAL DIFFERENCES AMONG CATHOLICS, LUTHERANS, AND THE REFORMED. PART I. CHAPTER V. DIFFERENCES IN RESPECT TO THE DOCTRINE ON THE CHURCH. § XXXVI.-Notion of the Church. Combination of Divine and human elements in her. Infallibility of the Church. It has, undoubtedly, excited surprise, and it has even been made a matter of reproach against us by wellmeaning readers, that we have not, prior to all the subjects here discussed, treated of the article of Church authority. For it appears a matter of self-evidence, that any discussion respecting the doctrines of a confession, should be postponed to the enquiry into the authority which that confession follows, and the sources from which it derives its tenets. In fact, this appears indeed to be self-evident, if we merely look at the matter from without; and such an appearance has misled many. But, as we have made it our duty everywhere to trace the inward bond of connexion pervading VOL. II. 1 |