The Church Historical Society. President:-THE RIGHT REVEREND M. CREIGHTON, D.D., LORD BISHOP OF LONDON. Chairman:-THE RIGHT REVEREND G. F. BROWNE, D.D., LORD BISHOP OF STEPNEY. The Authority of General BY THE REV. W. E. COLLINS, M.A., PROFESSOR OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY AT KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON. THIRD EDITION. PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE TRACT COMMITTEE. LONDON: SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, W.C.; 43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C BRIGHTON: 129, NORTH STREET. NEW YORK: E. & J. B. YOUNG & CO. VII. The Catholic Church the final test of the ecumenicity of Councils . VIII. Certain untenable positions APPENDIX. 183 THE AUTHORITY OF GENERAL COUNCILS. Συναχθέντων ὑμῶν καὶ τοῦ ἐμοῦ πνεύματος σὺν τῇ δυνάμει τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ.—1 Cor. V. 4. TO-DAY, then, we start from the position that the bishops are the normal organ of the Church's teaching power. Not that they are the sole organ, for the whole Church, clergy and laity alike, and all our work and all our worship should be one great united voice of the faith. But the bishops are the normal, regular organ of the Church's voice 1; it is they who are commissioned to strike the chord to which the whole body is to respond. And this in itself is a thing of no small importance for our own day, be it observed, seeing that some people seem to be under the impression that the real function of the bishop-the níσкодоs-is to shut his eyes 1 Cf. the preamble to the Creed of Eusebius in Socr. H. E. 1. 8 καθὼς παρελάβομεν παρὰ τῶν πρὸ ἡμῶν ἐπισκόπων κ.τ.λ. |