io 4 GALILEO AND HIS JUDGES. 



Now, in reply to all this, I think I may remark 

 that even lay theologians know, or ought to know, 

 that Papal Bulls are divided into two distinct classes 

 dogmatic and disciplinary. The first, according to 

 the doctrine of the Catholic Church, are held to be 

 infallible, but still only as regards the decisions on 

 faith or morals therein laid down, and not in respect 

 of the reasons alleged ; the second stand in a totally 

 different position, and are not considered, as a general 

 rule, to be in any way infallible in fact, they are 

 liable at any time to be modified or recalled, as in the 

 instance before us has actually happened. The Bull 

 " Speculatores " is plainly a disciplinary one. But I 

 may perhaps be allowed to quote one who is profes- 

 sedly a theologian the Reverend Jeremiah Murphy, 

 an Irish ecclesiastic of learning and ability who, re- 

 plying to Mr. Mivart in The Nineteenth Century of 

 May, 1886, explains, at some length, the real nature 

 of this Bull. He says : " This Bull, so far from being 

 a special approbation of each decree contained in the 

 Index to which it is prefixed, is not a special approba- 

 tion of even one of them* . . It is a re-issue, by public 

 authority, of all these decrees (those of the Index), 

 but it leaves each decree just as it was. . . The Pope, 

 after referring to the origin of the Index, says that at 

 that time there was no catalogue, issued by public 

 authority, embracing the prohibited books and con- 

 demned authors, on which account great confusion has 

 arisen. Accordingly, with the advice of the Cardinals, 

 the Pope, as he states, has decreed to issue a new 



