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@FeserEdward... Newman, on the Arian crisis: “The body of the Episcopate was unfaithful to its commission… at one time the pope… There was a temporary suspense of the functions of the ‘Ecclesia docens’ [teaching Church]...
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St. John Henry Newman, on the Arian crisis: “The body of the Episcopate was unfaithful to its commission… at one time the pope, at other times a patriarchal, metropolitan, or other great see, at other times general councils, said what they should not have said, or did what obscured and compromised revealed truth… There was a temporary suspense of the functions of the ‘Ecclesia docens’ [teaching Church]. The body of Bishops failed in their confession of the faith. They spoke variously, one against another; there was nothing, after Nicaea, of firm, unvarying, consistent testimony, for nearly sixty years.”
As Newman makes clear, this is perfectly consistent with the fact that pope and bishops were nevertheless “infallible in their ex cathedra decisions.” The problem is that for a prolonged period – sixty years! – in their non-ex cathedra (and thus non-infallible) statements and actions, they persistently failed to do their duty.
Source: https://newmanreader.org/works/arians/note5.html
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