The doctrine of papal infallibility amounts to this: that the decisions of the Pope on faith and morals, being divinely inspired and infallible, are, when placed upon record, so much more holy Scripture. This infallibility dogma has been a great source of mischief and of unbelief. It has accomplished no good, but a great deal of harm. Some Roman theologians claim that the Popes have _only once_, up to the present time, spoken with the formalities necessary to make their utterances “_ex cathedra_” and infallibly binding, and that was when Pius the Ninth, on December 8, 1854, decreed the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary; which, if true, belongs to the realm of unpractical speculation. It was denied as heresy by orthodox Catholics, including _fourteen Popes_, for a thousand years, and is contrary to the well-nigh “unanimous consent of the fathers.” _See Dr. Pusey, Letter 1, to Newman, pp. 72-286._ To use such an engine but once in all the centuries, and then to accomplish so little, aside from furnishing infidels with something to say, is much like constructing a vessel of twenty thousand tons capacity to carry one man across the Atlantic. There is such a thing as Parthenogenesis known in nature. The Vatican decrees declare that the Christian religion came perfect from God’s hands; that it is not like a human science, such as medicine or mechanics, which can be improved or altered by the skill of man. In view of this conceded fact we have no kind of use for the decree of Pius the Ninth upon the “miraculous conception”—“Pope Pius decreed it.” Well, well, if Christianity really stood in need of such a decree it would not have been left off until December 8, 1854. It has been a bone for infidels to contend over from that time to the present. The New Testament is not responsible for it.