An Inquiry into the History and Theology of the Ancient Vallenses and Albigenses

stand by the Catholic Church, thus described and thus characterized?

Does he mean the Entire Collective Body of those who believe in the name of Christ and who acknowledge him as their Saviour, in whatever parts of the world they may be seated?

Or does he mean that Exclusive Portion of professed believers in Christ who are in communion with the Church of Rome, and who acknowledge the Pope as their head upon earth and as the indubitable centre of ecclesiastical unity?

If the former: then we may reasonably ask why he and his associates stigmatize so many members of the Church Catholic—a Church described under four several points as he describes it—by the somewhat inconsistent appellations of SCHISMATICS and HERETICS.

If the latter: then we may also reasonably ask what proof there is, beyond their own confident assertion, that the members of the Romish Church—to the exclusion of the Churches of Constantinople, Antioch, Armenia, and Egypt, not to mention the various Reformed Churches of Europe and America—ALONE constitute the Catholic Church of Christ?

In putting this alternative, I speak not as enter...