What a dispassionate reader of both testimonies really will believe
is this,—that Archbishop Darboy was an Infallibiliat before the question came up ; that he thought it a very bad moment to declare the dogma ; that his zeal on this question led him into stating very strongly,—but only, so far as he intended, as con- firming the argument against opportuneness,—the difficulties about the doctrine itself, so that he often seemed to be arguing, and arguing hotly, against its substance,—and that when the ques- tion was settled, he honestly submitted to what he deemed the authority of the Church. That is the natural explanation of the whole matter. It is hardly creditable for English Protestants in their sober senses to give men of high character, who speak openly, the lie, in order to sustain the accuracy of anonymous chroniclers.
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