ing together with Christ are to be honoured and invoked, and that they offer pray IT.- to God for us, and that their relics are to be held in veneration : I most firmly assert that the images of Christ, of the Mother of God ever Virgin, and also of other Saints, ought to be had and retained, and that due honour and veneration are to be given them, (7) for thee that thy faith fail not ; and thou being once converted, confirm thy brethren. Hence this blessing of truth and unwavering faith was divinely conferred upon Peter and his successors in this Chair, that they might carry out their lofty office for the salvation of all, so that the whole flock of Christ, guarded by them from the poisonous food of error, might be fed with the nourishment of heavenly 76 ROMAN CATHOLICISM doctrine, and, through the removal of the occasion of schism, the universal Church might be preserved in unity, and, standing on its foundation, might sho\v a firm front against the gates of hell. But forasmuch as in this very age, when the saving