late as 600, writes in reference to the canones of the Constantinopolitan council of 381 : " Romana autem ecclesia eosdem canones vel gesta Synodi illius hactenus non habet, nee accepit ; in hoc autem earn accepit, quod est per earn contra Macedonium definitum." Lib. vii. Ep. 34, ad Eulogium episcopum Alexandr. (torn. iii. p. 882, ed. Bened., and in Migne's ed., iii. 893.) - De Baptismo contra Donatistas, 1. ii. 3 (in the Benedictine edition of August. Opera, torn. ix. p. 98) : " Quis autem nesciat, sanctam Scripturam canonicani, tarn Veteris quam Novi Testamenti, certis suis terminis contineii, eamque omnibus pos- terioribus Episcoporum literis ita praeponi, ut de ilia omiiino dubitari et disceptari non possit, utrum verum vel utrum rectum sit, quidquid in ea scriptum esse consti- terit ; Episcoporum autem literas quae post confirmatum canonem vel scriptae sunt vel scribuntur, et per sermonem forte sapientiorem cujuslibet in ea re peritioris, et per aUorum Episcoporum graviorem auctoritatem doctioremque prudentiam, et per concilia licere repre/ietidi, si quid in eis forte a veritate deviatum est ; et ipsa concilia^ 344 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590. transactions of a council were conducted in the spirit of Chris- tian humility, harmony, and love ; but had he attended the council of Ephesus, in 431, to which he was summoned about the time of his death, he would, to his grief, have found the very opposite spirit reigning, there. Augustine, tlierefore, manifestly acknowledges a gradual advancement of the church doctrine, which reaches its corresponding expression from time to time through the general councils ; but a progress within the truth, without positive error. For in a certain sense, as against heretics, he made the authority of Holy Scripture de- pendent on the authority of the catholic church, in his famous dictum against the Manichgean heretics : " I would not believe the gospel, did not the authority of the catholic church com- pel me." ' In like manner Yincentius Lerinensis teaches, that the church doctrine passes indeed through various stages of growth in knowledge, and becomes more and more clearly defined in opposition to ever-rising errors, but can never be- come altered or dismembered.^ The Protestant church makes the authority of the general councils, and of all ecclesiastical tradition, depend on the de- quas per siugulas regioues vel provincias fiunt, plenariorum conciliorum auctoritati, quas fiunt ex universo orbe Christiano, sine ullis ambagibus cederc ; ipsaqu^ pleyiaria scepe priora postcrioribus einendari, quum aliquo experimento rerum aperitur quod clausum erat et cognoscitur quod latebat ; sine ullo tvpho sacrilegSB superbise, sine ulla inflata cervice arrogantiae, sine uUa contentione lividse invidiae, cum sancta humilitate, cum pace catholiea, cum caritate Christiana." Comp. the passage Contra Maximiuum Arianum, ii. cap. 14, § 3 (in the Bened. ed., torn. viii. p. ^O-t), -nhere he will have even the decision of the Nicene council concerning the homousion measured by the higher standard of the Scriptures. ^ Contra Epistolam Manich^i, lib. i. c. 5 (in the Bened. ed., tom. viii. p. 154)