Hannah Adams

“ ROMAN CATHOLICS, or members of the Church of Rome, otherwise called Papists, from the pope being admitted as the supreme head of the universal church, the successor of St. Peter, and the fountain of theological truth and ecclesiastical honours. He gives bulls for the installing bishops and archbishops. [1] He has power to convoke general councils; to grant dispensations and indulgences; to excommunicate offenders; and to canonize [2] those, whom the church deem worthy of that honour. ”

“ Peter himself, as the name signifies, and not his confession, as the protestants explain it. And a succession in the church being now supposed necessary under the new testament, as Aaron had his succession in the old, this succession can now be shown only in the chair of St. Peter at Rome: therefore the bishops of Rome are his true successors.
II. That the Roman Catholic church is the mother and mistress of all churches, and cannot possibly err in matters of faith: for the church has the Spirit of God to lead it into all truth ; The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. ”

“ Before a beatified person is canonized, the qualifications of the candidate are strictly examined into, in consistories held for that purpose. After this, the pope decrees the ceremony, and appoints the day.↑ This peculiarly distinguishes the bishop of Rome from other bishops.↑ This council was convoked by Paul III, and assembled in 1546, and continued by twenty-five sessions till the year 1563, under Julius III, and Pius VI, in order to correct, illustrate, and fill with perspicuity the doctrines of the church, to restore the vigour of its discipline, and to reform the lives of its ministers. ”