In virtue of that great authority, it requires of all men the surrender of their intellectual convictions, and of all nations the subordination of their civil power.
But a claim so imposing must be substantiated by the most decisive and unimpeachable credentials; proofs, not only of an implied and indirect kind, but clear, emphatic, and to the point; proofs that it would be impossible to call in question.
The Church, however, declares, that she will not submit her claim to the arbitrament of human reason; she demands that it shall be at once conceded as an article of faith.
If this be admitted, all bar requirements must necessarily be assented to, no matter how exorbitant they may be.
With strange inconsistency the Dogmatic Constitution deprecates reason, affirming that it cannot determine the points under consideration, and yet submits to it arguments for adjudication.

In truth, it might be said that the whole composition is a passionate plea to Reason to stultify itself in favor of Roman Christianity.
With points of view so widely asunder, it is impossible that Religion and Science should accord in their representation of things.

Nor can any conclusion in common be reached, except by an appeal to Reason as a supreme and final judge.
There are many religions in the world, some of them of more venerable antiquity, some having far more numerous adherents, than the Roman.

How can a selection be made among them, except by such an appeal to Reason?
Religion and Science must both submit their claims and their dissensions to its arbitrament.
Against this the Vatican Council protests.

It exalts faith to a superiority over reason; it says that they constitute two separate orders of knowledge, having respectively for their objects mysteries and facts.