Excerpt from The Papal Supremacy and the Provincial System Tested by the Holy Scriptures and the Canon Law of the Ancient Church: With a Plea for Church Unity The peculiarity of this essay, in which it differs from most others on the same subject - all others so far as I know - is the fact that it treats the question of the Papal Supremacy purely as a matter of fact and of history. N o comparison is made or at tempted between the doctrines taught, and the rites and usages practiced under that system, and those which prevail elsewhere. In any system of religion, church authority must be a most important element, aside from any ques tion of Divine Authority and spiritual grace of which it may be the channel, since it must and will exercise a powerful influence upon the character and Spiritual growth of its members, as we can see every where around us. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.