as witnesses to divine and Catholic truth. In matters of faith and morals, the bishops speak in the name of Christ and the faithful are to accept their teaching and adhere to it with a religious assent." Pope The doctrine of papal infallibility states that when the pope teaches ex cathedra his teachings are infallible and irreformable. Such infallible papal decrees must be made by the pope, in his role as leader of the whole Church, and they must be definitive decisions on matters of faith and morals which are binding on the whole Church. An infallible decree by a pope is often referred to as an ex cathedra statement. This type of infallibility falls under the authority of the sacred magisterium. The doctrine of papal infallibility was formally defined at the First Vatican Council in 1870, although belief in this doctrine long predated this council and was premised on the promises of Jesus to Peter (Mat 16:16-20; Luke 22:32). Ordinary and universal magisterium The ordinary and universal episcopal magisterium is considered infallible as it relates to a teaching concerning a matter of faith and morals that all the bishops of the Church (including the Pope) universally hold as definitive and only as such therefore needing to be accepted by all the faithful. Eastern Orthodox Church Lutheranism Lutheran theology teaches that the Church is indefectible, as with Catholic doctrine. The Lutheran Churches hold that the "maintenance of this indefectibility as the sovereign work of God." Anglicanism The Church of England claimed this type of authority over the people of England, but the idea is no longer popular within the church, owing to a lack of commonly-accepted traditions and to disputes as to some peripheral doctrines. However, Anglicanism holds to a unique ecclesiology: in the Anglican view, churches in the historic episcopate (such as the Anglican, Roman Catholic, Scandinavian Lutheran, Moravian, Old Catholic, Persian, Eastern Orthodox and Oriental churches) that maintained apostolic succession, belief, and practice are all branches of the Universal Church. Anglicans believe there will always be a section of the Christian Church, although possibly not the Anglican Church itself, which will not fall into major heresy. Tradition and scripture Catholics and Orthodox Christians believe that divine revelation (the one "Word of God") is contained both in the words of God in sacred scripture and in the deeds of God in sacred tradition. Everything asserted as true by either