produced by our Adversaries against us with which themselves will not be obliged that is such as are deficient in either of the conditions before laid down They would be reduced to silence and not have one authority left to boast of From what hath been said it appears that matters of Tradition and belief cannot be learned from the Fathers Hence Aegidius Estrix 16 Est Apol. Sect. 4. vehemently inveighs against Peter-Van Buscum a Divine of Gaunt who in his Instruction had remitted young Divines to the Fathers to learn the Christian Doctrine from them 17 Nuet adv Claud. de Eucharist in praefat And Nuetus the Jesuite likens those Writers of Controversie who passing by the Scripture betake themselves to the Fathers to Thieves and Rogues who deserting the Cities flee into thick Woods that they may more securely hide themselves If the Fathers therefore teach not Tradition there remains only the Church whence it can be known Whether the Church therefore hath that power as to confer the desired Certainty upon what She pronounceth to be revealed and to be believed is next to be inquired Which because our Adversaries here chiefly fasten their hold easily giving up the former means of conveying Tradition shall be somewhat more accurately discussed CHAP. IV. That the Faith of Papists cannot be founded even upon the Definitive Judgment of the Church First because it is neither evident nor of Faith that the Judgment of the Church is certain BY the name of Church whereon our Adversaries would have the Faith of all men to be founded they are wont to design two things First that visible Congregation of men which consists of Pope Clergy and Laicks all professing the same Faith. Secondly that part of this first Church whose office it is to Rule the rest and prescribe Laws of acting and believing to them Whether this part be the Pope or a Council The former they call the Universal the latter the Representative or the Regent Church To both they ascribe infallibility but in a different way to the first in believing to the second in defining or as they chuse to speak in proposing So that whatsoever the Universal Church believeth or the Representative proposeth to be believed must necessarily be true and revealed by God and the denial of it heresie We shall examine each in order But first of the Representative Church Our Adversaries believe to have been instituted by God a living and visible Authority whose office it should be to define matters of belief and practice infallibly determine emergent Controversies and judge of Heresie That whatsoever this power which some call the Chair others more accurately the Tribunal defineth proposeth or judgeth may and ought to be received of all Christians as an Article of Faith and that this is the ordinary and immediate foundation of the Faith of private Christians Indeed in assigning this Tribunal what and where it is all do not agree But that there is such an one whatsoever it is all do contend Whether there be such an one is a great question and may justly take up another Discourse But now we only consider whether the judgment and definition of this Tribunal be such as that whosoever relyeth upon it can or ought to be certain that he doth not err and that what he believes is true For it is not enough that this Tribunal be infallible unless its infallibity be also manifest Since if it had such a priviledge but either unknown or uncertain he indeed that acquiesced in its definitions would not err but could never be certain that he doth not err and might reasonably doubt whether he doth or no. I enquire therefore whether our Adversaries can be certain that the Church in defining cannot err If the Papists have any certainty of the infallibility of the Church defining it must be either Moral or evident or that of Divine Faith For the rest we have excluded before But it can be none of these Not Moral for that depends upon the testimony of anothers senses But the Infallibility of the Church cannot be perceived either by our own or by anothers senses Nor indeed is it here pretended to by our Adversaries No more than Evident Certainty which they expresly acknowledge they have not herein So Andrew du Val 1 Non potest firmiter infallibiliter sciri nisi ex Divinâ Revelatione Du Val in 2. 2. pag. 16. tells us The Infallibility of the Church can be certainly known only by Divine Revelation Arriaga 2 Non est veritas per se nota Arr. de Fide Disp 3. Sect. 1. that it is not a Truth known by it self or self evident Conink 3 Solâ Fide ex Scripturae testimonio constat solos fideles dirigit Con. de act Cupern Disp 9. dub 5. that it is known to us only by Faith from the testimony of the Scriptures and serveth to direct only the Faithful Ysambertus 4 Non potest sciri ab hominibus infallibiliter nisi ex divinâ revelatione Ysamb de Fide Disp 26. art 2. that it cannot be known infallibly by men otherwise than by Divine Revelation Rhodius 5 Cognosâ—itur tantùm Fide divinâ Rhod. de Fide quaest 1. Sect 4. §. 4. that it is known only by Divine Faith. Lastly Antonius Arnaldus 6 Non est quid ex se evidens Arn. Perpert de la Foy liv 1. chap. 7. that it is not self evident The whole matter therefore comes to this whether the Infallibility of the Church be of Faith. That it is our Adversaries as we see pretend that it is not I prove many ways First this seems to be the opinion of a man of great Name among them Launoy who every where oppugneth the Infallability of the Pope and sheweth that the Infallibility of a Council appears to him not to be of Faith while he saith 7 Quamvis certum sit non errandi privilegium inesse Concilio longè tamen certius est apud Theologos Ecclesiae inesse Laun. Epist ad Vallant Tom. 2. that although it be certain the priviledge of not erring is in a Council yet that it is far more certain among Divines that it is in the Church Which he would never have said if he had believed the Infallibility of a Council to be of Faith. For then it would be no less certain than the Infallibility of the Church Besides it is the common opinion of our Adversaries that nothing is of Faith of which Disputes are raised in the bosom of the Church She being conscious of them Thus Holden 8 Certum est illud non esse Fidei divinae Catholicae dogma cujus oppositum a plurimis piissimis doctissimis Catholicis viris publicè sustentari vidimus sciente nimirum jacente Ecclesiâ universâ Hold. Anal. fid lib. 1. cap. 9. affirms that is not an Article of Divine and Catholick Faith whose opposite is publickly maintained by many pious and learned Catholicks
the Universal Church knowing of it and winking at it To the same purpose Canus 9 Sunius aut paucorum opinatio non fuerit ab Ecclesiâ rejecta tum plurimorum authoritas nihil certum firmumque conficiet Can. loc Theol. lib. 7. cap. 3. teacheth that if the opinion of one or a few be not rejecsed by the Church then the contrary authority of many will produce nothing firm or certain There is extant among the works of the Fratres Valemburgii a Treatise called the Rule of Faith written formerly in French by Veron and translated into Latine by the Valemburgii and so openly adopted by them that whatsoever Veron writ of himself in the singular they translate in the plural So that whatsoever is contained in it may be lookt upon as the sense of all three Writers Now the chief scope of this Book is to shew that not a few opinions taught by many of their Doctors and by us affixed to the whole Church of Rome are not of Faith but may be safely denied To the obtaining of this end they make use chiefly of two means the silence of the Council of Trent and the testimonies of Doctors of a contrary opinion and Section 15. 10 Variae sunt hâc de re Doctorum sententiae quod vel solum sufficit probando id non esse de fide Catholicâ have these words That the different judgement of the Doctors herein may aloné suffice to prove that it is not of Faith. Upon this foundation proceed all those Divines who maintain that the Pope is infallible or superiour to a Council Thus the Valemburgii 11 Eâ solìen de causâ non affirmamus hanc propositionem fide Catholicâ esse tenendam quòd Authores qui contrarium sentiunt nondum videamus ab Ecclesiâ damnatos pro haereticis Val. Tom. 1. Tract 1. Exam. 3. num 111. write that for this cause only they will not affirm this proposition to be of Catholick Faith because Authors of the contrary opinion are not condemned by the Church for Hereticks So Bannes 12 Bann in 2.2 quaest 1. art 10. dub 2. Bellarmine 13 Bell. de Pont. lib. 4. cap. 2. Vasquez 14 Vasq in 3. disp 137. cap. 1. and Duval 15 Duval in 2.2 p. 344. tells us that they will not assert the contrary opinion to be heresie because it is not yet condemned by Popes or Councils and is tolerated in the Church But Gillius 16 Quare rigida videtur censura quâ Bannes oppositam notat sententiam vocans eam temerariam Gill. de doctr Sacrâ lib. 1. Tract 7. cap. 4. goes farther and reprehendeth Bannes for inflicting even a mark of rashness upon the opinion of one only sense of Scripture since four Divines Alensis Albertus Henricus and Medina had defended it This opinion of our Adversaries is grounded on a double foundation The first Gillius declareth in express words viz. that it is not credible that so many learned and pious persons should either not know what the Catholick Faith teacheth or knowing it should oppose it The Second is that it would be a most unpardonable neglect of the Church to see the Faith torn in pieces by her Children and be silent in so urgent an occasion For by that connivance She should at least indirectly confirm heresie it being a Rule of the Canon Law 17 Error cui non resistitur approbatur Dist 83. that an Errour which is not resisted is approved If therefore I demonstrate that not one or two but many of the Roman Divines and those the most celebrated and by their merit preferred to the greatest dignities in the Church were not only ignorant of but also openly denied this Infallibility I shall at the same time prove that it is not of Faith. The former will easily be performed For first the most noble and learned Jo. Fr. Picus 18 Voluerunt multi Concilium si unâ cum Pontifice in iis quae ad essentiam fidei pertinent sententiam ferat nullo pacto errare posse Restitêre alii affirmantes errare posse Concilia jam errâsse nec ad huc aliquid quod sciam promulgatum est cujus vi ad alterutrum credendum obstringamur Picus ad Theor. 4. Prince of Mirandula confesseth that their Doctors and Canonists are divided in their opinions whether a Pope and Council conjunctly defining matters of Faith can err or not and that we are not obliged to believe either opinion That Picus his testimony is true any one will be convinced that considereth how many things repugnant to this Infallibility the greatest men of the Roman Church have taught These may be reduced to four heads First the testimonies of those which teach that the Pope and Council to whom alone this Infallibility is assigned can err Secondly of those which deny that Church which is unerring and indesectible to be so tied to the Clergy that it may not wholly consist in others Thirdly of those who assert that the Faith of all men one only excepted may fail and so the Church subsist in a single Laick or Woman Fourthly of those who imagine that the Faith may perish in all adult persons and so the Church consist only in baptized infants For the first we shall produce Ockam or at least them whose opinions he relates For in his Dialogues he never speaks in his own person 19 Vna sola est Ecclesia militans quae contra fidem errare non potest Temerarium est dicere quod Concilium Generale contra fidem errare non potest Occam Dial. part 1. lib. 5. cap. 25. He therefore assirms that it is rash to say a General Council cannot err against the Faith that being the peculiar priviledge of the Church Militant That 19 Scripturae divinae universali Ecclesiae Aposiolis absque allâ dubitatione in omnibus credendum Nullis vero aliis quantâcunque doctrinâ vel Sanctitate praepolleant It a quod nec in Concilio generali si esset congregata universalis Ecclesia nec Decretis Pontisicum nec Doctorum dictis est necessario credulitas in omni dicto absque omni exceptione praestanda Id. part 3. Tract 1. lib. 3. cap. 4. the Scriptures the Universal Church and the Apostles are without hesitation to be believed but none others how eminent soever in holiness and Learning no not a General Council although the Universal Church were gathered together in it nor the Decrees of Popes nor the Judgments of Doctors Lastly 20 Si quaeratur quis habet judicare an Concilia suerint Catholicè celebrata respondetur quod periti in Scripturis habent judicare per modum firmae assertionis quod definita ab iis sunt Catholicè definita Id. cap. 19. that it belongs to every man skilful in the Scriptures with a firm assurance to judge whether Councils have been celebrated Canonically or defined Catholickly Peter de Alliaco 21 1. Concilium generale
potest difformari legi Christi 2. Ecclesia Romana quae distinguitur a tot â congregatione sidelium ut pars à toto potest haereticari 3. Tota multitudo Clericorum Laicorum virorum potest à fide deficere All. in quaest vesper art 3. Cardinal of Cambray and one of the Presidents of the Council of Constance layeth down these Three Assertions 1. That a General Council can depart from the Law of Christ 2. That the Church of Rome which is distinguished from the whole Congregation of the Faithful as the part from the whole may fall into Heresie 3. That the whole multitude of Clergy and Laity may apostatize from the true Faith. This Lecture opposed by a Parisian Doctor he afterwards largely defended in his Reply which he Entitled de Resumptâ Where among other things to this purpose he enquireth what is to be done when a General Council errs and the State of Christendom is so depraved that Hereticks have all the Power the Faithful being become few and contemptible And in this case adviseth to make divers Appeals commit themselves to the Divine Grace and bear the injury with Patience Waldensis 22 Non est ergo specialis Ecclesia non Africana nec utique particularis illa Romana sed universalis Ecclesia non quidem in generali Synodo congregata quam aliquotiens errâsse percepimus Sed est c. Vald. doctr Fid. Tom. 1. lib. 2. cap. 19. Paulo post Quia nulla harum Synodi Episcopalis c est Ecclesia Catholica Symbolica nec vendicat sibi sidem dari sub paenâ perfidiae Sed c. Nec movere quenquam debet qued talem concordem professionem Patrum praeposui decreto generalis Concilu etiamsi è toto orbe existentes convenirent Episcopi Et cap. 27. Nec tamen alicui jam dictae Ecclesiis Apostolicis maxlmè verò Romanae authoritati Concilii Generalis ita obediendum censeo tam pronâ fide sicut primae fidei Scripturae vel Ecclesiae Christi Symbolicae sed sicut institutionibus Seniorum monitioni paternae teacheth that the Church which is the Infallible Rule of Faith is neither Pope nor Council which have sometimes erred but the Series and Collection of all Doctors successively from the Apostles to our times That neither an Episcopal Synod nor the common decree of the Roman Church nor yet a General Council of all the Bishops of the World is that Catholick Symbolical Church that can challenge assent upon pain of insidelity But the Universal succession of the Holy Fathers throughout all Ages That an unanimous consent of the Fathers is to be preferred before the Decree of a General Council although all the Bishops of the World be therein That Obedience is not so readily and intirely to be given to the dictates of any particular Church or even to the authority of a General Council as to the first Faith proposed by Scripture or the Symbolical Church of Christ The other being to be regarded only as the institution of the Elders and paternal admonition Cardinal Panormitan 23 Ideo in concernentibus sidem Concilium est supra Papam Puto tamen quod si Papa moveretur melioribus rationibus authoritatibas qudm Concilium quod standum esset sententiae suae Nam Concilinm potest errare sicut aliâs erravit c Nam in concernentibas sidem etiam dictum unius privati esser praeferendum dicto Papae si ille moveretur melioribus rationibus N. V. Testamenti quam Papa Panorm in Cap. Significâsti de electione writeth that in things indeed concerning Faith a Council is above the Pope Yet if the Pope be moved with better reasons and authorities than the Council we are to stand to his determination For even a Council may err and hath erred That in matters of Faith the judgment even of one private man is to be preferred before the Sentence of the Pope if he were moved with better Arguments drawn from the Old and New Testament than the Pope And much more to the same purpose Antony 24 Ant. Summ. Theol. part 3. Tit. 23. Cap. 2. §. 6. Archbishop of Florence hath transcribed this whole passage of Panormitan into his sum of Divinity without making the least mention of him and delivers it as his own opinion Cardinal Cusanus 25 Notandum est experimento rerum Concilium universale plenartum posse deficere quomodo etiam varia Concilia talia fuerunt quae judicando errârunt Cusan Concord Cath. lib. 2. cap. 3. 4. alloweth indeed Oecumenical Councils to be infallible But to this End requireth so many conditions that it is very difficult they should all be had and impossible to be known when had The fourth condition is that the Council regulate it self by the Rules of the Holy Ghost laid down in Scripture and the definitions of precedent Councils Otherwise that howsoever free and universal they may be appealed from and protested against And at last concludes that it is to be seen by experience that a full General Council can err as diverse such Councils have been which have erred in defining Thus he of Councils who hath much more about the errability of the Pope Wherefore Bellarmine reckons him among the Parisians Nicholas de Clemangis 26 Clem. in Disp de Conciliis expresly Disputes against the Infallibility of Councils But because he preadmonisheth he assirms nothing but only to dispute for finding out the truth I shall not urge his Testimony Cardinal Dominicus Jacobatius 27 Quia Concilium potest errare ut patet in Conctlio Ariminenâ—i Ephesino 2. Africanâ Synodo tempore Cypriani in aliis multis Nec obstat si dicatur quòd Ecclesià non potest errare quia intelligitur de Ecclesiâ universali Sed Concilium repraesentativè dicitur Ecclesiâ in Concilio enim verè non est universalis Ecclesia Jacob. de Concil lib. 6. pag. 239. asserteth that when Popes and Councils disagree in defining that judgment is to be preferred which is consonant to the definitions of precedent Councils If none of which have passed Sentence in this matter then the Councils definition shall not be received if the Popes be founded upon better reasons and authorities For that a Council can erre as appears by that of Ariminum the Second of Ephesus that of Africk under Cyprian and many others That the Infallibility of the Universal Church proves not the same to be in a Council Since the Universal Church is not truly in a Council That in the case of contrary definitions by the Pope and a Council it is not yet defined what is to be done or observed That his Opinion however is that he which should hold to and observe either part should not therefore incur the danger of Damnation although he died in the observation of it All these manifestly teach that both a Pope and Council to whom alone active Infallibility is attributed may erre
Nor is it enough to say that herein they deliver their judgments of the Pope and Council disagreeing one from another and not conjunctly defining This indeed may seem to be said with some colour of Truth in Jacobatius But as for Occam and Alliacensis it doth by no means fit them Nor yet doth it in the least enervate the Testimonies of the rest Since whensoever they deny infallibility to Pope or Council they do not thereto oppose the consent of both but either the Symbolical and successive Church as Waldensis or the Universal as all the rest Besides they deny infallibility to belong to the representative Church and to be the property of the Universal whereas every one knoweth and acknowledgeth that only the representative Church is in a Council As for Jacobatius his opinion it plainly is that obedience is then immediately to be given to the Decree of a Pope or Council when it is consonant to the definition of some former even particular Council which had been received by the universal Church that this obedience therefore is to be paid not for the authority of the present definition but the approbation of the Universal Church which She is supposed to have given to it by a long reception But what clears the matter beyond all exception is that Jacobatius is one of those who think the Church may fail except one woman only as we shall see afterwards under the third head The second Classis contains the testimonies of Doctors asserting the Church for which Christ prayed and promised the Gates of Hell should not prevail against it not to be confined to the Ecclesiastick order but may consist of believers of whatsoever rank and order This Petrus Alliacensis expresly affirms in the place by us above cited So the Author of the Glosse 28 Quaero de quâ Ecclesiâ intelligas quod hîc dicitur quòd non possit errare de ipso Papâ qui Ecclesia dicitur sed certum est quòd Papa errare potest Respondeo ipsa congregatio fidelium hic dicitur Ecclesia Et talis Ecclesia non potest non esse Nam ipse Dominus orat pro Ecclesia Caus 24. quaest 1. upon the Canon Law inquiring what Church it is that cannot err determineth it to be the Congregation of the faithful which cannot fail Christ having prayed for it and Nicolas Lyra 29 A verâ se fide subvertendo Ex quo patet quòd Ecclesia non consistit in hominibus ratione potestatis vel dignitatis Ecclesiasticae vel saecularis quia multi principes summi Pontifices c. inventi sunt apostatâsse a fide Propter quod Ecclesia consistit in illis personis in quibus est notitia vera confessio fidei veritatis Lyra in Matth. 16.18 to those words The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it affixeth this Glosse that is to subvert it from the true faith To which he subjoyns Whence is manifest that the Church consists not in men in respect either of Ecclesiastical or Secular Dignity for they have sometimes apostatized from the Faith but in those persons in whom remains a true knowledge and confession of the faith and truth The third Classis comprehendeth the testimonies of those who teach that the whole Church may fail except one only person and that either Ecclesiastick or Laick Man or Woman and so the Church consist in that person alone That the Church actually did so at the time of our Saviours Passion Tostatus 30 Tost in Matth. praef quaest 14. doth not assert as Suarez 31 Suar. de fide disp 9. Sect. 3. and Bannes 32 Bann in 2.2 q. 1. art 10. dub salsly relate but tells us it was the common opinion in his time The same writes Aeneas Sylvius in his History of the Council of Basil Bannes and Turrecremata 33 Terrec de Eccles lib. 3. cap 6. attribute this opinion to Alexander Alensis Hagutius and Durandus Asimatensis the latter ascribe it also to the whole multitude of Preachers and produceth out of Alensis 34 Opinio que dicit quid in sâ—lâ Vin ine stetit Ecclesia in qâ—â—d sâ—la sides mansit in passione videtur nobis vera this sentence That opinion which saith the Church consisted in the Virgin alone in whom alone romained true faith at the passion seems true to us which Turrecremata also himself defends in many places particularly Summ. de Eccles lib. 1. cap. 30. lib. 3. cap. 61. Beside these four there are not a few of the same mind Ockam 35 In uno sdo potest stare tota sides Ecclesiae quem â—dmedum tempare mortis Christi tota siles Ecclesiae in B. Virgine remanebat Non est ctiam credendum c. Occ. Dial. part 1. lib. 2. cap. 25. affirms that the whole Faith of the Church may remain in one single person as it did in the blessed Vargin at the time of our Lords passsion that if God permitted this in the days of the Apostles he will much sooner permit it in these latter Ages and that the contrary opinion is rash Panormitan 36 Passibile est quòd vera sides Christi remaneret in uno solo Hoe patuit post passionem Christi Nam c. Et fortè hine dicit Glossa quâ—d ubi sant bmi ibi est Ecclesia Romana Panorm loc cit in the words immediately following those before cited saith it is possible the Faith of Christ may remain in one only person That at the Passion of our Saviour it remained only in the blessed Virgin and that for this cause probably the Glosse saith where ever good men are there is the Church of Rome This passage also as well as the former Antonius Florentinus translated into his Sum. Peter de Monte 38 Quia sides potest remarere etiam apud simplicem Laicum in aliis omnibus jerire sicut accidit in personâ B. Mariae in passione Christi Pet. de Monte lib. de Monarchiâ Bishop of Brixia gives this reason why Laicks ought to be admitted into the Council because the Faith may possibly remain in one simple Laick as it did formerly in the Blessed Virgin. Clemangis 39 In soli potest mulierculâ per gratiam manere Ecclesia sicut c. Clem. disp de Concil asserts the Church may by grace remain in one single woman as formerly in the Virgin. Jacobatius 40 Nam remansit sides in B. Virgine aliis deficientibus post passionem ut astenderetur quid non possi defiâ—ere sides pro quâ Christus oravit cùm diait Petro. Et ego pro te rogavi ut non desietat svies tua Et non intelligitar Jac. de Concil lib. 6. p. 242. writeth that after the passion faith remained in the Blessed Virgin alone that so the promise of indefectibility made by Christ unto his Church might not fail which promise was made not to the representive Church or a Council but
approved or condemned That request being stisly denied by the Roman Consistory who were resolved to condemn them in the gross The Jansenists distinguished Three Senses of each Proposition and placing the different senses in Three Columns offered them to the Examiners desiring they would admonish which of all those senses the Censure aimed at But neither so could they obtain their End. Only afterwards when the Controversie grew hot Pope Alexander VII declared the Propositions were condemned in the sense intended by the Author The Author had been now dead before his Book was published much less condemned And so while the Popes pretended to condemn the Authors sense they said nothing else but that they condemned a sense which neither they would nor any body else could tell what it was And to this day it is disputed among them what is that Heretical sense intended by the Author and condemned by the Popes Thus much of the Third Exception I might add another which not a few of our Adversaries produce For they require that the Church proceed maturely diligently and Canonically in her judgment Which certainly few or none can know But because the consideration of this would take up too much time I shall omit it Having already sufficiently evinced that nothing is more uncertain than to know what are those Decrees of the Church which may be securely believed and consequently that Faith cannot be founded on them CHAP. VI. That it is uncertain what is that part of the Vniversal Church to which active Infallibility belongs And First that it doth not appear whether it be in the Pope IF we should after all this grant the knowledg of the Churches Infallibility and of her Infallible Decrees not to be impossible this would contribute nothing to the establishing our Faith unless it were likewise known what is that Supream Tribunal whose Decrees are to be obey'd For if this were uncertain saith Arriaga 1 Si enim incertum hoc esset quicquid de judice controversiarum in Ecclesiâ ut certum de fidecreditur esset planè ridiculum Arr. de Fide Disp 7. Sect. 8. whatsoever is believed as of Faith concerning a Judge of Controversies in the Church would be ridiculous Now this thing is really uncertain as I shall prove There are three opinions concerning it among our Adversaries For this Supream and Infallible power is by most assigned to the Pope alone by almost all the French and some few more to a Council alone and lastly to Pope and Council together by some very few so few that I could never find one that expresly asserted this opinion and but two or three that obscurely insinuate it I begin with the Pope and affirm that unless his Infallibility be of Faith his Decrees cannot be the foundation of Faith. No other certainty will here suffice for as for Moral and Self evident here is not the least shadow of them and that of Theological Conclusions I before excluded So that certainty of Faith is necessary This our Adversaries confess at least those of the first opinion Caspensis 2 Nisi fide divinâ credamns ejusmodi Pontifices esse successores Petri nihil est quod possumus fide divina credere Casp de fide disp 2. Sect. 6. writeth that unless we believe by Divine Faith such Popes to be the Successors of Peter there is nothing we can believe with Divine Faith. Martinonus 3 Pontifex non posset nos obligare ad credendum de jide id quod definit ut dictum a Deo nisi de fide esset ipsum habere potestatem definiendi infalibilem assistentiam Sp. S. Mart. de fide disp 9. Sect. 6. that the Pope could not oblige us to believe as of Faith what he defineth to be revealed by God unless it were of Faith that he hath the power of defining and infallible assistance of the Holy Ghost Rhodius 4 Si non esset de fide quòd Papa sit infallibilis ergo non est de fide quôd non fallatur Rhod. de fide quaest 3. Sect. 1. §. 3. that unless the infallibility of the Pope were of Faith it would not be of Faith that he is not actually mistaken Is it therefore of Faith that the Pope is infallible So indeed some of them maintain as Suarez Castrus Palaus Lud. Abelly Ja. Vernautius Fr. Macedo Theoph. Raynaudus Amicus Caspensis Martinonus Rhodius and others Yea Abelly 5 Veritatem religionis fundamentalem articulum fidei ex praecipuis unum cui innitantur caeteri omnes Abelly apud Estrix Diat ass 47. affirms that it is a fundamental truth of Religion a Prime Article of Faith upon which the rest depend and the contrary opipinion a capital heresie Vernautius 6 Neminem posse sine crimine hereseos doctrinam tenere contrariam Pontificis fidei omnibus fidelibus propositae Vern apud eundem concludeth that none without the crime of heresie can hold an opinion contrary to the belief of the Pope proposed to all the faithful Macedo 7 Censeo qui absolutè negat insallibilem esse Papam errare haud dubiè in fide si in errore obstinatus perseveret haereticum fore Mac. ibidem thinks the denial of it to be an undoubted error in Faith and if obstinately persisted in heresie Lastly Raynaudus 8 Qui Pontifici eam infallibilitatem abrogant a plerisque sin minus ab omnibus trans Alpes Pyrenaeos habentur haeretici saltem materialiter Rayn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 punct 5. tells us the deniers are by many if not by all beyond the Alpes and Pyrenaeans accounted hereticks at least materially When he saith materially he meaneth in the Language of the Schoolmen that the opinion of these Deniers is accounted in it self heretical and wants only obstinacy in the defenders to make it downright and formal Heresie Now this obstinacy is judged of partly by the external Proposition of the Truth opposed to Heresie partly by the internal disposition of mind Now because the latter is known to God alone and all truths are not sufficiently proposed to all therefore those of whom Raynaudus speaks do wisely in laying down that limitation of material Heresie But this Salvo will not serve the Learned disbelievers of the Papal infallibility For since it is as clearly revealed to them as it is to the believers of it Either those are rank Hereticks whom a sufficient Proposition will not convince or these fools who assent to an opinion insufficiently proposed Thus indeed these Writers But others are of a contrary opinion as Bellarmine Vasquez Tannerus Duval the Valemburgii Gab. Boyvin and others who strenuously maintain the Infallibility of the Pope and yet deny it to be of Faith. Duval 9 Duval de potest Pont. part 2. quaest 1. produceth three weighty reasons 1. For that it hath been no where defined 2. That the opposite Doctors as Alliacensis Gerson c. Were never condemned 3. In that the Scripture
doth not clearly enough teach this Infallibility The two first reasons are also made use of by Bellarmine Vasquez the Valemburgii and Boyvin And indeed this opinion is most consonant to the received Principles of their Church For if nothing can be an Article of Faith of which their Divines freely dispute unregarded by the Church This certainly cannot be whose Truth hath been and is to this day fiercely disputed of among them even by Bellarmines Confession from the time of the Council of Constance the Church all this while inflicting no censure on either party Besides if the Infallibility of the Pope be of Faith it will then be Heresie to deny it as we saw some before asserting Hadrianus Florentius therefore was an Heretick who affirms 11 Certum est quod possit Pontifex errare etiam in iis quae tangunt fidem Heresin per suam determinationem vel Deeretalem asserendo plures enim fuerunt Pontifices Rom. heretici Hadr. in Dictat in 4. Sentent the Pope can err even in those things which concern Faith by asserting Heresie by his determination or decretal and that many Popes have been Hereticks and the Church will be a favouress of Heresie in that She afterwards promoted Hadrian to the Popedom without first requiring of him an abjuration of his Heresie Again if this opinion be Heretical the Council of Basil will be heretical that defined it and vigorously maintained it The Sorbon and Gallican Clergy hereticks that teach it the Pope a favourer of heresie who daily conferreth Abbies Bishopricks and Cardinals Hats on notorious Hereticks giveth them places in Councils and maintains Communion with them the whole Latin Church will have been divided in point of Faith and part infected with heresie part with the Communion of hereticks for many Ages from the Council of Constance according to Bellarmine but even from the time of Firmilian or the middle of the third Century according to Lupus who assigns Firmilian to be the first opposer of Papal Infallibility and makes St. Basil to have been his Successor in opinion as well as in the See of Caesarea that thenceforward this Heresie got ground among the Grecians insomuch as the Pelagians condemned by the Popes appealed to the Council at Ephesus hoping their sentence might easily be reversed by the Greek Bishops as not allowing the Popes Infallibility If so then this dissention is very ancient in the Church which if it toucheth Faith then a pestilent Heresie hath for many Ages been connived at by the Church and Councils But whatsoever becomes of Lupus his Calculation certain it is this dissention hath continued from the Council of Constance so that if it be concerning a matter of Faith the Church of Rome hath all this while wanted that glorious Character of Unity of Faith which She so much boasts of CHAP. VII That it is not certain whether the Pope in defining used all diligence necessary to a right definition or whether he observed all the wonted solemnities in publishing his Decree ANother scruple next ariseth no less weighty than the former For granting we may be assured of the Infallibility of the Pope it is still to be inquired which be those Decrees of his that are infallibly true For that all are not so our Adversaries confess Many things are by them required and besides those before mentioned two other conditions viz. Diligence of the Pope in well examining the question to be defined and observation of the due solemnities in publishing the definition For the first they require that he diligently consult Scripture and Tradition address himself by Prayers to God and omit nothing which may assist him in finding out the Truth So Tapperus 1 Tapp orat 3. Canus 2 Can. loc Theol. lib. 5. cap. 5. Cellotius 3 Cell de Hier lib. 4. cap. 10. Bagotius 4 Bag. Instit Theol. and many others but above all Duvall 5 Duval de Pot. Pont. Sect. 2. quaest 5. who not only proposeth but also accurately demonstrates the necessity of these conditions But who can assure us that this requisite diligence was always used Or as often as a Papal decree comes forth are we to suspend our assent till we be ascertained that nothing requisite was omitted by the Pope If that be true there will be few Decrees to which we owe assent and obedience Canus Bellarmine Suarez Duvall Martinenus Rhodius and many others answer that as he which promiseth the End promiseth also the the means of that End so Christ in promising Infallibility to the Pope must be supposed likewise to have promised that he would take care the Pope should never omit any thing necessary for finding out of truth and declaring it to others when found I will not now enquire whether this be consonant to what they teach about the Controversie of the Aids of Grace I only ask whether what they alledge be certain If not our Faith will always sluctuate and ever be uncertain That it is not certain Tapperus 6 Si contingeret eum Pontisirem perperam pracedere an Deus eam volentem maledicere prchiberet sicut impedivit Balaam an potius retractari saceret ejus judicium sicut c. Certum non est Tapp loc cit ingenuously confesseth Whether saith he if it should happen that the Pope proceeds wrong would God hinder him going about to curse as he did Balaam or make him retract his judgment as the Counsel given by Nathan the Prophet to King David It is not certain Nay that it is absolutely false may be proved by many examples Did Benedict II. Examine well what he went about when he condemned Julian Toletanus his Book which he was afterwards forced to approve Did Vigilius who sometimes condemned sometimes defended the Tria Capitula Did John VIII who notwithstanding his Oath the Decrees of his Predecessors and Sanctions of Three Councils restored Photius and reinforced the Schism Another very evident Example of this is afforded by the suppression of Sixtus V. his Bibles which alone might evince three things that the Popes are not always sufficiently diligent in their Definitions that they can err in any Decrees and that it is not known when the requisite Solemnities are observed in the promulgation which was my second Argument The case was this The Council of Trent in authorizing the Vulgar Version had desired it might be correctly and accurately set forth leaving the Execution of this matter to the Pope That this might be well done Ad nos totum hoc judicium propriè specialiter pertinet Hac perpetuo valitura Constitutione de Venerab Fratrum consensu Consilio de certä suâ—i scientiâ Apostolicae potestatis plenitudine Apostolied sibi a Domino traditâ authoritate great industry was used At last after Forty Six years Sixtus V. published the Edition prefixing a Bull to it whereby he commanded it to be received by all men And wherein having prefaced that the matter belonged
unlike Argument in disputing against this Answer of Duval which is now before us The definitions of the Pope saith he * At hoc perabsurdum est quia non est in potestate plebis fidelium facere ut quod non est de fide sit revera tale Raynaud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 punct 5. in matters of Faith are received by the People either as to be believed with Divine Faith and so antecedently to the Reception of the Church or not upon their own account but for the sake of the Churches Reception But this is very absurd because it is not in the Power of the multitude of the faithful to make that be of Faith by their Reception which was not really such before For then many things would become of Faith which are by no means such as the Assumption of the B. Virgin which no Christian doubts of and yet none believe to be of Faith. He might have added other Examples which we shall produce hereafter It may be yet asked Whether this Approbation of the Church required by Duvall ought to be express that is whether the Pope's Decrees ought to be positively received by all before they become Infallible for if so there are few or no Decrees which have been thus received certainly none whose Reception of this kind is or can be manifestly known or whether a negative Reception will suffice and so those Decrees become certain which are opposed by none But neither can this be certainly known until we be assured that the Decree is taken notice of by all the faithful Whereas how many Papal Decrees are there which are unknown to the greatest part of Christendom And no wonder since St. Augustine himself was ignorant of that Nicene Canon which forbad him to be associated in the Bishoprick to Valerius yet alive But that which is chiefly to be herein regarded is that the certainty of this sufficiency of the negative Reception of the Church can never be demonstrated and without that we are still at a loss This consideration also is of no small moment That if it be lawful to deny Credit and Obedience to the Popes Decrees before it shall be known they have been received by the Universal Church hereby a wide gate is opened to Schisms and Dissensions For then every contentious or capricious person may contemn and hinder the Execution of the most just Decrees and so put an end to the Authority of this 〈◊〉 much boasted Monarchy For suppose the Pope published 〈◊〉 Decree Some admit others reject it Hitherto according to Duvall it is not of faith because not yet received by the Universal Church What shall be done in this case Must a Council be called That Duval g Pessimè Deus Ecclesiae suae consuluisset si viam hanc quae rarò foeliciter desinit tanquam expeditius malorum indies emergentium remedium reliquisset quinimò Ecclesiam ad impossibile quodammodo obligâsset Duvall de Pot. Pont. part 4 quaest 1. himself acknowledgeth to be highly inconvenient sometimes impossible and for most part unsuccessful That if God had left only that remedy for daily emergent doubts he would in a manner have obliged his Church to impossibilities since the calling and meeting of a Council depends upon the pleasure of secular Princes who for reasons of State may prevent it although the Pope and with him all the Bishops in the World desire it But even if they meet 't is possible they may dissent in their Opinions If you say that part must be adhered to which the Pope favours I ask how it is to be adhered to whether with Divine Faith For of that only we now dispute This Duvall I suppose will not affirm For if the Infallibility of the Pope alone be not of Faith part of a Council adhering to him will not make his yet uncertain Decrees to become of Faith since according to Duval nothing but the Reception of the Universal Church can do it whereas in this case the Approbation even of the whole Representative Church is wanting CHAP. XI That neither can the Faith of Papists rely on the Decrees of Pope and Council consenting together First Because their Infallibility is not sufficiently certain THUS have we dispatched the three first Foundations of a Papist's Faith. The fourth succeeds viz. an Oecumenical Council which may be considered two ways either as disjoyned from the Pope and destitute of his consent or as confirmed by it The Sorbonists hold the Infallibility of it the first way considered The Monarchical Divines only the second But that I need not dispute separately against the Sorbonists appears for two reasons First Because their Opinion is easily confuted For we need oppose to them no more than this that the Infallibility of such a Council is not certain at least it is not of Faith as we before demonstrated it ought to be For the Sorbonists can never prove this to be revealed by God. Scripture saith nothing at all of Councils especially Oecumenical They flee indeed to Tradition But they cannot produce any Testimonies of the Fathers that say this is of Faith not any evident Decrees of Councils not the consent of the Universal Church for the greatest part of the Roman Church thinks otherwise Besides the Opposition it hath met with among many Divines of the Church undeniably proves it not to be of Faith. For if the dissent of a few Sorbonists can cause the Infallibility of the Pope not to be of Faith certainly the opposition of a far greater number of Monarchical Divines will produce the same Effect as to the Infallibility of a Council without the Pope Secondly Because it may be confuted with the same Arguments wherewith I shall prove that the definitions of Pope and Council consenting together are no firm Foundation for our Faith. For if both together suffice not a Council without the Pope will never be sufficient Since the consent of the Pope may possibly add some firmness to the Decrees of a Council but most certainly can take none from them To supersede therefore any further Dispute of that matter let us enquire whether the Faith of our Adversaries can rely on the Decrees of Pope and Council conspiring together This many of them imagine Bellarmin a Bell. de concil lib. 2. cap. 2. and Duvall b Duvall de Pot. Pont. part 2. qu. 6. glory there is no doubt of it among them that it is unanimously taught by their Divines and therefore is of Faith. But I deny both For although the Monarchical Divines are of this Opinion yet the Sorbonists dissent who maintain indeed the Infallibility of a General Council whether agreeing or disagreeing with the Pope but allow not this Prerogative to every Council but only to a Council truly Oecumenical lawfully constituted Canonically proceeding and wholly free The Monarchical Divines acknowledge the necessity of those Conditions yet differ from the Sorbonists two several wayes First In that they interpret these Conditions
differently as we shall see hereafter Secondly In that whether these Conditions be present they would have judged from the subsequent confirmation of the Pope which the Sorbonists will by no means allow but require the knowledge of it to be had some other way Hence many Councils which the Pope hath pronounced to be both lawful and Oecumenical the Sorbonists will not acknowledge either for lawful or Oecumenical as that of Lyons under Innocent IV. that of Florence and the Lateran under Leo X. others which the Sorbonists admit and the Monarchists reject as those of Pisa Constance at least as to the first Sessions and Basil So Bellarmin rejecting some antient Councils as those of Sirmium Ariminum Milan and the second of Ephesus on pretence that they were not approved by the Pope is said by Richerius c Richer apol pro Gers axiom 22. to trisle in assigning for the cause that which is not such Since as he affirms these Councils were not rejected because not approved by the Pope but because wanting the requisite Liberty Not to say that the Sorbonists reject some Councils meerly because the Pope was present oppressing and over-awing their Liberty It is manifest therefore that the consent of our Adversaries about the Infallibility of Councils confirmed by the Pope consists only in words and is not real and that by a General Council the Sorbonists understand one thing the Monarchists another The thing it self therefore cannot be of Faith since by the received Doctrine of that Church nothing can be so but what is unanimously acknowledged and taught by Catholick Divines But to make the whole matter more evident I will demonstrate two things First That this appears not to be of Faith from other Arguments beside the dissent of the Sorbonists and Monarchists Secondly That although it were certain in general there are some Infallible Councils yet it can never be known that any particular Council is so This was demonstrated above although under other terms when we proved that the active Infallibility of the Church is not of Faith and what I just now produced confirms it not a little To which may be added That the Infallibility of Pope and Council together cannot be of Faith because the Infallibility of neither separately is so For I would ask why that alone should be of Faith whether because that only is true or that alone revealed or that only known to be revealed Not the first for then the whole Latin Church would have erred For there is not at least not known to be any who do not attribute Infallibility either to the Pope alone or a Council alone Not the second For then the same inconvenience would follow since there are none but what hold the Infallibility of one of the two to have been revealed Not the third For who can ever imagine that God would give Infallibility to Pope or Council and yet not reveal it so clearly as that it might be believed with Divine Faith. For he can have given it for no other end than that it might be to Christians the Rule of Believing which it cannot be as we before proved unless it be it self of Faith. To this may perhaps be opposed that the Infallibility of Pope or Council separately wants not Divine Revelation but only the Definition of the Church proposing it But if so then the so much boasted of Wisdom and Assistance of the Holy Ghost must be wanting in the Church which would not make this Revelation by her Definition to be of Faith and thereby have left to the faithful no other living Rule of Faith than the Pope and Counsel consenting together which for the known difficulties of calling General Councils cannot be perhaps had and applied once in an Age whereas the Infallibility of the Pope if defined to be of Faith would be an apt and easie Rule ready to be consulted upon all occasions But in truth this Infallibility of Pope and Council united is no where expresly revealed by God or openly defined by the Church For many places of Scripture and Decrees of Councils are indeed alledged for the Infallibility of each separately but not one for that of both conjunctly None certainly will deny this if the Opinion of Albertus Pighius and Fr. à Victoria be true Of whom the first by the confession of Bellarmin d Bell. de concil lib. 1 cap. 3. thought the institution of Councils plainly human and found out by Natural reason the second e Nihil aliud posset totum Concilium quod non possent Patres per se singuli secundum suam potestatem unde haec potestas non est in Concilio immediatè jure divino sed ex voluntate Praelatorum Vict. Relect. 2. de potest Eccl. Sect. 1. hath these words A whole Council can do nothing which each Bishop might not by his own power do of himself whence this power is not in the Council immediately by Divine Right but by the will of the Bishops That this opinion is at least probable must be confessed For no mention of General Councils is to be found in Scripture none in the Ecclesiastical Writers of the three first Ages to whom they were wholly unknown If this opinion should be true that so much Infallibility would vanish into smoak For who could assure us that God had annexed so great a priviledge to an humane Institution at least it could never be of Faith because wanting Divine revelation I know this opinion is rejected by Bellarmine but so softly that he doth not explode it as absurd and intolerable nor say the contrary is of Faith but only more probable From whence I argue That if the Divine institution of Councils be only more probable then their humane institution is probable at least neither opinion exceedeth probability and so neither can be of Faith. CHAP. XII That there was never any Councils Oecumenical THus have we proved the existence of infallible Councils to be uncertain But grant it certain and undoubted This will be yet to be inquired what those Councils are without the knowledge of which the certainty of the former will be wholly vain Yet is this thing impossible to be known For let us survey the conditions which our Adversaries require The first is that the Council be truly Oecumenical This indeed is not much insisted upon by the Monarchists who maintain any Council great or small confirmed by the Pope to be infallible and so make no difference between particular and general Councils For according to their opinion without the approbation of the Pope both are alike fallible with it both alike infallible Whence Gr. à Valentia a Nullum Concilium infallibilem authoritatem definiendi per se habet seclusa Romani Pontisicis authoritate II. Accedente Rom. Pont. confirmatione Concilium quodvis est infallibile Val. com 3. disp 1. quaest 1. punct 7. §. 45. proposeth his judgment in these two assertions I. No Council hath of it self infallible authority
corda eorum per fidem charitatem gratiam mihi inseparabiliter connectendo ita ut omnes sint unum corpus mysticum unaque domus Carth. in Matth. XVI art 26. brings in Christ thus speaking I will build and confirm my Church that is the Congregation of the Faithful by inseparably uniting their hearts to me by Faith Charity and Grace so as all may be one mystical Body and one House J. Fr. Picus Mirandula 15 A propriâ vocabuli significatione recedendum ipse non putarem ut primò propriè principalissimeque Sancta Catholica Ecclesia diceretur quae omnes rectae Apostolicae fidei non fictae charitatis homines complecteretur Pic. Theor. 13. saith That we ought not to recede from the proper signification of the Word that so that might be called primarily properly and most principally the Holy Catholick Church which comprehendeth all men of a right and Apostolick Faith and unfeigned Charity Ferus upon those words Matth. XV. The gates of Hell shall not prevail against it saith 16 Sed loquitur de Ecclesiâ Secundùm spiritum quae solos electos complectitur Fer. in Matth. Christ speaks not here of the Church as it is commonly understood of the Collection of all Christians whether good or bad but of the Church according to the Spirit which comprehends only the Elect. Lastly Chr. Lupus 17 Ecclesia quae claves accepit non est universa fidelium in legitimis Sacramentis communio sed sola congregatio justorum seu Sanctorum communio Lup. in Concil tom 4. p. 818. affirms That the Church which received the Keys is not the universal Communion of the Faithful in the Lawful Sacraments but the sole Congregation of the just or the Communion of Saints Which he pursueth at large and proveth by many Testimonies of St. Augustine to which we might add many others no less cogent of other Fathers as St. Hierom Agobardus Bernard c. if our Argument consisted in the truth of this Opinion It sufficeth to shew it was received by many and consequently that our Adversaries do not agree in forming the Idea of a Church Now this Dissension is of great moment For if the second or especially the third Opinion be true the Doctrine of our Adversaries will be wholly overthrown For not to say that if Sinners be excluded out of the Church the Pope and whole Councils may perhaps not belong to it and so want that Infallibility which is appropriated to the true Church To omit this since we treat not now of active but passive Infallibilty I say That according to this Hypothesis the Faith of our Adversaries cannot rely upon the belief of the Universal Church For to conform themselves to this Rule of Faith they must first perfectly know it which cannot be if they know not what is that Church whose Faith they ought to follow But how shall they know the Church if that consist only of Pious Men whom none will deny to be known to God alone Canus was not ignorant of this who rejecteth this Opinion because saith he 18 Incerta erunt omnia si apud solos pios Ecclesia est Can. loc Theol. lib. 4. cap. 3. all things will be uncertain if the Church be limited to pious Men. Will our Adversaries therefore say that the first of these Opinions is certain the other undoubtedly false That is easter affirmed than proved Besides of what degree of certainty would they have their assertions to be Not certainly of Divine Faith unlessHeresie be imputed to all those Learned Men who maintained the second and third Opinions But no other degree of certainty can be obtained in these things nor will any other suffice CHAP. XXV That our Adversaries have no way of knowing the true Church IT doth not appear therefore who they are that truly belong to the Church Yet suppose it is and that all Baptized Persons outwardly professing the true Faith are Members of it which Opinion most pleaseth our Adversaries and is most advantageous for them It is still to be enquired which out of so many Societies that challenge to themselves the name of the Church justly and truly claims it For not any one that first occurrs is to be admitted and preferred before the rest But here if any where a diligent and accurate Examination is to be used lest instead of the Church of Christ we follow the Synagogue of Satan and for Divine Revelations receive execrable Errors This especially becomes them who when they have found the Church give over any further enquiry and receive without Examination all the dictates of it They ought to be very vigilant and curious in the choice of their Guide lest if they haply mistake they incurr that Sentence of Christ If the blind lead the blind both will fall into the ditch Let us see therefore whether our Adversaries can boast they have made a just and accurate enquiry herein and most certainly found out the true Church There are chiefly three Methods of making this Enquiry 1. From the truth of the Doctrine professed by any Church and Conformity of that to the Word of God. 2. By Notes known only by the light of right Reason and independently from the Word of God. 3. By Notes which are marked out and taught in the Scripture Arriaga preferreth the first Method before all others I answer saith he 1 Respondeo veritatem doctrinae probari etiam posse non recurrendo ad Ecclesiam imò ante primam probationem verae Ecclesiae debere probari veritatem doctrinae Etenim cum Ecclesia ut Ecclesia definiatur per hoc quòd sit coetus profitentium veram doctrinam fidei repugnat in terminis me supponere aliquam congregationem esse veram Ecclesiam nisi dicam eo ipso ibi esse veram doctrinam Ergo non possum primò probare veram doctrinam ex verâ Ecclesiâ Arr. de fide disp 7. Sect. 5. that the truth of the Doctrine may be proved without recurring to the Church yea and that before the first Proof of the true Church the truth of the Doctrine ought to be proved He proveth both parts of his Assertion largely and in the second part of it maketh use of this Argument For since the Church as a Church is defined the Congregation of men professing the true Doctrine of Faith it is a contradiction in the very terms to suppose any Congregation to be the true Church unless I do for that very reason suppose there is the true Doctrine I cannot therefore first prove the Doctrine is true from the truth of the Church To this we willingly subscribe and approve this Method of Arriaga's only Not so the rest of our Adversaries who detest it and labour to render it both infamous and impossible pretending it to be full of inextricable difficulties and not to be surmounted by the most learned much less by illiterate persons Wherefore I need not endeavour to prove that the true
any of our Adversaries have assigned a Conjectural Certainty to the perswasion which they have of the Truth of the Rules of their Faith. And surely such Certainty would be too mean and inconsiderable for this place Belonging to Opinion rather than Faith as Bellarmine well notes and not excluding distrust which is absolutely destructive of Divine Faith. A Moral Certainty is rarely made use of by our Adversaries in this case being such as take place only in matters of fact and not all those neither but only such as are perceived by the senses of other men and those so many and so clearly as take away all suspicion either of fraud or errour Whereas those parts of a Papists belief which have most need of being backed by certainty and are subject to the greatest difficulties are matters of right or at least such as fall not under the senses either of himself or others There are some things indeed which they would have to be manifest by this kind of certainty such as the knowledg of a lawful Pope or a Canonical Council what the present Church teacheth or to which Society belong the notes of a true Church c. We must consider therefore whether in these cases this certainty be sufficient It would suffice indeed if the opinions of Bagotius or Huetius were admitted Of whom the first equals the second prefers Moral Certainty to Metaphysical and even that which is acquired by demonstration But few approve these excesses Many on the contrary depress this certainty too low However all agree that it is inferior to that of Divine Faith. For which reason alone I might reject it but shall notwithstanding be content only then to do it when it is falsly pretended As for an evident certainty our Adversaries neither do nor can glory in it For if the foundations of Faith had that No previous motion of the will by the Divine influence no supernatural assistance of grace would be necessary which yet all require and none but fools and stupid persons could be disbelievers Besides that those things which are of positive right and depend upon the free Will of God cannot be taught by nature but must be known only by Divine Revelation But herein our Adversaries consent to us as we shall see hereafter and presume not to boast of evidence in the Objects of their Belief There remains therefore only the certainty of Divine Faith which they can pretend to Wherefore I shall chiefly consider that not neglecting yet the rest whensoever it can be imagined that they may be made use of by our Adversaries omitting only the certainty of Theological Conclusions and that for the reasons beforementioned I shall now examine all the Foundations of Faith which our Adversaries are wont to produce beginning at the Holy Scriptures CHAP. II. That the Faith of Papists is not founded on Holy Scripture THAT the Scripture is most certain in it self and most fit to ground our Faith upon is our constant belief and profession But this cannot suffice our Adversaries unless they recede from their known Principles The Scripture may be considered and used for the establishing of our Faith two ways First as it is in it self and its own nature and Secondly as it is confirmed illustrated and assisted by the help of Tradition and the authority of the Church That Scripture the first way considered is not a fit foundation of our Faith our Adversaries not only freely confess but sharply contend maintaining that laying aside Tradition and the Church we cannot be assured either that Scripture is the Word of God or consists of such Books and Chapters or that they are delivered incorrupted to us or faithfully translated or that this or that is the sense of such a place Of these opinions and arguments their Authors are agreed their Books are full that should I recite but the names much more the testimonies of the maintainers of them I should become voluminous To this may be opposed that this is only the opinion of the School Divines and Controversial Writers that there are many in the Church of Rome who believe the authority of the Scripture independent from the judgment of the Church and dextrously use that method of arguing against Atheists as Hâ—etius in his Books of Evangelical Demonstration and the Anonymous Author of the Dissertation concerning the arguments wherewith the truth of Moses his Writings may be demonstrated that such as these may have a true and firm belief of those things which Scripture plainly teacheth which are all that are necessary to be believed Whilest I congratulate to the Church of Rome these more sober Prosylites and wish that by a general concurrence therein they would refute my Dissertation I observe first that there are very few among them of this opinion Secondly that it doth not appear that even these few are perswaded that their arguments suffice to found a Divine Faith upon the Scriptures demonstrated by them The Licensers and Approvers of the aforementioned Dissertation seemed to be afraid of this while they manifestly distinguish a perswasion arising from those arguments from true Faith. Lastly that it doth not appear whether they think that they can without the authority of the Church be obliged to believe either which are Canonical Books or what is the sense of those Books So that until they declare their mind herein they are not by us to be disjoined from much less opposed to the rest I may therefore take it for granted that according to our Adversaries the Faith of private men cannot relie upon the Scripture destitute of the assistance of Tradition since it is what themselves most of all contend for Now for what concerneth Scripture considered the latter way as it is fortified by the accedaneous help of Church and Tradition I might perhaps omit the handling of it here forasmuch as neither Church nor Tradition can confer a greater degree of firmness upon Scripture which that they have not themselves I shall in the proceeding of this Discourse more opportunely shew hereafter However because some few things occur not improper for this place I shall very briefly speak of them First then how little help there is for Scripture in Tradition appeareth hence that it can no otherwise teach what is the true sense of Scripture but by the unanimous consent of the Fathers which whether it be to be had in any one text of Scripture may be much doubted It was a hard condition therefore 1 Nec eam unquam nisi juata unanimem consensum patrum accipiam interpretabor which Pope Pius IV. prescribed in his Profession of Faith to all which desired admission into the Church of Rome and which may for ever silence all the Roman Commentators that they will never receive nor interpret Scripture any otherwise than according to the unanimous consent of the Fathers Now I would fain know how this Law can be observed since I may confidently affirm that there is no one
Writings of the Orthodox Doctors is as dubious and uncertain as the opinion of those Doctors is and that the doubts raised concerning it cannot be defined by Tradition it self In like manner George Rhodius 4 Neque scire potero Traditionem aliquam esse veram nisi vivens regula id definierit Rhod. de fide quaest 2. Sect. 5. § 1. affirms that no Tradition can be known to be true unless some living Rule shall so define it But that this matter being of no small moment may be the more manifest we may observe that our Adversaries require two things to make the testimony of the Fathers worthy to be relied on First that they consent and secondly that they do not meerly propose what seems most true to themselves but testifie moreover that what they teach was either delivered by Christ or is of Faith or which is all one the opposite of it heresie If either of these fail then their testimony is not secure The first condition is required by many and particularly by Alphonsus a Castro 5 Quarta est omnium SS Doctorum qui de re illâ scripserunt concors sententia Castr de justâ haeret pun lib. 1. cap. 4. who enquiring out the ways whereby a proposition may be convinced to be heretical in the fourth place assigns the unanimous consent of all the Fathers who have written upon that argument The latter condition is made necessary by many more Driedo 6 Non quia Hieronymus sic vel sic docei non quia Augustinus c. Dried de Eccles Dogm lib. 4. cap. 1. 6. tells us the authority of the Fathers is of no value any otherwise than as they demonstrate their opinion either from the Canonical Scriptures or the belief of the universal Church since the Apostles times and that they do not always deliver their sense as matters of Faith but by way of judgement opinion and probable reason Stapleton 7 Non enim omnibus eorum dictis haec authoritas datur sed quatenus vel Ecclesiae publicam fidem referunt vel ab Ecclesiâ Dei recepta approbata sunt Stapl de princip doctr lib 7. cap. 15. writeth that this authority is not allowed to all the sayings of the Fathers but either as they relate the publick belief of the Church or have been approved and received by the Church Gillius 8 Testimonium Patrum vel Doctorum Scholasticorum communiter asserentium ali pâ—id ad fidem vel Theologiam pertinens simpliciter tamen non indicando esse dogma fidei esse debet argumentum firmum Theologo sed citra infallibilitatem fidei Gill. de doctr Sacrâ lib. 1. Tract 7. cap. 13. lastly grants that the testimony of Fathers and Doctors unanimously asserting somewhat pertaining to Faith and Divinity if they simply assert it and do with all tell us it is an Article of Faith ought to be a firm Argument to a Divine but without Infallibity of Faith. Both conditions are required by Canus 9 Can. Loc. Theol. lib. 3. cap. 4. and Bannes 10 Bann in 2. quaest 1. art 10. Si quod dogma fidei Patres ab initio secundum suorum temporum successiones concordissimè tenuerunt hujusque contrarium ut haereticum refutârunt who laying down Rules whereby true Traditions may be discerned from false both assign this in the second place and in the same words If the Fathers have unanimously from the beginning all along the Succession of their times held any Article of Faith and refuted the contrary as heretical Bellarmine and Gretser 11 Bell. Grets de verbo Dei lib. 4. cap. 9. give this for their fourth Rule When all the Doctors of the Church teach any thing by common consent to have descended from Apostolical Tradition either gathered together in a Council or each one a part in their Writings Suarez 12 Licet Patres vel Scholastici in aliquâ sententiâ conveniant non asserendo illam esse de fide sed judicium suum in eâ proferendo non faciens rem de fide quia semper manent intra mensuram authoritatis humanae Suarez de fide disp 2. Sect. 6. writeth that although the Fathers and Schoolmen agree in any opinion not asserting it to be of Faith But delivering their Judgment in it they will not make it to be of Faith because they remain always within the limits of humane authority Filliutius 13 quae unanimi consensu Patrum tanquam de fide proponuntur Fill. in Decal Tract 22. cap. 1. reckoning up the seven degrees of things pertaining to Catholick verity assigns the Sixth degree to those truths which by the unanimous consent of the Fathers are proposed to be of Faith. Martinonus 14 Certum est nullum ex S S. Patribus vel Doctoribus seorsim sumptum esse Regulam Fidei jam de eorundem simul sumptorum consensu distinguendum Vel enim loquuntur ex proprio sensu non asserendo rem tanquam de fide judicium suum de eâ proferendo sic non Regula Fidei Mart. de fide disp 8. Sect. 3. that none of the Holy Fathers or Doctors taken separately is the Rule of Faith nor all yet together conjunctly unless they assert their common opinion to be of Faith and not meerly propose their own judgment Lastly Natalis Alexander 15 Cum omnes Patres in eandem sententiam conspirant eamque propugnant ac proponunt ut Apostolicam doctrinam Ecclesiae dogma Catholi eâ fide credendum tunc eorum authoritas necessarium argumentum sacrae doctrinae subministrat Alex. saecul 2 p. 1022. affirms that when all the Fathers conspire in the same opinion defend it and propose it as Apostolick Doctrine and an Article of the Church to be believed by Catholick Faith Then doth their authority afford a necessary argument of Sacred Doctrine Thus far these Writers And that the rest do not disagree from them we shall soon be perswaded if we consider how unlikely it is that a greater infallibility should be allowed even to an unanimous testimony of the Fathers than to Pope or Council or both together or the present Universal Church All which our Adversaries grant may erre in those things which they simply affirm or teach and define not to be of Faith. It sufficeth not therefore either that many Fathers deliver an opinion as of Faith or that all should simply teach it but not affirm it to be of Faith. Now if these two conditions be observed How few Articles of Christian Faith shall we receive from Tradition For the Fathers seldom all agree and more rarely admonisheth us that what they teach is of Faith. So that if you take away all Articles wherein either of these conditions is wanting it may well be doubted whether any one will remain Certainly if our Controversial Divines should so far make use of this observation as to reject all testimonies of the Fathers
comes next calls a new Synod annuls whatsoever Stephen had done and restoreth the memory and Decrees of Formosus Sergius a while after anathematized Formosus anew and abrogated whatsoever had been done in his favour by John. This occasioned Auxilius a Writer of those times to compose his Dialogue against the intestine discord of the Church of Rome to use Sigebert Gemblarensis's y Contra intestinam discordiam Romanae Ecclesiae sc de ordinationibus exordinat superordinat Romanorum Pontisicum ordinatorum ab eis exordinationibus superordinat Sigebert de Script Eccl. cap. 112. words viz. concerning the Ordinations Exordinations and Superordinations of the Popes of Rome and the Exordinations and Superordinations of those ordained by them And Baronius z Haec perpetrata ab intrusis usurpantibus thronum Apostolicum quae legitimi Pontifices sunt execrati Bar. ad an 908. is forced to say These things were done by Intruders and Vsurpers of the Apostolick Throne which lawful Popes have detested In the next Age the words of Platina deserve to be observed The Papacy saith he a Eo tum Pontificatus devenerat ut qui plus largitione ambitione non dico sanctitate vitae doctrinâ valerét tantum dignitatis gradum bonis oppréssis rejectis obtaineret quem morèm utinam aliquando non retinuissent nostra tempora Plat. in vitâ Sylvestri III. was come to that that he who exceeded not in Piety and Learning but in Bribes and Ambition obtained that dignity good Men being oppressed and rejected which custom would to God our Ages had not sometimes retained In latter Ages the Simony of Alexander in procuring the Popedom partly by ready Money partly by large Promises is at length related by Onuphrius and Volaterran but especially Guicciardine And Varillac b Varil Hist Franc. 1. Liv. 1. tells us that Octavian Fregosius Duke of Genua procured the Election of Leo X. by the sollicitation of his Emissaries among the Cardinals and by detaining Prisoners in the mean while the Cardinals of the opposite Party who hastning to Italy by Sea toucht at Genua in their Voyage There would be no end if I should produce all the Examples which History suggests And if the known instances be so many what may we think of the secret Acts of Simony For this is a Crime whose chief art consists in keeping it secret and hiding it from the Eyes of Men. However what we have alledged proves this may sometimes happen and consequently that we can never be certain the same hath not happened even when it doth not appear And from all which hath been said appeareth the impossibility of certainly knowing whether he which possesseth the Papal Throne at any time be a lawful Pope and such whose Decrees may be securely believed and obeyed Our Adversaries are here brought into great streights Duval c Duval de Potest Pont. par 2. Sect. 5. confesseth it is a great difficulty and what hath excited no small stirs in some Universities To solve this they take different ways Some deny it can ever happen that an unlawful Pope should possess the Chair and that it is of Faith to believe every particular Pope lawful So Suarez Valentia Arriaga Raynaudus Caspensis Martinonus Rhodius and others cited by them and with reason For if this be not of Faith no Faith can be founded on their Decrees as they invincibly argue But on the other side how can that be of Faith which so many Examples prove to be false Or on what foundation shall this Divine Faith be placed Suarez and Martinonus answer upon the reception of the Church and 't is worth observing how they confirm that Because if it should be once granted saith Suarez d Si talis posset semel dari error in universali Ecclesiâ nunquam esset verum illam habere certam infallibilem regulam vivam fidei sibi loquentem Christi nomine Suar. de fide disp 10. Sect. 5. that an errour of this nature can happen in the universal Church it can be no ways true that she hath a certain and infallible living Rule of Faith speaking to her in Christ's Name The same saith Martinonus e Mart. de fide disp 5. Sect. 6. Nam is error aequiparatur errori in fide muitò intolerabiliùs esset errare in vivâ fidei regulâ Iidem ibid. Both add that this errour would be equal to an errour in Faith For say they if it be an intolerable errour in the Church when the whole Church believeth a Book to be Canonical which is not although that be but a dead rule of Faith it would be much more intolerable to err about the living rule of Faith. That they reason soundly cannot be denied For it is no less repugnant to absolute Infallibility to err about the living than about the dead rule But this being admitted I shall much more easily prove the Church can err about the dead Rule than Suarez that it cannot err about the living That it cannot err about the dead Rule our Adversaries can never prove that it can about the living I will demonstrate If ever any Pope was unlawful and irregular surely Vigilius was Yet he was owned and esteemed as lawful Pope by the fifth General Council and by the whole World. Although he were banished imprisoned and publickly vilified by the Emperour for the refusing to condemn the Tria Capitula and afterwards excommunicated by the Western Bishops for doing it yet was he never denied to be true and lawful Pope So in the ninth and tenth Ages those monstrous Popes were by Baronius f At quod mirandum est isti Pontifices licèt tales fuerint tamen eo honore reverenitâ fideles omnes prosequebantur Romanam Eccl. ut quemcunque in eâ sedentem audirent nomine tenus Pontificem eundem mirum dictu nullâ habitâ discussione ejus ingressûs eum ut Petrum colerent Bar. ad an 897. his confession so honoured and reverenced by All the Faithful that whomsoever they heard did preside in the Church of Rome although indeed but a nominal Pope never enquiring into the lawfulness of his Election they respected no otherwise than St. Peter himself In a word all those whom I mentioned before were generally obeyed by the Church The Church therefore can err in this matter But see how Suarez and the rest by pretending the contrary have destroyed their own darling Opinion For if it be of Faith that a Pope acknowledged by the whole Church is a lawful one then Stephen Romanus and Sergius who condemned Formosus and annulled his Acts as not being lawful Pope erred and so farewel all Papal Infallibility For they erred in the Faith if it be of Faith that Formosus was lawful Pope as it must be according to these Divines since Formosus while he lived was acknowledged and obeyed by the universal Church whereas these three Popes his Successours defined that he was no lawful Pope Duval
doubt whether he be lawful Pope that possesseth the Chair and also whether an unlawful Pope enjoyeth the Priviledge of Infallibility I may then justly doubt whether I ought to assent to the Decree of every single Pope and can never be certain of it That the first is uncertain I have already shewed That the latter is not certain Our Adversaries will not deny For if any it must be the certainty of Faith which Duvall will never grant who denies even the Infallibility of a lawful Pope to be of Faith. If any one yet shall dissent from Duvall and contend that it is of Faith he may be convinced by the same Arguments which we produced against the rest He may be asked where God revealed it or the Church defined it He may be told that Defenders of the contrary Opinion were never yet accused or condemned of Heresie Lastly He may be put in mind of Stephen Romanus and Sergius who declaring Formosus to have been an unlawful Pope did also annull his Decrees But I need not insist upon refuting that which no man maintains So that we may conclude there is no certainty to be had in this matter and therefore that Faith cannot safely rely on the Pope's Sentence CHAP. X. Wherein is prevented an Evasion whereby Duvall endeavours to elude whatsoever hath been hitherto said concerning the Pope DVvall a Respondeo definitiones Pontificis non esse de fide donec universalis Ecclesia quam de fide est errare non posse eas acceptaverit Duvall de potest Pont. part 2. qu. 5. oppressed with so many Difficulties takes refuge in saying The Definitions of the Pope are not of Faith before he Church whose Infallibility is of Faith hath received them I might justly rest here ince Duvall hereby grants us all we desire viz. that faith cannot be founded upon the definition of the Pope alone Whether the Churches Authority adds certainty to it I shall enquire hereafter In the mean while that the Truth maybe on all sides more manifest and because many things now occur not proper for another place I will more accurately consider Duval's argument And first Duval hereby is not consonant to himself For if the Pope's Decrees be not of Faith till received by the Church then the Pope alone is not a Rule of Faith but an aggregate of Pope and Church together when as Duval in another place b Id. in 22. pag. 62. teaches there are five Rules of Faith the Church Scripture Tradition Council and Pope whereof every one is so independent and sufficient that whatsoever it shall propose is most firmly to be believed not to say that hereby the perfections of a Rule of Faith will appear much more eminently in the Church than in the Pope since the Church can direct our Faith without the Pope but not the Pope without the Church whereas Duval c Ibid. p. 215. teaches the quite contrary Herein therefore he is neither consonant to himself nor to the other Patrons of Papal Infallibility while he denies obedience to be due to the Popes Decrees till they be received and confirmed by the Church this being very near the opinion of the Sorbonists those great Enemies of the Popes Infallibility For the Faculty of Divinity d Facultatis dogma non est quòd summus Pontifex nullo accedente Ecclesiae consensu sit infallibilis proposed their opinion in the year 1663. in these words It is not the judgment of this Faculty that the Pope is infallible without the consent of the Church And the Clergy of France in the year 1682. determined e In quaestionibus fidei praecipuas Summi Pontificis esse partes ejusque Decreta ad singula Ecclesias pertinere nec tamen irreformabile esse judicium nisi Ecclesiae consensus accesserit That questions of Faith chiefly pertained to the Pope and that his Decrees concerned all Churches yet that his sentence was not irreformable unless the consent of the Church had supervened How little doth Duval's opinion differ from this who maintains that the Popes Sentence is indeed infallible before the reception of the Church but appears not so to be till then For if so whether fallible or infallible it signifies not in matter of practice it will be the same and assent will be equally denied to the Popes Decrees until they shall have been admitted by the Church In the next place this Answer accuseth of rashness and imprudence the far greater part of the Church of Rome which without expecting the approbation of the universal Church blindly receives the Papal Decrees howsoever yet uncertain But that is of less moment This I would gladly know whether the Church whose reception makes the Papal Decrees to become of Faith ought to receive them without any precedent examination or not till she hath accurately compared them with the Word of God. If the latter then we have no definition on which Faith can rely For I dare confidently affirm there is none which the Church hath thus examined and approved Few undergo that labour most blindly follow the Dictates of the Pope Not to say that this is intirely repugnant to that profound submission wherewith the Decrees of the Head of the Church ought to be received or that according to this Principle the Pope ought together with his Decree to transmit to several Bishops the reasons of it since without the knowledge of these they cannot be duly examined or that the Pope is highly unjust who without being first certified of their universal approbation excommunicates and punisheth the contemners of them I will only urge that by this means the supreme Power is translated from the Pope to the Church as which passeth the last and peremptory Sentence not only on things to be believed but even on the Decrees of the Popes themselves How this will agree with the Doctrine of our present Adversaries let them see to it Certainly Raynaudus and the Author f De Lib. Eccles Gall. lib. 7. cap. 17. of the Treatise of the Liberties of the Gallican Church think far otherwise of whom the latter bestows a whole Chapter to prove this very Proposition That the Papal Decrees are not therefore to be obeyed because confirmed by the Churches consent but therefore consented to by the Church because antecedently infallible But if the Pope's Decrees are to be received by the Church with a blind assent and without any previous examination I do not see of what weight such a reception can be which according to this supposal must be granted to false Decrees as well as true Besides such reception would not differ from Divine Faith such as is given to the most authentick Revelations and so this opinion would be repugnant to it self For it supposeth Faith is not to be yielded to the Papal Decrees antecedently to the Churches reception and yet requires the Church to receive them with a blind assent that is with Faith. Theophilus Raynaudus useth a not
is uncertain whether plurality of Suffrages ought to overcome or whether perfect unanimity be required That in both Cases no small Difficulties occurr THere remains the last part of a Lawful Proceeding the Conclusion whereby the President of the Council when he hath heard the Suffrages of the Fathers solemnly pronounceth Sentence Concerning this is no small Controversie viz. Whether the President of the Council whosoever he be ought to give Sentence according to the major part of the Suffrages or whether a full or absolute unanimity be necessary and whether the same account is to be made of a Decree made by the Votes of all and by the Votes of the major part The Monarchists distinguish here and say that if the Pope himself presideth and perceives either the major part or all to favour Error he may deny his assent to them and give Sentence as himself pleaseth But if only the Legates preside and have Instructions what to do if the major number of Votes be consonant to their Instructions they may give Sentence without expecting unanimity if repugnant they must suspend their assent on both sides and refer all to the Pope who may determine it as he pleaseth However regularly and ordinarily they think plurality of Votes ought to overcome So Bellarmin 1 Est verum decretum Concilii quod fit à majori parte alioqui nullum esset legitimum Concilii decretum cùm semper aliqui dissentiant Bell. de Concil lib. 2. cap. 11. That Decree of a Council is true which is made by the major part otherwise no Decree of a Council would be lawful since some have dissented in all And in another place 2 Ibid. lib. 1. cap. 18. produceth the Example of the Council of Chalcedon which declared Hereticks ten Aegyptian Bishops who would not acquiesce in the Judgment of the major part And in a third place saith 3 Nisi detur locus majori parti suffragiorum lib. 1. cap. 21. There will never be an end of Controversies unless we give place to the major part of Suffrages The same saith Tho. Bosius 4 Bos de signis Eccl. lib. 16. cap. 9. and many others This Opinion seemeth also to have obtained at Trent For when the Fathers were divided about abolishing Clandestine Marriages 56 Bishops against the Decree 133 for it and both parties obstinate they agreed to consult the Pope who gave Sentence for the Decree and his Approbation saith Card. Palavicini 5 Ejus approbatio sustulit omnem dubitationem Hist Concil Trid. took away all doubt Yet this was not always done For although 30 Bishops and among them the Legate Seripandus privily opposed the Decree whereby it was defined that Christ offered up himself in his last Supper yet the Decree was promulged and stood in force Far different was the Opinion of J. Fr. Picus Mirandula 6 Quia si pars major contra divinas literas decernere quicquam vellet numero minori adhaerendum esset Quinimò simplici potiùs rustico infanti aniculae quà m Pontifici mille Episcopis credendum si contra Evangelium isti illi pro Evangelio verba facerent Pic. Theor. 16. who in Dissensions of a Council thought the major part was to be adhered to caeteris paribus that is provided neither were repugnant to Scripture But if that happened then that part was to be followed either major or minor which had Scripture on its side For that if the major part would decree any thing against Scripture the minor were to be adhered to Yea a simple Rustick an Infant and an old Woman were to be believed rather than the Pope and 1000 Bishops if these spoke against the Gospel those for it Gerson 7 Si aliquis simplex non authorizatus esset excellenter in S. literis eruaitus potius credendum esset in casu doctrinae suae assertioni quam Papae declarationi Et talis eruditus si c. Ger de exam doctrin Part. 1. Consid 5. had said the same thing before him If any private person without Authority should be excellently learned in the Scriptures his Assertion were to be believed in matters of Faith before the Declaration of the Pope And in case he were present in a General Council he ought to oppose himself to it if he perceived the major part either through malice or ignorance go contrary to the Scriptures But if this Opinion be true and private Men may judge which part in a Council follows Scripture which the contrary then as often as there be dissensions in Councils their Power in desining will not be Supreme as being subject to the examination of all Men. Beside if the major part of a Council can manifestly and directly vote contrary to Scripture much more can they do it obscurely and indirectly and therefore may be even then mistaken when their error is not manifest And if so the Decrees of the major part can in no case not caeteris paribus be securely believ'd For these Reasons perhaps Cardinal Turrecremata maintains 8 In controversia quae dubia est nondum definita arguendum est à majore parte Tur. de Eccles lib. 3. cap. 65. That in a doubtful Controversie not yet defined the major part must be adhered to But neither is this Opinion safe For if we must stand to the Plurality shall Truth always overcome Hath Truth that excellent fortune as to please always the greater part Let Canus be heard I deny saith he 9 Nego cum de fide agitur sequi plurimorum judicium oportere c. Can. loc Theol. lib. 5 cap. 5. that in matters of Faith the Judgment of the major part ought to be followed For we do not here as in Humane Judgments measure the Sentence by the number of Suffrages We see frequently that the greater overcomes the better part We know that those things are not always best that please most We know that in things of Faith the Opinion of wise Men is to be preferred Now Wise-men are few but Fools innumerable Four hundred Prophets lyed to Ahab while one Micaiah spoke truth The greater part of the 2d Ephesine Synod sided with the wicked Dioscorus Bannes 10 Bann in 2.2 quest 1. art 10. dub 4. his Disciple hath the like words and Salmero 11 Salm. tom 12. tract 70. the same And indeed it may easily be that more Heretical than Orthodox Bishops be present in a Council as well because the greater part of all the Bishops in the World may be infected with Heresy as we shall prove hereafter as because the Hereticks even although fewer in number in the whole Church may incited by a perverse Zeal flock to the Council in greater numbers than the Catholicks Now what can we expect from such an Assembly What but that every one should pronounce according to his preconceived Opinion and decree that which he thinks most true The fear of this made the Popes Leo and
before them saith Ademarus Cabanensis 2 De imaginibus adorandis aliter quà m Orthodoxi Doctores antè definierant statuerunt Adem apud Marcam de Concord l. 6. c. 15. Because they Decreed many things inconvenient and contrary to the true Faith saith Hoveden 3 Multa inconvenientia verae sidei contraria Hoveden ad ann 792. Lastly that the Church in admitting Councils respects the matter not the form of them may be hence proved because the Church sometimes approveth the Decrees of unlawful Councils as of Antiochia which 4 Ad An. 341. Baronius accounts unlawful because Celebrated while the Indiction of the Synod of Rome was yet depending and did certainly act unlawfully in Condemning Athanasius and substituting to him Eusebius a Laick and when he refused George the Cappadocian a man unknown to the Church of Alexandria Yet the Canons of this Synod were afterwards received as also the Decrees of the V. Council which Baronius and with him not a few think to have proceeded Unlawfully There remains then to the Church only the latter way of examining Councils that is from the Matter of them by examining the truth and salseness of its Decrees admitting the one and rejecting the other This Examination we not only admit but also pray that it may obtain But then in it supposeth the fallibility in the first place of a Council otherwise why are her Decrees examined why not all promiscuously and reverently received Secondly hereby not a Council but the Universal Church will be the Supreme and Ultimate Tribunal as judging and irrevocably giving Sentence upon the Decrees of the Council which may be either approved or abrogated by her Thirdly hence it will also follow that the Decrees of a Council must not be assented to till received by the Church because not till then certainly known to be true contrary to the constant practice of our Adversaries by whom the Decrees are admitted immediatly after Sentence pronounced at least immediatly after the Pope's Confirmation Fourthly Councils themselves plainly shew that they are of a contrary Opinion by denouncing Anathema's against the Opposers of their Decrees or Disbelievers of their Definitions not staying till the Universal Church shall have approved both which demonstrateth that they believe a supreme and uncontroulable Authority to reside in themselves And this very argument is made use of by Bellarmine to prove that Councils are Supreme in which the Pope's Legates are present Lastly hence it will follow that the Decrees of a Council ought never to be assented to For the Universal Church is nothing else but the Collection of Christians If therefore all single Persons expect till the Universal Church receive the Decrees the Universal Church it self must expect and so no body shall ever begin to receive and assent to them Further it may be observed that to make this approbation of the Church of any weight it were necessary that this Opinion should be generally received at least not opposed by any Bishop For then immediatly after the Promulgation of the Decrees all Bishops would betake themselves to examine them by the Rules of Faith. If after this Examination they received them then an Approbation of the Universal Church might with some colour be pretended But now when all at least almost all are of a contrary Opinion and look upon the Decrees when once confirmed by the Pope as Infallible they receive them without any precedent Examination whereby this Reception becomes of no value as grounded upon a preconceived Opinion which we have proved to be false This may be illustrated by what an Anonymous Author 5 Les desseins des Jesuites representés a lassemblée du Clergé p. 43. of the Sorbonists party saith He denieth those Subscriptions are to be accounted of whereby many assent to the Pope's Constitutions when transmitted to them that they are not to be compared with the Decrees of Councils because the Bishops act not therein as Judges nor examine what they subscribe If this Reason be valid in that case it will be much more in the confirmation of Councils by the subsequent reception of the Church For much fewer doubt of the Infallibility of a Council confirmed by the Pope than of the Infallibility of the Pope alone He subjoineth another Reason of the Invalidity of these Subscriptions because they are commonly extorted by threats and fear of being deposed from their Bishopricks if they should Dissent But hath not this happened in urging the Reception of a Council Certainly Baronius 6 Siquidem illi qui damnationem trium Capitulorum non reciperent Imperatoris jussu in exilium agebantur Bar. ad an 553. largly relateth how the Emperour Justinian deprived and Banished those Bishops who would not admit the Decrees of the Fifth Council and condemn the Tria Capitula Lastly it is certain there are very few Councils if any to which all Christians and consequently the Universal Church subscribed This was shewed before and might be further proved Whence among many other things these two may be concluded First that all Christians never thought the Approbation of the Universal Church to be the only Rule of admitting or rejecting Councils since there is none which although rejected by the rest many did not receive Secondly that the Unanimous approbation of the whole Church is no sufficient and ready means to discern those Councils to which Obedience is due For how should it be such when it is very rarely to be had Now if this means be not sufficient either some other must be pointed out which joined or substituted to it may afford this so necessary knowledge to the Faithful or it must be acknowledged that it is often unknown to which Councils assent is due But it seemeth incredible to me that God should give to Councils so great and so admirable a privilege as is absolute Infallibility and this to extinguish Heresies compose Controversies and direct the Faithful in the way of truth and all this while should give no certain or easy Sign whereby Infallible Councils from which alone we were to receive so great happiness might be destinguished from deluding Conventicles For this were to violate his own precept and hide the brightest candle in the Church under a bushel Yet hath he given none At least this approbation of the Church of which alone we now dispute cannot be here alledged since our Adversaries have many Councils to which they pretend obedience due that were not thus approved by the whole Church CHAP. XX. That it cannot be learned from the consent of Doctors what is to be beleived I. Because it doth not appear who those Doctors are II. because those Doctors whosoever they are do not always agree DRiven from Pope and Council our Adversaries fly to the Faith of the Universal Church Whether herein they have sure refuge is next to be enquired The Faith of the Universal Church may be taken two ways either as it is taught by the Pastours or
Schools than to the Pulpit without either the knowledge or the damage of the People but cannot dissent in matters of Faith unless their dissensions be presently known because disputations strifes and Schisms presently arise from them which occasion either the Decree of a Pope or the calling of a Council to extinguish the dissension and cast the heretical part out of the Church That every Laick therefore both may and ought to be perswaded of the truth of those things which his Pastour teacheth to be of Faith while he seeth none opposing him although himself doth not inquire whether others teach the same thing So Suarez 5 De fide disp 5. Sect. 1. But here many things are supposed which cannot be granted First it is not necessary that as often as a Doctor proposeth any thing to be of Faith which is not so some others should rise to oppose him We daily see the contrary not only in Parishes but even in Universities where the Wits of Men are more easily excited to controversy yet there some affirm others deny many matters to be of Faith without any subsequent Schisms or Animosities Secondly if any Disputation or Opposition should arise herein it is not necessary it should ever come to the ears of the common People Every one knows how hot the Controversy about the Pope's Infallibility hath for some Ages been especially in France where are many Defenders of each Opinion Yet some Years since when I was in that Country talking with a Priest and him no ordinary Person but a man famous in the neighbourhood and Doctor of Divinity when I said the Pope's Infallibility was denied by many and particularly by the Sorbon he grew very angry said it was most false and confidently maintained that no Catholick Divine ever doubted of it Nor could I free the Man from his errour whatsoever I then offered to him See another example more remarkable I was present at Paris in an Assembly of Learned Men who met weekly to treat of matters of learning They then disputed of the Pope's Infallibility which a Priest said was lately rejected by the Gallican Clergy in their Synod At that an Abbot who presided over the Assembly and had the repute of a very Learned Man was not a little moved and denied any such thing was ever done by the Clergy He acknowledged indeed that the Pope could err whensoever he gave his opinion as a Private Doctor and that the Clergy meant no more than this but that there was no Catholick who did not hold his judgment Infallible whensoever he pronounced ex cathedrâ and whatsoever the Priest could say he would not be perswaded that there was any dissension among Divines in this matter If this Learned Abbot could be ignorant of so notorious a thing what shall we think of illicerate Christians Thirdly it is not necessary that as often as dissensions arise in matters of Faith Schism should thence immediately be produced and occasion a Decree of the Pope or calling of a Council How many things did Theodorus of Mopsuestia teach against the Faith which yet were not canvassed of many Years after his Death All acknowledge the number of Canonical Books of Scripture the necessity of the Eucharist and state of the Dead to be of Faith Yet none will deny the Ancients differed in judgment as to all these things and all know that no Schisms Disputes or Anathema's of Councils arose therefrom But not to depart from this very question What can be more of Faith than the Rule of Faith it self and the most essential condition of that Rule Infallibility Many Doctors of the Church denied this in the XIV and XV. ages as we before proved yet no Schism no Decree of the Church was occasioned thereby But to shew the sophistry of this objection more evidently it may be observed that there are five sorts of things which although not belonging to Faith may be in the Church proposed as of Faith. I. Things true but not revealed II. Neither true nor revealed but not repugnant to Revelation III. Repugnant to things revealed but such as it is not manifest that they were revealed IV. Repugnant to things manifestly revealed but so as that repugnance is obscure and remote not clear and immediate V. Clearly repugnant to things manifestly revealed Concerning matters of the last rank this objection might have some force but not much since the contrary may be shewn in some examples But for the four first Classes it hath no colour of truth They may be all taught as of Faith and that daily yet be observed and regarded by none much less violently opposed by any The want of apparent opposition therefore sufficeth not to make what any one Doctor proposeth as of Faith to be so The consent and concurrence of all in teaching the same to be of Faith must be ascertained Otherwise assent to it will be foolish and rash at least uncertain CHAP. XXIII That it is not certain those things are true which are unanimously taught by all Pastors THat it is uncertain what the Governours of the Church unanimously teach we have proved yet grant it certain Can we securely believe this their unanimous consent What if they may all err This our Adversaries will say they cannot But is that certain and undoubted If not in vain is it alledged They will perhaps say it is nay and of Faith so as it cannot be denied without open Heresy So Duvall 1 In 2. 2. p. 106. and many others And indeed if it be not of Faith that all the Pastors consenting cannot err Faith cannot rely upon their Authority Yet is this most false for we before proved these two Propositions I. That nothing is of Faith whose contrary is held and taught by Catholick Divines the Church knowing and not censuring their Opposition II. That the greatest Divines of the Roman Church Doctors Bishops and Cardinals taught 1. That the whole Clergy might be infected with Heresy 2. That the Church to which Infallibility was promised might consist in one Laick or one Woman the rest apostatizing from the Faith. This was the Opinion of Alensis the Author of the Gloss upon the Decretals Lyra Occam Alliaco Panormitan Turrecremata Peter de Monte S. Antoninus Cusanus Clemangis Jacobatius J. Fr. Picus But who can imagin so many and so great Men either not to have known what is of Faith or wilfully to have taught the contrary This moved Suarez to esteem the Infallibility of the Pastors thus consenting uncertain It is asked saith he 2 Petitur an omnes Episcopi Ecclesiae possint convenire in aliquo errore Nam inter Catholicos quidam affirmant quia non invenitur promissio Alii negant quia c. Mihi verò neutrum videtur satis exploratum probabile autem est ad providentiam Christi pertinere ut id non permittat Suar. de fide disp 5. Sect. 6. whether all the Bishops of the Church can agree in any error
is known by Faith. But to this I oppose the Opinion of those Divines who hold That all Christians may fall from the Faith except one single Woman Hence I conclude That the Infallibility of the Church cannot be of Faith because repugnant to the Opinion of these Catholick Divines Certainly we who deny the Infallibility of the Church go not so far as they We believe that God preserveth to himself even in the most difficult times a remnant according to the election of Grace and that there always remains at least an Invisible Church whose name being collective cannot consist and be restrained to one person Our Adversaries therefore cannot pretend their Opinion as it is at this day proposed to be of Faith And so much the less because they can assign no Foundation of this Faith. Not Scripture Tradition Decrees of Popes Definitions of Councils or Consent of Pastors For first I have proved in the preceding Discourse That none of all these can be rely'd upon at least according to our Adversaries Hypotheses and then it is the constant Doctrine of Papists That the Church is not believed for them but they for the Church Again it is certain that the Infallibility of the Church cannot be beieved for the Authority of the Church it self For that would be a manifest Circle and he that doubteth whether the Church can err doth for that very reason doubt whether she doth not err when she thinks that she cannot err Therefore Bannes 1 Non potest reduci ad authoritatem ipsius Ecclesiae hoc enim esset idem per idem confirmare Bann in 2. 2. qu. 1. art 1. dub 4. said truly That the Church is the Infallible rule of proposing and explaining truths of Faith cannot be reduced to the Authority of the Church it self for that would be to prove the same thing by it self Why then is it believed Our Adversaries commonly answer That it is a thing before all others to be believed and not for any other Rule for then the same Question would return about that Rule And because they commonly require three things to make up an Act of Faith. 1. The Testimony of God revealing as the formal Reason and principal Foundation 2. A Rule whereby this Revelation of God may be manifested 3. Motives of Credibility which may induce us to be willing to believe they think the first is here present and the third abundantly to be had in the Notes of the Church which are perceived and dictated by Natural Reason but the second wanting which they pretend not to be necessary in a matter of first belief such as this is But first if a Rule be not requir'd in forming this first Act of Faith Why is it necessary in others Why may not all the other Articles be believed for the Authority of God by the inducement of Motives of Credibility with which the Christian Religion is abundantly furnished Secondly Which is chiefly to be regarded it is absurd to boast of a Testimony of God revealing which no way can be known The Infallibility of the Church or any other Article of Belief can never be proved to have been revealed by God but by some Rule either living or dead whereby things revealed may be distinguished from not revealed otherwise the most foolish Opinion may intitle it self to Revelation and then cannot be rejected Here they fly to Motives of Credibility and by them undertake to supply their defect of a Rule and manifest the Revelation But if these Motives can confer upon the Church so sufficient an Authority that what she proposeth as revealed by God must be believed Why may not the like Motives give the same Authority to the Scripture and assure us of the Divine Original of it And that such Motives are not wanting to the Scripture Bellarmin 2 1 De verbo Dei ib. 1. cap. 2. Suarez 3 De fide disp 5. Sect. 2 3. Duvall 4 Duvall in 2. 2. p. 120. and Martinonus 5 De fide disp 7. Sect. 1. among many others expresly confess Why may we not then by these Motives first be satisfied of the Authority of Scripture and from thence learn all things necessary to Salvation which are clearly contained in it and be so saved without recurring to the Church Further How is it gathered from these Notes and Motives of Credibility that the Church cannot err whether evidently certainly and necessarily or only obscurely probably and contingently The first our Adversaries will never say for then it would necessarily follow That Faith is evident which they all contend to be false insomuch as Bellarmin 6 Ante approbationem Ecclesiae non est evidens aut certum certitudine fidei de ullo miraculo quòd sit verum mir aculum Et quidem quòd non sit evidens patet quia tunc fides esset evidens Bell. de Eccles l. 4. c. 14. disputing of Miracles the chief of these Motives hath these words Before the Approbation of the Church it is not evident nor certain with the certainty of Faith of any Miracle that it is a true one And that it is not evident is manifest for then Faith would be evident Besides if these Notes evidently prove the Church cannot err it would be most false what our Adversaries before delivered with so great consent that by these Notes the Church is not known as it hath an Infallible but only as it hath an Humane and Fallible Authority Lastly They acknowledge as we before shewed That a manifest and convictive Argument cannot be deduced from one or more of these Notes although fortified by the Authority of Scripture if any one be wanting How then will they afford evidence when perceived by the sole light of Nature and are much fewer For they allow more Notes to be pointed out by Scripture than taught by the light of Nature Do these Notes then only perswade probably If so I have gained what I was to prove For then it will be only probable that the Church cannot err and the Faith of Papists will have no certainty as not exceeding probability For whatsoever they believe they believe either for the Testimony or for the Judgment of the Church and so cannot be more certain or evident than is the Infallibility of the Church in testifying and judging Some to elude this make a twofold evidence Physical and Moral and grant the Arguments of the Infallibility of the Church not to be Physically evident but contend they are Morally So especially Aegidius Conink 7 De actib sup disp 2. dub 2. num 46. collat cum dub 3. num 71 72. But here in the first place this manifest absurdity occurrs That when they acknowledge these Arguments to be only Morally certain they yet maintain Faith which is founded solely upon them to be Physically certain for that degree of certainty all attribute to Divine Faith. Besides it hence also appears that this Moral Certainty doth not suffice because it
place of Scripture explained the same way by all the Fathers For there are many places which none of them have touched and none which all have interpreted Nor will it suffice to say that they agree who have interpreted it and that the silence of the rest is to be taken for consent as if they must be supposed to consent who were ignorant of such interpretations or dead perhaps before they were made or as if the Antients were wont expresly to reject all interpretations different from their own or these might not be rejected or at least others proposed in those Books of the Fathers which are lost It is not enough therefore to have the consent of a few unless we be assured of the concurrence of the rest But granting that it is it cannot be denied that our Adversaries can collect nothing certain out of any place of Scripture if any one of the Antients have interpreted it otherwise Hence Alphonsus a Castro 2 Itaapertum indubitatum ut nullus ex sacris probatis Doctoribus illud in aliquo alio sensu interpretetur juxta quem non possit talis propositio per illud de haeresi convinci Castr de justâ haeret pun lib. 1. cap. 4. requireth that among the necessary qualifications of a Text of Scripture to be produced for the conviction of Hereticks this be the chief that it be so plain and undoubted that none of the sacred and approved Doctors interpret it in some other sence according to which such a proposition cannot be thereby convinced of Heresie But if this be true how few places will there be of whose sense we may not doubt Certainly there are very few explained the same way by all antient Commentators This Christopher Gillius 3 Multa sunt in sacris literis quorum sententia neque ex Traditione neque ex Ecclesiae definitione habetur neque semper communis Sanctorum sententia reperitur vel quia diversa sentiunt vel quia pauci locum aliquem interpretati sunt Gill. de doctr sacrâ lib. 1. Tract 7. cap. 6. Professor of Conimbria acknowledgeth who affirms many places to be in Scripture whose sense can be had neither from Tradition nor from the Definition of the Church neither yet can a concurrent explication of the Fathers be found either because they were of different opinions or because few explained the place And the Anonymous Writer of the Treatise of the Liberties of the Gallican Church 4 Pauca sunt Scripturae loca que S S. Patres varii variè interpretati non fuerint lib. 3. cap. 11. maintains that there is few places of Scripture which the Holy Fathers have not differently interpreted As will also manifestly appear to any one who shall consult those Interpreters that are wont to produce the expositions of the Antient Writers Hence the Readers may imagine to what a streight our Adversaries would be reduced if they were tied up to their own Laws and allowed to urge no other places of Scripture against us than what are unanimously interpreted by the Fathers A Specimen hereof may be found in Launoy where he weigheth the Texts of Scripture produced by Bellarmine for the Popes authority and shewing that they are diversly explained by the Antients concludeth thence that they are wholly ineffectual That the sense of Scripture cannot be learned from Tradition hence appeareth but neither is it taught any better by the Church At least She hath not yet taught it For how many Decrees of the Church is there about the true sense of Scriptures Decrees I say for not every simple explication or allegation of a Text is to be lookt upon as an authentick interpretation of it but only that which hath an Anathema affixed to the deniers of it or dissenters from it Of this kind I find but four or five in the Decrees of the Council of Trent and in those of elder Councils none at all For 1500 years the Church delivered not the sense of so much as one place whence may be judged both what a faithful Interpreter She is of the Holy Scriptures and how small an assistance we are to expect from her in obtaining the true sense of them CHAP. III. That Tradition is no better ground for the Papists Faith than Holy Scriptures THUS have we taken from our Adversaries the first and chief foundation of Divine Faith. The Second will be as easily removed I mean Tradition which may be considered two ways as well as Scripture either as it is in it self or as it is confirmed by the authority of the Church That it hath no force the first way considered Bellarmine 1 Scriptura Traditiones omnia planè dogmata nisi certissimi simus quae sit vera Ecclesia incerta prorsus erunt omnia Bell. de Eccles lib. 3. cap. 10. expresly acknowledgeth affirming that till we certainly know what is the true Church Scripture Tradition and all matters of belief are utterly uncertain That Bellarmin is in the right herein at least as to what concerns Tradition is manifest by these two reasons First that taking away the attestation of the Church it cannot be known that there is any Divine Traditions For laying aside that how shall we know that there is any unwritten Word of God derived down to us From Tradition that cannot be since we are now doubting whether there be any Tradition From Scripture That favours not Tradition but if it did it would avail nothing since as we shew in the foregoing Chapter Scripture according to our Adversaries cannot obtain belief till it be it self confirmed by Tradition and the Church Thus doth the truth of Tradition remain uncertain unless it be sustained by the Churches authority Gregory a Valentia 2 Sicut de authoritate ipsius Scripturae necesse per aliquam aliam certam authoritatem constare ita etiam de auctoritate Traditionis si ea quoque revocetur in dubium Val. Tom. 3. disp 1. quaest 1. punct 7. § 12. well knew this who puts Tradition into the same condition with Scripture neither being of authority when called in doubt unless confirmed by some other certain authority Secondly granting that it may be known that there are Divine Traditions it cannot yet without the authority of the Church be known which they are so many false dubious and suspected Traditions being carried about each of which pretends to the same Character of Divine Authority The testimonies of the Fathers will not help in this case since even their judgment is dubious and in many things it cannot easily be told what was their opinion Thus Valentia 3 Cum Traditio scriptis ferè Doctorum Orthod in Ecclesiâ conservetur quaestiones ac dubia moveri possunt de sensu illius sicut dubitatur saepe de sensu ac mente Doctorum Ejusmodi autem quaestiones per eandem ipsam Traditionem definiri satis non poterunt Val. loc cit confesseth that Tradition being conserved in the
to distinguish them and thence certainly to know to which of the Churches Decrees they are to give a steadfast and to which a dubious Faith The same is the case of the second Exception Many of our Adversaries deny the Church to be infallible in questions of Fact. In the mean while they differ about determining what are matters of Fact and what of right To know what is the sense of a late Writer many account a question of Fact. Estrix 2 Estr Diat de sapientiâ c. assert on the contrary contends it belong to right The same may be said of the third Exception That excludes from the rank of infallible all Decrees not proposed as of Faith. But what those Decrees are doth not appear So the Council of Trent for example defined that the body of Christ exists under the Bread by vertue of the words but the Blood not by vertue of the words but by concomitance No anathema being inflicted upon those that think otherwise Hence arose a question whether this distinction were of Faith. Some in Vasquez 3 Vasq in 3. disp 185. cap. 2. hold the negative himself largely endeavours to prove the affirmative This might be further confirmed with innumerabe instances But I chuse rather to take notice of somewhat more remarkable The Church in defining hath in these latter Ages been wont to make use of words which might rather conceal than declare her opinion and from which the most sagacious persons should not collect her meaning For example one of the notes whereby we know whether a definition be by the Church proposed as of Faith is the excommunication of the Deniers of it yet it sometimes happens the Church would not have that be thought to be of Faith the Deniers whereof She excommunicates So the Council of Trent 6 Si quis contrarium doâ—ere prae dicare vel pertinaciter assirere praesumpserit eo ipso excommunicatus existat having enjoyned that every one conscious of any mortal sin should confess before he communicates subjoyneth If any one presume to teach preach or pertinaciously assert the contrary let him be ipso facto excommunicate Any one would hereby imagine that the opinion of Cajetan were condemned of Heresie Yet Canus 7 Hoc propter periculum cautum est Nam quod sententia Cajetani non fuerit pro hereticâ condemnata nos testes sumus qui Concilio intersuimus Can. loc Theol. lib. 5. cap. 5. tells us that for caution sake it was not and of this saith he we that were present in the Council are Witnesses See another Artifice which creates more perplexities When the Church condemneth many propositions in one Decree it oft-times happens that they are not all of the same kind and quality but some Heretical others only erroneus some Rash others Scandalous and some Offensive to Pious Ears as they are wont to term them Now none but Heretical propositions hurt the Faith and consequently if the Church be infallible only in matters which she proposeth as of Faith when she condemneth these mixed propositions her judgment is infallible only in respect of the Heretical ones The rest may with safety and truth be defended It is of insinite concern therefore in the direction of our Faith that these propositions should be distributed into their several Classes and the particular censure specified in each of them But that is very rarely done The propositions are all huddled up together And we are only told in general that some of them are Heretical others Erroneus c. Thus the Council of Constance 8 Quibus examinatis fuit repertum aliquos plures ex ipsis fuisse esse notoriè heretico alios non Catholicos sed erroreos alios scandalosos Blasphemos quosdam piarum aurium offensivos nonnullos corum temerarios seditiosos Concil Const Sess 8. condemned 45 Propositions of Wickliff in these Words This Holy Synod hath caused them to be examined and 't is found that many of them are notoriously Heretical others not Catholick but erroneous some scandalous and blasphemous some offensive to pious ears and some rash and seditious In the same manner that Council condemned Thirty Assertions of John Husse without acquainting us what particularly in them is contrary to Faith and consequently what wherein themselves cannot err The Popes make use of the same trick So the Bull 9 Quas quidem sententias quanquam nonnullae aliquo pacto sustineri possent in rigore tamen haereticas erroneas c. respectivè damnamus Bulla ad calcem Operum Vasq wherewith Pius V. and Gregory XIII condemned Seventy five Propositions of Michael Baius after it hath recited them and confessed that divers of them might be in some sense maintained condemns them all respectively as Heretical erroneous suspected rash scandalous and offensive to pious ears See an ambiguous sentence and very unfit to remove scruples Nor doth Vasquez deny it but tells 5 Ex quâ censurâ non apparet qualis untcuique propositioni censura sigillatiâ—n conveniat Vasq in 1.2 Disp 190. cap. 18. us that from their censure doth not appear what censure agreeth to each single Proposition Wherefore when himself had undertaken to defend some of these Propositions that he might know in which of them the Poyson of Heresie lay hid he began to read Baius's Book having first asked leave But when that would not do he consulted Cardinal Toletus whom the Pope had sent to Lovain to see the Bull put in execution and Learned from him that the Popes had condemned some of those Propositions only because they were too sharply worded Now what a rare help doth the Church afford in declaring to every one what he should believe when the sense of her own decrees cannot be known without consulting her most intimate Counsellours such as Canus and Toletus Further it may very well be that he which knoweth the particular propositions condemned of Heresie may be ignorant wherein the Heresie consists For the same proposition may admit of many senses whereof some may be true others false some Heretical others not If the Church had any care of the truth She ought accurately to distinguish these sences and tell us which may be admitted and which ought to be exploded But nothing of this is done Rather Pius V. and Gregory XIII declaring that some of Baius his Propositions are in some sense maintainable but in rigour heretical tell us neither what is that harmless sense which may be defended nor that pernicious Heresie which ought to be avoided But nothing evinceth this more clearly than what lately happened upon occasion of the Jansenist Doctrine Five Propositions were taken out of Jansenius his Augustinus and by some French Bishops sent to be examined by the Pope Others were present for Jansenius who pleaded the Propositions were capable of divers senses some true some false and earnestly desired it might be specified in which sense each Proposition were
many others I know indeed that some deny it relying on the silence of Eusebius and testimony of St. Austin who saith the Donatists objected this to Marcellinus but could not prove it Whether the fact be true or no it is enough for me that Pope Nicolas I. and many others thought so Baronius 1 Non tanti sumus ut de Marcellini lapsu opinionem ore omnium diffamatam antiquare possimus quae communi ferè omnium consensu appareat postea esse credita Bar. ad An. 302 Edit Plant. p. 800. insinuates this when in the first Edition of his Annals where he endeavours to elevate the Faith of this History he excuseth himself for opposing the common and almost universal opinion And Natalis Alexander 2 Nat. Hist Eccl. Saec. 3. Dis 20. observes that the Roman Breviary favours this belief Whence it is evident that this thing seemed neither impossible nor improbable to the whole Roman Church which shews that according to the opinion commonly received in her the Popes may possibly be moved by some vehement perturbation of mind to betray the Faith. Bellarmines 3 Non nisi actu externo obâ—metummortis Bell. excuse here will not avail That Marcellinus taught nothing against the Faith was no Heretick or Infidel but in external act for fear of death For to pass by the accusation of the Synod of Stnuessa that he did it for the love of mony even this demonstrates what I was to prove that a Pope may be induced by some perturbation of mind as sear or covetousness to violate his Conscience and betray the truth Liberius comes next who after he had bravely a while resisted the threats of Constantius either weared out with the hardship of his Exile or moved with the desire of recovering his See possessed by Faelix subscribed to the Arian Heresie and the sentence against Athanasius Bellarmine pleads much in his excuse The sum of which is this That Liberius his fault consisted only in condemning Athanasius and communicating with Hereticks that himself neither taught Heresie nor was an Heretick but in external action lastly that the Confession which he subscribed was orthodox although the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were wanting and that according to Sozomen before his departure from Sirmium he published a Confession wherein he condemned the Heterousians But this answer of Bellarmines is wholly insufficient For 1. Whereas he pretends Liberius was an Heretick only in external act that no less serves our purpose as manifesting that a Pope may be wrought by his passions to pronounce in matters of Faith against his own knowledg and judgment 2. If he condemned Athanasius it was not because he was by the false accusations of the Arians induced to believe Athanasius guilty but only that he might free himself from the miseries of banishment and the fears of death As Athanasius 4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanas Epist ad Solit. witnesseth In the first case he had only erred in matter of fact but now he failed in constancy Which also proves my assertion 3. To communicate with known Hereticks as Bellarmine acknowledgeth Liberius to have done is to favour Heresie and add authority to it Christianus Lupus largely handles this ad praesoript Tertulliani cap. 41. where he strongly urgeth the example of the whole Clergy of Rome who seperated themselves from the Communion of Pope Anastasius meerly because he had not denied Communion to a Deacon of Thessalonica of Acacius his party who yet was far from an open Heretick 4. Where Bellarmine denieth Liberius to have subscribed to an Heretical Confession of Faith this is manifestly repugnant to the plain Testimonies of the Antients We shall produce some Liberius 5 Vbi cognovi justè vos illum Athanasium condemnâsse mox consensum meuâ—n commodavi sententiis vestris Itapâ—e amoto Athanasio a Communione omnium diâ—o me cum omnthus vobis pacem unanimitatem habere Nam Dominus nâ—ster frater communis Demophilus qui dignatus est fidem vestram Catholicam exponere quae Sirmii suscepta est Hane ego libenti animo suscepi c. Liber Epist 7. Me autem cum omnibus vobis Episcâ—pis Ecclesiae Catholicae pacem habere his literis sâ—ire debetis fratres charissuni Quicun que autem a pace concordiâ nostrâ dissenserit sâ—iat se separatum a nostrâ communione himself in his Epistle to the Eastern Bishops who were Arians tells them that he is convinced the Condemnation of Athanasius was just whom therefore he looked on as Excommunicate and would maintain Peace and Unanimity with them That he subscribed at Sirmium their Catholick Faith expounded unto him by Demophilus an Arian Bishop And in his Epistle to Valens Ursacius and Germinius the heads of the Arrian party saith I profess to hold Communion with all you Bishops of the Catholick Church And Excommunicate all those which shall dissent from this our Blessed concord St. Hillary 6 Anathema tibi a me dictum Liberi sâ—â—iis tuis Iterum tibi Anathama tertio Praevaricatoâ— Libeti Hil in Fragm Perfidiam apud Sirmium conscriptam quam dicit Liberius Catholicam a Demophilo sibi expâ—sitam Id. ibid. O te miserum qui nescio utrum majori impietate relegaveris Liberium quà m remiseris Id. lib. ad Constantium denounceth a threefold Anathema against Liberius for this Subscription and calls him a Prevaricator of the Faith and in another place saith the Heresie penned at Sirmium which Liberius calls Catholick expounded to him by Demophilus c. And tells Constantius that he sent back Liberius to Rome with no less impiety than wherewith he had before banished him intimating that he had made him an Heretick St. Hierome 7 In hoc habetur detestabilis quod Liberium primus sollicitavit ac fregit ad subscriptionem haereseos impulit Hier. in Fortunat. Liberius taedio victus exilii in haeretied pravitate subscribens Romam quasi victor intraverat Id. in Chron. in his Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Writers saith Fortunatianus is to be detested for that he first broke the courage of Liberius and perswaded him to subscribe to heresie And in his Chronicle relates how Liberius worn out with the toils of banishment and having subscribed to heretical pravity entred Rome as a Conquerer Auxilius takes it for a thing most certain Who knows not saith he 8 Quis nesciat quod Liberius Arianae haeresi subscripserit Aux de Ordin lib. 1. cap. 25. that Liberius subscribed to the Arrian heresie which he repeats in another place 9 Lib. 2. cap. 1. The old Roman Breviany 10 Cùm doleret Eusebius Liberium Papam Arianae haeresi consensisse Breviar Rom. in the Festival of St. Eusebius the Confessor saith Liberius consented to the Arian Heresie To these produced by Launoy I shall add three others Philostorgius 11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philost l. 4. c. 3. affirms that Liberius and
haec scriberet tunc à quibusdam Cardinalibus perterritum ni Bullas adhaesionis Concilio expediret se ab eo omnes secessuros Duvall Anteloqu ad Tract de potest Pont. alledgeth That this Bull was extorted by fear The Cardinals threatning that unless he expedited his Bulls of adhaesion to the Council they would all forsake him This answer grants to me what I was to demonstrate that Popes may be prevailed on by fear to decree against Truth and Right So that this being granted as it cannot be denied no Decrees of Popes are to be received before we be assured that the Pope was forced by no Fear or Threats to publish them which can very difficultly be known if at all Besides if Fear can extort a false or unjust Decree from the Pope why may not any other perturbation as Hatred Anger or Covetousness do the same Well saith Canus y Qui metu frangitur is cupiditate etiam frangatur necesse est Can. loc Theol. lib. 5. cap. 5. in a like Argument He which will yield to Fear must necessarily yield to Covetousness or any inordinate Desire Nothing therefore is more uncertain than the Papal Decrees For who can tell what induced the Pope to decree this or that * 1 Cor. ii 11. For what Man knoweth the things of a Man save the spirit of Man which is in him CHAP. IX That it is not certain whether he who calls himself the Pope and is commonly accounted the Pope be really such THere remains yet another inextricable doubt For suppose we have overcome all the precedent difficulties and found some relief for so many uncertainties It is yet to be inquired whether he which makes the Decrees and proposeth them to be observed by the Church be the true and lawful Pope as he is commonly esteemed For while this be doubtful we may justly doubt whether his Decrees be obligatory Now this matter may by many wayes become uncertain As first it sometimes happens that two or more do at the same time contend for the Papacy all of which have their several Partisans by whom they are accounted the lawful Popes Many such Schisms have been in the Church whereof one continued near 50 years The knowledge of the true Pope was then so difficult that Duvall and Maimburg observe two Oecumenical Councils those of Pisa and Constance dared not to examine and define the matter but thought it more prudent to depose all of them and create a new One. How then shall private men be able to know what Councils themselves could not find out But neither then also when One only claims the Papacy and possesseth the Throne doth it certainly appear whether he be a lawful Pope and that for many reasons For in the first place if he be an Heretick a Schismatick an Infidel or an Atheist he cannot surely be Pope For as Turrecremata saith well how shall he be Head of the Church who is no Member of the Church Gregory à Valentia a Val. tom 3. disp 3. quaest 15. punct 3. and many with him distinguish between an open Heretick or Infidel and a secret one asserting the first cannot be a Member of the Church or Pope the latter may for this reason chiefly because otherwise Confusions and Dangers could not be avoided in the Church if the actions of secret Hereticks and Schismaticks were ipso facto invalid Yet he acknowledgeth in the same place that the contrary Opinion is held by the greatest Men in the Church of Rome Aquinas Turrecremata Sylvester who affirms this to be the common Opinion of all the Doctors Paludanus Augustinus Anconitanus Vlricus Cajetanus at least as to what concerns Heresy and Alphonsus à Castro Whence this at least is gathered that Valentia's Opinion is not certain and the contrary not improbable which is sufficient for my purpose For whether true on false matters little in this case provided nothing be certain on either side Further those who imagine the Pope forfeits not his Dignity unless he be an open Heretick agree not among themselves Some think him ipso facto deprived without expecting any sentence some not till sentence is pronounced But thse latter herein shamefully betray the Popes Superiority to a Council which they had undertaken to defend For if a Pope fallen into Heresy shall retain his Dignity till he be judged and deprived by a Council the Council will be thereby Superiour to a true and undoubted Pope Again how shall a Council condemn a Pope for Heresie if it cannot certainly define what is Heresie which according to these Divines cannot be done by a Council destitute of its Head such as that Council must necessarily be which deposeth the Pope for Heresy But of that in another place Bellarmin although far more wary and circumspect than Duvall thought the Pope by manifest Heresie fell ipso facto from his Dignity so that by a Council he is not so much deposed as pronounced to be deposed But since that is called manifest Heresie which is declared by some outward sign as Words or Writing nor doth it matter whether it be manifest to few or many there will alwayes remain a doubt whether he who is accounted Orthodox be not in his mind a Heretick Infidel or Atheist and hath not revealed his Heresie to some of his intimate Friends and Confidents For that once supposed he cannot be Pope Nay Bannes b Bann in 22. quaest 11. art 4. asserts That he which speaks out his Heresy by words although no man hears him is not to be accounted a meer mental Heretick but doth thereby incurr the Sentence of Excommunication If you ask whether there were ever any such Popes The most noble Jo. Fr. Picus Mirandula c Alium meminimus pontificem creditum ordinatum quem tamen praestantes viri putarent nec pontificem esse nec esse posse utpote qui nullum Deum crederet omne infidelitatis culmen excederet c. namque fassum eum affirmabatur demesticis quibusdam nullum se deum aliquando etiam dum pontificiam sedem teneret credidisse Et alium audivi pontificem qui familiari cuidam asseruerat apud se animarum immortalitatem minimè creditam Pic. Theor. 4. shall answer for me We remember saith he another Pope so esteemed and ordained whom good Men believed neither was nor could be Pope as he which believed no God and exceeded the utmost pitch of infidelity as his Simony and infinite wickednesses did also testifie And it is affirmed he confessed to some of his Domesticks he believed no God even then when he sat in the Papal Chair And I have heard of another Pope who affirmed to one of his Confidents that he did not believe the immortality of the Soul. To this we may add the express Confession of Coster d Fatemur fieri posse ut Petri successor idola colat apud se fortè de fide non rectè sentiat adeo◠diabolicis artibus operam
naver Coster Enchirid. Controv. c. 3. the Jesuit We confess saith he the Successor of Peter may be an Idolater a private Heretick and in secret exercise Diabolick arts Secondly It may be that the reputed Pope be for some unknown reason incapable of that Dignity as if he be not baptized or hath not received Holy Orders For the Council of Florence e Janua Sacramentorum hath defined Baptism to be the door to the other Sacraments and in the third Book of the Decretals Tit. 43. it is commanded both by the Council of Compeign and by Innocent III. that if a Presbyter whom all accounted to have been baptized shall afterwards appear not to have been baptized he be first baptied and then anew ordained Wherefore if he be either not baptized or not ordained he cannot be Pope But either or both may easily happen since to the validity of those as well as other Sacraments our Adversaries require the intention of him that confers the Sacrament which can be known to God alone Thirdly It may be that he who is commonly accounted Pope may be unduly created and for some Canonical impediment manifest or occult be uncapable of the Papacy For saith Lupus f Neque enim gravis canonica personae vitia per Papalem electionem sanantur Lup. Schol. ad Conc. VIII p. 1354. all Canonical irregularities of the person are not taken away by Election to the Popedom For which reason he there observeth Pope Constantine was justly deposed as being of a Lay-man immediately made Pope whereby he became irregular by the Canon of Sardica and that as is affirmed by approved Authors Clement VII dared not call a General Council against the Lutherans because being a Bastard he feared to be declared irregular Fourthly He who is elected Pope may be ipso facto excommunicate and so not capable of that Dignity So Picus Mirandula g Pic. Theor. 4. tells us of a learned and sober man in his time and he a Dignitary of the Church who gave it for his opinion that the then Pope was no Pope because he had exercised the Office of Pope before he had been elected by two parts of the Cardinals whereas the Canons provide that such a man shall be so far from being Pope that he shall be rendred uncapable of that Dignity as lying under an Anathema For the like cause it is reported the Jesuits were resolved not to acknowledge Clement VIII for Pope if he had condemned Molina as he intended because of some slaw in his Election It is an established Rule of the Roman Conclave That none be accounted duly elected but who hath two third parts of the Cardinals Votes Cardinal Sanseverino had gained them and thereby of right became Pope But while they were giving their Votes in the Chappel the dissenting Cardinals crowded in disturbed those who were taking the Votes and perswaded one of the other Cardinals to withdraw his Vote whereby Sanseverino although duly elected missed the Chair and Aldobrandino consecrated who took upon him the Name of Clement VIII But these perhaps are very rare instances Those which follow are more frequent It often happens that the Election is not free but extorted by force threats promises bribes factions and the like arts In which cases the Popes themselves have pronounced the Election to be null and irregular and the elect Person an Antipope and Apostate So Nicolas II. h Plat. in Nicol II. decreed in a Lateran Council That all Elections procured by money or favour or popular tumult Non Apostolicus sed Apostaticus or military violence should be null and void and the Elect Pope accounted not Apostolical but Apostatical to be anathematized by the whole Church as a Robber and by any means deposed But Julius II. i Sicut de verâ indubitatâ haeresi Tanquam Apostaticus Simoniacus Haeresiarcha Magus Ethnicus Publicanus vitari Nec hujusmodi Simoniacè electus per subsequentem ipsius inthronizationem seu temporis cursum aut etiam omnium Cardinalium adorationem seu obedientiam ullo unquam tempore convalescat Habetur apud Raynald is much more rigorous who with the consent of the Cardinals decreed and defined That Simony was true and undoubted Heresie and that in whatsoever Election that intervened by giving receiving or promising of money or any other goods or Benefices the Election should be ipso facto void and the Elect although he had the concurrent Votes of two thirds of or even all the Cardinals should be no Pope but made for ever uncapable of that or any other Ecclesiastical Dignity and be held and detested by all Christians as an Apostate Simoniack Haeresiarch Magician Heathen and Publican and that the person thus Simoniacally elected shall never become regular by any subsequent inthronization or prescription of time or even the adoration or obedience of all the Cardinals Thus these Popes truly and wisely For Christ had said long before k John x. 1. Verily verily I say unto you He that entreth not by the door into the sheepfold but climbeth up some other way the same is a thief and a robber And the Apostle after him l Hebr. v. 4. No man taketh this honour unto himself but he that is called of God as was Aaron Whosoever therefore obtain the Popedom by evil arts and enter not by the Door but leap into the Chair by wickedness are no lawful Pastors but Thieves and Robbers and ravening Wolves But you will say Were there ever such Popes I answer why not Certainly the very Constitutions of Nicolas and Julius and others which might be added prove it is possible and insinuate it hath sometimes happened For those things are not wont to be forbidden which cannot be performed and it is a received Maxim That good Laws arise from bad Actions Ex malis moribas bonae leges But we want not frequent Examples For to pass by what we before related out of Picus Mirandula who knows not that Vigilius obtained the Popedom by three most hainous crimes by the violent expulsion of his Predecessor Silverius whom falsly accusing of Treason he procured to be banished into the Island of Palmeria and there starved him to Death or as others say assassinated him by promising to the Empress Theodora he would establish the Eutychian Heresy and by notorious Simony giving to Belisarius two Centenaries of Gold These things are accurately described by Liberatus and after him by Baronius Nor doth what Baronius m Bar. ad ann 540. Binius n Bin. in Vigil Ferrandus o Ferr. Traite de l' Eglise chap. 3. and others alledge to obscure this matter avail any thing to wit that Vigilius after Silverius his death resigned the Popedom and would not resume it till he was canonically elected For to omit the insufficiency of this excuse since Vigilius and all his adhaerents were excommunicated by Silverius and so even these pretended Canonical Electors became excommunicate
might be numbred perhaps if the Church were included in one Province But now that it is diffused throughout the whole World no mean is left of knowing what is the Opinion either of all or most Our Adversaries I suppose will say that when the Governours of the Church dissent about any matter of Faith the Faithful must suspend their assent while the Controversie endureth and content themselves by an implicit Faith to believe in it what the Church believeth not enquiring in the mean while what the Church believeth but leaving that to be enquired by the Church her self To this I answer First that this grants us all we desire For we dispute here only of explicite Faith maintaining that our Adversaries have no certain Foundation for that If they flee to implicite they thereby forsake explicite Faith. Secondly almost all our Adversaries confess that there are some Articles which even the most ignorant Christians are bound to believe with explicite Faith and Connink 6 De actib sup disp 4. dub 9. asserts the contrary Opinion of some Canonists to be held erroneous and even heretical by the other Doctors Further all consent there are some points of Faith necessary to be believed by all with explicite Faith not only because commanded to be so but because the explicite belief of them is also the means without which Salvation cannot be obtained Wherefore Hosius 7 Hâ—s contra Prol. Brent lib. 3. in relating the known story of the Collier saith he did not make that Answer of believing as the Church believeth before he had entirely repeated the Apostles Creed and professed his adherence to it Now suppose the Bishops differ about some Article necessary to be believed with explicite Faith as happened in the times of Arianism Certainly the Faithful cannot at that time sulpend their assent if they do not together suspend their hopes of Salvation But not to insist upon that Example suppose a Controversie raised about doing somewhat which God in the Scripture expresly commands to be done such as we contend to be Communion under both kinds reading of the Scripture c. What is then to be done Must all action be suspended This were to deny obedience to God. We must therefore chuse one part and so reject the pretence of implicite Faith. Again implicite Faith is thus expressed I believe what the Church believeth It therefore supposeth the Faith of the Church Of what kind not implicite surely For that would be absurd in the highest degree Certainly then the Church could not justly be accounted the Keeper of Tradition which is nothing else in our Adversaries sence but that Doctrine which Christ delivered to his Apostles they to their Successors until it was derived down to us If this be true the Church of every Age must of necessity distinctly and explicitly know that Doctrine Otherwise it cannot faithfully and accurately deliver it to the succeeding Church Then how shall this Faith of the Church her self be expressed It can be by no other Form than this I believe what I believe than which nothing can be more absurd But I need not refute a Folly which our Adversaries do not espouse as appears from the words of Duvall 8 Quamvis aliqua successu temporis suerint in Ecclesiâ desinita de quibus antea eitra haeresin dubitabatur certum tamen est illa fuisse semper à nonnullis praedicata declarata Quòd autem ab aliis non crederentur istud tantùm vel ex oblivione vel ex ignorantiâ Scripturae aut traditionis proveniebat Duval in 2.2 p. 111. Although some things were in process of time defined by the Church which were before doubted of without the Crime of Heresie yet it is certain they were always preached and declared by some But that they were not believed by others arose either from the forgetfulness or from the ignorance of Scripture or Tradition Is it therefore this explicite Faith of the Church which serveth as a Foundation to implicite Faith So it ought to be and so I doubt not but our Adversaries will say it is But in this case wherein the Governours of the Church dissent about an Article of Faith it cannot be For that which the Church explicitly believes is no desinite Opinion but a meer Contradiction repugnant to it self and destroying it self For one part of the Church believeth the Opinion whereof the Controversie is raised to be true wholsom and revealed by God the other part believes it false pernicious and suggested by Men. Now to have the belief of the whole Church you must joyn both parts of the Contradiction together and so the Church believeth that Opinion to be true and false wholsom and pernicious revealed by God and suggested by Men. But this is not Faith but a deformed Monster consisting of contrary and repugnant parts CHAP. XXI That the consent of Doctors even when it can be had is more difficult to be known than that we can by the help of it attain to the knowledge of the Truth TO what we observed in the precedent Chapter our Adversaries may perhaps answer That when the Governours of the Church differ about a matter to be believed then indeed the Faith of private Christians cannot rely upon their Authority but that this dissent is not perpetual that they oftentimes consent in delivering the Doctrine of the Church and then at least may be securely believed in what they teach To this I reply First that hereby they must grant they have no certain and sixed Rule of Faith for many great and weighty points of Religion contrary to their continual boasts of the abundance of Rules whereby God hath provided for all the necessities of his Church Secondly the Governours of the Church have now for many Ages differed about some matters upon which according to our Adversaries depend the hopes of eternal Salvation For Example whether the true Church is to be found among the Greeks or among the Latins For of the five Patriarchates of the Church four are divided from the Church of Rome and accuse her of Heresie and Schism both which Accusations she retorts upon them Now this is a matter of great moment which may be justly doubted of and can never be determined by the consent of Doctors But to omit that this consent if it could be had is not so manifest and obvious as a Rule of Faith ought necessarily to be which by the confession of all must be clear evident and easie to be applied This Duvall 1 Secunda conditio eaque pariter essentialis est perspicuitas Nam si hee regula obseurè sidei mysteria proponeret regula fidei non foret Duvall in 2.2 p. 207. assigns for an essential condition of a Rule of Faith and acknowledgeth that if a Rule obscurely proposeth the Mysteries of Faith it would thereby become no Rule And for this reason our Adversaries so much exaggerate the obscurity of Scripture that they may thereby
shew it could not be given by God for a Rule of Faith. To which end Gr. à Valentia 2 Sententiam ejus authoritatis cujus de rebus omnibus sidei judicium est apertam oportet esse ut ab omnibus fidelibus commodè possit intelligi Nam si non ita perspicuè planè authoritas illa doceat non ad eam rem valebit Val. tom 3. disp 1. qu. 1. punct 7. §. 4. layeth down this Axiom which he afterwards applyeth to the Scripture The Sentence of that Authority which is to judge of all matters of Faith ought to be manifest that it may be easily understood by all the Faithful For if that Authority doth not teach perspicuously and plainly it will be of no use to that end So he and with him many others If therefore I shall shew that the consent of Pastors about matters of belief is so obscure and difficult to be known that even the most learned much more illiterate men cannot avoid Error in searching it out I shall thereby prove that it could not be given to us by God as a common Rule of things to be believed This obscurity and difficulty ariseth from three Causes The first is the amplitude of the Church diffused throughout the whole World which permits not the Faith of all Pastors to be known unless we travel through all those Regions wherein they are dispersed For it sufficeth not to consult a few They may be mistaken The Opinion of all must be asked the consent of all appear But how shall they be all singly consulted Who ever learned the Christian Faith this way Yet this way Card. Richlieu 3 Method liv 1. chap. 14. points out to us He saith the uniformity of the Church is manifest to sense that all parts of the Church may be surveyed by one man at divers times or by divers men at one time True but to reduce this to practice every single man must take so many Journeys send out so many Intelligencers that this Method cannot be perswaded but in jeast Valentia 4 Fatendum est rarò accidere posse ut quae sit doctorum omnium uno tempore viventium de religione sententia satis cognoscatur Va. ubi supr §. 46 the Jesuit is more ingenuous who confesseth that it can rarely happen that it may be sufficiently known what is the Opinion in Religion of all Doctors living at the same time And this he understands in respect of the Pope himself as appears from what follows these words If then the consent of Doctors can rarely be known by the Pope who hath his Nuncio's and Emissaries in all places how shall it ever be known by private Men Tanner 5 Si opus esset ut plebeii seirent evidenter in totâ Ecclesiâ sic credi quot anni laberentur dum istam evidentiam acquirerent quam neque periti semper habent Tann apud Mart. de fide disp 3. Sect. 4. saith the same thing as he is cited by Martinonus If it were necessary saith he that all private men should know evidently what is believed in the whole Church how many years must be spent in acquiring that Evidence which even learned men have not always And Martinonus 6 Certò facilè potest consuli Pontifex non sic tota Ecclesia ne quidem omnes illius Pastores Mart. de fide disp 9. Sect. 9. saith The Pope may be certainly and easily consulted not so the whole Church no not all her Pastors only This may be proved by many Examples of which I will produce some few Bellarmine 7 Bell. de amiss Stat. lib. 5. c. 6. and Valentia 8 Val. tom 4. disp 11. qu. 1. punct 1. §. 3. omnes Theologi universa Theologorum Schola assert that all Divines agree concerning the punishment of Infants dying without Baptism and think it only poena damni undergone in that which they call the Limbus puerorum Yet is this Opinion falsly by them ascribed to all even Modern Divines for among the Ancients St. Fulgentius is known to have taught the contrary Florentius Conrius Titular Arch-bishop of Tuam published a Book wherein he endeavoured to prove the contrary approved by fourteen Doctors of Divinity whereof one Fr. Sylvius testifieth Conrius his Opinion is the common Doctrine of the School of Doway Another James Pollet professeth that for thirty years wherein he had been conversant in the Divinity Schools he had never heard any other Opinion taught by the Professors than that unbaptized Infants are condemned to the eternal Torments of Hell. A third H. Rampen 9 Quam S. Augustani sententiam verissimam semper judicavi desendi decui tanquaman tiquioribus Ecclesiae decioribus conformem semper hueusque ab excellentissimis quibusdam edoctam utpote Scriptur is magis innixam Conciliis Professor of Doway saith That he had always judged that Opinion being St. Augustine 's to be truest defended and taught it as more consonant to the ancient Doctors and always even to this day taught by some most excellent Persons being founded upon Scripture and Councils Of Indulgences our Adversaries teach chiesly three things I. That there is a Treasure of the Satisfaction of Christ and the Saints which may be applied to persons liable to suffer the punishment of their sins after the guilt of them is remitted in the Sacrament of Penance and that this Treasure is actually applied by Indulgences granted by the Pope II. That the Souls in Purgatory may be helped by these Indulgences III. That by them is remitted not only the punishment enjoyned in Penance and decreed by the Canons of the Church but also that which is due at the Tribunal of God. These three things Bellarmin and Valentia assirm to be taught by all Divines Although the first Bellarmin confesseth was doubted of by Mairo and Durandus who thought the Satisfaction of Saints have no part in that Treasure but the contrary saith he 10 Communls aliorum Theologorum tum antiquerum tum recentiorum omnium sententia Bell. de Indulg lib. 1. cap. 2. Res certissima apud Catho licos indubitata is the common Opinion of the other Divines as well Ancient as of all the Modern and was confirmed by a Decree of Clement VI. The Second he acknowledgeth was denied by Hostiensis and Gabriel but saith the latter corrected his Error and that it is a thing most certain and undoubted among Catholicks So Valentia 11 Val. tom 4. disp 7. qu. 20. punct 5. saith it is the assertion of all the Orthodox As for the Third Valentia affirms the contrary Opinion is exploded as erroneous by all the Orthodox Who could imagine after all this there were any doubt concerning these points among them Yet Holden 12 Caetera omni 1 dub a sunt a Theologis in utramque partem agitata Hold. Anal. fid lib. 2. cap. 6. teacheth that this only is certain and undoubted that the
Governours of the Church can and ought sometimes to indulge something and mitigate the severity of the Canons in each Tribunal All the rest are doubtful and disputed of by Divines on both parts to wit whether there be a Treasure of which the Pope and other Pastors of the Church are dispensers c. where he largely shews that all these Propositions are many ways doubted of and wholly uncertain among Divines If it be enquired whether the Church can put Hereticks to death Valentia 13 Ex side certum est Ecclesiam licité convenienter id facere posse Val. tom 3. disp 1. qu. 11. punct 3. answers That 't is not only certain but of Faith that the Church can lawfully and conveniently do it Holden 14 Nunquam fuit religionis Christianae Ecclesiae Christianae dogma Carholicum Nec omnes etiam piissâ—mi doctissimi Catholici inquisitionis usum rationem approbant Hold Anal. fid l. 1. c. 9. on the contrary maintains That to inflict death upon convicted relapsed or even the most obstinate Hereticks was never an Opinion of the Christian Religion and the Vniversal Church Neither do all even the most Pious and Learned Catholicks approve the use and methods of the Inquisition The like saith Richerius 15 Rich. Hist Concil l. 1. c. 10. If again it be enquired whether the corruption of humane nature introduced by sin consists only in the loss of supernatural Graces or also includes somewhat positive whereby the Soul is vitiated Rhodius 16 Ita contra sectarios omnes docent Orthodoxt omnes Theologi Rhod. de pece dis 4. qu. 2. Sect. 3. answers in the first sence and affirms That all the Orthodox Divines so teach against all the Sectaries Bellarmin 17 Omnes communi consensu docent Bell. de grat primi hom cap. 5. That it is taught by the common consent of all Yet Vasquez 18 Vasq 1.2 disp 132. cap. 4. 5. attributes the contrary Opinion to many Divines of great name as Holcot Greg. Ariminensis Gabriel Henricus Gulielmus Parisiensis Autissiodorensis Driedo It is a Famous Question whether the Pope besides the Spiritual Power commonly attributed to him hath a power over Temporals either direct or indirect whereby he deposes Princes for Heresie or any other Crime and absolve their Subjects from their Allegiance There are three Opinions about this The first is that the Pope hath jure divino a direct and absolute Power over the whole World as well in Temporals as in Spirituals The Second that the Pope as Pope hath no Temporal Power nor any Authority to deprive Princes The Third that the Pope as Pope hath not directly any Temporal but only Spiritual Power yet that by means of that Spiritual he hath indirectly a Supream Power even in Temporals Bellarmin 19 Bell. de Pont. lib. 5. cap. 1. who relateth these three Opinions in these very words attributes the first to many of the Canonists the third he makes the common Opinion of Catholick Divines The second he saith is not so much an Opinion as an Heresie and therefore he ascribes it only to Calvin P. Martyr Brentius and the Magdeburgenses And in another place under the feigned name of Adolphus Schulkenius he teacheth the same thing where he enveigheth 20 Contra S. literas doctrinam conciliorum summorum pont unanimem consensum pâ—â—lrum dociorum haeretiâ—is schismaticisqae se jungit Apud Widd. contra Schulk §. 15. against Widdrington a defender of the second Opinion as opposing the H. Scriptures the Doctrine of Councils and Popes and the unanimous consent of Fathers and Doctors who all with one Mouth teach the Pope's Supreme Power in Temporals and thereby ranking himself with Hereticks and Schismaticks while he pretends to be a Catholick Thus Bellarmin Now on the other side De Marca and Launoy contend this Opinion was always unknown in France The whole Sorbon in the Exposition of their Judgment published in the Year 1663 testify That not only they never received this Opinion but always refisted it with their utmost power Not to say that the Kings of France and Parliaments of Paris by their Edicts and Arrests often condemned it and forbid it to be held or taught particularly in the Years 1561 1594 1595 1610 1614 c. I might produce many more examples but these suffice to shew That the greatest Doctors mistake in imagining some Opinions to be approved by all the Divines of their Communion which yet are freely disputed of on both sides And if this happens to Doctors who employ their whole time in matters of learning what shall we think of poor and illiterate Men who know little beyond the providing for the necessities of this life Again If the Judgment of only those Doctors who commit their Opinions to Writing and are very few in comparison of the rest is not certainly known how shall we know the Judgment of those who teach their Flocks vivâ voce Lastly If their Opinion be true who would have the Judgment not only of Bishops but also of Parsons Professors of Divinity and Preachers to be accounted of what hope is there that the Opinion of so many Men should ever be known to any one Man or to any but God alone The second Reason of the difficulty of knowing the common consent of other Doctors is the obscure Knowledge which is in the Church of some points concerning which no Disputation hath been yet raised For nothing is more true than that Opinions are illustrated by Controversies So St. Augustin 21 Multa ad fidem Catholicam pertinentia dum haereticorum callidâ inquietudine agitantur ut adversum cos defendi possint considerantur diligentius intelliguntur clarius instantius praedicantur ab adversario mota quaestio existit discendi occasio August de Civit. Dei lib. 16. chap. 20. saith Many things pertaining to Catholick Faith while they are disputed of by the cunning perverseness of Heretickâ— that they be defended against them are considered more diligently understood more clearly and preached more earnestly the Question moved by the Adversary becoming an occasion of learning This he proves in another place 22 In Psalm 34. by the Doctrines of the Trinity Penance and Baptism not sully handled before the Controversies started in them by the Arians Novatians and Rebaptizers And therefore Valentia 23 Val. tom 3. disp 1. quaest 1. punct 6. Et fortasse latent adhuc in Ecclesia aliquae assirms It belongs to the Church as necessity shall require to deliver anew to the Faithful more explicitly and by an Infallible Authority as it were draw out of darkness those truth of Faith which were indeed at first delivered by the Apostles but now either by the negligence or perversity of Men lay hid And perhaps saith he some do yet lay hid in the Church An eminent example of this appeared in the Council of Trent when they were seeking out
an essicacious remedy against the inconveniencies of clandestine Marriages Some advised the declaring them void for the future and these were the major number Fifty Bishops and among them the Patriarch of Hierusalem and two of the Legates Card. Hosius and Simonetta opposed it saying That was not in the power of the Council Morone the Legate and many others suspended their Votes The Disputations grew high at last they agreed to referr all to the Pope He answered the Council had Power to make such a Decree and that it ought to be made Hereupon clandestine Marriages were declared void and an Anathema added to the Decree against all those who should thenceforth deny the Church hath power to make Constitutions of that nature See a Power residing in the Church now become an Article of Faith which was vehemently impugned by a Patriarch two Legates fifty Bishops and doubted of by many others And shall those now be heard who maintain there is always in the Church a clear and distinct knowledge of all things revealed We proceed to the third Reason which consisteth in this That some Opinions are often divulged in the Church as revealed by God and approved by the Church and are every-where taught which at last are found out and known to be false Monsieur Pajon 24 Rép. aux prejugès part 2. chap. 2. produceth three eminent Examples of this Observation the first taken from the decisions of the Canonists the second from the form of Condemnation of the V. Jansenian Propositions the third from the Prohibition of reading the Bible which because he largely and accurately pursueth I will not here urge much less will add other Examples before pointed out in this Chapter However from what hath been said it appears that it is obscure and difficult to be known wherein the Doctors consent This will be more manifest if we consider that it is far more difficult to know certainly what all the present Doctors teach than what the former Doctors taught For the Opinions of these we have in their Books which we can read at home but to know the Judgment of the others we must travel through the whole World. Valentia supposeth this very thing where he giveth the reason why the Pope in desining rather maketh use of dead than living Doctors Because saith he 25 Qui proinde omnes nec facilè congregari nec interrogari possunt quid sentiant Val. Tom. disp 1. quaest 1. punct 7. §. 46. the Opinion of these latter can very rarely be sufficiently known For being dispersed through the whole Church they cannot all easily be either assembled or asked what they think whereas the ancient Doctors are more famous and are not so many If this be true how dissicult must it be to know the Judgment of the present Church since the most learned Men can very hardly obtain the Sence of the Ancient Church Few or none can search all the Monuments of Antiquity pry into the most secret Recesses of it and turn over the Writings of sixteen Ages and in all this long Journey make no slips commit no errors Yet is all this easier in the Judgment of Valentia than to enquire and find out the Opinion of the Doctors living at any one time which yet must be done by them who lay the Foundation of their Faith upon their consent I have not yet seen any of our Adversaries who offereth the least solution of any one of these difficulties except Cardinal Richlieu who when he had objected to himself That blind Men hear neither all Preachers and Doctors nor learn from those which they do hear what the others teach which is our very Argument except that what he saith only of Blind-men we justly apply to all Men he ansewers 26 Method liv 2. chap. 8. That as for a Philosopher to conclude all Fires to be hot it is not necessary that he experiments all the Fires in the World the common consent of Philosophers sufficing so to know certainly whether any Doctrine be the Doctrine of the Church it abundantly sufficeth that Blind-men hear it proposed by divers Doctors of the Church and that it cannot be shown there are others who teach the contrary But many things may be here observed First Those things do not always suffice in matter of Faith with which we are contented in disputing There we often argue from Concessions which we own to be false Here nothing is to be produced but what is true and certain Wherefore if no body oppose those Doctrines which seem true to us it doth not follow that we ought to admit them unless they be both certain of themselves and appear so to us And if no body points out to us any maintainers of the contrary Doctrine it doth not â—â—â—refore follow that there are none whence the Doctrine propos'd obtains not thence any certainty any motive of Faith. Secondly Philosophers themselves admonish great diligence is to be used in making Arguments of Induction such as this is and that an insufficient enumeration of particulars is the great fountain of Errors while a few or even many are reckoned up and thence a conclusion made of all Wherefore he reasons not well who argues thâ—â— Such and such teach thus nor doth any appear who opposeth Therefore all teach the same For it may easily be that many may teach otherwise unknown to him who reasons thus but well known to others In the next place it were to be desired the Cardinal had explained his mind more clearly and told by whom he means it cannot be shewn that other teach the contrary whether by the blind Man himself or by other blind or ignorant Men like himself or by one Learned Man whom he should consult or by all Learned men every where dispersed If he means the first or second then he greatly errs in thinking it sufficient that the blind Man or other ignorant Persons of his acquaintance cannot name any who teach a contrary Doctrine to their Parish-Priest or those Doctors whom they hear For all the Husbandmen Labourers and Mechanicks of the Parish may be easily ignorant that a contrary Doctrine and that more true is taught in America or India or even the next Province and so the blind Man shall be obliged to believe a falsity But if the Cardinal means it suffice that the blind Man consult some learned Man to know whether none teacheth contrary to his Parson I would ask whether our Adversary requireth it as necessary If so then all the common sort of the Faithful are guilty of rashness and imprudence For I dare swear that none of them ever puts this in practice If he saith it is not necessary he deserts the cause For upon what foundation shall their Faith rely who do not that which he confesseth not necessary to be done and yet think sufficient to confirm their Faith But what if the Doctor who is consulted be in the same errour with the Parish-Priest as none will deny
For among Catholicks some affirm it because there is no promise found of the contrary Others deny it because the whole Church would be otherwise in great danger of error To me neither seemeth sufficiently certain Yet it is probable that it becomes the Providence of Christ not to permit it In these words two things may be observed First That Suarez speaks of the Infallibility of Bishops not in believing but in teaching For he saith this in answer to an Objection That if all the Bishops could err then the other part of the Church the Laity might also err because they ordinarily follow the Doctrine of their Pastors and are bound to do it Now the People are bound to follow their Pastors not in what they think but in what they teach This also appears from the reason why some denied the consent of all Bishops in any error to be possible because if that should happen the whole Church would be brought into great danger of error But if Bishops should teach rightly although they thought erroneously there would be thence no danger of Error to the rest of the Faithful Secondly Of this Infallibility of Bishops in what they teach unanimously he saith three things 1. That some Catholicks deny it 2. That neither part seems certain to him 3. That it is probable All which singly prove That he thought it not to be of Faith. But who can imagine so great a Doctor could be ignorant of what was of Faith Theoph. Raynaudus differed not much from the Opinion of Suarez That the visible Head saith he 3 Vt seposito capite visibili membra omnia possint infici aliquo errore materiali vix potest contingere verisimillimum est Deo semper cordi futurum ne id accidat Si tamen accideret incont aminato capite nibil decederet de perpetuitate verae fidei in Ecclesiâ Rayn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 punct 5. being laid aside all the Members should be infected with any material error could scarce happen and it is most probable God will take care it should not Yet if it should happen the Head being uninfected the perpetuity of true Faith in the Church would suffer no loss Where he determines not absolutely this cannot happen but looks upon the contrary only as most probable and denieth the Infallibility of the whole Church to depend thereon which is so much urged by the maintainers of the contrary Opinion Rhodius speaks more plainly who affirms 4 Mortuo pontifice non est in Ecclesiâ ulla infallibilis authoritas ad condenda fidei Decreta Nullam e◠tempore infallibilitatem actualem proximam habet Ecclesia Rhod. de fide qu. 2. Sect. 5. §. 5. That the Pope being dead the Church hath no Infallible Authority to make Decrees of Faith as having no actual and immediate Infallibility at that time Hence is manifest that we want little of a Confession from our Adversaries that the Infallibility of the Governours of the Church is not of Faith. And indeed it cannot be For no Foundation of such a Faith is to be found Not Scripture or Tradition For not to say that these to make any Article become of Faith ought according to our Adversaries most evidently to contain it which evidence even they will not deny to be here wanting It would be most absurd that Papists should believe this Infallibility of the Pastors of the Church for the Authority of Scripture and Tradition when they believe neither of these but for the Authority of the Pastors Take away their Testimony and they will deny it to be known whether Scripture or Tradition be the word of God or what is the sence of either The same may be said of the Decrees of the Church Representative For besides that no such express Decree of it can be produced the Infallibility of the Representative Church it self is believed by every single Papist only because they hear it taught by their Pastors As for the belief of the Universal Church that ought not be produced For that is the thing now inquired why the Universal Church believeth so Will our Adversaries therefore say they believe their Pastors cannot err in teaching unanimously what is of Faith because they so teach themselves This they must recurr to for they have no other reason left of believing so Yet nothing can be more absurd For first it is the constant Opinion of all Mankind and a received Law among all Nations that none should be Witness or Judge in his own Cause Secondly As we believe not any Man to be true and honest till we be assured of his veracity and honesty from some other Testimony than his own So it would be the highest imprudence to esteem those Infallible who challenge that privilege to themselves until their Infallibility be known to us from some other Argument than their own Testimony Certainly our Adversaries will not permit even the Scripture which is the word of God and hath so many illustrious Characters of a Divine Original to be believed for its own Testimony and Christ openly professed that if he bore Witness of himself his Witness was not credible Why then shall that be attributed to the Governours of the Church which Christ denied to himself and our Adversaries deny to the Word of God Thirdly The Question will return whence the Pastors of the Church know that they cannot err For they will not say they know it because the Faithful believe it since as Hallier 5 Non ideo vera docent Pastores quia vera credunt Auditores sed ideo vera credunt Auditores quia vera docentibus assentiuntur F. Hallier de Hierarch l. 4. c. 2. well saith The Pastors do not therefore teach truly because the Auditors believe truly but the Auditors believe truly because they assent to the Pastors teaching truly They cannot say that they know it from Scripture or Tradition For the truth of these without the Authority of the Church is no more known to learned than to unlearned persons Think not saith Bagotius 6 Cave existimes unumquenquam etiam Theologum Doctissimum posse quicquam eredere sine authoritate Ecclesiae independenter ab eâ Bagot Instit Theol. l. 4. c. 1. §. 1. that any one even the most learned Divine can believe any thing without the Authority of the Church and independently from it And Hosius 7 Hos cont Brent goeth so far that he maintains it to be the best way that even the most learned Men should recurr to implicit Faith and believe only in general as the Church believeth Shall the Pastors therefore believe that they cannot err for their own Testimony This is the natural consequence of our Adversaries Doctrine and that most absurd For first there is none of the Pastors which believeth so because he teacheth so but all teach so because all believe so Again The Question will recurr upon what Foundation do they teach so Here either nothing or only
this must be answered That they teach so because they believe so Then if you ask why they believe so no other answer can be given than because they believe so which is so foolish as that I need not urge it any farther CHAP. XXIV That the Faith of all single Christians cannot rely upon the Faith of the Vniversal Church because first it appears not who belong to that Church which is thought Infallible THus far have we considered the Faith of the Universal Church as it is taught by the Pastors or Clergy It remains that we treat of it as it is believed both by Clergy and Laity which is the last refuge of our Adversaries Here I undertake to prove That there is nothing whereon the Faith of all private Christians can less rely and that for three reasons 1. Because it doth not appear what is that Universal Church whose Faith is to be the Rule of ours 2. Because it is not known what is the Faith of that Church 3. Because it is not manifest whether the Faith of any Church assignable be true The first is evinced two ways For first it is uncertain what is the true Idea or Definition of the Church what is required to constitute it whether only an external profession of the true Faith or also internal Faith and Piety And then although this were certain it would be yet unknown whether the Roman Greek or any other were that true Church As for the first our Adversaries would perswade us That they agree in the notion of a true Church Yet nothing is more manifest than their discord in this matter There are chiefly three Opinions of them herein For if we should make an exact enumeration of them we should find many more The first teacheth That the Church is made up of all persons baptized and outwardly professing the true Faith and adhering to the Pope of Rome whether they be truly Faithful or secretly Insidels The second to an External Profession requires Internal Faith at least in form to be added as necessary and thereby excludes all secret Insidels and Hereticks The third requireth Charity to be added to these two and leaveth no place in the Church but to those who are truly just and free from Mortal Sin. The first Opinion is defended by many particularly Canus Bellarmin Duvall and almost all the later writers of Controversy especially the French. The second is taught by many For all those seem to favour it who desine the Church to be the Congregation of the Faithful of whom Launoy 1 Laun. Epist Tom. 8. ad Gattin reckons up a very great number But it is openly and manisestly taught by Alensis Clemangis Turrecremata and Jacobatius while in the places formerly cited they assert That the Church may be reduced to one only Woman as it actually was at the time of our Saviour's Passion The University of Cracow produced by Launoy 2 Vbi supra desined 3 Est Ecclesia Corpus mysticum organicum side Chrisli animatum Ex quo fit quod omnes baptizati habentes fidem Christi sive informem sine formatam constituunt Ecclesiam militantem the Church to be a Mystical Organical Body animated by the Faith of Christ constituted by all baptized persons having the Faith of Christ either in form or formal The same Opinion is accurately and largely defended by Suarez 4 Suar. de fide disp 9. Sect. 2. Arriaga 5 Arr. de fide disp 7. Sect. 2. and Caspensis 6 Casp de fide disp 2. Sect. 2.9 among the Moderns The third Opinion seemeth to be favoured by Bannes 7 Catechumeni simpliciter pertinent ad Ecclesiam invisibilem siquidem sunt membra Christi per Charitatem sed ad Ecclesiam visibilem secundùm quid viz. per votum desiderium Bann in 2.2 qu. 1. art 10. p. 47. while he saith The Catechumens simply belong to the Invisible Church as being members of Christ through Charity but to the Visible Church only in part viz. in wish and desire But he inclineth more to the second in these words 8 Ecclesia licet sit Respublica quaedam visibilis requirit tamen aliquid invisibile sc fidem Haeretici ergo extra eam sunt cum fidem non habeant Id. comm fus in art 10. p. 90. The Church although it be a visible Commonwealth requireth somewhat invisible to wit Faith. Hereticks therefore as wanting that are out of the Church And in another place 9 Fideles peceatores sunt verè partes Ecclesiae militantis Id. Comm. brev p. 47. The Faithful which are Sinners are truly parts of the Church Militant But to omit Bannes the third Opinion is openly maintained by Hugo à Sancto Victore whose words are these 10 Ecclesia habet lapides sc fideles qui sicut per caementum lapis jungitur lapidi sic per charitatem junguntur sibi Hug. lib. C. Serm. Serm. 3. The Church hath Stones to wit the Faithful who as one Stone is joined to another by Cement are joined to the Church by Charity And in another place 11 Ecclesia sancta corpus est Christi uno spiritu vivificata unita fide unâ sanctificata Hoc itaque nomen significat membra Christi participantia Spiritum Christi Id. de Sacr. part 2. cap. 2. The Holy Church is the Body of Christ quickened by one Spirit and united by one Faith and sanctified This word therefore signifieth the Members of Christ partaking of the Spirit of Christ Antoninus of Florence after he had said The Church is sometimes taken for the General Collection of the Faithful subjoins these words 12 Secundo modo sumitur Ecclesia pro congregatione bonorum fidelium qui sunt per charitatem Christo incorporati Haec est Ecclesia quae regitur à Sp. S. corpus Christi mysticum quod vegetatur spiritu ejus pro quâ Christus oravit ne fides desiceret Ant. Summ. Theol. part 3. tit 12. c. 1. In the second place the Church is taken for the Congregation of Good Believers who are incorporated into Christ by Charity This is that Church which is governed by the Holy Ghost the Mystical Body of Christ which is animated by his Spirit for which Christ prayed that her Faith should not fail The same saith Cusanus 13 Manifestum est hoc corpus Ecclesiae quod ita se habuit ex praedestinatis tantùm constitui Existentes in gratiâ praesentis justitiae solum de Ecclesiâ esse censentur Cus Concord lib. 1. cap. 4. It is manifest that this Body of the Church which is thus disposed which adhereth to Christ in Spirit in which the Spirit dwells quickning the whole Body is made up only of Predestinate Persons Only those persons therefore who continue in the Grace of present Righteousness are accounted to be of the Church Dionysius Carthusianus 14 AEdificabo confirmabo Ecclesiam meam id est congregationem fidelium
1 Ecclesia autem Latinorum non est Ecclesia Vniversalis sed quaedam pars ejus Ideo etiamsi tota ipsa errâsset non errabat Eccl. universalis quia manet Eccl. universalis in partibus istis quae non errant five illa fint plures numero quà m errantes sine non Tost in 2. Prol. Hier. in Matth. qu. 4. the Latin Church is not the Vniversal Church but only a part of it Therefore although that had wholly erred the Vniversal Church would not have erred because it remains in those parts which do not err whether they be more or fewer in number than the parts which do err So Canus 2 At nihil obstat cur major Ecclesiae pars non erret Can. loc Theol. lib. 5. cap. 5. Nothing hinders but that the greater part of the Church may err Bannes 3 Sententia majoris partis Ecclesiae potest esse falsa in materia fidei Bann in 2.2 qu. 1. art 10. dub 4. The Opinion of the greater part of the Church may be false in a matter of Faith. Valentia considering those words of Christ When the Son of Man comes shall he find Faith upon the Earth saith 4 Significat paucissimos certè fore postremo illo tempore fideles non autem nullos Val tom 3. disp 1. qu. 1. punct 7. §. 16. He signifies that there will be very few Faithful in that last time not that there will be none And Bellarmin 5 Non tamen nullos nec tam paucos ut non faciant Ecclesiam Bel. de Eccles lib. 3. cap. 16. treating of the same words saith with Theophylact That our Lord meaneth there will be few Faithful in the times of Antichrist not yet that there will be none nor so few as not to constitute a Church Many Divines and those of great name whose words we before produced have gone farther and maintained That the true Faith and true Church may be reduced to one only Woman Nor doth John Viguerius a Dominican Professor of Divinity in the University of Tholouse differ much from them teaching that Faith at least explicit may be preserved in one person all the rest retaining only implicit Faith. It may be said of the Church saith he 6 Sic potest dici de Ecclesiâ quòd potest servari in uno prout dicitur de Mariâ Virg. quòd in eâ solâ in triduo sepulturae mansit fides explicita de divinitate Christi quamvis multi alii per Judaeam existentes habere possent fidem catholicam actualem implicitam non tamen explicitam de divinitate Christi Vig. Instit Theol. c. 10. that it may be preserved in one person as it is said of the V. Mary that in her only during the three days of burial remained explicit Faith touching the Divinity of Christ although many others in Judea might have actual and implicit Catholick Faith but not explicit of the Divinity of Christ If either of these two Opinions be allowed we must despair of ever knowing the Faith of the Universal Church For where can be sought for by what Notes can be found that Phoenix that Deucalion of the Christian World who alone retains explicit Faith when all the rest have either erred or preserved only implicit Faith But be these Opinions true or false the opposite of neither of them can be of Faith as I before proved of the former and of the latter may be hence proved That this Book of Viguerius is approved by the Faculty of Divinity of Paris which would never have been done if it had been found to contain Heresie However let both be exploded the other cannot be denied That the greater part of the Church may err Nay further None ever yet dared to define how great that part of the Church must necessarily be which cannot be infected with Error without the ruin of the Infallibility of the whole Unless therefore it appears that the whole Church consenteth the belief of it cannot be a sure Foundation for our Faith. But first the whole Church seldom or never consenteth Certainly never in all things All things therefore can never be learned from her Whence then shall they be learned Besides where she doth consent it is so obscure that it can be known by no Man. This is proved and much more manifestly by all those Arguments which we brought against the certainty of knowing what all the Pastors teach For if it cannot be known what all the Pastors teach much less can it be known what all the Faithful believe since there are far more Believers than Pastors and these teach more distinctly than the others believe Beside it is not sufficient to know what seemeth true to all the Faithful unless it be also known what they all embrace as revealed by God. For our Adversaries acknowledge there are many false Opinions of the whole Church Maldonat 7 A pud Richer Hist Concil lib. 3. cap. 3. proveth this at large and giveth some Examples of it As that the Church for many Ages used a Preface upon the Festival of St. Hierom wherein she extolled his pure Virginity although St. Hierom in several places confesseth the contrary for which reason the Preface was at last expunged That for 600 years she administred the Eucharist to Infants That she worshippeth particular Reliques of Saints and prayeth for the Souls of particular Men in Purgatory although it be not of Faith that those Reliques are true or these Souls in Purgatory and the like which proveth the necessity of knowing not only what is held by the Universal Church but whether it is held by her as of Faith and revealed by God. But who shall ascertain this For the common sort of Believers are not wont accurately to distinguish these things so that if any one should ask whomsoever he meets What they admit as true what as revealed what they receive with Divine Faith what with Catholick Opinion he would find very few who could comprehend the Sence of his Question much fewer who could answer him distinctly So far shall we be therefore from knowing by this method what is believed in the Universal Church that it can scarce be known what is believed in any single Diocess CHAP. XXVII That it may justly be doubted whether all those things be true which the Vniversal Church believeth THere remains the third Reason of the impossibility of founding the Faith of all single Christians upon the belief of the Universal Church the uncertainty of the truth of this Belief For suppose the Church of Rome to be the true Church and that it is sufficiently known what she believeth It is not yet manifest whether she believeth rightly For a True Church is one thing an Infallible Church another Yet Infallible must that necessarily be which is to us a certain Rule of Faith. Before all things therefore it is required to be known that the Church is Infallible But how shall this be known Our Adversaries commonly say It
is more than Morally even Physically evident that those things are false which the Church of Rome teacheth about the Eucharist For that the Eucharist after Consecration is still Bread and Wine is proved by innumerable Arguments of Physical Evidence which consequently can never be counterweighed much less out weighed by Arguments of Moral Evidence brought to prove the Infallibility of that Church which teacheth a contrary Opinion However it will not be amiss to examine whether the Arguments drawn from these Notes of the Church be morally evident as is pretended But first we must remove the Equivocation which lieth hid in this term For it is used by the Schoolmen in a threefold Sence First therefore many call that Morally Certain which is so probable that many Arguments perswade it but nothing insinuates the least suspicion of the contrary Secondly Those things are called Morally Certain which to use Bellarmin's words are confirmed by so many Signs and Conjectures as may exclude all Anxiety but not all Distrust Thirdly Those things are most properly said to be morally certain which are known by the common and unanimous testimony of a great multitude witnessing a thing by them seen which Testimony none contradicts as Conink 8 Quae ex communi concordi magnae multitudinis rem visam testantis testimonio cui nemo contradicit noscuntur De actib sup disp 11. dub 1. num 44. defines them If our Adversaries say the Arguments take from the Notes of the Church are morally certain in the first or second Sence in the first place I deny it For those things only are morally certain in those Sences against which no contrary Arguments can be produced For if any such occurr the Mind fluctuates and can obtain no certainty Now none can deny that there are many at least probable Arguments which perswade That the Church of Rome is not the true Church Secondly I assert That neither of these Certainties will suffice For they cannot but in a loose and improper Sence be called Certainty They are indeed meer probability which may suffice in matters of Life and Action where greater certainty cannot be had but not in matters of Belief and Salvation where the greatest is required whereas these may possibly be false as is manifest in the Cases of an Infant whether Baptized or an Host whether Consecrated which are commonly produced for Examples of the first and greatest of the two kinds of Moral Certainty For both the Baptism of an Infant and the Consecration of an Host depending upon the Intention of the Priest can never be certainly known to have been duly performed For no Man can be ever speculatively certain of those things which can be false There remains then the third Sence which I deny not to be sufficient although it be not wholly consonant to the Doctrine of our Adversaries But to pass by that it is manifest That here is no place for this kind of certainty since it depends upon the Testimony of others so framed and circumstantiated that it is altogether at least morally impossible to deceive or be deceived as that Caesar and Alexander formerly existed as Rome and Constantinople do now whereas Arguments drawn from Antiquity Amplitude Sanctity c. are of another kind as being wholly artificial and consequently most different from those which beget this Moral Certainty Besides there is none of these Notes wherein the Greek Church may not equally glory with the Latin. Sanctity Amplitude Antiquity and constancy of Martyrs none can deny to her As for Miracles the Greeks by the confession of the Latins have somewhat admirable which is not to be found in the Roman Church For Lupus 9 In Concil tom 5. p. 543. relates out of Chr. Angelus and Leo Allatius that it is at this day most frequent among the Greeks that the dead Bodies of Excommunicate Persons immediately after death grow black swell and become very hard nor can be dissolved before the Bishop gives them Absolution which being once pronounced they are reduced into Dust The Divine Goodness saith Lupus by these 10 Captivos sub Turcicâ tyrannide Christianos divina bonitas consolatur per talia miracula in Evangelicâ fide confirmat Miracles comforting and confirming in the Faith the poor Christians oppressed with the Turkish Tyranny In this Miracle four things may be observed 1. That it is not only boasted by the Greeks but also acknowledged by the Latins 2. That it is an ordinary and almost daily Miracle 3. That it is annexed to the Episcopal Dignity so as their Excommunication and Absolution hath a sensible and supernatural effect 4. That it serveth not only to favour the Christian Religion professed by the Greeks but also their private error For as Lupus observeth They imagine the Absolution given after death to be valid and to deliver from the Torments of Hell it self which seemeth to be confirmed by the sensible effect that immediately follows the Absolution What have the Latins like to this Their pretended Miracles are not acknowledged by their Adversaries but rather convinced of falsity by them and even by many of their own Communion they are rare not ordinary nor annexed to any Ecclesiastical Dignity and such as if they were true serve to confirm only the Christian Religion in general not their own particular Tenets It is manifest therefore That those Arguments are not certain which are deduced from the Notes of the Church since if they were so they would demonstrate what our Adversaries think to be false That the Greek is the True and Infallible Church This might be evidently evinced if we considered each Note singly But besides that it is already accurately performed by our Reverend B. Morton Jo. Gerardus and others it seems not very necessary in this place Here therefore I finish and in one word conclude That the Papists who boast of having so many immovable Foundations of their Faith have not so much as one which is solid and that what they believe they do it pertinaciously indeed but neither certainly nor firmly FINIS Books Printed for and Sold by Richard Chiswell Dr. CAve's Lives of the Primitive Fathers in 2 Vol. Folio Dr. Cary's Chronological Account of Ancient Time. fol. Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity fol. Sir John Burlace's History of the Irish Rebellion fol. The Laws of this Realm concerning Jesuits Seminary Priests Recusants the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance explained by divers Judgments and Resolutions of the Judges with other Observations thereupon By Willim Cawley Esq fol. Dr. Towerson's Explication on the Creed the Commandments and Lord's Prayer in 3 Vol. fol. Bishop Nicholson on the Church-Catechism 40. Mr. John Cave's seven occasional Sermons 40. Bishop Wilkin's Natural Religion 80. His Fifteen Sermons 80. Mr. Tanner's Primordia Or the Rise and Growth of the First Church of God described 80. Spaniard's Conspiracy against the State of Venice 80. Dr. Cave's Primitive Christianity in three parts 80. Certain genuine Remains of the
Vigilius desire before the IV. and V. Councils that an equal number of Western and Eastern Bishops might be present in them For the like cause Richerius 12 Rich. Hist Concil lib. 14. cap. ult Novam inauditam rationem procedendi complaineth That in the Council of Trent there were more Italian Bishops than of all other Nations together And this he makes to be the cause of the exorbitant Power of the Pope in all latter Councils and of introducing a new and unheard of way of proceeding into them the Italian Bishops being almost all the Popes Creatures and obnoxious to him Thus he computes out of the Acts of the Council that from the beginning to the end of it there were present 187 Italian Bishops but out of other Nations no more than 80. Further our Adversaries do not deny that a Council gathered out of one half of the Christian World may totally err as for example The Council of Constantinople under Copronymus consisting of 338 Bishops who decreed Images were to be abolished To make this Council Oecumenical there wanted only the presence of two or three Western Bishops Suppose them present and opposing the Decree of all the rest How must the President then have pronounced if with the major part an Oecumenical Council would have erred and the Decree would have been Heretical in the Opinion of our Adversaries Moved with these Reasons some of our Adversaries as well Monarchists as Sorbonists deny that plurality of Votes ought to overcome in Councils and account only those Decrees certain which are established by the unanimous consent of all This was the Opinion of Cusanus 13 Ecce concordantiam maximè in iis quae fidei sunt requiri quanto major est concordantia tantò infallibilius judicium Vnde licèt in Synodis universalibus plura necessaria sint maximè tamen communis omnium sententia Cus Concord Cath. Lib. 2. Cap. 4. which he proveth from the Eighth Synod and then adds See how consent chiefly in those things which are of Faith is required and by how much the greater this consent is so much the more infallible is the Decree Whence although in Vniversal Synods many things be necessary yet most of all is the common consent of all So Holden 13 Imò tametsi plurimorum fuerit in Concilio congregatorum testimonium nisi universum Catholicum sit traditionis certitudinem perfectam non habet Hold. Anal. fid lib. 1. cap. 9. Although it be the Testimony of the major part of a Council if it be not universal and general it hath not the perfect certainty of Tradition Richerius 14 Rich. Apol ax 22. seemeth to be of the same mind although he speaks not so plainly Nor do Stapleton 15 Stapl. de princip lib. 7. cap. 9. or Duvall 16 Duval Anteloq dister from it But neither doth this Opinion want its inconveniencies For first hereby Councils are in a manner rendred useless For it cannot easily be imagined unless some Factious Conspiracy should intervene that all should think the same thing especially if they be many And indeed we have few examples of Councils wherein the Bishops were unanimous In that of Nice were some Arians at Sardica more at Ephesus many Nestorians at Chalcedon not a few Eutychians and so of the rest which according to this Hepothesis must be all expunged out of the number of lawful Councils Secondly The Infallibility of Councils will hereby become unuseful for they could never pronounce Sentence There would be always two or three Hereticks present in the Council who to prevent the condemnation of their Heresy need do no more than speak their Minds and dissent from the Votes of the rest Thus the Power of the Universal Church shall be overthrown and all methods of extinguishing Heresy eluded by the stubbornness of two or three Hereticks However it be the Council of Basil which the Sorbonists so much extol thought far otherwise and particularly the President of it Lewis Cardinal of Arles For when in treating of defining three Assertions that raised a Council above the Pope the major part voted the affirmative although many Fathers and among them the famous Canonist Panosmitan dissented and even protested against it yet the President pronounced Sentence in the affirmative and that Sentence was held valid as Aeneas Sylvius 17 Hist Concil Basil lib. 1. largely relates Whichsoever Opinion therefore our Adversaries embrace they involve themselves in inextricable difficulties But I will not any further urge them It suffi eth what none will deny that it is not certain whether the major part must take place or unanimity be required Both may be defended and neither is self-evident nor revealed by God nor defined by the Church as all acknowledge If this then be uncertain it will be also uncertain what Decrees of Councils were lawfully concluded and consequently what command and deserve belief CHAP. XIX That it cannot be known from the subsequent Approbation of the Church which were lawful Councils FRom what hath been hitherto said concerning Councils it is most evident both from the Reason of Things and the Principles of our Adversaries that the Infallibility of Councils is a meer Phantasm that if there were any Infallible Councils they must be such as are Oecumenical free lawful and rightly proceeding that it cannot be yet certainly known whether all these Conditions be singly necessary and whether all together suffice That if that were stated it were unknown what is required to make a Council Oecumenical what Free and so in the rest and much more uncertain which or whether any were so that the lawfulness freedom right intention necessary diligence and other conditions of an Infallible Council can never be certainly apply'd to any particular Synod Many of these things are of that nature that they cannot be known even by the Bishops of the Council themselves They can tell for example whether themselves have a right Intention and be corrupted with no Interest or Passion but to know whether all the rest be equally sincere is wholly impossible They no less than others must be uncertain what are the Conditions necessary to constitute an Infallible Council which neither God hath revealed the Church defined nor the consent of Doctors determined If these things cannot be known by the Fathers of a Council how shall they by the other Bishops far distant in the remote parts of the World How by every one of the common People by Mechanicks Husband-Men and Women whose Judgment is so small and Notions so obscure Again if not of the present and later Councils how of the first and ancient ones which length of time hath involved in darkness and left to be known only by Conjectures How shall the most learned Men be assured of the freedom legality and all other necessary conditions of these Councils perhaps from the testimony of one or two Historians as if infinite errors of Historians were not daily found