Photographer
Bruce Davidson recalls his first meeting with Jimmy Armstrong, a
dwarf who worked at a circus in New Jersey, who became the central
figure in his 1958 series The Dwarf and the Clyde Beatty Circus: 'I
saw the dwarf standing outside the circus tent in the mist of a cold
spring afternoon. His distorted torso, normal-sized head and stunted
legs both attracted and repelled me. He stood before my camera sad
and silent.’ When, several weeks later, Davidson left the circus,
he bought Armstrong a camera. 'As we said our goodbyes, he told me I
was his best friend.’
Under Franciscus, we Traditionalists are Jimmy Armstrong, sad dwarfs barely allowed to exist on the periphery of the field hospital that Franciscus has pitched on the anthropocentric quicksands and we are invited into the tent by Franciscus solely to be mocked, derided, scorned, and laughed at by the ultramontanists before we are cast out into the darkness:
Franciscus on Trads:
Franciscus on Trads:
One,
a temptation to hostile inflexibility, that is, wanting to close
oneself within the written word, (the letter) and not allowing
oneself to be surprised by God, by the God of surprises, (the
spirit); within the law, within the certitude of what we know and not
of what we still need to learn and to achieve. From the time of
Christ, it is the temptation of the zealous,
of the scrupulous,
of the solicitous and
of the so-called – today – “traditionalists” and
also of the intellectual...
For the definitive ever-expanding book of Insults by Franciscus, go here:
http://thatthebonesyouhavecrushedmaythrill.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-pope-francis-little-book-of-insults.html
So, Trads, where are you going?
We Trads are going nowhere for no matter who is Pope at any time and no matter what any Pope does at any time, the infallible and ineluctable truth is that Jesus Christ, Our Creator, Our Redeemer, and Our Savior is, has always been, and always will be, the Head of His One True Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church outside of which there is no salvation or sanctfication.
So, we must remain faithful and hard-headed about our situation as taught by Saint Vincent of Lerins (Abe Ministry has dropped a few red words into the commentary):
http://thatthebonesyouhavecrushedmaythrill.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-pope-francis-little-book-of-insults.html
So, Trads, where are you going?
We Trads are going nowhere for no matter who is Pope at any time and no matter what any Pope does at any time, the infallible and ineluctable truth is that Jesus Christ, Our Creator, Our Redeemer, and Our Savior is, has always been, and always will be, the Head of His One True Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolic Church outside of which there is no salvation or sanctfication.
So, we must remain faithful and hard-headed about our situation as taught by Saint Vincent of Lerins (Abe Ministry has dropped a few red words into the commentary):
A
General Rule for distinguishing the Truth of the Catholic Faith from
the Falsehood of Heretical Pravity.
[4.]
I have often then inquired earnestly and attentively of very
many men eminent for sanctity and
learning, how and by what sure and so to speak universal rule
I may be able to distinguish the truth of Catholic faith from
the falsehood of heretical pravity;
and I have always, and in almost every instance, received an answer
to this effect: That
whether I or any one else should wish to detect the frauds
(no surprises)and
avoid the snares of heretics as
they rise, and to continue sound and complete in
the Catholic faith,
we must, the Lord helping, fortify our own belief in
two ways; first, by the authority of the Divine Law, and then,
by the Tradition of the Catholic Church.
...
[6.]
Moreover,
in the Catholic Church itself,
all possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which
has been believed everywhere,
always, by all. For that is truly and
in the strictest sense “Catholic,” which,
as the name itself and the reason of the thing declare,
comprehends all universally. This rule we shall observe if we
follow universality, antiquity, consent. We shall
follow universality if we confess that
one faith to
be true,
which the whole Church throughout
the world confesses; antiquity, if we in no wise depart from
those interpretations which it is manifest were notoriously held
by our holy ancestors
and fathers; consent, in like manner, if in antiquity itself we
adhere to the consentient definitions and
determinations of all, or at the least of almost
all priests and doctors.
(No
surprises)
Chapter
3.
What
is to be done if one or more dissent from the rest.
[7.]
What then will a Catholic Christian do,
if a small portion of the Church have
cut itself off from the communion of the universal faith?
What, surely, but prefer the soundness of the whole body to the
unsoundness of a pestilent and corrupt member? What, if some novel
contagion seek to infect not merely an insignificant portion of
the Church,
but the whole? (surprises)
Then
it will be his care to cleave to antiquity, which at this day cannot
possibly be seduced by any fraud of novelty.
(surprises)
[8.]
But what, if in antiquity itself there be found error on
the part of two or three men, or at any rate of a city or even
of a province? Then it will be his care by all means, to prefer
the decrees, if such there be, of an ancient General Council to
the rashness and ignorance of
a few. But what, if some error (surprises) should
spring up on which no such decree is found to bear? Then he
must collate and consult and interrogate the opinions of
the ancients, of those, namely, who, though living in various times
and places, yet continuing in the communionand faith of
the one Catholic Church,
stand forth acknowledged and approved authorities: and
whatsoever he shall ascertain to have been held, written, taught, not
by one or two of these only, but by all, equally, with
one consent, openly, frequently, persistently, that he must
understand that he himself also is to believe without
any doubt or
hesitation.
Chapter
4.
The
evil resulting from the bringing in of Novel Doctrine
(surprises)shown
in the instances of the Donatists and Arians...
[9.]
But that we may make what we say more intelligible, we must
illustrate it by individual examples, and enlarge upon it
somewhat more fully, lest by aiming at too great brevity important
matters be hurried over and lost sight of.
In
the time of Donatus, from whom his followers were
called Donatists,
when great numbers in Africa were rushing headlong into
their own mad error,
and unmindful of their name, their religion, their profession,
were preferring the sacrilegious temerity
of one man before the Church of Christ,
then they alone throughout Africa were safe within
the sacred precincts of the Catholic faith,
who, detesting the profane schism,
continued in communion with the universal Church,
leaving to posterity an illustrious example, how, and how well in
future the soundness of the whole body should be preferred before
the madness of
one, or at most of a few.
[10.]
So also when the Arian poison
had infected not an insignificant portion of the Church but
almost the whole world, so that a sort of blindness had fallen
upon almost all the bishops of
the Latin tongue, circumvented partly by force partly
by fraud, and was preventing them from seeing what was most
expedient to be done in the midst of so much confusion, then whoever
was a true lover
and worshipper of Christ,
preferring the ancient belief to the novel misbelief,
(surprises)escaped
the pestilent infection.
[11.]
By the peril of which time was abundantly shown how great a
calamity the introduction of a
novel doctrine (surprises) causes.... Of
all of which was there any other cause than
that, while human superstitions are
being brought in to supplant heavenly doctrine, while well
established antiquity is being subverted by wicked novelty,
while the institutions of former ages are being set at naught, while
the decrees of our fathers are being rescinded, while the
determinations of our ancestors are being torn in pieces, the lust of
profane and novel curiosity refuses to restrict itself within the
most chaste limits
of hallowed and uncorrupt antiquity? (surprises
like communion to the adulterers which would overturn a
multi-millenial year discipline inseparably entwined with the
Indissolubility of Marriage)
Chapter
5.
The
Example set us by the Martyrs, whom no force could hinder from
defending the Faith of their Predecessors.
[12.]
But it may be, we invent these charges out of hatred to
novelty and zeal for
antiquity. Whoever is disposed to listen to such an insinuation, let
him at least believe the blessed Ambrose,
who, deploring the acerbity of the time, says, in the
second book of his work addressed to the Emperor
Gratian: “Enough
now, O God Almighty! Have we expiated with our own ruin,
with our own blood, the slaughter of Confessors, the
banishment of priests,
and the wickedness of
such extreme impiety. It is clear, beyond question, that they who
have violated the faith cannot
remain in safety.”
And
again in the third book of the same work, “Let
us observe the precepts of our predecessors, and not
transgress with rude rashness the landmarks which we have inherited
from them...”
[13.]
.. For
who is there so demented, who, though not able to overtake, does
not at least earnestly desire to follow those whom no force could
deter from defending the faith of
their ancestors, no threats, no blandishments, not life, not death,
not the palace, not the Imperial Guards, not the Emperor, not
the empire itself, not men, not demons?—
whom, I say, as a recompense for their steadfastness in adhering
to religious antiquity, the Lord counted worthy
of so great a reward, that by their instrumentality He
restored churches which had been destroyed, quickened with
new life peoples who were spiritually dead, replaced on the heads
of priests the
crowns which had been torn from them, washed out those abominable, I
will not say letters, but blotches (non literas, sed
lituras) of novel impiety, with a fountain of believing tears,
which God opened
in the hearts of the bishops?—
lastly, when almost the whole world was overwhelmed by a ruthless
tempest of unlooked for heresy,
recalled it from novel misbelief to the ancient faith,
from the madness of
novelty to the soundness of antiquity, from the blindness of novelty
to pristine light?
[14.]
But
in this divine virtue,
as we may call it, exhibited by these Confessors, we must note
especially that the defence which they then undertook in appealing to
the Ancient Church, was the defence, not of a part, but of
the whole body. For it was not right that men of such
eminence should uphold with so huge an effort the vague and
conflicting notions of one or two men, or should exert
themselves in the defence of some ill-advised combination of some
petty province; but adhering to the decrees and definitions of
the universal priesthood of Holy
Church,
the heirs of Apostolic and Catholic truth,
they chose rather to deliver up themselves than to betray
the faith of universality and
antiquity. For which cause they
were deemed worthy of so great glory as
not only to be accounted Confessors, but rightly, and deservedly
to be accounted foremost among Confessors.
Chapter
6.
The
example of Pope Stephen in resisting the Iteration of Baptism.
[15.]
Great
then is the example of these same blessed men, an example
plainly divine, and worthy to be called to mind,
and meditated upon continually by every true Catholic,
who, like the seven-branched candlestick, shining with the
sevenfold light of the Holy
Spirit, showed to posterity how thenceforward
the audaciousness of profane novelty, (surprises)
in all the several rantings of error,
might be crushed by the authority of hallowed antiquity.
Nor
is there anything new in this? For it has always been the case in
the Church,
that the more a man is under the influence of religion, so much
the more prompt is he to oppose innovations. (surprises)
... “Let
there be no innovation— nothing but what has been handed
down.” For that holy and prudent man
well knew that true piety admits
no other rule than that whatsoever things have been faithfully
received from our fathers the same are to be faithfully consigned to
our children; and that it is our duty, not to
lead religion whither we would, but rather to
follow religion whither it leads; and that it is the part
of Christian modesty
and gravity not to hand down our own beliefs or observances
to those who come after us, (surprises)
but to preserve and keep what we have received from those who went
before us.
What then was the issue of the whole matter? What but the usual
and customary one? Antiquity was
retained, novelty (surprises)was
rejected.
...
Chapter
7.
How
Heretics, craftily cite obscure passages in ancient writers in
support of their own novelties(surprises)
...
[20.]
But to return to the matter in hand:
It behooves us then to have a great dread of the crime of perverting
the faith and adulterating religion,
a crime from which we are deterred not only by
the Church's discipline, but also by
the censure of authority.
...
the
same apostle writes to the Roman Christians, “Now,
I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions
and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you have
learned, and avoid them. For they that are such serve not
the Lord Christ, but their own belly, and by good words
and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the
simple,” Romans 16:17-18 “who
enter into houses, and lead captive silly women laden
with sins,
led away with diverse lusts,
ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of
the truth;” 2 Timothy 3:6 “vain
talkers and deceivers, who subvert whole houses, teaching things
which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake;” Titus 1:10 “men
of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning
the faith;”2 Timothy 3:8 “proud knowing nothing,
but doting about questions and strifes of words, destitute of
the truth,
supposing that godliness is gain,” 1 Timothy 6:4 “withal
learning to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not
only idle, but tattlers also and busy-bodies, speaking
things which they ought not,”1 Timothy 5:13 “who
having put away a good conscience have
made shipwreck concerning the faith;”1 Timothy 1:19 “whose
profane and vain babblings increase unto more ungodliness, and their
word does eat as does a cancer.” 2 Timothy 2:16-17 Well,
also, is it written of them: “But they shall proceed no
further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men,
as theirs also was.” 2 Timothy 3:9
(The
clerics invited by Franciscus to the Synod)
Chapter
9.
s.
To preach any doctrine therefore
to Catholic Christians other
than what they have received never was lawful, never is lawful, never
will be lawful: and to anathematize those
who preach anything other than what has once been received, always
was a duty, always is a duty, always will be a duty.
Chapter
10.
Why
Eminent Men are permitted by God to become Authors of Novelties in
the Church.
[27.]
But some one will ask, How is it then,
that certain excellent persons,
and of position in the Church,
are often permitted by God to
preach novel doctrines (surprises) to Catholics?
A proper question, certainly, and one which ought to be
very carefully and fully dealt with, but answered at the same time,
not in reliance upon one's own ability, but by the authority of the
divine Law, and by appeal to
the Church's determination.
Let
us listen, then, to Holy Moses,
and let him teach us why learned men, and such as because of
their knowledge are
even called Prophets by the apostle, are sometimes
permitted to put forth novel doctrines, which the Old
Testament is
wont, by way of allegory, to call “strange gods,” forasmuch
as heretics pay
the same sort of reverence to their notions that the Gentiles do
to their gods.
[28.] Blessed Moses,
then, writes thus in Deuteronomy: “If
there arise among you a prophet or
a dreamer of dreams,” that is, one holding office as
a Doctor in the Church,
who is believed by
his disciples or
auditors to teach by revelation: well—what follows? “and
gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass
whereof he spoke,”— he is pointing to some eminent doctor, whose
learning is such that his followers believe him
not only to know things human,
but, moreover, to foreknow things superhuman, such as,
their disciples commonly
boast, were Valentinus, Donatus, Photinus, Apollinaris,
and the rest of that sort! What next? “And shall say to you,
Let us go after other gods, whom you know not, and serve them.” What
are those other gods but strange errors which
you know not, that is, new and such as were never heard of
before? “And let us serve them;” that is, “Let
us believe them,
follow them.” What last? “You shall not hearken to the
words of that prophet or
dreamer of dreams.” And why, I pray you, does
not God forbid to be taught what God forbids to
be heard?
“For
the Lord, your God,
tries you, to know whether
you love Him
with all your heart and with all your soul.” The reason is
clearer than day why Divine
Providence sometimes
permits certain doctors of the Churches to
preach new doctrines— “That the Lord your God may
try you;” he says.
And
assuredly it is a great trial when one whom you believe to be
a prophet,
a disciple of prophets,
a doctor and defender of the truth,
whom you have folded to your breast with the
utmost veneration and love,
when such a one of a sudden secretly and furtively brings in
noxious errors (surprises) ,
which you can neither quickly detect, being held by the prestige of
former authority, nor lightly think it right to condemn, being
prevented by affection for your old master.
Chapter
11.
...
But
this was the very thing which Moses says: “The Lord your God does
try you that He may know whether
you love Him
or not.”
Chapter
19.
What
we ought to learn from these Examples.
[47.]
It behooves us, then, to give heed to these instances
from Church History, so many and so great, and others of
the same description, and to understand distinctly, in
accordance with the rule laid down in Deuteronomy, that
if at any time a Doctor in the Church have erred from
the faith, Divine
Providence permits
it in order to make trial of us, whether or not we love God with
all our heart and with all our mind.
Chapter
20.
The
Notes of a true Catholic.
[48.]
This
being the case, he is the true and
genuine Catholic who loves the truth of God,
who loves the Church,
who loves the Body of Christ,
who esteems divine religion and the Catholic Faith above
every thing, above the authority, above the regard, above the genius,
above the eloquence, above the philosophy,
of every man whatsoever; who sets light by all of these, and
continuing steadfast and established in the faith,
resolves that he will believe that,
and that only, which he is sure the Catholic Church has
held universally and from ancient time; but that whatsoever new
and unheard-of doctrine he shall find to have been
furtively introduced by some one or another (surprises),
besides that of all, or contrary to that of all the saints,
this, he will understand, does not pertain to religion, but is
permitted as a trial, being instructed especially by the words of
the blessedApostle
Paul, who writes thus in his first Epistle to
the Corinthians, “There must needs be heresies,
that they who are approved may be made manifest among
you:” 1 Corinthians 2:9 as
though he should say, This is the reason why the authors
of Heresies are not immediately rooted up by God,
namely, that they who are approved may be made manifest; that is,
that it may be apparent of each individual, how tenacious
and faithful and steadfast he is in his love of
the Catholic faith.
[49.]
And in truth,
as each novelty (surprises)
springs up incontinently is discerned the
difference between the weight of the wheat and the lightness of the
chaff. Then that which had no weight to keep it on the floor is
without difficulty blown away. For some at once fly off entirely;
others having been only shaken out, afraid of perishing,
wounded, half alive, half dead, are ashamed to return. They have, in
fact swallowed a quantity of poison— not enough
to kill, yet more than can be got rid of; it
neither causes death, nor suffers to live. O wretched
condition! With what surging tempestuous cares are they tossed about!
One while, the error being
set in motion, they are hurried wherever the wind drives them;
another, returning upon themselves like refluentwaves, they are
dashed back: one while, with rash presumption, they give their
approval to what seems uncertain; another, with irrational fear,
they are frightened out of their wits at what is certain,
in doubt whither
to go, whither to return, what to seek, what to shun, what to keep,
what to throw away.
[50.]
This affliction, indeed, of a hesitating and miserably
vacillating mind is, if they are wise, a
medicine intended for them by God's compassion.
For therefore it is that outside the most secure harbour of
the Catholic Faith,
they are tossed about, beaten, and almost killed, by various
tempestuous cogitations, in order that they
may take in the sails of self-conceit, which, they had with ill
advice unfurled to the blasts of novelty,
and may betake themselves again to, and remain stationary within, the
most secure harbour of their placid and goodmother, and may
begin by vomiting up those bitter and turbid floods of error which
they had swallowed, that thenceforward they may be able to drink the
streams of fresh and living water. Let them unlearn well
what they had learned not well, and let
them receive so much of the entire doctrine of
the Church as
they can understand: what they cannot understand let them believe.
Chapter
21.
Exposition
of St. Paul's Words.— 1
Tim. vi. 20.
[51.]
Such being the case, when I think over these things, and revolve them
in my mind again and again, I cannot sufficiently wonder at
the madness of certain men,
at the impiety of their blinded understanding, at
their lust of error,
such that, not content with the rule of faith delivered
once for all, and received from the times of old, they are every day
seeking one novelty (surprises)
after another, and are constantly longing to add, change, take away,
in religion, as though the doctrine, “Let what has
once for all been revealed suffice,” were not
a heavenly but an earthly rule—a rule which could not be
complied with except by continual emendation, nay, rather by
continual fault-finding; whereas the divine Oracles cry
aloud, “Remove not the landmarks, which your fathers have
set,” Proverbs 22:28 and “Go
not to law with a Judge,” Sirach 8:14 and “Whoso
breaks through a fence a serpent shall bite
him,” Ecclesiastes 10:8 and
that saying of the Apostle wherewith, as with
a spiritual sword, all the wicked novelties
of all heresies often
have been, and will always have to
be, decapitated, “O Timothy, keep the deposit,
shunning profane novelties of words and oppositions of
the knowledge falsely so
called, which some professing have erred concerning
the faith.” 1 Timothy 6:20
[52.]
After words such as these, is there any one of so hardened a front,
such anvil-like impudence, such adamantine pertinacity, as not to
succumb to so huge a mass, not to be crushed by so ponderous a
weight, not to be shaken in pieces by such heavy blows, not to be
annihilated by such dreadful thunderbolts of divine eloquence? “Shun
profane novelties,
(surprises) ” he
says. He does not say shun “antiquity.” But he plainly
points to what ought to follow by the rule of contrary. For
if novelty is to be shunned, antiquity is to be held fast; if
novelty is profane, antiquity is sacred.
He adds, “And oppositions of science falsely so
called.” “Falsely called” indeed, as applied to
the doctrines of heretics,
where ignorance is
disguised under the name of knowledge, fog of
sunshine, darkness of light. “Which some professing
have erred concerning the faith.” Professing what?
What but some (I know not
what) new and unheard-of doctrine. For you may hear some of
these same doctors say, “Come, O silly wretches, who
go by the name of Catholics,
come and learn the true faith,
which no one but ourselves is acquainted with, which same has lain
hid these many ages, but has recently been revealed and
made manifest. But learn it by stealth and in secret, for you will be
delighted with it. Moreover, when you have learned it, teach it
furtively, that the world may not hear, that the Church may
not know.
For there are but few to whom it is granted to receive the secret of
so great a mystery.” Are
not these the words of that harlot who, in the proverbs of Solomon,
calls to the passengers who go right on their ways, “Whoso is
simple let him turn in hither.” And as for them that are void
of understanding, she exhorts them saying: “Drink stolen waters,
for they are sweet, and eat bread in secret for it is pleasant.” What
next? “But he knows not
that the sons of earth perish in her house.” Proverbs 9:16-18 Who
are those “sons of earth”? Let the apostle explain: “Those
who have erred concerning the faith.”
Chapter
22.
A
more particular Exposition of 1
Tim. vi. 20.
[53.]
But it is worth while to expound the whole of that passage of
the apostle more fully, “O Timothy,
keep the deposit, avoiding profane novelties of words. (surprises) ”
“O!” The
exclamation implies fore-knowledge as
well as charity. For he mourned in anticipation over
the errors which
he foresaw. Who is the Timothy of today, but either
generally the Universal Church, or in particular, the whole
body of The Prelacy, whom it behooves either themselves to
possess or to communicate to others a complete knowledge of religion?
What is “Keep the deposit”? “Keep it,” because
of thieves, because of adversaries, lest, while men sleep,
they sow tares over that good wheat which the Son
of Man had
sown in his field. “Keep the deposit.” What
is “The deposit”? That which has been entrusted to you,
not that which you have yourself devised: a matter not of
wit, but of learning; not of private adoption, but of
public tradition;
a matter brought to you, not put forth by you, wherein you
are bound to be not an author but a keeper, not a teacher but
a disciple,
not a leader but a follower. “Keep the deposit.” Preserve
the talent of Catholic Faithi
nviolate, unadulterate. That which has been entrusted to you,
let it continue in your possession, let it be handed on by you.
You have received gold; give gold in turn. Do not substitute one
thing for another. Do not for gold impudently substitute lead or
brass. Give real gold, not counterfeit.
O Timothy!
O Priest! O Expositor! O Doctor! If the
divine gift has qualified you by wit, by skill, by
learning, be a Bazaleel of the spiritual tabernacle, engrave
the precious gems of divine doctrine, fit them in accurately,
adorn them skilfully, add splendor, grace,
beauty. Let that which formerly was believed,
though imperfectly apprehended, as expounded by you be clearly
understood. Let posterity welcome, understood through your
exposition, what antiquity venerated without understanding.
Yet
teach still the same truths which you have learned, so that
though you speak after a new fashion, what you speak may not be new.
Chapter
23.
On
Development in Religious Knowledge.
[54.]
But some one will say, perhaps, Shall there, then, be no
progress in Christ's Church?
Certainly;
all possible progress. For what being is there, so envious of men,
so full of hatred to God,
who would seek to forbid it? Yet on condition that it be
real progress, not alteration of the faith.
For progress requires that the subject be enlarged n itself,
alteration, that it be transformed into something else.
The intelligence, then, the knowledge,
the wisdom, as well of individuals as of all, as well of
one man as of the whole Church,
ought, in the course of ages and centuries, to increase and make much
and vigorous progress; but yet only in its own kind; that is to say,
in the same doctrine, in the same sense, and in the same
meaning.
[55.]
The growth of religion in the soul must
be analogous to the growth of the body, which, though in process of
years it is developed and attains its full size, yet remains still
the same. There is a wide difference between the flower of youth and
the maturity of age; yet they who were once young are still the same
now that they have become old, insomuch that though the stature and
outward form of the individual are changed, yet
his nature is one and the same, his person is one
and the same. An infant's limbs are small, a young man's large,
yet the infant and the young man are the same. Men when
full grown have the same number of joints that they had when
children; and if there be any to which maturer age has
given birth these were already present in embryo, so that nothing new
is produced in them when old which was not already latent in them
when children. This, then, is undoubtedly
the true and legitimate rule
of progress, this the established and most beautiful order of growth,
that mature age ever develops in the man those parts and forms which
the wisdom of the Creator had already framed beforehand in
the infant. Whereas, if the human form
were changed into some shape belonging to another kind, or at any
rate, if the number of its limbs were increased or diminished, the
result would be that the whole body would become either a wreck or a
monster, or, at the least, would be impaired and enfeebled.
[56.]
In like manner, it behooves Christian doctrine to
follow the same laws of
progress, so as to be consolidated by years, enlarged by time,
refined by age, and yet, withal, to
continue uncorrupt and unadulterate, complete
and perfect in all the measurement of its parts, and, so to
speak, in all its proper members and senses, admitting no change, no
waste of its distinctive property, no variation in its limits.
[57.]
For example: Our forefathers in the old time sowed wheat in
the Church's field. It would be most unmeet
and iniquitous if we, their descendants, instead of the
genuine truth of
grain, should reap the counterfeit error of
tares. This rather should be the result—there should be no
discrepancy between the first and the last. From doctrine which
was sown as wheat, we should reap, in the increase, doctrine of
the same kind— wheat also; so that when in process of time any
of the original seed is developed, and now flourishes under
cultivation, no change may ensue in the character of the
plant. There may supervene shape, form, variation in outward
appearance, but the nature of
each kind must remain the same. God forbid that those
rose-beds of Catholic interpretation
should be converted into thorns and thistles. God forbid
that in that spiritual paradise from plants of
cinnamon and balsam, darnel and wolfsbane should of a sudden
shoot forth.
Therefore,
whatever has been sown by the fidelity of the Fathers in
this husbandry of God's Church, the same ought to be
cultivated and taken care of by the industry of their children, the
same ought to flourish and ripen, the same ought to advance and go
forward to perfection. For it is right that those
ancient doctrines of heavenly philosophy should,
as time goes on, be cared for, smoothed, polished; but not
that they should be changed, not that they should be maimed, not that
they should be mutilated. They may receive proof,
illustration, definiteness; but they must retain withal their
completeness, their integrity, their characteristic properties.
[58.]
For if once this license of impious fraud be admitted, I
dread to say in how great danger religion will be of being
utterly destroyed and annihilated. For if any one part
of Catholic truth be
given up, another, and another, and another will thenceforward
be given up as a matter of course, and the
several individual portions having been rejected, what will
follow in the end but the rejection of the whole? On
the other hand, if what is new begins to be mingled with what is old,
foreign with domestic, profane with sacred,
the custom will of necessity creep on
universally, till at last the Church will
have nothing left untampered with, nothing unadulterated,
nothing sound, nothing pure; but where formerly there was
a sanctuary of chaste and undefiled truth,
thenceforward there will be a brothel of impious and base errors.
May God's mercy avert this wickedness from
the minds of his servants; be it rather the frenzy of the
ungodly.
[59.]
But
the Church of Christ,
the careful and watchful guardian of
the doctrines deposited in her charge, never changes
anything in them, never diminishes, never adds, does not cut off what
is necessary, does not add what is superfluous, does not lose
her own, does not appropriate what is another's, but while
dealing faithfully and judiciously with ancient doctrine, keeps
this one object carefully in view—if there be anything which
antiquity has left shapeless and rudimentary, to fashion and polish
it, if anything already reduced to shape and developed,
to consolidate and strengthen it, if any already ratified
and defined, to keep and guard it. Finally, what other object
have Councils ever aimed at in their decrees, than to
provide that what was before believed in
simplicity should in future be believed intelligently,
that what was before preached coldly should in future be
preached earnestly, that what was before practised negligently should
thenceforward be practised with double solicitude? This, I say, is
what the Catholic Church,
roused by the novelties of heretics,
has accomplished by the decrees of her Councils,—
this, and nothing else—she has thenceforward consigned to posterity
in writing what she had received from those of olden times only
by tradition, comprising a great amount of matter in a
few words, and often, for the better understanding, designating an
old article of the faith
by
the characteristic of a new name.
Chapter
24.
Continuation
of the Exposition of 1
Tim. vi. 20.
[60.]
But let us return to the apostle. “O Timothy,” he
says, “Guard the deposit, shunning profane novelties of
words.” “Shun them as you would a viper, as you would a
scorpion, as you would a basilisk, lest they smite you not only with
their touch, but even with their eyes and breath.” What
is “to shun”? Not even to eat 1 Corinthians 5:11 with
a person of this sort. What is “shun”? “If
anyone,” says St. John, come to you and bring not
this doctrine. What doctrine? What but
the Catholic and universal doctrine,
which has continued one and the same through the
several successions of ages by the uncorrupt tradition of
the truth and
so will continue for ever— “Receive him not into
your house, neither bid him Godspeed, for he that bids
him Godspeed communicates with him in his evil
deeds.” 2 John 10
[61.] “Profane
novelties of words.” What words are these? Such as have
nothing sacred, nothing religious, words utterly remote
from the inmost sanctuary of the Church which
is the temple of God. (surprises) Profane
novelties of words, that is, of doctrines, subjects, opinions,
such as are contrary to antiquity and the faith of
the olden time. Which
if they be received, it follows necessarily that
the faith of
the blessed fathers is violated either in whole, or at all
events in great part; it follows necessarily that all
the faithful of all ages, all the saints,
the chaste, the continent, the virgins,
all the clergy, Deacons and Priests,
so many thousands of Confessors, so vast an army of martyrs,
such multitudes of cities and of peoples, so many islands, provinces,
kings, tribes, kingdoms, nations, in a word, almost the whole earth,
incorporated in Christ the Head, through
the Catholic faith,
have been ignorant for
so long a tract of time, have been mistaken, have blasphemed,
have not known what
to believe,
what to confess.
[62.] “Shun
profane novelties of words (surprises)
,” which
to receive and follow was never the part of Catholics;
of heretics always
was.
In truth, what heresy ever
burst forth save under a definite name, at a definite
place, at a definite time? Who ever originated a heresy that
did not first dissever himself from
the consentient agreement of the universality and
antiquity of the Catholic Church?
That this is so is demonstrated in the clearest way by examples. For
who ever before that profane Pelagius attributed so much
antecedent strength to Free-will, as to deny
the necessity of God's grace to
aid it towards good in every single act? Who ever
before his monstrous disciple Cœlestius denied
that the whole human
race is involved in the guilt of Adam's sin?
Who ever before sacrilegious Arius dared
to rend asunder the unity of the Trinity? Who before
impious Sabellius was so audacious as to confound
the Trinity of the Unity? Who
before cruellest Novatian represented God as
cruel in that He had rather the wicked should
die than that he should be converted and live? Who
before Simon
Magus, who was smitten by the apostle's rebuke, and
from whom that ancient sink of every thing vile has flowed by a
secret continuous succession even to Priscillian of our own
time,— who, I say, before this Simon
Magus, dared to say that God,
the Creator, is the author of evil,
that is, of our wickednesses, impieties, flagitiousnesses,
inasmuch as he asserts that He created with His own hands
a human nature of
such a description, that of its own motion, and by the impulse of its
necessity-constrained will, it can do nothing else,
can will nothing else, but sin,
seeing that tossed to and fro, and set on fire by the furies of all
sorts of vices,
it is hurried away by unquenchable lust into
the utmost extremes of baseness?
[63.]
There
are innumerable instances of this kind, which for brevity's sake,
pass over; by all of which, however, it is manifestly and clearly
shown, that it is an established law, in the case of almost
all heresies,
that they evermore delight in profane novelties (surprises),
scorn the decisions of antiquity, and, through oppositions
of sciencefalsely so
called, make shipwreck of the faith.
On the other hand, it is the sure characteristic of Catholics to
keep that which has been committed to their trust by
the holy Fathers,
to condemn profane novelties (surprises),
and, in the apostle's words, once and again repeated,
to anathematize every
one who preaches any other doctrine than that which has
been received. Galatians 2:9
Chapter
25.
Heretics
appeal to Scripture that they may more easily succeed in deceiving.
[64.]
Here, possibly, some one may ask,
Do heretics also appeal to Scripture?
They do indeed, and with a vengeance; for you may see
them scamper through every single book of Holy
Scripture—through
the books of Moses,
the books of Kings, the Psalms,
the Epistles, the Gospels,
the Prophets. Whether among their own people, or among
strangers, in private or in public, in speaking or in writing,
at convivial meetings, or in the streets, hardly
ever do they bring forward anything of their own which they do not
endeavour to shelter under words of Scripture.
Read the works of Paul
of Samosata,
of Priscillian, of Eunomius, of Jovinian, and the rest of
those pests, and you will see an infinite heap
of instances, hardly a single page, which does not bristle with
plausible quotations from the New
Testament or
the Old.
[65.]
But
the more secretly they conceal themselves under shelter of the
Divine Law, so much the more are they to be feared and
guarded against. For they know that
the evil stench
of their doctrine will hardly find acceptance with
any one if it be exhaled pure and simple. They sprinkle it
over, therefore, with the perfume of heavenly language, in
order that one who would be ready to despise human error,
may hesitate to condemn divine words.
They do, in fact, what nurses do when they would prepare some bitter
draught for children; they smear the edge of the cup all round with
honey, that the unsuspecting child, having first tasted the
sweet, may have no fear of
the bitter. So too do these act, who disguise poisonous herbs
and noxious juices under the names of medicines, so that no one
almost, when he reads the label, suspects the poison.
[66.]
It was for this reason that the Saviour cried, “Beware
of false
prophets who
come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening
wolves.” Matthew 7:15 What
is meant by “sheep's clothing”? What but the words
which prophets and apostles with
the guilelessness of sheep wove beforehand as fleeces, for that
immaculate Lamb which takes away the sin of
the world?
What are the ravening wolves? What but the savage and
rabid glosses of heretics,
who continually infest the Church's folds, and
tear in pieces the flock of Christ wherever they are able? But
that they may with more successful guile steal upon
the unsuspecting sheep, retaining the ferocity of the wolf,
they put off his appearance, and wrap themselves, so to say, in the
language of the Divine Law, as in a fleece, so that one, having
felt the softness of wool, may have no dread of the wolf's
fangs. But what says the Saviour? “By their fruits you
shall know them;” that
is, when they have begun not only to quote those divine words, but
also to expound them, not as yet only to make a boast of them as on
their side, but also to interpret them, then will that
bitterness, that acerbity, that rage, be understood;
then will the ill-savour of that novel poison be
perceived, then will those profane novelties be disclosed,
then may you see first the hedge broken through, then the landmarks
of the Fathers removed, then the Catholic faith assailed,
then the doctrine of the Church torn
in pieces...
[69.]
But what do they say? “If you be the Son
of God,
cast yourself down;” that is, If you would be a son
of God,
and would receive the inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven,
cast
yourself down; that is, cast yourself down from
the doctrine and tradition of that
sublime Church, which is imagined to be nothing less
than the very temple of God.
And if one should ask one of the heretics who
gives this advice, How do you prove? What ground have you, for
saying, that I ought to cast away the universal and
ancient faith of
the Catholic Church?
He has the answer ready, “For it is written;” and
immediately he produces a thousand testimonies, a thousand examples,
a thousand authorities from the Law, from the Psalms,
from the apostles,
from the Prophets, by means of which, interpreted on a new and
wrong principle, the unhappy soul may
be precipitated from the height of Catholic truth to
the lowest abyss of heresy.
Then, with the accompanying promises, the heretics are
wont marvellously to beguile the incautious. For they dare to teach
and promise, that in their church, that is, in
the conventicle of their communion, there is
a certain great and special and altogether
personal grace of God,
so that whosoever pertain to their number, without any labour,
without any effort, without any industry, even though they neither
ask, nor seek, nor knock, have such a dispensation from God,
that, borne up by angel hands,
that is, preserved by the protection of angels,
it is impossible they should ever dash their feet against a stone,
that is, that they should ever be offended.
[74.]..
And
lest any one, disregarding every one else, should arrogantly claim to
be listened to himself alone, himself alone to be believed,
the Apostle goes on to say, “Did the word
of God proceed from you, or did it come to you only?” And,
lest this should be thought lightly spoken, he continues, “If
any man seem to be a prophetor
a spiritual person, let him acknowledge that the things
which I write unto you are the Lord's commands.” As
to which, unless a man be a prophet or
a spiritual person, that is, a master in spiritual matters,
let him be as observant as possible of impartiality and unity,
so as neither to prefer his own opinions to those of every one
besides, nor to recede from the belief of the whole body.
Which injunction, who so ignores, shall be himself
ignored; 1 Corinthians 14:33 that
is, he who either does not learn what he does not know,
or treats with contempt what he knows,
shall be ignored, that is, shall be deemed unworthy to be ranked
of God with those who are united to each other by faith,
and equalled with each other by humility, than which I
cannot imagine a
more terrible evil.
This it is however which, according to the Apostle's threatening,
we see to have befallen Julian the Pelagian, who
either neglected to associate himself with the belief of
his fellow Christians,
or presumed to dissociate himself from it.
Chapter
29.
Recapitulation.
[76.]
This being the case, it is now time that we should
recapitulate, at the close of this second Commonitory, what was
said in that and in the preceding.
We
said above, that it has always been the custom of Catholics,
and still is, to prove the true faith in
these two ways; first by the authority of the Divine Canon, and
next by the tradition of the Catholic Church.
Not that the Canon alone does not of itself suffice for
every question, but seeing that the more part, interpreting the
divine words according to their own persuasion, take up
various erroneous opinions, it is therefore necessary that
the interpretation of divine
Scripture should
be ruled according to the one standard of the Church's belief,
especially in those articles on which the foundations of
all Catholic doctrine rest.
[77.]
We said likewise, that in the Church itself
regard must be had to the consentient voice of universality
equally with that of antiquity, lest we either be torn from the
integrity of unity and carried away to schism,
or be precipitated from the religion of antiquity
into heretical novelties.(surprises)
We said, further, that in this same ecclesiastical antiquity
two points are very carefully and earnestly to be held in view by
those who would keep clear of heresy:
first, they should ascertain whether any decision has been given in
ancient times as to the matter in question by the
whole priesthood of
the Catholic Church,
with the authority of a General Council: and, secondly, if
some new question should arise on which no such decision has been
given, they should then have recourse to the opinions of
the holy Fathers,
of those at least, who, each in his own time and place,
remaining in the unity of communion and of
the faith,
were accepted as approved masters; and whatsoever these may be found
to have held, with one mind and with one consent, this
ought to be accounted the true and Catholicdoctrine of
the Church,
without any doubt or scruple.
Chapter
32.
The
zeal of Celestine and Sixtus, bishops of Rome, in opposing Novelty
(surprises)
[84.]
The foregoing would be enough and very much more than enough, to
crush and annihilate every profane novelty. But yet that nothing
might be wanting to such completeness of proof,
we added, at the close, the twofold authority of the Apostolic
See,
first, that of holy Pope Sixtus,
the venerable prelate who now adorns the Roman Church;
and secondly that of his
predecessor, Pope Celestine of blessed memory,
which same we think it necessary to insert here also.
Holy Pope Sixtus then
says in an Epistle which he wrote on Nestorius's matter to
the bishop of Antioch, “Therefore,
because, as the Apostle says, the faith is
one—evidently the faith which
has obtained hitherto—let us believe the
things that are to be said, and say the things that are to be
held.” What are the things that are to be believed and
to be said? He goes on: “Let no license be allowed to novelty
”“(surprises”“),
because it is not fit that any addition should be made to antiquity.
Let not the clear faith and belief of
our forefathers be fouled by any muddy
admixture.” A truly apostolic sentiment!
He enhances the belief of the Fathers by the
epithet of clearness; profane novelties (surprises)he
calls muddy.
[85.] Holy Pope Celestine also
expresses himself in like manner and to the same effect. For in
the Epistle which he wrote to the priests of Gaul,
charging them with connivance with error,
in that by their silence they failed in their duty to the
ancient faith,
and allowed profane novelties to spring up, he says: “We
are deservedly to blame if we encourage error by
silence. (Who
am I to judge?)Therefore
rebuke these people. Restrain their liberty of
preaching.” But
here some one may doubt who
they are whose liberty to preach as they list he forbids—the
preachers of antiquity or the devisers of novelty. Let
himself tell us; let himself resolve the reader's doubt.
For he goes on: “If the case be so (that is, if the case be so
as certain persons complain
to me touching your cities and provinces, that by your hurtful
dissimulation you cause them
to consent to certain novelties), if the case be
so, let novelty (”“surprises”“)
cease to assail antiquity.” This, then, was the sentence
of blessed Celestine, not that antiquity should cease to
subvert novelty, but that novelty should cease to assail antiquity.
Chapter
33.
The
Children of the Catholic Church ought to adhere to the Faith of their
Fathers and die for it.
[86.]
Whoever then gainsays these Apostolic and Catholic determinations,
first of all necessarily insults
the memory of holy Celestine,
who decreed that novelty should cease to assail antiquity;
and in the next place sets at naught the decision of holy Sixtus,
whose sentence was, “Let no license be allowed to novelty,
since it is not fit that any addition be made to
antiquity;” moreover, he condemns the determination
of blessed Cyril, who extolled with high praise the zeal of
the venerable Capreolus, in that he would fain have the
ancient doctrines of the faith confirmed,
and novel inventions condemned; yet more, he tramples upon
the Council of Ephesus, that is, on the decisions of
the holy bishops of
almost the whole East, who decreed, under divine guidance, that
nothing ought to be believed by
posterity save what the sacred antiquity of
the holy Fathers, consentient in Christ,
had held, who with one voice, and with loud acclaim, testified
that these were the words of all, this was the wish of all, this was
the sentence of all, that as almost all heretics before Nestorius,
despising antiquity and upholding novelty, had been condemned,
so Nestorius,
the author of novelty and the assailant of antiquity, should be
condemned also. Whose consentient determination, inspired by
the gift of sacred and celestial grace,
whoever disapproves must needs hold the profaneness of Nestorius to
have been condemned unjustly;
finally, he despises as vile and worthless the
whole Church of Christ,
and its doctors, apostles,
and prophets,
and especially the blessed Apostle
Paul:
he despises the Church,
in that she has never failed in loyalty to the duty of
cherishing and preserving the faith once
for all delivered to her; he despises St. Paul,
who wrote, “O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to
you, shunning profane novelties of words;” 1 Timothy 6:20 and
again, “if any man preach unto you other than you have
received, let him be accursed.” Galatians 1:9 But
if neither injunctions
nor ecclesiastical decrees may
be violated, by which, in accordance with
the sacred consent of universality and
antiquity, all heretics always,
and, last of all, Pelagius, Cœlestius, and Nestorius have
been rightly and deservedly condemned, then assuredly it is incumbent
on all Catholics who
are anxious to approve themselves genuine sons of Mother Church,
to adhere henceforward to the holy faith of
the holy Fathers,
to be wedded to it, to die in it; but as to the profane novelties of
profane men— to detest them, abhor them,
oppose them, give them no quarter.
[87.]
These matters, handled more at large in the two
preceding Commonitories, I have now put together more briefly by
way of recapitulation, in order that my memory, to aid which I
composed them, may, on the one hand, be refreshed by frequent
reference, and, on the other, may avoid being wearied by prolixity.
You,
dear Trad, are being put to the test and you will not be graded
on a curve; there are only two grades for this test;
Heaven. Hell.
Keep
the Faith once delivered, shun novelties, and stay
hard-headed and know that pain will be the reward for your masculine
hard-headedness but know also that pain is the coin of purchase in
the economy of Divine Salvation and, thus, enjoy your life in
the peace of Christ knowing that you are doing His will.