THE
liMe anH tl)e Hnle of /aitli.
5»«^;-.V'V
BY THE
ABBE LOUIS NAZAIRE BEGIN,
DOCTOB OF THEOLOQT, THEOLOGICAL PR0FES80B
IH THE UMIVERSITY OF LATAL.
TRANSLA TED FROM THE FRENCH
BT
G. M. WARD.
LONDOK: BURNkS AND GATES,
Fbrtman Street and Paternoster Bow.
QUBBBO : JOHN BABBOW, 16 JOHN STBEET.
1875.
Imprimatur.
*J* E. A. Arciipus. Quebecen.
Quebeci, dio 2G Martii 1874.
Quum ex Semioarii Quebecensis praescripto recognitum fuerit opus
cui titulus est La Sainte Ecriture et la Regie deFoi^jpar VAbhe L. N.
Begin, nihil obstat quin typis mandetur.
Thos. S. Hamel, Pter.,
R. U. L.
Quebeci, die 28 Martii 1874.
Imprimatur.
HENRICUS EDUARDUS,
Card. Archiep. Westmonast.
Westmonasterii, die 7 August! 1875.
■, 1
\ -.
' A
CONTENTS.
Translator's Preface p. ix
Introduction xi
|art tljc imt
OF THE RULE OF FAITII IN GENERAL.
CHAPTER I.
Human reason left to itself — Lights of revelation — Reason and faith
show us the obligation of believing revealed truths, and not alter-
ing their real meaning — Divine mission of the Church ; anathemas
pronounced on those who corrupt the true doctrine . . p. 1
CHAPTER II.
Necessity of a rule of faith — Its characteristics ; it should be adapted
to all classes of society j it should be sure, efficient to put an end
to controversies, and perpetual p. 7
CHAPTER III.
What is the rule of faith which was established by our Lord Jesus
Christ ; or what means did He choose to communicate His doc-
trine to us ?— The Bible — Tradition p. 10
THE PROTESTANT RULE OF FAITH.
CHAPTER I.
The Protestant remote rule of faith, or the book of the Holy Scrip-
tures p. 14
iv Contents.
FIRST ARTICLE.
It is impossible for a Protestant to know whether the Sacred Scrip-
tures are an in.spired book — Ex ami nation of the characteristics
by means of which Protestants assert that they establish the in-
spiration of the Sacred Hooks p. 15
SECOND ARTICLE.
It is impossible for a Protestant to know what books compose the
canon of Scripture or the Bible— Incessant variations of Protest-
antism on the subject p. 19
THIRD ARTICLE.
It is impossible for a Protestant to establish the authenticity of all
the texts of the Bil)le by means of Scripture ; in point of fact
such proof is very difficult, and above the capacity of minds of
ordinary intelligence or but little cultivation — Acknowledgment
of Protestantism on this important subject . . . p. 26
FOURTH ARTICLE.
It is impossible for a Protestant to establish as articles of faith, the
authenticity and integrity of the Sacred Writiiijjs — Nature of the
decision pronounced by the Church on the Scriptures — In the
Catholic proofs there is no defective reasoning — Wiseman, Per-
rone p. 32
FIFTH ARTICLE.
It is impossible for a Protestant to prove that the Bible contains all
the truths revealed by God — Answer to some difficulties — In what
sense the Bible is perfect p. 40
CHAPTER II.
The Protestant proximate rule of faith p. 48
FIRST ARTICLE.
Inadequacy of individual reason to know the truths revealed in the
holy books — The obscurity of the Scriptures is mentioned by the
inspired writers themselves, by the Fathers of the Church, by the
Protestants at least practically — The Bible is clear on all funda-
Contents,
mcDtal artiolos : reply to this objection — Private examination of
the Bible can never be the rule of faith in.stituted by JehUs Christ,
because thia means never has been aiul never will be a[)plioable to
all— The first Christians had no IMblo — The Evangelical Allinnco
is not unity of faith, and is not capable of producinj? it — What-
ever Dr. Burns may say, the Bible, interpreted by each individual,
is not a principle of unity— Free examination has only led and
can only lead to diviaiona and subdivisions ; it can justify any
preconceived ideas p. 48
SECOMD ARTICLE.
Illusion of those who think that each one of the faithful who piously
reails the Holy Scriptures receives from the Holy Ghost a special
help, a supernatural enlightenment, enabling him to understand
the real sense of it — This system is not founded on the Word of
God ; it infers the actual reading of the Bible, and conseiiuently
cannot be applicable to every one ; it is calculated to give rise to
illusions and religious fanaticism p. 77
THIRD ARTICLE.
The authority of a fallible Church, such as admitted by Anglicans,
cannot be the real rule of faith — It cannot put an end to religious
controversies ; it offers no guarantee of orthodoxy — Anglicanlt-m
and Puseylsm bring us back ultimately to the private examina-
tion of the Scriptures — The Gorham affair . . . p. 85
CHAPTER III.
The contradictions existing between the Protestant rule of faith and
those who profess it — Bible colportage — Results obtained . p. 92
CHAPTER IV.
What Catholics think about reading the Bible — Their respect for this
divine book is greater and more sincere than that of Protestants
— There is no precept about reading the Bible — The Church and
reading the Bible in the vulgar tongue — Necessity of an infallible
interpreter of the Bible — Wiseman — What the Catholic Church
hae done to preserve the Bible intact . . . . p. D'J
Ti Contents.
CHAPTEll V.
Unity of faith id radically impossible in Protestantism — Unity the
peculiar characteristic of truth — Jesus Christ and the Apostles
recommend unity — It is impossible without an infallible authority
— Unity of faith and of communion between individual Churches
among Catholics, under the supreme and infallible authority of
the Popes — Protestantism perceives its own disorganisation and
divisions — The Protestant rainbow p. 112
CHAPTER VI.
The results of Protestantism — The civil authority substituted for the
religious authority of the Holy See, or subjection of the Church
to the State — lleligious scepticism — Rationalism . . p. 133
THE CATHOLIC RULE OF FAITH.
CHAPTER I.
THE REMOTE RULE OF FAITH — HOLY SCRIPTURE AND TRADITION.
FIRST ARTICLE.
Of the Holy Scriptures — The collection of the books of the Old
Testament looked on as divine by the Saviour and the Apostles —
The canon of the Council of Trent is conformable to Christian
antiquity — Authenticity and origin of the Vulgate — Protestantism
recognises its exactness p. 141
SECOND ARTICLE.
Of tradition : its nature — Objective tradition— Protestants must neces-
sarily admit tradition, under pain of losing all foundation for their
rule of faith and several of their articles of belief — The Scripture
and the Fathers of the Church admit objective tradition as a part
of Revelation — St. Vincent de Lerins — Testimony favourable to
tradition of several Protestant writers— Jesus Christ only rejects
Contents, Tii
vain and fals^e traditions — llevealed truth i» written everywhere
in ineffaceal>le characters — ChriHtian monuments — Active tradi-
tion — Tranpformations undergone by Catholic churches that have
been .aken pospession of by Protestantism — The Anglican Liturgy
has only preHcrved the accessories of worship . . . p. 151
CHAPTER II.
THE PROXIMATE RULE OF FAITH, OR THE TEACHING CHURCH.
FIRST ARTICLE.
Necessity of a doctrinal authority proclaimed by reason — Jesus proves
His divinity; He preaches, but does not write — He gives a mis-
sion to His Apostles to preach His doctrine, but none to write it —
He constitutes St. Peter head of the Apostolical College and of His
whole Church, and pastor of His whole tlock — He gives supreme
authority to the teaching body, and the obligation to believe and
obey to the faithful — The inspired writings of some of the Apos-
tles in nothing change the primitive constitution of the Chuich
of Christ ; error of Protestantism on this subject — The Church is
:fi vested with infallible authority by Jesus Christ Himself ; proofs
taken from Scripture ; promises of the Saviour ; assistance of the
Holy Ghost — It is the Catholic Church alone which lays claim
to this infallibility, and that until the end of time — The Church
of England proclaims herself fallible . . . .p. 170
ARTICLE SECOND.
Distinctive characteristics of the only Church of Christ : unity, sanc-
tity, catholicity, and apostolicity — Peter dies at Kome ; his suc-
cessors on the throne of that city claim and exercise the same
authority as Peter over the Univerpal Church ; testimony of the
earliest centuries on this question — The Roman Church the guar-
dian and propagator of the whole Word of God, written and
unwritten — Protestantism, by rejecting the supremacy of Peter
and his successors, by denying the existence of an infallible au-
thority, and by making the P)ible its only rule of faith, has changed
the constitution of the Church of Christ — Protestantism possesses
neither unity (avowals of the Reformers on this subject, Synod
of Lausanne), nor sanctity (the heads judged by themselves), nor
catholicity, nor apostolicity — The Catholic or Roman Church is
viii Contents,
no other than the Church of Christ ; she is founded on Peter ;
she Ih infallible ; she is one ; answer to objections concerning the
dogmas of the Immaculate Conception of Mary and Pupal Infalli-
bility; concerning the disputes between the Thomistsand Sootists,
between the Jesuits and .lanseniHts ; she is Holy, Catholic, and
Apostolic p. 188
CONCLUSION.
Some remarks en the Real Presence, on Transubstantiation, on con-
fession, on the worship of the Blessed Virgin and the Saints —
Answer to an objection p. 2:>8
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
Abbe Begin's work, La Salute Ecriture et la Rvgle de
Foiy was published in Quebec rather more than a year
ago, and was pronounced by competent critics to be an
exhaustive, though succinct, reply to the many asser-
tions made by the members of the Bible Society and
the Evangelical Alliance. Since the publication of the
work in French there has been another convocation of
the Evangelical Alliance at ^lontreal ; and of the many
errors there broached, I think there is not one of which
the refutation may not be found in the following pages.
I have ventured to translate the book into my own
tongue, and thus introduce it to a larger class of my
own countrymen and countrywomen than would have
perused it in the original. My share of the work is
therefore very small, and, I cannot but fear, very im-
perfectly performed. I have aimed at accurate trans-
lation rather than at elegant writing. Such as it is, I
offer it to all interested in the vital subjects of which it
treats, with the ardent hope that in reading they may
be convinced of the truth of all herein contained ; and,
Translator's Preface.
as Abbd Begin himself says, be confirmed in the truth,
or won over to it.
Some parts of this work certainly seem to apply
more particularly to the locality where it first appeared;
but as the Evangelical Alliance must, from its very
nature, propagate the same doctrine (or absence of doc-
trine) wherever it holds its meetings, so the same replies
to objections made by tncm will hold good all over the
world, even in that Eternal City where they so confi-
dently anticipate meeting together at some not very
remote period, perhaps even with the cooperation of our
Holy Father Pope Pius IX. himself, whom they are
not without hopes of winning over to their views !
G. M. WARD (MES. PENNEE).
Quebec, July let, 1875.
INTRODUCTION.
Cardinal Wiseman, whose death was so Irreparable a
loss to science and reliijion, on terminatinfT his first con-
ference (preaclied at St. Mary's, Moorfields, London, in
1836), remarked as follows : * We do not wish to think
that we have adversaries or enemies to attack, for we
are willing to consider all who are separated from us
as in a state of error indeed, but of involuntary error.
We hope that, having been educated in certain prin-
ciples and opinions, and not having taken leisure to
examine sufficiently into tlie grounds of their faith, or
having had their first impressions so far strengthened
by the subsequent efforts of their instructors, that it is
almost impossible for any contrary impression to be
made, they are rather separated from us than armed
against us — rather wanderers from the city of God than
enemies to its peace. Hence it is not in the way of
controversy, it is not as attacking others.'^
In this present work, the object of which is the ex-
amination of the fundamental principles on which Pro-
testantism is based, and the refutation of the principal
errors which have crept into the discourses delivered by
1 Lectures on the Principal Doctrines and Practices of the Catholic
Church, by Cardinal Wiseman, p. 29, 3d American edition, Baltimore,
1851.
xii hitroduction.
the speakers of the Bible Society and Evangelical Alli-
ance, I think I cannot do better than take the same
view as the illustrious Cardinal, and, as far as lies in my
power, imitate his spirit of moderation towards those
who do not belong to the Church of Rome. The
strength of religious conviction doubtless inspires the
greatest energy in combating the sophisms of error.
On this matter any compromise would be culpable, but
there is no necessity for failing in that courtesy due to
others.
I do not aim at awaking religious antipathies, creat-
ing agitation, sowing the seeds of discord in our hitherto
peaceful country; God forbid I should contribute to
such an end ! I only wish to show on what a fragile
basis Protestantism is founded ; to reply indirectly to a
considerable number of objections, so peremptorily made
as to appear unanswerable ; at the same time, I wish
to strengthen the fiiitli of the weak, to arm them against
the seductions of error, and to present the sw^eet light
of Catholic truth to those who are not yet in our ranks.
How many poor souls in the bosom of Protestantism
are a prey to the anguish of doubt ! They are more
numerous than is generally believed ; they feel the need
of some solid basis on which to found their belief, and
they find it not. One resource remains open to them,
there is one infallible means of their finding that calm
after which they sigh ; they can enter the Catholic '
Church, and cling to the immovable rock which Jesus
Christ Himself has given it as a foundation.
My greatest desire is to contribute to bringing to a
knowledge of the truth some of these souls, who are
Inh^odiictio7u xiii
more unfortunate than guilty, wl^o are more weary of
the darkness around them than atfected by their own
moral shortcomings. May it be granted me to show
them the way leading to the ark of salvation ! May
these pages receive the dew of heavenly blessing, with-
out which nothing can bear fruit ; and may they be of
use to all those who will give them a few moments'
serious attention !
The subject in lia.id i no new one ; many Catholic
writers have treated it with a skill and logical vigour
which cannuL be surpassed. It will be sufficient to recall
the names of Cardinal Wiseman ;^ Rev. Father Perrone,
S.J. ;* Monsignor Malou,"* formerly a professor at Lou-
yain, subsequently Bishop of Bruges ; the learned Mil-
ner,^ Smarius,® and a number of others, to show that
learning and talent have not been wantinn; in the mani-
festation and defence of the truth in this fundamental
question. Their works, however, are, generally speaking,
lengthy, little known to the greater number of readers,
and often treat of many other subjects, which, although
of vital interest, do not affect the present question.
It is to remedy this inconvenience that I have thought
of offering the present work to the public, hoping thereby
to combat errors which are incessantly spreading, and
at the same time to develop a matter which must always
be of the greatest importance to every Christian, be-
cause it concerns the very foundations of our faith.
- In the work already cited.
^ II Frotestantismo e la llegola dl Fede.
* I)e la Lecture de la Bible en Langue Vulgaire.
* End of Controversy.
* ' " Points of Controversy.
xiy Introduction*
It is bv drawing on the profound science and en-
lightened orthodoxy of my former professors of the
Roman College, and also by consulting the works of the
eminent men whose memory I have just recalled, that
I have undertaken to speak of the Rule of Faith. The
object of this rvork is to show the necessity and charac-
teristics of such a rule, to prove that it is not to be found
in Protestantism, but only in the Catholic Church. I
have tried to proceed methodically and with all the
clearness possible, so as to be easily understood by per-
sons not familiar with theological studies. God grant
that I may attain the end I have in view, and dissipat-
ing the doubts which beset many minds, confirm them
in the truth, or lead them into the bosom of the Ca-
tholic Church !
More than the word of man is necessary to make
faith take root in a soul; God's grace alone can work
such a marvel ; it is that alone which can enlighten the
understanding and touch the heart sufficiently to cause
truth to be loved, to gain it adherents, to raise man
above his own prejudices, habits, and even those tempo-
ral interests which so often keep him in the path of en'or.
Happily God never refuses His aid to such upinght
souls as seek Him in all sincerity. His tender fore-
thought for such is unbounded ; His grace is around them
like an atmosphere of heaven, lucid and life-giving, aid-
ing them to perceive the truth more easily, and profess
it with a firm and immovable conviction. For the last
eighteen centuries many persecuting Sauls have been
arrested in their course by Jesus, and transformed into
courageous apostles of His religion. At His all-power-
Introduction, xy
ful word more than one Lazarus has started from his
tomb of error and sin, and given glory to the infinite
goodness of the Divine Master. These resurrections,
which our own days have so frequently witnessed, reveal
to us, in a striking manner, the continual action of God
in His Church, and His constant wish to save all men,
provided they present no obstacles to His grace. Let
us, then, pray that the Saviour's most ardent desire may
be realised, and that soon there may be * but one fold
and one Shepherd.'^
Quebec, March 25th, 1875.
^ St. John X. 16.
< I
THE
BIBLE AXD THE RULE OF FAITH.
OF THE RULE OF FAITH IN GENERAL.
CHAPTER I.
Human reason left to itself — Lights of revelation — Reason and faith
show us the obligation of believing revealed truths, and not altering
the'/ real meaning — Divine mission of the Church; anathemas
pronounced on those who corrupt the true doctrine.
Human reason, in its present state, cannot of its own
strength arrive at a just and perfect knowledoe of God
and of the worship we owe Him. It only throws an un-
certain lifjht on many reUgious truths : sometimes even
it seems itself to be plunged into the deepest obscurity.
Like a ship sailing in the darkness of the night, and
running the risk of being dashed against the rocks
which lie in its course, so reason, left to itself, is often
exposed to wander from the right path and lose itself
in fathomless depths, before it has been able to descry
that clear light of truth which it is seeking so ardently.
Facts have already abundantly proved this : how many
errors do we not find scattered through the different
B
The Bible and the Rule oj Faith,
works of the old philosophers % In what uncertainty
have they not left the most serious questions, even those
of the most vital interest? They were, however, neither
deficient in genius nor in the sincere desire of arriving
at the knowledge of truth. Who, then, can say into
what strange aberrations commonplace and uncultivated
minds might allow themselves to be led %
But, in His infinite mercy, it has pleased God to
add to that natural revelation which is contained in the
great book of nature, in the mind and heart of man,
another manifestation of a higher order, a solemn ex-
terior, positive, supernatural revelation. Of this revela-
tion there have been three phases, three more memor-
able and distinct epochs. The first, which is its dawn,
as it were, extends from the time of Adam to that of
Moses. The second, more brilliant and more fully de-
veloped, comprises the prophecies and other truths re-
vealed by God from the time of Moses to that of the
coming of the Messiah. The other, which extends from
tlie days of Jesus Christ to the present time, and which
is to last to the end of ages, is the noonday as it were,
the perfection, the full and perfect light. It is that
eternal and uncreated Truth which, manifesting itself
to the world, shines brighter than the noonday sun, and
bathes the whole universe in its beneficent beams. Nu-
merous proofs, irrefragable motives of credibility, attest
the existence of these divine manifestations, convincing
every reasonable and docile mind, and imperatively de-
manding from each one of us a most sincere and hearty
adhesion.
All Christians, whether Protestants or Catholics, ad-
Of the Rtde of Faith in general.
mit the fact of this supernatural revelation, and give
thanks to God for so signal a favour.
Reason itself proclaims that if a God, who is perfect
Wisdom and Truth, infinite in all His perfections, deigns
to speak to us and communicate His divine teachings,
we, who owe Him all we are and all we have, are strictly
obliged to receive His slightest words with faith, respect,
and love, and to take all possible care to preserve them
intact. If so much pains are taken to record the maxims,
witty sayings, and even table-talk of certain men whom
history looks on as great, how much the more should we
not attach a high price to the Word of God, that inex-
haustible treasure of science and virtue ! The sublimity
and importance of this revelation are so stupendous.
Tlie rays of the sun of eternal justice manifest so clearly
to us the ineffable grandeur of God and His goodness
towards men. How could we do otherwise than care-
fully gather up, like precious pearls, the very least of
the words which God Himself deigns to address us %
Besides, the infinite truthfulness of God compels us
to believe not only what it pleases us to admit, or what a
narrow understanding considers as important and fun-
damental, but everything which He teaches us: to accuse
God of being a liar, even in a thing of itself insignificant,
would be a horrible blasphemy ; to pay no attention to
His teachings would be a revolting insult, an act of
impiety.
Therefore, in considering the infinite majesty of God,
the importance of revealed truth, and the absolute obli-
gation all men are under of accepting such truth as di-
vine, human reason sees clearly that there is a supreme
The Bible and the Ride of Faith,
necessity for purity in doctrine, and conse(|ueiitly unity of
faith. Is not a glance at the life and doctrine of Jesus
Christ and the Apostles sufficient to convince us of this
fact? For what purpose those numerous miracles of the
Saviour which astonished all Judoa ? For what pur-
pose those prophecies fulfilled in Ilis person, if it were
not to prove the divinity of His mission on earth? And
why place these proofs before our eyes, if not to con-
vince us of the infallible truth of Ilis teachin*^s, and to
engage us to give them our complete adhesion and to
believe in them entirely? ..
Each book of the Sacred Writings shows us how
ardently our Saviour Jesus Christ desired that the true
doctrine should be kept intact, and how He held in
horror those who distorted His divine words.
This is why He sent His Apostles with the same
authority which He had received from His Heavenly
Father : He enjoined them to preach the Gospel to all
nations, teaching them all that He commanded them to
teach ; He promised to be with them to the end of time.^
He sent unto them the Spirit of truth, which was to
abide with them, and guard them from every error.
The power He conferred on them was such that who-
soever listens to them listens to Him, and whosoever
scorneth them scorneth Him.
It is very evident that Jesus Christ, by promising to
His Apostles, and to their successors. His perpetual
assistance, by giving them the Spirit of truth, by order-
ing all natioii" to listen to them and to respect their
' St. Matt, xxviii. 19, 20 ; St. Mark xvi. 15, 16 ; Acts of the Apostles
i. 8 ; St. John xiv. 26, xvi. 13.
' Of the Rule of Faitk in gencraL j
teaching, by adding even that whosoever does not be-
lieve shall be condemned, — it is, 1 say, very evident that
thereby lie established His teaching Church, and that
He gave it the necessary guarantees for j)reserving in
its perfect integrity that doctrine which He had just
revealed to the world.
On the other hand, those who abandon or corrupt
the faith are called fals. prophets, ravening wolves,
liars, chilch'en of malediction, dried-up fountains, clouds
blow^i about by every wind, antichrists, seducers, trees
twice dead and plucked up by the roots, wandering
stars, tfec.'^
All these false teachers are to be carefully avoided :
they are wolves in sheep's clothing. St. Paul even tells
us to flee from a heretic after a first and second warn-
ing.^ St. Jolin^ goes so far as to say that we are not
to receive into our houses nor even salute those who do
not keep the doctrine of Jesus Christ, because it is to
communicate with their wicked works. By this may be
seen how important Jesus Christ and His Apostles con-
sidered it that the divine teachings which they had just
given to the world should not be in any way altered, or
left a prey to the caprices and passions of men.
Reason and faith therefore agree in proclaiming
aloud that if God, who is infallible in His very essence,
vouchsafes to reveal to us truths which are beyond our
understanding, we are obliged to believe them all with-
out reserve or distinction. Now all the Christian world
admits the fact of divine revelation. Therefore it must
2 St. Matt. vii. 16 ; Acts xx. 29 ; 2 Peter ii. 17 ; 1 John ii. 18 ; Jude
12, 13, &c. » Titus iii. 10. « 2 John 10, 11.
6 * ■ The Bible afid the Rule of Faith,
necessarily admit all which is contained in that revelation,
the smallest things equally with the most imj)ortant.
What is more, we have seen that Jesus Christ has made
use of the most efficacious means. His special protection
and the aid of the Holy Ghost, to maintain the integrity
of His teachings in His Church, and that He has stig-
matised in the most terrible manner those who propa-
gate false doctrine. Hence it is of extreme importance,
it is even necessary, according to the express will of our
Saviour, that we should seek to know all the truths
which it has pleased Him to manifest to us, and the
true sense in which He has vouchsafed to reveal them
to us.
n
CHAraER II.
Necessity of a rule of faith — Its characteristics ; it should he adapted
to all classes of society ; it should he sure, efficient to put an end
to controversies, and perpetual.
There are none amongst the Protestants (if we excc})t
Socinians and Unitarians, of whom we shall not speak)
who do not acknowledge that Jesus Christ is true God ;
consequently all ought to admit the truth of His teach-
ings, and make them the object of their faith.
This faith is so highly necessary, that Jesus Christ
Himself declares that ^ he that believeth not shall be
condemned;' that * without faith it is impossible to please
God.'
If it be thus, ' God, who will have all men to be
saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth,' must
have given to all an easy way of knowing the object of
their faith, the truths which He has revealed to them.
In fact it is in essential opposition to the infinite good-
ness of God that He should exact from men faith in
His teachings, that He should exact it even under pain
of damnation, without giving them, meanwhile, sure,
easy, infaUible means of knowing what is His doctrine ;
this would be willing the salvation of men, and at the
same time not willing it; this would be imposing an
obligation of arriving at a certain end without giving the
means of doing so. ,
8 ' The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
It is evident to every one that the means of arriving
at the necessary knowledge of the truths revealed by
God :^ould not be suited only to the capacity of superior
minds — minds cultivated by long and serious study; but
they should be adapted to all classes of society , suited to
the capacity of the poor and ignorant, who also have
souls to save, and a happy eternity to strive for.
They should also be certain and sure, for doubt and
uncertainty are incompatible with an act of divine faith ;
a fallible testimony, unless it bears its confirmation in
itself, cannot produce so firm and unchangeable an as-
sent as such an act of faith would exact; and under
these circumstances hesitation would be permissible.
Any soul desirous of working out its eternal salvation
might exclaim with fear. Who knows whether the doc-
trines I am professing, or which are being taught me,
have really God for their author ? Who knows whether
I am not far advanced in the paths of error ? And yet,
'how impossible for me, amidst the tumult and con-
fusion of thousands of different opinions, to distinguish
what is true from what is I'alse ! how impossible for me
to know whether I am not on the brink of a precipice !
What an ever-fruitful source of uneasiness, of ceaseless
alarm, of interminable anguish ! How can it be believed
that a God who is infinitely good can have left His
creature a prey to agitation and doubt, and with no
possibility of finding rest on the solid ground of cer-
tainty I No, indeed ; such an assumption is entirely in-
admissible.
These means of ascertaining what doctrine is re-
vealed should be efficienty to put an end to controversy ;
Of the Rule of Faith hi geficral.
otherwise the innumerable difficulties which have been
raised on all the points of divine revelation would always
remain unsolved, and would at one blow annihilate the
Christian creed, all those truths which Jesus Christ has
given to the human race. At the same time they ought
to be perpetual and indefectible ; for they should extend
to all men, and hence embrace all ao;es. The rule of
faith must last as long as the true faith itself. Now the
true faith must last to the end of time. The rule of
faith therefore will likewise have the same duration.
It is, besides, evident that in our day men have no less
need of this compass than those of past ages had if they
wish to follow in the path of truth, that narrow path
which leads to God, their true end, and consequently
to the heavenly land.
Such are the requisite conditions for the sacred de-
posit of revelation remaining intact in the midst of
humanity, and shedding abroad on it that bright light
of which it is the burning centre. Otherwise there can
never be anything but dissensions, all kinds of opinions,
pernicious scepticism, the darkness of error. If I do
not mistake, this is a conclusion which every one will
readily admit, and which experience is incessantly con-
firming.
CHAPTER III.
What is the rule of faith which was established by our Lord Jestis
Christ ; or what means did He choose to communicate His doctrine
to us ?— The Bible— Tradition.
All vie with one another in proclaiming that the re-
vealed Word of God is the rule of faith. On this point
also there is unanimity of feeling.
But where is this word of God, this supernatural
revelation, to be found ? Protestants answer : * In the
Bihle^ and only in the Bible!^ Catholics, on the contrary,
unanimously reply : ^ In the Bible and in Tradition.^
Here is the first divergence. According to Protest-
* * We may well assert, that the rejection of tradition as a rule of
faith was the vital principle of the Reformation.'' Herbert Marsh, Com-
parative View of the Churches oj England and Rome, p. 83, 1841.
' What I have always conceived to be the great leading principle of
Protestantism is, namely, the entire sufficiency of Scripture, independ-
ently of tradition, as a rule of faith and doctrine.' P. N. Shuttleworth,
Not Tradition hut Scripture, p. 21-2, 1839.
' With the doctrine of the supremacy of the Holy Scriptures to the
consciences of individuals, and the right of private judgment in con-
tradistinction to the authority of the Church, she (the reformed Church
of England) stands or falls.' Goode, Regula Fidei Divina, vol. i. prsef.
p. xlii.
' The gi'and fundamental distinction between the Roman Catholic
and the Protestant religion consists in this very point, that whilst Pro-
testants maintain that a full and perfect rule of faith is contained in
the Scriptures, and that, consequently, these furnish in and by them-
selves a sufficient basis for all doctrines necessary to salvation, the
Church of Rome holds that the Holy Scriptures are insufficient by
themselves, and that we must admit, in addition to them, a second
source, from which some essential articles of faith are derived, namely,
tradition ; and that this second source is of equal authority with the
fii'st, and independent of it.' Gayer, Catholic Layman, vol. i. p. 61.
f ■■
Of the Rule of Fait J i in goteral, 1 1
ants, there is not any revealed truth outside the Sacred
Writings.
According to Catholic doctrine, there is the written
and the unwritten word of God ; the whole preserved to
us by means of tradition, i.e. by the divinely-instituted
teaching body, the Apostles and their successors, whom
Jesus Christ has commanded to preach His doctrine ;
and in this case the Sacred Writings are, to speak truly,
only a part of objective tradition.
It would not, perhaps, be out of place here to give
the argument which Schurft made use of against Luther,
and which wounded the Saxon reformer to the quick :
^ What is the Bible other than a tradition ? How prove
its divinity, except by oral tradition, the tradition of past
ages, which assures us that the inspiration of God is
spread over its pages ? The N( , Testament is not like
the heavens, where each star speaks in a language under-
stood by all. Who handed to us this book of good tid-
ings ? Men. Who transmitted it to us from age to age ?
Men. Therefore it is by tradition you know that the
name of Christian which vou bear comes from Christ.
It is the stream of tradition which has borne to you the
two Testaments, the Sinai and Thabor, the Old and the
New Law, God and Jesus.' Scripture, then, is in
reality only tradition ; it is by men that it has been
transmitted and preserved until our times.
But let us for a moment leave aside tradition pro-
perly so called, or the unwritten word of God, and let us
fix our eyes only on the Scripture, which is the rule of
faith for all Protestants. They acknowledge and openly
profess that the Bible contains the word of God to man ;
1 2 The Bible and the Ride of Faith,
on tliis point also are they in perfect harmony with Ca-
tholics, whose doctrine is laid down in the Fourth Session
of the Council of Trent. In fact, that Council declares
that God is the author of the Old and of the New Testa-
ment, and that all tlie books therein contained, and each
part of them, should be received with piety and venera-
tion. All Christians, then, profess profound respect for
the written word of God.
Now how can we appropriate to ourselves this word
of God, this revelation contained in a book? How en-
able the intelligence of each one to lay hold of the
object of our faith % By what means is the word of God
to reach our souls ? In other terms, what is the prox-
imate rule of our faith ?
Catholics reply : It is the infallible Church, estab-
lished by Jesus Christ to teach all nations what it has
pleased Him to reveal it is to her that He has confided
the whole sacred deposit of His doctrine, to be preserved
and propagated in its integrity until the end of time. It
is true that a part of this revelation has been, by the
special providence of God, consigned to the Sacred Books,
but this fact has in no v/ay destroyed the mission com-
mitted by Christ to His Church to teach His doctrine
orally, nor the obhgation of the faithful to follow and
obey these teachings. It is, then, from the teaching and
divinely-constituted Church that we should receive the
revealed truth, whether contained in the Holy Scrip-
tures or only in tradition.
Protestants are not all agreed on this important
question. Some hold, as the right means of arriving at
the knowledge of written revelation, the exercise ofm-
r I
Of the Ride of Faith in general, 1 3
dividual reason^ which can and ought to study the word
of God in the Bible, penetrate its meanincr, and deduce
from it a creed or assemblage of truths which it is bound
to believe. Others assert that every reader of the
sacred text, in so far as he is a prayerful man, animated
by pious feelings, a fervent Christian, may rely on the
ligld of the Holy Ghost, which will enlighten his under-
standing, making him comprehend biblical obscurities in
their true sense ; that is to say, by the light of a heavenly
flame, which can only be extinguished through the
want of a right intention on the part of each incUvidual.
Others, again, receive the doctrine contained in the
Scriptures by the medium of their Church; but this
Church is not infallible, it can err, and nobody is obliged
to submit to its teachings, unless such teachings are
found to be conformable with the Bible.
Let us first consider the "^rotestant rule of faith
objectively, that is to say, the Scripture itself and in
itself; and afterwards subjectively, that is to say, in the
different ways which our adversaries employ to arrive
at a knowledge of written revelation, or of the sense
of the Bible. In other terms we will, in the first place,
study their remote, and in the second place their prox-
imate, rule of faith, and we shall see that it is neither
suited to the capacity of all, nor ej^cient to put an end to
controversy, nor indefectible, and that consequently it
does not possess the characteristics which ought to be
inherent in every rule of faith.
THE PROTESTANT RULE OF FAITH.
CHAPTEE I.
The Protestant remote rule of faith, or the book of the Holy Scriptures.
For us Catholics, all questions that may arise with re-
gard to the Holy Scriptures receive an easy and com-
plete answer from the Church. In her we have a living,
infallible, supreme tribunal; she speaks, and on that
subject, as on all others, every Catholic submits his in-
telligence and will to hers, yielding her the firm and
free adhesion of his faith. Hardly has she pronounced
her judgment, when the question is decided ; doubt dis-
appears before the splendour of truth : the doctrine just
defined takes its place amidst the array of knowledge
already gained by the human mind, and no one any
longer thinks of contesting it. But our separated bre-
thren remain, and always v^^ill remain, in uncertainty on
a number of controverted points, precisely because they
refuse to recognise the supreme tribunal which Jesus
Christ has instituted for teaching all nations. Who will
tell them which are the books inspired by God ? Who
will indicate to them which books compose the canon of
the Holy Scriptures ? Who can inform them indubitably
( I ■ . » 7 '
The Protestant Rule of Faith, i$
that their Bible is authentic, that it has not been falsi-
fied, that it is indeed the expression of the divine word ?
No one. These are so many enigmas for them, of which,
as we are going to see, they have no solution ; they sap
the very foundations of the edifice of Protestantism ;
doubt upon doubt, with all its terrible anguish, — this is
the shoreless ocean upon which they are tossed about ;
this is the fathomless abyss in which all hope of certainty
is swallowed up. Some development of this subject will
better show the state of this question ; the impartial
reader will be able to remark a whole series of impossi-
bilities which are inherent in the fundamental principles
of Protestantism, and which destroy it completely. ,
FIRST ARTICLE.
It is impossible for a Protestant to know whether the Sacred Scriptures
are an inspired book — Examination of the characteristics by means
of which Protestants assert that they establish the inspiration of
the Sacred Books,
What is inspiration ? Without wishing to give here
a strict definition of it, I will say that it is a super-
natural process, which passes in the mind of man, and
which, like all interior processes, is only known by God
and by him who is inspired. Inspiration cannot then be
made manifest to other men except by exterior effects,
that is to say, by the book itself which results from the
inspiration, or by some trustworthy testimony.
But what exterior marks can be found in the Book
of the Holy Scriptures to establish the fact that they
are inspired by God ? Let us first acknowledge that it
cannot be proved by the Scriptures that the Scriptures
1 6 The Bible and the Rule of Fail h*
themselves are inspired. This would be proving a thing
by means of itself; and besides, there is no text which
affirms this inspiration of the Bible in general, nor from
which we can deduce it.
Will it be said, as some Protestant writers have
affirmed, that the Scriptures are inspired, because they
contain the narration of miracles and proi)hecies which
have been faithfully accomplished ? Evidently not; for
a book whose author is an ordinary man, left to the
resources of his own intelligence, might contain a re-
cital of these supernatural manifestations. At the very
most, we might conclude that he was relating a doc-
trine, or revealed facts, such as any profane historian
might do ; but there is a long distance between that
and the inspiration which indicates such a direct influ-
ence of God on the sacred writer, as makes that writer
express just what God wills to be revealed to the world,
and nothing farther; so that one might exclaim, This
book is God's Book, this word is God's Word.
Will it be affirmed that the sanctity, sublimity, and
harmony of the doctrine contained in the Scriptures
prove them to be inspired ? No, I would unhesitatingly
reply ; such cannot be constituted a proof, for all these
qualities are certainly to be found united, and to an
equally high degree, in the magnificent letters of St.
Clement Romanus, St. Ignatius the Martyr, St. Poly-
carp, and even in the Imitation of Jesus Christy as in
the books of Paralipomenon (Chronicles), or in the
Epistles of St. John, St. Jude, St. Peter, or St. Paul to
Titus and to Philemon. If among the inspired books
we are to range all those which bear the impress of a
i I
The ProicsUint Rule of Faith,
holy, sublime, and ever-logical doctrine, we should have
to count them by thousands ; and the writings of the
fathers and doctors of the Church would certainly not
occupy the lowest place.
Will the inspiration of the Scriptures be maintained,
because those who read them are moved bv them to
great feelings of piety, and experience marvellous effects
as regards their spiritual advancement? Again, no; for
books of piety, ascetic works, such as those of St. Bona-
venture, of the Blessed Louis of Grenada, of St. Igna-
tius of Loyola, of St. Francis de Sales, would certainly
produce an equally consoling effect as reading the Book
of Numbers or the Apocalypse of St. John. It is
therefore impossible to draw from the book of the Bible
itself any convincing proof of its inspiration.
To know, therefore, whether God is really the prin-
cipal Author of the Scripture, no other way remains
than that of testimony extrinsic to the Sacred Book,
and trustworthy. This testimony must be either human
or divine. If it is human, it must necessarily take its
origin from the inspired writer, for he alone and God
are, in an immediate manner, aware of the fact of
inspiration.
But if this testimony is human — in other words, if
the authority on which I lean is that of a man — I could
only believe the fact of inspiration with a human and
fallible faith. Consequently, it is as clear as noonday
that it is only with a human faith that I can believe
what is contained in the Bible — all the truths which
God may have there inspired and revealed. In fact, in
that case human testimony is the basis of my faith, of
1$ •' The Bible and the Ride of Faith,
my belief in the fact of inspiration. Now a faith which
reposes on purely luunan testimony is not and cannot
be other than a human and fallible faith; and if we can
only believe the fact of inspiration with a human and
fallible faith, we can only believe the truths contained
in Scripture with a human and falHble faith also. Still,
as is acknowledged by all. Catholics and Protestants, we
ought to believe everything contained in the Bible with
divine faith. Human testimony, then, is entirely in-
sufficient to establish the fact of inspiration ; divine
testimony is the only basis on which the edifice of our
faith can solidly repose.
There is evidently no necessity that God Himself
should render this testimony in an immediate manner ;
it is sufficient that He should do so by an authentic
organ, by a legitimate ambassador, to whom He would
have directly revealed the fact of the inspiration of
such and such a book. For us Catholics this divinely-
constituted organ is the teaching Church, which can
show all the titles of her heavenly mission. But as
Protestants do not admit her divine authority, it results,
as an inevitable consequence, that they are unable to
prove the inspiration of the Bible, and of each of the
books composing it.
This demonstration, the substance of which 1 have
borrowed from the Rev. Father Franzelin, my former
teacher, and one of the glories of the Gregorian Uni-
versity, appears to me conclusive and unanswerable.'
• See Frauzelin, De Divind TradiHone et Scripturd, p. 331.
>
The Protestant Ride of Faith, 19
SECOND ARTICLE.
It is impossible for a Protestant to know what books corapose the canon
of Scripture or the Bible — Incessant variations of Protestantism on
the subject.
I interro<;ate any Protestant whatever who professes
to believe in the Word of God contained in the Bibky
and in the Bible alone, and I put to him this question :
Which are the books composinfr the Bible? How many
are there? He will doubtless, in the first place, cite me
all the Protocanonical books of the Old Testament.^
But why do you not admit the Deuterocanonical
books into your Bible ?^ What reasons have you for
excluding them from it ? Because, he will say, the Pro-
tocanonical, which form the canon of the Jews, were com-
prised in the collection of the Scriptures in the time of
Jesus Christ and the Apostles, whilst thus much cannot
be said for the Deuterocanonical. Now it may be seen
in many places of the New Testament that our Saviour
* The name of Protocanonical is given to those books whicli have
always been looked on as inspired, and about which tliere has never
been any difficulty regarding their admission into tlie canon of the
Scriptures. The Jews, who looked on these books as divine, reckoned
the number of them as twenty-two, the same in number as the letters
of their alphabet. They are the following : Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers, Deuteronomy, Josue, Judges, Ruth, two books of Samuel, two
books of Kings, two books of Paralipomenon, Esdras and Nehemiah,
Esther, Isaias, Jei'emias and the Lamentations, Ezechiel, Daniel, the
twelve lesser Piophets, Job, the Psalms, the Proverbs of Solomon,
Ecclesiastes, the Canticle of Canticles.
* The Deuterocanonical books are those concerning which there
have been doubts as to their inspiration at certain times and in certain
places. In the Old Testament they are : Tobias, Judith, Wisdom, Ec-
clesiasticus, first and second book of Machabees, Baruch. To these
complete books are added some portions of Daniel (iii. 24-00, xiii. and
xiv.) and the last seven chapters of Esther (x. 4 to xvi. 24).
ao The Bible and the Rule of Faith,
and the Apostles liavo a])|)r()ve(l tliis collection us
i)ein<r composed of inspired hooks ; we have therefore
divine testimony to the inspiration of the Protocanoni-
cal Books.
Admitting sucli to he the case, I will remark that
this testimony is purely affirmative^ and not exclmive.
We may conclude from it, if you will, that these hooks are
inspired ; hut it would he illoo;ical to deduce from it that
these hooks alone, are inspired, to the exclusion of all
others, and that the Jewish canon was complete.
The reasoning of Protestantism appears to he all the
more false, since all Christians acknowledge that the
Apostles trar emitted to the Churches other hooks, which
are part of the New Testament, and are looked on as
inspired; that the Jews had in their possession other
books with regard to which there was a doubt, that Is to
say, as to whether they had the same authority as the
Protocanonical ; that probably the Hellenist Jews had
Bibles containing other books besides those enumerated.
It is, t^ ^":, anj isiblo for Protestants to prove whether
their anon of he Old Testament is complete or incom-
plete.*
Perhaps I may be told that the Protocanonical books
are quoted in the New Testament to confirm and prove
certain dogmas, and that consequently Jesus Christ and
the Apostles looked on them as divine and inspired.
To this I reply that it is false to say there are quota-
tions from all the books, even the Protocanonical, of the
* See the discourse of the Re'*. Mr,, Doudiet, pronounced at the
ftBPembly of the Bible Society, held at Quebec, February 14, 1872, and
reported in the Morning Chronicle of the following day.
The Protestant Rule oj Faitlu 1 1
Old Testament; for no vestif;;e is to be found of the
book of Judges, of Ecclesiastes, of the Canticle of
Canticles, of Esther, of the first and second books of
Esdras. Moreover, even supposing they were all quoted
in the New Testament, that would not prove they were
the only inspired ones; for no testimony can be brought
forward to suj)port such an assertion. Besides, quota-
tions from profane authors even may be met with, such
as Epimenides and Aratus, and also from works which
certainly form no j)art of the canon of Scripture, and
which have not even reached us, such as iXiaBook of the
Wars of the Lord!*
But let us come to the books of the New Testament,^
the inspiration of which can only be proved by tradition
aloney or at the same time by the apostolic writings. Ex-
cept St. Peter^ no one makes mention of St. Paul's
Epistles as belonging to Scripture. lie says they ^ con-
tain things hard to be understood, which the unlearned
and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures^
to their own destruction.'
Here it will not be without utility to make some short
^ remarks on this subject. The fli^st is, that St. Paul had
not yet written the second Epistle to Timothy when St.
Peter wrote that of which we have spoken ; an evident
» PeiTone, Regola lU Fede, vol. i. p. 145.
• A great number of ProtcBtant ccmmunions now admit into their
Bibles all those books of the New Testament which we ourselves admit.
However, on this subject, as on many others, there are nearly infinite
variations. The parts more generally considered as Deuterocanonical
are the Epistle of St. Paul to the Hebrews, that of'St. James, the second
of St. Peter, the second and third of St. John, that of St. Jude, and the
Apocalypse of St. John. In this capricious condemnation are included
some fragments of the Gospels, such as St. Mark xvi. 9-20, St. Luke
xxii. 43-44, St. John viii. 2-12. ^ 2 Peter iii. 16.
2 2 The Bible a7id the Ride of Faith,
proof that the Prince of the Apostles could not have
reckoned this Epistle to Timothy among the inspired
books, since it did not then exist-. The ucond is, tliat
neither the Gospel nor the Apocalypse of St. John were
yet composed, and that none of the other Gospels are
mentioned in this text by St. Peter. Nevertheless,
Protestants admit these books into their Bible. On what
ground do they so % Only on that of Catholic tradition :
there is no other possible basis. The tldrd is, that this
second Epistle of St. Peter is precisely one of those books
whose authenticity and apostolic origin can only be
proved by means of tradition. The fourth is, that those
Protestants who do not admit the canonicity of this second
Epistle of St. Peter have absolutely no other means of
establishing the inspiration of the books of the New Tes-
tament than the authority and testimony of the Catholic
Church. Now tliey reject this testimony. It is therefore
absolutely impossible for them to show why they admit
such and such books into their Bible.
The evident conclusion to be drawn from the preced-
ing remarks is, that Protestants are not able to give
any reason for the choice they make of their Bible, which
contains only Protocanonical books, over the Catholic
Bible, which also contains the Deuterocanonical.. In no
part of the Scriptures is there to be found a ready-pre-
pared catalogue of the Sacred Books. Here and there
only are there some short quotations from the books of
the Old Testament, or a somewhat vague confirmation of
what is contained in the Law, the Prophets, and the
Psalms. But what is designated by these general appel-
lations ? Tradition may guide us up to a certain point,
The Protestant Rule of Faith. . 23
but it cannot indicate this precisely; and as to several
books of the New Testament a certain ju'oof is radically
impossible. I sum up by saying to them : You lay down
as a principle that only the books contained in your
Bible, your canon, contain the Word of God and are
divinely inspired, and that tradition can have no autho-
rity of itself except in so far as it agrees with the Scrip-
tures. Now the Scriptures contain no positive testimony
concerning the number and the canon of the books of
the Old and New Testament, which all Protestants look
on, however, as inspired. If, then, the silence of Scrip-
ture suffices for considering a tradition as false or doubt-
ful, it necessarily ensues that historical tradition is of no
value in proving the inspiration of the books of the Old
and New Testament. It is therefore absolutely essential
either to renounce the fundamental principle o^ the Bible
alone, or else to renounce all hopes of showing which are
the inspired books composing the Scriptures or the
Bible.
Now let us look a little at the variations of Protest-
antism with regard to the canon and number of the
Sacred Books. ^I.uther rejected from the canon of the
Scriptures Job, Ecclesiastes, the Epistle to the Hebrews,
the second Epistle of St. Peter, the second and third of
St. John, that of St. Jude, and the Apocalypse. Cal-
vin removed also from it the books of Esther, Tobias,
Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, and the two books of
Machabees. Spinosa and other critics cast a doubt on the
authenticity of the Pentateuch, the Judges, Kings, the
two books of Paralipomenon, Isaias, Jeremias, Ezechiel,
Daniel, and the twelve lesser Prophets ; Hobbes that of
24 ' The Bible and the Ride of Faith,
Kutli ; Pereyre that of Josue. Grotiiis asserts that the
Canticle of Canticles^ the Book of Wisdom, and the two
last Epistles of St. John are not inspired. The Socinians
denied the divinity of the book of Proverbs ; the Ana-
baptists that of the Psalms and the books of Esdras,
Strauss contests the authenticity of the Gospel of St.
Matthew ; Griesbach that of St. Mark ; Evan son and
Wette that of St. John, which Theodore Beza had
already mutilated ; Semler, March, and Collins, those of
the four Evangelists at once. Sleimacher denies the
divine inspiration of the first Epistle to Timothy ; Eichorn,
that of the second, as well as of the Epistle to Titus ;
Breitschneider, that of the two last of St. John ; Balten,
that of St. Jude ; Cludius, that of the first of St. Peter ;
and the mythologists, as well as the rationalists, neither
believe in the epistles of the Apostles, nor in any books
whatever of the Old and New Testament; so that a Pro-
testant bookseller who wished to publish a Bible con-
taining only books whose authority would be recognised
by all his co-religionists would have nothing to print.
The Reformation has no Word of God. Luther tam-
pered with this sacred deposit ; his discipkis have entirely
dispersed it A thousand times blessed be the wisdom
of the Popes, who have kept it intact for us !'®
Besides, who does not know that from the days shortly
after the Apostles the heretics denied the authenticity
of a great number of our Sacred Books, and substituted
others in their place, such as the Gospel according to
the Hebrews^ according to the Egyptians^ of the Childhood^
of Nicodemus, &c. ? On the other hand, do we not know
• Constant, Infaill. des Papes, vol. ii. p. 451, &c.
1 I
The Protestant Rule of Faith. 25
that ccTtaiu individual Churches for a time looked oil
sundry books as canonical and inspired, which books have
since been rejected as apocryphal or as purely human,
such as the Letters of St. Clement, the Pastor of Hermas,
the Epistle of St. Barnabas ? Now take away the infal-
lible authority of the Church and try to get out of this
chaos ; choose among all these writings those animated
by the divine Spirit ; discriminate those which are in-
spired from those- which are not ; prove the authenticity,
the divinity, the integrity of some, and at the same time
the apocryphal or purely profiwie x^haracter of others ;
you will be very clever if you discriminate to the entire
satisfaction of every one, and in such way as to put an end
to all doubt. Whilst waiting for a favourable solution
of this question. I must allow myself to believe that it is
absolutely impossible to arrive at so magnificent a result.
Neither the authority of taknt,nor the prestige of science,
nor deep and conscientious study, can ever weigh suffi-
ciently with intelligent niinds to convince them, and bring
them to a state of unity on these fundamental points.
There is but one supreme authority, divinely constituted,
infallible, and recognised as such, which can decide this
controversy and put an end to the incessant fluctuations
of human reason, which is always inclined to pride, even
in the midst of its most lamentable weaknesses.
THIRD ARTICLE.
It is impossible for a Protestaut to establish the authenticity of all the
texts of the Bible by means of Scripture ; in point of fact such proof
is very difl&cult, and above the capacity of minds of ordinary intelli-
gence or but little cultivation — Acknowledgment of Protestantism
on this important subject.
It must not be lost sight of that Protestants find
'26 The Bible and the Riile of Faith,
the word of God only in the Bih^ '; for them there are
no revealed truths apart from that volume. Now the
Bible is entirely silent as to the authenticity of the
books composing it, and also as to the integrity of the
text ; there is no mention of a great number of these
books either in the Old or in the New Testament ; and
even supposing that there was reference to them in some
part, the authenticity of the book and passage wherein
they were spoken of would have to be proved, conse-
quently the problem could never be solved. As to several
books of the two Testaments, it is impossible to know
the authors of them, or to determine the precise epoch
at which they were written. ^For,' as the celebrated
Father Perrone writes,^ ^ if so many modern critics have
not only doubted but even denied the authenticity of
the Pentateuch as the work of Moses, although these
are some of the least contested books, and are proved to
be authentic by the most solid reasoning, what may not
be said of the books of Job, Josue, Judges, Ruth, Kings,
Paralipomenon, and others V
Perhaps some basis or proof, apart from the Scrip-
ture, will be sought to prove the authenticity and integ-
rity of them — perhaps recourse will be had to the autho-
rity of the Synagogue and the Jewish people. This is
well ; but then why persistently refuse to the Catholic
Church, to its legions of saints and learned men, an
authority so easily acknowledged in so many other per-
sons %
Again, how can they prove that the books of the
New Testament are indeed the work of those whose
• Regola di Fede, vol. i. p. 158.
TJie Protcsianl Ride of Faith, 27
names they bear? Not very easily. Indeed, many mo-
dern critics have not hesitated to consider as apocryphal
the second Epistle of St. Peter, the Epistles of St.
James and St. Jude, as well as the Apocalypse. A
writer need not necessarily be the antlior of a book be-
cause his name is placed at the beginning of it ; the
name may have been added afterwards. Nearly every
one admits now that it was not the Evangelists them-
selves who entitled their writings Gospel according to
St. Matthew^ St. Mark, St. Luke, or St. John. How
prove they are really authentic ? This is not so easy a
thing as is generally supposed ; to be personally assured
of it a man must devote himself to such serious study,
to such infinite research, as not one in a thousand of the
human race is capable of. Ho^^- ^rove with that clear-
ness which springs from certainty, which compels con-
viction, and which is absolutely necessary in such a
matter — how prove that there has been neither interpo-
lation nor corruption of the primitive text during a
period of eighteen centuries? This point offers still
greater difficulties to solve than the preceding one ; and
I even do not hesitate to say that it is impossible to prove
clearly the integrity of all the texts of Scripture by ap-
plying only the rules of ordinary criticism. For us
Catholics, who believe that all the Word of God, even
the written, has been confided to the care of the infalli-
ble Church of Jesus Christ, to be by her preserved and
propagated in all places and throughout all ages, we re-
main perfectly secure, for our faith is founded on the
immovable rock of the divine promises. But I openly de-
clare that were I a member of some Protestant sect mv
28 The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
tranquillity would be far less perfect ; I would ask both
myself and of my ministers whether this Book, this
Bible which they present to me, be indeed inspired by
God, and whether it is in reality the Word of God. 1
would ask them whether this volume contains the whole
of the Word of God, or only a part ; whether the books
they reject as Deuterocanonical and uninspired may not,
by chance, be as divine as the Protocanonical ; whether
this Bible which they give me may not have been falsi-
fied in many parts ; if many texts may not have been
omitted, altered, or invented. These are fundamental
questions for all who admit Hhe Bible only' as their
rule of faith; questions excessively difficult to answer,
and of which the solution, if left to the feeble resources
of historical criticism, must necessarily leave doubts
and anxieties in the minds of all those interested.
How, indeed, could a Protestant remain tranquil, how
could he possess a shadow of certainty, when he reflects
that his personal opinion is in direct contradiction with
that of thousands of learned Catholics, who, humanly
speaking, are all as capable as learned Protestants to
decide this question ? If, at any rate, there was per-
fect agreement among these latter with regard to the
constituent parts of the Bible, as to the books and texts
which should be contained in it, it would be a surer hu-
man guarantee. But we have seen what nearly infinite
diversity of opinion reigns on these vital questions, which
concern the very basis of the famous Reformation in
the sixteenth century ; it is sufficient to discuss them, to
examine them for a moment, to perceive the fragility of
the foundations on which Protestantism rests.
V
(
I I
The Protestajit Rule of Faith. 29
Besides, I ask any man of good faith, is it credible
that many Methodists, Lutherans, Calvinists, Quakers,
Baptists, and others, have convinced themselves by their
own researches, by conscientious and certainly painful
study, that all the books, and those books alone, of their
Bible, that all the texts, and such texts only, of these
books, are authentic, and contain the pure Word of God
just as the Holy Spirit dictated it to the inspired writers?
Without wishing in any way to make light of the la-
bour and acquirements of the members of the different
Protestant denominations, I do not hesitate to say that
there are few, very few^ of them who have made these
fundamental researches, and explored ground so thickly
sown with difficulties ; perhaps there are still fewer who,
having seriously set themselves to this study, have reaped
from it a firm conviction of the integrity, authenticity,
exactness of the version and of the inspiration of each
of the books of the Bible. I leave it to the conscience
of each among them to decide as to the truth of what I
now affirm. But as I may be accused of undervaluing
Protestant learning and exaggerating the difficulties of
these questions, I borrow the words of Protestants them-
selves. Here is what the celebrated Richard Baxter has
written on this subject :'° ^ Are the most highly-instructed
and intelligent Christians capable of proving the truth
of the Scriptures ? Still further, are the lower members
of the clergy able to do so ?' And a little further on he
adds that he finds it strange that some have such a horror
of that part of Popery which consists in giving the au-
thority of the Church as a basis for our faith ; and yet,
" The Saints' Everlasting Rest.
30 The Bible and the Ride of Fifth,
he says, we, like the greater number of professors, con-
tent ourselves with the same sort of faith ; the only dif-
ference consists in the Catholics believing that the Bible
is the Word of God because such is the teaching of their
Church, whilst we believe the same thing because our
Church or our leaders affirm it.
The Rev. Jeremiah Jones,'* speaking of the same
question, says : first, that the task of establishing the
canonical authority of the books of the New Testament
is full of difficulties ; secondly, that it is of great im-
portance ; thirdly, that a great number of Christians
are not in a position to give one single reason to justify
the belief they hold that the books of the New Testa-
ment are canonical; fourthly, that very few works on
this subject exist.
M. Scherer, a celebrated Protestant Genevan doctor,
does not shrink from admitting that there is but one in-
fallible Church, which is able to present the canon of the
Scriptures to the faith of the Christian. Here are his
very words : ^ Unless with Catholicism we attribute su-
pernatural infallibility to the Church, we are forced to
acknowledge that she may have made a mistake in the
constitution of the canon, admitting books which should
have been excluded, and excluding others which should
have been admitted. The consequence is that every
Protestant Christian has the right, not to say is bound
by duty, to challenge the authority of the Church in this
matter ; to examine into its decision, and, where there is
room for doubt, to substitute his own. Now what are the
" New and Full Method of Settling the Canonical Authority of the
New Testament. First edition, Oxford, 1827.
■ M
The Protestant Rule of Faith, 31
results of this liberty which Protestantism implicitly con-
cedes to the faithful ? Tliat the question of canonicity,
which forms one of the elements of Protestant authority
in matters of faith, is a question left to individual deci-
sion ; that the rule of authority does not exist in an objec-
tive and certain manner; that we may differ in this respect
without ceasing to be Christian ; that each individual is
called upon to pronounce on matters concerning which
learned men doubt and differ ; that the humblest of the
faithful, before feeling certain about his faith, must de-
cide questions of authenticity and canonicity, criticism
and history ; in short, that the cardinal article of Chris-
tian faith, the very foundation of authority, itself rests
on the quicksands of delicate research, of uncertain
literary operations — in a word, of studies rarely favoured
by the light of evidence. Here is, in truth, a solid foun-
dation for the fliith of the Church ! Behold a rule of
faith perfectly accessible to the mass of Christian peo-
ple !''^ A Catholic would not have spoken differently.
That these questions are difficult, very little studied, and
above the reach of ordinary intelligence, is a fact which no
one will dare to deny, and which is but too well known
by all those who interest themselves in these matters.
It is, then, absolutely impossible for Protestants, first,
to prove the inspiration of the Scriptures ; secondly, to
determine which books form the canon of the Scriptures ;
thirdly, to establish the integrity of these books and of
all the texts they contain ; fourthly, to place these diffi-
cult researches within the reach of ordinary intelligence ;
they will always be confined to a very small number.
•2 £(i Critique .t la Foi, pp. 13, U.
The Bible and the Rule of Faith,
FOURTH ARTICLE.
It is imposBible for a Protestant to establish as articles of faith the
authenticity and integrity of the Sacred Writings — Nature of the
decision pronounced by the Church on the Scriptures — In the Ca-
tholic proofs there is no defective reasoning — Wiseman, Perrone.
For Protestants the Bible is the only rule of faith ;
they reject divine tradition. Nevertheless divine faith
must be grounded on tlie Word of God, either written
or traditional.
Now it is impossible, as we have seen, to prove by
the Bible the integrity, authenticity,, and inspiration of
all the Sacred Books and of each part of them ; therefore^
if these points can and ought to be established as articles
of faith, there is no other means left of arriving at this
result except seeking for a basis in the traditional Word
of God. Now our adversaries, with the exception per-
haps of certain sects, only admit this as an authority in
so far as it appears to them conformable to Scripture.
Therefore they have no means of establishing the
above-named points as articles of divine faith. In other
words, every article of divine faith ought to rest on the
Word of 'God.
Now Protestants pretend that the Word of God Is
contained in the Bible alone, and the Bible does not suf-
fice to prove the inspiration, authenticity, and integrky
of the books composing it.
Therefore it is impossible for a Protestant to establish
these three points as articles of divine faith. But if our
adversaries cannot prove that the Scriptures are inspired
and authentic, it is impossible for them to make an act
I I
The Protestant Rule of Faith, ^^
of divine faith as to that which is contained in them ;
impossible to deduce an article of faith from them.
This would bo giving more extension to the consequence
than to the premises. During the first ages of Chris-
tianity certain doctors, and even certain individual
churches, admitted into the canon of the Scriptures the
Pastor of Hermas, the Epistle of St. Barnabas, &c. ;
still they had some doubts as to their canonicity. Could
they have deduced articles of faith from these doubtfully
inspired writings? Assuredly not; for to draw a certain
irrefutable conclusion, we must have certain irrefutable
premises ; if the foundation is in ruins, the edifice will
be so likewise.
But, our adversaries reply, if it belongs to the Church
alone to determine the canonicity and inspiration of the
Scriptures, it ensues that the Church has greater au-
thority than the Scriptures. In point of fact, the au-
thority of the judge is greater than that of the individual
who is judged. Now the Church in this case gives
judgment on the Scriptures, and by so doing gives them
authority ; therefore, in the Catholic system, the Church
has greater authority than the Scriptures.
To this I reply, that the Church has never pretended
to possess more intrinsic authority than the Scripture,
nor to confer divine authority on it ; for the Scripture
itself is divine. It contains the Word of God independ-
ently of the judgment of the Church, and prior to that
judgment. The Church's part is confined to making
known which are the inspired books which contain the
Word of God, and which consequently possess divine au-
thority. The Church, by any declaration she may make,
D
34 The Bible ajid the Rule of Faith.
cannot cause a book wliicli has been written without
divine inspiration to become inspired, or to be considered
as such. No ; she verifies, but she neither bestows nor
causes inspiration. In other words, the decision of the
Church as to the Scriptures is not intended to give them
inspiration, but only to make known to us that authority
which they already possess.
Very well, is replied ; but then the basis on which
you build is no less fragile than ours. You prove the
divine authority of your Church by Scripture, and then
you demonstrate the divine authority of Scripture by that
of the Church. This is evidently a vicious circle.
The answer is easy enough. To constitute a vicious
circle the two propositions should be equally uncer-
tain and controverted. Now this is not the case in
the question at present under discussion. In point of
fact, when we prove the infallibility and authority of
the Church by the Bible, we are on common ground
with the Protestants. We build on a basis of which
they, equally with ourselves, admit the solidity, Lt,
the infallible truth of the Scriptures; whence it follows
that we can deduce from them conclusive arguments
against our adversaries. The texts we bring forward
to prove the infallibility of the Church are clear —
the clearest in the Bible. Still further, every man not
imbued with prejudices, who is searching for religious
truth in all the sincerity of his soul, can and must neces-
sarily give the Catholic meaning to these texts, without
needing for that either an infallible interpreter or the
special assistance of the Holy Ghost. In fact, although
we may require an infallible Church in order to tho-
The Protestant Rule of Faith. ^iS
roughly understand all the Scri})tures ; in order to re-
press the boldness of error, and put an end to the con-
troversies which so often arise about the meaning of the
divine words ; still we freely admit that many texts are
clear enough to be understood ^yithout this particular
help. Therefore, in controversy against the Protestants,
we can, without making use of any vicious circle, prove
the infallibility of the Church by texts from the Holy
Scriptures, and thence show them that if they read the
Bible without prepossession, without prejudices, and with
an ardent desire to arrive at the truth, they would
themselves find there the institution of a teaching and
infallible Church, and the condemnation of their own
fundamental principle, of their rule of faith.
We do not believe the Church on the authority of
the Scripture, properly so called ; we believe it on the
authority of Christ ; and if His commands, in her re-
gard, were recorded in any other hook which we felt
ourselves bound to believe, although uninspired, we
should receive them, and consequently the authority of
the Church, equally as now.
We consider the Scriptures therefore, in the first
instance, as a book manifesting to us One furnished
with divine authority to lay down the law ; we take it
in this view, and examine what He tells us, and we dis-
cover that, supported by all the evidence of His divine
mission, He has appointed an authority to teach ; and
then this authority not merely advises, but obliges, us,
by that power which Christ has invested in it, to receive
this sacred book as His inspired word.
As regards the chain of reasoning we make for our-
3 6 The Bible and the Rule of Faith, ;
selves to enable us to give an account of the faith that is
in us, it in no way entails any vicious circle. For a per-
fect ansv^^er, I will content myself with asking our adver-
saries whether the faithful Christians in the first ages of
the Church believed in the divine and infallible mission
of Jesus Christ, His Apostles, and their successors, by
means of reading a Bible which certainly was not all
written, or at any rate was very little known among the
Christians. How did they come to join the teaching
Church? Whence did they draw their reasons, their
motives, for obeying the Church % If they did not pos-
sess the brilliant and divine light of the Scriptures, ap-
parently they must have had some other which showed
them the right way, and attracted them by its bril-
liancy. Yes, they did possess another, in the miracles
which the Apostles and their successors performed, and
which were as striking as those of their Divine Mas-
ter ; in the prophecies of the Old Testament and of Je-
sus Christ, which were realised in the Catholic Church ;
in her unity of faith, in the sanctity of her faithful,
in her rapid spread despite all obstacles ; in those num-
erous motives of credibility which have always accom-
panied the Church, rendering her visible to the eyes of
all nations, and pointing her out through all ages as the
work of Jesus Christ, as the only and true heir of the
promises which God made to man. The Church proved
her heavenly mission as Jesus Christ and His Apostles
had done ; and the faithful believed in her as they had
believed in them. The Bible had nothing to do with
their conversion from paganism to Christianity.
Let us listen to the voice, always so sure and au=
' The Protestant Rule of Faith. 57
thoritative, of an eminent theologian, of a man who
has grown old amidst serious study — of the Rev. Father
Perrone, one of the glories of the Koman College and of
the Company of Jesus.^^
* Our starting-point,' he says, * is the establishment of
the Church, first promised by our Divine Saviour, then
solemnly inaugurated by the visible descent of the Holy
Ghost on the Apostles assembled in the guest-chamber.
Hardly was the Church thus established than she com-
menced her career by preaching, by the administration of
sacraments, by the exercise of worship, only to end it when
time itself shall be no more. Like an electric current
which passes from one to another of an assembled circle,
she spreads with a lightning-like rapidity among the
neighbouring people, and even to far-off nations. From
her very commencement we see her divided into two
classes ; the one class charged with teaching, the other
compelled to receive the teaching of the former class.
Now, as to teaching, this Church must first of all have
obtained from those whom she wished to draw out of
Judaism, or from the ranks of the Gentiles into her own
bosom, faith in her divine mission ; that is to say, the
mission confided to her by God of converting the world,
which she fulfilled by miracles, by prophecies, and by all
sorts of supernatural deeds, called motives of credibility.
Without manifest proofs of this divine mission, her
preaching, however august its source, would not have
gained faith, nor would the articles of belief which
were the object of it have been admitted with cer-
tainty.
" Perrone, Regola di Fedc, t. ii. pp. 85-89.
^S The Bible and the Rule of Faith,
* Faith in the divinity of the mission of the Apostles
and the teaching Church was, as is evident, the first
step, the first condition, lacking which it would have been
useless to enter into the details of the truths taught ;
and this condition fulfilled, this faith established in a
manner to put an end to all doubt, the rest all followed
and resulted from it. For from the moment when it was
proved, and clearly proved, that he who presented him-
self to the various people to teach them a new doctrine
had indeed received his mission from God, it necessarily
followed that those people must have an unbounded con-
fidence in this divine messenger, and admit with entire
faith all that he announced to them with such a recom-
mendation. Now this confidence, this full and entire
faith, is only possible in so far as any one remains con-
vinced that this divine messenger, in what he proposes
for belief as coming from God and revealed by God,
as a means of salvation, can neither deceive himself nor
others in delivering what is false as a truth revealed by
God. And it is thus that the gift or privilege of infaUi-
bility in matters of faith is inherent, intrinsic, and iden-
tical, as it were, with the divine mission solemnly de-
livered to His Church by God Himself.
* Strong in this divine mission, and in the prerogative
of infallible teaching consequent thereon, ' he Church,
after having given convincing proofs of her power to the
Jews and Gentiles, to whom she had to teach the Gospel,
placed before them methodically a belief in all she had
learnt from her Divine Founder ; and the people, aided
by divine grace, interiorly fortified by its celestial light,
without any difficulty formed their act of supernatural
' The Protestant Rule of Faith. 59
faith by believing each and all of the truths which had
been preached to them.
* Now, all this was done and accomplished many years
before any of the books of the New Testament had been
composed; and consequently the existence of the Church
and her divine prerogatives, as well as all the other truths
constituting the sacred deposit of the faith, are altogether
independent of the Scriptures. Could any one be found
capable of believing that, in proportion as the sacred
books were being written under the influence of divine
inspiration, the Church had to lose some portion of those
prerogatives to w^hich those very books bear testimony,
or of the right of proclaiming the truths that were to be
read therein henceforth, and which until then she had
taught by word of mouth, and kept alive by means of
oral tradition ? I think no one could be senseless enough
even to suspect such a thing. But the prerogatives of
the Church and the truths she taught remained what
they were, with this only difference, that besides their
continuing to be kept alive by tradition, they had another
means of preservation, in the monumental existence of
these divine books. So far from the appearance of these
books putting an end to the authority which the Church
had until then enjoyed to instruct the people, this au-
thority became more than ever necessary in order to
give a sanction to these same books as they appeared.
For, although these books were divine in themselves and
contained divine teachings, those into whose hands they
fell had no certainty of the fact. It was necessary
therefore that the Church, which, as I have just said,
was looked on by all the faithful as infallible in its
• v
40 The Bible a7id the Rule of Faith, ., ».
teachings, should assure them by her testimony that
these books contained the same truth as she was preach-
ing, that the authors of them were really those whose
names were borne by them, and that God had dictated
them — that is to say, that their authors had been di-
vinely inspired. A similar testimony could only be given
by a Church which was enlightened by the Holy Spirit,
and which Jesus Christ had established to serve all na-
tions as mistress, as a guide in the way of truth.'
FIFTH ARTICLE.
It is impossible for a Protestant to prove that the Bible contains all
the truths revealed by God — Answer to some difficulties — In what
sense the Bible is perfect. 1
It is not sufficient for our adversaries to prove by
texts that the Holy Scriptures are profitable to teach, to
reprove, to correct;'"* Catholics admit this as well as
Protestants, since they make use of it in their theologi-
cal theses and in their preachings ; but they must prove
that they alone and exclusively are profitable.
Neither is it sufficient to show that in many cases
the sacred books throw light on questions now under
consideration ; that is an incontestable fact which we
most willingly admit ; but it must be demonstrated that
they contain all the light of which we have need.
It is not sufficient to prove that the Bible contains
revealed truths, the Word of God, a part of the remote
rule of faith — this every Catholic would concede with-
out the slightest hesitation ; but it ought to be clearly
established that the Bible contains all the Word of God,
all the revealed truths, and is the only rule of faith.
"2 Tim. iii. 16, &c.
^- • /
The Protestant Rule of Faith. 41
All the texts of Scripture which Protestants bring
to bear always to prove their thesis do not prove enough,
for they only logically establish what all Catholics have
likewise universally recognised.
Thus, for example, when Jesus Christ says: 'Search
the Scriptures, for you think in them to have life ever-
lasting ; and the same are they that give testimony of
Me,'*^ — does He mean thereby to say that the Scrip-
tures contain the whole Word of God, and are the only
rule of faith? Evidently not; such a conclusion is by
no means to be drawn from our Saviour's words. In
fact, Jesus Christ addresses Himself in these terms to
the Jews who were not yet converted; He wishes to
convince them of the truth of His divine mission, and
as they admit the testimony of the writings of the Old
Testament, He refers them to it so as to allow them to
identify the Messlaci, who had been promised and so
clearly announced for centuries, with Him who was now
in their midst, and thus to verify in Himself the accom-
plishment of the numerous prophecies concerning Him.
Besides, it is very clear that He could not counsel them
to read all the Bible, since the books of the New Testa-
ment did not then exist. All that we can deduce from
this passage is that our Lord wished to prove His divine
mission to the Jews, by giving it a basis which they
must necessarily admit ; just the same as Catholics act
towards Protestants, when they make use of clear and
decisive texts of the New Testament to prove to them
the divinity and infallibility of the Church. This was
one of the proofs of His mission, but it was not the only
» St. John V. 39.
1
42 The Bible and the Rule of Faith,
one, since a little before (v. 36) He had brought forward
His works or His miracles, in order to prove the same
truth in a decisive manner.
These remarks may and ought to apply to the pass-
age in the Acts of the Apostles,^° where it is said that
the Jews of Berea received the Word with all eagerness,
daily searching the Scriptures whether these things were
so. Here again it is of the Old Testament that St.
Paul speaks to the Jews whom he is wishing to convert,
by showing them that Jesus Christ was indeed the
Messiah announced by the prophets, and in whom all
the predictions were fulfilled. These Jews compare the
words of the Apostle wdth those of the prophecies, in
order to make themselves sure of the truth of His teach-
ing. In their so doing, while there is nothing but what
is most laudable, there is also nothing to show that the
Bible contains all revealed truths.
In like manner, whenever, in certain places of the
holy writings,!^ it is a question of the Tmw of the Lord
which converts souls, or the Word of God which en-
lightens our footsteps, the application is attempted to be
made to Scripture alone ; the reasoning is bad, since the
Law and the Word of God may be written or unwritten,
and at the same time be also left in the hands of the
infallible Church to be taught by her, and by her to be
preserved and propagated.
The same remark applies to the famous text in Deu-
teronomy^^ where God expressly says : ^ You shall not
'• Acts xvii. 11.
" Psalm xnii. 8 ; Isaias Iv. 10, &c. ; Jeremias xxxiii. 24.
" Deut. iv. 2.
' The Protestant Rule of Faith. 45
add to the word that I speak to you, neither shall you
take away from it.' Whilst we have no proof that the
Word of God can only be contained in the Bible and
can only mean the Scriptures, whilst we have no proof
that God is compelled to speak to man only in a book,
absolutely nothing will have been proved ; the question
will not even have been approached, for it consists in
proving that Scripture alone contains the Word of God,
and that it is the only source of revealed doctrine, the
only rule of faith.
It is easy to remark also that all these last texts of
the Old Testament, which concern the ancient law,
could evidently never make us come to any conclusion
which regards only the new law, the constitution of the
Christian Church.
But, it will be said, can Jesus Christ then, the wisest
of legislators, have omitted to place a part of His laws
in His code % Is it not an impiety to suspect that our
Saviour could leave His work incomplete %
Such a conclusion could only bear the stamp of truth
under the supposition that Jesus Christ had wished to
make a code of laws of the Scriptures, a code which was
to be the sole organ of His commands, as human legis-
lators do ; but this is what can never be proved. No, it
is absolutely impossible to prove that God has wished to
make of the Bible a sole rule of faith, the only deposit
of revealed truths ; and this explains, perhaps, why
the Scripture contains certain little details, apparently
of minor importance, and passes over more essential
truths in silence : it is because the former might have
been lost without the sacred books, whilst, in respect of
44 The Bible and the Rule of Faith. • '
fundamental truths, God had provided for their preser-
vation by the oral and traditional teaching of the body
of pastors.
But then, our adversaries reply, the Bible is only an
imperfect work.
I make a distinction ; it is imperfect, if considered
with regard to tradition, of which it is but a part, and in
the sense that it does not contain all which is comprised
in tradition ; but it is perfect in the sense that it con-
tains all which God willed to be inserted there. In the
same way, although each book has its own and absolute
perfection, because nothing is wanting which ought to
be included, there is, however, in the Bible a relative want
of perfection, because it does not contain all that is to
be found elsewhere. It is therefore no more matter of
astonishment that the Bible has, in a certain way, its
supplement in tradition, than that each sacred book re-
quires and has received its supplement in the other books
which were written at different epochs. Thus, then, the
reasoning of Protestants is altogether false, because it
supposes that God has chosen to give us the Bible as
the only rule of our faith, as a complete code of the
truths He has given to man.
This last supposition, which the Protestants admit
without any proof, is, however, in evident opposition to
' the teaching of the Church. Let us listen, again, on
this subject to the remarks, so full of wisdom and sci-
ence, which fall from the pen of Rev. Fr. Perrone ; they
will show us another weak side of the fundamental
principle of Protestantism.
' That is a famous passage in which the Apostle re-
• \
I
' The Protestant Rule of Faith. 45
commends the faithful of Thessalonica to hold fast to
the traditions which they had received from him, both
by word of mouth and by writing. It has been justly
remarked on this passage, that not only the Apostle dis-
tinguishes between oral and written tradition, but also
that he attributes to one and the other the like autho-
rity, the like value. There is a well-known text in
which the same Apostle recommends Timothy to guard
the deposit which he had confided to him ; and there is
no doubt that in speaking thus he made no allusion to
the Bible, which at that period was not even finished,
but only to the doctrine he had taught him, by warning
him, immediately after the words we have just quoted,
that some have turned away from him, of whom were
Phigellus and Hermogenes ; and immediately before he
had recommended him to hold the form of sound words
which he had heard from him in faith. There are well-
known passages in St. John, where that Apostle declares
he will not commit some of his instructions to paper,
reserving them to deliver by word of mouth. Let it
not be said that at least the necessary truths are to
be found in the Bible ; for that, again, would be an alle-
gation which the Protestants could not iustifv with their
rule limited to the Bible alone^ since the Bible does not
speak thereon. And then it would be after all but a
miserable piece of equivocation, since, if we are to un-
derstand by these truths necessary to be known and
believed only those which are indispensable to salva-
tion, and of which we cannot without guilt be ignorant,
we might take out of the Protestant creed many
truths whereof we might, indeed, remain in ignorance
46 The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
without prejudice to our salvation, and which for this
very reason we are not obliged to believe explicitly. If
by these truths necessary to be known and believed
may be understood all those which it has pleased God
to reveal to us, and to propose to our belief when they
come to our knowledge, there is not one single article
in the whole of revelation which it is not necessary to
believe in this last sense.
'If, then, revealed truths are not all contained in
the Bible alone, but are also to be found in tradition ;
still further, if all truths are contained in tradition, and
there is only a part of them contained in the Bible, it is
evident that the true rule of faith is that founded both
on the Scriptures and on tradition ; and such, to the ex-
clusion of all others, is the rule of the Catholic Church,
founded on the whole of the Word of God, written and
traditional. I have said, the rule of the Catholic Church
to the exclusion of all others^ because this is the only
Church which can have such a rule, being the only one
that has had no interruption in her course, nor conse-
quently in her teaching, since there is an unbroken
chain of her pastors from the times of the Apostles : an
advantage that no communion separated from her can
possess, since of no other can the commencement be
fixed nor the origin indicated. And this is the true
motive of the really native aversion in which all sects
hold tradition. There is not one of them which does
not abhor it, because each of them knows and feels that
it is deprived of it like those streams of water which,
cut off and separated from their fountain-head, change
into putrid and muddy water, no longer being fed by
The Protestant Rule of Faith.
47
tlie living water, which continues to flow in the principal
channel.''^
Later on the question of the Church and tradition
will again present itself ; we will then enter into further
details.
'» II Proteatantitmo e la Regola di Fede, t. ii. p. 61, itc.
1 ;
CHAPTER II.
«
The Protestant proximate Rule of Faith.
After having rapidly sketched the impossibilities which
result from the Protestant system concerning the Bible,
or the remote rule of faith ; after having pointed out
that, without the aid of that Catholic tradition which our
adversaries reject, neither the inspiration of the Bible,
nor even the authenticity and integrity of all its books,
can ever be proved in a manner suited to the capacity of
ordinary intelligences, — it remains to be considered how
Protestantism interprets this dead letter of the Scripture,
what means it employs to make itself master of the re-
vealed truths contained in the Bible. In other words, we
have now^ to make a serious study of the proximate rule
of faith of Protestants. I have already mentioned cur-
sorily that the different Christian sects separated from
the Roman Church place this rule of faith, some in
individual reason, others in the inspiration of the Holy
Ghost, others again in the fallible authority of their
Church. It is easy to show the insufficiency of each of
these means to discover the veritable doctrine contained
in the Holy Scriptures.
FIRST ARTICLE.
Inadequacy of individual reason to know the truths revealed in the
holy books — The obscui'ity of the Scriptures is mentioned by the
inspii'ed writers themselves, by the Fathers of the Church, by the
' The Protestant Rule of Faith. 49
Protestants at least practically — The Bible is clear on all funda-
mental articles : reply to tbis objection — Private examination of
the Bibk can never be the rule of faith instituted hy Jesus Christ,
because tbis moans never has been and never will be applicable to
all — The first Christians had no Bible — The Evangelical Alliance
is not unity of faith, and is not capable of producing it — Whatever
Dr. Burns may say, the Bible, interpreted by each individual, is
not a principle of unity — Free examination has only led and can
only lead to divisions and subdivisions ; it can justify any precon-
ceived ideas. »
It is not difficult to become convinced of tlie inade-
quacy of individual reason tli()rou»j^hly to understand tlic
sense of the doctrine contained in the Holy 8crij)tures,
It is safficient for this })urpose to consider, first, the ob-
scurity in which the greater part of the holy books are
wrapped; secondly, the feeble light of human intelligence.
I. It is very easy to understand that Protestants
have proclaimed in every key the extreme clearness of
the Bible ; they had an interest in so doing ; in fiict,
without their so doing, their system would at once have
collapsed and become radically impossible. Also Luther
did not fail to affirm that ' Scripture is its own surest
and clearest, and at the same time most intelligible,
interpreter; it proves everything to everybody, and it
judges all and enlightens all.' In another place he says,
* Here is what I affirm of the whole Scripture. 1 do
not approve its being called obscure in any of its parts.'^
Farther on he adds again, * Christians should above all
hold as certain and indubitable that the Holy Scriptures
are a spiritual light much brighter than the sun itself,'
Let us compare these most explicit words with those
others by the same Luther,^ and we shall see that, like a
' FrcEJ. assert, art. a Leone Pontifice damnati.
* See Audin, Histoire de la Vie de Luther, t. ii. p. 339. • "
E
50 The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
real chameleon in point of doctrine^ he knew how to
modify his opinions from day to day. * To fathom,' he
said, ^ the sense of the Holy Scriptures is an impossible
thing ; we can but skim the surface ; to understand the
sense thereof would be a wonder. Hardly is it ^iven to us
to know the alphabet. Let theologians say and do what
they will, to penetrate the mystery of the divine words
will always be an enterprise above our intelligence.'^
These avowals, which, from time to time, were ex-
torted from Luther and other heads of the reform by
the force of their very obviousness, are fully confirmed
by the Scripture itself and by all subsequent writers.
St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, declares plainly
that in St. Paul's letters there are ^certain things hard
to he understood, which the unlearned and unstable wrest
as they do also the other Scriptures, to their own destruc-
tion.''*
The eunuch of the Ethiopian queen, who was reading
the prophet Isaias on his journey, acknowledged to the
deacon Philip that he could not understand the sense of
these predictions unless some one explained them to him.'
Our Lord Himself is obliged to explain the Scriptures
to His disciples on their way to Emmaus ; He tells them
they have not understood the prophets.^
All the fathers of the Church, those indefatigable de-
fenders of revealed truth, those faithful guardians, those
apostles of sacred science, have recognised the same diffi-
culties in the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures ; those
even who have commented on the sacred books in th©
» See Perrone, Regola di Fede, t. i. p. 249.
* 2 Peter iii. 16. » Acts viii. 31- « St. Luke xxiv. 25-27.
The Protestant Ride of Faith. 51
most learned manner have been the first to proclaim that
they are obscure in many places.
Thus Clement of Alexandria affirms that * neither the
prophets nor the Saviour Himself have spoken of the
holy mysteries in so ordinary and common a manner
that the first comer can easily understand them ;' and he
adds, * the explanation of them, must be asked of those
who have received it from Jesus Christ and who pre-
serve it.'^
Origen writes that * many men filled with zeal have
arrived, by dint of study, at understanding the Scrip-
tures, although in many places they are obscure.'®
St. Jerome complains that the Holy Scriptures are
interwoven with difficulties, and especially the prophets,
which are filled with enigmas.^
In his epistle to Algas he again writes : ' The whole
Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans is enveloped in ex-
treme obscurity, and can only be understood by the helj)
of the Holy Ghost, who dictated it to the Apostle.'
In his fifth epistle to St. Paula he adds : ' The Apos-
tles Peter, James, John, and Jude have written seven
epistles, which are so mystical, that rarely can any one
be found who can interpret them without committing
some error. The Apocalypse of St. John contains as
many mysteries as words.'
After this testimony of a doctor so erudite as was St.
Jerome, so familiar as he was with Greek and Hebrew,
so well versed in the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures,
consuming his whole life in studying and commentating
on them, how could we, with the audacity of a Luther,
01 a Mosheim, and others, affirm that the Scriptures are
"> Strom, i. 6. « Cont. Cels. i. 4, n. 2. » In cap. iii. Nahum.
• S% The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
as clear as tlie sun, and that each one of the faithful can
and ought to read them and extract a creed from them ?
Really this is pushing the spirit of system too far. In
fact, whoever has studied the Bible somewhat seriously
. must be convinced a thousand times over of the truth of
St. Jerome's words.
St. Augustine^^ is no less explicit on this subject in his
work on the Christian Doctrine.
But let us listen awhile to the oracle of Lerins, St.
Vincent,^^ who attests that, * seeing the depth of the Scrip-
ture, all men cannot draw the same meaning from it.
One person interprets the divine oracles in one manner,
another in a way so altogether different that it seems as
if from the one source as many opinions may be taken
as there are heads to form them : one interpretation is
that of Novatian, another that of Sabellius; there are,
again, those of Donatus, Arius, Eunomius, Macedonius,
Photinus, ApoUinorus, Priscillian, Jovinian, Pelagius,
Celestius, and lastly Nestorius. This is why it is ex-
tremely necessary, on account of the numerous varia-
tions of error, that the interpretation of the writings of
the Prophets and Apostles should be directed by the
decisions of ecclesiastical tradition.' This is why he
would have ^what has been believed in all times and
places, as well as by all the foithful, carefully kept.'
And as if this were not sufficient to express his way
of thinking, he adds that *the peculiar property of the
Catholic and faithful son of the Church is taking care
to interpret the Scripture conformably to the tradition
of the universal Church,' &c.
It would be easy here to accumulate testimony from
*" De Doct. Christ. 1. ii. c. 6. " C!ommonitorium, c. 2.
J , '
The Protestant Ride of Faith. ^2)
all ages, but of what use would it be? Do not Protest-
ants recognise, at lea^ practically, that the Scriptures
are obscure, when, in order to understand them aright,
they call to their help all the rules of the hermeneutic art,
strive after making voluminous commentaries, study the
Oriental languages and the expressions used by contem-
poraries ? Is not this recognising implicitly that there are
numerous and grave difficulties in the Bible ? And still
every one knows that this immense amount of work pro-,
duces them no other result than that of an infinite variety
of opinions and interpretations. Evidently a very clear
book ought to be understood by every one and in the
same sense. From the moment that a large number of
men, studious, learned, and, at least apparently, lovers
of truth, cannot agree as to the right way of interpret-
ing a multitude of passages from the Bible, it is but
logical to conclude unhesitatingly that that Bible con-
tains difficulties, ambiguities, obsolete and now almost
incomprehensible expressions, passages of which the true
meaning could only be fixed by an infallible authority.
By means of the infallible authority of the Church which
interprets them, the Scriptures become a brilliant light
for the faithful; without this authority they can but
produce a chaos of different opinions, and increase the
darkness of error.
Doubtless, the Apostles, filled with the Holy Ghost,
perfectly understood the Scriptures which then existed ;
they could explain them without danger of mistaking
them ; and as they were intrusted by Jesus Christ with
teaching the people, they must certainly have communi-
cated the true sense of these Scriptures to the faithful.
54 The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
There is no doubt that it was the Apostles themselves
who originated that universal custom prevailing in
the first ages of the Church of reading and explain-
ing the sacred books in the public assemblies of the
Christians. This authentic interpretation given by the
Apostles, but whicli has not been written down, has been
preserved and propagated by Catholic tradition, that is
to say, by the teaching body constituted by Jesus Christ
and aided by the light of the Holy Ghost.
It is true, our adversaries say, it is true that Scrip-
ture is obscure in certain parts, but only in things which
are of little importance and fortuitous ; in essential things,
those necessary to be believed, it is so clear and lumin-
ous, that any one can extract from it the dogmas of faith,
and make for himself a creed from it.^^
To this worn-out objection, which, however, is still
often employed by Protestant writers, I answer : 1.
That this distinction between essential and fortuitous
things, in the way our adversaries understand it, or be-
tween the fundamental and non-fundamental articles,
was always unknown to Christian antiquity. The argu-
ments which have been brought forward to prove the
obscurity of the Scriptures in no way indicate this dis-
tinction. Still more, St. Peter^^ speaks in no equivocal
terms of the obscurity of the Scriptures even on essen-
tial points, since he makes reference to articles which the
unlearned and unstable wrest to their own destruction.
It is very evident that destruction and perdition indicate
errors in essential matters.
" See the discourse of the Rev, Mr. Doudiet, in the Quebec Morning
Chronicle of Feb. 15, 1872. »» 2 Epistle iii. 15. ^
' The Protestant Rtile of Faith. 55
2. But which, then, are the articles reputed to be
fundamental, and which must necessarily be believed, un-
der pain of no longer belonging to tlie Church of Christ,
under pain of damnation? On this point, as on many
others, it is again impossible for Protestants to agree.
Some would have tliose cease to be Christians who deny
the Trinity, and the Divinity of Jesus Christ ; others
refuse that title to those who reject baptism, or who
will have no Lord's Supper, or who refuse to admit the
Apostles' Creed. Others regard as fundamental the
articles which are clearly contained in the Bible, or
which are considered as necessary to salvation, or which
Jesus Christ and the Apostles have the oftenest and
most strongly recommended, or such as concern the
Divinity of Christ, or which were universally admitted
in the first ages, or are now to be found in all the
Christian sects. Others even go so far as to think that
it is neither necessary nor possible to make this distinc-
tion between fundamental and non-fundamental articles,
and that the best way is to destroy all creeds as so many
causes of division ; they not only deny the necessity of
unity of faith^ but even the necessity of faith ; their re-
ligious tolerance is so vast that it can embrace the whole
world, and make the names even of schism and heresy
disappear. Hence it is easy to conclude that, even in
things wherein belief is certainly necessary, the Scrip-
tures are not sufficiently clear to produce uniformity of
opinion among those who make a serious study of them.
3. Every day's experience marvellously confirms the
remarks I have just made. No one is ignorant of the
fact that, amongst the different Christian sects who look
56 The Bible and the Rttle of Faith.
upon Scripture as their rule of faith, may be found every
shade of opinion, even the most contradictory, on points
evidently essential ; for example, on the Divinity of
Jesus Christ, on the eternity of hell-fire, on the effects
of baptism, on the validity of infant baptism, on good
works as necessary to salvation, on the Real Presence of
Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist, &c. How, then,
boast of this pretended clearness of the Scriptures in
things necessary to salvation %
4. But let us suppose even that some, by dint of
labour and bv means of the rules of the hcrmeneutic art,
of Oriental tongues, and of archceology, should succeed in
elucidating the greater part of the difficulties, could that
suffice % No, certainly ; for whatever may be the skill
of these erudite scholars, their interpretation can never
be, in reality, anything more than that of individual
writers, to whom no one is bound to submit, nor to yield
complete and blind faith ; their authority, however great
it may be supposed to be, can never, in the eyes of the
people, bear the di^'ine mark of infallibility, which alone
is capable of producing in their minds that unity of faith
which Jesus Christ requires in His Church.
What is more, these learned men themselves, more
often than not, differ from one another in the meaning
they assign to the same passage of Scripture ; the one
will find, with Luther, that these perfectly clear words
of our Saviour at the Last Supper, ^ This is My Body,
this is My Blood,' announce the Real Presence of Jesus
Christ in the Eucharist ; another will maintain, with
Calvin, that they express nothing more than a sign, a
figure, a remembrance of our Saviour. On whom can
' The Protestant Ride of Faith. ^y
the simple faitliful, the unlearned man rely under similar
circumstances ? These men both appear to him of equal
learning : which opinion shall he embrace ? And if he
must make his decision on a purely human authority,
why should he not equally well adopt the interpretation
of the Catholics, who, even humanly speaking, count
amongst their ranks as many learned men of celebrity
as the Protestants can ? Let no one, then, boast to us
of the luminous clearness of the sacred books, since it
is impossible to interpret them in a uniform manner
elsewhere than in the Infallible Church of Jesus Christ.
Outside this irk of salvation there can be but that
obscurity, that maddening uncertainty which inevit-
ably leads to the ruin of all religious belit .' or to pure
rationalism.
II. The feebleness of the light of human reason is
another proof that the Pf otestant rule of faith, based on
the private interpretation of Scripture, is altogether in-
sufficient.
It is curious to expose another contradiction in liU-
ther's writings. According to him, individual reason
can and ought to inquire into the sense of the sacred
oracles; it is possible for it to understand them. Having
made such an affirmation, having laid down a similar
fundamental principle, it might be expected that he was
going to exalt the force of human reason, attributing to
it a power and a penetration which would guarantee it
from all grave errors. Not at all ; logic presents no
©bstacles to him. In his eyes, human reason, free will,
all, has in man not only been weakened, but absolutely
destroyed by original sin. But, then, how can this
58 The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
human reason, reduced to the most complete powerless-
ness, and in a state bordering on non-entity, scrutinise
the sublime depths and dissipate the undoubted obscurity
of Holy Scripture? Heave the solution of this difficulty,
if any solution is possible, to those whose glory it is to
profess the doctrines of the great Saxon reformer. Now
let us approach the question nearer, and demonstrate
that 'private j dgment or free imjuiry cannot he the di-
vinely-constituted interpreter of Holy Scripture, to which
every one should have recourse in matters of faith : in
other terms, free inquiry cannot be the proximate rule
of faith.
Jesus Christ cannot have given, as a rule of faith, ,
a means which never has been, cannot now, and never
will be employed by the greater part of the human race,
a means which, not only on account of the malice and
weakness of men, but by its very nature, must necessarily
give rise to the most ridiculous and contradictory opin-
ions, and which has only produced, and is still producing,
division and disorder.
Now such are the characteristics of the proximate
rule of faith, such are the well-known and inevitable
results of private inquiry, of the free interpretation of
Scripture. One glance will suffice to prove the truth of
this assertion.
1. How could these means have been made use of
during the fourteen centuries which preceded the inven-
tion of printing ? The entire canon of the Holy Scrip-
tures was only completed sixty years after our Saviour's
death, and consequently no one could search those books
which were not written till then. Can any one dare to
\
The Protestant Rule of Faith. 59
deny that these first faithful were good and perfect
Christians, more perfect even than those of our days —
they of whom the Scripture affirms that they were of
one heart and one soul, that they persevered in prayer,
in the breaking of bread, in giving alms, and other works
of charity % They were, then, Christians without Scrip-
ture, without having ever applied the force of their in-
dividual reason to understanding the sense of it. Yes,
they were perfect Christians through the preaching of
the Apostles and their successors; in other terms, through
the teaching Church which Jesus Christ left in substi-
tution for Himself here below, before making His glori-
ous ascension into heaven.
It must not be imagined that, after the death of the
Apostles, the Scriptures were at once gathered into one
volume, which each one had in his possession ; this
w^ould be a grave error. Certain individual churches
even did not acquire them till long after their publica-
tion ; others mixed with them various apocryphal or
profane writings, such as the diiferent gospels and apoca-
lypses, which are certainly neither divine nor authentic ;
as well as the epistles of St. Clement Romanus, St.
Barnabas, and the Pastor of Hermas, which are very
authentic, but not inspired ; others, again, admitted into
their canon only a part of the sacred books, because
they somewhat doubted the inspiration of the others.
It was only at the end of the fourth century that the
question was clearly decided, when the Council of Hip-
pone (393) and the Third Council of Carthage (397)
admitted into their canon all the books which the
Council of Trent included in it, and which we still
6o* The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
have. Pope Innocent I., St. Augustine, St. Gelasius I.,
and others also enumerated the same writings as the
Councils of llippone and Carthage. Can It indeed be
thought, that during this period of the great persecutions,
when so many faithful suffered martyrdom for the faith,
— can it be thought that there were no good and fervent
Christians ? And if there were, had they become so by
means of the Bible, which individual churches hardly
possessed ? Assuredly not ; and, as the illustrious Bishop
of Chrdons, Monseigneur Meignan, so well points out,
* the disciples of Jesus Christ had for a long time been
accustomed to recite the Pater, before that divine form
of prayer was written down ; for a long time the Apostles
had been baptising '' In the name of the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Ghost," before those sacramental words
were placed in a 'lOok; apostolic men had for a long
time been preaching and governing in the name of
Christ; and, in aw^ord, the Church had been constituted
long before our Gospels were arranged and published'
(p. 126).
I might add, that for a long time the Church had
been filling the entire world with its glory and its tri-
umphs, that her faith had been sealed with the blood of
thousands of martyrs, before a perfect understanding was
come to as regards the canon of the Scriptures. St.
Irenaeus, who lived towards the end of the second cen-
tury, speaks of the Christians scattered among the Gauls
in Germany, among the Sarmatians, &c., and he affirms
that they had not the sacred books in their possession.
Later, and during the Middle Ages, it continued to
be the custom to have extracts from the Old and the
\
\
The Protestant Rule of Faith. 6i
New Testament read aloud in their cliurclies on Sun-
days and holy days, and to comment on them, as is still
the practice in our day. But this is very diiFerent from
believino; that each one of the faithful had his Bible, read
it, interpreted it in his own manner, and drew from it
liis own creed. Besides, what could have been the
number of fortunate mortals who would be rich enough
to have the whole Bible carefully copied for them ? Ac-
customed as we are to have books at very moderate
])rices, we are led to fancy there were the same facilities
before the fifteenth century; but in that we make a
grave mistake. Bibles were to be found in episcopal
schools, in churches, particularly in monasteries, where
the monks occupied themselves in copying them, and in
some rich private houses : elsewhere very few were to
be met with.
Let us even suppose that it had been possible for all
to have them, how many would have been in a state
to profit by them ? Doubtless, very few. Elementary
and secondarv instruction were not as common as in
our day ; very small was the number of those who had
studied sufficiently to be able to read the Bible and un-
derstand what was in it.
The historian Macaulay says the same thing when
he writes : ' There was then through the greater part of
Europe very little knowledge, and that little was con-
fined to the clergy. Not one man in five hundred could
have spelled his way through a psalm ; books were few
and costly ; the art of printing was unknown. Copies
of the Bible, inferior in beauty and clearness to those
which every cottager may now command, sold for prices
€v The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
which many priests could not afford to ^ive. It was
obviously impossible that the laity should search the
Scriptures for themselves.'^*
Formerly a knowledge of reli^jfion was acquired, not
by perusing the sacred books, but by tradition, by oral
instruction, absolutely the same as our peasants, who,
when they do not know how to read, still learn their
prayers and their catechism ; and their religious know-
ledge was perhaps neither less extended nor less solid
than that of our modern demi-savants. Probably there
is no exaggeration in saying that nine-tenths of the
population were not in a position to read the manu-
scripts of the Bible. According to the Protestant system,
we should have to conclude, therefore, that these poor
unfortunate beings had no rule of faith, and were out of
the path of salvation.
Another rigorous consequence of this doctrine is,
that Jesus Christ must have established as a rule of
faith, as necessary to salvation, a means which, in the
first place, could only be employed by some few fortu-
nate ones of each age — a means which, even after the
discovery of printing and all the efforts of biblical so-
cieties, is not yet within reach of every one, and which
probably never will be. How many children, how many
people of every age, how many poor — above all, among
certain less-civilised nations — how many will never be
able either to read or appreciate for themselves all the
divine beauties of written revelation !
Who cannot at once see the radical error of such a
system ? What ! Jesus Christ, God infinitely good, who
•♦ History of England, chapter i. ^
\
' The Protestant Rule of Faith. 63
sacrificed even His life for the salvation of humankind,
could He have revealed to His cherished people a cer-
tain number of truths necessary to salvation, and then
have consigned them to a book which the greater num-
ber of men could never either read or understand, or in
any manner know ? Could He have never even given
them masters intrusted with making known to them
infallibly all the heavenly treasures of truth, love, and
tenderness which this book contains? Could He have
threatened them with eternal damnation if they had not
the faith, and then have given them no means of ac-
quiring it? Or, again, could He have waited several
centuries — that is to say, until the discovery of printing
— to make it a little more within their reach ? This
is simply incredible, and any one must be completely
under the reign of prejudice or the spirit of system
to maintain such a thesis. Is it not acknowledging, at
any rate tacitly, that our Lord has imposed on men an
. obligation of reaching an end without giving them the
means for arriving there ? Would not this be accusing
Him of injustice towards men, since He would be exact-
ing an impossible thing?
^ Let us speak out,' says Monseigneur Doney, Bishop
of Montauban, in his Letters on Protestantism (p. 107).
* It is frightful to think and to say that the revelation
of an infinitely wise and good God could lead to such a
result. You commence by making of revelation a reli-
gion which can only be directly known and studied by
the learned, or at any rate by those who know how
to read, provided they have the Word of God in their
hands written in a language which they understand.
64 The Bible and the Rule of Faith,
And thus the ignorant, the immense mass of the human
race, are condemned to only knowing religion through
the word and teaching of the learned. God has not
vouchsafed to communicate with them more immediately
and directly. But the learned themselves are condemned
to being never certain of having properly understood
and fathomed the intentions of God as contained in His
Word. God has placed the ignorant either under an
impossibility of knowing the religion He has vouch-
safed to reveal to us, or under the necessity of only
knowing it by the mouth of the learned ; and He has
placed the learned themselves under an impossibility of
making themselves sure as to whether they are teaching
properly what H"^ has written in the sacred books, and
what He has revealed. There is, I repeat, a frightful
derision in saying and thinking that God has acted
thus ; and if such is not what Jesus Christ Himself has
called a sin against the Holy Ghost, we must despair of
ever understanding the meaning of the clearest words.
Jesus Christ said then to the Jews, Do what the Scribes
and Pharisees teach you, because they are seated in the
chair of Moses ; and yet in His own Church He has
not established a chair to which Christians can address
themselves with the same confidence as the Jews ad-
dressed themselves to the synagogue.'
The Protestant system supposes, too, that each per-
son possesses a copy, or rather a translation, of the Bible
in a vulgar language which he understands. This is
evident ; for to give a Hebrew, Greek, or English Bil)le
to some one who only understands Italian or French, is
to make him a most useless present. It would be much
' The Protestant Riile of Faith. ^S
the same thing as presenting him with a copy of the
undecipherable hieroglyphics which cover the old tombs
or the obelisks of Egypt. To apply this system of free
examination of the Bible, it will either be necessary that
each person should learn one of the languages into
which the Bible has been translated, or else that there
be as many translations as there exist languages and
particular idioms on me whole surface of the globe.
No one has ever dared to maintain the first hypo-
thesis.
The second can hardly stand when considered seri-
ously. In fact, in order to translate well, we must have
as 'perfect an acquaintance as possible with every exist-
ing idiom. I say perfect; for otherwise one runs a great
risk of employing improper expressions, and distorting
the true meaning of the AVord of God, or giving it a
ridiculous and absurd meaninn;. It is moreover neces-
sary thoroughly to understand the languages in which
the Scripture was first given to the world — Hebrew,
Greek, Chaldean. To this must be joined theological
studies, a knowledge of manners and customs, a culti-
vated and ingenuous mind, erudition, prudence, right-
mindedness. Without all these it is impossible to obtain
the desired result.
Is it reaUy the case that the versions made by Pro-
testants for the different nations of Asia, Africa, and
Oceanica are exempt from numerous faults? Doubt-
less they praise their exactness ; but is such really to
be found? I will only mention one testimony, that
borne by Mr. Marshall in his work on this subject.
He maintains that the defective versions of Scripture
F
66 The Bible and the Ride of Faith.
produce a similar effect on the disciples of Confucius in
China to that which is produced in certain parts of
Great Britain by the Book of Mormons and Mormoimm;
there is only to be found in tliem a tissue of absurdities
and impious pretensions, which are not worth examining
into.i^
2. It is not even sufficient to have a good version of
the Bible and to be able to read it, we must also be in
a condition to understand it in its true sense; otherwise
this Bible becomes perfectly useless, and even hurtful,
since it may become to certain individuals a sadly fruit-
ful source of pernicious errors. Now, it cannot be un-
derstood by all, and we have already seen that, in a large
number of books and passages containing dogmas, the
sense is so obscure, that the greater luimber of people,
if left to themselves, would be absolutely incapable of
understanding the sense and extracting the true doc-
trine from it. I might add, that even the most learned
interpreters, with all their treasures of erudition, Avitli
all the resources of their science and genius, would never
be able, independently of the infallible authority of the
teaching Catholic Church, to draw from Scripture a
complete creed unspotted by error.
To be convinced of the truth of my assertion, is it
not enough to cast ;■ 'j^lance on the present state of Pro-
testantism? The 1... ts are as clear as the sun at noon-
day, and any one must be blind not to perceive both
them and the consequences ensuing therefrom. Luth-
erans, C.ilvinists, Methodists, Presbyterians Reformed
and Un-reformed, Episcopalians, Baptists, Anabaptists,
'^ Christian Missions, vol. i. p. 53.
The P)'otestant Ride of Faith. 6y
Pedobaptists, Free-will Baptists, Seventh-day Baptists,
Six-principle Baptists, Quaker Baptists, Anti-pedo-
baptists. Unitarians, Universalists, Socinians, Emanci-
])ators, Quakers, Jur ipers. Tumblers, Moravians, Non-
resistants, Illuminrii, Campbellites, Harmless Chris-
tians, Pri^nitive Christians, Puseyites, Free-communion
Baptists, Christian Connection, Come-outers, Fighting
Quakers, Swedenborgians, &c. ; all read the Scriptures,
all seek to understand them, and discover in them doc-
trines often entirely contradictory to one another. The
Rev. ]\Ir. Doudiet finds in this pell-mell of antagonis-
tic opinions all the beauty of the variegated colours of
the rainbow ; he has a horror of uniformity, as if truth
could vary with difterent individuals and different lati-
tudes. What appears beautiful to him, however, is a
monstrosity in the eyes of every philosopher ; for it is
indubitable that the Holy Ghost, who inspired the sacred
writers, can never have tauo;ht doctrines which are in
flagrant contradiction with one another. God, who is
the essence of truth, cannot teach error. If it is true
that Jesus Christ is God, that He is really present in
the Holy Eucharist, that it was He who instituted the
Sacraments, that there is an everlasting hell, &c., for
that very reason it is false to affirm that Jesus Christ
is not God, that He is not really present in the Holy
Eucharist, that He did not institute the Sacraments, and
that there is no everlasting hell. There is no medium, no
possible rainbow ; the same thing cannot be both true
and false. It must therefore be admitted that a great
ii umber of Protestants, who interpret Scripture according
to the light of reason, according to their private judg-
68 The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
ment, fall into grave errors. I will not yet determine
who is right or who is wrong ; for the moment I con-
tent myself with proving the insufficiency of individual
reason in arriving at an entire and certain knowledge of
the truths revealed in Scripture. Show me amongst
Protestants one single dogma, one single doctrine, which
has not met with adversaries founding their objections
on the Bible, and persuaded that they interpret that
Bible rightly, and I will hasten to proclaim the fact
everywhere. In the mean while, I maintain that Pro-
testants, with their fundamental principle of individual
interpretation, never have had, have not now, and never
will have a common symbol of faith, however limited
a one it might be. They may speak of Evangelical
Alliance as much as they please, hold pompous annual
assemblies, praise up the spectacle of their unity, the
final result will always be the same;^^ unity of faith is
radically impossible for them, and nevei' will Protestant-
ism verify those words of the Saviour : * There shall be
but one flock and one shepherd.'
But, it will be said, you count among Protestants
sects which are not even Christian.
When you will have decided what articles of faith
must be absolutely admitted under pain of ceasin^^ to be
Christian, then it will be allowable for you to refuse
this name to those who do not consent to receive them.
'8 Quebec Morniivf Chronicle, Feb. 27th, 1874. The Rev. Dr. Burns
had the courage to make these affirmations : ' Protestantism must be
looked on as a great united whole, in spite of the prejudice and passion
which the discussion of religious principle might evoke. Upon the great
points of Christian doctrine they are all one, the sole difference being
in matters of government. The Book brought them together and
united them.'
' The Protestant Ride of Faith. 69
But as you have never succeeded in coming to an agree-
ment on tliis point, and as all sects, founded like you on
the Bible, lay claim to being Christian, I do not know
why I should credit your word more than theirs, parti-
cularly since they take as the basis of their rule of faith
your fundamental principle of the free interpretation
of Scripture. Either renounce your principle or else
cease anathematising these sects when they do nothing
further than apply that very principle.
This is also what Abbo Magnin wisely remarked
when he wrote the followino; lines : ' ^Ir. Bost cannot
see the primacy of St. Peter nor that of the Pope in the
text Tu es Petrus ; he rejects the Catholic interpretation
of it, and according to his principle he is right. But
the Socinian cannot find the divinity of the Word in
Holy Scripture ; then according to the same p. inciple he
is right in denying it. Luther finds in the Scripture
that Real Presence which Calvin, on his side, has a right
to anathematise, because he does not find it there. The
Catholic finds there the supremacy of the Pope ; I ask
Mr. Bost himself, what does a Catholic's conscience dic-
tate to him when Holy Scripture speaks to him in these
terms ? Will this author say that all those who do not
understand the Bible in the same sense as himself are
unfaithful to the Holy Spirit or to tlie light of reason?
He would not dare to say so. Any reproach, too, that he
addressed to others, would they not have an equal right
to address to him ? Who could be judge between them ?
Scripture ? But she is silent ; violence is done her with-
out her saying a word in reply. The light of reason ?
Who is there that does not himself lay claim to possessing
70 The Bible and the Rule of F'aith.
it % Either, then, abjure the principle of the Reforma-
tion or keep silence on all errors in religion, recognising
the right of each to be called the pure word of God :
we see no mean between these two extremes.'*^
It is, then, unquestionable \\\?Xde facto this principle
of free interpretation has only led to endless subdivisions,
to a wh( ' ' swarm of sects more or less strange and dissi-
milar, having no other common bond than the Bible — a
dead letter which says nothing and tolerates everything —
and hatred of the Catholic Church. Seeing the horrible
medley formed by these different separated communions,
who could ever believe that they are all founded on the
same Bible? Who could even suspect that the Puseyite
has the same rule of faith as the Methodist, the Harm-
less Christian, or the Jumper? Tliey are as different
as night and day ; indeed, Luther and Calvin were, even
in the very midst of the Reformation, frightened at the
extent of these disagreements.
Let us now note well that these divisions and sub-
divisions are not due to accidental circumstances, ex-
trinsic to Protestantism ; they are in reality only the
natural product of its fundamental principle, free inves-
tigation, private interpretation of the Scripture. Pro-
testantism has no authority, and without authority unity
is but a dream, a mere chimera.
Poor human reason, although capable of acquiring a
certain amount of knowledge, is none the less weak,
tottering, exposed to error, and an easy prey to prejudice.
If it stumbles so often in proving natural truths, how
can it constitute itself queen and judge of supernatural
'^ La Pa]3aute aux Prises avec le Protestantisme , p. 309.
I »
f
, The Protestant Rule of Faith. 71
things? If uiiifcrmity of sentiment in philcsopliical
questions has never been arrived at, how can we ever
dare hope to attain it, apart from infallible authority, in
a sphere far beyond the reach of human intelligence?
How many sublime dogmas, how many abstract doc-
trines are contained in Holy Scripture, and which the
greater number of the faithful are not capable of dis-
cerning! How many unfathomable mysteries! How
many expressions whose meaning we might completely
misunderstand ! For example, who, the Bible in their
hand, could extract from it the famous Thirtv-nine
Articles of the English Church, or the Apostles' Creed?
Who cannot at once see that such a task is even
above intelligences which, although cultivated, have not
made an habitual and special study of the Scripture?
Theologians well know that there are a multitude of
arduous questions very dangerous to orthodoxy ; they
are like narrow slippery paths on the edge of frightful
precipices : the least deviation from the right way may
involve you in the gulf. Under such circumstances
what would inexperienced and but little instructed
Christians do? Each one would take his own course
and blindly rush towards the abyss. Or, again, one day
we might think we had discerned the truth, but the
next day other texts w^ould present themselves and renew
hesitation and doubt ; then what we had taken for the
pure word of God would vanish away like a dream.
How painful it must be to the Protestant desirous
of knowing revealed truth not to be able to put aa end
to this perpetual fluctuation of doctrine, to seek vainly
for a more solid foundation than the quicksands of
7 2 The Bible and the Ride of Faith.
human reason, to be incessantly turning over tlie pages
of the mysterious book, and not be able to derive any-
thing more from it than discouraging silence, to find it
only a dead letter ! What must not be his anxiety at
seeing himself, on a multitude of points, contradicted by
millions of Christians as intelliiient and learned as him-
self! Might he not thence conclude that it is not pos-
sible Jesus Christ can have left His belorved, whom He
bought with His own blood, in all the terrible anguish
of uncertainty, that He had given them an imprac-
ticable rule of faith, far beyond their comprehension,
and which, from its very nature, must necessarily breed
innumerable divisions? Why should He have come to
bring a holy doctrine to men if, notwithstanding all their
efforts, they were only to gather up some miserable frag-
ments of the truth, to see only a weak, uncertain, vacil-
lating light, quite insufficient to guide them to the
heavenly country?
^To condemn each one of the faithful to form for
himself a faith from the Scripture, to seek for each
separate truth of Christianity by the deceiving light
of reason, is to place him on the road to error, and for-
bid him, in his work, the use of the traditional sense ;
not only exposing him thereto, but condemning him to
it inevitably and necessarily ; for it is putting him in a
labyrinth without the only clue for escaping therefrom.
Only look up and see : no child of the Keformation can
tell by what characteristics he recognises the Holy Writ-
ings, whence comes to him the book containing them,
whether it has reached him free from all alteration, and
if in its interpretation he does not take error for truth.
' t The Protestant Ride of Faith. , 75
Protestantism, in the position it has made for itself, re-
sembles the Wandering Jew, perpetually pursuing an
object it can never reach. Like a blind man, it cannot
see in the brightest light, and gropes about in the full
blaze of noonday. It wished to separate what God had
indissolubly united — the Church and the Bible; and,
behold, one of those terrible and just judgments has be-
fallen it which we cannot contemplate without horror.
The book of the divine Word has become unintelligible
to it ; it has, so to speak, become a blank : for Protest-
antism it is like the book sealed with seven seals, be-
fore which the prophet of Patmos wept bitterly, because
no man could open it.''^
Another cause of error and division amongst all
these partisans of the Bible alone is the numerous pre-
judices brought to the reading of the inspired Book.
The Scriptures are not read after throwing aside all
preconceived ideas, and in order to find out what God
really has revealed, but only to find there the doctrine
with which we have been imbued from infancy ; and we
always find it there. Children brought up in Pres-
byterianism, going through the Scriptures with their
inherited prejudices, will almost infallibly fancy they
discover in the Bi))le all the doctrines of their sect ; it
will be the same thing with Quakers, Moravians, Me-
thodists, Baptists, and others ; and thus the God of all
truth will be made to say the most contradictory and
absurd things.
It is thus that * kings to justify their tyranny have
brought forward the words : " You shall rule them with
" Maguin, ha Papaute aux Prises avec le Protestantisme, p. 320.
74 The Bible and the Rule of Faith, '
a rod of iron."''-* And the peo])le to overthrow the kin^s
have quoted this verse : " lie hath put down the mighty
from their seat."^° During the Peasants' War an insur-
gent aspired to tlie command by applying the following
words to himself: '^ Lifting up the poor out of the dung-
hill."^^ Add to these that there is no unchasteness
which has not been authorised bv these words of the
Bible : " Increase and multiply."-^ Luther married in
spite of his vow of chastity, because he had read in the
Sacred Book : " It is not good for man to be alone."
' It has been justly remarked that the English Parlia-
ment, when sanctioning Henry VIII.'s divorce from Ca-
therine, in order to justify his marrying Anne Boleyn,
ought to have justified its proceedings by saying that it
was written in the First Book of Kino-s : " Because he
loved Anne." In a word, every one has sought and
found what he wished in the Bible. Erasmus said —
so persuaded was he that reading the Bible could not
form true faith in souls — that the interpretation of the
Scriptures by individual minds had never ended in any-
thing but laming texts which walked perfectly straight.'^^
Once more, is it credible that the Saviour of the
world can have given so ruinous a foundation to His
Church, that He can have left His doctrine a prey to
human disputes, as well as the perversity and feebleness
of our reason? Whence arose all the monstrous heresies
which infested the early ages of the Christian Church,
and which Protestants repudiate with the same horror as
'9 Revelations xix. 15. «' St. Luke i. 52.
2' Psalm cxii. 7. " Genesis i. 28.
" Berseaux, TJEgU&e et le Monde, p. 173.
The Protestant Ride of Faith, y^
we do? Only from a false interpretation of the Bible.
This is what made St. Augustine remark: 'Heresies
have had no other origin than the Scriptures, which,
though good in themselves, are not well understood. '^^^
The theolofjian Eck recomiised this same truth when
he said to Luther: 'Martin, none of the heresies which
have rent the Church have sprung from aught but the
interpretation of the Scriptures. The Bible is the
arsenal whence each innovator has drawn his argu-
ments.'^^
* If the world should subsist a long time,' says Luther,
' with all these different interpretations which are given
of Scripture, no other means for preserving unity would
remain to us than receiving the decrees of the Councils
and taking refuge in their authority.' 'Nothing throws
so much discredit on our Gospel as our own intestine
discord.' ' We know well enough whom to avoid, but
not whom to follow.'
'It is of great importance,' wrote Calvin to Melanc-
thon, 'that future ages should 1. no suspicion of the
divisions which reign among us ; or it is more ridi-
culous than can be imaijined, that after havinnr broken
with everj one else, we agree so badly among ourselves
from the very commencement of our Reformation. '^"^
'But,' resumes Abbe Constant, 'of what use proving
by history a fact which occurs every day before our eyes
among Protestants? For example, does the faculty
" Aug. Tract. 18 in Joan. ' Non aliunde iiatae sunt haereses nisi
dum Scripturap bonoD intelliguntur non bene.'
" See Audin, Jlistoire de Luther, vol. i. c. 20.
'^ See Bishop Charvay of Pignerol's Le Guide du Catechumene
Vaudois (Paris, 1840), ii. 9-11.
f$ „ TAc Bible and the Rule of Faith.
of Geneva, whieli does not believe in tlic divinity of
Jesus Christ, interpret in the same way as the faculty
of Montauban, which still defends that dogmi:^ the fol-
lowing passa<ie of St. John : " And the Word was God" ?
The words, " This is My body," do tliey bear the same
meaning for the Lutherans of Alsace, who believe in
the Ileal Presence, as for the Swiss Calvinists, who reject
it?
* Do Mr. Gorham and the supreme tribunal of the
Church of England, who have decided that the recep-
tion of baptism was optional for salvation, take in the
same sense as the Bishop of Exeter these words of our
Lord: ^'Go, teach all nations, baptise them," &c.; "If any
one be not born again by water," &c.? Do we not find
that all the sects which abound by hundreds in England
and the United States maintain that the extravagant
ideas which form their creed — when they have one — are
to be found in the Scripture? and every day do we not
see the number of these sects increased by a different
interpretation of some biblical text?'^^
This confusion of religious ideas, this Babel of opi-
nions and systems, so far from diminishing, has gone
on increasing, and will fatally result in individualism ;
from individualism to the complete destruction of all
supernatural religion there is but a step, and this
step, unhappily, many have already taken. From all
that has been said in the preceding pages I draw the con-
clusion that Jesus Christ cannot have given the Holy
Scriptures, as left to the free interpretation of each in-
dividual, as a rule of faith to men, first, because this
^ Histoire de VInfaillibilitd des Papcs, vol. ii. p. 448.
The Protestant Rule of Faith. JJ
rule of faitli would be impossible, materially impractic- *
able for the greater number of men and at a ' periods;
secondly, because even cultivated minds are not capable
of deduciiifj from it the dofjmatic truths which are the
basis of Christianity ; thirdly, because this rule of faitli
can only lead to interminable divisions, to innumerable
sects, of whom the greater number cannot be otherwise
than entangled in the paths of error and repudiated by
Jesus Christ, who is truth itself, and must necessarily
therefore detest error.
Individual reason applied to the inter])retation of the
Holy Scriptures is, then,. insufficient to understand them,
and cannot be the rule of faith which our Lord has
given to men.
• SECOND ARTICLE.
Illusion of those who think that each one of the faithful who piously
reads the Holy Scriptures receives from the Holy Ghost a special
help, a supernatural enlightenment, enabling him to understand
the real sense of it — This system is not founded on the Word of
God ; it infers the actual reading of the Bible, and consequently
cannot be applicable to every one ; it is calculated to give rise to
iUusions and religious fanaticism.
Certain Reformers, perceiving that reason, left to its
own strength, is powerless to discern the truths revealed
in the Scriptures, and, in a word, can only be the grave
of all religious belief, conceived the idea of substituting
for it a supernatural and interior illumination of the
Holy Spirit, communicating itself to individuals prepared
to receive it. Luther himself seems neitlier to have
been a stranger nor hostile to this rule of faith.
In this system everything is subordinate to inspira-
tion, even the Holy Scripture. It is in this illumination
that they make their proximate rule of faith consist.
78 The Bible and tJie Rule of Faith,
However, certain conditions are necessary before the
Holy Spirit thus enliglitens the readers of the Bible.
Here is how the minister Mounot, the ^ converter of the
Lyonnesc,' expresses himself on this subject: ^Take then
the Bible; read it, but on your knees; the Holy Ghost
who wrote it will Himself explain it to your heart. If
some persist in maintaining that the Bible is obscure,
let them know that it is only obscure for them and by
their own fault.' Several other Protestant writers ex-
press tliemselves in a similar manner. Such appears
to be the doctrine of the Anabaptists, Quakers, Modern
Methodists or Wesleyans, Swedenborgians, Mennonites,
Moravian Brothers, &c. According to them the Church,
rites, the sacraments, creeds, apostolical tradition, all is
human ; the Scripture alone is divine.
But this rule of faith has several very grave and
even radical faults, among others — first, its not being
founded on the Word of God ; secondly, being imprac-
ticable for the greater number of men ; thirdly, ptoduc-
ing many illusions and obstinate fanaticism; fourthly,
rendering all our holy books useless.
I. This principle or this rule of faith is neither
founded on the Word of God })reserved by tradition —
besides which they do not admit tradition — nor on the
written Word of God. When we look into the inspired
books we sec clearly that the assistance of the Holy
Ghost was promised to the Apostles and their successors
to enable them to teach all truth, all that Jesus Christ
Himself had taught them; but nowhere do we find that
this promise has been made to each of the faithful. All
the sacred texts they bring forward to prove their
■>
The Protestant Rule of Faith. 79
strange tliesis show tliat God constantly disposes hearts
by His holy grace and renders them docile; that lie
governs the human race with His benign Providence;
that He sometimes gives extraordinary lights to His .
elect to enable them to arrive at tlie summit of perfec-
tion ; but in no manner do these texts prove that God
has promised to give to each o!ie direct inspiration or
illumination, enabling him to extract the dogmatic sense
of Scripture in general, and constituting him a supreme
judge of the faith.
Besides, these texts, which serve as a basis to this
system, are interpreted in a different sense, not only by
Catholics, but also by all Protestants who only admit
as a rule of faith that private interjiretation of Scrip-
ture of which we spoke in the preceding article. This
divergence of opinions as to the meaning of texts ought
naturally to inspire the partisans of direct illumination
with a fear lest they should be themselves in error. If
piety and good-will are sufficient to cause the rays of
divine light to be shed on the Scri])tures, how comes it
that the Ethiopian eunuch, St. Jerome, St. Augustine,
St. Chrysostom, and so many other personages, illus-
trious by their pious lives and their sincere love of
truth, did not also receive these celestial illuminations,
which would have prevented their complaining of the
obscurity of the Scriptures ? This pretended individual
inspiration has, then, no foundation in the written Word
of God.
II. This rule of faith is impracticable for the greater
number of men. It will be said that this is a strange
assertion : if the Holy Ghost vouchsafes Himself to
8o The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
teach men, what easier and surer method could be
devised? That is true; but this divine teaching also
])resnpposes the actual reading of the Bible ; you arc
indeed told to read the Scripture, but piously and on
your knees.
To such a system, there is no need of giving any
very serious rej)ly ; I will content myself with saying
to these partisans of divine inspiration : ^ Yes, read the
Bible piousl}', all of you Protestants who do not know
how to read ; particularly do not fail to read it on your
knees, otherwise the Holy Ghost might perhaps not ,
enli<ihten you, and the Sacred Book mi<jht remain as
unintelligible to you and as closely sealed as that which
the Apostle St. John wept at not being able to open!
You also who do not know whether what is presented
to you as the Bible is in reality a book inspired by God
you who do not know if the version presented to you is
authentic, complete, and faithful, do you keep on read-
ing the Bible piously and on your knees ! The Spirit
of God will make known to your intelligence whether it
be exact and complete or altered and incomplete ; it will
suggest to you the meaning of each passage ; it will give
you a course of biblical exegesis.' How many miraeles
to make everybody understand the Scripture !
But then there can be no more obscurity, no iiore
uncertainty ; all becomes clear as the sun at noon-day.
Doubtless it is because certain Protestants do not read
their Bible on their knees and piously, that their co-
religionists often reproach them with understanding it
but little or interj)reting it so badly ; unless, indeed, all
these contradictory interpretations by our modern vision-
The Protestant Rule of Faith. H i
aries oiirrht not to be looked on as true Jind dictated bv
the Holy Ghost, and that the Holy Ghost — of whom,
])crha])s, some no longer recoirnise the divinity — does not
sufjtjest the yes or no, the true and the false, accordinix
to circumstances. To advance such a proposition is in
the eyes of a Catholic to utter a blasphemy.
However, I am far from denying that the Holy Ghost
sometimes enlightens men in a more particular manner
provided they sincerely seek the truth, and above all by
the means ordained by God, through the ministry of
legitimate pastors.
IH. This same Protestant rule of faith is calculated
to produce many illusions and a blind fanaticism. AVho
does not know that man may often, j)articularly when his
imagination is lively or a little excited, take for superna-
tural, for divine inspiration, that which s])rings from his
own self, that which is only a passhig enthusiasm, a
momentary over-excitement ? History is at hand to bear
witness to the frequent illusions into wdiich a man of
good faith can allow himself to be hurried away under
the empire of this pretended illumination. AVhat
follies did not the Montanists practise, guided by Mon-
tanus and Priscilla?
Did not Montanus declare himself exempt from error,
by his doctrine superior to Christ Himself, and did he
not believe himself to be the Paraclete promised to the
world by Jesus Christ? What can be said of the extra-
vagances of certain Gnostic sects of the early ages of the
Church and of the llluminati of the Middle Ages, who
often joined the greatest immorality and the most obsti-
nate fanaticism to their strange wild notions'? Perhaps
82 The Bible and the Rule of FaHh.
our modern visionaries will refuse to admit beneath their
banners tlie authors of so manv eccentricities and crimes;
still they ought at least to recognise that, their prin-
ciple being the same, it may lead to equally sad conse-
quences.
However, let us examine a little into what this system
has produced since the Reformation. Whoever has read
history is acquainted with the excesses, the violence, the
savage brutality of the Anabaptists at Munster and
in other towns of Germany and the Low Countries, the
fearful delirium of a Thomas Munzer, of a John of Ley- ' ,
den, of a Kattman, of a KnipperdoUing, and others. In
their moments of inspiration they ravaged towns, com-
mitted horrible massacres, proclaimed polygamy, &c.
David George went so far as to proclaim himsell'^Ae true
Son of God. Let them also recall the frenzied delirium
of the shoemaker George Fox, head of the sect of
Quakers, and the pretended illuminations, the strange
commotions, the agitations, tremblings, sighs of his co-
religionists in the midst of their assemblies, when the
Spirit of God visits them. What might not be said of
the Methodist camp-meetings and of their ministers, who,
according to the. testimony of the preacher Rauschen-
busch,^^ have no real knowledge of the Bible and are
without any scientific culture? The same writer adds'^^
that, during their divine service, preaching, or prayer,
they make such an uproar, by all crying at once, that it
is absolutely impossible to understand whoever is preach-
ing or declaiming a prayer. They take all these illusions,
these artificial groans and this extraordinary over-excite-
" Die Nachte des Westens, p. 32, Barmen, 1847. ^b jbij. p. 43^
The Protestant Rule of Faith. 8 ;
ment, for the supernatural action oftlie Holy Ghost.
Again, what a sensation was created in England by
Joanna Southcott, a visionary who, at the end of the
last century and commencement of the present, was
always acting under the direction of the Spirit of God,
giving passports for heaven furnished with three seals,
and promising soon to give a new Messiah ! She had
many followers, and even after her death, which hap-
pened in 1814, many continued to believe inher, although
her promised Messiah had not made his appearance.
It can easilv be understood how, with so elastic a
principle as that ^each person is free to follow the in-
terior spirit by which he feels himself inspired,' great
lengths may be gone. There are some who have even
carried their folly so far as to proclaim that adultery,
homicide, and all other crimes do not render man less
agreeable to God ; that grace abounds there where sin
had most abounded, &c.; that from the moment where-
in any one believes himself to be under the influence of
the Holy Ghost, he can do what seems best to him — give
himself up to the greatest disorders, even become dan-
gerous to society ; nothing can be said ; it is God who
is leading him and ins])iring him to commit these acts.
Hence that frenzy which may be remarked among these
sectarians, when they persuade themselves they are act-
ing according to the inspiration of heaven ; no obstacle
can stop them ; advice becomes useless. Some there
have been seen who, being condemned to death and con-
ducted to the foot of the scaftbld, believed thev saw the
heavens opened and Jehovah holding out His arms to
welcome them to His kinjidom. It is an incontestable
§4 ^/^^ Bible and the Rule of Faith.
fact tliat, if this j)rinci|)le were universally adopted,
Christianity would, in certain ])()ints of view, become
worse than j)a<5anisni, and would be of a nature to exer-
cise a most disastrous influence over the masses.
Let it not be said that the examples given above are
exceptional ; they are cases which recur frequently and
inevitably among all these sects of enthusiasts. It is
easy to become convinced of this by casting a glance at
the annals of history, which contain thousands of facts
analogous to those of which I have spoken.
IV. This principle of individual inspiration, once
admitted, would render the Scriptures useless. For if
God had chosen this interior teaching of the Holy Ghost
as a means for conducting all men to the truth, doubtless
it would have been sufficient in itself, and then there
would have been no need of exterior teachin<c- How-
ever, we know that God chose to give us an exterior
revelation, and that by so doing He has subjected us to
a teaching from without. Doubtless God could have
adopted some other means, just as He might have ren-
dered us at once perfect : but it was not His will to do
so ; it i? '"or us to submit ourselves to His adorable de-
crees. vV'^ith this doctrine of inspiration, of what use
are the Scriptures ? of what usethe Apostolate? of what
utilitv can a teaching Church be ? This baneful error
annihilates the work of Jesus Christ, submitting it to
the caprices and mental aberrations of each individual,
and allowing of the suppression of man's redemption as
, a useless work.
Th", Protcstanl Rule of Faith. ^^^
THIRD ARTICLE.
The authority of a fnlliblo Chnrch, such as admitted by Anplioanp,
cannot be the real rule of faith — It cannot put an end to religious
controverHios ; it offers no guarantee of orthodt)xy — Anglicanism
and Pufloyism bring uh back ultimately to the private examination
of the Scriptures — The Gorham atlair.
Anglicans claim to follow an intermediate conrsc
between what tliev call llomanmn, with its infallible
authority, and the endless multitude of (/issentlent sects,
whose fundamental principle of private interpretation of
the Scriptures tends essentially to farther subdivisions
amonf]r their members. It is, however, manifest that
Anglicanism, as we are about to see, is in reality nothing
more than one of those sects it affects to look down upon,
for its fundamental principle is ultimately the same.
The Thirty-nine Articles which serve as its basis,
and which have been borrowed from Catholicism, from
Lutheranism, oiul more particularly from Calvinism,
were drawn up in 15()2. According to tliis system Holy
Scripture is the onh/ source of revelation (Art. (J) ; the
Deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament are re-
jected as well as tradition. The Apostles' Creed, the
Nicaean, and the Athanasian are admitted (Art. 8),
but only because they are regarded as conformable to
Scripture. For the same reason the hierarchy, con-
sisting of bishops, priests, and deacons, is retained ; but
the King of England has been arbitrarily substituted
for Peter and his successors, whom Jesus Christ chose
to be the foundation of His Church (Arts. 23, 26, 32^
36, 37) ; it is by the king's authority that the bishops,
priests, and deacons are ordained and established in
their functions (Arts. 33, 36, 37). It is by his order
86 The Bible and the Rule of Faith,
also tluit universal councils are convoked, which councils
are expressly declared and reco<]jnise(l as fallible and
subject to error (Art. 21). It is true that in Art. 20
is recognised the Church's right to decide in discussions
of faith and to interpret Holy Scripture; but her de-
cisions must be drawn from the Scripture itself, outside
of which she has neither right nor power. If the faith-
ful discover that the decisions of their Church are not
conformable to the sacred text, they are at liberty to re-
ject them. Any way, it is the king who ultimately pro-
nounces dogmatic decisions; no higher authority than his
can be appealed to; and thus that infalliJnlltfj which is re-
fused to the Church is implicitly acknowledged in him.
This, then, is the curious mixture of doctrines which
constitutes the basis, the rule of faith, of the Anglican
Church, of the High Church of England : on the one
side a fallible Church, intrusted with putting an end to
controversies by the examination of Holy Scripture ; on
the other, the faithful, who are not obliged to submit to
its decisions, except in so fur as they find them conform-
able to the Bible.
It is very evident that everything is eventually re-
duced to the free examination, the private judgment, of
the Bible. The authority of the Church can, then, only
be that of a body of learned men, v^ho throw more or
less light on the complicated questions of theology, on
the difficult texts of the Bible, but whom nobody is
bound to obey, from the moment they are believed to
be entangled in error. Such a Church may well say :
* I think that such or such a doctrine is revealed ; it
seems to me that it is contained in the teachings of
Jesus Christ ;* but never will she be able to say : ^ Such
The Prolestant Rtile of Faith. 87
or such a truth is certainbj re^'ealed ; it must necessarUjf
be believed on pain oflosincr all hopes of salvation ; it is
an article of faith buulivft on alU Sucli a way of ex-
pressing themselves as this can only be found amon<^
those who have a perfect conviction that they are not
deceivintr themselves, and who are absolutelv certain of
having the perpetual assistance of the Holy Ghost, as is
the case with the Catholic Church.
Let us suppose for an instant that a member of the
Anglican Church should compare with the Holy Scrip-
tures that doctrine contained in the Thirty-nine Articles
which only admits the Sacraments of Baptism and the
Lord's Suj)per, which contains the Creeds of the early
ages, which proclaims justification by faith (done with-
out works, and that he should become intimately con-
vinced that the Bible also contains the doctrine of the
Sacrament of Penance (which Henry VHL always looked
on as necessary), that it (the Bible) occasionally con-
tradicted the early Creeds, that it recognises the neces-
sity of good works besides faith for salvation : could he
not, ought he not even to abandon that fallible Church,
which has in reality taught him error, or kei)t back a
part of revealed doctrine? If he has any doubts as to
the orthodoxy of the teaching imparted by his Churcli
— and who would not have in a Church which proclaims
itself liable to error? — is he not strictlv oblitred to in-
quire into whatever is the object of his doubts ? Now
all may be and ought to be uneasy about knowing if
the way they are in is the right or the wrong, the good
or the bad, way ; the question is a most important one,
since it • v rerns eternal salvation or reprobation; all
these ou ; satisfy themselves whether the Thirty-
88 The Bible and the Rule of Faith,
nine Articles, and the subsequent decisions of their
Church, be in perfect harmony with the Scriptures.
But who are those who are in a state to engage in such
a study, even supposing tliey have a faithful version of
the inspired books ? IIow many are there whose mind
is sufficient! V cultivated and who have sufficient leisure
to undertake such a difficult work and succeed in it ? I
do not hesitate to say that the number must be exces-
sivelv limited.
We see, then, first, that this authority, held by a falli-
ble Church, cannot put an end to religious controversies;
secondly, that it cannot offer any guarantee of orthodoxy
or certainty to those who profess to recognise it ; thirdly,
that it brings them back eventually to the private ex-
amination of the Scriptures. Therefore it is easy to
conclude that this system is insufficient, impossible, and
opposed to revelation, as we have already shown.
The Puseyite system, which aims at a nearer ap-
proach to the Catholic rule of faith, is subject to the same
disadvantages as the preceding. It is not founded on
Scripture, for the very reason that it declares the Church
could err, and did err after the first four or five centuries,
thereby proclaiming the Church of Jesus Christ to be
fallible, and that each individual should verify its defi-
nitions by examining whether they are conformable to
Scripture. Here we arrive again at private examina-
tion, individual interpretation of the Bible.
Let us see whether facts do not confirm what we
have just said. Dr. Marsh, the Anglican Bishop of Pe-
terborough, affirms that the Church of England extends
her authority no farther than a concern for her own
preservation rigorously exacts ; he adds, that no one is
The Protestant Rtde of Faith. 89
obliged to accept an interpretation given by the Church
if he thinks it false, and that, in the latter case, he is
altogether free to separate himself from Anglicanism.^^
The Rev. Father Perrone has cleverly treated the same
question. In the following terms^^ he draws up an
historical statement of the animated discussions which
took place in the English Parliament in 1840 : ' In the
heat of the contest which took place on the subject of
the Thirty-nine Articles, and which the new Oxford
school only rendered still more animated by seeking to
give these articles an interpretation approaching nearer
to lioman doctrines, the petitions of a great number of
Anglican ministers were presented to the Parliament
but a few years ago, with a view of obtaining some
modification in these articles, as well as in the Book
'>r Common Prayer. Hence arose that stormy debate
which took place in the Parliament, March 2Gth, 1840,
when the Anglican bishops showed themselves to be
divided on the question of the authority of their Church.
On the one side, the Bishop of Norwich claimed that
the English Church was founded on lihertij of conscience
and on the right of private juchjnientj and that a refusal
to admit certain doctrinal points of the Liturgy or of
the Athanasian Creed ought not to prevent any one
from being admitted to Holy Orders. On the other
side, the Bishop of London protested that such a claim
was an injury done to the Established Church, and that
the only means of maintaining this latter was to keep
the needle of the theological compass steady : upon which
some other person observed, the compass was twisted
^ Comparative View of the Churches of England and Rome^ ch. viii.
" Eegola di Fede, vol. i. p. 542.
90 The Bible a7id the Rule of Faith.
round, and that nobody was any longer able to put it
straight again.'
And tliis same truth the Anglican Archbishop of
Dublin had proclaimed some few years previously
(August 7th, 1833) in that same House of Peers, say-
ing * that there was neither any individual nor body of
individuals, in the Anglican Church, to whom any doubt
or difficulty whatever could be referred for solution ; in
a word, no constituted authority to which recourse might
be had for the decision of questions of this sort.'^^
There was a case that occurred in England but a
few years ago, which shows in the clearest manner that
the Anglican Church has no authority in doctrinal mat-
ters, that its Creed is a nullity, and that a man may
deny anything and yet not cease to be a member of it.
This was the recent Gorliam case. * Nominated by the
irovernment to be minister of a church in the diocese of
Exeter, he met with a refusal of investiture to his cure
from Bishop Philpotts, on account of his denying the
dogma of baptismal regeneration. This refusal made a
great sensation, and the Anglican Church was divided
into two parties, the one for Gorham, the other for the
Bishop of Exeter. Gorham appealed against his bishop's
sentence before the Queen's Privy Council, which is
considered the supreme authority in matters of religious
controversy. In the mean while the Bishop of Exeter,
fearing perhaps a sentence unfavourably, to the step he
had taken, wrote the energetic letter we reproduce here:
' Very serious doubts have arisen in the minds of a
great number on the point of knowing whether the An-
glican Church, by accepting this judgment in a passive
" Dublin Review, no. xxii. November 1840.
The Protestant Riile of Faith. 91
manner, would not lose its rights to be regarded as a
portion of the Church of Jesus Christ. This is why
there are strong reasons for fearing that the sole effect
of such a judgment would be to drive away from our
Church a large number of its members, who would, per-
haps, submit themselves to Rome — to that Church which
promises repose as the price of having sought after the
truth. Lastly, I declare that 1 can neither remain with-
out sirij nor will 1 any longer remain, should God vouch-
safe me the grace, in communion with him [the Arch-
/ bishop of Canterbury], who will abuse the high charge
confided to him, by giving mission and charge of souls
within the limits of my diocese.'
' But the opinion of the Queen's Privy Council was
not long in being given, and it was to the effect that
each individual had a right to hold the opinion which
, seemed to him best as to the nature and effects of bap-
tism. The Anglican Church humbly submitted to this
sentence, and the terrible Bishop of Exeter, not to lose
the favour he enjoyed, judged it expedient to grant in-
vestiture to Gorham ; and thus finished the noisy dis-
putes which this affair had stirred up. Gorham had
not, in the main, done anything more than conform to
Article 15, by maintaining that the doctrine of bap-
tismal regeneration is not founded on the written Word
of God, interpreted in his manner, and no one had a
right to condemn liim.'^^
These facts, and thousands of others we could relate,
give convincing proof that a fallible Church cannot lay
down a rule of faith, since she has not the authority
necessary for producing unity, and can give no certainty.
" Perrone, Eegola di Fede, yoI. i. p. 545.
CHAPTER ITI.
The contradictions existing between the Protestant rule of faith and
those who profess it — Bible colportage — Results obtained.
1. Jlie Bible, all the Bible, and nothing but the Bible;
the Bible interpreted according to each person''s reason
and feeling ; no doctrine can be received as an article of
faith if it is not contained in the Bible, This is the fun-
damental principle of all the Protestant sects, whatever
name they take and whatever may be their oritrin.
Now this principle is by no means contained in the
Bible, as we have already shown. These sects, there-
fore, cannot admit their own fundamental principle
without believing sometliins which is not in the Bible.
This is di first contradiction.
2. Not only is this principle not contained in the
Bible, but it is altogether in opposition with the testi-
mony of Holy Scripture. The truth is, Jesus Christ
Himself wrote nothing; then, when He chose His Apos-
tles, He did not say to them, * Go and write Bibles,
which you shall distribute all over the world ;' neither
did He say to the faithful, ^ Take a Bible, read it, un-
derstand it as well as you can, and make of it a rule of
your faith and of your conduct.' But He said to His
Apostles, ^ Go, teach all nations, baptising them in the
name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost,
teaching them to observe what I have commanded you;
The Protestant Ihtlc of Faith. 93
and behold I am with you even to the end of time.' He
says again to them, * Go to the vvliole woild ; preach the
Gospel to every living creature : he who believes and is
baptised shall be saved; he who believes not shall be con-
demned.' He adds elsewhere, ^ lie who hears you hears
Me ; he wdio despises you despises Me ;' ' He who hears
not the Church, let him be to you as a publican and a
heathen.' Then might be seen the Apostles preach-
ing, and preaching incessantly ; some of them writing
Epistles and Gospels, but only to meet the necessities
of certain persons or certain particular churches, the
greater number of them writing nothing. Their suc-
cessors preach equally, and do not busy themselves much
with propagating that Bible, which, if we believe the
Protestants, is nevertheless so necessary, so indispensable.
Everywhere and at all times they teach with authorit}-;
the faithful are submissive to them on all points ; there
is no trace of this individual liberty in the inter])retation
of doctrine laid claim to by Protestantism. Can there
possibly be found a more striking opposition than that
which exists between the fundamental principle of our
adversaries and the word of Jesus Christ, and also with
the constant and universal practice of the Church? If
this is not a contradiction of their own principle, it is at
least an evident contradiction of the words of our Saviour
as contained in the Bible, for which they profess such
profound respect. Contradiction the second,
3. Protestants admit the inspiration, the authority,
the integrity of the sacred books contained in their
Bible ; the greater number recognise the validity of in-
fant baptism, or of baptism conferred even by heretics
94 The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
and infidels; a great number among them distinguish
between fundamental and non-fundamental articles, &c.'
Now none of these points of doctrine, none of these
articles are contained in the Bible ; they have borrowed
some from the Catholic Church, and have simply in-
vented tlie others. Behold them guilty of contradiction
the third,
4. Nearly all Protestants celebrate and sanctify the
Sunday, and yet the Scripture speaks only of the Sab-
bath, or the Saturday. Whence do they take this
general custom, in contradiction to tlieir Bible ? From
the Catholic Church. Whence have the Anglicans
taken the Liturgy to be found in their Book of Common
Prayer, everything concerning the ordination of bishops,
priests, and deacons ? The greater part of these things
are taken by them from the Church wl'.ich tliey re-
nounced in the sixteenth century, and are not to be
found in the Bible. In this it is easy to see a fourth
contradiction, ' -
5. The Protestants will only have a Bible which is
to be left to the free interpretation of each individual.
But then why have pulpits in their churches ? Why
do their ministers and bishops make it their duty to
preach ? Why do they come with their sermons, ex-
tempore or written, to interpret the Bible to people
deemed able and bound to interpret it themselves?
Have we not a good right to reject their opinions, and
to proclaim them false or stained with error? On the
high-roads^ and even in the most retired parts of the
country, may be found thousands of Protestant books,
pamphlets, tracts; are all these nothing but the pure
The Protestant Rule of Faith. 95
Bible, or a means of upholding liberty of interpretation
of the Scriptures ? Would the authors of tliese writ-
ings, would all these preachers, approve the faithful
who, reading the Bible, should interpret it in the Ca-
tholic sense, finding there, for example, a divinely in-
stituted Church for teaching the nations, seven sacra-
ments destined to sanctify man in the different condi-
tions of his life ? No, certainly ; and every one knows
what abuse has been heaped on Catholics and their doc-
trines by certain writers. It is, then, easy to discover a
iifih contradiction between the fundamental ])rinciple of
Protestants and their manner of acting.
Might not the disciples of the lief ormation well re-
tort on these numerous Protestant preachers in the
words which M. Merle d'Aubiijnei directed against the
Catholics: ^ We admit without restriction the need of a
supreme, absolute, and sr*ie authority to conduct men'
in the way of salvation, but thi^i authority we do not
place in the hands of the sinner, in those of man ; it is
not on the word of the creature that we believe in the
word of the Creator ; we do not wish for a revelation of
revelation, a rule for rule; we wish for no reflection
of light ; we do not warm ourselves by the light of the
moon.'
G. 'The Bible, all the Bible, andnothingbut the Bible,'
you say. But why, then, these synods got together with so
much pains? Apparently some questions have to be eluci-
dated, some points about which to arrive at an understand-
ing, otherwise there would be no sense in them. Why these
confessions of faith, elastic enough, if you will, and most
• Appel a la Conscience des Catholiques Romains, ap. Magnin, p. 306.
9 6 The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
vafjjue, if not for the sake of givin<y some uniformity to
their belief, aiul of binding the faithful tu conform to
them up to a certain point? Why this Evangelical
Alliance, which the Rev. Mr. Wells asserts to have been
more oecumenical- than the Council of the Vatican?
Risum teneatis, amici. It is manifest that all these
little means of cohesion indicate something more than
the free interpretation of the pure Word of God and the
clear shining light of the Bible. Sixth contradiction.
If Protestants were logical, if they were persuaded
of the truth of their fundamental principle, all their re-
ligious propaganda would be reduced to an immense col-
j)ortage of the Bible ; preachers would completely dis-
appear to make way for col porters.
It is true that these latter might be puzzled if,
while distributing their Bibles as divine and inspired
books, they were asked : ' But who has told you that
these books contain the Word of God ? Did this Bible
fall from heaven into your hands? The originals of it
are said to be in Hebrew, Greek, Syro-Chaldaean ; are
you very certain that the volume you offer me contains
all the inspired books, and is a faithful version of them?
May it not, perhaps, be a purely profane book instead of
a divine one ? Why should not the Book of Common
Prayer or the Imitation of Jesus Christ not be inspired?
Why do you reject the Deuterocanonical books of the
Old Testament, the gospel of St. Nicodemus, the apoc-
alypse of St. Peter, the epistles of St. Clement and St.
Barnabas ? There must be some reason for including
some and excluding others.'
* Quebec Morning Chronicle, February 26, 1874.
The Protestant Rule of Faith, 97
It does not moreover require a great mental effort to
discover that the col portage of Bibles is not the method
of apostolate chosen by Jesus Christ, by the Apostles
and their successors. Before I^nthcr's time the thing
was morally impossible; since tliat time it has become
easier, but evidently it cannot have changed the divine
institution of the Apostolic ministry.
The Bible Societies established in England and Ger-
many at the commencement of the present century
have caused an enormous quantity of Bibles in all lan-
guages to be distributed on all the shores of the known
world. They count the number of conversions by the
number of Bibles distributed. We cannot help seeing
that this way o'' reckoning is more visionary than real,
more founded on the earnest desire than on facts. In
the last meeting but one of the Bible Society, held at
Quebec (1872), a reverend orator thought it incumbent
on him to pronounce a special eulogium on an individual
who as colporter had disposed of thirty thousand Bibles;^
but I much doubt whether, with that prodigious number
of Bibles, he has obtained thirty sincere conversions to
Protestantism ; whilst St. Francis Xavier, with only
one Bible and his really Catholic ministry, converted
millions of barbarians to the Catholic faith.
It is now well proved that at least ninety-nine out
of a hundred of those who receive these Bibles either
cannot read them, or understand nothing about them,
or else do not take the trouble to read them, or only
do so out of pure curiosity, or even throw them into
' Quebec Morning Chronicle, February 15th, 1872 : Rev. Mr.
Bancroft's speech.
H
98
The Bible and the Rule of Faith,
the fire like damaged goods. Let there be an end,
then, to this boasting about the good done by this
Bible Society, and the conversions it has effected. No
one who is in earnest can be taken in by these sonorous
phrases for which there is no foundation.
ti
II
CHAPTER IV.
What Catholics think about reading the Bible — Their respect for this
divine book is greater and more sincere th"*! that of ProtcBtiiuta
— There is no precept about reading the Biule — The Church and
reading the Bible in the vulgar tougue — Necessity of an infallible
interpreter of the Bible— Wiseman — What the Catholic Church
has done to preserve the Bible intact.
1. Catholics believe that the Bible contains the Word
of God. This is why they have such profound respect
for that Divine Word. When the holy Gospel is read
in the church, all the people stand, and make the sign
of the cross on their foreKeacI," lip's, and lieart, to show
they do not wish to be ashamed of it, that they wish
to profess it openly and to love ih; then' the priest kisses
the text itself.
The Church imposes as a duty on all those who are
in sacred Orders daily to recite the Breviary, which is
principally composed of Holy Scripture. It is this ex-
treme veneration in which she has always held the
Sacred Books which has caused her to keep them so
carefully, preserving them from any alteration or erro-
neous interpretation. The Protestants' mode of pro-
ceeding is quite contrary; they have rejected a part,
mutilated the other, and most terribly distorted the evi-
dent and natural sense of the whole. How many strange
variations have there been, what arbitrary opinions with
regard to the Holy Scriptures, from Luther who called
St. James's Epistle an epistle of straw, to our modern
I oo The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
rationalists wlio deny the divinity, autlienticity, and
veracity of all the Holy Books! Let the reader judge
which has shown, and still shows, the most respect for
the Bible— the Protestants or the Catholics ; those who
possess only scattered fragments of it, or those who have
preserved it intact.
2. The Bible has divine authority amonjx Catholics.
No Catholic has yet dreamt of denying that the Holy
Scri{)tures were the Word of God ; with us, no one has
a right to reject certain books or certain texts of the
Bible wliich either do not please him or do not suit his
viev/s. No ; the most constant and universal uniformity
is to be found on this as on all other points. AVlioever
would dare lay a sacrilegious hand on the smallest por-
tion of this heaveidy Book would be looked on as guilty
of profanation and impiety. Protestants cannot say
as much ; the first comer, armed with the scissors of
criticism, or guided by passion, caprice, or reason, lost
to all sense of shame, cuts right and left, makes his own
comments, and in many places retrenches. One would
think it was a professor of literature employed in re-
moving from his young pupils' compositions all useless
digressions, long periphrases, high-flown and inappro-
priate expressions. This is how the Word of God is
treated. One day Luther was found translating these
words of Scri})ture, STustificari hominem per fidem,'
by * Man is justiHed by faith alone^ As a justification
of his audacious temerity, he made the following pre-
sumptuous answer : * Your Papist makes a good deal of
fuss about this addition of the word sola; tell him Dr.
Martin Luther wills it should be so, and he says that a
The Protesta7it Rule of Faith, \ o i
Papist aiul an ass are one and the same tlun<^: »{c volo^
sic juheOy sit pro vatione voluntas. We <lo not wish to he
the disciples of Papists, wlio h)ok on alterin«; tlie Scrijv-
tures as a sin, but of their Master,' &e.' Catholics
make nsc of the Scriptnres every moment. Our preach-
ers in their instructions invariably comment on some
texts of Scripture, and deduce tlierefrom enliirhtening
and sahitary thou«;hts for the people whom tliey guide.
All the theses of do<^matic and moral the()lo<xy, although
founded on the constant teaching of the Church, gene-
rally repose also on passages of the Bible. Ijct us, then,
be no longer accused of depreciating the authority of
the Scriptures, or of looking on them as usele ss.
3. We believe and teacli that the reading of the
Bible is by no means necessar}' to all the faithful for
obtaining salvation.^ Here the question is only about
the faithful simi)ly, and not about the pastors of the
Church, who ought to be the guardians of sacred science;
for them reading and meditating the Scrij)tures is fre-
quently '^vdered. But for the faithful, whence arises
this necessity of reading the Bible? Can it be from
the very nature of the Sacred Books? Evidently not;
for at all periods of the world's history, even during the
ages preceding the existence of Genesis, men could be
saved without readinfj the Bible. Can anv one venture
to say, even since the Canon of Scripture has been com-
pleted, there have not been a great number of ignorant
persons wbo have sanctified themselves without, how-
ever, having seen a single copy of the Sacroi Book ?
' DoUinger, La Reforme, vol. iii. p. 148.
« Perrone, Pralect. Theolog. vol. ii. part ii. pp. 217-228.
1 o 2 The Bible and the Rule of Faith,
It would be ridiculous to assert such a thing, since, ac-
cording to the testimony of St. Irenaeus, many bar-
barian and ignorant Christians, without the help of the
Scriptures, professed the true faith and conformed their
lives to it. Can it be said tliat piety, faith, sanctity can
neither be maintained nor increased witliout the help of
the Bible % But faith comes by hearing {fides ex auditu)\
and how many means have not the faithful of knowing
their faith — instructions, exhortations, sermons, ascetic
books, (S:c. !
Is there not, at any rate, some divine or ecclesiasti-
cal precept compelling the faithful to read the sacred
text ? None ; and of this I wish no farther proof than
the impossibility in which our adversaries find them-
selves of producing any single one, although they have
been often challenged to do so. We see certain of the
Fathers counselling sometimes the reading of the Bible,
but nowhere do ihey suggest any precept whatever;
often they even manifestly exclude the Scriptures.
Councils are still more explicit on this point; indeed,
it may be seen that under certain circumstances they
have forbidden reading them in the vulgar tongue,
amongst others the Councils of Narbonne, Toulouse,
Cambrai, Mechlin, &c.
4. The Church and the Sovereign Pontiffs have never
in a general manner prohibited reading the Bible in the
vulgar tongue, but they have sometimes disapproved,
sometimes approved it, according to the circumstances
of time, places, or persons, and for the greater benefit of
Christian people. This is a question of discipline, and
consequently it is variable. Until the Middle Ages, the
The Protestant Rule of Faith, 1 03
Holy Scriptures, translated into the vulgar tongue, were
left in the hands of persons capable of reading them.
But as at that period (thirteenth century), and more par-
ticularly at the commencement of Protestantism, heresy
was commencing to corrupt the Word of God, to pervert
its text and sense according to the caprice of the mo-
ment, and to proclaim the absolute necessity of reading
it. Pope Pius IV., wishing to remedy so sad a state of
things, gave the fourth rule of the Index, by which he
forbade reading the Bible in the vulgar tongue under
severe penalties. This prohibition, however, never ex-
tended to all the faithful without distinction, since the
Pope left it to the bishop or inquisitor to judge in dif-
ferent cases of the utility or the inappropriateness of so
•reading it. As there was some abuse in the concession
of this privilege, Clement VIII. limited the power of
gi'anting it to the Sacred Congregation of the Index.
But whenever the reading of the Bible in the vulgar
tongue has appeared to be of use, the Sovereign Pon-
tiffs, s<^ far from condemning, have strongly encouraged
it. Naturally they always took care to assure them-
selves of the correctness of the versions, and the addi-
tion of suitable notes in the parts more difficult to under-
stand. They have given their approbation or encourage-
ment to the different translations of Holy Scripture
which have been made in German bv D'Allioli, in Italian
by Martini, in Spanish by Father Scio, in French by
Glaire, in Polish by Wich, &c. It is in the letter which
he wrote concerning the translation by Martini, Arch-
bishop of Florence, that Pope Pius VI., in speaking of
the Holy Scriptures, said: * These are the abundant
1 04 The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
sources which ought to he open to every one, that from
them may be imbibed holiness of morals and of doctrine,'
&c. Before even the name of Protestant was known in
Europe, several hundred editions of the Bible had been
published ; in all parts of Catholic Europe they circu-
lated freely ; indeed about two hundred translations into
the vulijjar tontjues were already existing. From all
this it is easy to draw the conclusion that the Church
and the Poj)es have never forbidden the reading of the
Bible in a general and absolute manner, but only under
particular circumstances, when prudence and the spiritual
good of the faithful seemed to demand such restrictions.^
5. Jesus Christ, by permitting a part of His doclrine
to be placed in a book, did not deliver it over to the
disputes, passions, prejudices, and ignorance of men,
without establishing a supreme tribunal, competent
to decide on the controversies which are inevitable in
such a matter, and bound to do so ; this tribunal
is the teaching Church, which He Himself founded,
and intrusted with teacliing, keeping, and propagating
the whole of His doctrine, written or unwriUen, without
any distinction. Each time, therefore, when doctrine
is attacked, and error menaces to make any alteration
iji the deposit of faith confided to her, the Church
speaks, repels the error with divine energy, and affirms
the pure and simple truth ; she throws light on bibli-
cal dilficulties, she defines the [.recise sense of certain
texts, and always lays violent hands on false interpre-
tations. Decisions pronounced by the Church should
* See Perrone, Prcelectiones Theologicce, vol. ii. part ii. p. 229, &c.
Borne, 1842.
. \
* ' ^i '■ • - ,
The Protesta7it Rule of Faith, \ 05
be received with submission and respect, as bein^r tlie
manifestation of the Infallible Truth, which has said:
*He that rcceiveth you, receiveth Me; and he that de-
spiseth you, despiseth Me.' ^ If any one listens not to the
Church, let him be unto you as a heathen and a publican.*
Besides, it must necessarily be thus, if the Divine Legis-
lator wi.shed to preserve to His work that character of
unity and immutability which is so essential to it. In
the same way as a code of human laws, however clear
they may be, is never submitted to the free interpreta-
tion of each individual, but delivered over to magistrates
and tribunals, who are intrusted with deciding divsputes
arising about the meaning of these laws, so also the
Supreme Legislator could not fail to place some curb on
the license of the human understanding, which is always
inclined to adapt everything, even the divine laws, to
the caprices, passions, and needs of the mot jnt.
Let it not be said, however, that we thereby place
the authority of the Church above that of the Scripture
or Word of God. By no means ; in so acting we only
prefer the interpretation which the Church gives us of the
written Word of God, to the interpretation we would give
of it ourselves. We show herein less presumption than
Protestants, who prefer tiieir private interpretation to
that of the Church, as well as of all (Catholics together,
and even to that of all those Reformers who do not
think as they do. For us, the Church is a divine and
ever-living authority, which decides on the meaning of
the written Word of God; we do not, then, place the
authority of man above that of God. When a judge
gives an explanation of a somewhat obscure law, nobody
1 o6 The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
is foolish enough to beheve that the judge thereby as-
sumes an authority superior to that of the Queen, or the
parhament which enacted that law.
6. This extreme solicitude which the Church mani-
fests for the Scriptures is easily explained. As she
is intimately convinced that the Sacred Books contain
God's word to man, that these same books are confided
to her care, and that human perversity could easily cor- .
rupt both the letter and the spirit of them, she watches
over them with all the solicitude shown by a mother by
the side of her child's cradle ; she keeps at a distance
such over-bold persons as would lay a sacrilegious hand
on the precious deposit which she has received from
God; she prevents the pure gold of the divine Word
br'igf changed into vile metal ; in a word, she makes
use of her incontestable rio;ht, at the same time as she
performs the most imperious of all duties towards hu- ^
manity. Before leaving this important subject, I wish
to quote those beautiful words of Cardinal Wiseman,
that eminent man whose loss the Catholics of England
and of the whole w^orld will long deplore. This quota-
tion is somewhat long, but it is so thoroughly convinc-
ing as regards the question I am now treating, that I
feel sure the passage in its complete form will not be
displeasing to my readers :
* We are told that the Catholic loves not the Scrip-
tures ; that his Church esteems not the Word of God ;
that it wishes to suppress it, to put the light of God
under a bushel, and so extinguish it. The Catholic
Church not love and esteem the Word of God ! Is there
any other Church that places a heavier stake on the
The Protesta7it Rule of Faith. 107
authority of the Scriptures than the Catliolic? Is there
any other Church that pretends to base so much of rule
over men on the words of tliat book? Is there any one,
consequently, that has a greater interest in maintaining,
preserving, and exhibiting that Word ? For tliose who
have been educated in that rehgion know, that when the
Church claims authority, it is on the Holy Scriptures
that she grounds it; and is not tliis giving it a weighty
importance beyond what any other Churcli will attempt?
And not onlv has she ever loved and cherished it, but
she has been jealous of its lionour and preservation, so
as no other religion can pretend to boast. . . .
* For, first, she caught up its different fragments and
portions, as they proceeded from the inspired writers,
and united them together. To those who pretend that
the Catholic Church extended not so far back, I will
say, that it was the Catholic principle of unity which
alone could have enabled Churches to communicate to
one another the respective books and letters addressed
to them by the Apostles ; and it was only on the com-
munication of the authority which their testimony gave
that the canon of Scripture was framed. Did she not
afterwards keep men by hundreds and thousands em-
ployed in nothing else than in transcribing the Holy
Word of God ; ay, in letters of gold, and upon parch-
ment of purple, to show her respect and veneration for
it? Has she not commanded it to be studied in every
religious house, in every university, in every ecclesias-
tical college, and expounded to the faithful in every
place and at all times ? Has she not produced in every
af^e learned and holy men, who have dedicated them-
ic8 The Bible and the Rule of Faith,
selves to its illustration by erudite commentaries and
popular expositions ? Were there not, in what are called
the darkest ages, men like Alcuin and lianfranc, who
devoted much of their lives to the detection of such
errors as had crept into it by accident? And is it not
to all this fostering care that we are indebted that the
Word of God now exists? Long before any Protest-
ant version existed in any language in Europe there
were not one, or two, or five, or ten, but almost innu-
merable translations, not only in manuscript, but in
print, for the use of the faithful, in the short interval
between the invention of printing and the rise of Pro-
testantism. And as I know that a different opinion
prevails, even among some Catholics, on this point, I
will give a few particulars, that so you may be on your
guard against similar misconceptions. Let us take
Germany as an instance. A clergyman who was among
the most active promoters of the late tercentenary festi-
val speaks of Luther's version as the first published in
Germany. He sim])ly says, that " so early as the year
1466 a German translation from the Latin Vulgate
was printed, the author of which is unknown. Scarcely,
however, had the Reformation commenced, when Luther
meditated a new version."' And a little later he observes,
'•'• that besides the versions made by Protestants, there are
also translations made by Romish divines, some of which
appeared almost as early as that of Luther." Now how
accurate all this is you shall see, from the enumeration
which I will give vou of the Catholic translations and
their editions made before that of Luther, which was
♦ Home, vol. ii. Appendix, p. 88. V
The Protestant Rule of Faith, 109
begun in 1523, but not completed until eleven years
afterwards. In the first place, there is a copy yet extant
of a printed version so old as to have no date; for the
first printed books had neither a chite nor name of place.
In the second place, a Catholic version was printed by
Fust in 1472, nearly sixty years before the completion
of Luther's version ; another had appeared as early as
1467; a fourth was published in 1472, and a fifth in
1473. At NurembenT there was a version published
in 1477, and republished three times more, before Luther's
appeared. There a[)peared at Augsburg another in
the same vear, which went through ei^ht editions before
that of Luther. At Nuremberg one was published by
Koburg in 1483 and in 1488 ; and at Augsburg one
appeared in 1518, which -was . niblished in 1524, about
the same time that Luther was ^oing on with his; and
down to the present time the editions of this version
have been almost countless.
' In S])ain a version appeared in 1478, before Luther
was thought of, and almost before he was born. In
Italy, the country most peculiarly under the sway of
Papal dominion, the Scriptures were translated into
Italian by Malerini at Venice in 1471 ; and this version
was republished seventeen times before the conclusion
of that century, and twenty-three years before that of
Luther appeared. A second version of parts of Scrip-
. ture was published in 1472 ; a third at Kome in 1471 ;
a fourth, by Bruccioli, at Venice in 1532; and a cor-
rected edition, by Marmochini, in 1538, two years after
Luther had completed his. And every one of these
came out, not oidy with the approbation of the ordinary
1 lo The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
authorities, but with that of the Inquisition, wliich ap-
proved of their being published, distributed, and pro-
mulgated.
*In France a translation was published in 1478 ; an-
other by Menaud in 1484; another by Guiars de Mou-
lins in 1487, which may rather be called a history of the
Bible; and, finally, another by Jacques le Feare in 1512,
often reprinted. In the Belgian language a version was
published at Cologne in 1475, which before 1488 had
been republished three times. A second appeared in
1518. There was also a Bohemian translation, published
in 1488, thrice reprinted before Luther's ; not to speak
of the Polish and Oriental versions. In our own country
it is well known that there were versions long before that
of Tyndal or of Wickliffe. Sir Thomas More has ob-
served, that " the holy Byble was, long before his [Wiek-
lifFe's] days, by vertuous and wel-lerned men, translated
into the English tong, and by good and godly people,
with devotion and soberness, wel and reverently red."
And if it be said that the Scriptures were not dissem-
inated, it was because the want of printing and of a
general literary education prevented this.
*I have mentioned these facts to show how unjust is
the assertion that the spread of the Reformation gave
rise to Scriptural translations, how unjust it is to say
that the Church has withheld the Bible from the people.
But mark the change. The Scriptures had been diffused
among the faithful, and would have so continued, had not
dangerous doctrines sprung up, which taught that men
should throw aside all authority and each one judge for
himself in religion ; a system which we have seen fraught
The Protestant Rule of Faith. 1 1 1
with such dreadful difficulties, that it is no wonder that
it should have been made matter of discipline to check
for a time its perilous diffusion. Sir Thomas More truly
observes, that if we hiok at the act of parliament on this
subject, we shall find tluit it was not any Church au-
thority, but the civil government, which first interfered ;
because it was when the Scriptures had begun more to
be read, from the times of the Waldenses and Wickliffe,
that the doctrine was broached that the civil magistrate
lost all his authority when he committed crime, and that
no man had a right to possess jurisdiction, civil or eccle-
siastical, if he was in a state of sin. When these doc-
trines had raised the arm of fanatics against social order,
the civil authority called in the aid of the Church; al-
though, in the first instance, the Church did not prohibit
the diffusion of the Scriptures.'*
These observations are more than sufficient to show
how unfounded was Dr. Cook's somewhat poetical tirade :
'AH are not apostles; all are not Luthers^ to bring a
hidden Gospel to light ; all are not Knoxes, to convert a
nation.'^
» Cardinal Wiseman's Lectures.
• Quebec Morning Chronicle^ February 15th, 1872.
CHAPTER V.
TJnityof faith is radically irapoBsible in Protestantism— Unity the
peculiar characteristic of truth — Jesus Christ and the Apostles
recommend unity — It is impossible without an infallible authority
— Unity of faith and of communion between individual Chui'ches
among Catholics, under the supreme and infallible authority of
the Popes^-Protestantism perceives its own disorganisation and
divisions — Tho Protestant rainbow. "
The peculiar and essential characteristic of truth is its
being one and indivisible. It does not vary with coun-
tries, with times, with individuals or circumstances ; it is
not of one kind beyond the mountains^ and of another kind
on this side of the mountains ; it is immovable, permanent,
indivisible, like God Himself Then if God, who is the
essence of truth, has revealed a religion to the world,
that religion must necessarily be true, and likewise iden-
tical at all times and in all places. To be indifferent to
such or such a form of religion, to like to find there the
colours of the rainbow, is to proclaim that God, the in-
finite Truth, is indiff*erent as to truth and as to falsehood ;
it is to declare that the one and the other are equally
agreeable to Him ; or else to recognise the impossibility
of arriving at a certain knowledge of revealed truth ; it
is establishing the principle of religious scepticism; it
is giving over souls to despair.
There is perhaps no doctrine on which Jesus Christ
and His Apostles have so much insisted as on the unity
of faith and communion necessary amongst Christians.
The Protestant Rule of Faith, 1 13
Jesus represents Himself under tlie figure of a good iind
vigilant Shcplienl, wlio takes care of His beloved flock.
*I ain the good shepherd; and I know Mine, and Mine
know Me. . . . And other sheep 1 have, that are not of
this fold : ther^i also I must bring ; and they shall hear
My voice: and there shall be one fold and one shepherd/'
This God, who is so infinitely good, does not teach doc-
trines which contradict one another; He does not teach
truth and falsehood, yea and nay. If then the sheep
listen to His voice, they will be united in the profession
of the same belief, the same faith. If they form but one
flock under one pastor, then must they all be in one
communion, and be subject to but one and the same
authority. Now this one flock, which is no other than
the Universal Church, was confided by Jesus Christ to
one single supreme and visible pastor, when He thrice
said to the Apostle St. Peter : ' Feed My lambs ; feed
My sheep.''^
This unity is no less strongly inculcated and recom-
mended by the Apostle St. Paul, when he calls the
Church the body of Christ,^ and when he woidd that we
should all remain in perfect union, in just subordination,
as the members of the body are towards one another.
^ You are,' writes he to the Corinthians,'* ^ the body of
Christ, and members one of another;' that is to say, that
each one among them is a member of that body. He
had before developed the same thought in these terms :
* For as the body is one, and hath many members ; and
all the members of the body, whereas they are many,
• St. John X. 14, 16. « Ibid. xxi. 16, 17. ' '
» EpheBianB iv. 12. * 1 Corinthiaus xii. 27.
1 1 4 The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
yet are one body; so also is Christ. For in one spirit
were we all baptised into one body, whether Jews or
gentiles, whether bond or free. . . . For the body also is
not one member, but many. If the foot should say : Be-
cause I am not the hand, I am not of the body : is it
therefore not of the body ? God hath set the members,
every one of them, in the body as it hath pleased Him.
And if they were all one member, where would be the
body ? But now there are many members indeed, yet
one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand : I need
not thy help : nor afrain the head to the feet : I have no
, need of thee,' &c. It is, then, very evident that all the
members of the Church — the mystical body of Jesus
Christ — oupjht to have that perfect union with one
another which we admire between the members of the
. human body, which members all participate in the same
corporal nourishment, are all animated by one and the
same soul, and are all subordinate or coordinate the one
with the other. ' Be ye all,' writes the great Apostle,*^
* one body and one . u ; ^ you are called in one hope
of your calling. One ^.jrd, one faith^ one baptism.
One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through
all, and in us all.' Farther on,® ^ Until we all meet into
the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of
God ; that we be no more tossed to and fro, and carried
about with every wind of doctrine by the wickedness of
men, by cunning craftiness by which they lie in wait to
deceive.' Elsewhere it is Jesus Christ Himself who com-
pares His Church to a hingdom^ a citi/, a house, a family,
a fold, &c. It is by means of these figures that He
• Ephesians iv. 4, 5. * Ibid. 13, 14.
The Protestant Ride of Faith, 1 15
shows us the necessity of unity and subordination in His
Church.'
But how will Jesus Christ unite and contain these
people all in one same faith, in one sintrlc communion?
How will He succeed in forming a perfect body out of
all these members ? Superior to all times and places,
on earth He substitutes for Himself an infallible au-
thority — Apostles to teach everywhere the same doctrine,
the same dogmas, all that He had prescribed to them
Himself, and to administer the same sacraments, par-
ticularly Baptism, by which each individual could be-
come a member of His mystic body; then He sends on
them the Holy (jrhost to teacdi them all truth The
Apostles, faithful to the order of their Divine Master,
preach everywhere the same doctrine. They found
several Churches, but the faitli they impart is identi-
cally the same in all places. In ordinary language we
often say, the Churches of France, Spain, Italy, England,
Canada; and in a similar way the Apostle St. Paul aho
mentions several Churches in his divers Epij^tles.
But this by no means signifies, as certain Pro-
testants would make us believe, that these Churches
held different creeds. No ; what St. Paul preached at
Ephesus, at Athens, at Corinth, at Philippi, St. Peter
was preaching at Rome, St. James at Jerusalem, and
the others in the different countries of the earth. This
is what we also find at every period of the existence of
the Catholic Church. Traverse the whole earth ; go to
Japan, to India, to China, into Africa, into Europe, into
" St. Matthew v. 15 ; St. John x., svii. 11 ; 1 Corinthians xii. 13 ;
St. Matthew vii. 24, &c.
1 1 6 The Bible and the Rtde of Faith.
America, into Oceanica; penetrato, into the cliurclies ;
interrocrate the clertjy and the faithful : always and
everywhere vou will meet with the same i)rofession of
faith, vou will see the same sacraments administered;
you will find all snhmissive to their bishops, and hence
to the Head of the Universal Church, to tiie Sovereign
Pontiff, the successor of the A])ostle St. Peter. The
Creed sung by the Pope beneath the dome of the Vatican
is the same as is sung with all their hearts by all the
Catholics in the universe.
As we see, unity is inherent in the constitution, in
the rule of faith, of the Catholic Church ; whoever re-
fuses to her infallible authority the obedience due to
her, finds himself by so doing excluded from her bosom,
and ceasing to be one of her members. Thus, then, a
person can well separate hunself from the Catholic
Church, but he cannot separate himself i;i the Catholic
Church. Such an anomalv could not exist. Whether
it be emperor, prince, bishop, or one of the faithful, he
. no longer forms a part of the Catholic Church from
the moment that he knowingly repudiates a doctrine
which she has defined. But it is very different with the
partisans of the Peformation; there is no limit to their
negations; they may deny everytiiing, and yet remain
. Protestant, provided, however, they do not dare to affirm
that the Bible contains the divine institution of an in-
fallible Church.
Many sincere Protestants have not hesitated to ac-
knowledije tiiat Jesus Christ wishes for unitv in His
Church. The first Reformers in particular strongly
insisted on this point, declaring that separating from the
The Protesta7tt Rule of Faith. 1 1 7
Church was denying Jesus Christ, was committing a
terrible outrajje.'^ Their books concerninjx their belief
contain a profession of faith in one Church, in which
reigns unitij. ^ 1 defy you,' says Samuel Parker,"-^ * to
show me an article more imperiously prescribed, as fre-
quently recommended to uocice, as the maintenance of
unity amongst Christians.' *As to the sin of making
divisions in the Church, we grant without difficulty that
it is one of the gravest and most enormous crimes, as
well as one of the most odious.''^
The efforts which Protestants of all denominations
have made at different times to draw up creeds, common
professions of faith, will always remain as an eternal
monument of their adhesion to the Christian doctrine
of unity of the Church, and at the same time an authen-
tic testimony of their powerlessness to put it in practice.
According to the expression of a celebrated Reformer,
Protestant uniformity is cut up into a thousand little
pieces.
How could it be otherwise ? IIow without a
living and infallible authority can doctrinal unity be
arrived at? So long as Protestantism shall have no
other rule of faith than the dead letter of the Scripture,
each one will be free to believe what he wishes and as
he wishes. An understanding more or less enlightened,
more or less under the empire of j)reconceived opinions,
may always think and judge differently from what it
would think and judge under other circumstances : it
• Calvin, Institut. 1. iv. » Religion and Loyalty, 1684.
>*> Serious Inquiry into the Causes oj the Neglect of the Protestant
Religion.
1 1 8 The Bible and the Rule of Faith,
might deny on the morrow what it had affirmed the
evening before. If even a code of laws, the clearest
that can be imagined, admits of many different inter-
pretations, and raises such conflicts of opinion as only
the authority of a judge can remove, what must it be
with the Bible, which is far from being either clear or
intelligible to all %
But to preserve intact the unity of the Church, it is
not sufficient to have a living authority : this authority
must also be infallible ; for an authority that could make
a mistake could never govern understandings and wills so
as to command their absolute assent to its decisions; it
would always be permissible to examine them, to reject
them as stained with error, and from that moment unity
becomes radically impossible. Let there be no illusion ;
whilst proclaiming that Jesijs Christ certainly wished
for unity in the belief of His Church, let it be admitted
that this unity can never be anything more than a
pure chimera for all those societies whose leading prin-
ciple is not that of unity, of the living and infallible
authoiity of the Church of Christ.
It is indubitable that Protestantism, with its free ex-
amination, and even with a fallible authority, has not in
itself the power of bringing the multitude to a state of
religious unity. Resting on so shifting a basis, it can
only be swayed by every breath of doctrine, cast from
shoal to shoal, without having any certainty of arriving
in the port of Truth. Of how many souls might there
not be written the exciting but dangerous Odyssey
through the labyrinth of the Reformation I
Not only does the fundamental principle of free ex-
The Protestant Rule of Faith, 1 1 9
amination contain in itself the possibility of error, of
disunion, of infinite subdivision, but it has already in
fact produced these fatal results. This is what all Pro-
testants cannot help acknowledging and deploring,
without, however, finding a remedy in the bosom of
their Church. They must go and ask it of Catholicism,
of that divine authority which they repudiated in the
sixteenth century. Let us hear the language used by
some of their leaders : * Three centuries of exterior life^
says Vinet, pastor of Geneva,^^ * must not deceive us with
regard to Protestantism. It still lives from the first and
vigorous impulse which it received in the sixteenth
century; it lives through its political antecedents, it
lives through its element of nationality. But this im-
pulse is becoming exhausted ; the beams of the edifice
are falling asunder ; the edifice itself is cracking in every
part. Accessory and auxiliary strength is failing it.
Protestantism remains alone and disorganised. There
are Protestants ; there is no longer Protestantism. It is
not only in principle but in fact, in a flagrant manner,
that this kingdom is divided against itself.'
Elsewhere he says, ^ that Protestantism is only the
place of a religion; that at first it was not a principle
but a fact ; it was not Protestantism, it was protesta-
tion. Separation was only a remedy, which many mis-
took for an aliment. Strange state of things, it must be
acknowledged.' ^2 . "
*The Lutheran Church,' says Froseisen, 'with re-
gard to its various subdivisions, resembles a worm cut
" Essai sur la Manifestation des Convictions Religieutea, p. 495.
»2 Ibid. p. 180.
1 20 The Bible and the Rule of Faith,
into a tliousaiul jnucos, ciicli one of which writlie.s o long
as tlic least ht'e remains in it, but ends by dyinfj^.''''
^ It' Luther were to rise out of his tomb,' says Kein-
liard, ^ it wonhl be im|)ossiblc for l\im to reeo<jjniso as
nuMubers of Ins Church the docti)rs who call themselves
his successors.''*
*The ditlerence,' adds Au^usti, ^between tlie old
and the new l*rotestants is so great, that if Luther re-
turned he would solenndy protest ao;ainst the new Pro-
testantism ; just the same as, more than once, the new
Protestant theoloiiians have announced their resolution
of deliverini»; Protestantism from the tyranny of Lu-
thcr.'i=^
* It is not a Church,' says Planck, ' it is some
Churches that we have got.'^*^
* Protestantism may be seen and conceived,' says
Lehman ; * but nowhere can a Protestant Church be
seen.'^"^
^Let us fiankly confess,' says a Protestant review,
Hhat our C'hurch is torn from within as much as from
vithout; she is divided in principles and opinions within
herself as without herself; she is divided into number-
less sects intinitely divided and subdivided.'^^
It would be easy to multij)ly indefinitely similar
quotations. The most zealous partisans of the Reforma-
tion acknowledge with grief that their Church is a worm-
" Discours de liecrption an Doctoral : Strasbourg, 1713.
" Hom^lie pour rAimivcrsairc de la Reforme, 18J0.
•» Souvenirs de Vllistoire de la liiforme Allemande, 1814, c. ii.p.727.
>• Situation du Parti Catholique et Protestant, 1816.
" Aspect et Danger du Protestantisme^ 1810.
»• L'Idie, Revue Triincstrielle, 1835.
The Prolcstant Rule of Faith. 1 2 1
eaten (idificc, tlircateiiiti^ ruin. At times it seems to
them, and ri^litly so, tliat they are as if ahaii(h>ne(l to
the fury of the waves, separated from the ahyss only hy
the remains of a siiij)\vre('ke(l vessel ; a terrible situation,
wliieh draws from them hitter tears, and sometimes cries
of terror and despair. Certain Protestants, however,
put a ^ood face on the matter; they frankly acknow-
ledge that doctrinal unity is impossible witii them ; hut
they undertake to justify tlu^ existence of the thousands
of sects which swarm on the surface of the globe by
affirming that Jesus Christ did not exact this unity.
They even go so far as to compare the diversity of their
doctrines to the thousand shades of colour which form
the radiant beauty of the raiidjow. They pretend to
ignore, or not to understiiiul, that tJesu ' hrist, true
God and truth itself, cannot cherish error, can neither
tolerate it, nor sympathise with it, under whatever colour,
whatever form it may present itself. There is an invin-
cible and essential ojjposition between the true and the
false, between God, tiie absolute Truth, and error; how
could He take pleasure in that which is the negation
of His divine essence? Besides, a comT)arison is not
a proof ; and the rainbow, so beautiful in the phy-
sical order on account (>f the harmony of its colours,
may, in the intellectual order, be a hideous monster.
Above all, it must be clearly demonstrated that Jesus
Christ could will, and did really will, this astonishing
diversity of doctrines. This is what can never be
done, since it would be denying the divine charac-
ter of Christ, annihilating the object of His mission
into the world, and giving a formal contradiction
122 The Bible and the Rule of Faith,
to the doctrine of unity contained in many parts of the
Scriptures.
The Rev. Messrs. Doudiet^^ and Burns^o have the
delicacy to tell us tliat they prefer these varied shades
of doctrine to a uniformity of ignorance and obscurity.
Leaving aside the entirely gratuitous insult they offer us,
and to which it would be very easy to retort, I will con-
tent myself with asking them for proofs of this ignorant
and obscure uniformity in CathoHcism. Perhaps they
may one day perceive that what they now call darkness
is no other than the pure light of the sun of infinite
Truth, which never ceases enlightening us, giving us
warmth, movement, and life ; whilst their rainbow only
owes its apparent beauty to certain rays of the sun, and
any way has but an ephemeral existence.
'• Quebec Morning Chronicle, Feb. 15th, 1872.
« Ibid. Feb. 27th, 1874.
CHAPTER VI.
The results of Protestantism — The civil authority substituted for the
religious authority of the Holy See, or subjection of the Church to
the State — Religious scepticism — Rationalism.
The truth or falsehood of a doctrine may be deduced in
several ways, according to the point of view from which
we study it. The reader has already been able to be-
come convinced of the falsity of the fundamental prin-
ciple which rules Protestantism by our having proved
that this principle is in evident opposition to the will of
Jesus Christ ; that it cannot of itself give any certainty
in matters of faith, that it necessarily destroys doctrinal
unity, and ultimately results in individualism. We are
now going to consider it in some of its principal and
fatal results, in order still farther to expose its mortal
venom to all sincere Protestants. Protestantism has
loudly proclaimed religious liberty, individual liberty,
the exclusion of all spiritual authority, and particularly
of that of the Pope ; and yet, perhaps, there is not one
single heresy which has worked harder to enthrall con-
sciences, to tread liberty under foot. The religious power
which was wielded by the Vicar of Jesus Christ has
been transferred to the heads of civil society ; all these
big words of liberty of ivorshipy freedom of conscience,
were only destined to veil the chains of slavery. What
power has been employed to retard the over-rapid action *
of this destructive principle of free examination ? How
1 24 The Bible a7id the Ride of Faith,
has heresy been iinphintecl in Europe? By wliat have
' they replaced the Pope's authority, which they wished
to ehminate on any terms ? By the civil authority in
general ; in Germany, by the princes of the empire ;
in Switzerland, by the councils of the cantons and the
Grand Council of Berne; in England, in Denmark, and
Swv.den, by kings an(' parliaments; in Russia, by the
czar; in Turkey, by the sultan. Heresy would have
none of the beneficent guardiansliip of the Church ; it
looked on the Sovereiijn Pontiff as a stranger sovereijin,
usurping the domain of souls ; but by withdrawing itself
from legitimate authority it had necessarily to seek else-
where for support to protect itself from approaching
and inevitable ruin ; it made itself a servant of kings,
it sought to profit by political revolutions, it lavished
caresses on the great; it cringed, and still cringes, to all
powers, who are in reality the masters of its existence.
' From the beginning it had for high priest a debased
debauched king, and for popess a queen * who had all
the faults without any of the virtues of her sex,' and
who condemned even the Protestants who protested dif-
ferent! v to herself.
From that time forward how many councils of minis-
ters without faith, of atheistical parliaments, have named
bishops, resolved questions of dogma and discipline, pre-
scribed fasts, reformed the ritual ! Is it not humiliating
to have to submit to the orders of a usurped authority,
of a power which, without any mission, obtrudes itself
on consciences, at its own will forms the doctrine of
Christ, and invades the sacred threshold of souls, over
which it has not the smallest domain? See what is
The Protestant Rule of Faith, i 25
passing in our day, particularly in Prussia, in Switzer-
land, and in Russia; was there ever a Pope who behaved
in such an odiously arbitrary manner? Was there ever
more insupportable tyranny weighing on the conscience
of a man, of a Christian? And vet after that Protest-
antisni is represented to us as the father and natural
protector of all liberty — liberty of conscience, of worship,
of thought. Is not this bitter irony ? The present
bishops are banished, condemned to heavy penalties,
thrown into prison, as in the glorious days of Elizabeth ;
and why? Because they will not be faithless to God, to
their duty, to their conscience ; and this is what is called
liberty I They demand their religious rights ; and in
defiance of this much-boasted liberty they are given exile
or the dungeon ! The new era of liberty is proclaimed
by sound of trumpet ; there is a boast made of the full
liberty enjoyed of spreading abroad falsified Bibles in
Austria, Italy, even in Rome itself.' But at the same
time impious revolutionary journals are multiplied, filled
with insults to tli3 Pope, the cardinals, the Catholic
clergy; monks and nuns are hunted from their con-
vents, their goods seized, they are forbidden to teach,
Catholic children are comj^elled to frequent government
schools, and there to imbibe Protestant or atheistical
doctrines. In good truth, never in ancient times would
the beautiful name of libei^ty have been thus profaned
by leaguing it to a state of things which, in reality, are
nothing but frightful tyranny on the one side and humi-
liating servitude on the other.
' Quebec Morning Chronicle, February 15, 1872, and February 27,
1874: speeches of the Bev, Messrs. Elliott, Bancroft, and Wells.
126 The Bible and the Rule of FaitJu
They would no longer have a Pope ; his authority
gave umbrage ; it troubled the repose of kings. In one
of those moments of delirium which occur sometimes to
nations as to individuals the downfall of the Roman
Pontiffs was decreed, or rather their spiritual supremacy
was no longer recognised. Shortly afterwards, one is
astonished to find pontifical authority attributed to Queen
Elizabeth's distaff, and skilfully pilfered by several sove-
reigns, ministers, and petty princes of Europe. Instead
of submitting themselves to the Pope's spiritual and
legitimate power, they bowed down to the representa-
tive of material force, who arbitrarily and illegitimately
ruled over consciences. Such was the result necessarily
arrived at, if a semblance of unity was to be preserved
to the Reformation, and if too rapid crumbling away
of this ruinous edifice was to be prevented; the tiara
then had to be placed on other heads, and the bondage
of souls had to be determined on, to the destruction of
all true religious liberty. Let it not be thought that
these words contain any exaggeration ; the logic of facts,
which have for three centuries been occurring, and are
still daily recurring, brings us rigorously to this conclu-
sion. The minister Vinet of Geneva vehemently ex-
pressed as much when addressing his Protestant brethren :
* Was the Church oppressed when you could not exercise
any discipline with regard to your flocks except at the
risk of seeing yourselves disciplined and censured by the
civil power? When you were not permitted to defend
your altars against the intrusion of shameless scandal ?
When you were forced to admit catechumens to the
Lord's table, not by ri^ht of their knowledge or faith,
The Protestant Rule of Faith. 127
but by right of their age ? When, in your differences
with your flocks, you liad as judge not the ecclesiastical
authority but the civil one, which made itself directly a
judge of your preaching and doctrines ? When you
might be suspended or broken without any previous
warning from your peers ? When, outside of your im-
mediate functions, you could undertake nothing for the
immense needs of souls and the service of your Divine
Master without giving umbrage to a jealous authority,
and risking its interdictions and menaces ? A "hen this
authority could force you to keep in your midst and
admit to your deliberations certain debauched and scan-
dalous members whom it was of consequence to you to
exclude ? When all discussion of spiritual matters was,
in real fact, almost impossible in your assemblies?
When, in a word, to sum up all, you were nothing
more than a body of civil functionaries, teaching and
dogmatising in a circle which the government, a new
Holy See, might extend or curtail at its pleasure ? This
is the state of things under which yon have lived.''*
In a remarkable discourse pronounced in November
1837 before the Legislative Council, the Syndic Girod of
Geneva did not hesitate to affirm ^ that one of the prin-
cipal objects of the Reformation was to annihilate the
.Papal authority, substituting for it that of the civil govern-
ment.'' Then, by means of numerous and incontestable
facts, he clearly showed that the Council of State has
constantly, since the Reformation, given and enjoined
dogma, moral and other discipline, (&c., on the ministers
of the Gospel. ' What oppresses our Church' (the Pro-
^ Quelques Idies sur la Liberie Religieuse, LauBanne, 1831, p. 13.
1 28 The Bible and the Rule of Faith,
testant one of Saxony) * is the donilnation of civil func-
tionaries, the secuhirisation of the Church in all its in-
stitutions, to such a point that everything is ruled
bureaucratically, and that spiritual matters themselves
are transacted like business."-^
^Take away from the (Protestant) Church the sup-
port and force of cohesion which the ])olitical sovereign,
as its head and guardian, has imparted to it to enable it to
resist the commencements of division, which since 1848
have become more energetic, and you will at onr'o see it
break into a thousand pieces, which no one afterwards
will be capable of putting together again.''*
Abbe Dollinger, who, unfortunately for himself, has
separated from the Roman Catholic Church since the
Council of the Vatican, well described the state of the
Church in England when he wrote the i'ollowing lines :
*The laws of the kingdom, which under the three Tudors,
Henry, Edward, and Elizabeth, proclaimed the royal
supremacy over the Anglican Church as an impre-
scriptible right, still subsist in all their vigour. The king,
or the reigning queen, is in possession of the supreme
ecclesiastical power. The authority of the bishops only
flows from the royal authority. It is true that the
crowned head is, in one sense, the least free person in
the kingdom, for if the king were to enter into commu-
nion with the Holy See, if he became Catholic, or only
married a Catholic, he would be deposed, and would lose
the throne. In such a case, according to- the statute
of 1689, the nation would be absolved from its oath of
• Hengstenberg'a Kirchenzeitung, 1851, p. 99.
* Measner's Kirchenzeitung, 1860, p. 84.
The Protestant Rule of Faith, 129
allegiance. As religious head of two Churches, the
king must by turns admit two mutually opposed reli-
gions, for in Scotland it is Presbyterian and Calvinistic
Protestantism which is the State Church.
^Outside the ministers and Parliament, it is the Privy
Council which, since 1833, exercises supremacy over re-
ligion and the Church. Parliament has named it as the
supreme court of appeal in all ecclesiastical discussions,
whether concerning (h)ctrine or discipline. Laymen form
the majority of it, even when it is not entirely composed
of them, and many of its members do not even belong to
the Episcopal Cl)urch.'''
Let us now hear the remarkable testimony of M.
Druey, member of the Council of State of the Canton de
Vaud : ' The State and the Church form but one mass,
one unity, one person morally. If we examine the eccle-
siastical ordinances of 1758, which are a collection of all
the decisions given by the Ber'^e government since 1536
on points relative to religion, we see that everything with
regard to religion has been enacted, ordered, and laid
down by government. The smallest details of ecclesi-
astical economy are entered into. Doctrine, discipline,
preaching, management of ministers and parishioners,
nothing escapes. It is religious despotism carried to the
extremest verge.'**
These results are found wherever Protestantism has
flourished. Lord Moles worth, an Englishman who well
knew the Protestants of the north of Europe, and par-
ticularly of the Scandinavian States, wrote in 1G92 : *In
* IJEglise et les Eglises. Translated from the Geraian, 1862.
• Compte-rendu des Dcbats du Grand Conseil en 1839.
K
130 The Bible and the Rule of Faith,
the Koman Catholic rehgion, with its supreme head of
the Church, who is in Rome, there is a principle of op-
position to an unlimited political power. But in the
north, the Lutheran Church is completely subject to
the civil power, and reduced to servitude. All Protest-
ant countries have lost their liberty whilst changing
their religion for a better.' Here is the reason he assigns
for the abnormal fact of the entire dependence of the
Protestant clergy on the sovereigns : ' The Lutheran
body of clergy,' he says, ^ preserved its political power as
an individual chamber or state of the Diet, but it de-
pended on the crown as being its spiritual and temporal
superior.'^
In England, have we not seen Elizabeth and her
Parliament ratifying the principle that the unlimited
power of royalty extended for ever, in this country, over
everything concerning the Church, and this all jurisdic-
tion, all power with regard to doctrine, discipline, reform,
ought to be attached to the crown % Have we not seen
the following clause added to the statute concerning the
ecclesiastical supremacy of the king : ' No act or decree
of the present Parliament, in matters of religion, may be
considered as erroneous'? Here, certainly, is a well-
placed infallibility ! Is it Jiot this which made James I.
exclaim, at the moment of his ascending the throne, and
when contemplating the greatness of his royal preroga-
tives: *Is it not I who appoint the judges? is it not
I who create bishops % Yes, thanks be to God ! I can
make what I please : the law and the Gospel.'*
^ Geschichte von Rugen und Pommern, vol. iv. pp. 2, 294.
« John Forster, Historical Essays, Loudon, 1858, vol. i. p. 227. "^
The Protestant Ride of Faith. 1 3 1
Also ^ the supremacy of the legislature is, according
to Hallara's expression, like a watchdog's collar, which
the State has placed around the neck of a Church it
has endowed, and raised to the rank of a national insti-
tution. The State thus repays itself for the lodging
and maintenance it gives to its Cliurch.'^
Let us also hear the celebrated Dr. Newman, who
ought thoroughly to know the English Church, since he
had been one of its brightest lights :
'We see in the English Church,' says he, 'I will not
^ merely say no descent from the first ages, and no rela-
tionship to the Church in other lands, but we see no
body politic of any kind ; we see nothing more or less
than an establishment, a department of government, or
a function or operation of the State, without a substance
— a mere collection of officials, depending on and living
in the supreme civil power. ... It is responsible for no-
thing ; it can appropriate neither praise nor blame ; but
', ' whatever feeling it raises is to be referred on, by the na-
ture of the case, to the supreme power whom it repre-
sents, and whose will is its breath. ... As a thing with-
out a soul, it does not contemplate iiself, define its in-
trinsic constitution, or ascertain its position. It has no
traditions ; it cannot be said to think ; it does not know
what it holds, and what it does not ; it is not even con-
scious of its own existence. . . . Bishop is not like bishop,
more than king is like king, or ministry like ministry ;
its Prayer-book is an Act of Parliament of two centuries
ago, and its cathedrals and its chapter-houses are the
spoils of Catholicism. ... It is as little bound by what it
• Conatitutional History of England^ vol. iii. p. 444.
132 The Bible and the Ride of Faith.
said or did formerly as this morning's newspaper by its
former numbers. ... Its life is an Act of Parliament. . . .
It will be able to resist (its enemies) while the State gives
the word ; it would be unable when the State forbids it.
Elizabeth boasted that she " tuned her pulpits ;" Charles
forbade discussions on predestination ; George on the
Holy Trinity ; Victoria allows differences on holy baptism.
... As the nation changes its political, so may it change
its religious, views ; the causes which carried the Reform
Bill and Free Trade may make short work with ortho-
doxy.'io
I might multiply ad infinitum quotations from Pro-
testant writings, where the fact of the supremacy of
the State over the Reformed Church is recorded. All
honest or moderately well-informed minds deplore this
sad state of thino-s ; but what is to be done ? The re-
medy would be worse than the disease itself; in fact, it
is not difficult to see that without the principle of unity
found in the civil authoritv, and which establishes cer-
tain natural relations between individuals, the Reformed
Church, by whatever name it may be known, would
disappear as a society ; it would instantly crumble away ;
there would be as many religious systems, as many
churches as individuals. The first effect, the first result
of Protestantism is, then, to lessen, or rather to destroy,
the authority of the Church in favour of the civil au-
thority ; it is to transfer the spiritual power, which was
divinely conferred only on the Pope and on the bishops,
to secular princes, to the different sovereigns who govern
the earth. The falsely-called Reformation of the six-
'<* DiJJiciilties felt by Anglicans in Catholic Teaching, 4th ed. pp. 6-8. "^
The Protestant Ride of Faith. 133
teentli century has not only given rise to the bondage
of the Church to the State, but it has also produced
indifferentism and religious scepticism. Question the
first comer among Protestant ministers ; ask him what
ought to be believed. He will invariably reply: The
Word of God contained in the Bible. * But,' you will say
to him, ^ are you quite sure that it is the Word of God
which is to be found in this Bible ? Who told you so ?
From whom have you received this Bible V ' From our
fathers, who always have given it us as a divine book.'
* I readily grant that ; but who gave it to your fathers V
.' Luther, Calvin, and all those who reformed the Roman
Church in the sixteenth century.' ' That again is true ;
but you evade the question. The Bible did not fall
from heaven into the hands of Luther and Calvin ;
where did they get it ?' ' In the Catholic Church, from
which they then separated themselves.' No other ans-
wer can possibly be given. The Catholic Church, which
they have vilified so much, which they have loaded with
abuse, which they have accused of so many misdeeds, so
many corruptions, and even of idolatry, must, then, have
been the only guardian of the Bible from the days of
Jesus Christ. * But has she not falsified it, interpolated
passages, altered It in some manner, in order to jus-
tify her own doctrines?' 'A Church liable to error and
subject to corruption may well have made no scruple
of modifying the Sacred Text.' Here is a first douhty
inevitable for every reflecting Protestant who does not
wilfully close his eyes : it is only the Catholic Church
which can tell whether the Bible be an inspired book,
whether the text has been faithfully preserved. Now,
134 The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
as he repudiates the testimony of the Church, it follows
that he has but the quicksand of doubt on which to build
the edifice of his faith. We will go farther ; let us
again question a Protestant pastor ; let us ask him to
explain to us certain passages of that Bible whose bril-
liant clearness he so praises. Let us see what sense he
will give to the words of the Saviour during the Last
Supper : Tliis is My Body, this is My Blood. He will
doubtless answer, like the greater number of modern
Protestants, that the bread and wine which Jesus Christ
gives us are not changed into His Body and His Blood,
but are only a sign, a figure, a remembrance. On the
one side, then, we have Jesus Christ, who says as ex-
plicitly as possible that this is His Body and His Blood,
and on the other Protestantism, which dares sustain that
it is not His Body nor His Blood : on the one side, the
-Apostles, the Fathers of the Church, the Councils, all
the Christian people, the greatest geniuses of all centuries,
who rise to affirm that the Real Presence is expressed in
these words ; on the other side. Protestantism, a Church
which but yesterday was in the cradle, a Church whose
birth and decay were pretty nearly simultaneous, a
Church without any traditional basis except rash cen-
sure, and which finds in the Eucharist nothing more
than a remembrance of Jesus Christ. And again, how
many Protestants have there not been, from Henry
VIH.'s time and the first Lutherans down to the Pu-
seyites of our day, who, like us, have believed in the
Real Presence, and have interpreted our Saviour's words
in the same sense as the Catholic Church ! It is very
evident that, even only considering things from a purely
The Protestant Rule of Faith. 135
human and rational point of view, the Catholic inter-
pretation of these words is infinitely safer, since in its
favour it has the lights of natural sense joined to the
unanimous testimony of all Christian ages.
The same reasoning may be applied without distinc-
tion to any text of the Sacred Scripture. A Protest-
ant can never say, ' lam very certain^ &c. At the most
he can but say, ^ I think this text ought to be under-
stood in such or such a sense ; tliat is my opinion ; but
I may very well be mistaken, seeing that millions of
persons give it another sense.' The comforting light of
certainty can never shine on these unfortunate people ;
they must perpetually live in the anguish of religious
doubt, always uncertain as to the truth of their faith,
the purity of their belief; always buffeted by the ca-
pricious winds of contrary opinions, always uneasy as to
the road they are in, and as to the future reserved for
them. Doubt is a bottomless abyss; never can the i
anchor of hope be thrown there. Who can describe this
state of continual suffering *? What feverish anxiety,
what mental fatigue in this incessantly seeking for
truth, each moment thinking to have found it, and
always falling back into the same uncertainty ! Invo-
luntarily we recall the punishment of Tantalus, devoured
by thirst, and never able to put his parched lips to the
water which shrinks away from him; or again of the
unhappy Sisyphus, condemned to roll an enormous stone
to the top of a steep rock, whence it incessantly rolls
down again. This state of uncertainty necessarily ends
by engendering indifference with regard to no matter
what communion, and produces complete scepticism.
I j6 The Bible and the Rtile of Faith.
Let us look at the portrait drawn b}^ M. Scherir of
the lieformed Church : * The ruin of all truth, the weak-
ness of subdivision, the dispersion of flocks, ecclesiastical
anarchy, Socinianism shameful in itself, diluted ratio-
nalism, without doctrine, without consistence. . . . The
name of this Church remains, but only designates a
corpse, a phantom, or, if you will, a remembrance and a
hope. . . For want of a dogmatic authority unbelief has
invaded three-quarters of our pulpits.'^i
IndifFerentism goes side by side with rationalism.
How many Protestants have commenced by piously ex-
amining the Scriptures, and have ended by religious
scepticism and pure rationalism ! Individual reason,
obliged to form for itself a canon of Scripture, to pene-
trate its meaning, and thence extract a code of faith,
exhausts itself in vain efforts ; it is borne from one
doctrine to another; its convictions disappear one
after another, and leave a void from which it naturally
recoils in horror. Fatigued with so much useless work,
in despair of ever placing its foot on the solid ground of
truth, it ends by no longer believing divine revelation,
or else by only admitting what does not pass the narrow
limits of its own domain. From the moment that it
does not intrinsically understand any particular doctrine,
even thous^h it be taught by Jesus Christ Himself, it
unscrupulously rejects it, or else gives it some milder
sense which will not offend its own pride. Hence it
ensues that all supernatural facts, the most evident
miracles, the most sublime mysteries, the best accom-
plished and the most extraordinary prophecies, dis-
" Be VEtat actuel de VEglise Eeformee en France, 1844.
v
The Protestant Rule of Faith. 1 3 7
appear before these short-sighted critics. It seems
that for them revelation is like a tree encumbered
with dead branches, with barren boughs, which must
carefully be lopped off if we wish to gather any fruit ;
right and left they cut away everything that is beyond
the reach of their weak reason, at the risk even of im-
pairing the very substance of revealed doctrine.
Hence Germany and England, wdiich broke off all
relations with the Roman Church in order to embrace
Protestantism, have already partly fallen into rational-
ism ; many learned men, such as Niebuhr, Heyne,
Wegscheider, &c., interpret the whole Bible in a manner
to make away with the miracles, prophecies, mysteries,
everything supernatural; everything is reduced to myths,
to allegories which mask facts, which are purely natural.
Thus the temptation and fall of our first parents in the
terrestrial Paradise, the Tower of Babel, &c., are alle-
gorical poems figuring the struggle of good and evil in
the world. The apparition of the angels at the birth of
the Saviour was but a burning meteor ; His temptation
in the desert, to the eyes of Eichorn and Augusti, is but
the recital of the ambitious thoughts which arose in His
mind whilst He was preparing for His public ministry ;
the voice from heaven which was heard at the moment
of His baptism was but the noise of thunder ; and that
which was mistaken for a descent of the Holy Ghost
was but the flight of a pigeon. His transfiguration is
explained by a violent storm, His miraculous cures by
His knowledge of medicine. His death by a swoon. His
resurrection and ascension are allegories expressing the
final victory of truth over error and spirit over matter.
138 The Bible and the Rule of Faith,
White linen placed on His sepulchre by laundresses was
taken for angels, &c.
Some have even gone so far as to reject all idea of
the Incarnation of the Word, and of the redemption of
man by the effusion of the blood of a God ; they have
tried to sap Christianity through its base. What do I
say ? With Strauss, they have tried to make a myth
of the Person of Jesus Christ, or at the most to make of
Him a humble personage, on whom have been centred all
the prophecies of the old law concerning the Messiah.^^
Each day the abyss of rationalism yawns wider,
swallowing up numerous victims. Others — those who
wish to cling to a revealed and supernatural religion,
or who seriously study Christian antiquity —return to
the Catholic Church, to ask of her that light of truth of
which they feel such deep need.
'•^ See Audin, Vie de Luther, t. ii. p. 376.
/
fart ihj Cfeirir. •
THE CATHOLIC KULE OF FAITH.
The refutation of the Protestant rule of faith has al-
ready led us to give the broad outlines of the majestic
edifice of Catholicism, and to show the basis on which
it rests. It will not, however, be useless to proceed
farther, so that each and every one may easily discover
this ark of salvation, and there find a refuge from
storms. How many in the bosom of the Reformation do
nothing but travel from one sect to another, without
finding that repose they so ardently long for I They
are driven from one shoal to another, like miserable
shipwrecked mariners, who, meeting with nothing but
barren and uninhabited islands, end by sinking with
fatigue, exhaustion, despair.
What a happy chance for these poor victims of doubt
if, before the momentous hour of death, they perceive
the divine bark of the ■Church of Christ sailjng on the
sea of this world, and having been charitably welcomed
into it, there have their wounds dressed and their ex-
hausted strength renewed by the life-giving nourishment
of grace ! There, there is no more danger ; Jesus, in
His omnipotence, calms the troubled waves when it
pleases Him. The very source of grace and truth, He
gives to souls that supernatural food of which they stand
140 The Bible and the Rule of Faith,
ill need ; by means of His Vicar He commands, and all
obey ; hosts of ministers and faithful servants execute
the most difficult tasks, and the vessel advances full sail
towards the port of a happy eternity.
This bark, which thus braves the fury of the waves,
is the Church of Jesus Christy the Catholic Ajwstolic
Roman Churchj the visible society which the Divine
Saviour Himself founded to preserve revealed truth in
the world, and to save men. It is to her that He made
His infallible promises ; it is she who has received the
precious deposit of the holy truths which He came to
bring down to earth, and which are contained in the
IIoli/ Scriptures and in tradition; it is she who is charged
with propagating this revelation, with preserving it in-
tact, with interpreting it in its true sense, with putting
an end to any controversies which may arise with regard
to it. Scripture and tradition, then, constitute for Ca-
tholics the remote rule of faith^ whilst the infallible
magisterium of the Church is their proximate rule of
faith. I will treat each of these subjects as briefly as
possible. ,
CHAPTER I.
THE REMOTE RULE OF FAITH— HOLY SCRH^TURE AND
TRADITION.
FIRST ARTICLE.
Of the Holy Scriptures — The collection of the hooks of the Old
Testament looked on as divine hy the Saviour and the Apostles —
The canon of the Council of Trent is conformable to Christian
antiquity — Authenticity and origin of the Vulgate — Protestantism
recognises its exactness.
It is beyond all doubt that, at the time of our Saviour
and the Apostles, the synagogue was in possession of a
collection of books which, in the opinion of the Jewish
people, were all divine, and had been transmitted to
them by their ancestors. Several books of the Old
Testament infer the well-known existence of this collec-
tion, since they form, so to speak, a homogeneous body,
a collection of doctrines destined for public use in the
religious and civil life of the Hebrew people.
The Laiu (or five books composing the Pentateuch
of Moses), the Prophets, and the Hijrmis or Psalms. Such
are the three great divisions generally found among the
Jewish writers who have spoken of this collection.
Scrupulous care was taken not to alter the slightest
thing in these books ; they would have suffered death
rather than have added or retrenched, no matter what,
because they were convinced that they contained the
pure Word of God ; they therefore enjojed divine au-
thority. But, as I have already pointed out, besides the
books which the whole nation looked on as certainly in-
142 The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
spired, there were others held in f^reat veneration, al-
though a certain amount of doubt existed as to their divine
origin, on account of the obscurity which existed about
the succession of the Prophets. These are the Deutero-
canonical books of the Old Testament, which the Ca-
tholic Church has admitted into her canon of Scripture,
whilst Protestantism has rejected them. It would take
too long to discuss this question from an historical point
of view ; it will be sufficient here to state the existence
of a collection of Sacred Books, without examining its
component parts.
It is this collection which our Lord Jesus Christ
and His Apostles designate under the generic name of
Sanpturey of IIoli/ Scrijyture^ or Holy Letters, They
quote a great many texts from It, taken from the dif-
ferent books of which it is composed. They look on it
as of incontestable authority ; they make use of it as
bringing forward peremptory proof. Jesus Christ Him-
self affirms that He has not come on earth to destroy,
but to fulfil the Law and the Prophets. He adds else-
where, that everything written concerning Him in the
Law, in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, must neces-
sarily be realised. Never does He pronounce a single
word of blame, never does He give the smallest indica-
tion of disapprobation with regard to the belief of the
Jews in the inspiration of the Old Testament ; on the
contrary. He confirms it by making use of their books
to prove the divinity of His mission, calling them divine
oracles^ inspired writings^ proclaiming that even the least
iota of the Law will receive its full accomplishment,
and manifesting the most profound veneration for them.
The Catholic Ride of Faith. 143
Now, our Saviour's way of acting could not be under-
stood if the faith of the Jewish people was erroneous iu
this matter ; doubtless it was befitting that a God, come
down to earth to restore truth, should have corrected
this error, if error there were. It is, then, very evident *
from these remarks that, following the example of Jesus
Christ and the Apostles, we ought to consider this col-
lection of books as having a divine origin. Anyhow,
this testimony of our Saviour's does not point out to us
which are all the books and the only books, all the texts
and the only texts, th?t are inspired.
As for the entire collection of the New Testament,
and each one of the books composing it, we can only
prove their divine inspiration by the writings of the
Apostles or Fathers of the first ages. If we put aside
the authority of Catholic tradition, as Protestants do,
it is perfectly certain that we could never decide the
canon of the New Testament in an incontestable man- i
ner. In fact, as we have remarked above, the testi-
mony of St. Peter^ and St. PauP may well have some
value in proving the divinity of what had been previ-
ously written, but not of what might be written later. .
As to the Deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament,
it is the Catholic Church alone which can decide whether
or no they are inspired.
Besides, without here entering into details, we wil-
lingly admit and firmly believe that the Holy Scriptures
have God for their Author, that they contain the Word
of God, a part of Revelation; that it is God Himself
who has enlightened the understandings and prompted
» 2 Peter iii. 16. 2 2 Timothy iii. 16.
I (
144 The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
the will of the sacred writers, so as to make them write
all that He wished, and only what He wished, to be con-
tained in the Sacred Books. It is sufficient to read the
decree of the Council of Trent on the canonical Scrip-
tures (sess. iv.) to be convinced that such is the faith of
the lloman Church. The Reverend Messrs. Wells and
Burns, speakers at the meeting of the Bible Society,
may be very certain that our respect for the Holy Scrip-
ture is not inferior to theirs ; we may even fearlessly
affirm that we profess a more profound veneration for
this Divine Book than the Protestants, since we do not,
like them, allow it to be mutilated, j'etrenching some-
times a book, sometimes a somewhat troublesome text,
which perhaps does not quite suit preconceived ideas.
Neither can any one reasonably contest the legiti-
macy of the canon by which the same Council determines
which are the inspired books. Besides the fundamental
argument of the infallibility of the teaching Church,
which is unassailable to every Catholic, there is also the
scientific or historical proof, which ought even for Pro-
testants to have at least a human authority. Now it is
very certain that the canon of the Scriptures, as settled
by the Council of Trent, is founded on the testimony
of Christian antiquity, and can resist the attacks of
criticism. In fact, we find the whole of it admitted by
the Churches of Africa and Rome in the fourth century,
recorded in the oldest versions of the Scripture ; all the
books contained in it are named by the different Fathers
of the Church as divine and inspired, although each of
these Fathers does not name them all in order, some-
times for one reason, sometimes for another; the Oriental
The Catholic Rule of Faith. 145
Churches even separated from the Roman Church since
the first ages of Christianity, such as the Nestorians, the
Jacobites, the Eutycha^ans, equally look on all the books
enumerated by the Council of Trent as divine. Then,
even considering the canon of Scripture only from a scien-
tific and human point of view, it is far more reasonable
to admit it such as we find it among Catholics.
There is no need to insist farther on the fact that
Holy Scripture contains the Word of God, since Pro-
testantism agrees with us on this subject. But there is
one point which is often disputed, and which it will not
be useless to elucidate. This is the authenticity of our
Latin version of the Vulgate.
For greater clearness let us here recall to mind that
the Old Testament was originally written in the Hebrew
langup^e, with the exception of the book of Wisdom
and the second book of Machabees, of which the original
text was Greek, with the exception also of the books of
Tobias and Judith, and some fragments of the first book of
Esdras, of Daniel, and of Jeremiah, which were written
in Chaldaic. The New Testament was written in Greek
by the sacred writers, if we except the Gospel according
to St. Matthew and the Epistle to the Hebrews, of which
the original text was probably in Hebrew.
The divine instructions contained in the Old Testa-
ment had been revealed to the Jews in their own
language. This little nation, confined within the nar-
row limits of Palestine, had gained the favour of God ; it
was to this people that God had confided His heavenly
doctrine. But other people were soon to be called
to receive the fight of revelation and the benefits of
I*
1 4^ The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
Christianity; therefore the benign providence of God
permitted that the Sacred Books should be tranvslated
into the languages of several nations. It was thus that
in the third century before Jesus Christ there appeared
that famous Greek version of the Old Testament, gener-
ally known under the name of the Alexandrine version
or Septuagint, and destined for the use of the hundred
whom the king Ptolemy Lagus
'transported froni Pa!lestine to Egypt. Everywhere
ij?-yfirsi^i!*jtya*)i«p^ired With respect and veneration;
. ^.le riiston^n *jyi(jpnus*-ma|[le use of it the same as of the
N^^i^i^aJ ^ex^-. Jes^i^;^J^ist and the Apostles accorded
it^aS&eLfla rtW/il j^^^ transmitted it to the rising com-
munities ; all the Greek Churches received it favourably,
so much so that St. Augustine wrote that in his time the
Greek nations converted to Christianity seemed to think
it was the only version, and appeared to be unaware that
there were others.^
In the second century of the Christian era were
published the Greek versions of Aquila, Symmachus,
Theodotion, and several anonymous authors, which the
great Origen, the oracle of the schools of Alexandria,
carefully collected in fifty volumes of his immortal works.
It was from the Septuagint that towards the end of the
fifth century were made the different translations into
Ethiopian, Armenian, &c. The Syriac version, called
Pescliito, was made from the Hebrew text.
In the West the Latin versions became infinitely
multiplied. As Hebrew was but little known, and on
the other hand Greek was extensively known, the text
» De Civit. Dei, 1. xviii. ^
The Catholic Rule of Faith, 147
of the Septuagint was most frequently used for the
Latin transUitions. Among these latter there was one
more widely spread than the others ; this was the one
that St. Augustine and others call the Italic, and to
which St. Jerome gives the name of Vulgate or Com-
mon. It was of long standing, it perhaps even dated
from the apostolic times ; it had also the merit of being
clear and accurate. The author, whose name is unknown
•' to us, translated the Old Testament from the Alexan-
drine version of the Septuagint, and the New from the
^ \ common Greek edition.
In time different readings crept into the Latin text
of this version, owing to the ignorance or negligence of
the numerous transcribers. It is this version that St.
Jerome undertook to correct at the request of the Pope
St. Damasus. This great man, who, by means of con- ^
stant study, was familiar with Greek, Hebrew, and even '
Chaldaic, was far more capable than our modern linguists
of giving to the world a really satisfactory translation of
our Sacred Books. After persevering labour, wiiich lasted
nearly twenty years, the chief work of his life was ac-
complished (405). First he had corrected the Italic ver-
sion of the Old Testament from the Ilexapla of Origen ;
but afterwards convinced, and rightly so, that the origi-
nal is always better than a translation, he translated from
the Hebrew itself all the books of the Old Testament
except Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, the two books of Macha-
bees, Baruch, the letter of Jeremiah, the additions to the
book of Esther, the two last chapters of Daniel, the Song
of the Three Children in the furnace. Our present
Vulgate comprises the Italic version of these last-named
148 The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
books as well as of the Psalms (cf'Tectecl, however, from
the Septuagint by St. Jerome), joined to that of the
other books of the Old and New Testament taken from
the Hebrew, the Chaldaic, and the Greek by the same
illustrious doctor.
Notwithstanding the numerous criticisms that this
version gave rise to, it was almost immediately adopted
in several Churches of Spain, of the Gauls, and in Africa,
and shortly afterwards in the other Western Churches.
On account of its clearness and accuracy, it has been the
only one used in the Latin Church since the eighth or
ninth century.
It is this Vulffate that the Council of Trent declared
authentic in evein/ part. That certainly does not mean
to say that this version should be preferred to the origi-
nal texts from which it sprang, and which serve to throw
light on the most faithful translations ; but only that
among the Latin versions in use at the period of that
Council, the Vulgate ought to have the preeminence ; it
is that of which we ought habitually to make use. This
decree does not mean that the Vulgate is perfect in
every respect, that it contains no expression which might
not advantageously be replaced by some other ; but it
simply means that it contains no fault from which an
erroneous dogmatic or moral doctrine could be deduced,
and that in all the texts which concern the faith and the
moral precepts it gives us the veritable Word of God in
all its integrity, so that in such matters we can draw
valid proofs from it which no one can reject under any
pretext whatever.* Protestants pretend sometimes to be
* Franzelin, De Divind Traditione et Scriptwd, p. 465.
m
The Catholic Rule of Faith. 149
scandalised at the revisions which the Popes have made
or caused to be made in the Vulgate, even after the
Council of Trent ; but if they had understood the true
sense of the decree of the Council, they would not have
indulged in these puerile recriminations ; the corrections
made in the text were generally but of little importance,
and in no way affected the doctrine, nor consequently
the authenticity, which was established by the Council. .
" All aijcs are agreed in recoixnisintr the excellence of
the Vulgate; Protestantism itself, by the voice of its
0, principal men, cannot do otherwise than proclaim its
superiority. Listen to Hugo Grotius, who declares that
he * always lins a great esteem for the Vulgate, not only
because it contains no unsound doctrine, but because it
contains much erudition.'^ See Michaelis, who affirms
that Hhis version is the most perfect of all;' and he calls
on all his hearers, Protestant and Catholic, to bear wit- '
ness to the authority he has always granted it.^ In the ,
judgment of Gerard the best and most ancient manu-
scripts decide in favour of the Vulgate ; it is generally
well done, faithful, and often renders the sense of Scrip-
ture better than the greater number of the modern ver-
sions.'^ Albert Schultens says similarly that he * does
not hesitate in general to award the palm to the Vul-
gate over the other versions, even the modern ones, to
which it is often superior.'® Let us now hear what
Dr. George Campbell writes on this subject : * It must
^ Pr<jef. Annot. in V. Test. Amst. 1679, t. i.
" Siqjj^lein. ad Lex. Hebraic, pt. iii. p. 992 ; and Biblioth. Orient.
vol. xxi. no. 311.
' Institutes of Biblical Criticism, § iv. nn. 269, 270.
* Prcef. in Job.
150 The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
be taken into consideration,' he says, Hhat even the last
part of this translation [the Vulgate] has been finished
for about fourteen centuries.' ... * There are in this cir-
cumstance two things which should recommend the work
in question to the serious examination of the critic. The
first is, that this version having been made from manu-
scripts more ancient than the greater part, or even than
the whole, of those which remain to us, it occupies to a
certain extent the place of these manuscripts, and fur-
nishes us with a probable means for discovering what
were the lessons which Jerome found in the copies which
he had collected with so much care. The second is, that
having been completed long before the rise of those con-
troversies which are the foundation of most of the sects
at present existing, it Is, we may rest assured, exempt
from all party influence.'^ I might also quote the testi-
mony of Home, Mill, L. Cappel, and a number of
others who cannot help acknowledging the merit of
the Vulgate. Before these straightforward attestations
of Protestant science, what becomes of the insolent at-
tacks of the coxcombs of modern criticism, who set
themselves up as severe censors, and would substitute
their own personal infallibility for that of the Church
of all ages ; who think themselves superior to St. Jerome,
and who affect the greatest contempt for the Vulgate?
On studying a little the grounds of these pretensions to
bibhcal science, it will generally be discovered that they
may be reduced to one or two years' study of Hebrew
and Chaldaic in some academy or other; what I say is
founded on fact. With this small stock of knowledge
9 Dissert, x. p. 394. '
The Catholic Rule of Faith. 151
people think themselves capable of demolishing at one
blow that which centuries have built up and respected.
Real science has none of this effrontery, and knows
better how to render justice to truth.
Let it once more, then, be well established — 1. that
Catholics admit the Holy Bible to be the Word of God
to men, and profess the greatest respect for it. 2. That
they, by their preaching, do much more for its propa-
gation and for making it known, than Protestantism
does by means of its Bible Societies. 3. That the Bible
'' ', has been left to the care of the teaching Church, which
is bound to preserve it intact and give it an authentic
interpretation, but that it is not left at the mercy of
the first comer, who, at his own fancy, might retrench
sometimes a verse, sometimes a whole book. 4. That
the Vulgate is still the most faithful of the Latin ver-
sions of the Bible, and contains nothing that can sub-
stantially affect the heavenly doctrine which God came
down from heaven to bring to man.
SECOND ARTICLE.
Of tradition: its nature — 0?;jecftue tradition — Protestants must neces-
sarily admit tradition, urder pain of losing all foundation for their
rule of faith and several of their articles of belief — The Scripture
and the Fathers of the Church admit objective tradition as a part
of Revelation — St. Vincent de Lerins — Testimony favourable to
tradition of several Protestant writers — Jesus Christ only rejects
vain and false traditions —Revealed truth is written everywhere
in ineffaceable characters — Christian monuments — Active tradi-
tion — Transformations undergone by Catholic churches that have
been taken possession of by Protestantism — The Anglican Liturgy
has only presei'ved the accessories of worship.
» Whilst refuting the Protestant rule of faith, I
have demonstrated that if Catholic tradition is rejected,
f /
152 The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
the Bible itself falls from our hands; Christianity is
no longer anything but a vain shadow, a theory without
a foundation ; for the Christian religion is, properly
speaking, nothing but a tradition, and rests entirely on
tradition, so that to suppress the one is to annihilate the
other.
Nothing frightens Protestants so much as tradition;
this word rouses a multitude ot prejudices. An idea is
formed of human teaching added to the Word of God,
a confused mixture of superstitions that have accumu-
lated in the course of centuries, a collection of formulas
transmitted to us by word of mouth, and consequently
inevitably altered and distorted. We have only to read
the works of the leaders of the Oxford school to become
convinced that they have formed ideas altogether false
about Catholic tradition, and that they are attacking
nothing but chimeras.
What, then, is tradition ? ^ It is,' answers Father
Perrone,^^ *the whole of the oral teaching which the
Apostles received from the very lips of the Divine Sa-
viour, and that other interior teaching which was sug-
gested and inspired by the Holy Ghost. A teaching
which does not consist in mere formulas, in words alone,
but in truth and in things themselves. A teaching
which, so to speak, incorporated itself with the budding
Church, at once penetrated and entirely filled it, and
from that time forward has never ceased to live in her,
to preserve itself in her, and to propagate itself in her,
as it will preserve and propagate itself in her to the end
of time. A teaching which had even attained its ple-
/ . • ' ^^ La Regola di Fede, \ol. n. ]^. 4.3. '\
The Catholic Rule of Faith. 153
nitude and perfection before the books of the New Alli-
ance were written, and which, consequently, already
contained all those truths which have since been in a
great measure consigned to those Sacred Books, but
truths which, far from being only a dead letter printed
on mute paper, have always been truths living or veri-
fied by faith, by instrii'^tion, by the practical life and
interior spirit of the entire body of the Church. A
.' teaching which lost none of its divine authority nor
of its efficacy, as regards its quality and dignity as a
\\ rale, when a part of it was drawn up in writing, so as
to form by degrees the canon of the New Testament,
the books of which, incontestably of later date than this
traditional teaching, have never offered, whatever may
be said to the contrary, more than a part of the Word
of God. I say a fart of that Woi^df for no one can
assert that all oral teaching is to be found in the Gospel
composed by St. Matthew, since in St. Mark we find
many things omitted by the former. We might say
the same thing about the Gospel of St. Luke with regard
to the two preceding Gospels, and in an inverse sense
of the different Epistles of the Apostles, the Apocalypse
included, with reference to the Gospel by St. John, the
latest in date of all the books of the New Testament,
and where are to be found many things omitted in all
the others. And let it not be said that all which re-
mained of oral teaching was contained in this last Gos-
pel ; for not only no document proves it, but, what is
more, we find in that very book a protestation to the
contrary, since the Evangelist there declares in express
. terms that Jesus Christ has done many other things
1 (
1 54 T^he Bible and the Ride of Faith,
which are not written in this book ;^^ and that which
was said about what Jesus Christ did, may, for the
same reason, be affirmed about what lie thought.'
As may easily be remarked, we are here considering
Christian tradition chjectively and in its broadest sense;
it comprises, therefore, all the Word of God, written or
unwritten, promulgated by God Himself or by those
sent by Him. But this expression is more generally
employed to designate a mode of transmission different
from writing ; it is thus that the Fathers of the Church
term tradition whatever teaching comes to us from our
ancestors, and cannot be proved by Scripture ;i2 \i jg
thus that they present to us tradition and Scripture as
a double source of Christian doctrine,^^ as having an
equal authority,^'* &c.
Now, it is this tradition distinct from the written
Word of God which Protestantism openly repudiates, to
which it denies all authority when it is isolated from
the Scriptures, and which it even looks on as the prin-
cipal and most fertile source of the corruption which
in its eyes sullies the Roman Catholic Church.
Judging from the vehemence to which some of our
adversaries give way, one would be led to believe that
they had never allowed the smallest particle of divine
and dogmatic tradition to filter into their belief, but
that the Bible alone was the rule of their faith and their
conduct. Still, as I have already abundaitly proved,
" St. John XX. 30 ; xxi. 35.
'2 Tert. De Corona^ c. iv. ; Cypr. Ep. Ixiii. ad Csecil. ; August. Be
Bapt. 1. ii. c. vii.; 1. v. c. xxiii.
" Iren. 1. iii. c. v. n. I ; Tert, Prascript. c. xix.
~ '* Basil. De Spiritu Sancto, 27 ; Chrysost. in 2 Thess. Horn. iv. n. 2.
\
The Catholic Rtde of Faith, 155
it is radically impossible for them for an instant to main-
tain their rule of faith without the help of tradition;
impossible for them to determine which books compose
their Bible ; impossible to prove the inspiration of those
books; impossible to fix the dogmatic and legitimate
sense of them.
Doubtless on some of these questions help may be
borrowed from the Holy Scripture ; but then a thing is
proved by itself, and the vicious circle becomes inevit-
able; or history must be interrogated for the necessary
proofs, and by so doing we are in the full tide of tradi-
tion. Supposing it be human, it cannot give the autho-
rity of divine faith to the bases of your faith ; if you
proclaim it divine, then you are agreed with us, and you
become Catholics.
Is it not from tradition that Protestantism has taken
its belief in the validity of Baptism conferred by heretics
or infidels'? Is it not from the same source that it
takes its dogmas of the validity of infant baptism and
the form of administering that sacrament? Is it not
thence, again, that it has learnt to keep holy the Sunday
instead of the Saturday ; not considering obligatory the
prohibition to eat blood and animals that have been
strangled, as decided by the Council of Jerusalem ;i^ not
considering the reception of the Eucharist absolutely
necessary for the salvation of children, notwithstanding
these words of our Saviour : * Except you eat the Flesh of
the Son of Man, and drink His Blood, you shall not have
life in you ;'^*^ not strictly keeping to the formal precept :
* You also ought to wash one another's feet' ?^^ ^ ,
» Acts XV. 29. »• St. John vi. 4. " Ibid. xiii. 14.
» /
1 $6 The Bible and the Rule of Faith,
I know that some have an easy manner of getting
out of all these difficulties ; they boldly affirm that they
are not fundamental articles. It seems to me, however,
that it ought to be a fundamental article to know which
are the books and the only books containing the Word
of God ; nothing appears to me more fundamental than
the knowing whether one has received Baptism validly
or invalidly ; whether one is Christian or infidel ; whe-
ther one has a right to the kingdom of heaven, or ought
to be excluded from it for ever. If these are not funda-
mental questions, I acknowledge that we may well re-
nounce finding any in the Christian religion. But who
cannot see that this distinction has been invented to
avoid an inconvenient enemy ? Who is the man short-
sighted enough not to perceive in this a subterfuge ima-
gined to support an imperilled cause %
These traditional truths which Protestants are ne-
cessarily obliged to admit enable us to mention a fact
which has existed at all periods of history : it is that
tradition, when it does not exist alone, goes hand in hand
with Scripture. Open the annals of the people of God
from the commencement of the world until the Reforma-
tion in the sixteenth century, you will always find in its
profession of faith dogmas which it considered as divine,
and which are not contained in the Scriptures.^^
The Holy Scripture itself, of which Protestantism so
loudly proclaims the authority, gives testimony against
it by admitting the existence of divine traditions. In
his second Epistle to the Thessalonians (ii. 14) St. Paul
says to them : * Brethren, stand fast, and hold the tradi-
■* Franzelin, De Divind Traditione et Scripturd, p. 209, &c. 1
The Catholic Ride of Faith , 157
tions which you have learned, whether by word or by our
epistle.'
The great Apostle seems to wish to prevent the term
tradition being confined later on to instruction given in
writing only ; this is why he takes cares to add * which
you have learned ivhether hij ivord, or by our epistle/
in order to show us that his word, written or unwritten,
has always the same auihorlty. The Catholic Church,
faithful to St. Paul's doctrine, has constantly manifested
the same respect for the truths which have reaciied us
by the channel of tradition as for those contained in the
Scriptures.
St. John Chrysostom,^^ commenting on these words
of the Apostle, reasons in the following manner : ^ It is
clear that the Apostles have not written all that they
have taught, but they have left many truths without
committing them to writing, and these truths are no less
worthy of faith; this is why ve believe tradition to be
worthy of faith ; it is tradition. Ask no more.'
Writing for the first time to the Corinthians, St.
Paul says to them : * I rejoice in you, my brethren, be-
cause in all things you think of me and keep my pre-
cepts, such as I have given them unto you, — sicut trad.idi
vohis.'' The Apostle had already evangelised the Co-
rinthians, and it was this oral teaching which he re-
commended them to preserve carefully; whence St.
Chrysostom draws the following conclusion : * St. Paul,
then, has given several lessons, without committing them
to writing, which he points out in several other texts.'^*^
'8 Horn. V. in cap. ii. Ep. ad Thessal.
20 Horn. xxvi. in cap. ii. Ep. i. ad Corinth.
I c8 The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
It is thus St. Epiphanius expresses himself as to this
passage : ' Recourse must be had also to tradition, be-
cause we do not find all in the Holy Scriptures; the
Apostles have transmitted us certain things by the Scrip-
tures, and others by tradition, as the Apostle teaches
US.'21
Do you wish for other testimony of St. Paul's on
this matter? In the second Epistle to Timothy he says
expressly: ^And the things which thou hast heard of
me by many witnesses, the same commend to faithful
men, who shall be fit to teaJi others also.''^^ g^. John,
at the end of his second epistle, says : ' Having more
things to write unto you, I would not by paper and ink :
for I hope that I shall be with you, and speak face to
face.'
The existence of divine and unwritten traditions is
confirmed by the testimony of a number of the Fathers
of the Church ; I quote some taken at hazard. ^ What
then !' exclaims St. Irenseus ; ^ if the Apostles had not
even left us the Scriptures, ought we not to have fol-
lowed the order of the tradition which they have depo-
sited in the hands of those to whose care they have con-
fided the Churches ? Many nations who have received
the faith in Jesus Christ have followed this order, pre-
serving without letters or ink the truths of salvation
written in their hearts by the Holy Ghost, and care-
fully keeping the ancient tradition. These men, who
have embraced this belief without any Scripture, are ig-
norant as regards our language; but as for doctrine,
the customs and manners prescribed by the faith, they
•-'» Hares. Ixi. ed, Petav. 22 2 Tim. ii. 2.
The Catholic Rule of Faith. 159
are well instructed and agreeable to God. If any one
proposed to them dogmas invented by heretics, they
would at once, stop their ears and flee away, so as not
to listen to such blasphemies. Thus, being constantly
attached to the venerable tradition of the Apostles,
they would not even admit into their thoughts the least
image of these prodigies of error.'-^
* There is nothing true,' says Orl^vin, * except that
which is in all points conformed to ecclesiastical and apos-
tolical tradition.'^"* And elsewhere : ' It is the tradition
of the Apostles which teaches the Church the necessity
. of Baptism conferred on infants.'-^ 'Tradition, like
Scripture, forms a part of the whole of Christian doctrine,'
says Tcrtullian. And elsewhere : ^ If you are a Chrifi-
tian, believe tradition, — 81 Christianus es, crede quod
traditum esf.J"^'^ ' If you ask,' he adds, ' that these and
similar usages sixould be confirmed by the authority of
the Scriptures, it cannot be done ; they have no other
source than tradition confirmed by practice and sanc-
tioned by obedience ; this is why the Scriptures should
not be appealed to.' Often even he appeals to tradition
against his adversaries, against the heretics of his day,
because the greater number of them, like the Catholics,
admitted the force of an argument founded on tradition.
St. Basil, in his book on the Holy Ghost, demon-
strates the necessity of admitting tradition, and makes
use of it to establish the divinity of the Holy Ghost,
saying that there are written dogmas, but that there are
■^ Adv. Hcer. 1. iii. c. iv. " £)g Principiis, 1. i.
" In Epist. ad Rom.
** Fncscript. xix. ; De Cor. Militis, c. iv. ; De Came Christi, c. ii.
1 60 The Bible and the Ride of Faith.
also otliors wliicli wc liave received from the tradition
of the Apostles; tlien lie adds, ^that the latter liave as
much authority as the former — a fact which no one dis-
l)utcs, however small a smatterin*^ lie may have of the
ecclesiastical laws. . . . Y<dv my part,' he says, ' I hold
for Apostolic whoever remains attached to unwritten
traditions.' Then he establishes his proposition by means
of those texts of St. Paul which I have cited above, and
at the same time by a natural comj)arison taken from
the secular tribunals, where written proofs and proofs
given by eye-witnesses are alike received; which answers
to the two proofs in use among Catholics to establish the
truth concerning faith and morals, that is to say, Scrip-
ture and traditicm.
It is to tradition that St. Augustine principally and
often has recourse to prove that Baptism conferred by
heretics ought not to be reiterated. ' The Apostles,' he
says, Miave ordained nothing on this subject in writing;
but we should look u})on this custom [of not rebaptising],
although contrary to St. Cyprian's sentiments, as a tra-
dition taking its origin from the Apostles themselves ; in
fact, there are several things which the Universal Church
believes, and which, for that reason, are considered as
liaving been conunanded by the Apostles, although these
thinijs cannot be found written down.'-
I might cite twenty other analogous passages taken
from the Avorks of the great Bishop of Hippo ; but I
shall again have occasion, when speaking of the Church,
to cite some texts which wull confirm the same doctrine.
However, I will not terminate this chapter without giving
'" Cont, Donatist. 1. v. c. xxiii.
The Catholic Rule of Faith, 1 6 1
the testimony of St. Jerome and that of St. Vhicent de
Lerins.
The former wishing to refut(; tlie Luciferians, wlio
despised tra(Htion, and only took the Bible as authority,
addresses these energetic words : * Let not the sectarians
boast that they cite the Ilohj Scripture to prove their
doctrines; the demon himself has ([uoted passages of it;
Scripture does not consist in the letter, but in the sense.
If we held to the letter only we should have to forge a
new dogma, and to teach tliat we should not receive into
the Church those who have shoes and two coats.""^^
St. Vincent de Jjcrins is still more ex})licit on this
subject when he gives us his famous rule of faith, that
is to say, what must be looked on as revealed doctrine,
which lias been believed in all places^ at all timesy and by
all the faithful. Here is that simple, precise, clear rule
which overthrows all innovators, that immutable rule
by which Catholic truth may be distinguished from all
heresies, and all controversies may be decided. He
shows that the Scripture cannot serve as the only rule,
because all do not understand it in the same sense ; he
lets us see that the Church has the mission of preserving,
developing traditional faith, and determining the sense
of immutable faith by new and special means of ex[)res-
sion. ' As for makino; use of the testimon v of the Fathers,
we must only cite,' he says, ^ the words of those who
have lived, taught, and persevered in the Catholic com-
munion and faith, holily and faithfully, and who have
been judged worthy of dying for Jesus Christ, or of con-
secrating their lives to Him. Any way, nothing must
'-* Dialog, adv. Lucif. in fine.
U
162 The Bible and the Rtile of Faith.
be received as entirely certain and indubitable except
what lias been believed by all or nearly all, and then
the unanimity of their consent is equivalent to a General
Council. If any one amongst them, however holy, how-
ever learned he may have been, be he bishop, confessor,
or martyr, has taught a doctrine contrary to that of the
greater number, this doctrine must be placed among the
catalogue of private opinions, uncerta* 1, obscure, desti-
tute of all authority as well as of the sanction of a uni-
versal, puJjiic, and prevailing belief.'
Speaking of the heretics who, at that period as in our
days, boasted of having the Bible with them: *They
affect,' he says, * to cite Scripture continually ; there is
hardly a page of their writings where we do not find texts.
But herein they resemble poisoners, who give imposing
names to their murderous potions, and they imitate the
father of lies, who, when tempting the Son of God, quoted
Scripture.'
After having established the immutability of Catholic
dogma, he asks himself, * Will there then be no progress
in the Church of Christ % There will be, and even
much ; for who will be so jealous of the welfare of men,
so cursed of God, as to prevent this progress % But let
it be progress and not change. With the progress of
ages and centuries there must be an increase of intelli-
gence, of wisdom and science for each man as for all the
Church. But the religion of souls must imitate the pro-
gress of the human body, which, whilst developing and
growing with years, is still the same in mature age as it
was in the bloom of youth.' This doctrine, which St.
Vincent de Lerins has recorded in his celebrated Com-
The Catholic Ride of Faith. 163
monitormm adversus Hceresesj is absolutely the doctrine
of the Roman Church of our days.
The authority and necessity of tradition have often
been recognised by Protestants themselves. ' Above all/
says Grotius, * it must be supposed that everything whicli
is generally adopted, without our being able to discover
the origin, comes from the Apostles.'^^
* Without tradition,' says Collier, * we cannot prove
that either the Old or the New Testament contains the
Word of God.'3»
Lessing^^ is no less explicit. * It is tradition and not
Scripture which is the rock on which the Church of
Jesus Christ is built.' And elsewhere : * All antic|uity
speaks in favour of tradition with a voice which our Re-
formers have too much slighted. They ought to have
allowea vO tradition, at least tradition such as St. Ire-
naeus understands it, the same divine authority as they
see fit to allow eivclusively to Scripture.' Further on,
wishing to anticipate a somewhat common objection, he
adds : * If tradition may have been falsified, may not the
Sacred Books have been falsified also V
From all which precedes it is easy to conclude —
first, that the unwritten Word of God has an equal title
to our faith and respect ; secondly, that there really do
exist veritable divine traditions, that is to say teachings,
which the Word of God imparted orally to His Apostles,
without these latter having committed them to writing,
29 Votum pro Pace, p. 137.
'<* HaBninghaus, La Reforme contre la Leforme, c. v., quoted by Rev.
Father Nampon, p. 121.
3' Ibid.
164 The Bible and the Rule of Faith,
and others which the Holy Ghost dictated to them, and
which they were to transmit to the Universal Church ;
thirdly, that in the New as in the Old Testament the
existence of these traditions is undeniable, since it is
affirmed by the Scriptures themselves, by the Fathers
of the Church, by Christian ^ iters of all times and in
all places ; fourthly, that Protestantism itself is forced
to admit these traditions, or submit to having nothing to
rest on.
It is with reason, then, that the Council of Trent, in
its fourth session, gave the following definition : ' There
are truths and rules of conduct which, without being
written, have been received from the very lips of Jesus
Christ, or which, dictated by the Holy Ghost, have been
handed down from one to another ; these are the divine
revelations tliat form the traditions which the Council
receives with the same piety and veneration as it re-
ceives the Scriptures.'
Tlie majority of tiic objections offered to us on
this subject by Protestants rest on texts of Scripture
which are badly interpreted. Tliere is no doubt that
Jesus Christ, like the prophet Isaias, rejects human doc-
trines, vain and false traditions^ the traditions of the
Scribes and Pharisees, precepts contrary to the law of
God ; but this is not the case in point, for the question
here is only concerning divine traditions, which can have
for their authors neither the Pope, nor the holy Fathers,
nor Councils, but only God, speaking in the ancient law
by the mouth of ]\Ioses and the prophets, and in the new
by tliat of Jesus Christ or the Apostles. It is against all
evidence that God can consider as false or as opposed to
The Cat Jiolic R^de of Faith, 165
His law doctrines which He Himself lias taught to men
either directly or by those He has sent.
When we speak of unwritten divine revelations or
traditions, we do not by this mean to say that these re-
vealed truths have never been written anywhere; but
only that they are not contained in the inspired writ
of the Old and New Testaments. In fact >ve may
find them everywhere else. AVhether we study, however
slightly, the monuments of Christian antiquity, the works
of the Fathers of the Church, the guardians and witnesses
of Catholic truth ; whether we read the creeds and pro-
fessions of faith, the acts of the martyrs, the lives of the
saints, the liturgical books ; whether we look through
the decrees concerning discipline, the collections of civil
and ecclesiastical law, the history of the Church and even
of heresies ; whether we carefully scrutinise more par-
ticularly the definitions of the Councils, the pontifical
acts, we shall easily be convinced that our dogmas are
' everywhere written in ineff'aceable characters. Doubtless
the Apostles were not sent by Jesus Christ to write books,
but to promulgate the Gospel by the authority of preach-
ing, to found Churches, to preserve the faithful in the
faith by a living and authentic tnaghterium. Still, some
of them were inspired by the Holy Ghost to write a part
of the revealed doctrine. In the same way, although the
mission of the apostolic succession or teaching Church
may not be to write, its essential function being that of
the Apostles, there ensues from this, however, by a
consequence which is, so to say, natural and consonant
to the gracious providence of God — particularly if we
remark that the Holy Ghost does not inspire the Church,
I'
I
166 The Bible and the Rule oj Faith.
and makes her no new revelations ; but only assists her,
directing her and preserving her from error — that she
ought to watch over the entire and peqietual preserva-
tion of the doctrine revealed by means of written docu-
ments, which will bear witness to future ages of the
belief of the present age.^-
I have said that revelation is written everywhere ; I
might have added that it ^is even incrusted in stone
and marble, that it is cast in bronze, that it is
graven in the very bowels of the earth. See the cata-
combs of Christian Kome; there are paintings repre-
senting Jesus crucified, Jesus risen, the Blessed Virgin,
the Apostles ; most of the biblical scenes there are life-
like. You may see altars where the august sacrifice of
the Eucharist was offered, and beneath the stone on
which Jesus was constantly immolated for the salvation
of the human race were then placed, as at present, the
bones of some martyr or some other saint ; the Real Pre-
sence was believed ; the Blessed Virgin and saints were
venerated, as well as the martyrs who had given their
life for the Faitli.^^
Without undertaking the arduous task of ransacking
the old manuscripts and folios in the large libraries, let
^2 See Franzelin, De Divind Traditione et Scripturd, pp. 132-3 ;
Perrone, Fnelect. Theol. vol. ii. pp. ii., 300, &c. ' The name of active
tradition is often given to the whole of the means and acts taken to-
gether by which doctrine, whether theoretical or practical, has been
propagated and preserved until now. It is clear that active tradition
contains the transmitted matter, since that can only have been pre-
served with it and by it. Sometimes also the name of tradition is
applied to the truth transmitted and the mode of transmission, as, for
example, was done by the Fathers of the Council of Trent in the fourth
session.' Franzelin, op. citat. p. 12.
33 De Rossi, Eoma Sotterranea Cristiana, Boma, 18G4.
The Catholic Rule of Faith. 167
us halt for a moment near the immense basilicas, whose
origin dates from the early ages of Christianity. Every-
where will be found the cross, that emblem of our belief
in the redemption of Jesus Christ ; the altar, which
reminds us of the Holy Eucharist, which is at the same
time a sacrament and a sacrifice ; the confessional, where
the pardon of our sins is obtained ; the baptistry, which
shows us the Catholic faith in spiritual regeneration ;
the relics of the saints exposed to the veneration of the
faithful, &c. In the cathedrals you will easily dis-
tinguish a particular seat higher than the others, destined
for the bishop ; this is the emblem of his superiority and
of his authority over the clergy and the faithful. Else-
where, as at St. Paul's without the Walls, you can admire
those beautiful mosaics in the form of ^nedallions which
represent the whole series of Popes, from St. Peter to
Pius IX.; and if you have seen the Vatican- basilica, you
have doubtless contemplated that gigantic cupola, which
exalts to the sky in colossal letters the dogma of the
infallible authority of the Vicars of Jesus Christ : * Tu
es Petrus, et super hanc petram aidificabo Ecclesiam
meam, et portge inferi non prsevalebunt adversus eam.'
This is how revealed truths, written or unwritten in the
Holy Books, are not only impressed on souls, but are
graven in Christian literature, in sculpture, in painting,
in monuments, in the objects of art produced by Chris-
tianity. This is how we may confidently appeal to
Christian antiquity to show to the dissentient commu-
nions that our dogmas are not inventions of the middle
ages, or of a relatively modem epoch, but are the verit-
able teachings of the apostolical ages.
1 68 The Bible and the Rule of Faith,
I understand how Protestantism cannot bear to hear
the word ^ tradition' pronounced. It can never itself
mount higher than Luther ; its genealogy commences
witli the apostate monk of Wittenberg, and not with
tlesus Christ. Besides, tradition cannot easily be re-
conciled with incessant innovations ; and what has Pro-
testantism been from its very birth except a schism
with previous centuries, a perpetual metamorphosis, an
uninterrupted fluctuation between the most conflicting
doctrines ? I admire the deep meaning of the answer
given by a French grenadier to his Protestant comrade,
who wished to win him over to his own sect. ' Do not
talk to me,' he said, * of your religion ; it is not as old
as my regiment.'
One is indeed painfully aff'ected when one visits
those grand Gothic churches of Westminster, Bale, Lau-
sanne, and others, built for Catholic worship and usurped
by one or another of the Protestant sects. The dtar
has been completely taken away, or sometimes replaced
by a table made of ordinary marble ; the choir is de-
spoiled of everything which furnished it with a reason
for existing ; the niches, destined for statues of the
Blessed Virgin and the saints, are empty; the bas-
reliefs, too, suggestive of Catholicism, are mutilated.
There is no longer any life in such a church ; one
feels that God no longer dwells there, since a strange
religion, an enemy to ancient traditions, has come and
pitilessly chased Him thence.
After having spoken of the Anglican Liturgy, of
which they vaunt the incomparable beauty, without re-
membering that it is but borrowed from ours which
The Catholic Rule of Faith. 169
they have aboHshed, Cardinal Wiseman very justly
remarks that the essential part of Anglican worship
(Collects, Epistles, Gospels) is, with us, but a second-
ary part, an introduction to a more solemn act — to
the Eucharistic Sacrifice. * Assuredly, when I see this
Church thus treasuring up and preserving from de-
struction the accessories of our worship, so highly prizing
the very frame in which our Liturgy is but enclosed, I
cannot but look upon her as I would on one whom
God's hand hath touched, in whom the liiiht of reason
is darkened, though the feelings of the heart have not
been seared ; who presses to her bosom, and cherishes
there, the empty locket which once contained the image
of all she loved on earth, and continues to rock the
cradle of her departed child !'^^
Let us not, then, be told that revelation not con-
tained in the Scriptures must necessarily be changed in
the course of time, and become mixed up with the im-
pure dioss of a thousand superstitions: this < ' "°ction
necessarily supposes the existence of erroneous i. .s in
the minds of those who make them. Jesus Christ havinc
established, as we are about to see, a teaching Church,
to be the depositary and infallible guardian of all re-
vealed truth, written or unwritten, it follows that the
true doctrine can never be corrupted while in the hands
of that Church. If, with the Divine assistance, she has
been able to preserve the Holy Scriptures intact, she
has also been able to preserve the truths which are not
to be found in the Scripture : the one is no more diffi-
cult than the other, to Divine Omnipotence.
34 Wiseman's Conferences,
I'
CHAPTER II.
THE PROXIMATE RULE OF FAITH, OR THE TEACHING
CHURCH.
FIRST ARTICLE.
Necessity of a doctrinal authority proclaimed by reason — Jesus proves
His divinity ; He preaches, but does not write — He gives a mis-
sion to His Apostles to preach His doctrine, but none to write it —
He constitutes St. Peter head of the Apostolical College and of His
whole Church, and pastor of His whole flock — He gives supreme
authority to the teaching body, and the obligation to believe and
obey to the faithful — The inspired writings of some of the
Apostles in nothing change the primitive constitution of the
Chui'ch of Christ ; en-or of Protestantism on this subject — The
Church is invested with infallible authority by Jesus Christ Him-
self ; proofs taken from Scripture ; promises of the Saviour ; as-
sistance of the Holy Ghost — It is the Catholic Chm-ch alone which
lays claim to this infallibility, and that until the end of time — The
Church of England proclaims herself fallible.
Amongst revealed truths there are some which are
contained in the Holy Scriptures, and others which are
only to be found in tradition. But as all are alike
divine, and God is not compelled to speak to us in a
book, it follows that we ought to believe all indiffer-
ently without distinction, and profess an equal respect
for all.
But this revelation, written or unwritten, is of itself
a dead letter : it comprises, as we have already seen, a
number of obscurities. Serious doubts arise on this
subject, and sharp controversies, which place it in peril.
Who will make these uncertainties cease, who will put
The Catholic Rule of Faith* 171
an end to those religious disputes ? It may be cut to
pieces by a rash criticism ; who will preserve it in its
primitive purity ? It is destined for all men ; who will
propagate it, always the same, to the very extremities of
the earth %
We have already proved that neither the authority
of a fallible Church, nor the supposed inspiration of
the Holy Ghost, nor individual reason applied to the
Bible, can lead to these results ; existing facts, and an
attentive examination of these different systems, have
furnished us with an eloquent and i)ersuasivc demon-
stration of such being the case. Even considering things
by the light of reason alone, it is easy to be convinced
that it is radically impossible for revelation to be pre-
served always and everywhere the same without a living
authority, supreme, infallible, perpetual.
Now this authority in doctrinal matters, of which
reason itself proclaims the rigorous necessity, Jesus
Christ has established in the clearest and most solemn
manner. Striking miracles,^ prophecies confirmed by
the result,*^ intimate knowledge of the most secret ac-
tions and even of the recesses of the lieart,^ the realisa-
tion in His own person of tho figures of the old Law,
His transfiguration, and the celestial testimony rendered
to His divinity on that occasion ;^ His whole life. His
admirable doctrine ; His death, considered by the light
of the prophecies whicii had announced it and the pro-
. digies which followed it; His glorious resurrection, —
' St. Matthew xi. 5 ; St. John x. 37 ; xv. 24, &c.
' St. Matthew xxiv. ; St. Luke xviii. 31 ; St. John ii. 19, «fec.
» St. John i. 48 ; ii. 24, 25 ; xiii. 18, &c.
•« St. Matthew iii. 15 ; xvii. 2 ; St. John xii. 28 ; 2 Petei i. 16, &c.
172 The Bible and the Rule of Faith*
here ar^ so many incontestable historical facts, which
had shown to the world that Jesus was indeed the
Messiah promised for four thousand years; that He was
the Saviour of whose mysterious advent the inspired
writers had so often sung; that lie was sent from
God and was God Himself, united to our human nature.
These supernatural facts were as His credentials to the
men whom He came to save ; it was impossible to deny
that He had received a divine mission : also He taught
with an authority that could be laid claim to by a God
alone. His doctrines. His precepts, won their way to
souls more easily after His miracles had gained the mul-
titude to believe in Him; He exacted an entire sub-
mission, an absolute obedience; the sentence decreed
by His orders was either endless happiness or eternal
reprobation ; He dies without having written a single
word of that doctrine which He destined to enlighten
the whole world.
But His work was not to end with His terrestrial
life ; His teachings were to be kept up and propagated
until the end of time. To attain this end, did He com-
mand that His doctrine should be codified, that a book
should be made of it for the colporteurs to bear to all
the shores of the known world, and from which each
individual was to gather his faith and his religion ? By
no means. He commences by Himself teaching orally,
and thus implanting the faith in souls. From among
the multitude of those who believed in Him He chose
seventy-two disciples, and from among these He chose
twelve Apostles, to whom at different times He commu-
nicated the most ample powers, as well as His own au-
Vx
•T^T'
The Catholic Rule of Faith, 173
tliority. Behold, according to St. John Chrysostom, tlie
hooks of Jesus Christ, the living codes containing His
divine law, wlio move in every direction, and whom lie
intrusts, aided hy the Holy Spirit, with instructing, go-
verning, and sanctifying the rest of the faithful.'^ The
first origin, the first step, so to speak, of Christian teach-
ing, the supreme source of the apostolate, which was to ,
be perpetuated for ever, is, then, to be found in the Son
of God made man, in His oral preacliiufj^ in His living
and personal magisterium. The A})ostles, to wliom He
communicates all His doctrine, with the injunction of
preaching it everywhere, constitute the second link of
that mysterious chain which stretches across ages with-
out break, and which binds, and will always bind, the
teaching body of pastors, first to the preceding ages,
then farther back ; and lastly, to the Apostles and the
Man-God. ^ Go,' said our Lord to the twelve poor
fishermen whom He had gathered around Him, *go ye
into the whole world, and preach the Gospel to every
creature. He that believeth and is baptised shall be
saved ; but he that believeth not shall be condemned.'^
*A11 power is given to Me in heaven and in earth.
Going, therefore, teach ye all nations, baptising them
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost ; teaching them to observe all things what-
soever I have commanded you ; and behold, I am with
you all days, even to the consummation of the world.'*^
* As the Father hath sent Me, I also send you. When
He had said this, He breathed on them : and He said to
- » In Matth. Horn. i. n. 1. ' ' • St. Mark xvi. 15, 16.
^ St. Matthew xxviii. 18-20.
174 The Bible a7id the Ride of Faith.
them : Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whose sins you shall
forgive, they are forgiven them ; and whose sins you
shall retain, they are retained.'®
If tliere is anything clear in the Gospel, it is these
words which I have just cited. Now what is the sense
of them? It is very evident that Jesus Christ estab-
lished thereby a body of pastors, and that He commu-
nicated to them all authority for teaching the nations,
for governing them, for administering the sacraments.
It is no less evident that He who received all power in
heaven and on earth sends them, even as He Himself
has been sent by His Father, and promises them His
special assistance until the end of the world The mis-
sion of the Apostles has no other limits than those of
the entire universe, no other object tlian all the com-
mandments of Christ. But from among these twelve
Apostles, henceforward to be called His ministers, the
dispensers of the mysteries of God, His ambassadors,
He chooses Simon, and confers on him a special prero-
gative, which is already explained by the symbolical
surname of Peter (Petrus) which He gives him. Later
on He explains the reason of this singular appellation,
at the same time recompensing him for having confessed
that Jesus is ^the Christ, the Son of the living God.'
* Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My
Church ; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of
heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth it
shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever thou
•
8 St. John XX. 21, 22.
The Catholic Rule of Faith, i 'j^
shalt loose on earth it shall be loosed also in heaven/^
The eve of Ilis death, Jesus said attain to Peter: * Simon,
Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you, that he
may sift you as wheat ; but I have prayed for thee that
thy faith fail not ; and thou, beinf^ once converted, con-
firm thy brethren. '10 Lastly, after Ilis resurrection,
Jesus confers on Peter the primacy, or supreme autho-
rity over the whole flock — over the universal Chui'ch —
by saying to him three times : * Feed My lambs, feed
My sheep. '^^
Here, then, is the Church of Jesus Christ definitively
constituted : at its head a supreme pastor, charged with
feeding, governing the whole flock ; with maintaining
unity in this edifice, of which he is, so to speak, the
basis ; of keeping the keys of the kingdom of heaven,
a symbol of the divine authority; of confirming his
brethren in the faith, his own never wavering by virtue
of the prayer offered by our Saviour for him. Peter is
the supreme head of that teaching body which is to
preach the Gospel, baptise, remit sins, and to rule the
Church of God, which Jesus has acquired by His o\vn
blood.^- Even considering the Gospels only as ordinary
historical and uninspired books, it is indubitable that
9 St. Matthew xvi. 16-19. ' The idea of the rock on which the
Church is built being Peter, and no other, cannot be as forcibly ex-
pressed in the English language as in either Greek, Latin, or French.
The identity of the words is striking in the original Greek ; for in that
language the two above-mentioned nouns are rendered by nerpos and
IleT^a. In Latin they are Pctnts and Petra, and in the French the very
same word is used for both, with only the variation of gender — " Tu ea
Pierre, et sur cette pieiTe," &c. This would have to be expressed in
English by, " Thou art a rock, and on this rock I will build My Church." '
(Note to English edition.)
•o St. Luke xxii. 31, 32. »> St. John xxi. 15-17. " Acts xx. 28.
176 The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
flesus Christ cliose for Himself Apostles; that He gave
them the mission of announcing the Gospel to all the
nations of the universe; that in order to accomplish this
difficult task He has endowed them with all the autho-
rity which His Father liad given Him in heaven and on
earth; and lastly, that He charged Simon Peter to con-
firm them in the faith. Up to that time there existed
no injunction to write a book and spread it througliout
the world.
This authority confided to a teaching body supposes
the existence of a body taught, and the strict obligation
of this latter to credit the doctrine transmitted to it. Thus
Jesus Christ expressly says : * Preach the Gosjk'I ; he
that helieveth not shall be condemned^^^ This is why St.
Paul, writing to tlie Thessalonians, expresses himself in
these terms : ' Therefore we give thanks to God without
ceasing, because that when you had received of us the
word of the hearing of God, you received it not as the
word of men, but (as it is indeed) the word of God,
who worketh in you that have believed.'^* The same
Apostle also calls the resurrection of Jesus Christ, ' by
whom we have received grace and apostleship for the
obedience to the Faith in all nations for His name.'^^
Lastly, the Holy Scriptures show us the Apostles dis-
persing all over the world, not to distribute Bibles, writ-
ten codes, but orally to announce to the nations the
good news of the Gospel.
This simple historical account of the origin of Chris-
tianity evidently shows on the one part a teaching
hierarchy, a living authority, a personal and genuine
" St. Mark xvi. 16. " 1 Thess. ii. 13. >» Romans i. 5.
The Catholic Rule of Faith, 177
magisteriuin ; und on the otlicr a correspoiulin*; sub-
mission, ohedieiice, and obligation of reccivin*^ the Faitli,
as also the exjdanation given of it. Here are ele-
. ments which are not extrinsic to the Christian religion,
nor su])eradded accidentally, nor variable according to
circumstances, but which constitute an intrinsic essential
proj)erty, the veiy basis of the system instituted by tfesus
Christ. If then, later, some of the Ajmstles, without
interrupting the course of their ])reachiiigs, write to
various particular Churches founded by their care, or to
divers persons and under special circumstances, a part
of the revealed doctrine, these writings may well, in the
views of Divine Providence, be of great service to the
teaching body of pastors and to the faithful depending on
them, but thev never were more than a secondary means
of preserving the doctrine; they can never affect the
existence of the teaching Church, since that which is
essential to the apostolate is not writing — never did Jesus
Christ give such an order to His Apostles — but preach-
ing, teaching orally ; and this is what the greater num-
ber of the Apostles contented themselves with doing,
doubtless persuaded that their divine mission demanded
nothing further.
Now will it dare be said that substituting a book, a
dead letter, for a living and personal authority, is not
a radical change ? Will it be said that it is no innova-
tion substituting for the submission of the faithful to the
Apostles the complete independence of individuals in
religious matters by means of private examination of the
Scriptures? Will it be affirmed that it is one and the
same thing for the faithful to receive religious instruction
N
178 The Bible and the Rule of Faith,
sucli jis ^ivoii ])y their k'^itiinato jjastors, and to tako
their doctrine from a book, witli no <rui(K' hut their feeble
reason, and of'tener tlian not, without any other aim than
that of findin*^ a justification for j)reconceived ideas'^ It
woukl be the same as maintainin<f that a «^ovennnent
does not cliangc in form when it passes from pure demo-
cracy to the most absolute monarchy. There has been,
then, in the bosom of Protestantism a radical innovaticm,
a chan'ge which essentially affects the constitution of
the Christian Church. Now cast your eyes on Ca-
tholicism, and you will see without ditticulty that it rests
on absolutely the same bases as tfcsus Christ gave to it ;
the bishops and the Popes have succeeded to the Apostles
and their visible Head ; they still teach with authority,
like those of whom they are the legitimate heirs ; they
say to the world, such and such a doctrine is revealed,
and the world unhesitatingly believes them, convinced
that it is God who is speaking by the mouth of His
emissaries. What, then, is the secret of this infinite
di^tanc which separates the authority of the Catholic
Churclk from that of the Anglican Church ? Why is
the one obeyed most thoroughly, whilst the other no
longer dares to issue commands? Why does the one
behold its unity gaining strength daily, whilst the other
is becoming subdivided, is breaking up, like those mo-
dern edifices, badly built, which fall to pieces without
waiting for the weight of years? The explanation is
easy: it is because the former possesses and claims as
her own those prerogatives conferred by Jesus Christ on
Peter and the other Apostles, whilst the latter, born but
yesterday, having no roots in the past nor promises for
The Catholic Rule of Faith, 179
tho fiitiuv, has Ijiit an L'|)In.Miicral existciK-e, is aware
of its own weakness, and lias not oven the coura<;e to
proclaim itself heir to the divine favours : the one is in-
fallible, proclaims itself to be infallible, antl has been
recognised as such since the time of the Apostles; the
other contents itself with bi'in*; fallible, and its most
devoted partisans discuss its decisions — which certainlv
are but rarely given — sometimes accuse it of doctrinal
error, of mistaken interpretations of Scripture, offer it a
most determined opposition, and end by submitting their
])oints of difference to the civil government, which pretty
often reverses the ecclesiastical decisions.
Let us now see whether there is a solid foundation
in the Scriptures for the pretensions of the Catholic
Church to possessing, not only a certain authority, but
an infalliblo authority in all that concerns the teaching
and preservation of revealed doctrine."'
Jesus Christ having given Simon the name of Peter,
told him that on that stone He would build His Church,
'^ It is not ray intention hero to treat ex profcsso of tho question of
the subject of active infallibility ; that would lead me too far. Any
way, it would he easy to deduce from my words the following conclu-
sions, which I extract from the llev. Father Frauzelin's De Divina
Traditione et Hcripturd, pp. 105-10 :
' Siibjectum ergo hitjiis iufalUbilitafis in doccndo sunt illi omnes et
Boli, quilns jus est et officium divinitus commissum authentice docendi
universam Ecclesiam.
* (a) Ita iufallihilis G%iEcclesia doccn8,h..Ci. coiims PasforuTO etDoc-
torum in unione, consensione, et subordinatioufl ad visibile caput Ec-
clesi«3 : idque turn in universali et consentiente praidicatione doctrino)
de fide vel moi'ibus, turn in solemnibus judiciis seudefinitionihus ejusdem
doctrintB. . . .
' (b) Ex opposite ratione verba Christi, quibus Petro primatus et in
primatu comprehensa infallihilitas magisterii pi-omittitur et confertur,
ipsum solum designant non tantummodo diserte distinctum a ceteris.
Bed etiam in relatione ad ceteros ab ipso confirmandos et pascendos. . . .'
1 2o The Bible and (he Rule of Faith.
and tli:it *tlie ^jitos of hell should iiotpivvjiil a^iiinst it;*
that is to say, si^ainst the Church which has Peter for
its basis. If these words do not signify that the Churcli,
as built on the foundations given it by the Saviour, will
always be infallible, it seems to nie it would be impos-
sible to find other words to exjiress that idea more clearly.
What other sense the very least natural can be given
them? None. Do not these words, in fact, contain a
promise ? Evidently, yes. And is not this ju'omise made
to tlie Church built on Peter, or to Peter who bears up
the Churcli (for the edifice cannot be separated from its
foundation without its crumbling to pieces) ? This is no
less evident. But of what nature is this promise ? What
guarantees does it offer % Jesus commences by affirming
that lie will hniUI Wis Church on a rock, on ihis .stone.
Does that mean that the Church will soon crumble
away and fall into error? Is it [)robable that our Lord,
whose glance penetrated the future, descrying its most
minute and hidden secrets, should have made use of
similar words if He had clearly known the future fall of
the Churcli? Would lie ever have said that lie would
build it on a stone, if that stone were not to serve it as a
solid and durable foundation ?
But the Saviour replied beforehand to these ques-
tions when He compared whoever performs good works
* to a wise man that built his house upon a rock ; and
the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew,
and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was
founded on a rock.'^' Whence it is clear that Jesus Christ,
by promising also to build His Church on a stone, wished
, " St. Matthew vu. 24, 25. ^
V
The CatJioIic Rule of faitJu 1 8 1
thereby to show us that its hasis would he so sohd, so
iinmovahle, tliat itwouhl he capahle of'resi::tin<^thesh<)( k
of storms, of perseeutions, auil of all the violent means
employed to overturn It. He develoi> , this thought
still farther by adding that * the gates jf hell shall not
j)revail against it.' These words cjntain at tbe same
time a general prediction and a promise). T\ui])rf'<U('tion
is that the powers of lu'll would be hostile to the Church,
would seek to prevail against it, and would make use of
all their energy and malice to destroy this kingdom of
truth by trying to corrupt the revealed doctrine. This
prediction has been lully acc()mj)lishe(l, and it is easy to
prove by considering all that the Church has constantly
had to suffer from schismatics, apostates, pagan and
even Christian princes, enemies of the Faith and jealous
of its authority ; antl lastly, from thousands of different
sects eager for its downfall. Tlie proinlxe is that, in
spite of all these efforts, all these ever-recurring hos-
tilities which our Saviour designates under the name of
the gates of hell, the Church will remain inunovable; it
will stand against the blind fury of heresy , of incredulity,
of schism, of })ersecution, and of apostasy, exactly like
the edifice which, founded on the solid rock, resists the
violence of the storm. But the Church of Christ can
only be that one which absolutely believes all the doctrine
taught to the world by Jesus Christ and Ilis Apostles.
If, then, we can suppose for an instant that this Church
is fallible, that she undermines the Faith, that she cor-
rupts her moral teaching, that she teaches error, by these
very facts she ceases to be the Church of Christ, and it
would be time to say that she had apostatised, that she
I /
182 l^he Bible and the Rule of Faith»
is no longer Ilis chaste spouse ; that she was not built
upon the rock, but upon sand; that the gates of hell'
have prevailed against hor, and that conse(piently the
Saviour has not been faithful to Ilis promise, or else
had not foreseen her future ruin. This is the rigorous
conclusion ; but as this conclusion contains a blasphemy
against God, it ensues that the premises are fiilse, and
that the Church of Christ is necessarily infalHble.
The partisans of the Reformation do not fail to reply
to us that God alone is infallible, and that all men are
subject to error. This is true, if we lay down as a prin-
ciple that God cannot communicate to man the privilege
of not erring ; but would it not be a manifest absurdity
to maintain such a proposition ? Can H is power be
limited? Is He not free to communicate to one or
several the prerogative of preserving intact the deposit
of revelation % Why could He not confer on the suc-
cessors of the Apostles what He conferred on Peter and
the other Apostles ? No doubt that, without the special
assistance of God, any man may make a mistake even
in the most ordinary things, and still more probably in
matters of faith, which often far surpass our weak in-
telligence; deep study, profound science, the lights of
talent or even of genius are not sufficient to shelter us
from error, and if Jesus Christ had not given a more
solid foundation to His Church than these afford, He
would have acted like that foolish man in the Gospel of
whom He Himself speaks, and who built his house on
the sand ; the rain, the floods, the winds beat down upon
that house, and it fell.^^ But the Saviour did not act
i^ >• St. Matthew vii. 26, 27.
\
The Catholic RiUc of Faith, 183
thus ; and if He has promised to His Church that the
• ^•^ates of liell sliall not prevail against it, He has, at the
same time, promised the necessary help for attaining
diat end ; tliis lielp is that of an infalHble guide, of in-
finite wisdom, — it is the assistance of the Holy Spirit.
Let us for a moment open the Holy Scriptures, and let
us meditate on those exphcit words addressed by our
Saviour to His Apostles.
* I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another
Paraclete, that Pie may abide with you for ever, the
Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because
it seeth Him not, nor knoweth Him; but you shall
know Him, because He shall abide with you, and shall
be in you. . . . But the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost,
whom the Father will send in My name. He will teach
you all things, and bring all things to your mind, what-
soever I shall have said to you.'*^
Elsewhere He adds : * I have yet many things to sar
to you, but you cannot hear them now. But when He,
the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will teach you all
truth.'2o
Jesus Christ has, then, surrounded His Church as
with a wall of brass, impervious to the waves of error,
and strong enough to protect it against all the powers of
hell. This protecting wall is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit
of truth, which is to abide eternally with the Apostles,
bringing to their minds whatsoever He shall have said to
theruy teaching them all things, all truth. The Apostles
>9 St. John xiv. 16, 17, 26.
20 St. JoLn xvi. 12, 13 ; see also St. Luke xxiv. 49 ; St. John xv. 16 ;
Acts ii. ; 1 Peter i. 12.
184 TJie Bible and the Rule of Faith.
are, then, the depositaries of all revelation ; for such
is the precious treasure over which the Holy Ghost
watches, so to speak, with particular care through the
medium of the Apostles.
This solemn promise, as well as a number of other
truths contained in this same discourse of our Saviour's,
not only concerned those to whom He spoke at that
moment, but also all their legitimate successors. In
fact He promises to remain eternally^ ov for ever^ with
them. It is, however, very evident that the Apostles
were not to live for ever, unless it was in their successors.
Now the Holy Ghost continues teaching all truth to
His Church. This conclusion is clearly confirmed by
those other words which our Saviour addressed to these
same Apostles after His resurrection : ^ Go, teach ye all
nations, baptising them . . . teaching them to observe
all things whatsoever I have commanded you ; and be-
hold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation
of the world.' ^'
How, indeed, could Jesus Christ promise to be always
with His Apostles when He was evidently on the point
of withdrawing His visible presence from them, and
ascending to heaven ? Doubtless He wished to speak to
them of His invisible presence by means of the assistance
and protection of the Holy Ghost, whom He was about
to send them. But as this presence was to be perpe-
tuated to the consummation of the wo7'ld, it becomes
manifest that this promise is not made to the Apostles
alone, but to the teaching Church of all ages.^^ The
" St. Matthew xxviii. 19, 20.
« Cardinal Wiseman proves most clearly by all these texts, and by
The Catholic Rtde of Faith. 185
Church of England itself, when claiming obedience to
its bishops, founds its claims on no other words than
those we have just quoted; the societies which occupy
themselves with preaching the Gospel in foreign lands
do the same.
It is then clear, according to the Scriptures con-
Gidered only even as a simple historical document, un-
inspired and capable of being equally well understood
by Catholics as by Protestants, — it is clear, I say, and
altogether undeniable, 1. that Jesus Christ has insti-
tuted a teaching Church, intrusted with announcing
the Grospel to all nations; 2. that He has given to
that Church the mission of teaching with supreme au-
thority ; 8. that this authority is infallible in all things
concerning the revealed doctrine by virtue of the assist-
ance of the Holy Ghost ; 4. that this privilege of in-
fallible authority was not confined to Peter and the
first Apostles, but was to be perpetuated to their suc-
cessors until the end of the world.
Once this doctrine ^of infallibility is proved and ad-
mitted, it can easily be understood how Jesus Christ
could say to His Apostles, * He that lieareth you heareth
Me, and he that despiseth you despiseth Me. And he
biblical parallelism, that Jesus Christ promised the prerogative of in-
fallibility to the' Apostles and their successors. He enters into many
details, and with profound erudition proves that the perpetuity of the
divine mission in aU the apostolical succession is recognised by all such
Dissf nting communions as lay claim to theii* churches or pastors being
possessed of any jurisdiction whatever. Conferences on the Doctrines,
&c.pp. 115-22. See also Father Mun'ay, Tractatus de Ecclesia, disput.
ii. t. iii.p. 169 ; Franzelin, De Divind Traditione et Scripture, p. 28, &c. ;
Rev. R. Manning, The Slwrteat Way to end Disputes about Religion,
Boston, 1846.
1 86 The Bible and the Rule of Faith,
that despisetli Me despisetli Him that sent Me.'23 it
can easily be understood how our Saviour declared that
' he who will not hear the Church let him be to thee
as the heathen and the publican .'^^ Could there be any-
rational explanation of the obligation to obedience and
the ignominy attached to disobedience, if there were
question of a fallible Church — of a Church of which
the faith, moral teaching, and all revealed doctrine could
be corrupt? We do not wonder that St. Paul has said of
an infallible Church that she is the 'pillar and ground
of the truth f^^ that she is * without spot or wrinkle or
any such thing, but holy and without blemish.'^o ^e
can understand Jesus Christ in this case having pro-
nounced categorically, ' he that believeth shall be saved,
and he that believeth not shall be condemned.'^^ But,
tell me frankly, is it possible for a moment to suppose
that a Church spotted with error or even simply fal-
lible can receive the glorious name of ' pillar of truth,'
and be declared * without spot, without blemish' % Is it
credible that the Saviour of men can have ordered us,
under pain of eternal damnation, to submit ourselves
to an authority which could pervert His holy doctrine,
which could lead to the most monstrous errors % Such
questions require no answering ; they are determined as
soon as proposed.
The Church of England has declared herself fal-
lible ; it is the only truth which she has raised to the
dignity of a dogma. But this dogma is the ruin of all
others ; it saps the very foundation of the Thirty-nine
2' St. Luke X. 16. «< St. Matt, xviii. 17. « 1 Tim. iii. 16.
2« Ephesians v. 27. " St. Mark xvi. 16. >^
V
The Catholic Rule of Faith. 187
Articles, all the creeds, and even the Scriptures. In
. fact, a defined dogma is a truth cunccrning which yve
are not permitted to doubt.
Now the Church of England, proclaimed by herself
to be fallible and recognised as such b^. the whole world,
cannot propose any doctrine as absolutely certain ; the
clouds of doubt inevitably hover over all her decisions.
Let her proclaim from the housetops that the Thirty-
nine Articles, that the creeds of the first ages, are con-
tained in revelation. She may be mistaken, and may
^, maintain that she is mistaken, in affirming such doc-
trine ; any way she cannot force it on any one, and
these Thirty-nine Articles will never be more than
thirty-nine opinions. She may perhaps err in present-
ing the faithful with the Scriptures as inspired, and, in
point of fact, every one curtails or rejects them accord-
ing to his caprice ; in a word, the whole system reduces
itself to the Bible, accepted or not as one will, and in-
terpreted by oneself. If she wishes to maintain the
absolute necessity of Baptism for salvation, she will be
told by her Majesty's Pri^y Council that she is in error,
and that any one can be saved without Baptism, which
- is but a simple ceremony; for the words of Jesus Christ,
^ If any among you be not born again of water and of
the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God,'
mean ^ he can enter into the kingdom of God and be
saved.' If she dare affirm with Luther, with the Pusey-
ites and Ritualists, that Jesus Christ is really present in
the Eucharist with the substance of bread and wine,
thousands of voices are raised against her, crying out
about the encroachments of Popery, maintaining that
i88 The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
the doctrine of tlie Real Presence is an intolerable super-
stition, seeing that the Saviour, by sayinrr, < This is My
Body,' meant to say, ^This is not My Body;' that that
of the Sacrifice of the Mass is a dangerous and criminal
invention ; that the teacliing of the Higli Church on
this point is a remnant of ' pure Popery,' whilst that of
the Low Church is Mirty Calvinism.' Others again,
the enemies of extreme doctrines, will leave it an open
question, and will pretend that the doctrine of the Real
Presence must neither be rejected nor admitted, but
that it is sufficient to teach that the Lord's Supper
should be made use of as a monthly, tri-monthly, or
annual devotion, by which one feeds on a little bread
and wine in remembrance of the Saviour. This is the
Broad Church. This is how, with u fallible authority,
which is none at all in religious matters, all belief dis-
appears and melts away like snow before the rays of
the burning sun. This is how violent hands have been
laid on those dogmas which have bean the most univer-
sally admitted by all ages ; this is how men are led to
deny the eternity of punishment and reward, the im-
mortality and spirituality of the soul, the existence of
God even ; this is how men become rationalists, then
materialists and atheists.
AETICLE SECOND.
Distinctive characteristics of the only Church of Christ : unity, sanctity,
Catholicity, and apostolicity — Peter dies at Rome ; his successors
on the throne of that city claim and exercise the same authority as
Peter over the Universal Chui'ch ; testimony of the earliest centuries
on this question — The Roman Church the guardian and propagator
of the whole Word of God, written and unwiitten — Protestantism,
by rejecting the supremacy of Peter and his successors, by denying
The Catholic Rule of Faith, 189
■
the existence of an infallible authority, and hy making; the Bible
its only rule of faith, has changed the constitution of the Church
of Christ — Protestantism possesses neither unity (avowals of the
Reformers on this subject, Synod of Lau.^anne), aor sanctity (the
heads judged by themselves), nor Catholicity, nor apostolicity — The
Catholic or Roman Church is no other than the Church of Christ;
she is founded on Peter ; she is ip fallible ; she is one ; answer to
objections concerning the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception of
Mary and Papal Infallibility ; concerning the disputes between the
Thomists and Scotists, between the Josuits and Janseniets ; she
is Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic — Conclusion — Some remarks on
the Real Presence, on Trausubstantiation.on confession, on the wor-
ship of the Blessed Vii'gin and the Saints — Answer to an objection.
Jesus Christ founded but one Church, and it is upon
Peter that He has built it up; it is to this only supreme
pastor that He has confided the care of His whole
flock: *0n this stone will I build Mv Church; and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Feed My
lambs, /ee^ My sheep; confirm thy brethren.' There are
other pastors who take part in the government of the
Church, in the direction of souls, but they are subordi-
nate to Peter, the same as the faithful are subordinate
to the Apostolic College and to Peter himself. This
magnificent hierarchy, at the summit of which our Sa-
viour has placed the prerogative of infallibility, neces-
sarily produces that unity of faith which is a distinctive
attribute of the true Church, as I have proved already .2^
Thus constituted, this Church of Christ, which is one
07iliff and not triple^ as the Anglicans would have, can
really be compared to a kingdom, to a city, to a family,
to a sheepfold, to a human body. Each one of these
metaphorical appellations, which ai-e applied to the
Church in Scripture, gives the idea not of an assem-
blage of beings having an equal authority independent
2« Pages 112-116.
1 90 The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
of one anotlier, as in Protestantism, but a body of mem-
bers suboiuinate to a supreme head, as in Catholicism;
every one sees that our Lord has establish L'd one only
society, one only government, and in this society there
must be perfect unity of belief.
Unity is not the only divine ray which shines on the
forehead of the Church of Christ ; sanctity also attests
to the world the vigour and force of its constitution,
the presence of a divine soul in that human organism.
Indeed, ' Jesus Christ has loved the Church, and deli-
vered Himself up for it, that He might sanctify it. . . that
He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, with-
out spot, without wrinkle, holy and without blemish.'^^
If He has established Apostles, pastors, doctors, it is
that they may work for the sanctification of His mystic
body, which is the Church.^^ He Himself is come into
the world to shed abroad abundantly the light of grace ;3*
He would that the virtues of the faithful should shine
as a light before men, so that they may see their good
works, and glorify their Father who is in heaven .^2 J^
is even conformable to reason that there are found in
this Church of Christ many members who not only
practise the precepts, but also the evangelical counsels —
perfect charity devoting itself even to martyrdom, vo-
luntary poverty, virginity, and' obedience.^^ These vir-
tues, practised to a heroic degree, are not absolutely
necessary to the existence of the true Church, still they
naturally flow from it. •
29 Ephesians v. 27. '» Ibid. iv. 11-13.
" St. John X. 10. 32 St. Matthew v. 16.
33 1 John iii. 16; St. John xv. 20 ; St. Matt. x. 19 ; six. 12-21 ; St.
Luke ix. 23 ; St. John xiii. 16.
\
The Catholic Rtilc of Faith, 1 9 1
The tree may exist without flowers or fruit; flowers
and fruit may certainly fall without the robust trunk
losing life ; but so long as the tree shall survive, never
will it cease giving proofs of its vigour anel its beauty,
offerinfT to the sight the charm of its flowers, to the
palate the delight of its fruits."^^ So it is vdth the
Church ; Jesus Christ founded it to sanctifv xnen ; He
has left it the necessary means of attaining that end ; it
must therefore produce works of holiness, which reveal
themselves in an external manner.
Catholicity, or the moral diff'usion of the Church
throughout the earth, constitutes another mark, another
characteristic of the society founded by our Saviour ; it
is, as it were, the geographical proof of it, the same as
we might say that unity is its organic proof, and sanc-
tity its moral proof.
The prophets represent to us the Church under the
figure of a mountain which filled the universe f^ they
assign it all nations and the ends of the earth as its
heritage.^*^ Our Lord Himself destines His religion for
all men, because He wishes for the salvation of all.^^
We should therefore expect to find it again in all ages
and throughout the universe. It should be always iden-
tical, constantly the same in all places; for Jesus Christ
did not come to bring religions^ Christianities, societies
to men, but one onlt/ religion, one 07il(/ Christianity,
one onli/ society, to last to the end of time. Catho-
'* BsilmeB, Protestantism comparedwithCatholicisrnfyol.v..c.xxx\in.
35 Daniel ii. ^ Psalm Ixxi. ; Mai. i.
3^ St. Luke xiii. 19 ; Komana xi. 15 ; St. Matt, xxviii. ; Acts i. ;
St. Mark xvi.
\g2 The Bible a7id the Rule of Faith.
licity infers, then, a Church possessing unity in univer-
sality.
The fourth distinctive note of true Cliristianity, and
consequently of the true Church, is apostolicity ; it is,
as it were, the chronological proof. Indeed every Church
which has not the apostolical sap in its veins, every
Church which cannot prove its anticpiity by showing
the uninterrupted course of its pastoral lineage from
.Jesus Christ Himself, is evidently human and false; the
true Church of the nineteenth century must be able to
exhibit the long and glorious genealogy which connects
it with its Divine Founder. The legitimate pastors
must have succeeded each other uninterruptedly since
the Apostles, forming, as it were, the different links of
a living tradition.^^ Already the mark of apostolicity
has been well compared to the different telegraphic
wires which, starting from the centre of a vast empire,
bear the sovereign's wishes to the most distant villages ;
here, Jesus Christ is the centre of that kingdom which
is the Church, and the legitimate pastors who have
succeeded one another since the Apostles on all the
shores of the world are like the conducting wires of the
divine wishes, bearing the teachings of the Saviour
through the course of ages and to all the countries of
the universe. The Fathers of the Church frequently
bring forward this living and tangible proof of real
Christianity against heretics, because by virtue of the
assistance of the Holy Ghost promised by Jesus Christ
to His Apostles and their successors. Christian revela-
tion must necessarily have been kept intact in the teach-
1 , 38 Epheeians ii. 19 ; Apocalypse xxi. s.
f
The Catholic Ride of Fallh. 193
in<^ body wliich lie Himself coiislltutcd. Tliey never
fail, therefore, to unroll before the eves of innovators
the series of letritimate bishops, particularly in the Ro-
man Chnrch, the Mother and Mistress of all Churches,
because in her dwell all the ])rero(Tatives of the blessed
Apostle Peter ; with one word they confound all risint;
heretics. *You are but of yesterday,' they say to them;
*your commencement dates from a c /tain epoch poste-
rior to Christ ; such or such an innovator is your head,
consequently you are not of divine origin, but of purely
Innnan ; therefore you are in error.''^^
Here, then, is the Church, such as it appears to us
in the .Bible, considered slm])ly as an historical docu-
ment. She i)roves her divine mission, she acts con-
stantly as mistress and infallible guardian of the truth ;
in the views of her Divine Founder she will always be
One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic, and by so being will
prove to the whole world her Divine origin. It is on
these bases that she develops without changing, abso-
lutely like the human body, which increases in size and
yet never forms other than the individual who first ex-
isted ; humble in her commencement, like a grain of
mustard-seed, she becomes a great tree whose powerful
branches shelter the whole universe.
After the ascension of the Saviour and the great
fei.st of Pentecost, Peter, having become the essential
basis of the Church of Christ, acted as chief of the
Apostolic College and of the whole of the new society.
After having been the first to preach the resurrection
and divinity of the Saviour, to work miracles, to give a
2" Tert. De Pnescript. c. xxxii.; Iren. 1. iii. Adv. lla-rese.'i, &c.
1 94 The Bible and the Ride of Faith,
successor to the traitor Judas, to receive gentiles into
the Churclj, to preside at the Council of Jerusalem, lie
fixes his scat at Home ; and from the ])eriod of the san-
guinary death of the Prince of the Apostles in that
city, the Bishop of Home possesses and claims as a he-
ritage all the privileges divinely conferred on St. Peter ;
that is to say, universal supremacy and infallibility.
From the time of that glorious martyrdom of the Head
of the Church, Kome has never ceased to be called by
the fathers, the doctors, and the saints, *The Seat of
Peter' — and the Bishop of Rome, the successor of Peter;
the authority of the Pope, the authority of Peter ; and
the communion with Home, communion with .Peter.'*^
Then the Apostles preaoh, baptise, found Churches, solve
difficulties, excommunicate the guilty, choose themselves
successors whom they place at the head of particular
Churches ; they confer the sacrament of Order on these
successors ; they charge them with watching over the
deposit of the Faith; they exhort them to fulfil their
duties faithfully; they trace them a line of conduct
with regard to the different classes of the faithful; they
lean upon Peter as on an immovable foundation, and it
is with Peter and by Peter that they have this stable
arid uniform faith which they propagate throughout all
the world. Such is the part which has always been
played by the Catholic Episcopate with regard to the
Popes and-in their relations with the faithful.
Follow the Church in her course through centuries,
*• Orig. in Exod. Horn. v. ; Epiph. in Anchora; Tert. de Prcescript.
c. xxii. ; Cyp. Epist. Iv. and lix. ; Hieron. Epist. xiv. ad Damasum et
Dialog, adv. Lucif. ; Athan. Epist. ad Felicem Papam. ; Leo M, Serm.
i. and ii. ; Enseb. H. E. 1. ii. and iii. ; ChrysoBt. Horn. Iv. in Matth. , &c.
The Catholic Rule of Fail Ji. 195
you will always find hei' united in the same faith, always
submissive to her supreme and infallible head, whether
he is decidinix controversies of himself, or whether he is
submitting them to the examination of a General Coun-
cil presided over and confirmed by himself; or, a^j^ain,
whether fixin«:j certain points concerning discipline,
always you will see her watchin*^ with scrupulous care
over the j)reservation of orthodox doctrine; always she
is commanding with sovereign authority; always she is
advancing with a brilliant train of the Thaumatur^i —
martyrs, confessors, virgins, saints of all conditions —
which she has given birth to ; always she is known and
venerated by the whole earth as the true Church of
Christ, as the legitimate heir of the divine promises.
These are not gratuitous assertions, which every one
is free to deny ; they are founded on the testimony of
all the writers of different ages. Protestantism dots
not choose to see in the unanimous consent of all the
Fathers of the Church a criterion of the revealed truth;
but at least it ought to consider these illustrious per-
sonages as historians or witnesses to the belief of the
Church. Let us now look at what is said of the con-
stitution of this society; we shall thus ascertain whethel*
they have given the Catholic or Protestant sense to our
Saviour's words. I will only select a few passages
among thousands which it w^ould be easy for me to repro-
duce here.
St. IreuBBus in the second century teaches us the
necessity there is for the faithful and for particular
Churches to seek conformity with the Koman Church.
* It is with this Church [Romani, on account of its
19^ The Bible and the Rule of Faith,
superior dignity, tliat all the Churches should necessarily
be in accordance, that is to say all the fiiithful, wherever
they may be found. It is in her that the tradition of
the Apostles has been preserved by the faithful from all
parts of tlie world.' Then, after having cited the names
of the first twelve bishops who occupied the See of
Rome, starting from St. Peter, he adds the follownig
remarkable words : ' It is in this order and by this suc-
cession that the tradition of the Apostles in the Church
and the preaching of truth has come down to us. By
which we prove fully that the faith preserved down to
our days, and transmitted in all truth, is the one and
vivifying faith confided to the Church by the Apostles.'"*^
This text has no need of comment ; it clearly contains
the belief in the primacy of the Roman Church, and
in its infallibility, since she preserves the doctrine of
the Apostles, since she preaches the truth, and that all
the Churches should necessarily be in accordance with
her ; it is thus that everywhere is preserved the one
and vivifying faith confided to the Church by the
Apostles.
Let us again hear this great Bishop of Lyons. * The
Church,' he says, * spread over the whole world, care-
fully keeps the faith which she has received from the
Apostles and their disciples, as if she dwelt in but one
house. . . She imparts it, teaches it, proclaims it with such
conformity, that she seems to have but one mouth. No
matter that the people speak different tongues ; the tradi-
tion which is current among them preserves everywhere
one and the same force. Neither the Churches founded
^1 Adv. Har. 1. iii. c. iii. ^,
if
The Catholic Rule of Faith. 1 97
ill Germany, nor those establislied amonf^ the Iberians,
the Celts, in the East, in E^y})t, in Libya, or in the
centre of the eartli, have anv different belief or tradi-
tion ; but even as God created but one sun to illumine
the universe, there is also but one only preaching of the
faith, whose light shines everywhere, and enlightens all
those who wish to know it.' Elsewhere, after havintr
spoken of the dissensions of the heretics, he adds : ' It
is quite different with those who follow the way traced
by the Church ; they faithfully observe the tradition
of the Apostles In all parts of the world. Their faith is
the same everywhere. They keep the same command-
ments, retain the same forms in the constitution of the
Church. .... The teaching of the Church is uniform
and constant over all the surface of the globe ; every-
where she shows to men the same way of salvation. It
is to her that has been confided the light of divine faith,
that wisdom from on high by which men are saved, which
speaks without, which makes itself heard in public places,
for the Church preaches the truth everywhere
There is no need to seek the truth elsewhere than in the
Church, where it is easy to learn it. The Apostles have
placed in her bosom the rich deposit of the truth ; they
have communicated the exact knowledge of it to the
succession of bishops, to whom they have confided the
charge of governing the Church spread everywhere.
There, by means of faithful transmission, the deposit of
Scripture has been preserved until our time, without
additions or retrenchments ; there it may be read with-
out any intermixture of error ; there care is taken to
explain doctrine according to the Scripture by means of
igS The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
a legitimate interpretation, ^vllicll averts all danger and
avoids all blasphemy.''*'^ '
Here, then, is the doctrine of the second century.
There is but one true Church, which adheres to the
Apostolical tradition ; her faith is one ; everywhere may
be heard the same doctrine, as if there were but one
mouthpiece ; this Church is spread everywhere ; it is
she who possesses the truth ; it is she who holds the
deposit of Scripture and keeps it intact. There is no
question of the coliioriacje, of Bibles, nor of reading the
Holy Books in the vulgar tongue, nor of private interpre-
tation of the written Word of God ; the only question is
of preaching, of oral teaching, of unity of faith. At that
time it was only the Gnostic sects, swarming with com-
pounds of absurdities, which took upon themselves to
deftice the Scriptures and make rainbows out of them.
Origen, in the third century, commenting on the
words of Jesus Christ to St. Peter : Thou art Peter ^ and
on this rock I ivill build Mij Churchy &c., gives them the
following sense : * If then the gates of hell prevail against
any one, it will neither be against Peter, upon whom Christ
built His Church, nor yet against the Church, which
Christ built upon Peter. They have only power against
whoever finds himself without Peter, without the Church,
with regard to whom they are powerless. '''^ It is im-
possible to express more piacisely the infallibility of
Peter, and of the Church which reposes in surety on
Peter ; but can Protestantism, that will have neither
Peter nor his successors, nor the Church founded on
« Adv. Har. 1. i. c. x. ; 1. v. 20 ; 1. iii. c. iv. ; 1. iv. c. xxxiii,
" In Matthccum, t. xxii. n. 11 ; 0pp. t. iii. Migne, p. 1003.
The Catholic Rule of Faith, 199
Peter, but who take refuge in the Bible alone, or in a
fallible Cliurch, — can Protestantism believe itself secure
against the powers of hell % Does it understand the
words of the Saviour in the sense given to them in the
third century ? St. Cyprian, writing about the same
period against the Novatians, is no less exjdicit as to the
prerogative which Jesus Clirist conferred on Peter of
being the foundation of unity ; his words merit serious
consideration : * He who does not keep the unity of the
Church, does he think that he keeps the faith? lie
who goes against the Church, who abandons the chair
of Peter on which the Church is founded, can he flatter
himself that he is still in the Church V
Speaking elsewhere of the unity of the Church, he
attributes it to the source whence it emanates, the chair
of Peter : ^ The rays of the sun are numerous,' he says,
* but the lio;ht is one. The branches o^' the tree are
numerous, but the trunk is one, and springs from an im-
movable root. Many streams flow from one only source.
.... Try to detach a ray of the sun from its centre ; the
unity will not allow of this division of its light. Take away
a branch of a tree by breaking it off ; broken, it loses
all vegetation. Isolate the stream from its source ; in its
isolation it will dry up. Thus the Church, enlightened
by the light of the Saviour, darts its rays all over the
universe; there is, however, but one light spreading
evervwhere, and the unity of the body is not broken.
The Cliurch extends its vigorous branches over all the
earth ; she diffuses her abundant streams afar ; but there
is one only source, one only origin, one only mother,
whose abundant fruitfulness is ever increasing. We are
I )
200 The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
" Ill .. .■ ■■■■ .iii- .1- . .. ■■ - ■ I ■ — ..-.-■- I- — . .. , M 11 iM a
born of her, nourished by her milk, animated by lier
s])irit.''*' As we see, tlie Chnrcli of the tliird century
professed ])erfe('t unity, sucli as still exists in Catholic-
ism; but she could never have acconunodated herself
to those thousnnd and one dissentient and dissimilar
communions, which must inevitably exist wherever there
is no infalHble nuthority to produce unity.
In a letter to Pope Cornelius, he complnins of the
heretics who went to Rome with the design of deceiving
the Holy See. ' They dare,' says he, ^ sail towards the
chair of St. Peter and accost the principal Church, which
is the source of sacerdotal unity.'*'"' Are not these titles
which we still give to the See of Rome? Elsewhere he
calls the Church of Rome ' the mother and root of the
'Jatliolic Church,' the same as he gives the Pope the
name of ' chief and root of the Church which is one.'
* There is,' says he, *but one Go(^ and one Christ, one
Church and one cliair, founded on Peter by the Word
of the Lord.'^«
In his book against Jovinian, St. Jerome writes :
'Although the Church is equally founded upon the
twelve Apostles, Jesus Christ has, however, chosen one
of them to be chief, in order to prevent the dangers of
schism.' In the midst of the dissensions which laid waste
the Church of Antioch he writes to Pope Damasus : * I
ally myself by communion with your Holiness, that is
to sav, the chair of Peter ; I know that the Church is
built on this stone : whoever will have eaten the lamb
outside of this Church is a profaner; whoever dwells not
<* Be Unitate Ecclesue, c. iv. aud v. *^ Ep. iii. 1. i. edit. Casil.
" Epist. ad Coru. ad Jubaia, &;c. v,
. ■ \\
The Catholic Rule of Faith, 201
ill tlie ark of Noe shall perish in the waters of the
(lelii^c' It api)ears that in the fourth century people
were not yet of the same ()[)inion as Luther, Calvin, and
the numberless heads of sects which have sprung up
since the sixteentli century; they admitted the necessity
of unity of faith and conununion, and they placed the
source of this unity in the Po])es, the successors of Peter,
whom the Saviour had constituted su[)reme pastor of His
flock.
St. Augustine professed the same doctrine when, in
the First Book ad Bonifacinin (c. i.), he addresses these
words to the Pope : ^ We all who are called to fill with
you the functions of the e})iscopate, we also share with
you ])astoral vigilance, although your preeminence places
you much higher.' Every one knows the celebrated
words which fell from the lips of the great doctor with
regard to the Pela<ijian error : ^ The acts of the two
Councils [Carthage and Mileve] relative to this affair
have already been sent to the Apostolic seat ; the deci-
sions have arrived from Kome ; the cause is ended ; God
irrant that the error mav be also !'
St. Leo the Great, addressing Rome lierself, ' You
are become,' he says to her, ' by being the sacred seat of
the blessed Peter, the liead of the Christian world ; your
power extends further by the religion of Heaven than it
was extended by human force.'^^ Did not St. Ambrose
say excellently well, ' It is Peter to whom the Lord said :
^riiou art Peter, and on this rock will I build My Church ?
Where Peter is, there the Church is. Where the
Church is, there death is not, but life eternal.''** It is
" Serm. de Nativ. Apost. ed. Quesnel, p. 161. ♦* Enarratio in Ps. xl.
< I
202 T/ie Bible and the Ride of Fait Ju
easy to see tlmt tlie great Bishop of Milan did not share
the ideas of Protestants, but that he was a sincere
Catliohc. . ,
Wouhl you hear on the same snhject tlie great voice
of tlie Councils, and consequently the heads of all the
individual Churches in the universe ? They declare at
Nice, *That the Roman Church has always had the
preeminence ;' at Sardica, that * if a deposed bishop ap-
peals to Rome, no one can be appointed in his place until
the Bishop of Rome has pronounced ;' at Ephesus, that
* Peter lives and will always live in his successors, and
that he judges by them ;' at Chalcedon, that * Peter has
always preserved the truth without any admixture of
error ;' at Constantinople, that ^ Peter has spoken by the
mouth of Agathon,' &c. It is useless further to insist
on the value of these testimonies, which show us with all
the clearness of which evidence is capable the universal
belief of the Church of the first ages in the primacy and
infallibility of the Bishops of Rome, successors of St.
Peter.
In those days no one ever thought of converting
nations by putting a Bible in their hands, and leaving
to them the onerous task of extracting a creed from it,
at the risk of breaking that unity of faith and com-
munion desired b}' the Saviour. Far from it ; every one
recognised a supreme head in the Bishop of Rome, the
confirmer of his brethren in the faith ; every one sub-
mitted to his decisions as well as those of the General
Councils presided over and confirmed by him ; every one
admitted the absolute necessity of preserving the most
perfect unity. The Bible, as well as the unwritten Word
The CatJiolic Rule of Faith, lO'j
of God, was confided to tlic keeping of the Clinrcli ; it
was from her tliat the faithful received the different
books, both text and interpretation. Hear St. Augustine
saying to tlie Manichitans : * As for me, I would not
believe the Gospel, did not the authority of the Church
determine me to do so. Those whom I obeyed when
they said to me : Believe the Gospel, why should I not
obey when they say to me : Do not believe in the Mani-
chaeans f Addressing the heretic Faustus, he challenged
him in these terms : ' Either you wish I should believe
in the Catholic Church, or you do not wish it ; make
your decision. If you think it well that I should listen
to the Catholic Church, retire ; for this Catholic Church
has condemned you, and she orders me to look on you as
innovators. If you forbid •^^e to listen to her, again I
say retire, and bring forward o more texts of the Gos-
pel against me, since the tribunal of the Catholic Church
being overthrown, for me there is no longer any Gospel.*
* You would,' continues this great doctor, ^ that I should
obey this Church when she tells me to receive the Gospel
as the Word of God ; but you would not that I should
obey her when she tells me to explain this same Gospel
otherwise than you explain it ! Is not that unreasonable,
wishing that I should believe what pleases you, that I
should not believe what does not please you, and wishing
to treat me as a simpleton, who would sacrifice all his lights
and his most sacred interests to purely arbitrary deci-
sions ?''*^ Here certainly are words very little in harmony
with Protestantism, but which at the same time are so
true, so striking, that they forced from Luther the
*' De Doct. Christ. 1. ii. c. xxxvi.
204 The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
following avowal : ' We are forced to concede to the
Pai)ists that the Word of God is with them, that we have
received it from them, and that without them we shouhl
have had no knowledire of it.'^"
By looking into the Bible as we might look into a
simply historical book, we have, then, proved that Jesus
Christ has instituted one only Church, com})osed of pas-
tors and faithful, of a teaching hierarchy, of a body
taught; the one endowed wdth supreme authority and
the prerogative of infallibility by virtue of the assistance
of the Holy Spirit ; the other obliged to receive the
teachings given to them, and to submit to such heartily,
as if submitting themselves to God Himself. This
Church, which the Redeemer has acquired at the price
of His blood, and to which He confided the care of His
doctrine, ought to show exteriorly her titles of nobility,
her heavenly origin ; she ought to reveal herself at all
times and in all places as the true Church of Christ ;
she ought to bear on her forehead a particular mark by
which to be recognised, and signs so manifest, so charac-
teristic, that she might be distinguished from all false
Churches, since God wills the salvation of all men, and
the means of salvation are only to be found in the
Church of Jesus Christ. These distinctive marks are
perfect unity, sanctity, catholicity, and apostolicity. This
is how all Christian ages have interpreted the words of
the Saviour concerning the constitution of the Church
and her particular characteristics.
Let us now examine to what actually existing Chris-
tian society this divine plan can be applied ; let us see
50 Luther's Commentary on St. John's Gospel, c. xvi. v
The CatJwlic Rule of Faith. 205
whicli is tlie one that evidently realises all the condi-
tions desired by the Saviour; in other terms, where real
Christianity is to be found, tluit revealed reli";iou which
our Lortl broufrht to man. Is it in any one of the
Protestant communions? Is it in the Catholic Church?
Whoever will take the trouble of looking ever so little
into the actual state of Protestantism, will easily be con-
vinced that the society founded by Jesus Christ is not
to be found there. In fact, the Christian Church has
received Peter and his successors for its basis, and to
them the Saviour has conferred supreme authority over
all His flock. Now Protestantism, under whatever form
it presents itself to our view, only sees in Peter an ordi-
nary Apostle, having perhaps more talent than the others
and an honorary title ; nothing more. As for his suc-
cessors, it recognises no greater authority in them than
in any other bishop whatever. Now I will ask of the
different Protestant sects, how can you flatter yourselves
that you are in the true Church, when you proclaim by
sound of trumpet that the Church to which you belong
adheres neither to Peter nor to his successors? You
are, then, beyond the boundaries of the basis which the
Saviour laid down for Tlis Church, and, consequently,
you are not in the true Church of Christ, or, as St. Je-
rome expresses it, you are outside the ark of Noe ; you
will perish in the waters of the deluge. Peter has been
constituted universal pastor of the flock of Jesus Christ;
but by refusing this title to Peter and his successors
you no longer belong to the flock of Jesus Christ; in
other terms, you cease to be members of His Church.
I know that our adversaries are accustomed to limit
\. I
206 T/ie Bible and the Rule of Faith,
our Lord's words to Peter; they will not hear heirs or
successors spoken of.
To tliis objection I will reply, with Al)b6 Magnin :
* Was not the Church to live except during the lifetime
of Peter? Was the foundation, laid by the hand of its
Divine Author, to end with that Ai)ostle, after barely a
quarter of a century's existence? Should time, which
affects human institutions, triumph over its divine con-
stitution, and that so soon? And if tha nature and the
goveriniient of the Church are to be to-day what they
were in the time of Peter, how could that Apostle be
the foundation-stone of the Church, if it was not in the
j)erson of his successors ? The foundations are not laid
for a day, when the duration of the edifice ought to be
(as is the case with the Church) for centuries ; they
should sup})ort it to its very last day, for if ever the
foundation fails the edifice falls in; and it is this which
proves that Peter must have successors, who, together
with him, would make but one moral being.' A little
farther on he adds : ^ What Church is it against which
the gates of hell are not to prevail ? It is the Church
built upon Peter, the Church of which Peter has the
keys, in which he has the power to bind and to loose.
Now how can it be otherwise than that the individual
Church of Rome should belong to that Church? — Rome,
the special Church of St. Peter, the Church founded
not only on him, but by him, governed by his successors.
Without considering anything even in Rome but the
individual Church, it is historically, and will be eternally,
true that it is specially built on the stone upon which
that Church shall be raised against which the gates of
The CalJwlic Ride of Faith. 207
hell shall not prevail ; and no interpretation of the text
before us can destroy an historical fact, proclaimed by
the whole Christian universe.''''
I sum up, then, by sayini^: Jesus Christ founds a
Church, which is to last to the end of time, and He
establishes it on Peter, who will always be its basis,
either in himself or in his successors. Now the suc-
cessors of Peter are, and can only be, the Bishops of
Kome, as is attested by the whole history of the Church.
Then Protestantism, which does not admit the authority
of the Bishops of Rome or Sovereign Pontiffs, does not
rest on the foundations which the Saviour gave to His
Church, and, consequently, is outside the true Church
of Christ.
I have already said that Jesus Christ had instituted
in His Church an infallible authority, living and per-
sonal, to which every Christian ought to submit as to
Jesus Christ Himself. Now Pi'otestantism — that which
admits a living authority — does not possess this infalli-
bility ; not only does not possess it, but takes care
to proclaim itself fallible, subject to error, and conse-
quently capable of leading into error those who would
have the simplicity to adopt its decisions blindly. Pro-
testantism, then, cannot be the true Church of Jesus
Christ.
In place of the infallible authority instituted by
the Saviour there have been substituted sovereigns, male
and female, as if Jesus had placed the Caesars at the
head of His Church ; as if the history of the Christian
ages did not give the lie most solemnly to this sacri-
»i Xa Papatite aux Prises avec le Protestantisme, p. 265, &c.
2o8 The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
legions innovation ; as if these poj)es and popesses of
modern niannfactnre liad received a mission to govern
the Chnrch and serve as its basis. Certaiidy it is not of
a similar anthority that onr Lord said, and eonhl have
meant to say : 'He wlio hears yon liears Me, and
he who des])ises yon despises ^le. If any one will not
hear the Chnrch, let liim be nnto yon as a heathen and
a publican.' Kather wonhl contradictory propositions
to these be true, particularly when we see this Keforma-
tion proclaim that Baptism is not absolutely necessary
to salvation, that faitliu;^;^^ justifies, without works, &c.
There are**<(^QfAw]io Uhast of havino; their infallible
authoritvvilKWb WorJv£ Gpd contained in the Bible.
But, ly^pTiave a>KoJ?[y^hcf\vn, Jesus Christ has not
giveu^ttTa boi^SJjw thaOc^ch individual may go to it
an(l/extr£v^t hiS nbeliefynj^ lie has given us a teaching
bo(Ry, ^i-^iiimg poii^wjrfl authority, to which He has in-
trusWl th^*^^:)M[|p<fg His lieaAcnly doctrine intact. I
do notctin^ ttlrT l-c \\. ' ien Word of God is necessarily
true; but wli, .: 1 dem ,s, that He has left to each one
the task of interpreting it in his own manner, and
:naking it say the most contradictory things. It must
be acknowledged, too, that this infallible authority, which
rests on a dead letter, does not inconvenience the reli-
gious liberty of individuals, since it suffers, without say-
ing a w^ord, the most absurd as well as the most impious
doctrines ; and I can understand that some persons find
it suits themselves admirably. Any one can inter-
pret at his will this divine text, without fear of being
the least in the world inconvenienced. Human pride
there finds its own advantage, but do not the interests
The Catholic Rule of Faith, 209
of reveiiled truths siiflfer? Are tlioy not even com-
pletely sacrificed to the caprices, passion, or ignorance
of each one ?
Not only does Protestantism lay no claim to the
iiifallihle authority which the Saviour had communi-
cated to the teaching body — an authority so clearly ex-
pressed in the Bible — but it possesses none of the marks
which (mght to characterise the true Church of Christ,
and manifest it to the eyes of the nations as such. Is
it possible to find unity in Protestantism, that charac-
teristic which is so essential to the true Church of the
Saviour? By no means. It is not to be found there,
and never will be. Tha . unity, does? it®t exist in the
various Dissenting communions, /is )^ fact whicli is as
clear as tlie sun at noon. This facft .has ah'OsKly been
abundantly demonstrated when I j)roV6d that the fun-
damental principle of Protestantism is irreconbi-lable ^yith
unity ; also we may draw attention to. the jeremiads
uttered by the heads of the false Reformation and their
partisans up to the present day, concerning the inter-
minable dissensions which are constantly arising. They
admit that Protestantism is going to ruin, is being di-
vided into numberless sects, into fractions of fractions,
ad infinitum^ is giving birth to a number of incongruous
and contradictory confessions of faith, and is producing
Churches instead of the one Church which should exist.
Melancthon, writing to Calvin, said : ^ The whole stream
of the Elbe would not furnish water enough to weep the
misfortunes of the divided Keformation. The most im-
portant things are doubted ; the evil is incurable.'^^ La
" Epist. c. 1. iv.
P
2 lo The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
Gazette Ecclhiastiqiie wrote on tliis subject : ^ It is easy
to prove, as it has indeed been proved more than once,
that among all our pastors there are not two who be-
lieve alike.' * They are all laughed at as so many false
prophets' (Lildke). * The people, seeing their incon-
sistencies, treat their guides as simj)letons and impos-
tors' {Fischer). * It may be affirmed without hesitation
that there is not a theologian amonjTst us who has not
renounced some one important article of our belief, which
was so judged by the first Reformers' (Planck). * Satan
himself has more faith than our commentators, and Ma-
homet was far better than they are' (Ewald). These
are avowals made by Protestant writers as to the pre-
sent state of the Reformation ; it would be easy to bring
forward a thousand other <,uotations analogous to those
I have given.
Still Protestantism has often tried to save itself from
the anarchy into which it must result. All has been
useless. It has had to resign itself to conteniplating
with its own eyes the alarming spectacle of complete
disorganisation and approaching death, like those un-
happy creatures who, eaten alive by a cancer or con- '
sumed by a mortal gangrene, feel life abandoning them,
and the tomb opening to them as their dwelling-place.
Confessions of faith have been published, people have
been sworn to defend them always, and in all their re-
spective parts ; but soon some error being discovered in
them, each individual thinks himself obliged to bid adieu
to the standard of deceit: hence arise doctrinal disputes,
as well as divisions and subdivisions without end. In
what have the Protestant synods, the Evangelical Alii-
The Catholic Rule of Faith, 2 1 1
ance, resulted ? In making every serious man laugh,
and in pointing out to Protestants themselves their radi-
cal powerlessness to extract from their Bible one single
truth of the faith which must be admitted by all.
I will content myself with giving one example.
In the month of March 1838, a Protestant synod
was assembled at Lausanne. Convoked by a Council of
State — of which the members might be Catholics, Jews,
atheists — thirty-two pastors assembled daily iii the hall
of the Grand Council, who were to give decisions from
which there was no appeal. The question was first
asked, what was the Church — whether it was a school
or a society, or at once school and society, or by turns
society and school ; which means that from the very
beginning doubt was thrown on the existence even of a
teaching ministry in the Churcli. Nothing was decided;
nevertheless, they discussed the following grave ques-
tion : Is Baptism necessary for belonging to the Church ?
Upon which a member made the observation that to
preserve greater harmony with those who do not baptise
their children — a practice which, in a few years, may
possibly become general with us — it was only prudent not
to exact this condition ! Baptism provisionally provided
for, they next occupied themselves about a confession of
faith. And first, must there be one? The majority
said * Yes.' Should it be declared variable or invariable?
* Essentially variable,' answered twenty-one voices out
of thirty-two. And must the ancient Helvetic confes-
sion be changed ? Fifteen voices said ^ Yes,' fifteen said
^ No.' It was at length determined that the Helvetic
confession should be retained, not as rule of faith, but
I •
2 1 2 The Bible and the Rule of Faith,
as a rule of teaching — a distinction that appeared subtle
to several. These men, calling themselves ministers of
the Church and pastors of souls, asked of one another,
in the nineteenth century of the Christian era: To
whom does it belong to govern the Church ? Is it to us
or to laymen % Some capital things M^ere said on this
subject ; amongst others the following most just obser-
vation was made, that for three centuries it had been
the State — the State alone — which had governed Pro-
testant Churches. Struck with this truth, ^ I ask, then,'
said a candid minister, ' that we propose to the Council
of State that the Church may at last become something.'
On this question : Are laymen competent to judge of
doctrine % sixteen said ^ Yes,' sixteen said ' No ;' and
ultimately the controversy was submitted to the deci-
sion of the Great Council ! With regard to this, some
said they had a mission, that they believed in their ordi-
nation; others that they had no authority but that
which resulted from the force of their own reasoning,
that their ordination conferred on them no distinctiv^e
character. In short, they were ignorant what the Church
was, what they were themselves, what they had to teach
on the most essential points, such as Baptism ; they
were only assured of one thing, which was, that with
them the State ruled over the Church and governed it,
if really there was a Church.^^
By means of the Evangelical Alliance it was thought
to imitate the Gj^cumenical Council of the Vatican, and
show to the world that Protestantism also possessed
unity. Such was the aim clearly expressed by the Rev,
C ■*' Nampon, Etude de la Doctrine Catholique, Paris, 1852. >
. ■ \
The Catholic Rule of Faith. 213
Dr. Adams at New York, and by the Revs. Dr. Cook
and James Davies at Quebec. Vain effort I They suc-
ceeded in getting laugliect at, and that was all.
If, indeed, we examine each discourse pronounced on
this occasion, it is easy to see that the orators are in the
clouds, and fear going beyond generalities ; their do-
main is the undefined and undefinable ; they do not
know where to set their foot; they fear seeing the ground
open to swallow them up.
A good many people set out from Europe to go to
New York, in order to manifest Protestant unity. But
what unity? Is it unity of the faith? Certainly not.
Amongst themselves they would have found ardent ad-
versaries of baptismal regeneration, of the divinity of
Jesus Christ, of the Holy Trinity, of the Incarnation of
the Word, of sanctification by the sacraments ; they
could not even have come to an understanding as to the
books of which the Bible is composed, still less as to
the sense to be given to the clearest texts of Scripture.
Indeed, Dr. Stoughton of London took care at the very
beginning to declare, ' that they had not come together
to decide any ecclesiastical question, nor to propose a
dogma, but only to express their views on religious
matters.' This declaration was superfluous, for no one
is ignorant that Protestantism is incapable of imjiosing
a dogma on the human conscience, since it has neither
authority nor infallibility: any attempt of this sort would
only result in making every one laugh. The rev. doctor
did not tell us what were the religious matters in ques-
tion. Once more it suited him to remain in generalities.
This is the true style of modern Protestantism. Was
;(
2 1 4 The Bible and the Rule of Faith*
it the unity of ecclesiastical government or of di ipline
that they came to exhibit in Quebec? But who is not
aware that on these subjects, as on all the rest, there is
a prodigious divergence of opinions, and that, from the
Episcopalian to the Quaker and Socinian, every possible
and impossible shade of difference may be met with ?
Did they wish to show union of hearts? Yes, if we
believe the reverend speakers; but this union hardly
exists, as every one knows, except in their profound
aversion to Romanism — that is to sav, to the Catholic
religion. Apart from this unity in protestation and
hatred there is no tie, no common principle, to serve as
a basis of so-called evangelical alliance. Had it been
their object to make a caricature of unity, they could
not possibly have succeeded better than in these omni-
coloured assemblies.^^
Some very nice things could be related also with
regard to the Protestant Synod held at Paris in 1848,
and more particularly about the famous Pan-Anglican
Synod assembled in London some years ago, and which
was turned into ridicule so cleverly by a certain writer.''^
But this would lead me too far ; and, besides, I think I
have more than sufficiently proved that unity never has
existed, and never will exist, in Protestantism.
Certain Protestants have from time to time pre-
tended that the Church of Rome alone is responsible for
the separation, since she was the cause of it by excom- ,
municating the Reformed Churches. But it is easy to '
" Morning Chronicle of the 6th, 29th, and 30th Octoher 1873.
" Comedy of Convocation in the English Church, by Archdeacon n
Chasuble, D.D. New York, 1868. \
The Catholic Ride oj Faith. 215
understand that the sentence of excommunication pro-
nounced by Rome did not precede the separation or the
schism, and, consequently, was not the cause of it ; but
that it was pronounced after the schism, and was but a
just punishment inflicted on rebel subjects. In the
second place, it must not be forgotten that it was the
Reformers who separated themselves from the Church
by their innovations, and not the Church which sepa-
rated from the Reformers. In fact, the Catholics took
not a single step. They maintained the doctrine, such
as it was at that period and had been during previous
ages; their faith is absolutely tliat of the Middle Ages,
and that of the first Fathers of the Church. ^ You cannot,
then, say,' I will add, with one of the Protestant writers
(answer to Dr. Sharp, Bishop of Yorl-'i — *you cannot
maintain that the Catholics made a bchism with you,
unless you mean to say that when a vessel sails away
from the shore where it was at anchor, it is the shore
which goes away from the vessel, and not the vessel
which goes away from the shore.'
It has been well said that the false Reformation
* protests, but does not unite;' that in its bosom are only
to be found 'individualities which seek one another to
agglomerate together, like the atoms of Epicurus, with-
out being able to succeed in doing so; aggregations of
scepticism, amalgamations of incredulity of every spe-
cies — in fact, a regular pulverisation of evangelical
doctrine.'^^
Protestantism can hardly be said to possess the mark
of sanctity any more than that of unity. I will not here
" CauBsette, La bon Seiis de la Foi, t. i. p. 392.
I f
2 1 6 The Bible and the Rtile of Faith.
descend to personal questions : polemics that give rise
to irritated feelings rarely produce any good, and I am
but too glad to recognise among Protestants of good
faith many noble, great, sincere souls, to whom God
will grant the happiness of the heavenly kingdom, as
is acknowledged by the greatest theologians, such as
De Lugo.^^ But here I wish to compare particularly
societies as they stand revealed before the eyes of im-
partial men — in their ongin, in the means of sanctifi-
cation which they employ, and specially in the results
they obtain.
As to the heads of the Reformation in the sixteenth
century, I do not wish to jndge them myself, for fear
of being accused of partiality. I prefer only quoting
some short passages of their writings, and repeating the
polite speeches they make about one another; the reader
can then pronounce for himself as to the sanctity of the
origin of Protestantism. The sincerity of Luther is well
described in this confidential letter to his friend Melanc-
thon, August 30th, 1530: * When once w^e have nothing
more to fear, when we shall be left in peace, then will
be the time to rectify our deceits, lies, and errors.'
'Petei, he says elsewhere, *the greatest of the Apostles,
lived and taught contrarily to the Word of God.'^® Moses,
he says, had a tongue, but a hesitating tongue, which
stammered — a tongue of death, of anger, and of sin.
Collect all the words of wisdom of Moses, of the gentile
philosophers, and you will find that they only express
idolatry or hypocrisy.^^
" De Fide. xii. 3, 30.
** Comment, in Ep. ad Gal. c. ii.edit. Wittemberg, 0pp. t. v. p. 290.
59 T. iii. in Pb. xlv. p. 425.
The CatJiolic Rule of Faiih, 2 1 7
I will not quote anvtliing from his ^ Table Talk'
i^Tischreden), which forms a folio volume of 1350 paf^es.
I would fear being found wanting in that respect which
I owe to m\ courteous readers. It is of him that Zuin-
glius wrote : ^ When I read that book [Luther's] I fancy
I see an unclean pig smelling here and there among the
flowers in a beautiful garden, in such indecent, untheo-
logical, and unsuitable terms does he speak of God and
holy things.' 'This,' he exclaims elsewhere, 'is how
Satan seeks to gain entire possession of this man.'^° In
his turn, Luther says of Zuinglius that he is satanised,
iiisatanised, supersa^aiiised.^^
In a letter addressed to Bucer, January 9th, 1538,
Calvin accuses Luther of pomp, backbiting, ignorance,
of having fallen into gross mistakes, and of being guilty
of insolent pride. Bucer, a disciple of Calvin's, called
his master * a writer possessed of a passion for backbiting
— a mad dog."^^ In his work entitled De Vera et Falsa
Religione, p. 202, Zuinglius wrote : ' We return here to
what we have said elsewhere, on condition, however, that
what we write in the forty-second year of our age should
be admitted in preference to what we wrote in the for-
tieth year only, at a time, as we have said, when we
rather consulted the interest of the moment than the
truth — ne inter initia canes et porci nos rumpant.^ Too
truly, then, can we say, with the Protestant W. Cobbett :
' Perhaps the world has never, in any age, seen a nest
of such atrocious miscreants as Luther, Zuinglius,
•0 Zwingle, 0pp. t. ii. Resp. ad Conf. Lutheri, pp. 474 and 478.
*• Audin, Vie de Luther, t. ii. p. 376.
*^ Freudenfeld, Origine de la Reformation de Calvin.
2 1 8 The Bible and the Ride of Faith,
Calvin, Beza, and the rest of the distinguished Re-
formers of the CathoUc rehgion. Every one of them
was notorious for the most scandalous vices, even ac-
cording to the full confession of their own followers.
They agreed in nothing but the doctrine that good
xoorks were useless, and their lives proved the sincerity
of their teaching; for tliere was not a man of them
whose acts did not merit a lialter.'^^
What might not be said of Carlostadt, Melancthon,
Beza, Bucer, and others? But we can already judge
by the above quotations that these brave Reformers,
who well knew one another, were not more ready to
canonise each other than we would be so disposed our-
selves.
If such an origin is neither pure nor holy, it can be
affirmed with no less truth that the doctrines and means
of sanctification are not any more so. Let it suffice for
me to bring forward the following principles, admitted
by Luther, Calvin, and Zuinglius : first, the dogma of
justification by faith alone, and the inutility of good
works to salvation; secondly, the abominable doctrine
that God is the author of sin, in that He urges man to
sin by an irresistible necessity — * Nam et mala opera in
impiis Deus operctur,'' wrote Luther; thirdly, that
original sin deprived Adam and his posterity of free-
will; fourthly, it has become absolutely impossible to
keep the commandments of God; fifthly, God only
created the greater number of men in order to damn
them eternally ; sixthly, the elect alone are justified,
and as soon as they are baptised they can no longer sin,
«3 A History of the Protestant Reformation, London, 1829, c.vii. n. 200.
The Catholic Rule of Faith, 219
or at least tlieir sins are no more imputed to them ;
seventhly, the simple exterior imputation of the merits of
Jesus Christ by means of faith alone is sufficient to con-
fer holiness even equal to that of the angels or of the
Blessed Virrrin, were the conscience of the recipient even
laden with all the crimes in the world. Such are the
frightful doctrines which we find expressed in plain
language in many parts of their writings. If they were
rigorously applied in the ordinary concerns of life, they
would ruin public morals and overturn society. Fortu-
nately heretics and schismatics, as has already been said,
are often better than their heresies and their schisms.
Bjr taking away the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy
' Eucharist, the two greatest sources of sanctification in
the Christian religion have been taken away from man.
As to the results obtained by the pretended Reforma-
tion, volumes might be written on the subject, showing
how low has sunk the Christian devotedness of their
missionaries among the heathen and among the lower
classes of society. It would be easy to show that the
doctrine of the inutility of good works for salvation has
produced the fruits that might be expected from it.
Where are the saints produced by the Reformation ?
Where are the men she has formed to the practice of
the evangelical counsels ? Why this species of horror
she shows with regard to the religious who unite them-
selves to the Lord for their whole lives by vows of
poverty, virginity, and obedience ? Why this persecu-
tion to the death directed against men who are guilty
of no other crime than that of wishing to flee from the
dangers of the world ; who have no other social crime
2 20 The Bible and the Rtde of Faith,
to ex])iate but that of spending tlieir lives in study, in
the practice of piety, in the exercise of the works of
apostolic zeal? In what have resulted all the efforts
that have been made, in one i)lace or another, to found
convents of religious men and women, as in Catholicism?
In nothing — everything has ended in a general disper-
sion. What part has been played, and is still being
played, by these propagators of the pure Bible among
infidel nations ? That of good citizens, carefully taken
care of by a wife and children, travelling for the faith and
not confessing it ; or, again, as the Rev. Father Caussette
expressed it, that of commercial travellers of the Gospel,
leaving to others the glory of being its apostles.^* Wh^b-
ever thinks I am in the very least exaggerating has
only to read the writings of the heads of Protestantism,
or else Dollinger's work entitled The Reformation^ in
three volumes. They will easily be convinced that I
have not said a thousandth part of the truth on this
question.
From the very fact that unity does not exist in
Protestantism, it is evident that the mark of Catholic-
ism, or universality, cannot be found there either.
In fact, when it is said that a religious society is Ca-
tholic, or universal, it ought to be understood of a society
whose members profess, and are bound to profess, one and
the same positive belief, under pain of no longer belong-
ing to that society. But what is to be found in the
Reformation ? Is there any unity whatever in the faith ?
None. Is any one obliged to adhere to certain par-
ticular positi\ doctrines ? By no means. There may
<\ ** Le bon Sens de la Foi, t. i. p. 428. ' ;
• ■ \\
The Catholic Rule of Faith, 221
be as many Christianities as Christians, as many Pro-
testantisms as Protestants? Without any doubt, since
each one beHeves what best pleases himself, and nothing
farther. But how form a society with sucli dissimihir
elements — with men whose only principle of cohesion is
the perseveriug negation of the Koman Church ? The
problem does not appear to me to be easy to solve, un-
less, with a certain clever writer, we place the sign of
Catholicity on ^tlie harmony of universal divergences;'
or else compare the Church ^to an artif'cial nosegay,
composed of a rose, a cabbage, a tulip, and an onion,
the whole carefully tied together by a shoe-string.''^^
As for apostolicity, I know that many Dissenting
communions lay not the slightest claim to it, and they
are right. They have even divorced themselves from
all kind of priesthood. Their rehgion is summed up in
the infallibility of human reason, or of the sovereign's
reason, when applied to the Bible. Going back to the
Apostles in an unbroken line of succession of legitimate
pastors is a glory to be found only in the Roman Ca-
tholic Church. Still, there are certain sects which wear
themselves out in vain efforts to show to the world that
they are not illegitimate; but how can they succeed?
How find a connecting link beyond Luther, Calvin,
Zuinglius, and Henry VIH. or Elizabeth? It is very
evident that the Churches which they founded are not
apostolical, since they only date back three centuries;
nor are they grafted on the Apostolic Church, since, on
the contrary, they have either been cut off or have sepa-
rated themselves from it. Starting from the period when
"* Coviedy of Convocation in the English Church, pp. 62-3.
2 2 2 The Bible a7id Ike Ride of Fait Ju
this criminal rupture took j)la(;e, Protestant communions
can no more boast of being tiie true Apostolic Churcli
than can the Arians, tlie Nestorians. the Eutychians, and
the Monopliysites. They are branch(!S lopped off from
the tree and condemned to die; they no longer receive
the life-giving sap of the doctrine of the Apostles. Of
them might be said what the BntUh Reciew said in
1888 of the Anglican Church : * It is a mummy, a solenm
corpse, which can neither walk nor breatlie.' There is
no doubt that the genealogical tree of Protestantism
extends its branches no farther back than the sixteenth
century, unless it be maintained that Henry VIII. was
the legitimate successor of Pope Leo X., and Cranmer
the representative of Catholic faith and virtue in the see
of Canterbury, which is a manifest absurdity. There
are Protestants who fabricate for themselves strange
titles of nobility. They pretend that, from sect to sect,
they go back to Jesus Christ! They are at perfect
liberty to choose such ancestors ; it is hardly to their
honour. But it would be easy to prove (if it did not
take too long) that these sects differed in belief from
Protestants on a number of important points. Besides
this genealogical tree, which at every branch shows
different kinds of schismatics or rebels, conducts us at
length tQ Simon the Magician, and to certain sects which
had but one drawback — that of professing a doctrine dia-
metrically opposed to that of Jesus Christ. Others take
refuge in the apostolicity of the doctrine which they pre-
tend to have retained. But they ought to bear in mind
that this is precisely the difficulty which is to be solved,
and that doctrine cannot be a note, a distinctive and
The Catholic Ride of Faith, 22^
visible cliaraotoristic of the true Clmrcli, altliouLrli it
must necessarily be a quality of the same. In fact, the
apostolical succession may be clearly seen — it is a ])atent
historical fact ; but can doctrine be visible in the same
manner?
Presbyterianism would hardly .agree to the Real
Presence, auricular confession, and a liturtry wliich is
in a great measure Roman ; but Ritualism pronounces
differently on these subjects, and on many others, both,
liowever, believing that they are in possession of apos-
tolic doctrine. Who shall decide between them? I
mif:jht reason in the same wav about each article of the
Apostles' Creed and about all the sects. The question
would always remain insoluble for the same reason.
But let us take a particular example, in order to
show that the first Reformers abandoned the faith of the
Apostolic Church, and have never received any Divine
mission. At the commencement of his career, did
Luther believe in the pontifical supremacy, in the
reality of the holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in the worship
of saints, in the necessity for the confession of sins?
Yes, without any doubt ; his writings attest it. Did the
Catholic Church, which was then spread over all the
earth, teach the same doctrines ; and had she taught
them during the Middle Ages and during the first cen-
turies ? That is absolutely certain ; Protestants them-
selves are sometimes pleased to acknowledge this, and
it is for that reason that the greater number of them
divorce themselves from tradition and take refuge in the
pure Bible. There was then a sacrilegious innovation
on the part of Luther and the other Reformers ; they
2 24 The Bible and the Rule of Faith, "
rose up, therefore, against tlie Cliurcli founded by Jesus
Christ, and with which He had promised to b ' until the
end of time ; they put their individual reason above that
of the whole Church ; they rejected the religion of the
Pope in order themselves to become popes of their re-
ligion ; they accused the Church of idolatry, superstition,
impiety, &c. Wlien a man takes on himself so im-
portant a })art as that of reformer of the Church, when
he has the boldness to contradict what has been believed
for sixteen centuries, when he even goes so far as to
deny the accomplishment of the Saviour's promises, the
plainest common sense tells us that such a hero ought to
prove in an authentic manner that he has an apostolate
— a divine mission — that of leading back Christian
society to its earliest condition. But what, then, can
these heads of the Reformation show to prove to the
world that they have received the mission from heaven
of reestablishing the apostolic doctrine ? Not a single
miracle, not even the cure of a lame horse, says Erasmus ;
but a sensual and scandalous life, principles worthy of
Paganism, cynical language, a frightful death. From
whom did they receive their mission % From themselves.
It is very rarely that God chooses similar instruments
to accomplish His work, and it is incredible that He
charged them with reforming the whole world and yet
gave tbem no credentials. This would be attributing
to God a wisdom inferior to human wisdom. It may,
then, be concluded tliat in the Reformation there is
neither apostolic succession nor apostolic doctrine, nor a
divine mission to purify the belief of the Catholic Church;
the spirit of revolt and error is alone to be found there.
» •
The Catholic Rule of Faith, 225
Protestantism, then, possesses none of tlic charac-
teristics of the true Church of Christ, such as she is
represented in the Holy Scripture.
We have now arrived at the Catholic Church. Does
this Church possess all the prerogatives, all the distinc-
tive characteristics of the Church of Christ, such as the
Holy Books (considered as historical documents) repre-
sent it as issuing from the hands of its Founder? Let
us examine this question a little.
We have seen in the Bible that Jesus Christ founded
one only Church, to which He gave, as an indestructible
and permanent foundation, Peter, the Prince of tlie
Apostles, and as a necessary consequence his successors,
for His Church was to last as lonff as the world. Thus
it is evident that no Church can be considered as built
upon Peter and his successors except that one which has
for its head Peter and his successors. Now no Church
can lay claim to this glorious prerogative excej)t the
Roman Church, where Peter was Bishop, where he died,
and where the succession has been uninteiTuptedly kept
up down to our days. Then the Catholic Church, the
- * seat of which is in Rome, is that one to which Jesus
Christ promised that the gates of hell should not pre-
vail against her. The Saviour constituted Peter the
basis of His indefectible Church, the pastor of His flock,
the confirmer of his brethren in the faith ; He prayed in
a special manner that his faith might not fail ; in other
words. He promised infallibility to the head of His
Church. Now the Bishops of Rome, or the Popes, are
the only ones who have constantly laid claim to this
privilege — the only ones in whom it has been acknow-
Q
2 26 The Bible and the Rule of Faith,
ledged and to whom it has been attributed ; the only-
ones who can show in their teaching an invariable doc-
trine always in harmony with that of their predecessors
and with that of their successors, always conformable to
that of St. Peter and the Apostles. Then the Roman
Church is the legitimate heiress of the divine promises
contained in the Bible.
Jesus Christ promised to the Apostolic College,
having Peter for its head, His special guardianship and
the assistance of the Holy Ghost, not only for a time,
but for ever — in cBternum, Now apart from the teaching
Catholic Church, united in council under the presidency
of the Popes at the different periods of history, can any
other be found which has even dared to call itself in-
fallible, the pillar and foundation of the truth, or assisted
by the Holy Spirit so as not to be able to err? None;
all take care — which is, however, not necessary — to pro-
claim themselves fallible, subject to error, and conse-
quently not assisted by the Spirit of Trutli. These
Churches are not, then, the society founded by Christ ;
they do not possess the infallible power of ruling which
He established for the teaching of the nations until the
end of time. Apart from the Church of Rome, is there
a single one which dares to teach with the authority of
a divine mission, and which seriously consents to having
our Saviour's words to the Apostles applied to it : * He
that heareth you, heareth Me; he that despiseth you,
despiseth Me. If any one hear not the Church, let him
be to you as a heathen and a publican' ? None.
Outside of the Roman Catholic Church will you
find a single one which believes itself, as she does,
The Catholic Rtile of Faith, iiy
strictly obliged to preach the Gospel to all men, to teach
the nations all that Jesus Christ had commanded themy
keeping the deposit of the faith, avoiding profane inno-
vations, transmitting the revealed doctrine — even un-
written — to persons capable and legitimately charged
with teaching it to the nations ? Not one. On the con-
trary, each one of them has limited itself to a little
corner of the earth, to a nationality, or to a part of the
revelation; all have sacrificed the unwritten Word of
God; all have let the Bible be torn to shreds in the
hands of their adepts ; all have abandoned the deposit
of revelation to the caprices and passions of individuals.
The Roman Church alone has accomplished the divine
mission of preaching all the revealed truth and to all
nations.
That the Roman Church is one, is a striking and
incontestable fact. Traverse one after another the
different regions of the globe, and you will everywhere
hear the same Credo repeated and the same doctrine
taught. It cannot be otherwise; for whoever would
dare knowingly to reject the smallest portion of doctrine
defined by the competent authority would be excluded
from the Church ; she has but to speak, but to give a
definition of faith, every one submits to her decision
heartily, and makes the sacrifice of any particular
opinions he might before have held. We had a magni-
ficent example of this in the Council of the Vatican ; its
decrees met with the most unanimous and complete
adhesion on the part of the bishops and the faithful ;
all previous disagreements were effaced in the presence
of the pontifical sanction attached to the decrees ^. «he
228 The Bible and the Rule of Faith,
venerable assembly. Now put her faith to the test of
ages ; go back to the Catacombs, pass on to the Middle
Ages or to the time of the Reformation, and compare the
doctrine of the Roman Church at these periods with
that which she now professes, and I defy you to discover
the smallest change in it or the faintest divergence.
But, our adversaries say to us, did not the Roman
Church change in her faith when, in 1854, she defined
the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed
Virgin, and, in 1871, that of the Infallibihty of the
. , Pope ? The Reverend Messrs. Bancroft^^ and Burns*^'^ are
astonished that these dogmas were not discovered before
if they existed ; whereupon they gave utterance to some-
thing ineffable, not to say anything stronger ; they even
went so far as to assign this latter definition as the cause
of the Franco-Prussian War ; then Dr. Burns recalled
to mind the great schism of the West, the disputes
' between the Thomists and Scotists, between the Jesuits
and Jansenists, and drew from thence the conclusion that
there is no more unity in the Roman Church than in
Protestantism.
To this I reply, first in a general manner, that the
Church never creates new dogmas; they are all con-
tained in written or unwritten revelation, although all
are not there contained in an equally clear and precise
manner; it is this latter reason which estriblishes a
difference of date, not between such and such a belief
of the Church, since the Church has always implicitly
or explicitly believed everything which she now believes;
. , but between such and such a definition of the faith of
« Quebec Morning Chronicle, Feb. 15, 1872. " Ibid. Feb. 27, 1874.
The Catholic Rule of Faith. 229
the Church. A new dogma, as our adversaries express
it, is not, then, a new doctrine taken outside of revelation,
imagined by the caprice of the Pope or the bishops ; no,
it is only a definition or new declaration luJiich the Church
gives us of an old doctrine, revealed from the first, but
which, on account of its less explicit revelation in Scrip-
ture and tradition, had up to then been only implicitly
believed in the Church.^^ In other terms, the Church
does not change the object of her faith, she does not
fabricate beliefs at her own will ; her part is confined to
that of undeniably establishing, when circumstances re-
quire it, that a certain doctrine is really revealed, that
is to say contained in Holy Scripture or in tradition ; it
is always the Word of God which is taught to us and
propounded to us, not by individual reason, as in Pro-
testantism, but by the infallible authority of the Church
aided by the Holy Ghost. Is this clear enough ?
Let us add another example, so that there may be
no room for any obscurity on this point. I will suppose
that our gracious sovereign Queen Victoria might pub-
lish a code of civil laws, and that she might, as was the
case with our Saviour, confer on the Privy Council the
prerogative of interpreting these laws with infallibility,
that is to say in a manner so as never to give them a
different sense from that which she herself attached to
them. Some centuries later, the jurisconsults interpret
a particular law of this code some in one sense, some in
another ; there are even some who go so far as to deny
the existence of such a law. But the Privy Council
" Bua, Cours de Conferences sur la Religion, t. ii. p. 339 ; see also
Franzelin, De Divind Traditione et Scripturd, p. 238.
230 The Bible and the Ride of Faith,
steps in, and, always infallible in this matter, solemnly
declares that this law exists^ and that such and such was
the sense attached to it hy the Queen. Would you, per-
chance, say that the Privy Council has made a new law,
that it has introduced an innovation into the royal code?
No ; it would be clear that it had only proved the exist-
ence and the sense of a law already promulgated. So
it is with the definitions given by the Church ; she only
proves the existence of revealed doctrines, or explains
and develops v/hat might before have been obscure.
I will allow myself to put a question to the above-
named reverend orators : When the Council of Nice, in
the fourth century, defined the divinity of the Son of
God, did they invent that doctrine ? Was that doctrine
unknown to anterior centuries? Before the year 325
had no one believed that Jesus Christ was God? It
would be absurd to assert this ; the Council only defined
a doctrine certainly revealed and already admitted in the
Church. What else, then, was done concerning the
dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and Pontifical
Infallibility ?
The greatest fault I find with these reverend minis-
ters is speaking of things with which they are not
, ufficiently acquainted; at the same time they too easily
disregard the most ordinary rules of logic. What in-
deed can be said of philosophers who attribute the
Franco-Prussian War to the definition of Papal Infalli-
bility, because the one came after the other — post hoc
ergo propter hoc ? If I wished to reason in the same
manner as my adversaries, I would attribute the Crimean
War to the doctrinal judgment pronounced by the Privy
The CatJwlic Rtde of Fait Ju 231
Council in the Gorham case ; or again, ascribe as the
cause of the financial crisis in the United States and
the troubles in Manitoba to the last assemblies of the
Evangelical Alliance^ held at New York and Quebec!
I do not wish here to correct the historical error into
which Dr. Burns has fallen, when he confounds the
sojourn of the Popes at Avignon for seventy years with
the dissensions which followed this sojourn, and which
led to there being as many as three claimants of the
pontificate. Evidently he has as confused an idea of
history as of the doctrine of the Catholic Church. I
have already answered elsewhere the objection made
against the unity of the Church founded on this fact.^^
Let it suffice for me here to recall to mind that during
all that troubled period it never came into any one's
head whatever that there could be two or three legiti-
mate Popes at once. The error, then, under which some
were lying was not an error of doctrine or of right,
but simply an error of fact concerning the one legiti-
mately elected. This case was absolutely analogous to
that we often see occurring in electoral disputes : certain
elections are contested ; no one knows which candidate
is legally elected ; still all agree in saying that there can
be but one member to represent the county.
The divergencies of opinion existing between the
Scotists and Thomists with which the Roman Church is
reproached turn entirely on points with regard to which
authority has defined nothing, and which it abandons to
the activity of the human mind; but in nothing do they
«« La Primaute et VInfaillibiliU des Souverains Pontifes, pp. 393-
406 : Quebec, 1873.
232 The Bible and the RiUe of Faith,
aftect the unity of faith and communion, since on all
definite points there is perfect identity of faith amongst
Cathohcs, and on undefined questions each one is ready
to submit his own judgment directly the Church shall
have spoken. As for the Jansenists, if we look o': them
as forming a se.ct^ an individual Church, for example, at
Utrecht, they have always been subjected to the ana-
themas of the Roman Pontiffs, and formally looked on
as heretics ; it is clear that in this case they no more
destroy the unity of the Church than do the Lutherans
or Calvinists, since they are completely separated from
it. As to the individuals, they have not generally been
excommunicated each one by name, and consequently
the)' continue materially to form a part of the body of
the Church. But this does not p.'event their being
immensely guilty before God, nor their harming them-
selves ; still they do not harm the unity of the Church,
which incessantly repudiates their errors.**^ The Jesuits
have fought with the Church against the Jansenist error,
absolutelv the same as the Dominicans against the Albi-
genses, and St. Athanasius against the Arians; their
strife was honourable, since they strove with men who
altered the doctrines of the Church, and would no longer
submit their judgment to competent authority.
Unity, then, has always subsisted in the Roman
Catholic Church; it exists now and always will exist,
because it must necessarily be the effect of an infallible
authority intrusted with keeping divine revelation in-
tact. It is useless, let us say so en passant, for the
Anglican Church to pretend being, with the Russo-
. «» Regola di Fede, p. 242. i
The Catholic Ride of Faith. i'}^'}^
Greek and lloman Churches, a branch of the true
Church of Christ, since the first condition of forming,
part of it is submission to legitimate and divinely con-
stituted authority.
The mark o£ sanctity is no less evidently found in
the Catholic Church. Without doubt all its members
are not saints, since everywhere man remains free
to do evil ; also Jesus Christ predicted that there would
be scandals, and that the Church would be like a field
in which tares and wheat grew at the same time, like
a sheepfold where there were both goats and sheep.
Still is it no less true to say that Catholicism, holy in
its origin, in its dogmas, in its moral teaching, in its
worship, has never ceased producing saints. I wish
for no other proof than those saints who have ap-
peared in the course of the last three centuries. Can
there be found in the bosom of Reform many Christians
like St. Charles Borromeo, St. Theresa, St. Ignatius, -
St. Francis of Xavier, St. Aloysius, St. Francis Regis,
St. Vincent de Paul, St. PVancis de Sales, St. Jane
Chantal, St. Alphonsus de Liguori, and a number of
others? Do we find in Protestantism many young
persons who consent to separate from their families,
banishing themselves from the world, sometimes re-
nouncing a brilliant fortune, to consecrate themselves
exclusively to the service of God by the solemn vows of
poverty, chastity, and obedience I Can many be found
who have worn out their lives in begging for the poor
and infirm, nursing the sick in the hospitals, dress-
ing wounds on the battle-field, or bringing back into
the paths of virtue the unhappy victims of vice ? Very
234 The Bible and the Ride of Faith, •
few ; disdain and hatred is even affected for this evan-
gelical perfection. Catholicism, on tlie contrary, can
count by millions those holy and courageous souls who
sacrifice everything for God, and who believe with the
Holy Scripture that faith without works is dead faith.
And has the Catholic missionary ever recoiled before
epidemics, persecutions, the dungeon — dr^ath itself?
Never ; nor has he anything which attaches him to the
earth; he leaves behind him neither widow nor orphans;
he belongs to himself entirely, or rather he belongs to
God alone, to whom he has consecrated his labours and
his life ; he is happy to give his blood for the faith or
for the alleviation of human suffering. I need but recall
here his heroism during the plague at Milan and at
Marseilles ; during wars ; during the cholera which
raged at different periods even in our Canada. I have
but to pronounce the names of countries such as Japan,
China, Tonkin, the Corea, &c., to see rise up before me a
cloud of courageous martyrs, who have never wanted for
successors in the continuation of their work. Let not
my words be taken for enthusiasm, for superannuated
exaggeration ; I only appeal to facts which are within
the domain of history.
One more remark before going farther. When any
one decides on passing from Protestantism to Catholicism,
is it in the hope of leading a more free or easy life, of
finding a less-exacting religion — one less severe with
regard to pride and the other bad passions of the human
heart? Quite the contrary; and what often prevents
certain returns to the Catholic religion is the necessity
of submitting to the restraint of obedience in religious ,
The Catholic Rule 0/ Faith, 2^S
matters, to tlie confession ot faults, to rigid morality, or
to fasting, abstinence, &c. All these matters are much
simplified in Protestantism, as every one knows ; but is
that indeed the religion of Christ ? The following say-
ing of Fitz- William is well known : * The passage from
the Church to a sect is too often along the road of vice ;
that from a sect to the Church is always by the road of
virtue. ''°
The Roman Church is not only holy, but also Catholic
or universal. Contrary to paganism, which never dreamt
of universality in religion, and which took care to cir-
cumscribe itself within the narrow circle of the family,
the city, or the kingdom ; contrary to Judaism, which
has remained stationary for two thousand years; con-
trary to Mahometanism, that ^ phantom of religion raised
on a pedestal of mud,' which contains no principle of
progressive diffusion, and which is limited to some bar-
barous provinces ; contrary, lastly, to the Greek schism,
which is pretty nearly unknown in the greater part of
the provinces of Europe and Asia, and is not to be
found either in America, Africa, or Oceanica; — the
Roman Church, with the Pope for her head, the legiti-
mate successor of the Prince of the Apostles, is spread
in all parts of the world, and counts a considerable
number of faithful even in those regions where other
societies predominate. Add to this that she does not
profess a different belief in different countries ; she is
absolutely one in her faith as in her government and
her worship.
The Roman Church is also Apostolicj and the only
" Letters of Atticus, 1826, p. 112.
23 6 The Bible a7id the Rule of Faith,
Apostolic Church. In fact she is the only Church
which can show her descent — her genealogy — from Jesus
Christ and the Apostles down to our days. She alone
has pastors, bishops, and priests who are still divinely
sent as the first Apostles were by our Saviour, and who
can say to the nations : ^ We teach, we baptise, we
remit sins, we exercise the power of the keys to bind
and loose, to make disciplinary laws ; we administer the
other sacraments ; we establish bishops, priests, and we
send them as we ourselves were sent; and we do all
that because the Apostles did it, because the successors
of the Apostles have done it, because the Catholic
Church has had the liberty to do so for 1840 years,
and that all this, by the commands of Jesus Christ,
is to be practised until the end of time.''^' Nothing is
more evident than public facts. Now the divine
mission of the present Pope, Pius IX., as well as that
of his predecessors, is the greatest of public facts.
History is there to show us not only their names, but
also their acts — their zeal to defend the holy doctrine,
their universal and supreme authority; it leads us by
the hand, as it were, up to St. Peter and to Jesus
Christ, who constituted him the immovable basis of His
Church, the pastor of His flock, the confirmer in the real
truth.
What we have just proved of the Sovereign Pontiffs
is equally applicable to Catholic bishops and priests in
no matter what part of the world, since all have been
ordained and consecrated by bishops who were in com-
munion with the then reigning Pontiff of Rome. We can
'' Le Protestantisme devoile, p. 18 ; Paris, 1841.
f
The Catholic Rule of Faith, 2>2>7
thus mount, link by link, along an uiiiiiteiTupted cluiin
of bislio])s as far as the Apostles, -who ordainetl and con-
secrated the first bishops and the first priests — Titus,
Timothy, &c. Here are incontestable proofs of our
divine mission. But 1 should be curious to know
whence the reverend orators of the Bible Society and
the Evangelical Alliance have taken the titles of their
mission, from whom they received it, and from how
far back in the course of centuries it dates. I will
allow myself to make a remark on this subject which
P. Caussette^* has already made before me, that 4he
sects behave towards the Church as false nobles do
towards the old race; failing the blood, they take the
name, reckoning on the careless and inattentive, con-
founding the identity of the name with that of the
blood.' * But it is in vain they seek to mislead us,' says
Bossuet:^^ *we lay down as a fact that none can be
named which, if traced up to its commencement, has
not the point of junction marked at which a particle
began to fight against the whole and separate itself from
the stalk.' But it is altogether otherwise with the
apostolic dynasty; never has it become extinct, and
it never will.^^
" Le hon Sens de la Foi, t. i. p. 415.
" Instr. 8ur les Promesses.
^ ^* Those wlio would know all the glories of the Catholic Church,
and what she has done for the good of society in general, have only to
read the admirable Conferences given in the United States by the Rev.
Father Burke, of the Order of the Friar Preachers. These discoui'ses,
in which learning is united to the most exalted eloquence, have been
published in New York in the course of the year 1873.
.1'
CONCLUSION.
I HAVE now attained tlie object I had in view. I
think I have estabhshed with sufficient clearness, 1st,
the necessity for a rule of faith as a means of knowing
the revealed truth, which rule should be suited to the
capacity of every one, certain, capable of deciding all
controversy, and perpetual. 2dly. The insufficiency,
the uncertainty, and the instability of the Protestant
rule of faith, or the Bible. This rule of faith gives no
certain proof of the inspiration of the Holy Books, nor
does it fix any canon of them, nor verify their authen-
ticity, nor determine their true sense; it cannot exist
without an evident contradiction, that is to say without
resting on tradition ; it is incapable of establishing that
unity which it was the will of Jesus Christ should reign
in His Church. Let the Bible be interpreted by in-
dividual reason, or by the pretended inspiration of the
Holy Ghost, or by a fallible authority, any way it only
leads to uncertainty and infinite subdivisions ; it results
in the annihilation of religious liberty beneath the des-
potism of the civil authority, and ultimately gives rise
to religious indifferentism and rationalism I have
shown, 3dly, the perfect harmony which exists on
this question between the exigencies of human reason
and the Bible on the one hand, and the rule of faith in
Conclusion, 239
the Catliolic Church on the other. Divine revelation is
contained entire in the Holy Scripture and in tradition ;
this precious deposit was confided by the Saviour to the
care of a teaching Church, visible, permanent, and in-
fallible ; and this Church, which ought manifestly to be
one, holy. Catholic, and Apostolic, is not Protestantism
with its thousand sects, born yesterday, but the holy
Roman Church ; she alone still commands as the
Apostles formerly commanded, and she is obeyed with
the most perfect submission, because each one of her
children is perfectly convinced that she is the legitimate
heir of the divine promises — the true Church founded
by Jesus Christ, and to which He said : * lie who heareth
you, heareth Me ; and he who despiseth you, despiseth
^le. Whosoever believeth not shall be condemned.'
It is, then, absolutely indubitable that the Saviour
has established one only Church ; that He put her in
'possession of all revealed truth, so that she might be its
infallible guardian. Hence it is absolutely necessary
for those who are outside this only ark of salvation to
hasten to enter it, if they do not wish to be condemned
to perish. It is precisely to spare man so frightful a
misfortune that He has rendered His Church visible,
like a town set on the summit of a mountain ; visible in
her sacramental rites, visible in her supreme head, in
her pastors, her members, her government, her worship,
her judgments, her admirable hierarchy; above all,
visible in the marks or distinctive characteristics which
apply to her alone, to the exclusion of all the other so-
called Churches. The fundamental question is, then,
decided: Jesus Christ has founded an infallible Church.
240 The Bible and the Rule of Fail h.
Now this Church is the Roman CathoKc Church, and
can be no other. Then the Roman Churcli is absolutely
the infallible and only Church of Christ. Now who-
ever listens not to this Church, whoever despiseth her,
whoever does not believe in her teachings shall be con-
demned. Then from the moment she is recognised as
being alone true, it is of rigorous necessity to become a
member of this Church if we wish to escajie from the
terrible judgments of God.
' This conclusion is a true one,' I may be told ; ' but
how admit all the articles of belief of the Catholic
Churc^i? There are some of them which appear so
little conformable to Scripture — so new, so arbitrary, so
superstitious.'
They only appear so to those who do not sufficiently
understand them, who from their childhood upwards
have been imbued with a prejudice against everything
Catholic, and have constantly heard reiterated the
most absurd tales concerning our faith without having
ever been able or willing; to investio-ate their truth. A
more attentive study, however, will amply prove this
belief to be reasonable and founded on divine revelation.
Doubtless there are mysteries which man can never
thoroughly and completely comprehend, for they are
beyond the power of reason. But even in the kingdom
of nature are there not many things whose existence is
well proved, and yet which we cannot understand?
How much more, then, may not such be the case in the
supernatural order? There are certain doctrines which
we do not understand, but we believe them on the in-
fallible authority of that Church which our reason has
Conchision, 241
previously received, and whicii teaches us that they have
certainly been revealed.
' But,' it is added, ^ liow believe in the Real Presenco,
in Transubstantiation, in the worship of the Blessed
Virgin and the saints, in the confession of sins, &c. ?
All tliat is so evidently a mixture of superstition,
idolatry, and fanciful errors.'
I do not here mean to treat at large each of these
questions; that would carry me too far, a?id lead me
beyond the limits I have imposed on myself in this
work. Perhaps later I may develop these important
questions ; for the moment I will but say a word.
The Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist
appears to you to be a fiction. But what is there more
incomprehensible in that than in seeing God, who is
infinite in all His perfections, stooping so low as to take
on Himself our poor nature, to be born in a manger, to
suffer and die on a cross ? The mystery of the Incar-
nation is as hard for human reason to compass as that
of the Real Presence. What the love of God could do
for humanity in one case, it might well do in another.
Besides, when an infinitely powerful God tells us, ^ This
is My Body, this is My Blood,' reason itself shows us
that we ought not to give the lie to God in a manifest
manner by saying, 'That is not possible; this is neither
the Body, nor the Blood, but only a figure — a remem-
brance of the Saviour.' This latter is what really nn'ght
be called a fiction and a blasphemy ; Protestantism will
never be able to make it appear otherwise.
'Transubstantiation, or the changing of the sub-
stance of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of
R '
242 The Bible and the R7ile of Faith,
Jesns Christ, is impossible.' And why? You admit
that the Saviour changed water into wine at the mar-
riage feast in Cana ; that He multiphed the bread and
fish ; that He resuscitated Lazarus ; that He Himself
rose from the dead ; that He created the heavens and
the earth out of nothing ; that the food which you take
changes into your substance, &c. What reason have
you, then, for making thi . choice, and believing the latter
prodigies more than the former? This is simple arbi-
trariness. The Creation, which you admit, is it not , .
even a still greater miracle than Transubstantiation ? i
* Confession of sins is a human invention.' But tell
me in what century, in what country, by what mortal ?«*
was it invented ? Make every necessary research ; fix J
whatever epochs you please to assign to this embarrass- '
ing institution ; by means of historical tradition I will
make you go back from c^intury to century until that of
Jesus Christ Himself, who addressed to His Apostles
these memorable words : * As My Father hath sent Me,
so send I you. Receive the Holy Ghost ; the sins ye
remit shall be remitted unto men, and the sins ye retain
shall be retained unto them.' I now ask whether an •'
Anglican clergyman, pronouncing a form of absolution
over persons who have just confessed to God in the
secret of their heart, makes use often of the power ex-
pressed by the words: ^The sins ye retain shall be
retained unto them ?' How retain sins without knowing
them % Impossible, except by acting arbitral ily. Jesus
Christ, King of Heaven, judges like the kings of the
earth, not in His own person, but by His plenipoten-
tiaries, by His tribunals. He might without doubt have
Conchtsion. : 243
disposed of things in a different manner, but He lias not
done so ; q,^^x^^ objection disappears before His holy will.
* The worship of the Holy Virgin and the saints is
pure and simple idolatry.' Yes, if we adored them, if we
rendered them a worship which is due to God alone ; but
we venerate them only as the friends of God, as privileged
souls who have made themselves agreeable to the Lord
by their perfect charity, and who have faithfully corres-
ponded to divine grace. We believe that their prayers,
being more perfect than ours, may obtain from God
that which we could not obtain for ourselves; conse-
quently we in\ oke them, we honour them, we beg them
to intercede for us. Is not such cultus conformable to
reason, and, I might add, conformable to revelation?
Do we not honour the mother of a king more than an
ordinary mother, and the familiar friends of the sove- ,
reign more than ordinary citizens? Do we not have '
recourse to their mediation, to their intercession, to ob-
tain royal favours? This is what we see every day;
but is not the worship of Mary and the saints more
rational even, since in them we honour the Mother and .
friends not of a man, but of God Himself? Let us,
then, be no longer looked on as senseless idolaters, for
that is an old tale which is perfectly ridiculous, and
which should no longer be repeated in this nineteenth
century.
You will often hear it said that we ought to die in
the religion of our fathers ; this is a pretext of which
the faint-hearted make a convenience. I reply thereto,
first: Yes, if. the religion of those fathers was true and
good ; No, if it was false, for truth has imprescriptible
244 The Bible a7id the Rule of Faith,
rights over our intelligence. Acting on so erroneous a
principle, the world would soon be plunged again into
paganism. Besides, with regard to Protestants, it is
easy to make them the same reply as was made by
Count de Stolberg to a prince who was making this
objection to him : ^ Pardon, prince,' said he, * it is still
better to die in the religion of one's grandfathers.'
This is the same idea as was expressed on his deathbed
bv a French ambassador in England: a friend asked
him whether he were not grieved at seeing himself
reduced to being buried amongst heretics. * No,' an-
swered the dying man ; ^ I will ask to have my grave
dug very deep, and then I shall find myself in the
midst of my own people.' And, in fact, abandoning
the Reformation to become Catholic is returning to the
' religion of one's grandfathers, of one's ancestors, since
up to the sixteenth century there was not a single Pro-
testant on the face of the earth.
To those who render interior homage to the truth
of Catholicism without choosing to profess it openly,
under the pretext that God is satisfied with the good
dispositions of the heart, and that a change of religion
would involve too many sacrifices, too many disagree-
ables, and would grieve relations, friends, benefactors,
1 might bring forward our Saviour's most formal words :
^ Every one therefore that shall confess Me before men
I will also confess him before My Father who is in
heaven ; but he that shall deny Me before men, I will
♦ also deny him before My Father who is in heaven. He
that loveth father or mother more than Me is not
worthy of Me;' ^for what doth it profit a man if he
4.
Conclitsio7i. ' i 245
gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own
soul ?' * Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God
and His justice, and all these things (worldly goods)
shall be added unto you.' * Blessed are ye when they
shall revile you, and persecute you, and speak all that
is evil against you untruly, for My sake ; be glad and
rejoice, for your reward is very great in heaven.'^* I
might place before their eyes the noble exann)les of
princes and learned men converted to the Catholic
religion in our century : the Duke of Saxe-Gotha,
allied to the Royal Family of England ; Prince Henry
Edward de Schonburg ; Count d'Ingenheim, brother of
the last deceased King of Prussia ; the Duke A. 1 . of
Mecklenburg-Schwerin, and his sister, the Duchess
Charlotte Frederica ; Prince F. A. C. of Hesse Dann-
stadt; the Duke and Duchess of Anhalt-Coethen ; the
Countess of Sohns-Bareuth ; the learned Count Frede-
rick Leopold de Stolberg ; Frederick Schlegel, son of a
Lutheran pastor ; the celebrated Goerres ; the Aulic
Counsellor, Adam Muller; Count Charles Louis de
Haller; Esslinger; the illustrious Frederick Hurter ;
Newman, Ward, Oakeley, Faber, Morris, Brown, Man-
ning, Brownson, Forbes, Ives, Baker, and a number of
others"'' who have had the courage to profess the truth
" Matthew x. 32-7, xiii. 26, vi. 33, v. 11, 12.
'" I do not know whether the Rev. Dr. Cook meant to speak of
these illustrious converts, when he recalls to mind tHe struggle to he
maintained against ' the continual encroachments of Rationalism and
Romanism led by renegade churchmen and advanced scientists' {^lovn-
ing Chronicle, Oct. 29th, 1873). If it was his intention to award the
title of renegades to these chosen intellects, the glories of Protest-
antism, what names should we not give to the chiefs of the Reforma-
tion, who apostatised from the religion of theii* fathers !
246 The Bible and the Rule of Faith.
openly and to put tliemselves above all human con-
siderations. And these are not vulgar, ignorant per-
sons, but men of integrity, piety, of incontestable
erudition ; men who only entered into the pale of the
Roman Church after having seriously studied Christian
antiquity and being intimately convinced of the truth
of the Catholic religion. These are certainly en-
couraging examples.
Monsignor Freppel has somewhere said most justly
that ' the great obstacles to the conquests of faith are,
that one ends by identifying oneself with error until one
comes to look on the triumph of truth as a personal
defeat.' And yet there cannot be a more humiliating
defeat than that of being conquered by error, nor a
more glorious victory than that which puts us in pos-
session of truth.
My task is ended. If in the course of this book
there has escaped me any expression capable of wound-
ing any one's feelings, I would sincerely regret it, and
I declare such to be against my intention. My aim has
been to refute error, to explain the true doctrine, and
not to indulge in any offensive recriminations. I bo-
seech the divine Master to vouchsafe, in His infinite
mercy, to enlighten those ivho are sitting in darkness'
and in the shadoiv of death, and to direct them to the
way of peace. IMay the Saviour Jesus heal those bom
blind in heresy, and manifest Himself in His . glory
to those weak souls who are involved in the clouds
of doubt ! Mav all these unfortunate victims of error
seek their salvation in Him, who is the Way, the
Truth, and the Life, and in that only Church which
ft
Conclusion, 247
He has instituted here below, the CathoUc Apostolic
Roman Church! ' '
* Ipse est Petrus cui dixit : Tu es Petrus, et super
hanc petram adificabo Ecclesiam meam. Ubi ergo
Petrus, ibi Ecclesia; ubi Ecclesia, ibi nulla mors, sed
vita seterna/ — &t% Amhrose^ Enarr. in Ps. xi.
' Venite, fratres, si vultis ut inseremini in vite,
Dolor est cum vos videmus proBcisos ita jacere
Numerate sacerdotes vel ab ipsa Petri sede,
* Et in ordine illo Patrum quis cui successit videte.'
* Ipsa est Petra, quam non vincunt superba) inferorum
portae.' — St. Augustine^ Ps. contra j^o.'t'teni Donati.
* Alias oves habeo qua3 non sunt ex hoc ovili; et
illas oportet me adducere, et vocem meam audient, et
fiet unum ovile et unus pastor.' — Joan. x. 10.
»
THE END.
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