De immutabilitate traditionis contra modernam haeresim evolutionismi

That the authentic organ of tradition was instituted by Jesus Christ in His Church, namely the apostolic hierarchy with which He promised that He would be present unto the end of the ages. And that tradition itself is the preaching continued from age to age through the successors of the apostles under the charism of the assistance of the Holy Spirit, of the revelation first received orally from the same Jesus Christ and His apostles.

Here first recall the gospel history, and whatever is contained in it concerning the origins of Christian doctrine: Which when it had begun, says Heb. II-3, to be declared by the Lord, was confirmed unto us by those who heard. And note that word, declared, and again, by those who heard. In which indeed is briefly recapitulated that which in the above-mentioned history is altogether evident and open: namely, that the saving doctrine of Christ was brought forth and published by the same Lord Jesus Christ, not by published writings, but by the word of preaching, by personal teaching, by the oracle of the living voice. For He Himself, the Son of God made man, having conversed with men on earth, took up the part of master and teacher. He, shown to all the people by the prophecies fulfilled in Himself, approved by works and miracles as by divine seals, finally declared by the heavenly Father, in the solemn inauguration of His teaching, to be heard before all others, « having taken the garb of a teacher, taught us the manner of living well, that afterwards, as God, He might bestow eternal life »¹. And now He had accomplished the work which the Father had given Him, now for three years in Galilee and Judea He had announced the gospel of the kingdom in every direction, now He had formed His disciples, now by His blood He had established the new and eternal testament, and risen from the dead He was preparing His ascension into heaven. Looking forward, however, to the perpetuity and the propagation of the revelation which He had brought to the world, He addressed those whom He was leaving on earth as vicars of His work with these last words: All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Going therefore, teach ye all nations, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and behold I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world. These last words, I say, are the words of Christ, who by an efficacious ordinance disposes the means whereby His revealed doctrine should reach the whole world and all future generations; words spoken after the resurrection in the solemn appearance on the mountain of Galilee, to which, besides the chief apostles, He had summoned all the other disciples², so that the whole Church which then existed might be witness of the things which He was commanding at the last.

There, moreover, is first the institution of the authentic organ of tradition. Of tradition, I say, of a doctrine not taken from anywhere at all, but received from Christ; a doctrine not to be acquired but committed, not to be gained but entrusted; in which not authors are sought but guardians, not inventors, but faithful stewards. Teaching, He says, to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. But Christ commanded to be believed the whole doctrine of the gospel which He Himself had personally preached while He conversed among us, and which through His Holy Spirit, as to its final complement, He had promised that He would reveal to His disciples, saying: « I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when that Spirit of truth shall come, whom I will send you from the Father, He shall teach you all truth »³.

There is secondly the institution of an organ of tradition which was to endure even unto the end of the world. For everywhere in the gospel, and especially in Matthew, συντέλεια αἰῶνος signifies the consummation of this present world, and the final advent of Christ, and the time of the universal judgment. Nor assuredly is the sense changed by the fact that the discourse is directed to those who were present, because it is directed to those present as about to remain always in their successors. Hence also here, all nations are bidden to be taught without any restriction either of places or even of times; and afterwards we see the apostles, executing the command of Christ, appointing in their place others who should be guardians of the doctrine received and teachers, through the Holy Spirit communicated to them and remaining in them⁴; to whom again it is prescribed that what they themselves have received they should commit to faithful men, fit also to teach others⁵; and that, until the advent of D. N. I. C., whom in His own times He shall show, the blessed and only mighty one, the King of kings and Lord of lords⁶.

There is thirdly the institution of an organ of tradition which is endowed with the charism of indefectibility. And behold, He says, I am with you. For what it is for God to be with someone, the most frequent and best-known testimonies of Scripture show. For it is an expression everywhere in use to signify the certain and invincible protection of God; an expression in which every kind of efficacious help is implied, and by which that assistance is asserted which, in the matter for which it was promised, admits no fall, and guards against every defection from the intended end. But to the apostles, and to their successors forever, is promised the assistance of Christ, not indeed for any effect whatsoever which human thought could perchance fashion for itself, when the kingdom of God is at issue; not precisely for the rooting out of all vices, not for the preventing of all scandals. Nay, these things are elsewhere expressly foretold as to come. It is expressly foretold that in the Lord's field there will be tares together with the wheat, and that both will grow until the harvest. Known is the net cast into the sea which gathers of every kind of fish. Known is the little boat of which that wonderful thing is observed, that though it is loaded and pressed with so great a multitude, yet it is not submerged. Known are the other parables of the gospel aiming at the same sense. Hence He does not say: I am with you founding a kingdom of righteousness already consummate, and of sanctity already absolute. But He says: I am with you teaching those things which are contained in the revelation of my gospel. Therefore the promised assistance, and the indefectibility answering to it, must without doubt be acknowledged in order to the undefiled tradition of the genuine doctrine of Christ.

There is fourthly the institution of an organ of tradition, to which continuously, and not only at intervals, Christ will lend the aforesaid assistance. For again, He does not say that He will be present on certain days and in certain circumstances, as for instance when categorical definitions of faith are to be drawn up, or when it will be necessary by an express decree to correct what was formerly falsely handed down, or to restore to purity the sense of revelation adulterated by the injury of the times. But, all days, He says. And what is all days? It is: in the ordinary and daily ministry of the magisterium, no otherwise than in its more solemn exercise. For by saying, all days, He removed every interruption whatsoever, however small, even of a single day, and left no room for deviation. What is all days? It is: in every age, at every time. The age of the primitive Church will pass; its origins will no longer be seen so near at hand; it will not be possible to measure the series of succession, as it were at a single glance of the eye, by counting the hands through which the treasure of heavenly doctrine has been transmitted, and still and always I am with you. Still and always will that same Spirit of truth be present who was present from the beginning⁷. Still and always, until the consummation of the saints comes, will be found those same pastors and teachers placed by Christ, so that we may not be little children wavering, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, in the cunning to the circumvention of error⁸. Still and always will that same apostolic hierarchy survive, which, by reason of the indefectible tradition of the gospel received from Christ, is the pillar and ground of the truth⁹.

There is fifthly and lastly the institution of an organ of tradition, not of any kind whatsoever, but by way of oral and always living preaching. — This indeed is shown in the first place by all that has just been said of the reason, the nature, and the perpetuity of the instituted ministry. For where, I ask, in the biblical system of the Protestants is there a place for that permanent, ordinary, perpetual organ, to which continuously, all days, unto the end of the ages, Christ should lend His assistance? None assuredly, because once the treasure of heavenly doctrine had been deposited by those who had heard, in the fixed instrument of Scripture, nothing further remained to be done, and the whole work of teaching all things whatsoever I have commanded you necessarily came to an end with the age of the apostles or of the apostolic men. — To this also the words teach, preach sound, understood in their obvious and natural sense, since Scripture is nothing but an artificial medium, accommodated to few, and introduced accessorily in aid or supplement of oral discipline. Hence also we learn from the most certain testimony of history that the apostles (whom no one will imagine either never to have attained the mind of Christ, or not to have obeyed His command) wrote nothing ex professo as executing their own proper and special office, but only occasionally, and as it were moved by some accidental reason. « Matthew, writes Eusebius l. 3 hist. c. 24, wrote on this occasion, because when he had preached to the Hebrews and was preparing to go to the Gentiles, he judged it useful, if to those whom he was leaving in body he should leave some memorial of his preaching. Mark, the same Eusebius relates l. 2, c. 15, wrote the gospel neither of his own accord, nor commanded by Peter whose disciple he was, but compelled by the entreaties of the Romans. Luke, the same Eusebius hands down l. 3, c. 24, wrote for this reason only, because he had seen many others rashly presume to commit to writing the things which they did not perfectly know, that he might namely draw us away from the uncertain narrations of others. John, Eusebius writes in the same place, preached the gospel without any writing even to his extreme old age, and Jerome adds in his book de Script. Eccl., that at length he was compelled by the bishops of Asia to write the gospel on account of the heresy of the Ebionites then arising. And so, had the heresy of Ebion not existed, we should perhaps not have the gospel of John, just as we should not have the other three, had the aforesaid occasions not been offered. For Eusebius rightly writes that only two of the twelve apostles wrote the gospel, and that they were provoked to this by a kind of necessity. From which it is manifestly gathered that the apostles thought, with a primary intention, not of writing but of preaching »¹⁰. Add also that if the apostles had wished ex professo to consign their doctrine to letters, they would certainly have composed a catechism or a similar book coalescing into a body of doctrine, whereas they wrote either a history, as the evangelists, or epistles on some occasion, as Peter, Paul, James, Jude, John, as Bellarmine added, l. c. It is therefore a sign, and indeed an unmistakable one, that they had been placed by Christ to hand down and transmit the revealed truth of the gospel, first and principally through living and personal preaching. But if the apostles, then also all their successors forever, who, as far as pertains to the present, evidently constitute one moral person with them. — It is confirmed lastly, and most manifestly, from the supreme commendations which the same apostles left to the Church in place of a testament. For what is it that Paul, with his passion now at hand, writes to Timothy, in whose person the whole body of superiors is understood? O Timothy, guard the deposit. And again: Hold the form of sound words which thou hast heard from me...... Guard the good deposit through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. And again: Thou therefore, my son..... the things which thou hast heard from me through many witnesses, these commit to faithful men who will be fit also to teach others. And yet: « In these places Scripture cannot be understood, but the treasure of doctrine, the understanding of the divine dogmas, that is, both the sense of the Scriptures and of other dogmas. Which whole doctrine he wished to be propagated through Tradition, as Chrysostom and Theophylact explain in this place. To which Irenaeus also alludes, l. 4, c. 43, when he says: Wherefore, it is fitting to obey the presbyters who are in the Church, those who have succession from the apostles, .... who with the succession of the episcopate have received the sure charism of truth according to the pleasure of the Father. And it is easily gathered from the very words. For if he were speaking of written words, he would not so anxiously commend the deposit. For Scriptures are easily preserved in chests, and by copyists; but the apostle wishes it to be kept through the Holy Spirit in the breast of Timothy. And then he would not add: These things commit to faithful men who will be fit also to teach others; but he would say, commit them to copyists, that they may transcribe many copies. Nor would he say: Which thou hast heard from me through many witnesses, but, which I have written to thee. And so, not the words only, but also the sense, and much more this than those, the apostle commends to Timothy, and bids him hand it on by the hands of his successors »¹¹.

We have therefore in the Christian religion, by divine institution, an organ of tradition, and that of an oral and always living tradition; an organ, I say, authentic, perpetually to endure, endowed with the charism of continuous assistance. I add also, undivided in itself, and in its individuality always visible; and this especially on account of the one designated centre and head, Peter, who is necessarily present in the apostolic hierarchy as first, (Matth. X-2); necessarily present with the mysterious name imposed on him by Christ, whereby the unshaken solidity of his ministry was signified, (Ioan. 1-42); necessarily present as the confirmer of the brethren, (Luc. XXII-32); as the rock upon which the Church is built, (Matth. XVI-18), understanding all these things here according to what is supposed as demonstrated and proved in the proper treatise. But now, if such is the organ of tradition as has been described thus far from the solemn document itself of the institution of the Church, it appears at once, and is understood without difficulty, that tradition itself, of which the present disputation runs, is nothing other than the preaching continued from age to age through the successors of the apostles under the charism of indefectibility, of that revelation which was first received from the mouth of Jesus Christ, or of His apostles, the Holy Spirit dictating.

This is the tradition which all Christian antiquity acknowledges. This is the tradition which is called by Ignatius, ad Ephes. n. 1, the sentence of Jesus Christ, in which the bishops are established throughout the bounds of the earth; by Polycarp, ad Philipp. n. 7, the doctrine delivered to us from the beginning; by Irenaeus, l. 3, c. 2, the tradition which is from the apostles, which is kept in the churches through the successions of the presbyters; by Tertullian, Praescript. c. 37, the rule which the Church delivered from the apostles, the apostles from Christ, Christ from God; by Origen, de Princip. Praef. n. 2, the ecclesiastical preaching delivered from the apostles through the order of succession, and remaining in the Church even to this day. This is the tradition to which, against the first heretics or Gnostics, the Fathers of the first and second centuries appeal. And the Gnostics indeed, when they were argued against from the Scriptures, answered: « Because the truth cannot be found from these by those who do not know the tradition. For they did not deliver it by letters, but by the living voice »¹². Nor on this principle did the Fathers have any contradicting them, but rather consenting, and in all things unanimous. But when they were again recalled to tradition itself, then they threw out a hidden tradition, derived to themselves alone, either from Valentinus, or from Marcion, or from Cerinthus, or from Basilides¹³. To whom was opposed the authentic tradition, which is public in the Church, and which has as its organ the continuous succession of bishops from the apostles, and especially from the prince of the apostles in the Roman See. An outstanding passage in this matter is that of Irenaeus, which it will be pleasing to transcribe here in full, so that what has thus far been laid down as a foundation may have both a recapitulation and an invincible confirmation.

« The tradition of the apostles manifested throughout the whole world is present to be seen in every Church by all who wish to see the truth; and we are able to number those who were appointed bishops in the churches by the apostles, and their successors even to us, who taught nothing of this kind, nor knew anything such as these men rave about... But since it would be very long in a volume such as this to enumerate the successions of all the churches, pointing to the greatest, and most ancient, and universally known church, founded and constituted at Rome by the two most glorious apostles Peter and Paul, and showing the tradition which it has from the apostles, and the faith announced to men, coming down through the successions of bishops even to us — by this we confound all those who in any way, whether through self-complacency, or vain glory, or through blindness and evil opinion, gather together otherwise than they ought. For to this church, on account of its more powerful principality, it is necessary that every church should come together, that is, the faithful who are from everywhere; in which the tradition which is from the apostles has always been preserved by those who are from everywhere. The blessed apostles therefore, founding and instructing the church, delivered the episcopate of administering the church to Linus. Of this Linus Paul makes mention in the epistles which are to Timothy. To him succeeds Anacletus. After him, in the third place, Clement obtains the episcopate from the apostles, who also saw the very apostles and conferred with them, and with the preaching of the apostles still sounding and the tradition before his eyes, not alone; for many were still surviving who had been taught by the apostles... By this ordination and succession, the tradition which is from the apostles in the Church, and the proclamation of the truth, has come down even to us. And this is a most full demonstration, that one and the same life-giving faith is that which has been preserved in the Church from the apostles even now, and delivered in truth... Since therefore there are demonstrations so great, it is not fitting to seek the truth any longer among others, which it is easy to take from the Church, since the apostles, as into a rich depository, most fully conferred into it all things which are of the truth... But what if the apostles had not even left us the Scriptures? Would it not have been fitting to follow the order of the tradition which they delivered to those to whom they committed the churches? To which ordination many nations of barbarians assent, of those who believe in Christ, having salvation written in their hearts through the Spirit without paper and ink, and diligently guarding the ancient tradition, believing in one God, the creator of heaven and earth, and of all things that are in them, through Jesus Christ the Son of God ».¹⁴

And tradition indeed in the Church stands thus according to the institution of Christ. Whence it is now easy, before we proceed to further matters, to bring out the following conclusion, which in the business proposed to us is most of all to be attended to.