Apologeticae sive Theologiae Fundamentalis, Tomus II (Pars Altera): Demonstratio Catholica

That individual bishops are not infallible is manifest. For since each one can govern only his own particular church, he cannot establish dogmas of faith by which the whole Church would be peremptorily bound. Indeed, neither the apostles¹ nor Christian antiquity ever attributed personal infallibility to bishops; nay rather, as history bears witness, from the first centuries not a few bishops were found who fell into heresy or schism and were excluded from the Church, such as Paulus samosatenus, Nestorius, and the Arian bishops. The bishops, however, taken together as the apostolic college, are by that very fact infallible, since on the one hand they comprise the whole magisterium of the Church, and on the other hand the magisterium of the Church, as we have said, cannot err in teaching the faith. Sacred Scripture and Christian history expressly testify to the infallibility of the universal episcopate.

1. Christ promises infallibility to the episcopate in Io 14, 15-18. 26 and Mt 28, 18-20.

a) Io 14, 15-18. 26: "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete, that he may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive ... he will abide with you and will be in you ... But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and will suggest to you all things, whatsoever I shall have said to you."

With these words, at the Last Supper, Christ promises to the apostolic college the assistance of the Holy Spirit: 1° perpetual assistance, 2° in teaching.

1°. Perpetual assistance of the Holy Spirit is promised to the apostolic college. That the assistance of the Holy Spirit is promised to the apostles without explanation is clear from the plain words: "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete, that he may abide with you, the Spirit of truth ... he will abide with you and will be in you ..." That perpetual assistance of the Holy Spirit is promised to them, i. e. one that is to endure even after the death of the apostles in their successors, the bishops, is declared in explicit words: "That he may abide with you forever", or more correctly, according to the Greek text: "That he may be with you forever: ἵνα ᾖ μεθ' ὑμῶν εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα." The expression εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα is rendered excellently by the Vulgate as "in aeternum". For according to the constant usage of the Scripture of the New Testament, ὁ αἰών simply signifies the whole time during which the earthly world endures. Ὁ αἰών begins at the beginning of the world¹ and ends at the last time of the world.² Therefore the Holy Spirit will be with the apostolic college as long as the world lasts. This interpretation is confirmed by the fact that the Holy Spirit is promised with the use of the "present of eternity": "That he may be with you" simply, without any limit of time. He will be with the apostles not only as long as they themselves survive individually, but as long as they live in their successors, the bishops. And indeed:

2°. The assistance of the Holy Spirit in teaching is promised to the apostolic college. For Christ here speaks only of teaching. To the apostles, saddened by the imminent death of their Master and anxious about his doctrine, the Father will send "another Paraclete", i. e. an advocate, who will speak for them and in them and will help them as they speak and teach. This advocate, indeed, is the "Spirit of truth: τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς ἀληθείας", the absolute Spirit of absolute truth. The clear force of the promise, therefore, is this: the Holy Spirit, as essential truth and as Paraclete, i. e. advocate, will defend and preserve infallible truth for the disciples as they teach. Since the disciples did not yet sufficiently understand this meaning of the promise, Christ explains it still more explicitly: "But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit ... he will teach you all things, and will suggest to you all things, whatsoever I shall have said to you", i. e. the whole revelation. And afterwards he repeats the same: "I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now; but when that Spirit of truth comes, he will teach you all truth ... he will receive of mine and will announce it to you."³

Therefore the apostles and their successors enjoy the perpetual assistance of the Holy Spirit in teaching. They will always be led and directed by the Holy Spirit in the exercise of the apostolic magisterium. This is surely the same as saying: the apostles, inasmuch as they bore the person of the perennial episcopate, are rendered infallible by the Holy Spirit in the exercise of the ecclesiastical magisterium.

To weaken the force of this text, some unjustly object that the Holy Spirit was promised to all the faithful, without however all being rendered infallible. For the Holy Spirit was promised to the faithful for one end, and to the apostles and their successors for another. He was promised to all the faithful for sanctification; but to the apostles and their successors he was promised over and above for teaching, and consequently for communicating infallibility to them.

b) Mt 28, 18-20: "All power is given to me in heaven and on earth. Going therefore, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 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."

With these words, about to ascend into heaven, Christ promises to the apostolic college 1° his perpetual assistance, 2° in teaching.

1°. Christ promises to the apostolic college his perpetual assistance. For he says in explicit words: "And behold, I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world." In speaking thus he not only clearly affirms that he will remain with the apostles through their whole life, but also that he will be with their successors until the end of the world. For that expression: "even to the consummation of the world: ἕως τῆς συντελείας τοῦ αἰῶνος" is read only five times in the New Testament, and indeed only in Matthew. But in the four earlier places, according to all, it indicates the end of the world.⁴ Therefore also in this fifth place it must be taken with the same meaning, unless the context is opposed. But the context, far from obstructing this interpretation, altogether requires it. For if you consider the context, Christ speaks of preaching the Gospel to all nations and to every creature; but certainly the apostles could not accomplish so great a work by themselves; therefore the discourse is about a work to be accomplished through their successors, the bishops. From which it is already also evident, that:

2°. Christ promises his assistance in teaching to the apostolic college. For in the earlier words of the text the Lord openly instituted an authentic magisterium, by handing over to the apostles his divine power, by which they are commanded to teach and to make disciples of all nations and of every creature: "All power is given to me in heaven and on earth. Going therefore, teach all nations ... teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." These authentic teachers he even now confirms and supports by promising them his assistance in teaching: "And behold, I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world."

But it is certain that by this assistance of Christ the apostles and their successors are rendered infallible. For it is evident of itself that the episcopate, with which in teaching Christ will be until the end of the world, cannot be deceived or deceive in proposing the Christian truth. The same is evident from many parallel texts. As often as God is said in Sacred Scripture to be with someone, this signifies that he will grant a special help for most certainly attaining some proposed end.⁵ Since therefore Christ is with the apostles and their successors in teaching, he renders the whole episcopate infallible until the end of the world.

The adversaries indeed object: "If the infallibility promised to the apostles by the force of Christ's words passed to the successors of the apostles, the bishops, the individual bishops would have to be called infallible, just as the individual apostles were endowed with infallibility. But, as Catholics admit, the individual bishops are not infallible; therefore the infallibility of the apostles does not pass to their successors." We answer: The apostles enjoyed a twofold office, the office, scil. personal and extraordinary, of the apostleship, and the office, collegial and ordinary, of the episcopate. The former died with the death of the apostles; the latter passed to the successors of the apostles, as we have already proved in its place. Now the infallibility of the individual apostles, which only Tradition testifies to, was joined to the apostleship; but the collegial infallibility of the apostles, which Scripture also testifies to, was joined to the episcopate or pastoral office of the apostles. Whence the latter indeed passed to their successors, but the former did not pass.

2. Paul testifies that infallibility was conferred on the episcopate in Eph 4, 11. 13. 14 and 1 Tim 3, 15.

a) Eph 4, 11. 13. 14: "And he himself [Christ] gave some indeed apostles, some moreover prophets, others indeed evangelists, others moreover pastors and doctors ... until we all meet into the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, into a perfect man ..., that we may no longer be little children tossed to and fro, and carried about by every wind of doctrine in the wickedness of men, in craftiness for the circumvention of error."

In this text Paul first says that Christ, before his ascension into heaven, provided the Church with teachers of the faith by giving her "some indeed apostles", instructed privately by himself and sent to teach; "some moreover prophets, others indeed evangelists", i. e. teachers both charismatic and ordinary of the first age; "others moreover pastors and doctors", i. e. bishops of all times, whose office it would be both to feed and to teach, or rather to teach by feeding and to feed by teaching the faithful.

Then he assigns a twofold end, which Christ proposed to this magisterium of the Church, scil. a positive end, that all the faithful might readily obtain one perfect faith: "until we all meet into the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, into a perfect man"; and also a negative end, that the faithful might not have an inconstant and uncertain faith, exposed to the errors and deceits of heretical teachers: "that we may no longer be little children tossed to and fro, and carried about by every wind of doctrine in the wickedness of men, in craftiness for the circumvention of error".⁶

But the magisterium of the apostles and of the bishops, if it were fallible, could not attain this end. A fallible magisterium could neither propose a faith everywhere and always one and perfect, nor lead the faithful to embrace one and perfect faith. Indeed, it would teach the faithful an imperfect, inconstant and uncertain faith, much less would it preserve them from the wickedness and errors of heretics. So that this might not happen, the magisterium of the Church, instituted by Christ, was also fortified by Christ with the prerogative of infallibility.

b) 1 Tim 3, 15: "These things I write to you ... that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth."

Through almost the whole epistle Paul urges Timothy to discharge duly the episcopal duties, above all to avoid with great zeal the heresies and errors of the Judaizers and of other heretics, and so to be a worthy minister "in the house of God, ... which is the Church of the living God". That house of God or Church of the living God, which all the faithful inhabit, and over which a hierarchically constituted episcopate presides, is the "pillar and ground of truth: στύλος καὶ ἑδραίωμα τῆς ἀληθείας".

A pillar raises the building upward, lest it fall and crush its inhabitants. A foundation or ground stabilizes the building from below, lest it collapse and bury its inhabitants. But the Church is both pillar and foundation of truth, i. e. upholding and sustaining the house of revealed truth, affording unshaken firmness and stability not to one or another truth, but to the whole truth simply (τῆς ἀληθείας).

But the Church could not do this, if her episcopal magisterium were not infallible. For it would be absurd to call the Church the pillar, by which truth is raised up, and the foundation, by which truth is supported, if her magisterium could fail from the truth and, by teaching falsehoods, lead the faithful into error. This outstanding designation: "pillar and ground of truth" only the infallible Church deserves. Therefore in every respect the infallibility of the ecclesiastical magisterium is established from Sacred Scripture.

1. The Fathers proclaim the infallibility of the whole episcopate both directly and indirectly.

a) Directly and expressly, with almost innumerable testimonies, they teach that the order of bishops is the organ of infallible truth. Thus Ignatius the martyr admonishes the faithful to join themselves to the bishops, because the bishops taken as a whole are in the mind of Jesus Christ: "I have been beforehand in admonishing you, that you be united in the mind of God. For Jesus Christ, our inseparable life, is the mind of the Father, as also the bishops, appointed throughout the regions of the earth, are in the mind of Jesus Christ."¹ Irenaeus: "Those who are in the Church ought to obey the presbyters [i. e. bishops], those who have their succession from the apostles, as we have shown; who with the succession of the episcopate have received the sure charism of truth, according to the good pleasure of the Father ... Where therefore the gifts of the Lord have been placed, there one ought to learn the truth, with those in whom is the succession which is from the apostles, and what is sound and irreproachable in conduct, and unadulterated and incorruptible in speech is established. For these ... guard our faith."² Vincent of Lérins established the consensus of the episcopate, whether gathered in council or spread throughout the world, as the infallible norm of faith: "What therefore will the catholic Christian then do, if some small part of the Church has cut itself off from the communion of the universal faith? ... Then he will take every care to prefer the decrees of the universal Church, received universally from antiquity, to the rashness or ignorance of the few, if any such there be."³ Theodoret: "Mountains and seas separate them [the bishops] by the greatest interval indeed, but distance was no obstacle to their agreement; for all were inspired by the same spiritual grace."⁴

b) Indirectly, the Fathers teach the infallibility of the episcopate as often as they teach the infallibility of the Church without qualification. For no one is unaware that by the Church they understand the whole episcopate, to which alone the magisterium of faith is entrusted. And yet the Fathers, as it were with one voice, extol the infallibility of the Church. Thus Irenaeus: "Where the Church is, there also is the Spirit of God, and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church ... but the Spirit is truth."⁵ Lactantius: "The catholic Church alone is that which retains the true worship: this is the fountain of truth, this is the dwelling place of faith."⁶ Epiphanius: "There is a certain royal way, namely the Church of God, and the path of truth."⁷ Augustine: "Many tongues contradict, diverse heresies, diverse schisms resound; many tongues contradict the true doctrine; do you run to the tabernacle of God, hold the catholic Church, do not depart from the rule of truth, and you will be sheltered in the tabernacle from the contradiction of tongues."⁸ These and six hundred sayings of the Fathers abundantly testify to the infallibility of the universal Church, and consequently also of the whole episcopate.

2. The practice of the whole Church, both teaching and learning, confirms the infallibility of the episcopal college.

a) Of the teaching Church. For as often as it was a question of defining a dogma or of settling a controversy of faith, the decision was always made either by the authority of the apostolic see (of which we shall speak presently) or by the authority of the whole episcopate, which manifested its judgment now through conciliar decrees, now through formatae letters, now through the daily exercise of the magisterium. And a unanimous judgment of this kind on the part of the bishops was prescribed to all Christians as a certain and irrefragable norm of faith. All were bound to submit themselves to it. As many as obstinately refused to obey were struck with anathema, cut off from communion, pronounced heretics, and declared excluded from salvation. Thus the teaching Church could not have acted in this way, unless trusting in the surest consciousness of the infallible authority entrusted to her.

b) Of the learning Church. From the very cradle of the Christian Church this was the common and immovable principle of the faithful: "That is to be believed and done which the Church believes and proposes as divine faith", i. e. the ecclesiastical magisterium under the Roman pontiff. Without previous examination and with all doubt excluded, the faithful believed the doctrine proposed by the Church and rejected the error rejected by the Church. The peremptory criterion, against which no exception could avail, for demonstrating the revealed truth and for convicting the opposing error was always this: "Thus teaches the catholic Church." Therefore St. Athanasius: "It suffices to declare to the adversaries: 'this is not the doctrine of the catholic Church'."⁹ And St. Jerome: "I could dry up all the little streams of [false] propositions with the one sun of the Church."¹⁰ On the other hand, those who defended opinions false in whatever way, which had not yet been proscribed by the Church, were excused from formal heresy, as is evident from very many examples of ecclesiastical history. It was therefore the firm conviction of all the faithful that the teaching Church, and it alone, infallibly defines dogmas.

Nay, by so constant a practice was the infallibility of the universal magisterium acknowledged that there was no need to define it expressly. Only at last did the Vatican Council enunciate it inclusively, by establishing that the Roman pontiff "is endowed with that infallibility with which the divine Redeemer willed his Church [i. e. the whole episcopate of the Church] ... to be furnished".¹¹