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

As the Christian economy bears witness, revelation was propagated not so much by Scripture as rather by oral Tradition: 1° it was always propagated, and 2° it will always be propagated.

1. The Christian religion was always propagated by Tradition. For Christ Himself propagated His gospel not in writing, but delivered it to men by word. And in order to establish in perpetuity the religion preached by Himself, He did not confine it in a book from which individuals might draw their faith; rather, He instructed disciples by word of mouth, and from the disciples He chose teachers armed with magisterial authority. But to these teachers of the faith He did not say: "Sitting, write", but: "Going, preach to every creature". Likewise He did not enjoin upon men: "Whoever shall not have read and understood will be condemned", but: "Whoever hears you, hears me", and: "Whoever [while you preach] shall not have believed will be condemned".¹

The apostles discharged the office imposed upon them by preaching the gospel, by teaching Jews and Gentiles, by propagating the Church everywhere throughout the world. Of writing they took little or no care. Some wrote not even a single word; others wrote little. Those, however, who did write, wrote only as occasion offered, and after the gospel had at length been spread far and wide by means of oral Tradition. Finally, for the most part they did not send their faithful back to written books, but to oral preaching and Tradition, and for this reason they constituted bishops in the individual churches, endowed with authentic magisterium.²

Therefore, before the books of the New Testament existed — much more, before they were gathered into the canon and, translated into various languages, could be read in all the churches — the faith already flourished splendidly through the oral Tradition of the apostles and their successors. Hence in that time, that most glorious era of faith and Christian life, no other source of faith can be found than oral Tradition. And since, as the Protestants themselves admit, the apostles did not depart from Christ's ordinances, it must be said altogether that Christ Himself established Tradition as the first and ordinary source by which the Christian religion would be contained, from which it would be drawn, and through which it would be propagated. Indeed:

2. The Christian religion will always be propagated by Tradition, just as it was propagated from the beginning. The manner of propagating and preserving religion established by Christ and observed by the apostles belongs without doubt to the essence of the Christian economy, and consequently to its immutable character. Nothing indeed prevents the divine doctrine from being contained also in books, destined both for the living magisterium itself and for the faithful who depend on it. Nevertheless, the living magisterium, just as it is the supreme judge or proximate rule of faith,³ so it must be regarded as the fundamental remote rule, or the source perpetually instituted by Christ, to which Sacred Scripture has been added by special divine providence as a partial source. Therefore the manner of preserving revelation which prevails in the Catholic Church and has always prevailed is truly Christian, i.e. innate to the very nature of the Christian religion; whereas the manner of preserving doctrine devised by the Protestants in the sole instrument of Scripture is anti-Christian, by which the very immutable character impressed by Christ upon His religion is subverted.

By the same principle the universal character of the Christian religion is moreover subverted. The Christian religion must be preached to "all nations" and to "every creature", because God "wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth".⁴ But it is evident that not all men of all times can arrive at the knowledge of the truth by the reading of Scripture. Some lack copies of Scripture; think of so many centuries which did not yet know printing, and of so many regions which as yet know neither manuscript nor printed books! Others, although the sacred books are not wanting to them, either do not know letters, or are destitute of the leisure necessary for reading, or are kept away by youth or dullness of mind from rightly understanding the things read. Nay more, as we have shown elsewhere,⁵ the genuine understanding and interpretation of Scripture is so difficult and requires so many historical, philological, and theological attainments that even the most learned are unequal to it, unless they are enlightened by the light of Tradition and directed by the magisterium of the Church. Therefore the Christian religion cannot be transmitted to all by writings alone. This even the Protestants admit in practice. For in order to instruct the faithful in religion, they explain the Bible through "ministers of the word", substituting for divine Tradition and the authentic magisterium the arbitrary exposition of teachers devoid of all mission. By this manner of acting they clearly show that Scripture alone does not suffice, and that the Protestant principle, which rejects oral Tradition, is foreign to the Christian economy.