Tractatus de divina traditione et Scriptura

1. A careful consideration of the doctrine just expounded is of great moment on account of the corollaries which follow from it. For from it is understood how easy and obvious it is, even for the unlearned, to know in the Catholic Church the divinity of the proposed revelation, without the certain though inevident cognition of which, as of its formal object, faith can have no place. I say that this cognition is obvious in the Catholic Church even to the unlearned, because the Church — both as a complex of things and facts (as a motive of credibility) evidently showing the credibility of the doctrine and the duty of believing, and insofar as it composes the divine utterance itself, rendering the divinity of the utterance certainly knowable — is easily known even by the unlearned in a perhaps confused but certainly sufficient manner, so that it is evident to them that they are bound to assent to the existence of a divine utterance, and evident that what is proposed in such an utterance is credible. For all can easily know e. g. that their priests cohere in faith and doctrine with the Bishops by whom they were sent to teach and feed the faithful, and that the Bishops are united with the Roman Pontiff and with the Church throughout the whole world. Whence it easily becomes known to them that the proposed doctrine stands in the faith of the whole Church. Nor is even a confused notice of some properties of the Church and of the miracles by which revelation was confirmed any less obvious to them. But this cognition of things and facts is in itself quite sufficient to beget the evidence of credibility and of the duty of believing most firmly on account of the authority of God revealing; nor, as to the sum of the matter, is cognition by philosophical and theological science any different. In the learned an ampler and more distinct science of the motives of credibility is chiefly required for the defense of the faith and for detecting fallacies¹.

2. For the divine goodness and wisdom has rendered its word thus knowable, and exhibits the revealed truths as thus credible by motives of credibility in the Catholic Church, so that in this Church and in this Church alone all, even the unlearned, have in a manner accommodated to them the foundations of a certitude by which every prudent doubt is excluded, not only relatively for the present culture of their mind, but absolutely for every stage of science; and consequently, even for them, from the motives which they actually know, it is and remains unchangeably certain that opposing reasons, whatever they may be, can be nothing but apparent.

Since indeed God destined His revelation, completed through Christ and through the Holy Spirit sent upon the Apostles, for all nations and all times, He therefore sent His legates for all nations unto the ends of the earth and for all times unto the consummation of the age (Matth. XXVIII. 19; Act. I. 18.), distinguished in perpetual succession and mutual agreement by the marks of a divine mission and authority. This then is the institution of the Church, easily knowable in its apostolicity, catholicity, unity and sanctity, that through it Christ the Head might perpetually preserve, preach and unfold the whole revealed doctrine.

In this Church therefore, and through this Church alone, God willed to render the proposition of the whole revealed doctrine accommodated to all nations and all times; for the Church was so instituted by Christ and distinguished by such marks that it most truly is and must be called a certain great and perpetual motive of credibility, or rather the compendium of all the motives by which the divine revelation is exhibited as knowable, and the revealed doctrine as credible and to be believed. For all the motives of credibility with which Christ Himself, and with which the Apostles in the power of the Holy Spirit, illustrated their preaching belong to the Catholic Church in its manifest connection with Christ and the Apostles, and to no other communion, just as to it alone belongs the continuation of those motives in the wonderful propagation and preservation of the Christian religion, in its effects exceeding all natural causes, in the manner and multitude of martyrdoms, in the manifold manifestation of charisms (cf. St. Augustine, de utilit. credendi c. 17.).

And although the ruder Catholic faithful neither know all these things distinctly nor are able to explain them, yet they know in a manner accommodated to them the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church, and in it there ever stands before their eyes an unchangeable, fully sufficient and certain motive of credibility, a complex of the motive and the motives, so that they rest upon most firm foundations, ready always, each according to his condition, to give satisfaction through the Church to everyone asking a reason for the hope that is in them.

3. Since therefore a mode of the divine utterance accommodated to all men, and as regards all revealed truths according to the present economy and institution of Christ, is found in the Catholic Church alone, and since all the divine facts which constitute both the motives of credibility and the element composing the divine utterance itself intimately pertain to the Catholic Church, through which alone the integral divine revelation has been and will be preserved through all ages as knowable and credible to all nations; it follows that even those who are ignorant of the Catholic Church owe to this very Church, at least indirectly, whatever knowable and credible proposition and exhibition of revelation reaches them. In particular for those who, being in heretical communion outside the Church, are invincibly and therefore inculpably ignorant of it, the divinity of revelation is as it were illuminated and rendered knowable by rays proceeding from the Catholic Church. Especially for the unlearned ordinarily the present utterance as divine is knowable in no other way than through the Church, insofar as it exhibits itself by things and facts in connection with Christ and the Apostles as the guardian of the deposit; so that even to those who, inculpably dwelling outside the body of the Church, believe with divine faith, the word of God must be said to reach through the Catholic Church. For although such material heretics are instructed by the ministers of their sect, yet they know the divinity of the utterance in the truly revealed dogmas proposed to them, insofar as the present utterance stands together with the perpetual succession and with the series of divine facts pertaining to the Catholic Church, which they, by hypothesis, inculpably fail to know is Roman.

4. But in this whole matter of the proposition of faith, both for those who are in the body of the Church and for others who do not yet belong to it, the first and chief regard must be had to supernatural internal grace, whether as the infusion of a permanent virtue (Council of Trent, sess. VI. chap. 7.), or as the aid of “illumination and inspiration” for salutary acts of faith and for its very beginning. Faith therefore is not a natural conviction proportioned only to “what weight of reasons impelling to assent may merit” (Prop. XIX among those condemned by Innocent XI, 2 March 1679.); but the assent of faith and its firmness is supernatural, from grace elevating and strengthening both the will, from whose command or inclination it is elicited, and the intellect, which on account of the First Truth revealing adheres to the revealed truth with an assent answering to the dignity of the divine authority (above, chap. IV. §. IV. coroll. 2.).

a) From this supernatural grace is explained how a most firm divine faith can have place, even if the external proposition be not of such a kind as of itself to render the credibility of the proposed truth absolutely evident. If at times a revealed truth is by accident so proposed to the unlearned that it could not beget the evidence of credibility before any intellect whatever, it is nevertheless necessary that at least according to their capacity there become evident to them the exclusion of prudent fear and the duty of believing. This being posited, the will, aided by grace, can and must incline the intellect to assent above all things on account of the authority of God speaking, and the assent itself of the intellect strengthened by grace will be supernatural. In this hypothesis, therefore, God by internal illustration supplies what is lacking to the external proposition. For as in general, even where the external proposition of the divine utterance is fullest, a supernatural internal illustration is still required, so it is easy for God to enlighten the intellect to attain with full certitude the existence of revelation, even where by accident the mode of external proposition does not render the truth evidently credible before any intellect whatever. So teach Suarez, disp. IV. sect. 5. n. 9., and others, appealing also to the doctrine of St. Thomas, 2. 2. q. 2. a. 9. ad 3. “He who believes,” says the Angelic Doctor, “is induced by the authority of divine doctrine confirmed by miracles and, what is more, by the interior instinct of God moving him; hence he does not believe lightly.” See more in St. Th., Quodlibet 2. a. 6.

And although under such external motives, of themselves insufficient for the absolute evidence of credibility, what is false can sometimes be proposed to the unlearned under the name of revelation; indeed under the same motives there can at once be proposed for belief one object that is true and in reality revealed, and another that is false and not revealed (if e. g. there were proposed to them as the doctrine of the Church both that there are three divine persons and that all three became incarnate); yet the inducing motives do not stand in the same relation to each assent, because the internal supernatural persuasion supplies the defect in the external proposition as regards the true revelation, whereas it cannot be referred to a false revelation, as is evident of itself. The assent itself to each proposition will not be of the same firmness, for towards the revealed truth the firmness will be that of a supernatural assent, towards error merely natural². For on the one hand the external proposition is in itself most diverse, one true and the other false, which diversity from the magisterium of the Church as the proximate rule of faith can, upon inquiry made, ordinarily be easily known even by the unlearned; and on the other hand also by reason of the aid of grace in men who at once believe a revealed truth and a false proposition which by invincible error they suppose revealed, the disposition as regards each must not be judged equal. In the supernatural adherence of faith to revealed truth they are aided by grace, nor can they ever have just cause to call it into doubt³; but as regards adherence to the false proposition they are so aided by grace that, opportunity given, they are drawn back from that persuasion by the external doctrine of the Church and by internal aid, and they themselves best understand that in this retractation they act not against but according to their duty⁴.

b) From the same supernatural grace of faith it is understood the more clearly how far from equal, indeed wholly opposite, is the condition of those believing with divine faith and of the followers of a false religion. For the latter are induced by grace to an examination of the apparent reasons for their error and of the reasons for the truth, and in this examination, the more sincerely they deliberate before God, with divine illustration implored and from desire of salvation, the more will God, who wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. II. 4.), lead them by His grace away from error and bring them to the knowledge of the truth. On the other hand, from a true faith once received and believed under the light of grace, unhappy men lapse into deliberate doubt or wholly into denial by neglecting grace and resisting it, since “God does not forsake, unless He be forsaken, that we may live piously and justly always” (St. Aug., de natur. et grat. contra Pelag. c. 26.; Council of Trent, sess. VI. chap. 11. 13.; Vatican Council, de Fide chap. 3.). The casting away of a good conscience always precedes and accompanies shipwreck concerning the faith. “War in them a good warfare, having faith and a good conscience, which some rejecting have made shipwreck concerning the faith” (1 Tim. I. 19. cf. Heb. VI. 4. sq.; 2 Pet. II. 21.).

c) From both heads — both from the mode of the proposition of faith in and through the Catholic Church, proportioned to all, even the unlearned, for begetting the evidence of credibility, which by further examination and ampler doctrine can only be more distinctly explained and confirmed; and most of all and properly from the supernatural light, by which God forsakes no one unless He be forsaken, and from the supernatural firmness of faith — is understood how false is the doctrine of Hermes, who bids Catholics, at least the learned and theologians, to submit the faith received from Mother Church and already believed to such an examination that they call this very faith seriously into doubt and hold it uncertain, until a solicitous inquiry persuades them what is to be followed and what religion embraced. From this figment, in fact and in principles, the doctrine of certain others differs not much. As, they say, by an examination instituted, there can dawn upon a man the duty of passing from the false religion in which he was reared to the Catholic Church, so in the same way (as some phrase it, “by his own right”) a Catholic man, by an examination instituted, can through invincible error and without fault fall away from the Catholic faith hitherto believed. As though divine truth and error, supernatural faith in the Catholic Church and adherence in error, were of an equal or like condition!

This error was explicitly condemned as heretical by the most holy Vatican Council, in the cited place, ch. 3, and can. 6. Moreover, for the confirmation of the doctrine expounded in this paragraph, let the proscription of propositions 19, 20 and 21 among those condemned by Innocent XI be weighed. “The will cannot effect that the assent of faith be in itself firmer than the weight of the reasons impelling to assent merits.” “Hence one can prudently repudiate the assent which he had as supernatural.” “A supernatural assent of faith, useful for salvation, stands with only probable knowledge of revelation, indeed with fearfulness by which one fears lest God has not spoken.” See Dominicus Viva, “Theses damnatae,” Vol. I, p. 203 sqq.

d) Finally, from what has been said it follows that the necessity of internal grace in relation to the external proposition of faith must be viewed in a twofold manner. A real divine utterance, as composed of things and facts, is objectively and in itself such that an utterance so made and in this manner can necessarily be known as divine. “Shall we not,” says Richard of St. Victor, de Trin. b. I. c. 2., “be able to say to God with all confidence: Lord, if it is an error, by Thee Thyself have we been deceived; for these things have been confirmed in us by so many and such signs and portents as can be wrought by none but Thee?” And yet, on the one hand, when the reasons are weighed, there is evident only the duty of assenting both to the divinity of the utterance and to the truth of the revealed matter, that is, credibility is evident; the assent to the existence of the divine revelation and to the truth of the revealed matter nevertheless remains free, and hence to render it there is required the command of a pious will; while on the other hand the supernatural order of revelation and the very character of supra-rational truths and of supra-sensible things, and finally the opposition against the inclinations of sensuous nature, render difficult and morally impossible for the powers of nature a firm and unchangeable assent to all sufficiently proposed truths, even if the question were only of a merely natural assent of faith; whereas that the assent of faith as it ought to be — proportioned, that is, to the divine revelation and to the supernatural end, and hence supernatural — is absolutely impossible for natural powers is established. Wherefore, considering even the difficulties alone, prescinding from the supernatural order of faith, the external grace of revelation and of the proposition of faith, with all motives of credibility however evident, does not suffice for the due subjection of intellect and will under the authority of God speaking; but a special internal aid of God is required for this disposition of soul, namely for readiness to embrace most firmly whatever sufficiently proposed truths. But the habit of faith proportioned to the end of the present elevation is ontologically supernatural and infused of itself, i. e. one which cannot be acquired by acts but can be effected in the soul by God alone through supernatural operation. Moreover, for a supernatural act of faith, that one may believe as one ought, internal supernatural grace is absolutely necessary both of illustration for the intellect and of excitation and strengthening for the will. It is plain, therefore, that the faith which is the foundation and root of the whole spiritual life and of eternal salvation is a special gift of God, not only by reason of the external vocation but most of all by reason of the internal vocation and unction (1 John II. 20.).

Insofar as God in conferring His gifts with effect requires our cooperation also, there is without doubt required a diligent consideration of the motives under the light of grace, both for embracing and for preserving the faith (cf. Vatican Council, l. c.; Encyclical of the Holy Father Pius IX, 9 Nov. 1846.); but he would be most perniciously deceived who supposed that by philosophical inquiry, whether alone or chiefly, he could persuade himself or others of divine faith. Our cooperation under grace and with grace in this whole business, that faith may be attained and may remain in faith, consists above all and before all and after all in great humility of soul, in profoundest reverence towards the divine majesty, in instant and constant prayer: “unless you become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”