General Rules for Distinguishing Truth From Error and Preserving the Faith
Excerpts from A Commonitory by St. Vincent of Lerins
II: A General Rule for distinguishing
the Truth of the Catholic Faith from the Falsehood of Heretical
Pravity
I have often then inquired earnestly and
attentively of very many men eminent for sanctity and learning,
how and by what sure and so to speak universal rule I may be able
to distinguish the truth of Catholic faith from the falsehood of
heretical pravity; and I have always, and in almost every
instance, received an answer to this effect: That whether I or
any one else should wish to detect the frauds and avoid the
snares of heretics as they rise, and to continue sound and
complete in the Catholic faith, we must, the Lord helping,
fortify our own belief in two ways; first, by the authority
of the Divine Law, and then, by the Tradition of the Catholic
Church.
But here some one perhaps will ask, Since the
canon of Scripture is complete, and sufficient of itself for
everything, and more than sufficient, what need is there to join
with it the authority of the Church's interpretation? For this
reason,because, owing to the depth of Holy Scripture, all do
not accept it in one and the same sense, but one understands its
words in one way, another in another; so that it seems to be
capable of as many interpretations as there are interpreters. For
Novatian expounds it one way, Sabellius another, Donatus another,
Arius, Eunomius, Macedonius, another, Photinus, Apollinaris,
Priscillian, another, Iovinian, Pelagius, Celestius, another,
lastly, Nestorius another. Therefore, it is very necessary, on
account of so great intricacies of such various error, that the
rule for the right understanding of the prophets and apostles
should be framed in accordance with the standard of
Ecclesiastical and Catholic interpretation.
Moreover, in the Catholic Church itself, all
possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which
has been believed everywhere, always, by all. For that is
truly and in the strictest sense "Catholic," which, as
the name itself and the reason of the thing declare, comprehends
all universally. This rule we shall observe if we follow
universality, antiquity, consent. We shall follow
universality if we confess that one faith to be true, which the
whole Church throughout the world confesses; antiquity, if we in
no wise depart from those interpretations which it is manifest
were notoriously held by our holy ancestors and fathers; consent,
in like manner, if in antiquity itself we adhere to the
consentient definitions and determinations of all, or at the
least of almost all priests and doctors.
III: What is to be done if one or more
dissent from the rest
What then will a Catholic Christian do, if a
small portion of the Church have cut itself off from the
communion of the universal faith? What, surely, but prefer the
soundness of the whole body to the unsoundness of a pestilent and
corrupt member? What, if some novel contagion seek to infect
not merely an insignificant portion of the Church, but the whole?
Then it will be his care to cleave to antiquity, which at this
day cannot possibly be seduced by any fraud of novelty.
But what, if in antiquity itself there be found
error on the part of two or three men, or at any rate of a city
or even of a province? Then it will be his care by all means, to
prefer the decrees, if such there be, of an ancient General
Council to the rashness and ignorance of a few. But what, if some
error should spring up on which no such decree is found to bear?
Then he must collate and consult and interrogate the opinions of
the ancients, of those, namely, who, though living in divers
times and places, yet continuing in the communion and faith of
the one Catholic Church, stand forth acknowledged and approved
authorities: and whatsoever he shall ascertain to have been held,
written, taught, not by one or two of these only, but by all,
equally, with one consent, openly, frequently, persistently, that
he must understand that he himself also is to believe without any
doubt or hesitation.
IX:
... Or perhaps the anathema pronounced on any
one who should preach another Gospel than that which had been
preached was meant for those times, not for the present. Then,
also, the exhortation, "Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not
fulfil the lust of the flesh," was meant for those times,
not for the present. But if it be both impious and pernicious to
believe this, then it follows necessarily, that as these
injunctions are to be observed by all ages, so those warnings
also which forbid alteration of the faith are warnings intended
for all ages. To preach any doctrine therefore to Catholic
Christians other than what they have received never was lawful,
never is lawful, never will be lawful: and to anathematize those
who preach anything other than what has once been received,
always was a duty, always is a duty, always will be a duty.
X: Why Eminent Men are permitted by God
to become Authors of Novelties in the Church
But some one will ask, How is it then, that
certain excellent persons, and of position in the Church, are
often permitted by God to preach novel doctrines to Catholics? A
proper question, certainly, and one which ought to be very
carefully and fully dealt with, but answered at the same time,
not in reliance upon one's own ability, but by the authority of
the divine Law, and by appeal to the Church's determination.
... The reason is clearer than day why Divine
Providence sometimes permits certain doctors of the Churches to
preach new doctrines"That the Lord your God may try
you;" he says. And assuredly it is a great trial when one
whom thou believest to be a prophet, a disciple of prophets, a
doctor and defender of the truth, whom thou hast folded to thy
breast with the utmost veneration and love, when such a one
of a sudden secretly and furtively brings in noxious errrors,
which thou canst neither quickly detect, being held by the
prestige of former authority, nor lightly think it right to
condemn, being prevented by affection for thine old master.
XI: Examples from Church History,
confirming the words of Moses, Nestorius, Photinus, Apollinaris
Here, perhaps, some one will require us to
illustrate the words of holy Moses by examples from Church
History. The demand is a fair one, nor shall it wait long for
satisfaction.
For to take first a very recent and very plain
case: what son of trial, think we, was that which the Church had
experience of the other day, when that unhappy Nestorius, all at
once metamorphosed from a sheep into a wolf, began to make havoc
of the flock of Christ, while as yet a large proportion of those
whom he was devouring believed him to be a sheep, and
consequently were the more exposed to his attacks? For who would
readily suppose him to be in error, who was known to have been
elected by the high choice of the Emperor, and to be held in the
greatest esteem by the priesthood? who would readily suppose him
to be in error, who, greatly beloved by the holy brethren, and in
high favor with the populace, expounded the Scriptures in public
daily, and confuted the pestilent errors both of Jews and
Heathens? Who could choose but believe that his teaching was
Orthodox, his preaching Orthodox, his belief Orthodox, who, that
he might open the way to one heresy of his own, was zealously
inveighing against the blasphemies of all heresies? But this was
the very thing which Moses says: "The Lord your God doth try
you that He may know whether you love Him or not."
Leaving Nestorius, in whom there was always
more that men admired than they were profited by, more of show
than of reality, whom natural ability, rather than divine grace,
magnified, for a time in the opinion of the common people, let us
pass on to speak of those who, being persons of great attainments
and of much industry, proved no small trial to Catholics. Such,
for instance, was Photinus, in Pannonia, who, in the memory of
our fathers, is said to have been a trial to the Church of
Sirmium, where, when he had been raised to the priesthood with
universal approbation, and had discharged the office for some
time as a Catholic, all of a sudden, like that evil prophet or
dreamer of dreams whom Moses refers to, he began to persuade the
people whom God had intrusted, to his charge, to follow
"strange gods," that is, strange errors, which before
they knew not. But there was nothing unusual in this: the
mischief of the matter was, that for the perpetration of so great
wickedness he availed himself of no ordinary helps. For he
was of great natural ability and of powerful eloquence, and had a
wealth of learning, disputing and writing copiously and forcibly
in both languages, as his books which remain, composed partly in
Greek, partly in Latin, testify. But happily the sheep of
Christ committed to him, vigilant and wary for the Catholic
faith, quickly turned their eyes to the premonitory words of
Moses, and, though admiring the eloquence of their prophet and
pastor, were not blind to the trial. For from thenceforward
they began to flee from him as a wolf, whom formerly they had
followed as the ram of the flock.
XX: The Notes of a true Catholic
This being the case, he is the true and genuine
Catholic who loves the truth of God, who loves the Church, who
loves the Body of Christ, who esteems divine religion and the
Catholic Faith above every thing, above the authority, above the
regard, above the genius, above the eloquence, above the
philosophy, of every man whatsoever; who sets light by all of
these, and continuing steadfast and established in the faith,
resolves that he will believe that, and that only, which he is
sure the Catholic Church has held universally and from ancient
time; but that whatsoever new and unheard-of doctrine he
shall find to have been furtively introduced by some one or
another, besides that of all, or contrary to that of all the
saints, this, he will under, stand, does not pertain to religion,
but is permitted as a trial, being instructed especially by the
words of the blessed Apostle Paul, who writes thus in his first
Epistle to the Corinthians, " There must needs be heresies,
that they who are approved may be made manifest among you:"
as though he should say, This is the reason why the authors of
Heresies are not forthwith rooted up by God, namely, that they
who are approved may be made manifest that is, that it may be
apparent of each individual, how tenacious and faithful and
steadfast he is in his love of the Catholic faith.
XXIII: On Development in Religious Knowledge
... Therefore, whatever has been sown by the
fidelity of the Fathers in this husbandry of God's Church, the
same ought to be cultivated and taken care of by the industry of
their children, the same ought to flourish and ripen, the
same ought to advance and go forward to perfection. For it is
right that those ancient doctrines of heavenly philosophy should,
as time goes on, be cared for, smoothed, polished; but not that
they should be changed, not that they should be maimed, not that
they should be mutilated. They may receive proof, illustration,
definiteness; but they must retain withal their completeness,
their integrity, their characteristic properties.
For if once this license of impious fraud be
admitted, I dread to say in how great danger religion will be of
being utterly destroyed and annihilated. For if any one part
of Catholic truth be given up, another, and another, and another
will thenceforward be given up as a matter of course, and the
several individual portions having been rejected, what will
follow in the end but the rejection of the whole? On the other
hand, if what is new begins to be mingled with what is old,
foreign with domestic, profane with sacred, the custom will of
necessity creep on universally, till at last the Church will have
nothing left untampered with, nothing unadulterated, nothing
sound, nothing pure; but where formerly there was a sanctuary of
chaste and undefiled truth, thenceforward there will be a brothel
of impious and base errors. May God's mercy avert this
wickedness from the minds of his servants; be it rather the
frenzy of the ungodly.
But the Church of Christ, the careful and
watchful guardian of the doctrines deposited in her charge, never
changes anything in them, never diminishes, never adds, does not
cut off what is necessary, does not add what is superfluous,
does not lose her own, does not appropriate what is another's, but
while dealing faithfully and judiciously with ancient doctrine,
keeps this one object carefully in view,if there be anything
which antiquity has left shapeless and rudimentary, to fashion
and polish it, if anything already reduced to shape and
developed, to consolidate and strengthen it, if any already
ratified and defined to keep and guard it. Finally, what other
object have Councils ever aimed at in their decrees, than to
provide that what was before believed in simplicity should in
future be believed intelligently, that what was before preached
coldly should in future be preached earnestly, that what was
before practised negligently should thenceforward be practised
with double solicitude ? This, I say, is what the Catholic
Church, roused by the novelties of heretics, has accomplished by
the decrees of her Councils,this, and nothing else,she has
thenceforward consigned to posterity in writing what she had
received from those of olden times only by tradition, comprising
a great amount of matter in a few words, and often, for the
better understanding, designating an old article of the faith by
the characteristic of a new name.
XXVIII: In what Way, on collating the
consentient opinions of the Ancient Masters, the Novelties of
Heretics may be detected and condemned
And here I perceive that, as a necessary sequel
to the foregoing, I ought to show by examples in what way, by
collating the consentient opinions of the ancient masters, the
profane novelties of heretics may be detected and condemned. . .
.
XXXI: The Constancy of the Ephesine
Fathers in driving away Novelty and maintaining Antiquity
... Next we expressed our admiration of the
humility and sanctity of that Council [of Ephesus], such that,
though the number of priests was so great, almost the more part
of them metropolitans, so erudite, so learned, that almost all
were capable of taking part in doctrinal discussions, whom the
very circumstance of their being assembled for the purpose, might
seem to embolden to make some determination on their own
authority, yet they innovated nothing, presumed nothing,
arrogated to themselves absolutely nothing, but used all possible
care to hand down nothing to posterity but what they had
themselves received from their Fathers. And not only did they
dispose satisfactorily of the matter presently in hand, but they
also set an example to those who should come after them, how
they also should adhere to the determinations of sacred
antiquity, and condemn the devices of profane novelty.
XXXII: The zeal of Celestine and
Sixtus, bishops of Rome, in opposing Novelty
The foregoing would be enough and very much
more than enough, to crush and annihilate every profane novelty.
But yet that nothing might be wanting to such completeness of
proof, we added, at the close, the twofold authority of the
Apostolic See, first, that of holy Pope Sixtus, the venerable
prelate who now adorns the Roman Church; and secondly that of his
predecessor, Pope Celestine of blessed memory, which same we
think it necessary to insert here also.
Holy Pope Sixtus then says in an Epistle which
he wrote on Nestorius's matter to the bishop of Antioch,
"Therefore, because, as the Apostle says, the faith is
one,evidently the faith which has obtained hitherto,let us
believe the things that are to be said, and say the things that
are to be held." What are the things that are to be believed
and to be said? He goes on: "Let no license be allowed
to novelty, because it is not fit that any addition should be
made to antiquity. Let not the clear faith and belief of our
forefathers be fouled by any muddy admixture." A truly
apostolic sentiment! He enhances the belief of the Fathers by the
epithet of clearness; profane novelties he calls muddy.
Holy Pope Celestine also expresses himself in
like manner and to the same effect. For in the Epistle which he
wrote to the priests of Gaul, charging them with connivance with
error, in that by their silence they failed in their duty to
the ancient faith, and allowed profane novelties to spring up,
he says: "We are deservedly to blame if we encourage error
by silence. Therefore rebuke these people. Restrain their liberty
of preaching." But here some one may doubt who they are
whose liberty to preach as they, list he forbids,the preachers
of antiquity or the devisers of novelty. Let himself tell us; let
himself resolve the reader's doubt. For he goes on: "If the
case be so (that is, if the case be so as certain persons
complain to me touching your cities and provinces, that by your
hurtful dissimulation you cause them to consent to certain
novelties), if the case be so, let novelty cease to assail
antiquity." This, then, was the sentence of blessed
Celestine, not that antiquity should cease to subvert novelty,
but that novelty should cease to assail antiquity.
XXXIII: The Children of the Catholic
Church ought to adhere to the Faith of their Fathers and die for
it
Whoever then gainsays these Apostolic and
Catholic determinations, first of all necessarily insults . . .
the decisions of the holy bishops of almost the whole East, who
decreed, under divine guidance, that nothing ought to be believed
by posterity save what the sacred antiquity of the holy Fathers,
consentient in Christ, had held, who with one voice, and with
loud acclaim, testified that these were the words of all . . .it
is incumbent on all Catholics who are anxious to approve
themselves genuine sons of Mother Church, to adhere henceforward
to the holy faith of the holy Fathers, to be wedded to it, to die
in it; but as to the profane novelties of profane mento detest
them, abhor them, oppose them, give them no quarter.
From A Commonitory, by
St. Vincent of Lerins (5th c.).
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