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Title: |
Satis Cognitum
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Descr.: |
On The Unity Of The Church
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Pope: |
Pope Leo XIII
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Date: |
June 29, 1896
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To
Our Venerable Brethren, the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops,
Bishops, and Other Ordinaries in Peace and Communion with the
Apostolic See.
Venerable
Brethren, Health, and Benediction.
1.
It is sufficiently well known unto you that no small share of Our
thoughts and of Our care is devoted to Our endeavor to bring back
to the fold, placed under the guardianship of Jesus Christ, the
Chief Pastor of souls, sheep that have strayed. Bent upon this, We
have thought it most conducive to this salutary end and purpose to
describe the exemplar and, as it were, the lineaments of the
Church. Amongst these the most worthy of Our chief consideration
is Unity. This the Divine Author impressed on it as a lasting sign
of truth and of unconquerable strength. The essential beauty and
comeliness of the Church ought greatly to influence the minds of
those who consider it. Nor is it improbable that ignorance may be
dispelled by the consideration; that false ideas and prejudices
may be dissipated from the minds chiefly of those who find
themselves in error without fault of theirs; and that even a love
for the Church may be stirred up in the souls of men, like unto
that charity wherewith Christ loved and united himself to that
spouse redeemed by His precious blood. "Christ loved the
Church, and delivered Himself up for it" (Eph. v., 25). If
those about to come back to their most loving Mother [the Church] (not yet
fully known, or culpably abandoned) should perceive that their
return involves, not indeed the shedding of their blood (at which
price nevertheless the Church was bought by Jesus Christ), but
some lesser trouble and labor, let them clearly understand that
this burden has been laid on them not by the will of man but by
the will and command of God. They may thus, by the help of
heavenly grace, realize and feel the truth of the divine saying,
"My yoke is sweet and my burden light" (Matt. xi., 30).
Wherefore, having put all Our hope in the "Father of
lights," from whom "cometh every best gift and every
perfect gift" (Ep. James i., 17) - from Him, namely, who alone
"gives the increase" (I Cor. iii., 6) - We earnestly pray
that He will graciously grant Us the power of bringing conviction
home to the minds of men.
Human
Cooperation
2.
Although God can do by His own power all that is effected by
created natures, nevertheless in the counsels of His loving
Providence He has preferred to help men by the instrumentality of
men. And, as in the natural order He does not usually give full
perfection except by means of man's work and action, so also He
makes use of human aid for that which lies beyond the limits of
nature, that is to say, for the sanctification and salvation of
souls. But it is obvious that nothing can be communicated amongst
men save by means of external things which the senses can
perceive. For this reason the Son of God assumed human nature - "who being in the form of
God... emptied himself,
taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of
man" (Philipp. ii., 6,7) - and thus living on earth He taught
his doctrine and gave His laws, conversing with men.
The
Church Always Visible
3.
And, since it was necessary that His divine mission should be
perpetuated to the end of time, He took to Himself disciples,
trained by himself, and made them partakers of His own authority.
And, when He had invoked upon them from Heaven the Spirit of
Truth, He bade them go through the whole world and faithfully
preach to all nations what He had taught and what He had
commanded, so that by the profession of His doctrine and the
observance of His laws, the human race might attain to holiness on
earth and never-ending happiness in Heaven. In this wise, and on
this principle, the Church was begotten. If we consider the chief
end of His Church and the proximate efficient causes of salvation,
it is undoubtedly spiritual; but in regard to those who constitute
it, and to the things which lead to these spiritual gifts, it is
external and necessarily visible. The Apostles received a mission
to teach by visible and audible signs, and they discharged their
mission only by words and acts which certainly appealed to the
senses. So that their voices falling upon the ears of those who
heard them begot faith in souls - "Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the words of Christ" (Rom. x., 17). And faith
itself - that is assent given to the first and supreme truth -
though
residing essentially in the intellect, must be manifested by
outward profession - "For with the heart we believe unto
justice, but with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation" (Rom. x., 10). In the same way in man, nothing is
more internal than heavenly grace which begets sanctity, but the
ordinary and chief means of obtaining grace are external: that is
to say, the sacraments which are administered by men specially
chosen for that purpose, by means of certain ordinances. Jesus
Christ commanded His Apostles and their successors to the end of
time to teach and rule the nations. He ordered the nations to
accept their teaching and obey their authority. But this
correlation of rights and duties in the Christian commonwealth not
only could not have been made permanent, but could not even have
been initiated except through the senses, which are of all things
the messengers and interpreters. For this reason the Church is so
often called in Holy Writ a body, and even the body of Christ - "Now you are the body of Christ" (I Cor. xii.,
27) - and precisely because it is a body is the Church visible: and
because it is the body of Christ it is living and energizing,
because by the infusion of His power Christ guards and sustains
it, just as the vine gives nourishment and renders fruitful the
branches united to it. And as in animals the vital principle is
unseen and invisible, and is evidenced and manifested by the
movements and action of the members, so the principle of
supernatural life in the Church is clearly shown in that which is
done by it. From this it follows that those who arbitrarily
conjure up and picture to themselves a hidden and invisible Church
are in grievous and pernicious error: as also are those who regard
the Church as a human institution which claims a certain obedience
in discipline and external duties, but which is without the
perennial communication of the gifts of divine grace, and without
all that which testifies by constant and undoubted signs to the
existence of that life which is drawn from God. It is assuredly as
impossible that the Church of Jesus Christ can be the one or the
other, as that man should be a body alone or a soul alone. The
connection and union of both elements is as absolutely necessary
to the true Church as the intimate union of the soul and body is
to human nature. The Church is not something dead: it is the body
of Christ endowed with supernatural life. As Christ, the Head and
Exemplar, is not wholly in His visible human nature, which
Photinians and Nestorians assert, nor wholly in the invisible
divine nature, as the Monophysites hold, but is one, from and in
both natures, visible and invisible; so the mystical body of
Christ is the true Church, only because its visible parts draw
life and power from the supernatural gifts and other things whence
spring their very nature and essence. But since the Church is such
by divine will and constitution, such it must uniformly remain to
the end of time. If it did not, then it would not have been
founded as perpetual, and the end set before it would have been
limited to some certain place and to some certain period of time;
both of which are contrary to the truth. The union consequently of
visible and invisible elements because it harmonizes with the
natural order and by God's will belongs to the very essence of the
Church, must necessarily remain so long as the Church itself shall
endure. Wherefore Chrysostom writes: "Secede not from the
Church: for nothing is stronger than the Church. Thy hope is the
Church; thy salvation is the Church; thy refuge is the Church. It
is higher than the heavens and wider than the earth. It never
grows old, but is ever full of vigor. Wherefore Holy Writ pointing
to its strength and stability calls it a mountain" (Hom. De
capto Eutropio, n. 6). Also Augustine says: "Unbelievers
think that the Christian religion will last for a certain period
in the world and will then disappear. But it will remain as long
as the sun - as long as the sun rises and sets: that is, as long as
the ages of time shall roll, the Church of God - the true body of
Christ on earth - will not disappear" (In Psalm. lxx., n. 8).
And in another place: "The Church will totter if its
foundation shakes; but how can Christ be moved?...Christ remaining
immovable, it (the Church), shall never be shaken. Where are they
that say that the Church has disappeared from the world, when it
cannot even be shaken?" (Enarratio in Psalm. ciii., sermo
ii., n. 5). He who seeks the truth must be guided by these
fundamental principles. That is to say, that Christ the Lord
instituted and formed the Church: wherefore when we are asked what
its nature is, the main thing is to see what Christ wished and
what in fact He did. Judged by such a criterion it is the unity of
the Church which must be principally considered; and of this, for
the general good, it has seemed useful to speak in this
Encyclical.
How
Christ Made His Church
4.
It is so evident from the clear and frequent testimonies of Holy
Writ that the true Church of Jesus Christ is one, that no
Christian can dare to deny it. But in judging and determining the
nature of this unity many have erred in various ways. Not the
foundation of the Church alone, but its whole constitution,
belongs to the class of things effected by Christ's free choice.
For this reason the entire case must be judged by what was
actually done. We must consequently investigate not how the Church
may possibly be one, but how He, who founded it, willed that it
should be one. But when we consider what was actually done we find
that Jesus Christ did not, in point of fact, institute a Church to
embrace several communities similar in nature, but in themselves
distinct, and lacking those bonds which render the Church unique
and indivisible after that manner in which in the symbol of our
faith we profess: "I believe in one Church." "The
Church in respect of its unity belongs to the category of things
indivisible by nature, though heretics try to divide it into many
parts...We say, therefore, that the Catholic Church is unique in
its essence, in its doctrine, in its origin, and in its
excellence...Furthermore, the eminence of the Church arises from
its unity, as the principle of its constitution - a unity surpassing
all else, and having nothing like unto it or equal to it" (S.
Clemens Alexandrinus, Stronmatum lib. viii., c. 17). For this
reason Christ, speaking of the mystical edifice, mentions only one
Church, which he calls His own - "I will build my church;"
any other Church except this one, since it has not been founded by
Christ, cannot be the true Church. This becomes even more evident
when the purpose of the Divine Founder is considered. For what did
Christ, the Lord, ask? What did He wish in regard to the Church
founded, or about to be founded? This: to transmit to it the same
mission and the same mandate which He had received from the
Father, that they should be perpetuated. This He clearly resolved
to do: this He actually did. "As the Father hath sent me, I
also send you" (John xx., 21). "As thou hast sent Me
into the world I also have sent them into the world" (John
xvii., 18). But the mission of Christ is to save that which had
perished: that is to say, not some nations or peoples, but the
whole human race, without distinction of time or place. "The
Son of Man came that the world might be saved by Him" (John
iii., 17). "For there is no other name under Heaven given to
men whereby we must be saved" (Acts iv., 12). The Church,
therefore, is bound to communicate without stint to all men, and
to transmit through all ages, the salvation effected by Jesus
Christ, and the blessings flowing therefrom. Wherefore, by the
will of its Founder, it is necessary that this Church should be
one in all lands and at all times. To justify the existence of
more than one Church it would be necessary to go outside this
world, and to create a new and unheard-of race of men. That the
one Church should embrace all men everywhere and at all times was
seen and foretold by Isaiah, when looking into the future he saw
the appearance of a mountain conspicuous by its all surpassing
altitude, which set forth the image of "The House of the
Lord" - that is, of the Church, "And in the last days the
mountain of the House of the Lord shall be prepared on the top of
the mountains" (Isa. ii., 2). But this mountain which towers
over all other mountains is one; and the House of the Lord to
which all nations shall come to seek the rule of living is also
one. "And all nations shall flow into it. And many people
shall go, and say: Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the
Lord, and to the House of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us
His ways, and we will walk in His paths" (Ibid., ii., 2-3).
Explaining this passage, Optatus of Milevis says: "It is
written in the prophet Isaiah: 'from Sion the law shall go forth
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.' For it is not on Mount
Sion that Isaiah sees the valley, but on the holy mountain, that
is, the Church, which has raised itself conspicuously throughout
the entire Roman world under the whole heavens...The Church is,
therefore, the spiritual Sion in which Christ has been constituted
King by God the Father, and which exists throughout the entire
earth, on which there is but one Catholic Church" (De Schism.
Donatist., lib. iii., n. 2). And Augustine says: "What can be
so manifest as a mountain, or so well known? There are, it is
true, mountains which are unknown because they are situated in
some remote part of the earth...But this mountain is not
unknown; for it has filled the whole face of the world, and about
this it is said that it is prepared on the summit of the
mountains" (In Ep. Joan., tract i., n. 13).
Christ
the Head of the Church
5.
Furthermore, the Son of God decreed that the Church should be His
mystical body, with which He should be united as the Head, after
the manner of the human body which He assumed, to which the
natural head is physiologically united. As He took to Himself a
mortal body, which He gave to suffering and death in order to pay
the price of man's redemption, so also He has one mystical body in
which and through which He renders men partakers of holiness and
of eternal salvation. God "hath made Him (Christ) head over
all the Church, which is His body" (Eph. i., 22-23).
Scattered and separated members cannot possibly cohere with the
head so as to make one body. But St. Paul says: "All members
of the body, whereas they are many, yet are one body, so also is
Christ" (I Cor. xii., 12). Wherefore this mystical body, he
declares, is "compacted and fitly jointed together. The head,
Christ: from whom the whole body, being compacted and fitly
jointed together, by what every joint supplieth according to the
operation in the measure of every part" (Eph. iv., 15-16).
And so dispersed members, separated one from the other, cannot be
united with one and the same head. "There is one God, and one
Christ; and His Church is one and the faith is one; and one the
people, joined together in the solid unity of the body in the bond
of concord. This unity cannot be broken, nor the one body divided
by the separation of its constituent parts" (S. Cyprianus, De
Cath. Eccl. Unitate, n. 23). And to set forth more clearly the
unity of the Church, he makes use of the illustration of a living
body, the members of which cannot possibly live unless united to
the head and drawing from it their vital force. Separated from the
head they must of necessity die. "The Church," he says,
"cannot be divided into parts by the separation and cutting
asunder of its members. What is cut away from the mother cannot
live or breathe apart" (Ibid.). What similarity is there
between a dead and a living body? "For no man ever hated his
own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, as also Christ doth
the Church: because we are members of His body, of His flesh, and
of His bones" (Eph. v., 29-30). Another head like to Christ
must be invented - that is, another Christ - if besides the one
Church, which is His body, men wish to set up another. "See
what you must beware of - see what you must avoid - see what you must
dread. It happens that, as in the human body, some member may be
cut off - a hand, a finger, a foot. Does the soul follow the
amputated member? As long as it was in the body, it lived;
separated, it forfeits its life. So the Christian is a Catholic as
long as he lives in the body: cut off from it he becomes a heretic
- the life of the spirit follows not the amputated
member" (S. Augustinus, Sermo cclxvii., n. 4). The Church of
Christ, therefore, is one and the same for ever; those who leave
it depart from the will and command of Christ, the Lord - leaving
the path of salvation they enter on that of perdition.
"Whosoever is separated from the Church is united to an
adulteress. He has cut himself off from the promises of the
Church, and he who leaves the Church of Christ cannot arrive at
the rewards of Christ...He who observes not this unity observes
not the law of God, holds not the faith of the Father and the Son,
clings not to life and salvation" (S. Cyprianus, De Cath.
Eccl. Unitate, n. 6).
Unity
in Faith
6.
But He, indeed, Who made this one Church, also gave it unity, that
is, He made it such that all who are to belong to it must be
united by the closest bonds, so as to form one society, one
kingdom, one body - "one body and one spirit as you are called
in one hope of your calling (Eph. iv., 4). Jesus Christ, when His
death was nigh at hand, declared His will in this matter, and
solemnly offered it up, thus addressing His Father: "Not for
them only do I pray, but for them also who through their word
shall believe in Me...that they also may be one in Us...that they
may be made perfect in one" (John xvii., 20-21, 23). Yea, He
commanded that this unity should be so closely knit and so perfect
amongst His followers that it might, in some measure, shadow forth
the union between Himself and His Father: "I pray that they
all may be one as Thou Father in Me and I in Thee" (Ibid.
21). Agreement and union of minds is the necessary foundation of
this perfect concord amongst men, from which concurrence of wills
and similarity of action are the natural results. Wherefore, in
His divine wisdom, He ordained in His Church unity of faith; a
virtue which is the first of those bonds which unite man to God,
and whence we receive the name of the faithful - "one Lord, one
faith, one baptism" (Eph. iv., 5). That is, as there is one
Lord and one baptism, so should all Christians, without exception,
have but one faith. And so the Apostle St. Paul not merely begs,
but entreats and implores Christians to be all of the same mind,
and to avoid difference of opinions: "I beseech you,
brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak
the same thing, and that there be no schisms amongst you, and that
you be perfect in the same mind and in the same judgment" (I
Cor. i., 10). Such passages certainly need no interpreter; they
speak clearly enough for themselves. Besides, all who profess
Christianity allow that there can be but one faith. It is of the
greatest importance and indeed of absolute necessity, as to which
many are deceived, that the nature and character of this unity
should be recognized. And, as We have already stated, this is not
to be ascertained by conjecture, but by the certain knowledge of
what was done; that is by seeking for and ascertaining what kind
of unity in faith has been commanded by Jesus Christ.
The
Kind of Unity in Faith Commanded by Christ
7.
The heavenly doctrine of Christ, although for the most part
committed to writing by divine inspiration, could not unite the
minds of men if left to the human intellect alone. It would, for
this very reason, be subject to various and contradictory
interpretations. This is so, not only because of the nature of the
doctrine itself and of the mysteries it involves, but also because
of the divergencies of the human mind and of the disturbing
element of conflicting passions. From a variety of interpretations
a variety of beliefs is necessarily begotten; hence come
controversies, dissensions and wranglings such as have arisen in
the past, even in the first ages of the Church. Irenaeus writes of
heretics as follows: "Admitting the sacred Scriptures they
distort the interpretations" (Lib. iii., cap. 12, n. 12). And
Augustine: "Heresies have arisen, and certain perverse views
ensnaring souls and precipitating them into the abyss only when
the Scriptures, good in themselves, are not properly
understood" (In Evang. Joan., tract xviii., cap. 5, n. I).
Besides Holy Writ it was absolutely necessary to insure this union
of men's minds - to effect and preserve unity of ideas - that there
should be another principle. This the wisdom of God requires: for
He could not have willed that the faith should be one if He did
not provide means sufficient for the preservation of this unity;
and this Holy Writ clearly sets forth as We shall presently point
out. Assuredly the infinite power of God is not bound by anything,
all things obey it as so many passive instruments. In regard to
this external principle, therefore, we must inquire which one of
all the means in His power Christ did actually adopt. For this
purpose it is necessary to recall in thought the institution of
Christianity.
The
Magisterium (or Teaching Authority) of the Church to be Perpetual
8.
We are mindful only of what is witnessed to by Holy Writ and what
is otherwise well known. Christ proves His own divinity and the
divine origin of His mission by miracles; He teaches the
multitudes heavenly doctrine by word of mouth; and He absolutely
commands that the assent of faith should be given to His teaching,
promising eternal rewards to those who believe and eternal
punishment to those who do not. "If I do not the works of my
Father, believe Me not" (John x., 37). "If I had not
done among them the works that no other man had done, they would
not have sin" (Ibid. xv., 24). "But if I do (the works)
though you will not believe Me, believe the works" (Ibid. x.,
38). Whatsoever He commands, He commands by the same authority. He
requires the assent of the mind to all truths without exception.
It was thus the duty of all who heard Jesus Christ, if they wished
for eternal salvation, not merely to accept His doctrine as a
whole, but to assent with their entire mind to all and every point
of it, since it is unlawful to withhold faith from God even in
regard to one single point. When about to ascend into heaven He
sends His Apostles in virtue of the same power by which He had
been sent from the Father; and he charges them to spread abroad
and propagate His teaching. "All power is given to Me in
Heaven and in earth. Going therefore teach all nations...teaching
them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you"
(Matt. xxviii., 18-20). So that those obeying the Apostles
might be saved, and those disobeying should perish. "He that
believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believed not
shall be condemned" (Mark xvi., 16). But since it is
obviously most in harmony with God's providence that no one should
have confided to him a great and important mission unless he were
furnished with the means of properly carrying it out, for this
reason Christ promised that He would send the Spirit of Truth to
His Disciples to remain with them forever. "But if I go I
will send Him (the Paraclete) to you...But when He, the Spirit of
Truth is come, He will teach you all truth" (John xvi.,
7-13). "And I will ask the Father, and He shall give you
another Paraclete, that he may abide with you for ever, the Spirit
of Truth" (Ibid. xiv., 16-17). "He shall give testimony
of Me, and you shall give testimony" (Ibid. xv., 26-27).
Hence He commands that the teaching of the Apostles should be
religiously accepted and piously kept as if it were His own - "He who hears you hears Me, he who despises you despises
Me" (Luke x., 16). Wherefore the Apostles are ambassadors of
Christ as He is the ambassador of the Father. "As the Father
sent Me so also I send you" (John xx., 21). Hence as the
Apostles and Disciples were bound to obey Christ, so also those
whom the Apostles taught were, by God's command, bound to obey
them. And, therefore, it was no more allowable to repudiate one
iota of the Apostles' teaching than it was to reject any point of
the doctrine of Christ Himself. Truly the voice of the Apostles,
when the Holy Ghost had come down upon them, resounded throughout
the world. Wherever they went they proclaimed themselves the
ambassadors of Christ Himself. "By whom (Jesus Christ) we
have received grace and Apostleship for obedience to the faith in
all nations for His name" (Rom. i., 5). And God makes known
their divine mission by numerous miracles. "But they going
forth preached everywhere: the Lord working withal, and confirming
the word with signs that followed" (Mark xvi., 20). But what
is this word? That which comprehends all things, that which they
had learnt from their Master; because they openly and publicly
declare that they cannot help speaking of what they had seen and
heard. But, as we have already said, the Apostolic mission was not
destined to die with the Apostles themselves, or to come to an end
in the course of time, since it was intended for the people at
large and instituted for the salvation of the human race. For
Christ commanded His Apostles to preach the "Gospel to every
creature, to carry His name to nations and kings, and to be
witnesses to him to the ends of the earth." He further
promised to assist them in the fulfillment of their high mission,
and that, not for a few years or centuries only, but for all time
- "even to the consummation of the world." Upon which
St. Jerome says: "He who promises to remain with His
Disciples to the end of the world declares that they will be for
ever victorious, and that He will never depart from those who
believe in Him" (In Matt., lib. iv., cap. 28, v. 20). But how
could all this be realized in the Apostles alone, placed as they
were under the universal law of dissolution by death? It was
consequently provided by God that the Magisterium instituted by
Jesus Christ should not end with the life of the Apostles, but
that it should be perpetuated. We see it in truth propagated, and,
as it were, delivered from hand to hand. For the Apostles
consecrated bishops, and each one appointed those who were to
succeed them immediately "in the ministry of the word."
Nay more: they likewise required their successors to choose
fitting men, to endow them with like authority, and to confide to
them the office and mission of teaching. "Thou, therefore, my
son, be strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus: and the
things which thou hast heard of me by many witnesses, the same
command to faithful men, who shall be fit to teach others
also" (2 Tim. ii., 1-2). Wherefore, as Christ was sent by God
and the Apostles by Christ, so the Bishops and those who succeeded
them were sent by the Apostles. "The Apostles were appointed
by Christ to preach the Gospel to us. Jesus Christ was sent by
God. Christ is therefore from God, and the Apostles from Christ,
and both according to the will of God...Preaching therefore the
word through the countries and cities, when they had proved in the
Spirit the first-fruits of their teaching they appointed bishops
and deacons for the faithful...They appointed them and then
ordained them, so that when they themselves had passed away other
tried men should carry on their ministry" (S. Clemens Rom.
Epist. I ad Corinth. capp. 42, 44). On the one hand, therefore, it
is necessary that the mission of teaching whatever Christ had
taught should remain perpetual and immutable, and on the other
that the duty of accepting and professing all their doctrine
should likewise be perpetual and immutable. "Our Lord Jesus
Christ, when in His Gospel He testifies that those who are not
with Him are His enemies, does not designate any special form of
heresy, but declares that all heretics who are not with Him and do
not gather with Him scatter His flock and are His adversaries: He
that is not with Me is against Me, and he that gathereth not with
Me scattereth" (S. Cyprianus, Ep. lxix., ad Magnum, n. I).
Every
Revealed Truth, without Exception, Must be Accepted
9.
The Church, founded on these principles and mindful of her office,
has done nothing with greater zeal and endeavor than she has
displayed in guarding the integrity of the faith. Hence she
regarded as rebels and expelled from the ranks of her children all
who held beliefs on any point of doctrine different from her own.
The Arians, the Montanists, the Novatians, the Quartodecimans, the
Eutychians, did not certainly reject all Catholic doctrine: they
abandoned only a certain portion of it. Still who does not know
that they were declared heretics and banished from the bosom of
the Church? In like manner were condemned all authors of heretical
tenets who followed them in subsequent ages. "There can be
nothing more dangerous than those heretics who admit nearly the
whole cycle of doctrine, and yet by one word, as with a drop of
poison, infect the real and simple faith taught by our Lord and
handed down by Apostolic tradition" (Auctor Tract. de Fide
Orthodoxa contra Arianos). The practice of the Church has always
been the same, as is shown by the unanimous teaching of the
Fathers, who were wont to hold as outside Catholic communion, and
alien to the Church, whoever would recede in the least degree from
any point of doctrine proposed by her authoritative Magisterium.
Epiphanius, Augustine, Theodore, drew up a long list of the
heresies of their times. St. Augustine notes that other heresies
may spring up, to a single one of which, should any one give his
assent, he is by the very fact cut off from Catholic unity.
"No one who merely disbelieves in all (these heresies) can
for that reason regard himself as a Catholic or call himself one.
For there may be or may arise some other heresies, which are not
set out in this work of ours, and, if any one holds to a single
one of these he is not a Catholic" (S. Augustinus, De
Haeresibus, n. 88). The need of this divinely instituted means for
the preservation of unity, about which we speak is urged by St.
Paul in his epistle to the Ephesians. In this he first admonishes
them to preserve with every care concord of minds:
"Solicitous to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace" (Eph. iv., 3, et seq.). And as souls cannot be
perfectly united in charity unless minds agree in faith, he wishes
all to hold the same faith: "One Lord, one faith," and
this so perfectly one as to prevent all danger of error:
"that henceforth we be no more children, tossed to and fro,
and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the wickedness of
men, by cunning craftiness, by which they lie in wait to
deceive" (Eph. iv., 14): and this he teaches is to be
observed, not for a time only - "but until we all meet in the
unity of faith...unto the measure of the age of the fullness of
Christ" (Eph. iv., 13). But, in what has Christ placed the primary
principle, and the means of preserving this unity? In that - "He gave some
Apostles and others as pastors and
doctors, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the
ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ" (Eph. iv.,
11-12).
Wherefore, from the very earliest times the fathers and doctors of
the Church have been accustomed to follow and, with one accord to
defend this rule. Origen writes: "As often as the heretics
allege the possession of the canonical scriptures, to which all
Christians give unanimous assent, they seem to say: 'Behold the
word of truth is in the houses.' But we should believe them not
and abandon not the primary and ecclesiastical tradition. We
should believe not otherwise than has been handed down by the
tradition of the Church of God" (Vetus Interpretatio
Commentariorum in Matt. n. 46). Irenaeus too says: "The
doctrine of the Apostles is the true faith...which is known to us
through the Episcopal succession...which has reached even unto our
age by the very fact that the Scriptures have been zealously
guarded and fully interpreted" (Contra Haereses, lib. iv.,
cap. 33, n. 8). And Tertullian: "It is therefore clear that
all doctrine which agrees with that of the Apostolic churches -
the
matrices and original centres of the faith, must be looked upon as
the truth, holding without hesitation that the Church received it
from the Apostles, the Apostles from Christ and Christ from
God...We are in communion with the Apostolic churches, and by the
very fact that they agree amongst themselves we have a testimony
of the truth" (De Praescrip., cap. xxxi). And so Hilary:
"Christ teaching from the ship signifies that those who are
outside the Church can never grasp the divine teaching; for the
ship typifies the Church where the word of life is deposited and
preached. Those who are outside are like sterile and worthless
sand: they cannot comprehend" (Comment. in Matt. xiii., n.
I). Rufinus praises Gregory of Nazianzum and Basil because
"they studied the text of Holy Scripture alone, and took the
interpretation of its meaning not from their own inner
consciousness, but from the writings and on the authority of the
ancients, who in their turn, as it is clear, took their rule for
understanding the meaning from the Apostolic succession" (Hist.
Eccl., lib. ii., cap. 9). Wherefore, as appears from what has been
said, Christ instituted in the Church a living, authoritative and
permanent Magisterium, which by His own power He strengthened, by
the Spirit of truth He taught, and by miracles confirmed. He
willed and ordered, under the gravest penalties, that its
teachings should be received as if they were His own. As often,
therefore, as it is declared on the authority of this teaching
that this or that is contained in the deposit of divine
revelation, it must be believed by everyone as true. If it could
in any way be false, an evident contradiction follows; for then
God Himself would be the author of error in man. "Lord, if we
be in error, we are being deceived by Thee" (Richardus de S.
Victore, De Trin., lib. i., cap. 2). In this wise, all cause for
doubting being removed, can it be lawful for anyone to reject any
one of those truths without by the very fact falling into heresy?
- without separating himself from the Church? - without
repudiating in one sweeping act the whole of Christian teaching?
For such is the nature of faith that nothing can be more absurd
than to accept some things and reject others. Faith, as the Church
teaches, is "that supernatural virtue by which, through the
help of God and through the assistance of His grace, we believe
what he has revealed to be true, not on account of the intrinsic
truth perceived by the natural light of reason, but because of the
authority of God Himself, the Revealer, who can neither deceive
nor be deceived" (Conc. Vat., Sess. iii., cap. 3). If then it
be certain that anything is revealed by God, and this is not
believed, then nothing whatever is believed by divine Faith: for
what the Apostle St. James judges to be the effect of a moral
delinquency, the same is to be said of an erroneous opinion in the
matter of faith. "Whosoever shall offend in one point, is
become guilty of all" (Ep. James ii., 10). Nay, it applies
with greater force to an erroneous opinion. For it can be said
with less truth that every law is violated by one who commits a
single sin, since it may be that he only virtually despises the
majesty of God the Legislator. But he who dissents even in one
point from divinely revealed truth absolutely rejects all faith,
since he thereby refuses to honor God as the supreme truth and the
formal motive of faith. "In many things they are with me, in
a few things not with me; but in those few things in which they
are not with me the many things in which they are will not profit
them" (S. Augustinus in Psal. liv., n. 19). And this indeed
most deservedly; for they, who take from Christian doctrine what
they please, lean on their own judgments, not on faith; and not
"bringing into captivity every understanding unto the
obedience of Christ" (2 Cor. x., 5), they more truly obey
themselves than God. "You, who believe what you like, believe
yourselves rather than the gospel" (S. Augustinus, lib. xvii.,
Contra Faustum Manichaeum, cap. 3). For this reason the Fathers of
the [First] Vatican Council laid down nothing new, but followed divine
revelation and the acknowledged and invariable teaching of the
Church as to the very nature of faith, when they decreed as
follows: "All those things are to be believed by divine and
Catholic faith which are contained in the written or unwritten
word of God, and which are proposed by the Church as divinely
revealed, either by a solemn definition or in the exercise of its
ordinary and universal Magisterium" (Sess. iii., cap. 3).
Hence, as it is clear that God absolutely willed that there should
be unity in His Church, and as it is evident what kind of unity He
willed, and by means of what principle He ordained that this unity
should be maintained, we may address the following words of St.
Augustine to all who have not deliberately closed their minds to
the truth: "When we see the great help of God, such manifest
progress and such abundant fruit, shall we hesitate to take refuge
in the bosom of that Church, which, as is evident to all,
possesses the supreme authority of the Apostolic See through the
Episcopal succession? In vain do heretics rage round it; they are
condemned partly by the judgment of the people themselves, partly
by the weight of councils, partly by the splendid evidence of
miracles. To refuse to the Church the primacy is most impious and
above measure arrogant. And if all learning, no matter how easy
and common it may be, in order to be fully understood requires a
teacher and master, what can be greater evidence of pride and
rashness than to be unwilling to learn about the books of the
divine mysteries from the proper interpreter, and to wish to
condemn them unknown?" (De Unitate Credendi, cap. xvii., n.
35). It is then undoubtedly the office of the Church to guard
Christian doctrine and to propagate it in its integrity and
purity. But this is not all: the object for which the Church has
been instituted is not wholly attained by the performance of this
duty. For, since Jesus Christ delivered Himself up for the
salvation of the human race, and to this end directed all His
teaching and commands, so He ordered the Church to strive, by the
truth of its doctrine, to sanctify and to save mankind. But faith
alone cannot compass so great, excellent, and important an end.
There must needs be also the fitting and devout worship of God,
which is to be found chiefly in the divine [Eucharistic] Sacrifice and in the
dispensation of the Sacraments, as well as salutary laws and
discipline. All these must be found in the Church, since it
continues the mission of the Savior forever. The Church alone
offers to the human race that religion - that state of absolute
perfection - which He wished, as it were, to be incorporated in it.
And it alone supplies those means of salvation which accord with
the ordinary counsels of Providence.
The
Church a Divine Society
10.
But as this heavenly doctrine was never left to the arbitrary
judgment of private individuals, but, in the beginning delivered
by Jesus Christ, was afterwards committed by Him exclusively to
the Magisterium already named, so the power of performing and
administering the divine mysteries, together with the authority of
ruling and governing, was not bestowed by God on all Christians
indiscriminately, but on certain chosen persons. For to the
Apostles and their legitimate successors alone these words have
reference: "Going into the whole world preach the
Gospel." "Baptizing them." "Do this in
commemoration of Me." "Whose sins you shall forgive they
are forgiven them." And in like manner He ordered the
Apostles only and those who should lawfully succeed them to feed -
that is to govern with authority - all Christian souls. Whence
it also follows that it is necessarily the duty of Christians to
be subject and to obey. And these duties of the Apostolic office
are, in general, all included in the words of St. Paul: "Let
a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ, and the
dispensers of the mysteries of God" (I Cor. iv., I).
Wherefore Jesus Christ bade all men, present and future, follow
Him as their leader and Savior; and this, not merely as
individuals, but as forming a society, organized and united in
mind. In this way a duly constituted society should exist, formed
out of the divided multitude of peoples, one in faith, one in end,
one in the participation of the means adapted to the attainment of
the end, and one as subject to one and the same authority. To this
end He established in the Church all principles which necessarily
tend to make organized human societies, and through which they
attain the perfection proper to each. That is, in it (the Church),
all who wished to be the sons of God by adoption might attain to
the perfection demanded by their high calling, and might obtain
salvation. The Church, therefore, as we have said, is man's guide
to whatever pertains to Heaven. This is the office appointed unto
it by God: that it may watch over and may order all that concerns
religion, and may, without let or hindrance, exercise, according
to its judgment, its charge over Christianity. Wherefore they who
pretend that the Church has any wish to interfere in civil
matters, or to infringe upon the rights of the State, know it not,
or wickedly calumniate it. God indeed even made the Church a
society far more perfect than any other. For the end for which the
Church exists is as much higher than the end of other societies as
divine grace is above nature, as immortal blessings are above the
transitory things on the earth. Therefore the Church is a society
divine in its origin, supernatural in its end and in means
proximately adapted to the attainment of that end; but it is a
human community inasmuch as it is composed of men. For this reason
we find it called in Holy Writ by names indicating a perfect
society. It is spoken of as the House of God, the city placed upon
the mountain to which all nations must come. But it is also the
fold presided over by one Shepherd, and into which all Christ's
sheep must betake themselves. Yea, it is called the kingdom which
God has raised up and which will stand forever. Finally it is the
body of Christ - that is, of course, His mystical body, but a body
living and duly organized and composed of many members; members
indeed which have not all the same functions, but which, united
one to the other, are kept bound together by the guidance and
authority of the head. Indeed no true and perfect human society
can be conceived which is not governed by some supreme authority.
Christ therefore must have given to His Church a supreme authority
to which all Christians must render obedience. For this reason, as
the unity of the faith is of necessity required for the unity of
the Church, inasmuch as it is the body of the faithful, so also
for this same unity, inasmuch as the Church is a divinely
constituted society, unity of government, which effects and
involves unity of communion, is necessary jure divino. "The
unity of the Church is manifested in the mutual connection or
communication of its members, and likewise in the relation of all
the members of the Church to one head" (St. Thomas, 2ae, 9,
xxxix., a. I). From this it is easy to see that men can fall away
from the unity of the Church by schism, as well as by heresy.
"We think that this difference exists between heresy and
schism" (writes St. Jerome): "heresy has no perfect
dogmatic teaching, whereas schism, through some Episcopal dissent,
also separates from the Church" (S. Hieronymus, Comment. in
Epist. ad Titum, cap. iii., v. 10-11). In which judgment St. John
Chrysostom concurs: "I say and protest (he writes) that it is
as wrong to divide the Church as to fall into heresy" (Hom.
xi., in Epist. ad Ephes., n. 5). Wherefore as no heresy can ever
be justifiable, so in like manner there can be no justification
for schism. "There is nothing more grievous than the
sacrilege of schism...there can be no just necessity for
destroying the unity of the Church" (S. Augustinus, Contra
Epistolam Parmeniani, lib. ii., cap. ii., n. 25).
The
Supreme Authority Founded by Christ
11.
The nature of this supreme authority, which all Christians are
bound to obey, can be ascertained only by finding out what was the
evident and positive will of Christ. Certainly Christ is a King
forever; and though invisible, He continues unto the end of time
to govern and guard His Church from Heaven. But since He willed
that His kingdom should be visible He was obliged, when He
ascended into Heaven, to designate a vice-regent on earth.
"Should anyone say that Christ is the one head and the one
shepherd, the one spouse of the one Church, he does not give an
adequate reply. It is clear, indeed, that Christ is the author of
grace in the Sacraments of the Church; it is Christ Himself who
baptizes; it is He who forgives sins; it is He who is the true
priest who hath offered Himself upon the altar of the cross, and
it is by His power that His body is daily consecrated upon the
altar; and still, because He was not to be visibly present to all
the faithful, He made choice of ministers through whom the
aforesaid Sacraments should be dispensed to the faithful as said
above" (cap. 74). "For the same reason, therefore,
because He was about to withdraw His visible presence from the
Church, it was necessary that He should appoint someone in His
place, to have the charge of the Universal Church. Hence before
His Ascension He said to Peter: 'Feed my sheep'" (St.
Thomas, Contra Gentiles, lib. iv., cap. 76). Jesus Christ,
therefore, appointed Peter to be that head of the Church; and He
also determined that the authority instituted in perpetuity for
the salvation of all should be inherited by His successors, in
whom the same permanent authority of Peter himself should
continue. And so He made that remarkable promise to Peter and to
no one else: "Thou are Peter, and upon this rock I will build
my church" (Matt. xvi., 18). "To Peter the Lord spoke:
to one, therefore, that He might establish unity upon one"
(S. Pacianus ad Sempronium, Ep. iii., n. 11). "Without any
prelude He mentions St. Peter's name and that of his father
(Blessed art thou Simon, son of John) and He does not wish Him to
be called any more Simon; claiming him for Himself according to
His divine authority He aptly names him Peter, from petra the
rock, since upon him He was about to found His Church" (S.
Cyrillus Alexandrinus, In Evang. Joan., lib. ii., in cap. i., v.
42).
The
Universal Jurisdiction of St. Peter
12.
From this text it is clear that by the will and command of God the
Church rests upon St. Peter, just as a building rests on its
foundation. Now the proper nature of a foundation is to be a
principle of cohesion for the various parts of the building. It
must be the necessary condition of stability and strength. Remove
it and the whole building falls. It is consequently the office of
St. Peter to support the Church, and to guard it in all its
strength and indestructible unity. How could he fulfil this office
without the power of commanding, forbidding, and judging, which is
properly called jurisdiction? It is only by this power of
jurisdiction that nations and commonwealths are held together. A
primacy of honor and the shadowy right of giving advice and
admonition, which is called direction, could never secure to any
society of men unity or strength. The words - and the gates of Hell
shall not prevail against it - proclaim and establish the authority
of which we speak. "What is the it?" (writes Origen).
"Is it the rock upon which Christ builds the Church or the
Church? The expression indeed is ambiguous, as if the rock and the
Church were one and the same. I indeed think that this is so, and
that neither against the rock upon which Christ builds His Church
nor against the Church shall the gates of Hell prevail" (Origenes,
Comment. in Matt., tom. xii., n. ii). The meaning of this divine
utterance is, that, notwithstanding the wiles and intrigues which
they bring to bear against the Church, it can never be that the Church committed to the care of Peter shall succumb or in any wise
fail. "For the Church, as the edifice of Christ who has
wisely built 'His house upon a rock,' cannot be conquered by the
gates of Hell, which may prevail over any man who shall be off the
rock and outside the Church, but shall be powerless against
it" (Ibid.). Therefore God confided His Church to Peter so
that he might safely guard it with his unconquerable power. He
invested him, therefore, with the needful authority; since the
right to rule is absolutely required by him who has to guard human
society really and effectively. This, furthermore, Christ gave:
"To thee will I give the keys of the kingdom of Heaven."
And He is clearly still speaking of the Church, which a short time
before He had called His own, and which He declared He wished to
build on Peter as a foundation. The Church is typified not only as
an edifice but as a Kingdom, and every one knows that the keys
constitute the usual sign of governing authority. Wherefore when
Christ promised to give to Peter the keys of the Kingdom of
Heaven, he promised to give him power and authority over the
Church. "The Son committed to Peter the office of spreading
the knowledge of His Father and Himself over the whole world. He
who increased the Church on all the earth, and proclaimed it to be
stronger than the heavens, gave to a mortal man all power in
Heaven when He handed him the Keys" (S. Johannes Chrysostomus,
Hom. liv., in Matt. v., 2). In this same sense He says:
"Whatsoever thou shall bind upon earth it shall be bound also
in Heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth it shall be
loosed also in Heaven." This metaphorical expression of
binding and loosing indicates the power of making laws, of judging
and of punishing; and the power is said to be of such amplitude
and force that God will ratify whatever is decreed by it. Thus it
is supreme and absolutely independent, so that, having no other
power on earth as its superior, it embraces the whole Church and
all things committed to the Church. The promise is carried out
when Christ the Lord after His Resurrection, having thrice asked
Peter whether he loved Him more than the rest, lays on him the
injunction: "Feed my lambs - feed my sheep." That is He
confides to him, without exception, all those who were to belong
to His fold. "The Lord does not hesitate. He interrogates,
not to learn but to teach. When He was about to ascend into Heaven
He left us, as it were, a vice-regent of His love...and so
because Peter alone of all others professes his love he is
preferred to all - that being the most perfect he should govern the
more perfect" (S. Ambrosius, Exposit. in Evang. secundum
Lucam, lib. x., nn. 175-176). These, then, are the duties of a
shepherd: to place himself as leader at the head of his flock, to
provide proper food for it, to ward off dangers, to guard against
insidious foes, to defend it against violence: in a word to rule
and govern it. Since therefore Peter has been placed as shepherd
of the Christian flock he has received the power of governing all
men for whose salvation Jesus Christ shed His blood. "Why has
He shed His blood? To buy the sheep which He handed over to Peter
and his successors" (S. Joannes Chrysostomus, De Sacerdotio,
lib. ii). And since all Christians must be closely united in the
communion of one immutable faith, Christ the Lord, in virtue of
His prayers, obtained for Peter that in the fulfillment of his
office he should never fall away from the faith. "But I have
asked for thee that thy faith fail not" (Luke xxii., 32), and
He furthermore commanded him to impart light and strength to his
brethren as often as the need should arise: "Confirm thy
brethren" (Ibid.). He willed then that he whom He had
designated as the foundation of the Church should be the defense
of its faith. "Could not Christ who confided to him the
Kingdom by His own authority have strengthened the faith of one
whom He designated a rock to show the foundation of the
Church?" (S. Ambrosius, De Fide, lib. iv., n. 56). For this
reason Jesus Christ willed that Peter should participate in
certain names, signs of great things which properly belong to
Himself alone: in order that identity of titles should show
identity of power. So He who is Himself "the chief
cornerstone in whom all the building being framed together,
groweth up in a holy temple in the Lord" (Eph. ii., 21),
placed Peter as it were a stone to support the Church. "When
he heard 'thou art a rock,' he was ennobled by the announcement.
Although he is a rock, not as Christ is a rock, but as Peter is a
rock. For Christ is by His very being an immovable rock; Peter
only through this rock. Christ imparts His gifts, and is not
exhausted...He is a priest, and makes priests. He is a rock, and
constitutes a rock" (Hom. de Poenitentia, n. 4 in Appendice
opp. S. Basilii). He who is the King of His Church, "Who hath
the key of David, who openeth and no man shutteth, who shutteth
and no man openeth (Apoc. iii., 7), having delivered the keys to
Peter declared him Prince of the Christian commonwealth. So, too,
He, the Great Shepherd, who calls Himself "the Good
Shepherd," constituted Peter the pastor of His lambs
and sheep. "Feed My lambs, feed My Sheep." Wherefore
Chrysostom says: "He was preeminent among the Apostles: He
was the mouthpiece of the Apostles and the head of the Apostolic
College...at the same time showing him that henceforth he ought
to have confidence, and as it were blotting out his denial, He
commits to him the government of his brethren...He saith to him:
'If thou lovest Me, be over my brethren.' Finally He who confirms
in "every good work and word" (2 Thess. ii., 16)
commands Peter "to confirm his brethren." Rightly,
therefore, does St. Leo the Great say: "From the whole world
Peter alone is chosen to take the lead in calling all nations, to
be the head of all the Apostles and of all the Fathers of the
Church. So that, although in the people of God there are many
priests and many pastors Peter should by right rule all of those
over whom Christ Himself is the chief ruler" (Sermo iv., cap.
2). And so St. Gregory the Great, writing to the Emperor Maurice
Augustus, says: "It is evident to all who know the gospel
that the charge of the whole Church was committed to St. Peter,
the Apostle and Prince of all the Apostles, by the word of the
Lord...Behold! he hath received the keys of the heavenly kingdom -
the power of binding and loosing is conferred upon him:
the care of the whole government of the Church is confided to
him" (Epist. lib. v., Epist. xx).
The
Roman Pontiffs Possess Supreme Power in the Church Jure Divino
13.
It was necessary that a government of this kind, since it belongs
to the constitution and formation of the Church, as its principal
element - that is as the principle of unity and the foundation of
lasting stability - should in no wise come to an end with St. Peter,
but should pass to his successors from one to another. "There
remains, therefore, the ordinance of truth, and St. Peter,
persevering in the strength of the rock which he had received,
hath not abandoned the government of the Church which had been
confided to him" (S. Leo M. sermo iii., cap. 3). For this
reason the Pontiffs who succeed Peter in the Roman Episcopate
receive the supreme power in the Church, jure divino. "We
define" (declare the Fathers of the Council of Florence)
"that the Holy and Apostolic See and the Roman Pontiff hold
the primacy of the Church throughout the whole world: and that the
same Roman Pontiff is the successor of St. Peter, the Prince of
the Apostles, and the true Vicar of Christ, the head of the whole
Church, and the father and teacher of all Christians; and that
full power was given to him, in Blessed Peter, by our Lord Jesus
Christ to feed, to rule, and to govern the universal Church, as is
also contained in the acts of oecumenical councils and in the
sacred canons" (Conc. Florentinum). Similarly the Fourth
Council of Lateran declares: "The Roman Church, as the mother
and mistress of all the faithful, by the will of Christ obtains
primacy of jurisdiction over all other churches." These
declarations were preceded by the consent of antiquity which ever
acknowledged, without the slightest doubt or hesitation, the
Bishops of Rome, and revered them as the legitimate successors of
St. Peter. Who is unaware of the many and evident testimonies of
the holy Fathers which exist to this effect? Most remarkable is
that of St. Irenaeus who, referring to the Roman Church, says:
"With this Church, on account of its preeminent authority, it
is necessary that every Church should be in concord" (Contra
Haereses, lib. iii., cap. 3, n. 2); and St. Cyprian also says of
the Roman Church, that "it is the root and mother of the
Catholic Church, the chair of Peter, and the principal Church
whence sacerdotal unity has its source" (Ep. xlviii., ad
Cornelium, n. 3. and Ep. liac., ad eundem, n. 14). He calls it the
chair of Peter because it is occupied by the successor of Peter:
he calls it the principal Church, on account of the primacy
conferred on Peter himself and his legitimate successors; and the
source of unity, because the Roman Church is the efficient cause
of unity in the Christian commonwealth. For this reason Jerome
addresses Damasus thus: "My words are spoken to the successor
of [St. Peter], to the disciple of the Cross...I communicate
with none save your Blessedness, that is with the chair of Peter.
For this I know is the rock on which the Church is built" (Ep.
xv., ad Damasum, n. 2). Union with the Roman See of Peter is to
him always the public criterion of a Catholic. "I acknowledge
everyone who is united with the See of Peter" (Ep. xvi., ad
Damasum, n. 2). And for a like reason St. Augustine publicly
attests that, "the primacy of the Apostolic chair always
existed in the Roman Church" (Ep. xliii., n. 7); and he
denies that anyone who dissents from the Roman faith can be a
Catholic. "You are not to be looked upon as holding the true
Catholic faith if you do not teach that the faith of Rome is to be
held" (Sermo cxx., n. 13). So, too, St. Cyprian: "To be
in communion with Cornelius [the pope] is to be in communion with the
Catholic Church" (Ep. lv., n. 1). In the same way Maximus the
Abbot teaches that obedience to the Roman Pontiff is the proof of
the true faith and of legitimate communion. "Therefore if a man
does not want to be, or to be called, a heretic, let him not
strive to please this or that man...but let him hasten before all
things to be in communion with the Roman See. If he be in
communion with it, he should be acknowledged by all and everywhere
as faithful and orthodox. He speaks in vain who tries to persuade
me of the orthodoxy of those who, like himself, refuse obedience
to his Holiness the Pope of the most holy Church of Rome: that is
to the Apostolic See." The reason and motive of this he
explains to be that "the Apostolic See has received and hath
government, authority, and power of binding and loosing from the
Incarnate Word Himself; and, according to all holy synods, sacred
canons and decrees, in all things and through all things, in
respect of all the holy churches of God throughout the whole
world, since the Word in Heaven who rules the Heavenly powers
binds and loosens there" (Defloratio ex Epistola ad Petrum
illustrem). Wherefore what was acknowledged and observed as
Christian faith, not by one nation only nor in one age, but by the
East and by the West, and through all ages, this Philip, the
priest, the Pontifical legate at the Council of Ephesus, no voice
being raised in dissent, recalls: "No one can doubt, yea, it
is known unto all ages, that St. Peter, the Prince of the
Apostles, the pillar of the faith and the ground of the Catholic
Church, received the keys of the Kingdom from Our Lord Jesus
Christ. That is: the power of forgiving and retaining sins was
given to him who, up to the present time, lives and exercises
judgment in the persons of his successors" (Actio iii.). The
pronouncement of the Council of Chalcedon on the same matter is
present to the minds of all: "Peter has spoken through
Leo" (Actio ii.), to which the voice of the Third Council of
Constantinople responds as an echo: "The chief Prince of the
Apostles was fighting on our side: for we have had as our ally his
follower and the successor to his See: and the paper and the ink
were seen, and Peter spoke through Agatho" (Actio xviii.). In
the formula of Catholic faith drawn up and proposed by Hormisdas,
which was subscribed at the beginning of the sixth century in the
great Eighth Council by the Emperor Justinian, by Epiphanius, John
and Menna, the Patriarchs, this same is declared with great weight
and solemnity. "For the pronouncement of Our Lord Jesus
Christ saying: 'Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my
Church...' cannot be passed over. What is said is proved by
the result, because Catholic faith has always been preserved
without stain in the Apostolic See" (Post Epistolam, xxvi.,
ad omnes Episc. Hispan., n. 4). We have no wish to quote every
available declaration; but it is well to recall the formula of
faith which Michael Paleologus professed in the Second Council of
Lyons: "The same holy Roman Church possesses the sovereign
and plenary primacy and authority over the whole Catholic Church,
which, truly and humbly, it acknowledges to have received together
with the plenitude of power from the Lord Himself, in the person
of St. Peter, the Prince or Head of the Apostles, of whom the
Roman Pontiff is the successor. And as it is bound to defend the
truth of faith beyond all others, so also if any question should
arise concerning the faith it must be determined by its
judgment" (Actio iv.).
Bishops
Belong to the Essential Constitution of the Church
14.
But if the authority of Peter and his successors is plenary and
supreme, it is not to be regarded as the sole authority. For He
who made Peter the foundation of the Church also "chose,
twelve, whom He called apostles" (Luke vi., 13); and just as
it is necessary that the authority of Peter should be perpetuated
in the Roman Pontiff, so, by the fact that the bishops succeed the
Apostles, they inherit their ordinary power, and thus the
episcopal order necessarily belongs to the essential constitution
of the Church. Although they do not receive plenary, or universal,
or supreme authority, they are not to be looked as vicars of the
Roman Pontiffs; because they exercise a power really their own,
and are most truly called the ordinary pastors of the peoples over
whom they rule. But since the successor of Peter is one, and those
of the Apostles are many, it is necessary to examine into the
relations which exist between him and them according to the divine
constitution of the Church. Above all things the need of union
between the bishops and the successors of Peter is clear and
undeniable. This bond once broken, Christians would be separated
and scattered, and would in no wise form one body and one flock.
"The safety of the Church depends on the dignity of the chief
priest, to whom if an extraordinary and supreme power is not
given, there are as many schisms to be expected in the Church as
there are priests" (S. Hieronymus, Dialog, contra
Luciferianos, n. 9). It is necessary, therefore, to bear this in
mind, viz., that nothing was conferred on the apostles apart from
Peter, but that several things were conferred upon Peter apart
from the Apostles. St. John Chrysostom in explaining the words of
Christ asks: "Why, passing over the others, does He speak to
Peter about these things?" And he replies unhesitatingly and
at once, "Because he was preeminent among the Apostles, the
mouthpiece of the Disciples, and the head of the college" (Hom.
lxxxviii. in Joan., n. I). He alone was designated as the
foundation of the Church. To him He gave the power of binding and
loosing; to him alone was given the power of feeding. On the other
hand, whatever authority and office the Apostles received, they
received in conjunction with Peter. "If the divine benignity
willed anything to be in common between him and the other princes,
whatever He did not deny to the others He gave only through him.
So that whereas Peter alone received many things, He conferred
nothing on any of the rest without Peter participating in it"
(S. Leo M. sermo iv., cap. 2).
Bishops
Separated from Peter and His Successors, Lose All Jurisdiction
15.
From this it must be clearly understood that Bishops are deprived
of the right and power of ruling if they deliberately secede from
Peter and his successors; because, by this secession, they are
separated from the foundation on which the whole edifice must
rest. They are therefore outside the edifice itself; and for this
very reason they are separated from the fold, whose leader is the
Chief Pastor; they are exiled from the Kingdom, the keys of which
were given by Christ to Peter alone. These things enable us to see
the heavenly ideal, and the divine exemplar, of the constitution
of the Christian commonwealth, namely: When the Divine founder
decreed that the Church should be one in faith, in government, and
in communion, He chose Peter and his successors as the principle
and center, as it were, of this unity. Wherefore St. Cyprian says:
"The following is a short and easy proof of the faith. The
Lord saith to Peter: 'I say to thee thou art Peter'; on him alone
He buildeth His Church; and although after His Resurrection He
gives a similar power to all the Apostles and says: 'As the Father
hath sent me...', still in order to make the necessary unity
clear, by His own authority He laid down the source of that unity
as beginning from one" (De Unit. Eccl., n. 4). And Optatus of
Milevis says: "You cannot deny that you know that in the city
of Rome the Episcopal chair was first conferred on Peter. In this
Peter, the head of all the Apostles (hence his name Cephas), has
sat; in which chair alone unity was to be preserved for all, lest
any of the other apostles should claim anything as exclusively his
own. So much so, that he who would place another chair against
that one chair, would be a schismatic and a sinner" (De
Schism. Donat., lib. ii). Hence the teaching of Cyprian, that
heresy and schism arise and are begotten from the fact that due
obedience is refused to the supreme authority. "Heresies and
schisms have no other origin than that obedience is refused to the
priest of God, and that men lose sight of the fact that there is
one judge in the place of Christ in this world" (Epist. xii.
ad Cornelium, n. 5). No one, therefore, unless in communion with
Peter can share in his authority, since it is absurd to imagine
that he who is outside can command in the Church. Wherefore
Optatus of Milevis blamed the Donatists for this reason:
"Against which [the gates of hell] we read that Peter received the
saving keys, that is to say, our prince, to whom it was said by
Christ: 'To thee will I give the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven,
and the gates of Hell shall not conquer them.' Whence is it
therefore that you strive to obtain for yourselves the keys of the
Kingdom of Heaven - you who fight against the chair of Peter?"
(Lib. ii., n. 4-5). But the Episcopal order is rightly judged to
be in communion with Peter, as Christ commanded, if it be subject
to and obeys Peter; otherwise it necessarily becomes a lawless and
disorderly crowd. It is not sufficient for the due preservation of
the unity of the faith that the head should merely have been
charged with the office of superintendent, or should have been
invested solely with a power of direction. But it is absolutely
necessary that he should have received real and sovereign
authority which the whole community is bound to obey. What had the
Son of God in view when he promised the keys of the Kingdom of
Heaven to Peter alone? Biblical usage and the unanimous teaching
of the Fathers clearly show that supreme authority is designated
in the passage by the word keys. Nor is it lawful to interpret in
a different sense what was given to Peter alone, and what was
given to the other Apostles conjointly with him. If the power of
binding, loosening, and feeding confers upon each and every one of
the Bishops the successors of the Apostles a real authority to
rule the people committed to him, certainly the same power must
have the same effect in his case to whom the duty of feeding the
lambs and sheep has been assigned by God. "Christ constituted
[Peter] not only pastor, but pastor of pastors; Peter therefore
feeds the lambs and feeds the sheep, feeds the children and feeds
the mothers, governs the subjects and rules the prelates, because
the lambs and the sheep form the whole of the Church" (S.
Brunonis Episcopi Signiensis Comment. in Joan., part iii., cap.
21, n. 55). Hence those remarkable expressions of the ancients
concerning St. Peter, which most clearly set forth the fact that
he was placed in the highest degree of dignity and authority. They
frequently call him "the Prince of the College of the
Disciples; the Prince of the holy Apostles; the leader of that
choir; the mouthpiece of all the Apostles; the head of that
family; the ruler of the whole world; the first of the Apostles;
the safeguard of the Church." In this sense St. Bernard
writes as follows to Pope Eugenius: "Who art thou? The great
priest - the high priest. Thou art the Prince of Bishops and the
heir of the Apostles...Thou art he to whom the keys were given.
There are, it is true, other gatekeepers of heaven and pastors
of flocks, but thou are so much the more glorious as thou hast
inherited a different and more glorious name than all the rest.
They have flocks consigned to them, one to each; to thee all the
flocks are confided as one flock to one shepherd, and not alone
the sheep, but the shepherds. You ask how I prove this? From the
words of the Lord. To which - I do not say - of the Bishops, but
even of the Apostles have all the sheep been so absolutely and
unreservedly committed? If thou lovest me, Peter, feed my sheep.
Which sheep? Of this or that country, or kingdom? My sheep, He
says: to whom therefore is it not evident that he does not
designate some, but all? We can make no exception where no
distinction is made" (De Consideratione, lib. ii., cap. 8).
But it is opposed to the truth, and in evident contradiction with
the divine constitution of the Church, to hold that while each
Bishop is individually bound to obey the authority of the Roman
Pontiffs, taken collectively the Bishops are not so bound. For it
is the nature and object of a foundation to support the unity of
the whole edifice and to give stability to it, rather than to each
component part; and in the present case this is much more
applicable, since Christ the Lord wished that by the strength and
solidity of the foundation the gates of hell should be prevented
from prevailing against the Church. All are agreed that the divine
promise must be understood of the Church as a whole, and not of
any certain portions of it. These can indeed be overcome by the
assaults of the powers of hell, as in point of fact has befallen
some of them. Moreover, he who is set over the whole flock must
have authority, not only over the sheep dispersed throughout the
Church, but also when they are assembled together. Do the sheep
when they are all assembled together rule and guide the shepherd?
Do the successors of the Apostles assembled together constitute
the foundation on which the successor of St. Peter rests in order
to derive therefrom strength and stability? Surely jurisdiction
and authority belong to him in whose power have been placed the
keys of the Kingdom taken collectively. And as the Bishops, each
in his own district, command with real power not only individuals
but the whole community, so the Roman pontiffs, whose jurisdiction
extends to the whole Christian commonwealth, must have all its
parts, even taken collectively, subject and obedient to their
authority. Christ the Lord, as we have quite sufficiently shown,
made Peter and his successors His vicars, to exercise forever in
the Church the power which He exercised during His mortal life.
Can the Apostolic College be said to have been above its master in
authority? This power over the Episcopal College to which we
refer, and which is clearly set forth in Holy Writ, has ever been
acknowledged and attested by the Church, as is clear from the
teaching of General Councils. "We read that the Roman Pontiff
has pronounced judgments on the prelates of all the churches; we
do not read that anybody has pronounced sentence on him" (Hadrianus
ii., in Allocutione iii., ad Synodum Romanum an. 869, Cf. Actionem
vii., Conc. Constantinopolitani iv). The reason for which is
stated thus: "there is no authority greater than that of the
Apostolic See" (Nicholaus in Epist. lxxxvi. ad Michael.
Imperat.) wherefore Gelasius on the decrees of Councils says:
"That which the First See has not approved of cannot stand;
but what it has thought well to decree has been received by the
whole Church" (Epist. xxvi., ad Episcopos Dardaniae, n. 5).
It has ever been unquestionably the office of the Roman Pontiffs
to ratify or to reject the decrees of Councils. Leo the great
rescinded the acts of the Conciliabulum of Ephesus. Damasus
rejected those of Rimini, and Hadrian I those of Constantinople.
The 28th Canon of the Council of Chalcedon, by the very fact that
it lacks the assent and approval of the Apostolic See, is admitted
by all to be worthless. Rightly, therefore, has Leo X laid down
in the 5th Council of Lateran "that the Roman Pontiff alone,
as having authority over all Councils, has full jurisdiction and
power to summon, to transfer, to dissolve Councils, as is clear,
not only from the testimony of Holy Writ, from the teaching of the
Fathers and of the Roman Pontiffs, and from the decrees of the
sacred canons, but from the teaching of the very Councils
themselves." Indeed, Holy Writ attests that the keys of the
Kingdom of Heaven were given to Peter alone, and that the power of
binding and loosening was granted to the Apostles and to Peter;
but there is nothing to show that the Apostles received supreme
power without Peter, and against Peter. Such power they certainly
did not receive from Jesus Christ. Wherefore, in the decree of the
[First] Vatican Council as to the nature and authority of the primacy of
the Roman Pontiff, no newly conceived opinion is set forth, but
the venerable and constant belief of every age (Sess. iv., cap.
3). Nor does it beget any confusion in the administration that
Christians are bound to obey a twofold authority. We are
prohibited in the first place by Divine Wisdom from entertaining
any such thought, since this form of government was constituted by
the counsel of God Himself. In the second place we must note that
the due order of things and their mutual relations are disturbed
if there be a twofold magistracy of the same rank set over a
people, neither of which is amenable to the other. But the
authority of the Roman Pontiff is supreme, universal, independent;
that of the bishops limited, and dependent. "It is not
congruous that two superiors with equal authority should be placed
over the same flock; but that two, one of whom is higher than the
other, should be placed over the same people is not incongruous.
Thus the parish priest, the bishop, and the Pope, are placed
immediately over the same people" (St. Thomas in iv Sent,
dist. xvii., a. 4, ad q. 4, ad 3). So the Roman Pontiffs, mindful
of their duty, wish above all things, that the divine constitution
of the Church should be preserved. Therefore, as they defend with
all necessary care and vigilance their own authority, so they have
always labored, and will continue to labor, that the authority of
the bishops may be upheld. Yea, they look upon whatever honor or
obedience is given to the bishops as paid to themselves. "My
honor is the honor of the Universal Church. My honor is the
strength and stability of my brethren. Then am I honored when due
honor is given to everyone" (S. Gregorius M. Epistolarum, lib
viii., ep. xxx., ad Eulogium).
Appeal
to Sheep Not of the Fold
16.
In what has been said we have faithfully described the exemplar
and form of the Church as divinely constituted. We have treated at
length of its unity: we have explained sufficiently its nature,
and pointed out the way in which the Divine Founder of the Church
willed that it should be preserved. There is no reason to doubt
that all those, who by Divine Grace and mercy have had the
happiness to have been born, as it were, in the bosom of the
Catholic Church, and to have lived in it, will listen to Our
Apostolic Voice: "My sheep hear my voice" (John x., 27),
and that they will derive from Our words fuller instruction and a
more perfect disposition to keep united with their respective
pastors, and through them with the Supreme Pastor, so that they
may remain more securely within the one fold, and may derive
therefrom a greater abundance of salutary fruit. But We, who,
notwithstanding our unfitness for this great dignity and office,
govern by virtue of the authority conferred on us by Jesus Christ,
as we "look on Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith" (Heb. xii., 2) feel Our heart fired by His charity.
What Christ has said of Himself We may truly repeat of Ourselves:
"Other sheep I have that are not of this fold: them also I
must bring and they shall hear my voice" (John x., 16). Let
all those, therefore, who detest the wide-spread irreligion of our
times, and acknowledge and confess Jesus Christ to be the Son of
God and the Savior of the human race, but who have wandered away
from the Spouse [the Church], listen to Our voice. Let them not refuse to obey
Our paternal charity. Those who acknowledge Christ must
acknowledge Him wholly and entirely. "The Head and the Body
are Christ wholly and entirely. The Head is the only-begotten Son
of God, the Body is His Church; the Bridegroom and the Bride, two
in one flesh. All who dissent from the Scriptures concerning
Christ, although they may be found in all places in which the
Church is found, are not in the Church; and again all those who
agree with the Scriptures concerning the Head, and do not
communicate in the unity of the Church, are not in the
Church" (S. Augustinus, Contra Donatistas Epistola, sive De
Unit. Eccl., cap. iv., n. 7). And with the same yearning Our soul
goes out to those whom the foul breath of irreligion has not
entirely corrupted, and who at least seek to have the true God,
the Creator of Heaven and earth, as their Father. Let such as
these take counsel with themselves, and realize that they can in
no wise be counted among the children of God, unless they take
Christ Jesus as their Brother, and at the same time the Church as
their Mother. We lovingly address to all the words of St.
Augustine: "Let us love the Lord our God; let us love His
Church; the Lord as our Father, the Church as our Mother. Let no
one say, I go indeed to idols, I consult fortune-tellers and
soothsayers; but I leave not the Church of God: I am a Catholic.
Clinging to thy Mother, thou offendest thy Father. Another, too,
says: 'Far be it from me; I do not consult fortune-telling, I seek
not soothsaying, I seek not profane divinations, I go not to the
worship of devils, I serve not stones: but I am on the side of
Donatus.' What doth it profit thee not to offend the Father, who
avenges an offence against the Mother? What doth it profit to
confess the Lord, to honor God, to preach Him, to acknowledge His
Son, and to confess that He sits on the right hand of the Father,
if you blaspheme His Church?...If you had a beneficent friend,
whom you honored daily - and even once calumniated his spouse, would
you ever enter his house? Hold fast, therefore, O dearly beloved,
hold fast altogether God as your Father, and the Church as your
Mother" (Enarratio in Psal. lxxxviii., sermo ii., n. 14).
Above all things, trusting in the mercy of God, who is able to
move the hearts of men and to incline them as and when He pleases,
We most earnestly commend to His loving kindness all those of whom
We have spoken. As a pledge of Divine grace, and as a token of Our
affection, We lovingly impart to you, in the Lord, Venerable
Brethren, to your clergy and people, Our Apostolic Blessing.
[Given
at St. Peter's, Rome, on the 29th day of June, in the year 1896,
in the nineteenth year of our Pontificate.]
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