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Tradition / Traditions
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Traditional Catholic (Topic Page)
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"Reject
not the tradition of old men which they have learned from their
fathers; From it you will obtain the knowledge how to answer in
time of need." (Sirach 8:9)
"I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold fast to the traditions, just as I handed them on to you."
(St. Paul, 1 Cor. 11:2)
"I
say this so that no one may deceive you by specious arguments. For
even if I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in spirit,
rejoicing as I observe your good order and the firmness of your
faith in Christ. So, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk
in him, rooted in him and built upon him and established in the
faith as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it
that no one captivate you with an empty, seductive philosophy
according to human tradition, according to the elemental powers of
the world and not according to Christ." (St. Paul, Col. 2:4-8)
"Therefore, brothers, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught, either by an oral statement or by a letter of ours."
(St. Paul, 2 Thes. 2:15)
"We instruct you, brothers, in the name of (our) Lord Jesus
Christ, to shun any brother who conducts himself in a disorderly way and not according to the tradition they received from us."
(St. Paul, 2 Thes. 3:6)
"Let them innovate nothing, but keep the
traditions. ['Nihil innovetur nisi quod traditum est']" (Pope St. Steven I, 3rd century A.D.)
"Be zealously affected to command that in
all the churches the pure tradition be held." (St. Agatho I,
680 A.D.)
"Not all the truths revealed for us by God are found in
the Bible; some are found only in Divine Tradition."
(Baltimore Catechism)
"Divine Tradition has the same force as the Bible, since
it too contains God's revelation to men." (Baltimore
Catechism)
"The truths which God has revealed are contained in Holy
Scripture and in Tradition." (Catechism of Pope St. Pius X)
"If
anyone rejects any written or unwritten tradition of the church,
let him be anathema." (Second Council of Nicaea, 787 A.D.)
"[W]e
must keep for ever, firm and unmoved, the tradition which we
received by succession from the fathers" (St. Gregory of
Nyssa)
"[N]othing
of the things appointed ought to be diminished; nothing changed;
nothing added; but they must be preserved both as regards
expression and meaning." (Pope Agatho)
"Divine Tradition must be believed as firmly as the Bible
because it also contains the word of God." (Baltimore
Catechism)
"Indeed,
the true friends of the people are neither revolutionaries, nor
innovators: they are promoters of tradition." (Pope St. Pius
X, Our Apostolic Mandate, 1910 A.D.)
"We must attach to Tradition the same importance as the
revealed word of God which Holy Scripture contains."
(Catechism of Pope St. Pius X)
"We
should not conform with human traditions to the extent of setting
aside the command of God." (St. Basil, Doctor
of the Church, 4th century A.D.)
"Why, then, should we not devote ourselves
to imitate the examples set by our fathers?" (Pope Leo XIII,
"Sapientiae Christianae", 1890 A.D.)
"With these things let us be satisfied, and
let us abide by them, not removing everlasting boundaries, nor
overpassing the divine tradition." (St. John of Damascus, Doctor of the
Church)
"It is unlawful to alter the established
customs of the Church ... Remove not the ancient landmarks which
the fathers have set." (St. Peter Damian, Doctor of the
Church)
"It behooves us unanimously to observe the
ecclesiastical traditions, whether defined or simply retained by
customary practice of the Church." (St.
Peter Canisius, Doctor of the Church)
"[Y]oung
people should cultivate toward adults respect and trust, and
although they are naturally attracted to novelties, they should
duly appreciate praiseworthy traditions." (Second Vatican
Council)
"But
he who can abide firmly in the Apostolic tradition, he shall be
saved" [Origen ("the greatest scholar of Christian
antiquity" - although he would eventually be excommunicated
and be regarded as a heretic), 3rd century A.D.]
"It is needful also to make use of
Tradition, for not everything can be gotten from sacred Scripture.
The holy Apostles handed down some things in the Scriptures, other
things in Tradition." (St. Epiphanius of Salamis)
"We
should believe not otherwise than has been handed down by the
tradition of the Church of God" [Origen ("the greatest scholar of Christian antiquity" - although he would eventually be excommunicated and be regarded as a heretic), 3rd century A.D.]
"It is absurd, and a detestable shame, that
we should suffer those traditions to be changed which we have
received from the fathers of old." (Decretals, as quoted by
St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the
history of the Church")
"The best advice that I can give you is
this. Church traditions - especially when they do not run counter
to the faith - are to be observed in the form in which previous
generations have handed them down" (St. Jerome, Doctor of the
Church, 4th century
A.D.)
"A small thing is not small when it leads
to something great; and it is no small matter to forsake the
ancient tradition of the Church that was upheld by all those who
were called before us, whose conduct we should observe, and whose
faith we should imitate." (St. John of Damascus, Doctor of
the Church)
"Tradition is the non-written word of God, which has been
transmitted by word of mouth by Jesus Christ and by the apostles,
and which has come down to us through the centuries by the means
of the Church, without being altered." (Catechism of Pope St.
Pius X)
"Divine Tradition is the unwritten word of God
- that is,
truths revealed by God, though not written in the Bible, and given
to the Church through word of mouth by Jesus Christ or by the
apostles under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost." (Baltimore
Catechism)
"Likewise, (I profess) that the apostolic and
ecclesiastical traditions must be accepted and revered; also, that
power of granting indulgences has been left to the Church of
Christ, and that their use is very salutary for Christian people."
(Profession of faith from the Constitution "Nuper ad nos", 1743 A.D.)
"The
fruits of a tree must decide whether it be a good or a poor one (Lk.
vi. 44). One should examine if there have been satisfactory
results from abandoning the paths marked out by the Church, and so
zealously kept to by our fathers in the faith." (Liturgical
Year)
"The
various customs of the Church in the divine worship are in no way
contrary to the truth: wherefore we must observe them, and to
disregard them is unlawful." (St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of
the Church and "greatest theologian in the history of the
Church")
"Wherefore,
by divine and Catholic faith all those things are to be believed
which are contained in the word of God as found in scripture and
tradition, and which are proposed by the Church as matters to be
believed as divinely revealed, whether by her solemn judgment or
in her ordinary and universal magisterium." (First Vatican
Council)
"It
is clear, therefore, that sacred tradition, Sacred Scripture and
the teaching authority of the Church, in accord with God's most
wise design, are so linked and joined together that one cannot
stand without the others, and that all together and each in its
own way under the action of the one Holy Spirit contribute
effectively to the salvation of souls." (Second Vatican
Council)
"It
will not be out of place to consider the ancient tradition,
teaching and faith of the Catholic Church, which was revealed by
the Lord, proclaimed by the Apostles, and guarded by the Fathers.
For upon this faith the Church is built, and if anyone were to
lapse from it he would no longer be Christian either in fact or in
name." (St. Athanasius, Doctor
of the Church)
"If anyone in word and mind does not
properly and truly confess according to the holy Fathers all even
to the last portion that has been handed down and preached in the
holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church of God, and likewise by the
holy Fathers and the five venerable universal Councils, let him be
condemned." (Lateran Council, 649 A.D.)
"The
customs of God's people and the institutions of our ancestors are
to be considered as laws. And those who throw contempt on the
customs of the Church ought to be punished as those who disobey
the law of God." (St. Augustine, Doctor of the Church, as
quoted by St. Thomas
Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the
history of the Church")
"But
especially contradictory is a notion of tradition which opposes
the universal magisterium of the church possessed by the bishop of
Rome and the body of bishops. It is impossible to remain faithful
to the tradition while breaking the ecclesial bond with him to
whom, in the person of the apostle Peter, Christ himself entrusted
the ministry of unity in his church." (Pope John Paul II, 1988)
"But in regard to those observances which
we carefully attend and which the whole world keeps, and which
derive not from Scripture but from Tradition, we are given to
understand that they are recommended and ordained to be kept,
either by the Apostles themselves or by plenary councils, the
authority of which is quite vital in the Church." (St.
Augustine, Doctor of the Church, c. 400 A.D.)
"The
natural inclination concerns the precepts of the natural law.
Again, a laudable custom has the force of a precept; since as
Augustine says in an epistle On the Fast of the Sabbath (Ep. 36),
'a custom of God's people should be looked upon as law.' Hence
both sin and transgression may be against a laudable custom and
against a natural inclination." (St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor
of the Church and "greatest theologian in the history of the
Church")
"Moreover
that the Apostles handed down much that was unwritten, Paul, the
Apostle of the Gentiles, tells us in these words: Therefore,
brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which ye have been
taught of us, whether by word or by epistle. And to the
Corinthians he writes, Now I praise you, brethren, that ye
remember me in all things, and keep the traditions as I have
delivered them to you." (John of Damascus, Doctor of the
Church)
"Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold
the traditions that you have been taught, whether by word or by
our letter' (2 Thes. 2:15). From this it is clear that they did
not hand down everything by letter, but there was much also that
was not written. Like that which was written, the unwritten too is
worthy of belief. So let us regard the tradition of the Church
also as worthy of belief. Is it a tradition? Seek no further." (St. John
Chrysostom, Doctor of the Church, c. 400 A.D.)
"[Our] first safety is to guard the rule of
the right faith and to deviate in no wise from the ordinances of
the Fathers; because we cannot pass over the statement of our Lord
Jesus Christ who said: 'Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will
build my church' ...[Matt. 16:18]. These [words] which were
spoken, are proved by the effects of the deeds, because in the
Apostolic See the Catholic religion has always been preserved
without stain. Desiring not to be separated from this hope and
faith and following the ordinances of the Fathers, we anathematize
all heresies" (Pope St. Hormisdas, 517 A.D.)
"Can.
750 §1 A person must believe with divine and Catholic faith all
those things contained in the word of God, as it has been written
or handed down by tradition, that is, in the single deposit of
faith entrusted to the Church, and which are at the same time
proposed as divinely revealed either by the solemn magisterium of
the Church or by its ordinary and universal magisterium which is
manifested by the common adherence of Christ's faithful under the
guidance of the sacred magisterium. All are therefore bound to
avoid any doctrines whatsoever contrary to them." (1983 Code
of Canon Law)
"Wherefore
by actions also, especially if they be repeated, so as to make a
custom, law can be changed and expounded; and also something can
be established which obtains force of law, in so far as by
repeated external actions, the inward movement of the will, and
concepts of reason are most effectually declared; for when a thing
is done again and again, it seems to proceed from a deliberate
judgment of reason. Accordingly, custom has the force of a law,
abolishes law, and is the interpreter of law." (St. Thomas
Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the
history of the Church")
"...if
that which is done be, in itself, not conducive to God's glory,
nor raise man's mind to God, nor curb inordinate concupiscence, or
again if it be not in accordance with the commandments of God and
of the Church, or if it be contrary to the general custom - which,
according to Augustine (Ad Casulan. Ep. 36), 'has the force of
law' - all this must be reckoned excessive and superstitious,
because consisting, as it does, of mere externals, it has no
connection with the internal worship of God." (St. Thomas
Aquinas, Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the
history of the Church")
"But for Catholics nothing will remove the
authority of the Second Council of Nicaea, where it condemns those
'who dare, after the impious fashion of heretics, to deride the
ecclesiastical traditions, to invent novelties of some kind...or
endeavor by malice or craft to overthrow anyone of the legitimate
traditions of the Catholic Church' ... Wherefore the Roman
Pontiffs, Pius IV and Pius IX, ordered the insertion in the
profession of faith of the following declaration: 'I most firmly
admit and embrace the apostolic and ecclesiastical traditions and
other observances and constitutions of the Church'." (Pope
St. Pius X, "Pascendi Dominici Gregis", 1907 A.D.)
"Surely,
'blind and leaders of the blind' [Matt. 15:14] are they
who, puffed up by the proud name of science, reach such a point in
their raving that they pervert the eternal concept of truth, and
the true sense of religion by introducing a new system, 'in
which from an exaggerated and unbridled desire for novelty, truth
is not sought where it certainly exists, and neglecting the holy
and apostolic traditions, other doctrines empty, futile,
uncertain, and unapproved by the Church are adopted, on which men
in their extreme vanity think that truth itself is based and
maintained.'" (Pope St. Pius X, "Pascendi Dominici Gregis", 1907 A.D.)
"The
Apostles, led by the inward instinct of the Holy Ghost, handed
down to the churches certain instructions which they did not put
in writing, but which have been ordained, in accordance with the
observance of the Church as practiced by the faithful as time went
on. Wherefore the Apostle says (2 Thessalonians 2:14): 'Stand
fast; and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by
word' - that is by word of mouth - 'or by our epistle' - that is
by word put into writing. Among these traditions is the worship of
Christ's image. Wherefore it is said that Blessed Luke painted the
image of Christ, which is in Rome." (St. Thomas Aquinas,
Doctor of the Church and "greatest theologian in the history
of the Church")
"Those,
therefore, who dare to think or to teach otherwise or to spurn
according to wretched heretics the ecclesiastical traditions and
to invent anything novel, or to reject anything from these things
which have been consecrated by the Church: either the Gospel or
the figure of the Cross, or the (representational) picture, or the
sacred relics of the martyr; or to invent perversely and cunningly
for the overthrow of any one of the legitimate traditions of the
Catholic Church; or even, as it were, to use the sacred vessels or
the venerable monasteries as common things; if indeed they are
bishops or clerics, we order (them) to be deposed; monks, however,
or laymen, to be excommunicated." (Second Council of Nicaea,
787 A.D.)
"Finally,
I declare that I am completely opposed to the error of the
modernists who hold that there is nothing divine in sacred
tradition; or what is far worse, say that there is, but in a
pantheistic sense, with the result that there would remain nothing
but this plain simple fact - one to be put on a par with the
ordinary facts of history - the fact, namely, that a group of men
by their own labor, skill, and talent have continued through
subsequent ages a school begun by Christ and his apostles. I
firmly hold, then, and shall hold to my dying breath the belief of
the Fathers in the charism of truth, which certainly is, was, and
always will be in the succession of the episcopacy from the
apostles. The purpose of this is, then, not that dogma may be
tailored according to what seems better and more suited to the
culture of each age; rather, that the absolute and immutable truth
preached by the apostles from the beginning may never be believed
to be different, may never be understood in any other way."
(Pope St. Pius X, Oath Against Modernism, 1910 A.D.)
"Hence
there exists a close connection and communication between sacred
tradition and Sacred Scripture. For both of them, flowing from the
same divine wellspring, in a certain way merge into a unity and
tend toward the same end. For Sacred Scripture is the word of God
inasmuch as it is consigned to writing under the inspiration of
the divine Spirit, while sacred tradition takes the word of God
entrusted by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit to the Apostles,
and hands it on to their successors in its full purity, so that
led by the light of the Spirit of truth they may in proclaiming it
preserve this word of God faithfully, explain it, and make it more
widely known. Consequently it is not from Sacred Scripture alone
that the Church draws her certainty about everything which has
been revealed. Therefore both sacred tradition and Sacred
Scripture are to be accepted and venerated with the same sense of
loyalty and reverence. Sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture form
one sacred deposit of the word of God, committed to the Church."
(Second Vatican Council)
"If
anyone according to the wicked heretics in any manner whatsoever,
by any word whatsoever, or at any time or place whatsoever
illicitly removing the bounds which the holy Fathers of the
Catholic Church have rather firmly established [Prov. 22:28], that
is, the five holy and universal Synods, in order rashly to seek
for novelties and expositions of another faith; or books, or
letters, or writings, or subscriptions, or false testimonies, or
synods, or records of deeds, or vain ordinations unknown to
ecclesiastical rule; or unsuitable and irrational tenures of
place; and briefly, if it is customary for the most impious
heretics to do anything else, (if anyone) through diabolical
operation crookedly and cunningly acts contrary to the pious
preachings of the orthodox (teachers) of the Catholic Church, that
is to say, its paternal and synodal proclamations, to the
destruction of the most sincere confession unto the Lord our God,
and persists without repentance unto the end impiously doing these
things, let such a person be condemned forever, and let all the
people say: so be it, so be it [Ps. 105:48]." (Lateran
Council, 649 A.D.)
"While St. Paul opposed any attempt to
force Gentile converts to adopt Jewish customs, hence his
celebrated rebuke to St. Peter in Galatians 2, neither he nor the
other Apostles considered it necessary for Jewish Christians to
abandon their traditional rites. Commenting on this, Cardinal
Newman writes: 'But they neither abandoned the Jewish rites
themselves nor obliged any others to do so who were used to them.
Custom was quite a sufficient reason for retaining them; every
Christian was to remain in the state in which he was called... Now
from this obedience to the Jewish law, enjoined and displayed by
Our Blessed Lord and His Apostles, we learn the great importance
of retaining those religious forms to which we are accustomed,
even though they are in themselves indifferent, or not of Divine
origin... Granting that the forms are not immediately from God,
still long use has made them divine to us; for the spirit of
religion has so penetrated and quickened them, that to destroy
them is, in respect to the multitude of men, to unsettle and
dislodge the religious principle itself. In most minds usage has
so identified them with the notion of religion, that the one
cannot be extirpated without the other. Their faith will not bear
transplanting... In these times especially, we should be on our
guard against those who hope, by inducing us to lay aside our
forms, at length to make us lay aside our Christian hope
altogether.'" (Davies)
"'Guard,'
[St. Paul] says, 'what has been
committed.' (1 Tm. 6:20) What does it mean, 'what has been committed'? It is
what has been faithfully entrusted to you, not what has been
discovered by you; what you have received, not what you have
thought up; a matter not of ingenuity, but of doctrine; not of
private acquisition, but of public Tradition; a matter brought to
you, not put forth by you, in which you must not be the author but
the guardian, not the founder but the sharer, not the leader, but
the follower. 'Guard,' he says, 'what has been committed.' Keep
the talent [see Mt. 25:14-30] of the Catholic Faith inviolate and
unimpaired. What has been faithfully entrusted, let it remain in
your possession, let it be handed on by you. You have received
gold, so give gold. For my part, I do not want you to substitute
one thing for another; I do not want you imprudently to put lead in
place of gold, or fraudulently, brass. I do not want the
appearance of gold, but the real thing. O Timothy, O priest, O
interpreter, O teacher, if a divine give has made you suitable in
genius, in experience, in doctrine to be the Bezalel [i.e. skilled
craftsman] of the spiritual tabernacle, cut out the precious gems
of divine dogma, shape them faithfully, ornament them wisely, add
splendor, grace and beauty to them! By your expounding it, may
that now be understood more clearly which formerly was believed
even in its obscurity. May posterity, by means of you, rejoice in
understanding what in times past was venerated without
understanding. Nevertheless, teach the same that you have learned,
so that if you say something anew, it is not something new that
you say." (St. Vincent of Lerins, c. 434 A.D.)
"The
Holy Ghost has not kept the Books of sacred scripture from passing
into the hands of the sects separated from the center of unity;
but He has reserved to the Church the treasure of tradition, which
transmits, surely and fully, from one generation to another, the
word which is life and light. This tradition is kept up by the
truth and the holiness of the Man-God, ever existing in His
members, ever tangible and visible in the Church. Holiness, which
is inherent in the Church, is tradition in its purest and
strongest form; because it is the truth, not only preached, but
reduced to action and work, as it was in Christ Jesus, and as it
is in God. It is the deposit, which the disciples of the apostles
had the mission to hand faithfully down to their successors, just
as the apostles themselves had received it from the Word, who had
come upon the earth. Hence, St. Paul did not content himself with
entrusting dogmatic teaching to his disciple Timothy; he said to
him: 'Be thou an example to the faithful, in word, and in living.'
He said much the same to Titus: 'Show thyself an example of good
works, in doctrine and in integrity of life.' He repeated to all:
'Be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ.' He sent Timothy
to the Corinthians, that he might remind them, or, where it was
necessary, might teach them, not only the dogmas of his Gospel,
but likewise his ways in Christ Jesus, that is, his manner of
life. For this manner of life of the apostle was, in a certain
measure, his teaching everywhere in all the Churches; and he
lauded the faithful of Corinth for being mindful to imitate him in
all things, which was a keeping to the tradition of Christ. As for
the Thessalonians, they had so thoroughly entered into this
teaching, taken from their apostle's life, that, as St. Paul says
of them, they had become a pattern to all believers; this silent
teaching of Christian revelation, which they showed forth in their
conduct, made it superfluous for the messengers of the Gospel to
say much." (Liturgical Year)
"Of the dogmas and kerygmas preserved in
the Church, some we possess from written teachings and others we
receive from the tradition of the Apostles, handed on to us in
mystery. In respect to piety both are of the same force. No one
will contradict any of these, no one, at any rate, who is even
moderately versed in matters ecclesiastical. Indeed, were we to
try to reject unwritten customs as having no great authority, we
would unwittingly injure the Gospel in its vitals; or rather, we
would reduce kerygma to a mere term. For instance, to take the
first and most general example, who taught us in writing to sign
with the sign of the cross those who have trusted in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ? What writing has taught us to turn to the
East in prayer? Which of the saints left us in writing the words
of the epiclesis at the consecration of the Bread of Eucharist and
the Cup of Benediction? For we are not content with those words
the Apostle or the gospel has recorded, but we say other things
also, both before and after: and we regard these other words,
which we have received from unwritten teaching, as being of great
importance to the mystery. Where is it written that we are to
bless the baptism water, the oil of anointing, and even the one
who is being baptized? Is it not from silent and mystical
tradition?... And the rest of the things done at Baptism, where
is it written that we are to renounce Satan and his angels? Does
this not come from that secret and arcane teaching which our
Fathers guarded in a silence not too curiously meddled with and
not idly investigated, when they had learned well that reverence
for the mysteries is best preserved by silence... In the same way
the Apostles and Fathers who, in the beginning, prescribed the
Church's rites, guarded in secrecy and silence the dignity of the
mysteries; for that which is blabbed at random and in the public
ear is no mystery at all. This is the reason for our handing on of
unwritten precepts and practices: that the knowledge of our dogmas
may not be neglected and held in contempt by the multitude through
too great a familiarity." (St. Basil the Great, Doctor of the
Church, c. 375 A.D.)
"The sacred and holy ecumenical and general
Synod of Trent, lawfully assembled in the Holy Spirit, with the
same three Legates of the Apostolic See presiding over it, keeping
this constantly in view, that with the abolishing of errors, the
purity itself of the Gospel is preserved in the Church, which
promised before through the Prophets in the Holy Scriptures our
Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God first promulgated with His own
mouth, and then commanded 'to be preached' by His apostles 'to
every creature' as the source of every saving truth and of
instruction in morals [Matt. 28:19 ff., Mark 16:15], and [the
Synod] clearly perceiving that this truth and instruction are
contained in the written books and in the unwritten traditions,
which have been received by the apostles from the mouth of Christ
Himself, or from the apostles themselves, at the dictation of the
Holy Spirit, have come down even to us, transmitted as it were
from hand to hand, [the Synod] following the examples of the
orthodox Fathers, receives and holds in veneration with an equal
affection of piety and reverence all the books both of the Old and
of the New Testament, since one God is the author or both, and
also the traditions themselves, those that appertain both to faith
and to morals, as having been dictated either by Christ's own word
of mouth, or by the Holy Spirit, and preserved in the Catholic
Church by a continuous succession. And so that no doubt may arise
in anyone's mind as to which are the books that are accepted by
this Synod, it has decreed that a list of the Sacred books be
added to this decree... If anyone, however, should not accept the
said books as sacred and canonical, entire with all their parts,
as they were wont to be read in the Catholic Church, and as they
are contained in the old Latin Vulgate edition, and if both
knowingly and deliberately he should condemn the aforesaid
traditions let him be anathema. Let all, therefore, understand in
what order and in what manner the said Synod, after having laid
the foundation of the confession of Faith, will proceed, and what
testimonies and authorities it will mainly use in confirming
dogmas, and in restoring morals in the Church." (Council of
Trent, 1546 A.D.)
"Touched
inwardly with sorrow of heart' [Gen. 6:6], 'we are filled
with the bitterness of wormwood' [cf. Lam. 3:15], because as
it has been brought to our attention, certain ones among you,
distended like a skin by the spirit of vanity, are working with
profane novelty to pass beyond the boundaries which thy fathers
have set [cf. Prov. 22:28], the understanding of the heavenly page
limited by the fixed boundaries of expositions in the studies of
the Holy Fathers by inclining toward the philosophical doctrine of
natural things, which it is not only rash but even profane to
transgress; (they are doing this) for a show of knowledge, not for
any profit to their hearers; so that they seem to be not taught of
God or speakers of God, but rather revealed as God. For, although
they ought to explain theology according to the approved
traditions of the saints and not with carnal weapons, 'yet
with (weapons) powerful for God to destroy every height exalting
itself against the knowledge of God and to lead back into
captivity every understanding unto the obedience of Christ'
[cf. 2 Cor. 10:4 f.], they themselves 'led away by various
and strange doctrines' [cf. Heb. 13:9] reduce the 'head
to the tail' [cf. Deut. 28:13, 44] and they force the queen
to be servant to the handmaid, that is, by earthly documents
attributing the heavenly, which is of grace, to nature. Indeed
relying on the knowledge of natural things more than they ought,
returning 'to the weak and needy elements' of the world,
which they served while they were 'little' and 'serving them again' [Gal. 4:9] as foolish in Christ
they feed on 'milk and not solid food' [Heb. 5:12 f.],
and they seem by no means to have established 'the heart in
grace' [cf. Heb. 13:9]; and so despoiled of their rewards 'plundered and wounded by their natural possessions they do
not reduce to memory that (saying) of the Apostle which we believe
they have already frequently read: 'Avoiding the profane
novelties of words, and the oppositions of knowledge falsely so
called, which some seeking have erred concerning the faith'
[cf. 1 Tim. 6:20 f.]." (Pope Gregory IX, 1228 A.D.)
"With great zeal and closest attention,
therefore I frequently inquired of many men, eminent for their
holiness and doctrine, how I might, in a concise, and so to speak,
general and ordinary way, distinguish the truth of the Catholic
faith from the falsehood of heretical depravity. I received almost
always the same answer from all of them, that if I or anyone else
wanted to expose the frauds and escape the snares of the heretics
who rise up, and to remain intact and sound in a sound faith, it
would be necessary, with the help of the Lord, to fortify that
faith in a twofold manner: first, of course, by the authority of
divine law; and then, by the Tradition of the Catholic Church.
Here, perhaps, someone may ask: 'If the canon of the Scriptures be
perfect, and in itself more than suffices for everything, why is
it necessary that the authority of ecclesiastical interpretation
be joined to it?' Because, quite plainly, Sacred Scripture, by
reason of its own depth, is not accepted by everyone as having one
and the same meaning. The same passage is interpreted in one way
by some, in another by others, so that it can almost appear as if
there are as many opinions as there are men... And thus, because
of so many distortions of such various errors, it is highly
necessary that the line of prophetic and apostolic interpretation
be directed in accord with the norm of the ecclesiastical and
Catholic meaning. In the Catholic Church herself every care must
be taken that we may hold fast to that which has been believed
everywhere, always, and by all. For this, is then, truly and
properly Catholic. That is what the force and meaning of the name
itself declares, a name that embraces all truly universally. This
general rule will be correctly applied if we pursue universality,
antiquity, and agreement. And we follow universality in this way,
if we confess this one faith to be true, which is confessed by the
whole Church throughout the whole world: antiquity, however, if we
in no way depart from those interpretations which, it is clear,
our holy predecessors and fathers solemnized; and likewise
agreement, if, in this very antiquity, we adopt the definitions
and theses of all or certainly of almost all priests and
teachers." (St. Vincent of Lerins, c. 434 A.D.)
Also
See: Against
Modernism / Novelty | Written
/ Oral Tradition (Scripture Reflections) | Popes
as Preservers of Tradition / Against New Doctrines (Vatican View
Reflections) | Unchangeableness
of Dogmas | God
is Unchangeable | Latin
Mass & Catholic Tradition: Q & A | Latin
Mass Facts | Traditional
('Tridentine') Latin Mass (Reflections) | Latin
Mass Information | Traditional
Prayers & Practices
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