Protestantism and Catholicity

Note 3, p. 27

The Diet of Spires had made a decree concerning the change of religion and worship; fourteen towns of the empire refused to submit to it, and presented a Protest; hence men began to call the dissenters Protestants. As this name is a condemnation of the separated churches, they have several times attempted to assume others, but always in vain; the names which they took were false, and false names do not last. What was their meaning when they called themselves Evangelicals? That they adhered to the Gospel alone? In that case they ought rather to call themselves Biblicals; for it was not to the Gospel that they professed to adhere, but to the Bible. They are also sometimes called Reformers; and many people have been accustomed to call Protestantism, reformation; but it is enough to pronounce this word, to feel how inappropriate it is; religious revolution would be much more proper.

Note 4, p. 27

Count de Maistre, in his work Du Pape, has developed this question of names in an inimitable manner. Among his numerous observations, there is one very just one: it is, that the Catholic Church alone has a positive and proper name, which she gives to herself, and which is given to her by the whole world. The separated Churches have invented many, but without the power of appropriating them. – "Each one was free to take what name he pleased," says M. de Maistre; "Lais, in person, might be able to write upon her door, Hôtel d'Artémise. The great point is, to compel others to give us a particular name, which is not so easy as to take it of our own authority."

Moreover, it must not be imagined that Count de Maistre was the inventor of this argument; a long time before him St. Jerome and St. Augustin had used it. "If you," says St. Jerome, "hear them called Marcionites, Valentinians, Montanists, know that they are not the Church of Christ, but the synagogue of Antichrist. – Si audieris nuncupari Marcionitas, Valentinianos, Montanenses, scito, non Ecclesiam Christi, sed Antichristi esse synagogam." (Hieron. lib. Adversus Luciferianos.) "I am retained in the Church," says St. Augustin, "by her very name of Catholic; for it was not without a cause that she alone, amid so many heresies, obtained that name. All the heretics desire to be called Catholics; yet if a stranger asks them which is the church of the Catholics, none of them venture to point out their church or house. – Tenet me in Ecclesia ipsum Catholicæ nomen, quod non sine causa inter tam multas hæreses, sic ipsa sola obtinuit, ut cum omnes hæretici se Catholicos dici velint, quærenti tamen peregrino alicui, ubi ad Catholicam conveniatur, nullus hæreticorum, vel basilicam suam vel domum audeat ostendere." (St. Augustin.) What St. Augustin observed of his time is again realized with respect to the Protestants. I appeal to the testimony of those who have visited the countries where different communions exist. An illustrious Spaniard of the seventeenth century, who had lived a long time in Germany, tells us, "They all wish to be called Catholic and Apostolical; but notwithstanding this pretension, they are called Lutherans, or Calvinists. – Singuli volunt Catholici et Apostolici, sed volunt, et ab aliis non hoc prætenso illis nomine, sed Luterani potius aut Calviniani nominantur." (Caramuel.) "I have dwelt in the towns of heretics," continues the same writer, "and I have seen with my eyes and heard with my ears a thing on which the heterodox should reflect: it is, that with the exception of the Protestant preacher, and a few others, who desire to know more of the thing than is necessary, all the crowd of heretics gave the name of Catholics to the Romans. – Habitavi in hæreticorum civitatibus; et hoc propriis oculis vidi, propriis audivi auribus, quod deberet ab hæterodoxis ponderari, præter prædicantem, et pauculos qui plus sapiunt quam oportet sapere, totum hæreticorum vulgus Catholicos vocat Romanos." Such is the force of truth. The ideologists know well that these phenomena have deep causes, and that these arguments are something more than subtilties.

Note 5, p. 38

So much has been said of abuses, the influence which they may have had on the disasters which the Church suffered during the last centuries has been so much exaggerated, and at the same time so much care has been taken, by hypocritical praise, to exalt the purity of manners and strictness of discipline in the primitive Church, that some people have at last imagined a line of division between ancient and modern times. These persons see in the early times only truth and sanctity; they attribute to the others only corruption and falsehood; as if, in the early ages of the Church, all the faithful were angels – as if the Church, at all times, had not errors to correct and passions to control. With history in our hands, it would be easy to reduce these exaggerated ideas to their just value, to which Erasmus himself, certainly little disposed to exculpate his contemporaries, does justice. He clearly shows us, in a parallel between his own times and those of the early ages of the Church, how puerile and ill-founded was the desire, then so widely diffused, of exalting antiquity at the expense of the present time. We find a fragment of this parallel in the works of Marchetti, among his observations on Fleury's history.

It would not be less curious to pass in review the regulations made by the Church to check all kinds of abuses. The collections of councils would furnish us with so many materials thereupon, that many volumes would not suffice to make them known; or rather, these collections themselves, with alarming bulk, from one end to the other, are nothing but an evident proof of these two truths: 1st, that there have been at all times many abuses to be corrected, an effect, in some measure necessary, of the weakness and corruption of human nature; 2dly, that at all periods the Church has labored to correct these abuses, so that it may be affirmed without hesitation, that you cannot point out one without immediately finding a canonical regulation by its side to check or punish it. These observations clearly show that Protestantism was not caused by abuses, but that it was a great calamity, as it were, rendered unavoidable by the fickleness of the human mind, and the condition in which society was placed. In the same sense Jesus Christ has said, that it was necessary that there should be scandal; not that any one in particular is forced to give it, but because such is the corruption of the human heart, that the natural course of things must necessarily bring it.

Note 6, p. 42

This concert and unity, which are found in Catholicity, are things which ought to fill every sensible man with admiration and astonishment, whatever his religious ideas may be. If we do not suppose that the finger of God is here, how can we explain or understand the continuance of the centre of unity in the see of Rome? So much has been said of the supremacy of the Pope, that it is very difficult to add any thing new; but perhaps our readers will not be displeased to see a passage of St. Francis de Sales, where the various remarkable titles given to the Sovereign Pontiff and to his see, by the Church in ancient times, are collected. This work of the holy Bishop is worthy of being introduced, not only because it interests the curiosity, but also because it furnishes matter for grave reflection, which we leave to the reader.

TITLES OF THE POPE

Most Holy Bishop of the Catholic Church – Council of Soissons, of 300 Bishops.

Most Holy and Blessed Patriarch – Ibid., t. vii., Council.

Most Blessed Lord – St. Augustine, Ep. 95.

Universal Patriarch – St. Leo, P., Ep. 62.

Chief of the Church in the World – Innoc. ad P. P. Concil. Milevit.

The Bishop elevated to the Apostolic eminence – St. Cyprian, Ep. 3, 12.

Father of Fathers – Council of Chalcedon, Sess. iii.

Sovereign Pontiff of Bishops – Id., in præf.

Sovereign Priest – Council of Chalcedon, Sess. xvi.

Prince of Priests – Stephen, Bishop of Carthage.

Prefect of the House of God and Guardian of the Lord's Vineyard – Council of Carthage, Ep. to Damasus.

Vicar of Jesus Christ, Confirmer of the Faith of Christians – St. Jerome, præf. in Evang. ad Damasum.

High-Priest – Valentinian, and all antiquity with him.

The Sovereign Pontiff – Council of Chalcedon, in Epist. ad Theodos. Imper.

The Prince of Bishops – Ibid.

The Heir of the Apostles – St. Bern., lib. de Consid.

Abraham by the Patriarchate – St. Ambrose, in 1 Tim. iii.

Melchisedech by ordination – Council of Chalcedon, Epist. ad Leonem.

Moses by authority – St. Bernard, Epist. 190.

Samuel by jurisdiction – Id. ib., et in lib. de Consider.

Peter by power – Ibid.

Christ by unction – Ibid.

The Shepherd of the Fold of Jesus Christ – Id. lib ii. de Consider.

Key-Bearer of the House of God – Id. ibid. c. viii.

The Shepherd of all Shepherds – Ibid.

The Pontiff called to the plentitude of power – Ibid.

St. Peter was the Mouth of Jesus Christ – St. Chrysost., Hom. ii., in Div. Serm.

The Mouth and Head of the Apostleship – Orig., Hom. lv. in Matth.

The Cathedra and Principal Church – St. Cypr., Ep. lv. ad Cornel.

The Source of Sacerdotal Unity – Id., Epist. iii. 2.

The Bond of Unity – Id. ibid. iv. 2.

The Church where resides the chief power (potentior principalitas) – Id. ibid. iii. 8.

The Church the Root and Mother of all the others – St. Anaclet. Papa, Epist. ad omnes Episc. et Fideles.

The See on which our Lord has built the Universal Church – St. Damasus, Epist. ad Univ. Episcop.

The Cardinal Point and Head of all the Churches – St. Marcellinus, R. Epist. ad Episc. Antioch.

The Refuge of Bishops – Conc. Alex., Epist. ad Felic. P.

The Supreme Apostolic See – St. Athanasius.

The Presiding Church – Emperor Justin., in lib. viii., Cod. de Sum. Trinit.

The Supreme See which cannot be judged by any other – St. Leo, in Nat. SS. Apost.

The Church set over and preferred to all the others – Victor d'Utiq., in lib. de Perfect.

The first of all the Sees – St. Prosper, in lib. de Ingrat.

The Apostolic Fountain – St. Ignatius, Epist. ad Rom. in Subscript.

The most secure Citadel of all Catholic Communion – Council of Rome under St. Gelasius.

Note 7, p. 45

I have said that the most distinguished Protestants have felt the void which is found in all sects separated from the Catholic Church. I am about to give proofs of this assertion, which perhaps some persons may consider hazardous. Luther, writing to Zwinglius, said, "If the world lasts for a long time, it will be again necessary, on account of the different interpretations which are now given to the Scriptures, to receive the decrees of Councils, and take refuge in them, in order to preserve the unity of the faith. – Si diutius steterit mundus, iterum erit necessarium, propter diversas Scripturæ interpretationes quæ nunc sunt, ad conservandam fidei unitatem, ut conciliorum decreta recipiamus, atque ad ea confugiamus."

Melancthon, deploring the fatal results of the want of spiritual jurisdiction, said, "There will result from it a liberty useless to the world;" and in another place he utters these remarkable words: "There are required in the Church inspectors, to maintain order, to observe attentively those who are called to the ecclesiastical ministry, to watch over the doctrine of priests, and pronounce ecclesiastical judgments; so that if bishops did not exist, it would be necessary to create them. The monarchy of the Pope would be of great utility to preserve among such various nations uniformity of doctrine."

Let us hear Calvin: "God has placed the seat of his worship in the centre of the earth, and has placed there only one Pontiff, whom all may regard, the better to preserve unity. – Cultus sui sedem in medio terræ collocavit, illi unum Antisticem præfecit, quem omnes respicerent, quo melius in unitate continerentur." – (Calvin, Inst. 6, § 11.)

"I have also," says Beza, "been long and greatly tormented by the same thoughts which you describe to me. I see our people wander at the mercy of every wind of doctrine, and after having been raised up, fall sometimes on one side, and sometimes on the other. What they think of religion to-day you may know; what they will think of it to-morrow you cannot affirm. On what point of religion are the Churches which have declared war against the Pope agreed? Examine all, from beginning to end, you will hardly find one thing affirmed by the one which the other does not directly cry out against as impiety.– Exercuerunt me diu et multum illæ ipsæ quas describis cogitationes. Video nostros palantes omni doctrinæ vento, et in altum sublatos, modo ad hanc, modo ad illam partem deferri. Horum, quæ sit hodie de religione sententia scire fortasse possis; sed quæ cras de eadem futura sit opinio, neque tu certo affirmare queas. In quo tandem religionis capite congruunt inter se Ecclesiæ, quæ Romano Pontifici bellum indixerunt? A capite ad calcem si percurras omnia, nihil propemodum reperias ab uno affirmari, quod alter statim non impium esse clamitet." (Th. Bez. Epist. ad Andream Dudit.)

Grotius, one of the most learned of Protestants, also felt the weakness of the foundation on which the separated sects repose. Many people have believed that he died a Catholic. The Protestants accused him of having the intention of embracing the Roman faith; and the Catholics, who had relations with him at Paris, thought the same thing. It is said that the celebrated Petau, the friend of Grotius, at the news of his death, said mass for him; an anecdote the truth of which I do not guarantee. It is certain that Grotius, in his work entitled De Antichristo, does not think, with other Protestants, that the Pope is Antichrist. It is certain that, in his work entitled Votum pro Pace Ecclesiæ, he says, without circumlocution, "that without the supremacy of the Pope, it is impossible to put an end to disputes;" and he alleges the example of the Protestants: "as it happens," says he, "among the Protestants." It is certain that, in his posthumous work, Rivetiani Apologetici Discussio, he openly lays down the fundamental principle of Catholicity, namely, that "the dogmas of faith should be decided by tradition and the authority of the Church, and not by the holy Scriptures only."

The conversion of the celebrated Protestant Papin, which made so much noise, is another proof of what we are endeavoring to show. Papin reflected on the fundamental principle of Protestantism, and on the contradiction which exists between this principle and the intolerance of Protestants, who, relying only on private judgment, yet have recourse to authority for self-preservation. He reasoned as follows: "If the principle of authority, which they attempt to adopt, is innocent and legitimate, it condemns their origin, wherein they refused to submit to the authority of the Catholic Church; but if the principle of private judgment, which they embraced in the beginning, was right and just, this is enough to condemn the principle of authority invented by them for the purpose of avoiding its excesses; for this principle opens and smooths the way to the greatest disorders of impiety."

Puffendorf, who will certainly not be accused of coldness when attacking Catholicity, could not help paying his tribute also to the truth, when, in a confession for which all Catholics ought to thank him, he says, "The suppression of the authority of the Pope has sowed endless germs of discord in the world: as there is no longer any sovereign authority to terminate the disputes which arise on all sides, we have seen the Protestants split among themselves, and tear their bowels with their own hands." (Puffendorf, de Monarch. Pont. Roman.)

Leibnitz, that great man, who, according to the expression of Fontenelle, advanced all sciences, also acknowledged the weakness of Protestantism, and the organizing power which belongs to the Catholic Church. We know that, far from participating in the anger of Protestants against the Pope, he regarded the religious supremacy of Rome with the most lively sympathy. He openly avows the superiority of the Catholic over the Protestant missions; the religious communities themselves, the objects of so much aversion to so many people, were to him highly respectable. These anticipations with respect to the religious ideas of this great man have been more and more confirmed by one of his posthumous works, published for the first time at Paris in 1819. The Exposition of the Doctrine of Leibnitz on Religion, followed by Thoughts extracted from the writings of the same Author, by M. Emery, formerly General Superior of St. Sulpice, contains the posthumous work of Leibnitz, whereof the title, in the original manuscript, is, Theological System. The commencement of this work, remarkable for its seriousness and simplicity, is certainly worthy of the great soul of this distinguished thinker. It is this: "After having long and profoundly studied religious controversies, after having implored the divine assistance, and laid aside, as far as it is possible for man, all spirit of party, I have considered myself as a neophyte come from the new world, and one who had not yet embraced an opinion; behold, therefore, the conclusions at which I have arrived, and what appeared to me, out of all that I have examined, worthy to be received by all unprejudiced men, as what is most conformable to the holy Scriptures and respectable antiquity; I will even say, to right reason and the most certain historical facts."

Leibnitz afterwards lays down the existence of God, the Incarnation, the Trinity, and the other dogmas of Christianity; he adopts with candor, and defends with much learning, the doctrine of the Catholic Church on tradition, the sacraments, the sacrifice of the Mass, the respect paid to relics and holy images, the Church hierarchy, and the supremacy of the Pope. He adds, "In all cases which do not admit the delay of the convocation of a general Council, or which do not deserve to be considered therein, it must be admitted that the first of the Bishops, or the Sovereign Pontiff, has the same power as the whole Church."

Note 8, p. 49

Some persons may suppose that what we have said with respect to the emptiness of human knowledge and the weakness of our intellect, has been said only for the purpose of making the necessity of a rule in matters of faith more sensibly felt. It is not so. It would be easy for me to insert here a long list of texts, drawn from the writings of the most illustrious men of ancient and modern times, who have insisted upon this very point. I will only quote here an excellent passage from an illustrious Spaniard, one of the greatest men of the sixteenth century, Louis Vives. "Jam mens ipsa, suprema animi et celsissima pars, videbit quantopere sit tum natura sua tarda ac præpedita, tum tenebris peccati cæca, et a doctrina, usu, ac solertia imperita et rudis, ut ne ea quidem quæ videt, quæque manibus contrectat, cujusmodi sint, aut quid fiant assequatur, nedum ut in abdito illa naturæ, arcana possit penetrare; sapienterque ab Aristotele illa est posita sententia: Mentem nostram ad manifestissima naturæ non aliter habere se, quam noctuæ oculum ad lumen solis. Ea omnia, quæ universum hominum genus novit, quota sunt pars eorum quæ ignoramus? Nec solum id in universitate artium est verum, sed in singulis earum, in quarum nulla tantum est humanum ingenium progressum, ut ad medium pervenerit, etiam in infimis illis ac villissimis; ut nihil existimetur verius esse dictum ab Academicis quam Scire nihil." (Ludovic. Vives, de Concordia et Discordia, lib. iv. c. iii.) So thought this great man, who, to vast erudition in sacred and profane things, added profound meditation on the human intellect itself; who followed the progress of the sciences with an observant eye, and undertook to regenerate them, as his writings prove. I regret that I cannot copy his words at length, as well those in the passage which I have just cited, as those of his immortal work on the causes of the decline of the arts and sciences, and on the manner of teaching them. If any one complain that I have told some truths as to the weakness of our minds, and fear lest this should impede the progress of knowledge by checking its flights, I will remind him that the best way of promoting the progress of our minds is, to give them a knowledge of themselves. On this point, the profound sentence of Seneca may be quoted: "I know that many persons would have attained to wisdom, if they had not presumed that they already possessed it." "Puto multos ad sapientiam protuisse pervenire, nisi se jam crederent pervenisse."

Note 9, p. 53

Dense clouds surround the intellect as soon as it approaches the first principles of the sciences. I have said that even the mathematics, the clearness and certainty of which have become proverbial, are not exempted from this universal rule. The infinitesimal calculation, which, in the present state of science, may be said to play the leading part, nevertheless depends on a few ideas which, up to this time, have not been well explained by any one – ideas with respect to limits. I do not wish to throw any doubt on the certainty of this calculation: I only wish to show, that, if it were attempted to examine the ideas which are as it were the elements of it, before the tribunal of metaphysical philosophy, the consequence would be, that shades would be cast upon their certainty. Without going further than the elementary part of science, we might discover some points which would not bear a continued metaphysical and ideological analysis without injury: a thing which it would be very easy to prove by example, if the nature of this work allowed it. We may recommend to the reader on this subject, the valuable letter addressed by the Spanish Jesuit, Eximeno, a distinguished philosopher and mathematician, to his friend, Juan Andres; he will there find some appropriate observations made by a man who certainly will not be rejected on the ground of incompetency. It is in Latin, and is called Epistola ad clarissimum virum Joannem Andresium.

As to the other sciences, it is not necessary to say much to prove that their first principles are surrounded with darkness; and it may be said that the brilliant reveries of the most illustrious men have had no other source than this very obscurity. Led away by the feeling of their own strength, these men pursued truth even to the abyss; there, to use the expression of an illustrious contemporary poet, the torch was extinguished in their hands; lost in an obscure labyrinth, they were then abandoned to the mercy of their fancies and inspirations; it was thus that reality gave place to the beautiful dreams of their genius.

Note 10, p. 54

Nothing is better for understanding and explaining the innate weakness of the human mind, than to survey the history of heresies; a history which we owe to the Church, to the extreme care which she has taken to define and classify errors. From Simon Magus, who called himself the legislator of the Jews, the renovator of the world, and the paraclete, while paying a worship of latria to his mistress Helena, under the name of Minerva, down to Hermann, preaching the massacre of all the priests and all the magistrates of the world, and affirming that he was the real son of God; a vast picture, very unpleasant to behold, I acknowledge, if it were only on account of the extravagances with which it abounds, presents itself to the observer, and suggests to him very grave and profound reflections on the real character of the human mind; there it is easy to see the wisdom of Catholicity, in attempting, in certain cases, to subject this inconstant spirit to rule.

Note 11, p. 57

If any persons find difficulty in persuading themselves that illusion and fanaticism are, as it were, in their proper element among Protestants, behold the irresistible testimony of facts in aid of our assertion. This subject would furnish large volumes; but I must be content with a rapid glance. I begin with Luther. Is it possible to carry raving further than to pretend to have been taught by the devil, to boast of it, and to found new doctrines on so powerful an authority? Yet this was the raving of Luther himself, the founder of Protestantism, who has left us in his works the evidence of his interview with Satan. – Whether the apparition was real, or produced by the dreams of a night agitated by fever, it is impossible to carry fanaticism further than to boast of having had such a master. Luther tells us himself that he had many colloquies with the devil; but what is above all worthy of attention is, the vision in which, as he relates in the most serious manner, Satan, by his arguments, compelled him to proscribe private masses. He gives us a lively description of this adventure. He wakes in the middle of the night; Satan appears to him. – Luther is seized with horror; he sweats, he trembles; his heart beats in a fearful manner. Nevertheless the discussion begins, and the devil, like a good disputant, presses him so hard with his arguments, that he leaves him without reply. Luther is conquered; which ought not to astonish us, since he tells us that the logic of the devil was accompanied by a voice so alarming, that the blood froze in his veins. "I then understood," says this wretched being, "how it often happens that people die at the break of day; it is because the devil is able to kill or suffocate men; and without going so far as that, when he disputes with them, he places them in such embarrassment, that he can thus occasion their death. I have often experienced this myself." This passage is certainly curious.