FAITH
768
FAITH
rolled back". The Church alone can tell us how we
are to interpret the words "This is My Body", for
she alone can say, " He Who spoke those words speaks
through me, He promised to be with me all days. He
pledged Himself to safeguard me from error at all
times".
III. In what Sense is the Church the Rule of Faith? — (1) All non-Catholic systems have felt the need of some such authoritative rule as that sketched out above, and the history of Anglicanism practically resolves itself into a series of attempts to formulate a theory which shall, while avoiding the Scylla of Rome, enable the Church of England to escape the Charybdis of dissolution. This has never been more painfully evident than at the present time, when an apparently destructive Biblical criticism has compelled men to look for some firmer standing ground than the Bible alone. But in formulating their various theories, non- Catholic theologians have never seemed to realize the absolutely vital character of the question at issue, and have contented themselves with illogical views, which have done more to alienate thinking men than the direct and unveiled assaults of infidels and ag- nostics. At the Reformation the only authority de- serving of the title was overthrown, and since then men have been seeking, at all costs, to replace it by some form other than that of the Apostolic Church, from which they cut themselves adrift. All the sects are seeking an active rule of faith; the High Church in the testimony of the primitive Church ; the Low Church in what we may term the spiritual intui- tions of the illuminated soul; the Broad Church does the same, but refuses to be bound by any dogmatic formula", and regards the Bible as no more than the best of all inspired books; and lastly the Ritual- ists appeal to the testimony of the Living Church, but naively confess that such testimony is not to be found at the present time, owing to "our unhappy divisions" which preclude the assembling of a truly representative council. The Low Church and the Broad Onirch content themselves with a purely sub- jective criterion of truth; the High Church with one which itself needs interpreting; and the Ritualist looks to "the Church of the future", he clings to the illusory " branch theorj' ' ', but forgets that none of the Churches he calls "branches" accepts the designation.
(2) Moflenrism. — There has of late years arisen, witliin the pale of the Church, a school of theologians who make appeal to the conscience of the invisible Church rather than to any conciliar gathering, and ap- pear to neglect entirely what theologians term the quotidianum magisterium of the Church. Thus, the Rev. G. Tyrrell writes: "It is all important to dis- tinguish the pre-constitutional formless church from the governmental form, which it has now elaborated for its own apostolic needs" (Scylla and Charybdis, 49). He would even make this formless church the rule of faith. "Authority is something mherent in, and inalienable from, that multitude itself; it is the moral coerciveness of the Divine Spirit of Truth and Righteousness immanent in the whole, dominant over its several parts and members; it is the imperative- ness of the collective conscience" (op. cit., 370). Such doctrine inevitably leads to the individual soul as the ultimate criterion of religious truth, as is forcibly pointed out in the Encyclical "Pascendi". But the most remarkable feature of Modernism is its return to the old Protestant rule of faith, for Modernists insist, not only on the pre-eminence of the Bible, but on the independence of Biblical critics. In the Syllabus, " Lamentabili Sane", Pius X has condemned such views as that the opinions of Biblical exegetes are be- yond the jurisdiction of the Church (props, i-iii, and Ixi); that the teaching office of the Church does not extend to a determination of the sense of Holy Scrip- ture (prop, iv) ; that the office of the Church is merely to ratify the conclusions arrived at by the Church at
large (prop, vi); and that the Church's dogmas are
often in conflict with the plain teaching of the Bible
(props, xxiii-xxiv, and Ixi).
(3) The Catholic Doctrine Touching the Church as the Rule of Faith. — The term Church, in this connexion, can only denote the teaching Church, as is clear from the passages already quoted from the New Testament and the Fathers. But the teaching Church may be regarded either as the whole body of the episcopate, whether scattered throughout the world or collected in an oecumenical coimcil, or it may be sj-nonymous with the successor of St. Peter, the Vicar of Christ. Now the teaching Church is the Apostolic body con- tinuing to the end of time (Matt., xxviii, 19-20); but only one of the bishops, viz., the Bishop of Rome, is the successor of St. Peter; he alone can be regarded as the living Apostle and Mcar of Christ, and it is only by union with him that the rest of the episcopate can be said to possess the Apostolic character (Vatican Council, Sess. IV, Prooemium). Hence, unless they be united with the Vicar of Christ, it is futile to appeal to the episcopate in general as the rule of faith. At the same time, it is clear that the Church may derive from the conflicting ^-iews of the Doctors a clearer knowledge of the Deposit of Faith committed to her, for as St. .\ugustine pointedly asked, wlien treating of the re-baptism question, "how could a question which had become so obscured by the dust raised in this con- troversy, have been brpught to the clear light and decision of a plenary cotmcil, unless it had first been dis- cussed throughout the world in disputations and con- ferences held by the bishops?" (De Baptismo, ii, 5).
Thus the appeal of the Ritualist to a future council, that of the Modernist to the conscience of the uni- versal Church, and that of the High-Churchman to the primitive Church, are, besides being mutually exclu- sive, destructive of the true idea of the Church as the " pillar and ground of truth". If the Church is to ex- ercise her prerogative, she must be able to decide promptly and infallibly any question touching faith or morals. Her conciliar utterances are rare, and though they are weighty with the majesty of oecu- menical testimony, the Church's teaching is by no means confined to them. The Vicar of Christ can, whenever necessary, exercise the plenitude of his au- thority, and when he does so we are not at liberty to say, with the Jansenists, that he has not done justice to the views of those he condemns (cf. Alex. VII, "Ad Sacram", 1056); nor can we take refuge, as did the later Jansenists, and as the Modernists appear to do, in obsequious silence, as opposed to heartfelt sub- mission and mental acceptance of such pronounce- ments by the supreme pastor of souls. (Cf . Clement XI, " Vineam Domini", 1705; and Pius X, "Lamentabili Sane", 1907, prop, vii.) When Neimnan was re- ceived into the Church, he penned those famous lines which form the conclusion of the " Essay on Develop- ment". "Put not from you what you have here found; regard it not as mere matter of present con- troversy; set not out resolved to refute it, and looking ovit for the best way of doing so ; seduce not yourself by the imagination that it comes of disappointment, or disgust, or restlessness, or wounded feeling, or undue sensibility, or other weakness. Wrap not yourself round in the associations of years past, nor determine that to be truth which you wish to be so, nor make an idol of cherished anticipations. Time is short, eternity is long."
Patristic Writers. — Iren.eus, Adversus Hceres., ed. Migne, P. G., VII; Tertl'llian, De proEscriptiotiibus Hcpreticorum, ed. Hi7KTER (Utrecht. 1S70): Cvril of jERtrSAt^M, Cateche^es^ ed, Migne, P.G., XXXIII; Cvril of Alexandria, Scconrf Lcltcrto Naitorius, styled _by Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon "the Rule of Faith"' (tViffToAij icafoi-ixij ) ; Vincent OF Lerins, Com- monitorium, ed. Hurter. See also Schanz. Apologia, tr. (New York, 1892); Harnack, Hi-story of Doama, tr.
Writers of the Scholastic Period. — Melchior Canfs, Dc tods theologicis (Rome, 1890); Suarez, Dcfcn-sio Fidei Cathoticw et Apostoticw, ed. VivES (Paris, ISTS); Bellarmine, Dispuia^ tiones de controversiis fidei (Ingolstadt, 1586).
