PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

OF

SERMON I.

I 66

NIHIL innovetur, inquit, nisi quod traditum est. Unde est ista traditio? Utrumne de Dominica et Evangelica auctoritate descendens, an de Apostolorum mandatis atque epistolis veniens? Ea enim facienda esse quæ scripta sunt Deus testatur, et proponit ad Jesum Nave, dicens: Non recedet liber legis hujus ex ore tuo, sed meditaberis in eo die ac nocte, ut observes facere omnia quæ scripta sunt in eo (Jos. i. 8.). Item Dominus Apostolos suos mittens, mandat baptizari gentes, et doceri, ut observent omnia quæcunque ille præcepit (Matt. xxviii. 20.). Si ergo aut in Evangelio præcipitur, aut in Apostolorum Epistolis aut Actibus continetur, ut a quacunque hæresi venientes non baptizentur, sed tantum manus illis imponatur in pœnitentiam, observetur divina hæc et sancta traditio." Cæcilii Cypriani Epist. 74.—Ad Pompeium. -S. Cæc. Cypr. Opp. per Joan. Oxon. Ep. Oxon. 1683. p. 211.

2 66

Quomodo enim usurpari quid potest si traditum prius non est? etiam in traditionis obtentu exigenda est, inquis, auctoritas scripta: ergo quæramus an et traditio non scripta non debeat recipi? Plane negabimus recipiendam, si nulla exempla præjudicent aliarum observationum, quas sine ullius

Scripturæ instrumento, solius traditionis titulo, exinde consuetudinis patrocinio vindicamus.” (Qu. Sept. Flor. Tertull. de Corona, c. 3. Opp. Omn. Rothomag. 1662. p. 289.) See also the bishop of Lincoln's Ecclesiastical History illustrated from Tertullian. Camb. 1826. p. 298.

3

66

Quia sicut multa erant quæ doctus Cyprianus doceret, sic erat et aliquid quod Cyprianus docibilis disceret. Quod autem nos admonet, ut, ad fontem recurramus, id est, ad apostolicam traditionem, et inde canalem in nostra tempora dirigamus, optimum est, et sine dubitatione faciendum. Traditum est ergo nobis, sicut ipse commemorat, ab Apostolis, quod sit unus Deus, et Christus unus, et una spes, et fides una, et una ecclesia, et baptisma unum." S. Aurel. Augustin. Hippon. Ep. de Baptismo, contra Donatistas, lib. V. cap. 26. Opp. tom. 9. p. 158. edit. Benedict. Paris. 1694.

4 Οἱ δὲ ἐπίσκοποι, οὐχ ἑαυτοῖς εὑρόντες τὰς λέξεις, ἀλλ ̓ ἐκ τῶν πατέρων ἔχοντες τὴν μαρτυρίαν, οὕτως ἔγραψαν. Επίσκοποι γὰρ ἦσαν ἀρχαῖοι, πρὸ ἐτῶν ἐγγύς που ἑκατὸν τριάκοντα, τῆς τε μεγάλης Ῥώμης καὶ τῆς ἡμετέρας πόλεως οἳ ᾐτιάσαντο τοὺς ποιήμα λέγοντας τὸν Υἱὸν, καὶ μὴ ὁμοούσιον τῷ Πάτρι. Theodorit. Eccl. Hist. lib. I. 8. edit. Vales. et Reading. Cantab. 1720. p. 30.

cap.

5 Εὐαγγελικαί γάρ, φησι, βίβλοι, καὶ ἀποστολικαὶ, καὶ τῶν παλαιῶν προφητῶν τὰ θεσπίσματα σαφῶς ἡμᾶς ἃ χρή περὶ τοῦ Θείου φρονεῖν ἐκπαιδεύουσι. Τὴν πολεμποιὸν οὖν ἀπελάσαντες ἔριν, ἐκ τῶν θεοπνεύστων λόγων λάβωμεν τῶν ζη τουμένων τὴν λύσιν. Ibid. cap. 7. p.

26.

· Τοῖς γεγραμμένοις πίστευε, τὰ μὴ γεγραμμένα μὴ ἐν νόει, μηδὲ ζήτει. Gelas. Cyzicen. Commentarius Actorum Nicæn. Conc. Lutet. 1600. p. 124. pars 2. cap. 19.

"Among the acts of the second council of Nice we find the contents of the Old Testament designated as a divine tradition: "Et quæ Veteris quidem sunt Testamenti, quod tenuit Israeliticus populus, Dei traditio est. (Conc. Nicæn. II. Act. vi. SS. Conc. ex edit. Labb. et Coss. Paris. 1671. tom. VII. p. 458.) The council's general admission of tradition is thus expressed: "Et ut compendiose fateamur, omnes ecclesiasticas, sive scripto, sive sine scripto, sancitas nobis traditiones illibate servamus; quarum una est imaginalis picturæ formatio, quæ historiæ evangelicæ prædicationis concinit.” (Ibid. 555.) By these traditions, however, usages, rather than articles of faith, appear to have been intended. Accordingly among the condemnations pronounced, before the council separated, we find the following passages: "Credentes in unum Deum in Trinitate laudandum honorabiles imagines osculamur. Qui sic se non habent, anathema sint. Qui sic non sentiunt, procul ab ecclesia pellantur. Nos antiquam legislationem Ecclesiæ Catholicæ sequimur. Nos leges patrum custodimus." (Ibid. 575.) In that passage from the acts of the council which Bellarmine has cited, (Controv. I. 72.) this alleged apostolical tradition respecting images is treated as a prescription for a mere observance. "Quod autem cum multis aliis quæ in Ecclesia observantur sine Scriptura, nobis imaginum veneratio tradita sit ab apostolorum temporibus, late per historias traditum est." (Labb. et Coss. 838.) In the seventh canon also, which forbids the consecration of churches without relics, the practice of providing them in such places, as likewise the veneration of images, are treated as

customs, and points of traditional legislation. "Sicut enim venerabilium imaginum vultum abstulerunt ab ecclesia, ita et alios quosdam mores (repa Tíva en) deseruerunt, quos et oportet renovari, et secundum scriptam et non scriptam legislationem denuo detineri. Quotquot ergo venerabilia templa consecrata sunt absque sanctis reliquiis martyrum, definimus in eis reliquiarum una cum solita oratione fieri positionem. Et si a præsenti tempore inventus fuerit episcopus absque lipsaniis consecrare templum, deponatur, ut ille qui ecclesiasticas traditiones transgreditur." (Ibid. 603.) Hence it may be reasonably doubted whether the DeuteroNicene Fathers thought of authorizing any rule of faith independent of Scripture. In their appeals to tradition, discipline, and not doctrine, appears to have been their object. In the Rescripts also of Nicholas I. who was elected to the popedom in 858, the term tradition appears to be used in the The second article is, " Ridiculum est, et satis abominabile dedecus, ut traditiones, quas antiquitus a Patribus suscepimus, infringi patiamur." (Ibid. VIII. 550.) The first clause, however-in fact the whole body of these Rescripts-relates to discipline exclusively; the first article, indeed, seems to place " evangelical, apostolical, and canonical decrees," as if synonymous with the "traditions received anciently from the Fathers” mentioned in the second article. The following is this first article entire: "Imperiali judicio non possunt jura ecclesiastica dissolvi: nec possunt imperatorum leges, evangelicis, et apostolicis, atque canonicis decretis, quibus postponendæ sunt, inferre præjudicium." The same pope likewise evidently

same manner.

66

applies the term tradition to usages alone, in an epistle to Ado, archbishop of Vienne, in the following passage: "Si instituta ecclesiastica, ut sunt a beatis Apostolis tradita, integra vellent Domini sacerdotes observare, nulla varietas, nulla diversitas, in ipsis ordinibus ac consecrationibus traheretur. Sed dum unusquisque, non quod traditum est, sed quod sibi visum fuerit, hoc existimat esse tenendum, inde diversa in diversis ecclesiis aut tenere aut celebrare videntur: ac fit scandalum populis, qui dum nesciunt traditiones antiquas humana præsumptione corruptas, putant sibi aut ecclesias non convenire, aut ab Apostolis ipsam contrarietatem inditam." Subsequently, this epistle speaks of those "who wander from the institutions of the Roman Church, qui a Romanæ Ecclesiæ institutionibus errant," and expresses a desire to know who those were that approved a departure from "the custom of the Roman church: alterius Ecclesiæ quam Romanæ existimant consuetudinem esse servandam." (Ibid. 564.) In these passages the term tradition is evidently restricted to those prescriptions for usages, eventually classed under the head of ecclesiastical tradition. It does not appear from them that a practice prevailed, so early as the ninth century, of recognising articles of faith founded upon a tradition separate from Scripture, and independent of it.

8 Thus Hales, the Irrefragable Doctor, who flourished about the year 1230, treats theology and the knowledge of holy Scripture as two different modes of designating the same thing. The following passage, among many others, may be taken as an instance of this: "Doctrina sacra dicitur di