[2250] By the instrumenta doctrinæ he here means the writings of the New Testament.
[2251] [Our author insists on the precise agreement of Catholic Tradition with Holy Scripture. See valuable remarks on Schleiermacher, in Kaye, pp. 279-284.]
[2252] We add the original of this sentence, which is obscured by its terseness: "Quid de proprio intulimus, ut aliquid contrarium ei et in Scripturis deprehensum detractione vel adjectione vel transmutatione remediaremus?"
[2253] That is, teaching the same faith and conversation (De la Cerda).
[2254] Domestica.
[2255] Integro instrumento.
[2256] Callidiore ingenio.
[2257] That is, cutting out whatever did not fall in with it (Dodgson).
[2258] Non comparentium rerum. [Note, he says above "of them, the Scriptures, we, Catholics, have our being." Præscription does not undervalue Scripture as the food and life of the Church, but supplies a short and decisive method with innovaters.]
Chapter XXXIX.--What St. Paul Calls Spiritual Wickednesses Displayed by Pagan Authors, and by Heretics, in No Dissimilar Manner. Holy Scripture Especially Liable to Heretical Manipulation. Affords Material for Heresies, Just as Virgil Has Been the Groundwork of Literary Plagiarisms, Different in Purport from the Original.
These were the ingenious arts of "spiritual wickednesses," [2259] wherewith we also, my brethren, may fairly expect to have "to wrestle," as necessary for faith, that the elect may be made manifest, (and) that the reprobate may be discovered. And therefore they possess influence, and a facility in thinking out and fabricating [2260] errors, which ought not to be wondered at as if it were a difficult and inexplicable process, seeing that in profane writings also an example comes ready to hand of a similar facility. You see in our own day, composed out of Virgil, [2261] a story of a wholly different character, the subject-matter being arranged according to the verse, and the verse according to the subject-matter. In short, [2262] Hosidius Geta has most completely pilfered his tragedy of Medea from Virgil. A near relative of my own, among some leisure productions [2263] of his pen, has composed out of the same poet The Table of Cebes. On the same principle, those poetasters are commonly called Homerocentones, "collectors of Homeric odds and ends," who stitch into one piece, patchwork fashion, works of their own from the lines of Homer, out of many scraps put together from this passage and from that (in miscellaneous confusion). Now, unquestionably, the Divine Scriptures are more fruitful in resources of all kinds for this sort of facility. Nor do I risk contradiction in saying [2264] that the very Scriptures were even arranged by the will of God in such a manner as to furnish materials for heretics, inasmuch as I read that "there must be heresies," [2265] which there cannot be without the Scriptures.
[2259] See Eph. vi. 12, and 1 Cor. xi. 18.
[2260] Instruendis.
[2261] Oehler reads "ex Vergilio," although the Codex Agobard. as "ex Virgilio."
[2262] Denique. ["Getica lyra."]
[2263] Otis.
[2264] Nec periclitor dicere. [Truly, a Tertullianic paradox; but compare 2 Pet. iii. 16. N.B. Scripture the test of heresy.]
[2265] 1 Cor. xi. 19.
Chapter XL.--No Difference in the Spirit of Idolatry and of Heresy. In the Rites of Idolatry, Satan Imitated and Distorted the Divine Institutions of the Older Scriptures. The Christian Scriptures Corrupted by Him in the Perversions of the Various Heretics.
The question will arise, By whom is to be interpreted [2266] the sense of the passages which make for heresies? By the devil, of course, to whom pertain those wiles which pervert the truth, and who, by the mystic rites of his idols, vies even with the essential portions [2267] of the sacraments of God. [2268] He, too, baptizes some--that is, his own believers and faithful followers; [2269] he promises the putting away [2270] of sins by a laver (of his own); and if my memory still serves me, Mithra there, (in the kingdom of Satan,) sets his marks on the foreheads of his soldiers; celebrates also the oblation of bread, and introduces an image of a resurrection, and before a sword wreathes a crown. [2271] What also must we say to (Satan's) limiting his chief priest [2272] to a single marriage? He, too, has his virgins; he, too, has his proficients in continence. [2273] Suppose now we revolve in our minds the superstitions of Numa Pompilius, and consider his priestly offices and badges and privileges, his sacrificial services, too, and the instruments and vessels of the sacrifices themselves, and the curious rites of his expiations and vows: is it not clear to us that the devil imitated the well-known [2274] moroseness of the Jewish law? Since, therefore he has shown such emulation in his great aim of expressing, in the concerns of his idolatry, those very things of which consists the administration of Christ's sacraments, it follows, of course, that the same being, possessing still the same genius, both set his heart upon, [2275] and succeeded in, adapting [2276] to his profane and rival creed the very documents of divine things and of the Christian saints [2277] --his interpretation from their interpretations, his words from their words, his parables from their parables. For this reason, then, no one ought to doubt, either that "spiritual wickednesses," from which also heresies come, have been introduced by the devil, or that there is any real difference between heresies and idolatry, seeing that they appertain both to the same author and the same work that idolatry does. They either pretend that there is another god in opposition to the Creator, or, even if they acknowledge that the Creator is the one only God, they treat of Him as a different being from what He is in truth. The consequence is, that every lie which they speak of God is in a certain sense a sort of idolatry.
[2266] "Interpretur" is here a passive verb.
[2267] Res.
[2268] Sacramentorum divinorum. The form, however, of this phrase seems to point not only to the specific sacraments of the gospel, but to the general mysteries of our religion.
[2269] Compare Tertullian's treatises, de Bapt. v. and de Corona, last chapter.
[2270] Expositionem.
[2271] "Et sub gladio redimit coronam" is the text of this obscure sentence, which seems to allude to a pretended martyrdom. Compare Tertullian's tract, de Corona, last chapter.
[2272] The Flamen Dialis. See Tertullian's tract, ad Uxorem, i. 7.
[2273] [Corruptio optimi pessima. Compare the surprising parallels of M. Huc between debased Christianity and the paganism of Thibet, etc. Souvenirs d'un voyage, etc. Hazlitt's translation, 1867.]
[2274] Morositatem Illam. [He refers to the minute and vexatious ordinances complained of by St. Peter (Acts xiv. 10,) which Latin Christianity has ten-folded, in his name.]
[2275] Gestiit.
[2276] Attemperare.
[2277] i.e., the Scriptures of the New Testament.