§ 118. SOURCES OF THEOLOGY. G12
follow their own conceits, which they put into the Scriptures instead of drawing their thoughts from them.
Even Augustine, who of all the fathers stands nearest to evangelical Protestantism, on this point advocates the catholic principle in the celebrated maxim wdiich he urges against the Manichasans: "I would not believe the gospel, if I were no* compelled by tlie authority of the universal church." But he irameci lately adds: " God forbid that I should not believe the gospel." '
But there are difl'erent traditions; not to speak of various interpretations of the catholic tradition. Hence the need of a criterion of true and false tradition. The semi-Pelagian divine, ViNCENTius, a monk and priest in the South-Gallic cloister of Lirimim (f 450),* otherwise little known, propounded the maxim which formed an epoch in this matter, and has since remained the standard in the Roman church : We must hold " what has been everywhere, always., and hy all believed." *
' " Ego vero evangelio non crederem, nisi me Catholicae ecclesiae commoverel autoritas. . . . Sed absit ut ego Evangelio non credam. Eli enini credens, non invenio quoraodo possim etiam tibi [Manichffius] credere. Apostolorum enim uomina, quae ibi leguntur, non inter se continent nomen Manichjei." Contra Epist. Manichaei, quam vocant fundamenti, cap. 6 (ed. Bened. torn. viii. p. 154). Hia object in this argument is to show that the Manicha3ans have no right in the Scriptures, that the Catholic church is the legitimate owner and interpreter of the Bible. But it is an abuse to press this argument at once into the service of Rome as is so often done. Between the controversy of the old Catholic church with Manichaeisra, and the controversy of Romanism with Protestantism, there is an immense difference.
' Lerinum or Lirinum (now St. Honorat) is one of the group of small islands in the Mediterranean wliich formerly belonged to Roman Gaul, afterwards to Franca In the fifth century it was a seminary of learned monks and priests for France, aa Faustus Regiensis, Hilarius Arelatensis, Salvianus, and others.
^ Commonit. cap. 2 (in Migne's Patrolog. vol. 50, p. 640) : " In ipsa item Catholica Ecclesia magnopere curandum est, ut id teneamus quod ubique, quod semper, quod ah omnibus creditum est." The Commonitorium was composed, as we learn from the preface and from ch. 42, about three years after the ecumenical council of Ephesus, therefore about 434, under the false name of Peregrinus, as a help to the memory of the author that he might have the main points of ecclfisiastical tradition constantly at hand against the heretics. Baronius calls it " opus certe aureum," and Bellarmin " parvim) mole et virtute maximum." It consisted originally of two books, but the manuscript of the second book was stolen from the author, who tbei added a brief summary of both books at the close of the first (c. A^-4 S). Vossiu%
614 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
Here we have a threefold test of the ecclesiastical orthodoxy : Catholicity of place, of time, and of number ; or ubiquity, antiquity, and uuiversal consent ; ' in other words, an article of faith must be traced up to the apostles, and be found in all Christian countries, and among all believers. But this principle can be aj)plied only to a few fundamental articles of revealed religion, not to any of the specifically Romish dogmas, and, to have any reasonable meaning, must be reduced to a mere principle of majority. In regard to the consensus omnium, which properly includes both the others, Vincentius himself makes this limitation, by defining the condition as a concnrrence of the 'majority of the clergy? To the voice of the people neither he nor the whole Roman system, in matters of faith, pays the slightest regard. In many important doctrines, however, there is not even a consensus patrum^ as in the doctrine of free will, of predestination, of the atonement, A certain freedom of divergent private opinions is the indispensable condition of all progress of thought, and precedes the ecclesiastical settlement of every article of faith. Even Yincentius expressly asserts a steady advance of the church in the knowledge of the truth, though of course in harmony with the previous steps, as a man or a tree remains identical thi'ough the various stages of growth.'
Vincentius is thoroughly Catholic in the spirit and tendency of his work, and has not the most remote conception of
Cardinal Norisius (Ilistoria Pelagiana, 1. ii. c. 11), Natalis Alexander, Hcfele, and Schmidt give this work a polemic aim against strict Augustinism, for which certainly • he Greeii church cannot be claimed, so tliat the three criteria of catholicity are wanting. There is pretty strong evidence in the book itself tliat Vincentius belonged to the semi-Pelagian school which arose in Marseille and Lirinura. lie was probably also the author of the VinceiUiancB objectioiies against Augustine's doctrine of predestination. Comp. on Vincentius, Tillemont's Memoires, torn. xv. pp. 143-147; the art. Vincenthis v. L. by H. Schmidt in Herzog's Encykl. vol. xvii. pp. 211-21*7 and an essay of C. J. Hefele (R. C), in his Beitrage zur Kirchengeschichte, Archao logic und Liturgik, vol. i. p. 146 If. (Tiib. 1864).
* As Vincentius expresses himself in the succeeding sentence ; Universitas antiquitas, consensio. Comp. c. 27.
' " Consensio omnium vel certe posne omnium sacerdotum parite.* et magistro ram." etc. Common, c. 2 (in Migno, p. 640).
• Cap 23 (in Migiic, vol 50, p. 667 eqq.).