Chapter 9
A Dialogue, Part 1m, Trast 1 with the cardinals in his consistory, or than the patriarchs, primates, archbishops, or metropolitans are when they hold provincial councils, or in any other way than bishops and other preiates are when they sette church business; though it has sometimes happened, and can still happen, that those who come to a genera! council are especially guided by the Holy Spirit and that some truths are revealed to them miraculously and that God miraculously preserves them from every error and by manifest miracles confirms their definition concerning the faith and other things enacted by them.
But without the working of a miracle it is not necessary to hold that something is revealed by the Holy Spirit to those called w a general council in any other way than to provincial councils and other gatherings of Christians, of which it is certain that they are not directed by the Holy Spirit in such a way that they cannot err both in morals and in faith; therefore it is not necessary to assert the contrary of every general council.
[2] Also, an assembly that can proceed in business badly and conclude with a bad result can err against the faith. But these things can happen with a general council; for, as we read in 1, q.
1, c. Principaius, "It is difficult to complete with a good outcome things begun with a bad beginning." Every assembly that can begin with a bad beginning can conclude with a result that is not good.
And a general council can begin with a bad beginning: a general council must be assembled by the pope, as we read in dist. 7, throughout; but since the pope can sin and be damned and can err against the faith with a bad and corrupt purpose ~ indeed, he can assemble a general council with the purpose of defining something contrary to Catholic truth - therefore a general council assembled with a bad beginning and a corrupt purpose can be completed with a bad result, and consequently it can err against the faith.
Chapter 9 Student Point out how the above opinion tries to answer other arguments brought forward above in chapter 1 of this third book,
Master To that which is based on Christ's promise in the last chapter of Matthew, it is answered that Christ is going to be with the universal Church until the end of the world, and therefore (as William of Ockham Rabanus says, as has been quoted), "Uni the end of the world there will not be lacking in the world some who are worthy of the divine presence and indwelling."° From these words of Rabanus we gather that that promise of Christ should not be understood of a general council:
First, because he says "there will not be lacking in the world," and docs not say that there will not be lacking in a genera! council; also, because seldom is there a general council in the world, but the universal Church will always be in the world until the end of the world. Therefore, according to Rabanus, that promise of Christ should not be understood of a general council but of the universal Church, so that it should be held piously and without doubt that the Holy Spirit is always present to the universal Church. Thus also Jerome refers to the universal Church when he says that Christ "will never depart from believers,'"?! because until the end of the world there will always be some who believe in Christ, whether a general council is taking place or not.
The argument based on Acts 15[:28]'* is answered in two ways: in one way that the decision made by the apostles and elders related in Acts tg was made by a miraculous revelation of the Holy Spirit, such as can still be made in a general council; but it is not necessary that a revelation be made, neither was it always made, nor, perhaps, will it always be made whenever a general council is held. And it is not unsuitable to say that some revelations were made to the apostles, yet such are not made in every general council. In another way it is said that, without a revelation of the Holy Spirit made to them then, the apostles and elders inferred that decision from words they had heard from Christ's lips and from his deeds that they had seen. They had seen that he did not observe many legal and ceremonial [commandments of the Old
Law], and he had also taught them that it was not necessary to observe them; without a special revelation, therefore, they were able to knew that the faithful converted from the gentiles were not at all bound to observe such things. And thus the apostle Paul steadfastly asserted this before that assembly took place, which he would not have done unless he had been certain of it beforehand.
Quoted by Marsilius, p. 274.
"2 Quoted by Marsilius, pp. 274-5.
A Dialogue, Part 1, Tract 1 And even if all the others had contradicted him, he would never have retreated from his opinion. He testifies to this when he says to the Galatians 1]:8], "Though we, or an angel from heaven," etc.;'"7 and yet he would not have been pertinacious even if he had been resisting all other men, because pertinacity cannot be found concerning a truth knowingly asserted. When, therefore, the apostles and elders said "For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us" etc.,"* they said it under the same sort of interpretation as that under which the Apostle said in 1 Corinthians
12[:3], "No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except in the Holy Spirit": because all good things are from the Holy Spirit, though God dees not in all such speech work a new miracle.
In the same way answer is made to a great mamy texts that assert in substance that whatever the holy fathers assembled in general councils defined, enacted, and did, they did under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and consequently that the interpretations they made to decide doubtful points of faith were revealed to them.
For they are not said to have been inspired by the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit breathed something to them at that time in some special and unaccustomed way, beyond the influence of the Holy Spirit required for every work pleasing to God, but because the Holy Spirit moved them to make a right definition of the faith just as he moves everyone to the performance of all meritorious works whatever. Therefore, according to the opinion of the holy fathers, general councils that were held rightly, justly, in a holy way, canonically, and in a Catholic way, must be most devoutly received, embraced, and venerated by all Catholics. Hf, however, they had not been held in a Catholic way, even if all the bishops of the world had been present, they should be, not received, but absolutely rejected by the faithful. Ef it is asked who is to judge whether they were held in a Catholic way, it is answered that because they did not define anything except what can be drawn out from the divine Scriptures, therefore it is for experts in the Scriptures, and those having sufficient understanding of the other written sources, to judge in the manner of firm assertion that the things defined by them are defined in a Catholic way. If the highest
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But it can be conceded that imperfectly and in some way a general council represents the congregation of the apostles and the others and in a way succeeds to it, just as the pope with the college of cardinals in a way represents that same congregation and in some way succeeds to it: yet they can err, both in matters pertaining to the faith and in morals; and thus it cannot be proved by means
. af such representation and succession that a general council cannot err.
Student Relate how answer is made to the final argument brought forward to prove that a council cannot err, which is based on the premise that Christ would have given the law of eternal salvation in vain if he did not reveal its true meaning to inquirers.'?'
Master It is answered by two distinctions. The first of these is that among things that are decided and can be decided in general councils (and, similarly, that can be doubted about the faith), there are some that can be inferred from the divine Scriptures by infallible deduction, so that although neither what is inferred nor the thing or things from which it is inferred can be known by natural reason, yet the inference can be known naturally (since even an inference of false from false can be known naturally and infallibly); and there are some that cannot be inferred from the divine Scriptures by an infallible deduction - as according to blessed Jerome it cannot be established certainly from the Scriptures that the Blessed Virgin is bodily in heaven; as also, concerning those of whom it is said in Matthew 10,'7? "Many bodies of the saints arose" with him, etc.,
2 See Marsilius, p. 275.
'* See Marsilius, p. 275. nat AA 3 OT AAS TUR PERCANEDRCEAPIS TRC BE emmaRST