CHAPTER FIFTEEN: The Authority of the Church (part 1 of 2)
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Of Ecclesiastical Power
Since everything previously said concerning Christian liberty belongs to the spiritual kingdom, in this discussion we are not contending against the authority of civil laws, but against the power usurped by those who desire to be regarded as pastors of the Church, though in truth they are its most cruel executioners. For they claim that the laws they make are spiritual and concern the soul, affirming that they are necessary to eternal life. By this means the kingdom of Christ is assailed and violated, and the liberty he has given to the consciences of believers is oppressed and overthrown.
For the present, I leave aside the impiety upon which they establish the observance of their laws, saying that by keeping them we obtain forgiveness of sins and righteousness, and placing in them the whole substance of religion. At present I shall contend only for this point: that no necessity should be imposed upon consciences in matters from which they have been set free by Jesus Christ, and that without this freedom—as we have already taught—they can have no rest before God.
If consciences would retain the grace they have once obtained in Jesus Christ, they must acknowledge Christ alone, their Liberator, as their King, and be governed by the one law of liberty, which is the sacred word of the gospel. They must not be subjected to any servitude or held captive under any bonds.
These lawmakers indeed pretend that their constitutions are laws of liberty, a gracious yoke, and a light burden. But who does not see that these are sheer falsehoods? As for them, they need not fear feeling the weight of their laws, since, having cast off all fear of God, they despise their own laws as boldly as they despise the laws of God. But those who possess any concern for their salvation are far from regarding themselves as free so long as they remain bound by such chains.
We see how carefully Saint Paul avoided burdening consciences, not daring to bind them in even a single matter. And not without reason. He certainly knew that a mortal wound would be inflicted upon consciences if necessity were imposed upon them in matters that God had left free. By contrast, one could scarcely number the constitutions that these men have rigorously commanded under penalty of eternal death and imposed upon men as necessary to salvation. Among them are many that are exceedingly difficult to observe; and when taken together, their sheer multitude makes them impossible to keep. How, then, could those who find themselves burdened with so difficult a load escape severe anguish and perplexity?
We must therefore conclude briefly, in accordance with what we have taught, that our consciences are in no way bound or obligated before God by any such constitutions—those made for the purpose of binding our souls before God and imposing an obligation upon them as though they commanded things necessary to salvation. Such are all the constitutions today called ecclesiastical, which they declare necessary for rightly honoring and serving God. And as they are innumerable, so they constitute just as many chains for holding souls captive.
What, then? Is there no ecclesiastical power? Many simple people, whom we especially desire to instruct, are troubled by this objection. We answer that we certainly acknowledge an ecclesiastical power, but only such a power as Saint Paul describes—one given for edification and not for destruction.
The authority which the Lord gave me for building you up, and not for destroying you.
Those who use this power rightly regard themselves as nothing more than ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
Let a man so regard us as ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.
This power may be very properly defined as the ministry of the word of God. For Jesus Christ limited it in this way when he commanded his Apostles to go and teach all nations the things he had commanded them.
Go therefore and teach all nations... teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.
I wish that those charged with governing the Church of God clearly understood that this law was appointed for them. In this way the dignity of true pastors would be preserved unimpaired, while those who unjustly tyrannize over the people of God would no longer boast falsely of possessing such power.
Here we must recall what was stated elsewhere: that whatever dignity or authority Scripture attributes to the Prophets and priests under the old law, or to the Apostles and their successors, is not attributed to their persons, but to the ministry and office to which they were appointed—or, to speak more clearly, to the word of God, which they were called to administer.
For if we examine them all in order—Prophets and priests, Apostles and disciples alike—we shall find that they were never given any power to command or teach except in the name and according to the word of the Lord. God willed that Moses, the first of the Prophets, should be heard, but what did he command or even proclaim except what he had received from the Lord? For he could do nothing else.
At another time God appointed his Prophets over kingdoms and nations, to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant. But the reason is added: because he had put his word in their mouths.
Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. See, I have appointed you this day over nations and kingdoms, to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.
For not one of all the Prophets opened his mouth without first receiving the word of God. Hence they so frequently repeat such expressions as these: “The word of the Lord”; “The burden of the Lord”; “The mouth of the Lord has spoken”; “A vision received from the Lord”; and “The Lord of hosts has spoken.”
And rightly so. Isaiah confessed that his lips were unclean, while Jeremiah said that he did not know how to speak because he was a child. What could have proceeded from their unclean and childish mouths except foolish or impure things, if they had spoken their own words? But when their mouths became instruments of the Holy Spirit, they were made pure and holy.
In short, we have an excellent description in Ezekiel showing us the whole office of the Prophets:
Son of man, I have appointed you a watchman over the house of Israel. Therefore you shall hear the word from my mouth and warn them on my behalf.
When our Lord commands him to hear the word from his mouth, does he not forbid him to invent anything of his own? And what does it mean to proclaim on the Lord’s behalf except to speak in such a way that he may confidently declare that the word he brings is not his own, but the Lord’s?
The same thing is said in Jeremiah in other words:
Let the prophet who has a dream recount the dream, and let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? says the Lord.
Likewise, God commanded that the word of the law should be sought from the mouths of the priests, but he added the reason: because they are messengers of the Lord of hosts.
For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and men should seek the law from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.
Let us now come to the Apostles, who are honored with many excellent titles. They are called the light of the world and the salt of the earth. They are to be heard as Jesus Christ himself, and whatever they bind or loose on earth shall be bound or loosed in heaven.
Yet their very name shows how far their authority extends in the exercise of their office. They must be Apostles—that is, men sent forth—who do not babble whatever pleases them, but faithfully deliver the commission of the one who sent them.
Christ said to them:
As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.
And he expressly testifies how he was sent by the living Father:
My doctrine is not mine, but his who sent me.
Surely it would be an intolerable affront to the Apostles and their successors to exempt them from the law to which Jesus Christ himself submitted.
Yet the case of Jesus Christ is very different. For Christ, being the eternal and only Counselor of the Father, and having always dwelt in the Father’s bosom, received his commission from the Father in such a manner that all the treasures of knowledge and wisdom were hidden within himself.
From this fountain all the Prophets drew whatever heavenly doctrine they ever taught. From this same fountain Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all others to whom God was pleased to reveal himself drew all the spiritual knowledge they possessed.
For if the statement of Saint John the Baptist has always been true—as certainly it has—
No one has ever seen God; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has revealed him to us.
—and likewise Christ’s own declaration—
No one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
—then how could those ancient fathers have understood or proclaimed the mysteries of God unless they had been taught by the Son, who alone enters into the Father’s secret counsels?
Those holy men, therefore, never knew God except by beholding him in his Son as in a mirror; and those holy Prophets never spoke of him except by the Spirit of that same Son. Or, if anyone prefers it expressed in this way: God never revealed himself to—
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—the sheep and kill the wolves; that they guide the teachable by instruction and exhortation; that they constrain and correct the rebellious and obstinate; that they bind and loose, thunder and strike with lightning—but all through the word of God.
Now, if this power is compared with that claimed by the spiritual tyrants who masquerade as bishops and rulers of souls, there will be no greater resemblance between them than there is between Christ and Belial.
First, they would have our faith depend upon their judgment. Whatever they determine must be regarded by us as fixed and beyond doubt: whatever they approve, we must approve as certain; and whatever they condemn, we must regard as condemned. From this arise such conclusions as these: that the Church possesses authority to create new articles of faith; that the authority of the Church is equal to that of Holy Scripture; that no one is a Christian who does not accept all the Church’s constitutions, both affirmative and negative, either by explicit or implicit faith; and other such claims.
Furthermore, they would subject our consciences to their dominion, so that we must obey whatever laws they please to establish. Meanwhile, following their own desires and despising the word of God, they invent doctrines which they require us to believe and enact laws whose observance they make necessary.
As to the first point, they unjustly claim the freedom to teach new doctrine and construct new articles of faith—a freedom which we have recently shown was denied even to the Apostles. And if they still refuse to yield, Saint Paul declares that he has no desire to exercise dominion over the faith of the Corinthians, although he had been appointed their Apostle by the Lord.
Not that we exercise dominion over your faith, but we are fellow workers for your joy.
And if he had approved such freedom to teach, he would not have established this rule: that when two or three Prophets speak, the others should judge, and that if something is revealed to another, the first should be silent.
Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge. But if something is revealed to another who is sitting by, let the first be silent.
For by doing this, he exempted no one from having his authority subjected to the judgment of the word of God.
He speaks still more clearly elsewhere, freeing our faith from all human traditions and inventions when he says that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
If faith depends upon the word of God alone, looks to it, and rests upon it, what place remains for the word of men?
As for the power to establish laws, since it was unknown to the Apostles and has so frequently been forbidden to the ministers of the Church by the word of God, I am astonished that these men dare to claim it, contrary both to the example of the Apostles and to God’s explicit prohibition. For what Saint James says is not obscure:
He who judges his brother judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a keeper of the law but its judge. There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy.
The same truth had previously been declared in Isaiah:
The Lord is our King; the Lord is our Lawgiver; the Lord is our Judge; he will save us.
We hear Saint James pronounce that he who possesses authority over the soul is Lord of life and death, salvation and condemnation. Since no man can claim such dignity for himself, we must therefore acknowledge God alone as King of our souls, for he alone possesses the power to save and condemn—or, in the words of Isaiah, he alone must be acknowledged as King, Judge, Lawgiver, and Savior.
Saint Peter also, when instructing pastors concerning their office, exhorts them to feed the flock without exercising dominion over God’s heritage. By this name he means God’s inheritance—that is, believers.
Feed the flock of God entrusted to you, exercising oversight not by compulsion but willingly; not for shameful gain but eagerly; neither as exercising dominion over God’s heritage, but by being examples to the flock.
Thus all the power boasted of by those who would exalt themselves apart from the word of God is overthrown and uprooted. For nothing was given to the Apostles by which they might establish their own kingdom and doctrine, but only what served to exalt and magnify the kingdom and doctrine of God.
I am well aware that they reply that their traditions do not originate with themselves but with God. For, as they claim, they do not teach their own inventions but merely dispense to the Christian people what they have received from the Holy Spirit, having been appointed by God’s providence to govern them.
They offer several arguments in support of this claim. They say that our Lord has bestowed great and excellent titles upon his Church, calling her holy and blameless, without spot or wrinkle.
Christ loved the Church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her... and present her to himself as a glorious Church, having neither spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing, but that she should be holy and blameless.
They further argue that the Church possesses the clearest promises by which Jesus Christ has assured her that the presence of his Spirit will never fail her. Therefore, they say, anyone who doubts the authority of the Church not only does injury to her but blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, by whose guidance the Church is assuredly governed.
For this reason, they continue, Jesus Christ commanded that anyone who refused to hear the Church should be regarded as a heathen and a tax collector.
If he refuses to hear the Church, let him be to you as a heathen and a tax collector.
According to their opinion, therefore, this must be universally accepted as settled: that the Church cannot err in matters necessary to salvation.
Moreover, they apply to themselves everything said concerning the Church, as though it belonged particularly to them. For, they claim, if they should fall, the whole Church would collapse, since it is supported upon their shoulders alone.
They therefore conclude that we should possess as much confidence in the truth of the Church’s councils as in the Church herself, since she is represented by them, and that we must not doubt that councils are directly governed by the Holy Spirit and therefore cannot err.
From this it likewise follows that their traditions are revelations of the Holy Spirit, which cannot be despised without despising God. And to give their constitutions still greater plausibility and authority, they claim that a large portion of them descended from the Apostles, such as prayers for the dead and almost the whole order of their ceremonies.
For they take it as settled that many things were revealed to the Apostles after the ascension of Jesus Christ which were never committed to writing, since our Lord had said to them:
I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. You shall know them afterward.
They further argue that one example sufficiently demonstrates what the Apostles did in all other matters: when they assembled together, they commanded, by the authority of the council, that all Gentiles abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, and from the flesh of strangled animals.
It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols, from blood, and from things strangled.
But I shall enable all who have the patience to examine these arguments with me in order to understand easily how foolish and frivolous they are. Indeed, I would earnestly entreat these men themselves to listen if I thought that instructing them would accomplish anything. But since their whole intention is to disregard the truth so that they may serve their own interests by every possible means, I shall not suppose myself to be dealing with them.
I shall simply show those who fear God and possess a zeal for the truth—whom I have undertaken here to instruct—how they may escape from these men’s snares.
They must first be warned not to be readily moved by the name of the Church, which is falsely claimed by these tyrants, who are in truth deadly plagues of the Church. For they allege nothing different from what the Jews formerly alleged when God’s Prophets accused them of blindness, impiety, and idolatry.
As those Jews sheltered themselves beneath the name of the Temple, its ceremonies, and its priesthood—things in which they imagined the Church consisted—so these men likewise present us with certain outward marks as though they constituted the Church, although they are often far removed from the Church and the Church can very well exist without them.
We therefore need no other argument to refute them than that by which Jeremiah opposed the vain confidence of the Jews: they must not glory in lying words, saying, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.”
Do not trust in lying words, saying, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.”
For the Lord acknowledges nothing as his own in any place except where his word is heard and reverently kept. This is the perpetual mark by which the Lord has distinguished his people:
Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice.
Likewise, Christ declares that he is the good Shepherd who knows his sheep and is known by them, and that they hear his voice and follow him.
I am the good Shepherd, and I know my sheep and am known by them.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
Shortly before this he had said that the sheep follow their shepherd because they know his voice, and that they will not follow a stranger but will flee from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.
The sheep follow him, for they know his voice. They will not follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.
Why, then, do we willingly go astray when discerning the Church, when Jesus Christ has marked her with so certain a sign? Wherever this sign appears, it cannot fail to identify the Church with certainty. Conversely, where it is absent, nothing remains that can provide a true indication of the Church.
Rather, Jerusalem must be distinguished from Babylon, and the Church of Christ from the company of Satan, according to the distinction established by our Lord:
He who is of God hears the words of God. You therefore do not hear them because you are not of God.
In sum, since the Church is the kingdom of Christ, and since Christ reigns only through his word, can we still doubt that those are lying words which imagine the kingdom of Christ without his scepter—that is, without his holy word?
Now, if we cast aside all pretense and falsehood and consider what we truly need to examine—namely, what kind of Church Jesus Christ requires, so that we may submit ourselves to and conform to its rule —it will be sufficiently evident that this is not the Church which, transgressing the boundaries of the word of God, delights in making new laws and inventing new forms of divine worship.
For does not the law once given to the Church remain forever?
Take care to do everything that I command you. You shall neither add to it nor take away from it.
And again:
Do not add to the words of the Lord, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.
Since it cannot be denied that these words were addressed to the Church, what do those men accomplish by saying that, despite such prohibitions, she dared to add her own inventions to the word of God, except to accuse her of rebellion against God?
But let us not listen to the falsehoods by which they inflict so grave an injury upon the Church. Rather, let us recognize that the name of the Church is falsely invoked whenever men attempt to conceal beneath it their foolish presumption, by which they break through the boundaries of God’s word to make room for their own inventions.
The words forbidding the universal Church to add anything to or subtract anything from the word of God are neither difficult, ambiguous, nor uncertain. They will say that this was spoken only of the law, after which came the Prophets. I grant this, provided they understand that the Prophets served more to fulfill the law than to add anything to it or take anything away from it.
Now, if the Lord did not permit anything to be added to or subtracted from the ministry of Moses—although it remained shrouded in obscurity until he provided clearer doctrine through his servants the Prophets, and finally through his beloved Son—why should we not judge it even more strictly forbidden to add anything to the law, the Prophets, the Psalms, and the gospel?
The Lord has certainly not changed his will. Long ago he declared that nothing offends him more grievously than when men attempt to worship him by means of their own inventions. We possess excellent testimonies of this in the Prophets, which ought continually to remain before our eyes.
In Jeremiah:
When I brought your fathers out of the land of Egypt, I did not command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But I gave them this command, saying, “Hear my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the ways that I command you.”
Again:
I solemnly charged your fathers, saying, “Hear my voice.”
There are many other passages like these, but the following testimony recorded in Samuel is especially noteworthy:
Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obedience to his voice? Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice, and to listen is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion against God is like witchcraft, and refusal to submit to him is like idolatry.
Since, therefore, all the inventions defended under the authority of the Church cannot be excused from impiety, it is easy to conclude that they are falsely attributed to the Church.
For this reason, we contend boldly against the tyranny of human traditions upheld under the name of the Church. We do not despise the Church, as our adversaries falsely accuse us of doing in order to make us odious; rather, we ascribe to her the praise of obedience, the highest praise she could desire.
It is they who grievously insult the Church by portraying her as rebellious against her Lord, since according to their claim she has transgressed the commandment of God. I shall say nothing further about their great imprudence and malice in continually appealing to the power of the Church while concealing and passing over both the commission she has received from God and the obedience she owes him.
But if we desire, as we ought, to agree with the Church, we must instead examine and consider what God has commanded both us and the whole Church, so that with one accord we may obey him. For there can be no doubt that we shall agree perfectly with the Church if in all things and everywhere we render ourselves obedient to God.
But they say that the Church is furnished with the fullest promises: that she will never be abandoned by Christ her Bridegroom, but will be guided by his Spirit into all truth.
First, all the promises they commonly allege are given no less to each individual believer than to the whole body of believers. For although our Lord was speaking to his twelve Apostles when he said—
I am with you always, even to the consummation of the age.
—and again—
I will pray to my Father, and he will give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever: the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he dwells with you and shall be in you.
—he did not make these promises merely to the Twelve as a body, but to each one of them and to all his disciples whom he had already chosen or would afterward choose.
When they interpret these promises, which are full of singular consolation, as though they had been given to no individual Christian but only to the whole Church collectively, what do they do except deprive every Christian of the consolation that should come to him from them?
I do not deny that the Lord, though abounding in mercy and goodness toward all his people, nevertheless pours out his gifts more abundantly upon some than upon others. It is necessary that those appointed as teachers of the Church should possess excellent gifts above others.
Likewise, I do not deny that the gifts of God, being diverse, are distributed in different ways, nor that the fellowship of believers, furnished with this diversity of graces, is collectively far richer in all heavenly wisdom than any individual believer separately.
There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
My only contention is that they perversely distort our Lord’s words into a meaning different from that in which they were spoken.
We therefore confess, as the truth requires, that the Lord remains with his people forever and guides them by his Spirit. This Spirit is not a spirit of error, ignorance, falsehood, or darkness, but of revelation, truth, wisdom, and light. By him they may learn without deception the things freely given to them by God: namely, the hope of their calling, the riches of the glory of God’s inheritance, and the exceeding greatness of his power toward all who believe.
We have received the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God.
That you may know the hope of his calling, the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe.
Furthermore, we confess that the Lord has established such a diversity of graces in his Church that there will always be particular persons who excel in his gifts for her edification. For he has given Apostles, Prophets, teachers, and pastors, all of whom, though serving in different offices, labor with one purpose for the edification of the Church until we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity and to the full measure of the stature of Christ.
He gave some to be Apostles, some Prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, and for the edification of the body of Christ, until we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.
Yet since believers receive in this flesh only a foretaste and beginning of that Spirit—even those who above others abound in the riches of God’s grace—nothing better remains for them than to acknowledge their weakness and keep themselves carefully within the bounds of God’s word. Otherwise, if they attempt to advance beyond it according to their own understanding, they will immediately wander from the right path.
Indeed, there can be no doubt that if they depart from this word in the slightest degree, they will fall into many errors, because they still lack the fullness of that Spirit by whose teaching alone the mysteries of God are understood.
When Saint Paul says that Christ cleansed his Church by the washing of water with the word of life, that he might present her to himself as a glorious bride having neither spot nor wrinkle, but holy and blameless, he shows us more what Christ daily accomplishes in his elect than what he has already perfected in them.
Christ loved the Church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her by the washing of water with the word, and present her to himself as a glorious Church, having neither spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing, but that she should be holy and blameless.
For if he sanctifies, purifies, polishes, and cleanses them from their stains day by day, it is evident that they are still wrinkled and defiled and that something remains lacking in their sanctification. Moreover, to imagine the Church already holy and spotless while her members remain defiled and unclean—is this not sheer mockery?
It is therefore true that Christ has washed his Church by the washing of water through the word of life. That is, he has purified her by the forgiveness of sins, of which purification Baptism is the sign, and he has purified her in order to sanctify her. But only the beginning of this sanctification appears here. Its completion and perfection will be fully accomplished when Christ, the Holy One of holies, fills her entirely with his holiness.
Thus the Church, trusting in such promises, has abundant grounds for sustaining her faith, since she does not doubt that she will always possess the Holy Spirit as her most faithful guide and director in the right path. Nor will she be deceived in this confidence, for the Lord will not mislead his people or nourish them with empty expectations.
On the other hand, by acknowledging her ignorance, the Church receives a salutary warning to keep her ear continually attentive to the teaching of her Master and Bridegroom, as befits a modest bride and pupil. She is therefore not wise in herself and invents nothing from herself, but sets the boundary of her wisdom where Jesus Christ ceases to speak.
Thus she distrusts all the inventions of her own reason. But wherever she is supported by the word of God, she neither wavers nor doubts; rather, she rests upon it securely with great certainty and steadfastness.
Indeed, we must carefully consider what use the Lord intends his Church to make of his Spirit. He says:
The Spirit whom I will send to you from the Father will guide you into all truth.
—John 15:26; 16:13
But how will he do this? Christ immediately adds:
He will bring to your remembrance all things that I have taught you.
He therefore declares that we should expect nothing further from his Spirit than that, by enlightening our minds, he should cause us to receive the truth of his doctrine.
For this reason, the statement of Chrysostom is noteworthy:
Many boast of the Spirit, but those who introduce anything of their own falsely claim him. As Christ testified that he did not speak from himself, because his doctrine was taken from the law and the Prophets, so if anything is presented to us under the name of the Spirit that is not contained in the gospel, let us not believe it. For as Christ is the fulfillment of the law and the Prophets, so the Spirit is the fulfillment of the gospel.
It is therefore no wonder that Jesus Christ commended the authority of his Church so highly that he commanded anyone who refused to hear her to be regarded as a tax collector and a Gentile, adding the singular promise that wherever two or three are gathered in his name, he will be in their midst.
If he refuses to hear the Church, let him be to you as a heathen and a tax collector.
Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
But it is astonishing that these deceivers are so shameless as to dare boast of this testimony. For what can they conclude from it except that we are not permitted to despise the agreement of the Church, which never agrees except in the truth of God?
“The Church must be heard,” they say. Who denies it? We must hear her because she pronounces nothing except from the word of God. If they demand anything beyond this, they should understand that these words of Christ lend them no support.
For since the promise is given to those gathered in Christ’s name, and since such an assembly is called the Church, we acknowledge no Church except that which is gathered in Christ’s name. But is it to be gathered in Christ’s name when men despise God’s command forbidding them to add anything to or take anything from his word, and then invent whatever doctrine pleases them?
Finally, they conclude that the Church cannot err in matters necessary to salvation. We do not contradict this, but we differ sharply from them concerning its meaning. We believe that the Church cannot fail because, laying aside all confidence in her own wisdom, she permits herself to be taught by the Holy Spirit through the word of God.
They, on the contrary, maintain that because the Church is governed by the Spirit of God, she may safely proceed without the word, and that whatever she does, she can neither think nor speak anything but the truth.
But even if we were to grant them everything they demand concerning the Church, they would still have gained nothing in support of their traditions.
They imagine that truth cannot remain in the Church unless it resides among the pastors, and that the Church herself cannot exist unless she is represented in general councils. Yet this has been far from universally true, if the testimonies left by the Prophets concerning their own times are reliable.
Isaiah says:
All her watchmen are blind; they know nothing. They are all mute dogs that cannot bark. They sleep and love to slumber. The shepherds possess neither knowledge nor understanding; they have all turned aside, each to his own way.
Jeremiah likewise says:
From the prophet even to the priest, everyone practices falsehood.
Again:
The prophets prophesy lies in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them.
To avoid spending too long recounting all such declarations, the reader may consult what is written concerning them in the twentythird and fortieth chapters of Jeremiah.
Ezekiel likewise writes:
The conspiracy of her prophets within her is like a roaring lion tearing its prey. They have devoured lives, seized precious possessions, and multiplied widows within her. Her priests have violated my law and profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between what is common and what is consecrated to me. Her prophets have covered their work with worthless mortar, seeing false visions and divining lies, saying, “The Lord has spoken,” when the Lord has not spoken.
Micah also, having learned more than sufficiently by experience how deceptive such titles are when the reality does not correspond to them, introduces the Lord speaking to the prophets who were leading the people astray:
Therefore night shall come upon you without vision, and darkness without divination.—[continues]
The sun shall set upon the Prophets, and the day shall grow dark over them. Those who see visions shall be confounded, and the diviners put to shame. They shall all cover their faces because there is no answer from the Lord.
Zephaniah likewise says:
Her Prophets are unstable and treacherous men. Her priests have profaned the sanctuary and violated the law.
Someone will say that these things occurred among the Jews and have no bearing upon our own time. Would to God that this were true! But Saint Peter foretold that precisely the same thing would happen among us:
As there were false Prophets among the people of Israel, so there shall be false teachers among you, secretly introducing destructive sects.
Do you see how he warns that the danger will arise not from unlearned members of the common people, but from those who proudly assume the titles of teachers and pastors?
Moreover, how often did Christ and his Apostles foretell how great a danger the Church would face from her own pastors? Without filling many pages by pursuing this subject further, we are warned not only by the examples of that age but by those of every age that truth is not always nourished in the bosom of pastors, and that the salvation of the Church does not depend entirely upon their good government.
They ought indeed to be faithful guardians of the Church’s peace and salvation, for they were appointed to preserve them. But it is one thing to fulfill one’s duty and another to be under obligation to do what one does not in fact perform.
Yet I do not wish these statements to be understood as though I desired the authority of pastors to be treated lightly or rashly despised. I desire only that discernment be exercised in distinguishing true pastors, so that men are not immediately regarded as pastors merely because they bear the title.
For we must firmly maintain that their entire office is limited to the administration of the word of God; all their wisdom, to the knowledge of that word; and all their eloquence, to its proclamation. If they depart from it, they become foolish in their understanding, stammerers in their speech, and treacherous and unfaithful in the whole discharge of their office, whoever they may be—Prophets, bishops, teachers, or persons established in still higher dignity.
I am not speaking merely of one or two individuals. Even if the whole body of pastors together should attempt to govern itself according to its own understanding while abandoning the word of God, it could only become senseless.
Yet these men have no other reason for giving free rein to their inventions and departing from the word of God than that they are pastors. As though Joshua had not been a pastor, to whom it was said that he must turn neither to the right hand nor to the left, but carefully observe all the commandments of the law.
Take care to act according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left.
Meanwhile, they would have us believe that the light of truth can never fail them, that the Holy Spirit rests upon them, and that the Church is supported by them and cannot otherwise continue—as though the judgments of God were no longer in force and could not bring about today what the Prophets threatened against the leaders of their own time:
The priests shall be confounded, and the Prophets astonished.
And again:
The law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders.
They proceed as though the warnings of Christ and his Apostles were likewise false. Jesus Christ says:
Many false Prophets shall arise and deceive many.
Saint Paul says to the bishops of Ephesus:
I know that after my departure savage wolves will enter among you, not sparing the flock. Even from among yourselves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw disciples after them.
Saint Peter likewise writes:
There were false Prophets among the people of Israel, just as there shall be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive sects.
There are many other similar passages. Yet these foolish men fail to understand that, in arguing against us in this manner, they are singing the same song once sung by those who opposed the word of God with the very same confidence in which they now pride themselves.
For their words were:
Come, and let us devise schemes against Jeremiah. For the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the Prophet.
Therefore, let them appeal as much as they please to councils of bishops; they will accomplish very little. Nor will they persuade us of what they claim—that they are governed by the Holy Spirit—until they have proved that they are gathered in the name of Christ. For wicked bishops may conspire against Christ just as readily as good bishops may assemble in his name.
Many decrees issued by such councils bear witness to this. I could easily demonstrate their wickedness by evident arguments if I were not striving for the brevity required by this treatise.
Nevertheless, if we wish to judge the others by some of these decrees, Saint Paul declares that forbidding marriage and the use of certain foods is demonic falsehood and hypocrisy.
In the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, forbidding marriage and commanding abstinence from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving.
They must not attempt to excuse themselves by referring Saint Paul’s statement exclusively to the Manichaeans and Tatianists, on the ground that those heretics entirely condemned marriage and the eating of meat, whereas they themselves forbid marriage only to certain persons and meat only on particular days. For they cannot deny that their decrees prohibit both marriage and the use of foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving.
Since these ordinances of Satan have been established by councils, let everyone consider what may be expected in all other matters from those who have once begun to serve as Satan’s instruments.
Moreover, why is it necessary to recount the contradictions among councils and how what was established by one was undone by another? They say that such differences concern only outward discipline, in which no harm arises from making different laws for different times. But the truth is that even in matters of doctrine there has been great conflict and contradiction among councils.
This may be seen in the council at Constantinople convened by Emperor Leo and the council at Nicaea assembled by Irene, his mother, in opposition to him. The first concluded that images should be torn down and destroyed; the second decreed that they should be restored.
In short, scarcely any true agreement has ever existed between the churches called Eastern and Western. Let them now go and boast, as they habitually do, that the Holy Spirit is bound and attached to their councils.
Yet I do not intend to condemn all councils or reject every judgment and doctrine that has proceeded from them. Indeed, I perceive in some of them—especially the ancient councils—a genuine devotion to godliness and great evidence of learning, prudence, and spiritual discernment. Nor do I doubt that other ages likewise possessed good bishops.
But in more recent councils, the same thing has occurred of which the Roman senators complained concerning the poor ordering of their senate: when opinions were counted without weighing their reasons, and decisions were reached merely according to the majority, the greater number often prevailed over the better judgment.
Even the ancient councils, which were the purest, are not entirely beyond criticism. The bishops of that time, though learned and prudent men, were so occupied with the particular matters for which they had assembled that they paid little attention to other questions. Or, being occupied with matters of great importance, they overlooked those of lesser consequence. At other times they could err through ignorance, or they might occasionally be carried away by excessive passion.