Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On Antichrist · On the Roman Pontiff, Book III
Chapter 20: The Lies of Calvin Are Refuted
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. II, De Antichristo, On Antichrist (On the Roman Pontiff, Book III). The Latin source text is public domain; this English rendering is released with the site. Scripture quotations follow Bellarmine's Vulgate citations, rendered in Douay-Rheims wording where he quotes exactly. Click “Show the Latin” for the original (raw OCR of the scan; scanning errors remain — the scan itself is the authority).
John Calvin, then, explaining the place of the Apostle, 2 Thessalonians 2, Who lifteth himself up above all that is called God, says indeed many things, and with great pomp of words, but proves almost nothing. “Paul signified by these words,” he says, “that Antichrist would snatch to himself the things that are proper to the one God, so that he lifts himself above every divine power, so that all religion and all the worship of God lies under his feet.” And below: “Now whoever shall be taught by Scripture what things are chiefly proper to God, and shall on the other hand behold what the Pope usurps to himself, even if he be a boy of ten years, will not labor much in knowing Antichrist.” A magnificent promise indeed.
But let us hear by what reasons at last he demonstrates what he proposed. For perhaps they will be such that even boys of ten years will not labor much in dissolving them: “Scripture pronounces that God is the only lawgiver, Isaiah 33, verse 22, who can save and destroy, James 4, verse 12; the only King, whose office it is to rule souls by His word; it makes the same the author of all sacred things; it teaches that justice and salvation are to be sought from Christ alone, and assigns at once the manner and the reason. There is none of these which the Pope does not assert to be of his own right: he boasts that it is his to bind consciences by what laws he pleases, and to subject them to eternal punishments. Sacraments he institutes new at his own pleasure, or corrupts and vitiates those which had been instituted by Christ, nay utterly abolishes them, that in their place he may substitute the sacrileges which he himself has feigned; means of obtaining salvation altogether alien from the doctrine of the Gospel he devises; finally, he does not hesitate to change the whole religion at his nod. What, I beseech, is it to lift oneself above all that is reputed a deity, if the Pope does not do this?”
Did I not say well that many things are said by Calvin, and little or nothing proved? For that the Pope boasts that it is his to bind consciences by what laws he pleases, that he institutes new Sacraments, that he abolishes the old, that he devises means to salvation alien from the doctrine of the Gospel, that he changes all religion, Calvin says indeed, but does not prove; but if with him to say is to prove, then by like reason to deny will be to refute.
Certainly, as many of us as are Catholics, and obey the Roman Pontiff the Vicar of Christ, freely say — and without any injury to him we say — that it is not lawful for him to bind men by any laws whatever, that is, even pernicious and iniquitous ones; nor to institute new Sacraments; nor to corrupt or abolish those instituted by Christ; nor to devise means to salvation alien from the doctrine of the Gospel; nor to pervert or change the Christian religion. And this we say the more willingly, because we know that he too thinks and says so. For if he does not think so, if he thinks it lawful for him to make iniquitous laws, to institute new Sacraments, to abolish the old, and to do other such things, how does he suffer us to speak so — we who yet are in his power, and teach, not in some corner, but in the very city of Rome, he knowing and willing it?
But they will say: the Pope does not say that these things are lawful for him, but yet in fact and by deeds he contends that they are lawful for him. Let it be proved, then, that he has done any of these; for otherwise to assume what was to be proved — which indeed is customary to the adversaries — is called by the Dialecticians a begging of the question.
Moreover those two places of Isaiah 33 and James 4, which alone Calvin brought forward, do not at all hurt our opinion. For that Isaiah and James say that God is our one King, judge, and lawgiver, certainly does not fight with those words, Proverbs 8: By me kings reign, and lawgivers decree just things; and with those, Psalm 2: And now, O ye kings, understand; receive instruction, you that judge the earth; and with six hundred other places of the same kind. Isaiah and James, then, do not make God the one King, judge, and lawgiver in every way, but only in this respect, that He alone is so King, and judge, and lawgiver, that He owes an account to none, depends on none, and by His own authority — that is, not received from another — reigns, and judges, and makes laws; and finally that He alone can, even as to execution, destroy and save, as James says. For none of these do we attribute either to the Pope or to other Princes.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT XX.
Refelluntur Calvini mendacia.
Igitur Joan nes Calvinus explanans locum
Apostoli II. Thessal. II : Qui extollit se super
omne quod dicitur Deus {i), multa quidem di¬
cit, et magna pompa verborum , sed nihil
fere probat : « Significavit , inquit , Paulus
his verbis, Antichristum sibi rapturum quse
unius Dei propria sunt, ut supra omne divi¬
num numen se efferat, ut tota religio totus-
que Dei cultus sub ejus pedibus jaceat. » Et
infra : « Nunc quisquis a Scriptura edoctus
erit, qusenam Deo maxime sint propria , et
ex adverso intuebitur, quid sibi Papa usur¬
pet, etiamsi puer sit decennis non multum
laborabit in noscendo Anticliristo. » Magni¬
fica vero pollicitatio.
Sed audiamus quibus tandem rationibus
demonstrat , quod proposuit. Forte enim
ejusmodi erunt, ut pueri etiam decennes non
multum laboraturi sint in iis dissolvendis :
« Scriptura pronuntiat , Deum unicum esse
legislatorem, Isai. XXXIII, v. 22 : qui ser¬
vare potest , et perdere, Jacob. IV, v. 12 :
Unicum Regem, cujus officium est verbo suo
regere animas, eumdem facit omnium sacro¬
rum auctorem : justitiam et salutem ab uno
Christo petendam docent , modum simul et
rationem assignat. Nihil horum est quod
non sui juris Papa esse asserat , suum esse
gloriatur ligare quibus visum est legibus con¬
scientias, et aeternis poenis subjicere. Sacra¬
menta pro libidine sua vel nova instituit, vel
quae a Christo instituta erant corrumpit et
vitiat, imo penitus abolet , ut in eorum vi¬
cem substituat quae finxit ipse sacrilegia :
media consequenda salutis aliena prorsus a
doctrina Evangelii comminiscitur : totam
denique religionem pro suo nutu mutare non
dubitat. Quid, obsecro, est se efferre supra
omne quod numen reputatur , si hoc Papa
non facit? »
Nonne bene dixeram multa dici a Calvi¬
no, parum , aut nihil probari? Nam quod
Papa gl orietur suum esse ligare quibus vi¬
sum fuerit legibus conscientias, quod Sacra¬
ti) II. Thessal. II, 4.
menta nova instituat , quod aboleat vetera,
quod media ad salutem comminiscatur alie¬
na a doctrina Evangelii , quod omnem reli¬
gionem mutet , dicit quidem Calvinus , sed
non probat: sin autem dicere apud eum pro¬
bare est : pari ratione inliciari refutare esse
debebit.
Certe quotquot Catholici sumus, et Roma¬
no Pontifici Christi Vicario obedimus, libere
dicimus, et sine ulla ejus injuria dicimus :
non licere ei quibusvis legibus , hoc est,
etiam perniciosis et iniquis homines ligare,
nec Sacramenta nova instituere, nec institu¬
ta a Christo corrumpere , vel abolere , nec
media comminisci ad salutem aliena a doc¬
trina Evangelii, nec religionem Christianam
pervertere, vel immutare : id vero eo liben¬
tius dicimus , quod scimus eum quoque ita
sentire, ac dicere. Nam si non ita sentit, si
putat sibi licere leges iniquas condere , Sa¬
cramenta nova instituere, vetera abolere, et
alia ejusmodi facere ; quomodo patitur nos
ita loqui , qui tamen in ejus potestate su¬
mus, et non in angulo nescio quo, sed in ip¬
sa urbe Roma, eo sciente et volente , doce¬
mus ?
Sed inquient : non dicit Papa sibi ista li¬
cere, sed tamen reipsa et factis sibi licere
contendit. Probetur igitur aliquid horum fe¬
cisse : nam alioqui assumere quod proban¬
dum erat , quod quidem solemne adversa¬
riis est, petitio principii aDialecticis vocatur.
Porro duo illa loca Isaiae XXXIII et Ja-
cobi IV, quae sola Calvinus protulit, senten¬
tiae nostrae nihil omnino officiunt. Nam quod
Isaias et Jacobus dicunt : Unum esse regem,
judicem, et legislatorem nostrum; certe non
pugnat cum verbis illis Prov. VIII : Per me
Reges regnant , et legum conditores justa decer¬
nunt ; et cum illis Psal. II : Et nunc Reges in-
telligite , erudimini qui judicatis terram (I) :
et cum aliis sexcentis ejusdem generis locis.
Non igitur Isaias et Jacobus quocumque mo¬
do unum Regem , judicem, et legislatorem
Deum faciunt : sed ea tantum ratione, quod
solus ipse ita sit Rex, et judex, et legislator,
ut nulli rationem reddere debeat, a nullo
pendeat, auctoritate propria, id est, non ac¬
cepta ab alio, regnet, et judicet, ac leges fe¬
rat, ac denique quod solus ipse possit etiam
quoad executionem perdere et salvare , ut
Jacobus ait. Nihil enim horum aut Papie,
aut aliis Principibus tribuimus.