Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On Councils · On the Authority of Councils, Book I
Chapter 14: Certain Doubts Explained
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. II, De Conciliis (De Conciliorum Auctoritate), On Councils, Book I (of the controversy On Councils and the Church). 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).
Besides these arguments of the heretics, the Catholics are wont to propose certain doubts. One: whether it is not lawful for a Council to be proclaimed by another than the Pope, when it is necessary for the Church, and yet the Pope will not proclaim it. Another: whether it is not lawful for a Council to be proclaimed by another than the Pope, when the Pope ought not to proclaim it, because he is a heretic or a schismatic. The third doubt: whether it is not lawful for a Council to be proclaimed by another than the Pope, when the Pope could not proclaim it, because he is a captive among the infidels, or dead, or made insane, or has resigned.
To the first, Torquemada answers, Book 3 chapter 8, that this case is scarcely possible; for it is not credible that any Pontiff will be so evil as not to wish a Council celebrated, if it be openly established that it is necessary for the preservation of the Church. And if even he himself were such of himself, yet God, who preserves the Church, would without doubt either change his mind or take him out of the way. He says, secondly, that if none of these were done, he could be held as suspect of heresy; for, as is said distinction 83, canon Error, and others following, he who does not resist a manifest error, when he can and ought, is judged to approve it.
To the second and third I answer that in no case can a true and perfect Council — such as we here dispute of, which has authority to define questions of faith — be convoked without the Pontiff's authority. For the chief authority is in the head, or in Peter, who was commanded to confirm his brethren, and for whom therefore the Lord prayed that his faith should not fail, Luke 22. Yet in those two cases an imperfect Council can be gathered, which will suffice to provide the Church with a head. For the Church without doubt has authority to provide itself with a head, although it cannot without a head determine many things which it can determine with the head, as Cajetan rightly teaches in his little work on the power of the Pope, chapters 15 and 16, and long before the Presbyters of the Roman Church in their letter to Cyprian, which is letter 7, Book 2, among the works of Cyprian. Moreover this imperfect Council can be held, if it be either proclaimed by the college of Cardinals, or the Bishops themselves of their own accord come together into one place.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT XIV. Explicantur dubitationes qucedam. Praeter hsec argumenta haereticorum so¬ lent Catholici quaedam dubia proponere. Unum, an non liceat Concilium indici ab alio quam a Papa, quando sit necessarium Ecclesiae, et tamen Papa nolit illud indicere. Alterum, an non liceat Concilium indici ah alio quam a Papa, quando Papa non debeat illud indicere, eo quod sit haereticus vel schismaticus. Tertium dubium, an non liceat Concilium indici ah alio, quam a Papa, quando Papa non posset illud indicere, eo quod esset captivus apud infideles , vel mortuus, vel insanus effectus, aut renun- tiasset. Ad primum respondet Turrecremata lib. III, cap. 8. vix esse possibilem eum casum; non enim credibile est, ullum Pontificem fore tam malum, qui non velit Concilium celebrari, si aperte constet id esse necessa¬ rium Ecclesiae conservationi. Quod si etiam ipse ex se talis esset, tamen Deus, qui Ec¬ clesiam conservat, sine dubio, vel ejus men¬ tem mutaret, vel eum de medio tolleret. Di¬ cit secundo, si nihil horum fieret, posse eum haberi tamquam suspectum de haeresi ; nam ut dicitur dist. 83. can. Error, et aliis se¬ quentibus, qui errori manifesto non resistit, cum possit et debeat, eum approbare cen¬ setur. Ad secundum et tertium respondeo, in nullo casu sine Pontificis auctoritate posse convocari verum et perfectum Concilium, de quali hic nos disputamus, quod videlicet auctoritatem habet definiendi quaestiones fidei. Praecipua enim auctoritas est in ca¬ pite, sive in Petro, cui imperatum est, ut confirmet fratres suos, et ideo etiam pro eo Dominus oravit, ne deficeret fides ejus, Luc. XXII. Poterit tamen in illis duobus casibus congregari Concilium imperfectum, quod sufficiet ad providendum Ecclesiae de capite. Ecclesia enim sine dubio habet auctoritatem providendi sibi de capite, quamvis non pos¬ sit sine capite statuere de multis, de quibus potest cum capite, ut recte docet Cajetanus in opusculo de potestate Papae, c. 15 et 16. et multo ante Presbyteri Romanae Ecclesiae in epistola ad Cyprianum, quae est 7, lib. II in operibus Cypriani. Porro Concilium istud imperfectum, fieri poterit, si vel indicatur a collegio Cardinalium, vel ipsi per se Epis¬ copi in locum unum conveniant.