Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Church Militant · The Church Spread Throughout the Whole World
Chapter 11: The Second Controversy Is Proposed: Whether the Church Is Always Visible
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. II, De Ecclesia Militante, On the Church Militant (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).
We have explained what the Church is; now it must be said what kind it is. The dissension between us and the heretics consists in three things. For first they say that the true Church is invisible, and known to God alone. Where note, from Frederick Staphylus in his first Apology, part 3, that the Lutherans at first made the Church invisible; but then, when they saw the absurdities which thence followed, by secret counsel decreed that the Church should be called visible: and so all began to teach that the Church is visible, but yet so that, visible in name, it was invisible in reality.
And first, Luther, in his book on the bondage of the will, when Erasmus had objected to him that it was not credible that God had deserted the Church for so long a time, answered that God had never deserted the Church, but that that which is commonly called the Church, that is, the Pope, the Bishops, the Clergy, the Monks, and the rest of the multitude of Catholics, is not the Church of Christ; but that the Church is certain few pious ones whom, as a remnant, God preserves; and that it has always been so in the world, that the true Church was not that which was called the Church, but certain few pious ones. And in his book against Catharinus he says that the Church is spiritual, and perceptible by faith alone. In his book on abrogating private Mass, part 1, the same Luther speaks thus: “Who will show us the Church, since it is hidden in the Spirit, and is only believed, as it is said, I believe the holy Church?”
Now the Magdeburgians, Century 1, Book 1, chapter 4, column 170, define the Church a visible assembly; yet column 171 they distinguish two Churches, and column 178 they say that the true Church is generally a small assembly, but the false a most numerous one, because to the true belong only those who enter by the narrow gate, that is, the truly pious, which Church accordingly is invisible; and column 184 they say that in the time of Christ there were of the true Church the Shepherds, the Magi, Zacharias, Simeon, Mary, Anna, but not the Pontiffs and Priests, because forsooth those were pious, these impious.
Philip Melanchthon, in the Loci, place 12, which is on the Church, repeats several times that the Church is visible; yet in the same place he says that in controversies the word of God is to be followed according to the confession of the true Church; but this true Church he says is not the Pontiffs and Priests, nor the greater part of a Council, but certain pious and elect illuminated by God: and in the same place he says that in the time of Elijah the true Church was Elijah, Elisha, and a few others adhering to them, but not the rest of the multitude of the Jews; and that in the time of Christ the Church was Zacharias, Simeon, Mary, the Shepherds, because forsooth they were pious.
Brentius, in the Wirtemberg Confession, chapter on Councils, says that the Church of God has a promise; yet that one must not stand by the judgment of Councils, because few there are elect, and because often the greater part conquers the better. And in the Prolegomena: “See,” he says, “that he (Peter of Soto) makes the Church visible, and beheld by the bodily senses. That article of the Apostolic Creed, therefore, must be deleted: I believe the holy Catholic Church, and it must be thus replaced: I see and perceive the holy Catholic Church.” Likewise Calvin, Book 4 of the Institutes, chapter 1, § 7: “In two ways,” he says, “the sacred letters speak of the Church: for sometimes, when they name the Church, they understand that which is really before God, etc.” And below, speaking of this: “For us it is necessary to believe the Church invisible, conspicuous to the eyes of God alone.” And § 3: “But to embrace the unity of the Church in this way, there is no need to behold the Church itself with the eyes or to touch it with the hands.”
Secondly they teach that the visible Church sometimes so errs in faith and morals that it utterly fails: so Calvin in the preface of the Institutes: “But they err not a little from the truth, while they acknowledge no Church but that which they discern with the present eye.” And below: “They rage,” he says, “unless the Church be always shown with the finger.” And below: “Nay rather let us permit God, since He alone knows who are His, sometimes even to take away the exterior knowledge of His Church from the sight of men.”
Thirdly they teach that the true Church, that is, the invisible, cannot indeed fail, nor err in those things which necessarily pertain to salvation, yet in other things can err: so Calvin, Book 4, chapter 8 of the Institutes, § 13, and elsewhere. We assert the contrary, and shall confirm each point by its arguments.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT XI. Proponitur altera controversia : An Ecclesia sit semper visibilis, sive, an errare et deficere Explicuimus, quid sit Ecclesia, nunc di¬ cendum est, qualis sit. Dissensio inter nos et haereticos in tribus consistit. Primum enim illi dicunt, veram Ecclesiam esse invisibilem, solique Deo cognitam. Quo loco nota exFri- derico Staphilo in prima Apolog. par. 3. Lutheranos initio Ecclesiam invisibilem fe¬ cisse ; deinde tamen, cum viderent absurda, quae inde sequebantur, secreto consilio sta¬ tuisse, ut Ecclesia visibilis diceretur : Itaque coeperunt omnes docere, Ecclesiam esse visi¬ bilem ; sed sic tamen, ut nomine visibilis, re invisibilis esset. Ac primum, Lutherus in lib. de servo ar- bitiio, cum ei Erasmus objecisset, non esse credibile, Deum tam longo tempore dese¬ ruisse Ecclesiam, respondit : Deum num- quam deseruisse Ecclesiam, sed non esse Ecclesiam Christi illam, quae vulgo dicitur Ecclesia, id est, Papam, Episcopos, Clericos, Monachos, et caeteram Catholicorum multi¬ tudinem ; sed Ecclesiam esse quosdam pau¬ cos pios, quos, quasi reliquias, Deus conser¬ vat : Et semper hoc fuisse in mundo, ut vera Ecclesia non esset illa, quae dicebatur Eccle¬ sia; sed pii quidam pauci. Et in lib. cont. Catharinum dicit, Ecclesiam esse spiritua¬ lem, et sola fide perceptibilem. In lib. de abroganda Missa privata, par. 1. sic loqui¬ tur idem Lutherus : « Quis, inquit, Eccle¬ siam nobis monstrabit, cum sit occulta in Spiritu, et solum credatur? sicut dicitur : Credo Ecclesiam sanctam? » JamMagdeburgenses Cent. I, lib. I, cap. 4, coi. 170. definiunt, Ecclesiam coetum visibi¬ lem; tamen coi. 171. distinguunt duas Ec¬ clesias, et coi. 178. dicunt, veram Ecclesiam esse coetum exiguum plerumque; falsam CAPUT XII. 345 vero, numerosissimum, quia ad veram soli illi pertinent, qui intrant per portam angus¬ tam, id est, vere pii, quse Ecclesia proinde sit invisibilis : et colum. 184. dicunt, tem¬ pore Christi fuisse de Ecclesia vera Pasto¬ res, Magos, Zachariam, Simeonem, Mariam, Annam ; non autem Pontifices et Sacerdo¬ tes, quia nimirum illi pii, isti impii erant. Philippus Melanchthon in locis, loco 12. qui est de Ecclesia, repetit aliquoties Eccle¬ siam esse visibilem ; tamen ibidem dicit, in controversiis sequendum esse verbum Dei juxta confessionem verse Ecclesiae ; hanc au¬ tem veram Ecclesiam dicit non esse Ponti¬ fices et Sacerdotes, nec majorem partem Concilii, sed quosdam pios et electos a Deo illuminatos : et ibidem dicit, tempore Eliae Ecclesiam veram fuisse Eliam, Elisaeum, et paucos alios illis adhaerentes : non autem caeteram Judaeorum multitudinem : Et tem¬ pore Christi Ecclesiam fuisse Zachariam, Simeonem, Mariam, Pastores, quia nimirum pii erant. Brentius in Confessione Wirtemberg. cap. de Conciliis, dicit, habere Ecclesiam Dei promissionem : tamen non esse standum judicio Conciliorum, quia pauci sunt ibi electi, et quia saepe major pars vincit melio¬ rem. Et in Prolegomenis : « Vide, inquit, quod faciat (Petrus a Soto) Ecclesiam visibi¬ lem, et sensibus corporeis perspectam. De¬ lendus igitur erit ille articulus Symboli Apos- toiici : Credo Ecclesiam sanctam Catholicam, et erit sic reponendus ; Video et sentio Eccle¬ siam sanctam Catholicam. » Item Calvinus lib. IV, Institut. cap. 1. §7 : « Bifariam, in¬ quit, de Ecclesia sacrae litterae loquuntur : interdum enim cum Ecclesiam nominant, eam intelligunt, quae est revera coram Deo etc. » Et infra de hac loquens : « Nobis, inquit, invisibilem, solius Dei oculis conspi¬ cuam, credere Ecclesiam necesse est. » Et §.3 : « Caeterum, inquit, ad amplexandam eo modo Ecclesiae unitatem, nihil opus est Ecclesiam ipsam oculis cernere, aut mani¬ bus palpare. » Secundo docent, visibilem Ecclesiam in- ' terdum ita errare in fide, et moribus, ut pe¬ nitus deficiat : ita Calvinus in praefatione In¬ stitut : « Sed non parum, inquit, a vero aber¬ rant, dum Ecclesiam non agnoscunt, nisi quam praesenti oculo cernant. » Et infra : « Fremunt, inquit, nisi Ecclesia digito sem- per ostendatur. » Et infra : : « Quin potius, inquit, permittamus Deo, ut quando ipse solus novit qui sui sunt, interdum etiam Ec¬ clesiae suae exteriorem notitiam ab hominum aspectu auferat. » Tertio docent, Ecclesiam veram, id est in¬ visibilem, non posse quidem deficere, nec errare in iis, quae necessario ad salutem per¬ tinent, tamen in aliis errare posse : Ita Cal¬ vinus lib. IV, cap. 8. Instit. §. 13. et alibi. Nos contrarium asserimus, ac singula suis argumentis confirmabimus.