Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Church Militant · The Church Spread Throughout the Whole World
Chapter 13: That the Visible Church Cannot Fail
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).
Now, that this true and visible Church cannot fail can easily be proved. But it is to be noted that many of our writers waste time while they prove absolutely that the Church cannot fail; for Calvin and the other heretics grant this, but say that it must be understood of the invisible Church. We wish, therefore, to prove that the visible Church cannot fail; and by the name of the Church we do not understand one or another Christian man, but a congregated multitude, in which there are prelates and subjects.
First, this is shown from the Scriptures, where the Church is openly named. Matthew 16: Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. To which is like that of 1 Timothy 3: That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth. In each place the visible Church is treated, as we showed, and yet we have heard the very truth asserting that the gates of hell shall not prevail against that Church.
Secondly, from other places where there is an open promise without the name of the Church. Matthew last chapter: Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world. Which words were said to the visible Church, namely to the Apostles and the other disciples, whom the Lord addressed on the day of His ascension; and since those men were not to remain in the body until the consummation of the world, it is necessary to say that this promise pertains to their successors. And so this place Leo I, in letter 31 to Pulcheria Augusta, and Leo II, in his letter to Constantine Augustus, understand of the perpetual duration of the Church.
Moreover Ephesians 4: And He gave some indeed Apostles, some Prophets, some Evangelists, some Pastors and Doctors, for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, unto the edification of the body of Christ, until we all meet in the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ. Where the Apostle teaches that the ministries of pastors and doctors will remain in this Church, and the continual edification of the body of Christ, and accordingly the visible Church, until the day of judgment. For when the invisible Church alone should be in the world, these ministries would not be found, which cannot be exercised unless the pastors and the sheep recognize one another. And it is to be noted that although the ancients understand this place of the spiritual measure of the mystical body, but the more recent of the corporal measure of the bodies of the blessed, which they say will be of as great magnitude as they were or would have been in their perfect age, yet all understand this place of the last days, when the number of the elect shall be completed. See Augustine, Book 22 of the City of God, chapters 15, 17, and 18, where he touches each explanation.
Moreover, Psalm 47: God hath founded it forever; that is, His Church, which is His city, as Augustine expounds, and the thing itself proclaims: for the whole Psalm is on the foundation of the Christian Church as a new and visible city. For it begins: Great is the Lord and exceedingly to be praised, in the city of our God, in His holy mountain: it is founded with the joy of the whole earth, etc. Likewise Isaiah 61 (which chapter that it is understood of the Church of the New Testament Christ taught, Luke 4, when in the Synagogue He cited and expounded of His own coming the beginning of this chapter: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, etc.) is thus had: And I will make a perpetual covenant with them: and their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring in the midst of peoples. All that shall see them shall know them, that these are the seed which the Lord hath blessed. Truly this place is so clear that it needs no exposition. For how will that assembly be invisible of which it is said: All that shall see them shall know them, that these are the seed which the Lord hath blessed?
Let there be added thirdly the testimonies from the parables, by which by the consent of all the Church is signified. For the floor, in which are grains and chaff; and the net, in which are good and bad fishes; and the field, in which are wheat and cockle; and the feast, in which are good and bad reclining; and the fold, in which are sheep and goats, signify the visible Church, as even the heretics confess. For the invisible Church has not evil and good, but only good, according to their opinion. But the same parables teach that this visible Church will never perish until the day of judgment; for Matthew 3 it is said: He will thoroughly cleanse His floor, and will gather the wheat into His barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire; which without doubt will not be before the day of judgment. And Matthew 13 it is said: Suffer both to grow until the harvest. And below: The harvest is the end of the world. And below: So shall it be at the end of the world; the Angels shall go forth and shall separate the wicked from among the just, etc.
Fourthly, it is proved from the Scriptures which speak of the kingdom of Christ. Psalm 88: His throne as the sun before me, and as the moon perfect forever, and a faithful witness in heaven. In the same place: And I will set up his seed for ever and ever, and his throne as the days of heaven. Daniel 2: But in the days of those kingdoms the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, and his kingdom shall not be delivered up to another people, etc. And Luke 1: And of his kingdom there shall be no end. These places cannot be understood but of the true and visible Church of Christ, never to perish. For the kingdom of Christ is without doubt His true Church. Nor can a kingdom be called some hidden men, dispersed and separated from one another, who do not know one another, such as is the invisible Church of the Lutherans. For a kingdom is a multitude of congregated men who know one another.
Moreover in Psalm 88, where the kingdom of Christ is said to be eternal, it is also said that in it are good and bad, and accordingly that the Church is visible: But if his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments, etc., I will visit their iniquities with a rod, and their sins with stripes; but my mercy I will not take away from him, etc. Which place Saint Cyprian beautifully expounds of the scourges of the Church, in his sermon on the lapsed. In that chapter 2 of Daniel too, where the kingdom of Christ is said to be perpetual, we read also that the kingdom is a great mountain filling the whole earth, which Isaiah chapter 2 and Micah chapter 4 called a manifest mountain, according to the Seventy.
Fifthly, it is proved by the testimonies of the ancients. Origen and Chrysostom in the cited places affirm this; but more clearly Augustine and Bernard. Augustine on Psalm 101, second sermon, disputing against the Donatists, who said that the whole visible Church had perished, and had remained only in certain just men in Africa: “But,” he says, “that Church which was of all nations is now no more, it has perished — this say those who are not in it. O impudent voice! it is not, because thou art not in it. See lest thou therefore be not, for it will be, even if thou be not.” And below he introduces the Church thus speaking: “How long shall I be in this world? announce to me, on account of those who say, it was, and now is not; on account of those who say, the Scriptures are fulfilled, all nations have believed, but the Church has apostatized and perished from all nations. And He announced, nor was that voice empty. Who announced to me, but the very Way? When did He announce? Behold I am with you, even to the consummation of the world.” He has like things on Psalm 147, and in the book on the unity of the Church, chapters 13 and 20, and elsewhere.
Nor can it be answered that Augustine speaks of the invisible Church; that this had not perished, nor would perish, the Donatists admitted, and drew to themselves that, I am with you even to the consummation of the world, as Augustine relates in the noted place on Psalm 101. Bernard, sermon 79 on the Canticle, on that: I held him, and I will not let him go, till I bring him into my mother's house: “So it is,” he says, “both then and thenceforth the Christian race does not fail, nor faith from the earth, nor charity from the Church. The floods came, the winds blew, and beat upon it, and it fell not, because it was founded upon the rock, and the rock was Christ. And so neither by the wordiness of philosophers, nor the cavils of heretics, nor the swords of persecutors, could it, nor will it ever be able, to be separated from the charity of God, etc.” Nor can these things be understood of the invisible Church; for that the swords of tyrants do not persecute, nor the wordiness of philosophers, nor the cavils of heretics. And so the visible Church will not fail. Let there be added Vincent of Lerins, who in his Commonitory reprehends as a most grave error the opinion of Nestorius, who said that the whole Church had erred in the mystery of the Incarnation, because it had followed blind teachers.
Lastly, this same is proved by natural reason. For first, if at any time the invisible Church alone remained in the world, at some time salvation would also be impossible for those who are outside the Church. For they cannot be saved unless they enter the Church, just as in the time of Noe those necessarily perished who had no access to the ark; but they cannot enter a Church which they do not know, therefore they have no remedy.
Moreover, it is of the nature of the one true Church that it be visible; therefore if the visible Church perishes, no true Church remains.
Finally, either those hidden men who constitute the invisible Church openly profess their faith and abstain from the worship of idols, or not; if they profess, then it is not an invisible Church, but most visible, as it was in the time of the Martyrs; if they do not profess, then there is no Church, for it is not a true Church in which there are none good and who are saved; but they are not good, nor are saved, who do not confess the faith, but, keeping it in the heart, exteriorly profess perfidy and idolatry, since to the Romans 10 the Apostle says: With the heart we believe unto justice, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. And Matthew 10: Everyone that shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father. Therefore it implies a contradiction that the Church exist and altogether lack a visible form, unless it be placed outside the world, where it is never necessary to confess the faith.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT XIII. Ecclesiam visibilem non posse deficere. Jam, quod Ecclesia ista vera et visibilis non possit deficere , facile probari potest. Notandum autem est, multos ex nostris tem¬ pus terere, dum probant absolute Ecclesiam non posse deficere; nam Calvinus, et caeteri haeretici id concedunt ; sed dicunt, intelligi debere de Ecclesia invisibili. Probare igitur volumus, Ecclesiam visibilem non posse de¬ ficere; et nomine Ecclesiae non intelligimus unum, aut alterum hominem Christianum, sed multitudinem congregatam, in qua sint Praelati et subditi. Primum, id ostenditur ex Scripturis, ubi aperte nominatur Ecclesia, Matth. XVI : Su¬ per hanc petram aedificabo Ecclesiam meam , et portce inferi non praevalebunt adversus eam . Cui similis est ille I. Timoth. III : Ut scias, quomodo te oporteat conversari in domo Dei , quae est Ecclesia Dei vivi , columna , et firma¬ mentum veritatis (i). In utroque loco agitur de Ecclesia visibili, ut ostendimus, et tamen audivimus ipsam veritatem asserentem, por¬ tas inferorum non praevalituras contra eam Ecclesiam . Secundo, ex aliis locis, ubi aperta est pro¬ missio sine nomine Ecclesiae, Matth. ult. : Ecce ego vobiscum sum usque ad consummatio¬ nem saeculi (2). Quae verba ad Ecclesiam vi¬ sibilem dicta sunt, nimirum ad Apostolos, et discipulos caeteros, quos in die ascensio¬ nis suae Dominus allocutus est; et cum illi homines non essent permansuri in corpore usque ad mundi consummationem, necesse est dicere hanc promissionem pertinere ad eorum successores. Itaque hunc locum de Ecclesiae perpetua duratione intelligunt Leo I, in epist. 31. ad Pulcheriam Augustam, et Leo II, in epist. ad Constantinum Augus¬ tum. Praeterea Ephes. IV : Et ipse dedit quos- dum quidem Apostolos , alios Prophetas , alios Euangelistas , alios Pastores , etDoctores ad con¬ summationem Sanctorum in opus ministerii , in cedificationem corporis Christi, donec occurra¬ mus omnes in unitatem Fidei, et agnitionis Fi¬ lii Dei, in virum perfectum , et mensuram aeta¬ tis plenitudinis Christi (3) ; ubi Apostolus do¬ cet, mansura in Ecclesia ista ministeria pas¬ torum et doctorum, et continuam aedificatio¬ nem corporis Christi, et proinde visibilem Ecclesiam , usque ad diem judicii. Nam quando sola esset in mundo Ecclesia invisi¬ bilis, non invenirentur ista ministeria, quae non possunt exerceri, nisi se pastores et oves agnoscant. Et notandum, quod licet veteres intelligant hunc locum de spirituali mensura corporis mystici ; recentiores autem de cor¬ porali mensura corporum beatorum, quae dicunt futura tantae magnitudinis, quantae fuerunt vel fuissent in perfecta sua aetate ; tamen omnes intelligunt hunc locum de no¬ vissimis diebus, quando complebitur nume¬ rus electorum. Vide Augustin. lib. XXII de Civit. Dei, cap. 15, 17 et 18. ubi utramque explicationem tangit. Praeterea Psal. XLVII : Deus fundavit eam in aeternum (4) ; id est, Ecclesiam suam, quae est civitas ejus, et Augustinus exponit, et res ipsa clamat : nam totus Psalmus est de fundatione Ecclesiae Christianae, tamquam novae et visibilis civitatis. Incipit enim Ma¬ gnus Dominus et laudabilis nimis, in civitate Dei nostri, in monte sancto ejus : Fundatur exultatione universae terrae etc. Item Is. LXI (quod caput intelligi de Ecclesia novi testa¬ menti, docuit Christus Lucae IV, cum in Sy- (1) Matth. XVI, 18; I. Tim. III, 15. — (2) Matth. XXVIII, 20. — (3) Eph. IV, 11, 12 et 13. (4) Psal. XLVII, 9. 348 LIBER III. nagoga citavit, et exposuit de adventu suo initium hujus capitis : Spiritus Domini super me etc.) sic habetur : Et foedus perpetuum feriam eis : et scietur in Gentibus semen eorum et germen eorum in medio populorum. Omnes qui viderint eos , cognoscent illos , quia isti sunt semen cui benedixit Dominus (1). Profecto tam est perspicuus hic locus, ut expositione non egeat. Quomodo enim invisibilis erit ille coe¬ tus, de quo dicitur : Omnes qui viderint eos, cognoscent illos, quia isti sunt semen, cui bene¬ dixit Dominus. Accedant tertio testimonia ex parabolis, quibus omnium consensu significatur Eccle¬ sia : Area enim in qua sunt grana et paleae; et rete, in quo sunt boni et mali pisces ; et ager, in quo sunt frumenta et zizania; et convivium, in quo sunt boni et mali discum¬ bentes; et ovile, in quo sunt oves et hoedi, significant Ecclesiam visibilem, ut etiam hae¬ retici fatentur. Nam Ecclesia invisibilis non « habet malos et bonos, sed tantum bonos, se¬ cundum eorum sententiam. At eaedem para¬ bolae docent, istam Ecclesiam visibilem 'nun¬ quam interituram usque ad diem judicii ; nam Matth. III dicitur : Ipse permundabit aream suam, et triticum congregabit in horreum suum , paleas autem comburet igne inextingui- bili; quod sine dubio non fiet ante diem ju¬ dicii. Et Matth. XIII dicitur : Sinite utraque crescere usque ad messem. Et infra : Messis autem consummatio sceculi est. Et infra : Sic erit in consummatione sceculi; exibunt Angeli, et separabunt malos de medio justorum etc. (2) Quarto, probatur ex Scripturis, quaeloquun- tur de regno Christi Psal. LXXX VIII : Thro¬ nus ejus sicut Sol in conspectu meo, et sicut lu¬ na perfecta in aeternum , et testis in coelo fide¬ lis. Ibidem : Et ponam in saeculum sceculi se¬ men ejus , et thronum ejus sicut dies coeli. Da- niel II : In diebus autem regnorum illorum suscitabit Deus coeli Regnum , quod in externum non dissipabitur : et Regnum ejus alteri populo non tradetur etc. Et Lucae I : Et Regni ejus non erit finis (3). Ista loca non possunt intel- ligi, nisi de vera et visibili Christi Ecclesia nunquam interitura. Nam Regnum Christi sine dubio est vera ejus Ecclesia. Neque re¬ gnum dici possunt aliquot homines occulti, et dispersi, et separati ab invicem, qui se non noverunt, qualis est Ecclesia invisibilis Lutheranorum. Regnum enim est multitudo hominum congregatorum, qui se invicem noverunt. Praeterea in Psalm. LXXXVIII, ubi dicitur Christi regnum se ternum, dicitur etiam, quod in eo sint boni et mali, ac proinde, quod Ec¬ clesia sit visibilis : Si autem dereliquerint filii ejus, inquit , legem meam, et justitias meas non custodierint etc. Visitabo in virga iniquitatem eorum, et in verberibus peccata eorum; miseri¬ cordiam autem meam non dispergam ab eo etc. (4). Quem locum pulchre exponit de fla¬ gellis Ecclesiae S. Cyprianus in ser. de lap¬ sis. In illo etiam cap. II Dan. ubi dicitur, Regnum Christi perpetuum ; legimus quo¬ que illud, Regnum esse montem magnum implentem omnem terram, quem Isaias cap. II et Mich. cap. IV vocabant montem mani¬ festum, secundum LXX. Quinto, probatur testimoniis veterum : Origenes et Chrysostomus locis citatis id af¬ firmant; sed clarius Augustinus et Bernar- dus. Augustinus in Psal. CI, concion. 2. dis¬ putans contra Donatistas, qui totam Eccle¬ siam visibilem periisse dicebant, et in solis quibusdam justis in Africa remansisse : « Sed, inquit, illa Ecclesia, quae fuit omnium Gentium, jam non est, periit, hoc dicunt, qui in illa non sunt. 0 impudentem vocem, illa non est, quia tu in illa non est. Vide, ne tu ideo non sis, nam illa erit, etsi tu non sis. i) Et infra Ecclesiam ita loquentem in¬ troducit : «Quamdiu ero in isto saeculo? an¬ nuntia mihi, propter illos, qui dicunt, fuit, et jam non est, propter illos qui dicunt: im¬ pletae sunt Scripturae, crediderunt omnes gentes. Sed apostatavit et periit Ecclesia de omnibus Gentibus ; Et annuntiavit, nec va¬ cua fuit vox ista. Quis annuntiavit mihi, nisi ipsa via? Quando annuntiavit? Ecce ego vo- biscum sum usque ad consummationem sae¬ culi. » Similia habet in Psalm. GXLV1I et libro de unitate Ecclesiae, cap. 13. et 20. et alibi. Neque responderi potest, loqui Augusti¬ num de Ecclesia invisibili ; illam eam non periisse, nec perituram, Donatistae admitte¬ bant , et ad se trahebant illud : Ego vobis- cum sum usque ad consummationem sceculi (5), ut Augustinus refert loco notato in Psal. GI. Bernardus serm. 79. in Gant. in illud : Te¬ nui eum, nec dimittam, donec introducam illum in domum matris meae (6) : « Ita est, inquit, et (1) Isai. LXI, 8 et 9. — (2) Matth. III, 12; XIII, 30, 39 et 41. — (3) Psal. LXXXVIII, 38; Dan. II, 44 ; Luc. I, 33. — (4) Psal. LXXXVIII, 31 et 32. — (5) Matth. XXVIII. 20. — (6) Cantic. III, 4. CAPUT XIV. 349 tunc, et deinceps non deficit genus Chris¬ tianum, nec fides de terra, nec charitas de Ecclesia. Venerunt flumina, flaverunt venti, et impegerunt in eam, et non cecidit, eo quod fundata esset super petram, petra au¬ tem erat Christus. Itaque nec verbositate Philosophorum, nec cavillationibus haereti¬ corum, aut gladiis persecutorum, potuit is¬ ta, nec poterit aliquando separari a chari- tate Dei etc. » Nec possunt haec intelligi de Ecclesia invisibili; nam illam non perse¬ quuntur gladii tyrannorum, nec verbositas Philosophorum, nec cavillationes haeretico¬ rum. Itaque visibilis Ecclesia non deficiet. Accedat Vincentius Lirinensis, qui in suo commonitorio tamquam errorem gravissi¬ mum reprejiendit Nestorii sententiam, qui dicebat, totam Ecclesiam errasse in myste¬ rio Incarnationis, eo quod caecos doctores secuta esset. Ultimo, probatur hoc idem naturali ra¬ tione. Primum enim si aliquando sola ma¬ neret in mundo Ecclesia invisibilis, aliquan¬ do etiam esset impossibilis salus iis, qui sunt extra Ecclesiam. Nam non possunt salvari, nisi in Ecclesiam ingrediantur : quemadmo¬ dum tempore Noe pei ibant necessario, qui non habebant aditum ad arcam : at non pos¬ sunt ingredi in Ecclesiam, quam ignorant, igitur non habent remedium. Praeterea, de ratione unius verae Ecclesiae est, ut sit visibilis, ergo si Ecclesia visibilis perit, nulla vera Ecclesia remanet. Denique, vel homines illi occulti, qui Ec¬ clesiam invisibilem constituunt, profitentur palam fidem suam, et abstinent ab idolorum cultura, vel non; si profitentur, ergo non est Ecclesia invisibilis , sed maxime visibi¬ lis, sicut erat tempore Martyrum; si non profitentur, ergo nulla est Ecclesia; nam non est Ecclesia vera, in qua nulli sunt bo¬ ni, et qui salventur ; non autem sunt boni, nec salvantur, qui non confitentur fidem, sed ea in corde retenta, exterius profitentur perfidiam et idololatriam, cum ad Roman. X dicat Apostolus : Corde creditur ad justitiam , ore autem confessio fit ad salutem. Et Matth. X : Omnis , qui negaverit me coram hominibus, negabo eum coram Patre meo( 1). Ergo impli¬ cat contradictionem, Ecclesiam esse, et ca¬ rere omnino forma visibili, nisi ponatur ex¬ tra mundum, ubi nunquam sit necessarium fidem confiteri.