Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Church Militant · The Church Spread Throughout the Whole World
Chapter 18: That the Treatment of the Marks of the Church Is Most Useful
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).
[Here begins the treatise On the Marks of the Church — the fourth book of the controversy On Councils and the Church.]
There remains the controversy on the Marks of the true Church, which controversy is most useful. For all confess that in the true Church alone is true faith, true remission of sins, true hope of eternal salvation; so that Cyprian, on the simplicity of prelates, says: “They cannot remain with God who have refused to be of one mind in the Church of God. Though they burn, delivered to flames and fires, or, cast to the beasts, lay down their lives, that will not be the crown of faith, but the punishment of perfidy: such a one can be slain, he cannot be crowned.”
Like things all the Fathers teach, nor do the heretics deny them; for therefore every heresy draws to itself alone the true Church, and places all others outside the Church, as Lactantius teaches in these words, Book 4, last chapter of the Divine Institutes: “The Catholic Church alone,” he says, “is that which retains the true worship. This is the fount of truth, this the dwelling of faith, this the temple of God; into which if anyone enter not, or from which if anyone go out, he is a stranger to the hope of life and of eternal salvation. But yet each of the five assemblies of heretics thinks that they are chiefly Christians, and that theirs is the Catholic Church.” And so, if in this controversy we agreed, all the rest would easily be composed. Two things, therefore, must be treated. First, the opinion of the heretics of this time on the marks of the true Church must be refuted. Secondly, the opinion of the Catholics must be explained and defended.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT I. Tractationem de Notis EcclesicE utilissimam esse. Superest Controversia de Notis verse Ec¬ clesiae, quse controversia utilissima est; Om¬ nes enim confitentur , in sola vera Ecclesia esse veram fidem, veram peccatorum remis¬ sionem, veram spem salutis aeternae, adeo ut Cyprianus de simplicitate Praelatorum dicat: « Cum Deo manere non possunt, qui esse in Ecclesia Dei unanimes noluerunt. Ardeant licet flammis, et ignibus traditi , vel objecti bestiis animas suas ponant, non erit illa fi¬ dei corona, sed poena perfidiae : occidi talis potest, coronari non potest.» Similia docent omnes Patres, nec haereti¬ ci ea negant; Nam idcirco omnis haeresis ad se solam trahit veram Ecclesiam , et alios omnes extra Ecclesiam ponit , ut his verbis Lactantius docet lib.IY, cap. ult. divinarum institutionum : « Sola Catholica, inquit, Ec¬ clesia est , quae verum cultum retinet. Hic autem est fons veritatis, hoc est, domicilium fidei, hoc templum Dei , quo si quis non in¬ traverit, vel a quo si quis exierit, a spe vitas, ac salutis aeternae alieni est. Sed tamen sin¬ guli quinque haereticorum coetus se potissi¬ mum Christianos , et suam esse Catholicam Ecclesiam putant. » Itaque si in hac contro¬ versia conveniremus , reliquae omnes facile componerentur. Duo igitur tractanda sunt. Primo refellenda sententia haereticorum hu¬ jus temporis de notis verae Ecclesiae. Secun¬ do explicanda et defendenda sententia Ca¬ tholicorum.