Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Church Militant · The Church Spread Throughout the Whole World
Chapter 24: The Fourth Mark: Amplitude and Multitude
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).
The fourth Mark is Amplitude, or the multitude and variety of believers. For the truly Catholic Church ought to embrace not only all times, but also all places, all nations, all kinds of men. For thus Vincent of Lerins explains what it is to be Catholic, in his Commonitory, where he says that those properly are Catholics who hold that which has been believed always, everywhere, and by all. And so it had been foretold, Psalm 2: I will give thee the Gentiles for thy inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession. And Psalm 71: He shall rule from sea to sea, etc. And the Lord Himself, Luke last chapter and Acts 1, says that the Gospel is to be preached among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
But some things are to be observed before we draw an argument from this Mark. The first is from Augustine, in his book on the unity of the Church, chapter 6, and Bede on chapter 6 of the Canticles: that for the Church to be Catholic, it is first of all required that it exclude no times, places, or kinds of men; in which it is distinguished from the Synagogue, which was a particular Church, not Catholic, because it was bound to one time, that is, until the coming of the Messiah; likewise to one place, that is, the temple of Solomon, outside which they could not sacrifice; and to one family, that is, the sons of Jacob.
Secondly, note from Augustine, letter 80 to Hesychius, that for the Church to be Catholic it is not required that it be in all places of the whole world, but only that it be known to all provinces and bear fruit in all, so that in all provinces there be some belonging to the Church; for until this is done, the day of the Lord will not come, as is plain from Matthew 24.
Thirdly, from Driedo, Book 4, chapter 2, part 2, on the dogmas of the Church, note that it is not required that this be done at once, so that at one time in all provinces there must necessarily be some of the faithful; for it is enough if it be done successively. From which it follows that if one single province alone retained the true faith, it would still truly and properly be called the Catholic Church, provided it were clearly shown to be one and the same with that which existed at some time, or at diverse times, in the whole world — just as now any Diocese is called Catholic, because it is continued with the others which make one Catholic Church.
But, you will say, this is to fall into the error of Petilian and the Donatists, who said that the Church had indeed been in the whole world, but afterward had perished out of all provinces and remained in Africa alone; whom Augustine reproves on Psalm 101, sermon 2. I answer that the Donatists erred in two things. First, that they would have the Church to be only in Africa, at that time when it was manifestly still bearing fruit in the whole world. Secondly, that they could not continue their African Church with that which had been in the whole world; for in that there were always both good and bad, as Augustine proves, but they would have none but the good.
Lastly, note that although the Church need not necessarily have been at once in all places, yet at this time it ought necessarily either to be, or to have been, in the greater part of the world. For the Church, by the consent of all, even of the heretics, has now grown old; if therefore it had not grown in its adolescence and youth, how should it now grow in old age? It must therefore be that it has already grown and occupied, if not the whole world, yet certainly a great part.
Now that our Church has occupied the greatest part of the world, and is truly Catholic, is thus proved. For in the time of the Apostles it began to bear fruit in the whole world, as Paul says, Colossians 1. Likewise in the time of Irenaeus it was spread through the whole world, that is, through all the provinces then known, which he himself relates, Book 1, chapter 3. The same afterward Tertullian relates of his own time, in his book against the Jews, chapter 3. The same afterward Cyprian, in his book on the unity of the Church. The same afterward Athanasius, in his book on the humanity of the Word. The same afterward Chrysostom and Jerome on chapter 24 of Matthew, and Augustine in letters 78 and 80 to Hesychius, as also Theodoret in his book on the laws, and Leo the Great, sermon 1 on the holy Peter and Paul, and Saint Prosper, who in his book on the ungrateful thus sang:
Rome, the See of Peter, which, made the head of the world by pastoral honor,
whatever it does not possess by arms, it holds by religion.
But these things perhaps the adversaries will not deny. Yet we will show the same of later times. That in the time of blessed Gregory our Church was in the whole world is plain, as we noted above from the letters of Gregory himself to the Bishops of the East, of Africa, of Spain, of Gaul, of England, of Sicily. Likewise from Bede on chapter 6 of the Canticles, as also from Bernard, who, disputing before Roger, King of Sicily, asserted that in his time the East and the whole West obeyed the Roman Pontiff, likewise France, Germany, England, the Spaniards, and very many barbarous nations. See the Life of Saint Bernard, Book 2, chapter 7.
Finally, in our time the Roman Church, besides Italy and all Spain, besides nearly all Gaul, besides Germany, England, Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, Greece, Syria, Ethiopia, Egypt, in which many Catholics are found, has in the very new world Churches without any admixture of heretics, in all four parts of the world: to the East, in the Indies; to the West, in America; to the North, in Japan; to the South, in Brazil and the outer part of Africa. But the heretical sects never occupied the whole world, or even half of it.
The sect of Mohammed, with the heresies of Nestorius and Eutyches, which still flourish in the East, never passed over to the West. And the heresies of the Lutherans never crossed the sea, nor saw Asia, or Africa, Egypt, or Greece. From which we understand that it is a notable lie which is had in the beginning of the preface of the Concord of the Lutherans, published in the year 1580: for they say that the Augsburg Confession has become widely known throughout the whole world, and has begun to be in the mouth and speech of all. But of the three parts of the world, the two greater, Asia and Africa, have not even heard the name of this Confession. In Europe many provinces, as all Greece, Italy, Spain, either do not know what the Augsburg Confession is, or execrate it; Gaul, Switzerland, and Britain do not receive it, except in name only; nay, rare is the city which is wholly possessed by some one heretical sect. And although the heretics seem at this time to hold a great part of the North, yet all those places are not held by one sect, but by very many, which fight among themselves no less than with us.
And so beautifully Augustine, in his book on the shepherds, chapter 8, teaches that the Church is everywhere, and heresy is everywhere; but that the Church is one and the same everywhere, while the heresies are not the same, but most diverse, which do not know one another, and therefore none of them is Catholic. Wherefore he rightly compares them to cut-off branches, which, when they are cut off, remain where they fall; while meanwhile the Church, like a living vine, extends its shoots everywhere. Hence he too uses this argument passim, as in his book against the letter of the foundation, chapter 4, and on the profit of believing, chapters 14 and 17, and elsewhere.
Nor can the heretics hope that their sect will some day occupy the whole world; for the Church ought not now to begin to grow, since it has already grown old, as we said above. And if Augustine judged it most absurd that the heresy of the Donatists should, after the year of the Lord 300, be propagated from Carthage into all the earth, in his book on the unity of the Church, chapters 14 and 15, how much more absurd will it be that now, after the year 1577, the Lutheran or Calvinist heresy should be diffused from Wittenberg or Geneva into all the earth?
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT VII. Nota quarta. Quarta nota est Amplitudo, sive multitu¬ do, et varietas credentium. Ecclesia enim vere Catholica non solum debet amplecti omnia tempora, sed etiam omnia loca, om¬ nes nationes, omnia hominum arenera. Sic enim explicat, quid sit esse Catholicum, Yin- 0) Matth. jSCVI, 18. CAPUT VII. 373 centius Lirinensis in suo commonitorio, ubi dicit, eos proprie esse Catholicos, qui tenent id, quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab om¬ nibus creditum est. Et sic praedictum erat Psal. II : Dabo tibi gentes, hcereditatem tuam, et possessionem tuam , terminos terree. Et Psal. LXXI : Dominabitur a mari usque ad mare etc. (1) Et Dominus ipse Luc. ult. et Act. I, dicit praedicandum Evangelium in omnes gentes initio facto a Hierusalem. Sunt autem aliqua observanda, antequam ex haec Nota argumentum depromamus. Primum est ex Augustino lib. de unitate Ec¬ clesiae, cap. 6. et Beda in cap. VI Cant. ut Ecclesia sit Catholica, in primis requiri, ut non excludat ulla tempora, loca, vel homi¬ num genera ; in quo distinguitur a Syna¬ goga, quae erat Ecclesia particularis, non Catholica, quia erat alligata uni tempori, id est, usque ad adventum Messiae, item Uni loco, id est, templo Salomonis, extra quod non poterant sacrificare ; et uni familiae, id est, filiis Jacob. Secundo, nota ex Augustino epist. 80. ad Hesychium, ut sit Ecclesia Catholica, non requiri, ut sit in omnibus locis totius mundi, sed tantum, ut innotescat omnibus provin¬ ciis, et in omnibus fructificet, ita ut in om¬ nibus provinciis aliqui sint de Ecclesia ; Do¬ nec enim hoc fiat, non veniet dies Domini, ut patet ex Matth. XXIV. Tertio ex Driedone lib. IV, cap. 2. par. 2. deEccles. dogmat. nota, non requiri, ut hoc fiat simul, ita ut uno tempore in omnibus provinciis necessario esse oporteat aliquos fideles : satis enim est, si fiat successive. Ex quo id sequitur, quod si sola una provincia retineret veram fidem, adhuc vere et pro¬ prie diceretur Ecclesia Catholica, dummo¬ do clare ostenderetur, eam esse unam et eamdem cum illa, quae fuit aliquo tempore, vel diversis in toto mundo, quemadmodum nunc quaelibet Dioecesis dicitur Catholica, quia est continuata cum aliis, quae faciunt unam Ecclesiam Catholicam . At, inquies, hoc est incidere in errorem Petiliani, et Donatistarum, qui dicebant. Ec¬ clesiam quidem fuisse in toto orbe, sed pos¬ tea periisse, ex omnibus provinciis, et in sola Africa remansisse, quos Augustinus re¬ prehendit Psalm. GI, conc. 2. Respondeo, Donatistas errasse in duobus. Primum, quod vellent, Ecclesiam tantum fuisse in Africa, (1) Psal. II, 8 ; LXXI, 8. eo tempore, quo manifeste in toto mundo adhuc fructificabat. Secundo, quod suam Ecclesiam Africanam non poterant conti¬ nuare cum illa, quae in toto orbe fuerat; nam in illa semper fuerunt boni et mali, ut Au¬ gustinus probat, ipsi autem non volebant nisi bonos. Ultimo, nota, quod etsi Ecclesia non ne¬ cessario debuit simul esse in omnibus locis, tamen hoc tempore debet necessario vel es¬ se, vel fuisse in majori parte orbis terree. Nam Ecclesia omnium consensu, etiam hae¬ reticorum, jam senuit; si ergo in sua ado¬ lescentia et juventute non crevisset, quo¬ modo nunc in senectute cresceret? Oportet igitur, ut jam creverit, atque occupaverit, si non totum orbem terrarum, at certe magnam partem. Jam vero nostram Ecclesiam maximam partem orbis occupasse, et esse vere Catho¬ licam, ita probatur. Nam tempore Apostolo¬ rum in toto mundo fructificare coepit , ut Paulus dicit Cor. I. Item tempore Irensei erat sparsa per totum orbem, id est, per omnes provincias tunc cognitas, id quod ipse refert lib. I, cap. 3. Idem postea refert de suo tempore Tertullianus lib. contra Ju- deeos, cap. 3. Idem postea Cyprianus lib. de unitate Ecclesiae. Idem postea Athanasius lib.de humanitate Verbi. Idem posteaChry- sostomus et Hieronymus in cap. XXIV Matt. et Augustinus in epist. 78 et 80. ad Hesy¬ chium, necnon Theodoretus in lib. de legi¬ bus, et Leo Magnus serm. 1. de sanctis Pe¬ tro et Paulo, ac S. Prosper, qui in lib. de ingratis, ita cecinit : Sed haec fortasse non negabunt adversa¬ rii. At nos idem ostendemus de posteriori¬ bus temporibus. Tempore B. Gregorii Eccle¬ siam nostram fuisse in toto orbe terrarum, planum est, ut supra etiam adnotavimus ex epist. ipsius Gregorii ad Episcopos Orientis, Africae, Hispaniae, Galliae, Anglise, Siciliae. Item ex Beda in cap. VI Canticorum, necnon ex Bernardo, qui disputans coram Rege Si¬ ciliae Rogerio, asserebat, Romano Pontifici suo tempore paruisse Orientem et Occiden- Sedes Roma Petri, quse pastoralis honoris, Facta caput mundo, quidquid non possidet armis, Relligione tenet. # 374 LIBER IV. tem totum, item Franciam, Germaniam, Angliam, Iberos, et plurimas barbaras na¬ tiones. Vide vitam S, Bernardi lib, II, cap. 7. Denique, nostro tempore Ecclesia Romana praeter Italiam et Hispaniam totam, praeter Galliam fere totam , praeter Germaniam, Angliam, Poloniam, Bohemiam, Hungariam, Graeciam, Syriam, Aithiopiam, Aegyptum, in quibus multi inveniuntur Catholici, in ipso novo orbe habet Ecclesias sine admistione haereticorum, in omnibus quatuor partibus mundi; ad Orientem, in Indiis; ad Occiden¬ tem, in America ; ad Septentrionem, in Ja- ponia; ad Meridiem, in Brasilia, et exteriore parteAfricae. At sectae haereticae nunquam totum orbem, aut certe dimidiam ejus par¬ tem occuparunt. Secta Mahumeti, cum haeresibus Nestorii et Eutychetis, quae adhuc vigent in Oriente, nunquam ad Occidentem transierunt. Haere- ses autem Lutheranorum nunquam transie¬ runt mare, nec Asiam, aut Africam, Aegyp¬ tum, aut Graeciam viderunt. Ex quo intelli- gimus illustre esse mendacium, quod ha¬ betur in principio praefationis Concordiae Lutheranorum, anno 1380 editae : dicunt enim, Confessionem Augustanam in toto or¬ be terrarum percrebuisse, et in ore et ser¬ mone omnium esse coepisse. At ex tribus partibus orbis terrae, duae majores, Asia et Africa, nec nomen hujusConfessionis audie¬ runt. In Europa multae provinciae : ut tota Graecia, Italia, Hispania, vel nesciunt quid sit Confessio Augustana, vel execrantur; Gallia^ Helvetia et Britannia, non recipiunt, nisi nomine tenus; imo rara est civitas, quae ab una aliqua secta haeretica tota possidea¬ tur. Et quamvis videantur haeretici hoc tem¬ pore magnam partem Septentrionis obtine¬ re, tamen non tenentur omnia illa loca ab una secta, sed a plurimis, quae inter se non minus pugnant, quam nobiscum. Itaque pulchre August. in lib. de pastor, cap. 8 docet, Ecclesiam esse ubique, et hae- resim ubique. Sed Ecclesiam esse unam et eamdem ubique, haereses autem non eas¬ dem, sed diversissimas, quae se invicem non noverunt, et proinde nullam earum esse Ca¬ tholicam. Quocirca recte eas comparat sar¬ mentis praecisis, quae ubi cadunt, cum prae¬ ciduntur, ibi manent. Cum interim Ecclesia tanquam vitis viva, ubique palmites suos extendat. Hinc etiam ipse passim hoc argu¬ mento utitur, ut lib, contra epist. fundam. cap. 4. et de utilitate credendi, cap. 14 et 17. et alibi. Neque sperare possunt haeretici, sectam suam aliquando occupaturam esse totum or¬ bem : Nam non debet nunc incipere Eccle¬ sia crescere, cum jam senuerit, ut supra di¬ ximus. Et si Augustinus absurdissimum cen- suit, quod haeresis Donatistarum post annum Domini 300 ex Carthagine esset propagan¬ da in omnem terram, libro de unitate Eccle¬ siae, cap. 14 et 15. quanto magis absurdum erit nunc post annum 1577 Haeresim Luthe- ranam vel Calvinianam ex Wittemberga vel Geneva in omnem terram esse diffunden¬ dam?