Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Church Militant · The Church Spread Throughout the Whole World
Chapter 33: The Thirteenth Mark: Confession of the Adversaries
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 thirteenth Mark is the Confession of the adversaries. For so great is the force of truth that it sometimes compels even the adversaries to give testimony to it, according to that of Deuteronomy 32: For our God is not as their gods, and our enemies are judges. Now nowhere are Catholics found to have praised or approved the doctrine or life of any Heathen or heretics. For we know that there is only one true faith, and that without it there is no true justice. And so we constantly assert that all err who do not follow our doctrine. But not so do the Pagans, Jews, Turks, Heretics speak of us.
Of the Pagans there are many testimonies. Pliny the Younger, in his letter to Trajan, Book 10 of the letters, writes that the Christians detest all vices and live most holily, and that this alone could be reproved in them, that they too easily pour out their life for their God, and that they rise in the hours before dawn to sing praises to Christ. Tertullian, in the Apologetic, chapters 1 and 2, testifies that the Pagans would not have the cause of the Christians examined, but condemned without examination, because they knew that they would find nothing evil in them; and chapters 5 and 6 he affirms that those Emperors who were held the best favored the Christians — as Marcus Aurelius, Vespasian, Antoninus Pius — but that those moved persecutions who were held the worst even by the Gentiles themselves, as Nero and Domitian.
There is extant too a letter of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, in which he testifies that in Germany, when his army labored with thirst for five days, and the Romans were surrounded by an incredible multitude of Germans, so that it was impossible by human powers to escape, then he fled to the gods of his fathers, but in vain; then he asked some Christian soldiers, who were in the army, that they too should pray to their God. And scarcely had they fallen on their knees to prayer, when straightway from heaven a most pleasant shower descended upon the Romans, but upon the enemy fire and hail mingled; of which letter Tertullian makes mention in the Apologetic, chapter 5, and in his book to Scapula, and it was lately found and printed among the works of Justin.
Finally, that Saint Antony, Saint Hilarion, and Saint Martin were held in honor and reverence by the Pagans, Athanasius, Jerome, and Sulpicius write, in their lives.
Of the Jews we have first of all the testimony of Josephus, Book 18 of the antiquities, chapter 6, where he affirms that Christ was more than a man, and truly is the Messiah. Philo wrote a notable book on the praises of those Christians who lived under Mark the Evangelist in Egypt; which book was written on the praise of Christians, not of some Jewish sect, as the Centuriators think, Century 1, Book 2, chapter 3, column 18 — as Eusebius testifies, Book 1 of the history, chapter 10, Epiphanius, heresy 29, Jerome on illustrious men in Philo, Sozomen, Book 1, chapter 12, and Bede in the preface on Mark.
Mohammed in the Koran, chapter 2, teaches that the Christians are saved; and chapter 4 he says that Christ is the greatest of the Prophets, and has the very soul of God. Saint Bonaventure too testifies that the Sultan of Egypt, though a Mohammedan, held blessed Francis in the highest honor and reverence, whom yet he knew to be a Christian and Catholic.
The same can be said of the heretics. For that blessed Benedict, a Catholic, was treated with the highest honor by King Totila the Arian, as a true servant of God and a Prophet, Saint Gregory writes, Book 2 of the Dialogues, chapter 15. And Luther, being now a heretic, thus writes in his book against the Anabaptists, who in hatred of the Pope reject the Baptism of infants: “We confess that under the Papacy there is very much of the Christian good, nay all the Christian good, and that thence too it came down to us. For we confess that in the Papacy there is the true holy Scripture, true Baptism, the true Sacrament of the Altar, the true keys for the remission of sins, the true office of preaching, the true Catechism, such as are the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments, the articles of Faith. I say moreover that under the Papacy there is true Christianity, nay the true kernel of Christianity.” Thus he there. Where, if he attributes the kernel to us, certainly he keeps nothing for himself but the bark or the shells.
Calvin, Institutes, chapter 10, § 17, calls Bernard a pious writer. But certainly Bernard was a Papist, and no one is pious without the true faith. Philip, in the Apology, articles 5 and 27 of the Augsburg Confession, calls Bernard, Dominic, and Francis saints; which the same Luther does in his book on abolishing the Mass, near the end. Likewise, as Cochlaeus writes in the acts of Luther of the year 1531, when after many battles between the Catholics and the Swiss heretics a peace was being composed, in the first article of the Concord the heretics wrote that they wished henceforth to leave their confederates undisturbed concerning their true, undoubted, and Catholic faith; but the Catholics wrote that they wished to leave their confederates undisturbed concerning their faith, but added nothing of true, undoubted, or Catholic.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT XVI. Nota decimatertia. Decimatertia Nota est Confessio adversa¬ riorum. Tanta enim est vis veritatis , ut etiam adversarios cogat interdum sibi testi¬ monium dare, juxta illud Deut. XXXII \-Non enim est Deus noster ut Dii eorum , et inimici nostri sunt judices (1). Jam nusquam inve¬ niuntur Catholici laudasse aut approbasse doctrinam aut vitam ullorum Ethnicorum aut haereticorum. Scimus enim, unam tan¬ tum esse veram fidem, et sine ea nullam esse veram justitiam. Itaque nos constanter asserimus, errare omnes, qui doctrinam nos¬ tram non sequuntur. At non sic de nobis lo¬ quuntur Pagani, Judaei, Tureae, Haeretici. De Paganis multa testimonia sunt. Plinius II, in epist. ad Trajanum, lib. X epistolarum scribit, Christianos omnia vitia detestari, sanctissimeque vivere, et hoc solum in eis posse reprehendi, quod nimis facile pro Deo suo vitam profundant, quodque horis ante¬ lucanis surgant ad canendas laudes Christo. Tertullian. in Apologet, cap. t et 2. testa¬ tur, Paganos noluisse discuti causam Chris¬ tianorum , sed damnari sine discussione, quia sciebant, se in eis nihil mali repertu- ros; et cap. 5 et 6. affirmat, eos Imperato¬ res, qui sunt habiti optimi, favisse Christia¬ nis ; ut M. Aurelium, Vespasianum, Antoni¬ num Pium; eos autem persecutiones mo¬ visse, qui sunt habiti pessimi, etiam ab ipsis Gentilibus, ut Neronem et Domitianum. Extat quoque epist. Marci Aurelii Impera¬ toris, in qua testatur, in Germania cum per dies quinque siti laboraret exercitus , et es¬ sent Romani circumdati ab incredibili mul¬ titudine Germanorum , ut esset impossibile humanis viribus evadere ; tunc se ad Deos patrios confugisse, sed frustra ; deinde ali¬ quot milites Christianos , qui erant in exer¬ citu, rogasse, ut etiam ipsi Deum suum ora¬ rent. Porro vix illos in genua ad orationem procubuisse, cum statim de coelo in Roma¬ nos quidem jucundissimus imber descendit ; in hostes vero ignis et grando permixta : cujus epistolae meminit Tertullianus in Apo¬ loget. cap. 5. et in lib. ad Scapulum, et nu¬ per inventa est, et impressa in operibus Jus¬ tini. Denique, S. Antonium, S. Ililarionem , et S. Martinum fuisse honori et reverentiae Pa¬ ganis, scribunt Athanasius, Hieronym. et Sulpitius, in eorum vitis. De Judaeis habemus in primis testimonium Josephi lib. XVIII antiquit. cap. 6. ubi affir¬ mat, Christum plusquam hominem fuisse, et vere Messiam esse. Philo scripsit librum in- (1) Deut. XXXII, 31. CAPUT XVII. 405 signem de laudibus eorum Christianorum, qui sub Marco Evangelista in vEgypto vive¬ bant; quem librum scriptum de laude Chris¬ tianorum, non de secta aliqua Judaica , ut putant Genturiatores Gent. I, lib. II, cap. 3, coi. 18. testatur Eusebius lib. I histor. c. 10. Epiphanius haeres. 29. Hieronymus de viris illustribus in Philone. Sozomenus 1. I, c. 12. et Beda praefatione in Marcum. Mahumetus in Alcorano, cap. 2. docet, Christianos salvari ; et cap. 4. dicit, Chris¬ tum maximum esse Prophetarum , et ipsam Dei animam habere. Testatur quoque S. Bo- naventura, Sultanum vEgypti, licet Mahume- tanum, in summo honore ac reverentia ha¬ buisse B. Franciscum, quem tamen sciebat Ghristianum et Catholicum esse. Idem de hsereticis dici potest. Nam B. Be¬ nedictum Catholicum a Rege Totila Ariano summo honore affectum , ut verum Dei ser¬ vum et Prophetam, scribit S. Gregorius 1. II Dialog. cap. 15. Et Lutherus jam haereticus existens, sic scribit in lib. contra Anabaptis- tas, qui in odium Papae rejiciunt Baptismum parvulorum : « Nos , inquit, fatemur, sub Papatu plurimum esse boni Christiani , imo omne bonum Christianum, atque etiam illinc ad nos devenisse. Quippe fatemur in Papatu veram esse Scripturam sacram, verum Bap¬ tismum, verum Sacramentum Altaris, veras claves ad remissionem peccatorum, verum praedicandi officium, verum Catechismum, ut sunt, oratio Dominica , decem Praecepta, articuli Fidei. Dico insuper, sub Papatu ve¬ ram Christianitatem, imo verum nucleum Christianitatis esse. » Haec ibi. Ubi si nobis nucleum tribuit, certe sibi nihil servat, nisi corticem vel putamina. Calvinus Institut. cap. 10, §. 17. vocat Bernardum pium scriptorem. At certe Pa- pista fuit Bernardus , et nemo est pius sine vera fide. Philippus in Apologia art, 5 et 27 Confessionis Augustanae , vocat sanctos Ber¬ nardum, Dominicum, et Franciscum, quod idem facit Lutherus in libro de abroganda Missa , prope finem. Item , ut scribit Co- chlaeus in actis Lutheri, anni 1531 , cum post multa praelia inter Qatholicos et haereticos Helveticos pax componeretur in I. art. Con¬ cordiae haeretici scribebant , se velle dein¬ ceps dimittere confcederatos suos quietos circa veram, indubitatam , et Catholicam fi¬ dem suam : Catholici autem scribebant , se velle dimittere confcederatos suos quietos circa fidem eorum; nihil vero addebant de vera, indubitata, vel Catholica,