Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On Grace and Free Choice · Book II: On Predestination and Sufficient Grace
Chapter 11: The same is proved from the tradition of the Church
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. V, De Gratia et Libero Arbitrio, Book II. 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).
In the second place, the truth of gratuitous predestination can be proved from ecclesiastical tradition. For although before the rise of the Pelagian heresy the ancient Fathers did not treat this question so accurately, but only, when occasion offered, briefly opened their judgment — as St. Augustine teaches, book On the Gift of Perseverance, chapter 20 (who yet in chapter 19 cites Cyprian, Ambrose, and Nazianzen for this judgment) — nevertheless, after that heresy arose, absolutely all who were illustrious in the Church for the name of sanctity taught this very judgment most openly: as is clear from St. Augustine in the book On the Predestination of the Saints, and On the Gift of Perseverance, in the book On Rebuke and Grace, in epistle 105 to Sixtus, and everywhere else; from St. Prosper in the second book On the Calling of the Gentiles, the first and last chapters, at the end of the book against the Conferrer, and in the response to the chapters of the Gauls; from St. Fulgentius at the end of the book On the Incarnation and Grace of Christ; St. Gregory, book 1 of the Dialogues, chapter 8; St. Anselm, Bede, Primasius, Sedulius, and others on chapter 9 to the Romans; St. Bernard in sermons 23 and 78 on the Canticles; St. Thomas in part 1, question 23; and St. Bonaventure on book 1 of the Sentences, distinction 41, question 2 — in which place St. Bonaventure writes indeed that God predestinates men for certain causes known to himself alone, and not for his sole will; but he does not say those causes are on the side of foreseen works; he understands that the will of God is not irrational, but joined with wisdom and counsel, as Augustine also speaks in the Enchiridion, chapter 95.
Nor do those holy Fathers only affirm this; but the more ancient and more learned among them, whom the rest afterward followed, deliver that this judgment pertains to the Catholic faith, and reject the contrary to the Pelagians. I shall note some places, so that if any perchance hold the contrary, they may understand, from the judgment of the most holy Fathers, in how manifest an error they are engaged. St. Augustine, in the book On the Gift of Perseverance, chapter 18: “This I know,” says he, “that no one has been able to dispute against this predestination, which we defend according to holy Scripture, except by erring.” And chapter 23: “The faith of this predestination, which is now defended with new care against new heretics, the Church of Christ has never been without.” St. Prosper, in the first response to the objections of the Gauls: “The predestination of God,” says he, “no Catholic denies.” And in the epistle to Rufinus on free choice: “It is as impious to deny predestination as to go against grace itself.” Nor can it be answered that he speaks of predestination in general, not of predestination merely gratuitous; for he speaks of the predestination which St. Augustine was defending, and which Cassian and certain others in Gaul were assailing. St. Peter the Deacon, at the end of the book On the Incarnation and Grace of Christ: “We anathematize,” says he, “Pelagius and Celestius, and with them Julian of Eclanum, and those who hold like things with them — above all the books of Faustus, bishop of the Gauls, who was advanced from the monastery of Lérins — books which without doubt were written against the judgment of predestination.” St. Fulgentius, likewise at the end of the book On the Incarnation and Grace of Christ, in the very epilogue: “The truth of which predestination — by which the Apostle witnesses that we were predestinated in Christ before the foundation of the world — if anyone refuse to receive with the belief of the heart, or to bring forth with the confession of the mouth, and if before the last day of the present life he shall not have cast away the contumacy of his impiety, by which, a rebel, he withstands the living and true God, it is manifest that he pertains not to the number of those whom God in Christ, before the foundation of the world, gratuitously elected and predestinated unto the kingdom.”
To these comes the public approbation of the Church. For it is agreed that a complaint was brought to the Apostolic See, Celestine being Pontiff, by Prosper and Hilary, that in Gaul certain priests were reprehending the doctrine of St. Augustine on predestination. And what Celestine wrote back is clear from his epistle to the Gauls, in which, among other things, after he had extolled St. Augustine with great praises, he subjoined thus: “Wherefore let such men be resisted, whom we see growing in evil; it is an impiety that religious souls should suffer these things — by whose affliction, since they are our members, it befits us also to be worn.” And since the Gauls answered that the doctrine of St. Augustine had indeed been commended by the Pontiff, but that those two books, On the Predestination of the Saints and On the Gift of Perseverance, had not been approved in particular, St. Prosper, on the contrary, at the end of the book against the Conferrer, demonstrates that the Pontiff could not but have approved these books, since he approved Augustine's doctrine, and these books do not dissent from the rest; for the judgment concerning gratuitous predestination, which in these books is accurately defended, is had in express words also in the Enchiridion, in epistle 105 to Sixtus, and 106 to Paulinus. Further, Celestine in that epistle, chapter 2, so praises Augustine as to say that he was always held by the Roman Church for an excellent Master, and that he was never sprinkled with even a rumor of sinister suspicion. But how could Celestine have said these things, if Augustine had falsely written that the faith of predestination had always been in the Catholic Church, and that no one had been able to dispute against it except by erring? For if Augustine's judgment on predestination were false, the same Augustine could not be defended from enormous temerity — he who not only had contended so sharply for a falsehood, but had even dared to put it forth as the Catholic faith. How then does Celestine so reprehend those who for this very matter condemned Augustine of temerity and error, as to say it is an impiety to hear such things, and that Augustine was always held for an excellent Master, and never sprinkled with even a rumor of sinister suspicion — unless he had believed this very doctrine of predestination, according to Augustine's judgment, to be true?
After those times of Celestine, when that faction of the Gauls was not yet at rest, the holy Pontiff [Felix] sent to the Council of Orange certain chapters on grace and free choice, excerpted word for word from the books of St. Augustine, which he willed to be received and subscribed by those bishops — as also was done. Now in those chapters are contained all the foundations of the judgment concerning gratuitous predestination, so that no one can deny predestination unless he would go against those chapters. Finally, St. Gelasius, in a Council of seventy bishops, not only approved all the writings of St. Augustine and St. Prosper, but also, contrariwise, condemned the little books of John Cassian and Faustus of Riez — though he was not ignorant that the chief contention between Prosper and Cassian, and then between Fulgentius and Faustus, had been about the writings of St. Augustine On the Predestination of the Saints and On the Gift of Perseverance. And so the Apostolic See not once only, but a second and a third time, against the remnants of the Pelagians, gave sentence for the defenders of grace and predestination; so that now this judgment ought to be called not the opinion of any Doctors whatever, but the faith of the Catholic Church — which in the following chapter, God helping, will be shown yet more openly.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT XI. Idem probatur ex traditione Ecclesix. ■ I Secundo loco probari potest veritas prae¬ destinationis gratuitae, ex traditione Eccle¬ siastica; nam quamvis ante exortam heere- sim Pelagianam, veteres Patres quaestionem istam non adeo accurate tractaverint, sed tantum occasione oblata breviter sententiam suam aperuerint, ut S. Augustinus docet lib. de bono perseverant, cap. 20. qui tamen cap. 10. Cyprianum, Ambrosium, et Nazian- zenuni pro hac sententia citat, tamen post illam haeresim exortam omnes omnino, qui sanctitatis nomine in Ecclesia claruerunt, hanc ipsam sententiam apertissime docue¬ runt, ut perspicuum est ex sancto Augustino in libro de praedestinatione sanctorum, et de (1) Rom. IX, ibirt. XI. 1. 560 LIBER II. bono perseverantia?, in libro de correptione et gratia, in epist. 105. ad Sixtum, et alibi passim. Ex S. Prospero in secundo libro de vocatione gentium cap. i. et ult. in libro contra collatorem extremo, et in responsione ad capitula Gallorum. Ex sancto Fulgentio in libro de incarnatione et gratia Christi ex¬ tremo. S. Gregorio lib. i. Dialogorum cap. 8. S. Anselmo, Beda, Primasio, Sedulio, et aliis in cap. ix ad Rom. S. Bernardo in scrm. 23. et 78. in Cantica, sancto Thoma in 1. part. 23. et S. Bonaventura in 1. Sent. distinet. 41. quoest. 2. quo loco scribit qui¬ dem sanctus Bonaventura, Deum praedesti- nare homines ob certas causas, soli sibi no¬ tas, et non ob solam voluntatem suam ; sed eas causas non dicit esse ex parte ^operum praevisorum; intelligit autem voluntatem Dei non esse irrationalem, sed cum sapientia et consilio conjunctam, ut etiam loquitur Au¬ gustinus in Enchiridio cap. 95. Neque solum sancti isti Patres hoc affir¬ mant, sed antiquiores et doctiores ex ipsis, quos caeteri postea secuti sunt, ad fidem Ca¬ tholicam hanc sententiam pertinere tradunt, et contrariam ad Pelagianos rejiciunt. No¬ tabo aliqua loca, ut si qui forte contra sen¬ tiunt, intelligant ex judicio sanctissimorum Patrum, in quam manifesto errore versen¬ tur. Sanctus Augustinus in libro de bono per¬ severantia} cap. 18 : « Hoc inquit, scio, ne¬ minem contra istampraedestinationem, quam secundum Scripturam sanctam defendimus, nisi errando disputare potuisse. » Et cap. 23 : « Pra}destinationis, inquit, hujus fidem, qua; contra novos haereticos nova sollicitudine nunc defenditur, numquam Ecclesia Christi non habuit. » S. Prosper in responsione prima ad obje¬ ctiones Gallorum : « Praedestinationem, in¬ quit, Dei nullus Catholicus negat. » Et in epist. adRuffin. delibero arbitrio : « Praedestinatio¬ nem, inquit, tam impium est negare, quam ipsi gratiae contraire. » Neque responderi potest, eum loqui de praedestinatione in ge¬ nere, non de praedestinatione mere gratui¬ ta; loquitur enim de praedestinatione, quam S. Augustinus defendebat, et quam Cassianus, et alii quidam in Gallia oppugnabant. Sanctus Petrus Diaconus in libro de incar¬ natione et gratia Christi extremo : « Anathe¬ matizamus, inquit, Pelagium et Coelestinum, simulque Julianum Edanensem, et qui illis similia sapiunt, praecipue libros Fausti, Gal¬ barum Episcopi, qui de monasterio Lirinensi provectus est, quos contra praedestinationis sententiam scriptos esse non dubium est. » S. Fulgentius in libro item de incarnatio¬ ne et gratia Christi cap. ait. in ipso epilogo : « Cujus, inquit, praedestinationis veritatem, qua nos ante mundi. constitutionem praede¬ stinatos in Christo testatur Apostolus, si quis detrectat cordis credulitate recipere, vel oris confessione proferre, si ante ultimum diem vitae praesentis, impietatis suae contumaciam, qua Deo vivo et vero rebellis obsistit, non abjecerit, manifestum est, eum non perti¬ nere ad eorum numerum, quos Deus in Christo ante mundi constitutionem gratis elegit et praedestinavit ad regnum. » His accedit publica Ecclesia} approbatio. Constat enim delatam fuisse ad Apostolicam sedem, Coelestino Pontifice, a Prospero et Hilario querimoniam, quod in Gallia pres¬ byteri quidam doctrinam S. Augustini de praedestinatione reprehenderent. Quid au tem C<elestinus rescripserit, perspicuum est ex epistola ejus ad Gallos, in qua inter cae- tera, posteaquam magnis laudibus sanctum Augustinum extulit, ita subjunxit : « Unde resistatur talibus, quos male crescere vide¬ mus ; nefas est haec pati religiosas animas, quarum afflictione, quia membra nostra sunt, nos quoque convenit macerari. » Et quoniam Galli respondebant, fuisse qui¬ dem a Pontifice commendatam S. Augustini doctrinam, sed non approbatos in specie li¬ bros illos duos de praedestinatione Sancto¬ rum, et de bono perseverantiae ; contra, S. Prosper in lib. contra collatorem, extremo, demonstrat, Pontificem non potuisse hos li¬ bros non approbare, cum Augustini doctri¬ nam probaverit, et hi libri a caeteris non dis¬ sentiant ; nam sententia de praedestinatione gratuita, quae in his libris accurate defendi¬ tur, disertis verbis habetur etiam in Enchir. in epist. 105. ad Sixtum, et 106. ad Pauli- num. Deinde Ccelestinus in ea epist. cap. 2. ita laudat Augustinum, ut dicat, eum semper ha¬ bitum a Romana Ecclesia pro Magistro opti¬ mo, et numquam eum fuisse saltem rumore sinistrae suspicionis aspersum. At quomodo ista dicere potuisset Ccelestinus, si Augusti¬ nus falso scripsisset, fidem praedestinationis in Ecclesia Catholica semper fuisse ; et con¬ tra eam neminem nisi errando disputare po¬ tuisse? Nam si Augustini de praedestinatione sententia falsa esset, non posset idena Augu- CAPUT XII. 301 stinus ab ingenti temeritate defendi, quippe qui non solum tam acriter pro falsitate cer- tasset, sed etiam eam pro fide Catholica venditare ausus esset. Quomodo igitur Coe- lestinus eos, qui pro hac ipsa re Augusti¬ num temeritatis et erroris damnabant, ita reprehendit, ut dicat, nefas esse talia audi¬ re, et Augustinum proMagistro optimo sem- per habitum, nec unquam fuisse saltem ru¬ more sinistrae suspicionis aspersum; nisi hanc ipsam de praedestinatione doctrinam, secundum Augustini sententiam, veram esse credidisset ? Post illa Coelestini tempora, cum nondum factio illa Gallorum conquiesceret, S. Leo Pontifex misit ad Concilium Arausicanum certa capitula de gratia et libero arbitrio, ex libris S. Augustini verbatim decerpta, quae voluit ab Episcopis illis recipi et sub¬ scribi ut etiam factum est. Porro in illis ca¬ pitulis continentur omnia fundamenta sen¬ tentiae de praedestinatione gratuita, ut non possit ullus praedestinationem negare, nisi velit illis capitulis contraire. Denique S. Gelasius in Concilio 70. Epi¬ scoporum non solum probavit omnia scripta S. Augustini, et S. Prosperi ; sed etiam con¬ tra damnavit libellos Joannis Cassiani et Fausti Regiensis : cum tamen non ignoraret, potissimam contentionem inter Prosperum et Cassianum, ac deinde inter Fulgentium et Faustum, de scriptis S. Augustini de prae¬ destinatione Sanctorum, et bono perseve¬ rantiae fuisse. Itaque sedes Apostolica non tantum se¬ mel, sed etiam secundo et tertio adversus Pelagianorum reliquias pro defensoribus gra¬ tiae et praedestinationis sententiam tulit, ut jam haec sententia non quorumvis Doctorum opinio sed fides Ecclesiae Catholicae dici debeat : id quod in sequenti capite adhuc apertius, Deo juvante, monstrabitur.