Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On Justification · Book III: On the Uncertainty, Mutability, and Inequality of Justice
Chapter 7: The same is proved by the testimonies of the holy Fathers
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. VI, De Justificatione, Book III. 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).
We shall now bring forward the testimonies of the ancient Fathers, to prove the same thing. St. Ambrose, sermon 5 on Psalm 118, treating that, “Cut off my reproach, which I have suspected,” thus speaks: “He wished the reproach to be taken from him which he had suspected — either because he had thought it in his heart and not done it, and though it were abolished by penance, he was yet suspicious lest perhaps his reproach still remained, and therefore prays God to take it away, since he alone knows that which even he himself who did it can be ignorant of.” And he adds the testimony of the Apostle: “I am conscious to myself of nothing,” etc. St. Basil, in the Monastic Constitutions, chapter 2: “Sinning in many things, very many we do not even understand. Wherefore the Apostle says: I am conscious to myself of nothing, yet am I not hereby justified — that is, I sin in many things, and understand it not.” St. Jerome, book 2 against the Pelagians: “There are just men to whom cometh as it were the work of the impious; and there are impious to whom cometh as it were the work of the just. This is therefore said because a certain judgment is of God alone.” The same, book 3 on Jeremias, expounding chapter 13: “Man sees in the face, God in the heart; and what to us sometimes seems clean, to his eyes is found filthy.” St. John Chrysostom, homily 87 on John, introduces St. Peter thus speaking: “Therefore was I saddened, lest perhaps, thinking myself to love, I love not as before; when I thought myself strong and constant, I was found weak.” And homily 11 on the first to the Corinthians: “For many causes our judgment is uncertain — one, that many of our works lie hidden from us,” etc.
St. Augustine, on Psalm 41, treating that, “My soul is troubled within myself”: “I know that the justice of my God remains; whether mine remains, I know not. For the Apostle terrifies me, saying: He that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall.” The same, sermon 23 on the words of the Lord: “Perhaps thou findest nothing in thy conscience; he finds it, who sees better.” The same, homily 35: “As long as we live here, we cannot ourselves judge of ourselves — I say not what we shall be tomorrow, but what we are today.” The same, on Psalm 50, upon that, “The uncertain and hidden things of thy wisdom thou hast made manifest to me”: “What hidden, and what uncertain things? Because God pardons even such. Nothing so hidden, nothing so uncertain.” The same, in the book On the Perfection of Justice, after the middle: “With however great justice a man be endowed, he ought to consider lest something be found in him, which he himself sees not, to be blamed.” Theodoret, in the commentary on chapter 4 of the first to the Corinthians, expounding that, “I am conscious to myself of nothing”: “I will not pronounce myself immune from sin, but will await the sentence of God. For it often happens that they who even in ignorance sin think it to be equitable and just; but the God of all things sees this otherwise.” St. Gregory, book 6, epistle 22, to Gregoria, chamberlain of Augusta: “But as to what thy sweetness subjoined in thy letters, that thou wilt be importunate to me until I write that it has been revealed to me that thy sins are forgiven — thou hast asked a thing both difficult and useless: difficult indeed, because I am unworthy that a revelation should be made to me; useless, because thou oughtest not to be made secure about thy sins, save when on the last day of thy life thou shalt no longer be able to bewail those same sins. Which day, until it come, thou oughtest ever suspicious, ever trembling, to fear thy faults, and to wash them with daily tears.”
St. Bede, in the commentary on chapter 20 of Proverbs: “This verse can be understood also of the elect, who have sometimes evils lurking in the mind, which cannot be seen by other men, which yet the Lord himself beholds.” And below: “There are many clean of heart, and, according to the measure of human possibility, pure from sin; nor yet would anyone without temerity pronounce himself clean of heart and immune from sin.” St. Bernard, sermon 3 on the Advent: “There accedes to the heap of solicitude and the weight of fear, that whereas it is necessary to keep both my own conscience and my neighbor’s, neither is sufficiently known to me; each is an unsearchable deep, each is night to me, and nonetheless the keeping of both is exacted of me.” Likewise in epistle 107: “Yet of this, the knowledge of himself in part being received, he glories meanwhile in hope, not yet in security.” The same, sermon 2 on the octave of Easter: “The Lord knoweth who are his; but who of men knoweth whether he be worthy of love or hatred?” The same, sermon 1 on Septuagesima: “Who can say, I am of the elect, I am of those predestined to life, I am of the number of the sons? Who, I say, can say these things, Scripture crying out against it, Man knoweth not whether he be worthy of love or hatred? Certitude indeed we have not, but the confidence of hope consoles us, lest we be utterly tormented by the anxiety of this doubt.” To these let there be added Pope Innocent III, a most learned man, who, in the last chapter On Canonical Purgation, writes that the oath of a certain man, who was prepared to swear that he was immune from certain crimes which he believed had been forgiven him through penance, was a rash and indiscreet oath, because no one can know whether he has done penance as he ought, and thereby whether he has attained to true indulgence.
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CAPUT VII. Idem probatur testimoniis sanctorum Patrum. Adferemus nunc testimonia veterum Pa¬ trum, ad rem eamdem comprobandam. S. Ambrosius serm. 5. in Psalm. 118. tractans illud : « Amputa opprobrium meum, quod .suspicatus sum », sic loquitur : « Sui volebat auferri opprobrium, quod suspica¬ tus est, vel quia cogitaverat in corde, et non fecerat, et poenitentia licet abolitum, suspe¬ ctus tamen erat, ne forte adhuc maneret ejus opprobrium, et ideo Deum precatur, ut illud auferat, quia solus novit, quod nescire potest etiam ipse qui fecit ». Et addit testi¬ monium Apostoli : « Mihil mihi conscius sum etc. S. Basibus in Constitut. Monasticis, cap. 2. « Multa, inquit, peccantes, plurima ne¬ que intelligimus. Quapropter dicit Aposto¬ lus: Nihil mihi conscius sum, sed non in hoc justificatus sum, hoc est, multa pecco, et non intelligo » . S. Hieronymus lib. 2. adversus Pelagia- nos : « Sunt, inquit, justi, ad quos pervenit quasi opus impiorum ; et sunt impii, ad quos pervenit quasi opus justorum. Hoc id¬ circo dicitur, quia certum judicium solius Dei est». Idem lib. m. in Hieremiam, expo¬ nens cap. 13. « Homo, inquit, videt in facie, Deus in corde, et quod nobis interdum mundum videtur, illius oculis sordidum de¬ prehenditur ». Sanctus Joannes Chrysostomus, hom. 87. in Joannem, sanctum Petrum, sic loquen- tem inducit ; « Propterea contristatus sum, ne forte me amare arbitratus, non amem ut ante, cum me fortem et constantem puta¬ rem, imbecillis inventus sum». Et homil. 11. in priorem ad Corinth. « Multis de cau. sis incertum est, inquit, nostram judicium, una, quod multa opera nostra nos lateant etc. » Sanctus Augustinus in Psalm. 41, tractans illud : « Ad me ipsum anima mea turbata est ; Novi, inquit, quia justitia Dei mei ma¬ net, utrum mea maneat, nescio. Terret c- nim me Apostolus, dicens ; Qui se putat sta¬ re, videat ne cadat ». Idem serm. 23. de verbis Domini : « Fortasse, inquit, tu nihil invenis in conscientia tua, invenit ille, qui melius videt ». Idem homil. 35. «Quamdiu, inquit, vivimus hic, de nobis ipsis nos ipsi judicare non possumus, non dico quid cras erimus, sed quid hodie simus ». Idem in Psalm. L. super illud : « Incerta et occulta sapientise tum manifestasti mihi; Qum oc¬ culta, inquit, et quae incerta ? quia Deus ignoscit et talibus. Nihil tam occultum, nihil tam incertum ». Idem in libro de perfectione justitiae, post medium : « Quantalibet, in¬ quit, justitia sit praeditus homo, cogitare debet, ne aliquid in illo, quod ipse non vi¬ det, inveniatur esse culpandum ». Theodoretus in comment. ad cap. 4. prio¬ ris ad Corinth. enarrans illud : « Nihil mihi conscius sum : Non me, inquit, a peccato immunem pronunciabo, sed Dei sententiam expectabo. Saepe enim evenit, ut etiam ignorantes peccent, aequum et justum esse existiment, sed hoc aliter videt universorum Deus ». Sanctus Gregorius lib. vi. epist. 22. ad Gregoriam, Augustae cubiculariam : « Quod vero, inquit, dulcedo tua in suis epistolis subjunxit, importunam se mihiexistere, quo ad usque scribam, mihi revelatum esse, quia peccata tua dimissa sunt : rem et diffi¬ cilem etiam et inutilem postulasti, difficilem quidem, quia ego indignus sum cui revelatio fieri debeat. Inutilem vero, quia secura de peccatis tuis fieri non debes, nisi cum jam in die vitae tuae ultimo, plangere eadem pec¬ cata minime valebis. Quae dies, quousque veniat, semper suspecta, semper trepida metuere culpas debes, atque eas quotidianis fletibus lavare. v II, 12 ; 1 Pet. I, 17. - (2) II Pet. I, 10. — (3) Rom. VIII, 30. CAPUT VII. 261 Sanctus Beda in comment. ad cap. 20 Pro ver. « Potest, inquit, hic versus, et de electis accipi, qui habent aliquando latentia in mente mala, quee ab aliis videri non pos¬ sunt hominibus, quae tamen ipse. Dominus cernit ». Et infra : « Sunt, inquit, multi mundo corde, et juxta humanae possibilitatis modum, puri a peccato, nec tamen se ipse quisquam mundicordem et immunem a pec¬ cato absque temeritate pronunciaverit ». Sanctus Bernardus serm. 3. de adventu : « Accedit, inquit, ad sollicitudinis cumulum et pondus timoris, quod cum et meam, et proximi conscientiam servare necesse sit, neutra mihi satis est nota, utraque abyssus est imperscrutabilis, utraque mihi nox est, et nihilominus exigitur a me utriusque cu¬ stodia )>. Item jn epist. 107. «De qua ta¬ men, inquit, percepta suimet ex parte noti¬ tia, interim quidem gloriatur in spe, non¬ dum tamen in securitate ». Idem serm. 2. in octava Paschae : « Novit Dominus, qui sunt ejus, quis vero scit hominum si est dig¬ nus amore, an odio ? » Idem serm. 1. de Septuagesima : « Quis potest dicere, ego de electis sum, ego de praedestinatis ad vitam, ego de numero filiorum ? quis haec inquam dicere potest reclamante Scriptura, nescit homo, si dignus sit amore, an odio ? certitu¬ dinem utique non habemus, sed spei fiducia consolatur nos, ne dubitationis hujus anxie¬ tate penitus cruciemur » . His accedat Innocentius III. Papa doctis¬ simus, qui cap. ult. de purgatione canonica, scribit, juramentum cujusdam hominis, qui jurare paratus erat, se a certis criminibus immunem esse, quae per poenitentiam sibi dimissa fuisse credebat, esse juramentum temerarium et indiscretum, eo quod nemo scire possit, an, ut oportet, egerit poeniten¬ tiam ; ac per hoc an ad veram pervenerit indulgentiam.