Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/871

 INFALLIBILITY

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INFALLIBILITY

ormation. The teaching of the Vatican Council is to be found in Sess. Ill, cap. iv (Denzinger-Bannwart, "Encliiridion", 1800). where it i.s declared that "the doctrine of faith, which God lias revealed, has not been propoised as a philosophical discovery to be improved upon by human talent, but has been committed as a Divine deposit to the spouse of Christ, to be faithfully guarded and infalliljly interpreted by her"; and in Sess. IV, cap. iv (Enchiridion, 1839), where it is de- fined that the Roman pontiff when he teaches ex cathedra "enjoys, by reason of the Divine assistance promised to hmi in blessed Peter, that infallibility with which the Divine Redeemer wished His Church to be endowed in defining doctrine regarding faith and morals". Even the Vatican Council, it will be seen, only introduces the general dogma of the Church's infalhbility as distinct from that of the pope obliquely and indirectly, following in this respect the traditional usage according to which the dogma is assumed as an implicate of oecumenical magisterial authority. In- stances of this will be given below and from these it will appear that, though the word infallibility as a technical term hardly occurs at all in the early councils or in the Fathers, the thing signified by it was under- stood and believed in and acted upon from the begin- ning. We shall confine our attention in this section to the general question, reserving the doctrine of papal infallibility for special treatment (see III, B.). This arrangement is adopted not because it is the best or most logical, but because it enables us to travel a cer- tain distance in the friendly company of those who cUng to the general doctrine of ecclesiastical infallibil- ity while rejecting the papal claims. Taking the evi- dence both scriptural and traditional as it actually stands, one may fairly maintain that it proves papal infallibility in a simpler, more direct, and more cogent way than it proves the general doctrine independently; and there can be no doubt but that this is so if we ac- cept as the alternative to papal infallibility the vague and unworkable theory of oecumenical infallibility which most High-C!hurch Anglicans would substitute for Catholic teaching. Nor are the Eastern scliismati- cal Churches much better off than the Anglican in this respect, except that each has retained a sort of virtual belief in its own infallibility, and that in practice they have been more faithful in guarding the doctrines in- fallibly defined by the early oecumenical councils. Yet certain Anglicans and all the Eastern Orthodox agree with Catholics in maintaining that Christ prom- ised infallibility to the true Church, and we welcome their support as against the general Protestant denial of this truth.

A. Proof from Scripture. — (1) In order to prevent misconception and thereby to anticipate a common popular objection which is wholly based on a miscon- ception, it should be premised that when we appeal to the Scriptures for proof of the Church's infallible au- thority we appeal to them merely as reliable historical sources, and abstract altogether from their inspira- tion. Even considered as purely human documents they furnish us, we maintain, with a trustworthy re- port of Christ's sayings and promises; and, taking it to be a fact that Christ said what is attributed to Him in the Gospels, we further maintain that Christ's promises to the Apostles and their successors in the teaching office include the promise of such guidance and assistance as clearly implies infaUibility. Having thus used the Scriptures as mere historical sources to prove that Christ endowed the Church with infallible teaching authority, it is no vicious circle, but a per- fectly legitimate logical procedure, to rely on the Church's authority for proof of what writings are in- spired. (2) Merely remarking for the present that the texts in which Christ promised infallible guidance especially to Peter and his successors in the primacy might be appealed to here as possessing an a fortiori value, it wiU suffice to consider the classical texts

usually employed in the general proof of the Church's

infallibility; and of these the principal are : Matt., x,xviii, 18-20, and xvi, IS; Jolm, xiv, xv, and xvi; I Tim., iii, 14-15; and Acts, xv, 28 sq.

(a) In Matt., xxviii, lS-20, we have Christ's solemn commission to the Apostles delivered shortly before His Ascension: "All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consumma- tion of the world. " In Mark, xvi, 15-16, the same commission is given more briefly with the added promise of salvation to believers and the threat of damnation for unbelievers; "Go ye into the whole world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall Ije condemned." Now it can- not be denied by anyone who admits that Christ estab- lished a visible Church at all, and endowed it with any kind of effective teaching authority, that this commis- sion, with all it imjilies, was given not only to the Apostles personally for their own lifetime, but to their successors to the end of time, "even to the consumma- tion of the world". And assuming that it was the omniscient Son of God Who spoke these words, with a full and clear realization of the import which, in con- junction with His other promises, they were calculated to convey to the Apostles and to all simple and sincere believers to the end of time, the only reasonable inter- pretation to put upon them is that they contain the promise of infallible guidance in doctrinal teaching made to the Apostolic College in the first instance and then to the hierarcliical college that was to succeed it.

In the first place it was not without reason tliat Christ prefaced His commission by appealing to the fullness of power He Himself had received: "All power is given to me", etc. This is evidently intended to emphasize the extraordinary character and extent of the authority He is comminiicating to His Church — an authority, it is implied, which He could not personally communicate were not He Himself omnipotent. Hence the promise that follows cannot reasonably be understood of ordinary natural providential guidance, but must refer to a very special supernatural assist- ance. In the next place there is question particularly in this passage of doctrinal authority — of authority to teach the Gospel to all men — if Christ's promise to be with the Apostles anrl their successors to the end of time in carrying out tliis commission means that those whom they are to teach in His name and according to the plenitude of the power He has given them are bound to receive that teaching as if it were His own; in other words they are bound to accept it as infallible. Otherwise the perennial assistance promised would not really be efficacious for its purpose, and efficacious Divine assistance is what the expression used is clearly intended to signify (see Murray, "De Ecclesia", vol. II, p. 199 sqq., where a long catena of parallel texts illustrating this point will be found). Supposing, as we do, that Christ actually delivered a definite body of revealed truth, to be taught to all men in all ages, and to be guarded from change or corruption by the living voice of His visible Church, it is idle to contend that this result could be accomplished effectively — in other words that His promise could be effectively fulfilled — unless that living voice can speak infallibly to every generation on any question that may arise affecting the substance of Christ's teaching.

Without infallibility there could be no finality re- garding any one of the great truths which have been identified historically with the very essence of Chris- tianity; and it is only with those who believe in historical Christianity that the question need be dis- cussed. Take, for instance, the mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation. If the early Church was