Page:The Great Encyclical Letters of Pope Leo XIII.djvu/366



360 THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH.

Besides, all who profess Christianity allow that there can be but one faith. It is of the greatest importance, and indeed of absolute necessity, as to which many are de- ceived, that the nature and character of this unity should be recognized. And, as We have already stated, this is not to be ascertained by conjecture, but by the cer- tain knowledge of what was done; that is by seeking for and ascertaining what kind of unity in faith has been commanded by Jesus Christ.

The heavenly doctrine of Christ, although for the most part committed to writing by divine inspiration, could not unite the minds of men if left to the human intellect alone. It would, for this very reason, be subject to various and contradictory interpretations. This is so not only be- cause of the nature of the doctrine itself and of the mys- teries it involves, but also because of the divergencies of the human mind and of the disturbing element of conflicting passions. From a variety of interpretations a variety of beliefs is necessarily begotten; hence come controversies, dissensions, and wranglings such as have arisen in the past, even in the first ages of the Church, Irenaeus writes of heretics as follows: "Admitting the Sacred Scriptures they distort the interpretations."^ And Augustine: "Heresies have arisen, and certain perverse views ensnaring souls and precipitating them into the abyss only when the Scriptures, good in themselves, are not properly understood."" Besides holy writ it was _ absojutej^nficessary to insure this union of m en's mindsâ€” "to~effect and preserve unity of ideas â€” that there should be another principle. This the wisdom of God requires: for He could not have willed that the faith should be one if He did not provide means sufficient for the preserva- tion of this unity; and this holy writ clearly sets forth as We shall presently point out. Assuredly the infinite power of God is not bound by anything; all things obey

> Lib. iii., cap. 12, n. 12.

^ In Evang. Joan., tract xviii., cap. 5, n. 1