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Chapter Six
Clarification
At this point,
some might argue that I have been guilty of what is known as "antiquarianism,"
or a casting aside of everything in favor of what is more ancient. After
all, the exact contents of the Tridentine Mass are not identical to the early
liturgies. We now say countless prayers that were not known to the Early
Church. Even the Rosary, perhaps the greatest prayer in the Church, was not,
at least in its current form, known to the Early Fathers. I reply to this
argument in the words of St. Augustine (ca. A.D. 400): "In regard to those
observances which we carefully attend and which the whole world keeps, and
which derive not from Scripture but from Tradition, we are given to understand
that they are recommended and ordained to be kept, either by the Apostles
themselves or by plenary councils, the authority of which is quite vital
in the Church."1
The Early Fathers did not teach that the Faith entails every action, every
word, every custom, and every behavior that is found somewhere in the Apostolic
heritage. As Augustine demonstrates, the Early Fathers taught that doctrine,
specifically, only consists in those beliefs, "observances," and practices,
"which the whole world keeps," either due to the command of unwritten "Tradition"
or of Scriptural tradition, and which the Fathers "recommended and ordained
to be kept." If the Fathers did not command a certain tradition to be kept,
if they did not deem it as being part of the Apostolic tradition, then it
is not requisite to recognize it as such. The understanding of doctrine is
very simple. If the authorities command something that has always been commanded,
teach something to be believed that has always been taught, or define a doctrine
that has always been understood in the sense defined, then its authority
is "quite vital in the Church." If the Church does not command something
to be kept as having always been kept, then it is not, in the teaching of
the Early Fathers, part of the necessary deposit of Faith. All of this comes
back to the initial premise preached by Pope St. Clement. Everything is based
on the words of Christ and on the Holy Ghost's arrival to the Apostles on
Pentecost. What they passed on as authoritative is what God established as
authoritative. What they did not pass on as authoritative, but only performed
without any firm necessity was not established by God as necessary.
There is only one way to know what is, in fact, this necessary Apostolic
tradition, containing both disciplines and articles of Faith, which is, namely,
to see what the Early Fathers themselves believed was necessary Apostolic
tradition. If they always held a belief or discipline to be a written or
unwritten doctrine of the Faith, then we know, from the foregoing chapters,
that not even the slightest alteration in sense, meaning, or understanding
can be admitted in such a doctrine. In the judgment of the Early Fathers,
there could never be a Truth that had been given originally, but which had
not been handed down as such, as Augustine demonstrates (ca. A.D. 420): "That
adversary actually uses testimonies from the apocryphal books which were
written under the names of the Apostles Andrew and John! If these books had
really been written by them, they would have been received by the Church,
which has continued from those times through the most certain successions
of bishops to our own times without a break."2 In our own times, we have
seen this principle repudiated even by a Pontiff. Pope Paul VI, in replacing
the Tridentine Rite with the Novus Ordo, made the famous comment: "More ancient
liturgical sources have been discovered and published and at the same time
liturgical formulas of the Oriental Church have become better known. Many
wish that the riches, both doctrinal and spiritual, might not be hidden in
the darkness of libraries, but on the contrary might be brought into the
light to illumine and nourish the spirits and souls of Christians." In the
first place, not one "more ancient liturgical source" has ever been brought
forth in the academic or ecclesiastic communities to demonstrate the greater
antiquity of any element in the Novus Ordo Rite. As has been well documented
by Protestant and Catholic scholars alike, the only revisions made in the
Novus Ordo rite from the Tridentine rite date back only as far as Cranmer's
Book of Common Prayer. There is no historical proof of any ancient
Church or Early Father having offered the Mass in a manner more consistent
with the Novus Ordo rite than with the Tridentine. Nonetheless, if indeed
there were, if indeed the comments of Pope Paul VI were not either misinformed
or disingenuous rationalizing, there would still be no basis for alteration.
As Augustine teaches, if the Apostles and Early Fathers had intended a particular
aspect of the Liturgy or any other ecclesiastical practice to be passed on
and held fast, they would have passed it on and held it fast or, in the words
of Augustine, "if these [practices] had really been [performed] by them,
they would have been received by the Church, which has continued from those
times through the most certain successions of bishops to our own times without
a break."
Furthermore, the corresponding doctrine, that all which has always been held
fast and passed down is, without a doubt, Apostolic in origin. According
to the Early Fathers, the prescriptions authored by their predecessors in
a chain back to the Apostles, is absolutely doctrinal and beyond question.
To those who would oppose the authority of the inherited Faith, Augustine
responds (ca. A.D. 421):
You are convicted
on every side. The numerous testimonies . . . are clearer than daylight.
Look what an assembly it is into which I have brought you. Here is Ambrose
of Milan. . . . Here too is John of Constantinople [Chrysostom]. . . . here
is Basil. . . . Here are others too, whose general agreement is so great
that it ought to move you. . . . They were famous in the Catholic Church
for their pursuit of sound doctrine. Armed and girded with spiritual weapons,
they waged strenuous wars against the heretics; and when they had faithfully
completed the labors appointed them, they fell asleep in the lap of peace.
. . . [T]he assembly of those saints is no common rabble. They are not only
sons but also fathers of the Church.3
Augustine continues
this same teaching later in this same work:
Holy and blessed
priests, widely renown for their diligence in divine eloquence, Irenaeus,
Cyprian, Reticius, Olympius, Hilary, Ambrose, Gregory, Innocent, John Basil,
- and . . . Jerome . . . What they found in the Church, they kept; what they
learned, they taught; what they received from the Fathers, they handed on
to the sons. . . . These men are bishops, learned, grave, holy, and most
zealous defenders of the truth against garrulous vanities . . . With such
planters, waterers, builders, shepherds, and fosterers, the holy Church grew
after the time of the Apostles.4
Christ, the Lord,
has passed on to His Church an unquestionable doctrine which invests His
disciples with a character beyond reproach insofar as they deliver that doctrine.
Irenaeus, Cyprian, Hilary, Ambrose, Gregory, Innocent, John, Basil, Jerome,
and all the holy doctors and teachers of the Early Church are not an "assembly"
of Truth and wisdom because of their own powers or abilities, nor merely
because they are the authorities, but, they become authoritative, powerful,
and able because of their "fame" for "pursuing sound doctrine." They become
"planters, waterers, builders, shepherds, and fosterers" of the Church because
they plant, water, build, shepherd, and foster with the doctrine they "found
in the Church" and which "they kept," what they "learned," and which they
"taught," what they "received from the Fathers," and which they "handed on
to the sons." Thus, whatever they passed on as the Truth of Christ which
they received from their predecessors cannot contain anything but complete
and pure Truth, just as Christ is complete and pure Truth, and anything they
did not pass on as the Truth of Christ, and which, consequently, died out,
could not have contained complete and pure Truth, because Christ, who is
pure and complete Truth, cannot die out.
Footnotes:
1 St. Augustine of Hippo Letter to Januarius (ca. A.D. 400)
54.1.1
2 St. Augustine Against an Adversary of the Law and the Prophets
(ca. A.D. 420) 1.20.39
3 St. Augustine Against Julian (ca. A.D. 421) 1.7.30-31
4 Ibid 2.10.33-37
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