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Chapter Seven
St. Vincent of Lerins: The Epitome of an Age
This paper was
begun with the question of how we are to know what God wants us to believe,
specifically in regard to human salvation. According to the Early Church
Fathers, the only source of Truth is the teaching of Christ, which has been
passed on through the teaching of the Fathers of the Church to each succeeding
generation. Although the Apostolic Churches may have varied in some practices,
they all, uniformly, held to certain beliefs and ecclesiastical traditions
as composing the unquestionable, unchanging doctrine of Christ, the deposit
of the Church's Faith. In the judgment of the Early Fathers, this is how
we, the flock, may know what to believe. If a doctrine or discipline has
been passed down as an Apostolic tradition, written or unwritten, it must
be accepted. Thus, in regard to human salvation, the Early Fathers command
us to submit to whatever the Church as always handed down in regard to the
matter. Furthermore, that which has been handed down cannot be deviated from
in the slightest way. It must be assented to in the same sense, meaning,
and understanding that those who handed it down possessed. To this, all the
Early Fathers lend their voices in affirmation. For four hundred and fifty
years, these Popes, saints, and teachers of the Church consistently held
this conception of doctrine.
It is fitting that this section is concluded with the teaching of the Saint
who perhaps best summed up the prior teachings of the Fathers of the Church
on the matter of doctrine, and who taught at the very end of the period set
out in this section. St. Vincent of Lerins, writing in A.D. 434, argued in
his work, the Commonitoria: "In the Catholic Church itself, all possible
care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere,
always, [and] by all. For that is truly and in the strictest sense
Catholic . . . This rule we shall observe if we follow universality,
antiquity, [and] consent. We shall follow universality if we confess that
one faith to be true, which the whole Church throughout the world confesses;
antiquity, if we in no wise depart from those interpretations which it is
manifest were . . . held by our holy ancestors and fathers; consent, in like
manner, if in antiquity itself we adhere to the consentient definitions and
determinations of all, or at the least of almost all the priests and doctors."1
How beautifully St. Vincent restates the teachings of his predecessors, for
this is truly the essence of the Faith and the core of doctrine: to restate
that which was said before oneself, before one's predecessors, before their
predecessors, to the very beginning, when the voice of Christ declared unto
the Apostles the Truth and the power of the Holy Ghost descended upon them.
Truth is what has "been believed everywhere, always, and by all" as Truth.
This is not out of some democratic understanding of revelation, but because
that which has always been believed is also that which has always been preached,
those "interpretations which it is manifest were held by our holy ancestors
and fathers." Neither is the Truth held out of respect for these "ancestors
and fathers" by any virtue of themselves, but because what they preached
is what the Apostles preached through the teaching of Christ and the inspiration
of the Holy Ghost. The Fathers of the Church and the traditions they pass
on are to be followed because, as St. Vincent says:
He is the true
and genuine Catholic who loves the truth of God, who loves the Church, who
loves the Body of Christ, who esteems divine religion and the Catholic Faith
above every thing, above the authority, above the regard, above the genius,
above the eloquence, above the philosophy, of every man whatsoever; . . .
and continuing steadfast and established in the faith, resolves that he will
believe that, and that only, which he is sure the Catholic Church as held
universally and from ancient time; but that whatsoever new and unheard of
doctrine he shall find to have been furtively introduced by some one or another
besides that of all, or contrary to that of the saints, this, he will understand,
does not pertain to religion.2
According to St.
Vincent, in unity with his predecessors, the uniform belief of the Catholic
faithful and the uniform teaching of the Fathers, from the beginning, is
to be revered and followed, but not for their own sakes. The adherence to
unity and to authority only acquires merit because it is adherence to the
"universal" and "ancient" Faith which, in turn, is inseparable from the "Body
of Christ," and is no other than the "truth of God." No "unheard of doctrine"
can supercede this "truth of God"; no "man" despite all "authority," "genius,"
or "eloquence," can supercede the authority, genius, and eloquence of our
Lord and Savior. Doctrine is only valid in that it comports with the truth
of God by comporting with the universal teaching of all the doctors and saints
of the Church, and they are only valid authorities insofar as they preach
what was passed on to them since the Apostles. The Faith of Christ is the
starting point:
Guard, he
[Paul] says, what has been committed. . . . It is what has been faithfully
entrusted to you, not what has been discovered by you; what you have received,
not what you have thought up a matter not of ingenuity, but of doctrine;
not of private acquisition, but of public Tradition; a matter brought to
you, not put forth by you, in which you must be not the author but the guardian,
not the founder but the sharer, not the leader, but the follower. . . . Keep
the talent of the Catholic Faith inviolate and unimpaired. What has been
faithfully entrusted, let it remain in your possession, let it be handed
on by you. . . . For my part I do not want you to substitute on thing for
another. . . . O Timothy, O priest, O interpreter, O teacher, if a divine
gift has made you suitable in genius, in experience, in doctrine to be the
goldsmith of the spiritual tabernacle, cut out the precious gems of divine
dogma, shape them faithfully, ornament them wisely, add splendor, grace and
beauty to them!3
According to the
Early Fathers, there can be no denying the strength and dignity of the legitimate
authority, which acts as the "priest," "interpreter," "teacher," and "goldsmith"
of the Church, but such capacities are not held out of the nature of authority
itself, or out of any particular capabilities, but only by the acts of "guarding
what has been committed," "sharing" what has been "received," "following"
what has been "entrusted," and never indulging in "discovery," "ingenuity,"
"founding," or "leading."
This, then, is the ruling of the Early Church in regard to what Catholics
must believe in regard to any doctrinal issue: Catholics must believe what
has always been presented, by the loyal servants of the Faith in every era,
as what must be believed. Only in this can we know that a doctrine or discipline
is of Christ.
Footnotes:
1 St. Vincent of Lerins Commonitoria (ca. A.D. 434) 2.6
2 St. Vincent of Lerins Commonitoria (ca. A.D. 434) 20.48
3 Ibid 22.53
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