Old Testament prophets held divine authority before and against the priests who opposed them
Go back to Old Testament times. When the Prophets published their books, those books already had authority by right, and in fact held it among Israel's faithful, before the priests then ruling the Church had approved them or declared them divine.
Most of the Prophets were sent chiefly to rebuke the priests' vices and sloth, so the priests were usually their enemies. Even so, against that resistance the Prophets' books were held and acknowledged as divine and authentic. Jeremiah makes it plain. In chapter 8 he rebukes Judah's rulers: How can you say, We are wise, and the Lord's law is with us? The lying pen of the scribes has wrought a lie; the wise are shamed and taken; they have cast away the Lord's word, and there is no wisdom in them — from prophet to priest they all work a lie.
In chapter 18 those same rulers plot against him: Come, let us devise devices against Jeremiah. The law will not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us strike him with the tongue, and ignore all his words. Far from approving his prophecies, they fought him. Yet Jehoiakim is charged most heavily for rejecting the authority of those prophecies that Baruch had written out, and for cutting them with a scribe's knife and burning them (Jeremiah 36). On Rome's principles, what great crime was the king committing in refusing as divine a writing the Church's judgment had not yet approved — a writing her rulers were then attacking?
Latin
XL. Quod si libet ad Veteris Testamenti tempora regredi, quando Prophetae libros suos edebant, libri illi authoritatem et de jure habebant, et de facto apud fideles Israelitici populi obtinebant, antequam sacerdotes Ecclesiae tum praepositi, libros illos probassent, et divinos esse declarassent. Imo cum plerique eorum in eum finem praecipue a Deo missi essent, ut Sacerdotum vitia et socordiam arguerent, illos ut plurimum habuerunt adversos; et tamen, non obstante illa Sacerdotum repugnantia, Prophetarum libri pro divinis et authenticis habiti et agniti fuerunt. Quod patet praesertim Jeremiae exemplo. Etenim cap. 8. libri sui sic eos increpat qui tum Judaico populo praeerant. Quomodo dicitis nos sapientes sumus et lex Domini nobiscum est: vere mendacium operatus est stylus mendax Scribarum, confusi sunt sapientes, perterriti et capti sunt; verbum enim Domini abjecerunt, et sapientia nulla est in eis, a Propheta usque ad Sacerdotem omnes faciunt mendacium. Ideoque cap. 18. videmus in Jeremiam insurrexisse istos Ecclesiae praepositos, dicentes, Venite et cogitemus contra Jeremiam cogitationes. Non peribit enim lex a Sacerdote, et consilium a sapiente, nec sermo a Propheta. Venite et percutiamus eum lingua, et non attendamus ad universos sermones ejus. Et tamen quamvis ita Jeremiae repugnarent Ecclesiae Judaicae praepositi, nedum ut illius prophetias probarent, tamen, inquam, gravissime increpatur Jehojakim, quod prophetiarum illius a Barucho exscriptarum authoritatem respuisset, ipsasque scalpello Scribae laceratas combussisset, ut habetur Jeremiae cap. 36. Sed juxta placita Pontificiorum quodnam tantum crimen admittebat rex ille, pro divino non habens scriptum, quod nondum Ecclesiae judicio probatum erat, imo tunc ab Ecclesiae praepositis impugnabatur.
About this text
Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu - Sedan Theological Theses, newly rendered from the 1675 London Latin. Covers De Theologia through Angelorum & Hominum Sanctorum Cultu Romana I-LXXVII and Pars Secunda (Reformata) I-XL. Not the collected folio.
English follows locked Pitt Latin through Imaginum CLOSED + Sanctorum Cultu Romana CLOSED + Pars Secunda Reformata I-XL. 1675 PDF ~384-390 (book ~370-376); Vision OCR + pdftotext + tess. No modern English. This slice densifies Sanctorum Pars Secunda I-XL. Next: Pars Secunda XLI–fin (~CI). Claim stays claimed (book densify not done).
Catalogue & scope
ESTC R17887; Wing L802. IA bub_gb_eOkHAW4G0-wC (+ EEBO 1675 for gap leaves). Densify through Sanctorum Cultu Romana I-LXXVII + Pars Secunda Reformata I-XL (Pars Secunda not closed; not whole folio).
Witnesses
- Copy-text Locked Latin, De Theologia I-XLIII (Pitt 1675) (Latin)
- Checked print Internet Archive PDF of the 1675 Pitt folio (Latin)
- Checked print pdftotext of De Theologia pages (Latin)
- Checked print Internet Archive DjVu OCR of the 1675 Pitt folio (Latin)
- Copy-text Locked Latin, De Fide I-XXII (Pitt 1675) (Latin)
- Copy-text Locked Latin, De Authoritate Scripturae Pars I I-XLVII + Pars II I-XXXV + Pars III I-VIII (Pitt 1675) (Latin)
- Copy-text Locked Latin, De Scripturae plenitudine densify (Pitt 1675) (Latin)
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.