The argument is a fallacy that overturns every first rule of faith, including Rome's
I answer that this is a mere fallacy with which Rome can be pressed as hard as we can. Turn it back on them: the Church's voice and testimony is not the supreme rule of faith; its authority for us hangs on some other principle of faith better known and more certain.
There must be another divine testimony, clearer and surer than the Church's, by which the Church's testimony itself is established — because the Church's authority cannot be proved by the Church's own word. The same thing is not better known and less known than itself; nothing from the Church's testimony proves anything to someone ignorant of that authority, or still doubting it.
If the argument is worth anything, it overturns faith altogether. No rule of faith can be offered as first and supreme without leaving room for the same objection.
Latin
III. Respondeo hoc argumentum meram esse fallaciam qua Pontificii possunt aeque ac nos urgeri. Sic enim in ipsos retorqueri potest. Ecclesiae vox et testimonium non est suprema fidei regula, sed ejus authoritas ab alio quodam fidei principio quoad nos notiori et certiori pendet. Nam necesse est ut sit testimonium aliud divinum, Ecclesiae testimonio notius et certius, per quod de Ecclesiae testimonio constet. Et hoc quia Ecclesiae authoritas et testimonium per ipsius Ecclesiae testimonium probari non potest. Cum idem seipso non sit notius et ignotius, neque authoritatem Ecclesiae ignoranti, aut de authoritate Ecclesiae dubitanti, quicquam possit ex testimonio Ecclesiae probari. Itaque, si quicquam valet hoc argumentum, omnem prorsus fidem subvertit: quandoquidem non potest ulla proferri fidei regula, tanquam prima et suprema, contra quam non liceat simili argumento uti.
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.