Retorsion on popes and councils: their authority is likewise doubtful
When Rome's doctors locate that church authority chiefly in councils and popes, the same argument turns on them.
I prove that papal and conciliar authority is not first and supreme by the same token: it is doubtful and uncertain.
Some popes were intruders, irregularly created. Often several antipopes excommunicated one another and branded one another Antichrists. Councils that called themselves ecumenical and gathered in Christ's name favored heretics and were not lawful — Ariminum for the Arians; the second Ephesine for the Eutychians.
Second Nicaea and Frankfurt under Charlemagne cannot both be lawful: one banned the worship of images, the other commanded it under anathema — so one of them erred.
In the later Roman Church of these past centuries many councils have each styled themselves ecumenical, yet some were rejected, some approved, some half accepted and half refused. Their own doctors quarrel sharply over certain ones.
Bellarmine signs the Lateran under Leo X; the Gallican Church refuses its decisions, because it set the Roman pontiff above the whole Church and a universal council. Constance, which many in France receive whole, Bellarmine and others reject as to its first canons, because it set the council above the pope. Some Roman doctors revere Basel; others brand it a mere conciliabulum.
Latin
XVII. Cum vero Doctores Ecclesiae Romanae Ecclesiasticam illam authoritatem praecipue residere velint in Conciliis & Pontificibus, hac quoque in parte potest eorum argumentum valide retorqueri. Nam Pontificum & Conciliorum authoritatem primam & supremam non esse inde quoque probabo, quod eorum authoritas dubia & incerta est. Quidam enim Pontifices fuerunt intrusi & vitio creati. Et saepe plures fuerunt Antipapae qui se mutuo excommunicabant & Antichristos declarabant. Multa quoque Concilia quae se Oecumenica, & in nomine Christi congregata dixerunt, faverunt haereticis, neque fuerunt legitima, ut Concilium Ariminense quod Arianis favit, & Ephesinum secundum in quo superiores fuerunt Eutychiani. Nicenum vero secundum, & Francofordiense sub Carolo magno legitima simul esse non possunt, sed alterutrum errasse necesse est. Cum unum adorationem & cultum imaginum vetuerit & prohibuerit, alterum vero jusserit sub Anathematis poena. Imo in nupera Ecclesia Romana, qualis est ab aliquot saeculis, multa Concilia fuerunt quae singula se Oecumenica vocant, quorum tamen quaedam reprobata sunt, alia vero approbata, alia in parte probata & in parte rejecta. Et de quorundam authoritate acriter certatur inter Doctores Pontificios. Ita Concilio Lateranensi sub Leone X. subscribit Bellarminus, Ecclesia vero Gallicana Concilii istius decisiones non admittit. Quandoquidem definivit Pontificem Romanum esse supra Ecclesiam totam, & Concilium universale. Et vicissim Constantiense, quod in Gallia multi integrum recipiunt, quoad primos Canones a Bellarmino & aliis rejicitur: quoniam definivit Concilium esse supra Pontificem. Sic quoque Basileense Concilium venerati sunt inter Pontificios alii, alii vero tanquam Conciliabulum diffamant.
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.