Pre-Mosaic oral survival was brief — and extraordinary revelation filled the gap
Rome replies: from creation to Moses, heavenly doctrine was kept by oral tradition alone — so why not apostolic traditions for sixteen hundred years?
Answer: before Moses sacred teaching did survive unwritten for a while — but only among very few.
Among most it was soon corrupted and wrapped in absurd fables; God's covenant and saving doctrine nearly remained in Abraham's family alone while the rest of humankind turned to idolatry and invented cults.
What Scripture later supplied was then filled by frequent divine appearances and familiar talk with the Patriarchs, by which God repeatedly restored the viva-voce teaching and called it back to purity.
Those extraordinary appearances and conversations have long ceased in the Church.
Latin
XXXIII. At, inquiunt, adversarii, a mundi creatione ad Mosen usque doctrina coelestis per solam traditionem sine scripto conservata est. Cur non ergo similiter Apostolicae traditiones ab Apostolorum temporibus ad nostra usque tempora per mille & sexcentos annos servari potuerint? Sed ad istud dico ante Mosen quidem doctrinam sacram sine scripto aliquandiu servatam fuisse. Verum intra paucos admodum. Nam apud plurimos statim corrupta est, & absurdissimis fabulis involuta: ita ut Dei foedus, & doctrina salutis, in una fere Abrahami familia remanserit, reliquum vero totum genus humanum ad idololatriam & commentitios cultus deflexerit. Adde quod tunc temporis defectum Scripturae supplebant frequentes Dei apparitiones, & familiaria cum Patriarchis colloquia, quibus doctrinam viva voce traditam apud ipsos saepius instauravit & renovavit, eamque non tam incorrupte a piis etiam servatam ad puritatem suam & integritatem revocavit. Sed divinae istae apparitiones, & extraordinaria Dei cum hominibus colloquia, in Ecclesia pridem locum non habent.
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.