Fathers are fallible witnesses — their consensus cannot equal inspired Scripture

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Unwritten traditions are wrongly leveled with Scripture: Scripture's inspired writers, beyond error's reach, tell us what Christ taught and instituted.

Outside Scripture, sayings and deeds of Christ and the Apostles reach us only through early post-apostolic witnesses — the Fathers whose monuments remain.

Those Fathers were fallible, confessed it, and asked that their writings be measured by Scripture — not received ἀθεωρήτως and without examination.

Roman doctors themselves mark many errors and blemishes in the Fathers — not only in lone opinions, but even where many agree.

Examples Sixtus of Siena collects: most Fathers denied the saints the beatific vision before the resurrection; ancients held no creature incorporeal as a received Catholic rule; many forbade all oaths; chiliast hope of an earthly fleshly reign (Papias, Irenaeus, and others); and a purifying world-fire for all except Christ on judgment day — which even Jerome and Augustine hesitate to condemn outright.

If early doctors could hug false dogma as divine truth, later-age traditions learned only from their witness cannot stand as certain beside what God consigned in the Prophets' and Apostles' books — nor can fallible men's testimony claim equal Church authority with God's own.

Latin

XXXVI. Et certe quam immerito traditiones non scriptae authoritate cum Scriptura aequantur, inde manifestum est, quod in Scripturis sacris Christum Dominum hoc & illud docuisse, atque instituisse testantur nobis Scriptores divinitus inspirati, & extra omne erroris periculum positi. Sed de dictis & factis Christi & Apostolorum extra Scripturam sacram nihil ad nos pervenisse potest, nisi ex testimonio eorum hominum, qui primis post Christum saeculis in Ecclesia floruerunt, & Apostolis ac viris Apostolicis successerunt: quales sunt illi quos Patres antiquos hodie nominamus, & quorum monumenta inter Christianos supersunt. At omnes illi fuerunt errori obnoxii, & tales ipsi se fatentur, cupiuntque ut scripta sua ad Scripturae normam exigantur; non vero recipiantur ἀθεωρήτως & sine examine. Imo ipsi Doctores Ecclesiae Romanae non paucos errores & naevos in iis annotarunt: idque non tantum quum aliquis eorum solitarius, ut sic dicam, loquitur, aliis tacentibus, vel contra dicentibus: Sed etiam quum eorum plurimi in idem consentiunt, quod multis exemplis potest fieri manifestum. Sic, ex. gr. plerique patres docuerunt animas sanctorum ante resurrectionem divinae visionis gloria frui non posse, ut notat Sixtus Senensis, Bibliothecae sanctae lib. 6. annotatione 365. ubi prolixe citat in hanc rem testimonia Justini, Tertulliani, Clementis, Origenis, Lactantii, Victorini, Ambrosii, Prudentii, Augustini, Theodoreti, & multorum recentiorum. Ejusdem quoque libri annot. 35. observat Veteres sensisse nullam creaturam esse incorpoream, & dogma istud illis sic placuisse, ut inter Catholicas regulas & synodicas sanctiones receptum fuerit. Annotatione vero 26. adducit multa loca Chrysostomi, Origenis, Athanasii, Hilarii, Ambrosii, Hieronymi, Chromatii Episcopi Aquileiensis, Oecumenii, Euthymii, unde probat illos credidisse omne juramentum esse simpliciter illicitum, & Christianis interdictum. Praeterea error fuit apud antiquissimos Patres valde solennis, Christum in terris olim aliquandiu cum sanctis in carne regnaturum: quod sensisse olim Papiam Episcopum Hierapolitanum, Irenaeum, Apollinarium, Tertullianum, Lactantium, Severum & Victorinum, testis est Hieronymus, lib. de viris illustribus in Papia, & libro undecimo in Prophetam Ezechielem. Neque Hieron. ipse & Augustinus audent sententiam istam aperte damnare, ut agnoscit idem Sixtus lib. 5. annot. 19. Denique in eodem lib. annot. 171. refert testimonia Origenis, Ambrosii, Hilarii, Basilii, Lactantii, Hieronymi, unde liquet illos existimavisse omnes homines qui sunt qui fuerunt & qui futuri sunt, uno Christo excepto, examinandos, probandos, & aliquo modo urendos igne conflagrationis mundanae in die judicii. Cum ergo prisci illi Ecclesiae Doctores ita fuerint errori obnoxii, ut dogma falsum atque erroneum ceu veritatem divinam amplecti potuerint, quomodo Ecclesiae posteriorum saeculorum tam certe esse possunt traditiones illae quas nonnisi ex eorum fide & testimonio didicit, atque illud quod consignatum videt in divinis ipsis libris Prophetarum & Apostolorum? Et annon omnino a recta ratione abhorret illud, quod testantur homines qui fallere & falli potuerunt, debere apud Ecclesiam authoritatem parem obtinere cum eo quod Deus ipse per Apostolos & Prophetas testatur?

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.