No new revelation — only a fallible hand-to-hand chain Augustine calls interminable
Even Rome's best grant: the Church is not run by new revelations, and neither Pope nor Council learns immediately from God what the Apostles taught.
Their only remaining answer: hand-to-hand testimony of doctors back to hearers of the Apostles.
But we have already shown — and Rome's own history admits — that the earliest doctors often erred in receiving 'apostolic' traditions, and by common consent held as apostolic what Rome now condemns.
How then can that chain give later Councils and popes certain faith, or serve as a rule equal to Scripture for settling controversies?
The uncertainty of conflicting Father-witness is exactly what still needs removing. Augustine, in the place already cited: when the fight turns on apostolic tradition itself, the contention is interminable — it breeds quarrels and does not end questions.
Latin
XLIII. Sed quantacunque authoritas seu Concilio, seu Papae tribuatur, agnoscunt doctissimi & probatissimi quique inter Pontificios, Ecclesiam hodie non regi novis revelationibus, nec Papam, neque Concilium immediate a Deo discere quid Apostoli tradiderint. Unde ergo istud certo discere possunt? Profecto nihil ipsis hic dicendum superest, nisi, quod & revera dicunt, nempe, Papam, sive Concilium id habere ex voce & testimonio Doctorum Ecclesiae, qui de manu in manum hoc vel illud acceperunt a priscis illis Doctoribus qui Apostolorum fuerunt auditores. Sed jam pluribus instantiis, & ex ipsa adversariorum confessione manifestum fecimus antiquissimos Ecclesiae Doctores in traditionibus recipiendis atque commendandis saepe fuisse deceptos, atque hallucinatos, & eorum plurimos communi consensu tanquam dogma & institutum Apostolicum admisisse, quod Ecclesia Romana hodie rejicit & damnat. Quomodo ergo certam fidem eorum testimonia facere potuerunt Conciliis & Pontificibus saeculorum posteriorum? Et quomodo traditiones a Patribus acceptae respectu Pontificum & Conciliorum ipsorum possunt haberi pro certa regula ex qua controversias propositas dijudicent, non minus quam ex ipsa Scriptura? Et jam hoc ipsum quaeritur, qua ratione tolli possit incertitudo quae nascitur ex Patrum & priscorum illorum Ecclesiae Doctorum variis testimoniis & pugnantibus inter se sententiis, quum agitur de iis quae Apostoli tradiderunt. Quare ea merito dicit Augustinus loco citato: Quod quum ad Apostolorum traditionem recurritur & circa ipsam pugnatur, Interminabilis est ista contentio, generans lites, non finiens quaestiones.
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.