No scholastic catechism required — God wrote by their hands
Bellarmine wants a catechism; he finds only Gospels and letters that touch dogma in passing.
Reply: God wrote through their hands — not bound to school method.
Pious readers can still gather faith and life-precepts from the books as written.
Moses had an express write-order yet left precepts scattered in narrative — same pattern.
Latin
XIV. At, inquit Bellarminus, si doctrinam sacram literis consignare ex professo voluissent, certe catechismum aut similem librum confecissent. At ipsi, vel historiam scripserunt, ut Evangelistae: vel epistolas, ut Paulus & alii, in quibus nonnisi obiter de dogmatibus tractant. Respondeo scriptores sacros non tam scripsisse, quam Deum per ipsorum manus: Deum autem in scribendo humanae & scholasticae methodo astrictum non esse; Imo istas scholae leges scripti divini majestatem & simplicitatem non satis decere. Quomodocunque vero scripti sint libri sacri, inde satis facile & luculenter doctrina fidei, & praecepta vitae ab attentis & piis lectoribus colligi possunt. Certe negari non potest Mosen saltem ex aperto & expresso Dei mandato legem a Deo acceptam literis mandavisse. Neque tamen libros magis methodicos scripsit, quam Apostoli & Evangelistae. Sed in libris Mosaicis sine ullo certo ordine sparsa sunt praecepta Dei, & historiis variis inserta.
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.