FathersVia Patrum

Theological Theses · §112

Stapleton's Symbol reply fails; the Creed takes its authority from Scripture

Click or tap any sentence to jump there. The side buttons skip a paragraph.

Stapleton's second reply grants that the Church's authority for us hangs on Scripture's, yet denies that the Church can be known only through Scripture. Apart from Scripture, he says, the faithful learn from the Creed that the Church exists and must be believed.

The Creed has no authority of its own. It draws its whole force from sacred Scripture, from which it is taken. It is simply the faithful's confession of what they believe according to Scripture. That already makes the Creed's authority better known to us than the Church's — which cuts hard against those who say the Creed's authority, like every other article of belief, hangs on the Church as on a better-known principle of faith.

On their own showing the Church is the body that frames Creeds and confers that authority. Yet in the Creed we confess one holy Catholic Church, and the Creed never tells us which Church that is — Roman rather than Greek or Ethiopian. No proof from the Creed settles it. If Scripture's authority is to be confirmed to us through the Church's, as Rome wants, bare knowledge that some Church exists on earth is not enough. We must know determinately which Church is the true one, clothed with divine and infallible authority.

Latin

XXXV. Secundo respondet Stapletonus, authoritatem quidem Ecclesiae quoad nos ab authoritate Scripturae pendere, non tamen ita ut Ecclesia non possit aliunde quam per sacram Scripturam innotescere. Nam, inquit, citra Scripturam ex Symbolo discunt fideles Ecclesiam esse et ipsi esse credendum. At certe Symbolum per se authoritatem non habet, sed authoritatem suam sumit ex Scriptura sacra, ex qua totum desumptum est. Nec Symbolum aliud est, quam declaratio eorum quae fideles, juxta Scripturam sacram, se credere profitentur. Praeterea inde sequitur authoritatem Symboli quoad nos, notiorem esse ipsa Ecclesiae authoritate, quod valde facit contra adversarios, qui authoritatem Symboli, ut caeterorum omnium credendorum, ab authoritate Ecclesiae pendere contendunt, tanquam a fidei quodam notiori principio et argumento. Nam Ecclesia juxta adversarios ipsa est quae Symbola condit, et conciliat illam authoritatem. Adde quod in Symbolo profitemur nos credere unam sanctam Catholicam Ecclesiam. At Symbolum non docet quae sit illa sancta et Catholica Ecclesia, an scilicet Romana, potius quam Graeca aut Aethiopica. Nec ullis ex Symbolo probationibus istud elici potest. Sed ut authoritas Scripturae per authoritatem Ecclesiae nobis confirmetur, qua ratione volunt Pontificii, non sufficit ut in genere sciamus in terris esse Ecclesiam, sed necesse est ut determinate sciamus quae sit vera Ecclesia, praedita, scilicet, authoritate divina atque infallibili.

About this text

Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu, Sedan Theses, newly rendered from Latin: from theology proper through the Roman theses I–77 and the Reformed theses of Part Two. The theses only — not the collected works.

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

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.