Stapleton, Canus, and Bañez: the Church's voice is not the formal object of faith

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Stapleton teaches the same in Controversy 4, on the Church's power in itself, question 3, article 3. His second conclusion: the Church's voice is not the formal object of faith. He proves it first because faith can exist without that voice, and second because the Church's voice and authority alone cannot produce faith worthy of the name. He then faces older scholastic arguments, including Augustine's famous line: "I would not believe the Gospel unless the Catholic Church's authority moved me."

Stapleton's short answer: the Gospel is not believed except with the Church's authority moving — ordinarily, because that is the ordinary way the first Truth reveals all things. In the same place he grants that our faith does not hang on the Church's testimony alone, nor chiefly on it. Canus on the same Augustine text: if the Church only opens the door to the sacred books, we must not stop there; we must go on and lean on God's solid truth. Dominic Bañez, on the Secunda secundae 1.1, doubt 4, is just as clear: the assent of our faith cannot be reduced to acquired faith that the Church is truthful, as if that were the rule or formal reason of believing. The opposite, he adds, is not only rash but erroneous in the faith itself.

So this too is not the state of the question between us and the Pontificii — whether the proper reason and chief foundation of the faith we give to Scripture is the Church's authority.

Latin

XV. His consentanea docet Stapletonus Controvers. 4. de potest. Eccles. in se quaest. 3. Art. 3. ubi haec est ejus secunda conclusio, Ecclesiae vox non est formale fidei objectum. Id quod probat, Primo, quia absque ea fides esse potest. Et secundo, quia sola Ecclesiae vox et authoritas ad veri nominis fidem non potest inducere. Postea sibi objicit argumenta quorundam veterum Scholasticorum, et inter alia celebrem istum Augustini locum, Non crederem Evangelio, nisi me Catholicae Ecclesiae commoveret authoritas. Ad quod breviter respondet his verbis, Evangelio non creditur, nisi authoritate Ecclesiae commovente, scilicet ordinarie, quia est ordinarius modus quo prima veritas omnia revelat. Ibidemque fatetur fidem nostram non pendere a solo Ecclesiae testimonio, nec principaliter ab illo. Ad illud vero Augustini haec dicit Melchior Canus, loco supra citato, Non, si Ecclesia aditum nobis praebet ad sacros libros cognoscendos, protinus ibi acquiescendum est, sed oportet ultra progredi, et solida Dei veritate niti. Consentit Dominicus Bannes inter suos celebris in secundam secundae quaest. 1. art. 1. dubio 4. ubi haec est ejus secunda conclusio, Assensus fidei nostrae non potest reduci ad fidem acquisitam, qua credimus Ecclesiam esse veracem, tanquam in regulam, vel formalem rationem credendi. Posteaque subjungit, Haec conclusio tam certa est, ut oppositum ejus videatur nobis non solum temerarium, sed erroneum etiam in fide. Unde patet neque hunc inter nos et Pontificios esse quaestionis statum, An, scilicet, fidei quam Scripturae adhibemus, ratio propria et praecipuum fundamentum sit Ecclesiae authoritas.

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

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.