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Handout #87 |
Vincent of Lerins (first half of the fifth century) |
| Is there a
universal criterion for distinguishing religious truth from error? As
often, then, as I have made earnest and diligent inquiries of men
outstanding for their holiness and learning, seeking to distinguish, by
some sure and as it were universal rule, between the truth of the Catholic
faith and the falsity of heretical perversity, I would get from almost
everyone some such answer: we must doubly fortify our own faith, first, of
course, by the authority of the divine law, and second, by the tradition
of the catholic church.
Here someone may possibly ask, since the canon of the scriptures is complete, and is abundantly sufficient for every purpose, what need is there to add to it the authority of the church's interpretation? The reason is, of course, that by its very depth the holy scripture is not received by all in one and the same sense, but its declarations are subject to interpretation, now in another, so that it would appear, we can find almost as many interpretations as there are men ... In the Catholic church itself, especial care must be taken that we hold to that which has been believed everywhere always and by all men. For that is truly and tightly 'catholic', as the very etymology of the word shows and includes almost all universally. This result will be reached if we follow ecumenicity, antiquity, consensus. We shall follow ecumenicity if we acknowledge as the one true faith what the whole church throughout the world confesses. So also we shall follow antiquity if we retreat not one inch from those interpretations which, it is clear, the holy men of old and our own fathers proclaimed. Likewise, we shall follow consensus if in antiquity itself we earnestly strive after the pronouncements and opinions of all, or certainly almost all, the priests and teachers alike. If a new question arises on which no pertinent decree can be found, the catholic Christian will undertake to examine and investigate the views of the forefathers and to compare them with each other, yet only of those who, though living in different times and places, yet steadfastly remained in communion and faith with the one catholic church, and stand out as teachers worthy of acceptance. Whatever he discovers that not one or two alone, but all together, with one and the same agreement, openly, often, and continually have held, have written, have fought, let him also understand that he must believe this without any hesitation. Vincent of Lerins, The Commonitory, III, IV (434) |
