What is
Catholic Authority?
And how can we use it in the
Church of England?
Originally published in 1928 There, is no tidy and air-tight definition of Catholic Authority available. It is indefinable.
It is like the Oneness of file Church.
It is like the Infallibility of the Church.
It is like the Inspiration of Scripture.
These things are all too big for succinct definition. They defy it. No definition of unity, infallibility, inspiration and of Catholic Authority could satisfy the East, and Rome, and England.
Much less could any general company of well meaning Christians of every denomination
be expected to agree to any conceivable definition of any of these terms.
There can be no general consent at present as to what constitutes Catholic
Auth-ority : no general consent even of Catholic Churches.
Before attempting to describe Catholic Authority we must answer the question : What is: Catholic Authority for? Catholic Authority must be apt for the end in view. At this moment, as always, there are some who ask about something or other : "By what authority doest thou these things, and who gave thee this authority?" We must be generally satisfied to reply that our authority comes from God. We cannot convince gainsayers : but we should be fully assured in our own minds that we have authority from God : and we should know what we have received authority for. We claim the authority of God for teaching the Truths of Salvation, for offering the Sacrifice of the Mass, for hearing Confessions, and giving Pardon, for blessing and minis-tering in the congregation : and we commend the Truth to everyman's conscience in the Sight of God. Authority is the salvation of the people. While that is the direct object of Catholic Authority, we do not disguise the fact that such authority is needed for the attainment of Unity and for its preservation when attained. The broken unity of the Church and the Authority of the Church are bound up together. Each supports the other. The failure of one is the jeopardy of the other. We want Unity to give Authority, and we want. Authority to save us from division.
The Unity of the Cathohc Church was broken when the Episcopate became divided, and Catholic Authority cannot be restored until all the Bishops of Christendom become reunited.
The Centre of Authority is in the United Universal Episcopate; all
the Bishops of the East united with all the Bishops of the West. This
paper is not on Re-union. It is not my business to say how I think Re-union
might be attained. But I can say that it is just as difficult to say
how Catholic Authority can be regained as to say how Re-union can be
accomplished : because each depends on the other. It is a good thing
to see facts. And it. is well for us to recognise that there is no such
thing as Corporate Catholic Unity - nor is there any such thing at present
as Catholic Authority. Because Catholic Authority is the Authority of
the One Catholic Church.
Our appeal is to the United Catholic Episcopate, which does not exist.
When an Ecumenial Council of the United Episcopate can be got together there will be the beginning of the restoration of Catholic Authority.
What are we to do In the meantime? It would be useless to lay down academic rules. There are none to which the con-tending parties would all conform. It is better to say what authority we regard as binding on ourselves. We may have to be satisfied if we can justify ourselves to our own consciences. The position is anomalous. It is not as Our Lord planned. An enemy hath done this.
Any Catholic Priest going into a Protestant Church of England Parish finds himself face to face with the Problem: "What is Catholic Authority." What can I do to make these people into real Catholic Christians? He will find himself appealing to the Bible, the Prayer Book, the Bishop, if there be a Catholic one, and to other Churches where Catholic customs prevail. He will pick out the Catholic statements of Archbishops, and of acknowledged leading lights of various parties in the Church. lie will build up his authority from the Pearly Church, the Fathers, the General Consent of all, up to the great schism between the East and the West, which was finally perpetrated, and all hope of Unity dissipated, at the Council of Florence in 1439.
The Reformation in England further complicates Authority.
The Catholic Priest gradually, however becomes the Catholic Authority in his Parish, and he has in most cases become so without the help of the Bishop and often in spite of the Bishop's opposition.
We find ourselves appealing to the Custom of the Catholic Churches in the Church of England. In other words, we find we are justified if we proclaim the Catholic Faith - appealing to the inherent Authority of the Truth - appealing to every man's conscience and pointing to the custom of the Churches - that is we regard Catholic Priests as the Catholic Authority in England.
Such a state of things is altogether anomalous.
We are reminded often of the trials of Catholics under Arian bishops and we model our authority on the procedure of those days. We regard our appeal, to the Catholic Priests as only temporary We can never rest until the Bishop of the Diocese gets himself acknowledged as the Catholic Authority for his diocese - just as the Catholic Priest has done for his Parish. The. Bishop who wants to do so must teach Catholic Truth in his diocese in he same way as the pioneer priests have done in the parishes. We badly need a Catholic pioneer Bishop. His authorities for Faith and Practice will be the same as those used by the Priest, with this tremendous advantage above the Priest that he teaches Ex Cathedra. The chair of the Bishop is the seat of authority.
He can, by virtue of his office, make more impression on his diocese than any priest can upon his parish. A priest may get cast out - a Bishop holds hid throne as safely as the Sovereign. There appears to be no tribunal to arraign him for heresy - much less is there any power that can successfully attack him for teaching Catholic Truth and exercising Catholic discipline. When anyone wants to know anything about the Catholic Faith or practice we want to be able to appeal to the Bishop about it. At
present we never think of sending anyone to a Bishop on any question which requires Catholic Authority for its decision.
We are not satisfied with this state of things. We should at least feel that the Bishop could teach the Faith when called upon to do so. He should be the normal Teacher from his chair.
For the revival of Catholic Authority we frankly aim at the restoration of unity with Rome and then with the East. We do all we can to show the Church as Infallible and to spread the desire for Catholic Authority.
To get to this great end we have to do what we can to publish what we regard as Catholic Authority.
We are now in a better position to say what Catholic Authority ideally is. And first we must be clear as to what is the Rule of Faith. It can be described by various phrases, such as :
Scripture and Tradition, or
Tradition, Oral and Written, or
The Church to teach
The Bible to prove.
The Creeds are sometimes given as the Rule of Faith. They contain the substance of the original Revelation. The living Authority on which we receive the Canon of Scriptures and the Creeds is that of the Universal Episcopate. If asked, what Bishops are included in this phrase we say those who can sho'w their succession from the Apostles. This is our palmary Authority for the Substance of the Original revelation as necessary for Salvation. The Canon or Rule of S. Vincent of Lerins is something of a guide. His rule is that in Faith and Morals we are obliged to hold what was or is held always, everywhere, and by all.
Quod Semper. Quod ubique. Quod ab omnibus.
This rule does not apply to-day as absolutely as in Vincent's day. Because whereas the Church was then One, it is now at least Three. Nevertheless the rule is not to be set aside altogether. Even in Vincent's days there were and always will be heresies, and everywhere differences. Nor was the Truth held by all, for then, as now, there were individual teachers and even bodies of Christians, holding other than the Catholic Faith. When S. Vincent appealed to what was held by all, lie did not mean by all without exception, nor by all who call themselves Christians.
He meant what is held by the Church as one body scattered throughout the world, and as opposed to individual teachers and sects. What he meant by "everywhere" is the Truth held in all parts of the Catholic Church as opposed to any particular Church, and by "always'" he meant as opposed to limited periods, or merely recent times. This rule requires Catholic Unity for its rigid application. The developments of East and West and of Rome and England apart from each other would reduce the consensus and the common acknowledged deposit to a very poverty stricken remnant of Truth.
Nevertheless tlie Vincentian Canon is still negatively a guide.
It can eliminate, unheard of additions to the Creeds of Christendom and to other rules of Faith.
It would rule out Newman's Development Theory, which is tlie foundation stone of Modernism.
Vincent's Canon shows the Modernist Development Theory as antagonistic to the Church's Rule of Faith, Tradition and Scripture, which is the only Rule appropriate to an historical revelation.
Doctrines are revealed facts, and the Church has always maintained that those necessary to salvation are limited in number to the original revelation and cannot be added to by any subsequent revelation.
The Vincentian Canon requires that a clear distinction should be kept between facts revealed as necessary to salvation, and others equally true, but which can only be proposed as aids to piety and not as essential to salvation.
The principles underlying the anathemas of Ecumenical Councils is that there is an unchangeable faith - well-known to all who are in Communion with the Catholic Church. It would be impossible to hold any Council as Ecumenical if it made additions to the one Faith held always, everywhere and by all.
The Vincentian Canon would rule out the Vatican Council of 1870 where it claims that its decree on Papal Infallibility is of ecumenical authority. Vincent's rule would also condemn the Rule of Boniface VIII. Unam Sancfani where it says: " We therefore declare, assert and define that for every human creature it is altogether necessary to salvation that he be subject to the Roman Pontiff."
The Vincentian Canon requires some doctrine of the infallibility of the Church for its validity. The word Infallibility means different things as applied to the Church and to the Pope. Applied to the Pope it is absolute. The limitations which lay down that his decrees must be ex-Cathedra, and that they must have assistentia and that they must be addressed to the whole Church were invented to save the Church from some palpably erroneous panal decisions. The laying down of lists of infallible ex-Cathedra utterances by Bellarmine and the Vatican Council will not prevent time undoing many such Infallible statements.
Infallibility as applied to the Church means practical infallibility. And her claim to infallibility cannot be vitiated by any changes she may make as time goes on. She has never changed the deposit. The Infallibility of the Church means that no Ecumenical teaching necessary to Salvation, in faith and morals can be erroneous. The Ecumenical teaching of the Church will never be permitted to interfere with, nor misrepresent, the Faith once for all delivered to the Saints, nor to mislead anyone about it. There may be no great harm in the Pope making new doctrines of faith : but the Church can never impose any new Truth as necessary to Salvation. She cannot require anyone in the Twentieth Century to believe more than was required in the first.
When we say that the Church's Rule of Faith is Scripture and Tradition, we mean the same thing as was meant by the Council of Trent in the famous Decree of the Fourth Session
concerning the Canonical Scriptures. It speaks of the object of the Council being to preserve the Gospel in the Church, and it goes on :
"Which Gospel before promised by the Prophets in the Holy Scriptures, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, first promulgated with His own mouth and then commanded to be preached by His Apostles to every creature, as the fountain both of every saving truth and discipline of morals : and perceiving that this truth, and discipline are contained in the written books and in the unwritten traditions which, received by the Apostles from the mouth of Christ Himself, or from the Apostles themselves, the Holy Ghost dictating, have come down even to us, transmitted as it were, from hand to hand ; the Synod following the example of the orthodox fathers, receives and venerates with equal affection of piety and reverence, all the books both of the Old and of the New Testaments : seeing that One God is the Author of both, as also the said Tradition as well of faith as of morals, as having been dictated, either by Christ's own mouth or by the Holy Ghost and preserved, by a continuous succession in the Catholic Church."
Then follows a Catalogue of the Books of the Bible. Further on the Synod decrees "that no one relying on his own skill shall in matters of faith and of morals pertaining to the building up of Christian doctrine, wresting the Sacred Scriptures to his own senses, dare to interpret tlie said Scriptures contrary to that sense which holy Mother Church, whose it is to judge of the true sense and interpretation of the holy Scriptures hath held and doth hold : or even contrary to the unanimous consent of the Fathers."
To avoid ambiguity we may regard the Rule of Faith as Tradition written and oral - the Sacred Scriptures forming a part of tills written Tradition of the Church.
Bellarmine has a helpful division of Tradition into Divine Traditions, Apostolic Traditions, and Ecclesiastical Traditions. Divine Traditions are things ordained by Christ Himself, such as the matter and form of the Sacraments. The Sacramental System is offered by the Church for our acceptance on Divine Authority.
Apostolic Traditions are things ordained and taught by the Apostles under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, such for instance, would be Episcopacy and Fasting Communion. The successions of Bishops derive their authority from their consecrators, and not from their predecessors. This is the Apostolical tradition.
Church Traditions are those ancient customs of the Church which have the force of law such would he the observance of Easter and Whitsunday and Lent : the mixed Chalice and the sign of the cross.
Some of these customs are Ecumenical. There are other customs, or laws, which are only of Provincial Authority - such can not be imposed on all unless they be raised to Ecumenical dignity - such are the celibacy of the Clergy and Communion in one kind. And they can be altered or abrogated by the authority that imposed them.
It is usually about such laws or customs of discipline that there is the most controversy.
Leaving out the Divine and Apostolic Traditions as being generally accepted, we sometimes want to know how far we are bound in conscience to obey Ecclesiastical Canons and Episcopal Regulations, whether of the Province, or of the Diocese.
It goes without saving that a Bishop requiring obedience to a Divine Tradition, or to an Apostolical Tradition, must be obeyed. Furthermore, when an Ecclesiastical Order of the Province or of the Diocesan does not contradict any Divine or Apostolical Rule or Custom, nor attempt to over-ride any Ecumenical Church Canon or Custom : and if it be a lawful Command, and if we can give honest obedience, we ought to obey.
Our predisposition is always to obey, without violating Conscience. The fact that a Bishop holds heretical opinions does not set us free from obedience to his lawful and canonical commands. Obedience to an heretical Bishop when he acts within his authority can be honest and is owed. Obedience is a Sacred Virtue, because obedience to a Superior is obedience to God. "Obey every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake" is a plain Apostolic precept.
Obey your Prelates in the Lord must he as right for priests as that other precept with a similar limitation is right for children : "Children obey your parents in the Lord."
Both imply the possibility of disobedience when the order is against the Lord's interests.
Only when a Superior speaks with the Voice of God can he insist on obedience. It may even be a duty to disobey a Superior who does not speak with the Voice of God. The Church knows nothing of military obedience. Every Christian is bound to maintain his liberty in the Gospel. Sentimental obedience and military obedience, or obedience to avoid trouble, all these, and some other sorts, are a danger to the Christian Church. The Parochus is as much obliged to uphold the dignity, status, and the traditional rights and discretions of his office as the Bishop is bound to secure him in them, and priests are bound to defend their Catholic Status against all usurpations.
We recognise as Catholic Authority in normal times :-
The Bishops :
The Written and Oral Tradition of the Church : and
The Consensus of Catholic Churches :
and in times normal or abnormal we recognise the authority of the Christian Conscience which authority is valid even as against the Holy See.
In normal or abnormal times, and especially in the latter, we recognise the powerful Catholic Authority of the Truth itself brought home to the mind and heart by the demonstration of the Holy Ghost.
We recognise at once the appeal of The Whole Catholic Faith, and its force is irresistible when preached by the Chief Teacher, the Bishop of the diocese : and we are disposed to obey with all humility his godly orders and to submit to his godly admonitions : and especially when he appeals to us by the bowels of Jesus Christ, and in the defence and for the liberty of the everlasting Gospel of the Catholic Religion.
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