Chapter II — The Transmission of Revelation

§ 7. The Protestant Theory and the Catholic Theory Concerning the Mode of Transmitting and Enforcing Revelation

Divine Revelation, although destined for all men in all times and places, has not been communicated to each individual directly and immediately. Certain means have been appointed by God for this purpose. Catholics and Protestants, however, hold diametrically opposite views as to what these means are. We shall first state both theories, and then develop and prove the Catholic theory.

I. The Protestant theory takes two different forms, both alike opposed to the Catholic theory. According to the older Protestants, Holy Scripture, the divinely written document of Revelation, together with an interior illumination of the Holy Ghost, is the sole means whereby Revelation asserts itself to the individual. All other institutions or external means of communicating Revelation are the work of man, coming violently between Revelation and Faith, and destroying the supernatural character of the latter. Modern Protestants, however, admit the existence of other means of transmission besides Holy Writ itself, but they deny that such means are ordained by God and participate in the Divine character of Revelation, while some even go so far as to deny the supernatural character of Holy Scripture itself. Revealed truth is, on this view, handed down by purely human witnesses, whose authority depends not on the assistance of the Holy Ghost but on their natural abilities and industry. Both forms protest — the one in the name of Christian, the other in the name of natural, freedom — against the notion of a Revelation imposing itself authoritatively on mankind, and against any living and visible authority claiming to be established by God with the right to impose the obedience of Faith.

II. The Catholic theory is a logical consequence of the nature of Revelation. Revelation is not simply intended for the comfort and edification of isolated individuals, but as a fruitful source of supernatural knowledge and life, and a sovereign rule of Faith, thought, and conduct for all mankind as a whole and for each man in particular. God wills that by its means all men should be gathered into His kingdom of holiness and truth, and should obtain, by conformity to His will, the happiness which He destines for them, at the same time rendering to Him the tribute of glory which is His due. Revelation is intended to be a principle of Faith, leading to an infallible knowledge of revealed truth, and also a law of Faith, by submitting to which all men may offer God the most perfect homage of their intellect.

It follows that God should provide efficient means to enable mankind to acquire a complete, certain, and uniform knowledge of revealed truth, and to secure to Himself a uniform and universal worship founded on Faith. This exercise of God’s jus majestatis¹ over the mind of man is rightly insisted upon by the Vatican Council against the rationalistic tendencies of the day. Moreover, God could not simply cast upon the world the written document of His revealed Word and leave it to an uncertain fate; had He done so, the purposes of Revelation would have been completely frustrated. The only efficient mode of transmitting Revelation with authority is that the Word of God, once spoken, should be continually proposed to mankind by His authorized envoys, and promulgated in His name and power as the principle and rule of Faith. These envoys are called the Teaching Body; their functions are called the Apostolate.

Thus, on the Catholic theory, there is a means of transmitting Revelation distinct from Revelation itself and its written document; and this means, having been instituted by God, detracts in no way from the dignity of Revelation, but rather safeguards it. Other means of transmission, such as Scripture and history, are by no means excluded — they are, however, subordinate to this one essential and fundamental means.

§ 8. Further Explanation of the Catholic Theory

I. The promulgation of revealed truth, being an act of God as Sovereign Lord of all creatures, must be made in the name of His sovereign authority and by ambassadors invested with a share of that authority. Their commission must consist of an appointment emanating from God, and they must be armed with the necessary credentials and the power of exacting Faith from those to whom they are sent. Thus qualified, the promulgation may be technically described as official, because made by persons whose proper office it is to publish — like heralds in human affairs; authentic, because with the commission to promulgate there is connected a public dignity and authority, in virtue of which the holder guarantees the truth of his utterances and makes them legally credible, as in the case of public witnesses such as registrars; and authoritative, because the holder of the commission is the representative of God, invested with authority to exact Faith from his subordinates and to keep efficient watch over its maintenance.

II. A threefold Divine co-operation is required for the attainment of the end of Revelation: the promulgation must carry Divine guarantee, Divine legitimation, and Divine sanction. The object of the Apostolate is to generate an absolute, supernatural, and Divine certainty of the Word of God; and the promulgating body claims a full and unconditional submission of the mind to the truths it teaches. But this certainty could not be produced, and this submission could not be demanded, except by an infallible body. The intrinsic and invisible quality of infallibility, however, is not enough of itself to convey the authenticity and authority of the Apostolate to the knowledge of mankind — some external mark is required. Christ proved the authority of His own mission by miracles, and only then instituted the Apostolate; His words and works were sufficient evidence for those who actually witnessed them. For us some further proof is necessary — either some special miracle accompanying the preaching of the Gospel, or the general moral miracle of the continuity and efficiency of the Apostolate itself (this subject is treated at greater length in the treatise on Faith). The sanction of the Apostolate, finally, consists in the rewards and punishments reserved hereafter for those who accept or reject its teaching, and is the complement of its authority: submission to Revelation is the fundamental condition of salvation, and consequently submission to the Apostolate, the means of transmitting Revelation, must be enforced by the same sanctions as submission to Revelation itself.

III. The act of promulgation must be a genuine teaching (magisterium), not a mere statement; this teaching must witness to its own identity with the original Revelation — that is, it must always show that what is taught is identical with what was revealed — and it must be a “teaching with authority,” commanding the submission of the mind, since otherwise the unity and universality of the Faith could not be attained.

IV. The subject-matter of the Apostolate is co-extensive with the subject-matter of Revelation. It embraces, besides the truths directly revealed, those also which are intimately connected and inseparably interwoven with them (cf. § 5). Divine Faith cannot, indeed, be commanded in the case of truths not directly revealed by God; nevertheless the Teaching Body, the living witness and plenipotentiary ambassador of the Word of God, must, when occasion requires, be empowered to impress the seal of authenticity on subordinate truths as well, for without this power the very object of the Apostolate would in many cases be thwarted. The Church exercises this power when authoritatively judging dogmatic facts (facta dogmatica), or applying minor censures to unsound propositions.

§ 9. Demonstration of the Catholic Theory

The Catholic theory — that Revelation is transmitted and communicated by means of envoys and teachers accredited by God — is evident a priori: the very nature of Revelation and its object shows that no other theory is practically possible. There are, however, further proofs, set out under the following headings.

I. Proof from Our Lord’s words.

1. The documentary proof of the institution of a teaching Apostolate is found in Holy Scripture exactly where we should expect to find it: at the end of the Gospels and the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles.

(a) St. Matthew (28:18–19) gives the narrative around which all the others group themselves. He shows, first, that the Apostles’ mission is based upon the sovereign power of Christ, and then characterizes this mission as the visible continuation of the mission of Christ Himself — the working of the Apostolate is described as an authorized teaching of the whole doctrine of Christ to all men of all times; lastly, baptism is stated to be the act by which all mankind are bound to become disciples of the Apostolate. “All power is given to me in heaven and on earth. Going therefore [in virtue of, and endowed with, this my sovereign power — cf. “as the Father hath sent me, I also send you,” John 20:21], teach ye [mathēteusate — make disciples of, teach as having power, cf. Mark 1:22] all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them [didaskontes] to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you [eneteilamēn]: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.” It is evident from the text that the promised presence of Christ is intended to secure the object of the Apostolate, and consequently that the Apostolate must be infallible (cf. Bossuet, Instructions sur les Promesses faites à l’Église, and Wiseman, The Principal Doctrines and Practices of the Church, lect. iv).

(b) St. Mark describes the “teaching” of St. Matthew’s account as a “preaching,” and mentions, alongside the intrinsic guarantee of infallibility, the extrinsic signs of authority and sanction. “Go ye into the whole world and preach [kēryxate] the gospel to every creature [as an authorized message from the Creator and Sovereign Lord to all mankind as His creatures]. He that believeth [your preaching] and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be condemned. And these signs shall follow them that believe: in my name they shall cast out devils… but they [the eleven], going forth, preached everywhere: the Lord working withal, and confirming the word with signs that followed” (16:15–20).

(c) St. Luke draws attention to the mission to “preach,” but afterwards lays special stress on its principal act — authentic witnessing — and points to the Holy Ghost, of whom the human witnesses are the mouthpiece, as the guarantee of the infallibility of the testimony. “Thus it is written, and it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead the third day; and that penance and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things, and I send the promise of my Father upon you” (24:46–49); “you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

(d) Whilst the Synoptic Gospels chiefly describe the universal propagation and first diffusion of the doctrine of Christ, St. John, the fourth Evangelist, points especially to the unity, conservation, and application of the doctrine. He narrates, as the last act of Our Lord, the appointment of a permanent visible Head of the Church: St. Peter is chosen to take the place of Christ, with power to feed mankind with the bread of doctrine (21:15–17), and to lead them in the light of truth. The apostolic organism thus receives a firm centre and a permanent consistency; the abiding, invisible assistance of Christ announced in St. Matthew to the members of the Apostolate is here visibly embodied in His supreme representative, to whom it was especially promised (Matt. 16:17–19; Luke 22:31–32). Moreover, the very figure of a shepherd feeding his lambs and sheep contains an allusion to the authority and sanction of the promulgation of the Word (cf. John 10:11ff.; Ps. 22; Ezech. 34:23).

Thus the last Evangelist returns to the point from which St. Matthew started: “all power is given to me in heaven and on earth.” The mission of the Apostolate is an emanation from and continuation of the mission of Christ, and consequently the functions of both are described in similar terms: Our Lord Himself is spoken of as a Doctor and Master, teaching as one having power (Mark 1:22); a Preacher of the Gospel sent by God to man (Luke 4:16–21); a Witness, giving testimony to what He saw with the Father (John 8:14–18); and, lastly, as the Shepherd of the sheep (John 10:11).

2. This picture of the institution of the Apostolate, given at the end of each Gospel narrative, is brought out more clearly still when viewed alongside Our Lord’s earlier teaching. The mission described in Matt. 28 is represented in John 17:17–18 as a continuation of the mission of Christ Himself: “sanctify them in truth. Thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.” The coercive authority spoken of by St. Matthew and St. Mark is mentioned by St. Luke (10:16; cf. John 13:20; Matt. 10:40) on the occasion of the first, preparatory mission of the seventy-two disciples: “he that heareth you, heareth me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth me; and he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me.” And the promise of the Holy Ghost, who, according to St. Luke’s narrative, was to support and strengthen the testimony of the Apostles, is made at great length in St. John’s account of Our Lord’s discourse at the Last Supper, where the duration, importance, and efficacy of the Holy Ghost’s assistance are declared at length: “I will ask the Father, and he shall give you another Paraclete, that he may abide with you for ever, the Spirit of truth… you shall know him; because he shall abide with you, and shall be in you” (14:16–17); “these things have I spoken to you, abiding with you. But the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you” (14:25–26); “when the Paraclete cometh, whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceedeth from the Father, he shall give testimony of me: and you shall give testimony, because you are with me from the beginning” (15:26–27); “when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will teach [hodēgēsei] you all truth” (16:13). These promises were plainly made to the Apostles as future propagators of the Faith, and the stress laid on the Holy Ghost’s function as Spirit of truth, as Teacher and Witness, as Keeper of and Guide to the truth, shows that the transmission of Revelation was to be endowed with every quality required for its object, and especially with infallibility. Lastly, the Pastor appointed by Christ (John 21:15–17) had already been designated as one strengthened in Faith in order to confirm his brethren, and as the rock which was to be the indestructible foundation of the Church (Luke 22:31–32; Matt. 16:18).

Taken together, these passages may be summarized as follows. After accomplishing His own mission, Jesus Christ, in virtue of His absolute power and authority, sent into the world a body of teachers and preachers, presided over by one Head. They were His representatives, commissioned to publish to the world all revealed truth until the end of time; their mission was not exclusively personal but was to extend to their successors, and mankind were bound to receive them as they would receive Christ Himself. That their word might be His word, and might be recognized as such, He promised them His presence and the aid of the Holy Ghost to guarantee the infallibility of their doctrine; He promised external and supernatural signs as vouchers for its authenticity; and finally He gave their doctrine an effective sanction, holding out an eternal reward to those who should faithfully adhere to it, and threatening eternal punishment to those who should reject it.

This summary answers most difficulties drawn from detached texts of Holy Scripture, and fills the gaps in isolated passages: the picture drawn here corresponds exactly, even in minute details, with the Catholic Church’s own theory of the Apostolate. Certain points — the infallibility of the Apostolate, for instance, in matters only indirectly connected with Revelation — are at least implicitly and virtually contained in the texts quoted; there is even reason to hold that the words “he shall lead you into all truth” (John 16:13) imply the promise of the Holy Ghost’s infallible guidance in all truths necessary to the Church. It should also be noted that, although these passages as a whole apply to the future of the Christian dispensation, some apply chiefly to its commencement — the signs and wonders, and the ocular evidence granted the Apostles themselves. These transitory elements, however, can easily be distinguished, and are no argument against the perpetuity of the essential elements required for the permanent object of Revelation — the salvation of all mankind.

II. Proof from the writings of the Apostles. The writings of the Apostles represent the Apostolate as an accomplished fact, destined to endure in all its essential elements until the end of time.

1. This is set forth especially in Rom. 10:8–19 and Eph. 4:7–14. In the former, St. Paul insists on the necessity and importance of apostolic preaching as the ordinary means of transmitting the doctrine of Christ: “the word is nigh thee [all men, Jews and Gentiles], even in thy mouth, and in thy heart. This is the word of faith which we preach. For if thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thy heart that God hath raised him up from the dead, thou shalt be saved… for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him, in whom they have not believed? Or how shall they believe him, of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear, without a preacher? And how shall they preach, unless they be sent?… faith then cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ [as preached by those who have been sent]… but I say, have they not heard? Yes, verily, their sound hath gone forth into all the earth.” Writing to the Ephesians, Paul describes how the organic body of living teachers is, by its manifold functions, the very means designed by God to produce the unity, firmness, and security of the universal Faith — his description reflects the Apostolate’s organization in his own day, when the Apostles themselves still lived and the extraordinary charismatic graces were still in full operation, but what he says of the importance of that earlier form applies equally to what was to come after it: “and he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and other some evangelists [graces peculiar to the first epoch], and other some pastors and doctors [alluding to the ordinary teachers, bishops appointed by the Apostles], for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: until we all meet into the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man… that henceforth we be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the wickedness of men, by cunning craftiness, by which they lie in wait to deceive” (Eph. 4:11–15). The Apostles were the foundation of the whole organization; after their death, their place was taken by the successor of St. Peter, to whom the other pastors stand in the same relation as the first bishops stood to the Apostles.

2. In practice, the Apostles announced the Gospel and carried on the work of their ministry, representing themselves as ambassadors of Christ (Rom. 1:5; 15:18; 1 Cor. 2:16; 3:9) and, above all, as witnesses sent to the people by God, proving the divinity of their mission by signs and wonders, exactly as Christ had promised (1 Cor. 2:4; 2 Cor. 12:12; 1 Thess. 1:5). They demanded, for the word of God to which they bore authentic and authoritative witness, “the obedience of faith” (hypakoē pisteōs, Rom. 1:5), and claimed the power and right to enforce respect for it: “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty to God unto the pulling down of fortifications, destroying counsels, and every height that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every understanding unto the obedience of Christ, and having in readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience shall be fulfilled” (2 Cor. 10:4–6). They apply the sanction Christ Himself established — “he that believeth not shall be condemned” — pronouncing the sentence themselves: “though we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema” (Gal. 1:8).

This mode of promulgation, in its essentials, was meant to be permanent, and was not to cease with the Apostles, as may be gathered both from St. Paul’s own principles (Rom. 10) and from the fact that the Apostles appointed successors to watch over and keep the doctrine entrusted to them: “hold the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me… keep the good thing committed to thy trust by the Holy Ghost who dwelleth in us” (2 Tim. 1:13–14); and they added the further command to appoint still further successors with the same charge: “the things which thou hast heard of me by many witnesses, the same commend to faithful men, who shall be fit to teach others also” (2 Tim. 2:2). The practical application of this system is described by St. Clement of Rome, disciple of the Apostles: “Christ was sent by God, and the Apostles by Christ. Therefore they went forth with the full persuading power of the Holy Ghost, announcing the coming of the kingdom of God. Through provinces and in towns they preached the word, and appointed the first-fruits thereof, duly tried by the Spirit, to be the bishops and deacons of them that should believe… they appointed the above-named, and then gave them command that when they came to die, other approved men should succeed to their ministry” (1 Clem., 42, 44).

This proof from Scripture does not presuppose the inspiration of the books of the New Testament; it is enough for the present purpose to assume that they are authentic narratives, avoiding the vicious circle of proving the Apostolate from the inspired books, and the inspiration of the books from the Apostolate — nor does the argument make use of the Church’s own authority in interpreting the texts, since their meaning here is sufficiently manifest without such help.

III. Historical proofs. We have historical proofs of unimpeachable character that already, in the first centuries, the Catholic rule was held by the Fathers. St. Irenaeus, Origen, and Tertullian all taught that, in consequence of the mission given to the Apostles, their successors preached the word with authenticity and authority; that the preaching of these successors infallibly reproduced the preaching of the Apostles; and that, consequently, Ecclesiastical Tradition was to be followed, notwithstanding any private appeal to Holy Scripture or to other historical documents.

1. St. Irenaeus insists on these points against the Gnostics, who appealed to Scripture or to private historical documents. (a) He insists on the existence and importance of the Apostles’ mission, and on the succession within the Apostolate: “in every church there is, for all those who would fain see the truth, at hand to look unto, the tradition of the Apostles made manifest throughout the whole world; and we have it in our power to enumerate those who were by the Apostles instituted Bishops in the churches, and the successors of those Bishops down to ourselves.” He then demonstrates the continuity of succession specifically in the Church of Rome: “the greatest and most ancient and universally known church of Rome — founded and constituted by the two most glorious Apostles Peter and Paul — [preserves] that tradition… which through the succession of her Bishops has come down to us… for to this church, on account of its more potent principality [potentior principalitas], it is necessary that every church, that is, those who are on every side faithful, resort, in which church ever, by those who are on every side, has been preserved that tradition which is from the Apostles” (Adversus Haereses, III, 3–4). (b) Irenaeus then shows that this preaching, continued by the Apostles’ successors, carries a supernatural guarantee of infallibility through the indwelling of the Holy Ghost: “the public teaching of the Church is everywhere uniform and equally enduring… for this office of God has been entrusted to the Church, as though for the breathing of life into his handiwork… for where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church, and every grace: but the Spirit is truth” (Adversus Haereses, III, 24). (c) Lastly, Irenaeus links together the Apostolic Succession and this supernatural guarantee: “we ought to obey those presbyters who are in the Church, those who have a succession from the Apostles… who, with the succession of the episcopate, have received according to the good will of the Father the sure gift of truth; but the rest, who depart from the principal succession… we ought to hold suspected” (Adversus Haereses, IV, 26).

2. Origen, in the preface to his De Principiis, states the same principle in memorable terms: “there being many who fancy that they think the things of Christ, and some of them think differently from those who have gone before, let there be preserved the ecclesiastical teaching which, transmitted by the order of succession from the Apostles, remains even to the present day in the churches: that alone is to be believed to be truth which in nothing differs from the ecclesiastical and apostolical tradition.” And commenting on Matt. 24:23, he adds: “we are not to credit [heretics who quote Scripture]; nor to go out from the first and the ecclesiastical tradition; nor to believe otherwise than according as the churches of God have by succession transmitted to us.”

3. Tertullian treats the same subject in his celebrated De Praescriptionibus: heretics, he says, “put forward the Scriptures, and by this their boldness they forthwith move some persons; but in the actual encounter they weary the strong, catch the weak, send away the wavering anxious. We therefore interpose this first and foremost position: that they are not to be admitted to any discussion whatever touching the Scriptures… the order of things required that this question should be first proposed, which is now the only one to be discussed: to whom belongs the faith itself; whose are the Scriptures; by whom, and through whom, and when, and to whom, was that rule delivered whereby men became Christians? — for wherever both the true Christian rule and faith shall be shown to be, there will be the true Scriptures and the true expositions, and all the true Christian traditions” (De Praescriptionibus, 15, 19).

IV. The Divine legitimation of the Apostolate. A strong argument in favour of the divine origin of the Apostolate, stronger even than the proof from Holy Scripture and the early Fathers, may be drawn from its actual existence and working within the Catholic Church. If the power over the human mind, and the infallible possession of divine truth, claimed by the Catholic hierarchy did not really come from God, the claim would be a horrible blasphemy, and the hierarchy would be the work of the devil. But were this the case, it would be impossible for the Church to do all the good she in fact does, to contribute so wonderfully to the sanctification of mankind, and to be so constantly and energetically attacked by the enemies of Christ. God would be bound to oppose and extirpate this monstrous deception, pretending as it would be to be His own work and to be guided by His Spirit; He could not allow it to prevail so long, so universally, with such renown and success among the very best of mankind. But, far from doing this, God marvellously supports the Apostolate, and confirms its authority from time to time by supernatural manifestations. These demonstrate, of course, the divine origin of the Church as a whole, but they demonstrate no less the divine origin of the Apostolate, which is the very means by which the Church communicates the Faith she professes.