'Anathematise those who teach new doctrines' – St Robert Bellarmine
'Anathematise those who teach new doctrines' – St Robert Bellarmine
St Robert Bellarmine, Doctor of the Church, taught that laymen can discern true pastors from false by their contradiction of previous teaching – and that they should anathematise such false pastors.
Editors’ Notes
The following is an exclusive translation taken from St Robert Bellarmine’s Fifth Controversy (On the Clergy). The thesis of the wider section is as follows:
“The right to elect the Pope and other ministers of the Church does not belong to the people by divine law.”
This particular text is about what “the people” are to do in the face of heretical or erroneous preaching. It comes some way into the chapter, but stands apart from the other matters discussed.
Some key points:
Even the simple and unlearned are able to recognise a contradiction between a) what they are being taught at any given moment, and b) what they had previously been taught, and what the rest of the Church is being taught at that given moment.
In the event of such a contradiction, they are to adhere to what they had previously received.
While formalised “recognise and resist” systems are flawed and severely problematic, this text does justify a practical “adhere to tradition and leave questions for the future” approach, especially (but not solely) on the part of “the people.”
However, St Robert says that “the people” still “should anathematise those who teach new doctrines that are contrary to what has been preached before.”
He states that “the people” cannot “depose a false pastor if he is a bishop or substitute another in his place,” and that “the custom of the Church has always been that heretical bishops are deposed by councils of bishops or by the supreme pontiffs.” As discussed in the commentary and application below, sedevacantists do not depose anybody. As Wernz-Vidal say, we accept that “a declaratory sentence of the crime, which as merely declaratory, should not be rejected.”
Parts of this text may appear to support certain systems or theories about the current crisis at one point, and other systems at another point. For this reason, after presenting the text, we will then present comments and application for each section.
St Robert Bellarmine
Fifth Controversy: The Members of the Church – On the Clergy
Book I, Chapter VII
Available from Google Books.
Objection:
The second argument is as follows:
The Lord commands (John 10) that we do not listen to the voice of strangers. Again, he instructs (Matthew 7) to flee from false prophets, and the Apostle (Galatians 1) orders that those who teach anything beyond the Gospel should be accursed.
Therefore, the Christian people have a divine mandate by which they are bound to seek out and call upon good pastors, and to reject harmful ones.
The Answer
I respond that the people indeed ought to discern the true prophet from the false, but by no other rule than by carefully attending to whether the one who preaches says things contrary to those taught by his predecessors, or to those taught by other lawful pastors, and especially by the Apostolic See and the principal Church; for the people are commanded to listen to their own pastors: Luke 10: “He that heareth you, heareth me.” And Matthew 23: “What they say, do” (Luke 10:16, Matthew 23:3).
Therefore, the people should not judge their pastor unless they hear something new and contrary to the doctrine of other pastors.
Furthermore, this is what Paul advises in Galatians 1: that we should anathematise those who teach new doctrines that are contrary to what has been preached before.
Moreover, since the people are unlearned, they cannot otherwise judge the doctrine of their pastor.
For if they could judge by themselves, they would have no need of preachers: from which it follows that the doctrines of Luther, Calvin, and others like them who came of their own accord and preached new things that conflicted with the doctrine of all the pastors of the Church, ought to have been regarded with suspicion by the people of that time.
For when the ordinary pastor and another, who has not been called, teach contrary doctrines, the people must certainly follow their own pastor rather than the other, who is not a pastor, even if it should happen that the pastor errs. For since the people themselves cannot judge the matter, why should they not rather believe the one whom they are commanded to obey?
However, it is not credible that God would allow an ordinary pastor to err so gravely as to deceive the simple people; for it is easy to see whether he teaches things contrary to the other pastors.
Furthermore, it should be noted that the people can indeed, by the rule we have laid down, discern a true prophet from a false one, but for that reason cannot depose a false pastor if he is a bishop, nor substitute another in his place.
For the Lord and the Apostle only command that false prophets are not to be listened to by the people; they do not command that the people should depose them.
And indeed, the custom of the Church has always been that heretical bishops are deposed by councils of bishops or by the supreme pontiffs. From this, the second argument stands resolved.
This is the end of St Robert Bellarmine’s text. What follows is an extensive commentary and application to the current crisis in the Church. It is available as an advanced preview post for members who choose to support us with a monthly or annual subscription.
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