THIRD REASON
THE NATURE OF THE CHURCH
At hearing the name of the Church the enemy has turned pale. Still he has devised some explanation which I wish you to notice, that you may observe the ruinous and poverty-stricken estate of falsehood. He was well aware that in the Scriptures, as well of Prophets as of Apostles, everywhere there is made honourable mention of the Church: that it is called the holy city, the fruitful vine, the high mountain, the straight way, the only dove, the kingdom of heaven, the spouse and body of Christ, the ground of truth, the multitude to whom the Spirit has been promised and into whom He breathes all truths that make for salvation; her on whom, taken as a whole, the devil’s jaws are never to inflict a deadly bite; her against whom whoever rebels, however much he preach Christ with his mouth, has no more hold on Christ than the publican or the heathen. Such a loud pronouncement he dared not gainsay; he would not seem rebellious against a Church of which the Scriptures make such frequent mention: so he cunningly kept the name, while by his definition he utterly abolished the thing, He has depicted the Church with such properties as altogether hide her away, and leave her open to the secret gaze of a very few men, as though she were removed from the senses, like a Platonic Idea. They only could discern her, who by a singular inspiration had got the faculty of grasping with their intelligence this aerial body, and with keen eye regarding the members of such a company.
What has become of candour and straightforwardness? What Scripture texts or Scripture meanings or authorities of Fathers thus portray the Church? There are letters of Christ to the Asiatic Churches (Apoc. i. 3), letters of Peter, Paul, John, and others to various Churches; frequent mention in the Acts of the Apostles of the origin and spread of Churches. What of these Churches? Were they visible to God alone and holy men, or to Christians of every rank and degree? But, doubtless, necessity is a hard weapon. Pardon these subterfuges. Throughout the whole course of fifteen centuries these men find neither town, village nor household professing their doctrine, until an unhappy monk by an incestuous marriage had deflowered a virgin vowed to God, or a Swiss gladiator had conspired against his country, or a branded runaway had occupied Geneva. These people, if they want to have a Church at all, are compelled to crack up a Church all hidden away; and to claim parents whom they themselves have never known, and no mortal has ever set eyes on, Perhaps they glory in the ancestry of men whom every one knows to have been heretics, such as Aerius, Jovinianus, Vigilantius, Helvidius, Berengarius, the Waldenses, the Lollards, Wycliffe, Huss, of whom they have begged sundry poisonous fragments of dogmas. Wonder not that I have no fear of their empty talk: once I can meet them in the noon-day, I shall have no trouble in dispelling such vapourings. Our conversation with them would take this line. Tell me, do you subscribe to the Church which flourished in bygone ages? Certainly. Let us traverse, then, different countries and periods. What Church? The assembly of the faithful. What faithful? Their names are unknown, but it is certain that there have been many of them. Certain? to whom is it certain? To God Who says so! We, who have been taught of God—stuff and nonsense, how am I to believe it? If you had the fire of faith in you, you would know it as well as you know you are alive. Let in as spectators, could you withhold your laughter? To think that all Christians should be bidden to join the Church; to beware of being cut down by the spiritual sword; to keep peace in the house of God; to trust their soul to the Church as to the pillar of truth; to lay all their complaints before the Church; to hold for heathen all who are cast out of the Church; and that nevertheless so many men for so many centuries should not know where the Church is or who belong to it! This much only they prate in the darkness, that wherever the Church is, only Saints and persons destined for heaven are contained in it. Hence it follows that whoever wishes to withdraw himself from the authority of his ecclesiastical superior has only to persuade himself that the priest has fallen into sin and is quite cut off from the Church. Knowing as I did that the adversaries were inventing these fictions, contrary to the customary sense of the Churches in all ages, and that, having lost the whole substance, they still wished in their difficulties to retain the name, I took comfort in the thought of your sagacity, and so promised myself that, as soon as ever you had cognisance of such artifices by their own confession, you would at once like men of mark and intelligence rend asunder the web of foolish sophistry woven for your undoing.
TERTIA RATIO
NATVRA ECCLESIAE
Audito iam Ecclesiae nomine, hostis expalluit. Sed tamen excogitavit quiddam, quod a vobis animadverti volo, ut falsi ruinam et inopiam cognoscatis. Senserat in Scripturis tum propheticis, tum apostolicis, ubique honorificam Ecclesiae fieri mentionem: vocari civitatem sanctam (Apoc. xxi. 10), fructiferam vineam (Ps. lxxix.9), montem excelsum (Isai. ii. 2), directam viam (Ibid. xxxv. 8), columbam unicam (Cant. vi. 8), regnum coeli (Matth. xiii. 24), sponsam (Cant. iv. 8), et corpus Christi (Eph. v. 23 et 1 Cor. xii. 12), firmamentum veri (1 Tim. iii. 15), multitudinem illam, cui Spiritus promissas instillet omnia salutaria (Ioan. xiv. 26): illam, in quam universam nullae sint umquam fauces diaboli morsum letiferum impacturae (Matth. xvi. 18); illam, cui quicumque repugnet, quantumvis ore Christum praedicet, non magis Christi, quam publicanus aut ethnicus (Matth. xviii. 17), potiatur.
Non est ausus contravenire sonitu, videri noluit Ecclesiae, quam toties Scripturae commemorant, refragari; nomen callide retinuit, rem ipsam funditus, definiendo, sustulit. His enim proprietatibus delineavit Ecclesiam, quae penitus ipsam occulant, et dimotam a sensibus tamquam ideam platonicam, secretis obtutibus hominum perpaucorum subiiciant[23]; eorum tantummodo, qui singulariter afflati, corpus hoc aerium intelligentia comprehenderent, et huiusce sodalitatis participes subtili quodam oculo lustrarent. Vbi candor? Vbi simplicitas. Quae Scripturae, quae sensa, qui Patres, hoc penicillo depingunt Ecclesiam? Sunt Christi ad Asiaticas ecclesias (Apoc. i. 2, 3), sunt Petri, Pauli, Ioannis, aliorum ad diversos epistolae; frequentes in Actis Apostolicis inchoantur et propagantur ecclesiae (Act. viii. 10, 11 et seq.). Quid istae? Num soli Deo et sanctis hominibus, an christianis etiam cuiuscumque generis, manifestae?
Sed profecto durum telum necessitas est. Ignoscite. Nam qui saeculis omnino quindecim, non oppidam, non villam, non domum reperiunt imbutam doctrina sua, donec infelix monachus (Lutherus) incesto connubio votam Deo virginem funestasset; aut Helvetius gladiator (Zuinglius) in patriam coniurasset; aut stigmaticus perfuga (Calvinus) Genevam occupasset; ii coguntur Ecclesiam, si quam volent, in latebris venditare, et eos parentes asserere, quos nec ipsi noverint, neque mortalium quisquam aspexerit. Nisi forte gaudent maioribus illis, quos haereticos fuisse liquet, ut Aerio, Ioviniano, Vigilantio, Helvidio, Iconomachis, Berengario, Valdensibus, Lolhardo, Wiclefo, Hussio; a quibus pestifera quaedam fragmenta dogmatum emendicarint.
Nolite mirari, si fumulos istos non pertimui, quos, modo ad meridianam lucem venero, minime fuerit laboriosum dispellere. Haec est enim nostra sermocianatio. Dic mihi: subscribis Ecclesiae, quae saeculis anteactis viguit?—Omnino.—Obeamus ergo terras et tempora. Cui?—Coetui fidelium.—Quorum?—Nomina nesciuntur, sed constat plurimos exstitisse.—Constat? Quibus constat?—Deo.—Quis dicit?—Nos, qui divinitus edocti sumus.—Fabulae qui credam?—Si arderes fide, tam scires hoc, quam te vivere.
/* Spectatum admissi, risum teneatis?
Iuberi christianos omnes adiungere se Ecclesiae, cavere ne spiritali gladio trucidentur, in domo Dei pacem colore, huic animas credere columini veritatis, istic querelas omnes deponere, hinc eiectos habere pro ethnicis; nescire tamen tot centinis, tot homines, ubinam illa sit, quive huc pertineant? Vnum illud crepare in tenebris, ubi ubi sit Ecclesia, tantummodo sanctos et in aethera destinatos ea contineri? Ex quo fit ut, si quis imperium sui Praesulis detrectare velit, scelere solvatur, dummodo sibi persuadeat presbyterum in crimen incidisse, et ab Ecclesia protinus excidisse.
Quum scirem adversarios talia comminisci, quod nullius aetatis Ecclesiae consuessent, et orbatos tota re, velle tamen inter angustias vocabulum possidere, solabar me vestro acumine, atque adeo mihi pollicebar, fore ut quamprimum huiusmodi technas ex ipsorum confessione cerneretis, statim homines ingenui et cordati stultas argutias in vestram intextas perniciem exscinderetis.