Posted on 11/23/2003 3:39:24 AM PST by OrthodoxPresbyterian
Something cannot be a theological error which is not already established either by the Church or straightforward from Scripture. The freedom of the schools to teach various systems of grace stems from the inability of any one of them to totally account for all things to the satisfaction of all.
The Church, however, has always clearly rejected "monoergism" if that it being understood as excluding the cooperation of the free will with grace in the work of salvation. Grace restores the free will so that it can choose by grace to love God. Likewise she rejects "synergism" if that is understood as salvation proceeding from the free will instead of from grace.
Sometimes I wonder if you realize the various Catholic schools on grace are all post-Tridentine phenomena. Thomism is a particular interpretation of St. Thomas after Trent, not the thought of St. Thomas himself which others later contradicted. Same for Augustinism. All the schools call upon Sts. Augustine and Thomas to support their positions.
The notion that the Holy Roman Empire was capable of stopping the English from evangelizing the Indians in North America in the 1600's is ridiculous.
Not really considering that they just slaughtered the Indians in their "holy" conquests and search for gold.
In January, seventy men with weapons glinting in the winter sunlight, departed for Acoma like a medieval army bent on a crusade. Of the monumental battle that took place- Spaniards scaling the walls in brutal assault; Indians pelting them with a hail of arrows and stones; the sheer blind courage of attacker and defender locked arm and arm in combat; the firing of the pueblo and appalling slaughter of its inhabitants- of all this on the battle-seared promontory, scarcely an American today knows a single detail. The Spaniards had their victory, but it was a heartbreaking day for humanity.
European Protestants + Injuns = Dead Injuns
In 1537 Pope Paul III stated:
Therefore, attending to the fact that the Indians themselves, although they are outside the bosom of the Church, have not been and should not be deprived of their liberty or of ownership of what is their own, and that, since they are men and therefore capable of faith and salvation, they are not to be given into servitude, but rather by preaching, good examples and the like should be invited to eternal life. We...command that anyone of whatever dignity, state, condition, or grade who works against what is done through you or others to help the Indians in the aforementioned matters incurs the penalty of excommunication.
The school of Salamanca in Spain, most notably in the person of the Dominican theologian Francisco de Vitoria began to elaborate what has developed into modern international law and human rights—and the modern prohibition of slavery.
Catholic Spain halted the conquest, debated whether or nor their actions were defensible, and issued laws protecting the rights of the injuns. The Pope denounced indefensible actions against the injuns and excommunicated those who mistreated them. A Catholic Spainard developed international law and human rights and helped to end slavery. Mexico had the first universities on this Continent, including colleges for women and there was an injun middle class in Mexico.
The ball is in your court. Please feel at liberty to post any 16th or 17th Century decisions from your communion that recognised such rights and defended injuns.
CANON I.-If any one saith, that man may be justified before God by his own works, whether done through the teaching of human nature, or that of the law, without the grace of God through Jesus Christ; let him be anathema.
CANON II.-If any one saith, that the grace of God, through Jesus Christ, is given only for this, that man may be able more easily to live justly, and to merit eternal life, as if, by free will without grace, he were able to do both, though hardly indeed and with difficulty; let him be anathema.
CANON III.-If any one saith, that without the prevenient inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and without his help, man can believe, hope, love, or be penitent as he ought, so as that the grace of Justification may be bestowed upon him; let him be anathema.
CANON IV.-If any one saith, that man's free will moved and excited by God, by assenting to God exciting and calling, nowise co-operates towards disposing and preparing itself for obtaining the grace of Justification; that it cannot refuse its consent, if it would, but that, as something inanimate, it does nothing whatever and is merely passive; let him be anathema.
CANON V.-If any one saith, that, since Adam's sin, the free will of man is lost and extinguished; or, that it is a thing with only a name, yea a name without a reality, a figment, in fine, introduced into the Church by Satan; let him be anathema.
CANON VI.-If any one saith, that it is not in man's power to make his ways evil, but that the works that are evil God worketh as well as those that are good, not permissively only, but properly, and of Himself, in such wise that the treason of Judas is no less His own proper work than the vocation of Paul; let him be anathema.
CANON VII.-If any one saith, that all works done before Justification, in whatsoever way they be done, are truly sins, or merit the hatred of God; or that the more earnestly one strives to dispose himself for grace, the more grievously he sins: let him be anathema.
CANON VIII.-If any one saith, that the fear of hell,-whereby, by grieving for our sins, we flee unto the mercy of God, or refrain from sinning,-is a sin, or makes sinners worse; let him be anathema.
CANON IX.-If any one saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to co-operate in order to the obtaining the grace of Justification, and that it is not in any way necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will; let him be anathema.
CANON X.-If any one saith, that men are just without the justice of Christ, whereby He merited for us to be justified; or that it is by that justice itself that they are formally just; let him be anathema.
CANON XI.-If any one saith, that men are justified, either by the sole imputation of the justice of Christ, or by the sole remission of sins, to the exclusion of the grace and the charity which is poured forth in their hearts by the Holy Ghost, and is inherent in them; or even that the grace, whereby we are justified, is only the favour of God; let him be anathema.
CANON XII.-If any one saith, that justifying faith is nothing else but confidence in the divine mercy which remits sins for Christ's sake; or, that this confidence alone is that whereby we are justified; let him be anathema.
CANON XIII.-If any one saith, that it is necessary for every one, for the obtaining the remission of sins, that he believe for certain, and without any wavering arising from his own infirmity and disposition, that his sins are forgiven him; let him be anathema.
CANON XIV.-If any one saith, that man is truly absolved from his sins and justified, because that he assuredly believed himself absolved and justified; or, that no one is truly justified but he who believes himself justified; and that, by this faith alone, absolution and justification are effected; let him be anathema.
CANON XV.-If any one saith, that a man, who is born again and justified, is bound of faith to believe that he is assuredly in the number of the predestinate; let him be anathema.
CANON XVI.-If any one saith, that he will for certain, of an absolute and infallible certainty, have that great gift of perseverance unto the end,-unless he have learned this by special revelation; let him be anathema.
CANON XVII.-If any one saith, that the grace of Justification is only attained to by those who are predestined unto life; but that all others who are called, are called indeed, but receive not grace, as being, by the divine power, predestined unto evil; let him be anathema.
CANON XVIII.-If any one saith, that the commandments of God are, even for one that is justified and constituted in grace, impossible to keep; let him be anathema.
CANON XIX.-If any one saith, that nothing besides faith is commanded in the Gospel; that other things are indifferent, neither commanded nor prohibited, but free; or, that the ten commandments nowise appertain to Christians; let him be anathema.
CANON XX.-If any one saith, that the man who is justified and how perfect soever, is not bound to observe the commandments of God and of the Church, but only to believe; as if indeed the Gospel were a bare and absolute promise of eternal life, without the condition of observing the commandments ; let him be anathema.
CANON XXI.-If any one saith, that Christ Jesus was given of God to men, as a redeemer in whom to trust, and not also as a legislator whom to obey; let him be anathema.
CANON XXII.-If any one saith, that the justified, either is able to persevere, without the special help of God, in the justice received; or that, with that help, he is not able; let him be anathema.
CANON XXIII.-lf any one saith, that a man once justified can sin no more, nor lose grace, and that therefore he that falls and sins was never truly justified; or, on the other hand, that he is able, during his whole life, to avoid all sins, even those that are venial,-except by a special privilege from God, as the Church holds in regard of the Blessed Virgin; let him be anathema.
CANON XXIV.-If any one saith, that the justice received is not preserved and also increased before God through good works; but that the said works are merely the fruits and signs of Justification obtained, but not a cause of the increase thereof; let him be anathema.
CANON XXV.-If any one saith, that, in every good work, the just sins venially at least, or-which is more intolerable still-mortally, and consequently deserves eternal punishments; and that for this cause only he is not damned, that God does not impute those works unto damnation; let him be anathema.
CANON XXVI.-If any one saith, that the just ought not, for their good works done in God, to expect and hope for an eternal recompense from God, through His mercy and the merit of Jesus Christ, if so be that they persevere to the end in well doing and in keeping the divine commandments; let him be anathema.
CANON XXVII.-If any one saith, that there is no mortal sin but that of infidelity; or, that grace once received is not lost by any other sin, however grievous and enormous, save by that of infidelity ; let him be anathema.
CANON XXVIII.-If any one saith, that, grace being lost through sin, faith also is always lost with it; or, that the faith which remains, though it be not a lively faith, is not a true faith; or, that he, who has faith without charity, is not a Chris taught; let him be anathema.
CANON XXIX.-If any one saith, that he, who has fallen after baptism, is not able by the grace of God to rise again; or, that he is able indeed to recover the justice which he has lost, but by faith alone without the sacrament of Penance, contrary to what the holy Roman and universal Church-instructed by Christ and his Apostles-has hitherto professed, observed, and taugh; let him be anathema.
CANON XXX.-If any one saith, that, after the grace of Justification has been received, to every penitent sinner the guilt is remitted, and the debt of eternal punishment is blotted out in such wise, that there remains not any debt of temporal punishment to be discharged either in this world, or in the next in Purgatory, before the entrance to the kingdom of heaven can be opened (to him); let him be anathema.
CANON XXXI.-If any one saith, that the justified sins when he performs good works with a view to an eternal recompense; let him be anathema.
CANON XXXII.-If any one saith, that the good works of one that is justified are in such manner the gifts of God, as that they are not also the good merits of him that is justified; or, that the said justified, by the good works which he performs through the grace of God and the merit of Jesus Christ, whose living member he is, does not truly merit increase of grace, eternal life, and the attainment of that eternal life,-if so be, however, that he depart in grace,-and also an increase of glory; let him be anathema.
CANON XXXIII.-If any one saith,that,by the Catholic doctrine touching Justification, by this holy Synod inset forth in this present decree, the glory of God, or the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ are in any way derogated from, and not rather that the truth of our faith, and the glory in fine of God and of Jesus Christ are rendered (more) illustrious; let him be anathema.
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O.P. I really don't think you understand what the Catholic Church Teaches. First,Grace, obviously. However, we must cooperate with Grace, or else.
St. Clement of Alexandria:
A man by himself, working and toiling at freedom from passion, achieves nothing. But if he plainly shows his great desire and complete sincerity in this, he will attain it by the addition of the power of God. Indeed, God conspires with willing souls. But if they abandon their eagerness, the spirit which is bestowed by God is also restrained. To save the unwilling is to exercise complusion; but to save the willing belongs to Him who bestows the grace.
But, for it to be "heresy" one of the schools would have to teach we didn't need Grace or that our actions invited the initiation of Grace ect.
The ball is in your court. Please feel at liberty to post any 16th or 17th Century decisions from your communion that recognised such rights and defended injuns
Gladly! How about some Johannes Althusius?
A magistrate in whose realm the true worship of God does not thrive should take care that he not claim imperium over that area of the faith and religion of men that exist only in the soul and conscience. God alone has imperium in this area. To him alone the secrets and intimate recesses of the heart are known. And he administers his kingdom, which is not of this world, through his ministers of the Word. For this reason, faith is said to be a gift of God, not of Caesar. It is not subject to the will, nor can it be coerced. If in religion the soul has once been destroyed, nothing henceforth remains, as Lactantius says. We are not able to command religion because no one is required to believe against his will. Faith must be persuaded, not commanded, and taught, not ordered. Christ said to his disciples who were willing to destroy the Samaritans, 'Are you ignorant of whose spirit you are sons?'[42] The emperor Constantine said that to inflict bodily punishments upon men whose minds have been captured is senseless and stupid to the extreme.[43]
Those who err in religion are therefore to be ruled not by external force or by corporal arms, but by the sword of the spirit, that is, by the Word and spiritual arms through which God is able to lead them to himself. They are to be entrusted to ministers of the Word of God for care and instruction.[44] If they cannot be persuaded by the Word of God, how much less can they be coerced by the threats or punishments of the magistrate to think or believe what he or some other person believes. Therefore, the magistrate should leave this matter to God, attribute to him the things that are his — who alone impels, leads, and changes hearts — and reserve to himself what God has given him, namely, imperium over bodies. He is forbidden in his administration to impose a penalty over the thoughts of men. Whoever therefore wishes to have a peaceful realm should abstain from persecutions. He should not, however, permit the practice of a wicked religion lest what occurred to Solomon may happen to him.[45] But if he cannot prohibit it without hazard to the commonwealth, he is to suffer it to exist in order that he not bring ruin to the commonwealth.[46] So the emperor Constans, son of Constantine the Great, permitted the religion and collegia of the Arians not for their benefit, but for the commonwealth's. And Theodosius tolerated this sect against his will.
Hey, he even goes soft on your communion. ;)
The theologians determine how far it is permitted to have private contacts with infidels, atheists, impious men, or persons of different religions by distinguishing between the learned, the faithful, the uneducated, and the weak, and the purposes for which the contacts are to be held.[40]
The same can be said about papists born in the territory of the magistrate or having homes there. The magistrate can in good conscience permit them to live within the boundaries of the realm if the pious do not partake of their superstitions, live familiarly with them, or contract marriages with them. Furthermore, the magistrate ought not to permit them temples for the practice of their idolatrous worship.
Well golly, I'm not priveliged to have access to an unlimited set of quotations over a 200 year period. Additionally, you need to aim your sight on specifically Calvinist atrocities since I don't consider myself in communion with Arminian Protestants anymore than I consider myself in communion with Roman Catholics. (in a political/historical sense) I did find an interesting letter sent by King Ferninand to the Taino/Arawak Indians around 1500. Why did it take the Catholic Church over 150 years to decide this type of conversion process was wrong?
The late Pope gave these islands and mainland of the ocean and the contents hereof to the above-mentioned King and Queen, as is certified in writing and you may see the documents if you should so desire. Therefore, Their Highnesses are lords and masters of this land; they were acknowledged as such when this notice was posted, and were and are being served willingly and without resistance; then, their religious envoys were acknowledged and obeyed without delay, and all subjects unconditionally and of their own free will became Christians and thus they remain. Their Highnesses received their allegiance with joy and benignity and decreed that they be treated in this spirit like good and loyal vassals and you are under the obligation to do the same.
Therefore, we request that you understand this text, deliberate on its contents within a reasonable time, and recognize the Church and its highest priest, the Pope, as rulers of the universe, and in their name the King and Queen of Spain as rulers of this land, allowing the religious fathers to preach our holy Faith to you. You own compliance as a duty to the King and we in his name will receive you with love and charity, respecting your freedom and that of your wives and sons and your rights of possession and we shall not compel you to baptism unless you, informed of the Truth, wish to convert to our holy Catholic Faith as almost all your neighbors have done in other islands, in exchange for which Their Highnesses bestow many privileges and exemptions upon you. Should you fail to comply, or delay maliciously in so doing, we assure you that with the help of God we shall use force against you, declaring war upon you from all sides and with all possible means, and we shall bind you to the yoke of the Church and of Their Highnesses; we shall enslave your persons, wives and sons, sell you or dispose of you as the King sees fit; we shall seize your possessions and harm you as much as we can as disobedient and resisting vassals. And we declare you guilty of resulting deaths and injuries, exempting Their Highnesses of such guilt as well as ourselves and the gentlemen who accompany us. We hereby request that legal signatures be af fixed to this text and pray those present to bear witness for us, etc.
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I just wanted to let you know that I found this thread back in the archives and am very appreciative for the information within and your follow up posts.
You might enjoy this thread which was posted some 3 years ago on FR about just what we have been discussing of late.
Very interesting read....thanks for the ping, Uncle. Just more evidence that Peter never set foot in Rome!
It just drives them crazy....doesn't it.....?
Here is a thread that ran about 3 years ago on the subject --- it will give you a flavor of the acerbic reaction that it received from the Romanistas. It would be interesting to run it again.
oh ok thank you for this. It looks fairly old. I recognize some of the names of posters of old.
Just read the whole thing. Very entertaining. No need to post anything else. I got the gyst of how it would go.
“In response to mounting demand, however, Pius finally permitted rigorous scientific examination of the bones in 1956. It emerged that the remains were actually bones of three different people, along with scores of animals. Of the humans, two were men in their 50s, and one was a woman in her 70s. Clearly, these were not the fisherman’s bones.”
http://www.catholicdigest.org/stories/200105052a.html
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