In Controversy
I, Book IV, Chapter IX, “Five Rules that the Explained by Which We Can Acquire
Knowledge of True Tradition,” Robert Bellarmine affirmed, contra some Catholic apologists, that the image, not the heavenly prototype thereof merely, is venerated:
The fourth rule is: When all the Doctors of
the Church with common agreement teach that something comes to us from the
Apostolic Tradition, whether they are assembled together in a general Council,
or writing separately in their books, that must be believed to be an apostolic
Tradition. There is a reason for this rule, because if all the Doctors of the
Church, when they agree on some point of doctrine, could err, the whole Church
would err, since she is held to follow her Doctors, and she does not follow them.
An example of the first part of the rule is the veneration of images, which the Doctors of the Church assembled
at the general Council of Nicaea II said is from the apostolic Tradition. An
example of the second part is hardly found, if absolutely all the Fathers who
wrote must say something expressly about it. However, it seems to suffice, if
some famous Fathers speak about it expressly, and the others do not contradict
them, when they are discussing the same matter. For then it can be said without
being rash that it is the view of all; for, when one of the Fathers erred in a
grave matter, many are always found who contradict him. (Robert Bellarmine, Controversies of the Christian Faith [trans.
Kenneth Baker; Keep the Faith, 2016], 247-48, emphasis added)
Needless to say, Bellarmine is wrong in claiming a moral unanimity (the
Catholic understanding of “unanimous consent” of the Fathers). Such has been
discussed elsewhere, including:
Latter-day Saints and Religious Images
