Saturday, June 30, 2018

Robert Bellarmine Affirming the Veneration of Images, not the Heavenly Prototype Merely


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