Apostolic Deposit of Faith
The notion of
doctrinal knowledge absolutely novel, and of simple addition from without, is
intolerable to Catholic era, and never was entertained by any one who was even
approaching to an understanding of our creed. Revelation is all in all in
doctrine; the Apostles its solve depository, the inferential method its sole
instrument, and ecclesiastical authority its sole sanction. The Divine Voice
has spoken once for all, and the only question is about its meaning . . .
Christian Truth is purely of revelation; that revelation we can but explain, we
cannot increase, except relatively to our own apprehensions; without it we
should have known nothing of its contents, with it we know just as much as its
contents, and nothing more. And, as it was given by a divine act independent of
man, so will it remain in spite of man. (I[dea of a]U[niversity],
Part 1, Discourse 9, ‘Duties of the Church Towards Knowledge, 1852)
What is known in
Christianity is just what which is revealed, and nothing more; certain truths,
communicated directly from above, are committed to the keeping of the faithful,
and to the very last nothing can really be added to those truths. From the time
of the Apostles to the end of the world no strictly new truth can be added to
the theological information which the Apostles were inspired to deliver. It is
possible of course to make numberless deductions from the original doctrines;
but, as the conclusion is ever in its premisses, such deductions are not,
strictly speaking, an addition. (IU, Part II, ch. 7: ‘Christianity and
Physical Science,’ November 1855)
[N]either People nor
Council are on a level with the Apostles. To the Apostles the whole revelation was
given, by the Church it is transmitted; no simply new truth has been given to
us since St. John’s death; the one office of the Church is to guard ‘that noble
deposit’ of truth, as St. Paul speaks to Timothy, which the Apostles bequeathed
to her, in its fulness and integrity. Hence the infallibility of the Apostles was
of a far more positive, and wide character than that needed by and granted to
the Church. (Letter to the Duke of Norfolk, ch. 9, 1875) (Dave Armstrong, The
Quotable Newman: A Definitive Guide to His Central Thoughts and Ideas [Manchester,
N.H.: Sophia Institute Press, 2012], 35)
