When discussing
the infallibility of councils, Eck, under “Objections of the Heretics,” noted
the following objection:
It is understood that the Council of Carthage
under the holy man Cyprian with 80 bishops erred concerning the rebaptizing of
heretics. (John Eck, Enchiridion of
Commonplaces: Against Luther and Other Enemies of the Church [trans. Ford
Lewis Battles; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1979], 22)
In response,
Eck noted:
That Council of Carthage was not plenary but
particular, as Augustine shows against the Donatists: particular councils can
err, and be corrected by general councils (Aug, Against the Donatists, 2
[.3.4]. And that the very council which take place throughout individual regions
and provinces, without any doubt yield to the authority of plenary councils,
convened from the whole Christian world, is clear by the evidence of things.
(Ibid., 23)
As an aside, the portion of Augustine’s writings against the Donatists
reads thusly:
Now let the proud and
swelling necks of the heretics raise themselves, if they dare, against the holy
humility of this address. Ye mad Donatists, whom we desire earnestly to return
to the peace and unity of the holy Church, that ye may receive health therein,
what have ye to say in answer to this? You are wont, indeed, to bring up
against us the letters of Cyprian, his opinion, his Council; why do ye claim
the authority of Cyprian for your schism, and reject his example when it makes
for the peace of the Church? But who can fail to be aware that the sacred canon
of Scripture, both of the Old and New Testament, is confined within its own
limits, and that it stands so absolutely in a superior position to all later
letters of the bishops, that about it we can hold no manner of doubt or
disputation whether what is confessedly contained in it is right and true; but
that all the letters of bishops which have been written, or are being written,
since the closing of the canon, are liable to be refuted if there be anything
contained in them which strays from the truth, either by the discourse of some
one who happens to be wiser in the matter than themselves, or by the weightier
authority and more learned experience of other bishops, or by the authority of
Councils; and further, that the Councils themselves, which are held in the
several districts and provinces, must yield, beyond all possibility of doubt,
to the authority of plenary Councils which are formed for the whole Christian
world; and that even of the plenary Councils, the earlier are often corrected
by those which follow them, when, by some actual experiment, things are brought
to light which were before concealed, and that is known which previously lay
hid, and this without any whirlwind of sacrilegious pride, without any puffing
of the neck through arrogance, without any strife of envious hatred, simply
with holy humility, catholic peace, and Christian charity?
