An Essay on the Development of Christian DoctrineNewman, John Henry
Religion
An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine
Newman, John Henry
Catholic Church -- Doctrines; Dogma, Development of
Jerome,
"named, not from the Lord Jesus Christ, but from some other, say
Marcionites, Valentinians, Mountaineers, Campestrians, know that it is
not Christ's Church, but the synagogue of Antichrist."[259:2]
9.
St. Pacian's letters to the Novatian Bishop Sympronian require a more
extended notice. The latter had required the Catholic faith to be proved
to him, without distinctly stating from what portion of it he dissented;
and he boasted that he had never found any one to convince him of its
truth. St. Pacian observes that there is one point which Sympronian
cannot dispute, and which settles the question, the very name Catholic.
He then supposes Sympronian to object that, "under the Apostles no one
was called Catholic." He answers, "Be it thus;[259:3] it shall have been
so; allow even that. When, after the Apostles, heresies had burst forth,
and were striving under various names to tear piecemeal and divide 'the
Dove' and 'the Queen' of God, did not the Apostolic people require a
name of their own, whereby to mark the unity of the people that was
uncorrupted, lest the error of some should rend limb by limb 'the
undefiled virgin' of God? Was it not seemly that the chief head should
be distinguished by its own peculiar appellation? Suppose this very day
I entered a populous city. When I had found Marcionites, Apollinarians,
Cataphrygians, Novatians, and others of the kind, who call themselves
Christians, by what name should I recognize the congregation of my own
people, unless it were named Catholic? . . . . Whence was it delivered
to me? Certainly that which has stood through so many ages was not
borrowed from man. This name 'Catholic' sounds not of Marcion, nor of
Apelles, nor of Montanus, nor does it take heretics for its authors."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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