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
On the one hand, some notion of suffering, or disadvantage, or
punishment after this life, in the case of the faithful departed, or
other vague forms of the doctrine of Purgatory, has in its favour almost
a _consensus_ of the four first ages of the Church, though some Fathers
state it with far greater openness and decision than others. It is, as
far as words go, the confession of St. Clement of Alexandria,
Tertullian, St. Perpetua, St. Cyprian, Origen, Lactantius, St. Hilary,
St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. Ambrose, St. Basil, St. Gregory of
Nazianzus, and of Nyssa, St. Chrysostom, St. Jerome, St. Paulinus, and
St. Augustine. And so, on the other hand, there is a certain agreement
of Fathers from the first that mankind has derived some disadvantage
from the sin of Adam.
16.
Next, when we consider the two doctrines more distinctly,--the doctrine
that between death and judgment there is a time or state of punishment;
and the doctrine that all men, naturally propagated from fallen Adam,
are in consequence born destitute of original righteousness,--we find,
on the one hand, several, such as Tertullian, St. Perpetua, St. Cyril,
St. Hilary, St. Jerome, St. Gregory Nyssen, as far as their words go,
definitely declaring a doctrine of Purgatory: whereas no one will say
that there is a testimony of the Fathers, equally strong, for the
doctrine of Original Sin, though it is difficult here to make any
definite statement about their teaching without going into a discussion
of the subject.
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