(with particular reference to the papacy, Vatican I, Pope Leo XIII, St. Vincent of Lerins, and Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman)
The following is a direct reply to Protestant polemicist William Webster's article: The Repudiation of the Doctrine of Development as it Relates to the Papacy by Vatican I and Pope Leo XIII. His article was largely in response to certain assertions in Steve Ray's book Upon This Rock. I break up his paragraphs in order to create a more readable back-and-forth dialogue (as is my custom), but readers can easily link to Mr. Webster's original to check for context, if that is desired. Webster's words will be in blue.
TABLE OF CONTENTS (HTML-active)
One of the claims being made by present day Roman Catholic apologists is that, as an institution, the papacy was something that developed over time.
As indeed every other doctrine held by Catholics and Protestants has, whether in understanding and/or in application.
In his book, Upon This Rock, Steve Ray represents this position. He uses the metaphor of the acorn and the oak. In critiquing my book, The Matthew 16 Controversy, Peter and the Rock, Ray states:
(Steve Ray, Upon This Rock, San Francisco: Ignatius, 1999, p. 184).
Now, there is an implicit admission in these statements. Steve Ray is admitting to the fact that the papacy was not there from the very beginning. It was subject to a process of development and growth over time. This is a simple historical fact recognized by historians of nearly every persuasion.
Indeed, all the elements which flow from the essential aspects of the papacy took time to develop fully. Thus the papacy as we know it today (i.e., post-Vatican I, when papal infallibility was defined) was not present "full-blown" in the first century. This should neither surprise nor scandalize Catholics, as if it were a "difficulty." The essence of the papacy has been there all along, and that is precisely what Catholic apologists and any others who understand the true nature of Newmanian, Vincentian development of doctrine refer to, when they speak of doctrines having been "present from the beginning," or as "part of the apostolic deposit passed on from Jesus to the Apostles." Nor is this at all contrary to the teaching of the First Vatican Council or Leo XIII, as I will demonstrate. Mr. Webster simply has no case.
The essence of the papacy is Petrine primacy and divinely-granted jurisdiction over the Church universal. I have recounted many biblical and historical arguments in this regard in the following paper: 50 NT Proofs for Petrine Primacy & the Papacy. Since my analysis in that paper is entirely grounded in the Bible (the sole formal principle of authority for Mr. Webster - assuming he espouses sola Scriptura), therefore the only development these essential, presuppositional aspects of the papacy have undergone - in a remote, somewhat tongue-in-cheek sense - would be the development entailed in the process of determining the canon of the New Testament.
But I find it interesting that Mr. Webster cuts out the second half of Steve Ray's paragraph, which he cites. I believe that the reader will be able to understand why:
This shows that Mr. Webster's reasoning would also apply to doctrines he himself also holds (as indeed Newman argued in his Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine), therefore causing his case to more or less collapse, thus it was better that this was not revealed in a paper such as his present one - it makes for too much extra work, and we are all very busy . . .
The problem for Roman Catholics is not whether there was development. The problem lies in the fact that Vatican I says there was no development.
Of course the Council claims no such thing. It asserts that the papacy was present from the beginning, and Mr. Webster falsely assumes that therefore the papacy as understood and practiced post-1870 is being referred to as having been present all along (i.e., the "oak tree" rather than the "acorn"). It is easy to "win" an argument with a straw man of one's own making (whether it is intentional or not).
In other words there was no acorn. It was a full blown oak from the very beginning and was therefore the practice of the Church from the very beginnning.
Again, this is a gratuitous and false assumption. Such a thing is never stated by Vatican I. And what is stated is wrongly interpreted by Mr. Webster, as I will demonstrate in due course. It so happens that I have previously "anticipated" Mr. Webster's argument here (in exchanges with others) and have - I believe - (by means of Newman himself) satisfactorily "answered" his contentions already: The Development of the Papacy (Newman).
Vatican I reaffirmed the decree of the Council of Trent on the Unanimous Consent of the Fathers which has to do specifically with the interpretation of Scripture. It states that it is unlawful to interpret Scripture in any way contrary to the unanimous consent of the Fathers.
I assume Mr. Webster makes reference to the Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith, chapter II, "Of Revelation" (ending):
Mr. Webster, therefore (inadvertantly, I assume) sets up false premises, upon which he bases his argument, which he apparently considers compelling and clear-cut. It rests upon a supposed conciliar requirement to interpret individual biblical passages in the way it itself interprets them, and an alleged claim that all the Fathers indeed interpreted them in this fashion. But these demands and claims simply do not occur in the Council's decrees. Like many non-Catholic controversialists, Mr. Webster falls prey to the temptation of attributing to the Catholic Church an objectionable and excessive "dogmatism" which goes beyond what the Church claims for itself.
Vatican I then proceeds to set forth its teachings on papal primacy and infallibility with the interpretation of Matthew 16:18, John 21:15-17 and Luke 22:32 as the basis for its teachings.
So far, Mr. Webster is correct. Like any good Protestant, the Catholic Church seeks to offer biblical rationale for its beliefs.
And then it states that the interpretations that it gives and the conclusions it draws from these interpretations, in terms of the practice of the Church, has been that which has ever been taught in the Church and practiced by it.
In terms of the essence of the papacy, and the kernels contained in these passages, yes. But as we will shortly see, Mr. Webster falsely charges that the Church is making an untrue claim about historical exegesis - a contention which I cannot find in the texts he cites (perhaps I missed it, and Mr. Webster can point this out to me).
Here is what Vatican I says:
We therefore teach and declare that, according to the testimony of the Gospel, the primacy of jurisdiction over the universal Church of God was immediately and directly promised and given to blessed Peter the Apostle by Christ the Lord. For it was to Simon alone, to whom he had already said: ‘Thou shalt be called Cephas,’ that the Lord after the confession made by him, saying: ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,’ addressed these solemn words: ‘Blessed art thou, Simon Bar–Jona, because flesh and blood have not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say to thee that thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, it shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven.’ And it was upon Simon alone that Jesus after his resurrection bestowed the jurisdiction of chief pastor and ruler over all his fold in the words: ‘Feed my lambs; feed my sheep.’ At open variance with this clear doctrine of Holy Scripture as it has been ever understood by the Catholic Church are the perverse opinions of those who, while they distort the form of government established by Christ the Lord in his Church, deny that Peter in his single person, preferably to all the other Apostles, whether taken separately or together, was endowed by Christ with a true and proper primacy of jurisdiction; or of those who assert that the same primacy was not bestowed immediately and directly upon blessed Peter himself, but upon the Church, and through the Church on Peter as her minister.
If any one, therefore, shall say that blessed Peter the Apostle was not appointed the Prince of all the Apostles and the visible Head of the whole Church militant; or that the same directly and immediately received from the same our Lord Jesus Christ a primacy of honor only, and not of true and proper jurisdiction: let him be anathema.
[remainder of lengthy citation from Vatican I deleted - the reader may read it on the link provided on top]
Notice here that Vatican I states that its interpretation of Matthew 16 and John 21 has been the interpretation that has ever been understood in the Church. That is, from them very beginning.
If by this, Mr. Webster is implying that the Council claimed all the Fathers interpreted these particular passages in the same fashion, it simply did not do so. A crucial distinction must be made at this point. The Council (and Catholic apologists today) can and may use various biblical texts in order to support some particular Catholic doctrine. Vatican I, then, is in effect arguing:
"Unanimous Consent" of the Fathers: What Exactly Does it Mean?
Furthermore, one must precisely understand what is meant by the "unanimous consent" of the Fathers. Steve Ray has written about this as well:
The word "unanimous" comes from two Latin words: únus, one + animus, mind. "Consent" in Latin means agreement, accord, and harmony; being of the same mind or opinion. Where the Fathers speak in harmony, with one mind overall - not necessarily each and every one agreeing on every detail but by consensus and general agreement - we have "unanimous consent." The teachings of the Fathers provide us with an authentic witness to the apostolic tradition . . .
St. Vincent of Lerins explains
the Church's teaching:
(Commonitory 2).
Notice that St. Vincent mentions "almost all priests and doctors" . . .
A fine definition of Unanimous Consent, based on the Church Councils, is provided in the Maryknoll Catholic Dictionary,
(Wilkes-Barre, Penn.: Dimension
Books, 1965, pg. 153)
The Council Fathers at Trent (1554-63) affirmed the ancient custom that the proper understanding of Scripture was that which was held by the Fathers of the Church to bring order out of the enveloping chaos. Opposition to the Church's teaching is exemplified by William Webster (The Church of Rome at the Bar of History [Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1995]) who misrepresents the Council Fathers by redefining and misapplying "unanimous consent". First in redefining, he implies that unanimous consent means each Father must have held the same fully developed traditions and taught them clearly in the same terms as used later in the Church Councils . . . Second he misapplies the term, not to the interpretation of Scripture, as the Council Fathers intended, but to tradition. His assertions are not true, but using a skewed definition and application of "unanimous consent", he uses selective patristic passages as proof-texts for his analysis of the Fathers.
As an example, individual Fathers may explain "the Rock" in Matthew 16 as Jesus, Peter, Peter's confession or Peter's faith. Even the Catechism of the Catholic Church refers to the "Rock" of Matthew 16 as Peter in one place (CCC 552) and his faith (CCC 424) in another. Matthew 16 can be applied in many ways to refute false teachings and to instruct the faithful without emphasizing the literal, historical interpretation of Peter as the Rock upon which the Church has been built his Church. Webster and others emphasize various patristic applications of a biblical passage as "proof" of non-unanimous consent . . .
Yves Congar on the "Unanimous
Consent of the Fathers" from his book Tradition and Traditions,
published
by McMillan Company, New York, 1966 [pp. 397-400]: . . .
Application of the principle
is difficult, at least at a certain level. In regard to individual texts
of Scripture total patristic consensus is rare. In fact, a complete consensus
is unnecessary: quite often, that which is appealed to as sufficient for
dogmatic points does not go beyond what is encountered in the interpretation
of many texts. But it does sometimes happen that some Fathers understood
a passage in a way which does not agree with later Church teaching. One
example: the interpretation of Peter's confession in Matthew 16.16-18.
Except at Rome, this passage was not applied by the Fathers to the papal
primacy; they worked out an exegesis at the level of their own ecclesiological
thought, more anthropological and spiritual than juridical . . . .
It further states that Peter was given a primacy of jurisdiction from the very beginning by Christ himself and that this primacy was passed on to Peter’s successors, the bishops of Rome. This, it says, has been known to all ages.
Indeed, jurisdiction was present from the beginning, and recognized by the Fathers, as fully evidenced in my 50 NT Proofs for Petrine Primacy & the Papacy and in great depth in Steve Ray's book Upon This Rock. It was present when Jesus gave to St. Peter the "keys of the kingdom," and renamed him "Rock," with strongly implied (and soon-exercised) ecclesiological preeminence, as shown in the many passages I detail. The successors are a matter of historical fact. Rome became the center of the Church by God's design: Sts. Peter and Paul were martyred there, after all. American Christians have scarcely any notion of the place and function of martyrdom in the Christian life. Rome was also obviously key in terms of influencing the Roman Empire. But I digress . . .
In other words, there was no acorn. According to Vatican I, the papacy was a full blown oak from the very beginning because it was established by Christ himself.
The Council never asserts that it was a "full-blown oak from the very beginning" (because that would be clearly untrue). Nothing in the documents contradicts development of doctrine - rightly understood - in the least. The fact that the papacy was established by Christ Himself does not mean that it would initially look and operate in the same manner as it does today, after nearly 2000 years of development. Cardinal Newman writes very eloquently (as always) about this notion:
As to this doctrine the question is this, whether there was not from the first a certain element at work, or in existence, divinely sanctioned, which, for certain reasons, did not at once show itself upon the surface of ecclesiastical affairs, and of which events in the fourth century are the development; and whether the evidence of its existence and operation, which does occur in the earlier centuries, be it much or little, is not just such as ought to occur upon such an hypothesis.
. . . While Apostles were on earth, there was the display neither of Bishop nor Pope; their power had no prominence, as being exercised by Apostles. In course of time, first the power of the Bishop displayed itself, and then the power of the Pope . . .
When the Church, then, was thrown upon her own resources, first local disturbances gave exercise to Bishops,and next ecumenical disturbances gave exercise to Popes; and whether communion with the Pope was necessary for Catholicity would not and could not be debated till a suspension of that communion had actually occurred. It is not a greater difficulty that St. Ignatius does not write to the Asian Greeks about Popes, than that St. Paul does not write to the Corinthians about Bishops. And it is a less difficulty that the Papal supremacy was not formally acknowledged in the second century, than that there was no formal acknowledgment on the part of the Church of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity till the fourth. No doctrine is defined till it is violated . . .
Moreover, an international bond and a common authority could not be consolidated, were it ever so certainly provided, while persecutions lasted. If the Imperial Power checked the development of Councils, it availed also for keeping back the power of the Papacy. The Creed, the Canon, in like manner, both remained undefined. The Creed, the Canon, the Papacy, Ecumenical Councils, all began to form, as soon as the Empire relaxed its tyrannous oppression of the Church. And as it was natural that her monarchical power should display itself when the Empire became Christian, so was it natural also that further developments of that power should take place when that Empire fell . . .
On the whole, supposing the power to be divinely bestowed, yet in the first instance more or less dormant, a history could not be traced out more probable, more suitable to that hypothesis, than the actual course of the controversy which took place age after age upon the Papal supremacy.
It will be said that all this is a theory. Certainly it is: it is a theory to account for facts as they lie in the history, to account for so much being told us about the Papal authority in early times, and not more; a theory to reconcile what is and what is not recorded about it; and, which is the principal point, a theory to connect the words and acts of the Ante-nicene Church with that antecedent probability of a monarchical principle in the Divine Scheme, and that actual exemplification of it in the fourth century, which forms their presumptive interpretation. All depends on the strength of that presumption. Supposing there be otherwise good reason for saying that the Papal Supremacy is part of Christianity, there is nothing in the early history of the Church to contradict it . . .
Moreover, all this must be viewed in the light of the general probability, so much insisted on above, that doctrine cannot but develop as time proceeds and need arises, and that its developments are parts of the Divine system, and that therefore it is lawful, or rather necessary, to interpret the words and deeds of the earlier Church by the determinate teaching of the later.
And then it states that this teaching is part of the content of saving faith. To deviate from this teaching is to incur the loss of salvation. This is an explicit affirmation that outside the Church of Rome there is no salvation.
This is true, but of course it must be understood how this teaching is applied (a task beyond our immediate purview). There are many "loopholes" which allow for ignorance and lessened culpability due to a variety of factors in which a given individual may not be at fault for his unbelief. Catholic teaching in this regard is very biblical, nuanced, and complex, unlike, e.g., Calvinist and other fundamentalist Protestant views which consign whole classes of people to damnation and hell due to double predestination and their never having heard the gospel. I have many links about this topic on my Ecumenism and Salvation "Outside" the Church page.
Later on, in its teaching on papal infallibility, Vatican I states:
Vatican I is basing its teaching of papal infallibility on the interpretation of Luke 22:32. A teaching or tradition which it says was received from the very beginning of the Christian faith. The Council asserts that the doctrine of papal infallibility is a divinely revealed dogma and all who refuse to embrace it are placed under anathema.
It does not assert that the entire teaching is based on Luke 22:32. It merely gives that passage as a proof text, not for papal infallibility per se, but rather, for the indefectibility of the Church, as centered and grounded in the orthodoxy of the popes. Again, this does not mean that absolutely every Father took this interpretation of Luke 22:32, if that is what is being implied. What was received from the beginning was papal primacy and universal jurisdiction, which is the essence and "seed" of papal infallibility, just as the biblical statement "Jesus is Lord" is the "seed" of the exceedingly complex and highly-philosophical Chalcedonian Christology of 451 A.D.
If Christology itself - the very doctrine of God - took over 400 years to "sort itself out," so to speak (actually, even longer, as the Monothelite heresy was yet to appear), why not the papacy? In 451, Pope St. Leo the Great was reigning, and was a key figure in determining orthodox Christology (accepted to this day by all three branches of Christianity). The papacy was quite robust and "full-blown" by then, as most historians would agree. See my paper: Pope Leo the Great & Papal Supremacy. As for papal infallibility: true Christian authority must have a divinely-ordained means to protect it from error. We serve a God of truth, not of relativism and confusion. Ultimately, this "protector" is the Holy Spirit Himself, according to such passages as John 14:26 and 16:13.
Before moving on to Mr. Webster's misguided accusations concerning the teaching of Pope Leo XIII vis-a-vis Vatican I and development, let us briefly note the fact that Vatican I - far from rejecting it - embraced development of doctrine. There can be no question of this whatsoever, as I will now prove.
Here is a portion of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic Faith, ch. 4, "Of Faith and Reason," from Dogmatic Canons and Decrees (Rockford, IL: TAN Books, 1977; reprint of 1912 ed. of authorized translations of the Councils of Trent and Vatican I, Imprimatur by John Cardinal Farley of New York, pp. 232-233):
29. Vincent of Lerins, Common. n. 28.
Here is a second translation of the passage, from The Christian Faith: Doctrinal Documents of the Catholic Church, edited by J. Neuner and J. Dupuis, NY: Alba House, 5th revised and enlarged ed., 1990, p. 47:
(1) Vincent of Lerins, Commonitorium primum, 23.
And here is the excerpt from St. Vincent of Lerins which Vatican I cited (Notebooks, 23:28-30), from yet another translation (Jurgens, William A., ed. and tr., The Faith of the Early Fathers, 3 volumes, Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, vol. 3, 1979, p.265). I will provide the context, with the portion utilized by Vatican I in-between ***'s. Note that by citing this passage - given the explicit context - Vatican I is implicitly and beyond doubt giving sanction to the notion of doctrinal development. It is expressly denying (contra Webster) that Catholic doctrine (including, by extension, the papacy) starts as an "oak tree" rather than as a seed or acorn:
If this weren't a striking enough disproof of Mr. Webster's claim that Vatican I opposes doctrinal development, in the same work, St. Vincent expresses his famous dictum (often cited by Protestant polemicists against development):
Obviously, unchanging essence and developing, progressing non-essential elements are compatible, according to St. Vincent, Newman, and Vatican I. Here we have almost all the elements outlined by Newman fourteen centuries later, yet Protestant controversialists such as George Salmon and William Webster continue to claim that Newman's views were a radical departure from Catholic precedent! How silly; how sad!
To establish the fact that St. Vincent of Lerins is a key figure in the "development of development of doctrine," I shall now cite Pope St. Pius X, and four specialists on the history of Christian doctrine: two Catholic and two Protestant scholars, respectively:
Note how the pope who is known for his opposition to theological modernism, or liberalism - in his famous encyclical on that very subject -, cites the same passage from Vatican I which I have noted, including the citation from St. Vincent (which is at the very end). He contends that development of doctrine is neither "evolution" (which he contrasts to it) nor modernism. By extension, then, he is verifying that Vatican I upheld development of doctrine (as explicated by St. Vincent and more recently in the same sense by Cardinal Newman) as entirely orthodox and Catholic.
He states this outright: "Nor is the development of our knowledge, even concerning the faith, barred by this pronouncement; on the contrary, it is supported and maintained." Nothing could be more clear. This is another nail in the coffin of Mr. Webster's claims. The papacy is one of many doctrines contained in "the faith" and the apostolic deposit. It develops like all the other dogmas, and like all the beliefs in Protestantism as well - including the canon of Scripture itself (much as many Protestants would seek to deny this).
Vatican I adopted this
well-known formula as its own . . . There is thus a three-fold progress:
a progress in formulation which the church, having been challenged by the
heretics, accomplishes by means of conciliar decrees to enlighten the understanding
with new and appropriate terms and transmit them to those who will come
later; progress in the organic life which takes place in dogmatic truths
and always exceeds the language which expresses it, much in the same way
that a human life grows from infancy to old age while always remaining
the same person; progress in the final acquisition of truth without alteration
or mutilation . . .
Paradoxically, this teacher of the immutability is revealed as the theologian of the laws of the development of dogma . . . The Commonitorium, as Bossuet noted, also drew its inspiration from the writings of Augustine . . .
Even though Vincent was concerned primarily with the innovations of the heresies, the West has drawn inspiration from his teaching on the progress of dogma developed in several chapters of the Commonitorium (c. 23-24). He recognized this development both in the understanding and in the formulation of dogmatic truth. Without changing the deposit of faith in any way, the church explores its richness more deeply and expresses its content more clearly . . . .
It is certain that . . . the influence of the Commonitorium has not ceased to increase since the sixteenth century . . . Bellarmine described it as the libellus plane aureus, while Bossuet makes constant reference to it in his Defense de la tradition des saints Peres. Catholics and Protestants regarded it with equal admiration at first. Newman found an "ecumenical" norm in the Commonitorium and procured a new importance for the work . . . the First Vatican Council . . . took the last word from Vincent of Lerins in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Faith.
The Anglican George Salmon's The Infallibility of the Church (originally 1890) apparently remains an inspiration for the anti-infallibility, anti-development polemics of the current generation of anti-Catholic crusaders, such as William Webster and James White. Yet it has been refuted decisively twice, by B.C. Butler, in his The Church and Infallibility: A Reply to the Abridged "Salmon"' and also in a series of articles in The Irish Ecclesiastical Record, in 1901 and 1902 (1)
Nevertheless, even the more ecumenical Protestant apologists Norman Geisler and Ralph MacKenzie claimed in 1995, in a major critique of Catholicism, Roman Catholics and Evangelicals: Agreements and Differences, (2) that Salmon's book has "never really been answered by the Catholic Church." Geisler and MacKenzie cite Salmon as a "witness" for their case (3).
George Salmon revealed in his book his profoundly biased ignorance not only concerning papal infallibility, but also with regard to even the basics of the development of doctrine:
1. Butler:
New York, Sheed & Ward, 1954, 230 pages. A friend was recently able
to obtain the articles from the Irish Ecclesiastical Record in the
library of a well-known evangelical seminary in the Chicago area.
2. Geisler,
Norman L. and Ralph E. MacKenzie, Roman Catholics and Evangelicals:
Agreements and Differences, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1995, p.206,
which calls it the "classic refutation of papal infallibility." See also
p.459.
3. Geisler
and MacKenzie, ibid., pp.206-207.
4. Salmon,
George, The Infallibility of the Church, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker
Book House (originally 1888), pp.31-33 (cf. also pp.35, 39).
The papal encyclical, Satis Cognitum, written by Pope Leo XIII in 1896, is a commentary on and papal confirmation of the teachings of Vatican I. As to the issue of doctrinal development, Leo makes it quite clear that Vatican I leaves no room for such a concept in its teachings.
If indeed this were true (it assuredly is not), then I would find it exceedingly odd that Pope Leo XIII would name John Henry Newman a Cardinal in 1879, soon after becoming pope (1878). Why would he do that for the famous exponent of the classic treatment of development of doctrine, if he himself rejected that same notion? No; as before, Mr. Webster is (consciously or not) subtly switching definitions and statements of a pope and a Council in order to make it appear that there is a glaring contradiction, when in fact there is none. Such a mythical state of affairs is beyond absurd:
Ian Ker, author of the massive 764-page biography John Henry Newman (Oxford University Press, 1988) expands upon Pope Leo XIII in relation to Newman:
Newman wrote:
Such is the lot of great men; geniuses; those ahead of their time. Now Mr. Webster joins this miserable, deluded company of those who pretend that Newman was a heterodox Catholic, and that his theory of development is somehow un-Catholic, or - even worse - a deliberately cynical method of rationalization intended to whitewash so-called "contradictions" of Catholic doctrinal history.
Leo states over and over again that the papacy was fully established by Christ from the very beginning and that it has been the foundation of the constitution of the Church and recognized as such from the very start and throughout all ages.
True enough, in the sense which I have repeatedly stressed.
He further affirms that Vatican I’s teaching has been the constant belief of every age and and is therefore not a novel doctrine:
Merciful heavens! A "novel doctrine" is something like sola Scriptura, or sola fide, the latter of which Protestant apologist Norman Geisler states that no one believed it from the time of St. Paul to Luther (and Catholics would also strongly deny that Paul taught it). Likewise, noted Protestant scholar Alister McGrath confesses:
Many other innovations of Protestantism - established against all contrary Church precedent - amply qualify as true "novelties." The papacy (even considered as explicitly infallible) - whatever one thinks of it - is surely not in the same league as all the brand-new Protestant inventions. But let us see what Mr. Webster selects from Pope Leo XIII's encyclical, to supposedly bolster his tenuous claims:
And when he refers to the papacy as the "constant belief," he is expressing himself no differently than a Protestant who states that "the divinity of Christ has always been believed," or "the Trinity was always believed," or the New Testament was always accepted by 1st-century Christians, when they know full well (if they know their Church history at all) that the doctrines of God (trinitarian theology) and especially Christ (Christology) also underwent much development (Two Natures, Athanasian Creed, Theotokos, battles with heretics such as the Monothelites, Arians, and Sabellians) while at the same time remaining the same in essence.
Likewise, there wasn't total consensus about the New Testament until the canon was finalized in the late 4th century. Yet Scripture was what it was all along: inspired and God-breathed. The Church did not make it so (as Vatican I itself explicitly affirms). Protestants, in speaking of the broad consensus of the early Fathers with regard to the canon of Scripture, are basically asserting the "unanimous consent of the Fathers" in the way a Catholic would argue. Likewise, the papacy was what it was, all along, even if not all recognized it. Not all recognized Jesus as the Messiah and Lord, either. That is no disproof.
The Roman Catholic Church, itself, has officially stated that there was no development of this doctrine in the early Church.
Where? This certainly hasn't been shown by Mr. Webster. He has to make false deductions and redefine words and phrases to make his nonexistent case, whereas I have clearly demonstrated the opposite, right from the explicit text of Vatican I.
After all, if the fullness of the definition of papal primacy as defined by Vatican I was instituted by Christ immediately upon Peter, as both Vatican I and Leo XIII affirm, then there is no room for development.
This is a classic case of Mr. Webster's fallacious logic and curious rhetorical method. Where is it stated that the "fullness of definition of papal primacy" was conferred upon Peter? The primacy itself was given to him; the duty and prerogatives of the papal office, and the keys of the kingdom, but none of that implies that a full understanding or application, or unanimous acknowledgement by others is therefore also present from the beginning. The thing itself - in its essential aspects, or nature, is present. And that is what develops, without inner contradiction or change of principle, as Newman ably pointed out in the long citation above.
It was instituted by Christ himself and was therefore present from the very beginning and would have been recognized as such by the Church as Vatican I states: ‘Whence, whosoever succeeds to Peter in this See, does by the institution of Christ himself obtain the Primacy of Peter over the whole Church’, a fact which Vatican I says has been known to all ages leading to the practice ‘that it has at all times been necessary that every particular Church—that is to say, the faithful throughout the world—should agree with the Roman Church, on account of the greater authority of the princedom which this has received.’ This documentation completely demolishes present day Roman Catholic apologists' theory of development. They are at odds with the magisterium of their own Church. Indeed, these apologists must set forth a theory of development because of the historical reality, but such a theory is at open variance with the clear teaching of Vatican I and Leo XIII.
Hardly. As shown, Vatican I explicitly accepted development of doctrine, citing the very passage from St. Vincent Lerins which is the classic exposition in the Fathers - essentially identical to Newman's analysis. Pope Leo XIII made Newman a Cardinal - his very first appointment, meant to send a message, yet Mr. Webster would have us believe that he was diametrically opposed to the thought for which Newman was most famous (and notorious, in some circles): development of doctrine. So we are to believe that Leo XIII made a Cardinal someone he regarded as a rank heretic? I suppose any absurd, surreal scenario within the Catholic Church is possible in the minds of many of her more - shall we say - zealous critics. Likewise, the very next pope, and vigorous condemner of modernism, Pope St. Pius X, also supported not only St. Vincent of Lerins, as we saw above, but also John Henry Newman (see below).
Thus, there is quite positive evidence that development of doctrine was (and is) indeed accepted by the Catholic Church. Mr. Webster, on the other hand, in order to put forth his thesis, must rely on distortions of what development means, and improbable deductions from indirect suggestions in conciliar and papal documents, which he interprets as hostile to development. It's a wrongheaded enterprise from the get-go. Newman was orthodox, despite what Webster, Salmon, and other Protestant polemicists would have us believe:
It is not surprising, therefore, that the edition of 1878 is in so many ways, both large and small, different from that of 1845. Yet in the thirty-three years between the two editions, the Essay made its way with the Church, and was accepted in its original form as, in the words of Dr. Benard, "simply an original and highly ingenious manner of presenting a strictly traditional Catholic doctrine." But the vicissitudes of Newman's Essay were not over. During the last years of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, there arose the Modernist Movement, in which Newman's volume was made an instrument of heresy . . .
It may be observed that when Pope Pius X issued the encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis in July, 1907, condemning the Movement, many of Newman's readers at once feared that the Essay on Developent had been condemned, too . . . But at the very height of the excitement occasioned by the encyclical Pascendi, the Most Reverend Edward Thomas O'Dwyer, bishop of Limerick, published his pamphlet on Cardinal Newman and the Encyclical Pascendi Dominici Gregis (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1908), which showed clearly that the Modernists could not legitimately depend on Newman for their teaching. The final, authoritative answer to the Modernists, however, appeared when Pope Pius X sent a letter to Bishop O'Dwyer, confirming the latter's defense of Newman.
So when we analyze these papal teachings in the light of history it is perfectly legitimate to ask the question on two levels. As to the actual insitution of the papacy, do we find the teachings of Vatican I expressed by the fathers of the Church in their practice?
Not in its fullness, but this is not required in order for both unchanging essence and developing secondary aspects to harmoniously coexist.
And secondly, as to the issue of interpretation, do we find a unanimous consent of the fathers regarding Vatican I’s interpretation of Matthew 16:18, John 21:15-17 and Luke 22:32 that supports papal primacy and infallibility? In both cases the answer is a decided no.
As already shown, consensus on individual Scripture verses is not required by the Church, and Mr. Webster has not documented that Vatican I taught otherwise. What is required is assent to the essential premises and characteristics of the doctrine, which were indeed there from the beginning, from the time of Christ's commissioning of St. Peter. Mr. Webster's case therefore collapses, having been shown to be woefully insufficient or outright contradicted in all of its main points of contention.
I close with a quote from the Protestant apologist C.S. Lewis, which confirms the Newmanian and Catholic understanding of development of doctrine:
For further study on development of doctrine, Cardinal Newman, and the papacy, see:
How Newman Convinced me of the Apostolicity of the Catholic Church
Cardinal Newman on the Papacy & Councils
Newman on Papal Infallibility
Overview of Development of Doctrine (Transcript of a Television Interview)
Dialogues on Development of Doctrine, Newman, & Anglican vs. Catholic Authority
Dialogue: The East and Development of Doctrine (particularly with regard to papal
infallibility)
The Development of Doctrine (Apologetics Index Page)
Apologia Pro Vita Sua {Newman: original 1864 ed.}
An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine {Newman: 1845; revised ed. of 1878}
The Theory of Developments in Religious Doctrine {Newman: 1843; from Oxford University Sermons}
An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent {Newman: 1870}
On the Pope and His Office in the Church (Newman)
Main Index & Search | Development of Doctrine | The Papacy | Anti-Catholicism
Copyright 2000 by Dave Armstrong. All rights reserved.