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BOOK IV, CHAPTER TWO THOSE WHO REJECT CHRIST'S CHURCH ARE ANTI-CHRISTIAN He who is not with Me is against
Me. (St. Matthew 12:30) Our Lord Jesus Christ, in
testifying that those who are not with Him are His adversaries, does not
designate any particular form of heresy, but declares that all heretics who
do not gather with Him scatter His flock and are His enemies. (Pope Leo XIII)
Whosoever has cut himself off from
the Church of Rome has become an alien to Christianity. (Pope St. Boniface I)
Even heretics appear to possess
Christ, for none of them denies the name of Christ. Nevertheless, anyone who
does not confess everything that pertains to Christ does in fact deny Christ.
(St. Ambrose) Hence, the separated heresies have
been torn off like dead branches. Some are at a very great distance from
Christ, others are disinherited for some slight matter and have made
themselves and their children aliens from Him: they are outside the
boundaries but have set themselves up outside. They have nothing left of
Christ but the name. (St. Epiphanius) All the leaders of heretics have
gone out of Christ's Church to the synagogue of Satan, and they have passed
over all together, disagreeing in their opposition to the faith, but agreeing
in their leaving it. (St. Jerome) Even if heretics were not enemies
of the truth, even if we were not warned to avoid them, what sort of action
is it to confer with men who themselves profess that they are still seeking
for the truth? For, as long as they are still seeking, they have not laid
hold on the truth, they have not as yet believed,
they are not Christians. (Tertullian) The Catholic Church alone, then,
Christ calls His Spouse. The Church, therefore, is one; this cannot be said
amongst any of those who are heretics or schismatics.
The churches of every one of the heretics is
prostituted; they are churches which Christ repudiates as unnecessary, since
He is the Spouse of One Church. (St. Optatus of Milevis) The Lord severed the Jewish people
from His kingdom, and heretics and schismatics are
also severed from the kingdom of God and from the Church. Our Lord makes it
perfectly clear that every assembly of heretics and schismatics
belongs not to God, but to the unclean spirit. (St. Ambrose) "The multitude of believers
had only one heart and soul" (Acts 4:32); but dissenters, and those who
separate themselves from the Body of the Church, have no participation in
this Holy H (St. Hilary of Poitiers) Since they deny the Gospel and
contradict the Creed, they cannot celebrate with us. And, although they dare
to claim the name of Christ, every creature whose head is Christ scorns them.
(Pope St. Leo the Great) All these most ridiculous heretics,
who wish to be called Christians, try to give a favorable appearance to their
wild figments of imagination which the common sense of mankind utterly
abhors. (St. Augustine)
BOOK
IV, CHAPTER TWO 1. Leo XIII: "Satis Cognitum,"
PTC:1566 2. Boniface I: "Ep. ad Thessalon.," LAF vol.IX:57; FOC p. 324 4. Paul VI: "Evangelii Nuntiandi,"
no.16, December 8, 1975 5. Ambrose: "On Luke,"
Book VI:101, JUR vol.II: 1304 6. Epiphanius: "Against All
Heresies," no.80, FOC p.171 8. Tertullian: "Objection
Against Heretics," no.14, PL 2:12; CSL Vienna: 1942, p.1; FOC p.365 9. Optatus: "Schism of the Donatists," Bk.I, no's.6,
10; LAF vol. II; PL 11; CSL vol.XXVI, Vienna: 1893;
FOC p.158 10. Ambrose:
"Expl. of Luke" ch.7, 91-95; PL 15; SS vol. II, p.85 11. Hilary:
"On Psalm 121," no.5; CSL vol.XXII, Vienna: 1891; PL 9; FOC p.154 12. Leo the
Great: Cf. "Sermon on the Passion," PL 54 13. Augustine:
"On the Trinity," no.6, CORPUS CHRISTIANORUM, Fr. Glorie, vol.50 (1968); FOC p.383 |