Sect. 245The Roman Catholic Church the True Church of ChristThe Roman Catholic Church the True Church of Christ

As we have observed above (p. 341), we have abundantly proved that that Church alone which acknowledges the Primacy of St. Peter is the true Church of Christ. This is, of course, sufficient to convince us that the Roman Catholic Church is the only true Church. Apart, however, from this proof, we can show her Divine origin from the fact of her possessing the four above-mentioned marks—Unity, Holiness, Catholicity, and Apostolicity.

I. Before applying these tests of the true Church, be well to make a few observations which will anticipate certain objections.

1. It is obvious that unity is the most practical of all the marks. Whether a Church is at one with itself is a matter more easy to discover than whether it is holy or apostolic. On the other hand, there may be a sort of unity due to stagnation; and there may be variety and dissensions in matters not essential. Where there is life and vigour, and where differences are adjusted by appeal to an authority recognized by all, there we may safely apply the test of unity.

2. Holiness is a far more difficult test to apply, for it is internal (though manifesting itself outwardly), and it is not essential for membership of the Church. Nevertheless, God’s providence requires that the means of sanctity should not altogether fail of effect, and that extraordinary degrees of holiness should be found only within His visible Church.

3. Catholicity ranks almost with unity as a practical test At the same time, we must not expect anything like physical universality. We are confronted with the profound difficulty of the existence of hundreds of millions of human beings who are outside Christianity (see vol. i. p. 135 sqq.). Hence the test must be applied among the various bodies claiming the name of Christian, and applied to some one as against some other, not as against all the rest which are not joined together in anything like a union. The existence of such bodies is only to be expected after our Lord’s warnings about antichrists and false prophets, and the testimony of St. Paul (2 Tim. 3:12 sqq.; 4:3, etc.), St. John (2:18), and St. Jude (11 sqq.).

4. Apostolicity is sometimes hard to apply, both on account of the scarcity of early documents, and the difficulty of grasping their meaning; and also on account of the development of the Church’s doctrine and practice (vol. i. p. 105 sqq.).

On the various objections connected with the application of these marks of the Church, see Newman’s Anglican Difficulties, vol. i. part ii.

II. 1. The unity of the Roman Catholic Church is a fact of such notoriety that any proof would be superfluous. All her members throughout the whole world have the same faith; they all participate in the same sacrifice of the Mass and the same seven sacraments; and they all acknowledge one supreme ruler and teacher on earth, the Bishop of Rome, the Vicar of Christ.

2. The doctrines which she teaches, and the practices which she enjoins, are eminently holy: she holds out to her members numberless aids to sanctification—from the Mass and the sacraments downwards; and, in spite of many scandals, she has ever been renowned for the sublime degree of holiness of some, and the general worthiness of countless, members of her communion.

3. She is truly Catholic, because she is not restricted to any race, or tongue, or nation. Her numbers greatly surpass those of any heretical or schismatical body—nay, they probably surpass the numbers of all the non-Catholic sects put together.

4. The Roman Catholic Church is Apostolic both in her doctrine and in her ministry. What she believes she has always believed; she has never taught any other truths than those which have been handed down to her by the Apostles by word of mouth or by writing; for every one of her doctrines she is able to produce most ancient authority. The succession of her pastors begins with the Apostles, and comes down uninterruptedly to our own day. “Pointing out that tradition which the greatest and most ancient and universally known Church of Rome—founded and constituted by the two most glorious Apostles, Peter and Paul—derives from the Apostles, and that faith announced to all men, which through the succession of (her) bishops has come down to us, etc. For to this Church, because of its more powerful principality, every Church must agree—that is, the faithful everywhere—in which the tradition of the Apostles has ever been preserved by those on every side” (St. Irenæus, Adv. Hæres., iii. 3). ‘If the order of bishops succeeding each other is to be considered, how much more securely and really beneficially do we reckon from Peter himself.… For to Peter succeeded Linus; to Linus, Clement [he gives the whole succession]; to Damasus, Siricius; to Siricius, Anastasius. In this order of succession no Donatist appears” (St. Augustine, Ep. liii. n. 2, Generoso).