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THE PLACE OF TRADITION IN THE THEOLOGY OF ST. THOMAS IN its fainous decree of the fourth session, dated AprilS, 1546, the Council of Trent defined as a dogma of the Catholic faith that divine revelation is entirely contained in two sources, namely: the " written books " (libri scripti) and the " unwritten traditions" (sine script.o traditiones). The contents of the decree are indicated by the title: " The accepted sacred books and traditions of the Apostles" (recipiuntur libri sacri et traditiones A.postolorum) .1 Already the formula " traditions of the Apostles " by itself alone clearly indicates that the Council intended to limit the existence and the transmission of the " unwritten traditions " exclusively to the Apostles of Christ and therefore to the New Testament. It was not so for the " books." In fact the historic setting of the Council, that is to say the Protestant controversy, demonstrates beyond the shadow of a doubt that by the word " Scriptures " the Council intends to signify the two Testaments and consequently all the inspired books of these two Testaments. If the Council did not detail the different categories of the authors, the writers of these books,---on the contrary, the text of the decree explicitly mentions only the name of " Prophets " (a collective name to designate all the writers of the Old Testament) 2 and says not a single word about the writers of the New Testament, -the reason was that, from all the evidence at hand, the expression "written books" (sacred, holy) already designated 1 Concilium Tridentinum (ed. Societas Goerresiana) t.V. Actorom prn altera p. 91-the same text will likewise be found in Denzinger, Enchiridion Symbolorum (1982) n. 788-784. Cf. Schroeder, Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, (Herder, 1941), pp. 18-20. " St. Thomas likewise says that the canonical books have been written by the "Apostles and Prophets" (collective name) to designate all the authors of the New and Old Testaments, Summa Theol., I, q. I, a. 8, ad 2 et passim. 110 THE PLACE OF TRADITION IN THE THEOLOGY OF ST, THOMAS 111 sufficiently by itself a very definite group of writers whose names and qualifications were known by all. Moreover, the text of the decree itself expressly states, by way of refreshing the memory, that the Council" has thought it proper, moreover, to insert in this decree a list of the sacred books, lest a doubt might arise in the mind of someone as to which are the books received by this Council. They are the following." Thereafter follows a detailed list of these books, with their titles as commonly taken from the sacred writers of the two Testaments. On the other hand, speaking of the .. unwritten traditions," the text of the decree expressly mentions " the Apostles " of the Lord. The title of the decree is already rather significant, ami the text of the decree expresses itself formally in three different modes upon this subject. In fact it declares that these " traditions " are those " which, received by the Apostles from the mouth of Christ Himself, or from the Apostles themselves, the Holy Ghost dictating, have come down to us, transmitted as it were from hand to hand." 3 Further on, it is repeated that they "relate to faith or morals," and that they are "as having been dictated either orally by Christ or by the Holy Ghost, and preserved in the Catholic Church in unbroken succession"" Finally, all who would scornfully reject the books are anathe~ matized, as well as any persons who . " . "knowingly and deliberately reject the aforesaid traditions"" To this the text also adds that, from the Scriptures and from Tradition thus clearly indicated and determined, the Council win use " the chief witnesses and supports to whom it will appeal in the confirmation of dogmas and in the restoration of morals in the Church." Thus, it was evident, that a pretended " knowledge of revelation " which would deny that Tradition is a source of Christian doctrine, would be only a heretical theology and a 8cientia falsi nominis. At the same time, such a theology would be condemned as being a garbled and an incomplete science. • The three variants (a propos of: ab ipsius Christi ore, ab...

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