The consensus of the church and papal infallibility: a study in the background of Vatican I

3. Honoré Tournely

   HonoréTournely ‒ Tournely and the Church 23 HonoréTournely rose from humble beginnings to become one of the outstanding theologians of his day.1 As a young boy in Provence he tended pigs for his farmer parents , but a priest uncle arranged for him to pursue studies in Paris, where he proved to be an excellent student. He earned his doctorate in theology at the Sorbonne in , taught theology at the University of Douai from  to , and in the latter year was invited back to the Sorbonne , where he was professor of theology from  to . A leader of those opposed to Jansenism, Tournely strongly urged the acceptance of the bull Unigenitus issued by Pope Clement XI in . Controversy over this bull ebbed and flowed, and in  Tournely and twenty-one other doctors were ousted from the faculty. During the next five years he occupied several prestigious positions, including several at the royal palace. In  he enjoyed the great satisfaction of being accepted back at the Sorbonne . Honoré Tournely was widely admired as man of  . Johann Mayr offers some biographical information about Tournely in Die Ekklesiologie HonoréTournelys (Essen: Ludgerus-Verlag Hubertus Wingen, ), –. great ability, learned and articulate, and also attractive in his personal manner. H. Hurter says, “He was a man of admirable virtue, [and] great docility toward the judgments of the Church, which he always strenuously defended.”2 It will be noted throughout our review of his thought here that while he earnestly opposed certain Roman claims about papal authority, he consistently opposed both Jansenism and Protestantism. Indeed, in the latter respect he was actually compared by some to Robert Bellarmine, his adversary in ecclesiology but fellow defender of Catholicism.3 Among his numerous treatises in theology one in particular is an important work of ecclesiology. His Praelectiones theologicae de ecclesia Christi (first published in ) provides an excellent delineation of the central current of Gallican thought on the Church and the papacy . M. Dubruel, correctly describing him as “one of the most moderate , but also one of the most learned” and influential Gallican theologians , uses him as a representative exponent of Gallican ecclesiology in his DTC article on Gallicanism.4 Regarding the consensus of the Church,Tournely adheres seriously to Article  of the Declaration of , seeing it as a quite valid expression of much traditional Catholic thought on the nature of papal teaching authority. His detailed and nuanced study of this point has been neglected even by the few modern scholars who have written onTournely.5 Many years of research and reflection are clearly evident through-  HonoréTournely . H. Hurter, S.J., Nomenclator literarius recentioris theologiae catholicae (Oeniponte: Libraria AcademicaWagneriana, ), :. Hurter also gives a very brief biographical sketch ofTournely’s life. . Mayr, Die Ekklesiologie HonoréTournelys, . . M. Dubruel, “Gallicanisme,” DTC, .:–. Dubruel gives a lengthy summary of Tournely’s ecclesiology (–) and of his Church-State thought (–). He deals with the topic of the consensus of the Church (–), but really makes only brief mention ofTournely’s extended discussion of many aspects and nuances of this question. J. Carreyre’s short DTC article on “Tournely” (.:– ) does not go into any particulars ofTournely’s ecclesiology. . Mayr, in his Die Ekklesiologie Honoré Tournelys, the one book-length study on Tournely, does deal with the consensus of the Church in two places: –, concerning the infallibility of the Church, and –, on the infallibility of the Roman Pontiff. But in neither of these does he discuss such important points as consensus antecedent or subsequent, express or tacit, to which Tournely devotes great attention. out Tournely’s extended analysis of authority in the Church, a topic pursued systematically and insightfully in his massive treatise De ecclesia , whose two parts total some seven hundred closely printed octavo pages.Tournely’s deep ecclesial concern comes through very clearly in his “Praefatio,” addressed to students of theology. Here he says that, amid many ongoing challenges encountered by the faith community, the individual will find in adherence to the church steady and reliable guidance.6 The Church is custodian and sustainer of the faith and the supreme judge of controversies about it. Moreover,Tournely urges all his students to preserve communion with the successor of Peter, citing the Council of Florence on papal primacy.7 The Church’s firmness against schismatics and other challenges comes from its enduring unity in faith with its visible head (, viii–ix). At no time does Tournely tend to “omit” the papacy from the description...