Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Plain Talk about the Protestantism of Today [1868]

[Stone]

IV. How certain Protestant Pamphleteers should learn the Art of Verifying Dates.


— Among those pamphlets which covertly attack Catholicity, some pretend to be able to silence the Catholic Church forever, by convicting it of innovation, and quote the precise, absolutely verified date of the invention of each Catholic dogma.

This practice would not be, after all, so very disastrous to them, were they only able to agree with each other; whereas, they contradict each other, and baffle each other's schemes. As they quote dates at hap-hazard, only a miracle could help them to meet on one and the same point. Let us take up two chronologies, one published in England, by Bulington and Bulton Horncastle, with the title, Dates of the new Doctrines added to the Church of Rome, the other published in Angers, A.D. 1846, by the facetious Rev. Mr. Puaux, under the title, Extracts of Origins.

Now see how these two historians of good faith agree together: —

The English Historian. / The Rev. Parson Puaux.

Invocation of Saints invented in 700 / Worship of Saints invented in 875

Supremacy of the Pope, 1215 / Primacy of the Pope, 600

Apocryphal Books, 1547 / Apocryphal Books, 1564

Seven Sacraments, 1547 / Seven Sacraments, 1160

And so on. Indeed, "Iniquity hath lied to itself." (Ps. xxvi. 12.)

Outside the Puaux chronology, there are other dates established with uniformity enough to fix the origin of the pretended additions made to our dogmas and religious practices.

Thus, as regards confession, which has been their constant bugbear, they fix the institution thereof in the year of grace 1215, and the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in the year 1854. They throw those dates into our faces with an air of triumph, and exclaim, "That's the way your dogmas are manipulated."

There is nothing so mean, and at the same time so impudent, as half-learning. Protestants well-instructed are very chary in making such foolish assertions; for they know, as well as we, that, in 1215, Pope Innocent III., in the Lateran Council, only established certain rules in reference to the annual approach to the sacrament of penance, — a sacrament instituted by our Divine Saviour, and practised since the beginning of the Church; and they know that, in 1854, the Supreme Pontiff Pius IX. did not invent the belief that Mary was free from the stain of original sin; but he only proclaimed and made obligatory for all to believe the ancient doctrine of the Church. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception existed before the proclamation, even as it now exists. In fact, the feast thereof was celebrated in all Christendom, from time immemorial, with only this difference, that it had not been officially defined, and one might be deceived on the point of this doctrine without becoming heretic, as, in fact, many were deceived, who otherwise were great men, and even saints, and nourished the most ardent and the deepest love for our blessed Lady.

We might as well say that the Council of Nice invented the dogma of the Trinity, and that of the Divinity of the Word, when, in 325, it defined these two great truths against the Arians. Before the Nicene Council, the Church believed both the Trinity and the Incarnation, the same as she believed the sacrament of confession before the Council of Lateran, and the Immaculate Conception of the mother of our Lord before the eighth of December, 1854.

The Catholic dogma is the truth religious. But truth is not made, it exists eternal and immutable. The Church is the depository thereof, and, guided by her divine chief, our Lord, she proclaims her teachings accordingly as innovators dare deny them, or whenever she thinks proper to do so for the good of her children.