Page:The Church, by John Huss.pdf/69

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ALL CHRISTIANS ARE NOT MEMBERS

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break one of the least of these commandments and teach men so, shall be least in the kingdom of heaven." Commenting on both these passages, Gregory, homily 12, says: "The kingdom of heaven is the present church [Migne, 76: 1119].

(5) The falsehood appears from Luke 3:17: "He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire: whose fan is in his hand, and he will cleanse his threshing-floor and gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable." Here threshing-floor stands for the catholic church as the doctors expound, especially Augustine, who says of faith, ad Petrum: "Hold most tenaciously and in no wise doubt that God's threshing-floor is the catholic church and that in it the chaff will remain mixed with the wheat till the end of the world."^[1] And this judgment of Augustine is confirmed by Christ's words: "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man who sows good seed in his field," and Christ afterward says: "Let both grow until the harvest," Matt. 13:30.

Now for the right understanding of these things and the things to be said, we must lay down out of the apostle's words that Christ is the head of the universal church, that she is

↑ The quotation is taken from the de fide ad Petrum sive de regula vera fidei, wrongly ascribed to Augustine, but printed by Migne, 40: 753–780, in the Appendix to Augustine's works, and with a Preface stating its genuineness to be a matter of doubt. The work was written by Fulgentius, bishop of Ruspe, in North Africa, not far from Carthage, d. about 533; a vigorous writer against Arianism and semi-Pelagianism. The treatise was addressed to Peter the Deacon, and not to Peter the Apostle, as Huss seems to think. For Peter the Deacon who was sent on a mission to Pope Hormisdas, see Wetzer-Welte, 9: 1907 sq. The treatise is a high church document, and is quoted at least three times in the Corp. jur. can., and under the name of Augustine, viz., C. 1: 1, 55; C. 15: 1, 3; de consol., D. 4: 3, Friedberg, 1: 379, 746, 1376. The writer follows up the words cited above by saying: "The wicked are mixed with the good in the communion of the sacraments; and in every profession, whether it be the profession of clerics, monastics, or laics, the wicked and the good are mingled. . . . The wicked are to be tolerated for the sake of the good so far as the reason of faith and love demand." Fulgentius declared that "A heretic or a schismatic, though they had been baptized in the name of the Trinity, are outside the catholic church, no matter how much they might give in charity and even though they sweat blood for the name of Christ, yet they could not be saved unless they became incorporated into the catholic church," p. 776.

[1] The quotation is taken from the de fide ad Petrum sive de regula vera fidei, wrongly ascribed to Augustine, but printed by Migne, 40: 753–780, in the Appendix to Augustine's works, and with a Preface stating its genuineness to be a matter of doubt. The work was written by Fulgentius, bishop of Ruspe, in North Africa, not far from Carthage, d. about 533; a vigorous writer against Arianism and semi-Pelagianism. The treatise was addressed to Peter the Deacon, and not to Peter the Apostle, as Huss seems to think. For Peter the Deacon who was sent on a mission to Pope Hormisdas, see Wetzer-Welte, 9: 1907 sq. The treatise is a high church document, and is quoted at least three times in the Corp. jur. can., and under the name of Augustine, viz., C. 1: 1, 55; C. 15: 1, 3; de consol., D. 4: 3, Friedberg, 1: 379, 746, 1376. The writer follows up the words cited above by saying: "The wicked are mixed with the good in the communion of the sacraments; and in every profession, whether it be the profession of clerics, monastics, or laics, the wicked and the good are mingled. . . . The wicked are to be tolerated for the sake of the good so far as the reason of faith and love demand." Fulgentius declared that "A heretic or a schismatic, though they had been baptized in the name of the Trinity, are outside the catholic church, no matter how much they might give in charity and even though they sweat blood for the name of Christ, yet they could not be saved unless they became incorporated into the catholic church," p. 776.

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