The Early Church And Modern Problems

 

To My Readers: This week's post comes from a young man who just became a Traditionalist three years ago and attends the Society of St. Pius V (SSPV). I think it is encouraging that a young person in his 20s is highly knowledgeable and committed to the True Faith. He will be guest posting once every other month like Mr. John Gregory. This writer chooses to remain anonymous and will be known as Bellarminus. Please comment and let him know what you think of his post; also feel free to ask questions. If anyone has a specific comment or question for me, I will answer as always, but it will take me a bit longer to respond this week.

God bless you all, my dear readers---Introibo

The Early Church and Modern Problems

By Bellarminus

During these present times, the traditional Catholic world tends to focus on the Church in its present situation, along with all the problems in the world that are daily afflicting the Church and Our Lord’s Most Sacred Heart. Although it is good and proper to be aware of and appropriately discuss these issues, we should, at least from time to time, reflect on the history of the Church and the world not only to engender a more profound understanding and regard for the Church but also to apply the lessons, examples, and truths of the past to the present. This post will therefore briefly discuss the early Church.

The early Church has long been a focal point in theological controversy, especially since the Protestant Revolution, when Luther and other odious revolutionaries attempted to cite the early Church as a predecessor of their novel theological inventions. St. Robert Bellarmine’s De Romano Pontifice treats this topic extensively and very effectively and demonstrates how the revolutionaries’ claims were absolute hogwash, taking the Church Fathers out of context and applying their own faulty mindsets to early Church history.

The theological debate on the Novus Ordo “Mass” has reinvigorated the study of the early Church– the inventors of the Novus Ordo make the same exact claims as the Protestants, employing an antiquarianism condemned by the Church, including Pope Pius XII in Mediator Dei. Father Cekada’s Work of Human Hands examines this topic and details the fallacies and errors in the Novus Ordo related to this issue (and many others) wonderfully– I highly recommend this book.

It’s clear that even thousands of years later, the early Church is still incredibly important to our present understanding of the Catholic Church.

Persecution

The persecutions against Christians were cruel— everyone can and must agree on that. Although Christian persecution was not necessarily always constant and/or universal, when they were ordered, they were carried out with usual Roman exactness and mercilessness. But what exactly was the reason for these persecutions, besides demonic instigation?

Roman society had a very rigid sociopolitical construct. To the Romans, all features of the public sphere (which especially included political activity and religion) were inherently intertwined and constituted a singular, uniform society. Any deviation in any of the particular features, whether it be a contrary political opinion or religious belief, was a deviation from the res publica (literally = “the public thing”), the societal commonwealth, as a whole. If one were to reject or abstain from participating in the official, universal religion of the Roman Empire, he would be deemed to have rejected and separated himself from the Roman polity. Pagan religious activities “were bound up with every aspect of the social order,” making it impossible for a “heretic” to be a part of society (Pagans and Christians, Robin Lane Fox, 89).

The Roman mindset required people to participate in pagan religion and other public events and institutions associated with paganism. However, as we know, to do this would be idolatrous and mortally sinful. Christians, therefore, simply could not participate in Roman society to the extent expected of them. Tertullian in his De Spectaculis demonstrates how attendance at the public games, which included gladiatorial fights, was idolatrous because the ceremonies attached to the games were imbued with paganism. This was unacceptable to the Romans. One of the causes of Galerius’ persecution of the Christians, for example, was that his mother’s Christian servants refused to participate in a pagan feast. 

The early Church was practically a parallel society, which is what would result in so many persecutions throughout Her first few hundred years. This is the same exact situation we find ourselves in today. The world today is an oppressive one, requiring people to adhere to a rigid social construct that undermines Catholic morals and family values. But we, as Traditionalist Catholics, cannot give in: it would mean eternal death if we do. We are effectively a parallel society. And what do we do? We can look to the early Church as a model: keep the Faith, do not give in, and be willing to suffer in the Holy Name of Jesus.

Some Points of Doctrine

One fallacy commonly touted by enemies of the Catholic Church is that, in the early Church, the Papacy did not exist. This is baseless blasphemy. All the Church Fathers, both Latin and Greek, are unanimous in their recognition of the Bishop of Rome as the head of the Church, whom we would now call a Pope. For example, St. Irenaeus, writes the following in the second century:

“The Church of Rome, of the greatest antiquity and recognized by all, founded and constituted by the two most glorious Apostles Peter and Paul, that which has tradition from the Apostles and heralding the faith to all through successions of bishops attaining even to us…It is necessary for every Church to agree with this Church [of Rome] on account of a mightier principality…” (Adversus Haereses)

St. Ambrose of Milan in the fourth century wrote during the pontificate of Pope Damasus I that “When the whole world should be of God, nevertheless His house is called the Church, whose Ruler today is Damasus” (I Letter to Timothy). The Bishop of Rome, the Pope, was also recognized as having supreme judicial authority in the Church. St. John Chrysostom, in the fourth century, wrote an appeal to Pope Innocent I asking him to pass a juridical decision over a happening in the East. There are numerous other examples, but I would again recommend my readers to St. Robert Bellarmine’s de Romano Pontifice for an exhaustive list, from which I gathered these quotes.

Another point of doctrine that is commonly argued against by Protestants is the intercession of the Church Triumphant. While Protestants make the claim that prayer can only go straight to God with no human intermediary, the early Church Fathers disagree (this claim is also refuted by Sacred Scripture, both in the Old Testament and the New Testament). For example, St. Augustine, in his Sermons on St. John’s Gospel, writes: “At the Lord’s table we do not commemorate martyrs in the same way that we do others who rest in peace so as to pray for them, but rather that they may pray for us that we may follow in their footsteps.”

The last point of doctrine I will discuss here is the Sacrament of Penance. Many lesser-informed individuals are of the belief that the Sacrament was “created” in the Middle Ages. However, once again, a quick look into the early Church dispels such a notion. St. Basil, in the fourth century, writes: “...it seems necessary to confess sins to the priests, for to them is committed the dispensation of the mysteries. Thus, too, in olden times we find that penitents confessed their sins to the saints. In the Gospel we read that the people confessed their sins to John the Baptist, and in the Acts of the Apostles that those who were baptized confessed to the Apostles” (On the Institution of Monks).

This quote also serves to show not only the sanctity of the priesthood, which is a distinct spiritual order separated from the laity, but also the power of Sacred Tradition, passing from the Apostles to their successor bishops, which will be the topic of the next section. St. John Fisher’s Defense of the Catholic Priesthood Against Martin Luther is a wonderful treatise on the priesthood that refers constantly to the early Church, having been written as a rebuttal to Protestant arguments. 

Apostolic Succession

“In this order, and by this succession, the ecclesiastical tradition from the apostles, and the preaching of the truth, have come down to us. And this is most abundant proof that there is one and the same vivifying faith, which has been preserved in the Church from the apostles until now, and handed down in truth” (St. Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses).

One of the marks of the Church is that it is apostolic, meaning that “the Church always retains and teaches the very same doctrine which it received from the apostles” and that “the Church…is always ruled by pastors who are the apostles’ legitimate successors” (theologian Van Noort, Dogmatic Theology 2:151). 

In the context of theological controversy, apostolic succession is integral. Without it, no institution could claim to be faithful to Christ and His Church. The Catholic Church is the only Church with an unbroken line of apostolic succession, both in doctrine and in episcopal consecration. The fact that the early Church Fathers are a part of this lineage solidifies their authority over theological matters, whereby they explicitly, repeatedly, and universally uphold the truths that the Catholic Church has maintained for millennia. 

For example, St. Irenaeus was ordained by and was a student of St. Polycarp, who was himself instructed and consecrated by St. John the Apostle and Evangelist. St. Peter, the Apostle and first Pope, consecrated Sts. Linus, Anacletus, and Clement, all of whom would succeed him in the Papal office. Every bishop in the early Church, furthermore, had to account for strict regulations regarding the recognition of episcopal consecration. The bishop had to have been consecrated by a recognized validly consecrated bishop, and consecrations were usually done with co-consecrators. Although our lack or loss of historical documentation makes the tracing of exact lineages impossible, it is clear that a bishop could not simply claim the episcopacy and had to produce evidence in the external forum of his validity and apostolicity.

Conclusion

While the early Church may seem to be so long ago in an entirely different world, it quite probably is more instructive to the Catholic Church now more than ever before. While we traverse through this world so gripped by evil, we must look back to the Catholic Church through the centuries as an example. By doing so, we can not only strengthen our faith in the Church and Our Lord by having a better knowledge of the intricacies of the early Church, but we can also find the inspiration needed to brave the oppressive storm of sin and temptation so that we may become the prophesied Saints of the latter times whose splendor will outshine even the Saints of the early Church.