1 Bible and Tradition. A sermon preached before the University of Oxford on 24 February 1957 by the Rev. C. F. Evans, Fellow and Chaplain of Corpus Christi College. Theology, December 1957.

2 Session IV, 8 April 1546. Latin text in Denzinger, 783. ‘The Sacred and CEcumenical Synod . . . keeping this always in view that the purity of the Gospel be preserved in the Church, the Gospel which, promised before through the prophets in the holy scriptures, our Lord Jesus Christ first promulgated with his own mouth, and then commanded to be preached by his Apostles to every creature, as the fountain of all saving truth and moral discipline; and seeing clearly that this truth and discipline are contained in the written books and the unwritten traditions, received by the Apostles from the mouth of Christ himself, or from the Apostles themselves, by direction of the Holy Spirit, which have come down to us, transmitted as it were from hand to hand. The synod receives and venerates all these with an equal affection of piety and reverence, the books both of the Old and New Testaments, and also the said traditions, those pertaining to faith as well as to morals, having been dictated either by Christ’s own word of mouth or by the Holy Ghost, and preserved in the Catholic Church by a continuous succession’.

3 ‘Consequently the understanding, knowledge and wisdom of each and all—of each churchman and the whole Church—ought to grow and progress greatly and eagerly through the course of ages and centuries, provided that the advance be on its own lines, in the same sphere of doctrine, the same feeling, the same sentiment.’ (P.L. 50. 667.) Commonitorium. A.D. 434 (quoted in Documents Illustiating Papal Authority, E. Giles, S.P.C.K., 1932, page 273).

4 Summa Theologica, II-II, 1, 7. All the articles of faith are contained implicitly in certain primary propositions (primis credibilibus): namely, that there is a God, and that he cares about man’s salvation . . . and there has not been an increase in the substance of the articles of faith with the passage of time, for whatever subsequent believers held was contained in the faith of their fathers who preceded them, though implicitly.

5 That the Council of Trent itself regarded this view as tenable is evidenced by its own action. The original draft of the decree concerning the acceptance of the sacred books and apostolic traditions, proposed for examination at a Congregation held on 22 March 1546, read: ‘And seeing clearly that this truth (and discipline) are contained partly in the written books and partly in unwritten traditions which, received by the apostles from the mouth of Christ himself . . .’ In the decree as it was actually accepted, in Session IV on 8 April of the same year, the words in brackets were added and those in italics expunged. The original draft would have made Mr Evans’s interpretation the only possible one. In its finally accepted form the decree made both views equally tenable. Vide Concilium Tridentinum, Tom. V, pages 31 and 91. Societas Gorresiana, B. Herder, Freiburg, 1911.

6 Acts 15, 6-12 and 28.

7 It is sometimes said by Anglican and other writers that no doctrine can be a part of revelation which is founded upon events not recorded in the New Testament; e.g. ‘We shall do well to be suspicious of any Christian attempt to found doctrine upon events of which there is no record in the New Testament on the ground that they have been transmitted by oral tradition, or even that it is congruent with the rest of the faith that they should have taken place’. (Revelation in Christ by William Nicholls. S.C.M. Press, 1957, page 122.) This remark evidently has the perpetual Virginity, Immaculate Conception and Assumption of our Lady in mind. Yet infant baptism is just such a doctrine, founded upon events of which there is no record in the New Testament. It is nearly universal among Christians and its validity is considered by many to be a matter of primary importance to salvation. But it can only be justified as a true means of grace, as Oscar Cullman justifies it against Karl Barth, (Baptism in the New Testament, S.C.M. Press, 1950) because it is congruent with the whole context of the Sacrament within the Christian faith, and has been handed down from the time of its fust institution by oral tradition.

8 In its essentials. It is of course true that the development of scientific historical studies has shown that some doctrines, formerly believed to have been explicit in the deposit of faith from the beginning, are now known to have been implicit only, having emerged at a later date than was formerly supposed.

9 The Eastern Churches Quarterly, Vol. VII, Supplementary Issue.

10 Père Bouyer himself establishes this in Chapter VI, ‘The Sovereign Authority of Scripture’, in his book, The Spirit and Forms of Protestantism, Harvill Press, 1956, page 130.

11 Theology, November 1957, page 475.

12 St Thomas of course represents the classical tradition of scholastic theology; his works, it is said, lay on the altar at the Council of Trent alongside the Bible. We shall not be treading on dangerous ground in taking him as a guide in ecumenical elucidation.

13 Summa, II-II, I, 9, ad I.

14 Dr Josef Pieper speaks with authority on the philosophy and theology of St Thomas. The following quotation is relevant: ‘Medieval scholastics in general and St Thomas in particular tend to be represented as though they were the first thinkers to achieve the ideal of a closed philosophical system. The Summa is taken as an example of the claim of human intelligence not only to construct an enclosed system of knowledge, but what is much more, to bring even the truths of revelation into a lucid and closely inter-related structure by means of rational proofs. The historical growth of this false and misleading picture is not easy to follow. No doubt many factors cooperated to produce it, and these factors have acted and reacted on one another. Opponents as well as followers have contributed to the misconception: not only the mistrust of natural reason characteristic of Augustinianism during the Reformation period, but also the efforts of Neo-Scholasticism to preserve its master, Thomas, from every taint or charge of agnosticism are responsible.’ (The Silence of St Thomas, by Josef Pieper, Faber, 1957.) Anyone inclined to think of thomism as a closed-system philosophy or theology would do well to study the whole of this short but valuable essay.

15 For a commentary on this, see God and the Unconscious, by Victor White, O.P., Essay VII, ‘Revelation and the Unconscious’. Harvill Press, 1952.

16 ‘St Thomas Aquinas, at the outset of his Summa, insists that the way of rational, scientific and systematic investigation is not the only approach to the understanding of divine things (Summa I, I, 6 ad 3); he insists repeatedly that there is also an affective, mystical approach of such sort that the unlettered may attain to an understanding of the truths of faith higher even than that of the most learned and intellectually gifted. It is, he teaches, precisely the function of the indwelling Spirit of God through his sevenfold gifts so to enlighten the individual soul regarding the truths of faith.’ (Victor White, O.P., op. cit., page 9.)

17 Victor White, O.P., op. cit., page 139.