Francis de Sales - The Catholic Controversy: St. Francis de Sales Defense of the Faith

[ The Roman numerals refer to the French Discours .]

Holy Scripture, First Rule of Faith. That the pretended Reformers have violated Holy Scripture, the First Rule of our Faith.

That the Church of the Pretenders has violated the Apostolic traditions, the Second Rule of our Faith.

The Church: Third Rule of Faith. How the ministers have violated the authority of the Church, the Third Rule of our Faith.

That the ministers have violated the authority of CouncilCouncils, the Fourth Rule of our Faith.

That the ministers have violated the authority of the ancient fathers of the Church, the Fifth Rule of our Faith.

The authority of the pope, the Sixth Rule of our Faith.

Miracles: The Seventh Rule of Faith.

Harmony of Faith and Reason: The Eighth Rule of Faith.

Of the Sacraments

Purgatory

TRANSLATORS PREFACE

T he following Treatise is the message or teaching of S. Francis de Sales to the Calvinists of the Chablais, reluctantly written out because they would not go to hear him preach. The Saint neither published it nor named it. We have called it The Catholic Controversy, partly to make our title correspond as nearly as possible with the title Les Controverses, given by the French editor when the work was posthumously published, chiefly because its scope is to state and justify the Catholic doctrine as against Calvin and his fellow-heretics. It is the Catholic position and the defense of Catholicism as such. At the same time it is incidentally the defense of Christianity, because his justification of Catholicism lies just in this that it alone is Christianity and his argument turns entirely on the fundamental question of the exclusive authority of the Catholic Church as the sole representative of Christianity and Christ. This is the real point at issue between the Church and the sects, and therefore he, as officer of the Church, begins by traversing the commission of those who teach against her. He shows at length, in Part I, that she alone has mission, that she alone is sent to teach, and that thus their authority is void and their teaching but the vain teaching of men.

This teaching he tests in Part II by the Rule of Faith. Assuming as common ground that the Word of God is the Rule of Faith, he shows that the so-called reformers have composed a false Scripture and that they err also in rejecting tradition or the unwritten Word of God. And then, proceeding to the central point of his case, he shows that while the Word of God is the formal Rule of Faith, is the external standard by which faith is to be measured and adjusted, there is need of a judge who may explain, apply and declare the meaning of the Word. That judge is the Holy Catholic Church. She is thus the necessary exponent of the Rule of right-believing, and each of the voices by which she utters her decision becomes also a part of the Rule of Faith, namely, her own general body, Councils, fathers and her supreme head and mouthpiece, the Pope, the successor of S. Peter and the Vicar of Christ. Miracles and harmony of doctrines may be considered the complement of the Rule of Faith. In all these matters the Saint proves conclusively that the Catholic Church alone fulfils the necessary conditions.

In Part III he comes to the doctrines of the Church in detail, but of this part there only remain to us three chapters on the Sacraments and an Essay on Purgatory.

This may suffice as to the aim and subject matter of the Treatise. Of its intrinsic merits the authors name is sufficient guarantee, but we add more direct testimony because it is a new revelation of the Saint.

The Bull of Doctorate calls it a complete demonstration of Catholic doctrine. Alibrandi, in the Processus , speaks of the incredible power of his words and says in particular that no other writer, as far as he knows, has so conclusively, fully, and lucidly explained the Churchs teaching on the primacy, infallible magiste rium , and other prerogatives of the successors of S. Peter. Hamon, in his Life of the Saint, says, If we consider it, not as disfigured by its first editor, who made it unrecognisable in trying to perfect it, but as it left its authors hands, we see that it is of inestimable value, that it presents the proofs of the Catholic Church with an irresistible force. Its first editor, Lonard, says, We are entirely of the opinion that this book deserves to be esteemed beyond all the others he has composed. The Mother de Chaugy, superior of Annecy, in her circular letter of 1661 to the Houses of the Visitation, writes thus, It is considered that this Treatise is calculated to produce as much fruit amongst heretics for their conversion as the Introduction to a Devout Life amongst Catholics for devotion. And their Lordships our Judges (for the cause of Canonization) say that S. Athanasius, S. Ambrose and S. Augustine have not more zealously defended the faith than our Blessed Father has done.

Cardinal Zacchetti, in introducing the cause of Beatification, gives a further proof of its excellence in describing the effect it had on the obstinate men for whom it was composed: When the inhabitants of the Chablais were forbidden by magisterial decree to attend his sermons or frequent his company, he began to fight with his pen, and wrote to them a letter accompanied with certain selected arguments for the Catholic faith, by which he recalled so great a multitude of wandering souls to the Church that he happily raised up and restored first Thonon and then the other parishes.