30
October 867 A.D. Gottschalk
of Orbais Passes—Council of Valence, 855
Garrigous-Lagrange,
Reginald. “Predestination.” The Summa and
Other Matters. N.d. http://www.thesumma.info/predestination/predestination5.php. Accessed 29 Oct 2014.
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PREDESTINATION
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by Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O. P.
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PART I
Ch 2: THE TEACHING OF THE CHURCH (cont)
DECLARATIONS OF THE CHURCH AGAINST PREDESTINARIANISM
The declarations of the Church in the Council of Orange
express one aspect of the great mystery with which we are concerned; the other
is presented to us by what the Church taught first of all against
predestinarianism, and then against Calvinism, Bajanism, and Jansenism.
1) In the fifth century, Lucidus, a priest of the Catholic
Church who was accused of having taught predestinarianism or predestination to
evil, made a retractation of his teaching in the Council of Arles, which was
held in the year 473. His opinion, as formulated by the council, reads as
follows: "That Christ the Lord, our Savior, did not die for the salvation
of all mankind; . . . that God's foreknowledge forcibly impels man to
everlasting death, or that those who are lost, are lost by God's will. . . .
Likewise I reject the opinion of one who says that some are destined to
everlasting death and others are predestined to everlasting life."(29) In
his retraction, Lucidus affirmed that he who is lost could have been saved.(30)
We must beware of attaching too much importance to the decisions made against
Lucidus. They are the result, it has been said, of an anti-Augustinian
environment.
2) In the ninth century. As for the controversies of the
ninth century in connection with predestination, we must by all means quote the
decisions of the councils of Quierzy (853),(31) Valence (855),(32) Langres, Toul, and finally Thuzey.(33) From these
divers texts it follows: (1) that God wills in a certain way to save all men;
(2) that there is no such thing as predestination to evil, but that God decreed
from all eternity to inflict the penalty of damnation for the sin of final
impenitence, a sin which He foresaw and in no way caused but merely permitted.
From the canons of the above-mentioned councils we see the
meaning and scope of these two propositions. Predestination to evil is clearly
excluded in the first canon of Quierzy. As for predestination to eternal life,
it is viewed as a grace, a special mercy as regards the elect whom God by His
grace has predestined to life, and to eternal life. The second canon reads:
"Our will, aided by prevenient grace and concomitant is free to do what is
good; and our will, forsaken by grace, is free to do what is evil." These
latter words indicate that sin does not happen without God's permission, who
justly allows it to happen in one, while mercifully preserving another from it.
This truth is brought out more clearly in the following canon, and what is of
essential significance is that portion of it which states: "Almighty God
wills without exception, all men to be saved, though not all are saved. That
some are saved, however, is the gift of Him who saves; if some perish, it is
the fault of them that perish." This canon is taken from the writings of
St. Prosper. From this third canon of Quierzy we see that, if the will to save
is universal, it is not equally so for all, as the Pelagians wanted it to be.
It is efficacious only as regards the elect, and that in virtue of a special
gift; but there is no predestination to evil. The two aspects of the mystery
are affirmed in plain language, but we fail to perceive the mode of their
intimate reconciliation. The fourth canon of Quierzy affirms that Christ died
for all men.
The third Council of Valence (855) insisted more strongly
on the gratuity of predestination to eternal life in so far as it is distinct
from simple foreknowledge, for this latter also extends to evil. According to
the declarations of this council, the least good and the least punishment that
is justly inflicted, never occur without a positive and infallible decree from
God, and no sin is committed, and nowhere by preference, without His
foreknowledge and permission.(34)
We know that after the Council of Langres (859), the
discussions concerning predestination between Hincmar, the great opponent of
Gottschalk, and the Church of Lyons, were terminated at Thuzey in the year 860.
The synodal letter, approved in this council, contains the following
affirmations.(35) (1) Whatsoever the Lord pleased He hath done in heaven and on
earth. For nothing is done in heaven or on earth, except what He Himself is
pleased to do, or justly permits to be done. This means that all good things,
whether easy or difficult to accomplish, whether natural or supernatural, come
from God, and that sin does not occur, nor in this one rather than in the
other, without His divine permission. Countless consequences evidently are
included in this absolutely general principle. The Thomists see in it the
equivalent of the principle of predilection. The other assertions of this
synodal letter are derived from this general principle. They are as follows:
(2) God wills all men to be saved and no one to perish. . . nor after the fall
of the first man is it His will forcibly to deprive man of free will. (3) That
those, however, who are walking in the path of righteousness, may continue to do
so and persevere in their innocence, He heals and aids their free will by
grace. (4) They who go far from God, who is desirous of gathering the children
of Jerusalem that wills it not, will perish. (5) Hence it is because of God's
grace that the world is saved; and it is because man has free will that the
world be judged. (6) Adam, through willing what is evil, lost the power to do
what is good. . . . Wherefore the whole human race became a mass of perdition.
If no one had been rescued from it, God's justice would not have been to blame.
That many are saved, however, is due to God's ineffable grace. This last
statement repeats what SS. Augustine and Prosper said. Thus at the end of these
conferences of the ninth century, the bishops, assembled in council at Thuzey,
rejected absolutely the theory of predestination to evil and affirmed God's
universal will to save, as Prosper had done. God never commands the impossible,
but He wills to make it possible for all to fulfil His precepts and obtain
salvation. That is what all the bishops assembled in this last mentioned
council affirmed with SS. Augustine and Prosper. But they do not deny, on that
account, the other aspect of the mystery, to wit: the absolute gratuity of
predestination, of true predestination as opposed to reprobation.
3) In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This
teaching of the Church was confirmed both by the decisions of the Council of
Trent against the errors of Protestantism and by the condemnation of Jansenism.
The Church again declares that man, though having contracted the stain of
original sin, is free to do good by the aid of grace, consenting to co-operate
with it, though at the same time he can resist it.(36) From this it follows
that God predestines no one to evil;(37) but He wills, on the contrary, the
salvation of all men; and Christ dies for all, although all do not receive the
benefit that is the fruit of His death, "but only those to whom the merit
of His passion is communicated."(38) In the case of adults good works are
necessary for salvation, and, in the order of execution, heavenly glory is the
reward granted at the end of their probation for meritorious acts.
It is likewise declared against Jansenism that Christ did
not die only for the predestined, or only for the faithful;(39) that there is a
grace which is truly sufficient, and which makes the fulfilment of God's
precepts possible for all those on whom these precepts are imposed. The Church,
quoting the words of St. Augustine, says again in refuting the Protestants and Jansenists:
"God commands not impossibilities, but, by commanding, both admonishes
thee to do what thou art able, and to pray for what thou art not able to
do."(40) She also says that "God does not abandon the just without
previously having been abandoned by them."(41) It is only mortal sin that
deprives them of sanctifying grace, and they are deprived of certain actual
graces necessary for salvation only because they resisted sufficient graces.
God does not permit us to be tempted beyond our powers of resistance;(42) the
grace of conversion is offered to sinners,(43) and only those are deprived of
it who, failing in their duty, refuse it, this being something which God
permits, but of which He is by no means the cause.(44) The Church, however,
though affirming that God by a sufficient grace makes the fulfilment of His
precepts possible for all, none the less affirms the efficacy of grace that
actually is productive of good works. The Council of Trent declares that
"God, unless men be themselves wanting to His grace, as He has begun the
good work, so will He perfect it, working in them to will and to
accomplish."(45)
What are we to conclude then from the teaching of the
Church against the conflicting heresies of Semipelagianism and
predestinarianism, heresies that were renewed by Calvinism and Jansenism?
To sum up: Against Semipelagianism, we must say that the
Church affirms particularly three things: (a) The cause of predestination to
grace is not the foreknowledge of naturally good works performed, nor is it due
to any preliminary acts of the natural order that are supposed to prepare for
salvation. (b) Predestination to glory is not due to foreseen supernatural
merits that would continue to be effective apart from the special gift of final
perseverance. (c) Complete predestination, which comprises the whole series of
graces, is gratuitous or previous to foreseen merits. And St. Thomas
understands this to mean that "whatsoever is in man disposing him towards
salvation, is all included under the effect of predestination."(46) In a
word: "that some are saved is the gift of Him who saves."(47)
4) Against predestinarianism and the doctrines of
Protestantism and Jansenism that revive it, the Church teaches: (a) God wills
in a certain way to save all men and He makes the fulfilment of His precepts
possible for all; (b) There is no predestination to evil, but God has decreed
from all eternity to inflict eternal punishment for the sin of final
impenitence which He foresaw, He being by no means the cause of it but merely permitting
it.
We see that the teaching of the Church against these
conflicting heresies may be summed up in these profound words of St. Prosper,
which the Council of Quierzy makes its own. Against Pelagianism and
Semipelagianism the council says: "That some are saved, is the gift of Him
who saves." Against predestinarianism it says: "That some perish, is
the fault of those who perish." Holy Scripture expressed the same thought
in these words: "Destruction is thy own, O Israel; thy help is only in
Me."(48)
There is no difference of degree between the assent of the
Christian mind unhesitatingly given to these two great and indisputable truths,
and the mysterious mode of the intimate reconciliation.
Footnotes
29. Denz., no. 3026.
30. For an explanation of this episode, consult the Dict. de théol. cath.
31. Denz., no. 316.
32. Ibid., no. 320.
33. PL, CXXVI, 123. Cf. Dict.
de théol. cath., art. "Prédestination."
34. Denz., nos. 321-22.
35. PL, CXXVI, 123.
36. Denz., no. 797; d. no. 816.
37 Ibid., no. 827.
38. Ibid., no. 795.
39. Ibid., nos. 1096, 1294, 1380 ff.
40. Ibid., no. 804.
41. Ibid., nos. 804. 806, 1794.
42. Ibid., no. 979.
43. Ibid.. no. 807.
44. Ibid., nos. 816, 827, 1677.
45. Ibid., no. 806; Phil. 2: 13.
46. Summa theol., Ia,
q.23, a.5.
47. Denz., no. 318
48. Osee 13: 9
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