Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Argument
The seven following Epistles, namely one of St. James, two of St. Peter, three of St. John, and one of St. Jude, are called Catholic. Various authorities give various reasons for this title. The true and genuine one is that here "catholic" is not set in opposition to "heretical," as if to say: these Epistles are Christian and orthodox, not heretical. For who denies or is ignorant of this? By the same reasoning the Epistles of St. Augustine, Basil, Jerome, Nazianzen, Cyprian, Bernard, etc., would have to be called Catholic. "Catholic" therefore is not here set against "erroneous" but against "private" and "particular," and is the same as "universal" and "common," as if to say: these Epistles are not particular and private, e.g. to a friend; nor do they treat of particular affairs, as the Epistles of Cicero and others (which are therefore called Familiar) do; but they are universal and ecumenical, and treat of matters common to all Catholics and the faithful. Hence they are to be scattered everywhere throughout the world, to be recited, and frequently to be read and re-read.
Similar, indeed the same, were the encyclical or circular Epistles which Bishops used to write and send concerning grave and public matters — e.g. concerning persecution and martyrdoms — to all the Churches of the whole world, for the sake of the common faith and edification, that by such examples and admonitions they might inspire the faithful everywhere to constancy. Hence they were also publicly read in the Churches. Such are the encyclicals of St. Clement, Theophilus of Alexandria, St. Ignatius, St. Polycarp, etc. For just as the Jews and enemies of the Church used to send letters against Christians and the Christian faith throughout the whole world, in order to render it hateful to all (as St. Jerome attests in his preface to the Epistle of St. Paul), so on the contrary the Apostles and Bishops sent encyclical, that is, circular letters to the faithful of the whole world, to confirm them in faith and virtue. Hence Apollonius in Eusebius, Bk. V, ch. XVII, says of Themison: "He dared, in imitation of the Apostle, to compose a Catholic Epistle to all the Churches." The same Eusebius says that Dionysius, Bishop of the Corinthians, wrote Catholic Epistles to the Churches, that is, universal and encyclical or circular. For "Catholic" is a Greek word (composed of κατά, meaning beside, according to, through, on account of, around, and ὅλον, meaning whole, common, universal), signifying common, general and universal. Thus they are called by Hermogenes οἱ κοινοὶ καὶ καθολικοὶ λόγοι ("common and catholic discourses"). "Catholic" therefore is that which is concerned with all things. Hence physicians call a "catholic" remedy one which is useful for evacuating all the humors at once. Hence Quintilian, Bk. II, ch. XIII, calls universal or perpetual precepts Catholic.
Hence the faith and the Church is called Catholic, and this is her chief mark and indication: namely, that she herself is universal — of all peoples, places, and times — whereas heresies belong to particular persons, regions and ages, circumscribed within their own boundaries and corners. Hear St. Augustine, Epistle 170 to Severinus: "This is the Catholic Church; whence she is called in Greek καθολική, because she is spread throughout the whole world. No one is permitted to be ignorant of her; therefore, according to the word of our Lord Jesus Christ, she cannot be hidden." The same Augustine, Against the Epistle of the Foundation, ch. IV: "In the bosom of the Catholic Church I am most justly held by the agreement of peoples and nations; held by the authority begun in miracles, nourished by hope, increased by charity, established by antiquity. Held by the succession of priests from the very See of the Apostle Peter, to whom after His resurrection the Lord entrusted His sheep to be fed, down to the present episcopate. Held finally by the very name 'Catholic,' which not without cause this Church alone has obtained among so many heresies — so that, although all heretics wish themselves to be called Catholic, yet to a stranger asking where one assembles for the Catholic Church, no heretic dares to point out either his own basilica or his house." Venerable Bede on Canticles, ch. VI: "Just as, he says, there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, so there is one Catholic multitude of all the elect, throughout all the places of the world and the times of the age, subject to the same one God and Father." St. Pacian, Bishop of Barcelona, in Epistle 1 to Sympronian the Novatian on the name "Catholic," says: "Christian is my name, but Catholic is my surname; the former names me, the latter shows me forth. By this I am proved, by it I am designated, etc. The Catholic is called everywhere one, or, as the more learned hold, the obedience of all — namely to the commandments of God; and thus the Catholic is a Christian." St. Hilary to the Emperor Constantius: "Certainly, he says, the voices of those crying out ought to be heard by your gentleness: I am a Catholic, I do not wish to be a heretic; I am a Christian, not an Arian; and it is better for me to die in this age than, under the domination of any private man's power, to corrupt the chaste virginity of truth." Again, St. Augustine on Psalm LXV, on the verse "Sing joyfully to God, all the earth": "Let no one, he says, sing joyfully in part — let all the earth sing joyfully, let the Catholic sing joyfully, the Catholic holds the whole. Whoever holds a part and is cut off from the whole wishes to howl, not to sing joyfully." Excellently does Vincent of Lerins say in his golden booklet against the profane novelties of heretics: "In the Catholic Church herself, he says, the greatest care must be taken that we hold that which has been believed everywhere, always, and by all. For that is truly and properly Catholic, as the very meaning and reasoning of the name declares, which truly comprehends all things universally. But this only comes to pass if we follow universality, antiquity, and consent. We follow universality in this manner, if we confess this one faith to be true, which the whole Church throughout the world confesses. Antiquity, in this manner, if we depart in no way from those interpretations which it is plain that our holy elders and fathers celebrated. Consent, likewise in this manner, if in that very antiquity we follow the definitions and judgments of all, or at least of nearly all, priests and masters alike."
These Epistles describe this Catholic faith, law, and Church, and they demonstrate and commend it to Catholics in every place and time; therefore they are called Catholic. Hence they are also surnamed Canonical, because they prescribe to the faithful an Apostolic Canon — a rule, norm, and form of believing rightly and living as a Christian; and because they obtain the canonical authority and dignity of Sacred Scripture and of the truth revealed by God, as the Councils of Laodicea, the Third of Carthage (chapter XLVII), Florence, and Trent (Session IV) define against some who once doubted this, as Eusebius attests in Bk. III of his History, chapter XXV. Hence they are also enrolled in the Catalogue of Canonical Books of Sacred Scripture by the Fathers — by Innocent I, Gelasius, Origen, Epiphanius, Athanasius, Jerome, Augustine, Damascene, and others whom Bellarmine cites in Bk. I, On the Word of God, ch. XVIII. Excellently does St. Jerome, Epistle 103 to Paulinus, say: "James, Peter, John, and Jude have published seven Epistles, as mystical as they are succinct, and brief and long alike: brief in words, long in meaning; so that rare is the one who is not shaken in the reading of them."
Note: Similar — indeed often the very same — sentiments are found in the Canonical Epistles as in the Pauline. The reason is that the same Spirit spoke through all the Apostles, and because they all wrote in the same age to the same peoples, on the same subject, on faith and the virtues: for the same reason, what one Prophet says the others say also, as I have shown in their Preface. Hence the Pauline Epistles bring great light to the Canonical: for Paul is more abundant, and more abundantly expressed and corrected the morals of the faithful of his age. Therefore the doctrines and judgments of Paul are the antistrophe to the judgments of St. Peter, James, John, and Jude, as I shall show in their proper places. For God willed this harmony of consent — and as it were a concord — to exist in the Epistles equally as in the Gospels, as an indubitable testimony of evangelical truth, so that no one may be able to doubt it, when he reads — nay sees — that all the Apostles and Evangelists, although separated in place and time, nevertheless write and constantly affirm the same things about it. These Epistles therefore contain the marrow of the Gospel: for their writers, the Apostles, were heralds of Christ; whence they everywhere allude to the words and doctrines of Christ described in the Gospels — indeed they cite the same and recall and instill them in the memory of the faithful.
Furthermore, St. Jude is wholly devoted to orthodox faith, St. John to charity, St. James to prayer and patience, and St. Peter to commending Christian holiness to the faithful. Among the works of St. Thomas Aquinas there exist Commentaries on the Canonical Epistles; but our Lorinus and others [hold otherwise]: although Bellarmine and some others suppose them to be genuine works of St. Thomas Aquinas. In truth, however, they are not of St. Thomas the Angelic Doctor, since they are by Thomas the Englishman, just as the Commentaries on Genesis, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the Apocalypse [also are]; so teach Sixtus of Siena and Possevinus in their Bibliothecae.