Question VII: Whether true religion ought to be one

So demented with love of insane liberty are the Sectaries that they embrace all sects with canine greed. Thus the Confession of the Ministers of Zurich, printed in the year 1565, gathers all the flocks of heretics into one pigsty. Thus also the Calendar of Geneva.

To all the sects of the heathens, of Mahomet, and of the Indies, Francis Puccius of Filidio extends the unity of Religion in his book on the efficacy of Christ the Savior: Behold the broad way to Atheism.

The Church cries out, torn by those Wolves, proclaiming aloud the unity of Religion.

It is proved by D. Bonaventure, first in 4. dist. 3. part. 1. art. 1. quaest. 2. and in 3. dist. 23. art. 1. quaest. 3. and by that text of Eph. 4. One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism. From this also the reason is drawn out, which is also that of the Holy Fathers. For from the fact that God is one, and the simple Lord, indivisible Truth, He issued one Faith, one Baptism, and one law; whence we gather the unity of divine worship, and He names it one Religion, for this reason, that it joins all together with a tight bond in the honor of God, as D. Bonaventure notes in lib. 4. Pharetr. cap. 19. from D. Augustine lib. de quantit. animae, cap. 36. Therefore the Apostle in the passage above set before it: Careful to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace; as the Saintly Doctor indicates in the Appendix to the Dieta, Dominica 16. after Pentecost. Thus also Orosius lib. 7. cap. 33. cited by D. Bonaventure serm 16. Hexaëmer.

It is proved secondly by D. Bonaventure serm. 9. Hexaëmer. from Isaiah 28. Behold I will lay a stone in the foundations of Sion, a tried stone, a corner stone, a precious stone, etc. It is expounded indeed of Christ, who as it were as a corner joined the Jews and the Gentiles into one Faith and one Church, as the Saintly Doctor notes on Luke 20, where Christ expounds this of himself, whom Paul imitates Eph. 2. and Peter 1 Pet. 2.; nevertheless he also understands unity in Religion, saying: In whom you also are built up together into a spiritual house, as S. Bonaventure saw in the place cited, Hexaëmer. where he thence gathered the firmness of Religion from its unity.

The same Paul sets forth, while he often describes the Church as one body under one head 1. Cor. 12. etc. which D. Bonaventure observes everywhere, together with D. Cyprian ep. 6. Optatus cont. Donat. lib. 2. Jerome lib. 1. in Iovin. cap. 14. and others.

FURTHER, one Church is defined by the Councils, the Constantinopolitan, the Lateran under Innocent III. 1215, by the first decree of the Council of Sens, and all the Holy Fathers proclaim it aloud.

From the unity of Sacrifice S. Ignatius gathers it in his epistle to the Ephesians.

From the unity of the doctrine of the dogmas of Faith it is powerfully argued by Tertullian lib. 1. de praescript. Epiphanius lib. 1. cont. haereses, heresy 31. D. Bonaventure serm. 9. Hexaëmer.; which indeed is a most weighty reason, as Boverius says demonstrat. 1. Symbol. art. 8. And D. Jerome pursues it in his epistle to Evander, correcting the other one adduced above.

From the very reason of the Church espoused to Christ himself, Paul gathers it in Ephesians 5. With him agree Cyprian in the place cited, Origen homil. 2. in Cant. D. Bonaventure on John 19, and often in the Hexaëm. together with Theodoret on Psalm 47.

The Saintly Doctor also OBSERVES, on John 19, that the seamless tunic was kept whole by the soldiers, since it signified the spousal garment of Christ and the unity of Religion, as S. Basil notes in mamante [in homily on Psalm 28], Augustine tract. 118. in Ioan. Gregory 32. moral. cap. 7.

IN the breaking of bread, which is called one Sacrament, the Saintly Doctor considers the unity of the Church on Luke 24 together with Bede lib 6. cap. 92. and with the Apostle saying: We being many, are one bread, one body. Thus also Clement of Alexandria lib. 7. Strom. I have treated of this p. p. tract. 1. disput. 5.