Chapter V — What the Faithful ought to know of those things which form morals, and conform the life of Christians to the exemplar of our Master Christ Jesus

I. Both Theologians and Parish priests and Confessors are commonly solicitous and diligent in explaining the articles of faith which illuminate the mind, and which halt almost entirely in the mind. The Faithful also easily commit such articles to memory, since they inflict no grave inconvenience upon the flesh and the appetites. On the contrary, both the ministers, in explaining the doctrine of morals, and the Faithful, in learning it, at times labor under negligence. The Christian religion, as was said in Book I and must often be said again, consists of two things — namely, of what is to be believed and what is to be done — which mutually aid one another, and which, separated, are bereft of heavenly life.

II. If faith without works is dead, the instruction of faith without the instruction of morals is likewise languid and dead. Add to this that the precepts of morals, since they are hostile enemies to flesh, blood, and the appetites, are learned with difficulty, and with greater difficulty imprinted upon the soul. Therefore with greater diligence and more fervent zeal must the ministers of the evangelical flock imbue and teach the Faithful the divine and ecclesiastical precepts.

III. The first thing the person to be baptized promises is: I renounce Satan, and all his pomps, and his works. This renunciation precedes the profession of faith, as a necessary preamble, as it is called. When baptized infants become adults, and come to Catechism, that is, to the learning of Christian doctrine, the Catechists are bound first of all to explain most exactly the legitimate meanings of this promise and renunciation. They must teach them what those pomps and works signify, to which they have bidden farewell. Those pomps are vain and immodest garments; they are luxury, haughtiness, comedies, theatrical spectacles, which the devil devised for the seduction of men. Those works are all the things that cannot be referred to the glory of God.

IV. After the explanation of this renunciation, what the Christian life is must be set forth. Now this is the image of the life of Christ Jesus, whose principal lineaments are humility, charity, justice, chastity. A specimen of these virtues must be sketched for them; and it must be explained that, by force of the baptismal profession, the Faithful have consecrated both soul and body to God: the body itself, as Paul says, is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and must therefore be kept chaste, modest, and undefiled. Let the Catechists set forth that Christians are placed in this world solely as soldiers, who must of necessity fight continually against the World, the Flesh, and the Devil. Just as these three enemies watch day and night to destroy souls eternally, so Christians are bound to keep watch, that they may avoid seduction and attain the victory. Let them inculcate more deeply that they cannot attain the kingdom of heaven without perpetual conflict against the three enemies indicated; and that all who will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution, as Christ our Master suffered even unto death.

V. These are, as it were, the general preceptions — and many others besides, which were recounted in Book I — to be explained distinctly and perspicuously, and continually repeated: because, just as an effigy is with difficulty carved in hard marble, so with the greatest difficulty do these axioms, contrary to the appetites of men, adhere in their souls. Today they are learned, and tomorrow they vanish. And yet, unless souls be purged and formed by these preceptions, with difficulty are the very mysteries believed with a living faith. Let the ministers of Christ come to their senses, then, and understand that they most gravely betray their proper ministry unless they exactly teach young men and grown girls the doctrine by which the Christian life is to be formed after the example of Christ and the Saints. This general instruction being premised — which is as it were the basis and foundation of the Christian edifice — the rules and precepts must be explained which Christ has prescribed as the means for attaining this end.

VI. Question I. Which are the precepts and means which God commands for the forming of morals, which Christians are bound to know? Answer. They are the ten commandments of the Decalogue, of each of which there will be discourse. Let the ministers of God be diligent and fervent in explaining these two commandments: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God ... and thy Neighbor as thyself. The faithful, then, must know the ten commandments of the Decalogue, and the seven Sacraments. The knowledge of Baptism, of Penance, and of the Eucharist is especially necessary, because these three Sacraments are necessary to all adults. Yet ignorance of the other four is not harmless, since that sevenfold number is a prerogative of the catholic Church. They must, moreover, know the dignity of these Sacraments, and their efficacy for purging souls and adorning them with sanctity; and besides, the dispositions which must precede in those receiving them for their worthy reception — otherwise the knowledge of them would be fruitless: for they must be known to this end, that they may profit souls.

VII. The precept of praying is grave. Now the prayer which Christ imposed upon us is the Lord's Prayer. For thus he says, Matthew 6: Thus therefore shall you pray: Our Father, etc.; and holy Mother Church says: Admonished by salutary precepts, and formed by divine institution, we dare to say: Our Father, etc. This prayer of Christ the Catechism of Trent wisely interprets; therefore Parish priests ought to explain this interpretation to the Faithful in the vernacular tongue. Necessary, moreover, is the knowledge of the precepts of holy Mother Church, and of the angelic salutation. Let Parish priests therefore diligently take care that grown children learn the Decalogue, the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and also the angelic Salutation.

VIII. This must be added: that each one must know, besides the articles of faith and the precepts of morals common to all, those precepts and obligations also which affect his own state and office, or dignity and profession, as the divine Scriptures, the Fathers, and the Theologians teach with St. Thomas, I-II, q. 76, art. 2, saying: All are bound to know in common the things which are of faith, and the universal precepts of the law; but each one, the things which pertain to his state or office. Hence the married must of necessity know the things which regard their state; and it belongs to them, if they be fathers of families, to teach their children, servants, and domestics.

IX. All ecclesiastics, by force of their proper state, are bound to a greater knowledge than the laity. Of ecclesiastics, moreover, some are Clerics, some Priests, some Parish priests, Bishops, etc. The knowledge of Parish priests and Confessors ought to shine forth singularly. For by natural and divine law pastors must feed the flock with the food of heavenly doctrine. These men are bound to be so exactly versed in the doctrine of faith and morals, that they can fit it to the capacity of the rude people. For it is theirs to break the bread for the little ones, and to imitate the nurse, who changes bread into milk, that the food may become suitable for infants. Prelates, Bishops, and supreme Pontiffs are bound to an ampler knowledge of the heavenly mysteries.

X. Question II. Can some rude Faithful be excused, on account of dullness of wit, from the knowledge of certain articles? Answer. There have been some who taught that certain rude persons can be saved even though they believe nothing article by article, provided they implicitly believe whatever holy Mother Church proposes to be believed. But this opinion is utterly false. Others say it is enough if those rude persons explicitly believe some one article. But this opinion too is improbable and false. Wherefore it must be said that in such persons, provided they be possessed of reason, there can be no invincible ignorance of the articles whose faith is necessary with the necessity of means. But whether, concerning the articles whose faith is necessary with the necessity of precept, invincible ignorance can occur in some rare case, I dare neither certainly deny nor affirm. Perhaps the affirming opinion is probable. The faculty of perceiving the truths of faith is to be sought not from human powers alone, but above all from the grace of God, who enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world.

XI. Question III. Do those Faithful satisfy the precept of faith who learn the Creed, the ten commandments of the Decalogue, the Lord's Prayer, and the angelic Salutation in Latin, when they are altogether ignorant of the Latin tongue? Answer. All these things, by force of an ecclesiastical precept confirmed by long custom, the Faithful must know by memory, at least as to the substance, as it is called, as has been said. If they understood nothing at all of what they have learned by memory, what would the knowledge profit them? Such persons would have a knowledge of words, not of truths; and it would be just as if they lacked knowledge.

XII. The precept of knowing the articles of faith contained in the Creed, and the precepts of the Decalogue, is divine. But that is ecclesiastical by which it is commanded that all these be consigned to memory, and recited by memory.

XIII. Question IV. When are the Faithful bound to elicit internal acts of faith? Answer. The Theologians distinguish a twofold obligation: one per se, the other per accidens. The first flows from the precept itself, prescinding from any other respect. The second arises from another precept, which cannot be fulfilled without an act of faith: as, if you would elicit an act of charity, faith is prerequired; for you cannot love God unless you believe him. Per se, then, children are obliged, once the light of reason is acquired, to elicit an act of faith; just as also, according to the graver Theologians, and especially St. Thomas, they are bound to love God with the love of charity. Concerning the other times at which adults are bound to elicit acts of faith, the Casuists dispute; and by the benefit of Probabilism they formerly, above all, exempted the Faithful from this obligation. Wherefore Innocent XI condemned this proposition: Faith is not considered to fall under a special precept and of itself. He condemned this other also: It is enough to elicit an act of faith once in a lifetime. Similar is another condemned by the same Pontiff: It suffices to have believed those mysteries once. Hence it appears that the precept of faith obliges of itself, and that it does not suffice to elicit an act of faith once in a lifetime, or once within a five-year period. The Casuists who wrote after the condemnation of the propositions dispute whether it is enough to elicit an act of faith once within two years, others once within a year. These disputations do not foster, but weaken, the exercise of faith; and, as it seems to me, they are also vain. Just Christians elicit acts of faith not once, but several times a day. For daily they recite the Creed, and pour out other prayers, which can scarcely — nay, not even scarcely — be performed without the exercise of faith. Christian sinners also, unless they be utterly criminal, recite the Creed and other prayers, frequent the Churches, hear Mass, adore the sacred Body of Christ. Wherefore few of the Faithful are found who do not frequently produce acts of faith. I should scarcely count him a Christian who within a year elicited an act of faith only once. This frequency of acts I dare not define; but let each fulfill the precept in the best way he can. The life of Christians is a life of faith, of hope, and of charity. The bodily life needs daily nourishment: and shall the spiritual and divine life bring forth acts only once in a year? The just man liveth by faith. If he lives, he frequently performs the offices of life. When the Sacraments are received, acts of faith are necessary. At the time of death the precept urges of itself — not only because then the demon renews his assaults (whom resist ye, strong in faith, says St. Peter, first epistle, chapter 5), but also because at that time above all Christians are bound to bear the testimony of their profession. And, to embrace all in few words: since the life of Christians is a warfare upon earth, St. Paul exhorts all that, taking the shield of faith, they fight strenuously against the powers of darkness, if they truly long to obtain the prize.