Article — Noldin, Summa of Moral Theology
Article Second. On the Truths Necessarily to Be Believed
9. Declaration. Now it is asked which truths must necessarily be believed explicitly. It does not suffice that everything which the Church proposes to be believed as revealed be implicitly believed, but some truths must be believed explicitly and therefore also known. Further, some truths are to be known and believed explicitly by necessity of means, others by necessity of precept. But with respect to the remaining truths it suffices that each one believe them implicitly, being prepared also to believe explicitly any which he has known to have been proposed by the Church as to be believed.
10. Truths to be believed by necessity of means. 1. It is certain that by necessity of means unto justification and salvation this twofold truth must be explicitly known and believed: that God is, and that God is a rewarder: for a. But without faith it is impossible to please God: for he who approaches God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder to those who seek Him.1 b. The contrary proposition, "Only faith in one God seems necessary by necessity of means, but not explicit faith in a rewarder," has been condemned.2 c. Man cannot be converted to God and tend into Him unless he knows that God is, and hopes that He will pardon his sins and confer eternal beatitude upon him.
Hence it follows that never, not even in the article of death, can baptism or absolution be conferred on an adult who is ignorant of these two mysteries, the knowledge and faith of which are certainly necessary by necessity of means; for since he lacks the absolutely necessary means, he is not capable of the grace of justification.
- Practically, it is probable that after the promulgation of the Gospel, the mysteries also of the Most Holy Trinity and of the Incarnation must be explicitly known and believed by the same necessity of means unto justification and salvation; but certainly they must be believed implicitly, and by necessity of precept also explicitly.
a. The question whether, for obtaining justification, faith also of each mystery, of the Most Holy Trinity and of the Incarnation, is required by necessity of means, is very difficult and disputed among theologians. Those who affirm the necessity of means attempt to demonstrate it not indeed from the nature of the thing, but by positive arguments. But those who deny this chiefly show from St. Paul that faith in only the twofold truth suffices, since, speaking of the necessity of faith, he teaches: Without faith it is impossible to please God: for he who approaches God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder to those who seek Him.3
The same authors argue thus: before the coming of Christ explicit faith in these mysteries was not necessary; but it cannot be admitted that gentiles after the coming of Christ can be saved with greater difficulty than before His coming, which would have to be affirmed if explicit faith in these mysteries were necessary by necessity of means.4
b. Although the opinion which denies this is not to be called morally certain, nevertheless it can be called truly probable, indeed theoretically more probable, and it is called sufficiently probable by St. Alphonsus, to whom the affirmative opinion seems more probable (n. 2);5 therefore for practice these things are to be held:
a. An adult not yet baptized who is found in the article of death and cannot be instructed because of the gravity of the illness can be baptized; in the same way a baptized adult who in the article of death cannot be instructed can be absolved conditionally, even if each is ignorant of the mysteries of the Trinity and of the Incarnation: for since their knowledge and faith is probably not absolutely necessary, it is permitted to use this probable opinion concerning the value of the sacraments where the eternal salvation of the dying person is at stake.
b. But outside the article of death, it is not permitted to baptize an adult not yet baptized, nor to absolve a baptized adult, if they are ignorant of the mysteries of the Trinity and of the Incarnation: for since the opinion affirming absolute necessity is probable, baptism and penance could be frustrated of their effect. Therefore an adult of this kind must either be dismissed until he has been sufficiently instructed, or immediately before the conferral of the sacrament he must be instructed, insofar as there is need, with the admonition added that he should acquire for himself the knowledge of those things which must be known and believed by precept.6
c. Therefore an adult who for some time had confessed while ignorant of the mysteries of the Most Holy Trinity and of the Incarnation need not necessarily repeat the confessions made in this state of ignorance: for confessions are not necessarily to be repeated unless it is certain that they were invalid; but those confessions were probably valid.
1 Heb. 11:6.
2 Proposition 22, condemned by Innocent XI.
3 Heb. 11:6.
4 Cf. Schmid, loc. cit., n. 137 ff.
5 Citations from the moral theology of St. Alphonsus are made according to the typical edition.
6 Cf. Holy Office, 3 May 1703.
11. Truths to be believed by necessity of precept. From the precept of Christ the Lord, obliging under grave matter, all the faithful, when they have arrived at the use of reason, are bound, besides those things which must be believed by necessity of means, explicitly to know and believe the principal mysteries of the Christian faith; besides this they ought to know the commandments which are to be observed by all: a. Going into the whole world, preach the Gospel to every creature. He who has believed will be saved, but he who has not believed will be condemned.1 Therefore going, teach all nations ... teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.2 b. Besides this, the state of the Christian man requires that he know and believe the principal mysteries of the Christian faith, and know and observe the precepts common to all.
12. Declaration of this precept. 1. What things in particular must be known by necessity of precept and, insofar as they are revealed, also believed, we learn from the usage and practice of the Church; but according to all authors these are reduced to these four:
a. The Apostles' Creed,1 which contains the sum of the Christian faith.
In the Apostles' Creed, however, some things are contained which must be explicitly believed not under grave obligation, but only under light obligation: a. the perpetual virginity of the Blessed Mary; b. the burial of Christ and the descent into hell, because these circumstances are of lesser moment; c. the session at the right hand of the Father and the communion of saints, because these are too difficult for the faithful to grasp. Indeed, some things need not be known even under light obligation: that Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate and rose again on the third day.
b. The precepts of the decalogue, which ought to be observed by each one, and by parity of reason the common precepts of the Church also must be added.
The precepts of the decalogue must not only be known, but also believed, for these precepts have been revealed so that they may be observed by all; but what has been revealed by God must be believed with divine faith. The precepts of the Church, however, are not to be believed, but only known and observed, because they have not been revealed.
c. The Lord's Prayer, which contains all things which are to be hoped for and asked from God.
d. The sacraments necessary for all: baptism, penance, and the Eucharist; but the other sacraments he ought to know who is about to receive them.
Besides these four, there are not other things which all the faithful must know and believe, except the manner of eliciting acts of faith, hope, charity, and contrition, even if a fixed formula for eliciting them is not held in memory; but by reason of state and condition, for example of a priest or parish priest, it can happen that someone must explicitly and distinctly know and believe many other things.
- Generally it is not necessary that the faithful hold these truths in memory word for word or in the order in which they are proposed; nor is it required that they have a clear and distinct cognition of each one, but it suffices that they know them as to substance, that is, as to the common and simple meaning of the words.
Nevertheless most authors judge that those who do not learn word for word the symbol of faith, the Lord's Prayer, and the Angelic Salutation, commit a venial sin, unless dulness of mind excuses them, especially since it is greatly to be feared that they will entirely neglect the obligation of praying unless they have learned at least the Lord's Prayer and the Angelic Salutation.
a. Therefore under grave obligation it is necessary that the faithful, with respect to the Creed, when asked concerning the several things which are contained in it, answer rightly; with respect to the decalogue and the precepts of the Church, that, when asked, they know that those things are commanded or prohibited by God or by the Church; with respect to the Lord's Prayer, that they know that God is to be prayed to and that all goods of soul and body are to be sought from Him; with respect to the sacraments, that they know the things which are necessarily required so that they can be received with fruit.
b. From these things for practice it follows: a. that not only those who neglect to learn these things sin, gravely or lightly according to the gravity of the matter, but also pastors who do not instruct their subjects, and parents who do not instruct their children, either by themselves or through others, in those things which are necessary for salvation.
b. In confession penitents who are probably presumed to lack this knowledge are to be questioned concerning the things which are necessary to know. And since in our time, in matters pertaining to religion, those who in profane matters appear sufficiently cultivated are frequently very unformed, and these are easily offended by questions of this kind, it will be better to teach them concerning the necessary truths in such a way that acts of faith are elicited with them concerning these truths.
c. Those who are ignorant of the things necessary to know by necessity of precept cannot be absolved unless they have first promised that they are willing to learn them; and where the ignorance is gravely culpable, unless they first grieve over this sin, accuse it, and conceive the purpose of learning these things afterward.
d. It is clear that those who because of narrowness of mind are incapable of learning these things are not bound by this precept; and if there were men so unformed that they could not conceive and explicitly believe the mysteries of the Most Holy Trinity and of the Incarnation, one should not despair concerning their salvation: for although faith in these mysteries is said to be necessary for adults by necessity of means, the unformed of this kind in this respect are not to be reckoned among adults, but among infants, who cannot elicit faith concerning these mysteries.
e. Those are bound to acquire for themselves a more perfect knowledge of faith who live in circumstances in which, without greater knowledge of religion, they are in great danger of losing faith, as happens to those who must converse more frequently with unbelievers and socialists.
1 A symbol, etymologically, signifies a collection of several things; in military usage, a sign or tessera by which true soldiers are distinguished from others; in Christian usage, a brief sum of things to be believed. The principal symbols are these three: a. the Apostolic Symbol, which the faithful recite in daily prayers and clerics in the divine office. b. The Niceno-Constantinopolitan Symbol, which was begun by the first general Council of Nicaea and was augmented by the first Council of Constantinople. This, with some explanations added, is that which the Latin Church recites in Mass. c. The Athanasian Symbol, which the Church orders to be recited in the office of Sunday at Prime; nevertheless, learned men commonly deny that it belongs to St. Athanasius. From symbols are to be distinguished professions of faith, of which the more celebrated is the Tridentine, which Pius IV composed and decreed to be emitted with an oath in certain determined circumstances.