Library › Eastern Patriarchs › Letters concerning the Establishment of the Holy Synod (1723)
Letters concerning the Establishment of the Holy Synod (1723)
Eastern Patriarchs, tr. King, 1865
2. Article 2
We believe that the divine and sacred Scripture is inspired of God, and on this account we ought to believe it without doubt, not indeed otherwise than as the Catholic Church has expounded and handed down. For every abomination of the heretics receives indeed the holy Scripture, but misinterprets it, using metaphors and equivocations, and sophisms of human wisdom; confounding what should not be confounded, and trifling with things not to be trifled with. For if one here and another there daily had a different opinion concerning this, the Catholic Church of Christ would not be, by the grace of Christ, to the present day a Church having one opinion concerning the faith, and always believing the same immovably; but she would be split up into ten thousand fragments, and be subject to heresies, and she would not be the holy Church, the pillar and ground of the truth, unspotted and without blemish; but she would be the Church of evil-minded persons, as without doubt the Church of the heretics appears to have become, who are not ashamed to learn from the Church, and afterwards wickedly reject her. Therefore we believe also that the testimony of the Catholic Church is not inferior to that of the holy Scripture. For one and the same Holy Ghost being the creator of both, it is precisely the same to be instructed by the holy Scripture, or by the Catholic Church. Finally, it is possible that any man, speaking of himself, may make a mistake, or deceive, or be deceived; whereas, on the other hand, as the Catholic Church never spoke, or speaks of herself, but of the Spirit of God, (which Spirit continually enriches the teacher,) it is altogether impossible for her to err, or any way deceive, or be deceived, but is always as infallible as the sacred Scripture, and has perpetual authority.