Tradition

 "SEE," says Athanasius, "we are proving that this view has been transmitted from Fathers to Fathers; but ye, O modern Jews and disciples of Caiaphas, whom can ye assign as Fathers to your phrases? Not one of the understanding and wise, (for all abhor you,) but the devil alone; none but he is your father in this apostasy, who both in the beginning scattered on you the seed of this irreligion, and now persuades you to slander the Ecumenical Council for committing to writing, not your doctrines, but that which 'from the beginning those who were eye-witnesses and ministers of the Word' have handed down to us. For the faith which the Council has confessed in writing, that is the faith of the Catholic Church; to assert this, the blessed Fathers so expressed themselves while condemning the Arian heresy; and this is a chief reason why these men apply themselves to calumniate the Council. For it is not the terms which trouble them, but that those terms prove them to be heretics, and presumptuous beyond other heresies." Decr. § 27.

 Elsewhere he speaks of the Arians "forcing on the divine oracles a misinterpretation according to their own private sense," Orat. i. § 37, and cries out, "Who heard in his first catechisings that God had a Son, without understanding it in our sense? who, on the rise of this odious heresy, was not at once startled at what he heard as being strange to him?" Orat. ii. § 34.

 For parallel passages from Athan. and many others, vid. arts. on Definitions, Heretics,Private Judgment,Rule of Faith, and Scripture . From these it would appear that the two main sources of Revelation are Scripture and Tradition; that these constitute one Rule of Faith, and that, sometimes as a composite rule, sometimes as a double and co-ordinate, sometimes as an alternative, under the magisterium, of course, of the Church, and without an appeal to the private judgment of individuals.

 These articles, too, effectually refute the hypothesis of some Protestants, who, to destroy the force of the evidence in favour of our doctrine of Tradition, wish to maintain that by Tradition then was commonly meant Scripture; and that when the Fathers speak of "Evangelical Tradition" they mean the Gospels, and when they speak of "Apostolical" they mean the Epistles. This will not hold, and it may be right, perhaps, here to refer to several passages in illustration.

 For instance, Irenæus says, "Polycarp, ... whom we have seen in our first youth, ... was taught those lessons which he learned from the Apostles, which the Church also transmits, which alone are true. All the Churches of Asia bear witness to them; and the successors of Polycarp, down to this day, who is a much more trustworthy and sure witness of truth than Valentinus," etc. Hær. iii. 3, § 4. Here is not a word about Scripture, not a hint that by "transmission" and "succession" Scripture is meant. And so Irenæus continues, contrasting "Traditio quæ est ab Apostolis" with Scripture: "Neque Scripturis neque Traditioni consentire;" "Apostolicam Ecclesiæ Traditionem;" "veterem Apostolorum Traditionem." Again, Theodoret says that the word [ theotokos ] was used, [ kata ten apostoliken paradosin ]; and no one would say that [ theotokos ] was in Scripture. Hær. iv. 12. And S. Basil contrasts [ ta ek tes engraphou didaskalias ] with [ ta ek tes ton apostolon paradoseos ], de Sp. S. n. 66. Presently he speaks of [ oute tes theopneustou graphes, oute ton apostolikon paradoseon ]. n. 77. Origen speaks of a dogma, [ oute paradidomenon hypo ton apostolon, oute emphainomenon pou ton graphon ]. Tom. in Matth. xiii. 1. Vid. also in Tit. t. 4, p. 696, and Periarchon. præf. 2, and Euseb. Hist v. 23. So in S. Athanasius (de Synod. 21, fin.) we read of "the Apostolical Tradition and teaching which is acknowledged by all;" and soon after, of a believing conformably [ tei euangelikei kai apostolikei paradosei ]." § 23, init. where [ paradosis ] means doctrine, not books, for the Greek would run [ tei euang. kai tei apost. ] were the Gospels and Epistles intended. (Thus S. Leo, "secundum evangelicam apostolicamque doctrinam," Ep. 124, 1.) And he makes [ he euangelike paradosis ] and [ he ekklesiastike par. ] synonymous. Cf. Athan. contr. Apoll. i. 22, with ad Adelph. 2, init. In like manner, Neander speaks of two kinds of so-called Apostolical Traditions, doctrinal and ecclesiastical, Eccl. Hist. vol. ii. p. 333, transl. And Le Moyne considers the Apostolical Tradition of S. Hippolytus to be what S. Irenæus means by it, doctrine, as distinct from Scripture. Var. Sacr. t. 2, p. 1062. Vid. also Pearson, Vindic. Ignat. i. 4, circ. fin. In like manner, S. Augustine contrasts Apostolical Tradition with writings, de Bapt. contr. Don. ii. 7, v. 23, and he calls Infant Baptism an Apostolical Tradition. De Peccat. Mer. i. 26. And S. Cyprian speaks of, not only wine, but the mixed Cup in the Holy Eucharist, as an "Evangelical truth" and "tradition of the Lord." Epist. 63. 14, 15.

 Some instances indeed may be found in the Fathers of Scripture considered as a kind of Tradition, which it is: but these do not serve to make an unnatural (or rather an impossible) interpretation imperative in the case of such passages as the above. E.g. Athan. says, "The Apostolical Tradition teaches, blessed Peter saying, etc., and Paul writing," etc. Adelph. 6. Suicer refers to Greg. Nys. de Virg. xi. fin. Cyril in Is. lxvi. 5, p. 909. Balsamon, ad Can. vi. Nic. 2, Cyprian, Ep. 74, etc.