Extra Ecclesiam Nulla Salus: Part One
The Church has
always Believed and Taught that Only those who Die as Catholics (at least implicit) Can be Saved...
Some quotes from Scripture, the Fathers, the Doctors, Saints and Popes in
order to demonstrate this.
The Holy Bible: "And they, continuing daily with one accord in
the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with
gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favour with all
the people. And the Lord added
unto the Church daily such as should be saved." (Acts 2:46-7)
"Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said,
"It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to
you [Jews:] but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of
everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, "I hath set
thee to be a light to the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation
unto the ends of the earth.""
And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the
word of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed."
(Acts 13:46-8)
Pope St. Clement I, A.D. 88-97: "Heretical teachers pervert
Scripture and try to get into Heaven with a false key, for they
have formed their human assemblies later than the Catholic Church. From this previously-existing and most
true Church, it is very clear that these later heresies, and others which have
come into being since then, are counterfeit and novel inventions."
(Epistle to the Corinthians)
Saint Ignatius of Antioch, a disciple of Saint Peter and Saint Paul (died
A.D. 107): "Let no man deceive himself. Unless he believes that Christ Jesus has lived in the flesh,
and shall confess His cross and passion, and the blood which He shed for the
salvation of the world, he shall not attain eternal life, whether he be a
king, or a priest, or a ruler, or a private person, a master or a servant, a
man or a woman." (Epistle to the Smyrnaeans)
"For as many as are of God and of Jesus
Christ are also with the Bishop. And
as many as shall, in the exercise of repentance, return into the unity of the
Church, these, too, shall belong to God, that they may live according to
Jesus Christ. Do not err, my
brethren. If any man follows
him that makes a schism in the Church, he shall not inherit the
kingdom of God. If any one
walks according to a strange opinion, he agrees not with the passion
of Christ. (Epistle to the Philadelphians)
Saint Justin Martyr (died A.D. 165): "And you deceive yourselves
while you fancy that, because you are the seed of Abraham after the flesh,
therefore you shall fully inherit the good things announced to be bestowed by
God through Christ. For no one, not
even one of them, has anything to look for, but only those who in mind
are assimilated to the faith of Abraham, and who have recognised all the
mysteries. [...] So that it becomes you to eradicate this
hope from your souls, and hasten to know in what way forgiveness of sins, and
a hope of inheriting the promised good things, shall be yours. But there is no other way than this,
- to become acquainted with this Christ, to be washed in the fountain spoken
of by Isaiah for the remission of sins, and for the rest to live sinless
lives. [...]
"Further, I hold that those of the seed of Abraham
who live according to the law, and do not believe in this Christ before
death, shall not be saved." (Dialogue with Trypho the Jew.)
Saint Martial of Limoges (died A.D. 165): "All who do not confess Christ
to be true God shall go into eternal fire."
Saint Theophilus of Antioch (died A.D. 181): "And as, again, there are other
islands, rocky and without water, and barren, and infested by wild beasts,
and uninhabitable, and serving only to injure navigators and the
storm-tossed, on which ships are wrecked, and those driven among them perish,
- so there are doctrines of error - I mean heresies - which destroy
those who approach them. For they are
not guided by the word of truth; but as pirates, when they have filled their
vessels, drive them on the fore-mentioned places, that they may spoil them:
so also it happens in the case of those who err from the truth, that they are
all totally ruined by their error." (To Autolyctus)
Saint Irenaeus (died A.D. 202): "Since therefore we have such
proofs, it is not necessary to seek the truth among others [heretics] which
it is easy to obtain from the Church; since the apostles, like a rich man
[depositing his money in a bank,] lodged in her hands most copiously all
things pertaining to the truth: so that every man, whosoever will, can draw
from her the water of life. For she
is the entrance to life; all others are thiefs and robbers. On this account we are bound to avoid
them, but to make choice of the things pertaining to the Church with the
utmost diligence, and to lay hold of the tradition of the truth. [...]
"Wherefore it is incumbent to obey the presbyters
who are in the Church, those who, as I have shown, possess the succession
from the apostles; those who, together with the succession of the episcopate,
have received the certain gift of truth, according to the good pleasure of
the Father. But [it is also
incumbent] to hold in suspicion others who depart from the primitive
succession, and assemble themselves together in any place whatsoever,
[looking upon them] either as heretics of perverse minds, or as schismatics
puffed up and self-pleasing, or again as hypocrites, acting thus for the sake
of lucre and vainglory. For all these
have fallen away from the truth. And
the heretics, indeed, who bring strange fire to the alter of God - namely,
strange doctrines, - shall be burned up by the fire from heaven, as
were Nadab and Abiud. But such as
rise up in opposition to the truth, and exhort others against the Church of
God, [shall] remain among those in hell, being swallowed up by an earthquake,
even as those who were with Chore, Dathan, and, Abiron. But those who cleave asunder, and separate
the unity of the Church, [shall] receive from God the same punishment as
Jeroboam did." (Against the Heresies)
Saint Pionius (died A.D. 250): "I am a Christian and belong to
the Catholic Church. Would to God I
could persuade all of you to become Christians, for it will be the worse for
you to burn eternally after death."
Origen (died A.D. 254): "Let no man deceive
himself. Outside this house, that is,
outside the Church no one is saved." (In Iesu Nave homiliae)
Saint Cyprian (died A.D. 258): "But if any one considers these
things carefully, he will need no long discourse or arguments. The proof is simple and convincing, being
summed up in a matter of fact. The
Lord says to Peter, "I say to thee, that thou art Peter and upon this rock
I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not overcome it. It will give to thee the keys to the
kingdom of heaven. And what thou
shalt bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever thou
shalt loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven." And He says to him again after the
resurrection, "Feed my sheep."
It is on him that he builds the Church, and to him that he entrusts
the sheep to feed. [...] If a man
does not hold fast to this oneness of Peter, does he imagine that he still
holds the faith? If he deserts
the Chair of Peter upon whom the Church was built, has he still confidence
that he is in the Church?" (On the Unity of the Catholic Church)
"For whereas in the Gospels, and in the epistles
of the Apostles, the name of Christ is alleged for the remission of sins; it
is not in such a way as that the Son alone, without the Father, or against
the Father, can be of advantage to anybody; but that it might be shown to the
Jews, who boasted as to their having the Father, that the Father would
profit them nothing, unless they believed on the Son whom He had sent. For they who know God the Father the
Creator, ought also to know Christ the Son, lest they flatter and applaud
themselves about the Father alone, without the acknowledgement of His Son,
who also said, "No man cometh to the Father but by me." But He, the same, sets forth that it is
the knowledge of the two that saves, when he says, "And this is
life eternal, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom Thou hast sent." Therefore,
from the preaching and the testimony of Christ Himself, the Father who sent
must be known first, then afterwards Christ, who was sent, and there cannot
be a hope of salvation except by knowing the two together. [...]
"Can the power of baptism be greater or of more
avail than confession, than suffering, when one confesses Christ before men
and is baptized in his own blood?
And yet even this baptism does not benefit a heretic, although
he has confessed Christ, and been put to death outside the Church, unless the
patrons and advocates of heretics declare that the heretics who are slain in
a false confession of Christ are martyrs, and assign to them the glory and
the crown of martyrdom contrary to the testimony of the apostle, who
says that it will profit them nothing although they were burnt and
slain. [..] Not even the
baptism of a public confession and blood can profit a heretic, because there
is no salvation outside the Church." (Epistle LXXII)
Saint Firmilian (died A.D. 269): "What is the greatness of his
error, and what the depth of his blindness, who says that remission of sins
can be granted in the synagogues of heretics, and does not abide on
the foundation of the one Church." (Epistle to Cyprian)
Anonymous Third Century
Bishop: "And he on whom, when
he should be baptized, invocation should be made in the name of Jesus,
although he might obtain baptism under some error [as a heretic],
still would not be hindered from knowing the truth at some time or other, and
correcting his error, and coming to the Church and to the bishop, and
sincerely confessing our Jesus before men; so that then, when hands
were laid upon him by the bishop, he might also receive the Holy Spirit,
and he would not lose that former invocation of the name of Jesus [his
baptism as a heretic]. Which none of
us may disallow, although this invocation [his baptism as a heretic], if it
be standing bare and by itself, could not suffice for affording
salvation, lest on this principle we should also believe that even Gentiles
and heretics, who abuse the name of Jesus, could attain unto salvation
without the true and entire thing." (Treatise against the Rebaptism of
Heretics coming to the Church)
Lactantius (died A.D. 310): "It is the Catholic Church alone
which retains true worship. This is
the fountain of truth, this is the abode of the Faith, this is the temple of
God; into which if anyone shall not enter, or from which if anyone
shall go out, he is a stranger to the hope of life and eternal salvation. No one ought to flatter himself with
persevering strife. For the contest
is respecting life and salvation, which, unless it is carefully and
diligently kept in view, will be lost and extinguished." (The Divine
Institutes)
Council of Nicea (first ecumenical council, A.D. 325): "Let the
patriarch consider what things are done by the archbishops and bishops in
their provinces; and if he shall find anything done by them otherwise than it
should be, let him change it and order it, as seemeth to him fit; for he is
the father of all, and they are his sons.
And although the Archbishop be among the bishops as an elder brother,
who hath the care of his brethren, and to whom they owe obedience because he
is over them; yet the patriarch is to all those who are under his power, just
as he who holds the seat of Rome is the head and prince of all patriarchs;
inasmuch as he is first, as was Peter, to whom power is given over all
Christian princes, and over all their peoples, as he who is the Vicar of
Christ our Lord over all peoples and over the whole Christian Church, and
whoever shall contradict this, is excommunicated by the synod."
(Arabic Canons, Canon XXXIX)
The Synod of Laodicea, A.D. 343-381: "Canon XXXIV. No Christian shall
forsake the martyrs of Christ, and turn to false martyrs, that is, to
those of the heretics, or those who formerly were heretics; for they
are aliens from God. Let those
who go after them be anathema."
"Ancient Epitome of Canon XXXIV. Whosoever honours
an heretical pseudo-martyr, let him be anathema."
First Council of
Constantinople, A.D. 381:
"Canon VII. Those who from heresy turn to orthodoxy, and to
the number of those who are being saved, we receive according to the
following method and custom: Arians, and Macerdocians, Quarto-decimans or
Tetradites, and Appolinarians, we receive upon their giving a written
renunciation of their errors and anathematize every heresy which is
not in accordance with the Holy, Cathoilic and Apostolic Church of God."
Saint Ambrose, Doctor, (died A.D. 397): "And He [Christ]
affirms that they act with devilish spirit who divide the Church of God, so
that he includes the heretics and schismatics of all times, to whom He
denies forgiveness, for every other sin is concerned with single persons,
this is a sin against all." (Concerning Repentance)
"The Lord severed the Jewish people from his
kingdom, and heretics and schismatics are also severed from the kingdom of
God and from the Church. Our Lord
makes it perfectly clear that every assembly of heretics and
schismatics belongs not to God, but to the unclean spirit." (Explanation
of Luke)
""But woe unto you who are rich!" We may here however understand by the rich
man the Jewish people, or the heretics, or at least the
Pharisees, who, rejoicing in an abundance of words, and a kind of
hereditary pride of eloquence, have overstepped the simplicity of true
faith, and gained to themselves useless treasures." (cf. Catena
Aurea by Saint Thomas Aquinas, Lk. 6:24)
"Peter is he to whom the Lord said: "You are
Peter, and on this rock I will build the Church." Therefore where Peter is, there is
the Church; where the Church is, there is no death but only eternal
life. And therefore Christ added:
"And the gates of hell shall not prevail, and I will give you the keys
of the kingdom of heaven."" (On Psalm XL)
Saint John Chrysostom, Doctor, (died A.D. 407): "We know that salvation
belongs to the Church alone, and that no one can partake of
Christ nor be saved outside the Catholic Church and the Catholic Faith."
(De Capto Eutropia)
"We should mourn for those who are dying without
the Faith. [...] And well should the
pagan weep and lament who, not knowing God, goes straight to punishment when he
dies!" (On the Consolation of Death)
Saint Gaudentius of Brescia (died A.D. 410): "It is certain that all men of
Noah's time perished, except those in the Ark, which was a figure of the
Church. Likewise, they cannot in any
way now be saved who are aliens from the Apostolic faith and the Catholic
Church." (De Lect. Evangel.)
The XII Council of Carthage, A.D. 419: "Canon LVII. Those who as were baptized by the Donatists, and not yet being
able to know the pernicious character of their error, and afterward when they
had come to the use of reason, had received the knowledge of the truth,
abhorred their former error, [...] having anathematized their error may be
received by the imposition of the hand into the one Church, the pillar
as it is called, and the one mother of all Christians, where all these
sacraments are received unto salvation and everlasting life; even the same sacraments
which obtain for those persevering in heresy the heavy penalty of damnation. So that which to those who are in the
truth lighteneth to the obtaining of eternal life, the same to them who are in
error tends but to darkness and damnation."
Saint Jerome, Doctor, (died A.D. 420): "As I follow no leader
save Christ, so I communicate with none but your blessedness, that is, with
the Chair of Peter. For this, I know,
is the rock on which the Church is built.
This is the house where alone can the paschal lamb be rightly
eaten. This is the ark of Noah, and
he who is not found in it shall perish when the flood prevails." (Letter
to Pope Damasus)
““Behold we have left all thing and have followed thee.
[...] shall possess life
everlasting.” (S. Matthew 19:27-29) [...]
He said not: “You who have left all things;” for even the philosopher Crates
did this, and many others have despised riches; but: “You who have followed
me;” which applies to the Apostles and all the Faithful.” (Homily on
St. Matthew)
Athanasian Creed circa A.D. 420: "Quiscumque vult salvus esse, *
ante omnia opus est, ut teneat catholicam fidem: quam nisi quisque integram
inviolatamque servaverit, * absque dubio in aeternum peribit. [...] Haec est fides catholica, * quam nisi
quisque fideliter firmiterque crediderit, salvus esse non poterit."
(Roman Breviary, Sunday Prime, 1950)
(D39):"Whoever wishes to be saved, before all things
it is necessary that he hold the Catholic faith, which unless each one
preserves whole and inviolate, without doubt he will perish
everlastingly. [...] This is the
Catholic faith, which unless each one believes faithfully and firmly, he
cannot be saved."
Saint Augustine, Doctor, (died A.D. 430): "No man can find
salvation except in the Catholic Church.
Outside the Catholic Church one can have everything except
salvation. One can have honour, one
can have the sacraments, one can sing alleluia, one can answer amen, one can
have faith in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,
and preach it too, but never can one find salvation except in the
Catholic Church." (Sermon to the People of Caesaria)
""But
I say," adds he, "have they not heard? "Yea, verily; their sounds went out into all the earth,
and their words to the ends of the world."" Before, however, all this had been
accomplished, before the actual preaching of the gospel reaches the ends of
all the earth - because there are some remote nations still (although it is
said that they are very few) to whom the preached gospel has not found its
way, - what must human nature do, or what has it done - for it has
either not heard that all this was to take place, or has not yet learned that
it was accomplished - but believe in God who made heaven and earth, by
whom also it perceived by nature that it had been created, and lead a right
life, and thus accomplish His will, uninstructed with any faith in the death
and resurrection of Christ? Well,
if this could have been done, or can still be done, then for my part I have
to say what the apostle said in regard to the law: "Then Christ died in
vain." For if he said this about
the law, which only the nation of the Jews received, how much more justly may
it be said of the law of nature, which the whole human race has received,
"If righteousness come by nature, then Christ died in vain." If, however, Christ did not die in vain,
then human nature cannot by any means be justified and redeemed from
God's most righteous wrath - in a word, from punishment - except by faith
and the sacrament of the blood of Christ." (On Nature and Grace)
"For if, according to the word of truth, no one
is delivered from the condemnation which was incurred through Adam except
through faith in Jesus Christ, and yet from this condemnation they
shall not deliver themselves who shall be able to say that they have not
heard the gospel of Christ, on the ground that "faith cometh by
hearing," how much less shall they deliver themselves who shall say,
"We have not received perseverance!" [...] thou mightest persevere if thou wouldest. And, consequently, both those who have
not heard the gospel, and those who, having heard it and been changed by
it for the better, have not received perseverance, [...] are not made to
differ from that mass which it is plain is condemned, as all go from one into
condemnation." (On Rebuke and Grace)
"They who are not liberated through grace, either
because they are not yet able to hear, or because they are unwilling
to obey; or again because they did not receive, at the time when they are
unable on account of youth to hear, that bath of regeneration, which they
might have received and through which they might have been saved, are indeed
justly condemned; because they are not without sin, either that which
they have derived from their birth, or that which they have added from their
own misconduct. "For all have
sinned" - whether in Adam or in themselves - "and come short of
the glory of God (Romans 3:23.)"" (On Nature and Grace)
"The comparison of the Church with Paradise shows
us that men may indeed receive baptism outside her pale, but that no
one outside can either receive or retain the salvation of eternal
happiness. For, as the words of the
Scripture testify, the streams from the fountain of Paradise flowed copiously
even beyond its bounds. Record is
indeed made of their names; and through what countries they flow, and that
they are situated beyond the limits of Paradise, is known to all; and yet in
Mesopotamia, and in Egypt, to which countries those rivers extended, there is
not found that blessedness of life which is recorded in Paradise. Accordingly, although the waters of
Paradise are found beyond its boundaries, yet its happiness is in Paradise
alone. So, therefore, the baptism of
the Church may exist outside, but the gift of the life of happiness is found alone
within the Church, which has been founded on a rock, which has received the
keys of binding and losing. [...]
"This indeed is true, that "baptism is not
unto salvation except within the Catholic Church." For in itself it can indeed exist outside
the Catholic Church as well; but there it is not unto salvation, because
there it does not work salvation; just as that sweet savour of Christ is not
unto salvation in them that perish, though from a fault not in itself but in
them." (On Baptism against the Donatists)
"Nor indeed, is it of heresies alone that
the apostle says, "that they that do such things shall not inherit the
kingdom of God." But it may be
worth while to look for a moment at the things which he groups together. "The works of the flesh," he
says, "are manifest, which are these; fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath,
strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and
such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time
past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of
God." Let us suppose someone,
therefore, chaste, continent, free from covetousness, no idolater,
hospitable, charitable to the needy, no man's enemy, not contentious,
patient, quiet, jealous of none, envying none, sober, frugal, but a heretic;
it is of course clear to all that for this one fault only, that he is a
heretic, he will fail to inherit the kingdom of God. [...]
"Our faith - that is, the Catholic faith, -
distinguishes the righteous from the unrighteous not by the law of works, but
be that of faith, because the just by faith lives. By which distinction it results that the man who leads his life
without murder, without theft, without false witness, without coveting other
mens' goods, giving due honour to his parents, completely chaste, most
liberal in almsgiving, most patient of injuries; who not only does not
deprive another of his goods, but does not even ask again for what has been
taken away from himself; or who has even sold all his own property and
appointed it to the poor, and possesses nothing which belongs to him as his
own; - with such a character as this, laudable as it seems to be, if he
has not the true and Catholic faith in God, must yet depart from life to
condemnation. [...]
"And it is brought about, on account of this great
difference, that although with no possibility of a doubt a persevering
integrity of virginity is preferable to conjugal chastity, yet a woman even
twice married, if she be a Catholic, is preferred to a professed virgin that
is a heretic; nor is she in such wise preferred because this one is
better in God's kingdom, but because the other is not there at all."
(Against Two Letters of the Pelagians)
""Can the power of baptism," says
Cyprian, "be greater than confession? than martyrdom? that a man
should confess Christ before men, and be baptized in his own blood? And yet", he goes on to say,
"neither does this baptism profit the heretic, even though for
confessing Christ he be put to death outside the Church." This is most true. [...] "Salvation," he says,
"is not outside the Church." Who says that it is?
And therefore whatever men have that belongs to the Church
outside the Church, it profits them nothing toward salvation outside
the Church." (On Baptism against the Donatists.)
Pope Saint Leo the Great, Doctor, A.D. 440-461: "But this mysterious
function, the Lord indeed wishes to be the concern of all the apostles, but
in such a way that he has placed the principle charge on the blessed Peter,
chief of the apostles: and from him as from the Head wishes His gifts to flow
to all the body: so that any one who dares to secede from Peter's
solid rock may understand that he has no part or lot in the divine
mystery." (Letter X)
"For they who have received baptism from
heretics are to be confirmed by the imposition of hands with only the
invocation of the Holy Ghost, because they have received the bare form of
baptism without the power of sanctification." (Letter CLIX)
"Since they have received the form of baptism
in some way or other [from heretics,] they are not to be baptized [again] but
are to be united to the Catholics by imposition of hands, after the
invocation of the Holy Spirit's power, which they could not receive
from heretics." (Letter CLXVII)
Saint Prosper of Aquitaine, A.D. 463: “From every nation and every condition
thousands of aged people, thousands of youths, thousands of children daily
receive the grace of adoption. [...]
For all who at any time will be called and will enter into the kingdom
of God, have been marked out in the adoption which preceded all times. And just as none of the infidels is
counted among the elect, so none of the god-fearing is excluded from the
blessed.” (The Call of All Nations)
Pope Hormisdas, A.D. 514-523: "The first thing required for
salvation is to keep the norm of correct faith and to deviate in no way from
what the Fathers have established, because it is not possible to lay aside
the words of our Lord Jesus Christ who said, `You are Peter, and on this rock
I will build my Church.' These words
are proved true by their effects because, in the Apostolic See, the Catholic
religion has always been preserved immaculate. Desiring in no way to be separated from this hope and faith and
following in all things what has been established by the Fathers, we
anathematize all heretics." (Profession of faith prescribed for the
Church; Inter ea quae)
Saint Fulgentius (died A.D. 533): "Most firmly hold and never
doubt that not only all pagans, but also all Jews, all
heretics, and all schismatics who finish this life outside of the
Catholic Church, will go into the eternal fire which was prepared for the
devil and his angels." (To Peter on the Faith)
"I am glad indeed that
you have such a concern for keeping the true Faith with no shade of
unbelief, the Faith without which conversion not only would be of no use
but would not really be conversion at all. Indeed, apostolic authority tells
us that, "without faith, it is impossible to please God. For Faith is the foundation of all
things. Faith is the beginning of
human salvation. Without it, no one can belong to the number of the
children of God, because, without it, neither will anyone gain the
grace of justification in this world nor possess eternal life in the world to
come." (Ibid.)
"Whoever is outside this Church which has
received the keys of the kingdom of heaven is not teaching the path to heaven
but to hell; nor is he heading toward the house of eternal life, but he is
hurrying toward the punishment of eternal death; not only if he remains a
pagan without baptism but also, even if he perseveres as a heretic after
baptism." (On the Forgiveness of Sins. Fulgentius, Selected Works,
Catholic University Press, Washington, 1997.)
"Grace [of justification] is not properly esteemed
by any one who supposes that it is given to all men, when not only does the
faith not pertain to all, but even at the present time some nations may
yet be found to whom the preaching of the faith has not yet come. But the Blessed Apostle says: "How
then are they to call upon Him in whom they have not believed? or how shall
they believe in Him whom they have not heard? but how are they to hear,
without preaching?" Grace,
then, is not given to all; for certainly they cannot be
participants in that grace, who are not believers; nor can they believe if it
is found that the preaching of the faith has never come to them at all."
(Synodal Epistle of Saint Fulgentius and other African Bishops. Rev. William A. Jurgens, The Faith of the
Early Fathers, volume three, Liturgical Press.)
"Anyone who has received the Sacrament of
Baptism but remained away from the Catholic Church is never prepared
to obtain eternal life. Such a
person, even if he is very generous with almsgiving and even pours out his
blood for the name of Christ, because of the fact that in this life he
has not held tightly to the unity of the Catholic Church, he will not have
eternal salvation. [...] Hold most
firmly and never doubt that any heretic or schismatic whatsoever,
baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, if
he will not have been gathered into the Catholic Church, no matter how many
alms he may have given, even if he shed his blood for the name of Christ,
can never be saved." (To Peter on the Faith)
"In this way, with Jesus coming, they can be found
within that house. outside of which no one can be freed from death,
because just as in Jericho anyone who was outside that house could
gain no assistance for his life, so outside the Catholic Church, no one
will receive the forgiveness of sins; and just as within the Catholic Church,
"one believes with the heart and so is justified," so outside the
same Church, unorthodox faith does not procure justification but
punishment, and a wicked confession does not acquire salvation for the one
who confesses but brings death.
Outside this Church, neither does the Christian name help
anyone, nor does baptism save, nor is a pure sacrifice offered
to God, nor is the forgiveness of sins received, nor is the happiness
of eternal life found." (On the Forgiveness of Sins.)
Pope Pelagius II, A.D. 578-590: "Consider the fact that whoever
has not been in the peace and unity of the Church cannot have the Lord.
[...] Although given over to flames
and fires, they burn, or, thrown to wild beasts, they lay down their lives,
there will not be that crown of faith but the punishment of faithlessness.
[...] Such a one can be slain, he
cannot be crowned. [... If] slain outside the Church, he cannot attain the
rewards of the Church." (Dilectionis Vestrae)
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