Testing the Test

Like many in the ICCEC, it was my involvement with the ICCEC that first exposed me to tradition: the Church Fathers, the early Church councils, the writings and overall witness of the saints, etc. Naturally, I took the ICCEC’s view of tradition, largely unexamined and in good faith, assuming that it was true. It was not until I began to survey the contents of tradition on my own that I was confronted with other views—just as, or maybe more—plausible than the ICCEC’s. It was then that I was even made aware of my assumptions, and then had them challenged. I often wonder how many of the good people in the ICCEC simply dismiss the papacy, assuming that it must not be true because, well, the Orthodox don’t believe it, or, more likely, simply because they trust their leaders in the ICCEC. (See the quote from Chesterton in the previous post.)

Consider the English martyrs who thought it better to sacrifice their lives than to deny the doctrine of the papacy. If the papacy were dispensable—something merely optional for the Christian seeking true obedience to Christ—then why would these men and women willingly suffer the supreme penalty for upholding it?

“I have by the Grace of God, been always a Catholic, never out of Communion with the Roman Pontiff, but I have heard it said at times that the authority of the Roman Pontiff was certainly lawful and to be respected, but still an authority derived from human law, and not standing on a Divine prescription. Then when I observed that public affairs were so ordered that the sources of the power of the Roman Pontiff would necessarily be examined, I gave myself up to a most diligent examination of that question for the space of seven years, and found that the authority of the Roman Pontiff which you rashly—I will not use stronger language—have set aside, is not only lawful, to be respected, and necessary, but also grounded on the Divine law and prescription. That is my opinion, that is the belief in which by the grace of God I shall die.”
--St. Thomas More, quoted in Luke Rivington, Authority: A Plain Reason For Joining the Church of Rome