Good and Bad in the Church
In answer to the proofs cited in Chapter III, urging the contrary to what is here laid down, this is to be said: To understand them we must be on our guard to note that men are said to be in holy church in different senses. For some are said to be in it by virtue of an unformed faith1 only, as are reprobate Christians involved in sins, to whom the Lord said : ” Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I bid you?” Luke 6 : 46. And of them he also said, “Many will say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by thy name, and by thy name cast out demons, and by thy name do many mighty works? and then will I profess unto them, I never knew you,” namely, as persons to be saved, Matt. 7 : 22. Hence Psalm 6 : 9 says: “Depart from me all ye workers of iniquity.”
Some are in the church only according to present faith
1 Fides informis, as opposed to fides formata, that is, faith working by love, or, as we might say, intellectual belief and living faith. The distinction of formata and informis was first made by Peter the Lombard. In his Com. on Peter the Lombard, Huss treats the subject at length, pp. 452-455, defining the different sorts of faith. He says, to believe God, credere Deo, is to believe that the things He says are true. Such faith the wicked have. To believe God, credere Deum, is to believe that He is God. To believe in God, credere in Deum, is by believing to love Him. The faith which the demons and bad men have is a quality of the intellect, but it is unformed, informis, faith because it is unaccompanied by love, and this unformed faith is an acquired habit and not a habit infused from above. This fides informis precedes hope and love, but the fides formata is contemporary with hope and love. Peter the Lombard, 4 : 23, quotes Ambrose as saying: “Love is the mother of all virtues, which forms all within us — informat — and without which there is no virtue.” Luther denounces this distinction as a pestilential ecclesiastical invention. Denifie, in his Life of Luther, 1 : 637 sqq., makes the astounding assertion that the faith which Luther required was simply an intellectual assent — faith without love and the works of love.
4o and grace, as the reprobate righteous, who are not in the church by virtue of predestination to life eternal. Others are in the church by virtue of predestination only, as are unbaptized children of Christian parents and pagans, or Jews destined to be Christians in the future. Others are in the church by virtue of an unformed faith and predestination, as are predestinate Christians who are now in sins, but will return to grace. Others are in the church by virtue of predestination and present grace, as are all predestinate Christians who imitate Christ in their lives, who, however, may in this life fall away from fluent [operating] grace. Still others are in the church now triumphant, confirmed in grace. But all are divided into the reprobate and the predestinate, the former being ultimately the members of the devil and the others members of the mystical body which is the holy church, the bride of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, in the first proof taken from the net, the predestinate are represented by the good fish, and the reprobate by the bad fish which they cast out. On this Gregory [Migne, 76 : 1116] has this to say: “Holy church is compared to a net cast into the sea, for she also is committed to fishermen. This is the first resemblance, and by her every one is drawn from the waves of this present age into the eternal kingdom, namely by call, lest he be drowned in the depths of eternal death. This is the second resemblance. She gathers together fish of every kind, because she calls to the forgiveness of sins the wise and the foolish, the free and the bond, the poor and the rich, the strong and the weak. This is the third resemblance.”
Therefore, let the false writer be on his guard against inferring that, because holy church gathers together by her call men of every kind, therefore all men are called to faith which is in Christ and are members of holy church, Christ’s bride. Hence St. Gregory conclusively shows who are the elect and who are the reprobate, when he says that “at the end
GOOD AND BAD IN THE CHURCH 41 of the world the good fish will be gathered into vessels, but the bad cast out, because every elect person is received into everlasting habitations, and the reprobate, having lost the light of the eternal realm, are cast into outer darkness. For now the net of faith holds the good — that is, the elect — and the evil — that is, the reprobate — mingled together, like the fishes. This is the fourth resemblance. And the net which she drew, namely, by the call of faith, represents the shore of holy church.” And St. Gregory adds: “And the fish of the sea which were caught cannot be numbered. But we who are bad when we are caught are thoroughly changed in the element of goodness.” In this he finds a sign that the wicked who are predestinate are permanently and thoroughly changed into what is good. Therefore, the voice of St. Gregory is the voice of the predestinate who, being smitten with badness, are through baptism and penance called back by holy church to goodness.