Andrew Meredith’s Reviews > The Reformation as Renewal: Retrieving the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church > Status Update

Tradition 1 (T1: View of the Reformers/Ministerial Authority)

"The sole authority of Holy Scripture is upheld as canon, or standard, of revealed truth in such a way that Scripture is not contrasted with Tradition. Scripture, it is argued, can be understood only within the Church and has been understood within the Church by the great doctors specifically committed to the task of interpretation of Scripture and especially endowed with the gift of understanding this unique source of truth. The history of obedient interpretation is the Tradition of the Church."

Tradition 2 (T2: View of Roman Church/Magisterial Authority/Two-Source Theory)

"It is argued that the Apostles did not commit everything to writing, usually on the grounds that the scriptural authors reported what Christ said and did during His lifetime but not what Christ taught His disciples in the period between the resurrection and the ascension. During these forty days an oral Tradition originated which is to be regarded as a complement to Holy Scripture, handed down to the Church of later times as a second source of revelation."

(But even within the Two-Source Theory there was a divide between where the authority lay to make decisive judgments, council or pope?)

Though one finds traces of T2 earlier than the 14th century, it was then that the view first began to be strongly adovocated (though not without strong detractors).

Another rising view was Papal Infallibility. This view was first explicitly taught by the Franciscan monk Pietro Olivi in the late 13th century (not coincidently after the Pope made a ruling Olivi agreed with on the Franciscan poverty controversy that raged at the time). While papal infallibility might appear at first blush to increase a pope’s power, the original intent (and the long view of history) tells a different story: papal infallibility restricts the liberality of future pontiffs and keeps them accountable to their catholic heritage.

"Olivi himself formulated the doctrine to diminish the capacity of future occupants of the Roman see to injure the church so he insisted on the infallibility—and consequent irreformability—of doctrinal decisions already established by preceding popes." Olivi wanted to cement his victory.

Notably, the duplicitous motive behind Olivi's novel teaching was widely known (including by the disapproving Pope himself), and upon his death, his writings were burned and his view denounced. Even 50 years after his death, one cannot find a theologian that believed the Pope could not err. When the doctrine eventually resurfaced, it was in entirely different circumstances.

Papal inerrancy may have been questioned, but since 1215, Papal supremacy was not. That year Pope Innocent had elevated his office above Vicar of Peter and declared himself Vicar of Christ. The claim was clear. All of Christendom, kingdoms and peoples, must obey him. This claim, forged in political conflict, led to even more political conflict.

The Roman Church was conquered by France, and then forcefully relocated to Avignon for 68 years, where it became "the handmaid of the French goverment." When, a few decades into this corrupt "Avignon Captivity," Pope John XXII tried to undo certain actions of previous popes, "Papal Inerrancy" was resurrected en masse by his opponents to stop him.

It was within this setting that Ockham first put forth Tradition 2 clearly as it is defined above. (Yet, he had his own radical, and perhaps contradictory take on it.) It would be Guido Terreni who would win it's acceptance.

Even when the Papacy returned home, it only half did so. Two rival popes, one French, one Italian) quickly claimed the Vicar title for themselves and excommunicated one another.