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avius's great work _De theologicis dogmatibus_ (especially the 1st vol., 1644) made the word "dogma" current for _doctrines which were authoritative as formulated by the church_. We must keep in mind, however, that the question is not simply one as to the meaning of a word. The equation holds, more firmly than ever; dogma=the contents of faith. It has to be established on the Roman Catholic side that faith (or dogma; the two are inseparable) deals with divine truths historically revealed long ago but now administered with authority, according to God's will, by the church. The Englishman Henry Holden (see above), the Frenchman Veronius (Francois Veron, S.J., 1575-1649) in his _Regle generale de la foy catholique_ (1652), the German Philipp Neri Chrismann,[13] in his _Regula fidei catholicae et collectio dogmatum credendorum_ (1792),[14] all work at this task. Dogmas or articles of faith (taken as synonymous) depend upon revelation in Scripture or tradition, as confirmed by the church whether acting in general councils or through the pope (in some undefined way; Holden)--in general councils or by universal consent (Chrismann; of bishops? the definite Gallican theory?). Veronius is willing to waive the difficult point of church infallibility as the Council of Trent did not define it. Holden insists strongly upon infallibility. Church traditions are infallible; and church dogmas reach us (from the original revelation) through an infallible medium, the Catholic Church, which the Protestants sadly lack. In Chrismann the word "dogma" has superseded the word "article"; Holden uses both, though "article" has the preponderance. All three writers seek to draw a sharp line round what is "of faith." Hence in Chrismann (who is in other respects the most definite of the three) we have a view of dogma almost as clear-cut as that of the Protestant schoolmen. Dogmas are _revealed_; dogmas are _infallible_; the church is infallible on dogmas (for this statement he cites Muratori) _and on nothing else_. This whole period of theology, Protestant and Roman Catholic, is statical. Men are defining and protecting the positions they have inherited; they do not think of progress. And yet the Roman Catholic Church had upon its hands one great unsettled question--the thesis of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin. This became the standing type of an assertion which, while favoured by the church and on the very verge of dogma, was yet not a dogm
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