Errors Once Condemned are Not to be Discussed Again

From the epistle "Licet inter varias" of Pope St. Gelasius I, Bishop of Rome, to Honorius, Bishop of Dalmatia, July 28, 493.

(1 Th 321 f.; If 625 c. Add.; ML 59, 31 A; Msi VIII 20 E f.; BR(T) App. 277 b f.)

 

161 (1) ... [For] it has been reported to us, that in the regions of the Dalmatians certain men had disseminated the recurring tares of the Pelagian pest, and that their blasphemy prevails there to such a degree that they are deceiving all the simple by the insinuation of their deadly madness… [But] since the Lord is superior, the pure truth of Catholic faith drawn from the concordant opinions of all the Fathers remains present.... (2) ... What pray permits us to abrogate what has been condemned by the venerable Fathers, and to reconsider the impious dogmas that have been demolished by them? Why is it, therefore, that we take such great precautions lest any dangerous heresy, once driven out, strive anew to come [up] for examination, if we argue that what has been known, discussed, and refuted of old by our elders ought to be restored? Are we not ourselves offering, which God forbid, to all the enemies of the truth an example of rising again against ourselves, which the Church will never permit? Where is it that it is written: Do not go beyond the limits of your fathers [Prov. 22: 28], and: Ask your fathers and they will tell you, and your elders will declare unto you [Deut. 32:7]? Why, accordingly, do we aim beyond the definitions of our elders, or why do they not suffice for us? If in our ignorance we desire to learn something, how every single thing to be avoided has been prescribed by the Orthodox fathers and elders, or everything to be adapted to Catholic truth has been decreed, why are they not approved by these? Or are we wiser than they, or shall we be able to stand constant with firm stability, if we should undermine those [dogmas] which have been established by them?...

 

Source: Sources of Catholic Dogma, translated from Thirtieth Edition of Henry Denzinger's Enchiridion Symbolorum by Roy J. Deferrari, Freiburg: Herder & Co., 1954, pp. 66-67.