St. Francis de Sales and The Need for Another Rule of Faith

In St. Francis de Sales' Catholic Controversy he begins by attempting to show the need for more than just the Bible as the rule of faith. He gets right to the crux of the issue by pointing out 500 years ago what still happens in the blogosphere literally every minute of every day! Been to a Christian Chat room lately? Whew! For example, a Catholic gives a Scripture to defend the role of the papacy, but a non-Catholic refutes it by saying, "I don't judge that to be the correct interpretation, and besides all that, you Catholics worship idols."
We are now "reliving" the same arguments St. Francis was involved with. Prodigal Daughter and I often frequent the chat rooms to "slip a little tract under the door" as St. Frances did, and sometimes we are met with the same "jeers and stones" as he was. (The quote above is an actual quote from our little chat last night.) Other times we are able to give a calm and reasoned defense for the hope that is within us regarding Christ and His Church to an interested listener. Let's hear what the "Apostle to Chablais" said regarding the need for another rule of faith outside of the Scriptures.

"They answer that we must decide the interpretation of Scripture by collating passage with passage and the whole with the Symbol of faith. Amen, Amen, we say: but we do not ask: "How we ought to interpret the Scripture, but- who shall be the judge?" For after having compared passages with passages, and the whole with the Symbol of the faith, we find by this passage: Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I shall build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it, and I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matt. xvi), that S. Peter has been chief minister and supreme steward in the Church of God: you say, on your side that this passage: The kings of the nations lord it over them..but you not so (Luke xxii.), or this other (for they are all so weak that I know not what may be your main authority): No one can lay another foundation, &c. (1 Cor. iii. 11), compared with the other passages and the analogy of the faith makes you detest a chief minister. The two of us follow one same way in our enquiry concerning the truth in this question -namely, whether there is in the Church a Vicar General of Our Lord -and yet I have arrived at the affirmative and you, you have ended in the negative; who now shall judge of our difference? Here lies the essential point as between you and me.

"The Scriptures," says S. Jerome, ( Adv. Lucif. 28. ) "consist not in the reading but in the understanding:" that is, faith is not in the knowing the words but the sense. And it is here that I think I have thoroughly proved that we have need of another rule for our faith, besides the rule of Holy Scripture. 'If the world last long, said Luther once by good hap (Contr. Zwin. et. Oecol)”, “it will be again necessary, on account of the different interpretations of Scripture which now exist, that to preserve the unity of the faith we should receive the Councils and decrees and fly to them for refuge."* He acknowledges that formerly they were received, and that afterwards they will have to be."



*I credit Dr. Luther with much insight here. He predicted the problem of multiple interpretations of Scripture in his own lifetime as he feared for the "preservation of the unity of the faith." Many of us malign his writings and intentions, but to his credit, Dr. Luther had a keen insight into the problem that St. Francis was addressing just 60 years later, and that we now continue to address 500 years later. Luther recognized the problem but sadly it was his own rejecting the "outside rule of faith" that led to it.