# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_M rz 1859_S67
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

On Church Language. 67

untrue is nevertheless truth." (Opp. Hal. X, 1376ff.) Here belongs the
old proverb: Duo cum dicunt idem, non est idem — that is: when two say
the same thing, it is not (therefore always) the same thing. Under an
orthodox manner of speaking, heterodoxy may easily lie hidden, and under
a heterodox expression, an orthodox sense. And who, finally, when
speaking of the lofty mysteries of divine revelation, always finds the
right word — regardless of whether he also carries the right faith in
his heart? "We all fail in many ways. But whoever fails in no word is a
perfect man." James 3:2. Daily, therefore, the whole church prays:
"Forgive us our trespasses." Even Augustine, the great dialectician, who
had language under his command as few mortals do, writes of himself:
"Perhaps I do not wish to speak as worthily as it ought to be spoken;
and yet I cannot even speak as I wish; how much less as it ought to be
spoken!"*) If, moreover, a quarrelsome mind wishes to indulge in
logomachies, then, as the Apology says, one can indeed "not speak so
plainly (circumspecte, cautiously); evil tongues can twist it." (See the
article on the Church, at the beginning.)

However strongly all that has been said speaks against that
inquisitorial, heresy-hunting hairsplitting over words, which has at
times played a great role in the church and wrought unspeakable havoc,
the conclusion drawn from it would nevertheless be false — namely, that
the manner of speaking of the objects of the faith is therefore wholly a
matter of indifference, provided only that one attaches an orthodox
sense to the words used.

That the manner of speaking is also of great importance is shown by
the history of the church so clearly and plainly that no one who has
become even somewhat acquainted with it can deny it. The root of
heresies that have arisen has all too often evidently been nothing other
than the perverse manner of expression which Christian teachers used
regarding important Christian concepts. Not only of heretics does the
well-known hexameter hold true: Nomina qui fingit, simul et nova dogmata
gignit — that is: whoever invents new words at the same time gives birth
to new articles of faith — even for orthodox teachers this verse
contains a warning, not always heeded, that applies to them too, and to
the great harm of divine truth and thus of the church. History shows us
that many expressions, originally taken in the best sense but ill
suited — for example, the expression priest and cleric for church
servant or pastor, the expression sacrifice for the Holy Supper, the
expression transformation for the change that takes place with the
blessed elements in the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, the
expression Chair of Peter for the Roman pastoral office and "Ecclesia
principalis" for the church of the capital of the empire, the expression
territorial bishop for the civil head of the members of the

*) "Perhaps I do not wish, as worthily as it ought to be spoken; and
yet I cannot even speak as I wish; how much less as it ought to be
spoken!" Expos. in Joh. 1. Opp. IX, 43.