IV
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Belloc, Hilaire
History shows the Catholic claim to Divine Authority to be false, by:
(a) The Catholic Church has taught things later proved erroneous—which no Divine Authority would do.
I. The Minor or Moral Argument from History against the Catholic claim to Divine Authority.
which says that
(b) The Catholic Church has taught things erroneous after she knew them to be erroneous—which no Divine Authority would do.
(c) The Catholic Church is highly and increasingly organised—which no Divinely Authorised body would be.
II. The Major or Intellectual argument from History against the Catholic claim to Divine Authority.
which says that
(a) (Protestant) The Catholic Church can be historically proved a mass of man-made accretions upon an original basis morally true.
(b) (Sceptical or Pagan) The Catholic Church can be historically proved to be wholly man-made in all its structure.