COROLLARY III.
Although a proof drawn from the judgments of the Fathers borrows all its force from their consensus, and that a universal one, nevertheless some added splendor and evidence—I know not what—accrues to it if, together with the Fathers, the factions of heretics also conspired in the same judgment. “For,” says Maran1, “nothing more illustrious can be adduced for the full defense of truth than the consensus of sects with the Catholic Churches. Cavils grow cold when matters have come to these arguments. For it is not to be feared that the Catholics received an error from the heretics, or the heretics from the Catholics, or that both conspired in embracing an innovation.” Now just as in the fourth century the Apollinarists2 professed one and the same faith and doctrine with the Catholics concerning the salvific will of God, so in the following fifth century did the Semi-Pelagians3 concerning the nature of men restored by the blood of Christ. Therefore this faith, established even by the consensus of combatants, and this doctrine, confirmed even by the judgment of those who dissent, must be thought to have derived its origin from nothing other than the primitive and apostolic institution.