XIII. St. Augustine and the Church

What had been guarded in the Mysteries was embodied for Augustine in the historical tradition of the Gospels and in the community where that tradition was preserved. He comes by degrees to the conviction that “the law of this tradition, which consists in believing what it has not proved, is moderate and without guile.” He arrives at the idea: “Who could be so blind as to say that the Church of the Apostles deserves to have no faith placed in it, when it is so loyal and is supported by the unanimity of so many brethren; when these have handed down their writings to posterity so conscientiously, and when the Church has so strictly maintained the succession of teachers, down to our present bishops?”