to them. For in this place he most clearly states that what
has been universally delivered by the Church be also
universally observed. But in indifferent things, and those
whose observance and non- observance are free, the holy
father Augustine states that, according to the authority of
St. Ambrose, the custom of each church should be observed.
"When I come back to Rome," he says, "I fast on the Sabbath,
but when here I do not fast." Besides, they do violence to
the Scriptures while they endeavor to support their errors.
For Christ (Matt. 15) does not absolutely disapprove of
human ordinances, but of those only that were opposed to the
law of God, as is clearly acknowledged in Mark 7:8, 9. Here
also Matt. 15:3 says: "Why do ye also transgress the
commandment of God by your tradition?" So Paul (Col. 2)
forbids that any one be judged in meat or in drink, or in
respect to the Sabbath, after the Jewish manner; for when the
Church forbids meats it does not judge them to be unclean, as
the Jews in the Synagogue thought. So the declaration of
Christ concerning that which goeth into the mouth (Matt.
15:11) is cited here without a sure and true understanding
of it since its intention was to remove the error of the
Jews, who thought that food touched by unwashen hands becomes
unclean, and rendered one eating it unclean, as is manifest
from the context. Nor does the Church bring back to these
observances Moses with his heavy hands. In like manner they
do violence to St. Paul, for 1 Tim. 4:1, 4, he calls that a
doctrine of demons that forbids meats, as the Tatianites,
Marcionites and Manichaeans thought that meats were unclean,
as is clear from the words that follow, when St. Paul adds:
"Every creature of God is good." But the church does not