whether all who believe in Christ will be saved

"...it is a very gross error of certain simple people, that think it to be enough to their salvation, if they believe in Christ, and that he died for their sins, although they believe not many other things; for example's sake, those which belong to Sacraments, Sacrifice of the Church, and other such like points of faith. For so should almost all sects of heretics be saved, for that all...do embrace Christ...and believe that he died for their sins. And so by this means shall be saved the Montanists and Novations...the Arians, Macedonians...Moneothelites, and such like pests of the Church. Wherefore then, hath the Church in all ages vehemently opposed herself against heresies? Wherefore doth the Apostle command us to avoid a heretical man after one or two reprehensions? Wherefore should we beware of their very speechs, as a certain infectious canker?"

"In vain then are all these things spoken and done, if salvation may be obtained together with heresy...let us imagine (saith St. Augstine) a man to be chaste, continent, not covetous, not a server of idols, liberal to the poor, no man's enemy, not contentious, patient, quiet...somber, frugal...but yet a heretic: let there be no doubt at all to any, but that such a one, for this only thing, in that he is a heretic, shall not possess the Kingdom of God."

"For as that man who offendeth in one commandment is made guilty of all, and looseth his whole justice, although he keep the rest of the commandments, because he contempteth the lawmaker himself who made the whole law...so he that denieth obstinately but one article of the faith, though he retain the rest, is made guilty of his whole Religion, and looseth all his Faith and Religion..."

from A Consultation what Faith and Religion is best to be Imbraced by Leonardus Lessius

Catholic Church is only true church

"The Catholic Church is the only fortress impregnable; the wise man to her will have his recourse, and shall be saved. She is the strong fort of the city of God, founded upon the rock, which cannot be undermined: fortified by the invincible force of the Holy Ghost, guarded by heavenly armies, which are camped round about compassed all sides with the favour of the Almighty. She is the earthly Paradise, where the tree of life is planted, which all of her house may freely use, and thereby receive nourishment of life everlasting. She is the true house of God, where He doth dispose His graces, and all His goodness and the sovereign felicity. And whoever can taste of the fruit of the name Catholic: he shall find himself happy, and shall perceive that he is a Catholic, he is, as it were, weeded out of himself to be transplanted in God: and being lost in himself, he shall find himself grafted, and rooted in God, in whom he shall stand more surely, more lively, more happily, and be more his own man, than standing in himself: where upon his shoul shall be filled with true...divine and everlasting joy."

from The Firme Foundation of the Catholic Religion by Jean de Caumont

interpretation of heretics

"...the heretic is not stirred but of his own particular spirit, hath not any tradition but of his own proper making, taketh the Scripture in a sense by himself invented, handling the same as if himself were the authour, making himself a prophet to himself, and the judge of God, and sometimes letteth himself above that which is God, in so much that he doth judge by his own private sense, the eternal word of God...a heretic maketh a new paradox, and putteth a new sense...not of the Holy Ghost, but invented of Satan..."

from The Firme Foundation of the Catholic Religion by Jean de Caumont

no one pleasing to God outside the Church

"Search where you will: out of this Church, you shall find nothing but death. To be short, he which is not in the Church hath no God: he hath his own proper judgement, his fantasy, and his own presumption for his God: he maketh himself an Idol, and doth worship only his own imagination in place of God. If such a man calleth himself a Christian, that is as the Devil often sayeth he is Christ, and if if he be killed for his heresy, that is no martydom, but the reward of his heresy...dying he goeth...eternally to the darkness, which he hath worshiped, and to his head, which is the Devil. There is no martyrdom nor death precious before God but in the Catholic Church..."

from The Firme Foundation of the Catholic Religion by Jean de Caumont

blindness of the Jews

"Wisely does S. Gregory say (Hom. 10) - 'All the elements testified that their Creator was come. The heavens acknowledged Him to be God, and so they sent the star. The sea knew Him, for it suffered HIm to walk upon it. The earth knew Him, for, when He died, it trembled. The sun knew Him, for he hid his rays. The rocks and stones knew Him, for they were rent asunder. Hell knew Him, for it gave up the dead that were in it. And yet Him, whom all the senseless elements felt to be the Lord, the hearts of the unbelieving Jews even yet acknowledge not by any means to be God, and, harder than the flint-stones, they will not be broken by repentence.'"

from The Great Commentary (Part I) by Cornelius a Lapide

the prayers of heretics are abominations

"This is the glory, the joy, and assurance of a Catholic man, that Jesus Christ is in him the chief agent, the which for his reverence is heard of God in him: and this is the true firmament of the Catholics, more firm than heaven itself. It is not so in heretics, all that which of heretics is accursed and [an] abomination before God: their faith, their preaching, their prayers, their fasting, their alms, all acts of Religion coming from them are nothing else, but cursed sacrilege and pollution. If they should raise up the dead, if they should be more wise than Angels, if they should have their faith as great as to move mountains, if they should distribute all their goods to the cherishing of the poor, if they should keep heroically continual virginity, if they should sing with an Angelical holiness, all this serveth them for nothing, being divided from the body of the Church: All this would not anything appease of the rigour of the eternal ire of God upon them."

"Core, Dathan, and Abiron did sacrifice to the same God that Moses did, yea to the only true and almighty God, but for it was done in division from the body of the Church, the earth did open and swallow them up alive..."

from The Firme Foundation of the Catholic Religion by Jean de Caumont