[Page 180]

THE SECOND PART OF THE HOMILY

AGAINST PERIL OF IDOLATRYa

You have heard, well beloved, in the first part of this Homily, the doctrine of the word of God against idols and images, against idolatry and worshipping of images, taken out of the Scriptures of the Old Testament and the New, and confirmed by the examples as well of the Apostles as of our Saviour Christ himself.  Now, although our Saviour Christ taketh not or needeth not any testimony of men [John 5:[34].], and that which is once confirmed by the certainty of his eternal truth hath no more need of the confirmation of mans doctrine and writings, than the bright sun at noon tide hath need of the light of a little candle to put away darkness and to encrease his light; yet, for your further contentation, it shall in this second part be declared (as in the beginning of the first part was promised) that this truth and doctrine concerning the forbidding of images and worshipping of them, taken out of the holy Scriptures as well of the Old Testament as the New, was believed and taught of the old holy fathers and most ancient learned doctors, and received in the old primitive Church, which was most uncorrupt and pure.  And this declaration shall be made out of the said holy doctors own writings and out of the ancient histories ecclesiastical to the same belonging.

Tertullian, a most ancient writer and doctor of the Church, who lived about one hundred and threescore years after the death of our Saviour Christ, both in sundry other places of his works, and specially in his book written against the manner of Crowning, and in another little treatise entitled, Of the Soldiers Crown or Garland,1 doth most sharply and vehemently

[Continued on Page 181]

Margin Note:  2d : Lib. contra coronandi morem.

a The Homily Against Peril of Idolatry] This Homily 1563 A.

1 The Homilist took the quotation which follows, together with many other quotations and topics in this Second Part, from the first book of Bullingers work De Origine Erroris, printed at Zurich in 1539, where (cap. 29. fol. 142 a) it is cited from Tertullians treatise "De Corona Militis"; and it is likely that finding mention made somewhere else of a book written by Tertullian "contra coronandi morem", against the fashion of wearing garlands, he thought they were distinct treatises instead of being one and the same.  De Corona Militis is the title of the treatise in all the earlier editions of Tertullian: but Rigault on the authority of the most ancient MS, and more recently Oehler, have justly shortened it to De Corona; because although the treatise may have been occasioned by the act of an individual soldier, its object was to dissuade Christians of every station and profession from the practice of wearing garlands, as pertaining to idolatry.

 

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write and inveigh against images and idols; and upon St Johns words, the first Epistle and fifth chapter, saith thus.  [1 John 5:[21].]  "St. John," saith he,2 "deeply considering the matter, saith, My little children, keep yourselves from images or idols.  He saith not now, Keep yourselves from idolatry, as it were from the service and worshipping of them; but from the images or idols themselves, that is, from the very shape and likeness of them.  For it were an unworthy thing, that the image of the living God should become the image of a dead idol.  Do not, think you,b those persons which place images or idols inc churches and temples, yea, shrine them even over the Lords table, even as it were of purpose to the worshipping and honouring of them, take good heed to either St.d Johns counsel or Tertullians?  For so to place images and idols, is it to keep themselves from them, or else to receive and embrace them?

Clemens in his book to James, brother of the Lord, saith:3 "What can be so wicked or so unthankful, as to receive a benefit of God, and to give thanks therefore unto stocks and stones?  Wherefore away ye, and understand your health.  For God hath need of no man, nor requireth any thing, nor can be hurt in any thing: but we be they which are either holpen or hurt, in that we be thankful to God or unthankful."c

Origines in his book against Celsus saith thus:4 "Christian men and Jews, when they hear these words of the Law," Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and shalt not make any image, do not only abhor the temples, altars, and images of the gods, but,

[Continued on Page 182]

Margin Notes:  1st indent: Lib. v ad Jacob. Domini.  " [Deut. 6:13; Exod. 20:4].

b Do not, think you,] Do not you think 15701574, Do you not think from 1582.  c or idols in] and idols in from 1570.  d either St.] either of St. from 1574.  e Clemens or unthankful.] omitted 1623.

2 Altius Johannes, Filioli, iniquit, custodite vos ab idolis; non jam ab idololatria quasi officio [quasi ab officio edd. vett.], sed ab idolis, id est, ab ipsa effigie corum.  Indignum enim ut imago Dei vivi imago idoli et mortui fias [fiat edd. vett.]  Tertull. De Coron. 10; Opp. I, 441.

3 Quid certe tam impium, tam ingratum, quam a Deo beneficium consequi, et reddere lignis ac lapidibus gratiam?  Propter quod expergiscimini et intelligite salutem vestram.  Deus enim nullius indiget, neque aliquid requirit, neque in aliquo laeditur: sed nos sumus qui aut juvamur aut laedimur, in eo quo grati aut ingrati sumus.  Recognitt. S. Clement. V, 26, vol. I, 552.

4 OD4FJ4"<@ * 6" [@L*"@4 *4 J, 5bD4@< J< 1,`< F@L N@$02ZF 6" "J :`< 8"JD,bF,4l, 6" *4 J, ?6 F@<J"\ F@4 2,@ J,D@4 B8< :@, 6", ? B@4ZF,4l F,"LJ ,*T8@<, ... @ :`<@< 6JDXB@<J"4 <,l 6" $T:@l 6" (V8:"J", 88 6" B J B@2<ZF6,<, J, *,, J@\:Tl DP@<J"4 BD J@ : :@8<"4 J< B,D J@ 1,@ J< 8T< B`80R4< *4V J4<@l J@4@bJ@L B"D"<@:Z:"J@l.  Orig. cont. Cels. VII, 64; Opp. I, 740 A.

 

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if need be, will rather die than they should defile themselves with any impiety."  And shortly afterf he saith:5 "In the commonwealth of the Jews the carver of idols and image maker was cast far off and forbidden, lest they should have any occasion to make images, which might pluck certain foolish persons from God, and turn the eyes of their souls to the contemplation of earthly things."  And in another place of the same book:6 "It is not only," saith he, "a mad and frantic part to worship images, but also once to dissemble or wink at it."  And, "A man may know God and his only Son, and those which have had such honour given them by God that they be called gods;$ but it is not possible that any should by worshipping of images get any knowledge of God."

Athanasius in his book against the Gentiles hath these words.7 "Let them tell, I pray you, how God may be known by an image.  If it be by the matter of the image,g then there needeth no shape or form, seeing that God hath appeared in all material creatures, which do testify his glory.  Now if they say he is known by the form or fashion, is he not better to be known by the living things themselves, whose fashions the images express?  For of surety the glory of God should be more evidently known, if it were declared by reasonable and living creatures rather than by dead and unmoveable images.  Therefore, when ye do carveh

[Continued on Page 183]

Margin Note:  $ [Exod. 22:28; Ps. 82:1, 6; John 10:3435].

f shortly after] so in all.  g of the image] of an image from 1587.  h carve] grave from 1571.

5 ?J, (D .T(DVN@l @Jz ("8:"J@B@4l < J B@84J,\ "J< <, 6$V88@<J@l BV<J"l J@l J@4@J@Ll Bz "Jl J@ <`:@Lq <" :0*,:\" BD`N"F4l Jl J< ("8:VJT< 6"J"F6,Ll, J@l <@ZJ@Ll J< <2DfBT< B4FBT:X<0l, 6" 6"2,86@bF0l B J@ 1,@ ,l (< J@l N2"8:@bl Jl RLPl. Ibid. IV, 31, p. 524 E.

6 z+B, * 6" J< {/D"68,\J@L B"DX2,J@ 8X>4< ..., 8\24@< ,<"4 J J@l (V8:"F4< ,P,F2"4, < : (4(<fF6 J4l 2,@l 6" DT"l, @J4<Xl ,F4q 8,6JX@< J4 (4(<fF6,4< :X< FJ4 1,< 6" J< 9@<@(,< "J@, 6" J@l J,J4:0:X<@Ll B 1,@ J 2,l BD@F(@D\ 6" :,JXP@<J"l Jl 2,`J0J@l "J@, JXD@Ll <J"l B"D BV<J"l J@l 2,@l J< 2<<, @J<Xl ,F4 *"4:`<4"q @ :< *L<"J`< FJ4 6" (4(<fF6,4< J< 1,< 6" J@l (V8:"F4< ,P,F2"4. 6" @ :`<@< J ,P,F2"4 J@l (V8:"F4< 8\24`< FJ4<, 88 (D 6" J FL:B,D4N,D`:,<@< J@l B@88@l BD@FB@4,F2"4 J@l (V8:"F4< ,P,F2"4. Ibid. VII, 65, 66, p. 740 E, p. 741 A.

7 +B@4 (D < BDl J4l "J@l B"D,82< Bz 802,\ 6D4<@bF, Al B@6D\<,J"4 (<TD\.,J"4 2,l *4 J@bJT<; B`J,D@< *4 J< B,D46,4:X<0< "J@l 80<, *4 J< < "J@l :@DNZ<; + :< (D *4 J< 8,<, J\l PD,\" Jl :@DN0l, 6" :, BD< B8"F2<"4 J"J", *4 BVF0l B8l 80l B4N"\<,F2"4 J< 1,`<; :VJ0< * 6" J@l <"@l @J@4 B,D4,J,\P4F"< FL(68,\@<J,l <" 8\2@< >8@< PDLF@ :XD@l, BVF0l Jl (l B,B80DT:X<0l Jl J@bJT< @F\"l. + * B46,4:X<0 :@DN "J\" (\<,J"4 Jl 2,\"l B4N"<,\"l, J\l PD,\" Jl 80l J@ PDLF@ 6" J< 88T<, 6" : :88@< *4z "J< J< NbF,4 .fT<, < ,F4 :@DN" J (8b::"J", J< 1,< B4N"\<,F2"4; 6"88\T< (D < B,D J@ 1,@ *`>" 6"J J< "J< 8`(@< (,(`<,4, , *4 .fT< :RbPT< 8@(46< J, 6" 8`(T< B,N"\<,J@, 6" : < R`P@4l 6" 64<ZJ@4l BD@F,*@6J@. Nz @l :V84FJ" 6"2z "LJ< FX$,4"< D(V.@<J"4. Athanas. Orat. c. Gentes, 20; Opp. I, 19 E, ed. Paris, 1698.

 

[Page 183]

or paint images, to the end to know God thereby, surely ye do an unworthy and unfit thing."  And in another place of the same book he saith:8 "The invention of images came of no good, but of evil; and whatsoever hath an evil beginning can never in any thing be judged good, seeing it is altogether naught."  Thus far Athanasius, a very ancient, holy, and learned bishop and doctor, who judgeth both the first beginning and the end and all together of images or idols to be naught.

Lactantius likewise, an old and learned writer, in his book of the Origin of Error hath these words.9  "God is above man, and is not placed beneath, but is to be sought in the highest region.  Wherefore there is no doubt, but that no religion is in that place wheresoever any image is.  For, if religion stand in godly things, and there is no godliness but in heavenly things, then be images without religion."  These be Lactantius words, who was above thirteen hundred years ago, and within three hundred years after our Saviour Christ.

Cyrillus, an old and holy doctor, upon the Gospel of St. John hath these words.10  "Many have left the Creator, and have worshipped the creature; neither have they been abashed to say unto a stock, Thou art my father; and unto a stone, Thou begottest me.  For many, yea, almost all, alas for sorrow, are fallen unto such folly, that they have given the glory of deity" (or godhead) "to things without sense or feeling."

Epiphanius, Bishop of Salamine in Cyprus, a very holy and learned man, who lived in Theodosius the Emperors time, about three hundred and ninety years after our Saviour Christs ascension, writeth thusi to John, Patriarch of Jerusalem.  "I entered," saith Epiphanius,11 "into a certain church to pray: I found

[Continued on Page 184]

Margin Note:  By "... Lactantius words,...": Lib ii, cap. 16.

i thus] this from 1570.

8 Al * 6" ,l J< J< ,*f8T< :"<\"< 6"J"$,$Z6"F4<, *0 8X(,4< <"(6"@<q <" (4<fF6l, J4 8Tl J< ,*f8T< ,D,F4l @6 B ("2@ 88z B 6"6\"l (X(@<,. J * J< DP< P@< 6"6< < @*,<\ B@J, 6"8< 6D42,\0, 8@< < N"8@<. Ibid., 7, p. 7 D.

9 Deus autem major est homine: supra ergo, non infra est; nec in ima potius, sed in summa regione quaerendus est.  Quare non est dubium quin religio nulla sit ubicumque simulacrum est.  Nam si religio ex divinis rebus est, divini autem nihil est nisi in coelestibus rebus, carent ergo religione simulacra, quia nihil potest esse coeleste in ea re quae fit ex terra.  Lactant. Divin. Institutt. Lib. II De Orig. Error. c. 19.

10 7,8"JD,b6"F4 (VD J4<,l J 6J\F,4 B"D J< 5J\F"<J", 6" J >b8 J,J@8:Z6"F4< ,B,<, A"JZD :@L , Fb, 6" J 8\2, Eb :, (X<<0F"l. ADl (VD * J@F@J@< @ *,\8"4@4 6"Jf84F2@< :"2\"l :XJD@<, l 6" J"l "F2ZF,Tl :@4D@bF"4l 8"4l J< 2,\"< B8l BT<L:\"< P"D\F"F2"4 6" Jl J BV<J" B,D6,4:X<0l @F\"l J< DD0J@< B,D42,<"4 *`>"<. Cyril. Alexandr. Comment. in Joan. Evang. XI, 5; Opp. IV, 952 B, ed. Paris. 1638.

11 Praeterea audivi [Praeterea quod audivi Petav.] quosdam murmurare contra me, quia quando simul pergebamus ad sanctum locum qui vocatur Bethel, ut ibi collectam tecum ex more ecclesiastico facerem, et venissem ad villam quae dicitur Anablatha, vidissemque ibi praeteriens lucernam ardentem, et interrogassem quis locus esset, didicissemque esse ecclesiam, et intrassem ut orarem, inveni ibi velum pendens in foribus ejusdem ecclesiae tinctum atque depictum et habens imaginem, quasi Christi, vel Sancti cujusdam, (non enim satis memini cujus imago fuerit;) cum ergo hoc vidissem, et detestatus essem in ecclesia [vidissem, in ecclesia Petav.]  Christi contra auctoritatem Scripturarum hominis pendere imaginem, scidi illud, et magis dedi consilium custodibus ejusdem loci, ut pauperem mortuum eo obvolverent et efferrent.  Illique contra murmurantes dixerunt, Si scindere voluerat, justum erat ut aliud daret velum atque mutaret.  Quod eum audissem, me daturum esse pollicitus sum, et illico esse missurum. Paululum autem morarum fuit in medio ... Nunc autem misi quod potui reperire, et precor ut jubeas presbytero [presbyteros Petav.] ejusdem loci susciperi velum a Lectore [latore Petav.] quod a nobis missum est, et deinceps praecipere, in ecclesia Christi istiusmodi [ejusmodi Petav.] vela, quae contra religionem nostram veniunt, non appendi.  Decet enim honestatem tuam hanc magis habere solicitudinem, ut scrupulositatem tollat, quae indigna [the Ambrosian MS. of Jerome has et scrupulositatem, quae digna] est Ecclesia Christi et populis qui tibi crediti [qui crediti Petav.] sunt.  Epiphan. Epist. ad Joan. Episc. Hieros. a S. Hieron. Latine reddita, Epiphan. Opp. II, 317, ed. Petav. Paris. 1622; Hieron. Opp. I, 251 C.

 

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there a linen cloth hanging in the church door, painted, and having in it the image of Christ, as it were, or for some other Saint (for I remember not well whose image it was): therefore when I did seek the image of a man hanging in the church of Christ contrary to the authority of the Scriptures, I did tear it, and gave counsel to the keepers of thatl church, that they should wind a poor man that was dead in the said cloth, and so bury him."  And afterwards the same Epiphanius, sending another unpainted cloth, for that painted one which he had torn, to the said Patriarch, writeth thus. "I pray you, will the elders of that place to receive this cloth, which I have sent by this bearer, and command them that from henceforth no such painted cloths, contrary to our religion, be hanged in the church of Christ.  For it becometh your goodness rather to have this care, that you take away such scrupulosity; which is unfitting for the church of Christ, and offensive to the people committed to your charge."

And this epistle, as worthy to be read of many, did St. Jerome himself translate into the Latin tongue.  And, that ye may know that St. Jerome had this holy and learned Bishop Epiphanius in most high estimation, and therefore did translate this epistle as a writing of authority, hear what a testimony the said St. Jerome giveth him in another place, in his treaty against the errors of John, Bishop of Jerusalem, where he hath

[Continued on Page 185]

k did see] do see 15741595.  l of that] of the from 1567.

 

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these words.  "Thou hast," saith St. Jerome,12 "pope Epiphanius, which doth openly in his letters call thee an heretic.  Surely thou art not to be preferred before him, neither for age, nor learning, nor godliness of life, nor by the testimony of the whole world."  And shortly after in the same treaty saith St. Jerome: "Bishop Epiphanius was ever of so great veneration and estimation, that Valens the Emperor," who was a great persecutor, "did not once touch him.  For heretics, being princes, thought it their shame, if they should persecute such a notable man."  And in the Tripartite Ecclesiastical History, the ninth book and forty-eighth chapter, is testified, that Epiphanius, being yet alive, did work miracles; and that, after his death, devils being expelled at his grave or tomb did roar.13  Thus you see what authority St. Jerome and that most ancient History give unto the holy and learned Bishop Epiphanius: whose judgment of images in churches and temples, then beginning by stealth to creep in, is worthy to be noted.

First, he judged it contrary to Christian religion and the authority of the Scriptures to have any images in Christs church.  Secondly, he rejected not only carved, graven, and molten images, but also painted images, out of Christs church.  Thirdly, that he regarded not whether it were the image of Christ or of any other Saith, but, being an image, would not suffer it in the church.  Fourthly, that he did not only remove it out of the church, but with a vehement zeal tare it asunder,m and exhorted that a corse should be wrapped and buried in it, judging it meet for nothing but to rot in the earth; following herein the example of the good King Ezechias, [2 Kings 18:4] who brake the brazen serpent into pieces, and burned it to ashes, for that idolatry was committed to it.  Last of all, that Epiphanius thinketh it the duty of vigilant bishops to be careful that no images be permitted in the church, for that they be occasion of scruple and offence to the people committed to their charge.

Now, whereas neither St. Jerome, who did translate the saidn

[Continued on Page 186]

Margin Notes:  Top line: All notable bishops were then called popes.  By "... Triparte ...": Lib ix, cap. 48.

m asunder] in sunder 1582, 1623.  n said] same from 1582.

12 Habes papam Epiphanium, qui te aperte missis literis haereticum vocat.  Certe nec aetate, nec scientia, nec vitae merito, nec totius orbis testimonio, major illo es. ... Ille vel Presbyter monasterii ab Eutychio audiebatur, vel postea Episcopus Cypri a Valente non tangebatur.  Tantae enim venerationis semper fuit, ut regnantes haeretici ignominiam suam putarent, si talem virum persequerentur.  Hierom, contra Ioan. Ierosol. 4, Opp. II, 411 B, D.

13 Eo quoque tempore fuit Epiphanius, Cypriorum Episcopus, ad cujus sepulcrum hactenus daemones expelluntur, &c.  Cassiodor. Hist. Eccles. Tripart. IX, 48, from Sozom. VII, 27.

 

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epistle, nor the authors of that most ancient History Ecclesiastical Tripartite, who do most highly commend Epiphanius (as is aforesaid), nor noo other godly or learned bishop at that time or shortly after, have written any thing against Epiphanius judgment concerning images, it is an evident proof that in those days, which were about four hundred years after our Saviour Christ, there were no images publicly used and received in the church of Christ, which was then much less corrupt and more pure than now it is.  And, whereas images began at that time secretly and by stealth to creep out of private mens houses into the churches, and that first in painted cloths and walls, such bishops as were godly and vigilant, when they espiedp them, removed them away as unlawful and contrary to Christian religion, as did here Epiphanius: to whose judgment you have not only St. Jerome, the translator of his epistle, and the writer of the Holy Tripartite, but also all the learned and godly bishops andq clerks, yea, and the whole Church of that age, and so upward to our Saviour Christs time by the space of about four hundred years, consenting and agreeing.

This is written the more largely of Epiphanius, for that our image maintainers now a days, seeing themselves so pressed with this most plain and earnest act and writing of Epiphanius, a bishop and doctor of such antiquity, holiness,r and authority, labour by all means (but in vain against the truth) either to prove that this epistle was neither of Epiphanius writing nor St. Jeromes translation, either, if it be, say they, it is of no great force; for this Epiphanius, say they, was a Jew, and, being converted to the Christian faith and made a bishop, retained the hatred which Jews have to images still in his mind, and so did and wrote against them as a Jew, rather than as a Christian.14  O Jewish impudency and malice of such devisers!  It would be proved, and not said only, that Epiphanius was a Jew.  Furthermore, concerning the reason they make, I would admit it gladly.  For, if Epiphanius judgment against images is *not to be admitted, for that he was ofs a Jew (an enemy to* images, which be Gods enemies) converted to Christs religion, then likewise followeth it, that no sentence in the old doctors and fathers sounding for images ought to be of any authority,

[Continued on Page 187]

*former line 35*

o nor no] nor any 1623.  p espied] spied from 1582.  q bishops and] omitted 1623.  r holiness] omitted after 1574.  s was of] so in the text of 1563 A, but was born of in the correction of "Faultes escaped" at the end of that volume, and in all editions since.  See p. 187, lines 3 and 15.

14 See Jewel, Defence of Apology, Part V, Chap. 3, Div. 3.

 

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for that in the primitive Church the most part of learned writers, as Tertullian, Cyprian, Ambrose, Austin, and infinite *others, weret of Gentiles (which be favourers and worshippers* of images) converted to the Christian faith, and so let somewhat slip out of their pens sounding for images, rather as Gentiles than Christians; as Eusebius in his History Ecclesiastical and St. Jerome saith plainly, that images came first from the Gentiles to us Christians.15  And much more doth it follow, that the opinion of all the rabblement of the popish church, maintaining images, ought to be esteemed of small or no authority; for that it is no marvel that they, which have from their childhood been brought up amongst images and idols, and have drunk in idolatry almost with their mothers milk, hold with images and idols, and speak and write for them.  But indeed it **would not be so much marked, whether he were of a Jew or a** Gentile converted to Christsu religion that writeth, as how agreeablyx or contrarilyy to Gods word he doth write, and so to credit or discredit him.  Now, what Gods word saith of idols and images and the worshipping of them, you heard at large in the first part of this Homily.

St. Ambrose in his treaty of the death of Theodosius the Emperor saith:16 "Helene found the cross and the title on it: she worshipped the King, and not the wood surely, for that is an ethnishz error and the vanity of the wicked, but she worshipped him that hanged on the cross, and whose name was written in the title:" and so forth.  See both the godly Empress fact, and St. Ambrose judgment at once.  They thought it had been an heathenish error and vanity of the wicked to have worshipped the cross itself, which was embrued with our Saviour Christs own precious blood: and we fall down before every cross piece of timber, which is but an image of that cross.

St. Augustine, the best learned of all ancient doctors, in his forty-fourth Epistle to Maximus saith:17 "Know thou, that

[Continued on Page 188]

*former line 3*

**former line 15**

t others, were] others more, were from 1582.  u to Christs] unto Christs from 1574.  x agreeably] agreeable from 1574.  y contrarily] contrary from 1582.  z ethnish] heathenish 1595, 1623.

15 See the passages cited from Eusebius and Jerome in notes 23 and 24 below, p. 190.

16 Invenit ergo titulum; Regem adoravit; non lignum utique, quia hic gentilis est error et vanitas impiorum; sed adoravit illum qui pependit in ligno, scriptus in titulo.  Ambros. de Obitu Theodosii 46, Opp. II, 1211 A.

17 Ad summam tamen, ne te hoc lateat et in sacrilega convitia imprudentem trahat, scias a Christianis catholicis, quorum in vestro oppido etiam Ecclesia constituta est, nullum coli mortuorum, nihil denique ut numen adorari quod sit factum et conditum a Deo, sed unum ipsum Deum, qui fecit et condidit omnia.  Augustin. Epist. XVII (al. XLIV) ad Max. Madaur. 5; Opp. II, 22 F.

 

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none of the dead, nor any thing that is made of God, is worshipped as God of the catholic Christians, of whom is a Church also in your town."  Note that by St. Augustine such as worshipped the dead or creatures to be noa catholic Christians.  The same St. Augustine teacheth, in the twenty-secondb book of the City of God, the tenth chapter, that18 neither temples or churches ought to be builded or made for Martyrs or Saints, but to God alone; and that there ought no priests to be appointed for Martyr or Saint, but to God only.  The same St. Augustine in his book of the Manners of the Catholic Church hath these words:19 "I know that many be worshippers of tombs and pictures; I know that there be many that banquet most riotously over the graves of the dead, and, giving meat to dead carcases, do bury themselves upon the buried, and attribute their gluttony and drunkenness to religion."  See, he esteemeth worshipping of Saints tombs and picturesc as good religion as gluttony and drunkenness, and no better at all.  St. Augustine greatly alloweth Marcus Varro20 affirming that religion is most pure without images.  And saith himself:21

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Margin Note:  Last line: Lib. IV de Civ. Dei, cap. 31.

a be no] be not from 1574.  b twenty-second] xii. 1623.  c Saints tombs and pictures] Saints, Tombs, and Pictures till 1582.

18 Illi talibus diis suis et templa aedificaverunt, et statuerunt aras, et sacerdotes instituerunt, et sacrificia fecerunt.  Nos autem Martyribus nostris non templa sicut diis, sed memorias sicut hominibus mortuis quorum apud Deum vivunt spiritus, fabricamus; nec ibi erigimus altaria, in quibus sacrificemus Martyribus, sed uni Deo et Martyrum et nostro; ad quod sacrificium, sicut homines Dei qui mundum in ejus confessione vicerunt, suo loco et ordine nominatur, non tamen a sacerdote qui sacrificat invocantur.  Deo quippe, non ipsis, sacrificat, quamvis in memoria sacrificet corum; quia Dei sacerdos est, non illorum.  Augustin. de Civ. Dei, XXII, 10; Opp. VII, 673 F.  The word Memoria in this passage signifies a memorial Church or Chapel, in which sense it is often used by Christian writers.  In Augustines tract De Cura Gerenda pro Mortuis the expressions Memoria Martyris and Basilica Martyris are used interchangeably; Opp. VI, 515 A, B, 519 B, G.  Compare Augustin. Serm. ad Pop. 273 (al. de Divers. 101), cap. 7; Opp. V, 1107 G, 1108 A: and see Bingham, Orig. Eccles. VIII, i, 8.  See also note 84 on the Third Part of this Homily.

19 Novi multos esse sepulcrorum et picturarum adoratores: novi multos esse, qui luxuriosissime super mortuos bibant, et epulas cadaveribus exhibentes super sepultos scipsos sepeliant, et voracitates ebrietatesque suas deputent religioni.  Augustin. de Mor. Eccles. Cathol. 75; Opp. I, 713 E.

20 Quapropter, cum solos dicit [sc. Varro] animadvertisse quid esset Deus qui eum crederent animam mundum gubernantem, castiusque existimat sine simulacris observari religionem, quis non videat quantum propinquaverit veritati?  Augustin. de Civ. Dei, IV, 31; Opp. VII, 112 A.

21 Plus enim valent simulacra ad curvandam infelicem animam quod os habent, ... quam ad corrigendam quod non loquentur.... Augustin. Enarrat. II in Psalm. 113, 6; Opp. IV, 1262 G.

 

[Page 189]

"Images be of more force to crooken an unhappy soul than to teach and instruct it."  And saith further:22 "Every child, yea, every beast knoweth that it is not God that they see.  Wherefore then doth the Holy Ghost so often monish us of that which all men know?"  Whereunto St. Augustine himself answereth thus: "For," saith he, "when images are placed in temples, and set in honourable sublimity, and begin once to be worshipped, forthwith breedeth the most vile affection of error."  This is St. Augustines judgment of images in churches, that by and by they breed error and idolatry.

It would be tood tedious to rehearse all other places which might be brought out of the ancient doctors against images and idolatry: wherefore we shall hold ourselfe contented with these few at this present.

Now as concerning Histories Ecclesiastical touching this matter, that youf may know why and when and by whom images were first used privately, and afterwards not only received into the Christians churches and temples, but in conclusion worshipped also, and how the same was gainsaid, resisted, and forbidden, as well by godly bishops and learned doctors, as also by sundry Christian princes, I will briefly collect into a compendious history that which is at large and in sundry places written by divers ancient writers and historiographers concerning this matter.

As the Jews, having most plain and express commandment of

[Continued on Page 190]

Margin Note:  Top line: In Psalm 36 et 113.

d too] omitted after 1574.  e ourself] ourselves from 1574.  f you] ye from 1571.

22 The Homilist has here blended two passages from St. Augustine.

Quanto ergo melius mures atque serpentes et id genus animantium cetera de simulacris gentium, si ita dicendum est, quodammodo judicant, in quibus quia non sentiunt humanam vitam non curant humanam figuram .... Quis puer interrogatus non hoc certum esse respondeat, quod simulacra gentium os habent, et non loquentur,....? Cur ergo tantopere Spiritus Sanctus curat Scripturarum plurimis locis haec insinuare atque inculcare velut inscientibus, quasi non omnibus apertissima atque notissima; nisi quia species membrorum, quam naturaliter in animantibus viventem videre atque in nobismetipsis sentire consuevimus, quamquam, ut illi asserunt, in signum aliquod fabrefacta atque eminenti collocata suggestu, cum adorari atque honorari a multitudine coeperit, parit in unoquoque sordidissimum erroris affectum?  Enarrat. II in Psalm. 113, 2, 3; Opp. IV, 1261 A, C.

Et idola quidemm omni sensu carere quis dubitet?  Verumatamen cum his locantur sedibus honorabili sublimatate, ut a precantibus atque imnolantibus adtendantur, ipsa similitudine animatorum membrorum atque sensuum, quamvis insensata et exanima, afficuiunt infirmos animos, ut vivere ac spirare videantur, accedente praesertim veneratione multitudinis, qua tantus eis cultus impenditur.  Epist. CII (al. XLIX), Quaest. iii, 18; Opp. II, 279 F.

In his exposition of Psalm 36 cited in the margin, Augustine says nothing about images.  Perhaps the passage intended is Enarrat. in Psalm 96, 11; Opp. IV, 1047 D, E.

 

[Page 190]

God that they should neither make nor worship any image (as it is at large before declared), did notwithstanding, by the example of the Gentiles or heathen people that dwelt about them, fall to the making of images and worshipping of them, and so to the committing of most abominable idolatry; for the which God by this holy Prophets doth most sharply reprove and threaten them, and afterward did accomplish his said threatenings by extreme punishing of them (as is also above specified); even so some of the Christians in old time, which were converted from worshipping of idols and false gods unto the true living God and to our Saviour Jesus Christ, did of a certain blind zeal, and asg men long accustomed to images, paint or carve images of our Saviour Christ, his mother Mary, and of the Apostles, thinking that this was a point of gratitude and kindness towards those by whom they had received the true knowledge of God and the doctrine of the Gospel.  But these pictures or images came not yet into churches, nor were not worshippedh of a long time after.

And, lest you should think that I do say this of mine own head only without authority, I allege for me Eusebius, Bishop of Cesarea and the most ancient author of the Ecclesiastical History, (who lived about the three hundred and thirtieth year of our Lord, in Constantinus Magnus days, and his son Constantius, Emperors,) in the seventh book of his History Ecclesiastical, the fourteenthi chapter, and St. Jerome upon the tenth chapter of *the Prophet Jeremy; who both expressly say, that the "error"k* of images (for so St. Jerome23 calleth it) "hath" come in and "passed" to the Christians from the Gentiles "by an heathenish use" and custom.  The cause and means Eusebius sheweth, saying,24  "It is no marvel if they which being Gentiles before and

[Continued on Page 191]

*former line 26*

g zeal, and as] zeal, as 1623.  h not worshipped] not yet worshipped 1623.  i fourteenth] so in all. k error] errors in all.  See p. 191, line 15, and the citation from Jerome in note 23.

23 Argento et auro decoravit illud, ut fulgore utriusque materiae decipiat simplices.  Qui quidem error ad nos usque transivit, ut religionem in divitiis arbitremur.  Hieron. in Jerem 10:4; Opp. IV, 911 B.  See more of the context cited in note 100 on the Third Part of this Homily.

24 I@J@< J< <*D4V<J" ,6`<" J@ z30F@ NXD,4< 8,(@<. ... 5" 2"L:"FJ< @*< J@l BV8"4 > 2<< ,,D(,J02X<J"l BDl J@ ETJD@l :< J"J" B,B@406X<"4, J, 6" J< z!B@FJ`8T< "J@ Jl ,6`<"l A"b8@L 6" AXJD@L 6" "J@ * J@ OD4FJ@ *4 PDT:VJT< < (D"N"l FT.@:X<"l FJ@DZF":,<q l ,6l J< B"8"4< B"D"NL8V6JTl [al. B"D"88V6JTl] @" FTJD"l 2<46 FL<02,\ B"Dz "LJ@l J@J@< J4:"< ,T2`JT< J< JD`B@<. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. VII, xviii, 3.

But the writer of the Homily used the version of Rufinus.  Et nihil mirum si hi qui ex gentilibus crediderant, pro beneficiis quae a Salvatore fuerant consecuti, hujusmodi velut munus videbantur offerre, cum videamus etiam nunc Apostolorum Petri et Pauli et ipsius Salvatoris imagines designari tabulasque depingi.  Sed et antiquas ipsorum imagines a quibusdam conservatas nos vidimus: quod mihi videtur ex gentili consuetudine indifferenter observatum, quod ita soleant honorare quos honore dignos duxerint.  Insignia etenim veterum reservari ad posteriorum memoriam, illorum honoris, horum vero amoris, indicium est. Euseb. Caes. Eccles. Hist. VII, 14, Ruf. Interpr., ed. Basil. 1528, p. 166 A.

 

[Page 191]

didl believe seemed to offer this as a gift untom our Saviour for the benefits which they had received of him.  Yea, and we do see now that images of Peter and Paul and ourn Saviour himself be made, and tables to be painted: which me think to have been observed and kept indifferently by an heathenish custom; for the heathen are wont so to honour them whom they judged honour worthy.  For that some tokens of old men should be kept for the remembrance of posterity is a token of their honour that were before, and the love of those that come after."  Thus far I have rehearsed Eusebius words.  Where note ye, that both St. Jerome and he agreeo herein, that these images came in amongst Christian men by such as were Gentiles and accustomed to idols, and, being converted to the faith of Christ, retained yet some remnants of Gentility not throughly purged; *for St. Jerome calleth it an "error" manifestly.  And the like* example we see, in the Acts of the Apostles [Acts 15], of the Jews: who, when they were converted to Christ, would have brought in their circumcision (whereunto they were so long accustomed) with them into Christs religion; with whom the Apostles, namely St. Paul, had much ado for the staying of that matter.  But of circumcision was less marvel, for that it came first in by Gods ordinance and commandment.  A man may most justly wonder of images, so directly against Gods holy word and strait commandment, how they should enter in.  But images were not yet worshipped in Eusebius time, nor publicly set up in churches and temples; and they who privately had them did err of a certain zeal, and not by malice: but afterwards they crept out of private houses into churches, and so bred first superstition and last of all idolatry amongst Christians, as hereafter shall appear.

In the time of Theodosius and Martian, Emperors, who reigned about the year of our Lord 460, and eleven hundredp years ago, when the people of the city of Nola once a year did celebrate the birthday of St. Felix in the temple, and used to banquet there sumptuously, Pontius Paulinus, Bishop of Nola,

[Continued on Page 192]

*former line 15*

l and did] so in all.  m unto] to 1623.  n and our] and of our from 1571.  o agree] agreeth from 1563 B.  p eleven hundred] 1100 till 1582, 1117 from 1582.

 

[Page 192]

caused the walls of the temple to be painted with stories taken out of the Old Testament, that the people, beholding and considering those pictures, might the better abstain from too much surfeiting and riot.25  And about the same time Aurelius Prudentius, a very learned and Christian poet, declareth how he did see painted in a church the history of the passion of St. Cassian, a schoolmaster and martyr, whom his own scholars, at the commandment of the tyrant, tormented with the pricking or stabbing in of their pointels or brazen pens into his body, and so by a thousand wounds and mo (as saith Prudentius26) most cruelly slew him.  And these were the first paintings in churches that were notable of antiquity.  And so by this example came in painting, and afterward images of timber and stone and other matter, into the churches of Christians.

Now, and ye27 willq consider this beginning, men are not so ready to worship a picture on a wall or in a window, as an embossed and gilt image, wet with pearl and stone.  And a process of a story painted with the gestures and actions of many persons, and commonly the sum of the story written withal, hath another use in it than one dumb idol or image standing by itself.  But from learning by painted stories it came by little and little to idolatry.  Which when godly men, as well emperors and learned bishops as others, perceived, they commanded that such pictures, images or idols should be used no more.  And I will, for a declaration thereof, begin with the decree of the ancient Christian Emperors Valens and Theodosius the Second, who reigned about four hundred years after our Saviour Christs

[Continued on Page 193]

q ye will] ye well 1623.

25 See Paulin. Poem. XXIV, De S. Felice Natal. Carm. IX, 511595.

26 Stratus humi tumulo advolvebar, quem sacer ornat

Martyr dicato Cassianus corpore.

Dum lacrimans mecum reputo mea vulnera et omnes

Vitae labores ad dolorum acumina,

Erexi ad coelum faciem: stetit obvia contra

Fucis colorum picta imago Martyris,

Plagas mille gerens, totos lacerata per artus,

Ruptam minutis praeferens punctis cutem.

Innumeri circum pueri, miserabile visu,

Confossa parvis membra figebant stilis.

* * * * * * * * * * *

Aedituus consultus ait: Quod prospicis, hospes,

Non est inanis aut anilis fabula.

Historiam pictura refert, quae tradita libris

Veram vetusti temporis monstrat fidem.

Praeferat studiis puerilibus, &c.

Prudent. A,D4FJ,N, IX, 521.

27 and ye: an ye, if ye.

 

[Page 193]

ascension, who forbad that any images should be made or painted privately; for certain it is that there was none in temples publicly in their time.  These Emperors did write unto the Captain of the Army attending on the Emperors after this sort.  "Valens and Theodosius, Emperors, unto the Captain of the Army.  Whereas we have a diligent care to maintain the religion of God above all things, we will grant to no man to set forth, grave, carve, or paint the image of our Saviour Christ in colours, stone, or any other matter; but, in what place soever it shall be found, we command that it be taken away, and that all such as shall attempt anything contrary to our decrees or commandment herein shall be most sharply punished."  This decree is written in the books named Libri Augustales, the Imperial Books, gathered by Tribonianus,r Basilides, Theophilus, Dioscorus, and Satira, men of great authority and learning, at the commandment of the emperor Justinian; and is alleged by Petrus Crinitus,s a notable learned man, in the ninth book and ninth chapter of his work entitled De Honesta Disciplina, that is to say, Of Honest Learning.28  Here you see what Christian

[Continued on Page 194]

r Tribonianus] Tribunianus till 1623.  s Crinitus] Erinilus, Erinius, or Erimus till 1623.

28 Impp. Theod. et Valentin. AA. Eudoxio P.P. Cum sit nobis cura diligens per omnia Superni Numinis religionem tueri, signum Salvatoris Christi nemini licere vel in solo vel in silice vel in marmoribus humi positis insculpere vel pingere, sed quodcunque reperitur tolli, gravissima poena multando eo qui contrarium statutis nostris tentaverit, specialiter imperamus.  Dat. XII Kalend. Jun. Hierio et Ardaburio Coss. Cod. Justin. I, viii.

The date of this decree is A. D. 427. The error in the name of the Emperor Valentinian, which appears in the Homily, is due to Crinitus (or Riccio) himself, whose words are these: Sed libitum est verba ex libris Augustalibus referre..., quoniam et Valens et Theodosius Augusti Imperatores Praefecto Praetorio ad hunc modum scripserunt: Cum sit nobis &c.  After the decree he adds this sentence: In quo si quis autorem desiderat, is Imperatorum decreta et edicta legat, quae a viris doctissimis Triboniano, Basilide, Theophilo, Dioscoroque et caeteris per Satyram collecta sunt, imperante hoc maxime Augusto Justiniano.  Petr. Crinit. de Honest. Discipl. IX, 9.

But none of Justinians commissioners bore any name like Satyra.  The writer of the Homily mistook the words "per Satyram," which even Crinitus did not use quite rightly.  Per satyram, or more properly Per saturam, was a figurative expression, bearing some resemblance to our phrase "in hotchpot."  In Justinians own Prooemium to the Pandects the phrase "quasi per satyram collectum" is applied to a most unsystematic compiliation, which used to be the first work put into the hands of students of law at that time, and which was the very reverse of the orderly method of the Digest.  If, instead of saying that the commissioners collected the laws per saturam, Crinitus had said that Justinian reenacted them per saturam, in the lump and not piecemeal, his language would have been more nearly accurate.  For Satura Lex, as Gratian defnes it is one quae de pluribus simul rebus loquitur, dicta quidem a copia rerum et quasi a saturitate.  Decret. I, ii, 7, Satyra. See Hotman, Antiqq. Roman. I, i, "Satyra lex."

Concerning the imperial decree itself it is right to add that jurists put quite another interpretation upon it.  They say that "signum Salvatoris Christi" is the figure of the cross, and that the decree forbids the placing of that figure anywhere on the ground, ne pedibus conculcetur, for fear it should be trampled on or trodden under foot; and they illustrate this by the seventy-third canon of the concilium in Trullo or Quinisextum, which sat A.D. 691.  I@ .T@B@4@ FJ"LD@ *,\>"<J@l :< J FTJZD4@<, BF"< FB@L*< :l J42X<"4 PD J@ J4:< J< V>\"< B@*4*`<"4 J *4z @ F,FfF:,2" J@ B"8"\@L BJf:"J@l. 2,< 6" < 6" 8`( 6" "F2ZF,4 J< BD@F6b<0F4< "J B@<X:@<J,l J@l < J *VN,4 J@ FJ"LD@ JbB@Ll B` J4<T< 6"J"F6,L".@:X<@Ll >"N"<\.,F2"4 B"<J@\Tl BD@FJVJJ@:,<, l < : J J< $"*4.`<JT< 6"J"B"JZF,4 J Jl <\60l :< JD`B"4@< >L$D\.@4J@. J@l @< B J@ << FJ"LD@ JbB@< B J *VN,4 6"J"F6,LV.@<J"l D\.@:,< N@D\.,F2"4.  Concil. Labbe. VI, 1175, Mansi XI, 976.

 

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princes of most ancient times decreed against images, which then began to creep in amongst the Christians.  For it is certain that by the space of three hundred years and more after the death of our Saviour Christ, and before these godly Emperors reign,t there were no images publicly in churches or temples.  How would the idolaters glory, if they had so much antiquity and authority for them, as is here against them!

Now shortly after these days the Goths, Vandals, Huns, and other barbarous and wicked nations burst into Italy and all parts of the West countries of Europe with huge and mighty armies, spoiled all places, destroyed cities, and burned libraries; so that learning and true religion went to wrack, and decayed incredibly.  And so the bishops of those latter days being of less learning, and in the middleu of warsx taking less heed also than did the bishops afore, by ignorance of Gods word and negligence of bishops, and specially barbarous princes not rightly instructed in true religion bearing the rule, images came into the Church of Christ in the said West parts, where these barbarous people ruled, not now in painted cloths only, but embossed in stone, timber, metal, and other like matter; and were not only set up, but began to be worshipped also.  And therefore Serenus, Bishop of Massile, the head town of Gallia Narbonensis (now called the Province), a godly and learned man, who was about six hundred years after our Saviour Christ, seeing the people by occasion of images fall to most abominable idolatry, brake to pieces all the images of Christ and Saints which were in that city; and was therefore complained upon to Gregory, the first of that name Bishop of Rome, who was the first learned bishop that did allow the open having of images in churches, that can be known by any writing or history of antiquity.

And upon this Gregory do all image worshippers at this day ground their defence. But, as all things that be amiss have

[Continued on Page 195]

t reign] reigned from 1582.  u middle] middest from 1571.  x of wars] of the wars from 1582.

 

[Page 195]

from a tolerable beginning grown worse and worse, till they at the last became untolerable, so did this matter of images.  First men used privately stories painted in tables, cloths, and walls; afterwards gross and embossed images privately in their own houses.  Then afterwards pictures first, and after them embossed images, began to creep into churches, learned and godly men ever speaking against them.  Then by use it was openly maintained that they might be in churches, but yet forbidden that they should be worshipped.  Of which opinion was Gregory, as by the said Gregorys Epistle to the forenamed Serenus, Bishop of Massile, plainly appeareth; which Epistle is to be found in the book of the Epistlesy of Gregory, or Register, in the tenth part of the fourth Epistle,29 where he hath these words:30 "That thou didst forbid images to be worshipped, we praise altogether; but that thou didst break them, we blame.  For it is one thing to worship the picture, and another by the picture of the story to learn what is to be worshipped.  For, that which Scripture is to them that read, the same doth picture perform unto idiots" (or the unlearned) "beholding": and so forth, And after a few words: "Therefore it should not have been broken, which was set up, not to be worshipped in churches, but only to instruct the minds of the ignorant."  And a little after: "Thus thou shouldest have said, If you will have images in the church for that instruction wherefore they were made in old time, I do permit that they may be made, and that you may have them.  And shew them that not the sight of the story which is opened by the picture, but that worshipping which was inconveniently given to the pictures, did mislike you.  And if any would make images, not to forbid them, but avoid by all

[Continued on Page 196]

y of the Epistles] of Epistles from 1574.

29 Bullinger, from whom this is taken (cap xxiv, fol. 117 b), says, In Registro sive epistol. libro, Parte 10. epistol. 4, meaning the fourth Epistle in the tenth Part of the Register or book of Epistles.

30 Et quidem, quia eas adorari vetuisses, omnino laudavimus; fregisse vero reprehendimus.... Aliud est enim picturam adorare, aliud per picturae historiam quid sit adorandum addiscere.  Nam, quod legentibus scriptura, hoc idiotis praestat pictura cernentibus; quia in ipsa etiam ignorantes vident quid sequi debeant, in ipsa legunt qui literas nesciunt.... Frangi ergo non debuit, quod non ad adorandum in ecclesiis sed ad instruendas solummodo mentes fuit nescientium collocatum.... Atque eis dicendum, Si ad hanc instructionem ad quam imagines antiquitus factae sunt habere vultis in ecclesia, eas modis omnibus et fieri et haberi permitto.  Atque indica quod non tibi ipsa visio historiae, quae pictura teste pandebatur, displicuerit, sed illa adoratio quae picturis fuerat incompetenter exhibita.... Et, si quis imagines facere voluerit, minime prohibe; adotari vero imagines modis omnibus veta.  Gregor. I Epist. XI, 13 (al. IX, 9); Opp. II, 1100 B, C, 1101 A, ed. Paris. 1705.

 

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means to worship any image."  By these sentences taken here and there out of Gregorys Epistle to Serenus, (for it were too long to rehearse the whole,) ye may understand whereunto the matter was now come, six hundred years after Christ; that the having of images or pictures in the churches were then maintainedz in the West part of the world (for they were not so frowarda yet in the East Church), but the worshipping of them was utterly forbidden.  And you may withal note, that seeing there is no ground for worshipping of images in Gregorys writing, but a plain condemnation thereof, that such as do worship images do unjustly allege Gregory for them.  And further, if images in the Church do not teach men, according to Gregorys mind, but rather blind them, it followeth that images should not be in the church by his sentence, who only would they should be placed there to the end that they might teach the ignorant.  Wherefore, if it be declared that images have been and be worshipped, and also that they teach nothing but errors and lies, (which shall by Gods grace hereafter be done,31) I trust that then by Gregorys own determination all images and image-worshippers shall be overthrown.

But in the mean season Gregorys authority was so great in all the West Church, that by his encouragement men set up images in all places: but their judgment was not so good to consider why he would have them set up, but they fell all on heaps to manifest idolatry by worshipping of them, which Bishop Serenus (not without just cause) feared would come to pass.  Now, if Serenus his judgment, thinking it meet that images whereunto idolatry was committed should be destroyed, had taken place, idolatry had been overthrown; for to that which is not no man committeth idolatry.  But of Gregorys opinion, thinking that images might be suffered in churches, so it were taught that they should not be worshipped, what ruin of religion and what mischief ensued afterward to all Christendom, experience hath to our great hurt and sorrow proved: first, by the schism rising between the East and the West church about the said images; next, by the division of the Empire into two parts by the same occasion of images, to the great weakening of all Christendom; whereby, last of all, hath followed the utter overthrow of the Christian religion and noble Empire in Greece and all the East parts of the world, and the encrease of Mahomets

[Continued on Page 197]

z were then maintained] so in all.  a froward] forward 1587, 1595, 1623.

31 See below, pp. 217, 223239.

 

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false religion, and the cruel dominion and tyranny of the Saracens and Turks; who do now hang over our necks also that dwell in the West parts of the world, ready at all occasions to overrun us.  And all this do we owe unto our idols and images and our idolatry in worshipping of them.

But now give you ear a little to the process of the history.  Wherein I do much follow the Histories of Paulsu Diaconus and others joined with Eutropius, an old writer:32 for, though some of the authors were favorers of images, yet do they most plainly and at large prosecute the histories of those times: whom Baptist Platina also in his History of Popes, as in the Lives of Constantine and Gregory the Second, Bishops of Rome, and other places where he entreateth of this matter, doth chiefly follow.  After Gregorys time, Constantine, Bishop of Rome, assembled a Council of bishops in the West Church, and did condemn Philippicus, then Emperor, and John, Bishop of Constantinople, of the heresy of the Monothelites, not without a cause indeed, but very justly.  When he had so done, by the consent of the learned about him, the said Constantine, Bishop of Rome, caused the images of the ancient fathers, which had been at those six Councils which were allowed and received of all men, to be painted in the entry of St. Peters church at Rome.33  When the Greeks had knowledge hereof, they began to dispute and reason the matter of images with the Latins, and held this opinion, that images could have no place in Christs Church; and the Latins held the contrary, and took part with the images.   So the East and West Churches, which agreed evil before, upon this contention about images fell to utter enmity, which was never well reconciled yet.  But in the mean season Philippicus and Arthemius or Anastasius, Emperors, commanded images and pictures to be pulled down and rased out in every place of their dominion.  After them came Theodosius the Third: he commanded the defaced images to be painted again in their places.34  But this Theodosius reigned but one year. Leo, the third of that name, succeeded him; who was a Syrian born, a very wise, godly, merciful, and valiant prince.  This Leo by proclamation commanded, that all images set up in churches to

[Continued on Page 198]

Margin Notes:  1st indent: Eutrop. Lib: de Rebus Rom. 23. Platina in Vitis Constantini et Greg. II.

32 This is the collection which is now commonly known by the title of Historia Miscella.  But the writer of the Homily is really following Bullinger, cap. 25; and Bullingers statements are not all vouched by the Historia Miscella, nor does he himself cite it till he comes to Constantine the Fifth, nor lib. 23 of it till he speaks of the second Nicene Council.

33 Platina de Vit. Constantini.

34 Ibid.

 

[Page 198]

be worshipped should be plucked down and defaced, and required specially the Bishop of Rome that he should do the same; and himself in the mean season caused all images that were in the imperial city Constantinople to be gathered on an heap into the middleb of the city, and there publicly burned them to ashes, and whited over and rased out all pictures painted upon the walls of the temples, and punished sharply divers maintainers of images.35  And, when some did hereforec report him to be a tyrant, he answered, that such of all other were most justly punished, which neither worshipped God aright, nor regarded the imperial majesty and authority, but maliciously rebelled against wholesome and profitable laws.  When Gregorius, the third of that name Bishop of Rome, heard of the Emperors doings in Greece concerning images,d he assembled a *Council of Italian bishops against him; and there made decrees* for images, and that more reverence and honour should yet be given to them than was before; and stirred up the Italians against the Emperor, first at Ravenna, and moved them to rebellion.  And, as Auspurgensise and Anthoniusf Bishop of Florence testify in their Chronicles, he caused Rome and all Italy at the lastg to refuse their obedience and the payment of any more tribute to the Emperor,36 and so by treason and rebellion maintained their idolatry.  Which example other bishops of Rome have continually followed and gone through withal most stoutly.

After this Leo, whichh reigned thirty fouri years,37 succeeded his son Constantine the Fifth; who, after his fathers example, kept images out of the temples.  And, being moved with the Council which Gregory had assembled in Italy for images against his father, he also assembled a Council of all the learned men and bishops of Asia ad Greece; although some writers place this Council in Leo Isauricus his fathers latter days.  In

[Continued on Page 199]

*former line 15*

Margin Note:  Before indent: Treason and rebellion for the defence of images.

b into the middle] in the middest from 1567.  c herefore] therefore from 1570.  d concerning images] concerning the images from 1582.  e Auspergensis] Aspurgensis 15701595, Uspergensis 1623.  f Anthonius] so in all.  g last] least from 1582.  h which] who 1623. i thirty four] so in all.

35 Platina de Vit. Greg. II.

36 Hist. Miscell. 21: Platina de Vit. Greg. III: Chron. Abbat. Ursperg. (Conrad von Lichtenau) an. 731: Autonin. Chron. Tit. 14, cap. 1.  But part of what is here related of Gregory III is ascribed by some of these authorities to his predecessor Gregory II.

37 Leo Isaurus died after a reign of little more than twenty four years.  The error is Bullingers, cap. 25, fol. 119 a.  Near the end of Hist. Miscell. 21 there are two consecutive sentences which state the periods of the reigns of Leo and of his son; and Bullingers eye seems to have passed hastily from the first to the second of them.

 

[Page 199]

this great assemblek they sat in Council from the fourth of the Idus of February to the sixth of the Idus of August,38 and made concerning the use of images this decree: "It is not lawful for them that believe in God through Jesus Christ to have any images, neither of the Creator nor of any creatures, set up in temples to be worshipped; but rather that all images,l by the law of God and for the avoiding of offence, ought to be taken out of churches."m 39  And this decree was executed in all places where any images were found in Asia or Greece.  And the Emperor sent the determination of this Council holden at Constantinople to Paul then Bishop of Rome,40 and commanded him to cast all images out of the churches: which he, trusting in the friendship of Pipine,n a mighty prince, refused to do.  And both he and his successor Stephanus the Third, who assembled another Council in Italy for images,41 condemned the Emperor and the Council of Constantinople of heresy; and made a decree, that "the holy images" (for so they called them) of Christ, the blessed Virgin, and other Saints were indeed worthy honour and worshipping.42  When Constantine was dead, Leo the

[Continued on Page 200]

Margin Note:  Top of page: A Council against images.

k assemble] assembly from 1574.  l all images] all things 1623.  m of churches] of the churches from 1567.  n Pipine] so in all, from the Latin Pipinus.

38 Hist. Miscell. XXII, an. Constant. 13; where the number of bishops who were at the Council is set down as 38 instead of 338.  It sat A.D. 754.

39 "It is not lawfulout of churches."  This is an exact translation of Bullingers words in his edition of 1539, fol. 119 a: De usu imaginum tandem sic decrevere, Non licere Deo per Jesum Christum fidentibus ulla neque Creatoris neque creaturarum simulachra in templis habere ad cultum, quin potius illa omnia secundum legem Dei et ob scandalum vitandum tollenda esse e templis.  Bullinger might seem to have taken this from the Historia Miscella (or Eutropius as he calls it), but it is not there, neither does it occur totidem verbis in any collection of the Concilia.

But in his last edition, published in 1568, at fol. 67 b, he cites some account of the Council as published "a Joanne Sagittario Burdegalensi" in a book called Canones Conciliorum, and gives as the "Definitio" or "Decretum" a passage which corresponds with the following.  z+6 J@bJT< @< J< 2,@B<,bFJT< 6" :"6"D\T< (D"N< J, 6" B"JXDT< $,$"\Tl @6@*@:02X<J,l ... :@Nf<Tl D\.@:,<, B`$80J@< ,<"4 6" 88@JD\"< 6" $*,8L(:X<0< 6 Jl J< OD4FJ4"<< 6680F\"l BF"< ,6`<" 6 B"<J@\"l 80l 6" PDT:"J@LD(46l J< .T(DVNT< 6"6@J,P<\"l B,B@40:X<0<q :06XJ4 J@8:"< <2DTB@< J< @@<*ZB@J, B4J0*,b,4< J J@4@J@< F,$l 6" <`F4@< B4JZ*,L:". * J@8:< B J@ B"D`<J@l 6"J"F6,LVF"4 ,6`<", BD@F6L<F"4, FJF"4 < 6680F\ < *4TJ46 @6, 6DbR"4, , :< B\F6@B@l BD,F$bJ,D@l *4V6@<@l ,,<, 6"2"4D,\F2Tq , * :@<V.T< 8"^6l, <"2,:"J4.XF2T, 6" J@l $"F486@l <`:@4l B,b2L<@l FJT, l <"<J\@l J< J@ 1,@ BD@FJ"(:VJT< 6" P2Dl J< B"JD46< *@(:VJT<.  Council. Labbe VII, 504 E, 508 C; Mansi XIII, 324 D, 328 B.

40 Paul I became Pope in succession to Stephen II May 29, 757, and died June 28, 767.

41 Platina de Vit. Steph. III.  This Council met at Rome A.D. 769.

42 Si quis sanctas imagines Domini nostri Jesu Christi et ejus Genitricis atque omnium Sanctorum secundum sanctorum patrum statuta venerari noluerit, anathema sit.  Concil. Labbe VI, 1723 C, Mansi XII, 720 D.

 

[Page 200]

Fourth his son reigned after him; who married a woman of the city of Athens, named Theodora, who also was called Hirene,43 by whom he had a son, named Constantine the Sixth; and, dying whilst his son was yet young, left the regiment of the empire and governance of his young son to his wife Hirene.  These things were done in the Church about the year of our Lord 760.44

Note here, I pray you, in this process of the story, that in the churches of Asia and Greece there were no images publicly by the space of almost seven hundred years.  And there is no doubt but the primitive Church next the Apostles timeso was most pure.  Note also, that when the contention began about images, how of six Christian Emperors, who were the chief magistrates by Gods law to be obeyed, only one, which was Theodosius (who reigned but one year), held with images.  All the other Emperors, and all the learned men and bishops of the east Church, and that in assembled Councils, condemned them; besides the two Emperors before mentioned, Valens45 and Theodosius the Second, who were long before these times, who straitly forbad that any images should be made.  And universally after this time all the Emperors of Greece, only Theodosius excepted, destroyed continually all images.  Now on the contrary part note ye, that the Bishops of Rome, being no ordinary magistrates appointed of God out of their diocese, but usurpers of princes authority contrary to Gods word, were the maintainers of images against Gods word, and stirrers up of sedition and rebellion and workers of continual treason against their sovereign lords, contrary to Gods law and the ordinances of all human laws, being not only enemies to God, but also rebels and traitors against their princes.  These be the first bringers in of images openly into churches; these be the maintainers of them in the churches; and these be the means whereby they have maintained them, to wit, conspiracy, treason, and rebellion against God and their princes.

Now to proceed in the history most worthy to be known.  In the nonage of Constantine the Sixth, the Empress Hirene his

[Continued on Page 201]

Margin Note:  2d line: Or Eirene.

o times] time from 1570.

43 In saying that Irene had also the name of Theodora the writer of the Homily follows Bullinger, who seems to have mistaken some words of Sabellicus cited below in note 47.

44 Leo IV became sole Emperor on the death of his father September 14, 775, and died September 8, 780.  His son Constantine VI was born January 14, 771.

45 See before,, p. 193, note 28.

 

[Page 201]

mother, in whose hands the regiment of the empire remained, was governed much by the advice of Theodore, Bishop, and Tharasius, Patriarch of Constantinople, who practised and held with the Bishop of Rome in maintaining of images most earnestly.  By whose counsel and entreaty the Empress first most wickedly digged up the body of her father in law Constantine the Fifth, and commanded it to be openly burned, and the ashes to be thrown into the sea.  Which example (as the constant report goeth) had like to have been put in practice with princes corses in our days, had the authority of the holy father continued but a little longer.46  The cause why the Empress Hirene thus used her father in law was, for that he, when he was alive, had destroyed images, and had taken away the sumptuous ornaments of churches, saying that Christ, whose temples they were, allowed poverty and not pearls and precious stones.47  Afterward the

[Continued on Page 202]

46 "The common talk was, that if he had not so suddenly ended his life, he would have opened and revealed the purpose of the chief of the clergy (meaning the Cardinal), which was to have taken up King Henrys body at Windsor and to have burned it."  Foxe, Acts and Monuments, VIII, 637, ed. 1849, speaking of Hugh Weston, late Dean of Windsor, who had been "put from all his spiritual livings" by Cardinal Pole in Queen Marys reign for adultery, and died immediately after the accession of Elizabeth.  Compare with Foxs story a statement made by Abp. Parker to Lord Burghley in a letter indorsed "6th October 1572", printed among his Correspondence, p. 401, ed. Park. Soc.

47 Bullinger, cap. XXV, fol. 119 b, ed. 1539, has this sentence: Haec illa Hiraene est quae, Theodori antistitis papisantis precibus expugnata, Constantini Imperatoris soceris [sic] sui cadaver impie refossum publice cremari jussit cineremque jactari in mare, ideo quod vivus contrivisset idola et templi ornamenta sustulisset, dicens Christum, cujus templa essent, pauperiem non gemmas probasse.  He evidently took this from two sentences in Sabellic. Rhaps. Hist. Ennead. VIII, Lib. viii, (Tom. II, col. 592 A, ed. 1560,) but carelessly threw them into one.  Theodora, sive Hirene illa fuit potius, ejus [sc. Constantini] nurus, mulier pientissima, Theodori antistitis hortatu cadaver rofossum publice cremari jussit, cineremque jactavit in mare.  Leo, qui hujus [sc. Constantini] fuit filius, paternae impietati, cujus non minus quam imperii haeres fuit, sacrilegium adjecit: nam, quum insano flagraret gemmarum amore, nec ex profano conquisitis expleri posset, ex Sophiae sacrario abstulit, cavillo usus, Christum, cujus templum illud esset, pauperiem non gemmas probasse.

But the exhumation of Constantine Copronymus is ascribed by the ancient authorities, not to Irene, nor even to Theodora, but to Michael III.  See for example among the Byzantine Historians Leo Grammaticus, or that Continuator of Theophanes who wrote an account of the reign of Michael III, p. 371 E, ed. Venet. 1729, not far from the end of his History; and Cedrenus, p. 370 B, at the end of his account of the reign of Copronymus.  See also Nicetas David in his Life of Ignatius Patriarch of Constantinople, Concil. Labbe VIII, 1208 E, Mansi XVI, 241 A.  The Emperor Michael III, born in 836, succeeded his father Theophilus January 20, 842, under the guardianship of his mother Theodora.  Her influence ceased and she left the court in 857.  His uncle Bardas, to whose instigation Cedrenus refers the outrage, was declared Caesar in 856, and was killed in 866.  Michael died September 24, 867.

Among the many Theodores of history it is difficult to say who is meant by the "Theodorus antistes" mentioned by Sabellicus.  Perhaps he intended Theodorus Graptus, who with his brother Theophanes was so cruelly treated by the Emperor Theophilus, but who never was a bishop, and who did not live to return from exile, although both these things have been said of him by some writers.  See Pagi on Baron. an. 842, XVI, XVII.  If Theodora had any thing to do with the exhumation, she may have been urged to it by Theophanes Graptus, who did return from exile, was present at the grand restoration of images at Constantinople by Theodora in 842, and was afterwards made bishop of Nicea by her.

 

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said Hirene, at the persuasion of Adrian, Bishop of Rome, and Paul the Patriarch of Constantinople, and his successor Tharasius, assembled a Council of the bishops of Asia and Greece at the city Nicea;48 where, the Bishop of Romes legates being presidents of the Council, and ordering all things as they listed, the Council which wasp assembled before under the Emperor Constantine the Fifth, and had decreed that all images should be destroyed, was condemned as an heretical Council and assemble,q and a decree was made, that images should be setr up in all the churches of Greece, and that honour and worship also should be given unto the said images.49  And so the Empress, sparing no diligence in setting up of images nor cost in decking them in all churches, made Constantinople within a short time altogether like Rome itself.  And now you may see that cummens to pass which Bishop Serenus feared, and Gregory the First forbad in vain, to wit, that images should in no wise be worshipped.  For now not only the simple and unwise, unto whom images (as the Scriptures teach) be specially a snare, but the bishops and learned men also, fall to idolatry by occasion of images, yea, and make decrees and laws also fort the maintenance of the same.  So hard is it, and indeed impossible, any long time to have images publicly in churches and temples without idolatry; as by the space of a little more than one hundred years betwixt Gregory the First forbidding most straitly the worshipping of images, and Gregory the Third, Paul, and Leo the Third, Bishops of Rome, with this Council, commanding and decreeing that images should be worshipped, most evidently appeareth.

Now, when Constantine the young Emperor came to the age of twenty years, he was daily in less and less estimation.  For such as were about his mother persuaded her, that it was Gods

[Continued on Page 203]

Margin Note:  After "...heretical Council...": A decree that images should be worshipped.

p which was] which were from 1582.  q assemble] assembly from 1574.  r set] put from 1582.  s cummen] come from 1582.  t laws also for] laws for from 1574.

49 I@bJT< @JTl P`<JT< ... D\.@:,< ... <"J\2,F2"4 Jl F,BJl 6" (\"l ,6`<"l ... < J"l (\"4l J@ 1,@ 6680F\"4l ... 6" J"bJ"4l FB"F:< 6" J4:0J46< BD@F6b<0F4< B@<X:,4< ... 6" 2L:4":VJT< 6" NfJT< BD@F"(T(< BDl J< J@bJT< J4:< B@4,F2"4, 6"2l 6" J@l DP"\@4l ,F,$l ,24FJ"4. (D Jl ,6`<@l J4: B J BDTJ`JLB@< *4"$"\<,4, 6" BD@F6L<< J< ,6`<" BD@F6L<, < "J J@ ((D"N@:X<@L J< B`FJ"F4<.  Concil. Labbe VIII, 556 CE, Mansi XIII, 377 CE.

 

[Page 203]

determination that she should reign alone, and not her son with her.  The ambitious woman, believing the same, deprived her son of all imperial dignity; and compelled all the men of war with their captains to swear to her, that they would not suffer her son Constantine to reign during her life.  With which indignity the young prince being moved recovered the regiment of the empire unto himself by force; and being brought up in true religion in his fathers time, seeing the superstition of his mother Hirene and the idolatry committed by images, cast *down, brake, and burned all the idols and images that his mother had* set up.  But, within a few years after, Hirene the Empress, taken again into her sons favour, after she had persuaded him to put out Nicephorus his uncles eyes, and to cut out the tongues of his four other uncles, and to forsake his wife, and by such means to bring him in hatredu with all his subjects, now further to declare that she was no changeling, but the same woman that had before digged up and burned her father in laws body, and that she would be as natural a mother as she had been kindx daughter, seeing the images which she loved so well, and had with so great cost set up, daily destroyed by her son the Emperor, by the help of certain good companions deprived her son of the empire; and first, like a kind and loving mother, put out both his eyes, and laid him in prison; where, after long and many torments, she at the last most cruelly slew him.50  In this History joined to Eutropius it is written, that the sun was darkened by the space of seventeen days most strangely and dreadfully, and that all men said, that for the horribleness of that cruel and unnatural fact of Hirene, and the putting out of the Emperors eyes, the sun had lost his light.  But indeed God would signify by the darknesss of the sun, into what darkness and blindness of ignorance and idolatry ally Christendom should fall by the occasion of images, the bright sun of his eternal truth, and light of his holy word, by the mists and black clouds of mens traditions being blemished and darkened: as by sundry most terrible earthquakes happeningz about the same time51 God signified, that the quiet statea of true religion should by such idolatry be most horribly tossed and turmoiled.

[Continued on Page 204]

*former line 10*

u in hatred] into hatred from 1582.  x been kind] been a kind 1623.  y all] of 1582, omitted 1623.  z happening] that happened from 1563 B.  a quiet state] quieter state 1570, quiet estate from 1571.

50 Crudeliter et insanabiliter oculos ejus evellunt, ita ut hunc mors subsequens confestim extingueret, consilio matris suae.  Hist. Miscell. XXIII, an. Constant. 7

51 Ibid. an. Constant. 6.

 

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And here may you see what a gracious and virtuous lady this Hirene was, how loving a niece to her husbands uncles, how kind a mother in law to her sons wife, how loving a daughter to her father in law, how natural a mother to her own son, and what a stout and valiant captain the bishops of Rome had of her for the setting up and maintenance of their idols or images.  Surely they could not have found a meeter patron for the maintenance of such a matter than this Hirene; whose ambition and desire of rule was insatiable, whose treason, continually studied and wrought, was most abominable, whose wicked and unnatural cruelty passed Medea and Progne, whose detestable parricides have ministered matter to poets to write their horrible tragedies.  And yet certain historiographers, who do put in writing all these her horrible wickedness,b for love they had to images, which she maintained, do praise her as a godly Empress and as sent from God.52  Such is the blindness of false superstition, if it once take possession in a mans mind, that it will both declare the vices of wicked princes, and also commend them.  But, not long after, the said Hirene, being suspected to the princes and lords of Greece of treason in alienating the empire to Charles king of the Francons and for practising a secret marriage between herself and the said king, and being convicted of the same, was by the said lords deposed and deprived again of the empire, and carried into exile into the island Lesbos, where she ended her lewd life.53

Whilesc these tragedies about images were thus in workingd in Greece, the same question of the use of images in churches began to be moved in Spain also.  And at Elibery, a noblee city now Granate, was a Council of Spanish bishops and other learned men assembled;54 and there, after long deliberation and debating of the matter, it was concluded at length of the wholef Council after this sort in the thirty-sixth article:55

[Continued on Page 205]

Margin Note:  2d : Another Council against images.

b wickedness] wickednesses 1587, 1595, 1623.  c whiles] while 1587, 1595, 1623.  d thus in working] thus working from 1582.  e noble] notable 1595, 1623.  f of the whole] by the whole 1623.

52 Pia Imperatrix: Piissima: Deo dilecta Eirene.  Ibid. ann. 4, 5, 6.

53 Ibid. ann. Iren. 5, 6; and XXIV, an. Niceph. I: Sabellic. Rhaps. Hist. Ennead. VIII, Lib. ix.

54 The Concilium Eliberitanum or Illiberitanum sat at Illiberis, by some called Elvira, from the ruins of which the Moorish city of Granada arose in the tenth century.  Various dates within the third and fourth centuries have been assigned to it: the best chronologers place it about A.D. 300.  See note 58 below.

55 Placuit picturas in ecclesia esse non debere, ne quod colitur et adoratur in parietibus depingatur.  Concil. Labbe I, 974, Mansi II, 11.

 

[Page 205]

"We think that pictures ought not to be in churches, lest that which is honoured or worshipped be painted on walls."  And in the forty-first canon of that Council it is thus written:56 "We thought good to admonish the faithful, that, as much as in them lieth, they suffer no images to be in their houses: but, if they fear any violence of their servants, at the least let them keep themselves clean and pure from images; if they do not so, let them be accounted as none of the Church."  Note here, I pray you, how a whole and great country in the West and South parts of Europe, nearer to Rome a greath deal than to Greece in situation of place, do agree with the Greeks against images, and do not only forbid them in churches, but also in pravate houses, and do excommunicate them that do the contrary.  And another Council of the learned men of all Spain also, called Concilium Toletanum Duodecimum, decreed and determined likewise against images and image worshippers.57

But, when these decrees of the Spanish Council at Elibery came to the knowledge of the Bishop of Rome and his adherents, they, fearingi lest all Germany also would decree against images and forsake them, thought to prevent the matter, and by the consent and help of the prince of Francons (whose power was then most great in the West parts of the world) assembled a Council of Germans at Frankford, and there procured the Spanish Council against images aforementioned to be condemned by the name of the Felician heresy, (for that Felix, Bishop of Aquitania, was chief in that Council,) and obtained that the acts of the second Nicene Council assembled by Hirene (the holy empress whom ye heard of before) and the sentence of the bishop of Rome for images might be received.58  For much

[Continued on Page 206]

Margin Notes:  Top of page: Decreesg of the Council against images.  1st , last sentence: Yet another Council against images.

g Decrees] Doctors from 1574.  h a great] a greater from 1582.  i fearing] feared 1563 B 1570.

56 Admoneri placuit fideles, ut in quantum possint prohibeant, ne idola in domibus suis habeant: si vero vim metuunt servorum, vel scipsos puros conservent; si non fecerint, alieni ab Ecclesia habeantur.  Labbe I, 975, Mansi II, 12.

57 Praecepta haec Domini [sc. Exod. 20:45; 22:20; Deut. 17:25] apponentes..., cultores idolorum, veneratores lapidum, accensores facularum, et excolentes sacra fontium vel arborum admonemus, ut agnoscant quod ipsi se spontaneae morti subjiciunt qui diabolo sacrificare videntur.  Concil. Tolet. XII, cap. XI; Concil. Labbe VI, 1234, Mansi XI, 1037.  This Council sat A.D. 681.

58 In these mistakes concerning the Councils of Illiberis and Frankfort and the Felician heresy the writer of the Homily followed Bullinger, cap. 25, who in his edition of 1568 thus acknowledged them. Videntur in hac expositione Platina in Vita Adriani et Nauclerus Generat. 27 una cum aliquot neotericis scriptoribus aberrasse.  Quos et ego secutus (ne quid dissimulem) in priore hujus operis mei editione existimavi in Francfordiensi Synodo damnatam esse Felicianam haeresim de tollendis imaginibus.  Sed et perperam putavi Eliberi coactam esse Synodum in Hispania quae authore Felice hoc damnaverit usum imaginum in templis.  Dicam postea de Eliberana Synodo.  Ex historiis autem probatioribus constat, Felicem non ob imagines, sed aliam ob causam..., esse damnatum, deinde reprobatam in Francfordiensi Synodo separatim Nicenam Synodum.  Fol. 69 a. In cap. 30 he speaks again of the Council of Illiberis, placing it about A.D. 320, and citing the same two canons, 36 and 41.

 

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after this sort do the do the papists report thek history of the Council of Frankford.59  Notwithstanding, the book of Carolus Magnus his own writing (as the title sheweth60), which is now put in print and commonly in mens hands, sheweth the judgment of that prince, and of the whole Council of Frankford also, to be against images and against the second Council of Nice assembled by Hirene for images, and calleth it an arrogant, foolish, and ungodly Council, and declareth the assemblel of the Council of Frankford to have been directly made and gathered against that Nicene Council and the errors of the same.61  So that it

[Continued on Page 207]

k report the] report of the from 1567.  l assemble] assembly 1587, 1595, 1623.

59 Several of the "Neoterici Scriptores" to whom Bullinger refers (in the passage cited in note 58) as having led him into his mistake about the Council of Frankfort, are enumerated by Goldast at p. 64 of his collection of Imperialia Decereta de Cultu Imaginum.  Binius also in his third note on the title of the Council of Frankfort maintained that that Council decided in favour of the worship of images, and not against it, although both Bellarmine and Baronius had already admitted the contrary.  Concil. Labbe VII, 1069, Mansi XIII, 914.

60 Opus Inlustrissimi et Excellentissimi seu Spectabilis Viri, Caroli, nutu Domini, Regis Francorum, Gallias, Germaniam, Italiamque, sive harum finitimas provincias, Domino opitulante Regentis, contra Synodum, quae in partibus Graeciae pro adorandis imaginibus stolide sive arroganter gesta est.  Besides this title, there are places also in the body of the work which shew that it was put forth in the name of Charlemagne; but the person whom he employed to write it was probably Alcuin.  See Heumanns Preface to the edition of it which he published at Hanover in 1731, 2629.  The work was first printed at Paris, but without name of place, in 1549.

61 Nos denique Propheticis, Evangelicis, et Apostolicis Scripturis contenti, et sanctorum orthodoxorum Patrum ... institutis imbuti, et sanctas et universales sex Synodos ... suscipientes, omnes novitates vocum et stultiloquas adinventiones abjicimus; et non solum non suscipimus, verum etiam tanquam purgamenta despicimus; sicut et eam quae propter adorandarum imaginum impudentissimam traditionem in Bithyniae partibus gesta est Synodum.  Cujus scripturae textus ... ad nos usque pervenit: contra cujus errores ... scribere compulsi sumus .... Quod opus aggressi sumus cum conniventia sacerdotum in regno a Deo nobis concesso catholicis gregibus praelatorum.  Carol. Magn. de Imp. Imagg. Cult. Praefat. pp. 10, 11.

Charlemagnes judgment however was not entirely "against images," but against all worship of them.  Nos denique, he says, ... imagines in ornamentis ecclesiarum et memoria rerum gestarum habentes, et solum Deum adorantes, et ejus Sanctis opportunam venerationem exhibentes, nec cum illis [sc. Iconoclastis] frangimus, nec cum istis [sc. Graecis in Cone. Nic. II] adoramus.  Praefat. p. 12.

The Council of Frankfort sat A.D. 794.  The beginning of its Acts, including the first two canons, is as follows.

Convenientibus, Deo favente, apostolica auctoritate, atque piissimi domni nostri Caroli Regis jussione, anno XXVI principatus sui, cunctis regni Francorum, seu Italiae, Aquitaniae, Provinciae, episcopis ac sacerdotibus synodali concilio; inter quos ipse mitissimus sancto interfuit conventui:

1. Ubi in primordio capitulorum exortum est de impia ac nefanda haeresi Elipandi Toletanae sedis Episcopi et Felicis Orgellitanae eorumque sequacibus, qui male sentientes in Dei Filio asserebant adoptionem.  Quam omnes qui supra sanctissimi patres et respuentes una voce contradixerunt, atque hanc haeresim funditus a sancta Ecclesia eradicandam statuerunt.

2. Allata est in medium quaestio de nova Graecorum Synodo, quam de adorandis imaginibus Constantinopoli fecerunt, in qua scriptum habebatur, ut qui imaginibus Sanctorum, ita ut Deificae Trinitati, servitium aut adorationem non impenderent anathema judicarentur.  Qui supra sanctissimi patres nostri omnimodis adorationem et servitutem renuentes contempserunt atque consentientes condemnaverunt.  Concil. Labbe VII, 1057, Mansi XIII, 909.  Constantinople is here named as the place where the Council sat, because it was originally summoned to meet there.

 

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must needs follow, that either there were in one princes time two Councils assembled at Frankford, one contrary to another,m which by no history doth appear, or else that, after their custom, the popes and papists have most shamefully corrupted that Council,n as their manner is to handle, not only Councils, but also all Histories and writings of the old doctors, falsifying and corrupting them for the maintenance of their wicked and ungodly purposes, as hath in times of late come to light, and doth in our days more and more continually appear most evidently.  Let the forged gift of Constantine,62 and the notable attempt to falsify the first Nicene Council for the popes supremacy, practised by popes in St. Augustines time, be a witness hereof; which practice indeed had then taken effect, had not the diligence and wisdom of St. Augustine and other learned and godly bishops in Afrike by their great labour and charges also resisted and stopped the same.63

[Continued on Page 208]

Margin Note:  By last sentence: The forged gift of Constantine, &c. Nicene Council like to be falsified.

m another] the other 1623.  n that Council] the Council 1623.

62 Jewel in his Defence of the Apology, Part V, Ch. vi, Div. 10, on "Constantines Donation," has this passage.  "The fable hereof is so peevish, that the wisest and best learned of your very friends, Platina, Cardinal Cusanus, Marsilius Patavinus, Laurentius Valla, Antonius Florentinus, Otho Frisingensis, Hieronymus Paulus Catalanus, Volaterranus, Nauclerus, Capnion, Molinacus, and others, have openly reproved it unto the world, and have written against it, and are much ashamed of your follies.  And, to allege one instead of many, Cardinal Cusanus hereof hath written thus: Donationem Constantini diligenter expedens reperi ex ipsamet scriptura manifesta argumenta confictionis et falsitatis: Advisedly weighing this donation or grant of Constantine (whereby the pope claimeth all his temporal power) even in the penning thereof I find manifest tokens of falsehood and forgery.  Nic. Cusan. de Concord. Cath. Lib. III, cap. ii."  The most effective of the works to which Jewel refers was Vallas De falso Credita et Ementita Constantini Donatione Declamatio, written about 1440, which seems to have been first published in 1517 by Ulrich Hutten with a dedication to Pope Leo X.  See Milmans History of Latin Christianity, Book I, ch. ii, note a.

63 Pope Zosimus in the year 418 tried to establish his right to receive appeals from the judgments of bishops in Africa by citing a canon made by the Synod of Sardica in 347 as having been made by the great Council of Nicea in 325, and the attempt was continued by his two immediate successors, Boniface I and Celestine I.  For an account of the case see Jewels Reply to Hardings Answer, Art. IV. Div. vi, "The Pope a Forger," or Milmans History of Latin Christianity, Book II, ch. iv.

 

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Now to come towards an end of this history, and to shew you the principal point that came to pass by the maintenance of images.  Whereas, from Constantinus Magnus time until that day,o all authority imperial and princely dominion of the Empire of Rome remained continually in the right and possession of the Emperors, who had their continuance and seat imperial at Constantinople, the city royal, Leo the Third, then Bishop of Rome, seeing the Greek Emperors so bent against his gods of gold and silver, timber and stone [Dan. 5:4, 23.], and having the king of the Francons or Frenchmen, named Charles, whose power was exceeding great in the West countries, very applicable to his mind for causes hereafter appearing, under the pretence that they of Constantinople were for that matter of images under the Popes ban and curse, and therefore unworthy to be Emperors or to bear rule, and for that the Emperors of Greece, being far off, were not ready at a beck to defend the Pope against the Lombards his enemies and othersp with whom he had variance, this Leo the Third, I say, attempted a thing exceeding strange and unheard of before and of incredibleq boldness and presumption: for he by his papal authority doth translate the government of the Empire and the crown and name imperial from the Greeks, and giveth it unto Charles the Great, king of the Francons;61 not without the consent of the forenamed Hirene, Empress of Greece, who also sought to be joined in marriage with the said Charles.  For the which cause the said Hirene was by the lords of Greece deposed and banished, as one that had betrayed the Empire, as ye before have heard.  And the same princes of Greece did, after the deprivation of the said Hirene, by common consent elect and create (as they always had done) an Emperor, named Nicephorus: whom the Bishop of Rome and they of the West would not acknowledge for their Emperor, for they had already created them another.  And so there became two Emperors:65 and the Empire, which was before one, was divided into two parts upon occasion of idols and images and the wor-

[Continued on Page 209]

Margin Note:  Bottom of page: These things were done about the 803 year of our Lord.

o that day] this day from 1582.  p others] other from 1570.  q incredible] uncredible from 1582.

64 Platina de Vit. Leon. III.

65 Sabellic. Rhaps. Hist. Ennead. VIII, Lib. ix.

 

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shipping of them; even as the kingdom of the Israelites was in old time for the like cause of idolatry divided in king Roboam his time.  And so the Bishop of Rome, having the favour of Charles the Great by this means assured to him, was wondrously enhanced in power and authority, and did in all the West Church, speciallyr in Italy, what he lust; where images were set up, garnished, and worshipped of all sorts of men.  But images were not so fast set up and so much honoured in Italy and the West, but Nicephorus, Emperor of Constantinople, and his successors Scauratius, the two Micheals, Leo, Theophilus,66 and other Emperors their successors in the Empire of Greece, continually pulled them down, brake them, burned them, and destroyed them as fast.  And, when Theodorus Emperor would at the Council of Lyons have agreed with the Bishop of Rome, and have set up images, he was by the nobles of the Empire of Greece deprived, and another chosen in his place.67  And so rose a jealousy, suspicion, grudge, hatred, and enmity between the Christians and Empires of the East countries and West, which could never be quenched nor pacified.  So that, when the Saracens first, and afterward the Turks, invaded the Christians, the one part of Christendom would not help the other.  By reason whereof at the last the noble Empire of Greece, and the city imperial Constantinople, was lost, and is come into the hands of the infidels; who now have overrun almost all Christendom, and possessing past the middle of Hungary, which is part of the

[Continued on Page 210]

Margin Note:  By Scauratius: Or Stauratius.

r specially] especially 1623.

66 The Emperors here enumerated were not all Iconoclasts, and upon the death of Theophilus in the year 842 image worship, at least the worship of Icons or pictures, if not of graven images, was finally established in the East by his widow Theodora.

The authorities cited in most of the preceding notes are those which the writer of the Homily seems to have followed.  The reader may be further referred to Milmans History of Latin Christianity, Book IV, chapters vii and viii, for an account of image worship and of iconoclasm in the East, and to the following chapters of the same book for a history of the immediate consequence of the latter in the West.

67 It was the Emperor Michael Palaeologus, the usurping successor of Theodore Lascaris II, who, in order to maintain himself in secure possession of Constantinople, which he had recovered in 1261 from Baldwin II the last of the Latin Emperors, solemnly acknowledged the absolute supremacy of the see of Rome at the great Council of Lyons under Pope Gregory X in 1274, and afterwards endangered his throne, and actually forfeited the privilege of Christian burial, by attempting to force his clergy to make the same acknowledgment at the bidding of Pope Nicholas III.  But the worship of images was not then in question.  Pachymeres, Mich. I, II, V, VI; Andron. I, II; VI, 2: Concil. Labbe XI, 957967, Mansi XXIV, 6473: Gibbon, LXI, LXII: Milmans History of Latin Christianity, XI, iv.

 

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West Empire, do hang over all our heads to the utter danger of all Christendom.

Thus we see what a sea of mischiefs the maintenance of images hath brought with it; what an horrible schism between the East and the West Church; what an hatred between one Christian and another; Councils against Councils, Church against Church, Christians against Christians, princes against princes; rebellions, treasons, unnatural and most cruel murders; the daughter digging up and burning her father the emperor hiss body; the mother, for love of idols, most abominably murdering her own son, being an emperor; at the last, the tearing in sunder of Christendom and the Empire into two pieces, till the Infidels, Saracens, and Turks, common enemies to both parts, have most cruelly vanquished, destroyed, and subdued the one part, the whole Empire of Greece, Asia the Less, Thracia, Macedonia, Epirus, and many other great and goodly countries and provinces, and have won a great piece of the other Empire, and put the whole in dreadful fear and most horrible danger.68  For it is (not without a just and great cause) to be dread, lest, as the Empire of Rome was even for the like cause of images and the worshipping of them torn in pieces and divided, as was for idolatry the kingdom of Israel in old time divided, so like punishment as for the like offence fell upon the Jews will also light upon us; that is, lest the cruel tyrant and enemy of our common wealth and religion, the Turk, by Gods just vengeance, in like wise partly murder and partly lead away into captivity us Christians, as did the Assyrian and Babylonian kings murder and lead away the Israelites; and lest the Empire of Rome and Christian religion be so utterly brought under foot, as was then the kingdom of Israel and true religion of God.  Whereunto the matter already, as I have declared, shrewdly inclineth on our part; the greater part of Christendom, within less than three hundred years space, being

[Continued on Page 211]

s emperor his] emperors (but without the comma) from 1567.

68 Among the occasional Forms of Prayer which were set forth by authority in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, two, in 1565 and 1566, were specially appointed "to excite all godly people to pray unto God for the delivery of those Christians that are not invaded by the Turk," and a third in 1572 contains allusions to the same danger.  See the volume of Liturgical Services temp. Eliz. edited for the Parker Society in 1847 by the Rev. W. K. Clay, pp. 460, 461, 519, 527, 540547.  The alarm caused by the progress of the Turks is again shewn in the Second Part of the Homily of the Place and Time of Prayer.

 

[Pages 211 & 212]

brought int captivity and most miserable thraldom under the Turks,u and the noble Empire of Greece clean everted: whereas, if the Christians, divided by these image matters, had holden together, no infidels and miscreants69 could thus have prevailed against Christendom.  And all this mischief and misery which we have hitherto fallen into do we owe to our mighty gods of gold and silver, stock and stone [Dan 5:4, 23.]; in whose help and defence, where they cannot help themselves, we have trusted so long, until our enemies the infidels have overcome and overrun us almost altogether: a just reward for those that have left the mighty living God, the Lord of hosts, and have stooped and given the honour due to him to dead blocks and stocks, who have. eyes and see not, ears and hear not,x feet and cannot go, and so forth, and are cursed of God, and all they that make them, and that put their trust in them.

Thus you understand, well beloved in our Saviour Christ, by the judgment of the old learned and godly doctors of the Church and by ancient Histories Ecclesiastical, agreeing to the verity of Gods word alleged out of the Old Testament and the New, that images and image worshipping were in the primitive Church, which was most pure and uncorrupt, abhorred and detested as abominable and contrary to true Christian religion; and that, when images began to creep into the Church, they were not only spoken and written against by godly and learned bishops, doctors, and clerks, but also condemned by whole councils of bishops and learned men assembled together; yea, the said images by many Christian emperors and bishops were defaced, broken, and destroyed, and that above seven hundred and eight hundred years ago; and that therefore it is not of late days, as some would bear you in hand,70 that images and image worshipping have been spoken and written against.  Finally, you have heard what mischief and misery hath, by the occasion of the said images, fallen upon whole Christendom, besides the loss of infinite souls, which is most horrible of all.  Wherefore let us beseech God, that we, being warned by his holy word forbidding all idolatry, and by the writingsy of old godly doctors and Ecclesiastical Histories, written and preserved by Gods ordinance for our admonition and warning, may flee from all idolatry, and so escape the horrible punishment and plagues, as well worldly as everlasting, threatened for the same.  Which God our heavenly Father grant us for our only Saviour and Mediator Jesus Christs sake.  Amen.

[Continued (Part 3) on Page 213]

Margin Note:  . [Ps. 115:58, 97:7; Deut. 27:15; Is. 42:17, 45:16; Wisd. 14:8].

t brought in] brought into from 1567.  u Turks] Turk from 1570.  x ears and hear not] omitted after 1574.  y writings] writing from 1582.

69 miscreants: misbelievers, mscrants.

70 bear you in hand: lead you on in belief; sometimes, in expectation.

How you were borne in hand, how crossed.    Shakespeare, Macb. III,1.

See before, p. 103, note 13.  Jewel renders fingunt "they bear us in hand" in his Treatise of the Sacraments, p. 1129, ed. Park. Soc.

 

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