The renowned and undaunted defender of the Catholic faith against the
errors which in his day threatened to overwhelm Gospel-truth, Athanasius
(the last of those ante-Nicene writers into whose testimony we have
instituted this inquiry), was born about the year 296, and, after having
presided in the Church as Bishop for more than forty-six years, died in
373, on the verge of his eightieth year. It is impossible for any one
interested in the question of primitive truth to look upon the belief
and practice of this Christian champion with indifference. When I first
read Bellarmin's quotations from Athanasius, in justification of the
Roman Catholic worship in the adoration of saints, I was made not a
little anxious to ascertain the accuracy of his allegations. The inquiry
amply repaid me for my anxiety and the labour of research; not merely by
proving the unsoundness of Bellarmin's representation, but also by
directing my thoughts more especially, as my acquaintance with his {180}
works increased, to the true and scriptural views taken by Athanasius of
the Christian's hope and confidence in God alone; the glowing fervour of
his piety centering only in the Lord; his sure and certain hope in life
and in death anchored only in the mercies of God, through the merits and
mediation of Jesus Christ alone.
Bellarmin, in his appeal to Athanasius as a witness in behalf of the
invocation of saints, cites two passages; the one of which, though
appearing in the edition of the Benedictines, amongst the works called
doubtful, has been adjudged by those editors [Vol. ii. p. 110 and 122]
to be not genuine; the other is placed by them among the confessedly
spurious works, and is treated as a forgery.
The first passage is from a treatise called De Virginitate, and even
were that work the genuine production of Athanasius, would make against
the religious worship of the saints rather than in its favour, for it
would show, that the respect which the author intended to be paid to
them, was precisely the same with what he would have us pay to holy men
in this life, who might come to visit us. "If a just man enter into
thine house, thou shalt meet him with fear and trembling, and shalt
worship before his feet to the ground: for thou wilt not worship him,
but God who sent him."
The other passage would have been decisive as to the belief of
Athanasius, had it come from his pen. "Incline thine ear, O Mary, to our
prayers, and forget not thy people. We cry to thee. Remember us, O Holy
Virgin. Intercede for us, O mistress, lady, queen, and mother of God."
[Vol. ii. p. 390-401.]
Had Bellarmin been the only writer, or the last who cited this passage
as the testimony of St. Athanasius, {181} it would have been enough for
us to refer to the judgment of the Benedictine editors, who have classed
the homily containing these words among the spurious works ascribed to
Athanasius; or rather we might have appealed to Bellarmin himself. For
it is very remarkable, that though in his anxiety to enlist every able
writer to defend the cause of the invocation of saints, he has cited
this passage in his Church Triumphant as containing the words of
Athanasius, without any allusion to its decided spuriousness, or even to
its suspicious character; yet when he is pronouncing his judgment on the
different works assigned to Athanasius, declaring the evidence against
this treatise to be irresistible, he condemns it as a forgery. [Bellarm.
de Scriptoribus Ecclesiasticis, Cologne, 1617, vol. vii. p. 50.]
Since, however, this passage has been cited in different Roman Catholic
writers of our own time as containing the words of Athanasius, and in
evidence of his genuine belief and practice, and that without an
allusion even to any thing doubtful and questionable in its character,
it becomes necessary to enter more in detail into the circumstances
under which the passage is offered to our notice.
The passage is found in a homily called The Annunciation of the Mother
of God. How long this homily has been discarded as spurious, or how long
its genuineness had been suspected before the time of Baronius, I have
not discovered; but certainly two centuries and a half ago, and
repeatedly since, it has been condemned as totally and indisputably
spurious, and has been excluded from the works of Athanasius as a
forgery, not by members of the Reformed Church, but {182} by most
zealous and steady adherents to the Church of Rome, and the most
strenuous defenders of her doctrines and practice.
The Benedictine editors[64], who published the remains of St. Athanasius
in 1698, class the works contained in the second volume under two heads,
the doubtful and the spurious; and the homily under consideration is
ranked, without hesitation, among the spurious. In the middle of that
volume they not only declare the work to be unquestionably a forgery,
assigning the reasons for their decision, but they fortify their
judgment by quoting at length the letter written by the celebrated
Baronius, more than a century before, to our countryman, Stapleton. Both
these documents are very interesting.
[Footnote 64: Here I would observe, that though the Benedictine
editors differ widely from each other in talent, and learning,
and candour, yet, as a body, they have conferred on Christendom,
and on literature, benefits for which every impartial and
right-minded man will feel gratitude. In the works of some of
these editors, far more than in others, we perceive the same
reigning principle--a principle which some will regard as an
uncompromising adherence to the faith of the Church; but which
others can regard only in the light of a prejudice, and a rooted
habit of viewing all things through the eyes of Rome.]
The Benedictine editors begin their preface thus: "That this discourse
is spurious, there is NO LEARNED MAN WHO DOES NOT NOW ADJUDGE ... The
style proves itself more clear than the sun, to be different from that
of Athanasius. Besides this, very many trifles show themselves here
unworthy of any sensible man whatever, not to say Athanasius ... and a
great number of expressions unknown to Athanasius ... so that it savours
of inferior Greek. And truly his subtle disputation {183} on the
hypostasis of Christ, and on the two natures in Christ, persuades us,
that he lived after the councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon; of which
councils moreover he uses the identical words, whereas his dissertation
on the two wills in Christ seems to argue, that he lived after the
spreading of the error of the Monothelites. But (continue these
Benedictine editors) we would add here the dissertation of Baronius on
this subject, sent to us by our brethren from Rome. That illustrious
annotator, indeed, having read only the Latin version of Nannius, which
is clearer than the Greek, did not observe the astonishing perplexity of
the style[65]."
[Footnote 65: Even in the Bibliotheca Patrum Concionatoria the
homily is declared to be not the work of Athanasius, but to have
been written after the sixth general council. "It is evident,"
say the editors, "that it is the monument of a very learned man,
though he has his own blemishes, on which, for the most part, we
have remarked in the margin." Paris, 1662. p. 336.]
The dissertation which the Benedictine editors append, was contained in
a letter written by Baronius to Stapleton, in consequence of some
animadversions which Stapleton had communicated to Cardinal Allen on the
judgment of Baronius. The letter is dated Rome, November, 1592. The
judgment of Baronius on the spurious character of this homily had been
published to the world some time previously; for after some preliminary
words of kindness and respect to his correspondent, Baronius proceeds to
say, that when he previously published his sentiments on this homily, it
was only cursorily and by the way, his work then being on another
subject. Nevertheless he conceived, {184} that the little he had then
stated would be sufficient to show, that the homily was not the
production of Athanasius, and that all persons of learning, WHO WERE
DESIROUS OF THE TRUTH, would freely agree with him; nor was he in this
expectation disappointed; for very many persons expressed their
agreement with him, congratulating him on separating legitimate from
spurious children. He then states the arguments which the Benedictine
editors adopted after him, and which we need not repeat. But he also
urges this fact, that though Cyril had the works of Athanasius in his
custody, and though both the disputing parties ransacked every place for
sentiments of Athanasius countenancing their tenets, yet neither at
Ephesus nor at Chalcedon was this homily quoted, though it must have
altogether driven Eutyches and Nestorius from the field, so exact are
its definitions and statements on the points then at issue. Baronius
then adds, that so far from reversing the judgment which he had before
passed against the genuineness of this homily, he was compelled in
justice to declare his conviction, that it could not have been written
till after the heresy of the Monothelites had been spread abroad. This
we know would fix its date, at the very earliest, subsequently to the
commencement of the SEVENTH century, three hundred years after
Athanasius attended the Council of Nice. Among the last sentiments of
Baronius in this letter, is one which implies a principle worthy of
Christian wisdom, and which can never be neglected without injury to the
cause of truth. "These sentiments concerning Athanasius I do not think
are affirmed with any detriment to the Church; for the Church does not
suffer a loss on this account; who being the pillar {185} and ground of
the truth, very far shrinks from seeking, like Æsop's Jackdaw, helps and
ornaments which are not her own: the bare truth shines more beautiful in
her own naked simplicity." Were this principle acted upon uniformly in
our discussions on religious points of faith or practice, controversy
would soon be drawn within far narrower limits; and would gradually be
softened into a friendly interchange of sentiments, and would well-nigh
be banished from the world. No person does the cause of truth so much
injury, as one who attempts to support it by arguments which will not
bear the test of full and enlightened investigation. And however an
unsound principle may be for a while maintained by unsound arguments,
the momentary triumph must ultimately end in disappointment.
Coccius also cites two passages as conveying the evidence of Athanasius
on this same point; one from the spurious letter addressed to Felix, the
pope; the other from the treatise to Marcellus, on the interpretation of
the Psalms. On the former, I need not detain you by any observation; it
would be fighting with a shadow. The latter, which only recognises what
I have never affirmed or denied here,--the interest in our welfare taken
by holy souls departed, and their co-operation with us when we are
working out our own salvation,--contains a valuable suggestion on the
principles of devotion.
"Let no one, however, set about to adorn these Psalms for the sake of
effect with words from without, [artificial and secular phrases,] nor
transpose, nor alter the expressions. But let every one inartificially
read and repeat what is written, that those holy persons who employed
themselves in their production, recognising their own works, may join
with us in prayer; or {186} rather that the Holy Spirit, who spake in
those holy men, observing the words with which his voice inspired them,
may assist us. For just as much as the life of those holy men is more
pure than ours, so far are their words preferable to any production of
our own."
But whilst there is not found a single passage in Athanasius to give the
faintest countenance to the invocation of saints, there are various
arguments and expressions which go far to demonstrate that such a belief
and such practices as are now acknowledged and insisted upon by the
Church of Rome, were neither adopted nor sanctioned by him. Had he
adopted that belief and practice for his own, he would scarcely have
spoken, as he repeatedly has, of the exclusion of angels and men from
any share in the work of man's restoration, without any expressions to
qualify it, and to protect his assertions from being misunderstood.
Again, he bids us look to the holy men and holy fathers as our examples,
in whose footsteps we should tread, if we would be safe; but not a hint
escapes him that they are to be invoked.
I must detain you by rather a long quotation from this father, and will,
therefore, now do nothing more than refer you to two passages expressive
of those sentiments to which I have above alluded. In the thirteenth
section of his Treatise on the Incarnation of the Word of God, he
argues, that neither could men restore us to the image of God, nor could
angels, but the word of God, Jesus Christ, &c. [Vol. i. part i. p. 58.]
In his Epistle to Dracontius, he says, "We ought to conduct ourselves
agreeably to the principles of the saints and fathers, and to imitate
them,--assured that if we {187} swerve from them, we become alienated
also from their communion." [Vol. i. part i, p. 265.]
The passage, however, to which I would invite the reader's patient and
impartial thoughts, occurs in the third oration against the Arians, when
he is proving the unity of the Father and the Son, from the expression
of St. Paul in the eleventh verse of the third chapter of his first
Epistle to the Thessalonians.
"Thus then again ([Greek: outo g' oun palin]), when he is praying for
the Thessalonians, and saying, 'Now our God and Father himself and the
Lord Jesus Christ direct our way to you,' he preserves the unity of the
Father and the Son. For he says not 'may THEY direct ([Greek:
kateuthunoien]),' as though a twofold grace were given from Him AND Him,
but 'may HE direct ([Greek: katenthunai]),' to show that the Father
giveth this through the Son. For if there was not an unity, and the Word
was not the proper offspring of the Father's substance, as the
eradiation of the light, but the Son was distinct in nature from the
Father,--it had sufficed for the Father alone to have made the gift, no
generated being partaking with the Maker in the gifts. But now such a
giving proves the unity of the Father and the Son. Consequently, no one
would pray to receive any thing from God AND the angels, or from any
other created being; nor would any one say 'May God AND the angels give
it thee;' but from the Father and the Son, because of their unity and
the oneness of the gift. For whatever is given, is given through the
Son,--nor is there any thing which the Father works except through the
Son; for thus the receiver has the gracious favour without fail. But if
the patriarch Jacob, blessing his descendants Ephraim and Manasseh,
said, 'The God who nourished {188} me from my youth unto this day, the
Angel who delivered me from all the evils, bless these lads;' he does
not join one of created beings, and by nature angels, with God who
created them; nor dismissing Him who nourished him, God, does he ask the
blessing for his descendants from an angel, but by saying 'He who
delivered me from all the evils,' he showed that it was not one of
created angels, but the WORD OF GOD; and joining him with the Father, he
supplicated him through whom also God delivers whom he will. For he used
the expression, knowing him who is called the Messenger of the great
counsel of the Father to be no other than the very one who blessed and
delivered from evil. For surely he did not aspire to be blessed himself
by God, and was willing for his descendants to be blessed by an angel.
But the same whom he addressed, saying, I will not let Thee go, except
thou bless me (and this was God, as he says, 'I saw God face to face'),
Him he prayed to bless the sons of Joseph. The peculiar office of an
angel is to minister at the appointment of God; and often he went
onwards to cast out the Amorite, and is sent to guard the people in the
way; but these are not the doings of him, but of God, who appointed him
and sent him,--whose also it is to deliver whom he will." [Vol i. p.
561.]
"For this cause David addressed no other on the subject of deliverance
but God Himself. But if it belongs to no other than God to bless and
deliver, and it was no other who delivered Jacob than the Lord Himself,
and the patriarch invoked for his descendants Him who delivered him, it
is evident that he connected no one in his prayer except His Word, whom
for this reason he called an angel, because he alone reveals the
Father." {189}
"But this no one would say of beings produced and created; for neither
when the Father worketh does any one of the angels, or any other of
created beings, work the things; for no one of such beings is an
effective cause, but they themselves belong to things produced. The
angels then, as it is written, are ministering spirits sent to minister;
and the gifts given by Him through the Word they announce to those who
receive them."
Now if the invocation of angels had been practised by the Church at that
time, can it be for a moment believed, that a man of such a mind as was
the mind of Athanasius, a mind strong, clear, logical, cultivated with
ardent zeal for the doctrines of the Church, and fervent piety, would
have suffered such passages as these to fall from him, without one
saving clause in favour of the invocation of angels? He tells us in the
most unqualified manner, that they act merely as ministers; ready
indeed, and rejoicing to be employed on errands of mercy, but not going
one step without the commands of the Lord, or doing one thing beyond his
word. Had the idea been familiar to the mind of Athanasius, of the
lawfulness, the duty, the privilege, the benefit of invoking them, would
he have avoided the introduction of some words to prevent his
expressions from being misunderstood and misapplied, as subsequent
writers did long before the time when the denial of the doctrine might
seem to have made such precaution more necessary?
I close then the catalogue of our witnesses before the Council of Nicæa
with the testimony of St. Athanasius; whose genuine and acknowledged
works afford not one jot or tittle in support of the doctrine and
practice of the invocation of angels and saints, as now insisted upon by
the Church of Rome; and the direct {190} tendency of whose evidence is
decidedly hostile both to that doctrine and that practice.
I have seen it observed by some who are satisfied, that the records of
primitive antiquity do not contain such references to the invocation of
saints and angels, as we might have expected to find had the custom then
prevailed, that the earliest Christians kept back the doctrine and
concealed it, though they held it; fearing lest their heathen neighbours
should upbraid them with being as much polytheists as themselves[66].
This is altogether a gratuitous assumption, directly contrary to
evidence, and totally inconsistent with their conduct. Had those first
Christians acted upon such a debasing principle, they would have kept
back and concealed their worship of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, as
exposing them to a similar charge. They were constantly upbraided with
worshipping a crucified {191} mortal; but instead of either meeting that
charge by denying that they worshipped Jesus as their God, or of
concealing the worship of Him, lest they should expose themselves again
to such upbraidings, they publicly professed, that He whom the Jews had
murdered, they believed in as the Son of God, Himself their God. They
gloried in the doctrine of the ever-blessed Trinity, and did not fear
what men might do to them, or say of them in consequence. Had they
believed in the duty of invoking saints and angels, the high principle
of Christian integrity would not have suffered them to be ashamed to
confess it, or to practise openly what they believed.
[Footnote 66: Bishop Morley, (London, 1683,) in a letter written
whilst he was in exile at Breda, to J. Ulitius, refers to
Cardinal Perron, "Réplique à la Resp. du Roy de la Grande Bret."
p. 1402 and 4, for this sentiment: "The Fathers do not always
speak what they think, but conceal their real sentiments, and
say that which best serves the cause which they sustain, so as
to protect it against the objections of the gentiles. The
Fathers, as much as in them lies, and as far as they can, avoid
and decline all occasions of speaking about the invocation of
saints then practised in the Church, fearing lest to the
gentiles there might appear a sort of similarity, although
untrue and equivocal, between the worship paid to the saints by
the Church, and by the Pagans to their false divinities; and
lest the Pagans might thence seize a handle, however unfair, of
retorting upon them that custom of the Church." Had a member of
the Anglican Church thus spoken of the Fathers, and thus pleaded
in their name guilty of subterfuge and duplicity, he would have
been immediately charged with irreverence and wanton insult, and
that with good reason. These sentiments of the Cardinal are in
p. 982 of the Paris edition of 1620.] {192}
* * * * *
PART II.
CHAPTER I.
STATE OF WORSHIP AT THE TIME OF THE REFORMATION.
One of the points proposed for our inquiry was the state of religious
worship, with reference to the invocation of saints, at the time
immediately preceding the reformation. Very far from entertaining a wish
to fasten upon the Church of Rome now, what then deformed religion among
us, in any department where that Church has practically reformed her
services, I would most thankfully have found her ritual in a more
purified state than it is. My more especial object in referring to this
period is twofold: first, to show, that consistently with Catholic and
primitive principles, the Catholic Christians of England ought not to
have continued to participate in the worship which at that time
prevailed in our country; and, secondly, by that example both to
illustrate the great danger of allowing ourselves to countenance the
very first stages of superstition, and also to impress upon our minds
the duty of checking in its germ any the least deviation from the
primitive principles of faith and worship; convinced that by the general
tendency of human nature, one wrong step will, though imperceptibly, yet
almost inevitably lead to another; and that only whilst we adhere with
uncompromising steadiness {193} to the Scripture as our foundation, and
to the primitive Church, under God, as a guide, can we be saved from the
danger of making shipwreck of our faith.
On this branch of our subject I propose to do no more than to lay before
my readers the witness borne to the state of religion in England at that
time, by two works, which have been in an especial manner forced upon my
notice. Many other testimonies of a similar tendency might readily be
adduced; but these will probably appear sufficient for the purposes
above mentioned; and to dwell longer than is necessary on this point
would be neither pleasant nor profitable.
* * * * *
SECTION I.
The first book to which I shall refer is called The Hours of the most
blessed Virgin Mary, according to the legitimate use of the Church of
Salisbury. This book was printed in Paris in the year 1526. The prayers
in this volume relate chiefly to the Virgin: and I should, under other
circumstances, have reserved all allusion to it for our separate inquiry
into the faith and practice of the Church of Rome with regard to her.
But its historical position and general character seemed to recommend
our reference to it here. Without anticipating, therefore, the facts or
the arguments, which will hereafter be submitted to the reader's
consideration on the worship of the Virgin, I refer to this work now
solely as illustrative of the lamentable state of superstition which
three centuries ago overran our country.
The volume abounds with forms of prayer to the Virgin, many of them
prefaced by extraordinary notifications of indulgences promised to those
who duly utter {194} the prayers. These indulgences are granted by Popes
and by Bishops; some on their own mere motion, others at the request of
influential persons. They guarantee remission of punishment for
different spaces of time, varying from forty days to ninety thousand
years; they undertake to secure freedom from hell; they promise pardon
for deadly sins, and for venial sins to the same person for the same
act; they assure to those who comply with their directions a change of
the pain of eternal damnation into the pain of purgatory, and the pain
of purgatory into a free and full pardon.
It may be said that the Church of Rome is not responsible for all these
things. But we need not tarry here to discuss the question how far it
was then competent for a church or nation to have any service-book or
manual of devotion for the faithful, without first obtaining the papal
sanction. For clear it is beyond all question, that such frightful
corruptions as these, of which we are now to give instances, were spread
throughout the land; that such was the religion then imposed on the
people of England; and it was from such dreadful enormities, that our
Reformation, to whatever secondary cause that reformation is to be
attributed--by the providence of Almighty God rescued us. No one laments
more than I do, the extremes into which many opponents of papal Rome
have allowed themselves to run; but no one can feel a more anxious
desire than myself to preserve our Church and people from a return of
such spiritual degradation and wretchedness; and to keep far from us the
most distant approaches of such lamentable and ensnaring superstitions.
In this feeling moreover I am assured that I am joined by many of the
most respected and influential members of the Roman Catholic Church
among us. {195} Still what has been may be; and it is the bounden duty
of all members of Christ's Catholic Church, to whatever branch of it
they belong, to join in guarding his sanctuary against such enemies to
the truth as it is in HIM.
At the same time it would not be honest and candid in me, were I to
abstain from urging those, who, with ourselves, deprecate these
excesses, to carry their reflections further; and determine whether the
spirit of the Gospel does not require a total rejection, even in its
less startling forms, of every departure from the principle of invoking
God alone; and of looking for acceptance with Him solely to the
mediation of his Son, without the intervention of any other merits. As
we regard it, it is not a question of degree; it is a question of
principle: one degree may be less revolting to our sense of right than
another, but it is not on that account justifiable.
The following specimens, a few selected from an overabundant supply,
will justify the several particulars in the summary which I have above
given:
1. "The Right Reverend Father in God, Laurence[67], Bishop of Assaven,
hath granted forty days of pardon to all them that devoutly say this
prayer in the worship of our blessed Lady, being penitent, and truly
confessed of all their sins. Oratio, 'Gaude Virgo, Mater Christi,' &c.
Rejoice, Virgin, Mother of Christ. [Fol. 35.]
[Footnote 67: This was Laurence Child, who, by papal provision,
was made Bishop of St. Asaph, June 18, 1382. He is called also
Penitentiary to the Pope. Le Neve, p. 21. Beatson, vol. i. p.
115.]
2. "To all them that be in the state of grace, that daily say devoutly
this prayer before our blessed Lady of Pity, she will show them her
blessed visage, and warn them the day and the hour of death; and in
their last {196} end the angels of God shall yield their souls to
heaven; and[68] he shall obtain five hundred years, and so many Lents of
pardon, granted by five holy fathers, Popes of Rome. [Fol. 38.]
[Footnote 68: The language in many of these passages is very
imperfect; but I have thought it right to copy them verbatim.]
3. "This prayer showed our Lady to a devout person, saying, that this
golden prayer is the most sweetest and acceptablest to me: and in her
appearing she had this salutation and prayer written with letters of
gold in her breast, 'Ave Rosa sine spinis'--Hail Rose without thorns.
[Fol. 41.]
4. "Our holy Father, Sixtus the fourth, pope, hath granted to all them
that devoutly say this prayer before the image of our Lady the sum of
XI.M. [eleven thousand] years of pardon. 'Ave Sanctissima Maria, Mater
Dei, Regina Coeli,' &c. Hail most holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of
Heaven. [Fol. 42.]
5. "Our holy Father, Pope Sixtus, hath granted at the instance of the
highmost and excellent Princess Elizabeth, late Queen of England, and
wife to our sovereign liege Lord, King Henry the Seventh, (God have
mercy on her sweet soul, and on all Christian souls,) that every day in
the morning, after three tollings of the Ave bell, say three times the
whole salutation of our Lady Ave Maria gratia; that is to say, at 6 the
clock in the morning 3 Ave Maria, at 12 the clock at noon 3 Ave M., and
at 6 the clock at even, for every time so doing is granted of the
SPIRITUAL TREASURE OF HOLY CHURCH 300 days of pardon totiens quotiens;
and also our holy father, the Archbishop of Canterbury and York, with
other nine Bishops of this realm, have {197} granted 3 times in the day
40 days of pardon to all them that be in the state of grace able to
receive pardon: the which begun the 26th day of March, Anno MCCCCXCII.
Anno Henrici VII.[69] And the sum of the indulgence and pardon for every
Ave Maria VIII hondred days an LX totiens quotiens, this prayer shall be
said at the tolling of the Ave Bell, 'Suscipe,' &c. Receive the word, O
Virgin Mary, which was sent to thee from the Lord by an angel. Hail,
Mary, full of grace: the Lord with thee, &c. Say this 3 times, &c. [Fol.
42.]
[Footnote 69: Henry VII. began to reign in 1485.]
6. "This prayer was showed to St. Bernard by the messenger of God,
saying, that as gold is the most precious of all other metals, so
exceedeth this prayer all other prayers, and who that devoutly sayeth it
shall have a singular reward of our blessed Lady, and her sweet Son
Jesus. 'Ave,' &c. Hail, Mary, most humble handmaid of the Trinity, &c.
Hail, Mary, most prompt Comforter of the living and the dead. Be thou
with me in all my tribulations and distresses with maternal pity, and at
the hour of my death take my soul, and offer it to thy most beloved Son
Jesus, with all them who have commended themselves to our prayers. [Fol.
46.]
7. "Our holy father, the Pope Bonifacius, hath granted to all them that
devoutly say this lamentable contemplation of our blessed Lady, standing
under the Cross weeping, and having compassion with her sweet Son Jesus,
7 years of pardon and forty Lents, and also Pope John the 22 hath
granted three hondred days of pardon. 'Stabat Mater dolorosa.' [Fol.
47.]
8. "To all them that before this image of Pity devoutly say 5 Pat. Nos.,
and 5 Aves, and a Credo, piteously beholding these arms of Christ's
passion, are {198} granted XXXII.M.VII hondred, and LV (32755) years of
pardon; and Sixtus the 4th, Pope of Rome hath made the 4 and the 5
prayer, and hath doubled his aforesaid pardon. [Fol. 54.]
9. "Our holy Father the Pope John 22 hath granted to all them that
devoutly say this prayer, after the elevation of our Lord Jesu Christ,
3000 days of pardon for deadly sins. [Fol. 58.]
10. "This prayer was showed to Saint Augustine by revelation of the Holy
Ghost, and who that devoutly say this prayer, or hear read, or beareth
about them, shall not perish in fire or water, nother in battle or
judgment, and he shall not die of sudden death, and no venom shall
poison him that day, and what he asketh of God he shall obtain if it be
to the salvation of his soul; and when thy soul shall depart from thy
body it shall not enter hell." This prayer ends with three invocations
of the Cross, thus: "O Cross of Christ [cross] save us, O Cross of
Christ [cross] protect us, O Cross of Christ [cross] defend us. In the
name of the [cross] Father, [cross] Son, and Holy [cross] Ghost. Amen."
[Fol. 62.]
11. "Our holy Father Pope Innocent III. hath granted to all them that
say these III prayers following devoutly, remission of all their sins
confessed and contrite. [Fol. 63.]
12. "These 3 prayers be written in the Chapel of the Holy Cross, in
Rome, otherwise called Sacellum Sanctæ Crucis septem Romanorum; who that
devoutly say them shall obtain X.C.M. [ninety thousand] years of pardon
for deadly sins granted of our holy Father, John 22, Pope of Rome. [Fol.
66.]
13. "Who that devoutly beholdeth these arms of {199} our Lord Jesus
Christ, shall obtain six thousand years of pardon of our holy Father
Saint Peter, the first pope of Rome, and of XXX [thirty] other popes of
the Church of Rome, successors after him; and our holy Father, Pope John
22, hath granted unto all them very contrite and truly confessed, that
say these devout prayers following in the commemoration of the bitter
passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, 3000 years of pardon for DEADLY SINS,
and other 3000 for venial sins." [Fol. 68.]
I will only add one more instance. The following announcement
accompanies a prayer of St. Bernard: "Who that devoutly with a contrite
heart daily say this orison, if he be that day in a state of eternal
damnation, then this eternal pain shall be changed him in temporal pain
of purgatory; then if he hath deserved the pain of purgatory it shall be
forgotten and forgiven through the infinite mercy of God."
It is indeed very melancholy to reflect that our country has witnessed
the time, when the bread of life had been taken from the children, and
such husks as these substituted in its stead. Accredited ministers of
the Roman Catholic Church have lately assured us that the pardons and
indulgences granted now, relate only to the remission of the penances
imposed by the Church in this life, and presume not to interfere with
the province of the Most High in the rewards and punishments of the
next. But, I repeat it, what has been in former days may be again; and
whenever Christians depart from the doctrine and practice of prayer to
God alone, through Christ alone, a door is opened to superstitions and
abuses of every kind; and we cannot too anxiously and too jealously
guard and fence about, with all our power and skill, the fundamental
principle, one God and one Mediator. {200}
* * * * *
SECTION II.--SERVICE OF THOMAS BECKET, ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF HIS
MARTYRDOM, DEC. 29.
The other instance by which I propose to illustrate the state of
religion in England before the reformation, is the service of Thomas
Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, a canonized saint and martyr of the
Church of Rome. The interest attaching to so remarkable a period in
ecclesiastical history, and to an event so intimately interwoven with
the former state of our native land, appears to justify the introduction
of the entire service, rather than extracts from it, in this place.
Whilst it bears throughout immediately on the subject of our present
inquiry, it supplies us at the same time with the strong views
entertained by the authors of the service, on points which gave rise to
great and repeated discussion, not only in England, but in various parts
also of continental Europe, with regard to the moral and spiritual
merits or demerits of Becket, as a subject of the realm and a Christian
minister. It is, moreover, only by becoming familiar in all their
details with some such remains of past times, that we can form any
adequate idea of the great and deplorable extent to which the legends
had banished the reading and expounding of Holy Scriptures from our
churches; and also how much the praises of mortal man had encroached
upon those hours of public worship, which should be devoted to
meditations on our Maker, Redeemer, and Sanctifier; to the exclusive
praises of his holy name; and to supplications {201} to Him alone for
blessings at his hand, and for his mercy through Christ.
There is much obscurity in the few first paragraphs. The historical or
biographical part begins at Lesson the First, and continues throughout,
only interspersed with canticles in general referring to the incidents
in the narrative preceding each.
* * * * *
THE SERVICE OF THOMAS BECKET[70].
[Footnote 70: The copies which I have chiefly consulted for the
purposes of the present inquiry, are two large folio
manuscripts, in good preservation, No. 1512 and No. 2785 of the
Harleian MSS. in the British Museum. The service commences about
the 49th page, B. of No. 2785. This MS. is considered to be of a
date somewhere about 1430. The first parts of the service are
preserved also in a Breviary printed in Paris in 1556, with some
variations and omissions. There are various other copies in the
British Museum, as well printed as in manuscript.]
Let them without change of vestments and without tapers in their hands,
proceed to the altar of St. Thomas the Martyr, chanting the requiem, the
chanter beginning,
_Req._ The grain lies buried beneath the straw;
The just man is slain by the spear of the wicked;
The guardian of the vine falls in the vineyard,
The chieftain in the camp, the husbandman in the threshing-floor.
Then the prose is said by all who choose, in surplices before the altar.
"Let the Shepherd sound his trumpet of horn."
Let the choir respond to the chant of the prose after every verse, upon
the letter [super litteram]. {202}
That the vineyard of Christ might be free,
Which he assumed under a robe of flesh,
He liberated it by the purple cross.
The adversary, the erring sheep,
Becomes bloodstained by the slaughter of the shepherd.
The marble pavements of Christ
Are wetted, ruddy with sacred gore;
The martyr presented with the laurel of life.
Like a grain cleansed from the straw,
Is translated to the divine garners.
But whilst the prose is being sung, let the priest incense the altar,
and then the image of the blessed Thomas the Martyr; and afterwards
shall be said with an humble voice: Pray for us, Blessed Thomas.
_The Prayer[71]._ O God for whose Church the glorious {203} high-priest
and martyr Thomas fell beneath the swords of the wicked, grant, we
beseech thee, that all who implore his aid may obtain the salutary
effect of their petition, through Christ.
[Footnote 71: This Collect is still preserved in the Roman
ritual, and is offered on the anniversary of Becket's death. In
a very ancient pontifical, preserved in the chapter-house of
Bangor, and which belonged to Anianus, who was Bishop of that
see (1268), among the "Proper Benedictions for the circuit of
the year," are two relating to Thomas Becket; one on the
anniversary of his death, the other on the day of his
translation. The former is couched in these words: "O God, who
hast not without reason mingled the birthday of the glorious
high-priest, Thomas, with the joys of thy nativity, by the
intervention of his merits" (ipsius mentis intervenientibus),
"make these thy servants venerate thy majesty with the reverence
of due honour. Amen. And as he, according to the rule of a good
shepherd, gave his life for his sheep, so grant thou to thy
faithful ones, to fear no tyrannical madness to the prejudice of
Catholic truth. Amen. We ask that they, by his example, for
obedience to the holy laws, may learn to despise persons, and by
suffering manfully to triumph over tyrannical madness. Amen."
The latter runs thus: "May God, by whose pity the bodies of
saints rest in the sabbath of peace, turn your hearts to the
desire of the resurrection to come. Amen. And may he who orders
us to bury with honour due the members of the saints whose death
is precious, by the merits of the glorious martyr, Thomas,
vouchsafe to raise you from the dust of vanity. Amen. Where at
length by the power of his benediction ye may be clothed with
doubled festive robes of body and soul. Amen."]
The shepherd slain in the midst of the flock,
Purchased peace at the price of his blood.
O joyous grief, in mournful gladness!
The flock breathes when the shepherd is dead;
The mother wailing, sings for joy in her son,
Because he lives under the sword a conqueror.
The solemnities of Thomas the Martyr are come.
Let the Virgin Mother, the Church, rejoice;
Thomas being raised to the highest priesthood,
Is suddenly changed into another man.
A monk, under [the garb of?] a clerk, secretly clothed with haircloth,
More strong than the flesh subdues the attempts of the flesh;
Whilst the tiller of the Lord's field pulls up the thistles,
And drives away and banishes the foxes from the vineyard.
_The First Lesson._
Dearest Brethren, celebrating now the birth-day of the martyr Thomas,
because we have not power to recount his whole life and conversation,
let our brief discourse run through the manner and cause of his passion.
The blessed Thomas, therefore, as in the office of Chancellor, or
Archdeacon, he proved incomparably strenuous {204} in the conduct of
affairs, so after he had undertaken the office of pastor, he became
devoted to God beyond man's estimation. For, when consecrated, he
suddenly is changed into another man: he secretly put on the hair shirt,
and wore also hair drawers down to the knee. And under the respectable
appearance of the clerical garb, concealing the monk's dress, he
entirely compelled the flesh to obey the spirit; studying by the
exercise of every virtue without intermission to please God. Knowing,
therefore, that he was placed a husbandman in the field of the Lord, a
shepherd in the fold, he carefully discharged the ministry entrusted to
him. The rights and dignities of the Church, which the public authority
had usurped, he deemed it right to restore, and to recall to their proper
state. Whence a grave question on the ecclesiastical law and the customs
of the realm, having arisen between him and the king of the English, a
council being convened, those customs were proposed which the king
pertinaciously required to be confirmed by the signatures as well of the
archbishop as of his suffragans. The archbishop with constancy refused,
asserting that in them was manifest the subversion of the freedom of the
Church. He was in consequence treated with immense insults, oppressed
with severe losses, and provoked with innumerable injuries. At length,
being threatened with death, (because the case of the Church had not yet
become fully known, and the persecution seemed to be personal,) he
determined that he ought to give place to malice. Being driven,
therefore, into exile, he was honourably received by our lord the pope
Alexander[72] at Senon, and recommended {205} with especial care to the
Monastery of Pontinea (Pontigny).
[Footnote 72: Pope Alexander III. was at this time residing as a
refugee at Sens, having been driven from Italy a few years
before by Frederick Barbarossa.]
Malice, bent on the punishment of Thomas,
Condemns to banishment the race of Thomas.
The whole family goes forth together.
No order, sex, age, or condition
Here enjoys any privilege.
_Lesson the Second._
Meanwhile in England all the revenues of the archbishop are confiscated,
his estates are laid waste, his possessions are plundered, and by the
invention of a new kind of punishment, the whole kin of Thomas is
proscribed together. For all his friends or acquaintance, or whoever was
connected with him, by whatever title, without distinction of state or
fortune, dignity or rank, age or sex, were alike exiled. For as well the
old and decrepit, as infants in the cradle and women lying in
childbirth, were driven into banishment; whilst as many as had reached
the years of discretion were compelled to swear upon the holy
[Gospels][73] that immediately on crossing the sea they would present
themselves to the Archbishop of Canterbury; in order that being so
oftentimes pierced even by the sword of sympathy, he would bend his
strength of mind to the king's pleasure. But the man of God, putting his
hand to deeds of fortitude, with constancy bore exile, reproaches,
insults, the proscription of parents and friends, for the name of
Christ; he was never, by any injury, at all broken or changed. For so
great was the firmness of this confessor of Christ, that he seemed to
teach all his fellow exiles, that every soil is the brave man's country.
[Footnote 73: Tactis sacrosanctis. It may mean reliques, or
other sacred things.] {206}
Thomas put his hands to deeds of fortitude,
He despised losses, he despised reproaches,
No injury breaks down Thomas:
The firmness of Thomas exclaimed to all,
"Every soil is the brave man's country."
_Third Lesson._
The king therefore hearing of his immoveable constancy, having directed
commendatory letters by some abbots of the Cistertian order to the
General Chapter, caused him to be driven from Pontinea. But the blessed
Thomas fearing that, by occasion of his right, injury would befal the
saints, retired of his own accord. Yet before he set out from thence he
was comforted by a divine revelation: a declaration being made to him
from heaven, that he should return to his Church with glory, and by the
palm of martyrdom depart to the Lord. When he was disturbed and sent
from his retreat at Pontinea, Louis, the most Christian king of the
French, received him with the greatest honour, and supported him most
courteously till peace was restored. But even he too was often, though
in vain, urged not to show any grace of kindness towards a traitor to
the king of England. The hand of fury proceeded further, and a cruelty
dreadful for pious ears to hear. For whereas the Catholic Church prays
even for heretics, and schismatics, and faithless Jews, it was forbidden
that any one should assist him by the supplications of prayer. Exiled,
then, for six continuous years, afflicted with varied and unnumbered
injuries, and like a living stone squared by various cuttings and
pressures for the building of the heavenly edifice, the more he was
thrust at that he might fall, the more firm and immoveable was he
enabled to stand. {207} For neither could gold so carefully tried be
burned away, nor a house, founded on a firm rock, be torn down. Neither
does he suffer the wolves to rage against the lambs, nor the vineyard to
pass into a garden of herbs.
The best of men, holy, and renowned is banished,
Lest the dignity of the Church should yield to the unworthy.
The estates of the exiled man are the spoil of the malignant,
But when placed in the fire, the fire burns him not.
_Fourth Lesson._
At length by the exertions, as well of the aforesaid pontiff as of the
king of the French, many days were appointed for re-establishing peace:
and because the servant of God would not accept of peace, unless with
safety to the honour of God, and the character of the Church, they
departed in discord from each other. At length the supreme Pontiff,
pitying the desolation of the Anglican Church, with difficulty at the
last extorted by threatening measures, that peace should be restored to
the Church. The realms indeed rejoiced, that the King had been
reconciled to the Archbishop, whilst some believed that the affair was
carried on in good faith, and others formed different conjectures.
Consequently in the seventh year of his exile the noble pastor returned
into England, that he might either rescue the sheep of Christ from the
jaws of the wolves, or sacrifice himself for the flock intrusted to his
care. He is received by the clergy and the people with incalculable joy;
all shedding tears, and saying, Blessed is he who cometh in the name of
the Lord. But after a few days he was again afflicted by losses and
miseries beyond measure and number. Whoever offered to him, {208} or to
any one connected with him, a cheerful countenance was reckoned a public
enemy. In all these things his mind was unbroken; but his hand was still
stretched out for the liberation of the Church. For this he incessantly
sighed; for this he persevered in watchings, fastings, and prayers; to
obtain this he ardently desired to sacrifice himself.
From the greatest joy of affairs,
The greatest wailing is in the Church,
For the absence of so great a patron.
But when the miracles return,
Joy to the people returns.
The crowd of sick flock together,
And obtain the grace of benefits.
_Fifth Lesson._
Now on the fifth day after the birth-day of our Lord, four persons of
the palace came to Canterbury, men indeed of high birth, but famous for
their wicked deeds; and having entered, they attack the archbishop with
reproachful words, provoke him with insults, and at length assail him
with threats. The man of God modestly answered, to every thing, whatever
reason required, adding that many injuries had been inflicted upon him
and the Church of God, since the re-establishment of peace, and there
was no one to correct what was wrong; that he neither could nor would
dissemble thereafter, so as not to exercise the duties of his function.
The men, foolish in heart, were disturbed by this, and having loudly
given utterance to their iniquity they forthwith went out. On their
retiring, the prelate proceeded to the Church, to offer the evening
praises to Christ. The mail-clad satellites of Satan followed him from
behind with drawn swords, a {209} large band of armed men accompanying
them. On the monks barring the entrance to the Church, the priest of
God, destined soon to become a victim of Christ, running up re-opened
the door to the enemy; "For," said he, "a Church must not be barricaded
like a castle." As they burst in, and some shouted with a voice of
phrenzy, "Where is the traitor?" others, "Where is the Archbishop?" the
fearless confessor of Christ went to meet them. When they pressed on to
murder him, he said, "For myself I cheerfully meet death for the Church
of God; but on the part of God I charge you to do no hurt to any of
mine"--imitating Christ in his passion, when he said, "If ye seek me,
let these go their way." Then rush the ravening wolves on the pious
shepherd, degenerate sons on their own father, cruel lictors on the
victim of Christ, and with fatal swords cut off the consecrated crown of
his head; and hurling down to the ground the Christ [the anointed] of
the Lord, in savage manner, horrible to be said, scattered the brains
with the blood over the pavement.
Thus does the straw press down the grain of corn;
Thus is slain the guard of the vineyard in the vineyard;
Thus the general in the camp, the shepherd in the fold, the
husbandman in the threshing-floor.
Thus the just, slain by the unjust, has changed his house of
clay for a heavenly palace.
Rachel, weeping, now cease thou to mourn
That the flower of the world is bruised by the world.
When the slain Thomas is borne to his funeral,
A new Abel succeeds to the old.
The voice of blood, the voice of his scattered brains,
Fills heaven with a marvellous cry. {210}
_Sixth Lesson._
But the last words of the martyr, which from the confused clamour could
scarcely be distinguished, according to the testimony of those who stood
near, were these,--"To God, and the blessed Mary, and Saint Dionysius,
and the holy patrons of this Church, I commend myself and the cause of
the Church[74]." Moreover, in all the torments which this unvanquished
champion of God endured, he sent forth no cry, he uttered no groan, he
opposed neither his arm nor his garment to the man who struck him, but
held his head, which he had bent towards the swords, unmoved till the
consummation came; prostrated as if for prayer, he fell asleep in the
Lord. The perpetrators of the crime, returning into the palace of the
holy prelate, that they might make the passion of the servant more fully
resemble the passion of his Lord, divided among them his garments, the
gold and silver and precious vessels, choice horses, and whatever of
value they could find, allotting what each should take. These things
therefore the soldiers did. Who, without weeping, can relate the rest?
So great was the sorrow of all, so great the laments of each, that you
would think the prophecy were a second time fulfilled, "A voice is heard
in Rama, lamentation and great mourning." Nevertheless the divine mercy,
when temptation was multiplied, made a way to escape; and by certain
visions, giving as it were a prelude to the future miracles, [declared
that] the martyr was thereafter to be glorified by wonders, that joy
would return after sorrow, {211} and a crowd of sick would obtain the
grace of benefits.
[Footnote 74: I have already suggested a comparison between this
prayer and the commendatory prayer of the Martyr Polycarp, page
92.]
O Christ Jesus[75], BY THE WOUNDS OF THOMAS,
Loosen the sins which bind us;
Lest the enemy, the world, or the works of the flesh.
Bear us captive to hell.
By[76] THEE, O Thomas ...
Let the right hand of God embrace us.
The satellites of Satan rushing into the temple
Perpetrate an unexampled, unheard-of, crime.
Thomas proceeds to meet their drawn swords:
He yields not to threats, to swords, nor even to death.
Happy place! Happy Church,
In which the memory of Thomas lives!
Happy the land which gave the prelate!
Happy the land which supported him in exile!
Happy Father! succour us miserable,
That we may be happy, and joined with those above!
[Footnote 75:
Christe Jesu per Thomæ vulnera,
Quæ nos ligant relaxa scelera
Ne captivos ferant ad infera
Hostis, mundus, vel carnis opera.
]
[Footnote 76:
Per te, Thoma, post lævæ munera
Amplexetur nos Dei dextera.
]
_Seventh Lesson._
Jesus said unto his disciples, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd
layeth down his life for the sheep.
THE HOMILY OF S. GREGORY, POPE.
Ye have heard, most dear brethren, from the reading of the Gospel, your
instruction; ye have heard also {212} your danger. For behold! he who is
not from any gift happening to him, but who is essentially good, says, I
am the good shepherd; and he adds the character of the same goodness,
which we may imitate, saying, The good shepherd layeth down his life for
his sheep. He did what he taught; he showed what he commanded. The good
shepherd laid down his life for his sheep; that in our sacrament he
might change his body and blood, and satisfy, by the nourishment of his
flesh, the sheep which he had redeemed. Here is shown to us the way,
concerning the contempt of death, which we should follow; the character
is placed before us to which we should conform. [In the first place, we
should of our pity sacrifice our external good for his sheep; and at
last, if it be necessary, give up our own life for the same sheep. From
that smallest point we proceed to this last and greater. But since the
soul by which we live is incomparably better than the earthly substance
which we outwardly possess, who would not give for the sheep his
substance, when he would give his life for them? And there are some who,
whilst they love their earthly substance more than the sheep, deservedly
lose the name of shepherd: of whom it is immediately added, But the
hireling who is not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the
wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep and fleeth. He is called not a
shepherd, but a hireling, who feeds the Lord's sheep not for inward
love, but with a view to temporal wages. He is a mercenary who seeks
indeed the place of shepherd, but seeks not the gain of souls.]
(The sentences between brackets are not in MS. No. 1512.)
To Thomas all things yield and are obedient:
Plagues, diseases, death, and devils, {213}
Fire, air, land, and seas.
Thomas filled the world with glory.
The world offers obeisance to Thomas[77].
[Footnote 77:
Thomæ cedunt et parent omnia:
Pestes, morbi, mors, et dæmonia,
Ignis, aer, tellus, et maria.
Thomas mundum replevit gloria.
Thomæ mundus præstat obsequia.
]
_Eighth Lesson._
In good truth, the holy Thomas, the precious champion of God, was to be
worthily glorified. For if the cause, yea, forasmuch as the cause makes
the martyr, did ever a title of holy martyrs exist more glorious?
Contending for the Church, in the Church he suffered; in a holy place,
at the holy time of the Lord's nativity, in the midst of his
fellow-priests and the companies of the religious: since in the agony of
the prelate all the circumstances seemed so to concur, as perpetually to
illustrate the title of the sufferer, and reveal the wickedness of his
persecutors, and stain their name with never-ending infamy. But so did
the divine vengeance rage against the persecutors of the martyr, that in
a short time, being carried away from the midst, they nowhere appeared.
And some, without confession, or the viaticum, were suddenly snatched
away; others tearing piecemeal their own fingers or tongues; others
pining with hunger, and corrupting in their whole body, and racked with
unheard-of tortures before their death, and broken up by paralysis;
others bereft of their intellects; others expiring with madness;--left
manifest proofs that they were suffering the penalty of unjust
persecution and premeditated murder. Let, therefore, the Virgin Mother,
the Church, rejoice that the new martyr has borne away the triumph over
the {214} enemies. Let her rejoice that a new Zacharias has been for her
freedom sacrificed in the temple. Let her rejoice that a new Abel's
blood hath cried unto God for her against the men of blood. For the
voice of his blood shed, the-voice of his brain scattered by the swords
of those deadly satellites, hath filled heaven at once and the world
with its far-famed cry.
Thomas shines with new miracles;
He adorns with sight those who had lost their eyes;
He cleanses those who were stained with the spots of leprosy;
He looses those that were bound with the bonds of death.
_Ninth Lesson._
For at the cry of this blood the earth was moved and trembled. Nay,
moreover, the powers of the heavens were moved; so that, as if for the
avenging of innocent blood, nation rose against nation, and kingdom
against kingdom; nay, a kingdom was divided against itself, and terrors
from heaven and great signs took place. Yet, from the first period of
his martyrdom, the martyr began to shine forth with miracles, restoring
sight to the blind, walking to the lame, hearing to the deaf, language
to the dumb. Afterwards, cleansing the lepers, making the paralytic
sound, healing the dropsy, and all kinds of incurable diseases;
restoring the dead to life; in a wonderful manner commanding the devils
and all the elements: he also put forth his hand to unwonted and
unheard-of signs of his own power; for persons deprived of their eyes
merited by his merits to obtain new members. But some {215} who presumed
to disparage his miracles, struck on a sudden, were compelled to publish
them even unwillingly. At length, against all his enemies the martyr so
far prevailed, that almost every day you might see that to be repeated
in the servant which is read of the Only-begotten: "They who spoke evil
of thee shall come unto thee, and adore the traces of thy feet." Now the
celebrated champion and martyr of God, Thomas, suffered in the year from
the incarnation of the Lord, according to Dionysius, 1171, on the fourth
of the kalends of January, on the third day of the week, about the
eleventh hour, that the birth-day of the Lord might be for labour, and
his for rest; to which rest the same our God and Lord Jesus Christ
vouchsafe to bring us; who with the Father and the Holy Spirit liveth
and reigneth God, for ever and ever. Amen.
O good Jesus, BY THE MERITS OF THOMAS,
Forgive us our debts;
Visit the house, the gate, the grave;
And raise us from the threefold death.
What has been lost by act, in mind, or use,
Restore with thy wonted pity.
Pray for us, O blessed Thomas.
N.B. This appears to be the end of the first service in honour of Thomas
Becket[78]; and at this point {216} another service seems to commence,
with a kind of new heading, "In the commemoration of St. Thomas[79]."
[Footnote 78: All the Lessons between this passage and "In
Lauds," are wanting in MS. 1512.]
[Footnote 79: Another Feast was kept in honour of his
translation, on the 7th of July.]
_The First Lesson._
When Archbishop Theobald, of happy memory, in a good old age, slept with
his fathers, Thomas, archdeacon of the Church of Canterbury, is solemnly
chosen, in the name of the Holy Trinity, to be archbishop and primate of
all England, and afterwards is consecrated. Then pious minds entertained
firm hope and confidence in the Lord[80].
[Footnote 80: There is much of obscurity in the next paragraph.
Reference seems to be made to his twofold character of a regular
and a secular clergyman, and to his improved state morally. The
Latin is this: "Erat autem piis mentibus spes firma et fiducia
in Domino, quod idem consecratus utriusque hominis, habitu
mutato moribus melioratus præsideret. Probatissimum siquidem
tenebatur sedem illam sedem sanctorum esse sanctam recipere aut
facere, vel citius et facile indignum abicere, quod et in beato
Thoma Martyre misericorditer impletum est."]
_Second Lesson._
Therefore the chosen prelate of God being elected, and anointed with the
sanctifying of the sacred oil, immediately obtained a most hallowed
thing, and was filled with manifold grace of the Holy Spirit. For
walking in newness of life, a new man, he was changed into another man,
all things belonging to whom were changed for the better; and with so
great grace did he consecrate the commencement of his bishopric, that
clothing himself with a monk's form secretly, he fulfilled the work and
merit of a monk. {217}
_Third Lesson._
But he, who after the example of the Baptist, with constancy had
conceived in a perfect heart that the zeal of righteousness should be
purified, studied also to imitate him in the garb of penitence. For
casting off the fine linen which hitherto he had been accustomed to use,
whilst the soft delicacies of kings pleased him, he was clothed on his
naked body with a most rough hair shirt. He added, moreover, hair
drawers, that he might the more effectually mortify the flesh, and make
the spirit live. But these, as also the other exercises of his spiritual
life, very few indeed being aware of it, he removed from the eyes and
knowledge of men by superadding other garments, because he sought glory
not from man, but from God. Even then the man of virtue entering upon
the justifications of God, began to be more complete in abstinence, more
frequent in watching, longer in prayer, more anxious in preaching. The
pastoral office intrusted to him by God, he executed with so great
diligence, as to suffer the rights neither of the clergy nor of the
Church to be in any degree curtailed.
* * * * *
There seems here also to be another commencement, for the next lesson is
called the First.
_Lesson First._
So large a grace of compunction was he wont to possess, between the
secrets of prayer or the solemnities of masses, that with eyes trained
to weeping he would be wholly dissolved in tears; and in the office
{218} of the altar his appearance was as though he was witnessing the
Lord's passion in the flesh. Knowing also that mercy softens justice,
and that pity hath the promise of the life that now is, and of that
which is to come, therefore towards the poor and the afflicted did he
bear the bowels of mercy piteously, and was anxious to reach the poor by
the blessings of his alms.
_Lesson Second._
The more humble of those whom a character for religion raised high, he
made his acquaintance and intimates; and that he might learn from them
to hunger and thirst after righteousness, he enjoyed more frequently
their secret conversation. Towards such servants and soldiers of Christ
this merciful man preferred to be liberal and abundant in food and
raiment, he who determined in himself to be moderate and sparing. For
what would he deny to Christ, who for Christ was about to shed his
blood? He who owed his coat or cloak to one who asked it, desired to
add, moreover, his own flesh. For he knew that the man would never
freely give his own flesh, who showed himself greedy of any temporal
thing.
_Lesson Third._
Hitherto the merciful Lord, who maketh poor and enricheth, bringeth low
and lifteth up, wished to load his servant with riches, and exalt him
with honours; and afterwards he was pleased to try him with adversity.
By trying whether he loved Him, He proved it the more certainly; but He
supplied grace more abundantly. For with the temptation He made a way to
escape, that he might be able to bear it. Therefore, the envious enemy,
considering that the new prelate {219} and the new man was flourishing
with so manifold a grace of virtues, devised to send a burning blight of
temptation, which might suffocate the germ of his merits already put
forth. Nor was there any delay. He who severs a man from his God, and
one friend from his neighbour, sowed irreconcileable quarrels between
the king and the archbishop.
Pray for us, O blessed Thomas.
_In Lauds._
A grain falls and gives birth to an abundance of corn.
The alabaster-box is broken, and the odour of the
ointment is powerful.
The whole world vies in love to the martyr,
Whose wonderful signs strike all with astonishment.
The water for Thomas five times changing colour,
Once was turned into milk, four times into blood.
At the shrine[81] of Thomas four times the light
came down,
And to the glory of the saint kindled the wax-tapers.
DO THOU BY THE BLOOD OF THOMAS, WHICH HE[82]
SHED FOR THEE;
MAKE US, O CHRIST, ASCEND,
Whither Thomas has ascended.
Extend[83] succour to us, O Thomas,
Guide those who stand, {220}
Raise up those who fall,
Correct our morals, actions, and life;
And guide us into the way of peace.
[Footnote 81: Ad Thomæ memoriam.]
[Footnote 82: Tu per Thomæ sanguinem quem pro te impendit, Fac
nos, Christe, scandere, quo Thomas ascendit.]
[Footnote 83:
Opem nobis, O Thoma, porrige,
Rege stantes, jacentes erige,
Mores, actus, et vitam corrige,
Et in pacis nos viam dirige.
]
_Final Anthem._
Hail, O Thomas, the Rod of Justice;[84]
The Brightness of the World;
The Strength of the Church;
The Love of the People;
The Delight of the Clergy.
Hail, glorious Guardian of the Flock;
Save those who rejoice in thy glory.
[Footnote 84: Salve, Thomas, Virga Justitiæ, Mundi Jubar, Robur
Ecclesiæ, Plebis Amor, Cleri Delicia. Salve Gregis Tutor
egregie, Salva tuæ gaudentes gloriæ.]
The end of the service of Thomas of Canterbury.
* * * * *
Now for a few moments only let us meditate on this service. I have
already referred to the lamentable practice of substituting biographical
legends for the word of God. And what is the tendency of this service?
What impression was it likely to make, and to leave on minds of ordinary
powers and instruction? Must it not, of necessity, tend to withdraw them
from contemplating Christ, and to fix their thoughts on the powers, the
glory, the exaltation, the merits of a fellow-sinner? It will be said,
that they will look beyond the martyr, and trace the blessings, here
enumerated, to Christ, as their primary cause, and will think of the
merits of Thomas as efficacious only through the merits of their
Saviour; that in their invocation of Thomas they will implore him only
to pray for them. But can this be so? Does not the ascription of
miracles to him {221} and to his power; does not the very form of
enumerating those miracles tend much to exalt the servant to an equality
with the Master?
Whilst Thomas by being thus, in words at least, presented to the people
as working those miracles by his own power, (for there is throughout a
lamentable absence of immediate ascription of glory to God,) is raised
to an equality with Christ our Lord; many passages in this service have
the tendency also of withdrawing the minds of the worshippers from an
implicit and exclusive dependence on the merits of Christ alone, and of
tempting them to admit the merits of Thomas to share at least with
Christ in the work of grace and salvation. Let us place some texts of
Scripture and some passages of this service side by side.
[Transcriber's note: They are shown here one after the other.]
_Scripture._
But after that the kindness and love of God towards man appeared, not by
works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he
saved us.--Titus iii. 4, 5.
He who spared not his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how shall he
not with him also freely give us all things?--Rom. viii. 32.
The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin.--1 John i. 7.
One Mediator.--1 Tim. ii. 5.
Who also maketh intercession for us.--Rom. viii. 34.
He ever liveth to make intercession for them.--Heb. vii. 25.
_Service of Thomas Becket._
O Christ Jesus, by the wounds of Thomas loosen the sins which bind us.
O blessed Jesus, BY THE MERITS OF THOMAS, forgive us our debts, raise us
from the threefold death, and restore what has been lost with thy
accustomed pity.
Do thou, O Christ, by the blood of Thomas, which he shed for thee, make
us ascend whither Thomas has ascended.
Holy Thomas, pray for us.
And if this service thus seems to mingle the merits of Christ, the
merits of his blood and of his death, with {222} the merits of a mortal
man, the immediate address to that mortal as the giver of good things
temporal and spiritual, very awfully trespasses on that high, exclusive,
and incommunicable prerogative of the one Lord God Omnipotent, which his
Spirit hath proclaimed solemnly and repeatedly, and which he has fenced
around against all invasion with so many warnings and denunciations.
_Scripture._ _Service of Becket_
1. O thou that hearest prayer, 1. For they sake, O Thomas,
unto thee shall all flesh come.-- let the right hand of God embrace
Ps. lxv. [vulg. lxiv.] 2. us.
By prayer and supplication,
with thanksgiving, let your requests
be made known unto God.--Phil.
iv. 6.
2. Lord, be thou my helper.-- 2. Send help to us, O Thomas;
Ps. xxx. [xxix.] 10.
3. Thou shalt guide me by thy 3. Guide thou those who stand;
counsel.--Ps. lxxiii. [lxxii.] 24.
He, The Holy Spirit, shall guide
you into all truth.--John xvi. 13.
4. The Lord upholdeth all that 4. Raise up those who fall;
fall, and raiseth up all those that
be bowed down.--Psalm cxlv.
[cxliv.] 14.
5. Create in me a clean heart, 5. Correct our morals, actions
O God.--Ps. li. [l.] 10. and life;
6. The steps of a good man are 6. And guide us into the way
ordered by the Lord. Though of peace.
he fall, he shall not be utterly
cast down, for the Lord upholdeth
him.--Ps. xxxvii. [xxxvi.]
23.
The day-spring from on high
hath visited us, to guide our feet
into the way of peace.--Luke i.
78, 79.
And then again, in celebrating the praises of a mortal {223} man,
recourse is had to language which can fitly be used only in our hymns
and praises to the supreme Lord of our destinies, the eternal Creator,
Redeemer, and Comforter, the only wise God our Saviour.
_Address to Thomas._ _Language of Scripture._
1. Hail, Thomas, Rod of Justice! 1. There shall come a rod out
of the stem of Jesse. Ye denied
the Holy One, and the Just--Isaiah
xi. 1. Acts iii. 14.
2. The brightness of the world. 2. The brightness of his glory.
I am the light of the world--Heb.
i. 3. John viii. 12.
3. The strength of the Church. 3. I can do all things through
Christ, that strengthened me.
Christ loved the Church, and
gave himself for it.--Phil. iv. 13.
Eph. v. 25.
4. The love of the people: the 4. Grace be with all them that
delight of the Clergy. love our Lord Jesus Christ in
sincerity. Delight thyself in the
Lord.--Eph. vi. 24. Ps. xxxvii. 4.
5. Hail, glorious Guardian of 5. Our Lord Jesus, that great
the Flock. Save those who rejoice Shepherd of the sheep. Give ear,
in thy glory. O Shepherd of Israel; come and
save us. He that glorieth, let him
glory in the Lord.--Heb. xiii. 20.
Psalm lxxx. [lxxix.] 1. 1 Cor.
i. 31.
Can that worship become the disciples of the Gospel and the Cross, which
addresses such prayers and such praises to the spirit of a mortal man?
Every prayer, and every form of praise here used in honour of Thomas
Becket, it would well become Christians to offer to the Giver of all
good, trusting solely and exclusively to the mediation of Christ Jesus
our Lord for acceptance; and pleading-only the merits of his most
precious blood. {224} And yet I am bound to confess, that in principle,
in spirit, and in fact, I can find no substantial difference between
this service of Thomas of Canterbury, and the service which all in
communion with the Church of Rome are under an obligation to use even at
the present hour.
This point remains next for our inquiry, and we will draw from the
well-head. I would, however, first suggest the application of a general
test for ascertaining the real _bona-fide_ nature of these prayers and
praises. The test I would apply is, to try with the change only of the
name, substituting the holiest name ever named in heaven or in earth for
the name of Thomas of Canterbury--whether these prayers and praises
should not be offered to the Supreme Being alone through the atoning
merits of his Blessed Son; whether they are not exclusively appropriate
to HIM.
To (Thomas/God Almighty) all things bow and are obedient.
Plagues, diseases, death, and devils,
Fire, air, land, and sea.
(Thomas/The Almighty) fills the world with glory.
The world offers obeisance to (Thomas/Almighty God).
(The Martyr Thomas/Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ) began to shine
forth with miracles [John ii. 11]; restoring sight to the blind [Luke
vii. 21]; walking to the lame; hearing to the deaf; speech to the dumb;
cleansing to the lepers [Matt. xi. 5]; making the paralytic sound [Matt.
iv. 24]; healing the dropsy [Luke xiv. 4]; and all kinds of incurable
diseases [Luke iv. 40]; restoring the dead to {225} life [Luke viii. 43.
55]; in a wonderful manner commanding the devils [Matt. viii. 16], and
all the elements [Luke viii. 25]. He put forth his hand to unwonted and
unheard-of signs of his own power [Mark ii. 12. John ix. 30].
Do thou, O Lord, by the blood of (Thomas/Christ) cause us to ascend
whither (Thomas/Christ) has ascended. (O Thomas/O God), send help to us.
Guide those who stand; raise up those who fall; correct our morals,
actions, and life; and guide us into the way of peace.
Hail, (Thomas!/Jesus!) Rod of Justice, the Brightness of the world, the
Strength of the Church, the Love of the people, the Delight of the
Clergy. Hail, Glorious Guardian of the flock! Save Thou those who
delight in Thy glory.
* * * * *
We shall apply this same test to many of the collects and prayers used,
and of necessity to be used, because they are authorized and appointed,
even at the present day, in the ministrations of the Church of Rome. The
impiety in many of those instances is not couched in such startling
language; but it is not the less real. God forbid that we should charge
our fellow-creatures with idolatry, who declare that they offer divine
worship to the Supreme Being only; or that we should pronounce any
professed Christian to have cast off his {226} dependence on the merits
of Christ alone, who assures us that he looks for mercy only through
those merits. But I know and feel, that according to the standard of
Christian truth, and of the pure worship of Almighty God, which the
Scriptures and primitive antiquity compel me to adopt, I should stain my
own soul with the guilt of idolatry, and with the sin of relying on
other merits than Christ's, were I myself to offer those prayers.
That this service excited much disgust among the early reformers, we
learn from various writers[85]. On the merits of the struggle between
Becket and his king; on the question of Becket's moral and religious
worth, (a question long and often discussed among the exercises of the
masters of Paris in the full assembly of the Sorbonne[86],) or on the
motives which influenced Henry the Eighth, I intend not to say one word:
those points belong not to our present inquiry. It may not, however, be
thought irrelevant here to quote a passage {227} from the ordinance of
this latter monarch for erasing Becket's service out of the books, and
his name from the calendar of the saints.
[Footnote 85: See Mornay "De la Messe," Saumur, 1604. p. 826.
Becon, in his "New Year's Gift," London, 1564, p. 183, thus
speaks: "What saint at any time thought himself so pure,
immaculate, and without all spot of sin, that he durst presume
to die for us, and to avouch his death to be an oblation and
sacrifice for our lives to God the Father, except peradventure
we will admit for good payment these and such like blasphemies,
which were wont full solemnly to be sung in the temples unto the
great ignominy of the glorious name of God, and the dishonour of
Christ's most precious blood." Then quoting the lines from the
service of Thomas Becket, on which we have above commented, he
adds, "I will let pass many more which are easy to be searched
and found out." Becon preached and wrote in the reign of Henry
VIII. and was then persecuted for his religion, as he was
afterwards in the reign of Mary.]
[Footnote 86: We are told that forty-eight years after his
death, the masters of Paris disputed whether Thomas was a
condemned sinner, or admitted into heaven.]
In Henry the Eighth's proclamation, dated Westminster, 16th November, in
the thirtieth year of his reign, printed by Bertholet, is the following
very curious passage:--
"ITEM, for as moche as it appereth now clerely, that Thomas
Becket, sometyme Archbyshop of Canterburie, stubburnly to
withstand the holsome lawes establyshed agaynste the enormities
of the clergie, by the kynges highness mooste noble progenitour,
kynge HENRY the Seconde, for the common welthe, reste, and
tranquillitie of this realme, of his frowarde mynde fledde the
realme into Fraunce, and to the bishop of Rome, mayntenour of
those enormities, to procure the abrogation of the sayd lawes,
whereby arose moch trouble in this said realme, and that his
dethe, which they untruely called martyrdome, happened upon a
reskewe by him made, and that, as it is written, he gave
opprobrious wordes to the gentyllmen, whiche than counsayled hym
to leave his stubbernesse, and to avoyde the commocion of the
people, rysen up for that rescue. And he not only callyd the one
of them bawde, but also toke Tracy by the bosome, and violently
shoke and plucked hym in suche maner, that he had almoste
overthrowen hym to the pavement of the Churche; so that upon
this fray one of their company, perceivynge the same, strake
hym, and so in the thronge Becket was slayne. And further that
his canonization was made onely by the bysshop of Rome, bycause
he had ben a champion of maynteyne his usurped auctoritie, and a
bearer of the iniquitie of the clergie, for these and for other
great and urgent causes, longe to recyte, the Kynge's {228}
Maiestie, by the advyse of his counsayle, hath thought expedient
to declare to his lovynge subjectes, that notwithstandynge the
sayde canonization, there appereth nothynge in his lyfe and
exteriour conversation, wherby he shuld be callyd a sainct, but
rather estemed to have ben a rebell and traytour to his prynce.
Therefore his Grace strayghtly chargeth and commandeth that from
henseforth the sayde Thomas Becket shall not be estemed, named,
reputed, nor called a sayncte, but bysshop Becket; and that his
ymages and pictures, through the hole realme, shall be putte
downe, and avoyded out of all churches, chapelles, and other
places; and that from henseforthe, the dayes used to be
festivall in his name shall not be observed, nor the service,
office, antiphoners, colletes, and prayers, in his name redde,
but rased and put out of all the bokes[87]."
[Footnote 87: In the Roman Breviary, adapted to England, several
biographical lessons are appointed for the Anniversary of "St.
Thomas, bishop and martyr," interspersed with canticles. In one
of these we read, "This is truly a martyr, who, for the name of
Christ, shed blood; who feared not the threats of judges, nor
sought the glory of earthly dignity. But he reached the heavenly
kingdom."--Norwich, 1830. Hiem. p. 251.] {229}
* * * * *
CHAPTER II.
COUNCIL OF TRENT.
In the process of ascertaining the real state of doctrine and practice
in the worship of the Church of Rome at the present day, we must first
gain as clear and accurate a knowledge of the decree of the Council of
Trent, as its words will enable us to form. Into the character of that
Council, and of those who constituted it, our present investigation does
not lead us to inquire. It is now, I believe, generally understood, that
its decrees are binding on all who profess allegiance to the Sovereign
Roman Pontiff; and that the man would be considered to have renounced
the Roman Catholic Communion, who should professedly withhold his assent
from the doctrines there promulgated as vital, or against the oppugners
of which the Council itself pronounced an anathema.
Ecclesiastical writers[88] assure us, that the wording of the decrees of
that Council was in many cases on purpose framed ambiguously and
vaguely. The latitude, however, of the expressions employed, does not in
itself {230} of necessity imply any of those sinister and unworthy
motives to which it has been usual with many writers to attribute it. In
charity, and without any improbable assumption, it may be referred to an
honest and laudable desire of making the terms of communion as wide as
might be, with a view of comprehending within what was regarded the pale
of the Catholic Church, the greatest number of those who professed and
called themselves Christians. Be this as it may, the vagueness and
uncertainty of the terms employed, compel us in many instances to have
recourse to the actual practice of the Church of Rome, as the best
interpreter of doubtful expressions in the articles of that Council. The
decree which bears on the subject of this volume is drawn up in the
following words:--
[Footnote 88: See Mosheim, xvi. Cent. c. i. vol. iv. p. 196.
London, 1811.]
"SESSION XXV.[89]
"On the invocation, veneration, and reliques of saints, and of
sacred images.
"The Holy Council commands all bishops and others bearing the
office and care of instruction, that according to the usage of
the Catholic and Apostolic Church, received from the primitive
times of the Christian religion, and the consent of holy
fathers, and decrees of sacred councils, they in the first place
should instruct the faithful concerning the intercession and
invocation of saints, the honour of reliques, and the lawful use
of images, teaching them, that the SAINTS REIGNING TOGETHER WITH
CHRIST, offer their own {231} prayers for men to God: that it is
good and profitable SUPPLIANTLY TO INVOKE THEM: and to fly to
their PRAYERS, HELP, and ASSISTANCE, for obtaining benefits from
God, by his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who is our only Redeemer
and Saviour. But that those who deny that the saints, enjoying
everlasting happiness in heaven, are to be invoked; or who
assert either that they do not pray for us; or that the
invocation of them to pray for us even as individuals is
idolatry, or is repugnant to the word of God, and is opposed to
the honour of the one Mediator of God and man, Jesus Christ; or
that it is folly, by voice or mentally, to supplicate those who
reign in heaven, hold impious sentiments.
"That the bodies also of the holy martyrs and others living with
Christ, which were living members of Christ, and a temple of the
Holy Ghost to be raised by Him to eternal life, and to be
glorified, are to be worshipped by the faithful; by means of
which many benefits are conferred on men by God; so that those
who affirm that worship and honour are not due to the reliques
of the saints, or that they and other sacred monuments are
unprofitably honoured by the faithful; and that the shrines of
the saints are frequented in vain for the purpose of obtaining
their succour, are altogether to be condemned, as the Church has
long ago condemned them, and now also condemns them."
[Footnote 89: The Latin, which will be found in the Appendix, is
a transcript from a printed copy of the Acts of the Council of
Trent, preserved in the British Museum, to which are annexed the
autograph signatures of the secretaries (notarii), and their
seals.]
An examination of this decree, in comparison with the form and language
of other decrees of the same Council, forces the remark upon us, That
the Council does not assert that the practice of invoking saints has any
foundation in Holy Scripture. The absence of all such declaration is the
more striking and important, because in the very decree immediately
preceding this, {232} which establishes Purgatory as a doctrine of the
Church of Rome, the Council declares that doctrine to be drawn from the
Holy Scriptures. In the present instance the Council proceeds no further
than to charge with impiety those who maintain the invocation of saints
to be contrary to the word of God. Many a doctrine or practice, not
found in Scripture, may nevertheless be not contrary to the word of God;
but here the Council abstains from affirming any thing whatever as to
the scriptural origin of the doctrine and practice which it
authoritatively enforces. In this respect the framers of the decree
acted with far more caution and wisdom than they had shown in wording
the decree on Purgatory; and with far more caution and wisdom too than
they exercised in this decree, when they affirmed that the doctrine of
the invocation of saints was to be taught the people according to the
usage of the Catholic and Apostolic Church, received from the primitive
times of the Christian religion, and the consent of the holy fathers. I
have good hope that these pages have already proved beyond gainsaying,
that the invocation of saints is a manifest departure from the usage of
the Primitive Church, and contrary to the testimony of "the holy
fathers." However, the fact of the Council not having professed to trace
the doctrine, or its promulgation, to any authority of Holy Scripture,
is of very serious import, and deserves to be well weighed in all its
bearings.
With regard to the condemnatory clauses of this decree, I would for
myself observe, that I should never have engaged in preparing this
volume, had I not believed, "that it was neither good nor profitable to
invoke the saints, or to fly to their prayers, their assistance, and
succour." I am bound, with this decree {233} before me, to pronounce,
that it is a vain thing to offer supplications, either by the voice or
in the mind, to the saints, even if they be reigning in heaven; and that
it is also in vain for Christians to frequent the shrines of the saints
for the purpose of obtaining their succour.
I am, moreover, under a deep conviction, that the invocation of them is
both at variance with the word of God, and contrary to the honour of the
one Mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ.
On this last point, indeed, I am aware of an anxious desire prevailing
on the part of many Roman Catholics, to establish a distinction between
a mediation of Redemption, and a mediation of Intercession: and thus by
limiting the mediation of the saints and angels to intercession, and
reserving the mediation of redemption to Christ only, to avoid the
setting up of another to share the office of Mediator with Him, who is
so solemnly declared in Scripture to be the one Mediator between God and
man. But this distinction has no foundation in the revealed will of God;
on the contrary, it is directly at variance with the words and with the
spirit of many portions of the sacred volume. There we find the two
offices of redemption and mediation joined together in Christ. "If any
man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
Righteous, and He is the propitiation for our sins." [1 John ii. 1, 2.
Heb. ix. 12. vii. 25.] In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the same Saviour
who is declared "by his own blood to have obtained eternal redemption,"
is announced also as the Mediator of Intercession. "Wherefore he is able
to save them to the uttermost who come unto God through him, seeing he
ever liveth to make intercession for them." The {234} redemption wrought
by Christ, and the intercession still made in our behalf by Christ, are
both equally declared to us by the most sure warrant of Holy Scripture;
of any other intercession by saints in glory, by angels, or Virgin, to
be sought by our suppliant invocations to them, the covenant of God
speaks not.
It may be observed, that the enactment of this decree by the Council of
Trent, has been chiefly lamented by some persons on the ground of its
presenting the most formidable barrier against any reconciliation
between the Church of Rome, and those who hold the unlawfulness of the
invocation of saints. Indeed persons of erudition, judgment, piety, and
charity, in communion with Rome, have not been wanting to express openly
their regret, that decrees so positive, peremptory, and exclusive,
should have been adopted. They would have been better satisfied with the
terms of communion in the Church to which they still adhered, had
individuals been left to their own responsibility on questions of
disputable origin and doubtful antiquity, involving rather the subtilty
of metaphysical disquisitions, than agreeable to the simplicity of
Gospel truth, and essential Christian doctrine. On this point I would
content myself with quoting the sentiments of a Roman Catholic author.
Many of the facts alleged in his interesting comments deserve the
patient consideration of every Christian. Here (observes the commentator
on Paoli Sarpi's History of the Council of Trent[90]) the Council makes
it a duty to pray to saints, though the ancient Church never regarded it
as necessary. The practice cannot be proved to be introduced into public
worship {235} before the sixth century; and it is certain, that in the
ancient liturgies and sacramentaries no direct invocation is found. Even
in our modern missals, being those of our ecclesiastical books in which
the ancient form has been longest retained, scarcely is there a collect
[those he means in which mention is made of the saints] where the
address is not offered directly to God, imploring Him to hear the
prayers of the saints for us; and this is the ancient form of
invocation. It is true, that in the Breviaries and other ecclesiastical
books, direct prayers to the saints have been subsequently introduced,
as in litanies, hymns, and even some collects. But the usage is more
modern, and cannot be evidence for ancient tradition. For this [ancient
tradition] only some invocations addressed to saints in public harangues
are alleged, but which ought to be regarded as figures of rhetoric,
_apostrophes_, rather than real invocations; though at the same time
some fathers laid the foundation for such a practice by asserting that
one could address himself to the saints, and hope for succour from them.
[Footnote 90: Histoire du Conc. de Trent, par Fra. Paoli Sarpi,
traduit par Pierre François de Courayer. Amsterdam, note 31.
1751. vol. iii. p. 182.]
We have already alluded to the very great latitude of interpretation
which the words of this Council admit. The expressions indeed are most
remarkably elastic; capable of being expanded widely enough to justify
those of the Church of Rome who allow themselves in the practice of
asking for aid and assistance, temporal and spiritual, to be expected
from the saints themselves; and at the same time, the words of the
decree admit of being so far contracted as not in appearance palpably to
contradict those who allege, that the Church of Rome never addresses a
saint with any other petition, than purely and simply that the saint
would by prayer intercede for the worshippers. The words "suppliantly
{236} to invoke them," and "to fly to their prayers, HELP, and SUCCOUR,"
are sufficiently comprehensive to cover all kinds of prayer for all
kinds of benefits, whilst "the invocation of them to pray for us even
individually," will countenance those who would restrict the faithful to
an entreaty for their prayers only.
Whatever may be the advantage of this latitude of interpretation, in one
point of view it must be a subject of regret. Complaints had long been
made in Christendom, that other prayers were offered to the saints,
besides those which petitioned only for their intercession; and if the
Council of Trent had intended it to be a rule of universal application,
that in whatever words the invocations of the saints might be couched,
they should be taken to mean only requests for their prayers, it may be
lamented, that no declaration to that effect was given.
The manner in which writers of the Church of Rome have attempted to
reconcile the prayers actually offered in her ritual, with the principle
of invoking the saints only for their prayers, is indeed most
unsatisfactory. Whilst to some minds the expedient to which those
writers have had recourse carries with it the stamp of mental
reservation, and spiritual subterfuge, and moral obliquity; others under
the influence of the purest charity will regret in it the absence of
that simplicity, and direct openness in word and deed, which we regard
as characteristic of the religion of the Gospel; and will deprecate its
adoption as tending, in many cases inevitably, to become a most
dangerous snare to the conscience. I will here refer only to the
profession of that principle as made by Bellarmin. Subsequent writers
seem to have adopted his sentiments, and to have expressed themselves
very much in his words. {237}
Bellarmin unreservedly asserts that Christians are to invoke the saints
solely and exclusively for their prayers, and not for any benefits as
from the saints themselves. But then he seems to paralyse that
declaration by this refinement: "It must nevertheless be observed that
we have not to do with words, but with the meaning of words; for as far
as concerns the words, it is lawful to say, 'Saint Peter, have mercy on
me! Save me! Open to me the entrance of heaven!' So also, 'Give to me
health of body, Give me patience, Give me fortitude!' Whilst only we
understand 'Save me, and have mercy upon me BY PRAYING for me: Give me
this and that, BY THY PRAYERS AND MERITS.' For thus Gregory of
Nazianzen, in his Oratio in Cyprianum; and the Universal Church, when in
the hymn to the Virgin she says,
Mary, Mother of Grace,
Mother of Mercy,
Do thou protect us from the enemy,
And take us in the hour of death.
"And in that of the Apostles,
'To whose command is subject'
The health and weakness of all:
Heal us who are morally diseased;
Restore us to virtue.