Produced by Andrew Dunning.
Created from scans by the University of Toronto, available through the
Internet Archive.
Transcriber's Note
Minor emendations have been made to punctuation and spelling.
ST JOHN DAMASCENE
_Imprimatur_
_Herbertus Cardinalis Vaughan_
_Archiepiscopus Westmonasteriensis_
_Die 12 Augusti 1898_
ST JOHN DAMASCENE
ON
HOLY IMAGES
({~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI U+03c0~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO
U+03c1~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH VARIA U+1f78~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER FINAL SIGMA U+03c2~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU U+03c4~}{~GREEK
SMALL LETTER OMICRON U+03bf~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH VARIA
U+1f7a~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA U+03c2~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER
DELTA U+03b4~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA U+03b9~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
ALPHA U+03b1~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER BETA U+03b2~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
ALPHA WITH TONOS U+03ac~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMDA U+03bb~}{~GREEK
SMALL LETTER LAMDA U+03bb~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON U+03bf~}{~GREEK
SMALL LETTER NU U+03bd~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU U+03c4~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER ALPHA U+03b1~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA U+03c2~} {~GREEK
SMALL LETTER TAU U+03c4~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PERISPOMENI
U+1fb6~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA U+03c2~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER
ALPHA WITH DASIA U+1f01~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA U+03b3~}{~GREEK
SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH TONOS U+03af~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA
U+03b1~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA U+03c2~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER
EPSILON U+03b5~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH PSILI U+1f30~}{~GREEK
SMALL LETTER KAPPA U+03ba~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH TONOS
U+03cc~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU U+03bd~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA
U+03b1~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA U+03c2~})
FOLLOWED BY
THREE SERMONS ON THE ASSUMPTION
({~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA U+03ba~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON
U+03bf~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH TONOS U+03af~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER MU U+03bc~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA U+03b7~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
SIGMA U+03c3~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA U+03b9~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
FINAL SIGMA U+03c2~})
TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL GREEK
BY
MARY H. ALLIES
_London_
THOMAS BAKER
1 SOHO SQUARE, W.
1898
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
_A Treatise_ on Images will not be out of place in a public, which is
confusing the making of images with the making of idols. A great
Christian of the eighth century found himself called upon to face an
imperial Iconoclast. He would willingly have remained silent, but he
would not bury his talent of eloquence. He brought it forth and
witnessed to the teaching of the Church in language which present
'exciting scenes' in Anglican churches brings home in the most forcible
way. Our English image breakers are in the camp of Leo the Isaurian, who
in the eighth century waged war against holy images, on the plausible
pretext that they withdrew honour from God. The seventh General Council
condemned his assault, and it determined the different kinds of worship,
using the Greek terms of latreia and douleia. The special champion of
holy Images is St John Damascene, whose treatise is now published for
the first time in English. Every article in the creed has its special
defender. St John Damascene proclaims the Communion of Saints and the
honour of God through His chosen and favoured servants. No part of
Catholic belief is a vain word, nor can the true children of the Church
say with their lips what they do not hold in their hearts. I believe in
the Communion of Saints follows upon I believe in God, so that the
enemies of the Saints are the enemies of God. This is the doctrine which
St John Damascene traces back to the eternal ages before time was, in
the divine {~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH PSILI U+1f10~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER IOTA U+03b9~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA U+03ba~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER OMEGA U+03c9~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU U+03bd~} of the Father in
the Person of the Son. God, the Son, is the Image by essence, and then
He becomes a visible image or form in time, clothed in flesh and blood,
showing us by His own example that our worship of God is through
corporeal things. Again and again the Saint repeats that as we must not
make an image of the Invisible God, so neither must we refuse to look
upon the Son, His Image, first in eternity, and then Incarnate.
What are the consequences of rejecting divinely appointed images?
Hopeless and heart-destroying doubt caused by the undue exaltation of
humanity: in other words, creature, instead of divine, worship. We are
so constituted that images we must have: our minds cannot reach God's
throne without the help of corporeal things. Agnosticism has said it. We
cannot love what we do not know, and is not God unknowable? Halting
formularies say it when they point to matter, which God has glorified,
as inglorious. And halting formularies lead to halting souls, and to the
proclamation of the strange device that religious truth is of no
consequence so long as men lead good lives.
The sermons on the Assumption were preached by the Saint in or about
_a.d._ 727. According to Alban Butler, he had special reasons for
honouring the Mother of God. By her intercession he regained the use of
his strong right hand. It was a practical demonstration of Catholic
teaching, We reach God most surely through those who love Him best, and
thus the Protestant phrase, which expresses a purely Catholic thought
'straight to God,' is exemplified in the Communion of Saints. St John's
language about the {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER THETA U+0398~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER EPSILON U+03b5~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON U+03bf~}{~GREEK
SMALL LETTER TAU U+03c4~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON U+03bf~}{~GREEK
SMALL LETTER KAPPA U+03ba~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA U+03b7~} will
astonish those who stigmatise the love of her as a 'Roman corruption.'
The crowning triumph of the Assumption follows justly on the divine
maternity. Her body was all pure, because her all holy ({~GREEK SMALL
LETTER PI U+03c0~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA U+03b1~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER NU U+03bd~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA U+03b1~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER GAMMA U+03b3~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH TONOS
U+03af~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA U+03b1~}) soul made it the
resting-place of our Lord. The Mother is so identified with the Son that
her life is part of His. The tomb is not for her, and thus the writer of
the eighth century bears full testimony to Catholic tradition.
All believers are at one in wishing to reach God; the question is one of
detail. Which is the shortest road? St John Damascene speaks with the
Church when he says it is through the glorification of matter in the
Person of the Eternal Word. Either give matter its proper place, or take
away matter which the Lord Himself has exalted, and we are no longer
composite beings, but spirits ill at ease in a material world. Take away
the King's army, and you uncrown the King Himself. Forget His Mother,
and with her the connecting link between earth and heaven. Then we may
be heathens once more, groping after the unknown God, and our latter
state will be more appalling than the heathendom of old, before the
light had appeared to illumine earth's dark places.
CONTENTS
PART I. APOLOGIA OF ST JOHN DAMASCENE AGAINST THOSE WHO DECRY HOLY
IMAGES ......................................................... 1
PART II. THE SAME .............................................. 55
PART III. THE SAME ............................................. 87
SERMON I. ON THE ASSUMPTION .................................... 147
SERMON II. THE SAME ............................................ 171
SERMON III. THE SAME ........................................... 201
PART I.
APOLOGIA OF ST JOHN DAMASCENE AGAINST THOSE WHO DECRY HOLY IMAGES.
_With_ the ever-present conviction of my own unworthiness, I ought to
have kept silence and confessed my shortcomings before God, but all
things are good at the right time. I see the Church which God founded on
the Apostles and Prophets, its corner-stone being Christ His Son, tossed
on an angry sea, beaten by rushing waves, shaken and troubled by the
assaults of evil spirits. I see rents in the seamless robe of Christ,
which impious men have sought to part asunder, and His body cut into
pieces, that is, the word of God and the ancient tradition of the
Church. Therefore I have judged it unreasonable to keep silence and to
hold my tongue, bearing in mind the Scripture warning:--'If thou
withdrawest thyself, my soul shall not delight in thee,' and 'If thou
seest the sword coming and dost not warn thy brother, I shall require
his blood at thy hand.' Fear, then, compelled me to speak; the truth was
stronger than the majesty of kings. 'I bore testimony to Thee before
kings,' I heard the royal[1] David saying, 'and I was' not ashamed. No,
I was the more incited to speak. The King's command is all powerful over
his subjects. For few men have hitherto been found who, whilst
recognising the power of the earthly king to come from above, have
resisted his unlawful demands.
In the first place, grasping as a kind of pillar, or foundation, the
teaching of the Church, which is our salvation, I have opened out its
meaning, giving, as it were, the reins to a well-caparisoned charger.[2]
For I look upon it as a great calamity that the Church, adorned with her
great privileges and the holiest examples of saints in the past, should
go back to the first rudiments, and fear where there is no fear. It is
disastrous to suppose that the Church does not know God as He is, that
she degenerates into idolatry, for if she declines from perfection in a
single iota, it is as an enduring mark on a comely face, destroying by
its unsightliness the beauty of the whole. A small thing is not small
when it leads to something great, nor indeed is it a thing of no matter
to give up the ancient tradition of the Church held by our forefathers,
whose conduct we should observe, and whose faith we should imitate.
In the first place, then, before speaking to you, I beseech Almighty
God, to whom all things lie open, who knows my small capacity and my
genuine intention, to bless the words of my mouth, and to enable me to
bridle my mind and direct it to Him, to walk in His presence straightly,
not declining to a plausible right hand, nor knowing the left. Then I
ask all God's people, the chosen ones of His royal priesthood, with the
holy shepherd of Christ's orthodox flock, who represents in his own
person Christ's priesthood, to receive my treatise with kindness. They
must not dwell on my unworthiness, nor seek for eloquence, for I am only
too conscious of my shortcomings. They must consider the thoughts
themselves. The kingdom of heaven is not in word but in deed. Conquest
is not my object. I raise a hand which is fighting for the truth--a
willing hand under the divine guidance. Relying, then, upon substantial
truth as my auxiliary, I will enter on my subject matter.
I have taken heed to the words of Truth Himself:--'The Lord thy God is
one.' And 'Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and shalt serve Him only,
and thou shalt not have strange gods.' Again, 'Thou shalt not make to
thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven
above, or in the earth beneath'; and 'Let them be all confounded that
adore graven things.' Again, 'The gods that have not made heaven and
earth, let them perish.' In this way God spoke of old to the patriarchs
through the prophets, and lastly, through His only-begotten Son, on
whose account He made the ages. He says, 'This is eternal life, that
they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou didst
send.' I believe in one God, the source of all things, without
beginning, uncreated, immortal, everlasting, incomprehensible, bodiless,
invisible, uncircumscribed,[3] without form. I believe in one
supersubstantial being, one divine Godhead in three entities, the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and I adore Him alone with the
worship of latreia. I adore one God, one Godhead but three Persons, God
the Father, God the Son made flesh, and God the Holy Ghost, one God. I
do not adore creation more than the Creator, but I adore the creature
created as I am, adopting creation freely and spontaneously that He
might elevate our nature and make us partakers of His divine nature.
Together with my Lord and King I worship Him clothed in the flesh, not
as if it were a garment or He constituted a fourth person of the
Trinity--God forbid. That flesh is divine, and endures after its
assumption. Human nature was not lost in the Godhead, but just as the
Word made flesh remained the Word, so flesh became the Word remaining
flesh, becoming, rather, one with the Word through union ({~GREEK SMALL
LETTER KAPPA U+03ba~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA U+03b1~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER THETA U+03b8~}' {~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH DASIA
U+1f51~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI U+03c0~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON
WITH TONOS U+03cc~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA U+03c3~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER TAU U+03c4~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA U+03b1~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER SIGMA U+03c3~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA U+03b9~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER NU U+03bd~}). Therefore I venture to draw an image of the
invisible God, not as invisible, but as having become visible for our
sakes through flesh and blood. I do not draw an image of the immortal
Godhead. I paint the visible flesh of God, for it is impossible to
represent a spirit ({~GREEK SMALL LETTER PSI U+03c8~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER UPSILON U+03c5~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER CHI U+03c7~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER ETA WITH VARIA U+1f74~}), how much more God who gives breath to
the spirit.
Now adversaries say: God's commands to Moses the law-giver were, 'Thou
shalt adore the Lord thy God, and thou shalt worship him alone, and thou
shalt not make to thyself a graven thing that is in heaven above, or in
the earth beneath.'
They err truly, not knowing the Scriptures, for the letter kills whilst
the spirit quickens--not finding in the letter the hidden meaning. I
could say to these people, with justice, He who taught you this would
teach you the following. Listen to the law-giver's interpretation in
Deuteronomy: 'And the Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire. You
heard the voice of His words, but you saw not any form at all.' And
shortly afterwards: 'Keep your souls carefully. You saw not any
similitude in the day that the Lord God spoke to you in Horeb from the
midst of the fire, lest perhaps being deceived you might make you a
graven similitude, or image of male and female, the similitude of any
beasts that are upon the earth, or of birds that fly under heaven.' And
again, 'Lest, perhaps, lifting up thy eyes to heaven, thou see the sun
and the moon, and all the stars of heaven, and being deceived by error
thou adore and serve them.'
You see the one thing to be aimed at is not to adore a created thing
more than the Creator, nor to give the worship of latreia except to Him
alone. By worship, consequently, He always understands the worship of
latreia. For, again, He says: 'Thou shalt not have strange gods other
than Me. Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor any
similitude. Thou shalt not adore them, and thou shalt not serve them,
for I am the Lord thy God.' And again, 'Overthrow their altars, and
break down their statues; burn their groves with fire, and break their
idols in pieces. For thou shalt not adore a strange god.' And a little
further on: 'Thou shalt not make to thyself gods of metal.'
You see that He forbids image-making on account of idolatry, and that it
is impossible to make an image of the immeasurable, uncircumscribed,
invisible God. You have not seen the likeness of Him, the Scripture
says, and this was St Paul's testimony as he stood in the midst of the
Areopagus: 'Being, therefore, the offspring of God, we must not suppose
the divinity to be like unto gold, or silver, or stone, the graving of
art, and device of man.'
These injunctions were given to the Jews on account of their proneness
to idolatry. Now we, on the contrary, are no longer in leading strings.
Speaking theologically, it is given to us to avoid superstitious error,
to be with God in the knowledge of the truth, to worship God alone, to
enjoy the fulness of His knowledge. We have passed the stage of infancy,
and reached the perfection of manhood. We receive our habit of mind from
God, and know what may be imaged and what may not. The Scripture says,
'You have not seen the likeness of Him.' What wisdom in the law-giver.
How depict the invisible? How picture the inconceivable? How give
expression to the limitless, the immeasurable, the invisible? How give a
form to immensity? How paint immortality? How localise mystery? It is
clear that when you contemplate God, who is a pure spirit, becoming man
for your sake, you will be able to clothe Him with the human form. When
the Invisible One becomes visible to flesh, you may then draw a likeness
of His form. When He who is a pure spirit, without form or limit,
immeasurable in the boundlessness of His own nature, existing as God,
takes upon Himself the form of a servant in substance and in stature,
and a body of flesh, then you may draw His likeness, and show it to
anyone willing to contemplate it. Depict His ineffable condescension,
His virginal birth, His baptism in the Jordan, His transfiguration on
Thabor, His all-powerful sufferings, His death and miracles, the proofs
of His Godhead, the deeds which He worked in the flesh through divine
power, His saving Cross, His Sepulchre, and resurrection, and ascent
into heaven. Give to it all the endurance of engraving and colour. Have
no fear or anxiety; worship is not all of the same kind. Abraham
worshipped the sons of Emmor, impious men in ignorance of God, when he
bought the double cave for a tomb. Jacob worshipped his brother Esau and
Pharao, the Egyptian, but on the point of his staff[4] He worshipped, he
did not adore. Josue and Daniel worshipped an angel of God; they did not
adore him. The worship of latreia is one thing, and the worship which is
given to merit another. Now, as we are talking of images and worship,
let us analyse the exact meaning of each. An image is a likeness of the
original with a certain difference, for it is not an exact reproduction
of the original. Thus, the Son is the living, substantial, unchangeable
Image of the invisible God, bearing in Himself the whole Father, being
in all things equal to Him, differing only in being begotten by the
Father, who is the Begetter; the Son is begotten. The Father does not
proceed from the Son, but the Son from the Father. It is through the
Son, though not after Him, that He is what He is, the Father who
generates. In God, too, there are representations and images of His
future acts,--that is to say, His counsel from all eternity, which is
ever unchangeable. That which is divine is immutable; there is no change
in Him, nor shadow of change. Blessed Denis (the Carthusian) who has
made divine things in God's presence his study, says that these
representations and images are marked out beforehand. In His counsels,
God has noted and settled all that He would do, the unchanging future
events before they came to pass. In the same way, a man who wished to
build a house, would first make and think out a plan. Again, visible
things are images of invisible and intangible things, on which they
throw a faint light. Holy Scripture clothes in figure God and the
angels, and the same holy man (Blessed Denis) explains why. When
sensible things sufficiently render what is beyond sense, and give a
form to what is intangible, a medium would be reckoned imperfect
according to our standard, if it did not fully represent material
vision, or if it required effort of mind. If, therefore, Holy Scripture,
providing for our need, ever putting before us what is intangible,
clothes it in flesh, does it not make an image of what is thus invested
with our nature, and brought to the level of our desires, yet invisible?
A certain conception through the senses thus takes place in the brain,
which was not there before, and is transmitted to the judicial faculty,
and added to the mental store. Gregory, who is so eloquent about God,
says that the mind which is set upon getting beyond corporeal things, is
incapable of doing it. For the invisible things of God since the
creation of the world are made visible through images. We see images in
creation which remind us faintly of God, as when, for instance, we speak
of the holy and adorable Trinity, imaged by the sun, or light, or
burning rays, or by a running fountain, or a full river, or by the mind,
speech, or the spirit within us, or by a rose tree, or a sprouting
flower, or a sweet fragrance.
Again, an image is expressive of something in the future, mystically
shadowing forth what is to happen. For instance, the ark represents the
image of Our Lady, Mother of God,[5] so does the staff and the earthen
jar. The serpent brings before us Him who vanquished on the Cross the
bite of the original serpent; the sea, water, and the cloud the grace of
baptism.
Again, things which have taken place are expressed by images for the
remembrance either of a wonder, or an honour, or dishonour, or good or
evil, to help those who look upon it in after times that we may avoid
evils and imitate goodness. It is of two kinds, the written image in
books, as when God had the law inscribed on tablets, and when He
enjoined that the lives of holy men should be recorded and sensible
memorials be preserved in remembrance; as, for instance, the earthen jar
and the staff in the ark. So now we preserve in writing the images and
the good deeds of the past. Either, therefore, take away images
altogether and be out of harmony with God who made these regulations, or
receive them with the language and in the manner which befits them. In
speaking of the manner let us go into the question of worship.
Worship is the symbol of veneration and of honour. Let us understand
that there are different degrees of worship. First of all the worship of
latreia, which we show to God, who alone by nature is worthy of worship.
Then, for the sake of God who is worshipful by nature, we honour His
saints and servants, as Josue and Daniel worshipped an angel, and David
His holy places, when he says, 'Let us go to the place where His feet
have stood.' Again, in His tabernacles, as when all the people of Israel
adored in the tent, and standing round the temple in Jerusalem, fixing
their gaze upon it from all sides, and worshipping from that day to
this, or in the rulers established by Him, as Jacob rendered homage to
Esau, his elder brother, and to Pharao, the divinely established ruler.
Joseph was worshipped by his brothers. I am aware that worship was based
on honour, as in the case of Abraham and the sons of Emmor. Either,
then, do away with worship, or receive it altogether according to its
proper measure.
Answer me this question. Is there only one God? You answer, 'Yes, there
is only one Law-giver.' Why, then, does He command contrary things? The
cherubim are not outside of creation; why, then, does He allow cherubim
carved by the hand of man to overshadow the mercy-seat? Is it not
evident that as it is impossible to make an image of God, who is
uncircumscribed and impassible, or of one like to God, creation should
not be worshipped as God. He allows the image of the cherubim who are
circumscribed,[6] and prostrate in adoration before the divine throne,
to be made, and thus prostrate to overshadow the mercy-seat. It was
fitting that the image of the heavenly choirs should overshadow the
divine mysteries. Would you say that the ark and staff and mercy-seat
were not made? Are they not produced by the hand of man? Are they not
due to what you call contemptible matter? What was the tabernacle
itself? Was it not an image? Was it not a type and a figure? Hence the
holy Apostle's words concerning the observances of the law, 'Who serve
unto the example and shadow of heavenly things.' As it was answered to
Moses, when he was to finish the tabernacle: 'See' (He says), 'that thou
make all things according to the pattern which was shown thee on the
Mount.' But the law was not an image. It shrouded the image. In the
words of the same Apostle, the law contains the shadow of the goods to
come, not the image of those things. For if the law should forbid
images, and yet be itself a forerunner of images, what should we say? If
the tabernacle was a figure, and the type of a type, why does the law
not prohibit image-making? But this is not in the least the case. There
is a time for everything.
Of old, God the incorporeal and uncircumscribed was never depicted. Now,
however, when God is seen clothed in flesh, and conversing with men, I
make an image of the God whom I see. I do not worship matter, I worship
the God of matter, who became matter for my sake, and deigned to inhabit
matter, who worked out my salvation through matter. I will not cease
from honouring that matter which works my salvation. I venerate it,
though not as God. How could God be born out of lifeless things? And if
God's body is God by union ({~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA U+03ba~}{~GREEK
SMALL LETTER ALPHA U+03b1~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA U+03b8~}' {~GREEK
SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH DASIA U+1f51~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI
U+03c0~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH TONOS U+03cc~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER SIGMA U+03c3~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU U+03c4~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER ALPHA U+03b1~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA U+03c3~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER IOTA U+03b9~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU U+03bd~}), it is immutable.
The nature of God remains the same as before, the flesh created in time
is quickened by a logical and reasoning soul. I honour all matter
besides, and venerate it. Through it, filled, as it were, with a divine
power and grace, my salvation has come to me. Was not the thrice happy
and thrice blessed wood of the Cross matter? Was not the sacred and holy
mountain of Calvary matter? What of the life-giving rock, the Holy
Sepulchre, the source of our resurrection: was it not matter? Is not the
most holy book of the Gospels matter? Is not the blessed table matter
which gives us the Bread of Life? Are not the gold and silver matter,
out of which crosses and altar-plate and chalices are made? And before
all these things, is not the body and blood of our Lord matter? Either
do away with the veneration and worship due to all these things, or
submit to the tradition of the Church in the worship of images,
honouring God and His friends, and following in this the grace of the
Holy Spirit. Do not despise matter, for it is not despicable. Nothing is
that which God has made. This is the Manichean heresy. That alone is
despicable which does not come from God, but is our own invention, the
spontaneous choice of will to disregard the natural law,--that is to
say, sin. If, therefore, you dishonour and give up images, because they
are produced by matter, consider what the Scripture says: And the Lord
spoke to Moses, saying, 'Behold I have called by name Beseleel, the son
of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Juda. And I have filled him with
the spirit of God, with wisdom and understanding, and knowledge in all
manner of work. To devise whatsoever may be artificially made of gold,
and silver, and brass, of marble and precious stones, and variety of
wood. And I have given him for his companion, Ooliab, the son of
Achisamech, of the tribe of Dan. And I have put wisdom in the heart of
every skilful man, that they may make all things which I have commanded
thee.' And again: 'Moses said to all the assembly of the children of
Israel: This is the word the Lord hath commanded, saying: Set aside with
you first fruits to the Lord. Let every one that is willing and hath a
ready heart, offer them to the Lord, gold, and silver, and brass,
violet, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and fine linen, goat's hair,
and ram's skins died red and violet, coloured skins, selim-wood, and oil
to maintain lights and to make ointment, and most sweet incense, onyx
stones, and precious stones for the adorning of the ephod and the
rational. Whosoever of you is wise, let him come, and make that which
the Lord hath commanded.' See you here the glorification of matter which
you make inglorious. What is more insignificant than goat's hair or
colours? Are not scarlet and purple and hyacinth colours? Now, consider
the handiwork of man becoming the likeness of the cherubim. How, then,
can you make the law a pretence for giving up what it orders? If you
invoke it against images, you should keep the Sabbath, and practise
circumcision. It is certain that 'if you observe the law, Christ will
not profit you. You who are justified in the law, you are fallen from
grace.' Israel of old did not see God, but we see the Lord's glory face
to face.
We proclaim Him also by our senses on all sides, and we sanctify the
noblest sense, which is that of sight. The image is a memorial, just
what words are to a listening ear. What a book is to the literate, that
an image is to the illiterate. The image speaks to the sight as words to
the ear; it brings us understanding. Hence God ordered the ark to be
made of imperishable wood, and to be gilded outside and in, and the
tablets to be put in it, and the staff and the golden urn containing the
manna, for a remembrance of the past and a type of the future. Who can
say these were not images and far-sounding heralds? And they did not
hang on the walls of the tabernacle; but in sight of all the people who
looked towards them, they were brought forward for the worship and
adoration of God, who made use of them. It is evident that they were not
worshipped for themselves, but that the people were led through them to
remember past signs, and to worship the God of wonders. They were images
to serve as recollections, not divine, but leading to divine things by
divine power.
And God ordered twelve stones to be taken out of the Jordan, and
specified why. For he says: 'When your son asks you the meaning of these
stones, tell him how the water left the Jordan by the divine command,
and how the ark was saved and the whole people.' How, then, shall we not
record on image the saving pains and wonders of Christ our Lord, so that
when my child asks me, 'What is this?' I may say, that God the Word
became man, and that for His sake not Israel alone passed through the
Jordan, but all the human race gained their original happiness. Through
Him human nature rose from the lowest depths of the earth higher than
the skies, and in His Person sat down on the throne His Father had
prepared for Him.
But the adversary says: 'Make an image of Christ or of His mother who
bore Him ({~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU U+03c4~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH
PERISPOMENI U+1fc6~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA U+03c2~} {~GREEK
SMALL LETTER THETA U+03b8~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON U+03b5~}{~GREEK
SMALL LETTER OMICRON U+03bf~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU U+03c4~}{~GREEK
SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH TONOS U+03cc~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA
U+03ba~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON U+03bf~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU
U+03bd~}), and let that be sufficient.' O what folly this is! On your
own showing, you are absolutely against the saints. For if you make an
image of Christ and not of the saints, it is evident that you do not
disown images, but the honour of the saints. You make statues indeed of
Christ as of one glorified, whilst you reject the saints as unworthy of
honour, and call truth a falsehood. 'I live,' says the Lord, 'and I will
glorify those who glorify Me.' And the divine Apostle: therefore now he
is not a servant, but a son. 'And if a son, an heir also through God.'
Again, 'If we suffer with Him, that we also may be glorified:' you are
not waging war against images, but against the saints. St John, who
rested on His breast, says, that we shall be like to Him: just as a man
by contact with fire becomes fire, not by nature, but by contact and by
burning and by participation, so is it, I apprehend, with the flesh of
the Crucified Son of God. That flesh, by participation through union
({~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA U+03ba~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH
PSILI U+1f00~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA U+03b8~}' {~GREEK SMALL LETTER
UPSILON WITH DASIA U+1f51~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER PI U+03c0~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER OMICRON WITH TONOS U+03cc~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA
U+03c3~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU U+03c4~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA
U+03b1~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA U+03c3~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA
U+03b9~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU U+03bd~}) with the divine nature, was
unchangeably God, not in virtue of grace from God as was the case with
each of the prophets, but by the presence of the Fountain Head Himself.
God, the Scripture says, stood in the synagogue of the gods, so that the
saints, too, are gods. Holy Gregory takes the words, 'God stands in the
midst of the gods,' to mean that He discriminates their several merits.
The saints in their lifetime were filled with the Holy Spirit, and when
they are no more, His grace abides with their spirits and with their
bodies in their tombs, and also with their likenesses and holy images,
not by nature, but by grace and divine power.
God charged David to build Him a temple through his son, and to prepare
a place of rest. Solomon, in building the temple, made the cherubim, as
the book of Kings says. And he encompassed the cherubim with gold, and
all the walls in a circle, and he had the cherubim carved, and palms
inside and out, in a circle, not from the sides, be it observed. And
there were bulls and lions and pomegranates. Is it not more seemly to
decorate all the walls of the Lord's house with holy forms and images
rather than with beasts and plants? Where is the law declaring 'thou
shalt not make any graven image'? But Solomon receiving the gift of
wisdom, imaging heaven, made the cherubim, and the likenesses of bulls
and lions, which the law forbade. Now if we make a statue of Christ, and
likenesses of the saints, does not their being filled with the Holy
Ghost increase the piety of our homage? As then the people and the
temple were purified in blood and in burnt offerings, so now the Blood
of Christ giving testimony under Pontius Pilate, and being Himself the
first fruits of the martyrs, the Church is built up on the blood of the
saints. Then the signs and forms of lifeless animals figured forth the
human tabernacle, the martyrs themselves whom they were preparing for
God's abode.
We depict Christ as our King and Lord, and do not deprive Him of His
army. The saints constitute the Lord's army. Let the earthly king
dismiss his army before he gives up his King and Lord. Let him put off
the purple before he takes honour away from his most valiant men who
have conquered their passions. For if the saints are heirs of God, and
co-heirs of Christ, they will be also partakers of the divine glory of
sovereignty. If the friends of God have had a part in the sufferings of
Christ, how shall they not receive a share of His glory even on earth?
'I call you not servants,' our Lord says, 'you are my friends.' Should
we then deprive them of the honour given to them by the Church? What
audacity! What boldness of mind, to fight God and His commands! You, who
refuse to worship images, would not worship the Son of God, the Living
Image of the invisible God, and His unchanging form. I worship the image
of Christ as the Incarnate God; that of Our Lady ({~GREEK SMALL LETTER
TAU U+03c4~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH PERISPOMENI U+1fc6~}{~GREEK
SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA U+03c2~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA
U+03b8~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON U+03b5~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
OMICRON U+03bf~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU U+03c4~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
OMICRON WITH DASIA AND OXIA U+1f45~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA
U+03ba~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON U+03bf~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER
UPSILON U+03c5~}), the Mother of us all, as the Mother of God's Son;
that of the saints as the friends of God. They have withstood sin unto
blood, and followed Christ in shedding their blood for Him, who shed His
blood for them. I put on record the excellencies and the sufferings of
those who have walked in His footsteps, that I may sanctify myself, and
be fired with the zeal of imitation. St Basil says, 'Honouring the image
leads to the prototype.' If you raise churches to the saints of God,
raise also their trophies. The temple of old was not built in the name
of any man. The death of the just was a cause of tears, not of feasting.
A man who touched a corpse was considered unclean, even if the corpse
was Moses himself. But now the memories of the saints are kept with
rejoicings. The dead body of Jacob was wept over, whilst there is joy
over the death of Stephen. Therefore, either give up the solemn
commemorations of the saints, which are not according to the old law, or
accept images which are also against it, as you say. But it is
impossible not to keep with rejoicing the memories of the saints. The
Holy Apostles and Fathers are at one in enjoining them. From the time
that God the Word became flesh He is as we are in everything except sin,
and of our nature, without confusion. He has deified our flesh for ever,
and we are in very deed sanctified through His Godhead and the union of
His flesh with it. And from the time that God, the Son of God,
impassible by reason of His Godhead, chose to suffer voluntarily He
wiped out our debt, also paying for us a most full and noble ransom. We
are truly free through the sacred blood of the Son pleading for us with
the Father. And we are indeed delivered from corruption since He
descended into hell to the souls detained there through centuries and
gave the captives their freedom, sight to the blind, and chaining the
strong one.[7] He rose in the plenitude of His power, keeping the flesh
of immortality which He had taken for us. And since we have been born
again of water and the Spirit, we are truly sons and heirs of God. Hence
St Paul calls the faithful holy; hence we do not grieve but rejoice over
the death of the saints. We are then no longer under grace, being
justified through faith, and knowing the one true God. The just man is
not bound by the law. We are not held by the letter of the law, nor do
we serve as children, but grown into the perfect estate of man we are
fed on solid food, not on that which conduces to idolatry. The law is
good as a light shining in a dark place until the day breaks. Your
hearts have already been illuminated, the living water of God's
knowledge has run over the tempestuous seas of heathendom, and we may
all know God. The old creation has passed away, and all things are
renovated. The holy Apostle Paul said to St Peter, the chief of the
Apostles:[8] 'If you, being a Jew, live as a heathen and not a Jew, how
will you persuade heathens to do as Jews do?' And to the Galatians: 'I
will bear witness to every circumcised man that it is salutary to fulfil
the whole law.'
Of old they who did not know God, worshipped false gods. But now,
knowing God, or rather being known by Him, how can we return to bare and
naked rudiments? I have looked upon the human form of God, and my soul
has been saved. I gaze upon the image of God, as Jacob did, though in a
different way. Jacob sounded the note of the future, seeing with
immaterial sight, whilst the image of Him who is visible to flesh is
burnt into my soul. The shadow and winding sheet and relics of the
apostles cured sickness, and put demons to flight. How, then, shall not
the shadow and the statues of the saints be glorified? Either do away
with the worship of all matter, or be not an innovator. Do not disturb
the boundaries of centuries, put up by your fathers.
It is not in writing only that they have bequeathed to us the tradition
of the Church, but also in certain unwritten examples. In the
twenty-seventh book of his work, in thirty chapters addressed to
Amphilochios concerning the Holy Spirit, St Basil says, 'In the
cherished teaching and dogmas of the Church, we hold some things by
written documents; others we have received in mystery from the
apostolical tradition.' Both are of equal value for the soul's growth.
No one will dispute this who has considered even a little the discipline
of the Church. For if we neglect unwritten customs, as not having much
weight, we bury in oblivion the most pertinent facts connected with the
Gospel. These are the great Basil's words. How do we know the Holy place
of Calvary, or the Holy Sepulchre? Does it not rest on a tradition
handed down from father to son? It is written that our Lord was
crucified on Calvary, and buried in a tomb, which Joseph hewed out of
the rock; but it is unwritten tradition which identifies these spots,
and does more things of the same kind. Whence come the three immersions
at baptism, praying with face turned towards the east, and the tradition
of the mysteries?[9] Hence St Paul says, Therefore, brethren, stand
fast, and hold the traditions which you have learned either by word, or
by our epistle. As, then, so much has been handed down in the Church,
and is observed down to the present day, why disparage images?
If you bring forward certain practices, they do not inculpate our
worship of images, but the worship of heathens who make them idols.
Because heathens do it foolishly, this is no reason for objecting to our
pious practice. If the same magicians and sorcerers use supplication, so
does the Church with catechumens; the former invoke devils, but the
Church calls upon God against devils. Heathens have raised up images to
demons, whom they call gods. Now we have raised them to the one
Incarnate God, to His servants and friends, who are proof against the
diabolical hosts.
If, again, you object that the great Epiphanius thoroughly rejected
images, I would say in the first place the work in question is
fictitious and unauthentic. It bears the name of some one who did not
write it, which used to be commonly done. Secondly, we know that blessed
Athanasius objected to the bodies of saints being put into chests, and
that he preferred their burial in the ground, wishing to set at nought
the strange custom of the Egyptians, who did not bury their dead under
ground, but set them upon beds and couches. Thus, supposing that he
really wrote this work, the great Epiphanius, wishing to correct
something of the same kind, ordered that images should not be used. The
proof that he did not object to images, is to be found in his own
church, which is adorned with images to this day. Thirdly, the exception
is not a law to the Church, neither does one swallow make summer, as it
seems to Gregory the theologian, and to the truth. Neither can one
expression overturn the tradition of the whole Church which is spread
throughout the world.
Accept, therefore, the teaching of Scripture and spiritual writers. If
the Scripture _does_ call the idols of heathens silver and gold, and the
works of man's hand, it does not forbid the adoration of inanimate
things, or man's handiwork, but the adoration of demons.
We have seen that prophets worshipped angels, and men, and kings, and
the impious, and even a staff. David says, 'And you adore His
footstool.' Isaias, speaking in God's name, says, 'The heavens are my
throne, and the earth my footstool.' Now, it is evident to every one
that the heavens and the earth are created things. Moses, too, and Aaron
with all the people adored the work of hands. St Paul, the golden
grasshopper[10] of the Church, says in his Epistle to the Hebrews, 'But
Christ being come, a high priest of the good things to come, by a
greater and more perfect tabernacle not made by hand,' that is 'not of
this creation.' And, again, 'For Jesus is not entered into the Holies
made by hands, the patterns of the true; but into heaven itself.' Thus
the former holy things, the tabernacle, and everything within it, were
made by hands, and no one denies that they were adored.
Authentic Testimony of Ancient Fathers in favour of Images.
St Denis the Areopagite. From his Letter to Bishop Titus.
Instead of attaching the common conception to images, we should look
upon what they symbolise, and not despise the divine mark and character
which they portray, as sensible images of mysterious and heavenly
visions.
_Commentary._--Mark that he cautions us not to despise sacred images.
The Same, 'On the Names of God.'
We have taken the same line. On the one side, through the veiled
language of Scripture and the help of oral tradition, intellectual
things are understood through sensible ones, and the things above nature
by the things that are. Forms are given to what is intangible and
without shape, and immaterial perfection is clothed and multiplied in a
variety of different symbols.
_Commentary._--If it be a good work to clothe with shape and form,
according to our standard, that which is formless, shapeless, and
without consistency, how shall we not make images to ourselves in the
same way of things perceived through form and shape, so that we may bear
them in mind, and be moved to imitate what they represent.
The Same, on the 'Ecclesiastical Hierarchy.'
Now, if the substances ({~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON U+03bf~}{~GREEK
SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH TONOS U+03cd~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA
U+03c3~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH TONOS U+03af~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER ALPHA U+03b1~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA U+03b9~}) and orders
above us, of which we have already made reverent mention, are without
bodies, their hierarchy is intellectual and above sense.
We supply by the variety of sensible symbols the visible order, which is
according to our own measure. Those sensible symbols lead us naturally
to intellectual conception, to God and His divine attributes. Spiritual
minds form their own spiritual conceptions, but we are led to the divine
vision by sensible images.
_Commentary._--If, then, it be rational that we are led to the divine
vision by sensible images, and if Divine Providence mercifully clothes
in form and image that which is without either for our benefit, what is
there unseemly about imaging, according to our capacity, Him who
graciously disguised Himself for us in shape and form?
A tradition has come down to us that Angaros, King of Edessa, was drawn
vehemently to divine love by hearing of our Lord,[11] and that he sent
envoys to ask for His likeness. If this were refused, they were ordered
to have a likeness painted. Then He, who is all-knowing and
all-powerful, is said to have taken a strip of cloth, and pressing it to
His face, to have left His likeness upon the cloth, which it retains to
this day.
St Basil's Sermon on the Martyr St Barlam, beginning, 'In the first
place the death of the saints.'
Arise, you renowned painters of brave deeds, who set forth by your art a
faint image of the General. My praise of the laurel-crowned victor is
faint compared to the colours of your brush. I will give up writing on
the excellencies of the martyr whom you have crowned. I rejoice at the
victory won to-day by your strength. I contemplate the hand put out to
the flames, more powerfully dealt with by you. I see the struggle more
clearly depicted on your statue. Let demons be enraged even now,
overcome by the martyr's excellencies which you reveal. Let the powerful
hand be again outstretched to victory. May Christ our Lord, the supreme
Judge of the warfare, appear in picture. To Him be glory for ever and
ever. Amen.
From the same, from the Thirty Chapters to Amphilochios, on the Holy
Ghost.--Chap. xviii.
The image of the king is also called the king, and there are not two
kings in consequence. Neither is power divided, nor is glory
distributed. Just as the reigning power over us is one, so is our homage
one, not many, and the honour given to the image reaches back to the
original. What the image is in the one case as a representation, that
the Son is by His humanity, and as in art likeness is according to form,
so in the divine and incommensurable nature ({~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA
WITH TONOS U+03ac~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA U+03c3~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER UPSILON U+03c5~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU U+03bd~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER THETA U+03b8~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH TONOS
U+03ad~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU U+03c4~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON
U+03bf~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA U+03c2~}) union is effected in
the indwelling Godhead.
_Commentary._--If the image of the king is the king, the image of Christ
is Christ, and the image of a saint the saint, and if power is not
divided nor glory distributed, honouring the image becomes honouring the
one who is set forth in image. Devils have feared the saints, and have
fled from their shadow. The shadow is an image, and I make an image that
I may scare demons. If you say that only intellectual worship befits
God, take away all corporeal things, light, and fragrance, prayer itself
through the physical voice, the very divine mysteries which are offered
through matter, bread, and wine, the oil of chrism, the sign of the
Cross, for all this is matter. Take away the Cross, and the sponge of
the Crucifixion, and the spear which pierced the life-giving side.
Either give up honouring these things as impossible, or do not reject
the veneration of images. Matter is endued with a divine power through
prayer made to those who are depicted in image. Purple by itself is
simple, and so is silk, and the cloak which is made of both. But if the
king put it on, the cloak receives honour from the honour due to the
wearer. So is it with matter. By itself it is of no account, but if the
one presented in image be full of grace, men become partakers of his
grace according to their faith. The apostles knew our Lord with their
bodily eyes; others knew the apostles, others the martyrs. I, too,
desire to see them in the spirit and in the flesh, and to possess a
saving remedy as I am a composite being. I see with my eyes, and revere
that which represents what I honour, though I do not worship it as God.
Now you, perhaps, are superior to me, and are lifted up above bodily
things, and being, as it were, not of flesh, you make light of what is
visible, but as I am human and clothed with a body, I desire to see and
to be corporeally with the saints. Condescend to my humble wish that you
may be secure on your heights. God accepts my longing for Him and for
His saints. For He rejoices at the praises of His servant, according to
the great St Basil in his panegyric of the Forty Martyrs. Listen to the
words which he uttered in honour of the martyr St Gordion.
From St Basils Sermon on St Gordion.
The mere memory of just deeds is a source of spiritual joy to the whole
world; people are moved to imitate the holiness of which they hear. The
life of holy men is as a light illuminating the way for those who would
see it. And again, when we recount the story of holy lives we glorify in
the first place the Lord of those servants, and we give praise to the
servants on account of their testimony, which is known to us. We rejoice
the world through good report.
_Commentary._--The remembrance of the saints is thus, you see, a glory
to God, praise of the saints, joy and salvation to the whole world. Why,
then, would you destroy it? This remembrance is kept by preaching and by
images, says the same great St Basil.
The same, on the Martyr St Gordion.
Just as burning follows naturally on fire, and fragrance on sweet
ointment, so must good arise from holy actions. For it is no small thing
to represent past events according to life. Is it a dim memory of the
man's wrestlings which has come down to us, and does not the painter's
picture tally with our present conflict? Now, as painters draw images
from images, they frequently depart from the original as much as the
image itself does, and as we did not see what they represent, there is
no little fear that we may injure the truth.
The same, at the end.
The sun fills us with perpetual wonder, though always before us, so the
memory of this man is ever fresh.
_Commentary._--It is evident that it is fresh through sermon and image.
Testimony of the same, from his Sermon on the Forty Martyrs.
Can the lover of the martyrs have too much of their memory? For the
honour shown to the just, our fellow-men, is a testimony to the goodness
of our common Lord.
And again:--
Recognise the blessedness of the martyr heartily, that you may be a
martyr in will; thus, without persecutor, or fire, or blows, found
worthy of the same reward.
_Commentary._--How, then, would you dissuade me from honouring the
saints, and be envious of my salvation? Listen to what he says a little
further on to show that he united the painter's art to oratory.
St Basil.
See, then, that setting them before us in representation, we are making
them helpful to the living, exhibiting their holiness to us all as if in
a picture.
_Commentary._--Do you understand that both image and sermon teach one
lesson? He says: 'Let us show them forth in a sermon as if in a
picture.' And again: Writers and painters point out the struggles of
war; the first by the art of style, the second with their brush, and
each induce many to be brave. That which a spoken account presents to
the hearing, a silent picture portrays for imitation.
_Commentary._--What better proof have we that images are the books of
the illiterate, the ever-speaking heralds of honouring the saints,
teaching those who gaze upon them without words, and sanctifying the
spectacle. I have not many books nor time for study, and I go into a
church, the common refuge of souls, my mind wearied with conflicting
thoughts. I see before me a beautiful picture and the sight refreshes
me, and induces me to glorify God. I marvel at the martyr's endurance,
at his reward, and fired with burning zeal, I fall down to adore God
through His martyr, and receive a grace of salvation. Have you not heard
the same holy father in his homily on the beginning of the Psalms, say
that the Holy Spirit, knowing the human race were obstinate and hard to
lead, mixed honey with the psalm-singing? What do you say to this? Shall
I not perpetuate the martyr's testimony both by word and paint brush?
Shall I not embrace with my eyes that which is a wonder to the angels
and to the whole world, formidable to the devil, a terror to demons, as
the same great Father says? Again, towards the end of his homily on the
forty martyrs, he exclaims, 'O sainted band! O sacred fraternity! O
invincible army! protectors of the human race, solace of the troubled,
hope of your petitioners, most powerful intercessors, light of the
world, bloom both intellectual and material of the Churches! The earth
has not hidden you from sight, heaven has received you. May its gates be
opened to you. The spectacle is worthy of angels and patriarchs,
prophets, and just.'
_Commentary._--How shall I not desire to see what the angels desire? St
Basil's brother, who is one with him in thought, St Gregory of Nyssa,
shares his sentiments.
St Gregory of Nyssa, from the 'Structure of Man.'
_Supplementary._--Just as in human fashion the image makers of the
powerful grasp the character of the form and set forth the royal dignity
with the insignia of the purple, and their handiwork is called image or
king, so is it with human nature. As it was created to rule over other
creations, it was made as an animated type or image, partaking of the
original in dignity and name.
The same, Fifth Chapter.
The divine beauty is not set forth either in form or comeliness of
design or colouring, but is contemplated in speechless blessedness,
according to its virtue. So do painters transfer human forms to canvas
through certain colours, laying on suitable and harmonious tints to the
picture, so as to transfer the beauty of the original to the likeness.
_Commentary._--You see that the divine beauty is not set forth in form
or shape, and on this account it cannot be conveyed by an image ({~GREEK
SMALL LETTER OMICRON U+03bf~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH DASIA
U+1f51~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA U+03ba~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON
U+03b5~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH PSILI U+1f30~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER KAPPA U+03ba~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON U+03bf~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER NU U+03bd~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH TONOS U+03af~}{~GREEK
SMALL LETTER XI U+03be~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON U+03b5~}{~GREEK
SMALL LETTER TAU U+03c4~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA U+03b1~}{~GREEK
SMALL LETTER IOTA U+03b9~}): it is the human form which is transferred
to canvas by the artist's brush. If, therefore, the Son of God became
man, taking the form of a servant, and appearing in man's nature, a
perfect man, why should His image not be made? If, in common parlance,
the king's image is called the king, and the honour shown to the image
redounds to the original, as holy Basil says, why should the image not
be honoured and worshipped, not as God, but as the image of God
Incarnate?
The same, from his Sermon at Constantinople on the Godhead of the Son
and of the Spirit, and on Abraham.
Then the father proceeds to bind his son. I have often seen paintings of
this touching scene, and could not look at it with dry eyes, art setting
it forth so vividly. Isaac is lying before the altar, his legs bound,
his hands tied behind his back. The father approaching the victim,
clasping his hair with the left hand, stoops over the face so piteously
turned towards him, and holds in his right hand the sword, ready to
strike. Already the point of the sword is on the body when the divine
voice is heard, forbidding the consummation.
Leo,[12] Bishop of Neapolis in Cyprus. From his book against the Jews,
on the Adoration of the Cross, and the Statues of the Saints, and on
Relics.
If you, O Jew, reproach me saying that I adore the wood of the Cross as
God, why do you not reproach Jacob, who worshipped on the point of his
staff ({~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH PSILI U+1f10~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER PI U+03c0~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH VARIA U+1f76~} {~GREEK
SMALL LETTER TAU U+03c4~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH TONOS
U+03cc~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI AND OXIA U+1f04~}{~GREEK
SMALL LETTER KAPPA U+03ba~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO U+03c1~}{~GREEK
SMALL LETTER OMICRON U+03bf~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU U+03bd~} {~GREEK
SMALL LETTER TAU U+03c4~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH PERISPOMENI
U+1fc6~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA U+03c2~} {~GREEK SMALL LETTER
RHO U+03c1~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH DASIA U+1f01~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER BETA U+03b2~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA U+03b4~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER OMICRON U+03bf~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON U+03c5~})? Now it is
evident that he was not worshipping wood. So with us; we are worshipping
Christ through the Cross, not the wood of the Cross.
_Commentary._--If we adore the Cross, made of whatever wood it may be,
how shall we not adore the image of the Crucified?
From the same.
Abraham worshipped the impious men who sold him the cave, and bent his
knee to the ground, yet did not worship them as gods. Jacob praised
Pharao, an impious idolator, yet not as God, and he fell down at the
feet of Esau, yet did not worship him as God. And again, How does God
order us to worship the earth and mountains? 'Exalt the Lord your God
and worship Him upon His holy mountain, and adore His footstool,' that
is, the earth. For heaven is My throne, He says, and the earth My
footstool. How was it that Moses worshipped Jothor, an idolator, and
Daniel, Nabuchodonosor? How can you reproach me because I honour those
who honour God and show Him service? Tell me, is it not fitting to
worship the saints, rather than to throw stones at them as you do? Is it
not right to worship them, rather than to attack them, and to fling your
benefactors into the mire? If you loved God, you would be ready to
honour His servants also. And if the bones of the just are unclean, why
were the bones of Jacob and Joseph brought with all honour from Egypt?
How was it that a dead man arose again on touching the bones of Eliseus?
If God works wonders through bones, it is evident that He can work them
through images, and stones, and many other things, as in the case of
Eliseus, who gave his staff to his servant, saying, 'With this go and
raise from the dead the son of the Sunamitess.' With his staff Moses
chastised Pharao, parted the waters, struck the rock, and drew forth the
stream. And Solomon said, 'Blessed is the wood by which justice cometh.'
Eliseus took iron out of the Jordan with a piece of wood. And again, the
wood is the wood of life, and the wood of Sabec, that is, of remission.
Moses humbled the serpent with wood and saved the people. The blossoming
rod in the tabernacle confirmed the priesthood of Aaron. Perhaps, O Jew,
you will tell me that God prescribed to Moses beforehand all the things
of the testimony in the tabernacle. Now, I say to you that Solomon made
a great variety of things in the temple in carvings and sculpture, which
God had not ordered him to do. Nor did the tabernacle of the testimony
contain them, nor the temple which God showed to Ezechiel, nor was
Solomon to be blamed in this. He had had these sculptured images made
for the glory of God as we do. You, too, had many and varied images and
signs in the Old Testament to serve as a reminder of God, if you had not
lost them through ingratitude. For instance, the rod of Moses, the
tablets of the law, the burning bush, the rock giving forth water, the
ark containing the manna, the altar set on fire from above ({~GREEK
SMALL LETTER PI U+03c0~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON U+03c5~}{~GREEK
SMALL LETTER RHO U+03c1~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON U+03b5~}{~GREEK
SMALL LETTER NU U+03bd~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA U+03b8~}{~GREEK SMALL
LETTER EPSILON U+03b5~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON U+03bf~}{~GREEK
SMALL LETTER NU U+03bd~}), the lamina bearing the divine name, the
ephod, the tabernacle overshadowed by God. If you had prepared all these
things by day and by night, saying, 'Glory be to Thee, O Almighty God,
who hast done wonders in Israel through all these things'; if through
all these ordinances of the law, carried out of old, you had fallen on
your knees to adore God, you would see that worship is given to Him by
images.
And further on:--
He who truly loves a friend or the king, and especially his benefactor,
if he sees that benefactor's son, or his staff, or his chair, or his
crown, or his house, or his servant, he holds them fast in his embrace,
and if he honours his benefactor, the king, how much more God. Again I
repeat it, would that you had made images according to the law of Moses
and the prophets, and that day by day you had worshipped the God of
images. Whenever, then, you see Christians adoring the Cross, know that
they are adoring the Crucified Christ, not the mere wood.[13] If,
indeed, they honoured wood as wood, they would be bound to worship trees
of whatever kind, as you, O Israel, worshipped them of old, saying to
the tree and to the stone, 'Thou art my God and didst bring me forth.'
We do not speak either to the Cross or to the representations of the
saints in this way. They are not our gods, but books which lie open and
are venerated in churches in order to remind us of God and to lead us to
worship Him. He who honours the martyr honours God, to whom the martyr
bore testimony. He who worships the apostle of Christ worships Him who
sent the apostle. He who falls at the feet of Christ's mother most
certainly shows honour to her Son. There is no God but one, He who is
known and adored in the Trinity.
_Commentary._--Who is the faithful interpreter of blessed
Epiphanius--Leontius, whose teaching adorned the island of Cyprus, or
those who spoke according to their own conceits? Listen to the testimony
of Severianus, Bishop of the Gabali.
Severianus, Bishop of the Gabali, on the Dedication of the Cross.
How was it that the image of the enemy gave life to our progenitors? ...
How was it that the image of the serpent worked salvation to the people
in distress? Would it not have been more reasonable to say, 'If any of
you be bitten, let him look up to heaven, to God, and he shall be saved,
or let him look towards the tabernacle of God'? Passing over this, he
set up the image of the Cross alone. Why did Moses do this, who said to
the people, 'Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the
likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath,
nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth'? However,
why do I speak to unworthy people? Tell me, devout servant of God, will
you do what is forbidden, and disregard what you are told to do? He who
said, 'Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing,' condemned the
golden calf, and you make a brazen serpent, and this not secretly, but
most openly, so that it is known to all. Moses answers, I laid down that
commandment in order to root out impiety, and to withdraw the people
from all apostasy and idolatry; now, I have the serpent cast for a good
purpose--as a figure of the truth. And just as I have put up a
tabernacle, and everything in it, and cherubim, the likeness of the
invisible powers, over the holy of holies, as a sign and figure of the
future, so I have set up a serpent for the salvation of the people, to
serve as a preliminary to the image of the Cross, and the redemption
contained in it. As a confirmation of this, listen to the Lord saying,
'As Moses exalted the serpent in the desert, so must you exalt the Son
of Man, that every one believing in Him may not be lost, but may have
eternal life.'
_Commentary._--Notice that His commandment not to make any graven thing
was given to draw the people from idolatry, to which they were prone,
and that the brazen serpent was an image of our Lord's suffering.
Listen to what I am going to say as a proof that images are no new
invention. It is an ancient practice well known to the best and foremost
of the fathers. Elladios, the disciple of blessed Basil and his
successor, says in his Life of Basil that the holy man was standing by
the image of Our Lady, on which was painted also the likeness of
Mercurius, the renowned martyr. He was standing by it asking for the
removal of the impious apostate Julian, and he received this revelation
from the statue. He saw the martyr vanish for a time, and then reappear,
holding a bloody spear.
Taken word for word from the Life of St John Chrysostom.
Blessed John loved the epistles of St Paul exceedingly. ... He had an
image of the apostle in a place where he was wont to retire now and then
on account of his physical weakness, for he outdid nature in watchings
and vigils. As he read through St Paul's epistles, he had the image
before him, and spoke to the apostle as if he had been present, praising
him, and directing all his thoughts to him. ...
When Proclus had finished speaking, gazing intently at the image of the
apostle, and recognising the likeness to the man he had seen, saluting
John, he said, pointing to the image: 'Forgive me, father; the man I saw
talking to you is very like this statue. In fact, I should say he is the
same.'
In the life of St Eupraxia we are told that her Superior showed her the
likeness of our Lord.
We read in the life of St Mary of Egypt that she prayed before the
statue of Our Lady and besought her intercession, and so obtained leave
to enter the Church.[14]
In all the past array of Christian priests and kings, wise and pious,
conspicuous by teaching and example, in so many councils of holy and
inspired fathers, how is it that no one has pointed out these things? We
are not advocating a new faith. The law shall come out of Sion, the Holy
Ghost said prophetically, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. We do
not advocate one thing at one time, and another at another, nor that the
faith should become a laughing-stock to those outside. We will not allow
the king's commands to overturn the tradition handed down from the
fathers. It is not for pious kings to overturn ecclesiastical
boundaries. These are not patristic ways. Things done by force are
impositions, and do not carry persuasion. A proof of this was given in
the 2nd Council of Ephesus, when a decree, which has never been
recognised as valid, was enforced by the emperor's hand, and blessed
Flavian was put to death. Councils do not belong to kings, as the Lord
says: 'Wherever one or two are gathered together in My name, there I am
in the midst of them.' Christ did not give to kings the power to bind
and to loose, but to the apostles, and to their successors and pastors
and teachers. 'If an angel were to teach you a different gospel to what
you have received,' St Paul says--but we will be silent about what
follows, in the hope of their conversion. And if we find the warning
disregarded, which may God avert, we will then add the rest. Let us hope
it will not be needed.
If any one should enter a house and should see on the walls a history in
painting of Moses and Aaron, perchance he might ask about the people who
are walking across the sea as if it were dry land. 'Who are they?' he
asks. What would you say? 'Are they not the sons of Israel?' 'Who is
dividing the sea with his rod?' Would you not say 'Moses'? So if a man
makes an image of Christ crucified, and you are asked who he is, you
reply, 'It is Christ our Lord, who became incarnate for us.' Yes, O
Lord, we adore all that belongs to Thee, and we take to our hearts Thy
Godhead, Thy power and goodness, Thy mercy towards us, Thy condescension
and Thy Incarnation. And as men fear touching red-hot iron, not because
of the iron but because of the heat, so do we worship Thy flesh, not for
the nature of flesh, but through the Godhead united to that flesh
according to substance. We worship Thy sufferings. Who has ever known
death worshipped, or suffering venerated? Yet we truly worship the
physical death of our God and His saving sufferings. We adore Thy image
and all that is Thine; Thy servants, Thy friends, and most of all Thy
Mother, the Mother of God.
We beseech, therefore, the people of God, the faithful flock, to hold
fast to the ecclesiastical traditions. The gradual taking away of what
has been handed down to us would be undermining the foundation stones,
and would in no short time overthrow the whole structure. May we prove
steadfast, unflinching, immovable, founded on the solid Rock which is
Christ, to whom be praise, glory, and worship, with the Father and the
Holy Ghost, now and for ever. Amen.