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as was the latter part of this decision, Gregory, at least, speaks fully and expressly against any adoration either of Pictures or of Images.

"And yet they were no where at the first worshipped; but shortly after, they began to be worshipped of the ignorant sort of men, as appeareth by the epistle that Gregory, the first of that name, Bishop of Rome, did write to Serenus, Bishop of Marseilles. Of which two Bishops, Serenus, for Idolatry committed to Images, brake them, and burned them Gregory, although he thought it tolerable to let them stand, yet he judged it abominable that they should be worshipped; and thought, as is now alleged, that the worshipping of them might be stayed, by teaching of God's words; according as he exhorteth Serenus to teach the people, as in the same epistle appeareth. But whether Gregory's opinion, or Serenus' judgment were better herein, consider ye, I pray you; for experience, by and by, confuteth Gregory's opinion. For, notwithstanding Gregory's writing, and the preaching of others, Images being once publicly set up in the temples and churches, simple men and women shortly after fell on heaps to worshipping of them, and at the last, the learned were also carried away with the public error, as with a violent stream or flood; and at the Second Council of Nicene, the Bishops and Clergy decreed that Images should be worshipped: and so, by occasion of these stumblingblocks, not only the unlearned and simple, but the learned and wise; not the people only, but the Bishops; not the sheep, but also the shepherds themselves-who should have been guides in the right way, and lights to shine in darkness-being blinded by the bewitching of Images, as blind guides of the blind, fell both into the pit of damnable Idolatry. So that laity and Clergy, learned and unlearned, all ages, sects, and degrees of men, women, and children, of whole Christendom-an horrible and most dreadful thing to think-have been at once drowned in abominable Idolatry; of all other vices most detested of God, and most damnable to man; and that by the space of eight hundred years or more.

"Let us, therefore, of these latter days, learn this lesson of the experience of ancient antiquity, that idolatry cannot possibly be separated from images any long time; but that as an unseparable accident, or as a shadow followeth the body, when the sun shineth, so idolatry followeth and cleaveth to the public having of images in temples and churches. And, finally, as idolatry is to be abhorred and avoided, so are images,-which cannot be long without idolatry,-to be put away and destroyed.

"Yea, and furthermore the madness of all men, professing the religion of Christ, now by the space of a sort of hundred years, and yet even in our time, in so great light of the Gospel, very many running on heaps by sea and land, to the great loss of their time, expense, and waste of their goods, destitution of their wives, children, and families, and danger of their own bodies and lives, to Compostella, Rome, Jerusalem, and other far countries, to visit dumb and dead stocks and stones, doth sufficiently prove the proneness of man's corrupt nature to the seeking of idols once set up, and the worshipping of them. And thus, as well by the origin and nature of idols and images themselves, as by the proneness and inclination of man's corrupt nature to idolatry, it is evident that neither images, if they be publicly set up, can be separated, nor man, if they see images in temples and churches, can be staid and kept, from idolatry." (Hom. against Peril of Idolatry.)

Thus stood the question at the close of the sixth century, but, as might easily have been anticipated from the idolatry of the Massilians, the introduction of Images soon led to their adoration. This gross abuse was strenuously opposed by the Emperor Leo, the Isaurian; but as it still continued to increase, his son, Constantine, assembled a Council at Constantinople, in the year 754, which formally condemned and forbade it. The Council of Constantinople, though it agreed in its condemnation of Image Worship, both with the decision of Pope Gregory the Great, and with the yet more ancient decision of the Council of Elvira, was yet, on that very account, disowned as a legitimate Council, by the innovating successors of Gregory; and the cause of idolatry rapidly acquired such a degree of strength, that the second Council of Nice, which sat in the year 787, reversed the Decree of the Council of Constantinople, pronounced it to be an illegitimate Council, and ordained the adoration of images, in language which strikingly contrasts with the express prohibition of Pope Gregory. "I confess, and agree, and receive, and salute, and adore the unpolluted Image of our Lord Jesus Christ, our true God, and the holy Image of the Holy Mother of God, who bore him without conception of seed." Having thus wholly departed from her former self, the Church, speaking through the mouth of a General Council, had now decreed the orthodoxy and legality of Image Worship: but this Decree was not long suffered to remain undisputed, either in the West or in the East. In the year 794, Charlemagne as

sembled, at Frankfort, a Council of three hundred Bishops, who reversed the decision of the second Nicene Council, and who, with one voice, condemned the worship of Images.

Such was the solemn judgment of the West, and that of the East speedily followed it; for in the year 814, the Emperor Leo, imitating the conduct of Charlemagne, assembled another Council at Constantinople, which, like that of Frankfort, rescinded and abolished the Decrees of the second Nicene Council, relative to the worship of Images. Thus, as both the East and the West had concurred in establishing Image Worship, through the medium of the second Council of Nice; so did both the East and the West concur in condemning Image Worship, through the medium of the Councils of Frankfort and Constantinople. But we have not yet reached the end of this strange, eventful history of multiplied variations: we must prepare ourselves for yet additional changes of opinion, on the part of a professedly unchangeable and infallible Church. In the year 842, the Empress Theodora, during the minority of her son, convened yet another Council at Constantinople: and this assembly, differing entirely from its immediate predecessor, reinstated the Decrees of the second Nicene Council, and thus re-established Image Worship.

Meanwhile, the Church of the Western Patriarchate continued to maintain, that the second Nicene Council had erred in its decision; for in the year 824, Louis the Meek assembled a Council at Paris, which confirmed the Decrees of the Council of Frankfort, and which strictly prohibited the payment of any, even the smallest, religious worship to Images. The Church of the Eastern Patriarchate, however, subsequent to the year 842, persevered in declaring, that the decision of the second Nicene Council was an orthodox decision, and that Images ought to be devoutly worshipped by all good Christians. To establish this point, therefore, an additional Council was assembled in the year 879; and the Fathers of that Synod decreed the undoubted obligation of Image Worship, and confirmed and renewed the Decrees of the Second Council of Nice.

Such has been the multiplied variations of the Church, in regard to the single point of Image Worship; and yet, says the learned Bishop of Meaux, the Church which professes to declare and to teach nothing, save what she has received, never varies; but heresy, on the contrary, which began by innovation, never changes its nature.

PART II.

VIEW OF THE RELIGIOUS WORSHIP,

ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY,

AND

CEREMONIAL OBSERVANCES,

OF

THE CHURCH OF ROME.

"The worldly pomp and splendor of their worship, the multiplicity of their rites, their processions, their numerous lights, the tonsure of their Clergy, their lustral water, and sacerdotal vestments, with other institutions of human invention, appear to be merely childish, and scarcely to deserve serious regard; but they become of vast importance, when we consider that they are the offspring of principles and sentiments, which tend to frustrate the grace of God, and the salvation of souls."

"The Church of Rome knowing herself to be a foul, filthy, old, withered, harlot; understanding her lack of natural and true beauty, and great loathsomeness, which of herself, she hath; doth, after the custom of such harlots, paint herself, and deck, and attire herself, with gold, pearl, stone, and all kind of precious jewels, that the shining with the outward beauty and glory of them, may please the foolish phantasy of some lovers, and so entice them to spiritual fornication with her, who, if they saw her but in simple apparel, would abhor her, as the foulest and filthiest harlot that ever was seen."-(Hom. of Idolatry, part 3.)

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