' Johannes Damascenus flourished during the first half of the eighth century, and died at the monastery of St Saba in a.d. 756. He wrote extensively on philosophical and religious questions, and his works, exclusive of manuscripts still extant, fill two folio volumes. On account of his oratorical powers, he was named Chrysorrhoas ; but, according to Bayle, he called himself Mansour, " the redeemed," while his opponents termed him Manser, "the bastard." — Ed.
ALLEGED UNITY OF THE CHURCH OF ROME. 237
shipper of images and writer of falsehood, anathema; to Mansour, contumelious against Christ and traitor to the empire, anathema ; to Mansour, a teacher of impiety and perverse interpreter of Scripture, anathema," Synod. Nic. ii. Act. 6. For that it was Johaimes Damas- cenus that they intended, the Nicene fathers sufficiently manifest in the answer following, read by Epiphanius the deacon. And this reward did he meet withal, from the seventh council at Constantinople, for his pains in asserting the veneration of images; although he did not, in that particular, pervert the Scripture as some of you do, but laid the whole weight of his opinion on tradition ; wherein he is followed by Vasquez among yourselves. Moreover, the western clmrches, in a great council at Frankfort in Germany, utterly condemned the Nicene determination, which in your Tridentine convention you ap- prove and ratify, anno 79 -i. It was also condemned here by the church of England, and the doctrine of it fully confuted by Albinus, Hoveden Annal. anno 791. Never was any heresy more publicly and solemnly condemned than this, whereby your church is fallen from its pristine purity. But hereof more afterward.
It were no difficult matter to proceed unto all the chief ways whereby your church is fallen, and to manifest that they have been all publicly disclaimed and condemned by the better and sounder part of professors; but the instances insisted on may, I hope, prove sufficient for your satisfaction. I shall therefore proceed to consider what you offer unto the remaining principles which I conceived to animate the whole discourse of your " Fiat Lux."
CHAPTER V.
Other principles of "Fiat Lux" re-examined — Things not at quiet in religion, before reformation of the first reformers — Departure from Rome no cause of divisions — Returnal unto Eome no means of union.
You proceed unto the fourth assertion gathered out of your " Fiat," which you thus lay down : " ' It is,' say you, ' frequently pleaded by our author that all things, as to religion, were ever quiet and in peace before the Protestants' relinquishment of the Roman see.' That ' ever' is 3^our own addition, but let it pass; what say you hereunto? This principle you pretend is drawn out of ' Fiat Lux,' not because it is there, but only to open a door to yourself to expatiate into some wide general discourse about the many wars, distractions, altercations, that have been aforetime up and down in the world, in some several ages of Christianity. And you therefore say, it is frequently pleaded by me, because indeed I never spake one word of it, and it is in truth a false and fond assertion ; though neither you nor I can deny that
238 A VINDICATION OF THE ANIMADVERSIONS ON FIAT LUX.
siicli as keep unity of faith with the church can never, so long as they hold it, fall out upon that account." Sir, I take you to be the author of " Fiat Lux;" and if you are so, I cannot but think you were asleep when you talked at this rate. " The assertion is false and fond ; you speak not one word of it ! " Pray, sir, take a little ad- vice of your son, " Fiat," not to talk on this manner; and you will wonder yourself how you came to swallow so much confidence as in the face of the world to vent such things as these. He tells us from you, pp. 234-236, chap, iv., second edition, that "After the conversion of this land by the children of blessed St Bene't, notwithstanding the interposition of the Norman conquest, that all men lived peace- ably together, without any the least disturbance upon the account of religion, until the end of King Henry VIII.'s reign, about five hundred years after the conquest." See also what in general you discourse of all places to this purpose, ]op. 221, 222. And, p. 227, you do in express terms lay down the position which here you so exclaim against as " false and fond;" but you may make as bold with it as you please, for it is your own. " Never had this land," say you, " for so many hundred years as it was Catholic, upon the account of religion any disturbance at all; whereas, after the exile of the Ca- tholic belief in our land, from the period of King Henry VIII/s reign to these days, we have been in actual disquiet, or at least in fears." " Estne hsec tunica filii tui?" Are not these your Avords? Doth not your son " Fiat " wear this livery ? And do you not speak to this purpose in twenty other places? Is it not one of the main suppositions you proceed upon in your whole discourse? You do well now, indeed, to acknowledge that what you sj^ake was " fond and false," and you might do as much for the most that you have written in that whole discourse ; but now openly to deny what you have as- serted, and that in so many places, that is not so well done of you. There are, sir, many ways to free yourself from that damage you feel or fear from the " Animadversions." When any thing is charged on you or proved against you which you are not able to defend, you may ingenuously acknowledge your mistake, and that without any dishonour to you at all: good men have done so; so may you or I when we have just occasion. It is none of your tenets that you are all of you infallible, or that your personrJ mistakes or miscarriages will prejudice your cause. Or you might pass it by in silence, as you have done with the things of the most importance in the " Ani- madversions;" and so keep up your reputation that you could reply to them if you would, or were free from fiies. And we know n&AX&?j avo'/ipisic, r] ff/wcrji rvyy^dvu, as Menandcr speaks; — "Silence is with many the best answer." Or you might attempt to disprove or answer, as the case requires. But this that you have fixed upon, of denying your own words, is the very worst course that you could have chosen,