As a regidar doctrine, the invocation of saints is taught iu a canon Touching the Invocation, Veneration, and on Relics of Saints and sacred rmarjes, issued by the Council of Trent in its 25th session. It reads as follows : " The holy synod enjoins on all bishops, and others sus- taining the office and charge of teaching, that, accord- ing to the usage of tlie Catholic and Apostolic Church, received from the primitive times (!) of the Christian religion, and according to the consent of the lioly fa- thers, and to the decrees of sacred councils, they espe- cially instruct the faithful diligently touching the inter- cession and invocation of saints, the honor paid to rel- ics, and the lawful use of images : teaching them that the saints, who reign together with Christ, offer ud their own prayers to God for men; that it is good and useful
INVOCATION OF SAINTS 639
lONA
suppliantly to invoke them, and to resort to their pray- 1 ers, aid, and help for obtaining benefits from God, through his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who alone is our Re- deemer and Saviour; but that they think impiously who deny that the saints, who enjoy eternal happiness in heaven, are to be invoked ; or who assert either that they do not pray for men, or that the invocation of them to pray for each of us even iu jiarticular is idola- try ; or that it is repugnant to the Word of God, and is opposed to the liouor of the one 7nednitor between God and men, Jesus Christ; or that it is foolish to supplicate, orally or inwardly, those who reign in heaven. Also, that the holy bodies of holy martyrs, and of others now living with Christ, which were the living members of Christ, and the temple of the Holy Ghost, and which are by liim to be raised unto eternal life, and to be glorified, are to be venerated by the faithful; through which [ bodies] many benefits are bestowed by God on men ; so that they who affirm that veneration and honor are not due to the relics of saints ; or that these, and other sacred monuments, are uselessly honored by the faith- ful ; and that the places dedicated to the memories of the saints are vainly visited for the purpose of obtaining their aid, are wholly to be condemned, as the Church has already long since condemned, and doth now also condemn them. Moreover, that the images of Christ, of the Virgin Mother of God, and of the other saints, are to be had and retained particularly in temples, and that due honor and veneration are to be awarded them; not that any divinity or virtue is believed to be in them, on account of which they are to be worshipped ; or that anything is to be asked of them ; or that confidence is to be reposed in images, as was of old done by the Gen- tiles, who placed their hope in idols ; but because the honor Avhich is sho^\ni unto them is referred to the pro- totji^cs which they represent; in such wise that by the images which we kiss, and before which we uncover tlie head and prostrate ourselves, we adore Christ and ven- erate the saints, whose similitude they bear. And this, by the decrees of councils, and especially of the second synod of Niciea, has been ordained against the oppo- nents of images. And the bishops shall carefully teach this : that, by means of the histories of the mysteries of our redemption, depicted by paintings or other repre- sentations, the people are instructed, and strengthened in remembering and continually reflecting on the arti- cles of faith ; as also that great profit is derived from all sacred images, not only because the people are therebj^ admonished of the benefits and gifts which have been bestowed upon them by Christ, but also because the miracles of God through the means of the saints, and their salutary example, are set before the eyes of the faithful; that so for these things they may give God thanks ; may order their own life and manners in imi- tation of the saints ; and may be excited to adore and love God, and to cultivate piety. But if any one shall teach or think contrary to these decrees, let him be anathema."'
Most ridiciUous is the defence which Ffoulkes (Chris- temlom's Birisions, i, § 86) advances in behalf of this species of idolatry, while yet in communion with the Eomish Church ; and his friends of the High-Church party of England and oiu: own countrj- may do well to read it before they carry much farther the laughable af- fectations which they term '■ devotions." A\'hile defend- ing the gross forgeries of Pius V in the missal and bre- viary of the Church, sometimes designated liy Romanists as " revisions," on the invocation of saints and of Mary, he says, " They were but the expressions of what had been the devotional feelings of the whole Church. . . . His Holy Spirit commmiing with their spirits, and no other agent or instrument, had taught them that the saints reigning with Christ, and his blessed Mother es- pecially, could and would intercede for them did tjiey ask their prayers; and so one asked, and had his peti- tions granted, and asked again. Then he breathed the secret (!) of his success to liis brother or friend, till he in