known to the Apostles. This of course implies the rejection of the doctrine of tradition. That doctrine is, that a plenary revela- tion of all Christian doctrine was made by Christ to the Apostles and by them communicated to the Church, partly in their writings and partly by oral instructions. To prove that any doctrine is of divine authority, it must be proved that it was taught by the Apostles, and to prove that they taught it, it must be proved that it has been always and everywhere held by the Church. But ac- cording to Gerson the Church of to-day may hold what the Apos- tles never held, and even the very reverse of what was held by them and by the Church for ages to be true. He teaches that the Church before his time taught that the Virgin Mary, in common with all other members of the human race, was born with the infection of original sin ; but that the Church of his day, under the inspiration of the Spirit, believed in her immaculate conception. This resolves tradition into, or rather substitutes for it, the sensus communis eccleeice of any given time. It has al- ready been shown l that Moehler in his " Symbolik " teaches sub- stantially the same doctrine.
This question was undecided at the time of the meeting of the Council of Trent, and gave the fathers there assembled a great deal of trouble. The Dominicans and Franciscans, of nearly equal influence in the Council, each urged that their peculiar views should be sanctioned. The legates in their perplexity referred to Rome for instructions, and were directed for fear of schism to prevent any further controversy on the subject, and so to frame the decision as to satisfy both parties. This could only be done by leaving the question undecided. This was substantially the course which the Council adopted. After affirming that all man- kind sinned in Adam and derive from him a corrupt nature, it adds : " Declarat tamen haec ipsa Sancta Synodus, non esse suae intentionis comprehendere in hoc decreto, ubi de peccato originali agitur, beatam, et immaculatam Viriginem Mariam, Dei gene- tricem ; sed observandas esse constitutiones felicis recordationis Xysti papae IV., sub poenis in eis constitutionibus contentis, quas innovat.2 This last clause refers to the Bull of Sixtus IV., issued in 1483, threatening both parties in this controversy with the pains of excommunication if either pronounced the other guilty of heresy or mortal sin.
i Vol. i. p. 114.
2 This is from Streitwolf, Libri Symbolici, Gottingen, 1846, p. 20. A footnote says, " Totum hanc periodum, ■ Declarat-itmovat,' omnes fere editiones ante Romanas omittunt." vou in. 19
290 PART HI. Ch. XIX. — THE LAW.
The controversy went on, therefore, after the Council of Trent very much as it had done before, until the present Pope, himself a devoted worshipper of the Virgin, announced his purpose to have the immaculate conception of the Mother of our Lord de- clared. This purpose he carried into effect, and on the eighth of December, 1854, he went in great pomp to St. Peter's in Rome, and pronounced the decree that the " Virgin Mary, from the first moment of conception by the special grace of almighty God in view of the merits of Christ, was preserved from all stain of original sin." She was thus placed, as to complete sinlessness, on an equality with her adorable Son, Jesus Christ, whose place she occupies in the confidence and love of so large a part of the Roman Catholic world.
§ 6. The Second Commandment.
The two fundamental principles of the religion of the Bible are first, that there is one only the living and true God, the maker of heaven and earth, who has revealed Himself under the name Jehovah ; secondly, that this God is a Spirit, and, therefore, inca- pable of being conceived of or represented under a visible form. The first commandment, therefore, forbids the worship of any other being than Jehovah ; and the second, the worship of any visible object whatever. This includes the prohibition, not only of inward homage, but of all external acts which are the natural or conventional expression of such inward reverence.
That the second commandment does not forbid pictorial or sculp- tured representations of ideal or visible objects, is plain because the whole command has reference to religious worship, and be- cause Moses, at the command of God himself, made many such images and representations. The curtains of the tabernacle and especially the veil separating between the Holy and Most Holy places, were adorned with embroidered figures representing cher- ubim ; cherubim overshadowed the Ark of the Covenant with their wings ; the Golden Candlestick was in the form of a tree " with branches, knops, and flowers ; " the hem of the high priest's robe was adorned with alternate bells and pomegranates. When Solomon built the temple, " he carved all the walls of the house round about with carved figures of cherubim, and palm-trees, and open flowers, within and without." (1 Kings vi. 29.) The " molten sea " stood upon twelve oxen. Of this house thus adorned God said, " I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put my name there forever ; and mine eyes and mine heart shall