their being made objects of worship; and Gregory the Great allowed their use only as means of instruction.1
In A. D. 726 the Emperor Leo III. issued an ordinance forbid- ding the use of images in churches as heathenish and heretical. To support his action a council was called, which met in Constan- tinople A. D. 754, and which gave ecclesiastical sanction to this condemnation. In A. D. 787, however, the- Empress Irene, under Roman influence, called a council, which Romanists of the Italian school consider ecumenical, at Nice, by which image- worship was fully sanctioned. This Council first met in Constantinople, but there the opposition to the use of images was so strong that it was disbanded and called to meet the following year at Nice. Here the face of things had changed ; enemies had been converted ; op- ponents became advocates ; even Gregory of Neo-Caesarea, who had been a zealous supporter of the policy of Leo III. and of his son Constantine Copronymus, was brought to say, " Si omnes consen- tiunt, ego non dissentio." Few could withstand the promises and threats of those in power, and the cogency of the argument for image worship drawn from the numerous miracles adduced in fa- vour of their worship. This Council, therefore, declared the pre- vious Council, called by Leo III., heretical, and ordained the wor- ship of pictures in the churches ; not indeed with Xarpcta, or the
reverence due to God, but with a(Tiraarfxbs /cat TLp.r)TLKrj TrpovKX>vq<n<i
(with salutations and reverent prostrations). The Council an- nounced the principle on which image-worship, whether among the heathen or Christians, has generally been defended, i. e., that the worship paid the image terminates on the object which it rep- resents. ' H TTJS CUCOVOS TLflTj iTTL TO TTpOTOTVTTOV SiajScuVci KCU 6 TTpO(TKVV(tiV
tt)v etKOva trpo(TKVV€L iv airrQ rov iyypa<f>op.£vov rqv viroaraaiv.
The decisions of this Council, although sanctioned by the Pope, gave offence to the Western Churches. The Emperor Charle- magne not only caused a book to be written (entitled " Libri Carolini ") to refute the doctrines inculcated, but also summoned a council to meet at Frankfort on the Main A. D. 794, at which delegates from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and even two le- gates from the Bishop of Rome, were present ; where the decrees of the so-called General Council of Nice were " rejected," " de- spised^" and " condemned." All worshipping of pictures and im- ages was forbidden, but their presence in the churches for instruc- tion and ornament was allowed.
The friends of image-worship, however, rapidly gained the as
1 See Guericke, Kirchengeschichte, n. iii. 2, § 77, 6th edit. Leipzig, 1846, vol. i. p. 350
298 PART m. Ch. XIX. — THE LAW.
cendancy, so that Thomas Aquinas, one of the best as well as the greatest of the Romish theologians in the thirteenth century, held the extreme doctrine on this subject. He taught that images were to be used in the churches for three purposes, first, for the instruction of the masses who could not read ; secondly, that the mystery of the incarnation and the examples of the saints may be the better remembered ; and thirdly, that pious feelings may be excited, as men are more easily moved by what they see than by what they hear. He taught that to the image in itself and for itself no reverence is due, but that if it represents Christ, the rever- ence due to Christ is due to the image. " Sic ergo dicendum est, quod imagini Christi in quantum est res quaedam (puta lignum vel pictum) nulla reverentia exhibetur ; quia reverentia nonnisi rationali naturae debetur. Relinquitur ergo quod exhibeatur ei reverentia solum, in quantum est imago : et sic sequitur, quod eadem reverentia exhibeatur imagini Christi et ipsi Christo. <3um ergo Christus adoretur adoratione latriae, consequens est, quod ejus imago sit adoratione latriae adoranda." l
Tridentine Doctrine.
The Council of Trent acted with reference to the worship of images with its usual caution. It decreed that to the images of Christ and the saints " due reverence " should be paid, without defining what that reverence is. The council decided : " Imagines porro Christi, Deiparae Virginis, et aliorum sanctorum, in templis praesertim habendas, et retinendas ; eisque debitum honorem, et venerationem impertiendam ; non quod credatur inesse aliqua in eis divinitas, vel virtus, propter quam sint colendae ; vel quod ab eis sit aliquid petendum ; vel quod fiducia in imaginibus sit Agenda ; veluti olim fiebat a gentibus, quae in idolis spem suam collocabant ; sed quoniam honos, qui eis exhibetur ref ertur ad pro- totypa, quae illae representant : ita ut per imagines, quas osculamur, et coram quibus caput aperimus, et procumbimus, Christum adore- mus ; et sanctos, quorum illae similitudinem gerunt, veneremur."
In the same session it was decreed concerning relics ; " Sanc- torum quoque martyrum, et aliorum cum Christo viventium saneta corpora, quae viva membra fuerunt Christi, et templum Spiritus Sancti, ab ipso ad aeternam vitam suseitanda, et glorificanda, a fidelibus veneranda esse ; per quae multa beneficia a Deo hominibus praestantur : ita ut affirmantes, sanctorum reliquiis venerationem, atque honorem non deberi ; vel eas, aliaque sacra jnonumenta a
1 Summa, in. quaest, xxv. art 3, edit. Cologne, 1640, p. 53 of fourth, set.