fidelibus inutiliter honorari ; atque eorum opis impetrandse causa sanctorum memorias frustra frequentari ; omuino damnandos esse ; prout jampridem eos damnavit, et nunc etiam damnat ecclesia." J On relic-worship the Roman Catechism, says, " Cui fidem non faciant et honoris, qui Sanctis debetur, et patrocinii, quod nostri suscipiunt, mirabiles effectae res ad eorum sepulcra, et oculis, et manibus membrisque omnibus captis, in pristinum statum restitu- tis, mortuis ad vitam revocatis, ex oorporibus hominum ejectis demoniis ? quae non audisse, ut multi, non legisse, ut plurimi gravissimi viri, sed vidisse, testes locupletissimi sancti Ambrosius et Augustinus litteris prodiderunt. Quid multa ? si vestes, su- daria, si umbra sanctorum, priusquam e vita migrarent, depulit morbos, viresque restituit, quis tandem negare audeat, Deum per sacros cineres, ossa, ceterasque sanctorum reliquias eadem mirabili- ter efficere ? Deelaravit id cadaver illud, quod forte illatum in sepulcrum Elisei, ejus tacto corpore, subito revixit." 2
Bellarmin.
The whole of the Liber Secundus of Bellarmin's Disputation " De Ecclesia Triumphante " in the seoond volume of his works, is devoted to the discussion of the question of the worship of the relics and images of the saints. As to the worship of images he says there are three opinions among Romanists themselves : " iPrima, quod imago non sit ullo modo in se colenda, sed solum coram imagine colendum exemplar." " Secunda opinio est, quod idem honor debeatur imagini ut exemplari, et proinde Christi imago sit adoranda cultu latriae, Beatae Marias cultu hyperduliae, sanctorum aliorum, cultu duliae." "Tertia opinio versatur in medio, estque eorum, qui dicunt, ipsas imagines in se, et proprie honorari debere, sed honore minori, quam ipsum exemplar, et proinde nullam imaginem adorandam esse cultu latriae." 3 His own opinion is given in the following propositions : " Prima sen- tentia, sive propositio. Imagines Christi, et sanctorum venerandae sunt, non solum per accidens, vel improprie, sed etiam per se pro- prie, ita ut ipsae terminent venerationem ut in se considerantur, et non solum ut vicem gerunt exemplaris." " Secunda propositio. Quantum ad modum loquendi praBsertim in concione ad populum, non est dicendum imagines ullas adorari debere latria, sed e con- trario non debere sic adorari." " Tertia propositio. Si de re
* Seas, xxv.; Streitwolf, Libri Symbolici, Gbttingen, 1846, vol. i. pp. »8, 94. a m. ii. 8 (15, xxx., xxxi.); Streitwolf, vol. i. p. 482.
« De Ecclesia Triumphante, lib. il, De Imaginibtu Sanctorum, cap. xx. ; Disputationu, Pars 1608, vol. ii. pp. 801, 802.
300 PART III. Ch. XIX. — THE LAW.
ipsa agatur, admitti potest, imagines posse coli improprie, vel per accidens, eodem genere cultus, quo exemplar ipsum colitur." " Quarta propositio. Imago per se, et proprie non est adoranda eodem cultu, quo ipsum exemplar, et proinde nulla imago est adoranda cultu latriae per se, et proprie." " Quinta conclusio, Cultus, qui per se, proprie debetur imaginibus, est cultus quidam imperfectus, qui analogice et reductive pertinet ad speciem ejus cultus, qui debetur exemplari." * •
Relics,
Bellarmin in his defence of the " cultus reliquiarum " begins with an attempted refutation of Calvin's five arguments against such worship. He then presents his own in favour of it.2 They are such as these : First, from Scriptural examples : (a.) Moses carried the bones " sancti Josephi " with him when he left Egypt ; (5.) God honoured the remains of Moses by burying them with his own hands ; (c.) A dead man was restored to life by contact with the bones of Elisha (2 Kings xiii. 21) ; (d.) Isaiah predicted that the sepulchre of the Messiah should be glorious. The Vul- gate renders Isaiah xi. 10, " Et erit sepulcrum ejus gloriosum ; " which Bellarmin understands as foretelling " ut sepulcrum Domini, ab omnibus honoraretur." And adds, " Ex quo refeUitur Lutheri blasphemia, qui in libro de abolenda Missa dicit, Deo non majo- rem curam esse de sepulcro Domini, quam de bobus. " (e.) The woman mentioned in the Gospel was healed by touching Christ's garment ; the sick, according to Acts v. 15, were placed in the streets " that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might over- shadow some of them " ; again, in Acts xix. 11, 12, it is said : " God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul : so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them." If, says Bellarmin, Christ were now on earth, and we should kiss his garment, the Protestants would call us idolaters.
His second argument is from the decisions of councils ; the third from the testimony of the fathers ; the fourth and fifth from the miracles wrought by and in the relics of the saints, of which he cites numerous examples ; the sixth from the miraculous discovery of the remains of the saints, w Si enim Deo cultus re- liquiarum non placeret, cur ipse servis suis corpora sanctorum, quae latebant, ostenderet ? " the seventh, from the translation of relics from one place to another. He also argues from the
i Ut supra, cap. xxi.-xxv. pp. 802-809. a Ut supra, cap. iii. pp. 746-753.