this cause is put under our feet, that it may be trodden upon, not worshipped by us. Wherefore there is no

doubt, that there is no religion, wheresoever there is an image. For seeing religion consisteth of divine things, and nothing divine is to be found but in heavenly things; images therefore are void of religion; because nothing that is heavenly can be in that thing, which is made of earth."

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When Adrian the emperor had commanded that temples should be made in all cities without images, it was presently conceived, that he did prepare those temples for Christ as Ælius Lampridius noteth in the life of Alexander Severus. Which is an evident argument, that it was not the use of Christians in those days to have any images in their churches. And for keeping of pictures out of the church, the canon of the Eliberine or Illiberitane council, held in Spain about the time of Constantine the Great, is most plain: "It' is our mind, that pictures ought not to be in the Church, lest that which is worshipped or adored, should be painted on walls." Which hath so troubled the minds of our latter Romanists, that Melchior Canus sticketh not to charge the council "notm only with imprudency, but also with impiety," for making such a law as this. "The" Gentiles," saith St. Ambrose,

i Quare non est dubium, quin religio nulla sit, ubicunque simulacrum est. Nam si religio ex divinis rebus est; divini autem nihil est nisi in cœlestibus rebus carent ergo religione simulacra, quia nihil potest esse cœleste in ea re, quæ fit ex terra. Lactant. divin. institut. lib. 2. cap. 18.

Alexander imp. Christo templum facere voluit, eumque inter Deos recipere. Quod et Adrianus cogitasse fertur, qui templa in omnibus civitatibus sine simulacris jusserat fieri; quæ hodie idcirco quia non habent numina, dicuntur Adriani: i: quæ ille ad hoc parasse dicebatur; sed prohibitus est ab iis qui consulentes sacra, repererant omnes Christianos futuros si id optato evenisset, et templa reliqua deserenda. Lamprid. in Alexandro.

Placuit, picturas in ecclesia esse non debere; ne quod colitur aut adoratur, in parietibus depingatur. Concil. Eliber. cap. 36.

m Illa (lex) non imprudenter modo, verum etiam impie, a concilio Elibertino lata est de tollendis imaginibus. Canus, loc. theologic. lib. 5. cap. 4. conclus. 4. n Gentiles lignum adorant, quia Dei imaginem putant: sed invisibilis Dei imago non in eo est quod videtur, sed in eo utique quod non videtur. Ambros. in Psal. 118. Octonar. 10.

"worship wood, because they think it to be the image of God: but the image of the invisible God is not in that which is seen, but in that which is not seen." "God would not have himself worshipped in stones:" saith the same father in another place; and "the church knoweth no vain ideas and diverse figures of images, but knoweth the true substance of the Trinity." So St. Hierome: "We worship one image which is the image of the invisible and omnipotent God;" and St. Augustine: "In the first commandment, any similitude of God in the figments of men is forbidden. to be worshipped, not because God hath not an image, but because no image of him ought to be worshipped, but that which is the same thing that he is3, nor yet that for him, but with him." As for the representing of God in the similitude of a man: he resolveth that " it is utterly unlawful to erect any such image to God in a Christian church;" and touching the danger of images in general, and the practice of the Church in this matter, thus he writeth: the Gentiles" "wor

• Non vult se Deus in lapidibus coli. Ambros. ep. 31. ad Valentinian. imp. P Ecclesia inanes ideas et varias nescit simulacrorum figuras; sed veram novit Trinitatis substantiam. Id. de fuga sæculi. cap. 5.

4 Nos unum habemus virum, et unam veneramur imaginem, quæ est imago invisibilis et omnipotentis Dei. Hieronym. lib. 4. in Ezech. cap. 16.

In primo præcepto prohibetur coli aliqua in figmentis hominum Dei similitudo: non quia non habet imaginem Deus, sed quia nulla imago ejus coli debet nisi illa quæ hoc est quod ipse, nec ipsa pro illo, sed cum illo. Aug. epist. 55. ad Januar. cap. 11. op. tom. 2. pag. 135.

s Coloss. chap. 1. ver. 15. Hebr. chap. 1. ver. 3.

Tale simulacrum Deo nefas est Christiano in templo collocare. Aug. de Fide et Symbol. cap. 7.

u Hoc enim venerantur, quod ipsi ex auro argentoque fecerunt. Sed enim et nos pleraque instrumenta et vasa ex hujusmodi materia vel metallo habemus in usum celebrandorum sacramentorum ; quæ ipso ministerio consecrata sancta dicuntur, in ejus honorem cui pro salute nostra inde servitur. Et sunt profecto etiam ista instrumenta vel vasa, quid aliud quam opera manuum hominum? Veruntamen nunquid os habent, et non loquentur? Nunquid oculos habent, et non videbunt? Nunquid eis supplicamus, quia per ea supplicamus Deo? Illa causa est maxima impietatis inçanæ, quod plus valet in affectibus miserorum similis viventi forma quæ sibi efficit supplicari, quam quod eam manifestum est non esse viventem, ut debeat a vivente contemni. Plus enim valent simulacra ad curvandam infelicem animam, quod os habent, oculos habent, aures habent, nares habent, manus habent, pedes habent; quam ad corrigendam, quod non loquentur, non videbunt, non audient, non adorabunt, non contrectabunt, non ambulabunt. Id. in Psal. 113. conc. 2.

ship that, which they themselves have made of gold and silver. But even we also have divers instruments and vessels of the same matter or metal, for the use of celebrating the sacraments, which being consecrated by this very ministry are called holy, in honour of him who for our salvation is served thereby. And these instruments and vessels also, what are they else but the work of men's hands? Yet have these any mouth, and will not speak? Have they eyes, and will not see? do we supplicate unto these, because by these we supplicate unto God? That is the greatest cause of this mad impiety, that the form like. unto one living which maketh it to be supplicated unto, doth more prevail in the affections of miserable men, than that it is manifest it doth not live at all, that it ought to be contemned by him who is indeed living. For images prevail more to bow down the unhappy soul, in that they have a mouth, they have eyes, they have ears, they have nostrils, they have hands, they have feet, than to correct it, that they will not speak, they will not see, they will not hear, they will not smell, they will not handle, they will not walk."

The speech of Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium, to this purpose is memorable: "We have no care to figure by colours the bodily visages of the saints in tables, because they have no need of such things, but by virtue to imitate their conversation." But the fact of Epiphanius, rending the veil that hung in the church of Anablatha, is much more memorable: which he himself in his epistle to John bishop of Jerusalem, translated by St. Hierome out of Greek into Latin, doth thus recount: "Ix

* Οὐ γὰρ τοῖς πίναξι τὰ σαρκικὰ πρόσωπα τῶν ἁγίων διὰ χρωμάτων ἐπιμηλὲς ἡμῖν ἐντυποῦν, ὅτι͵ οὐ χρήζομεν τούτων· ἀλλὰ τὴν πολιτείαν avrov di áρerns iкμiμetodai. Amphiloch. citatus a Patrib. Concil. Constantinop. ann. 754.

* Inveni ibi velum pendens in foribus ejusdem ecclesiæ tinctum atque depictum, et habens imaginem quasi Christi, vel sancti cujusdam: non enim satis memini, cujus imago fuerit. Cum ergo hoc vidissem, in ecclesia Christi contra auctoritatem Scripturarum hominis pendere imaginem, scidi illud; et magis dedi consilium custodibus ejusdem loci, ut pauperem mortuum eo obvolverent et efferrent. Epiphan. epist. ad Joann. Hierosolym. tom. 4. oper. Hieronym. epist. 110. pag. 828.

found there a veil hanging at the door of the church dyed and painted, and having the image, as it were, of Christ, or some saint: for I do not well remember whose image it was. When therefore I saw this, that contrary to the authority of the Scriptures the image of a man was hanged up in the church of Christ: I cut it, and gave counsel to the keepers of the place, that they should rather wrap and bury some poor dead man in it;" and afterwards he entreateth the bishop of Jerusalem, under whose government this church was, " to give charge hereafter, that "to such veils as these which are repugnant to our religion, should not be hanged up in the church of Christ." Which agreeth very well with the sentence attributed to the same father in the council of Constantinople: "Have this in mind, beloved sons, not to bring images into the church nor into the cemeteries of the saints, no not into an ordinary house, but always carry about the remembrance of God in your hearts. For it is not lawful for a Christian man to be carried in suspense by his eyes and the wanderings of his mind;" and with his discourse against the heresy of the Collyridians, which made an idol of the virgin Mary, as in the former question hath more largely been declared: to which he opposeth himself in this manner: "How is not this course

y Deinceps præcipere, in ecclesia Christi istiusmodi vela, quæ contra religionem nostram veniunt, non appendi. Epiphan. ad Joan. Hierosol. tom. 4, oper. Hieron. ep. 110. pag. 829.

2 Καὶ ἐν τούτῳ μνήμην ἔχετε, τέκνα ἀγαπητὰ, τοῦ μὴ ἀναφέρειν εἰκόνας ἐπ ̓ ἐκκλησίας, μήτε ἐν τοῖς κοιμητηρίοις τῶν ἁγίων (ἀλλ' ἀεὶ διὰ μνήμης ἔχετε τὸν θεὸν ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις ὑμῶν) ἀλλ ̓ οὔτε κατ ̓ οἶκον κοινόν· οὐκ ἔξεστι γὰρ Χριστιανῷ δι' ὀφθαλμῶν μετεωρίζεσθαι καὶ ῥεμβασμῶν τοῦ νούς. Epiphan. citat. a Concil. Constantinop. in Act. 6. tom. 5. concil. Nicen. II. * Πόθεν οὐκ εἰδωλοποιὸν τὸ ἐπιτήδευμα, καὶ τὸ ἐγχείρημα διαβολικὸν ; προφάσει γὰρ δικαίου ἀεὶ ὑπεισδύνων τὴν διάνοιαν ὁ διάβολος τῶν ἀνθρώπων, τὴν θνήτην φύσιν θεοποιῶν εἰς ὀφθαλμοὺς ἀνθρώπων, ἀνδροείκελα ἀγάλματα διὰ ποικιλίας τεχνῶν διέγραψε· καὶ τεθνήκασι μὲν οἱ προσκυ νούμενοι, τὰ δὲ τούτων ἀγάλματα μηδέποτε ζήσαντα (οὔτε γάρ νεκρὰ δύναται γενέσθαι τὰ μηδέποτε ζήσαντα) προσκυνητὰ παρεισάγουσι, διὰ μοιχευσάσης διανοίας, ἀπὸ τοῦ ἑνὸς καὶ μόνου θεοῦ· ὡς ἡ πολύκοινος πόρνη ἐπὶ πολλὴν ἀτοπίαν πολυμιξίας ἐρεθισθεῖσα, καὶ τὸ σῶφρον ἀποτριψαμένη τῆς τοῦ ἑνὸς ἀνδρὸς εὐνομίας. Epiphan. in Panar. hæres. 79. op. tom. 1. pag. 1061.

idolatrous and a devilish practice? For the devil stealing always into the mind of men under pretence of righteousness, deifying the mortal nature in the eyes of men, by variety of arts framed images like unto men. And they truly who are worshipped are dead, but their images that never yet were alive (for they cannot be said to be dead that never were alive) they bring in to be worshipped, by a mind going a whoring from the one and only God; as a common harlot, stirred with a wicked desire of promiscuous mixture, and rejecting the sobriety of the lawful marriage of one man."

If it be inquired who they were that first brought in this use of images into the Church, it may well be answered, that they were partly lewd heretics, partly simple Christians newly converted from paganism, the customs whereof they had not as yet so fully unlearned. Of the former kind the Gnostic heretics were the principal, who "had" images, some painted in colours, others framed of gold and silver, and other matter, which they said were the representations of Christ, made under Pontius Pilate, when he was conversant here among men." Whence Carpocrates, and Marcellina his disciple, who brought this idolatrous heresy first to Rome in the days of pope Anicetus, "having privily made images of Jesus, and Paul, and Homer, and Pythagoras did cense them, and worship them:" as Epiphanius and Augustine do report. To the latter, that observation of Eusebius may be referred concerning the image of Christ, thought to be erected by the woman that was cured of the bloody issue: "It is no

b *Εχουσι δὲ εἰκόνας ἐνζωγράφους διὰ χρωμάτων, τινὲς (vel τινὰς potius) δὲ ἐκ χρυσοῦ καὶ ἀργύρου καὶ λοιπῆς ὕλης, ἅτινα ἐκτυπώματά φασιν εἶναι τοῦ Ἰησοῦ· καὶ ταῦτα ὑπὸ Ποντίου Πιλάτου γεγενῆσθαι τὰ ἐκτυπώματα τοῦ αὐτοῦ ̓Ιησοῦ, ὅτε ἐνεδήμει τῷ τῶν ἀνθρώπων γένει. Epiphan. hæres. 27. op. tom. 1. pag. 108. ex Irenæo, lib. 1. adv. hæres. cap. 25. op. pag. 105.

Epiph. in Anacephal. op. tom. 2. pag. 140. de Carpocrate. Toúrov yέyovev ἡ ἐν Ῥώμη Μαρκελλίνα· εἰκόνας δὲ ποιήσας ἐν κρυφῇ Ἰησοῦ, καὶ Παύλου, καὶ ̔Ομήρου, καὶ Πυθαγόρου, ταύτας ἐθυμία καί προσεκύνει. Secta ipsius fuisse traditur socia quædam Marcellina; quæ colebat imagines Jesu, et Pauli, et Homeri, et Pythagoræ, adorando incensumque ponendo. August. de hæres. cap. 7. op. tom. 8. pag. 7.

* Καὶ θαυμαστὸν οὐδὲν, τοὺς πάλαι ἐξ ἐθνῶν εὐεργετηθέντας πρὸς τοῦ