A discouerie of the manifold corruptions of the Holy Scriptures by the heretikes of our daies specially the English sectaries, and of their foule dealing herein, by partial & false translations to the aduantage of their heresies, in their English Bibles vsed and authorised since the time of schisme. By Gregory Martin one of the readers of diuinitie in the English College of Rhemes.

CHAP. III. Heretical translation against sacred IMAGES.

1 I BESECHE you vvhat is the next and readiest and most proper English of Idolum, ido∣lolatra, idoloratria? is it not Idol, idolater, idolatrie? are not these plaine English vvordes, and vvel knovven in our language? Vvhy sought you further for other termes and vvordes, if you had meant faithfully? Vvhat needed that circumstance of three wordes for one, vvorshipper of images, and, vvorshipping of images? vvhether (I pray you) is the more natural & conuenient speache, either in our English tōgue, or for the truth of the thing, to say as the holy Scripture doth, Couetousnes is idolatrie,

and consequently, The couetous man is an idolater: or as you translate, Couetousnes is vvorshipping of images, and The couetous man is a vvorshipper of images?

2 Vve say commonly in English, Such a riche man maketh his money his God: and the Apostle saith in like maner of some, Vvhose belly is their God. Phil. 3. & generally euery creature is our idol, vvhen vve esteeme it so excedingly that vve make it our God. but vvho euer heard in English, that our money, or bellie, vvere our images, and that by esteeming of them to much, vve become vvorshippers of imāges? Among your selues are there not some euen of your Superintendents, of vvhom the Apostle speaketh, that make an idol of their money and belly, by couetousnes & belly cheere? Yet can vve not call you therfore in any true sense, vvorshippers of images, neither would you abide it. You see then that there is a great difference betvvixt idol and image, idolatrie and vvorshipping of images: and euen so great difference is there betvvixt S. Paules vvordes and your translation.

3. Vvil you see more yet to this purpose? In the English Bible printed the yere 1562 you reade thus: Hovv agreeth the Temple of God vvith images? Can vve be ignorant of Satans cogitations herein, that it vvas translated

of purpose to delude the simple people and to make them beleeue that the Apostle speaketh against sacred images in the chur∣ches, vvhich were then in plucking dovvne in England, vvhen this your translation vvas first published in print? Vvhereas in very truth you know, that the Apostle here partly interpreteth him self to speake of men, as of Gods temples wherein he dvvel∣leth, partly alludeth to Salomons Temple, vvhich did very vvell agree vvith images (for it had the Cherubins, vvhich vvere the representations of Angels, and the figures of oxen to beare vp the lauatorie) but vvith idols it could not agree: and therfore the Apostles vvordes are these, Hovv agreeth the Temple of God vvith idols?

4 Vvhen Moyses by Gods appointement erected a brasen serpent, and commaunded the people that vvere stung vvith serpents, to behold it, & thereby they vvere healed: this vvas an image only, and as an image vvas it erected and kept and vsed by Gods commaundement. but vvhen it grevve to be an idol (saith S. Augustine) that is, vvhen the people began to adore it as God, then king Ezechias brake it in peeces to the great cōmendation of his pietie and godly zeale. So vvhen the children of Israel in the ab∣sence of Moyses made a calfe, and said,

These are thy Gods ô Israel that brought thee out of Aegypt, vvas it but an image vvhich they made? vvas that so heinous a matter that God vvould so haue punished them as he did? No they made it an idol also, saying, These are thy gods ô Israel. And therfore the Apo∣stle saith to the Corinthians, Be not idolaters, as some of them. Vvhich also you translate most falsely, Be not worshippers of images, as some of them.

5 Vve see then that the Ievves had images vvithout sinne, but not idols. Againe for hauing idols they vvere accounted like vnto the Gentiles, as the Psalme saith, They learned their workes, and serued their grauen idols. but they vvere not accounted like vnto the Gentiles for hauing images, vvhich they had in Salomons Temple, and in the brasen serpent. S. Hierom vvriteth of the Ammo∣nites and Moabites (vvho vvere Gentiles and Idolaters) that comming into the tem∣ple of Hierusalem, and seeing the Angelical images of the Cherubins couering the Pro∣pitiatorie, they said, Loe, euen as the Gen∣tiles, so Iuda also hath idols of their religiō. These men did put no difference betvvene their ovvne idols, and the Ievves lavvful images. and are not you ashamed to be like to these? They accused Salomons Tem∣ple of Idols, because they savv there lavvful images: you accuse the Churches of God of

idolatrie, because you see there the sacred images of Christ and his Saincts.

6 But tel vs yet I pray you, doe the holy Scriptures of either Testament speake of al maner of images, or rather of the idols of the Gentiles? your cōscience knoweth that they speake directly against the idols & the idolatrie that vvas among the Pagans and Infidels: frō vvhich as the Ievves in the old Testamēt, so the first Christians in the nevv Testament vvere to be prohibited. but vvil you haue a demonstration that your owne conscience condemneth you herein, & that you apply al translation to your heresie? Vvhat caused you being othervvise in al places so ready to translate, images: yet Esa. 31 and Zachar. 13 to translate, idols, in al your Bibles vvith ful cōsent? Vvhy in these places specially and so aduisedly? No doubt because God saith there, speaking of this time of the nevv Testament: In that day euery man shal cast out his idols of siluer and idols of gold. And, I vvil destroy the names of the idols out of the earth, so that they shal nomore be had in remembrance. In vvhich places if you had trāslated, images, you had made the prophecie false, because images haue not been destroied out of the vvorld, but are, and haue been in Christian countries vvith honour & reuerence, euen since Christes time. Mary in the idols of the

Gentiles vve see it verified, vvhich are destroied in al the world so far as Gentilitie is conuerted to Christ.

7 And vvhat vvere the Pagans idols or their idolatrie? S. Paul telleth vs, saying: They changed the glorie of the incorruptible God into the similitude of the image of a corruptible man, and of birdes and beastes and creeping things: and they serued (or vvor∣shipped) the creature more then the creator. Doth he charge them for making the image of man or beast? Your selues haue hangings and clothes ful of such paintings and embrode∣rings of imagirie. Where vvith then are they charged? vvith giuing the glorie of God to such creatures, vvhich vvas to make them idols, and them selues idolaters.

8 The case being thus, vvhy do you make it tvvo distinct things in S. Paul, calling the Pagans, idolaters: and the Christians doing the same, vvorshippers of images: and that in one sentence, vvhereas the Apostle vseth but one and the self same Greeke vvord in speaking both of Pagans and Christians? It is a maruelous and vvilful corruption, and vvel to be marked, and therfore I vvil put dovvne the vvhole sentence, as it is in your English translatiō. I vvrote to you that you should not companie vvith fornicators: and I meant not at al of the fornicators of this vvorld, either of the couetous, or extortioners, eitherc the idolaters &c. but that ye com∣panie not together, if any that is called a brother, be afor∣nicator

or couetous, orc A VVORSHIPPER or IMAGES, or an extortioner. In the first, speaking of Pagans, your translatour nameth idolater according to the text, but in the later part speaking of Christians, you translate the very self same Greeke vvord, vvorshipper of images. Vvhy so? for sooth to make the rea∣der thinke that S. Paul speaketh here, not only of Pagan idolaters, but also of Catho∣like Christians that reuerently kneele in praier before the Crosse, the holy Roode, the images of our Sauiour Christ and his Saincts: as though the Apostle had com∣maunded such to be auoided.

9 Vvhere if you haue yet the face to deny this your malitious and heretical intent, tell vs, vvhy al these other vvordes are translated and repeated alike in both places, couetous, fornicators, extortioners, both Pagans and Christians: and only this vvord (idolaters) not so, but Pagans, idolaters: & Christians, vvorshippers of images. At the least you can not deny but it vvas of purpose done, to make both seeme al one, yea and to si∣gnifie that the Christians doing the foresaid reuerence before sacred images (which you call vvorshipping of images) are more to be auoided then the Pagan idolaters.

Vvhereas the Apostle speaking of Pagans and Christians that committed one and the

self same heinous sinne vvhatsoeuer, com∣maundeth the Christian in that case to be auoided for his amendement, leauing the Pagan to him self & to God, as hauing not to doe to iudge of him.

10 But to this the ansvver belike vvil be made, as one of them hath already ansvve∣red in the like case, that in the English Bi∣ble appointed to be read in their churches it is othervvise, and euen as vve vvould haue it corrected: and therfore (saith he) it had been good before vve entred into such beinous accu∣sations, to haue examined our groundes that they had been true. As though vve accuse them not truely of false translation, vnles it be false in that one Bible vvhich for the present is read in their churches: or as though it per∣tained not to thē hovv their other English Bibles be trāslated: or as though the people read not al indifferently vvithout prohibi∣tion, and may be abused by euery one of them: or as though the Bible vvhich novv is read (as vve thinke) in their churches, haue not the like absurd translations, yea more absurd, euen in this matter of images, as is before declared: or as though vve must first learne what English translation is read in their church (vvhich vvere hard to knovv, it changeth so oft) before vve may be bold to accuse them of false translation:

or as though it vvere not the same Bible that Was for many yeres read in their chur∣ches, & is yet in euery mans handes, vvhich hath this absurd translation vvhereof vve haue last spoken.

11 Surely the Bible that vve most accuse not only in this point, but for sundrie other most grosse faultes and heretical transla∣tions, spoken of in other places, is that Bi∣ble vvhich vvas authorised by Cramner their Archbishop of Canterburie, and read al king Edvvards time in their churches, & (as it seemeth by the late printing thereof againe an. 1562) a great part of this Queenes reigne. And certaine it is, that it vvas so long read in al their churches vvith this venemous & corrupt translation of images alvvaies in steede of idols, that it made the deceiued people of their secte, to despise, contemne, and abandon the very signe and image of their saluatiō, the crosse of Christ, the holy roode or crucifixe representing the maner of his bitter passion and death, the sacred images of the blessed Virgin Ma∣rie the mother of God, & of S. Iohn Euan∣gelist, representing their standing by the Crosse at the very time of his Passion. in so much that novv by experience vve see the foule inconuenience thereof, to vvit, that al other images and pictures of infamous

harlots and Heretikes, of Heathen tyrants and persecutors, are lavvful in England at this day, and their houses, parlours and chambers are garnished vvith them: onely sacred images, and representations of the holy mysterie of our redemption, are estee∣med idolatrous, and haue been openly de∣faced in most spiteful maner and burned, to the great dishonour of our Sauiour Christ and his Saincts.

12 And as concerning the bible that at this day is read in their churches, if it be that of the yere 1577, it is vvorse sometime in this matter of images, then the other. for vvhere the other readeth, Couetousnes, vvhich is vvorshipping of idols: there this later (vvhere∣vnto they appeale) readeth thus, Couetousnes, vvhich is vvorshipping of images. and Eph. 5. it rea∣deth as absurdly as the other, A couetous man, vvhich is a vvorshipper of images. Loe this is the English bible vvhich they referre vs vnto, as better translated, and as correcting the fault of the former. But because it is eui∣dent by these places, that his also is part∣ly vvorse, and partly as il as the other, ther∣fore this great cōfuter of M. Iohn Houlet fle¦eth once more, to the Geneua English Bi∣ble, saying, Thus vve reade, and so vve translate: to wit, A couetous person, vvhich is an idolater. Vvhere shal vve haue these good fellovves, and

hovv shal vve be sure that they vvill stand to any of their translations? from the first readde in their churches, they flee to that that is now readde, & frō this againe, to the later Geneua English Bibles, neither readde in their churches (as vve suppose) nor of greatest authoritie among them: and vve doubt not but they vvil as fast flee from this, to the former againe, vvhen this shal be proued in some places more false & ab∣surd then the other.

13 But vvhat matter is it hovv they reade in their churches, or hovv they correct their former trāslations by the later: vvhen the old corruption remaineth stil, being set of purpose in the toppe of euery doore vvithin their churches, in these vvordes: Babes keepe your selues from images? Vvhy remai∣neth that vvritten so often and so conspi∣cuously in the vvalles of their churches, vvhich in their Bibles they correct as a fault? their later bibles say, keepe your selues from idols: their church vvalles say, keepe your selues from images. S. Iohn speaking to the late∣ly conuerted Gentiles, biddeth them be∣ware of the idols from vvhence they vvere conuerted: they speaking to the old instru∣cted Christians, bid them bevvare of the sacred image of Christ our Sauiour, of the holy Crucifixe, of the crosse, of euery such

representation and monument of Christs passion, and our redemption. And therfore in the very same place vvhere these holy monuments vvere vvont to stand in Ca∣tholike times, to vvit, in the roode loft and partition of the Church and chauncel: there now stand these vvordes as confron∣ting and cōdemning the foresaid holy mo∣numēts, Babes keepe your selues frō images. Vvhich vvordes vvhosoeuer esteemeth as the wor∣des of Scripture, and the vvordes of S. Iohn, spoken against Christes image, is made a very babe in deede, and sottishly a∣bused by their scribled doores, and false translations, to count that idolatrie, vvhich is in deede to no other purpose then to the great honour of him vvhose image and pi∣cture it is.

14 But the gay confuter vvith vvhom I began, saith for further ansvver: Admit that in some of our translations it be, Children keepe your selues from images (for so he vvould haue said if it vvere truely printed) Vvhat great crime of corru∣ption is here committed? And vvhen it is said a∣gaine, this is the crime and fault thereof, that they meane by so translating to make the simple beleeue that idols and images are al one, vvhich is absurd he replieth that it is no more absurditie, then in steede of a Greeke vvord, to vse a Latin of the same signification.

And vpon this position he graunteth that according to the propertie of the Greeke vvord a man may say, God made man according to his idol, and that generally, idolum may as true∣ly be translated an image, as Tyrannus a king (vvhich is very true, both being absurd) & here he citeth many authors and dictiona∣ries idly, to prooue that idolum may signifie the same that Image.

15 But I beseeche you Sir, if the dictiona∣ries tel you that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 may by the original propertie of the vvord signifie an image, (vvhich no man denieth) do they tel you also that you may commonly and ordina∣rily translate it so, as the common vsual si∣gnification thereof? or do they tel you that image and idol are so al one, that vvhereso∣euer you finde this vvord image, you may truely call it, idol? for these are the points that you should defend in your ansvver. for an example, do they teach you to trans∣late in these places thus, God hath predestinated vs to be made conformable to the idol of his sonne. And againe, As we haue borne the idol of the earthly (Adam:) so let vs beare the idol of the heauenly (CHRIST). And againe, Vve are transformed into the same idol, euen as of our Lordes spirit. And againe, The Lavv hauing a shadovv of the good things to come, not the very idol of the things. And againe, Christ vvho is the idol of the inuisible God? Is this (I pray you) a true trans∣lation? yea, say you, according to the propertie of

the vvord: but because the name of idols, in the English tonge, for the great dishonour done to God in vvorship∣ping of images, is become odious, no Christian man vvould say so.

16 First note hovv folishly and vnadui∣sedly he speaketh here, because he vvould confound images and idols, & make them falsely to signifie one thing: vvhen he saith, the name of idol, is become odious in the English tongue because of vvorshipping of Images, He should haue said, The disho∣nour done to God in vvorshipping Idols, made the name of Idols odious. As in his ovvne exāple of Tyrant, and king: he meant to tel vs that Tyrant sometime vvas an vsual name for euery king, and because certaine such Tyrants abused their povver, therfore the name of Tyrant became odious. for he vvil not say (I trovv) that for the fault of kings, the name of Tyrant became odious. Likevvise the Romanes tooke avvay the name of Manlius for the crime of one Mā∣lius, not for the crime of Iohn at Nokes, or of any other name. The name of Iudas is so odious that men novv commonly are not so called. Vvhy so? because he that betraied Christ, vvas called Iudas: not because he vvas also Iscariote. The very name of Mi∣nisters is odious and contemptible. vvhy? because Ministers are so levvd, vvicked, & vnlearned, not because some Priests be

naught. Euen so the name of idol grevve to be odious, because of the idols of the Gentiles, not because of holy images. For if the reuerence done by Christians to ho∣ly images vvere euill, as it is not, it should in this case haue made the name of images odious: & not the name of Idols. But God be thanked, the name of Images is no odious name among Catholike Christians, but onely among heretikes & Imagebrea∣kers, such as the second general Councel of Nice hath condemned therfore vvith the sentence of Anáthema. No more then the Crosse is odious, vvhich to al good Chri∣stians is honorable, because our Sauiour Christ died on a Crosse.

17 But to omit this mans extraordinarie and vnaduised speaches vvhich be to many and to tedious (as when he saith in the same sentence, Hovvsoeuer the name idol is grovven odious in the English tongue, as though it vvere not also odious in the Latin & Greeke tonges, but that in Latin and Greeke a man might say according to his fond opinion, Fecit ho∣nem ad idolum suum, and so in the other places vvhere is imago) to omit these rashe asser∣tions I say, and to returne to his other vvordes vvhere he saith, that though the original propertie of the vvordes hath that signification, yet no Christian man vvould say that

God made man according to his idol, no more then a good subiect vvould call his lavvful Prince a tyrant. doth he not here tell vs that, vvhich vve vvould haue, to vvit, that vve may not speake or trāslate according to the original propertie of the vvord, but according to the cōmon vsual and accustomed signification thereof? As vve may not translate, Phalaris tyrannus, Phalaris the king, as sometime tyrannus did sig∣nifie, and in auncient authors doth signifie: but, Phalaris the tyrant, as novv this vvord tyrannus is commonly taken & vnderstood. Euen so vve may not novv translate, My children keepe your selues from images, as the vvord may and doth sometime signifie ac∣cording to the original propertie thereof, but vve must trāslate, keepe yourselues from idols, according to the common vse and signifi∣cation of the vvord in vulgar speache, and in the holy Scriptures. Vvhere the Greeke vvord is so notoriously & vsually peculiar to idols, and not vnto images: that the holy fathers of the second Nicene Councel (vvhich knevv right vvel the signification of the Greeke vvord, them selues being Graecians) do pronounce Anáthema to al such as interpret those places of the holy Scripture that concerne idols, of images or against sacred images, as novv these Calui∣nists do, not onely in their Commentaries

vpon the holy Scriptures, but euen in their translations of the text.

18 This then being so, that vvordes must be translated as their common vse and sig∣nification requireth, if you aske your old question, vvhat great crime of corruption is committed in translating, keepe your selues from images, the Greeke being 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉? you haue ansvvered your self, that in so transla∣ting, idol & image are made to signifie one thing, vvhich may not be done, no more then Tyrant and king can be made to signi∣fie al one. And hovv can you say then, that this is no more absurditie, then in steede of a Greeke vvord, to vse a latin of the same signification. Are you not here contrarie to your self? Are idol and image, tyrant and king, of one significatiō? said you not that in the English tonge, idol is grovven to an other signification, then image, as tyrant is grovven to an other sig∣nification then king? Your false translatiōs therfore that in so many places make idols and images al one, not onely forcing the word in the holy Scriptures, but disgracing the sentence thereby (as Ephes. 5. & Col. 3) are they not in your owne iudgement very corrupt: & as your ovvne consciences must confesse, of a malitious intent corrupted, to disgrace thereby the Churches holy ima∣ges by pretense of the holy Scriptures that

speake onely of the Pagans idols.

19 But of the vsual, and original signi∣fication of vvordes (vvhereof you take oc∣casion of manifold corruptions) vve vvil speake more anon, if first vve touche some other your falsifications against holy ima∣ges: as, vvhere you affectate to thrust the vvord image into the text, vvhen there is no such thing in the Hebrue or Greeke, as in that notorious example 2. Par. 36. (Bib. 1562.) Carued images that vvere laid to his charge. Againe, Ro. 11. To the image of Baal. and Act. 19. The image that came dovvne from Iupiter. Vvhere you are not content to vnderstand image rather then idol, but also to thrust it into the text, being not in the Greeke, as you knovv very vvel.

20 Of this kinde of falsification is that vvhich is crept as a leprosie through out al your bibles, translating, Sculptile and conflatile, grauen image, molten image, namely in the first commaundement, vvhere you knovv in the Greeke it is idol, & in the Hebrue, such a vvord as signifieth onely a grauen thing, not including this vvord image: and you know that God commaunded to make the images of Cherubins, and of oxen in the Temple, and of the brasen serpēt in the de∣sert, and therfore your vvisedomes might haue cōsidered, that he forbadde not al gra∣uen

images, but such as the Gentiles made and vvorshipped as goddes: and therfore Non facies tibi sculptile, concurreth vvith those vvordes that goe before, Thou shalt haue none other gods but me. For so to haue an image as to make it a god, is to make it more then an image: and therfore, vvhen it is an Idol, as vvere the Idols of the Gentiles, then it is forbid by this commaundement. Other∣vvise, vvhen the Crosse stood many yeres vpon the Table in the Queenes Chappel, vvas it against this cōmaundement? or vvas it idolatrie in the Quenes Maiestie & her Counsellers, that appointed it there, being the supreme head of your churche? Or do the Lutherans your puefellowes, at this day commit idolatrie against this commaunde∣ment, that haue in their churches the cru∣cifixe, and the holy Images of the mother of God, and of S. Iohn the Euangelist? Or if the vvhole storie of the Gospel cōcerning our sauiour Christ, vvere dravven in pictu∣res and Images in your churches, as it is in many of ours, vvere it (trovv you) against this commaundement? fye for shame, that you should thus vvith intolerable impu∣dencie and deceite abuse and bevvitch the ignorāt people, against your ovvne know∣ledge and conscience. For, vvot you not, that God many times expresly forbade the

Ievves both mariages and other conuersa∣tion vvith the Gentiles, lest they might fall to vvorship their idols, as Salomon did, & as the Psalme reporteth of them? This then is the meaning of the commaundement, neither to make the idols of the Gentiles, nor any other like vnto them, and to that end, as did Ieroboam in Dan and Bethel.

21 This being a thing so plaine as nothing more in all the holy Scriptures, yet your itching humour of deceite and falsehod, for the most part doth translate still, images, images, vvhen the Latin and Greeke and He∣brue haue diuers other vvordes, and very seldom that vvhich ansvvereth to image. for when it is image in the Latin, or Greeke or Hebrue textes, your translation is not reprehended: for vve also translate some∣times, images, vvhen the text of the holy scripture requiteth it. and we are not igno∣rant that there vvere images, vvhich the Pagans adored for their gods: & vve knovv that some idols are images, but not al ima∣ges, idols. but vvhen the holy Scriptures call them by so many names, rather then images, because they vvere not onely ima∣ges, but made idols: vvhy do your transla∣tions, like cuckoes birdes, sound continual∣ly, images, images, more then idols, or o∣ther vvordes equiualent to idols, vvhich

are there meant?

22 Tvvo places onely vve vvill at this time aske you the reason of: first vvhy you translate the Hebrue and Greeke that ans∣vvereth to statua, image, so often as you do: Vvhereas this vvord in the said tonges, is taken also in the better part, as vvhen la∣cob set vp a stone and erected it for a * title, povvring oile vpon it: and the prophet saith, our Lordes altar shal be in Argypt, and his * title beside it. So that the vvord doth signifie ge∣nerally a signe erected of good or euil, and therfore might very well (if it pleased you) haue some other English then, image. Vnles you will say that Iacob also set vp an image: &, Our Lordes image shal be in Aegypt: which you will not say, though you might vvith more reason then in other places.

23 Secondly vve demaund, vvhy your very last English Bible hath (Esa. 30, 22:) For tvvo Hebrue vvordes, vvhich are in Latin Sculptilia and conflatilia, tvvise, images, images: neither vvord being Hebrue for an image: no more then if a man vvould aske, vvhat is Latin for an image, & you vvould tell him sculptile. Vvherevpon he seeing a faire painted image in a table, might hap∣pily say, Ecce egregium sculptile. Vvhich euery boy in the Grammar schoole vvould laugh at. Vvhich therfore vve tel you, because vve

perceiue your translations en deuour and as it vvere affectat, to make Sculptile and image al one. Vvhich is most euidently false and to your great confusiō appeareth Abac. 2. v. 13. Vvhere for these vvordes, Quid prodest sculptile, quia sculpsit illud fictor suus conflatile & imaginē falsam? Vvhich is according to the Hebrue and Greeke: your later English trāslation hath, Vvhat profiteth the image? for the maker thereof hath made it an image, and a teacher of lies.

24 I vvould euery common Reader vvere able to discerne your falshod in this place. First, you make sculpere sculptile, no more then, to make an image: Vvhich being absurd you knovv (because the painter or embroderer making an image, can not be said sculpere scul∣ptile) might teach you that the Hebrue hath in it no significatiō of image, no more then sculpere can signifie, to make an image: and therfore the Greeke and the Latin precisely (for the most part) expresse neither more nor lesse, then a thing grauē: but yet meane alvvaies by these vvordes, a grauen idol, to vvhich signification they are appropriated by vse of holy Scripture, as Simulacrum idolum, conflatile, and sometime imago. In vvhich sense of signifying I dols, if you also did repeate images so often, although the translation vvere not precise, yet it vvere in some part tolerable, because the sense vvere so: but vvhen you do it to bring al holy images

into contempt, euen the image of our Sa∣uiour Christ crucified, you may iustly be controuled for false and heretical transla∣tors.

25 As in this very place (vvhich is an other fals hod like to the other) conflatile you trans∣late image, as you did sculptile, and so here againe in Abacucke (as before in Esay is noted) for tvvo distinct vvordes, eche sig∣nifying an other diuers thing from image, you translate, images, images. Thirdly, for imaginem falsam, a false image, you translate an other thing, vvithout any necessarie pre∣tense either of Hebrue or Greeke, auoiding here the name of image, because this place telleth you that the holy Scripture speaketh against false images, or as the Greeke hath, false phantasies, or as you translate the Hebrue, such images as teach lies, representing false Gods vvhich are not, as the Apostle saith, Idolum nihil est, And, Non sunt Dij qui manibus fiunt. Vvhich distinction of false and true ima∣ges you vvil not haue, because you con∣demne al images, euen holy and sacred also, and therfore you make the holy Scriptures to speake herein according to your ovvne fansie.

26 Vvherein you procede so far, that vvhen Daniel said to the king, I vvorship not idols made vvith handes (〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉) you

make him say thus, I vvorship not things that be made vvith handes. leauing out the vvord idols altogether as though he had said, nothing made vvith hand vvere to be adored, not the Arke, the propitiatorie, no nor the ho∣ly Crosse it self that our Sauiour shed his bloud vpon. As before you added to the text, so here you diminish & take from it at your pleasure.

27 But concerning the vvord image, vvhich you make to be the English of al the Latin, Hebrue, and Greeke vvordes, be they neuer so many and so distinct, I besee∣che you vvhat reason had you to translate 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, images, Sap. 15. v. 13: doth the Greeke vvord so signifie? doth not the sentence fo∣lovving tel you that it should haue been translated, grauen idols? for thus it saith, They iudged al the idols of the nations to be Gods. loe your images, or rather loe the true names of the Pagans goddes, vvhich it pleaseth you to call, images, images.

28 But (to conclude this point) you might, and it vvould haue vvel becommed you, in translating or expounding the fore∣said vvordes, to haue folovved S. Hierom the great famous translator and interpreter of the holy Scriptures: vvho telleth you tvvo senses of the foresaid vvordes: the one literal, of the idols of the Gentiles: the

other mystical, of Heresies and errours. Sculptile, saith he, & conflatile: I take to be peruerse o∣pinions, vvhich are adored of the authors that made them. See Arius, that graued to him self this idol, that Christ vvas onely a creature, & adored that vvhich he had gra∣uen. behold Eunomius, hovv he molted and cast a false image, and bovved to that vvhich he had molten. Sup∣pose he had exemplified of the tvvo con∣demned heretikes Iouinian and Vigilātius also: had he not touched your idols, that is, the old condemned heresies vvhich you at this day adore?

29 These onely (I mean heresies & he∣retikes) are the idols and idolaters (by the auncient Doctors iudgement) vvhich haue been among Christians, since the idolatrie of the Gentiles ceased according to the prophets. Therfore S. Hierom saith againe, If thou see a man that vvill not yeld to the truth, but vvhen the falshod of his opinions is once shevved, per∣seuereth still in that he began: thou maist aptly say, Spe∣rat in figmento suo, and he maketh dumme or deafe idols. And againe, Al Heretikes haue their gods: & vvhat∣soeuer they haue forged, they adore the same as sculptile and conflatile: that is, as a grauen and molten idol. And againe, He saith vvel, I haue found vnto my self an idol: For, al the forgeries of heretikes are as the idols of the Gentils: neither do they much differ in impietie, though in name they seeme to differ. And againe, Vvhat∣soeuer according to the letter is spoken against the idola∣trie of the Ievves, do thou referre al this vnto them vvhich vnder the name of Christ vvorship idols, and forging to them selues peruerse opinions, carie the tabernacle of their

king the Deuil, and the image of their idols. For they vvorship not an idol, but for varietie of their doctrine they adore diuerse Gods. And he put in very vvell, vvhich you made to your selues: for they receiued them not of God, but forged them of their ovvne minde. And of the idol of Samaria he saith, we alvvaies vnderstand Samaria (& the idol of Samaria) in the per∣son of Heretikes, the same Prophet saying, VVO BE TO THEM THAT DESPISE SION, AND TRVST IN THE MOVNT OF SAMARIA. For Heretikes despise the Church of God, and trust in the falshod of their opinions, erecting them selues against the knovvledge of God: and saying, vvhen they haue diuided the people (by schisme,) vve haue no part in Dauid, nor inheritance in the sonne of Isay.

30 Thus the Reader may see that the holy Scriptures vvhich the Aduersaries falsely translate against the holy images of our Sauiour Christ and his sainctes, to make vs idolaters, do in deede concerne their idols, and condemne them as idolaters, vvhich forge nevv opinions to them selues, such as the auncient fathers knevv not, and adore them and their ovvne sense and interpreta∣tion of Scriptures, so far & so vehemently, that they preferre it before the approued iudgement of all the generall councels and holy Doctors, and for maintenance of the same, corrupt the holy Scriptures at their pleasure, and make them speake according

to there fansies, as we haue partly shevved, and novv are to declare further.

Notes

• 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
• Bib. 1577. Eph. 5. Col. 3.
• The absur∣ditie of this translation, A couetous man is a Wor∣shipper of images.
• 2 Cor. 6.
• Salomons Temple did vvel agree vvith ima∣ges, but not vvith idols.
• 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The brasen serpent, first an image, & lavvful: af∣tervvard an idol, and vnlavvful.
• num. 21.
• Li- 10 de Ci∣uit. c. 8.
• 4 Reg. 18.
• Exod. 32.
• The molten calfe, an idol.
• 1 Cor. 10. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
• Psal. 164.
• In c. 25. Ezech. The Prote∣stants are like to the Ammonites & Moabites.
• The holy Scripture speaketh a∣gainst the idols of the Gētiles, not against al∣maner of images.
• Ro. 1.
• Vvhat vvere the idols of the Pagans.
• 1 Cor. 5. Bib. 1562.
• c

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉
• c

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
• W. Fulke, Confut. of Iohn Hovv∣let so. 35.
• Bib. 1577. Col. 3. v. 5.
• Bib. 1562.
• Io. 19. v. 26.
• Col. 3. v. 5.
• W. Fulke Confut. fol. 35.
• Fol. 36. Bib. 1579.
• 1 Io. 5.
• W. Fulke. Fo. 35.
• Gen. 1. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉
• 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉
• Rom. 8. imagini. 1 Cor. 15. imaginem
• 2 Cor. 3. Hebr. 10.
• Col. 1. 2 Cor. 4.
• ab idolis 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 1 Io. 5.
• Loco citato fo. 35.
• Eph. 5. A co∣uetous mā is a vvorship∣per of ima∣ges. and Col. 3. Couetous∣nes is Wor∣shipping of images.
• 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. subaud. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Num. c. 22.
• 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉
• 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉
• The mea∣ning of the 1. Commaū∣dement con∣cerning false gods and grauen idols
• The Crosse in the Q. Chappel.
• Images in the Luthe∣ran Chur∣ches.
• 3 Reg. 11. Ps. 105. v. 35.
• Hebr. Teraphim. Marsebah. Temunah. Maschith. Pesel. Tselamim. Tabaith. Hamanim. Saemel. Massecah. Nesachim. Gillulim. Miphletseth Gr. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Al image and images, in their trans∣lations.
• Matsebah. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉
• Gen. 28. v. 22
• Esa. 19. v. 19.
• Of the yere 1579.
• Pesilim. Massechoth. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
• 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Of the yere 1579.
• Sculptile. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉
• Abac. 2.
• 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉
• 1 Cor. 8. Act. 19.
• Dan. 14. v. 4.
• Bib. 1562.1577.
• Comment. in Abac. 2.
• Zach. 13.
• Loco citato.
• Osee 11.
• Osee 12.
• In 5. Amos.
• In 8. Amos.
• c. 6.