Collectanea. Out of St. Gregory the Great, and St. Bernard the devout, against the Papists who adhere to the doctrine of the present Church of Rome, in the most fundamentall points betweene them and vs.

§. 16. The auncient Church knew not the idolatry used now in the Church of Rome, in worshipping of Images.

INdico dudum ad nos pervenisse,* 1.1 quod fra∣ternitas vestra quosdam imaginum ado∣ratores

aspiciens easdem Ecclesiae imagines confregit at{que} proiecit. Et quidē zelū vos ne quid manu factum adorari possit habuisse laudavimus, sed frangere easdem imagines non debuisse iudicamus, &c. I certifie you (saith Gregory, to Serenus Bishop of Mas∣silia) that it came of late to our hearing, that your Brother-hood beholding some worshipping Images, did break the same Church-images, and threw them away. And surely, I commended you that you had that zeale, that nothing made with hands should bee worshipped. But yet I iudge, that you should not haue broken those images. For therefore is the picture vsed in the Church, that they who are not learned by Booke, may yet by sight reade vpon the walles, those things which they cannot reade in Bookes. Therefore your Brother-hood should both preserue the images, and forbid the people the wor∣shipping of them, that both the ignorant may haue whence to gather the know∣ledge of the History, and the people may not sinne in worshipping of the Picture. Convocandi sunt dispersi Ecclesiae filij eis{que} Scripturae Sacrae est testimonijs ostendendis,* 1.2

quia omne manufactum adorare non liceat, quoniam scriptum est, Dominum Deum tuū adorabis, & illi soli servies. The Children of the Church are againe to bee gathered together, and it must be showen by testi∣monies of the Scriptures, that it is not lawful to worship any thing that is made with hands, because it is written. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, & him onely thou shalt serue.

Frangi non debuit quod non adorandum in Ecclesijs,* 1.3 sed ad instruendas solummodo mentes fuit nescientium collocatum. That ought not to be broken, which was not set vp in the Church to be adored, but on∣ly to instruct the ignorant.

Scio quidem quod Imaginem Salvatoris nostri non ideo petis ut quasi Deum colas,* 1.4 sed ob recordationem filij Dei, ut in eius a∣more recalescas, cuius te Imaginem videre consideras, &c. I know verily (saith Gre∣gory to Secundinus) that thou doest not therefore desire the Image of our Saviour that thou mayst worship it as God, but for a remembrance of the Sonne of God, that thou mayst become fervent in his loue, whose Image thou considerest thy

selfe to behold. And wee verily fall not downe before it, as before the Godhead, but we worship him whom by the Image we remember, either as borne, or hauing suffered, or now sitting vpon his Throne; and whilest the Picture, as it were a wri∣ting, bringeth to our remembrance the Sonne of GOD, either it reioyceth our mind as touching his resurrection, or ap∣peaseth it by his passion.

Si quis imagines facere voluerit minime prohibe: adorare verò imagines omnibus modis devita; sed hoc solicite fraternitas tua admoneat, ut ex visione rei gosta ardorē compunctionis percipiant, & in adoratione solius omnipotentis sanctae Trinitatis humi∣liter prosternantur. If any man will make images, forbid him not: but by al meanes avoide the worshipping of Images: But this let your Brother-hood carefully ad∣vertise them, by the sight of the story, to gather fervency of compunction, but humbly to fall downe or kneele in the worship of the holy Trinity onely.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Lib. 7. Ep. 109.
• * 1.2

  Idem. l. 9. ep. 9.
• * 1.3

  Greg. ibid.
• * 1.4

  Lib. 7. epist. 54 Heere we see that Gregory doth not instruct Secundinus, as the Papists now adayes doe their Schollers. As to worship the I∣mage, or to kneel to it, for that he condemneth; But willeth him to vnderstand that these deuo∣tions belong only to God, & there∣fore that he must beware not to put the image in the place of God to doe to it those duties of religi∣ons humiliation which are proper to God alone. Ibid. lib. 9. e∣pist. 9. Not to worship images, but to haue them for remembrance, not to fall downe before them but to worship christ whome we re∣member by thē.