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Lectio V.

Orandi studio noctes pene totas ducebat insomnes, atque in cœlestium rerum contemplatione defixus, interdum extra sensus raptus, sublimis in aera ferri visus fuit.

In festo S. Joannis a cruce Confessoris.

Lectio V.

Mirabiles extases frequenter patiebatur: tantoque in Deum æstuabat amore, ut cùm divinus ignis sese intrò diutiùs continere non posset, foràs erumpere, ejusque vultum irradiare visus est.

Pars Verna.

Die xxv. Maii.

In festo S. Maria Magdalenæ de Pazzis, Virginis.
Lectio V.

Tanto igne divini amoris æstuabat, ut ei ferendo impar, ingestâ aquâ pectus refrigerare cogeretur.

Dei xxvi. Maii.

In festo Sancti Philippi Nerii, Confessoris.
Lect. V.

Tantoque cor ejus æstuabat ardore, ut cùm intrà fines suos contineri non posset, illius sinum, confractis atque elatis duabus cortulis, mirabiliter Dominus ampliaverit. Sacrum verò faciens aut ferventiùs orans in aera quandoque sublatus, mirâ undique luce fulgere visus est.

IMAGES.

It is admitted by Dr. Delahogue, who was the Roman Catholic professor of theology at Maynooth, that images were not used in the churches for the first three centuries. The practice probably crept in in the fourth century. Towards the close of the sixth century we find Pope Gregory recommending their use as books for the ignorant, but forbidding their worship in any shape. In the eighth century, the iconoclast Council of Constantinople, which the Church of Rome repudiates, decreed their removal from the churches. The second Council of Nice, which is numbered by the Church of Rome among the General Councils, de

creed in the same century, in opposition to the aforesaid Council of Constantinople, that an honorary worship should be paid to images. The absurd miracles which were adduced in support of this decree by some of the holy Fathers at the Council have been copied from Labbæus' Councils, and inserted in his reply to Charles Butler, Esq. by Dr. Phillpotts, the Bishop of Exeter. Referring those who are desirous of knowing more about them to Labbæus' Councils, or to the Bishop of Exeter's admirable work, it is sufficient to observe that the miracles were of an hyperasinine character. In the same century the Council of Frankfort, which was attended by almost all the Western Bishops, decided in opposition to both of the other Councils, that images were to be preserved in the churches, but that no sort of worship was to be paid to them. Many Romanists have denied this fact, which is so fatal to Roman unity and infallibility; but Cardinal Bellarmine and Cardinal Baronius reluctantly admit it. In the thirteenth century latria, the worship due only to the Trinity, must have been pretty generally paid to images, for we find it recommended not only by many Romish doctors, but by two canonized saints, St. Bonaventure and St. Thomas Aquinas; and this at a period when the Church was most vigilant in searching out heresy, and in exterminating heretics. In the thirteenth century those who denied transubstantiation and opposed the worship of the Virgin Mary were burned alive; whilst those who wrote in favour of giving latria to images were canonized. In those days at least idolatry was not comprehended in the Romish definition of heresy. The Council of Trent ordained that due honour was to be paid to sacred images, and referred especially to the second Council of Nice. Cardinal Bellarmine, after mentioning the various opinions which prevailed among Roman Catholics respecting the species of veneration or worship which ought to be paid to images, decided it to be of the essence of latria, but greatly inferior in degree to that which was paid to the Trinity. In order, however, to reconcile this opinion with that of St. Thomas Aquinas and the other Romish doctors, who had decided that latria was to be paid to the images of Christ, he added, that if a person imagined that Christ was present in the image, he might pay latria to the image. This was precisely the idolatry of the more enlightened ancient heathens; and it is that of the more enlightened Hindoos and Brahmins of the present day. That latria wa

formerly paid to the cross by the Church of Rome, is proved by the words of the Pontificale Romanum of Clement VIII.; and in a modern book of devotion, in his pastoral address, the bishop of Boulogne advises the faithful to keep an image of the heart of Jesus, and to kiss it with the same devotion with which they would kiss the heart of Jesus himself.

No apostolical or divine tradition in favour of images. D. Delahogue. Tract. de Myst. Trin.-Appendix de cultu Sanctorum, p. 265. (R. Coyne, Dublinii, 1822.)

Quamvis hæc traditio ab apostolicis temporibus non sit texenda nullum inde capiet detrimentum causa quam defendimus.

No public worship of images in the first three centuries. Appendix de cultu Sanctorum, &c. p. 265.

Inde habetur ratio cur tribus primis sæculis nullus in ecclesiâ deprehendatur cultus publicus imaginum, qui etiam privatim infrequens prorsus esse debuit.

Vide the Fathers for Pope Gregory the Great.

Concilium Nicænum 2. An. Dom. 787. (Labbæi et Cossartii. Parisiis, 1672.)

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Concilium Francofordiense, &c. An. Dom. 79. Sac. Concil. &c. (Labbai et Cossartii. Parisiis, 1672.)

Can. 2.-Allata est in medium quæstio de novâ Græcorum

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synodo, quam de adorandis imaginibus Constantinopoli fecerunt, in quâ scriptum habebatur, ut qui imaginibus sanctorum ita ut Deificæ Trinitati servitium aut adorationem non impenderent anathema judicarent. Qui supra sanctissimi patres nostri omnimodis adorationem et servitutem contempserunt, atque consentientes condemnaverunt.

Pope Gregory III. deprived the iconoclast Emperor of Constantinople of his throne.

Platina, Gregorius III. An. 731.

Hic statim ubi pontificatum iniit, cleri Romani consensu, Leonem tertium imperatorem Constantinopolitanum imperio simul et communione fidelium privat, quod sanctas imagines e sacris ædibus abrasisset, et statuas demolitus esset, quodetiam de homoasio malè sentiret.

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Bellarm. c. xiv. De Imaginibus Sanctis. Tom. i.
(Ingolstadii, 1590.)

Platina, Blondus, Sabellicus, Paulus, Æmilius, Alanus, dial. 4 et 5 docent in Synodo Francofordiensi solùm damnatam synodum Constantinopolitanam hæreticam. Nicænam autem non solùm non damnatam, sed etiam confirmatam. Quam sententiam optarem esse veram, sed tamen suspicor esse falsam.

Primò quia libri illi Carolini, licet falsò inscribantur Carolo ut dicemus, tamen sine dubio scripti sunt tempore Caroli, ut patet ex refutatione eorundem librorum, quam edidit Adrianus I. Et scripti videntur in concilio Francofordiensi, et acta continere synodi Francofordiensis; id enim asserit Hincmarus ejus temporis auctor, et ipsi libri hoc pro se ferunt: quod autem synodus, quæ in his libris refutatur, sit verè Nicena II. dubitari non potest, si legantur vel ipsi libri, vel Adriani responsio. Secundò, quia auctores antiqui omnes conveniunt in hoc, quod in concilio Francofordiensi sit reprobata Synodus VII. quæ decreverat imagines esse adorandas. Ita Hinemarus, Aimonius, Rhegino, Ado, et alii passim docent. Dicere autem hos omnes mentiri, vel libros eorum esse corruptos, ut Copus dicit, videtur mihi paulò duriùs.

Baronii Annales Eccles. An. Dom. 794. (Antverpiæ, 1601.) Tantum abest igitur ut negemus Nicænam secundam

synodum eamque septimam oecumenicam dictam, damnatam dici in Francofordiensi concilio, ut etiam augeamus numerum testium id profitentium, et quidem haud dubiæ fidei, vel rejiciendæ auctoritatis. Sic igitur justæ causæ confisi, id sponte ac liberaliter concedimus adversariis quod ab aliis penitus negatum sciunt.-p. 429.

P. 432.-Cæterum liquet pariter ejusdem, qui supra, Hincmari auctoritate, in eodem Francofordiensi concilio, duo esse concilia condemnata, Constantinopolitanum hæreticorum, quo imagines confringi juberentur, et Nicænum secundum, quo eas coli præcipitur.

ST. THOMAS AQUINAS.

Tertia pars summæ Theologica S. Thomæ Aquinatis. (Romæ, 1686.)

Quæst. xxv. Artic. 3.

Sic ergo dicendum est, quod imagini Christi in quantum est res quædam (puta lignum sculptum vel pictum) nulla reverentia non nisi rationali naturæ debitur. Relinquitur ergo quod exhibeatur ei reverentia solùm in quantum est imago, et sic sequitur quod eadem reverentia exhibeatur imagini Christi et ipsi Christo. Cùm ergò Christus adoretur adoratione latriæ, consequens est quod ejus imago sit adoratione latriæ adoranda.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus, for the exercise of that devotion, and the indult of his holiness Pope Pius VII. in favour of it. For the use of the Midland district. Keating and Brown, London, 1821.

The Bishop of Boulogne's Pastoral Letter, p. 26.

"I advise you to put in the different places you are used to frequent, some devout image of this adorable heart, the sight of which may enable you often to renew your holy practices of devotion in its honour, and inspire you with the fire of divine love. You may even, according to the interior inspiration of grace, kiss this image with the same affection with which you would kiss the heart itself of Jesus.'

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