Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Church Triumphant, Book I: On the Beatitude and Canonization of the Saints
Chapter 0: Preface
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. II, De Ecclesia quae Triumphat in Coelis, the fourth general controversy. The Latin source text is public domain; this English rendering is released with the site. Scripture quotations follow Bellarmine's Vulgate citations, rendered in Douay-Rheims wording where he quotes exactly. Click “Show the Latin” for the original (raw OCR of the scan; scanning errors remain — the scan itself is the authority).
Preface on the Church Triumphant, or on the glory and cult of the saints.
We have come at last to that part of the Catholic Church which is to be made clear by our disputations, and defended not so much from the arguments as from the lies and slanders of the heretics: the part which in heaven, blessed with its King Christ, enjoys everlasting life. For although those blessed minds of holy angels and men do not need human defence and protection for themselves, since, set in the highest and safest citadels, they celebrate new triumphs daily over all their enemies, and (as St. Cyprian speaks) altogether secure of their own happiness, are anxious only for our safety; yet it is most useful for us, and to speak more truly, necessary on many grounds, that the glory of the saints should stand out and shine, known and seen by the whole world, and wholly cleansed and freed from all the darkness of idolatry which the heretics try to sprinkle and spread over it.
But since we are not setting out a speech of praise of the saints, but only opening with this little preface the way into the disputation to come, I will say only, and in few words, something of the lies and the insults of the heretics against the saints: of which the former put a great obstacle in the way of curing the madness of the heretics themselves, while the latter not only rob the Church of a notable protection, but also draw upon all mortals the most grave and most just anger of the divine majesty.
For there are many things in which the heretics of this time differ from us; many things in our Church, in churches, monasteries, schools, dogmas, rites, and lastly in men of every rank, they find fault with; many things they miss, many they carp at, many they cry out must be amended and corrected; but there is nothing which they shudder at and rage against more than the invocation of the saints, the cult of relics, and the veneration of images. For in these three they will have a manifest impiety and idolatry to be contained. With this one cloak, as it were, they think they cover most honourably their departure from us, that is, their impious separation and defection from the Catholic Church. Under this name they defend their robberies and sacrileges against churches, the plundering of temples, the breaking of images, the slaughter of priests, the profaning of all holy things: because they say that they wage war against idols for the sake of piety. For this very cause they call the most fair censure of the Church, and the pastoral staffs of the bishops, by which their fury is sometimes checked or held back, an impious persecution stirred up as it were against God for the sake of idols. By these chains and fetters, lastly, they hold the provinces and nations deceived by them bound and tied up most tightly.
For so those peoples have been persuaded that we, in place of the living God, worship dead men; in place of the highest and everlasting Spirit, bones and ashes, wood and stones; and this deadly persuasion has gone so deep into their minds that because of it we labour under an unjust, but yet heavy and long-lasting, disgrace among them. And although they sometimes hear many things of the gravity, wisdom, justice and kindness of our men, that is, of Catholics, of their zeal in prayer and their moderation in all things, yet they cannot help at once turning their ears from such talk and turning themselves wholly away, when they call to mind that those of whom such excellent praises are spoken are nevertheless idolaters, and adore the shades of the dead, and corpses, and pictures and statues.
And that I may be more easily believed, and that no one may think I make up anything for the sake of making it greater, I will relate a few things from their books, so that we may have the same men as the heralds and witnesses of their own impiety. First Luther, the standard-bearer and leader of all the sectaries, in the sermon which he published on the cross, pronounces as from the judgment seat: “Since the relics of the saints are nothing else than seductions of the faithful, lest the peoples should henceforth worship strange gods, it pleases him that all such relics be hidden as deep as possible under the earth”; so that, namely, by that means every memory of the apostles and martyrs and other saints on earth may be done away with. The same, in the postil on the Gospel of the Annunciation of the Lord: “The papists,” he says, “make the Virgin Mary God, and ascribe to her omnipotence both in heaven and on earth.” And again: “In the papacy all betook themselves to Mary, and expected more favour and grace from her than from Christ himself.”
Hence Philip Melanchthon, Luther's offspring and his distinguished follower, when in the Commonplaces he was expounding the first precept of the Decalogue and distinguishing certain degrees of sins, and joined us, that is, as he himself speaks, the papists, with the unbelievers, was content with this one reason: that it is the same thing to feign many gods and to invoke dead saints; and that the invocation of saints and the cult of statues do not differ from heathen ways.
Now the Magdeburg Centuriators, after they had put among the foundations of Catholic teaching, in the latter book of the first Century, that the invocation and cult of blessed Mary and of the other saints was not only never approved by the apostles by word or example, but was everywhere condemned and forbidden as manifest idolatry: from then on, in almost every Century, they warn, cry, repeat and press nothing more often than that we do not have the Church, because we have fallen away from the one true God to a multitude of false gods and dumb images. And in the preface of the sixth Century, where they lament most gravely and plainly tragically the state, or rather the fall and ruin, of the Church, which they will have beginning to go wrong in the second and third age, bent and tottering in the fourth and fifth, and in the sixth at last altogether fallen and wretchedly collapsed, they preach so about the cause of so grave a destruction:
“First,” they say, “these horrible and deadly darknesses arose in the very company of the teachers, like certain black clouds filling the whole sky: that the doctors of the Church themselves in part, and in part other superstitious men, increased human ceremonies and worships everywhere in the churches. For sacred buildings began to be built in all places at huge expense, altogether after the manner of the Gentiles; not indeed chiefly for this end, that the word of God might be handed on there, but that some honour might be shown to the relics of the saints, and that foolish men might venerate the dead there. And how eloquent is that Gregory who is called the Great, how ardent, when he dictates as from a tripod the method of consecrating these shrines!” And below: “On that occasion dead creatures too, and bloodless and half-gnawed bones, began to be worshipped, invoked, given divine honour, and prayers to be tied to those very places. To all these things the doctors of the Church not only shut their eyes, but even helped them. Such a calamity and plague of Christ's field, then, was being born in the Church itself, and among those who wished above all to be held the guardians and watchmen of the Church.”
Further, John Calvin, who after many and very grave disputes with his own drew the greatest part of the Lutherans into his nets, and all but won a kind of kingdom among Luther's pastors, in the book which he addressed to the Emperor Charles on the necessity of reforming the Church, says that the first and greatest cause of the dissensions between his side and ours is that his side, that is, all the sectaries of this time, worship one God, while ours, that is, the Catholics, have so divided the offices of God among the saints that they have added them to the supreme God as colleagues, in whose multitude he lies hidden; and that they adore in God's place not only the saints but also their bones, garments, shoes and images. And in the fourth book of the Institutes, chapter 2, going over the causes why he and his people made their departure from us, he puts this first: that they can have no assembly with us in which they would not be defiled by open idolatry. And what idolatry he says flourishes among us can be understood from book 3, chapter 20, where, speaking of the invocation of the saints: “Each,” he says, “has taken to himself his own patron saints, to whose protection they have betaken themselves no otherwise than to tutelary gods; and not only (what the prophet once reproached Israel with) have gods been set up according to the number of the cities, but according to the number of heads.”
I once came upon a man of Calvin's school, who seemed to me otherwise very courteous and candid, and whom I dealt with on friendly terms, that I might call him back from that madness if I could in any way; and I began to ask him what the Calvinists found fault with most in our dogmas, what displeased them most, and what at last was the chief cause why they had departed from the communion of the Church, from obedience to the bishops, from the rest of the company of the faithful, from the footsteps of their forefathers, with so manifest a danger to eternal salvation. He answered that the chief cause was that we invoke the saints in our prayers, and in that way seem to ascribe divinity to them. But these are impostures and most shameless lies. For what Catholic ever made equal to the true God either images of the saints, or the blessed pledges of the saints, or the spirits of the martyrs or apostles, or even of the angels, or lastly the very Queen of heaven, the Mother of God, Mary, in any way?
Who in the Catholic Church offers the sacrifice, which is offered to God alone, to the saints, or to relics, or to images? Do we not by this one outward symbol, even if there were no others, testify openly enough that we embrace in mind and thought one God alone, whom alone we serve with a certain proper and peculiar worship? Do we not openly distinguish between that honour which is owed to God alone, and that cult and veneration which is paid piously and religiously to the friends of God and other holy things for the sake of God himself? But although those things (as we have said) are lies and slanders, yet meanwhile because of those very lies countless peoples, kingdoms, nations, many thousands of souls redeemed by the blood of Christ, lie separated from the body of Christ, and torn off and thrown down like branches from a tree by the force of a storm; and like sheep that have gone out of their fold, they wander on the mountains without any shepherd or protection of a dog, and daily become the prey of hellish wolves.
But since we have said something of the lies and slanders, something too must be said of the insults and outrages. Truly so great is the contempt of all the saints in the books and manners of the heretics, and such horrible blasphemies against all the heavenly ones, that I marvel above all at the patience of the divine majesty. For, to leave aside that the Calvinists rage with such fury against sacred images that in very many places now they have either broken them altogether, or fouled them with mud and filth, or disfigured them by digging out their eyes and cutting off their noses and ears; to say nothing of this, that the very sign of the cross, to be revered by angels, dreadful to demons, saving to the human race, they everywhere throw down, spit upon and trample; to pass over this too, that the blessed bodies of the saints, which the piety of our forefathers had enclosed in cases of gold and silver, and which had been the dwellings and instruments of the Holy Spirit, and which God had often made glorious by signs and wonders, they everywhere dig out, the altars being overturned, consume with flames, and throw into the river; to pass over, I say, all these, and to speak only of the outrages of words: what, I ask, of Erasmus of Rotterdam? Did he not surpass the impiety of Lucian by a long way? For Lucian mocked false and truly ridiculous gods; but this new Lucian treated most insultingly the true citizens of the angels, and the true friends and household of God, as the Apostle speaks.
In the colloquy which he titled The Shipwreck, he brings in one person asking another whether, when the danger of death was upon him, he had begged the help of any saint. The other answers: “Not even that.” “Why so?” he says. “Because heaven is spacious; if I commend my safety to one of the saints, say to Peter, who perhaps will hear first because he stands at the door, before he meets God, before he sets out the case, I shall already have perished.” These are the pleasantries, or rather the sacrilegious jests, of Erasmus. In the same book, altogether after Lucian's manner, he puts the most blessed Virgin Mary in the place of Venus as ruling the sea; and what is it else than to compare that Virgin, whom St. John Chrysostom wrote to be holier and purer than the seraphic spirits, with a most shameless harlot?
What of this, that in the dialogue on the pilgrimage made for religion's sake he did not blush to publish a letter feigned in the name of the Virgin Mary, in which the Mother of Truth herself is brought in as the champion of the false dogmas of Luther? For so that feigned Mary writes to Glaucoplutus: “That you strenuously urge, following Luther, that the invocation of the saints is superfluous, know that you have won great thanks from me for that; for before this I was all but killed by the shameless entreaties of mortals. Everything was asked from me alone, as if my son were always an infant, because he is painted so, and at my breast.” But it irks and shames me to relate more of this kind, with which yet the writings of Erasmus swarm everywhere.
Now Martin Luther, in the sermon on the birthday of the Virgin Mary, made so much of the patronage of the Mother of God that he did not hesitate to say boldly that he values the prayers of blessed Mary no more than those of anyone at all from the people; because we are all equally holy and just as the Virgin Mary herself, and the other saints, however great.
Let Bernard then cease to count up the privileges of Mary. Let Chrysostom no longer say that the Virgin Mother of God is more honourable than the cherubim and beyond compare more glorious than the seraphim. Nor let that saying of Anselm be heard henceforth, that Mary shines with a purity than which under God no greater can be understood; for we are all equally just and holy as the Virgin Mary herself. It profited Mary nothing, then, that she first raised the trophy of virginity, that as a virgin she conceived, bore and brought up God; that as the companion of almost all his journeys, labours, hardships and troubles, she followed him even to the cross, while the disciples fled, and lastly underwent a most bitter martyrdom, the sword of sorrow piercing her heart. For without so many labours we are all equally just and holy as the Virgin Mary herself. Without cause did Peter and Paul and the other apostles travel through the world with so much labour to sow the Gospel; in vain did the martyrs shed their blood for Christ; empty were the vigils, the fasts, the solitudes, the sleeping on the ground, the rough sackcloth, the constant wars with the demons of the holy anchorites; since without so many labours and sweats the Lutherans, resting at home in the lap and embrace of a little wife, well fed and well watered, seize heaven, and are equally holy and just as the Virgin Mary herself, and the other saints, however great.
Let us come to the Magdeburgers; for they are those famous and most religious historians who, in the first book of the first Century, expounding the life of Christ, will have it that blessed Mary sinned so gravely when she lost her son in the temple that they are not only not afraid to compare her sin with that first and gravest sin of Eve, but are not afraid to ask, in doubt, which of the two is graver. The same afterwards, in the latter book of the same Century, ascribe to Peter, the prince of the apostles, fifteen falls and errors, some of which they teach are most worthy of everlasting torments; and not far below they find fault with the apostle Paul because, pressed out of measure in Asia, he despaired of life, and because to please James he kept Jewish ceremonies at Jerusalem, and by that deed confirmed the Jews in error more than he helped the weak brethren. And in the third Century, and in all the following, at the end of chapter 4, they accuse all the Fathers of having brought into the Church by their writings not only unfitting opinions and blemishes, but also errors, and stubble, and smoke; so that, had Luther not carried the torch of doctrine before us and scattered that darkness in time, we should all already have been blinded and choked with the smoke.
What shall we say of that foul and blasphemous Quintin, the father of the Libertines in France, who, as Calvin is the authority, in the instruction against the Libertines, chapter 9, raged so wantonly against all the saints that he called Paul nothing but a broken vessel; John, a silly little youth; Matthew, a usurer; Peter, the denier of Christ?
Further, Calvin, who so severely accuses others of impiety, was himself so pious and religious that, not content with the insults with which he harries all the saints who flourished after the coming of Christ, he stretched the lash of his tongue even to those who went before the coming of the same Saviour by many ages. And so in the books of his Christian Institutes, book 3, chapter 14, section 11, he makes Abraham a worshipper of idols; he says, book 3 of the Institutes, chapter 2, section 31, that Sarah sinned in many ways when she put her handmaid under her husband; and that Rebecca corrupted the truth of God by various frauds and impostures, while by an evil art she procures the blessing for her son, deceives her husband, forces Jacob to lie. Judas Maccabeus, book 3, chapter 5, section 8, he reproves for superstition and misplaced zeal, because he ordered sacrifice to be offered for the dead. Sephora, book 4, chapter 15, section 20, he teaches was a foolish woman and sinned gravely because she circumcised her son. Moses himself, than whom the ancient age had nothing gentler, wiser or holier, Calvin charges, on chapter 32 of Exodus, with arrogance and pride, because namely he prescribed a law to God imperiously and stripped him of his justice.
Now of the holy men of the New Testament, first he jests scurrilously that, if they are to hear the prayers of mortals, they must have ears so long that they reach from heaven to earth. Then he calls the same in contempt now dead men, now shades, now ghosts, now even offscourings, in the Institutes, book 3, chapter 20, section 27. And in the book which he titled On the True Method of Reforming the Church he even called them monsters, executioners and beasts. Than which insult and blasphemy scarcely any greater can be imagined. For what? If one of us called, not Calvin himself, but his wife (for it is wicked among them for a bishop to be made unless he is at least the husband of one wife), if, I say, one of us called Calvin's wife, or children, or friends, or even his men-servants or maid-servants, ghosts, shades, offscourings, beasts, monsters, executioners, with what mind would Calvin take it? Would he not think a wrong was done him? Would he not bear it most unwillingly and most heavily? And will Christ take it calmly that his friends, his household, his most loving brothers and sons, whom he himself honours in heaven with such honour that he says in the Apocalypse, “To him that shall overcome, I will give to sit with me in my throne: as I also have overcome, and am set down with my Father in his throne”: that these, I say, so lofty princes, sharers of the kingdom and of the divine throne, should be named shades, ghosts, offscourings, by one most arrogant little worm of the earth? God surely will not bear it calmly, but will at last visit all such blasphemers and sacrilegious men with eternal punishments.
But we too, if we are fellow citizens of the saints, if we have any zeal for the faith, must be roused and kindled, and, moved strongly by a religious and holy indignation, resist such wicked men most sharply. Let the Lutherans imitate their forefathers, Porphyry, Julian, Vigilantius, Wyclif, and all who ever waged impious wars with the heavenly saints, and, as the fables of the poets tell of the giants, wished to throw down and drag the heavenly ones from their seats. But let us cling to the footsteps of our forefathers, Athanasius, Ambrose, Jerome, Paulinus, Augustine, Gregory; who always strove to imitate religiously the glory of the apostles and martyrs, and to defend their deeds against detractors by disputing with all their strength; and lastly to nourish their memory with sermons, honour it with basilicas, celebrate it with songs, spread it by letters, and consecrate it to eternity. For so it will come about both that those whose crimes these men imitate will be joined with them in the fellowship of the same punishments, and that we may have as companions to the rewards and crowns those whom we have had as leaders to virtue in this pursuit. Now let us come nearer to the matter itself.
The Order of the Disputation
This disputation is contained in twelve chief questions. The first is on the beatitude of the saints: whether the souls of the saints see God and are truly blessed before the day of judgment. For this question is the foundation of all the others; for the reason why before the coming of Christ the spirits of the patriarchs and prophets were not so honoured and invoked as we now honour and invoke the apostles and martyrs is that they were still held shut up in the prisons of hell.
The second, on canonization, which follows in its order that first one on beatitude. For after we have learned that holy men who have finished their life reign blessed with God, we must learn who they are; which indeed we cannot know for certain from any other source than the public testimony of the Church, which we now call canonization.
The third, on cult: for when it has been established who those are who are to be counted among the blessed spirits, it follows that it be asked whether they are to be adored with any kind of adoration.
The fourth, on invocation, which is an excellent kind of adoration.
The fifth, on their relics: whether, namely, not only the spirits of the saints themselves, but also their bodies, or bones and ashes, and other relics of theirs, are to be venerated.
The sixth, on images: whether they are to be honoured, and with what kind of cult.
The seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth, on those things by which cult is paid, not only to the holy men, but to the whole heavenly Jerusalem, by the Church which is a pilgrim on earth: that is, on basilicas, on pilgrimages, on vows, on vigils, on fasts, on feasts.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
IMIAKIATIO
HE
EC(^LI]SI\ TlilUMPILVME
sivi: ru' c.LOKi.v i:t cultu SANr.Toiu':^!
Pcrvcniimis landcm iul ciun Ecclosiac calholiciic
It,irl(!m noslris (lispuUilioiiibusilliislrandnm, alquc
ab hacrelicorum non liun argumcnlis, quam lucn-
(laciis cl ciilumniis viniiicaiidum , (juae in coelo
beala cum rci,'c suo Ciuisto aovo scmpilcrno irui-
lur. Qnamquam enim bealae illae sanclorum an-
ildorum, al(]uc bomiiuun mcnlcs bumana dcren-
sione. pracsidioquc pro sc non circanl. cum in al-
lissimis cl Uilissimis arcibus collocalae de uni-
versis boslibus suis novos quolidie Irinmpbos a-
panl. ac (ul s. loquiUir Cyprianus) prorsus dc sua
fclicilalc securac , soluiu dc uoslra sinl incolu-
inilale sollicilae: IVobis lamcn pcrulile esl , ac, ut
vcrius diciiin , mniUs nomiiiibus ncccssarium. ul
sancloruui jzioriii orl)i lerriuum nola , aUjuc pcr-
specla, et omni idololalriae caligine , quam illi a-
sperjrerc . alqiic olTnndcre conantur bacrclici,
purgala omnino, el libcra emincal atque splen-
deat.
Quia vero non pancgyricam oralionem dc san-
ctorum laudibus instituinius, sed ingrcssus dum-
laxal ad futuram dispuUUionem, nostra bac prae-
faliuncula aperimus, dicam solura, et paucis, de
mcndaciis, el conviciis liacrclicorum in sanctos,
«luoruin, illa ad ipsorum bacrcticorum insaniam
curandam magnum affcrunt impcdiraentum, ista
non solum Ecclesiara insigni palrocinio spoliant,
scd cliam <,'ravissimam, justissimamqnc divini nu-
rninis iram inorlalibus omnibus concilianl.
Elcnim mulla sunl, quibus a nobis hujus tcmpo-
ris bneretici dimdcnt, mulla illi in nostra Ecclcsia.
tcmplis, monasleriis, gyinnasiis, dogmaUbus, riU-
bus, homiuibus dcniquc omnium ordinum reprfi-
hcndunt, mulla dcsidcrant, muHa carpunt, mulUi
cmcndanda el corrigcnda csse clamilant: sed ni-
hil cst, qnod cxhorrcant. el cxercenlur magis,
quam invocalionem sanclorum. rcliquiarum cul-
lum, imatrinum veneralionem. His cnim tribus ma-
nifcstam 'impietatem et idololatriam conlineri vol-
lunt. Hoc uno veluli pallio disccssioncm suam a
iiobis, hoc est, impiam ab Ecclesia catholica sepn-
ralionem el dcfc. lionem . honesUssime tegere se
arbiiranlur. Hoc silo nomine latrocinia sua. et sa-
crilegia in Ecclesias, tcmplorum dircpuones. ima-
ginum confractioncs. sacerdolum cacdcs. sarro-
rum omnium profanaliones, defcndunt^. quod se
bcllum ccrcrc contra idola pro piclalc dicant. IJac
ipsa de^caussa censuram aequissimam hcclcsiac.
et paslorales baculos epis.-oporum. quibus iniei-
dum ipsorutn furor reprimilur, vcl relardalur. im-
piam persequuUonem.quasi advcrsns Ueum pro
idolis excitatam nominanl: bis dcniquc vincuU>.
et compedibus provincias, et naliones a se decc-
plas arclissime irrelilas, el conslnclas lcncpi.
416
PIIAEFATIO
Sic enim populis illis persuasum est, nos pro
Deo vlvcntc mortuos horaines: pro summo ct sem-
piterno spiritu ossa et cineres, lingua ct lapides
colere; et lam alte mentes corum perniciosa haec
persuasio penetravit. ul proplerea injusla quidem,
sed tamen gravi. diuturnaque apud eos iaborcmus
inramia. Et licet mulla interdum de noslrorum,
hoc est, catholicorum hominum gravitale, sapien-
tia, justilia, benignitate, de studio precandi, de
moderaiione in rebus omnibus audiant, non que-
ant, lamen non conlinuo ab ejusmodi sermonibus
aurcs removere, seque totos averlere, cum ad me-
moriam revocanl de quibus tam eximiae laudes
praedicantur , eos nihilominus idololalras esse ,
defunctorum manes, et cadavera, piclurasque el
slaluas adorare.
Atquc ut fidcs mihi facilius habeatur. neque rac
(luisquam aiigendi gratia nngere aliquid arbitre-
lur. referam pauca de libris eorum, ut ipsos eos-
dem suae impietalis praecones, ac testes habea-
mus. Priinum Lutherus sectariorum omniura ante-
signanus el princeps , in eo sermone, quem de
cruce cdidit. lamquam ex tribunaii pronunciat:
QiLoniaDi reliquao sanctoram nihil sunt aliud,
quani fidelium seductioncs, nc deinceps populi
Dcos alicnos colant, placere sibi, ut omnes ejus-
niodi reliquiae altissime sub lerram abscondan-
tur: ut ea ralione videlicet omnis apostolorura et
■juartyrum, aliorumque sanctorum in terris mcmo-
ria aboleatur. Idcm in postilla ad evangelium do-
minicae Annunciationis: Papistae, inquit, virgi-
7iem Mariam Deum conslituunt, omnipotentiam
el in coelo, et in terra attribuunt. Et rursum: In
papatu onmes se ad Mariam contulerunt, et
ptus favoris, el gratiae ab ea exspectarunt,
quam a Cliristo ipso.
Hinc Philippus Melanchlhon Lulheri proles, et
sectator egregius, cum in locis coramunibus pri-
mum decaiogi pracceptura exponeret, et gradus
quosdam peccatorum dislinguerct, nosque, hoc
est, ul ipse loquitur, papistas, cum infidelibus
jungeret, hac una ratione contentus fuit, quod
idem fit, fingere multos Deos, et sanctos mortuos
invocare; nec differanl ab cthnicis moribus invo-
catio sanctorura, et statuarum cullus.
Jam vero Magdeburgenses Centurialores, post-
eaquam in posteriori primae Centuriae libro inter
fundamenta doctrinae catliolicae posuerunt, b.Ma-
riae, aliorumque sanctorum invocationem, etcul-
lum ab apostolis non solum verbo aut exeraplo
nuraquara approbatum, sed etiam ut manifestam
idololatriam passira reprobatum fuisse, atque in-
terdicturn. Inde postea in singulis fere Centuriis
nihil saepius monet , clamant, repetunt, incul-
cant, quam nos Ecclesiam non habere, quod ab
uno vero Deo ad falsorum deorum iimltitudincra,
et simulacra raula defeceritnus. In praefatione ve-
ro sextae Cenluriae, ubi graviter admodum et pla-
ne tragicc deploranl slatum, sive casum polius, et
ruinam Eeclesiae, quam secundo el tcrtio saeculo
vitium facere incipienlem, ({uarto et quinlo incli-
natam el nutantem. scxto dcmum penilus corru-
isse, miserequc collapsam csse vuluut, de caussa
tam gravis exlcrminii ita concionantur,
In primis, inquiunl, istae horribiles et perni-
ciosac tenebrde in ipso docentium coeiu, quasi
nubes quaedam atrae, totum coelum occupan-
tesexortac sunt-.quod caeremonias cultusque Jm-
manos partim ipsimet doctores Ecclesiae, par-
tim vero alii superstiliosi homines passim in
iemplis auxerunt. I\am aedes sacrae omnibus in
locis exstrui coeperunt ingentibus sumptibus,
prorsus gentilium more? Non quidem principa-
liter eo fine, ut ibi verbum Dei traderetur, sed
ut reliquiissanctorum aliquis honorexhiberetur,
utque ibi defunctos stolidi hornines veneraren-
tur. Quam vero facundus est Gregorius ille, ma-
gnus appellatus, quam ardens, quando ratio-
nem consecrandi isla fana veluti ex tripode
dictat. Et infra: Coeperunt ea occasione etiam
defunctae creaturae, atque exanguia, et scmi-
corrosa ossa coli, invocari, honori divino alfici,
et alligari ad illa ipsa loca preces. Ad ista o-
mnia non modo connivebant Ecclesiae doctores,
sed etiam ea adjuvabanl. Ejusmodi igitur cata-
mitas et pestis fundi ChiHsti. in ipsa Ecclesia et
intcr eos, qui ctistodes et vigiles Ecclesiae prae-
cipue volebant pcrhiberi nascebatur.
Porro Joannes Calvinus,qui post raultas, gravis-
simasque cum suis disceptationes , maximara par-
lem Lutheranorum in sua retia pertraxit.et lantum
non regnum aliquod inler Lutheri pastores obti-
nuit , i'n eo libro, quem de reforraandae Ecclesiac
necessitate ad iraperatorem Carolum inscripsit ,
primam el maximam dissensionum caus^am inter
suos et nostros esse dicil, quod sui,hoc ost,omnes
hujus temporis seclarii unum Deum colant,nostri,
hoc est , catholici , sic inlcr sanolos distribuerint
Dei officia, ut summo Deo, tamquam collegas, eos
addiderint,in quorum multitudine delitescat;quod-
que non solura sanctos loco Dci adorent, sed et-
iam ipsorum ossa , vestes , calceos et simulacra.
In libro vero Institutionis quarto cap. 21. caussas
recenses,cur a nobis discessionem cum suis fece-
rit, illam in primis ponit , quod nullum nobiscum
convenlum habere possint , in quo aperta idolola-
Iria non polluantnr. Quam autem apud nos vigere
idololatriara dicat, ex cap. 20. lib. 3. potest inteU
ligi , ubi de sanctorum invocatione loquens : Sin-
guli, inquit, peculiaros sibi divos asciverunt, in
quorum , non secus atque tutelarium deoriim .
fidem se contulerunt : iMeque modo ( quod olim
Isrlieli exprobrabat propheta ) secundum nume-
rum urbium dii sunt erecti, sed secundum capi-
tum mullitudinem.
Incidi aliquando in hominem de schola Calvini,
qui cum mihi alioqui perhumanus et candidus vi-
deretur, eoque uterer familiariter , ut eum , si quo
modo possem, ab illa insania revocarem , coepi ab
eo quaerere,quid in nostris dogmatibus Caivinistae
potissiraura reprehenderent.quidve eis maxime di-
sphcerel, et quae tandem praecipue esset caussa ,
cur ab Ecclesiae communione , ab episcoporum
obedientia , a reliquo coelu fidcliura , a majorum
suorum vcstiaiis, cum tani manifesto salutis aeter-
nae periculo discesserint ? Respoodebat ille , eam
esse caussampraeci|>uam,quod nos sanclos m pre-
cibqs invocaremus , quod(iue eo modo divmitateni
IMIVKKAIIO
411
ridrttiis :il1lii^MTrinus. Al liai^ itiiposUirai! , iiiciulii-
('iiu|ii(i iiii|)iiili>iilissiiiia Miiil. I.Miis niiiii (.iilliiilico-
ruin iiiii|uain iinl vern Dco , vcl iinii^inc.s •tiirruH ,
vi>l hi-ala saiirloriiin pi^niora , vcl iii.irlyriiin , aiil
aposloloriiin, atil (;tiaiii aii|^i'liiriiiii spiriius, iiiil i
jisiiin (loiiKpu; (Mioli n>|^Miiaiii,l)('i(pi«; parciilcin .Ma-
rniiii iilli) iMoilo ai*(piiivil?
Oiiis iii (-alliolica Kcclcsiii sacrillciiiin. (pioil tiiii
(Idlicliir hco, vcl saiiclis, vcl rclnpiiis , vcl iiiiai.,'1-
iiihiis olilttltt ? [\oiiiio luic uiu) cMeriio syiiiliolo ,
(piaiiilo iiiilla c\slarciit alia, salis apcrlc lcstainiir,
iios aiiiiiio (|iioipio ct co^italioiii' iiiiiiiii i)uoin coiti-
plccii, riipu) soli proprio (pu>(liini,i'l puciiliiiri ciil-
lu scrviro ? Noiiik* apcrlc ilisliii^,'iiiiiuis iitlcr (>tiiii
lioiiorcin, (pii soli Dco <l(>licliir , ct ciiiii ciilliitn ac
vcn«M'alioiKMii, (pia«! Dci aiiiicis, altisipu; sacns r(5-
luis, pr()ptcr ipstitii Ucuiii. pi«; rclinioscMpic tribni-
lur? Scd liccl illa ( iit (lixiiiius ) iiKMKlacia , caltiin-
iiiitC(]U(; siiil . iiilcriiii laiiKMi ot) ca ips.t iiKMiilaiMa
iniiuntcrnhilcs poptiii, rc^Mta, iiationcs, inulta inil-
lia aiiintartiin ('.lirisli saii<i;iiiitc rcilcinptariiin , a
(lliristt corpore separata , cl lanupiaiii raiiii ab ar-
boro vi lempcslalis avulsi et ili.sjecli jaceiil, cl in-
star ovitini , «piae ah ovili stio e^^ressai; , siiic iillo
paslontiit . caituinvc pracsiilio iii itionlihus va},'an-
ttir. iiilernaliiitii luporutit (|uoli(iio [iraeda riiiiil.
Scd «inoniain aliipiiii di.xiinus dc nietidaciis ct
caltininiis.de conviciis et conluineliis aliipiid eliam
<liceiuluni erit. Saiie tanliis est in libris cl itiori-
hushaerclicorum sanctorum omnium contemplus,
lam(]ue Itorribiles iit oniiies coeliles blaspliemiac,
iit et,'o liine potissimiim vehcmeiiter admircr divini
iiumiiiis palientiam. Nam.ul omillam.quod iii ima-
ginos sacras tanto liirore (^alvinislae dehacchan-
lur . ul eas plurimis jam in locis aut pcnilus con-
Iregerint , aul coeno et sordibus focdaverinl , aut
«culis effossis.naribusquc el auribus Iruncalis de-
formaverint, ul nihil cliam dicam,quod ipsum cru-
cis signum an^elis rovercndum,dacmonibus formi-
(iolosum , liumano gcneri salulare , ubique dejici-
unt, conspuuitl, proeulcant, ut illud quoque prae-
teream,quod beala corpora sanctorum.quac majo-
riim nostrorum pictas Ihecis aurcis , alquc argen-
teis incluseral, quaeque domicilia et organa Spiri-
tus sancti fuerant.ct qiiae Deiis signis el prodigiis
sacpius illuslraveral. ipsi ubique allaribus eversis
eirodiunl. flammis absumunl, in profluentem abji-
ciunt. Ut isla. inquam, omnia praelermittam,et so-
hun de contumeliis verborum loquar:Quid,quaeso,
Erasmus Koterodamus, an non Luciani impielatein
longo intervallo superavit ? Ille enim Deos falsos ,
vereque ridiculos irrisil:Al novus isle Lucianus ve-
ros angelorum cives, verique Dei amicos et dome-
sticos , ut aposiolus loquiiur , conlumeliosissime
Iraclavit.
In colloquio, quod inscripsit, Naufragium.quen-
dam inlroducit alteruin interrogantem , an immi-
nente mortis periculo imploraverit alicujus divi
praesidium? Uespondet ille:A'e id quidem. Quam-
obrem autem? inquit, quia spatiosum eat coe-
lum ; si cui divorum commendavero salulem
mcam . puta Petro , quia fortasse prius audiel ,
quod adest oslio.priusquam ille couveniat Deum:
priusquam exponat caussam , ego jam periero.
Isll siint lcpidi . vcl «lacrilr^»! potius KrahUii joci.
Iii codctii (iiiiiii lilito, iiiort! prorhiis I.u(M.iiii:o,h<>a
lis;<iinuin Vir^iiiciii Miiriaiii lii iiinriH |irai;recluru Vc-
itcii >^iihsliliiit ; cl aiiMis i'ht lioiiK) (iirf^iiiiiiiis Vir-
^iiiciii illain, ipiiiiii s. Joiiniic^ (ilirysosluiiiun %>'.ra-
pliiiMs Hpirilihti^ Siiii(!lior<'iii ct piiriomii khho vc-
MsMiiic, .scripsil , «iiiii iinp(iris>iiiiii iiierclrii:<: con-
fcrr(;?
(,||ikI, (piod in dinlo^'o de penrtsrinatione n'li^'io-
iiis er^o, cpistolaiii conlictiiiii iioiiiiik'. Vir^rints .Ma-
ri.ic cdcre noii cnihiiil , (piii ips.i >liitcr \ (•ritalis
l.ilsoniin do^iii.iliiiii Lutlicri iiin ior inlroiliKMlur ?
Sic cniin llcla illa .Maria ad (ilaiKMipltiliiin scnhit:
i}Ui)d , iiiquit . I.iitlwruin ticculus slrciiui' Hiuides
^uiwrvacaiwuin c.s.se inviiniri: iIivds . a iin: qui-
dcin islo nominc. Iiitnnm mdiinainquc iiratiain tc.
inissc sc.ito ; narn antcluic, tantum non cnccahnr
iiniirohis morlnlinm i)}t]>lor(ilionilius..\h unajir.'
tchanlnr omnia^quiisi liliiis in<'ns scinjic.r infanK
c.sset , quia talis fin<iilur , piniiituniue in siuH
vwo. Sed pigel iiic, «mmIc, . pud(:I()iK; l,'iliii refcrre ,
quibus laiiien undiipie scatcnt Krasini lucuhra-
liones.
Jaiii vcro Martintis Liillienis in sermone de natii-
li die Virginis Miiriae.tiinli fecil patrocinium .>Lilris
Dei , ul auditclcr dicere non dubiliiveril , se non
pluris aestimare preces b. Mariae,quain cujiislihel
e populo; proplerea qiind omnes siinus aefpie san-
cli et jusli atque ipsa Virgo Maria, caeterique divi,
quamlumvis niagni.
Desinal ergo Bernardits Mariae pracrogalivas
enumerarc. Non dical amplius Chrysostomus. Vir-
ginein deiparam cherubin esse honoriitioreiii , ct
scrapliin incomparahililer gloriosiorem..\e(|ue vox
illa Anselini deinceps audiatur:ea purilalc .Hiiriam
iiilere,(iiia major suh Deo nequit inlelligi; niim o-
miies siimus acque justi et sancli atqtie ipsa Virgi)
Maria. Niliil ergo Mariae profciil . quod priiiia tro-
phaeum virginitatis ere.vit, quod Deuin Virgo con-
cepit, peperit, educavit; quod omnium pene itine-
ruin , laborum, aerumnaruin et molestiarum ejus
comes , ad crucem usque , discipulis fugienlibus ,
ipsum sequuta,marlyrium denique acerbissimum ,
doloris gladio viscera ejus penetrante , suscepit.
Kain sine lol laboribus omnes sumus aeque justi et
Siincti alque ipsa Virgo Maria. Sine caussa Pelrus
el Paulus.caeterique aposloli tanto labore ad evan-
gelium disseminandum orbem lerrarum peragra-
runt : fruslra martyres sanguinem suum pro Chri-
slo fuderunt; inanes vigiliae , jejunia. soliludines,
liumi cubiitiones, horridi sacci , assidua cum dae-
monibus bella sanctorum aiiachorelarum fuerunt,
quoniam sine lot laboribus et sudoribus , Lulhe-
rani quiescenles domi in u.vorculae sinu et com-
l)Iexu, bene pasti . beneque poti , coelum rapiunt,
et aeque sancli et jusli sunt atque ipsa Virgo .Ma-
ria, caeterique divi, quantumvis magoi.
Veniainus ad Magdeburgenses ; ipsi enim sunt
praeclari illi, religiosissimique historici , qui in
priore bbro primae Centuriae , dum Chrisli vitam
exponunt, b. 3Iariam usque adeo graviter deliquis-
se volunt, cum filium in teinplo araisit. ut ejus pec-
calum cum illo primo et gravissimo Evae peccato
noii solum comparare nun melujut , sed etiam u-
ilS
PUAEIATIO
Iruiii sil gravius, quacreie ehiubilare non verean-
tur. Ideni poslea in posleriore ejusdem Cenluriae
libro,Pelroapostoloruui principi quindecim lapsus,
el orrata tribuunl, quorum aliqua sempilernis cru-
ciatibus dip;uissima esse docenl: nec muUo infra ,
aposlolum Paulum reprehendunl, quod in Asla su-
pra niodum gravatus. de vila desperaverit, quod-
que in graliam Jacobi judaicas caeremonias Hicro-
solymis observaverit, et eo faclo magis Judaeos in
errore conrirmaverit, quam imbecilles fratrcs ad-
juverit. In terlia vcroCenluria , et sequenlibus o-
miiibus, ad finem capilis quarli, Palres omnes ac-
cusanl, quod non opiniones lanlum incommodas,
el naevos, sed eliam errores, el stipulas, et fumos
iii Ecclesiam scriplis suis invexerint , adeo ut nisi
Lulherus facem nobis doclrinae praelulissel , cali-
giiiemque illam lempeslive dissipasset, jam fumo
excaecali, enectique omnes essemus.
Quid de Quinlino illo impuro et blasphemo, Li-
berlinorum in Galliis parente dicemus, qui, ut Cal-
vinus auctor est, inslructione conlra liberlinos c.O.
adeo petiilanter in sanctos omnes debacchabalur,
ulPaulum aliter non appellaret, quam vas conlra-
clum; Joannem, juvenem stolidulum: Matlhaeum ,
foeneratorcm; Petrum, Christi abnegatorem?
Porro Calvinus, qui tam severe alios arguit im-
pietatis, tam fuit ipse plus et religiosus , ut non
conlentus iis couviciis, quibus sauctos omnes ve-
xat, qui posl Christi adventum floruerunt,8tiam ad
eos linguae suae flagellum extendcrit , qui mullis
saeculis ejusdem Salvaloris advenlum praecesse-
runt. Itaque in libris chrislianae suae inslilulionis
lib. 3. cap. 14. § 11. Abrahamum idolorum culto-
rem facit; Saram lib. 3. Inslilut. cap. 2. § 31.mul-
tis modis peccasse dicit , cum ancillam viro suo
supposuil;Rebeccam vero variis fraudibus et impo-
sturis Dei veritatem corrupisse, dum malo arlificio
filii benedictionem procurat, maritum decipil, Ja-
cobum mentiri cogil. Judam Machabaeum lib. 3.
cap. 5. §8. superslilionis el praeposleri zeli repre-
hendil, quod pro mortuis sacrificium olTerri impe-
raverit. Sephoram lib. 4. cap. 15. § 20. stultam
mulierem fuisse, graviterque peccasse docel, quod
lilium circuraciderit. Moyseni ipsum, in caput. 32.
Exod. quo nihil habuit antiqua aetas mitius.sapien-
lius, sanctius,arrogantiaeatque superbiae Calvinus
insimulat, quod nimirum ii.iperiose legcm Dco
praescripserit, suaque eum justitia exuerit.
Jam vero de sanctis hominibus Testamenti novi,
priraum scurriliter nugatur, eos, si preces morla-
lium exaudire debeant,lain longas aures haberc o-
portere, uL a coelo usque ad terram porriganlur.
Deinde eosdem per conlemptum , nunc hominv-^s
morluos, nunc umbras , nunc hirvas , nunc eliam
<;olluviem nominat, in Inslilulione lib. 3. cap. 20.
§ 27. In libro aulein, quem inscripsit, de vera Ec-
clesiae reformandae ratione, etiarn monslra, carui-
fices et beslias appellavil. (^Mia contuinelia et bla-
sphemia vix ulla major cogilari potest.Quid euim?
si non Calvinum ipsum, sed conjugem ejus (nefas
enim npiid eos est episcopum creari , nisi unius
sallem uxoris virum) si conjugem , inquira Calvi-
ni. aut liberos, aut ainicos . aut etiam servos, vel
ancillas, aliquis nostrum !arvas,urabras,colluviem,
bestias, rnonslra, carniOces appellarel, quo nnimo
id Calvinus acciperel? An sibi injuriam fieri non
arbitrarelur? Numquid non raolestissime, gravissi-
meque ferrel? et Christus aequo animo accipiel ,
aiiiicos. domesticos, fratres filiosque suos aman-
lissimos, quos ipse in coelis tanto honore digna-
lur. ul in apocalypsi dical: Si quis vicerit , dabo
ei sedpve in Ihrono meo, siciU ego vici et sedi
in throno Patris mei; hos, iuquam, lam sublimes
prin(;ipcs, consorles regni et solii divini, umbras,
larvas, culluviem, ab uno quodam arrogantissimo
terrae vermiculo nominari ? Non feret certe aequo
aniinoDeus, sed omnes ejusmodi blasphemos at-
que sacrilegos, aeternis suppliciis landem afficiel.
Scd et nos, si cives sanctorum suinus, si ullum
habemus fidei zelum, excitcmur, atque accenda-
mur oporlet, el religiosa, piaque indignalione ve-
liemenler commoli tam nefariis hominibus acerri-
me resistamus: ImitenturLulherani majores suos,
Porphyrium, Julianum, Vigilanlium, Wiclefum, el
quotquot unquam cum coeleslibus divis impia bel-
la gosserunl, etutfabulae poelarum de gigantibus
ferunt, de suis sedibus coelites deturbare ac de-
trahere voluerunl. Nos vero majorum noslrorum ,
Athanasii.Ambrosii. Hieronymi, Paulini.Anguslini,
Gregnrii vesligiis inhaereamus. Qui quidcm apo-
stolorum clinarlyrum gloriam religiose aemulari,
ct res gestas contra delractores pro viribus disse-
rendo iueri; ei memoriam denique sermonibus ale-
re basilicis honorare.carminibus celebrare, literis
propagare. et consecrare aeternitali semper slu-
ducrunl. Ita enimfiet, ut et illi, quorum imitanlur
scelera, carundem cum illis poenarum socielatc
iunfjaiilur: etnos, quos in hoc sludio ad virtulem
"habuimus duces, eosdem ad praemia el coronas
socios habeamus. INunc ad rera ipsam accedamus
propius.
Ordo disputationis.
Hnec disputalio duodecim praecipuis quaeslio-
nibus continelur. Prima est de sanclorum beatilu-
dine, an snnctorum animae D.nim videant, el vere
bealae sint ante diem judicii. Haee enim quaeslio
fundamenlum est omnium aliarum , nam idcirco
ante Chrisli adventum non ila colebanlur, neque
invocabanlur spirilus patriarcharum et prophela-
rum, quemadmodum nunc aposlolos et marlyres
coiimus et invocamus, quod illi adhucinferni car-
ceribus clausi delinerenlur.
Secunda de canonizalione, quae sequitur ordme
suoprimam illam de bcalitudiue.Posteaquam enm»
didicerimns, sanctos homines vila funclos cum
Deo beatos regnare, discendnm erit, qui smt illi:
quod quidem non aliunde certo scire possumus ,
quam ex publico Ecclesiae lcslimonio, quod cano-
nizalionem nunc appellamus. ...
Tertia de cullu. ubi enim conslilerit qui sint u ,
qui inler bentos spirilusnumerandi sunt. sequitur,
ut quaeratur, an ii sint adorandi ullo genere ado-
rationis. . . ,
Quarta de invocatione, quae est eximmm adora-
lionis genus.
Quirila de reliquiis eorum , utrum videlicet no
I>H\I1 MIO
4t'J
sdliMii ipsi siiiiclnruiii hpiriliis, scil (■li.iiii i-()i'|)urii ,
srii ossii tit ciuorcs, tiliiii'(|(ii! ciiriiiti rclii|iiiiii* vu-
iicratKliK* sliil.
Scxlii (lc iiiiii};iiiil>Ks, iiii (-(ilciiiliii; siiit, cl (|iiii
i-iilliis ^'ciicrc.
So|>liiiiii, »111. I\. \. \l cl \ll do iis rchii.s ,
(|llit)IIS IKlll IIKIild Hlltirlis llOI||i||i|jU<i , Sl ll Cliullj
Idli iiiclcsii llicrusalciii ul) KcclvNiii,quu«; |)crcgii
iLiliir iti li-rris. i-(iliiis ilrliiins ctluhclur: idcsi, ilc
li.isiluis. ilc |irri-;.'iiiiiilK)iiil>(is,(l(: M)lis.(lc M(;iliiit,
(lc jcjuiiiis, dc frsli ..
i
Lll!i:i! I>I!IMIS
1)1! IIKVnTlilll^li KT (lM()^l/,\TIII\li si.\i;t(iiii.\i