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TREATISE 
 
 RIGHT USE OF THE FATHERS 
 
 Derision of Conlroteb 
 
 EXISTING AT THIS DAY IN RELIGION. 
 
 By JOHiA)AILLE, 
 
 MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL IN THE REFORMED CHURCH OF FARIS. 
 
 t-r. 
 
 WITH A 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 BY THE REV. G. JEKYLL, LL.B. 
 
 SECOND AMERICAN EDITION, 
 
 REVISED AND CORRECTED BY THE EDITOR OF THE BOARD. 
 
 .OPYRIc>y; 
 
 ^AvuA 11) 
 
 PHILADELPHIA f 
 
 PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION, 
 No. 265 Chestni i Street. /SJ/P 
 

 Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by 
 
 JAMES DUNLAP, Treas. 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern 
 District of Pennsylvania. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Editor's Preface 9 
 
 Preface by M. Daille 17 
 
 Dedication 22 
 
 BOOK I 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 On the Difficulty of ascertaining the Opinions of the Fathers in 
 reference to the present Controversies in Religion, deduced from 
 the fact that there is very little of their Writings extant of the 
 first three Centuries 25 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Those Writings which we have of the Fathers of the first Centuries, 
 treat of matters far different from the present Controversies in 
 Religion 32 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Those Writings which bear the names of the ancient Fathers, arc 
 not all really such; but a great portion of them supposititious and 
 forged, either long since or at later periods 3G 
 
(i CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Writings of the Fathers, which are considered legitimate, have 
 boon in many places corrupted by time, ignorance and fraud, 
 pious and malicious, both in the early and later Ages 61 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Writings of the Fathers are difficult to be understood, on ac- 
 count of the Languages and Idioms in which they wrote, and the 
 manner of their Writing, which is encumbered with rhetorical 
 flourishes, and logical subtleties, and with terms used in a sense 
 far different from what they now bear 101 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Fathers frequently conceal their own private Opinions, and 
 say what they did not believe; either in reporting the Opinion 
 of others, without naming them, as in their Commentaries ; or 
 disputing against an Adversary, where they make use of what- 
 ever they are able ; or accommodating themselves to their Audi- 
 tory, as may be observed in their Homilies 136 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Fathers have not always held the same doctrine; but have 
 changed some of their Opinions, according as their judgment 
 has become matured "by study or age. » 156 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 It is necessary, but nevertheless difficult, to discover how the 
 Fathers held all their several Opinions ; whether as necessary, or 
 as probable only ; and in what degree of necessity or probabil- 
 ity 162 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 We ought to know what were the Opinions, not of one or more of 
 tlir. Fathers, but of the whole ancient Church; which is a very 
 difficult matter to discover 177 
 
CONTENTS. 7 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 It is very difficult to ascertain whether the Opinions of the Fathers, 
 as to the Controversies of the present day, were received by the 
 Church Universal, or only by some portion of it; this being neces- 
 sary to be known, before their sentiments can be adopted.. . 184 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 It is impossible to know exactly what was the belief of the ancient 
 Church, either Universal or Particular, as to any of those poinds 
 which are at this day controverted amongst us 192 
 
 BOOK IT. 
 
 THE FATHERS ARE NOT OF SUFFICIENT AUTHORITY FOR DECIDING 
 CONTROVERSIES IN RELIGION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Testimonies given by the Fathers, on the Doctrines of the 
 Church, are not always true and certain 206 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The Fathers testify themselves, that they are not to be believed 
 absolutely, and upon their own bare Assertion, in what they 
 declare in matters of Religion 216 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Fathers have written in such a manner, as to make it clear 
 that when they wrote they had no intention of being our author- 
 ities in matters of Religion; as evinced by examples of their 
 mistakes and oversights 247 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Fathers have erred in divers points of Religion; not only 
 singly, but also many of them together 270 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Fathers have strongly contradicted one another, and have 
 maintained different Opinions in matters of very great import- 
 ance 327 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Neither the Church of Rome nor the Protestants acknowledge the 
 Fathers for their Judges in points of Religion; both of them 
 rejecting such of their Opinions and Practices as are not suited 
 to their taste; being an answer to two Objections that may be 
 made against what is delivered in this Discourse 340 
 
PREFACE 
 
 BY THE REV. G. JEKYLL, LL.B. 
 
 "'The authority of the Fathers (says Bishop Warburton, 
 in his Introduction to Julian,) had for many ages been 
 esteemed sacred. These men, by taking the Greek Philo- 
 sophers to their assistance, in explaining the nature and 
 genius of the gospel, had unhappily turned religion into an 
 art; and their successors the schoolmen, by framing a body 
 of theology out of them, instead of searching for it in the 
 Scriptures, soon after turned it into a trade. But (as in all 
 affairs where reason does not hold the balance) that which 
 had been extravagantly advanced, was, on the turn of the 
 times, as extravagantly undervalued. It may not therefore 
 be amiss to acquaint the English reader, in few words, how 
 this came to pass. 
 
 "When the avarice and ambition of the Romish clergy 
 had, by working with the superstition and ignorance of the 
 people, erected what they call their hierarchy, and digested 
 an ecclesiastical policy on the ruins of gospel liberty, for 
 the administration of it they found nothing of such use for 
 the support of this lordly system, as the making the autho- 
 2 
 
10 PREFACE. 
 
 rity of the Fathers sacred and decisive. For having intro- 
 duced numerous errors and superstitions, both in rites and 
 doctrine, which the silence and the declarations of Scripture 
 equally condemned, they were obliged to seal up those liv- 
 ing oracles, and open this new warehouse of the dead. 
 And it was no wonder if in that shoal of writers (as a poet 
 of our own calls it) which the great drag-net of time hath 
 inclosed, and brought down to us, under the name of Fathers, 
 there should be some amongst them of a character suited to 
 countenance any kind of folly or extravagance. The deci- 
 sions of the Fathers, therefore, they thought fit to treat as 
 laws, and to collect them into a kind of code, under the title 
 of the Sentences. 
 
 "From this time everything was tried at the bar of the 
 Fathers; and so unquestioned was their jurisdiction, that 
 when the great defection was made from the Church of 
 Eome back again to the Church of Christ, the Reformed, 
 though they shook off the tyranny of the Pope, could not 
 disengage themselves from the unbounded authority of the 
 Fathers; but carried that prejudice with them, as they did 
 some others of a worse complexion, into the Protestant reli- 
 gion. For in sacred matters, as novelty is suspicious, and 
 antiquity venerable, they thought it for their credit to have 
 the Fathers on their side. They seemed neither to consider 
 antiquity in general as a thing relative, nor Christian anti- 
 quity as a thing positive : either of which would have shown 
 them that the Fathers themselves were modern, compared 
 to that authority on which the Reformation was founded; 
 and that the gospel was that true antiquity on which all its 
 followers should repose themselves. The consequence of 
 which unhappy error was, that, in the long appeal to reason, 
 between Protestants and Papists, both of them going on a 
 common principle, of the decisive authority of the Fathers, 
 
PREFACE. 11 
 
 the latter were enabled to support their credit against all the 
 evidence of common sense and sacred Scripture. 
 
 "At length an excellent writer of the Reformed, observ- 
 ing that the controversy was likely to be endless; for though 
 the gross corruptions of Popery were certainly later than 
 the third, fourth, and fifth centuries, to which the appeal 
 was usually made, yet the seeds of them being then sown, 
 and beginning to pullulate, it was but too plain there was 
 hold enough for a skilful debater to draw the Fathers to his 
 own side, and make them water the sprouts they had 
 been planting : observing this, I say, he wisely projected to 
 shift the ground, and force the disputants to vary their 
 method, both of attack and defence. In. order to this he 
 composed a discourse of the True Use of the Fathers; in 
 which, with uncommon learning and strength of argument, 
 he showed that the Fathers were incompetent deciders of 
 the controversies now on foot; since the points in question 
 were not formed into articles till long after the ages in 
 which they lived. This was bringing the Fathers from the 
 bench to the table; degrading them from the rank of 
 judges into the class of simple evidence; in which, too, 
 they were not to speak, like Irish evidence, in every cause 
 where they were wanted, but only to such matters as were 
 agreed to be within their knowledge. Had this learned 
 critic stopped here, his book had been free from blame ; 
 but at the same time his purpose had in all likelihood 
 proved very ineffectual; for the obliquity of old prejudices is 
 not to be set straight by reducing it to that line of right 
 which barely restores it to integrity. He went much 
 further; and by showing, occasionally, that they were 
 absurd interpreters of holy writ ; that they were bad 
 reasoners in morals, and very loose evidence in facts; he 
 seemed willing to have his reader infer, that evegi though 
 
12 PREFACE. 
 
 they had been masters of the subject, yet these other 
 defects would have rendered them very unqualified de- 
 ciders. 
 
 k - However, the work of this famous foreigner had great 
 consequences; and especially with us here at home. The 
 more learned amongst the nobility (which, at that time, 
 was of the republic of letters,) were the first who emanci- 
 pated themselves from the general prejudice. It brought 
 the excellent Lord Falkland to think moderately of the 
 Fathers, and to turn his theological inquiries into a more 
 useful channel; and his great rival in arts, the famous Lord 
 Digby, found it of such use to him, in his defence of the 
 Reformation against his cousin Sir Kenelm, that he has 
 even epitomized it in his fine letter on that subject. But 
 what it has chiefly to boast of is, that it gave birth to the 
 two best defences ever written on the two subjects, religion 
 and liberty: I mean Mr. C hilling worth' s Religion of Pro- 
 testants, and Dr. Jer. Taylor's Liberty of Prophesying. In 
 a word, it may be truly said to be the storehouse from 
 w r hence all who have since written popularly on the charac- 
 ter of the Fathers, have derived their materials." 
 
 Deeply impressed with the sound views taken by the 
 acute and learned bishop, and believing that this work may 
 be very useful in this age of the Church, when the simple 
 doctrines of our most holy religion bid fair to be made of 
 none effect by tradition, the editor ventures to introduce it, 
 in a corrected and amended state, to the notice of the 
 public. 
 
 Jean Daille, one of the most learned divines of the seven- 
 teenth century, was born at Chatelleraut, in Poitou, January 
 6th, 1594. Having been designed by his father, who was 
 receiver of consignments at Poitiers, to succeed him in his 
 business, his early education was neglected; but his natural 
 
PREFACE. 13 
 
 thirst for learning could not be restrained, and at the age of 
 eleven, he was sent to school to learn the first rudiments. 
 Close application, assisted by a good understanding, soon 
 enabled him to retrieve the lost time; and when only 
 eighteen years of age he was received into the family of the 
 illustrious M. Du Plessis Mornay, as tutor to his two grand- 
 sons, whom he accompanied some years after in a tour to 
 Italy. One of the brothers dying at Padua, he travelled 
 with his remaining pupil through Switzerland, Germany, 
 Flanders, and Holland ; and thence to England — returning 
 to France about the end of the year 1621. He always in 
 after life regretted the two years spent in travelling, which 
 he reckoned almost as lost, because he might have spent 
 them more usefully in his closet; the only advantage he 
 received being the acquaintance of Father Paul at Venice, 
 to whom he had been recommended by M. Du Plessis. He 
 was called to the ministry in 1623, and officiated first in the 
 house of his patron, at whose death, in the November of 
 the same year, he was removed to the church of Saumur, 
 and in 1626 to that of Paris. The remainder of his life 
 was spent in the service of this last church. He died 1670, 
 aged 77 years. 
 
 Daille's early love of learning continued through life. 
 We read of him, "that his books and studies were his chief 
 recreation and delight. He rose very early, and by that 
 means had five or six hours free from the common hurry 
 of life which he could spend in his closet."* The daily 
 husbanding of so many hours through a long life — and 
 those hours devoted to reading and meditation — enabled 
 him to acquire so extraordinary a stock of learning, that he 
 was considered one of the best read men of his age. 
 
 * Abrege" de la Vie de Daille. 
 2* 
 
14 PREFACE. 
 
 What is recorded of Pliny might be truly said of Daille 
 — "he read nothing without making extracts, for he was 
 wont to say, that no book was so bad, that he could not gain 
 some profit from it." 
 
 In 1631 he published his first work, "Du Vrai Emploi 
 des Peres." This performance excited considerable atten- 
 tion and controversy, and has generally been considered his 
 master-piece. It contains a very strong chain of arguments, 
 which form a moral demonstration against those who would 
 have differences of religion to be decided by the authority 
 of the Fathers.* 
 
 An English translation of «this work appeared in 1651, 
 which has usually been attributed to the learned Thomas 
 Smith, M. A., Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge; 
 although from a remark which appears in the preface to that 
 edition under the signature of T. S. " that he commended 
 it to the world, as faithfully translated by a judicious hand," 
 we might infer that the translation was merely submitted to 
 his editorial revision ; or probably he undertook the transla- 
 tion jointly with others. M. Mettayer however, who only 
 four years after published a Latin translation of the work, 
 says, in the dedication to Daille, that Smith himself was the 
 translator of the English edition rf thus contradicting the 
 
 * Encyclopaedia Britannica. 
 
 f [Mettayer does not assert "that Smith himself was the trans- 
 lator." His words are "Accept hoc ipsum opus ab ornatissimo viro 
 Thos. Smith in Anglicum idioma translatum;" which amounts 
 to nothing more than a mere hearsay. 
 
 In a copy of the English edition of 1651, now in the Loganian 
 Library in Philadelphia, a note on the title-page, in the hand- writing 
 of the learned James Logan, says, "Translated (as some say) by Thos. 
 Smith of Oxford ; but undoubtedly it was not he, though he seems 
 to have signed the Preface "T. S."] — Editor of the Board of Publi- 
 cation, 
 
PREFACE. 15 
 
 assertion of Scrivener, " that Mr. Smith had told him that 
 the translation was not made by himself, but by an Oxford 
 man, and that he himself would have confuted the work if 
 he had thought it worth the while."* Now, Smith, in his 
 address to the reader, after introducing the recommendatory 
 testimonies of Lord Falkland, Lord Digby, Bishop Jeremy 
 Taylor, and others, says, " Et siquis cuculo locus inter 
 oscines, I must ingenuously profess, that it was the reading 
 of this rational book which first convinced me that my 
 study in the French language was not ill employed." The 
 truth is, that Scrivener wished to excite a prejudice 
 against Daille's work, in answer to which he was writing 
 his "Apology for the Fathers;" and in his Preface he made 
 the above mentioned assertion of the English translation by 
 Smith. Lord Clarendon however, in his answer to Cressy, 
 shows what degree of credit is to be attached to the state- 
 ments of Scrivener ; and the learned Du Moulin, in his 
 u Patronus bonse fidei in causa Puritanorum contra Hierar- 
 chos Anglos," inflicts a severe chastisement on Daille's 
 semi-papistical opponent. 
 
 It may here be observed, that although a simple reprint 
 of this standard work would have been desirable, it has been 
 thought advisable to alter and amend the translation, the 
 language of which was frequently obscure, and had become 
 too antiquated and obsolete for modern times. The notes 
 have been re-arranged, and the typography modernized; so 
 as to render the reading of the volume more pleasant and 
 agreeable. 
 
 The Editor thinks he shall be promoting the best inter- 
 ests of the Church, by the republication of a work which 
 did her good service when attacked by her enemies from 
 
 * Scriveneri Apol. pro Sanctae Eccles. Fatribus. London, 1672. 
 
16 PREFACE. 
 
 without, and which he believes to be eminently calculated 
 to serve her now, when her foundations are being sapped by 
 some of her sons from within. To conclude, in the words 
 of Bishop Hurd, " May the eyes of the more candid and 
 intelligent inquirers be opened, and the old principle be 
 for ever established, that the Bible, and that only (inter- 
 preted by our best reason) is the Religion of Protestants."* 
 
 * Bishop Hurd on Proph. vol. ii. p. 217. 
 
 J^* This edition has been carefully compared with the 
 French original, and occasionally with the Latin translation, 
 and several hundred errors, both typographical and editorial, 
 have been corrected. — Editor of the Board of Publication. 
 
AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 All the difference of religion, which is at this day between 
 the Church of Rome and the Protestants, lies in some cer- 
 tain points which the Church of Rome maintains as import- 
 ant and necessary articles of the Christian faith : whereas 
 the Protestants, on the contrary, neither believe nor will 
 receive them as such. For as for those matters which the 
 Protestants believe, which they conceive to be the funda- 
 mentals of religion, they are evidently and undeniably such, 
 that even their enemies admit and receive them as well as 
 they: inasmuch as they are both clearly delivered in the 
 Scriptures, and expressly admitted by the ancient councils 
 and Fathers; and are indeed unanimously received by the 
 greatest part of Christians in all ages, and in different parts 
 of the world. Such, for example, are the maxims, "That 
 there is a God who is supreme over all, and who created the 
 heavens and the earth : — that he created man after his own 
 image; and that this man, revolting from his obedience, is 
 fallen, together with his whole posterity, into most extr 
 and eternal misery, and become infected with sin, Bfi with 
 a mortal leprosy, and is therefore obnoxious to the wrath of 
 God, and liable to his curse: — thai the merciful Creator, 
 pitying man's estate, graciously sent his Son Jesus Christ 
 into the world: — that his Son La God eternal with him; and 
 that having taken flesh upon himself in the womb of the 
 
18 author's preface. 
 
 Virgin Mary, and become man, lie has done and suffered in 
 this flesh all things necessary for our salvation, having by 
 this means sufficiently expiated for our sins by his blood; 
 and that having finished all this, he ascended again into 
 heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father ; from 
 whence he shall one day come to judge all mankind, ren- 
 dering to every one according to their works; — that to 
 enable us to communicate of this salvation by his merits, 
 he sends us down his Holy Spirit, proceeding both from the 
 Father and the Son, and who is also one and the same God 
 with them; so that these three persons are notwithstanding 
 but one God, who is blessed for ever; — that this Spirit 
 enlightens our understanding, and generates faith in us, 
 whereby we are justified : — that after all this, the Lord sent 
 his Apostles to preach this doctrine of salvation throughout 
 the whole world : — that these have planted churches, and 
 placed in each of them pastors and teachers, whom we are to 
 hear with all reverence, and to receive from them Baptism, 
 the sacrament of our regeneration, and the holy Eucharist, 
 or Lord's Supper, which is the sacrament of our commu- 
 nion with Jesus Christ: — that we are likewise all of us 
 bound fervently to love God and our neighbour; observing 
 diligently that holy doctrine which is laid down for us in 
 the books of the New Testament, which have been inspired 
 by his Spirit of truth; as also those other of the Old; there 
 being nothing, either in the one or in the other, but what is 
 most true. 
 
 These articles, and there may be some few others of a 
 similar nature, are the substance of the Protestant's whole 
 belief: and if all other Christians would but content them- 
 selves with these, there would never be any schism in the 
 Church. But now their adversaries add to these many 
 other points, which they press and command men to believe 
 as necessary; and such as ; without believing in ; there is no 
 
author's preface. 19 
 
 possible hope of salvation. As for example : that the Pope of 
 Rome is the head and supreme monarch of the whole Chris- 
 tian Church throughout the world: — that he, or at least the 
 Church which he acknowledges a true one, cannot possibly 
 err in matters of faith : — that the sacrament of the Eucha- 
 rist is to be adored, as being really Jesus Christ, and not a 
 piece of bread : — that the mass is a sacrifice, that really ex- 
 piates the sins of the faithful : — that Christians may and 
 ought to have in their churches the images of God and of 
 saints, to which, bowing down before them, they are to use 
 religious worship : — that it is lawful, and also vei'y useful, to 
 pray to saints departed and to angels : — that our souls after 
 death, before they enter into heaven, are to pass through a 
 certain fire, and there to endure grievous torments;, thus 
 making atonement for their sins : — that we neither may nor 
 ought to receive the holy Eucharist, without having first 
 confessed in private to a priest: that none but the priest 
 himself that consecrated the Eucharist is bound by right to 
 receive it in both kinds: — with a great number of other 
 opinions, which their adversaries plainly protest that they 
 cannot with a safe conscience believe. 
 
 These points are the ground of the whole difference be- 
 tween them ) the one party pretending that they have been 
 believed and received by the Church of Christ in all ages as 
 revealed by him; and the other maintaining the contrary. 
 
 Now, seeing that none of these tenets have any ground 
 from any passage in the New Testament, (which is the most 
 ancient and authentic rule of Christianity) the maintainers 
 are glad to fly to the writings of the doctors of the Church, 
 who lived within the first four or five centuries after the 
 Apostles, who are commonly called the Fathers: my pur- 
 pose in this treatise is to examine whether or not this be 
 good and sufficient means for the decision of these differ- 
 ences. For this purpuse I must first presuppose two things, 
 
20 author's preface. 
 
 which any reasonable person will easily grant me. The first 
 is, that the question being here about laying a foundation for 
 certain articles of faith, upon the testimonies or opinions of 
 the Fathers, it is very necessary that the passages which are 
 produced out of them be clear, and not to be doubted; that 
 is to say, such as we cannot reasonably scruple at, either as 
 regards the author, out of whom they are alleged ; or the 
 sense of the place, whether it signify what is pretended. 
 For a deposition of a witness, and the sentence of a judge, 
 being of no value at all, save only for the reputation of the 
 witness or judge, it is most evident, that if either proceed 
 from persons unknown, or suspected, they are invalid, and 
 prove nothing. In like manner, if the deposition of a wit- 
 ness or sentence of a judge be obscure, and in doubtful 
 terms, it is clear, that in this case the business must rest 
 undecided; there being another doubt first to be cleared; 
 namely, what the meaning of either of them was. 
 
 The second point that I shall here lay down for a founda- 
 tion to the ensuing discourse, is no less evident than the 
 former : namely, that to allow a sufficiency to the writings 
 of the Fathers for the deciding of those controversies, we 
 must necessarily attribute to their persons very great autho- 
 rity ; and such as may oblige us to follow their judgment in 
 matters of religion. For if this authority be wanting, how- 
 ever clear and express their opinions be, in the articles now 
 controverted, it will do nothing towards their-decision. We 
 have therefore here two things to examine in this business. 
 The first is, whether or not we may be able to know, with 
 certainty and clearness, what the opinion of the Fathers has 
 been on the differences now in hand. The second, whether 
 their authority be such, that every faithful person who shall 
 clearly and certainly know what their opinion has been in 
 any one article of Christian religion, is thereby bound to 
 receive that article for true. For if the Church of Rome 
 
author's preface. 21 
 
 be but able to prove both these points, it is then without 
 all dispute that their proceeding is good, and agreeable to 
 
 the end proposed ; there being so many writings of the 
 ancient Fathers at this day adduced by them. But if, on 
 the contrary, either of these two things, or both of them, be 
 indeed found to be doubtful, I should think that any man, 
 of a very mean judgment, should be able to conclude of 
 himself, that this way of proof, which they have hitherto 
 made use of, is very insufficient ; and that therefore they of 
 necessity ought to have recourse to some other more proper 
 and solid way of proving the truth of the said opinions, 
 which the Protestants will not by any means receive. 
 
TO THE 
 
 NOBLE LADY ANNE MORNAY, 
 
 LADY OF TABARIEREj BARONESS OF ST. HERMINE 3 &C. 
 
 Madam :— It is now nearly four years since your son, the 
 late Baron of St. Hermine, acquainted me with what kind of 
 discourse he was usually entertained at court by those who 
 laboured to advance the Romish religion, or rather to excite 
 his disgust against the Reformed; and told me that the 
 chief argument which they urged against him was Antiquity, 
 and the general consent of all the Fathers of the first ages of 
 Christianity. Although he himself understood well enough 
 the vanity of this argument of theirs, yet, notwithstanding, 
 for his own fuller satisfaction, he requested that I would 
 discover to him the very depth of this matter. This there- 
 fore I did, as minutely as I possibly could, and gave him my 
 judgment at large in this particular. This treatise of mine 
 he was pleased so much to approve, that he conceived some 
 hopes from thence, that it might also haply be of some use 
 to others. 
 
 Shortly afterwards I put pen to paper, and digested it 
 into the treatise you now see. It having therefore been 
 composed at first for his service, I had resolved also with 
 myself to have dedicated it to his name ; purporting, by this 
 small piece of service, to testify to the world the continua- 
 tion of the affection I bare to his progress in piety. But 
 that deadly blow which snatched him from us, in the flower 
 
DEDICATION. 23 
 
 of his age, about two years since, at the famous Beige of 
 h >isleduc, having left us nothing of him now, save only the 
 Spoils of his mortality, ami the memory of his virtue, 
 
 her with our great sorrow for having enjoyed him hero 
 short a time, I am constrained, Madam, to change my 
 former resolution. I shall therefore content myself with 
 cherishing and preserving, whilst I live, the precious 
 memory of his worth, the excellency of his wit, the sound- 
 ness of his judgment, the sweetness of his nature, the fair- 
 - of his carriage, and those other choice parts, wherewith 
 he was accomplished ; but, above all, his singular piety, 
 which clearly shone forth in his words and actions, till the 
 hour of his death. 
 
 As for this small treatise, Madam, which was at first con- 
 ceived and composed for him, I thought I could not, with- 
 out being guilty of a piece of injustice, present it to any 
 other but yourself : seeing it has pleased God, notwithstand- 
 ing the common order of nature, to make you heir to him to 
 whom it belonged. This consideration only has emboldened 
 me to present it to your hands; knowing that the nature of 
 this discourse is not so suitable to that sorrow which has of 
 late cast a cloud over your house; it having pleased God, 
 after the death of the son, to deprive you of the father; and 
 to the loss of your children, to add that also of your noble 
 
 and. But my desire to avoid being unjust has forced 
 me to be thus uncivilly troublesome: seeing I accounted it 
 a kind of theft, should I have any longer withheld from you 
 that which was your right, by this Bad title of inheritance. 
 Be pleased, therefore. Madam, to receive this book as a pari 
 of the g 1- of your deceased son; which I now honestly 
 
 iv, in the view of the whole world, after concealment 
 of it for some time in m;. This name, 1 know, will 
 
 oblige yon to afford it Borne place in your oloset, which is 
 
 all that 1 can at present desire. Tor Bfl lor the reading of 
 
24 DEDICATION. 
 
 it, besides that your exquisite piety (which is built upon 
 infinitely much firmer grounds than these disputes,) has no 
 need at all of it ; I know also that your present condition is 
 such, that it would be very troublesome to you. And if 
 you shall chance to desire to spend some hours in the peru- 
 sal of it, it must be hereafter, when the Lord, by the efficacy 
 of his Spirit, shall have comforted yours, and shall have 
 allayed the violence of your grief; to whom I pour out my 
 most earnest prayers, that he would vouchsafe powerfully to 
 effect the same, and to shed forth his most holy grace upon 
 you and yours; and that he would by his great mercy pre- 
 serve, long and happily, that which remains of that goodly 
 and blessed family, which he has bestowed upon you. 
 
 This, Madam, is one of the most hearty prayers of 
 
 Your most humble 
 
 And obedient servant, 
 
 DAILLE. 
 
 Paris, August 15, 163 1. 
 
ON THE 
 
 EIGHT USE OF THE FATHERS. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Reason I. — On the difficulty of ascertaining the opinions of the 
 Fathers in reference to the present controversies in religion, 
 deduced from the fact that there is very little of their writings 
 extant of the first three centuries. 
 
 If we should here follow the same course of argu- 
 ment which some writers of the Church of Rome 
 pursue against the Holy Scriptures, it would be very 
 easy to bring in question, and render very doubtful 
 and suspected, all the writings of the Fathers; for when 
 the Old or New Testament is quoted, these gentlemen 
 instantly demand, how or by what means we know 
 that any such books were really written by those Pro- 
 phets and Apostles whose names they bear ? If there- 
 fore, in like manner, when these men adduce Justin, 
 Irenaeus, Ambrose, Augustine, and others, we should 
 at once demand of them, how and by what means we 
 are assured that these Fathers were the authors of 
 those writings which at this day bear their names, 
 there is little doubt but that they would find a harder 
 task of it than their adversaries would, in justifying 
 the writings of the sacred volume; the truth whereof 
 is much more easy to be demonstrated than of any 
 3* 
 
26 WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS 
 
 human writings whatsoever. But I shall pass by 
 this too artificial way of proceeding, and only say, 
 that it is not very easy to find out, by the writings of 
 the Fathers, what has really been their opinion, in any 
 of those controversies which are now in dispute be- 
 tween the Protestants and the Church of Rome. The 
 considerations, which render the knowledge of this so 
 difficult, are many; I shall therefore, in this first 
 Part, discuss some of them only, referring the rest 
 to the second Part, examining them one after ano- 
 ther. 
 
 The first reason, therefore, which I shall lay down 
 for the proving of this difficulty, is the little we have 
 extant of the writings of the ancient Fathers, especi- 
 ally of the first, second, and third centuries ; which are 
 those we are most especially to regard. For, seeing 
 that one of the principal reasons that moves the Church 
 of Rome to adduce the writings of the Fathers, is to 
 show the truth of their tenets by their antiquity, which 
 they consider as indicative of it ; it is evident that the 
 most ancient ought to be the most noticed. And 
 indeed there is no question but that the Christian 
 religion was more pure and without mixture in its 
 beginning and infancy, than it was afterwards in its 
 growth and progress: it being the ordinary course of 
 things to contract corruptions, more or less, according 
 as they are more or less removed from their first 
 institution : as we see by experience in states, laws, 
 arts, and languages, the natural propriety of all which 
 is continually declining, after they have once passed 
 the point of their vigour, and as it were the flower 
 and prime of their strength and perfection. Now, I 
 cannot believe that any faithful Christian will deny 
 but that Christianity was in its zenith and perfection 
 at the time of the blessed Apostles ; and indeed it 
 would be the greatest injury that could be offered 
 them, to say that any of their successors have either 
 had a greater desire or more abilities to advance 
 
OF THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 27 
 
 Christianity than they had. It will hence follow then, 
 that those times which were nearest to the Apostles 
 were necessarily the purest, and less subject to suspi- 
 cion of corruption, either in doctrine, or in manners 
 and Christian discipline: it being but reasonable to 
 believe, that if any corruptions have crept into the 
 Church, they came in by little and little, and by 
 degrees, as it happens in all other things. Some may 
 here object, that even the very next age, immediately 
 after the times of the Apostles, was not without its 
 errors, if we may believe Hegesippus; who, as he is 
 cited by Eusebius, witnesses, that the Church contin- 
 ued a virgin till the emperor Trajan's time; but that 
 after the death of the Apostles the conspiracy of error 
 began to discover itself with open face. c i?c dpa 
 
 ' h Titiv rove ypovitiv napdevo<z xaOapa xcu ddtatpdopos 
 ifMSiueh '/] ixxfojata, *Scc. d>^ o' 6 leoo^ zwu dtJCoavoXant 
 '/>>;><>: deeupopov eifaj<pee to'j fio'j reAoc, napefajkoOet 
 r£ i l yevea ixeewj rcov abzaus dxocuc rape ivOeou 
 eoififj^ InaxooaajL xarq^iwpzviov, T7)vex<mza ztjs adeou 
 nXaanjQ njv (l f r ///^ iXafifiauev q ooazamz dea nj{ zcov 
 hrspodedaaxcdwi datazr]$, ol xcu S.ze pqdevoG ize rcov 
 dttOGTolcw keeno/ievoU) yupvj) Xotnov 9/Stj zrj xetpaXifj 
 zw rye dty&&a£ x^puy/iazc rqv ipeodcwopov yvwocv 
 dirrczypwreep e7te%eipouv.* 
 
 I shall not oppose anything against this testimony, 
 but shall only say, that if the enemy, immediately 
 upon the setting of these stars of the Church, their 
 presence and light being scarcely shut in, had yet the 
 boldness presently to fall to sowing his evil seed; how 
 much more had lie the opportunity of doing this in 
 
 * "The Church continued until then as a pore and uncorrupt 
 n; -• * * but when the sacred choir of apostles bee 
 ind the generation of those that had been priyilege I 
 
 lorn, had passed away, then also the com- 
 
 the fraud and delu 
 dso, as there iras aone of the Left, 
 
 • i attempted, without shame, to preach t 1 doc- 
 
 trine against the gospel of truth. "' — Euseb. Hist. Ecclet. lib. 3. 
 cap. 32. 
 
28 WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS 
 
 those ages which were further removed from their 
 times ; when (the sanctity and simplicity of these 
 great teachers of the world, having now by little and 
 little vanished out of the memories of men) human 
 inventions and new fancies began to take place? So 
 that we may conclude that even supposing the first 
 ages of Christianity have not been altogether exempt 
 from alteration in doctrine, yet are they much more 
 free from it than the succeeding ages can pretend to 
 be, and are therefore consequently to be preferred to 
 them in all respects ; it being here something like 
 what the poets have fancied of the four ages of the 
 world, where the succeeding age always came short of 
 the former. As for the opinion of those men* who 
 think the best way to find out the true sense of the 
 ancient Church, will be to search the writings of those 
 of the Fathers chiefly who lived between the time of 
 Constantine the Great and Pope Leo, or Pope Gre- 
 gory's time, (that is to say, from the end of- the third 
 century to the beginning of the seventh,) I consider 
 this as an admission only of the small number of 
 books that are left us of those ages before Constantine, 
 and not that these men allow that the authority of 
 these three later ages ought to be preferred to that 
 of the three former. 
 
 If w r e had but as much light and as clear evidences 
 of the belief of the one as we have of the other, I 
 make no question but they would prefer the former. 
 But if they mean otherwise, and are indeed of a per- 
 suasion that the Church was really more pure after 
 Constantine's time than before, they must excuse me, 
 if I think that they by this means confess the dis- 
 trust they have of their own cause, seeing that they 
 endeavour to fly as far as they can from the light of 
 the primitive times; retreating to those ages, wherein 
 it is most evident there were both less perfection and 
 light than before; running altogether contrary to that 
 
 * Cassand. Consult. Ferdinan. p. 894. Perron. Epist. to Casaub. 
 
OF THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. "20 
 
 excellent rule which Cyprian has given us:* That \vc 
 should have recourse to the fountain, whenever the 
 channel and stream of doctrine and ecclesiastical tra- 
 dition are found to be the least corrupted. But, how- 
 ever, let their meaning be what it will, their words, 
 in my judgment, do not a little advance the Protes- 
 tants' cause; it being a very clear confession that 
 those opinions, about which they contest with them, do 
 not at all appear clearly in any of the books that were 
 written during the first three centuries. For if they 
 were found clearly in the same, what policy were it 
 then in them to appeal to the writers of the three fol- 
 lowing centuries, to which they very well know that 
 their adversaries attribute less than to the former? 
 But beside this tacit confession of theirs the thing is 
 evident; namely, that there is left us at this day very 
 little of the writing of the Fathers of the first three 
 centuries of Christianity, for the deciding of our dif- 
 ferences. 
 
 The blessed Christians of those times contented 
 themselves, for the greatest part, with writing the 
 Christian faith in the hearts of men, by the beams of 
 their sanctity and holy life, and by the blood shed in 
 martyrdom, without much troubling themselves with 
 the writing of books; whether it were because, as the 
 learned Origenf elegantly gives the reason, they were 
 of opinion that the Christian religion w T as to be de- 
 fended by innocency of life and honesty of con- 
 versation, rather than by sophistry and the artifice of 
 words: or whether, because their continual sufferings 
 gave them not leisure to take pen in hand and to write 
 books; or else, whether it were for some other reason 
 perhaps, which we know not. But of this we are very 
 well assured, that, except the writings of the Apostles, 
 there was very little written by others in these primi- 
 tive times; and this was the cause of so much trouble 
 
 ypr. op. 74. p. 
 
 f Orig. Pncf. I 
 
30 WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS 
 
 to Eusebius in the beginning of his history, who had 
 little or no light to guide him in his undertaking; 
 treading, as he saith, Ola rcva ipyfiyv xac dzpc^rj hvac 
 bdov iYXsepoujuev; "in a new path, unbeaten by any 
 that had gone before him."* 
 
 Besides, the greatest part of those few books which 
 were written by the Christians of those times, have 
 not come down to our hands, but were lost, either 
 through the injury of time, that consumes all things; 
 or else have been destroyed by the malice of men, 
 who have made bold to suppress whatsoever they met 
 with that was not altogether to their taste. Of this 
 sort were those five books of Papias bishop of Hiera- 
 polis, the apology of Quadratus Atheniensis, and that 
 other of Aristides, the writings of Castor Agrippa 
 against the twenty-four books of the heretic Basilides, 
 the five books of Hegesippus, the works of Melito 
 bishop of Sardis, Dionysius bishop of Corinth, Apolli- 
 naris bishop of Hierapolis, the epistle of Pinytus Cre- 
 tensis, the writings of Philippus, Musanus, Modestus, 
 Bardesanes, Pantaenus, Bhodon, Miltiades, Apolloni- 
 us, Serafiion, Bacchylus, Polycrates bishop of Ephe- 
 sus, Heraclius, Maximus, Hammonius, Tryphon, Hip- 
 polytus, Julius Africanus, Dionysius Alexandrinus, 
 and others ; of whom we have nothing left but their 
 names and the titles of their books, which are pre- 
 served in the works of Eusebius, Jerome, and others, f 
 All that we have left us of these times, which is cer- 
 tainly known to be theirs, and of which no man doubts, 
 are some certain discourses of Justin, the philosopher 
 and martyr, who wrote his second apology a hundred 
 and fifty years after the nativity of our Saviour 
 Christ; the five books of Irenseus, who wrote not long 
 after him; three excellent and learned pieces of Cle- 
 mens Alexandrinus, who lived towards the end of the 
 
 * Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 1. 1. c. 1. 
 
 f Hieron, 1. de Scrip tor, &c. Euseb. in Hist, passim. Tertul. 
 aliquorum meminit. 
 
OF THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 31 
 
 second century; divers books of Tertullian, who was 
 famous about the same time; the epistles and other 
 treatises of Cyprian bishop of Carthage, who suffered 
 martyrdom about the year of our Saviour 2G1 ; the 
 writings of Arnobius, and of Lactantius his scholar, 
 and some few others. As for Origen, Cyprian's con- 
 temporary — who alone, had we but all his writings 
 entire, would be able perhaps to give us more light 
 and satisfaction in the business we are now engaged in 
 than all the rest — we have but very little of him left, 
 and the greatest part of that too most miserably 
 abused and corrupted; the most learned and almost 
 innumerable writings of this great and incomparable 
 person not being able to withstand the ravages of 
 time, nor the envy and malice of men, who have dealt 
 much worse with him, than so many ages and cen- 
 turies of years that have passed from his time down 
 to us. 
 
 Thus have I. given you an account of well nigh all 
 that we have left us, which is certainly known to have 
 been written by the Fathers of the first three centu- 
 ries. For as for those other pieces, which are pre- 
 tended to have been written in the same times, but 
 are indeed either confessed to be supposititious by the 
 Romanists themselves, or are rejected by their adver- 
 saries, and that upon very good and probable grounds: 
 these cannot have any place or account here, in eluci- 
 dating the controversy we have now in hand. 
 
 The writings of the fourth and fifth centuries have, 
 I confess, surpassed the former in number and good 
 fortune too; the greatest part of them haying been 
 transmitted safely to our hands; but they come much 
 short of the other in weight and authority, especially 
 in the judgment of the Prot< - who maintain, 
 
 arid that upon very probable grounds, that the { ' ] 
 tian religion has from the beginning had its declinii 
 by little and little, losing in everj tain 
 
 degree of its primitive and native purity. And be- 
 
32 WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS 
 
 sides, we have good reason perhaps to fear lest the 
 number of writers of these two ages trouble us as 
 much as the paucity of them in the three preceding: 
 and that, as before we suffered under scarcity, we 
 now may be overwhelmed by their multitude. For 
 the number of words and of books serves as much 
 sometimes to the suppressing of the sense and opinion 
 of any public body, as silence itself; our minds being 
 then extremely confounded and perplexed, while it 
 labours to comprehend what is the true and common 
 opinion of the whole, amidst so many differently 
 biassed details, whereof each endeavours to express 
 the same; it being most certain, that amongst so great 
 and almost infinite variety of spirits and tongues, you 
 shall hardly ever meet with two persons that shall 
 deliver to you one and the same opinion, (especially 
 in matters of so high a nature as the controversies in 
 religion,) after the same form and way of representa- 
 tion, how unanimous soever their consent may other- 
 wise be in the same opinion. And this variety, 
 although it be but in the circumstances of the thing, 
 makes, notwithstanding, the foundation itself also ap- 
 pear different. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Reason II. — Those writings which we have of the Fathers of the 
 first centuries, treat of matters far different from the present 
 controversies in religion. 
 
 But suppose that neither the want of books in the 
 first three centuries, nor yet the abundance of them 
 in the three following, should produce these inconve- 
 niences; it will nevertheless be very hard to discover 
 from them what the opinion of their authors has been 
 concerning those points of the Christian religion now 
 controverted. For the matters whereof they treat are 
 
OF THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 33 
 
 of a very different nature: these authors, according as 
 the necessity of the times required, employing them- 
 selves either in justifying the Christian religion, and 
 vindicating it from the aspersion of such crimes, where- 
 with it was most falsely and injuriously charged; or 
 else in laving open to the world the absurdity and im- 
 piety of Paganism; or in convincing the hard-hearted 
 Jews, or in confuting the prodigious fooleries of the 
 heretics of those times; or in exhortations to the 
 faithful to patience and martyrdom; or in expounding 
 some certain passages and portions of the Holy Scrip- 
 ture: all which things have very little concern with 
 the controversies of these times ; of which they never 
 speak a syllable, unless they accidentally or by chance 
 let a word drop from them toward this side or that 
 side, yet without the least thought of us or of our con- 
 troversies; although both the one and the other party 
 sometimes light upon passages, wdierein they conceive 
 they have discovered their own opinions clearly de- 
 livered, though in vain for the most part, and with- 
 out ground: precisely as he did, who on hearing the 
 ringing of bells, thought they perfectly sounded out 
 what he in his own thoughts had fancied. Justin 
 Martyr and Tertullian, Theophilus and L^ctantius, 
 Clemens and Arnobius, show the heathen the vain- 
 ss of their religion, and of their gods; and that 
 Jupiter and Juno were but mortals, and that there is 
 but one only God, the Creator of heaven and earth. 
 Irenseus bends his whole forcas against the monstrous 
 opinions of Basilides, the Yalentinians, and other 
 Gnostics, who were the inventors of the most chimeri- 
 cal divinity that ever came into the fancy of man. 
 Tertullian also lashes them, as they well deserve; but 
 1. especially takes Marcion, llermogenes, Apclles, 
 Pra i I others to task, who maintained that th 
 
 were f p two principles, and confounded 
 
 - of the Father and the Son. Cyprian is 
 wholly upon the discipline and the virtues of the 
 4 
 
34 WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS 
 
 Christian Church. Arius, Macedonius, Eunomius, 
 Photinus, Pelagius, and afterwards Nestorius and 
 Eutyches, made work for the Fathers of the fourth 
 and fifth centuries. 
 
 The blasphemies of these men against the person 
 or the natures of our Saviour Christ, or against the 
 Holy Ghost and his grape, which have now of a long 
 time lain buried and forgotten, were the matters con- 
 troverted in those times, and the subject of the great- 
 est part of the books then written, that have come to 
 our hands. What relation has anything of all this to 
 the doctrines of transubstantiation, and the adoration 
 of the eucharist, or the monarchy of the Pope, or the 
 necessity of auricular confession, or the worshipping 
 of images, and similar points, which are those of the 
 present controversies, and which none of the ancients 
 have treated expressly and by design, or perhaps ever 
 so much as thought of? It is very true indeed, that 
 the silence of these Fathers on these points, which 
 some set so much value by, is not wholly mute,, and 
 perhaps also it may pass for a very clear testimony, 
 but certainly not on their side who maintain them 
 affirmatively. But, however, this is a most certain 
 truth, that throughout the whole body of the genuine 
 writings of these Fathers, you shall not meet with 
 anything expressly urged either for or against the 
 greatest part of these opinions. I shall most willingly 
 confess, that the belief of every wise man makes up 
 but one entire body, th$ parts whereof have a certain 
 correspondence and relation to each other, to such a 
 degree that a man may be able by those things which 
 he delivers expressly, to give a guess what his opinion 
 is concerning other things of which he says nothing; 
 it being utterly improbable that he should maintain 
 any position which shall manifestly clash with his 
 other tenets, or that he should reject anything that 
 necessarily follows upon them. But, besides, this 
 manner of disputation presupposes that the belief of 
 
OF THE FIRST THREE CENTURIES. 
 
 the ancient Fathers is uniform, no one position con- 
 tradicting another, but having all its parts united, and 
 depending one upon another, which indeed is very 
 questionable, as we shall show elsewhere. Besides all 
 this, I say it requires a quick discernment, which 
 readily and clearly apprehends the connections of 
 each distinct point, an excellent memory to retain 
 faithfully whatever positions the ancients have main- 
 tained, and a solid judgment free from all prc-occu- 
 pation, to compare them with the tenets maintained 
 at this day. And the man who is endued with all 
 those qualities I shall account the fittest to make pro- 
 fitable use of the writings of the Fathers, and the like- 
 liest of any to search deeply into them. But the mis- 
 chief is, that men so qualified are very rare and diffi- 
 cult to be found. 
 
 I shall add here, that if you will believe certain 
 writers of the Church of Rome,* this method is vain 
 ai«d useless, as is also that which makes use of argu- 
 mentation and reason; means which are insufficient, 
 and unable (in the judgment of these doctors) to 
 arrive at any certainty, especially in matters of relig- 
 ion. Their opinion is, that we are to rely upon clear 
 and express texts only. Thus, according to this ac- 
 count, we shall not, if we be wise, believe that the 
 Fathers held any of the aforenamed points, unless we 
 can find them in express terms in their writings; that 
 is to say, in the very same terms that we read them 
 in tip,' decrees and canons of the Council of Trent. 
 Seeing then that, according to the opinion of th< 
 
 i, those testimonies only are to be received which 
 are i , and likewise that of these points now con- 
 
 troverted th - •arccly any thing found expressly 
 
 delivered by the Fathers, we may, in my (.pinion, 
 logically and reasonably conclude, tl - at 
 
 icult if not impossible thing ling 
 
 . aii'l tali 
 
36 SUPPOSITITIOUS WRITINGS 
 
 to these men) to come to the certain knowledge of the 
 opinion of the ancients concerning the greatest part of 
 the tenets of the Church of Rome, which are at this 
 day rejected by the Protestants. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Reason III. — Those writings which bear the names of the ancient 
 Fathers, are not all really such; but a great portion of them 
 supposititious, and forged, either long since or at later periods. 
 
 I NOW enter upon more important considerations; 
 the two former, though they are not in themselves to 
 be despised or neglected, being yet but trivial ones 
 compared with those which follow. For there is so 
 great a confusion in the most part of these books of 
 which we speak, that it is a very difficult thing truly 
 to discover who were their authors, and what is their 
 meaning and sense. The first difficulty proceeds from 
 the infinite number of forged books, which are falsely 
 attributed to the ancient Fathers ; the same having 
 also happened in all kinds of learning and sciences; 
 insomuch that the learned at this day are sufficiently 
 puzzled to discover, both in philosophy and humanity, 
 which are forged and supposititious pieces, and which 
 are true and legitimate. But this abuse has not ex- 
 isted anywhere more grossly, and taken to itself more 
 liberty, than in the ecclesiastical writers. All men 
 complain of this, both on the one side and on the other, 
 and labour to their utmost to deliver us from this con- 
 fusion, oftentimes with little success, by reason of the 
 warmth of their feelings by which they are carried 
 away; ordinarily judging of books according to their 
 own interest rather than the truth, and rejecting all 
 those that any way contradict them, but defending 
 those which speak on their side; how good or bad 
 
ATTRIBUTED TO THE FATHERS, 37 
 
 ver they otherwise chance to be. So that, to 
 the truth, they judge not of their own opinions by the 
 writings of the Fathers, but of the writings of the 
 Fathers by their own opinions. If they speak with 
 
 us, it is then Cyprian and Ohrysostom ; if not, it is some 
 rant modern fellow, or else some malicious person, 
 
 who would fain cover his own impurity under the rich 
 garment of these excellent persons. 
 
 Now, were it mere partiality that rendered the bus- 
 iness obscure, we should be able to quit our hands of 
 it, by stripping it and laying it open to the world; and 
 all moderate men would find enough to rest satisfied 
 with. But the worst of it is, that this obscurity often- 
 times happens to be in the things themselves; so that 
 it is a very difficult and sometimes impossible thing to 
 elucidate them, whether it be by reason of the anti- 
 quity of the error, or by reason of the near resem- 
 blance of the false to the true. For these forger 
 are not new, and of yesterday ; but the abuse has 
 isted above fourteen hundred years. It is the com- 
 plaint of the greatest part of the Fathers, that the 
 heretics, to give their own dreams the greater autho- 
 rity, promulgated them under the names of some of 
 the most eminent writers in the Church, and even of 
 the Apostles themselves.* Amphilochius, bishop of 
 1 • ilium, who was so much esteemed by the great 
 Basil, archbishop of Cassarea, wrote a particular tract 
 on this subject,! alleged by the Fathers of the seventh 
 dost a certain produced by the 
 
 Ico: out of I know not what idle treati 
 
 titled, "The Travels of the Apostles." A uld 
 
 that that tract of this L-.irin d prelate were I 
 
 ! If it were, it would perhaps do • 
 iii discovering tic; vanity of many ridicul 
 which now pass current in the world under the names 
 
 II I Bnseb. 1 
 
38 SUPPOSITITIOUS WRITINGS 
 
 of the primitive and most ancient Christians. Jerome 
 rejects divers apocryphal books,* which are published 
 under the names of the Apostles, and of their first 
 disciples; as those of St. Peter, of Barnabas, and 
 the others. The gospel of St. Thomas, and the epis- 
 tle to the Laodiceans, are classed in the same category 
 by the seventh council. f 
 
 Now, if these knaves have thus taken such liberty 
 with the Apostles as to make use of their names, how 
 much more likely is it, that they would not hesitate 
 to make as free with the Fathers? And indeed this 
 kind of imposture has always been common. Thus 
 we read that the Nestorians sometime published an 
 epistle under the name of Cyril of Alexandria,;]; in 
 the defence of Theodorus, bishop of Mopsuestia, who 
 was the author and first broacher of their heresy : and 
 likewise that the Eutychists also circulated certain 
 books of Apollinaris, under the title of "The Ortho- 
 dox Doctors/' namely, to impose on the simplicity of 
 the people. § Leontius has written an express tract 
 on this subject ;|| wherein he shows that these men 
 abused particularly the names of Gregory of Neocse- 
 sarea, of Julius bishop of Rome, and of Athanasius 
 bishop of Alexandria; and he also says particularly, 
 that the book entitled, C H xara juepo^ IIccftcq (A parti- 
 cular Exposition of the Faith,) which is delivered to us 
 by Turrianus the Jesuit, Gerardus Vossius, and the 
 last edition of Gregorius Neocaesariensis, for a true 
 and legitimate piece of the said Gregory^ is not truly 
 his, but the bastard issue of the heretic Apollinaris. 
 The like judgment do the publishers of the Bibliothe- 
 ca Patrum give of the twelve Anathemas, which are 
 
 * Hier. 1. de Script. Eccles. torn. 1. p. 346, et 350. 
 f Concil. 7. Act. 6. % Concil. 5. Collat. 5. 
 
 \ Marian, ep. ad Mon. Alex, ad calcem Concil. Chalc. t. 2. p. 
 450. E. 
 
 || Leont. lib. extat Bibl. SS. PP. t. 4. par. 2. 
 
 \ Greg. Tha Aat. op. Par. an. 1622, p. 97. ubi vide Voss. 
 
ATTRIBUTED TO THK FATHERS, S9 
 
 commonly attributed to the Bame Gregory** The 
 
 Monothc'lites also, taking the same course, forged an 
 oration under the name of Menas, patriarch of ( 1 <>n- 
 stantinople, and directed to Vigilius, bishop of Rome :f 
 and two other books under the name of the same Vio- 
 lins, directed to Justinian and Theodora j wherein their 
 heresy is in express terms delivered; and these three 
 pieces were afterwards inserted in the body of the fifth 
 council, and kept in the library of the Patriarch's pal- 
 ace in Constantinople.^ But this imposture was dis- 
 covered and proved in the sixth council: for otherwi 
 who would not have been deceived by it, seeing these 
 false pieces in so authentic a copy? 
 
 I bring but these few examples, to give the reader 
 a sample only of what the heretics not only dared hut 
 were able also to do in this particular: and all th< 
 things were done before the end of the seventh cen- 
 tury, that is to say, above nine hundred years a. 
 Since which time, in all the disputes about the imaj 
 in churches, § and in the differences betwixt the Greek 
 and Latin churches, and indeed in the most part of 
 all other ecclesiastical disputations, you shall find 
 nothing more frequent than the mutual reproac 
 that the several parties cast at each other,|| accusi 
 one another of forging the pieces of authors which 
 they produced each of them in defence of their <>wn 
 cause. Judge you, therefore, whether or not the h( 
 fclCB, u-ing the same artifice and the same diligei 
 now for the space of so many centuries though 
 
 in different causes, may not in all probability ha?e 
 furnished us with a sufficient number of Bpuri 
 piecee published under the names of the ancient 
 Fathers by their professed enemies. And only con- 
 
 * Bibl. 8S. PP. t. 1. Q 
 
 : . Let 6. B • ■ I 
 
 • i. 
 
40 SUPPOSITITIOUS WRITINGS 
 
 sider whether or no we may not chance to commune 
 with a heretic sometimes, when we think we have a 
 Father before us; and a professed enemy disguised 
 under the mask of a friend. Thus it will hence follow 
 that it may justly be feared, that we sometimes re- 
 ceive and deliver for maxims and opinions of the 
 ancient Church, no better than the mere dreams of the 
 ancient heretics. For we must suppose that they 
 were not so foolish as to discover their venom at the 
 first, in their heretical writings; but rather that they 
 only cunningly infused here and there some sprink- 
 lings of it, laying the foundation of their heresy as it 
 w T ere a far off only; which makes the knavery the 
 more difficult to be discovered, and consequently the 
 more dangerous. But supposing that this juggling 
 deception of the heretics may have very much cor- 
 rupted the old books; yet notwithstanding, had we no 
 other spurious pieces than what had been forged by 
 the in, it would be no very hard matter to distinguish the 
 true from the false. But that which renders the evil 
 almost irremediable is, that even in the Church itself 
 this kind of forgery has both been very common and 
 very ancient. 
 
 I impute a great part of the cause of this mischief 
 to those men who, before the invention of printing, 
 were the transcribers and copiers of manuscripts: of 
 whose negligence and boldness, in the corrupting of 
 books, Jerome very much complained even in his time: 
 "Scribunt non quod inveniunt, sed quod intelligunt; 
 et dum alienos errores emendare nituntur, ostendunt 
 suos;"* that is, "they write not what they find but 
 what they understand: and whilst they endeavour to 
 correct other men's errors they show their own." 
 
 We may very well presume, that the liberty these 
 men took in corrupting, they also took the same in 
 forging, books: especially since this last course was 
 beneficial to them, while the other was not. For, by 
 
 * Hier. Ep. 28. ad Lucin. torn. 1. 
 
ATTRIBUTED TO THE FATHERS, 41 
 
 altering or corrupting the books they wrote, they 
 could not make any advantage to themselves: where- 
 in forging new hooks, and disposing of them under 
 
 great and eminent names, they Bold them more readily 
 and dearer. So likewise, if there came to their hai 
 
 any book that either had no author's name: or having 
 any, it was but an obscure or a tainted one; to the 
 end that these evil marks might not prejudice the sel- 
 ling of it, they would erase it without any more ado, 
 and inscribe it with some one of the most eminent and 
 venerable names in the Church; that thus the reputa- 
 tion and favour, which that name had found in the 
 world, might be a means for better passing off their 
 false wares. As for example, the name of Novatianus, 
 who was the head of a schism against the Roman 
 Church, became justly odious to Christian ears: as 
 that of Tertullian was the more esteemed, both for the 
 age, wit, and learning of the person. Now the tran- 
 scriber, considering this, without any other design or 
 end than that of his own private gain, has, in my 
 judgment, made an exchange, attributing to Tertul- 
 lian that book of the Trinity which is in reality the 
 production of Novatianus; as w r e are also given to un- 
 derstand by Jerome.* And I am of opinion, that 
 both the birth and fortune of that other piece, u JL)e 
 Poenitentia," have been, if not the very same, yet at 
 
 it not much unlike that of the other. So liken 
 the book, entitled "De Operibus Cardinalibua Chris- 
 ti,"f (which was composed and sent by its author to 
 one of the Popes, without giving his name, aa ho there 
 
 bifies,) has been circulated abroad under the name 
 , of Cyprian, merely because by this i r waa 
 
 more profitable to the manuscript-monger ; and 
 always passed, and doe- {"or hi-: notwithstand- 
 
 ing that, in my judgment, it is clear enough that it 
 
 * ffier. Apol. - Etaff. 
 
 p. 111. 
 
42 SUPPOSITITIOUS WRITINGS 
 
 cannot be his, as is ingenuously confessed by many of 
 the learned of both parties.* Ruffinus had some 
 name in the Church, though nothing near so great as 
 Cyprian had : and this is the reason why the afore- 
 named merchants have inscribed with Cyprian's name 
 that treatise upon the Apostles' Creed, which was 
 written by Ruffinus. 
 
 Besides the avarice of these Librarii, their own 
 ignorance, or at least of those whom they consulted, 
 has in like manner produced no small number of these 
 spurious pieces. For when either the likeness of the 
 name, or of the style, or of the subject treated of, or 
 any other seeming reason, gave them occasion to be- 
 lieve that such an anonymous book was the work of 
 such or such an ancient author, they presently copied 
 it out, under the said author's name; and thus it came 
 from thenceforth to be received by the world for such, 
 and by them to be transmitted for such to posterity. 
 
 All the blame, however, is not to be laid upon the 
 transcribers only in this particular : the authors them- 
 selves have contributed very much to the promoting 
 of this kind of imposture ; for there have been found 
 in all ages some so sottishly ambitious, and so desi- 
 rous, at any rate, to have their conceptions published 
 to the world, that, finding they should never be able 
 to please, and get applause abroad of themselves, they 
 have issued them under the name of some of the 
 Fathers; choosing rather to see them received and 
 honoured under this false guise, than disguised and 
 slighted under their own real name. These men, 
 according as their several abilities have been, have 
 imitated the style and sentiments of the Fathers either 
 more or less happily; and have boldly presented these 
 productions of their own brain to the world under 
 
 * Erasmus in edit. Cyp. sua. Sixtus Senens. Biblioth. 1. 4. Bellar. 
 do Euciiar. 1. 2. c'9. De amiss, grat. 1. 6. c. 2. Possevin. in Ap- 
 parat. Scult. Medulla Patr. Andr. Rivet. 1. 2. c. 15. Crit. Sacr. 
 Aubert de Euchar. 1. 2. ch. 8. 
 
ATTRIBUTED TO THE PATH] 41 
 
 their names. The world, of which the greatest part 
 
 has always been the least reflecting, lias very readily 
 collected, preserved, and cherished those fictiti 
 
 productions, and has by degrees Idled all tlieir libra- 
 ries with them. Others have been induced to adopt 
 the same artifice, not out of ambition, but some Other 
 irregular fancy; as those men have done, who, having 
 had a particular affection, either to such a person, or 
 to such an opinion, have undertaken to write of the 
 Same, under the name of some author of good esteem 
 and reputation with the world, to make it pass the 
 more currently abroad: precisely as that priest did, 
 who published a book, entitled "The Acts of St. Paul, 
 and of Tecla;"* and being convicted of being the 
 author of it, in presence of the Apostle John, lie 
 plainly confessed, that the love that he bare to Paul 
 was the only cause that incited him to do it. Such 
 was the boldness also of Ruffinus, a priest of Aquil 
 (whom Jerome justly reprehends so sharply, and in 
 so many places,!) who, to vindicate Origen's honour, 
 wrote an apology for him, under the name of Pa 
 philus, a holy and renowned martyr; although the 
 truth of it is, he had taken it partly out of the first 
 and sixth books that Eusebius had written upon the 
 same subject, and partly made use of his own inven- 
 tion in it. Some similar fancy it was that moved him 
 also to put forth the life of one Sextus, a Pythagorean 
 philosopher, under the name of St. Sixtus the mar- 
 tyr,J to the end that the work might be received the 
 more favourably. What can you Bay to this J name- 
 ly, that in the very same age there was a person 
 of greater note than the former; who, disliking that 
 Jerome had translated the Old Testament out of the 
 
 * i : tnl. lib. d< . 
 
 . 1 7. 
 f Hier. 1. 2. ! tr. Boffin, torn. 2. | L 2. 
 
 ct kpol. contr. Ruff. ad. Pammac 
 
44 SUPPOSITITIOUS WRITINGS 
 
 Hebrew, framed an epistle under his name, wherein 
 he represents him as repenting of having done it; 
 which epistle, even in Jerome's lifetime, though 
 without his knowledge, was published by the said 
 author, both at Rome and in Africa? Who could 
 believe the truth of this bold attempt, had not Jerome 
 himself related the story, and made complaint of the 
 injury done him therein?* I must impute also to a 
 fancy of the same kind, though certainly more inno- 
 cent than the other, the spreading abroad of so many 
 predictions of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and his king- 
 dom, under the names of the Sibyls ; which was done 
 by some of the first Christians, only to prepare the 
 Pagans to relish this doctrine the better; as it is ob- 
 jected against them by Celsus in Origen.f But that 
 which is yet of greater consequence is, that even the 
 Fathers themselves have sometimes made use of this 
 artifice, to promote either their own opinions or their 
 wishes. Of this we have a notable example, which 
 was objected against the Latins by the Greeks, above 
 two hundred years since, of two Bishops of Rome, 
 Zosimus and Boniface; J who, to authorize the title 
 which they pretended to have, of being universal 
 bishops, and heads of the whole Christian Church, 
 and particularly of the African, forged, about the be- 
 ginning of the fifth century, certain canons in the 
 council of Nice, and frequently quoted them as such 
 in the councils in Africa ;§ which, notwithstanding, 
 after a long and diligent search, could never yet be 
 found in any of the authentic copies of the said coun- 
 cil of Nice, although the African bishops had taken 
 the pains to send as far as Constantinople, Alexan- 
 dria, and Antioch, to obtain the best and most genu- 
 ine copies they could. Neither indeed do the canons 
 
 * Hier. 1. 2. Apol. contra Ruff. torn. 2. 
 
 f Orig. contra Cels. lib. 7. 
 
 X Concil. Flor. Sess. 20^ p. 457. \ Concil. Afric. 6. cap. 3. 
 
ATTRIBUTED TO THE FATH1 T> 
 
 and acts of the council of Nice at this day, though 
 they have since that time passed through so many 
 various hands, contain any such thing; no, not even 
 
 the editions o( those very men who are the most inter- 
 ested in the honour of the Popes, as that of Diony- 
 sins ExigUUS, who published his Latin collection of 
 them about the year of our Saviour 525: nor any 
 other, either ancient or modern. 
 
 As to that authentic copy of the council of Nice, 
 which one Friar John, at the council of Floreo 
 pretended to have been the only copy that had escaped 
 the corruptions of the Arians,* and which had for this 
 cause been always kept under lock and key at Rome, 
 with all the safety and care that might be, (out 
 which copy they had transcribed the said canons,) I 
 confess it must needs have been kept up very do 
 under locks and seals, seeing that three of their P* 
 namely, Zosimus, Boniface, and Celestine, could never 
 be able to produce it for the justification of their pre- 
 tended title against the African Fathers, though in a 
 case of so great importance. And it is a Btrange 
 thing to me that this man, who came a thousand years 
 after, should now at last make use of it in this cause; 
 whereas those very persons who had it in their cus- 
 tody never so much as mentioned one syllable of it: 
 which is an evident argument that the seals of this 
 rare book were never opened, save only in the brains 
 of this Doctor, where alone it was both framed and 
 Sealed up; brought forth, and vanished all at the same 
 
 instant; th< st part of those men thathavecome 
 
 r him being ashamed to make use of it any longer, 
 having laid aside this chimerical invention. To 
 the truth, that which these men answer, by 
 
 wing ile- sai 1 i ' I any whit ho >ba- 
 
 ble, \ that they took the council of Nice and 
 
 that of Sardica, in which those canon.-: they ah' 
 
 I 
 
46 SUPPOSITITIOUS WRITINGS 
 
 really found, for one aftd the same council. For 
 whom will these men ever be able to persuade, that 
 two Ecclesiastical Assemblies, (between which there 
 passed nearly twenty-two whole years, called by two 
 several emperors, and for matters of a far different 
 nature — the one of them for the explanation of the 
 Christian faith, and the other for the re-establishing 
 of two Bishops on their thrones ; and in places very 
 far distant from each other — the one at Nicsea in 
 Bithynia, the other at Sardica a city of Illyricum — 
 the canons of which two councils are very different, 
 both in substance, number, and authority — the one 
 of them having always been received generally by 
 the whole Church, but the other having never been 
 acknowledged by the Eastern Church,) should yet, 
 notwithstanding, be but one and the same council? 
 How can they themselves endure this, who are so 
 fierce against the Greeks, for having offered to attri- 
 bute (which they do, notwithstanding, with more ap- 
 pearance of truth) to the sixth council, those one hun- 
 dred and two canons, which we're agreed upon ten 
 years after at Constantinople, in an assembly wherein 
 one party of the Fathers of the sixth council met? 
 How came it to pass, that they gave any credit to the 
 ancient Church, seeing that in the Greek collection of 
 her ancient canons, those of the council of Sardica are 
 entirely omitted; and in the Latin collection of Dio- 
 r.ysius Exiguus, compiled at Rome eleven hundred 
 years since, they are placed, not with those of the 
 council of Nice, or immediately after, as making one 
 entire collection with them ; but after the canons of 
 all the general councils that had been held till that 
 very time he lived in ?* And how comes it to pass 
 that these ancient Popes, who quoted these canons, if 
 they believed these councils to be both one, did not 
 say so? 
 
 The African bishops had frequently declared that 
 
 * Codex Can. Ec. Dionys. Exig. p. 99. 
 
ATTRIBUTED TO THE FATHERS, 47 
 
 these canons, which were by them referred to, were 
 
 imr at all to be found in their copies. Certainly there- 
 fore, if those who had cited thorn had thought the 
 council of Nice and that of Sardica to have been both 
 
 but one council, they would no doubt have made 
 answer, that those canons were to be found in tl 
 pretended second part of the council of Nice, am 
 
 those which had been agreed upon at Sardica; eS] 
 cially when they saw that these careful Fathers, for 
 the clearing of the controversy between them, had 
 
 lived to send for this purpose, as far as Constanti- 
 nople and Alexandria. And yet, notwithstanding all 
 this, they do not utter a word on the subject. 
 
 Certainly if the canons of the council of Sardica 
 bad been in those clays reputed as a part of the coun- 
 cil of Nice, it is a very strange thing, that so many 
 learned and religious prelates as there were at that 
 time in Africa, (as Aurelius, Alypius, ami even Augus- 
 tine, that glorious light, not of the African only but 
 of the whole ancient Church,) should have been 
 
 -rant in this particular. But it is strange beyond 
 all belief, that three Popes and their mid 
 
 leave their party in ignorance so gross, and so preju- 
 dicial to their own interest; it being in their power to 
 have relieved them in two words. We may safely 
 then conclude that these Pop imus, ami Boni- 
 
 face, had no other copies of the council of Nice than 
 
 ,t we have; and also, that they did not be! 
 
 • the canons of the council of Sardi a part 
 
 of the council of Nice: but that they rather purpoe 
 some of the canons of Sardica, under tl 
 
 the canons of the council of Nice. And ( 
 did, according to that maxim which wafl in force With 
 
 f former times, aid is not enti 
 
 I our own, that for tic 
 • is lawf 
 
 . and to I l11 '" 1 /" 
 
 . Afl they therefore firmly believed that the 
 
48 SUPPOSITITIOUS WRITINGS 
 
 supremacy of their see over all other Churches, was 
 a business of great importance, and would be very- 
 profitable to all Christendom, we are not to wonder 
 if, for the establishing this right to themselves, they 
 made use of a little legerdemain, in adducing Sardica 
 for Nice : reflecting that if they brought their design 
 about, this little failing of theirs would, in process of 
 time, be abundantly repaired by the benefit and excel- 
 lency of the thing itself. 
 
 Notwithstanding the opposition made by the Afri- 
 can Fathers against the Church of Rome, Pope Leo, 
 not many years after, writing to the emperor Theo- 
 dosius,* omitted not to make use of the old forgery, 
 citing one of the canons of the council of Sardica, for 
 a legitimate canon of the council of Nice; which was 
 the cause, that the emperor Valentinian also, and his 
 empress Galla Placidia, writing in behalf of the said 
 Pope Leo to the emperor Theodosius,f affirmed to 
 him for a certain truth, that both all antiquity, and 
 the canons of the council of Nice also had assigned 
 to the Pope of Rome the power of judging -of points 
 of faith, and of the prelates of the Church; Leo hav- 
 ing before allowed that this canon of the council of 
 Sardica was one of the canons of Nice. And thus, 
 by a strong perseverance in this pious fraud, they have 
 at length so fully persuaded a great part of Christen- 
 dom, that the council of Nice had established this 
 supremacy of the Pope of Rome, that it is now gene- 
 rally urged by all of them whenever this point is con- 
 troverted. 
 
 I must request the reader's pardon for having so 
 long insisted on this particular; and perhaps some- 
 what longer than my design required: yet, in my 
 judgment, it may be of no small importance to the 
 
 * Leo in ep. ad Theodos. Imp. torn. 2 Concil. 
 f Valentin, in ep. ad Theodos. torn. 2. Concil. Galla Placid, in 
 ep. ad Theodos. torn. 2. 
 
ATTRIBUTED TO THB PATH) U) 
 
 business in hand; for, (will the Protestants hero Bay) 
 seeing that two Topes, Bishops, and Princes, which 
 all Christians have approved) have notwithstanding, 
 
 thus foisted in false wares, what OUght Ave to expect 
 from the rest of the Bishops and Doctors? Sine- 1 tl 
 men have done this, in the beginning of the fifth i 
 tury, an age of so high repute for its faith and doc- 
 trine, what have they not dared to do in the suceeod- 
 ing ages? If they have not forborne so foully to a 1 
 the sacred name of the council of Nice, (the m 
 illustrious and venerable monument of Christianity 
 next to the Holy Scriptures,) what other authors can 
 We imagine they would spare? And if, in the f 
 of so renowned an assembly, (and in the presence of 
 whatever Africa could show of eminency, both for 
 sanctity and learning, and even under the eye of the 
 great Augustine too,) they had no compunctions of 
 -cience in making use of so gross a piece of for- 
 gery; what have they not since, in these later tin 
 while the whole world for so many ages lay covered 
 with thick darkness, dared to do? But as for my part, 
 1 shall neither accuse nor excuse at present tl, 
 men's proceedings, but shall only conclude, that, - 
 ing the writings of the Fathers, before they came to 
 US, have passed through the hands of those who h 
 sometimes been found to use these juggling tricks, it 
 i- not so ea-v a matter, as people may imagine, to 
 discover, out of those writings which now pass under 
 the name- of the Fathers, what their opinion! 
 
 Similar motives produced the very in 
 
 the fifth council;* where a 1- rged under the 
 
 e of Theodoret, respecting C; Til, 
 
 I. and by a general Bilence approved by | 
 ibly ; which, notwithstandii] i \ i- 
 
 deir vrvy men. who cauc 
 
 the general council 
 
50 SUPPOSITITIOUS WRITINGS 
 
 have convicted it of falsehood, and branded it as 
 spurious. 
 
 Such another precious piece is that foolish story of 
 a miracle, wrought by an image of our Saviour Christ 
 in the city Berytus, which is related in very ample 
 manner in the seventh council,* and bears, forsooth, 
 the name of Athanasius; but is indeed so tasteless a 
 piece, and so unworthy the gallantry and clearness of 
 that great wit, that he must not be thought to have 
 common sense who can find in his heart to attribute 
 it to him. Therefore we see that, notwithstanding 
 the authority of this council, both Nannius, Bellar- 
 mine, and Possevine have plainly confessed that it 
 was not written by Athanasius.f 
 
 I shall place in this rank the so much vaunted deed 
 of the donation of Constantine, which has for so long 
 a time been accounted as a most valid and authentic 
 evidence, and has also been inserted in the decrees, 
 and so pertinaciously maintained by the Bishop of 
 Agobio, against the objections of Laurentius Valla. J 
 Certainly those very men, who at this day -maintain 
 the donation, do notwithstanding disclaim this evi- 
 dence as a piece of forgery. 
 
 Of the same nature are the epistles attributed to 
 the first Popes, § as Clemens, Anacletus, Euaristus, 
 Alexander, Sixtus, Telesphorus, Hyginus, Pius, Ani- 
 cetus, and others, down to the times of Siricius; that 
 is to say, to the year of our Saviour, 385, which the 
 world read, under these venerable titles, at the least 
 for eight hundred years together; and by which have 
 been decided, to the advantage of the Church of 
 Rome, very many controversies, and especially the 
 
 * Concil. 7. Act. 4. torn. 3. Concil. 
 
 I Nanni. in edit. op. Athan. Bellar. de imag. 1. 2. c. 10. et lib. 
 de Script. Eccles. in Atban. Possevin. in appar. in Athan. 
 
 J D. 96. C. Constantino nostro. 14. Augusti. Steuchms de 
 Dona. Constant. 
 
 \ Baron, in annal. Melchior Canus locor. Theolog. 1. 11. p. 511. 
 
t ATTRIBUTED TO TUT FATHERS, 51 
 
 most important of all the rest, that of the Po] 
 monarchy. This Bhows plain enough the motive, 
 
 (shall I call it such I) or rather the purposed design of 
 the trafficker that Erst circulated them. The greatest 
 part of these are accounted forged by men of learn- 
 ing, as Henricus Kaltheisen, Nicolas Cusanus, Jo. de 
 Turrecremata (both cardinals,) Erasmus, Jo. Dri< 
 Claudius Espenscvus, Cassander, Simon Vigor, Baro- 
 nius, and others:* for indeed their forgery app< 
 clear enough from their barbarous Style, the errors met 
 with at every step in the computation of times and 
 history, the pieces they are patched up of, stolen here 
 and there out of different authors, whose books 
 have at this day to show; and also by the general 
 silence of all the writers of the first eight centuri 
 among whom there is not one word mentioned of 
 them. 
 
 Now I shall not here meddle at all with the last six 
 or seven centuries; where, in regard to various arti- 
 cles of faith, most eagerly professed and established 
 by them, there has been more need than ever of the 
 assistance of the ancients; and whereas, owing to the 
 dark ignorance of those times, and the scarcity of Op- 
 ] osers, they had much better opportunity than before, 
 to forge what books they pleased. This abuse the 
 worl 1 was never free from, till the time when the 
 light broke forth in the last century; when Erasmus 
 give- us an account, f how he himself had discovered 
 ■ of these wretched knaves, whose ordinary prac- 
 tice it was to lay his own eggs in another mai 
 putting his own fooleries on Jerome particularly, and 
 
 * Hen, p. M leb. c 2 I I 
 
 I. 2. e. 84. [o. de. Turreer. 
 
 I <-l. l. 1 . c. -. < SI. Espens. de ( 'ontin. L I 
 b, de officio pij 
 
 mtr. Durand, 
 
52 SUPPOSITITIOUS WRITINGS • 
 
 on Augustine and Ambrose. And who knows what 
 those many books are, that are daily issued out of the 
 self same shops, that of old were wont to furnish the 
 world with these kind of deceptions ? Is it not very 
 probable that both the will and the dexterity in forg- 
 ing and issuing these false wares, will rather in these 
 days increase than abate in the professors of this trade ? 
 So that (if besides what the malice of the heretics, the 
 avarice and ignorance of transcribers of manuscripts, 
 and the ambition and affection of men have brought 
 forth of this kind, there have yet so many others 
 turned their endeavours this way, and that in a man- 
 ner all along for the space of the last fourteen 
 hundred years, although they had their several ends,) 
 we are not to wonder at all if now, in this last age, 
 we see such a strange number of writings falsely 
 fathered upon the ancients; which, if they were all 
 put together, would make little less than a fourth or 
 a fifth part of the works of the Fathers. 
 
 I am not ignorant that the learned have noticed a 
 great number of them, and do ordinarily cast them 
 into the later tomes of editions; and that some have 
 written whole books upon this subject; as Ant. Pos- 
 sevine's Apparatus, Bellarmine's Catalogue, Sculte- 
 tus' Medulla Patrum, Rivet's Critic, and the like, both 
 of the one and the other religion. But who can 
 assure us that they have not forgotten anything they 
 should have noted ? Besides that it is a new labour, 
 and almost equal to the former to read so many books 
 of the moderns as now exist. And when all is done, 
 w r e are not immediately to rest satisfied with their 
 judgment without a due examination. For each of 
 them having been prepossessed with the prejudices of 
 the party in which they were brought up, before they 
 took this work in hand, who shall assure us that they 
 have not delivered anything, in this case, in favour of 
 their own particular interest, as we have before no- 
 ticed? The justness of this suspicion is so clear, 
 
ATTRIBUTED TO TH1 FATHERS, 58 
 
 that I presume that no man, any way versed in th< 
 
 matters, will desire me to prove my assertion. Neither 
 shall 1 need to give any other reason for it, than the 
 conflicts and disagreement in judgments which we 
 may observe in these men : the one of them oftentimes 
 letting pass for pare metal what the other perhaps 
 will throw by for dross; which differences are found 
 not only between those that are of quite opposite 
 religions, but, which is more, even between those that 
 are of the self-same persuasion. 
 
 Those whom we named not long before, who were 
 all of the Roman Church, depreciate, as we have said, 
 the greatest part of the decretals of the first Popes, 
 Franeiscus Turrianus, a Jesuit, receives them, and 
 defends them all, in a tract written by him to that 
 purpose. Baronius calls the Recognitions, which are 
 attributed to Clemens Romanus, "A gulf of filth and 
 uncleanness; full of prodigious lies and frantic foole- 
 ries."* Bellarmine says that this book was written 
 either by Clemens or some other author as learned 
 and as ancient as himself, f Some of them consider 
 those fragments, published byNicol. Faber, under the 
 name of St. Hilary, as good and genuine productions; 
 and some others again reject them. Erasmus, Sixtus 
 Senensis, Melchior Canus, and Baronius, arc of opi- 
 nion that the book " Of the Nativity of the Virgin 
 Mary," is falsely attributed to Jerome. Christopho- 
 rns a Castro, a Spanish Jesuit, maintains the con- 
 trary. Cardinal Cajetan, Laurentius Valla, Erasmus, 
 and some others, hold the books of Dionysios 
 Areopagite, as suspected and spurious. Baronius, 
 and almost all the rest of their writers, maintain that 
 they are true and legitimate. Turrianus, Bovin, and 
 some others, recommend to us the " Constituti 
 
 . AutimI. tom. 1 . :iii. ■" 1 . 
 
 itemur librum esse corruptum, &c. Bed I 
 
54 SUPPOSITITIOUS WRITINGS 
 
 the Apostles," as a genuine production; but Baro- 
 nius, Possevine, Petavius, and a* great many others, 
 speak doubtfully of them. 
 
 We find in the writings of those of the Church of 
 Rome an infinite variety of judgments in such cases 
 as these. He that desires to furnish himself with 
 examples of this kind, may have recourse to their 
 books, and particularly to the writings of the late 
 Cardinal Perron, who differs as much from the rest, 
 in this point of criticism, as he does for the most 
 part in the method he observes in his disputations. 
 Now, I would willingly be informed what a man 
 should do, amidst these diversities of judgment; and 
 what path he should take, where he meets with such 
 disagreeing guides. 
 
 Yet suppose that these authors have done their 
 utmost endeavour in this design, without any par- 
 ticular affection or partiality; how, notwithstanding, 
 shall we be satisfied concerning their capability for 
 the performance of their undertaking? Is it a light 
 business, think you, to bring the whole - stock of 
 antiquity to the crucible, and there to purify and 
 refine it, and to separate all the dross from it, which 
 has so deeply, and for the space of so many ages, 
 been not only, as it were, tied and fastened on to it, 
 but even thoroughly mixed, united, and incorporated 
 with it? This work requires the most clear and 
 refined judgment that can be imagined; an exquisite 
 wit, a quick piercing eye, a perfect ear, a most exact 
 knowledge in all history, both ancient and modern, 
 ecclesiastical and secular; a perfect knowledge of 
 the ancient tongues; and a long and continued 
 acquaintance with all kinds of writers, ancient, 
 mediaeval, and modern, to be able to judge of their 
 opinions, and which way their pulse beats: to under- 
 stand rightly the manner of their expression, inven- 
 tion, and method in writing: each age, each nation, 
 and each author, having in all these things their own 
 
ATTRIBUTED TO Till: FATHERS. 
 
 peculiar ways. Now such a man as this is hardly 
 produced in a whole age. 
 
 As for those men who in our times have taken 
 upon them this department of criticism, who knows, 
 Who I, that only reads them, how many (A* the 
 
 qualifications just enumerated are wanting in themt 
 But, suppose, that such a man were to be found, and 
 that he should take in hand this discovery, I do 
 verily believe that he would he able very easily to 
 find out the imposture of a bungling fool, that had 
 ill counterfeited the stamp, colour, and weight, in the 
 work which he would father upon some other man : 
 or that should, for example, endeavour to represent 
 Jerome or Chrysostom with a stammering tongue, 
 and should make them speak barbarous language, 
 bad Latin, and bad Greek; or else perhaps should 
 make use of such terms, things, or authors, as w< 
 not known to the world, till a long time after th 
 men; or should make them treat of matters Far 
 removed from the age they lived in, and maintain 
 opinions which they never thought of; or reject 
 those which they are notoriously known to have held: 
 and of this sort, for the most part, are those pi 
 which our critics have decried, and noted as spuri< US. 
 But if a man should chance to bring him a piece of 
 some able master, that should have fully and exactly 
 learned both the languages, history, manners, alli- 
 ances, and quarrels of the family into which he has 
 boldly obtruded himself, and should be able t<> make 
 happy use of all these, be assured that our A.rist 
 chus would be here as much puzzled to o this 
 
 juggler, as they were once in France, to pi 
 imi of Martin Guerre. 
 
 ■■■, how can wo imagine, but thai 
 many several persons, thai have for their 
 pin , I their utm iVOUre in I b< 
 
 kind- of fo 
 many centuries, very many able men, wh had 
 
56 SUPPOSITITIOUS WRITINGS 
 
 the skill so artificially to copy the manner and style 
 of the persons whom they imitate, as to render it 
 impossible to discover them? Especially, if they 
 made choice of such a name, as was the only thing 
 remaining in the world of that author; so that there 
 is no mark left us, either of his style, discourse, or 
 opinions, to guide us in our examination. And, 
 therefore, in my judgment, he was a very cunning 
 fellow, and made a right choice, that undertook to 
 write, under the name of Dionysius the Areopagite; 
 for, not having any true legitimate piece of this 
 author left us, by which we may examine the cheat, 
 the discovery must needs be difficult; and it would 
 have proved so much the more hard, if he had but 
 used a more modest and less swelling manner of 
 expression; whereas for those others, who, in the 
 ages following, made bold with the names of Jerome, 
 Cyprian, Augustine, and the like, (of whose legitimate 
 writings we have very many pieces left us,) a man 
 may know them at the first sight, merely by their 
 style ; those Gothic and rude spirits being no more 
 able to counterfeit the graces and elegances of these 
 great authors, than an ass is to imitate the warblings 
 of the nightingale. 
 
 I confess there is another help, which, in my judg- 
 ment, may better answer our purpose in this particu- 
 lar than all the rest; namely, the light and direction 
 of the ancients themselves, who oftentimes make 
 mention of other writers of the Church, that lived 
 either before or in their own times; Jerome, among 
 the Latins, having taken the pains to make a cata- 
 logue of all those with whose names and writings he 
 was acquainted, from the apostles to his own time, 
 which was afterwards continued by Gennadius. To 
 this we may also add that incomparable w r ork of the 
 patriarch Photius, which he calls his Bibliotheca, and 
 which is now published in this our age; where this 
 great person has given us his judgment of most of 
 
ATTRIBUTED TO Till! FATHBKS. 
 
 the authors of the Greek Church, Now, thii aid wo 
 may make use of in two different ways; the one in 
 
 justifying a book, if it be found mentioned by th 
 authors;" the other in rejecting it, if they say 
 nothing of it. As for the first of these, it conclude* 
 
 only according to the quality of the authors who 
 make mention of a suspected book. For some of 
 the Fathers themselves have made U86 of those kinds 
 of forgeries, as we have formerly said ; others have 
 favoured them because they served their turn; some 
 have not been able to discover them; and BO 
 others have not been willing to do so, whatsoever 
 their reason has been. 
 
 I shall not here repeat the names of any of those 
 who have done these things themselves. As for 
 those that have favoured them, there are numerous 
 examples; as Justin Martyr, Theophilus, and others, 
 who adduce the Sybils' verses as oracles; the greatest 
 part of which, notwithstanding, are forged. As to 
 Clemens Alexandrinus, the most learned and most 
 polished of all the Fathers, in Jerome's judgment,* 
 how often does he make use of those apocryphal 
 pieces, which go under the names of the apo 
 and disciples, to whom they were most falsely attri- 
 buted; citing, under the name of Barnabas, f and of 
 Hermes,^ such writings as have been forged under 
 their names. And did not the seventh council in like 
 manner make use of a supposititious piece attrib 
 to Athanasins, as we have shown before; and I 
 wise of divers others, which are of the same stamp 1 
 
 That even the Fathers themselves therefore have 
 not been able always to make a true discover y 
 these false wares, no man can doubt; con- 
 that of those many accessary qualifications, whioh 
 enumerated b< - requisite in this particular, 
 
 * u 
 
 m. 
 
 6 
 
58 SUPPOSITITIOUS WRITINGS 
 
 they may oftentimes have failed in some. Jerome 
 himself, the most knowing man among all the Latin 
 Fathers, especially in matters of this nature, some- 
 times lets them pass without examination: as where 
 he speaks of a certain tract against mathematicians, 
 attributed to Minutius Foelix, " If at least (saith he) 
 the inscription represent unto us the right author of 
 the book."* In another place, whatsoever his reason 
 was^ he delivers to us, for legitimate pieces, the epis- 
 tles that go under the name of St. Paul to Seneca, 
 and of Seneca to St. Paul;f which, notwithstanding, 
 Cardinal Baronius holds for suspected and spurious, 
 as doubtless they are. J But even those men who have 
 been able to discover these false pieces have not some- 
 times been willing to do it; either being unwilling to 
 offend the authors of them, or else not daring to cast 
 any disrepute upon those books which, having many 
 good things in them, had not in their judgment 
 maintained any false or dangerous positions. This is 
 the reason why they chose to let such things pass, 
 rather than, out of a little tenderness of conscience, 
 to oppose them : there being, in their apprehension, 
 no danger at all in the one, but much trouble and invi- 
 diousness in the other. Therefore I am of opinion, 
 that Jerome, for example, would never have taken 
 the pains, nor have undergone the invidiousness, of 
 laying open the forgeries of Huffinus, if the misunder- 
 standing that happened to be between them had not 
 urged him to it. Neither do I believe that the Afri- 
 can Fathers would ever have troubled themselves to 
 prove the false allegation of Zosimus, but for their 
 own interest, which was thereby called into question. 
 For wise and sober men are never wont to fall into 
 variance with any without necessity: neither do they 
 quickly take notice of any injury or abuse offered 
 
 * Hier. ep. 84. ad Magn. torn. 2. 
 
 | Id. in Catal. torn. 1. J Baron. Annal. torn. 1. an. 66. 
 
ATTRIBUTED TO THE FATHERS. 50 
 
 them, unless it be a very great one, and such as I 
 evident danger in it: which was not at all perceived 
 or taken notice of at first, in these forgeries, that hi 
 
 nevertheless at length, by little and little, in a man- 
 ner borne down all the good ami legitimate books. 
 
 These considerations, in my opinion, make it clearly 
 appear, that the title of a book is not sufficiently justi- 
 fied by a passage or two being cited out of it by some 
 
 of the ancients, and under the same name. As for 
 the other way, which renders the authority of a hook 
 doubtful, from the ancients not having made any 
 mention of it, I confess it is no more demonstrative 
 than the other: as it is not impossible, that any one, 
 or divers of the Fathers, may not have met with such 
 a certain writer that was then extant: or else perk 
 that they might omit some one of those very authors 
 which they knew. Yet this is, notwithstanding, the 
 much surer way of the two: there being less dai 
 in this case, in rejecting a true piece, than in receiv- 
 ing a forged one; the want of the truth of the one 
 being doubtless much less prejudicial than the receiv- 
 ing the opposite falsehood of the other. For as it is 
 a less sin to omit the good, than to commit the evil 
 that is opposed to it; in like manner is it a less error 
 not to believe a truth than to believe the fals6ho I 
 which is contrary to it. And thus we see wdiat con- 
 fusion there is in the books of the ancients, and what 
 defect in the means which is requisite in distinguish- 
 ing the false from the true: insomuch that, as it often 
 happens, it is much e;isier to judge what we OUghi I I 
 reject, than to resolve upon what we may safely 
 receive. Let the reader therefore now judge, whet 
 or not, these writings having come down through so 
 man many hands, which 
 
 known to ha d notoriously , or 
 
 at least Btr i of forgery — the truth in 
 
 ng made on 
 resistance against these impostures — it be not a v< 
 
60 SUPPOSITITIOUS WRITINGS, ETC. 
 
 difficult matter to discover, amidst the infinite number 
 of books that are now extant, and go under the names 
 of the Fathers, which are those that truly belong to 
 them, and which, again, are those that are falsely 
 imposed upon them. And if it be so hard a matter 
 to discover in gross only which are the writings of 
 the Fathers, how much more difficult a business will 
 it be to find out what their opinions are, on the sev- 
 eral controversies now in agitation. We are not to 
 imagine, that it is no great matter from which of the 
 Fathers such an opinion has sprung, so that it came 
 from any one of them : for there is altogether as much 
 difference amongst these ancient doctors, both in 
 respect of authority, learning, and goodness, as 
 among the modern. Besides that, an age being higher 
 or lower either raises or lessens the repute of these 
 writings, in the esteem both of the one party and of 
 the other, as it were so many grains as years: and 
 certainly not altogether without good reason; it being 
 most evident to any one that has been but the least 
 versed in the reading of these books, that time has by 
 degrees introduced very great alterations, as well in 
 the doctrine and discipline of the ancients, as in all 
 other things. 
 
 Our conclusion therefore must be, that if any one 
 shall desire to know what the sense and judgment of 
 the primitive Church has been, as regards our present 
 controversies, it will be first in a manner as necessary 
 for him as it is difficult, exactly to find out both the 
 name and the age of each of these several authors. 
 
CORRUPTIONS, ETC. 6 I 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Reason IV.— The writings of the Fathers, which nro consider* i 
 legitimate, have been in many places corrupted by time, Igi 
 ranee, and (rand, pious and malicious, both in the early and Later 
 
 But now suppose that you have, by long and judi- 
 cious investigation, separated the true and genuine 
 writings of the Fathers, from the spurious and forged; 
 there would yet rest upon you a second task, the re- 
 sult of which is likely to prove much more doubtful, 
 and more replete with difficulty, than the former. 
 For it would behove you, in the next place, in reading 
 over those authors which you acknowledge as legiti- 
 mate, to distinguish what is the author's own, and 
 what has been foisted in by another hand; and also 
 to restore to your author whatsoever either by time 
 or fraud has been taken away, and to take out of him 
 whatsoever has been added by either of these two. 
 Otherwise you will never be able to assure yourself 
 that you have discovered, out of these books, what 
 the true and proper meaning and sense of your author 
 has been; considering the great alterations that in 
 various ways they may have suffered at different 
 times. 
 
 I shall not here speak of those errors which have 
 been produced by the ignorance of the transcribe 
 "who write," as Jerome has complained of tin 
 
 t what they find, but what themselves under- 
 stand;''* nor yet of those faults which I 
 have grown up out of the very transcribing; il 
 impossible that books which have been copied out 
 infinite number of times, durii 
 
 twel y men of different capacities and 
 
 handwriting, should all this while retain exactly and 
 
 .1. i. 
 
62 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 
 
 in every particular the self-same style, the same form 
 and body, that they had when they first came forth 
 from the author's own hand. 
 
 I shall say nothing of the damage sustained by 
 these books from moths and a thousand other injuries 
 of time, by which they have been corrupted; while 
 all kinds of learning, for so many ages together, lay 
 buried as it were in the grave; the worms on one 
 side feeding on the books of the learned, and on the 
 other, the dust defacing them ; so that it is impossible 
 now to restore them to their first condition. This is 
 the fate that all kinds of books have been exposed to; 
 whence have originated so many various readings 
 found almost in all authors. I shall not here take 
 any advantage of this ; though there are some doc- 
 tors in the world that have showed us the way to do 
 it; with the intention of lessening the authority that 
 the Holy Scriptures of themselves ought to have in 
 the esteem of all men; under that plea, that even in 
 these sacred writings there are sometimes found vari- 
 ous readings, which yet are of very little or no im- 
 portance as to the ground-work. If we would tread 
 in these men's steps, and apply to the writings of the 
 Fathers what they say and conclude of the Scriptures, 
 we could do it upon much better terms than they; 
 there being no reason on earth to imagine but that 
 the books of the ancient writers have suffered very 
 much more than the Scriptures have, w r hich have 
 always been preserved in the Church with much 
 greater care than any other books, and which have 
 been learned by all nations, and translated into all 
 languages; which all sects have retained, both Ortho- 
 dox and Heretics, Catholics and Schismatics, Greeks 
 and Latins, Moscovites and Ethiopians; each observ- 
 ing diligently the revisions and transcriptions of the 
 other; so that there could not possibly happen any 
 remarkable alteration in them, without the whole 
 world as it were instantly exclaiming against it, and 
 
WRITINGS OF TIIK FATHERS. 68 
 
 making their complaints to resound through the uni- 
 verse. Whereas, on the contrary, the writings of the 
 
 Fathers have been kept, transcribed, and read in .is 
 careless a manner as could be: and that too by but 
 very few, and in few places: being but rarely under- 
 stood by any, save those of the same language; this 
 being the cause that so many faults have the more 
 easily crept into them, and likewise that they are the 
 more difficult to be discovered. Besides that the par- 
 ticular style and obscurity of some of them render 
 the errors the more important. As for example, take 
 a Tertullian, and you will find that one little word 
 added or taken away, or altered ever so little, or a 
 full point or comma put out of its place, will so con- 
 found the sense, that you will not be able to discover 
 his meaning: whereas in books of an easy, smooth, 
 clear style, as the Scriptures for the most part arc, 
 these faults are much less prejudicial; for they can- 
 not in anywise so darken the sense but that it will be 
 still easy enough to comprehend it. 
 
 But I shall pass by all these minute particulars, as 
 more suitable to the inquiries of the Pyrrlionians ami 
 Academics, whose business it is to question all thin 
 than of Christians who only seek, in simplicity and 
 sincerity of heart, whereon to build their faith. I 
 shall only here take notice of such alteration- 
 have been knowingly and voluntarily made in the 
 writings of the Fathers, purposely to conceal or dis- 
 guise their sense, or else to make them speak more 
 than they meant. This forgery is of two sorts; the 
 one has been made use of with a good intention, the 
 other out of malice. Again, the one has been com- 
 mitted in times long since past, the other in this last 
 . in our own days and the days of OUT fatfa 
 :ly, the one is in the additions I authors, 
 
 make them speak more than they meant; the other, 
 in subtracting from the author, to eclipse .'iml darken 
 
 what he would be Ul Lther OUght 
 
64 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 
 
 we to wonder, that even those of the honest, innocent, 
 primitive times also made use of these deceits; seeing 
 that, for a good end, they made no great scruple to 
 forge whole books, taking a much stranger and 
 bolder course, in my opinion, than the other. For 
 without doubt it is a greater crime to coin false money, 
 than to clip or alter the true. This opinion has 
 always been in the world, that to fix a certain estima- 
 tion upon that which is good and true, (that is to say, 
 upon what we account to be such,) it is necessary that 
 we remove out of the way whatsoever may be a hin- 
 derance to it, and that there can be no great danger 
 either in putting in, or at least in leaving any thing 
 in, that may yield assistance to it; whatsoever the 
 issue of either of these may in the end prove to be. 
 Hence it has come to pass, that we have so many 
 ancient forgeries, and so many strange stories of 
 miracles and of visions; many taking a delight in 
 feigning (as Jerome says) " great combats which they 
 have had with devils in deserts,"* all of which are 
 merely fabulous in themselves, and acknowledged to 
 be so by the most intelligent of them. Yet, notwith- 
 standing, they are tolerated, and sometimes also 
 recommended, as they account them useful, for the 
 settling or increasing the faith or devotion of the 
 people. 
 
 What will you say, if at this day there are some 
 even of those men who make profession of being the 
 greatest haters in the world of these subtilties, who 
 cannot nevertheless put forth any book, without lop- 
 ping off or falsifying whatsoever does not wholly agree 
 with the doctrine they hold for true ; fearing, as they 
 say, lest such things, coming to the eye of the simple 
 common people, might infect them, and possess their 
 heads with new fancies. So firmly has this opinion 
 been of old rooted in the nature of man. 
 
 * D83Dionum contra se pugnantium portenta confingunt. — Hier. 
 ep. 4. ad Euslic. torn. 1. 
 
WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 65 
 
 Now, I will not here dispute whether this proceed- 
 ing of theirs be lawful or not. I shall only say by 
 the way that in my judgment it is shameful for the 
 truth to be established or defended by such falsifica- 
 tions and evasions, as if it had not sufficient weapons, 
 both defensive and offensive of its own, but that it 
 must borrow of its adversary. It is a very danger- 
 ous course moreover, because the discovery of one 
 cheat oftentimes renders the cause of those who 
 practised it wholly suspected. So that, by making 
 use of such sleights as these in the Christian religion, 
 either for the gaining or confirming the faith of some 
 of the simpler people, it is to be feared, that you 
 may give distaste to the more intelligent; and by 
 this means at length may chance to lose also the 
 affections of the more ignorant. But whatsoever this 
 course of deception be, either in itself, or in its 
 conspquences, it is sufficient for my purpose, that it 
 has long been the practice in the Church, in matters 
 of religion ; and for proof of which I shall here 
 produce some instances. 
 
 The heretics have always been accused of using 
 this artifice: but I shall not here notice what altera- 
 tions have been made by the most ancient of them, 
 even in the Scriptures themselves. If you would 
 have a sample of this practice of theirs, only go to 
 Tertullian and Epiphanius, and you will there see 
 how Marcion had mutilated and altered the Gospel 
 of Luke, and those Epistles of Paul, which he 
 allowed to be such. Nor have the ages following 
 been a whit more conscientious in this particular; as 
 appears by those complaints made by Ruffinus,* in 
 his expositions upon the Apostles' Creed; and in 
 another treatise written by him purposely on this 
 subject; which is indeed contradicted by Jerome, f 
 
 * Ruffi. in Symbol, el lib. <1c adult script. Origen. 
 
 f Hier. ep. 05, torn. 2, ct ApoL 2. contr. Ruffi. 
 
66 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 
 
 but only in his hypothesis, as to what concerned 
 Origen, but not absolutely in his thesis; and by 
 similar complaints of Cyril,* and various others of 
 the ancients ; and among the moderns by those very 
 persons also who have put forth the general councils 
 at Rome; who inform us, in the preface to the first 
 volume,*}" that time and the fraud of the heretics have 
 been the cause that the acts of the said councils, as 
 far as they exist, have not come to our hands either 
 entire or pure and perfect: and they grievously 
 bewail that we should be thus deprived of so great 
 and so precious a treasure. Now this testimony, 
 coming from such, is to me worth a thousand others; 
 they, in my opinion, being evidently interested to 
 speak otherwise. For if the Church of Rome, who 
 is the pretended mistress and trustee of the faith, 
 has suffered any part of the councils to perish and be 
 lost, which is esteemed by them as the code of the 
 Church, what then may the rest have also suffered? 
 what may not the heretics and schismatics have been 
 able to do? And if all these evidences have been 
 altered by their fraud, how shall we be able by them 
 to come to the knowledge of the opinions and judg- 
 ment of the ancients? I confess I am much surprised 
 to see these men make so much account of the acts 
 of the councils; and to make such grievous com- 
 plaints against the heretics for having suppressed 
 some of them. For if these things are of such use, 
 why then do they themselves keep from us the acts 
 of the council of Trent; which is the most important 
 council, both for them and their party, that has been 
 held in the Christian Church these eight hundred 
 years? If it be a crime in the heretics to have kept 
 from us these precious jewels, why are not they 
 afraid, lest the blame which they lay on others may 
 
 * Cyril, ep. ad Ioh. Antiocli. in Act. Cone. Eph. 
 f In Prsefat. in torn. 1. Concil. Gen. 
 
WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 67 
 
 chance to revert upon themselves? But, doubtless, 
 there is something in the business that renders these 
 cases different; and I confess I wonder they publish 
 it not : the simpler sort, for want of being otherwise 
 informed, thinking perhaps, though it may be without 
 cause, that the reason why the acts of this last coun- 
 cil are kept close from them, is because they know 
 that the publishing of them would be either preju- 
 dicial, or at least unprofitable, to the greatness of the 
 Church of Rome. They also again, on the other 
 side, conceive that in those other acts, which they 
 say have been suppressed by the heretics, there were 
 wonderful matters to be found, for the advancing and 
 supporting of the Church of Rome. Whatsoever 
 the reason be, I cannot but commend the ingenuity 
 of these men, who, notwithstanding their interest 
 which seemed to engage them to the contrary, have 
 nevertheless confessed, that the councils which we 
 have at this day are neither entire nor uncorrupted. 
 
 Let us now examine whether even the orthodox 
 party themselves have not also contributed something 
 to this alteration of the writings of the primitive 
 Church. Epiphanius reports, that in the true and 
 most correct copies of Luke, it was written, that 
 u Jesus Christ wept;" and that this passage had been 
 quoted by Irenaeus; but that the Catholics had blotted 
 out this expression, fearing that the heretics might 
 abuse it. OpOodogoc dz dxpetXovxo to prjrov^ eofaihiszz:, 
 xu> faj vaqaavres aurou to rs/oc, mi to foYupoTarov** 
 
 Whether this relation be true or false, must rest 
 upon the credit of the author. But this I shall say, 
 that it seems to me a clear argument, that th< 
 ancient Catholics would have made no great scruple 
 of blotting out of the writings of the Fathers any 
 word that they found to contradict their own opinions 
 and judgment; and that with the same liberty that 
 
 * Bpiphanioa id Anchor. 
 
\ 
 
 68 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 
 
 they inform us the heretics used to do. For seeing 
 that, as this Father informs us, they made no con- 
 science of making such an attempt upon the gospel of 
 the Son of God himself, with how much greater con- 
 fidence would they adventure to mangle the books of 
 men ? Certainly Ruffinus, a man so much applauded 
 by Jerome,* before their falling out, and so highly 
 esteemed by Augustine,f who very much bewails the 
 breach between those two, (and whom GennadiusJ 
 has placed, with a very high eulogy of his worth, in 
 his Catalogue of Ecclesiastical writers) has so filthily 
 mangled, and so licentiously confounded the writings 
 of Origen, Eusebius, and others, which he has trans- 
 lated into Latin, that you will hardly find a page in 
 his translations, where he he has not either cut off, or 
 added, or at least altered something. Jerome also, 
 although his opponent, yet agrees with him in this 
 point ;§ confessing in several places that he had in- 
 deed translated Origen, but in such a manner that he 
 had taken liberty to cut away that which was dan- 
 gerous, and had left only that which was useful, and 
 had interpreted only what was good, and had left out 
 the bad; that is to say, that if he found anything 
 there that was not consonant to the common judg- 
 ment and opinions of his time, and so might possibly 
 give offence to the common people, he suppressed it 
 in his translation. He also affirmed that Hilary, and 
 Eusebius, bishop of Vercelli, had done the like.|| And 
 again, in his preface to Eusebius, " De locis Hebrai- 
 cis," he confesses that he left out that which he con- 
 ceived was not worth remembering ; and that he had 
 altered the greatest part of it. To make it evident 
 that this has been his constant practice, we need but 
 
 * Hier. ep. 5. ad Flor. et. ep. 41. ad Ruffin. 
 
 ■f Aug. ep. ad Hier. quae est inter ep. Hier. 93, et iterum ep. 97. 
 
 J Germad. in Catal. inter op. Hier. 
 
 I Hier. ep. 62. ad Theoph. Alex, et lib. 2. Apol. contra Ruffin, 
 
 || Hier, ep. 75. Id. praefat. in lib. Euseb. de loc. Hebr. 
 
WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 69 
 
 compare his Latin chronology with the Greek frag- 
 ments which remain of Eusebius; where you may 
 plainly see what license these ancients allowed them- 
 selves in the writings of others. 
 
 What doubt can there be but that those men who 
 came after them, following the authority of so great 
 an example, carefully took out of their copies, or else 
 left out of their translations, the greatest part of 
 whatever they found to be dissonant to the opinions 
 and customs which were received in the Church in the 
 times they lived in? and likewise, that for imparting 
 the greater authority to them, some have had the 
 boldness to add, in some places, what they conceived 
 to be wanting? Whence else co'uld it proceed, that 
 we should have so many unreasonable breakings off in 
 many places, and so many impertinent additions in 
 others, as are frequently to be met with in the ancient 
 authors? Whence otherwise should we have those 
 many coarse patches in the midst of their soft satin 
 and velvet; and that inequality which we observe in 
 one and the same author in a quarter of an hour's 
 reading? 
 
 It would be a tedious matter to bring in here all the 
 examples of this kind that might be mentioned; there 
 being scarcely any of the moderns that have taken 
 any pains in writing upon the Fathers, but have 
 noticed and complained of this abuse. Hence it is, 
 that we oftentimes meet with such notices as this, in 
 the margins of the Fathers: "Hie videtur aliens 
 nwjas suas" and the like;* and that also 
 which is observed by Vives upon the twenty-first 
 Book of Augustine de Civitate Dei; namely, that ten 
 or twelve lines, which we find at this day in the 
 nty-fourth chapter of that Book, containing a pos- 
 sitiv :ion of purgatory, were not to be found in 
 
 * Tom. 4. op. Ambr. p. 211. lib. g. annot. 
 
70 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 
 
 the ancient manuscripts of Bruges, and of Cologne;* 
 no, nor yet in that of Paris, as is noted by those that 
 printed Augustine, anno 1531. One Holsteinius also, 
 a Dutchman, testifies that he had met with divers 
 pieces among the manuscripts of the king's library, of 
 Chrysostom, Proclus, and others, that had in like man- 
 ner been scratched in divers places by the like hands, 
 by some interpolators of the later and worse ages.f 
 
 But I may not here forget to observe, that this alter- 
 ation has also taken place, even in the most sacred 
 and public pieces, as in the liturgies of the Church, 
 and the like : and I shall give you this observation, 
 in order that it may carry with it the greater grace- 
 fulness and weight, in the expressions of Andreas 
 Masius, a man of singular and profound learning, yet 
 of such candour and integrity as renders him more 
 admired than his knowledge; and which, together 
 with his other excellencies, endears him to all mode- 
 rate men of both professions. This learned person, 
 observing that the Liturgy of St Basil was not so long 
 in the Syriac as in the Greek, assigns this reason — 
 "For," saith he, "men have always been of such a 
 humour and disposition in matters of religion, that 
 you shall scarcely find any that have been able to con- 
 tent themselves with the ceremonies prescribed unto 
 them by their Fathers, however holy they have been 
 in themselves: so that we may observe that in course 
 of time, according as the prelates have thought fittest 
 to unite the affections of the people to piety and devo- 
 tion, many other things have been either added or 
 altered, and (which is much worse,) many supersti- 
 
 * In antiquis libris Brug. et Colon, non legnntnr isti decern aut 
 duodecim qui sequuntur versus. — Lud. Vives in lib. 21. de Civ. Dei, 
 c. 24. 
 
 f Neque solius Athanasii ea fortuna, ut ineptissimorum interpo- 
 latorum manus subiret, cum Chrysostomi, Procli, aliorumque homi- 
 lias similibus sequiorum saeculorum ineptiis foedatas, in iisdem 
 regiis codicibus invenerim. — Holstein. op. Urn. prcef. torn. op. Athan. 
 
WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 71 
 
 tious things have been also introduced; in which par- 
 ticular I conceive the Christians of Syria have been 
 more moderate and less extravagant than the Greeks 
 and Latins, from not having the opportunity of enjoy- 
 ing that quiet and abundance of life which the others 
 had."* Thus the learned Masius. Cassander also,f 
 who searched the writings of the ancients with good 
 intentions, acknowledges, and proves out of other 
 authors, that the ancient liturgies have by little and 
 little been enlarged by the several additions of the 
 moderns. 
 
 Thus proportionably as the world itself has changed, 
 so would it have whatever there remained of anti- 
 quity to undergo its alterations also; imagining that 
 it was but reasonable that these books should in some 
 measure accommodate their language to the times ; 
 as the authors of them in all probability would have 
 done themselves, (believing and speaking with the 
 times,) had they been now living. Now to render them 
 the more acceptable, they have used those arts upon 
 them, that some old men are wont to practice; they 
 have new-coloured their beard and mustachios, cutting 
 off the rude and scattered hairs; have smoothed their 
 skin, and given it a fresh complexion, and taught 
 them to speak w T ith a new voice, having changed also 
 the colour of their habit: insomuch that it is much to 
 be feared, that we oftentimes do but lose our labour, 
 when we search, in these disguised faces and mouths, 
 for the complexion and language of true antiquity. 
 Thus have they taught Eusebius to tell us in his 
 Chronicon, that the fast of Lent was instituted by 
 Telesphorus, and the observation of the Lord's day by 
 Pius, both bishops of Home: which is a thing Euse- 
 bius never so much as dreamt of, as may appear out 
 some manuscripts of his, where you find him wholly 
 
 * Andr. Masius, P :> r. in Litur. 6 
 L in Iiturg. cap. -. 
 
72 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 
 
 silent as to these points, with which the moderns are 
 much pleased.* 
 
 But to return, and take up the thread of time, we 
 may observe that this license grew stronger daily as 
 the times grew worse; because that the greater the 
 distance of time was from the author's own age, the 
 more difficult the discovery of those forgeries must 
 necessarily be: the example also of some of the most 
 eminent persons among the ancients, who had some- 
 times made use of these sleights, adding on the other 
 side boldness to every one, and courage to venture 
 upon what they had done before them. For indeed, 
 is it not a strange thing, that the legates of Pope Leo, 
 in the year 451, in the midst of the council of Chalce- 
 don, where were assembled six hundred bishops, the 
 very flower and choice of the whole clergy, should 
 have the confidence to quote the sixth canon of the 
 council of Nice in these very words — " That the 
 Church of Rome has always had the primacy :"f 
 words which are. no more found in any Greek copies 
 of the councils, than are those other pretended canons 
 of Pope Zosimus: neither do they appear in any 
 Greek or Latin copies, nor so much as in the edition 
 of Dionysius Exiguus, who lived about fifty years 
 after this council. When I consider that the legates 
 of so holy a Pope would at that time have fastened 
 such a wen upon the body of so venerable a canon, 
 I am almost ready to think that we scarcely have any 
 thing of antiquity left us that is entire and uncorrupt, 
 except it be in matters of indifference, or which could 
 not have been corrupted without much noise ; and to 
 take this proceeding of theirs, which is come to our 
 knowledge, as an advertisement purposely given us 
 by Divine Providence, to let us see with how much 
 
 * Euseb. in Chro. edit. num. 2148. & 2158. Vide Scalig. in loc. 
 p. 198. a. & 201. a. See also Card. Perron's Reply to K. James, 
 Observ. 2. c. 8. 
 
 f Concil. Chalced. Act. 16. torn. 2. ConciL 
 
WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 73 
 
 consideration and advisedness we ought to receive for 
 the Council of Nice, and of Constantinople,, and for 
 Cyprian's and Jerome's writings, that which goes at 
 this day for such. 
 
 About seventy-four years after the council of Chal- 
 ccdon, Dionysius Exiguus, whom we before mention- 
 ed, made his collection at Rome, which is since printed 
 at Paris, cum privilegio regis, out of very ancient 
 manuscripts. Whosoever will but look diligently into 
 this collection, will find various alterations in it, one 
 of which I shall instance merely to show how old this 
 artifice has been among Christians. 
 
 The last canon of the council of Laodicea, which 
 is the hundred and sixty-third of the Greek code of 
 the Church universal, forbidding to read in churches 
 any other books than those which are canonical, gives 
 us a long catalogue of them. Dionysius Exiguus, 
 although he has indeed inserted in his collection 
 (Num. 162) the beginning of the said canon, which' 
 forbids to read any other books in the churches be- 
 sides the sacred volumes of the Old and New Testa- 
 ment, yet has wholly omitted the catalogue, or list of 
 the said books: fearing, as I conceive, lest the tail of 
 this catalogue might scandalize the Church of Rome, 
 where many years before Pope Innocent had, by an 
 express degree to that purpose, put into the canon of 
 the Old Testament* the Maccabees, the Wisdom of 
 Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Tobit, Judith, &c; of which 
 books the Fathers of the council of Laodicea make no 
 mention at all, naming but twenty-two books of the 
 Old Testament ; and in the catalogue of the New, 
 utterly omitting the Apocalypse 
 
 If any man can show me a better reason for this sup- 
 
 — ion, let him speak. For my part I conceive this 
 the most probable that can be given. However, wc 
 arc not bound to divine what the motive should be, 
 
 * Innocent Lep. 3. id exup. I" I e. 7. 
 
74 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 
 
 that made Dionysius cut off that part of the canon. 
 For, whatsoever the reason was, it serves the purpose 
 well enough to make it appear that at that time they 
 felt no compunction of conscience in curtailing, if 
 need were, the very text of the canons themselves. 
 So that if we had not had the good fortune to have 
 this canon entire and perfect, in divers other monu- 
 ments of antiquity, (as in the collections of the 
 Greeks, and also in the councils of the French 
 Church,) we should at this day have been wholly 
 ignorant what the judgment of the Fathers of Laodi- 
 cea was respecting the canon of the Holy Scriptures, 
 which is one of the principal controversies of these 
 times. 
 
 It is true, I confess, that the Latins have their re- 
 venge upon the Greeks, reproaching them in like 
 manner, that in their translation of the code of the 
 canons of the African Church, they have left the 
 books of the Maccabees quite out of the roll of the 
 books of Scriptures, which is set down in the twenty- 
 fourth canon of their collection, expressly against the 
 faith of all the Latin copies in this collection, both 
 printed and manuscript, as Cardinal Perron affirms.* 
 Yet there are some othersf who assure us that no 
 book of Maccabees appears at all in this canon, in 
 the collection of Cresconius, a bishop of Africa, not 
 yet printed. 
 
 The Greek code represents to us seven canons of 
 the first council of Constantinople; which are in like 
 manner found both in Balsamon and in Zonaras, and 
 also in the Greek and Latin edition of the general 
 councils, printed at Rome. The last three of these 
 do not appear at all in the Latin code of Dionysius; 
 though they are very important ones as to the busi- 
 ness they relate to, which is, the order of proceeding, 
 
 * Perron Kepi. 1. 1. c. 50. 
 
 f Christ. Justel. in Not. ad Can. 24. Cod. Gr. Eccles. Afric. 
 
WRITINGS OF TIIE FATHERS. 75 
 
 in passing judgment upon bishops accused, and in 
 receiving such persons, who, forsaking their commu- 
 nion with heretics, desire to be admitted into the 
 Church. It is very difficult to say, what should move 
 the collector to alter this council thus. But this I am 
 very well assured of, that in the sixth canon, which 
 is one of those he has omitted, and which treats of 
 judging of bishops accused, there is not the least men- 
 tion made of appealing to Rome, nor of any reserved 
 \e$i wherein it is not permittec^to any, save only to 
 the Pope himself, to judge a bishop; the power of 
 hearing and determining all such matters being here 
 wholly and absolutely referred to provincial diocesan 
 synods. Now whether the Greeks made this addition 
 to the council of Constantinople, (which yet is not 
 very probable,) or whether Dionysius or the Church 
 of Home curtailed this council, it will still appear evi- 
 dent that this boldness in exscinding or making addi- 
 tions to ecclesiastical writings, is not at all a modern 
 invention. After the canons of Constantinople, there 
 follow, in the Greek code, eight canons of the general 
 council of Ephesus, set down also both by Balsamon 
 and Zonaras, and printed with the acts of the said 
 council of Ephesus, in the first volume of the Roman 
 edition. But Dionysius Exiguus has discarded them 
 all, not giving us any one of them : and you will 
 hardly be able to give a probable guess what his rea- 
 son should be, unless perhaps it w T ere because the 
 business of the eighth canon displeased him; which 
 18, that the bishops of Cyprus had their ordinations 
 within themselves, without admitting the patriarch of 
 Antioch to have anything to do with it; and that the 
 B»me course ought to be observed in all other provinces 
 and dioceses; so that no bishop should have power to 
 intrude into a province which had not from the begin- 
 ning been under his and his predecessor's jurisdiction : 
 44 For fear, that under the pretence of the administra- 
 tion of sacred offices, the pride of a secular power 
 
76 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 
 
 should thrust itself into the Church ; and by this 
 means we should lose/' say these good Fathers, " by 
 little and little, before we were aware, the liberty that 
 our Lord Jesus Christ hath purchased for us with his 
 own blood. " Vva pur] rcou nazepcov ol xavovez napa- 
 ftatvcDvrac, prjde ev Upoopfca^ TTpoa^rjpazc^ e^ooaca^ 
 xogjicayjq TUtpoz Traprjodorjzac pyjde XaOcoptev tyjv iXeu- 
 Oepcav xara ptxpov anoXeaavreQ fjv ^ptv edcoprjaaro toj 
 idea) a! pare b Ki>pco<; tfpcov ' Itjgoo^ Xpcoroz* 
 
 I know not, whether this constitution, and these 
 words have put the Latins into any fright or not ; or 
 whether any other reason has induced them not to 
 receive the canons of the council of Ephesus into their 
 code. But this is certain that they do not appear any 
 where among them; and it is now at the least seven 
 hundred and fifty years and upward, that Anastasius 
 Bibliothecarius,f the Pope's library-keeper, testified, 
 that these canons were not anywhere to be found in 
 the most ancient Latin copies; accusing moreover the 
 Greeks of having forged them. Let them settle this 
 dispute among themselves. Whether these canons 
 w r ere forged by the Greeks; or whether they have 
 been blotted out of this council, by the Latins ; it is 
 still a clear case, that the cheat is very near eight 
 hundred years standing. But in the next example 
 that follows, the business is evidently clear. For 
 whereas the Greek code, Num. 206, sets before us, 
 in the 28th canon of the general council of Chalcedon, 
 a decree of those Fathers, by which, conformably to 
 the first council of Constantinople, they ordained, that 
 u seeing the city of Constantinople was the seat of the 
 senate, and of the empire, and enjoyed the same pri- 
 vileges with the city of Rome; therefore it should in 
 like manner be advanced to the same height and great- 
 ness in ecclesiastical affairs, being the second church 
 
 * Concil. Eph. Can. 8. qui in 7. Gr. est 178. Cod. Can. Eccl. 
 f Anastas. Biblioth. Prsef. in Synod. 8. torn. 3. Concil. Gen. 
 
^YRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 77 
 
 in order, after Rome: and that the bishop of it should 
 have the ordaining of Metropolitans in the three 
 dioceses of Pontus, Asia, and Thrace." Ttjp ftaatX- 
 eta yji: tpjrxhrcw veumOeetrav Ttohv* xai zcov lacov 
 datoXajJouaau Kpeaftetcov rjj 7rpe0(juTepqi ftounkedt Potffj], 
 xat H roec Ixxkqotturcixois a>z ixeeuyv psfakuvsaQaz 
 npacffiam, deirrepav fier* ixeevrjv bitapyouoavl* 
 
 This canon is found both in Balsamon and Zon- 
 aras; and has also the testimony of the greatest part 
 of the ecclesiastical historians, both Greek and Latin, 
 that it is a legitimate canon of the council of Chalce- 
 don; in the acts of which council, at this day also 
 extant, it is set down at large: yet, notwithstanding, 
 in the collection of Dionysius Exiguus this canon 
 appears not at all, no more than if there had never 
 been any such thing thought of at Chalcedon. We 
 know very well, that Pope Leo and some others of 
 his successors rejected it; but he that promised us 
 that he would make an orderly digest of the canons 
 of the councils, and translate them out of the Greek, 
 why or how did he, or ought he, to omit this so re- 
 markable a canon ? If all other evidences had been 
 lost, how should we have been able so much as to 
 have guessed that any such thing was ever treated of 
 at Chalcedon? Where, or by what means, could we 
 have learned what the opinion was of the six hun- 
 dred and thirty Fathers, who met there together re- 
 specting this point, which is the most important one 
 of all those that are at this day controverted among 
 us? It is now eleven hundred years and upward, 
 since this omission was first made. And who will 
 pass his word to us, that among so many other wri- 
 tings, whether of councils or particular men's works, 
 whether Greek or Latin, similar liberty has not been 
 
 aHy time used? Rather by these forgeries which 
 have come to our knowledge, who can doubt but that 
 
 :ic. Chalc. Gnec. Bccl. Univ. 
 
78 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 
 
 there have been many others of the same kind, which 
 we are ignorant of? You have gone along innocently 
 perhaps, reading these books of the ancients, and 
 believing you there find the pure sense of antiquity; 
 and yet you see here, that from the beginning of the 
 sixth century they have made no scruple of cutting 
 off, from the most sacred books they had, whatsoever 
 was not agreeable to the taste of the times. And 
 therefore, though we had no more against them than 
 this, it were, in my judgment, a sufficient reason to 
 induce us to go on here very warily, and, as they say, 
 with a tight rein, through this whole business. 
 
 In the next place there is a very observable cor- 
 ruption in the epistle of Adrian I. to the Emperor 
 Constantine, in the time of the second council of 
 Nice.* For in the Latin collection of Anastasius, 
 made about seven hundred and fifty years since, 
 Adrian is there made to speak very highly and mag- 
 nificently of the supremacy of his see ; and he rebukes 
 the Greeks very shrewdly, for having conferred upon 
 Tarasius, the patriarch of Constantinople, the title of 
 Universal Bishop ; and all this while there is not so 
 much as one w T ord of this to be found either in the 
 Greek edition of the said seventh council, nor yet in 
 the common Latin ones. The Romanists accuse the 
 Greeks of having suppressed these two clauses ; and 
 the Greeks again accuse the Romanists of having 
 foisted them in: neither is it easy to determine on 
 which side the guilt lies. However, it is sufficient for 
 me, that wheresoever the fault lies, it evidently appears 
 hence, that this curtailing and adding to authors, ac- 
 cording to the interest of the present times, has now 
 a very long time been in practice amongst Christians. 
 It appears also very evidently, in the next piece fol- 
 lowing in the same council, namely, the Epistle of 
 Adrian to Tarasius, that it is quite another thing in 
 
 * Concil. 7, Act. 2, torn. 3, Concil. 
 
WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 79 
 
 the Greek from what it is in Anastasius's Latin trans- 
 lation ; and that in points too of as high importance 
 as those others before mentioned. So in the fifth act 
 likewise, where both in the Greek text, and also in 
 the old Latin translation, Tarasius is called Universal 
 Bishop,* this title appears not at all in Anastasius's 
 translation. 
 
 In the same act, the Fathers accuse the Iconoclastsf 
 of having cut many leaves out of a certain book in 
 the library at Constantinople; and that at a certain 
 city called Photia, they had burned to the number of 
 thirty volumes; that besides this, they had erased the 
 annotations out of a certain book ; and all this out of 
 the malice they bore against images, of which these 
 books spoke well and favourably. 
 
 Yet I do not see how we can excuse the Romanists 
 from being guilty of corrupting Anastasius in those 
 passages above noted ; nor yet of the injury they do 
 Eusebius, in the exposition which thej T give of certain 
 words of his, only to render him odious; objecting 
 against him, because he says, that "the carnal form 
 of Jesus Christ was changed into the nature of the 
 Deity:" — c Otc [teTefikydy jj ivaapxoz abzoo /lofxp'/j ei£ 
 Tfjju rye (Iz'.ozYjZo^ c'jars. Whereas all that he says is, 
 " that it w T as changed by the Deity dwelling in it:" 
 A lvaapva$ a'jzo'j ftopipT) TZftoc T'^c i^o:xou(T/^ wjtq 
 Uz'j)7Y-oz fier a t j/> r { 6 no a . J 
 
 Hence it appears how much credit we are to give 
 to these men, when they instance here and there divers 
 strange and unheard of pieces; and on the contrary 
 scornfully reject whatever their adversaries bring; as, 
 for example, that remarkable passage quoted by them 
 out of Epiphanius; which passage they refused as 
 supposititious: u Because, (said they,) if Epiphanius 
 had been of the same judgment with the Iconoclasts, 
 
 * Concil. 7. \'-t. 5, torn. 3, ConciL f [b. p. 567i 
 
 X Concil. 7, A-.-t. 6, &dv< i. tconocL Beet. o. 
 
80 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 
 
 he would then in his Panarium have reckoned the 
 reverencing of images among the other heresies:" 
 El rrjv zcov etdcoXcov nocrjOiv dJlozptav zoo Xpcazoo 
 iytvcoaxev, elq zov dpcdpiov zcov alpeaecov zaozyv xazeza* 
 
 May not a man, by the same reason, as well con- 
 clude that Epiphanius was a favourer of the Icono- 
 clasts? for otherwise he would have included their 
 doctrine among the rest of the heresies enumerated 
 by him. I shall not here say anything of their re- 
 fusing so boldly and confidently those passages quoted 
 from Theodotus Ancyranus, and others. Since that 
 time you will find nothing more common in the books 
 both of the Greeks and the Latins, than the like re- 
 proaches, that they mutually cast upon each other, 
 of having corrupted the writings and evidences wherein 
 their cause was the most concerned. As, for exam- 
 ple, at the council of Florence ;f Mark, bishop of 
 Ephesus, disputing concerning the procession of the 
 Holy Ghost, had nothing to answer to two passages 
 that were alleged against him, (the one out of that 
 piece of Epiphanius which is intitled Anchoratus, the 
 other out of Basil's writings against Eunomius,) but 
 that " that piece of Epiphanius had been long since 
 corrupted," (zouzo zo ftcfiXiov iazt dce(pdo.ppevov npo 
 noXXtav ipovo)v\) and so likewise of that other passage 
 out of Basil, that "some one or other who favoured 
 the opinion of the Latins, had accommodated it to 
 their views;" moreover protesting,! that in all Con- 
 stantinople there were but four copies of the said 
 book that had that passage quoted by the Latins ; but 
 that there were in the said city above a thousand 
 other copies wherein those words were not to be 
 found at all. 
 
 The Latins had nothing to retort upon them more 
 
 * Concil. 7, Act. 6, aclverp. Synod. Iconocl. p. 616. 
 
 f Concil. Florent. Act. 18, torn. 4, Cone. % lb. Act. 20. 
 
WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 81 
 
 readily than that it bad been the ordinary practice, 
 not of the West but of the East, to corrupt books ; 
 and for proof thereof, they cite a passage out of Cyril, 
 which we have heretofore noticed: where, notwith- 
 standing, he says not anything but of the heretics, 
 (that is, the Nestorians,) who were said to have falsi- 
 fied the epistle of Athanasius to Epictetus; but not a 
 word there ot all the Eastern men, much less of the 
 whole Greek Church. The Greeks then retorted 
 upon the Latins the story of Pope Zosimus, men- 
 tioned in the preceding chapter. Thus did they un- 
 ceremoniously assail each other, having, as may be 
 easily perceived, much more appearance of reason 
 and of truth in their accusation of their adversaries, 
 than in excusing or defending themselves. 
 
 I shall here also give you another similar answer, 
 made by one Gregorius, a Greek monk, a strong 
 maintainer of the union made at Florence, to a pas- 
 sage cited by Mark, bishop of Ephesus, out of a cer- 
 tain book of John Damascene; affirming that u the 
 Father only is the cause," to wit, in the Trinity.* 
 " These words (saith this monk) are not found in any 
 of the ancient copies," which is an evident argument, 
 that it had been afterwards foisted in by the Greeks, 
 to bring over this doctor to their opinion. Petavius has 
 in like manner lately rid himself of an objection, taken 
 out of the sixty-eighth canon of the Apostles, against 
 the fasting on Saturdays, w r hich is observed in the 
 Romish Church, pretending that the Greeks have 
 falsified this canon. f 
 
 But whosoever desires to see how full of uncertainty 
 
 the writings of this later antiquity are, let him but 
 
 1 the eighth council, which is pretended by the 
 
 Western Church to be a general council, and but com- 
 
 * Apol. lion. Protosyn, contra Ep. Marc. Eph, in torn. 
 
 •1. I ' mcil. 
 
 - Not. in Epiph&n. 
 
 8 
 
82 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 
 
 pare the Latin and the Greek copies together; — 
 taking especial notice also of the preface of Anasta- 
 sius Bibliothecarius ; who (after he has very sharply 
 reproved the ambition of the Greeks, and accused the 
 canons which they produce of the third general coun- 
 cil as forged and supposititious,) to make short work 
 with them says, in plain terms, that the Greeks have 
 corrupted all the councils except the first. 
 
 What then have we now left us to build upon, see- 
 ing that this corruption has prevailed even as far as 
 on the councils, which are the very heart of the 
 ancient monuments of the Church ? Nor yet has the 
 Nicene creed, which has been approved and made 
 sacred in so many general councils, been able to 
 escape these alterations. Not to say anything of 
 these expressions, which are of little importance, de 
 coelis, from heaven ; secundum Scripturas, according 
 to the Scriptures ; Deum de Deo, God of God ; which 
 cardinal Julian affirmed at the council of Florence* 
 were to be found in some creeds, and in some others 
 were not : it is now the space of some ages past, since 
 the Eastern Church accused the Western of having 
 added Filioque (and the Son) in the article on the 
 procession of the Holy Ghost : the Western men as 
 senselessly charging upon them again, that they have 
 cut it off ;f which is an alteration, though but trivial 
 in appearance, of vast importance to both sides, for 
 the decision of that great controversy which has hith- 
 erto caused a separation betwixt them ; namely, 
 " Whether or not the Holy Ghost proceeds from the 
 Son as well as from the Father :" which is an evident 
 argument, that either the one or the other of them 
 has, out of a desire to do service to their own side, 
 laid false hands upon this sacred piece. 
 
 * Ooncil. Flop. Sess. 12. 
 
 f Concil. Flor. Ses. 4 et 5, et Concil. 7, Act. 7, quo loco vidend. 
 annot. marg. 
 
WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS: 83 
 
 Now whatever has been attempted in this kind by 
 the ancients, may well pass for innocence, if compared 
 with what these later times have dared to do: their 
 passion being of late years so much heated, that 
 laying all reason and honesty aside, they have most 
 miserably ami shamelessly corrupted all kinds of books 
 and of authors. Of those men that go so desperately 
 to work, we cannot certainly speak of their baseness 
 as it deserves: and in my judgment, Laurentius I3o- 
 ehellus, in his preface to the Decreta Eoclesise (xalli- 
 eanse, had all the reason in the world to detest these 
 men, as "people of a most wretched and malicious 
 spirit, who have most miserably mutilated an infinite 
 number of authors, both sacred and profane, ancient 
 and modern; their ordinary custom being to spare no 
 person, no not kings; nor even St. Louis himself; out 
 of whose Pragmatica Sanctio (as they call it) they 
 have blotted out certain articles (principally those 
 which concerned the state of France,) from that library 
 of the Fathers, the Constitutiones Regise, and others 
 also from the Synodical Decrees of certain Bishops, 
 lately printed at Paris. Wo, wo, (to speak with the 
 prophet) to these mischievous knaves who do not only 
 lay such treacherous snares for the venerable chastity 
 and integrity of the Muses, but do also most impu- 
 dently and wickedly deflower, under a false and coun- 
 terfeit pretence of religion, even the Muses them- 
 selves, accounting this juggling to be but a kind of 
 pious fraud."* 
 
 * Taceo innumeros auotorea aacros, profanoa, veteres, recentiorea 
 
 »bistU tarn improbi quam infoelicia ingenii bomtabua imaerabuiter 
 
 i paroere aon aasuetia, uedum 8. buao- 
 
 tfbouloa ""•"."" 11 "^ 
 
 -,.t,im pertinentes, aba bibbotheca dla BS. 
 
 ,porum qnorundani 
 
 Burbium L mper imp* |lllit - 
 
 ttcumVid t,nebnlon 
 
 ffldsBi - 
 
 identer, et aequtfw subdolo rc.igiows 
 
84 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 
 
 We do not here write against these men ; it is suf- 
 ficient for us to give a hint only of that which is as 
 clear as the sun; namely, that they have altered and 
 corrupted, by their additions in some places, and cur- 
 tailing in others, very many of the evidences of the 
 ancient belief. These are they, who in this part of 
 the twelfth epistle of Cyprian, written to the people 
 of Carthage — " I desire that they would but patiently 
 hear our council, &c. that our fellow bishops being 
 assembled together with us, we may together examine 
 the letters and desires of the blessed martyrs, accord- 
 ing to the doctrine of our Lord, and in the presence 
 of the confessors, et secundum vestram quoque senten- 
 tiam, (and according as you also shall think conve- 
 nient)"* — have maliciously left out these words, et 
 secundum vestram quoque sententiam: by which we 
 may plainly understand, that these men would not by 
 any means have us know, that the faithful people had 
 ever anything to do with, or had any vote in, the affairs 
 of the Church. These are the same, who, in his for- 
 tieth epistle, have changed Petram into Petrum;\ (a 
 Rock into Peter;) and who, following the steps of the 
 ancient corrupters, have foisted into his tract De Uni- 
 tate Ecelesise, wherever they thought fit, whole periods 
 and sentences, against the faith of the best and most 
 uncorrupted manuscripts : as, for example in this place ; 
 
 zelo, nullius frontis homines devirginant, fucumque istum pietatis 
 nomen ementitum, inter pias fraudes numerant. — Laur. Bochel, 
 Prcefat. in decret. Eccles. GaL 
 
 * Audiant queeso patienter consilium nostrum; expectent regres- 
 sionem nostram, ut cum ad vos per Dei misericordiam venerimus, 
 convocati coepiscopi plures secundum Domini doctrinam, et confes- 
 sorum prsesentiam, beatorum Martyrum literas et desideria exami- 
 nare possimus. (Cypr. Ep. 14. Extr.) — Cypr. Pamel. et Grypk. 
 Lugd. an. 1537, 1. 3, ep. 16, p. 148; alise editiones, ut Manutii, 
 item Morelli, Par. an. 1564, p. 158, legunt "secundum vestram 
 quoque sententiam." 
 
 f Cathedra una super Peirum Domini voce fundata. [Cypr. 
 Pamel. Epist. 40, p. 76.)— Grypk. an. 1537, p. 52, Morel, an. 1564, 
 p. 124, kabebant super Petram. 
 
WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. €5 
 
 "He built his Church on Ilira alone, (Peter,) and 
 commanded him to feed his sheep;* and in this; "He 
 aalablifihed one sole chair :"f and this other; "The 
 primacy was given to Peter, to show that there was 
 but one church, and one chair of Christ :J and this; 
 tk Who left the chair to Peter, on which ho had built 
 hifl church. "§ These being additions which everyone 
 may see the object of. 
 
 These are the men who cannot conceal the regret 
 they have for not having suppressed an epistle of Fir- 
 milianus, archbishop of Cresarea in Cappadocia, who 
 was one of the most eminent persons of his time; 
 which epistle Manutius had indeed omitted in his 
 Roman edition of Cyprian ;|| but was afterwards 
 inserted by Morellius in his, amongst the epistles of 
 Cyprian, to whom it was written; and all because it 
 informs us how the other bishops in ancient times 
 had dealt with the Pope. Thus we may hence observe 
 of what temp-er these men have always been, and may 
 guess how many similar pieces have been killed in the 
 nest. Out of the like storehouse it is, that poor Am- 
 brose is sent abroad, but so ill accoutred, and in so 
 pitiful a plight, that Nicolas Faber has very much 
 bewailed the corruption of him. If For those gentle- 
 
 * Super ilium mram SBdincat Eeclesiam su.im, et illi pa.scenrtag 
 man >r. Pamel. p. 254) — Quae verba desiderantur 
 
 in edit. Gryph. anno L637, e1 Morel, anno. I 
 
 cathedram constitoit. {Cypr. Pamel. ibid.) — Quae verba 
 lantur in editione Gryphii, anno 1637, et Morel, anno L564. 
 J r Petro datur, ut una Ecclesia Christi, et cathedra una 
 
 - sunl omnes; scl anna grex ostenditur, « | ui 
 mnibufl nnanimi consenaione pascatur. [Cypr* 1' 
 | ;;e verba omnia, exceptis illie (ui ana Ecclesia monstretur) 
 bantur in edit. Gryph. aeque MoreL ati Bap. 
 Qui cathedram Petri super quam fundata est Ecclesia. (C 
 /' : a a Gryph. et Morel, edit. 
 
 Qsultiufi foret, aunquam editam Jf 
 •i: ita at putem, consulto Qlam omj isse M mutium. — 
 
 /' . inr. 
 
 1 Front. Dncceum in Opusc. p. 216. 
 
 8* 
 
86 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 
 
 men who have published him being over ingenious (as 
 he saith) in another man's works, have changed, man- 
 gled, and transposed divers things : and especially 
 have they separated the books of the "Interpellation 
 of Job, and of David," which were put together in all 
 other editions; and to do this they have, by no very 
 commendable example, foisted in and altered divers 
 things : and they have likewise done as much in the 
 "First Apology of David;" and more yet in the 
 second; where they have erased out of the eighth 
 chapter five or six lines which are found in all the 
 ancient editions of this Father.* They have also 
 attributed to this author certain tracts which are not 
 his; as that "Of the Forbidden Tree;" and that other 
 upon the last chapter of the Proverbs. We may, by 
 the way, also take notice, that this is the edition 
 which they followed, who printed Ambrose's works at 
 Paris, anno 1603. They were such hands as these 
 that so villainously curtailed the book " Of the Lives 
 of the Popes," written by Anastasius, or rather by 
 Damasus ; leaving out, in the very entry of it, the 
 author's epistle dedicatory, written to Jerome, because 
 it did not so well suit with the present temper of 
 Rome; omitting, in like manner, in the life of Peter, 
 the passage which I shall here quote as it is found in 
 all manuscripts; "He consecrated St. Clement Bishop, 
 and committed to his charge the ordering of his seat, 
 or of the whole Church, saying, As the power of bind- 
 ing, and loosing, was delivered to me by my Lord Je- 
 sus Christ; in like manner do I commit to thy charge 
 the appointing of such persons as may determine such 
 ecclesiastical causes as may arise; that thou thyself 
 mayest not be taken up with worldly cares, but may- 
 est apply thy whole studies only to prayer, and 
 preaching to the people. After he had thus disposed 
 
 * Nic. Faber, ibid. p. 215. 
 
WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 87 
 
 of his seat, he was crowned with martyrdom."* This 
 is the testament that Peter made; but it has been sup- 
 pressed and kept from us, because in it he has 
 charged his successors with such duties as are quite 
 contrary both to their humour and practice. In an- 
 other place, in the same book, instead of Papa Urbis, 
 (that is to say, "the Pope or Bishop of the city," 
 namely, of Rome, as all manuscripts have it) these 
 worthy gentlemen will needs have us read Papa Orbis, 
 that is, "the Bishop of the whole world: "f inasmuch 
 as this is now the style of the court, and this has long 
 since become the title of the bishop of Rome. 
 
 These are the men, who in Fulbertus, bishop of 
 Chartres,J (where he cites that remarkable passage of 
 Augustine, " This then is a figure commanding us to 
 communicate of the passion of the Lord,") have in- 
 serted these words, "Figura ergo est, dicet hsereti- 
 cus:" (It is a figure then, will a heretic say:) cun- 
 ningly making us believe this to be the saying of a 
 heretic, which was indeed the true sense and mean- 
 ing of Augustine himself, and so cited by Fulbertus. 
 These are the very men also, who in St. Gregory have 
 changed exercitus sacerdotum into exitus saeerdotum ; 
 reading, in the 38th epistle of his fourth book, thus: 
 " All things, &c. which have been foretold, are accom- 
 plished. The king of pride (he speaks of Antichrist) 
 is at hand ; and, which is horrible to be spoken, the 
 
 * Hie P>. Clementcm Episcopum con^ccravit. eiquc cathedram, 
 vel ecclesiam omnem disponendam commisit, dicens: Sicul mihi 
 irnandi tradita est a Domino meo Jeeu Christo potestaa Ligandi 
 ■ ego tilii committo, at ordines dispositores diver- 
 BanuD cauaarum, per quoa actus ecclesiasticue ] -r< .ii icrct n r : el tu 
 minima in curie Beculi deditus reperiaris, Bed solummodo ad oration- 
 itioncm populi vacare etude. Post banc diepoeition- 
 ioronatur. — Babentur haec ex Euchar. Balm, ad 
 . 5, Bditio Par. anno L621, p. 66 I. 
 f Dei ordinante providentia Papa Orbie consecratu Iftoa- 
 
 § phono v. p. 216.) — MSB. babent, Papa Urbis y <"v Balm. 
 Birmond. pag. L6 I. 
 X Vid. Fulbort Carnot. Edit a Villerio, anno ' . p. 168. 
 
88 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 1 
 
 failing (or end) of priests is prepared: whereas the 
 manuscripts (and it is so cited by Bellarmine too) 
 read, "An army of priests is prepared for him."* 
 
 These are they who have made Aimoinus to say, 
 that the Fathers of the pretended eighth general coun- 
 cil "had ordained the adoration of images, according 
 as had been before determined by the orthodox doc- 
 tors :" whereas he wrote quite contrary, "that they 
 had ordained otherwise than had been formerly de- 
 termined by the orthodox doctors ;" as appears plainly, 
 not only by the manuscripts, but also by the most 
 ancient editions of this author ; and even by Card. 
 Baronius, quoting this passage also, in the tenth tome 
 of the Annals, anno Domini 869. f 
 
 These are they who have entirely erased this fol- 
 lowing passage out of (Ecumenius : "For they who 
 defended and favoured the law, introduced also the 
 worshipping of angels; and that because the law had 
 been given by them. And this custom continued long 
 in Phrygia, insomuch that the council of Laodicea 
 made a decree, forbidding to make any addresses to 
 angels, or to pray to them : whence also it is that we 
 find many temples among them erected to Michael 
 the Archangel." 01 yap toj vofitp ouvqyopouvTZZ, xac 
 tooq dyyzXooq Gefiscv dorjyoovTO, ore di durwv xac 6 
 vopoc, idody. 'E/jtecue de touto xara Opoycav to ido^, 
 a»C xac rqv & Aaodcxeca aovodov voptuj xcoXuaat to 
 Ttpoacevat dyyeloc^ xac Tcpocreo^sadac, dtp ou xac vaoc 
 izap duTOcz too dp-£cGTpaT7]fou McyaqX tcoXXoc. 
 
 * Omnia, &c. quae prsedicta sunt, fiunt. Rex Superbise prope est; 
 et quod dici nefas est, Sacerdotum ei prasparatur exitus. ( Greg or 
 M. ep. I. 4. ep. 38.) — MSS. habent, 'Sacerdotum ei prseparatur ex- 
 ercitus;' ex Tho. James, in Vindic. Gregor. loc. 666; quomodo 
 citatur etiam & Bellarmino hie locus, lib. 3. de Rom. Pont. c. 13. 
 Sect. Addit. et extr. c. Sect, pari ratione. 
 
 | In qua Synodo,(quam Octavam Universalem illuc convenientes 
 appellarunt) de imaginibus adorandis, secundum quod orthodoxi 
 doctores antea definierant, statuerunt. (Aimon. de Gest. Franc, lib. 
 5, c. 8.) — Legendum; "Aliter quam orthodoxi definierant; sic enim 
 legit ipse Baron. Annal. torn. 10. an. 869. 
 
WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 89 
 
 This passage David Hceschelius, in his notes upon 
 the books of Origen against Celsus, p. 483, witnesses 
 that he himself had seen and read in the manuscripts 
 of (Ecumenius ; and yet there is no such thing to be 
 found in any of the printed copies. Who would be- 
 lieve but that the Breviaries and Missals should have 
 escaped their pruning-knife ? Yet, as it has been 
 observed by persons of eminent learning and honesty, 
 where it was read, in the collect on St. Peter's day 
 heretofore thus : " Deus, qui B. Petro Apostolo tuo, 
 collatis clavibus regni coelestis, animas ligandi, et sol- 
 vendi Pontificium tradidisti:" (that is, God, who 
 hast committed to thy Apostle St. Peter, by giving 
 him the keys of the heavenly kingdom, the episcopal 
 power of binding and loosing souls :*) in the later edi- 
 tions of these Breviaries and Missals, they have wholly 
 left out the word animas (souls;) to the end that people 
 should not think that the Pope's authority extended 
 only to spiritual affairs, and not to temporal also. So 
 likewise in the Gospel upon the Tuesday following the 
 Third Sunday in Lent, they have printed, "Dixit Jesus 
 discipulis suis;"f (that is, "Jesus said to his disci- 
 ples;") whereas it was in the old books "Respiciens 
 Jesus in discipulos dixit Simoni Petro, Si peccaverit 
 in te frater tuus :"^ (Jesus looking back upon his dis- 
 ciples, said unto Simon Peter, If thy brother have 
 offended against thee, &c.,) cunningly omitting those 
 words relating to Simon Peter, for fear it might be 
 thought that our Saviour Christ had made St. Peter, 
 that is to say, the Pope, subject to the tribunal of the 
 Church to which he there sends him. 
 
 If the council of Trent would but have hearkened 
 to Thomas Passio, a canon of Valencia, they should 
 
 * Simon Vigor. 1. 1. <lo la Monarch. Ecclesiastiqne, ch, 1. P. 
 P v et, I. >ntr. Bellarm. Sic legitur in Brev. Clement. 
 
 VI J T. 
 
 in Breviar. Clem. Vlll. jussu recogn. p. 369. 
 batui in Brev. impr< 1 192, per .J", de Prato. 
 
90 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 
 
 have blotted out of the Pontifical all such passages as 
 make any mention of the people's giving their suf- 
 frage and consent in the ordination of the ministers 
 of the Church: and, among the rest, that where the 
 bishop, at the ordination of a priest, saith, "That it 
 was not without good reason, that the Fathers had 
 ordained that the advice of the people should be taken 
 in the election of those persons who were to serve at 
 the altar; to the end that having given their assent to 
 their ordination, they might the more readily yield 
 obedience to those who were so ordained/'* The 
 meaning of this honest canon was, that to take away 
 all such authorities from the heretics, the best way 
 would be to blot them all out of the Pontifical; to the 
 end that there might be no trace or footstep of them 
 left remaining for the future. 
 
 They have not, however, contented themselves with 
 merely corrupting in this manner certain books, out of 
 which perhaps we might have been able to discover 
 what the opinion and sense of the ancients has beenrf 
 but they have also wholly abolished a very great num- 
 ber of others. And for the better understanding of 
 this, we should notice that the emperors of the first 
 ages took all possible care to suppress and abolish all 
 such writings as were declared prejudicial to the true 
 faith; as the books of the Arians and Nestorians and 
 others, which were forbidden to be read under a great 
 penalty, but were to be wholly suppressed and abol- 
 ished by the appointment of these ancient princes. 
 
 The Church itself also sometimes called in the books 
 of such persons as had been dead long before, by the 
 
 * Neque enim fuit frustra a patribus institutum, ut de electione 
 illorum, qui ad regimen altaris adhibendi sunt, consulatur etiam 
 populus ; quia de vita et conversatione prgesentandi, quod nonnun- 
 quain ignoratur a pluribus, scitur a paucis ; et necesse est, et facilius 
 ei quis obedientam exliibeat ordinato, cui assensum prsebuerit, or- 
 dinandi — Pontif. Rom. de Ordinat. Presbyt. fol. 38. 
 
 f Pet. Soave, Hist. Concil. Trident. 1. 7. 
 
WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 91 
 
 common consent of the Catholic party, as soon as 
 they perceived anything in them that was not con- 
 sonant to the present opinion of the Church: as it did 
 at the fifth general council,* in the business of Theo- 
 doras, Theodoretus, and Ibas, all three bishops, the 
 one of Mopsuestia, the other of Cyrus, and the third 
 of Edessa ; anathematizing each of their several wri- 
 tings, notwithstanding these persons had been all dead 
 long before: dealing also, even in the quiet times of 
 the Church, with Origen in the same manner, after 
 he had been dead about three hundred years. j" 
 
 The Pope hath not failed to imitate, for the space 
 of many ages, both the one and the other of these 
 rigorous courses ; increasing moreover the harshness 
 of them from time to time : insomuch that, in case 
 any of the opinions of the ancients has been by chance 
 found at any time to contradict his, there is no doubt 
 but that he has very carefully and diligently suppress- 
 ed such writings, without sparing any, more than the 
 others, though they were written perhaps two, three, 
 four, or five hundred years before. As for example, 
 it is at this time disputed, whether or not the primi- 
 tive Church had in their temples, and worshipped, 
 the images of Christ and of saints. This controversy 
 has been sometimes very warmly, and with much 
 heat, and for a long time together, disputed in the 
 Greek Church. That party which maintained the 
 affirmative, bringing the business before the seventh 
 council held at Nic8&a,$ it was there ordained, that it 
 should be unlawful for any man to have the books of 
 the other party, and charging every man to bring 
 what books they had of that party to the Patriarch of 
 Constantinople, to do with them, as we may imagine, 
 according as had been required by the legates of 
 Pope Adrian; that is, " That they should burn all 
 
 ', CoL 8. -; M. Col. 6. ct Col. 8. Anath. 11. 
 
 | ConciL 7, Act. 8, I 
 
92 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 
 
 those books which had been written against the vene- 
 rable images :" ^Iva navra za auyypaiijiara ra xara 
 rcov aenrojv ecxovcov yevofisva juera dvads/uarccrfjiou 
 Xecavdcoaiv, ij toj rrupc napadodaxjc:^ including no 
 doubt, within the same condemnation, all such writ- 
 ings of the ancients as seemed not to favour images ; 
 as the epistle of Eusebius to Constantia ; and that of 
 Epiphanius to John of Jerusalem, and others which 
 are not now extant, but were in all probability at 
 that time abolished. As for the epistle of Epiphanius, 
 that which we now have is only Jerome's translation 
 of it, which happened to be preserved in the western 
 parts, where the feeling in behalf of images was much 
 less violent than it was in the eastern : but the origi- 
 nal Greek of it is no where to be found. Adrian II. 
 in his council ordained, in like manner, that the coun- 
 cil held by Photius against the Church of Rome 
 should be burnt, together with his other books, and 
 all the books of those of his party which had been 
 written against the see of Rome : and he commanded 
 the very same thing also in the eighth council, which 
 is accounted by the Latins for a general council. f 
 
 It is impossible but that in these fires very many 
 works must needs have perished that might have been 
 of great use to us for discovering what the opinion of 
 the ancients was, whether respecting images, which 
 was the business of the seventh council ; or that other 
 controversy respecting the power of the Pope, which 
 was the principal point debated in the synod held by 
 Photius; some of whose writings, for the self-same 
 reason, they at this day keep at Rome under lock and 
 key ; which doubtless they would long ere this have 
 published, had they but told as much for the Pope as 
 in all probability they tell against him. This rigorous 
 proceeding against books at length arrived to such a 
 
 * Concil. 7, Act. 5. 
 
 f Cap. 1, habetur in Concil. 8, Act. 7. Ibid. Act. 1, in Ep. 
 Adriani. 
 
WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 93 
 
 height, that Leo X., at the council of Lateran, which 
 
 broke up in the year 1518, decreed, " that no book 
 should be printed but what had first been diligently 
 examined at Rome by the Master of the Palace, in 
 other places by the bishop, or some other person de- 
 puted by him for the same purpose, and by the Inqui- 
 sitor, under this penalty, That all booksellers offend- 
 ing herein should forfeit their books, which should be 
 burnt in public, and should pay a hundred ducats, 
 when it should be demanded, towards the fabric of St. 
 Peter, (a kind of punishment this, which w T e find no 
 example of in all the canons of the ancient Church ;) 
 and should also be suspended from exercising his 
 function, for the space of a whole year."* 
 
 This is a general sentence, and which comprehends 
 as well the works of the Fathers as of any others ; 
 as appears plainly by this, that the bishop of Malfi, 
 having given in his opinion, saying, that he concurred 
 with them in relation to new authors but not to the 
 old, all the rest of the Fathers voted simply for all;f 
 neither was there any limitation at all added to this 
 decree of the council. This very decree has been 
 since strongly confirmed by the council of Trent,J 
 which appointed also certain persons to take a review 
 of the books and censures, and to make a report of 
 them to the company, " to the end that there might 
 be a separation made between the good grain of 
 Christian verity and the tares of strange doctrines :"§ 
 that is, in plain terms, that they might suppress in all 
 kinds of books whatever relished not well with the 
 taste of the Church of Rome. But these fathers, 
 
 .10. 
 -: i: >pto EL. I*. D. Alexin, episoopo 
 
 . qui dixit, Placere de novia operibus, qod autem de anti- 
 
 iciL Trid, Decreto <le Edit, el nan Sacror. lii>r. 
 
 Quo faciliua ipe inas doctrinas, tanquam 
 
 mania, tianse veritatis tritico separare. — I . is. 
 
 9 
 
94 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 
 
 having not the leisure themselves to look to this pious 
 work, appointed certain commissaries who should give 
 an account of this matter to the Pope :* whence, 
 afterwards it came to pass, that first Pope Pius IV. 
 and afterwards Sixtus V. and Clement VIII. pub- 
 lished certain rules and indexes of such authors and 
 books as they thought fit should be either quite abol- 
 ished or purged only, and have given such strict order 
 for the printing of books, as that in those countries 
 where this order is observed, there is little danger 
 that ever anything should be published, that is either 
 contrary to the doctrine of the Church of Rome, or 
 which advances anything in favour of their adver- 
 saries. 
 
 All these instructions, which are too long to be in- 
 serted here, may be seen at the end of the council of 
 Trent where they are usually given in full. To en- 
 force these rules they have put forth their Indices 
 JExpurgatorii (as they call them ;) namely, that of 
 the Low Countries, and of Spain and other places; 
 where these men sit in judgment upon all" kinds of 
 books, erasing and altering, as they please, periods, 
 chapters, and often whole treatises, and that too in 
 the works of those men who for the most part were 
 born, and educated, and died also, in the communion 
 of their own Church. 
 
 If the Church, eight or nine hundred years since, 
 had razors sharp as these men now have, it is then a 
 vain thing for us to search any higher what the judg- 
 ment of the primitive Christians was on any particu- 
 lar point: for whatsoever it was, it could not have 
 escaped the hands of such masters. And if the ancient 
 Church had not heretofore any such institution as this, 
 why then do we, who pretend to be such observers of 
 antiquity, practise these novelties ? I know very 
 well that those men make profession of reforming 
 
 * Concil. Trident. Sess. 25, clecreto de Indice libr. 
 
WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 95 
 
 only the writings of the moderns: but who sees not 
 that this is but a cloak which they throw over them- 
 selves, lest they should be accused as guilty of the 
 Same cruelty that Jupiter is among the poets, for hav- 
 ing behaved himself so insolently to his own father? 
 Those pieces which they erase so scrupulously from 
 the books of the moderns, are the cause of the greater 
 mischief to themselves, when they are found in the 
 writings of the ancients, as sometimes they are. For 
 what a senseless thing is it to leave them in where 
 they hurt most, and to erase them where they do little 
 harm ? 
 
 The inquisition at Madrid* omits these words in 
 the index of Athanasius, "Adorari solius Dei est;" 
 (that is, God alone is to be worshipped:) Ouxouv dsov 
 i'lzc f&vou to TtpoaxuveicOcurf and yet, notwithstand- 
 ing, these words are still expressly found in the text 
 of Athanasius. The same Father saith, " that there 
 were some other books, besides those which he had 
 before set down, which, in truth, were not of the canon, 
 and which the Fathers had ordained should be read to 
 those who were newly come into the Christian com- 
 munion, and desired to be instructed in the word of 
 piety." 'Eari xai kzsoa ftcfiXta zoozlov igcodev, o ? j 
 xavovt£o/jteva ftev, ztzoruoav^a oe napa tlov nozepam 
 dpofcpanrxeaOcu zocc doze npoaep^ofievocc: xcu ftoufajnevotc 
 xazijyuadcu top euaeftecac koyoy.f 
 
 They reckoned in this number the Wisdom of Solo- 
 mon, Ecclesiasticus, Judith, Esther, Tobit, and some 
 others. Nevertheless these very censors erased, in the 
 index of Athanasius's works, those words which affirm 
 that the said books are not at all canonical. In the 
 index of Augustine they erased these words: " Christ 
 hath given the sign of his body:" which yet are evi- 
 dently to be seen in the text of this Father, in his 
 
 Sandoval in Uhanas. Ind. 1 . 
 f Athana J Id. in Frag, et Fest. 
 
96 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 
 
 book against Adimantus, chap. 12.* They erased, in 
 like manner, these words: "Augustine accounted the 
 Eucharist necessary to be administered to infants :" 
 "which opinion of Augustine is very frequently found 
 expressed either in these very words, or the like, 
 throughout his works, as we shall see hereafter. They 
 likewise erased these words: "We ought not to build 
 temples to angels :" and yet the very text of Augus- 
 tine says, "If we should erect a temple of wood or of 
 stone to any of the holy angels, should we not be 
 anathematized ?"f 
 
 This is the practice of the censors, both in the Low 
 Countries and in Spain, in many other particulars, 
 which we shall not here notice. Now if you cut off 
 such sentences as these from the indexes of these holy 
 Fathers, why do you not as well erase them from the 
 text also? Or if you leave them in the one, why do 
 you blot them out in the other ? What can the mean- 
 ing be of so strange a way of proceeding in such wise 
 men? Yet who sees not the reason of it? The sen- 
 tences which these men thus boldly and rudely correct, 
 are as displeasing to them in the ancients as in the 
 moderns ; and where they may safely do it they ex- 
 punge them, as well from the one as the other. But 
 this they dare not do openly, for fear of incurring 
 scandal, which they are willing to avoid ; because if 
 they should deal so unceremoniously, and take such 
 liberty with antiquity, they would destroy that respect 
 which all people bear towards it; which being a matter 
 that very nearly concerns themselves, it is a special 
 point of wisdom in them, carefully to preserve its re- 
 putation. But in lashing the poor moderns, who have 
 made indexes to all the works of the Fathers, they 
 
 * Id. in August. 
 
 f Nonnc si templum alicui sancto angelo excellentissimo de lignis 
 et lapidibus faceremus, anatliematizemur a veritate Christi, et ab 
 ecclesia Dei, &c. — Infr. I. 1. c. 8. Ind. Exp. Sandov. in August, 
 contr. Maxim, lib. 
 
WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 97 
 
 Sfive their credit, and do their business too ; ruining 
 the opinions which they hate by chastising the one, 
 and Btill preserving the venerable esteem of antiquity, 
 which they cannot exist without, by sparing the other. 
 I cannot however see why Bertram, a priest, who 
 lived in the time of the emperor Charles the Bald, 
 which is about seven hundred and fifty years since, 
 should be classed among the moderns: and yet his 
 book, u De Corpore et Sanguine Domini,'' is abso- 
 lutely, and without any limitation, forbidden to be 
 read, in the index of the council of Trent, in the letter 
 B, among the authors of the second classis, as they 
 call them. But the censors of the Low Countries have 
 dealt with him more gently, shall I say, or rather more 
 cruelly; not quite taking In3 life away, but only maim- 
 ing him in the several parts of his body, and leaving 
 him in the like sad condition w T ith Deiphobus in the 
 poet : — 
 
 "Lacerum crudeliter ora, 
 Ova manugque ambaa populataque tempora, raptis 
 Aiiribus, ct truncal inkonesto vulnere nares." 
 
 For they have cut off, with one single dash of their 
 pen* two long passages, consisting each of them of 
 twenty-eight or thirty lines, and which are large 
 enough to make up a very considerable part of a small 
 treatise, such as his. 
 
 That the reader may the better judge of the busi- 
 -. 1 shall here extract one of these passages entire 
 a- it 18 : 
 
 iV We ought further to consider (says Bertram, speak- 
 ing of the holy Eucharist) that in this bread is repre- 
 sented not only the body of Christ, but the body of 
 the people also that believe in Him. And hence it is 
 that it is made up of many several grainsof wheat, 
 because the whole body of believing people is united 
 together, and made into one, by the word of Christ. 
 And therefore as it is by a mystery that we receive 
 this bread for the body of Christ, in like manner it is 
 
98 CORRUPTIONS IN TIIE 
 
 by a mystery also, that the members of the people 
 believing in Christ are here figured unto us. As this 
 bread is called the body of believers, not corporeally 
 but spiritually ; so is the body of Christ also neces- 
 sarily to be understood as represented here, not cor- 
 poreally but spiritually. In like manner is it in the 
 wine, which is called the blood of Christ, and with 
 which it is ordained that water be mixed; it being 
 forbidden to offer the one without the other : because 
 as the head cannot subsist without the body, nor the 
 body without the head, in like manner neither can 
 the people be without Christ, nor Christ without the 
 people. So that in this sacrament the water repre- 
 sents the image of the people. If then the wine, 
 after it is consecrated by the office of ministers, be 
 corporeally changed into the blood of Christ, of 
 necessity then must the water also be changed corpo- 
 really into the body of the believing people : because 
 that where there is but one only, and the same sancti- 
 fication, there can be but one and the same operation ; 
 and where the reason is equal, the mystery- also that 
 follows it is equal. But as for the water, we see that 
 there is no such corporeal change wrought in it: it 
 therefore follows that neither in the wine is there any 
 corporeal transmutation. Whatsoever then of the 
 body of the people is signified unto us, by the water, 
 is taken spiritually : it follows therefore necessarily 
 that we must, in like manner, take spiritually whatso- 
 ever the wine represents unto us of the blood of Christ. 
 Again, those things, which differ among themselves, 
 are not the same. Now the body of Christ which 
 died, and was raised up to life again, dies no more, 
 having become immortal; and death having no more 
 power over it, it is eternal and free from further suf- 
 fering. But this, which is consecrated in the Church, 
 is temporal, not eternal ; corruptible, not free from 
 corruption; in its journey, and not in its native coun- 
 try. These two things therefore are different, one 
 
WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 99 
 
 from the other, and consequently cannot be one and 
 the same thing. And if they be not one and the same 
 thing, how can any man say that this is the real body 
 and real blood of Christ? If it be the body of 
 Christ, and if it may be truly said that this body of 
 Christ is really and truly the body of Christ — the real 
 body of Christ being incorruptible and impassible, and 
 therefore eternal ; consequently this body of Christ, 
 which is consecrated in the Church, must of necessity 
 also be both incorruptible and eternal. But it can- 
 not be denied but that it doth corrupt, seeing it is cut 
 into small pieces and distributed (to the communi- 
 cants,) who bruise it very small with their teeth, and 
 so take it down into their body."* 
 
 * Coneiderandum qnoque, quod in pane illo non soltim corpus 
 Chvisti. vcvum etiam corpus in eum credentis populi figuretur: 
 unde multia frumenti granis conficitur, quia corpus populi creden- 
 tis multis per verba Christi fidelibus augmentatur, (al. coagmenta- 
 tur. ) Qua de re stent mysterio panis ille Christi corpus accipitur: 
 sic etiam in mysterio membra populi credentis in Christum inti- 
 mantur. Et sicut non corporaliter, sed spiritualiter panis ille cre- 
 dentium corpus dicitur : sic quoque Christi corpus non corporaliter 
 sed spiritualiter necesse est intelligatur. Sic et in vino, qui san- 
 guis Christi dicitur. aqua misceri jubetur, nee uiuun sine altcro 
 permittitur offerri, quia nee populua sine Christo, nee Christna 
 populo, sicut nee caput sine corpore, vel corpus sine eapite 
 valet existere. [gitur si vinum illud, sanctifieatuiu per ministrorum 
 officium, in Christi sanguinem corporaliter convertitur, aqua quo- 
 iter admixta est, in Banguinem populi credentis ne- 
 eorporaliter convertatur. I'bi namque una sanctificatio 
 qaenter opera tio; et ubi par ratio, par qnoque conse- 
 quitur mysterium. At ndemus in aqua secundum corpus nihil 
 rersum, cousequenter ergo et in vino nihil corporaliter 
 Accipitur Bpiritualiter quicquid in aqua de populi cor- 
 ificatur; accipiatur ergo nee Bpiritualiter quic- 
 
 quid in vino de Chi nine intimatur. Item, quae a Be diffe- 
 
 runt, idem non Bunt: corpus Christi, quod mortuum est, et resur- 
 Lmmortale {actum jam non moritur, et mors 1 illi ultra non 
 inabitur, eeternum est, .'pun non passibile. Hoc autem, quod 
 in <■■ elebratur temporale est, non eeternum ; corruptibile 
 
 non Lncorruptibile, in via eat, non in patria. Differunt igitur 
 ter non sunl idem. Quod si non Bunt idem, quomodo 
 '.i corpus Christi dicitur, et vein- Banguis '.' Si enim coi 
 Christi est, et hoc dicitur vere, quia corpus Christi in reritate cor- 
 
100 CORRUPTIONS IN THE 
 
 Thus Bertram. His other passage, which is longer 
 yet than this, is of the same nature ; but I shall not 
 here set it down, to avoid prolixity.* 
 
 Now these gentlemen, finding that the language of 
 both these passages did very ill accord with the doc- 
 trine of Transubstantiation, thought it the best way 
 to erase them entirely: for fear lest, coming to the 
 people's knowledge, they might imagine that there 
 had been Sacramentarians in the Church ever since 
 the time of Charles the Bald. 
 
 Then, whoever you may be that think yourself 
 bound to search the writings of the Fathers for the 
 doctrine of salvation, learn from this artifice of theirs, 
 and those many other cheats which we, to their great 
 mortification, are now investigating, what an extreme 
 desire they have to keep from us the opinion and sense 
 of the ancients in all those particulars where they ever 
 so little contradict their own doctrines; and remem- 
 bering moreover, how every day they have had, and 
 still have, such opportunities of doing what they please 
 in this way, you cannot doubt, but that they have 
 struck deep enough where there was cause. These 
 blows of theirs, together with the alterations and 
 changes that time, the malice of heretics, the innocent 
 and pious frauds of the primitive Church, and the 
 sentiments of the later Christians, have long since 
 produced, have rendered the writings and venerable 
 
 pus Christi est, et si in veritate corpus Christi, incorruptibile est, 
 et impassibile, ac per hoc seternum. Hoc igitur corpus Christi 
 quod agitur in ecclesia necesse est ut incorruptibile sit, et ster- 
 num. Seel negari non potest corrumpi, quod per partes commuta- 
 tum dispartitur ad sumenclum, et dentibus conimolitum in corpus 
 trajicitur. — Bertram. Presbyt. lib. de Corp. et Sang. Dom. 
 
 * Non male aut inconsulte omittantur igitur omnia hsec a fine 
 paginse: 'Considerandum quoque quod in pane illo,' &c. ; usque ad 
 illud multo post, < Sed aliud est quod exteriu? geritur,' &c. in ead. 
 pag. Et seq. pag. omnia ilia sequentia, 'Item quse idem sunt, unci 
 definitione comprehenduntur,' &c; usque ad illud, 'Hoc namque 
 quod agitur in via, spiritualiter,' &c. seq. pag. — Index Expurg. Belg, 
 an. 1571, in Bertramo. 
 
WRITINGS OF THE FATHERS. 101 
 
 monuments of antiquity, so jumbled and confused, that 
 it will be a very difficult matter for any man to make 
 a clear and perfect discovery of those things which so 
 many different parties have endeavoured to conceal 
 from us. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Reason V. — The writings of the Fathers are difficult to be under- 
 stood, on account of the languages and idioms in which they 
 wrole, and the manner of the writing, which is encumbered with 
 rhetorical nourishes and logical subtleties, and with terms used 
 in a sense far different from what they now bear. 
 
 If any man, either by the mere light of his own mind, 
 or by the assistance and direction of some able and 
 faithful hand, shall at length be able, as by the help 
 of the clew of which the poets speak, to extricate him- 
 self happily from these two labyrinths, and to find any 
 pieces of the ancients that are not only legitimate, 
 but also entire and uncorrupt; certainly that man has 
 just reason to rejoice at his own good fortune, and to 
 give God hearty thanks. For I must needs confess 
 that it is no very small satisfaction to a man to*have 
 the opportunity of conversing with those illustrious 
 persons of ages passed, and to learn of them what 
 their opinions were, and to compare our own with 
 theirs : 
 
 "Yerasque audire et reddere voces. " 
 
 But yet this I dare confidently pronounce, that if he 
 would know from them what their sense and opinions 
 have truly been, as to the differences now in agitation, 
 he will find that he is now but at the very beginning 
 and entrance of his business; and that there remain 
 behind many more difficulties to be overcome in his 
 passage, than he has yet grappled with. One of the 
 
102 DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 
 
 two disagreeing parties refusing the Scriptures for the 
 judge of controversies by reason of its obscurity, lays 
 this for a ground, (and indeed rationally enough) that 
 no obscure books are proper for the decision of con- 
 troversies. 
 
 Now I do not know why a man may not, with 
 as much reason, say of most of the writings of the 
 Fathers, as Jerome did of some certain expositors of 
 some parts of the Scriptures, " That it was more trou- 
 ble to understand them well, than those very things 
 which they took upon them to expound:"* that is to 
 say, that it is much harder rightly to understand them 
 than the Scriptures themselves. For a man fully to 
 comprehend them, it is in the first place necessary 
 that he have perfect and exact skill in those languages 
 wherein they wrote; that is to say in the Greek and 
 Latin, which are the tongues in which most of them 
 wrote. As for those of the Fathers who have written 
 either in Syriac or Arabic, or Ethiopian, or the like 
 vulgar tongues of their own, whose writings perhaps 
 would be as useful to us in the discovery of the opi- 
 nions of the ancient Church as any others; we have 
 not, that I know, any of those monuments now pub- 
 licly to be seen abroad, but only some translations of 
 them in Greek or Latin: as, for instance, the works 
 of St. Ephrem, (if at least those books, which go 
 abroad under his name, be truly his:) and the " Com- 
 ment, de Paradiso" of Moses Bar-Cephas, translated 
 into Latin by Masius, and perhaps some few others. 
 
 I know very well, that for the most part, men trust 
 to the translations of the Fathers, whether they be in 
 Latin or in vulgar languages; and that the world is 
 now come to that pass, that people will not hesitate 
 to take upon them to judge of the Greek Fathers, 
 
 * Plerisque nimium disertis accidere solet, ut major sit intelli- 
 gentise difficultas in eorum explanationibus, quam in iis quae expla- 
 nare conantur. — Hier. ep. 139. ad Cypr. 
 
THE LANGUAGES OF THE FATHERS. 103 
 
 without having (at least, that can be perceived out 
 of their writings,) any competent knowledge of the 
 Greek tongue,* which cannot in my judgment be ac- 
 counted anything less than the highest presumption. 
 The thing is clear enough of itself, that to be able to 
 reach the conceptions and sense of a man, especially 
 in matters of importance, it is most necessary that we 
 understand the language he delivers himself in, his 
 terms, and the manner of their coherence ; there being 
 in every particular language a certain peculiar force, 
 and power of significancy, which can scarcely ever be 
 so preserved in translation but that it will lose in the 
 passage something of its natural lustre and vigour, 
 however learned and faithful the interpreter may be. 
 But this, which is very useful indeed in all other cases, 
 is most necessary in the particular business before us, 
 by reason of the little care and fidelity that we find in 
 the translations of the greatest part of the interpreters 
 of the Fathers, whether ancient or modern. 
 
 We have before seen how Ruffinus, and even Jerome 
 himself, have laboured in this particular; and long 
 after them, Anastasius also, in his translation of the 
 seventh council, who, notwithstanding in his preface 
 to the eighth gives us this for a most infallible rule; 
 namely, that whatsoever is found in his translation is 
 true and legitimate, and, on the contrary, whatsoever 
 the Greeks have said, either more or less, is supposi- 
 titious and forged. 
 
 If all the other interpreters of the councils and 
 Fathers had been men of the same temper that Anas- 
 is here would have us believe him to be, we might 
 then indeed very well lay by the Greek text, and con- 
 tent ourselves with such dull Latin as he has furnished 
 us with in his translation. But the mischief of it is, 
 that all the world docs not believe this testimony which 
 he has given of himself; and that, although he has buch 
 
 * Bell&rmine. 
 
104 DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 
 
 a special gift in valuing his own translation above the 
 original; yet this will hardly ever be allowed to other 
 translators, especially the modern, who, having been 
 men that have been for the most part carried away by 
 their affection to their own party, he must needs be a 
 very weak man that should trust to them in this case, 
 and rely upon what they say. 
 
 Whosoever hath yet a mind to be further satisfied how 
 far these men's translations are to be trusted, let him 
 but take the pains to compare the Greek preface to 
 Origen's books against Celsus, with the Latin transla- 
 tion of Ghristophorus Persona; and, if he please, he 
 will do w T ell to run over some part of the books them- 
 selves; and if he is desirous of exposing himself to the 
 laughter of the Protestants, let him but produce, upon 
 the honest word of this worthy interpreter, this passage 
 out of the fifth book for the Invocation of Angels : — 
 " We ought to send up our vows, and all our prayers 
 and thanksgivings to God, by the angel who has been 
 set over the rest by him who is the Bishop, the living 
 Word, and God :"* in which words he seems ta intimate 
 that Jesus Christ hath appointed some one of the 
 angels to hear our prayers, and that by him we ought 
 to present them to God; whereas Origen says the direct 
 contrary ; namely, " That we ought to send up to God, 
 who is above all things, all our demands, prayers, and 
 requests, by the great High Priest, the living Word, 
 and God, who is above all the angels." Ilaaav jiev 
 yap oeYjGtv, xoi izaoav Trpoaeoyrjv^ xat ivzeu^tv xae 
 ebyapcGrcav dvajzepLTczeov zw enc Ttaat dea>, dca zoo inc 
 Tiavzaiv dyyeltov apycepetat;, epapoyoo Xojoo^ xac deou.'f 
 
 You have a sufficient discovery also of the affec- 
 tions of translators, who many times make their 
 
 * Vota namque et preces omnes, et gratiarum insuper actiones 
 ad Deum, sunt per Angelum transmittendse, qui per Pontificem, et 
 vivens verbum, et Deum, angelis prsefectus est ceteris. — Origen. 
 Christoph. Persona, lib. 6. contr. Celsum.. 
 
 f Orig. contr. Cels. 1. 5. p. 239. 
 
THE LANGUAGES OF THE FATHERS. 105 
 
 authors speak more than they meant, in Jo. Christo- 
 phorson'a translation of the ecclesiastical historians : 
 as likewise in most of the translators of these later 
 times, excepting only some very few of the more 
 moderate sort. But we shall not need to insist any 
 longer on this particular, which has been sufficiently 
 proved already by the several parties of both sides 
 discovering the falseness of their adversaries' transla- 
 tions, as every man must know who is any way con- 
 versant with that kind of writings, where you shall 
 meet with nothing more frequent than these mutual 
 reprehensions of each other. 
 
 Now, in the midst of such distraction, and contra- 
 riety of judgments, how can a man possibly assure 
 himself that he hath the true sense and meaning of 
 the Fathers, unless he hear them speak in their own 
 language, and have it from their own mouth ? I shall 
 here lay down then, for a most sure ground and un- 
 deniable maxim — 
 
 That to be able rightly to apprehend the judgment 
 and sense of the Fathers, it is necessary that we first 
 understand the language they write in ; and that too, 
 not slightly and superficially, but exactly and fully ; 
 there being in all languages certain peculiar terms 
 and idioms, familiarly used by the learned, which no 
 man shall ever be able to understand thoroughly and 
 clearly, that has but a superficial knowledge of the 
 said languages, and has not dived even to the depth 
 and very bottom of them. If you would see how 
 necessary the knowledge of an author's language is, 
 and how prejudicial the w T ant of it, do but turn to 
 that passage of Theodoret, where, speaking of the 
 Eucharist, he saith thus: — Oude yap fieva zov ScfeatTftov 
 70. 'nazr/jj. aufiftola ttjc oixeeac lEtoraxat (/"jrrscoc, u.vsu 
 yap i,-' r^c Ttpozepaz <>'jf7>az, xat to') (7yj h ua7o:, xat to') 
 uoooci* The Protestants, and all their adversaries 
 
 * Theod. Dial. 2. 
 
 10 
 
106 DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 
 
 (before cardinal Perron,) interpret this place thus : 
 M The mystical symbols, after consecration, do not 
 leave their proper nature ; for they continue in their 
 first substance, figure, and form." Now what can be 
 said more expressly against transubstantiation ? But 
 yet the above named cardinal, having, it seems, con- 
 sulted those old friends of his among the gramma- 
 rians, who had heretofore taught him, that [icacuecv 
 signified to smoke, or evaporate,* will needs persuade 
 us, that this passage is to be interpreted otherwise ; 
 namely, that " the signs in the Eucharist continue in 
 the figure and form of their first substance :" which 
 would be tacitly and indirectly to allow transubstan- 
 tiation. Now it is true that this exposition is con- 
 trary, not only to the design and purpose of the 
 author, but to the usual way of speaking also among 
 the Greeks. But in case you had not exact skill in 
 the language, how should you be able to judge of this 
 interpretation? especially seeing it put upon you with 
 so much confidence and unparalleled boldness, accord- 
 ing to the ordinary custom of this doctor, who never 
 affirms or recommends anything to us more confi- 
 dently, than when it is most doubtful and uncertain. 
 It is out of the same rare and unheard-of grammar, 
 that the said cardinal has elsewhere taken upon him 
 to give us that notable correction of his, of the inscrip- 
 tion of an epistle written by the emperor Oonstantine 
 to Miltiades, bishop of Rome, sec down in the tenth 
 book of Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History, (c. 5,) read- 
 ing it thus : " Constantinus Augustus, to Miltiades, 
 bishop of the Romans, wisheth long time or long 
 opportunity :" whereas all copies, both manuscript 
 and printed, have it, " Constantinus Augustus, to 
 Miltiades, bishop of the Romans, and to Mark," 
 (Kcovazavztvoc, Zefiaarotz, McXrcaorj incaxoTcw Po)[xaccoVj 
 
 * Perron Kepi, p. 709. Answ. to the 2 Instit. where he takes 
 this word to signify to smoke; whereas the true signification is, to 
 pollute, or defile. 
 
THE LANGUAGES OF THE FATHERS. 107 
 
 xac Mapxtv:)* fearing, I suppose, lest some might 
 accuse the emperor of not understanding himself 
 aright, in here making this Mark companion to the 
 Tope, who in all things ought to march without a 
 compeer. 
 
 I should never have done, if I should undertake to 
 notice all those other passages, in which the cardinal 
 has used the same arts, in wresting the words of the 
 ancients to a wrong sense, which otherwise would 
 seem to favour the Protestants : whence it may plainly 
 appear, how necessary a knowledge of the languages 
 is, for the right understanding of the sense of the 
 Fathers. So that, in my judgment, the result of all 
 this will clearly be, that, as we have before said, it is 
 a difficult thing to come to the right understanding of 
 them. For who knows not w T hat pains it will cost a 
 man to attain to a perfect knowledge of these two 
 tongues ; what abilities are necessarily required in 
 this case ? A happy memory, a lively conception, a 
 good education, continual application, and much and 
 diligent reading ; all which very rarely meet in any 
 one person. The truth of this is clearly proved, by 
 the continual debates and disputes among those who, 
 though they have referred the judgment of their differ- 
 ences to the decision of the Fathers, do yet notwith- 
 standing still implead each other at their bar, and 
 cannot possibly be brought to any agreement what- 
 ever. 
 
 Many of the writers of the Church of Rome, object 
 against the Protestants, as an argument of the obscu- 
 rity of the Scriptures, the controversies that are be- 
 twixt themselves and the Lutherans, against the Cal- 
 rinists, as regards the Eucharist; and of the Calvinists 
 
 Ton, in hh vys we ought to read it thus: KwTTotvr/voc 
 
 •T/7(tiT« Vay.aiat,' Ki.ip'.V fiUUUOf. But it BOOmS DQL0r6 
 
 thai we Bhould read, ku M^ kmi, and to Meroclea, who 
 it time bishop of Milan, erred byOptatus, lib. J, 
 
108 DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 
 
 against the Lutherans and the Arminians, in the 
 point of predestination. If this argument of theirs 
 be of any force at all, who sees not that it clearly 
 proves that which we maintain in this particular? 
 For the Greeks and the Latins, who both of them 
 make profession of submitting themselves to the au- 
 thority of the Fathers, and to plead all their causes 
 before them, have not as yet been able to come to any 
 agreement. Do but observe the passages between 
 these two, at the council of Florence,* where the 
 strongest and ablest champions on both sides were 
 brought into the lists ; how they wrangled out whole 
 sessions, about the exposition of a certain short pas- 
 sage in the council at Ephesus, and some similar one 
 out of Epiphanius,f Basil, J and others : and after all 
 their disputes, how clearly and powerfully soever each 
 party vaunted that the business was carried on, they 
 have yet left us the sense of the Fathers much more 
 dark and obscure than it was before ; their contests 
 having rendered the business much more perplexed. 
 Each side has indeed very much the appearance of 
 reason in what they urged against their adversaries, 
 but very little solidity in what they have said seve- 
 rally for themselves. Certainly the Latins, who are 
 thought to have had the better cause of the two, (and 
 who, upon a certain passage of Basil adduced by them- 
 selves, Ob Aafjiftavojusv Ttva napa too nvsupaTOZ, ojarrep 
 rcapa zoo oloo to 7tveopa,§ triumphed as if they had 
 gained the day — baffling and affronting the Greeks in 
 a very disdainful manner, and giving them very harsh 
 language,) used, notwithstanding, such an odd kind 
 of logic, to persuade the receiving of the exposition 
 which they gave, as that even at this day, in the last 
 edition of Basil's works, printed at Paris, and revised 
 
 * Concil. Flor. Sess. 5, de Decreto quodam Concil. Eph. Act. 6, 
 Sess. 11 et 12. 
 f Concil. Flor. Sess. 18, 20. % Ibid. Sess. 21. 
 
 \ Ibid, locus Basil. 
 
THE LANGUAGES OF THE FATHERS. 100 
 
 by Pronto 1>UC«U8,* the Latin translation follows, in 
 this particular, Dot their exposition, but that of the 
 Greek schismatics. 
 
 Some of the Protestants having also had the same 
 success in some particular points controverted betwixt 
 themselves, it lies open to every man's observation, 
 how much obscurity there is found in the passages 
 cited by both sides. If Tertullian was of the opinion 
 of the Church of Rome, in the point concerning the 
 Eucharist, what could he have uttered more dark and 
 obscure than this passage of his, in his fourth book 
 against Marcion ; " Christ having taken bread, and 
 distributed it to his disciples, made it his body, in 
 saying, This is my body ; that is to say, The figure of 
 my body."f If Augustine held transubstantiation, 
 what can the meaning be of these words of his, "The 
 Lord hesitated not to say, This is my body, when he 
 delivered the sign of his body?"J 
 
 If these passages, and an infinite number of the 
 like, do really and truly mean that which Cardinal 
 Perron pretends they do, then was there never any 
 thing of obscurity either in the riddles of the Theban 
 Sphinx, or in the oracles of the Sybils. 
 
 If you look on the other side, you will meet with 
 some other passages in the Fathers, which seem to 
 speak point blank against the Protestants ; as, for 
 example, where they say expressly, " That the bread 
 changes its nature; and that by the almighty power 
 of God, it becomes the flesh of the Word:" and the 
 like. And so in all the controversies between them, 
 they produce such passages as these, both on the one 
 
 sil. in Oi T. Baptis. p. 511, torn. 1. Edit. Taris. 
 
 L618. 
 panem, et distributum discipulis, corpus simm ilium 
 us meum, dicendo, Id est, Figura corporis mei. 
 — T . Mare, I. 1. c. \0. 
 
 i >mino£ dubitavit dicere, Hoc est corpus meum, 
 -ui. — Aug. rout. AdimanU c. \1. 
 
 10 ■ 
 
110 DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 
 
 side and on the other : some whereof seem to be irre- 
 concilable to the sense of the Church of Rome, and 
 some others to the sense of their adversaries. 
 
 If cardinal Perron, and those other sublime wits of 
 both parties, can have the confidence to affirm that 
 they find no difficulty at all in these particulars, we 
 must needs think that either they speak this merely 
 out of bravado, setting a good face upon a bad mat- 
 ter ; or else, that both the wits and eyesight of all the 
 rest of the world are marvellously dull and feeble, in 
 finding nothing but darkness, where these men see 
 nothing but light. Yet for all this, if there be not 
 obscurity in these writings of the Fathers, and that 
 very great too, how comes it to pass, that even these 
 very men find themselves ever and anon so puzzled to 
 discover the meaning of them ? How comes it to 
 pass, that they are fain to use so many words, and 
 make trial of so many tricks and devices, for the 
 clearing of them ? Whence proceeds it, that so often, 
 for fear of not being able to satisfy their readers, 
 they are forced to cry down either the authors or the 
 pieces out of which their adversaries produce their 
 testimonies? 
 
 What strange sentences and passages of authors are 
 those that require more time and trouble in elucida- 
 ting them, than in deciding the controversy itself, and 
 which multiply differences rather than determine them ; 
 oftentimes serving as a covert and retreating place to 
 both parties? Thus the sense and meaning of these 
 words is debated: " This is my body." For the ex- 
 plaining of them, there is brought this passage out of 
 Tertullian ; and that other out of Augustine. Now I 
 would have any man speak in his conscience what he 
 thinks, whether or not these words are not as clear, or 
 clearer, than those passages which they quote from 
 these Fathers, as they are explained by the different 
 parties. I desire, reader, no other judge than your- 
 self, whosoever you are ; only provided that you will 
 
THE LANGUAGES OF THE FATHERS. Ill 
 
 but vouchsafe to read and examine that which is now 
 said upon these places, and consider the strange turn- 
 ings and contortions that they make us take, to bring 
 us to the right sense and meaning of them. In a 
 word, if the most able men that exist did not find 
 themselves extremely puzzled and perplexed in dis- 
 tinguishing the genuine writings of the Fathers from 
 the spurious, it is not likely that the censors of the 
 Low Countries, who are all choice and select men, 
 should be obliged to show us so ill an example of 
 finding a way to help ourselves, when the authority of 
 the ancients is strongly pressed against us by our ad- 
 versaries, as they do, in excusing the expressions of 
 the Fathers sometimes, by some handsomely contrived 
 invention, and in putting some convenient probable 
 sense upon them.* 
 
 What has been said, I am confident, is sufficient to 
 convince any reasonable man of the truth of the asser- 
 tion, that it is a very difficult matter to understand the 
 sense and opinions of the Fathers by their books. 
 But that we may leave no doubt behind us, let us 
 briefly consider some few of the principal causes of 
 this difficulty. 
 
 Certainly the Fathers, having been wise men, all of 
 them both spoke and wrote to be understood ; inso- 
 much that, having both the will and the ability to do 
 it, it seems very strange that they should not be able 
 t<> attain the end they aimed at. But we must here 
 call to mind what w T e have said before, that these con- 
 troversies of ours having not in their time sprung up, 
 they had no occasion, nor was it their design, either 
 to <peak or write anything respecting them. For 
 these -ages raised as few doubts in matters of religion 
 M they could. Besides their times furnished them 
 
 * Plmimofl in Catholioie Teteribue erroree excogitate commento 
 perss una, el commodum Lie Bensum affingimus, dam oppo- 
 
 nuntar in disputationibus, anl in conftictibus com adversarii 
 Belg. ut B 
 
112 DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 
 
 with sufficient matter of dispute, in points which were 
 then in agitation, without so much as thinking of those 
 of ours now on foot. And they have very clearly de- 
 livered their sense in all those controversies on which 
 they have entered. Even Tertullian himself, who is 
 the most obscure amongst them all, has notwithstand- 
 ing delivered himself so clearly in the disputes between 
 him and Marcion and others, that there is no place 
 left to doubt what his opinions were on the points dis- 
 cussed. I am therefore fully persuaded that if they 
 had lived in our times, or if the present controversies 
 had been agitated in their times, they would have de- 
 livered their judgment upon them very plainly and 
 expressly. But seeing that they have not touched 
 upon them, or only slightly, and as they came acci- 
 dentally in their way, rather than from any design, 
 we are not to think it strange, if we find them not to 
 have spoken decidedly, and given their sense clearly 
 as to these disputes of ours. As any man may easily 
 observe in the ordinary course, those things that happen 
 without design are never clear and full, but ambiguous 
 and doubtful; and oftentimes contrary, perhaps, either 
 to the sense or the sentiment of the person from whom 
 they proceeded. Thus before the springing up of that 
 pernicious doctrine of Arius, who so much troubled the 
 ancient Church, there was very little said of the eter- 
 nity of the divine nature of Jesus Christ : or if the 
 Fathers said anything at all of it, it was only by the 
 way, and not by design : and hence it is also that what 
 they have delivered in this particular, is as obscure 
 and difficult to be rightly understood, as those other 
 passages of theirs that relate to our present contro- 
 versies. 
 
 Do but explain the meaning, if you can, of this* 
 passage of Justin Martyr, in his treatise against Try- 
 phon ; where he saith that " The God which appeared 
 to Moses and to the Patriarchs, was the Son and not 
 
THE LANGUAGES OF THE FATHERS. 113 
 
 the Father;"* inasmuch as the Father is not capable 
 of locomotion, neither can he properly be said to as- 
 cend or descend: and that "No man ever saw the 
 Father, but only heard his Son, and his angel, who is 
 also God, by the will of the Father." Obri ouv 
 'Aftpaa/JL) o : J7e faaax, ouzs 'laxtoft, ours d/M)c dvOpamwv 
 side zoh naxepa xou dppyTOV xoptov zcov naurwv durXaxz, 
 xai aurou too Xpcaroo^ a// ixscvov, rov xaza frouXyv 
 njv ixetvou xou 6sov o^ra, u\ov auzou, xac dyysAov, ix 
 too bnypGrecv rj yiHopcfl auzou, &c.f 
 
 These words of his cannot be very well explained, 
 without allowing a difference of nature in the Father 
 and the Son; which were to establish Arianism. 
 
 Observe what Tertullian also says, in this particular, 
 namely, "That the Father, bringing him forth out of 
 himself, made his Son ;"J and, "That the Father is 
 the whole substance, and the Son a portion, and a 
 derivation of that whole ;"§ and many other similar 
 passages, which you meet with here and there, in that 
 excellent piece of his, written against Praxeas, which 
 will scarcely be reconciled to good sense. In like 
 manner does Dionysius Alexandrinus call the Son, 
 "The work, or workmanship, of the Father:" Ilocrjpa 
 xac yzvrpov eivcu ~ov olov tod deou:\\ which are the very 
 terms that were so much quarrelled about in Arius. 
 The eighty Fathers, who condemned Paulus Samosa- 
 tenus, bishop of Antioch, said expressly, "That the 
 Son is not of the same essence with the Father:"^ 
 that is to say, they in express terms denied the 
 
 * Just contr. Trvj.li. p. 283, et 35(3, edit. Paris. 1616. 
 
 | [bid. p. 
 
 J Quem ex semetipeo proferendo, Filium fecit. — Tertul. lib. 2, 
 
 . Marc. r. 27. 
 j Pater tota substantia est, \\Yw\< verb derivatio totius et portio. 
 — Id. passim in to op 
 
 fill Athanas. ep. de fide J.>i<>n. Alex. Vide et 
 . 11. t. 2. p. 802. 
 r Oct : : !.* : 'iin respuerunl ra o/uocuertof. — Athan. q>. <lc 
 
 . Arim. > fol. 'J7. 
 
114 DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 
 
 bfiooiMJtov, or consubstantiality of the Son, which was 
 afterwards established in the council of Nice. 
 
 It would be no difficult matter to make good the 
 assertion in reference to all the other disputes that 
 have arisen in the Church against Macedonius, Pela- 
 gius, Nestorius, Eutyches, and the Monothelites ; that 
 the Fathers have spoken very obscurely of these mat- 
 ters, before the controversies were started; as persons 
 that spoke only incidentally thereof, and not with 
 previous design. It is now long since that Jerome 
 said, " That before Arius, that impudent devil, ap- 
 peared in the world, the Fathers had said many things 
 innocently, and without taking much heed of their 
 words, as they might have done ; and indeed some 
 things that can hardly escape the cavils of wrangling 
 spirits."* This has also been observed by some of 
 the most learned among the moderns; as cardinal 
 Perron, f and also the Jesuit Petavius (a man highly 
 esteemed by those of his own party) who, writing upon 
 Epiphanius, and endeavouring to clear Lucian the 
 Martyr from the suspicion of being an Arian and a 
 Samosatenian, says, " That in this question respecting 
 the Trinity, as also in various others, it has so hap- 
 pened that most of the ancient Fathers, who wrote 
 before the rise of those particular heresies in the 
 Church, have in their writings let fall here and there 
 such things as are not very consonant to the rule of 
 the orthodox faith."! 
 
 * Vel certe antequam in Alexandria quasi dsemonium meridia- 
 num Arius nasceretur, innocenter quaedam, et minus caute locuti 
 sunt, et quae non possint perversoruni kominum calumniam decli- 
 nare. — liter. Apol. 2, contr. Ruff. 
 
 f Perron. Repl. Obs. 4. c. 5. 
 
 % Quod idem plerisque veterum Patrum, cum in hoc negotio (Tri- 
 nitatis,) turn in aliis fidei Christianse capitibus, usu venit, ut ante 
 errorum atque heresean quibus ea sigillatim oppugnabantur, origi- 
 nem, nondum satis illustrata et patefacta rei veritate, qusedam 
 Bcriptie suis asperserint, quae cum orthodoxae fidei regula minime 
 consentiant. — Dion. Petav. in Punar. Epijoh. ad Hcer. 69. quce est 
 Arian. 
 
THE LANGUAGES OF THE FATHERS. 115 
 
 Since therefore they have done thus in other points, 
 what wonder is it if they have likewise done the same 
 in these particular controversies at this day disputed 
 amongst us? and that having lived so long before the 
 greatest part of these controversies arose, they have 
 spoken of them so obscurely, doubtfully, and con- 
 fusedly? For my part I think it would have been 
 the greater wonder of the two, if they had done other- 
 wise : and shall account it as a very great sign of for- 
 gery, in any piece which is attributed to antiquity, 
 whenever I find it treating expressly and clearly of 
 these points, and as they are now-a-days discussed. 
 Only compare the expressions of the most ancient 
 Fathers, on the divinity and eternity of the Son of 
 God, with their expressions on the nature of the Eu- 
 charist ; and certainly you will find, that the former 
 are not more wide of the truth at this day professed 
 on this last point, than the other were from the doc- 
 trine long since declared in the council of Nice. This 
 council expressly and positively declared, " That the 
 Son is consubstantial with the Father." The council 
 of Antioch had before denied this. Whether the 
 Fathers therefore affirm or deny that the Eucharist is 
 really the body of Christ, they will not however therein 
 contradict thy opinion (whosoever thou art, whether 
 Romanist or Protestant) any more than the Fathers 
 of the council of Antioch seem to have contradicted 
 those of the council of Nice. 
 
 We may here add, that as the Arians ought not in 
 reason to have adduced, in justification of their opin- 
 ions, any such passages of the Fathers as had fallen 
 from them inadvertently, and in discoursing on other 
 subjects, without any idea of establishing an opinion 
 thereon; so neither, to say the truth, is there any 
 
 -on, that either thou or I should produce, as defini- 
 tive sentences upon our present controversies which 
 have arisen but of late years, any such passages of the 
 Fathers as were written by them, in treating of other 
 
116 DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 
 
 matters many ages before the commencement of our 
 differences, of which they never had the least idea; 
 and concerning which they have delivered themselves 
 very diversely and obscurely, and sometimes also seem- 
 ingly contradicting themselves. And as we find that 
 some of the faithful Christians, who lived after these 
 primitive Fathers, have endeavoured to reconcile their 
 sayings to the truth which they professed; as Athana- 
 sius has done in some passages of Dionysius Alexan- 
 drinus,* and of the Fathers of the council of Antioch; 
 in like manner ought we to use our utmost endeavour 
 to make a fair interpretation of all such passages in 
 the writings of these men, as seem to clash with the 
 true orthodox belief on the Eucharist and other similar 
 points : not accounting it any great wonder, if we 
 sometimes chance to meet with passages which seem 
 to be utterly inexplicable. For it may so fall out that 
 they may be really so; for it is very possible, that in 
 the points touching the person and the natures of the 
 Son of God, some such expressions may have fallen 
 from them, as is very well known to thosa who are 
 versed in their writings. Possibly also we may meet 
 with some passages of theirs, which, though they may 
 be explicable in themselves, may notwithstanding ap- 
 pear to us to be inexplicable; by reason perhaps of 
 our wanting some of those circumstances which are 
 necessarily requisite for elucidating and clearing the 
 same: as for example, when we are ignorant of the 
 scope and drift of the author, and of the connection 
 and dependencies of his discourse, and other similar 
 particulars which are requisite for the penetrating into 
 the sense of all kinds of writers. For it is with men's 
 words as it is with pictures: they must have their 
 proper light to show themselves according to the mean- 
 ing and intention of the author : and according to the 
 
 * Athan. ep. de fid. Dionys. Alex, et ep. de Syn. Arim. et Seleuc. 
 ubi supra. 
 
THE LANGUAGES OF THE FATHERS. 117 
 
 difference of the lights we see them by, they also have 
 a different appearance. As for example, if any one 
 should now urge alone, and barely without reference 
 to the rest of the discourse and history of its author, 
 this short passage of Dionysius Alcxandrinus, where 
 he calls the Son of God, notrjfia too Seou, (the work- 
 manship of the Father;) Tlotrnm xai yewjrov eluou ~ov 
 vfoh too t-ko'j, fajte de tpixjei ioeov a/la. gevop xaz Idtav 
 eivou TOU rzazooc, warzeo iazcu 6 fzcooyo^, Tzpot: vnv 
 dfjareXov, xm cue b vmmrffo$ izpo$ T0 Gxcupo? xac jap cue 
 KOOjfia att>, o'jx i^ nptv y-WjZac ; and adds certain other 
 very strange terms, also touching this particular, (as 
 we daily see the custom of some is, in the business of 
 our present controversies, to produce the like shreds 
 and little short passages severed from the main body 
 of the discourse whereof they are a part;) which of us, 
 how able soever he be, could possibly imagine any- 
 thing else, but that this is an absolute Arian expres- 
 sion, and such as cannot be interpreted in any other 
 sense? And yet Athanasius, in the places before 
 cited, makes it plainly appear that it is not so ; and 
 by the advantage of those lights which he had in the 
 subject there treated of by the author, he demon- 
 strates to us that this expression of Dionysius, how 
 strange soever it appear, has notwithstanding a good 
 and allowable sense in that place. 
 
 That we may be enabled more fully to elucidate 
 the subject, we shall in the next place take into con- 
 sideration some other causes of the obscurity of the 
 Fathers ; among which I shall rank, in the first place, 
 their having sometimes purposely, and from design, 
 endeavoured either wholly to conceal their conceptions 
 from us, or at least to lay them down, not clear and 
 open, but as it were with a curtain (and that some- 
 times a very thick one too) drawn over them, to the 
 end that none but those of the quickest and most 
 piercing eyes should be able to penetrate them: some 
 of their meditations having been such as they tliem- 
 11 
 
118 DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 
 
 selves accounted either of little use, or else such as 
 it was not so safe to commit to weak vulgar spirits. 
 Whether this practice of theirs was raised upon good 
 grounds or not, I shall not here stay to examine : it is 
 sufficient for me to show that it was usual with them, 
 as may appear, among others in Clemens Alexandri- 
 nus, about the beginning of his Stromata, where, 
 giving an account of the design of his book, he says 
 that "He had pfesed over some things in silence, 
 fearing to write that of which he made some scruple 
 even to speak : not that he envied his readers any- 
 thing, but fearing rather lest they might haply, from 
 misunderstanding them, fall into error ; and thus he 
 might seem to have put a sword into the hand of a 
 child." He adds further, "That he had handled some 
 things clearly, and some others obscurely ; laying the 
 one open to our view, but wrapping up the other in 
 riddles.' ' Ta psv exwv napanepnopac, ixhycop ztzcgtyj- 
 [levcor (poftoupsvoQ ypacpscv, & xac Xeyecv scpoXa^aprjv ou 
 ti tcod (pQovtov, ou yap dspc^' dsduo^ 8e dpa nepc 
 rcou kviujiovovTCDV, prjTirj krspcoq OipaXecev, xac nacdc 
 (laycupaV) ^ yaocv o\ Trapocpca^opevoc, opeyovre^ eupeO- 
 wpev, &c. ire 3e a xac aivc^erac poc ypa.(py, xac tocc, pev 
 Tcapaazrjaerac^ za oe povov spec* 
 
 That which tells most to our present purpose is, 
 that they are known to have taken this course parti- 
 cularly in some of those points which are now con- 
 troverted amongst us; as in that touching the Sacra- 
 ments of the Church. For as they celebrated their 
 holy mysteries in secret and apart by themselves, not 
 admitting either the Pagans or the Catechumens, nor 
 yet (as some assure us) any person whatsoever, save 
 only the communicants, to the sight of them;f in like 
 manner also in their writings, especially in those that 
 were to be read openly to the people in their public 
 assemblies, they never spoke but very obscurely and 
 
 * Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. f Cassand. in Liturg, c. 26. 
 
THE LANGUAGES OF TTIE FATHERS. 119 
 
 darkly, as has been observed on the subject of the 
 Eucharist by cardinal Perron, and by Casaubon, Pe- 
 tavius, and others, and also in the points of baptism, 
 confirmation, and other holy ceremonies of the Chris- 
 tians.* Observe how wary Theodoret, Epiphanius, 
 ami other ancient writers are, in adverting to the sub- 
 ject of the Eucharist; describing it in general terms 
 only, and such as they only could understand, who 
 had been formerly partakers of that Holy Sacrament. 
 
 I shall not here take upon me to examine the end 
 which they proposed to themselves in so doing, which 
 seems to have been to implant in the minds of the 
 Catechumens, a greater reverence and esteem for the 
 Sacraments, and a more earnest and eager desire to 
 be admitted to partake of them : fearing lest the laying 
 open and discoursing plainly on the matter and man- 
 ner of celebrating the Sacraments might lessen these 
 feelings for them. 
 
 Seeing therefore that not only in this, but in divers 
 other particulars also, they have purposely and from 
 design concealed their meaning and opinions from us; 
 we ought not to account it so strange a matter, if we 
 many times find their expressions to be obscure, (and 
 which is a consequence of obscurity,) if they some- 
 times also seem to clash, and contradict one another. 
 Indeed, it were more to be wondered at, if these men, 
 who were for the most part able and learned, having 
 a purpose of writing obscurely on these points, should 
 yet have left us their opinions clearly and plainly 
 delivered in their writings. But there is still more in 
 it: for sometimes, even where they had no purpose 
 of being so, they yet are very obscure: and again, the 
 little conversation they have had with those arts, 
 which are requisite for the polishing of language, was 
 the cause of their not expressing themselves so clearly : 
 and .sometimes perhaps their genius and natural dispo- 
 
 Lsaub. in 13.iruH. excrcit. 16. 
 
120 DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 
 
 sition might be the reason ; all their study and industry 
 not being able to correct this natural defect in them. 
 
 I believe we may very safely reckon Epiphanius in 
 the first rank of this kind of writers, who was indeed 
 a good and holy man, but yet had been very little 
 conversant in the arts, either of Rhetoric or Grammar, 
 as appears sufficiently from his writings ; where he is 
 often found failing, not only in the- clearness of his 
 expressions, and in the flow and adaptation of his 
 periods, but also even in their order and method, 
 which is the true light of all discourse. These defects 
 must necessarily be the cause of much obscurity in 
 many places ; and indeed is much complained of by 
 the interpreters of this Father. 
 
 Others perhaps there have been, who have endea- 
 voured to polish their language by art, who yet have 
 not been able to compass their intention; whether it 
 were, because they began too late, or else perhaps 
 through the dulness of their wit, and want of capa- 
 city; as we see that all natures are not capable of 
 receiving all forms, whatever pains and industry they 
 take for the making such impressions. In this num- 
 ber you may reckon that Victorinus, of whom Jerome 
 gives this so favourable testimony, saying, that, though 
 indeed he wanted learning, he wanted not a desire 
 and good will to learning.* 
 
 Such another also was Ruffinus, whose language 
 and expressions the same great censor of the ancients 
 so sharply reproves, noticing in him many improprie- 
 ties of speech, and other absurdities: and yet for all 
 this he would not be taken off from his scribbling 
 humour ;f and which is more, there were not wanting 
 those who admired him : it being commonly observed, 
 that those who wrote most in any age were not 
 
 * Victorino Martyri in libris suis lic&t desit eruditio, tamen non 
 deest eruditionis voluntas. — Hier. ep. 84, ad Magn. 
 f In Apol. 1, in Ruff, et Apol. 2, et Apol. ad Huff. 
 
THE LANGUAGES OF THE FATHERS!. 121 
 
 always the ablest men ; this mania existing rather in 
 the ignorant than in the other. Photius, in his Bibli- 
 otheca, has noticed the like defects in some of his 
 Greek writers. 
 
 Yet this obscurity in the Fathers has proceeded, 
 not from their ignorance, but rather from their great 
 learning; for those among them, who w r ere furnished 
 with all kind of secular learning, and had been trained 
 up from their infancy in the eloquence and knowledge 
 of the Greeks, could not but retain this tincture, and 
 sometimes also had their flights, and made show of 
 this their treasury; by this means mixing with the 
 Christian philosophy many exotic words, customs, and 
 discourses: which mixture, though it gives indeed 
 much pleasure to the learned, must necessarily render 
 the sense of these authors the more dark and per- 
 plexed. 
 
 What can you name more mixed or fuller of va- 
 riety, than Clemens Alexandrinus's Stromata, as he 
 calls them, and his other works, which are throughout 
 interwoven with historical allusions, opinions, sen- 
 tences, and proverbs, out of all kinds of writers, both 
 sacred and profane; being here heightened with rich 
 and light colours, there shaded with darkness, to such 
 a degree that it is vain for an ignorant person to hope 
 ever to obtain his meaning? 
 
 What shall I say of Tertullian, who, notwithstand- 
 ing that natural harshness and roughness in which he 
 everywhere abounds, and that Carthaginian spirit 
 and genius which is common to him with the rest of 
 the African writers, has yet shadowed and overcast 
 the brilliancy of his conceptions with so much learn- 
 ing, and with so many new terms and phrases of law, 
 and with such variety of allusions, subtilties, and nice 
 points, that the greatest store of learning and atten- 
 tion you may possess, will be all little enough to give 
 you a perfect understanding of him? 
 
 I shall not here speak anything of Hilary, of the 
 11* 
 
122 DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 
 
 loftiness of his imagination, of the sublimity of his 
 language, and of that Cothurnus Gf-allicanus which 
 Jerome has noticed in him, and in others of his coun- 
 trymen. Neither shall I here take any notice of the 
 copiousness of the Africans, nor of the subtilty of the 
 Athenians, and of those that had their education 
 among them, the consideration of all which particu- 
 lars would afford matter for an entire volume. I 
 shall only say in general, that as the manner of the 
 Christian writing and expounding the Scriptures was 
 at first very plain, easy, and brief; in a very short 
 time it began to be changed, and to be clogged with 
 subtilties, and flourishes of secular learning, as testi- 
 fied by Methodius in Epiphanius. " The doctors 
 (says he) no longer regarding an honest, plain, and 
 solid way of teaching, began now to endeavour to 
 please, and to be favourably received by their audi- 
 tors; just as sophisters are wont to do, who consider 
 their labours rewarded by their auditors applauding 
 their learning; thus selling themselves at so cheap a 
 rate. For as for the ancients, their expositions were 
 always very brief; their utmost ambition in those 
 days being not to please but to profit their hearers." 
 Tcdv ocoaaxalcov outs irpoq to fieXriOTOv d[icXXcofievcov 
 ire xac oepvov, dXXa Ttpot; to apeaac xac ebypeprjaac 
 xadanep ol XoycoTac, ol fitadov alpouvTac tcov Xoycov 
 eneocovc^ofiEvoc tyjz aoipca.q inaivotq. To p.ev ohv naXacov 
 
 ftpV-X ftUVTeXcDZ TO TTSpc TYjV S^yVJdCV 7jV, (fcXoTCpOUfltVCOV 
 
 p:q TSpnscv, aX/.a cocpeXecv tol>£ TcapovTaQ tcov tots.* 
 
 Gregory Nazianzen also very seriously and with 
 his usual eloquence, thus complains: — "There was a 
 time (saith he) when our affairs flourished, and we 
 were in a happy estate, when this vain and loose kind 
 of divinity, which is everywhere now in fashion, to- 
 gether with all its artifices and delicacies of language, 
 was not at all admitted into the sheepfolds of the 
 
 * Method, apud Epiph. User. 64. 
 
THE LANGUAGES OF THE FATHERS. 123 
 
 Lord. In those days, to listen to or to vent any no- 
 velties or curiosities in divinity, was thought like 
 playing the juggler, and showing tricks of legerde- 
 main, with cunning and nimble shifting of balls under 
 a cup, deceiving the eyes of the spectators ; or else by 
 delighting them with the various and effeminate mo- 
 tions and windings of a lascivious dance. On the 
 contrary, rather a plain, masculine, and free way of 
 discourse was then accounted the most pious. But 
 now, since the Pyrrhonians and Sextus's faction, to- 
 gether with the tongue of contradiction, have like 
 a grievous malignant disease, broken in upon our 
 Churches — since babbling is now allowed for learning, 
 and as in the Acts it is said of the Athenians, since 
 we spend our time in nothing else but 'in hearing or 
 telling some new thing' — for some Jeremiah, to be- 
 wail the confusion and darkness we lie under; who 
 might furnish us, as that prophet only was able to do, 
 with lamentations suitable to our calamities!" 9 Hu 
 ozz i/Xfta^e za fj/izzspa, xcu xultoc, icryev^ fjvcxa to fizv 
 Ttepcrcov zo'jzo xcu xazsyhozzcofxevov ttjq deoAoycat:, xat 
 iweYvov, oude napodov zr/zv etc zac dztac abXa^' dkXa 
 toutov fa, iprjipotQ zs nau^etv njp ixptv, xkeitvooaat^ zco 
 zo.yzt T7}£ u.zzathcrzcoz, yj xazortyztcrdat zcov Osazcov 
 navrocott; xcu ax>dpoyovoi$ Xoyiapaai, xcu nept Seoo Azyztv 
 Ttj xat dxouscv xouvozepov, xcu neptepyov* To oz hizhvw 
 zz xat z'jyz^zz too Xoyoo zbazyizta iuofju^eto, 'Aft ou os 
 1'z^zvt, xcu fluppcope^ xac /y dvreOeroc yhoaaa, wcftzzo 
 zt voaqfia detvov xat xaxor^zc za.tz zxxh^tatz fjiuov 
 zlaewdapY], xat // tpXuapea ttazdeuaiQ idoge, xcu 6 (pr^m 
 nept Adrpcuwv ri fkfSAoc twv IIpagea>v 9 el ouozv tkkko 
 ebxatpoofjveVi /] /.zyzt> zt y) dxooeev xaivorepov* co zee 
 '/epe/juat; ddupevcu ttjv YjU.zzznay <vryyyc>rs xcu axoropcu- 
 iw, b fiovoG ztneo: i&aoup dpinyoo^ nademv.* 
 
 Certainly Jerome, in his Epistle to PammachiuSjf 
 
 I rag. Xi/. Enc. Athan. 
 | Hieron. ep. 50, ad Pammach. et passim, ibid. 
 
124 DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 
 
 avows, that even for his writings also, it is necessary 
 that the reader be acquainted both with the subtilties 
 of logic, and all the flourishes of rhetoric. This cen- 
 sure of his reaches also to the writings of Origen, 
 Methodius, Eusebius, Apollinaris, Tertullian, Cyp- 
 rian, Minutius, Victorinus, Lactantius, Hilary, and 
 others, whom he affirms to have all observed the same 
 method in their writings.* 
 
 Now although any rational man must willingly 
 grant that the translations of terms and figures, either 
 in word only, or in things themselves, and such other 
 ornaments of rhetoric, with all the subtilties of logic — 
 and, in a word, all the artifices of learning, must ne- 
 cessarily render any discourse the more obscure and 
 dark; yet for the fuller elucidation of this point, I 
 shall here add some proofs and examples. Jerome 
 declares himself sufficiently of this opinion, f where 
 he attributes the cause of the obscurity found in the 
 writings of certain authors to their being too learned 
 and eloquent. Sixtus Senensis observes, that the 
 Fathers have uttered many things in the warmth of 
 feeling, which we are not to take in a strictly literal 
 sense. J Petavius has also observed, "that the Fathers 
 have uttered in their homilies many things which 
 cannot be reconciled to good sense, if we examine 
 them by the exact rule of truth. § We often excuse 
 this in them, by showing that under so many flowers 
 and leaves, wherewith they crown their discourses, v 
 they many times convey a different sense from that 
 which their words in appearance seem to bear. 
 
 Who has not observed the strange hyperboles of 
 
 * Ilieron. ep. 50, ad Pammach. et passim, ibid. 
 
 f Hier. sup. Ep. 139. ad Cjpr. 
 
 X Sixt. Senens. Biblioth. lib. 6. Annot. 152. 
 
 $ Malta sunt a sanctissimis Patribus, praesertimque a Chrysos- 
 tomo in homiliis aspersa, quae si ad exactee veritatis regulam 
 accommodare volueris, boni sensus inania videbuntur. — Petav. 
 Not. in Epiph. 
 
THE LANGUAGES OF THE FATHERS. 125 
 
 Chrysostom, Hilary, Ambrose, and others? But that 
 I may make it plainly and evidently appear how 
 mueh these ornaments darken the sense of an author, 
 I shall only here lay before you one instance, taken 
 from Jerome; who, writing to Eustochium, gives her 
 an account, how he was brought before the presence 
 of our Lord, for being too much addicted to the study 
 of secular learning, and was there really with stripes 
 chastised for it. "Think not (says he) that this was 
 any of those drowsy fancies or vain dreams which 
 sometimes deceive us. I call to witness hereof, that 
 tribunal before which I then lay; and that said judg- 
 ment, which I was then in dread of. So may I never 
 hereafter fall into the like danger, as this is true! I 
 do assure you that I found my shoulders to be all 
 over black and blue with the stripes I then received, 
 and which I afterwards felt when I awoke. So that 
 I have ever since had a greater affection to the read- 
 ing of divine books, than I ever before had to the 
 study of human learning."* 
 
 Now hearing Jerome speak thus, who would not 
 believe this to be a true story? and who would not 
 understand this narration in the literal sense? Yet 
 it appears plainly, from what he has elsewhere con- 
 fessed, that all this was but a mere dream, and a rhe- 
 torical piece of artifice, frequently used by the masters 
 in this art ; contrived only for the better and more 
 powerful diverting men from their too great affection 
 to the books of the heathens. For Ruffinus, quarrel- 
 ing with him on this account, and objecting against 
 him, that, contrary to the oath which he had before 
 taken, he did notwithstanding still apply himself to 
 
 * \ oporille fuerat, ant vana Bomnia, quibus s»pe delu- 
 
 dimur. 'I tribunal illud, ante quod jacui ; testis judicium 
 
 • quod timui. [ta mini nunquam contingaf in talem Lncidere 
 
 ui : Liventee fateor habuisse me scapulas, i 
 Bomnum, el tanto dehinc Btudio diyina legisse, quanto uuu 
 ante mortalia legeram. — Hier, <j>. 21 adEustoch. 
 
126 DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 
 
 the study of Pagan learning: Jerome, after he had 
 alleged many things to clear himself from this accu- 
 sation, says, "Thus you see what I could have urged 
 for myself, had I promised any such thing waking. 
 But now do but take notice of this new and unheard 
 of kind of impudence; he objects against me my very 
 dreams/'* Then presently he refers him to the words 
 of the prophets, saying, "We must not take heed to 
 dreams ; for neither does an adulterous dream cast a 
 man into hell, nor that of martyrdom bring him to 
 heaven. "f He at last plainly observes, that this 
 promise of his was made only in a dream ; and that 
 therefore consequently it carried no obligation with 
 
 it.j 
 
 Who knows but that the life of Malchus, which 
 Jerome has so delicately and artificially related to us, 
 and some other similar pieces of his, and of some 
 others, may be the like displays of imagination ? We 
 see he does not hesitate to confess, that the life of 
 Paulus Eremita was accounted as such by some of 
 his friends: and it is very probable that his forty- 
 seventh epistle,§ which is so full of learning and elo- 
 quence, is but an essay of the same nature ; he having 
 there fancied to himself a fit subject only whereon to 
 show his own eloquence, agreeably to the usual man- 
 ner of orators. 
 
 Thus you see, reader, what great darkness is cast 
 over the writings of the ancients by these figures and 
 flourishes of rhetoric, and other artifices of human 
 learning, which they so often and so over licentiously 
 
 * Hgec dicerem si quippiam vigilans promisissem. Nunc autem 
 novum impudentige genus, objicit mihi somnium meum. — Ilier. 
 Apol. adv. Ruffm. 
 
 -j- Audiat prophetarum voces, somniis non esse credendum; quia 
 nee adulterii somnium ducit me ad Tartarum, nee corona martyrii 
 iri coelum levat. — Ibid. 
 
 t Tu a me somnii exigis sponsionem. —Ibid. 
 
 g Hier. in vit. Hilarion. 
 
THE LANGUAGES OF THE FATHERS. 127 
 
 use, at least as regards ourselves; who, to our great 
 disadvantage, find that so many ornaments and em- 
 bellishments rather disguise from us the depth of their 
 conceptions. Who shall assure us that they have not 
 made use of the same arts in their discourses on the 
 Eucharist; to advance the dignity of the divine mys- 
 teries, and to increase the people's devotion? and 
 likewise, as regards the power of the prelates, to pro- 
 cure them the greater respect and obedience from 
 their people? What probability is there that they 
 would spare their pencils, their colours, their shadows, 
 and their lights, in those points where this their art 
 might have been employed to such good purpose? 
 
 To this place I shall refer those other customs, 
 which are so frequent, of denying and affirming things 
 as it were absolutely; notwithstanding the purpose 
 and intent of their discourse be to deny or affirm them 
 only by way of comparison, and reference to some 
 other things. Who cannot but think that Jerome 
 was tainted with the heresy of Marcion, and of the 
 Encratics, when we hear him so fiercely inveigh 
 against marriage, as he does in his books against 
 Jovinian; and often also in other places to such a de- 
 gree, that there have sometimes fallen from him such 
 words as these : " Seeing that in the use of the woman 
 there is always some corruption, and that incorrup- 
 tion properly belongs to chastity, marriage cannot be 
 accounted of so high esteem as chastity."* And a 
 little after: "My opinion is, that he that hath a wife, 
 as long as he returns to such a state, that Satan may 
 not tempt him, (that is to say, so long as he makes 
 use of her as a wife,) sows in the flesh, and not in the 
 spirit. Now he that soweth in the flesh, (it is not I 
 
 * Si corruptio &d omnem coitum pertinet, inoarrnptio Mitem 
 proprid c pramia pudicitia nuptise possidere qod pos- 
 
 sum. — JJer. lib. 1. advertus J 
 
128 DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 
 
 that say it, but the Apostle,) the same shall reap cor- 
 ruption."* 
 
 Now the above words, taken literally, condemn 
 marriage and the use thereof, as defiling a man, and 
 depriving him of a blessed immortality. Yet, not- 
 withstanding, in his epistle to Pammachius,f he in- 
 forms us, that these passages of his, and all other 
 similar ones, are not to be understood as spoken posi- 
 tively and absolutely, but only by way of comparison; 
 that is, he would be understood to say, that the purity 
 and felicity of virgins is such, as that, in comparison 
 with it, the marriage bed is not to be mentioned. 
 This key is very necessary for discovering the sense 
 of the ancients. The Fathers of the seventh council 
 made very good use of this, in giving the sense of two 
 or three passages that were objected against them by 
 the Iconoclasts. 
 
 The first passage was out of Chrysostom : " Through 
 the Scriptures we enjoy the presence of the saints, 
 having the images not of their bodies but of their 
 souls: for the things there spoken by them, are the 
 images of their souls." ^HpecQ dca zo)v jpaipcov zyz 
 zcov kjccov dnoXaoopev napooocat;, obyc zcov acopazwv 
 abzcov, dXXa zcov (poycov zaQ dxovac, iyovzz^ za jap 
 7iap abzcov ecpr/peva zwp (puyoyv abzcov eixovet; 1<jzcv.\ 
 
 The second passage was out of Amphilochius: 
 " Our care is, not to draw in colours on tables the 
 natural faces of the saints, (for we have no need of 
 any such thing;) but rather imitate their life and con- 
 versation, by following the examples of their virtue." 
 Ob yap zoic, Ticva^c za aapxcxa npoacona zwv aycojv dca 
 ypojpu.zujv irrcpsAe^ qpcv ezzurcouv (bzc ob Xpr&opev 
 
 * Existimo quod qui uxorem habet, quandiu revertitur ad id 
 ipsum ne tentet eum Satanas, in carne seminet, et non in spiritu. 
 Qui autem in carne seminat, (non ego, sed Apostolus loquitur,) 
 mctit corruptionem. — liter, lib. 1. adversus Jovin. 
 
 f Id. ep. 50, ad Pammachium. J Concil. 7, Act. 6. 
 
THE LANGUAGES OF THE FATHERS. 129 
 
 tootcdp*) a/la nih KoAtTeta* ainraw oc dpezyz &xpip&r* 
 
 The third passage was out of Asterius: " Draw not 
 the portrait of Christ on thy garments; but rather 
 • w upon the poor the price that these expenses 
 would amount to. For as for him, it is sufficient that 
 lie once humbled himself, in taking upon him our 
 flesh." M/ / ypatpe top Xpiazov ih Ipartoe^ dXXa pakkou 
 z/^ 7(0), dvaAwfiatWh zo'jzw^ daaravqv "ar/ozc, ~noo~o- 
 <>:'(rr dpxet yap oxjtco fj fua z/^z i^aat/jtaztocrecoc, zaTZSiv- 
 coacz.^ 
 
 Would not any man that hears these words, believe 
 these three Fathers to have been Iconoclasts ? I con- 
 fess I cannot see what could have been said more 
 expressly against images: and yet the second council 
 of Nice pretends, that these Fathers here speak only 
 by waj r of comparison ; J meaning to say no more than 
 that the images of Jesus Christ and of the saints are 
 much less profitable than the reading of their books, 
 or the imitation of their lives, or than charity toward 
 the poor. 
 
 I know very well that it is no easy matter suitably 
 to apply this answer to the words of these Fathers: 
 however, we may make this use of it; that seeing that 
 the council of Nice has followed this rule, it is an evi- 
 dent argument to us, that the sayings of the Fathers 
 both may and ought sometimes to be taken in a quite 
 different sense from what they seem to bear: so that 
 it will clearly follow from hence that they are very 
 difficult to be understood. 
 
 Consider then, whether or not, among so many 
 passages as are adduced on the one side and the other 
 on the present controversies, there may not be many 
 of them which are to be understood, as just observed, 
 by way of comparison only; that is to say, quite con- 
 trary to what they seem to say. Now, as the rhetoric 
 
 * Concil. 7. Art. »;. ( j I' moil. 7. ubi supra. 
 
130 DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 
 
 used by the Fathers has rendered their discourses, 
 which were addresses to the people, full of obscurity ; 
 in like manner has their logic sown a thousand thorns 
 and difficulties throughout their polemical writings. 
 For many times, while they are in the heat of their 
 disputations, they have their mind so intent upon the 
 objects they are aiming at, that having regard to 
 nothing else, they let fall such expressions as appear 
 very strange, if they be considered in reference to 
 some other points of Christian religion. 
 
 Sometimes also, whilst they use their utmost endea- 
 vour to beat down one error, they seem to run into 
 the contrary one: as those who would straighten a 
 crooked plant, are wont to bend it as much the con- 
 trary way ; that so having been worked out of its 
 former bent, it may at length rest in a middle pos- 
 ture : of which similitude Theodoret also makes use 
 on this very subject.* 
 
 In the same manner also did Athanasius explain 
 those words of Dionysius Alexandrinus, which were 
 urged against him by the Arians, as seeming to tell 
 very much in their favour, as we have noticed before. 
 44 He wrote not this (answers Athanasius) positively, 
 and with a purpose of giving an account of his belief 
 in these words, but as being led on to utter them, by 
 the occasion and the persons he discoursed with. In 
 like manner (says he) as a gardener orders the same 
 trees in a different manner, according to the differ- 
 ence of the soil where they are. Neither can any 
 blame him for lopping off some and engrafting others; 
 for planting this, and plucking up that by the roots. 
 On the contrary rather, whoever knows the reason of 
 this, will admire the variety and several ways of his 
 industrious proceeding." ^X ^"^C, &C ntoztv 
 ixTiOe/J.£vos. — Kacpoo, xat irpoaconoo Tzpoipaotc, eUxuaev 
 aurov rotauza ypa</jac. — Kcu yap yewpyo<; tcdv abzwv 
 
 * Theod. Dial. 3. c. 30. Sic et Bas. de Dion. Alex. ep. 41. 
 
THE LANGUAGES OF THE FATHERS. 131 
 
 devdpwh dXXore d/lco- i-cuz/sczac, oca ryv utzoxecuz^u 
 r»c PJC icotorijTa % xou o : j oca zouzo /is/u/'aczo av zee 
 wjtou, fat touto fish refuse, iketvo de iyxeuTpe^ee^ &c. 
 a/la. xcu paXkov fiadcM nyv aizcav, Oowpaau to tzocxcIqv 
 mrrou zr: imorqi&js.* 
 
 Afterwards Athanasius says, that Dionysius main- 
 tained those positions, upon occasion of the error of 
 certain bishops of Pentapolis, who maintained the 
 opinion of Sabellius; and that he did this by dispen- 
 sation, as he there speaks: — Ta oTzoTrzeoOevza xaz 
 aiwovofuav iypatfevif that is to say, not positively and 
 simply, but as in reference to such a certain case 
 only: "Now no man ought (says he) to wrest to the 
 worst sense those things which are either said or 
 done by dispensation; or to interpret them as himself 
 pleases:" Ou dsc oz za xaz" oixovojjuav ypaxpo/teva xa.i 
 jwofM£va % za'jza xaxozoozcoz oeyzaQai, xac siq tdcav 
 klxeev kxatrrou fiouX7)<jcv.% 
 
 In another place Athanasius in the same manner 
 explains the words of the Fathers of the council of 
 Antioch, who had denied the consubstantiality of the 
 Son, showing that their intention was only to over- 
 throw a position which Paulus Samosatenus had laid 
 down; namely, that the Father and the Son were 
 both one and the self-same person, and had not any 
 distinct subsistence. 
 
 By this very rule also does Basil interpret that 
 saying of Gregorius Neocsesariensis — "That the 
 Father and the Son are two, according to our appre- 
 hension only; but that in hypostasis they are but 
 one:" {Jlavspa xou Tlov litivoto. pep eipeu o'jo, vTzooza.ait 
 os 8v;)§ but alleging "That he spoke this, not dog- 
 matically, but only in the heat of disputation:" — 
 Touto de tret ou dofparcxcDC upyvcu, aXX dyoj^cazcxcoz, 
 fco.ll 
 
 Uhan. Ep. de fid. Won. Alex. f Athan. ibid, 
 
 J Athan. ibid. j Basil. Ep. 64. || [bid. 
 
132 DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 
 
 From this it would appear that in all writings of 
 the Fathers, the opinion which they oppugn is the 
 rule and measure of whatsoever they are understood 
 to affirm or deny. This is that which varies their 
 sense anc^ meaning, though oftentimes expressed in 
 the same manner, and with the very same words, 
 with that of the heretics. When they dispute against 
 the Valentinians or the Manichees, a man would then 
 believe them to be Pelagians; and so likewise when 
 they are contesting with the Pelagians, would you 
 then imagine that they defended the opinions of the 
 Manichees. If they dispute against Arius, you 
 would think they favoured Sabellius : and again, 
 when they oppose Sabellius, you would believe that 
 they were Arians: as has been observed by the 
 bishop of Bitonto,* particularly in Augustine. 
 
 A system like this we may every day observe in 
 our preachers. When they preach against covetous- 
 ness, they seem in a manner to cry up prodigality; 
 and if they declaim against prodigality, they then 
 seem to approve covetousness. Thus it is also with 
 the Protestants : when they would overthrow those 
 empty figures, which are fathered by their adversa- 
 ries upon those they call Sacramentarians, you would 
 suppose that they maintained the real presence in the 
 Eucharist, as the manner of speaking is. And when 
 they dispute against Transubstantiation and the real 
 presence, you would then swear that they defended 
 the opinion of these very Sacramentarians. 
 
 There is amongst Athanasius's works a certain 
 very learned, elegant, and acute tract, wherein is de- 
 bated, as strongly as can be, that point concerning 
 the distinction of the two natures in Jesus Christ. 
 Only read what he there says, in the beginning of 
 that discourse; and you will think that it could not 
 proceed from any but from Nestorius's mouth : — llpo^ 
 
 * Corn. Mussus. Episc. Bitont. Comment, in ep. ad Rom. c. 5. 
 
THE LANGUAGES OF THE FATHERS. 133 
 
 to'j; Asyoira;, * Iou8o£0£ cVrrv, o fiy oftoXoywv Osov 
 i<TTai>pco<rOcu.* Yet you will perceive plainly, by the 
 last chapter of the said book, that he was not of his 
 opinion. Now if by any misfortune it should so 
 have happened that this last chapter had been lost, 
 Athanasius must necessarily have been taken for a 
 Nestorian, by reason of the dangerous expressions 
 which he has there made use of, being urged thereto 
 through the warmth of the dispute he maintained 
 against the opinions of the Eutychians. 
 
 For the same reason also, Julius, bishop of Rome, 
 seems to have favoured the contrary error, namely, 
 that of Eutyches, in that epistle of his cited by Gen- 
 nadius; which was indeed heretofore of good use, 
 against the opinion of those men who maintained two 
 persons in Christ; but which "is now found to be 
 pernicious (says he) by fomenting the impieties of 
 Eutyches and Timotheus."| This has given occasion 
 to some of the more modern authors, who have writ- 
 ten since Gennadius's time, J to think that this epistle 
 was not written by Pope Julius, but had been attri- 
 buted to him by the false dealing of the heretics. 
 
 The case was the same with these ancient Fathers, 
 as it is with the pilot of a ship, who is to steer his 
 vessel between two rocks, one only of which he has 
 discovered, the other lying hid underwater. Taking 
 no other care but to avoid the danger which he sees 
 before his eyes, he very easily falls into that other 
 which he never so much as suspected; so that if he 
 split not his vessel upon it, and be utterly cast away, 
 he will with difficulty avoid receiving injury at least. 
 Thus these Fathers saw indeed the rock of Paulus 
 
 * T. 2. Oper. Athan. Par. impr. an. 1027. 
 
 t Nunc autem perniciosa probatur. Fomenttmi onim est Eut}-- 
 cliinnae et Timotheane impietatis. — Gennad. in Catal. inter op. 
 J I- r. 
 
 J Facxmd. fferm. defens. 3 capit. lib. 1. p. 40. quo loco vide Sir- 
 mondum. 
 
 12* 
 
134 DIFFICULTIES OF COMPREHENDING 
 
 Samosatenus's doctrine, and that of Nestorius, but 
 did not at all observe that of Arms, or of Eutyches, 
 which lay yet under water and concealed. Thus 
 employing their utmost endeavours to avoid the dan- 
 ger of the two former, which they then only feared, 
 they have scarcely escaped falling into, or at least 
 touching very near upon the two latter, of which they 
 then had no thought at all. 
 
 Only imagine then, how warily and carefully it 
 behoves us to w T alk amidst these disputes of the 
 ancients, which are so beset with thorns; and with 
 what judgment we are to distinguish between what 
 things* are principal, and what but accidental only; 
 between the cause and the means ; and between the 
 excess and defect in their expressions, and their true 
 sense and meaning: and then tell me whether you 
 think it reasonable or not, that two or three words 
 only, which may perhaps accidentally have fallen 
 from them in their disputations, either against the 
 Valentinians and Marcionites, or against the Nesto- 
 rians or Eutychists, should be taken as their definitive 
 sentiments upon such points as are now controverted 
 amongst us — whether on free-will, or the properties 
 of the body of Christ, and the nature of the Eu- 
 charist. 
 
 Before we conclude this matter, however, we should 
 observe that the change of customs, both civil and 
 ecclesiastical, and the variation of words in their sig- 
 nification, do not a little contribute to this difficulty 
 of understanding the writings of the Fathers. Who 
 knows not, and indeed who confesses not, both on the 
 one side and on the other, that the outward face of 
 the world, and even of the Church itself too, is in a 
 manner wholly changed ? I speak not here of the 
 doctrine, but only of the upper garment, as I may 
 call it, and the outward part of the Church. Where 
 is the ancient discipline? What is become of the 
 rigid and severe rules of those ancient times? Where 
 
THE LANGUAGES OF THE FATHERS. 185 
 
 are those mysterious ceremonies in baptism, and in 
 the administration of the Eucharist? Where are 
 those customs then used in the ordination of the 
 clergy? All these tilings arc now quite forgotten 
 and buried; the Church by little and little having ap- 
 pareled itself in other colours and in another garb. 
 
 The books then of the ancients being full of allu- 
 sions to these things which we are in a manner now 
 wholly ignorant of, it must necessarily follow from 
 hence, that it will be a difficult matter for us to guess 
 at their meaning in any such passages. But yet 
 there arises much more confusion out of the words 
 they used; which we have still retained, though in a 
 different signification. We have indeed these words, 
 Pope, Patriarch, Mass, Oblation, Station, Proces- 
 sion, Mortal Sins, Penance, Confession, Satisfac- 
 tion, Merit, Indulgence, as the ancients had, and 
 make use of an infinite number of the like terms; but 
 understand them all in a sense almost as far different 
 from theirs, as our age is removed from theirs; just 
 in like manner as of old, under the Roman Emperors, 
 the names of offices, and of things, for a long time 
 continued the same that had been in use in the time 
 of the old republic; but with a sense quite different 
 from what they had formerly borne. Thus when Ave 
 light upon any passage in the ancients, where the 
 bishop of Rome is called Papa, or Pope, Ave imme- 
 diately begin to fancy him with all the glory at this 
 day belonging to this name; not disallowing him so 
 much as his guard of Swiss, and his light horse: 
 whereas they that are but indifferently versed in these 
 books, know that the name Papa, or Pope, Avas given 
 to every bishop. So likewise, when Ave meet with the 
 word JExomologesis, or Confession, Ave presently fancy 
 a man down upon his knees before his confessor, whis- 
 pering in his ear all the sins he has committed. The 
 word Mass likewise makes as prick up our ears, as if, 
 even from those ancient times, the whole liturgy and 
 
136 PRIVATE OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 
 
 all the ceremonies used at the celebration of the Eu- 
 charist, had been the very same that they are at this 
 day. Whereas the learned of both parties acknow- 
 ledge that these names have, since that time, lost 
 very much of their old, and acquired new significa- 
 tions. 
 
 But enough, and perhaps too much, has been said, 
 for elucidating the points as regards the obscurities 
 in the writings of the Fathers. We may therefore 
 come to the conclusion, as we stated at the com- 
 mencement, that it is not so easy a matter, as people 
 may imagine, to discover by their writings what the 
 sense of the ancient Church has been, concerning the 
 points at this day controverted among us. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Reason VI. — The Fathers frequently conceal their own private 
 opinions, and say what they did not believe; either in reporting 
 the opinions of others, without naming them, as in their com- 
 mentaries; or in disputing against an adversary, where they 
 make use of whatever they are able ; or in accommodating them- 
 selves to their auditory, as may be observed in their homilies. 
 
 The writings of the Fathers are, for the most part, 
 of three kinds — Commentaries on the Holy Scrip- 
 tures; Homilies delivered before the people; and 
 Polemical Discourses and Disputations with the He- 
 retics. 
 
 Now we have heretofore seen how much their rhe- 
 torical style has darkened and rendered their sense 
 obscure, in their writings of the first and second class; 
 and what their warmth of disputation and logical 
 wranglings have caused in those of the latter. Let 
 us now see if, after having drawn the expressions of 
 the Fathers out of these thick clouds, and attained to 
 
• FREQUENTLY CONCEALED OR DISGUISED. 187 
 
 a clear and perfect understanding of the sense of 
 them, we may be able at length to rest assured that Ave 
 have discovered what their opinions were. I confess 
 I could heartily wish that it were so: but considering 
 what they have themselves informed us concerning 
 the nature and manner of their writings, I am much 
 afraid that we neither may, nor indeed ought, to con- 
 sider ourselves in any certainty, even then, when we 
 are upon these very terms. 
 
 With respect to their Commentaries, which we have 
 often occasion to consult, upon sundry passages of 
 Scripture, on the meaning whereof we disagree among 
 ourselves, hear what Jerome says, who was the most 
 learned of all the Latins, and who yields but very 
 little to any of the Greeks in these matters. 
 
 ww What (says he) is the business of a Commentary? 
 It expounds the words of another man ; and declares 
 in plain terms the sense of things obscurely written ; 
 it represents the several opinions of others, and says, 
 Some expound this passage thus; and others interpret 
 it thus. These endeavour to prove their sense and 
 meaning by such testimonies and such reasons; to 
 the end that the intelligent reader, having several ex- 
 positions before him, and reading the judgments of 
 divers men, some bringing what he may, and others 
 perhaps what he cannot admit of; he may judge 
 which among the rest is the truest; and like a wise 
 banker may refuse all adulterated coin. Now I would 
 a.-k whether he ought to be accounted guilty of diver- 
 sity in his interpretations, or of contradiction in the 
 senses given, who in one and the same commentary 
 shall deliver the expositions of divers persons?"* 
 
 * Common tarii quid opens habentf Altering dicta edisseront; 
 ta rant, piano sermone manifestant, mnltorunl 
 - replicant, <-t diennt: Hnnc locum qnidam Bic edisserunt; 
 alii Bic Lnterpretantnr; illi Bensum buuid et Intelligentiam liis t 
 
 firmare; at pradens Lector i am 
 div«. et, et maltoram vol probanda vel im- 
 
138 PRIVATE OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS " 
 
 And so on, as it there follows in the place afore cited. 
 He speaks likewise to the same sense in various other 
 places throughout his works: "This (says he) is the 
 usual manner of commentaries, and the rule that com- 
 mentators go by; to set down in their expositions the 
 several opinions they have met with ; and to deliver, 
 both what their own and what the judgment of others 
 is upon the passage. And this is the practice not 
 only of the interpreters of the Scriptures, but of the 
 expositors also of all kinds of secular learning, as well 
 in the Greek as in the Latin tongue."* 
 
 Now I must needs say, that this seems to be a very 
 strange way of commenting. For what light, or what 
 certainty can a reader be able to gather out of such a 
 rhapsody of different opinions, jumbled together in a 
 heap, without so much as intimating either which is 
 good or bad; probable or necessary; to the purpose 
 or not ? But seeing that it has pleased Jerome to 
 follow this course, whatsoever his reason be, you see 
 plainly that we are not to take as his whatsoever he 
 has delivered in his commentaries. And seeing also 
 that he speaks in general terms, as he does, of the 
 nature and manner of a commentary; we are not to 
 doubt, but that the rest of the Fathers have chiefly 
 been of the same judgment; and that consequently 
 they took the same course in those expositions which 
 we have of theirs. So that it will hence follow, that 
 notwithstanding that we should chance to find in this 
 
 probanda didicerit, judicet quid verius sit, et quasi bonus trape- 
 zita adulterinae monetae pecuniam reprobet. Num diversse inter- 
 pretations, et contrariorum inter se sensuum tenebitur reus, qui 
 in uno opere quod edisserit expositiones posuerit plurimorum ? — 
 Hier. ep. ad Pammach. et Marcel. Apol. advers. Ruff. 
 
 * Hie est commentariorum mos, et explanantium regula, ut opi- 
 niones in expositione varias persequantur, et quid vel sibi vel aliis 
 videatur edisserant. Et hoc non. solum sanctarum interpretes 
 scrip turarum, sed saecularium quoque literarum explanatores faci- 
 unt, tain Latinae linguae, qu&m Gnecae. — Hier. ep. ad Pammach. et 
 Apol. advers. Ruff. 
 
. FREQUENTLY CONCEALED OR DISGUISED. 139 
 
 kind of writings of theirs, an opinion, or an interpre- 
 tation, clearly delivered; yet may we not from thence 
 conclude that this was the author's own opinion: for 
 perhaps he only delivered it as the opinion of some 
 other man. 
 
 Now if the Fathers had been but careful to have 
 taken in water out of wholesome fountains only, fill- 
 ing up their commentaries with no other opinions or 
 interpretations, except only those of persons of known 
 piety, faith, and learning, this mixture would have 
 proved the less dangerous. For, notwithstanding that 
 we should ofcen be at a stand, and doubt whether that 
 which we there find be the true sense and opinion of 
 the Father whose name it bears; yet we might still 
 rest assured, that though it should not perhaps be his, 
 it must certainly be the opinion of some other good 
 author, if not of equal yet of little less authority than 
 he. But the mischief of it is, that they took a quite 
 contrary course, many times filling their commentaries 
 with very strange, senseless expositions, and some- 
 times too with dangerous ones, and such as were taken 
 out of very suspected authors, who had no very good 
 name in the Church. 
 
 Jerome tells us often,* (and w T ho ever shall but 
 diligently and attentively read him, may easily ob- 
 serve as much.) that his commentaries, (which make 
 the greatest and most considerable part of his works,) 
 are interwoven- throughout with expositions taken out 
 of Origen, Didymus, Apollinaris, and others, who 
 were at that time ill-spoken of, as men who too pre- 
 sumptuously foisted upon the world their own private 
 opinions, "fashioning the mysteries of the Church 
 out of their own private fancies :"f as Jerome himself 
 sometimes said of Origen. 
 
 * Hier. prcefat. in Comment, in op. ad Galat. et Apol. 2. adv. 
 Ruff, et c}'. 89. ad August el alibi srepe. 
 t [ngenium suum facit Ecclesiae sacramenta. — Hier. Comment, 5. 
 
140 PRIVATE OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 
 
 Now this is strange to me : for no man is more 
 strenuous in crying down these authors than he ; 
 being indeed one of the principal heads of that holy 
 league of Theophilus and Epiphanius, against Origen 
 and his party. No man ever reproved any one so 
 sharply as he has done Ruffinus, for offering to pre- 
 sent to the view of the Latins the poisonous doctrines 
 of Origen in those books of his which he had trans- 
 lated; and in the meantime he himself crams his own 
 commentaries with the same; many times without 
 using any preparation at all about them, or furnish- 
 ing his reader w T ith any counter-poison, in case he 
 meets with any of them.* So likewise in his com- 
 mentaries upon the Prophets, he ever and anon brings 
 in diverse expositions out of the Jews themselves: in- 
 somuch that, when you think you are reading and 
 searching after the opinion and sense of Jerome upon 
 such or such a passage, you often read that of a 
 heretic, or of a Jew. 
 
 If the Fathers would but have taken the pains to 
 have given us notice every time who the author was, 
 whose opinion they adduced, this manner of comment- 
 ing upon the Scriptures would have been much more 
 beneficial to us, and less troublesome. For the name 
 would have been useful in directing us what account 
 we were to make of such opinions and expositions. 
 But this they do but very seldom, as you ma}* observe 
 out of the expositions of Hilary, Ambrose, and others; 
 who, robbing poor Origen without any mercy, do not 
 yet do him the honour so much as scarcely to name 
 him.f This is certain, that you shall find in Ambrose 
 many times whole periods and whole pages too, taken 
 out of Basil; but, unless my memory fail me, you 
 shall never find him once named there, 
 
 * Vid. Comment, in Nalium. 
 
 f Vid. Hieron. Apol. adv. Ruff, ad Pammacli. et Marcel, et Ep. 
 141. ad Marcel. 
 
FREQUENTLY CONCEALED OR DISGUISED. 141 
 
 These men deliver you the opinions and words of 
 other men, just as if they were their own; and yet 
 will not be bound to warrant them for good and 
 sound. Jerome, in his Commentary upon the Epistle 
 to the Galatians, expounds that passage where there 
 is mention made of Paul reproving Peter, by way of 
 dispensation; telling us that Paul did not reprehend 
 him, as if he had indeed accounted him blame-worthy; 
 but only for the better edification, and bringing in of 
 the Gentiles, by this seeming reprehension of his; who 
 did but act this part with Peter, "to the end (says 
 he) that the hypocrisy, or false show of observing the 
 law, which offended those among the Gentiles who 
 had believed, might be corrected by the hypocrisy or 
 false show of reprehension ; and that by this means 
 both the one and the other might be saved: whilst 
 the one, who praise circumcision, follow Peter; and 
 those others, who refuse circumcision, applaud Paul's 
 liberty."* 
 
 Augustine, utterly disliking this exposition of Je- 
 rome, wrote to him in his ordinary grave and meek 
 way, modestly declaring the reasons why he could 
 not assent to it; which epistles of his are yet extant. 
 The other answers him a thousand strange things; 
 but particularly he there protests, that he will not 
 warrant for sound whatever shall be found in that 
 book of his:t and to show that he does not do this 
 without good reason, he sets down a certain passage 
 out of his preface to it, which is very well worth our 
 consideration. For after he has named the writings 
 of Driven, Didymus, Apollinaris, Theodorus of Ilera- 
 olea, Eusebiua of Emesa, Alexander the heretic, and 
 
 * Ut li rrandaa legis, qua nocebat lie qui ex genti- 
 
 bue en lid rant, correptionis hypocrisi emendaretur, et aterque 
 
 I qui circumcisionem Laudant, Petrum 
 untur, et qui circumcidi nolunt, Paxil] predicant Libertatem. — 
 
 mrm nt. ,. < , ./(at. 
 
 f Hieron. ep. ad August, quea est 89. 
 
 13 
 
142 PRIVATE OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 
 
 others, he adds; "That I may therefore plainly tell 
 the truth, I confess that I have read all these authors; 
 and collecting together as much as I could in my 
 memory, I presently called for a scribe; to whom I 
 dictated either my own conceptions, or those of other 
 men, without remembering either the order, or the 
 words sometimes, or the sense/'* Do but reflect 
 now, whether or not this be not an excellent rare way 
 of commenting upon the Scriptures, and very well 
 worthy to be esteemed and imitated by us ! He then 
 turns his address to Augustine, saying, " If therefore 
 thou lightest upon anything in my expositions which 
 was worthy of reprehension, it would have stood 
 better with thy learning to have consulted the Greek 
 authors themselves; and to have seen, whether what I 
 have written be found in them or not ; and if not, then 
 to have condemned it as my own private opinion. "f 
 And he elsewhere gives the same answer to Ruffinus, 
 who upbraids him for some absurd passages in his 
 Commentaries upon the Prophet Daniel.J 
 
 Now, according to this statement, if we would know 
 whether or not what we meet with in Jerome's com- 
 mentaries, be his own proper sense or not, we must 
 first turn over the books of all these ancient Greeks; 
 that is to say, we must do that which is now impossi- 
 ble to be done, seeing that the writings of the greatest 
 part of them are utterly lost; and must not attribute 
 anything to him, as his proper opinion, how clearly 
 and expressly soever it be delivered, unless we are 
 first able to make it appear, that it is not to be found 
 in any of those authors, out of whose writings he has 
 
 * Itaque ut simpliciter fatear, legi Iisrc omnia, et in mente mea 
 plurima coacervans, accito notario, vel mea vel aliena dictavi, nee 
 ordinis, nee verborum interdum, nee sensuum memor. — Ilier. ibid. 
 
 f Si quid igitur reprehensione dignum putaveras in explanatione 
 nostra, eruditionis tuse fuerat quasrere, &c. — Id. ibid. Vide et Apol. 
 contra Ruff. 
 
 % Id. Apol. 2. adv. Ruff. 
 
FREQUENTLY CONCEALED OR DISGUISED. 143 
 
 patched up his commentaries. For if any one of them 
 be found to have delivered anything you here meet 
 With, you are to take notice that it belongs to that 
 author; Jerome in this case having been only his 
 transcriber, or at most but his translator. So that 
 you may be able perhaps, by the reading of books in 
 this manner collected, to judge whether the Fathers 
 have had the skill to make a clever and artificial con- 
 nection and digestion of those things which they 
 gleaned out of so many several authors or not. 
 Whether or not they believed all that they have set 
 down in their books, you will be no more able to dis- 
 cover, than you can judge what belief any man is of 
 by the books he transcribes; or can guess at the 
 opinions of an interpreter by the books he translates. 
 Whence we may conclude, that testimonies brought 
 out of such books as these are of little or no force at 
 all, either for or against us. 
 
 This seems to have been the opinion of cardinal 
 Bellarmine, where to a certain objection brought out 
 of one of Jerome's books, he makes this answer: 
 "that the author in that place speaks according to 
 the opinion of others; as he often does in his com- 
 mentaries upon the Epistle to the Ephesians, and in 
 other places." The like course has cardinal Perron 
 taken, where the Protestants have urged against the 
 Church of Rome the authority of Hilary, on the canon 
 of the Scriptures of the Old Testament; confidently 
 answering that the notes cited out of that place of 
 Hilary are not his, but Origen's, in his commentary 
 upon the first Psalm; part of whose words he had 
 transcribed and inserted in his own prologue upon the 
 Psalms; and yet Hilary neither so much as names 
 Origen, nor yet gives us any intimation at all, whether 
 we are to receive what is there spoken concerning the 
 Scriptures, u from Origen or from himself. The 
 ground of this answer of his is taken from what Je : 
 
144 PRIVATE OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 
 
 rome has testified in various places; namely, that 
 Hilary has transcribed the greatest part of his com- 
 mentaries out of the said Origen. 
 
 Now if we but rightly consider the account which 
 Jerome has given, as we showed before, of all com- 
 mentaries in genera], how can we have any assurance 
 whether that which the Fathers deliver in this kind 
 of writings, be their own real opinion, or only some 
 other man's transcribed? and if we can have no as- 
 surance hereof, how can we then consider them of 
 any force at all either for or against us? So that it 
 is most evident, that this method which the Fathers 
 have observed in their expositions of the Scriptures, 
 must render the things themselves very doubtful, 
 however clearly and expressly they have delivered 
 themselves. 
 
 But has it not behoved them to be more careful in 
 their Homilies, or Sermons; and to deliver nothing 
 there but what has been their own proper opinion and 
 belief? May we not, at least in this particular, rest 
 assured that they have spoken nothing but from their 
 very soul; and that their tongues have expressed here 
 their own opinions only, and not those of other men ? 
 Certainly, in all reason, they should not have uttered 
 anything in the sacred place from whence they taught 
 their people, but what they conceived to have been 
 most true. Yet besides what we have heretofore no- 
 ticed as to this particular, (namely, that they did not 
 always speak out the whole truth, but concealed some- 
 thing of it, as not so fit for the ears either of the 
 Pagans or of the weaker sort of Christians,) cardinal 
 Perron, that great and curious inquirer into all the 
 customs of the ancients, has informed us that, in re- 
 gard to the aforesaid considerations, they have some- 
 times gone yet further.* For, in expounding the 
 
 * Perron, of the Euchar. 1. 1, c. 10. Aut. 24, ch. 15, et passim 
 locis infra citandis. 
 
FREQUENTLY CONCEALED OR DISGUISED. 145 
 
 Scriptures to the people, where the Catechumens were 
 present, if by chance they fell upon any passage 
 where the Sacraments w T ere spoken of, that they 
 might not discover these mysteries, they would then 
 make bold to wrest the text a little, and instead of 
 giving them the true and real interpretation of the 
 place which they themselves knew to be such, they 
 would only present their auditory with an allegorical 
 and symbolical, and (as this cardinal says,) an acci- 
 dental and collateral one ; only to give them some 
 kind of small satisfaction; inasmuch as, if in such 
 cases they should have been utterly silent, it would 
 questionless have much amazed their auditors, and in 
 some degree also have scandalized and given them 
 offence. To satisfy therefore their expectation, and 
 yet to keep these mysteries still concealed from them, 
 they evasively waived the business, laying before them 
 that which they accounted not the best and truest, but 
 the fittest for their purpose and design. Thus do we 
 sometimes please little children with an apple, or some 
 little toy, to take them off the desire they have for 
 something of greater value. Those therefore who take 
 all that the Fathers deliver in the like places for good 
 and solid expositions, and such as they themselves 
 really believed, very much deceive themselves; and 
 believing they have a solid body in their arms, em- 
 brace only an empty shadow. 
 
 Now we should hardly believe those holy men to 
 have been guilty of any such juggling as this, had we 
 not the word of so eminent a cardinal for our belief; 
 upon whose authority we have, for this once, adven- 
 tured to propose it to the reader's consideration, and 
 shall withal produce some few examples taken out of 
 the same author. 
 
 Augustine being to expound the sixth chapter of 
 the Gospel of John, (where, as he conceives, our Sa- 
 viour Christ is very copious in his discourse concern- 
 ing the Eucharist,) presently begins to obumbrate and 
 IS* 9 
 
146 PRIVATE OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 
 
 disguise the mystery with such a number of allegories, 
 riddles, and ambiguities, as that, if you dare believe 
 the cardinal, throughout the whole twenty-sixth tract, 
 there is not one period but has in it some elusion, 
 diversion, or diminution of the true and solid defini- 
 tion of this article. Thus does he interpret the bread 
 which came down from heaven to be the gift of the 
 Holy Ghost: "Our Saviour (says he) purposing to 
 send down the Holy Ghost, saith that it is the bread 
 which descended from heaven/'* 
 
 You may, if you please, believe, upon the faith of 
 this Father, that this is the true sense and meaning 
 of the passage. But yet the cardinal makes it appear, 
 out of Calvin, that it cannot be so. He likewise con- 
 tradicts, after the same manner, that which the same 
 Father says a little after, to wit, that the purpose of 
 our Saviour was to let us understand that this meat 
 and drink, whereof he speaks in St. John, is the com- 
 munion and fellowship, that is between his body and 
 his members, who are the holy Church, in his faithful 
 servants, predestinated, called, justified, and glorified. 
 
 Had not the cardinal given us this information, 
 who would ever have imagined that this author (who 
 was so conscientious as to make it a great quarrel 
 with Jerome, only for having laid dissimulation to 
 Paul's charge,) should here himself say that our Sa- 
 viour Christ would have us to understand his words 
 thus, unless he himself really believed this to be the 
 true sense and meaning of them? The cardinal also 
 applies this very consideration to the greatest portion 
 of those other passages, cited out of this Father by 
 the Protestants; namely, "to believe in Christ is to 
 eat the Bread of Life:" and to this other; "He that 
 believes in him eats of it; and he is invisibly fed by 
 it, because that he is also invisibly born again:" and 
 
 * Perron. Tract, de S. August, c. 12, et lib. 2, de Euch. Aut. 
 22, c 1. 
 
FREQUENTLY CONCEALED OR DISGUISED. 147 
 
 to this also; "Whosoever eats of this bread, he shall 
 never die; but this is to be understood of him that 
 eats of it, according to the virtue of the sacrament; 
 and not according to the visible sacrament; of him 
 that eats of it internally, and not externally; of him 
 that eats of it with his heart, and not of him that 
 chews it with his teeth." 
 
 In all these places the cardinal pretends that Au- 
 gustine suppresses the true, full, and solid definition 
 of this manducation, or eating of the flesh, and drink- 
 ing the blood of Christ; and instead thereof presents 
 this allegorical and accidental meditation to the cate- 
 chumens, only to cast a mist, as it were, before their 
 eyes, and to elude their curiosity.* He makes use of 
 the same course also in answering those passages 
 which are quoted by the Protestants from Theodoret, 
 and Gregory Nazianzen ;f who, he says, called the 
 Eucharist " the antitype of the body and blood of 
 Chri»t,"J in the same manner as Abraham, being 
 among infidels, called Sarah his sister; concealing 
 something of what w T as true, but yet affirming nothing 
 that was false. He likewise explains after the same 
 manner this passage, out of the Pcedagocjus of Cle- 
 mens Alexandrinus ; " The flesh and the blood of 
 Christ is faith and the promise. "§ In a word, he is 
 so much pleased with this observation, that he adopts 
 it at every turn: and indeed we may very well say, 
 that tlii< is liis main treasur}', out of which he pro- 
 ■ duces the greatest part of those subtle and so much 
 admired solutions he gives to the passages objected 
 against them out of the Fathers. || 
 
 Those who are disposed to examine these passages 
 
 * Pe ' : 1). 1. 2, Ant 24, o. 15. 
 
 rron. de Each. 1. 2, Ani J Id. Ibid. 
 
 . 1. _, Ant. 5. 
 : ; Ed. de Ench. . 332, 389, 344, 356, 117. 120, 134, 
 
 510, 516; • i I 1 15, 
 
148 PRIVATE OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 
 
 of his, may probably find something to retort upon 
 him, in some of those applications he has there made. 
 It is enough for our present purpose, that he admits 
 that the Fathers, in their sermons and discourses 
 made to the people, have often made use of this spe- 
 cies of art; from which it clearly follows, that we 
 cannot then possibly have any assurance that they 
 themselves accounted, as solid and full, such exposi- 
 tions and opinions as they have delivered in these 
 writings of theirs. 
 
 As the cardinal endeavours by this means to weaken 
 the force of those passages of Augustine, Gregory 
 Nazianzen, Theodoret, and Clemens Alexandrinus, 
 may not the Protestants, when any passages are 
 brought against them out of the homilies of Chrysos- 
 tom, or Eucherius, which seem to tell strongly against 
 their opinions, be allowed to have the same liberty, 
 and to answer, that these Fathers, speaking before 
 the people, made use of this dispensation, speaking 
 that which they thought to be, not the best and truest, 
 but the most proper for the edification of others, and 
 that they had an apprehension that a bare and down- 
 right expression of the truth might possibly have 
 abated the warmth of the people's devotion? there 
 being apparently (say they) more cause to doubt, that 
 the people might disesteem and slight the sacrament, 
 than to fear lest they should adore it: indeed the Fa- 
 thers are much more careful in concealing the matter 
 of the sacrament, the outward appearance whereof is^ 
 apt to make it disesteemed, than they are in conceal- 
 ing the form, which is of so venerable a nature; say- 
 ing often, and in express terms, that it is " the body 
 of Christ;" but ordinarily forbearing to say that it is, 
 or that it was, "a piece of bread." 
 
 We now enter upon the third class of the writings 
 of the ancients, wherein the Fathers dispute against 
 the adversaries of their faith; namely, the Pagans, 
 Jews, and Heretics. 
 
FREQUENTLY CONCEALED OR DISGUISED. 149 
 
 We have heretofore observed how much obscurity 
 the earnestness and warmth of spirit have caused in 
 the expressions of the Fathers: and this defect arises 
 from mere feeling; and not from any design or pur- 
 pose that they had of speaking thus rather than other- 
 wise. For seeing that all kind of impassioned feeling 
 disturbs, and in some measure confounds, the judg- 
 ment; and seeing it is difficult for a man, however 
 holy he be, to go through a disputation, without some 
 alteration in his temper; especially if it be of any 
 importance, as all those on religion are, we are not to 
 wonder, if in these cases we sometimes find the lan- 
 guage of the Fathers somewhat confused, and appear- 
 ing of several colours; just as passion usually tinges 
 both the countenance and language of those it takes 
 possession of. \ 
 
 Besides the confusion which is caused merely by 
 the agitation of the spirits, without the Fathers so 
 much as thinking of it, we are here further to take 
 notice, that the proper design and the law of the 
 method observed in disputations, is the cause of our 
 encountering with so many and great difficulties. For 
 their opinion was, that in this kind of writing it was 
 lawful for them to say and make use of anything that 
 might advance their cause, although it were otherwise 
 but light and trivial, or perhaps also contrary to what 
 themselves believed; and so, on the other side, to 
 conceal and reject whatsoever might prejudice their 
 cause, though otherwise true and allowable. 
 
 Now that thia observation may not seem strange 
 and incredible, as coming out of my mouth, let us 
 hear what the Fathers themselves say in this particu- 
 lar. And first let us hear Jerome, who was the 
 greatest critic of them all; and who, by often exer- 
 
 Dg the strength of his admirable wit, both by him- 
 self and with others, has observed more respecting 
 the style, method, natural disposition, and opinions 
 of the Fathers, than any other. 
 
150 PRIVATE OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 
 
 "W r e have learned together, (says he, writing to 
 Pammachius,) that there are divers sorts of discourse; 
 and among the rest, that it is one thing to write 
 yuiivo.o~LY.coc, (by way of disputation,) and another 
 thing to write ooyp.arty.coc, (by way of instruction.) In 
 the former of these the disputes are free and discur- 
 sive; where, in answering an adversary, and proposing 
 one time one thing, and another time another, a man 
 argues as he pleases; speaking one thing and doing 
 another; showing bread, (as it is in the proverb,) and 
 holding a stone in his hand. Whereas in the second 
 -kind, an open front, and, if I may so speak, ingenu- 
 ousness are required. It is one thing to make inqui- 
 ries, and another to define: in the one we must fight, 
 in the other we must teach. Thou seest me in a 
 combat, and in peril of my life; and dost thou come 
 with thy grave instructions like some reverend school- 
 master? 'Do not wound by stealth, and from whence 
 thou art least expected: let thy sword strike direct- 
 ly: it is a shame for thee to wound thy enemy 
 by guile and not by strength:' as if it were not a 
 piece of the greatest mastery in fighting to threaten 
 one part, but hit another. I beseech you read De- 
 mosthenes, read Tully: and lest perhaps you should 
 refuse orators whose profession it is to propose things 
 rather probable than true, read Plato, Theophrastus, 
 Xenophon, Aristotle, and others; who, springing all 
 from Socrates' fountain, as so many different rivulets, 
 ran several ways: what can you find in them that is 
 clear and open? what word in them but hath its 
 design ? and what design, but of victory only ? Ori- 
 gen, Methodius, Eusebius, Apollinaris, have written 
 largely against Celsus and Porphyry. Only observe 
 what manner of arguments, and what slippery pro- 
 blems, they made use of, for subverting those works 
 which had been wrought by the spirit of the devil: 
 and how on being sometimes forced to speak, they 
 alleged against the Gentiles, not that which they 
 
FREQUENTLY CONCEALED OR DISGUISED. 151 
 
 believed, but that which was most necessary to be 
 said. I shall not here speak anything of the Latin 
 writers, as Tertullian, Cyprian, Minucius, Victorinus, 
 Lactantius, and Hilary, lest I might seem rather to 
 accuse others, than to defend myself."* 
 
 Thus Jerome. As for that which he afterwards 
 adds, respecting Paul, whom he believes to have prac- 
 tised the very same arts, this is no proper place to 
 examine either the truth or the use of this opinion of 
 his; as our purpose is here to treat of the Fathers 
 only. Now you see that he testifies clearly, that they 
 were wont, in their disputations, sometimes to say one 
 thing, and believe another; to show us bread, and 
 keep a stone in their hand ; to threaten one part, and 
 to hit another ; and that they were sometimes con- 
 strained to fit their words, not to their own proper 
 thoughts, but to the present necessity. The very same 
 thing is confessed also by Athanasius, speaking of 
 Dionysius Alexandrinus,f as noticed before; namely, 
 
 * Simul didicimus plura esse videlicet genera dicendi, et inter 
 caetera aliud esse yvfAvantxas scribere, aliud fcy/ucirtxw. In priori 
 vngam esse disputationem, et adversario respondentem nunc hsec, 
 nunc ilia proponere, argumentari ut libet, aliud loqui, aliud agere, 
 in, (ut dicitur) ostendere, lapidcm tenere. In sequenti auteni 
 aperta Irons, et, ut ita dicam, ingenuitas necessaria est. Aliud est 
 quaerere, aliud definire: in altero pugnandum, in altero docendum 
 est. Tu me stantem in prcelio, et de vita periclitantem, studiosus 
 ister doceas? Noli ex obliquo, et unde non putaris, vulnus 
 re. Directd percute gladio. Turpe tibi est hostem dolis ferire, 
 DOS viribus. Quasi non et hsec ars summa pugnantium sit, alibi 
 minari, alibi percutere. Legite obsecro vos Demosthenem, legite 
 Tullium: ac ne forsitan rhetores vobis displiceant, quorum art:- eel 
 Terisimilia magis quam vera dicere, legite Platonem, Theophrastum, 
 Xenophontem, Aristotelem, et reliquos qui de Socratis fonte ma- 
 nantes diversis cucurrere rivulis; quid in illis apertum, quid sim- 
 plex est 1 quae verba nonsensuum? qui sensus non victoria? Con- 
 siderate quibus argumentis, et quam lubricia problematibus diaboli 
 spiritu contexts Bubvertant; et quia interdum coguntur loqui, non 
 quod sentiunt. Bed quod nccesse est, dicunt adversus eaqnedicuut 
 Gentile-. Taceo de Latinis scriptoribus, TertuUiano, CyprS 
 Minncio, Victorino, Lactantio, Hilario, ne non tarn me defendisse, 
 quam alios videar - 
 
 f Athvn. en. de fide Dion. Alex. 
 
152 PRIVATE OPINIONS OP THE FATHERS 
 
 that he wrote, not simply and plainly, as giving us an 
 account of his own belief, but that he was moved, and 
 as it were forced, to speak as he did, by reason of the 
 occasion, and of the person he disputed against. 
 
 The same account does Basil give of a certain pas- 
 sage of Gregorius Neocassariensis ;* answering for 
 him with this distinction; "That he spake not in that 
 place dogmatically, but only by way of economy or 
 dispensation:" Ta xar olxovofxtov ypacpo^eva^ By 
 this term is meant, that a man keeps to himself what 
 he believes, and proposes some other thing lying 
 wide of his own opinion, either this way or that way; 
 being induced so to do from some particular con- 
 siderations. 
 
 As we sometimes see that the water ascends, being 
 forced to mount up to fill some space, which otherwise 
 would remain void, — you will not, I hope, conclude 
 from hence, that this is its natural and ordinary mo- 
 tion, — in like manner was it with the Fathers; who, 
 being sometimes harassed and hard driven to it in 
 disputation, in order to avoid, so to speak, some cer- 
 tain vacuum which they were afraid of, sometimes left 
 their natural motion, and their proper sense and 
 opinion, and took up some other contrary one, accord- 
 ing to the necessity of the occasion. Indeed, though 
 Jerome had not noticed it, the fact would evidently 
 enough have appeared from their writings. Other- 
 wise, how could any one possibly have believed that 
 they could have spoken so differently as they have 
 done in many particulars, blowing hot and cold with 
 one and the same mouth? How could they possibly 
 have delivered so many things contrary either to rea- 
 son, or to the Scriptures, or to the Fathers? "For, 
 (as the same Jerome says) who is so very a blockhead, 
 and so ignorant in the art of writing, as to praise and 
 condemn one and the same thing; pull down what he 
 
 * Basil, sup. c. 5. f Athan. ep. de fide Dion. Alex. 
 
FREQUENTLY CONCEALED OR DISGUISED. 153 
 
 had built; and build what he had pulled down?"* 
 Now the Fathers are often observed to have done this 
 very thing. We are therefore to conclude, that they 
 have been forced to it, out of some special design; 
 and that they did it, as they used to speak, by econo- 
 my, or particular dispensation ; seeing that it is evi- 
 dent that the greatest part of them were very able 
 men. 
 
 Jerome, for example, recommending the going on 
 pilgrimage to Jerusalem, went so far as to say, "that 
 it was a part of our faith to go and worship in those 
 places where the feet of our Saviour once stood, and 
 to have a sight of the tracks, which at this day con- 
 tinue fresh, both of his nativity, cross, and passion. "f 
 Now how does this agree with that long discourse 
 which he has made in another place, to a quite con- 
 trary sense? namely, in his Epistle to Paulinus, 
 where at last concluding, he gives him this reason of 
 the length of his discourse: " To the end (says he) 
 that thou mayest not think that anything is wanting 
 to the completing of thy faith, because thou hast not 
 visited Jerusalem ; or that we are any whit the better 
 for having the opportunity of dwelling in this place. "J 
 And here he concurs with Gregory Nyssen, who has 
 written a discourse expressly against the opinion of 
 those "who account it to be one of the parts of piety 
 to have visited Jerusalem :" — Ilepc zcov drrovzcov ei{ 
 1 JepOGoAufia, &c. olz, iv {tepee eiHrefteeac; veisopLcarac to 
 tout; ip hpoaokofuocQ zorzouz coscv.§ 
 
 * Quia enim tarn hebes, ct sic in scribendo rudis est, ut idem 
 laudet et damnet, aedificata destruat, et destructa ffidificet? — ffier. 
 cj>. 50, ad J'"///. 
 
 f Certe adorasse ubi steterunt pedes Domini, pars fidei est, &c. 
 — Efier. ep. ad Desider. quce est 144. 
 
 J Quorsam (inquies) luec tarn longo repetiti principio? Vide- 
 ne quidquam fidei tuae deesse putes, quia Hierosolymam non 
 vidisti, Qec aoa idcircd melio imes qu6d hujus loci habita- 
 
 culo fruiinur. — Id. ep. 18. ad Paulin. 
 
 \ €hfl in Ep. Turn. 2. 
 
 14 
 
154 PRIVATE OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 
 
 Let any rational man therefore now judge, whether 
 or not this course must not necessarily embroil and 
 enshroud in almost inexplicable difficulties the writings 
 of the Fathers. For how is it possible that Ave should 
 be able to judge when they speak as they thought, 
 and when not? whether they mean really what they 
 say, or whether they make but a flourish only ? whe- 
 ther the bread which they show us be to deceive or to 
 feed us ? whether the problems they propose be solid 
 or slippery ones ? whether their positions be dog- 
 matical, or economical? Certainly, if our court judg- 
 ments were framed after this manner, we should 
 never hope to have an end in any suit of law. As for 
 that which Jerome says, " that an intelligent and 
 favourable reader ought to judge of those things 
 which seem harsh, from the rest of the discourse, and 
 not immediately to condemn an author for having 
 delivered, in one and the same book, contrary opin- 
 ions;"* I confess that this is very true: but yet it 
 does not remove the difficulty. For however intelli- 
 gent and discerning a man the reader may be, it will 
 very often be impossible for him to form a right judg- 
 ment in this particular: as for example, when those 
 other things are wanting, which Jerome would have 
 a man to make the measure of his judgment; or 
 when any one brings us no more of an author than 
 a bare sentence — the chapter and book where these 
 words are, which need to be explained, being quite out 
 of his memory. How many such are adduced every 
 day in our disputations? What can we now do, or 
 which way shall we turn ourselves, if meeting with a 
 passage from any of the Fathers that needs to be ex- 
 plained, we can find no other place in him on the 
 same point; or if there be none found but what is as 
 
 * Debuerat prudens et benigmis lector etiam ea quse videntur 
 dura sestimare de cseteris, et non in uno atque eodem libro crimi- 
 nari me diversas sententias protulisse. — Hier. ep. 50. ad Pam. 
 
FREQUENTLY CONCEALED OR DISGUISED. 155 
 
 doubtful as the other, or that is not controverted in 
 some other book ? 
 
 Who shall regulate us amidst such contradictions as 
 these? But, what is yet worse, those things which 
 Jerome prescribes us tor a rule and direction to our 
 judgment, are now in these days of ours very unsea- 
 sonable ; as being harsh as to the one side, and pleasing 
 to the other, according to men's several affections and 
 interest, agreeably to which they are wont to interpret 
 ami judge of the Fathers, whereas we should rather 
 search in them which way we are to direct our judg- 
 ments. And that favourableness which Jerome re- 
 quires in us cannot be here of any use, but may pos- 
 sibly besides do very much harm. For the greater 
 the regard we bear to any Father, the greater care and 
 pains shall we take in vindicating his words, and in- 
 terpreting them in a sense as far different as we can 
 from what we have long since condemned as erroneous 
 and unsound; though possibly this may have been his 
 real sense and opinion. As for example in those pas- 
 sages before cited out of Jerome and Gregory Nyssen, 
 the Protestant accounts that a very harsh piece of 
 doctrine, which however his adversary is well pleased 
 with: the one labours to explain what appears very 
 easy to the other: the one takes that for text, which 
 the other accounts but as a gloss. And thus the 
 greater affection men bear to the name and authority 
 of any one of the Fathers, the more do they labour 
 and use their utmost endeavours to bring him over to 
 speak to their opinion; that is to say, in plain truth, 
 to force him out of his own: it being impossible that 
 he should hold both opinions at once. 
 
 We shall here therefore conclude, that however 
 clear and express the words of the Fathers may be, 
 yet nevertheless will it often happen, that we cannot 
 hav< that we have their sense express- 
 
 ed in them; whether it be, in their Expositions of the 
 
156 THE DOCTRINES OF THE FATHERS 
 
 Scriptures; or in their Homilies and Sermons before 
 the people; or lastly, in their Disputations with their 
 adversaries regarding their Faith. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Reason VII. — The Fathers have not always held the same doc- 
 trine; but have changed some of their opinions, according as 
 their judgment has become matured by study or age. 
 
 Amongst all the ecclesiastical writers, those of the 
 Old and New Testament only have received the know- 
 ledge of Divine things by an extraordinary inspira- 
 tion. The rest have acquired their knowledge by the 
 ordinary means of instruction, reading, and medita- 
 tion; so that this knowledge came not to them in an 
 instant, as it did to the others, but increased by de- 
 grees, ripening by little and little in proportion as 
 they grew in years: whence it is, that their writings 
 are not all of the same weight, or of the same value. 
 For who sees not, that what they, as it were, sport- 
 ingly wrote in their younger years, is of much less 
 consideration than those other productions which they 
 wrote in their mature age ? Who, for instance, would 
 equal the authority of that epistle of Jerome to Helio- 
 dorus* (written by him when he had but newly left 
 the schools of Rhetoric, being yet a child, and full of 
 that innocent and inconsiderate heat which usually 
 accompanies those years,) to that of those other graver 
 pieces which he afterwards gave to the Church, when 
 he had arrived at his full strength and ripeness of 
 mind, and to the perfection of his studies? 
 
 Augustine has left us a remarkable testimony, that 
 the Fathers profited by age and study in the know- 
 
 *Hier. ep. 1. ad Heliodor. Vid. ep. 2, ad Nepot. 
 
HAVE SOMETIMES CHANGED. 157 
 
 ledge of the truth, when, as in his old age, taking pen 
 in hand, he reviewed and corrected all that he had 
 ever written during his whole life; faithfully and in- 
 genuously noting whatsoever he thought worthy of 
 reprehension, and giving us all his animadversions 
 collected together in the Books of his Retractations, 
 which in my judgment is the most glorious and most 
 excellent of all those many monuments which he has 
 left to posterity; whether you consider the learning, 
 or the modesty and sincerity of the man. 
 
 Jerome reports that Origen also, long before, had in 
 his old age written an epistle to Fabianus, bishop 6f 
 Rome, wherein he confesses that he repented of many 
 things which he had taught and written.* Neither is 
 there any doubt but that some similar thing may have 
 happened to most of the other Fathers, and that they 
 may have disallowed of that which they had formerly 
 believed as true. 
 
 Now from this consideration there arises a new 
 difficulty, which we are to grapple with in this our 
 inquiry into the true and genuine sense of the Fathers 
 respecting our present controversies. For, seeing that 
 the condition and nature of their writings are such, it 
 is most evident that when we would make use of any 
 of their opinions, it will concern us to be very well 
 assured that they have not only sometimes either held 
 or written the same, but that they have moreover per- 
 Bevered in them to the end. Whence Vincentius Liri- 
 nensis,f in that passage of his which is so often urged, 
 for making use of the ancient authors in deciding our 
 present controversies, thinks it not fit that we should 
 be bouD 1 to receive whatsoever they have said, for 
 certain and undoubted truth, unless they have assured 
 and confirmed it to us by their perseverance in the 
 
 la qnam scribit ad Fabianum, Romans 
 urbifi tentiam agit car talia scripserit, &e. — -liter. 
 
 ribus Origenis. 
 
 y Vincent. Lirinens. lib. adv. Novit. scu Common. 
 14* 
 
158 THE DOCTRINES OF THE FATHERS 
 
 same. Cardinal Perron also evidently shows us the 
 same way, by his own practice : for, disputing about 
 the Canon of the Holy Scriptures, (which he pretends 
 to have been always the very same in the Western 
 Church, with that which is delivered to us by the 
 Third Council of Carthage, where the Maccabees are 
 reckoned in among the rest,) and finding himself 
 hardly pressed by some certain passages alleged by 
 the Protestants out of Jerome to the contrary, he an- 
 swers the objection, by saying, among other things, 
 that this Father, when he wrote the said passages, was 
 ilot yet come to the ripeness of his judgment, and 
 perfection of his studies;* whereas afterwards, when 
 he was now more fully instructed in the truth of the 
 sense of the Church, he changed his opinion, and re- 
 tracted (as this cardinal says) both in general and in 
 particular, whatsoever he had before written in those 
 three Prologues, where he had excluded the Macca- 
 bees out of thexsanon.f And so likewise to another 
 objection brought to the same purpose out of the 
 Commentaries of Gregory the Great, he gives the like 
 answer, saying that Gregory, when he wrote that 
 piece, was not yet come to be Pope, but was a plain 
 Deacon only, being at that time employed at Constan- 
 tinople as the Pope's nuncio to the Greeks. 
 
 Now these answers of his are either insufficient, or 
 else it will necessarily follow from hence, that we 
 ought not to rest certainly satisfied in the testimony 
 of any Father ; except we first^be assured, that not 
 only he never afterwards retracted that opinion of 
 his ; but that besides, he wrote it in the strength and 
 ripeness of his judgment. And seGknow how we are 
 fallen into a new labyrinth. For, first of all, from 
 whence and by what means may we be able to come, 
 truly and certainly, to the knowledge of this secret ; 
 since we can hardly meet with any conjectures, tend- 
 
 * Perron's Rcpl. 1. 1. c, 50. f Id - Ibid - 
 
HAVE SOMETIMES CHANGED. 159 
 
 ing to the making of this discover} 7 , namely, whether 
 a Father has in his old age changed his opinion on 
 that point for which it is produced against us or not? 
 
 If they had all of them been either able or willing 
 to imitate the modesty of Augustine, we should then 
 have had little left to trouble us. But you will hardly 
 find any, either of the ancients, or of those of later 
 times, that have followed this example; unless it be 
 cardinal Bellarminc, who has lately thought good to 
 revive this piece of modesty which had lain dead and 
 buried for the space of so many ages together, by 
 writing a Book of Retractations, which is very differ- 
 ently received by the learned of both religions. Yet, 
 if you are fastidious upon it, with cardinal Perron, 
 and will not allow the saying of a Father to be of any 
 value, unless it were written by him after the matu- 
 rity of his studies, I shall then despair of our ever 
 making any progress, so much as one step forward, 
 by this means, in the business in hand. For both 
 parties will say, on every testimony that shall be pro- 
 duced against them, How do we know whether this 
 Father had arrived at the maturity of his judgment 
 when he wrote this book, or not ? Who can tell 
 whether or not, those days of his life that he enjoyed 
 after the writing thereof, might not have bestowed 
 clearness on his understanding, as well as whiteness 
 on his head; and have changed his judgment as well 
 as his hair ? 
 
 We will here suppose that no such thing appears 
 in any of his other writings. How many authors arc 
 there who have changed their opinions, and yet have 
 not retracted what they had formerly written? But 
 suppose now that we should have lost that particular 
 tract wherein the author had given testimony of the 
 changing of his opinion, what should we do in this 
 eaBe? If time should have deprived us of Augustine's 
 Retractations, and some other of his later writings, 
 as it has of an infinite number of other productions, 
 
160 THE DOCTRINES OF THE FATHERS 
 
 both of his and of the other Fathers, which would 
 have been of as great importance to us, we must cer- 
 tainly have thought that he had believed that the 
 cause of predestination is the prescience or foreseeing 
 of the faith of men; if we only read what he says in 
 one of the books which he first wrote, " That God 
 has not elected the works of any man, according to 
 his prescience ; seeing that it is he himself that gives 
 the same to a man; but that he has elected his faith 
 by his prescience; that is, he has elected those who 
 he foresaw would believe his word; that is to say, 
 he made choice of them to bestow his Holy Spirit 
 upon ; that so by doing good works they might attain 
 everlasting life."* 
 
 Now the Pelagians and Semi-Pelagians would have 
 brought this passage as an infallible argument that 
 Augustine was of their opinion, but that his Retracta- 
 tions, and his other books which were written after- 
 wards, clearly make it appear that this argument is 
 of no force at all; forasmuch as this learned Father, 
 having afterwards better considered of this point, 
 wholly altered his opinion: "I had not (says he) as 
 yet diligently enough inquired into, nor found out, 
 what the election of grace was, whereof the Apostle 
 speaks in these words: 'There is a remnant (to be 
 saved) according to the election of grace;' which cer- 
 tainly is not grace, if any merits preceded it; so that 
 what is given should be rendered rather as due to 
 merits, than as given freely by grace, "f 
 
 Now who knows but that among those Fathers 
 whom we so confidently adduce every day, some of 
 them may have retracted those things which we at 
 
 * Non ergo elegit I)eus opera cujusquam in praescientia, quae 
 ipse daturas est: sed fidem elegit, &c. — August. Exposit. guar, 
 prop, ex ep. Rom. proposit. 60. 
 
 f Nondum diligentius quresiveram nee aclinic inveneram, qualis 
 sit Electio Gratiee, de qua idem dicit Apostolus, Reliquiae, &c. — 
 Id. Retract. 1. 1, cap. 23. 
 
HAVE SOMETIMES CHANGED. 161 
 
 this day read in their works; and that time may have 
 devoured the retractations of their opinions, and may 
 have left us only their errors? Besides, who knows 
 and can truly inform us what date their writings 
 bear? whether they were the fruits of their spring of 
 life, or of their summer, or of their autumn? whether 
 they were gathered green, or were suffered to ripen 
 upon the tree? Doubtless this whole inquiry is very 
 intricate; there being scarcely any mark of their sea- 
 son of life to be found in the greatest part of them. 
 There are indeed some few of them that have some of 
 these marks, but yet they are so doubtful and uncer- 
 tain, that the most able and distinguished critics are 
 sometimes deceived in their inquiry on this matter. 
 
 When all is done, who knows not that there are 
 some trees that bear their summer fruit even in the 
 very beginning of the summer, when the spring time 
 is as yet hardly past? And again, the fruits which 
 are gathered at the end of the later season are not 
 always the ripest: for time, instead of ripening, many 
 times rots them. In like manner is it also with men, 
 and consequently with the Fathers. Sometimes their 
 summer yields much more and better fruit than their 
 autumn. For as for the winter, that is to say, the 
 last part of our age, it is evident that it usually brings 
 forth nothing at all : or if it do chance to force itself 
 beyond nature, the fruits it brings forth are yet worse, 
 and more crude and imperfect, than those even of the 
 spring. 
 
 Seeing therefore it is for the most part impossible 
 to give any certain judgment of these things, either 
 by the history of these authors, or by their books 
 themselves: and that again on the other side, without 
 this, we ought not to depend upon anything we find 
 in their writings, by supposing we have discovered 
 what their opinions have been : we may safely conclude 
 in this matter also, as we have done in the former 
 chapter, that it is very difficult to know truly and 
 
162 ON THE SEVERAL OPINIONS 
 
 precisely what the opinions and sense of the ancients 
 have been, as regards the differences at this day exist- 
 ing among Christians. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Reason VIII. — It is necessary, but nevertheless difficult, to discover 
 how the Fathers have held all their several opinions; whether as 
 necessary or as probable only; and in what degree of necessity 
 or probability. 
 
 Logic teaches us that true propositions are not all 
 equally so: some of them being contingent only, as 
 the schools speak, and others being necessary: and 
 again, both being more or less either contingent or 
 necessary, according to that admirable division which 
 the philosopher has made into those three degrees of 
 necessity, explained by him in the first book of his 
 Demonstrations: — Kara navzoQ, xaff abzo, xadoloo 
 
 7Zf)(DTOV* 
 
 Hence it comes to pass, that the knowledge or igno- 
 rance of these degrees is the more or less important 
 in those sciences whereunto they appertain; there 
 being some of them, as those which they call princi- 
 ples, that are so necessary, that a man cannot be igno- 
 rant of them, without overthrowing the whole science 
 wherein they ought to have place: and there being 
 others again, on the contrary side, that a man may be 
 ignorant of, so far as to hold their contradictories for 
 true, and yet nevertheless not run any great hazard. 
 As, for example, these following are philosophical prin- 
 ciples of the first sort: namely, " that there is mo- 
 tion:" and " that everybody occupies some certain 
 p]ace, ,, and the like. For what strange philosophy 
 would it be, that should either be ignorant of or should 
 
 *Arist. Poster. Analyt. 
 
HELD BY THE FATHERS. 163 
 
 deny these principles? But these following are of 
 the second sort: namely, "that there are precisely 
 but five senses in living creatures: and "that the 
 heavens are not of an elementary substance," and the 
 like. 
 
 Although these propositions are by most held to be 
 true, yet notwithstanding are they not so necessary, 
 but that a man may pass for a philosopher, and yet 
 not only be ignorant of those positions, but may also, 
 if he please, maintain even those things that are con- 
 tradictory to them.- Now if there be any science 
 where this consideration ought carefully to be applied, 
 it is, in my judgment, in that of divinity. For there 
 is a very great difference between the truths of which 
 it consists: some of them being evidently more neces- 
 sary than others, as Origen proves plainly in his 
 twenty-seventh Homily upon Matthew. Only com- 
 pare these two propositions together: "Christ is 
 God;" and " Christ suffered death, being of the age 
 of thirty-four, or thirty-five years." Who sees not that 
 though both these propositions are true, yet notwith- 
 standing there is a vast difference between them. For 
 the former of these is necessarily true; that is to say, 
 it is impossible but that Christ should be God; the 
 salvation of mankind, which is the end of our religion, 
 being otherwise not possible to be obtained. But as 
 to the second, notwithstanding that it is true, and is 
 collected clearly enough out of the Scriptures, yet is 
 it not at all necessary. For Christ might, if he had 
 so pleased, have suffered at the fortieth or fiftieth year 
 of his age, without any prejudice at all to our salva- 
 tion, which was the end of his suffering. 
 
 According to this diversity of degrees, the belief or 
 ignorance of these two propositions are also of very 
 different importance. The first of them we may not 
 be ignorant of, and much less deny, without renoun- 
 cing Christianity. The second we may be ignorant 
 of, and even deny too, as supposing it false, yet with- 
 
164 ON THE SEVERAL OPINIONS 
 
 out any great danger. To be able therefore to come 
 to a clear and perfect understanding what was the 
 sense of the Fathers, touching the points of religion 
 at this day controverted amongst us, it is necessary 
 that we should know not only whether they believed 
 them or not, but also how they believed or did not 
 believe them : that is to say, whether they held them 
 as propositions necessarily or probably either true or 
 false; and, moreover, in what degree either of neces- 
 sity or probability they placed them. 
 
 That this inquiry is very necessary, cardinal Perron 
 has clearly demonstrated, in that learned epistle of his, 
 written to Casaubon, against king James. The king 
 attributing to himself the name of Catholic, under pre- 
 tence that he believed, and held all those things that 
 the Fathers of the first four or five centuries did; the 
 cardinal denies his inference ; replying, among other 
 things, that to be of the communion of the ancients, a 
 man ought not only to believe what they believed, 
 but also to believe it in the same manner and in the 
 same degree that they did : that is, to believe as neces- 
 sary to salvation whatever they believed as necessary 
 thereto ; and to believe as profitable to salvation what 
 they held for such: and as lawful and not repugnant 
 to salvation, what they held as lawful and not repug- 
 nant to salvation. Thus he goes on, and gives us a 
 long and exact division of the different degrees of 
 necessity, which may and ought to be considered in 
 all propositions on religion. 
 
 I could sincerely wish that the occasion had carried 
 on this learned prelate so far as to have made an 
 exact application of this doctrine, and to have truly 
 informed us (of what the greatest part of the world is 
 at this day ignorant) in what degree each point of the 
 Christian faith is held, either by the Church of Rome, 
 or by the ancient Fathers; and what things are abso- 
 lutely necessary in religion, and what are those other 
 things that are necessary under some certain condi- 
 
HELD BY THE FATHERS. 1G5 
 
 tions only: which again arc necessary by the neces- 
 sity of the means; and which, by the necessity of the 
 precept, (as he there speaks;) that is to say, which 
 arc those things that we ought to observe, either by 
 reason of their profit, as being means which are pro- 
 fitable to salvation; and which we are to observe, by 
 reason of the commandment only, being enjoined us 
 by such an authority as we owe obedience to: and 
 moreover, after these points, which all and every of 
 the faithful are bound to believe expressly ; and which 
 are those that it is sufficient to believe in gross only, 
 and by an implicit faith: and lastly, which are those 
 things that we ought actually to do; and which are 
 those that it is sufficient if we approve of them only, 
 though we do them not? So that it appears clear, 
 out of these words of his, that to be able to know 
 what the doctrines of the Fathers have been, espe- 
 cially in the points now in dispute, w r e ought first to 
 be assured in what degree they believed the same. 
 That this distinction was of very great consideration 
 with the ancient Church, appears sufficiently from the 
 special regard which it always had to it; opening or 
 slanting the door against men, first of all, according 
 to the things which they believed or did not believe; 
 secondly, according to the different manner they be- 
 lieved or did not believe them. For it excommuni- 
 cated those who rejected the things that it held as 
 necessary; and so likewise those who pressed as 
 things necessary such as it held for things probable 
 only. But it received, with all the suavity imagina- 
 ble, all those who either were ignorant of, or doubted, 
 or indeed denied, those things which it accounted 
 true, yet not necessarily so. This appears clearly 
 from an epistle w r ritteri by Irenrcus to Victor, bishop 
 of Rome, cited by Easebins, in his Ecclesiastical His- 
 tory:* where this holy man testifies, that although 
 
 * Hist l. seb. lib. 5, cap. 24, Codicifl Grseoi, cap. 26. 
 
 lo 
 
166 ON THE SEVERAL OPINIONS 
 
 there had been, before Victor's time, the same differ- 
 ence between the Asiatic and the Romish Church, 
 touching the celebration of Easter; yet notwithstand- 
 ing they lived in peace and mutual amity together; 
 neither were any of the Asiatic bishops ever excom- 
 municated at Rome, for their dissenting from them, 
 either in this or in any other point; but rather the 
 contrary; for on Poly carpus coming to Rome, in the 
 time of Pope Anicetus, after they had a conference 
 on the differences between them, and each of them 
 continued still firm in his former opinion ; they still 
 did not forbear holding fair correspondence with each 
 other, and to communicate together; Anicetus also, 
 out of the respect he bore to Polycarpus, allowing 
 him the use of his own church, to celebrate the Eu- 
 charist in. 
 
 Tertullian, in his book "De Prseseriptionibus ad- 
 versus Hsereticos," requires only that the rule of 
 faith, (as he calls it) should continue in its proper 
 form and order ; allowing every man, in all other par- 
 ticulars, to make what inquiries and discourses he 
 pleased, and to exercise his curiosity to the utmost 
 liberty;* which is an evident argument, that he ad- 
 mitted into his communion all those who, not contra- 
 dicting the rule of faith, broached any other opinions; 
 that is, if they held them as probable only, and pro- 
 posed not anything which was contrary to the rule of 
 faith. 
 
 The author of the Apology of Origen,f published 
 by Ruffinus, under the name of Pamphilus, was of the 
 same opinion. For having confessed that Origen, if 
 he held not, yet published certain very strange opi- 
 nions on the state of the soul before the birth of man, 
 and on the nature of the stars, he maintains that 
 
 * Csetei urn manente forma ejus in suo ordine, quantumlibet 
 quaeras, et tractes, et omnem libidinem curiositatis effundas, &c. 
 Tertul. de Prescript . adoers. Ilceret. Vid. I. de Virg. vel. I. 1. 
 
 f Apol. Orig. inter opera Origen. 
 
HELD BY THE FATHERS. 167 
 
 these opinions do not presently make a man a here- 
 tic; and that even among the doctors of the Church 
 there was diversity ot" opinion on the same. 
 
 Besides all this, it is evident that this difference of 
 judgment is even at this day to be found in the Church 
 of Rome; where you shall find the Dominicans and 
 the Franciscans maintaining opinions entirely contra- 
 dictory to each other, on the conception of the Virgin 
 Mary; the one maintaining that she was conceived 
 without sin, whereas the other utterly deny it. And 
 that which makes me wonder the more is, that they 
 suffer such contradictory opinions as these to be held 
 amongst them, in such particulars as, considered 
 barely in themselves, seem yet to be of very great 
 importance. As for example, a man may either be- 
 lieve that we ought to yield to the cross the adoration 
 of Latvia; or, if he please, he may believe the con- 
 trary; without losing, either by reason of the one or 
 the other, the communion of the Church and salvation. 
 Yet notwithstanding, if you but consider the thing in 
 itself, it will appear to be a matter of no such indif- 
 ference as people imagine. For if the former of these 
 opinions be indeed true, then must those that are of 
 the other opinion sin very grievously, in not worship- 
 ping an object that is so worthy of adoration. But 
 if it be false, then are those men that maintain the 
 same, guilty of a much greater sin, by committing 
 such horrible idolatry. 
 
 What point is there in religion, that seems to be of 
 greater importance than that concerning, the founda- 
 tion and head of all ecclesiastical pov er, upon the 
 authority of which the whole faith and state of the 
 Church depends? And yet on this particular also, 
 which is of such great consequence, do they suffer 
 men to maintain contradictory opinions ; some attri- 
 buting this dignity to the Pope, and others to a gene- 
 ral council. 
 
 If the opinion of the first of these be true, then is 
 
168 ON THE SEVERAL OPINIONS 
 
 the faith of the latter built upon a very erroneous 
 ground:* but if the opinion of the latter be true, then 
 does the faith of the former depend upon a cause 
 which is not infallible ; and consequently is null. 
 Now these different opinions are reconciled, by saying 
 that the Church accounting neither of these doctrines 
 as necessary to faith, a man is not at once a heretic 
 for holding the false opinion of the two, nor yet is he 
 to be accounted orthodox, merely for holding the true 
 one. 
 
 Seeing therefore that this particular concerns the 
 communion of the Church, and our salvation also, 
 which depends thereon, it will behove us to know cer- 
 tainly in what degree the ancients placed those articles 
 which are at this day so eagerly pressed upon the 
 Protestants; and whether they held them in the same, 
 or in a higher, or else in a lower degree of necessity 
 than they are now maintained by the Church of Rome. 
 For unless this be made very clear, the Protestants, 
 though they should confess (which yet they do not) 
 that the Fathers did indeed really believe the same, 
 might yet allege for themselves, that, notwithstanding 
 all this, they are not bound to believe the same; inas- 
 much as all opinions in religion are not at once obli- 
 gatory, and such as all men are bound to believe; 
 seeing that there are some that are indeed necessary, 
 but some others that are not so. They will answer 
 likewise, that these opinions are similar to those at 
 this day controverted between the Dominicans and 
 the Franciscans ; or to those other points debated 
 between the Sorbonnists and the Regulars ; wherein 
 every one is permitted to hold what opinions he 
 pleases. They will urge for themselves the determi- 
 nation of the council of Trent ;f which in express 
 terms distinguishes between the opinions of the Fa- 
 
 * Perron. Repl. 1. 4, in Prsefat. 
 
 f Cone. Trident. Sess. 21, cap. 5, extr. et Can. 4. 
 
HELD BY THE FATHERS. 169 
 
 thers : where having thundered out an anathema against 
 
 all those that should maintain that the administering 
 of the Eucharist was necessary for little infants, they 
 further declare that this thunderbolt extended not to 
 those ancient Fathers who gave the communion to 
 infants; inasmuch as they maintained and practised 
 this from being moved thereunto upon probable rea- 
 sons only, and not accounting it necessary to sal- 
 vation. 
 
 Seeing therefore that some errors which have been 
 condemned by councils, may be maintained in such a 
 certain degree, without incurring thereby the danger 
 of their thunderbolts; for the same reason a man may 
 be ignorant of, and even deny some truths also, with- 
 out running the hazard of being anathematized. Who 
 can assure us (the Protestants may further add) that 
 the articles which w T e reject are not of this kind, and 
 such as, though perhaps they may be true, it is never- 
 theless lawful for us to disbelieve? My opinion there- 
 fore is, that there is no man now T that sees not that it 
 concerns the doctors of the Romish Church, if they 
 mean to convince their adversaries out of the Fathers, 
 first to make it appear to them that the ancients held 
 the said points, not only as true but as necessary also, 
 and in the very same degree of necessity that they 
 now hold them. Now this must prove a matter of 
 extreme difficulty, and much greater here than in any 
 of the other points before proposed. And I shall 
 adduce no other argument for the proof of this than 
 that very decree we cited before, where the council 
 of Trent has declared that the Fathers did not admin- 
 ister the Communion to infants, "out of any opinion 
 that it was necessary to salvation, but did it upon 
 some other probable reason only."* For we have 
 
 illi Patron bui facta probabilem causam 
 lliua temporifi ratione habuerunt; ita 
 
 sine controyersia tenendum est. — Condi, 
 
 . 4. 
 
 15* 
 
170 ON THE SEVERAL OPINIONS 
 
 not only very good reason to doubt, whether the 
 Fathers held this opinion and followed this practice 
 as probable, only ; but it seems besides (with all rever- 
 ence to that council be it spoken) to appear evidently 
 enough out of their writings, that they did hold it as 
 necessary. 
 
 Only hear the Fathers themselves, and Augustine 
 in the first place, who says, "that the Churches of 
 Christ hold by an ancient, and as I conceive an apos- 
 tolical tradition, that without Baptism and the Com- 
 munion of the Lord's Table, no man can come either 
 into the kingdom of God, or unto salvation or eternal 
 life."* Afterwards having, as he conceives, proved 
 this out of the Scriptures, he adds further : " seeing 
 therefore that no man can hope either for eternal life 
 or salvation without Baptism and the body and blood 
 of Christ, ,, (thus does he call the Sacrament of the 
 Eucharist, according to the language of his time;) 
 "as has been proved by so many divine testimonies; 
 in vain is it promised to infants without the partici- 
 pating of these. "f Three chapters before, treating of 
 those words of our Saviour in John, "Except you eat 
 my flesh, and drink my blood, you can have no life in 
 you," (which words Augustine understands, both there 
 and elsewhere, of the Communion of the Eucharist,) 
 he makes a long discourse to prove that they extend 
 as well to infants as to people of maturer age. "Is 
 there any man (says he) that dares affirm that this 
 speech belongs not to infants also; or that they may 
 have life in them, without participating of this body, 
 
 * Ex antiqua, ut existimo, et apostolica traclitione Ecclesisa 
 Christi insitum tenent, praeter Baptismum et participationeni Do- 
 minicse mensse, non solum ad regrium Dei, sed nee ad salutem, et 
 vitam seternam posse quenquam hominum pervenire. Hoc enim et 
 Scrip tura testatur, &c. — Aug. I. 1, de Peccat. Mor. et Remiss. 
 
 f Si ergo, ut tot et tanta divina testimonia concinunt, nee sains, 
 ncc vita seterna sine Baptismo, et corpore et sanguine Domini cui- 
 quam spectanda est; frustra sine his promittitur i)arvulis. — Ibid. 
 
HELD BY THE FATHERS. 171 
 
 and of this blood?"* And this is his constant man- 
 ner of speaking, in eight or ten other passages in his 
 works, which are too long to be here inserted. f 
 
 Pope Innocent L, Augustine's contemporary, speaks 
 also after the same manner; proving against the Pe- 
 lagians that Baptism is necessary for infants, to render 
 them capable of eternal life; inasmuch as wichout 
 Baptism they cannot communicate of the Eucharist, 
 which is necessary to salvation. J 
 
 Cyprian also,§ long before them, spake to the very 
 same sense: and this Maldonate affirms to have been 
 the opinion of the first six centuries. || 
 
 These things being considered, we must infer either 
 that the council of Trent, by its declaration, has made 
 that which has been, to be as if it had never been, 
 which is a power that the poet Agatho in Aristotle 
 would not allow to God himself: Movoo ya[> aurou 
 xa: 6z(K ttrepetrxeraij Ayz^^za tzocscv ciaa dv ij r:s7:oay- 
 fMieva :^[ or else that the Fathers of this council, either 
 out of forgetfulness or otherwise, mistook themselves 
 in this account of theirs respecting the opinion of the 
 ancient Church in this particular: which in my judg- 
 
 * An verd quisquam etiam hoc dicere audebit, quod ad parvulos 
 sententia non pertineat; possintque sine participations cor- 
 ls hujua et sanguinis in so habere vitam, &c. — Id. ibid. c. 20. 
 I i. t. 2, ep. 106, ep. 107, ep. poster, ib. Mar. 1. 2. contr. Pel. 
 3, 1. 1. contr. 2. ep. Pelag. ad Bon. cap. 22, et 1. 4, c. 
 4, 1. 1. contr. Jul. et 1. 3, c. 1, et c. 12, lib. de Prsadest. Sanct. ad 
 Pr-.^p. c. 13, Hypomn. 1. 5 et 6, Tract. 120, in Job. Serm. 32, de 
 Ap. 
 J Ilkid vero quod eos vestra fraternitas asserit prsedicare, par- 
 Yuloa ©teniae vitae pnemiis, etiam eiae baptismatia gratia | 
 donari, perfatnom est. Nisi enim mandncaverint carnem filii 
 hominiw, et biberint Bangninem ejus, non habebunt vitam eeternam 
 in semeti] sis. /■ c. w ep. ad. Milevit. Synod, quce est inter ep, 
 16. — -Vid. Aug. 1. 2, contr. 2ap. Pela I lib. 1, contr. 
 
 Jul. 
 
 prian. lib. 8, Test ad Qui. c. 26. 
 
 istini el Lnnocentii I. aententiam, qua? 
 nit in EScclesia, Eucharisti am etiam infan- 
 \faldon. in Joan. c. 6. num. 1 16. 
 4 . ad Aristot Eth. ad Nicom. 1. 7. c. 2. 
 
172 ON THE SEVERAL OPINIONS 
 
 ment is the more favourable and the more probable 
 conceit of the two: and if so, I shall then desire no 
 more. For if these great personages, who were 
 chosen with so much care and circumspection out of 
 all parts of Christendom, and sent to Trent, to de- 
 liberate upon and determine a matter of the greatest 
 importance in the world ; and were directed by the 
 legates of such supereminent wisdom, and digested 
 their decrees with a judgment so mature and delibe- 
 rate, that there is scarcely one word in them without 
 its design — if after all this, I say, these men should 
 be found to have erred in this inquiry, in affirming 
 that the Fathers held only as probable that which they 
 evidently appear to have held as necessary, if Pope 
 Pius IV., with his whole consistory, consisting of so 
 many eminent and wise men, has approved and con- 
 firmed this mistake of theirs, not perceiving it at all — 
 what can we, or indeed what ought we, to expect from 
 any other hands, whosesoever they be, as regards the 
 points now controverted between us ; in comparison 
 with which, a man may very well say, that all the dif- 
 ficulty which this matter now presents is nothing at 
 all; wherein, notwithstanding, this whole council mis- 
 took itself? Where shall we find a man, that after 
 this failing of theirs, can have the courage to adven- 
 ture upon so difficult and so intricate an undertaking? 
 Who can promise himself success there, where so 
 great a council has failed? The very hope of effect- 
 ing so weighty a matter can hardly be excused from 
 the guilt of high presumption. For, first of all, the 
 Fathers tell us very seldom in what degree, either of 
 necessity or probability, they held their opinions : and 
 even when they do tell us, their expressions being 
 such as we have observed of them, we ought not at 
 once to conclude anything from them, without first 
 examining them thoroughly. For many times, when 
 they would recommend to us such things as they ac- 
 counted profitable for us, they would speak of them 
 
HELD BY THE FATHERS. 173 
 
 a? if they had been necessary: and so again, to take 
 off our belief of and to divert our affections from such 
 things as they conceived either to be simply false, or 
 otherwise unprofitable for us, they represented them 
 as the most detestable and pernicious things. " Who- 
 soever (said Ignatius) fasts upon the Lord's day, or 
 upon any Saturday (meaning Easter-eve,) he is a 
 murderer of Christ:" — Ei zee; KopeaxrjV) v) aaftftaxov 
 pjpcrrcusf, ithju kvo$ aafiftaroo, odvos Xptezoxcovos iazc* 
 
 Who would not think, hearing these tragical ex- 
 pressions of his, that certainly he was speaking of the 
 very foundation of the whole Christian religion ? And 
 yet the business he there speaks of was only the ob- 
 servation of a certain part of a positive law, and 
 which yet (as most are of opinion) was at that time 
 received but by a part only of the Church ; the belief 
 and observation whereof was so far from being classed 
 among those things that were necessary, that it was 
 scarcely placed in the first degree of probability ; and 
 is now at length utterly abolished. 
 
 This manner of discoursing is very frequently used 
 by Tertullian, Ambrose, and especially by Jerome; 
 who are all so enthusiastic for the side they espouse, 
 that you w T ould think, in reading them, that all those 
 whom they commend were really angels; and all 
 those whom they speak against were arrant devils; 
 that whatsoever they maintain, is the very foundation 
 and ground-work of the Christian religion; and what- 
 soever they refute is mere atheism, and the highest 
 impiety. 
 
 Certainly Jerome, writing to a certain Roman 
 matron, named Furia, who was a w 7 idow, and dis- 
 suading her from marrying again, f discourses of this 
 matter in the very same manner as he would have 
 done in dissuading her from the committing of murder. 
 
 Here we are to call to mind again the various rea- 
 
 * Ignat. ep. 4, ad Phil. f Hicron. cp. 10, ad Furiam, torn. 1. 
 
174 ON THE SEVERAL OPINIONS 
 
 sons for the obscurity of the Fathers, and particularly 
 that of their rhetoric, all which have place in this 
 particular rather than in any other. So that there 
 seems to be but one only certain way left us to dis- 
 cover in what degree they placed the propositions of 
 Christian doctrine; namely, their creeds and exposi- 
 tions of their faith, whether they were general, or 
 particular ones; and the determinations of their coun- 
 cils and ecclesiastical assemblies. For we may very 
 well believe that they held as necessary all such 
 points as they made profession of; anathematizing all 
 such as should deny the same. By this rule we may 
 indeed assure ourselves that they held as necessary 
 the greatest part of all those points wherein we at 
 this day agree among ourselves. Some of these we 
 have already noticed in our preface: for they are 
 most of them either delivered expressly in their creeds, 
 or else positively determined in their councils; and 
 the deniers of them are there expressly condemned. 
 But yet this rule will scarcely be of any use in the 
 decision of our present controversies. For some of 
 them appear not at all, either in that Rule of Faith 
 so often mentioned by Tertullian, or in the Nicene 
 creed, or in that of Constantinople, or in the determi- 
 nations of the council of Ephesus, or in those of 
 Chalcedon. The first of these councils anathematized 
 Arius ; the second Macedonius; the third Nestorius; 
 and the fourth Eutyches: and yet nevertheless are 
 the several tenets of these very men at this day re- 
 ceived, and maintained by one side or other. Nay, 
 what is more, the aforesaid articles do not appear at 
 all in the two following councils; namely, the second 
 council of Constantinople, which condemned certain 
 writings of Theodorus, Theodoretus, and Ibas, as we 
 have noticed before : nor yet in the third council of 
 Constantinople, which anathematized the Monothe- 
 lites, and was held about the year of our Lord 681. 
 Yet have these first six councils (if you believe the 
 
HELD BY THE FATHERS. 175 
 
 Fathers of the Beventh) u established and confirmed 
 all those things which had been taught in the Roman 
 Catholic Church from the primitive times, whether by 
 writing or by unwritten tradition." Havca va tjuhl- 
 iodevra i^ z^ xaOoXncn ixxtyeeoCj zat iyy<><ufa)^^ xtu 
 dyy/.cco:, ix zluv dpfflvev yoovcov, aurou [Sex Synodi 
 Oecumenicse) xou ifteftcuaxrav, xat i(T7Y /t oc~av.* It will 
 hence follow, that these points, which appear not 
 here in the said first six councils at all, were not 
 taught from the beginning, either in writing or other- 
 wise. 
 
 About the eighth century how T ever, and for a good 
 while afterwards, we find mention of one of those 
 points now controverted among us, namely, that re- 
 lating to images; which w T as diversely and contrarily 
 determined in the councils of Constantinople, of 
 Nicsea, and of Frankfort; the second of these coun- 
 cils enjoining the use and adoration of images; 
 whereas the first had utterly forbidden it: and the 
 last of these councils taking off, and correcting, as it 
 were, the excesses of the other two. What can you 
 say to this, that even in the writings of particular 
 men, which yet are usually more copious than the 
 determinations of councils are, there is no mention 
 made of the said points? 
 
 Epiphanius,f in the conclusion of his Treatise on 
 Heresies, gives us two discourses; in the one of which 
 he notes down the order, customs, and discipline of 
 the Church in his time: wherein I must say, that 
 there are many things which much differ from the 
 customs that are at this day observed by us on both 
 sides. In the other is contained an exposition of the 
 faith of the Church set down at large, which he calls 
 "the pillar of the truth, the hope and assurance of 
 
 nod. 7. Act. 6, Refill >;. a >d. [conocl. 
 pliun. in Pan&r. 1. 3, et in AnacephaL 
 
176 ON THE SEVERAL OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS. 
 
 immortality:" — Touto to ipeta/m rqz&hjd&as, ^ £.Xtcc£ 
 xat s q fizfiauoatc, ttjz aydapotaz* 
 
 Yet of all those controversies which are at this day 
 disputed amongst us, you will there meet with one 
 only; and that is the local descent of our Saviour 
 Christ into hell: which yet is an article of very small 
 importance, as every one knows. In the acts of the 
 sixth council we have a synodical epistle of Sophro- 
 nius, patriarch of Jerusalem ;f wherein, as the usual 
 custom was, he explains the faith, in a very ample 
 and particular manner: and yet, notwithstanding, you 
 will not there meet with any of those points which are 
 now controverted amongst us. 
 
 Those that search more closely into the business, 
 will be apt positively to conclude from this their 
 silence, that these points were not at that time any 
 part of the doctrine of the Church : and certainly this 
 kind of argument seems not to want reason. But as 
 regards myself, it is sufficient that the truth of my 
 assertion is confirmed; that it is, if not impossible, at 
 least a very difficult thing to discover in what degree, 
 either of necessity or probability ', the ancient Fathers 
 held each of those points, which are now disputed 
 amongst us; seeing that they appear not at all, either 
 in the expositions of 'their faith, or in the determina- 
 tions of their councils, which are, as it were, the cata- 
 logues of those points of doctrine, which they ac- 
 counted necessary. 
 
 * Epiphan. in Panar. 1. 3, et in Anacephal. 
 | Concil. vi. Act. 2. 
 
OPINIONS DIFFICULT TO DISCOVER. 177 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Reason IX. — We ought to know what have been the opinions, not 
 of one or move of the Fathers, but of the whole ancient Church: 
 which is a very difficult matter to discover. 
 
 Those who make the most account of the writings of 
 the Fathers, and who urge them the oftenest in their 
 disputations, inform us, that the value of their senti- 
 ments in these matters arises from the fact, that they 
 are so many testimonies of the general sense and 
 judgment of the Church; to which alone these men 
 attribute the supreme power of judging in controver- 
 sies of religion. For if we should consider them 
 severally, each by himself, and as they stand by their 
 own strength only, they confess that they may chance 
 to err; so that it will hence follow, that in order to 
 make use of the testimonies of the Fathers, it is not 
 sufficient for us to know whether such or such senti- 
 ments be truly theirs, and if so, what the meaning of 
 them is; but we ought further also to be very well 
 assured that they are conformable to the belief of the 
 Church in their time: in the same manner as in a 
 court of judicature, the opinion of any single person 
 on the bench is of no weight at all, as to the passing 
 of judgment, unless it be conformable to the opinion 
 of all the rest, or at least of the major part of those 
 
 elit. 
 
 Now observe how we are fallen again into new diffi- 
 culties. Whence and by what means can we learn 
 whether the whole Church, in the time of Justin Mar- 
 ty)', or of Augustine, or of Jerome, maintained the 
 same opinions in every particular that these men 
 severally did, or not? I confess that the charity of 
 these men was very great; and that they very heartily 
 and constantly embraced the body and substance of 
 the belief of the Church, in .all particulars, that they 
 
178 DIFFICULTIES OF DISCOVERING^ 
 
 saw apparently to be such. But where the Church 
 did not at all express itself, and clearly declare what 
 its sense was, they could not possibly, however great 
 their desire of so doing, follow its authority as the 
 rule of their opinions. Wheresoever therefore they 
 treat of points which were long since decided, be- 
 lieved, and received, expressly and positively, by the 
 whole Christian Church, either of their own age, or 
 of any of the preceding ages, it is very probable that 
 they conformed to what was believed by the Church: 
 so that, in these cases, their sentiments may very well 
 pass for a testimony of the judgment and sense of the 
 Church : it being very improbable, that they could be 
 either ignorant what was the public doctrine of the 
 Church; or that knowing the same, they would not 
 follow it. As for example, when Athanasius, Am- 
 brose, Jerome, Augustine, and others, discourse on the 
 Son of God, they speak nothing but what is conform- 
 able to the belief of the Church in general, because 
 the belief of the Church had then been clearly and 
 expressly delivered upon this point; so that whatso- 
 ever they say, as to this particular, may safely be 
 received as a testimony of the Church's belief. The 
 same may be done in all the other points which have 
 either been positively determined in any of the gene- 
 ral councils, or delivered in any of the creeds, or that 
 any other way appear to have been the public belief 
 of the Church. 
 
 If the Fathers had but contained themselves within 
 these bounds, and had not taken the liberty to treat 
 of anything, save what the Church had clearly de- 
 livered its judgment upon, this rule might then have 
 been received as a general one; and, whatever opinion 
 we found in them, we might safely have concluded it 
 to have been the sense of the Church as existing in 
 their time. But the curiosity of man's nature, to- 
 gether with the impudence of the heretics, and the 
 tenderness of conscience, whether of their own, or of 
 
THE OPINIONS OF THE ANCIENT CIIURCn. 179 
 
 others, and divers other reasons perhaps, having partly 
 made them willingly, and partly forced, and as it 
 Were, constrained them to go on further, and to pro- 
 ceed to the search of the truth of several points, which 
 had not as yet been established by the universal and 
 public consent of all Christians; it could not be avoid- 
 ed, but that necessarily they must in these inquiries 
 make use of their own proper light, and must deliver 
 upon the same their own private opinions, which the 
 Church, that came after them, has since either em- 
 braced or rejected. 
 
 I shall not here stand to prove my opinion, since it 
 is a thing that is confessed on all hands, and whereof 
 the Romanists make special use upon all occasions, 
 in answering several objections brought against them 
 out of the Fathers. As, for example, where cardinal 
 Bellarmine excuses the error of Pope John XXII. on 
 the state of departed souls before the Resurrection;* 
 by saying, that the Church, in his time, had not as yet 
 determined anything as to this particular. So like- 
 wise, where he applies the same salvo to that (in his 
 judgment) unsound opinion of Pope Nicolas I., who 
 maintained that Baptism, administered in the name of 
 Jesus Christ only, without expressing the other per- 
 sons of the Holy Trinity, was, notwithstanding, valid 
 and effectual. t "This is a point (says Bellarmine) on 
 which we find not the Church to have determined any 
 thing." And however dangerous and almost hereti- 
 cal the opinion of those men seems to him, who hold 
 that the Pope of Rome may fall into heresy; yet does 
 he permit Pope Adrian to hold the same, not daring 
 to rank him among the heretics, because the Church 
 had QOt as yet clearly and definitively expressed itself 
 on this point. 
 
 * Bellarm. de Rom. Pont. 1. 4, c. I L Sect. Etespondeo ld pri- 
 mis, 
 f N >M invenitur alia certa definitio Be bac re. — Id. 
 
180 DIFFICULTIES OF DISCOVERING 
 
 The same Bellarmine, in another controversy of 
 great importance, regarding the Canonical Books of 
 the Old Testament, (finding himself closely put to it, 
 by his adversary's urging against him the authority 
 of Jerome, who casts Tobit, the Book of Wisdom, 
 Ecclesiasticus, and the Maccabees, out of the Canon, 
 contrary to the judgment of the Church of Rome, 
 which receives them now,) gets over this objection 
 after the same manner. "I confess (says he) that 
 Jerome held this opinion, because no general council 
 had as yet ordained anything regarding these books." 
 
 Seeing therefore that it is most clear, both from the 
 confession of our adversaries, and from the considera- 
 tion of the thing itself, that the Fathers have in their 
 writings circulated many of their own particular 
 opinions, digested out of their own private medita- 
 tions, and which they had not learnt in the school of 
 the Church — who sees not, that before we give any 
 certain credit to their sentiments, Ave ought first to be 
 assured of what nature they are? Whether they were 
 their own particular opinions only, or the public sense 
 of their age: since it is confessed by all, that those of 
 the former kind are not always necessarily obligatory, 
 but are such as oftentimes may, and sometimes ought 
 to be rejected, without any scruple at all. 
 
 You may urge perhaps to a Protestant, that Jerome 
 worshipped the relics of departed saints. How shall 
 I know, (will he reply upon you again) whether this 
 was his private opinion only, or not? If the authority 
 of this Father, for want of being grounded upon some 
 public declaration of the Church, could not bind Bel- 
 larmine to receive his opinion on the Canon of the 
 Old Testament, why should this opinion of his, which 
 is not any whit better grounded than the other, per- 
 suade me to the worship of relics? The same reply 
 will he make, and many times with much more appear- 
 ance of reason, concerning divers other testimonies 
 produced out of the Fathers. So that, whether you 
 
THE OPINIONS OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH. 181 
 
 -would confirm your own faith, or whether you would 
 wrest out of your adversary's hand this manner of 
 reply, and make good all such allegations, it will be- 
 hove you to make it clear, concerning any passage 
 whatever that you shall urge out of a Father, that it 
 is not his own private opinion, but was that of the 
 Church itself wherein he lived: which, in my judg- 
 ment, is a thing that is more difficult to be demon- 
 strated, than any of those matters we have yet dis- 
 coursed upon. For those means by which we might 
 easily attain to this knowledge are w r anting, and those 
 which we have left us are very feeble, and very in- 
 conclusive. 
 
 If the Fathers themselves had but taken so much 
 pains, as to have distinguished betwixt these two sorts 
 of opinions, informing us, in every particular case, 
 which were their own private ones only, and which 
 were taught by the whole Church; or, at least, had 
 but proposed some of them as doubtful, and others 
 again as asmred truths, in the same manner as Origen 
 has sometimes done, they would indeed have aided 
 us very much ; though, to say the truth, they would 
 not have wholly cured us of our grief: forasmuch as 
 sometimes (as we shall hereafter make it appear,*) 
 they attribute to the Church those things which it is 
 most evident it never held. Yet they very seldom 
 make any such distinction, but commonly express 
 their own private opinions in the same manner as 
 they do those publicly received; and sometimes also, 
 by reason of the partial feelings to which these 
 authors might chance naturally to have been subject, 
 we have them recommending to us with much more 
 hat which they have conceived, and brought 
 forth t ban that which they have received 
 
 ii any other hand; so that we shall meet with very 
 little in them that may afford us any light in this 
 particular* 
 
 * Infra, 1. 11. c. 1. 
 
 16* 
 
182 DIFFICULTIES OF DISCOVERING 
 
 There would be left us yet another aid in this busi- 
 ness, by comparing that which they say here and 
 there throughout their writings, with the public opin- 
 ions of the Church, which would be rather a safe and 
 certain rule to go by, had we anywhere else, besides 
 their books, any clear and certain evidence what the 
 belief of the Church has been, in each distinct age, on 
 all points of religion : and if this were so, we should 
 not then need to trouble ourselves with studying the 
 writings of the Fathers, seeing that we read them for 
 no other purpose, but only to discover out of them 
 what the doctrine of Christendom has been on those 
 points which are at this day controverted among us. 
 Yet there is no man but knows that this aid is want- 
 ing to us. For, setting aside the creeds, and the de- 
 terminations of the first six General Councils, and of 
 some few of the Provincial, you will not meet with 
 any work of this nature throughout the whole stock 
 of antiquity. 
 
 Now (as we have already made it appear in the 
 preceding chapter,) the ancient Church has not any 
 where declared, either in its creeds or in the aforesaid 
 councils, what the opinion and sense of it has been, 
 on the greatest part of those points which are now in 
 dispute amongst us ; it followeth therefore, that by 
 this means we shall never be able to distinguish, in 
 the writings of the Fathers, which were their own pri- 
 vate opinions, and which they held in common with 
 the rest of the Church. 
 
 If we could indeed learn, from any creditable 
 author, that the present controversies had ever been 
 decided by the ancient Church, we should then rea- 
 dily believe that the Fathers would have followed this 
 their decision: and then, although the Constitutions 
 themselves would not perhaps have come down to our 
 hands, yet notwithstanding should we be in some sort 
 obliged to believe, that the Fathers, who had both 
 seen and assented to the same, would also have de- 
 
THE OPINIONS OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH. 183 
 
 livered over the sense of them unto us in their writ- 
 ings. But we meet with no such thing in any author: 
 for it rather appears evidently to the contrary, 
 through the whole course of ecclesiastical history, 
 that these matters were never so much as started in 
 the first ages of Christianity; so far are they from 
 having been then decided. So that it manifestly ap- 
 pears from hence, that if the Fathers of those primi- 
 tive times have by chance said anything of them, they 
 took not what they said from the determinations of 
 the Church, which had not as yet declared itself on 
 the same, but expressed rather their own private 
 thoughts and opinions. 
 
 Neither will it be to any purpose to object here, 
 that the testimonies of many Fathers together do re- 
 present to us the sense of the Church, although the 
 voice of one or two single persons only is not sufficient 
 to do the same. For, not to answer that what has 
 happened to one may have happened to many others, 
 and that, if some particular persons chance to have 
 fallen into some particular opinions, possibly others 
 may either have accompanied or else have followed 
 them in the same — I say further, that this objection 
 is of no force at all in this particular. For, seeing 
 that the Church had not as yet declared its opinion 
 publicly on the points at this day controverted, it is 
 as impossible that many together, that lived in the 
 same time, should represent it to us, as that one 
 single person should. How could they possibly have 
 seen that which lay as yet concealed? How could 
 they possibly measure their belief by such a rule, as 
 was not yet visible to the world? 
 
 The Chiliasts* adduce the testimonies, not of one, or 
 of two, but of a very great number of the most emi- 
 nent and the most ancient among the Fathers, who 
 were all of their opinion, as we shall see hereafter. 
 
 ■• Millennarians.- Edit* 
 
184 WHETHER THE OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 
 
 The answer that is ordinarily made to this objection, 
 is, that the Church having not as yet declared its 
 sense on this point, the testimonies of these men bind 
 us not to believe the same ; which is an evident argu- 
 ment, that a great number, in this case, signifies no 
 more than a small one, in representing to us what the 
 belief of the Church has been; and that it is neces- 
 sary, that either by some General Council, or else by 
 some other public way, it must have declared its judg- 
 ment on any question in dispute; in order that we 
 may know whether the Fathers have been of the same 
 opinion or not. So that, according to this account, 
 we are to raise up again the whole ancient Church, 
 and to call it to account on every one of these par- 
 ticular points now discussed, on which the testimo- 
 nies of the Fathers are adduced; it being impossible 
 otherwise to give any certain judgment, whether what 
 they say is their own private opinion, or that of the 
 public ; that is to say, whether it be fit to be believed 
 or not. 
 
 Thus any man, even of the meanest judgment, may 
 easily perceive that it is not only difficult, but almost 
 impossible, to draw from the writings of the Fathers 
 such information as is necessary for our satisfaction 
 in matters of so great importance. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Reason X. — It is very difficult to ascertain whether the opinions 
 of the Fathers, as to the controversies of the present day, were 
 received by the Church universal, or only by some portion of it; 
 this being necessary to be known, before their sentiments can be 
 adopted. 
 
 Suppose that one of the Fathers, relieving us in this 
 difficult or rather impossible business, should tell us, 
 in express terms, that what he proposes is the sense 
 
WERE RECEIVED BY THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL. 185 
 
 and opinion of the Church in his time; yet this would 
 DOt quite extricate us from the doubtful condition we 
 are in. For, besides that their words are many times, 
 in such cases as these, liable to exception, suppose 
 that it were certainly and undoubtedly so; yet it 
 would concern us then to examine what that Church 
 118, of which he speaks; whether it w T as the Church 
 universal, or only some particular Church; and 
 whether it was that of the whole world, or that of 
 some city, province, or country only. 
 
 Now that this is a matter of no small importance is 
 evident, because the opinions of the Church universal 
 in points of faith are accounted infallible, and neces- 
 sarily true ; whereas those of particular Churches are 
 not so, but are confessed to be subject to error. So 
 that the question being here about the faith, which 
 ought not to be grounded upon anything save Avhat 
 is infallibly true, it will concern us to know what the 
 judgment of the Church universal has been; seeing 
 the opinion of no particular Church can do us any 
 service in this case. And that this distinction is also 
 otherwise very necessary, appears evident by this; 
 because the opinions and customs which have been 
 commonly received by the greatest part of Christen- 
 dom, have not always immediately taken place in 
 each particular Church; and again, those which have 
 been received in certain particular Churches have not 
 been entertained by all the rest. Thus we find in 
 history, that the churches in Asia Minor kept the 
 feast of Easter upon a different day from all the other 
 parts of Christendom: and although the matter itself 
 seems to be of no very great importance, yet never- 
 theless it caused a great sensation in the Church; 
 Victor, bishop of Rome, by reason of this little differ- 
 ence, excommunicating all Asia Minor.* 
 
 Now each party here alleged their reasons, and 
 
 - Euseb. Ili.-t. Ecoles. 1. o, o. 2 3, ~!. <ec. 
 
186 WHETHER THE OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 
 
 apostolical tradition also, for what they did ; speaking 
 with such great confidence in the justification of their 
 own opinion, that on hearing them individually a man 
 would really believe that each of their opinions was 
 the very sense of the whole Church; which notwith- 
 standing was only the opinion of one portion of it. 
 
 The greatest part of Christendom held the baptism 
 of heretics to be good and effectual:* and received all 
 those, who, forsaking their heresy, desired to be ad- 
 mitted into the communion of the Church, without 
 rebaptizing them ; as appears out of Cyprian, who 
 confesses that this had also been the custom formerly, 
 even in the African Churches themselves. Yet not- 
 withstanding Firmilianus, archbishop of Csesarea in 
 Cappadocia, testifies that the Churches of Cappadocia 
 had immemorially believed and practised the con- 
 trary, f They had also, in his time, so declared and 
 ordained, together with the Churches of Galatia and 
 Cilicia, in a full synod, held at the city of Iconium. 
 About the same time also Cyprian and the bishop of 
 Africa entered on the same affair, and embraced this 
 opinion of rebaptization of heretics. The acts of the 
 council held at Carthage are yet extant ; where you 
 have eighty-seven bishops, who with one unanimous 
 consent established the same. 
 
 The custom at Rome, in Tertullian's time, was to 
 receive into the communion of the Church all fornica- 
 tors and adulterers, after some certain penances which 
 they enjoined them. Tertullian, w 7 ho was a Mon- 
 tanist, exclaimed fearfully against this custom, and 
 wrote a book expressly against it ; which is also ex- 
 tant among his works at this day. Who now, that 
 should read this work of his, would not believe that 
 
 * Cypr. ep. 71, et ep. 75, quae est Firmil. 
 
 f Caeterum nos veritati et consuetudinem jungimus: et consuetu- 
 dini Romanorum consuetudinem veritatis opponimus; ab initio hoc 
 tenentes quod a Christo et ab Apostolis traditum. est. — Firmil. ep. 
 ad Cypr. quce cat 75 inter ep. Cypr. 
 
WERE RECEIVED BY THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL. 18T 
 
 it was the general opinion of all Catholics, that such 
 sinners were not to be excluded from penance and 
 the communion of the Church? Yet for all this, it is 
 evident, out of a certain epistle of Cyprian,* that 
 even some of the Catholic bishops of Africa were of 
 the contrary persuasion : and the Jesuit Petavius is 
 further of opinion, that this indulgence was not al- 
 lowed nor practised in the Churches of Spain, till a 
 long time after; and that the ancient rigour, which 
 excluded for ever such offenders from the communion 
 of the Church, was in practice among them, till the 
 time of Pacianus, bishop of Barcelona, who left not 
 any hopes of ecclesiastical absolution, either to idola- 
 ters, murderers, or adulterers; as may be seen in his 
 Exhortation to Repentance. f 
 
 In the year of our Lord 364, the council of Laodi- 
 cea ordained, J that none but the canonical books of 
 the Old and New Testament should be read in 
 churches, giving us moreover a catalogue of the said 
 books, which amount in all, in the Old Testament, to 
 the number of twenty-two only; without making any 
 mention at all of those other books which cardinal 
 Perron calls posthumous, namely, Ecclesiasticus, the 
 Book of Wisdom, the Maccabees, Judith, and Tobit. 
 All the canons of this council were afterwards in- 
 serted in the code of the Church universal, where 
 you have this very canon also, Num. 163; that is as 
 much as to say, they were received as rules of the 
 Catholic Church. 
 
 Who would believe now, but that this declaration 
 of the canon of the Scriptures was at that time re- 
 ceived by all Christian Churches? And yet, notwith- 
 standing, you have the Churches of Africa meeting 
 
 ether in the Synod at Carthage, § about the year 
 
 t Parian. P Poenit. t. 8, Bibl. PP. p. 71. 
 
 I 68. 
 
 . iii. can. 17. 
 
188 WHETHER THE OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 
 
 of our Lord 397, and ordaining quite contrary to the 
 former resolution of Laodicea, that among those books 
 which were allowed to be read in churches, the Mac- 
 cabees, Judith, Tobit, Ecclesiasticus, and the Book of 
 Wisdom, (which two last they also reckon among the 
 books written by Solomon,) should be taken into the 
 number. 
 
 Who knows not the difference there was in the first 
 ages of Christianity, between the Eastern and the 
 Western Churches, respecting the fasting on Satur- 
 days;* the Church of Rome maintaining it as lawful, 
 and all the rest of the world accounting it unlawful? 
 Whence it was that we had that bold canon passed in 
 the council at Constantinople, in Trullo, in these 
 words: "Understanding that in the city of Rome, in 
 the time of the holy fast of Lent, they fast on Satur- 
 days, contrary to the custom and tradition of the 
 Church, it seems good to this holy council, that in 
 the Roman Church they inviolably also observe that 
 canon, which says, that whosoever shall be found to 
 fast either upon the Lord's day, or upon the Satur- 
 day, (excepting only that one Saturday) if he be a 
 clergyman, he shall be deposed; but if he be of the 
 laity, he shall be excommunicated. "f 
 
 Who knows not in how many different ways the 
 fast of Lent was anciently observed in various 
 Churches, an account of which is given by Irenseus, 
 in that pious epistle of his which he wrote to Victor; 
 part whereof Eusebius inserts in his Ecclesiastical 
 History?J Who knows not also, that the opinions 
 and expressions of the Greek Church, on Free-will 
 and Predestination, are very different from what the 
 Church believed and taught in Augustine's time, and 
 afterwards? 
 
 As to the Discipline of the Church, only hear 
 
 * Vid. Petav. in Epiph. p. 359. 
 
 f Can. Synod. Quininsext. Can. iv. 
 
 % Iren. ap. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 1. 5, cap. 26. 
 
WERE RECEIVED BY THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL. 189 
 
 Anastasius Bibliothccarius, upon the sixth Canon of 
 the Seventh General Council, which enjoins all Metro- 
 politans to hold provincial synods once a year: "Nei- 
 ther let it at all trouble thee (says he) that we have 
 not this decree; seeing that there are some others 
 found among the canons, whose authority nevertheless 
 we do not admit of. For some of them are in force, 
 and are observed in the Greek Church only; and 
 others again only in certain other provinces. As for 
 example, the sixteenth and seventeenth canons of the 
 council of Laodicea are observed only among the 
 Greeks; and the sixth and the eighth canons of the 
 council of Africa are received by none but the Afri- 
 cans. * 
 
 I could here produce various other examples ; but 
 these may suffice to show that the opinions and cus- 
 toms which have been received in one part of the 
 Church, have not always been entertained in all the 
 rest. Whence it evidently follows that all that is 
 acknowledged as the opinion or observation of the 
 Church, ought not therefore at once to pass for a uni- 
 versal law. 
 
 The Protestant alleges, for justifying his canon of 
 the Scriptures, the council of Laodicea, before men- 
 tioned. You answer him perhaps that this indeed 
 was the opinion of the Churches; but it was only of 
 some particular Churches. I shall not here enter 
 into an examination, whether this answer be well 
 grounded or not: it is sufficient for me that lean then 
 safely conclude from hence, that according to this ac- 
 count, before you can make use of any opinion or tes- 
 
 * Nee te moyeat, si banc definitionem minimd nos habemus: cum 
 
 rum uonnullas, quag inter canones habemus, in auctoritatem 
 
 recipiamus; sicut quasdam ex conciliis. Aliae namque apud 
 
 mum, alisa vcio apud cartas tantum provincias in obser- 
 
 9Bumnntar: sieut Laodicensie concilii 16 et 
 
 apud Gh rvantur: < t African] concilii 6 et 
 
 8 cannula, qua nulla provincia serrare, nisi Africana, itur. 
 
 • — . 1 , 1 Hiotn. ad ( , 6, ( .76 
 
 17 
 
190 WHETHER THE OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 
 
 timony out of any of the Fathers, it is necessary that 
 you first make it appear, not only that it was the opi- 
 nion of the Church at that time; but you must further 
 also clearly demonstrate to us, what Church's opinion 
 it was; whether of the Church universal, or else of 
 some particular Church only. It is objected against 
 the Protestants, that Epiphanius* testifies that the 
 Church admitted not into the higher orders of the 
 ministry, any save those that were virgins, or pro- 
 fessed continency. Now to make good this allega- 
 tion, it is necessary that it be first proved, that the 
 Church he there speaks of was the Church universal. 
 For (the Protestant will reply) as Laodicea had, it 
 seems, a particular opinion on the canon of the Scrip- 
 tures; possibly also Cyprus may in like manner have 
 had its particular resolutions as to the ordination of 
 the clergy. The same may be said of the greatest 
 part of those other allegations and opinions of the 
 ancient Church. 
 
 Now how difficult a business it will be to clear these 
 matters, which are so full of perplexity; and to dis- 
 tinguish the writings of antiquity at this great dis- 
 tance of time, separating that which was public from 
 what was particular, and that which was provincial 
 from what was national, and what was national from 
 that which was universal — any man may be able to 
 imagine ; but none can thoroughly understand, except 
 he who has made the trial. Only conceive to your- 
 selves a city, that has lain in ruins a thousand years, 
 nothing of which remains but the ruins of houses, 
 lying all along confusedly here and there ; all the rest 
 being covered over with thorns and bushes. Imagine 
 then that you have met with one that will undertake 
 to show you precisely where the public buildings of 
 the city stood, and where the private ones: which 
 were the stones that belonged to the one, and which 
 
 * Epipha. Haer. 59, torn. 1. 
 
WEB1 RECEIVED BY THE CUURCn UNIVERSAL. 191 
 
 belonged to the other; and, in a word, who will in 
 these confused heaps, where the whole lies all toge- 
 ther, separate for you, notwithstanding, the one from 
 the other. The very same task in a manner does he 
 undertake, who thus endeavours truly and precisely 
 to distinguish the opinions of the ancient Church. 
 
 This antiquity is now of eleven or twelve hundred 
 years' standing : and the ruins of it are now only left 
 us in the books of the writers of that period; which 
 have indeed met with none of the best treatment in 
 their passage through the several ages down to our 
 time; as we have before shown. How then can we 
 entertain the least hope that, amidst this so great 
 confusion, we should be able yet to distinguish the 
 remains, and to tell which of them honoured the pub- 
 lic temple, and which went to the furnishing of pri- 
 vate chapels only? especially considering that the 
 private ones have each of them ambitiously endea- 
 voured to make their own pass for public. For where 
 is the province, or the city, or the doctor, that has 
 not boasted of his own opinions and observations as 
 apostolical, and not used his utmost endeavours to 
 gain them the repute of being universal? Jerome 
 allows every particular province full liberty to do 
 herein as it pleases. "Let every province (says he) 
 abound in its own sense, and hold the ordinances of 
 their ancestors as apostolical laws."* 
 
 It is true indeed, that Jerome speaks in this place 
 only of certain observations of things which are in 
 themselves indifferent But yet, that which he has 
 permitted them in these matters, they have practised 
 in all -others. I shall not here trouble myself to pro- 
 duce any other reasons, to prove the difficulty of this 
 inquiry, because I should then be forced to repeat a 
 great part of that which has been already noticed. 
 
 * Onaqtiseqne pr bundetinsensnstio, e1 prmcepta major- 
 
 am L< dtretur. — Huron, ep. 28 ad Lucinum, 
 
192 IMPOSSIBILITY OF KNOWING EXACTLY 
 
 If it be a very difficult matter to attain to any cer- 
 tain knowledge what the sense of the writings of the 
 Fathers is, as we have proved before, how much more 
 difficult a thing will it be, to discover whether their 
 opinions were those of the particular Churches wherein 
 they lived, or else were the opinions of the Church 
 universal in their age; the same things which cause 
 obscurity in the one having as much or rather more 
 reason for doing the like in the other. And if you 
 would fully understand how painful an undertaking 
 this is, only read the disputations of the learned of 
 both parties on this point; where you will meet with 
 so many doubts and contradictions, and such diversity 
 of opinions, that you will easily conclude, that this is 
 one of the greatest difficulties to be met with through- 
 out the whole study of antiquity. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Reason XI. — It is impossible to know exactly what has been the 
 belief of the ancient Church, either universal or particular, as 
 to any of those points which are at this day controverted amongst 
 us. 
 
 Before we proceed to the Second Part of this trea- 
 tise, it may not be irrelevant to give the reader this 
 last advice, and let him know that, though all these 
 difficulties before represented were removed, it would 
 still be impossible for us to know certainly, out of the 
 Fathers, what the judgment of the whole ancient 
 Church, whether the Church universal, or only a con- 
 siderable portion of it, has been, as regards the differ- 
 ences which are now agitated in religion. 
 
 Now that we may be able to make the truth of this 
 proposition appear, it is necessary that we should first 
 of all explain the terms. 
 
TIIE BELIEF OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH. 193 
 
 We understand commonly by the Church, (espe- 
 cially in these disputations) either all those persons in 
 general who profess themselves to be of the said 
 Church, of what condition or quality soever they be; 
 or else, in a stricter sense, the collective body of all 
 those who are set over, and who are representatives 
 of the Church; that is to say, the clergy. So that 
 whether you speak of the Church universal, or of 
 some particular Church — as, for example, that of 
 Spain, or of Carthage — this term may be taken in 
 either of these two senses. By the Church universal 
 we understand either all those persons in general, 
 who live in the communion of the Christian Church, 
 whether they be of the laity or of the clergy; or else 
 those persons only who are Ecclesiastici, or church- 
 men, as we now call them. For in the primitive 
 times, all Christians that lived in the communion of 
 the Catholics were called JEcclesiasticL In like man- 
 ner, by the Church of Carthage is meant, either gene- 
 rally, all the faithful that lived in the particular 
 communion of the Christian Church of Carthage; or 
 else particularly, and in a stricter sense, the bishop of 
 Carthage, with his whole clergy. 
 
 Now I do not believe that there is any man, but 
 will easily grant me, that if we take the Church in 
 the first sense, it is impossible to know, by way of 
 u-timony given of the same, what the sense and 
 judgment of it have beer in each distinct age, as to 
 all the points of the Christian religion. We may in- 
 deed collect, by way of discourse, what has been the 
 belief of the true members of the Church. For there 
 being some certain articles, the belief of which is 
 necessarily requisite for the rendering a man such; 
 whosoever rightly understands which these articles 
 are, may certainly conclude that the true Church, 
 whether universal or particular, has believed the 
 same. But now, in the first place, this does not ex- 
 tend to all the points of the Christian religion, but 
 17* 
 
194 IMPOSSIBILITY OF KNOWING EXACTLY 
 
 only to those which are necessary: besides which 
 there are various others, concerning which we may 
 have not only different but even contrary judgments ; 
 and yet not thereby hazard the loss either of the com- 
 munion of the Church, or of our inheritance of ever- 
 lasting salvation. But this reasoning applies only to 
 those who are the true members of the Church. As 
 for those who make but an outward profession of the 
 truth, it being not at all necessary that they should 
 be saved, there is in like manner no more necessity 
 for their embracing those beliefs which are requisite 
 for that end. They may, under this mask, hide all 
 kind of opinions, however impious they are. Lastly, 
 that which makes most for our purpose is, that this 
 knowledge is acquired by discourse; whereas we speak 
 here of such a knowledge as is collected by the hear- 
 ing of several witnesses, who give in their testimonies 
 as to the thing which we would ascertain. Now the 
 Fathers having written with a purpose of informing 
 us, not what each particular man believed in their 
 time, but rather what they thought fit that all men 
 should have believed, we must needs conclude that 
 certainly they have not told us all that they knew on 
 this particular. And therefore partly their charity 
 and partly their prudence may have caused them to 
 pass by in silence all such opinions, either of whole 
 companies, or of particular persons, as they conceived 
 to be not so consonant to the truth. But supposing 
 that they had not any of these considerations, and 
 that they had taken upon them to give us a just ac- 
 count, each man of the opinions of his particular 
 church wherein he lived ; it is evident, however, that 
 they could never have been able to have attained to 
 the end of their design. For how is it possible that 
 they should have been able to have learnt what the 
 opinion of every single person was, amongst so vast a 
 multitude, which consisted of so many several per- 
 sons, who were of such different capacities and dispo- 
 
THE BELIEF OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH. 195 
 
 sitions? Who will believe that Cyprian, for example, 
 knew all the several opinions of each particular per- 
 son in his diocese, so as to be able to give us an ac- 
 count of the same? Who can imagine, but that 
 among such a multitude of people as lived in the 
 communion of his church, there must needs have been 
 very many who differed in opinion from him, on 
 divers points of religion? Even at this very day, 
 that we may not trouble ourselves to look so high, we 
 see by experience, that there is scarcely that parish 
 to be found, however small, where there are not par- 
 ticular persons that maintain, in many points of reli- 
 gion, opinions different from those of their minister. 
 But if we take a whole diocese together, and pass by 
 all those who trouble themselves not at all with the 
 difference of opinions in religion, whether it be by 
 reason of their want of years, or their weakness of 
 judgment, or their malice; and take notice only of 
 the rest, dividing them according to the difference of 
 their opinions; I am persuaded that that part which 
 shall agree in all points with the bishop of that dio- 
 cese, will many times be found to be the least. Let 
 a bishop preach or write what he will, on the points 
 which are now in controversy, he will scarcely repre- 
 sent to you the opinions of half the people of his 
 diocese. 
 
 Now we must conceive that the temper of the 
 world of old was no other than what it is at this pre- 
 sent day; and therefore, for this very reason, the 
 liberty of embracing what opinions a man pleased 
 was much greater then than it is now; inasmuch as 
 the Church of Home did not exercise its power then 
 throughout Christendom so absolutely as it does now- 
 adays:* neither did the pastors or the princes use 
 that severity and rigour which is now everywhere 
 practiced in our times, for the repressing this diversity 
 
 * That is, at the commencement of the sixteenth century. — Ed. 
 
196 IMPOSSIBILITY OF KNOWING EXACTLY 
 
 of opinions. We must therefore necessarily believe, 
 that the opinions of the faithful were in those days 
 altogether as different, if not much more than they are 
 now. Whence it will also follow, that even the doc- 
 tors themselves, who lived in those times, could not 
 know all the different opinions of men, much less could 
 they represent them to us in their writings. 
 
 We shall not dwell any longer upon what no man 
 can deny ; but shall rather proceed to the considera- 
 tion of that which every one no doubt will be here 
 ready to retort on us, respecting this particular; name- 
 ly, that it is not necessary that we should know the 
 opinions, in points of religion, of all individual persons, 
 which are almost infinite in number, and for the most 
 part very ill grounded and uncertain : but that it is 
 sufficient, if we know what the belief has been of the 
 pastors, and those who have been set over the Church: 
 that is to say, of the Church taken in the latter sense. 
 Yet I confess I do not see that this rule is so abso- 
 lutely right, that we ought to adhere to it. For if we 
 are to take the Church for the rule and foundation of 
 our faith (as the authors of this reply pretend we 
 ought to do,) the people, in my judgment, ought not 
 then to be here excluded and passed by, as being of 
 no consideration. I confess, the opinions of particu- 
 lar persons are very different, one from the other; 
 and the knowledge of some of them is very confined, 
 and sometimes none at all. But yet^possibly this rea- 
 son may chance to exclude even a good part of the 
 clergy also from the authority to which they lay claim 
 in this particular; as it cannot be denied that both 
 ignorance and malice have oftentimes as great a share 
 here, proportionably, as they have among the very 
 people themselves. Who sees not, that if we must 
 have regard to the capacity of men, there are some- 
 times found, even among the plain ordinary sort of 
 Christians in a Church, those that are more consider- 
 able, both for their learning and piety, than the pas- 
 
THE BELIEF OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH. 197 
 
 tors themselves? One of those Fathers, of whom we 
 now discourse, has informed us, "That many times 
 have the clergy erred; the bishop has wavered in his 
 opinion ; the rich men have adhered in their judgment 
 to the earthly princes of the world ; meanwhile the 
 people alone preserved the faith entire/'* 
 
 Seeing therefore that it may sometimes happen, 
 and that it has also many times happened, that the 
 clergy have held erroneous opinions, while the people 
 held the true, it is very evident, in my judgment, that 
 the opinion of the people in these cases ought not 
 wholly to be neglected. Truly Cyprian tells us in 
 divers places, that the Church in his time had the 
 people in very great esteem ; no business of any im- 
 portance being then transacted without communicating 
 the same to the people; as maybe seen in the epistles 
 of this Father: insomuch that "the greatest part of 
 the people also were present at the council of Car- 
 thage,"f where the question on the baptism of here- 
 tics was debated; whereof we have already spoken 
 somewhat a little before. But because this point is 
 controverted, I shall pass it over this time. Let us 
 therefore grant, (since our adversaries will needs have 
 it so,) that it is sufficient in this case to know what 
 the belief was of the Church, taken in the latter and 
 stricter sense; that is to say, of the clergy: for even 
 this way it is evident enough that it is a very hard, if 
 not an impossible thing, truly to discover what it has 
 been in each distinct age. For there is no less diver- 
 sity of opinion among the clergy, than there is among 
 the people; and many times too there is much more: 
 being conversant in books usually reducing things into 
 nicer subtilties, and giving occasion for raising divers 
 opinions on the same. 
 
 *Plemmqne clerna erravit; sacerdotum ntitavit sententia; di- 
 ll] istiua terreno rege senserunt; populua (idem pro- 
 priam reservavit — Ambros. Ser. 17. t. I. p. 726, 
 
 f Prsesente etiam plebifi maxima parte. — Gypr. in Cone. Carthag. 
 p. 3 f J7. 
 
198 IMPOSSIBILITY OF KNOWING EXACTLY 
 
 Who is he that will undertake to give us an account 
 what the opinion is of all the clergy of one city only, 
 (I do not say of a kingdom, or of all Christendom) 
 concerning all the articles of religion? Who would 
 be able to perform this, if he should undertake it? 
 Never was there more exact care taken, for the con- 
 servation of uniformity in judgment among Christians, 
 than is now at this day; when there is use made, not 
 only of the censures and thunderbolts of the Church, 
 but even also of the fire and the sword of the secular 
 powers. Yet notwithstanding all this, how many 
 ecclesiastical persons are there to be found, even in 
 those very places where these rigorous measures are 
 observed with the greatest strictness, even at Rome 
 itself, and as it were in the Pope's own bosom, who 
 differ very much in judgment respecting points of 
 religion, both from their equals and from their supe- 
 riors ? In France, where, by the blessing of God, the 
 liberty of conscience is much greater than in other 
 places, it would be a wonder, if, where four- clergy- 
 men of the more learned and polite sort had met 
 together, two of them should not, upon some point or 
 other of the faith, differ in judgment from the main 
 body of their Church. 
 
 Here I have to entreat all those who follow Cas- 
 sander in great numbers (who adore the monuments 
 of the Fathers, and take whatsoever they find in him 
 for the general sense of the ancient Christians,) only 
 to turn their eyes back a little upon themselves, and 
 to consider how many opinions they themselves hold, 
 which are not only different, but even quite contrary 
 to the Church, in the communion of which they live, 
 and of which they profess themselves to be members, 
 and by which indeed they subsist. The difference is 
 here so great, that it seems to be, as it were, one state 
 within another state, and one church within another 
 church. Yet notwithstanding, when any of the doc- 
 tors of that party to which they adhere, deliver unto 
 
THE BELIEF OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH. 199 
 
 us, either in their definitions, or in their sermons, or 
 in their books, the common sense and judgment of 
 their Church, this intermixture of opinions quite dis- 
 appears. They speak only of the opinions of others, 
 passing by those of Cassander, which are contrary to 
 them, in silence, as if they did not at all concern the 
 Church of Rome. Yet it is very well known, even to 
 us who live at this very day, that they are favoured 
 and maintained by very many of the most eminent 
 persons of the Roman clergy. And if this senseless 
 sect, who forsooth think themselves much more re- 
 fined in their opinions than the rest of the body 
 whereof they are a part, should chance in time either 
 to fall of itself, or be suppressed by force, the memory 
 of them would so utterly come to nothing, that pos- 
 terity would know nothing of their doctrines, except 
 by conjecture. Every one will then suppose that the 
 Church of Rome at this time held precisely to the 
 doctrine and opinions that he reads in the decrees of 
 Trent, and in other similar books : and yet notwith- 
 standing we both know and see that among those very 
 persons who have been anointed, consecrated, and 
 preferred also by the said Church, there is a party 
 that dissents from it in judgment on divers important 
 articles of faith. We may therefore conclude that the 
 ancient Church had also its Cassanders, and very 
 many even among the clergy itself, who held opinions 
 different from those which were the common belief of 
 the Church, and which it hath at length by little and 
 little sunk, as it were, under water, and wholly swal- 
 lowed up; so that now there is not any trace of them 
 left. 
 
 Christianity was either different in the ancient 
 times from what it is now, or else it was the same. If 
 it was different, it is then a piece of mere sophistry, 
 to endeavour to make it seem to be the same ; and a 
 very great abuse to produce us, for this purpose, so 
 many different testimonies from antiquity. If it were 
 
200 IMPOSSIBILITY OF KNOWING^ EXACTLY 
 
 the same, it must then without all doubt have pro- 
 duced the same accidents, and have sown the same 
 seeds of diversity of opinion, in the spirits of its 
 clergy. Those opinions and observations, which now 
 give offence to the Cassandrists, would then also have 
 offended some persons or other, that were endued with 
 the like moderation. For we are not to conceive but 
 that those first ages of Christianity brought forth 
 spirits that were as much, and more refined and deli- 
 cate than ours. 
 
 But that we may insist upon this particular no 
 longer, it is sufficient for me, that I have thus clearly 
 made it appear, that in the ancient Church the whole 
 clergy of a city, or of a nation, much less of the whole 
 world, had not necessarily one and the same sense 
 and opinion on points of religion. So that it will fol- 
 low from hence, that we cannot know with certainty, 
 whether those opinions with which we meet in the 
 Fathers, were received or not by all and each of the 
 pastors of the Church at that time. All that you can 
 gather thence is but this at the most ; that they them- 
 selves, and some others perhaps of the most eminent 
 amongst them (if you please,) maintained such or 
 such opinions: in like manner, as that which Bellar- 
 mine and others have written on the Sacrament of the 
 Eucharist, will inform posterity, that these men, and 
 many others of our time, held these opinions in the 
 Church of Rome. But as those who shall conclude, 
 from the books of these authors, that there is at this 
 day no other opinion maintained among the clergy 
 themselves of the Church of Rome, on this particular, 
 would very much mislead themselves; so is it much 
 to be feared that we in like manner deceive ourselves, 
 when, from what we find in two or three of the 
 Fathers, we conclude that there w r as at that time no 
 other opinion held in the Christian Church on those 
 points whereof they treat, except that which they 
 have delivered. It is a very hazardous business to 
 
THE BELIEF OF THE ANCTENT CHURCH. 201 
 
 take eight or ton men, however holy and learned they 
 may have been, as sureties for all doctors of the 
 Church universal that lived in their age. This is too 
 little security for so great a sum. 
 
 Now, there are two things which may be objected 
 against that which we have before delivered. The 
 first is, that if there had been in antiquity any other 
 opinions on the points now in debate, which had been 
 different from those we now meet with in the books, 
 either of all the Fathers, or at least of some of them, 
 the} r would have mentioned and refuted them. But 
 we have already heretofore answered this objection, 
 by saying that the Fathers forbare to speak anything 
 of this diversity of opinion, partly out of prudence, 
 lest they might provoke the authors of the said opin- 
 ions, which were contrary to their own, and so increase 
 the difference, instead of appeasing it; and partly also 
 out of charity; mildly bearing with that which they 
 accounted not dangerous. 
 
 I only speak here of those differences in opinions 
 which they knew of: for there might be a great num- 
 ber of others of which they knew not. Who can 
 oblige you to believe that a monk, for example, that 
 had retired into a corner, and as it were forsaken the 
 world, professing only to instruct a small number of 
 men and women in the rules of devotion, must needs 
 Lave known what the opinions in points of religion 
 of all the prelates of his age were? Who will pass 
 bis word to us in his behalf, that he does not some- 
 times reprove that in some men, which yet the Church 
 allowed in an infinite number of others? Who will 
 wur: nt ufl that all Christendom in his time embraced 
 all his opinions, and had no other of their own? 
 
 J* isevine, answering an objection relative to the 
 works of Dionysius the Areopagite, which Jerome 
 ha- made no mention of, says, that it is no great 
 Wonder that a man who lay hid in a corner of the 
 ^vorld should not have seen this book, which the 
 18 
 
202 IMPOSSIBILITY OF KNOWING EXACTLY 
 
 Arians endeavoured to suppress.* May not a man 
 with as much reason say, that it is no great wonder if 
 Jerome or Epiphanius, or any other authors who were 
 all of them engaged with their particular charges and 
 employments, did not know of some opinions of the 
 prelates of their age; or that either their modesty, or 
 their charity, or the little eloquence and repute they 
 had, might have made them conceal the same? 
 
 The other objection is drawn from the fact that 
 these doctors of the ancient Church, who held some 
 opinions different from those which we read at this 
 day in the Fathers, did not publish them at all. But 
 I answer first of all, that every man is not able to do 
 so. In the next place, those who were able were not 
 always willing. Various other considerations may 
 perhaps also have hindered them from so doing; and 
 if they are wise and pious men, they are never moved 
 till the necessity arises. And hence it is, that often- 
 times those opinions which have less truth in them do 
 yet prevail; because prudence, which maintains the 
 true opinion, is mild and patient; whereas rashness, 
 which defends the false, is of a froward, eager, and 
 ambitious nature. 
 
 Now let us but imagine how many of the evidences 
 of this diversity of opinion may have been lost by the 
 various ways before represented, having been de- 
 voured by time, or suppressed by malicious men, for 
 fear they should let the world see the traces of the 
 truth which they would have concealed. But that I 
 may not be thought to adduce bare conjectures with- 
 out any proof, I shall produce some examples for the 
 confirming and elucidating my assertions. 
 
 Epiphanius maintains against Aerius,f whom he 
 ranks among the Heresiarchs, that a bishop, accord- 
 ing to the Apostle Paul, and the original institution 
 of the office itself, is more than a priest: and this he 
 
 * Possevine in Appar. f Epiph. in Panar. Hser. 75. 
 
THE BELIEF OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH. 203 
 
 proves in many words, answering all the objections 
 that are made to the contrary. If you only read the 
 passage, I am confident that when you have done, 
 you would not hesitate to swear that what he has 
 there delivered, was the general opinion of all the 
 doctors of the Church; it being very unlikely that so 
 great and so renowned a prelate w T ould so positively 
 have denied the opinion which he disputed against, 
 if any one of his own familiar friends had also main- 
 tained the same. Yet for all this, Jerome, who was 
 one of the principal lights of our western Church, and 
 who lived at the same time with Epiphanius, who was 
 his intimate friend, and a great admirer of his piety, 
 says expressly, "that among the ancients, bishops and 
 priests were the same; the one being a name of dig- 
 nity, and the other of age."* That it may not be 
 thought that this fell from him in discourse only, he 
 there undertakes to prove the same at large, alleging 
 several passages of Scripture on this subject ;f and he 
 also repeats the same thing, in two or three several 
 places of his work; whereby it evidently appears that 
 even positions quite contradictory to the opinions 
 which have been delivered and maintained by some 
 of the Fathers, and proposed in whatever terms, have 
 notwithstanding been sometimes either maintained, 
 or at least tolerated, by some others of no less au- 
 thority. 
 
 Jerome himself has severely criticised Ruffinus, and 
 condemned many of his opinions as most pernicious 
 and deadly; yet we do not anywhere find that he was 
 ever accounted a heretic by the rest of the Fathers. 
 But we shall have occasion hereafter to consider more 
 
 * Qoanquara apud reterea (idem : et presbyteri fuerint: 
 
 illirl Qomen <li.L r nir;it : ,- est, hoc ■ H *n. Ep. B3. <td 
 
 - perspicue doceat eosdem e 
 ]■ i.— Id. >/>. 86. ad Evagr. torn. ~. 
 
 f i i mi. 5. j». 512. Bt Com. iu Tit. torn. G. 
 
204 IMPOSSIBILITY OF KNOWING EXACTLY 
 
 at large similar examples; and shall only at present 
 observe, that if those books of Jerome, which Ave men- 
 tioned a little before, should have chanced to be lost, 
 every man would then assuredly have concluded from 
 Epiphanius, that no doctor of the ancient Church ever 
 held, that a bishop and a priest were one and the 
 same thing in their institution. 
 
 Who now, after all this, will assure us, that among 
 so many other opinions as have been rejected here and 
 there by the Fathers, and that too in as plain terms 
 as those of Epiphanius, none of them have ever been 
 defended by some of the learned of those times? Or, 
 is it not possible, that they may have held them, 
 though they did not write in defence of the same? 
 Or may they not perhaps have written also in defence 
 of them, and their books have been since lost ? How 
 small is the number of those in the Church, who had 
 the ability, or at least the will, to write ! And how 
 much smaller is the number of those whose writings 
 have been able to secure themselves against either 
 the injury of time or the malice of men ! 
 
 It is objected against the Protestants, as we have 
 observed before, that Jerome commends and main- 
 tains the adoration of relics: but yet he himself tes- 
 tifies, that there were some bishops, who defended 
 Vigilantius, who held the contrary opinion; whom he, 
 according to his ordinary rhetoric, calls " accomplices 
 in his wickedness."* 
 
 Who knows now what these bishops were, and 
 whether they deserved any such usage at Jerome's 
 hands or no? For the expressions which he uses 
 against them, and against their opinions, are so full 
 of gall and enmity, that they utterly take aw^ay all 
 credit from his testimony. But we have insisted 
 long enough upon this particular, and shall therefore 
 forbear to instance any further in others. 
 
 * Proh! nefas, episcopos sui sceleris dicitur habere consortes. — 
 Hier. in Vigil, 2, p. 159. 
 
THE BELIEF OF TUE ANCIENT CHURCH. 205 
 
 As it is therefore impossible to discover exactly, out 
 of the Fathers, what have been the sense and judg- 
 ment of the ancient Church, — whether taken univer- 
 sally or particularly, or whether the Church is taken 
 for the whole body of believers, or for the prelates 
 and inferior clergy only, — I shall here conclude as 
 heretofore, that the writings of the ancients are 
 altogether insufficient for proving the truth of any 
 of those points which are at this day controverted 
 amongst us. 
 
 18* 
 
BOOK THE SECOND. 
 
 THE FATHERS ARE NOT OF SUFFICIENT AUTHORITY FOR DECIDING 
 CONTROVERSIES IN RELIGION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Reason I.— That the Testimonies given by the Fathers, on the 
 doctrines of the Church, are not always true and certain. 
 
 We have before shown how difficult it is to discover 
 what the sense of the Fathers has been, as respects 
 the points at this day controverted in religion ; owing 
 to the small number of books of the Fathers of the 
 first centuries that have come down to us; and those 
 which we have, moreover, treating of things of a very 
 different nature from our present disputes; and of 
 which besides we cannot be very well assured, by 
 reason of the many forgeries and monstrous corrup- 
 tions, which they have for so long a time been subject 
 to; also by reason of the obscurity and ambiguity in 
 their expressions ; and their often representing to us 
 the opinions rather of others than of their authors : 
 besides those imperfections which are found in them; 
 as for instance their not informing us in what degree 
 of faith we are to hold each particular point of doc- 
 trine ; and their leaving us in doubt, whether what 
 they teach be the judgment of the Church, or their 
 own private opinion; and whether, if it be the judg- 
 
TESTIMONIES OF THE FATHERS UNCERTAIN. 207 
 
 ment of the Church, it be of the Church universal, or 
 pf some particular Church only. 
 
 Now the least of these objections is sufficient to 
 render their testimony invalid; and that this testi- 
 mony may be of force, it is necessary that it be 
 clearly and evidently free from all these defects; for- 
 asmuch as the question is here touching the Christian 
 faith, which ought to be grounded on nothing but 
 what is sure and certain. Whosoever therefore would 
 make use of any passage out of a Father, he is bound 
 first to make it appear that the author, out of whom 
 he cites the said passage, lived and wrote in the first 
 ages of Christianity; and moreover, that the said per- 
 son is well known to be the author of the book out of 
 which the passage is quoted: and also that the pas- 
 sage cited is no way corrupted nor altered: and like- 
 wise, that the sense which he gives of it, is the true 
 genuine sense of the passage; and that it was the 
 opinion of the author, when he had arrived at ripe- 
 ness of judgment, and which he changed not, nor re- 
 tracted afterwards. He must also make it appear in 
 what degree he held it; and whether he maintained it 
 as his own private opinion only, or as the opinion of 
 the Church: and lastly, whether it was the opinion of 
 the Church universal, or of some particular Church 
 only : which inquiry is of such vast and almost infinite 
 labour, that it makes me very much doubt whether or 
 not we can be ever able to attain a full and certain 
 assurance what the positive sense of the ancients has 
 been, on the whole body of controversies now debated 
 in this age. Hence therefore our principal question 
 seems to be decided; whether adducing the Fathers 
 be a sufficient and proper means for demonstrating 
 the truth of all those articles which arc at this day 
 maintained by the Church of Rome, and rejected by 
 the Protestants. For who does not now see that this 
 kind of proof has as much or more difficulty in it than 
 the question itself? and that such testimonies are as 
 
208 THE TESTIMONIES OF THE FATHERS 
 
 obscure as the controverted opinions themselves? 
 Notwithstanding, that we may not be thought too 
 hasty, and upon too light grounds to reject this way 
 of proceeding, we will pass by all the obscurity that 
 is found, as regards the opinions of the ancients; and 
 supposing it to be no difficult matter to discover what 
 was the opinion and sense of the Fathers on the afore- 
 said points, we will now, in this Second Book, con- 
 sider whether or not their authority be such, as that 
 we ought or may, without further examination, be- 
 lieve, on their authority, what we know to a certainty 
 was their belief, and hold it in the same degree as 
 they did. 
 
 There are two sorts of passages to be observed in 
 the writings of the Fathers: in the one you have them 
 speaking only as witnesses, and testifying what the 
 belief of the Church was in their time: in the other, 
 they propose to you, like doctors, their own private 
 opinions. Now there is a world of difference betwixt 
 these two things : for in a witness, there is required 
 only faithfulness and truth; but in a doctor, learning 
 and knowledge. The one persuades us by the opinion 
 w T e have of his veracity ; the other, by the strength of 
 his arguments. The Fathers are witnesses only when 
 they barely tell us that the Church in their times 
 held such or such opinions: and they are doctors, 
 when, mounting as it were the dictatorial chair, they 
 propose to us their own opinions; making them good 
 either by Scripture or by reason. 
 
 Now as it concerns the testimonies they give on the 
 faith held by the Church in their time, I know not 
 whether we ought to receive all they bring for certain 
 truths or not : but of this I am sure, that though they 
 should deserve to be received by us for such, yet 
 nevertheless would they answer little purpose as to 
 the business now in hand. The reason which induces 
 me to doubt of the former of these, is, because I ob- 
 serve that those very men, who are the greatest ad- 
 
NOT ALWAYS TRUE AND CERTAIN. 209 
 
 mirers of the Fathers, do yet confess, that although 
 they err very little, or not at all, in matter of right, 
 yet nevertheless they often err, and have their fail- 
 ings, in matter of fact: because right is a universal 
 thing, which is every way uniform, and all of one 
 kind; whereas matter of fact is a thing which is mixed, 
 and as it were enchased with divers particular circum- 
 stances, which may very easily escape the knowledge 
 of, or at least be not so rightly understood by, the 
 most clear and penetrating minds. Now the condi- 
 tion of the Church's belief in every particular age, is 
 matter of fact and not of right; a point of history, 
 and not an article of faith: so that it follows hence, 
 that possibly the Fathers may have erred in giving us 
 an account hereof; and that therefore their testimonies 
 in such cases ought not to be received by us as infal- 
 libly true; neither yet may we be thought hereby to 
 accuse the Fathers of falsehood. For how often do 
 the most honest persons innocently testify to such 
 things as they thought they had seen, which it after- 
 wards appears that they saw not at all! for goodness 
 renders not men infallible. The Fathers therefore 
 being but men, might both be deceived themselves in 
 such things, and might consequently also deceive 
 those who have confided in them, though innocently, 
 and without any design of doing so. But besides all 
 this, it is very evident that they have not been wholly 
 free from passion either: and there is no man but 
 knows that passion very often disguises things, and 
 makes them appear, even to the most honest men, 
 much otherwise than they are; insomuch that some- 
 times they are affectionately carried away with one 
 opinion, and do as much abhor another. This secret 
 passion might easily make them believe that the 
 Church held that opinion with which they themselves 
 were most captivated; and that it rejected that which 
 they themselves disliked, especially if there were but 
 the least appearance or shadow of reason to incline 
 
210 THE TESTIMONIES OF THE FATHERS 
 
 them Co this belief. For men are very easily per- 
 suaded to believe what they desire. 
 
 I conceive we may here adduce the testimony of 
 Jerome, where he affirms, "that the Churches of 
 Christ held that the souls of men were immediately 
 created by God, at the instant of their entrance into 
 the body/'* And yet, that doubt, which Augustine 
 was in, in this particular, and his evidently inclining 
 to the contrary opinion ; which was, that the soul 
 was propagated together with the body, and de- 
 scended from the father to the son ; manifestly proves 
 that the Church had not at that time embraced or 
 determined on the former of these opinions; it being 
 utterly improbable, that so modest a man as Augus- 
 tine would have rejected the general opinion of the 
 Church, and have taken up a particular fancy of his 
 own. But the feeling wherewith Jerome was at that 
 time carried away against Ruffinus, a great part of 
 the learned men of his time being also of the same 
 opinion, easily brought him to a belief that it was the 
 common judgment and opinion of the whole Christian 
 Church. f From the same root also sprang that error 
 of John, bishop of Thessalonica, (if at least it be an 
 error) who affirmed, "that the opinion of the Church 
 was, that angels are not wholly incorporeal and invisi- 
 ble ; but that they have bodies, though of a very rare 
 and thin substance; not much unlike those of the fire 
 or the air." Noepoo^ fiev auzooq -fj xadoXcxrj exxbjaca 
 ftvcooxec, ou ftyv dacoptazooQ Ttavzrj xcu dopazouc;, fenzo- 
 ocDfiazous de xae depwdecz, "'] nopcodetQ.\ For those who 
 
 * Omne deinceps humanum genus quibus animarum censetur 
 exordiis? utrum ex traduce, juxta bruta animalia, &c; anrationa- 
 biles creaturge desiderio corporum, &c; an certd, quod ecclesias- 
 ticum est, quotidie Deus fabricetur animas: cujus velle fecisse 
 est, et conditor esse non cessat? — liter, ep. 61, de Error. Jo. Hier. 
 
 f Miraris si contra te fratrum scandala concitentur; cum id 
 nescire te jures, quod Christi Ecclesise se scire fatentur ? — Id. Apol. 
 2, contra Ruff. 
 
 % Joan. Thessal. in Concil. 7, Act. 5. 
 
NOT ALWAYS TRUE AND CERTAIN. 211 
 
 published the general councils at Rome conceive this 
 to have been his own private opinion only.* If this 
 be so (and we need not at present examine the truth 
 of the assertion,) you then plainly see, that the affec- 
 tion this author bore to his own opinion carried him 
 so far away, as to make him father upon the whole 
 Church what was indeed but his own particular opi- 
 nion ; though otherwise he was a man who was highly 
 esteemed by the seventh council ;f which not only 
 cites him among the Fathers, but honours him also 
 with the title of a Father. 
 
 Epiphanius must also be excused in the same man- 
 ner, where he assures us that the Church held by 
 apostolical tradition the custom which it had of meet- 
 ing together thrice a week, for the celebration of the 
 holy Eucharist; but which Petavius makes appear not 
 to have been of apostolical institution. J 
 
 The mistakes of the venerable Bede, noted and 
 censured elsewhere by Petavius, § are of the same 
 nature also: "the belief of the Church, if I mistake 
 not, (says he,) is, that our Saviour Christ lived in the 
 flesh thirty-three years, or thereabouts, till the time 
 of the passion:" and he says moreover, "that the 
 Church of Rome testifies that this is its belief, by the 
 marks which they yearly set upon their tapers on 
 Good Friday ; whereon they always inscribe a number 
 of years, which is less by thirty-three than the com- 
 mon «ra of the Christians." He likewise says, in the 
 same place, "that it is not lawful for any Catholic to 
 doubt whether Jesus Christ suffered on the cross the 
 15th day of the moon, or not."|| 
 
 * Loquitur ex propria sententia. — Ibid, in N<trf/. 
 
 icil. 7, .\<-t. "). I Petav. in Epiphan. pag. 86 1. 
 
 J iviiv. in Epiphan. p. 118. I 1:;. 1 16. 
 
 el enim, oisi fallor, ecclesiee fides, Dominum in carne panlo 
 
 pin- minus qnam xxxiii annis, osque ;t'l bum tempore passionie 
 
 V .- Sancta -i quidem Romans <-t apoatolioa ecclesia 
 
 tenere, el ipgig teetatnr Lndionlis, qua Buia in e« 
 
 annuutim iiiscribore bolct, ubi tempos Dummies gassionifi in me- 
 
212 THE TESTIMONIES OF THE FATHERS 
 
 Petavius has proved at large, that both these opin- 
 ions which Bede delivers as the Church's belief, are 
 nothing less than what he would have them.* 
 
 The curious reader may observe many similar traits 
 in the writings of the Fathers : but those already 
 noticed, in my judgment, sufficiently justify the doubt 
 which I have offered ; that we ought not to receive, 
 as certain truths, the testimony which the Fathers 
 give, as regards the doctrine of the Church in their 
 time. Nevertheless, that we may not seem to make 
 a breach upon the honour and reputation of the 
 Fathers, I say, that though we should grant, that all 
 their depositions and testimonies in this particular 
 were certainly and undoubtedly true; yet notwith- 
 standing they would be of little use to us in our pre- 
 sent purpose. For, in the first place, there are but 
 very few passages wherein they testify plainly, and 
 in direct terms, what the doctrine of the Church in 
 their time was, as regards the points now controverted 
 amongst us. This is the business of an historian 
 rather than of a doctor of the Church; whose office 
 is to teach, to prove, and to exhort the people com- 
 mitted to his charge, and to correct their vices and 
 errors ; telling them what they ought to do or believe, 
 rather than troubling them with discourses of what is 
 done or believed by others. Yet when they do give 
 their testimony as to what were the doctrine and dis- 
 cipline of the Church in their time, it ought to extend 
 only to what was evidently such, and which moreover 
 was apparent to themselves also. 
 
 Now, as we have formerly proved, they could not 
 possibly know the sense and opinions of every par- 
 
 moriam populis reyocans, numerum annorum triginta semper et 
 tribus annis minorem quam ab ejus incarnatione Dionysius ponat, 
 annotat. (Id. ibid.) Nam quod Dominus xv. Luna, feria vi. cru- 
 cem ascenderit, &c. nulli licet dubitare Catkolico. — Beda, lib. de 
 Temp, rations, c. 45. 
 
 * Petav. in. Epiphan. p. 113. 143. 
 
NOT ALWAYS TRUE AND CERTAIN. 213 
 
 ticular Christian that lived in their time; nor yet of 
 all the pastors and ministers who were set over them: 
 but of some particular Christians only. As therefore 
 it is confessed, even by those very men who have the 
 Church in greatest esteem, that the belief of particular 
 Churches is not infallible, we may very easily per- 
 ceive that such testimonies of the Fathers as these can 
 be of little avail ; seeing that they represent to us snch 
 opinions as are not always certainly and undoubtedly 
 true, and which consequently are so far from con- 
 firming and proving ours, that they rather stand in 
 need of being examined and proved themselves. But 
 suppose that the Church of Rome did hold that the 
 beliefs of particular Churches were infallible (which 
 however it does not,) yet this would not at all mili- 
 tate against the Protestants, as they are of a quite 
 contrary opinion. 
 
 Now it is taken for granted on all hands that proofs 
 ought to be taken from such things as are confessed 
 and acknowledged by your adversary, whom you en- 
 deavour to convince; otherwise you will never be able 
 to change him, or induce him to quit his former opin- 
 ion. Seeing therefore that the testimonies of the 
 Fathers, as to the state of the faith and ecclesiastical 
 discipline of their times, are of this nature, it remains 
 for us now to consider their other discourses, wherein 
 they have delivered themselves, not as witnesses de- 
 posing what they had seen, but as doctors instructing 
 us in what they believed: and certainly, how T ever 
 holy and able they were, it cannot be denied but that 
 they were still men ; and consequently were subject 
 to error, especially in points of fciith, so much tran- 
 scending human apprehension. The Spirit of God 
 alone was able to direct their understandings and 
 their pens in the truth, and to withhold them from 
 falling into any error: in like manner as it directed 
 the holy prophets and apostles, while they wrote the 
 books of the Old and New Testament. Now we can- 
 19 
 
214 THE TESTIMONIES OF THE ?ATHERS 
 
 not be any way assured that the Spirit of God was 
 present always with them, to enlighten their under- 
 standings, and to make them see the truth of all those 
 things of which they wrote. They pretend not to 
 this themselves, nor yet does any one that I know 
 attribute to them this assistance, unless it be perhaps 
 the author of the " Gloss upon the Decrees/' who is 
 of opinion that we ought to stand to all that the 
 Fathers have written, even to the least tittle:* but 
 he is very justly called to account for this, by Al- 
 phonsus a Castro, f and Melchior Canus,J two Spanish 
 doctors. 
 
 Since, therefore, we are not bound to believe any 
 thing but what is true; it is most evident that we 
 neither may nor ought to believe the opinions of the 
 Fathers, till such times as they appear to us to have 
 been certainly true. Now we cannot be certainly 
 assured of this by their single authority; seeing that 
 they were but men, who were not always inspired by 
 the Holy Spirit from above: and therefore it is neces- 
 sary that we make use of some other guides in this 
 our inquiry; namely, either of the Holy Scriptures, 
 or of reason, or tradition, or the doctrine of the pre- 
 sent Church, or of some other means, such as they 
 themselves have made use of. It hence follows that 
 their bare assertions are no sufficient ground for us to 
 build any of our opinions on ; as they only serve to 
 incline us beforehand to the belief of the same; the 
 great opinion which we have of them causing us to 
 conclude that they would never have embraced such 
 an opinion, except it had been true. This manner of 
 argumentation, however, is at the best but probable, 
 so long as the persons we have here to do with are 
 only men and no more ; and in this particular case, 
 
 * Hodie jubentur omnia teneri, usque ad ultimum iota. — Gloss, 
 in Deer. D. 9. c. 3. 
 
 f Alphons. a Castr. I. 1. advers. Hser. c. 7. 
 J Melch. Cauus. 1. 7, loc. Theol. c. 3. Num. 4. 
 
NOT ALWAYS TRUE AND CERTAIN. 215 
 
 where the question is on points of faith, it is by no 
 means to be allowed ; since faith is to be grounded, 
 not upon probabilities, but upon necessary truths. 
 The Fathers are like other great masters in this 
 point, and their opinions are more or less valid, in 
 proportion to the reason and authority on which they 
 are grounded: they have, however, this advantage, 
 that their very names beget in us a readiness and in- 
 clination to receive whatever emanates from them; 
 while we think it very improbable that such excellent 
 men as they were, should ever believe anything that 
 was false. 
 
 Thus, in human sciences, the saying of an Aristotle 
 is of far different value from that of any other philo- 
 sopher of less account; because all men are before- 
 hand possessed with an opinion, that this great philo- 
 sopher would not maintain anything that was not 
 consonant to reason. But this is prejudice only; for, 
 if, upon better examination, it should be found to be 
 otherwise, his bare authority would then no longer 
 prevail with us; what he himself had once wisely 
 said, would then here take place — "that it is a sacred 
 thing always to prefer the truth before friendship;" 
 'Apupotv ouzor^ ipekoePj oglov Tzpori/iav zr^v aXrjdecav.* 
 
 Let the Fathers, therefore, if you please, be the 
 Aristotles in Christian philosophy, and let us have a 
 reverent esteem of them and their writings as they 
 deserve; and not be too rash in concluding that per- 
 sons so eminent for learning and sanctity should main- 
 tain any erroneous or vain opinions, especially in a 
 matter of so great importance: yet notwithstanding 
 are w r e bound to remember, that they were but men, 
 and that their memory, understanding, or judgment, 
 might sometimes fail them, and therefore, consequent- 
 ly, that we are to examine their writings by those 
 principles from whence they drew their conclusions, 
 
 * Arist. in Ethic. 1. 1, c. G. 
 
216 THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST 
 
 and not to rest satisfied with their bare assertions, 
 until we have discovered them to be true. 
 
 If I were to speak of any other persons than of the 
 Fathers, I should not add anything more to what has 
 been now said; sufficient having been, in my judg- 
 ment, already adduced, to prove that they are not of 
 themselves of sufficient authority to oblige us neces- 
 sarily to follow their opinions. But seeing that the 
 question is relative to those great names, who are so 
 highly honoured in the Church; in order that no man 
 may accuse us of endeavouring to rob them of any 
 of the respect which is due to them, I conceive it 
 necessary to examine this matter a little more rigidly, 
 and to make it appear, on due consideration, that they 
 are of no more authority, either in themselves or in 
 regard to us, than we have already attributed to them. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Reason II. — The Fathers testify themselves that they are not to 
 be believed absolutely, and upon their own bare assertion, in 
 •what they declare in matters of religion. 
 
 There are none so fit to inform us what the authority 
 of the writings of the ancients is, as the ancients 
 themselves, who in all reason must necessarily know 
 this better than we. Let us therefore now hear what 
 they testify in this particular ; and if we do indeed 
 hold them in such high esteem, as we profess, let us 
 allow of their judgment in this particular, attributing 
 neither more nor less to the ancients, than they them- 
 selves require at our hands. 
 
 Augustine, who was the principal light of the Latin 
 Church, having entered into a contest with Jerome, 
 on the interpretation before-mentioned, of the second 
 
TIIEMSELVES IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 217 
 
 clinptcr of the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians ; and 
 finding himself hardly pressed by the authority of six 
 or seven Greek writers, which are urged against him 
 by the other; to extricate himself, states in what ac- 
 count he held that kind of writers: — "I confess/' says 
 he, u to thy charity, that I have learned to pay to those 
 books of Scripture alone w r hich are now called cano- 
 nical, such reverence and honour, as to believe stead- 
 fastly that none of their authors ever committed any 
 error in writing them. And if by chance I there 
 meet with anything, which seems to contradict the 
 truth, I immediately think that either my copy is im- 
 perfect, and not so correct as it should be ; or else, 
 that the interpreter did not so well understand the 
 words of the original: or lastly, that I myself have 
 not so rightly understood him. But as for all other 
 writers, however eminent they are, either for sanctity 
 or learning, I read them in such manner as not in- 
 stantly to conclude that whatever I there find is true, 
 because they have said it ; but rather, because they 
 convince me, either out of the said canonical books of 
 Scripture, or else by some probable reason, that w T hat 
 they say is true. Neither do I think, brother, that 
 thou thyself art of any other opinion: that is to say, 
 I do not believe that thou expectest that we should 
 read thy books, as we do those of the Prophets or 
 Apostles; of the truth of whose writings, as being ex- 
 empt from all error, we may not in anywise doubt."* 
 
 * Ego enim fateor caritati turc solis eis Scripturarum libris, qui 
 jam oanonici appellantur, didici hunc timorem, honoremque de- 
 force, at nullum eoram auctorem scribendo aliquid errasse firmis- 
 siinc eredam. Ac bj aliquid in eia offendero IHteris, quod rideatur 
 contfarium reritati, nihil aliud quam meudoeum esse oodicem, ?el 
 pretem bod assequutum esse quod dictum est, vel me minima 
 into 1 gam. Alios autem Its Lego, ut quantalibet 
 
 Mi' 1 praspolleant, non ideo verum putem, quia 
 ipsi • • quia mihi, vel per illoe authores oanonioos, 
 
 yel probabili ratione, quod a ?ero qou abhorreat, persuaders po- 
 ke, mi frater, seutire aliquid aliter existimo: proj 
 Knquam, non te arbitror Bic 1< ^ r i librofl tuos veils tanquam Prophe- 
 
 19 
 
218 THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST 
 
 Having afterwards opposed some other similar au- 
 thorities against those alleged by Jerome, he adds, 
 " that he had done so, notwithstanding that, to say 
 the truth, he accounted the canonical Scriptures only 
 to be the books to which (as he said before) he owed 
 that ingenuous duty, as to be fully persuaded that the 
 authors of them never erred, or deceived the reader 
 in anything/'* 
 
 This holy man accounted this advice to be of such 
 great importance, that he thought fit to repeat it again 
 in another place ; and I must entreat my reader to 
 give me leave to extract here the whole passage at 
 length. 
 
 "As for this kind of books, ,, (says he, speaking of 
 those which we write, not with the authority of com- 
 manding, but only from the design of exercising our- 
 selves to benefit others,) "we are so to read them, as 
 not bound necessarily to believe them, but having the 
 liberty left us of judging of what we read. Yet not- 
 withstanding, that we may not quite exclude these 
 books, and deprive posterity of the most profitable 
 labour of exercising their language and style, in the 
 handling and treating of difficult questions, we make 
 a distinction between these books of later writers, and 
 the excellency of the canonical authority of the Old 
 and New Testament; which having been confirmed 
 in the Apostles' time, has since, by the bishops who 
 succeeded them, and the churches which have been 
 propagated throughout the world, been placed as it 
 were upon a high throne, to which every faithful and 
 godly understanding must be subject. And if we 
 chance here to meet with anything that troubles us, 
 
 tarum vel Apostolorum, de quorum scriptis, quod omni errore ca- 
 reant, dubitare nefarium est. — August, ep. ad Hier. quce est 19. t. 2. 
 fol. 14. ed. Paris. 1579, et inter Hier. Op. 97. t. 2. p. 551. 
 
 * Quanquam, sicut paulo ante dixi, tantummodo Scripturis ca- 
 nonicis hanc ingenuam debeam servitutem, qua eas solas ita sequar, 
 ut conscriptores earum nihil in eis omnino errasse, nihil fallaciter 
 posuisse non dubitem. — Id. ibid. 
 
THEMSELVES IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 210 
 
 and seems absurd, we must not say that the author of 
 the book was ignorant of the truth, but rather that 
 either our copy is false, or the interpreter is mistaken 
 in the sense of the place, or else that we do not under- 
 stand him aright. 
 
 "As for the writings of those other authors who 
 have come after them, the number whereof is almost 
 infinite, though coming very far short of this most 
 sacred excellency of the canonical Scriptures, a man 
 may sometimes find in them the very same truth, 
 though not of equal authority. Therefore if by 
 chance we here meet with such things as seem con- 
 trary to the truth, only, perhaps, because we do not 
 understand them, we have our liberty, either in read- 
 ing or hearing the same, to approve of what we like, 
 and to reject that which we conceive not to be right. 
 So that unless all such passages be made good, either 
 by some certain reason, or else by the canonical au- 
 thority of the Scriptures ; and it be made to appear, 
 that what is asserted either really is, or else at least 
 might have been, he that shall reject or not assent to 
 the same, ought not in any wise to be reprehended."* 
 
 * Quod ironus literarum, non cum credendi necessitate, sed cum 
 
 jndicandi iibertate legendum est. Cui tamen ne intercludcretur 
 
 locus, et adimeretur posteris ad difficiles qurestiones tractandas 
 
 atque versandas, linguae ac stvli saluberrimus labor, distincta est 
 
 a posteriornm libris excellentia canonical auctoritatis Veteris et 
 
 Novi Testament!; qua Apostolorum confirmata temporibus, per 
 
 episcoporum, et propagationes ecclesiarum, tanquam 
 
 in sede qnadam sublimiter constitute est, cui serviat omnia fidelis 
 
 v\ pin- intellectns. [bi Bi quid vHut absurdum moverit, non licet 
 
 dicere, auctor hujua libri non tennit reritatem : sed, ant codex men- 
 
 dosna est, ant Lnterprea erravit, ant tu non intelligis. In opnscnlis 
 
 anteni posteriornm, quae libria Lnnumerabilibus continentur, Bed 
 
 nullo modoilli [ma canonicarnm Scriptnrarnm excellentiaa 
 
 oantur, etiam in quibnscnmqne eomm Lnvenitur eadem Veritas, 
 
 : Lmpar anctoritas. Itaque in eia, bi qna Porte prop- 
 
 : dissonare pntantnr a vero, quia qod nt dicta stint, intelligun- 
 
 tur. tamen iibernm ibi babel lector anditorve judicium qno vel 
 
 approbet quod placuerit, ?el Lmprobet qnod offenderit : el Ldeo 
 
 euncl , nisi vel certa ratione, vol ex ilia canonica ancto- 
 
220 THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST 
 
 Thus far have we Augustine testifying on our side, 
 (as well here, as in many other places, which would 
 be too long to be inserted here,)* that those opinions 
 which we find delivered by the Fathers in their wri- 
 tings, are grounded not upon their bare authority but 
 upon their reasons; and that they bind not our belief 
 otherwise than so far as they are consonant to Scrip- 
 ture or reason ; and that they ought to be examined 
 by both, as proceeding from persons that are not in- 
 fallible. 
 
 Hence it appears, that the course which is at this 
 day pursued is not sufficient for the demonstration of 
 the truth. For suppose we are in doubt what is the 
 sense and meaning of a certain passage in Scripture. 
 You will immediately have the judgment of a Father 
 brought upon the said passage, quite contrary to the 
 rule which Augustine gives us, who would have us 
 examine the Fathers by the Scriptures, and not the 
 Scriptures by the Fathers. Certainly, according to 
 the judgment of this Father, the Protestant, though a 
 passage is clear and express as any of the canons of 
 the council of Trent, should be brought against him, 
 out of any of the Fathers, ought not to be blamed, 
 if he should answer, that he cannot by any means 
 assent to it unless the truth of it be first proved, 
 either by some certain reason, or else by the autho- 
 rity of the canonical Scriptures; and that then, and 
 not till then, would he be ready to assent to it. 
 
 Thus, according to this account, we are to allege, 
 not the names of, but the reasons given in, books; to 
 
 ritate defendantur, ut demonstretur sive omnino ita esse, sive fieri 
 potuisse, quod vel disputatur ibi, vel narratum est, si cui displi- 
 cuerit, aut credere noluerit, non reprehenditur. — August. Ep. ad 
 Hier. I. 11 contr. Faust, c. 5. 
 
 * August, ep. ad Hier. t. 2. Epist. 48, ep. Ill, t. 3, 1. 1, 3, de 
 Trinit. c. 2, 1. 3, prsefat. 1. 5, c. 1. t. 7, 1. 2, contr. Crescon. Gram. 
 c. 31, et c. 32, 1. 2, de Bapt. contr. Don. c. 3, 1. 3, de Peccat. mer. 
 et rem. c. 7, c. 1, de Nat. et grat. c. 61, 1. 4, contr. du. ep. Pelag. 
 c. 8, 1. 1, contr. Julian, c. 2, 1. de bon. persever. c. 21. 
 
THEMSELVES IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 221 
 
 take notice, not of the quality of their authors, but of 
 the solidity of their proofs; to consider what it is they 
 give us, and not the face or hand of him that gives 
 it us; and, in a word, to reduce the dispute from per- 
 sons to things. 
 
 Jerome also seems to commend to us this method of 
 proceeding, where, in the preface to his second Com- 
 mentary upon Hosea, he has these words: "Then 
 (that is, after the authors of books are once departed 
 this life) we judge of their worth and parts only, not 
 considering at all the dignity of their name: and the 
 reader has regard only to what he reads, and not to 
 the author of the work. So that whether he were a 
 bishop or a layman, a general and a lord, or a com- 
 mon soldier and a servant; whether he lie in purple 
 and silk, or in the vilest and coarsest rags, he shall be 
 judged, not according to his degree of honour, but ac- 
 cording to the merit and worth of his works."* Now 
 he here speaks either of matter of right or of fact; 
 and his meaning is, that either we ought to take this 
 course in our judgments, or else it is a plain affirma- 
 tion, that it is the practice of the world so to do. If 
 his words are to be taken in the first sense, he then 
 clearly takes away all authority from the bare names 
 of writers, and so would have us to consider the 
 quality only, and weight of their writings; that is to 
 say, their reasons, and the force of the arguments 
 they use. If we understand him in the second sense, 
 he seems not to speak the truth; it being evident, that 
 the ordinary course of the world is, to be more led by 
 the titles and names of books, than by the matter 
 therein contained. Suppose, however, that this was 
 
 * Tunc sine nominum dignitate, sola judicantur ingenia; ncc 
 oonsiderat, qui Lecturus est, eujus, Bed quale sil quod Leoturus est, 
 -it laicus, imperator et dominus, miles et 
 Berrus, aul in purpura et Berico, aut vilissimo panne jaceat, non 
 li >norum diversitate, Bed operum merito judicabitur. — Hier, Com. 
 2, in Oseam } Prcefat. 
 
222 THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST 
 
 Jerome's meaning; we may notwithstanding very 
 safely believe, that he approves of the said course; 
 forasmuch as having this occasion of speaking of it, 
 he does not at all reprehend it. If therefore, reader, 
 thou hast any wish to rely on his judgment, lay aside 
 the names of Augustine and of Jerome, of Chrysostom 
 and of Cyril; and forget for this once the rochet of 
 the first, and the chair of the second, together with 
 the patriarchal robe of the two last: and observe what 
 they say, and not what they were ; the ground and 
 reason of their opinions, and not the dignity of their 
 persons. 
 
 But that which excites my wonder is, that some of 
 those who have been the most conversant in antiquity 
 should trouble themselves with filling their books with 
 declamatory expressions in praise of the authors they 
 produce,* not forbearing to recount the nobleness of 
 their extraction, the choiceness of their education, the 
 splendour of their talents, the eminency of their see, 
 and the greatness of their state. This manner of 
 writing may perhaps suit well enough with the rules 
 of rhetoric : but certain I am that it ill agrees with 
 Jerome's advice, which we gave a little before. 
 
 Let us now observe, out of some other more clear 
 and express passages of his, what the judgment of 
 this great Aristarchus, and censor of antiquity, was on 
 this point. "I know (says he, writing to Theophilus, 
 patriarch of Alexandria) that I place the Apostles in 
 a distinct rank from all other writers : for as for them, 
 they always speak truth: but as for those other, they 
 err sometimes, like men, as they were."f 
 
 What could he have said more expressly, in con- 
 firmation of our assertion before laid down? " There 
 are others, (says he,) both Greeks and Latins, who 
 
 * Card. Perron, of the Eucharist. Aut. 20. 
 
 f Scio me aliter habere Apostolos; aliter reliquos tractatores: 
 ill os semper vera dicere; istos in quibusdam, ut homines, errare. — ■ 
 Ilier. ep. 62. ad Theoph. Alex. 
 
THEMSELVES IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 223 
 
 Lave erred also in points of faith; whose names I 
 need not here notice, lest it might seem to defend 
 Origen by the errors of others rather than by his own 
 worth."* 
 
 How then can we confide in them, unless we ex- 
 amine their opinions by their reasons? "I shall (says 
 the same author) read Origen as I read others; be- 
 cause I find he has erred in like manner as they have 
 done."f 
 
 In another place, speaking in general of ecclesi- 
 astical writers; that is, of those whom we now call 
 Fathers, and of the faults and errors that are found 
 in their books, he says: "It may be that they have 
 erred out of mere ignorance, or else that they wrote 
 in some other sense than we understand them; or that 
 their writings have been gradually corrupted, through 
 the ignorance of the transcribers; or else before the 
 appearing of that southern devil Arius, in Alexandria, 
 they let some things fall from them innocently, and 
 not so warily as they might have done ; and such as 
 can hardly escape the cavils of wrangling spirits. "J 
 Which passage of his, is a very excellent and remark- 
 able one; and contains in it a brief yet clear and full 
 justification of the greatest part of what we have hith- 
 erto advanced in this discourse. 
 
 Do but think therefore with how much circumspec- 
 tion we are to read and to weigh these authors; and 
 how careful we ought to be in examining in their 
 
 * Erraverunt in fi<le alii, tarn Graeci quam Latini, quorum non 
 neces.-e est proferre nomina, ne videamur enm, non sui merito Bed 
 aliorum errore, defendere. — Hier. ep. 66. ad Pamm. et Oceanum. 
 
 f Sic cum legam, ut Cffiteros; quia sic erravit, ut ceteri. — Id. 
 ibid. 
 
 j Fieri cnim potest, ut vel simpliciter erraverint, vel alio sensu 
 Bcripserint, vel a librariia imperitia eorum paulatim scripts corrapta 
 Bint: vr-1 certe anteqi iam in Alexandria quasi d&monium meridi- 
 annm Arras nasceretor, innocenter qucedam, et minds cantd lo- 
 qnuti -int. <-t quae oon possinl perrersoruni hominnm calnmniam 
 declinare. — Hier. L 2. Apol. contra Huff. 
 
224 THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST 
 
 books, whether there be not either some fault com- 
 mitted by the transcriber, or some obscurity in the 
 expression, or some negligence in the conception, or 
 lastly, some error in the proposition. 
 
 In another place, having set down the opinions of 
 several authors, respecting a certain question that had 
 been proposed to him, that thus the reader might make 
 choice of the best, Jerome gives this reason for so 
 doing; "because (says he) we ought not, according to 
 the example of Pythagoras's scholars, to have an eye 
 to the prejudged opinion of the proposer, but rather 
 the reason of the thing proposed:"* which words of 
 his sufficiently confirm the sense we have formerly 
 given of that passage of his in the Preface to his 
 second commentary upon Hosea. He presently after- 
 wards adds; "my purpose is to read the ancients; to 
 prove all things, and to hold fast that which is good; 
 and not to depart from the faith of the Catholic 
 Church :"f according to the rule which he has com- 
 mended to us, in his seventy-sixth epistle, where he 
 advises us "to read Origen, Tertullian, Novatus, Ar- 
 nobius, Apollinarius, and others of the ecclesiastical 
 writers: but with this caution, that we should make 
 choice of that which is good, but take heed of embra- 
 cing that which is not so; according to the apostle, 
 who bids us prove all things, but hold fast only that 
 which is good. "J 
 
 This is the course Jerome constantly takes, censur- 
 ing with the greatest liberty the opinions and exposi- 
 
 *Nec juxta Pythagorae discipulos, prejudicata doctoris opinio, 
 sed doctringe ratio ponderanda est. — Hier. Ep. 15. 2. 
 
 •j- Meum propositum est, antiquos legere, probare singula, reti- 
 nere quae bona sunt, et a fide Ecclesiee Catholicse non recedere. — 
 Id. Hid. 
 
 % Ego Origenem propter eruditionem sic interdum legendum ar- 
 bitror, quomodo Tertullianum, Novatum, Arnobium, Apollinarium, 
 et nonnullos ecclesiasticos scriptores, Graecos pariter, et Latinos, 
 ut bona eorum eligamus, vitemusque contraria; juxta apostolum 
 dicentem, Omnia probate; quod bonum est tenete. — Id. Ep. 76. ad 
 Tranquil 
 
THEMSELVES IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 225 
 
 tions of all those who went before him. He gives you 
 freely his judgment of every one of them; affirming 
 " that Cyprian scarcely touched the Scripture at all : 
 that Victorinus was no£ able to express his own con- 
 ceptions ; that Lactantius is not so happy in his en- 
 deavours to prove our religion, as he is in overthrow- 
 ing that of others; that Arnobius is very uneven and 
 confused, and too luxuriant; that Hilary is too swell- 
 ing, and encumbered with too long periods."* 
 
 I shall not here lay before you what he says of 
 Origen, Theodorus, Apollinaris, and of the Chiliasts; 
 whose professed enemy he has declared himself, and 
 whom he reproves very sharply upon all occasions, 
 whenever they come in his way: and yet he con- 
 fesses them all to have been men of very great parts; 
 giving even Origen himself, who is the most dan- 
 gerous writer of them all, this testimony, u that 
 none but the ignorant can deny but that, next to the 
 Apostles, he was one of the greatest masters of the 
 
 Church."f 
 
 But to speak only of those whose names have 
 never been cried down in the Church, do but mark 
 how he deals with Rheticius of Autun, an ecclesiasti- 
 cal author: u There are (says he) an infinite number 
 of things in his Commentaries, which in my judgment 
 appear very mean and poor:"J and a little after; 
 <k He seems to have had so ill an opinion of others, as 
 to have a conceit that no man was able to judge of 
 
 * Cyprianus de scripturis divinis nequaquam disseruit. Inclyto 
 Victorinus martyrio coronatus, quod intelligit eloqui non potest. 
 Lactantius atinam tarn nostra confirmare potuisset, quam facile 
 aliens destruxit. Arnobius inequalis et nimius est, et absque 
 opens bui partitione confusus. Sanctus Hilarius Gallicano cothur- 
 no attollitur, et lpngis interdum periodis involvitur et & lectioue 
 Liciorum fratrum procul est. — Hier. ep. 13. ad Paulin. 
 fQuen >los ecclesiarum magistrum nemo 
 
 mperitus aegat. — Hier. Prcefat. mlib. deNbm. Hebr. 
 { Tnnumerabilia sunt, quae id illius mini Commentariis sordere 
 rant. — hi. ep. 183, ad Mired. 
 
 20 
 
226 THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST 
 
 his faults. "* He takes the same liberty also, in re- 
 jecting their opinions and expositions; and sometimes 
 not without passing upon them some smart ridicule. 
 He maintains the truth of the Hebrew text of the 
 Old Testament, and finds an infinite number of faults 
 in the translation of the Seventy, against almost the 
 general consent, not only of the more ancient writers, 
 but also of those too who lived in his own time, who all 
 esteemed it as a divine production. He scoffs at the 
 conceit of those men, who believed that the seventy 
 interpreters, being placed separately in seventy dis- 
 tinct cells, were inspired from above, in the transla- 
 tion of the Bible. f "Let them keep, (says he, speak- 
 ing of his own backbiters by way of scorn,) with all 
 my heart, in the seventy cells of the Alexandrian 
 Pharos, for fear they should lose the sails of their 
 ships, and be forced to bewail the loss of their cord- 
 age."* 
 
 As for their expositions, he refuses them openly 
 whenever they do not please him. Thus does he find 
 fault with the exposition which is given by the greatest 
 part of the Fathers, of the word Israel; which they 
 will have to signify, a man seeing Grod: "notwith- 
 standing that those who interpret it thus, are persons 
 of very great authority and eloquence, and whose very 
 shadow is sufficient to bear us down: yet (says he) 
 we cannot but choose to follow the authority of the 
 Scriptures; and of the angel, and of God, who gave 
 this name of Israel, rather than the power of any se- 
 cular eloquence, however great it may be."§ And in 
 
 * Sed tarn male videtur existimasse de coeteris, ut nemo possit 
 de ejus erroribus judicare. — liter, ep. 133, ad Marcel. 
 
 f Nescio quis primus auctor septuaginta cellulas Alexandrine 
 mendacio suo extruxerit. — liter. Prcefat. in Pentateuc. ad Desid. 
 
 J Habitentque in septuaginta cellulis Alexandrini Phari, ne vela 
 perdant de navibus, et funium detrimenta suspirent. — Id. Comm. 
 10. in Ezech. 
 
 \ Quanrvis igitur grandis auctoritatis sint, et eloquently, et ipso- 
 rum umbra nos oppriraat, qui, Israel, virum, sive mentem viden- 
 
THEMSELVHS IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 227 
 
 his 14(Jth epistle, written to Pope Damasus, he says: 
 4 *tli;u there are some who, not considering the text, 
 conceive superstitiously rather than truly, that these 
 words in the beginning of the 44th Psalm, * Eructavit 
 cur meum verbum bonum, are spoken in the person of 
 the Father."* Yet the greatest part of those who 
 lived in the time of Arius, and a little after him, un- 
 derstood these words in the same sense. 
 
 It was likewise their opinion, almost without ex- 
 ception, that Adam was buried upon Mount Calvary, 
 and in the very same place where our Saviour Christ 
 was crucified. Yet Jerome rejects this opinion :f and 
 which is more, he makes himself merry with it, with- 
 out any scruple at all. So likewise there were some 
 among the aforenamed ancient Fathers, who out of a 
 pious affection which they bore to Peter, maintained 
 that he denied not God, but man, J and that the sense 
 of the words of his denial, is, "I know him not to bo 
 a man, for I know that he is God." "The intelligent 
 reader (says the same Jerome) will easily perceive 
 how idle and frivolous a thing this is, to accuse our 
 Saviour as guilty of falsehood, by excusing his Apos- 
 tle. For if Peter did not deny him, our Saviour must 
 then necessarily have spoken falsely, when he said 
 unto him, 'verily, I say unto thee,'" &c.§ He takes 
 the same liberty also in reprehending Ambrose, who 
 understands by G-oy, spoken of in the Prophet Eze- 
 kiel, the nation of the Groths.\\ Neither do those other 
 
 t'-m Deam, trans tulerunt; noa magia Scriptures, et angeli ct Dei, 
 qui ipsum [srael vocavit, auctoritate ducimur, quam cujuslibct 
 eloqu talaris. — Hier. Tradit. Hebr. 
 
 * Licet quidam snperstitiose magis, quam vero, considerantea 
 Lm psalmi, ex Patria persona arbitrentur neec intelligL — LI. 
 tp. 1 I nas. 
 
 :i loc. Hebr. Buseb. et Com. L in Matth. 
 
 1 Hilar. In MattL Can. 31. 
 
 { Hoc quam frivolum ait, prudens lector intelligit. Sir defen- 
 duni Apostolum, at Deum mendacii reum faciant, ^Vc. — Hier. Com. 
 
 1. | 7 . _ . 
 
 I i. C 'in. ad. in Eiech. in Prsefat L -, da ad. ad Grat. 
 
228 THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST 
 
 Fathers, escape his lash, who indulging too much in 
 allegories, take Bosra in Isaiah for the flesh; whereas 
 it signifies a fortress.* s 
 
 I might here produce many similar passages, but 
 these few may suffice: for who sees not by this time 
 that these holy men considered not the Fathers, who 
 went before them, as judges or arbitrators on the 
 opinions of the Church; and that they did not re- 
 ceive their testimonies and depositions as oracles, but 
 reserved the right which Augustine allows to every 
 man, of examining them by reason, and the Scripture? 
 Neither are we to take any notice at all of Jerome, 
 when he seems to except out of this number the wri- 
 tings of Athanasius, and of Hilary; writing to Lseta, 
 and telling her, that her daughter Paula might walk 
 securely, and with firm footing, by the epistles of the 
 one, and the books of the other; and therefore he 
 counsels her "to take delight in these men's writings; 
 inasmuch as in their books the piety of faith wavers 
 not: and as for all other authors, she may read them; 
 but rather to pass her judgment upon them, than to 
 follow them."*)" For first of all, though perhaps there 
 should be some work of a Father that should have no 
 error in it, (as questionless there are many such,) yet 
 this would not render the authority of the same infal- 
 lible. How many such books are there, even of the 
 moderns, wherein neither the one party nor the other 
 has been able to discover the least error in matter of 
 faith? And yet I suppose no man will at once con- 
 clude from hence, that we ought to admit of these 
 authors as judges of our faith. A man may there 
 find perhaps the same truth, (as Augustine says a little 
 before:) but it will not be of equal authority with that 
 of the canonical books. Besides, as Cardinal Baro- 
 
 * Hier. in Esai. Comm. x. 
 
 j- Illorum tractatibus, illorum delectetur ingeniis, in quorum 
 libris pietas fidei non vacillat. Ceeteros sic legat, ut magis judicet, 
 qu&m sequatur. — Hier. Ejp. 7. ad Lcet. 
 
TIIEMSELVES IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 229 
 
 tiros* has observed, tins last passage of Jerome ought 
 to be understood only in the point touching the Holy 
 Trinity; concerning which there were at that time 
 great disputes between the Catholics and the Arians; 
 for otherwise, if his words be taken in a general sense, 
 they will be found to be false, as to Hilary, who had 
 his failings in some certain 'things, as we shall see 
 hereafter. In a word, although Jerome were to be 
 understood as speaking in a general sense, (as his 
 words indeed seem to bear,) yet might the same thing 
 possibly happen to him here, which he has observed 
 has oftentimes befallen others; namely, to be mistaken 
 in his judgment. For we are not to imagine, that he 
 would have us entertain a greater opinion of him, than 
 he himself has of other men. Augustine told him, as 
 we have before shown, that he did not believe he ex- 
 pected that men should judge otherwise of him; and I 
 suppose we may very safely adhere to Augustine's 
 judgment, and believe with him that Jerome had never 
 any intention that we should receive all his positions 
 as infallible truths: but rather that he would have us 
 to read and examine his writings with the same free- 
 dom that we do those of other men. 
 
 If we have no wish to take Augustine's word in 
 these particulars, let us yet receive Jerome's; w T ho in 
 his second commentary upon the prophet Habakkuk 
 says: "and thus have I briefly delivered to you my 
 opinion; but if any one produce that which is more 
 exact and true, take his exposition rather than mine."f 
 So likewise upon the prophet Zephaniah he says, 
 "we have now done our utmost endeavour, in giving 
 an allegorical exposition of the text; but if any other 
 can bring that which is more probable and agreeable 
 to reason than that which we have delivered, let the 
 reader be guided by his authority rather than by 
 
 * Baron. AnnaL an. 369, Sect. 24. 
 
 r Si quia antem ln> sagaciora el veriora repererit, illi magis ex- 
 planation prabete consensum. — Hier* Com* 2. in Abac, 
 20* 
 
230 THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST 
 
 ours."* And in another place he speaks to the same 
 purpose in these words: "this we have written accord- 
 ing to the utmost of our poor ability, and have given a 
 short sketch of the divers opinions, both of our own 
 men and of the Jews; yet if any man can give me a 
 better and truer account of these things, I shall be 
 very ready to embrace them."f 
 
 Is this now, I would fain ask, to bind up our 
 tongues and our* belief, so that we should have no 
 further liberty of refusing what he has once laid 
 down before us, or of searching into the reasons and 
 grounds of his opinions? No, let us rather make use 
 of that liberty which they all allow us ; let us hearken 
 to them, only (as they themselves advise us) when 
 what they deliver is grounded upon reason, and upon 
 the Scriptures. If they had not made use of this cau- 
 tion, in the reading of those authors who went before 
 them, the Christian faith had now been altogether 
 replete with the dreams of an Origen, or an Apolli- 
 naris, or some other similar authors. But neither 
 the fame of their learning, nor yet the resplendency 
 of their holy life, which no man can deny to have 
 shone forth in these primitive Fathers, was able so 
 to dazzle the eyes of those that came after them, 
 that they could not distinguish between what was sound 
 and true in their writings, and what was trivial and 
 false. Let not therefore the excellency of those who 
 came after them hinder us, either from passing by, 
 or even rejecting their opinions, when we find them 
 ill founded. 
 
 They confess themselves that this may very possi- 
 
 * Si quis autem magis verisimilia, et habentia rationem, quara 
 a nobis sunt disserta, repererit, illius magis lector auctoritate duca- 
 tur. — Id. in Sophon. 
 
 f Hsec ut quivimus, ut vires ingenioli nostri ferre potuerunt, lo- 
 qiruti sumus, et Hebrseorum et nostrorum varias opiniones breviter 
 perstringentes. Si quis melius, imo ver'Cis clixerit, et nos libenter 
 melioribus aequiescemus. —Ilier. Com. in Zack. 
 
THEMSELVES IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 231 
 
 bly be: we should therefore be left utterly inexcusa- 
 ble, if after this their so charitable admonition, we 
 should still believe all they say, without examining 
 anything. "I take it for a favour, (says Ambrose) 
 when any one that reads my writings, gives me an 
 account of what doubts he there meets with. First 
 of all, because I maybe deceived in those very things 
 which I know. And besides, many things escape us; 
 and some things sound otherwise to some than per- 
 haps they do to me."* 
 
 I shall here further desire the reader to take notice, 
 how careful the ancients were in advising those who 
 lived in their own time to take a strict examination 
 of their words: as for example, where Origen advises, 
 M that his auditors should prove whatever he deliv- 
 ered, and that they should be attentive, and receive 
 the grace of the Spirit from whom proceeds the 
 discerning of spirits, that thus, as good bankers, 
 they might diligently observe w T hen their pastor de- 
 ceives them ; and when he preaches to them that 
 which is pious and true."f Cyril likewise, in his 
 fourth catechesis, has these words: "Believe me not 
 (says he) in whatsoever I shall simply deliver, unless 
 thou find the things which I shall speak demonstrated 
 out of the Holy Scriptures. For the conservation 
 and establishment of our faith, is not grounded upon 
 the eloquence of language, but rather upon the proofs 
 that are brought out of the Divine Scriptures." 
 )in)i £ fun z(o zavra aot kejvvze arzAoc iuar&Mnj^ y iav 
 ztjp dftodeegw raw xaxocfjfeXXofxeywv dzo rwv tizuov /irj 
 
 aim beneficio annumero, riqtria mea Legena Bcripta dieat 
 
 milii, quo videatur moverL Primtun, quia et in Lia quae scio, falli 
 
 ] — am. Malta autem praetereunt, multa quibusdam alitei Bonant 
 
 — . I • ' . I '. 7. Ep t 17. 
 
 f Quaaso audientes, at diligenter attendant, ei accipianl gratiam 
 
 stum eat discretio spirituum ; at probati trape- 
 
 diligenter obeervent, quando ralaua aim magiater, quando 
 
 quae oni pi yeritatia. ( >'"j- Horn, 2, in 
 
232 THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST 
 
 XaftrjQ ypa<ptov rj acorqpm yap abzrj zrj^ mazuDQ fjpcov 
 ovx if supetrdoyza^ d?da ig dTiodecgstov zwv deicov iuzc 
 ypacpwv* 
 
 If therefore they would not have those who heard 
 them speak viva voce, to believe them in anything, 
 unless they had demonstrated the truth of it out of 
 the Scriptures, how much less would they have us 
 now receive, without this demonstration, those opin- 
 ions which we meet with in their books, which are 
 not only mute, but corrupted also, and altered so 
 much, as we have formerly shov/n? 
 
 Certainly, when I see these holy men on one side 
 declaring that they are men subject to errors; and 
 that therefore we ought to consider and examine 
 what they deliver, and not take it all as oracular: 
 and then on the other side, bring before my eyes 
 these worthy maxims of the ages following: viz. 
 "that their doctrine is the law of the Church uni- 
 versal;" and "that we are bound to follow- it, not 
 only according to the sense, but according to the 
 bare words also: and that we are bound to hold all 
 that they have written, even to the least tittle;"— c J2v 
 (nazepo)v) za doypaza vop.0% ztj xadoXcxrj xaSeazrjxeu 
 ExxXrj&ta. Turn; Ilaaa yap dvayrrj prj povov xaz* 
 iwoeav zok; zcuv kytoiv nazepcou kneodac doypaocv, aXXa 
 xac zoic, abzatQ ixzivaic, xs^pyadac cpcovacq;^ — this 
 representation, I say, makes me call to mind the 
 history of Paul and Barnabas, to whom the Lycaon- 
 ians would needs render divine honour, notwithstand- 
 ing all the resistance these holy men were able to 
 make; who could not forbear to rend their garments, 
 through indignation, at seeing that service paid to 
 themselves which was due to the Divine Majesty 
 alone; running in amongst them, and crying out 
 aloud — " Sirs, why do ye these things ? we also are 
 
 * Cyril. Hieros. Cateches. 4. 
 
 f Serg. Patr. Constant. Mon. in ep. ad Cyr. Concil. VI. 
 
TIIEMSELVES IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 233 
 
 men of like passions wifch you." For seeing that 
 there is none but God, whose word is certainly and 
 necessarily true; and seeing that, on the other side, 
 the word, whereon we ground and build our faith, 
 ought to be such; who sees not, that it is the same as 
 investing man with the glory which is due to God 
 alone, and placing him in a manner in his seat, if we 
 make his word the rule and foundation of our faith, 
 and the judge of our differences concerning it ? 
 
 I am therefore firmly of opinion, that if these holy 
 men could now behold from their blessed mansions, 
 where they now live in bliss on high with their Lord 
 and Saviour, what things are acted here below, they 
 would be very much offended at this false honour, 
 which men confer upon them much against their 
 wills; and would take it as a very great injury 
 offered them ; seeing that they cannot receive this 
 honour, but to the prejudice and diminution of the 
 glory of their Redeemer, whom they love a thou- 
 sands times more than themselves. Or if, from out 
 of their sepulchres, where their mortal remains are 
 now laid up, they could but make us hear their 
 sacred voice, they would (I am very confident) most 
 sharply reprove us for this abuse, and w T ould cry out, 
 in the words of Paul, " Sirs, why do ye these things ? 
 we also were men of like passions with you." 
 
 Yet what need is there, either of ransacking their 
 sepulchres, or of calling down their spirits from 
 heaven; seeing that their voice resoundeth loud 
 enough, and is heard so plainly in those very books 
 of theirs, which we imprudently place in that seat, 
 which is only due to the word of God? We have 
 heard what the judgment was of Augustine and of 
 Jerome, (the two most eminent persons in the western 
 Church,) on this particular: let us not then be afraid, 
 having such examples to follow, to speak freely our 
 opinions* JJut now, before we ^o any further, I 
 conceive it will be necessary, that we answer an 
 
234 THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST 
 
 objection that may be brought against us, which is, 
 that Athanasius, Cyril, and Augustine himself also, 
 frequently cite the Fathers. 
 
 Besides what some have observed, that the Fathers 
 seldom entered into these lists, but when they were 
 provoked by their adversaries: I add further, that 
 when we maintain that the authority of the Fathers 
 is not a sufficient medium to prove an article of faith 
 by, we do not thereby forbid either the reading or the 
 citing of them. The Fathers often quote the writings 
 of the learned Heathens, the oracles of the Sibyls, 
 and passages out of the Apocryphal books. Did they 
 therefore think that these books were of sufficient 
 authority to ground an article of faith upon ? God 
 forbid we should entertain so ill an opinion of them. 
 Their faith was grounded upon the word of God: 
 yet to evidence the truth more fully, they searched 
 into human records, and by this inquiry made it 
 appear that the light of the truth, revealed unto them, 
 had in some degree shot its beams even into the 
 schools of men, dark and obscure as they were. If 
 they had produced no other but human authority, 
 they would never have been able to have brought 
 over any one person to the faith. But after they had 
 derived from divine revelation the matter of our 
 faith, it was very wisely done of them, in the next 
 place, to prove, not the truth, but the clearness of it, 
 by these little sparks which shot forth their light in 
 the spirits of men. For the like reason did Augus- 
 tine, Athanasius, Cyril, and many others of them, 
 make use of allegations out of the Fathers. For after 
 they had grounded, upon the authority of divine re- 
 velation, the necessity and efficacy of grace, the con- 
 substantiality of the Son with the Father, and the 
 union of the two natures in Christ; they then began 
 to produce several passages out of those learned men 
 who had lived before them; to evince to the world 
 that this truth was so clear in the word of God, that 
 
THEMSELVES IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 235 
 
 nil who preceded them had both seen and acknow- 
 ledged the same: a plan both pleasing and profitable. 
 For what can more delight a faithful heart, than to 
 find that the most eminent persons in the Church, 
 celebrated for their holiness and learning, had long 
 since held the same opinions as regards our Saviour 
 Jesus Christ and his grace, that we hold at this day? 
 
 Yet it does not hence follow, that if these holy men 
 had met with these articles of our faith only in the 
 writings of their predecessors, without finding any 
 foundation for them in the canonical Scriptures, they 
 would notwithstanding firmly have believed and em- 
 braced them, thus contenting themselves with the 
 bare authority of their predecessors. Augustine pro- 
 fesses plainly, that in such a case they might better 
 have rejected them, and not be blamed for so doing, 
 than have received them, unless they would incur the 
 imputation of being credulous. For to believe any 
 thing without reason is mere credulity : and he further 
 affirms, that where men speak without either Scripture 
 or reason, their bare authority is not sufficient to 
 oblige us to believe what they propose to us. Hence 
 it thus appears, that human testimonies are adduced, 
 not to prove the truth of the faith, but only to show 
 the evidence of it after it is once well grounded. 
 
 Now the question is not concerning the evidence of 
 the articles believed and taught by the Church of 
 Rome; it lies upon them to prove even the very 
 md and foundation of them. Show me. therefore, 
 1 a Protestant here say,) either out of some text 
 of Scripture, or else by some evident reason, that 
 there is any such place as Purgatory, and that the 
 Eucharist is not bread; and that the Pope is the mon- 
 arch and head of the Church universal; and then I 
 shall be very glad to try, if for our greater comfort 
 we may be able to find, in the authors of the third or 
 fourth century, these truths embraced by the Fathers 
 of these times. 
 
236 THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST 
 
 But to begin with these, is to invert the natural 
 order of things. We ought first to be assured that 
 the thing is, before we make inquiry whether it has 
 been believed or not. For to what purpose is it to 
 find that the ancients believed it, unless we find withal 
 in their writings some reason of this their belief? 
 And again, on the other side, what harm is it to us to 
 be ignorant whether antiquity believed it or not, so 
 long as we know that the thing is? And whereas 
 there are some who, to establish the supreme autho- 
 rity of the Fathers, allege the counsel which Sisin- 
 nius, a Novatian, and Agellius his bishop, gave of old 
 to Nectarius, archbishop of Constantinople,* and by 
 him to Theodosius the emperor, which was, that they 
 should demand of the Arians, whether or not they 
 would stand to what the Fathers who died before the 
 breaking forth of their heresy, had delivered on the 
 point disputed between them, this is hardly worth 
 our consideration; for, this was a trick only,devised 
 by a subtle head, and, which is worse, by a schismatic, 
 and consequently to be suspected as a captious pro- 
 posal, purposely made to entrap the adverse party; 
 rather than any free and ingenuous way of proceed- 
 
 If this manner of proceeding had been right and 
 proper, how came it to pass, that so many Catholic 
 Bishops never thought of it? How came it to pass, 
 that they were so ignorant of the weapons wherewith 
 the enemies of the Church were to be encountered? 
 How happened it that it should be proposed only by 
 a young man, and he a schismatic too? And if it 
 were approved of, as right and good counsel, why 
 did Gregory Nazianzen, Basil, and so many others of 
 the Fathers who wrote in that age against the Arians, 
 deal with them almost entirely by arguments from 
 the Scriptures? Certainly those holy men, indepen- 
 
 * Sozomen. 1. 7. c. 12. Hist. Eccles. 
 
THEMSELVES IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 237 
 
 dent of their Christian candour, which obliged them 
 to this mode of proceeding, took a very wise course 
 in so doing. For if this controversy had been to be 
 decided by the authority of human writers, I know 
 not how any man should have been able to make good 
 what this conceited trifler so confidently affirms in the 
 place just cited; namely, " that none of the ancients 
 ever said that the co eternal Son of God had any be- 
 ginning of his generation;" Eb yap //dec o>c ol 710X0x01 
 eupcudiOh no naxpt rov ulov eupovrsz, obx iroX/irjaau 
 elnec* ix zcoz d/ojf^C tyv ye^ear^ aurov iyscv ;* consid- 
 ering those many harsh expressions that we yet at 
 this day meet with on this particular, in the books of 
 the first Fathers: which is the reason also why the 
 Arians alleged their testimonies, as we see they do in 
 the books of Athanasius, Hilary, and others of the 
 ancients who wrote against them. But why need we 
 insist so long upon a story which is rejected by car- 
 dinal Baronius, as being an idle tale devised by So- 
 zomen, who was a Novatian, in support of his own 
 schism ?f 
 
 The counsel of one Vincentius of Lerins, which he 
 gives us in a certain little discourse of his, very highly 
 praised by Gennadius^ is accounted by many men 
 much more worthy of our consideration. For — hav- 
 ing first told us, that he speaks not of any authors, 
 "save only of such who, having piously, wisely, and 
 constantly lived, taught, and persevered in the Ca- 
 tholic faith and communion, obtained the favour at 
 length, either to die faithfully in Christ, or else to 
 suffer martyrdom happily for Christ's sake;" — he fur- 
 ther adds, "that we are to receive, as certain and 
 definitive, whatsoever all the aforesaid authors or at 
 least the greatest part of them, have clearly, fre- 
 quently, and constantly affirmed, with an unanimous 
 
 - >zomon. ) t Baron. Annul. Ann. 8 
 
 onad. in CataL inter. Op. Hie 
 
 21 
 
238 THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST 
 
 consent, receiving, retaining, and delivering it over 
 to others, making up all of them, as it were, but one 
 common and unanimous council of doctors."* 
 
 But this passage is so far from establishing the su- 
 preme authority, which some would attribute to the 
 Fathers in matters of faith, that, on the contrary, I 
 meet with something in it that makes me doubt more 
 of their authority than I did before. For I find, by 
 this man's discourse, that whatsoever his reason was, 
 whether good or bad, he clearly appears to have had 
 a very great desire to bring all differences in religion 
 before the judgment seat of the Fathers; and for this 
 purpose, he labours to prove, with the same eager- 
 ness and feeling, that their judgment is infallible in 
 these cases. But in the meantime I find him so per- 
 plexed and troubled in bringing out that which he 
 would have, that it appears evident he saw well 
 enough that what he desired was not agreeable to 
 truth. For he has so qualified his proposition, and 
 bound it in with so many limitations, that it is very 
 probable, if all these conditions which he here re- 
 quires were anywhere to be found, we might then 
 safely, perhaps, rely upon the writing of the Fathers. 
 But then, on the other side, it is so very difficult a 
 matter to meet with such a conjunction of so many 
 several qualifications, that we can never be sure of 
 finding them all together. 
 
 * Sed eorum duntaxat Patrum sententias conferendae sunt, qui in 
 fide et communione Catholica sancte, sapienter, constanter viventes, 
 docentes, et permanentes, vel mori in Christo fideliter, vel occidi 
 pro Christo feliciter meruerunt. Quibus tamen hac lege creden- 
 dum est, ut quicquid vel omnes, vel plures, uno eodemque sensu 
 manifeste, frequenter, perseveranter, velut quodam eonsentiente 
 sibi magistrorum concilio, accipiendo, tenendo, tradendo firmave- 
 rint, id pro indubitato, certo, ratoque habeatur: quicquid verd 
 quamvis ille sanctus et doctus, quamvis episcopus, quanivis con- 
 fessor, et martyr, prseter omnes, aut etiam contra omnes senserit, 
 id inter proprias, et occultas et privatas opiniunculas a communis, 
 publicae, et generalis sententise authoritate secretum sit. — Vincent, 
 Lirin. Comm. c. d$.—T. 4. Bibl. PP. 
 
THEMSELVES IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 239 
 
 First of all, for the persons of those raen whose 
 testimonies we allege, he requires that they should be 
 such as not only lived, but also taught, and which is 
 more, persevered too, not only in the faith but in the 
 communion also of the Catholic Church. And then, 
 for fear of being surprised, he qualifies his words with 
 a restriction of three adverbs, and tells us, that they 
 must have lived and taught piously, wisely, and con- 
 stantly. But yet this is not all; for besides this, they 
 must have either died in Christ or for Christ. So 
 that if they lived but did not teach; or if they both 
 lived and taught, but did not persevere; or if they 
 lived, taught, and also persevered in the faith, but not 
 in the communion; or else in the communion, but not 
 in the faith of the Catholic Church; or if they yet 
 lived and taught in it piously but not wisely; or, on 
 the contrary, wisely but not piously; and if, in the 
 last place, after all this, having performed ail the par- 
 ticulars before set down, they did not at last die either 
 in Christ or for Christ; they ought not, according to 
 this man's rule, to be admitted as witnesses in this 
 case. Certainly he might have stopped here, and not 
 have gone on still with his modifications as he does, 
 limiting the number and the words of these witnesses. 
 For what Christian ever made scruple of receiving 
 the opinions of such a one as had piously, wisely, and 
 constantly lived, and taught in the faith and commu- 
 nion of the Catholic Church? For you might hence 
 very well rest assured, that whatsoever he had de- 
 livered was true; and consequently fit to be believed: 
 for how could he have taught wisely and constantly 
 if he had taught any false doctrine? All that he 
 here promises us therefore is no more but this; that 
 we shall be sure not to be deceived, provided that we 
 believe no other doctrines but those which are holy 
 and true. This promise of his is like that which little 
 children are wont to make, when they tell you, that 
 you shall never die, if you but cat always. Nor do I 
 
240 THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST 
 
 believe that there is any man in the world so perverse 
 and wilful, as not readily to submit his faith to such a 
 man, as he assuredly knew to be so qualified, as Vin- 
 centius here describes. 
 
 But seeing that it is necessary that we should first 
 know the qualifications of a witness before we hear 
 him ; it follows, in my judgment, that before we do so 
 much as hear any of the Fathers, we ought to be first 
 assured, that be was so qualified in every particular, 
 according to Vincentius's rule before laid down. 
 Now I would wish to be informed how it is possible 
 for us to know this. Who will assure us, that Atha- 
 nasius, Cyril, or what other Father you please, 
 "lived, taught, persevered, and died piously, wisely, 
 and constantly in the faith and communion of the 
 Catholic Church ?" This can never be done without 
 a most exact inquiry made, both into their life and 
 doctrines, which is an impossible thing, considering 
 the many ages that have passed from their times 
 down to ours. But yet supposing that this were a 
 possible thing, it would nevertheless be of no use at 
 all as to this author's purpose. For he will have us 
 hear the Fathers, to the end that we may be by them 
 instructed in the truth. Now that we may be rightly 
 informed, whether or not they were so qualified as is 
 before required, we ought necessarily to know first of 
 all what the truth is. For how is it otherwise possi- 
 ble that we should be able to judge whether they 
 have "taught piously and wisely ?" And if you were 
 beforehand instructed in the truth, what need have 
 you then to hear them, and to desire to be instructed 
 in it by them? You may indeed make use of them 
 for the illustration and confirmation of that which 
 you knew before; but you cannot learn any truth from 
 them which you knew not before. If you understand 
 the maxim before alleged in another sense, and take 
 this wisdom and piety, this faith and communion of 
 the Catholic Church therein mentioned for a shadow 
 
THEMSELVES IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 241 
 
 only, and the superficies and outward appearance of 
 those things, and for a common and empty opinion, 
 grounded merely upon the public voice, and not upon 
 an exact knowledge of the thing itself, it will then 
 prove to be manifestly false; those persons who have 
 but the outward appearance only, and not the reality 
 of these qualities, being no way fit to be admitted as 
 witnesses, much less to be received as the supreme 
 judges of the articles of the Christian faith. Thus 
 this proposition is either impossible, if you under- 
 stand it as the words seem to sound, or else it is false, 
 if you take it in a looser sense. The like exceptions 
 may be made against those other conditions, w T hich he 
 there farther requires, on the number and the words 
 of these witnesses. For he allows not the force of a 
 law to anything, but what has been delivered either 
 by all, or else by the greatest part of them. If by 
 all, he here means all the Fathers that have ever 
 been, or but the greatest part of them only, he then 
 puts us upon an impossibility. For taking the whole 
 number of Fathers that have ever been, the greatest 
 and perhaps too the best part of them have not writ- 
 ten anything at all : and among those that have writ- 
 ten, how many has time devoured? and how many 
 have the false dealings of men either w r holly sup- 
 pressed or else corrupted? It is therefore evidently 
 impossible to know, what the opinions have been, 
 either of all, or of the greatest part of the Fathers 
 in this sense. And if he restrains this all, and this 
 greatest part, to those who appear at this day, either 
 in their own books, or in histories and the writings of 
 other men, it will concern us then to inquire, whether 
 or not, by all, he means all promiscuously, without 
 distinguishing them by the several ages in which they 
 lived: or else, whether he would have us distinguish 
 them into several classes, putting together in the same 
 rank all those that lived in one and the same age; 
 and receiving for truth whatsoever we find to have 
 21* 
 
242 THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST 
 
 been held and confirmed by the greatest part of them. 
 Now both these ways agree in one thing, that they 
 render the judgment of the Christian faith wholly 
 casual, and make it depend upon divers and sundry 
 accidents, which have been the cause of the writings 
 of the Fathers being either preserved or lost. Sup- 
 pose that Vincentius had established, by -this excellent 
 course of his, some point or other which had been 
 controverted: he must have thanked the fire, the 
 water, the moths, or the worms for having spared 
 those authors which he made use of, and for having 
 consumed all those others that wrote in favour of the 
 adverse party : for otherwise he would have been a 
 heretic. And if we should decide our differences in 
 matters of faith after this manner, we should do in a 
 measure as he did, who gave judgment upon the suits 
 of law that came before him, by the chances he threw 
 with three dice. 
 
 Do but conceive what an endless labour it would 
 be, for a man either to go and heap together, and run 
 over promiscuously all the authors that ever have 
 written; or else to distinguish them into the several 
 ages in which they wrote, and to examine them by 
 companies. And do but imagine again, what satis- 
 faction a man should be able to obtain from hence; 
 and where we should be, in case we should find, (as 
 it is possible it may sometimes so happen, as we shall 
 show hereafter,) that the sense and judgment of this 
 greatest part should prove to be either contrary to, or 
 perhaps besides, the sense and meaning either of the 
 Scriptures or of the Church. And again, how sense- 
 less a thing were it, to make the suffrages of equal 
 authority, of persons that are so unequal, in respect 
 of their merit, learning, holy life, and integrity: and 
 that a Rheticius, whom Jerome censured so sharply 
 a little before, should be reckoned equal to Augus- 
 tine: or a Philastrius be as good a man as Jerome? 
 There is perhaps among the Fathers one, whose judg- 
 
TIIEMSELVES IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 243 
 
 ment is of more weight than a hundred others; and 
 yet forsooth will this man have us to make our far- 
 things and our pence pass for as much as our shil- 
 lings and pounds. 
 
 Lastly, what reason in the world is there, that al- 
 though perhaps the persons themselves were equal in 
 other respects, we should yet make their words also 
 of equal force, which are often of very different and 
 unequal authority; some of them having been uttered, 
 as it were, before the bar, the books having been pro- 
 duced, both parties heard, and the w r hole cause tho- 
 roughly examined; and the other perhaps having 
 been thrown out by their authors at hap- hazard as it 
 were; either in their chamber, or else in discourse 
 walking abroad; or else perhaps by the by, while 
 they were treating of some other matter? But our 
 author here, to prevent in some degree this latter in- 
 convenience, requires, that the word of this greatest 
 part, which he will allow to be authoritative, must 
 have been uttered by them "clearly, often, and con- 
 stantly ;" and then, and not till then, does he allow 
 them for certain and undoubted truth. And now you 
 see he is got into another hold. For I wish to be in- 
 formed, how it is possible for us to know whether 
 these Fathers whom we thus have called out of their 
 graves to give us their judgment on the controversies 
 in religion, affirmed those things which we find in 
 their writings, clearly, often, and constantly, or not? 
 If in this his pretended council of doctors, you will 
 not allow the right of suffrage to those, of whom it 
 may be doubted that they either expressed themselves 
 obscurely, or gave in their testimonies but seldom, or 
 but weakly maintained their own opinion; I pray you 
 tell me, whom shall we have left at last to be the 
 judges in the decision of our present controversies? 
 
 A- for the Apostles' creed, and the determinations 
 of the first four general councils, (which are assented 
 to, and approved by all the Protestant party,) I con- 
 
244 THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST 
 
 fess we may, by this way of trial, allow them as com- 
 petent judges in these matters. But as for all the 
 rest, it is evident, from what has been stated in the 
 First Part of this treatise, that we can never admit of 
 them, if they are thus to be qualified, and to have all 
 the afore-mentioned conditions. We may therefore 
 very safely conclude, that the expedient here pro- 
 posed by this author is either impossible, or not safe 
 to be reduced to practice ; and I shall therefore rather 
 approve of Augustine's judgment, as regards the au- 
 thority of the Fathers. 
 
 I should not have insisted so long upon the exami- 
 nation of this proposal, had I not seen it to have been 
 in such high esteem with many men, and even with 
 some of the learned.* For after Augustine and Je- 
 rome have delivered their judgments, it matters not 
 much what this man shall have believed to the con- 
 trary. Yet before we finish this point, let us a little 
 examine this author, both by Augustine's and" by his 
 own rule before laid down. 
 
 Augustine considers us not bound to believe the 
 saying of any author, except he can prove to us the 
 truth of it, either by the canonical Scriptures, or by 
 some probable reason. What text of Scripture, or 
 what reason has this man alleged to prove the truth 
 of what he has proposed? So that whatever his 
 opinion be, he must not take it amiss, if, according to 
 the advice and practice of Augustine, we take leave 
 to dissent from him : especially considering we have 
 so many reasons to reject that which he, without any 
 reason given, would have us to receive. 
 
 Thus you see that, according to the judgment of 
 Augustine, the saying of this Vincentius of Lerins, 
 although you should class him among the most emi- 
 nent of the Fathers, does not at all oblige us to give 
 our assent to it. And yet you will find that this tes- 
 
 * Perron, Cassander, &c. 
 
THEMSELVES IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 245 
 
 timony would be yet of much less force and weight, if 
 you but examine the man by his own rule. For ac- 
 cording to him, we are not to hearken to the Fathers, 
 except they both lived and taught piously and wisely, 
 even to the hour of their death. Who is there now 
 that will pass his word for him, that he himself was 
 one of this number? Who shall assure us, that he 
 was not either a heretic himself, or at least a favourer 
 of heretics? For is it not evident enough that he 
 favoured the Semi-Pelagians, who at that time in 
 Gaul, railed against the memory of Augustine, and 
 who were condemned by the whole Church? Who 
 cannot easily see this, by his manner of discourse in 
 his Commonitorium tending this way;* where he 
 seems to intimate to us underhand, that Prosper and 
 Hilary had unjustly slandered them ; and that Pope 
 Celestine, who also wrote against them, had been mis- 
 informed ?f May not he also be strongly suspected 
 of having been the author of those "Objections" 
 made against Augustine, and refuted by Prosper, 
 which are called Objectiones Vinceyitianse, (Vincent's 
 Objections.)^ The great commendations also which 
 are given him by Gennadius, very much confirm this 
 suspicion ;§ it being clear that this author was of the 
 same sect, as appears plainly by the great account he 
 makes of Ruffinus, a priest of Aquileia, who was the 
 Grand Patriarch of the Pelagians, saying, "that he 
 was not the least part of the doctors of the Church;" 
 tacitly reproaching Jerome his adversary, and calling 
 him, "a malicious slanderer :" and also by the judg- 
 ment which he gives of Augustine, who was flagel- 
 lum Pelagianorum. (the scourge of the Pelagians ;)|| 
 pacing this insolent censure upon him, "that in 
 
 * Vincent. Lirin. in Comm. 2. c. 43. 
 
 estinua apud Aug. 1. 2, Contr. Pelag. el Celest. i 
 ; ' ject Vincent. 
 
 L in Ruff, inter I 4». Micron. 
 
246 THE FATHERS TESTIFY AGAINST 
 
 speaking so much, it had happened to him, what the 
 Holy Ghost has said by Solomon, That in the multi- 
 tude of words there wanteth not sin."* 
 
 Thus I cannot sufficiently wonder at the boldness 
 of Cardinal du Perron, who when he has any occa- 
 sion for quoting this author, usually calls him " St. 
 Vincent of Lerins;" thus by a very bad example 
 canonizing a person who w T as strongly suspected to 
 have been a heretic. f Since therefore he was such, 
 why should anyone think it strange that he should so 
 much laud the judgment and opinions of the Fathers, 
 as every one knows that the Pelagians and Semi-Pe- 
 lagians had the better of it, by citing their authori- 
 ties, and laboured by this means to run down Au- 
 gustine's name; and all this forsooth, only because 
 the greatest part of the Fathers, who lived before 
 Pelagius's time, had delivered themselves with less 
 caution than they might have done, on those points 
 which were by him afterwards brought into question; 
 and many times too in such strange expressions, as 
 "will scarcely be reconciled to any orthodox sense? 
 
 Notwithstanding, should we allow this Vincentius 
 to have been a person who was thus qualified, and to 
 have had all those conditions, which he requires in a 
 man, to render him capable of being attended to in 
 this particular, what weight, I would ask, ought this 
 proposal of his to carry with it, which yet is not 
 found anywhere in the mouth of any of those Fathers 
 who preceded him; which is also strongly contra- 
 dicted both by Augustine and Jerome, as we have 
 seen in those passages before adduced from them: 
 and which besides, is full of obscurities and inexpli- 
 cable ambiguities? 
 
 Thus, " however learned and holy a man he might 
 be; whether he were a bishop, confessor, or martyr, 
 (which he was not,) this proposal of his (according to 
 
 * Proverbs x. 19. 
 
 f Du Perron, en la Kepliq. au Roy de la Grande Bret, passim. 
 
THEMSELVES IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 247 
 
 his own maxims) ought to be excluded from the au- 
 thority of public determinations, and to be accounted 
 only as his own particular private opinion."* Let us 
 therefore in this business rather follow the judgment 
 of Augustine, which is grounded upon evident rea- 
 son — a person whose authority (whenever it shall be 
 questioned) will be found to be incomparably greater 
 than that of Vincentius of Lerins: and let us not 
 henceforth give credit to any sayings or opinions of 
 the Fathers, save only those, the truth of which they 
 shall have made evident to us, either by the canonical 
 books of Scripture, or by some probable reason. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Reason Til. — That the Fathers have written in such a manner, as 
 to make it clear that when they wrote they had no intention of 
 being our authorities in matters of religion; as evinced by ex- 
 amples of their mistakes and oversights. 
 
 Whoever takes the pains diligently to consider the 
 manner of writing by the Fathers, will not require 
 any other testimony for the proof of the above truth. 
 For the very form of their writings witnesses clear 
 enough, that in the greatest part of them they had no 
 intention of delivering such definitive sentences, as 
 were to be binding, merely by the single authority of 
 the mouth which uttered them: but their purpose was 
 rather to communicate to us their own meditations 
 on divers points of our religion; leaving us free to 
 examine them, and to approve or reject the same, 
 according as we saw proper. Thus has Jerome ex- 
 pressly delivered his mind, as we showed before, 
 where he speaks of the nature and manner of coin- 
 
 * Vincent. Liriu. Common. 1. c. 39, ubi supra. 
 
248 THE FATHERS ARE NO AUTHORITY 
 
 mentaries on the Holy Scriptures. And certainly if 
 they had had any other design or intention, they 
 would never have troubled themselves, as they usually 
 do, in gathering together the several opinions of other 
 men. This diligence, I confess, is laudable in a 
 teacher, but it would be very ridiculous in a judge. 
 Their style also should be entirely of another kind: 
 and those obscurities which we have observed in the 
 former part of this treatise, proceeding either from 
 the rhetorical ornaments or the logical subtilties 
 which they adopt, should have no place here. For 
 who could tolerate any such thing in pronouncing a 
 sentence of judgment, or indeed in giving one's bare 
 testimony only to anything? But that which makes 
 the truth of this our assertion more clearly to appear 
 than all the rest, is the little care and diligence that 
 they took, in composing the greatest part of these 
 writings of theirs, which we would now wish to be 
 the rules of our faith. If these men, who were en- 
 dued with such sanctity, had had any intention of 
 prescribing to posterity a true and perfect rule of 
 faith, is it probable that they would have gone care- 
 lessly to work, in a business of such great importance? 
 Would they not rather have gone to it with their eyes 
 opened, their judgments settled, their thoughts fixed, 
 and every faculty of their soul attentively bent upon 
 the business in hand; for fear that, in a business of so 
 great weight as this, something might chance to fall 
 from them, not so becoming their own wisdom, or so 
 suitable to the people's advantage? A judge, that 
 had but ever so little conscience, would not otherwise 
 give sentence concerning the oxen, the field, and the 
 gutters of Titius and Msevius. How much more is 
 the same gravity and deliberation requisite here, 
 where the question is on the faith, the souls, and the 
 eternal salvation of all mankind? It were clearly 
 therefore the greatest injury that could be offered to 
 these holy persons, to imagine that they would have 
 
IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 249 
 
 taken upon them to have passed judgment in so 
 weighty a cause as this, but with the greatest care 
 and attention that could be. Now it is evident, on 
 the other side, that in very many of those writings of 
 theirs, which have come down to our hands, there 
 seems to be very much negligence; or, to speak a 
 little more tenderly of the business, want of care at 
 least, both in the invention, method, and elocution. 
 If therefore we tender the reputation either of their 
 honesty or wisdom, we ought rather to say, that their 
 design in these books of theirs, was not to pronounce 
 definitively upon this particular, neither are their 
 writings judiciary sentences or final judgments, but 
 rather discourses of different kinds, occasioned by 
 divers emergencies; and are more or less elaborate, 
 according to the time, judgment, age, and disposition 
 they were of, when they wrote them. Now although 
 this want of diligence and of deliberation, appears of 
 itself evident enough to any one that reads the 
 Fathers with the least attention, yet, that I may not 
 leave this assertion of mine unproved, I shall here 
 give you some few instances merely as a sample. 
 
 First of all, there are many pieces among the 
 works of the Fathers, which were written in haste; 
 and some too, which were mere extemporary dis- 
 courses, and such as, in all probability, their authors 
 themselves would have found many things therein 
 which would have required correction, had they had 
 but leisure to review the same. 
 
 Jerome, in a prologue to certain Homilies of Origen, 
 translated by him into Latin, says that Origen com- 
 posed and delivered them in the Church extempore.* 
 As to these, therefore, we are well satisfied by Je- 
 rome; but how many, in the meantime, may there be 
 of the like nature, among those numerous Homilies 
 of Chrysostom, Augustine, and others; all which we 
 
 * Hier. Prol. in Bom. Orig, in les. Nan. 
 22 
 
250 THE FATHERS ARE NO AUTHORITY 
 
 perhaps imagine to have been leisurely and deliber- 
 ately studied, digested, and composed, which yet some 
 sudden occasion might perhaps have put forth into 
 the world on the instant, and which were as soon 
 born as conceived, and as soon published as made ? 
 
 Jerome often tells us, that he dictated what he 
 wrote in haste. Thus at the end of that long epistle 
 which he wrote to Fabiola, he says, "that he had 
 despatched it in one short evening, when he was about 
 to set sail on a voyage."* And (which is a matter 
 of much more importance) he says in another place, 
 "that he had allotted himself but three days for the 
 translating of the three books of Solomon ;" namely, 
 the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Canticles ;f which 
 yet a man will hardly be able to read over well and 
 exactly in a month, by reason of the great difficulties 
 he will there meet with, as well in the words and 
 phrases, as in the sense. Yet for all this (if, what 
 the Church of Rome pretends, be true) this little 
 three-days' work of Jerome has proved so fortunate, 
 as to deserve, not only to be approved and highly 
 esteemed, but even canonized also by the Council of 
 Trent. 
 
 Now whether the will of our Lord be, that we 
 should receive this translation as his pure word or 
 not, 1 leave to those who have a desire and ability to 
 examine. However I dare confidently affirm that 
 Jerome himself never had the least thought or hope 
 that this piece of his should one day come to this 
 honour; it being a thing not to be imagined, but that 
 he would have taken both more time and more pains 
 in the matter, if ever he had desired or foreseen this. 
 Thus it sometimes happens, that men have better for- 
 tune than ever they wished for. The same author 
 
 * Hier. Ep. 128, ad Fabiol. t. 3, vid. et in Epitaph. Marcel. 
 Epist. 16, extr. 
 
 f Itaque, &c. tridui opus nomini vestro consecravi, interpreta- 
 tionem videlicet trium bulomonis voluminum. — Id. Prcef. in Prov. 
 
IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 251 
 
 >, at the end of another production of his, "that 
 it was an extemporary piece, and poured out so fast, 
 that his tongue outran the hands of his amanuenses, 
 and by its volubility and swiftness, in a manner, con- 
 founded them and their ciphers and abbreviations."* 
 He elsewhere excuses in like manner another work of 
 his, of no small importance (his commentary upon the 
 Q »spel of Matthew,) telling us, that as he had been 
 straitened in time, he was constrained to dictate it in 
 very great haste. So likewise in the preface to his 
 second commentary upon the Epistle of Paul to the 
 Ephesians, he confesses that he wrote it in such great 
 haste, that he many times made as much of it as came 
 to a thousand lines in a day. In a word, that I may 
 not weary the reader with producing all the instances 
 of the same kind, that I could here adduce, it is his 
 ordinary way of excusing himself, either in prefaces, 
 or else at the closing up of all his discourses, to say 
 that either the messenger was in haste, or some de- 
 sign called him away; or else some other similar 
 cause was alleged. So that he scarcely did anything 
 but in haste, and at full speed. Sometimes again, 
 either sickness had broken his spirit, or else the study 
 of the Hebrew had made his tongue grow rusty, or 
 his pen was not able to exert its wonted power. 
 
 Now, if he would have us receive all his sayings as 
 oracles, and did not indeed desire us rather to excuse 
 some things in him, and to forgive him in others, why 
 should he use these speeches? Who ever heard a 
 judge excuse himself on account of the shortness of 
 the time? Would not this be rather to accuse than 
 to excuse himself, by making such an apology as this 
 for himself; forasmuch as giving an over hasty judg- 
 ment in any c - a very great fault? In my 
 opinion the Fathers could not more clearly have de- 
 
 * E ad lumen Incenraln facili- 
 
 inn manna lingua pi ©currer i ao 
 
 furta verburum volttbilil aum obrueret. — Id. Lp. 47. 
 
252 THE FATHERS ARE NO AUTHORITY 
 
 prived themselves of this dignity of being our judges, 
 with which we w r ould invest them, whether they will 
 or not, than by writing and speaking after this man- 
 ner. But yet, although Jerome had not given us 
 these advertisements, which yet ought to make us look 
 well also to the rest of the Fathers, it appears evi- 
 dently enough, out of their very writings themselves, 
 how little both time and diligence they bestowed, in 
 composing the greatest part of them. For otherwise 
 how could so many trifling faults, in history, gram- 
 mar, philosophy, and the like, have escaped such 
 great and eminent persons, who were so well fur- 
 nished with all sorts of literature? How happened 
 it, that they thus either forgot or else mistook them- 
 selves, as they have sometimes done? 
 
 I shall here give the reader some few examples of 
 this kind, not to detract from the praises due to these 
 learned persons, as if we thought them really to have 
 committed these errors out of ignorance, but rather to 
 let the world see, that they did not always make use 
 of their whole store of worth and learning; and that 
 sometimes they either could not, or else would not, 
 make use but of some part only of their knowledge, 
 and of their time; which is a most certain argument, 
 that they had never any intention of being received 
 by us as judges in points of faith. 
 
 I shall not say much of their errors in matters of 
 time, which are both very notorious and very fre- 
 quent with them: as, for example, where Justin Mar- 
 tyr says that, "David lived fifteen hundred years be- 
 fore the crucifixion of Christ;" — Aaficd irew ^dcocc; 
 
 /JJ.C TiEVTaXOOLOtC, Tzptv '}] XpCOTOV &v6 \oW7TOV yzvofizvov 
 (TTaupwd'qvat, ra Trpoecpr^/iepa i<py ;* it being very ap- 
 parent, by observing the course of times, derived 
 through history both sacred and profane, that from 
 the death of David to the birth of our Saviour Christ, 
 
 * Just. Apol. 
 
IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 253 
 
 there elapsed no more than a thousand and twenty- 
 five or thirty years, or thereabouts. So likewise, 
 when Epiphanius writes, "that Moses was but thirty 
 years old when he brought forth the children of Israel 
 out of Egypt:" — L de Murxrr^ sv zco A f auzou izsc 
 TTarse vqu ipuOpav dalaaaav, ckaa ' IapocrjkczacQ iz 
 Aifwnou igewv:* whereas the Scriptures clearly tes- 
 tify, that he w r as eighty years of age. And also 
 where he affirms, "that the taking of the city of Je- 
 rusalem happened sixty-five years after the passion 
 of our Saviour Christ: — Afovev jJ ipyfjLOMrez'hpotro- 
 Xufitov fjteza hgyxoazov nefmzop izoz nyc Xpeazou 
 ozu.'jpcoGzco^ xcu 'fjuzpa^ r*vac«t 
 
 Chrysostom says that Jerusalem was destroyed by 
 Titus five hundred years before his own time. In 
 another place, he reckons the period at four hundred 
 years. Now it is well known that only three hundred 
 and thirty-three or four years elapsed between that 
 event and the banishment of Chrysostom. He also 
 states that Hezekiah lived one thousand years after 
 the death of David ; whereas the interval was not as 
 much as four hundred years. 
 
 Truly the chronology of the ancients is generally 
 very strange, and for the most part very far wide of 
 the truth, as has been observed, and also proved at 
 large, by all the moderns; as Scaliger, Petavius, and 
 others. But these matters are so very difficult, that 
 oftentimes the most diligent inquiries into them may 
 chance to mistake. I shall therefore forbear to insist 
 any longer upon this particular; and shall now lay 
 before you some examples of another nature, and 
 such as shall most evidently discover the carelessness 
 and negligence of these authors. 
 
 Justin Martyr, speaking of the translation of the 
 Seventy Interpreters, says " that Ptolemy king of 
 
 ■ >r. num. 1 12. 
 .. de. Ponder, i Rum. 12. 
 
254 THE FATHERS ARE NO AUTHORITY 
 
 Egypt sent his ambassadors to Herod king of Ju- 
 dea," — {'Ore de IlToXsfjiatoz b Aiyonrccvv fiaadsoz 
 ficftXtod'/jZYjV xazecrxeuaae, &c. TCpoaenefape rep tojv 
 Ioudatcov tots fiaacXeuovTc c Hpco8/j aguov, dcaTrepcpdyjvae 
 aurco ra<z ftcfiXou<; tcov Trpocpyjreccov ;)* whereas the 
 truth of the story is, that he sent to Eleazar the high 
 priest, two hundred forty and odd years before Herod 
 was king of Judea. 
 
 Epiphanius tells us, in two or three places, that the 
 Peripatetics and Pythagoreans were one and the same 
 sect of heathen philosophers ;f which yet were as 
 much different one from the other, as the Stoics and 
 Epicureans were ; as every child knows. The same 
 author also confidently affirms, though contrary to 
 the faith of all ancient history, that the several sects 
 and opinions in philosophy sprang from some certain 
 mysteries brought to Athens by Orpheus and others ; J 
 and that the Stoics believed the immortality and 
 transmigration of souls ;§ both of which are false: and 
 likewise that Nabuchadonosor sent a colony into the 
 country about Samaria, after the taking of Jerusa- 
 lem ;|| whereas, in truth, it was Shalmaneser who had 
 so done, long before the other's time. What can you 
 think of him, when you find him mistaken in such 
 things, as happened not many years before he was 
 born; as when he says that Arius died before the 
 council of Nice ;*[ and when he relates the story of 
 Meletius and his schism altogether contrary to the 
 truth? 
 
 Justin Martyr likewises assures us, as a certain 
 truth, that in the reign of the Emperor Claudius, 
 there was erected at Rome a statue to Simon Magus, 
 in the river Tiber, between the two bridges, with this 
 inscription: "TO the holy god simon:" — c Oq (Itptov) 
 
 * Justin. Mart. Apol. 2. 
 
 f Epiphan. in Panar. lib. 1, et Anaceph. p. 127, 129, 133. 
 
 X Id. contr. Hgeres. 1. 1. $ Id. User. 5. 
 
 || Id. Panar. 1. 1. II Id. Hser. Arian. 69. num. 10, 11. 
 
IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 255 
 
 kv nj noXu flcuTchdt "Pco/iy 0so$ ivofuadty xat tkvbpiavtt 
 
 Tzao bjicov o»c O&K zezcjLYjZar 6c dpdpcac d^Vffffzpxai &v 
 rco Tcftepe TZOTa/jLtO) fjiSTaZu zcov duo yecpvpcov, tycov 
 htcfpatfrrp) ^ l\oaairr t v toukijv Iifitovc deco oayxzco:* 
 whereas, as our learned critics now inform us, it was 
 only an inscription to one of the Pagan demigods, in 
 those words, "SEMONI DEO SANCOrf which this good 
 Father mistook; instead of Semoni, reading Simoni; 
 and for sanco reading sancto. 
 
 Eusebius says,J and Jerome frequently repeats it 
 after him,§ that Josephus, the Jewish historian, re- 
 ports, that at the time of our Saviour's passion the 
 heavenly powers forsook the temple of Jerusalem; 
 and that there was a great noise heard, and a voice 
 saying, Meza^acvco;iev ivzsudsv, " Let us depart 
 hence;" and yet nevertheless the truth of the story 
 is, that Josephus reported this to have happened at 
 the time the city was besieged ; that is to say, above 
 thirty-five years after the death of our Saviour. 
 
 The same authors, and in a manner all others after 
 them, || have constantly delivered, as a certain truth, 
 that Philo the Jew, in that book of his entitled "De 
 Vita Contemplative" describes to us the manner of 
 life of the Christian Aotojtcu, or Monks; and yet that 
 book of Philo, which is still extant, proclaims loud 
 enough, that he there speaks not of the Christians 
 but of the Essenes, who were one of the three sects 
 among the Jews; as has been observed by Scaliger, 
 and various others after him.^f We have noticed 
 how Ambrose,** without giving us any account of his 
 reasons why he does so, understands by Gog and 
 
 * Just. Mart. A.pol. 2. f Desider. Herald, in Apol. TertuL 
 
 % Euseb. in Chron. et *AW*£. 8. p. 260. 
 
 \ I Tier. ep. 160, Eedibise Comment. 4. in Matth. ep. 17, qure est 
 Paul, et Bnstoch. T. i. p. 163. 
 
 || Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 1. 2. c. 15, 16. Hier. lib. de Script. Bc- 
 cles. 
 
 1f Scalig. de Emend. Temp. 1. 6. c. 1. 
 
 ** Ainbros. 1. 2. de fide ad Gralian. 
 
256 THE FATHERS ARE NO AUTHORITY 
 
 Magog mentioned in Ezekiel, the nations of the 
 GrotJiSj who in his time overran all Christendom. He 
 tells us in another place, with the very same confi- 
 dence, that Zacharias,* the father of John the Bap- 
 tist, was high priest of the Jews ; which yet Baronius 
 has clearly proved to be false. f 
 
 Epiphanius affirms that Pison, which was one of 
 the four rivers that watered the terrestrial Paradise, 
 mentioned by Moses, "was the same that the Indians 
 and Ethiopians call Granges, and the Greeks Indus: 
 which river passing at length through Ethiopia, dis- 
 charges itself at last into the ocean at Cadiz! Kcu 
 0ztocov fxeu iaztv 6 rayyrjQ Trap a zoo; ' Ivdou; xaXoopevoQ 
 xcu AWtoipw ^EXXrjve^ xcu zoozov xaXooacv fodov 
 Tiozafiov, &c. dcarrspa de zyv /jteyaXrjv Aldiorttav, xcu duet 
 eacodev radecpav ere zov pzyov d)xeavov.% What won- 
 derful geography have we here, (if at least we may 
 call it by this name,) which jumbles together the east 
 and the west, and confounds places which are nearly 
 a whole hemisphere distant from each other ! 
 
 Basil also, who is otherwise an excellent author, 
 has mistaken likewise, though not so much, the source 
 of the river Danube; for he only makes it rise out of 
 the Pyrenean mountains: — 'Arvo de doapcov zcov 
 depivojv bizo zo Iluppyvatov opoz Tapzrjao^ ze, xac 
 
 9 l0TpO(C.§ 
 
 Speaking of those rivers reminds me, that all the 
 Fathers|| unanimously understand by Grihon (one of 
 the rivers of Paradise,) the river Nile, which has so 
 deceived cardinal Perron also,^f that he delivers it to 
 us as the express text of the Scripture ; by this means 
 making it guilty of a manifest absurdity, however in- 
 nocent in itself it be, and free from intending any 
 
 * Ambros. Comment, in Luc. t Baron, in Apparat. num. 69. 
 J Epiphan. in Ancor. \ Basil. Horn. 3. in Isa. 
 
 || Tkeoph. Antioch. 1. 2. Ambros. 1. de Parad. c. 3. Epiph. 
 Panar. haer. 66. Hieron. de locis Hebr. voc. Geon. Alii. 
 Tf Du Perron en sa Repr. p. 950. 
 
IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 257 
 
 such thing; since neither in the Hebrew, Greek, nor 
 Latin text, is it ever said that the river Nile watered 
 the land of Paradise; it being only a dream of the 
 Fathers, that one of those rivers of Paradise must 
 needs have been the Nile; though this fancy of theirs 
 (as Scaliger makes it appear,* and as it is confessed 
 by Petavius also,f) is built upon no ground or reason 
 at all. 
 
 Neither has their philosophy been less wonderful 
 than their geography: as for example, when Tertul- 
 lian maintains,^ that plants are endued both with 
 feeling and understanding. So likewise where Epi- 
 phanius holds, § that it is impossible for a dead man 
 to return to life again, without the reunion of the soul 
 to the body. As also where Ambrose says that the 
 sun, to the end he may allay his extreme heat, re- 
 freshes himself with the nourishment which he draws 
 up from the waters; ernd that from hence it is, that 
 we sometimes see him appear as it were all over wet, 
 and dropping with dew.|| 
 
 Again, you have some of them treating the doc- 
 trine of the spherical figure of the heavens with very 
 great scorn; and maintaining, that it is only, as it 
 were, an arch which is built upon the waters as on 
 its base.^f Others of them you have, who will not 
 endure to hear of the earth being of a spherical figure, 
 or of the Antipodes; and account those men little less 
 than infidels, who shall offer to maintain any such 
 opinions.** But these are not bare mistakes and 
 oversights only; but are rather errors w T hich pro- 
 ceeded from the want of a due examination and a 
 
 de Emend. Temp. f Peta. in Epiph. p. 871. 
 
 X Tertul. 1. de An. o. L9. 
 J Bpiphan. in Ancor. num. 90. 
 
 videmofl madidum, atque rorantem, in quo 
 it indicium quod alimentum sibi aquarum ad temperiem 
 sui Bumpserit — I m : ■ ■ ■ II \cu m. I. -. 
 1* Justin. QoflBst el !!•• pons. Qu. 130. ad iutolyo. 
 ** Lactam. Iu^tit. 1. :j. c. 84. August, dc Civil. Dei, 1. 1G. c. 0. 
 
258 THE FATHERS ARE NO AUTHORITY 
 
 right apprehension of things. As for their grammati- 
 cal errors, they are more frequent and usual with 
 them than any other: and the reason of their so often 
 mistaking here, is the little knowledge they had of 
 the Hebrew tongue: as, for instance, when Optatus, 
 and some others of them, deduce the name Cephas 
 from the Greek xeipaXr], which signifies a head:* 
 whereas Cepha is a Syriac word, and signifies a stone, 
 as the Evangelist expressly testifies. f Ambrose is in 
 the like manner mistaken, where he derives the word 
 Pascha, which is of Hebrew extraction, and which 
 signifies properly a passing, from a Greek word sig- 
 nifying to suffer ;\ in which etymology he is faith- 
 fully followed by Pope Innocent III., in an oration 
 of his, which he made at the opening of the council of 
 Lateran.§ 
 
 We have heretofore noticed some errors of theirs of 
 this nature, observed by Jerome, to whom the Church 
 is very much obliged, both for the great pains that he 
 took to attain so deep a knowledge of the Hebrew 
 tongue; and also for the great courage he had in 
 freely noting all such impertinences, whenever he 
 met with them ; who or however great the authors of 
 them were. All the rest of the Fathers, a very few 
 only excepted, do here as it were only grope their 
 way in the dark: and hence it is that we have so 
 many wild etymologies given by them of the proper 
 names we meet with in the Scriptures. Who can 
 read without amazement, what Irenseus has delivered 
 on the derivation of the name of Jesus ; which he will 
 have to be composed of two letters and a half ;|| add- 
 
 * Omnium Apostolorum caput Petrus, unde et Cephas appellatus 
 est. — Optat. I. contr. Don. 
 
 f John i. 42. 
 
 J Quod quidem sacrum nomen ab ipsius Domini passione descen- 
 dit. — Ambros. 1. de Pasch. c. I. 
 
 $ Innoc. III. Ser. L in Concil. Later. 
 
 .|| Jesus autem nomen secundum propriam Hebraeorum linguam, 
 literarum est duarum et dimidias, &c. — Iren. contr. Rozr. I. 2. c. 41. 
 
IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 259 
 
 ing moreover, that in the ancient language of the 
 Hebrews it signifies heaven, notwithstanding that the 
 angel expressly testified at the very beginning of 
 Matthew's gospel, that our Saviour Christ was called 
 Jesus, because "lie was to save his people from their 
 sins."* 
 
 Of the like nature is his assertion, "That the name 
 of God, Adonai, signifies wonderful: or if you w T rite 
 thus, Addhonei, it then signifies Him that bounds and 
 separates the earth from the water." He gives simi- 
 lar etymologies of the words Sabaoth, and Jaoth. 
 Similar to these are those mysteries of which he in- 
 forms us, in the afore-cited treatise of his, which no 
 author else, either ancient or modern, ever heard of;f 
 telling us that Barneth is the name of God in He- 
 brew; and that the first and most ancient Hebrew 
 letters, which were called Sacerdotal, were only ten 
 in number, and were written fifteen different ways. 
 
 Out of the same storehouse has Clemens Alexan- 
 drinus produced us that precious etymology which 
 he has given of the name of Abraham, saying, "It 
 is, by interpretation, The elect Father of a sound." 
 l EpfjajueueTOu fieu yap, nazrjp ixkexzo^ ^X ou ^ : t an( ^ ^at 
 other of the name Rebecca, which he will have to 
 signify, The glory of God, ^Pefiexxa de kpfjajveuerat, 
 Uewj doga.§ 
 
 Hilary says, that Zion signifies a fruitless tree.\\ 
 But Jerome informs us,^[ that Hilary, understanding 
 nothing of the Hebrew, and being not so very excel- 
 lent in Greek either, was glad to make use of a certain 
 priest, named Heliodorus, to interpret to him out of 
 Origen whatever he himself understood not; who, 
 not discharging his trust sometimes so faithfully as 
 he should have done, was the cause of this Father's 
 
 * M.-itth. i. 12. Iron. 1. 2. c f M« H>id. 
 
 ,-... L 4, |] I. p. .: 
 
 interpretatio est — Hilar. Pi, L32, 
 J B ! . Ep. in, ad Maroell. 
 
260 THE FATHERS ARE NO AUTHORITY 
 
 committing certain errors of this nature, in his Com- 
 mentaries. 
 
 Theophilus of Antioch says, that before Melchise- 
 dec's time, the city of Jerusalem was called Hieroso- 
 lyma;* but that afterwards it was called Hierusalem, 
 from him ; which is a very strange fancy of his, and 
 such a one as it is no very easy matter to guess what 
 ground he should have for it. 
 
 What strange dreams does Ambrose entertain his 
 readers with,f when he expounds the names of Cho- 
 rat, and of Oreb : the one whereof with him signifies 
 the understanding , and the other, the whole heart, 
 or, as the heart : and thus likewise in his exposition 
 of the 118th Psalm, J where he gives us the meaning 
 of each of the Hebrew letters with which the first 
 verses begin, of every one of the twenty-two Octon- 
 aries, whereof the said 118th Psalm, according to the 
 Hebrew reckoning, consists. But he is by no means 
 to be pardoned, § where he is so much out in the Greek 
 tongue, which he understood, in deriving the word 
 obata, essence, from dec always, and obad being: which 
 is such a gross mistake as would not have been par- 
 doned to a schoolboy at a grammar school. 
 
 As for Jerome, it is true that he is sometimes guilty 
 of the same fault; though I should think he does it on 
 purpose, and to make himself merry only, rather than 
 any way mistaking himself: as for example, when he 
 derives the Latin word Nugse from the Hebrew ^13 
 Noge,\\ which you read in the prophet Zephaniah, iii. 
 8. And so likewise when he searches in the Hebrew, 
 for the signification of Paul,^ Philemon, Onesimus, 
 Timothy, and other words which are purely Greek. 
 
 Even in the very Scriptures themselves, which 
 they were both better acquainted with, and which 
 
 * Theoph. Antioch. 1. 2. ad Autol. f Ambros. Ep. 1. 10. Ep. 82. 
 
 \ Ambros. in Psal. 118. 
 
 | Id. lib. de Incarn. Dom. Sacr. c. 9. 
 
 || Hier. in Soph on. c. 3. ver. 8. ^f Id. Comm. in ep. ad Philem. 
 
IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 261 
 
 they also had in greater veneration than any other 
 books whatever, they often mistake themselves in 
 citing them. As, for example, when Justin Martyr 
 adduces a passage out of the prophet Zephaniah,* 
 which is not found anywhere but in Zechariah; and 
 in another place where he names Jeremiah instead of 
 Daniel. f Thus likewise when Hilary tells us that 
 Paul, in the thirteenth chapter of the Acts, adduces 
 a certain passage out of the first Psalm, which yet 
 is found only in the second ;J whereas Paul in that 
 place speaks not one syllable of the first Psalm, but 
 expressly names the second. So also when Epipha- 
 nius says, out of the twenty-seventh chapter, verse 
 thirty-seven, of the Acts of the Apostles, § that the 
 number of those who were in the ship with Paul, 
 when he suffered shipwreck, was one while seventy, 
 and by and by eighty souls ; whereas the text says 
 expressly, that they were in all two hundred and 
 seventy-six. Thus likewise when in another place 
 he affirms, out of the Gospel, that our Saviour Christ 
 said to his mother, " Touch me not;" — Ouzco xac b 
 XUpio$ deezagev iv zco zhayyzhto, &c. (fyaat: rrj fiTjT[)c 
 auzo'j, Mf t fwj fattou:\\ whereas it appears plainly out 
 of the text, that these words were spoken only to 
 Mary Magdalene. So where Jerome takes great 
 pains to reconcile a certain passage alleged by him 
 out of Habakkuk,^" with the original, telling us that 
 Paul had cited it in these words, "the just shall live 
 by my faith:" whereas it is most evident that the 
 Apostle, both in the first chapter of the epistle to 
 the Romans, and in the epistle to the Galatians, has 
 it only thus: "the just shall live by faith," and not 
 " the just shall live by my faith." 
 
 Athanasius in his Synopsis, (or whoever 'else was 
 
 * Just M I 2. f Id. ibid. 
 
 X Hilar, in Psal. 2. \ Ripiphan. in Ancor. 
 
 |j LI. in Panar. 1. 3, liter. 80. \ Ilicron. Comm. 1, in Abac. 
 
 23 
 
262 THE FATHERS ARE NO AUTHORITY 
 
 the author of that piece) reckoning up the several 
 books of Scriptures, evidently takes the third book 
 of Esdras, which has been always accounted apocry- 
 phal by the consent of all Christendom, for the first, 
 which is received by all Christians and Jews into the 
 canon of the Scriptures. We might class in this 
 number (if at least so foolish a piece deserves to have 
 any place among the writings of the Fathers) that 
 gross mistake which we meet with in an epistle of 
 Pope Gregory II., who rails fiercely against Uzziah 
 for breaking the brazen serpent; calling him, for 
 this act, " the brother of the Emperor Leo the 
 Iconoclast:"* which, as he thought, was the same as 
 to reckon him among the most mischievous and 
 wretched princes that ever had been ; and yet all 
 this while the Scripture tells us, that this was the 
 act, not of Uzziah, but of the good king Hezekiah; 
 and that he deserved to be rather commended for 
 the same than blamed. 
 
 As for their slips of memory, he had need of a very 
 happy one himself, who should undertake to enume- 
 rate them all. For example, Ambrose tells us some- 
 where, that the eagle on dying is revived again out 
 of her own ashes. f Who sees not, that in this place 
 he would have said the phoenix? In another place, 
 however, giving us an account of the story of the 
 phoenix, as it is commonly delivered, he says that 
 " this we have learned from the authority of the 
 Scriptures. "J By a like mistake it was that he 
 affirmed, that these words, a for this very purpose 
 have I raised thee up, that I might show my power 
 in thee,"§ were spoken to Moses; to whom, notwith- 
 
 * Greg. II. in Ep. ad Leon. Isaur. de col. Imag. 
 
 f Quod etiam aquila, cum fuerit mortua, ex suis reliquiis renas- 
 catur. — Ambros. I. 2. de Pamit. c. 2. 
 
 J Atqui hoc relatione crebra, et Scripturarum authoritate cog- 
 novimus, memoratam avem, &c. — Id. lib. de fid. Resur. 
 
 \ Denique iterum Moysi dicit, Quia in hoc ipsum te suscitavi, 
 ut ostendam in te virtutem meam. — Ambros. ser. 10. 
 
IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 2C3 
 
 standing, the Lord never said any such word, but 
 rather to Pharaoh. In like manner does he attribute 
 to the Jews those words in the ninth chapter of 
 John, which were indeed spoken by Christ's disciples, 
 who asked him, saying, " Master, who did sin, this 
 man or his parents, that he w T as born blind?"* I 
 impute that other mistake of his to the heat of his 
 rhetoric, where he brings in one of the seven brethren 
 in the Maccabees, f who suffered under king Antio- 
 chus; and makes him quote the example of John and 
 of James, " the sons of thunder," two of our Saviour's 
 Apostles, who came not into the world, as every one 
 knows, till a long time after this. 
 
 It was a slip of memory also in Tertullian, where 
 he tells us, " that the Lord said to Moses, They have 
 not rejected thee, but they have rejected me :"$ which 
 words were indeed spoken to Samuel, and not to 
 Moses. § 
 
 Jerome also was misled in like manner, when he 
 tells us, " that none of the Fathers ever understood 
 the word knew, in the last verse of the first chapter 
 of Matthew, otherwise than of the conjugal act ;|| not 
 remembering, that his own dear friend Epiphanius 
 takes the word in a quite different sense, and will have 
 the meaning of the place to be, "that Joseph, before 
 the miraculous birth of our Saviour Christ, knew not 
 what glory and excellency was to befall the blessed 
 virgin :" knowing nothing else of her before, save 
 only that she was the daughter of Joachim, and of 
 Anna, and cousin to Elizabeth, who was of the house 
 of David: .///. bfjuac iy^o zv^ Mapcafib Iconic, ou 
 
 * Q LicU autem Judsi qui interrogans Hie peccavit, an 
 
 — Ambros. Ep. I. 9, Ep. 76. 
 f Id. 1. -. >b. o.ll. 
 
 tul. contr. Marc. 1. 1. c. 24. . 8. 
 
 |{ In quo primam adi superfluo labore d< 
 
 mm ad coitum magis quam ad scientiam esse referendum, 
 . hoc «|uii'|Uiiiii uegaverit. — Hieron. I. contr. Helvid. 
 
264 THE FATHERS ARE NO AUTHORITY 
 
 xara yvcooiv xcva ^pr/ascot;, ob xara yvayotv xocvcovca^^ 
 &XX eyvco abrqv, rcfiwv TTjv ex too deou TertfJLTjfievifjV ob 
 yap 'rjdsc omqv, rocauzyz do^rj<; oboav;* whereas he at 
 that time knew clearly that God had done her that 
 honour of sending his angel to her, and of choosing 
 her to receive that great and wonderful benefit. 
 
 But we intend not here to give an inventory of all 
 the errors of this nature, which are to be found in the 
 writings of the ancients ; these specimens may suffi- 
 ciently serve to show what their whole productions 
 are. I shall only add here, that besides this careless- 
 ness which is so common with them, in writing thus 
 confidently whatsoever came into mind, or whatever 
 others had delivered to them for sound and good, with- 
 out ever examining it thoroughly ; they yet had an- 
 other kind of custom, which seems not to suit so well 
 with the character of judges, which we attribute to 
 them. And this is, that in their writings they some- 
 times amuse themselves with presenting us such rare 
 allegorical observations, as have scarcely any more 
 solidity or body, than those castles of cards that little 
 children are wont to make. These Cardinal Perron 
 calls des gaietes joyeuses.^ 
 
 I know very well that allegories are useful, and 
 many times also necessary, if they be but sound, 
 clear, and well grounded. But I speak here only of 
 such as wrest the text, and, as it were, drag it along 
 by the hair, and make the sense of the Scripture evap- 
 orate in empty fumes. Of these are the writings of 
 the Fathers full. Jerome often complains of the 
 strange liberty that Origen and his disciples took here- 
 in. Certainly he himself often indulges in this way ; 
 and whoever has a mind to see it, may read his 146th 
 Epistle, where he expounds the parable of the Prodi- 
 gal Son :J or let him but turn to the discourse which 
 
 * Epiphan. in Panar. Haer. 78. Antidicom. 
 
 f Perron's Repl. p. 743. 
 
 % Hier. in ep. 146, ad Damas. psene tot. 
 
IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 265 
 
 lie has made on the genealogy of the prophet Zepha- 
 niah, and concerning the city of Damascus,* and 
 
 also upon the history of Abishag the Shunamite,f and 
 upon the five-and-twenty men and the two princes 
 spoken of in Ezekiel, chap. xi.J and upon the destruc- 
 tion of Tyre, of Egypt,§ and of Assyria, || foretold 
 by the same prophet: as also his subtle obversations 
 upon the Numbers, and upon king Darius, *[[ and 
 upon that command of our Saviour Christ,** where 
 he bids us turn the left cheek to him that hath smit- 
 ten us on the right : and many other the like dis- 
 courses of his. 
 
 Hilary is so much taken with this manner of wri- 
 ting, that his expositions upon the Scripture are half 
 full of these allegories, ff and to make himself the more 
 work, he sometimes frames certain impossibilities and 
 absurdities which he would make the Scripture seem 
 to be guilty of, which yet it is not ; only that he may 
 have some pretence to have recourse to his allegories. JJ 
 As for example, in the 136th Psalm, he will needs 
 have the letter of the text to be utterly inexplicable, 
 where it says, that the Jews sat down by the rivers 
 of Babylon, and hanged up their harps upon the wil- 
 lows: as if in this country that was watered by the 
 Tigris and Euphrates, there had been neither river, 
 nor willow, nor any aquatic tree. He also demands, §§ 
 (as if it had been a most indissoluble question, if taken 
 in the literal sense,) who the u daughter of Babylon" 
 is; and why she is called "miserable;" which is so 
 easy a quest on, that any child almost might very 
 easily resolve it, without torturing the text with alle- 
 gories. So likewise, in his exposition of the 146th 
 
 * Hier. Com. in Soph, f Id. ep. ad V 
 
 J Bier. Comm, ; 5. in Ezech. £ LI. Comm. 8. in Ezech. 
 
 | LI. Comm. 9. in enndem. * Ed. Comm. in. ineund. 
 
 ** Id. Comm. in 
 
 ff Id. Comm. 1. in Matth Jt Hilar, in Ps. L86. 
 
 (| LI. ibid, fol, 108. 
 
266 THE FATHERS ARE NO AUTHORITY 
 
 Psalm, he understands by the clouds, wherewith God 
 is said to cover the heavens, the writings of the pro- 
 phets; and by the rain, which he prepares for the 
 earth, the evangelical doctrine ; by the mountains 
 which bring forth grass, the Prophets and Apostles ; 
 by the beasts, he understands men ; and by the young 
 ravens, the Gentiles ; assuring us withal, that it would 
 not only be erroneous, but rather very irreligious to 
 take these words in a literal sense.* May not this be 
 called rather trifling with than expounding the Scrip- 
 tures? So likewise in another place, speaking of the 
 fowls of the air, which our Saviour said neither reaped 
 nor gathered into barns, he understands, by these, the 
 devils; and by the lilies of the field, which spin not, 
 the angels. f 
 
 I should much abuse the reader's patience, if I 
 should set down the strange discourses he has upon 
 the story of the two possessed with devils, who were 
 healed by our Saviour, in the country of the Gerge- 
 senes ; and upon the leap which the devils made the 
 neighbouring herd of swine take into the sea;| and 
 of the swine-herds running away into the city, and of 
 the citizens coming forth, and entreating our Saviour 
 to depart out of their coasts : or if I should but give 
 you the whole exposition which he has made of these 
 words of Matthew x. 29: "are not two sparrows 
 sold for a farthing?" &c.§ where, by the two sparrows 
 he understands sinners, whose souls and bodies, which 
 were created to fly upward and to mount on high, sell 
 themselves to sin for mere trifles and things of no 
 value; by this means becoming both as one, the soul 
 by sin thickening as it were into a body; with such 
 other wild fancies, the reading of which would aston- 
 ish a man of any judgment rather than edify him. 
 
 * Haec ita intelligere, non dicam erroris, sed irreligiositatis est. 
 —Hilar, in Psal. 146. fol. 128. 
 
 f Id. Can. 5. in Mattli. vi. 26. fol. 7. 
 
 {Id. Can. 8. in Matth. viii. 28. fol. 10. § Id. Can. 10. fol. 13. 
 
IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 2G7 
 
 Neither is Ambrose a whit more serious, when ex- 
 pounding those words of our Saviour, Matth. xvii. 
 20 : " If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye 
 shall say to this mountain, Remove hence to yonder 
 place," &c* " By this mountain (saith Ambrose) is 
 meant the devil." It would be too tedious a business 
 to set down here at length all that might be collected 
 of this nature out of Ambrose: he that has a mind to 
 see more examples of this kind, may read but his 
 homilies upon the 118th Psalm ; which will indeed be 
 otherwise very well worth any man's reading, as 
 being a very excellent one, and full of eloquence and 
 sound doctrine. Yet a man would find it a trouble- 
 some business to make any defence for him, where he 
 ventures sometimes to use the sacred words of the 
 Scripture in his own sportive fancies: as where he 
 applies to Valentinian and Gratian that which is spo- 
 ken of Christ and the Church in the Canticles : " 
 that thou wert as my brother that sucked the breasts 
 of my mother! When I should find thee without, I 
 would kiss thee, &c. I would lead thee, and bring 
 thee into my mother's house, &c. I would cause thee 
 to drink of spiced wine, and of the juice of my pome- 
 granates. His left hand should be under my head, 
 and his right hand should embrace me." "In this 
 place," says he, " is meant the emperor Gratian, of 
 renowned memory, who tells his brother that he is 
 furnished with the fruits of divers virtues. "f To the 
 same purpose does he make application of divers other 
 passages of this sacred Canticle; and with such great 
 license, as, to say the truth, no poet ever launched out 
 with more liberty and freedom than he has done in 
 that book. 
 
 * Si habueritis fidem sicut granum Binapis, dicetia huic monti, 
 
 Tollere et jactare in marc Huic; Cui? Demonio inquit, a quo 
 
 -. imbroa. Ifatth. xvii. 20. 
 
 J Promittit fratri august® memorise Gratianus, presto edbi fruc- 
 
 Liyersarun] ease vir tutum. — /'/. tract* dt Obit* VaUnt. p. 11, 12. 
 
268 THE FATHERS ARE NO AUTHORITY 
 
 I shall here purposely pass by what I might pro- 
 duce of this nature, out of Gregory Nazianzen, Au- 
 gustine, and almost all the rest of the Fathers: for 
 what we have already brought is enough, and indeed 
 more than we needed for our present purpose. Let 
 the reader therefore now judge whether or not the 
 Fathers, by this their manner of writing, have not 
 clearly enough attested against themselves, that their 
 intention, when they wrote these their books, never 
 was either to bound and determine our faith, or to 
 decide our differences about the same. I must needs 
 confess, that they were persons who were endued with 
 very large gifts of the Spirit; and with a most lively 
 and clear understanding for diving into the truth. 
 Yet those who have the greatest share of those gifts, 
 have it to very little purpose, if they employ it not to 
 the utmost of their power, when the business they are 
 to treat of is of such great difficulty, and importance ; 
 and such as to the deciding and discussing of which 
 we can never bring enough attention or diligence. 
 
 Now that the Fathers have not observed this course 
 in their writings, appears clearly enough by what has 
 been formerly said. Their books therefore are "not to 
 be received by us, either as definitive sentences, or final 
 judgments upon our present controversies. 
 
 I confess that these trivial errors ought not to lessen 
 the opinion we have of the greatness and power of 
 their minds. I believe they might very easily have 
 avoided falling into them, if they would but have 
 taken a little pains. And I am of opinion that they 
 fell into them merely by inadvertency only ; which 
 may also sometimes happen even to the greatest mas- 
 ters in any sciences whatever. I shall as willingly 
 also yield to you, (if you desire it,) that they have 
 sometimes done these things purposely ; letting fall 
 here and there throughout their writings such little 
 slips from their pen, sportively and by way of recre- 
 ation; or else from a design of exercising our inge- 
 
IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. 269 
 
 unity. But certainly, whatever the reason was, seeing 
 that they had no intention to use any more care or 
 diligence in the composing of their books, we may 
 very well, and indeed we ought to conclude from 
 hence, that they had never any intention that these 
 books of theirs should be our judges. 
 
 These venial faults, these mistakes, these oversights, 
 these inadvertencies, and these sportings of theirs, do 
 sufficiently evidence, that we are to make our refer- 
 ences to others; and that they have not so seriously 
 delivered their opinions as if they had sat on the seat 
 of judgment, but rather have spoken as in their 
 chamber, delivering their own private opinions only, 
 and not in the capacity of judges. 
 
 These considerations, joined to what has been said 
 in this particular, by some of the chief and most emi- 
 nent among themselves, as we have formerly shown, 
 make it appear in my judgment evident enough, that 
 their own will and desire is, that we should not em- 
 brace their opinions as oracles, or receive them as 
 definitive decisions ; but that we should rather examine 
 them by the Scriptures and by reason : as being the 
 opinions of doctors, who were indeed very able and 
 excellent men ; but yet, were still men, subject to 
 error, and who were not always able to see what was 
 true and sound: and who peradventure, even in this 
 very case in hand, have not always done what they 
 might, by reason of their employing either less time, 
 or less care and diligence, than they would have done, 
 if they had had any serious purpose of doing their 
 utmost endeavour in this particular. 
 
270 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Reason IV. — That the Fathers have erred in divers points of reli- 
 gion; not only singly, but also many of them together. 
 
 I conceive that what has been stated in the two pre- 
 ceding chapters is sufficient to make it appear to any 
 moderate man, that the authority of the Fathers in 
 matters of religion is not so great as people commonly 
 imagine it to be. Thou therefore, whosoever thou 
 art, if thou be but an indifferent and impartial reader, 
 mayest omit the reading of this and the following 
 chapter; both w T hich I must add, though much against 
 my will, to answer all objections that may yet be 
 made by perverse and obstinate persons. For the 
 prejudice wherewith they are beforehand possessed, 
 may hinder them perhaps from seeing the clearness 
 of reason, and from hearing the voice of the Fathers 
 themselves; whose words they perhaps will be ready 
 to impute to their modesty, rather than consent to 
 yield to them no more honour than they themselves 
 require. The pertinacity therefore of these men, and 
 not any need that thou hast of my doing so, has con- 
 strained me to lay aside some of that respect that I 
 bear towards antiquity; and has obliged me to expose 
 to view some errors of the Fathers, which are of much 
 more importance than the former, if by this means at 
 least I may be able to overcome their opposition. 
 For when they shall but see that the Fathers have 
 erred in many considerable points, I hope they will 
 at length confess, that they had very good reason 
 gravely to advise us, not to believe, or take upon 
 trust, any of their opinions, unless we find that they 
 are grounded either upon the Scriptures, or else upon 
 some other truth. 
 
 I confess, I enter upon this inquiry very unwilling- 
 
IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 271 
 
 ly, as taking very little pleasure in discovering and 
 exposing the infirmities and failings of any men, es- 
 pecially of such as are otherwise worthy of such great 
 esteem and honour: yet there is nothing in the world, 
 however precious or dear it be, that we ought not to 
 disregard, if compared with truth and the edification 
 of men. And I am verily persuaded that even these 
 holy men themselves, were they now alive, would 
 give us thanks for the pains we have taken, in en- 
 deavouring to make the w T orld see that they were but 
 men ; and would account themselves beholden to us, 
 for having boldly undertaken the business of discover- 
 ing those imperfections and failings of theirs, which 
 Divine Providence has suffered them to leave behind 
 them in their writings, to the end only that they 
 might serve as so many arguments to us of their hu- 
 manity. If there be any, notwithstanding, that shall 
 take offence at it, I must entreat them once again to 
 consider that the perverseness only of those men with 
 whom I have to deal, has forced me to this irrever- 
 ence, (if we are to call it so) together with the desire 
 I have to manifest to the world so important a truth 
 as tlws is. 
 
 If I wished to defend myself by precedents, I could 
 here make use of that of cardinal Perron;* who, to 
 justify the Church of Rome's interdicting the reading 
 of the Bible to any of the laity, except only such as 
 should have express permission, scruples not to ex- 
 pose to the view of the world, not all the faults, for 
 there are none; but all the false appearances of faults 
 that are found in the Bible, writing a whole chapter 
 expressly on the subject. How much more lawfully 
 then may we adventure here to expose to public view 
 Le few of the failings of the Fathers, to whom we 
 owe infinitely less respect than to God; if it be only 
 to moderate a little that excessive devotion which 
 
 * Du Perron, Repliq. 1. 6, c. 6, p. 
 
272 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 
 
 most men bear towards their writings; that so the 
 one party may be persuaded to seek out for some 
 other weapons, than the authority of these men, for 
 the defence of their opinions; and that the other party 
 may not so easily be induced to regard the bare tes- 
 timony of antiquity? 
 
 It was the saying of a great prince long ago, that 
 the vilest and most shameful necessities of his nature, 
 were the things that most clearly convinced him that 
 he was a man, and no God, as his flattering courtiers 
 would needs have made him believe he was. Seeing 
 therefore that it behoves us so much to know that the 
 Fathers were but men, let us not be afraid to pro- 
 duce here this argument so clear and evident of their 
 humanity. Let us boldly enter into their most hid- 
 den secrets, and let us see whatever marks of their 
 humanity they have left us in their writings, that we 
 may no longer adore their authority, as if it were 
 divine. 
 
 Yet I protest here before I begin, that I will not 
 take any advantage of the many proofs of their 
 human passions which we meet with, partly in their 
 own writings, and partly in the histories of their life. 
 I wish rather, that all of this kind might be buried 
 in an eternal oblivion, and that we would speak of 
 them as of persons that were most accomplished for 
 purity and innocence of life, as far, at least, as the 
 frail condition of human nature can bear. I shall 
 only touch upon the errors of their belief, and those 
 things wherein they have failed, not in living but in 
 writing. 
 
 The most ancient of them all is Justin Martyr; a 
 man renowned in all ancient histories for his great, 
 knowledge, both in religion and philosophy; and also 
 for the fervency of his zeal, which he so evidently 
 manifested, by his suffering a glorious martyrdom 
 for our Saviour Jesus Christ. Yet for all this, how 
 many opinions do we meet with in his books, which 
 
IN DIVERS FOINTS OF RELIGION. 273 
 
 are either very trivial, or else manifestly false? Only 
 hear bow he speaks of the last times immediately 
 preceding the clay of judgment and the end of the 
 world: — "As for me (says he) and the rest of us 
 that are true Christians, we know that there shall be 
 a resurrection of the flesh, and that the saints shall 
 spend a thousand years in Jerusalem, which shall be 
 rebuilt, enriched, and enlarged, as the prophets 
 Ezekiel, Isaiah, and others assure us. ^ Eyuj as yju el 
 rtvec ilatv dpOofvcDfiovez xaza naura Xpiaxtavoty xcu 
 aapxoc aucurrcuJiv yvy^aiaOat IntOTap&fta yju yjha 
 lz/ t h c hoo'jaa/^a ur/oao/iTjOecajj^ xcu xoGfiydseGfl xcu 
 
 To this purpose he cites what is written, Isaiah 
 lxv., and besides, that other passage in the Revela- 
 tion, where it is said, "That those which had believed 
 in Christ, should live and reign with him a thousand 
 years in Jerusalem; and that after this there should 
 be a general and final resurrection and judg- 
 ment." Xcha ezrj noaja&v ev ^ hpouaulr t u rous tco 
 ij/tevepo) Xpearw maxeooavxa^ &c. ; yju pteza T<wra 9 
 XTjh xadokxfjV) yju awzkovxt coy at, ouovkvj bpodufjtadop 
 ay.'L TravTcav d-vaxrca/Jtv yevqaeadcu^ yju xptotv.\ In 
 these words you see plainly that he holds with the 
 Millennarians, that the saints shall reign a thousand 
 
 ira in Jerusalem, before the resurrection be per- 
 fectly accomplished: which is an opinion that is at 
 this day condemned as erroneous, by the whole Wes- 
 tern Church, both on the one side and on the other. 
 He seems, in another place, to have held that the 
 
 '■nee of God was finite, and was not present in all 
 places; where he endeavours to prove against a Jew 
 that it was not the Father who rained fire and brim- 
 
 ne upon Sodom, because that he could not then 
 have been at that time in heaven. I'-z? lav yj i o>)zu) 
 
 r j<jo)fjiei> -<!.; ypaxpaz fj'j'f^aizfj.i r^> naxspa xcu xupcov 
 
 * Justin, contr. Tryph. p. 307. t H* P« : 
 
 24 ' 
 
^274 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 
 
 zcov blcov prj yvfzvTjOdai zoze iv zoc; obpavotQ, bze oca 
 mwaeax; AeAsxzac, xac KopcoQ iftpegsp inc 1'odopa, &c* 
 
 That which he has delivered concerning the angels 
 is altogether as senseless, though not so dangerous; 
 namely, "That God having in the beginning corn- 
 nutted to them the care and providence over men, 
 and all sublunary things, they had broken this order, 
 by suffering themselves to be overcome by the love of 
 women, by associating with whom had been also born 
 children, which are those we now call demons, or 
 devils. 1 ' TtjV pev zcov dvdpcoTcwv, xac zo)v bno zov 
 ohpavov rcpovocav dyysAocz, oh; ijrc zoozoc; erafe, 
 napeSwxev 01 de tiyyeloc napaftavze; zrjvde ztjv za^cv, 
 yovaxxcov pc^cocv fjzzrjdrjoav, xac nacda; irexvcoaav, ol 
 elacv ol Xeyopevoc Aacpove;^ 
 
 I know not either whether Justin will be able easily 
 to convert any one to that other opinion of his, where 
 he says that " all the souls of the saints, and of the 
 prophets, had fallen under the power of evil spirits, 
 such as were the spirits of Python ; and that this 
 was the reason why our Saviour Christ, being ready 
 to give up the ghost, recommended his spirit to 
 God:" (Pacvezac de xac bzc naaac al (po%ac zoov obzco; 
 ocxactov, xac npocprjzcov, uno e^ooacav Itictzzov zwv 
 
 zocoozcov dovapewv, &c Kac yap dnodcdoo; zo 
 
 Tzveupa inc zco azaopco, sine, Ilazep, ec; yecpa.; (too 
 Ttapazcdepac zo Tiveopa poo :% I pray you tell me, out 
 of what part of God's word he learned this doctrine, 
 which he delivers in his second Apology ; where he 
 says, "that all those who lived according to the rule 
 of reason were Christians, notwithstanding that they 
 might have been accounted as Atheists; such as 
 among the Greeks were Socrates, Heraclitus, and 
 the like; and among the Barbarians, Abraham and 
 Asanas." Kai ol peza Aoyoo ficaxiavze; Xpcozcavoc 
 
 * Justin contr. Tryph. p. 283 et 357. 
 
 f Id. in Apol. pro Christ, ad Senat. p. 44. 
 
 % 1(1. contr. Tryph. p. 333. 
 
IX DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 
 
 $l<nv yjVs ddeoc ivofjuffOytraw olov iv ^EXfajat t asu 
 2a)xpazr)d xai c HpaxXsczoc xcu ol bfiotot abzoe^* iv 
 ftaj /j/.y., &c* He repents the same 
 
 doctrine within a few lines afterwards, and says that 
 " all those who lived, or do now live, according to 
 the rule of reason, are Christians, and are in an 
 assured, quiet condition." 01 8s /isza boyou ftuoaavzez 
 xcu Jto'j^zzz, Xptaxtavot) xcu dfoftoe, xcu dvapayot 
 uzayy<)'j(7:.j 
 
 Irena^us, bishop of Lyons, who lived very near 
 Justin's time, was also of the same opinion with him, 
 as to the state of the soul after it was once departed 
 from the body, till the hour of judgment. For, to- 
 wards the conclusion of that excellent book of his, 
 which he wrote against Heresies, after he has told us 
 that our Saviour Christ had descended into hell, or 
 the place of departed spirits, which place he opposes 
 to the light of this world, he further adds, that " It is 
 evident that the souls of the disciples of our Saviour, 
 for the love of whom he did all these things, shall go 
 also into a certain invisible place, which is provided 
 for them by God, there to expect the resurrection ; 
 and shall afterwards resume their bodies, and ba 
 raised up again in all perfection; that is to say, cor- 
 poreally, in the same manner as our Saviour was 
 raised up again, and so shall they come into the pre- 
 sence of God."§ This opinion he opposes against 
 that of the Valentinians and Gnostics, which he had 
 before produced in the beginnng of that chapter of 
 his, who held that the souls of men, immediately a: 
 they had departed out of the body, were carried up 
 above the heavens and the Creator of the world; and 
 went to that Mother or that Father which these here- 
 
 t 1 1 
 jus, pr pterqa - 
 e abibant in Lnvisibil >m ]<><-uin. d< 
 turn mmorabuntar, 
 
 . B i c. - ( J. 
 
276 THE FATHERS HAVE EEREB 
 
 tics had fancied to themselves. This opinion of theirs 
 is in like manner rejected by Justin Martyr, in the 
 passage a little before quoted out of his book against 
 Tryphon.* Whence it plainly appears (that we may 
 not trouble ourselves to produce any other proofs) 
 that Justin and Irenseus were both of the same belief 
 as to the state of the soul after death. 
 
 But to return to Irenseus. In his second book 
 against Heretics, he maintains very strongly, that 
 "our Saviour Christ was above forty years of age, 
 when he suffered death for us:"f alleging in defence 
 of this opinion of his, which so manifestly contradicts 
 the evangelical history, certain probabilities only ; as, 
 " that our Saviour passed through all ages, as having 
 come to the world to sanctify and save people of all 
 ages;" urging also those words of the Jews to our 
 Saviour, u thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast 
 thou seen Abraham?"! In conclusion he says that 
 " St. John had delivered it by tradition, to the priests 
 of Asia, that Christ was somewhat aged when he be- 
 gan to preach, being then about the age of forty or 
 fifty years." This fancy of his appeared so ridiculous 
 to cardinal Baronius, that (notwithstanding the faith 
 of all the copies of his Father, and the context, which 
 appears evidently to be his, together with the vein 
 and marks of his fancy and style,) he has had the 
 confidence to say, that this whole passage had been 
 foisted into the text of Irenasus, either by some igno- 
 rant or some malicious person, and that it was not 
 Irenseus's own.§ But it seems he had no great reason 
 for his suspicion ; as the Jesuit Petavius has clearly 
 made it appear in his notes upon Epiphanius.|| 
 
 However, you may hence perceive that Baronius 
 thinks that very possible which we have endeavoured 
 
 * Justin, contra Tryph. p. 307. 
 
 i Iren. cont. Hrer. 1. 2. c. 39. J John viii. 57. 
 
 $ Baron. Annal. t. 1. an. 34. num. 137. 
 
 |) Pctav. in Epiplian. p. 145. 
 
IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 277 
 
 to prove in the former part of this treatise; namely, 
 th.it there may possibly have been very many and 
 great alterations and corruptions in the books of the 
 writers of the first ages, by many passages and clauses 
 having been either inserted in them, or else malicious- 
 ly erased out of them. 
 
 Irenseus holds and endeavours to prove in the same 
 book, " that the souls of men, after death, retain the 
 character (that is to say, the figure) of the bodies to 
 which they were formerly united, and that they re- 
 present the shape of the said bodies, so that they can 
 be recognized."* 
 
 I shall here pass by that which Irenseus seems to 
 mean in the forty-ninth chapter of the same book, 
 that our Saviour Christ did not at all know when the 
 day of judgment should be, according to either of his 
 natures; although these words of his look as if they 
 would very hardly be reconciled to any good meaning. 
 Nor shall I yet take notice of what both he and Jus- 
 tin Martyr have in divers places so rashly averred, as 
 regards the strength of human nature, in the busi- 
 ness of salvation ;| because I conceive with Cassan- 
 der,t that all those passages may, and indeed ought 
 to be understoo 1, with respect to the scope and drift 
 of these authors; whose business was to confute those 
 heretics of their time, who maintained that there w 18 
 a fatal necessity in the actions of men, by this 
 means depriving them of all maimer of election or 
 judgment. 
 
 The great learning of Clemens Alexandrinus lias 
 
 not prevented him from falling into many error-: as 
 
 for instance, where in divers places he says plainly, 
 
 .at the heathen, who lived before the coming of 
 
 * A i, in quo etiam adaptantur 
 
 i : i ■ i ii 
 ' // '. . 6 ' 
 
 Pii Viri. 
 2 I 
 
278 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 
 
 our Saviour Christ, were justified by philosophy, 
 which was then necessary for them, whereas it is 
 now only useful to them ; and that this philosophy 
 was the schoolmaster of the Gentiles, which brought 
 them to Christ, or served to guide them till the time 
 of his coming, in like manner as the law did the 
 Jews ; and that the Greeks were justified by it alone ; 
 and that it was given to them as their covenant, be- 
 ing a step to, and as it were a foundation laid for, 
 Christian philosophy. ' Hv peu obv Ttpo tyjz too 
 Kopcoo TcapooGtac, etQ bcxacoaovrjv ^EXXtjocv avajxaca 
 (fcXocrocpca, vuv de XPV^f 17 ! 7r / 00 C Osooefiecav ytverac. . . . 
 5 Ercacdaycoyec jap xac abzvj zo ^EXXtjvcxov, a>£ b voptoQ 
 tou<; ^Eftpacouz ere Xpcozov. Clem. Alex. Strom, 
 lib. 1. Kaff kaoTfjv idcxacoo noze xac fj cpcXoaoipca 
 touq ^EXXrjva^. Ibid. p. 117. Trjv de (pcXoao<pcav xac 
 paXXov ^EXXtjGcv olov deadly olxecav, abzocq, dedoadac, 
 uTzoftadpeav oboav ttjq xaza Xpcazov (pcXoaocpca^,- — Id. 
 lib. 6, Strom, p. 279. 
 
 Clemens was of opinion also, "that our Saviour 
 went down into hell, to preach the gospel to the de- 
 parted souls;" and that he saved many of them ; that 
 is, all that believed: "and that the Apostles also, 
 after their death, descended likewise into the same 
 place, and for the same purpose;" conceiving that 
 God otherwise would have been unjust and an accep- 
 tor of persons, if he had condemned all those who 
 died before the coming of his Son. " For (says he) 
 if he preached to the living to the end they might 
 not be condemned unjustly ; why should he not, for 
 the same reason, preach also to those who were 
 departed this life before his coming? Kadarcep 
 5 IoodaiOD<z aco^eadac iftouXezo 6 #eo£, tooq 7Tpo<prjzaQ 
 dcdooQ, outo)q xac ^EXXrjvcDv tooq doxcpa)zazoo<;^ ocxecoo^ 
 abzwv tyj dcaXexro) npo<prjzaQ dvaazYjaaz. Id. p. 268. 
 c # Kupcoc, ebvjyyeXcaazo xac zocz ev kdoo, &c. Id. 
 Strom, lib. 6, p. 269. Kac ol AtzogtoXoc xadanep 
 ivzauda, ouzcoq xdxec (in inferis) zoix; zcov edvcov 
 
IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 279 
 
 rqdecooc e/c lm<npo<py}V sbrjyzhaavzo. Clem. Alex. 
 Strom, lib. 6, p. 267. 'IrjaooQ 8e zoevuv zone, iv aapxt 
 Sea zo'jzo s'jrjyucadzo, \va fzq xazadcxaadaxjcv ddtxax?* 
 
 77(oz OOP zo'jc. 71 0O£Eefa]Xu6oTa$ zTjC. tjwo\)(ic(lz auzou oca 
 vqy auTTjh i'jrjyshauzo aiuau. — Ibid. p. 271. 
 
 From these and the like considerations, Clemens 
 concludes, that it was necessary that the souls of all 
 the departed, Gentiles as well as Jews, should have 
 heard the preaching of our Saviour, "and should 
 have had the benefit of the same dispensation, which 
 he used towards others upon earth, in order either to 
 their salvation, through repentance, or their just con- 
 demnation for their impenitency.' , Tt ohv obyt xou 
 iv adoo 'fj ahzrj yzyovzv oixovofua, \va xdxec Tiaoai al 
 <!")'/ ac d.xo'joaaox wjzou xrrfvryfw.zoz., vj vqu fizzavoiav 
 i^os^ojiza.', i t zr^j xolaatv ocxacav eivac, oc d>v oux 
 huoxooaay^ oaoLoy^acoatv.^ 
 
 He plainly maintains also, in several places of his 
 works, that all the punishments, which God inflicts 
 upon men tend to their salvation, and are sent them 
 for their instruction and amendment; comprehending 
 also within this number even those very pains which 
 the damned endure in hell. Hence it is, that he some- 
 where also affirms that wicked men are to be purged 
 by fire; and to this docs he refer the conflagration, 
 spoken of by the Stoics; alleging also to this purpose 
 divers passages out of Plato, and out of a certain phi- 
 losopher of Ephesus, which I conceive to be Ilera- 
 clitu3;t from all of which it clearly appears that he 
 bad the same belief as to the pains in hell that his 
 scholar Origen had, who maintains, in an infinite 
 number of places in his works, that the pains of hell 
 arc purgative only, and consequently are not eternal, 
 but are to have an end, when the souls of the damned 
 are once thoroughly cleansed and purified by this fire. 
 lie believes also, with Justin Martyr, that the angels 
 
 « Clem. Alex. Strom, lib. G, p. 270. f ld - Strom. 1. 5, p. 227. 
 
280 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 
 
 fell in love with the first women, and that this love of 
 theirs transported them so far, as to make them in- 
 discreetly to discover to them many secrets which 
 they ought to have concealed: — 01 dfjeXoc ixztvot ol 
 tqv avco xfajpov scfy%OTe<z, xadoXccFdrjaavTeq eiq fjdouaq^ 
 igStTTov ra drcopp'/jva tcuq yuvcu^cv, &c* 
 
 Clemens, quite contrary to Irenseus, who maintains 
 that our Saviour Christ lived upon the earth to the age 
 of fiftyf years, will have him to have preached in the 
 flesh but one year only, and to have died in the thirty- 
 first year of his age — Outco Tzkqpouzai ra rpcaxovra emj 
 !a>c ou iirade.'l 
 
 But since it is confessed by both parties, that there 
 are many absurd tenets in this author, I shall not 
 dwell any longer upon him. 
 
 As for Tertullian, I confess the fact of his turning 
 Montanist has taken away very much of the repute 
 which he before had in the Church, both for the fer- 
 vency of his piety and for his incomparable learning. 
 But besides that a part of his works were written 
 while he was yet a Catholic, we are also to notice, 
 that his Montanism put no separation between him 
 and other Christians, except in point of discipline, 
 which he, according to the austerity of his nature, 
 chose to be most harsh and rigorous. As for his 
 doctrine, he often declares that he constantly kept 
 to the very same rule, and the same faith that the 
 Catholics did :§ whence proceeded that tart speech 
 of his, " That people rejected Montanus, Maximilla, 
 and Priscilla, not because they had anywhat departed 
 from the rule of faith, but rather because they would 
 have us to fast oftener than to marry. "|| And this is 
 
 * Clem. Alex. Strom, lib. 5. p. 227. 
 
 f [The Latin copy of Daille has forty, the French fifty. — Am. Ed.] 
 j Clem. Alex. Strom, p. 127. 
 
 \ Vid. lib. de Mon. cap. 2, &c. et 1. contr. Psych, cap. 1. 
 || Si paracleto controversial faciunt propter hoc, prophetise novas 
 recusantur, non quod alium Deum predicant Montanus, et Pris- 
 
IN DIVERS TOINTS OF RELIGION. 281 
 
 evident enough, from all those books which were 
 written by him, during the time of his being a Mon- 
 tanist; wherein he never disputes or contends about 
 anything, except about discipline. This is ingenu- 
 ously confessed also, by the learned Rigault, in his 
 preface to those nine books which he has lately pub- 
 lished.* 
 
 Now, notwithstanding the great repute which this 
 Father had in the Church, and his not departing from 
 it in anything, in point of faith; yet how many wild 
 opinions and fancies do we meet with in his books ! 
 I shall here speak only of some of the principal of 
 them, passing by his dangerous expressions on the 
 person of the Son of God, as having touched upon 
 this particular before. But how strange is his manner 
 of discourse on the nature of God,f whom he seems 
 to render subject to the like passions with us; as to 
 anger, hatred, and grief! He attributes also to him 
 a corporeal substance, and "does not believe (as he 
 says) that any man will deny that God is a body;";}; 
 so that we need wonder the less that he so confidently 
 afiirms, "that there is no substance which is not 
 corporeal :"§ or that, with Justin Martyr and Clemens 
 Alexandrinus, he attributes to the evangelical nature 
 the carnal love of women :|| w T hich occasioned those 
 words in that book of his, " De Virginibus Velan- 
 cZ/.s'," — where he says, "that it is necessary that so 
 
 cilia, ct Maximilla. &c, sod qudd pland doceant sacpius jejunare, 
 qnam irabere. — I<L contr. Psych, c. 10. 
 
 Nicol. Rigaltius Prolog, in animad. ad Tertul. 9. Tract. Lutet 
 
 t Tertul. 1. 1, adv. Marc. c. 25, et 1. 2, c. 16. 
 j Q : r, Deum cor] spiritna est? — Id. adv. 
 
 '. 2, contra, M<'rr. e, 16. 
 substantia corpus >\t cujusque. — P>. lib, adv. Hi rmog. 
 
 An- illos desertores Dei, amatores fosminarum. — Id, l. 
 
282 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 
 
 dangerous a face should be veiled, which had scan- 
 dalized even heaven itself."* 
 
 We need not, after this, wonder at his doctrine on 
 the nature of man's soul, which he will have to be 
 corporeal, and endued with form and figure, and to 
 be propagated, and derived from the substance of the 
 father, to the body of the son, and sowed and engen- 
 dered with the body, increasing and extending itself 
 together with it;f and many other the like dreams; 
 in the maintaining of which he uses so much subtlety, 
 force, and eloquence, that you will through the whole 
 range of antiquity, scarce meet with a more excellent 
 and more elegant piece than this book of his, Be Ani- 
 ma. He also, with Irenaeus, shuts up the souls of 
 men, after they are departed this life, in a certain 
 subterraneous place, where they are to remain till the 
 day of judgment; the heavens not being to be opened 
 to any of the faithful till the end of the world : only 
 he allows the martyrs their entrance into Paradise, 
 which he fancies to be some place beneath the hea- 
 vens; and here he will have them continue till the 
 last day. "It is thy blood (says he) which is the only 
 key of Paradise. "J And this place, whither the souls 
 of the departed go, is, according to him, to continue 
 shut up till the end of the world. He is besides of a 
 contrary opinion to that of Justin Martyr, spoken of 
 before; and maintains that all apparitions of the de- 
 ceased are mere illusions and deceits of the. devil; 
 and that this inclosure of the souls of men shall con- 
 tinue till such time as the city of the New Jerusalem, 
 which is to be all of precious stones, shall descend 
 
 * Debet et adumbrari facies tarn periculosa, quae usque ad coelum 
 scandala jaculata est. — Id.de Virg. V eland, cap. 7. 
 
 f Defminius animum dici statu naturani immortalem, corpora- 
 lem, effigiatam, &c, et una redundantem, &c. — Ibid. lib. de. Anim. 
 passim: nominatim c. 22. 
 
 \ Quo (in inferis) spes omnis sequestrator, tota Paradisi clavis 
 sanguis tuus est. Nulli patet coelum, terra adliuc salva, ne dixe- 
 rini clausa. — Id. lib. de an. c. 55, 66, 57, 58. 
 
IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 283 
 
 miraculously from heaven upon the earth, and shall 
 there continue a thousand years, the saints long living 
 therein in very great glory; and that during this 
 space the resurrection of the faithful is to be accom- 
 plished by degrees; some of them rising up sooner, 
 and some later, according to the difference of their 
 merits.* Hence we are to interpret what he says in 
 another place, "that small sins shall be punished in 
 men by the lateness of their resurrection :"f and, 
 " that when the thousand years are expired, and the 
 destruction of the world, and the conflagration of the 
 day of judgment is passed, we shall all be changed in 
 a moment into the nature of angels. "J 
 
 I pass by his invectives against second marriages, 
 and also his opinion against all marriage in general; 
 these fancies being a part of the discipline of Mon- 
 tanus's Paraclete. But as to his opinions on the bap- 
 tism of heretics, he has many fellows among the 
 Catholic Fathers, who held the same; namely, that 
 their baptism signified nothing: and therefore he never 
 received any heretic into the communion of the Ca- 
 tholic Church, without first rebaptizing him — " cleans- 
 ing him (says he) both in the one and in the other 
 man; that is to say, both in body and soul, by the 
 baptism of the truth, accounting an heretic to be in 
 the same, or rather in a worse, condition than any 
 pagan. "§ As to others, he is so far from pressing 
 
 Nam et confitemUr in terra nobis regnum repromissum post 
 
 n in mille annos in civitate divini operis, Hierusalem 
 
 delata, &c. inter quam eetatem (1000 annorum) concluditur 
 
 itorum resurrectio, pro mentis maturius, vcl tardius resurgen- 
 
 tiuni. — Id. lib. adv. Marc. e. 24. 
 
 Modicum quoque delictum mora resurrectionis ilHc luendum. 
 — Id. I. de. An. c. I 
 
 + P - mille annos, &c7, tunc et mundi destructione, ot 
 
 . demutari in atomo in angelicam 
 stantiam; - per illnd incorruptionis Buperindumentum 
 
 I sferemnr id coeleste regnum, &c. — Id. lib. adv. Marc. c. 29. 
 
 at ethnico par, imo et super ethnicum I Bereticnfi etiam 
 aptisma veritatie utroque homine purgatus admittitur. — Tertul. 
 I. de Bapt. adv. Quint, c. 16.; et de Pudic. c. 19. 
 
284 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 
 
 men to the baptizing of their children while they are 
 young, which yet is the custom of these times; that 
 he allows, and indeed persuades to the contrary; not 
 only in children, but even in persons of riper years ; 
 counselling them to defer it, every man according to 
 his condition, disposition, and age.* And as his opin- 
 ion, in this particular, is not much different from that 
 of the Anabaptists of our time ; so does he not much 
 dissent from them in some other matters. For he will 
 not allow, no more than they do, that a Christian 
 should take upon him or execute any office of judica- 
 ture, or "that he should condemn, or bind, or impri- 
 son, or torture any man;" or that he should make 
 war upon any, or serve in war under any other; say- 
 ing. expressly, "that our Saviour Christ, by disarming 
 Peter, hath from henceforth taken off every soldier's 
 belt: xf which is as much as to say, that the discipline 
 of Christ allows not of the profession of soldiery. 
 From which I cannot but wonder at the confidence (or 
 rather the inadvertency) of some who would persuade 
 us, from a certain passage of this author, J which them- 
 selves have very much mistaken, that this innocent 
 and peaceable Father maintained, that heretics are to 
 be punished, and to be suppressed by inflicting on 
 them temporal punishments: which rigorous proceed- 
 ing was as far from his thoughts as heaven is from 
 earth. 
 
 I shall add here, before I proceed further, that Ter- 
 tullian held that our Saviour Christ suffered death in 
 
 * Itaque pro cujusque personae conditione, ac dispositione, etiam 
 setate cunctatio baptismi utilior est, &c. — Id. I. de Baptism, cap. 18. 
 
 j- Jam verb quae sunt potestatis, neque judicet de capite alicujus, 
 vel pudore, (feras enim de pecunia,) neque damnet, neque praedam- 
 net, neminem vinciat, neminem recludat, aut torqueat, &c. omnera 
 postea militem Dominus in Petro exarmando discinxit. — Id. lib. de 
 Idol. c. 17. el 19, $c. et lib. 1, de Cor. Mil. c. 11. 
 
 X Pamel, in Scap. Tertul. c. 2. num. 15. et in 1. ad Scap. c. 2, 
 num. 7. 
 
IN DIVERS TOINTS OF RELIGION. 285 
 
 the thirtieth year of his age,"* which is manifestly 
 contrary to the Gospel. He thought also that the 
 heavenly grace and prophecy ceased in John the Bap- 
 tist, f after the fulness of the Spirit was transferred 
 
 to our Saviour Christ. 
 
 Cyprian, who was Tertullian's very great admirer, 
 calling him absolutely, the master, and who never let 
 any day pass over his head without reading something 
 of him, J has confidently maintained some of the afore- 
 said opinions; among others that of the nullity of 
 baptism by heretics, which he defends everywhere 
 very strongly, having also the most eminent men of 
 his time consenting with him in this point; asFirmili- 
 anus, metropolitan of Cappadocia,§ Dionysius, bishop 
 of Alexandria, || together with the councils of Africa, 
 Cappadocia, Paraphilia, and Bithynia, notwithstand- 
 ing all the anger and the excommunication also of 
 Stephen, bishop of Rome, who for his own part held 
 a particular opinion of his own, allowing the baptism 
 of all kinds of heretics, without re-baptizing any of 
 them; as it appears by the beginning of the 74th 
 epistle of St. Cyprian ;^f whereas the Church, about 
 sixty-five years after, at the council of Nice declared 
 null the baptism of the Samosatenians, permitting, as 
 it seems, all other heretics whatsoever to be received 
 into the Church without being re-baptized. Ilepe 
 7(0^ IlauAcaveaavTWVj xcu 7zooa(f'jyo^zco^ ztj xadoAcx/j 
 
 * Christus annos habena quasi triginta cum paterctur, &c. — Ter- 
 f ap. 8. 
 
 . 10. 
 £ Vi<li e;_ r '> quondam Paulum, &c. qui Be B. Cypriani, &c. Nota- 
 diceret, referrique sibi Bolitum, nunquam 
 Tertulliani lectione unum diem profc 
 
 gistrum, Tertullianum videlicet signifi- 
 
 IFirmiL Bp. 7">. inter, r 
 ' , ■ Be 
 
 25 
 
286 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 
 
 ixxtyGca' bpot; ixnd^rac avaftanrc^eadac aozut; i^anav- 
 roc.* 
 
 The Fathers of the second general council went yet 
 further, re-baptizing all those just as they would have 
 done Pagans, who came in from the communion either 
 of the Eunomians, Montanists, Phrygians, or Sabel- 
 lians ; or indeed any other heretics whatsoever, ex- 
 cept the Arians, Macedonians, Sabbatians, Nova- 
 tians, Quartodecimani, and Apollinarians; all which 
 they received without re-baptization, as you may see 
 in the Greek copies of the said council, canon seventh; 
 which canon also appears in the Greek code of the 
 Church Universal, Num. 170. 
 
 Thus you see that Stephen and Cyprian maintained 
 each of them their own particular opinion in this 
 point; the one of them admitting, and the other utterly 
 rejecting the baptism of all kinds of heretics : whereas 
 the two aforenamed general councils neither admitted 
 nor rejected, save only the baptism of certain- heretics 
 only. Cyprian however seems to have dealt herein 
 much more fairly than his adversary; seeing that he 
 patiently endured those who were of the contrary 
 opinion ;f as it appears clearly by the Synod of Car- 
 thage, and as it is also proved by Jerome :J whereas 
 Stephen, according to his own hot choleric temper, 
 declared publicly against Firmilianus's opinion, § and 
 excommunicated all those that differed from himself. || 
 
 The same blessed martyr of our Saviour Jesus 
 Christ was also carried away with that error of his 
 time, on the necessity of administering the sacrament 
 
 * Con. Nic. Can. 19. — Si quis ergo a quacnnque harresi venerit 
 ad nos, nihil innovetur, nisi quod traditum est, ut manus illi impo- 
 natur ad poenitentiani, &c. — Cypr. ep. 74. init. ubi referuntur hcee 
 Slephani verba. 
 
 -j- Neminem judic antes, aut a jure communionis aliquem, si diver- 
 sum senserit, amoventes. — Cypr. Free. Cone. Carth. 
 
 % Hier. contra Lucifer, t. 2, p. 197, &c. 
 
 | Firmil. ep. ad Cypr. quae est 75, inter, ep. Cypr. p. 204. 
 
 || Cypr. ep. 74, p. 194, et ep. 75, quae est Firmil. 
 
IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 287 
 
 of the holy eucharist to all persons when they were 
 baptized, and even to infants also; as appears by his 
 69th epistle,* where, by the suffrages of sixty-five 
 other bishops, he admits infants to baptism and the 
 Lord's Supper, as soon as they were born; contrary 
 to the opinion of one Fidus, who would not admit 
 them to these sacraments till the eighth day after they 
 were born: — and also by that story of his which he 
 tells us of a certain young girl, w r ho being not as yet 
 of years to speak, by a remarkable miracle put back 
 the liquor which had been consecrated for the blood 
 of our Saviour, and was presented to her by a deacon 
 to drink in the church; as judging herself unworthy 
 to receive it, by reason that not long before she had 
 been carried to the celebration of some certain pagan 
 sacrifices. 
 
 Now the original of this error of theirs was the 
 belief they had, that the eucharist was as necessary to 
 salvation as baptism; as may easily be collected out 
 of the words of the said author. Having first laid it 
 down as the groundwork, "that no man can come 
 into the kingdom of God, unless he be baptized and 
 regenerated:"! he produces for a proof hereof, first 
 that passage out of the third chapter of John, where 
 it is said, " except a man be born of water and of the 
 Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God," &c. : 
 and again, " except ye eat the flesh of the Son of 
 man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you:" 
 urging the first of these texts to prove the necessity 
 of baptism, and the other, of the eucharist; accounting 
 each of them necessary to regeneration. Hence, it is 
 that we find him speaking so often of being "born 
 again, by virtue of the one and of the other sacra- 
 
 * Ut intra octavam 'liem etun qui natua esl baptizandniDj et bh- 
 
 ni'lum Hon putares. — Cypr. L37. 
 
 \'i regnum Dei nisi baptizatus, el renatus quia fuerit, perve- 
 nire non j Joan. — Id. I. 80. Qucest. 
 
 Quir. 
 
288 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 
 
 merit," by which words he does not mean baptism 
 and confirmation (as some would persuade us,) but 
 rather baptism and the Lord's supper, as is evident 
 from the following words; "It is to very little pur- 
 pose to be baptized, and to partake of the holy eucha- 
 rist, unless a man proceed in the good works," &c* 
 
 I shall here pass by some words, which he has some- 
 times let fall on the baptism of heretics,f from which 
 he seems to make the efficacy of the sacrament de- 
 pend upon the integrity and sanctity of the person 
 who administers it. 
 
 We shall proceed, in the next place, to speak of 
 Origen; but since there have been some since his 
 time, who have very much decried both him and his 
 doctrine, and others again on the other side who have 
 as strongly defended him, we shall forbear to say any 
 thing of him that may engage us in a tedious discus- 
 sion : we shall only observe, from this example of his, 
 that neither the antiquity, nor the learning or holy 
 life of any man necessarily prevents him falling into 
 very strange and gross errors. For Origen was one 
 of the most ancient among the Fathers, having lived 
 about the middle of the third century; and having 
 been so eminent for those two other excellencies of 
 virtue and learning, that his fiercest adversaries can- 
 not deny that he possessed them both in a very high 
 degree. Neither ought the story of his fall, related 
 by Bpiphanius,| to disparage the reputation of his 
 virtue; for though perhaps it might have been true, 
 yet has it frequently happened to others of the faith- 
 ful to fall into great temptations, as appears evi- 
 dently enough from the example of the apostle Peter 
 himself. 
 
 * Parum esse baptizari et eucharistiam accipere, nisi quis factis 
 et opere proficiat, al. perficiat. — Cypr. I. 30. c. 26. 
 
 f Quanclonec oblatio sanctifieare illic possit, ubi Spiritus Sanctus 
 non sit, nee cuiquam Dominus per ejus orationes et preces prosit, 
 qui Dominum ipse violavit. — Id. ep. 63. 
 
 % Epiphan. 64. Hser. quae est Orig. 
 
IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 280 
 
 But that I may not dissemble, I profess myself 
 much inclined to be of cardinal Baronius's opinion;* 
 who thinks this story to be an arrant fable, mali- 
 ciously devised by those who envied the fame of this 
 great and admirable man, and that it was foisted into 
 Epiphanius by some such hand; or else (as I rather 
 believe,) was accredited by himself, and foisted into 
 that book of his without any further examination, as 
 many other things have been; in the relating of 
 which this Father has shown himself a little over-cre- 
 dulous, as is truly observed by his last interpreter. f 
 
 Yet Origcn, notwithstanding all those excellent 
 gifts of his, has not hesitated to broach very many 
 opinions, which by reason of their absurdity have 
 been utterly rejected (and very deservedly so) by the 
 Church in all succeeding ages: which is an evident 
 argument, that however ancient, learned, and holy an 
 author may have been, we ought % not at once to be-- 
 lieve him, and to urge him as infallible: since there 
 is no reason in the world why the same thing which 
 has befallen Origen in so many points, may not in 
 some or other have also happened to any other au- 
 thor. But of this I am very well assured that those 
 very men who have written against Origen, have not 
 been so thoroughly happy in their undertaking; but 
 while opposing some error of his, have sometimes 
 fallen into as great a one of their own. One of them 
 for example, Methodius by name, as he is cited by 
 Epiphanius, maintains, that after the resurrection and 
 final judgment, we shall dwell for ever upon earth, 
 leading there a holy, blessed, and everlasting life, 
 exercising ourselves in all good things, as the angels 
 do in heaven. He also, as well as the rest, repre- 
 sents the angels as addicted to the love of women; 
 and he will have God's providence to extend itself 
 
 * Baron. Annal. n<l An. 253, num. 120, 122. 
 f Petav. Nut. ad Btor. 66, p. 217. 
 
 25" 
 
290 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 
 
 only to universal causes, affirming that he has 
 committed the care of particular things to the 
 angels. Tapay^drjoeodat pev yap ttjv xtiglv, ob prjv 
 dnoXeccrdac TTpoodoxrjzeov, otzwq dvaxacvonorrjdevreQ iv 
 avazacvoTcocrjdsvTt xoapco dysuaroc Xotzyjs xarotxTjOcopev. 
 . . . ^Q creep xac ol para raura aapxcov ipaadevrez, 
 xac rate, zcov dvdpomcov £i£ tptXoxocrcav bpdrjaavre^ 
 doyarpaacv. . . . C JW rqv pev navzeXcxrjv xac yevercx'rjv 
 kycov 6 deot; zcov hXcov izpovotav, rrjv de dca pepooq ol 
 £7cc toot co raydevze^ dyyeXoc* 
 
 These opinions of Methodius, if they be thoroughly 
 examined, will be found to be not much less danger- 
 ous, and contrary to the Scriptures, than some of 
 those which he reproves in Origen. 
 
 For the same reason just assigned, I shall also pass 
 by Busebius, Didymus, Apollinaris, and others, who 
 though they are ancient authors, yet there is usually 
 little account made of them, by reason of the indif- 
 ferent opinion the'greatest part of the Church had of 
 them. The most ancient Fathers, (although perhaps 
 their faith may not have been much freer from stains 
 than that of others,) have yet been more favourably 
 dealt with by posterity than their brethren ; whether 
 it were because, the time they lived in being so far 
 distant from the ages of our censors of other men, 
 they have so much the less excited their envy and 
 passion; or else because they were willing to spare 
 them, by reason of the high opinion that the Church 
 in general had of them. 
 
 Lactantius Firmianus, whose repute was scarcely 
 questioned among the ancients, had, notwithstanding, 
 his errors. For it is long since Jerome observed a 
 very strange one in him, in an epistle that he wrote 
 to Demetrianus; where he denies "that the Holy 
 Ghost is a distinct person in the Godhead, subsisting 
 
 * Method, apud Epiplian. in Panar. Hser. 54, quae est Orig. 
 p. 555. 
 
IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 291 
 
 together with the Father and the Son."* His other 
 errors are not so dangerous, and are indeed common 
 to him, with some other of the Fathers: as where he 
 3, that the angels defiled themselves with women; 
 and that from this their communion with them were 
 born demons, or devils ;f as likewise where he teaches, 
 "that the souls of men, after this life, are all shut up 
 together in one common prison, where they are to 
 continue till the day of judgment :"J and, "that our 
 Saviour Christ shall come again upon the earth, be- 
 fore the last and final resurrection; and that those 
 who shall then be found alive shall not die at all, but 
 shall be preserved alive, and shall beget an infinite 
 number of children, during the space of a thousand 
 years; living all of them peaceably together, in a 
 most happy city, which shall abound with all good 
 things, under the reign of our Saviour Jesus Christ, 
 and of some of the saints, who shall be raised from 
 the dead."§ 
 
 But what will you say, if Hilary also himself, who 
 flourished about the middle of the fourth century, has 
 tares also; which are the more observable in him, 
 in proportion as his estimation was greater among the 
 ancients. The principal and most dangerous of all is 
 that strange opinion which he held on the nature of 
 Christ's body, which he maintained had no sense or 
 fueling of those stripes and torments he suffered: 
 
 * Laetantius in libria suis, ut maxime in epistolis ad Demetri- 
 
 anum Spiritus mind oegal substantiam, ot errore Judaico 
 
 vel ad Patrem referri, vel ad Filium, et Banctificationem 
 
 ntrinaqne persons Bub ejus aomine demonstrari. — Hieron. ep. 66, 
 
 ad r 
 
 ■x. Firm. lib. 2. divin. Instit. cap. 16. 
 J Omni immnniqne enstodia detinentnr, d( 
 
 [uo maxim meritoruii examen. — 
 
 Id, lib, 7. cap, 21, 
 
 J Turn qui eront in corporibns vivi. non morientur, Bed | er 
 lem millc annoa infinitum multitndinem generabunt, &o., qui 
 itabuntur, ii proibunt viventabua velut Ju- 
 -. — /</. lib. 7, c. lii. 
 
292 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 
 
 "but that he really suffered indeed at that time when 
 he was beaten, and when he was hanged upon the 
 cross, and fastened to it, and died upon it: but that 
 this passion falling wholly upon his body, notwith- 
 standing that it was a real passion, yet did not show 
 upon him the nature of a passion; and that while the 
 furious strokes were dealt upon him, the strength and 
 vigour of his body received the force of the strokes 
 upon it, yet without any sense of pain. I shall con- 
 fess (says he) that the body of our Saviour had a 
 nature susceptible of our griefs, if the nature of our 
 body be such, as that it is able to tread upon the 
 water, and to walk upon the floods without sinking, or 
 without the waters yielding to our footsteps, when we 
 stand thereon: if it can penetrate solid bodies, or can 
 pass with ease through doors that are shut."* And 
 within two or three lines after he says, "Such is the 
 man sent from God, having a body capable of suffer- 
 ing, (for he really suffered,) but not having a nature 
 capable of pain. When the blows (said he, a little 
 before) fell upon him, or a stripe pierced his skin, it 
 brought indeed with it the violence and impetuosity 
 of passion, but yet it wrought no pain in him ; in like 
 manner as when a sword is thrust through and 
 through the water, or through and through the fire, it 
 goes through indeed, and pierces the water or the 
 fire, but it wounds it not ; these things having not a 
 nature that may be wounded or hurt, notwithstanding 
 that the nature of the sword be to work the said 
 
 * Passus quidem Dominus Jesus Christus dura caeditur, dum sus- 
 penditur, dum crucifigitur, dum moritur: sed in corpus irruens 
 passio, nee non fuit passio, nee tamen naturam passionis exercuit, 
 dum et paBnali ministerio ilia desaevit, et virtus corporis sine sensu 
 poense vim prance in se de&aevientis excepit; habuit sand illud 
 Domini corpus doloris nostri naturam, si corpus nostrum id na- 
 turae habet, ut calcet undas, et super fluctus eat, et non deprima- 
 tur ingressu, neque aquae insistentis vestigiis cedant : penetret 
 etiam solida, nee clausae domus obstaculis arceatur. — Hilar, de 
 Trinit. I. 10. 
 
IN DIVERS POINTS OB RELIGION. 293 
 
 effect."* In conclusion, that you may not think this 
 to be a sudden fancy, that he fell on by chance, be- 
 fore ho was aware, you must know that he repeats 
 the same thing in divers other places: as in his com- 
 ment on the fifty-third Psalm: "the passion of Christ 
 (says he) was undergone by him voluntarily, to make 
 an acknowledgment that pains were due; not that he 
 that suffered was at all pained by them."f And 
 again, in another place: "Christ is thought to have 
 felt pain, because he suffered; but he was really free 
 from all pain, because he is God."J 
 
 Only think now, to what all this tends, and what will 
 become of our salvation, if the passion of our Saviour 
 Christ, which is the only foundation whereon it is 
 built, were but a mere imaginary passion, without any 
 sense of pain at all. And, as one absurdity being 
 granted, there will necessarily others always follow 
 upon it, so has this strange peculiar fancy of his made 
 him corrupt and spoil the whole story of our Saviour's 
 passion. For he supposes that in that dismal night, 
 wherein Christ was delivered up for our sins, all his 
 anguish, his distress, and drops of bloody sweat, pro- 
 ceeded not from the consideration of the torments, 
 and the death which he was now going to suffer, (and 
 
 * Et homo illc cle Deo est, habens ad patiendum quidem corpus, 
 ut ] | nataram non habens ad dolendum. Naturae 
 
 enim propria ac .sued corpus illud est, quod in coelestem gloriam 
 
 transformatur in morte In quo quanms aut ictus incident, aut 
 
 minus descenderit, aut nodi concurrerint aut Buspensio elevarit, 
 afferunt quidem lieec impetum passionis, non tamen dolorem 
 
 runt: ut telum aliquod, aut aquam perforans, aut ignem 
 eompungens, aut aera vulnerans, omnes quidem has passi< 
 
 x hue infert, ut perforet, ut compungat, ut vulneret, Bed oa- 
 turam Buam in lia-c passio illata non i lum in natura non 
 
 i aquam forari, vel pungi ignem, vel aera vulnerari, quai 
 natura teli .-it vulnerare, compungere, et forare. — Hilar, de Trin, 
 I 10. 
 
 pta yolunl -'o) officio quidem ipsa Batie 
 
 patientem, &c. — Hilar, 
 
 Putatur d< patitur; caret ?erd doloribua ipse, quia 
 
 Deua j 
 
294 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 
 
 indeed according to his account, since he will not allow 
 him to have felt any pain, he ought not to be, nor in- 
 deed could be, in any agony,) but rather from the 
 fear he was under lest his disciples, being scandalized 
 at these sad sights, might possibly sin against the Holy 
 Ghost, by denying his Godhead; and that from hence 
 it was, that Peter, in his denial of his Master, used 
 these words: " Non novi hominem;" (I know him 
 not as a man,) because that whatsoever is spoken against 
 the Son of man may be forgiven.* So likewise in 
 these words of our Saviour, " my Father, if it be 
 possible, let this cup pass from me/' his opinion is, 
 that our Saviour did not here desire that he himself 
 might be delivered from his passion, but rather that 
 after he had suffered, his disciples might also suffer in 
 like manner ;"f that this cup might not rest at him, but 
 that it might pass on to his disciples also; that is to 
 say, that it might be drunk by them in the same man- 
 ner as he himself was now going to taste of it ; to wit, 
 without any touch of despair or distrust, and without 
 any sense of pain, or fear of death. 
 
 What could have been written more coldly, or more 
 disagreeing with the truth and simplicity of the gos- 
 pel? Yet I cannot sufficiently wonder at him, that 
 having thus rarefied the flesh of our Saviour Christ 
 into a spirit, he should in another place condense our 
 spirits into bodies. u There is nothing (says he) 
 which is not corporeal in its substance and creation, 
 &c. For the species of our souls themselves, whether 
 they be united to the body, or are separated from 
 
 * Scribit exterrendos, fugandos, negaturos; sed quia spiritus 
 blaspkemise nee hie, nee in eeternum remittitur, metuit ne se Deum 
 abnegent, quern csesum, et consputum, et crucifixum essent con- 
 templaturi; quae ratio servata est in Petro; qui cum negaturus esset, 
 ita negavit, Non novi homineni : quia dictum aliquod in filium liom- 
 inis remittitur. — Hilar, in Matth. can. 31. 
 
 f Transeat calix a me, id est, quomodo a me bibitur, ita ab iis 
 bibatur, sine spei dimdentia, sine sensu doloris, sine metu mortis, 
 &C. — Id. ibid. 
 
IN DIVERS T01NTS OF RELIGION. 295 
 
 them, have still a nature whose substance is corpo- 
 real."^ He believes also, that baptism does not cleanse 
 us from all our sins; and therefore he holds that all 
 men must at the last day pass through the fire.f 
 " We are then (says he) to endure an indefatigable 
 fire. Then is the time that we are to undergo those 
 grievous torments for the expiation of our sins, and 
 purging our souls. A sword shall pierce through the 
 soul of the blessed Virgin Mary, to the end that the 
 thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. Seeing, 
 therefore that that Virgin, who was capable of receiv- 
 ing God, shall taste of so severe a judgment, where 
 is he that dares desire to be judged of God?"J 
 
 I know not whether he might heretofore have per- 
 suaded any number of people to embrace this doc- 
 trine of his or not ; but sure I am, that were he alive 
 at this day, he would take but a useless piece of la- 
 bour in hand, if he should go about to win the Fran- 
 ciscan friars over to this belief. 
 
 Ambrose, one of the most firm pillars of the Church 
 in his time, is not more free than the rest from the 
 like failings. For first of all, he agrees with Hilary 
 in this last point, and maintains that all in general 
 shall be proved by fire at the last day; and that the 
 just shall pass through it, but that the unbelievers 
 shall continue in it: u After the end of the world, 
 (says he) the angels being sent forth to sever the good 
 from the bad, shall that baptism be performed ; when 
 
 * Nihil est quod non in substantia sun, etcrontiono. corporeum sit, 
 &c. Nam et animartun sire obtinentium corpora sive cor- 
 
 poribua exulantium, corpoream tames naturae Buaa substantiam sor- 
 tiuntur. \fatth. can, 5. 
 
 f Bat ergo quantum licet existimare, perfect® illms emundatio 
 . etiam post baptismi aquas reposita, e^c. — Id. in /'.v. lis, 
 
 J In quo (die Judicii) nobis est ille indefessus ignis obeundns, in 
 
 qu i subeunda Bunt gravia ilia expiandaa a peccatis animsa Bupplicia. 
 
 animam gladiua pertransibit, ut revelentur multorum 
 
 8i in judicii severitatem cripai Ills Dei Virgo 
 
 Tentnra est, desider audebit a Deo judicari? — 1<1. ibid. 
 
296 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 
 
 all iniquity shall be consumed in a furnace of fire, that 
 so the just may shine like the sun in the kingdom of 
 God their Father. And although a man be such a 
 one as Peter, or as John, yet nevertheless shall he be 
 baptized with this fire. For the great baptizer shall 
 come, (for so I call him, as the angel Gabriel did, say- 
 ing, 'he shall be great/) and shall see a multitude of 
 people standing before the gate of Paradise, and shall 
 brandish the fiery sword, and shall say unto those 
 who are on his right hand, who are not guilty of any 
 grievous sins, 'enter ye in,'" &c* 
 
 Ambrose says the same also in another place, where 
 he exempts none from this fiery trial, except our Sa- 
 viour Christ alone : " It is necessary (says he) that all 
 that desire to return into Paradise should be proved 
 by this fire. For it is not without some mystery that 
 it is written, that God having driven Adam and Eve 
 out of Paradise, placed at the entrance of Paradise a 
 flaming sword which turned every way. All must 
 pass through the flames, whether he be John the 
 Evangelist, whom our Saviour loved so much, that he 
 said, concerning him, to Peter, &c. Or whether it be 
 Peter himself, who had the keys of heaven committed 
 to him, and who walked upon the sea; he must be able 
 to say, ' we have passed through the fire,' &c. But 
 as for John, this brandishing of the flaming sword 
 will soon be dispatched for him, because there is no 
 iniquity found in him, who w r as so beloved of the 
 truth, &c. But the other (that is Peter) shall be tried 
 as silver is, and I shall be tried like lead: I shall burn 
 till all the lead is quite melted down, and if there be no 
 
 * Si quidem post consummationem soeculi missis angelis qui se- 
 gregent bonos et malos, hoc futurum est baptisma, quando per 
 caminum ignis iniquitas exuretur, ut in regno Dei fulgeant justi 
 sicut sol, in regno Patris sui. Et si aliquis ut Petrus sit, ut Jo- 
 hannes, baptizatur hoc igne. Veniet ergo Baptista Magnus, (sic 
 enim eum nomino, quo modo Gabriel, &c.) — Ambros. in Ps. 118, 
 Ser. 5. 
 
IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 297 
 
 silver at all found in roe, (wretched man that I am) I 
 shall be cast into the lowest pit of hell."* 
 
 As for the resurrection of the dead, Ambrose's 
 opinion is, that all shall not be raised at once, but by 
 degrees one after another, in a long yet certain order ;f 
 those who were believers rising first, according to the 
 degrees of their merits: to which we are to refer that 
 which he has elsewhere delivered, saying, that "those 
 who are raised up in the first resurrection, shall come 
 to grace, without judgment; but as for the rest, who 
 are reserved for the second resurrection, they shall 
 burn with fire till they have fulfilled the full space of 
 time between the first and the second resurrection; 
 or if they do not finish this time, they shall continue 
 very long in their torments. "J 
 
 I shall leave the reader to take the pains in exam- 
 ining whether or not that passage of his can be re- 
 conciled to any good sense, where he says, that before 
 the publication of the law of Moses, adultery was not 
 an unlawful thing: "we are to take notice in the first 
 place (says he) that Abraham living before the giving 
 of the law by Moses, and before the Gospel, in all 
 
 * Omnes oportet per ignein probari, quicunque ad Paradisum re- 
 dire desiderant. Non enim otiose scriptum est, quod ejectis Adam 
 el Kva posuit Dens in exitu Paradisi gladium igneum versatilem. 
 Omnee oportet tranaire per flammas, sive Joannes Evangelista sit, 
 quoin ita dilezit Dominus, ut de eo diceret ad Petrum, cSzc. Sive 
 ille sit Petras qnj clavefl accepit regni coeloruin, qui supra mare 
 ambnlayit, oportet dicat, Transivimua per ignem, &c. Sod Jbanni 
 cito versabitor igneus gladius, quia non invenitur in eo iniqoitae, 
 ^u mii dilexit ;c [uitas, &c. Bed ille (Petrus) examinabitnr at ar- 
 gentum; ego examinabor ut plombum, donee plumbum tabescal 
 si nihil argenti id me inventum fuerit, (lieu me) in ultima 
 inferni detrndar. — Id. in Ps. eund. ser. 20. 
 
 f Licet in momento resnscitentnr omnes, omnes tamenmeritorum 
 ordine suscitantur. — 1. /. <i> Fid. Resurrectionii. 
 
 X Beati qui habenl partem in prima resurrectione; teti enim sine 
 jndieio yeniunt ad gratiam. Qniantem non veniunl ad primam re- 
 icundam reservantur, isti orentnr donee bu- 
 rnt tempore inter primam et seenndam resurrectionem: ant si 
 non impleverint, dinting in snpplicio permanebnnt, — Id. in Ps. 1. 
 
 26 
 
298 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 
 
 probability, adultery was not as yet forbidden : the 
 crime is punished after the time of the law made 
 which forbids it ; for things are not condemned before 
 the law, but by the law;* and whether those discourses 
 of his, which you meet with in his books, " De Instit. 
 Virg. et ad Virg. et de Virg." and in other places, 
 do not much reflect upon the honourable state of mar- 
 riage. I shall also leave to the consideration of the 
 judicious reader whether there be more of solidity or 
 of subtlety in that exposition which he gives us of 
 the promise made by God to Noah after the flood ; 
 telling him that he had set his bow in the clouds, to 
 be a token of a covenant between him and the whole 
 earth. On these words Ambrose utterly and positively 
 denies that by this bow is meant the rainbow ; but 
 will have it to be I know not what strange allegorical 
 bow. "Far be it from us (says he) that we should 
 call this God's bow ; for this bow, which is called 'Iris, 
 is seen indeed in the day-time, but never appears at 
 all in the night. "f And therefore he understands by 
 this bow, the invisible power of God, by which he 
 keeps all things in one certain measure, enlarging 
 and abating it as he sees cause. Neither do I know 
 whether that opinion of his, which you have in his 
 first book "De Spiritu Sancto" is at all more justifi- 
 able, where he affirms that " baptism is available and 
 legitimate, although a man should baptize in the name 
 either of the Son or of the Holy Ghost only, without 
 mentioning the other two persons of the Trinity. "J 
 Epiphanius, as he was a man of a very good, hon- 
 
 * Sed consideremus primum, quia Abraham ante legem Moysis et 
 ante Evangelium fuit, nondum interdictum adulterium videbatur. 
 Poena criminis ex tempore legis est, quae crimen inkibuit, nee ante 
 legem ulla rei damnatio est, sed ex lege. — Ambros. I. 1. de. Abr. 
 Patr. c. 4. 
 
 f Absit ut hunc arcum Dei dicamus ; hie enim arcus, qui Iris 
 dicitur, per diem videri solet, per noetem non apparet, &c. Est 
 ergo virtus invisibilis Dei, &c. — Id. lib. de Noe, et Area, c. 27. 
 
 $ Id. lib. 1. de Spir. Sanct. cap. 3. 
 
IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 299 
 
 est, and plain nature, and (if I may be permitted to 
 speak my own opinion) a little too credulous, and 
 moreover very sanguine and fierce in maintaining 
 whatever he thought was right and true; so has he 
 the more easily been induced to deliver and to receive 
 things for sound which yet were not so ; and pertina- 
 ciously to defend them, after he had once embraced 
 them. It would take up both too much time and 
 paper, if I were to enumerate all those things wherein 
 he failed: if you choose you may have an account of 
 a number of them in the notes of the Jesuit Petavius, 
 his interpreter; who takes the liberty to correct him 
 frequently, and sometimes also very rudely. Thus 
 first of all he accuses him of obscurity, and of false- 
 hood also, in the opinion he held on the year and day 
 of our Saviour's nativity;* saying that some of his 
 expressions regarding this point, are more obscure 
 and dark than the riddles of the Sphinx. Truly he 
 has reason enough to say so, of what he has delivered 
 on the year of our Saviour's nativity ; but as for the 
 day of that year, whether it were the sixth of Janua- 
 ry, as Epiphanius held, with the Church of Egypt ;f 
 or else it were the twenty-fifth of December, which is 
 the general opinion at this day ; I think it very great 
 rashness for any man to affirm either the one or the 
 other; neither of these opinions having any better 
 ground than the other. He likewise in plain terms 
 gives him the lie, upon that place where he says that 
 "in the beginning of the Church the Apostles had 
 ordained that the Christains should celebrate the Pass- 
 over at the same time and in the same manner as 
 those of the Circumcision did ; and that those who 
 were then made bishops at Jerusalem being of the 
 Circumcision, it was necessary that all the w T orld 
 should follow them, and should likewise keep the 
 
 * Petav, in Rpiphan. p. 127, 182. 
 
 f Epiphan. Haer. 0], quae est Alog. T. 1. p. 44G. 
 
300 THE FATHERS HAVE EKRED 
 
 Passover as they did."* Neither do I see whereon 
 he could ground that fancy of his, which he proposes 
 to us as a certain truth : " that the devil, before the 
 coming of Christ, was in hopes of grace and pardon ; 
 and that out of this persuasion of his, he never show T ed 
 himself all that while refractory towards God ; but 
 that having understood, by the manifestation of our 
 Saviour, that there was left him no hope of salvation, 
 he from thenceforth had grown exceedingly enraged, 
 doing as much mischief as he possibly could against 
 Christ and his Church." 3 Hxooe jap dec tcov npocprjTcov 
 xarajjelXovrcov too Xpcaroo Ttapou&iav Xorpwacv saofi- 
 evrjV tcov apapzrjGavTwv, xac Sea Xpcaroo peravooo^rcoPj 
 kvo/ju^e re reozsadac tcvoq klzouq. c Ore Se eiSev b 
 TaAa<z tod XptOTOV prj Se^apevov abzoo nqv rcepc 
 
 GLOT'qpta.C, iTZCGTpOCpTjV, &C.f 
 
 Jerome, the boldest and most judicious censurer of 
 the ancients, has also left to posterity something, 
 whereon they may exercise the same sacred criticism 
 that he has so happily employed upon others. For 
 how should a man be able to make good that which 
 he has affirmed so positively, respecting God's provi- 
 dence, where he says, that it takes care of all men 
 indeed in general, and also of each particular man ; 
 but not of other things, whether they be inanimate 
 or irrational? "It is an absurd thing (says he) so to 
 abase the majesty of God, as to make him take par- 
 ticular notice how many gnats are bred, or die every 
 hour; and how many bugs, fleas, and flies there are 
 through the whole earth: and how many fishes swim 
 in the water; and which among the smaller fishes 
 are to be a prey to the greater. Let us not be such 
 foolish flatterers of God, as, by making his power 
 descend even to the lowest things, to disparage our- 
 selves; while we say, that his providence in like 
 
 * Petav. Ibid, ad Hser. 70, num. 10. 
 f Epiphan. in Pan. cap. 1. Raer. 39. 
 
IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 301 
 
 manner extends both to rational and irrational crea- 
 tures."* 
 
 I shall not examine here whether this opinion be 
 justifiable or not: but this I am sure of, that you will 
 hardly be able to make it good out of these words of 
 our Saviour Christ — "are not two sparrows sold for 
 a farthing? and yet one of them shall not fall on the 
 ground without your Father." Yet supposing that 
 this opinion might be defended, it is however evident 
 that this Father has dashed out a little too much, 
 when he derides all those as fools and absurd people, 
 who choose rather to adore the knowledge of God as 
 infinite, than to bound it and make it finite: and for 
 my part I should rather fear that there would be 
 much more rashness in the one, than folly in the 
 other. 
 
 This same man, who here limits the knowledge and 
 providence of God, in another place extends to in- 
 finity the presence of the souls of departed saints; not 
 by any means suffering them to be confined and shut 
 up in any certain place. The reason which he gives 
 of this his opinion is indeed very wonderful: for 
 "they always follow the Lamb (says he) wherever he 
 goes; forasmuch therefore as the Lamb is present 
 everywhere, we ought to believe that they also who 
 are with the Lamb are present everywhere. "f 
 
 Where is the school of logic, however loose and 
 remiss it may be, that would not give a scholar the 
 
 * Caeterfcm absurdum est ad hoc Dei dedueere majestatem, ut 
 aciat per Bingula momenta quot nascantur culices, quotve moriantur, 
 qnot cimicum et pulicum et muscarum Bit in terra multitudo, quanta 
 - in aqua patent, et qui de minoribus majorum prsedee cedere 
 debeant. Non Bimus tarn fatuj adolatoree J )<i, at dum potentiam 
 ejus ad una d< trahimus, in qos ipsoe Lnjuriosi Bimus, eandem ration* 
 abilium qnam Lrrationabilium providentiam ease dicentes. — Hicr. 
 ll'jin. 1, ni Abac, 
 
 f Sequuntur Agnnm quocumque vadit: si Agnus abique, kc. et 
 sic qui cum Agno Bunt, abique esse credendi sunt. — -Hier. centra 
 Vigil, torn. 2, p, 161. 
 
 2G* 
 
302 THE FATHERS HAVE ERREI> 
 
 ferula, if he should but offer to argue thus, confound- 
 ing the divinity and the humanity of our Saviour 
 together; and from that which is spoken in respect of 
 the one, concluding that which is proper to the other? 
 So in another place, in order to accommodate all the 
 parts of an allegory to his purpose, he makes the 
 souls of the blessed saints, and of the angels them- 
 selves, subject to sin.* 
 
 I shall pass by what he has spoken so reproach- 
 fully, both against marriage in general, and against 
 second marriages in particular ; where he uses such 
 harsh expressions, that though we should, in explain- 
 ing them, follow those very rules which he himself 
 has laid down in an epistle of his written to Pamma- 
 chius on this very subject — it seems notwithstanding 
 an impossible thing to acquit him of holding the same 
 opinion on marriage as Tertullian did, which was 
 condemned by the Church as being contrary to the 
 honour of marriage and the authority of the Scrip- 
 ture. As for example, how much honey or sugar 
 would be sufficient to sweeten that which he says, 
 writing to a certain widow, named Furia, where he 
 tells her, u that she was not so worthy to be com- 
 mended, if she continued a widow, as she would be 
 to be cursed if she married again: seeing she was not 
 able, being a Christian, to preserve that which many 
 women of her family had done, being but Pagans. "f 
 These expressions of his he repeats again in the fol- 
 lowing epistle, where he dissuades Ageruchia from 
 marrying again ;{ and for this purpose makes use of 
 
 * Nulli periculosum, nulli videatur esse blasphemum, quod et in 
 apostolos invidise venerium diximus potuisse subrepere, cum etiam 
 de angelis hoc dictum putamus, &c. — Id. ep. 164, ad Pam. t. 3. p. 
 210. 
 
 j- Ut non tarn laudanda si vidua perseveres, quam execranda, si 
 id Christiana non serves, quod per tanta saecula Gentiles foeminaB 
 custodierunt. — Mox p. 90; Canis revertens ad vomitum, et sus lota 
 ad volutabrum luti. — Id. ep. 10. ad Fur. t. 1, p. 89 & 101. 
 
 J Hsec brevi sermone perstrinxi, ut ostendam adolescentulam 
 
IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 303 
 
 very unseemly comparisons; applying to those women 
 who marry again, that proverb which Peter made use 
 of in another sense — u the dog is turned to his own 
 vomit again, and the sow that w T as washed to her wal- 
 lowing in the mire. ,, Is not this the same as if he in 
 plain terms ranked second marriages among unclean 
 and polluted things? Not unlike this is that which 
 he says in another place in these words: "I do not at 
 all condemn those who marry the second, third, or (if 
 any such thing may be) the eighth time : nay, more 
 than this, I receive also even a penitent harlot/'* 
 Thus he places those women that marry a second 
 time, in the same rank as those that submit to prosti- 
 tution. And he is so full of such expressions as these, 
 that the w T hole Canary islands themselves would 
 hardly be sufficient to sweeten them. 
 
 Certainly if Jerome had not believed that there 
 was some uncleanness in marriage, he would never 
 have been so unwilling as he was to speak out, and 
 confess in plain terms that Adam should nevertheless 
 have had carnal knowledge of Eve his wife, though 
 they had both of them continued in their state of in- 
 nocence :f which thing is evident enough to any one 
 that considers the second chapter of Genesis, from 
 verse 18, to the end. Nevertheless this Father durst 
 not positively affirm any such thing, fearing lest he 
 might thus impose some uncleanness upon the state 
 of innocence, in case he should have allowed them the 
 use of marriage. Nor is his opinion more sound, on 
 the eating of flesh, which being unknown to the world 
 
 meam non prastare monogamiam generi suo, Bed reddere; nee tnm 
 laudandam esse a tribuit, quam omnibus execrandam si negare ten- 
 it — hi. ep. 11. ad Ageruch. t. l,/>. 101. 
 * Non damno digamos, imo nee trigamos, etsi dici potest oetog 
 [uid inferam, etiam seortantem recipio poenitentem. 
 — Id. 1. 1. adv. J • ni. ]>. 4. 
 
 fcuod n objeeeris, anteqnani peccarent, sexum viri el foeminse 
 fuisse diyisum, et absque peccatoeos potuisse eonjungi, quid i'utu- 
 rum fuerit inoertum est, &e. — 1<L lib. 1. adv. Jovin.p. 61. 
 
304 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 
 
 before the flood, was afterwards permitted to man- 
 kind; but (as he believes) in the very same manner as 
 divorce was heretofore permitted to the Jews, only 
 from the hardness of their hearts; whence it follows 
 (as he also says in express terms) that it was abolished 
 by our Saviour Christ, in the same manner as divorce 
 and circumcision were. "And whereas it is objected 
 against us by Jovinian, that God, in the second bene- 
 diction, permitted the eating of flesh, which he did 
 not in the first; let him know, that as the liberty to 
 put away a man's wife, according to the words of our 
 Saviour, was not granted from the beginning, but was 
 afterwards permitted to mankind, for the hardness of 
 their heart; in like manner was the eating of flesh 
 unknown until the flood: but after the flood, the 
 sinews and poisonous juices of flesh were thrust into 
 our mouths, as the quails were given to the people of 
 Israel murmuring in the wilderness. "* Certainly 
 divorce is a thing which is evil in itself, and is con- 
 trary to the creation of the man and woman, and to 
 marriage also, which was instituted by God in Para- 
 dise ; as is divinely proved by our Saviour, when dis- 
 puting with the Jews on this point. If therefore the 
 eating of flesh be like it, this also is evil and unlawful 
 in itself. Marcion and the Manichees could hardly 
 have said more than this. 
 
 In another place Jerome seems to be of opinion 
 that our Saviour has utterly forbidden the use of an 
 oath to Christians, f which doctrine is evidently con- 
 
 * Quod autem nobis objicit in secunda Dei benedictione comeden- 
 darum carnium licentiam datam, quae in prima concessanonfuerat; 
 sciat, quomodo repudium juxta eloquium Salvatoris ab initio non 
 dabatur, sed propter duritiem cordis nostri per Moysem humano ge- 
 neri concessum est, sic et esum carnium usque ad diluvium ignotum 
 fuisse ; post diluvium vero quasi in eremo murmuranti populo cotur- 
 nices, ita dentibus nostris nervos, et virulentias carnis ingestas. — 
 Hieron. lib. 1. adv. Jovin. 
 
 f Hoc quasi parvulis Judasis fuerat lege concessum, ut quo modo 
 victimas immolabant Deo, ne eas idolis immolarent, sic et jurare 
 
IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 305 
 
 trarr both to the Scripture and to reason. It will be 
 a difficult matter also to clear him from the suspicion 
 of that error, some traces of which, we have observed 
 before, are apparent in Cyprian, respecting the efficacy 
 of the sacraments. For only hear what he says. 
 "The priests also, (says he) who serve at the Eucha- 
 rist, and distribute the blood of our Saviour to his 
 people, commit a great impiety against the law of 
 Christ, in thinking ihat the Eucharist is made by the 
 words and not by the life of the person who conse- 
 crates it; and that the solemn prayers only of the 
 priests are necessary, and not their merits also."* 
 
 On the state of the blessed after the resurrection, 
 he says, though very faintly, that they shall live with- 
 out eating. "What then, will you say (these are his 
 own words,) shall we eat after the resurrection? I 
 know not that, I confess; for we find no such thing 
 written: yet if I were to speak my opinion, I do not 
 think we shall eat."f 
 
 To give a judgment in general of this author, I do 
 not know whether we may allow as being good, and 
 perfectly conformable to the discipline of our Saviour 
 Christ, the course which he usually observes in his 
 disputations, wresting the words of his adversaries 
 from the authors' intention; and framing to himself 
 such a sense as is not to be found in them; and then 
 fiercely 'encountering this giant of his own making, 
 mixing with it abusive language and sarcasms, and 
 
 permitterentur in Dcum: non quod recte hoc facerent. Bed quod 
 meli Deo id exhibere, quaui dsemonibus. Evangelica autem 
 
 reritafl non reciptjuramentum, &c. — Hter. Com. in Matth. t. 6./>. L6. 
 
 * Sacordotes quoqne qui Eueharistia Berviuntj el Banguineni 
 Domini populia ejus dividunt, impie agunl in Legem Christi, putan- 
 t. - BueharietiaiD imprecantu facere verba, non ri tarn; el necessa- 
 rian] Aennem orationem, et non Bacerdotum merits* — ■ 
 Id. Com. v 189. 
 
 f Ergo, inquies, el noe poei resurrectionem eomesuri sumus ! Nes- 
 cio; non enim BCiiptom est; el tamen n qusBiitar, non puto come- 
 euroe, — Id. ep. Gl, ad Pammaeh* t. '2, p. 262. 
 
306 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 
 
 tart expressions borrowed from profane authors ; in 
 which kind of learning he was indeed very eminent. 
 
 Augustine, in the contest he had with him,* said 
 that the holy ceremonies of the Jews, though they 
 were abolished by Jesus Christ, might yet notwith- 
 standing in the beginning of Christianity, be observed 
 by those who had been brought up in them from their 
 infancy, even after they had believed in Jesus Christ, 
 provided they did not put their trust in them : because 
 that salvation which was signified by these holy 
 ceremonies, was imparted to us by Jesus Christ ; which 
 doctrine of his is both godly and consonant also to 
 what is urged by Paul, in the first epistle to the Co- 
 rinthians, and elsewhere, respecting Christian liberty, 
 which both permits and commands us to use or abstain 
 from such things as are in themselves indifferent, ac- 
 cording as shall be requisite for the edification of our 
 neighbour. Now Jerome here would make us believe, 
 that his meaning is, that all those who believed, among 
 the Jews, were subject to the law, and that the Gen* 
 tiles were the only people whom the faith in Christ 
 had exempted from this yoke.f Then presently he 
 takes occasion to pass as tart and cutting a sarcasm 
 upon him as he could ; saying, that since it was so 
 that all the believers among the Jews were bound to 
 observe the law, Augustine himself, who was the 
 most eminent bishop in the whole world, ought to 
 publish this his opinion/ and to endeavour to bring 
 over all his fellow bishops to be of his mind. But he 
 had then to deal with an able adversary, and one that 
 knew well enough how to clear his words from that 
 interpretation which the other had put upon them, 
 and to retort upon him whatever he had impertinently 
 
 * Aug. Ep. ad Hier. quae est 87, inter Ep. Hier. torn. 2. p. 518. 
 
 f Hoc si placet, imo quia placet, ut quicunque credunt ex Judasis 
 debitores sint legis faciendae ; tu, ut Episcopus in toto orbe notissi- 
 mus, debes hanc promulgare sententiam, et in assensum tuum om- 
 nes coepiscopos trahere. — Hier. Ep. 89, ad Aug. t. 2, p. 525. 
 
IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 307 
 
 urged against him; as any man may perceive in that 
 excellent and divine answer of his to Jerome, on this 
 point, and the whole substance of his letters.* The 
 case was otherwise between him and Ruffinus: for 
 there he grappled with one much below his match, 
 and dealt his blows upon a mere wooden statue; one 
 that had scarcely any reason in what he said, and yet 
 much less dexterity in defending himself. But the 
 sport of it is, to see that after he has handsomely be- 
 laboured and goaded this pitiful thing, from head to 
 foot, and sometimes till the blood followed, he at 
 length protests, at the end of his first book, "that he 
 had spared him for the love of God, and that he had 
 not afforded words to his troubled breast, and had set 
 a watch before his mouth; according to the example 
 of the Psalmist. "f 
 
 In another place he reads him a long lecture,! tell- 
 ing him that they w r ere not to use railing language in 
 their disputations, nor to leave the question in hand; 
 and to labour to bring in what accusations they could 
 against each other, which are more proper at the bar 
 than in the church, and fitter to fill a lawyer's bill 
 than a churchman's papers. 
 
 'Tis true indeed, that those who have been galled 
 by him, are themselves to blame; forasmuch as he, 
 out of his own candid disposition, courteously gave 
 them warning himself; telling them beforehand, "that 
 those that meddled with him had to do with a horned 
 beast. "§ Yet some perhaps may still very much won- 
 der how it should come to pass, that all those w T atch- 
 
 * Aug. Ep. ad Hier. qtue est 07, inter Ep. Ilier. torn. 2. p. 560. 
 f Sentisne quid taceam, quod eestuanti pectori verba oon commo- 
 demt etcum Psalmists loquar, Pone Domine oustodiam ori meo, 
 -Hier. lib. 1. contra Ruff. t. %p. 311. 
 
 ;t causa in supernua criminum objections versatus 
 \m ecclesiastic®, sed libelli debent Judicium con- 
 tiuere. — Id. in ApoL adv. Ruff. U >73. 
 
 | ll ..• anum denuncio, et repetens iternm iterumque monebo, 
 cornutam bestiam petis. — Id. ApoL 1, contra Ruff. t. 2, p. 811. 
 
308 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 
 
 ings and that strict discipline which he endured in 
 Bethlehem and the Desert of Arabia, should not have 
 mortified these horns: to which I have no more to 
 say than this ; that God by a certain secret and wise 
 judgment, has suffered these holy men, notwithstand- 
 ing all those excellent gifts of charity, patience, and 
 meekness, wherewith they were abundantly endued, 
 sometimes to let fall such slips as these on particular 
 occasions; to let us understand, that there is nothing 
 absolutely perfect but Grod alone ; all men, however 
 accomplished, carrying about them some relics of hu- 
 man infirmity. 
 
 However it be, this course of Jerome's makes me 
 doubt whether he has dealt any better with others 
 than he has with Augustine, wresting their words 
 much further than he ought to have done. But some- 
 times he goes further yet, and speaks even of the pen- 
 men of the Old and New Testament in such a disre- 
 spectful manner, that I am very dissatisfied with his 
 proceedings. As for example, where he says, in plain 
 terms, without any circumlocution, that "the inscrip- 
 tion of the altar at Athens was not expressed in those 
 very words which were delivered by Paul, in Acts 
 xvii. TO the unknown GOD; but in other terms thus; 
 
 TO THE GODS OF EUROPE, ASIA AND AFRICA; UNKNOWN 
 
 and foreign gods.* So likewise where he tells us, 
 and repeats the same too in many several places, that 
 Paul knew not how to speak, nor to make a discourse 
 hang together :f and u that he makes solecisms some- 
 times; and that he knew not how to render a hyber- 
 baton, nor to conclude a sentence :"$ and "that he 
 
 * Tnscriptio autem arae non ita erat, Tit Paulus asseruit, ignoto 
 deo; sed ita: deis europje, asije, et Africa, deis ignotis et 
 peregrinis. — Hier. Com. in Ep. ad Tit. t. 6. p. 450. 
 
 f Hebrseus ex Hebrseis profundos sensus aliena lingua exprimere 
 non valebat. — Hier. Com. 3, in Ep. ad Gal. p. 348, t. 6. 
 
 % Iste qui solcecismos in verbis facit, qui non potest hyperbaton 
 reddere, sententiainque concludere, audacter sibi vendicat sapien- 
 tiam, &c. — Id. Comm. 2, in Ep. ad Ephes. t. 6. p. 384. 
 
IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 309 
 
 was not able to express his own deep conceptions in 
 the Greek tongue: and that he had no good utterance, 
 but had much ado to deliver his mind."* Again, in 
 another place he tells us, that "it was not out of mo- 
 desty, but it was the plain, naked truth that he told 
 us, when the apostle said of himself, that he was im- 
 peritus sermone, (rude in speech ;) because the truth 
 is, he could not deliver his mind to others in clear 
 language."! 
 
 He says moreover, (which is yet much worse than 
 all the rest) that "the apostle, disputing with the Ga- 
 latians, became a fool, as knowing them to be a dull, 
 heavy people; and that he had let fall some such ex- 
 pressions as might possibly have offended the more 
 intelligent sort of people, had he not beforehand told 
 them, that he spake after the manner of men. "J Who- 
 soever shall have had but the least taste of the force 
 and vigour, and of the candour of the spirit and dis- 
 course of this holy apostle, can never see him thus 
 used, without being extremely astonished at it: espe- 
 cially if he but consider, that this kind of speeches, 
 although they had perhaps some ground (which yet 
 they have not,) must needs give offence to the weaker 
 sort of people; and therefore ought not to have been 
 
 * Qui non juxta humilitatem, ut pleriqueaestimant, sed vere dixe- 
 rit, imperitus sermone, non tamen scientia, Hebrous ex Hebraais, 
 indos sensus Grace sermone non explicat, et quid cogitat, 
 in verba viz promit. — Com. in Ep. ad Tit. t. 6. p. 440. 
 
 f Illud, &c. etei imperitus sermone, &c. nequaquam Paulura de 
 humilitate sed de conscienti© Yeritate, dixisse ; profundos enim et 
 reconditoa Bensus Lingua non explicat, et cum ipse Bentiat, quid lo- 
 quatur, in alienae aures puro non potest transferee sermone — Ep, 
 >. LO, /. 3. p. L67. 
 J Apostolus Gtalatifl quoque, quos paulo ante Btultoa dixerat, fac- 
 to- esl stultus; non enim ad eoe h£e usus sal argumentis, quibus 
 -■ '1 Bimplicioribus, et qua; stulti possenl intellig< 
 
 at de trivio (Jnde manifestum est i<l Pecisse Aposto- 
 
 lum quod promisit nee reconditig ad Galatas usutn esse sensibusj 
 li mis, et \ ilibus, ei qumpossent, nisi promisisset, "secun- 
 dum bominem dico," prudentibus displicere. — Id, Cum. 1. Ep, ad 
 G . . • . , . -."1, 806. 
 27 
 
810 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 
 
 uttered, without some qualification and softening 
 down. 
 
 Augustine, I confess, is much more discreet in this 
 particular, everywhere testifying (as there is very 
 great reason he should) the great respect he bare to 
 the authors of the books of the Holy Scriptures, and 
 never speaking of any of them, whether of their style 
 or sense, without singular admiration. But as to 
 his private opinions, and those of other men which 
 he embraces, he is not without his eirors also. Such 
 is that harsh sentence of his, which he has pronounced 
 upon all infants that die before baptism; whom he 
 will have not only to be deprived of the vision of 
 God, which is the punishment to which the ordinary 
 opinion condemns them ; but he will further have 
 them to be tormented in hell.* In this he is also fol- 
 lowed by Gregorius Ariminensis, a famous doctor in 
 the schools,f where he is called, by reason of this 
 rigour of his, Tormentum infantium. Augustine 
 maintains also, that the Eucharist is necessary for 
 infants, as we have formerly noted to another pur- 
 pose. To which we must also add that opinion to 
 which he evidently inclines, that the soul is derived 
 from father to son, J and is engendered of his sub- 
 stance as well as the body, and is not immediately 
 created by God, which is the common opinion at this 
 day. There is no man but knows that he everywhere 
 attributes to the angels a corporeal nature ;§ and also 
 that he conceives, against all sense and reason, that 
 the whole world was created all in an instant of time;|| 
 and refers the six days' space of time, wherein the 
 creation is said to have been perfected, to the differ- 
 
 * Aug. t. 10. Ser. 14. de verb. Apostoli. 
 
 f Greg. Arim. in 2, sent. d. 33. q. 3. 
 
 % Aug. t, 2. Ep. 28. tot. mox F. 21. M. T. 3. de Gen. ad lit. lib. 
 10. c. 11. t. 7. c. 2, de An. et ejus Grig. c. 14. 
 
 § See also toward the latter end of this chapter. — Id. t. 1. I. 1. 
 contr. Acad. c. 7. 
 
 || Id. t. 3. 1. imperf. de Gen. ad lit. c. 7. etlib. 4. de Gen. ad lit. 
 c. 31—34, et 1. 5. c. 11. 
 
IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 311 
 
 ent degrees of the knowledge of the angels. He be- 
 lieved also, with most of the ancient Fathers, that the 
 souls of men departed are shut into I know not what 
 secret dark receptacles, where they are to remain 
 from the hour of their departure till the resurrec- 
 tion.* 
 
 We need not trouble ourselves any further in prov- 
 ing that he also might err in matters of religion, see- 
 ing that himself has made so clear and so authentic a 
 confession thereof, in his Retractations, where he cor- 
 rects many things which he had formerly written 
 either foreign to or against the truth. 
 
 I must here confess also, that in my opinion it 
 would have added very much to the great and high 
 esteem which we generally have of his learning and 
 worth, if he had been more positive and more re- 
 solved in the decision of matters which he has treated, 
 for the most part after the manner of the Academics, 
 doubtingly, and w T averingly all the way; insomuch 
 that he leaves undecided not only whether the sun 
 and the other stars be endued with reason, but also 
 whether the world itself be a living creature or not.f 
 
 lie that will but critically and carefully read the 
 rest of the Fathers, may very easily observe in their 
 writings various errors of a similar nature; and a 
 man will scarcely meet with any one Father of re- 
 pute, from whom something of this kind has not es- 
 caped. As for my own part, who have taken upon 
 me this troublesome subject very unwillingly, I shall 
 content myself with these few instances already set 
 down, seeing they do, in my judgment, make this 
 business very clear; the discovery whereof I have 
 
 * Tempos quod inter hominis mortem ft ultimam resurrectionem 
 
 interpositom est, animaa abditis receptaculis continet, &o. — Id, t. 
 
 id Laur. cap. 109. Vid . I. c. curd pro morluu. c, 
 
 . f> i, c. L2. t. 9. /' ■ . 19. in Joan. fol. 7 1. 
 
 f H. t. 8. Enohir. ad Laur. c. 58. de Gen. ad lit. 1. 2. o. lb. Id. L 
 
 1. Retract c. 11. 
 
312 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 
 
 been obliged to undertake, though I wish rather they 
 had been concealed. For seeing that these so emi- 
 nent persons, who were of the greatest repute 
 amongst all the ancients, have through human in- 
 firmity fallen into such errors in point of faith; what 
 ought we to expect from others who come much be- 
 hind these in antiquity, learning, and holiness of life? 
 Since Justin Martyr, Irenseus, Clemens Alexandri- 
 nus, Tertullian, Cyprian, Lactantius, Hilary, Am- 
 brose, Jerome, Augustine, and Epiphanius, (that is to 
 say, the most eminent and most approved persons 
 that ever were,) have yet stumbled in many places, 
 and utterly failed in others ; what are we to expect of 
 Cyril, Leo, Gregorius Romanus, and Damascene, who 
 have come after them, and in whom has appeared 
 both much less talent and sanctity, than in the 
 former? Besides, if these holy men have been mis- 
 taken in matters of such great importance; (some of 
 them, for instance, on the nature of God ; some on 
 the humanity of our Saviour Christ; others on the 
 quality of our souls ; and some on the state and con- 
 dition thereof after death, and on the resurrection;) 
 why must they needs be infallible, when they speak 
 of the points now disputed amongst us ? Why may 
 not the same thing have happened to them in the one 
 case that has so manifestly befallen them in the 
 other? It is not probable (as we have said before) 
 that they so much as ever thought of our differences: 
 and it is much more improbable, that ever they had 
 any intention of being our judges in the decision of 
 them, as we have before proved. 
 
 But now suppose, that they were acquainted with 
 the business, and that they did intend to clear our 
 doubts, and to give us their positive determination, 
 regarding the same in their books; who shall assure 
 us that they have had better success here than they 
 had in so many other things, wherein we have before 
 heard them give their verdict so utterly against all 
 
IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 313 
 
 justice and reason? He that has erred on the sub- 
 ject of the resurrection, is it not possible that he 
 should be in an error on the state of the soul after 
 this life? He that could be ignorant of the nature of 
 Christ's body, must he necessarily have a right judg- 
 ment on the eucharist? I do not see what solid 
 reason of this difference can possibly be given. It 
 cannot proceed but from one of these two causes, 
 neither of which has yet any place here. For it 
 happens sometimes that he who has failed on one sub- 
 ject, has succeeded better on another; by reason per- 
 haps of his taking more heed to, and using more 
 attention in the consideration of the latter than he 
 did in the former; or else because one of the points is 
 easier to be understood than the other. For in this 
 case, though his attention be as great in the one as in 
 the other, yet notwithstanding he may perhaps be 
 able to understand the easy one, but shall not be able 
 to master the difficult one. But now, neither of these 
 reasons can be alleged here: for why should the an- 
 cients have used less care and attention in the exami- 
 nation of those points wherein they have erred? Or 
 why should they have used more in those points, 
 which are at' this day controverted amongst us? Are 
 not those ancient points of religion of as great im- 
 portance as these latter? Is there less danger in 
 being ignorant of the nature of God, than of the au- 
 thority of the Pope? or of the state of the faithful in 
 the resurrection, than of the punishment of souls in 
 purgatory; the real qualities of the body of Christ, 
 than the nature of the eucharist; the cup of his pas- 
 sion, than the cup of his communion? Is it more ne- 
 cessary to salvation to know him sacrificed upon the 
 altar, than really suffering upon the cross? Who 
 sees not that these matters are of equal importance? 
 or if there be any difference betwixt them, that those 
 points wherein the Fathers have erred, are in some 
 27* 
 
314 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 
 
 sort more important than those which we now dis- 
 pute about? 
 
 We shall therefore conclude, that if they had both 
 before their eyes, they would questionless have used 
 as much diligence at least, and attention in the study 
 of the one as of the other; and consequently in all 
 probability would have been either as successful, or 
 else have erred as much in the one as in the other. 
 
 Neither may it be here objected, that those points 
 wherein they have failed, are of more difficulty than 
 those others wherein these men will needs have them 
 to have been certainly in the right: for whosoever 
 shall only consider them more narrowly, will find 
 that they are equally easy and difficult : or if there be 
 any difference betwixt them in this particular, those 
 which they have erred in, were the easier of the two 
 to have been known. For I pray, is it not as easy to 
 judge by reason, and by the Scripture, whether or 
 not the saints shall dwell upon earth after the resur- 
 rection, as it is to determine whether, after they are 
 departed this life, they shall go into purgatory or 
 not? Is it a harder matter to know whether the 
 angels are capable of carnal love, than it is to judge 
 whether the Pope, as he is Pope, be infallible or not? 
 And if it be answered here, that the Church having 
 already determined these latter points, and having 
 not declared itself at all touching the other, has taken 
 away all the difficulty of the one, but has left the 
 other in their former doubtful state, this is to beg the 
 question; or rather it is manifestly false: the Church 
 in the first ages having not, to our knowledge, passed 
 any public or authentic judgment on the points now 
 controverted, as we have already proved. 
 
 As therefore these holy men, if they had any 
 thought at all of our present disputes, had an equally 
 clear insight in these things, and according to all 
 reason and all probability, applied to them an equal 
 attention and affection; I believe that there is no 
 
IN DIVERS TOINTS OF RELIGION. 315 
 
 man but sees, that if they might err in the decision of 
 the one, it is altogether as possible that they might 
 be mistaken also in their judgment upon the other. 
 Now those books of theirs, which are left us, proclaim 
 aloud and openly, (as we have seen by those few tes- 
 timonies, which we have but just now produced out of 
 them,) that they have erred, and sometimes also very 
 grievously, on those first questions : it remains there- 
 fore to say, that their judgment is not a whit more 
 infallible in our present controversies. Should you 
 therefore demonstrate to any Protestant, by clear and 
 undeniable reasons, that Hilary, in those passages 
 which are produced out of his works for this purpose, 
 has positively taught the real presence of Christ in 
 the eucharist; and should he even grant you the 
 same; which yet perhaps he will never do; after all, 
 he has this still to remind you of, that this is the self- 
 same Hilary, who in the same book maintains, that 
 the body of Christ felt no pain upon the cross. And 
 if he was in error in this particular, why must he ne- 
 cessarily be right in the other? The question on the 
 body of Christ is of as great importance as that of 
 the eucharist: and it is besides much more clearly de- 
 cided in the Scriptures ; where there is nothing that 
 obliges us in the least degree to fancy any such thing 
 of the body of Christ, as Hilary has done: but where, 
 on the contrary, there seems to be some kind of 
 ground for the opinion which he is pretended to have 
 had on the eucharist. Since therefore, (will the Pro- 
 testant say) in a thing which is of equal importance, 
 and of much less difficulty, he has manifestly erred, 
 w 7 ho can assure me, that in this point, which is both 
 less necessary and more difficult, he may not also be 
 mistaken? The same has he to reply upon you, on 
 those other allegations, which you produce from the 
 rest of the Fathers; every one of whom has either 
 really erred, or else possibly might have erred, in 
 matters of religion. Neither can you hope that any 
 
816 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 
 
 solid answer should be given to these things; espe- 
 cially if you but consider that the practice, both of 
 the Fathers, and also of our adversaries themselves, 
 has clearly confirmed this our position. For Augus- 
 tine,* in that dispute of his which he maintained 
 against Jerome, seeing him produce the testimonies 
 of seven authors (taking no notice at all of the words 
 of the first four of them) answers no more than that 
 some of them were guilty of heresy, and the rest of 
 error : which answer is very insufficient, unless you 
 allow that the testimony of a man who has erred in 
 any one particular point of faith is null and void. 
 
 The Fathers of the second council of Nice took the 
 very same course in answering an objection brought 
 against them by the Iconoclasts, who alleged a cer- 
 tain passage for themselves out of Eusebius, bishop of 
 Csesarea; answering them nothing more than that the 
 author they cited was an Arian.f We need not ex- 
 amine whether this answer of theirs be true or not: 
 and if so, whether it be to the purpose or not: it is 
 sufficient for us that it appears by their making use 
 of this kind of answer, that they took it for granted 
 that he that had failed in one point was not to be 
 trusted in any other. Cardinal Perron, and the rest 
 of the learned of that party, make use of the same 
 manoeuvre, rejecting the testimonies brought against 
 them out of Socrates or Sozomen, two ecclesiastical 
 historians, because they say they were Novatians. 
 Those w T ho published the general councils at Rome 
 disauthorize Gelasius Cyzicenus, who was the com- 
 piler of the acts of the council of Nice, by producing 
 many gross oversights committed by him in that 
 piece ol his. J 
 
 * Aug. Ep. ad Hier. inter Ep. Hier. 47. t. 2, p. 551. & inter 
 Epist. Aug. 19. t. 2. 
 
 f Cone. VII. Act. 6. torn. 3. Cone. Gen. p. 627. 
 
 X In Prsefat. prsefixa Act. Cone. Niceni, Gelas. Cyzic. in edit. 
 Rom. Cone. Gen. torn. 1. 
 
IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 317 
 
 As therefore we are not to build upon the authority 
 of any author who may justly be accused of error, it 
 is most evident that the authority of the greatest part, 
 and indeed in a manner, of all the Fathers, may very 
 well be called in question : seeing that you will hardly 
 find any one of them that is not liable to this excep- 
 tion. 
 
 But it will here be objected perhaps, that although 
 it be confessed that the opinion of one single Father 
 possibly may be, and many times is, really false; yet 
 it is very improbable, or indeed impossible, that what 
 has been delivered unanimously by many of them 
 together, should be otherwise than true. But we 
 have answered something already to this objection, 
 where w T e took occasion to examine that maxim of 
 Yincentius Lirinensis, on this particular. And in 
 short, this is as if, having confessed that every par- 
 ticular person of a company is sick of some disease, 
 we should notwithstanding still deny that the whole 
 company, taken altogether, can possibly fall into any 
 common distemper of body. It is not indeed, alto- 
 gether so probable, that many should be sick of any 
 disease, as that one single person should : yet neither 
 is the thing altogether impossible, especially when the 
 disease is contagious, and besides not so well known; 
 as for the most part the errors of great persons are, 
 whose very name bears them out, and makes them 
 easily received by the ordinary sort, who run after 
 them, and receive them without the least suspicion. 
 
 Yet if reason be insufficient, let experience persuade 
 us to receive the truth. For it is most evident that 
 some of those errors before specified have been main- 
 tained, not by one, nor by two, nor by three of the 
 Fathers only, but by many, by the major part, and 
 sometimes also by all the Fathers of the same age; 
 at least of all those whose names and writings have 
 come to our hands. AVe have heard how Justin Mar- 
 tyr maintained the opinion of the Millennarians, which 
 
318 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 
 
 is manifestly false in itself, and very dangerous in its 
 consequences. Now this opinion he did not maintain 
 alone ; the rest of the learned of his time were in a 
 manner all of the same persuasion, as it appears 
 by his own words. For, writing against Tryphon, 
 and the Jews that agreed with him, he says, "If you 
 by chance meet with some who bear the name of 
 Christians, but do not believe this article of faith, but 
 dare to blaspheme the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and 
 of Jacob, and say that there is no resurrection of the 
 dead, but that the souls, immediately after death, are 
 transported up to heaven, do not suppose these per- 
 sons to be Christians, no more than, in speaking truly 
 and precisely, the Samaritans, or any other sect 
 of Judaism, are to be called Jews." El yap xac 
 cuveflolere upecq tccfc Xeyojuepoc^ XpcoTcapocq, xac touto 
 julyj bptoXoyoixjcp, dXXa xac ftXaacprj/jtecp ToXpwac top 
 6eop Aftpaaju, xac top deop Iaaax, xac top Oeop laxcoft, 
 at xac Xeyooac pyj eipac psxpcop dpaaTaacp, AXXa dpa 
 to) dizodprjoxecp Ta<; (puyac, aoTcop dpaXapftapeadac et£ 
 top oupapop' prj imoXafirjTe auTOUQ XpcoTcapou^ &c* 
 
 The false Christians, of whom he here speaks, were 
 the Valentinians, and others of the Gnostics. He 
 shortly proceeds, and says, "As for me, and the rest 
 of us, w T ho are perfectly orthodox Christians, we know 
 that there shall be a resurrection of the flesh, and that 
 the saints shall afterwards spend a thousand years in 
 Jerusalem, which shall be rebuilt, beautified, and en- 
 larged." 'Eyaj de, xac ei tcpsq elacp bpQoypcopopzc, 
 xaxa izaPTa XpcoTcovoc, xac oapxoQ dpa.aTO.ocp yeprjoeadac 
 ircccrTapeda, xac Jj^Xca. iT7j ip hpouaa)yp ocxo dopy decay, 
 xac xoGfr/jdecar], xac TrXaTUpdeccrrj, &c.f By which words 
 he seems to testify that all the Catholics in his time 
 maintained this erroneous opinion, and that the here- 
 tics only rejected it. I know very well that he con- 
 fesses before, "that there were many who were per- 
 
 * Just, contr. Tiyph. p. 306. t Id - ibid - P- 307 - 
 
IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 319 
 
 feet and religious Christians, who yet did embrace the 
 said opinion:" but let any man that can, reconcile 
 these two contrary sayings: "that all orthodox Chris- 
 tians held this opinion;" and "that there were some of 
 the orthodox party that did not receive the same:" — 
 JIoaao'j: o ah xae zcov zr^ xadapat: xac ebaeftouq ovzcov 
 Xpcazco^cov yvcoiir^, zouzo pcq yvcopt^etv karjfMLva ooc* 
 
 Let any man that will, search also into Justin's 
 works, and see whether this contradiction has not 
 been foisted in, by the zeal of the following ages; 
 who probably might take offence at seeing such an 
 opinion fathered upon all the true Christians by so 
 great a martyr. It is sufficient for us that it is clear 
 from this passage, that a very great part of the doc- 
 tors, and of the faithful people of those times, main- 
 tained this error. We see that Irenseus, who lived in 
 the same time, and also Tertullian, who followed not 
 long after him, were both of the same persuasion; no 
 one, all this while, of whom we hear, offering to con- 
 tradict them. Eusebius, and Jerome, and various other 
 authors, inform us, that Papias, bishop of Hierapolis, 
 who nourished about the year of our Lord 110, was 
 the author of this opinion. f 
 
 It follows then from hence, that the consent of all 
 the Fathers that are now extant, who lived in the 
 same age, and maintained all the same opinion, is no 
 necessary argument of the truth. But if you go 
 down lower, you will find that the very same error 
 was defended by several doctors of very great repute 
 in the Church. 
 
 Jerome, who in divers places of his commentaries 
 has excellently and solidly refuted this foolish fancy, 
 says,]; that many among the learned Christians had 
 maintained the same; and to those whom we have 
 
 * Just, contr. Trvph. p. 300. 
 
 f Euseb. Hist BccL 1. 3, c. 39. Hieron. 1. de Scrip. Eccles. in 
 Papia. Tom. 1 . p. 356. * 
 
 J Id. Comm. 11. in Ezech. t. 4, p. 984. 
 
320 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 
 
 already mentioned, he adds Lactantius, Victorinus, 
 Severus, and Apollinarius, "who is followed in this 
 point (says he in another place) by great multitudes 
 of Christians about us, insomuch that I already foresee 
 and presage to myself, how many men's anger I shall 
 hereby incur;"* that is, because he everywhere spoke 
 against this opinion. 
 
 Whence it plainly appears, that in Jerome's time 
 (that is to say, about the beginning of the fifth centu- 
 ry) this opinion generally prevailed in the Church. 
 And indeed however fierce he seems to be in his on- 
 set, yet he dares not condemn this opinion absolutely. 
 "Although we embrace not this opinion, (says he) 
 yet can we not condemn it; forasmuch as there have 
 been various eminent personages and martyrs in the 
 Church, who have maintained the same. Let every 
 man abound in his own sense, and let us leave the 
 judgment of all things to God."f Whence you see, 
 by the way, that the Fathers have not always held 
 an opinion in the same degree that we do. For 
 Jerome conceived this to be a pardonable error, of 
 which we at this day will not endure to hear. 
 
 If it be here answered, that the Church in the ages 
 following condemned this opinion as erroneous, this is 
 no more than to say, that the Church in the ages fol- 
 lowing acknowledged that the joint consent of many 
 Fathers together on one and the same opinion, is no 
 solid proof of the truth of the same. If Dionysius 
 Alexandrinus had been of any other judgment, he 
 w T ould never have written against Irenseus as he did; 
 as Jerome also testifies^ in one of his books of Com- 
 
 * Quern (Apollinarium) nostrorum in hac parte duntaxat phirima 
 sequitur multitude*, ut prsesaga mente jam cernam, quantorum in 
 me rabies concitanda sit. — Id. Com. 18. in Esa. in Prctfat. 
 
 f Quae licet non sequamur, tamen damnare non possumus, quia 
 multi ecclesiasticorum virorum, et martyres ista dixerunt: et unus- 
 quisque in suo sensu abundet, et Domini cuncta judicio reserventur. 
 — liter . Com. 4. in Ilierem. t. 4, p. 598. 
 
 J Id. Com. 18, in Es. in Praefat. 
 
IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 321 
 
 mentaries before cited. And if we are to have regard 
 to authority only, the judgment of the succeeding 
 church cannot then serve us, as a certain guide in this 
 question, to inform us on which side the truth is: for 
 to allege it in this case were rather to oppose one 
 authority against another, than to decide the contro- 
 versy. 
 
 As Dionysius Alexandrinus, Jerome, Gregory Na- 
 zianzen, and others, conceived not themselves bound 
 to submit to the authority of Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, 
 Lactantius, Victorinus, Severus, and others; so nei- 
 ther are we any more bound to submit to theirs: for 
 their posterity owes them no more respect than they 
 themselves owed to their ancestors. It seems rather 
 that in reason they should owe them less; because 
 the further they are distant in time from the Apos- 
 tles, who are as it were the spring and original of all 
 ecclesiastical authority, so much do the credit and 
 authority of the Doctors of the Church decrease. If 
 antiquity (as we said) be the mark of truth, then cer- 
 tainly that which is the most ancient is also the most 
 venerable and the most considerable. And if there 
 were no other instance but this, against the authority 
 of many Fathers unanimously consenting in any opin- 
 ion, yet would it clearly serve to lessen the same; but 
 there are yet behind many others, some of which we 
 shall here produce. We have before seen Justin Mar- 
 tyr, Irenseus, Tertullian, and Augustine, affirming all 
 of them that heaven shall not be opened till the day 
 of judgment; and that, in the interval, the souls of all 
 the faithful are shut up in some subterraneous place, 
 except some small number of those who had the privi- 
 lege of going immediately to heaven. The author of 
 those Questions and Ansivers, that go under the 
 name of Ju.-tin Martyr, maintains the same opinion, 
 a.< you may see in the answers to the 60th and 74th 
 questions. 
 
 That I may not unprofltably spend both time and 
 2b 
 
322 THE FATHERS HAVE ERBED 
 
 paper in citing all the particular passages, I say in 
 general, that both the major part, and also the most 
 eminent persons among the ancient Fathers, held this 
 opinion, either absolutely, or at least in part. For 
 besides Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Augustine, 
 and the author of those Questions and Answers we be- 
 fore mentioned, which is a very ancient production 
 indeed, though falsely fathered upon Justin Martyr, 
 it is clear that Origen, Lactantius, Victorinus, Am- 
 brose, Chrysostom, Theodoret, (Ecumenius, Aretas, 
 Prudentius, Theophylact, Bernard, and, among the 
 Popes, Clemens Romanus, and John XXII , were all 
 of this opinion, as is confessed by all ; neither was this 
 so admirable and general consent of theirs contra- 
 dicted by any declaration of the Church, for the space 
 of fourteen hundred years; neither yet did any one of 
 the Fathers, so far as we can discover, take upon him 
 to refute this error, as Dionysius Alexandrinus and 
 Jerome did to refute the Millennarians; all the rest of 
 the Fathers being either utterly silent as to this par- 
 ticular, and so by this their silence going over in a 
 manner into the opinion of the major part, or else 
 contenting themselves with declaring sometimes here 
 and there in their books, that they believed that the 
 souls of the saints should enjoy the sight of God till 
 the resurrection ; never formally denying the other 
 opinion. 
 
 But that which further shows that this opinion is 
 both very ancient, and was also very common among 
 the Christians, is, that even at this day it is believed, 
 and defended by the whole Greek Church: neither is 
 there any of all those who profess to follow the wri- 
 tings of the Fathers, as the rule of their faith, who 
 have rejected it, save only the Latins who have ex- 
 pressly established the contrary at the council of Flo- 
 rence, held in the year of our Lord 1439.* 
 
 * Diffinimus insuper, &c, illorum animas qui post susceptum 
 bap tit ma nullam omnino maculam incurrerunt, illas etiam quae post 
 
IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 323 
 
 Do but imagine now to yourselves a Vincentius Liri- 
 nensis, standing in the midst of this council, and lay- 
 ing before them his own oracle before mentioned; 
 which is, "that we ought to hold as most certainly 
 and undoubtedly true, whatever has been delivered by 
 the ancients unanimously and by a common consent :" 
 would he not have been hissed out by these reverend 
 Fathers, as one that made the truth, which is holy 
 and immutable, to depend upon the authority of men? 
 For these men regarded not either the multitude, or 
 the antiquity, or the learning, or the sanctity of the 
 authors of this foolish opinion ; but finding it to be 
 false, without any ceremony rejected it, as they 
 thought they had good reason to do, and at once or- 
 dained the contrary. 
 
 Now I am verily persuaded, that there are very 
 few points of faith, among all those which the Church 
 of Rome would have the Protestants receive, for which 
 there can be alleged as many specious testimonies, as 
 there can be undoubted ones for this. Since then, 
 after all this, it has not only been called in question, 
 but has been also even utterly condemned, who 
 sees not, that the consent of many Fathers together, 
 although any such might be found upon all the points 
 now in debate, would yet be no sufficient argument 
 of the truth of the same? But I shall pass on to 
 the rest. 
 
 We hive before heard that Tertullian, Cyprian, 
 (who was both a bishop and a martyr,) Firmilianus, 
 itropolitan of Cappadocia,) Dionysius, (patriarch of 
 Alexandria,) together with the synods of bishops of 
 Africa, Cappadocia, Cilicia, and Bithynia, all held 
 that the baptism of heretics was invalid and null. 
 Basil, 4 who was one of the most eminent bishops of 
 
 oonto maculam yel in Buia corporibus, vel eisdem ex- 
 
 utEB corporibus, prout Buper'd dictum est, Bunl purgata?, in coelum 
 ipi, etintueri cUre ipsum Deum, trinum et unum. — Cone. 
 J . ■. I. 584. 
 
 * Basil, ep. Amphiloch. torn. 2. p. 758, 759. 
 
324 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED 
 
 the whole Eastern Church, held also, in a manner, 
 the very same opinion, and that a long time too after 
 the determination of the council of Nice; as it ap- 
 pears by the epistle which he wrote to Amphilochius; 
 which is also put in among the public decrees of the 
 Church, by the Greek Canonists. And yet this opin- 
 ion is now confessed by all to be erroneous. 
 
 Many in like manner of the Fathers, as Tertullian,* 
 Clemens Alexandrinus,f Lactantius,| and Africanus,§ 
 believed that our Saviour Christ kept the Feast of the 
 Passover, but once only, after his baptism. Yet, not- 
 withstanding this assent of theirs, the opinion is known 
 to be very erroneous, as Petavius|| also testifies; and 
 besides it is expressly contrary to the text of the 
 Gospel. 
 
 I shall not here say anything of the opinion of 
 Chrysostom,^[ Jerome,** Basil, ff and the Fathers of 
 the council held at Constantinople, AXXaxac evTeralzae 
 qucv Ttapa zoo acorrjpo^ XptaroD, jjltj bfioaat, &c.,JJ 
 under the patriarch Flavian; who seem all to have 
 held, that an oath was utterly unlawful for Christians, 
 under the New Testament. Neither shall I take any 
 notice in this place of that conceit of Athanasius, 
 Basil, and Methodius, who, according to John, bishop 
 of Thessalonica,§§ believed that the angels had bodies : 
 to whom we may also add, (as we have shown before,) 
 Hilary, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and very many 
 more of the Fathers, who all thought the nature of 
 angels to be capable of carnal love; of which number 
 
 * Tertul. lib. contr. Jud. cap. 8. 
 f Clem. Alex. Strom, 1, 6. 
 
 J Lactant. Firmian. 1. 4. cap. 10. 
 
 # African, apud Hieron. Com. in Dan. cap. 10, torn. 4. pag. 1147. 
 || Petav. Not. in Epiphan. p. 203. 
 
 \ Chrysost. Horn, in statuas, et passim. 
 
 ** St. Hieron. Com. 1, in Matth. t. 6, p. 15. 
 
 ff Basil. Horn, in Ps. 14, t. 1, p. 154 et 155. 
 
 ++ Act. Cone. Const, act. 1, t. 2, p. 129. 
 
 %% T. 3. Cone. p. 547, in act. Cone. vii. act 5. 
 
IN DIVERS POINTS OF RELIGION. 325 
 
 is even Augustine* also. Whosoever should now 
 conclude from hence, that this fancy of theirs (which 
 yet is of no small importance) is a truth; would he 
 not be as sharply reproved for it by the Romanists, 
 as by those of Geneva? But I must not forget, that 
 besides Cyprian, Augustine, and Pope Innocent I. 
 whose testimonies we have given before,! all the 
 rest of the Doctors, in a manner, of the first ages 
 maintained, that the eucharist was necessary for 
 infants; if at least you will take Maldonat's word, J 
 who affirms that this opinion was in great request in 
 the Church, during the first six centuries after our 
 Saviour Christ. 
 
 Cassander also testifies^ that he has often observed 
 this practice in the ancients; and Charlemagne and 
 Louis the Pious, who lived a long time after the sixth 
 century, testify that this custom continued in the 
 West, even in their time, according to Cardinal Per- 
 ron :|| and the traces of this custom remain to this 
 day among those Christians who are not of the Com- 
 munion of the Latin Church. For Nicolaus de Lyra, 
 who lived above three hundred years since, observed, 
 "That the Greeks accounted the holy eucharist so 
 necessary, that they administered it to little children 
 also, as well as baptism."^ Even in our fathers' 
 time, the Patriarch Jeremiah,** speaking in the name 
 of the whole Greek Church, said, "We do not only 
 
 * Aug. t. 1, lib. 1. contr. Acad. c. 7, t. 2, op. Ill, ct cp. 11-"), ot 
 
 t. 8, Bnchir. ad Laur. c. 5 '. de Trin. 1. 2, c. 7, ct 1. ::. cap. 1. ct. 1. 8, 
 
 cap. 2, ct de Gen. ad lit. 1. ; ). cap. tO, ct 1. 11. cap. 22, e^dedivin. 
 
 I, 5, ei L 4, 1. 93, qnssst. 9, 17. t. •">. i. 1 1. de Cir. I>«i. 
 
 cm].. 26, «-t. 1. I"*, cap. 28, ct ibi Vires, ct 1. 21, cap. •_'•;. ei cp. 10. 
 
 pr. 1. 1. X Maldon. in Joh. \i. 
 
 It ad F«T. ct Max. p. 936, el lib, de Bapt . Int. 
 p. 1 
 
 || Du Perron, t St. August pag. 1001. 
 
 J" Notai iod ( i ;. -• quod dicitur lii<\ Nisi mandncaveritis, 
 
 ssci, quod hoc sacramentum es1 bants tatis, 
 
 -cut baptismus —Nicol. '1' Lyra in Joh. 
 ** Hierem. Patr. Const Exh, ad Germ. 
 
326 THE FATHERS HAVE ERRED. 
 
 baptize little children, but we make them partakers 
 of the Lord's Supper." And a little after, "we 
 account both sacraments to be necessary to salvation 
 for all persons, namely, Baptism and the Holy Commu- 
 nion. " The Abyssinians also make their children in 
 like manner communicate of the holy eucharist, as 
 soon as they are baptized.* 
 
 These are most evident arguments, that this false 
 opinion on the necessity of the eucharist, was of old 
 maintained, not by three or four of the Fathers only, 
 but by the major part, and in a degree by all of 
 them. For we do not hear even of one among all 
 the ancient Fathers, who rejected it in express terms, 
 as the council of Trent has done in these later times. 
 
 To conclude, the Jesuit Pererius has informed 
 usf (and indeed the observation is obvious enough to 
 any man, who is ever so little conversant in the 
 writings of those authors, who lived before Augustine's 
 time) that the Greek Fathers, and a considerable 
 part also of the Latins, were of opinion that the 
 cause of predestination was the foresight which God 
 had, either of men's good works, or else of their 
 faith; either of which opinions, he assures us, is 
 manifestly contrary both to the authority of the 
 Scriptures, and also to the doctrine of Paul. There- 
 fore I conceive we may, without troubling ourselves 
 any further in making this invidious inquiry into the 
 errors of the Fathers, conclude, from what has been 
 already produced, that seeing the Fathers have erred 
 in so many particulars, not only singly, but also 
 many of them together, neither the private opinions 
 of each particular Father, nor yet the unanimous 
 consent of the major part of them, is a sufficient 
 argument to prove with certainty the truth of those 
 points which are at this day controverted amongst us. 
 
 * Alvarez, in his Voyage to Ethiopia. 
 | Perer. in Rom. c. 8, (lisp. 22, et 23. 
 
CONTRADICTORY OPINIONS OF TIIE FATHERS. 327 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Reason V. — That the Fathers have strongly contradicted one 
 another, and have maintained different opinions in matters of 
 importance. 
 
 Bessario, a Greek, (who was honoured with the 
 dignity of Cardinal by Pope Eugenius IV., as a 
 reward of his earnest desire and the great pains 
 he took in endeavouring to effect a reconciliation 
 between the Eastern and the Western Churches,) in 
 a book which he wrote upon this subject to the coun- 
 cil of Florence, will have the whole difference between 
 the Greek and Latin Churches to be brought before 
 the judgment seat of the Fathers.* And forasmuch 
 as he knew, that unless the judges all agreed, the 
 cause, (especially in matters of religion) necessarily 
 remains undecided, he strongly labours to prove, that 
 not only is each Father consistent with himself, but 
 (which is yet much harder to prove) that they are all 
 of the same opinion one with another: insomuch 
 that he commands us, whenever there appears any 
 contrariety in their writings, that we should accuse 
 our own ignorance, rather than blame them for con- 
 tradicting each other. 
 
 We may conclude therefore, from what is here laid 
 down by this author, who was both as acute and as 
 learned a man as any at this council, that to render 
 the Fathers capable of being the judges of our con- 
 troversies, it is necessary that they should be all of 
 the same judgment and opinion in point of religion. 
 And certainly this is a most clear truth; for if there 
 be any contradiction amongst them, or dissension in 
 opinion, they will leave our controversies more per- 
 plexed, and instead of uniting, will rather distract 
 
 * Bessar. Orat. Ylyi ivajra*;, c. 2. p. 520, et 621, t. 4, Cone. 
 
328 CONTRADICTORY OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 
 
 us. That we may therefore be able to come to the 
 knowledge of the truth in this particular, it will 
 behove us first of all to examine the truth of Bes- 
 sario's assertion, that the opinions of the Fathers 
 never clash, on points of religion. 
 
 Now, although this were so, it would not neces- 
 sarily follow that their judgment is infallible; since 
 even an error may, either by conceit, or by accident, 
 or by some other similar means, happen to meet with 
 unanimous accordance by various persons. But if 
 this should prove to be false, then certainly we may 
 make this infallible conclusion, that we ought to seek 
 out for other judges of our controversies than the 
 writings of the Fathers. We shall therefore show, 
 by way of addition to the rest of our proofs, that 
 this assertion of his is more bold than true; and, 
 that there are many real differences to be found 
 among the ancient Fathers in matters of religion. 
 We have already noticed some of them incidentally, 
 when speaking of other matters, and therefore we 
 shall only lightly advert to them ; and first of all as 
 to that disagreement in opinion of the most ancient 
 among the Fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, and 
 Tertullian, on one side; and Dionysius Alexandrinus, 
 Gregory Nazianzen, and Jerome, on the other: the 
 first of these promising us very seriously the delights 
 and pleasures of a thousand years, and the diamonds 
 and the sapphires of a new earthly Jerusalem, with 
 all its glory and prosperity; but the other very 
 coarsely, and in downright terms, reproving this their 
 conceit, a3 being an idle fancy, fit to be entertained 
 by little children and old women only; and which 
 seems to have been derived rather from the dreams 
 of the Jews than from the doctrine of the Apostles. 
 
 Similar to this was that difference between the 
 bishops of Asia and Pope Victor, about the observa- 
 tion of Easter-day : and of Cyprian and Stephen, 
 about the baptism of heretics : in all which differences 
 
IN MATTERS OF GREAT IMPORTANCE. 329 
 
 the heat was so high, that it proceeded so far as to 
 excommunicate each other. If Bessario now could 
 but make it appear to us, that these were not real 
 but seeming contradictions only, I should then make 
 no question but that he would easily reconcile fire 
 and water, or whatever things else in nature are the 
 most contrary to one another. 
 
 We have heard that Tertullian maintained, that 
 the soul was ex traduce, and was propagated from 
 the father to the son, by the natural course of gen- 
 eration ; and that Augustine likewise inclined to the 
 same opinion; to whom, if we will believe Jerome, 
 we must add a very considerable number of the 
 Western Church also, who were all of the same 
 persuasion.* But Jerome rejects them all, and their 
 opinion, f and says that the soul is created immedi- 
 ately by God, at the very instant that it is united to 
 the body; adding moreover (as we have formerly 
 noticed) that this is the belief of the Church in this 
 point. 
 
 Jerome, and his adherents, held that all that 
 reprehension used by Paul to Peter, which we find 
 mentioned in the epistle to the Galatians, was only a 
 feigned business, purposely acted between the two 
 Apostles, by an agreement made between themselves. 
 Augustine, and several others, maintain the contrary, 
 and say that the thing was real, and was meant 
 heartily and seriously, and as it is related by Paul ; 
 and that there was no cunning or underhand dealing 
 in the business between Peter and him. And Jerome 
 pursued this dispute with so much earnestness, that 
 besides those epistles of his, which are full of gall 
 and choler, on this particular, he yet, in his Commen- 
 taries,^ which he wrote in his quieter temper, many 
 
 \u cert£ <x traduce, at Tertullianns, Apollinarras, ei maxima 
 lentalimn autumant — -Hieron. Ep. 82. t. -. 
 f Id. Com. in Eccles. o. 12, t. 6. el Ep. 61, ad Pamm. t. 2. p. 
 242, ei alibi passim. 
 
 { Vid. Coin. 14, in Es. t. 4, p. 378, et Com. 18, in cund. p. 485. 
 
330 CONTRADICTORY OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 
 
 times takes occasion to point underhand at Augustine, 
 upon this old quarrel between them. So that cer- 
 tainly he must be quite out of his wits, whoever shall 
 seriously maintain, that these two Fathers were per- 
 fectly of one opinion, and agreed upon these points. 
 
 Justin Martyr is of opinion that it was the real 
 ghost of Samuel that appeared to Saul; TtjV lapoorjX 
 <po%rjv xkrfi-qvax uno r^c iyyaazpipodoo;* being raised up 
 by the enchantments of the witch at Endor. Others 
 say it was but a phantom: Too deoo zoo dedcoxozo^ zco 
 dcu[ioM) ev toj a^rjpazi zoo ZaiioorjX ocpdrjvai zq iyyaaz- 
 pipodco;-\ some of them hold that the meeting together 
 of the faithful at the eucharist thrice a week, is an 
 apostolical tradition: J others believe the contrary. § 
 Some enjoin us to fast on Saturdays ;|| others forbid 
 the same, under the penalty of being accounted no 
 less than the murderers of Christ.^" Some of them 
 conceive that our Saviour Christ suffered death in the 
 fortieth or fiftieth year of his age.** Others again 
 would persuade us, that he died in the thirtieth or thir- 
 ty-first year of his age :ft both which opinions are mani- 
 festly contrary to the text of the gospel, which tells 
 us clearly that after his baptism, that is to say, after 
 the thirtieth year of his age, he conversed above three, 
 and under five years, upon the earth. Some of them 
 (as we are informed by these Latinized GreeksJJ) al- 
 low of these terms, cause and effect, in the doctrine of 
 the Trinity; but some others again do not so. Some 
 
 * Justin, cont. Tryph. p. 333. 
 
 f Pseudo Just. 1. Q. et R. Resp. ad q. 52. 
 
 % Epiphan. in Panar. Expos, fid. p. 1104. 
 
 $ August, in Ep. 118, ad Jan. t. 3, vid. Petav. in Epiph. p. 354. 
 
 || Vid. Petav. p. 359, in Epiph. Eccl. Rom. ap. Socr. 1. 5, c. 22. 
 August. Ep. 86, et 118. Innoc. I. Ep. 1, c. 4. 
 
 fl Ignat. Ep. 4, ad Philip. Can. Apost. c. 68, Oonstit. Apost, 1. 7, 
 c. 24, Syn. Trull, can. 55. 
 
 ** Iren. 1. 2, c. 39. 
 
 ff Tertull. Clem. Alex. Lactant. Afric. ubi supr. 
 
 %% Scholarius, Orat. 3, t. 4, Concil. Gen. p. 658, 659. 
 
IN MATTERS OF GREAT IMPORTANCE. 331 
 
 of thorn are of opinion, that there is a certain order 
 or distinction of priority in the persons of the Trinity. 
 Others again there are, who will not endure to hear of 
 this expression. 
 
 Those of the Western Church call the Son only, 
 The Image of the Father; but the Greek Church 
 makes this name extend to the Holy Ghost also. 
 Basil will not allow of the word ytwr^a^ offspring, 
 in discoursing of the Son. Others again make use of 
 it without any scruple at all. 
 
 I doubt very much whether Bessario had ever read 
 the Apologies and Invectives of Jerome and of Ruf- 
 finus, who were yet both of them Fathers, and of 
 good, though not of equal repute in the Church, both 
 of their own time and of the ages following; nor do 
 I believe he remembered the quarrel there was be- 
 tween Theophilus and Epiphanius on the one part, and 
 Chrysostom on the other. For certainly their con- 
 duct toward each other, does not show them to have 
 been very well agreed. But now to overthrow this 
 bold assertion of his at once, we need go no further 
 than to the very point on which he proposed it. For 
 whom will he ever be able to persuade that all the 
 Fathers have written and said the very same things 
 on the Procession of the Holy Ghost? It is evident 
 that sometimes they will have him to proceed from 
 the Son also, as Basil has expressed himself, in that 
 passage of his which is alleged by the Latins, out of 
 his book against Eunomius, (which poduction however 
 the Greeks say is forged,) and as the Fathers of the 
 Western Church have most expressly declared them- 
 selves in many places.* But yet I cannot possibly 
 see how we can say that they have all been of this 
 opinion. 
 
 I shall not here interfere with those other authori- 
 ties produced by the Greeks out of the Fathers which 
 
 * Con. Flor. Act. 20, t. 4, Cone. p. 4-34. 
 
332 CONTRADICTORY OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 
 
 their adversaries put by as well as they can; often- 
 times most miserably wresting, and torturing the 
 words and meaning of the Fathers. But that passage 
 of Theodoret, in his refutation of Cyril's Anathemas, 
 is so clear and express, that nothing can be more so. 
 
 Cyril had said, in his 9th Anathema, that the Holy 
 Ghost proceeds properly from the Son: ' Idcov abroo 
 (XpctTTou) to izveopa* Theodoret answers, that it is 
 both impious and blasphemous to say that the Holy 
 Ghost has his subsistence from the Son, or by the 
 Son. "If he means (says he) that the Holy Ghost 
 proceeds properly from the Son, as being of the same 
 nature with him, and as proceeding from the Father, 
 we shall willingly agree with him, and receive his 
 doctrine as sound and pious; but if he mean that the 
 Holy Ghost has its subsistence from the Son, or by 
 the Son, we will reject it as impious and blasphemous." 
 *lbzov 3e to Ttveopa too oloo, el pep ax; bpoyoeq, xac ex 
 TiaTpo; exizopeoopevov i<pyj, aovopoloyrjoopev, xac ujq 
 euasft/] de^opeda ttjv (ptowjv el d" wq ig oloo, ij dl oloo 
 Tfjv bizaptcv iyov^ w; ^Xaaip-qpov tooto, xac a>c doaefte^ 
 dizoppapopev^ 
 
 He could not have thrown by this proposition of 
 Cyril more bluntly, or in coarser terms ; and yet to 
 so direct a charge of falsehood, and to so insolent a 
 rejection of a doctrine then received by the Church, 
 as the Latins pretend, Cyril replies no more than 
 this: "that the Holy Ghost, although he proceeds 
 from the Father, nevertheless is not a stranger to the 
 Son ; since he has all things common with the Father !" 
 ' } ExTiopeueTac pev yap ix too deoo xac noxpo; to Tiveopa 
 to aycov, xaTa tqv too ScoTYjpo; (pcovrjv, aXX obx 
 d/loTpcov iau too oloo' navTa yap eyec peTa too 
 naTpoQ.% 
 
 * Cyril. Anath. 9. 
 
 f Theodor. Refut. Anath. 9, Cyril. Act. Cone. Eph. 
 
 % Cyril. Resp. ad Ref. Theod. Anath. 9, ibid. 
 
IN MATTERS OF GREAT IMPORTANCE. 333 
 
 Why did he not cry out against Theodoret as a 
 heretic, as he many times elsewhere does, with much 
 less reason ; if at least, as you assert the Church at 
 that time held that the Holy Ghost proceeded from 
 the Son? Why did he not take it very ill at his 
 hands, that he should in so insolent a manner reject, 
 as impious and blasphemous, a proposition that was so 
 holy and so true? Why did he not call the whole 
 Church in, to be his warrant for what he had said, if 
 it had really been the general belief of the Church at 
 that time? And how comes it to pass that, instead 
 of all this, he rather returns so tame an answer, that 
 he seems rather to betray his own cause, and to 
 incline to the opinion of his adversary? For it is evi- 
 dent that neither Theodoret, nor yet any of the 
 modern Greeks, ever held that the Holy Ghost was a 
 stranger to, or was unconcerned in, the Son: seeing 
 that they all confess, that these three, to wit, the 
 Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, are one and 
 the same God, who is blessed for ever. 
 
 Whosoever shall but diligently consider these 
 things, (for we cannot enter further into the exami- 
 nation of them,) cannot, in my judgment, but confess 
 that the Church has not as yet declared itself, or 
 determined anything on this point; and that these 
 doctors spake herein each man his private opinion 
 only, and according as the present occasion of dispu- 
 tation led him to speak; contradicting one another, in 
 the manner usual in speaking of things not as yet 
 thoroughly examined, or expressly determined: inso- 
 much that it would grieve a man to see how the 
 Greeks and the Latins toil to no purpose, each of them 
 labouring to bring over the Fathers to speak to their 
 side, and wresting their words, whenever they seem 
 to be but ever so little ambiguous; and repeatedly ac- 
 cusing one another of having corrupted the writings 
 of the ancients, whenever they are found to speak 
 expressly against them; and when all is done, giving 
 * 29 
 
334 CONTRADICTORY OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 
 
 very little satisfaction to unprejudiced readers; where- 
 as it had been much easier to have honestly confessed 
 at first, what is but too apparent, that the Fathers, 
 in this, as in many other points of religion, have not 
 all been of one and the same persuasion. And 
 whereas Bessario, that he may elude this testimony 
 of Theodoret, affirms that he was cast out of the 
 Church, for having denied that the Holy Ghost pro- 
 ceeded from the Son ;* and that he afterwards pub- 
 licly confessed his error at the council of Chalcedon, 
 where he was received into the Church again; all this, 
 I say, is only a piece of Grecian assurance ; which 
 shows more clearly than all the rest how much this 
 man was carried away by his zeal on this subject. 
 For, I pray, in what ancient author, had he ever 
 read, that Theodoret was, I do not say condemned or 
 excommunicated, but so much as reproved, or accused 
 only, for having maintained any erroneous opinion 
 on the procession of the Holy Ghost? We have the 
 acts of the council of Ephesus, where he was excom- 
 municated. We have the letters of Cyril, wherein 
 he again received into the communion of the Church, 
 John, Patriarch of Antioch, and all his followers, of 
 which number Theodoret was the chief. We have the 
 council of Chalcedon; where Theodoret, after some 
 certain accusations of his adversaries against him, was 
 at length received by the whole assembly as a Catho- 
 lic bishop, and was admitted to sit amongst them. In 
 which of all these authentic pieces is there so much as 
 one word spoken on this opinion of his, concerning 
 the point of the proceeding of the Holy Ghost? Cyril 
 himself, that is to say, those of his party, did not at 
 all condemn what he said on this particular; but he 
 rather contented himself with excusing, or, if you 
 please, in defending only his own opinion. The busi- 
 
 * Bessar. in Orat. Dogmat. sive de Unione Extra, cap. 9, in Act. 
 Cone. Flor. Sess. 20, t. 4, Cone. p. 551. 
 
IN MATTERS OF GREAT IMPORTANCE. 335 
 
 ncss for which Theodoret was questioned in the coun- 
 cils of Ephesua and Chalcedon, had nothing in the 
 world to do with this, touching the procession of the 
 Holy Ghost; for the question was only there on the 
 two natures of our Saviour Christ, whom Nestorius 
 would needs divide into two persons ; John, Patriarch 
 of Antioch, Theodoret, and divers other Eastern 
 bishops, favouring in some sort his person, or being 
 indeed offended rather at the proceeding of the coun- 
 cil of Ephesus against hire; and withal rejecting 
 several things that were contained in the anathemas 
 of Cyril. 
 
 Now with what conscience could this man tell us, 
 after all this, that Theodoret had been deposed from 
 his bishopric for having maintained an erroneous 
 opinion on the procession of the Holy Ghost? But 
 enough of this. 
 
 I would, in the next place, wish to know how this 
 reconciler of differences could compose that debate 
 between the six hundred and thirty Fathers of the 
 council at Chalcedon, and Leo bishop of Rome; and 
 how he can reconcile the twenty-eighth canon of the 
 one, with those many epistles written by the other on 
 this point, to Anatolius, Patriarch of Constantinople, 
 to the emperor Marcianus and his empress, to the 
 prelates who were met together in that council, and 
 to the Patriarch of Antioch : the Fathers of this coun- 
 cil advancing the throne of the Patriarch of Constan- 
 tinople above those of Alexandria and of Antioch, 
 and making it equal even with that of Rome itself: 
 Pope Leo on the contrary sending out his thunder- 
 bolts against this decree of theirs, as a most insuffer- 
 able error. And when this our conciliator shall have 
 done his business at Chalcedon, if he please he may 
 pass over into Africa, and there also reconcile the 
 Fathers of that country to the bishops of Rome; the 
 former of these forbidding their clergy to make any 
 appeals to Rome, and the other in the meantime to 
 
336 CONTRADICTORY OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 
 
 their utmost endeavouring to prove, that it is their 
 proper right to have such appeals brought before 
 them. And when he has finished this work, our 
 Greek may then in the next place try to remove all 
 misunderstanding between the Fathers of the council 
 of Francfort, and those of the second council of Nice, 
 on the point of the use of images; the latter of these 
 ordaining, "that we ought to pay them salutations 
 and adoration of honour; and that we ought to hon- 
 our them with incense and lights ;" Kac zaozac^ 
 
 &G7ta<jfiov xat zc[irjrcx7ju npoaxovvjacv drcovepecv 
 
 Kac dop.capLO.Tcov xac cpcorcov TipoaajcoyrjV izpoc, ttjv 
 toutcdv rcprjv nocecadac ;* and the other, as every man 
 knows, having not only rejected this Greek Council, 
 but having written also expressly against it, by the 
 command of the emperor Charlemagne. 
 
 Certainly he that shall but read the Fathers them- 
 selves will readily perceive that they contradict each 
 other in most plain and irreconcilable terms ; and that 
 there is no other way of bringing them fairly together, 
 but by receiving every one of them with his own pri- 
 vate opinions ; imitating herein the marvellous wis- 
 dom of the council of Constantinople in Trullo;f 
 which receives and allows all in gross without dis- 
 tinction, both the canons of the Apostles, and the 
 whole code of the Church universal, together with 
 those of Sardica, Carthage and Laodicea; amongst 
 which notwithstanding there are found strong contra- 
 dictions. As, for example, the council of Sardica will 
 have the right of receiving the appeals of all bishops 
 to belong to the see of Rome,J whereas Chalcedon 
 gives this privilege to that of Constantinople.! The 
 council of Laodicea leaves out of the canon of the 
 
 * Coqc. 7, Act. 7, in defin. t. 3, Cone. p. 661. 
 
 f Synod. Quinisexta Can. 2, t. 3. [Trullus, a hall in the palace 
 at Constantinople, so called from Trullium, a bowl, which it resem- 
 bled in form. — Ed. Bd. of Pub.] 
 
 J Synod. Sard. Can. 3 et 7. \ Synod. Chalced. c. 9 et 17. 
 
IN MATTERS OF GREAT IMPORTANCE. 337 
 
 Scriptures the Maccabees, Ecclesiasticus, the book of 
 Wisdom, Tobit and Judith:* that of Carthage puts 
 them in expressly. f But now these honest Fathers 
 of Constantinople, that they may satisfy all, take no 
 notice whatever of these their differences; but receive 
 each of them with their own particular canons and 
 opinions, without obliging them to any one common 
 rule; doing this, I believe, on condition that they 
 themselves may not be required by those whom they 
 thus admit to receive any more from them than they 
 shall think convenient. I know no man that would 
 not at this rate readily admit as canonical, all the 
 writings of the Fathers: provided that he might but 
 have liberty to adopt or reject what he pleased. Thus 
 we may very well from henceforth rest satisfied, that, 
 notwithstanding Bessario's decision to the contrary, 
 the Fathers have not always been of the same judg- 
 ment in matters of religion: and that consequently 
 they ought not to be received by us as our judges on 
 the matter. For seeing that I find them contradict- 
 ing each other in so many important points, how shall 
 I be assured that they are unanimously agreed on 
 those points which are now debated amongst us? 
 AVhy may they not have had the same diversity of 
 opinion on the eucharist, the authority of the Church, 
 the power of the Pope, freewill or purgatory, that 
 they had in those other points which we have before 
 presented to the reader's view ; which were of as great 
 importance as these, and no less easy to be deter- 
 mined, as we have proved in the preceding chapter? 
 
 Epiphanius and Jerome are as opposite in their 
 judgments, on the ancient condition of priests and 
 bishops, as Theodoret and Cyril are, on the proces- 
 sion of the Holy Ghost. Neither are some opinions 
 of Tertullian and of Damascene, of Theodoret and 
 Eusebius of Emesa; of Eusebius of Ciosarea and 
 
 .. 59. f Synod. Carthag. iii. c. 17. 
 
 29 
 
338 CONTRADICTORY OPINIONS OF THE FATHERS 
 
 the Seventh Council, on the point of the eucharist, 
 less opposite to each other, than are those of Cyprian 
 and of Stephen on the baptism of heretics; and so 
 likewise in many other particulars. Why then should 
 we take so much pains in reconciling these men, and 
 making them speak all the same thing? Why should 
 we so cruelly torture them as we do, to make them 
 all of one opinion, and to say the same things, 
 whether they will or no ; and sometimes too against 
 our own conscience; but certainly, for the most part, 
 without any satisfaction to the reader? Why should 
 we not rather honestly confess that their opinions 
 were also different, as well as their words? 
 
 We make no scruple in affirming that they have 
 been of contrary opinions, on those other points of 
 religion, which are not at all now controverted amongst 
 us. What great harm would it do, if we should 
 confess that they were not any better agreed on 
 these points now in debate? But we need not press 
 this matter any further ; it is sufficient for us that 
 we have proved that they were of different opinions 
 in point of religion; so that it clearly follows from 
 hence, that we ought not to admit of their writings, 
 as the proper judges of our controversies. 
 
 I have heretofore adverted, though very lightly, 
 to their diversity of opinion and contrariety in their 
 expositions of the Scriptures; which is, however, a 
 business of no trifling consideration. For if we 
 take them for our judges, we shall then necessarily 
 be obliged every minute to have recourse to them, 
 for the sense of those passages of Scripture on which 
 we disagree among ourselves. If there be now as 
 great difference in judgment on these things among 
 them as there is amongst ourselves, what have we 
 then left us to trust to ? This passage, for example, 
 in the Gospel according to John, "I and my Father 
 are One/'* is of very great importance in the dis- 
 
 * Ego et Pater unum sumus. — John x. 30. 
 
IN MATTERS OF GREAT IMPORTANCE. 339 
 
 putes against both Sabellius and Arius. Would you 
 now know the true sense and meaning of these words, 
 lest otherwise, by misinterpreting the same, you 
 might chance to fall over the one or the other of these 
 two precipices ? If you have recourse to the Fathers 
 in this case, you shall have some of them referring 
 it to the union of the affection and of the will,* and 
 others again, to the unity of essence and of nature. f 
 
 So likewise this other passage in the same Evan- 
 gelist : " My Father is greater than I,"$ is very 
 considerable also in the question on the divinity of 
 Jesus Christ: and yet there are some among the 
 Fathers§ who understand the words as spoken indefi- 
 nitely of the Son of God, although the rest of them 
 ordinarily restrict them to his humanity. These 
 words also of John, "the word was made flesh, "|| 
 are of no small consideration in the disputes against 
 Nestoriue and Eutyches. Now if you bring the busi- 
 ness before the Fathers, you shall have some of them 
 expounding these words,Tf by comparing them with 
 those passages in Paul, where it is said that Christ 
 was made sin** and a curse for us:ft Dut Cyril says, 
 that we must take heed how we thus interpret the 
 words. %X 
 
 It would be an endless task if I should here 
 attempt to enumerate all the differences and con- 
 trarieties of judgment to be found in the Fathers. 
 Those who have a mind to see any more of them 
 may have recourse to some of our late commentators, 
 
 * Unura non pcrtinct ad singnlaritatem. Bed ad unitatem, arl 
 Bimilitadinem, a<l coDJunctionem, ad dilectionem Patris, qui Filium 
 _' r . et ad obsequimn Pilii, qtri roluntati Patris obsequitur. — 
 Tertul, . i _. — Autor libri de Trim. \e. 22. Orig. contra 
 
 i 5, p. 896. 
 
 t Atiaaii Nazianz. alii pen£ omnes passim. 
 
 J Jol ipban. Ancor. p. 23. || John i. ^ \. 
 
 \ Imbros. 1. de Tim;,,-. Sacr. o. 6, t. 2. p. 188. Athan. Bp. ad 
 . t. 1. p. 587. & t. 2. p, 2 
 
 r. v. 21. I J. iii. 18. 
 
 XX Cyril. ApoL Atkun. 1. t. 1. Colic. Gl-iict. p. 515. 
 
340 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 whose usual course is, to bring in all together the 
 several interpretations of the Fathers upon those 
 books which they comment upon : as Maldonate has 
 done upon the Gospels; Cardinal Tolet upon John; 
 Justinianus, upon the epistles of Paul, and others: 
 where they will find that there is scarcely any one 
 verse that all the ancients understood in the same 
 sense. What is yet worse than this, besides this 
 contrariety and difference of interpretation, you will 
 often meet with many frigid and vapid expositions: 
 and it is very seldom that you shall find there that 
 solid simplicity which we ought to expect from all 
 those who take upon them the interpretation of the 
 Holy Scriptures. 
 
 Thus, therefore, as we often meet with contra- 
 riety of judgment, as well in their expositions of 
 the Scriptures as in their opinions, we may safely 
 conclude that they are not of sufficient authority to 
 be admitted as supreme judges of our controversies: 
 that contradiction which is often found amongst them, 
 evidently showing that they are not infallible judges, 
 such as it is requisite that they should be, for 
 establishing all those points which are at this day 
 maintained by the Church of Rome against the 
 Protestants. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Reason VI. — Neither the Church of Eome nor the Protestants 
 acknowledge the Fathers for their judges in points of religion; 
 both of them rejecting such of their opinions and practices as are 
 not suited to their taste. An answer to two objections that may 
 be made against what is delivered in this discourse. 
 
 Thus far have we laboured to prove that the writings 
 of the Fathers have not authority enough in them- 
 selves to be received as definitive judgments upon our 
 
AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 341 
 
 differences in religion. Let us now, in the last place, 
 sec what claim they have to our regard. For although a 
 sentence of judgment should be good and valid in itself, 
 as being pronounced by a competent judge, duly and 
 according to the forms of law; yet this would not 
 serve to determine the controversy, if the authority of 
 this judge be denied by either of the parties, unless, 
 as it is in worldly affairs, the law be armed with such 
 a power, as to be able to force those who are obstinate 
 to submit to reason. As the question is here concern- 
 ing religion, which is a holy and divine thing, to the 
 embracing whereof men ought to be persuaded and 
 not compelled, force has no place here. For although, 
 perhaps, they could compel men outwardly to render 
 some such respect to the writings of the Fathers, this 
 would not serve to make any impression of the belief 
 of the same, in the heart of any one. The same divi- 
 sions would still remain in the minds of men, which 
 you are first of all to pluck up by the roots, if ever 
 you intend to make men agree in points of religion. 
 For the certain determination therefore of all differ- 
 ences of this nature, it is necessary that both parties 
 be persuaded that the judge w T ho is to pronounce sen- 
 tence upon the same, has as much authority as is re- 
 quisite for that purpose. Though the Fathers had 
 clearly and positively pronounced what they thought 
 on the point in hand, (which yet they have not done, 
 as we have proved before,) and though they had been 
 endued with all these qualities which are requisite for 
 rendering a man fit to be a supreme judge, from whom 
 there can be no appeal, (which yet is not so, as we 
 have already clearly proved,) yet all this w T ould be to 
 no purpose, unless this authority were acknowledged 
 by both parties. 
 
 The Old Testament is a book which was written by 
 divine inspiration, and is endued with supreme autho- 
 rity, so that every part of it ought to be believed. 
 Yet this has not any influence with a Pagan; because 
 
342 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 lie does not acknowledge any such excellent worth to 
 be in it. In like manner the New Testament cannot 
 decide the differences between the Jews and us; not 
 because it is not of sufficient authority in itself, but 
 because it is not so to the Jew. And indeed he w 7 ho 
 should adduce, in disputing against the Pagans, the 
 authority of the Old Testament, or that of the New, 
 for bringing over a Jew to our belief, would be worthy 
 of ridicule. 
 
 Suppose therefore, that the writings of the Fathers 
 were clear upon our questions; nay, let it be granted 
 moreover that they were written by Divine inspira- 
 tion, and are of themselves of a full and undeniable 
 authority; I say still that they cannot decide our de- 
 bates, if either of the parties shall refuse to acknow- 
 ledge this great and admirable dignity to be in them ; 
 much less if both parties shall refuse to allow them to 
 have this advantage. Let us therefore see, in what 
 account the several parties hold the Fathers, and 
 whether they acknowledge them as the supreme 
 judges of their religion; or at least as arbitrators, 
 whose definitive judgment ought to stand firm and in- 
 violable. 
 
 As for Protestants, whom their adversaries would 
 fain persuade, if they could, to receive the Fathers 
 for judges in religion ; and to whom consequently 
 they ought not, according to the law r s of legitimate 
 controversy, to adduce for the proof of any point in 
 debate, any other principles than what they admit : 
 it is evident that they attribute to the Fathers any 
 thing but such an authority. For in their Confession 
 of Faith* they declare, in the very beginning of it, 
 that they hold the Scriptures to be the rule of their 
 faith : and as for all other ecclesiastical writings, al- 
 though they consider them useful, yet do they not 
 
 * Confess, de Foi des Eglis. Ref. de Fran. Art, 4. [With this 
 agree all the Protestant Confessions. — Ed. Bd. or Pub.] 
 
AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 343 
 
 conceive that a man may safely build any article of 
 faith upon them. And indeed, since they believe (as 
 they tell you immediately afterwards,) that the Scrip- 
 ture contains all things necessary, both for the service 
 of God, and the salvation of men, they have no need 
 of any other judge, and should in vain have recourse 
 to the writings of the ancients; the authority whereof, 
 however great it be, is still much less, both in itself 
 and also in respect of us, than that of the Bible. 
 
 In the next place, they seriously profess that their 
 intent is to reform the Christian doctrine according to 
 this rule, and to retain firmly whatever articles of 
 faith are therein delivered, and to reject constantly 
 all those that are not there found laid down, however 
 high and eminent the authority be, that shall rescind 
 the one or establish the other in the belief of men: 
 "It is not lawful (say they) for men, nor yet for the 
 angels themselves, either to add to, or diminish from, 
 or to alter it; neither may antiquity, nor customs, nor 
 multitude, nor judgments, nor human wisdom, nor de- 
 finitive sentences, nor edicts, nor decrees, nor councils, 
 nor visions, nor miracles, be brought in opposition to it : 
 but on the contrary, rather all other things ought to 
 be examined, regulated, and reformedby it."* These 
 are their own words. If therefore they will not de- 
 part from this their belief, which is, as it were, the 
 foundation and key of their w T hole reformation; they 
 cannot receive the Fathers who lived in the second, 
 third, and fourth, and in the following centuries, as 
 judges, nor yet absolutely and simply as witnesses, in 
 the points of faith. For they all hold that that pure, 
 simple, and holy doctrine which was taught and 
 preached by the Apostles at the beginning of Chris- 
 tianity, and delivered over to us by themselves in the 
 New Testament, has been by little and little altered 
 and corrupted; time, which changes all tilings, con- 
 
 * Confesa d< . Ref. de Fran. Art. •">. 
 
344 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 tinually mixing with it some corruption or other: 
 sometimes a Jewish or a Heathenish opinion, and 
 sometimes again some peculiar observation; other 
 times some superstitious ceremony or other; whilst 
 one building upon the foundation with stubble, an- 
 other with hay, a third with wood, the body seems 
 at length by little and little, to have become quite 
 different from what it anciently was; we having, in- 
 stead of a palace of gold and of silver, a house built 
 of plaster, stone, wood, and mud, and the like poor 
 materials. In like manner (say they) as we see that 
 brooks of water, the further distant they are from 
 their springs, the more filth they contract, and the 
 more does their water lose its first purity. As a man, 
 the more he grows in years, the more does that native 
 simplicity which appeared in him in his infancy de- 
 cay ; his body and his mind are changed, and he is so 
 much altered by little and little, through study and 
 art, that at length he seems to be entirely another 
 man. In like manner (say they) has it fared with 
 Christianity. And here they urge that notable pas- 
 sage out of Paul, in his second epistle to the Thessa- 
 lonians, where he speaks of a great falling away, 
 which then in his time began already to work secretly 
 and insensibly, but was not to break forth till a long 
 time after; as you see it is in all great things, whether 
 in nature, or in the affairs and occurrences that hap- 
 pen to mankind, which are all conceived and hatched 
 slowly, and by degrees, and are sometimes a whole 
 age before they are brought forth. 
 
 Now according to this hypothesis, which, as I con- 
 ceive, is equally common to all Protestants, the doc- 
 trine of the Church must necessarily have suffered 
 some alteration in the second age of Christianity, by 
 admitting the mixture of some new matter into its 
 faith and discipline: and so likewise in the third age 
 some other corruption must necessarily have crept in: 
 and so in the fourth, fifth, and the rest that follow; 
 
AS JUDGES IN TOINTS OF RELIGION. 345 
 
 the Christian religion continually losing something f 
 its original purity and simplicity, and on the other 
 side still contracting all along some new impurities, 
 till at length it came to the highest degree of corrup- 
 tion: in which condition, they say, they found it; and 
 have now at last, by the guidance of the Scriptures, 
 restored it to the self-same state wherein it was at the 
 beginning; and have, as it were, fixed it again upon 
 its true and proper hinge, from whence, partly by the 
 ignorance and partly by the fraud of men, during the 
 space of so many ages together, it had by little and 
 little been removed. This therefore being their opin- 
 ion, they cannot recognize, as the rule of all their 
 doctrine, the writings of any of the Fathers who lived 
 from the Apostles' time down to ours, without betray- 
 ing and contradicting themselves. For according to 
 what they maintain, on the progress of corruption in 
 religion, there has been some alteration in the Chris- 
 tian doctrine, both in the second, third, and all follow- 
 ing ages. And then again, according to what they 
 conceive and believe of their own reformation, their 
 doctrine is the very same that was in the time of the 
 Apostles, as being taken immediately out of their 
 books. If therefore they should examine it by what 
 the Fathers of the second century believed, there must 
 necessarily be something found in the doctrine of the 
 Fathers which is not in theirs: and the difference will 
 be much greater, if the comparison be made between 
 it and the doctrine of the third, fourth, and the follow- 
 ing ages; in all which, according to their hypothesis, 
 corruption has continually increased. For if their 
 doctrines were in every respect conformable to each 
 other, and the one had neither more nor less than 
 the other, there must necessarily then follow one of 
 these two things; namely, that either this corruption, 
 which they presappose to be in the faith and di 
 pline of the Church, is not that mystery which worked 
 in Bt« Paul , that their reformation is 
 
 80 
 
346 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 not the pure and simple doctrine of the Apostles: the 
 members of which division are contradictory to those 
 two positions, which, as we have said, they unani- 
 mously maintain. Therefore, to avoid this contra- 
 diction, it concerns them constantly to persevere in 
 that which they profess is their belief, in their con- 
 fession of faith: to wit, that there are no ecclesiastical 
 writings whatsoever, that are of sufficient authority 
 to be safely built upon, and made the judges of faith; 
 and that the Holy Scripture is the only rule by which 
 all these things are to be examined. And this is that 
 which they all agree upon (as far as I have either 
 read or known,) as any one may see in the books of 
 Calvin, Bucer, Melancthon, Luther, Beza, and the 
 rest; who all rely upon the authority of the Scriptures 
 only; and in no case admit the authority of the 
 Fathers, as a sufficient ground whereon to build any 
 article of their belief. 
 
 It is true, I confess, that some of their first authors, 
 as Bucer, Peter Martyr, and Jewel of Salisbury, and 
 in a manner all the later writers also, allege the testi- 
 monies of the Fathers; but (if you but mark it) it is 
 only by way of confutation, and not of establishing 
 anything: they do it only to overthrow the opinions 
 of the Church of Rome, and not to strengthen their 
 own. For though they hold that the doctrine of the 
 Fathers is not so pure as that of the Apostles; yet do 
 they withal believe that it is much purer than that 
 which is at this day taught by the Church of Rome; 
 the purity of doctrine having continually decayed 
 and the impurity of it increased, the further they are 
 removed from the time of the Apostles, and the nearer 
 they approach towards the afore-mentioned falling 
 away spoken of, as they say, by Paul. 
 
 Although the Protestants allow the Scriptures alone 
 for the true foundation of their faith, yet they account 
 the writings of the Fathers to be necessary, first of all 
 for proving this decay which they say has happened 
 
AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 347 
 
 in Christianity; and secondly, for making it appear 
 that the opinions which their adversaries now main- 
 tain were not in those days brought into any form, 
 but were as yet only in embryo. As for example, 
 transubstantiation was not as yet an article of faith; 
 notwithstanding they long ago did innocently, and 
 not foreseeing what the issue might prove to be, be- 
 lieve certain things, out of which (being afterwards 
 glossed over by passing through several languages) 
 transubstantiation was at length concocted. So like- 
 wise the supremacy of the Pope had at that time no 
 place in the belief of men ; although those small threads 
 and root-strings, from whence this vast and wonder- 
 ful power first sprang, long since appeared in the 
 world. 
 
 The like may be said of the greatest part of these 
 other points, which the Protestants will not by any 
 means receive. And that this is their resolution, 
 appears evidently by those many books which they 
 have written on this subject, wherein they show his- 
 torically the whole progress of this decay in Chris- 
 tianity, as well in its faith as in its polity and disci- 
 pline. And truly this their design seems to be very 
 sufficient and satisfactory. For, seeing that they pro- 
 pose nothing positively, and as an article of faith ne- 
 iry to salvation, which may not easily and plain- 
 ly be proved out of the Scriptures ; they have no need 
 to make use of any other principle for the demonstra- 
 tion of the truth of it. 
 
 Furthermore, seeing that those positive articles of 
 faith which they believe are in a manner all of them 
 received and confessed by the Church of Rome, as we 
 have -aid before in the preface to this treatise, there 
 is no need of troubling a man's self to prove the same; 
 3 which both parties are agreed upon, not 
 requiring to be proved, but being always presupposed 
 in all disputations^ Yet, if any one has a wish to be 
 informed what the belief of the Fathers was on the 
 
348 THE FATHERS ABE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 said articles, it is easy for them to show that they also 
 believed all of them, as well as themselves; as for ex- 
 ample, that there is a God, a Christ, a salvation, a 
 sacrament of baptism, a sacrament of the Eucharist, 
 and the like truths; the greatest part of which we for- 
 merly set down in the beginning of this discourse. 
 
 And as for those other articles, which are proposed 
 to the world, by the Church of Rome, it is sufficient 
 for them that they are able to answer the arguments 
 which are brought to prove them, and to make it by 
 this means appear that they have not any sure ground 
 at all, and consequently neither may nor ought to be 
 received into the faith of Christians. And this is the 
 use that the Protestants make of the Fathers; show- 
 ing that they did not hold the said articles, as the 
 Church of Rome does at this day. So that their 
 alleging the Fathers to this purpose only, and indeed 
 their whole practice in these disputes, declares evi- 
 dently enough, that they conceive not the belief of the 
 Church of Rome to be so perfectly and exactly con- 
 formable to that of antiquity, especially of the first 
 four or five ages; which accords very well with their 
 hypothesis, regarding the corruption of the Christian 
 doctrine. Yet no one can conclude from hence, that 
 they allow of the authority of the Fathers as a suffi- 
 cient foundation to ground any article of faith upon ; 
 for this is repugnant both to their doctrine, and to 
 the protestation which they on all occasions make 
 expressly to the contrary. I cannot therefore but 
 wonder at the proceeding of some of our modern au- 
 thors, who in their disputations with the Protestants 
 endeavour to prove the articles of their faith b}' testi- 
 monies brought out of the Fathers; whereas the Pro- 
 testants never go about to make good their own 
 opinions, but only to overthrow those of their adver- 
 saries, by urging the Fathers' testimonies. For since 
 the members of the Church of Rome maintain, that 
 the Church neither has, nor can possibly err in points 
 
AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION 349 
 
 of faith, and that its belief in matters of faith has 
 always been the same that it is at this day; it is suffi- 
 cient for the Protestant to show, by comparing the 
 doctrine of the ancient Fathers with that of tho 
 Church of Rome, that there is a great difference be- 
 tween them. Nor does this in any wise bind them to 
 believe throughout whatsoever the Fathers believed; 
 it being evident, according to their hypothesis, that 
 some errors may have crept into their belief; though 
 certainly not such, nor so gross, as have been since 
 entertained by the Church in the ages succeeding. 
 We shall conclude therefore that the Protestants 
 acknowledge not, either in the Fathers or in their 
 writings, any such absolute authority, as renders 
 them supreme judges in matters of religion, from 
 whom no appeal can be made. Whence it will follow, 
 that even though the Fathers had such an authority; 
 yet could not their definitive sentence put an end to 
 any of our controversies; and therefore it concerns 
 the Church of Rome to have recourse to some other 
 way of proof, if she intends to prevail upon her ad- 
 versaries to receive the aforesaid articles. 
 
 What will you say now, if we make it appear to 
 you that the Church of Rome itself does not allow 
 tli.tt the Fathers have any such authority? I sup- 
 pose that if we are able to do this, there is no man 
 so perverse as not to confess, that this proceeding of 
 theirs, in grounding their articles of faith upon tho 
 sayings of the Fathers, is not only very insufficient, 
 but very inconvenient also. For how can it ever bo 
 endured, that a man who would persuade you to the 
 belief of anything, should for that purpose make uso 
 of the testimony of some such persons as neither you 
 nor himself believe to be infallibly true, and so fit to" 
 be trusted? Let us now therefore see whether the 
 
 arch of Rome really has so great an esteem for tho 
 Fathers as she would be thought to have by this pro- 
 ceeding. 
 
350 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 Certainly several of the learned of that party have 
 upon divers occasions let us see plain enough, that 
 they make no more account of them than the Protest- 
 ants do. For whereas these require that the autho- 
 rity of the Fathers be grounded upon that of the 
 Scripture; and therefore receive nothing that they de- 
 liver as infallibly true, unless it be grounded upon the 
 Scripture, passing by or rejecting whatsoever they 
 propose either besides or contrary to the sense of the 
 Scripture: the other in like manner will have the 
 judgment of the Fathers depend upon that of the 
 Church then being in every age; and approve, pass 
 by, or condemn all such opinions of theirs, as the 
 Church either approves, passes by, or condemns. So 
 that although they differ in this, that the one attri- 
 butes the supremacy to the Scripture, and the other 
 to the Church of their age ; yet they both agree in this, 
 that both of them equally deprive the Fathers of the 
 same; insomuch that they both spend their time un- 
 profitably enough, whilst they trouble themselves in 
 pleading their cause before this inferior court, where 
 the wrangling and cunning tricks of the law have so 
 much place; where the judgments are hard to be ob- 
 tained, and yet harder to be understood; and, when 
 all is done, are not supreme, but are such as both par- 
 ties believe they may lawfully appeal from ; whereas 
 they might, if they pleased, let alone these trouble- 
 some and useless shifts, and come at once before the 
 supreme tribunal; whether it be that of the Scriptures 
 or of the Church; where the suits are not so long, and 
 where the subtlety of pleading is of much less use ; 
 where the sentences also are more clear and express, 
 and (which is the chief thing of all) such as we can- 
 not appeal from. But that we may not be thought to 
 impose this opinion upon the Romish doctors unjustly, 
 let us hear them speak themselves. 
 
 Cardinal Cajetan, in his preface on the five books 
 of Moses, speaking of his own Annotations, says 
 
AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 351 
 
 thus: "If you chance there to meet with any new 
 exposition, which is agreeable to the text, and not 
 contrary either to the Scriptures or to the doctrine of 
 the Church, although perhaps it differs from that which 
 is given by the whole current of the holy doctors; I 
 shall desire the readers that they would not too hastily 
 reject it, but that they would rather censure charita- 
 bly. Let them remember to give every man his due: 
 there are none but the authors of the Holy Scriptures 
 alone, to whom we attribute such authority, as that 
 we ought to believe whatsoever they have written. 
 But as for others (says Augustine,) of however great 
 sanctity and learning they may have been, I so read 
 them, that I do not believe what they have written 
 merely because they have written it. Let no man 
 therefore reject a new exposition of any passage of 
 Scripture, under pretence that it is contrary to what 
 the ancient Doctors gave; but let him rather dili- 
 gently examine the text, and the context of the Scrip- 
 ture; and if he finds that it accords well therewith, 
 let him praise God, who has not tied the exposition 
 of the Scriptures to the sense of the ancient Doctors, 
 but to the whole Scripture itself, under the censure of 
 the Catholic Church."* Melchior Canus, bishop of 
 the Canary Islands, having before declared himself, 
 according as Augustine has done, saying that the 
 
 * Si quando occturrit qovus Bensus tcxtui consonus, ncc a sacra. 
 
 tura, oec ab ecclesiae doctrina dissonus, quamvis a torrente 
 
 doctorum Bacrorum alienus, rogo lectores omnea ne procipitea <lc- 
 
 praebeant oeusorea. Memiaerinl jus Bnum 
 
 unicuique tril jolis sacra Scriptures auctoribua reservata 
 
 iritae lure <'-r, at Lded Bic credamus esse, quia ipsi it:i scripse- 
 
 ruut. Alios autem (inquit Augustinus) itn Lego, at quantafibet 
 
 > doctrinaque prapolleant, noa Lded ored m quia 
 
 ipei ■ !it. Nullus itaque deteatetur novum S. Scripture 
 
 on, ex li"<' « t u < » 1 dissonal priacis doctoribus; Bed Bcrutetur 
 
 contextum Scripture, <-t si quadrare iuyene- 
 
 rit, laudet Deum, qui Don alligavit expositionem 8. Soripturarum 
 
 ►rum docf I Scriptura ipsi Integra sub Ca- 
 
 leusura. — Thorn, <>• prof, in 
 
 at. 
 
352 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 Holy Scriptures only are exempt from all error, fur- 
 ther adds: "But there is no man, however holy or 
 learned he be, who is not sometimes deceived, who 
 does not sometimes dote, or sometimes slip."* Then 
 adducing some of those examples which we have be- 
 fore produced, he concludes in these words : " We 
 should therefore read the ancient Fathers with all due 
 reverence; yet, as they were but men, with discrimi- 
 nation and judgment."f A little afterwards he says, 
 " that the Fathers sometimes fail, and bring forth 
 monsters, out of the ordinary course of nature."! And 
 in the same place he says that "to follow the ancients 
 in all things, and to tread everywhere in their steps, 
 as little children use to do in play, is nothing else but 
 to disparage our own parts, and to confess ourselves 
 to have neither judgment nor skill enough for search- 
 ing into the truth. No, let us follow them as guides, 
 but not as masters." 
 
 "It is very true (says Ambrosius Oatharinus in like 
 manner) that the sayings and writings of the Fathers 
 have not of themselves any such absolute authority, 
 as that we are bound to assent to them in all things. "§ 
 
 The Jesuits also themselves inform us sufficiently 
 in many places, that they do not reckon themselves 
 so tied to follow the judgment of the Fathers in all 
 things, as people may imagine. 
 
 Petavius, in his annotations upon Epiphanius, con- 
 fesses freely, "that the Fathers were men; that they 
 
 * Cseteroqui nemo quantumvis eruditus, et sanctus, non inter- 
 dum allucinatur, non alicubi coecutit, non quandoque labitur. — 
 Melch. Can. loc. Theol. I. 7, c. 3, num. 4. 
 
 -j- Legendum itaque a nobis Patres veteres cum reverentia qui- 
 dem, sed ut homines, cum delectu atque judicio. — Id. Ibid. 
 
 % Reliqui vero scriptores sancti inferiores et humani sunt, defiei- 
 untque interdum, ac monstrum quandoque pariunt, praeter conve- 
 nientem ordinem institutumque naturae. — Ibid. num. 7. 
 
 $Verissimum ergo est, quod sanctorum dicta, vel scripta, in se 
 non sunt firmee auctoritatis, ut in singulis teneamur illis praebere 
 assensum. — Ambros. Catharin. lib. 4. Annot. in Cajet. p. 273. 
 
AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 353 
 
 had their failings; and that we ought not maliciously 
 to search after their errors, that we may lay them 
 open to the world; but that we may take the liberty 
 to note them whenever they come in our way, to the 
 end that none be deceived by them: and that we 
 ought no more to maintain or defend their errors 
 than we ought to imitate their vices, if at least they 
 had any."* And again, " that many things have 
 slipped from them, which if tKey were examined ac- 
 cording to the exact rule of truth, could not be recon- 
 ciled to any good sense :"f and that he himself has 
 observed, " that they are out sufficiently, whenever 
 they speak of such points of faith as were not at all 
 called in question in their time. "J To say the truth, 
 he often rejects both their opinions and their exposi- 
 tions, and sometimes very uncivilly too, as we have 
 noticed before, speaking of his notes upon Epipha- 
 nius.§ In one place, (the authority of some of the 
 Fathers which contradicted his opinion on the exposi- 
 tion of a certain passage in Luke, being objected 
 against him) never taking the least notice of their tes- 
 timonies, he answers — " That we ought to interpret 
 and expound the Fathers by Luke, rather than Luke 
 by them; because they cannot herein say anything 
 but what they have received from Luke."| This in 
 my judgment was very judiciously spoken; and be- 
 
 * Nos ea. qua par est, moderatione in divinorum hominum, sod 
 hominum, . ac lapsus non tain uiquirimus, quam oblatoi 
 
 ulti-6. ac vcl invitis occurrentes, no cni fraud] Bint, patefacimue; 
 tueii autem, ac defendere, uihilo magia quam coram vitia, si quae 
 fiU'rint imitari debemus. — Pet at), in Epiph. />. _!<>•>. 
 
 Quanquam multa Mint a lanctissimie patribus, praBserthn a 
 Chryaoatomo in Tlr.inilii- &a] ana, qua n ad exactse reritatia regu- 
 mmodare voluerifl, boni census Lnauia videbuntur. — Id. in 
 J . 2 1 L 
 
 .Ibid. p. 286. J Supr. e. 1 J. 
 
 [uod eertorum patrum opponatur auctoritas, qui Don 
 aliud afnrmare possunt, qnam quod ei Luca didicerunt, Deque esi 
 ulla ratio cur ex Qlormn Terbia Lucam iuterpretemur pfetiua quam 
 ex Luca quae ab illi= a^cveiuri vidcntur. — Fctav. in Epiph, j>. 110. 
 
354 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 sides exactly agrees with what Augustine said before, 
 and which may very well be applied to the greatest 
 part of our differences; in all of which the Fathers 
 could not know anything, except what they learned 
 out of the Scriptures: so that their testimonies in these 
 cases ought, according to the opinion of this learned 
 Jesuit, to be expounded and interpreted by the Scrip- 
 tures, and not the Scriptures by them. And this is 
 the language of all the rest of them. 
 
 Maldonate, as bitter an enemy of the Protestants 
 as ever was, having delivered the judgment of some 
 of the Fathers, who were of opinion that the sons of 
 Zebedee answered not so rightly, when, being asked 
 by our Saviour, whether or not they were able to 
 drink of his cup and to be baptized with the baptism 
 that he was baptized with, they said unto him, that 
 they were able; adds, "that for his part, he believes 
 that they answered well."* In another place, ex- 
 pounding Matthew xix. 11, having first brought in 
 the interpretations of various, and indeed in a man- 
 ner of all, the Fathers, he says at last, " that he could 
 not be persuaded to understand the passage as they 
 did !"f Here you are to observe by the way, that the 
 meaning of this passage is still controverted at this 
 day. How then can this man conceive that the Pro- 
 testants should think themselves bound necessarily to 
 follow the judgment of this major part of the Fathers, 
 which they themselves make so light of? In another 
 place, where he has occasion to speak of those words 
 of our Saviour, which are at this day in dispute 
 among us, "the gates of hell shall not prevail 
 against it," he is yet more positive, and says, "the 
 sense of these words is not rightly given by any au- 
 
 * Malo ego credere, nee temere, nee inscienter, sed amanter et 
 veie respondisse, &c. — Maldonat. in Matth. xx. 22. 
 
 f Quam interpretationem adduci non possum ut sequar, &c. — Id. 
 in Matth. xix. 11. 
 
AS JUDGES IN TOINTS OF RELIGION. 355 
 
 tlior that I can remember, except Hilary/'* Bo like- 
 wise upon Matthew xi. 11, where it is said, "the 
 least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John 
 the Baptist;" he says, "the opinions of the Fathers 
 upon this passage are very diflferent; and to speak 
 freely, none of them pleases me."f In like manner, 
 upon the sixth chapter of John; "Ammonius, (saith 
 he,) Cyril, Theophylact, and Euthymius, answer that 
 all are not drawn, because all are not worthy. But 
 this comes too near Pelagianism."J 
 
 Salmeron, a famous Jesuit, says thus: "Our adver- 
 sarsaries bring arguments from the antiquity of the 
 Fathers; which I confess has always been of more 
 esteem than novelty. I answer, that every age has 
 yielded to antiquity, &c. But yet we must take the 
 liberty to say, that the later Doctors have been more 
 quicksighted."§ And again, "Against all this great 
 multitude, which they bring against us, we answer 
 out of the word of God; Thou shalt not follow a mul- 
 titude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause, 
 to decline after many, to wrest judgment."| 
 
 Michael Medina, disputing at the council of Trent, 
 on the superiority of a bishop over a priest, the 
 
 * Quorum verborum sensus non videtur mini esse, quern omnes, 
 prseter Ililarium, quoa legisse memiui, auctores putant. — Maldo- 
 xvi. 18. 
 f Habet ex multis opinionibus quam eligai lector; Bed si meam 
 qnoqiM Bententium avet audire, libera Patebor, in nulla prorsus 
 carum meum qualecunque judicium acquiescere. — Id. in Matth. 
 xi. 11. 
 
 J Ammonias, Cyrillus, Theophylactus, et Euthymius. respondent, 
 
 ■on omnes trahi, quia non omnes digni sunt ; quod nimia afnne est 
 
 ri. — Id. in JoK vi. 44. 
 
 ^omenta petnnt a Doctornm antiqnitate, cui semper 
 
 major bonor esi habitufi qnam novitatibus. Respondetnr, quamli- 
 
 antiqnitati sempei < 1 « • 1 1 1 1 i — e, &c. Bed illud efferimns 
 
 quo juniores, eo p< »e Doctores. — 8almer. in Ep. ad 
 
 J: . 
 
 tint mnltitndinem, reap 
 mns i l. xxiii.i *• lii judicio plnrimorom aonao- 
 
 mtenti&dj at a\ -." — lb. col. 1. 
 
356 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 authority of Jerome and Augustine being produced 
 against him, who both held that the difference be- 
 twixt them was not of divine but only of positive and 
 ecclesiastical right, answers before the whole congre- 
 gation, "that it is no marvel that they, and some 
 others also of the Fathers, fell into this heresy ; this 
 point being not then clearly determined."* 
 
 That no one may doubt of the honesty of the his- 
 torian who relates this, only hear Bellarmine, who 
 testifies, " that Medina assures us that Jerome was, 
 in this point, of Aerius's opinion; and that not only 
 he, but also Ambrose, Augustine, Sedulius, Primasius, 
 Chrysostom, Theodoret, (Ecumenius, and Theophy- 
 lact, all maintained the same heresy."f 
 
 We need not here adduce any more examples: for 
 only read their commentaries, their disputations, and 
 their other discourses, and you will find them almost 
 in every page either rejecting or correcting the Fathers. 
 But I must not pass by the testimony of Cornelius 
 Mussus, bishop of Bitonto, who indeed is more ingen- 
 uous and clear than all the rest. " Rome (says 
 he) to whom shall we go for divine counsels, unless to 
 those persons to whose trust the dispensation of the 
 divine mysteries has been committed? We are there- 
 fore to hear him, who is to us instead of God, in 
 things that concern God, as God himself. Certainly 
 for my own part (that I may speak my mind freely) 
 in things that belong to the mysteries of faith, I had 
 rather believe one single Pope than a thousand Au- 
 gustines, Jeromes, or Gregories, that I may not speak 
 of Richards, Scotusses, and Williams; for I believe 
 and know that the Pope cannot err in matters of faith, 
 because the authority of determining all such things 
 
 * Pietr. Soave Pol. hist. nel. concil. Trident. 1. 7. p. 575. 
 
 f Michael Medina in lib. 1. de sacr. horn. orig. et contin. c. 5, 
 affirmat &. Hieronymum idem omnino cum Aerianis sensisse: neque 
 solum Hieronymum in ea hseresi fuisse, sed etiam Ambrosium, 
 Augustinum, Sedulium, Primasium, Chrysostomum, Theodoretam, 
 (Ecurnenium, et Theophylactum. — JBellarm. de Cler. I. 1. cap. 15. 
 
AS JUDGES IN TOINTS OF RELIGION. 357 
 
 as are points of faith, resides in the Pope."* This 
 passage may seem to some, to be both a very bold and 
 a very indiscreet one: but yet whoever shall but exa- 
 mine the matter seriously, and as it is in itself, and 
 not as it is in its outward appearances only, which are 
 contrived for the most part only to amuse the simpler 
 sort of people, I am confident he will find that this 
 author has both most ingenuously and most truly 
 given the world an account in what esteem the Church 
 of Rome holds the Fathers. For since these men 
 maintain that the Pope is infallible, and confess withal 
 that the Fathers may have erred; who sees not that 
 they set the Pope much above the Fathers? Nor may 
 it here be replied, that they do not all of them hold 
 that the Pope is infallible. For, besides that those 
 among them who contradict this opinion are both the 
 least and the least considerable part also of the Church 
 of Rome, these very men attribute to the Church ex- 
 isting, in every age, this right of infallibility, which 
 they will not allow the Pope : insomuch that a coun- 
 cil now called together, is, according to their account, 
 of much greater authority than the ancient Fathers. 
 So that the only difference between these men and the 
 forementioned Italian bishop, is, that whereas they 
 will have the authority of the ancient Fathers to sub- 
 mit to the whole body of modern bishops assembled in 
 a general council; he will have their authority to be 
 Less than that of a single Pope alone. All that can 
 be found fault with in that speech of his, is, perhaps, 
 
 * A qno, I!' ma, qnwrenda sunt diyina oonsilia, ftiei :ii> illis, 
 
 riorum Dei dispensatio credita est? Quem ergo pre 
 
 1 1 > ] mu8, in hi i mum qnicquid i; I tanquam 
 
 I) . d b . -. I o . . i ■) ji!u i u 1 1 i Bummo 
 
 Pontifici it, quam mille 
 
 tie dicam Richardi . 
 1 • ammus 1 ' 
 
 rniinandi 
 ;'. BiUmt. 
 
 31 
 
358 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 his hyperbolical expression, of a thousand Augustines, 
 Jeromes, and Gregories, all which joined together, he, 
 in too disdainful a manner, casts down beneath the 
 feet of one single Pope. But this height of expres- 
 sion may be somewhat excused in him, considering 
 that such excesses as these are very common with all 
 high and free-minded persons. 
 
 But the practice of the Church of Rome itself will 
 be able to inform us more truly and clearly what 
 esteem they have of antiquity. For if we ought to 
 stand to the Fathers, and not to depart from anything 
 they have authorized, nor to ordain anything which 
 they were ignorant of, how comes it to pass, that we 
 at this day see so many various observances and cus- 
 toms which were observed by the ancients, now quite 
 laid aside? And whence is it that we find in antiquity 
 no mention at all of many things which are now in 
 great request amongst us? There are as it were three 
 principal parts in religion; namely, points of belief, of 
 ceremony, and of discipline. We shall run over lightly 
 all three, and so far as is necessary only for our pre- 
 sent purpose; that so we may let the world see, that 
 in every one of these three parts they have both abol- 
 ished and established many things expressly against 
 the authority of the ancients. 
 
 As for the first of these, we have already given the 
 reader some specimens only in the preceding chap- 
 ters. For we have seen that the opinion of the great- 
 est part of the ancient Church on the state of the 
 soul, till the time of the resurrection, which besides is 
 at this day also maintained by the Greek Church, 
 was condemned not much above two hundred years 
 since, by the Church of Rome, at the council of Flo- 
 rence; and a quite contrary belief there established, 
 as an article of the Christian faith. 
 
 We have seen besides, that the opinion of the Fa- 
 thers of the primitive Church, and even down as far 
 as to the end of the sixth century after our Saviour 
 
AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 359 
 
 Christ and afterward, was that the eucharist was as 
 necessary to salvation as baptism ; and that conse- 
 quently it was to be administered to little children. 
 But for all this, the council of Trent has condemned 
 this opinion as an error in faith; anathematizing, by a 
 canon made expressly for that purpose, all those who- 
 ever should maintain the same. "Let him be accursed 
 (say they) whoever shall say that the eucharist is 
 necessary for little children before they come to years 
 of discretion."* That the Fathers might not take 
 offence hereat, as having so fearful an affront put 
 upon them; these men have endeavoured to persuade 
 both them and others, that they never did believe 
 that, which themselves have most clearly, and in ex- 
 press terms, protested that they did believe, as we 
 have before made it appear: which is, to double the 
 injury upon them rather than to make them any repa- 
 ration for it; seeing that they deal with them now, 
 not as heretics only, but as fools also, whom a man 
 may at pleasure persuade that they do not believe 
 that which they really do believe. 
 
 We have abundantly heard, out of Jerome's mouth, 
 how the opinion of the Millennarians was of old main- 
 tained by several of the ancient Fathers; which yet is 
 now condemned as an error in faith. And indeed the 
 number of these kind of differences in opinion is 
 almost infinite. 
 
 It was accounted no error in those days to believe 
 that the soul was derived from the father down to 
 the son, according to the ordinary course of genera- 
 tion : but this opinion would now be accounted a 
 heresy. 
 
 The ancients held, "that it would be opposing the 
 authority of the Scriptures, if we should hang up the 
 
 lixerit, parvulis, anteqnam ad ftnnoa discretionie per- 
 jaenienl necessarian) esse euchaxistitt communioncm, anathema ^it. 
 — ConciL Trident* Sku* 21. Qan< 
 
860 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 picture of any man in the Church,"* an( i " that we 
 ought not to have any pictures in our churches, that 
 that which we worship and adore be not painted upon 
 a wall."f Now the Council of Trent has ordained 
 quite the contrary, and says: "That we ought to 
 have and to keep, especially in our churches, the 
 images of Christ, of the Virgin the mother of God, 
 and of the other saints; and that we are to yield unto 
 them all due honour and veneration."! 
 
 All the ancient Fathers, § as far as we can learn 
 out of their writings, believed that the blessed Virgin 
 Mary was conceived in original sin. If now the 
 Fathers of the council of Trent accounted them to be 
 the judges of faith, why did they fear to be thought 
 to hold their opinion on this point? For, having de- 
 livered their definite judgment in a decree there 
 passed to this purpose, and declared that this sin, 
 which has spread itself over the whole mass of man- 
 kind by propagation and not by imitation, has seized 
 on every person in particular; they at length conclude, 
 "that their intention is not to comprehend within 
 this number the blessed and unspotted Virgin Mary, 
 the mother of God:"|| which words of theirs it is im- 
 possible so to expound, that they shall not in plain 
 terms give the lie to all the Fathers. For if they 
 
 * Ctim ergo haec viclissem in ecclesia Christi contra auctoritatem 
 S crip tur arum, hominis pendentem imaginem, &c. — Epiphan. ep. ad 
 Joh. Hierosol. t. 2 p. 317. c. 2. 
 
 f Placuit picturas in ecclesia esse nondebere, ne quod colituraut 
 adoratnr, in parietibus depingatnr. — Cone. Eliber, Can. 36. 
 
 J Imagines porro Christi, Deiparae Virginis, et aliorum Sancto- 
 rum, in templis prsesertim habendas et retinendas, eisque debitum 
 honorem et venerationem impertiendam. — Concil. Trid. Sess. 25. 
 Decreto de Invocat. SfC. Sanctorum. 
 
 § Ambros. August. Chrysost. &c. de quibus vide Melch. Canum 
 de ioc. Theolog. 1. 7, num. 3. 
 
 || Declarat tamen hsecipsa Sancta Synodus, non esse susb intenti- 
 oms comprehendere in hoc decreto, ubi de peccato originali agitur, 
 B. et immaculatam, Virginem Mariam, Dei genitricem.— Cone. 
 Trid. Sess. 5 Decreto de Pecc. Origin. 
 
AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 361 
 
 mean, by these words, the Virgin Mary was conceived 
 without sin, they decidedly establish an opinion con- 
 tradictory to that of the Fathers: which is the gross- 
 est manner that can be of giving them the lie. If 
 they mean here no more than this, (which sense yet 
 their words will scarcely be ever made to bear,) that 
 it is not known, as a certain truth, that the Virgin 
 Mary was conceived in sin ; they, however honestly 
 say, in plain terms, that these good men affirmed as 
 true that which is yet doubtful, and maintained as 
 certain that which was but problematical only and 
 questionable. 
 
 The council of Laodicea, which is inserted in the 
 code of the Church Universal, puts not into the ca- 
 non* of the Old Testament any more than twenty-two 
 books; excluding by this means out of this number 
 the book of Tobit, Judith, the book of Wisdom, Eccle- 
 siasticus, and the two books of the Maccabees. Meli- 
 tof bishop of Sardis, Origen,J Cyril of Jerusalem, § 
 Gregory Nazianzen,|| Hilary,^" and Epiphanius,** all 
 do the same. Athanasius,ff Ruffinus, J J and Jerome, §§ 
 expressly reject these very books from the canon. And 
 yet the aforesaid council of Trent "anathematizes all 
 those who will not receive, as holy and canonical, 
 all these books, with every part of the same as they 
 are wont to be read in the Church, and as they are 
 found in the old Latin edition, commonly called the 
 vulgar translation. "|||| 
 
 ne. Laod. Can. 59, 60. Cod.Grrcc. Can. Bocl. Fnivcrs. Can. 163. 
 f M«-iit. Sard, apud Euseb. Ili.-t. Eccles. lib 4 c. -7. 
 + Origen. apud Euseb. Bist. Eccl. 1. 6. c. 26. et in Pliilocal. c. 3. 
 J i 'vni. Bier< .4. 
 
 oz. Cann. 83. t. 2. p. 08. 
 • B it. in PaaL foL 2. 
 
 ** Epiphan. 1. de ponder, etmens. t. 2. ]>. 102. 
 
 . festal, t. 2. ].. ■ 8yn< pa. Script, p. 58. 
 
 } + Ruffic Ex] . Symb. inter opera Cypr. p. 562. 
 
 . el ProL in lib. Salom. ad Paul el Eu- 
 Btach. et Prol. in 111 - I Chron. el Beliod. e1 profat. in Badr. 
 
 , cum oniniijUi buU partibuSj 
 31* 
 
362 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 Besides the affront which they have offered to so 
 many of the ancient and most eminent among the 
 Fathers, and indeed to the whole primitive Church 
 itself, which received this canon of Laodicea amongst 
 its universal rules, they have also established a posi- 
 tion here which was not till then so much as ever 
 heard of in Christendom; namely, that the old vulgar 
 translation of the Bible is to be admitted as canonical 
 and authentic in the Church of God. 
 
 The hundred-and-fifty Fathers of the second gene- 
 ral council, and the six hundred and thirty of the 
 fourth, were all of them of opinion that the ancients 
 had advanced the see of Rome above that of other 
 bishops, by reason of the pre-eminence and temporal 
 greatness of the city of Rome over other cities ; and 
 for the same reason they also thought good to 
 advance in like manner the throne of the patriarch of 
 Constantinople to the same height with the former, 
 by reason of the city where he resided being now 
 arrived to the self-same height of dignity with Rome 
 itself. Tov [levvoc KcovGTavTtvoizoXeto; kncaxoiiov, i%ecv 
 za npecfftsca rq; Tipcf}; fiera tov vq; ^Pco/jltjq ircccrxorcoVj 
 oca to ecvac aurrju vzav ^Pcofirjv. . . Concil. Constant. 
 I. Can. 3. Kac yap tco Opovco tyj; Trpea^OTepa; 
 ^Poj/jltj;, 8ca to fiaacXeuscv TTjV tzoXcv zxscvrjv, ol naze pet; 
 eixoTco; dTiooedcoxacrc Ta npscrftsca, &c. Trjv (SacrcXeca 
 xac auyxkqTO) Tcptydeccray tzoXcv, xai tcdv cctov djcoXauooaav 
 TZpzofcuov tyj npzafiuzepa fiaacXcdc ^Pco/jlyj^ xac iv toc; 
 exxhnataGTcxot; w; execvqv [leyaXoveodac n pay fiacre. — 
 Cone. Chalced. Can. 28. 
 
 I assure you, that for all this he would now be 
 Anathema Maranatha, whoever should go about to 
 derive the supremacy of the Pope from any other 
 original, than from — " Tu es Petrus" and " Pasce 
 oves mem' 1 
 
 prout in ecclesia Catholica legi consueverunt, et in veteri vulgata 
 Latina editione habentur, pro sacris et canonicis non susceperit, &c. 
 anathema esto. — Cone. Trident. Sess. 4. Deer, de Can. script. 
 
AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 863 
 
 The council of Trent anathematizes all those who 
 deny that bishops are a higher order than priests:* 
 and yet Jerome, f and divers others of the Fathers 
 openly hold the doctrine. 
 
 We have already told you, that the Church of 
 Rome long since excommunicated the Greeks, because 
 they held, that the Holy Ghost proceeds not from the 
 Son, but from the Father only. And yet Theodoret, 
 who expressly denied that the Holy Ghost proceeds 
 from the Son, as we have shown in the preceding 
 chapter, was received by the ancient Church, and in 
 particular by Pope Leo, as a true Catholic bishop, 
 without requiring him to declare himself any other- 
 wise, or to give them any satisfaction on this point. 
 
 Indeed we might enumerate many similar differ- 
 ences between the Roman and the ancient Church: 
 but these examples will suffice to show how the 
 Church of Rome maintains that the authority of 
 the opinions of the ancients ought to be accounted 
 supreme. 
 
 We shall proceed, in the next place, to say some- 
 thing of the ceremonies in the Christian religion. 
 
 The first of all is Baptism, which takes us out of 
 nature's stock, and engrafts us into Jesus Christ. 
 Now it was a custom heretofore in the ancient Church, 
 to immerse those they baptized in the water; as 
 Tertullian,$ Cyprian, § Epiphanius,|| and others tes- 
 tify. And indeed they plunged them thus three 
 times: as the same Tertullian^" and Jerome** inform 
 us. This is still the practice both of the Greek and 
 
 * Si qui* . &c. 
 anathema sit.— < . Trid. . 2 . n. 7. 
 
 ride supra lib. 1. c. alt. 
 Mil. c. 8. 
 .211, ubi ride PameL 
 phan. Pan. Haer. 80. p. I 
 
 • i • • iL lib. de Cor. Mil. o. 8, el lib. adv. 
 
 ». t. 2, p. L87. In l.ivacro tor 
 caput mergitare. 
 
364 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 the Russian Church. Yet, this custom, which is both 
 so ancient and universal, is now abolished by the 
 Church of Rome. And this is the reason that the 
 Muscovites* say, that the Latins are not rightly and 
 duly baptized, because they use not this ceremony in 
 their baptism, which they say is expressly enjoined 
 them in the canons of Joannes the Metropolitan, 
 whom they hold to have been a prophet. Indeed, 
 Gregory the Greek monk, who was, notwithstanding, 
 a great stickler for the union, in the council of 
 Florence, yet confesses in his answer to the epistle 
 of Mark, bishop of Ephesus, that it is necessary in 
 baptism, that the persons to be baptized should be 
 thrice dipped in the water.f At their coming out 
 of the water, in the ancient Church, they gave them 
 milk and honey to eat,J as the same authors witness ; 
 and immediately after this they made them partakers 
 also of the blessed communion, both great and small : 
 whence the custom still remains in Ethiopia, of 
 administering the eucharist to little children, and 
 making them take down a small quantity of it, as 
 soon as they are baptized. § 
 
 What have these great adorers of antiquity now 
 done with these ceremonies ? Where is the milk, or 
 the honey, or the eucharist, which the ancient Fathers 
 were wont to administer to all, immediately after 
 baptism? Certainly these things, notwithstanding 
 the practice of the ancients, have been now long 
 since buried and forgotten at Rome. 
 
 In ancient times they often deferred the baptizing 
 both of infants and of others, as appears by the 
 history of the emperors Constantine the Great,|| of 
 
 * Cassand. 1. cle Bapt. Inf. p. 693. 
 
 f Greg. Mon. Proteinic, in Apol. contr. ep. Marc. ep. 721. t. 4, 
 Cone. gen. 'Or/ y.sv dvayKuiov Xvti km to ha. Tptw k-jltaJ'vo-^cv, &c. 
 
 J Deincle egressos lactis et mellis prsGgustare concordiam. — Terlul. 
 el Huron, ubi supr. 
 
 \ Alvarez, in his voyage to Ethiopia. 
 
 || Euseb. de vita Constant. 1. 4. 
 
AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 3G5 
 
 Constantius,* of Theodosius,f of Valentinian, and of 
 Gratian in Ambrose ;J and also by the Homilies of 
 Gregory Nazianzen,§ and of Basil, || upon this sub- 
 ject Some of the Fathers too were of opinion, 
 that it is proper it should be deferred; for instance, 
 Tertullian, as we have formerly noticed. 
 
 How comes it to pass that there is not now so 
 much as the least trace or footing of this custom to 
 be found at this day in the Church of Rome? Nay, 
 whence is it that they would regard a man with hor- 
 ror, that should but attempt to put it in practice? 
 
 I shall here forbear to speak of the times of admin- 
 istering baptism, which was performed ordinarily in 
 the ancient Church, only on the eves of Easter day, 
 and of Whitsunday ; neither shall I say anything of 
 the ceremony of the Paschal taper, and the albes, or 
 white vestments that the newly baptized persons were 
 used to wear all Easter week ;"^[ because it may be 
 thought perhaps that these are too trivial; although, 
 to say the truth, if we are to regard the authority of 
 men, and not the reason of the things themselves, I 
 do not see why all the rites should not still be retained, 
 as well as those exorcisms, and renouncings of the 
 devil and the world, with all its pomps and vanities, 
 which, in imitation of antiquity, are at this day, 
 though very improperly, acted by them over little in- 
 fants, though only a day old. 
 
 As for the eucharist, Cassander shows clearly that 
 it was celebrated in the ancient Church with bread 
 and wine, offered by the people:** and that the bread 
 Wafl first broken into several pieces, and then conse- 
 crated and distributed among the faithful. Notwith- 
 
 * S hist Bool. L 8, o. 87. t 1,] - L *• c - G - 
 
 -. I >rat de obit Valentin, t. 8, p. 9. 
 -n/. Orat LO. 
 !. homiL u\ v,±7r-ric-y row. 
 
 ■ ind. in hymno, p. 227, 228. 
 
 ** Ca&sand. in Liturg. c. 26. 
 
366 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 standing, the contrary use has now prevailed; nor do 
 they consecrate any bread which is offered by the 
 people, which was the ancient custom, but only little 
 wafer cakes, made round in the form of a coin ; which 
 yet is very sharply reproved, in the old exposition or 
 the " Ordo Romanus"* &c. The same Cassander 
 also gives us an account at large,f how in ancient 
 times the canonical prayer, and the consecration of 
 the eucharist, were read out with a loud voice, and 
 in such a manner that the people might all of them 
 be able to hear it, so that they might say Amen to it; 
 whereas the priest now pronounces it with a very low 
 voice,J so that none of the congregation can tell what 
 he says; and hence it is, that this part of the liturgy 
 is called secret. 
 
 We have heretofore shown,§ that the ancient Fa- 
 thers concealed, as carefully as they could, the mat- 
 ter and the rites used in the celebration of this holy 
 sacrament; which they never performed in presence 
 either of the catechumens or of unbelievers. But 
 now there is not any such care taken in this respect ; 
 for they celebrate the eucharist openly and publicly, 
 even before Jews, Pagans, or Mohammedans, without 
 any more regard to these ancient rules, than if there 
 had never been any such custom. And as if the de- 
 sign of these men were to run counter to antiquity in 
 all things, when the sacrament was concealed as much 
 as possible, they show it now openly, and carry it 
 publicly abroad every day through the streets, and 
 sometimes also go in solemn procession with it: which 
 custom of theirs is of very late standing among Chris- 
 tians, and which heretofore would have looked not 
 only very strange, but would have been accounted 
 rather profane and unlawful. And thus have the 
 
 * Apud Cassand. in Liturg. c. 26, p. 60. 
 
 f Cassand. in Liturg. p. 63, 64, c. 28. 
 
 J Cone. Trid. &ess. 22, c. 5, et can. 9. \ Lib. i. c. 5. 
 
AS JUDGES IX TOIXTS OF RELIGION. 367 
 
 custom? and observations of the ancient Fathers been 
 quite laid aside, and other new ones, which they never 
 heard of, instituted in their place. 
 
 The same Cassander also proves,* that in ancient 
 times they celebrated the eucharist only in the pre- 
 sence of those that were to communicate; and that 
 all the rest withdrew. It is clear, that Chrysostorn 
 very bitterly reproves those who would be present at 
 the celebration of the eucharist without communica- 
 
 tin s- 
 
 Indeed we at this day see, in the Ethiopic liturgy, 
 that the Gospel being read, the deacon cries aloud : 
 " All you, that will not receive the sacrament, depart: 
 withdraw, you catechumens." And again, after the 
 creed is sung, he says to the people, " Let them that 
 will not communicate, depart." But now-a-days, for 
 the most part, none of those who are present at the 
 celebration, communicate of it: they content them- 
 selves with adoring the sacrament only, without 
 partaking of it at all; whence you have this manner 
 of expression: — "to hear mass;" and "to see mass." 
 Chrysostorn says: "Whosoever shall stay here, and 
 not participate of the mysteries, behaves himself like 
 an impudent, shameless person. I beseech you, (says 
 he) if any one that were invited to a feast, should 
 come and sit down after he has washed his hands, 
 and fitted himself to come to the table, and at length 
 should forbear to touch any of those dishes which are 
 served in upon it, would not this be a very great 
 affront to him who invited him? Had he not better 
 have forborne coming at all? It is the very same 
 Case here. Thou hast come, and hast sung the hymn, 
 and, seeing thou hast not retired with those that were 
 not worthy, hast thereby also professed thyself to be 
 of the number of those who are worthy. How comes 
 it to pass that, seeing thou hast staid behind, thou 
 
 L in Liturg. 66, o. 
 
368 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 dost not communicate of this table?" &c. 77#c yap 
 b fir] [leze^cov rcov puar/jpccou dvacaypvrco^, xac crapw^ 
 kazTf/.toc,^ he. Ecrce pot, el tcq e«c kaxcaacv xtydecz, ra£ 
 %scpa<; vc^acro, xac xazaxlcdrj, xac kzocpoq yevocro 
 TtpoQ T7]v rpaneCav, sera prj pere^oc* obyji uftpc^ec TOV 
 xulzoavra ; ou fteXrtov tov tocootov prjde Trapayevsodac ; 
 ouzco 8e xac cru Trapayeyovat;, zov upvov ijoaQ pera 
 Tzavzcov, wpoXoyrjaa^ dvac rcov aQwv, rco prj pera tcdv 
 ava^uov dpaxs%coprjxemc tlojq ipecvas, xac ou peze%ec£ 
 
 TTjQ TpaTCSCf^* 
 
 If any man should now preach this doctrine to the 
 Romanists, would they not laugh at him ? inasmuch 
 as their custom in this particular is far different (as 
 every one sees,) from what it was heretofore in the 
 ancient Church. 
 
 It is as clear as the day, that all along in the 
 ancient Church it was lawful for any of the faithful 
 to take home with them the holy eucharist, which 
 they might keep in any private place, to take it after- 
 wards by themselves alone, whenever they pleased. 
 Whence it is that Tertullian advises those .that durst 
 not communicate upon the days appointed for that 
 purpose, for fear of breaking their fast, to keep the 
 body of Christ by them. " Receiving the body of 
 Christ (says he) and keeping it by thee, both are 
 preserved entire; both the participation of the sacri- 
 fice, and the discharge of thy duty."f 
 
 This appears also by a story related by Cyprian, 
 of a certain woman " who going about to open, with 
 unworthy hands, a coffer of hers, where the eucharist 
 was laid up, she presently saw fire breaking out 
 thence ; which so amazed her, that she durst not 
 touch it."J 
 
 * Chrysost. Homil. 3, in ep. ad Ephes. t. 3, p. 778, edit Savilii. 
 
 f Accepto corpore Domini, etreservato, utramque salvum est, et 
 participate sacrificii, et executio officii. — Tertul. lib. de orat. c. 14. 
 
 % Cum quaedam arcam suam, in qua Domini sanctum fuit, mani- 
 bus indignis tentasset aperire, igne hide surgente deterrita est, ne 
 auderet attingere. — Cyprian. 1. de laps. p. 244. 
 
AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 8G9 
 
 Ambrose also, a long while after Cyprian, testifies 
 sufficiently that this custom in his time continued in 
 the Church ; where he tells the story of his brother 
 Satyrus, who being upon the sea, and in danger of 
 shipwreck, " and fearing lest he should go out of the 
 world without the holy mysteries (for he was yet 
 but of the number of the catechumens,) made his 
 addresses to those whom he knew to have been initia- 
 ted, and desired of them to give him the divine sacra- 
 ment of the faithful; not that he might therewith 
 satisfy the curiosity of his eyes, but that it might 
 strengthen his faith. And thus having put it into a 
 handkerchief, and then tying the handkerchief about 
 his neck, he threw himself into the sea, and was 
 saved."* 
 
 If Rome indeed bears such great respect to the 
 Fathers, as they would make us believe, why has she 
 not then retained this custom? Why then should that 
 which was then so ordinarily practised, be now in our 
 days so much disliked, that they will not by any 
 means permit the friars to keep the eucharist in their 
 convent, nor yet in their choir, nor in any other place, 
 save only the public church ?f 
 
 Ambrose informs us moreover, that in those times 
 they made no scruple at all of carrying the eucharist 
 upon the sea; which custom of the ancients is so 
 much disliked by the Church of Rome in our days, 
 that they hold it an unlawful thing, either to conse- 
 crate or to carry the sacrament ready consecrated, 
 upon any water whatever, whether it be that of the 
 sea or of rivers. 
 
 This very custom of the ancients keeping the sacra- 
 
 * Nan mortem metaens, •■• 1 ae racaas mysterii eziret e vita, quos 
 
 inita it. :ti) \\\< divinom illud fideliom Sacramen- 
 
 . nun ut en juloa insereret arcanis, sed ut Bdei 
 
 iam. Btenim Ligari fecit in orario, e1 
 
 .; involvit eollo, atque it tit in marc. — Ambros. de obit. 
 
 f Cone. Tri I Bess. 25, de regal, et Mon. cap. 10. 
 
 82 
 
870 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 ment by them, proves very clearly that the faithful 
 in those days received the sacrament with their hands : 
 which is also plainly enough intimated by Tertullian; 
 where, inveighing against those among the Christians, 
 who were sculptors and painters by profession, he 
 reproves them "for touching the body of our Saviour 
 with those very hands which bestowed bodies on 
 devils:''* that is to say, with those hands wherewith 
 they made idols. Cyprian is clear in point in divers 
 places ;f Gregory Nazianzen also testifies the same in 
 his sixty-third poem: — Oude #£/>£C cppcaGOOotv, eTirju Jc 
 [iDGTtv idcodvjv recvet^. J &c. And in the canons of the 
 council of Constantinople in Trullo, held in the year 
 of our Lord 680, there is one which appoints, a that 
 he, who is to communicate, place his hands in the form 
 of across, and so receive the communication of grace :" 
 (si zee, too d^pavroo oajfiazoz, &c.)§ which had been the 
 practice from the time of Cyril of Jerusalem. Yet 
 there is no one but knows that this custom has no 
 place now in the Church of Rome; where the com- 
 municants receive the eucharist, not with their hand 
 but with their mouth, into which it is put by the 
 priest. 
 
 I would also gladly be informed, by what canon of 
 the ancient Church those single masses, which are 
 now celebrated and said every day, where none com- 
 municates but the priest alone who consecrates the 
 host, were instituted or permitted: and moreover how 
 that respect which they pretend they bear to antiquity, 
 can stand with that canon of the council of Trent, 
 which says: " Whosoever shall say, that those masses 
 wherein the priest alone communicateth sacramen- 
 tally, are unlawful, and fit to be abolished, let him be 
 
 * Eas maims admovere corpori Domini, quse claemoniis corpora 
 conferunt. — Tertul. lib. de Idol. cap. 7. 
 f Cyprian, ep. 56, etlib. de bono Patientise, p. 316. 
 X Greg.Naz. Carm. 63. 
 $ Synod. Quinis. Can. 101. 
 
AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 371 
 
 accursed:"* seeing that this kind of masses was ut- 
 terly unknown to the ancient Church, as Cassander 
 proves at large, in his u Consulted io de Articulu lie- 
 
 rats," written to the emperor Ferdinand f 
 But that which most of all gives offence to those 
 devoted to antiquity, is the custom which the Church 
 of Rome has introduced and established, by the ex- 
 press decrees and canons of two of their general 
 councils, the one held at Constance, J and the other at 
 Trent, § of not allowing the communion of the cup 
 to any but to the priest who consecrates the same; 
 excluding by this means, first, all the laity, and se- 
 condly, all the priests and others of the clergy, who 
 had not the consecrating of it: whereas the whole 
 ancient Church, for the space of fourteen hundred 
 years, admitted them both to the communion of the 
 holy and blessed cup, as well as to the participation 
 of the consecrated bread; as those two councils them- 
 selves confess, in the preface to this New Constitu- 
 tion. || And this is still the practice also at this day 
 among all Christians throughout the world, Russians, 
 Greeks, ^f Armenians, Ethiopians,** Protestants,ff 
 and all others in general, except the Latins only, who 
 are of the communion of the Church of Rome. But 
 besides the ancients permitting this communion under 
 both kinds (as they use to speak,) it seems (which 
 is yet much more) that unless it were in some extra- 
 ordinary cases, they did not at all permit the commu- 
 
 ♦Siqtrisdij quibus solus sacerd tentaliter 
 
 communicat, illicit ie abrogandas, anathema sit. — 
 
 . 8. 
 i. Consult, ad Ferdin. &c. p. 995, et in Liturg. p. 83. 
 
 -. 13. 
 
 . 21, c. 1, ct 2, Can. 2. 
 
 eligionis non infrequens atriusque 
 
 Spc-- 
 
 . i. ad Vfttemb. 
 ** oh. 11. 
 
 ft l hi 1, art 12. 
 
372 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 nicating under one kind only. For otherwise, why 
 should Pope Leo give this very thing, as a mark to 
 distinguish the Manichees from the Catholics? "When 
 they sometimes are present at our mysteries (says he) 
 that so they may hide their infidelity, they so order 
 the matter, in their participating of these mysteries, 
 that they receive the body of Christ into their un- 
 worthy mouth, but will not take into it one drop of 
 the blood of our redemption :" and he further adds, 
 that " he gives his auditory this warning, that they 
 may know those men by this mark/'* Should this 
 pope now arise from his grave, and come into the 
 w r orld again, he would certainly believe that all those 
 who adhere to his see, were turned Manichees, except 
 the consecrating priests alone. How besides would 
 you be able, without this hypothesis, to explain that 
 decree of pope Gelasius, which says, "we are in- 
 formed, that there are some, who having taken a 
 small portion of the sacred body only, forbear to par- 
 take of the consecrated blood ; doing this, as we hear, 
 out of I know not what superstitious conceit where- 
 with they are possessed ; we therefore will, that they 
 either partake of the whole sacrament, or else that 
 they be wholly put back from communicating; foras- 
 much as there cannot, without very great sacrilege, 
 be any division made in one and the same mystery."f 
 Indeed what can you otherwise say to that story 
 which is related by the accusers of Ibas, bishop of 
 Edessa; that having one time made but a very scanty 
 
 * Cumque ad tegendam infidelitatem suam nostris audeant in- 
 teresse mysteriis, ita in sacramentorum communione se temperant, 
 ut interdum tutius lateant, ore indigno Christi corpus accipiunt, 
 sanguinem autem redemptionis nostrae omnino haurire declinant. 
 Quod ideo vestram volumus scire sanctitatem, ut vobis hujusmodi 
 homines et his manifestentur indiciis, &c. — Leo I., P. R. Serm. 4, 
 de Quadrag. p. 108. 
 
 f Comperimus autem, quod quidam sumpta tantummodo corporis 
 sacri portione, a calice sacri cruoris abstineant, &c. quia divisio 
 unuis ejusdemque mysterii sine grandi saerilegio non potest prove- 
 nire. — Gelas. Joh. et Maj. Ejrisc. Decret. de Consecrate dist. 2, c. 12. 
 
AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 373 
 
 provision of wine for the service of the altar, which, 
 after it had been begun to be distributed to the com- 
 municants, began quickly to fail: "he perceiving 
 this, beckoned to those who delivered about the holy 
 body, that they should come back again ; because he 
 had no more of the blood of our Saviour :" — 'Uazs 
 roec to dftop crcoua dtavs/jtouacv ivsuaev £cae?Mecu 
 
 U'JTO'JC, (L»C TOO (LilULZOZ ftf SU jHGXO [JLSVOU .* 
 
 What need was there of ordering them to suspend 
 the business, because there was no more wine, if it 
 was at that time lawful to distribute the bread alone, 
 •without the wine? If the councils of Trent and of 
 Constance had accounted the authority of the Fathers 
 as supreme, how came it to pass that they abolished 
 that which had for so long a time, and so constantly, 
 been observed by them? And how again does this 
 other canon of the council of Trent agree with that 
 deference w T hich they pretend to bear towards anti- 
 quity ; where it is said that " whosoever shall say that 
 the holy Catholic Church has not been induced by 
 just causes and reasons to communicate, under the 
 species of bread only, to the laity, and even to the 
 priests also, who do not consecrate ; or that it has 
 erred in this point, let him be accursed. "f 
 
 It seems to be no very easy matter to acquit the 
 modern Church, without condemning the ancient, 
 their practices being manifestly contradictory to each 
 other; the modern Church forbidding that which the 
 ancienc permitted; and the ancient Church seeming 
 to have expressly forbid that which the modern com- 
 mands. 
 
 How can you say that the one had just reasons for 
 what it did, unless you grant that the other, in doing 
 
 16, p. 366, torn. 2, ConciL gen. 
 siam Catholicam dob justi cauaifl 
 fuisse, ut laicos, atqne etiam olericoa aon 
 kntummod communioaret, aut in eo 
 
 ■ - ■ ' . TruL 8e*S, HI, Can. 2. 
 
374 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 the contrary, had either no reason at all, or else but 
 very unjust ones; seeing that it is most clear that 
 neither the world nor the times are any whit changed, 
 within these two hundred years, from what they were 
 before ? For it is impossible for any man to allege 
 any reason for the practice of the moderns, which 
 should not in like manner have obliged the ancients: 
 nor again to produce any reason for the contrary 
 practice of the ancients, which does not in like man- 
 ner oblige the moderns. So that of necessity, either 
 the one or the other of them must needs have been 
 guilty either of error, or, at least, of negligence and 
 ignorance. We may very well therefore conclude, 
 that the Church of Rome, seeing it believes itself to 
 be infallible, manifestly in this particular condemns 
 the ancient Church, as guilty of ignorance, or of neg- 
 ligence at the least; which in my judgment seems not 
 so well becoming those persons who do nothing else 
 but continually preach to us the honour of antiquity. 
 But here will all the true reverers of antiquity have 
 an ample field for reflexion. For as for those reasons, 
 by which the Fathers of the council of Trent were 
 induced to make the afore-mentioned decree, how 
 (will they say) can we know whether they were just 
 or not; seeing that they themselves produce none at 
 all? Whereas the reasons which induced the ancients 
 to do as they did, which may be found in a certain 
 discourse printed at Paris, at the end of Cassander's 
 works, are very sound and clear, and in my judgment 
 very full, both of wisdom and of charity.* 
 
 We need not enter further into this disputation: it 
 is sufficient for my purpose, that the Church of Rome, 
 in doing thus, has manifestly abolished a very ancient 
 custom in the Church. 
 
 Besides these ceremonies, which were practised by 
 the Fathers in baptism and in the eucharist, they 
 
 * Inter Opera Cassand. pag. 1019. 
 
AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 375 
 
 have laid aside many other also, which were formerly 
 in use in the Church. I shall not here speak of fast- 
 ing on Saturdays, which is observed by the Church of 
 Rome, contrary to the ancient practice of the whole 
 Christian Church, who all accounted it unlawful: be- 
 cause this difference in practice is as ancient as 
 Augustine's time,* and therefore ought not to be 
 imputed to the modern Church of Rome. I shall for 
 the same reason also pass by what Firmilianus says,f 
 namely, that in his time, about two hundred and fifty 
 years after the nativity of our Saviour Christ, "those 
 of Rome did not in all things observe whatsoever had 
 been delivered from the beginning; and that they in 
 vain alleged the authority of the Apostles." 
 
 I must here remark, that anciently it was a general 
 custom throughout all Christendom, not to kneel, 
 either upon the Lord's days, or upon any day betwixt 
 Easter-day and Whit-Sunday, which custom has been 
 generally abolished by the entire Church of Rome; 
 and yet whether you consider the antiquity, or whe- 
 ther you look upon the authority of those who both 
 practised this themselves, and also recommended it 
 to our observance, you will hardly find any more 
 venerable custom than this. For the author of the 
 "Questions and Answers," attributed to Justin Mar- 
 tyr, makes mention of this custom, and moreover 
 gives the reason and ground of it; and besides proves 
 by a certain passage, which he produces out of Ire- 
 iic>:us, that it had its beginning in the Apostolical 
 times. 'Ex zo^ dazoGToiauov oe ypopwu /j rotou/m 
 awrjdua iAafte rqu dpfflVi xadwc tpwoev b pyauwcot 
 Eiptjveuoz 6 uo.oz'jz, xat £nco7umo$ Aoofdoupou 9 ip zuj 
 Kepi too FIcuTya koyct), &c.J 
 
 ;rl Casulan. p. 71 el 76. 
 f Eoe qtu Rome rant doe ea in omnibus observare, qn» Bint nb 
 
 ram auotoritatem pr&tendere. — 
 1 ■ . ■ qua est mti r -.<'.. 76. 
 
 ; Pseud. Just Q. et EL Quest 115. 
 
376 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 Tertallian also speaks of this custom :* and both 
 Epiphanius,f and Jerome,! class it among the insti- 
 tutions of the Church : and what is yet more than all 
 this, the sacred general council of Nice authorizes 
 the same, by an express canon made to that purpose. 
 "Forasmuch as there are some (say these three hun- 
 dred and eighteen venerable Fathers,) who kneel upon 
 the Lord's day, and upon the days of Pentecost; to 
 the end that in all parishes, (or as we now speak, 
 dioceses,) there may be the same order observed in 
 all things, this holy synod ordains that (on these 
 days) they pray standing:" ^Enecdrj zcve^ elacv iv zrj 
 xopcaxrj yow xhvovzs^, xac i.y zatc. Tqc, Ilevzrjxoazrjt; 
 -fj/jLepo^, bnep zoo izo.vza iv naarj napoixca o/jloccdq <puXaz- 
 zeadac, kazoyza^ idogs zrj &yca Zovoda), zac; eu%a£ 
 dnodtdovat zco 0eco.§ This ancient constitution was 
 revived and explained in the council of Constanti- 
 nople in Trullo,|| towards the end of the seventh 
 century; where it was expressly forbidden to kneel 
 during the space of those twenty-four hours that pass 
 between Saturday evening and Sunday .evening. 
 Every one is also aware how they have abrogated 
 the fast, that was wont to be observed upon the 
 fourth day of the week, that is Wednesday; which 
 yet was the practice of the ancients, as appears by 
 what we find in the pseudo-Ignatius,T in Peter,** 
 bishop of Alexandria, and a martyr, in Epiphanius, 
 Ttvi oe ou aopLTce(pa)V7]zac iv naac xXcptaac zrj£ oly.oup.zvqc, 
 bzc zezpo.:;, xac TZpoaoftfiazov prjazeca iaztv iv zrj 
 ExxXrjaca ojptapzvq;\\ Clemens Alexandrinus,JJ and 
 others. 
 
 * Tertul. 1. de Coron. milit. cap. 3. 
 
 f Epiph. in Panar. in conclus. operis. 
 
 % Hieron. Dial, contr. Lucifer, p. 187, t. 2. 
 
 \ Con. Nic. Can. 20. 
 
 || Synod. Quinisex. Can. 90. 
 
 \ Ignat. Epist. 5. ** Petr. Alexand. in MS. 
 
 ff Epiph. Panar. haer. 75. Aerii, p. 910. 
 
 XX Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. 7. p. 317. 
 
AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 377 
 
 By the same liberty have those vigils been abol- 
 ished, which were ordinarily kept by the ancient 
 Church, and both approved and defended also by 
 Jerome, against Vigilantius, who found fault with 
 them:* though his opinion has now at length found 
 more favour in the world than Jerome's. The same 
 Father, in another place, delivers to us, for apostoli- 
 cal tradition, that custom which they had in his time, 
 of not suffering the people to depart out of the Church, 
 upon Easter-eve, till midnight was past.f What 
 is now become of this custom, which was not only 
 an ancient one, but was derived also from the Apos- 
 tles themselves, if you believe Jerome ? 
 
 We are informed, from several hands, that that 
 command of abstaining from blood, and from things 
 strangled, was for a long time observed in the Church. 
 And it appears evidently enough, that it was most 
 rigidly kept in the primitive times, both from the tes- 
 timony of TertullianJ and of Eusebius.§ The coun- 
 cil of Constantinople in Trullo excommunicates all 
 those of the laity, and deposes all those of the clergy, 
 who shall offend herein. || And Pamelius, in his notes 
 upon Tertullian's Apologetics^ informs us, that it is 
 not long since that the observance of this custom was 
 first laid aside among Christians, it being not much 
 above four hundred years since there w T ere certain 
 penances appointed for those that should violate the 
 same. Yet notwithstanding all its antiquity and uni- 
 versality, it is at length quite disused; the Church of 
 Home having very gently, and by little and little, laid it 
 aside; no one, that I know of, having taken the least 
 
 * De Vigiliis et pernoctationibufl Martyrom saepe celebrandris, 
 kc — ' . cont. Vigil, p. 163. 
 
 f Unde reor et traditionem apostolicam permansisse, at in die 
 Vigiliamm Pascha ante noctis dimidium populos dimittere Don 
 
 lic-nt, ex] .-; « I vi-n t urn Christi. — Id. Com.4 f in Matth.p. L2L 
 
 X Tcrtul. I Euseb. Hist. Eeoles. L 5, c. 2. 
 
 d. Quinis. Can. 7. 
 I PameL in Apolog. Tertull. num. 38. 
 
378 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 notice either of the time when, or the manner how, it 
 was done : only this we all see plain enough, that it is 
 now entirely out of use. 
 
 The same may be said of that custom of praying 
 for the saints departed, which was clearly the prac- 
 tice of the ancients. "We pray (says Epiphanius,) 
 for the just, the Fathers, the Patriarchs, the Prophets, 
 Apostles, Evangelists, Martyrs, &c, that we may dis- 
 tinguish the Lord Jesus Christ from the order of men, 
 by that honour which we pay unto him." Kac yap 
 or/auov nocoopteda zrp pvqp-qv, xac unep zo)v anapzaiXtov, 
 &c, unep 3e dcxaccov, xac nazepcov, xac naxpcapycov, 
 xac TTpocpyjTCDV, xac dnoGzoXcov, xac ebayyeXcGzaiv, xac 
 p&pzoptov, xac bpoXoyrjzov, encGxoncov re, xac dva^cop- 
 Tjzcov, xac navzoc, zoo zaypazoz, Iva zov Kopcov Itjgoov 
 XpcGzov dcpopcGtopev dno T7j<z zcov dvdpconcov zagecoz, 
 dca r*^c npoQ abzov ttf&fa xac osfiaz abzo) dnoScopev, 
 &c* 
 
 We have also some of their prayers to this purpose 
 yet remaining ; as in the liturgy of James. MvtjgOtjzc 
 Kopce deoz zcov nveopaztov, xac Ttaa/j^ oapxo^ wv 
 epwjGOrjpiev, xac wv obx epvqGdfjpev, opdodogcov, dno 
 AfteX zoo dtxacoo, pe%pc rjyc Gqpepov fjpepaz' abzoQ exec 
 ohzooc, dvanauGov, ev J^opa ^covzoyv, ev zrj ftaGcXeca goo, 
 &c.f In the Syriac liturgy of Basil,! after they had 
 mentioned the Patriarchs, the Prophets, John Baptist, 
 Stephen, the Virgin Mary, and all the rest of the 
 saints, they at last added: "We daily send up our 
 prayers and supplications unto thee for them." And 
 a little after, "Lord, remember also (says the priest) 
 all those who are departed this life, and the orthodox 
 bishops, who have made a clear and open profession 
 of the true faith, from the Apostles Peter and James, 
 to this day; of Ignatius, Dionysius," &c. And then 
 he says with a loud voice, "remember also, Lord, 
 
 * Epiph. Pan. Hser. 75. Aerii, p. 911. 
 
 f Liturg. Jacob, p. 29, edit. Par. an. 1560. apud Guliel. Morell. 
 
 \ Liturg. Syriac. Basil. 
 
AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 379 
 
 those who have persevered even to blood, for the 
 word of a good fear.'* So likewise in the liturgy of 
 Chrysostom ; "we offer unto thee this reasonable ser- 
 vice, for all those who have departed in thy faith," ftc. 
 t Ovt -<h)(7ceooiisv trot xtju hrfacqv zwjzrp htxpttax* uzep 
 7(0^ i^ ictarst dvcara&oftev&p Tvponarepw^ ~a-zepwv, 
 itarpeap%wv, npotpr/jrcav, &c. See also Liturg. St. 
 Marc. t. 2, Gr. Lat. Bibl. PP. p. 34. Tcov ip ruazei 
 Xpatrou ~ ooxexot tiT; iisvcov Tiarepcov re xac doelipcov ra$ 
 (!")-/</.: dpoatcuMFOV, Aupcs &c; — xac roorcov tlclvtcov ra<z 
 (j!"jyac dvaxaiMTOP, dea-ora, <fec 
 
 Yet the Church of Rome has utterly abolished this 
 custom, and without all question believes that you 
 could not do the saints a greater injury, than now 
 making any such supplications for them; and those 
 who are curious may observe many other similar 
 differences between the ancients and the Church of 
 Rome, in their customs and ceremonies. 
 
 As to their discipline also there is not less dis- 
 crepancy. One of the chief of these differences, and 
 which indeed is the origin of a great portion of the 
 rest, is in the elections and ordinations of ecclesiasti- 
 cal ministers, which is the true basis and ground- 
 work of the discipline and ministry of the Church. 
 
 It is clear that in the primitive times they depended 
 partly on the people, and not wholly on the clergy; 
 but every company of the faithful either chose their 
 own pastors, or else had leave to consider and to ap- 
 prove of those that were proposed to them for that 
 purpose. Pontius, a deacon of the Church of Car- 
 thage, says that " Cyprian, being yet a neophyte, 
 was elected to the charge of pastor, and the degree of 
 bishop by the judgment of God, and the favour of the 
 people."* Cyprian also tells us the same in several 
 places. In his fifty-second epistle, speaking of Cor- 
 
 *Jadicio Dei. et plebifl favore, ad officium Sacerdotii, el epi 
 
 no neophytes, et at patabatar, novellas eleotas 
 
 est. — /' D '. in vitji Cypr. 
 
380 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 nelius, he says, "that he was made bishop of Rome 
 by the judgment of God, and of his Christ, by the 
 testimony of the greatest part of the clergy, by the 
 suffrage of the people who were there present, and 
 by the college of pastors, or ancient bishops, all good 
 and pious men."* In another place he says, that "it 
 is the people in whom the power chiefly is, of choos- 
 ing worthy prelates, or refusing the unworthy. Which 
 very thing (says he) we see is derived from divine 
 authority, that a bishop is to be chosen in the presence 
 of all the people ; and is declared either worthy or 
 unworthy by the public judgment and testimony ;f 
 therefore (says he a little afterwards) ought men dili- 
 gently to retain and observe, according to divine tra- 
 dition and apostolical custom, that which is also 
 observed by us, and in a manner by all other pro- 
 vinces; namely, that for the due and orderly proceed- 
 ing in all ordinations, the neighbouring bishops of the 
 same province are to meet together at that place, 
 where a bishop is to be chosen; and the election of 
 the said bishop is to be performed in the presence of 
 the people of that place, who fully know every man's 
 life, and by their long conversation together under- 
 stand what their behaviour has been. "J 
 
 Hence it was that Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia, 
 
 * Factus est autem Cornelius episcopus, de Dei et Christi ejus 
 judicio, de clericorum poene omnium testimonio, de plebis, quae 
 tunc affluit suffragio, et de Sacerdotum antiquorum, et bonorum 
 virorum collegio. — Cyprian, ep. 52, p. 97. 
 
 f Quando ipsa (plebs) maxime habeat potestatem vel eligendi 
 dignos sacerdotes, vel indignos recusandi. Quod et ipsum videmus 
 de divina auctoritate descendere, ut sacerdos plebe praesente sub 
 omnium oculis deligatur, et dignus atque idoneus publico judicio 
 ac testimonio comprobetur. — Id. ep. 68, ^>. 166. 
 
 % Propter quod diligenter de traditione divina, et Apostolica ob- 
 servatione observandum est, et tenendum, quod apud nos quoque, 
 et fere per provincias universas tenetur, ut ad ordinationes ritd 
 celebrandas, ad earn plebem, cui propositus ordinatur, episcopi 
 ejusdem provincias proximi quique conveniant, et episcopus deliga- 
 tur plebe praesente, quae singulorum vitam plenissime novit, et uni- 
 uscujusque actum de ejus conversatione perspexerit. — Ibid. p. 166. 
 
AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 381 
 
 finding fault with many things in the ordination of 
 Athanasius, accounted this also among the rest, that 
 it had been performed without the consent of the 
 people.* To which, answer was made by the council 
 of Alexandria,! that the whole people of Alexandria 
 had with one voice desired him for their bishop, giving 
 him the highest testimonies, both for his piety and 
 his fitness for that charge. In like manner, Julius, 
 bishop of Rome, among other faults which he found 
 in the ordination of Gregory, who had been made 
 bishop of Alexandria, adds, "that he had not been 
 desired by the people :" — Mq ahqdevra Tiapa Trpscrftu- 
 T€pa)v, fjaj nap iruoxo-cov, fjaj Tzapa Xacov, &c.J 
 
 It appears clear enough, both out of Jerome, § and 
 by the acts of the council of Constantinople, || and of 
 Chalcedon,^" and also by the Pontificale Romanum** 
 and several other productions, that this custom con- 
 tinued a long time in the Church. But it is now 
 above seven hundred and fifty years since the Church 
 of Rome ordained, in the 8th Council, (which notwith- 
 standing has been always unanimously and constantly 
 rejected by the Eastern Church to this very day,) that 
 the promotions and consecrations of bishops should be 
 performed by the election and order of the college of 
 bishops only, forbidding, upon pain of excommunica- 
 tion, "all lay persons whatsoever, even princes them- 
 selves, to meddle in the election or promotion of any 
 patriarch, metropolitan, or any other bishop whatso- 
 ever;" declaring withal, "that it is not fit that lay 
 
 * Atlian. Apol. 2, p. 726 et 727. 
 f [bid. 72'). 728. 
 
 j Julius ap. Atlian. Apol. 2, p. 748, 749. 
 
 j Micron. ]. 1, a<lv. Jovin, p. 67, t. 2, ct Com. 10, in Ezech. p. 
 gg. p. 512, t. 5, ct Com. 1, in Ep. ad GaL 
 p. 271, t, 
 
 II * nst 1. in Ep. ad Damas. p. 94 ei 96, t. 1, Cone. Gfonor 
 
 1 deed, act. 11, p. 876, t. 2. ( ■ ct act L6, p. 
 
 - ; • Pontine. Rom. in Ordinal Presbyter. foL 88, vide rapr. 1 
 
 1, c. 4. 
 
 33 
 
882 TIIE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 persons should have anything at all to do in these 
 matters: it becoming them rather to be quiet, and 
 patiently to attend, till such time as the election of 
 the bishop who is to be chosen be regularly finished 
 by the college of clergymen."* 
 
 Thus have they, by this one canon-shot, beaten 
 down the authority of the Fathers, and of the primi- 
 tive Church, who always allowed to the faithful people 
 some share in the elections of their pastors. Neither 
 has this custom been able ever since to lift up its 
 head; the people being (as every man knows) now 
 more than ever defrauded of this their right, and 
 having not the least share in the elections, not merely 
 of popes, primates, or archbishops, but not so much 
 as of the meanest bishop that exists. 
 
 As the people anciently had their voice in the elec- 
 tion of their pastors, so probably also they had the 
 like in all other affairs of importance that took place 
 in the Church. In Cyprian's time, many, who during 
 a very great persecution, had been forced to yield by 
 the cruelty of the Pagans, being afterwards touched 
 •with a sense of their fault, desired to return to the 
 Church again; but yet to avoid the shame, and the 
 length and rigour of those penances which were 
 usually imposed upon such offenders, the greatest 
 part of them begged of their confessors to be favour- 
 ably dealt with, and corrupted their priests, that so 
 they might be received again into the communion of 
 the Church, without undergoing canonical penance. 
 Cyprian, who was a strict observer of discipline, 
 wrote many things against this abuse; by which it 
 evidently appears, that the people had their right also 
 
 * Neminem laicorum principum, vel potentum semet inserere 
 electioni vel promotioni Patriarch ae, vel Metropolitan, aut cujus- 
 libet episcopi, &c, praesertim cuni nullam in talibus potestatem 
 quenquam potestativorum, vel ceterorum laicorum, habere con- 
 veniat, sed potiu s silere, ac attendere sibi, usque quo regulariter & 
 colfegio ecclesise suscipiat fincm eicctio futuri pontificis. — Cone, 8. 
 Can. 22, L 3, Cone, p. 282. 
 
AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 383 
 
 in the hearing and judging of these causes. For, in 
 his tenth epistle he says, that those priests that had 
 received any such offenders rashly, and contrary to 
 the discipline of the Church, "should give an account 
 of what they had done to himself, to the confessors, 
 and to the whole people."* In another place, writing 
 to the people of Carthage — "When the Lord (says 
 he) shall have restored peace to us all, and we shall 
 have returned to the Church again, we shall then 
 examine all these things, you also being present, and 
 fudging ofthe?n."f It is in the same epistle, and on 
 this very point, where he adds that passage, which we 
 have before produced, in the chapter on the corrup- 
 tion of the writings of the ancients: "I desire thein 
 (says he) that they would patiently hear our council, 
 &&, to the end that, when many of us bishops shall 
 have met together, we may examine the letters and 
 desires of the blessed martyrs, according to the dis- 
 cipline of the Lord, and in the presence of the con- 
 fessors, and also according as you shall thi?ik jit. 1 ' 
 Hence it is, that in one of his former epistles, he pro- 
 tested to his clergy, "that from his first coming to 
 his bishopric, he had ever resolved to do nothing of 
 his own head, without their advice, and the approba- 
 tion of his people "% He who would yet be more fully 
 satisfied in this particular, may read the fourteenth 
 epistle of the same Father, and the twenty-eighth on 
 the business of Philumenus and Fortunatus, two sub- 
 deacons; as also the fortieth on the business of Feli- 
 cissimus; and the sixty-eighth, which he wrote to the 
 clergy and the people of Spain jointly, commending 
 
 * Acturi et apud nos, ct apud oonfeasores ipsos, et apud plcbcra 
 uniTersam can-am num. — Cyprian. $p. 10, p. 80. 
 
 i nobis omnibus a Domino prins data, ad eool&iam 
 c&periinuA, tunc examinabnntni singula, prsesentibua at 
 ju li< —I'/, ep. 1 2, />. 38. 
 
 tndo a primord patus mei Btatuerim, nihil sine con- 
 
 - plebifi mesa, prtaata Benton tin gerere, — ■ 
 Cypr. q>. 0, p. 1"J. 
 
884 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 them for having deposed their bishops, who were 
 guilty of heinous crimes.* 
 
 But that no man may think that this was the prac- 
 tice of the Church of Carthage only, I should state 
 that the clergy of Rome also approved of this resolu- 
 tion of his, of bringing to trial, so soon as they should 
 be at rest, this whole business, on those who had fallen 
 during the persecution, in a full assembly of the 
 bishops, priests, deacons, and confessors, together 
 with those of the laity who had continued firm, and 
 had not yielded to idolatry, f And that which, in my 
 judgment, is very well worth our observation, is that 
 Cyprian himself, writing to Cornelius, bishop of Rome, 
 says, " that he does not doubt but that, according to 
 that mutual love which they owed and paid to each 
 other, he always read those letters which he received 
 from him to the most eminent clergy of Rome who 
 were his assistants, and to the most holy and most 
 numerous people."! Whence it appears, that at 
 Rome also the people had their vote in the managing 
 of ecclesiastical affairs. 
 
 I shall not need here to add any more, to show how 
 much the authority and example of the ancients, in 
 this particular, are now slighted and despised; it 
 being evident enough to every man, that the people 
 are not only excluded from the councils and consisto- 
 ries of the bishops, but that, besides, the man would 
 
 * Quae scripta est nomine 66 episeoporum : et ep. 68, et in 
 prsefat. Concil. Carthag. — Id. ep. 14, et 28, et 40, et 59. 
 
 f Quanquam nobis in tarn ingenti negotio placeat, quod et tu 
 ipse tractasti prius, ecclesiae pacem sustinendam, deinde sic colla- 
 tione consiliorum cum episcopis, presbyteris, diaconis, confessori- 
 bus, pariter ac stantibus laicis facta, lapsorum tractare rationem. — 
 JEpist. qucz est inter Cypr. ep. 31. 
 
 % Quanquam sciam, frater charissime, pro mutua dilectione quam 
 debemus et exhibemus invicem nobis, florentissimo illic Clero tecum 
 praesidenti, et sanctissimae atque amplissimae plebilegere te semper 
 litteras nostras ; tamen nunc et admoneo et peto, ut quod alias 
 sponte atque honorifice facis, etiam petente me facias, ut hac epis- 
 tola mea lecta, &c. — Cypr. ep. 55, ad Cornel, p. 121. 
 
AS JUDGES TN POINTS OF RELIGION. 385 
 
 now be taken for a heretic who should now only pro- 
 pose, or attempt to restore, any such thing. But I 
 beseech you now, only fancy to yourselves an arch- 
 bishop, who, writing to the Pope, should address him 
 thus: "Most dear brother, I exhort you, and desire 
 of you, that what you are wont honourably to do of 
 your own accord, you would now do at my request — 
 namely, that this my epistle may be read to the dis- 
 tinguished clergy who are your assistants there; and 
 also to the most holy and most numerous people. " 
 Would not the writer, think you, of such a letter as 
 this, be laughed at as a senseless, foolish fellow, if at 
 least he escaped so easily, and met with no worse 
 usage? Yet, this is the very request that Cyprian 
 made to Pope Cornelius. 
 
 But as the bishops and the rest of the clergy have 
 deprived the people of all those privileges which had 
 conferred upon them by antiquity, as well in the 
 election of prelates, as in other ecclesiastical affairs; 
 in like manner is it evident, that the Pope has en- 
 grossed into his own hands, not only this booty of 
 which they had robbed the people, but also in a man- 
 ner all the rest of their authority and power; as well 
 that which they heretofore enjoyed, according to the 
 ancient canons and constitutions of the Church, as 
 that which they have since, by various admirable 
 means, by little and little acquired, in the space 
 of some centuries. All this has now entirely disap- 
 peared, I know not how, and been swallowed up by 
 Borne in a very little time. 
 
 The three hundred and eighteen Fathers of the 
 council of Xice ordained, "that every bishop should 
 be created by all the bishops of his province, if it 
 were possible; or at least by three of them, if the 
 whole number could not so conveniently be brought 
 thcr ; yet with this proviso, that the absent bishops 
 were consenting also to the said ordination: and that 
 the power and authority in all such actions should 
 
386 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 belong to the metropolitan of each several province :" 
 'EizcGXcmou TzpoaTjxec [laXcaxa fiev 5tzo tzclvtcov tcov iu 
 £~ap%ca xadcazaadac^ &c* 
 
 This ordinance of theirs is both very agreeable to 
 the practice of the preceding ages, as appears by that 
 sixty-eighth epistle of Cyprian, which we cited a lit- 
 tle before, and was also observed for a long time 
 afterward by the ages following; as you may perceive 
 by the epistle of the Fathers of the first council of 
 Constantinople to Pope Damasus;f and also by the 
 discourse of those that sat as presidents at the coun- 
 cil of Chalcedon, on the rights of the patriarch of 
 Constantinople in his own diocese. 
 
 Notwithstanding all these things, the whole world 
 knows and sees what is the practice of the Church of 
 Rome at this day, and that there is not any true 
 power or authority left to the metropolitans and their 
 councils, in the ordinations of the bishops within their 
 own dioceses; but the whole power, in this case, de- 
 pends on the Pope of Rome, and on those whom he 
 has entrusted herein, either of his own accord, or 
 otherwise. Indeed all bishops are to make their 
 acknowledgments of tenure to the Pope; nor may 
 they exercise their functions without his commission ; 
 which they shall not obtain, without first paying down 
 their money, and compounding for their first fruits, 
 styling themselves also in their titles thus: — " We N. 
 Bishop of N., by the grace of God, and of the holy 
 Apostolical See," of which strange custom and title 
 you will not meet with the least trace throughout all 
 the records of antiquity ; not so much as one of all 
 that vast number of bishops, whose subscriptions we 
 have yet remaining, partly in the councils, and partly 
 in their own books and histories, having ever thus 
 styled himself. 
 
 * Cone. Nic. Can. 4. 
 
 f Cone. Const. I. in Ep. ad Damas. p. 94. t. 1, Cone. Gener. 
 
AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION, 387 
 
 As for Provincial and Diocesan Synods, where 
 anciently all sorts of ecclesiastical causes were heard 
 and determined; as appears both by the canons of the 
 councils, and also by the examples we have left us; 
 as in the history of Arius, and of Eutyches, who were 
 both anathematized, the one in the synod of Alexan- 
 dria, and the other in that of Constantinople; they 
 dare not now meddle with anything, except some tri- 
 vial matters, being of no use in the greater causes, 
 save only to inquire into them, and give in their in- 
 formation at Rome.* Nor can the meanest bishop be 
 judged in any case of importance, which may be suffi- 
 cient to depose him, by any but the Pope of Rome: 
 his metropolitan and his primate, the synod of his 
 province, and that of his diocese, (in the sense in 
 which the ancients took this word,) having not the 
 least power in these matters, unless it be by an extra- 
 ordinary delegation; and having then only authority 
 to draw up the business, and make it ready for hear- 
 ing, and then to send it to Rome: none but the Pope 
 alone having power to give sentence in such cases, as 
 it is expressly ordained by the council of Trent. f 
 
 I shall here pass by the Pope's taking away from 
 the bishops, contrary to the canons and practice of 
 antiquity, all jurisdiction and power over a good part 
 of the monasteries, and other companies of religious 
 persons, both seculars and regulars, within their dio- 
 ceses ; his assuming wholly to himself the power of 
 absolving, and of dispensing in several cases, which 
 they call reserved cases, (though in ancient times this 
 authority belonged equally to all bishops ;) and also 
 his giving indulgences, and proclaiming jubilees; 
 
 * Minores criminales CML88B episcopornm in oancilio tnntmu pro- 
 tar et terminentur, &o. — Cone* Trid. Set*. -L 
 D . 5. 
 
 bb criminalea graviorea contra episc . qua deposi- 
 
 tions ant priyatione dignaa rant, ab ipso tanttun smnmo Romano 
 poiitifice cognoacantnr, et lermineiitar, &a — lod. 
 
388 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 things which were never heard of, in any of the first 
 ages of Christianity. 
 
 As for the discipline which was anciently observed 
 in the Church towards penitents, whether in punish- 
 ing them for their offences, or else in the receiving 
 them again into the communion of the Church, it is 
 now wholly lost and vanished. We have now nothing 
 left us, save only a bare idea and shadow of it, which 
 we meet with in the writings of the ancients; in the 
 canonical epistles of Gregorius of Neocaesarea, of 
 Basil, and others, and in the councils, both general 
 and provincial. 
 
 Where are now all those several degrees of pe7iance 9 
 which were observed in the ancient Church: where 
 some offenders were to bewail their sins without the 
 Church; some might stand and hear the word among 
 the catechumens; others were to cast themselves down 
 at the feet of the faithful? Some of them might par- 
 take of the prayers only of the Church; and others 
 were at length received again into the communion of 
 their sacraments also. Where are those eight, those 
 ten, those twenty years of penance, which they some- 
 times imposed upon offenders? This whole course 
 of penance, which we meet with everywhere in the 
 writings of the ancients, is now wholly merged in 
 auricular confession, wherein no part of the penance 
 appears to the world. 
 
 As these kinds of punishments, which were most 
 wholesome for the penitents, have been quite abolished 
 by them ; so have they on the other side introduced 
 other kinds of penalties, which are indeed very bene- 
 ficial and advantageous to the temporal estate of the 
 Church of Rome, but are most pernicious for the souls 
 of offenders; such as their Interdicts, when, for the 
 offence (and that oftentimes too, rather a pretended 
 than a true one) of one or two single persons, or per- 
 haps of a corporation, they will deprive a whole state, 
 wherein there are perhaps many millions of people, 
 
AS JUDGES IN TOINTS OF RELIGION. 389 
 
 of the participation of the holy sacraments, which are 
 the means by which the grace and the life of Jesus 
 Christ is communicated unto poor mortals; an exam- 
 ple of which kind of proceeding was practised by 
 Pope Paul V. in my childhood, against the state of 
 Venice. In what code of the ancient Church can you 
 discover that any such strange kind of punishment 
 was ever instituted, as that, for the offence of a few, 
 many millions of souls should be damned? How can 
 you call that power apostolical, w T hich punishes in this 
 manner; seeing that the apostolical power was given 
 for edification, and not for destruction? 
 
 I would also wish to learn of any man, that could 
 tell me, upon what canons of the ancient Church that 
 sanguinary discipline of the Inquisition is grounded; 
 where, after they have extracted from a poor soul, by 
 crafty dealing, and many times also by such barbarous 
 usage as would make one tremble to read, a confes- 
 sion of his being guilty of heresy, instead of instruc- 
 tion, they pass upon him sentence of death, and he is 
 forthwith delivered over to the secular magistrates : 
 to whom notwithstanding, in plain mockery both of 
 God and man, they give an express charge, that they 
 do not put him to death.* Yet in case they fail of so 
 doing, and if within six or seven days after, at the 
 most, they do not burn him alive, f (and all this with- 
 out ever hearing his cause or what his offence is,)J 
 they themselves shall be prosecuted by ecclesiastical 
 censures, and shall be excommunicated, deposed, and 
 deprived of all dignities, both ecclesiastical and tem- 
 poral. 
 
 That w r hich yet surpasses all belief is, that although 
 the person questioned should confess his fault, and 
 
 * N leric. Director. Inqois. P. 2. c. 27. p. 127. ef i l >i 
 
 tern. J'. '-'>. ]>. 512. 
 
 : [nquis. P. :> ». | 
 
 i Direct. Inqois. P. 3. < >. 86. et ibid. Pegna, p. "><w. Comm. 
 p. 564. 
 
300 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 should express his hearty sorrow for it, and should by 
 way of satisfaction submit himself to the severest 
 penance that could be; yet would not the poor wretch 
 escape death, if he be of the number of those whom 
 they call the relapsed.* 
 
 most inhuman cruelty, worthy of the Scythians 
 and the Laestrigonians only ! but very ill becoming the 
 disciples of Him who commanded his apostle to par- 
 don his brother, not seven times only, but seventy 
 times seven : and as ill beseeming those who so highly 
 boast of being the successors and inheritors of those 
 mild and tender-hearted ancients, who taught, " that 
 it is the part of piety not to constrain but to persuade, 
 according to our Saviour's example, who constrained 
 no man, but left every man to his own liberty, to fol- 
 low him or not.. ..And that the devil, as he has no 
 truth in him, comes with axes and with hammers to 
 break open the doors of those that must receive him. 
 But our Saviour is so meek, that his manner of teach- 
 ing is, 'If any one will follow me;' and 'he that will 
 be my disciple;' neither does he constrain any one to 
 whom he comes, but rather stands at the door of every 
 one, and knocks, saying, ' Open to me, my sister, my 
 spouse;' and so enters, when any open to him: but 
 if they delay, and will not open to him, he then de- 
 parts; because the truth is not to be pressed with 
 swords and arrows, nor with soldiers and armed men, 
 but by persuasion and counsel." 6eoae^eca<; pev yap 
 locov fivj avayxa^ecv, dXXa rcecdecv, xac yap 6 Kupcoz 
 abroQ ob ftca^opevoz, dXXa tyj npoacpeaec dc3ou<; eXeys 
 
 Ttaac pev, el zee, OeXec oncaco poo eXOecv, &c 
 
 pev ocaftoXoz enec prjdev dfajOec k%ec, iv neXexec xac 
 /jj.ZEVzrjptco l7ztfia.L\Hj)v xareagec zac, dopac, za)v oe^opevcov 
 aurov b oe 1 \ottj p outcd^ zgtc npaoQ, loq dtdaoxecv pev, 
 el zc$ deXec oncaw poo iXOscv, xac 6 6eXcov elvat poo 
 
 * Direct. Inquis. P. 3. modo 9. termin. process, p. 510. et ibi 
 Pegna. 
 
AS JUDGES IN POINT? OF RELIGION. 391 
 
 uoOtjttjc ipYOfitvov de itpo£ kka&rov, ur t fttd£e<jOat\ 
 a/la fiaXXov xpoueev re, xai Xefeev, tivoegov n.oc, ddz/crj 
 /ay), vi)[Mpyj % xcu dvotfOVTMV jlvj elffep^erae^ dxvouvratp 
 as. xw /a] deXovTi&v ixtcvcav, d^aywpec. 'Oo yap ~t(fzocv y 
 ■i t feXtotv^ i dea <rrpaziana)V) &c* 
 
 The ancients also sharply reprehended the Arians, 
 for going about to establish and maintain their religion 
 by force; saying, "Of whom have they learnt to per- 
 secute their brethren? Certainly they cannot say that 
 they have learnt of the saints; no, they have rather 
 had the devil for their tutor herein." And again : 
 " Jesus Christ has commanded us to fly, and the saints 
 have indeed fled sometimes: but persecution is the 
 invention of the devil." Tlodzv i/jtaOou abzoc to 
 tuaxeiu; dzo fHU yap rcov dytcov obx av sc~ocsw d~o 
 as rou dcaftoAou touto aSbvotQ Ktpt&fapttcu, &c. . . . Kai 
 to fitly fSUyetv b h'jococ 7:poo£Ta~e, xac ol dytoi icpuyov 
 to dz dt&xeev diaftokxov scftc \~iyj.ipr t fia, xac xaTa 
 Xavtew o.'jto^ ahzcTat touto. f 
 
 In another place they protest, that "by that very 
 course which the Arians took in banishing (which yet 
 is much less than burning,) all those who would not 
 subscribe to their decrees, they clearly showed them- 
 selves to be contrary to all Christians, and to be 
 the friends of the devil and his fiends." 01 outco 
 yna.co^Ti:, ojgti to Ttloz tcov ypauaa.Tcov aurwv 
 igopar/tOV) XOi d/lac Ttfuop'jj.z zyzw, tc dp scev ol 
 toco'jtoc ; ol XntfjTiaycov niv d/loTotoc, dcayiohrj de 9 XCU 
 
 TOJ^ i'/.ir^O') d<J.i!!AV>0)V <f'M)L.% 
 
 In like manner has another of the ancient Fathers 
 exclaimed against the proceeding of these Arians, 
 who made use not only of the terror of persecution, 
 but of the enticements also of worldly riches, that 
 thus they might the more easily draw men over to 
 
 * Athan. in Ep. a<l solit. vir 
 
 f Ariian. ApoL l. .]«■ faga sua, ]». 716. torn, i. 
 
 \ Athan. OOntT. Arian. Or. L tl.p.2 
 
392 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 their belief. "But now, alas! (says this Father,) 
 worldly suffrages recommend the faith of God : Christ 
 is now become weak and void of power, and ambition 
 gains credit to his name. The Church terrifies by 
 banishment and imprisonments, &c. She, that was 
 consecrated by the terror of her persecutors, depends 
 now upon the dignity of those who are of her com- 
 munion. She who has been propagated by banished 
 priests, now herself banishes priests. She boasts now 
 that she is beloved of the world — who could not be 
 Christ's, unless the world hated her."* Agreeable 
 to what another of them says, " That the Church of 
 Christ was founded by shedding her blood, and by 
 suffering reproaches, rather than by reproaching 
 others; and that it has grown up by persecutions, and 
 has been crowned by martyrdoms. "f 
 
 Another also of the chief among the ancient Fathers 
 reproached an Arian for having made use of the 
 sword and axe in ecclesiastical matters. "Those 
 whom he could not deceive by his discourse, (says he,) 
 he thought proper to use his sword against ; uttering 
 with his mouth, and writing with his hands, sanguin- 
 ary laws, and thinking that a law can command men's 
 faith. "J And that you may not imagine that he 
 himself thought that lawful which he found fault with 
 
 * At nunc, proh dolor ! divinam fidem suftragia terrena recom- 
 mendant inopsque virtutis suae Christus, dum ambitio nomini suo 
 conciliatur, arguitur. Terret exiliis et carceribus Ecclesiae, cre- 
 dique sibi cogit, quse exiliis et carceribus est credita. Pendet ad 
 dignationem communicantium, quae persequentium est consecrata 
 terrore. Fugat sacerdotes, quae fugatis est sacerdotibus propa- 
 gata. Diligi se gloriatur a mundo, quae Cliristi esse non potuit, 
 nisi earn mundus odisset. — Hilar. I. contr. Aux. p. 86. 
 
 i Fundendo sanguinem, et patiendo magis quam faciendo con- 
 tumelias, Christi fundata est ecclesia ; persecutionibus crevit, mar- 
 tyriis coronata est. — Hieron. ep. 62, ad Theoph. t. 2, p. 274. 
 
 | Qui (Auxentius) quos non potuerit sermon e decipere, eos 
 gladio putat esse feriendos; cruentas leges ore dictans, manu 
 scribens; et putans quod lex fidem possit hominibus imperare.— - 
 Ambros. ep. 82, t. 3, p. 126. 
 
AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 393 
 
 in the Arians, lie says, in another place, that in a 
 certain journey which he made into Gaul, he refused 
 to communicate with those bishops who would have 
 some certain heretics to be put to death.* 
 
 The emperor Marcian, in like manner, who called 
 together the council of Chalcedon, and was a prince 
 that was highly commended for his piety, solemnly 
 protests that u he had forced no man to subscribe, or 
 to assent to the council of Chalcedon, against his will. 
 "For, (says he) we will not draw any man into the way 
 of life by violence or by threats/' Kac fj pzv y/psrepa 
 faXqvoTTfi obdebc to oovolov dvayxr^ iizayprpcu izpoo- 
 era£ev, waze vj u-oypo^ztv, vj oovaivziv, ei ou fiooXocTO* 
 oude yap d~scMMC, /} /?*a ziva npoc, rr^v ttjc dlr^deca^ boov 
 kixeev 0ouXofjL60au1[ Indeed, Hosius, bishop of Cordova, 
 long before testified that the most Catholic emperor 
 Constans never compelled any man to be orthodox. J 
 And this is the course which is approved of by all the 
 ancients. "God (says Hilary) has rather taught us 
 the knowledge of himself, than exacted it of us; and 
 giving authority to his commandments by the wonder- 
 fulness of his heavenly works, he has refused to force 
 us to confess his name, &c. He is the God of the 
 whole world: he has no need of a compelled obedi- 
 ence ; he requires not any forced confession. "§ These 
 are the reasons this author brought to dissuade the 
 emperor Constantius from using violence, and forcing 
 the consciences of men. 
 
 * Postea cum videret me abstinere ab episcopis qui communica- 
 Imnt ei, vel qui aliquot licet a fide, ad necem petebant, 
 
 fee. — Ambros. 1. 2, '/'• 27. 1. 3, p. 106. 
 
 f Marcian. ep. ad Archiiiiandr. et Mon. JEg. in Act. Cone. 
 Chalce I. t. 2, Cone. Gen. p. 453. 
 
 % Hujus ep. ad Cunstantium, apud Atlian. In ep. ad solit. vit. ag. 
 t. 1, p. 839. 
 
 litionem bui aocuit potins, quam exegit; et opera- 
 
 tiom turn admiratione praeceptLe suifi oonoilians auctori- 
 
 di oonfitec ruatus esl roluntatem, &c. Deus 
 
 anii oio qoh egel aecessario: nan requirit ooae- 
 
 ■iii. — lidar. /. 1, ad ConsUfol. 81. 
 
394 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 Ambrose says, " Christ sent his Apostles to plant 
 the faith; not to compel, but to instruct men; not 
 to exercise the force of power, but to promote the 
 doctrine of humility/'* Hence the observation of 
 Cyprian, when comparing the manner of proceeding 
 in the Old Testament with that of the New: "Then 
 the proud and the disobedient were cut off by the 
 (fleshly) sword ; now they suffer by the spiritual, being 
 thrown out of the Church. "f Certainly then they 
 still live, at this very day, under the Old Testament, 
 in Spain, and Italy, and all those other places where 
 the Inquisition is in force ; and, I believe, he would 
 find a very difficult task of it, whoever should take it 
 in hand to reconcile this passage of Cyprian to that 
 opinion of Pope Pius V.,J who said that bishops might 
 have their officers and executioners of justice, for the 
 causes that appertained to their jurisdiction ; and 
 might put their sentences in execution against offend- 
 ers ; and that the reason of their having recourse upon 
 all occasions to the secular powers, was, not because 
 the Church could not make use of its own proper 
 officers of justice in such cases, but rather because it 
 had none; or if it had any, they were so weak, and so 
 few in number, that for the suppressing and punishing 
 of delinquents, it stood in need of the assistance of the 
 temporal power. 
 
 I shall conclude this subject with Tertullian, the 
 most ancient author of the Latin Church, whom 
 Pamelius (as we have noticed before) will have us to 
 believe to have been a persecutor of heretics ; yet he 
 was a man that would not allow a Christian so much 
 
 * Eos misit ad seminandam fidem, qui non cogerent, sed doce- 
 rent, nee vim potestatis exercerent, sed doctrinam humilitatis 
 attollerent. — Ambros. Com. in Luc. I. 7, p. 99. 
 
 f Tunc quidem gladio occidebantur, quando adhuc et circumcisio 
 carnalis manebat. Nunc autem, &c, spirituali gladio superbi et 
 contumaces necantur, dum de ecclesia ejiciuntur. — Cyprian, ep. 
 62, j*. 143. 
 
 % Girolamo, Catena nella vita di Pio V. p. 126. 
 
AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 395 
 
 as to draw a sword, either in a war against a public 
 enemy, or in discharging the office of a magistrate 
 upon offenders whom all civil laws punish with death. 
 Hear what he says of religion. " Consider (says he 
 to the Pagans) whether this be not to add to the 
 crime of irreligion, to take away the liberty of 
 religion, and to interdict a man the choice of his God, 
 by not suffering him to worship whom he would, but 
 to compel him to worship whom he would not. There 
 is none, no not among men, that takes pleasure in 
 being served by any against their will."* Some few 
 chapters afterwards he says, "It seems very unjust 
 that freemen should be constrained to do sacrifice 
 against their will. For, in the performing of service 
 to God, a willing heart is required. "f In another 
 book, when speaking of the same thing, he says: "It 
 is a point of human right, and a natural power that 
 every man has to worship that which he thinks fit. 
 The religion of another man neither hurts nor profits 
 any one. Neither is it indeed the part of religion to 
 compel religion ; which ought to be entertained will- 
 ingly, and not by force; inasmuch as sacrifices them- 
 selves are required only from willing minds. "J 
 
 On this passage Pamelius gives us a marvellously 
 rare gloss, saying, "that we ought not indeed direct- 
 ly to compel men to our religion, but yet we may pun- 
 ish them, if they will not change their opinion." Cer- 
 
 * Yidete enim ne et hoc ad irrcliiriositatis elogium concurrat, 
 
 adimere libertatem reiigionis, et interdicere optionem divinitatis, at 
 
 i colore quern velim, sed eogar colore quern aolim. 
 
 «ito coli vellet, nc homo qaidem. — TertulL Apelog. c. 
 
 Lam .intern facile iniqimm vMetur, liberos homines invito* 
 Nam et ali&S -I'm me rci faciendae libens 
 animus inducitor. — Id. Apolog. c. 28, p, 61. 
 
 I Tameo human] juria, fcoralia pot ique 
 
 aeo alii ol 
 
 religionem, 
 non vi : cum et hoel i libeuti expostulcntur. — Id. I. ad 
 
 , '. <:. _'. 
 
396 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 tainly he thinks it is not compelling a man, to cause 
 him to do a thing under pain of death. Let any man 
 that can, reconcile the practice of the Inquisition, and 
 the Pope's thunderbolt against king Henry VIII. and 
 his daughter queen Elizabeth, and against some of 
 the kings of France also, with this constant opinion 
 of all antiquity. 
 
 Now after the Romanists have thus boldly slighted 
 the doctrines, the ceremonies, and the discipline of the 
 ancients, by changing and abolishing whatever they 
 have thought good; with what confidence can they 
 still laud the Fathers, and adduce their testimonies, 
 and place them upon the seat of judicature, and make 
 them the judges of our differences? Or although they 
 still do thus, who would not be ready here to bring 
 against them those words of Tertullian, which he 
 made use of in another similar case? " I would be 
 very glad (says he) that these great and religious de- 
 fenders and maintainers of the laws and customs of 
 their fathers, would answer me a little as to their own 
 faith, respect, and obedience, toward the constitutions 
 of their ancestors; whether they have not departed 
 from and forsaken some of them ? whether they have 
 not rased out those things which were most neces- 
 sary and most useful in their discipline ? What has 
 become of those ancient laws? &c, where is the reli- 
 gion, where is the reverence which is due from you 
 to your ancestors ? You have renounced your fore- 
 fathers, in your habit, apparel, manner of life, opin- 
 ion, and also in your very speech. You are always 
 lauding antiquity, yet every day you assume a new 
 manner of life."* 
 
 * Nunc religiosissimi legum, et paternorum institutorum pro- 
 tectores et ultores respondeant v^lim de sua fide, et honore, et ob- 
 sequio erga majorum consulta, si a nullo desciverunt? si in nullo 
 exorbitaverunt? si non necessaria et aptissima quseque discipline 
 
 oblitteraverunt? Quonam illae leges abierunt, &c Ubi reli- 
 
 gio! ubi veneratio majoribus debita fc vobis? Habitu, victu, in- 
 
AS JUDGES IN TOINTS OF RELIGION. 397 
 
 Whether therefore they of the Church of Rome 
 have upon just grounds dealt thus with the ancients 
 or not, it answers my purpose notwithstanding to 
 conclude, that by this their proceeding they have 
 given us a sufficient testimony that they do not ac- 
 count their authority supreme in matters of religion. 
 And if so, what reason have they to urge it for such, 
 against the Protestants? Seeing they have weakened 
 the authority of so many of those judgments, on points 
 of religion, which have been given by the Fathers, 
 how can they expect that their authority should pass 
 for authentic in any one ? Let us suppose, for in- 
 stance, that they held that there was such a place as 
 Purgatory. But (will the Protestant say,) if you 
 have found their belief to be so erroneous, on the 
 state of the souls of departed saints till the day of 
 the resurrection, why would you impose upon me a 
 necessity of subscribing to what they held on Purga- 
 tory ? The laws of controversy ought to be equal ; 
 and therefore if you, by examining this opinion of the 
 Fathers by reason and by the Scriptures, have found 
 it to be erroneous, why will you not give us leave to 
 try that other on Purgatory, by the same touchstone? 
 Certainly, should we but speak the truth, it is the 
 plainest mockery that can be, to cry out, as these men 
 do continually, "the Fathers, the Fathers, " and to 
 write so many volumes upon this subject, after they 
 have so dealt with them as you have seen. 
 
 If it be here objected that the Protestants them- 
 selves do also reject many of those Articles, which 
 we have before noticed, we answer, that this is no- 
 thing at all to the purpose; forasmuch as they take 
 the Scriptures, and not the Fathers, for the rule of 
 their faith; neither do they press any man to receive 
 
 struetn, Bensu, ipso denique Bermone proayia rennnoiaetis; laudatia 
 semper antiqaitatem, et nov6 de die vivitia. — Id. Apol. e, 'sy. SI, 
 
 31* 
 
398 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 anything from the hands of the ancients, unless it be 
 grounded upon the word of God. If, lastly, you say 
 that the authority of the Fathers has no place, nor 
 is at all considerable, in the points before set down, 
 because the Church has otherwise determined on the 
 same ; this is clearly to grant us that which we would 
 have, namely, that the authority of the Fathers is not 
 supreme. As for the Church, how far its authority 
 extends in these things, that is a new question which 
 I shall not meddle with at this time. Only thus much 
 I shall say, that whatever authority you allow it, 
 whether little or much, you will still find that it will 
 very hardly be able to do anything, on the decision 
 of our present controversies; forasmuch as you can 
 never be able to make any use of this position, till 
 you are assured of what and where the Church is; 
 seeing that the Protestants strenuously deny that it 
 is that which appears at this day at Rome; and the 
 greatest difficulty of all consists in demonstrating 
 this to them. For if they did but once believe that 
 the Church of Rome was the true Church, they would 
 immediately join themselves with it; so that there 
 w r ould not henceforth be need of any further dis- 
 pute. 
 
 We shall therefore here conclude, that to adduce 
 the testimonies of the Fathers on the differences that 
 are at this day in religion, is no proper mode for the 
 deciding them, seeing that it is no easy matter to dis- 
 cover what was their judgment respecting the same, 
 by reason of the many difficulties we meet with, in 
 the writings of the ancients; nor is it of such suffi- 
 cient authority in itself, as that we may safely estab- 
 lish our belief upon it, since the Fathers themselves 
 were also subject to error. Neither, lastly, is it of 
 any force, with either party; seeing that they both 
 regulate and examine the opinions, ceremonies, and 
 discipline of the ancients, the one by the rule of the 
 Scriptures, and the other by that of the Church. 
 
AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 399 
 
 Here, I find, that upon this conclusion two ques- 
 tions may arise. For since an appeal to the Fathers 
 is not sufficient for the deciding of those points that 
 are now in" dispute amongst us, it may be asked, in 
 the first place, what other course we ought to take 
 for attaining the truth of these controversies; and 
 then, secondly, how and in what cases the writings of 
 the Fathers may be useful to us. Now, although both 
 these questions are without the compass of our pre- 
 sent design, yet as they so closely border upon it, we 
 shall, in the last place, say a word or two in answer 
 to them. 
 
 As for the first, it would be a difficult matter, in my 
 judgment, to discover a better way for satisfaction on 
 this point, than that which one Scholarius, a Greek, 
 who is very highly esteemed by those who printed 
 the general councils at Rome, has proposed. This 
 learned man, in a certain oration of his, which he 
 made at the council of Florence, for the facilitating 
 the union which w T as then in treaty between the 
 Latins and the Greeks, and was afterwards concluded, 
 lays it down as a basis, " that we ought not to reject 
 all those things, which are not clearly, and in express 
 terms, delivered in the Scriptures; which is a pretext 
 and evasion which many of the heretics make use of: 
 but that we ought to receive with equal honour what- 
 ever directly follows from that which is said in the 
 Scriptures; and to reject utterly whatever shall be 
 found to be contrary to those things which are un- 
 doubtedly true." He says further, that "in those 
 things wherein the Scripture has not clearly expn 
 ed itself, we must have recourse to the Scripture itself, 
 as our guide, to give us light therein, by some other 
 
 -age, where it has spoken more plainly." And 
 after all this he requires, " that we should use our 
 utmost endeavour fully to reconcile those seeming 
 contradictions, which we sometimes here meet with in 
 several passages; to that purpose taking notice of the 
 
400 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 diversity of times, customs, senses and the like." 
 Kac Tcptora pev prj Ttavra ftooXeodac dcappydrjv Xapfiavscv 
 ix rjyc Ypcupyz' tootco yap xac ttoXXolk; lapev tojv 
 alpezcxcov yp^aapevouc, tco npoxaluppaTC &XX av tc toc$ 
 obzw Xsyopspoa; axoXoodov ij y xac touto r^c l<rf}<Z TtpyG 
 a^couv waaurcoq el tc tocc, dXydeac, xac avavTcppyroct; 
 IvavTcoupevov (pacvocTO, touto pydeva Ttapabeyeadac 
 Tpoizov. ' EnecTa tcou prj aacpeoz ecprjpevwv, auvqv 
 Trp ypaiprjv Xapftavscv dcdaaxaXov, ig wv dXXodc ttou 
 oacpsGTspov 7ipaypaTSoeTar izpoc, 3e toutocq tyjv doxouaav 
 ocaycovcav igrjyoupevouz Xuecv rcecpaadac, xacpouc, re, xac 
 Xpsca^, xac 3ca<popou£ evvocaz, xac Ta TOcauTa napaX&p- 
 fio.vovTa^.* 
 
 Proceeding further, Scholarius says, " That the 
 Fathers of the council of Nice after this manner 
 concluded by the Scriptures upon the true belief 
 touching the Son of God."f Then applying all 
 this to his present purpose, he adds, "that the 
 Scripture . says clearly and expressly that the Holy 
 Ghost proceeds from the Father; and that this is 
 agreed upon by both sides, both by the Greeks and 
 Latins." To pev ouv, ex too TzaTpoc, exnopeueodac to 
 nveupa to kycov, xecTac pev dcapprjdrjv iv*ry ypaiprj^ 
 bpoXoyecTac de izapa rcavTaiv fjpwv, &c. But as Scrip- 
 ture has not so expressly declared itself whether the 
 Holy Ghost proceed also from the Son or not, and 
 as this is the thing now in question, the Latins 
 affirming it, and the Greeks on the other side deny- 
 ing it, he says: "We ought therefore to prove this 
 from some other parts, which are there more clearly 
 delivered." Ouxouv ex tcvcdv dXXcov touto auvayeadac 
 dec, (pfivepoyc, ixec Xeyopevwv. This he afterwards per- 
 forms, and indeed, in my judgment, very learnedly 
 and happily; proving this doubtful point out of 
 other passages that are more clear. And this was 
 
 * Scholar. Orat. 3, t. 4. Cone. Gen. p. 650. 
 f Ibid. p. 652 et 653. 
 
AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 401 
 
 the judgment of this great person; which will nob 
 give any offence to those of the Church of Rome, 
 because it came from one that was on their side. 
 Neither do I see what could have been spoken more 
 rationally. And indeed this is the course that is 
 observed in all sciences whatever. 
 
 If an adversary doubt of the truth of what we 
 propose, we are to prove it by such maxims as are 
 acknowledged and allowed of by him, making good 
 that which is doubtful by that which is certain, and 
 clearing that which is obscure by that which is 
 evident. This is the rule that I conceive we ought 
 to abide by, in the disputes that are among us at 
 this day. The word of God is our common book; 
 let us therefore search into it, for that upon which 
 we may ground our own belief; and by which we 
 may overthrow the opinion of our adversary. As 
 for example, it is there said clearly and expressly, 
 that what our Saviour Christ took at his last supper, 
 was bread : and herein we all agree. But it is not 
 at all there expressed, whether this bread was after- 
 wards changed or annihilated. And this is now the 
 question in dispute among us. We ought therefore 
 (according to the counsel of Scholarius) to prove this 
 by some other things which are there delivered 
 clearly. And if you do this, you have got the vic- 
 tory: if not, I do not at all see why or how you can 
 oblige any one to believe it. 
 
 In like manner the Scripture tells us, in terms as 
 express as can be, that our Saviour Christ com- 
 manded his Apostles to take and eat, and to drink 
 that which he gave them in celebrating the eucharist. 
 But it does not at all say, that he commanded 
 them to offer the same in sacrifice, either then or 
 afterwards. And this is now the question : which it 
 concerns those of the Church of Rome, if they will 
 have us believe it, to prove by some other things. 
 
402 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 which are clearly and expressly delivered in the word 
 of God. 
 
 The Scripture, in like manner, says expressly that 
 Jesus Christ is the Mediator betwixt God and man: 
 and that he is the Head of the Church; and that he 
 purges us by his blood from our sins. Now in all 
 this, both sides are fully agreed. But it is not at all 
 there expressed that the departed saints are media- 
 tors ; that the Pope is the head of the Church; and 
 that our souls are in part cleansed from their sins by 
 the fire of purgatory. Herein lies the controversy 
 between us. The learned Scholarius's opinion herein 
 would now be, that certainly those who propose 
 these points as articles of faith, must deduce and 
 collect them from some things which are clearly 
 delivered in the Scriptures; for otherwise they are 
 not to be pressed as truths. And although in mat- 
 ters of religion, or indeed in any other things of 
 importance, a man may very well be excused for not 
 believing a thing, when there appears no reason, to 
 oblige him to believe it; yet, if those who reject the 
 articles now disputed among us, have a mind to go 
 further, and to prove positively the falseness of them, 
 you see this author has laid down the way by which 
 they are to proceed. He accounts those very absurd 
 who require at your hands that you should show them 
 all things expressly delivered in the Scripture: and 
 this ought principally to be understood of negative 
 propositions, of which no science gives you any cer- 
 tain account: forasmuch as to go about to number 
 them all up, would be both an endless and also un- 
 profitable piece of work. It is sufficient to deliver 
 the positive truth. For, as whatever rightly follows 
 thereupon is true; in like manner, whatever clashes 
 with or contradicts the same is false. Would you 
 therefore demonstrate those propositions that are 
 pressed upon you to be false? Only compare them 
 with those things that are clearly and expressly de- 
 
AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 403 
 
 livercd in the Scripture ; and if you find them contrary 
 to any thing there set down, receive them not by any 
 means. As for example, if a Protestant, not content- 
 ing himself with having answered all those reasons 
 which are brought to prove that there is such a place 
 as Purgatory, shall yet desire to go further, and to 
 make it appear that the opinion is false; he is in this 
 case to have recourse to the Scripture, and to examine 
 it by those things which are there clearly and ex- 
 pressly delivered on the state of the soul, after it is 
 departed this life, and touching the cause and means 
 of the expiation of our sins, and the like. If the 
 opinion of purgatory be found to contradict anything 
 there delivered, then, according to Scholarius, " it 
 ought not to be received by any means." But the 
 brevity which we proposed to ourselves in this dis- 
 course, permits us not to prosecute this point any 
 further. 
 
 As for the other question, it is no very difficult 
 matter to resolve it. For, although we do not indeed 
 allow any supreme and infallible authority to the 
 writings of the Fathers, yet we do not therefore at 
 once account them useless. If there were nothing of 
 use in religion, saving what was also infallible, we 
 should have but little good of any human writings. 
 Those who have written in our own age, or a little 
 before, are of no authority at all, against either party. 
 Yet we read them, and also derive much benefit from 
 them. How much more advantage then may we 
 make, by studying the writings of the Fathers, whose 
 piety and learning were for the most part much greater 
 than that of the moderns! Augustine believed them 
 not in anything otherwise than as he found what they 
 delivered to be grounded upon reason; and yet, he 
 held them in very great esteem. The like may he 
 said of Jerome, who had read almost all of them over ; 
 and yet he takes the liberty sometimes to reprove 
 tkem somewhat sharply, where he finds them not 
 
404 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 speaking to his mind. Though you should deprive 
 them not only of this supremacy, which yet they 
 never sought after, but should rob them also of their 
 fame, yet would they still be of very great use to us. 
 For books do not therefore profit us, because they 
 were of such a man's writing ; but rather because 
 they instruct us in those things that are good and 
 honest, and keep us out of error, and make us abhor 
 those things that are vicious. Blot, if you please, 
 the name of Augustine out of the title of those excel- 
 lent books of his De Qivitate Dei, or those other 
 which he wrote, De Doctrina Christiana. His wri- 
 tings will instruct you not a whit the less; neither 
 will you find the less benefit from them. The like 
 may be said of all the rest. 
 
 First of all, therefore, you will find in the Fathers 
 many earnest and zealous exhortations to holiness of 
 life, and to the observance of the discipline of Jesus 
 Christ. Secondly, you will there meet with very 
 strong and solid proofs of those fundamental princi- 
 ples of our religion on which we are all agreed : and 
 also many excellent things developed, tending to the 
 right understanding of these mysteries, and also of 
 the Scriptures wherein they are contained. In this 
 very particular, their authority may be of good use 
 to you, and may serve as a probable argument of the 
 truth. For is it not a wonderful thing to see, that so 
 many great wits, born in so many several ages, during 
 the space of fifteen hundred years, and in so many 
 several countries, being also of such different tempers, 
 and who in other things were of such contrary opinions, 
 should notwithstanding be found all of them to agree 
 so constantly and unanimously in the fundamentals of 
 Christianity ; that amidst such great diversity in wor- 
 ship, they all adore one and the same Christ; preach 
 one and the same sanctification ; hope all of them for 
 one and the same immortality; acknowledge all of 
 
AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 405 
 
 them the same gospels; find therein all of them great 
 and high mysteries? 
 
 The exquisite wisdom, and the inestimable beauty 
 itself, of the discipline of Jesus Christ, I confess, is 
 the most forcible and certain argument of the truth of 
 it : yet certainly this consideration also is, in my opin- 
 ion, no small proof of the same. For, pray, what 
 probability is there, that so many holy men, who were 
 endued (as it appears by their writings) with such 
 admirable parts, with so much strength and clearness 
 of understanding, should all of them be so grossly 
 deceived, as to set so high a value upon this disci- 
 pline, as to suffer even to death for it; unless it had 
 in it some certain divine virtue, calculated to make an 
 impression on the souls of men? What likelihood is 
 there that a few besotted atheists, who rail against 
 this sacred and venerable religion, should have been 
 more successful in lighting upon the truth, than so 
 many excellent men, who have all so unanimously 
 borne testimony to the truth? 
 
 As for atheists, their vicious life ought to render 
 their testimony suspected by every one ; notwithstand- 
 ing they may be otherwise (as indeed they conceive 
 themselves to be) able men. For what wonder is it, 
 if a whoremonger, or an ambitious person, cry down 
 that discipline that condemns their vices to everlasting 
 fire? that he that drowns himself every day, and at 
 length vomits up his soul in wine, should hate that re- 
 ligion which forbids drunkennesss upon pain of dam- 
 nation ? The great reason that these men have to 
 wish that it were false, must needs make any man 
 
 -e to wonder at their pronouncing it to be false. 
 To take any notice therefore of what such wretches as 
 
 -o may say, is the same as if you should judge, by 
 taking the opinion of common strumpets, of the equity 
 or injustice of the laws that enjoin people to live hon- 
 estly. But the case is clearly otherwise with tii 
 holy men, who have so constantly and so unanimou.-ly 
 35 
 
406 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 taught the truth of the Christian religion. For as 
 they were men born and brought up. in the very same 
 infirmities with other men, we cannot doubt but that 
 they also naturally had strong inclinations to those 
 vices, which our Saviour Christ forbids; and very 
 little affection to those virtues which he commands. 
 Forasmuch, therefore, as notwithstanding all this, they 
 have yet all of them constantly maintained that this 
 doctrine is true, their testimony certainly in this case 
 neither can nor ought in any wise to be suspected. 
 So that even if they had been destitute of those great 
 and incomparable advantages of parts and learning, 
 which they had above the enemies of Christianity, 
 their bare word however is much rather to be taken 
 than that of the others; seeing that these men are 
 manifestly carried away by the force of their own vile 
 affections, of which the others cannot possibly be sus- 
 pected guilty. And as for those differences in opinion, 
 which are sometimes found amongst them, on certain 
 points of religion, some whereof we have formerly 
 set down; these things are so far from disparaging 
 the weight of their testimonies, that on the contrary 
 they rather very much add to it. For this must acquit 
 their consenting of all suspicion, that some perhaps 
 might have, that it proceeded from some combina- 
 tion, or some correspondence and mutual intelligence. 
 When you find them so disagreeing among them- 
 selves, on so many several points, it is an evident 
 argument that they have not learnt their knowledge 
 from one another; nor yet have all agreed upon the 
 same thing by common deliberation ; but have all of 
 them collected it out of a serious examination and 
 consideration of the things themselves. And if we 
 received no other benefit from the writings of the 
 Fathers, yet would this be considerable. 
 
 But now, that the benefit and satisfaction, which 
 we shall receive from this consideration, may not be 
 interrupted and disturbed by- our meeting with so 
 
AS JUDGES IN FOINTS OF RELIGION. 407 
 
 many different private opinions of theirs; we are to 
 take notice, that Christianity consists not in subtleties, 
 nor so much in the great number of its articles, as in 
 the power and efficacy of them. A great part of these 
 points of faith, and the end of all the rest, is sanetifi- 
 cation ; that is to say, a pure worship of God, and a 
 hearty charity towards men. You may therefore 
 boldly conclude that man to be a true observer of this 
 discipline, whom you shall find to have a right sense 
 and apprehension of these two points. Though per- 
 haps he may be ignorant of those others, that exist 
 rather in speculation than in practice, you ought not to 
 reject him. And if, carried away by his own curiosity, 
 or some other reason, he chance to err in some of those 
 articles, bear with him notwithstanding. As God for- 
 gives us our sins, so does he also forgive us our errors. 
 The hay and the stubble and the chaff shall be con- 
 sumed : but yet he that buildeth therewith shall be 
 saved, if he only hold fast to the foundation. Nor 
 ought you to be troubled, if now and then you meet 
 with some ignorant or perhaps some erroneous pas- 
 sages in the Fathers respecting these unessential 
 points. They are not a whit the less Christian on 
 this account, and may for all this have been most 
 faithful servants of Jesus Christ. There is scarcely 
 any face in the world so beautiful, but that it has 
 some speckle or blemish in it. Yet is it not either 
 the less esteemed, or the less beloved. The natural 
 condition of mortal men and things, is to have some 
 mixture of imperfection. 
 
 But now, besides what has been hitherto said, we 
 may, in my opinion, make another very considerable 
 use of the Fathers. For there sometimes arise such 
 turbulent spirits as will needs broach doctrines arising 
 from their own imagination, which are not grounded 
 upon any principle of the Christian religion. 1 Bay, 
 refore, that the authority of the ancients may ?erj 
 properly and seasonably be made use of against the 
 
408 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 assurance of these men; by showing that the Fathers 
 were utterly ignorant of any such fancies as these in- 
 dividuals propose to the world. And if this can be 
 proved, we ought then certainly to conclude that no 
 such doctrine was ever preached to mankind, either 
 by our Saviour Christ, or by his Apostles. For what 
 probability is there, that those holy Doctors of former 
 ages, from whose hands Christianity has been derived 
 down unto us, should be ignorant of any of those 
 things which had been revealed and recommended by 
 our Saviour, as important and necessary to salvation ? 
 It is true indeed that the Fathers, being deceived 
 either by some false manner of argumentation, or else 
 by some seeming authority, do sometimes deliver such 
 things as have not been revealed by our Saviour 
 Christ, but are evidently either false or ill founded ; 
 as we have formerly shown in those examples before 
 produced by us. It is true, moreover, that among 
 those things which have been revealed by our Saviour 
 Christ in the Scripture, which yet are not absolutely 
 necessary to salvation, the Fathers may have been 
 ignorant of some of them; either because time had 
 not as yet discovered what the sense of them was; or 
 because, for lack of giving good heed to them, or by 
 their being carried away with strong feelings, they 
 did not then perceive what has since been ascer- 
 tained. But that they should all of them have been 
 ignorant of any article that is necessary to salvation, 
 is altogether impossible. For, according to this, they 
 should all have been deprived of salvation; which, 
 I suppose every honest soul would tremble at the 
 thought of. 
 
 I say then, and, as I conceive, have sufficiently 
 proved in this treatise, that an argument which con- 
 cludes the truth of any proposition from the Fathers 
 having maintained the same, is very weak and ill 
 founded; as supposing that which is clearly false, that 
 the Fathers maintained nothing which had not been 
 
AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 409 
 
 revealed by our Saviour Christ. For thus you might 
 prove by the general agreement of the Fathers, that 
 all the departed souls are shut up together in a certain 
 place or receptacle, till the day of judgment; or that 
 the eucharist is necessary for little infants, and the 
 like; where everyone sees how insufficient and in- 
 valid this kind of argumentation is. To say the truth, 
 such is the proceeding of the Church of Rome, when 
 they go about to prove, by the authority of the 
 Fathers, those articles which they propose to the 
 world, and which are rejected by the Protestants. 
 
 I say moreover, that to conclude the nullity or 
 falseness of any article, not necessary to salvation, 
 from the general silence of the Fathers respecting the 
 same, is a very absurd way of arguing; as supposing 
 a thing which is also manifestly false; namely, that 
 the Fathers must necessarily have seen and clearly 
 known all those things which Jesus Christ has revealed 
 in his word. Such a kind of argument would it be 
 thought among the Franciscans, if any one should 
 conclude against them, from the silence of the Fathers, 
 that our Saviour Christ has not at all revealed that the 
 blessed Virgin Mary was conceived without sin. But 
 yet I confess, on the other side, that in those points 
 that are accounted as absolutely necessary to salva- 
 tion, an argument that should be drawn from the 
 general silence of the Fathers, to prove the nullity or 
 falseness of it, would be very pertinent, and indeed 
 unanswerable. As, for example, his manner of argu- 
 mentation would be very rational and sound, who 
 should conclude that those means of salvation which 
 are proposed by a Mahomet, suppose, or a David 
 George, or the like sectaries, are null, and contrary to 
 the will of our Saviour Christ, (however much these 
 men may seem to honour him) seeing that none of 
 the ancient Christians speak so much as one syllable 
 of it, and are utterly ignorant of all those secrets which 
 these wretches have preached to their disciples, and 
 35* 
 
410 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 delivered as infallible and necessary means of salva- 
 tion. After this manner did Irenaeus dispute against 
 the Valentinians, and others of the Gnostics; who 
 promulgated their own senseless dreams and the ab- 
 surd issues of their own brain, saying that the Crea- 
 tor of the world was but an angel; and that there 
 were above him certain divine powers which they 
 called JEons, that is to say, ages; some of them 
 making more of these and others fewer, and some 
 reckoning to the number of three hundred and sixty- 
 five, and an infinite number of other similar prodigies; 
 never showing any ground for the same, either in 
 reason or out of the Scripture. Irenseus* therefore, 
 that he might make it appear to the world that this 
 strange doctrine was produced from their own imagi- 
 nation only, undertakes to visit the archives of all the 
 Churches that had been either planted or watered by 
 the holy Apostles, and turns over all their records, 
 evidences, and ancient monuments; and these JEons, 
 Achamot and Barbelo^ of the Gnostics nowhere 
 appearing, nor so much as the least part or trace of 
 them, he concludes that the Apostles had never de- 
 livered any such thing to their disciples, either by 
 writing or by word of mouth, as these impostors pre- 
 tended they had. For certainly if they had done so, 
 the memory of it could not have been so utterly lost. 
 This is also the method that Tertullian followed, in 
 his disputations against these very heretics and others 
 of the like description, in the twenty-second chapter 
 of his book De Prseseriptionibus adversus Hcereticos, 
 and in other places. The practice of these great per- 
 sons, who made use of it themselves, will here serve 
 to prove to us that this course is correct and advan- 
 tageous. 
 
 Thus you see that the authority of the Fathers is of 
 
 * Irenreus, 1. 3. contr. Use. c. 1, 2, 3, and 4. 
 t Id. 3. c. 2. 
 
AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 411 
 
 very great use in the Church, and serves as an out- 
 work to the Scriptures, for repelling the presumption 
 of those who would forge a new faith. But inasmuch 
 as those who broach new doctrines of their own ima- 
 gination, do ordinarily slight the Holy Scriptures as 
 those very heretics did, whom Irenoeus confuted; who 
 impudently accused them " of not being right, and 
 that they are of no authority, and speak in very am- 
 biguous terms; and that they are not able to inform 
 a man of the truth, unless they are acquainted with 
 tradition, the truth having been delivered (as these 
 men pretended) not in writing, but by word of 
 mouth;"* — for this reason, I say, as well as others, 
 are the writings of the Fathers of very great use in 
 these disputes; and I conceive this to be one of the 
 principal ends for which Divine Providence has, in 
 despite of so many confusions and changes, preserved 
 so many of them safe to our times. 
 
 If therefore the Protestants should propose from 
 their own imagination, and press as absolutely neces- 
 sary to salvation, any positive article which does not 
 appear in antiquity, without question this course might, 
 with very good reason, be made use of against them. 
 But it is most evident that there is no such thing in 
 their belief; for they maintain only such things as are 
 either expressly delivered in the Scriptures, or else 
 are evidently deduced from thence; and such as have 
 also been expounded, the greatest part of them, and 
 interpreted by the ancients, not in their own private 
 writings only, but even in their creeds and synodical 
 determinations also. They pretend not either to any 
 particular revelation or secret tradition, or any other 
 new principle of doctrine. Their faith is founded 
 
 *Cumenim ex Scriptoria arguuntur, in accusationem oonver- 
 
 tuntur ipsarum Seripturarum, quasi non recte babeant, neque Bint 
 
 . et quia varie >int diets, et quia non possit ex bis Ln- 
 
 vciiii-i Veritas, ab hie qui nescianl traditionem. Non enim per lit- 
 
 tents traditam illam, Bed per mam rooem. — Iren. I '•'>. & -'. 
 
412 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 only upon the most ancient, and most authentic instru- 
 ment of Christianity, the Bible. Only in their exposi- 
 tions either of the doctrines therein contained, or 
 other passages, they produce some few things that are 
 not at all found in the Fathers. But these things 
 being not necessary to salvation, the argument which 
 is brought from the silence of the Fathers herein, is 
 not sufficient to prove the falsity of them ; time, expe- 
 rience, the assistance of others, and the very errors 
 also of the Fathers, having (as they say) now laid 
 that open to them, which was heretofore more diffi- 
 cult and hard to be discovered, and noticed of Divine 
 Revelation. Who knows not that a dwarf, mounted 
 upon a giant's shoulders, looks higher and sees further 
 than the giant himself? It would be ridiculous in any 
 man to conclude, that what the dwarf discovers is not 
 in nature, because in that case the giant must also 
 have seen it. Neither would he be much wiser, that 
 should accuse the dwarf of presumption, because, for- 
 sooth he has told us that of which the giant said not 
 a word : seeing that it is the giant to whom "the dwarf 
 is beholden for the greatest part of his knowledge. 
 This is our case, say the Protestants: we are mount- 
 ed upon the shoulders of that great and high giant, 
 Antiquity. That advantage which we have above it 
 by its means, enables us to see many things in Divine 
 Revelation which it did not see. Yet this cannot 
 be any ground for presumption in us, because we see 
 more than it did; forasmuch as it is this very an- 
 tiquity to which we owe a great part of this our 
 knowledge. 
 
 It is therefore certainly clear, that as for the Pro- 
 testants, and what concerns the positive points of 
 their faith, they are wholly without the compass of 
 the dispute. And as for those of the Church of Rome, 
 they cannot, for the reasons before given, make any 
 advantage of the testimony of the ancients, for the 
 proving of any of those points of doctrine which they 
 
AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 413 
 
 maintain, save only of those wherein their adversaries 
 agree with them: and therefore, if they would have 
 us come over to their belief, they must necessarily 
 have recourse to some other kinds of proofs. But yet 
 I do not see but that we may very well make inquiry 
 into antiquity, respecting many articles which are now 
 maintained by those of the Church of Rome : and if 
 we find that the ancients have not said anything of 
 the same, we may then positively conclude, that they 
 are not to be accounted as any part of the Christian 
 religion. 
 
 I confess, that there are some articles against which 
 this argument is of no force; as those which they do 
 not account necessary to salvation, and which the 
 ancients heretofore might have been, and we also at 
 this day may be, ignorant of. But certainly this ar- 
 gument, in my judgment, would be utterly unan- 
 swerable against such points as they press as neces- 
 sary, and whereon indeed they would have our salva- 
 tion wholly to depend ; as, for example, the supreme 
 authority of the Pope and of the Church, which owns 
 him as its head ; the adoration of the holy sacrament 
 of the eucharist, the sacrifice of the mass, the neces- 
 sity of aricular confession, and the like. For if they 
 are of such great importance, as they would make us 
 believe, it would be a point of high impiety to say 
 that the Fathers knew nothing of them : in the same 
 manner as it would be a most absurd thing to main- 
 tain, that though they did know them, they would 
 not yet speak one word of them, in all those books 
 which we have of theirs at this day. And if they had 
 said anything at all of them in their writings, we 
 have no reason in the world to suspect, that possibly 
 those passages where mention was made of them, may 
 have been erased, or corrupted and altered, by false 
 hands: seeing that this piece of knavery would have 
 been done to the disadvantage of those who had these 
 books in their custody. 
 
414 TIIE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED 
 
 We have rather very good reason to suspect, that 
 ■whatever alterations there are, they have been made 
 in favour of the Church of Rome; as we have proved 
 before in the first book. If therefore, after so long a 
 time, and after so many indexes as they of the Church 
 of Rome have put forth, and so great a desire as they 
 have had to find these doctrines of theirs in the wri- 
 tings of the Fathers, and the little conscience that 
 they have sometimes made of foisting into the writ- 
 ings of the Fathers what they could not find there ; 
 we can still make it appear, that they are not to be 
 found there at all — after all this, I say who can pos- 
 sibly doubt but that the Fathers were ignorant of 
 them ? Who will ever be persuaded to believe, that 
 they held them necessary to salvation? And if they 
 were not known to be such then, how can any body 
 imagine that they should come to be such now ? 
 
 In conclusion, my opinion is, that although the 
 authority of the Fathers be not sufficient to prove the 
 truth of those articles which are now maintained by 
 the Church of Rome against the Protestants, even 
 though the ancients believed the same, it may, not- 
 withstanding, serve to prove the falsity of them, in 
 case we should find by the Fathers that the ancients 
 were wholly ignorant of them, or at least acknow- 
 ledged them not for such, as they would now have 
 us believe them to be: which is a business that so 
 nearly concerns the Protestants, that, to be able to 
 bring about their design, I conceive they ought to 
 employ a good part of their time in reading over the 
 books of the ancients. Only it is requisite that each 
 party, when they undertake so tedious and so impor- 
 tant a business as this, should come well provided 
 with all necessary qualifications, as a knowledge of 
 the languages, and of history, and should also be well 
 read in the Scriptures ; and that they use herein their 
 utmost diligence and attention, and withal read over 
 exactly whatsoever we have left us of the Fathers, 
 
AS JUDGES IN POINTS OF RELIGION. 415 
 
 not omitting anything that they can obtain; because 
 a little short passage many times gives a man very 
 much light in elucidating their meaning: and not 
 think (as some, who much deceive themselves do) 
 that they perfectly know what the sense and belief 
 of the ancients was, because perhaps they have spent 
 four or five months in reading them over. But above 
 all, it is necessary that they come to this business free 
 from all partiality and prejudice, which is indeed the 
 greatest and the most general cause of that obscurity 
 which is found in the writings of the Fathers, whilst 
 every one endeavours to make them speak to his 
 sense; whereas in the greatest part of these points of 
 religion, which are now controverted amongst us, 
 these ancient authors really believed much less than 
 the one party does, and some little more than the 
 other does: and there are but a very few points of all 
 this number, wherein they are fully and absolutely 
 of the same opinion with either of the two parties. 
 Neither is it sufficient in this business to take notice 
 of such testimonies as either positively affirm or deny 
 those things which we are searching after, because, 
 however clear they may perhaps be, it can scarcely 
 be conceived but that a quick wit will find something 
 to darken the sense of them: as you may observe in 
 all books of controversy; where you shall have them 
 so baffle and make nothing of such testimonies as are 
 brought against them out of the ancients, that you 
 would hardly know what opinion to form. 
 
 You must also observe what are the necessary con- 
 sequences of each particular article: it being impossi- 
 ble to conclude upon any one point of any importance, 
 but that there will presently follow upon it divers 
 consequences, as well within as without the Church. 
 As for example, you are to consider what the conse- 
 quences are of the tr an substantiation of the euchar- 
 ist, as now held by the Church of Rome; of purga- 
 tory; and of the monarchical authority of the Pope: 
 
416 THE FATHERS ARE NOT ACKNOWLEDGED, ETC, 
 
 and when you have observed them well, you are 
 then to mark, in reading the books of the ancients, 
 whether they appear there in whole or in part. For 
 if you find them not there at all, it is a most certain 
 argument, that the doctrine from whence they pro- 
 ceed did, not then exist. 
 
 I shall not, however, proceed any further in this 
 discourse, since various others have already treated 
 hereof at large; it being, in my judgment, no difficult 
 matter to conclude, from what we have here delivered, 
 how we ought to read the Fathers. 
 
 THE END. 
 

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