S: But what shall we say of the
relics of saints, which understand nothing and yet we kneel and pray unto them?
M: We do not pray to the relics
which we know well do not understand, but we honor the holy relics as those
which have been the instruments of the holy souls to do many good works and
shall again in their times be living bodies and are to us in the meantime dear
pledges of the love which the saints did and so bare unto us. And therefore we
do pray before the same relics unto the saints, desiring them by these dear
pledges which we keep of them that they remember to help us as we remember to
honor them.
S: The same perhaps may be said
of images.
M: So it is, for the images of
our Lord, of our Lady, and other saints are not taken by us for gods, and
therefore they cannot be called idols, as those were of the Gentiles, but they
are held as images, which make us to remember our Lord, our Lordy, and other
saints. So they serve such as cannot read in place of books. For that by images
they learn many mysteries of our holy faith and the life and death of many
saints. And the honor we do unto them, we do it not because they are figures of
paper or of metal or because they are well-colored and well made, but because
they represent unto us our Lord, our Lody, and other saints, and for that we
know that the images do not live nor have sense, being made by the hands of
men. We do not demand anything of them, but we pray before them unto those whom
they represent unto us, to wit, our Lord, our Lady, and other saints.
S: If relics and images do not understand
how then do they work so many miracles to such as recommend themselves unto
them?
M: God works all the miracles,
but he works them often by the intercession of saints and chiefly of our
blessed Lady, and oftentimes he does them unto those who pray unto the saints
before their relics or images, and sometimes he uses the relics and images, as
instruments of such miracles to show unto us that our devotion towards the
saints and towards their relics and images pleases him. (Robert Bellarmine, Chapter
4: The Declaration of the Ten Commandments in An Ample Declaration of the
Christian Doctrine, English Secret Press, 1604, in David J. Davis, From
Icons to Idols: Documents on the Image Debate in Reformation England [Cambridge:
James Clarke & Co., 2015, 2016], 171-72)
S: I would lastly know for what
cause God the Father is painted like an old man and the Holy Ghost like a dove
and the angels like young men with wings, seeing God and the angels are spirits
and have no corporeal figure, which can be drawn by painters as pictures of men
may be.
M: When God the Father is painted
in the form of an old man, and the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove, and the
angels in the form of young men, that which they are in themselves is not
painted, because as you have said they are spirits without bodies, but that
form is painted in which they have sometimes appeared. And so, God the Father
is painted like an old man because he appeared in that form in a vision to
Daniel the prophet. And the Holy Ghost is painted in the form of a dove,
because in that form he appeared unto Christ when he was baptized by St. John
the Baptist. And the angels are painted in the form of young men for that they
have sometimes so appeared. Moreover, you are to know that many things painted
to make us understand, not what they are in themselves but that properties they
have or what effect they use to work. So it may be said that God the Father is
painted in the form of an old man to make us understand that he is most
ancient, to wit, eternal and before all created things. And the Holy Ghost is
painted in the likeness of a dove to signify the gifts of innocence, purity,
and sanctity, which the Holy Ghost works in us. And the angels are painted like
young men because they are always fair and full of strength, and with wings
because they are ready to pass whither it pleases God to send them, and with
white garments and with holy stoles, because they are pure and innocent and
ministers of his divine majesty. (Robert Bellarmine, Chapter 4: The Declaration
of the Ten Commandments in An Ample Declaration of the Christian Doctrine, English
Secret Press, 1604, in David J. Davis, From Icons to Idols: Documents on the
Image Debate in Reformation England [Cambridge: James Clarke & Co.,
2015, 2016], 172-73)
Further Reading:
Answering
Fundamentalist Protestants and Roman Catholic/Eastern Orthodox on Images/Icons
