The Lives of the Saints, Volume 02 (of 16): FebruaryBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
The Lives of the Saints, Volume 02 (of 16): February
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Christian saints
In the next session the letters of Pope Adrian were read, declaring
the utility of images as means of teaching the ignorant, and of
awakening piety and compunction. He demanded also that all archbishops
of his patriarchate should receive ordination from the bishop of Rome,
and that the primacy of the see of Rome should receive general
recognition, as also that the patriarch of Constantinople should be
prevented from assuming the title of "Universal Bishop." These latter
articles were not transcribed by the Greek fathers. Dupin, the
judicious historian, suggests that probably the legates of the Pope
did not judge it prudent at that moment to present them. A letter from
Adrian to Tarasius was then read, expressing the trouble given to the
Pope by the news of the nomination of a layman to the influential see
of Constantinople, and exhorting him to procure the condemnation of
the synod which had forbidden images in churches. After the reading of
this letter, the Papal legates asked Tarasius whether he approved of
it. He answered that he did, and that he did reverently honour the
images of Christ, the Holy Virgin, and the saints, but that to God
alone was due true adoration and worship (latria). Of this the synod
approved. Our English word _worship_ has got at the present time a
meaning which it had not of old. Worship now means to adore as God,
with supreme reverence; and such worship may not be given to
creatures, however exalted; but the old signification of the word had
not this force, but was synonymous with reverence. Thus, in the
Anglican prayer book, in the marriage service, the husband says to the
wife, "With my body I thee worship," _i.e._, honour; and magistrates
are called the "worshipful." When Protestants accuse Catholics of
worshipping images, in one sense they are right, but in another sense
they are wrong. Catholics do worship sacred images so far as to render
them respect and honour, but they do not give to them that honour
which is implied by the word "worship" in its modern sense. In the old
signification of the word, the sailor worships the quarterdeck when he
touches his cap on passing it, the soldier worships the royal standard
when he presents arms to it, and the peers the throne when they bow to
it on taking their places in the House of Lords.
In the third session of the council, a letter from the patriarch of
Jerusalem, approved by his bishops, was read, wherein he acknowledged
that reverence and honour were to be shown to sacred images.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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