IDOLS REVOLTS AGAINST THE TRUE GOD F309
6. THE DOCTORS OF THE CHURCH, TOO, PARTLY JUDGED OTHERWISE
bOne ought, besides, to read what Lactantius and Eusebius have written concerning this matter, who do not hesitate to take as a fact that all whose images are seen were once mortals. f320 Likewise, Augustine clearly declares that it is wrong not only to worship images but to set them up to God. f321
cYet he says nothing else but what had been decreed many years before in the Council of Elvira, of which the thirty-sixth canon reads: “It is decreed
that there shall be no pictures in churches, that what is reverenced or adored be not depicted on the walls.” f322aBut especially memorable is what the same Augustine elsewhere cites from Varro, and confirms by his own subscription, that the first men to introduce statues of the gods “removed fear and added error.” f323 If Varro alone had said this, perhaps it would have had little authority, yet it deservedly ought to strike shame in us that a pagan man, groping so to speak in the dark, arrived at this light, that bodily images are unworthy of God’s majesty because they diminish the fear of him in men and increase error. Facts themselves certainly testify that this was said no less truly than wisely; but Augustine, having borrowed from Varro, as it were, brings it forth from his own thought.
And at the outset, indeed, he points out that the first errors concerning God in which men were entangled did not begin from images, but once this new element was added, errors multiplied. Next, he explains that the fear of God was diminished or even destroyed, because in the folly of images and in stupid and absurd invention his divinity could easily be despised.
On the second of these points, would that we might not have experienced it to be so true! Whoever, therefore, desires to be rightly taught must learn what he should know of God from some other source than images.
7 THE IMAGES OF THE PAPISTS ARE ENTIRELY INAPPROPRIATE
d(a)Therefore, if the papists have any shame, let them henceforward not use this evasion, that pictures are the books of the uneducated, because it is plainly refuted by very many testimonies of Scripture. Even if I were to grant them this, yet they would not thus gain much to defend their idols. It is well known that they set monstrosities of this kind in place of God.
aThe pictures or statues that they dedicate to saints — what are they but examples of the most abandoned lust and obscenity? If anyone wished to model himself after them, he would be fit for the lash. Indeed, brothels show harlots clad more virtuously and modestly than the churches show those objects which they wish to be thought images of virgins. bFor martyrs they fashion a habit not a whit more decent. aTherefore let them compose their idols at least to a moderate decency, that they may with a little more modesty falsely claim that these are books of some holiness!
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(There would be no “uneducated” at all if the church had done its duty) But then we shall also answer that this is not the method of teaching within the sacred precincts believing folk, whom God wills to be instructed there with a far different doctrine than this trash. In the
preaching of his Word and sacred mysteries he has bidden that a common doctrine be there set forth for all. bBut those whose eyes rove about in contemplating idols betray that their minds are not diligently intent upon this doctrine.
aTherefore, whom, then, do the papists call uneducated whose ignorance allows them to be taught by images alone? Those, indeed, whom the Lord recognizes as his disciples, cwhom he honors by the revelation of his heavenly philosophy, whom he wills to be instructed in the saving
mysteries of his Kingdom. I confess, as the matter stands, that today there are not a few who are unable to do without such “books.” But whence, I pray you, this stupidity if not because they are defrauded of that doctrine which alone was fit to instruct them? dindeed, those in authority in the church turned over to idols the office of teaching for no other reason than that they themselves were mute. Paul testifies that by the true preaching of the gospel “Christ is depicted before our eyes as crucified”
[<480301>
Galatians 3:1 p.]. aWhat purpose did it serve for so many crosses — of wood, stone, silver, and gold — to be erected here and there in churches, if this fact had been duly and faithfully taught: that Christ died on the cross to bear our curse [<480313>
Galatians 3:13], to expiate our sins by the sacrifice of his body [<581010>
Hebrews 10:10], to wash them by his blood [<660105>
Revelation 1:5], din short, to reconcile us to God the Father [<450510>
Romans 5:10]? aFrom this one fact they could have learned more than from a thousand crosses of wood or stone. For perhaps the covetous fix their minds and eyes more tenaciously upon gold and silver than upon any word of God.
(Origin of the use of images, and consequent corruption of worship, although sculpture and painting are gifts of God, 8-16)
8. THE ORIGIN OF IMAGES: MAN’S DESIRE FOR