Church History of the Government of Bishops and Their Councils, Chapter 9
CHAP. IX.
Councils called about Images and some others.
§ 1. POpe Gregory the 2d is the Man that must set up Image-worship against all opposition,☜ rebel against his lawful Sovereign, and confederate with other Princes to alienate the Western Empire, when the East was almost ruined before, and so to weaken the Christian Power, that the Turk might shortly win the Empire.
§ 2. To have recited all along as we went on, what new Ceremonies, Formalities and Orders were invented and brought in by the Popes, and how Doctrine and Practice grew corrupted, being a thing done already by many others, would have been tedious here, and besides the design of this writing, which is but to shew how Prelates have used the Church by their contentions about JURISDICTION and HARD or AMBIGUOUS WORDS; and what hath been the work especially of General Councils. But we cannot tell you well the work of the following Councils, without telling somewhat of the occasion of the matter.
The Primitive Christians used not Images in the Worship of God, (read Dalaeus de Imaginibus.) But the contempt of Christianity by the Heathens, occasioned many to oppose their contempt by glorying in the Cross of Christ, and by making the transient sign of it with their fingers; and thence they grew to use the fixed sign of it; and thence to speak of and believe many Miracles wrought by it; and thence to make the Image of Christ crucified, (which yet Epiphanius condemned;) and thence by degrees to make the Images of the Apostles and Martyrs; and thence to make in their Churches the Images of their deceased Bishops, (till an Excommunicater ar…se of another Opinion, that pull'd any of them down.)
And abundance of Dreams, Visions, Apparitions and Revelations were the pretended Proofs that prevailed for many such Superstitions, but especially for Images, and Purgatory, and Prayers for the dead. Among others, an English Monk, Egwin of Evesholme, chosen Bishop of Worcester, must lead the way, by pretence of a Vision, (a Dream, no doubt) see Spelman's Concil. p. 209. in his own Chart Egwin saith, [That the Virgin Mary first appeared to a certain Shepherd called Eoves, and afterward to himself with two Virgins, holding a Book in her hands, and told him in what place she would have him build her a Monastery. The crafty Dreamer divulged the Vision, and some good Men opposing it, the Pope must have the hearing of it. The Pope put it to the Oath of Egwin, whether ever he saw such a Vision or not? Egwin sware it, and the matter was past doubt, (just as honest Commenius took Daubritius's Prophesies to be of God, because the melancholy Man sware that they were true.) Hereupon Egwin is sent home, and a Council called to take Egwin's words again that he had such a Vision, (and in the end was added, That the Virgin Mary's Image must be set up in the place.) The Pope sent to King Kenred and King Offa by Bishop Brithwald, to grant what the Vision intended; who obediently make over a great part of the Countrey to that Monastery, as you may see described in Spelman, Conc. p. 209, 210. in Charta Kenredi & Offae Regum. And p. 211. in Charta Egwini, who saith himself, that [God being propitious to him, he had in a little time got for the said Church an hundred and twenty Farms given, as is written and confirmed in the Charter of that Church. Many Villages are there named, and some great ones, in the fattest and richest part of the County of Worcester. Was not this a profitable Dream or Vision? And should we not have many Dreamers and Swearers, if they could get as much by it as Egwin did? And herewith Images are set up.
§ 3. But Baronius and Binnius question whether Naucler and Bale say true, that this Council first brought Image-worship into England, because it came in before with Austin the Monk. To which Spelman *Pag. 217, 218. vide caetera.well answereth, That the use of the Cross in banners and otherwise was here before, and some Images for Instruction and Commemoration, as Beda's own words intimate; but not any worship of Images, or worshiping before and towards them.
And Sir H. Spelman saith, (proving that Image-worship was not then in use among the Saxons) that even praying to the Saints themselves was not then in use, mentioning an old Psalter of his written about the time of the 2d Nicene Council, in which there were an hundred seventy and one Prayers inserted between the Sections of the 119th Psalm, and in them all not one name of any Saint, or the Virgin Mary, much less any Prayer directed to them.
§ 4. If one talk now with our English Papists, they are so loth to own their own Doctrine and Practice, that they will tell you they hold not the worshiping of the Image, but of the Person signified by it. But to tell them how commonly their Writers defend worshipping Images, (if Colere and Cultus signifie Worship) and what Aquinas saith of giving the worship of Latria to the Image of Christ, and to the Cross, though undeniable, yet will not be taken for sufficient proof. I shall therefore give you here th… sense of the Papal Church in England, in the form of Abjuration which they prescribed to those that they then called Lollards, as it is found in the Tower Records; and you must take it in the old English in which it is written, because I do but transcribe it, and must not alter it, the sense of it being plain and obvious.