IV.
The
Chief Cause of Trouble a Logomachy
.
Now from all this one thing is abundantly clear, that
the great point set forth with such learning and perspicuity by the
Seventh Synod, to wit, the distinction between
λατρεία
and
προσκύνεσις
was wholly lost upon these Frankish writers; and that their translation
of both words by “
adoro
” gave rise to nine-tenths of
the trouble that followed. The student of ecclesiastical history
will remember how a similar logomachy followed nearly every one of the
Ecumenical Synods, and will not therefore be astonished to find it
likewise here. The “homousion,” the
“theotocos,” the “two natures,” “the two
wills,” each one gave rise to heated discussion in different
sections of the Church, even after it had been accepted and approved by
a Synod which no one now for an instant disputes to have been
ecumenical.
Moreover, that after this serious error and bungling on
the part of the Caroline divines and of the French and Allemanic
Churches, the Pope did not proceed to enforce the acceptance of the
council will not cause astonishment to any who are familiar with what
St. Athanasius said with regard to the Semi-Arians, who even after I.
Nice refused to use the word “
homousios
;” or with
the extreme gentleness and moderation of St. Cyril of Alexandria in his
treatment of John of Antioch.
Perhaps before leaving the subject I should give here
the chief strictures which Hefele makes upon these books (§
400).
(1) The Caroline Books condemn passages which they
quote (without saying so) from Pope Hadrian’s own letter to the
Empress.
(2) They blame
St. Basil for teaching that the reverence done to the image passes on
to the prototype.
(3) They treat St. Gregory Nyssen with contempt,
and refuse to listen to him (Lib. II., c. xvij.).
(4) They are full of most careless and inexcusable
blunders.
(a) They attribute to the Emperors a phrase which
belongs to the Synod (I. j.).
(b) They confound Leontius with John (I.
xxj.).
(c) They confound Tarasius with Theodore of
Jerusalem (III. v.).
(d) They impute to the Council the opinions of the
Iconoclastic Conciliabulum (IV., xiv. and xx. ).
(e) They attribute to Epiphanius the deacon the
propositions of others when he merely read (IV., xv.)
It had usually been supposed that these Four Books were
the “quædam capitula” which Charlemagne had sent by
Angelbert to Pope Hadrian “to be corrected by his judgment (
ut
illius judicio corrigerentur
). Considering the nature of the
contents of the Caroline Books as we now have them, such would seem
à priori
highly improbable, but this matter has been
practically settled, as we have already pointed out, by Bishop Hefele,
who has shown from Pope Hadrian’s answer “correcting”
those “capitula,” that they must have been entirely
different in order though no doubt their contents were similar.
The differing views of Petavius and Walch will be found in full in
Hefele (§ 401).
In concluding his masterly treatment of this whole
matter, Hefele makes (§ 402) a remark well worthy of repetition in
this place:
“The great friendship which Charles shewed to Pope
Hadrian down to the hour of his death proves that their way of thinking
with regard to the cultus of images was not so opposite as many
suppose, and—above all—as many have tried to make
out.”
I shall close this matter with the admirably learned and
judicious words of Michaud.
“No doubt there had been abuses in connexion with
the worship of images; but the Council of Nice never approved of
these. No doubt, too, certain marks of veneration used in the
East were not practised in Gaul; but the Council of Nice did not go
into these particulars. It merely determined the principle, to
wit, the lawfulness and moral necessity of honouring the holy images;
and in doing this it did not in any degree innovate. Charlemagne
ought to have known this, for, already in the sixth century Fortunatus,
in his Poem on St. Martin, tells how in Gaul they lighted lamps before
the images.
550
The great
point that Charlemagne made was that what was called in the West
‘adoration,’ in the strict sense (that is to say the
worship of Latria) should be rendered to none other than God; now this
is exactly the doctrine of the Council of Nice. Charlemagne
himself admits that the learned may venerate images, meaning thereby
that the veneration is really addressed to the prototypes, but that
such veneration is a source of scandal to the ignorant who in the image
venerate
551
nothing but the
material image itself (Lib. III., cap. xvj.).”
552
550
“Here on the
wall is an image of the Saint and under its feet a little window, and a
lamp, in the glass bowl of which the fire burns.”
Fortun. (Migne.,
Pat. Lat
., Tom. LXXXVIII.)
De Vita S. Martin
, Lib. iv., 690 (col. 426).
551
“And adore”
in the Latin.
552
Michaud.
Discussion sur les Sept Conciles
Œcuméniques,
p. 300.