preceding councils, upon the point in question, condemned all idolatry, the use of images and pictures representing Christ, &c.; and interdicted, under pain of anathema, any adoration or reverence of such images, as an insult to God, to Christ, and to the saints. The consequence of this synod was the overthrow of image worship throughout the east, except in such places as were at a considerable distance from the royal city."*. About thirty years after, the second Council of Nice (A. D. 787) restored what the Council of Constantinople had abolished. This council was called by Irene, who held the reins of government as Regent, during the minority of her son, Constantine VII.; she was a bigoted worshipper of images and relics, and the zealous patroness of the growing superstitions of the church. From this synod the patriarchs of the church, with the exception of those of Constantinople and Rome, absented themselves. Irene, by her persuasions and threats, influenced the decision of the synod in favour of the worship of images, &c. "After much disputation, in which passages, feigned to be in favour of image service, were quoted from the Scriptures and the writings of the Fathers, and many false representations given, to afford a pretence for this heresy ; it was decreed, that images might not only be had for historical use, but also for worship (ad cultum)

* Spanheim's Ecclesiastical Annals, p. 418.

in the temples; that they were to be kissed, venerated, worshipped, (colendas,) adored, (adorandas,) and honoured with wax lights, incense, and other rites; the religious worship, due to God alone, excepted. The last council at Constantinople was declared to be null and void."*

About seven years after the Council of Nice had restored the worship of images, the Council of Frankfort assembled, (A. D. 794,) by the authority of the Emperor Charlemagne : Charlemagne: three hundred bishops are said to have assembled on this occasion from Italy, France, and Germany. This council revoked the decrees of that which had been held at Nice, and condemned, not only the worship of images, (cultrum latriæ,) but all other kinds of idolatry. Among others who attended this convocation was our own countryman, the learned Alcuinus, the emperor's tutor, who had previously distinguished himself by a learned treatise against image worship, addressed to the emperor in the name of the British bishops and princes, in which the acts of the Nicene Council were abundantly refuted from Scripture. This fact is interesting and important, as exhibiting the protest of the British church and nation at that time, against one of the principal corruptions of Christianity by the church of Rome.

The last general council of the Romish church,

*Spanheim, p. 418.

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the Council of Trent, (to the decrees of which every popish priest is, in the present day, bound by solemn oath in all respects to conform,) at its twenty-fifth session, resolved on this canon :"That the images of Christ, and of the virgin, mother of God, and other saints, are to be kept and reserved, especially in churches, and due honour and veneration to be given to them: not that any virtue or divinity is believed to be in them, for which they are to be worshipped, or that any thing is to be asked of them, or any confidence to be placed in them, as was formerly done by the heathen, who put their trust in idols; but because the honour which is rendered to images is referred to the prototypes which they represent: so that by the images which we kiss, and before which we prostrate and uncover ourselves, we adore Christ, and venerate the saints, whom the images represent."*

The extent to which the practice of adoring the

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Imagines porrò Christi, Dei paræ Virginis, et aliorum sanctorum, in templis præsertim habendas et retinendas, eisque debitum honorem et venerationem impertiendam; non quòd credatur inesse aliqua in iis divinitas, vel virtus, propter quam sint colenda; vel quod ab eis sit aliquid petendum; vel quòd fiducia in imaginibus sit figenda, veluti olim fiebat à Gentibus, quæ in idolis spem suam collo cabant; sed quoniam honos, qui eis exhibetur, refertur ad prototypa, quæ illæ repræsentant: ita ut per imagines, quas osculamur, et coram quibus caput aperimus et procumbimus, Christum adoremus; et sanctos, quorum illæ similitudinem gerunt, veneremur."--Sess, xxv.

pictures and images of Christ, of the Virgin Mary, and other saints, whose names appear in the Romish calendar, is carried in the Romish church, cannot be known from the practice of papists in a Protestant country. Expediency suggests that this species of worship should be practised less openly, and under greater limitations in Protestant states, where its condemnation would be instantly pronounced, and its idolatry made manifest, than in Roman Catholic countries, where the multitude are wedded to it by ignorance and superstition. This circumstance will explain the reason why, in the authorized catechisms, intended for the use of papists in a Protestant country, the second commandment, which forbids this, and every other species of idolatry, is given more at length; whereas, in those catechisms intended for the use of papists, in popish countries, it is so abridged and mutilated as to contain no interdict of the idolatrous practice in question.

It is not necessary here to adduce instances of this gross superstition-it is sufficient to remark, that in Roman Catholic countries the deluded worshippers may be seen bowing before, and kissing the images of their favourite saints, and bringing no small wealth to the church, by the votive offerings which they present at the shrines of the saints to whom they address their prayers, and whose favour they are anxious in this way to purchase. Though some of the more enlightened may not

confine their adoration to the image or the picture, but may refer it to the prototype represented by it, even the slightest knowledge of human nature is sufficient to show, that by far the greater number confine their devotion to the image, the picture, or the crucifix, which is before them. "The bias of human nature," as Bishop Burnett well remarks, "lies to sense, and to form gross imaginations of incorporeal objects; and, therefore, instead of gratifying these, we ought to wean our minds from them, and to raise them above them, all we can. Even men of speculation and abstraction feel nature in this grows too hard for them; but the vulgar is apt to fall so headlong into these conceits, that it looks like the laying of snares for them, to furnish them with such methods and helps for their having gross thoughts of spiritual objects."

But few remarks can be required on the subject of sacred relics, the veneration of which is closely connected with that of images. This superstition, together with that already noticed, sprung up in the fourth century. The remains of the true cross on which the Saviour died, and also the bones of the martyrs who suffered in his cause, were pretended to have been discovered:-these, in that age of superstition, were regarded as invaluable treasures; great virtue was ascribed to them, and many miracles were said to be wrought by them. It is not, therefore, surprising that the demand for such things should increase, and that many relics