Page images
PDF
EPUB

that therefore it cannot be wrong to ask God for a share in their prayers. But when we are asked to go further, and address the saints themselves, we may well hesitate; for though, secondly, we fully believe in the power of intercessory prayer, yet if we wish to ask an earthly friend to exercise it for us, we take care that our words can reach him; and so, before asking the saints to do the same, we require evidence that they are cognisant of our prayers. With Bishop Richard Montague (1624) we say: "Demonstrate unto me infallibly by reason, Scripture, authentic tradition, that saints departed are all of them, or any of them, interested ordinarily rebus viventium; that by either evening or morning knowledge, natural endowment, or acquired accruments, by Divine revelation, angelical revelation, or other means, they do or can know and understand my necessities, exigencies, prayers, or practice in any time or place when I call upon them, or unto them, and I will unfeignedly join hands of fellowship, and say, 'Saint Peter, Saint Paul, pray for me.' Until that, ἐπέχω ; and so I think will any desire to be excused for invocation; for to be persuaded, as some have told me that in their opinion saints nor do nor can be privy unto my necessities, nor hear my prayers, and yet to pray unto them, is to my understanding so poor a part of piety that it is without warrant of common sense." "2

It does not appear that there is any evidence in Holy

1 Cf. Field, Of the Church, bk. iii. Appendix: "That the saints do pray for us in genere, desiring God to be merciful to us, and to do unto us whatsoever in any kind He knoweth needful for our good, there is no question made by us; and therefore this prayer wherein the Church desireth God to be gracious to her and to grant the things she desireth, the rather for that the saints in heaven also are suppliant for her, will not be found to contain any point of Romish doctrine disliked by us."

A Treatise of the Invocation of Saints, p. 218, quoted in H. R. Percival's Invocation of Saints, p. 111.

Scripture that the saints are already admitted to the beatific vision, or that they are cognisant of our prayers, such as would warrant us in addressing them.1 Nor can it be said that there has been any certain and consistent tradition of the Church on the subject which would justify us in regarding it as "a Catholic practice." As we have already seen, there is no trace of direct invocation before the last half of the fourth century. In the fifth century S. Augustine uses language which betrays considerable doubt when discussing the question whether the saints know what is passing on earth.2 In the twelfth century, all that Peter Lombard, the Master of the Sentences, can say with regard to the theory which obtains most widely at the present day, is that "it is not incredible that the souls of the saints, which in their secret dwelling rejoice in the illumination of the true light of the face of God, do in the contemplation thereof understand the things which are done in this outer world, as much as pertaineth either to them for joy or to us for aid. For as to the angels, so also to the saints, who stand before God, our petitions are made known in the word of God which they contemplate." 3 Still later, Dun Scotus maintains "that it does not belong to the essence of blessedness that the blessed

1 Cf. Mason, p. 145 seq. It would be precarious in the extreme to build anything upon Heb. xii. 1, where the word for "witnesses" is uaprúpes.

2 The question is discussed by Augustine in De cura pro mortuis, c. xiii. seq.; and though Augustine believed that the martyrs were able to help the living, he confesses that he is utterly unable to solve the question how they are made aware of what passes on earth.

3 "Sed forte quæris, Num quid preces supplicantium sancti audiunt, et vota postulantium in eorum notitiam perveniunt? Non est incredibile animas sanctorum, quæ in abscondito faciei Dei veri luminis illustratione lætantur, in ipsius contemplatione ea quæ foris aguntur intelligere, quantum vel illis ad gaudium vel nobis ad auxilium pertinet. Sicut enim angelis, ita et sanctis qui Deo assistunt, petitiones nostræ innotescunt in Verbo Dei quod contemplantur."—Sentent. IV. dist. xlv. 6,

hear our prayers, though it is probable that God reveals them to them"; and even so late as the sixteenth century Cardinal Cajetan is forced to admit that "we have no certain knowledge as to whether the saints are aware of our prayers, though we piously believe it." 2

In the absence, therefore, of any distinct revelation, and in the face of so much doubt and uncertainty, it would appear that the Church of England is amply justified (1) in removing from the public services of the Church. all traces of such direct invocations, including the "Ave Maria” as well as the "Ora pro nobis "; and (2) in condemning in round terms in the Article before us the current teaching and practice, which can be abundantly shown to be a fond thing vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the word of God.

1 "Non esse ex ratione beatitudinis, quod beati audiant orationes nostras, probabile tamen esse quod Deus ipse revelat."-In Sent. IV. dist. xlv. q. 4, quoted in Forbes, Consid. Modest. vol. ii. p. 178.

2 "Certa ratione nescimus an sancti nostra cognoscant, quamvis pie hoc crodanno. —in 2a2m, yıkamariii art. 5, quoted in Forbes, op. cit. p. 176. 3 When the English Litany was first shed in 1544, all the ing cations of saints (which had formed so prominent a feature a service) were deleted, except three clauses, namely—

"Saint Mary, mother of God our Saviour Jesu Christ, pray for us. "All holy angels and archangels, and all holy orders of blessed spirits, pray for us.

"All holy patriarchs and prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors and virgins, and all the blessed company of heaven, pray for us."

On the publication of the first Prayer Book of Edward VI. in 1549 these three clauses were omitted, and all trace of the direct invocation of the saints was removed from the public offices of the English Church. Fond (inanis), i.e. foolish. Shakespeare uses the word in the same

sense

"Thou fond mad man, hear me but speak a word."

Romeo and Juliet, III. iii. 52.

"And for his dreams, I wonder he is so fond

To trust the mockery of unquiet slumber."

Richard III. III. ii. 26.

ARTICLE XXIII

De vocatione Ministrorum.

Non licet cuiquam sumere sibi munus publice prædicandi, aut administrandi Sacramenta in Ecclesia, nisi prius fuerit ad hæc obeunda legitime vocatus et missus. Atque illos legitime vocatos et missos existimare debemus, qui per homines, quibus potestas vocandi Ministros atque mittendi in vineam Domini publice concessa est in Ecclesia, cooptati fuerint et asciti in hoc opus.

Of Ministering in the Congregation.

It is not lawful for any man to take upon him the office of public preaching, or ministering the Sacraments in the congregation, before he be lawfully called and sent to execute the same. And those we ought to judge lawfully called and sent, which be chosen and called to this work by men who have public authority given unto them in the congregation, to call and send ministers into the Lord's vineyard.

THERE has been no change in the substance of this Article since it was first published in 1553. In that edition, however, and also in that of 1563, the title ran: "Nemo in ecclesia ministret nisi vocatus" ("No man may minister in the congregation except he be called "). The present title was substituted for this at the final revision in 1571.

The ultimate source of this Article is the fourteenth, "De ordine ecclesiastico," of the Confession of Augsburg: "De ordine ecclesiastico docent quod nemo debeat in ecclesia publice docere aut sacramenta administrare, nisi rite vocatus." Its debt to this Confession is, however, only indirect; for there can be little doubt that its immediate origin was the corresponding Article in the unfinished series of 1538, agreed upon by a joint

committee of Anglican and Lutheran divines.1 This document adopts the language of the Augsburg Confession, but adds additional matter to it, which suggested the latter part of our own Article: "De ministris ecclesiæ docemus, quod nemo debeat publice docere, aut sacramenta ministrare, nisi rite vocatus, et quidem ab his, penes quos in ecclesia, juxta verbum Dei, et leges ac consuetudines uniuscujusque regionis, jus est vocandi et admittendi."2 Since the Lutherans were lacking in episcopal government, it is obvious that in any common formula to be agreeable to both parties refuge must be taken in language of a vague and general character. Hence the reference to "the laws and customs of each country," which was omitted when the Article was remodelled for the use of the Anglican Church alone.

"3

The object of the Article is to condemn the theory held by many of the Anabaptists of the sixteenth century, that "anyone believing himself to be called to the ministry, was bound to exercise his functions as a preacher in defiance of all Church authority." The same error is condemned in the Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum, which, after the mention of various Anabaptist errors, we comtalei institutionem minisme to the following passage: "Similis est eorum amentia qu

for

in certis locis

S

olemnem

di

trorum ab ecclesia disjungunt, negantescari debere; certos doctores, pastores atque ministros coll nec admittunt legitimas vocationes, nec manuum impositionem, sed per omnes publice docen potestatem divulgant, qui sacris literis utcunque sun aspersi, et Spiritum sibi vendicant; nec illos solum adhibent ad docendum, sed etiam ad moderandam ecclesiam, et distribuenda sacramenta; quæ sane universa cum scriptis Apostolorum manifeste pugnant."

1 See p. 6.

* Hardwick, p. 102.

2 See Hardwick, p. 270.

4

• Ref. Leg. Eccles., De Hares. c. xvi.

« PreviousContinue »