Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/196

 1 5 8 Readings in Etcropean History happiness in heaven, are to be invoked ; or who assert that the saints do not pray for men, or that the invocation of them to pray for each of us individually is idolatry ; or who declare that it is repugnant to the word of God, and opposed to the honor of the "one mediator of God and men, Christ Jesus," or that it is foolish to supplicate, orally or mentally, those who reign in heaven. Of relics. They shall likewise teach that the holy bodies of martyrs, and of otherc now living with Christ, — which bodies were the living members of Christ, and " the temple of the Holy Ghost," and which are by him to be raised unto eternal life, and to be glorified, — are to be venerated by the faithful, through which relics many benefits are bestowed by God on men. Consequently they who affirm that veneration and honor are not due to the relics of saints, or that these and other sacred memorials are uselessly honored by the faithful, and that the places dedicated to the memories of the saints are visited in vain with the view of obtaining their aid, are wholly to be condemned, as the Church has already long since condemned, and now also condemns, them. Veneration Moreover they shall teach that the images of Christ, of of images. fa e virgin Mother of God, and of the other saints are to be placed and retained particularly in churches, and that due honor and veneration are to be given them ; not that any divinity or virtue is believed to be in them on account of which they are to be worshiped ; or that anything is to be asked of them ; or that trust is to be reposed in images, as was of old done by the heathen who placed their hope in idols; but because the honor which is shown them is referred to the prototypes which those images represent; in such wise that by means of the images which we kiss, and before which we uncover the head and prostrate ourselves, we adore Christ, and we venerate the saints, whose similitude they bear. . . . The following decrees are examples of the brief para- graphs in which the council rejects and anathematizes the various doctrines of the Protestants.