Appendix
567
234-271, where both the Latin and the English texts are given. For dis-
cussion see, for the Roman Catholic view, The Catholic Encyclopedia,
Vol. 7, art. “Infallibility,” by Patrick J. Toner, 790ff.; James Cardinal
Gibbons, The Faith of our Fathers (Baltimore: John Murphy Company,
110th ed., 1917), chs. 7, 11. For Roman Catholic opposition to the
doctrine of papal infallibility, see Johann Joseph Ignaz von Dollinger
(pseudonym “Janus”) The Pope and the Council (New York: Charles
Scribner’s sons, 1869); and W.J. Sparrow Simpson, Roman Catholic
Opposition to Papal Infallibility (London: John Murray, 1909). For
the non-Roman view, see George Salmon, Infallibility of the Church
(London: John Murray, rev. Education, 1914).
[680]
Page 52. Image Worship.—“The worship of images ... was one of
those corruptions of Christianity which crept into the church stealthily
and almost without notice or observation. This corruption did not, like
other heresies, develop itself at once, for in that case it would have
met with decided censure and rebuke: but, making its commencement
under a fair disguise, so gradually was one practice after another
introduced in connection with it, that the church had become deeply
steeped in practical idolatry, not only without any efficient opposition,
but almost without any decided remonstrance; and when at length an
endeavor was made to root it out, the evil was found too deeply fixed
to admit of removal.... It must be traced to the idolatrous tendency of
the human heart, and its propensity to serve the creature more than the
creator....
“Images and pictures were first introduced into churches, not to
be worshiped, but either in the place of books to give instruction to
those who could not read, or to excite devotion in the minds of others.
How far they ever answered such a purpose is doubtful; but, even
granting that this was the case for a time, it soon ceased to be so, and
it was found that pictures and images brought into churches darkened
rather than enlightened the minds of the ignorant—degraded rather
than exalted the devotion of the worshiper. So that, however they might
have been intended to direct men’s minds to God, they ended in turning
them from him to the worship of created things.”—J. Mendham, The
Seventh General Council, the Second of Nicaea, Introduction, pages
III-VI.
For a record of the proceedings and decisions of the Second Coun-
cil of Nicaea, A.D. 787, called to establish the worship of images, see