VIII. We deny the antiquity of the doctrine as now taught.

We admit that, in the third century, it was a custom to enjoin mortifications and severities on those who had been found guilty of ecclesiastical offences. These have since been called penances. These punishments the bishops of the church had power, but as a matter of discipline only, to mitigate or relax this mitigation was called a pardon or indulgence. The "lapsed," during the persecutions, more particularly, had to undergo these canonical punishments. Martyrs, or those confined in prison for the faith, frequently interceded for a mitigation of the punishment; and the bishops remitted them on this ground, on condition that the offenders gave adequate proof of repentance; and the lapsed were received again into communion with the church. There is not the faintest resemblance in all this to the modern doctrine of indulgence. Dr. Wiseman alleges that "there are the strongest reasons to believe that, in most cases, absolution preceded the allotment of penance, or at least that it was granted during the time of its performance." There is not the slightest ground for this assertion: we deny the allegation and demand the proof.

Alphonsus à Castro, the celebrated Franciscan friar and archbishop (A.D. 1550), after admitting that there was no subject on which the Scriptures had expressed less, or of which the ancient fathers had written less, than that of indulgences, added-" and it seems the use of them came but lately into the church;" and the famous Cardinal Cajetan said "there is no authority of Scripture, or ancient

1 Lectures. London, 1851. Vol. ii. p. 76. Lecture XI. "Indulgences." 2...Harum usus in ecclesiam videtur sero receptus. Alph. contra hæres. viii. Verbo Indulgentia, p. 115. Paris, 1543.

fathers, Greek or Latin, that brings them [indulgences] to our knowledge." He could trace the origin no further back than Gregory I. (A.D. 601), who instituted the Indulgences of Stations; and he adds, "After him some popes granted indulgences very imprudently and to no purpose. This is letting them off very easily, and we shall do so in the same spirit by giving them credit for good intentions, admitting, with those quoted by Thomas Aquinas, who said that an ecclesiastical indulgence of itself could remit no punishment, either in the judgment of the church or in the judgment of God; but that it was a kind of pious fraud, whereby the church, by promising such remission, might allure men to the devout performance of good works.

CHAPTER XII.

TRADITION.

"He [Ignatius, A.D. 70] exhorted them [the churches] to adhere firmly to the Tradition of the Apostles, which, for the sake of greater security, he deemed it necessary to attest, by committing to writing."—EUSEBIUS, lib. iii. cap. 36. Paris, 1678.

We have now passed in review some of the leading doctrines taught by the modern church of Rome, and have shown them to be of human invention. Though some of these

1 "... Verum quia nulla Scripturæ sacræ, nulla priscorum doctorum Græcorum aut Latinorum authoritas scripta, hunc ad nostram deduxit notitiam, etc. Thom. de Vio Cajetan Opusc. Tract. 15. De Indulg. cap. i. tom. i. p. 129. August, Taurin, 1582.

valere, quantum fides, et pronunciare, ut quadam Thom. Summæ Theol.

2 "... Errant, qui dicunt indulgentias tantum devotio recipientis exiget: et ecclesiam ideo sic eas più fraude homines ad bene faciendum alliciat." Supp. Tert. pars. quæst. xxv. art. iv. 4to. Colon. 1620; and Greg. de Valent. de Indulg. c. 2, p. 1784. Paris, 1609.

may be old, they are not old enough to sustain the character of being apostolic, nor even sanctioned by what is called apostolic tradition. This brings us to consider our last head-namely, the doctrine of tradition.

The Council of Trent, by the first decree at its fourth session-having stated that “having constantly in view the removal of error and the preservation of the purity of the gospel in the church, which gospel, promised before by the prophets in the sacred Scripture, was first orally published by our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who afterward commanded it to be preached by his apostles to every creature, as the source of all saving truth and discipline "-declared, that "this truth and discipline are contained both in written books, and in unwritten traditions, which have come down to us either received by the apostles from the lips of Christ himself, or transmitted by the hands of the same apostles, under the dictation of the Holy Spirit." It further declared, that, "following the example of the orthodox Fathers, the council doth receive and reverence, with equal sentiments of piety and veneration, all the books as well of the Old as of the New Testament; and also the aforesaid traditions, pertaining both to faith and manners, whether received from Christ himself or dictated by the Holy Spirit, and preserved in the Catholic church by continual succession." And it is important to observe that, "lest any doubt should arise respecting the sacred books which are received by the council," it "judged proper" to set out a list of such books, but it does not set out what are the points of faith handed down by " continual succession," as forming the unwritten tradition. The object of this omission is apparent; for what cannot be proved by Scripture finds shelter under the dark mantle of tradition. As the Romish bishop, Canus, ingenuously observed, "Tradi

tion is not only of greater force than the Scriptures, but almost all disputations with heretics are to be referred to traditions." 1 The all-importance of traditions to the Romish church is summed up in the following passage from a work of a popular writer of his day, Costerus. Expatiating on the excellence and importance of tradition, he says:

“The excellency of the unwritten word doth far surpass the Scripture, which the apostles left us in parchments; the one is written by the finger of God, the other by the pen of the apostles. The Scripture is a dead letter, written on paper or parchment, which may be razed or wrested at pleasure; but tradition is written in men's hearts, which cannot be altered, The Scripture is like a scabbard which will receive any sword, either leaden, or wooden, or brazen, and suffereth itself to be drawn by any interpretation. Tradition retains the true sword in the scabbard; that is, the true sense of the Scripture in the sheath of the letter. The Scriptures do not contain clearly all the mysteries of religion, for they were not given to that end to prescribe an absolute form of faith; but tradition contains in it all truth, it comprehends all the mysteries of faith, and all the estate of the Christian religion, and resolves all doubts which may arise concerning faith; and from hence it will follow that tradition is the interpreter of all Scriptures, the judge of all controversies, the remover of all errors, and from whose judgment we ought not to appeal to any other judge; yea, rather, all judges are bound to regard and follow this judgment."..

The importance of the doctrine, therefore, is undeniable. But to return to the Trent decree, on which we have to make three observations :

:

1 Mel. Canus Loc. Theol. 3, cap. iii. p. 156. Colon. 1605.

2 Coster. Eucharist. cap. i. p. 44. Colon. 1606. Quoted by Sir H. Lynd. Via Devia, sec. viii.

1. The admission of unwritten tradition, as of authority in points of faith, tends decidedly to the establishment of error instead of its removal; and to the corruption of the gospel instead of, as is erroneously asserted, the preservation of its purity.

2. That it is notoriously untrue that the framers of the above decree did follow the example of the "orthodox Fathers." We challenge the production of any one of the orthodox Fathers who held unwritten tradition with "equal sentiments of piety and veneration" as the written word on points of faith.

3. If Romanists will produce to us any unwritten tradition received from Christ, or dictated by the Holy Spirit, and preserved in the church by continual succession, on some reliable evidence of its authenticity, we will receive it.

1

The Trent decree asserts, as a matter of fact, that the example of the orthodox Fathers was followed in framing the foregoing declaration of faith. It is admitted, however, that "it is no article of Catholic Faith that the church cannot err in matters of fact relating to faith, or in matters of speculation, or civil policy depending on mere human judgment or testimony." According to Dr. Wiseman, in order to arrive at a judicious decision on this "historical inquiry," all "human prudence" must be used to arrive at the fact. Alleged matters of fact may, therefore, be disbelieved without the charge of heresy; and it is incumbent on those who allege a matter, as a fact, to prove it to be so. The very essence of tradition is, or ought to be, based on fact. That fact should be so patent as to recommend itself to our belief in a most undoubted and palpable manner. It

1 Kirk and Berington's "Faith of Catholics," Prop. xi. p. 477. London,