CHAPTER III.

Heretical Translation against Sacred Images.

εἰδωλολά

τρης.

Martin. I beseech you, what is the next and readiest and most proper MARTIN, 1. English of idolum, idololatra, idololatria? is it not, "idol, idolater, eidwλov. idolatry"? Are not these plain English words, and well known in our language? Why sought you further for other terms and words, if you had lowλolameant faithfully? What needed that circumstance of three words for Tpeía. one, "worshipper of images," and "worshipping of images"? Whether, Bib. 1577. I pray you, is the more natural and convenient speech, either in our English tongue, or for the truth of the thing, to say, as the holy scripture doth, "covetousness is idolatry," and consequently, "the covetous man Eph. v. is an idolater;" or, as you translate, "covetousness is worshipping of images," and, "the covetous man is a worshipper of images "?

Col. iii.

Fulke. If you ask for the readiest and most proper FULKE, 1. English of these words, I must needs answer you, ‘an image, a worshipper of images, and worshipping of images,' as we have sometimes translated. The other that you would have, 'idol, idolater, and idolatry,' be rather Greekish than English words; which though they be used of many Englishmen, yet are they not understood of all, as the other be. And therefore I say, the more natural and convenient speech for our English tongue, and as convenient for the truth of the thing, it is to say, 'covetousness is the worshipping of images, and the covetous man is a worshipper of images,' as to say, 'covetousness is idolatry, and the covetous man is an idolater,' as I have proved before; seeing idolum by your own interpreter is called simulacrum, and simulacrum signifieth as much as imago, an image, cap. i. numb. 5.

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Martin. We say commonly in English, Such a rich man maketh MARTIN, 2. his money his god; and the apostle saith in like manner of some, The absurdity of this whose belly is their god," Phil. iii.; and generally every creature is translation, A covetous our idol, when we esteem it so exceedingly that we make it our god. man is a worshipper of But who ever heard in English, that our money, or belly, were our images.

[The versions of 1534 and 1539 render is éσrìv eidwλodarpeía, Col. iii. 5, "Which is worshipping of images." The Geneva translation has, like the Authorised version of 1611, "Which is idolatry." The Vulgate has, "Quæ est simulacrorum servitus."]

FULKE, 2.

images, and that by esteeming of them too much we become worshippers of images? Among yourselves are there not some even of your superintendents, of whom the apostle speaketh, that make an idol of their money and belly, by covetousness and belly cheer? Yet can we not call you therefore in any true sense," worshippers of images," neither would you abide it. You see then, that there is a great difference betwixt idol and image, idolatry and worshipping of images; and even so great difference is there betwixt St Paul's words and your translation.

Fulke. Before you can shew that absurdity of this translation, a covetous man is a worshipper of images,' you must defend your own vulgar Latin translation, which calleth eidwλoλarpeia simulacrorum servitus, which I have proved to signify the serving or worshipping of images, cap. i. numb. 5. Now to our English phrase, a rich man maketh his money his god, a glutton his belly,' and so of other creatures honoured above measure; I say, the worshipping of images may be after two sorts, either when they are worshipped as gods, (as among the grosser sort of the gentiles and papists,) and then it is against the first commandment, "Thou shalt have none other gods but me"; or else when men pretend to worship God by them, as the Israelites did in the calf, Exod. xxxii., and in Jeroboam's calves, and in the brasen serpent, and the wiser sort of the gentiles and papists pretend to do in worshipping their images; and then it is a sin against the second commandment, "Thou shalt make to thyself no graven images: thou shalt not fall down to them, nor worship them." By similitude therefore of them that trusted in images as their gods, and so honoured them which were not able to help them, the apostle calleth the covetous man a worshipper of images, and covetousness, worshipping of images; and not properly, but because their money is to them the same occasion of departing from God, that the images was to the worshipper of them. So if we will speak unproperly, as the apostle saith, "their belly is their God," we may say it is their idol, or their image, which they worship as God not that the belly, or any such thing, is God, or an idol, or an image properly; but that it is so termed, for that to such vile creatures is given that divine honour which is due to God, but by worshippers of idols and images is given to idols or images. I confess the use of the English tongue, in these speeches, is rather to call them idols than images, and

to extend the name idol (which is always taken in the evil part) to that which the word image cannot so aptly signify: yet in truth of the thing there is no difference between idol and image, worshipping of idols, and worshipping of images, whether you speak of such as be idols and images, so properly called, or of such as be only by similitude figuratively so named. If any of our superintendents be such as you speak of, I wish them amended, or else removed. For my part, I know none to be such, although I wish to the best increase of God's grace, to despise the world, and to be more earnest in setting forth God's glory. As for the great difference you speak of betwixt St Paul's words and our translation, I see none as yet.

Martin. Will you see more yet to this purpose? In the English MARTIN, 3. bible, printed the year 1562, you read thus: "How agreeth the temple 2 Cor. vi. of God with images1?" Can we be ignorant of Satan's cogitations herein, that it was translated of purpose to delude the simple people, and to make them believe that the apostle speaketh against sacred images in the churches, which were then in plucking down in England, when this your translation was first published in print? Whereas in very truth you know, that the apostle here partly interpreteth himself to speak of men as of God's temples wherein he dwelleth, partly alludeth to Salomon's temple, which did very well agree with images (for it had the Salomon's cherubins, which were the representations of angels, and the figures of well agree temple did oxen to bear up the lavatory), but with idols it could not agree, and but not with therefore the apostle's words are these, "How agreeth the temple of God idols. with idols ?"

with images,

Fulke. We had need to see more, before we be con- FULKE, 3. victed of corruption; for hitherto we have seen nothing but a foolish cavil, grounded upon the common use of the word "idol" in English, in which speech it is taken only for unlawful images, although in the Greek it signifieth as generally as imago in Latin, and by Tully himself is used for the same. But in the English bible, printed 1562, we read thus, 2 Cor. vi., "How agreeth the temple of God with images2 ?" Here you cannot be "ignorant of Satan's cogitations, that it

[ Τίς δὲ συγκατάθεσις ναῷ Θεοῦ μετὰ εἰδώλων; 2 Cor. vi. 16. "What agreement hath the temple of God with idols?" Rhemish, Authorised version.]

[ It is "images" in the Bibles of 1534, 1539, 1557, but “idols” in the Authorised version, 1611.]

MARTIN, 4.

μETA TV

εἰδώλων. The brasen serpent, first an image,

was translated of purpose to make the simple people believe, that the apostle speaketh against sacred images in churches, which were then in plucking down in England, when this translation was first published in print." You are so cunning in Satan's cogitations, that he hath inspired into you a manifest untruth; for this text was so translated and printed near thirty years before 1562, in king Henry the VIIIth's time, when images were not in plucking down. And when it was printed again, 1562, which was the fifth year of her majesty's reign (God be thanked!) there was no need to pluck down images out of churches, which were plucked down in the first and second years of her reign. Wherefore that purpose is vainly imagined of you: for the translator's purpose was the same that the apostle's, to shew that the religion of God hath nothing to do with images made by man's device to honour them as gods, or to honour God by them. And where you say that the apostle "alludeth to Salomon's temple, which did well agree with images, but not with idols;” I answer you, Salomon's temple did not agree with images made by the device of man, to honour God by them or in them. For the cherubins were not of man's device, but of God's commandment: the oxen to hold up the lavatory, the pomegranates, and other ornaments, were not for any use of religion to worship God in them or by them, but for use and garnishing of the house appointed by God in his law, and by direction of his Spirit in Salomon. For the commandment, "Thou shalt not make to thyself," is no restraint unto God, but unto men of their own brain or private intent to make images to serve in religion. Therefore the apostle, speaking of such images as were forbidden by God's law, is not otherwise to be understood; and no more is our translation.

Martin. When Moses by God's appointment erected a brasen Serpent, and commanded the people that were stung with serpents to behold it, and thereby they were healed; this was an image only, and as an image was it erected and kept and used by God's commandment. and lawful: But when it grew to be an idol, saith St Augustine, that is, when the people began to adore it as God, then king Ezechias brake it in pieces, to Numb. xxi. the great commendation of his piety and godly zeal. So when the children of Israel, in the absence of Moses, made a calf, and said, "These Exod. xxxii. are thy gods, O Israel, that brought thee out of Egypt," was it but an image which they made? was that so heinous a matter, that God would

afterward an idol, and

unlawful.

Lib. x. de

Civit. c. 8.

2 Kings xviii.

calf, an idol.

so have punished them as he did? No, they made it an idol also, saying, The molten "These are thy gods, O Israel;" and therefore the apostle saith to the 1 Cor. x. εἰδωλολά Corinthians, "Be not idolaters, as some of them;" which also you translate most falsely, "Be not worshippers of images, as some of them."

τραι.

Fulke. The brasen serpent first and last was an image, FULKE, 4. holy when it was commanded by God to be made as a sacrament of our redemption by Christ, lawful when it was reserved only for memory of that excellent miracle; unlawful, cursed, and abominable, when it was worshipped, and therefore justly broken in pieces by the godly king Ezechias. You cite Augustine as it pleaseth you, to follow your own context: Quem sane serpentem, propter facti memoriam reservatum, cum postea populus errans tanquam idolum colere cœpisset, Ezechias, &c. "Which serpent truly, being reserved for the memory of the fact, when afterward the people going astray began to worship as an idol, Ezechias the king, serving God with religious power, with great praise of his piety brake in pieces." Here it is certain that Augustine, as most ecclesiastical writers, useth the word idolum for an image abused. But that the people began to adore it as God, he saith not; for they only worshipped God by it, falsely indeed and superstitiously, but yet not believing that image to be God himself, but a holy representation of his power, which was shewed by it in the days of Moses. That Ezechias, by religious or ecclesiastical power and authority, did put down idolatry, you pass it by, as though you saw it not in St Augustine. But you bring another example to prove that images, except they be worshipped as gods, be no idols. In truth, seeing all religious worship is due only to God, although the idolaters intend not to worship their images as gods, yet by worshipping of them they make unto themselves gods of them, and so offend both against the first and second commandments. Yet how prove you that the Israelites made a god of their calf? Because they said, "These are thy gods, O Israel, that brought thee out of the land of Egypt." But even by that same speech it is manifest that they worshipped not the calf, as believing it to be God; but contrariwise protested thereby, that they meant not to change their God, but to worship the same God, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, by that image; which they could not be ignorant that it was made but yesterday of their ear-rings, and therefore