George Stanley Faber

“ O holy Mary, our sovereign queen, as God the Son has endowed thee with so much knowledge and charity that it enlightens all heaven; so, in the hour of death, illustrate and strengthen our souls with the knowledge of the true faith, that they may not be perverted by error or pernicious ignorance. ”

“ They must also teach them: that the holy bodies of the Saints and Martyrs and others living with Christ are to be venerated by the faithful, through which many benefits are afforded from God to men; so that the affirmers, that veneration and honour are not due to the Relics of the Saints, or that these and other sacred monuments are uselessly honoured by the faithful, or that it is vain to celebrate the memories of the Saints for the purpose of obtaining their assistance, are wholly to be condemned, as the Church long since condemned and still condemns them. ”

“ In the sacrament of the Eucharist, after the consecration of the bread and wine, our Lord Jesus Christ, true God and true man, is, truly and really and substantially, contained, under the species of those sensible objects: so that, immediately after consecration, the true body and the true blood of our Lord, together with his soul and divinity, exist under the species of bread and wine: for, by the very force of the words themselves, the blood exists under the species of the wine ”

“ In submitting this matter to the plain and honest inquirer, it is obvious, that nothing more is necessary: than, first, to state any particular doctrine of the Roman Church; next, to bring forward either the silence or the declarations of Scripture; and, lastly, to adduce the testimony of the Fathers.
2. By the adoption of such a plan, without a grain of any extraordinary learning, and by the mere exercise of common sense, every reader will be enabled fully to judge for himself. ”

“ From the Romish doctrine of Transubstantiation, I shall pass on to the Romish doctrine of Purgatory.
I. Respecting a Purgatory, into which the souls of all, save those who are immediately conveyed to Hell, pass forthwith after death; in order that, by its fiery pains, they may be purified from the remainder of their corruption, and at the same time by personal suffering may make satisfaction to God for their hitherto unexpiated offences: the Church of Rome, speaking through her organ the Council of Trent, thus defines and pronounces. ”

“ We deem those the most ignorant: who are not ashamed, to address lifeless things, to petition the weak for health, to ask life from the dead, to pray for health from the needy. And, though some may allege, that these images are not gods but only their symbols and representations: yet even such persons, fancying that imitations of the Deity can be made by the hands of some mean artizan, are not a whit less ignorant and slavish and uninstructed. ”

“ Yet NOT A SINGLE SYLLABLE is said in Scripture, either prophetic or declarative, respecting the divine appointment, and consequently the divine right, of the Papal Supremacy.
We NO WHERE read in Holy Writ: either that the Roman Church ought justly to be obeyed, as the mother and mistress of all other Churches; or that the Pope is, at once, the successor of the blessed Peter Prince of the Apostles, and the Vicar of Jesus Christ.
From whatever quarter the divines of Trent have made these discoveries: it is quite clear, that the Bible throws no light upon the present subject. ”

“ Speaking of a moral, not of a literal or substantial, change in the consecrated elements, as they themselves distinctly assure us in the way of explaining their own language, the old Fathers often say: that the bread and wine are changed into the body and blood of Christ. ”

“ If, from the Written Word of God and from the Fathers of the three first ages, any Latin Divine can make out an historical case, for The alleged Apostolicity of the peculiarities of the Church of Rome, better than the failures of Mr. Berington and Bishop Trevern of Strasbourg: let him by all means come forward, whether he be Bishop or Priest or Deacon. The Bible and the Fathers of the three first centuries, whence alone any historical substantiation of the assertions made by the Romish Clergy can be deduced, are open to them as well as to ourselves. ”

“ From Thomas Aquinas, who was not only a mighty Schoolman but also a canonised Saint of the Roman Church, we may clearly hope to derive the very best and most accurate instruction as to the real tenets of his Communion. Now this writer, through the medium of a syllogism professedly framed upon an authorised Prayer in the Breviary, establishes the DUTY of worshipping the cross with the self-same adoration as that which is paid to the Deity.
We offer the supreme adoration of Latria to that Being, in whom we place our hope of salvation. ”

“ Now, most unluckily for this current explanation, the primitive theologians knew nothing of it: for, while the early Fathers, Justin and Tertullian and Cyprian and Origen and Athanasius and Jerome and Augustine and Chrysostom and Hilary, differ as to the true meaning of the text (some supposing the rock to be Peter personally and exclusively; some, to be Christ himself; and some, to be Peter’s confession of Christ’s divinity) ; NOT ONE of them interprets it, as the Romish Clergy would now interpret it. ”

“ What becomes of the defined DOCTRINES, when the asserted FACTS themselves turn out to be mere shadowy non-entities?
Will a house continue to stand, when its foundations are removed? Can doctrines remain secure, when their professed basis of facts proves to be nothing better than the fabric of a vision? ”

“ If ye are disciples of the Gospels,—walk according to WHAT IS WRITTEN. But, if you choose to allege any other matters BEYOND WHAT IS WRITTEN: why do you contend against us, WHO WILL NEVER BE PERSUADED EITHER TO HEAR OR TO SPEAK A SINGLE SYLLABLE BEYOND GOD’S WRITTEN WORD? [36d]
(4.) These; namely, the canonical books of Scripture, from which the apocryphal books are carefully excluded by the accurate Father: These are the fountains of salvation; so that he, who thirsts, may drink from the oracles contained in them. ”

“ Thus, out of one of Froben’s indexes, they have directed the erasure of the following references: The use of images forbidden; The Eucharist no sacrifice, but the commemoration of a sacrifice; Works, although they do not justify, yet are necessary to salvation; Marriage is granted to all that will not contain; Venial sins damn; The dead Saints, after this life, cannot help us. ”

“ By some marvellous perversion of the moral sense, Sixtus Senensis, indeed, has even lauded Pope Pius V, because he had taken diligent care, that the writings of all catholic authors, and more especially the writings of the ancient Fathers, should be expurgated and emaculated: but the plain good sense of every upright and honourable man will deem such praise no very flattering compliment. ”

“ Christ, in the Supper, which, before his betrayal, he had celebrated with his disciples after the solemnisation of the ancient Passover, delivered to the same disciples the sacraments of his body and blood IN THE SUBSTANCE OF BREAD AND WINE:—and taught them; that they ought to pass, from things CARNAL to things SPIRITUAL, from things EARTHLY to things HEAVENLY, from IMAGES to TRUTH. [21b]
17. Rabanus Maurus, Archbishop of Mentz, lived in the ninth century. ”

“ Hence, in strict consistency, the sole change in the elements, produced by consecration, is said, by the same early writers, to be a MORAL and not a PHYSICAL change. For they pronounce it to be such a change, as is produced in the confirmatory chrism or in the stone of an altar-table or in the baptismal water; when, by consecration, they cease to be secular, and are devoted to sacred purposes: and, even yet more remarkably, they pronounce it to be such a change, as is produced in a man; when, by ordination, he ceases to be a laic, and becomes a clerk. ”

“ From a child, thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God: and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, p. 33for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. [33a]
4. The Romish Clergy are wont to tell us, that their scheme of concurrent Unwritten Tradition is recognised and enjoined even by Scripture: because St. ”

“ O holy Mary; our sovereign queen, as God the Father, by his omnipotence, has made thee most powerful; so assist us, at the hour of death, by defending p. 49us against all power that is contrary to thine. ”

“ We have resolved, says Pope Leo, BY VIRTUE OF THE AUTHORITY GIVEN TO US FROM HEAVEN, fully to unlock that sacred treasure, composed of the merits, sufferings, and virtues, of Christ our Lord and of his Virgin-Mother and of all the Saints, WHICH THE AUTHOR OF HUMAN SALVATION HAS ENTRUSTED TO p. ”

“ III. We may now, in the way of historical testimony, go on profitably to hear the ancient Fathers: those identical old orthodox Fathers to wit; whom, in respect to the present question, the doctors of the Council of Trent, as the reader may peradventure recollect, claim as being clearly and indisputably quite their own.
1. Let us first attend to Irenèus in the second century.
(1.) The disposition of our salvation we know not through any other persons, than those by whom the Gospel has come to us: which then, indeed, they themselves orally preached ”

“ This Father, who lived in the fifth century, had expressed himself so strongly against the doctrine now denominated Transubstantiation, that John Clement, perceiving the force of his testimony, and losing his own temper, tore out and burned the guilty leaf which contained the passage. ”

“ Not content with thus emendating the Fathers, our pains-taking Inquisitors, in order that their editions might throughout be perfectly harmonious and consistent, fell doggedly to work upon the very tables or indexes, which contained any references to the expunged passages: for, of course, it were unseemly, that a reference should appear, indicating the occurrence of a place which itself could no where be found in an improved or expurgated edition. ”

“ Within these few years, under every Pope successively, some or other of our sacred Images, especially of the more ancient, have made themselves illustrious, and have acquired A PECULIAR WORSHIP AND VENERATION, by the exhibition of fresh miracles; as it is notorious to all, who dwell in this city. [47d]
3. Let us finally attend to the actual liturgical practice of the Romanists themselves, as the best explanation of the tenets received and inculcated by their Clergy: for, clearly, as men are taught to believe p. ”

“ Let the Romish Clergy, if they be able, SUBSTANTIATE this most extraordinary allegation.
3. Where is Pope Leo’s PROOF of the very position, upon which the whole of his bull professedly reposes; the position, to wit: that The Virgin Mary and the Saints not only have merit enough to make satisfaction for their own sins, but have even merit to spare for the benefit of less privileged souls in Purgatory? ”