Tractatus contra eos qui imagines faciunt

Tratado contra los que hacen imgenes

, .
Razn de Saint Epifanioy en el epitideyontwn eIdwlikw poiein
thesmw de fomoiwsin de eIkonas de Jesucristo y la Virgen y de
testigos, ETI y profitwn ggelwn y granizo

Las palabras de San Epifanio contra la habil creacion de idolos

thesm imagen en afomoiosin Cristo
testigos s, y los ngeles y los profetas

la

Virgen

Mara

de

1
.
1. La pared koniasantes chromasi (El color de las paredes koniasantes)
Figuras diillagmenois anetyposan imagen.

2 , ,
.
que los municipios, moda, figuras de santos poioumen un memorial y
honrarlos.
3.

, .

Cmo fue la voz de aytw rchaggelloy y ostea grafis neura

egeneto katadila enirmosmena, no hablar de la synesews de ekeinoy

Pero de dnde l en su archangellou Escritura huesos y nervios

enirmosmena manifiestamente Hecho l no est hablando prudencia.

5
, ,

.

.
El pensar en tout Honrar a los Apstoles mathetosan que en lugar de
Honrar ya automticamente atimazousin Paul hijo del sacerdote apodo GAR
enyvrisas pared kekoniamenon apefinato

6 , , ,

,



, ,
,
.
392 oidamen ", Iwannis," fisin que Otan fanerwthi aytw omoioi,
esometha ', y juguetes de gioys Pablo de ekiryxen de theou "yIou; se convirti en
Introducir juguetes en gioys Participio de doxi faidrynesthai doxw y nekrw y lalw
falta de Orn, seor legontos de aytwn, "esontai 392, fisin, como ngeles
theou

6. Porque sabemos gar

fisin Juan que cuando faneroth , Le gusta lo
esometha y Pablo Santos conformada al Hijo de Dios ekiryxen, cmo
s el futuro en la gloria santos faidrynesthai en adox Y nekr Y alal
Oran que el Seor dice acerca de ellos esontai LAP, dice, como los ngeles
Dios

,


que no espritus y ngeles yparchontas (seorios) y para siempre vivir en
cadveres
culto escritor, profeta est diciendo "el que hace a sus ngeles espritu y
funciona automticamente fuego ardiente
Cmo espritus granizo y ggeloys y zwntas yparchontas de ei en nekrois
grficas proskyneis, el Profeta legontos ggeloys de poiwn ' juguetes al episcopado
espritus y relmpagos esta quema de tous de leitoyrgoys

8 _ .
Pero yo os digo que ni ellos mismos se debern proskyneisthai.
decir que el granizo lo que te proskyneisthai oyde aytoi.

9

. , , .
Ora gar no consiervo tuyo, Aimee y tus hermanos los que tiene la testimonio
de Jess para Dios, dice, Adoracin

10 '
.
,

 _,
.
' ,
_
,

.
Pero ni siquiera los Apstoles ithelisan proskyneisthai Y gar ni
evangelizesthai ustedes mismos consignados proskyneisthai CDK quera,
pero el ser que envi a Cristo. hijo del GAR dominar a pesar de que se lo
llevaron atar y desatar en la tierra y el cielo, dijo que Cornelio
"Estoy Peers los contras hombre, Y no autodidacta pero proskyneisthai
Cristo el Salvador

11

_

,

.
Pero los padres de Perry de los ngeles que Laodikei reunin embargo garque para tal hiptesis elaborado, dicen, "ei_tis abandona la
Iglesia de Dios y los ngeles son llamados, sea anatema; hijo desamparado
de esa Seor Jesucristo y proselilythe eidololatrei ".

12

,
_
Cul es su incomprensible e inefable Y aperinoiton aperigrafon tecnologa
dice para escribir para ellos,siendo CDK i_schyse atenisai Moiss?

13
,
.
Esto
se
debe
a
que
algunos
matorrales
hombre
era innecesaria la Virgen Mara: Por qu este hombre poioumen

perfecto

14
, ' _
,

y Jpiter En consecuencia eninthropisen, hijo de ustedes ininteligible por
quien todas las cosas fueron hechas, tu mano grapsai dyniths

15

oukoun
muerto?

esencial

es

la

talla

del

padre

ni

la

vivificante

16 ,

Dnde se te ha mandado estas cosas que l vino a la tierra, Y l le gusta
poiisai Y proskynein Oran?

17 _ ,
.
Esta disposicin del diablo que es, ustedes katafroniss Dios.

18 ,

.

para Dios en pas t palai Y kain negar estas cosas, precisamente

diciendo;
"Seor Dios adoran y adoran al mon

I have heard it said that some people have ordered that

the incomprehensible Son of God be represented: to hear
and believe such a blasphemy makes one shiver.
How can anyone say that God, incomprehensible,
inexpressible, ungraspable by the mind, and
uncircumscribable, can be represented, him whom Moses
could not look at?
Some people say that since the Word of God became
perfect man born from the ever-virgin Mary, we can
represent him as man.
Did the Word become flesh so that you could represent by
your hand the Incomprehensible One by whom all things
were made?

Carta a teodosio por epifanio

"Which of the ancient Fathers ever painted an image of Christ and put it in a
church or a private home? [None of them ever did such a thing.] Which ancient
bishop ever dishonored Christ by depicting Him on door curtains?...
"Moreover, they are deceiving who portray the likeness of [biblical] saints in
different forms according to their whim, sometimes showing the same
individuals as old men, sometimes as young men, intruding into things which
they have not seen. For they paint the Savior with long hair, and this by
guessing because He is called a Nazarene, and Nazarenes wear long hair.
They are in error if they try to attach stereotypes to Him, because the Savior
drank wine, whereas the Nazarenes [the Nazarites] did not.
"They also show forth deception by concocting things according to their
whims. These falsifiers present the holy apostle Peter as an old person with
his hair and beard cut short; some portray holy Paul as a man with receding
hair, others as bald and bearded, and the other apostles are shown having
their hair closely cut off. If then the Savior had long hair while his apostles
were cut close, and since by not being cropped, He was unlike them in
appearance, for what reason did the Pharisees and scribes give a fee of thirty
silver pieces to Judas that he might kiss Him and show them that He was the
one they were after, when they might themselves or by means of others have
determined on account of His [long] hair Him whom they were seeking to find,
and thereby without paying a fee?...

"Can you not see, O most God-loving emperor, that this state of things is not
in accord to God? [Which trend was then sweeping the Christian world.] Wherefore
I beg of you ... that the curtains which may be found that have such false
portrayals of the apostles or prophets or of the lord Christ Himself should be
collected from churches, baptisteries, houses and martyria [sites where martyrs
were buried or honored] and that you should give them over for the burial of the
poor, and as [for those] on walls, that they should be whitewashed. As for
those that have already been designed in mosaics, realizing that their
removal is difficult you know what to command in the wisdom that God has
granted you. If it be possible to remove them [mosaics], well and good; but if
this is not possible, let that which has already been produced suffice, and let
no one paint in this manner from now on."

There was no lack of opposition to this universal corruption of the church on the part of several
true Christians, and there were undoubtedly many more instances of this noble conduct than
those which have reached us, but the records of them were probably either lost in the lapse of
ages, or destroyed by their opponents. I have already mentioned the prohibition of the use of
images in the churches by the council of Elvira in 305. The council of Laodicea, held about 363,
declared, in its seventy-fifth canon, "_That Christians ought not to abandon the church, and retire
elsewhere in order to invoke angels, and form private assemblies, because it is prohibited. If,
therefore, any one is attached to this secret idolatry, let him be anathema, because he has left
our Lord Jesus Christ, and has become an idolater._" It is therefore evident that this superstition,
expressly prohibited by St Paul, Col. ii. 18, was then secretly practised in some private
assemblies, though it was afterwards introduced into the Western as well as the Eastern church.
The council of Carthage, held towards the end of the fourth century, condemned the abuse of the
honours which were paid to the memory of the martyrs by the Christians of Africa, and ordered
the bishops to repress them, _if the thing might be done, but if it could not be done on account of
the popular emotions_, to warn at least the people. This proves how weak the bishops felt their
authority to be against the prevailing superstitions amongst their flocks, and that they preferred
suffering the latter to risking the former.
There were, however, Christians who opposed, in a bold and uncompromising manner, the pagan
errors and abuses which had infected the church. St Epiphanius, archbishop of Salamis, in the
fourth century, celebrated for his learning, and whose virtues St Jerome extols in the most
glowing terms, explicitly condemned the worship of created beings, "because," he observed, "the
devil was creeping into men's minds under the pretence of devotion and justice, and,
consecrating human nature by divine honours, presented to their eyes various fine images, in
order to separate the mind from the one God by an infamous adultery. Therefore, though those
who are worshipped are dead, people adore their images, which never had any life in them." He
further remarked, "that there was not a prophet who would have suffered a man or a woman to
be worshipped; that neither the prophet Elias, nor St John the beloved disciple of the Lord, nor St
Thecla (who had received the most extravagant praises from the fathers), were ever worshipped;
and that, consequently, the virgin was neither to be invoked nor worshipped." "_The old
superstition_," says he, "_shall not have such power over us as to oblige us to abandon the living
God, and worship his creature._"(51)
The same St Epiphanius relates, in a letter addressed to John, bishop of Jerusalem, that having
arrived during a journey at a village called Anablatta, he found in its church a veil suspended
over the door, with a figure representing _Christ or some saint_. He was so indignant at this sight
that he immediately tore the veil to pieces, and advised the wardens of that church to employ it
as a shroud to bury a dead body. As the people of the place complained that the veil of their
church was destroyed, without giving them in its place another, Epiphanius sent them one; but
he exhorted in his letter the above-mentioned bishop of Jerusalem, in whose diocese Anablatta
was situated, to order the priests of that place not to suspend any more such veils in the church
of Christ, _because they are contrary to our religion_.

The authenticity of this letter, which bears such strong evidence against the use of images in
churches, was rejected by Bellarmine and the ecclesiastical historian Baronius, but it has been
admitted by Petau and some of the ablest writers of the Roman Catholic Church. It was
translated into Latin by St Jerome, and is found in all the collections of his works.

A Treatise on Relics by John Calvin

Calling him often Dormitantius instead of Vigilantius

The most celebrated opponent of the abuses with which the church had been already infected at
that time was Vigilantius. His writings have not been preserved, and we know his opinions only
from their refutation by St Jerome, and from which we may conclude that this reformer of the fifth
century maintained the same doctrines which were afterwards defended by the Waldensians,
Wycliffe, the Hussites, and which are now professed by the Protestant Christians. He was born at
Calagorris in Gallia; he became a priest at Barcelona, and contracted in that place an intimate
friendship with St Paulinus, afterwards bishop of Nola. Vigilantius went to Italy in order to see this
friend of his, and having an intention to visit Palestine and Egypt, took from him an introduction
to St Jerome. They became great friends with St Jerome, who was much pleased with the marks
of approbation shown by Vigilantius during a sermon which he preached. He also acknowledges
that he, as well as several others, would have died from starvation, if Vigilantius had not assisted
them with his own and his friends' money; and he says, in his answer to Paulinus, "You will learn
from the mouth of _the holy priest, Vigilantius_, with what affection I have received him." This
affection disappeared, however, as soon as Jerome learned that Vigilantius had accused him in
Egypt of being too partial to Origenes, and the _holy priest_ became an _impertinent_, whose
silly speeches he had observed during their first interview. He made use of several injurious
expressions in speaking of the former object of his admiration, and which do not well accord with
the gravity of his character, as, for instance, calling him often _Dormitantius_ instead of
_Vigilantius_. His indignation knew no bounds when he heard, in 404, that Vigilantius, who was
then in Gallia, had attacked several practices which had crept into the church, and he dictated in
one single night a vehement answer to the opinions of Vigilantius, who, according to this writer,
taught as follows:--