"Furthermore, there is nothing so unjust as to accuse the Church of placing all her piety in these devotions to the Saints; since on the contrary she lays no obligation at all on particular persons to join in this practice...... By which it appears clearly that the Church condemns only those who refuse it out of contempt, or by a spirit of dissension and revolt."
In the second or published edition, the words printed in italics were omitted, the first clause altogether, and the second with the substitution of "out of disrespect or error."
2. Again, in the private impression he had said,
"So that it (the Mass) may very reasonably be called a sacrifice."
He raised his doctrine in the second as follows;
"So that there is nothing wanting to it to make it a true sacrifice."
In giving these instances, I am far from insinuating that there is any unfairness in such alterations. Earnestly desiring the conversion of Protestants, Bossuet did but attempt to place the doctrines of his Church in the light most acceptable to them. But they seem to show thus much: first that he was engaged in a novel experiment, which circumstances rendered necessary, and was trying how far he might safely go; secondly that he did not carry with him the body of the Gallican divines. In other words, we have no security that this new form of Romanism is more stable than one of the many forms of Protestantism which rise and fall around us in our own country, which are matters of opinion, and depend upon individuals[1].
3. But again, after all the care bestowed on his work, Bossuet says in his exposition as ultimately published:
When the Church pays an honour to the Image of an Apostle or Martyr, the intention is not so much to honour the image, as to honour the apostle or martyr in the presence of the image .... Nor do we attribute to them any other virtue but that of exciting in us the remembrance of those they represent. p. 8.
To this his Vindicator adds.
The use we make of images or pictures is purely as representatives, or meroorative signs, which call the originals to our remembrance. p. 35.
Now with these passages contrast the words of Bellarmine,
- ↑ Mosheim observes (ut supra) that none of the attempts to reconcile Protestants to the Church, from Richelieu downwards, were avowed by the Church itself, or much more than the acts of individuals.
