( pseudonym " Janus ") The Pope and the Council ( New York : Charles Scribner ' s Sons , 1869 ); and W . J . Sparrow Simpson , Roman Catholic Opposition to Papal Infallibility ( London : John Murray , 1909 ). For the non-Roman view , see George Salmon , Infallibility of the Church ( London : John Murray , rev . ed ., 1914 ).
Page 52 . Image worship . --" The worship of images . . . was one of those corruptions of Christianity which crept into the church stealthily and almost without notice or observation . This corruption did not , like other heresies , develop itself at once , for in that case it would have met with decided censure and rebuke : but , making its commencement under a fair disguise , so gradually was one practice after another introduced in connection with it , that the church had become deeply steeped in practical idolatry , not only without any efficient opposition , but almost without any decided remonstrance ; and when at length an endeavor was made to root it out , the evil was found too deeply fixed to admit of removal . . . . It must be traced to the idolatrous tendency of the human heart , and its propensity to serve the creature more than the Creator . . . .
" Images and pictures were first introduced into churches , not to be worshiped , but either in the place of books to give instruction to those who could not read , or to excite devotion in the minds of others . How far they ever answered such a purpose is doubtful ; but , even granting that this was the case for a time , it soon ceased to be so , and it was found that pictures and images brought into churches darkened rather than enlightened the minds of the ignorant-- degraded rather than exalted the devotion of the worshiper . So that , however they might have been intended to direct men ' s minds to God , they ended in turning them from Him to the worship of created things ." --J. Mendham , The Seventh General Council , the Second of Nicaea , Introduction , pages iii-vi .
For a record of the proceedings and decisions of the Second Council of Nicaea , A . D . 787 , called to establish the worship of images , see Baronius , Ecclesiastical Annals , vol . 9 , pp . 391-407 ( Antwerp , 1612 ); J . Mendham , The Seventh General Council , the Second of Nicaea ; Ed . Stillingfleet , Defense of the Discourse Concerning the Idolatry Practiced in the Church of Rome ( London , 1686 ); A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers , 2d series , vol . 14 , pp . 521-587 ( New York , 1900 ); Charles J . Hefele , A History of the Councils of the Church , From the Original Documents , b . 18 , ch . 1 , secs . 332 , 333 ; ch . 2 , secs . 345-352 ( T . and T . Clark ed ., 1896 ), vol . 5 , pp . 260-304 , 342372 .
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