"A Treatise on Relics" by Jean Calvin (translated by Count Valerian Krasinski). Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.
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Jean Calvin. A Treatise on Relics
A Treatise on Relics
Table of Contents
Introductory Dissertation
Chapter I. Origin Of The Worship Of Relics And Images In The Christian Church
Chapter II. Compromise Of The Church With Paganism
Chapter III. Position Of The First Christian Emperors Towards Paganism, And Their Policy In This Respect
Chapter IV. Infection Of The Christian Church By Pagan Ideas And Practices During The Fourth And Fifth Centuries
Chapter V. Reaction Against The Worship Of Images And Other Superstitious Practices By The Iconoclast Emperors Of The East
Chapter VI. Origin And Development Of The Pious Legends, Or Lives Of Saints, During The Middle Ages
Chapter VII. Analysis Of The Pagan Rites And Practices Which Have Been Retained By The Roman Catholic As Well As The Græco-Russian Church
Chapter VIII. Image-Worship And Other Superstitious Practices Of The Graeco-Russian Church
Calvin's Treatise On Relics, With Notes By The Translator
Postscript
List Of Works Published By Johnstone, Hunter, & Co., Edinburgh
Footnotes
Отрывок из книги
Jean Calvin
Published by Good Press, 2020
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“I shall not dwell on what has been said about the tyranny of habit, which is always more severe wherever minds are less enlightened. I shall indicate another cause of the obstinacy of the Pagans, which was founded at least upon an operation of the mind—upon [pg 026] a judgment—and was, consequently, more deserving of fixing the attention of the church than that respect of custom against which the weapons of reason are powerless.
“The Christian dogmas, penetrating into a soul corrupted and weakened by idolatry, must have, in the first moment, filled it with a kind of terror. And, indeed, how was it possible that the Pagans, accustomed as they were to their profligate gods and goddesses, should not have trembled when they heard for the first time the voice of God, the just but inexorable rewarder of good and evil? Should not a solemn and grave worship, whose ceremonies were a constant and direct excitation to the practice of every virtue, appear an intolerable yoke to men who were accustomed to find in their sacred rites a legitimate occasion to indulge in every kind of debauchery? The fear of submitting their lives to the rule of a too rigid morality, and to bow their heads before a God whose greatness terrified them, kept for many years a multitude of Pagans from the church.
