FINIS: even if the crowd sometimes took signs for gods, the institutors’ relative cult still violates the likeness-ban—so say the primitive Doctors
Institutors of pagan cult knew gold is not God per se—they venerated divinity through it.
Alien-gods precept may catch their false companions; the likeness-ban still catches their relative image-work if Rome’s narrow reading stands—yet the Fathers say they broke that interdict badly.
Pars altera closes here; next frontier is Angelorum & Hominum Sanctorum Cultu.
Latin
L. Quicquid ergo esse possit de rudi & stolida plebe, quae forte, inter Ethnicos, simulachra quandoque, tanquam si essent ipsa numina, suspexerit; saltem qui Ethnicam superstitionem instituerant atque tuebantur, Non censebant, ut idem Arnobius loquitur, auri argentique materias esse per se Deos, & religiosa numina, sed ex his Deos colebant, & in iis numen ipsum Venerabantur. Adeoque, licet peccaverint contra Dei mandatum, Non habebis Deos alienos coram me, quando vero Deo, falsos alios adjunxerunt, dici tamen non possunt, in fabricatione & cultu imaginum, transgressi esse interdictum illud de nulla similitudine colenda atque facienda, si tantum per illud vetamur, imagines ut Deos habere & colere; cum nihilominus, non obstantibus istis eorum coloribus & excusationibus quas referunt, prisci Ecclesiae Doctores interdictum istud graviter violasse, ab iis censantur.
About this text
Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu - Sedan Theological Theses, newly rendered from the 1675 London Latin. Covers De Theologia through Angelorum & Hominum Sanctorum Cultu Romana I-LXXVII and Pars Secunda (Reformata) I-XL. Not the collected folio.
English follows locked Pitt Latin through Imaginum CLOSED + Sanctorum Cultu Romana CLOSED + Pars Secunda Reformata I-XL. 1675 PDF ~384-390 (book ~370-376); Vision OCR + pdftotext + tess. No modern English. This slice densifies Sanctorum Pars Secunda I-XL. Next: Pars Secunda XLI–fin (~CI). Claim stays claimed (book densify not done).
Catalogue & scope
ESTC R17887; Wing L802. IA bub_gb_eOkHAW4G0-wC (+ EEBO 1675 for gap leaves). Densify through Sanctorum Cultu Romana I-LXXVII + Pars Secunda Reformata I-XL (Pars Secunda not closed; not whole folio).
Witnesses
- Copy-text Locked Latin, De Theologia I-XLIII (Pitt 1675) (Latin)
- Checked print Internet Archive PDF of the 1675 Pitt folio (Latin)
- Checked print pdftotext of De Theologia pages (Latin)
- Checked print Internet Archive DjVu OCR of the 1675 Pitt folio (Latin)
- Copy-text Locked Latin, De Fide I-XXII (Pitt 1675) (Latin)
- Copy-text Locked Latin, De Authoritate Scripturae Pars I I-XLVII + Pars II I-XXXV + Pars III I-VIII (Pitt 1675) (Latin)
- Copy-text Locked Latin, De Scripturae plenitudine densify (Pitt 1675) (Latin)
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.