Precarious image hypotheses: Christian liberty, early practice, and images as books for the rude
Theologians have long sifted precarious supporting claims here.
One: that the Second Commandment's ban on images concerns something indifferent in itself, and so Christian liberty has lifted it.
Another: early Christian practice — though Chemnitz and others admit that before Jerome's day no images stood in temples.
Another: that images are books for the unlearned. Chemnitz, answering Trent (Part IV), cuts that pretext down, and points to Christ and the apostles, who neither taught by images or statues nor ever used them, content to set the handed-down doctrine in the Scriptures.
On the practice of the earlier ages, and on Elvira canon 36, see our History of Images, Section I.
Latin
PRECARIAE Hypotheses prolixè à Theologis discussae, ex gr. De Praecepti II. naturâ, in prohibitione Imaginum, quod ut de re in se ἀδιαφόρῳ, ita sit per Christianam Libertatem sublatum: Sic de praxi priorum Christianorum, quum tamen Chemnitius & alii fassi sint, ante tempora Hieronymi nullas in Templis collocatas Imagines: Sic de Imaginibus ut Libris imperitorum, eodem Chemnitio ad Concil. Trident. P. IV. hunc obtentum confutante, etiam exemplo Christi, Apostolorum, qui nec per Imagines, aut statuas docuerint, nec adhibuerint usquam, contenti doctrinam traditam in Scripturas retulisse, &c. Vide de priorum Seculorum praxi, & de Canone Eliberat. XXXVI, nostram Hist. Imag. Sect. I.
About this text
Samuel Strimesius — Prefatio through Controversiae Post Lutherum Controv. III-XIII + XV Tolerantia, Hexades Annotationum Prooemium and Annotatio I through Decem Theses / Francus plus Annotatio II §.I-§.VI and Annotatio III §.I–§.VII (through Cassellanum 1661) from Ingenua in Controversias Evangelicorum (Frankfurt an der Oder, 1708). Honest partial; Prefatio silence reasons, Annotatio III §.VIII+ fruits / §.IX+, Hexades theses body, deeper Controversiae / Part II remain.
English follows the locked 1708 Francofurti ad Viadrum Latin of Prefatio §I–II, Crimina defenses through III, Part I Protheoria through Controversiae Obices/Historia/Varii gradus, Formula Discord/Disparitas, Ulterius confirmatur / Classes / Formula protest / triplex differentia, Coena Domini Controversiae Priores through Precariae Hypotheses (Controv. print pp. 34–40), Controversiae Post Lutherum Natae Controv. III–XV tip (providence through De Tolerantia mutua; Controv. print pp. 40–78), Hexades Annotationum Prooemium H.I–§.III (Hexades print pp. 1–4 / PDF ~182–185), and Annotatio I De Augustana Confessione §.I–§.VIII tip (Hexades print pp. 5–24+ / PDF ~186–205+), reconstructed from Google Books PDF page images (ONB copy, id 3epYAAAAcAAJ) with pdftotext as check. No modern English was copied. Sister Halle digitization of Ingenua in Arminianismum (DOI 10.25673/65287) remains Anubis-blocked — skipped; Controversias only. Prefatio silence reasons, Annotatio I §.IX+, Hexades theses body beyond §.VIII, and remainder of Controversiae / folio remain.
Witnesses
- Copy-text Locked Latin, Prefatio section I tip (Schrey & Hartmann 1708) (Latin)
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