hey added, that the sham synod had
contradicted itself by admitting that the six general councils had
preserved the faith entire, and yet condemned the use of images,
which it must allow to be more ancient than the sixth council, and
which is of as great antiquity as the apostolic age. And that
whereas the same synod had advanced that the clergy having fallen
Into Idolatry, God had raised faithful emperors to destroy the
fortresses of the devil; the council of Nice vehemently condemns
this, because the bishops are the depositaries of tradition, and not
the emperors. It adds, that the Iconoclasts falsely called the
blessed Eucharist the only image, for it is not an image nor a
figure, but the true body and blood of Christ. In the seventh
session was read the definition of filth, declaring, that images
ought to be set up in churches as well as crosses, (which last the
Iconoclasts allowed of,) also to be figured on the sacred vessels
and ornaments, on the walls, ceilings, houses, &c. For the oftener
people behold holy images or pictures, the oftener are they excited
to the remembrance of what they represent: that these images are to
be honored, but not with the worship called Latria, which can only
be given to God: that they shall be honored with incense and
candles, as the cross, the gospels, and other holy things are, all
according to the pious customs of the ancients. For the honor paid
to images, passes to the archetypes, or things represented, and he
who reveres the image reveres the person it represents. This the
council declared to be the doctrine of the fathers, and tradition of
the Catholic church.
2. Chrysos. Hom. 3. de Ozia, t. 6, p. 14. ed Ben.

ST. VICTORINUS, AND SIX COMPANIONS, MARTYRS.

From their genuine acts published from the Chaldaic by Monsignor Steph.
Assemani. Act. Mart. Occid. t. 2. p. 60. See also Henschenius on this
day.

A.D. 284.

THESE seven martyrs were citizens of Corinth, and confessed their faith
before Tertius the proconsul, in their own country, in 249, in the
beginning of the reign of Decius. After their torments they passed into
Egypt, whether by compulsion or by voluntary banishment is not known,
and there finished their martyrdom at Diospolis, capital of Thebais, in
the reign of Numerian, in 284, under the governor Sabinus. After the
governor had tried the constancy of the martyrs