javelin hurled with force, which he will never be able to pluck
out. Let Satan be overthrown in him, and Christ live.

FIFTH REASON

FATHERS

At Antioch, in which city the noble surname of Christians first
became common, there flourished _Doctors_, that is, eminent
theologians, and _Prophets_, that is, very celebrated preachers
(Acts xiii. 1). Of this sort were the scribes and wise men,
learned in the kingdom of God, bringing forth new things and old
(Matth. xiii. 52; xxiii. 34), knowing Christ and Moses, whom the
Lord promised to His future flock. What a wicked thing it is to
scout these teachers, given as they are by way of a mighty boon!
The adversary has scouted them. Why? Because their standing means
his fall. Having found that out for certain beyond doubt, I have
asked for a fight unqualified, not that sham-fight in which the
crowds in the street engage, and skirmish with one another, but
the earnest and keen struggle in which we join in the arena of
yon philosophers,

Foot to foot, and man close gripping man.

If ever we shall be allowed to turn to the Fathers, the battle is
lost and won: they are as thoroughly ours as is Gregory XIII.
himself, the loving Father of the children of the Church. To say
nothing of isolated passages, which are gathered from the records
of the ancients, apt and clear statements in defence of our
faith, we hold entire volumes of these Fathers, which professedly
illustrate in clear and abundant light the Gospel religion which
we defend. Take the twofold _Hierarchy_ of the martyr Dionysius,
what classes, what sacrifices, what rites does he teach? This
fact struck Luther so forcibly that he pronounced the works of
this Father to be "such stuff as dreams are made of, and that of
the most pernicious kind." In imitation of his parent, an obscure
Frenchman, Caussee, has not hesitated to call this Dionysius, the
Apostle of an illustrious nation, "an old dotard." Ignatius has
given grievous offence to the Centuriators of Magdeburg, as also
to Calvin, so that these men, the offscouring of mankind, have
noted in his works "unsightly blemishes and tasteless prosings."
In their judgment, Irenaeus has brought out "a fanatical
production": Clement, the author of the _Stromata_, has produced
"Tares and dregs": the other Fathers of this age, Apostolic men
to be sure, "have left blasphemies and monstrosities to
posterity." In Tertullian they eagerly seize upon what they have
learned from us,