FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   >>  
umstance of these controversies having been carried on in the Greek language has made the natives of Western Europe attribute them to a philosophic, speculative, and polemic spirit, inherent in the Hellenic mind. A very slight examination of history is sufficient to prove that several of the heresies which disturbed the Eastern Church had their origin in the more profound religious ideas of the oriental nations, and that many of the opinions called heretical were in a great measure expressions of the mental nationality of the Syrians, Armenians, Egyptians, and Persians, and had no conception whatever with the Greek mind.'--_Byzantine Empire, from 716 to 1057_, p. 262. The same writer (p. 263) remarks very truly, that 'the religious or theological portion of Popery, as a section of the Christian Church, is really Greek; and it is only the ecclesiastical, political, and theoretic peculiarities of the fabric which can be considered as the work of the Latin Church.' [14] Sir J. Fitzjames Stephen in the _Saturday Review_, Sept. 9, 1865, p. 334. [15] _Du Pape_, bk. i. c. i. p. 17. [16] _Ib._ bk. i. c. xix. pp. 124, 125. [17] _Ib._ bk. i. c. xvi. p. 111. [18] '_Il n'y a point de souverainete qui pour le bonheur des hommes, et pour le sien surtout, ne soit bornee de quelque maniere, mais dans l'interieur de ces bornes, placees comme il plait a Dieu, elle est toujours et partout absolue et tenue pour infaillible. Et quand je parle de l'exercice legitime de la souverainete, je n'entends point ou je ne dis point l'exercice_ juste, _ce qui produirait une amphibologie dangereuse, a moins que par ce dernier mot on ne veuille dire que tout ce qu'elle opine dans son cercle est_ juste ou tenu pour tel, _ce qui est la verite. C'est ainsi qu'un tribunal supreme, tant qu'il ne sort pas de ses attributions, est toujours juste_; car c'est la meme chose DANS LA PRATIQUE, d'etre infaillible, ou de se tromper sans appel.'--Bk. ii. c. xi. p. 212 (footnote). [19] Thomassin, the eminent French theologian, flourished from the middle to the end of the seventeenth century. The aim of his writings generally was to reconcile conflicting opinions on discipline or doctrine by exhibiting a true sense in all. In this spirit he wrote on the Pope and the Councils, and on the never-ending question of Grace. Among other things, he insisted that all languages could be traced to the Hebrew. He wrote a defence of the edict in which Lewis XIV. revo
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   >>  



Top keywords:

Church

 

infaillible

 

toujours

 

exercice

 
opinions
 

souverainete

 

spirit

 
religious
 

verite

 
cercle

tribunal

 

PRATIQUE

 
attributions
 

supreme

 

veuille

 
legitime
 

natives

 
entends
 

Western

 

absolue


Europe

 

language

 

dernier

 
dangereuse
 

carried

 

produirait

 

amphibologie

 

Councils

 

ending

 

question


umstance

 

controversies

 

defence

 

Hebrew

 

insisted

 

things

 
languages
 
traced
 
exhibiting
 

Thomassin


eminent
 

French

 

theologian

 

footnote

 

partout

 

flourished

 

middle

 

reconcile

 

conflicting

 

discipline