Original Douay–Rheims Annotations1 Timothy 4

Shall depart.

^[1] It is the proper description of Heretics, to forsake their former faith, and to be Apostates, as the Greek word ^[2] importeth: to give ear to particular spirits of error & deception, rather than to the Spirit of Christ in his Church, to follow in hypocrisy and shew of virtue the pernicious doctrine of Devils, who are the suggesters and prompters of all Sects, and are lying spirits in the mouths of all Heretics and false preachers: men that have put their conscience to silence and made it senseless to the holy Church's admonition: the Apostle noting ^[3] once before also in this same Epistle, that Heretics have no conscience, which is the cause both of their fall and of their obduration in heresy.

• 1 All Heretics are apostates from the faith.
• 2 ἀποστήσονται
• 3 cap. 1, 19.

Forbidding to marry.

^[1] He speaketh (saith S. Chrysostom) of the Manichees, Encratites, and Marcionists. ho. 12 in 1. Tim. S. Ambrose upon this place, addeth to these the Patricians also. S. Irenæus li. 1. c. 30. S. Epiphanius hær. 45. 26. 61. 30. S. Hierom 1. cont. Iovin. c. 1. & ep. 50. c. 1. & 3. S. Augustine hær. 25. 40. and generally all antiquity affirm the same both of them, and also of the Heretics called Apostolici, Ebionitæ, and the like. Their heresy about marriage was, that to marry or to use the act of matrimony, is of Satan, as S. Irenæus witnesseth li. 1. c. 22: and that the distinction of male and female, and the creation of man and woman for generation, came of an ill God. They taught their hearers, ^[2] saith S. Augustine, that if they did use women, they should in any wise provide that they might not conceive or bear children. Clemens Alexandrinus (li. 3. Strom. in principio ) writeth, that such admit no marriage nor procreation of children, lest they should bring into the world creatures to suffer misery and mortality. And this is the damnable opinion concerning marriage, noted here by the Apostle.

• 1 The old Heresies against matrimony.
• 2 * Aug. hær. 46.

^[1] For the second point consisting in the prohibition of meats or use of certain creatures made to be eaten, the said Heretics or diverse of them (for they were not all of one sect touching these points) taught, that men might not eat certain sorts of meats, specially of beasts and living creatures, for that they were not made (say they) of the good God, but of the evil. And wine they called the gall of the Prince of darkness, and not to be drunk at all, and the Vine whereof it came, to be of the Devil's creation. And diverse other creatures they condemned as things by nature and creation polluted and abominable. August. hær. Manich. 46. & hær. 25. Tatian. & toto libro de mor. Manich. to. 1. Lo these were the Heretics and their heresies which S. Paul here prophesieth of, that forbid marriage and meats as you have heard, for which they and their followers were condemned in diverse Councels. ^[2]

• 1 The old Heresies about abstinence from meats.
• 2 The Catholics impudently charged with the said old heresies.

Is it not now an intolerable impudency of the Protestants, who for a small similitude of words in the ears of the simple, applythis text to the fasts of the Church, and the chastity of Priests and Religious? ^[1] As though either by appointing or using some days of abstinence from certain meats, the Church or any Catholic man condemned the said meats. unless the Rechabites Hierem. 35. or the Nazarites Num. 6. or the Ninivites Ion. 3. or Moyses Exod. 34. or Elias 3. Reg. 19. or holy Anna the widow Luc. 2. or John Baptist Mat. 3. & 9. or Christ himself Mt. 4. commending, using, and following a prescript number of fasting-days, or God himself that in the very beginning, in Paradise, prescribed abstinence from the fruit of one certain tree, and after appointed so many fasts in the Law, unless he therefore, condemned his own creatures, & the rest, those creatures from which they abstained. No, ^[2] there be many good and lawful causes to forbid some, or to abstain from some meats: as, for obedience, as in Paradise: for signification, as the Jews: for that they have been offered to idols, as in the Epistle to the Corinthians: for chastening the body and penance, for health also: and only those causes are unlawful for which the Manichees and other Heretics abstained.

• 1 Abstinence from certain meats is no condemnation of the meats.
• 2 Diverse good causes of abstinence.

^[1] Concerning marriage likewise, they may as well charge God or the Church for forbidding the father to marry the daughter, or the brother the sister, or other prohibited persons in the Law: as well might they charge Christ and the Apostle for prohibiting the man to marry, during his wife's life: and appointing widows that serve the Church, to live unmarried, and not admitting a married Woman as well as a widow, nor her that hath had more husbands, as well as her that hath been married but once: as they charge the Church for not admitting married persons to the altar, and for forcing them & Religious persons to keep their promise of chastity. No, ^[2] the holy Church is so far from condemning wedlock, that she honoureth it much more than the Protestants, accounting it an holy Sacrament, which they do not, who only use it to lust as the Heathen do, and not to religion.

• 1 Forbidding certain persons to marry is no condemnation of matrimony.
• 2 Catholics esteem matrimony more than the Protestants do.

But it is an old deceitful practice of Heretics to charge Catholic men with old condemned heresies. The Eutychians slandered the Councel of Chalcedon and S. Leo to be Nestorians, and to make two persons in Christ, because they said there were two natures. Vigilius li. 5. cont. Eutychen. Arius charged Alexander his Bishop of Sabellianism, for avouching the unity of substance in Trinity. Socrat. li. 1. c. 3. Iulianus accused S. Augustine of the heresy of Apollinaris. li. 5. cont. Iulian. c. 15. Other Pelagians challenged him for condemning marriage. Retract. li. 2. c. 53. And that our Protestants brag not too much of their goodly invention, Iovinian the old Heretic, their Master in this point, accused ^[1] the holy doctors and Catholics upon this same place, to be Manichees, and to condemn meats and marriage, ^[2] as both S. Hierom and S. Augustine do testify. And they both answer to the Heretic, that the Church indeed & Catholics do abstain from some for ever, and some for certain days, and every Christian man lightly all the 40 days of Lent fast: not for that they think the meats unclean, abominable, or of an ill creation, as the Manichees do: but for punishment of their bodies and taming their concupiscences: Hiero. li. 2. cont. Iovin. c. 11. Aug. cont. Adimantum c. 14. Li. de mor. Cath. Ec. Hiero. in C. 4. ad Galat. And as for marriage, the said Doctors answer, that no Catholic man condemneth it for unlawful, as the old Heretics did, but only preferreth virginity and continency before it, as a state in it-self more agreeable to God and more meet for the Clergy. See S. Augustine against Faustus the Manichee li. 30. c. 5. 6. and hær. 25. in the name, Apostolici. S. Hierom ep. 50. c. 1. & 3. All this the Catholics continually tell the Adversaries, and they cannot but see it. Yet by accustomed audacity and impudency they bear it out still.

• 1 * Aug. li. 2. c. 5. de nupt. & concupisc.
• 2 The Protestants' objections answered long ago by S. Hierom and S. Augustine.

With thanks-giving.

^[1] By the most ancient custom of the faithful both before Christ and sithence, men use to bless their table and meats, by the hand and word of a Priest, if any be present, otherwise by such as can conveniently do it. And in husbandmen's houses where they have no other means, they should at least bless God's gifts and themselves with a Pater noster or the sign of the Cross: not only to acknowledge from whom they have their continual sustenance, but also to bless their meat and sanctify it. For the Greek word ^[2] used of S. Paul, by Ecclesiastical use, when it concerneth meats, signifieth not only thanks-giving, but blessing or sanctifying the creatures to be received, as being all one with ἐυλογία, and in English we call it grace, not only that after meat, which is only thanks to God, but that before meat, which is always a benediction of the creatures, as it is plain in the prescript and usual forms of grace. For which cause a Priest should ever do it rather than a lay man or any of inferior order in the Clergy. In so much that S. Hierom (ep. 85.) reprehendeth certain Deacons whom he saw say grace or bless the meat and the company, in the presence of a Priest ^[3]. Who also recordeth (in the life of S. Paul the holy Eremite) the great courtesy and humility of him and S. Antony, yielding one to the other the preeminence of blessing their poor dinner. For to bless is a great thing, and a Priestly prerogative, as the Apostle witnesseth ^[4], declaring the preeminence of Melchisedec in that he blessed Abraham. Read the note following.

• 1 Blessng of the table or of meats, specially by a Priest.
• 2 μετὰ ἐυχαριςίας.
• 3 To bless is a preeminence of the better person.
• 4 Hebr. 7.

Sanctified.

^[1] All creatures be of God's creation, none of the Devil, or of any other cause and beginning, as the Manichees blasphemed: and therefore none are ill, abominable, or unclean by creation, nature, and condition, but all good and made for man's use, though all be not alike holy nor equally sanctified. God made seven days, but he sanctified only one of them. He made all places, but he sanctified none but the Temple and such like deputed to his service, as the Ark, the altar, and the rest which were by sacred use both holy themselves, and gave also holiness and sanctification to things that touched them or were applied unto them. ^[2] So our Saviour saith ^[3], that the Temple sanctified the gold, and the altar the gift, and generally all creatures severed from common and profane use, to religion and worship of God, are made sacred thereby. So the places and days of God's apparition or working some special wonders or benefits toward the people, were holy, as Bethel, Sinai, and others. And much more those times and places of Christ's Nativity, Passion, burial, Resurrection, Ascension: which is so plain a case, that the hill where he was transfigured only, is called thereof by S. Peter, the holy mount. ^[4]

• 1 No creature ill by nature, yet one more sanctified than another.
• 2 Holy times and places, & every thing deputed to the service of God, holy.
• 3 Mat. 23.
• 4 2. Pet. 1.

These therefore be holy memories and monuments of all sorts sanctified, besides that creatures (as we see here) be sanctified also by the word of God and prayer, that is to say, by benediction & invocation of our Lord's holy name upon them, specially by the sign of the Cross ^[1], as S. Chrysostom noteth on this place, ho. 12 in 1. ad Tim. by the which the adversary power of Satan usurping unjustly upon God's creatures through man's sin, and seeking deceitfully in or by the same to annoy man's body or soul, is expelled, and the meats purged from him and made wholesome. S. Gregory (li. 1. Dialog. c. 4) recordeth that the Devil entered into a certain religious woman by eating the herb lettuce unblessed ^[2]. And S. Augustine li. 18. de civ. Dei c. 18. sheweth at large, what ways he hath by meats and drinks and other usual creatures of God, to annoy men: though his power be much less than it was before Christ, but still much desire he hath on all sides to molest the faithful by abusing the things most near and necessary unto them, to their hurt both bodily and Ghostly. For remedy whereof, this sanctification which the Apostle speaketh of, is very sovereign, pertaining not only to this common and more vulgar benediction of our meats and drinks, but much more (as the propriety of the Greek word ^[3] used by the Apostle for sanctification, doth import) to other more exact sanctifying and higher applying of some creatures, and blessing them to Christ's honour in the Church of God, and to man's spiritual and corporal benefits.

• 1 Creatures hallowed by the sign of the Cross.
• 2 The blessing of our meat what a virtue it hath.
• 3 ἁγιάζεται

For as S. Augustine writeth li. 2. de pec. merit. c. 26. besides this usual blessing of our daily food, the Cathecumens (that is, such as were taught toward Baptism) are sanctified by the sign of the Cross, ^[1] and the bread (saith he) which they receive, though it be not the body of Christ, yet is holy, and more holy than the usual bread of the table. He meaneth a kind of bread then hallowed, specially for such as were not yet admitted to the B. Sacrament: either the same, or the like to our holy bread, used in the Church of England and France on Sundays. And it was a common use in the primitive Church to bless loaves, and send them for sacred tokens from one Christian man to another, and that not among the simple and superstitious (as the Adversaries may imagine) but among the holiest, learnedst, and wisest. ^[2] Such hallowed breads did S. Paulinus send to S. Augustine and Alipius, and they to him again, calling them blessings. Read S. Hierom in the life of Hilarion (post medium:) how Princes and learned Bishops & other of all sorts came to that holy man for holy bread, panem benedictum. In the primitive Church the people commonly brought bread to the Priests to be hallowed. Author op. imp. ho. 14. in Mt. The 3. Councel of Carthage cap. 24. maketh mention of the blessing of milk, honey, grapes, and corn. See the 4 Canon of the Apostles. And not only diverse other creatures used at certain times in holy Church's service, as wax, fire, palms, ashes, but also the holy oil, Chrism, and the water of Baptism, that also which is the chief of all Priestly blessing of creatures, the bread and wine in the high Sacrifice, be sanctified. For without sanctification, ^[3] yea (as S. Augustine affirmeth tract. 118. in Joan. ) without the sign of the Cross, none of these things can rightly be done.

• 1 Holy bread.
• 2 August. ep. 31. 34. 35. 36.
• 3 The sign of the cross used in blessing.

Can any man now marvel that the Church of God by this warrant of S. Paul's word expounded by so long practice and tradition of the first Fathers of our religion, doth use diverse elements and bless them for man's use and the service of God, ^[1] expelling by the invocation of Christ's name, the adversary power from them, according to the authority given by Christ, ^[2] Super omnia dæmonia, over all Devils: and by prayer, which importeth as the Apostle here speaketh, desire of help, as it were by the virtue of Christ, to combat with the Devil, and so to expel him out of God's creatures, which is done by holy exorcism, and ever beginneth, Adiutorium nostrum in nomine Domini, as we see in the blessing of holy water and the like sanctification of elements? Which exorcisms, namely of children before they come to Baptism, see in S. Augustine li. 6. cont. Iulian. c. 5. & de Ec. dogmat. c. 31. De nupt. & concupis. li. 1. c. 20. ^[3] and of holy water, that hath been used these 1400 years in the Church by the institution of Alexander the first, in all Christian countries, and of the force thereof against Devils, see a famous history in Theodorete li. 5. c. 21. & in Epiphanius hær. 30. Ebionitarum. See S. Gregory to S. Augustine our Apostle, of the use thereof in hallowing the Idolatrous temples to be made the Churches of Christ. apud Bedam li. 1. c. 30. hist. Angl. ^[4] Remember how the Prophet Eliseus applied salt to the healing and purifying of waters, 4. Reg. 2: how the Angel Raphael used the liver of the fish to drive away the Devil, Tob. 6. 8: how David's harp and Psalmody kept the evil spirit from Saul, 1. Reg. 16: ^[5] how a piece of the holy earth saved such a man's chamber from infestation of Devils, August. de Civit. Dei li. 22. c. 8: how Christ himself, both in Sacraments, & out of them, occupied diverse sanctified elements, some for the health of the body, some for grace and remission of sins, and some to work miracles by. See in S. Hierom against Vigilantius c. 2. How holy ^[6] Relics torment them. ^[7] In the history of Iulianus the Apostata, how the sign of ^[8] the Cross: in the Acts (cap. 19.) how ^[9] the name of Jesus yea and of Paul putteth them to flight.

• 1 The Church's exorcisms.
• 2 Luc. 9.
• 3 Holy water.
• 4 The force of sanctified creatures.
• 5 The holy land.
• 6 Relics.
• 7 Theodoret. li. 3. c. 3.
• 8 The cross.
• 9 The name of JESUS.

Furnish yourselves with such examples and grounds of Scriptures and antiquity, and you shall contemn the Adversaries' cavillations and blasphemies against the Church's practice in such things, and further also find these sacred actions and creatures, not only by increase of faith, fervour, and devotion, to purge the impurity of our souls, and procure remission of our daily infirmities, but that the chief Ministers of Christ's Church, by their sovereign authority granted of our Lord, may join unto the same, their blessing and ^[1] remission of our venial sins or spiritual debts: as we see in S. James ^[2], remission of all sins to be annexed to the unction with holy oil, which to the Catholics is a Sacrament, but to the Protestants was but a temporal ceremony, and to some of them not of Christ's institution, but of the Apostles' only. In their own sense therefore they should not marvel that such spiritual effects should proceed of the use of sanctified creatures, whereas venial trespasses be remitted many ways, though mortal ordinarily by the Sacraments only. ^[3] S. Gregory did commonly send his benediction and remission of sins, in and with such holy tokens as were sanctified by his blessing and touching of the Apostles' bodies and Martyrs' Relics, as now his successors do in the like hallowed remembrances of religion. See his 7. book, epistle 126: and 9. book, epistle 60. Thus therefore and to the effects aforesaid the creatures of God be sanctified.

^◦

If any man object that this use of creatures is like conjuration in Necromancy, he must know the difference is, that in the Church's sanctifications and exocisms, the Devils be commanded, forced, and tormented by Christ's word and by prayers: but in the other wicked practices, they be pleased, honoured, and covenanted withal: and therefore the first is godly and according to the Scriptures, but Necromancy abominable and against the Scriptures.

• 1 Remission of venial sins annexed to hallowed creatures.
• 2 Ia. c. 5.
• 3 S. Gregory.
• ◦ The difference between the Church's exorcisms & other conjurations.

The grace.

^◦ S. Augustine declareth this grace to be the gift of the Holy Ghost given unto him by receiving this Holy Order, whereby he was made fit to execute the office to his own salvation and other men's. And note withal, that grace is not only given in or with the Sacraments, by the receiver's faith or devotion, but by the Sacrament, per impositionem, by imposition of hands. for so he speaketh 2. Tim. 1. Which is here said, cum impositione, with imposition.

• ◦ Grace given in the Sacrament of Orders.

With imposition.

^[1] S. Ambrose upon this place, implieth in the word Imposition of hands, all the holy action and sacred words done and spoken over him when he was made Priest. Whereby (saith he) he was designed to the work, and received authority, that he durst offer sacrifice in our Lord's stead unto God. So doth the holy Doctor allude unto the words that are said now also in the Catholic Church to him that is made Priest: Accipe potestatem offerendi pro vivis & mortuis in nomine Domini. that is, Take or receive thou authority to offer for the living and the dead in the name of our Lord. For the which S. Hierom ^[2] also (as is noted before) saith, that the ordering of Priests is, by imposition of hands and imprecation of voice.

• 1 Consecration of Priests by imposition of hands.
• 2 In Esa. c. 58.

Of Priesthood.

^[1] The practice of the Church giveth us the sense of this place, which the ancient Councel of Carthage ^[2] doth thus set down. When a Priest taketh orders, the Bishop blessing him and holding his hand upon his head, let all the Priests present lay also their hands on his head by the Bishop's hands &c. Who seeth not now, that Holy Orders giving grace by an external ceremony and work, is a Sacrament? So all the old Church counteth it. And S. Augustine (cont. ep. Parmen. li. 2. c. 13.) plainly saith that no man doubteth but it is a Sacrament. And lest any man think that he useth not the word Sacrament properly and precisely, he joineth it in nature and name with Baptism. Again who seeth not by this use of imposition of hands in giving Orders and other Sacraments, that Christ, the Apostles, and the Church may borrow of the Jewish rites, certain convenient ceremonies and Sacramental actions, seeing this same (as ^[3] the Heretics cannot deny) was received of the manner of Ordering Aaron and the Priests of the old law or other heads of the people? See Exod. 39. Num. 27. 23.

• 1 Holy Orders a Sacrament.
• 2 Conc. Carth. 4. c. 3.
• 3 Beza in cap. 6. Act.

Save both thyself.

^◦ Though Christ be our only Saviour, yet the Scriptures forbear not to speak freely and vulgarly and in a true sense, that man also may save himself and others. But the protestants notwithstanding follow such a captious kind of Divinity that if a man speak any such thing of our Lady or any Saint in heaven, or other mean of procuring salvation, they make it a derogation to Christ's honour. With such hypocrites have we now a days to do.

• ◦ Men also are called saviors without derogation to Christ.