Original Douay–Rheims AnnotationsActs 14
English College of Douai–Rheims
Read Acts 14 in the BibleActs 14:22
Had ordained.
The Heretics, to make the world believe that all Priests ought to be chosen by the voices of the people, and that they need no other Ordering or Consecration by Bishops, pressing the profane use of the [1] Greek word more than the very natural signification requireth and Ecclesiastical use beareth, translate thus, Ordained by election [2]. Whereas indeed this word in Scripture signifieth, Ordering by imposition of hands, as is plain by other words equivalent, Act. 6, 13. 1. Tim. 4. 5. 2. Tim. 1. Where the Ordering of Deacons, Priests, and others is called [3] Imposition of hands: not of the people, but of the Apostles. And this to be the Ecclesiastical use of the word, appeareth by S. Hierom [4] saying (as is before alleged) that χειροτονία is the Ordering of Clerks or Clergy men by prayer of voice and imposition of hand.
- 1 χειροτονήσαντες
- 2 Heretical translation against Holy Orders.
- 3 ἐπίθεσις τῶν χειρῶν.
- 4 Hiero. in 38. Esa.
Priests.
Even so here also, as before, fleeing from the proper, apt, & known word, which is most precisely correspondent to the very Greek in our tongue and all nations, [1] they translate for Priest, Elder, that is, for a calling of Office, a word of age: for a term of art and by consent of all the Church and Apostolic authority and Fathers, appropriated to Holy Order, a vulgar, common, and profane term: With all little grace as if they should translate Pontificem, a bridgemaker, the Maior of London, the Bigger of London. And thus you see within three words' compass they flee guilefully from the Latin to the Greek, and again guilefully from the Greek to the vulgar English. Such corruption of Scriptures their hatred of Priesthood driveth them unto. If they had translated it so when the Scriptures were first written, (at which time the word was but newly received into the special and Ecclesiastical signification, and when it was yet taken sometimes in common profane sort, as 1. Tim. 5. or there only where our ancient Latin version turneth Presbyter into Senior, because the word was not yet wholly and only appropriated to Holy Orders, as afterward by use of many hundred years it was and is) their dealing might have had some colour of honesty and plainness, which now cannot be but of plain falsehood and corruption, and that of further purpose than the simple can see. Which is to take away the office of Sacrificing and other functions of Priests, proper in the new Testament to such as the Apostles often, and the posterity in manner altogether call Priests, Presbyteros. Which word doth so certainly imply the authority of sacrificing, that it is by use made also the only English of Sacerdos, the Adversaries themselves as well as we, so translating it in all the old and new Testament: [2] though they cannot be ignorant that Priest cometh of Presbyter, and not of Sacerdos: and that antiquity for no other cause applied the signification of Presbyter to Sacerdos, but to shew that Presbyter is in the new Law, that which Sacerdos was in the old: the Apostles abstaining from this and other like old names at the first, and rather using the words, Bishops, Pastors, and Priests, because they might be distinguished from the Governors and sacrificers of Aaron's order, who as yet in the Apostles' time did their old functions still in the Temple. And this to be true, and that to be a Priest, is to be a man appointed to sacrifice, the Heretics themselves calling Sacerdos always a Priest, must needs be driven to confess. Although their folly is therein notorious, to apply willingly the word Priest to Sacerdos, and to take it from Presbyter whereof it is properly derived [3], not only in English, but in other languages both French and Italian. Which is to take away the name that the Apostles and fathers gave to the Priests of the Church, & to give it wholly & only to the order of Aaron, which never had it before our Priesthood began. Never did there Heretics stand so much upon doubtful derivations and descant of words as these Protestants do, and yet never men behaved themselves more fondly in the same: as whosoever marketh the distinction of their Elders, Ministers, Deacons, and such like, shall perceive.
- 1 Heretical translation against Priesthood.
- 2 If Sacerdos be Priest, much more Presbyter.
- 3 Presbyter. Priest. Prebstre. Preti.
Original Douay–Rheims Annotations — English College of Douai–Rheims. CC0 1.0
Acts 14:12
They would sacrifice.
[1] This lo is the divine worship, consisting in external sacrifice, and in acknowledging the parties worshipped to be gods: which [2] may be done to no man nor creature, and therefore the Apostles refuse it with all possible diligence, and all the Angels and Saints in heaven refuse that adoration by sacrifice. The Catholic Church suffereth no Priest nor other so to worship any Saint in heaven or earth. She hath but one external Sacrifice, which is in the holy Mass, of Christ's body and blood: that she offereth to God alone, and neither to Peter nor to Paul (saith S. Augustine [3] ) though the Priest that sacrificeth, standeth over their bodies, and offereth in their memories. [4] But other kinds of honours and duties, inferior without all comparison (how great so ever they be) to this, we do, as the Scriptures and Nature teach us, to all Superiors in heaven and earth, according to the degrees of grace, honour, and blessedness that God hath called them unto, from our B. Lady Christ's own mother, to the least servant he hath in the world. For which the Heretics would never accuse Christian people of Idolatry, if they had either grace, learning, faith, or natural affection.