Timelines of the English Reformation: Edward VI and the Edwardine Reformation

1537: King Edward VI is born, the son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour.

1547: Henry dies; Edward ascends the English Throne.

1547: The Privy Council, and Somerset and the Duke of Northumberland take control of the nation and impose Calvinist doctrine on the Church of England; they establish an Erastian civil and ecclesiastical government.

The Book of Homilies and the Injunctions of Thomas Cranmer are published – they condemn many ancient, traditional practices and doctrines, including use of pictures and statues, and forbid candles except for two before the Blessed Sacrament in the church building.

The Great Bible of 1535 and the biblical paraphrase of Erasmus are required to be placed in every parish church.

The Epistle and Gospel must be sung in English during High Masses.

1547:  The Acts of Parliament –

Legal penalties are imposed on those who speak irreverently of the Blessed Sacrament.

Holy Communion must be given in both kinds.

The royal nomination of bishops is eliminated – letters patent are used instead.

The Lollard heresy laws are repealed – the followers of John Wycliffe are permitted openly to profess their religious beliefs, which are: personal faith alone justifies for salvation, divine election and predestination, sola Scriptura, individual interpretation of the Bible alone suffices for the explication of Scripture, a denial of the Real Presence, the priesthood, and the hierarchy, and a belief that the validity of sacraments depends on the personal holiness or worthiness of the minister (Donatism).

The Six Articles of Henry VIII are repealed.

1548:  The Proclamations of the Privy Council  –

A number of ceremonies are banned, including ashes, palms, holy water, processions.

All sacred images are abolished.

The Order of Communion in English (1548) is required to be used at Mass: at this time the Mass is still celebrated in Latin according to the Sarum Use. The Order is the first Eucharistic rite in English during the English Reformation.

Holy Communion in both kinds is reinforced.

Clerical Marriage is recognised by law.

1549: The Act of Uniformity

The First Book of Common Prayer is created and imposed by penal legislation. The entire reformed liturgical rite of the Church of England is promulgated in the vernacular in one book, a first in English history.

1550: The Anglican Ordinal is created and imposed by penal legislation. It perpetuates the Three Sacred Orders of the Apostolic Ministry, Bishops, Priests and Deacons. (This rite is condemned as sacramentally invalid by the Roman Pope Leo XIII in 1896, but recognised as valid by the Patriarch of Constantinople in 1922). 

1550: The destruction of stone altars and their substitution with wooden altars is enforced by Bishop Ridley of London.

1552: A second, more Calvinist edition of the Book of Common Prayer is imposed without parliamentary or Convocation approval.

1553: The Forty-Two Articles are imposed on Church of England, along with a new Catechism and Primer of a decidedly reformed protestant orientation.

A royal mandate requires all clergy, schoolmasters and university members upon taking degrees to subscribe to the XLII Articles. They are written by Thomas Cranmer, but never receive the consent of Convocation and are never enforced by law.

The Forty-Two Articles of 1553 have four additional articles of an eschatological nature, namely on the resurrection of the dead, on the condition of the souls of the departed, on the millenarian heresy, and on eternal damnation of the wicked. All four were dropped at the revision of 1563 which produced the Thirty-Eight Articles. The addition of article XXIX on the manducatio impiorum achieved the final number of the XXXIX Articles of the Church of England.

In 1563, Convocation met under Archbishop Matthew Parker to revise the Articles. Convocation passed only 39 of the 42, and Queen Elizabeth I reduced the number to 38 by throwing out Article XXIX. In 1571, the 29th Article, despite the opposition of Bishop Edmund Guest, author of Article XXVIII, was inserted. The language of Article XXIX is based on the writings of Saint Augustine.

 1553: King Edward dies - bringing his Reformation, the most radical phase of the English Reformation, to an end. 

Timelines of the English Reformation: Henry VIII and the Henrician Reformation

From our current class at Saint Barnabas Dunwoody, every Thursday following the 7pm Eucharist.

1521: King Henry VIII granted title Defensor Fidei, Defender of the Faith, by Pope Leo X.

1527: King Henry decides to divorce his wife Catherine of Aragon, widow of his brother Arthur, for which marriage Henry had received special dispensation from Rome – the Pope is imprisoned by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Catherine’s nephew.

1529: Seeking a male heir, King Henry resolves to repudiate papal authority, moves to divorce Catherine of Aragon by seeking judgements of invalidity of the marriage from university scholars abroad.

1530: The Clergy are forced to recognise Royal Supremacy in Convocation.

1532: A Common’s Petition for Royal Supremacy and the Submission of the Clergy acts are passed; acts opposing taxes, annates and first fruits sent to the See of Rome, are passed in Convocation.

1533: Thomas Cranmer consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury with papal approval; appeals to Rome outlawed; Archbishop Cranmer declares Henry’s marriage to Catherine invalid. Henry marries Anne Boleyn; Anne crowned Queen; the Pope excommunicates Henry and declares his marriage to Anne invalid.

1534: Parliament passes the Act for Submission of the Clergy, revises the regulation of church appointments, and forbids ecclesiastical appeals to Rome; it forbids payment of Peter’s pence; canonical dispensation powers are transferred to the See of Canterbury from the See of Rome: the Royal Supremacy is enacted. The oath of royal succession and royal supremacy are required. The royal succession given to Anne’s children, not Catherine’s.

1535: Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher refuse the oaths and are executed by the King.

1536-1539: the Dissolution of the Monasteries; the transfer of wealth to the monarchy; six new Dioceses created, Westminster, Gloucester, Peterborough, Oxford, Chester, Bristol; the Pilgrimage of Grace in the north is suppressed.

1536: The Ten Articles accepted by the Church of England:

1. That Holy Scriptures and the three Creeds are the basis and summary of a true Christian faith, reasserting the binding authority of the Bible, the three Ecumenical Creeds, and the first Four Ecumenical Councils.

2. That baptism conveys remission of sins and the regenerating grace of the Holy Spirit, and is absolutely necessary as well for children as adults, reasserting the necessity of baptism for salvation, even in the case of infants. Article II states that 'infants ought to be baptized;' that, dying in infancy, they 'shall undoubtedly be saved thereby, and else not; the opinions of Anabaptists and Pelagians are 'detestable heresies, and utterly to be condemned.'

3. That Penance consists of contrition, confession, and reformation, and is necessary to salvation, reasserting the Sacrament of Penance, with confession and absolution - which are declared 'expedient and necessary.'

4. That the Body and Blood of Christ are really present in the elements of the Eucharist, reasserting the substantial, real, corporal presence of Christ's Body and Blood under the form of bread and wine.

5. That justification is remission of sin and reconciliation to God by the merits of Christ; but good works are necessary, reasserting justification by faith, joined with charity and obedience.

6. That images are useful as reminders, but are not objects of worship, reasserting the use of images in churches.

7. That saints are to be honoured as examples of life, and as furthering our prayers, reasserting the veneration of the saints and the Blessed Virgin Mary.

8. That saints may be invoked as intercessors, and their holy days observed, reasserting the invocation of saints.

9. That ceremonies are to be observed for the sake of their mystical signification, and as conducive to devotion, reasserting the observance of various rites and ceremonies as good and laudable, such as clerical vestments, sprinkling of holy water, bearing of candles on Candlemas, and imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday.

10. That prayers for the faithful departed are good and useful, but the efficacy of papal pardon, and of Masses offered at certain localities, is rejected, reasserting prayers for the dead.

1538: English Bibles are set in Churches.

1539: The Six Articles are accepted by the Church of England.

1. The doctrine of transubstantiation. Those denying this were to be burnt.

2. The reasonableness of withholding of the Cup from the laity - Holy Communion in both kinds is unnecessary.

3. Clerical celibacy, priests ought not to marry.

4. Observance of vows of chastity: the vows of chastity ought to be observed in both sexes.

5. Permission for private Masses: private Masses are allowable.

6. The importance and necessity of auricular Confession.

If Articles II through VI were impeached, the penalties were, for the first offence, confiscation of property, and for the second, execution as a felon. 

1543: The requirement and authorisation of the Use of Sarum as the liturgical rite for the Province of Canterbury; the King’s Book is promulgated.

The Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for Any Christian Man, also known as the King's Book, was published in 1543, and attributed to Henry VIII. It was a revision of The Institution of the Christian Man, and defended transubstantiation and the Six Articles. It also encouraged preaching and condemned the wrong use of images.

1544: The English Litany is promulgated to be used throughout the Church of England, the first English language liturgy officially authorised in the Reformation.

It contains three invocations of saints:

Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of God our Saviour Jesus Christ, pray for us

All holy Angels and Archangels and all holy orders of blessed spirits, pray for us.

All holy patriarchs, and Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, and Virgins, and all the blessed company of heaven, pray for us.

1545: Chantries in the Church of England are suppressed.

The Christians of Egypt

The Altar Screen of Saint Mary's Coptic Church, the 'Hanging Church,' in Cairo, 

which your blogger visited in 2010.

Let us pray for all the Christians of Egypt, especially the Copts, members of the ancient Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, the Church organised by Saint Mark the Evangelist, and the Anglicans, members of the Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa of the Episcopal Church of Jerusalem and the Middle East, upon whom violent persecution has once more descended. 

O MERCIFUL God, and heavenly Father, who hast taught us in thy holy Word that thou dost not willingly afflict or grieve the children of men; Look with pity, we beseech thee, upon the sorrows of thy servants for whom our prayers are offered. Remember them, O Lord, in mercy; endue their souls with patience; comfort them with a sense of thy goodness; lift up thy countenance upon them, and give them peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Blessed Virgin Mary on 15th August

In the month of August, traditional Christians venerate the holy memory of the one called by God to be His human Mother in the Incarnation, the one by whose faith became the image and prototype of the Church, the humble Handmaid of the Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary. Mary ‘heard the Word of God and kept it’… in her womb and in her mind. By faith and the Holy Ghost, she conceived the Word of God through her ear and in her heart even before she conceived Him in her body. We rightly emphasise the virginal motherhood of Mary, because it was from her that the Second Person of the Holy Trinity assumed human nature and was made Man for our salvation; but we should never fail to remember that Mary became the Mother of God, the New Eve and the Throne and Temple of the Incarnate Lord because she first believed in her Son, Jesus Christ. And by believing in virginal purity, she forever personifies, exemplifies and signifies that Church which is comprised of all those who believe and are baptised into the Eternal Son of God.

The greatest theologian and Church Father of Western Christendom is undoubtedly Saint Augustine of Hippo, the 4^th century bishop, teacher, scholar and pastor. Let us with eager eyes and souls observe what he has to say about the Woman, the Mother of all the living, who was the first to hear and receive the Gospel - from the Archangel, and was the first to believe in Jesus Christ, setting the pattern and model for all Christian discipleship throughout the ages:

‘How could Jesus Christ cease being God, when He began to be Man, who granted to His Mother that she did not cease to be a Virgin when she gave birth? The Virgin Mother brought forth Him by whom she herself was created, through her fertile womb and her intact childbirth: thus it befitted God to be born…

More blessed is Mary through perceiving the faith of Christ than through conceiving His flesh. The maternal relationship would have been of no profit to Mary, if she had not more happily borne Christ in her heart than in her womb, for Him whom Mary had brought forth by believing, she also had conceived by believing. Should the Virgin Mary not have done the will of the Father, she who by faith believed, by faith conceived, who was the chosen one from whom our salvation should be born among men, who was created by Christ before Christ was created in her? Indeed, the holy Mary obviously did the will of the Father: and therefore it is greater for Mary to have been Christ’s disciple than to have been His Mother. The truth of Christ is in the mind of Mary, the flesh of Christ in her womb; greater is what she bears in her mind than what she bears in her womb…

Holy is Mary, blessed is Mary, yet better is the Church than the Virgin Mary. Why? Because Mary is a part of the Church, a holy member, an excellent member a super-eminent member – yet but a member of the whole Body. If of the whole body, surely more is the body than the member. The Head is the Lord, and the whole Christ is both head and body. Consider how the Church is obviously the bride of Christ; and, what is more difficult to understand, yet true, how the Church is the mother of Christ. As her type has the Virgin Mary preceded her. Whence, I ask you, is Mary the Mother of Christ, if not because she gave birth to the members of Christ? You, to whom I speak, are the members of Christ – who has given birth to you? I hear the voice of your heart: Mother Church. This mother is holy, honoured, similar to Mary, she brings forth and is yet a virgin. That she brings forth I prove through you; for you are born from her; the Church also brings forth Christ, for you are the members of Christ. Let the members of Christ give birth in mind, as Mary, as a Virgin, gave birth to Him in her womb, and thus will you be mothers of Christ…

How do you not also belong to the childbirth of the Virgin, when you are members of Christ? Mary gave birth to your Head, the Church to you. For the Church too is both mother and virgin; mother through her charity, virgin through the integrity of her faith and piety. She gives birth to nations, but they are members of the One whose body and bride she is herself, and in this bears likeness to that Virgin Mary, because she too is the mother of unity in the many. The Church could not be virgin, if she had not found her Spouse to whom she was to be given.’

Please join us on Thursday 15^th August at 7pm as we offer our respect and reverence for the Theotokos, the God-Bearer, the first believer in Christ, the first member of the Church, the first Christian, the first exemplar of the evangelical life, the one described in the first Anglican Prayer Book as ‘the glorious and most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ our Lord and God.’

God bless you!

The Seventh Ecumenical Council in Orthodox Anglicanism

A reposting of various previous thoughts...

Regarding the Anglican Article of Religion XXII: there is a false doctrine of 'purgatory' and a true biblical and orthodox doctrine of the intermediate state, just as there is a false doctrine of pardons, worshipping, adoration, images and relics, and there is a true biblical and patristic doctrine of pardons, worshipping, adoration, images and relics. The things in themselves are obviously not condemned (for who would condemn, for example, the biblical doctrines of worship, adoration or pardon) but only the abuses and false understandings of the same. 

Post-1977, Continuing Anglicans have a tendency to affirm the classical Anglo-Catholic position that the Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church bear an equal catholicity and consentient authority for the whole Universal Church today, but that position only emerged after centuries of careful reflection and theological development in Anglicanism. I agree with the 'Seven Council' position, obviously, and we are all indebted to our Caroline Divine, Non-Juring and Tractarian forbears for it - but it must be admitted that that position took time to develop.

The 19th Canon of 1571, promulgated by Queen Elizabeth I, asserts very succinctly the authority of the Fathers and Councils in a general way: 'let preachers take care that they never teach anything... except what is agreeable to the doctrine of the Old and New Testament, and what the Catholic Fathers and and ancient Bishops have collected from the same doctrine.' 

This is a typical Anglican approach to the subject.

A modern version of this basic recourse to ecumenical consensus is found in the Canon Law of the Church of England and the text of the liturgy entitled Common Worship:

The Church of England is part of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, worshipping the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It professes the faith uniquely revealed in the Holy Scriptures and set forth in the catholic creeds, which faith the Church is called upon to proclaim afresh in each generation. Led by the Holy Spirit, it has borne witness to Christian truth in its historic formularies, the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, The Book of Common Prayer and the Ordering of Bishops, Priests and Deacons. 

I, AB, do so affirm, and accordingly declare my belief in the faith which is revealed in the Holy Scriptures and set forth in the catholic creeds and to which the historic formularies of the Church of England bear witness; and in public prayer and administration of the sacraments, I will use only the forms of service which are authorized or allowed by Canon. 

More specific references to the authority or number of the General Councils, outside of Articles XX and XXI , are of a particular and more individual kind, arising from the theological teaching of divines and theologians. It is rare to find an explicit reference in Anglicanism to the unconditional acceptance of all Seven Ecumenical Councils, dogmatically or canonically, beyond the statements of individual Anglican bishops and writers - with the sole exception of the Affirmation of Saint Louis. We indeed and absolutely believe all Seven Councils are truly ecumenical and catholic - on the basis of the received Tradition of the ancient Undivided Church of East and West, a Tradition which has never been completely comprehended by the Anglican formularies or Canons, a Tradition which was never intended to be fully explicated by the local and provincial formularies of the Catholic Church of the British Provinces. The Anglican formularies address only particular critical theological and disciplinary concerns of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and that certainly by design. Behind them, however, stands the universal authority of the Holy and Apostolic Tradition, which did not have to be rehashed or redebated by Anglican Catholics.

Conside this quote from Dr Bill Tighe: '...despite the fact that advocates of all sides to the 16th-century religious conflict, Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed alike, were given to claiming that their particular doctrinal stances and, in some cases, distinctive practices, were in accord with those of the Early Church Fathers, or at least with those of high standing (such as St. Augustine), none [but Anglicanism] were willing to require, or even permit, their confessional stances to be judged by, or subordinated to, a hypothetical ‘patristic consensus’ of the first four or five centuries of Christianity.' But Anglicanism most certainly did, and does so to this day.

Dr CB Moss' excellent study, The Church of England and the Seventh Council, is an essential read for anyone interested in this controverted area of theology.

On the matter of the reception of the General Councils in the Anglican Communion (from the days of her orthodoxy) we should say that the Church of England, as a true part of the Catholic Church, never rejected any of the Seven Ecumenical Councils and evidently felt she had no need to comment, negatively or positively, on a point of received Tradition that was certainly considered by all Catholic Churches a settled point of dogma. She is a 'Church of the Apostles and Fathers' after all! The Church of England never protested any dogma defined by the Seven Holy Councils and never brought into question the legitimacy or canonicity of any universally-received Ecumenical Synod. Article XXII is about popularly-held and practised medieval error, not ecumenically consentient teaching. The Ecumenical Councils were and are a given - and thus the dearth of commentary or reaffirmation in the Anglican formularies. Often the beauty of Anglicanism, like her cousin Eastern Orthodoxy, is that she does not feel she has to define all the minutiae of her theology or practical life, and is willing simply to allow Tradition to be Tradition: liturgical theology as systematic theology, worship and practice over definition. The question of the Seven Councils should, I think, be considered one of those areas so treated.

Ecumenical Councils are ecumenical because they are received over time by the consensus of the whole Church Catholic, and Anglicanism, pre-, mid-, and post-reformation certainly received the Councils of the Undivided Church along with the rest of Christendom. This reception has never been disputed, to my knowledge, by any synodical authority within Anglicanism. The full appreciation and application of the doctrine of all Seven Councils (especially Nicea II) required a centuries-long process in the Western Church as a whole, and certainly within Anglicanism in particular, but I do not think any one can doubt that the Councils have always been integral to the ethos, the inherited living memory, of the Anglican Church.

We are bound, not to the specific canons and anathemas of the Ecumenical Councils, but to their dogmatic principles, their doctrines, which bear the stamp of universal, ancient and consentient authority.

Indeed, it is certainly not only permissible but laudatory to use Icons for the purpose of Christian devotion, as such practice goes directly to the heart of orthodox Christian theology and spirituality and reinforces powerfully the reality and effect of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ.

The God Who became Man dwells in us and in the Church by His Holy Spirit as in a temple, and certainly it is always and everywhere correct to consecrate our Churches, homes and dwelling places to Our Lord by the use of sacred Images and other sacramentals. The honour given to the Christian icon passes to its prototype, and the possession and veneration of icons communicate the fact and the graces of Incarnation of the Word of God - the God Who was once invisible became forever permanently visible in the Person of Our Lord, and thus the Holy Icons defend and teach, and what is more, confer by grace in a mystical way, the mystery of the Eternal Son of God made Man. Icons and statues are actually necessary to orthodox Christian worship, for without them the Incarnation cannot be realised in a personal and tangible manner. Saint Leo the Great teaches us that the miracles and actions of Our Lord pass, upon His Ascension, into the Sacraments and sacramentals of the Church. 'And so our Redeemer's visible presence has passed into the sacraments; our faith is nobler and stronger because sight has been replaced by a doctrine whose authority is accepted by believing hearts, enlightened from on high...'

The Anglican Church has always affirmed the dogmatic value of the Seventh Ecumenical Council, if not its practical or canonical application, as stained-glass windows or Altar crosses and crucifixes demonstrate. The recovery of the actual practice mandated by Nicea II only came about in its totality in Anglicanism with the Oxford Movement and Revival, although the Caroline Divines and old High Churchmen of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries certainly employed sacred art in churches. Lancelot Andrewes used a crucifix and incense, as did William Laud. Queen Elizabeth herself had a great crucifix in her private chapel. Oxford University erected a large statue of Our Lady at the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin before Cromwell's war and the Interregnum. There is a continuous tradition of iconodulism in Anglicanism - but there has been iconoclasm from the puritan element in the Church as well. That puritan and rebellious streak, mercifully, has always been alien to the mainstream Incarnational theology of orthodox Anglicanism post 1559. The early Reformation period from 1547 to 1553 was very ugly and promulgated by men influenced by the Continental religious revolt - we should consider it exceptional and anomalous, and certainly not normative for Anglican doctrine and practice; Anglicanism moderated under Elizabeth and slowly intensified in its ethos under James I, Charles I, and Charles II - and, with bumps in the road, all the way up to the Tractarian Movement. The need today is for more vigorous and lucid theological formation in teaching and preaching, which will bring about the oneness of belief that we all desire. The matter of theology for us was settled with the Affirmation of Saint Louis (1977), which affirmed the ecumenical and dogmatic status of all Seven General Councils for the Anglican Tradition. Icons are a part of our received Tradition from the whole Catholic Church.

The Seventh Ecumenical Council of Nicea II does not merely request or suggest the veneration of the Holy Icons, it commands veneration as a necessary and fundamental aspect of orthodox Christian worship. The deliberate refusal to construct, honour and venerate the sacred Images is a denial of the Incarnation of the Word and a rejection of the humanity of Our Lord, according to the teaching of the Second Nicene Council. The honour given to the Icon passes to its prototype, to quote Saint Basil the Great. The Icons are in essence sacramental, and convey what they represent. More to the point, the refusal to have and display an Icon would be a more direct act of iconoclasm than simply refusing to kiss one. Anglicans may be uncomfortable with certain physical acts of piety, which feelings should be respected as a matter of culture and conscience, but they should at least be willing prominently to enshrine Images for the purpose of public veneration. Anglo-Catholics do not have to follow the exact devotional expressions and outward gestures of the Eastern Rite, but they should be willing to display sacred Images in church and home and to offer them the corresponding reverence. We traditionally only kiss the Altar and the Gospel Book at Mass, and the Cross on Good Friday, in the Western Rite in a liturgical context - but the principle is the same as that for the East. By tradition and ethos, Western Catholics are far more restrained, reserved and conservative in their outward acts of devotion to Images than their Eastern Rite cousins, but they maintain the same dogmatic and doctrinal teaching on the Icons.

Anglicans are not obliged to venerate the relics of Saints, just as they are not obliged to solicit the gracious prayers of the Saints on our behalf, but, just as they are not compelled so to venerate or to request, so they would be wrong to say that such practices are contrary to Scripture and Tradition. For Anglicans, the practice of the invocation of the Saints is limited in the main to private devotions and extraliturgical services which are not part of the usual public Liturgy. However, the honour due to the Saints has never been rejected by the Anglican Church, which counts herself a true Apostolic Church practicing the fullness of the Catholic Faith, of which the Communion of Saints is a supreme article. Please note that Article of Religion XXII does not condemn the ancient or patristic or biblical doctrine concerning the Invocation of Saints and the veneration of their relics, but only the Romish, the Doctrina Romanensium, that is, the popularly-believed late medieval and thus erroneous view of the same. The Anglican teaching is the reformed Catholic view, anchored in the Holy Scriptures and the Tradition of the Primitive Church. Only that which is contained in Holy Scripture is reckoned by Anglicans to be necessary for salvation, and therefore only that doctrine of the state and prayers of the Saints which accords with Scripture is believed to be necessary for all Christians.

At the heart of the matter it is vital to maintain the doctrine of worship and honour presented by Saint John of Damascus and codified at the Seventh Ecumenical Council when dealing with Saints (and their Icons and relics), which doctrine forcefully distinguishes adoration of God and the honour of the Saints. Latria, adoratio, adoration, is divine worship offered to the Godhead alone. Only God the Holy Trinity is worshipped and adored. The worship of God, the Divine Essence, is absolute, offered to God Himself because He is and the rewarder of them that seek Him. The honour given to the Saints is dulia, proskunesis, timeo, veneration, reverence, respect. It is not worship - for we do not worship the Saints, we only honour and revere them. Such honour is strictly relative and passes from the Saint to God, Who is blessed and glorified in His Saints, His human heavenly friends and children. The distinction between the Creator and His creatures is strenuously maintained and asserted. From later tradition, the Blessed Virgin Mary, because she is Mother of God, has been given the highest form of relative honour and reverence, called hyperdulia or super-veneration, the highest praise rendered to a creature. Our Lady and the Saints are, after all, creatures, human beings who have become by God's grace truly and ultimately human, for that is the very reality of Sainthood, to be restored to the fullest image and likeness of God, to once again become fully man. The Saints, by becoming by grace what God is by nature, by partaking of the divine nature (II Saint Peter 1.4), fulfil the human vocation and become, through theosis or divinisation, 'God-like.'

The axiomatic principle of the Incarnation of the Word of God is operative here. In a nutshell, because God Himself was made Man for our sake and was incarnate of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary to redeem and divinise human nature, and because the glorified human nature of the Risen Lord communicates the Holy Ghost to the members of the redeemed human family, the communio sanctorum, and thus makes the bodies of the Saints to be temples, dwelling-places of the Holy Spirit, the bodies of those who are acknowledged to have possessed heroic sanctity in this life are honoured, venerated as holy possessions of God and dwelling places of the Holy Spirit. A sober, healthy, balanced, sane, biblical theology of the Saints and of their earthly relics is intensely incarnational and sacramental - the flesh is honoured as the vehicle of the Spirit. By honouring the bodies of the Saints, and by honouring their holy Images, we are taught to honour each other and to recognise in the human body, redeemed and sanctified in Christ, the locus of the Spirit of God.