Skip to main content

"Which never appeared in any human shape": Laudians against the Rublev icon?

In two earlier posts (here and here) referencing Taylor's critique of depictions of the Holy Trinity dependent on Old Testament encounters, I suggested that this would point to a rejection by Taylor of the famous and ubiquitous Rublev icon.  Taylor was not alone amongst the Laudians in adhering to this conventional Reformed critique of depictions of the Trinity.  In his A New Gagg for an Old Goose (XLIV, 1624), the Laudian Richard Montague had similarly stated - in response to a Roman apologist - objections to such depictions, declaring "it is utterly unlawful to picture or represent the Trinity":

And your Masters can tell you, that whereas it is related in the old Testament often, that God appeared unto men, the Doctors of the Church are not resolved, whether God appeared at any time personally, or wholly by the Ministry of Angels. Your men, the Jesuits, Victorellus, Vasquez, and the rest, nay, all later Divines, saith Vasquez, but Clicthous, affirm, that God never appeared but by the Ministry of Angels. So that your express testimonies are in a wise case; and yourself an Ignorant or a Confident, that knew not this, or dare oppose your Yea unto their Nay.

Therefore, Isaiah 6:1, he that sat upon the Throne, and he that, Dan. 7:9, is described, was not God, but some Angel; or if God, yet the second Person: the Father never appearing unto any. Therefore, as Vasquez himself confesseth, that great Upbearer of Roman Idolatry, Henricus, Durand, Martin Ayala, do teach it as well as Calvin, that it is utterly unlawful to picture or represent the Trinity, or God, otherwise than as in Christ he took our flesh, and was found among us as a man. These were nor Hereticks, nor Protestants, that did teach so: and yet we see it ordinary amongst our good Catholics, to represent the picture of the Trinity more ways than one, which never appeared in human shape, as yet to any. 

Impious Artificers, not onely vain, that make the most blessed and most glorious Trinity a certain Geryon; or, as Tertullian phraseth it, Sororem vasculorum: A thing not only contrary unto reason, but to the despite and contumely of God: whose glory being such as cannot be uttered, and shape such as cannot be expressed, is denominated from, and represented in base and corruptible things, that have no permanency without supply. So feelingly complained Justin Martyr of your Comrades, the Idolaters of those times. 

Such Images Hesselius a Papist, Professor at Louain, whereby God the Father is represented in an human shape, utterly himself disliketh, and justifieth his dislike out of the Fathers; that not only Protestants may be the mislikers of such impiety, but Papists of better spirits, and more solid learning.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Why I support the ordination of women: a High Church reflection

A number of commenters on this blog have asked about my occasional expressions of support for the ordination of women to all three orders.  With some hesitation, I have decided to post a summary of my own views on this matter.  The hesitation is because I have sought on this blog to focus on issues and themes which can unify those who identify with or have respect (grudging or otherwise!) for what we might term 'classical' Anglicanism (the Anglicanism of the Formularies and - yes - of the Old High Church tradition).  Some oppose the ordination of women (and I have friends and colleagues who do so, Anglo-Catholic, High Church, and Reformed Evangelical).  Some of us support it (again, friends and colleagues covering a wide range of theological traditions). Below, I have organised my thinking around 5 points (needless to say, no reference to Dort is implied). 1. The Declaration for Subscription required of clergy in the Church of Ireland states: (6) I promise to submit ...

How the Old High tradition continued

Charles Gore's 1914 letter to the clergy of his diocese, ' The Basis of Anglican Fellowship ', can be regarded as a classical expression of the Prayer Book Catholic tradition.  A key part of the letter - entitled 'Romanizing in the Church of England' - addressed the "Catholic movement", questioning beliefs and practices within it which tended to "a position which makes it very difficult for its extremer representatives to give an intelligible reason why they are not Roman Catholics".  Gore provides the outlines of an alternative account and experience of catholicity within Anglicanism, defined by three characteristics.  What is particularly interesting about these characteristics is their continuity with the older High Church tradition.  Indeed, the central characteristic as set out by Gore was integral to High Church claims over centuries: To accept the Anglican position as valid, in any sense, is to appeal behind the Pope and the authority of t...

1928 practices and the 1979 book: unthinking conservatism or popular piety?

Those responsible for Earth & Altar - a new blog emanating from a group within TEC - are to be congratulated for an excellent contribution to wider Anglican discussion and debate. The commitment to "an expansively conceived credal orthodoxy as fully compatible with LGBTQ inclusion, gender equality, and racial justice" is an important part of a wider retrieval of creedal orthodoxy within what we might call the post-liberal generation. It is in this spirit that I want to respond to a recent post on the site by Andrew McGowan , Dean of the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale and Professor of Anglican Studies at Yale Divinity School.  Against the background of another round of "ill-defined" liturgical revision in TEC, he understandably urges that a fuller reception of the 1979 BCP should occur before further reforms. In doing so, however, he takes aim at what he describes as "clinging to the ritual structures of 1928" while using the text of 1979.  We ...