Bernard, from the Bishop of Rome
to the Monk of Clairvaux.

Immediately after the Council of Nice their works took on the infections
of popery. Each succeeding writer in each succeeding century added to
the gathering mass of error and superstition. The filth and dirt
accumulated until the system of delusion was fully developed in the "man
of sin." The Fathers, as they are called, are entitled to no more than
other men. They should never be resorted to as authoritative or
inspired, for they were not. They may be used as witnesses to show the
customs of their times. So far as they are concerned as _the standard_
of truth, we may just as well, with safety and without remorse, deliver
them to the Vatican to rot with the lumber and legends of the dark ages.
The anti-Nicene fathers had many errors, but theirs were not the errors
of Romanism. The religious productions of the first three centuries of
our era contain, in the main, the principles of Protestantism. The
post-Nicene fathers, or popery, may be compared to a field of wheat
overrun with weeds. The great work of the Protestant reformers was to
eradicate the weeds. Failing to accomplish this in the Roman field, they
gathered the pure seed grain and sowed it in the Lord's field, "the
world," where it now waves in beauty, tending to a glorious harvest.
Once on a time a person was asked where Protestantism was before the
Reformation. He answered in turn, It was where your face was this
morning before it was washed. The reply was just. Dirt could be no part
of the human countenance, and removing the filth by washing could
neither change the features of the face nor destroy its identity. By
this cleansing operation the face only assumed its normal and natural
appearance. In like manner the superstitious traditions of the Roman
church were no part of Christianity. It was but proper that the
reformers should dismiss the adulterations of the ages and plant their
feet away back in the land of Israel with the Christ of God.

Arius was regarded as an innovater on the true faith. The great enemy of
Arianism was simply Trinitarianism. The council of Nice was presided
over by Hosius. The assembled fathers declared the consubstantiality of
the son for the establishment of Trinitarianism and the extermination of
Arianism. This wonderful term, _consubstantiality_, had been rejected by
the synod of Antioch sixty years before, and by Dionysius, of
Alexandria, in opposition to Sabellianis