n, veneration, and reliques of saints, and of
sacred images.

"The Holy Council commands all bishops and others bearing the
office and care of instruction, that according to the usage of
the Catholic and Apostolic Church, received from the primitive
times of the Christian religion, and the consent of holy
fathers, and decrees of sacred councils, they in the first place
should instruct the faithful concerning the intercession and
invocation of saints, the honour of reliques, and the lawful use
of images, teaching them, that the SAINTS REIGNING TOGETHER WITH
CHRIST, offer their own {231} prayers for men to God: that it is
good and profitable SUPPLIANTLY TO INVOKE THEM: and to fly to
their PRAYERS, HELP, and ASSISTANCE, for obtaining benefits from
God, by his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who is our only Redeemer
and Saviour. But that those who deny that the saints, enjoying
everlasting happiness in heaven, are to be invoked; or who
assert either that they do not pray for us; or that the
invocation of them to pray for us even as individuals is
idolatry, or is repugnant to the word of God, and is opposed to
the honour of the one Mediator of God and man, Jesus Christ; or
that it is folly, by voice or mentally, to supplicate those who
reign in heaven, hold impious sentiments.

"That the bodies also of the holy martyrs and others living with
Christ, which were living members of Christ, and a temple of the
Holy Ghost to be raised by Him to eternal life, and to be
glorified, are to be worshipped by the faithful; by means of
which many benefits are conferred on men by God; so that those
who affirm that worship and honour are not due to the reliques
of the saints, or that they and other sacred monuments are
unprofitably honoured by the faithful; and that the shrines of
the saints are frequented in vain for the purpose of obtaining
their succour, are altogether to be condemned, as the Church has
long ago condemned them, and now also condemns them."

[Footnote 89: The Latin, which will be found in the Appendix, is
a transcript from a printed copy of the Acts of the Council of
Trent, preserved in the British Museum, to which are annexed the
autograph signatures of the secretaries (notarii), and their
seals.]

An examination of this decree, in comparison with the form and language
of ot