Appendix II. The Adoration of the Deified Humanity

The passages given already in the note to pages 28-4 are enough to show that the Catholic Church in adoring the Incarnate Word with the divine worship of latria has from the beginning consciously and distinctly regarded the Deified Humanity as partaking in that one Divine Adoration.

The three following passages of Holy Scripture are used commonly by the Fathers as proof:

1. 'When He bringeth in the First-begotten into the world He saith: And let all the angels of God adore Him' — that is, the Incarnate Son.7

2. 'For which cause God also hath exalted Him, and hath given Him a name which is above all names: that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and under the earth: and that every tongue shall confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father' — that is, Jesus, God and Man.8

3. ' Adore the footstool of His feet, for it is holy.'9 S. Ambrose interprets this as follows: ' By the word footstool the earth is to be understood, and by 7 Heb. i. 6. • Phil. ii. 9-11. 9 Ps. xcviii. 5.

the earth the Flesh of Christ, which to-day also we adore in a mystery, and which the Apostles worshipped in the Lord Jesus, as we before said. For Christ is not divided, hut is one.'10

S. Augustine also says: * He took earth from the earth, because flesh is of earth, and He received flesh from the flesh of Mary.... No one eats that flesh except he has first adored it; and thus we have shown how such a footstool of the Lord's feet is adored; and not only do we not sin in adoring it, but we sin in not adoring it.'11

S. Athanasius is still more explicit: ' We do not adore a creature; God forbid. Such madness belongs to heathens and to Arians. But we adore the Lord of things created, the Incarnate Word of God. For though the flesh itself by itself be a part of things created, yet it is made the body of God. Neither do we adore His body divided and apart from the Word; nor when we adore the Word do we separate the Word from the flesh: for inasmuch as we know that the Word was made flesh, we acknowledge God the Word dwelling in the flesh.'11

S. John Damascene: ' Christ therefore is one,

10 De Spiritu Sancto. lib. iii. 79.

11 Enarr. in Ps. xcviii. 9.

12 Epist. ad Adelph. Beet. 3.

perfect God and perfect Man, whom we adore with the Father and the Holy Ghost in one adoration, with His immaculate flesh.'11

S. Ildephonsus of Toledo: ' As to which mystery Cyril, answering Nestorius, declares Christ to be so one, that is God and Man: not as if we adore a man with the Word, lest by this a certain division be introduced; but adoring one and the same (object) in the unity of the Person: for the body (of the Word) is not apart from the Word, nor diverse, because the Word was made flesh: and manhood is so united and assumed into God as to be one God.'14

Thomassinus sums up the patristic doctrine in this proposition: * That the Word made Flesh is worshipped with the one adoration of latria: and that thus the Humanity also is enveloped in the worship of latria.'15

Nestorius was required under anathema by the Synod of Alexandria under S. Cyril to subscribe to the following canon: ' If any one shall dare to say that the man assumed is to be adored together with God the Word and to be glorified together with Him, as one thing with another (i.e. as two things), and

13 De Fide Orthodoxa, lib. iii. cap. 8.

14 Fragm. de partu Virginis, torn. ix. Bibl. Pair. 11 De Incarn. Verb. lib. xi. c. 2.

not that Emmanuel should rather be adored with one adoration: let him be anathema.'18

So also a Lateran Council under Martin I. repeats the doctrine of the Fourth and Fifth (Ecumenical Councils. It quotes the ninth canon of the Fifth (Ecumenical Council as follows: ' If any man shall say that Christ is to be adored in two natures, by which they bring in two adorations, to God the Word separately and to the man separately; or if any man so adore Christ, affirming the nature or essence of the two that are united to be one, so as to destroy the flesh or to confound the Godhead and the Manhood: and shall not adore with one adoration God the Word Incarnate with His flesh according to the tradition of the Church of God from the beginning: let him be anathema.'17

Petavius comments on this as follows: ' Hence it is evident from the consent and tradition of the Church as a fixed and established truth that the flesh or the nature of man with the Word is to be worshipped with one only, and that the divine and supreme adoration.'18

Tourneley says: ' The Human Nature of Christ

18 Labbe, Concilia, torn. iii. p. 966, Cone. Ephes.

17 Ibid. torn. vii. p. 258, Cone. Lateran.

18 De Incarnations, lib. xv. cap. iii. par. 6.

hypostatically joined to the Word is to be worshipped with one and the same adoration as the Divine Word.... Hence we may easily solve the following common and trite objection: viz. the worship of latria is due to God alone. The Humanity of Christ is not God: therefore the worship of latria is not due to it. Here we must distinguish the minor proposition: the Humanity is not God, separated and apart from the Word, granted; but hypostatically united with the Word, I deny it'— i.e. it is God.19

Perrone: ' The Human Nature of Christ is to be adored with one and the same worship of latria in the Divine Word, with whom it is hypostatically united. This proposition is de fide, and its contradictory was condemned in the Fifth General Council.'20

Franzelin: ' Christ is to be adored, both regarded as to His Divine Nature and regarded as to His Human Nature, with one and the same supreme worship of latria.'21

The Wiirzburg Theology: ' Question: Is Christ to be worshipped with religious worship, not only as God, which is self-evident, but also as Man? An-

19 De Incarnatione, torn. iv. quaest. ult. p. 425.

20 Ibid. p. ii. c. iv. art. 2, prop. i.

21 De Verb. Incarn. cap. iv. th. xlv.

swer: Christ as Man, subsisting in both divine and human nature, that is the Man-God; or the human nature of Christ hypostatically united to the Word, is to be worshipped absolutely with one and the same act of latria as the Divine Word.'22