It is true, that in the Breviaries and other ecclesiastical
books, direct prayers to the saints have been subsequently introduced,
as in litanies, hymns, and even some collects. But the usage is more
modern, and cannot be evidence for ancient tradition. For this [ancient
tradition] only some invocations addressed to saints in public harangues
are alleged, but which ought to be regarded as figures of rhetoric,
_apostrophes_, rather than real invocations; though at the same time
some fathers laid the foundation for such a practice by asserting that
one could address himself to the saints, and hope for succour from them.
[Footnote 90: Histoire du Conc. de Trent, par Fra. Paoli Sarpi,
traduit par Pierre Francois de Courayer. Amsterdam, note 31.
1751. vol. iii. p. 182.]
We have already alluded to the very great latitude of interpretation
which the words of this Council admit. The expressions indeed are most
remarkably elastic; capable of being expanded widely enough to justify
those of the Church of Rome who allow themselves in the practice of
asking for aid and assistance, temporal and spiritual, to be expected
from the saints themselves; and at the same time, the words of the
decree admit of being so far contracted as not in appearance palpably to
contradict those who allege, that the Church of Rome never addresses a
saint with any other petition, than purely and simply that the saint
would by prayer intercede for the worshippers.
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