176 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. No 35., Aug. 30. '56. 



divided, but there are some who still divide the 

 Decalogue exactly as we Catholics do. Craniner 

 himself did so : in the " Cafechismus, &c., set forth 

 by the mooste reverende Father ill God, Thomas 

 Arch-Byshop of Canterbury," &c., we read : 



"These are the holy commaundmentes of the Lord our 

 God. Thefinte. I am the Lord thy God, thou shalthave 

 none other Goddes but me. TTie Seconde. Thou shalt not 

 take the name," &c. 



Though this catechism was dedicated to Ed- 

 Ward VI., and " for the singular commoditie and 

 prosper of childre and yong people," the whole of 

 ■what, by Professor Browne's reckoning, is the 

 second commandment, is left out. The division 

 which Cranmer followed in England, Luther fol- 

 lowed in Germany, and the Lutherans even yet 

 follow. In the Kirchenbuch fur JEvangelische 

 Christen, Berlin, 1854, p. 23, is given " D. Martin 

 Luther's Kleiner Katechismus," and at the begin- 

 ning, we have the Ten Commandments thus : 



" Das erste Gebot. Du sollstnicht andere Gotterhaben. 

 Das sweite Gebot. Du sollst denNamen Deines Gottes 

 nicht unnuklich fUhren," &c. 



Professor Browne observes that : 



" What the Roman church deals unfairly in is, that she 

 teaches the commandments popularly only in epitome ; 

 and that, so having joined the first and the second to- 

 gether, she virtually omits the second, recounting them 

 in her catechisms, &c., thus : 1. Thou shalt have none 

 other gods but Me. 2. Thou shalt not take the name of 

 the Lord thy God in vain. 3. Remember," &c. 



If there be any force in this objurgation, it is as 

 applicable to Cranmer and Luther of old, and to 

 the Lutherans of the present day, quite as much 

 as to the " Roman Church." 



"By this method her children," continues the Pro- 

 fessor, "and other less instructed members, are often 

 ignorant of the existence in the decalogue of a prohibitioh 

 against idolatrj'." 



Be it borne in mind that, like oiirselves, the 

 Lutherans set up images — crucifixes — in their 

 churches, and what is said of the Catholic is re- 

 ferable to the Lutheran wording of the command- 

 ments. But Professor Browne is wrong upon 

 more points than one respecting the teaching of 

 the Church, in the present, as well as olden- time, 

 about the use of images, and the wording of the 

 commandments. Now, for the latter of these 

 subjects. The Abridgment of the Christian Doc- 

 trine is a little book, or First Catechism, out of 

 which every Catholic child, in this country, begins 

 to learn the rudiments of its religion : it con- 

 tains what, according to Catholic reckoning, is the 

 first commandment — that is the 6th, 7th, 8th, 

 and the beginning of the 9th verse of the 5th 

 chapter in Deuteronomy, at full length. To the 

 question : " What is forbidden by the first com- 

 mandment ? " the answer is : — " The first com- 

 matidment forbids us to worship false gods or 

 idols, or to give to any creature whatsoever the 



honour which is due to God." To the question : — 

 " May we not pray to relics or images ? " the 

 answer is : — " No, by no means ; for they have 

 no life nor sense to help us." This catechism has 

 the bishop's imprimatur at the beginning, and is 

 thus set forth by authority. Before the method 

 of instruction by catechisms was introduced, the 

 people of this land were not less carefully and 

 earnestly warned of " the existence in the deca- 

 logue of a prohibition against idolatry." What, 

 for instance, could be clearer or stronger than the 

 following words on the subject : 



"Thyse bee y" x. coramaundementis of god — The 

 fyrst he commaundeth that thou have no god but him. 

 Ne that thou wortshyp, serve, ne give thy trust to none 

 other creature, ymage, ne thinge graven but only to him. 

 In this is forboden mamettry," &c. Quatuor Sermones, at 

 the end of the Liber Festivalis, sig, y. ii., &c. Dives 

 says : " In the fyrste commaundement as I have lerned, 

 god sayth thus: Thou shalte have none other strange 

 goddes before me. Thou shalte make to the no graven 

 thynge, no maumette, no lykenes that is in heven above, 

 ne that is bynethe in erthe, ne of any thynge that is in 

 the water ixnder the erthe. Thou shalte not worshyp 

 them with thy bodye outwarde, ne within thy harte in- 

 ward." Among other things. Pauper says : " God for- 

 byddeth not utterly the makynge of y mages, but he 

 forbyddethe utterly "for to make j'mages for to worshyppe 

 them as goddis, and to set theyr fayth, theyr truste, their 

 hope, their love, and their beleve in theym. For god 

 wyll have mans harte hole knytte to hyva. alone, for in him 

 is all our helpe and all our salvation." To an objection 

 of Dives's that "on palme sondaye at procession the 

 priest — saith thrise : Ave rex noster, hayle be thou our 

 kyng (before the rood), and so he worshippeth that image 

 as king." Pauper an.swers : " God forbede. He speketh 

 not to the image, that the carpentar hatli made, and the 

 peinter peinted, but if the prest be a fole, for that stock 

 or stone was never king, but he speakethe to hym that 

 died on the crosse for us all, to hym that is kyiige of 

 all thynge." — A compendious treatyse or dialoge, &c. 

 The I. Command, chap. i. and chap. iv. 



Among the publications of the Caxton Society, 

 there is a — 



" Romance of englische of the begynnyng of the worldj 

 and of al that a lowed man has nede for to knawe for hele 

 of soule. This romance (Chasteau d'Amour) turned a 

 munk of Sallay out of French romance that sir Robert 

 Bischop a lyncoln made, and eked mikel therto, as him 

 thought spedeful to edeflcacion and swettenes of devocioun 

 and Bering of lowed men." 



In this so-called " romance " Itfe are told of thd 

 "ten commaundements " that- — 



" The first is to worschip on (one) god and no mo 

 This biddyng sal be understanden so 

 That it forbedes all mamettrie 

 And also all manor of sorcerie 

 Mammeutrie is to do creature that honour 

 That thou suld do all onely to thi creator 

 That is worschip for him self over all other tiling 

 A seint sal thou worschip for he is his detlyng 

 Ymages in the kirk that tliou on lokes 

 Are to the as to the clerk are his gode bokes 

 Thou sal not worschip thaim bot for thair sake 

 That thei bringe to thi mynd thi prayer to make." 

 Bishop Grossetete's Poems, now first edited bj' M. 

 Cooke, for the Caxton Society, pp. 133. 136. 



