A Revision of Two Letters from George Morley, Bishop of Winchester, to Jan van Vliet

...tion. If it was condemned, then it was not unheard of. If unheard of, then not condemned. But that custom was heard, that is, known, as is evident because Manichaeans and Vigilantius disapproved of it. But show by whom, in what place, or at what time it was condemned, and we surrender. I would not, however, wish you to think we are satisfied if you produce men of condemned memory whom I have just named as disapproving of that custom. Nor should you bear with an ill will that we erase the names of such from the ancient Church, who prefer the rages of Calvin to the authority of that same Church.

Nor are there lacking monuments of undoubted faith from the ancient centuries for the Invocation of saints. Such are the ancient Liturgies, which time, the devourer of all things, has not consumed; for they all, and each one, contain the invocation of saints. You will not say, I suppose, that the Church for so many centuries lacked a public liturgy, lest you strike with an axe at your own, which you defend with difficulty from the assaults of Enthusiasts. I acknowledge that various things were added to each of the older liturgies; but that in which they all agree, even the most ancient, seems to have been there from the beginning. Such indeed are those things which are of the essence of the Sacrifice: prayer for the Dead and the Invocation of Saints; which all Liturgies exhibit.

Next, the Fathers who flourished in the IV and V centuries, and who, as your own admit, favor the invocations of Saints, speak of it not as a new rite, but as one used for a long time. If the older ones spoke more sparingly about it, it could have happened because idolaters abused it to defend polytheism, as is evident from Origen, Augustine, Jerome, Cyril, and others, none of whom, however, answered the heathens that that rite was new, alien to the mind of the Church, unknown to the ancients, or, as you say, condemned by Christians; but they admit it, they defend it, they distinguish it from the error of the idolaters, and demonstrate that it differs as much as heaven from earth. Whence it is clear it did not begin at that time, but existed long before, was contemporary with Christianity, received by the Church, defended by the saints, approved by all good men, and disapproved only by Heretics, both ancient and modern.