The Calvinists deny [it] — so much so that, whether they read the Gospel and preach to the people, or hear this name elsewhere, they neither incline the head nor uncover [it], nor give any other sign of veneration. But to them, first, greatly is St. Paul opposed (Philippians 2), who — as was proved above (question 12) — wills that honor be done to this name. For what are the Calvinists? Heavenly, or earthly, or subterranean? But from all these, to the honor of that name, the knees are to be bent — that is, some honor is to be deferred [to it]. For, in place of that [generic] honor, a species is put, as [in] Psalm 2, in the Hebrew verse 20 [v. 12]: “Kiss the Son.” Truly indeed the Calvinists are earthly. But those who think themselves better than the heavenly [ones] make themselves, as regards the subterranean — that is, the Demons and all the damned — worse [than these]. St. Ambrose (ch. 9, book 6, Hexaemeron): “Flexible,” he says, “[is] the knee, by which, before all others, the Lord’s offense is mitigated, [his] wrath appeased, [his] grace provoked. For this is the supreme gift of the Father toward the Son, that in the name of JESUS every knee should bend, of heavenly, earthly, and infernal [beings].” 3. The general Synods, the seventh and eighth, teach [that] the book of the Gospels is to be adored — and that, because it sets forth to us most sacred things. But in that [name JESUS], what more sacred thing does the name import to us?
Thirdly. The custom of the whole Church is set forth (about which above, q. 12). Now [point] 4: “It stands [in the record],” says Catharinus (in the epistle to the Romans, f. 4), “a most just decree of the Pontiff, by which it is commanded that at this name JESUS all should incline the head.” But about this [more] in the following question. And when this passage from Philippians ch. 2 is read in the Mass — e.g., on the Finding of the Holy Cross — the Priest must bend the knee, as is noted in the margin of the Collects of the Missals. The Council of Mainz (§ 2): ”…[the priest,] perusing the codices with [his] eyes, when he comes to the venerable and tremendous name of JESUS, uncovers the head, inclines [it], and, sighing, lifts up his eyes to heaven, etc.” — and our Vasquez cites [this] (book 2 On Adoration, disp. 8, ch. 11). But Navarrus (book On Prayer, ch. 4, n. 5): “The Gallican statutes,” he says, “recalled it” — [namely,] on the celebration of the Mass. And the Council of Lyons — ch. On the immunity [of the Church], book 6 — [decreed], before the statutes, that when that sublime name JESUS is pronounced, all should venerate it, at least by inclining their heads. But beautiful — and such as are worthy to be drunk in, as by the ears, so by the minds — are those very words of Gregory: “The sanctity of the Lord’s house becomes [it]; it becomes [it] that of him in whose peace the place is made [Jerusalem], his worship be, with due veneration, peaceful. Be therefore to the Churches a humble and devout entrance; be in them quiet, and
(col. 49)
…[be in them] devout converse, pleasing to God, agreeable to the beholders — which may not only instruct those considering [it], but also refresh [them]. Assembling there, [let them venerate] that name which is above every name (from which no other under heaven is given to men, in which it behooves them to be saved) — namely the name JESUS CHRIST, who wilt save thy people from their sins — [let them] extol [it] with a special reverence; and [as to] what is generally written, ‘that in the name of JESUS every knee should bend,’ let each one singularly fulfill it in themselves, especially while the sacred mysteries of the Mass are being performed; [and] that glorious name, whenever it is recalled, let them bend to it the knees of their heart — which they attest either by [bending] the knees [of the body], or by the inclination of the head.” Holy images are to be venerated, as by Bellarmine [it was] most diligently proved. But names too are certain images (as in Aristotle, ch. 1 On Interpretation), and indeed sacred [ones], since they exhibit sacred things to us. Fifthly. When the names of a King, of a Prince, and of more excellent men are heard, a preface of honor, and an uncovering of the head, is made. Why not, when the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, JESUS, is named? Yet some, from that same sect [Calvinist], yield to the truth [and do this] sometimes; and most Lutherans still approve that ancient worship of the Saviour in his own name — so much so that, when heretics held the city of Emmerich in the year 1599, and a Calvinist preacher (who could not [do so] in the school) held, in the town-hall, on the third day of February, a first sermon, [he] greatly exasperated the Lutherans, because at his first entrance he inveighed against those who would uncover the head to this name. But another, in Westphalia, in the year 1594, offered [something] to be greatly laughed at by all: because, when in his sermon he was pouring out, as it were, wagon-loads of curses against the Jesuits [Iesuitas], his rustic hearers — hearing those first syllables “IESV,” and not thinking much about his argument — did honor [reverence]; and as often as he named that “Jesuit” (and he did so very often), so often did these [men] — [while] he, on the pulpit, [was] fuming and raging — bend their knees. A nobleman related, I hearing [him], that he, in the year 1606, in the month of May, when he had come to Heidelberg, into the court of our most Reverend and Illustrious [prince], had seen [that] the court of the Palatine did no honor to this most holy name. Afterwards, in the same year too, for the sake of business, thither also had gone the very Reverend lord Godefridus à Driell; and, among other things which he saw [to be] impious, he narrates about this name thus, in a little book which was inscribed by him Anteperikope (p. 22): “I saw also another marvel at Heidelberg in the year immediately past: namely, [that] you Calvinists, at hearing the name of your Prince, uncover [your] heads, kiss [your] right hand, rise up with the whole body, and stand upright a little while. And rightly. But at hearing that most holy [name] of GOD, and the name of our Lord which is above every name — JESUS — like blocks, like Asses, like atheists, with no reverence at all exhibited, not even a civil one, you [merely] look on.”
In the Mass, about this very name, this prayer is read: “God, who didst make the most glorious name of JESUS CHRIST thy only-begotten Son lovable to thy faithful with the highest affection of sweetness, and terrible and tremendous to the malign spirits: grant, [being] propitious, that all who devoutly venerate this name JESUS on earth may perceive the sweetness of holy consolation in the present age, and in the future may obtain the joy of exultation and unending jubilation in the heavens. Through the same Lord [our N.] JESUS CHRIST thy Son, who with thee liveth and reigneth unto the ages of ages. Amen.” It can be objected — that which St. Antoninus relates (History, part 3, title 24, ch. 5, § 2) — [that] Martin V forbade this name to be painted and adored with solar rays. Molanus answers (book On Pictures, ch. 56) [that] he forbade that, not simply, but lest publicly, in sermons, from any panel, it should be set before the whole people to be adored — and that too, when first that thing was done by St. Bernardine — lest, namely, something of dangerous novelty and scandal be brought into the Church. But that this [danger] is far off, experience, use, and the sentence of later Pontiffs have shown, when Clement VII granted the feast of the most sacred name of JESUS to be instituted.