Theological Theses · §1477 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

If the precept only bans absolute god-cult, it never touched the wise Gentiles’ relative simulacrum-cult

Narrow the precept to absolute god-cult and pagan sages walk free—they already distinguished sign from god.

Their relative referral is the same structure Rome now claims.

Latin

XLVII. Denique, si praecepto quo prohibemur facere & colere similitudinem ullam eorum quae sunt in coelo, vel in terra, vetamur solummodo imagines pro Diis habere, easque cultu absoluto, tanquam Deos colere, inde sequetur hoc praecepto non fuisse vetitum cultum simulachrorum a sapientibus gentium institutum. Ut enim jam indicavimus, disputationis hujus initio, distinguebant imagines a numinibus ipsis, nec eas colebant cultu absoluto, sed qui, ex colentium mente, referebatur ad numina, quorum ipsae simulachra erant.

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About this text

Louis Le Blanc, a Reformed professor at Sedan, sets out theology in theses argued against Rome: Scripture, faith, grace, free choice, good works and the saints.

This volume holds the Theses on Theology I–XLIII and On Faith I–XXII, in eighteen sections.

Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu (1614–1675) was minister and professor of theology at the Academy of Sedan, the Reformed school on France's eastern border. His Theses were disputed by students over many years and collected in a London folio (1675).

The Theological Theses range across the whole Reformed system — Scripture, God, predestination, grace, and justifying faith — in the crisp thesis-and-proof form of the seventeenth-century schools.

Date1675 AD (Sedan theses; London collection)

No modern English.

Reference

ESTC R17887; Wing L802. IA bub_gb_eOkHAW4G0-wC (+ EEBO 1675 for gap leaves).

Printed text used

Translated from Latin (Pitt 1675) (Latin)
Also checked PDF of the 1675 (Latin)
Also checked pdftotext of De Theologia pages (Latin)
Also checked DjVu machine-read text of the 1675 (Latin)

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Latin on any section, or the Latin source link, to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

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