Invocation
a judicial call, demand, or order; as, the invocation of papers into court.
INVOCATION OF SAINTS. The authoritative statement of Roman doctrine on this subject is found in a decree of the Council of Trent (sess. 25, held Dec. 3 and 4, 1563), which ordains that "all bishops and others having the duty of teaching" should instruct the faithful: "That the saints reigning with Christ offer their prayers to God for men; that it is good and useful to invoke them, and to have recourse to their prayers, succor, and assistance to obtain benefits from God through His Son Jesus Christ, our Lord, who alone is our Redeemer and Saviour."
Here two propositions are laid down in the plainest possible manner: (1) That the saints do intercede for men; (2) the utility of asking such intercession. Theologians allege Scripture and tradition in support of the doctrine and practice (see Jer. xv: i; Luke xv: 7; Rev v: 8, vi: 9-11, viii: 3). Inscriptions in the Catacombs show that the practice was common in the Early Church, and mention of it is made by St. Gregory St. Ambrose and St. Augustine. The de- INVESTITURE. If any bishop or other clergyman have the cure of souls and also a stipend, two elements, the one sacred and the other civil, exist in his position; and as nearly every spiritual act carries civil consequences, and nearly every civil act connected with his benefice has sacred effects, scarcely any prudence can avoid periodical collision between the ecclesiastical and the civil Nazianzen, St. Basil, St. Gregory Nyssen, power. From the papal point of view, and indeed from that of all Church func-votion of the Church is chiefly toward tionaries, a great ecclesiastical end will be achieved if the State can be made an obedient handmaid of the Church. From the establishment of the Church under Constantine the Great, in the 4th century, the Roman functionaries increasingly interfered in ecclesiastical affairs, and by the 11th lay patronage had been much abused, and simony largely prethe saints who died after Christ. To the Maccabees alone is a feast celebrated in the whole Latin Church.
Anglican Theology. - There were very many reasons why, when the "Articles of Religion" were "ratified and confirmed," the separation between the Reformed and Roman Churches should be made as marked as possible, and the 22d of the Thirty-nine Articles strongly conof the Thirty-nine Articles strongly condemns the invocation of saints. The practice, as a private devotion, was known in Caroline days, and lingers, in Guard the bed that I lie on," etc. in the rhyme: "Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Guard the bed that I lie on," etc.
With the Oxford Movement the doctrine of the Invocation of Saints came INVOICE, a statement on paper conto the front.