Chapter IV — The last part of the definition of a vow is explained — a promise made to God — so that it may become clear in what sense it is said that vows are made to Prelates and to the Saints, and are discussed among Catholics and against the heretics

I. This dispute is carried on both against heretics, and among Catholics. Modern heretics, the Lutherans and Calvinists, just as they take away all worship from the Saints, likewise maintain that no vows, no promises, can be dedicated to the honor of the Saints in any sense whatsoever, without incurring the guilt of idolatry. Erasmus, in the dialogue entitled "The Shipwreck," pours scorn on the vows of sailors; and although he seems to rail furiously against ill-considered vows made out of fear of death by those who, to escape the jaws of the waves, flee to the Saints, he nonetheless proceeds most shamelessly to ridicule not only the vows themselves, and the very prayers offered to the Saints, but even attacks the Saints themselves, and prattles that the Most Sacred Virgin, invoked by sailors as though ignorant of navigation, cannot come to the aid of the shipwrecked; he blurts out that it is Venus, not the Virgin, who presides over the sea, and vomits forth much else against St. Thomas, Vincent, and Catherine of Siena, which it pains me even to recall. Elsewhere I have plainly shown that the Saints are to be honored and invoked by us. Now, however, the discussion concerns only vows. We do not deny to Erasmus and his companions that many ill-considered vows are, at times, dedicated to the Saints, extorted by human fear. But it is one thing to say that Catholics abuse vows on occasion; it is quite another to detest the vows themselves.

II. All Catholics teach, against the heretics, that vows can, in some sense, be dedicated to the Saints, and that this is a most ancient custom of the Church, as is gathered from Eusebius (Bk. XIII, Preparation for the Gospel, ch. 7), who says, in the name of all Christians approaching the monuments of the Martyrs: "This we do, as messengers of true piety... we approach the monuments of Martyrs as friends of God, and we perform our vows, professing them, as it were, to holy men." Theodoret (Bk. VIII, To the Greeks) represents the images, or the members' likenesses, of vows offered by the lame, the blind, and other such afflicted persons who had received health from God through the patronage of the Saints. He says: "They, having prayed piously and faithfully, and having obtained in large measure what they desired, testify to this by fulfilling their vows: some hang up images of eyes, others of feet or hands, fashioned from silver or gold." I could adduce much more, were it not readily available among theologians.

III. Setting aside, then, the various manners of speaking, we shall now explain the way in which vows may be said to be dedicated to the Saints — the manner which we find more probable, and which St. Thomas gives (II-II, q. 88, art. 5, ad 3), where he decrees that vows are properly made to God alone, in these words: "To the third it must be said that a vow is made to God alone, and the promise itself is also made to God — but a promise can also be made to a man, as it is a certain virtuous work. And in this way is to be understood a vow whereby someone vows something to the Saints, or to Prelates — namely, that the promise itself made to the Saints, or to Prelates, falls under the matter of the vow, insofar, that is, as a man vows to God that he will fulfill what he promises to the Saints or to Prelates." Two promises, then, though not distinguished in words, must in fact be distinguished. One is that whereby someone promises to perform some work in honor of a Saint; and this promise is not a vow. The other is the promise made to God, whereby someone pledges to God that he will fulfill what he promised in honor of the Saints; and it is in this second promise that the vow consists. From this it follows that vows are properly dedicated to God alone, under the auspices of the Saints — since a vow is an act of religion, and of the worship of latria, which is owed to God alone. This brief and clear teaching of St. Thomas alone overthrows all the fabrications of the Lutherans and Calvinists against vows dedicated to the Saints.

IV. What has been said does not prevent vows from being said to be dedicated to the Saints themselves, if the term is used in a broader sense. For the heretics themselves are forced to admit that the term "vow" extends more broadly, and is not restricted to an act of religion alone. For pious desires and prayers are very often called "vows," both in the Scriptures, and in common speech, and even in the writings of the pagans themselves. There is no reason, then, for the heretics to cavil that we commit the crime of idolatry when we dedicate vows to the Saints — if we openly testify that the vows we dedicate to them are not vows properly so called, nor acts of religion, that is, of the worship of latria, but of a far lower kind. Sacrifice is never offered to the Saints, since the term "sacrifice" is not as broad as the term "vow." For in the common estimation of all, "sacrifice" signifies an oblation owed to God alone; nor is it extended to signify gifts offered to creatures, as "vow" is. We dedicate "vows," then, to God, as the first and supreme giver of all good things, as a token of a grateful mind for benefits received, or to be obtained; we offer "vows" to the Saints as intercessors, through whom we trust to receive benefits from God more easily.

V. When Catholics, then, vow to the Blessed Virgin, to St. Augustine, to St. Benedict, to St. Francis, or to St. Dominic, the genuine sense is that they vow to God in the presence of these Saints, as witnesses, patrons, and helpers, to implore divine aid, by which the vows made may be fulfilled. What, I ask, is there of idolatry in this? Similarly, one who promises obedience to a Prelate, or vows to render or offer something to a hospice, vows to God, although he promises to obey the Prelate — which promise, as it concerns the Prelate, is not a vow, but the matter of a vow; nor, in the aforesaid vow, does the one honoring the hospice intend God, although the vow made to God is directed toward the benefit of that hospice.

VI. You will object: When we dedicate vows to the Saints, do we not thereby honor and worship the Saints themselves? Our vows, then, concern the Saints themselves, and consequently we offer our vows not to God alone, but to the Saints as well. Response: The solution is clear from what has been said. We dedicate vows, properly so called, as they are taken in the sacred Scriptures, to God alone. We offer to the Saints promises, which are not vows, but the matter of vows. We honor and worship the Saints as witnesses and intercessors of our vows, or as those who obtain for us from God the aids by which we may be able to fulfill our vows. Cajetan adds that vows are not made to the Saints considered as creatures endowed with reason, but insofar as God dwells and resides within them through glory; so that the vows said to be made to the Saints are made to God residing in the Saints. This solution does not depart from St. Thomas's teaching, as Suárez indicates (Bk. I, ch. 16, n. 5). For Cajetan, by this solution, or distinction, confirms the teaching of the holy Doctor: for if the vows dedicated to the Saints are made to God residing in the Saints, it is plain that a vow, properly taken, is made to God alone. The worship, however, that is offered to the Saints in these vows, taken in their broad meaning — those which are really only promises — does not proceed from the virtue of religion, or the worship of latria, but only of dulia. More clearly: it is not a merely civil and human worship, nor is it a worship of latria owed to God alone, as the supreme, sole Godhead, the principle and giver of all goods; but it is a worship customarily called dulia, which we offer the Saints on account of the singular excellence with which they have been endowed by God. And when we dedicate such vows to them, we do not recognize them as distributors of graces and aids, but as mediators and intercessors before God and Jesus Christ his Son, who is our true and only mediator and redeemer. For all — whether Angels or Saints — intercede for us before God solely by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ. As for the further objection commonly repeated — that, by the same reasoning by which vows are offered to the Saints reigning in heaven, they could likewise be offered to saintly persons still living on earth — this is an empty sophism. For those who dwell with us on earth are neither confirmed in grace, nor in glory; they may be holy now, and cease to be so later. Besides which, we cannot know for certain that anyone clothed in this mortal flesh is holy; we only piously believe it of someone. But we know for certain that those reigning with God in heaven will never lose their sanctity; we know for certain that they are confirmed forever in grace and in glory.