unavoydably followeth that Bishops neither without that Imperiall command may in a riotous manner assemble in generall Councels nor being commanded by them may deny to assemble nor being assembled may refuse to bee ordered and governed by their Imperiall Presidency 9. After these precepts of GOD looke to the practice of the Church and you shall see that lawfull Synods or Assemblies about Ecclesiasticall affaires have beene gathered by no other than Imperiall authority as well in the old as new Testament In the time of IOSIA when the Temple was purged from those manifold Idolatries wherewith it was polluted who assembled Israel the Priests no but the King u 2 Chr. 34.29.30 sent and gathered all the Elders of Iuda and went into the house of the LORD with the Priests and Levites The like had ASA done in the oath of Association He x 2 Chron. 15.9 10. gathered all Iuda SALOMON in the Dedication of the Temple He y 2 Chron. 5.2 assembled the Elders and the heads of the Tribes DAVID in bringing the Arke and in ordering the offices of the Temple DAVID z 1 Chron. 13.5 cap. 15.4 gathered all Israel together Hee a 1 Chron. 23.2 gathered together then all the Princes with the Priests and Levites HEZECHIA in clensing the house of the Lord b 2 Chron. 29.4 Hee gathered the Priests and Levites called c Jbid. v. 11. them his sonnes and they were gathered together juxta d Jbid. v. 15. mandatum Regis according to the commandement of the King Ioshua at the renewing of the Covenant He e Iosh 24.2 assembled all the Tribes of Israel And to mention no more for what King is there or Iudge or Captaine who had all kingly authoritie though somewhat qualified and tempered in them more than in Kings who is not an example hereof Consider but Moses who was the first that had soveraignty in their common-wealth how often and still with a warrant from God did he assemble the people upon urgeÌ„t occasions At the first making of the covenant with God Moses called f Exod. 19.7 the Elders at the publishing of the law Moses brought g Exod. 19.17 the people out of their tents unto God after the bringing of the two Tables from God Moses assembled all h Exod. 35.1 the congregation of Israel at the anointing and investing of Aaron Moses i Levit. 8.3 4. assembled all the congregation at the repeating of the Covenant he k Deut. 5.1 ca. 31.28 commanded all the Elders of the Tribes of Israel to come unto him Yea at the very first time when God appointed him to be a Captaine and Ruler over his people even then God gave unto him that authority which afterwards he renewed in the tenth l Num. 10.2 Make thee two Trumpets that thou maist use them for the assembling of the congregation of Numbers to congregate and assemble the people of God Goe saith God m Exod. 3.16 and gather the Elders of Israel together thereby teaching the power of assembling Gods people to be inseparably annexed unto Imperiall regall and soveraigne authority that none hath the one who hath not the other by the very warrant of God committed unto him to the end the assemblies of Gods people might not be tumultuous and seditious as was that of Demetrius and of Corah n Num. 16.2 c. Dathan and Abiram which the Lord severely revenged but lawfull and orderly as God is the author not of confusion but of order in all Churches and in all ages of the Church 10. Come we to the times of the Gospell The power and rightfull authority to call Synods was ever in the Emperours and Kings even in those three hundred years while the Church was in most grievous persecution under Heathen Emperours The right and power was in the Heathen as well as in Christian Emperours in Tiberius as well as Theodosius in Dioclesian as well as in Constantine or Iustinian But that power which they rightly had they did not use aright not to call Synods to maintaine the faith but to abolish Synods Bishops Christians and utterly extirpate the Christian faith Now because Christ had layd an absolute necessity o 1 Cor. 9.16 Matth. 28.19 upon the Apostles and their successors to feed to teach and maintaine the doctrine of faith and seeing they could not doe this with the allowance or so much as connivence of the Emperours who in duty should have protected them in so doing yea have caused them so to doe this very necessity enforced them and was a lawfull warrant unto them both to feed the flocke preach the Gospell and to hold Synods in the best and most convenient manner that they then could not onely without but against the will and command of the Emperors that higher command of Christ over-ruling theirs Whereby are warranted as lawfull to say nothing of that Acts 15. those Synods at Antioch against Paulus Samosatenus at Rome against the Novatians in Africke many in the time of Cyprian and divers the like For even the law of God to yeeld unto necessity the example of David p Matth. 12.1 2. c. the doctrine of our Saviour doth demonstrate besides those many Maximes which are all grounded on this truth as that necessity q Necessitas non habet legem sed ipsa sibi facit legem Caus 1. q. 1 ca. 39. Remissionem hath no law nor is subject to any law but is a law of it selfe that many things are lawfull in case of necessity r Gloss in cap. Discipulâ—â— de consec distinct 5. in marg which otherwise are unlawfull that of Leo Inculpabile judicandum quod necessitas intulit Å¿ Citatur à Iohannâ— 8. in Epist 199. §. Nâ—â— that is blamelesse which necessity doth warrant and many the like which Pope Iohn t Ibidem alledgeth This and nothing else doth declare those Synods to have beene lawfull though assembled without Imperiall authority as the times were extraordinary so their extraordinary assembling was by those times of necessity made lawfull But as soone as Emperours began to professe the faith and to use their owne and Imperiall authority in assembling Bishops for consulting about causes of faith the Catholike Bishops knowing that from thence that law of Necessity was now expired and out of date attempted not then to come to Synods uncalled nor refused to come when they were called though sometimes they came with an assured expectance of the crowne of Martyrdome before they departed as in the Councels of Millane Arimine and Syrmium called by the Arrian Emperour Constantius is most cleare 11. Hence it is that all the ancient generall Councels yea all that were held for the space of a thousand yeares after Christ were all assembled by no other than this Imperiall authority Take a short view of some and of the chiefe of them Of the first Nicen Eusebius l Euseb lib. 3.
tanquam ipsa sola carni sit admistae Mentem divinitatem Christi dicenter Greg. ibid. and mind which hee had acknowledged in Christ he meant nothing but the very Deity it selfe which unto Christs body was as the soule mind to animate it with life sense and reason which was one part of the heresie of Apollinaris As soone g Statim ac dolum sensâ—runt fraudulentum hominem ab ecclesia proscribunt Elias Cret loc cit as Pope Damasus and Gregory Nazianzen knew of this fraud they not onely rejected Vitalis out of their communion but condemned as hereticall and that also with an Anathema denounced against it Fidei libellum that very same profession of faith made by Vitalis which themselves before had approved which fact Gregorie h Ne nos accusent quod Vitalis fidem prius quidem probaverimus nunc vero repudiemus Greg. Naz. Epist 2. ad Clidon similia habet in Epi. 2. ad Hollod defendeth as just and right both for himselfe and for Damasus 21. From this two things are specially for our present purpose to be observed The former that an hereticall profession may bee made in most orthodoxall termes yea in the very words of the holy Scripture not corrupted not altered not changed for so was this hereticall confession of Vitalis The other is that the selfe same profession of faith if wee looke onely at the words may be allowed for orthodoxall when the sense thereof is and appeareth to bee orthodoxall and when there is no evidence to the contrary but that the party who makes that profession as he speakes orthodoxally so also meaneth orthodoxally and that same profession also may justly bee condemned for hereticall when by any overt act or outward evidence it doth certainly appeare that the party who made that confession by and under those orthodoxall words meant by a fraudulent and equivocating collusion to expresse an hereticall sense for while there appeared no cause to mistrust Vitalis Pope Damasus and others approved his profession as orthodoxall but as soone as they knew hee meant heretically they condemned and anathematized the very selfe same profession as hereticall The reason of all which is that which the same Gregory i Greg. Epist 2. ad Clid and after him Iustinian k Iust in Edict §. Tali expresseth quoniam eaedem voces because the very same words if they bee rightly expounded and understood are pious but if they be taken in an hereticall sense they are impious 22. That which Damasus and Gregorie did in the confession of Vitalis must bee done in the profession of the Nestorians when Catholikes say there are in Christ two natures and one person their confession is orthodoxall because they say it in an orthodoxall sense using the words as they ought to bee in their right naturall and usuall signification But when the Nestorians say the very fame words their saying is hereticall because they say it in an hereticall sense abusing the words to an equivocall unnaturall and unusuall signification Nay it not onely must but it was sayd it was decreed in this very case of Nestorius and that by the whole generall Councell at Ephesus themselves being Catholikes professed in Christ two natures and one person and yet they condemned l Nestorium duas quidem naturas et unam personam dicentem Ephesina prima Synodus condemnavit Iust in Edict §. Tali and accursed Nestorius who in words said the very same acknowledging in Christ two natures and one person Whose judgement herein being followed both by the Councell at Chalcedon this 5. Synod in a word by the whole Catholike Church is a warrant authenticall that a profession being for words one and the selfe same may and ought in some to be judged orthodoxal in others condemned as hereticall and the saying of old Ennius m apud Gell. lib. 11. ca. 4. though spoken to another purpose is verified in this Eadem dicta eademque oratio aequa non aeque valet 23. It is not enough then to prove either Ibas to be a Catholike or his Epistle orthodoxall because in it Ibas professeth two natures and one person in Christ for Theodorus and Nestorius professed the very same but the sense and meaning of his words set downe in that Epistle must be exactly considered whether he meant not as other Nestorians and even as Nestorius himselfe did two such natures as make two distinct persons also and whether he called them not one person in such a sense as meaning that they were one not by naturall or personall subsistence but onely by affection and cohabitation If it may appeare that this was indeed the meaning of Ibas in his Epistle then will those words of his profession be so farre from proving either him or his Epistle to be Catholike as Vigilius and Baronius doe thence inferre that it will demonstrate both Ibas in making that profession and Vigilius and Baronius in defending it to approve and maintaine Nestorianisme as the onely Catholike Faith 24. But can this thinke you be shewed indeed It may and that most clearly and most certainely The Emperour Iustinian in his religious Edict both testifieth and demonstrates this Heretickes saith he n Edict Iust §. Tali omitting other blasphemies in this Epistle of Ibas alleage this onely which the Author of that Epistle spake to beguile the simple thereby in that he professeth duas naturas unam virtuteÌ„ unaÌ„ personaÌ„ two natures one power one person which we our selves also doe confesse Sed certum est quod unicuique naturae suam personam attribuit but it is certaine that the Author of that Epistle Ibas doth attribute to eyther nature a severall person even as doe Theodorus and Nestorius whom this Writer doth defend For they plainly teaching two natures of the Word of God or of Christ whom they esteeme to be no more then a man doe call them those two natures one person per affectualem conjunctionem by an affectuall conjunction and as having one dignity and one honour And it is cleere that the writer of this Epistle saying that there is one vertue and one power of the two natures doth herein follow the foresaid heretickes Theodorus in his impious booke of the incarnation and Nestorius in many of his writings but specially in his Epistle to AlexaÌ„der where he saith that there is one authoritie one vertue one power one person in respect of dignitie and honour due unto them whereby it is declared that the author of this Epistle did according to their perfidious impiety use vocabulo naturarum pro personis this word Natures for Persons for one authoritie one power one dignity and honour non in diversis naturis sed in diversis personis dicitur is not said to bee in divers natures but in divers persons of the same nature as in the Trinitie we professe Thus Iustinian both truly and profoundly 25. The fift generall Councell witnesseth the same and
if not breed in themselves yet increase in al welwillers unto the truth a constant dislike nay detestation of their hereticall and Antichristian doctrines and for your selfe my earnest and continuall prayer to God shall bee that you may ever continue your religious and ardent desire to advance Gods truth and honour here which will procure your owne immortall fame in this world and through Gods mercy in Christ eternall felicity in that life which being unlike to this shall neither have end of dayes nor end of blessednesse Barton neare Bury S. Edmonds in Suffolke April 29. 1631. Your Lordships humbly devoted GEO CRAKANTHORP AN ADVERTISEMENT TO THE CHRISTIAN REAder touching the Scope Argument and manifold Vse of this ensuing Treatise IT is not ambition to live in other mens writings but desire if I could to breath some life into them which hath drawn me of late rather to preface other mens works than to perfit mine owne It grieved me much to see such evidences lie in the darke which being produced to publike view would give singular light to the truth And if Socrates the mirrour of modesty in a Philosopher held it no disparagement to professe that he performed the office of a Midwife to other mens wits by helping them in the deliverie of those conceptions wherein himselfe had no part why should I either feare or regard any detraction from the living for a charitable office in this kinde to the dead doubtlesse if the office of a Midwife be at any time needfull it is then most necessarie when the living Child is to be takeÌ„ out of the dead wombe of the parent Such was this Posthumus in whom I hope the observation of a Plin. Nat. Hist l. 7. c. 9. Auspicactùs enecta Parente nascuntur sicut Scipio Africanus primusque Caesarum à Caeso matris utero dictus simili modo natus et Manlius qui Carthaginem cum exercitu intravit Plinie concerning children thus borne will bee verified For the most part saith hee those Children prove most lively and fortunate of whom the Parents dye in travell never seeing them live who cost them their lives The instances are many very illustrious Fabius b Tert. lib. de resur carnis Possumus illos recogitare qui execto matris utero vivi aerem hauserunt Laberij aliquiet Scipiones et Fabius Caeso ter Consul Caeso thrice Consul Scipio surnamed the Africane Iulius Caesar the first most renowned of all the Romane Emperours and our peerlesse K. Edward 6. Howbeit I confesse it is an hard thing to calculate the nativity of a Book and certainly foretell what hazzard the impression of a Treatise of this subject may runne or guesse what argument will please the divers tasts of this distempered age yet this I am confident of that all who exactly view this worke in all parts and compare it with others drawne with the same Pencill will esteeme it like the c Cic. Orator Minerva of Phidias his Masterpeece It cost him neare as many yeares labour as Isocrates Panegyrique the Prime rose of his flowry Garden did him This Author perfected this worke in his life time and commanded it after a sort to the Presse in the last d Def. Eccles Angl. cap. 4. p. 19 De quo loto Concilio conscriptum scias à me librum integrum in quo innumerabiles Baronij fraudes mendacia etiam et haereses palam detectae c. booke hee published by command from supreme authority in defence of the Church of England against the calumnies of the revolted Archbishop of Spalata in these words The Church had beene undone if Vigilius his decree had taken place But the most holy Emperour Iustinian and the fift Councell then happily shewed themselves Pillars of the Catholike faith concerning which whole Councell I desire you to take notice of an intire booke written by mee wherein the innumerable frauds lies and heresies of Baronius are manifestly detected out of that booke if it see light and come to your hands you shall understand and plainly perceive how fraile and reedy your Romane Pillar is In which passage he insinuates that the argument of it is non de stillicidiis aut aquis pluviis not of Eves droppings or water passages but of the Roofe of the house and Arch it selfe the authority of Councels and the infallibilitie of the Papall Chaire The Title carried through the whole booke carrieth not the greatest part of it plus e Quintil. instit Orat. lib. 1. ca. 4. in recessu est quam à fronte promittit his warehouse within is fraught with more variety of rich stuffs thaÌ„ is set out on his shop An entire Treatise of the fift generall Councell hee professedly undertaketh but currente rota in the prosecution of this argument hee taketh tardy Baronius and Binius and other Romish falsaries hee runneth through all the later generall Councels he substantially handleth the maine Controversies concerning the power of calling and authority ratifying Ecclesiasticall Synods and so cleareth all Antiquity on the Reformed side in points of great moment that I perswade my selfe the wiser sort of our learned adversaries who will by stealth get a sight thereof will take good counsell and utterly derelinquish their most glorious but most vaine and false claime to generall Councels for if wee devide the Councels that beare the still of Oecumenicall and Generall according to the different times in which they were held into pure mixt and wholly corrupt the first of undoubted the second of doubtful the third undoubtedly of no authority at all the first are wholly ours the last are wholly theirs in the middle sort we part stakes w th them 4. of the first ranke have beene heretofore wrested perforce out of the Romanists hands by Bishop Iewell Bishop Bilson Dr Renols Dr Whitaker and others The fift this accomplisht Antiquary vindicates also from them and declareth how in the Councels of the second ranke we share with them and in fine hee leaveth them nothing intirely but the lees and dregs of all Councels the Laterane and Trent Habeant quod sunt let them have these lees to themselves who themselves Moab-like for these many ages are setled upon the lees of their owne corruption Had this judicious and industrious Writer bent all his forces against the Romanists false pretended right to generall Councels and forcibly beat them out of that Hold onely hee had deserved that EulogiuÌ„ which the f Panlus Fagius Epist ad Albertum est magna religio apud Judaeos non subiicere nomen eius qui boni aliquid dixit docuit aut scripsit Iewes give any Rabbin to whom they are indebted for aâ—y wise saying or apt note upon any Scripture text g Vid. comment Rabb passim ZICRONO LIBRACHA sit memoria ejus in benedictione blessed be is memorie How much more when he assaulteth the maine fort of the Romish faith and by impregnable authorities and infallible reasons overthroweth
the Popes supposed infallibility when hee sits in his Chaire and with his Romane Synod determineth out of it questions and defineth Articles of faith This is indeed to let Rome bleed in her Master-veine to strike heresie at the roote to crush the Cockatrice in the head not to batter and breake downe the mudd-wals but utterly to ruinate the very foundation of the Tower of Babell For howsoever Scriptures Fathers Councels and the Catholike Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are pompously brought in into their Polemike writings against us yet the last resolution of their faith is upon the Pope who gives credit to Fathers validity to Councels and authority at least quoad nos to the Scriptures themselves This their Champion Bellarmine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Skulkenius his second confidently undertakes to maintaine against all oppugners of the Popes transcendent power and uncontroulable verdict in a matters of eternall life and death The h Bell. de Rom. Pontif. lib. 4. ca. 1 in disputatione de verbo Dei Iam ostendimus iudicem controtroversiarum noÌ„ esse scripturam nec seculares Principes c. ac proinde ultimum iudicium summi Pontificis esse Cardinall thus flourisheth In our disputations about the word of God we have already shewed that the Scripture is not the Iudge of Controversies nor are secular Princes nor private persons though learned and honest but Ecclesiasticall Prelates in our disputations of the Councels it shall bee demonstrated that Councels generall and particular may judge of Controversies in religion but that judgement of theirs is then of force and validity when the Pope shall confirme it and therfore that the last judgement of all is the Popes to which all good Catholikes owe such absolute obedience that i Bell. de Rom. Pontif. lib. 4. ca. 5 in fine Si Papa erraret praecipiendo vitia vel prohibendo virtutes teneretur Ecclesia credere vitia esse bona et virtutes malas nisi vellet contra conscientium peccarâ— if the Pope should erre by commanding vices and prohibiting vertues the Church is bound to beleeve that vices are good and vertues bad unlesse she wil sinne against Conscience What sinne against Conscience in not sinning and not sinne against Conscience in committing sinnes knowne by the light of nature if the Man of sin command the one and forbid the other Woe bee to them saith the Prophet that call evill good and good evill put darknesse for light and light for darknesse bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter Esay 5.20 If Bellarmines divinity be currant Pope Pâ—â—â— the fourth needed not to have coyned twelve new Articles k Bulla Pij 4. super forma juramenti professionis fidei anno Dom. 1564. of faith affixt to the Canons of the Councell of Trent it had beene sufficient to have added this one I beleeve in the Pope his soveraigne infallibility for this is prora and puppis the Alpha and Omega the formalis ratio and demonstratio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a Papists beliefe The Popes power saith Skulkenius l SkulkeÌ„ Apolog. pro Bell. ca. 6. Pontisicia potestas est vel ut cardo fundameÌ„tuÌ„ et ut uno verbo dicam suma fidei Christianae is the hinge and foundation and to speake in a word the summe of Christian faith A short summe and soone cast up What then serves Fathers Councels Church-Traditions and Scripture it selfe for with them for little better than Ciphers which being added to the Popes authority in their Arithmetike makes something but without it nothing To begin with Scriptures they beleeve them to bee divine but not because the Scripture saith that all Scripture m 2 Tim. 3.16 is given by divine inspiration For so saith n Bell. de verbo Dei non scripto lib. 4. ca. 4. Etiamsi scriptura dicat libros Prophetarum et Apostolorum esse divinos tamen non certo id cream nisi prius credidero scripturam qua hoc dicit esse divinam nam etiam in Alchorano Mahometi passim legimus ipsum Alchoranum de Caelo à Deo missuÌ„ c Bellarmine wee read every where in the Alcoran of Mahomet that the Alcoran was sent from God yet we beleeve it not why then doe they beleeve them to bee the word of God hee answers readily propter traditionem Ecclesiae for the Churches tradition o Quicunque non innititur doctrinae Romanae Ecclesiae ac Romani Pontificis tanquaÌ„ regulae fidei infallibili à quâ etiam sacra Scriptura robur trahit et authoritateÌ„ haereticus est coÌ„tra LutheruÌ„ Silvester Pierius outvies the Cardinall affirming that the holy Scripture taketh force and authority from the Romane Church and Pope Vpon which promise of Pierius Gretzer p Gretz defens Bell. lib. 1. de verbo Dei id selum pro verbo Dei veneramur ac suscipimus quod nobis Pontifices ex Cathedra Petri traduÌ„t inferres this peremptory conclusion We doe receive and reverence that alone for the word of God which the Pope in Peters Chaire doth determine to be so Strange divinity to beleeve that the Scriptures receive their authority from the Church that is that God receives this authority from man May we not justly upbraid the present Romanists as Tertullian q Tertul. Apol. adversus gentes Ca. 5. doth the ancient heathen apud vos de humano arbitratu divinitas pensitatur nisi homini Deus placuerit Deus non erit Homo jam Deo propitius esse debebit With you Deity is estimated by mans valuation unlesse God please man he shall not be God now man must bee propitious to God for if the Pope be not propitious to the Scripture to allow it for Gods word it shall not passe for such in Rome As for the Fathers they deale with their writings as Faustus Manicheus did with the writings of the Apostles in r August lib. 11. contra Faustum Manicheum ca. 2. inde probo inquiebat Faustus hoc illius esse illud non esse quia hoc pro me sonat illud contra me which hee takes it for a good proofe that such passages are the Apostles true writings because they made for him others were spurious because they made against him Fathers saith Å¿ Dureus adversus Whitakerum fol. 140. Neque eniâ— patres censentur cum suum aliquid quod ab ecclesia non acceperunt velscribunt vel dicunt Dureus are not to bee accounted Fathers when they teach or write any thing of their owne which they have not received from the Church meaning the Romane and Gretzer t Gretz lib. 2. de iure more prohibendi libres noxios ca. 10. Nam Ecclesiae pater ille dicitur qui Ecclesiam salutari doctrinae pabulo alit et pascit iam ergo si pro salutari doctrinae pabulo admetiaur Lelium et Zizania non Pater est sed Vitricus backs this assertion with a reason drawn from the formall
est an 1442. yeares after the end of the Councill at Basil He earnestly maintained the decree of that Councill resolving f Lib. 2. de Concor Cathol ca. 17. that a generall Councill is omni respectu tam supra Papam quam supra sedem Apostolicam is in every respect superior both to the Pope and to the Apostolike see Which he proveth by the Councils of Nice of Chalcedon of the sixt and 8 generall Councils and he is so confident herein that he saith Quis dubitare potest sanae mentis what man being in his wits can doubt of this superioritie Witnesse Iohn de Turrecremata a Cardinall also who was famous at the same time g Claruit an 1460. Tritem de Scrip. eccl in Ioh. de Tur. He thought he was very unequall to the Councill at Basil in fauour be like of Eugenius the 4 who h Poss in Ioh. Tur. made him Cardinall yet that he thought the Popes judge ment in defining causes of faith to be fallible and his authority not supreme but subject to a Councill Andradius will tell you i Lib. de author gener Concil pa 88. in this manner Let us heare him Turrecremata affirming that the Definitions of a Council concerning doctrines of faith are to be preferred Iudicio Rom. Pontificis to the judgement of the Pope and then he citeth the words of Turrec that in case the Fathers of a generall Councill should make a definition of faith which the Pope should contradict This was the very case of the fift Councill and Pope Vigilius dicerem judicio meo quod Synodo standum esset et non personae Papae I would say according to my judgement that we must stand to the Synods and not to the Popes sentence who yet further touching k Turr. summ de eccl lib. 2. cap. 93. that the Pope hath no superior Iudge upon earth extra casum haeresis unlesse it be in case of heresie doth plainly acknowledge that in such a case a Councill is superior unto him Superior I say not onely as he minceth the matter by authoritie l Tunc Synodus major est Papa nō quidem potestate jurisd ctionis sed authoritate discretivi judicij Turrec of discretive judgement or amplitude of learning in which sort many meane Bishops and presbyters are far his superiors but even by power of Iurisdiction seeing in that case as he confesseth the Councill is a superior Iudge unto the Pope and if he be a Iudge of him he must have coactive m Bel. lib. 3. de ver Dei ca. 9. § Praeterea Et lib. 2. de cōcil ca. 18. authoritie and judiciall power over him Witnesse Panormitane an Archbishop and a Cardinall n Poss in Nich. Tudisc also a man of great note in the Church both at and after the Councill of Basil He o Cap. Significasti de Elect. extrav professeth that in those things which concerne the Faith or generall state of the Church Concilium est supra Papam the Councill in those things is superior to the Pope He also writ a booke in defence of the Councill at Basill so distastfull to the present Church of Rome that they have forbid p Poss loco citat it to be read and reckned it in the number of Prohibited bookes in their Romane Index At the same time lived q Obijt an 1467. Tritem in Ant. Ros Antonius Rosellus a man noble in birth but more for learning who thus writeth r Monarch part 2. ca. 15. I conclude that the Pope may be accused and deposed for no fault nisi pro heresi but for heresie strictly taken or for some notorious crime scadalizing the whole Church and againe s Li. cod par 3 c. 21 Though the Pope be not content or willing to be judged by a Councill yet in case of heresie the Councill may condemne and adnull sententiam papae the Iudgement or sentence of faith pronounced by the Pope and he gives this reason thereof because in this case the Councill is supra papam above the Pope and the superior Iudge may be sought unto to declare a nullitie in the sentence of the inferiour Iudge Thus he and much more to this purpose Now although by these the first of which was a Belgian the second a Spaniard the third a Sicilian and the last an Italian it may be perceived that the generall judgement of the Church at that time and the best learned therein was almost the same with that of the Councill at Basill that neither the Popes authoritie is supreme nor his judgement in causes of faith is infallible yet suffer me to adde two other witnesses of those who were after that Councill 32. The former is the Iudgement of Vniversities quae t Orthuin Gra. in fasc rer expet pa. 240. fere omnes which all in a manner approved and honored that Councill of Basil The other is the Councill at Biturice some r Ortel Synon take it for Burdeaux called by Charles the seventh the French King in which was made consensu omnium x Ioh. Marius lib. deschis conc ca. 23. ecclesiasticorum et principum regni by the consent of the whole clergy and all the Peres of France that Pragmaticall Sanction which Iohn Marius calls y Ibid. medullam the pith and marrow of the decrees of the Councill at Basil One decree of that Sanction is this z Gag annal Fran. Lib. 10. The authoritie of the Councill at Basil and the constancie of their decrees perpetua esto let it be perpetuall and let none no not the Pope himselfe presume to abrogate or infringe the same This Sanction was published with full authoritie not seventy yeares before the Councill at Lateran as Leo the tenth witnesseth a Ab ipsius Sanctionis editione vix annos 70 fluxisse Cōc Later Sess 11. pa. 639. b. Loquitur autem desecunda ejus edit nam antea promulgata erat an 1438. teste Gag Mario that is some foure yeares after the end of the Councill at Basill And although the Popes whose avarice and ambition was restrained by that sanction did detest it as Gagninus saith b Lib. 10. non secus ac perniciosam haeresin no otherwise then as a dangerous heresie yea and labored tooth naile to admit it yet as saith the universitie of Paris c In sua Appel à Lean. 10. ad Concil by Gods helpe hactenus prohibitum extitit they have beene ever hindred untill this time of Leo the tenth Indeed Pius secundus indevored and labored with Lewes the 11. to have it abrogated and he sent d Io. Mar. lib. citat ca. 24. a solemne embassador Card. Balveus a very subtill e Homo versutus planeque perversus ib. fellow to bring this to passe but after much toyling both himselfe and others re infecta redijt he returned without effecting the Popes desire And to goe no further Leo the
of all ages speaking by the mouthes of al general Councels of Fathers of Popes of al Catholikes this holy Church condemneth and accurseth the assertion of Pope Vigilius The Cardinall was too diminutive in his extenuations when he spake so faintly The holy Church doth not so generally receive it 11. Let us beare with the Cardinals tendernesse of heart the Popes sores must not be touched but with soft and tender hands Seeing the Cardinall hath brought the Pope and the holy Church to be at ods and at an unreconciliable contradiction the Pope denying the Church affirming that a man after his death may noviter be condemned it is well worth the labour to examine whether part the Cardinall himselfe will take in this quarrell you may be sure the choyce on either part was very hard for him he hath here a worse matter than a wolfe by the eares This is dignus vindice nodus a point which will trie the Cardinals art wisdome piety constancy and faire dealing And in very deed he hath herein plaid Sir Politike would be above the degree of commendation The Cardinall is a man of peace hee loves not to displease either the Pope or the Church he knew that to provoke either of them would bring an armie of waspes about his eares and therfore very gravely wisely and discreetly he takes part with them both and though their assertions bee directly contradictory he holds them both to be true and takes up an hymne of Omnia bene to them both 12. First he sheweth that the Church saith right in this manner Although h Bar. an 553. nu 185. it be proved that one dyed in the peace of the Church and yet it doe afterwards appeare that in his writings he defended a condemned heresie and continuing in that heresie died therein and but dissemblingly cōmunicate with the Church the holy Church useth to condemne such a man jure even by right Having said as much as can bee wished on the Churches part the Cardinall will now teach that the Pope also saith right in this manner Pope Vigilius i Bar. an 553. nu 233. had many worthy reasons for his defence of the Three Chapters by his Constitution and among those worthy reasons this is one for if this were once admitted that a man who dyeth in the communion of the Church might after his death be condemned pateret ostium this would open such a gap that every ecclesiasticall writer though hee dyed in the Catholike Communion may yet after his death out of his writings be condemned for an heretike Thus Baronius 13. O what a golden and blessed age was this that brought forth such a Cardinall The Church decreeth that a man after his death may noviter be condemned for an heretike and it decreeth aright The Pope decreeth the quite contrary that no man after his death may noviter be condemned for an heretike and hee also decreeth aright and with good reason So both the Church saith well the Pope saith well you can say no lesse then Et vitula tu dignus hic or because the Cardinall saith better than they both and what Iupiter himselfe could never doe makes two contradictory sayings to be both true and both said well hee best deserveth let him have all the prize Vitula tu dignus utrâque 14. I told you before and this ensuing treatise will make it as cleare as the Sunne that Baronius having once lost the path forsaken that truth where only sure footing was to be found wandreth up and downe in and out in this cause as in a wildernesse treading on nothing but thornes wherewith feeling himselfe prickt he skips hither and thither for succour but still lights on briars and brambles which doe not onely gall but so intangle him that by no meanes he can ever extricate or unwinde himselfe for if one listed to make sport with the Cardinall it clearly and certainly followeth that if the Church say true then the Pope saying the contrary doth say untrue Againe if the Pope say true then the Church saying the contrary doth say untrue and then upon the Cardinals saying that they both say true it certainly followeth that neither of them both say true and yet further that both of them say both true and untrue and yet that neither of them both saith either truth or untruth 15. But leaving the Cardinall in these bryars seeing by the upright and unpartiall judgement of the whole Catholike Church of all ages we have proved the Popes decree herein to be erroneous and because it is in a cause of faith heretical let us a little examine the two reasons on which Vigilius groundeth this his assertion The former is taken from those words of our Saviour k Matth. 18.18 whatsoever ye binde on earth whence as you have seene Vigilius and as he saith Gelasius also collecteth that such as are not on earth or alive cannot be judged by the Church 16. The answer is not hard our Saviours words being well considered are so farre from concluding what Vigilius or Gelasius or both doe thence collect that they clearly and certainly doe enforce the quite contrary for he said not Whatsoever yee binde or loose concerning those that are on earth or living in which sense Vigilius tooke them but Whatsoever concerning either the living or dead ye my Apostles and your successors being upon earth or during your life time shall binde or loose the same according to your censure here passed upon earth shall by my authority bee ratified in heaven The restrictive termes upon earth are referred to the parties who doe binde or loose not to the parties who are bound or loosed The generall terme whatsoever is referred to the parties who are bound or loosed whether they be dead or alive not to the parties who binde or loose who are onely alive and upon earth Nor doth our Saviour say Whatsoever yee seeme to binde or loose here upon earth shall bee bound or loosed in heaven for ecclesiae clave errante no censure doth or can either binde or loose either the quicke or the dead but he saith Whatsoever ye doe binde or loose if the party be once truly and really bound or loosed by you that are upon earth it shall stand firme and bee ratified by my selfe in heaven So the parties who doe binde or loose are the Apostles and their successors onely while they are upon earth the parties who are bound or loosed are any whosoever whether alive or dead the partie who ratifieth their act in binding and loosing is Christ himselfe in heaven For I say unto you whatsoever ye binde on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever yee loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven 17. This exposition is clearly warranted by the judgement of the whole catholike Church which as we have before declared both beleeved taught and practised this authority of binding and loosing not onely upon the living but upon the
which is in holding the true foundation of faith The contrary of all this falleth out unto them of the present Romane Church For not onely their sinnes are made more sinfull unto them there being no mantle to cover or hide them from the eyes of God and shield them from his vengeance but even their best and most holy actions which they doe or can performe though they should doe nothing but sing hymnes with David or feed Christs flock with Peter or give their goods to the poore and their bodies to be burned for Christ even these I say are so tainted with the venome of that Apostaticall foundation that being of themselves holy actions yet unto them they are turned into sinne and become pernicious and mortiferous For whatsoever act being in it selfe either good or indifferent any of their Church except onely the Pope himselfe who is a member transcendent doth performe because they doe it in obedience unto him whose supreme authority they make the foundation not onely of their faith but of all good actions in doing any such act there is a vertuall and implicit obedience to Antichrist an acknowledgement of his supreme power to teach and command what is to be done a receiving his marke either in their hand or forehead so that every such act is not onely impious but even Antichristian and containeth in it a vertuall and implicit renouncing of the whole faith In regard whereof none can ever sufficiently I say not commend but admire the zeale of Luther who though he was so earnest to have the Communion in both kinds contrarie to the doctrine and custome of the Romane Church yet withall he e Kemnit Exa Conc. Trid. 1. Tract de communi sub utraque specie pa 136. professed that if the Pope as Pope should command it to be received in both kinds he then would receive it not in both but in one kind onely Blessed Luther it was never thy meaning either to receive it onely in one or to deny it to be necessary for Gods Church and people to receive it in both kindes Thou knewest right well that Bibite ex hoc omnes was Christs owne ordinance with which none might dispense Thou for defence of this truth among many was set up as a signe of contradiction unto them and as a marke at which they directed all their darts of malicious and malignant reproaches Farre was it from thee to relent one hare-bredth in this truth But whereas they f Conc. Constant Sess 13. Conc. Trid. Sess 22. in decreto super petit de concessione calici◠Bell. lib. 4. de Euchar ca. 28. taught the use of the Cup to be indifferent and arbitrarie such as the Church that is the Pope might either allow or take away as he should thinke fit upon this supposall and no otherwise didst thou in thine ardent zeale to Christ and detestation of Antichrist say that were the use of both or one kinde onely a thing indeed indifferent as they taught it to be if the Pope as Pope should command the receiving in both kindes thou wouldst not then receive it so lest whilst thou might seeme to obey Christ commanding that but yet upon their supposall as a thing indifferent thou shouldest certainly performe obedience to Antichrist by his authoritie limiting and restraining that indifferency unto both kindes as now by his authority hee restraines it unto one The summe is this To doe any act whether in it selfe good or indifferent but commanded to be done by the Pope as Pope to pray to preach to receive the Sacraments yea but to lift your eyes or hold up your finger or say your Pater noster or your Ave Maria or weare a bead a modell a lace or any garment white or blacke or use any crossing either at Baptisme or any other time to do any one of these or any the like eo nomine because the Pope as Pope teacheth that they are to be done or commands the doing of them is in very deed a yeelding one selfe to be a vassall of Antichrist a receiving the marke of the beast and a vertuall or implicit deniall of the faith in Christ So extremly venemous is that poison which lyeth in the root of that fundamentall heresie which they have laid as the very rocke and Foundation of their faith 34. Hitherto we have examined the former position of Baronius which concerned Heresie His other concerning Schisme is this g Esse schismatici convicti sunt qui diversam à Romano Pontifice his decernendis sententiam sectati essent Bar. an 547. nu 30. That they who dissented from Pope Vigilius when hee decreed that the Three Chapters ought to be defended were Schismatikes A most strange assertion that the whole Catholike Church should bee schismaticall for they all dissented from Vigilius in this cause that Catholikes should all at once become Schismatikes yea and that also for the very defence of the Catholike faith I oppose to this another and true assertion That not onely Pope Vigilius when he defended the Three Chapters and forsooke communion with the condemners of them was a Schismatike himselfe and chiefe of the Schisme but that all who as yet defend Vigilius that is who maintaine the Popes Cathedrall infallibility in causes of faith and forsake communion with those that condemne it that those all are and that for this very cause Schismatikes and the Pope the ringleader in the Schisme 35. For the manifesting whereof certaine it is that after Pope Vigilius had so solemnly and judicially by his Apostolicall authority defined that the Three Chapters ought to be defended there was a great rent and Schisme in the Church either part separating it selfe from the other and forsaking communion with the other First the holy Councell and they who tooke part with it anathematized h Coll. 8. talis anathema sit saepe ibid. the defenders of those Chapters thereby as themselves expound it declaring their opposites to be separated i Nihil aliud significat anathema nisi à Deo separationem Coll. 5. pa. 551. b. from God and therefore from the society of the church of God On the other side Pope Vigilius they who were on his part were so averse from the others that they would rather endure disgrace yea banishment as Baronius k An. 553. nu 221. sheweth thē communicate with their opposites But I shal not need to stay in proving that there was a rent and schisme at this time betweene the defenders condemners of those chapters Baronius professeth it saying l Ibid. The whole Church was then schismate dilacerata torn asunder by a schisme Againe m An. eodem 553. nu 250. After the end of the Councell there arose a greater war then was before Catholikes so he falsly calls both parts being then divided among themselves some adhaering to the Councell others holding with Vigilius and his Constitution Againe Many n An. eodem nu 229. relying
a new song and say just as the Emperor saith Ait aio Negat nego It is wisely done principibus placuisse viris for the Kings wrath is the messenger of death If after both these hee become a meere Neutralist and Ambodexter in faith holding communion with all sides Catholikes heretickes and all this is also an act of rare wisdome the Pope is now become another Saint Paul factus est omnia omnibus with Catholikes he 's a Catholike that he may gaine Catholikes with Heretickes he 's an Hereticke that he may gaine heretickes he 's all with all that hee may gaine them all If when the Emperor the generall Councell the whole Church calls for his resolution in a cause of faith if then hee step into his infallible Chaire and thence by his Apostolicall authoritie define that the three Chapters that is that Nestorianisme shall for ever bee held for the Catholike faith O wisely done he now drops oracles from heaven in Cathedra sedet the voice of God and not of man If when hee is banished for his obstinacie against the truth upon some urgent cause which then he discernes he calls againe for his holy Trevit and thence decrees the quite contradictorie to his former Apostolicall sentence In this he 's wiser then in all the rest for by this he shews that he 's more wise and powerfull then all the Prophets and Apostles ever were They silly men could make but the one part of a contradiction to be true but the Pope he is tanto y Tanto ipse potentior est Prophetis effectus quanto differentius prae illis nomen haereditavit Nam cui prophetarum aliquando dictū est Tu es Petra Bar. an 552. nu 9. potentior Prophetis so much more wise and powerfull then all the Prophets that hee can make both parts of a contradiction to be infallible truths and unto which of the Prophets was it ever said Tu es Petra But the Pope is a Rocke indeed a Rocke upon which you may build two contradictories in the doctrine of faith and in them both say unto him Tu es Petra Such a Rocke neither the Prophets nor Apostles nor Christ himselfe ever was So wise so exceeding wise is the Pope in all his turnings even as wise as a wethercocke for turning with the wind and weather 17. Againe when the Pope his instruments or Inquisitors to whom Phalaris Busiris and all the heathen persecutors may yeeld exercise against us for maintaining the truth of God all exquisite hellish tortures to which the old heathenish were but ludus jocus all which they doe must be extolled as due punishments and just censures of the Holy Father of the holy Church of the Holy inquisition of the Holy house all must bee covered with the mantle of holinesse On the other side when they resist the most religious lawes or Edicts of Kings or Emperors when Vigilius or any of them being by an holy generall Councell declared and condemned for an Hereticke are for their obstinate rebellion against the truth justly punished though Iustinian yea Iustice it selfe shall use rather moderate then severe correction against them they forsooth must be accoumpted catholikes Cōfessers holy Martyrs such as suffer for religion for the sacred lawes and for the Catholike faith but Iustinian the Defender of the faith must be called Iulian Iustice be termed Scelus z Vidisti Scelus c. Bar. an 554. nu 2. and the Church for that cause said to bee in farre worse condition then in the times of Nero Dioclesian or any of the heathen Tyrants Such an happie thing it is to bee a Pope or Papist for then their wavering shall be Constancie their rebellion Religion and fortitude their folly greate and rare wisedome their heresie Catholike doctrine and their most condigne punishments shall be crowned with Martyrdome 18. The other thing which I observe is what a strong faith Papists had need to have who rely upon the Popes judgement which changeth out and in in and out so many times who yet are bound to beleeve al the Pope definitive sentences in causes of faith that is to speake in plaine tearmes who are bound to beleeve two contradictories to bee both true both of them the infallible oracles of God Or if any of them have so weake a faith that he can but beleeve the one I would gladly learne of some who is an Oedipus among them In this case of two Contradictorie Cathedrall decrees such as were these of Pope Vigilius whether of the Popes definitive judgements that is according to their language whether of the sayings of God is true and whether false or what strength the one hath more then the other If the Apostolicall sentence of Vigilius delivered cum omni undique cautela and by his Cathedrall authoritie in defence of the Three Chapters be repealeable by a second why may not the second which cannot possibly have more authoritie bee repealed by a third and the third by a fourth and fourth by a fift and so in Infinitum If the Pope after seaven yeares deliberation and ventilating of the cause while hee is all that time in peace and libertie may be deceived in his judiciall and Cathedrall sentence in a cause of faith how may wee be assured that when some yeares after that the tediousnesse of exile and desire of his pristine libertie and honour perswades him to make a contrary decree he may not therein also bee deceived If the Popes decrees made in libertie peace and prosperity be of force why shall not the decree of Vigilius in defence of the Three Chapters be an article of faith If those free decrees may be admitted by a stronger sentence when the Pope is in banishment how may any beleeve their Laterane and Trent decrees as doctrines of faith For why may there not once againe come some other Iustinian into the world as great pitie it is but there should who in these or future times may minister that soveraigne medicine to cleare the Popes judgement and restraine or close him up in some meaner estate and farre lower place whence as out of a darke and low pit he may discerne those coelestiall truths in the Word of God like so many Starres in heaven which now being invironed with the circumfused splendor of the Romane Court he cannot possibly behold If those Three Chapters were to bee condemned why did the Pope defend them at the time of the Councell If they were to be defended why did he condemne them after his returne from exile Nay if the Three Chapters were orthodoxall why did the Pope at any time first or last by his Apostolicall sentence condemne them If they were hereticall why did he at any time first or last by his Cathedrall and Apostolicall sentence defend them I confesse I am here in a Labyrinth if any of the Cardinals friends will winde mee out he shall for ever be Theseus unto me CAP. XVI
condemned the Three Chapters or consented to the Synod either by any pontificall or so much as by a personall profession but that hee still persisted in his hereticall defence of the same Chapters and subject to that censure of Anathema which the fift Councell denounced against all the defenders of those Chapters 26. Some perhaps will marvell or demand how it should come to passe that the Emperour who as wee have shewed was so rigorous and severe in imprisoning banishing and punishing the defenders of the Three Chapters and such as yeelded not to the Synod should wink at Vigilius at this time who was the chiefe and most eminent of them all which doubt Baronius also u Bar. an 553. nu 222. moveth saying he who published his Edict against such as contradicted him Num Vigilio pepercit may wee thinke he would spare Vigilius and not banish him who set forth a Constitution against the Emperours Edict Minime quidem Truly the Emperour would never spare him saith the Cardinall Yes the Emperour both would and did spare him Belike the Cardinall measures Iustinian by his owne irefull and revengefull minde Had the Cardinall beene crossed and contradicted nothing but torture exile or fire from heaven to consume such rebells would have appeased his rage Iustinian was of a farre more calme and therefore more prudent spirit Vigilius deserved and the Emperour might in justice for his pertinacious resisting the truth have inflicted upon him either imprisonment or banishment or deposition or death It pleased him to doe none of all these nor to deale with the Pope according to his demerits Iustinian saw that Vigilius was but a weake and silly man one of no constancy and resolution a very wethercocke in his judgement concerning causes of faith that hee had said and gainsayd the same things and then by his Apostolicall authority judicially defined both his sayings being contradictory to be true and truths of the Catholike faith the Emperour was more willing to pity this imbecility of his judgement than punish that fit of perversenesse which then was come upon him Had Vigilius beene so stiffe and inflexible as Victor as Liberatus as Facundus were whom no reason nor perswasion would induce to yeeld to the truth it s not to be doubted but hee had felt the Emperours indignation as well as any of them But Vigilius like a wise man tooke part with both he was an Ambodexter both a defender and a condemner of the three Chapters both on the Emperours side and against him and because hee might bee reckoned on either side having given a judiciall sentence as well for condemning the three Chapters as for defending them it pleased the Emperour to take him at the best and ranke him among the condemners at least to winke at him as being one of them and not punish him among the defenders of those Chapters 27. Nor could the Emperour have any way provided better for the peace and quiet of the Church than by such connivence at Vigilius and letting him passe as one of the condemners of those Chapters The banishing of him would have hardned others and that far more than his consent after punishment would have gained the former men would have ascribed it to judgement the latter to passion and wearinesse of his exile But now accounting him as a condemner of the Three Chapters if any were led by his authority and judgement the Emperor could shew them Loe here you have the judiciall sentence of the Pope for condemning the three Chapters if his authority were despised by others then his judiciall sentence in defence of the Chapters could doe no hurt and why should the Emperor banish him if he did no hurt to the cause nay it was in a manner necessary for the Emperour to winke at him as at a condemner of the three Chapters for he had often testified to the Councell that Vigilius had condemned both by words and writings those Chapters hee sent the Popes owne letters to the Synod to declare and testifie the same those letters as well of the Emperour as of the Pope testifying this were inserted into the Synodall Acts x Conc. 5. Coll. 1. 7. Had the Emperour banished Vigilius for not condemning those Chapters his owne act in punishing Vigilius had seemed to crosse and contradict his owne letters and the Synodall Acts. If Vigilius be a condemner of the Chapters as you say and the Synodall Acts record that he is why doe yee banish him for not condemning those Chapters If Vigilius bee justly banished as a defender of those Chapters how can the Emperours letters and Synodall Acts be true which testifie him to be one of the condemners of those Chapters So much did it concerne the Emperors honour and credit of the Synod that Vigilius should not be banished at that time Vigilius had sufficient punishment that he stood now a convicted condemned and anathematized heretike by the judgement of the whole and holy generall Councell but for any banishment imprisonment or other corporall punishment the Emperour in his wisedome in his lenity thought fit to inflict none upon him Onely he stayed him at Constantinople for one or as Victor saith for moe yeares after the Synod to the end that before he returned the Synodall sentence and Acts of the Councell being every where divulged and with them nay in them the judgement of Vigilius in condemning those Chapters as the Synod did might settle if it were possible the mindes of men in the truth or at least serve for an Antidote against that poison which either from the contrary constitution or his personall presence when he should returne could proceed 28. And by this is easily answered all that the Cardinall and Binius collect from those great offices gifts rewards and priviledges with which the Emperor graced and decked Vigilius and so sent him home which the Cardinall thinkes the Emperour would never have done unlesse Vigilius had consented to the Synod and condemned the three Chapters Truly these men can make a mountaine of a mole-hill There is no proofe in the world that Vigilius was so graced at his returne no nor that the Emperour bestowed any gifts or rewards upon him at all That which the Emperour did was the publishing of a pragmaticall sanction wherein are contained divers very wholesome lawes and good orders for the government of Italy and the Provinces adjoyning The date of the sanction is in August in the eight and twenty yeare of Iustinian and thirteene after the Cons of Basilius which was the next yeare after the Councell But that Vigilius at that time returned there is no solid proofe and Victor y Vict. in Chron. an 16. corruptè legitur 17. post Coss Basilij who then lived and was present at Constantinople puts the death of Vigilius in the 31. yeare of Iustinian or 16. after Basilius who yet by all mens account who write of his returne returned from Constantinople either in the same or
later from the decree of the Councell It was assembled say Baronius ſ Sup. hoc cap. nu 2. and Binius Pontifice resistente contradicente the Pope resisting and contradicting it Whence they inferre that it was an unlawfull assembly not gathered in Gods name In this their reason both the antecedent and consequence are unsound and untrue Did Pope Vigilius resist this Councell and contradict the calling or assembling thereof What testimonie doth Baronius or Binius bring of this their so confident assertion Truly none at all What probabilities yet or conjectures Even as many Are not these men think you wise worthy disputers who dare avouch so doubtfull matters and that also to the disgrace of an holy ancient and approved Councell and yet bring no testimonie no probabilitie no conjecture no proofe at all of their saying Ipse dixit is in stead of all 12. But what will you say if Ipse dixit will prove the quite contrarie If both Baronius and Binius professe that Vigilius did consent that this Councell should be held Heare I pray you their own words and then admire and detest the most vile dealing of these men Hanc Synodum Vigilius authoritate pontificia indixit saith Binius t Not. in 5. Con. §. Concilium Vigilius called and appointed this Synod by his papall authority Againe u Ibid. The Emperour called this fift Synod authoritate Vigilij by the authority of Pope Vigilius Baronius sings the same note It was very well provided saith he x An. 553. nu 23 that this Oecumenicall Synod should be held ex Vigilii Papae sententia according to the minde and sentence of Pope Vigilius who above all other men desired to have a Councell Againe y Ibid. nu 24. The Emperour decreed that the Synod should be called ex ipsius Vigilii sententia according to the minde of Vigilius And a little after It was commendable in the Emperor that he did labour to assemble the Synod ex Vigilij Papae sententia according to the minde and sentence of Pope Vigilius Neither onely did the Pope consent to have a Councell but to have it in that very city where it was held and where himselfe then was Indeed at the first the Pope was desirous z Optavimus frequentissime supplici voce poposcimus eundē coetum ad quēlibet Italia locū aut certe ad Siciliam c. Vigil in Constit apud Bar. an 553. nu 56. and earnest to have it held in Sicily or in some Westerne Citie even as Pope Leo had laboured a Epist Leon. 24 with Theodosius for the Councell which was held at Chalcedon But when Iustinian the Emperour would not consent b Quod quia fieri Serenitas vestra non annuit Vigil loc cit to that petition as neither Theodosius nor Martian would to the former of Leo Vigilius then voluntati c Bin. Not. in Conc. 5. §. Concilium Imperatoris libens accessit very willingly consented to the Emperours pleasure in this matter that the Oecumenicall Councell should be held at Constantinople Say now in sadnesse what you thinke of Baronius and Binius Whither had they sent their wits when they laboured to perswade this Councell to be unlawfull because Pope Vigilius resisted and contradicted the assembling thereof whereas themselves so often so evidently so expresly testifie not onely that it was assembled by the consent and according to the minde will pleasure desire authority and sentence of the Pope but the very chiefe act and royaltie of the summons they challenge though falsely to the Pope the other which is an act of labour and service to be as it were the Popes Sumner or Apparitor in bringing the Bishops together by the Popes authoritie that and none but that they allow to the Emperour 13. Many other testimonies might bee produced to declare this truth That of Sigonius d Lib. 20. an 553. The Emperour called this Synod Vigilio Pontifice permittente Pope Vigilius permitting him that of Wernerus e An. 544. Vigilius jussit Concilium Constantinopoli celebrari Vigilius commanded that this Councell should be held at Constantinople That of Zonaras f An. to 3. in Iustiniano and Glicas g Cui Concilio praerant Eutychius Domnus Vigilius Glic annal part 4. pa. 379. who both affirme that Vigilius was Princeps Concilij the chiefe Bishop of the Councell not chiefe among them that sate in the Councell for there he was not at all nor chief◠in making the Synodall decree for therein he contradicted the Councell but chiefe of all who sued to the Emperour and procured the Councell as being desirous of the same But omitting the rest the whole generall Councell yea and the Popes owne letters put this out of all doubt This say h Coll. 8. p. 584. a the whole Councell even in their Synodall sentence Consensit in scriptis in Concilio convenire Vigilius under his owne hand-writing consented to come together and be present with us in the Synod Againe the Legates sent from the Councell to invite Vigilius said i Coll. 2. pa. 523. thus unto him Your Holinesse knoweth quod promisistis unà cum Episcopis convenire that you have promised to come together with the other Bishops into the Councell and there to debate this question Vigilius himselfe writ k Coll. 1. p. 521. b thus to the Bishops of the Councell We knowing your desire praedictis postulationibus annuimus have consented to your petitions that in an orderly assembly being made wee may conferre with our united brethren about the three Chapters I doubt not but upon such faire and undoubted records every one will now confesse First that if to be gathered by the Popes consent and authority will make a Councell lawfull which with them is an authentike rule then this fift Councell is without question in this respect most lawfull Secondly that Baronius and Binius are shamelesse both in uttering untruths in reviling this holy Synod which they would perswade to be unlawful because it was assembled the Pope resisting it whereas this Councell to have beene assembled with the consent yea as they boast with the authority also of Pope Vigilius not onely other Writers but the Synodall Acts the whole generall Councell the letters of Vigilius and the expresse words of Baronius and Binius themselves doe evidently declare 14. Come now to the Consequence Say the Pope had resisted the assembling of this Councell was it for this cause unlawfull was it no generall Councell What say you then to the second Councell of which Baronius thus writeth l An. 553. nu 2 It was held repugnante Damaso Pope Damasus resisting the holding thereof Will they blot that also out of the ranke of generall and lawfull Synods If not why may not this fift also bee a generall and lawfull Synod though Vigilius had with tooth and naile resisted the same Shall the peevishnesse or perversnesse of
x John 21.15 17. and all the Apostles equally with him as also all y Cum ei Petro dicitur ad omnes dicitur Amas me â— pasce oves meas Aug. lib. de agone Christ ca. 30. who either in their Presbyteriall or Episcopall authority succeed unto them for in their Apostolicall none of them had or have any successour that all these are Pastours z Ier. 23.1 2. Ezech. 34. per totum et Act. 20 28. et 1 Pet. 5.2 also of Gods flock but they are all subordinate to the Imperiall Pastours of the people of God the sheep-hooke is subject to the Scepter the Crosier to the Imperiall Crowne Concerning Kings Saint Peter gives a generall precept Feare God a 1 Pet. 2.17 and honour the King which honour he expresly calleth subjection b Ibid v. 30. and obedience in the same Chapter first wee owe obedience to God and next God unto Kings and Emperours Concerning all others excepting Kings and such as have Kingly authority Saint Paul gives a like generall precept Let c Rom. 13.1 every soule be subject to the higher powers even to those who by Gods warrant and as his Vicegerents doe beare d Ibid. v. 4. the sword to them every soule ought to be subject who can except thee from this generality This is commanded saith Chrysostome e Chrys in ca. 15. ad Rom. Not onely to secular men but to all to Monkes to Priests and Bishops the Apostle teacheth them ex debito obedire even in duty to obey Kings and Princes sive Apostolus sis sive Propheta sive Euangelista sive quisquis tandem fueris not the Prophets not the Apostles not the Euangelists not any soule is exempt from this subjection and if not Peter himselfe then certainly not his Vicar as the Pope f Quem Primatem diocescos Synodus dixit praeter Apostolâ—â— primi Vicarium Nich. 1. Epist 8. § Quem cals himselfe And this very subjection of the Pope and all Bishops to the Emperours to omit Silvester Iulius Leo and Gregorie Pope Agatho in most submissive manner acknowledgeth almost seven hundred g Conc. 6. habitum an 680 Bar. et Bin. years after Christ h Conc. 6. Act. 4. pa. 22. in Epist Agathonis et Rom. Synodi Omnes nos praesules vestri imperij famuli All we Bishops are the servants of your imperiall highnesse saith Agatho and a Synod of 125 Westerne Bishops with him to which purpose hee cals Italy his servile i Epist Agath Act. 4. pa. 12. b. Province and Rome his servile City adding that he did this at the Emperours sacred command pro obedientiae satisfactione pro obedientia quam debuimus for that obedience which hee did owe to the Emperour nay yet in more lowly manner he saith not that hee but studiosa obedientia nostri famulatus implevit the willing obedience of his owne servitude to the Emperour did performe this Nor was this the profession onely of Agatho and the Westerne Bishops but the whole sixt Councell approved the same Petrus k Sermo acclamatorius Conc. generalis 6. Act. 18. pa. 89. b. per Agathonem loquebatur Saint Peter spake by the mouth of Agatho Now because they all acknowledge the Pope to be the first and chiefe Bishop in the Church for they all in that Councell approve l Defiâ—it Concil 6. Act. 17. pa. 80. a. the Councels of Chalcedon and first Constantinopolitane in both m Conc. 2. Can. 5 et Conc. Chal. Act. 16. post Can. 27. which that is decreed seeing by the confession of Agatho by them approved the Pope is a servant and oweth subjection and obedience to the Emperour much more are all other Bishops in the whole world servants and subjects to the Imperial command and that by the consenting judgment of the whole catholike Church represented in that sixt generall Councell 8. The same Soveraignty and supreme Pastorall authority of Kings is after this againe testified in that which they call the eighth generall Councell more than n Conc. illud 8. habit an 869. Bar. et Bin. eight hundred and sixty yeares after CHRIST Basilius the Emperour said before the Councell in his letters o Conc. 8. Act. 1. pa. 880. b. unto them The government of the Ecclesiasticall ship is by the Divine Providence committed unto us in that ship doth saile all who are members of the Church Bishops or Laicks and the government of the whole ship is given to the Emperour Hee like the Pilot rules and directs all Raderus the Iesuite and Binius following him in stead of nobis have put vobis in the latine text as if Basilius had said that the government of the Church belonged to Bishops not to Emperours It is a Iesuiticall and fraudulent tricke for which no colour of excuse can bee made The Greeke set on the very opposite Page p Apud Rad. pa. 224. is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nobis in the Surian CollectioÌ„ q Extat apud Bin. to 3. Con. pa. 858. of those Acts it was rightly read nobis their owne Cardinall Cusanus r Cusan lib. 3. de Concor Cathi ca. 19. out of the ancient Acts of that Synod cites it commisisset nobis the very sense inforceth it to be nobis for the Emperour addeth Therefore doe wee with all sollicitude exhort and warne you that you come to the holy Oecumenicall Synod which had beene a most foolish collection had he not said nobis but vobis for then not to him but to them should have belonged the care to call the Bishops to the Synod yet against all these evidences of truth Raderus and Binius falsifie the text corrupt the words and pervert the sense by turning nobis into vobis that so they might deprive the Emperour of that supreme authority which Basilius there professed to belong unto himselfe and the Legates of the Patriarchs in the name of the whole Synod approved the Emperours saying Å¿ Conc. 8. Act. 1. pa. 880. b. Recte Imperatores nostri monuere the Emperours have said well To goe no further in this matter that which was cited out of the Scripture concerning Ioshua and David doth clear this point for seeing all who sit in Imperial thrones are like Ioshua and David to feed the Israel of God and the Israel of God containes the whole flocke and all the sheepe of Christ ex t Bell. lib. 1. de Pontif. Rom. ca. 15. § At nobis hac ipsa voce Pasce difficile non est demonstrare summam potestatem ei attribut It is easie even by this very word Feed to demonstrate that supreme power doth belong to Kings seeing unto them it is said Feed my sheepe feed my people Wherefore seeing Kings are commanded by God to rule by their Pastorall authoritie all others and all others are commanded to obey and bee subject unto them and their Imperiall commands as unto their supreme Pastour hereupon earth it hence
de vit Constant c. 6 saith Constantine assembled this Oecumenicall Councell hee called the Bishops by his letters and his call was mandatory for Mandatum erat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad hanc rem Constantine commanded that they should come The very Synod it selfe writeth thus in their Synodall letters We are assembled m Citantur verba tum à Socr. lib. 2. ca. 6. tum à Theodor. lib. 1. ca. 11. by the grace of God mandato Imperatoris and by the mandate of Constantine the Emperour so Christopher son translates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both in Socrates and Theodoret. Of the second their owne Synodall Epistle to Theodosius witnesseth We came n Epist Synod Conc. Const 1. apud Bin. to 1. Conc. pa. 518. hither ex mandato tua pietatis by the command of your Imperiall highnesse Of the third Councell the Synodall acts and Epistles are cleare witnesses Your Highnes hath cōmanded o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iussit suo pio edict Act. Conc. Ephes to 4. ca. 11. by your holy Edict the Bishops out of the whole world to come to Ephesus Againe the synod p Act. Conc. Ephes to 2. ca. 1. being assembled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Edict decree authority and appointment of the Emperour and the like is repeated I think not so little as threescore times in those Acts. And as they came at the Emperors command so would they not depart without his leave and licence We beseech q Epist Synodi ad Imper. to 2. Act. Conc. Eph. ca. 17. your piety that you will at length free us from this exile and the Emperour granted their request for injungit r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to 5. Act. Conc. Eph. ca 11. eis he commanded injoyned them to returne to their owne Cities and againe Regio ſ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid. mandato imperatum est singulis Episcopis there was a mandate to all the Bishops by the Emperour to returne to their owne Provinces Of the Councell at Chalcedon the whole Synod saith in their Epistle to Pope Leo This t Epist Syn. Chalc. post Act. 16. holy and generall Synod was assembled by the grace of God sanctione Imperatorum and by the sanction or decree of our most holy Emperours Againe this synod was gathered ex decreto u Conc. Chalc. Act. 1. pa. 1. Imperatorum by the decree of the Emperours secundum jussionem according to his command And the like is repeated almost in every action Of the fift we shewed before that it was called Iussione x Conc. 5. Coll. 8. pa. 584. a. piissimi Imperatoris by the command of the most holy Emperour Iustinian Of the sixt it is usually said it was assembled secundum y Conc. 6. Act. 1.2.3 reliquis Imperialem sanctionem aut decretum and the like by the Imperiall sanction or decree And the whole Councell in their prosphoneticall oration to the Emperour saith z Conc. 6. Act. 18 pa. 89. a. unto him your mansuetude hath congregated this holy and great assembly Of their second Nicene it is said that it was assembled per. a Conc. Nic. 2. Act. 1. pa. 297. a act 2. pa. 308 b. act 5. pa. 338. b. pium Decretum Sanctionem Mandatum by the holy Decree Sanction and Mandate of the Emperors of that which they call the eighth the synodall definition expresseth Quod à b Conc. 8. Act. 10. pa. 897. a. Basilio Imperatore coactum that it was assembled by Basilius the Emperour and the whole Synod cryed out We all thinke so we all subscribe to these things And Pope Stephen in his letters to Basilius speaking of this Synod saith c Epist Stephan post Conc. 8. pa. 900. Did not the Romane See send Legates to the Councell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 te imperante Raderus and Binius translate it but it is rather to be read ad imperium and summam jussionem tuam the Pope sent Legates not when Basilius was Emperour which was no great honour or token of duty to be done but at the most high command of Basilius which testified his subjection and duty to the Emperour whom the Pope in that same Epistle acknowledgeth to be the highest d Quam vis supremam Christi in terris personam formamque geris Steph. Ep. eadem p. 890. b. person who here upon earth sustaines the person of Christ and in the sixt Action of the same e Conc. 8. act 6. pa. 886. a. Councell it is said Imperator hanc Synodum coegit the Emperour assembled this Synod 12. Thus all those Councells which are usually reckoned for generall and approved for the space of a thousand yeares were all called by Imperiall jussion and command the religious Emperours exercising that right in commanding all Bishops even the Popes to such Councels all the Bishops even the Popes by their willing obedience acknowledging that authority and power to be in the Emperours and therefore they gladly obeyed those imperiall jussions and commands And as they were all assembled by Imperiall calling so were they all governed by Imperiall presidency That Constantine was President in the Nicene Pope Stephen in the Epistle lately cited expresly witnesseth Doe you not remember saith he f Steph. Papa in Epist ad Basil Imper. post 8. Conc. what Pope Silvester said in the Nicene Synod praesidente ibi S. Constantino Saint Constantine being President therein His owne Acts in the Councell of moderating g Euseb lib. 3. de vit Const ca. 13. and repressing the jarres of the Bishops of burning h Ruff lib. 1. c. 2 their bookes of accusations and quarrels of drawing them to unity that with one consent they should define the causes proposed doe manifest the same for all these are acts of the Imperiall presidency That Theodosius was President in the second may appeare not onely for that he was present i Ipsoque praesente Theodosio Epist Iustin post Conc. 5. pa. 605. a. therein and present no doubt as Constantine had beene before as a moderator of their actions but that small remainder of the Acts of that Councell import also the same for he directed and that by his Mandatum k Insuperque mādaret Imperator ut diligens inquisitio sieret Sozom. lib. 7. c. 6 what the Bishops should doe and when they out of their partiall affections would have preferred each his owne friend to the See of Constantinople the Emperour perceiving that corrected their partiall judgement Iussit l Sozom. lib. 7. ca. 7. inscribere chartae hee commanded them to write a bill of such men as they thought fit for the place himselfe nominated Nectarius and though many of the Bishops at first contradicted that choice yet he drew them all to his sentence and so the whole Synod consented upon the ordination of Nectarius 13. For the holy Ephesine Synod all the Acts are full of this Imperiall
lawfully assemble they could not but onely by Imperiall it hence clearly ensueth that for defect of lawfull calling and assembling they are all of them no other than unlawfull Councels Againe seeing no Synods are congregated in Christs name i Congregari in nomine Christi nihil aliud est quam ab eo congregari qui habet à Christo authoritatem congregandi Bell. lib. 1. de Conc. ca. 17. § At hoc but such as are assembled by him who hath from Christ authority to assemble them which in Christian Kingdomes none hath as wee have shewed but onely Kings and Emperours and seeing none of those ten were assembled by them it hence further and certainly ensueth that never one of those ten were gathered in Christs name and if not in Christs then sure in no other but in the name of Antichrist and so all of them in respect of their calling not only unlawfull but even Antichristian Councels 28. After their calling consider their proceedings for as those Councels were unlawfully assembled so were they also unlawfull by defect of the other essentiall condition which is due and synodall order for they all not onely wanted synodall freedome and order but which is worse they wanted that which is the onely meanes to have synodall freedome and order observed in any generall Councell and that is the Imperiall Presidencie in none of them was the Emperour in them all k Addamus his 8. primit reliqua generalia Concilia in quibus omnibus sinè controversia Pontifex Rom. praesedit Bell. lib. 1. de Conc. ca. 20 § Si ergo the Pope was President In the first Laterane Calistus l Papa Calixtus 2. coram innumera multitudine Cleri et populi eidem Concilio Viennensem nominat Vsper diceret Lateranensi ut et Bin. agnoscit notis suis in illud Cōc praesedit Abb. Vrsper ad an 1119. et huic Concilio praesedit Pontifex Bin. notis suis ad id Conc. pa. 1317. b in the second Innocentius m Synodus maxima Romae praesidente summo Pontifice Junocētio celebratur Otho Frising lib. 7. ca. 23. the second in the third Alexander n Omnes scriptores fatentur eidem Concilio Pontificem Romanum praesedisse Bin. Not. in Conc. Later 3. § Oecumenicum to 3. pa. 1351. the third in the fourth Innocentius o Ei Pontifex Rom. praesedit Bin. not in Conc. Later 4. to 3. Con. pa. 1466 b the third and the like might bee shewed in the rest but that Bellarmines words may ease us of that labour who speaking of all those ten Councels saith p Bell. lib. 1. de Con. ca. 20. § Si ergo In eis omnibus sine Controversia Pontifex Rom. praesedit the Pope without doubt was President in them all 29. Nor was this an Episcopall Presidencie a preheminence only precedence before other Bishops in the Synod such as any Bish to whō the Emp. pleased to confer that dignity might lawfully enjoy when he gave it to none by name it then by his tacit consent or permission fell as it were by devolution upon the chiefe Bishop that was present in the Councell Such a Presidencie though it bee not due to the Pope seeing in the ancient Councels hee neither had it nor grudged that other should have it yet are wee not unwilling to allow that unto him if contenting himselfe therewith hee would seeke no more But the Presidencie which hee now desires and in all those ten Councels usurped is meerely Imperiall the Presidencie of governing the Synod and ordering it by his authority and power the very same which in all the generall Councels for a thousand yeares after Christ the Emperour held and had it as one of his Royalties and Imperiall rights none of all the Catholike Bishops in those Councels ever so much as contradicting much lesse resisting the same For any Bishops most of all for the Pope to take upon them such a Presidencie utterly overthrows all liberty and order in Councels for by it all the Bishops are to be kept in awe and order and the Pope who of all other is most exorbitant and farthest out of square ought by this to be curbed reduced into order Even as when Catiline took upon him to bee the Ruler and guide to his assembly and a punisher of disorders among them though all the rest willingly submitted themselves and that with a solemne oath q Hos ut se nefando jurejurando adstringerent adegit puerum enim mactavit juramentoque inito super ejus visceribus eadem ipse cum alijs comedit Dio Cass lib. 37. to bee ordered by him in their actions yet for all this order they were no free Romane Senate but a Conjuration of Conspirators striving to oppresse r Catilinam luxuria primum tū egestas in nefaria Concilia opprimendae patris impulere Senatum confodere totam rempub funditus tollere et quicquid nec Hannibal videretur optasse L. Flor. lib. 4. ca. 1. the Romane State liberties and ancient lawes Right so it is in these Synods when the Pope who is the Lord of misrule and Ring-leader of the Conspirators takes upon him this Presidencie to order Councels though the rest not onely consent but binde themselves by a sacred oath ſ Ego Nic. ab hac hora fidelis ero S. Petro et Ecclesiae Romanae dominoque meo Papae Papatum adjutor ero ad defendendum Forma est juramenti secundum quam jurant Episcopi et hodiè omnes recipientes dignitatem â Papa Extra de jurejur ca. Ego N. lib. 2. tit 24. ca. 4. to be subject to his authoritie this very usurpation of such Presidencie doth eo ipso exclude and banish al liberty synodall order makes their assemblies meere Conjurations against the truth and ancient faith of the Church 30. How could it now be chosen but that whatsoever heresie the Pope with the faction of his Catilinarie Conspiratours embraced should in such Councels prevaile against the truth The Imperiall authority was the onely hedge or pale to keepe the Pope within his bounds that being once removed he said he did he decreed what he listed The rule of his Regiment was now the old Canon of Constantius Quod ego volo pro Canone sit the proofe of all their decrees was borrowed from their predecessors the old Donatists Quod t Aug. lib. 2. cöt Ep. Parm. ca. 13. volumus sanctum est Not Emperours not Bishops none might controule him or say unto him u Quid excogitare verum vel verisimile possunt quibus non vel Rex vel Casar non populus non clerus non generalis Synodus non denique tota Ecclesia dicere potest cur ità facis Cl. Espen in cap. 1. ad Titum pa. 76. Domine cur ita facis The Bishops were tyed to him by an oath x De quo supra cap. Ego N. Extra de jreujur to defend the Papacy that
hortatur Casus Vergerius vero qui periculum suum intelligeret recusat ibid. that as by reason of their want of this Imperiall presidency they had many disorders so by reason they excluded that Presidency they had nay they could have nothing in them at all but disorder 40. You see now the severall kinds of unlawfull Councells as well by want of Imperiall calling or of Imperiall Presidency as when neither is wanting by the abuse of that Imperiall authority in the Synod And though the unlawfulnesse of those ten later Synods doth now appeare to be farre greater than of those ancient Councells before mentioned seeing in all the ancient there was not onely a lawfull calling but a lawfull presidency also both which were wanting in the other tenne besides the unlawfull proceedings which were equally in both or rather farre worse in the later yet is there one especiall difference that is principally to be remembred which issuing from the former diversity of unlawfulnesse makes a greater oddes than at the first one would imagine and this it is When the unlawfulnesse of any Synod ariseth as in their tenne Synods it doth from the want of the first condition that is of lawfull calling and authority to assemble and judge be the consultations and proceedings of such Synods otherwise never so orderly and their resolutions never so just and true yet for making of any Canon or Decree or giving any synodall judgement there is an invalidity in all such Synods and a meere nullity in all their Decrees Canons and Iudgements They had no authority to assemble in a Synod much lesse o Si legitima synodus non fuit planum est nulla authoritatem potuisse habere nullius roboris sunt illius canones Bell. lib. 2. de Pont. ca. 18. §. Caeterum §. Ac deinde Sententia à non suo Iudice dicta nihil firmitatis obtinet Greg lib. 11. Epist 56. have they any authority to make a Law or give judgement in that Synod That which is invalid in the spring and originall must needs in all the subsequent actions derived from thence depending thereon retain the same invalidity And seeing it is neither multitude nor learning nor wisdome but authority which is the fountain and foundation of all Lawes Canons and Iudgements where this authority is wanting in any person or assembly it is as impossible for such a person or assembly to make a law give any judgement or pronounce any judiciall sentence as to erect an house in the ayre or build without any foundation And truly this toucheth at the quick all those ten Councels which wanting authority to assemble them were no other but tumultuous seditious and unauthorized assemblies There was no more strength validity or vigour in any of their Decrees to binde as lawes or synodall judgements than there was in such Edicts as Spartacus and Catiline in Rome or Iacke Cade in this Kingdome should have published and set forth specially in that which he like another Pope intended to be his fundamentall law That all lawes should proceed out of his mouth Those which they untruly call the Canons Decrees or Iudgements of those Synods are onely the opinions resolutions and consultations of so many seditious men which cōvened and conspired together in those conjurations synodall Decrees or Ecclesiasticall Lawes and Iudgements they were not they could not be In the head they are nipt and tainted with a nullity of authority they beare this tainture and nullity throughout every part and parcell of their determinations 41. But when the unlawfulnesse of any Synod ariseth as in the ancient Councels at Arimine Millane and Ephesus it did from the want of the other condition that is of orderly proceedings onely the Bishops being both lawfully called and having a lawfull President the case is here farre different their acts and sentences though they bee unlawfull yet are they truly judiciall and have the authority of synodall judgements and therefore doe binde others though not in conscience to accept them as true yet with patience to submit themselves to their censures till by like authority they be revoked and repealed Even as in civill Courts though an unjust or partiall Iudge either for feare favour hatred desire of lucre or any other perturbation of minde shall wilfully pervert justice and due proceedings and pronounce an unjust sentence yet is this act judiciall and stands in force of a judgement till by the like or higher authority it be reversed because such an one had authority and rightfull power to judge and give sentence in that cause though he abused his authority to injustice and wrong Right so it is in synodall and Ecclesiasticall assemblies when they are lawfully called and authorized to heare and judge any matter their want of due orderly and just proceedings makes their judgment unjust and shewes them to be wicked and malicious conspirators against the truth but it doth not make the decree to be no judgment or no judiciall sentence of a Councell The corruption is now in the branch not in the root the abuse of their authority makes not a nullity in their act It hinders not them to bee truly and rightfully Iudges but it demonstrates them not to bee upright good and just Iudges it shewes their sentence to be wicked and impious but it hinders it not to be a judiciall sentence Whereof that one among many in the Ephesine Latrociny is a cleare example In it p Flavianum et Eusebium ab omni Episcopali dignitate judicamus esse alienos Conc. Ephes in act Con. Chal. act 1. pa. 57. b. Eusebius Bishop of Dorileum was most wickedly and unjustly deposed from his See yet this their unjust sentence stood in force till by the like authority of another generall Councell at Chalcedon it was repealed for in it Eusebius sate not at the first as a Iudge but as an accuser q Et Eusebius et Theodoretus in ordine accusantium sedent Con. Chalc. act 1. pa. 13. a. of Dioscorus and in the place of accusers He entreated the holy Councell that all the Acts r Conc. Chalc. act 3. pa. 66. and Iudgements at Ephesus viribus carere might be adnulled and declared to be of no force and that hee might enjoy as before that sentence he did Sacerdotali dignitate his Episcopall dignity and See The holy Synod consented to his just request received him as a member ſ Nam act 6. pa. 101. b. Eusebius Dorilei subscribit definitioni fidei inter alios of the Councell restored him to his See and adnulled all the acts of the Ephesine Latrociny requesting t Praesens omne Concilium deprecatur Imperatorem quatenus pia lege sanciat neque Synodum illam Ephesinam 2. nominati neque quidquam quod actum est in eteneri Conc. Chalc. act 10. p. 115. §. Anatolius pa. 116. Omnes eadem dicimus the Emperour to ratifie and confirme that their Iudgement 42. Such an
non re seu honore non potestate Bell. lib. 1. de Pontif. Rom. ca. 24. § â—orro and Binius k Binius verba Bellar. repetit et ait id patere ex Conc. Nic. Can. 7. notis in Epist 3. Anaclet to 1. Conc. pa. 105. not in Conc. Nicen. ca. 7. pa. 31â— a. professe though it was but a single Bishorick subject as both Ierome l Hoc ibi in Conc. Nic. decernitur ut Palestinae Metropolis Cesarea sit et totius Orientis Antiochia Hier. Epist ad Pammach contra Johan Epis Hieros and the Nicene m Habeat Aelia honoris consequentiam post Antiochiam Metropoli propria dignitate servata Conc. Nic. Can. 7. Councell declare to the Bishop of Antioch as his Patriarke and to the Bishop of Cesarea Palestina for there is another in Cappadocia as his Metropolitane yet for honor of our Saviors resurrectioÌ„ in that place it had the name of n Hieros limitaâ—â—â—â—scopus scâ—â—bat loco sed nullâ— Archi-Episcopo vel Episcopo praeerat Bell. loc cit Patriark and preeminency in Councels o Nam sedit 4. loco in Concilio Niceno et subscribit ante Episcopum Caesariensem in Conc. Nicene et Constant ut ex subscriptione liquet et in Conc. Chalc. Act 5. to the Bishop of Caesarea Not to the authoritie and power of a Patriarke for that it had and had it justly long before this fift Councell even by the decree and judgement of the Councell of Chalcedon Iuvenalis p Epist 62. Leonis had sued for it in the Ephesine Councell but the Bish of Antioch as it seemeth then being unwilling to manumit him as it were free him from his subjection Cyrill resisted it writ to Pope Leo praying him to do the like But after long contention both parties being throughly agreed the matter was brought to the Councell of Chalcedon where Maximus and Iuvenalis the Bishops of both Sees first of all and before the whole Councell professed that they were both willing that q Placuit mihi ait Maximus et Iuvenali propter multam contentionem ut sedes Antiochena habeat duas Phaenicias et Arabiam sedes autem Hierosolymorum habeat tres Palestinas et rogamus ex decreto vestrâ— haec firmari Conc. Chalc. Act. 7. pa. 105. the Bishop of Antioch should hold the two Pheniciaes and Arabia and the Bishop of Ierusalem should hold the three Palestinaes and they both requested the whole Synod to decree confirme and ratifie the same The whole Councell thereupon by their decree coÌ„firmed the same all the most revereÌ„d Bishops cryed r Ibid. We all say the same and we consent thereunto After them the most glorious Iudges in the name of the Emperor added Imperiall authority and the royall assent to the Synods decree saying Firmum etiam per nostrum decretuÌ„ sententiam Concilij in omni tempore permanebit hoc this shall abide firme for ever by our decree and by the judgement of the Councell that the Church of Antioch have under it the two Pheniciaes and Arabia the Church of Ierusalem have under it the three Palestines Thus the Iudges The same Decree of this Councell at Chalcedon is expresly testified both by Evagrius Å¿ Evag. l. 2. ca. 18 and Nicephorus t Nic. Callist lib. 15. ca. 30. So untrue it is which Guil. Tyrius and out of him Baronius avoucheth that the Church of Ierusalem was first made a Patriarchall See or had the Provinces and Metropolitanes of Casarea and Scithopolis annexed unto it by the fift Councell that it is undoubtedly certaine that it had with the title and dignity true Patriarchal authority and power over divers Provinces together with their inferiour Bishops conferred upon it with a plenary consent of the whole Church in the Councell of Chalcedon And that you may see the most shamefull dealing both of Bar. and Binius in another place where their choller against this fift Councell was not moved they acknowledge that truth for intreating of the Councell at Chalcedon In this seventh Session of it saith Baronius u An. 451. nu 124. and the like doth Binius x Not. in Conc. Chalc. pa. 184. b. was the controversie coÌ„posed betwixt the Bishops of Antioch IerusaleÌ„ and the cause being judged the two Pheniciae and Arabia were given to the Bishop of Antioch and the three Palestines were adjudged to the Bishop of Hierusalem ex quibus jam perspicuè â—â—paret jus Metropolis in Hierosolymitanam Ecclesiam esse translatum whence it doth evidently appeare that the right of the Metropolis which before belonged to the Bishop of Caesarea was translated to the Bishop of Ierusalem So they who yet in hatred against the Acts of the fift Councell with faces of Adamant deny that truth which here they confesse to be cleare and conspicuous 3. But saith the Cardinall y An. 553. nu 246. the decree of Chalcedon was made post absentiam Legatorum when the Popes Legates were now gone and so they being absent is to be held invalid O the forehead of the Cardinall Were the Popes Legats absent were they gone Truly they were not onely present at this decree and consenting unto it but after it was proposed by Maximus and Iuvenalis they were the very first men that gave sentence therein whose sentence the whole Councell followed For thus it is sayd z Conc. Chalc. Act. 7. pa. 105. a Pascasinus and Lucentius the most reverend Bishops and Boniface a Presbyter these holding the place of the Apostolike See said by Pascasinus These things betwixt Maximus and Iuvenalis are knowne to be done for their good and peace nostrae humilitatis interloquutione firmantur and they are confirmed by the interloquution of our humility ut nulla imposterum de hac causa sit contentio that never hereafter there should be any contention about this matter betweene these Churches Is it credible that the Cardinall could be so audacious and impudent as to utter such palpable untruths Vnlesse he had quite put off I say not modesty but reason sense and almost humane nature Let this stand for the second capitall untruth in this passage 4. Yet Pope Leo himselfe saith Baronius a Loco citato withstood that Decree of the Councell at Chalcedon because it was prejudiciall to the rights of other Churches and by reason he consented not it was not put in execution as it was after this Decree of the fift Synod Had the Cardinall and his friends beene well advised they would feare and bee much ashamed once to mention the resistance of Pope Leo to the Councell at Chalcedon either in those Patriarks or in the other of Constantinople for first the resistance of Leo which was meerely ineffectuall demonstrates that the Popes contradiction with all his might and power can neither disanull nor infringe the judgement of a generall Councell which is no small prejudice to his Princehood or Princely
send him in scarlet robes unto heaven and woe be to that Church which shall thinke Martyrdome an hurt unto it which was and ever will bee the glory of the Catholike Church Non decet sub spinoso capite membrum esse delicatum when Christ his Apostles and glorious Saints and Martyrs have gone before upon thornes and briars wee must not looke to have a silken way strewed with Roses and Lillies unto the Kingdome of God This which is yet the very worst that can befall any Catholike Reu. 14.13 is no harme to him who hath learned that lesson Blessed are they which die in the Lord so whether Pope and Emperour be both of one or of a different religion his presence with the Emperour may happen to doe good but it is certaine it can never possibly doe hurt unto the Church The greatest hurt that was ever done to the Church by this meanes was when Constantine after his baptisme by Pope Silvester in liew of his paines and in token of a thankful minde sealed unto him that donation k Donationis exemplar extat Dist 96. ca. Constantinus of the Romane and Westerne Provinces That one fable I must particularly except for by it hath beene lift up the man of sinne Christian Empires have beene robbed the ignorant seduced the whole Church abused Nero did not the thousand part so much hurt by martyring Peter and Paul when they were present with him as the most falsly supposed donation hath done to the Catholike Church 5. Will you yet see the great vanity of the Cardinall in this reason drawne from the event and the Emperours presence Some l Agapetus Barbarico coactus Imperio c. Bar. an 536. nu 10. qui Agapeti profectionem eo anno contigisse probat ten yeares before this Pope Agapetus being sent by Theodotus King of the Gothes came to Constantinople and to the same Emperour It so fell out that at that time Anthimus an heretike and an intruder held the Sea of Constantinople Agapetus deposed him that is hee declared and denounced which was true indeed that hee was never lawfully Bishop of that See and that himselfe did not nor ought others to hold him for the lawfull Bishop thereof whereupon Mennas was chosen and consecrated Bishop by Agapetus in Anthimus his roome Vigilius was called by the Emperour Agapetus sent by a Gothish usurper Vigilius called by a religious and most orthodoxall Professor Agapetus sent by an heretike and Arian King Vigilius called purposely about causes of faith Agapetus sent only about civill and but casually intermedling w th Ecclesiasticall causes You would now even blesse your selfe to see how the Card. here turns this argument ab eventu by it proves the Popes presence at the same Court with the same Emperor to have brought such an infinite unspeakeable good unto the Church as could scarce bee wished Agapetus m Agapetus licet à Rege visus sit missus ad Imperatorem à Deo tamen proficisci missus apparuit ut imperaret imperantibus c. Bar. an 536. nu 12. no longer sent from Theodotus a barbarous Goth but even from God himselfe and by him commanded to goe thither with an errant from heaven hee seemed to bee sent to intreat of peace but hee was commanded by God to goe ut imperaret imperantibus that he should shew himselfe to be an Emperour above the Emperour He like Saint Peter n Illud ipsum ferme contigit Agapeto quod olim Petro c. Jbid. nu 13. had not gold nor silver being faine to pawne the holy Vessels for to furnish him with money in the journey but he was rich in the power and heavenly treasures of working miracles Now was demonstrated o In his omnibus peragendis summa potestas Apostolicae sedit Antistitis demonstrata est c. Ibid. nu 22. the highest power of the Pope that without any Councell called about the matter as the custome is hee could depose a Patriarke at other times hee may not have that title and a Patriark of so high a See as Constantinople and so highly favoured by the Emp. Empresse Now was demonstrated p Ibid. nu 23. that Pontifex supra omnes Canones eminet that the Popes power is above all Canōs for herby was shewed that he by his omnipotēt authority may do matters w th the Canōs without the Canons against all Canons seeing his judgement was without a Synod which in a Patriarks cause is required fuit secundum supremam Apostolicae sedis authoritatem it was according to his supreme authority which is transcēdent above all Canōs or to use Bellarmines q Bell. lib. 1. de Conc. ca. 18. Pontifex et Princeps Ecclesiae sūmus potest retractare judicium Concilij et non sequi majorem partem phrase hee did shew himselfe to bee Princeps Ecclesiae one that may doe against the whole Church Nay if you well consider r Bar. an 536. nu 31. admirari non desines you will never cease to wonder to see that Agapetus a poore man as soone as hee came to Constantinople should imperare Imperatoribus eorū facta rescindere jura dare omnibusque jubere to command Emperours to adnull their Acts to depose a Patriarke and thrust him from his throne to set another there to set downe lawes and command all men and to do all this without any Synod such a Pope ſ Jbid. nu 70. was Agapetus that I know not an similis alius inveniri possit whether such another can bee found among them all Thus declameth Baronius Where thinke you all time was the Cardinals argument ab adventu Experience teacheth that when Popes leave their See and goe to the Court or Emperours presence the ship of S. Peter is then in great hazzard If Agapetus his comming to Constantinople or to the Emperour did not hazzard or endanger the Church how came it to bee perillous a few yeares after in Vigilius and where were now the most wise examples of Pope Leo and the other who in great wisedome could never be drawne to the East and from their owne See how was the holy Church now fixed to Rome when Agapetus had it in the greatest majesty and honour at Constantinople perceive you not how these arguments lie asleepe in the cause of Agapetus which the Cardinall rouseth up when Vigilius goes to Constantinople This ab adventu as all the Cardinals Topicke places is drawne from the art and authority of Esops Satyr If they make for the Pope as the event did in Agapetus then the Cardinall with his Satyrs blast will puffe them up and make them swell to demonstrations But if they make against the Pope as did the event in Vigilius all arguments in the world drawne from the cause effect or any other Topicall or demonstrative place the Cardinall with a contrary breath can turne them al to Sophistications He is another Iannes or Iambres of
himselfe into his See to set up altare contra altare Pope against Pope S. Peters Chaire against S. Peters Chaire but hee must adde indignities also to the holy Bishop Had he permitted him to live in his owne Country in some quiet though meane estate it had beene some contentment to innocent Silverius But Vigilius could not endure that away with him out of Rome out of Italy out of Europe So by Vigilius meanes is Silverius sent to Patara a City in Licia e Pomp. Mel. in Lib. 1. in Licia once famous for the Temple and Oracle of Apollo f Vnde Patareus Apollo dictus Vad. in Pom. Mel. loc cit there hee is fed with the bread of tribulation and with the water of affliction But the rage of Vigilius was further incensed by two occasions the former on Silverius part He though in exile yet as then being the onely true and lawfull Pope in a Councell held * Silverius habito illic Concilio Episcoporum in Vigilium sententiam damnationis intorquet Bar. an 538. nu 18. Vigilio veniente Pataram venerabilis Episcopus c. Liber loco cit at Patara by the authority of S. Peter and the fulnesse of his Apostolicall power thundred out from Patara a sentence of excommunication of deposition of damnation against the usurper and invader of his See Vigilius Which being an authenticke and undenyable record of the good conditions of Vigilius and how fit a man he was to make a Pope I will relate here some parts thereof Pope g Silverij Epist 1 quae est ad Vigilium pseudopapam Silverius having told Vigilius how he sought against law to obtaine the Papall dignity in the time of Boniface the second addes this At that h Viz. tempore Bonifacij time the pastorall and pontificall authority should have cut away execranda tua auspicia thy execrable beginnings but by neglect a little wound insanabile accrevit apostema is become an incurable impostume which being senslesse of other medicines is to be cut off with a sword For thou art led i Nequissimi spiritus audacia ambitionis phrenesin concipiens Silv. ibid. with the audaciousnesse of the most wicked fiend thou art franticke with ambition thou labourest to bring the crime of error or heresie into the Apostolike See thou followest the steps of Simon Magus whose disciple thou shewest thy selfe to be by thy workes by giving money by thrusting out me and invading my See Receive thou therefore this sentence of damnation sublatumque tibi nomen ministerium sacerdotalis dignitatis agnosce and know that thou art deprived of the name and all function of priestly ministery being damned by the judgement of the holy Ghost and by the Apostolike authority in us for it is fit ut quod habuit amittat that hee should lose that which he hath received who usurpes that which he hath not received Thus Silverius who being then the onely true Pope pronounced this sentence of deprivation of degradation and damnation out of the highest authority of their Apostolike Chaire which alone is so authenticall a testimony of the most execrable conditions of Vigilius that if I said no more few Logicians I thinke would complaine that the description of Vigilius were imperfect being so fully so plainly and so infallibly expressed both by his Genus a damnable and damned intruder and by his foure differences or at least properties hereticall schismaticall symoniacall Satanicall 13. This no doubt moved the choler of Vigilius not a little to heare such a thundring from Patara as if Apollo were there set againe on his sacred trevet But the other accident was farre worse than this For perhaps Vigilius had learned that maxime which Lewis k Contin of the History of France collect by Thomas Daunet in Lewes 11 in fine the French King sometime uttered That hee who feared the Popes curse should never sleepe a quiet night Many other Catholikes and among them the Bishop of Patara grieved much to see the injury and ignominy of the innocent and miserably afflicted Bishop Silverius went l Venerabilis Patarae Episcopus venit ad Imperatorem judicium Dei contestatus est de tantae sedis expulsione c. Liber loc cit to the Emperour to plead on his behalfe declaring both his innocency and extreme oppression The Emperour whose delight it was to doe justice to all and relieve the innocent especially sacred persons and most of all the Pope was so affected therewith that he commanded that m Jmperator revocari Romam Silverium jussit de literis illis à Silverio ut aiebant ad Gothos scriptis judicium fieri ut si probaretur c. Liber loc cit Silverius should be brought againe from exile to Rome and that there should be taken a melius inquirendum of the whole cause and if he were found guilty of the treason objected then hee should be for ever exiled if innocent he should be restored to his See which Vigilius then usurped Silverius n Praevalente Jmperatoris jussione Silverius ad Jtaliam reductus est Liber ibid. was hereupon brought backe with speed and being come as neare as Italy Vigilius was then netled indeed and fearing o Cujus adventu territus Vigilius ne sede pelleretur Bellisario mandavit Trade mihi Vigilium alioquin non possum facere quod à me exigis Liber ibid. to be dethroned he bestirres himselfe and stirres every stone Then he comes againe in very earnest manner to Bellisarius and tels him he will now performe all his covenants if he would deliver Silverius to his custody By which sollicitation Silverius the lambe was committed to the wolfe who intending now to make as sure worke with him as he who sayd p Dictum Theodoti de Pompeio apud Plut. in vita Pomp. mortui non mordent by two of q Ita Silverius traditus est duebus Vigilij servis qui in Palmariam insulam adductus sab eorum custodia desecit inedia Liber loc cit his servants convayed him out of Italy to the Iland Palmaria where after all other injuries indignities and calamities hee spared not the innocent life and soule of that holy Bishop but murdered him by a kinde of languishing death namely by famine which r Ferro saevior est fames Veget. Vegetius and the Prophet ſ Lament 4.9 Melius est mori gladio quam fame also judged worse than the sword 14. And now that which onely hindred Vigilius being by a strong writ de ejectione mundi quite removed there was none to make opposition against him or hinder his exaltation to the Zenith of Pontificall dignity but onely God and the sting of his owne most guilty conscience both which though you may be sure he lightly regarded yet for abundant caution he by a fine sleight and policy will pacifie and appease for as hitherto he had played the Wolfe and Tiger so now you
qua Rex in doing that which none but a King can doe so a King or a Bishop or any other offendeth God as a King or Bishop in doing against that duty which none but they are to doe 45. Now what is said of all Sciences Arts and mysteries that is in due proportion to be applyed to that greatest mysterie of mysteries and Craft above all Crafts to their Pope-craft or mysterie of Iniquity He is the sheepheard to feed all the Physitian to cure all the Counsellor to advise all the Iudge to decide al the Monarke to command all hee is all in all nay above all hard it is to define him or his duties hee is indefinite infinite transcendent above all limits above all definitions above all rule yea above all reason also But as the Nymphs not able to measure the vastnes of the Gyants whole body measured onely the compasse of his thumbe with a thred and by it knew and admired the bignesse of his Gygantean body so let us consider but the thumbe or little toe of his Holinesse fault and by it conjecture the immensity of this eldest sonne of Anak Pasce oves confirma fratres must bee to us as the Nymphes thred or line for these two are the Popes peculiars in which are contained all the rest and they reach as farre as heaven and hell they are the Popes duty quatenus hee is Pope If at any time or upon any occasion hee swarve from this line if by his doctrine he cast downe his brethren instead of confirming them or give them poyson in stead of good food he offends not now as Swines-snout m Sunt qui Sergium 2. prius dicant os porci vocatum et ob turpitudinem cognomenti Sergij nomen sumpsisse eamque consuetudinem ad posteros manasse c. Plat. in vita Serg. 2. nor as Peter n Dicimus quidem quod Innocentius hoc dixit non ut Papa sed ut Petrus de Tarantasia In Extrav Johan 22. Tit. 14. de verbor signif ca. 5. Greg. 13. antea Hugo dictus à Boncompagnorū familia oriundus Anto. Cicar in ejus vita of Tarantasia nor as Hugh Bone companion but quatenus Papa even as Pope in that very Pastorall and Papall duty which properly and peculiarly belongeth to him as Pope Lay now this line and thred to Pope Vigilius and his Epistle did he confirme Anthimus Theodosius and Severus in the faith when he told them that by Gods o Vigil in epist apud Liber loc cit helpe both before and then also he held the same faith with them and that was Eutycheanisme and that they were joyned to him in the charity which is in Christ or was this wholsome food which hee the great Pastor of their soules set before them Accursed be all that deny one and affirme two natures to have beene in Christ If this bee hereticall doctrine seeing Pope Vigilius fed them and confirmed them in this faith then certainely he taught heresie as Pope that is hee exercised his Papall office even that of feeding and confirming his brethren which is peculiar to the Pope as Pope to the teaching and approving of heresie at this time 46. If yet wee shall goe somewhat more precisely and exactly to worke according to line and measure those acts of feeding and confirming doe but in a very equivocall sense for their doctrine is full of Equivocation agree to other Bishops but still a maine difference or odds is to bee observed betwixt the Popes feeding and confirming as hee is Pope and all others when any other Bishop teacheth heresie because his teaching is subordinate and fallible one may nay he must doubt or feare to feed on such food he must still receive it with this caution or tacit appeale of his heart if his holinesse commend it for an wholesome diet of the soule But if the Pope teach any heresie if hee say that the Sunne is darke the left the write hand poyson an wholesome food Eutycheanisme or Nestorianisme the orthodoxall faith here because there is no higher judge to whom you may appeale you are bound upon salvation without any doubt or scruple at all to eate and devoure this meate you may not judge nay you may not dispute or aske any man whether it be true or no the Popes teaching is supreme and therefore infallible indubitable this is to teach to feed to confirme as Pope for none can thus teach or feed but onely the Pope as Pope So the same hereticall doctrine when it is taught by the Pope as he is a private man is a private instruction without any publike authority to teach when by him as a Presbiter it is an instruction with publike authority to teach but without judicatory power to censure the gainsayers when by him as a Bishop it is both with pulike authority and judicatory power to censure suspend or excommunicate the gainsayers but yet subordinate and fallible including a virtuall appeale to the highest tribunall of the Pope when by him as Pope it hath all the former conditions both publike authority to teach and judiciall power to censure and which is the Popes peculiar prerogative as Pope to doe those with infallibility of judgement and supremacy of authority such as none may refuse or doubt to beleeve and embrace 47. If any will here reply with the Sophister Thrasimachus his subtilty in Plato p that the Pope as Pope teacheth not amisse q Plat. lib. 1. de Repub. but as hee faileth in the Popes duty as hee wants skill or will to performe that office This must bee acknowledged as true indeed for in the strictest sense of all what the Pope is as Pope that must inseparably agree to every Pope and the manner of his teaching as Pope must inseparably agree to the teaching of every Pope even as Logicians q Per hanc conditionem quatenus ipsam notatur quod praedicatum inest subjecto secundum propriam subjecti naturam Iac. Zab. com in ca. 4. lib. demon text 36. say that what agreeth to a man a bird or a tree quatenus talia as they are such must agree to every man bird and tree But this quirke and subtilty will not helpe their cause nor excuse the Pope from erring as Pope for as in this sense no Pope as Pope doth erre because then every Pope should erre in all doctrines which hee teacheth so neither in the same sense doth any Pope as Pope teach the truth for then every doctrine of every Pope should bee true Againe as according to this sense no Pope as Pope so no Bishop as Bishop no Presbyteras Presbyter doth erre or teach heresie for did hee in his teaching erre as Bishop or Presbyter then every Presbyter and every Bishop and so even the Apostles themselves should erre in their teaching But as Vigilius or Liberius when they taught Arianisme Eutycheanisme or Nestorianisme did this not simply as Popes but as persons not knowing as in
duty they should what to teach or knowing it but willingly teaching the contrary to their knowledge which in duty they should not even so Nestorius Macedonius Arius and Eutyches every Bishop and Presbyter when they erred they erred not simply as Bishops or as Presbyters but as persons failing in their Episcopall or Presbyteriall duties either not knowing the truth as by their office they should or wilfully oppugning and contradicting the truth as by their office they should not So by his subtilty if any applaud themselves in it not only the Bishops of Rome but of Constantinople of Antioch of Alexandria yea all Bishops and Presbyters in the world shall be as free from errour as his holinesse himselfe yea all professors of any Art Science or faculty shall plead the like Papall exemption from errour every man shall bee a Pope in his owne faculty no Grammarian speaking incongruously as a Grammarian but as wanting the skil required in a Grammarian no Iudge giving a wrongfull sentence as a Iudge no Galenist ministring unwholsome physicke as a Physitian no Artificer working any thing amisse in his trade as an Artificer but as being defective in the duties either of that knowledge or of that fidelity which is required in a Iudge a Physitian and in every Artificer If they will exempt all Bishops and Presbyters all Iudges and Physitians from erring as they are such Officers or Artificers we also will in the same sort and sense allow the like immunity to the Pope If they notwithstanding this subtilty will admit another Bishop to erre as Bishop they must not thinke much if wee exempt not the Pope as Pope For to speake that which is the very truth of them all and exactly to measure every thing by his owne line a Iudge simply as Iudge doth pronounce a judiciall sentence as a skilfull and faithfull judge an upright judiciall sentence as an unskilful or unfaithfull Iudge an erronious or unjust sentence A Bishop or Presbyter simply as Bishop or Presbyter doth teach with publike authority in the Church as a skilfull and faithfull Bishop or Presbyter he teacheth the truth of God as an ignorant and unfaithful Bishop he teacheth errours and heresies in the Church the one without the other with judicall power to censure the gainsayers The like in all Arts Sciences and faculties is to be sayd even in the Pope himselfe A Pope simply as he is Pope and defined by them teacheth both with authority to teach with power to censure the gainsayers and with a supremacy of judgement binding all to embrace his doctrine without appeale without doubt as an infallible Oracle as a skilfull or faithfull Pope he teacheth the truth in that sort as an unskilfull or unfaithfull Pope he teacheth errour or heresie with the like authority power and supremacy binding others to receive and swallow up his heresies for Catholike truth and that with a most blind obedience without once doubting of the same 48. Apply this to Vigilius his hereticall Epistle In a vulgar sense Vig. erred as Pope because he erred in those very Pōtifical duties of feeding confirming which are proper to his office In a strickt sense though hee did not therein erre simply as Pope but quatenus talis taught onely with a supreme binding authority yet hee erred as an unfaithfull Pope binding others by that his Pontificall and supreme authority to receive Eutycheanisme as Catholike truth without once moving any doubt or making scruple of the same What may wee thinke will they oppose to this If they say Vigilius doth not expresse in this Epistle that hee writ it by his Apostolicall authority Hee doth not indeed Nor doth Pope Leo in that Epistle to Flavianus against the heresie of Eutyches which to have beene writ by his Apostolicall authority and as he was Pope none of them doe or will deny that Epistle being approved by the whole Councell r Conc. Chalc. Act. 2. et 3. of Chalcedon Pope Leo by his Papall authority condemneth Eutycheanisme Pope Vigilius by his Papall authority confirme Eutycheanisme both of them confirmed their doctrine by their Papall authority both writ as Popes the one as orthodoxall the other as a perfidious and hereticall Pope neither of both expresse that their Apostolicall authority by which they both writ The like in many other Epistles of Leo and of other Popes might easily bee observed Not the tenth part of their decretal Epistles such as they writ as Popes have this clause of doing it by their Apostolicall authority expressed in them It is sufficient that this is vertually in them all and vertually it is in this of Pope Vigilius Yea but hee taught this onely in a private letter to a few to Anthimus Severus and Theodosius not in a publike generall and encyclicall Epistle written for instruction of the whole Church What is the Pope fallible in teaching of a few in confirming three of his brethren why not in foure in eight in twenty and if in twenty why not in an hundred if so why not in a thousand if in one why not in two foure or ten thousand Caudaeque pilos ut equinae paulatim vellam where or at what number shall we stay as being the least which with infallibility he can teach Certainly confirma fratres in cathedra sede pasce oves respects two as well as two millions If in confirming or feeding three the Chaire may bee erroneous how can wee know to what number God hath tyed the infallibility of it But the sixt generall Councell may teach them a better lesson Pope Honorius writ an hereticall Epistle ſ Quae recitatur Conc. 6. Act. 12. pa. 64. but onely to Sergius Bishop of Constantinople Vigilius writ this to three all of patriarchall dignity as Sergius was Honorius writ it privately as Vigilius did which was the cause as it seemes that the Romane Church tooke so little notice thereof yet though it was private and but to one it is condemned by the sixt Councell for t Vocantur istae et aliae Epistolae dogmatica scripta In eodem Conc. Act. 12. p. 65. a. et retractantes dogmaticas Epistolas à Sergio et ab Honorio ad Sergium Act. 13. pa. 67. a. et Honorius impia dogmata confirmavit Jbid. a domaticall writing of Pope Honorius for a writing wherein hee confirmes others in heresie and Pope Leo u Anathematizamus quoque Honorium qui hanc Apostolicam Ecclesiam et immaculatam fidem prophana proditione subvertere conatus est Leo 2. Epist 1 the second judged it to bee such as was a blemish to the Apostolike See such as by which Honorius did labour to subvert the Catholike faith The like and more danger was in this to these three deposed patriarchs It confirmed them in heresie it confirmed the Empresse it confirmed all that tooke part with them it was the meanes whereby the faith was in hazard to have beene utterly subverted For plurality or paucity it is