Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	apostle_n	church_n	peter_n	5,721	5	7.6949	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42563	The Council of Trent no free assembly more fully discovered by a collection of letters and papers of the learned Dr. Vargas and other great ministers, who assisted at the said Synod in considerable posts : published from the original manuscripts in Spanish, which were procured by the Right Honourable Sir William Trumbull's grandfather, envoy at Brussels in the reign of King James the First : with an introductory discourse concerning councils, shewing how they were brought under bondage to the Pope / [translated] by Michael Geddes ...	Geddes, Michael, 1650?-1713.; Vargas Mejia, Francisco de, 1484-1560.	1697 (1697)	Wing G445; ESTC R16012	203,517	370

he was pleased at every Turn to style Universal has never been admitted into that Number and as it was only an Oeconomical and not an Oecumenical Council so we feel to this Day of what Disadvantage it was to the Church besides Truths which have been once established by Councils namely that of Constance can never be shaken afterwards it not being possible that what was once a Truth and dictated by the Holy Spirit should ever be otherwise Now according to this reckoning our Council of Trent must be the Eleventh Synod notwithstanding neither the Pope nor his Legates are willing to have it reckoned so who at the opening thereof were in a great perplexity how to rank it This is the Account of the Universal Synod for albeit there were Councils celebrated by the Apostles and from which all succeeding Councils do derive all their Authority This reckoning commences nevertheless from that of Nice which consisted of 318 Fathers because Christians from the Time of Constantine have had the Liberty to assemble together after that of Nice from which the Canons of General Councils do commence the Councils of Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcedon were celebrated which four having been venerated by St. Austin and St. Gregory as the four Gospels does not lessen the Authority of the following Councils that were lawfully assembled This being premised the way of proceeding in past Universal Councils comes now to be observed and that in order to discover how different it was from the procedure of this present Council and how great Inconveniencies do follow thereupon the way of convocating prosecuting and finishing being quite contrary in those and this Council All the Eight General Councils having been called by the Emperours the Fathers injoying an intire Liberty in the prosecution of them and the whole Authority being lodged in the Body of the Council and if the Pope's Legates did at any time delay their coming the Council if there was an urgent Necessity did its Work without them as appears from the Definition of the Eighth Council made before the Arrival of the Legates which runs thus Having long expected the Arrival of the Vicars of the Elder Rome and it not being just to wait any longer for them it appearing to us an absurd thing to neglect the lost Church of Christ by such delays we do of Necessity denounce c. The same is to be met with in the Gests of the Second Ephesine Council which after having advertized Julius a Bishop Hilarius a Deacon and Dulcitius a Notary the Vicars of Pope Leo that the Council was to assemble next Day desiring them therefore to make haste to come to them upon their not appearing when they were expected Talasius Bishop of Caesarea said Besides that our remaining in this City is a great prejudice to the most Religious and Holy Bishops and their Churches the most Pious and Christian Emperour would have us to hasten the End of this Synod that so he may be acquainted with what shall be decreed therein Wherefore the Synod having done what was proper and convenient for it in having invited the Vicars of the most Holy Friend of God Archbishop Leo I am of opinion that since they have refused to assemble with us that we ought not to use any farther Delays This is to the purpose as to what is doing here at this time Finally whatsoever was offered and commanded to be observed by Universal Councils being for that reason of inviolable Authority it did not want the Confirmation of the Pope to give any thing of Validity to it neither was it for that but for other honest and just Ends that they first began to make use of that Confirmation there being no reason why what is determined by a General Council by the Direction of the Holy Ghost should have its Truth in suspence so as to depend on the Will of any Person for what is once true must be always so This is manifest to all but Parasites or such as seek by Tricks utterly to destroy the Authority of General Councils of which a great deal might be said had I not something else in my Eye at present I shall therefore only observe that the Argument drawn by those People on which they lay so much stress from Pope Leo and his Legates contradicting the Council of Chalcedon as to what it had ordained relating to the Chairs of Constantinople and Alexandria is not of so great Weight as they imagine and represent it to be in their Histories seeing that Council notwithstanding that Contradiction did still adhere to its Determination and which after having been observed for several Years was at last confirmed by the Sixth General Council but to return to the Direction of General Councils There was as has been already observed an entire Liberty in them their whole Authority being lodged in the Body of their Assembly as is plain from the Councils themselves the Pope's Legates having no other than an honorary Presidence in them and the privilege of voting first the Presidents Vt interloquerentur definirent being named by the Emperour and styled Judices discretivi as is plainly to be seen in the Council of Chalcedon and in the Eighth Council also in which in the first Action they spoke as follows Our Emperours have sent us their Servants and who are called his Senators to be discreet Hearers of all that shall be transacted After which the Father 's celebrated the Council and spoke and determined matters with an entire Liberty So that as we have no reason to doubt of their having been assisted by the Holy Ghost in all their Determinations we have as little reason to doubt of the Council it self having ordered and governed every thing for besides that the thing is reasonable in it self it is no more than what is of Divine Right and was expresly determined by the Council of Constance It is manifest likewise from the Council of the Apostles in which St. Peter as we see notwithstanding he was the Prince and Universal Pastor of the Church did not preside with Authority or a co-ercive Power on the contrary it is plain that the whole Power was in the Assembly and as in the fifteenth of the Acts the Determination was pronounced by James so it is said there that Peter rising up in the midst of the Brethren said c. which Action of standing up is an Argument of his not having pretended to an Authoritative Presidency for if he had he would have sate and not have rise to speak as is well observed by Abulensis though Turrecremata and others of his Stamp do interpret this as they think fit the same appears likewise from the Council mentioned in the thirteenth of the Acts where it is said when Samaria had received the Word of God they sent Peter and John c. To which and a great deal more Turrecremata Cajetan and others of their Party give a general Answer that St. Peter did that purely out of

that if they had designed to have had the Church reformed they ought to have done it before they chose a Pope since they might very well have known that when that was once done it would be neither in his Power nor theirs to do it as it was in the time of the Vacancy The Synod's new Pope is said furthermore to have given it a broad Intimation before he dissolved it how he stood affected to their Decrees telling them on a certain occasion and that of his own giving too that he intended to observe every thing that had been conciliarily decreed by them leaving it to them to judg whether what they had decreed concerning a General Council's being superiour to the Pope was reckoned by him among their Conciliary Acts. We are not told how the Council resented this early Distinction from their own Creature if it was ever made by him there being no mention of it in the Acts of the Council but however that were it is certain that from the hour of his Election he intended nothing less than to go on with Councils on the Bottom whereon they had placed them Nevertheless while Peter de Luna lived which he did several Years after the Council of Constance was dissolved he was obliged in Interest not to run down the Authority of an Assembly on whose Authority his own absolutely depended So at the end of four Years after the Dissolution of the Synod of Constance Peter de Luna being still alive he comply'd with the Decree of assembling a General Council at Pavia giving Intimation thereof to all Christian Prelats but in such a manner that they had no reason to think he would be angry with them if they did not repair to it Which Council after he had opened it by four obscure Legats he translated presently to Siena upon a pretence that the Plague was in Pavia that being one of the Reasons for which the Decree of Constance had allowed him to change the appointed place of a Synod But the Legats not having been long at Siena before they found themselves in a full Assembly of Bishops and hearing of more that were coming to them Martin to chastise their Forwardness and to prejudice the World against Councils as if the Plague had followed them wheresoever they went dissolved the Council of a sudden upon the same pretence on which he had translated it thither from Pavia which Pretence the History of the City of Siena tells us was a meer Falshood nothing like the Plague having been at Siena at that time But Peter de Luna being not only alive but having engaged the King of Arragon upon a Quarrel that was between him and Martin to send Embassadors to Siena to maintain his Title to the Papacy Martin was thereby obliged to go on shewing some Respect to the Council of Constance and so did in Obedience to its Decree at the same time he dissolved the Synod of Siena call a Council to meet at the end of seven Years at Basil by which time considering Peter's great Age he did not much doubt but that he would be in his Grave which Council tho Martin lived to convocate and to send a Legat to it he died just before the time it was to have met Eugenius the Fourth who succeeded Martin finding a Council called to sit at Basil by his Predecessor renewed the Convocation thereof and to encourage the Prelats to come to it he named only the Year but not the Day nor the Month whereon it was to meet constituting Cardinal Julianus who was at that time at the Head of an Army in Bohemia his Legat to preside therein Which juggling of the Pope's having been observed by one Alexander a Monk whose Name was high in the Church both for his Learning and Piety he in order to defeat Eugenius who having given the World some Satisfaction in calling the Council was for letting the Year appointed for its sitting both by the Synod of Constance and his Predecessor slip over quietly repaired to Basil and having called together all the Ecclesiasticks that were within and about the City he declared to them that the time being now come for the celebrating of a General Council in Conformity to the Decrees of the Synods of Constance and Siena in their City to which Synod all that have a right to vote in such Assemblies were bound to resort he reckoned he was obliged in Conscience to come and make a publick Declaration thereof upon the Place that so it might be none of his fault if it were not assembled as it ought to be both to maintain the Liberty of the Church and to reform it in its Head and Members But Eugenius having taken no notice of what was done by a private Monk in a fit of Zeal the University of Paris which to give that Great and Learned Body its due was in those days the only standing Authority that on all occasions asserted the Liberty of the Church that the Pope might not dissolve the Council upon a pretence of no Ecclesiasticks having repaired to it when it was called by him dispatched some of its learned Members to Basil to promote its assembling writing at the same time to Sigismund King of the Romans and most of the other Princes of Germany to send their Embassadors and Prelats thither Eugenius being alarm'd by so great a Body's interposing its Authority in the Business writ to his Legat Julianus so soon as he had finish'd his work in Bohemia to repair to Basil in Person and in the mean time to delegate some Ecclesiasticks to go thither and open a Council to those that were so clamorous to have one and accordingly Julianus named John Palmar an Auditor of the Sacred Palace and John de Ragusio the Procurator General of the Dominicans to go and begin the Council at Basil which they did in the Chapter-house of the Cathedral on the 29th of July but without entring upon any Business of moment Julianus who expected the poor Hussites would not have been a Breakfast to his great and zealous Croisado after having destroy'd a few open Towns belonging to them was deserted by his whole Army who as if a pannick Fear had seized them dispersed all of a sudden without having ever seen the face of the People they had been raised by Indulgences to extirpate leaving their whole Baggage which was very rich behind them to the Hussites who drove Julianus to Basil to try whether he was able to manage a Council against them with better Success than he had done an Army But Julianus had not been many days in that City to which great numbers of Ecclesiasticks and others had flock'd before he received Orders from Eugenius to dissolve the Council and to intimate to the Prelats that he designed to call a Synod in a short time at Bononia at which he intended to assist in Person alledging the following Reasons for dissolving of that of Basil 1. That there was not a sufficient