Religion and Loyalty The Second Part. OR THE History of the Concurrence of the Imperial and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in the Government of the Church from the Beginning of the Reign of Jovian to the End of the Reign of Justinian By SAMUEL PARKER D.D. Arch-Deacon of Canterbury LONDON Printed for John Baker at the Three Pigeons in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXV TO THE READER THE Church of England having acknowledged and declared His Majestie 's Supremacy in Causes Ecclesiastical to be of the same Nature and Extent with that Authority that the Christian Emperors claim'd and exercised in the Primitive Church I deem'd it no unuseful piece of Service to my King and Country to inform my self and my Fellow-Subjects out of the Records of those times of our true Duty to the Royal Supremacy And to this end I have drawn up as exact a Chart as my little Skill could reach of the Primitive Practice of the Three first Centuries after the Empire became Christian. Neither have I only Surveyed and coasted the general History but have sounded every part of it and not only described the safe Passages and right Chanels through which the abler Pilots steer'd their Courses but the Shallows the Gulfs the Rocks and the Sands upon which the less Skilful or less Fortunate Shipwrackt their Governments Neither have I presumed to make any Political Remarks of my own but have only observed the Natural and Historical Events of Matters of Fact And by the Experience of 300 years in which all Experiments were tryed we are fully instructed in all the right and all the wrong Measures of Government in the Christian Church In the Reigns of the great Constantine Jovian Gratian Theodosius the Great Arcadius Honorius Theodosius the younger Marcian Leo Justin and Justinian are exemplified the Natural good Effects of abetting the Power of the Church by good Laws and their effectual Execution In the Reigns of Julian and Valentinian we may observe the inevitable Mischiefs of Toleration and Liberty of Conscience In the Reigns of Constantius and Valens but especially of Zeno and Anastasius are to be seen the fatal and bloody Consequences of pretended Moderation or as we phrase it comprehension that indeed unites all Parties but then it is like a Whirlpool into one common Gulf of Ruin and Confusion This is the short account of this Undertaking and the Historical Events of things being withal so very Natural they will of themselves amount to a fair Demonstration of the Necessity of Discipline in the Church and Penal Laws in the State All that I can ensure for the Performance is its Truth and Integrity I have faithfully and impartially perused all the most Material and Original Records both of Church and State and out of them and them alone have Collected the ensuing History and if that prove true and for that I stand bound the Conclusion that I aim at will make it self The CONTENTS SEct. I. The State of the Church under Jovian The Hypocrisie both of the Eusebians to recover their Bishopricks and of the Acacians to preserve theirs in owning the Nicene Faith page 1. § II. Of Valentinian his Edict for Liberty of Conscience The struglings of the Eusebians against the Acacians Their Councils at Lampsacus and Tyana to that end They are defeated by the juglings of the Acacians The dishonest craft of the two Leaders Eudoxius in the East and Auxentius in the West p. 7. § III. The Persecution of St. Basil by the Eudoxians his discourse with the Prefect Modestus Dear to the Emperor Valens Valens himself no Arian but abused by the Eudoxians the deplorable State of the Eastern Church at that time under their Oppressions St. Basil's misfortune in receiving Eustathius of Sebasta to communion The death of St. Athanasius The Heresie of Apollinaris how suppressed p. 27. § IV. The Election of St. Ambrose to the See of Milan The death of Valentinian the mischiefs he brought upon the Empire by his principle of Liberty of Conscience Themistius the Philosopher's Address to Valens in behalf of the Orthodox The Emperor Gratian's Rescripts and effectual Proceedings against Hereticks His restitution of the Discipline of the Church The bounds of the Imperial and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction briefly stated The great Schism at Antioch occasion'd by Julian's toleration p. 35. § V. The singular care of Theodosius the Great to settle the Church and Orthodox Faith Vindicated in his Institution of the Communicatory Bishops He summons the general Council at Constantinople and confirms all their Decrees by several Imperial Rescripts Wisely forbids all Disputes about Religion Assists the young Valentinian against the Tyrum Maximus and prevails with him to reverse his severe Rescript against the Catholicks p. 55. § VI. Valentinian made the first open breach upon the Power of the Church in taking to himself the Power of Judicature in Matters of Faith St. Ambrose his Sufferings upon that account His Embassy to Maximus his Wisdom and Courage Maximus his Conquest of Italy and overthrow by Theodosius The Stars raised by the Hereticks at Constantinople in the Emperor's absence The method of lying People into Tumults His effectual enacting and executing Laws against them settles the Church in Peace p. 66. § VII His Laws made without the concurrence of the Church for reforming the Abuses of Widows and Deaconesses the disorders of Monks and the Abuse of Church-Sanctuary p. 81. § VIII His Laws without the same concurrence against Manichees Apostates Pagans and in behalf of the Jews p. 89. § IX Of the Council of Aquileia Of the Schism at Rome between Damasus and Ursicinus Of the Schism at Alexandria between Peter and Lucius Of the Schism at Antioch between Paulinus and Flavianus p. 98. § X. The unparallell'd Immorality of the Priscillian Heresie The Prosecution of them by Ithacius justified against Mr. B. they were executed as Malefactors and Traitors not as Hereticks St. Martin's great indiscretion in interceding for them p. 124. § XI The praise of Theodosius against the Calumnies of Zosimns The Laws of his Son Arcadius against the Hereticks p. 152. § XII His Laws of Privilege to the Catholicks The several Laws of Tuition The Law of civil Decision in the Church by Arbitration The Laws against Appeals from the Church to the civil Power p. 167. § XIII His Laws of Reformation of Discipline Against the tumults of Monks the abuse of Sanctuary against the Johannites against Apostates In behalf of the Jews The Laws of Honorius against and for the Jews The Laws of both Emperors under the Title de Paganis p. 180. § XIV The history and design of the Theodosian Code Theodosius his own Novels Of the Parabolani of Alexandria The famous Law concerning the Churches of â—lâ—yricum explain'd together with his other Laws and the Laws of Valentinian the third p. 198. § XV. The History and Acts of the Council of Ephesus against Nestorius and Imperial ratification of the Decreeâ—â—f the Church by Marcian p. 225. § XVI The
sets up a Schism against Paulinus to the great and long disturbance of the Church as we shall afterward see though Theodoret either out of a picque to Paulinus or partiality to Flavianus relates the whole Matter so awkerdly as not only to pervert but apparently to falsifie the whole Story § V. In the Year 379 is the great Theodosius taken into a partnership of the Government who by his Wisdom settled all the distractions of the Eastern-Empire and by his courage recovered the Western when it was lost At first he is left to the Government of the East as being at that time by the folly of Valens and the wickedness of the Eunuchs and Eudoxians much the most troublesom and therefore in the next year after his being settled in the Government he takes care for the settlement of Religion and for that end is himself baptised by Acholius Bishop of Thessalonica that at that time belong'd to the Eastern Empire and as the first fruits of his sacramental Vow he immediately set out and that probably at the good Bishop's motion that famous or as it is commonly stiled Golden Rescript de fide Catholicâ to the divided People of Constantinople commanding the universal Reception of the old Orthodox Faith ut secundum Apostolicam disciplinam evangelicamque doctrinam Patris et Filii et Spiritâ—s sancti unam Deitatem sub parili Majestate sub piâ Trinitate credamus that we believe one God-head of the Father Son and Holy Ghost all of equal Majesty in the holy Trinity according to the Doctrin of the Apostles and Evangelists And as for all that refused this Faith of what Faction and Denomination soever they were all adjudged Hereticks and the Laws against them put in force And soon after this the great Church of Constantinople is by his command taken from the Hereticks who had in one shape or other kept possession of it full forty years and deliver'd up to the Catholicks And this was seconded by another Rescript in the year following to the Proconsul of Asia that had been all along infested with the most numerous swarms of Hereticks in which he strictly commands all Churches to be taken away from all Bishops and Priests that refused to subscribe the Nicene Faith and for better security further Orders that no Man should be admitted to any Church but such as were approved by a certain Committee of Orthodox Bishops appointed by himself for that purpose Here I must confess that I once thought this Law an invasion upon the Rights of the Church by confounding the old bounds of Provinces and destroying the Prerogatives of Metropolitans because they were chosen without regard to either but having now traced its history more accurately by comparing the Imperial Laws with the Records of the Church and indeed it is impossible to gain a full knowledg of either without a competent knowledg of both and so considering the time and occasion of enacting it it plainly clears it self from any such ill suspicion For first if it were made before the Council of Constantinople as some will have it it was then but a temporary Provision till a better settlement could be made by the approaching Council and therefore if it had been an intrenchment upon the Church it was not design'd to be perpetual but was taken up as the best expedient that the necessity of the Times would admit and all necessity is its own dispensation But if it were enacted after the Council and if its Date be not mistaken and so it was for the Council sat in May June July and this bears date August then it is only a confirmation of the Decree of the Church that had settled the Nicene Faith But which soever it was this institution of the Communicatory Bishops was no alteration either of the bounds or the Rules of Discipline for the Ecclesiastical Government of Provinces under Metropolitans stood as before but it was only a Rule to his own Officers not to deliver up Churches to any that did not bring Certificates from some of these Bishops but when they brought them they were to be admitted after the usual manner if Presbyters by the Bishop and his Synod of Presbyters if Bishops by the Metropolitan and his Synod of Bishops Neither can any thing be inferr'd for equalling Diocesan Bishops or preferring them above Metropolitans by Nectarius his being made the first Man in the Instrument for it was no matter of power but of trust the Emperor chose them not with any regard to their Authority but from his knowledg of their Integrity in the Orthodox Faith and therefore being best acquainted with Nectarius the Bishop of his own City and his old Favourite he naturally named him in the first place and the rest probably by the information of others This is all that I can find intended by this Emperor 's erecting this Committee of Communicatory Bishops it was to guide himself and his Officers not to determine the Church And now are we come to the great Council of Constantinople whose main business it was to settle the Nicene Faith and anathematise the Arian Heresy and all the Sects that had been spawn'd out of it but because the Macedonians had as we have seen above so often own'd the Nicene Faith and particularly in the Council at Lampsacus the good Emperor in hopes to bring them over summon'd them to the Council 36 in number but it seems they were at that time in a sullen fit and would not be prevail'd upon to stand to their former subscriptions and so depart the Council But the Fathers proceed and in the first place vote the Nicene Faith unalterable condemn all the several dissenters from it by name make some Canons useful for the present settlement of the Church and give an account of their proceedings to his Imperial Majesty in these words That meeting at Constantinople in obedience to his Summons they had preserved Peace among themselves confirm'd the Nicene Faith anathematised all Heresies that had been raised against it enacted divers Canons for the due settlement of the discipline of the Church they now request his Majesty that he would be pleased to ratifie the Decrees of the Council that as they were call'd together by his Imperial Letters so he would be pleased to give an effectual conclusion to their Decrees That was the true state of the Church under his wise reign as it was under Constantines to summon them to Council by his own Authority and leave them to the liberty of their own determinations and then if he pleased to inforce them by his own Imperial Laws and Penalties And that he did to purpose for beside the former Law of Communicatory Bishops that was most probably publisht at this time he enacted another injoining the Nicene Faith forbidding publick Assemblies to all that would not subscribe it condemning the Photinians Arians Eunomians by name and commanding all Churches within the Empire to be
deliver'd up to the Orthodox Bishops or such as kept close to the Nicene Faith The Rescript is a plain Epitome both of the Creed and Canons of the Council and for the most part exprest in the very same words And because when the Churches were taken from the Hereticks they attempted to build new ones he seconds it with another to forbid that under pain of Confiscation Upon this the Hereticks meet in private Conventicles or assemble Multitudes together in the Streets and Fields which occasions two Laws in the year 383 to forbid all manner of Meetings in all Places whatsoever to restrain wandring Bishops from preaching or ordaining successors in the Heresy and the Execution of these Laws is injoin'd the Governors of Provinces upon pain of Deposition from their places But because the Hereticks were ferretted out of all other Places and took sanctuary in the great City of Constantinople he publishes another Rescript the year following requiring the Magistrates to make a diligent search to find out their lurking holes and so we hear no more of them till the year 388 when all these Laws against them were contracted into one Rescript the Emperor being provoked to renew the execution of his old Laws by their sawcy behaviour upon any cessation against them But now leaving the Eastern parts to go to the assistance of Valentinian the younger against the Tyrant Maximus who had driven him out of his Empire in the West he chooses Tatianus a Man eminent for Courage Wisdom and Conduct to be his Praefectus Praetorio in his absence and when he comes into Macedonia where he meets the distressed young Emperor and finding himself ingaged in a dangerous War on his behalf for the better security of the Peace sends him a new sort of Rescript strictly commanding him that he suffer no disputes about Religion and if any shall dare to do it that he punish their presumption with just severity A Law that has been found so useful and necessary to the publick Peace that it has been from time to time renewed by wise Princes in all Ages He himself was forced four years after to impose it upon the Egyptians and Alexandrians under pain of deportation and no wonder when they have been remarked in all Ages and by all Authors as the most contentious and quarrelsom People in the World and particularly at that time great Tumults were raised by the Anthropomorphite Monks It was afterward renewed by the great and wise Emperor Marcian inserted into the Laws of the Vice-Goths the Capitulars of Charles the Great and the Additions of his Son Lewis And this they did not only for the security of the publick Peace but for the honor and reverence of Religion For it cannot but bring that into great contempt to see it bandied up and down in popular Tumults and Seditions and therefore in the Primitive modest Times they indeavour'd to keep Matters of dispute and controversy from the notice of the People and distinguisht between the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things fit to be preached and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 notions fit to be conceal'd And it was the familiar form of Expression in their Sermons when they came to any controversial point to break off suddainly with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but this the learned know Gregory Nazianzen has an excellent Sermon upon the Subject fit for our own conceited and capricious Times in which the good Father is so popishly affected as to recommend to his disputing Citezens of Constantinople ignorance above curiosity But this wise Emperor having settled things in as good a posture as he could in the East prevails at the same time with the young Valentinian who by the instigation of his Mother Justina had been a great Patron of the Hereticks to publish the same severe Rescript against them in the West that himself at his first coming to the Empire had enacted in the East and to cancel the former Law that he had two years before made in their behalf viz. that we grant liberty of publick Assemblies to all those that believe according to that Faith that in the time of Constantius was agreed upon at Ariminum by all the Bishops of the Roman World and let those Men know that presume that themselves alone ought to have liberty that if they shall attempt any disturbance against this our Command they shall stand guilty of High-Treason and pay for it with their blood This is a very high Act in behalf of all the Hereticks for by the Faith agreed upon at Ariminum is to be understood the cheat that Valens and his Party put upon the Council that comprehended all the different Parties whatsoever And yet that is the Faith that is here confirm'd to last forever and whoever shall publickly oppose any that publickly promote it shall forfeit his head This came from the furious zeal of Justina who prosecuted it with the same zeal and outrage wherewith she had procured it and it was so highly displeasing to Benevolus the Emperor 's Secretary that he chose rather to lose his Office and the Offer of much greater Preferments than so much as transcribe it And this was the Rescript that brought so much trouble to St. Ambrose when he refused to deliver up his Church to the Arians and indeed it was particularly aimed at him And the first Mover of all the Mischief was one Auxentius a Scythian that had a great mind to that wealthy Bishoprick but partly because the Name of Auxentius was hateful to the People of that City and partly because he was infamous for many Villanies in his own Country he took upon him the name of Mercurinâ—s But this whole business being a very remarkable transaction and of very great consequence to my Argument I shall set it down with the greater Nicety that we may not only see the outward Actions themselves but the inward Springs and Motives of the Court-Intrigues § VI. And first of all Auxentius challenges St. Ambrose to a dispute before the Emperor then only a Catechumen but the Bishop disdains the Motion that when the Faith had been so fairly determin'd by so many Councils he should prostitute the divine Authority of the Church by referring it to a secular Judicature but chiefly by making a Catechumen supreme Judg of the Faith But Dalmatius the Tribune is sent by the Emperor to command his appearance upon which advising with some Bishops that were then present with him he returns his Answer in writing in which with equal courage and modesty he reproves him for medling with things that did not originally belong to his Judicature and so proceeds to state the Power of the Emperors in Ecclesiastical Matters from the practice of his Predecessors And it was then but time to be hot in the Cause this being the first open breach that was made upon the Church for though Constantius had often done it underhand or rather unadvisedly
they were exempted by Law And in the year 399 the same Law is repeated with a pecuniary Mulct not only upon the Offender that commits the Crime but upon the Judg that connives at it And in the same year another Rescript is publisht to refer Ecclesiastical Causes to the Ecclesiastical judgment but contentious about Civil Rights to the Secular Courts And there are many more Laws of the same strein in the Imperial Code the meaning whereof is not wholly to limit the Judgment of all Ecclesiastical Causes to the Church and of all Civil Causes to the Secular Courts because most Causes as I have shewn above appertain to both But their plain intention is that Causes purely Ecclesiastical or Offences against the Canons Rubricks and Orders of the Church for the preservation of Peace and Decency or Offences against the Rule of Faith shall be judged by the Church alone and as for civil Controversies they are to receive their decision only from Civil Courts For the final power of Decision is all the Authority that can be used in that case but though the Church has none of that yet it has a Power to judg of the same Actions as far as they concern the Laws of their Religion or as Theodosius the younger expresses it Christianam sanctitatem And though when one Man stands convict of having defrauded another they have not Power to right the Person wronged or to inforce a Restitution yet they have a Power to pass sentence upon the injury as a breach of the Christian Law and that sentence will have its effect So that though they have not a Civil Authority in Civil Causes yet they have an Ecclesiastical that is distinguisht not by the Matter but the Penalty of the Law But the true and proper meaning of these Laws is best understood by the occasion upon which they were enacted and the occasion of this was that the Emperors had impowr'd Bishops to decide Controversies by arbitration and the consent of Parties which they in process of time challenge as their right and derive their Authority for it from Apostolical Law as was done by the African Fathers at this time petitioning the Emperor That if any Persons will choose to have their Controversies decided by the Church according to Apostolical Law and one Party shall appeal from the Award that the Priest who was the Judg shall not be cited to the temporal Courts by him to give in any account or testimony of the proceedings To which Petition the Emperor returns this Law as a just denyal though that neither does nor can take away their Power of Ecclesiastical Censures that they received from our Saviour but of civil Decision that was granted them by the favor and indulgence of Princes and when once they pretended to an higher Commission for it it was but time to clip their pretences But in the year 400 he publisht a very remarkable Rescript in defence of the true power and discipline of the Church against all Appeals from their Sentence even to the Imperial Throne it self Whoever shall be deposed from his Office in the Church by a Synod of Bishops if he shall presume against the modesty of the Church and the Peace of the Empire to resume that Office to himself from which he is deposed he shall according to the Law of Gratian of blessed Memory be banisht an hundred Miles from the City that he infested for it is but fit that he should be banisht their Assemblies who is cut off from their Society And be it farther enacted by the force of this Law That no such Persons apply themselves to our Secretaries to procure our Rescripts in their behalf and if they shall by stealth obtain any all Rescripts granted to such Persons as are deposed from their Priesthood are hereby declared null and void And lastly let such Persons upon whose favor they relie take notice that they shall not escape the punishment due to such as shall undertake the protection of such Men as are already cast by the judgment of God This Law of stopping all Appeals from the Church was of all others most necessary for the preservation of discipline in it and therefore it was always with greatest care establisht by the Canons against all Invasions and observed with the greatest tenderness by all the wisest Emperors And we have seen through the whole series of this History that from the very time that Princes took upon them the protection of the Church the only thing that debaucht and defeated the Efficacy of its Discipline was Church-mens taking sanctuary at Court against the Authority of their Superiors And the mischiefs of this abuse having been so often experienced it was but high time to take it quite away insomuch that the Emperor was pleased to tye up his own hands from untying any sentence of the Church As for the occasion of this Law there are many conjectures about it but I think the most probable is that of Gothofred that it was made at the Petition of the African Fathers who were actually sitting at that time to restore the ancient and effectual discipline of the Church and reform the Abuses and Corruptions that were crept or were creeping into it and so among others implore the Emperor that he would be pleased to stop all ways of appeal to Persons that stood legally condemn'd by the sentence of the Church and to injoin this to all his Officers as they word it interpositâ poenâ damni pecuniae atque honoris And this Petition the Emperor grants with that frankness as to take away this abused Power of Appeals not only from his Judges but himself and damn their Authority by this Rescript once for all and for ever In the year 401 he exempts those of the Clergy that were forced to trade to get a Lively-hood from the payment of all Customs the same Law that was made by Constantius in the year 343. So that it seems the Church was not as yet indowed with sufficient Revenues to maintain it self when some of the Clergy were forced to traffick for bread Thô they were afterward forbidden all manner of Trade by Valentinan the third when it seems the Church was grown rich enough to subsist upon its own stock In the year 407 he not only confirms all the ancient Priviledges and Immunities of the Clergy but he grants them a new sort of Tuition viz. Secular Advocates for the management of all their Secular Affairs but lest by this means the Church should be cheated by these Trustees the Bishops of the Province are required to survey their Accounts This Law was made at the Petition of the African Fathers in the fourth Council of Africa and is extant in their Code Canon 97. And it was done for this end that the Clergy might not be forced to appear in Law-Courts and leave their Functions to follow Law-Suits And this is the first time that Lay-men were taken
the Conventicle on the other side are commanded to insist upon the abolition of Cyril's Anathema's as Heretical Schismatical and unwarrantable Additions to the Nicene Faith But when they came they were not admitted into the City for fear of Tumults by the Monks the Schismaticks were dismiss't to Calcedon and indeed the business was over eight days before their arrival when the Emperor understanding the Cheat that had been hitherto put upon him condemn'd Nestorius to perpetual Banishment and set Cyril and Memnon at liberty And though the Legates of the Conventicle press't him with three Petitions one upon the neck of another for a Conference he would not for a long time grant it But at last their importunity prevails and as themselves boast they shock the Emperor for thô he would hear nothing in behalf of Nestorius yet he was offended at Cyril's Anathema's that were represented with too much advantage by the adverse Party as unwarrantable additions to the Nicene Faith of which the Emperor was very jealous and that was the point that put him upon some Demur Nestorius stood condemn'd by him from the first sentence of the Council but on the other side Cyril's Anathema's were offensive as his own private additions to the settled Faith And therefore Nestorius his Friends let fall his Cause and only pursue the condemnation of the Anathema's and that Plea was too plausible with the Emperor for though they might be Theological Verities they were no Articles of Faith not being express't in the Nicene Creed and yet so they were made by being imposed upon the Church under the Penalty of an Anathema And here stuck the pinch of the Controversie all the time that it depended at Court that the Nestorians press't for the examination of the Anathema's which the Cyrillians at last endeavor'd to baulk and insist only upon the Heresie and Condemnation of Nestorius and having the Emperor sure on their side in that point they were sure to carry the Cause at last for he being tired with the Disputes about the Anathema's le ts that Controversie fall and only abets the Sentence of the Council against Nestorius with his own sentence of banishment and commands the Bishops to choose a Successor into the See who electing Maximianus are dismist without any determination of the other Controversie And as if the sentence of the Council and the Confirmation of the Emperor had been invalid without it Pope Celestine sends his Pontifical Rescript to confirm all by the Authority of St. Peter Longius quidem sumus positi sed per sâ—licitudinem totum propius intuemur Omnes habet beati Petri Apostoli cura presentes non nos ante Deum nostrum de hoc possumus excusare quod scimus In all this Contest the greatest Looser next to Nestorius who lost all was John of Antioch who being run down in Council his confining Adversaries take that advantage to beat him out of his late Usurpations The Bishops of Cyprus over whom he had extended his Jurisdiction make their Complaints to the Council by whose Decree he is expell'd the Island And whereas he had usurpt over the Provinces of Arabia and Phaenice upon which Juvenal the new Bishop of Jerusalem a brisk and ambitious Man had cast his Eye and made some inroads of Usurpation he now thinks by the advantage of the animosity between Cyril and John of Antioch to have it confirm'd to him in Council and this was the thing that made him so active there for which reasons he was nominated one of the eight Commissioners to the Emperor Which Design is plainly suggested to the Emperor by John and his Party in their first Petition from Calcedon It is evident Sir say they that some among them have contrived and carried on this wicked design for their own ends and your Majesty will see them when they have carried through their Treachery to divide the Spoils of the Church among themselves And though Juvenal of Jerusalem took upon him to ordain some of of us we held our peace notwithstanding that we ought to have contended for the Canons lest we should have seem'd to contend for our own Ambition Neither are we ignorant of his Designs and Devices at this very time upon the second Phaenice and Arabia So that it seems he had made some overt-acts of his design in Council but Cyril detested and damn'd the Motion as Pope Leo in his 16 th Epistle tells us That Cyril himself inform'd him by Letter But though he could not carry it in Council he got at last both those Provinces and the three Palestines beside and kept them till the Council of Calcedon when both Parties being conscious to themselves of their having no right to the whole Child consent to its division the three Palestines falling to Juvenal Phaenice and Arabia to Maximus of Antioch But though the Nestorian Controversie was ended the quarrel was not that run very high between those two great Prelates Cyril of Alexandria and John of Antioch and their greatness drew great numbers of Bishops after them to the great disorder and disturbance of the Church and great grief of the Emperor who therefore advises with Maximian and other Bishops how to redress the mischief they answer that there is no remedy but John of Antioch's subscribing the condemnation of Nestorius and his Heresie Upon this the Emperor writes to John by Aristolaus commanding him to meet Cyril at Nicomedia and be reconcil'd to him upon pain of his displeasure And this Letter he seconds with another to the famous Monk Simeon Stylites Acacius Bishop of Beraea and the Bishops of all the Eastern Provinces to perswade John to return to the Peace and Unity of the Church Upon this a Council meets at Beraea and agree upon this Proposal that they would condemn Nestorius upon condition that Cyril would call in all his own Writings about the Controversie But this being refused and John being wrought upon either by the Emperor's threatnings or the importunity of his friends declares his assent to the Decree of the Ephesine Council Anathematises the Heresie of Nestorius subscribes his deposition and approves the ordination of Maximinian But for the greater solemnity of the business and to salve the dishonor of an absolute submission he sends Paul Bishop of Emesa as his Legate to Alexandria to treat with Cyril about terms of Peace and sends by him a Confession of Faith which if Cyril would accept he was his humble Servant Now the Confession being Orthodox and having nothing in it of his own but only the form of Words it was as easily accepted as offer'd and so after all this contention about nothing but mutual misunderstanding are they at last reconcil'd as both Cyril objects to the Antiochians in his Letter of Reconciliation and Theodoret to the Cyrillians in his Letter to Andrew the Monk But though they were agreed the Contest is still kept up by some Mens zeal and other Mens malice The
Emperor Leo he is restored and an Edict publisht against the tumults of Monks But the Monks so little regard the Emperor's Authority that upon it they increase their fury against the good Bishop till at length he being quite tired out quits his Bishoprick into which Petrus Fullo immediately leaps and is as soon thrust out by the Emperor but is restored by Basiliscus and again displaced by Zeno excommunicated by Acacius and Stephanus chosen to the See who being barbarously murther'd another Stephanus is chosen and contrary to the Canons consecrated by Acacius at Constantinople and Petrus Fullo the Author of all these Dis-orders is banisht into Pontus and Stephanus dying Calendio succeeds with the same illegal Consecration but falling into dis-favor with Acacius partly for siding with Pope Foelix against himself and Petrus Moggus and partly for being too stiff for the Council of Calcedon he procures his ejectment by Imperial Power upon an Accusation of Treason and Petrus Fullo after all these turns is placed by Acacius his own Interest in that great See And thus we see both the old Trade of Ejectments and Sequestrations return'd by prostituting the Discipline and Authority of the Christian Church to the Power of Court-Favourites and the whole World shatter'd into numberless Schisms and Heresies For when once the Authority of the Church and the Law is trodden down there is no other effectual stop aganst the rovings of fancy and wantonness and it is certain that men who differ in Opinion will never agree as long as they have liberty to differ And thus was it here when this unskilful Prince had once broken up the Pale of the Church as it was fixt by the Council of Calcedon and fenced by his Predecessors he could never after restrain the People from running into all the wild Conceits that Frenzy and Madness could blow into their Heads And whereas he only design'd to unite the Eutychians to the Communion of the Church he divided the Communion of the Church into a thousand new Factions The Acephali Severiani Theopaschitae Currupticolae Phantasiastae Agnóetae Tritheitae beside the horrible fewds between the Scythian and Acaemetan Monks The Acephali began at Alexandria being Eutychians that separated from Moggus uyon his owning the Council of Calcedon out of these were spawn'd the Severiani at Antioch so call'd from Severus who had ravish't that See and made himself Captain of the Acephali by Anathematising the Council but of him we shall give an Account under the next Reign as under the Reign of Justinian they sub-divided into the Factions of the Gaianitae and Theodosiani and the Heresie being transplanted by Jacobus Syrus into Armenia thence came the Jacobitae The Theopaschitae were the Disciples of Petrus Fullo who to the Eutychian Heresie added that the Divinity in our blessed Saviour was Crucified and Buried The Corrupticolae were the followers of Severus at Alexandria after his Banishment from Antioch affirming our Saviours Body liable to decay and therefore to have been really repair'd by nourishment but this was opposed by Julianus of Halicarnassus a Bishop of the same Party and flying to Alexandria for the same Cause who affirm'd that our Saviour never took any sustenance but only seemed so to do and therefore were called Phantasiastae and between these two the Rabble of the City were disputed into Tumults and Out-rages And out of the Corrupticolae sprang the Agnoitae that from the Corruptibility of our Saviours Body were pleased to infer some ignorance in his Soul The Tritheitae were the followers of Philoponus who was so far transported in the heat of disputation as to assert three distinct Natures peculiar to each Person in the Holy Trinity and one common to them all to which he was betrayed by his Aristotelian Philosophy of which he was an extravagant Admirer that teaches that there is one and the same general humane nature really common to all men and another particular nature appropriated to each individual And thus when all the Lords People were permitted the liberty of Prophesying every man took up his own Parable and believed his own Dream the Ass as well as the Prophet till the Church was shatter'd into so many chips and fragments that it was never after reunited as we shall see by the Progress of these Mischiefs that I have here only briefly represented And thus this luxurious Prince having ruined the Church by so many years licentiousness only because his laziness would not be at the pains to see it governed after he had Reign'd 18 years dies of a Debauch § XIX Zeno being dead Ariadne bestows both her self and the Crown upon Anastasius a small Officer about the Court and at his first coming to the Crown he was forced by Euphenius Bishop of Constantinople to declare for the Council of Calcedon For the Bishop suspecting his Religion refused to Crown him till he had made a publick profession of his Christian Faith which he registred and laid up in the Archives of his Church as a Testimony against him if he should ever relapse to the Haesitantes as he afterward did and turn'd a vehement Persecutor in pursuance of moderation banishing any man either for owning or disowning the Council of Calcedon But of that afterwards for at first having got the Crown Imperial upon his Head he endeavours to make himself popular and for that end in the first place he takes off that heavy and scandalous Tax called the Chrysargyrum It was a Tax by Poll not only upon Men Women and Children but upon all Beasts and Cattle both of profit and pleasure even to Dogs and Cats This was by immemorial Custom though Zosimus is pleased to impute its Contrivance to Constantine the Great collected every fourth year and being a Customary Impost without any Formality of Law to warrant it it was no doubt with severity enough exacted by the Officers not so much for the profit of the Crown as their own And this made it extreme heavy to the Subject but that which made it Scandalous was its being a Rent-Charge upon the Stews and publick Houses of Debauchery granting as Evagrius describes it a Licence to all their wickedness upon a certain Rate of Excise And for that reason it was commonly called Aurum paenosum the Syntax or Commutation Money which being so offensive to the People and so foul in it self as seeming to grant a Liberty to all manner of wickedness upon the reserve of a Pension to the Government upon that account as it was a just so was it a plausible Action in this Emperor to contrive its Abrogation And he did it with that Art and Diligence as to destroy not only the Exchequer-Records but the Collectors Books For counterfeiting a Repentance of his Folly in parting with so fair a Revenue he Summons in all the Collectors to bring in their Court-Rolls for retrieving a new Register out of them this they greedily comply with in hopes to recover their several Offices in the
adjourns its examination till the return of the Legates In the mean time there being then a famous Society of African Bishops in Sardinia that were banisht their own Country by Thrasamond King of the Vandalls a zealous Arian and at that time Master of Africa to these the Monks apply themselves and present them a Confession of their Faith wherein declaring to the height against the Pelagian Heresie they thereby ensnare their Affections who had been the greatest Champions against it in so much that Fulgentius himself writes an Apology in their behalf But upon the return of the Legates the Monks knowing that they were none of their friends they hang upâ—â— their Remonstrance in the most publick Places of the City to raise Sedition among the People and so betake themselves to flight Of their unruly behaviour at Rome Hormisdas has given an account in his Letter to Possessor an African Bishop that they were a sort of vain proud petulant Men that under shews of mortification kept up the height of Pride and Insolence and were swoln to that degree of Arrogance that they would have the whole Christian World to truckle to their imperious dictates and instead of obedience that ought to be the peculiar glory of Monasteries set up obstinacy and stubbornness c. this Letter is answer'd by Maxentius whose Works are extant in the Bibliotheca Patrum where his great Holiness is treated with rudeness enough At Thessalonica one of the Pope's own Legates was murther'd in a Tumult in defence of their intruding Bishop Dorotheus At Jerusalem John an Eutychian had by the help of Severus of Antioch thrust out Elyas and usurpt the Chair to himself but the Times being chang'd so is his Faith and he becomes a zealous defender of the Council against the Hereticks and upon it is very acceptable to the People who sue to the Emperor for the pardon of all his former Misdemeanors without any farther process or solemnity of Discipline And in the same manner are popular Addresses and Petitions brought from all parts in behalf of their Bishops that had been of the Acacian Faction who by the Terms of the Concordate between the Pope and the Emperor were all Condemned Men to keep those that were dead in the Dyptichs and those that were living in their Sees in short that Peace may be settled without too much triumph over the condescending Party This so perplexes the Emperor that he refers it wholy to Pope Hormisdas who was now grown to that Authority in the Christian Church that he alone transacted all things in it And therefore to him the Emperor dispatches his Ambassadors to soften him to the mâ—ldest terms of Peace for fear of Tumults if he should stand upon too much severity And to prepare him for it his Majesty Petitions his Holiness by Letter that he would be satisfied with the Execution of the Names of Acacius Petrus Moggus Timotheus Aelurus Dioscorus and Petrus Fullo but as for all others that dyed in the Schism to let them pass in silence And as for the Cause of the Scythian Monks that was by this time spread over all the Eastern Church he proposes that they may be indulged the Liberty of their Opinion because though it might be too curious yet it was harmless and agreeable to the Orthodox Faith This motion is seconded by several Letters from Justinian who indeed governed all and by others from a Council at Constantinople and by others from Epiphanius Bishop of the City But Hormisdas is inflexible will yield nothing to their importunity and let the Event be what it will and let the People rebel if they will nothing of the Discipline of the Church can be abated And to receive Schismaticks into its Communion instead of reconciling Parties it will only expose its Authority to contempt or as he expresses it in his Letter to Epiphanius Nosti frater Charissime quae ecclesiasticam servent vincula concordiam quae nos ab Haereticorum tueantur insidiis per quae etiam Canonum custodiatur Auctoritas His in robore suo omni circumspectione servatis remedia sperantibus conferantur And writing to the Emperor he begs that his Majesty would not think him more austere than his Predecessors for standing upon higher terms they insisting only upon the name of Acacius and assures him that it is not stubbornness but the sad experience of those grievous Scandals that had followed upon the unhappy rupture that made him the more severe At the beginning of the Schism there might have been room for some condescension but the mischiefs that have followed by so long and stubborn a continuance of it especially their affront to the great Council of Calcedon cannot be pardoned or expiated without some publick satisfaction But yet that he may not be too hard-hearted he leaves it to the Conscience and Discretion of Epiphanius to receive such as he believes true Penitents or seduced out of Ignorance and Simplicity but so as to oblige him to return all their Libels of Confession to himself at Rome And as for the Cause of the Scythian Monks he will by no means admit their Proposition because of its Novelty and when the same thing was less ambiguously expressed by the Scriptures and the Ancients as that the Son of God suffered in the Flesh he would allow of no new Phrases that would but give occasion to new disputes and farther divisions Haec si quemadmedum a Patribus constituta sunt servent credant non definita transcendant à quo tramite qui decliâ—ant ipsi sibi nebulam dubitationis offundunt And therefore he will have all men acquiesce in the definition of the Council and for the same reason though he will not directly condemn the Proposition of Heresie yet he damns it as a needless a peevish and an over curious Novelty And here the Modern Writers of the Church of Rome are at a great loss how to reconcile this Sentence of Horm sâ—â—as with that of Pope John the Second who expresly anathematised the Acaemetan Monks for denying it and voucht it for an Article of the Christian Faith and constant Tradition of the Christian Church But the present Historian Natalis Alexander thinks he clears the difficulty by proving against Baronius that Hormisdas did not condemn the Scythian Monks of Heresie and therefore though John the Second past that Sentence upon the contrary Opinion it was no contradiction The observation is good but the Evasion bad for Baronius as his manner is here stretches beyond his Records when he endeavours to draw them into the List of Hereticks and yet for all that the Contradiction is as palpable as if their Sentence had been for Heresie For when one Pope shall Condemn a Proposition as a needless and prophane Novelty and another shall abet it as a constant Tradition of the Christian Church and so much an Article of Faith as to anathematise all that oppose it is I think a contradiction too tough to be reconciled
of our times that there is no Faith in Man as he often does in his Epistles but especially in the 79 th to Eustathius himself And all this upon no other account Good man than because he could not compass a kind Office for an unworthy and ungrateful Man and this found him work to his Dying day especially as he expresses it with the Pride and Superciliousness of the Church of Rome But among these various Transactions the great Athanasius dies about the year 371 or 372 perhaps sooner or later for I am not concerned in Chronological Niceties my Business is to trace the Tradition of Christian Truth not to turn Hour-glasses or watch the Motions of Pendulums But his Fall was the occasion of great stirs in the Church both Parties being at such a time highly concern'd for a fit Successor to so great a Man and so great a See Peter a grave and ancient Presbyter of that Church was by the dying recommendation of Athanasius unanimously chosen but Euzoius the Arian Bishop of Antioch upon the first News of the Vacancy flies to Court to move for his Friend Lucius who had been join'd in Ambassy with him to Jovian against Athanasius and by the help of the Eunuchs succeeds and is sent to Alexandria with Magnus a great Court-Trader in the Cause but before they came the Praefect of the City a zealous Heathen had driven Peter into Banishment and when they came the People were so averse to the Intruder that they were forced to place him in the See by Military Power upon which what bloody Tumults and Disorders followed may be seen in all the Historians but most accurately in Theodoret. Somewhat before this time arose the Heresie of Apollinaris consisting of a great many Prophane or rather wanton Novelties the chief whereof was That our Saviour had no other Soul than the Divinity it self and the Conceit because it was a new one began to take very much among the People who naturally run after any thing that is strange and unusual But it is soon quasht by the diligence of the Pastors of the Church and that not only by Writing though all the Learned Men of that Age appear'd against it as Athanasius Gregory Nazianzen Gregory Nyssen St. Basil and Epiphanius but much more effectually by the Discipline of the Church A Council was call'd at Rome by Damasus the active and leading Bishop of his time though he was here more particularly concern'd because he had unwarily given reputation to the Hereticks by granting them recommendatory Letters And here every particular Article is condemn'd by an Express Anathema against it and an account of their Proceedings is given by Damasus in a Synodical Epistle to the Eastern Bishops the Epistle is of a very peculiar strein and shews that the Gentleman began to have some thoughts of advancing the state of the Apostolick See and it is the first that I have observed of that stiff strein But however the Heresie was soon quasht by that unanimous Agreement of all Churches to suppress it every where by executing the effectual Discipline of the Church upon all its Followers In so much that I can not call to Mind more than one Imperial Law against them at that time and that was enacted by Arcadius in the year 397. against their secret Conventicles at Constantinople they not presuming to appear in Publick And when a Sect is brought so low as that it dares not venture to make any publick Appearance it is vanquisht and scarce worth the Notice of the Government § IV. In the year following i. e. Anno 374. a Council was held at Valentia in France for reforming some Abuses and Corruptions that had crept into that Church and restoring the force of some ancient useful Canons In the same year hapned that strange Election of St. Ambrose to the Bishoprick of Milan after this manner Upon the Death of Auxentius the Emperor Valentinian hapning to be then at Mâ—lan calls the Bishops together and Exhorts them to take care to choose a Person of eminent Abilities for so great a See They in all humility refer it to his Majestie 's own choice No says he that is a Province not proper for me to undertake but to you that are inlightned by the Divine Spirit most properly belongs the Office of choosing Bishops Upon this the Bishops take time to debate among themselves but whilst they are consulting the People of each Faction flock together into the Market-place and there as it usually happens in popular Assemblies from Disputing proceed to Tumult St. Ambrose being Governor of the Place flies according to his Office to appease the Multitude Who no sooner appears than they all cry out An Ambrose an Ambrose for their Bishop at which he being astonish't ascends the Tribunal with an austere Countenance as if he were resolved to put some of them to Death but they still cry the louder Upon that he accuses himself of such scandalous Crimes as by the Canons of the Church render him uncapable of the Episcopal Office but that is all one to them neither will they believe him And therefore in the last place he betakes himself to flight by Night and designs for Ticinum but having wandred all Night and thinking himself near his Journeys end he found in the Morning that he had walkt in a Circle and was just entring into one of the Gates of Milan at which being surprized and fearing lest there should be something of the hand of God in it he returns home and submits they acquaint the Emperor with it for his consent because by the Constitution of Constantine the Great they were forbidden to take any Officers either Civil or Military into the Clergy without it lest the Common-wealth should be left destitute of able Men. But the Emperor is highly pleased with the Election and is proud of his own choosing such Magistrates as are fit to be made Bishops and through this odd concurrence of Circumstances is he made Bishop contrary to the Canons for he was then no more than a Catechumene which Learned Men think may be excused by the miraculousness of the thing as if it had been immediately brought about by the special Interposition and Authority of God himself and for such extraordinary cases the Canon it self has provided an Exception adding this Clause at the end of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless it be done by the special favour of God And that this was so done all Parties concern'd in it thought they had good reason to conclude from so great a Conjunction of Wonders Soon after this Valentinian dies of an Apoplexy or some suddain Death upon which Ammianus Marcellinus reads a Lecture with as much Gravity as if he were President of the College of Physicians as he takes all Opportunity of shewing his Knowledge in all sorts of Learning a fondness very incident to all half-learned Men. But in the mean time Valens goes on in
there be in the Church than to take away the very Being of the Church by distinguishing between the sacred Function which they grant to be the proper office of the Church and the Power over sacred things which they annex intirely to the Civil Power by which distinction they leave the Governors of the Church no other Power than to administer the Offices of Religion without any Power of punishing Offenders against the Laws of Religion and then they have none at all for there can be no power without a Power of inflicting Penalties And there lyes the true distinguishing point between these two Jurisdictions not in the Matters about which their Power is imployed but in the Penalties by which it is inforced Thus to be short and give one example for all whereas Justinian leaves to the Church the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sins committed against the Ecclesiastical Order by the Clergy and to the State the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Sins against the Laws of the State This division is so far from being true that both Powers are equally concern'd in both Crimes for if any Clergy-man disturb the Government as the Donatists did by a Contest about a Canon of the Church then though it were an Ecclesiastical sin it concern'd the Civil Government to check the Mischief by the proper Penalties of Sedition as Honorius drove them into banishment and thereby restored the long interrupted Peace of the Empire And on the other hand if any Clergy-Man let him be never so regular to the Laws and Rules of the Church shall in a state-Faction ingage in a Rebellion against his Soveraign that is properly a Political sin the Church is bound to inflict such Penalties upon him as are denounced by the Laws of their Religion against all Traitors and Rebels i. e. to cast him out of their Society and the capacity of Salvation And that is the only difference in the case that when the King cuts a Traitor off for this life the Church cuts him off â—or the next and so it is in all other Crimes where the Prince punishes for breach of the Laws of the Land the Church punishes proportionably for breach of the Laws of Religion And as by the Laws of the Land the Penalty is proportionable to the Crime so is it by the Laws of the Church for as some Offences are Capital and some only Penal in the State so in the Church some are punisht by Penance some by utter excision or cutting off from the Kingdom of Heaven which is the same thing in its kind as cutting off life in this World So that the same Crimes are so far from belonging to different Judicatures that all belong to both the only difference is that one punishes here and the other hereafter And now this one observation of the difference of Penalties in the same cause being supposed which cannot be be avoided without destroying or intrenching upon the Rights of Church or State the bounds of Jurisdiction are evident enough without splitting of Causes and it is easy enough to understand how the same Causes belong to both Jurisdictions from their different ends without setting any restraint to either Power And thus having in this short digression as briefly as I could secured this point of the Controversy which is the main Hinge upon which depends the disingenuous Contention of both the extreme Parties both Papal and Erastian I now return to the course of the History which was broke off at the year 376. At which time the Huns breaking into the Eastern Empire and Valens being extremely distrest by them and the Goths at the same time St. Jerom and Crosius say that he repented of his former severity and upon it recall'd the Orthodox Bishops from banishment but Socrates only says and that much more probably that being otherwise imployed he desisted and so the banisht Bishops particularly Peter of Alexandria had opportunity of returning home And that I doubt was all notwithstanding St. Jerom's lavish story of his Repentance which good Father partly by his boldness partly by his eagerness has occasion'd the greatest Mistakes in the story of the Church and therefore when he is a single witness his Testimony is not to be regarded in any Matter of Fact unless when he speaks of his own knowledg for he was an honest Man and would not lye yet he was so very hot-headed that it often betrayed him into false-hoods and therefore his single Authority ought not to be trusted unless in Matters of his own knowledg And by relying upon it and that contrary to the testimony of calmer Authors great darkness has been brought upon the Records of the Church and has particularly blemisht Baronius his Annals who has very often followed his Authority not only without but against all other Authors and by it run himself into a great many Mistakes against the best Records of the Church And this I take to be one though no material one that Valens repented of his Persecution and callâ—d back the banisht Bishops for which there is no proof but only his saying so and they that followed his Authority otherwise we do not find that they were solemnly recall'd till Gratian came into the East after his death when indeed all the Historians agree that they were restored In the Year 377 a Council was held at Antioch for preventing or rather curing a Schism in that Church that was first created by Julian's spiteful and treacherous toleration to all Sects for by that means 3 Bishops had been set up in one Church Meletius who was first an Acacian but afterwards revolting to the Nicene Faith Euzoius was put in his place by the Acacian Faction and Paulinus set up by that hot Man Lucifer Calaritanus who would accept of none of Meletius his repentance in opposition to both With Meletius the Arian Converts communicated with Paulinus the old Orthodox because Paulinus himself had ever been so and as for Euzoius he presided over the Acacian Party But he dying about this time a Controversy arose who should be the true and proper Bishop of the Place in which not only the People of the City made Parties but the Bishops of other Churches St. Basil was zealous for Meletius Pope Damasus for Paulinus so that it became a Controversy between the East and West But at last this expedient was found out that both during their lives should keep their own shares but when ever one of them dyed the surviver should govern the whole Church and that the Schism might not be perpetuated an Oath was administred to six of the eldest Presbyters of that Church who were the only Candidates for the Election to submit to the Decree and this for the present ended the Quarrel And yet when after this Meletius dyed Flavianus one of the six Presbyters that had sworn never to invade the Bishoprick whilst either of the present Bishops survived violently thrusts himself into the See and
with the Recommendation of Damasus the great Bishop of Rome and is restor'd with universal joy of the People and Lucius forced to fly for help to the Emperor and his Court-Patrons then at Constantinople that was at that time little better than Besieged and before the Emperor had any leisure to mind his Complaints he by his own rashness came to his Unfortunate end of being Burnt by the Enemy in a Cottage where he had taken shelter in his Flight And so from this time Lucius continued in Exile at Constantinople till Demophilus the Arian Bishop that succeeded Eudoxius in that See and all his Party among whom Lucius is particularly named were turn'd out of the City by Theodosius the Great in the year 380. At which time Peter dies and Timotheus succeeds him for Lucius now having but small hopes left of recovering his Bishoprick under such an Orthodox Emperor made no attempt for it And now comes the great Council of Constantinople where the Nicene Faith is establisht for ever and in pursuance of it an Imperial Law made to take away all Churches through the Empire from the Hereticks of all Denominations For which the Council of Aquileia soon after sitting in the West send him the foremention'd Letter of thanks farther imploring his assistance for the Settlement of the Church and this of Alexandria in particular where the present Bishop was overwhelm'd with inveterate Schisms and Dissentions In order to which they move his Majesty that he would be pleased to call a Council at Alexandria particularly to determine who of the Hereticks should be received to the Communion of the Church and upon what terms which they thought in such a vast number of Offenders too invidious a work for the Bishop to undertake by his own Authority What followed upon it I know not For the Rescript of this Emperor to the Praefect Optatus to give Timotheus full Power of Judicature in Ecclesiastical Causes and to be assistant to him is apparently forged for there was no such Praefect as Optatus at that time as well as all the other Laws under the Subdititious Title De Episcopali Judicio the unanswerable proofs of it may be seen in Gothofred's Extravagans But probably without any farther care things settled of themselves under so wise a Reign for Timotheus sat peaceably in his See to his dying day without any disturbance that we read of from his Enemies When they saw the Church defended by such an Emperor they were content to sit still for Men are not wont to make their Attempts where they have no hope of Success But still we see by the whole progress of this Alexandrian Schism that the Disorders of the Church proceeded not from it self but the Dishonesty of the Court Eunuchs The last great Schism of that Age that the Council of Aquileia mentions in their Letter to the Emperor was that at Antioch which began sooner and lasted longer than either of the other How the matter was composed between Paulinus and Meletius we have seen above that upon the Death of one of them the Surviver should have the Government of the whole Church But upon the Death of Meletius Flavianus sets up against Paulinus and his own Oath too for he had abjured the Bishoprick as long as either of them should live And he makes so many Friends as to keep it till the great Council of Constantinople and have it confirm'd to him by the Authority of the Council where the Business was transacted by a Seditious Party with such disorderly Heats and Tumults as almost put the great Gregory Nazianzen out of love with Councils whose angry words upon a particular occasion against the abuse of some in his time are peevishly and absurdly applied by our Innovators against the use of Councils in general The Ecclesiastical Abridger almost runs mad for joy of his Satyrical Expressions and though as an Orator the good Father represented his Complaints and Invectives bigger than the life for that is the use of that sort of Eloquence R. B. has pretty well improved it with a scurvy Translation and made it look more like railing than handsom Satyr But what would you have of a meer Abridger of Binius poor Man he never looks into the secret of the Story and the connexion of things but he finds in Binius that such a Council was held such a year and out of him he gives a crude Epitome season'd with some malicious Reflections against the Bishops and so has done But alas if he had but had any insight into the Series of the Story and understood the Mystery of the Eusebian Faction by whom all these Disturbances were raised in the Church it would have spoil'd the Malice of all the Abridgment For whereas his whole design is to load the whole Body of Bishops with the Miscarriages of the Church in all Ages it is evident all along that the Body of the Bishops labour'd against all those Miscarriages that he has ignorantly and maliciously charged upon them and that all those Disorders committed in the Church from the time of Constantine to the time of this present Council were the Acts and Contrivances of some wicked men that crept into the Church by Simony and Court-favour and were enabled to do all that mischief that they did in it in spite of the Opposition of the Good Bishops by the Power of the Eunuchs So that all these Disorders were so far from being the Acts of the Ecclesiastical Power that they were the meer effects of its Oppression And such were these very Men that labour'd to raise this Tumult in the Council as is evident from Nazianzen's own account of them and that in short is this He at first earnestly endeavour'd to perswade them to acquiesce in the former Agreement and to have but a little-Patience in that Paulinus was a very old Man had one foot in the Grave and could not long stand in their way upon the other But he is hiss't down by the factious Party as a Betrayer of the Supreme Prerogative of the Eastern Church that they said ought to be preferr'd above the Western because our Saviour was Born in that part of the Empire For that was the pretence of their Zeal in this foul Matter that Paulinus had been ordain'd by Lucifer Calaritanus a Western Bishop which they will needs have to be a dishonourable Intrusion upon the Eastern Church and therefore in despite to that Usurpation they will set up Flavianus and by their noise and clamour tire the old Bishops into a complyance but Gregory Nazianzen quits the Council through meer indignation and seeing how things were like to go and what troubles he was like to encounter in that great See he soon after resigns his Bishoprick of Constantinople Of which the Faction make their advantage of playing over their old Game for creating a Division between the Eastern and Western Church An Artifice as we have seen first started by Eusebius of
restrain their outrage and he for a remedy against the Mischief for the time to come makes a Law consisting of these seven heads First to forbid their intermedling with any Proceedings in the Emperor's Courts Secondly to reduce them to the number of 500. Thirdly to enact that none should be capable of admission into the Order but poor Men. Fourthly that they should be chosen by the Citizens And Fifthly approved and confirm'd by the Governor Sixthly that they refrain from all Publick Meetings and Courts of Justice unless as they are forced to appear as Parties And lastly that as vacant Places fell for the time to come they should be fill'd up by the Governor The occasion and history of this Law is described at large by Socrates There had been an old grudg between Orestes the Prefect and Cyril the Bishop of Alexandria because as the Prefect thought the Bishop's great Power in that City seem'd to abate of and check with the Authority of the Emperor 's Vice-Roys and because he knew that Cyril watcht his Government but it hapned once that whilst the Governor was present at a Publick Shew to prevent a Tumult of the Jews there were present several of Cyril's Friends and among the rest one Hierax a zealous School-Master who was seised and punisht for a Spy upon this St. Cyril threatens the Jews and upon his threatnings their Rabble enter into a Conspiracy to destroy the Christians and in the Night raise an out-cry that one of their Churches was on fire and as the Christians run from all Parts to quench it they with Protestant Flails murther them in the Tumult upon which Cyril the next day turn'd them all out of Town and the People plunder'd their Goods This fretted Orestes to the heart so that though Cyril used all means of reconciliation with him he vowed an eternal and implacable Enmity Upon this Animosity the Monks of Nitria as the Historian has it but whatever they were they must by the circumstances of Time and Place be the same Men that this Law calls Parabolani make Tumults in the Streets affront and assault the Prefect in his Chariot and one of them breaks his head with a stone who being taken is wrackt to death by him but honorably buried by Cyril Upon which complaint is made to the Emperor from both sides but he takes his Governors part and for that end makes this Law to put these Ecclesiastical Men under his Government who had hitherto been subject to no Authority but the Bishop's Though 16 or 17 Months after being again reconciled to Cyril he puts them wholly under his Jurisdiction restores the Power of Election and Substitution into his hands and increases their number to six hundred His next Law enacted in the year 421 relates only to the Churches of Illyricum We command that all Innovation ceasing the ancient Canons and Customs that have hitherto prevail'd be observed through all the Provinces of Illyricum and if any Doubt or any Controversie arise it shall be determin'd by the Synod of Bishops but not without consulting the most reverend Arch-Bishop of Constantinople that ought to enjoy the Prerogative of old Rome There is no one piece of Antiquity that has been more canvassed and controverted than this Law among learned Men and yet to this day it lyes undiscover'd in the dark and no wonder whilst the Records of it lay buried in Rubbish It were tedious to recite the several Conjectures of Photius Baronius Perron de Marca Blondell Gothofred and divers others because they are all but meer Guesses without any bottom to support them But since their time the Records have been brought to light by the learned Holstenius who first publisht them to the World out of a Vatican Manuscript in the year 1662. And they agree so punctually with all the Records of that time as by it setting aside the Authority of the Manuscript it self to justifie and in reality demonstrate their own Credit Now the short of the Story is this That the Bishops of Rome and Constantinople were at that time contending for Supremacy of Jurisdiction and Illyricum being situated in the Confines of both Empires was naturally the Seat of War For though all Illyricum had in former times belonged to the Western Empire yet it was divided by Theodosius the Great and one half of it laid to the Eastern and upon that the Bishop of Constantinople claims Jurisdiction over it Constantinople then pretending to the same Prerogative in the East that Rome enjoyed in the West This pretence was set up immediately after the Council of Constantinople that only gave it preheminence of honour next to old Rome and that they fairly construed Equality of Jurisdiction whereas on the other side the Romanists challenged Supremacy of Power over those Churches by prescription from the time of Innocent the first who had set up the Bishop of Theâ—saloniâ—â— as his Legate over all Illyricum and to justifie his Innovation pleads Prescription from Damasus but that is according to the constant Custom of the Man rank Forgery when Damasus never in the least pretended to any such Power but only kept up Correspondence with Acholius Bishop of Thessalonica as the chief Metropolitan in those parts without any Intimation of any such Relation between them But Rufus who was then Bishop of Thessalonica having received such a Supremacy of Power from his Master Innocent was faithful to his Masters Interest and so continued till the very time of this Rescript and fighting it out manfully against the Usurpation of the Constantinopilitans Now the point of War as it was managed by the Bishop of Constantinople was this that Illyricum ought to be wholy governed by its own Synod of Bishops But as by Rome that the Bishop of Thessalonica ought to have and exercise a Supremacy of Jurisdiction over them And so it stood at the time of this Rescript Boniface the first then Bishop of Rome in the year 419 which was but two years before the date of the Rescript commending his Courage and great Service to the Apostolick See and this Victory was so great that as Boniface himself attests the greatest part of the Illyrican Bishops came over to his side But Atticus then Bishop of Constantinople more a Lawyer then a Divine and therefore chiefly governed and over-ruled the Church by Imperial Authority who had bafled an Excommunication of Pope Innocent with the Emperors Rescript and by it seised a Jurisdiction over the Province of Hellespont as I have elsewhere shewn finding Illyricum in danger to be lost procures this crafty Rescript from the Emperor against Rufus and under pretence of asserting the Laws and Liberties of the Church by preserving the Supreme Power of Provincial Synods takes the Supremacy of all to himself in that nothing was to be done or concluded by them without his consent And here the confidence of these men is very remarkable in pleading Antiquity on both sides notwithstanding the
troubled with any of the old Schisms and Heresies Though it was assaulted with new ones and so it must be as long as the Taint of Vanity is left in Humane Nature but as fast as it sprung up they were cut off by the same Method of Government So that by the reiterated experiments of so many Emperors here Recorded in this Code we find the true Efficacy of Penal Laws against all the extravagant wantonness of Schism and Singularity Under the Title de Haereticis there are ten Laws of Theodosius the Younger beside two other under the Title of Ne sanctum Baptisma iteretur and three of Valentinian the Third but they are only Recapitulations of former Laws to glean up the small scatterings that were left of the Ancient Schisms and Heresies The most remarkable of them all is the 65th Law by Theodosius in the year 428 that is an Epitome of all the former Laws by which he sweeps away at once 23 Sects by enjoyning the Execution of the former Laws against them upon the Judges under the same Penalty that the Law inflicts upon the Offenders Quae omnia ita custodiri decernimus ut nulli Judicum liceat delatum ad se crimen minori aut nulli coercitioni mandare nisi ipse id pati velit quod aliis dissimulando concesserit Under the Title de Apostatis there is only one Law of Valentinian to tye the Punishment of Intestability upon Apostates with more severity in the year 426 to which may be added the like Law against the Jews under that Title under which are extant seven more of Theodosius the Younger the first is very particular forbidding the Jews upon their great Festival of Aman to burn the Holy Cross in shew of their Contempt of the Christian Religion For that had been their Custom ever since their deliverance by Hester from the Conspiracy of Haman to Celebrate that day with extraordinary extravagance of Joy and Mirth and among other Customary Solemnities they were wont to burn the Effigies of Haman and his Gallows with mighty Triumph and Acclamation But it seems they had at this time changed the Gallows for a Cross thereby to reflect Contempt upon our Saviour and his Religion And for that very reason are they forbid that Custom under Penalty of forfeiting all their other Liberties The following Laws under this Title viz. l. 21 22 25 26 27. were only enacted to defend them and their Synagogues from the violence of the Rabble only the 27 th is made to restrain the Insolence of Gamaliel the Patriarch in the year 415 upon which followed the dissolution of that Office among the Jews For four years after in the year 419 he publisht a Rescript the last under that Title commanding the Jewish Governors to refund all the Crown-Gold that they had collected since the abolition of their Patriarchs and withal commanding all his own Officers for the time to come to collect the same Tribute for the use of his own Exchequer And so ended the succession of Jewish Patriarchs that had continued from their dispersion to this very day by what accident 't is uncertain but it was probably occasion'd by the great Misdemeanors of Patriarch Gamaliel who as we find by the 22 d Law had highly abused the Emperor's favor to the Oppression of the Christians themselves To these Laws may be added two more under the next Title ne Christianum Mancipium Judaeus habeat forbidding Jews to keep Christian Slaves upon pain of death Under the Title de Paganis there are only five Laws of Theodosius to renew the Laws in force against them upon supposition that there are any Pagans remaining in the Empire as it is expressed in his second Law Paganos qui supersunt quanquam jam nullos esse credamus promulgatarum legum jamdudum praescripta compescant And thus was this body of Imperial Laws finisht and consign'd that has ever since been the Standard of Law to most parts of the Christian World and from it we are fully instructed in the proper method of curing Schisms and Heresies viz. by abetting the Discipline of the Church with Penal Laws effectually executed upon the Offenders This after all the Experiments that were tryed by several Emperors was found the only proper Remedy against all the Distempers of the Church as Theodosius himself observes in his third Novel concerning all sorts of Dissenters Quos si ad sanitatem mentis egregiae lege medicâ revocare conemur severitatis culpam ipsi praestabunt qui durae frontis obstinato piaculo locum veniae non relinquunt If we endeavor to reduce these Men by sharp Physick to sobriety of Mind they themselves must bear the blame as well as the Punishment of our Severity that by their wicked obstinacy stop up all Avenues of Mercy or Pardon That is the true state of the Case there is alwayes a natural stubbornness mixt with Schism and nothing but smart can cure it And this is the thing that makes it so necessary to add Penal Laws to the Discipline of the Church thereby to stanch that peevishness that without it will naturally fly out into all the follies and wildness of humane Nature And all Princes that either out of their own natural Curiosity to try the experiment or being forced by the necessity of the times have taken off the Penal Laws or suspended their execution have soon been convinced of their mistake by the fatal Consequences that it has brought upon their Government As for the Laws that were enacted by these Emperors after the sealing of the Code and for that reason call'd Novels or new Laws there are two of Theodosius and three of Valentinian The first of Theodosius is only a revival of his own 56 th Law de Haereticis commanding the execution of all Laws against Jews Heathens and Hereticks His next Law takes away all manner of exemptions from Publick Taxes and among others those granted to the Clergy by his Predecessors which the Emperor excuses by the pressing difficulty of the present time though it is evident that granting or withdrawing such favors are meer Acts of the Prerogative Royal. The third Law placed in the Novels of Theodosius belongs not to him but to Valentinian the third directed to his Prefect in France and is of a peculiar Nature from all the other Laws in the whole Code being indeed not so properly an Imperial as a Papal Rescript and extorted by the Importunity of an assuming Pope to justifie his own Proceedings There had been an old Contest between the Bishops of Arles and Vienna for the Metropolitical Superiority for though it had always belong'd to Vienna yet Patroclus a very ill Man getting into the Bishoprick of Arles by Court-tampering usurps it to himself and is backt in it by Pope Zosimus with the pretended Authority of ancient Canons But this is contradicted by his two next Successors Boniface and Celestine upon the very same Plea of
ancient Canons And that was the custom of all Popes at that time following the dance of Innocent the first to make the Canons speak what themselves pleased and when they pleased to speak Contradictions But in the time of Leo the great Hilarius Bishop of Arles and a mettlesom Man would not be content with his Metropolitical Authority but sets up for a Patriarchal Supremacy over all France and Independency upon Rome This transports that proud and jealous Pope beyond all bounds of revenge and outrage and upon it he writes in great fury to the Bishops of France to depose him from his Metropolitical Authority and cancels all Acts of his Government in that capacity And as for the Grant of his Predecessor Zosimus to that See he has the confidence to pretend that it was only temporary and personal though by it he imposed as grosly upon Zosimus as Zosimus himself did upon the ancient Canons and to ratifie all he procures this Imperial Rescript commanding absolute Obedience to all his Commands and in effect erecting an universal Supremacy for him But the matter the stile and the spirit of the Rescript too much betray the rough hand of Leo himself in it And it was no hard Matter for so bold a Man to extort what he pleased from such a softly Prince And yet this very same Man when Hilarius dyed got Ravennius a very weak Man to succeed him and then restored the Metropolitical Authority to him and his See and thus did these Men set up and pull down as served the ends of their own Ambition and all out of pure Reverence to the ancient Canons And to speak a plain truth plainly they meerly lyed themselves into their universal Supremacy as I shall shew more at large not only from this instance of Arles but from two other great transactions on foot at the very same time that is their Usurpation over the Churches of Africk and Illyricum And though in the first they were shamefully baffled by the Africans who exposed their gross and scandalous Forgeries to the World yet it shews that they trusted to nothing so much at the time of their usurpation as the Sovereign Power of lying But to keep to our present business His next Law is to confirm all the Rescripts of former Emperors Pagan as well as Christian to out-law the Manichees This Law was made upon the discovery and confession of some very foul matter by one of the Ring-leaders of that Sect what the Fact was it was not thought decent to express and it is only in general thus described Quorum incesta perversitas Religionis nomine Lupanaribus quoque ignota vel pudenda committit such a foul incest under pretext of Religion that it was not so much as named in the publick Stews His next Law is against the Robbers of Tombs and Sepulchres it is a very severe one and one of the most eloquent for the stile in the whole Collection Servants and poor People convicted of it are punisht with death Men of fortune with forfeiture of half their Estates and all their Honors Clergy-Men with deposition from their Orders and perpetual banishment And as for all Governors that shall neglect the execution of this Law they forfeit both Estate and Honor. His last Law is to regulate the Bishops Courts and to revive some Laws of former Emperors relating to the Clergy it gives the Bishops power of Judicature praeeunte vinculo compromissi by way of Arbitration but no otherwise It allows Bishops and Presbyters to appear in the Civil Courts by their Proxies for all Causes unless Personal Crimes and lastly it prescribes what Persons may or may not be received into Holy Orders according to several fore-mention'd Rescripts of former Emperors § XV. But the most material Law of this reign is still behind and that is the Law to confirm the Decrees of the great Council of Ephesus that was both call'd and ratified by Theodosius the Younger which I have reserved to this place to treat of it by it self because as it is the greatest transaction of this Reign so is it another eminent Instance of the right Concurrence of the Powers of Church and State in the determination of Ecclesiastical Controversies and enacting of Ecclesiastical Laws and Canons All the old Schisms and Heresies being vanquisht by the Methods already described such is the wantonness of Humane Wit that it fell upon contriving new Conceits for its own sport and entertainment There is such a natural Vanity in some Mens Tempers that they can scarce live without singularities and innovations from whence comes that necessity of Heresies that St Paul speaks of they are the certain effects of Pride and Pedantry and as long as there are and will be born in all Ages Men of that Complexion nothing can hinder them from venting their own novel and home-spun Metaphysicks And therefore it cannot be expected that the Church should be altogether free from Heresies for that cannot be done without an alteration of Humane Nature it is enough that it is furnisht with means to stop and cure the Disease whenever it breaks out in the body of the Church as we have seen great numbers of Botches dispersed and reduced to nothing by the right exercise and concurrence of the Civil and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction And after this time it is observable that Heresies were not so long-lived for now the Method of their cure being understood by experience which when all is done is the best Art of Physick it was so soon dispatch't that they rarely survived their Author and after one sentence effectually executed they scarce ever put the Government to a second trouble as will appear by the following History Nestorius being chosen to the swelling Throne of Constantinople by Theodosius the Younger out of the Church of Antioch to avoid or rather end a violent competition at home he brings along with him one Anastasius a Presbyter his inseparable Friend and Companion and Valesius is pleased to be so critical as to affirm that he was his Syncellus an Office in the Pallaces of Patriarchs who had power to choose what Presbyters they pleased to cohabit with them who were therefore stil'd Syncelli or Concellanei But I doubt this learned Man here derives this Office too high for we find no foot-steps of any such State in the Records of the Church till after the Institution of Patriarchates by the Council of Calcedon and then we have frequent mention of it in History though nothing but deep silence before But whatever he were whereas the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Mother of God had been so familiarly given to the Virgin Mary by the Ancients that it was by custom become her proper Title and always annext to her name against this Anastasius inveighs in a Sermon and affirms that she ought not to be stil'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mother of God but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mother of Man But
dear to him but the Truth of God and that as for Nestorius though he had received many injuries from him he was so far from bearing him any ill Will that what he did was out of kindness to him only to put him upon clearing himself from those errors in the Faith that were vulgarly and he hoped falsly charged upon him which if he would be pleased to do himself should be very glad of his Friendship But the Quarrel advances whil'st Anastasius pretending Peace undertakes to prove in a Discourse before the Clergy of Constantinople that Cyril in his Book against him was at last of the same Opinion with himself Upon this Cyril writes to them to convict him of manifest leasing and impudence and upon that the Clergy of Constantinople draw up a Schedule to parallel the Assertions of Nestorius with the Doctrines of Paulus Samâ—satenus as the Father of this Heresie from whence Suidas and from him Baronius rashly suppose him to have descended of his Off-spring and when they had so done they by common consent publish it in their Churches which could not but be an unpardonable Provocation to his Proud and Violent Spirit and indeed it was a just ground of displeasure against them it being a false and unjust Charge against their own Bishop But Cyril finding by his furious temper that he was not to be reclaimed endeavours to engage all the Bishops of the most eminent Churches against him and first he writes to Celestine the great Bishop of Rome to inform him of the whole matter and beg his Assistance and Advice Celestine immediately takes very high offence at Nestorius Condemns him in Council and by the Authority of the Apostolick See deposes him if he repent not within 10 days and writes to John of Antioch Rufus of Thessalonica Juvâ—nal of Jerusalem and Flavianus of Philippi to desire their Concurrence to his Sentence And no doubt he took the Complaint so much the more greedily as being glad of any opportunity to take down the Proud and Aspiring Prelates of that See of whom he had too much reason to be jealous at that time when they had made several Attempts to mount the Throne of the Imperial City above the Apostolical Chair it self But now Nestorius perceiving the Clouds to gather and that a Storm was like to overtake him by Cyril's Activity he follows him with his Letters to Celestine though pretended to be written upon another occasion viz. Concerning the Pelagian Bishops that had been cast out of the Western Church for their Heresie but were then at Constantinople filling all Peoples Ears with Complaints of their unjust Sentence and daily soliciting both the Emperor and himself for restitution and therefore desires to let him know their Crime that he may rid both his Royal Master and himself from their Importunity After this his own Controversie is brought in as it were by way of Postscript to prevent false Reports against him and soon after he sends him larger discourses in his own Justification Upon which he returns him a very stately and supercilious Answer as if he were particularly pleased in insulting over a Bishop of Constantinople cutting him off from the Communion of the Catholick Church allowing him only 10 days from the time of the Receipt of the Instrument to redeem himself from the Fatal Decree by a publick and open Repentance And as for the Cause of the Pelagians he rates him very smartly for giving them any Countenance or Entertainment and reflects suspicious of that Heresie upon him for his presuming to interpose in their behalf however it is not time for him to intercede for others but to take speedy care of himself This being done he certifies his Sentence to the Clergy and People of Constantinople letting them know that if Nestorius did not recant within 10 days they should no longer own him for their Bishop And the same thing is done by his several Epistles to the forementioned Bishops all which is seconded by Cyril who was glad to fortifie himself with the Authority of the Apostolick See and therefore he sends by the same Messenger that first brought Celestine's Letter to himself a particular account to them and to Acacius of Beraea of all the fair means that had been used for reclaiming Nestorius before they proceeded to this severity who all agree with him against Nestorius as it is evident by Acacius his Answer to it this he particularly assures him for himself and John of Antioch who upon it writes a very kind and prudent Letter to his old Friend Nestorius conjuring him by all the Tyes of Friendship not to disturb his own and the Churches Peace by contending about a word whilest himself professed to own the sense of it And withal tells him that if he would suffer himself to be perswaded to disclaim the Controversie it would be so far from the dishonour of a Recantation that it would be an eminent Act of Wisdom and Greatness of Mind to forego Contentions and his own Opinions that were not necessary to the Faith for the Peace of the Church and this he writes as the unanimous sence of divers Bishops that were his Friends This Letter might probably have made some impression upon his great Spirit had not Cyril spoyled all by his own over eagerness for now finding himself so well back't he would not be satisfied with the meer quitting his opinion but he must be obliged to anathematise it too and accordingly tenders him 12 Anathema's to subscribe which though they were Theological Verities were I think too nice to be imposed as Articles of Faith and necessary conditions of the Peace of the Church And I am withal very apt to think that if this new Imposition had not made the breach wider it might have been made up for both Nestorius and Anastasius seem'd by this time not to have been very fond of their Cause if they could any way have quitted it with honour But this new Imposition of Cyril so enflames his Cholerick Nature that he now forgets all Temper and encounters Anathema's with Anathema's and throws himself into an utter incapacity of Reconciliation upon the Terms of Pope Celestine and that which is worse it gave him the advantage and reputation of a Party for John of Antioch was so offended at their rigour that it made him side with Nestorius against Cyril and it was this that enflamed the Zeal of Theodoret who as appears by his Epistles to Sporadius and Irenaeus was before and after this time no Friend to the opinions of Nestorius but an irreconcileable Enemy to Cyril and his Anathema's and therefore though he were one of those Bishops that had subscribed John of Antioch's Epistle to Nestorius he could never after brook this Imposition of Cyril But now Nestorius having gained this advantage by this over Pursuit rallies with greater fierceness and rages with greater Cruelty then ever especially against his own
all the Acts of the Council to be read over as their Master Celestine had given them in command which being done they by the Sovereign Authority of St. Peter and his Successors in the Apostolick See give validity to the Sentence without which state of the Papal Veult Le Roy it could have had no effect But the Council were glad of their Concurrence to ballance it against the opposition of John of Antioch and upon it they write a second Letter to the Emperor informing him of the agreement both of the Eastern and Western Church in the Sentence against Nestorius and request him not to credit thâ— Letters that after the sentence of tâ—e Catholick Church so fully declared in Council were threatned to be sent abroad by some Men thaâ— preferr'd their friendship to Nestorius before the Peace of the Church After this Cyril and Memnon move the Council to call John of Antioch to account for the injury that he had done to them in their Deposition and to the whole Council in controuling its sentence Upon this they send some of their number to cite John to appear but by the favor of Candidianus he has his Guards as well as Nestorâ—us and by them the Bishops are affronted and repulst and finally refusing to appear he and his Associates are condemned and deposed and their deposition certified to the Emperor and Pope Celestine But the Schismaticks had the Courtiers to back them and therefore are so far from submitting to the Sentence of the Council that they both defie that and depose the Council it self and send their Complaints to the Emperor of the violent courses used against them as if they were in continual danger of their Lives and ply the Courtiers with dismal stories of barbarous usage beg them by all the motives of Humanity to rescue them from their dismal condition But their complaints to the Emperor being vouch't by Candidianus the Emperor sends Letters to the Council by Palladius to null all their Acts for which the Schismaticks you may be sure return their letter of humble thanks applauding the Wisdom and Goodness of his Imperial Majesty But the Council finding hereby that the Emperor had been abused with false tales write to him by Palladius to assure his Majesty of the truth of those Acts that they had sent him and whereas Candidianus had given him other Information out of his friendship to Nestorius they assure him that he was altogether ignorant of the Proceedings of the Council and had not so much as ever seen the Books in which their Acts were enter'd That the Bishops who join'd with Nestorius were either such as had been already deposed or such as knew themselves obnoxious to the Discipline of the Church and so must have been deposed though they had continued with the Council And as for their complaints of Violence they were so far from truth that all the Guards attended Nestorius and his Party that Irenaeus broke into the Council in a tumultuary way and with Military force to the great danger of their Lives and humbly petition his Majesty that five of the Council might attend him to give him farther Information in the presence of Candidianus Upon this Irenaeus who was a Courtier that accompanied Candidianus to the Council out of meer zeal for Nestorius is posted away to Constantinople by the schismatical Party with fresh Certificates of the wild and disorderly behavior of Cyril and Memnon Neither was he remiss in his Embassy and so improved their Tales by word of Mouth that though he had been prevented by Messengers from the Council who came three days before him and had pâ—epossest the greatest part of the People and stagger'd the Emperor himselâ— yet he so satisfied him with his Relation of the whole Matter that he confirm'd the deposition of Cyril and Memnon as well as Nestorius And sends John his Comes Sacrorum another favourer of Nestorius to see it put in execution who finding the City in a Tumult about those three Persons he commits them all to prison and then takes upon him to preâ—ch Peace and Reconciliation to the Bishops and censures them very severely for being so implacable in their Quarrels as he is pleased to call their resolution for the Orthodox Faith and the Discipline of the Church And setting aside the cause of truth in the case it was an unpardonable Affront to the Discipline of the Church that when the Controversie had been determin'd and the Hereticks deposed by the sentence of so great a Council this unlearned Courtier should presume to set aside their Authority and as if they stood upon equal ground after the sentence of the Church was pass't advise both Parties to shake hands and be friends and because the Bishops scorn'd to put such a childish slur upon their own Authority and the discipline of the Church as to admit Offenders to communion without Canonical satisfaction call them implacable Prelates But now the Council finding that both the Emperor and themselves had been abused in that the Letter of the Nestorians to the Emperor about the deposition of Cyril and Memnon was written in the name of the Council and the Emperors Letter to confirm their deposition as well as that of Nestorius was directed both to the Council and the Conventicle as if they had been but one body of Men they write two Letters to him to inform him of the Imposture but they are intercepted by the Courtiers who still persist to lay all the blame of all these heats and disorders upon the Council it self In which Office Count John was most busie at his return home thinking himself affronted by the Council when they would not prostitute the sacred Discipline of the Church to his illiterate device of Peace and Comprehension But the Council having no return from the Emperor to their Letters and suspecting their suppression they write to the Clergy of Constantinople to inform the Emperor by Address of all the Abuses that were put upon his Majesty and the Council But this falls short for the next Letter that we have is from the Clergy of Constantinople to the Council complaining of the want of Correspondence all Passages both by Sea and Land being blockt up and declaring that they were ready to do any service that the Council would be pleased to command them By which the Council perceive that the first came not to their lands and therefore send a second to the same effect that came safe and upon it they petition the Emperor and inform hâ—m of the true state of the whole Matter and the Emperor being puzled with al these cross Stories orders Commissioners from both Parties to repair to Constantinople that he might understand the real Truth of the Controversy Eight Commissioners are sent on each side and the Legates of the Council are commanded in their Instructions to insist upon the deposition of Nestorius and nothing else as the Article of Peace And the Legates from
Asiatick and Thracian Bishops for him upon the account of the Animosity between him and Cyril about the Anathema's From hence they fall to the Examination of the Acts of the Ephesine Council where the forgeries the frauds the violent and illegal Proceedings of Dioscorus Juvenal and their Associates against Flavianus and Eusebius are at large most shamefully exposed to the World but their punishment is referred to the Emperor and so ends the first Action In the second they proceed to treat of the settlement of the Faith where they establish the Nicene Faith against Arius the Ephesine against Nestorius and the Epistle of Pope Leo to Flavianus against Eutyches as necessary Expositions of the Faith In the third Session which Valesius says ought to have been the second comes on the Tryal of Dioscorus who upon divers Accusations brought into the Council against him and after three Citations refusing to appear is deposed It is pretty to observe in this sentence how under this swelling Pope the Acts and Forms of Court were innovated for the advantage of the Papal Power The Libels or Petitions against the Offender are addrest in the first place to the Oecumenical Arch-bishop and Patriarch of Rome and then to the Council it self And then none must denounce the Sentence but his own Legates and that too must be done not in the name of the Council but in the Name and by the Authority of Pope Leo and St. Peter and this being done the Council signifie their sentence to the Emperor and Empress where again they give all the glory of the Action to Pope Leo. In the fourth Action beside repeting the former Decrees a Committee is appointed to debate farther concerning the Faith and Leo's Epistle which they represent to the Council as agreeable in all particulars to the Nicene Faith After that the Judges acquaint the Fathers that the Emperor is pleased to refer back the sentence against the Accomplices of Dioscorus to themselves but they tacking about and following the dance of that shameless Ecebolian Juvenal of Jerusalem and subscribing the Epistle of Pope Leo are reconciled and admitted to sit In the next place the Egyptian Bishops refuse to subscribe either the Condemnation of Eutyches and Dioscorus or the confirmation of Leo's Epistle during the Vacancy of the Arch bishoprick of Alexandria upon the deposition of Dioscorus it being both against the Canons and the Custom of their Church to act any thing without the consent of their Arch-bishop But this the Council interpret a meer shift and tergiversation to escape the subscription to their Decrees and therefore insist upon it before their dismission And tell them withal that the Canon was valid as to the ordinary Affairs of their own Province but ought to be anticipated and superseded by the determinations of general Councils that include and over-rule all Provincial Jurisdictions In answer to this they declare their own readiness to subscribe but dare not for fear of the People when they return home who they knew would lay violent hands upon them for betraying the Rights of the great Alexandrian Metropolitan And after long drawing on either side the matter is adjusted by the mediation of the Secular Judges that their subscription should be respited till the election of a new Arch-bishop which was accepted by Paschasinus the Popes Legate upon this condition that they would give Security by Oath or Sureties not to depart the City till that was done which being readily perform'd it ended the Controversie After this follows the Petition of the Eutychian Monks of Constantinople to the Emperor which he referr'd to the Council as he did all other Addresses but it being in behalf of Dioscorus against the Council and particularly their own Bishop Anatolius from whom they threaten to divide Communion if they persist in their Sentence against Dioscorus they are taught by Aëtius the Arch-deacon of Constantinople in a Premunire against the 4 th and 5 th Canons of the Council of Antioch whereby all Presbyters are actually excommunicated that presume to separate from their own Bishop But before they can be farther heard in Council they are required to subscribe the Epistle of Pope Leo against Eutyches and his prophane Novelties which refusing they are deposed from their Orders and expell'd their Monasteries The Imperial or as the Council phrases it the external Power according to the holy Laws of their Ancestors backing their Decree against the Contumacious This Action is shut up with a very fair decision of a Controversie between Photius Bishop of Tyre and Eustathius Bishop of Beryte who being a subject Bishop to Photius had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by subreption procured a Rescript in the time of Theodosius the Younger to bring part of the Province into subjection to himself and by force and threatning extorts Photius his consent to it But this great Council now sitting Photius Petitions the Emperor to write to the Council to redress his wrong which is easily granted where the cause being debated Eustathius confesses the Canon against him but pleads the Imperial Rescript against that But this Plea is utterly rejected both by the Judges and the Bishops to whom the Judges referred its final judgment who determin'd it upon this rule 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Imperial Pragmaticks are of no force against the Canons Upon this Eustathius pleads the Authority of Anatolius and a Synod of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Bishops sojourning at Constantinople who had proceeded so far in this contest as to excommunicate Photius though uncited and unheard upon this the Judges refer it to the Council Whether that were a legal Synod to which Anatolius pleads That it was so by Custom though not by Law But against this the 4 th Canon of Nice is urged that no Bishop can be ordain'd without the consent of his Metropolitan which Eustathius having done by whatsoever other Authority it was an open breach of that Canon and so adjudged by the Council to whom the Secular Judges intirely lest the Judicature as proper to their Jurisdiction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they declare to give the final Sentence about these Matters which being done by the Council in behalf of Photius it is thus confirm'd by the Judges 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let the Decrees of the Council stand establisht forever And upon it Cecropius Bishop of Sebastopolis is incouraged to move That all Imperial Pragmaticks for the Alteration of the settled bounds of Provinces may be taken away forever as bringing certain disturbance and confusion upon the Government of the Church which being seconded by the Synod is confirm'd by the Consent of the Judges In the 5 th Action after many Debates the Judges having no mind to the Imposition of Leo's Epistle the Fathers proceed to the settlement of the Faith and having first approved the Creeds of the three other general Councils they add a 4 th of their own framing against Eutyches not that
Practice For whereas Nicomedia had ever been the Metropolis of Bythinia the Emperors Valentinian and Valens had conferred the Title and Honour of a Metropolis upon the City of Nice reserving the Metropolitan Power to Nicomedia Upon occasion and pretence of this Grant Anastasius Bishop of Nice usurps to himself the Power of Jurisdiction over some part of the Province and particularly Basilonopolis of this Eunomius Bishop of Nicomedia and Metropolitan of Bithynia makes his Complaint to the Council and they to adjust the Ecclesiastical Canons and the Imperial Rescript grant the Honour of a Metropolis to Nice but so as to reserve the Power entire to Nicomedia Hereupon Aëtius the Arch-Deacon of Constantinople who lay at catch for all opportunities to advance the Grandeur of that See interposes a provision that this Decree may not be interpreted to the disadvantage of the Bishop of Constantinople of whose Power to ordain the Bishops of Basilonopolis he was ready to produce divers Precedents But this was rejected by the Fathers as being whether true or false as to matter of Fact contrary to the Canons so that hitherto they were not able to fasten any of the Constantinopolitan Usurpations upon the Authority of the Council The next Transaction is to correct and rectifie another Irregularity of that pilfering See in the Controversie between Athanasius and Sabinianus for the Bishoprick of Perrha For whereas Athanasius had been Canonically deposed by his own Metropolitan he repairs to Constantinople and makes his Complaints to Proclus who according to his Custom greedily embraces his Appeal and writes to Domnus Arch-Bishop of Antioch in his behalf who upon it calls a Council to review the former Judgment which he had in great kindness committed to Panolbius that was an intimate friend to Athanasius and upon enquiry finds that Athanasius was so conscious to himself of the Crimes laid to his Charge that he never durst stand his Tryal and to avoid it had resign'd his Bishoprick and withal was so diffident of his Cause at the second hearing that he durst not so much as appear under pretence that Domnus his Metropolitan was his Enemy and so is again deposed And yet for all this he is so restless as to bring his old Complaints even to this Great Council and they taking a full Examination of all the former Proceedings find that they can afford him no Relief and yet because he had an excuse for his Non-appearance at his last Tryal viz. The enmity between him and Domnus they were so tender as not to give final Sentence against him but refer the effectual Judgment of the Cause to Maximus the present Bishop of Antioch against whom he could make no Exception Hitherto the Proceedings of the Council were fair and regular enough but in the next Session in which they draw up their Canons the Clergy of Constantinople with some others that they had pack't together being not above a third part of the Council put a slur upon the whole Council for whereas 27 Canons were Voted and Subscribed by all the Fathers after the rising of the Council the Judges and the Legates they Vote another Canon granting an exorbitant and illegal Power to the Bishop of Constantinople over the Metropolitans of three whole Diocesses and clap that to the Canons of the Council but with what ingenuity it was done and how worthily defended when the Abuse was complained of in the next meeting and how slitely the Business was carried by the Judges and what fierce and bloody Wars it occasioned in the Church between the two Great Prelates of Rome and Constantinople I have already elsewhere represented and therefore shall forbear any farther Account of it here where my main design is to give an account of the Hâ—story of the right Concurrence of the distinct Powers of Church and State in its Government And setting aside this last Action that was carried by fraud and stealth this Council seems to have been more decent and regular in its Proceedings then any other whatsoever since the Council of Nice and had this advantage above the rest that it was not left to the superintendency of one or two Courtiers but was committed to the Care and Conduct of a great number of Persons of Honour and Quality who behaved themselves with all the decency of temper prudence and civility For as they managed the order of proceedings and interlocutions with great Art cutting off all impertinency and unnecessary talk so they never interposed the Authority of their own Judgment in any matter but entirely referred every thing little or great to the determination of the Bishops and were so complemental in their respect to the Church that they would not presume to be so much as present at those Sessions in which the Confession of Faith was drawn up that being only a work proper to those who were Commissionated to it by our Saviour himself And when it was finisht the Emperor declares That it was not establisht by his own but by the Councils Authority that he came to own and confirm what they had Enacted and so requires all his Subjects to acquiesce in what was settled by their Authority under severe Penalties to be inflicted by his own In all which all Partieâ— seem'd to have observed all the Rules not only of Justice but of decency and to have shewn that Civility to the Churchâ— that all men though there were no other Obligation then meer good manners owe to the Religion that themselves profess And though the Clergy of Constantinople and their Confedeâ—ates were guilty of great and shameless disingenuity in the last Session not only breaking but perverting and falsifying the Canons of the Church yet the Emperor and Judges cannot be very much blamed who were Strangers to these matters and took the motion to be nothing else then a Complement of particular respect and honour to the Imperial City and as such they pass it that as the Ancient Canons had given pre-eminence to the Bishop of old Rome out of respect to the dignity of the head City so new Rome being now advanced to an Equality with it in the Empire it was but fit to raise it to the same degree of honour in the Church And that had been no great harm had it been done without robbing other Churches of their just Rights and Priviledges which though the Clergy understood the Laicks did not because what was here settled by Law they had always seen practised by Custom and therefore had no reason to look upon it as an Innovation But as for the Eutychian Heresie that was the proper business of this Council it being so fairly Condemned by the Ecclesiastical Judgment they according to Form and Custom send the Relation to the Emperor for his Royal Confirmation wherein they do not so much acquaint him with their Decree with which he had been before acquainted having confirm'd it in the 6th Session as justifie their Authority to make it and it is a very
we have by sad experience found a long and fatal Schism till the Divine Providence cured the wound by your Majesties Care and Power speaking to Justinian and therefore great Sir in the name of God persevere in so good a work that has been accepted with the joy of the whole Christian World and blot not out its glory by deserting it c. And that is the natural and inevitable Event of all trimming tricks that instead of reconciling Parties as 't is pretended it only lets them loose to worry one another And withal first adds to the insolence of that Party that had been tyed up the contempt of that Authority that restrain'd it and then kindles the rage and indignation of the other Party that had gained the upper-hand and lastly that which is worst of all it makes breaches for new Divisions And so it hap'ned here Peter Mongus having by this device got possession of his Bishoprick he endeavours to trim and comply with both Parties and by it incurs the hatred of both loosing his own without winning the other And they communicating neither with the Catholicks nor with their own Bishop became a new Sect called Acephali i. e. Men without an Head so natural is it for all shufflings in Government to end in Anarchy and Confusion It was this wise way of quacking to cure the wounds of the Church by Irenicum Plaisters and comprehensive Weapon-salves that brought the breach between the Eastern and Western Churches to an incurable Eresipulus or Fire of Contention over the Face of the Christian Church For Petrus Moggus being by that means received by Acacius not only to Catholick Communion but advanced to a Top-Bishoprick contrary not only to the ancient Canons but to the late Decree of the Council of Calcedon Acacius is upon it call'd to account by Pope Simplicius and persisting in his Treachery is excommunicated in a Council at Rome and that laid the ground of all those Contests that followed after upon the Acacian Schism as the Romanists stile it to the final Separation of both Churches And what else can be expected from such a daubing Cement of Peace to unite men in the same Communion as leaves them under all their differences and contrarieties of Opinion a contradiction in the nature of the thing for if they are in good earnest they will pursue their differences if they are not indulgence is needless and they are to be reclaim'd another way but whether they are or are not if they are allowed their liberty every man will be of his own mind and an enemy to every man that is not and the result of all is that how much soever they dissent among themselves they shall be forced to counterfeit an agreement but dissembling is no Tye. And therefore after such devices the next thing that we always hear of is that the breach is made much wider And thus here beside the Contest between Acacius and Simplicius Petrus Moggus falls out with both and instead of taking the Catholicks into his comprehensive Embrace in a short time finding they would not quit their Principles and the Council of Calcedon raises a severe Persecution against them and peremptorily refuses all Communion to all that adhere to the Council and upon it the Church of Alexandria continued in a State of Schism through a long Succession of Bishops into the next Century till the Pacisicators again fell out among themselves and subdivided into new and fiercer Factions and Animosities And not only that Church to which the healing Henoticon was particularly directed but the whole Catholick Church was every where dissolved into irreconcileable Wars and Confusions But as sad as the event of the Henoticon proved there is one pleasant Passage to be observed about it that whereas before there were but two Factions in the Church i. e. for and against the Council of Calcedon this created a third call'd the Haesitantes or Neuters that were neither for nor against the Council and as both Parties hated these more than they did one another as Traitors to both so they again under pretence of indifferency and moderation requited them with all the violence of Persecution and when they had got the Emperor Anastasius a serious Prince into their hands they stir'd him up to prosecute both the extreme Parties with a more than ordinary severity as we shall see more at large when we come to his Reign But first let us take a view of the particular Mischiefs that it soon produced under Zeno himself who too after all his trimming was forced at last to turn Persecutor By whom the Henoticon was contrived it is not easie to determine with any certainty I know it is generally laid upon Acacius but I suspect that Report to have been raised by his Enemies at Rome only to blast his Reputation But though there is no clear Evidence that it was his contrivance yet it is undeniable that he gave it too great acceptance and by that means gave too just advantage to the Bishops of Rome to insult over him For though their private Design was to beat down the growing greatness of the See of Constantinople yet he deserved the utmost severity that they could use against him by betraying the Discipline and Authority of the Christian Church so dishonorably as to receive such Persons into its Communion that had been cast out of it by no less Judgment than the Sentence of a General Council and that upon no better Warrant than a Mandate from Court And that I take to be the Shop in which the wise Contrivance was forged between the Courtiers out of an Itch to be tampering with Church-work and the outed Eutychians either to recover their Preferments or usurp other Mens and through the whole sequel of the Story we shall find the old Eusebian Game playing over again But whoever was the Author of it it was cunningly enough contrived to impose upon the World and serve the Eutychian Cause without owning it The best copy of it is the Greek in Evagrius The Latin Version in Liberatus is false and barbarous perverting the sense for want of sufficient skill in both Languages It establisht the Nicene Faith as own'd by the following Councils it condemn'd both Nestorius and Eutyches by name and though it says nothing of the Council of Calcedon it self it establisht the Faith of the Council but without regard to its Authority and the Emperor himself declares That as for his own part he imbraced the Council of Calcedon though he would not have it imposed upon the Catholick Church So that at the bottom the whole design of the Project was only to take off the Authority of that Council and then the Eutychians were at liberty to play their Game and drive their own Bargains and so the Markets were soon set up in the greatest Sees and the chief Chapmen were Peter Moggus at Alexandria and Peter â—ullo at Antioch Upon the death of Timotheus Aelurus who
Collection which being done he consumes all their Books in a publick Bone-fire to prevent his Successors from ever recovering any of its Memoires and so ended this barbarous Imposition unbecoming as the Historian observes not only any Christian but any Heathen Common-wealth But soon finding this too great a retrenchment of his Revenue in Money he is forced to supply it another way as heavy upon the Subject That whereas the Provinces had hitherto paid their Tribute in kind he exacts it by way of Composition in Money and whereas hitherto it had been managed by the Magistrates of Cities who used their Neighbours kindly he farm'd it out to his Collectors and they to be sure would loose nothing that was to be got but setting aside their oppression it proved a very great oppression in it self to the poor Farmers for though they might have plenty enough of Corn and Cattel to spare yet they had scarcity enough of Money and for that very reason out of meer humanity and compassion this way of Taxing had been often forbidden by divers of the preceding Emperors As for the State of the Church under his Reign it gives us a true Character of the Conequences of Comprehension as it is described by Evagrius That being excessively desirous of Peace he would permit no Innovation and labour'd all manner of ways that the Church should every where remain without disturbance and that all his Subjects should enjoy perfect Peace without brawling and contention And for that end the Council of Calcedon was in those days neither openly abetted nor rejected But every Bishop followed his own conceit some stickling with all their might for all the determinations of the Council not allowing the alteration of the least Syllable in its Decrees and refusing with the greatest disdain to communicate with any that rejected any part of it others on the contrary did not only reject but anathematised the Council and all that adhered to it others again cryed up Zeno's Henoticon and though these two Parties differed among themselves about the Eutychian Controversie yet both Parties agreed against the Council some being seduced by the Imperial Letters others by the pretence of Peace So that all the Churches in the Christian World were rent into numberless Schisms and Factions and the Communion of the Bishops shattered all in pieces Hence arose infinite Quarrels between the Eastern Western and African Churches the Eastern refusing Communion with the Western and African and they on the other side denying them the same Civility And not only so but the business was carried on to an higher degree of folly for none of them agreed among themselves the Eastern Bishops breaking Communion at home neither did the Western and African Bishops though they both joyn'd against the Eastern communicate themselves or with any other Forraign Churches whatsoever All which the Emperor perceiving he deposed all Innovating Bishops all that stuck to the Council and all that Anathematised it and so cast Euphenius and after him Macedonius out of the See of Constantinople and Flavianus out of the See of Antioch A goodly Account this of the natural effects of this wise Project of Peace and Moderation to set all the World in a flame without redress till at last the Peace-maker himself is forced to quit his own pretence grows angry and violent in proceeding against all that refuse to comply with his own Will and it is a very obvious observation of this sort of men that when they are disappointed in their Project they grow moody and sullen and are of all others the most revengeful and implacable to all that differ from them And as for these dire effects of love and meekness no Man need to wonder at them because the design it self is no better than casting away all manner of Discipline and Government without which all Societies soon fall into War and Anarchy Neither do these Mischiefs end in the Church but they break out into Tumults and Rebellions in the Common-Wealth as we shall see anon in the Rebellion of Vitalian But though all Christendom were actually in Arms the Fight was hottest and the Contest run highest at Rome and Constantinople between Euphemianus and Gelasius who though they agreed in the Orthodox Faith could never be reconcil'd in the point of Discipline concerning Acacius and those Bishops that communicated with the Eutychian Hereticks after they were condemn'd by the Council Gelasius will listen to no terms of Reconciliation till the Acacian Schismaticks are thrown out of the Dyptichs and Euphemianus on the contrary importunes him to condescend from the strictness of Discipline for the sake of Peace and Unity and assures him that his Severity could have no other effect in the Eastern Church but to make the breach wider But for all that Gelasius stops his Ears at all motions of condescension and by vertue of the Authority of St. Peter will abate nothing of the settled Discipline of the Church upon any account or pretence whatsoever And therefore advises him as he hoped ever to recover the favor of the Apostolick See to anathematise Acacius as well as Eutyches And to the same purpose he writes to Faustus Ambassador to Theodorick King of the Goths and at that time Master of Rome and Italy then residing at Constantinople upon a treaty of Peace between his Master and the Emperor Though in it he all along betrays his great concern to be more for the Grandeur of his own See than the Discipline of the Catholick Church However Faustus labors to the utmost of his Power to gratifie his Holiness but all in vain for they are resolved at Constantinople never to deliver up a Bishop of their own much less so stout a Champion as Acacius to the ambition of Rome And even the Emperor himself storms at him for his unyielding obstinacy upon which his Majesty is accosted with a Letter in a very high stile demanding his Obedience to the Apostolick See discoursing at large the pre-eminence of the Pontifical Power above the Regal And this he follows with a Circular Epistle directed to the Bishops of Dardania wherein he magnifies the Sovereign Authority of his own See above the whole Catholick Church in such high streins as were indeed nothing less than an open challenge of an absolute Monarchy over it And therefore Acacius dying in Rebellion against his Highnesses Predecessors neither himself nor any that communicate with him ought to be received into Grace and Favor And in the same lofty language he directs his Mandate to the Eastern Bishops upon the same Argument And not content with this he issues out his Proclamation to the whole Christian World to declare the validity of the Sentence against Acacius and his Accomplices To him succeeds Anastasius in the Papacy who though stiff enough sinks much below the height and rigor of his Predecessor and condescends to send his Legates and tender an humble Address to the Emperor for Peace
concerning Discipline His Laws concerning Faith are far from being numerous only three of his Predecessors and three of his own and all in pursuance of the Decrees and Definitions of the Church and those of his own are not so properly Laws as Confessions and Declarations of his own Faith sent to some Christian Bishops for their satisfaction and are nothing else than an owning or ratification of the four General Councils by whose Authority as he declares the Apostolical Faith was conveyed down through all Ages to his own time and for that reason he receives both the Nicene Faith because it was deliver'd down from the Apostles and the several Expositions of it by the following Councils Not as if that had been defective in perspicuity but because the Enemies of the truth had endeavor'd to subvert it some one and some another way therefore it was necessary for the Church in the following Councils to explain and defend its truth by Testimonies of Scripture and to anathematise all the Authors of prophane Novelties And for this very reason he lets all his Subjects know that there is no living for any Man within his Dominions that does not submit to the Authority of these Councils In all which he expresses so much Civility and Respect to the Jurisdiction of the Church that there is not an higher declaration of it in all the Imperial Laws so free is he in this matter from that imputation so confidently charged upon him by the Italians as Alemannus expresses it ad Religionis dogmata definienda ecclesiasticasque sanciendas leges effusa licentia a bold and saucy tampering with the Christian Faith which he was so far from ever attempting that no Prince ever declared more vehemently against that sacrilegious abuse of the Imperial Authority In the three following Titles de Sacrosanctis Ecclesiis de Episcopis et Clericis de Episcopali Audientiâ all the Laws enacted by himself are only so many Charters of Priviledg to the Church that express an high sense of Piety and Devotion and are withal contrived with so much prudence that whoever would go about to find fault with them must lay aside his Understanding as well as his Integrity And yet these are all the Laws of his own enacting in the Code for under all the following Titles he has only collected the Laws of his Predecessors without adding any of his own In his Novels as mighty and Ecclesiastical Legislator as he is taken to be his Laws of Religion are not so very numerous and those that are only revive Ecclesiastical Canons or Ecclesiastical Customs but are no new Institutions And any attempt of that kind was so far from finding any entertainment in his thoughts that he ever shun'd it with all manner of tenderness and declares upon all occasions that his Laws only wait as he is pleased to express himself upon the Canons of the Church The first Novel upon this Argument is the Third Enacted Anno 535 in the 9th Year of his Reign where he Enacts that in all Cathedral Churches the Clergy be stinted to a certain number but I hope no man can be so weak as to think that this was never Enacted before that time The next is the 5th de Monachis in which he only keeps the Monks to the Rules of their Institution but makes no new Rules of his own The 6th regulates the other Clergy according to the Canons of the Fathers as he declares in the Preface to it and there occurs nothing in it but what had been often commanded both by the Ecclesiastical and Imperial Law The 7th forbids all Alienations of the Goods of the Church The 9th gives the Church the Priviledge of prescribing for one hundred Years whereas the Plea of Possession against all other Prescription was limited to 30 and this he presents as a Religious Oblation to Almighty God These were all publish't in the same Year In the 11th he raises the place of his birth to the honour of an Arch-Bishoprick or Patriarchate to which he subjects Six Provinces that had hitherto belonged to the Arch-Bishop of Thessalonica and justifies his Power of doing it because the dignity of the Church naturally followed that of the State and therefore his Imperial Majesty having establisht a new Civil Prefecture in that City that gave it a new Prerogative in the Church for as in former times when the Prefecture of Illyricum was fixt at Sirmium then the Episcopal Primacy resided there but when afterward those Parts were invaded and laid wast by Attila King of the Huns Appennius the Prefect was forced to retire to Thessalonica the Archiepiscopal Dignity followed him thither Et Thessalonicensis Episcopus non suâ Authoritate sed sub umbrâ praefecturae meruit aliquam praerogativam i. e. And the Bishop of Thessalonica obtained the Prerogative not by Vertue of his own Authority but under the shelter of the Civil Prefecture And therefore the Emperor having instituted a new praefectus praetorio in his own City upon the Recovery of that part of the Empire that had been lost it was but fit and decent that upon that occasion it should be made an Archiepiscopal See And to it he subjected all Dacia and Pannonia Dacia then containing Transilvania Valachia and Moldavia Pannonia the lower Hungary the upper Austria Carinthia and Carniola as they are now divided And this being done he obtains of Pope Vigilius to grant the new Arch-Bishop his Legantine Dignity in those Provinces But here Baronius storms and says he extorted it by force and cruelty after the great falling out about the tria Capitula and that it was not honest to rob other Churches to enrich and advance his own But his passion has run him into a continued Train of mistakes For first the Grant of Vigilius was made at his first coming to the See as appears by Justinian's 131 st Novel in which it is mentioned that bears date in the Year 541 whereas there was no Quarrel between the Pope and the Emperor till after Vigilius his Journey to Constantinople which was not till the Year 547 neither did he suffer any force till the Year 551 as Baronius himself very well knows who has placed the Story of that Persecution in the History of that Year Neither secondly did the Pope grant the Metropolitical Dignity but only the Legantine Power the first was stablisht before by the Emperor and more then that an Archiepiscopal or Patriarchal Supremacy for at that time those words were synonymous to express the new Jurisdiction above Metropolitans Nor Thirdly were the Ancient and Original Rights of Thessalonica defrauded but only that part of the Empire that was newly Recovered and formerly belonged to Sirmium was settled in its Ancient State under the Metropolis of Justiniana But lastly the Cardinal has little reason to complain of robbing Peter to pay Paul if he would but reflect upon the Actions of the Popes about that time who with Force and Arbitrary Power both against
of Constantinople and the Queens Favourite at the instigation of Pope Agapetus for suspicion of the Eutychian Heresie and after that to confirm the Decree of the Council under Mennas against him by adding Banishment to his Deposition And being now upon a design of publishing a Rescript against the Acephali in behalf of the Council of Calcedon upon this Theodorus a friend to Eutyches as well as Origen having insinuated himself into the Court by the Empress and being endeared to the Emperor by his great Officiousness partly to be revenged of Pelagius for the Affront to his Master Origen and partly to divert the good Emperor from his Design against the Acephali craftily perswades him that he might spare his Pains and reconcile them to the Council at a cheaper rate If three Offensive things were taken out of its Acts i. e. if the Writings of Theodorus Mopsuestenus Master to Nestorius if the Epistle of Ibas Bishop of Edessa to Maris Persa and if the Book of Theodoret against Cyrâ—l's Anathema's might be condemn'd of Heresie though they had been absolved by the Council The Motion was plausible to the Emperor and he thought it a very easie Method to reconcile all Parties only by suppressing the Writings of two or three private Men so that the Authority of the Decrees of the Council it self stood unshaken as before for though the Council did not condemn yet it did not commend but onâ—y acquit them and therefore it was not directly concern'd in their suppression And Theodorus finding that by this Device he had decoyed the Emperor into his snare that he might secure him from a Relapse prevails with him in the absence of his Rival Pelagius who was then at Rome to publish an Edict of Condemnation by his own Authority but drawn up as Facundus Hermianensis tells the Emperor not by himself but Theodorus and his Accomplices that so having once publickly appear'd in the Cause that would be an obligation upon him to persevere in it against all opposition otherwise he understood the gentleness of his Temper so well that when he saw the Mischiefs and Inconveniences that follow'd upon it he would quit the Cause and leave them in the lurch to answer for their Affront to the Council of Calcedon And the better to secure themselves the Edict was as craftily composed as it was contrived All the Councils were confirm'd all the Heresies of all denominations condemn'd only in the tail of all these three particular Authors were apocryphised And that the good Emperor's design was meerly Peace and Concord is very observable from the conclusion of all Si quis igitur post ejusmodi rectam confessionem et haereticorum condemnationem salvo manente pio intellectu de nominibus vel syllabis vel dictionibus contendens separat se à sanctâ Dei Ecclesiâ tanquam non in rebus sed in solis nominibus et dictionibus positâ nobis pietate talis utpote dissensionibus gaudens rationem pro semetipso et pro deceptis et decipiendis ab eo reddet magno Deo et Salvatori nostro Jesu Christo in die Judicii By which it is evident that the Emperor accepted the Model after the security and settlement of the Christian Faith against all sorts of Hereticks as the only remedy expedient at that time against contention and curiosity without any design against the Council of Calcedon or any other determinations of the Church but on the contrary rather with a religious and intire submission to their Decrees and for this reason it is approved and subscribed though not without reluctancy by all the four Eastern Patriarchs and most eminent Prelates of the Eastern Church Whereas on the other side the Western and African Bishops concluded it a direct reflection upon the Wisdom and Authority of the Council it self to condemn those Writings of Heresie that it had upon a fair Trial acquitted And thus by this unhappy Legerdemain of that false and jugling Man Theodorus under which the Emperor suspected no ill Design instead of finishing the settlement of the Church after so fair a progress that he had made in it for it was he that govern'd and manag'd all things in his Unkle Justin's reign he brings all things back into the same Tumult and Confusion into which they were brought by the Henoticon It was but a slite and a very remote breach as one would think upon the Churches Authority yet it broke down all Bounds of Discipline and Government that it seems is a thing so tender that it can endure no tampering and unless it be made sacred and inviolable it loses all its force And so this great Emperor after this slite Wound in a matter in which it was so little concern'd could scarce make it up again by the Authority of a General Council Though I must confess that the occasion of raising the Quarrel so high was the turbulent spirit of Pope Vigilius who as he was guilty of all other Wickedness exceeded in Pride as appears not only from the Historian but the Sentence of Excommunication against him by Pope Silverius in the time of that Popes banishment Quippe qui nequissimi spiritûs audaciâ ambitionis phrenesin concipiens in illius Apostolici Medici cui animas ligandi solvendique collata et concessa potestas est versaris contumeliam novumque scelus erroris in Apostolicâ sede rursus niteris inducere et in morem Simonis cujus discipulum te ostendis operibus datâ pecuniâ meque repulso qui favente Domino tribus jam jugiter emensis temporibus ei praesideo tempora mea niteris invadere That by the instigation of the Devil being mad with pride he rebell'd against St. Peter and his Authority committing a new and unheard of sin in the Apostolick See it self and following the example of Simon Magus whose Disciple he shewed himself to be by his works by purchasing my Bishoprick with Mony and expelling me out of it for these three years And if we may believe the angry Africans he bought the Apostolick See of the Empress Theodora whose Creature he was and procur'd the banishment of Pope Silverius by forging treasonable Letters to the Goths in his name and when Justinian suspecting some Abuse recall'd him home this wicked Man caused him to be murther'd by two of his own Servants So that it is a just Character that is given of him by Baronius himself Cedit huic Novati Impietas Pertinacia Vrsicini Laurentii Praesumptio ac denique aliorum omnium schismaticorum Antistitum superbia artogantia atque facinerosa temeritas c He out-stript Novatus in wickedness Vrsicinus in stubbornness Laurentius in impudence and all Schismaticks that ever were in pride insolence and presumption But however by a train of wickedness mounting himself into the Apostolick See according to his Simoniacal Articles with Theodora he enters into league with the Henotical Bishops sends an Encyclical Letter to them extant in Liberatus to assure them that
to the See of Alexandria Of which when Simplicius sends him Letters of Complaint one after another he would never vouchsafe him any Answer and so Simplicius dying the â—udgels are immediately taken up by his Successor Foelix the 3 d and the first Act of his Government is to call a Council in which a Synodical Letter of Admonition is written to Acacius chiding him for his sullenness to Simplicius charging him with Pride and ill-manners towards the Apostolick See advising him to use his Interest with the Emperor to rectifie the late Misdemeanors at Alexandria in the election of Moggus otherwise he must be thought an Apostate from his own Principles and a Renegado to the Hereticks for not to proceed against wicked Men when it is in a Man's power to curb them is to give them protection and he incurs suspicion of secret friendship who gives over his opposition to a manifest impiety And in tâ—e same Council another long and pathetical Letter is drawn up to the Emperor and sent by the same Legates Vitalis and Micenus conjuring him to keep fast to his old Principles against the Hereticks and gauling him in the same Dilemma in which they had involved Acacius viz. That if he stood firm to the Council of Calcedon he must renounce the Hereticks and therefore if he did not oppose them he protected them against the Council and that was manifest opposing it But the Emperor was big with his new Project of comprehension and was deaf to all advice against it and Acacius being secure of him he slites Foelix his Letters imprisons his Legates and draws them in to join Communion with himself and Moggus Upon the news whereof another Council is immediately summon'd at Rome where the sentence of Deposition and Excommunication is denounced against him But he being warm and safe at Court slites the force of all Ecclesiastical Discipline and requites Foelix in his own coin striking his name out of the Dypticks and persisted in the exercise of his own Function to his dying day which was 4 years after the Sentence that was decreed in the year 484 and he dyed in the year 488. This was the effect of this shrewd Instrument of Comprehension in these three head Churches of Rome Constantinople and Alexandria nothing less than a total breach of Communion and one of the fiecrest Schisms that ever befel the Christian Church and though the Peace between them was patcht up about 34 years after by the Power and Activity of Pope Hormisdas yet they were never heartily reconcil'd to this very day As for Acacius it is a dispute what he was some indict him of Heresie or Church-treason others only of high Misdemeanors though as for my own part after all streins of Candor I cannot but think him guilty of both or I fear something worse the want of a serious sense of Religion To free him from the high charge of Heresie it is pleaded that he never in the least own'd the Eutychian Faith that he ever declared against it that he was never charged with it by the Ancients and that in the Sentence against him at Rome where all his Crimâ—s were strictly enough enumerated this is no Article against him But yet for all this I see not how he can be absolved from it for in the Eye of the Law and indeed the common sense of the World all Communâ—on with Hereticks is and ought to be judged Heresie as in all Civil Laws all consulting with Traitors is deem'd Treason For it concerns not the Government to fish out every Man's Opinion or motive of his Practice that can judg only by overt-acts and then to communicate with Hereticks is Heresie and to consult with Traitors Treason But much more in this particular Case in which all Communion with the Hereticks had been Canonically declared Heresie by the Church in the great Council of Calcedon and without it the sentence of the Church had been of no force for that can reach no farther than their outward Communion So that after all the Henoticon was so far from compromising the Controversies as it pretended and I believe design'd that it only reverst and contradicted the Decree of the Church and by an Imperial Rescript declared that to be no Heresie that had been judged so by the Council and that I take it is plain bidding defyance to it and its Authority As for the other Crimes charged upon him they are enormous enough his very friendship with such ill Men as Moggus and Fullo shews he had but very little sense of Honesty or indeed of Reputation otherwise he would have loath'd and defyed Men of such rank Practices But the leading Sin that betray'd him into all his other Miscarriages was his Pride and Ambition and to gratifie that it is plain that he stuck not to subvert all the Discipline of the Christian Church For finding the Emperor Zeno fond of his Henoticon he at least frankly complyed with it to the subversion of the first and fundamental Law of all Church-Communion in receiving Hereticks into it without Canonical Repentance and Satisfaction And this is suggested in the Decree of the Council at Rome against him that he preferr'd the Emperor's favor above his own Faith and then it is no matter to what Religion such perfidious Men pretend when it is too apparent that they have really none at all And the case of the Church at this time was much the same as it was under the Reigns of Constantius and Valens ill Men got into the Court and from thence crept into the Church and to gain Preferments for themselves flatter'd the Prince into an exorbitant use of his Power against the true and regular Discipline of it And that would at once give them interest at Court and make vacancies in the Church for themselves and this weak Prince was so drunkenly fond of this little Project that he would throw away the best Preferments in the Church upon any Parasite that would but seem to hugg his fondling-Ape by which means great numbers of very bad Men came into the best Churches But one of the greatest Instances of it is the great Church of Antioch we have already seen the other three leading Churches brought into a Civil War among themselves but here it came to blows and cutting of Throats that I shall very briefly describe as another observable Example of the good Effects of this gracious Instrument of Accommodation Petrus Fullo a Monk had been expell'd his Monastery for the Eutychian Heresie in the time of the Emperor Leo flies to Calcedon and being a talkative Man is soon driven thence for the same Cause and so takes shelter at Constantinople and there insinuates himself into the favor of the Princess Ariadne and by her recommends himself to the Patronage of her husband Zeno and having gain'd that he endeavors to dis-place Martyrius Bishop of Antioch Zeno being then Governor of the Place but Martyrius making his Application to the