foolishly for in the beginning of the Book he hath a Preliminary Tract called An Annotation of Synods the Acts where of are contained in this book In which he giveth us this account in the Aquitan Council 18 Fathers made 24 Canons in that of Neocaesarea 16 Fathers made 14 Canons in that of Gangra 16 Fathers made 21 Canons in that of Sardica 60 Fathers made 21 Canons in that of Antioch 30 Fathers made 25 Canons in that of Laodicea 22 Fathers made 59 Canons in the Council of Car thage 217 Fathers made 33 Canons I had a long time coveted a sight of these Canons and finding them numbred in such an Annotation of Synods the Acts whereof are contained in this book I was much comforted with hope of seeing them But when I turned to the place I found them not Surely to slip out 33 Canons at a time made by more Fathers than were in all the other Councils put together is a lusty Deleatur There was never Deed of more importance imbezelled in the World The Nicene Council had 318 Fathers that made 20 Canons for what secret cause therefore he skippeth over the account which he ought especially to give of this is worth the enquiry He mentions it by the by and shuffles it off without an account perhaps because he was loath to say or unsay the story of 70 Canons in the Nicene Council However he dealeth fairly with us in this that having noted Aurelius to have been President in the sixth Council of Carthage he confesseth that S. Augustine Bishop of Hipyo is recorded to have been in that Council in the Reign of Honorius Ibid. Binius and all the Popish Compilers I could ever meet with before clipped off that Council in the midst without so much as signifying the number of its Canons I was glad I had a sight of their number here though I mist of themselves and was confident that however cruelly the Pope dealt with Aurelius Archbishop of Carthage S. Aug. Bishop of Hippo and other holy Fathers in cutting out their Tongues I should at last meet with them And the Learned Justellus with much honesty and honour has made us satisfaction We acknowledge some true Records among these Spurious Abominations but a little poyson spoileth the greatest Mess of the most wholesom Meat much more doth a Bundle of Forgeries that over-poyseth the true Records in size and number The method which he useth in the mixture of the Records and Forgeries is remarkable For beginning with the Counterfeit Epistles of Clement Anacletus c. he first seasoneth the Readers spirit with Artificial Charms and prepossesseth him with the high Authority of the Roman Patriarchs and after he has given him those strong Spells and Philtres composed of Roman Drugs permits him boldly to see some true Antiquities his eyes being dazled in the very Entry with Apparitions of Popes and such other Spectres Lest the Tincture should decay he reserves some of the Forgeries till afterwards that the true Records might be compassed in with an Enchanted Circle and the last Relish of Antiquity go off as strong as the first and be as successful as the prepossession Thus he cometh down with Forgeries to Melchiades and then he breaketh off the Decretal Epistles to make room for the Councils beginning with the Nicene under pretence of its Excellency and putting the Councils before it in time after it in order that he might get a fit occasion to introduce them here so running down in a disorderly manner from Ancyra to Neocaesarea Gangra Sardica Antioch Laodicea Constantinople Ephesus Chalcedon among the Greeks and then up again to the Latine Councils many of which preceded divers of the other as the first second third fourth fifth sixth Council of Carthage all which were before the Council of Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcedon From the seventh Council of Carthage he runneth down to the thirteenth Council of Toledo which happened long after Melchiades Silvester Pope Mark Liberius Felix c. were dead Then he cometh in the second part of his Work up again to Sylvester and so downwards with more Decretals that he might Husband his Forgeries well and not glut us with them altogether And remarkable it is also that he doth not give us the least syllable of notice of any Fraud among them Nay even Constantine's Donation set in the Front before the Nicene and in the midst between the first Order of Counterfeits and the Councils passeth with him silently and gravely for a true and sacred Instrument which is of all other the most impudent Imposture Let Baronius say what he will it was impossible to debauch all Antiquity and Learning with so much Labour and Art without some deep Counsel and Design What use Merlin puts all these things to and how much he was Approved in the Church of Rome you shall see in the next Chapter and how highly also he extolleth this Book ofF orgeries How plainly he fathereth it upon S. Isidore Bishop of Hispalis is manifest by the Coronis of the first Part where with it endeth Give thanks to industrious and learned men studious Reader that now thou hast at hand the Acts of the Councils as well as of the Popes which Isidore the Bishop of Hispalis collected into one Volume c. What shall we believe The first Edition of the Book it self or Baronius his Testimony Old Merlin fathers it upon Isidore before Baronius was born and all the World was made to believe the Bishop of Hispalis was the Author of it though now for shame and for a shift they fly to another Author Now if Isidore were dead before the Booke was made it must needs be a Cheat which as Merlin saith honest Francis Regnault the cunning Printer ended at Paris in the year of our Lord 1535 which unusual form of Concluding instead of allaying increaseth the suspicion CAP. VI. What use Merlin makes of Isidore and the Forgeries therein How much he was approved in the Church of Rome How some would have Isidore the Bishop to be a Merchant others a Sinner HOw false and fraudulent soever the Collection of Isidore be yet its Title is very Splendid and its Authority Sacred in the Church of Rome JAMES MERLIN'S COLLECTION OF THE Four General Councils The NICENE the CONSTANTINOPOLITAN the EPHESINE and the CHALCEDONIAN Which S. Gregory the Great does Worship and Reverence as the Four Gospels TOM I. Of 47 Provincial Councils also and the Decrees of 69 POPES From the APOSILES and their CANONS to ZACHARIAS ISIDORE being the Author ALSO The GOLDEN BULL of CHARLES IV. Emperour concerning the Election of the KING of the ROMANS PARIS At Francis Regnault 1535. All we shall observe upon this Title is this If Gregory the Great did Worship and Reverence the Four General Councils as the Four Gospels they were the more to blame that added 50 Canons to one of them and they much more that stain them all with the Neighbourhood and Mixture of such
hateful Forgeries But who could suspect that so much Fraud could be Ushered in with so fair a Frontispiece or so much Sordid Basene s varnished over with so much Magnificence I have heard of a Thief that robbed in his Coach and a Bishops Pontificalibus of the German Princess and of Mahomet's Dove But I never heard of any thing like this that a 〈◊〉 should trade with Apostles Fathers Emperours Golden Bulls Kings and Councils under the fair pretext of all these to Cheat the World of its Religion and Glory His Grandeur is rendered the more remarkable and his Artifice redoubted by the Greatness of his Retinue Riculphus Archbishop of Mentz Hincmarus Laudunensis Benedictus Levita the Famous 〈◊〉 and his fourscore Bishops Ivo Cartonensis Gratian Merlin Peter Crab Laurentius Surius Carranza Nicolinus Binius Labbè Cossartius the COLLECTIO REGIA Stanistaus Hosius Cardinal Bellarmine Franciscus Turrianus c. Men that bring along with them Emperours and Kings for Authority as will appear in the Sequel Men who think it lawful to Cheat in an Holy Cause and to lye for the Churches Glory These augment the Splendour of his Train Their Doctrine of Pious Frauds is not unknown And if we may do evil that good may come certainly no good like the Exaltation of the Roman Church can possibly be found wherewith to justifie a little evil The Jesuites Morals are well understood Upon their Principles to do evil is no evil if good may ensue Perjury it self may be dispenced with by the Authority of their Superiour An illimited Blind Obedience is the sum of their Profession To equivocate and lye for the Church that is for the advancement of their Order and the Popes benefit is so far from sin that to murder Heretical Kings is not more Meritorious It is a sufficient Warrant upon such grounds to James Merlin our present Author that he was commanded to do what he did by great and eminent Bishops in the Church of Rome as he sheweth in his Epistle Dedicatory To the most Reverend Fathers in Christ and his most excellent Lords Stephen and Francis c. the one of which was Bishop of Paris and the other an Eminent Prelate who ordered all his work by their care and made it publick by their own Authority Conceiving nothing saith he more profitable for the Commonwealth I have not dissembled to bring the Decrees of the Sacred Councils and Orthodox Bishops which partly the blessed Isidore sometime since digested into one partly you most Reverend Fathers having confirmed them with your Leaden Seal gave me to be published in one Volume For every particular appeareth so copiously and Catholickly handled here which is necessary for the convicting of the Errours of mortal men or for the restoring of the now almost ruined World that every man may readily find wherewith to kill Hereticks and Heresies The Protestants being grown so dangerous that they had almost ruined the Popish World by reforming the Church nothing but this Medusa's Head of Snakes and Forgeries was able to affray them The nakedness of the Pontisicians being discovered they had no Retreat from the Light of the Gospel but to this Refuge of Lies Where every one may readily find saith Merlin wherewith to kill Hereticks and Heresies to depress the proud to weary the voluptuous to bring down the ambitious to take the little Foxes that spoil the Vineyard of the Church By the proud and ambitious he meaneth Kings and Patriarchs that will not submit to the Authority and Supremacy of the Roman Church and by the little Foxes such men as the Martyrs in the Reformed Churches the driving away of which was the design of the publication That he meaneth Kings and Patriarchs in the former you will see in the Conclusion And if any one shall hereafter endeavour to fray and drive away these Monsters from the Commonwealth what can be more excellent saith he than the stones of David which this Jordan shall most copiously afford If any one would satisfie the desires of the Hungry what is more sweet and abundant than the Treasures which this Ship bringeth from the remotest Regions but if he desires the path and splendour of Truth by which the clouds of Errour with their Authors may best be dispelled and driven far away what is more apparent than the Sentences of the Fathers which they by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost have brought together into this Heap For here as out of a Meadow full of all kind of Flowers all things may be gathered with ease that conduce to the profit of the Church or the suppressing of Vices or the extinguishing of Lusts. Here the most precious Pearl if you dig a little will strait be found c. Here the Tyranny of Kings and Emperours as it were with a Bit and Bridle is restrained Here the Luxury of 〈◊〉 and Bishops is repressed If Princes differ here peace sincere is hid If Prelates contend about the Primacy here THE ANGEL OF THE GREAT COUNCIL discovers who is to be preferred above the residue c. Are not the Roman Wares set off with advantage here How exceedingly are these Medicines for the Maladies of the Church boasted by these Holy Mountebanks The stones of David that kill Goliah the River that refresheth the City of God the Food of Souls the Ship the very Argonaut of the Church that comes home laden with Treasures from unknown Regions are but mean expressions the Inspirations of the Holy Ghost the Pearl of Price Angelus ille Magni Concilii the Angel of the Covenant are hid here and all if we believe this dreadful Blasphemer declare for the Pope against all the World Here is a Bit and Bridle for Kings and Emperours a Rule for Patriarchs and what not The Councils and true Records we Reverence with all Honour due to Antiquity And for that very cause we so much the more abhor that admixture of Dross and Clay wherewith their Beauty is corrupted Had we received the Councils sincerely from her we should have blest the Tradition of the Church of Rome for her assistance therein But now she loveth her self more than her Children and the Pope which is the Church Virtual is so hard a Father that he soweth Tares instead of Wheat and giveth Stones instead of Bread and for Eggs feedeth us with Scorpions We abhor her practices and think it needful warily to examine and consider her Traditions What provisions are made in Merlin's Isidore for repressing the Luxuries of Popes and Bishops you may please to see in Constantines Donation and the Epilogus Brevis In the one of which so many Witnesses are required before a Bishop be condemned and in the other care is taken for the Pomp. of the Clergy even to the Magnificence of their Shooes and the Caparisons of their Horses As Merlin who was a Doctor of Divinity of Great Account so likewise all the following Collectors among the Papists derive their Streams from this Isidore
Chair And together with the Credit of Rome to take away an Empire Besides the Spiritual Right of being the Rock there are ample Territories and Cities claimed with a Temporal Kingdom Let him therefore pretend what he will the Authority of such Instruments is very convenient And because he knows it well enough he produces the Diplomata or the Patents of other Kings and Emperours to confirm the Churches Secular Right extant as he saith in the Original with their Imperial Seals as particularly those of the Most Christian Princes of France restoring those things which the Longobards took away But he does not tell you by what Arts they got possession of those Territories at first nor by what Ancient Evidences Seals or Patents they held them before the Longobards touched them And because a Kingdom is of much Moment in the Church of Rome he further saith As for the Dominion of things temporal given to the Church herself proves them by the Broad Seals of the very Emperours giving them yet extant in the Originals and she quietly enjoyeth them How quiet her injoyment is you may see by that stir and opposition she meeteth and by all the clamour throughout the Christian World that followeth her Usurpations Which she defendeth here by the Seals of Emperours in general Terms but what Seals they are she scorneth as it were to mention in particular Which argueth her cause to be as Bad as her pretence is Bold But as for the Rights granted to the same Roman Church S. Leo Faelix Romanus Gelasius Hormisda Gregorius and other their Successors that flourished famously from the times of Constantine have defended them saith he not by the Authority of this Constantinian Edict but rather by Divine and Evangelical Authority against all the Impugners of them The man is warily to be understood for some of these whom he pronounceth as Defenders violently oppose their claim as Gregory in particular who for himself and all his Predecessors renounceth that Blasphemons Title which John of Constantinople first arrogated but the Bishops of Rome acquired afterwards by the Gift of Phocas the bloody Emperour So that all these are Mummers brought in as it were in a Masque to shew their vizars and say nothing For of all these Roman Bishops mentioned by Binius Gregory was the last who testifieth that none of his Predecessors ever claimed such a Title We may further note that he speak here with much Confusion because he speaks of the Rights granted to the Roman Church but does not distinguish between the Divine and Humane Rights of which he is treating For the Business he is now upon is the Temporal Klngdom in desending of which these Popes down to Gregory did forbear to use the Authority of this Constantinian Edict as he calleth it by way of scorn not because they had it not but rather as he pretends because they had no need of it having enough to shew by Divine and Evangelical Authority for the same Which is another pretence as bold and impudent as the former For I think none of his own Party will aver that the Bishop of Rome can claim a Temporal Kingdom by the Holy Scripture As for any other Claim by this Constantinian Edict or any Donation else of Emperours before the Longobards he slighteth all especially the Authority of this Constantinian Edict conceruing which he saith None of all those who sate over the Church before the year 1000. many of which saw the genuine Acts of Sylvester recited concerning which we spake above is read to have made any mention of this Edict For as much as the Counterfeit Edict was not yet added to the Acts by the Greek Impostors He does not tell us how he came to know that many of the Roman Bishops saw the genuine Acts of Sylvester before the year 1000. that being an Artifice or Color only as if there were two divers Books of Sylvesters Acts and the one a true one He tells us not a word of the Contents that were in them but he before told us plainly that the Acts of Sylvester the Pope were falsly written in Greek under the name of Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea that they were not known till 1000. years after Christ coming then forth in Eusebius his Name And now he telleth us as plainly that the Counterfeit Edict was not yet added to the Acts by the Greek 〈◊〉 The poor Greeks on whom he layes all the Load of Imposture never injoyed the benefit of these Acts nor ever pleaded the Imposture as the Latines did And in all likelyhood they made it that laid Claim and Title to the Supremacy by it Since therefore the Question is come to this Who were the Impostors we must define against him that the Counterfeit Edict was added to the forged Acts not by the Greek but Latine Impostors For how Counterfeit to ever he will have it Pope Adrian in his Epistle to Constantine and Irene which remains inserted in the Nicene Council recites this whole History almost in the same manner and so confirmes it by the Truth of this Edict As Binius himself telleth us on the words Ipse enim So that the Edict was pleaded long before the Greeks added it to the Acts of Sylvester For Pope Adrian died in the year 795 and the Acts of Sylvester were unknown till the year 1000. Yet this Adrian founded his Epistle to the Emperour and Empress in the second 〈◊〉 Council upon the truth of this 〈◊〉 And in very truth the Story he telleth is the same of Constantine's Leprosie c. contained in the Donation Which if 〈◊〉 had been pleased to remember was published by the Latines in Isidore Mercator's Collection of the Councils about the year 800. Where the Greeks in all probability first found it and were cheated as many Wiser men have since been with the appearance of it there So that searching it up to the Fountain Head it rests still among the Romans By the way to shew you that Binius is his Crafts-Master over against these words concerning Adrian before mentioned he putteth down that Famous Marginal Note Donatio Constantini confirmatur The Donation of Constantine is confirmed not by Binius as the simple Reader would suppose but by Adrian's Epistle recorded in the 2 Nicene Council and expresly containing the whole Fable of Constantine's Leprosie Vision and Baptism So that the first that ever knew it in the World for ought I can yet perceive was this Adrian of whom we have spoken somewhat before Now he comes to shew how greedily the Popes received this Cheat of the Greeks Among those who received the Acts of Sylvcster in good seoth corrupted thus with the addition of this counterfeit Edict by an evil Art and by the sorry faith of the Grecians carried out of the East into the West and that earnestly defended them as Legitimate and Genuine and pure from all fraud and Imposture the first is found saith he to be Pope Leo
Though matters are so carried as if she were great enough to be her own Support and without being founded on any other were her own Foundation All I shall observe is that Hadrian 1. and Leo 9. have been very zealous and tender of these Records that Benedictus Levita got them confirmed by the Roman Chair that several Popes since Leo 9. have imbraced countenanced and furthered them as Pope Paul V. and Sixtus V. in particular that Isidore Mercator whom Baronius confesseth to be a Cheat is the common Father of the Popish Compilers That the Codes or Tomes of the Councils at this day received in the Roman Church for good and Sacred Records are by these Collectors James Merlin Peter Crab Laurentius Surius Carranza Nicolinus Severinus Binius Labbe the Collectio Regia old Ivo Gratian c. have digested these Impostures and recorded them as the Sacred Authenticks of the H. Catholick Church that whole Armies of Cardinals Archbishops Bishops Doctors Schoolmen Jesuites Monks Fryars Canonists c. have cited them for many Ages as true Records that Turrian in particular with divers others have set themselves strenuously to defend them that they have imposed the Cheat upon Kings and Emperours that the Forgeries are backed with the Authorities of Popes Emperours Kings c. All no doubt having a zeal but not according to knowledge that is being exceeding regardful of the Interest of the Chair and studiously maintaining the Temporal Kingdom of the Church as they call it but erring in the manner While they thought this the way to advance her which is now become her apparent shame and a probable means without sudden amendment to bring her to Confusion That Princes may a little more clearly see into the Mystery of these counterfeit Decretals it is meet in the close of all to expose to the view of the World one Passage out of many other which we have passed over in silence The Design of it touches Kings and Emperours to the Quick though for greater security to the Chair it be covertly expressed It is in the 〈◊〉 of S. Peter to the people of Rome in S. Clements Letter to S. James and it is commended to the consideration of the World by all the Popish Compilers of the Decrees and Councils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 downwards 〈◊〉 revived in the first Epistle of 〈◊〉 as Binius observes And expresly repeated because they will make much of it in the counterfeit Letter of Fabianus a Roman Bishop and Martyr that lived about 1400 years agoto this purpose When he had said these things and many more like unto these looking upon the people again he said And you my dearest Brethren and Fellow-Servants obey this Man that presideth over you to teach you the Truth IN ALL THINGS Knowing that if any one grieveth him he receiveth not Christ who intrusted to him the Chair of Teaching and he that receiveth not Christ shall be judged not to have received God the Father and therefore neither shall himself be received into the Kingdom of Heaven c. But ever coming together to Clement Date omnes operam proipso sentire it is an Emphatical expression make it your business to be of his Opinion and with your utmost study to shew your 〈◊〉 towards him Knowing that for every one of your sakes the Enemy is more inraged against him alone and stirs up greater Wars against him Ye ought therefore to endeavour with your utmost study that being all knit together in the Bond of love towards him ye may cleave unto him with a most perfect affection But you also be sure to continue unanimous in all Concord that you may so much the more easily obey him with one Consent and Vnanimity For which both you may attain Salvation and he while ye obey him may more readily bear the weight of the Burden laid upon him They must with their utmost study favour him and bend all their Charity to each other for this very end that they may cleave the faster unto him for doing which they shall attain Salvation This environs the Popes Chair with Armies of Well-wishers and Servants But the Dangerous Passage follows which shakes all the Thrones and Kingdomes in the World Lest they should be an Army of silly Sheep and simple Doves wanting the Serpents Fraud and Sting He admonisheth them further that they all must be Enemies to their Popes Enemies and hate all that he hateth I leave Kings and Princes to judge of the words Quaedam etiamex vobis ipsis intelligere debetis c. Some things also ye ought to understand of your selves If there be any thing which he dares not evidently and manifestly speak out for fear of the Treacheries of evil men As for Instance If he be an Enemy to any one for his Deeds do not ye expect that he should tell you Be ye not Friends with such an one but ye ought prudently to observe and to do his Will without any Admonition and to turn from him against whom ye perceive he is an Enemy nor so much as to speak to him with whom he speaketh not c. That every one in fault while he covets to regain all your Friendships may the sooner make haste to be reconciled to him who is over all and by this return to Salvation while he begins to obey the Admonitions of his Superiour But if any one shall be a Friend to those to whom he is not a Friend or speak to those to whom he speaketh not he is one of them c. This dangerous Intimation is a sufficient hint sor Jesuitical Souls He declares his Principle that he is an Enemy to some contrary to our Saviours Order and gives order to his Disciples to guess at his meaning and without any publick notice to execute the same Hatred removes its Object he hates and they must do his Will without Admonition If they mistake his meaning provided they do it out of Zeal he can easily connive at it which suits with their Practises of Poysoning Emperours Murdering Kings attempting on Queens their Massacre at Paris the Gunpowder-Treason c. The Instruments of which Acts are by such Records rather favoured than discouraged and some of them Canonized rather than punished in the See of Rome FINIS * viz 〈◊〉 all the world to the Roman Chair This is the Canon opposed by the Forgeries * Dr. Stil Sermon on Acts 24. 17. pag. 45. * Dr. Stil Sermon on Acts 24. 17. pag. 45. Iren. Proem Lib. 1. cap. 1. 〈◊〉 Lib. 1. cap 〈◊〉 Vin. Lir. cap 39. Ibid. Ibid 〈◊〉 An. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 5 6 7 8. Ibid. 〈◊〉 S. Bern. Serm. 〈◊〉 in Cant. S. 〈◊〉 Ibid. Ibid. Confer cap 7. Divis. 5. Bin. Tom. 1. Tractat de Primat c. Concil Nicen. 1. Can. 4. Concil Nic. 1. Can. 5. Concil Carth. 6. Epist. ad Celestin. Epist. Concil Carthag 6. ad Celestin. Baron Daillè concerning the right use of the Fathers lib. 1. cap. 4. Concil Chalced. Act. 16. Tom. 2. Concil Concil Chalced. Can. 28. Greg. lib. 6. Epist. 30. Lib. 4. Epist. 32. Lib. 6. Epist. 30. Greg. lib. 4. Epist. 34. Helvic Chronol Platin. in vir Bonif 3. Piatin in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concil Nicen 2. Act. Baron An. 〈◊〉 5. nn 6. 〈◊〉 ibid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 84. Ibid. 〈◊〉 An. Gen. 34 1 Kings Baron An. Christ. 865. nu 4. Baron An. 865. nu 6. An 865. nu 7. Ibid nu 7. Bellarm. de Rom. Pont lib. 〈◊〉 cap. 14. Confer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de Rom Pont. 〈◊〉 I. cap. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Epistolis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in vita Marc. Bell. de Rom. Pont. lib. 4. cap. 9 Baron An. Christ. 357. Liberii 6. nu 32 33. Bfn. in vit Liberii Bellarm. ut supra Bin. 〈◊〉 pist 3. Damasi in Epist Hieron ad Damas. Ibid. * Clausule insuesa sus picionem 〈◊〉 15 The Forgeries Fathered on the Holy Ghost Blondel cap. 6. Earon in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vid. Turrian Can. 84. In 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Clement E. pist 〈◊〉 Ibid. Vid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nicol. Epist Dedicatad Sixt V. Nicol. 〈◊〉 Lectori Nicol. T. pogr Lectori No Legatus à Latere Nicol. ibid. 〈◊〉 de Concil Eccles. lib 〈◊〉 cap 〈◊〉 In Nat. Martyrol ad 〈◊〉 April Daille pag. 45. c. Things put into the Councils of Nice and Ephesus 〈◊〉 Nicolinus A 〈◊〉 for the Popes An. 520. ** Cunning honest men like Merlin's Printer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An. 〈◊〉 An. 〈◊〉 S. Peter's order about the 〈◊〉 ary * Clerke An. 184. An. 158. Colos. 2. 18 19. Easeb. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 An. 296. Peter Crab An. 304. An 309. An. 311. * Bin. Not. in Constant. Edict A Forgery beginning in the Name of the Father Son and H. Ghost * All the Nobles and the Se nate converted in a moment * Not built Ibid. Constanti e the Great gives his Cloaths to S Peter and S. Paul in heaven The Popes Guard Secular Power The Popes Army The Popes Horses False Latine and Nonsense Ibid The Popes Modesty 〈◊〉 the Great the Popes Groom or Stirrup-holder Ibid. The Popes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Popes 〈◊〉 Ibid. The Pope the Head of Religion The Sanction of the Decree Council 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Gregory the Great 's Blasphemous Title Bin. Not in Const intin 〈◊〉 Forgeries in the Name of Eusebius The Acts of Sylvester forged Greg. lib. 〈◊〉 Ep. 30 Greg. lib. 4. Epist. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Pope Leo. 〈◊〉 citet the Donat on * The Gravest and most Learned Doctors among the Papists use it without any suspition Constantin Donat. Ibid. 〈◊〉 a Forger Theod. in Colos. 2. Epiphan Hares 60. Lib. 1. de SS Beatcap 20. Bin. in Concil Rom. 〈◊〉 Sylvest 〈◊〉 Bin. in Ep Ashan ad Marc 〈◊〉 in Epist. Julii Epist. Concil Carth. 6. ad Calestin Ibid. Bel. de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 2 cap. 25. Ibid. Ibid. * Bin. Marg in Clement Epist. 1. * Fab Epist 1. * An. Christ 238. S. Peters Forged Oration * The Roman Bishop
the turn in an hundred other places by a Pious Fraud and the Confession being over-skipped they may still seem Authentick especially if the place happen to be unseen where the Confession was made as it often cometh to pass in voluminous writings 〈◊〉 has besides these 2 counterfeit Epistles of 〈◊〉 3 of Alexander 2 of Sixtus 1 of Telesphorus 2 of Higinus 2 of Pius 1 of Anitius 2 of Soter 1 of 〈◊〉 2 of Victor 2 of Zephirinus 2 of 〈◊〉 1 of 〈◊〉 2 of Pontianus 1 of 〈◊〉 3 of Fabian 2 of Cornelius 1 of 〈◊〉 2 of Stephen 2 of Sixtus 2 of Dionysius 3 of 〈◊〉 2 of 〈◊〉 1 of 〈◊〉 2 of Marcellinus 2 of Marcellus 3 of Eusebius 1 of 〈◊〉 All laid down without the least 〈◊〉 of any Fraud though the later 〈◊〉 of the Councils having their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Century-Writers of 〈◊〉 the care of other I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to acknowledge several of them to be Forgeries These Episiles have one common blast upon them they were first seen in a counterfeit book and never known to the World 〈◊〉 hundred years after their pretended Authors were set in their Craves They cannot all be 〈◊〉 at once the Reader therefore must have patience till we meet with them in their places In the mean time see what Bishop Jewel saith concerning them a 〈◊〉 ever answered by any especially as to these points wherein he 〈◊〉 them with Forgery Gratian sheweth that the Decretal Epistles have been doubted of among the Learned Dr. Smith declared openly at Paul's Cross that they cannot possibly be theirs whose names they bear And to utter some reasons shortly for proof thereof these Decretal Epistles manifestly 〈◊〉 and abuse the Scriptures as it may soon appear to the Godly Reader upon sight They maintain nothing so much as the State and Kingdom of the Pope and yet there was no such State erected in many hundred years after the Apostles time They publish a multitude of vain and Superstitious 〈◊〉 and other like fantasies far unlike the Apostles Doctrine They proclaim such things as Mr. Harding knoweth to be open and known 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that was next after Peter willeth and 〈◊〉 commandeth that all Bishops once in the year do visit the 〈◊〉 of S. Peter's Church in Rome which they call Limina 〈◊〉 yet was there then 〈◊〉 Church as yet built there in the name of Peter Pope Antherus maketh mention of Eusebius Alexandrinus and Felix which lived a long time after him Fabianus writeth of the coming of Novatus into Italy yet 't is clear by S. Cyprian and 〈◊〉 that Novatus came first into Italy in the time of Cornelius who was next after Fabianus One Petrus Crab the Compiler of the Councils complaineth much that the examples from whence he took them were wonderfu ly corrupted and not one of them agreeing with another Gratian himself upon good advice is driven to say that al such Epistles ought to have place rather in debating matter of Justice in the Consistory than in determining and weighing the truth of the Scriptures Besides this neither S. Hierom nor Gennadius nor Damasus nor any other Old Father ever alledged these Epistles or made any account of them nor the Bishops of Rome themselves at the first no not when such Evidences might have stood them in best stead in their ambitious contention for Superiority over the Bishops of Africa The Contents of them are such as a very Child of any judgment may soon be able to 〈◊〉 them Here he nameth St. Clement's writing to St. James when he was dead Marcellus charging the Emperour Maxentius an Infidel and a Tyrant with the Authority of Clement with several things of this kind In his Reply to Harding's Answer Artic. 1. and 4. But I proceed with Isidore or rather Merlin that first printed him He has besides all these Epistles certain counterfeit Decrees of Sylvester Bishop of Rome in the time of Constantine the Great and the Epilogus brevis Romani 〈◊〉 post 〈◊〉 celebrati which Hincmarus Archbishop of Rhemes is reported particularly to have excepted against as absurd because it ordaineth 1. That no Lay-man ought to accuse a Clergy-man 2. That no Inferiour Priest may accuse his Superiour 3. That a 〈◊〉 may not be condemned without 72 Witnesses a Cardinal Priest not without 43 a Cardinal Deacon of the City of Rome not without 27 a Sub-Deacon an 〈◊〉 a Reader a Door-keeper not without 7 〈◊〉 It is further provided that every one of these 〈◊〉 must be without any spot of infamy no Lay-man at all nor any inferiour Clergy man So that upon the matter a safe Indemnity is prepared for all kind of Priests especially the great ones to swim in any Excess as himself listeth provided he be not guilty of the Protestants faults that is to say that he doth not touch the Popes Crown or the Monks Belly This Decree is most solemnly put among the Councils by Isidore and Merlin by Peter Crabbe Surius Binius Labbe and Cossartius and the Collectio Regia and as solemnly put among the Popes Laws by Ivo an ancient Bishop a great Civilian and one of the Eldest Digesters of the Canon Law before Gratian This brief Epilogue set before the Council giveth you to wit that there were Cardinals in Rome in the time of Constantine the first Christian Emperour But if you please to examine Antiquities you will hardly sind Cardinals so ancient Isidore in his Preface directed to one whom he calls his Fellow-servant and Father of the Faith mentioneth 70 Canons of the Nicene Council somewhat too affectedly You 80 Bishops saith he who have compelled me to begin and perfect this work ought to know and so ought all other Priests of the Lord that we have found more than those 20 Canons of the Nicene Council that are with us And we read in the Decrees of Julius the 〈◊〉 that there ought to be 〈◊〉 Chapters of that Synod Yet when he cometh to the Council it self he forgets himself so far as to lay down but 20 the 50 forged 〈◊〉 receiving a fair Countenance only by that Preface or Epistle set for shew before the work He has an Epistle of Athanasius and the Bishops of Egypt to Pope Mark wherein they tell him that there were 70 Canons of the Nicene Council and desire him to send them into Egypt from Rome since all their own were burnt at Alexandria by the Arrians Mark was dead 9 years before the Burning happened howbeit he sent them a Gracious Answer with the 70 Canons The 〈◊〉 of these was seriously cited to 〈◊〉 by a Learned Son of that Church to prove the Bishop of Rome was called Pope to wit by Athanasius and all the Bishops of Egypt within the first 〈◊〉 years But some of their latest Authors begin to blush at it as Binius and Baronius do in particular Next to these he has three Epistles of Julius the Pope as very Counterfeits as the former yet generally
with him in his Preface But then he maketh amends for the Omission for he hath the Synodical Epistle of the Nicene Council a new Record which I find not in Isidore or in any before him It is an humble Address of the Nicene Council to Pope Sylvester beseeching his Holiness to ratifie their Decrees To shew that no Council is of any value unless it be approved by the Bishop of Rome And he has a Gracious Answer too by the same Pen or I am sorely deceived for they are both alike so full of Barbarismes and false Latines that another Dunce can hardly be found like the first to imitate them In good earnest they are the most feculent Forgeries that ever I saw To speak much in little is they are worse than the Sinuessa Council They are without Greek Copies which where all the rest is in Greek is an evil sign But as they are you shall have them when we come to Binius that the more Learned may judge of their Excellency He has a Pseudo-Catholick Council at Rome under Pope Sylvester with the same Premonition to the Reader word for word which he set before the Sinuessa Council Propter Exemplariorum intolerabilem nimiamque Differentiam Depravationem c. He has the other Forgeries of Isidore Mercator and among the rest the Epilogus brevis concerning the number of Witnesses He defaces and suppresses the sixth Council of Carthage as well as his Predecessor What with blotting out and putting in he so disguizes the Face of Antiquity that unless it be to very clear eyes the Primitive Church appeareth not the same Yet are his Voluminous Tomes dedicated to the Invincible Emperour Charles V. being Printed in the year 1538. by Peter Quintell Cum Gratiâ Privilegio tam Caesario quam Regio Colloniae That is At Collein by the consent and Authority both of the King and Emperour So far even Monarchs are deluded sometimes with a shew of Piety and the Light of Depraved and Corrupted Learning CAP. IX of Carranza his Epitome of the Decrees and Councils He owneth the Forgeries CArranza being but a short Compendium was Printed at Paris An. 1564. to wit very fitly for the more general sprcading of the corrupted Councils All the other Collections being great Volumes but this a little Informer or Companion for the Pocket It was dedi ated to the Illustrious Dicgo Hurtado Mendoza Orator in the State of Venice and his Imperial Majesties Vicegerent in the Holy Council of Trent He lays down all the Apostles Canons for good Laws even the last it self being not excepted and selects Decrees out of the Decretal Epistles for good and Catholick Canons The Decretal Epistles themselves would be too long for so short a Compendium and therefore he has not the Decrees themselves but Excerptions He has the Pontisical of the Popes Lives but more modesty than to ascribe it to Damasus It is a part of his Text however He has but 〈◊〉 Canons of the Nicene Council and skippeth over the Council of Sinuessa He omits the Epilogus Brevis but owns the Council to which it is annexed He followeth Isidore and exceeds him a little CAP. X. Of Surius his four Tomes and how the Forgeries are by him desended He hath the Rescripts of Atticus and Cyril by which pope Zozimus was condemned of Forgery in the sixth Council of Carthage LAurentius Surius was a Monk of the Order of the Carthusians He wrote four Tomes He pretends to have all the Antiquities of the Church at large and to mend and restore the defects of the Ancient Manuscripts What their mending and restoring is you begin to discern He dedicates the whole Work to Philip King of Spain Sicily and Neapo lis c. and directeth it in another Epistle to the most August and Invincible Emperour Charles V. It was Printed at Collein by Geruvinus Galenius and the Heirs of John Quintell in the year of our Lord 1567. He has the counterfeit Preface of Isidore Mercator before detected The Treatise of the Primacy of the Roman Church all the 84 Canons of the Apostle and the Apostolical Constitutions of Pope Clement newly added to the Tomes of the Councils for good Records though Isidore Mercator some of the Apostles Canons and Clement's Constitutions are rejected by some of the best of his most able Followers as you shall see hereafter not I suppose upon mature deliberation but inevitable necessity The Liber Pontisicalis of Pope Damasus that notorious Cheat is the ground-work upon which he commenteth It so exactly containeth the Lives and Acts of the Bishops of Rome that when I first approached it I apprehended every Life to have been recorded by some person contemporary with the Pope of which he was writing for it nominates the time of their Session to a Year a Moneth a Week and a Day from S. Peter downward Which being done for no Episcopal Chair beside it made the Roman See seem of more Eminent Concernment than the residue from the very first beginning such a peculiar and extraordinary care being no mean Indication of its High Exaltation above all other Chairs that were not for a long time together so accurately regarded But a little after I found a shrewd sign for beside the errours and contradictions noted before in the midst of all this exactness he 〈◊〉 sometimes 3 4 5 〈◊〉 9 years together This shall be proved hereafter with more than we yet say when we come to Binius He has all the Decretal Epistles and the Donation of Constantine for good Records The Epistle of Melchiades concerning the Munificence of Constantine the Spurious Roman Council under Pope Sylvester with the Epilogus Brevis the Letters between Athanasius and Pope Mark concerning the number of the Nicene Canons Those Letters tell us the Canons of the Nicene Council are 70. and yet he records but 20 of them The most of these Great Appearances are rejected afterwards by Baronius Binius Labbè and the Collectio Regia By good fortune he has the Rescripts of Atticus and S. Cyril the Patriarchs concerning the true Records of the Nicene Council sent to the sixth Council of Carthage upon the occasion of Zozimus before related The Letter of that Council to Celestine the Bishop of Rome concerning that Controversie And a Scrap of the Council it self but he omits the Decrees Did I follow them throughout all Ages my work would be endless We should find much foul Play in following Councils and Records of the Church but for several weighty Reasons I have at present confined my self within the compass of the first 400 years next after the Death of our Lord whose Name is not to be mentioned without praise and glory Note well I go on thus to observe particularly what Forgeries every Collector of the Councils owneth and what Emperours Kings and Popes their Books are dedicated to and what priviledge in all the principal parts of the Popes Jurisdiction they come forth withal and
Roman Forgeries Or a TRVE ACCOUNT OF FALSE RECORDS Discovering the IMPOSTURES AND Counterfeit Antiquities OF THE CHURCH OF ROME By a Faithful Son of the Church of ENGLAND LONDON Printed by S. and B. Griffin for Jonathan Edwin at the three Roses in Ludgate-Street 1 Tim. 4. 2. Speaking lies in Hypocrisie having their Conscience seared with an hot iron 2 Tim. 3. 8 9. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the truth men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the Faith But they shall proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest unto all men as theirs also was TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE S r ORLANDO BRIDGEMAN KNIGHT and BARONET One of HIS MAJESTIES Most Honourable Privy Council The AUTHOR Devoteth his best Services AND DEDICATETH The VSE and BENEFIT of his Ensuing Labors A Premonition THe Bishops of Rome in the persons of Zozimus Boniface and Celestine Successively opposed the Sixth Council of Carthage consisting of 217 Fathers among whom the great S. Augustine is acknowledged to be one in the matter of Appeals which was the first step made by that irregular Chair to the Exorbitant Supremacy which they afterward claimed In vindicating that Claim before the Council they produced two counterfeit Canons fathered upon the Oecumenical Synod at Nice which were by the Records of Carthage Alexandria and Constantinople in the presence of all those Fathers in the sixth Council of Carthage detected to be forgeries as well as by the Tenor of the undoubted Canons of the Nicene Council it self which are contrary to those by the Roman Church pretended and so they were esteemed by the Fathers in that sixth Council who were startled at the sight of those New unheard of Monsters at their first Publication above 1200 years ago Vpon this Passage I redoubled in the Book an observation to make it more remarkable which you will find cap. 2. pag. 9. to this purpose That in the first General Council of Nice it was ordered that the chief in every Province should confirm the Acts of his inferior Bishops And if any Trouble did arise which could not be decided by the Metropolitan Provision was made Can. 5. in words so clear and forcible that none more plain can be put into their places that the last Appeal should be made to Councils and that the Person condemned in any Province should not be received if he fled to others That Parenthesis In words so clear and forcible that none more plain can be put in their places relates to the CANON it self which here follows that you may see how forcible it is and how much plainer then the very Words into which I had contracted it It is worthy your Consideration as on of the most Important Records in Antiquity consented to by all the Popish Compilers of the Councils themselves Can. 5. Concerning those that are Excommunicated whether in the order of the Clergy or the Laitie by the Bishops in every several province let the Sentence prevail according to the Canon that they who are cast out by some be not received by others But let it be required that no man be excluded the Congregation by the Pusillanimitie or contention or any such vice of the Bishop That this therefore might more decently be inquired into we think it fit that Councils should every year throughout every Province twice be celebrated that such Questions may be discussed by the Common Authority of all the Bishops assembled together And so they that have evidently offended against their Bishop shall be accounted Excommunicated according to reason by all till it pleaseth the Community of Bishops to pronounce a milder Sentence on such But let the Councils be held the one before the Quaaragesima before Easter that all dissention being taken away we might offer a most pure Gift unto God and the second about the middle of Autumn Had the Canon said The last Appeal shall be made to Councils they that are accustomed to such shifts without blushing might easily have evaded the Words by affirming the Bishop of Rome to be particularly excepted without any need of expressing the exception because by the general and Tacit Consent of all he is above the Limits of such Laws and above the Authority of that and all other Councils Thus they might still render the matter doubtful by their Subterfuges and Pretences as indeed they do in evading one expression of the Canon it self For whereas the Fathers say Let the Sentence prevail according to the Canon that they who are cast out by some be not received by others Those Popish Hirelings make an exception of the Bishop of Rome where the Oecumenical Synod maketh none and might as well except him here though the Council had said in terms The last Appeal shall be made to Councils For the last Appeal to any subordinate Authority over which the Council had any Legislative Power was ordered they might say to be made to Councils But the Bishop of Rome being the Head of the Church and having the supreme Authority over all Councils was not thought of in this Canon nor was fit he should be at all mentioned because that would imply he was under their authority The Prodigious Height of their usurped Claim being their sole Defence and their incredible Boldness the amazement of ignorant People which is their chief security But the Council adding to the former expression this clause That Councils should every year throughout evry Province twice be celebrated for this very end that such Questions may be discussed by the common authority of all the Bishops assembled together it puts an end to the business especially when they add That they who have evidently offended their Bishop shall be accounted excommunicated according to reason till it pleaseth the community of Bishops to pronounce a milder Sentence But that which renders it most plain and forcible is this Let the Councils be held the one before the Quadragesima before Easter that all Dissention being taken away we might offer a most pure Gift unto GOD. And the second about the middle of Autumn All the wit in the world could not have invented a more clear and apparent provision against the Roman Bishops absurd and impudent Pretences No Evasion I think can possibly be made there from when it is once noted and understood For the Bar put in against the Pope is not here in Words but Things It implies that the Controversie must before Easter be fully determined The very end of calling such a Council and holding it then being the taking away of all dissention that we might offer up a most pure Gift or Sacrifice to God that is That Vnity being restored to the Church at that time we might receive the Sacrament in Peace and Charity Whereas if after the Sentence of the Council the business were to be carried to the Court of Rome Suits and Quarrels could not be ended against Easter but would be lengthened in many Provinces beyond
Bishop usurped an Authority which neither Scripture nor Canon gave unto him It is recorded also that they sometimes acquitted Malefactors without hearing Witnesses and sent Orders for the Restauration of those who made such irregular flights into the Provinces of other Patriarchs that were Subject indeed to the Roman Empire but not within the Province of the Roman Patriarch Nay when those Orders were rejected if some of their own Collectors may be believed the Roman Bishops through favour of the Empire got Magistrates and Souldiers to see them executed by Plain force which grew chiefly scandalous in the times of Zozimus and Boniface of which you may read the three last and best Collections of the Councils set forth by the Papists Binius 〈◊〉 abbè and the Collectio Regia unanimously consenting in their Notes on the sixth Council of Carthage And that this was the cause of calling that Council they confess in like manner For to stop these intolerable Incroachments and to suppress the growth of an Aspiring Tyranny this seasonable Council was called at Carthage consisting of 〈◊〉 Bishops among whom S. Augustine was one present in particular To this Council Zozimus the Roman Patriarch sent three persons one of which was Faustinus an Italian Bishop to plead his Cause with two Canons fathered upon the Nicene Council designing thereby to justifie his Power of receiving Appeals both from Bishops and Priests but by the care and wisdom of that Council they were detected and confounded the Fraud being made a Spectacle to the whole world For first the Copy which Caecilianus Archbishop of Carthage brought from Nice he being himself one of the Fathers in that Council was orderly produced and the two Canons which the Roman Bishop sent were not there Next because it might be pleaded upon the difference of the Copies that the Copy of Carthage must give place to that of Rome Rome being the greater See they sent Messengers to the Patriarch of Alexandria to the Patriarch of Antioch and to the Patriarch of Constantinople and admonished the Bishop of Rome to do so too that he might see sound and fair dealing desiring the Records of the Nicene Council from all the principal parts of the world from the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Alexandria they received Authentick Copies attested with their several known Authorities which agreed exactly with the Copy at Carthage but disagreed with that of Rome the Extract produced out of it by the Name of a Commonitorium being every word apparently forged Upon this the Bishop of Rome was condemned his Arrogance and Usurpation suppressed by Canons and his Pride chastised by Letters the Letters and Canons being yet extant This was done about the year 420. Zozimus dying Boniface and Celestine successively take up the Quarrel without any Dissent appearing in the Roman Clergy nay rather all the Interest of that Chair was imployed to uphold the Forgery whereby it is evident that it was not a Personal Act but the guilt and business of the Church of Rome as appeareth further by all their Successors persisting in the Quarrel by the multitude of her Members defending it and the Forgery both and by all the Popish Collectors conspiring together to maintain the Spurious and Adulterate Canons Among other things which the Fathers wrote out of this Sixth Council of Carthage to Pope Celestine they oppose the true Canons of the Nicene Council against the false ones noting that which is alone sufficient to overthrow the Forgery that these two Popish Canons were really contrary to the Canons and Decrees of the Nicene Council For desiring him no more so easily to admit Appeals nor to receive into Communion those that were Excommunicated in other Churches they tell him he might easily find this matter defined in the Nicene Council for if it seemed fit to be observed in the inferiour Clergy and Lay-men much more in Bishops They tell him that he should chastise and punish such impudent Flights as became him As also that the Canons of the Nicene Council had most openly committed both the inferiour Clergy and Bishops themselves to their own Metropolitans wisely and justly providing that all businesses whatsoever should be determined in the places where they arose Nisi fortè est Aliquis c. unless perhaps there be some one who will say that God is able to give Justice of Judgment to one be he who he will but denies it to innumerable Priests assembled in a Council Which was in those days held so absurd and monstrous a thing to conceive that however the case is altered since they thought no man impudent enough to affirm it In these words they cut the Popes Arrogance sufficiently for that he being but One was so highly conceited of himself at least so behaved himself as if he had an extraordinary Spirit of Infallibility and were fitter to determine the Causes of the Church than a whole Council of Bishops assembled together Finally they charge him with bringing the empty puff of secular pride into the Church of Christ And so proceed to their Canons against him Notwithstanding this the Roman Bishops continued obstinate contending so long till there was a great Rupture made in the Church upon this occasion And if some Records be true namely those Letters that past between Eulalius and another Boniface the Bishops of Rome grew so impudent as to Excommunicate the Eastern Churches because they would not be obedient to an Authority sounded on so base a Forgery If they be not true then there are more Forgeries in the Roman Church than we charge her with For the Letters were feigned as Baronius confesseth by some afterwards that were zealous of the Churches welfare to wit for the better colouring of that Schism which was made by the pride and ambition of Rome These Epistles were set forth by the Papists and were owned at first for good Records but upon the consideration of so many Saints and Martyrs that sprung up in the Churches of Africa during that 100 years wherein it is pretended by those Epistles that they were cut off from the Church of Rome it was afterwards thought better to reject them as Counterfeits because the Roman Martyrologies are filled with the names of those African Saints And it is a stated Rule that no Saint or Martyr can be out of the Church Lest the Eastern Churches therefore should out-weigh the Roman by reason of the Splendour Multitude and Authority of these Eminent Saints these Letters are now condemned by some among themselves vid. Bellarm de Rom. Pont. lib. 2. cap. 25. Baron in Not. Martyrol ad 16. Octobr. and Bin. in Concil Carthag 6. This unfortunate Contest happening so near to the Fourth Century was the first Head-spring or Root of the Schism that is now between us And the matter being so on whose side the fault lay I leave to the Reader How the Roman Church proceeded in this business we may learn from Daillè an able Writer
mentioneth the foresaid business at Carthage but so briefly that it is clear he did not like it And to close up all in the Life of this Boniface he endeavours to strengthen the Title of the Roman Bishop against the Patriarch of Constantinople by the Donation of Constantine another Forgery of which hereafter The two counterfeit Canons contained in the Commonitorium which the Roman Bishop sent to the sixth Council of Carthage are these as Faustinus the Italian Bishop delivered them in Greek to be read by Daniel the Pronotary in the Council 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We are pleased that if a Bishop be accused and the Bishops of his Country being assembled together have judged him and deposed him from his Degree and he thinks fit to Appeal and shall fly to the most blessed Bishop of the Roman Church and shall desire to be heard and he shall think it just that the Tryal be renewed then he the Roman Bishop shall vouchsafe to write to the B. shops of the adjoyning and bordering Province that they should diligently examine all and define according to the Truth But if any one thinks fit that his Cause be heard again and by his own Supplication moves the Bishop of Rome that he should send a Legate or Priest from his side it shall be in his power to do as he listeth and as he thinketh fit And if he shall decree that some ought to be sent that being present themselves might judge with the Bishops having his Authority by whom they were sent it shall be according to his judgment but if he think the Bishops sufficient to end the business he shall do what in his most wise counsel he judgeth meet Here the Roman Bishop nay the meanest Priest he shall please to send as his Legate is exalted above all Councils Bishops and Patriarchs in the world he may do and undo act add rescind diminish alter whatsoever he pleaseth in any Council when the Causes of the most Eminent Rank in the Church do depend in the same All Bishops are by this Canon made more to fear the Roman Bishop than their own Patriarch and are ingaged if need be to side with him against their Patriarch the Gate is open for all the Wealth in the World to flow into his Ecclesiastical Court which is as much above the Court of any other Patriarch by this Right of Appeals as the Archbishops Court above any inferiour Bishops while we may Appeal to that from these at our pleasure Thus Bishops and Patriarchs are made to buckle under the Popes Cirdle and the Decrees of Councils are put under his foot And all this is no more but half a Step to the Popes Chair The other part of the Step in this Commonitorium was the following Canon concerning Priests 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I ought not to pass that over in silence that does yet move me If any Bishop happen to be angry as he ought not and be suddenly or sharply moved against his Priest or Deacon and would cast him out of his Church Provision must be made that he be not condemned being Innocent or lose the Communion Let him that is cast out have power to Appeal to the Borderers that his Cause might be heard and handled more carefully for a Hearing ought not to be denied him when he asks it And the Bishop which hath either justly or unjustly ejected him shall patiently suffer that the business be lookt into and his Sentence either confirmed or rectified c. What is the meaning of this c. in Binius Labbè Cossartius and the Collectio Regia I cannot tell but doubtless the Canon intends the same in the close with the former that the last Appeal is reserved to the Roman Chair which made the Fathers in the sixth Council of Carthage so angry as we find them to see things so false and presumptuous fastned upon the first most Glorious Oecumenical Council which decreed the clean contrary in the 4 and 5 Canons The substance and force of which as we gave you before so shall we now the words of the Canons themselves Can. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It is fit that a Bishop chiefly be ordained by all the Bishops that are in the Province but if this be found difficult either because of any urgent necessity or for the length of the journey then the Ordination ought to be made by Three certainly meeting together the absent Bishops agreeing and consenting by their Writs but let the confirmation of the Acts be given throughout every Province to the Metropolitan Can. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Concerning those that are Excommunicated whether in the Order of the Clergy or the Laity by the Bishops in every several Province let the Sentence prevail according to the Canon that they who are cast out by some be not received by others but let it be required that no man be excluded the Congregation by the pusillanimity or contention or by any such vice of the Bishop That this therefore might more decently be inquired into we think it fit that Councils should every year throughout every Province twice be celebrated That such Questions may be discussed by the common Authority of all the Bishops assembled together And so they that have evidently offended against their Bishop shall be accounted Excommunicated according to to reason by all till it pleaseth the community of Bishops to pronounce a milder Sentence upon such But let the Councils be held the one before the Quadragesima before Easter that all Dissention being taken away we might offer a most pure Gift unto God and the second about the middle of Autumn The last Appeal you see is ordered by the Canon to Councils and as they please the Controversie is to be ended without flying from one to another Bishop These are the true and Authentick Canons of the Nicene Council overthrown by the Forgery CAP. III. A multitude of Forgeries secretly mingled among the Records of the Church and put forth under the Name of Isidore Bishop of Hispalis Which Book is owned defended and followed by the Papists THe Roman Chair being thus lifted up to the utmost Height it could well desire care must be taken to secure its Exaltation After many secret Councils therefore and powerful Methods used for its Establishment for the increase of its Power and Glory furthered by the Luxury and Idleness of the Western Churches of which Salvian largely complains in his Book De Providentiâ written to justifie the Dispensation of GOD in all the Calamities they suffered by the Goths who sacked Rome in the days of the forenamed Zozimus there came out a collection of Councils and Decretal Fpistles in the Name of Isidore Bishop of Hispalis about the year 790. In which Book there are neatly interwoven a great company of forged Evidences or feigned Records tending all to the advancement of the Popes Chair in a very various copious and
Elaborate manner That the Bishop of Rome had a secret hand in the contrivance and publication of them is probable if not clear from divers Reasons 1. Before they were published Hadrian 1. maketh use of the Tale of Constantines Leprosie Vision and Baptism by Pope Sylvester things till then never heard of in the world but afterwards contained in the Donation of Constantine a Forgery which in all probability lay by this Hadrian but of his own preparing when he wrote his Letter to Constantine and Irene which Letter was read and is recorded in the 2. Nicene Council on the behalf of Images being sent abroad like a Scout as it were to try what success it would find in the world before he would adventure the whole Body of his Players to publick view For if that were swallowed down without being detected the rest might hope for the same good Fortune if not the first might pass for a mistake and its Companions be safely suppressed without any mischief following 2. The Emperour and the Council having digested the first Legend exposed by the Pope so crastily to publick view the other Forgeries were a little after boldly published in this Book of Isidore together with the Legend and Donation of Constantine which when Hincmarus Archbishop of Rhemes upon its first publication set himself to write against he was taken up so roundly for the same by the Authority of Rome that he was fain gladly to acquit the Attempt for ever And their tenderness over it is I think a sufficient Indication of their Relation to it every Creature being naturally affectionate to its own Brood and prone to study its preservation The Church of Rome was so tender of Isidores Edition that as some say Hinemarus was forced to recant his Opinion and to declare that he believed and received the Book with Veneration 3. It is recorded by Justellus that the forementioned Hadrian was careful to give Charles the Great a Copy of the Councils and Decretal Epistles drawn up as he affirmed by Dionysius Exiguus Daillè accuses the Book of many faults but whether Hadrian or Dionysius were guilty of them is little material only 't was done as a Pledge of Reconciliation after several Bickerings between the Giver and Receiver Charles the Great having several times invaded Rome and now departing thence with Friendship which makes me a little the more prone to suspect Dionysius too for one of those Danaum Dona which are given like Nessus his Shirt when wounded by Hercules to his Enemies Wife for the destruction of her Husband Be it how it will it shews that Hadrian I. was a busie man that he understood the influence and power of Records what force they would have upon the minds of Lay-men and that his eyes and hands were sometimes busied in such Affairs But that which above all other Arguments discovers the Popes to have a hand if not in the Publication yet in the Reception of the Forgeries is this that the Roman Canonists Ivo Gratian c. have digested them into the Popes Laws and they are so far countenanced by the Popes themselves that almost from the time of their publication throughout all Ages since they have been received for Authentick in the apal Jurisdiction and are used as such in all the Ecclesiastical Courts under the Popes Dominion as the chief of their Rules for the deciding of Causes So that they are not only fostered but exalted by the Authority of Rome The Glory which they acquired in the Throne of Judgment advancing them for a long time above the reach of Suspition The Veneration which is due to the Chair of Holiness was their best security By the influence of the Popes Authority they were received into the Codes of Princes being as we shall shew out of Baronius in the next Chapter introduced into the Capitular Books of the Kings of the Franks by Benedictus Levita and at his instant request confirmed and approved by the 〈◊〉 Chair The Forgeries in Isidore being scattered abroad it is difficult to conceive to what a vast Height the Roman See by degrees 〈◊〉 The Splendour of so many Ancient Martyrs 〈◊〉 together with so many Canons and Decrees in her behalf so far wrought that her Bishop came at last to Claim all Power over all persons Spiritual and Temporal to have the sole power of forgiving sins to be alone Infallible to be Cods Vicar upon Earth the only Oracle in the world nay the sole Supreme and Absolute Monarch disposing of Empires and Kingdoms according to the Tenour of the Doctrines contained in those Forgeries wherein he is made the sole Independent Lord without Controul able to do what ever he lifted Some few Ages after this first Publication of Isidore there were other Records put forth though lately seen yet bearing the countenance of 〈◊〉 Antiquitie which so ordered the matter that according to them the Evangelists brought their Gospels to S. Peter to confirm them and several books of S. Clement S. Peter's Successor were put into the Canon of the Holy Bible the whole number of Canonical books being setled and defined by his sole Authority In token doubtless of the Power Inherent in all S. Peter's Successors at Rome to dispose of the Apostles and their Writings as they please S. 〈◊〉 own Canon for that purpose being numbered among those of the Aposiles That the Pope was uncapable of being judged by any that no Clergy-man was to be Subject to Kings but all to depend immediately upon the Bishop of Rome that he was the Rock and Head of the Church was the constant Doctrine of all those Forgeries when put together with many other Popish Points of less concernment sprinkled up and down in them at every turning Cui bono Among the Civilians 't is a notable mark of Detection in a blind Cause whose Good whose Exaltation whose Benefit is the drift and scope of things and 't is very considerable for the sure finding out of the first Authors That they are Forgeries is manifest Now whose they are is the Question in hand and if Agents naturally intend themselves in their own Operations it is easily solved How excessively the World was addicted to Fables about the time of Isidore's Appearance we may see by the Contents of the 2. Nicene Council Dreams Visions and Miracles being very rife in their best demonstrations and among other Legends a counterfeit Basil a counterfeit Athanasius a counterfeit Emperour maintaining and promoting the Adoration of Images As may perhaps in another Volume be more fully discovered when we descend from these first to succeeding Ages The Counterfeits in Isidore being mingled with the Records of the Church like Tares among Wheat or false Coyns among heaps of Cold lay undistinguished from true Antiquities and after Hincmarus his ill success were little examined by the space of 500 or 600 years Some small opposition there was made in particular by the Bishops in France and
the first Collectors of the Councils among the Papists I have taken the more liberty to be somewhat copious in them that I may conveniently be more brief in perusing the residue CAP. VII Of Francis Turrian the Jesuite With what Art and Boldness he defendeth the Forgeries NOtwithstanding all the weakness and uncertainty of Isidore Francis Turrian the Famous Jesuite appears in its defence about 40 years after the first publication of it by Merlin The Centuriators of Magdenburg having met with it to his great displeasure he is so Valiant as not only to maintain all the Forgeries therein contained but the whole Body of Forgeries vented abroad by all the Collectors and Compilers following till himself appeared His Book is expresly formed against the Writers of the Centuries and is a sufficient Evidence that as soon as Isidore came abroad by Dr. Merlin's Labour and the Bishop of Paris Command it was sifted by the Protestants It is dedicated to the most Illustrious and most Reverend D. D. Stanissaus Hosius Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church and Bishop of Collein Printed by the Heirs of John Quintel and approved by Authority An. Dom. 1573. He defends all the Canons of the Apostles which are recounted by other Collectors That you may know the Mettal of the Man I will produce but two Instances The last of those Canons which he maintaineth to be the Apostles is this which followeth Qui Libri sunt Canonici c. Let these Books be Venerable and Holy to you all Of the Old Testament five Books of Moses Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy one of Joshua the Son of Nun one of Judges one of Ruth four of Kings two of Chronicles Hester one three of the Macchabees one of Job one Book of Psalmes three of Solomon Proverbs Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs one of the 12 Prophets one of Isaiah one of Jeremiah one of Ezekiel one of Daniel And without let your young men learn the Wisdom of the Learned Syrach But of ours that is of the New Testament there are four Gospels Matthew Mark Luke and John fourteen Epistles of Paul two Epistles of Peter three of John one of James one of Jude two Epistles of Clement and the Ordinations of Me Clement set forth in Eight Books to you Bishops which are not to be published to all because of the Mysteries contained in them and the Acts of our Apostles This is the eighty fourth Canon and in some Accounts the eighty fifth where you see the Episiles of Clement and Eight Books of his Ordinations put into the Body of the Bible As for the difference of the Accounts he sheweth you the way how to reconcile them If this be one of the Apostles Canons then Clement was an Apostle or had 〈◊〉 Power But if it be a Forgery then not only the Apostles Canons but the very Text of the Holy Scriptures is interlined and forged by the same He maintains all the Decretal Epistles and among the rest S. Clement's Whose genuine Epistle to the Corinthians they leave cut as making nothing to their purpose but five Spurious ones they record the two first of them being written to S. James and the last to the Brethren dwelling with him at Jerusalem It is good sport to see how like the shot of a great Gun the Discovery of the Protestants comes in among them Their keenness in detecting the time of S James his Death shatter the 〈◊〉 and whereas before they were all united they now fly several ways every man 〈◊〉 for himself as he is best able Baronius dislikes suen Arts of upholding the Church not as impious and unlawful but as inconvenient and pernicious Bellarmine 〈◊〉 the Epistles to be Old but dares not attest them Isidore Merlin Peter Crabbe Nicolinus Carranza and Surius own them freely without any scruple For saying nothing of the Quarrel they lay them down simply as good Records Binius Labbè and the Collectio Regia confess some of them to be false and in particular that S James was dead seven years before S. Clement could write his first Epistle to him And to salve the sore they say that it was not written to James but to Simeon who was also Bishop of Jerusalem and Brother to our Lord and that the Name of James crept into the Title Mendosè by Errour and Mistake for that of Simeon But honest Turrian maintains plainly that S. Peter and S. Clement knew very well that S. James was dead before they wrote unto him yet nevertheless they did very wisely both S. Peter in ordering the Epistle and S. Clement in writing it And his Reasons as he bringeth the matter about are pretty specious For my part I protest that such a High Piece of Impudence was to me incredible But that you may see the rare Abilities of a Jesuite to argue well for the absurdest Cause turn to his Book and read his Comment on S. Clement's first Epistle and there you shall see Wit and Folly equal in their height Wit in managing but Folly in attempting so mad a business For the sake of those who are not able to read or get the Book I will give you a Glympse of his Demonstrations First he observeth how Reason it self compelleth us especially being confirmed by so many and so great Testimonies of the Ancients to confess the Epistle to be S. Clement's whose it is reported to be He sophistically pretendeth here that there were great Authorities of the Ancient Fathers extant to prove it Whence saith he it began to be had in every mans hand to be read by the Catholicks to be put among the Decretal Epistles and produced and cited in Ecclesiastical Causes and Judgments The latter part of which Clause is true For as we before observed Gratian Ivo and the rest of the Popes Ministers have brought the Decretals into the Body of the Canon-Law which maketh the matter more fatal and abominable for being really cited in their Ecclesiastical Courts and used both in matters of Controversie and in cases of Conscience they are forced either to defend them or to pluck up their Customs by the very Roots and so further expose the Church of Rome to the shame of Levity or Fraud yet for this very cause it is far more impious and wicked to retain them So that not knowing which way is best some of them retain them and some of them renounce them But you must wink at all this and believe what Turrian says for the Authority of the Roman Church which hath seated the Forgeries in the Chair of Judgment is a greater Argument to them that believe her Infallible than any one Doctor can bring against them Neither was blessed Peter ignorant when he commanded to write to the Dead nor Clement saith he when he wrote by the Commandment but that the Readers would presently see the Epistle to be written to him whom all men knew to be dead before S. Peter they being about
thereupon to enquire diligently into the cause thereof and seeking to find it Nay this was the design of the blessed Peter and therein he imitated the Holy Scripture Whether to counterfeit or blaspheme the Scriptures be the worse I cannot tell but of this I am sure that they who think such courses lawful as this fastned on S. Peter and the Holy Scripture here will stick at nothing which they take for their advantage For that it was lawful to counterfeit S. James his Name he proveth afterwards very largely and now he is giving the reasons of it One intention was to stir up all people to Enquiry their admiration at so strange a thing being very prone to make them diligent to learn the cause of it Another was that all Bishops might see the more clearly that they were taught in the person of James For James being dead and uncapable of receiving the instruction it is evident that he was not intended thereby and therefore it must be for others in his capacity A third reason was the preventing of envy for had S. Peter vouchsafed being our Saviours Vicar and Head of the Church to write to any Bishop alive the Honour done unto that Bishop had been so great that all the rest had been tempted to maligne him shrewdly for that advantage His intention was saith he to transfigure these things in the person of James after the manner of the Holy Scripture and that as well for other Bishops as especially those that should succeed him in the Church of Jerusalem whence the preaching of the Gospel began according to the Prophesie of Isaiah that they might thus think with themselves If the Prince of the Apostles commanded Clement to write these things to James the Brother of our Lord whom Peter James and John did first of all ordain who now ceased to be a Shepherd and was rewarded with his Crown he certainly did not command him to write for his sake but for us to whom Solomon saith Look diligently to the face of thy Cattel and consider thy Herds c. Let this saith he be one cause of the Transfiguration or counterfeiting a person in this Epistle Having noted how S. Paul transferred a certain business on himself and Apollos by a Figure he concludeth thus Why therefore may we not think that S. Peter for the same reason commanded Clement to transfer his Epistle concerning his Death and Doctrine pertaining in common to every Bishop by a Figure to S. James already dead lest if he should have commanded him to have written to Simon the Bishop of Jerusalem who succeeded S. James or to any other as to Mark the Bishop of Alexandria or Ananias of Antioch or any other he should then perhaps seem to love him or honour him more than the residue Much more he saith to this purpose but all made vain with one small observation Whereas he pretends that Clement knew S. James to be dead there is a 〈◊〉 Epistle written by the same Clement To his most dearly beloved Brethren dwelling at Jerusalem together with his dearest Brother James his Fellow-Disciple So that S. James after all was still thought to be alive by those that transferred this Epistle on S. Clement by a Figure S. Peter's influence over the Bishop of Jerusalem and our Lords Brother was thought a considerable Circumstance for the Establishment of the following Popes And till the Protestants discovered the Fraud let Turrian say what he will there was scarce a person in the World that thought not the Letter timed well enough for the purpose And whereas he pretendeth so many and so great Testimonies of the Ancients confessing the Epistle to be S. Clement's he is not able nor does he so much as attempt to name one from S. Clement downward till this Spurious Isidore that affirmed any such matter Howbeit he quotes Origen Theodoret Gregory Nazianzen c. to prove the lawfulness of a Transfiguration and makes great Ostentation of the Fathers in shewing that S. Peter and S. Clement did wisely in the business CAP. VIII Of Peter Crabbe's Tomes of the Councils Wherein he agrees with and wherein he differs from Isidore and Merlin BEsides the Forgeries that are in Merlin and the Bastard Isidore Peter Crabbe whose Tomes of the Councils were published eight years after the first Edition of Merlin published more of as great importance as the former not omitting those of Isidore and Merlin but recording and venting them altogether He pretends to give an account of all those Councils that have been from S. Peter the Apostle down to the Times of Pope John II. He wrote before Turrian as Carranza and Surius did whom it is Turrian's business to defend The End being proposed before the Means with what design these Editions of the Councils are so carefully multiplied we may conjecture by a Treatise that is set in the Front of them concerning the Roman Primacy Almost all the Compilers after Peter Crabbe having prefixed the same with one consent before their Work as the Aim of their ensuing Labours It is extant in Crab Surius Nicolinus Binius Labbe and Cossartius and the Collectio Regia Carranza hath it not nor Paul V. Paul V. in his own Work published at Rome Anno Dom. 1608. touches the Forgeries but very sparingly It does not become the Majesty of a Pope in his own Name to utter them It is moreover a thing of hazardous consequence for him to appear in Person in such a disgraceful business It besits his Holiness to act rather by Emissaries and Inferiour Agents as all great Statesmen and Polititians do being unseen themselves in matters that reflect too much upon their safety that Method you know is more stately as well as more Honourable and secure Yet he approveth others at a distance as his dear Son Severinus Binius in particular who dedicated all his Tomes to Pope Paul V. in the year 1608. and has a particular Letter of Thanks from Pope Paul himself as a Badge of his Favour before the Work As for Carranza he is but an Abstract or brief Compendium This Treatise of the Primacy thus put before the Councils containeth a Collection of Testimonies out of Counterfeit Epistles of the Primitive Bishops and Martyrs of Rome proving under the Authorities of most Glorious Names that the Holy Apostolical Church obtained the Primacy not from the Apostles but from our Lord himself that it is the Head and Hinge of all the Churches that all Appeals are to be made thereunto the greater causes and the contentions of Bishops being to be determined only by the Apostolical See that she is the Mother of all Churches and as the Son of God came to do the Will of his Father so ought all Bishops and Priests to do the Will of their Mother that all the Members ought to follow the Head which is the Church of Rome that the first See ought to be judged by no man neither by the Emperour nor by Kings nor
especially what a multitude of men have been encouraged to carry on this Design that you might see the Conspiracy of the Members with the Head and the general Guilt of that Church in so Enormous an Affair To which we might add the innumerable Armies of Learned men that have cited them in that Church and the Company of Captains that have defended them But it had been better for them that they had never medled with the Protestant Objections for they have made the matter worse than they found it and bewraid themselves in all their Answers nay they have made the Frauds more eminent and notorious by disturbing the Reader while they give him Warning by their Notes though the intent be to defend them This I speak especially upon the last from Binius downward CAP. XI Of Nicolinus his Tomes and their Contents for the first 420 years His Testimony concerning the sixth Council of Carthage NIcolinus is printed in five Volumes Sixti V. Pont. Max. faelicissimis Auspictis as himself phraseth it I think he means By the favourable Permission and Authority of Pope Sixtus V. He dedicates his Tomes to the same most Holy Lord Sextus c. which were printed at Venice An. 1585. Among other things in which I should sav he is peculiar had not Merlin in his Isidore done the same he sets a counterfeit Epistle of Aurelius Archbishop of Carthage to Damasus the Pope and the Popes Answer in the Front of his Work The Epistle requesteth a Copy of all the Decretals that were made by the Bishops of Rome from S. Peter downwards The Answer intimates a Copy commanding him to preach and publish the same In both these Collectors the Epistles are displaced above 〈◊〉 years out of their due order meerly that they might face the Forgeries with the great Authorities of Aurelius and Damasus who were both dead 300 or 400 years before the Counterfeits were made Howbeit the Pageant does well to adorn the Scene it entertains the Spectators as a fit Praeludium to make the way more fair for these disguized Masquer's In the last of these Epistles the Counterfeit Decrees are Fathered on the Holy Ghost and whosoever speaketh against them is charged with Blasphemy Yet for all 〈◊〉 though the Epistles were desired by Aurelius and sent by Damasus and commanded to be preached and published throughout the world they were never heard of by the space of 700 or 800 years after their first Authors nor for 300 or 400 years after this Damasus and Aurelius though pretended to be the Canons of the Holy Fathers so Sacred and so Divinely inspired by the Holy Ghost This is that Damasus upon whom the Famous Pontifical is Fathered He sate in the Chair An. 370. The Forgeries were unknown till about the year 800. This Aurelius is he who tasted the Decrees of Zozimus and had experience of their sincerity when he resisted the Encroachments of the Roman Chair But to return to Nicolinus he has Isidore's Preface The Treatise conceruing the Primacy of the Roman Church containing so many Testimonies out of forged Bishops Martyns and Fathers All the Apostles Canons of which he maketh S. Clement's the Top and Coronis concluding that Impious Counterfeit with this affected phrase Coronidis ipsorum Canonum Apostolorum finis The end of the Coronis of the Apostles Canons Francis Turrian is in so much esteem with him that he hath Eight Books of Clement's Constitutions with Turrian's Proem and Explanatory Defences upon them The Liber Pontificalis drawn from the beginning like a Vein of Lies through the tedious length of 800 years infecting all these Ages with Forgery It is his Text in like manner He has all the Decretal Epistles without Exception the Council of Sinuessa or condemnation of Pope Marcellinus with the same Premonition you saw in Peter Crab to the Reader The Donation of the Emperour Constantine which by this time one would think to be a sound and admirable Record having so many Hands subscribing it and so many Pens inserting it among the Councils without the least note of any dubiousness or blemish in it He has threescore and eighteen Canons of the Nicene Council and professeth himself to be the first which added them thereunto And he had them of a certain man that brought fourscore of them in Arabick to Alexandria as his Printer does witness for him to the Reader But surely had there been so many Pope Paul V. and all the Collectors before him had not omitted them Some 40 years hence we may expect fourscore more for as for those naked and vulgar Canons as he calleth the Old and Authentick Records they will not serve the turn nor yet the old Seventy mentioned by Isidore Athanasius and Pope Mark by which you may see they are always growing and may come to a Million if the continuance of the World permit it and their need require it What say you In good earnest methinks the year 1585. is very late for the finding of eight and fifty Canons of the Nicene Council That Council was assembled in the year 327. and made its Canons above one thousand and two hundred years before Nicolinus time They were written in Greek and these lay dormant in Arabick so many Ages no man can tell where But the blessed Jesuites or one of the same Society luckily found them the other day Here and there he has a true Record and among the rest a piece of the sixth Council of Carthage though mangled too where concerning the two Counterfeit Canons of Pope Zozimus he saith The African Fathers not finding any such Canons as these in the Codes which they had of the Nicene Council both in Greek and Latine promised that they would keep them only so long as the time would be that they might get the true Copies out of Greece Which when they had been sent for and were brought from Cyril of Alexandria and Atticus of Constantinople they were found imperfect as not containing but only those 20 Canons which were extant also among the Latines in which nothing is contained concerning Appeals to the Roman Bishop Nay those African Fathers from the fifth and sixth of those Canons gathering the contrary did earnestly beseech Celestine the Pope that succeeded Boniface who was the Successor of Zozimus that he should not admit Appeals which they said as it was most prudently and justly provided for by the Nicene Council so they found it in no Synod of the Fathers that any should be sent from the side of his Holiness What Boniface and Celestine answered it is not certain Acta enim illa valdè concisa sunt mutila For those Records are cut very short and maimed and therefore the matter is the more obscure Who maimed those Records is worth the Enquiry Some-Body that was concerned in them and whose influence must be exceeding great for the attempting of such a thing hath out them short that Records so offensive and pernicious to him might
assembled also from every Quarter especially the most Excellent Father Dominicus Bollanus a Noble-Man of Venice of the Order of Preachers never enough commended for his excellent parts who by his Industry Care and Learning was a vast help both to me and to the Work And that I may in one word signifie my study and pains bestowed thereupon lest I should seem to draw the Saw backward and forward too often upon the same Line I have taken care to perform whatever could be done by one man and he a private person that this Edition might come forth from me and be offered to you more Copious and Illustrious than any other Publications hitherto sent abroad In which I trust that as a just and knowing Judge you will discern some Accomplishment Wherefore I suppose I may affirm that nothing is perversly or too concisely exprest but all things most rightly and clearly as far as was possible according to their Primitive Candour This my Gift therefore from which men may receive so great profit and benefit since both those things that before were wanting and those that have hitherto been dispersed may be had together in it and this Work of mine not of less cost in Printing the great expences of which may easily be proved by the magnitude of the Volume than labour to which I was not so much present as presiding earnestly desiring that it should come forth most free from Errour and Faults for the benefit of the Studious I doubt not but according to your Humanity you will accept it with a willing mind as some kind of Token of my will to serve you even as I desire with all my Soul and humbly pray that your Holiness may receive it In the mean time Holy Father I desire that all things may fall out prosperously to your Blessedness And I pray that you may long be preserved in health and more plentifully adorned with Heavenly Gifts for the good of the whole Church Venice VI. Kal. Octob. M. D. LXXXV Here you see one of the Popes Old Servants laying down all the Councils at his Holiness Feet boasting of additions to the Nicene and Ephesine Councils never before published ascribing the Councils to the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost and yet adding for the good of the Roman Church eight and fifty Canons to the most glorious of them all ascribing the power of calling and confirming Councils to the Pope sparing no cost though he draws the Saw too often upon that point which as if he were enchanted he cannot leave throughout all the Epistle assisted as himself confesseth with a confluence of the best Popish Divines permitted to come forth under the Popes Nose with all these Abominations By which you may perceive it is not the work of a private Doctor but the Disease of the Church of Rome His Typographus Lectori His contempt of the Fathers appears in his Printer to the Reader for by one of Turrian's Transfigurations he covers that Admonition with the Printers Name though too Learned for any Printer and evident enough to be his own for he there unfoldeth the matter order and use of the Work far above a Printers reach and especially notes its Corrections and Emendations to us which he reduceth to four Heads 1. To the observation of the time wherein Councils were held and under what Pope Whereupon we note the manner of ordering the Councils under such and such a Pope seemeth a new thing Nicolinus else arrogates too much to himself in ascribing this to his own Invention Certainly the custom of computing times by the Popes Lives is of no long standing but an Artisice lately taken up by his Flatterers to dazle the eyes of their Readers for it adds much to the Splendour of the Chair to see Kings and Councils marshalled under the Reign as it were of this and that and the other Pope down from S. Clement throughout all Ages But from the beginning it was not so 2. To the truth of History and Actions As when various Authors are often cited either for the confirmation of Sentences or to show the variety that is among Writers or to reprehend some falsity Quod interdam parcè tamen timidé fecimus In his Dedicatory Epistle he told the Pope that he did nothing perversty but all things most rightly and clearly as far as was possible according to their Primitive Candour As you see before But here he confesseth the business of repieving falshoods to be a tender work which he went about with great caution and trembling Some he detected but timerousiy and sparingly he durst not meddle with them all 3. To the consutation of some contumacious and rebellions persons who lay hold on the lightest occasions and oftentimes wrest the plainest matters to the disgrace of the H. Roman Church As when from a slight contention of the African Fathers about Appeals to the Church of Rome they foreibly conclude against the very truth of the Acts and the Faith of the History that those Fathers did not acknowledge but refuse its Primacy over them In the Body of his Tomes he 〈◊〉 Epistles of Boniface and Eulalius as good Records testifying the Excommunication of all the African Churches by the Pope yet here he calleth it a light contention Himself wresteth the plainest matters forcibly against the very truth of the Acts and chargeth the fault on the Protestants For in this very place he pretendeth that the African Fathers did not refuse the Primacy of Rome but acknowledge its Supremacy or its Primacy over them Yet it all this but a Copy of his countenance a common flourish in the Frontispiece of their work For if they submitted to the Popes Primacy over them why should they be Excommunicated He knows well enough when we come close to the matter that these Rebellions Protestants and those Catholick Fathers were of the same judgment and acted the same thing By way of provision therefore he addeth that this was far from the mind of those Fathers but if they had conceived so it would have redounded to their Infamy and not at all have tended to the lessening of the Supreme Authority of the Roman Church ordained and established by God Two hundred and seventeen Bishops in an ancient approved Council even the sixth Council of Carthage protested against the Popes Supreme Authority to their perpetual Infamy as Nicolinus would have it for should all the Bishops in the World joyn together they would but dash themselves against that Rock and do things to their Infamy and there 's an end This is the value which Papists have for the Councils and Fathers when they stand in their way And this Impudence comes abroad by the consent of Nicolinus and the Pope without Blushing His fourth Head is Addition His Emendations are referred lastly to Addition either by making those things perfect and entire that before were imperfect and marred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Canons of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts of that
so many did 〈◊〉 use in 〈◊〉 the Apocryphal from Cennine Books and this Sentence was Desinitive by a Pope in his Council So that 2. A Pope in his Council is not 〈◊〉 3. If Einius be right Gelasius and fourscore Bishops did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in condemning the Code 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Canons which S. Clement wrote from the mouth of the Apostles 4. The Church of Rome is divided the New and the Old Church of Rome are against each other The New is all for Additions and the very Apostles Canons allowed in Gelasius his time which was 1260 years ago are not sufficient unless more be added But let us now consider Binius his reasons Quia tamen ex his posterioribus ferè omnes praeter praedictos duos c. But because all these latter almost besides the two forementioned are either by the Authority of the Roman Bishops or by the Decrees of other Councils or by the Sentences of some Fathers confirmed and approved as is manifest by these our Marginals and Annotations So that it may not lightly or rashly he doubted whether they were taken hence by the Bishops Councils and Fathers or rather translated hither and put here out of their Writings Hereupon they may and ought rightly and deservedly all except the two excepted to be taken for Authentick How perplexed his discourse is I suppose you see His courage fails in the midst and it becomes thereupon so rough and difficult that it is scarce intelligible The occasion of its Incoherence is that Parenthesis thrust into the middle For Binius foreseeing a strong Obiection to the Discourse he was going to make claps it Sophistically into the midst of his Argument hoping thereupon that it would never more be retorted upon him Which you may easily see both by the Nature of his Argument and by the resolution of his words For his Argument is this which if you lay aside the Answer to it runs smoothly Almost all these latter Canons besides the two forementioned are either by the Authority of Roman Bishops or the Decrees of other Councils or the Sentences of some Fathers confirmed and approved hereupon they may and ought rightly and deservedly all except the two excepted to be taken for Authentick Now the Answer is the Parenthesis in the midst Certain Sentences like to these Canons are in the Fathers writings but so contained there that it may not lightly or rashly be doubted whether they were taken hence by the Bishops Councils and Fathers or rather translated hither and put here out of their Writings To doubt a thing rashly is nonsense but it may justly be feared that these Canons are Sentences pickt out of other Books and packt into a Body bearing the name of the Apostles Canons His Conscience did convict him and he replieth not a word though it be an important consideration in the case But there is a worse fault in his Logick he argues from Particulars to Vniversals for having said Fere omnes praeter praedictos duos he comes to conclude Omnes praeter praedictos duos Almost all except two are approved therefore all except two are Authentick Such Tricks as these he hath often And sometimes affects an obscure kind of speaking on purpose to blind the Reader especially when he is intangled with some difficult Argument He then Clouds himself like the Cuttle in his own Ink that he might vomit up the Hook in the dark and scape away He might have produced a General Council if he pleased to confirm all the 84 Canons and that under the Name of the Apostles too which had been more to the purpose but then he must have confessed the last Canon of Clement to be true and consequently that his eight Books of Constitutions and his two Epistles are part of the Bible or else that the Decree of the Council confirming these was Spurious or else of necessity that the Pope and Council did err But he had more kindness for the Pope than so and therefore perhaps let the Council alone He would inure you by his words to believe that Popes are equal to Councils Because they are saith he either by the Authority of Roman Bishops or other Councils or some Fathers confirmed they may and ought to be taken for Authentick Some Fathers is a dwindling expression He very well knows that 217 were rejected together in the sixth Council of Carthage Roman Bishops and other Councils are words of some weight But what can other Councils do if the Roman Bishops please to reject them The Roman Bishops and other Councils are so put in contradistinction that the Authority of Roman Bishops is set before that of other Councils And perhaps the proportion being observed the Roman Bishops must be thought as far above other Councils as other Councils above some Fathers In other places they affirm a Pope with his Council to be Infallible Here that the Roman Bishop is a Council Otherwise it is nonsense to say The Roman Bishops or other Councils The Roman Bishop hath a Council in himself And indeed it is requisite that he of all other should be the greatest Council when standing alone he is to judge of a Council and to determine even whether an 〈◊〉 Council shall be approved or disapproved This is a Tast of Binius an Elephants Clee a Scrap of five large Volumes full of the same integrity and perverseness The swelling words which they talk of approved and disapproved Councils are all to be understood of Councils approved or disapproved by the Roman Bishop From his Canons we proceed to his Council for Binius hath a Council of Apostles too on a Prodigious Theme the setting up of Images It is but a short one and hath but one Canon and that is the eighth It is set forth in this form ANTIOCHENA SYNODUS 〈◊〉 Canon 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Salvati ob Idola sed pingant 〈◊〉 Opposite Divinam Humanamque manufactam 〈◊〉 Effigiem Dei veri ac Salvatoris nosire Jesu Christi ipsiusque Servorum contra Idola 〈◊〉 Neque errent in Idolis neque similes siant Judaeis This is all and sure it is old for the Latine is very bare If you construe it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus but hath no Greek Copy A COUNCIL of the APOSTLES at ANTIOCH Canon 3. Let not the Saved be deceived for Idols but let them paint on the Opposite the Divine and Humane unmingled Image of the true God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ made with hands and of his Servants Neither let them err in Idols nor be made like the Jews The first Authority he hath to prove it is the 2 Nicene Council 800 years almost after the Apostles And he collecteth it thence by a blind conjecture not by any evident Assertion of theirs Besides this he citeth one Pamphilus who testifieth that he found it in Origen's Study as Turrian saith against the Writers of Magdenburg So that all this resteth upon Turrian an impudent Corrupter as the World hath any Where we first observe that Origen
had no Images himself neither adored any 2. That Images were forbidden in the H. Scripture especially in the Old Testament 3. The Apostles were wont to allure the Jews and not to offend them To the Jews saith S. Paul I became as a Jew that I might gain the Jews Whereas to set up Images was the only way to drive them out of the Temple 4. That all other Councils Nice Constantinople Ephesus Chalcedon Arles Eleberis Antioch Laodicea Sardis Jerusalem Alexandria Rome c. during all the time of 800 years were silent of this Apostolical Canon Concerning which I beseech you to consider further 1. That admitting it were in the 2 Nicene Council that was an Idolatrons Council addicted to Fables and full of Forgeries for which it is rejected by all the knowing and sounder part of the World 2. The Apostles were not obeyed in this Commandment neither in their own Age nor in divers Ages after 3. Binius himself seemeth conscious of its unsoundness for he putteth it not among the Councils of the Apostles which are before their Canons altogether but in another place stragling by it self in his own Notes and after the Apostles Canons 4. Since the Apostles wrote in Greek this is rendered suspitious by wanting a Greek Copy 5. No Collector produceth one word besides himself in the whole Circuit of the first 400 years on the behalf of Images 6. The Fathers unanimously write against Images in the Church of GOD. 7. You may perceive by the dulness of the Sense out of what Storehouse this Fragment came and by the horrid incongruity of making a Divine and Humane Image unmingled with hands The Divinity and and Humanity being Natures infinitely distant cannot be painted in the same Picture But for want of a better this Musty Evidence must serve the turn CAP. XV. Of the Pontisical Falsety Fathered upon Damasus Bishop of Rome An. 397. How the Popish Collectors use it as their Text yet confess it to be a Forgery full of Lyes and contradictions THe Liber Pontifiealis is a Legend so stuffed with Lyes that the very Title of it is notorious The very first Inscription of the Book miscarries not so as to need like the former Counterfeits either those of the Apostles Canons or their Council or the Preface of Isidore a long Circuit of Deductions to prove the Forgery Binius Labbe and the Collectio Regia immediately confess it It beginneth thus THE BOOK OF POPES From Pope Peter down to Pope Nicholas of that Name the First in which their Acts are described The Acts of the first Popes by Pope Damasus The rest by other * Ancient Men and * worthy of credit Upon this Title Binius noteth Hujus libri Pontificalis Damasus Auctor non est c. Damasus is not the Author of this Pontifical but rather it is patched up of two divers Authors as may be proved by this that almost in every Popes Life it contains things fighting with themselves And so no account can be given of Things and Writings clashing with one another And for this he cites Baronius An. Christ. 69. nu 35. Au. 348. nu 16. 17. Anton. Possevin Apparat. Sac. on the word Damasus Now a man would expect he should lay aside the Book and refuse to make use of such an odious Pamphlet But for want of a better he takes it in as his most Learned Companions do and so they labour all under the miserable Fate of making a Forgery the Text upon which their Notes and Volumes are the Commentary It is meet before I pass to make some use of what is given us for Observation is the Life of History Reflexions digesting the Objects that are before us and turning them into nourishment What is here said concerneth not a Page but a whole Book stuffed with Legends and Lives of Popes It was set forth as a Book made by Damasus a Learned Grave and Ancient Bishop of Rome that his name might give colour and Authority to the same Because it could not be believed that 〈◊〉 should write of Popes that followed after he was dead part of it is ascribed to other ancient men and worthy of credit naming no body for the greater Reverence and shew of Antiquity and the more pious estimation of unknown persons How ancient and how worthy of credit they are that 〈◊〉 such Cheats and what a Mystery of Iniquity they make of Antiquity you may easily conjecture Sometimes 〈◊〉 are thrown upon 〈◊〉 Greeks and 〈◊〉 but here is one made and compiled by the more Famous Romans Binius knew it to be a Forgery by the baseness of the Stile Consarcinatus est It was patched up That is his word a Metaphor implying the Taylors were but Botchers that made it Secondly By the contradictions that are in it he knew they were divers Authors because they jangle and cannot agree The parts of it are so irreconcileable that the Story will by no means hang together It is a Vein of Lyes reaching from S. Peter to Damasus and from Damasus to Nicholas 1. containing the Lives of above 100 Popes from S. Peter to the year 860. About the time of this Nicholas 1. the Popedom was exalted above the Clouds and was of necessity to be secured by as evil means as it was gotten When loe the Witch of Endor raises up Samuel in the good old Damasus to tell the World that Peter was a Prince and all his Successors Vniversal Heads of the Catholick Church Nicholas 1. began to sit about 50 years after the death of Hadrian 1. the Pope that is suspected by us to be the Father of the 〈◊〉 So great an Impression therefore being made by the Publication of Isidore a little before it was thought good to follow the Blow by this Pontifical and a more ancient Father than Isidore must be awakened out of his dust to justifie him For as Light answered Light in Solomons Buildings so do the Lives and Letters of the Popes their Lives in the Pontifical and their Letters in the Decretal The Artifice shews contrivance and the design of it a deep and hidden Correspondence The World has been cheated for so long a time by the attempt of wicked and deceitful men Peter Crab Carranza surius Nicolinus the Elder Compilers of the Councils use it boldly and freely without warning their Readers to suspect it or confessing it to be a Forgery though Binius and the last Compilers upon necessary Conviction are forced to do it 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 have it not at all we may justly wonder therefore where these latter 〈◊〉 got it The Forgery is not about mean matters but things most Sacred the Rights of the Church and the Souls of men Here the 〈◊〉 are detected by their own confession and he that is once 〈◊〉 is still suspected The Works of Darkness are seldom 〈◊〉 so that more are committed than 〈◊〉 known All these Forgeries that are now acknowledged did pass about 200 years ago for good
Condition is worse than that of other men If they presume to call a Council before he is condemned they usurp his Authority and act independently to the prejudice of the Chair in such sort as was never heard of there being no President or Copy but this of such a Proceeding Though the Pope were a Criminal yet every one must not judg him I suppose they will Confess there have been many wicked Popes yet while the Pope is a Pope no man without his Authority may call a Council The thing is impossible therefore in it self For he must First be condemned before a Council could be called to condemn him and before he could be condemned the Council must be called Which would seem among Protestants a Contradiction The Absurditie of the Plot is another reason why we reject it Three hundred Bishops in a persecution adventure their Lives to meet together upon an unwarrantable Call before the Pope was convicted as a Criminal and without knowing whether he would come to Judgment though certainly knowing that none could compel him convene him before them They produce one Day 14. Witnesses another Day 44. And care is taken according to the Decree of the Epilogus Brevis to compleat the number of 72. Witnesses And when all is done they confesse they have no Power to condemn him The Absurdities are not easily fathomed How gross was it for the Roman Clergy to call a Council for the Deposing of a Pope whom they before knew nothing could condemn but his own Sentence How absurd for them to judg the Pope whom they continually teach no man can judg How much more absurd for the Council to meet to depose him who if he were pleased to declare their Sentence null all was in vain It is just as if a Rebellions Parliament should meet on their own Heads to call their King to account upon pretence of his Crimes If this be admitted all must be Disorder and Confusion in Kingdom If his Ingenuity had led him to depose himself without giving all these Bishops the trouble he might have done it at home That he wanted Ingenuity his denial of the Fact before the Council testifieth Whereupon I wonder what brought him thither or what Miracle made him stand before the Bar at his Tryal But had he not denied the Fact the Ceremony had been lost of producing seventy and two Witnesses Which relation to the putid Forgery of the Epilogus Brevis as yet unmade utterly mars the business The Council it self is the greatest evidence against it self in the World If you please to give your self the trouble of reading it either in Peter Crab or Surius or Nicolinus or Binius and compare it with the Letters of Pope Sylvester and the Nicene Council recorded afterwards you will find reason to believe the very same Dunce made them all Those three being the absurdest pieces that ever were seen with learned eyes For a Taste of this take but the beginning of the two old pretended Originals A. and C. to let go the third which being made by latter men is nothing to the purpose A. C. Dioclefiano Maximiano Augustis Cum multi in vitá suâ asperse 〈◊〉 suae vacillitate mentiebantur ori 〈◊〉 dicentes quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vanitas super se sentirent ad Sacrificandum 〈◊〉 tempore multi inducerentur per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diis Marcellinus itaque c. Cum multi in 〈◊〉 suâ aspersu mentis suae vacillitate 〈◊〉 origine dicentes quod de eorum Superstitionem vanis super sentirent ad 〈◊〉 codem tempore multi 〈◊〉 per pecuniam ut 〈◊〉 Di is Marcellinus itaque c. Take which you will and try to construe it you will find it impossible yet in this Diaject he holdeth from end to end Many things more we might speak but we study brevity CAP. XX. Divers things premised in order first to the Establishment and then to the Refutation of Constantine's Donation the first by Binius and the latter by the Author The Forgeries of Marcellus Pope Eusebius and Binius opened MArcellus a Roman sate five years six moneths and twenty one days saith the Pontisical He succeeded Marcellinus There are two Decretal Epistles aseribed to him and both counterfeit The one is coneerning the Primacy and Authority of the Roman Church the Other is written to Maxentius the Heathen Emperour and a Tyrant Concerning which last Binius in his Notes upon it saith Hanc Epistolam Anno 308. Scriptam Additamentum aliquod accepisse Res Scriptae hic parùm sibi cohaerentes indicant He holdeth it for a good Record but there are so many things inconsistent in it that he fears it has taken a Dose and confesseth that some things were put in by way of Forgery This is an easy way of defending There was never any Deed forged wherein the larger half being directed purely according to form of Law was not Good But if for that cause when it comes to be Scanned the forger at every Detectionshould say This was forged indeed but the rest is good the Court would laugh at him And this is Binius his present Case In the time of Marcellus there was a Council called at Eliberis An. 305. where they forgot Binius his Council of Apostles at Antioch and among other Canons decreed this for one Placuit Picturas in Ecclesiâ esse non debere Ne quod colitur adoratur in Parietibus depingatur They think it unlawful to put any Picture of what is adored in the Church on the Walls He takes much pains to pick this Thorn out of the Popes foot but we leave him at his work and proceed to THE LIFE EPISTLES AND DECREES OF EVSEBIVS POPE Out of the Pontifical of Pope Damasus Eusebius a Grecian sate nine years four moneths and three days Binius proveth he could sit but two years some moneths c. And whereas Eusebius saith the Cross was found in his days and Fathers the Invention of it upon one Judas converted thereupon and called at his Baptism Quiriacus though he names the day of the moneth exactly the fifth of the Nones of May and instituteth and Holy-day thereupon yet is all this rejected by Binius for a Fable For by the consent of all Ancient Writers saith 〈◊〉 the Cross was found after the Nicene Council by Helena the Mother of Constantine the Great Howbeit there is a very formal Epistle to the Bishops of 〈◊〉 and Campania in the name of 〈◊〉 devoutly abusing H. Scripture exalting Piety and the Popes Chair till at last it decrees an Holy-day for this happy Invention solemnly enjoyn'd by the Authority of this Roman Catholick and Apostolical Bishop though all this be as very a Cheat as any of the former Binius has a cure for this too but a very course one This part of the Epistle we confess to be counterfeit Vid. Bin. in loc Melchiades an African sate three years eleven moneths and eight days Binius saith
the Nineth Who in an Epistle to Michael of Constantinople and Leo of Acridanum Bishops in the year of our Redemption 1054. makes mention of the Donation of this Constantinian Edict made to Sylvester From whence I believe it was that much Faith and Authority being hereby added unto it very many of the Gravest and most Learned Doctors without any suspition of Fraud or Imposture with good Faith did read and receive it He makes a large Confession here wherein three things are fit to be noted The first that ever used this Edict was a Pope Pope Leo 9. 2. He used it immediately after it came forth For Sylvesters Acts came forth about the year 1060. being afterwards increased with the Addition of this Edict of Constantine and some 54 years after the Pope made use of the Donation in it Wherein he is followed by many very many of the Gravest and most Learned Popish Doctors which is the third thing to be noted This fault of the Popish Doctors who did read and receive this Donation of Constantine without any suspition of Fraud and Imposture being by Binius charged upon the Pope The Shepherd went out of the way and the Sheep followed him The Captain and the Herd did all stray and miscarry Leo 9. being somewhat like the Dragon in the Revelation that threw down the third part of the Stars with his Tail Binius his Cure is but the shift of a Mountebank to save his Credit There are Errours and Heresies in the Donation of Constantine which whosoever receiveth the Donation he receiveth them in like manner And to say that the Head and its Members in the Church of Rome were deceived by the Evil Art and sorry Faith of the Grecians while they licked up this Vomit of Balsamon for the Popes advantage is but a sorry shift a Corrosive that eats like a Canker For it shews how the Holy Catholick Roman Church may be deceived Head and Members Pope and Doctors Priests and People They were imposed on by an Evil Art it seems and swallowed down Heresie in Constantine's Donation But that Binius lyes in his prevarication about the Greeks and that the Greeks were not the Authors of the Donation and that it did not intend to hurt the Popes Chair is evident by this The Donation was made not to overthrow but confirm the Divine Right of the Popes Supremacy point blank against what Binius pretends He that made it had an eye both to the Temporal and Spiritual Priviledges of the Roman Chair For the Donation applieth those Scriptures on which the Popes build their Right to S. Peter's Successors and makes the Empercur to note that the Will of our Saviour was the Root of all his Kindness to the Chair nay it expresly throws all on our Saviours Institution For it is just that the Holy Law should retain the Head of the Principality there where our Saviour the Instituter of H. Laws commanded the blessed Peter to undertake the Chair of the Apostleship Where you may note another fetch of the Papists Lest what our Saviour did to S. Peter should seem too remote to concern Rome that they might make the Channel of Conveyance clear these old Counterfeits record that S. Peter did not come to Rome by chance but being invested in so great an Hereditary power our Saviour chose the place where it should rest and that Peter came to Rome and there undertook the Chair of his Apostleship by our Saviours Commandment Which if they could make the World believe their work would be half done So that it utterly destroys the Interest of the Greeks and the Donation is Root and Branch altogether Roman Neither did the Greeks ever use it to disgrace the Roman Church for ought I can find though the Romans used it to magnifie their Church above all other Churches CAP. XXIII Melchiades counterfeited Isidore Mercator confessed to be a Forgery The Council of Laodicea corrupted both by a Fraud in the Text and by the False Glosses of the Papists THe Forgery put out at first in the name of Melchiades concerning the Primitive Church and the Munificence of the Emperour Constantine hath now gotten a clause added to the Title viz. Falsly ascribed to Melchiades In Binius Labbé and the Collectio Regia Upon those words Falsly ascribed to Melchiades Binius speaketh thus That this Epistle was ascribed to Melchiades appeareth Can. Futuram 12. q. 1. Can. Decrevit Dist. 88. which bearing the name of Melchiades contain for the most part the things which are written here It appeareth from hence also that hitherto it was commonly put in the former Edition of the Councils just after the Decrees of Melchiades the Pope Thus was this counterfeit Epistle placed among their Laws and Councils But that it was noted with the false Title and name of Melchiades appeareth from hence saith he because it maketh mention of the Nicene Council which by the consent of all men happened after the death of Melchiades and after the Baptism of the Emperour not under Melchiades but under Sylvester in the year of Christ 325. being the 20 year of Constantine as almost all Historians unanimously do testifie Perhaps therefore it is more true that Isidore himself being a Compiler rather than a Collector was the Author of this Epistle Which it is certain was made out of the third Canon of the Council of Chalcedon and a certain fragment of the 24 Epistle in the 1. Book of Pope Gregory and the History of the Nicene Council Baron An. 312. Nu. 80. Here we come to know the manner how Decretal Epistles were made Good passages stoln out of the Fathers are clapt Artificially together and a Grain or two of Interest thrust neatly in makes up an Epistle This of Binius is plain dealing Isidore is confessed to be a Compiler that is a Forger rather than a Collector or Recorder of the Councils * Note this well because Isidore is the Fountain a muddy dirty one out of which they drink their waters This acknowledgment is the more considerable because Baronius Labbè and Cossartius and the Collectio Regia herein do keep Binius Company Confessing it to be stoln out of S. Gregory he acknowledgeth it to be made almost 300 years after it was pretended Which draws near to the time of Hadrian the First and sheds another Ray of Light on the Original of these Impostures In the time of Sylvester there happened many Councils One Feather is finely thrust in into that at Arles to adorn the Papacy The Pope is set before the Emperour In that of Ancyra the Marriage of Deacons is permitted Can. 〈◊〉 Priests also were not compelled to leave their Wives unless they were taken in Adultery Can. 8. The Cup and the Bread were both given to the People Can. 13. In the Council of Laodicea it is determined that the Scriptures should be read on the Sabbath days Can. 16. And that we ought not to leave the
great ease and satisfaction of the Roman Clergy For it reaches down you know to the lowest Orders of Readers and Door keepers So that they may write as many Forgeries as they will If it be a Pope no man can condemn him If it be a Bishop no less than threescore and twelve Bishops must on their Corporal Oath prove the Fact against him forty four Equals against a Cardinal-Priest twenty six must depose against a Cardinal-Deacon of the City of Rome and seven against a Door keeper all which must be at least his Equals A Marvellous Priviledge for the City of Rome Which word Rome though annexed only to Cardinal-Deacons yet for ought I know the Judge will interpret its Extent to all the other Orders or use it Equivocally as himself listeth or as his Superiour pleaseth So that in Causes pertaining to the Interest of the Roman Church other Priests perhaps beside them in the City of Rome shall enjoy the benefit of this Law but in Causes displeasing the Pope and his Accomplices none shall enjoy it but the Priests of Rome Many such Trap-doors are prepared in Laws where Rulers are perverse and Tyrannical and whether this be not one of those I leave to the Readers further Examination Mark succeeded Sylvester in the See of Rome Between whom and Athanasius there were certain Letters framed that stand upon Record to this day to prove the Canons of the Nicene Council to be Threescore and ten Heretofore they were good old Records magnificently cited but now they are worn out for Baronius and Bellarmine have lately rejected them who are followed by Binius as he is by Labbe and Cossartius and the Collectio Regia all concluding the Letters to be Forged The three last have this Note upon that of Athanasius Hanc Surreptitiam ab aliquo confict am fuisse quinque rationibus ostenditur c. That this Epistle is a Counterfeit devised by some body appeareth evidently by five reasons Whereof the first is this In the Controversie between the African Churches and the Roman Bishops Zozimus and Boniface concerning the number of the Nicene Canons this Epistle was unknown 2. Athanasius as is manifest by what went before was at this time fled into France and so it could not be written from Alexandria and from the Bishops in Egypt 3. That Divastation fell upon the Church of Alexandria many years after these times in the Reign of Constantius c. As Athanasius himself witnesseth in his Epistle ad omnes Orthodoxos 4. Mark died in the Nones of October this present year Constantine himself being yet alive 5. If Pope Mark had sent a Copy of the Nicene Council out of the Roman Archives to them at Alexandria surely the Roman Copy and that of Alexandria would have agreed thenceforth as the same How then were those three Canons wanting in the Copy which S. Cyril sent from Alexandria to the Africans which were found in the Roman Copy He pointeth to the Commonitorium sent from Rome to the Sixth Council of Carthage and verifies all the Story we have related by rejecting these Letters of Mark and Athanasius made on purpose to defend the Forgeries there detected For which he cites Baron An. 336. nn 59 60. and Bellarm. de Rom. Pont. lib. 2. cap. 25. This Epistle was alledged by Harding against Jewel and by Hart against Rainolds for a good Record How formally it was laid down by the Elder Collectors you may see with your eyes and may find it frequently cited by the most learned Papists Such as these being their best and only Evidences After Mark Julius succeeded The Epistle sent by the Bishops of the East to Pope Julius 1. is now confessed to be a Forgery Veram germanam non extare praeter authoritatem Baronii illud asserentis ea quae supra in principio Epistolarum Julii annotavi confirmant Saith Binius Again he saith This Epistle which is put in the second place bearing the Names of the Bishops of the East seems to be compiled by some uncertain Author both by the concurrent Testimony of Sozomen and Socrates and because thou mayest observe many things to be wanting and some in the words and things expressed to be changed Rescriptum Julii The Epistle which Julius returned in answer hath the like Note upon it Hanc mendosam corruptam a quodam ex diversts compilatam c. That this Epistle is counterfeit corrupt and compiled by some body out of divers Authors the Consulships of Felicianus and Maximianus evidently shew c. The matter in these Epistles is the Popes Supremacy the unlamfulness of calling Councils but by his Authority his Right of receiving Appeals with other Themes which Ambition and self Interest suggest and of which genuine Antiquity is totally silent Having so fortunately glanced upon that Sixth Council I shall not trouble the Reader with any more but bewailing what I observe beseech him earnestly to weigh this Business walking in the Dark and take heed of a Pope and a Church that hath exceeded all the World in Forgerie For let the Earth be searched from East to West from Pole to Pole Jews Turks Barbarians Hereticks none of them have soared so high or so often made the Father of Lies their Patron in things of so great Nature and Importance Since therefore the Mother of Lyes hath espoused the Father of Lies for her assistance and the accursed production of this adulterate brood is so numerous I leave it to the Judgement of every Christian what Antiquity or Tradition she can have that is guilty of such a Crime and defiled with so great an Off-spring of notorious Impostures AN APPENDIX Cardinal Baronius his Grave Censure and Reproof of the Forgeries His fear that they will prove destructive and pernicious to the See of Rome APiarius a Priest of the Church of Africa being Excommunicated by his Ordinary for several notorious crimes flies to Rome for Sanctuary Zozimus the Bishop receives him kindly gives him the Communion and sends Orders to see him restored Hereupon the African Churches convene a Council namely the sixth Council of Carthage whence they send a modest Letter but as Sincere as Powerful shewing how after all shifts and Evasions Apiarius had confessed his Enormities and that both the Nicene Council and clear Reason was against the disorder of such Appeals All Causes being to be determined in the Province where they arose by a Bishop Patriarch or Council upon the place Otherwise say they how can this Beyond-Sea Judgment be sirm where the necessary appearance of Witnesses cannot be made either by reason of weakness of Nature or Old Age or many other Impediments They decry the Innovation of the Bishop of Rome in arrogating that Authority lest the smoakie 〈◊〉 of the pride of this World should be brought into the Church of Christ. This Epistle is on all sides owned and confessed to be a good Record It was sent to Celestine the Successor of
Bellarmine and Baronius though they still carry on the Design of the first Inventers by some other Methods which they hope will succeed better Nor is it any wonder that a Secular Kingdom should make men more active than the love of Heaven since we daily see how the Kings of the world expend vast Treasures of Gold and Silver and run through all dangers of Death and Battel for their own preservation and the Conquest of their Neighbours The same care which they take in building Forts and Cittadels being taken by the Bishop of Rome in maintaining Seminaries Universities Printing-Houses c. which depend absolutely on him for the securing of all that Wealth and Empire which he hath by his Wit and Policy acquired It standeth him upon for if his Religion falls his Glory vanisheth and his Kingdom is abolished What men will do for Secular Ends beyond all the belief and expectation of the Vulgar we see in Hamor and Shechem the first and most Ancient Myrrour of that kind in the world who for the accomplishment of their desires introduced a new Religion troubling themselves and their Citizens unto Blood meerly to get possession of Dinah Jacob's Daughter 〈◊〉 's Policy is about 2500 years old though much more late When the ten Tribes revolted from the House of David for fear lest they should return to their Allegiance if they went up yearly to Jerusalem according to the Law he set up two Calves for the people to worship and underwent a great expence besides the Gold in the Calves in erecting a new Order of Friests that the people might be kept at home in their perverse Obedience He very well knew those Calves were no Deities yet for secular ends he promoted their worship and was followed therein by all the Line of the Kings of Israel several hundred of years together What Demetrius the Silver-Smith did for Diana of the Ephesians and what an uproar he made purely for Gain in making her Shrines all the Christian World understandeth But the High-Priests Scribes and Elders of the Jews in acting against all the Miracles of Christ and against their Conscience especially in giving Money to the Souldiers to hold their peace when they brought the news of his Resurrection their resisting of the Holy Ghost at his Miraculous Descent these are a sufficient instance of the incredible obdurateness of mans heart and his obstinate 〈◊〉 allures his hopes as the immediate Crown of his Labours The Diana of the Romans is much more prosicuous than the Diana of the Ephesians The fattest places of the Provinces and the greatest Empire in the World are the Game they Play This Dinah animateth all their Strength to impose on the people And for the easing of their own Charge it is a usual thing with Popes to permit their Priests and Fryers for their better support to deceive the people which Dr. Stillingfleet in his Book of Popish Counterfeit Miracles does excellently open in which and in all other Arts and Tricks they have a special connivance provided they keep the poor simple Sheep within the bounds of their Jurisdiction and contribute to the continuance of their Secular Kingdom This is the truth of the Story and these are the circumstances of the whole procedure which remains now to be proved CAP. IV. James Merlin's Editions of the Councils who lately published Isidore Hispalensis for a good Record which is now detected and proved to be a Forgery JAmes Merlin's pains was to publish Isidore with some Collections and Additions of his own He positively affirmeth him to be that Famous Isidore of Hispalis a Saint a Bishop and a Father of the Church though as Blondel and Dr. Reynolds accurately observe S. Isidore of Hispalis was dead 40 50 60 years before some things came to pass that are mentioned in that Book of the Councils Blondel in a Book of his called Pseudo-Isidorus or Turrianus Vapulans Cap 2. observes how the lowest that write of Isidores death fix it on the year 647. as Vasaeus in his Chronicle Others on the year 643. as Rodericus Toletanus Hist. lib. 2. cap. 18. Or on the year 635. as the proper Office of the Saints of Spain or on the year 636. when Sinthalus entered his Kingdom as Redemptus Diaconus an eye-witness De Obitu Isidori Brauleo Bishop of Caesar-Augustana Lucas Tudensts Baronius the great Annalist Mariana Grialus and others agree with the last which is eleven years sooner than Vasaeus So that the general prevailing Opinion is that Isidore of Hispalis died in the year 636. However that we may deal most fairly with them we will allow them all they can desire and calculate our affair by the last Account which is most for their advantage Admit Vasaeus in the right that Isidore lived till the year 647. yet the Book which is Fathered upon him can be none of his for it mentions things which came to pass long after It is observed by Blondel that Honoratus who succeeded Isidore in the See of Hispalis is found in the sixth Council of Toledo whereas this pretended Isidore makes mention of the eleventh Council in the same place He talks of the sixth Oecumenical Council in the year 681. no less than 46 years after his own death by the lowest account He writes of Boniface of Mentz slain as Baronius observes in the year 755. which was threescore and sixteen years after Isidores death Yet Possevin upon the word Isidorus Hisp. and Hart in his Conference with Reynolds contend the Author of this Book to be the true Isidore Bishop of Hispalis as Merlin who first published Isidore in print and others did before them Among his Witnesses produced against this Counterfeit the first which Blondel useth is the Code of the Roman Church in which onely the Epistles of 13 Roman Bishops are contained beginning with Siricius Whereas there are in Isidore above 60. whereof five or six and thirty lived before Siricius and were all unknown until the time of Isidore His next Testimony is that of the Bishops of France about the year 865. who concluded that Isidore's Wares then newly beginning to be sold could not have the force of Canons because they were not contained in the Authentick Code or Book of Canons formerly known He next citeth the Council of Aquisgranum An. 816. the Bishops of Paris An. 829. Henricus Caltheisensis Erasmus Greg. Cassander Anton. Contius the famous Lawyer Bellarmine and Baronius the Learned Cardinals The Testimony of Baronius being more largely cited than the residue I thought it meet to search the Author and there I found these following passages Writing upon the Contest between Pope Nicholas and the French Bishops concerning Appeals he beginneth to shew how they complained that the Causes of Bishops which ought to be tryed in Councils by their Fellow Bishops were removed to the Apostolick Chair And they questioned in their Letters whether those Epistles of the more Ancient Bishops which were not inserted into the Body
of the Canons but were written in the Collection of Isidore Mercator were of equal Authority with the residue For the making of which Controversie the more plain and to shew what they mean by the Body of the Canons he tells us It is certain that the more Ancient Collection of the Decretal Epistles of the Roman Bishops and the Canons of divers Councils acquired such a name that the Volum was called The Book or Code or BODY of CANONS increased by the addition of other Councils which were afterwards celebrated But the more ancient and full collection of the Epistles of Roman Bishops and Canons of Councils was that of Cresconius of which I have spoken before saith he Which being increased by the addition of many Canons and Epistles went under the name of the Book or BODY of CANONS and whereas there were many other Collections of Canons compiled that which is the richest of all made by Isidore sirnamed Mercator containing the Epistles of the Ancient Roman Bishops beginning from Clement was Longè recentior far younger than they all as Hincmarus Archbishop of Rhemes does testifie Forasmuch as it was not brought out of Spain into France before the times of Charles the Great by Riculphus Archbishop of Mentz For so he testifies in a Letter of his to Hincmarus Laudunensis beginning Sicut de Libro c. But he who first collected Canons out of the foresaid Epistles published at first by Isidore and inserted them into the books of the Kings of the Franks was Benedictus Levita as he testifieth of himself in his preface before the fifth book of those Canons who writ in the times of the Sons of Ludovicus Pins the Emperour Ludovicus Lotharius and Charles as me shewed where he saith I have inserted these Canons c. to wit those WARES of Isidore Mercator which were brought as thou hast heard of Hincmarus into France out of Spain by Riculphus Nè quis calumniari possit ab Ecclesiâ Romanâ aliquid hujusmodi commentum esse Lest any one should slander us and say the Church of Rome invented such a business as this I think here is enough He looks upon it as a Commenium a meer Fiction and is 〈◊〉 left any one should have the advantage of Fathering such a dreadful Bastard on the Church of Rome He calls them Isidore the Merchants Wares he does not refel the Bishops of France he dares not affirm they were in the Ancient Code of Epistles and Councils he acknowledgeth them far younger than the BODY of CANONS and subscribes to Hincmarus Archbishop of Rhemes citing him who writ against Isidore as a good and Authentick Author He confesseth that they were never known in France till the times of Charles the Great that is 700 years after they first began to be written and that they were introduced into the books of the Kings of the Franks by Benedictus Levita in the times of Ludovicus Lotharius which was about the year 850. So that the Church was governed well enough without them and about 800 years after our Saviours Birth they were first hateht as meer Innovations This is too large a Chink for an Enemy to open but he proceedeth further That the same Riculphus Bishop of Mentz did live in the times of Charles the Great many Monuments of that Age do make it certain especially the Testament of the same Charles the Great to which this Riculphus is found to have subscribed among divers others We find that he was President also in a Council at Mentz held in the year of our Redemption 813. c. Since therefore the French Regions which are nearest to Spain knew not the Collection of Isidore before the times of Riculphus much less Italy it is a conjecture that this Isidore did live and write not long before and so it was first published by Riculphus who brought it thither then by Benedictus who put it into the Capitular books and lastly by Hincmarus Junior Bishop of Laon the last Collector unto this our Age which Hincmarus of Rhemes a man of a keener smell reprehendeth in many things defaming that collection of Isidore which the other used for which cause he was accused For Frodoardus in his History of Rhemes Cap. 16. near the end saith of him that being accused because he had condemned the Decretal Epistles of the Roman Bishops he professed and protested otherwise that he admitted held and approved them with the greatest honour Vpon this occasion to wit it appears he was branded with a mark because he had signified himself not to have approved that Collection of Isidore in all things Baronius you see who is one of the greatest Friends to the See of Rome endeavours to remove the matter of Isidore as far as he can from the Roman Chair being sore afraid lest the guilt of so many Forgeries should too apparently be charged upon 〈◊〉 For which cause he will not have the book so much as known in Italy nay not in France which is nearer unto Spain for 800 years time but that it came out of Spain first being brought by Riculphus Perhaps Riculphus was never there He doth not tell us that he went into Spain for ought I can find nor upon what occasion nor in what City nor of whom he received Isidore which putteth me in mind of Cacus his device who being a strong Thief and robbing Hercules of his Oxen drew them all backward by the Tail into his Den that the print of their heels being found backwards they might not be tracked but seem to be gone another way But he fails in his design for as it is strange that Italy should not know the Decretal Epistles of its own Popes for 800 years till Riculphus brought them out of Spain so is it more strange that being such Forgeries as he would have them Hincmarus Archbishop of Rhemes should be accused for condemning them and ratled up and Branded in such a manner and compelled to recant by so powerful an Enemy for it seems he had no way to save himself but by renouncing his Opinion The jealousie of the Roman Church and its tenderness over Isidore appeareth most exceeding great in the hard dealing which Hincmarus met with who though he did recant was still noted with infamy as if to speak against Isidore were a Crime not to be washed off by the Tears of Repentance in the Church of Rome Perhaps the poor Bishop was an Hypocrite in that forced Confession and for this was branded because he confessed a lye as men upon the Rack are wont to do for his own deliverance for that he knew still that Isidore was a Counterfeit and must therefore be reputed a rotten Member of the Church of Rome This Baronius observes while he ascribeth Hincmarus his reprehending Isidore's Collection to his keener scent whereby he was able more readily than others to smell a Rat and discover the Cheat. Baronius proceedeth further in condemning the collection of Isidore thus But