than read their Liturgies and Homilies and so administer the Sacraments 5. All the Controversie therefore lieth between us and the Papists either they are true Ministers and a Church or not if not then it s left to us if they are then we are so much more for we have much more unquestionable Evidence of our Title 1. The Office of a Teaching Guiding worshipping Presbyter which we are in is beyond all question and yielded by themselves to be of Divine Institution But the office of a Mass-Priest to make a God of a piece of Bread and turn Bread into Flesh so that there shall be quantity colour taste c. without bread or any subject and a mans eyes taste or feeling shall not know that its bread or wine when we see taste and feel it as also to celebrate publick worship in an unknown tongue this office is more questionable than ours 2. It remaineth a great doubt whether the Pope be not the Antichrist but of our Ministry there 's no such doubt 3. For Knowledge Godliness and Utterance and all true Ministerial abilities as it s well known what an ignorant Rabble their common secular Mass Priests are so those Military Fryars and Jesuites that are chosen of purpose to play their Game among us and credit their Cause if they have any relicks of truth or modesty will confess that the generality of our Ministers are much beyond theirs for Parts and Piety or at least that we cannot be denied to be true Ministers for want of necessary abilities We should rejoyce if their Ministers Priests or Jesuites were near of such Piety as those of the Reformed Churches Some of their Jesuites and Fryars are learned men in which also we have those that equal the best of them but for the learning ability or Piety of the common Ministers on both sides there is no comparison to be made 4. All the question then is of the way of entrance And there 1. The Papists seek not the Peoples consent so much as we do 2. They despise the Magistrates consent in comparison of us 3. And for Ordination which is it that all the stress must be laid on we have it and nearer the Rule of God than they Are they ordained with Fasting Prayer and Imposition of Hands so are we Must it be by one of a Superiour Order Who then shall Ordain or Consecrate the Pope And yet a multitude of our Ministers are ordained by Bishops if that be necessary But the great Objection is that we have not an uninterrupted succession from the Apostles and so those that ordained us had no power and therefore could not give it to us Proposition 6. The want of an uninterrupted succession and so of Power in the Ordainers doth not disable our Title to the Ministry or set us in a worse condition than the Papists For if it be only the succession of possession of the Office there is no man of brains can deny but we have an uninterrupted succession down from the Apostles But if it be a succession of Right Ordination that is questioned 1. The Papists have none such themselves 2. We have more of it than they 3. It is not necessary that this be uninterrupted All these I prove 1. The Popes themselves from whom their power flows have been Hereticks denied the Immortality of the Soul Whoremongers Sodomites Simonists Murderers so that for many of them successively the Papists confess they were Apostatical and not Apostolical See in their own Writers the Lives of Sylvest 2. Alexand 3. 6. Iohn 13. 22. 23. Greg. 7. Vrban 7. and abundance more Ioh. 13. was proved in Council to have ravished Maids and Wives at the Apostolick doors murdered many drunk to the Devil askt help at Dice of Iupiter and Venus and was kill'd in the act of Adultery Read the proofs in my Book against Popery pag. 269 270 255 101. The Council at Pisa deposed two Popes at once called them Hereticks departed from the Faith The Council at Constance deposed Ioh. 23. as holding that there was no Eternal Life Immortality of the Soul or Resurrection The Council at Basil deposed Eugenius 4. as a Simonist and perjured wretch a Schismatick and obstinate Heretick Now these men are uncapable of the Ministry as an Infidel is for want of Essential Qualifications As Copper is no currant Coyn though the stamp of the Prince against his will be put upon it Undisposed matter cannot receive the form A fit man unordained is nearer the Ministry than such a man ordained So that here was a Nullity 2. And all the following Popes were the Successors of Eugenius that was deposed and thus judged by a General Council but by force brought them to submit and held the place 3. Either the Election Ordination or both is it that giveth them the Essence of their Papacy If Election then there hath been a long interruption for some-while the People chose and in other Ages the Emperours chose and in these times the Cardinals and therefore some of them had no lawful choice And for Ordination or Consecration 1. There have been three or four Popes at once and all were Consecrated that yet are now confessed to have been no true Popes 2. Inferiours only Consecrated 3. And such as had no power themselves Besides that the See hath been very many years vacant and some score years the Pope hath been at Avignion and had but the name of P. of Rome And when three or four have been Pope at once Bellarmine confesseth learned men knew not which was the Right yea General Councils knew not The Council at Basil thought Faelix the fifth was the right Pope but it proved otherwise so that many palpable Intercisions have been made at Rome 2. Our Ordination hath been less interrupted than theirs Object But you are not ordained by Bishops Answ. 1. Almost all in England are till of late if that will serve 2. Presbyters may ordain in case of necessity as the generality of the Old Episcopal men grant and their Ordination is not null 3. Presbyters have power to Ordain and were restrained only from the exercise by humane Laws as many of the Schoolmen confess 4. Presbyters have still ordained with the Bishop therefore they had Authority to it and the work is not Alien to their Function 5. Our Parish Presbyters are Bishops having some of them Assistants and Deacons under them or as Grotius notes at least they are so as being the chief Guides of that Church Their own Rule is that every City should have a Bishop and every Corporation is truly a City 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore must have a Bishop 6. The Ius Divinum of Prelacy is lis subjudice 7. Bishop Vsher maintaining to me the validity of the Ordination of the Presbyters without a Bishop told me how he answered King C. who askt him for an instance in Church-History viz. That Hierom ad Evag. tells us of more that the Presbyters
so much as his Beard in his own power in which nature hath given him a propriety How much more might the Pope then command all mens purses 4. May way we not see here on what weighty reasons these men condemn God's word of insufficiency and plead for traditions and a necessity of their additional Laws When Scripture hath left out the shaving of mens Beards and we had never had such a Law if such power as the Papal had not made it O what discord and disorder would there be in the Church if we had not so necessary a government and what confusion would toleration introduce if mens Beards were left at liberty But if Paul called the heathen Phylosophy Vain and Science falsly so named 1 Tim. 6. 20. as befooling the world with pedantick trifling and calling them off from their great concernes may we not say then that this is vain Government and Order falsly so named which thus calleth the Church from its primitive purity simplicity and unity when Christians were known by loving one another to these childish games that the Prelates and Priests of the Catholick Church must be known by their being without Beards One would suspect this had its original from Pope Ioane if there were indeed such a person and that it is a Symbol of the Churches sex as it is called Our Mother or at least that Marozia or Theodora instituted it 5. And do you know which were the more inexcusable for silencing and persecuting the preachers of the Gospel The Iews that did it because they thought it took down Gods Law and would bring the Roman Power on them Or the Roman heathens that thought the Gospel destroyed the worship of their forefathers Gods or the Roman Papists that silenced and persecuted men for wearing Beards 1 Thes. 2. 16. § 56. Epist. 11. When some French Preachers had revived Religion in Sweden the Pope desirous to reap where they had sowed sends to the King of Sweden to tell him his joy and that what the French taught them they recieved from Rome and to desire him to send one of his Bishops to Rome to acquaint him with their customs and to receive his Laws and Mandates You see by what means Rome was raised Epist. 15. A Bishop gave up his Bishoprick The Pope chides him and commands him to a Monastery Rather than do so he returneth to his seat again The Pope chargeth him with the Idololatriae scelus the Crime of Idolatry for not obeying him and writes to them not to recieve him or be ruled by him as ever they loved the Grace of God and St. Peter The like he doth Epist. 16. by the disobedient Bishop of Narbon and Epist. 17. by the disobedient Arch Bishop of Rhemes and Epist. 18. 19 20. of the same and all this in St. Peter's name Yea Epist. 20. he requireth the King of France Philip to joyn against the Arch-bishop of Rhemes as excommunicate as ever he would have St. Peter's Grace because his Kingdom and his Soul were in St. Peter's power And it is no wonder that they that believe that the Pope is St. Peter's Vicar and Secretary and that their souls are in his power will give him all their Lands or Kingdoms to save their souls § 57. When the Pope sentenced the Emperor Henry to be excommunicate and deposed and was charged to have done this without authority he wrote his 21 Epist. l. 8. to the Bishop of Metz to prove that he had power to do it and to absolve his Subjects from their Oaths of fidelity saying that the Scriptures were full of certain documents to prove it And his certain documents are Tibi dabo Claves c. and Feed my Sheep And Kings are not excepted They are St. Peter ' s Sheep Bin. p. 1262. he saith that the Head of Priests is at the right hand of God but who knoweth not that Kings and Dukes had their beginning from them that knew not God and affected by blind lust and intolerable presumption to domineer over others the Devil the Prince of the world acting them in Pride Rapines Perfidiousness Murders and all wickedness who while they would have the Priests of the LORD to stoop to their footsteps are rightlyest compared to him who is head of all the Sons of pride who said even to Christ All this will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me Who doubteth but that the Priests of Christ are the Fathers and Masters of Kings and Princes and of all the faithful And is it not notorious miserable madness for a Scholar to endeavour to subjugate his Master and a Son his Father and by wrongful obligations to subject him to his power by whom he believeth that he may be bound or loosed both in Earth and Heaven Did not Pope Innocent excommunicate Arcadius the Emperor and Pope Zachary depose from his Kingdom the King of France not so much for his iniquities as because he was not meet for so great power placed Pepin in his stead and absolved all the French from the Oath of fidelity Ambrose sheweth that Gold is not so much more pretious than Lead as the Priestly Dignity is higher than the Kingly Power Pag. 1263. Yea even the exorcists have power over Devils How much more over those that are Subject to the Devils and are his members And if the exorcist excel so much how much more the Priests And every King when he cometh to his end doth humbly and pitifully beg the Priests help that he may scape the prison of Hell and Darkness and at the judgment of God be found absolved But is there either Priest or Lay-man that when he is dying begs help of the King for the saving of his soul What King or Emperor can by his Office take a soul by baptism from the power of the Devil and number him with the Sons of God and fortifie him with holy Chrism And which is the greatest thing in the Christian Religion can with his own mouth make Christs body and blood Or which of them can bind and loose in Heaven and earth By all which it may be plainly gathered by how great power the sacerdot al dignity excelleth Which of them can ordain one Clerk in the holy Church How much less can they depose him for any fault For in orders exclesiastical to depose is an act of greater power than to ordain For Bishops may ordain Bishops but in no wise depose them without the authority of the Apostolick seat Who then that hath any knowledg can doubt but that Priests are preferred before Kings In a word we must know that all good Christians are more fitly Kings than evil Princes For these by seeking the Glory of God do strenuously rule themselves But the other seeking their own and being enemies to themselves do tyrannically oppress others These good Christians are the body of Christ. The other bad Princes are the body of the Devil These so rule themselves as that they shall
such Orders as were to continue to the end and none that came after them might change they being the Ordinances of the Holy Ghost in them 2. Temporarily pro re natâ to make convenient mutable Constitutions in matters left by the great Legislator to humane prudence to be determined according to his general regulating Laws In this last the Apostles have Successors but not in the former No other have their Gift and therefore not their Authority No men can be said to have an Office that giveth them Right to exercise abilities which they never had nor shall have § 4. Christ summed up all the Law in LOVE to God and Man and the works of Love and all the Gospel in Faith and Hope and Love by them kindled and exercised by the Spirit which he giveth them even by the Belief and Trust of his Merits Sacrifice Intercession and Promises and the prospect of the future Glory promised fortifying us to all holy duties of obedience and diligent seeking what he hath promised and to patient bearing of the Cross conquering the inordinate love of the world and flesh and present life and improving all our present sufferings and preparing for his coming again and for our change and entrance into our Masters joy § 5. Christ summed up the Essentials of Christianity in the Baptismal Covenant in which we give up our selves in Faith Hope and consenting Love to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier and in which God receiveth us in the Correlations as his own And all that are truly thus baptized are Christened and are to be esteemed and loved as Christians and to be received into Christian Communion in all Christian Churches where they come until by apostasie or impenitency in certain disobedience to the Laws of Christ in points necessary to Christian Communion they forfeit that priviledge Nor are men to deprive them of the great benefit thus given them by Christ on pretence of any wit or holiness or power to amend Christs terms and make the Church Doors narrower or tie men to themselves for worldly ends Yet must the Pastors still difference the weaker Christians from the stronger and labour to edifie the weak but not to cast them out of the Church § 6. The sacred Ministry is subordinate to Christ in his Teaching Governing and Priestly Office and thus essentiated by Christs own institution which man hath no power to change Therefore under Christ they must teach the Church by sacred Doctrine guide them by that and sacred Discipline called The power of the Keys that is of judging who is fit to enter by Baptism to continue to partake of the Communion to be suspended or cast out and to lead them in the publick Worship of God interceding in Prayer and speaking for them and administring to them the Sacraments or holy Seals of the Covenant of God § 7. The first part of the Ministers Oâ—â—ice is about the unbelieving world to convert them to the Faith of Christ and the second perfective part about the Churches Nor must it be thought that the first is done by them as meer private men § 8. As Satan fell by pride and overthrew man by tempting him to pride to become as Gods in Knowledge so Christ himself was to conquer the Prince of pride by humility and by the Cross by a life of suffering contemned by the blind and obstinate world making himself of no reputation despising the shame of suffering as a Malefactor a Traitor and Blasphemer And the bearing of the Cross was a principal part of his Precepts and Covenant to his Disciples without which they could not be his Followers And by Humility they were to follow the Captain of their Salvation in conquering the Prince of pride and in treading down the Enemie-world even the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and pride of life which are not of the Father but of the world § 9. Accordingly Christ taught his chief Disciples that if they were not so converted as to become as little children they could not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Matth. 18. 3. His School receiveth not masterly Disciples but humble teachable Learners that become fools that they may be wise And when they were disputing and seeking which of them should be greatest he earnestly rebuked all such thoughts setting a little child before them telling them that the Princes of the Earth exercise authority and are called Benefactors or by big Names but with them it should not be so but he that would be the greatest must be servant ofâ— all Luk. 22. shewing them that it was not a worldly grandeur nor forcing power by the Sword which belongeth to Civil Magistrates which was to be exercised by the Pastors of the Church But that he that would be the Chiefest must be most excellent in Merit and most serviceable to all and get his honour and do his work by meriting the respect and love of Volunteers The Sword is the Magistrates who are also Christs Ministers for all Power is given him and he is Head over all things to the Church But they are eminently the Ministers of his Power but the Pastors and Teachers are most eminently Ministers of his Paternal and saving love and wisdom And by wisdom and love to do their work The Word preached and applied generally and particularly by the Keys is their Weapon or Arms and not the Sword The Bohemians therefore knew what they said when they seemed damnable Hereticks to the worldly Clergie that destroyed them when they placed their Cause in these four Articles 1. To have the whole Sacrament Bread and Wine 2. To have free leave for true Ministers to preach the word of God without unjust silencing of proud worldly men that cannot stand before the truth 3. To have Temporal Dominion or Government by the Sword and power over mens Bodies and Estates taken from the Clergie 4. To have gross sin suppressed by the lawful Magistrate by the Sword § 10. Had it been necessary to the Churches Union against Schism or Heresie for Christians to know that Peter or some one of his Apostles must be his Vicar-General and Head of his Church to whom all must obey who can believe that Christ would not only have silenced so necessary a point but also at a time when he was desired or called to decide it have only spoken so much against it to take down all such Expectations Yea we never read that Peter exercised any Authority or Jurisdictions over any other of the Apostles nor more than other Apostles did much less that ever he chose a Bishop to be Lord of the Church as his Successor Nay he himself seemeth to fore-see this mischief and therefore saith 1. Pet. 5. 1 2 3. The Elders which are among you I exhort who am also an Elder and a Witness of the Sufferings of Christ and also a Partaker of the Glory that shall be revealed These are his Dignities
and here also had too much success X. And it must be remembred that God hath made use of many proud and turbulent men to propogate and defend the truth of the Gospel And their Gifts have served for the good of the sincere As the husk or chaff and straw is useful to the Corn so many worldly Prelates and Priests have been learned Expositors and useful Preachers and taught others the way to life which they would not go in themselves Besides that their very Papal power and grandure which hath corrupted the Church hath yet been a check to some that would have assaulted it by force and as a hedge of thornes about it Worldly interest engageth Pope Patriarchs and Prelates to stand up for the Christian Religion because they gain by it as Leo the 10th is said to have odiously confessed § 42. And the old Fathers till Constantines time did most of them think that the last thousand years would be a time of fuller glory to the Church as many yet think though I confess my self unskilful in the Prophesies But I make no doubt but though this earth be so far deâ—erted by God the Glorious Kingdom which we shall shortly see with the new Heaven and Earth wherein dwelleth righteousness will fully confute all our present temptations to think hardly of God or the Redeemer because of the present corruptions and dissentions of this lower world § 43. We may conjecture at former times by our own We see now that among the most Reformed Churches too often the most worldly part are uppermost and perhaps are the persecuters of the rest and though they may be the smaller part it 's they that make the noise are the noted part that carry the name and that Histories write of A few men got into places of power seem to be all the Church or Nation by the prevalency of their actions which few dare contradict They may give Laws They may have the power of Press and Pulpit so that nothing shall be published but what they will They may call themselves the Church and call all that obey them not Schismaticks and Sectaries and strangers may believe therefore that it is but some few inconsiderable fellows that are against them when yet the far greatest part may utterly dissent and abhor their pride I have lived to see such an Assembly of Ministers where three or four leading men were so prevalent as to form a Confession of Faith in the name of the whole party which had that in it which particular members did disown And when about a controverted Article One man hath charged me deeply for questioning the words of the Church others that were at the forming of that Article have laid it all on that same man as by his impetuousness putting in that Article the rest being loth to strive much against him and so it was he himself that was the Church whose authority he so much urged at least the effectual signifying part We cannot judge what is commonest by what is uppermost or in greatest power In divers Parishes now where the Minister is conformable perhaps ten parts of the people do dislike it and sometimes you may see but three or four persons with him at the Common-prayers And yet all know that Dissenters are talkt of as a few singular Fanaticks I compare not the Causes but conclude that so also for the Numbers humble Godly persons might be very numerous though only the actions of worldly Prelates do take up most of the History of the Church Yea I believe that among the Papists themselves five to one of the people were they free from danger would declare their dislike of a great part of the actions and Doctrines of their Prelates and that the greatest part that are named Papists are not such throughly and at the heart When the Rulers Scribes and Pharisees were against Christ and persecuted him and the truth the common people so much adhered to him that the persecutors durst not seize on him openly by force but were fain to use a Traytor to apprehend him in the night and in a solitary place lest they should be stoned by the people who said Never man spake as this man speaketh § 44. Let us not therefore turn Church-History into a temptation nor think basely of the Church or Christianity or Christ because of Papal and Prelatical pride and tyranny God can make use of a surly porter to keep his doors yea a mastiff-dog may be a keeper of the house and his Corn hath grown in every Age not only with straw and chaffe but with some tares And yet he hath gathered and will gather all his chosen § 45. Nor is the Ministry it self to be therefore dishonoured For as at this day while a few turbulent Prelates persecute good men and much of the Ministry is in too many Countries lamentably corrupted yet is Religion piety and honesty kept up by the Ministry and never was well kept up without it For the Faithful Ministers labour still and their very sufferings further the Gospel and what they may not do publickly they do privately Yea their very Writings shew that still there are such as God doth qualifie to do his work even among the Papists he that readeth the pious Writings of such men as Gerson and Gerhardus Zutphaniensis and Thaulerus Thomas a Kempis Ferus and many such others will see that Gods spirit was still illuminating and sanctifying souls And he that readeth such Lives as Philip Nerius persecuted by the Bishop as an ambitious Hypocrite for setting up more serious Exercises of Religion than had been ordinarily used among the Formalists to say nothing of such privater men as M. de Renâ—y and many others will see that it is not all Church-tyranny and corruption though very heinous that will prove that Christ hath not a Holy Generation whom he will save § 46. Yea among the very corrupted sort of the Clergy many that are overcome with temptations in that point and take usurpation and tyranny and worldly pomp and violence for Order Government and the interest of the Church have yet much good in other respects Even among the Cardinals there have been such men as Nerius's companion Bellarmine and others that would Preach and practise the common Doctrines of serious piety Yea among the Jesuits there have been divers that have Preacht Written and lived very strictly much more among their Fryars and such Bishops as Sales And though their times and corruptions blemished their piety I dare not think they nullified it § 47. And it sheweth the excellency of the Sacred Office 1. That Christ did first make it as the noble Organical part of his Church to form the rest 2. That he endued the first Officers with the most noble and excellent gifts of his spirit 3. That he founded and built his Church by them at first 4. Yea that he himself preached the Gospel and is called The Minister of the Circumcision the chief
Churches 3. The Office of Presbyters is changed into semi-Presbyters 4. Discipline is made impossible as it is for one General without inferiour Captains to Rule an Army But of this before § 55. Much more doth this become unlawful 1. when deposing all the Presbyters from Government by the Keyes of Discipline they put the same Keyes even the Power of decâ—etive Excommunication and Absolution into the hands of Laymen called Chancellours and set up Courts liker to the Civil than Ecclesiastical 2. And when they oblige the Magistrate to execute their Decrees by the Sword be they just or unjust and to lay Men in Goals and ruine them meerly because they are Excommunicated by Bishops or Chancellours or Officials or such others and are not reconciled And when they threaten Princes and Magistrates with Excommunication if not Deposition if they do but Communicate with those that the Bishop hath Excommunicated 3. Or when they arrogate the power of the Sword themselves as Socrates saith Cyril did Or without necessity joyn in one person the Office of Priesthood and Magistracy when one is more than they can perform aright § 56. And it becometh much worse by the tyrannical abuse when being unable and unwilling to exercise true Discipline on so many hundred Parishes they have multitudes of Atheists Infidels gross ignorants and wicked livers in Church-Communion yea compel all in the Parishes to Communicate on pain of Imprisonment and ruine and turn their censures cruelly against godly persons that dare not obey them in all their Formalities Ceremonies and Impositions for fear of siâ—â—ing against God And when conniving at ignorant ungodly Priests that do but obey them they silence and ruine the most faithful able Teachers that obey not all their imposing Canons and swear not and subscribe not what they bid them § 57. Undoubtedly Satan hath found it his most successful way to fight against Christ in Christs own name and to set up Ministers as the Ministers of Christ to speak indirectly against the Doctrine Servants and interest of Christ and as Ministers of Light and righteousness and to fight against Church-Government Order Discipline and Unity by the pretences of Church Government Order Discipline and Unity and to cry down Schism to promote Schism and to depress Believers by crying up Faith and Orthodoxness and crying down Heresie and Errour Yea to plead God's Name and Word against himself and to set up Sin by accusing Truth and Duty as Sin § 58. II. That which I take for Lawful Indifferent Episcopacy is such as Hierome saith was introduced for the avoiding of divisions though it was not from the beginning When among many Elders in every single Church one of most wisdom and gravity is made their President yea without whom no Ordinations or great matters shall be done The Churches began this so early and received it so universally and without any considerable dissent or opposition even before Emperours became Christians that I dare not be one that shall set against it or dishonour such Episcopacy § 59. Yea if where â—â—t men are wanting to make Magistrates the King shall make Bishops Magistrates and joyn two Offices together laying no more work on them than will consist with their Ecclesiastick work though this will have inconveniencies I shall not be one that shall dishonour such or disobey them § 60. III. The Episcopacy which I dare not say is not of Gods institution besides that each Pastor is Episcopus Grâ—gis is that which succeedeth the Apostles in the Ordinary part of Church-Government while some Senior Pastors have a supervising care of many Churches as the Visiters had in Scotland and are so far Episcopi Episcoporum and Arch-bishops having no constraining power of the Sword but a power to admonish and instruct the Pastors and to regulate Ordinations Synods and all great and common circumstances that belong to Churches For if Christ set up one Form of Government in which some Pastors had so extensive work and power as Timothy Titus and Evangelists as well as Apostles had we must not change it without proof that Christ himself would have it changed § 61. But if men on this pretence will do as Rome hath done pretend one Apostle to be the Governour of all the rest and that they have now that Authority of that Apostle and will make an Universal Monarch to rule at the Antipodes and over all the World or will set up Patriarchs Primates Metrâ—politans and Arch-bishops with power to tyrannize over their Brethren and cast them out and on pretence of Order and imitating the Civil Government to master Princes or captivate the Churches to their pride and worldly interests this will be the worst and most pernicious tyranny § 62. And as it is not all Episcopacy so it is not all Councils that I design this History to dishonour No doubt but Christ would have his Church to be as far One as their natural political and gracious capacities will allow And to do all his work in as much love peace and concord as they can And to that end both seasonable Councils and Letters and Delegates for Concord and Communication are means which nature it self directeth them to as it doth direct Princes to hold Parliaments and Dyets In the multitude of Councellours there is safety Even frequent converse keepeth up amity In absence slanderers are heard and too oft believed A little familiarity in presence confuteth many false reports of one another which no distant defences would so satisfyingly confute And among many we may hear that which of few we should not hear How good and pleasant is it for Brethren to dwel together in Unity And the Concord of Christians greatly honoureth their holy profession as discord becometh a scandal to the world But all this and the measures and sort of Unity and Concord which we may expect and the true way to attain it I have fuller opened in a Treatise entitled The true and only tâ—rms of the Concord of all Christian Churches § 63. When Christians had no Princes or Magistrates on their side they had no sufficient means of keeping up Unity and Concord for mutual help and strength without meetings of Pastors to carry on their common work by consent But their meetings were only with those that had nearness or neighbourhood And they did not put men to travel to Synods out of other Princes Dominions or from Foreign Lands much less did they call any General Councils out of all the Christian Churches in the world But those that were capable of Communion by proximity and of helping one another were thought enough to meet for such ends § 64. And indeed neither nature nor Scripture obligeth us to turn such occasional helps into the forms of a State-policy and to make a Government of friendly consultations And therefore though where it may be done without fear of degenerating into tyranny known times of stated Synods or meetings of Pastors for Concord are best as once a
Council hath the like Canons adding to this aforesaid as Gratian citeth it Vniversalis autem nec etiam Romanus Pontifex appelletur To which Binnius hath no better an answer than 1. That it is only swelling titles and not the superiour power that is forbidden 2. That the Africans had no power to make Laws for Rome But 1. Sure the Name is Lawful if the Power be Lawful 2. They that could make no Laws for Rome might declare their Judgment of Gods Laws and that Rome might make no Laws for them This Council also forbiddeth going beyond Sea with Appeals § 34 XCII The next Carthage Council hath 104 Canons for Discipline most very good Divers Canons lay so much on the Bishop as plainly shew each Bishop had but One Altar Can. 14. That the Bishops Cottage be not far from the Church Can. 15. That the Bishop have but vile or cheap houshold stuff and a poor table and diet and seek his authority or dignity by his faith and desert of life 16. The Bishop must not read the Gentiles Books 19. Nor contend for transitory things though provoked 20. Nor take on him the care of Family or common business but only be vacant to the Word and Prayer 23. The Bishop shall hear no Cause but in the presence of his Presbyters else it shall be void that is sentenced without them unless confirmed by their presence 28. The unjust condemnation of Bishops is void 30. And judgments against the absent 35. The Bishop to sit higher than the Presbyters at Church and their Meetings but at home know that they are his Colleagues 51. A Clerk how Learned soever in Gods Word must get his living by a trade 52. That is by a trade or husbandry without detriment to his Office 53. All Clerks that are able to work should learn both trades and Letters 55. The Bishop must not admit an accuser of the brethren to Communion Nor to enter into the Clergy though he amend Many against Clergy-men that are flatterers betrayers foul-tongued quarrellers at discord scurrilous of filthy jeasts that swear by creatures that sing at feasts of former scandal c. 83. The poor and the aged of the Church to be honoured before the rest 88. He that goeth to any Shows or Sâ—ghts on publick days instead of going to the Church-assembly let him be Excommunicate 98. A Lay-man must not teach when the Clergy are present unless they bid him 100. A woman must not baptize § 35. XCIII An. 398. Another Council was at Carthage of 73. Bishops for Discipline § 36. XCIV An. 399. Theophilus held a Synod at Alexandria against a dead man Origen The occasion Baronius and Binnius thus deliver Melania a Woman of greatest Nobility in Rome in Valens the Arians Pesecution hid five thousand Monks and a while susteined them and when they were banished with great zeal followed them to maintain them out of her substance or estate When they were restored from banishment she built for her self a Monastery at Ierusalem in which besides fifty Virgins that dwelt with her she entertained and maintained holy Foreign Bishops Monks and Virgins twenty seven years Whereby it happened that both she and Ruffinus were by Didymus Alexandrinus a man blind but of great learning and fame too great an admirer of Origen's works entangled as their accusers said in Origen's errours and received and divulged his Book called Periarchon After 25 years absence in Egypt and Palestine returning to Rome with great fame of Holiness and bringing with them a piece of the Cross they with fraud bring to Origen's Periarchon that is Translated and Corrected by Ruffinus Another Woman Marcella accuseth them of Origen's errours which they deny and geting Communicatory Letters from Pope Siricius forsake Rome where such Merits and Holiness would not procure an aged Lady a quiet habitation without being Hereticated because she highly valued Origen's Works which had divers errours and who hath not Hereupon Pamachius and Oceanus write to Hierome to publish Origen's Periarchon entire and detect his errours which he did shewing that Ruffinus had mended some and left others unmended This occasioned stirs against Hierome and a Council call'd at Alexandria an 399. where Origen is condemned Theophilus by his Legates expells Origen's followers out of Egypt and Palestine Being expelled they go to Chrysostome to Constantinople and complain of Theophilus as persecuting them that were innocent Catholicks and desired his help He undertaketh to reconcile them to Theophilus Epiphanius followeth them to Constantinople and requireth Chrysostome to Excommunicate them and Expel them Chrysostome durst not do it against people professing truth and piety without a Synod Whereupon Epiphanius irregularly accuseth Chrysostome and publickly inveyeth against him in his own Church of the process of which more anon § 37. For the better understanding of these matters I will insert somewhat of Theophilus and Chrysostome out of Socrates because he is a most credible Historian and saith they were things done in his own days Theophilus was noted for a Lordly Prelate Isidore Pelusiota saith more When Chrysostome was to be Ordained Bishop of Constantinople Theophilus refused to Ordain him because he would have preferred to it one Isidore a Presbyter of his own But Eutropius a Courtier having got Articles against Theophilus shewed them to him and bid him choose whether he would Ordain Chrysostome Bishop or stand at the Bar and answer those crimes Theophilus was so afraid at this that he presently Consecrated Chrysostome Socr. l. 6. c. 2. But presently after began busily to devise how he might work him mischief which he practised privately by Word and by his Letters into foreign Countries But was vexed that his malicious practices had not better success for he thought to bring in this Isidore cap. 5. § 38. One of the Articles against Theophilus was this When Theodosius was going to fight against Maximus the Tyrant Theophilus sent presents by this Isidore to the Emperour with two Letters charging him to give the presents and one of the Letters to him that should have the upper-hand Isidore got him to Rome to hearken after the Victory But his Reader that kept him company stole away his Letters Whereupon Isidore in a fright took his heels presently to Alexandria § 39. Another thing to be fore-known to this story is in Socrat. l. 6. c. 7. The schisme of the Anthropomorphites now rose from Egypt some of the more unlearned thought that God had a body and the shape of a man but Theophilus and the Judicious condemned them and inveighed against them proving that God had not a body The Religious of Egypt hearing this flocking in blind zeal to Alexandria condemned Theophilâ—â—s for a wicked man and sought to take away his life Theophilus very pensive devised how to save his life He came to them courteously and said When I fasten mine eyes on you methinks I see the face of God These words allayed the heat of the Monks who said If that
administring the Communion without his Licence and yet refusing to do it when he desired it Wherefore he bid him take heed lest he set the People in an uproar for if ought came amiss he had his remedy in his Hands Epiphanius hearing this went away in fear and took Ship for Cyprus The report goeth saith Socrates cap. 13. that as he went he said of Iohn I hope thou shalt never dye a Bishop And that Chrysostome answer'd him I hope thou shalt never come alive into thy Countrey And it so fell out For Epiphanius dyed at Sea by the way and Chysostome dyed deposed and banished § 42. The Empress Eudoxia was said to set Epiphanius on work Chrysostome being hot made a Sermon of the faults of Women which was interpreted to be against the Empress She irritated the Emperour against him and got Theophilus to call a Council against him at Quercus near Chalcedon and Constant. Thither came Sâ—verianus and many Bishops that Chrysostome had deposed and many that were his Enemies for his strictness but especially time-servers that knew the will of the Empress if not the Emperours When they summoned him to appear before them He answered that by the Canon there must be more Patriarchs and he appealed to a General Council yet not denying to answer any where if they would put out his Enemies from being his Judges and that in his own Patriarchate But they sentenced him deposed for not appearing The People were presently in an uproar and would not let him be taken out of the Church The Emperour commanded his banishment To avoid Tumult the third day he yielded himself to the Souldiers to be transported The people hereupon were all in an uproar and it pleased God that there was an Earthquake that night Whereupon the Emperour sent after him to intreat him to return When he came back he would not have officiated till his Cause was heard by equal Judges but the People constrained him to Pray and Preach which was after made the matter of his Accusation Theophilus was hated as the cause of all and Severianus as the second After this Theophilus turned his Accusation upon Heraclides Bishop of Ephesus put in by Chrysostome They condemned him unheard in his absence Chrysostome said that should not be The Alexandrians said It was just They went hereupon together by the Ears and some were wounded and some were killed and Theophilus glad to fly home to Alexandria but was hated by the People § 43. After this a Silver Image of the Empress was set up in the Street and Plays and Shows about it which Chrysostome perhaps too sharply reproached This provoked the Empress to call another Council which deposed Chrysostome for seizing upon his place before a Council restored him He ceased his Office The Emperor banished him His People in passion set the Church on Fire which burnt down the Senatours Court for which grievous sufferings befell them Upon this they forsook the Church and the new Bishop Arsacius an old useless man and gathered Conventicles by themselves and were long called Ioannites from his Name and taken for Schismaticks But they never returned till the Name and Bones of Chrysostome were restored to Honour § 44. The Novatians quarrelled with Chrysostome as too loose in his Doctrine and too strict in his Life because he said in a Sermon If you Sin an hundred times the Church Doors shall be open to you if you repent And Chrysostome angry with Sisinnius the Novatian Bishop told him There should not be two Bishops in one City and threatned to silence him from Preaching He told him that he would be beholden to him then for saving him his labour But Chrysostome answered him Nay if it be a labour go on § 45. XCV A Council in Africk to renew the Priviledges of Churches for Sanctuary that none that fled to them for any Crime should be taken out by force Justice was taken for Wickedness § 46. XCVI Two Councils met one at Const. to judg Antonius Bishop of Ephesus for Simony and many other Crimes Another at Ephesus to judg six Bishops for Simony § 47. XCVII About An. 400. A Council of 19 Bishops at Toletum repress the Priscillians and make divers Canons for Discipline as that a Clergy-Man shall have power over his offending Wife by force but not to put her to death that a man that hath no Wife but one Concubine shall not be kept from Communion though some think that this Concubine is truly a Wife but not according to Law but private Contract and more servile Many other better there be There is adjoyned a Regula fidei of many Bishops approved by Pope Leo in Bin. p. 563. To which are adjoyned Anathematisms against the Priscillians One of them is If any one say or believe that other Scriptures are to be had in Authority and Reverence besides those which the Catholick Church receiveth let him be Anathema Yet the Papists receive more Another is If any one think that Astrology or Mathematicks is to be believed or trusted let him be anathema There are in Bin. divers Fragments cited as of the Tolet. Councils One saith that Arch-Presbyters are under the Arch-Deacons and yet have Curam animarum over all the Presbyters Another determineth that there shall be but one Baptismal Church which is there called The Mother Church with its Chapels in the Limits assigned And another distinguisheth of Offerings made at the Parish Church and Offerings at the Altars which sheweth that then there were no Altars but where the Bishop was § 48. XCVIII Two Councils were held at Carthage about 401. The later about the Donatists § 49. XCIX An. 402. Was the Council Melevitan about certain Bishops quarrels and who should be the highest Bishop in Numidia § 50. C. An. 403. Was the Synod ad Quercum which deposed Chrysostoâ—◠§ 51. Câ— An. 403 404 c. There were seven Councils in Africk against the Donatists to procure Honorius to suppress them by the Sword not as a Heresie but because they rose up by Fire and Sword against the Catholicks and abused and killed many But when Attalus invaded Africk the Emperour proclaimed Liberty for them to quiet them which he after recalled Another Synod was held against them at Cyrta One at Toletum about Ordinations and one at Ptolemais to Excommunicate Andronicus an oppressing Governour § 52. CII The Donatist Bishops held a Council decreeing that when a sentence of banishment was passed on them they would not forsake their Church but rather voluntarily die as many did by their own hands For they took themselves to be the true Church and Bishops and the rest persecuting Schismaticks § 53. CIII The Concilium Diospolitanum of 14 Bishops in Palestine acquitted Pelagius upon his renouncing his Errours § 54. An. 416. A Council at Carthage of 67 Bishops condemned Pelagius and Câ—lestine whom the former had absolved § 55. CV A Council of 60 Bishops at Milevis condemn Pelagius The 22.
Canon galleth the Pontificians If Presbyters Deacons or other inferiour Clergy shall in their Causes complain of the Bishops the neighbour Bishops shall hear them and end the business being used by the consent of their Bishops But if they see cause to appeal from them also let them appeal to none but to Africane Councils or to the Primates of their Provinces But if any will appeal to any places beyond the Seas let none in Africk receive them into Communion In this Council was Aurelius Alypiâ—s Augustinus Evodiâ—s and Possidonius and these very great with Pope Innocent one of the best and wisest Popes who excommunicated Theophilus Arcadius and the Empress c. for Chrysostomes cause Yet did this pass then without contradiction Can. 12. of this Council Liturgies were made necessary approved by Councils lest any Heresie should be vended § 56. Câ—lestine and Pelagius being condemned by the Africans especially upon the Accusations of Lazarus and Herotes Bishops said to be holy men Innocent joyned with the Africans but after his death Pope Zosimus having a fair Appeal of Caelestine c. to him absolveth them both and condemneth their Accusers He writeth an Epistle had the cause been good very honest against rash condemning innocent men telling them how greatly they were rejoyced at Rome to find them Orthodox and what false and bad men Lazarus and Herotes were It was Lazarus custome to accuse the Innocent as in many Councils he had done Saint Britius a Bishop of Tours that he got by Blood into the Bishops Seat and was the shadow of a Bishop while a Tyrant had the Image of Empire and then his Patron being slain voluntarily deposed himself The like he saith of Herotes and that neither of them would come personally to Rome but lay in Bed and sâ—nt false Letters of Accusation Therefore he admonisheth the Africans among whom was Augustine to believe such whisperers no more against the innocent But Binnius out of Prosper maketh the accusers holy men and the other wicked Bin. p. 607. § 57. Pelagius sent Zosimus a Confession of his Faith and therein condemning all the late Heresies professeth That he so holdeth free will as yet that we always need the help of God and that they erre who say with the Manichees that a man cannot avoid sin and they that say with Jovinian that a man cannot sin for both deny the freedome of the will But he holdeth that always a man can sin and can forbear sin so as be still holdeth the freedome of the will But subtile Augustine and the rest sent back many harder questions to put to Pelagius and Caelestine for their tryal upon which they after past for Hereticks § 58. CVI. Therefore 217 Bishops in a Council at Carthage having received Zosimus Letters decreed to stand to their former judgment and Innocents against Pelagius and Caelestine till they should confess certain points for Grace drawn up by Paulus Diaconus § 59. CVII Zosimus being dead Boniface and Eulalius strove for the Popedome Both were chosen The Emperour Honorius was sent to for both This Case being too hard for him he referreth it to a Council at Ravenna It proved too hard for them Therefore the Emperour commanded them both to remove from the City and another Bishop to officiate till it was decided by another Council But Eulalius disobeying the Emperours Command and coming into Rome at noon-day occasioned a tumult and the people were neer to fight it out Which the Emperour hearing expelled Eulalius and a Council obeying him confirmed Boniface § 60. Among the Decrees of Boniface one is That no Bishop shall be brought or set before any Iudge Civil or Military either for any Civil or criminal cause So that a Bishop had the priviledge of a bad Physician he might murder and not be hanged For any crime he was to answer but before Bishops who could but Excommunicate and Depose him But another Decree is better against Bishops that fall out and desire to hurt their Brethren But alas to how little effect § 61. CVIII Another Council at Carthage called the sixth and by some the fifth had the famous contention with three Popes Zosimus Boniface and Caelestine successively against Appeals to Rome and the Popes sending Legates into Africa to judge The Popes alledged the Council of Nice for it The African Bishops knew no such Canon They take time for Tryal and send to Constantinople and Alexandria to Atticus and Cyril for their true Copies of the Councils None of them have any such Canon The Fathers write to the Pope to take better heed what he affirmeth for the time to come and to forbear such pride and usurpation alledging that by the Canons all strifes were to be ended by their neighbour Bishops and Councils Here the Papists sweat about these answers and the event Some say as Harding that the Africans continued long some say almost 100 years in Schism And an Epistle under the name of Pope Boniface the second to Eulalius saith the same Others wiser as Binnius see that to lose Augustines authority and have him and all the African Bishops the best of the World against the Papal power would be to heavy a burden for them Therefore they say that the Africans were no Schismaticks that the Canon not found was in the Council of Sardica and that That went for the Council of Nice That the Africans did not deny the Popes power of judging them but only of sending Souldiers and doing it violently by force and such other shifts which the express words of the African Council and Letters plainly confute If any dispute it I appeal to the very words Either another Council or a second Session of the same is called the seventh at Carthage § 62. CIX All this while the Schism continued at Rome and Eulalius partly would not Communicate with the rest each side saying that theirs was the True Bishop and the other an Usurper and Schismatick But Theodosius was for Caelestine In his time another Carthage Council made up their Canons 105. Among which are 6. That no Bishop be called the chief Bishop 33. To deal gentlier with the Donatists 36. To send to them for peace 53. That Bishops latelier ordained may not dare to prefer themselves before those that were Ordained before them 68. For pacifying the Churches of Rome and Alexandria c. § 63. It fell out well for Austin against the Pelagians that by the means of Prosper and Hilary Pope Caelestine was wholly on Austins side and condemned the Pelagians And among his own Decrees one was Nullus invitis detur Episcopus Cleri plebis ordinis Comm. sensus ac desiderium requiratur Many Canons of those times shew that the Bishops Churches were no bigger than that All the Laity could meet to choose or accept the Bishop and have personal Communion § 64. CX An Eastern Council against the Massalians § 65. CXI Next cometh the Nestorian War Pope Caelestine provoked by
the Pretor stand at the Tribunal of the Bishop and to morrow the Bishop may be called to the Pretors Bar That an Earthly judge may take and punish the servants of the highest judge and consecrated men who will not say that this is most absurd Answ. This sheweth what Church-grandure and power these men expect If they have not the Civil power and be not Magistrates or Lords of all the Church is wronged This Clergy-pride is it that hath set the World on fire and will not consent that it be quenched 1. By this rule all Christians should be from under all Power of Kings and Civil Rulers For are they not all the servants of the highest Iudges Hath God no Servants but the Clergy 2. By this rule both Princes and People should be free from the Bishops judgment For are not these Bishops Men as well as Princes and are not Christian Princes and People the servanâ—â—s of the highest Iudge and therefore should not be judged by Bishops 3. But what a wicked rebellious doctrine is intimated in the distinction that Princes are Earthly Iudges and Prelates are the servants of the highest Iudge Are not Prelates Earthly Iudges as well as Princes in that they are men that judge on Earth And are not Princes Judges of Divine appointment and authority as well as Prelates Yea and their power more past all dispute 4. And what absurdity is it that every soul be subject to the higher power And that he that 's one of your Sheep in one respect may be your Ruler in another Why may not the King be the Ruler of him that is his Physician or his Tutor And why not of him that is his Priest Was not Solomon Ruler of Abiathar when he displaced him May not one man judge who is fit or unfit for Church Communion and another judge who is punishable by the sword Did Christ come to set up a Ministry instead of a Magistracy He that saith Man who made me a Judge came not to put down Judges He that saith By me Kings reign came not to put down all Kings Obj. Christ sets up a Kingdome of Priests or a Royal Priesthood Answ. But his Kingdom is not of this World or Worldly It is a spiritual Kingdome conquering sin and Satan putting down the World out of our hearts and making us hope for the everlasting Kingdom which we shall shortly enjoy The Disease of the Disciples that strove who should be greatest and sit at the right and left hand and said Lord wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel hath prevailed after all this warning on a Worldly Clergy to the great calamity of the Church And what wonder when even then St. Paul saith All seek their own too much and none the things of Iesus Christ so naturally as Timothy did and so zealously as they ought Too many Popes haue been Peters Successours in the Character given him Mat. 16. Get thee behind me Satan Thou art an offence unto me For thou savourest not the things that be of God but those that be of men I understood not who were the spring of our late Fifth-Monarchy mens diseases till I read Campanella de Regno Dei and some such Papists where I see that Christs reign by his Vicar the Pope over all the Princes and People of the World is the true Fifth-Monarchy Heresie For which they bring the same Prophecies as the Millenaries do for their Expectations Obj. But the Pope Prelates and Clergy called the Church are not to reign by deposing Kings but by Ruling them and being above them As Love is above the Law which yet is made for the ungodly that want Love and must be ruled by fear so Princes are for the World of unbelievers but not for the Church and Spiritual persons who live above them in the life of Love Answ. 1. This was one of the first Heresies which the Apostles wrote against Many tempted Christians then to think that Christianity freed them from service and subjection and made all equal But how plainly frequently and earnestly do Paul and Peter condemn it Is it not a shame to hear such Papists as cry up such a Heresie as this cry down and damn a Nestorian or an Eutychian or a Monothelite for an unskilful use of a word Paul saith He that teacheth otherwise against subjection is proud knowing nothing but doting 2. Love doth indeed set us above Fear and Legal threats so far as it prevaileth But it is imperfect in all and Fear still necessary 3. And this taketh not down either the Law or Magistracy to us but only maketh us less need such means It 's one thing to love and live so holily and justly as never to need or fall under the sword of Magistrates and another thing to be freed from subjection and obligation This increaseth in many the opinion that the Papal Kingdom is Antichristian in that they set up themselves above Rulers that are called Gods 3. But why must this priviledge extend to the Clergy only Have not other Christians as much holy love and spirituality as most of them And must Princes rule only Infidels Some suspect none as inclining to Popery but those that take up some of their Doctrines of Transubstantiation Purgatory Images c. But they that on pretence of the raising of the Church and defending its power do first call the Clergy only the Church and then seek to make themselves the Lords of Princes by the pretences of an Excommunicating Power and plead themselves from under them and take it for their priviledges to be free from subjection to them and their penal Laws are doubtless levened with that Popish Heresie which hath done much of all the mischiefs which the forecited History describeth § 50. CXXXI Besides some little contention at Alexandria under Proterius before he was murdered the next in Binnius is said to be at Angices Andegavensâ— which saith over again some of their old Canons against Priests living with Women and removing from place to place and such like And the Papists say that this Council was to contradict the Emperour Valentinians Law and to vindicate the rights of the Church as not being lyable to Civil Judicatures or under Kings § 51. CXXXII Anno 45. 3. A French Venetick Council was called about Ordinations which repealed some former Canons and was so strict that the first Canon kept Murderers and False Witnesses from the Sacrament till they repented instead of hanging them And the second Canon denyed the Communion to Adulterers that unlawfully put away their Wives and took others O strict Laws § 52. CXXXIII Ann. 459. A Council at Constantinople forbâ—d Simony § 53. CXXXIV Ann. 467. A Council at Rome of 48 Bishops decreed that men that had two Wives or the Husbands of Whores should not be ordained That they that could not â—ead and they that were maiâ—ed or dismembred or the Penitent should not be made Ministers c. § 54. CXXXV Ann.
assert One Nature of God incarnate after the Union and yet called Orthodox and those that said as he and much less were damned Hereticks Some that confessed two Natures yet denying two Wills after the Resurrection supposing the Humane Will called Natural had been laid by were here damned with the rest § 36. CCXVI An. 681. King Ervigius held another Council at Toletum for the Royal Power and reforming the Clergy The Pope had so little to do and the Kings so much in all these Spanish Councils that it 's strange Spain is now become so servile to the Pope Binnius is forced to confess here To. 3. p. 110. that The study and labor of chusing fit men to be made Bishops was in the power or hands of the Gothish Kings which by the indulgence of the Roman Popes is in the Spanish Kings even to our times which he proveth O indulgent Popes who let go what they cannot keep An. 682. Some Synods in France did we know not what § 37. Leo 2d is made Pope by the Emperor and because he confirmed the Acts of this Council which damns Honorius as an Heretick the Papists know not which way to turn themselves Baronius would have Leo's Epistle forged Binnius will have either the Acts corrupted by Theodore Const. before they were sent to Leo or that necessity compelled him to this hard condition by the iniquity of the times and that Heresie else would have revived c. so that by their reckoning they that relie all on Tradition and Fathers leave not Fathers Councils or Traditions certain for one Age. § 38. CCXVII An. 683. K. Ervigius had another Synod of 48 Bishops at Toletum for restoring some guilty of Treasons securing the King c. § 39. Constantine Pogon restored to Rome the power of making Popes without the Emperor which the Gothish Kings and other Emperors had long denied them § 40. Benedict 2d is made Pope A new Controversie in his time is raised The Spanish Bishops write an Epistle in which they assert Three Substances in Christ his Divinity his Soul and his Body and say withall that a Will begat a Will that is the Divine Will begat the Humane The numbers of One Two and Three had so confounded Men in those times that the words frightned the Pope and he expostulated and warned them to take heed in what sense they used them which hath made it a question whether this Pope were not erroneous himself § 41. CCXVIII Another Council at Toletum against the Monothelites § 42. Pope Iohn 5th was the first Consecrated without the Emperor since the liberty granted Theodoric King of France called a Council An. 685. in which he deposed several Bishops § 43. Constantine Pog. dying Iustinian 2d his Son is Emperor Binnius saith he was not sound in the Faith a hard thing then And that he repented of the liberty granted in chusing Popes and so ordered that the Exarch of Ravenna approve them by which Bribery was used with the Exarchs And while the Soldiers and Clergy could not agree they were fain to consent to a third Conon to be Pope § 44. Conon being dead Theodore and Paschal strove for the Popedom and got their Parties to stand it out for them Paschal promised the Exarch a great Sum of Gold to make him Pope When they could not agree Sergius a third was chosen The Exarch forced him to pay the Gold and so he got the Soldiers love and the Popedom § 45. CCXIX. An. 688. Another Toletan Council writ a defence of their assertion that Christ had three Substances and that Voluntas genuit Voluntatem § 46. CCXX A Council at Caesar-Augusta made five Canons the last was that when the Kings dyed the Queens should lay by their civil Habits and be put into a Monastery and profess Chastity § 47. CCXXI An. 692. Was the famous great Council called the Quini-Sextum at Constantinople by Iustinian 2d's Order why it should not be called a 7th General Council I know not It was called by the persuasion of Callinicus Constant. to make a full Body of Canons for Practice because the 5th and 6th Councils made none Binnius saith It could not be a General Council because the Pope was not there by himself or his Legates and yet confesseth that neither was he or his Legates at the first Constantine Council and yet it was universal And why doth not another Bishops absence E. G. Alexand. Ierusal c. null a General Council as well as the Popes The Papists rail at this Council as a Convention of Malignants Bin. p. 154. and against Balsamon that defendeth it as a wicked Greek Impostor the word wicked in these Mens writings is a term of art and interest and no moral term They recited abundance of old Canons many of great use One would wonder whence the anger against them ariseth It was per summam nequitiam saith Binnius that they called themselves a General Council And the Holy Ghost was not with them because the Pope was not with them p. 154 155. and they ordained many things contrary to Apostolical Constitutions and the Canons of General Councils Reader you see here 1. How little trust Papists lay on that part of Tradition which dependeth on Councils 2. That it is the Pope one Man that is the certainty of Tradition and Iudgment without whom Councils are nothing 3. That if the Pope be absent all the other Bishops assembled in Councils by the command of Emperors may be called Knaves and wicked Malignants Alas how few Bishops adhered to the Pope when Italy was not yet cured of Separation from him in comparison of those that met in these Eastern Councils which they revile 4. You see here how far they are from truth that say the Universal Church still cleaved to the Pope when most by far of the Bishops in the world forsook him you see Luther was not the first § 48. Note that Tharasius Bishop of Constantinople An. 692. in the 2d Council of Nice tells them that it was the same Bishops that met in the 6th General Council at Constantinople who met again here under Iustinian And were not the Bishops of the place so near the time competent Judges of the matters of so notorious Fact And were the same Bishops an infallible General Council at the 6th Council and yet all wicked Schismaticks or Knaves and wicked Men when they meet again but to make Church-Canons for Reformation If this do not tell you how truly Binnius saith in their own judgment that Councils have just so much authority as the Pope giveth them what can tell it you § 49. Yea Binnius makes this Council to be Monothelites And were the same Men Orthodox in the 5th or 6th Council ten years before and Hereticks in this Is this the constancy of the Church and Bishops Faith § 50. The 13th Canon is one that displeaseth them in which the practice of the Church of Rome in separating Priests from
their Wives is expresly renounced and it is decreed that no Priest be required to separate from his Wife so be it they abstain at Fasts and necessary Seasons nor any Priest endured to put away his Wife on pretence of piety else he must be deposed § 51. Another is the 16th Canon that maketh Deacons like Overseers of the Poor § 52. The 22d is a hard Canon that Bishops and Priests ordained with money and not by examination and election be deposed and they that ordained them § 53. The 36th Canon displeaseth them also which confess the Church of Constantinople's Priviledges as equal with Rome § 54. The 38th Canon containeth one great cause of the old Confusions viz. That whatever alteration the Imperial Power makes on any City the Ecclesiastical Order also follow it Did God make this Law Are not as many Souls in a Town that 's no City as capable of being a Church as Citizens It is in the Princes power to make and unmake Cities May he accordingly make or unmake Churches What if a King will have but one City in his Kingdom must there be no more Churches or Bishops What if there be no Cities as in many American and Arabian Countries must there be no Churches What if the King will disfranchize most of the Cities and another will make every Market Town a City must Churches be altered accordingly If so O that our King would make us so many Cities as the work and the souls of Men need true Bishops that one might not have a thousand Parishes without any subordinate Bishop But if this hold the Emperor might have taken down Rome and set up Constantinople or any other at pleasure § 55. Can. 50. Forbad Clergy and Laity to play at Dice on pain of Deposition or Segregation And Can. 51. forbids going to Shews Jesters Stage-Plays Huntings The 55th Canon commands the Church of Rome to amend their Customs and not to fast on Sabbath-days Can. 62. Forbids Womens Publick Dancings and Mens and Womens together and their putting on Masquers or Players Apparel or Persons c. Can. 63. Commandeth the burning of false Histories of the Martyrs as tending to bringing Religion into reproach continual joyful Praises to God and holy Exercises and to use no Horse-Races c. The 67th Canon is against eating Blood Can. 72. Nullifieth Marriage with Hereticks Alas good Bishops did you think the Papists would have Hereticated you as Monothelites and nullified all Marriages with you by this Canon But two Hereticks Marriage is not null Can. 78. Commandeth all the illuminate baptized to learn the Belief and every Friday to say it to the Bishop and Presbyters How many Parishes or hundred Parishes had the Bishop then to hear Not so many as ours § 56. The 82 Canon offends the Papists forbidding the Picture of a Lamb to be made for Christ as the Lamb of God The 90th Canon is an old one Not to kneel on any Lord's-day and that this begin on the evening before P. 155. Binnius reproveth them for calling Cyprian Archbishop and he proveth that Africa then had no Archbishop or Primate § 57. CCXXII An. 693. was another Toletan Council called by King Egica Before it the King writeth a Sermon for them wherein he tells them That every Parish that have twelve Families must have their proper Governor But if less it must be part of anothers charge § 58. CCXXIII. An. 694. was another Toletan Council under the same King Egica One would wonder that the Legislative vertue of the Church should be continued to such fertility and multitude of Laws as must follow if in all Countries there be every year a Council How great must the Volumes of Laws be at last Binnius in his Notes on this Council tell us That though Paul would have the believing Husband or Wife stay with the Unbeliever in hope of Conversion yet many hundred years experience hath taught us the contrary that it tendeth rather to hurt than good and therefore now it must be otherwise and they must separate § 59. CCXXIV. Even to those days the number of Pagans and Infidels in most Countries was the greatest and the care of good men was to convert them And therefore we read still of so many baptized at age A Council at Utrecht decreed Willebrood or Willifrid and Suibert being Leaders that the best Preachers should be sent from the Neighbor Churches to convert the Heathens that was better work than striving who should be chief or raging about hard words § 60. CCXXV. A Synod at Aquileia An. 698. condemned the 5th General Council at Constantinople for condemning the tria Capitula of the Council of Calcedon O what Concord Councils caused § 61. Pope Sergius refusing to own the Council of Constant. at Trul. under Iustinian 2d the Emperor commanded that he should be brought Prisoner to Constantinople The Soldiers of Ravenna Sergius having paid them the 100 l. of Gold hearing of it rose up and rescued him and made the Emperor's Officer in fear beg for his life By such Obedience Rome kept up § 62. Tiberius the 2d deposed Iustinian the 2d and cut off his Nose and banished him Iustinian was restored and exposed Tiberius to scorn and killed him and banished Bishop Callinicus to Rome for unfaithfulness to his Prince Iohn the 6th was now Pope § 63. Iohn the 7th is made Pope another Council at Toletum under King Witiza I pass by he was a Greek CCXXVI He gather'd a Synod at Rome to debate Iustinian's Order for the receiving the Trull Concil And our English Willifrid accused by his King was here justified as a Son of that Church And a Synod in England received him when the King was dead § 64. Sisumius made Pope lived but 20 days and Constantine succeeded him who was sent for to Constantinople and honoured by Iustinian § 65. About this time An. 708. Spain was conquered by the Saracens Binnius saith Because King Witiza forsook the See of Rome By which we still see that Rome was forsaken even by the best Church such as Spain then was and was not the Ruler of the World § 66. Bardanes Philippicus by Rebellion deposed Iustinian and was made Emperor and within two years was so used himself by Anastasius his eyes put out and he banished § 67. CCXXVII The Emperor Philippicus and Iob. Constant. called General Council at Constantinople I may well call it General when Binnius saith There were innumerable Bishops which is not said of any other Council They all condemned the 6th General Council and their Opinion of two Wills and two Operations Where it is manifest 1. How great a part of the Church regarded not the Authority of Rome 2. Nor thought a General Council infallible when innumerable Bishops are against both 3. And how strong the Monothelite Party was 4. And alas how bad too many Bishops that can change as fast as Emperors will have them For saith Binnius after Baronius Thus at the
Bishop of Mentz and his great agent even about this foresaid English Council which was to set up Church-Images and recommended him to many Christian Princes And why was all this and what was his rare merit He took this Oath to the Pope Bin. p. 178 In the name of the Lord Iesus Christ our Saviour in the Reign of Leo the great Emperour c. I Boniface Bishop by the Grace of God do Promise to thee Peter Prince of the Apostles and to thy Vicar Pope Gregory and his Successors by the Father Son and Holy Ghost the inseparable Trinity and this most Holy Body of thine that I will exhibite all faith and purity of holy Catholick faith and in unity of the same faith God operating will persist in which all the salvation of Christians is proved undoubtedly to consist and will no way consent whoever perswadeth me against the unity of the common and universal Church but as I said will exhibite my faith and purity and concourse to thee and to the Profits of thy Church to whom by the Lord the Power of binding and loosing is given and to thy aforesaid Vicar and his Successors in all things c. Nothing is more meritorious with a Pope or any Prelate of that Spirit than to be absolutely devoted to him and swear obedience to him Indeed they that are fully fallen from God as Satan is would be as Gods to the world themselves and have all men depend upon them and obey them § 7. What Arguments moved the Emperor to be against Images specially the 2d Commandment and how Gregory thought that it was not the Images of God and Christ and Angels and Saints that were forbidden you may see in his Epistles too long to be here recited § 8. Here Binnius inserteth three Roman Councils One cursing unlawful Marriages Another persuading Corbinianus to keep his Bishoprick who would fain have laid it down And a third for Images against the Iconoclasts the Emperor's Heresie § 9. Gregory 3d succeedeth Gregory 2d He sendeth his Epistles for Images to the Emperor The first Messenger durst not deliver them The rest were stopt at Sicily and kept Prisoners The Lombards infested Italy and Rome The Pope importuneth the French King for help Alphonsus is made King in Spain against the Saracens and first called himself Catholick King Two Councils Binnius saith were held at Rome for Images The Title of the second is Pro Imaginum Cultu for the Worship of Images An. 732. Image-worship was then avowed But the Eastern Churches did more obey the Emperor § 10. Pope Zachary coming next in whose time Italy was distressed by Luitprandus King of the Lombards who took four Cities from the Pope because he protected Trasimundus Duke of Spoleto The Romans helped Trasimund on condition he would restore to them the four Cities he performeth not his promise wherefore Pope Zachary turned to Luitprand and to win him Salutaria illi praedicavit saith Anastasius and he promised him to restore the four Cities For the performance whereof this Pope travelled to him himself noted by Anastasius as a great act of self-denial as venturing his life for the Cause of God that he would go to the King to ask for four Cities which he happily obtained § 11. In this Pope's time the Crown of France was translated from the King and his Line to a Subject his Major Domûs Charles Martell the great French Conqueror was the Pope's Patron against the Emperor who was his Sovereign Gratian. d. 16. q. 1. post Can. 59. tells it us as a matter of Church-credit that when he was dead he was damned to Hell much blood and defending Popes that rebel against their Sovereign are a very likely proof Carolomannus succeeded him who after two years Reign resigned his Crown and chose a Monastery Chilperic that came after proved very dull and sensual and giving himself to his pleasure let the business of Government lie most on the hands of Pepin who was his Major Domûs who thereby got the power and the respect that was proper to the King while the King grew into contempt And if Kings cannot keep up their Power and Honour by the meer dignity of their place without personal worth and performance why should Popes Prelates and Priests whose Power and Honour as a Physicians depend upon their Worth and Work expect to keep up their Power and Honour meerly by their Offices Pepin won first the Nobles of France and then the Pope For as Baronius and Binnius p. 197. tell us It seemed to the most Potent Pepin Major Domus and to the rest of the chief Men and to all the People that he that had not the Matter and Force of the Kingdom should not have the name of a King and on the contrary he that had the Riches Power and Virtue should also have the name of King And because these Princes and People were Christians they judged that these their Councils would neither stand ratified to Posterity nor be acceptable enough to God unless they received Authority and Force from the common Father and Pastor of the Christian Church the Vicar of the Lord Christ and Successor of St. Peter Therefore they send Legates to Rome to Zachary of whom Bishop Burchardus Herbipol was the chief who were to ask the things aforesaid of him He consented and decreed and wrote back that Chilperic being thrust into a Monastery St. Boniface should declare and anoint Pepin King in Germany and France Boniface Bishop of Mentz obeyed Pope Zachary and by the Authority of the See Apostolic deposed Chilperic called also Childeric and placed Pepin in his stead Thus Ieginhart in Vit. Car. Mag. Annal. Franc. an 751. Paul Diac. li. 22. Marianus Scotus li. 3. Regino li. 2. an 749. Sigebert in Chron. Lambert in Hist. Germ. Otho Frising li. 5. 21. Ado. aetate 6 fol. 213. Aimoinus li. 4. c. 65 c. Yea say they the Hereticks of our times deny not the History But they sharply impugn two circumstances The first is that it was a great wrong to Chilperic that the Kingdom was taken from him The second that the said Translation was made by the consent of the Council Nobles and Commons without the Authority of the Apostolic Seat Serarius proveth that the cause of the Translation of the Kingdom was just 1. Because all the best men did desire and wish it and did by their counsel and help co-operate to it 2. Because St. Bishop Burchardus did as Legate sollicite the Pope for it 3. Pope Zachary commanded it to be done 4. And the most Holy Boniface at the Pope's command did execute it 5. And being approved by Divine Testimony it is recited in the sacred Canons 15. q. 6. c. alius 6. And by none of the old Historians not praised or disallowed Only our new Hereticks that love Novelty Arrogance and Rebellion by their perverse judgment by Contumelies and Lyes disallow it And that it was by the Authority
so that then a Church was no greater than was capable of personal Communion Here this King being made by the Pope so far gratified the Clergy as to decree that Contemners of Excommunication should be banished And now the Keys do signifie the Sword and Church-Discipline is made another thing than Christ had made it The 13th Cap. is That no vacant Bishop meddle in another Bishop's Parish without his consent by what true authority then can the Pope meddle in other Mens Diocesses since the foundation of his humane authority in the Empire is subverted The 14th Cap. decreed That Men may use Horses and Chariots for Travel on the Lord's-day and get Meat and Drink c. but not do common work The 17th That no Clerk try his Cause before a Lay-Judge without the Bishop's leave § 29. Pope Stephen dying in the division at the next choice by all the People the stronger part chose Paulus a Deacon CCXXX in his time a German Council condemned Oathmarus Abbot of St. Gallus for Incontinence and put him in Prison where he dyed of Famine as Historians say maliciously upon false accusation § 30. At this time the Greeks accused the Romans for adding the word Filioque to the Creed And about that and Images they say there was some Synod at a Village called Gentiliace § 31. Pope Paul dying and the People having still the choice he that could get the greatest strength was in hope of so rich a Prey And Constantine Brother to one Duke Toto getting the strongest Party by fear compelled George Bishop of Praenestine with two more Bishops to make him Pope being first ordained Deacon he possessed the Popedom alone a year and a month Then one Christopher the Primocerius and his Son Sergius being powerful got out to the King of the Longobards and craved his help against Constantine as an Usurper and gathering some strength got into Rome killed Toto and caused Constantine the Pope and another Brother Paessivus to take Sanctuary One Waldipertus a Presbyter was of Christopher's Party and to make haste without Christopher's knowledge he gathereth a Party and they make one Philip a Presbyter Pope So there were two Popes Christophorus incensed swore he would not enter Rome till Philip was pull'd out of the Bishop's house which Gratiosus one of his Party presently performeth and Philip returneth to his Monastery Christophorus calleth the Clergy People and Soldiers together and by his means they chuse another Stephen and so there are three Popes The Actors being now in their zeal go to Theodorus a Bishop and Vicedominus that joined with Pope Constantine and they put out his eyes and cut out his tongue Next they attempted the like excaecation on Passivus Bishop Theodore they thrust into a Monastery and there while he cryed for a little water they famished him to death Passivus they put into another Monastery They took all their Goods and Possessions Pope Constantine they brought out and set on Horseback on a Womans Saddle with Weights at his Feet and put him into a Monastery How holy then were Monasteries Shortly after they brought him forth and Pope Stephen and some Bishops deposed him Then the Citizens were to make their penitent Confessions for owning him Next the Army goeth to Alatrum in Campania where Gracilis the Tribune that had been for Constantine is apprehended brought bound to Rome imprisoned and after his eyes put out and his tongue cut out After this Gratiosus and his Zealots go to the Monastery where they had thrust Pope Constantine and drag him out and put out his eyes and leave him blind in the street Next they go to their own Friend Priest Waldipertus and feign that he had laid a Plot with the Longobards to kill Christopher and send to apprehend him and when he fled for Sanctuary to a Temple they drew him out with the blessed Virgins Image in his hand even then when they were rebelling for the sake of Images but that would not save the Priest because he set up Philip for Pope they thrust him into a filthy Dungeon-hole but that was too good for him In a few days they drew him out and casting him on the earth put out his eyes and cut out his tongue and put him into an Hospital where he dyed of the pain And now Pope Stephen had no doubt a lawful calling to be Pope He sends his Legats to the King of France He brings forth blinded Pope Constantine to answer for his Crime who falling flat on the earth he lamenteth his sin as more than the Sands on the Sea-shore and professeth that the People chose and forced him to be Pope because of their sufferings under Paul But at his next appearance he tells them that he did no more than many other Lay-men did who invaded Bishopricks as Sergius Archbishop of Ravenna Stephen Bishop of Naples c. when they heard this all the Priests caused him to be buffeted and cast him out of the Church and burnt his Papers c. And the most holy Pope Stephen cast himself on the earth with all the Priests and People of Rome and with tears lamented their sin that they had taken the Communion from the hands of Pope Constantine it seems it is a sin to communicate with Bishops that are brought in irregularly by secular Power without due Election and they are no Schismaticks that refuse it And so they all performed their Pennance for it Anastas in ejus vita § 32. CCXXXI On this great occasion Pope Stephen being far unable now to call General Councils sends to the King of France to entreat him to send some wise Bishops to a Council at Rome who sent him about a dozen who with some others agreed against Constantine's Election and such other for the time to come and damned a Synod that Constantine had held and also passed their judgment for Images § 33. But here was a great difficulty such as often after happened Whether Constantine's Papal Acts were valid and the Council decreed that they should all be void except his Baptizings and his Consecrations And so those Priests that he Consecrated when they were after duely chosen officiated without a new Consecration Either he was a real Pope or no Pope If a Pope then by the Canons Stephen was no Pope and so the Succession there failed If no Pope then 1. How come his Consecrations to be valid 2. Are not Presbyter's Ordinations better than a Lay-mans 3. Then the Universal Church had no Head and so was no Church with them while Constantine was Pope § 34. A like Schism fell out at Ravenna The power of the Magistrate made one Michael Scriniary of the Church a Lay-man Archbishop the People being for one Leo whom they imprisoned He kept the place above a year but by the help of the Pope and the French the People rose and cast him out and brought him Prisoner to Rome and set up Leo. § 35. Christopher
should sing so many Psalms and get thirty Masses to be said And a notable Priviledge is granted to all that will but seek liberty or shelter in the Church that both they and their Posterity shall be free unless they bring a debt undischargeable on themselves § 51. There is by Canisius published an Epitome of the old Canons except the Nicene as gathered by this Adrian and sent to Charles Mag. I will recite a few of them Ex Clem. c. 23. Let a Bishop or Presbyter or Deacon taken in Fornication Perjury or Theft be deposed but not excommunicate C. 28. That a Bishop who obtaineth a Church by the Secular Powers be deposed Can. Antioch 8. Countrey Presbyters may not give Canonical Epistles but the Chorepiscopi by which it is plain that the Chorepiscopi were not Presbyters but as Petavius on Epiphan Arrius hath well proved true Bishops C. 11. That condemned Clerks shall never be restored if they go to the Emperor Can. Laodic c. 33. That no one pray with Hereticks or Schismaticks which seemeth to oblige us to separate from the Roman Prelates who are grievous Schismaticks by imposing things unlawful on the Churches and silencing and persecuting those that obey not their sinful Laws Before the Can. Sardic he mentioneth the weakness of old Osius that said that they were both in the right who used the word of one substance and of the like substance Can. Sard. 2. That a Bishop that by Ambition changeth his Seat shall not have so much as Lay-communion no not at the end C. 14. C. 15. That no Bishop be above three weeks in another City nor above two weeks from his own Church which implieth that each Bishop had then his own particular Church Can. Afric c. 15. That there be no Re-baptizing Re-ordaining nor Translations of Bishops C. 17. That if a Bishop to be Ordained be Contradicted that is by any objected unfitness he shall not after be Ordained as purged only by three Bishops but by many C. 19. That Diocesses that wants Bishops receive none without the consent of the Bishop who hitherto held them so it was not proudly For if he overhold them that is hold them under himself alone when they need more Bishops affecting to sit over the People and despising his Fellow-Bishops he is not only to be driven from the retained Diocesses but also from his own Church so that no proud Bishops should have power to hinder the Churches from having as many Bishops as they need C. 60. That Bishops that are of later Ordination presume not to set or prefer themselves before those that were before them C. 94. If a Bishop six months after admonition of other Bishops neglect to make Catholicks of the People belonging to his Seat any other shall obtain them that shall deliver them from their Heresie that is Donatism or the like so that if one Bishop neglect the Souls of his People and another that is more able and faithful convert them they may be the Flock of him that converted them without removing their dwelling C. 105. That a Bishop shall not Excommunicate a man on a Confession made only to himself if he do other Bishops shall deny Communion to that Bishop § 52. Several German Councils are mentioned at Wormes Paderborne Daria in which by a new example Charles Mag. is confirmed to force the Saxons to profess themselves Christians and to take an Oath never to revolt who yet doing it by constraint were oft perjured and revolted till at last their Heathen Duke Witichind became a voluntary Christian himself § 53. There are 80 more Canons against Oppressors of the Clergy said to be collected by Adrian of which one is the old one That no Bishop judge the Cause of any Priest without the presence of his Clergy because the Bishop's Sentence shall be void if it be not confirmed by the presence of the Clergy Another That no Bishop ordain or judge in another's Parish else it shall be void For we judge that no one i◠bound by the sentence of any other Iudge but his own Who then is bound by the Pope or any Usurper who will Excommunicate those that are not of his Flock Another saith By a general Sanction we forbid Foreign judgments because it is unmeet that he should be judged by strangers who ought to have Iudges of the same Province and that are chosen by himself Another That no Bishop presume to judge or condemn any of the Clergy unless the accused Person have lawful Accusers present and have place for defending himself by answering to the Charge Another For Nullifying such Bishops judgments as are done without due Tryal by Tyrannical Power and not by Canonical Authority Another saith Constitutions that are contrary to the Canons and to the Decrees of the Bishops of Rome or to Good Manners are of no moment which nulleth even many of the Bishops of Rome also as against Good Manners Another notable Canon is Delatori aut lingua capuletur aut convicto Caput amputetur Delatores autem sunt qui ex invidia produnt alios That is Let a Delator's tongue be pull'd out or if Convict his Head cut off Delators are those that through envy betray others or envious Accusers Alas if our Delators Calumniators and Informers were thus used now what abundance would have suffered for wronging some one Man Another Canon is If a Man be often in quarrels and easie or forward to accuse let no Man receive his Accusation without great Examination What then will be thought of the usual Accusations of Clergy Calumniators that for Sects and worldly Interest can reproach others without shame or measure Another is That the danger of the Iudge is greater than the danger of him that is judged therefore all care must be taken to avoid unjust judgment and punishments Another is Let no Man receive the witness of a Lay-man against a Clergy-man And Door-keepers and Clerks and Readers were then Clergy-men Was not this a great priviledge to the Church § 54. CCXXXII We come now to the great General Council at Nice 2d called by the Papists the 7th that is the 7th which pleased them I have before noted that Irene the Widow of Leo now Ruled her Son Constantine being Titular Emperor a Child under her Government One Stauratius a Senator most swayed her or ruled her Taurasius the Patriarch joined with her for Images They call a Council at Constantinople A General Council and three Emperors Leo Const. Leo had lately condemned Images and taken them down The Pope and many Italians had resisted by force This violence made the Emperor use severity against the Resisters At Ravenna they killed Paulus the 14th Exarchate In Rome they took Peter a Duke and put out his eyes In Campania they beheaded Exhileratus the Duke and his Son Adrian who took the Emperor's part How the Emperor hereby lost Italy is before shewed But this Woman
Tarasius At last An. 797. his Mother Irene and Stauratius found means to apprehend him and murder him that is put out his Eyes of which he dyed which some celebrate as a pious Act it was done by her that set up Images But within one year Nicephorus deposed and banished her into Lesbos where she dyed and he took the Empire to himself § 95. Binnius p. 445. saith That the Emperor banished Theodore Studita for reproving his Marriage and when he added crime to crime Merito jussu Matris quam imperio exuerat zelo justitiae non regni oculis imperio vitâ orbatus est By the command of his Mother in her zeal for justice he was deservedly deprived of his Empire Eyes and Life What is not just with such Historians that maketh for their Interest And how contemptible is their Censure of good or evil Men which hath no better Measures § 96. He tells us also p. 444. that the Spanish and French Bishops at these times of their own heads without the Pope added Filioque to the Creed which hath to this day made so great a stir It seems they thought that the Pope's Authority was not necessary to it § 97. He adds that Charles the Great being dead the People grew bold and rose up again against the Pope which occasioned Rapines Flames and Murders that Ludovicus the new Emperor was fain to take his Fathers Office and come to Rome to save the Pope and suppress the Rebels § 98. The Venetian Duke killing a Patriarch Iohan. Gradensis Paulus Patriarch of Aquileia called a Synod to crave aid of Charles § 99. CCXXXV An. 806. A Council was held at Constantinople in the Cause of the foresaid Ioseph that had married the Emperor to his second wife who had been ejected by Tarasius from his Bishoprick and the Emperor calling a Council they restored him wherefore Theodorus Studita called them a Council of Hereticks and Adulterants because they restored the Causer of the Emperor's Adultery But how few Emperors have not found Councils of Bishops ready to do their Will § 100. Charles the Great making his Will divided his Empire between his three Sons giving them Laws of Communion and Succession that if one dyed without Children his Kingdom be divided between the other two but if he have such Sons as the People will choose they succeed their Father Commanding all three that they be the Defenders of the Bishop of Rome as he and his Father and Grandfather had been to their commodity § 101. CCXXXVI An. 809. Was another Council at Constantinople which was gathered to condemn honest Theodorus Studita Plato and such as had been against the restoring of Ioseph of which saith Binnius When the Bishops there Congregate had brought the most holy Plato in Chains to be judged and had passed the Sentence of Anathema on the Universal Catholick Church that was against their Error they made a most wicked Decree that the Marriage of Constantine with Theodota his Wife yet living thrust into a Monastery should be said to be lawful by dispensation They added for the Emperor's sake this wicked and shameless Sentence That the Laws of God can do nothing against Kings and that if any imitate Chrysostom and shed his Blood for Truth and Iustice he is not to be called a Martyr That Bishops have power to dispense with all the Canons Remember that Papists confess all this to be wicked We have not the Acts and Speeches of these Councils preserved § 102. CCXXXVII An. 809. A Council was held at Aquisgrana about the Procession of the Holy Ghost and the word Filioque in the Creed Of which they sent some Messengers to the Pope who approved the thing but dissuaded them from adding it to be sung in the Creed and after inscribed the Creed without Filioque in Latin and Greek in two Silver Tables to shew that it should not be changed which yet after it was by the Pope's consent The French Annals say that in this Council they treated of the state of the Church and conversation of the Clergy but determined nothing for the greatnesses of the matter § 103. CCXXXVIII An. 113. Yet under Charles the Great a Council was held by his Command at Arles where many very good Canons were made for the Reformation of the Bishops and Priests § 104. CCXXXIX The same year the same Charles had a Council at Tours which made 51 as honest Articles as if Martin himself had been amongst them even against all kind of sin and for all godly living Among others the 37th Canon tells us that the custom of not kneeling in Prayer on any Lords-day no not at the Sacrament nor on any Week-day between Easter and Whitsuntide was yet in force on other days they required humble kneeling § 105. CCXL Yet another Council did Charles call the same year at Chalons Cabillonense in which he ordered Schools for the restoring of Learning our Alcuin being his Persuader greatly esteemed by him Learning then being almost worn away and Ignorance taking place till he greatly revived it no less than 67 Canons were here made most very good ones but praying for the Souls of the Faithful departed and anointing the Sick are there enjoined § 106. Among many good Canons the 13th is against the Oath of Obedience to the Bishop and to the Church The words Translated are these It is reported of some Brethren Bishops that they force them that they are about to ordain to swear that they are worthy and will not do contrary to the Canons and will be obedient to the Bishop that ordaineth them and to the Church in which they are ordained which Oath because it is very dangerous we all ordain shall be forbidden § 107. The 15th Canon saith It is said that in some places the Archdeacons exercise a certain domination over the Parish-Presbyters and take Fees of them which is a matter of Tyranny rather than of order of Rectitude For if the Bishops must not Lord it in the Clergy but be Examples to the Flocks much less may these do it § 108. The 25th Canon complaining how the old Excommunicating and Reconciling was grown out of use they desired the Emperor's help how they should be restored § 109. Can. 33. They say That Confession to God and Man are both good but that Confession made to God purgeth sin and that which is made to the Priest teacheth how their sins may be purged § 110. The 45th Canon is against them that by going to holy places Rome or Tours think to have their sins forgiven § 111. CCXLI. Yet another Council the same year 813 was held under Charles M. at Mentz in Germany to the like purpose many godly Canons being made § 112. CCXLII. Yet another under Charles at Rhemes for Instructing and Catechising and many good things like the former § 113. CCXLIII But we have not done with Images yet An. 814. There was a Council
Bishops a wicked Attempt that served these wicked Men and did the Feat Ebbo the Archbishop of Rhemes of a base original and enow more such Prelates were not wanting The Emperor had before voluntarily lamented his putting out the eyes of his Kinsman Bernard a Rebel of which he dyed as too cruel when now no Prince scrupleth Hanging or Beheading open Rebels The Church had satisfaction by his voluntary Penance for that which few Men will think a Fault And what do these Bishops now but become their Sovereign's Iudges yea and that when he was absent and condemn him unheard for this former Fault Note the Case 1. They condemn their King to be deposed who were Subjects 2. Yea Clergy-men that had least to do with State Affairs 3. Yea and that for a Fault which perhaps was but Justice and no Fault 4. Or if it were a Fault was before judged and remitted And did godly Lewis cherish Christian Bishops so zealously for this use so basely and trayterously to depose him 5. Yea and to join in the horrid Rebellion of unnatural Sons to accomplish their designs 6. And to tempt Princes to hate Religion when in Nomine Domini the pretence of Religion shall do greater wickedness by Prelates than the Rebels Arms was able to perform Saith the Author of the Life of Ludovicus Pius This judgment some few gain-sayed more consented to it the greatest part as it useth to be in such cases consented by word for fear of offending their Leaders They judged him absent and unheard neither confessing nor convict before the Bodies of St. Medard Confessor and St. Sebastian Martyr to lay down his Arms and forced him to lay them before the Altar and cloathing him in a black garment under a strict Guard they thrust him into Prison By this testimony saith Binnius it is certainly proved that the whole business was done by force and fear and coloured with the false pigment of Religion Thus was the best of Princes after all his services for the Prelates and kindness to his Sons deposed and basely used by both against Nature and Religion His first Restauration when he had been before deposed was by the Germans How he was restored the second time I find not certainly some would give Pope Gregory the honour of it It is likeliest that the interest which his goodness had got in the People with the odiousness of his Sons and Bishops Acts did it But fully restored after all this he was And being somewhat backward to forgive Lotharius he filled France with new Wars till the Emperor for Peace did pardon all But Ebbo Archbishop of Rhemes and Agobard Bishop of Lyons were deposed as Leaders of the Treason and Ebbo banished and restored by Lotharius when his Father dyed yea and sent as a fit Man to convert the Normans by Pope Paschal's mission being made Bishop of Hildesheim in Saxony by Ludovic King of Germany see Petavius Hist. l. 8. c. 8. Shortly after An. 840. the Emperor sollicited yet to more Wars by his own Sons about dividing the Kingdoms dyed a direful Eclipse of the Sun foregoing his death the day before Ascension-day § 138. That you may see the base Hypocrisie of these Trayterous Bishops I will recite their words in the Council that condemned the best of Emperors but his Imprisonment they leave out § 139. The Bishops condemnation of the Emperor Ludovicus Pius An. 833. after a Preface of the Duty of Bishops without Favor or Fear to judge Sinners and the need of putting their Sentence in writing to avoid the censure of bad Men they say We hold it necessary to notifie to all the Sons of the Church both present and future how we Bishops set over the Empire of our Lord and most glorious Emperor Lotharius An. 833. the first year of the said Prince in October did generally meet at the Palace at Compendium Compeigne and humbly heard the said Prince And we took care according to the Ministry enjoined us to manifest to him or his Nobles the generality of all the People what is the Vigor and Power or Priestly Ministry and with what Sentence of Damnation he deserveth to be damned who will not obey the warnings of the Priests And next both to the said Prince Lotharius and to all the People we studied to denounce that they should study most devoutly to please God and should not delay to appease him in whatever they had offended him For many things were examined which by negligence hapned in this Empire which manifestly tended to the scandal of the Church and the ruine of the People or the destruction of the Kingdom which must necessarily be quickly corrected and by all means for the future prevented Among other things we mentioned and remembred all Men how by God that Kingdom by the administration of the most excellent Emperor Charles of good memory and the Valor of his Predecessors was peaceable and united and nobly enlarged and committed to the Lord Emperor Lewis by God in great peace to be governed and by God's protection remain'd so preserved as long as that Prince studied God and used his Father's example and was careful to acquiesce in the counsels of good Men And how in progress of time as is manifest to all by his improvidence or negligence it fell into so great ignominy and baseness that it became not only the grief of Friends but the derision of Enemies But because the said Prince hath negligently managed the Ministry committed to him and did both do and compel others to do many things displeasing to God and Man or permitted others to do it and provoked God in many wicked counsels and scandalized the Church and that we may omit innumerable other things at last drew all his Subjects to a common destruction and by God't just judgment suddenly his Imperial Power was taken from him But we remembring the Commands of God and our Ministry and his Benefits thought him worthy that by the leave of the said Prince Lotharius we should send a Message to him by the Authority of this Sacred Assembly to admonish him of his Guilts that he might take sure advice for his safety or salvation That he might in his extremity study with all his might that being deprived of his earthly Power according to God's Council and the Churches Authority he might not also lose his Soul To the counsels of which Messengers and their most wholsom warnings he willingly consented he took time and set a day in which he would give an answer to their wholsom Admonitions And when the day was at hand the same Holy Assembly unanimously went to the venerable Man and took care to admonish him of all that he had offended God in and scandalized the Church and troubled the People committed to him and to bring all to his remembrance And he willingly embracing their wholsom Admonition and their worthy and congruous Aggravations promised
have been to his People the Captain of safety and of peace when the Divine Piety had decreed to have mercy of his People by an unheard of and invisible manner and by preaching in our ages For these things therefore and in all these things which are before recited confessing himself guilty before the Priests or Bishops or all the People with tears and protesting that in all these things he sinned he desired publick Pennance that so he might satisfie the Church by repenting which he had scandalized by sinning and as he was a scandal by neglecting many things so he professed he would be an example by undergoing due Pennance And after this Confession he delivered to the Bishops the Paper of his Guilts and Confession for future memorial and they laid it on the Altar and then he put off his military Girdle and laid it on the Altar and stripping himself of his secular Habit he took the Habit of a Penitent put on him by the hands of the Bishops that after so great and such Pennance no Man after may return to a secular Militia These things thus done it pleased them that every Bishop should write in his own Papers how the matter was done and should strengthen it by his own subscription and offer it to Prince Lotharius thus strengthened in memory of the Fact To conclude it seemed good to us all that were present to put the sum of all the Papers and of so great a business into one Breviate and to roborate it by the subscription of us all with our hands as is hereafter demonstrated The Author of the Life of Ludovicus addeth ' Pullâque indutum veste adhibitá magnâ custodiâ sub tectum quoddam retrudunt Here you see the Tryal of the godly Emperor the Articles exhibited against him in the High Court of Episcopal Justice and the use of Penance and of laying on of the Bishops hands in investing him in the Garb of perpetual Penance What wonder if the Pope ascended to such power when ordinary Bishops in the best governed and instructed Countrey then in the world obtained such power even by the name and abuse of the POWER OF THE KEYS Saith Binnius Thaganus therefore justly for this cause declaimeth against Ebbo Bishop of Rhemes the Leader as impudicum crudelissimum Episcopum And what were they that would thus follow him § 140. CCXLIX But the next Council was forced to do better for usually the Bishops followed the stronger side in Theodorus Villa they caused Ebbo to depose himself from his Bishoprick and the rest excused themselves that they did it by necessity and fear and were all forgiven Bin. p. 575. And yet will the Bishops say that this Emperor was not humble and merciful § 141. CCL After his Restauration An. 836. Ludovicus caused a Council at Aquisgrane to renew the Laws for the Reformation of the Clergy and Abbots with the Instructions and Rules for Kings themselves at large laid down And here they determined that all Bishops hereafter that were Rebels and Traytors should be deposed and Lay-men anathematized But they sufficiently minded the Power and Dignity of the Bishops to be upheld § 142. There is a Treatise in Binnius p. 583. in which the Statutes of the Synods of Aquisgrane are opened and confirmed by Scripture § 143. CCLI An. 836. Binnius tells us that in the deposing of the Emperor Agobertus Bishop of Lyons and Bernard Bishop of Vienne having been Leaders with Ebbo at the Council at Theod. Villa fled and the Emperor and all his Sons save Lotharius being here present at a Council at Lyons they being summoned appeared not and Sentence was put off because they were absent § 144. An. 839. Pepin the Emperor's Son dying he passed by his disobedient Nephew Pepin and divided that Kingdom of Aquitain only between his Sons Lotharius and Charles whereupon his Son Ludovicus was offended and with them of Aquitain raised Rebellion again and by a Convention at Cabilone and after it reconciliation was made § 145. The Emperor Ludovicus Pius dying An. 840. aged 64 his Sons fell together in Wars for his Kingdoms Lotharius the eldest that had used his Father so trayterously and unnaturally sought too great a part for himself and came to a War with Ludovic and Charles who conquered him and put him to a shameful flight An. 841. in which Fight say Historians a greater slaughter was made of the French than was ever known in the memory of man This was the man that deposed his Father for the slaughter of the Subjects by his Wars against him The next year they fought again and he was again overcome § 146. CCLII It 's easie then to conjecture which way the next Council which was at Aquisgrane would go The conquering Princes made the Bishops their Counsellors when they had made Lotharius flie out of the Countrey what they should do with his Kingdom and saith Binnius they received the answer which Nithardus li. 1. describeth in these words ' The Bishops considering the deeds of Lotharius from the beginning how he had driven his Father out of his Kingdom how he had made the Christian People perjured by his Covetousness how oft he had frustrated the Oath he made to his Fathers and his Brethren how oft since his Fathers death he had attempted to disinherit his Brethren how many Murders Adulteries Burnings and all kind of heinous deeds the Universal Church suffered by his most wicked Covetousness And that he neither had any knowledge of governing the Commonwealth nor could men find any footsteps of goodness of will in governing For which causes deservedly and by the just judgment of God Almighty they said he fled first in Battel and then from his Kingdom Therefore all the Bishops unanimously agree and consent that for his wickedness God hath cast him out and hath delivered his Kingdom to his Brothers that are better than he But the Bishops did not give them this liberty till they openly asked them whether they would govern it as their ejected Brother did or according to the will of God They answered that as far as God should enable them they would govern themselves and theirs according to God's will By God's Authority say they we warn exhort and command that you undertake it and rule it according to the will of God So far Nithard § 147. You see here that it is no wonder that the Pope took upon him to set up and take down to make and unmake Kings when the subject Bishops did it by their greatest Sovereigns And you see here God's just judgment on a rebellious Son and the shameful mutability of a temporizing Clergy And how presumptuous Bishops have abused Religion the use of the Keys and the Name of God to the confusions and calamities of the world But Lotharius after this Deposition reigned § 148. All these times Images were cast out in the Eastern Empire even all the Reign of Leo the 5th and of Michael
Anastasius Bibliothecarius who then lived and was employed at Constantinople in this matter to reconcile the contradiction saith that Ebbo was a true Bishop but Photius was not because he was a Lay-man before his consecration and therefore his ordinations are nullities This nullifying of ordinations maketh great disturbances in the Church The present Bishops of England require those that were heretofore ordained by Parochial Pastors to be re-ordained and on this and such other accounts about 2000 were silenced at one day Aug. 24. 1662. The silenced Nonconformists do some of them say that the Bishops have much less than Photius to shew for their authority to ordain He had learning he had the Emperors authority for him He had lawfull Bishops to ordain him He had a great Council or two to approve him and confirm him And though he was a lay-man before so is every one when he cometh to his first ordination And though he was made Bishop per saltum so was Nectarius Thalasius Ambrose c. And every Uncanonical irregularity nullifieth not the ordination It hath been ordinary for Deacons to be made Popes And is not that per saltum why doth not that interrupt and nullifie the Papaciâ— But say they on this account 1. Romes succession is long agoe interrupted There having been far greater incapacities in Simonists common Adulterers Perjured Rebels Hereticks Infidels as Councils have judged 2. And they say that so the English Prelates are no Bishops being chosen by the King and wanting that choice of the Clergy and people which the Canons have over and over again made necessary to the validity of ordinations are more null than those of Photius And therefore we owe them as such no obedience nor communion Thus our nullifyings and condemnings proceed till most men have degraded if not unchristened one another And he that is on the stronger side carrieth it till death or some other change confute his claim and then the other side gets up and condemneth him as he condemned them And thus hath the Church long suffered by damning Divines and domineering or censorious Judges § 54. By the restoring of Ignatius the Pope got to himself the reputation of some Supremacy and obliged a party to him which however it was not the greatest at the first would be greatest when Ignatius his supremacy had advanced it And with them he got the reputation of being just indeed Photius seeming to possess the seat of one that was injuriously deposed by the meer will of the Prince without sufficient cause § 55. Pope Hadrian 2. Epist. 4. ad Ignat. Const. directeth Ignatius to forgive many others but none of those that subscribed to Photius his great Council at Constantinople because they reproached the Pope of Rome where you may see 1. How dangerous it was then to be in a General Council when if they please not the strongest they are ruined And if they do it 's like enough the next age will damn them for it 2. How much more dangerous is it for a Council to be against the Pope than to be guilty of many other crimes and how unpardonable it is § 56. CCLXXXIII An. 868. Besides the Popes Roman Synod that damned Photius and his Book and Const Council there was a Council at Worms which repealed many old Canons of which the 14th is that if Bishops shall excommunicate any wrongfully or for light cause and not restore them the neighbour Bishops shall take such to their communion till the next Synod The 15. Canon is that because in Monasteries there are Thieves that cannot be found when the suspected purge themselves they shall receive the sacrament of Christ's body and blood thereby to shew that they are innocent But this Canon the Papists are ashamed of The 72. Canon alloweth Presbyters yea all Christians to anoint the sick because the Bishops hindered with other business cannot go to all the sick This intimateth that even then the Diocesses were not so great as ours that have one or many Counties else other reason would have been given why the Bishop could not visit all the sick than his hindering businesses Would the Bishop e. g. of Lincoln say I would visit all the sick in Lincolnshire Northamptonshire Leicestershire Hunâ—ingtonshire Rutlandshire Hartfordshire Bedfordshire Buckinghamshire which are in my Diocess but that I am hindered by other business who would take this for the words of a sober man § 57. CCLXXXIV An. 869 was that Constantinopolitan Council which the Papists damning some otherâ— call the 4th and the 8th General Council ended An. 879. in which but 102 Bishops condemned Photius and setled Ignatius by the means of the Emperor Basilius and the Pope who had before restored him Here in Act. 2. The Bishops that had followed Photius took the old course and when they saw all turned cryed peccavimus and craved pardon and themselves called Photius such a villain as there had never been the like Bin. p. 882 They said they sinned through fear and so were forgiven Act. 3. Some Bishops that had turned who were ordained by Methodius were required to subscribe to a form proposed But they told them that the late times had so vexed men with heinous subscriptions that they had made a Covenant or Vow to make no more subscriptions but what they had done already and the profession of their faith like Nonconformists and desired to be received on such terms without their new subscription Act. 4. The Bishops of Photius's party ordained by him were examined And Act. 5. Photius himself who would not enter till constrained and then professed as in imitation of Christ to give them no answer to what they asked him and is in vain exhorted to repentance Act. 6. Many of the Photian Bishops repented and were pardoned Others pretended that they had subscribed and sworn to Photius where Zachar. Calcedon shewed that the Canons were above the Patriarchs Here Basilius the Emperor made a notable speech to exhort the Bishops to repentance offering himself to lay by his honour and to lie on the earth and let them tread on him confessing his sin and asking mercy Act. 7. Photius is again brought in and his staff that he leaned on taken from him and he denyed to defend himself and to repent but bid them repent The Bishops of Heraclea c. rejected the Legates and pronounced them anathematized that should anathematize Photius and appealed to the Canons Act. 8. They censured a Bishop that was against Images Act. 9. They examined some great men that had â—worn against Ignatius who confest they had sworn falsely for â—ear of the Princes but Leo would not damn or curse Photius because he thought the Orthodox were not to be cursed The 10th Act. Containeth the Canons which they made of which the Copies greatly differ § 58. The 3d. Canon saith that they ordain that the Image of Christ be worshiped with the same honour as the Gospels as teaching that by Colours which the Gospel
other mens Preaching might not win Souls as well as his these Popes could not endure the crossing of their ambition when Kingdoms took not them for their Lords Epist. 188. Is to justifie a man that baptized his own Child in danger of death for which Anselm Bishop of Lemovic judged him to be separated from his Wife Were not these two Bishops judicious Casuists Was either of them in the right After many other Epistles striving with and for the Bulgarians as belonging to his Diocess he Epist. 195. chideth Methodius Archbishop of Pannonia for turning from his Laws and in special for celebrating Divine Service in the Sclavonian Tongue which is barbarous commanding him to do it only in Latine or Greek You see how the Pope would edifie the Barbarians if he be their pastor This is the first Papal decree that I remember against publick prayers in a known tongue But alas his neighbour Italian Bishops had not yet fully learnt the extent of his authority sending for many Bishops on pain of excommunication to wait on him and to obey him old Auspertus Archbishop of Milan was one that disobeyed him and being forbidden to officiate by him conformed not to his silencing and suspending decree but went on in his office as a Nonconformist The Pope sent two Bishops as Legates to admonish him He kept them at the dore and set light by their message for which the Pope chideth him Epist. 196. Epist. 197. He flattereth King Ludovicus to come to Rome and own him in hope that he may be Emperor and all Kingdoms subject to him Epist. 199 200 201 202 203. He consenteth to the restoring of Photius but chargeth him to give up the Bulgarians to his jurisdiction Many persons in many Epistles he exhorteth to break their Covenants with the Pagans and chideth and threatneth them that did it not Epist. 247. The inclination of Stentopulcher a Pannonian Lord to the Church of Rome brought down the Popes heart to dispense with Methodius and changed his judgment to give very fair reason why Mass and Gospel and all might be used in the Sclavonian and all tongues only to keep up the honour of the Latine tongue and his authority he commandeth that though the rest be done in the Sclavonian yet the Gospel be first read in Latine and then translated and read over again in the Sclavonian Epist. 250. 251. He approveth of Photius's restitution Epist. 256. He is fain to chide Auspert Bishop of Milan that Instead of fearing his sentence he laid in prison two Monks sent by the Pope and taken on the high way But his heart came down at last and he speaks Auspertus fair and alloweth of his ordination of Ioseph Episc. Astensis though irregular Epist. 260 and commandeth his Arch-Deacon to obey him Epist. 261. After this he excommunicateth the Archbishop of Ravenna and a great stir there was about that also Epist. 292. He had made one Optandus Bishop of Geneva But Opteramus Archbishop of Vienna took it to be an usurpation on his right and laid the Popes Bishop in a miserable prison so far was he yet from being where he would be Epist. 294. Having excommunicated Athanasius Bishop of Naples for not breaking his Covenant with the Saracens he absolveth him on condition that yet he will break it The matter was that the Italians not able to resist the Saracens those that lay next them under their power sought to save themselves by truce and tribute by which means the Saracens had leisure to come further near to Rome and so the Pope to keep them from himself compelled by excommunications the Lords and Bishops of other parts to break their league and stand up in arms to their own destruction That you may know what Bishops now ruled the Churches Epist. 295. The foresaid Bishop of Vienna giveth one reason why he rejected Optandus ordained Bishop of Geneva by the Pope viz. Because he never was either baptized made Clerk acclamed or learned To which saith the Pope This should be covered in silence because let us speak it with your charity your holiness having nothing of these was yet consecrated in the Church of Vienna was not here good succession and a holy Church Bishops unbaptized that were no Scholars and no Christians Epist. 296. One Bishop by an armed band of men carrieth away another out of the Church and the Pope interposeth Epist. 297. He again soliciteth Michael King of the Bulgarians to become his subject The poor men that had chosen Christ were so perplexed between the Priests that strove who should be their Vice-Christ and King of Kings that it seemed as hard to them to resolve the doubt as it before was to be Christians Yet Epist. 307. sheweth the Bishop of Ravenna being dead that yet the Roman usurpation was not grown so high as to take the choice of the Bishop out of the People and Presbyters hands except in long neglected vacancies as Geneva aforesaid Had not this Pope been kept under by Gods judgments suffering the Saracens so to ruine Italy as that he still needed the help of Princes he had been like to have overthrown Rome by his usurpations setting both Princes and Prelates against him But necessity made him a flatterer of the two Emperors of the West the Emperor of the East the King of France the King of Bulgaria the Princes of Pannonia and all that he needed as ambition made him still striving by Tibi dabo claves and Anathematizing to affright the world to his obedience I say not worse of him than Baronius Binnius c. who have no other way to deny the Histories of Pope Ioan than by saying that this mans baser compliance made him called Pope Joan. Baronius ad an 879 n. 55. reciteth an Epistle of this Popes so greatly complying with Photius even against the Filioquen that Binnius would haveus believe that Photius forged it And epistolam ipsam aeterna oblivione dignam nolui saith he hisce adjungi § 81. CCXC. An. 876. a Concilium Ticinense maketh Charles Emperor when the Pope that had crowned Ludovicus before calleth Charles praescitum praeelectum et praedestinatum hereto with all honourable Elogies And here cometh in a great controversie between the Papists and the Protestants viz. Whether Kings succeed by inheritance or by the election and making of the Pope The Pope thought the craft of putting in a big usurping word was as good as a Law to prove their own power to make Kings and unmake them Accordingly this Pope when he durst stay from Rome in France no longer lest he lost all being imprisoned for refusing the right Heir Charles returneth and speaketh some big words and turneth forced consent into super-Kingly commands and saith Bin. p. 1010 eligimus merito et approbavimus solemnitèr ad Romani Imperii sceptra proveximus et Augustali nomine decoravimus c. And to disable the Kingly claim of inheritance he saith Neque enim sibi honorem
his kindred disregarding the honour of God and the Dignity of the Romane Seat which Errour saith he he so Traditioned or delivered down that it remaineth to this day This is Romane Tradition a Comet then appear'd Famine Pestelence Earthquakes which were thought to be for the Pride and rapacity of the Pope and his contempt of God and Man So Platina § 76. An Instance was given of a Bishop of the contrary Spirit Adelâ—ert Bishop of Prague in Bohemiaâ—ound â—ound the People so contrury to him and bad that he forsook them and Travelled first and then entred into a Monastery And when he had lived there five years the people desired him again and promised Obedience A Council at Rome desired his return vvhich with grief he did But they still proved incorrigble and he again forsook them and vvent to Preach to the Hungarians when he Bapzed the King Stephen and did much good Bin. p. 1071. § 77. CCCXX Arnulphus Arch-Bishop of Rhemes suspected of Treason for delivering up the City of Rhemes to Charles Called a Synod at Seulis to purge himself Excommunicating them that did it Anno 990. § 78. CCCXXI. Hugo Capet having now got the Crown of France and desirous to destroy all the Carolines line upon the aforesaid suspition got a Synod at Rhemes to cast out Arnulphus a Bastard of that Linâ— saying a Bastard must not be a Bishop One Bishop refused The rest for fear of that King consented and cast him out so constant were the French Bishops § 79. CCCXXII Six Bishops and Nine Presbyters and Four Deacons made a Council at Rome to Canonize Vdalric Bishop of Augusta Anno 993. upon the reports of his Holiness and Miracles Here let me at once tell the Reader that he hath no cause to think the most of these Canonizations wholly causeless But that while Pope and Patriarcks confounded all by wickedness and contentious pride God had many faithful Bishops and Presbyters that lived holily in quieter and privater kind of Life And the Popes that would not endure themselves to live a Godly life thought it their honour to have such in the Church that did and to magnify them when dead and past contradicting them Just like the Pharisees Mat. 23. that killed the living Servants of God and honoured the dead and built them Monuments saying If we had lived in those days we would not have killed them § 80. CCCXXIII A Synod was called at Moson to debate the Case between Arnulph and Gerbert substituted at Rhemes who so pleaded his cause that it was put off to another Synod Baron revileth some Writings ascribed to the former Synod at Rhemes saying they were this Gerberts as being Blasphemous against the Pope The Centuriators of Magdeb. mention them at large Did Rome then govern all the World § 81. CCCXXIV Another Council is called at Rhemes and Gerbert that wrote so Blasphemously against the Pope is deposed by the Popes means and Arnulphus restored which Gerbert observing flyeth to the Emperour to Germany seemeth to repent as Baron but surmizeth and gets higher to be Pope himself by the Emperours means as you shall hear anon § 2. Can any Man think that Popes that themselves came in by Tyranny and meer Force and lived in Wickedness could have so great a Zeal as is pretended to do Justice for all others unless for their own ends § 83. Iohn the 16th alias 17 is passed over by Binius Onuphrius saith that he Reigned four Months Platina saith he died the tenth Year and sixth Month and tenth Day a great difference § 84. Gregory the 5th is next made Pope saith Plat. by Otho 3d his Authority for Affinity But saith Plat. The Romans make Crescentius Consul with chief Power who presently made John Bishop of Placentine Pope who came to it by the consent of the Roman Clergy and People to whom the choice belonged though some leave him out Otho cometh to defend his own Pope Crescentius fortifieth City and Castle against him The People dare not resist but open the City Gates Crescentius and Pope John flyeth to the Castle and in hope of Pardon yields Crescentius is Killed by the People in his passage John hath first his Eyes put out and then his Life and Gregory the Eleventh Month is restored Binius saith that Johns Hands were cut off his Ears cut off and his Eyes pulled out and after set on an Ass holding the Tail in his Hand was carried about the Streets § 85. This Pope and Otho the 3d. agreed to settle the Election of the Emperour as now it is on the 7. Electors The cause of great Confusions and Calamities was that the Emperours did not dwell at Rome and so left Popes then to fight strive and sin that else would have lived submissively under them Constantine Carolus Mag. or Otho might have done much to prevent or cure all this The Papists would fain prove this the work of a Roman Synod to settle the Electors that they may prove that it is they that must make and unmake Emperours But they can shew us no such Council Onuphrius hath written a Treatise to prove that this was after done by Greg. 10th For which Binius reprehends him as believing Aventinus But this is a Controversy handled by so many that I shall refer the Reader to them and whether the seven Electors only or all the Feudatories chose Baronius and Binius maintain that all came from the Authority of the Pope that Greg. 5th Ordained the choice of the Emperour to be by all the Feudatories of the Empire that the Council at Lyons under Innocent 4th setled it upon Seven but not all the same that are now Electors and that the Princes after setled it on these same Seven they know not who nor when For the right understanding of many such matters I only mind the Reader of this one thing that as the contention of Princes and the superstitious fear of Anathematizing had made the Papal and Prelatical Power then very great in setting up and taking down Princes so it was usual for their Assemblies even those called Councils to be mixt of Men Secular and Clergy Kings and Princes and Lords being present with the Bishops as in our Parliaments and usually the greatest Princes ruled all Therefore to ascribe all to the Pope and Prelates that was done in such conventions and thence to gather their power to dispose of Empires and Kingdoms is meer deceit § 86. Platina next nameth Iohn 17th alias 18th but saith he was no true Pope its impossible to know who was but that he corrupted Crescentius with money and it cost them both their lives How he was mangled shamed and killed though a Bishop before you heard before § 87. Next an 999. cometh that French Bishop Gerbert before mentioned that wrote so blasphemously as they called it against the Pope as Aeneas Silvius after did till he saw some hope of being Pope himself by the Emperor's favour first made Arch-Bishop
Church of Rome and for hindering his Legates from gathering a Council and refusing to come to Rome to answer it Epist. 32. He calls the King of France a ravening Wolf and unjust Tyrant Many great persons he forced to separate after Marriage because they were in the fourth degree of Consanguinity Epist. 51. He tells the King of Denmark that not far from Rome there was a Province possest by vile and sluggish Hereticks and desireth him to send his Son with an Army to conquer them What Province he meaneth I am not certain unless it was the Waldenses § 44. Reader we are greatly beholden to Binnius who hath recorded as Oracles 27 sentences called THE POPES DICTATES by which you may partly know what Popery is 1. That the Roman Church was founded only by our Lord. 2. That only the Bishop of Rome is rightly called Universal 3. That only the Pope can depose Bishops and reconcile them 4. That his Legates must preside in Councils though they be of inferior degree before all Bishops and may pass on them the sentence of deposition 5. That the Pope may depose those that are absent 6. That with those that are excommunicated by him among other things we may not dwell in the same house 7. That to him only it is lawful to make new Laws for the necessity of the time and to congregate new people of Canonical to make an Abbaty and contrarily to divide a rich Bishoprick and unite poor ones 8. That only he may use Imperial Ensigns or Escucheons 9. That all Princes must kiss the feet of the Pope only 10. That only his name may be recited in the Churches 11. That it is the one only name in the World 12. That it is lawful for him to depose Emperors 13. That it is lawful for him in case of necessity to remove Bishops from seat to seat 14. That he may ordain a Clerk from any Church whither he will 15. That one ordained by him may govern another Church and must not take a superior degree from another Bishop 16. That no Synod without his command may be called Universal 17. That no Chapter nor no Book may be accounted Canonical without his authority 18. That his sentence may be retracted by none and he alone may retract all mens 19. That he ought to be judged of no man 20. That no man must dare to condemn any one that appealeth to the Apostolick Seat 21. That the Greater causes of all Churches must be referred to him 22. That the Roman Church never erred nor as the Scripture witnesseth will ever err 23. That the Bishop of Rome if he be Canonically ordained is undoubtedly made Holy by the merits of St. Peter as St. Ennodius Bishop of Papia witnesseth and many holy Fathers confess as is contained in the Decrees of Pope Symmachus 24. That it is lawful for subjects to accuse by his Command and licence 25. That he may depose and reconcile Bishops without Synodal meetings 26. That he is not to be accounted a Catholick who agreeth not with the Roman Church 27. That he may absolve the Subjects of unjust men from fidelity These are put by Bin. among Gregory's Epistles p. 1196. as the Popes Dictates If I had not translated them from such an unquestioned Author that followeth Baronius some would have thought they had been but the forgeries of some Protestant accuser and that the Popes have no such tenents What one is here that is not false and how many of them are horridly arrogant The reading of them would tempt a doubting man to think that the Pope is the Eldest Son of the Prince of Pride exalting himself above all that is called God and arrogating Christ's prerogatives and therefore Antichrist If any would know what Popery is A great part of the description is here given you by their greatest Pope himself and by their chief Historians § 45. Much of his 4th Book of Epistles is to require Princes Prelates and People to forsake the Emperor and choose another and to excommunicate all that will communicate with him yet in his 11th Epist. he reciteth himself how lamentably with tears three dayes in the frost barefoot he begged for pardon and how the compassionate People thought the Pope hard-hearted and tyrannical for not yielding and that at last two Ladyes and an Abbot overcame him to absolve him § 46. Lib. 4. Epist. 28. He tells the Spaniards also that their Kingdom was St. Peter's property But why did he trouble himself to lay claim to particular Kingdoms Would not his claim to all the world serve turn for the particulars Lib. 5. Epist. 4. He clameth the Isle of Corsica § 47. That it may appear that the presumptuous usurpations of the Pope were not consented to by many Bishops he oft complaineth that many Bishops of France Italy and Germany were against him He abundantly chideth and threatneth several particular Bishops for resisting and disobeying him Lib. 6. Epist. 4. he writeth thus to the Bishop of Liege Having read the Letters of your Brotherhood we did not a little wonder that you wrote that which became you not in reverence of the Apostolick seat but that you did with biting invective reprehend me for absolving your Parishioner that lately came to us as if the Apostolick seat had not authority to bind and absolve whomsoever we will and wheresoever we will Know therefore that we are greatly moved against your temerity Indeed one of the tricks of the Papal ambition was to be the Asylum of all wicked fugitives that fled from Church justice in all Countries near them to shew favour to all condemned sinners that would but fly to Rome and appeal to them from the Justice of their Pastors yea and of their Princes too which made their friends to be rather many than good § 48. And the Church of Rome was not yet rich enough with all the Principalities it had got They still kept on the trade of enriching the Pope to save their souls Binnius p. 1233. honoureth us with a record among Gregory 7th Epistles viz. In the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost in the 6th year of the Pontificate of Gregory 7th I Marro Son of Gisler dwelling in the Dukedom of Spoletane for the Redemption of my own and my Parents souls do give deliver and offer to St. Peter Prince of the Apostles and on his Altar all that belongeth to me of the Castle called Moricicla c. Did Christ think how easily Rich men might be saved by giving to the Pope in the name of St. Peter when he said It was harder for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven than for a Camel to go through a Needle 's Eye § 49. Lib. 7. Epist. 3. He saith They that are Latines do all of them except a very few praise the cause of Henry and defend it and charge me with too much obstinacy and impiety against him And if the Latines did so what did the
that before had published the Excommunication of the Emperor Excommunicateth him again and goeth from Rome into Italy and France and sets the Princes upon the recovering of Ierusalem Listing 300000 Men and so reconciled most of their Strifes at home The History of this Expedition Platina briefly and many Authors largely give us to whom I refer you Conrade the Emperor's Son rebelleth against his Father encouraged by the Pope The Papal Historians pretend that his Father would have forced him to Incest but others think otherwise It was this Pope saith Bin. p. 1293. that appointed the horary Prayers called the Office of the Blessed Virgin to be used by Clergy and Laity for success against the Saracens Having Reigned eleven years and four months he died § 95. CCCLXXIV An. 1089. Urban in a Council at Rome repeateth against the Emperor and Pope Clement what was done before by Greg. the 7th Clement is expelled Rome and driven to renounce The Holy Wars breed reconciling thoughts The Papal Party offer the Emperor his Crown if he will depose Clement His Bishops dissuade him and he refuseth being otherwise for Peace inclined to it § 96. CCCLXXV A Council at Troy in Apulia about marriage of Kinsfolk § 97. An. 1090. A Council at Tolouse deposed the Bishop as criminal c. § 98. An. 1090. A Council of Urban's at Melfia decreed again that no Bishop receive Investiture from any Lay-man and that no Lay-man have right or authority over any Clerk Also against false Penance Hildebrand before had decreed that Penance and Baptism and so Absolution profit not impenitent undisposed Receivers § 99. CCCLXXVI A Council at Benevent condemned Pope Clement again § 100. CCCLXXVII Another at Troy did consult for Urban's interest § 101. CCCLXXVIII Another at Constance An. 1094. against married Priests and Simoniacs and about the number of Easter and Whitsun Holy-days And the Empress Praxes departed from the Emperor accusing the Court of most filthy Fornication perhaps the cause of their Calamities § 102. CCCLXXIX An. 1094. A Council at Ostio in France Excommunicated their own King Philip for putting away his Wife and marrying another and again Excommunicateth the Emperor and Pope Clement § 103. CCCLXXX An. 1095. A Council at Placentia heard the Cause of the Emperor of Const. begging help against the Infidels and of the King of France and the Empress complained how filthily she had been forced by her Husband's command It repeated damnations and decreed that no money be taken for Baptizings Chrysms or Burials § 104. CCCLXXXI A Council at Clermont for the same Causes It decreeth That if one injure another on Monday Wednesday or Thursday it shall not be reputed a breach of Peace but if it be done on any of the other four days it shall be judged a breach of holy Peace and be punished as shall be judged C. 1. And that no Clergyman shall receive any Honour or Preferment from the hand of Lay-men C. 15. And C. 16. That no Kings or Princes make investiture of any Ecclesiastick Honour And C. 17. That no Bishop or Priest make any promise of Allegiance to a King or to any Lay-man Ne Regi vel alicui Laico in manibus Ligium fidelitatem faciat Ligius is Liege or Ligatus a Vassal or full Subject And C. 19. That no Lay-labourer keep the tenth of his labour from the Clergy or receive from the Clergy the tenth of his wages § 105. It sheweth you that ever the Sacrament in one kind was not introduced in that the 28th Canon of this Council decreeth that None communicate at the Altar unless he receive the Body by it self and the Blood by it self unless through necessity or with cautelousness Can. 29. Any one that fled from his Enemies to any Cross was to be there protected as in a Church But the Ierusalem War was the main business of this Council by which the Pope cunningly turned away Animosities and Jealousies from himself and got the repute of a Holy Defender of the Church § 106. But in an English Council all the Bishops in the Kingdom save one Rochester would force Archbishop Anselme to renounce the Pope which Anselme refusing and reasoning against they said that he blasphemed the King setting up any in his Kingdom without his consent and so they jointly renounce their subjection and obedience to the Archbishop and abjure the unity of brotherly society with him Bin. p. 1302. You see Luther was not the first that renounced the Pope § 107. CCCLXXXII A Council at Tours for the Holy War where the King of France Philip was reconciled promising service to the Pope § 108. CCCLXXXIII An. 1097. A Concilium Barense was held for winning the Greek Church in their necessity where Anselme of Canterbury got the honour in disputing of the Procession of the Holy Ghost The sum of which Disputation is in his Works § 109. CCCLXXXIV An. 1098. A Council at Rome gave the King of England time to repent till Michaelmas the former Council had Excommunicated him if Anselme had not desired delay § 110. An. 1099. Another Roman Council for the Holy War and Reexcommunicating Pope Clement but what Clement did all this while is past over here § 111. An. 1099. Some little Council at Ierusalem put out Arnulph the Archbishop of Ierusalem as a wicked Man and Usurper and gave it to the Pope's Legat. § 112. An. 1099. Paschal the 2d is made Pope a little after Pope Clement dieth who had Reigned with his Competitors 21 years Being buried at Ravenna after five years a Council caused his Carkass to be dig'd up and burnt Decreeing That all the Bishops of the Henrician Heresie that is who were for Emperors being above the Pope or not deposable by him and for his power of Presentations or Investitures if they were alive should be deposed if dead should be dig'd up and burnt which were most of the Bishops of the West if Hildebrand himself mistook not O Military Bishops that can overcome the dead No wonder if the Church and Nations be confounded by you that cannot let each others Carkasses rest in their Graves but will dig up the bones of the Prelates of many Kingdoms even the greatest part How many Princes and Prelates now Papists are guilty of the Henrician Heresie Should not their bones also be burnt if you durst § 113. But the Schism continued three persons successively being made Anti-Popes by the Emperor's party but all of them one after another overcome by Paschal who being a Military Pope did most of his work by his Army which he frequently had on foot In his time Ierusalem and the Cities about were won by Godfrey of Bullen his Brother Baldwin Boemund Tancred and the rest of the Christians and Godfrey made first King and Baldwin next Boemund and Tancred having Antioch and after suffering great losses c. as you may read in the Histories § 114. Never did the Papal Rebellion work more unnaturally than in
126. CCCXCII Another at Benevent An. 1108. of the same decreeing That if any take a Benefice from a Lay-man's Presentation the Giver and Taker shall be Excommunicated And one at London to the same purpose made King Henry consent against investing Bishops or Abbots Another at Liege for St. Guibert's Elevation § 127. CCCXCIII But the Pope's Lateran Council of 100 Bishops is more considerable where the Pope breaketh his Oath and Covenant to the Emperor as being constrained and this by their approbation The History of the occasion before-mentioned is here again recited by Binnius out of the Chron. Cassinens at large where you may see that the Emperor sware to the Pope and the Pope was thereupon to crown the Emperor as in his proper Rights The Emperor claimed to be crowned as to the same Rights that had been granted to Charles Lewis Henry and other former Emperors This the Pope denied to do and so they went to fight where on both sides between the Romans and Germans so many thousands were slain that Tyber was coloured with their blood How the Earl of Millan that interposed his person to save the Emperor's life was slain and his flesh cut in pieces and given the Dogs by the Romans and what other bloody work was there made the said Chronicle mentioneth The Pope when he crowned the Emperor and made the Covenant with him took the Body of Christ and brake it taking part himself and giving the Emperor the other part and said so let him be divided from the Kingdom of Christ and the Lord that breaketh this Covenant which now by the consent of the Bishops in Council he brake § 128. CCCXCIV A Council at Benevent to decide a quarrel about Church-lands § 129. CCCXCV In a Cyperan Council an Archbishop complained that he was put out by the Prince Roger of Sicily and made a Monk against his will and was delivered because God will have no involuntary Service Another Archbishop accused fled § 130. CCCXCVI and CCCXCVII A Council at Beauvois not known for what One in Syria against Arnulp Archbishop of Ierusalem for his Crimes § 131. CCCXCVIII An. 1116. A Council at Colen Excommunicate the Emperor or declare the Popes Excommunicate but he forced some to receive him § 132. CCCXCIX An. 1116. In a Lateran General Council as they call'd it it unhappily fell out that the Pope who had before call'd the Emperor's claim an Heresie as Councils had before named it The Henrician Heresie could not here disclaim and revoke his Act without confessing his fault in granting that power to the Emperor and confirming it by Covenant and Oath He tells them that he is but a Man and so a Sinner and lamenting his sin begs their prayers to God for pardon and then anathematizeth all that he had written and desireth them to do the like Hereupon a crafty Bishop Bruno Signinus said Let us give thanks to God that we our selves have heard the Pope condemn that Priviledge that containeth Pravity and Heresie And if that Priviledge contain Heresie then he that made it was an Heretick This put them all to their shifts and Ioh. Cajetan angerly said Dost thou call the Pope an Heretick here and in our hearing The writing that our Lord the Pope made was Evil but not Heresie Another Bishop said Nay it ought not to be called Evil For to deliver the People of God is good by the authority of the Gospel which commandeth us animas ponere to lay down our Souls for the Brethren And that which the Pope did was to deliver the People of God O holy Bishops and Councils that take it to be no sin to lye and forswear if it do but deliver the People of God! But the Pope's patience would not hold at the charge of Heresie but after great expectations he told them that That Church had never had Heresie yea the same Church had quelled all Heresies And Ego rogavi pro te Petre secureth it As much as to say Though I confest an Heresie before I was aware now I tell you the same thing is an Henrician Heresie in others and none in me § 133. CCCC An. 1116. A Roman Synod to end a strife between the two Monasteries Cluniacens Cassinens § 134. Platina tells us how the Pope sent the Pisans to fight against the Saracens at Sea and when they were absent the Lucenses sought to take their City but the Florentines honestly came and repelled them for which the Pisans gave them two Porphyretice Columns Also that Mathildis Maud the Pope's great Defender now dying enriched the Pope with bequeathing her Principalities to Rome And that Vincentius an excellent Author saith That she was burnt with two thousand more in a great Fire that hapned at Florence And being Sainted divers places say they have her Body Bernard was the glory of this Age. Platina tells us also of a bloody War and Sedition in Rome upon the Pope's denying a Boy of ten years old to succeed his Father as Prefect of the City the Pope being forced to remove That the Emperor came with an Army again to Rome where a Bishop crowned him again the Pope being in Apulia who after returned and dyed § 135. Now cometh the 24th Schism or two Popes at once Iob. Cajetan Cardinal is chosen at Rome by the CLERGY SENATE and PEOPLE of Rome Bin. p. 1315. The Emperor sends to demand the confirmation of Pope Paschal's Covenants He denieth and as at his choice a great Citizen Cincius Frangipanis offended at the choice threw him down trod on him and imprisoned him till the People rose and forced Frangipanis to restore him safe so the Emperor now set up another Pope Gregory VIII And Cajetan called Gelasius the 2d got some Italian Princes to help him and when the Emperor was gone he came to Rome and scuffling awhile was fain to go to France and dyed after a year and five days Gregory reigning three years and some being for one and some for the other In this time King Baldwin and Tancred had a great overthrow near Ierusalem § 136. CCCCI Pope Gelasius with a Synod at Capua Excommunicateth the Emperor and Pope Gregory who it 's like requited him After at Vinna in France he called a Synod and dyed § 137. The Bishop of Vienna in France kin to the Emperor and the King of France is chosen Pope in France He prevaileth with the Emperor to give up his Investitures and so maketh a joyful Peace He overcometh Pope Gregory VIII and imprisoneth him in a Monastery In his time Baldwin was again overthrown and the Venetians took many Islands from the Greek Emperor for hindering them to relieve Ierusalem by Sea § 138. CCCCII. The first Council under Calixtus the 2d was at Rhemes whither went Turstan chosen Archbishop of York upon promise to King Henry that he would not receive the Pope's blessing But he stuck not to break his word therefore the King banished him or forbad
had so few that understood the original language or else they would have so tost and torn and sensed and nonsensed the Scripture that they would have made it quite another thing § 171. CCCCXIX Yet we have not done with Heresies A Council at Rhemes called by the banished Pope tryed a mad man an illiterate Rustick called Eum one unworthy to be called an Heretick saith Otto Frising who said he was the Son of God c. whom they sent to Prison where he dyed In the same Council Gib Porretane Bishop of Poictiers is again called where their Subtilties were disputed over again and Bernard Abbot Clareval being his chief Adversary upon Porretane ' s exception to some of his words saying Scribantur went and drew up some Articles of Faith seeming contrary to Porretanes and got many Bishops to subscribe them The Roman Cardinals took this heinously and came all together to the Pope and told him That it was they that of a private Man made him Pope and that he must know that it was they that were the Cardines on which the Axis of the whole Church did turn and that he must not now be his own but theirs and not prefer private and new Friends before his old common ones And that his Abbot Bernard with the Gallicane Bishops had audaciously presumed to lift up their Necks against the primacy and top of the Roman Seat which only doth shut and no man opens and opens and no man shuts which only may discuss matters of Faith And even when absent may not receive prejudice of this honour from any But behold these French-men contemning our faces or presence have presumed to write their Belief without consulting us as if they would pass a definitive Sentence on the matters that have been handled before us which had it been done at Antioch or Alexandria had been void How then durst these usurp in our presence We will therefore that you presently rise up against thus temerarious Novity and delay not to punish their Contumacy And so they had like to have run into a Schism But the Pope and Bernard spake them fair and Bernard said They wrote not as Determiners but to give account of their own Faith when provoked and so pacified the Cardinals But this Tumult hindered the deciding of the Case But saith Otto whether Bernard was decived by humane infirmity or Porretane escaped by hiding any thing by his great learning I must not determine § 172. CCCCXX Another Council An. 1150. the banished Pope held at Trevers where Bernard told him of the Revelations of a Woman Abbess called Hildegardis The Pope sent some to her she returns him a writing of her Revelations which he read admired and by Bernard's persuasion honored her with a Letter But what they were is not mentioned § 173. Conradus called Anastasius the 4th is next Pope and dyeth after a year four months and 24 days The glory of his time is said to be Ricardus de Sancto Victore a famous Writer specially de Trinitate and Gratian Lombard and Comestor § 174. Hadrian the 4th an English man is next Pope The Romans by request and threats importune him to permit their Consuls to govern them as heretofore He resolutely denieth them They wound one of his Cardinals He Excommunicateth and Curseth them Quaere Whether Rome was the Catholick Church when it was Excommunicate They had before desired him to come to the Lateran which he refused till they should turn out one Arnoldus Brixianus called by him a Heretick and Disciple of Abailard The People saith Platina took this ill and so hurt the said Cardinal I doubt the Romans themselves were for Hereticks The Pope curseth William of Sicily for invading the Church-lands The Greek Emperor offereth to help the Pope and to give him much Gold also if he shall but have three Maritime Cities in Apulia where he hath won them This afrighteth William to offer the Pope all again if he may but he called King of Sicily The Pope denieth it William angry over-runneth Italy The Pope repenting granteth him his desire The new Emperor Frederick also coming with an Army into Italy took some Cities belonging to the Church and gave them up to the Pope But when he came into the City to be crowned the Citizens enraged at the Pope for denying them their Civil Government shut the Gates the Emperor's Army being without and fell on many of the Pope's Followers and the Germans beat some and killed many The Emperor hereby provoked got in his Army and killed many of the Citizens and had done more but that the Pope dissuaded him Yet was the Pope and he fain to go round about to the Lateran to avoid another Battel Platina mentioneth the Pope's Cursing William of Sicily and absolving his Subjects from their Oaths that they might Rebel but saith nothing of the Emperor's after-quarrel with the Pope occasioned by a Letter of the Pope's rebuking him for not helping the Bishop of London saith Binnius and refusing an offered Bishop of Ravenna The Pope's Epistles against the Emperor c. Binnius leaveth out At last the Romans again rising against him he goeth to Anagria and dyeth § 175. An. 1160. Roland is made Pope called Alexander the 3d and Octavian called Victor the 4th is made Pope by others and sate four years and seven months This is saith Onuphrius the 27th Schism or double Papacy Three more succeeded Clement to keep up the duplicate before Alexander dyed of whom one Reigned five years and another seven Alexander addresseth himself to the Emperor Frederick to heal the Schism who therefore bids both the Popes come to him that he may hear the Case But Alexander himself refuseth and gets away The Emperor sendeth two Bishops to him to summon him to a Council Alexander refuseth to appear The Bishops go to Octavian Victor and the Emperor calleth a Council and this Council with the Emperor make Octavian the confirmed Pope Quer. Whether this was not as good Authority as Alexander's greater number of the Cardinals Hereupon Alexander curseth the Pope Victor and the Emperor and sendeth Letters to Christian Princes to tell them that he did it justly Wonderful that Empires and Kingdoms could be then disposed of by Cursing The Emperor seizeth on many of the Church-Cities Alexander returneth to Rome but findeth so many against him that he durst not stay there but flieth into France invited by King Philip and there again at a Council curseth the Emperor The Emperor Frederick destroyeth Milan and translateth thence to Colen the supposed Bodies of the Magi or three wise men that came to Bethlehem Is it not strange what brought them to Milan and how they came all to dye there together and how all their Bodies came to be known O the wisdom of Rome The rest of the Italian Cities and States raise an Army against him he sendeth to the King of France to end the Schism by bringing Pope Alexander with him to
6. none is to be taken for Pope but we must live as the Greeks under our own Laws 10. It is against Scripture that Church-men have possession that is they should not labour to be rich 11. No Prelate should excommunicate any one unless he know that God hath first excommunicated him And he that so excommunicateth is thereby a Heretick or Excommunicate 12. A Prelate that excommunicateth a Clerk who appealed to the King or to the Council of the Kingdome is thereby a Traytor to the King and Kingdome 13. They that give over Preaching or hearing Gods Word for mens Excommunication are Excommunicate and in the Day of Judgment shall be judged Traytors to Christ. 14. It is lawful for a Deacon or Presbyter to preach the Word of God without the Authority of the Apostolick Seal or a Catholick Bishop 15. No one is a Civil Lord or a Prelate or a Bishop while he liveth in mortal sin The meaning of this is no open wicked man is a Subject capable of such Authority given by Christ as shall warrant him to use the place but his acts may be valued to others in many cases Dispositio materiae est necessaria ad formam recipiendam As an Infidel can be no Bishop or Pastor 16. Temporal Lords may take away temporal goods from the Church from a Possessor habitually criminal and not only in act Not from the sacred use in general but from that man that forfeiteth them 17. The people may correct their Delinquent Lords This is not to be believed to be Wickliff's sense till they cite his own words which no doubt limit it to the cases 18. Tythes are meer Alms and the Parishioners may take them away for their Prelates sins 19. The special prayers applied by Prelates and Religious men to one person profit him no more than the general ones caeteris paribus 20. He that giveth Alms to Fryars is thereby Excommunicate that is he sins by cherishing wilful idleness 21. He that enters the private Religion either of the Possessing or the Mendicant Fryars becomes less fit and able to keep the Commandments of God 22. Holy men that made private Religions thereby sinned 23. The Religious living in private Religion are not therein of the Christian Religion 24. Fryars are bound to get their living by the labour of their hands and not by begging 25. They are Simoniacal that bind themselves to pray for others for a temporal reward or price 26. The prayers of Reprobates wicked men availeth not to any 27. All things come to pass by necessity 28. The Confirmation of Youth the Ordination of Clerks the Consecration of Places are reserved to the Pope and Bishops for covetousness of temporal gain and honour 29. Universities Studies Colledges Degrees and Masterships in them are introduced by vain Gentility and profit the Church as much as the Devil doth 30. The Excommunication of a Pope or any Prelate is not to be feared because it is the Censure of Antichrist 31. They that found Cloysters sin and they are Diabolical that enter them 32. To enrich the Clergy is against Christs Rule 33. Pope Sylvester and the Emperour Constantine erred in inriching the Church 34. All the Order of Begging Fryars are Hereticks and those that give to them are Excommunicate 35. They that enter Religion as Fryars or any Order of them are thereby disabled from keeping Gods Commands and so of coming to Heaven unless they forsake them 36. The Pope and all his Clergy that have Possessions are therefore Hereticks and the Secular Lords and Laicks that consent to them to their great riches 37. The Church of Rome is the Synagogue of Satan and the Pope is not the immediate and nearest Vicar of Christ and the Apostles 38. The Decretal Epistles are Apocryphal and seduce from the Faith of Christ and the Clerks that study them are fools 39. The Emperour and Secular Lords were seduced by the Devil to inrich the Church excessively he meaneth with temporal goods 40. The Election of the Pope by Cardinals was introduced by the Devil 41. It is not necessary to Salvation to believe the Church of Rome to be the Supreme among other Churches 42. It is foolish to trust to the Indulgences of the Pope and Bishops 43. Oaths made to strengthen humane Contracts and Civil Commerce are unlawful 44. Augustine Benedict Bernard are damned unless they repented of having possessions and instituting and entering private Religions and so from the Pope to the lowest Religious Fryar they are all Hereticks 45. All Religions that is Orders of Fryars were introduced by the Devil This Article about Necessity of Events I see in Wickliff's Books is his own and many here cited are true but no doubt but many of them are perverted by their wording them and leaving out the Explicatory Context The Council forbad his Books and condemned them to be burnt and reprobated every one of all these foresaid Articles with all the 260. The Duke of Austria most humbly begged the Emperours pardon for receiving the Pope § 7. Sess. 9. The Citation of the Pope is read and Commissaries and Judges appointed and a Letter read from the University of Paris instigating the Council to their duty for their honest Chancellour Gerson was here § 8. Sess. 10. The Popes Suspension was read The Sess. 11. the Articles against the Pope are read which were proved which were in sum as followeth Art 1. That the Pope Iohn from his Youth was of a naughty disposition impudent a lyar rebellious against his Parents given to most Vices and so was and still is accounted of all that know him Cardinals Arch-Bishops Bishops c. witness it 2. He gathered riches by Symony and wicked means 3. By these Symoniacal riches he purchased a Cardinals place at great rates 4. Possessing Bononia as Legate by tyranny and cruel exactions inhumanely and impiously he ruined the people without all Justice or Piety c. 5. Getting thus to be Pope like a Pagan he contemned all Divine Offices 6. That he is the oppressor of the poor the persecutor of Justice the Pillar of the unjust the Statue of Simoniacks the servant of the Flesh the dregs of Vices a stranger to Virtue flying publick Consistories wholly given to sleep and other fleshly desires wholly contrary to Christ in life and manners the Glass of Infamy and the profound Inventer of all wickednesses or malice so scandalous to the Church that among faithful Christians that knew him he was commonly called THE DEVIL INCARNATE 7. That as a Vessel of all sins he repulsed the worthy and gave all Offices Benefices and Church-promotions to the bad that would give most Money for them 8. Hereby the whole Church Clergy and People fell under infamy and scandal 9. That of all these he was oft admonished and humbly intreated 10. That he was worse after than before laying all pretence of Justice and openly selling all to the worst that would give him money 11. That growing
before divers Prelates and other honest men by the Devils perswasion be pertinaciously said asserted dogmatized and maintained that there is no Life Eternal nor any after this And he said and pertinaciously believed that mans Soul dieth with the body and is extinct as are the Bruits And be said that the Dead rise not contrary to the Article of the Resurrection c. He sent an Epistle to the Emperour to beg mercy c. § 9. Sess. 12. The Articles being shewed the Pope his Answer is recited Viz. That he repented of his filthy departure and ratified all the Councils Process against him and would give no other Answer to their Charge affirming that the Council of Constance was most holy and could not err and was the Pisane Council continued and he would never contradict the Council but publickly confess that he had no right in the Papacy That he would be much pleased that the Sentence against him might be quickly passed and sent him which with all reverence he would receive and as much as in him lay confirm ratifie approve and divulge and did then ratifie approve and confirm all their Process against him and promise never to gainsay them The Council decreed that when the Papacy was void none should be chosen without them and they that attempted it should be punished and the Election be void Next the Definitive Sentence of Deposition was past against him Next they decreed that none of the three present Popes should ever be elected again § 10. Sess. 13. The Council decreed that though Christ after Supper instituted and to his Disciples administred the Sacrament in both kinds Bread and Wine c. And though in the Primitive Church the faithful received it in both kinds c. yet the contrary custome of the Church should be a Law which may not be reprobated without the Churches Authority or changed And to say that this is sacrilegious and unlawful is erroneous and the pertinacious Assertors to be proceeded against as Hereticks that is burnt Thus they take power to change Christs Sacrament and that when they suppose it to be his very blood that they deny men and make it Heresie and death to obey God before them This was the Reforming Council Next they decree that any Priest that giveth the Sacrament in both kinds shall be excommunicated and used as a Heretick even by Secular Power that is burnt § 11. Sess. 14. Carolus de Malatestis recited in the name of Gregory 12. his Renunciation of the Papacy and Greg. approved the Council The Council absolveth all men from his obedience c. confirm some of his Acts require the third Pope to resign and declare him if he refuse a notorious Schismatick and pertinacious Heretick § 12. Sess. 15. After a severe Decree for silence and no contradiction the Articles of Heresie charged on Iohn Huss were read the sum of many is as followeth 1. As Christ is both God and Man so the consecrated Host is the Body of Christ at least in Figure and true Bread in Nature 2. That he declareth to the heretical lyars about the consecrated Host that they can never declare or understand an accident without a subject 3. This is my body is such a figurative speech as John was Elias 4. The madness of feigning an accident without a subject blasphemeth God scandalizeth the Saints and deceiveth the Church 5. It s foolish and presumptuous to desine that the Infants of the faithful are not saved dying without the Sacrament of Baptism 6. The light and brief Confirmation by Bishops solemnized only by the Rites said over was introduced by the Devil and to delude the people in the belief of the Church and that the solemnity and necessity of Bishops may be the more believed 7. Against Oyl anointing Children and the Linnen Cloth as a light Ceremony c. 8. Vocal Confession made to a Priest introduced by Innocent is not so necessary as he defineth He that by thought word or deed offendeth his Brother it sufficeth him to repent by thought word or deed 9. The Priest hearing Confession as the Latines do is grievous and groundless c. A good life is a good sign of a true Minister The ill life of a Prelate substracteth the Subjects acceptation of Orders and other Sacraments and yet in case of necessity they may receive of such piously praying that God will make up himself by these his Diabolical Ministers the work or end of the Office which they are sworn to Ancient persons that despair of children may lawfully marry for temporal commodity or mutual help or to excuse Lust. Words of Marriage de praesenti I take thee for my Wife frustrate words de futuro to another I will take thee for a Wife The Pope that falsly calls himself the servant of the servants of God is in no degree of Evangelical service but worldly and if he be in any order it is in that of Devils serving God more culpably by sin The Pope dispenseth not with Simony being the Capital Simonist vowing rashly to keep a most damnable state That the Pope is summus Pontifex is ridiculous Christ never approved such a Dignity in Peter or in any other The Pope is the Patron of Antichrist not only that single person but the multitude of Popes from the time of the Churches Donation the Cardinals Bishops and other their Complices is the compounded monstrous person of Antichrist And yet Gregory and other Popes that did good in their lives fruitfully repented at last Peter and Clement and other helpers in the Faith were not Popes but Gods helpers to edifie the Church of Christ. That this Papal Preeminence had its rise from the Gospel is as false as that all Errour arose from the first Truth There are twelve Procurators and Disciples of Antichrists the Pope Cardinals Patriarchs Arch-bishops Bishops Arch-deacons Officials Deans Monks forked Canons false Fryars and Questors It s as clear as the light that he is greatest and next Christ in the Church Militant that is most humble most serviceable and most loveth the Church in the love of Christ. He that unjustly possesseth any good thing of God taketh anothers by theft Grace is necessary to dominion He meaneth 1. Not of right before men but God 2. Nor of special grace only I suppose Without the Law of Christ inwarldly Charters and Papers give not ability and justice We must not by gifts cherish a known sinner being a Traytor to God Divers are against temporal power or right in wicked men in mortal sin But I suppose that he meaneth only such a defect as will disable himself before God to receive his approbation and reward but not such as will disoblige th◠Subject or lose his property in foro humano Many more there be that Fryars and the foresaid twelve Orders of Antichrist are not of God and some Philosophical Opinions which how far Huss held them I take this Catalogue for no proof without his words
of Alexandria till the days of Heroclas and Dionysius took one from among themselves and made him Bishop therefore they may make a Presbyter which is less 8. It s at last confessed that in Scripture-times there were no Presbyters under Bishops but the single Churches had single Pastors 9. No man can prove Ordination by fixed Bishops over many Churches now called Diocesan in the first Age The fixed Bishops had no more at first but single Churches Object But you never received power from the Bishop to ordain and therefore cannot have that which was never given your Answ. If they put men into that Office to which God hath affixed the power of Ordination then they do their part to convey the power As if you marry a couple and express not the mans authority over the woman yet he hath it nevertheless by being made her Husband So he that is made a Pastor in City or Country may do the work of a Pastor though each particular was not named Proposition 7. Ordination is ordinarily necessary as a means of our right entrance but not absolutely necessary to the Being of our Office or Power For 1. God having already setled the Office Duty and Power and what Qualifications shall be necessary and giving these Qualifications to men he hath left nothing to man but mutual consent and to judge of the person qualified and solemnly introduce him 2. God hath not tyed himself or us absolutely to the judgment of Ordainers If a Bishop ordain a Heathen or any man void of Essential Qualifications its null as being against a flat Command of God And if Bishops refuse to ordain us Pastors the people must take them without because the Command of Preaching Hearing Sacraments c. is greater than that of Ordination and before it Positives yield to Natural Morals and matters of Order to the substance and end of the Duty ordered See my Christian Concord pag. 82 83 84. 3. Ordination is no more necessary to the Ministry than Baptism to Christianity As those that are first Princes by Title must be Crowned and those that are Souldiers by Contract must be listed and take Colours and those that are Husband and Wife by Contract must be solemnly Married which are celebrating perfecting actions so they that are first heart-Christians by believing or by Parents dedicating them to God must be solemnly entred under the hand of the Minister And those that are by approbation and consent initially Ministers must by solemnization have the Office publickly delivered them by the Ministers of Christ. So that as a man is a Christian indeed before Baptism initially and is justified initially before and in case of necessity may be saved without it the Papists confessing that the Vow will serve so is it in the case of Ordination to the Ministry Proposition 8. It is only Christ and not the Ordainers People or Magistrates that give us our Office and Power Only the people and approvers design the person which shall receive it from Christ and our own consent and the peoples is of necessity thereto and our own as much as theirs and the Ordainers do instrumentally invest us in it but the Power and Duty arise directly from Gods Institution when the person is designed Now I proceed to prove our Calling Argument 4. We have a far clearer Call than the Priests before Christ had to the Priesthood For they were not of the true Line they bought the Priesthood they corrupted Doctrine and worship and were of wicked lives And yet Christ commanded submission to their Ministry Ergo. Argument 5. If we have as clear a Call to our Office as any Magistrates on Earth have to theirs then we are true Ministers of Christ For they are true Magistrates and God is the Fountain of their Power too and its impossible they should have any but from him Or from him but by his means Officers have no power but from the Soveraign The Prince was at first chosen by God immediately as well as the Apostles were by Christ yet no Prince can plead an uninterrupted succession thence and if they may Reign without it we may be Pastors without it and yet I cannot say that we are without it though Princes be Kings were formerly anointed by inspired Prophets and were Prophets themselves And as the continuance of this is not necessary to them so neither to us The differences between their power and ours makes nothing against this Argument If Conquest or the peoples consent or Birth or directing Providences can prove their Title then Consent Ordination Providence with due Qualifications will sure prove ours were it not for fear they should soon hear the Arguments more set home against themselves that are now bent against the Ministers Argument 6. If besides all this God own us by such a blessing on our labours that he maketh us the means of propagating and continuing his Gospel and Church and brings most of his chosen to Vnion with Christ Reconciliation Holiness and to Heaven by our Ministry then certainly we are his true Ministers But experience assureth us of the former therefore so much for Argument Proposition 9. If a Minister be in quiet possession of the place and fit for it the people are bound to obey him as a Minister without knowing that he was justly ordained or called Argum. 1. We must obey a Magistrate without assurance of his Call and Title Rom. 13. therefore a Minister 2. Christ commanded hearing and obeying them that were not called as God appointed because they were Priests or sat in Moses Chair and taught the truth Luke 16. 29. Matth. 23. 2. Luke 5. 14. Matth. 8. 4. Mark 1. 44. 3. Else the people are put upon impossibilities Can all the poor people tell before they submit to a Minister what is Essential to his Call and whether he have all that is so and whether his Orders be true or forged and whether they that ordained him were truly ordained or chosen themselves Not one of twenty thousand knows all this by their Pastors Proposition 10. The Ordinances are valid to the people when the Minister is uncalled and unordained if they know it not He that hath no just Call shall answer for what he doth as an Intruder but the people shall have for all that the fruit of his Ministration and Preaching and Baptism and other acts shall not be null to them 1. The Papists themselves confess this 2. Else scarce a man could tell whether he be baptized or may use any Ordinance because he cannot have an exact account of the Ministers Call no nor know that he is indeed a Christian. I knew divers in the Bishops days that forged themselves Orders and acted long before it was discovered 3. It is the Office which is Gods Ordinance that is blest and valid to the people and not his Call only 4. It is he that sinneth that must suffer and not the Innocent therefore his sin depriveth them not of their due 5.