motion with a who made me a Judge and a Ruler over you When the Jews were resolv'd to have made him King he fled from the very shadow of a Crown When there was a strife amongst his own Apostles which of them should be accounted the greatest like the Kings of the Gentiles which exercis'd Lordship and Authority over their Subjects he ended the Controversy with a short decision but ye shall not be so This Charge S. Peter particularly applies to the Bishops and Rulers of the Church that they should not be Lords over God's Heritage that the younger should submit themselves to the elder yea all of them be subject one to another and be cloathed with Humility for that God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble Had the excellent Rules here laid down by S. Peter been observ'd by those who pretend to be his Successors the Christian World had been free from those infinite disturbances and distractions which the pride and ambition of the Roman Bishops have brought upon it For certainly among all the corruptions and innovations of that Church nothing is more palpable and notorious than an intolerable usurpation over the Rights of their Brethren nothing more wild and extravagant than the challenging a Supremacy over the Christian Church as affix'd to the See of Rome expresly contrary not only to the Scripture the great Canon of our Faith but to the Laws of all ancient Councils and the practice of the Church which however it allow'd a primary honour and respect to the Roman Prelate yet still set him out as it did to all other Bishops the particular extent of his Jurisdiction This is that which I have endeavoured to evince in the following Discourse wherein I have trac'd the Papal Authority to those proper bounds and limits within which it was confin'd of old And upon that occasion have briefly survey'd the frame and constitution of the ancient Church and that Policy and Government whereby it was manag'd in its purer and better times That which gave birth to the whole Discourse was this I had elsewhere in relating the Acts of the second general Council represented the third Canon of that Council which decreed that the Bishop of Constantinople upon the account of its being New Rome or the Imperial City should have the priviledge of honour next to the Bishop of Rome A Canon which they of Rome could never pardon as which limits the power of the Roman Prelate and declares the foundation upon which it stands For the illustration of this Canon I intended im that place to have added a digression concerning the ancient Power and Precedence of the Bishops of Rome but upon second thoughts referr'd it to an Appendix at the end of the Book But that Book swelling into too great a bulk and this Discourse being grown beyond the proportion that was at first design'd I was over-perswaded by some Friends to venture it abroad alone A thing which had I intended from the beginning it had come forth at least in some parts more perfect than it is and with some advantages which now it is forc'd to go without I have wholly wav'd all Debates concerning the Jus Divinum of Episcopacy and the Controversies that depend upon it enough has been said upon that Argument and have chiefly insisted upon those branches of the Ecclesiastic Government which have been less canvassed amongst us For the same reason I have more lightly touch'd upon the Pope's Universal Supremacy 't was his Metropolitical and Patriarchal Power I principally design'd to enquire into I know Volumes have been written De primatu Papae de Ecclesiis Suburbicariis c. and therefore I have reduc'd what concerns those matters into as narrow a compass as I could and have said no more than what is necessary to clear the Argument and express my own sense about it If what is here said shall administer any light to this part of Church-antiquity I shall be very glad if not I am content it should follow the fate of many much better Books to be thrown aside 'T was never design'd to instruct the Learned but only to form a short Scheme of the true state of things for the benefit of those who have not been much conversant in the Antiquities of the Church at least to give some aid and direction to the younger sort who first apply themselves to the study of those ancient Times And if it may but attain this end I shall think my Time and Pains have been well bestow'd THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. The State of the Church-Government and Power of the Roman Bishops 'till the Council of Nice An Equality among the Apostles as Church Governours appointed by Christ Peter's pretended Supremacy over the rest shewed to be vain and groundless If any such had been granted it belong'd not to the Roman Bishops Early appearances of the Pride and Usurpation of the Bishops of that Church Special advantages of that See to set up for Tyranny and Usurpation The foundation of that Church by two great Apostles Peter and Paul Rome the Seat of the Empire The honour and advantages of that Church thereby The Catholick Faith long time preserv'd entire in the Church of Rome It s large Revenues affording liberal Hospitality It s sending forth Emissaries to plant Christianity in other Countries and thereby claiming superiority over them The pride of that Church severely censur'd by S. Basil A general Scheme of the subordination in the Government of the Primitive Church by Bishops Archbishops and Patriarchs and the Conformity herein to the Civil State Episcopal Government how it spread it self at first Metropolitans introduc'd and why A brief account of the ancient way of Ecclesiastical Administration out of Cyprian and others by the Bishop and his Clergy by Provincial Synods What things usually manag'd there Foreign Churches how mutually transacting with one another The Bishops of Rome had no more authority in this Period than the Bishops of other greater Sees Pope Melchiades appointed Commissioner by Constantine Donatus appeals from his Judgment His sentence brought under Examinations in the Synod of Arles Page 1 CHAP. II. The Government of the Church and Power of the Bishops of Rome as 't is represented in the Canons of the Nicene Council The sixth Canon of the Synod of Nice set down with the occasion of it Seven Observations drawn from that Canon I. That the larger bounds of Ecclesiastick Jurisdiction were the Roman Provinces A. Province what Whether the Countries in Italy so called II. That the chief Church-Governour in every Province was the Metropolitan The prudence and convenience of that way of Government Patriarchs prov'd not to be intended in the Nicene Canon III. That the Bishop of Rome no less than the rest had his proper and limited Metropolitical power This own'd by some of the greatest Champions of Rome IV. That the Metropolitick Sees of Rome Alexandria and Antioch were ever of the greatest note in the Christian
Church and of these Rome the chief The eminency of Sees according to the greatness of the Cities wherein they were planted This gave precedency to the Church of Rome The three Sees of Rome Alexandria and Antioch ascribed to S. Peter Blasphemous things spoken of the Pope upon that account Primacy allow'd to the See of Rome No Supremacy belonging to it The Christian Church then knew of no such supereininent Power V. That the Rights of the Roman Metropolitan were not due by any Divine Constitution but by custom and the practice of the Church This plainly shew'd to be the sence of this and other following Councils VI. That the Ordination of Provincial Bishops was one of the prime Rights and Priviledges of every Metropolitan within his own Jurisdiction The fourth sixth and seventh Canons of this Council noted to that purpose The same shew'd to be the determination of other Synods What other Rights belong'd to Metropolitans VII That this way of Ecclesiastick Administration was not any late novel Institution but founded upon ancient custom and practice What this Antiquity implies The original of Metropolitans briefly enquir'd into Several instances of this way of Government noted in the second and third Centuries The word Metropolitan not met with 'till the Council of Nice But the thing long before The sum of the Observations upon this Canon Page 46 CHAP. III. The extent of the Bishop of Rome's Jurisdiction considered as a Metropolitan A search into the proper bounds of the Roman Bishop His Power fourfold Episcopal Metropolitical Patriarchal Apostolical The first not controverted the last discharg'd as extravagant and groundless and as frequently baffled both by the Reformed and Greek Church L. Allatius's jeer of his Country-men His Metropolitical Jurisdiction considered as concurrent with that of the Provost of Rome That how great and how far extending The Suburbicary Regions what Sicily no part of the Urbicary Regions The usual conformity between the extent of the Civil and Ecclesiastick Jurisdiction in those times The power of the Roman Metropolitan confin'd within an hundred Miles of Rome Rufinus his Exposition of the Suburbicary Churches Greatly quarrell'd at by the Romish Writers His authority in other cases allow'd sufficient and unquestionable His Book approv'd by Pope Gelasius and others No probability of his being mistaken in the sence of the Canon or the extent of the Roman Metropolitanship or the Suburbicary Churches His Explication confirm'd by most ancient Interpreters of this Canon The Bishops of Rome and Italy distinct The Bishop of Milan rank'd with him of Rome The objection of the Bishop of Rome's being confin'd to so narrow a compass consider'd and answer'd The Majores Dioeceses in the Epistle of the Synod of Arles what The bounds of the Roman Bishops shew'd to have been heretofore small from an ancient Notitia Episcopatuum The fraud in the first publication of that Notitia Morinus noted The greatness of Rome equivalent to a large extent Page 98 CHAP. IV. An Enquiry into the Rise and Original of Patriarchs in the Christian Church An Enquiry into the Rise and Original of Patriarchs in general None before the Council of Nice What that Council contributed to them Civil Dioceses when and by whom introduc'd These gave start to Primary Metropolitans Dioceses when first brought into the Church The title of Patriarch borrow'd from the Jews Who their Patriarchs and whence descended Exarchs what The word Patriarch when first us'd by Church-writers in a strict and proper sence The Patriarchs among the Montanists who A short Survey of the four great Patriarchates The extent of the Patriarchate of Alexandria The Dioecesis Aegyptiaca what The Patriarchal Jurisdiction in what sence larger than that of the Augustal Prefect Little gain'd to this Patriarchate more than a title of honour The Patriarchate of Antioch commensurate to the Eastern Diocess The contest about Cyprus how determin'd Palestine for some time under Antioch The Patriarchship of Constantinople By what degrees it arose What privilege conferr'd upon it by the second general Council The Bishops of it hence forwards exercising a kind of Patriarchal power over the Churches of the neighbouring Provinces The Power granted to that See by the Council of Chalcedon Its ninth seventeenth and eight and twentieth Canons considered to that purpose Jurisdiction over the three Dioceses of Asiana Pontica and Thrace This setled upon a full debate and discussion of the matter This Power own'd by the Synod to have been exercised of a long time before This Grant urg'd against the universal Supremacy of the See of Rome The extent of the Constantinopolitan Patriarchate in after times manifested from several ancient Notitiae The Patriarchate of Jerusalem The honour confirm'd to this Church by the Nicene Council It s subjection to the See of Caesarea When first attempting a Metropolitical Power The contest between this Bishop and the Bishop of Antioch how determin'd in the Council of Chalcedon When first styl'd Patriarch The extent of this Patriarchate Page 137 CHAP. V. The bounds of the Roman Patriarchate A return to the Roman Patriarchate The limits hereof not expresly set down by the Ancients Unjustly pretended to reach over the whole West This granted by them of the Greek Church and why The Pope's Patriarchal Power disown'd by the Churches of Milan Aquileia and Ravenna The independency and opposition of those Churches to the Roman See severally evinc'd by particular cases and instances The Power of Metropolitans in France kept up independant from Rome The truth of this confess'd and clear'd by De Marca Other instances of preserving their Rights against the pretensions of Rome Hincmar of Rhemes and the Synod of Metz. Two other National Churches instanc'd in the African and the Britannick Churches The famous case of Appeals in the Church of Africk A clear account of that matter Their publick rejecting the power which the Pope challeng'd over those Churches The Letters of the Council of Carthage to Pope Boniface and Caelestine to that purpose Several useful and proper Corollaries deduc'd from this story for the evincing the vain pretensions of the Papal Power over those Churches The boldness of some in denying the truth of this whole story The state of the Britannick Church The progress of Religion and Church-Government here 'till the times of Pope Gregory The Church govern'd here by an Archbishop and Bishop at Austin's arrival Their Customs wholly different from and independant upon Rome Their absolute refusal to own the authority of Austin or the Pope The slaughter of the Bangor-Monks suspiciously charg'd upon Austin The Pope's proper Patriarchate most probably shew'd to be of equal extent with the Jurisdiction of the Vicarius Urbicus What Provinces under his Government The Roman Synod consisting of the Bishops of those Provinces A twofold Patriarchate of the Pope trifling and precarious The Bishops of Rome daily amplifying their Jurisdiction The means whereby they did this briefly intimated Page 198 CHAP. VI. The Encroachments of the See
another than he himself could judge others that in these matters they were to expect the Judgment of our Lord Jesus Christ who alone had power both of appointing Governours over his Church and of calling them to an account for their administration IV. BY these instances and many more no doubt which the History of those times would have set before us had the Churches Records come safe to us it appears how early the Bishops of Rome set out to usurp a Dominion over the Church and though they generally met with opposition yet they still went on and vigorously improv'd all advantages with what success the Christian world has now for many ages found to their cost And certainly never any stood fairer to start and carry on such a design For First Their Church was not only Apostolical but had been founded by two of the most eminent Apostles Peter and Paul which gave a mighty reputation to it in after Ages the Christian world bearing an extraordinary reverence to those great names which the Bishops of that See knew how to improve to their own advantage For this reason Irenaeus calls the Church of Rome the greatest and most eminent Church and most Universally known as being founded by the two most glorious Apostles Peter and Paul and S. Augustine says that in it there always flourished the principality of the Apostolick Chair and Origen took a journey on purpose to Rome to gratify his curiosity with the sight of so ancient and renowned a Church And upon this account must be discharged very many of those great things which several of the Fathers speak so liberally concerning the Church of Rome who thought they could never express a veneration big enough towards S. Peter and consequently towards the place which he had honoured with his Doctrine and Residence and watred with his Blood which however spoken by them out of a devout intent prov'd the first rounds of that Ladder by which the Roman Bishops mounted up to a Supremacy above the rest It happening in a few Ages that nothing was talkt of at Rome but of the Prince of the Apostles and the authority of the Apostolick See 'till almost every thing there became Apostolical and was covered with S. Peters name Secondly Their Church was planted in the Imperial City a place that seem'd born for Empire and Soveraignty that had long since Conquered and at that time Governed the greatest part of the World a City that was the Center of all Nations and the Seat of Majesty and Magnificence where all great affairs were transacted and all the Scenes of glory and greatness represented in a little compass Which could not but reflect a more than ordinary lustre upon those Bishops that sat at the upper end of the world and make them appear considerably bigger more conspicuous and useful than the rest of their Brethren and by reason of the general confluence of all Nations to Rome enable them in a little time to draw the cognizance of Ecclesiastick Causes from all parts thither 'T was this conveniency of Situation gave them opportunity to insinuate themselves into the favour of the Emperors and by their power to enlarge their own Borders yea and to succour and relieve their Clients and Dependants which made many to court their protection and assistance though often with the loss of their own freedom and liberty This was especially done after the Emperours became Christians the Roman Church being by them enrich'd with vast honours and priviledges accounting that the greatness of that Church would not a little contribute to the splendour and magnificence of the Empire And though the Imperial Seat was quickly translated to another place yet besides that the Emperours a long time retain'd their affection for Rome what the Pope lost in one sence he gain'd in another making use of the Emperours absence to enhance his own Power and Revenue 'till he was able not only to Lord it over his brethren but over Princes themselves Thirdly The Roman Church continued for several Ages the Seat of true Apostolick Doctrine maintaining that character that S Paul had given them that their Faith was spoken of throughout the whole world it being here preserv'd pure and uncorrupt while a great part of the Christian world besides was over run with Error and Heresie and torn in pieces by Schisms and Factions This made Rome in those days while it remain'd sound and Orthodox in a manner the Standard of Catholick Communion most other Churches veering in point of Communion as they found the Wind blow from that Quarter and saw how the business far'd at Rome Accordingly Theodosius in the beginning of his Reign resolving to reform the Doctrine of the Church then miserably degenerated in the Eastern parts commanded that that Faith only should take place that was profess'd by Pope Damasus and Peter of Alexandria that Faith and Religion which S. Peter had delivered to the Church of Rome and which had all along 'till that time flourisht there This made way for Appeals every party being desirous to gain the good will of that Church and to have its Bishop pronounce for their cause 'till from an honourary arbitration it came to be claim'd as a right and due And persons especially those who were persecuted in their own Countries for their adherence to the Catholick Faith were the more encourag'd to repair hither because here they were kindly treated and hospitably entertain'd a piece of charity which the Bishops of that Church by reason of their ample possessions and large endowments were very capable to afford For besides their standing Rents and Revenues their gains by collections and oblations was so great that by them alone in the time of Pope Damasus they were enabled to live in a state and grandeur like that of Temporal Princes if we may believe the account given by Ammianus Marcellinus and the story is known of Praetextatus a zealous Gentile design'd to be Consul who reflecting upon the plenty of that See was wont pleasanly to tell Pope Damasus make me but Bishop of Rome and I will immediately become a Christian 'T is certain that Church could never want plentiful Incomes flowing in upon it and as charitable it was in those days as it was wealthy and was not only very kind to strangers when they came thither but was wont to transmit very liberal distributions of its charity to forreign Churches to relieve the necessities of the Brethren that were under Persecution and were condemned to the Mines as Dionysius Bishop of Corinth tells us in his Letter to Soter Bishop of Rome written about the Year CLXXIV and that this had been the custome of that Church from the very Infancy of Christianity Fourthly The Church of Rome by the advantage of the Imperial City was capable of propagating the Christian Doctrine into several parts of the West to send out Disciples receive Dispatches transmit Directions and supply all
way of Argument by some otherwise learned enough 't is no wonder that nothing should be stuck at true or false that may serve their cause But I spare any farther censure of this Authour finding by his life publisht since the Writing of these Papers that he repented afterwards of so hasty and inconsiderate an undertaking and oft intended to have brought that work under a review and castigation And indeed any Man may at first sight discern 't was the issue of a Juvenile heat and wanted the corrections of calmer and maturer thoughts But perhaps it might prove no such easie task to make it out that S. Peter founded those three Sees and if he did that any such authority as is claim'd is thence deriv'd to the See of Rome Antioch and Alexandria did always maintain their Jurisdiction Independent though the Popes frequently inculcated their being originally Instituted by S. Peter as a kind of obligation to Rome and that which reflected the greatest honour upon those Churches And the Fathers we see found their preheminence upon the Glory and Majesty of their Cities and none more expresly than that of Rome the Bishop whereof was therefore honoured caress'd and add rest unto because Bishop of Rome And had he contented himself with that place and deference which the Fathers gave him and not broken down Inclosures and trampled over the Heads of his Brethren we should neither have envied nor denied it And though perhaps it might admit some dispute whether Rome having for so many Ages lost the honor of being the Imperial City the Privileges conferr'd upon that Church upon that account ought not in reason to abate proportionably yet we are willing to grant what genuine Antiquity did allow that the Bishop of that place containing himself within Primitive Rules and Orders should be esteemed the most honourable among all Christian Bishops that he should be first but not Lord much less Tyrant over his Brethren The Priviledges assign'd him by the ancient Canons were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says a late learned Patriarch of Alexandria Priviledges of honour not conveyances of a Tyrannical power to make or abrogate Laws as he pleases And therefore suppose the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Primacy of the Church of Rome mention'd in the beginning of this sixt Nicene Canon as 't is quoted by Paschasinus the Popes Legate in the Council of Chalcedon were granted yet who knows not that there is a Primacy of Order as well as Power a Primacy amongst equals and such 't is plain was that which the ancient Councils did assign him not an Universal Monarchical uncontroulable Power and Supremacy over the whole Christian Church which would have fundamentally destroy'd the very design of this Nicene Canon which makes the Bishops of Alexandria Antioch the other Provinces independent and as supream within their own limits as the Pope is in his Is there no difference between Precedency and Supremacy between Dignity and Dominion Let the Roman Church be the Head of all Churches as 't is sometimes styl'd by the Ancients and frequently challeng'd by the Popes 't is so only in an honourary sence and in that respect other Churches especially that of Constantinople have the same title given to them Where then shall we find the Soveraign Arbitrary and unbounded Power of the Bishop of Rome and where but in the pride ambition and Usurpation of that See certain I am it has not the least footing in this or any other ancient Council Nor can it be suppos'd that had the Fathers of this venerable Synod known of any such supereminent Power of the Roman Bishop as is now pretended to and know it they must if there had been any meeting from all parts of the World we cannot suppose I say they would have given the Bishops of Alexandria Antioch c. equal Power within their respective Provinces without inserting into the Canon a Salvo to the Supreme Rights and Prerogatives of the See of Rome especially when we find them in the very next Canon giving the Bishop of Jerusalem an honourable Session but still with a Proviso to preserve the Rights of the Metropolitan of that Province V. THAT the Rights of the Roman Metropolitan were not due by any Divine Constitution but flow'd only from Custome and the practice of the Church This is here laid down as one of the main foundations upon which the whole Body of the Canon is built the Right here convey'd not being Divine Institutions but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ancient Customs introduc'd by time and use and a wise contrivance Which is not only the case of Metropolitans in general but is particularly applied to him of Rome it being says the Canon the custome for the Bishop of Rome to have such Metropolitick Power Had these good Fathers known of any peculiar Commission given by Christ to Peter and in him to the Bishop of Rome to be his Supream and Universal Bishop upon Earth to Govern his Church by a despotical unaccountable power or that our Lord had but so much as authorized and appointed him to be Superiour to all the Bishops within the Roman Province it had been hard not to say unjust and unreasonable in them to conceal it and an irreparable injury to that Church to derive its authority from any meaner original An injury which we cannot conceive but that the Popes Legates who were then in Council must have immediately entred their Protest against But the Christian World was as yet unacquainted with such Notions and the Popes then either did not claim any such power or to be sure durst not challenge it in that Assembly where they knew it must be shamefully baffled and rejected What Power soever our Lord or his Apostles convey'd to Bishops this is certain that all Bishops as such stand upon a common level and that Superiority and Subordination among them is meerly from humane positive Institution borrowed from the Forms in the civil state and with great reason brought in to comply with the conveniencies and necessities of the Church And to this the Fathers usually refer it Thus we see they here determined the case of Metropolitans And in the following Canon the Bishop of Jerusalem's taking place next to his Metropolitan before all the other Bishops of that Province is ascrib'd to custome and ancient tradition In the Council of Ephesus the Bishop of Antioch was complain'd of for invading the Rights of the Metropolitan of Cyprus in deciding whereof the Fathers affirm it would be sufficient prejudice to his cause if he had not ancient custome on his side And having determin'd the case against him decree That every Province should enjoy those original Rights pure and inviolable which had been deriv'd to them by long continuance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according as the power of ancient custome had prevail'd And when some years after by reason of the Incursions of the barbarous people the Metropolitan of Cyprus was forc't to
Arch-bishop of Corinth How oft does S. Cyprian mention his Province and his Fellow-Bishops in it to whom he communicated affairs of the Church and commanded Mandavimus is his own word their help and assistance and this Province no mean one neither as extending over Africk properly so call'd Numidia and the two Mauritania's Nor can I see any reason with Salmasius to understand it of the civil Province especially when the best reason he gives is that the Power of Primates or Metropolitans was not yet in force which is a plain and shameful begging of the Question Indeed if he means it only of the Title by which they were call'd I grant that the word Metropolitan is very rarely if perhaps at all to be found in any Authentick Writer before the time of the Nicene Council They were in those days styl'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first Bishops and the Heads of Provinces as is plain from the XXXIV Apostolick Canon i. e they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the chief Bishops that resided in the several Metropoles as Zonaras truly expounds that Canon But whatever becomes of the Title the thing it self is plain to all that are not byass'd by prejudice and partiality that there was a Superiour Bishop in every Province resident at the Metropolis who partly by himself partly by the assistance of his Provincial Bishops meeting in Council usually manag'd all the more important Church-affairs within that Province The Sum in short of this great Nicene Canon amounts to this That the greater limits of Ecclesiastick Jurisdiction were concurrent with the Provinces of the Roman Empire that the prime Governours within those bounds were the Metropolitans and though some were more honourable than others by reason of the eminency of their Episcopal Stations yet that every Metropolitan had a free and independent power of Ordination and steering the main affairs of the Church within that Province that the Bishop of Rome had the same and no more within the Roman Province a Power not granted by any immediate commission or Divine authority but introduc't for conveniency and setled by custome and long continuance CHAP. III. The extent of the Bishop of Romes Jurisdiction considered as a Metropolitan A Search into the proper bounds of the Roman Bishop His Power Four-fold Episcopal Metropolitical Patriarchal Apostolical The First not controverted The last discharg'd as extravagant and groundless and as frequently baffled both by the Reformed and Greek Church L. Allatius's Jeer of his Country-men His Metropolitical Jurisdiction considered as concurrent with that of the Provost of Rome That how great and how far extending The Suburbicary Regions what Sicily no part of the Urbicary Regions The usual conformity between the extent of the Civil and Ecclesiastick Jurisdiction in those times The Power of the Roman Metropolitan confin'd within an Hundred Miles of Rome Rufinus his Exposition of the Suburbicary Churches Greatly quarrell'd at by the Romish Writers His authority in other cases allow'd sufficient and unquestionable His Book approv'd by Pope Gelasius and others No probability of his being mistaken in the sence of the Canon or the extent of the Roman Metropolitanship or the Suburbicary Churches His Explication confirm'd by most ancient Interpreters of this Canon The Bishops of Rome and Italy distinct The Bishop of Milan ranckt with him of Rome The objection of the Bishop of Romes being confin'd to so narrow a compass considered and answered The Majores Dioeceses in the Epistle of the Synod of Arles what The bounds of the Roman Bishops shew'd to have been heretofore small from an ancient Notitia Episcopatuum The fraud in the first publication of that Notitia Morinus noted The greatness of Rome equivalent to a large extent I. THUS far then we have gain'd that the Bishop of Rome as well as the rest was bounded within his Metropolitical Province the Council supposing this as the ground of its constitution that the Bishop of Alexandria should have jurisdiction over all within his Province as the Bishop of Rome had in his 'T is true the Council does not assign the proper limits of the Roman Metropolitanship as it does that of Alexandria there being a more particular reason why it should specify the latter that being the Subject under debate and the main if not only occasion of the Canon we must therefore search it out some other way And here we are told of a Three-fold power vested in the Pope Episcopal Patriarchal and Apostolical or as others distinguish a little more accurately he may be considered under a Four-fold capacity as a Bishop as a Metropolitan as a Patriarch and lastly as Pope or as he is the Vicar of Christ and Head of the Universal Church In which capacity he is not only more honourable than all other Bishops and Patriarchs but has full authority over them to consecrate confirm or depose them yea when he pleases to suppress old and to erect new Episcopal Sees Hereby they tell us he is constituted Judge over all Churches in the World and may at pleasure visit govern and give Laws to them For the First of these as he is a private Bishop we have no controversie with him And for the last his Supreme and Apostolical power over the whole Christian Church 't is so wild and extravagant a claim so groundless and precarious so utter a stranger to Scripture and Primitive Antiquity that it 's needless to take pains in the refuting of it Nay the Popes themselves how desirous soever to amplify their own Power have not yet dar'd to challenge it where they knew it would be disputed or denied In the discourse that past between Constantius and Pope Liberius about the condemnation of Athanasius the Emperour askt him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what great part of the World are you that you only should take his part and that as he urges a little before when the whole World had past Sentence upon him The proper answer to which had Liberius known of any such power had been this I only am intrusted by Christ with Supream Authority over the whole Church and I having acquitted him 't is no matter though the whole World besides has condemn'd him And so no doubt he would have answered had he been aware of any such Prerogative affixt to his See But Popes had not then set this claim on foot nor 't is like dreamt of it nor if they had was the World as yet dispos'd to receive it Something we said to this before when we considered the Bishop of Rome as standing uppermost among the Metropolitans mention'd in the Nicene Canon To add more were a vain and impertinent loss of time especially after so much as has been said upon this Argument both by the Writers of the Greek Church Alexius Aristinus Zonar as Balsamon Matthaeus Blastares Pet. Antiochenus Macarius Ancyranus Demetrius Chomatenus Barlaam Nilus Thessalonicensis Nicetus Seidus Nilus Doxopatrius
two things are plain beyond all just exception First that the Jurisdiction of the City-Praefect reacht an Hundred miles about Rome Secondly that the Urbicary and Suburbicary Regions lay chiefly and in all likelyhood intirely within that compass and deriv'd that title from their vicinity to the City and their immediate dependance upon the Government of its Provost And I cannot but a little wonder that Sirmond who more than once grants the Praefect of Rome to have had jurisdiction within an Hundred miles should yet as often deny that he had any Provinces under his Government as if there had been no Provinces within that compass when they are expresly call'd the Suburbanae Provinciae in the Theodosian Code and the ordinary Judges in those parts commanded to return all greater causes to the Tribunal of the City-Praefect and this in contradistinction to the course of other Provinces which were to be accountable to the Praetorian Praefect IV. HAVING thus found out the Jurisdiction of the Roman Praefect it should one would think be no hard matter to discover that of the Bishop of Rome there being so known a correspondence between the Civil and Ecclesiastical Government of those days And though this did not always nor Universally take place and how should it when time and the Will of Princes made such alterations in the bounds of places and Provinces yet did it generally obtain A thing introduc'd at first for greater conveniency founded upon long custome and settled by several Laws and Canons of the Church insomuch that if a change or alteration had been or should hereafter be made by imperial authority in any City that then the Order of Episcopal Sees should follow the civil and Political forms as is expresly provided by two general Councils the one of Chalcedon the other of Constantinople Nor can any reason be given why the Bishop of Alexandria should exercise a Pastoral Authority over Three such large Provinces as Egypt Libya and Pentapolis but only because they were under the civil Government of the Praefectus Augustalis the Imperial Vice-roy who kept his residence in that City The Jurisdiction then of the Bishop of Rome being of equal circumference with that of the Roman Provost must extend to all the City-Provinces that lay within an Hundred miles round about it Accordingly we find that when great disturbances were made in the Church of Rome by the Manichees and other Hereticks and Schismaticks Valentinian the Third writes to Faustus Praefect of Rome to expel them all out of the City but especially to proceed against those who separated themselves from the Communion of the venerable Pope and whose Schism did infect the people commanding him that if upon warning given they should not within Twenty days reconcile themselves he should banish them One hundred miles out of the City that so they might be punisht with their self-chosen solitude and separation The Emperour thinking it but just that they who had voluntarily rejected should be themselves cast out of the bounds of his Jurisdiction that they who had perverted many in the Capital City should not be left within any part of his Diocess to infect the people And this was done in compliance with the course observ'd in civil cases where notorious malefactours were so us'd Thus Symmachus the Gentile was for his insolence banish'd an Hundred miles out of Rome And some Ages before that Severus having cashiered the Souldiers that murdered the Emperour Pertinax banisht them and charg'd them at the peril of their Heads not to come within an Hundred miles of Rome that is within the limits of the City-Praefecture And more plainly yet in the case of Ursicinus who had rais'd infinite stirs at Rome about the choice of Pope Damasus and had set up himself as Competitor in that Election for which he had been banish'd into France Valentinian the Elder afterwards as appears by his Rescript directed to Ampelius the City-Provost gave him and his companions leave to return into Italy provided they came not to Rome nor any place within the Suburbicary Regions that is within the Jurisdiction of the Roman Bishop But Rufinus has put the case beyond all question who in his short paraphrase for for a translation we may be sure he never intended it of the Sixt Nicene Canon tells us that according to ancient custome as he of Alexandria had in Egypt so the Bishop of Rome had the care and charge of the Suburbicary Churches The Champions of the Roman Church finding themselves sorely pinch'd with this authority have no other way to relieve themselves but to throw it quite off their Necks and to fall foul upon Rufinus loading him with all the hard Names and Characters of reproach charging him with malice falshood ignorance want of learning and indeed what not But the World is not now to be taught that Rufinus was a Man of parts and learning witness the reputation which his Works had of old and still have to this day Pope Gelasius with his Synod of seventy Bishops allow'd them the case only of free-will excepted And among the rest his Ecclesiastical History wherein this very Nicene Canon is extant and gives him too the title of a Religious Man into the bargain So that Rufinus his Exposition has the Popes own approbation on its side And surely if ever his judgment be infallible it is when he has his Council about him to advise and assist him And though perhaps that Gelasian Synod if searcht into may not be of that authentick credit as to lay any considerable stress upon it yet however it stands good against them that own its authority and thereby approve its determination And though it had not given this testimony to Rufinus yet there wants not other evidence that the thing was so Accordingly Hincmar of Rhemes speaking of this very Book of Rufinus whence this passage is taken assures us it was one of those that were receiv'd in the Catalogue of the Apostolick See Nay his Ecclesiastical History obtain'd such credit that it was wont solemnly to be appeal'd to by Fathers and Councils in some of the most weighty and important cases of the Church V. NOR is there any shadow of probability that he should be mistaken either in the sence of the Nicene Canon or in the Province of the Bishop of Rome He was himself an Italian born not above Twenty years after the Synod of Nice Baptiz'd and perhaps born at Aquileia a famous City of Friuli honoured heretofore with the residence of Augustus and some other Emperours and made afterwards a Metropolis and the Seat of the Praetorian Prefect and himself a Presbyter of that Church He had been frequently conversant at Rome had travell'd over most parts of the Christian World and had convers'd with persons of the greatest note and eminency in every place In all which respects he could no more mistake the jurisdiction of the See of
place among the Patriarchs assign'd to him as appears from the constitution of the sixth general Council And because Jerusalem lay in the borders both of the Antiochain and Alexandrian Patriarchates therefore to make up its jurisdiction we are told that something was taken out of each the Metropolitick Sees of Rabba and Berytus from him of Alexandria as Caesarea and Scythopolis from him of Antioch And that as a badge of his ancient subjection the Metropolitan of Caesarea still had the honour to Ordain the Patriarch of Jerusalem as upon the fame account he of Heraclea had to Consecrate the Patriarch of Constantinople And in this Patriarchal capacity we find the Bishop of Jerusalem subscribing in all Councils and upon occasions summoning the Bishops of his Patriarchate Thus Ann. DXVIII we find John Bishop of Jerusalem with his Synod of the Bishops of the three Palaestines sending a Letter to John Patriarch of Constantinople And when the Council at Constantinople under Mennas had condemn'd Anthimus Severus and the rest of the Acephali Ann. DXXXVI Peter Patriarch of Jerusalem as he is all along call'd in the Acts of his Council summon'd a Patriarchal Synod of all the Bishops of the three Palaestine Provinces who confirm'd what had been done in the Council at Constantinople And thenceforwards the Patriarchate of Jerusalem runs smooth and currant through the History of the Church As to what Bishops and Metropolitans he had under him the old Notitiae give us this account The Patriarch himself had immediately under him XXV Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nilus Doxopatrius calls them Independent Bishopricks because subject to no other Metropolitan besides which he had four Metropolitans The Metropolitan of Caesarea who had twenty Bishops under him he of Scythopolis or Basan who had nine Rabba Moabitis or as Doxopatrius has it Petra who had twelve and Berytus who had XXXV which by the Authors we have cited are particularly reckon'd up CHAP. V. The bounds of the Roman Patriarchate A return to the Roman Patriarchate The limits hereof not expresly set down by the ancients Unjustly pretended to reach over the whole West This granted by them of the Greek Church and why The Popes Patriarchal Power disown'd by the Churches of Milan Aquileia and Ravenna The independency and opposition of those Churches to the Roman See severally evinc't by particular cases and instances The Power of Metropolitans in France kept up independant from Rome The truth of this consess'd and clear'd by De Marca Other instances of preserving their Rights against the pretensions of Rome Hincmar of Rhemes and the Synod of Metz. Two other National Churches instanc't in the African and the Britannick Churches The famous case of Appeals in the Church of Africk A clear account of that matter Their publick rejecting the power which the Pope challeng'd over those Churches The Letters of the Council of Carthage to Pope Boniface and Caelestine to that purpose Several useful and proper Corollaries deduc't from this story for the evincing the vain pretensions of the Papal Power over those Churches The boldness of some in denying the truth of this whole story The state of the Britannick Church The Progress of Religion and Church-Government here 'till the times of Pope Gregory The Church Govern'd by an Arch-bishop and Bishop at Austin's arrival Their customs wholly different from and independant upon Rome Their absolute refusal to own the authority of Austin or the Pope The slaughter of the Bangor-Monks suspiciously charg'd upon Austin The Popes proper Patriarchate most probably shew'd to be of equal extent with the Jurisdiction of the Vicarius Urbicus What Provinces under his Government The Roman Synod consisting of the Bishops of those Provinces A two-fold Patriarchate of the Pope trifling and precarious The Bishops of Rome daily amplyfying their Jurisdiction The means whereby they did this briefly intimated I. HAVING thus dispatcht the other Patriarchs we return to him of Rome ever allow'd to be the first and most honourable of the number What his Patriarchal bounds were the Records of the Church have not so particularly set out as they have done the rest And here the Champions of that Church when they find themselves prest upon and that rhe Popes Universal and Apostolical Power is a Post not to be defended presently retreat to his Patriarchate which with great confidence they extend over the whole Western World being content with half when they cannot have all And to this prodigious Latitude some of them stretch the Suburbicary Churches as if the whole Western Empire had been nothing but the Suburbs of Rome and in this sence they tell us Rufinus meant the Canon of Nice and this upon no wiser reason than what is as trifling and precarious as the other that the whole West was the Special Diocess of the Bishop of Rome But this looks rather like Fancy and Romance than that grave and sober arguing that becomes those great Names that use it Omitting therefore this extravagant notion of Suburbicary Churches come we to the thing it self And herein it must be granted they have the later Greeks Zonaras Balsamon Barlaam Nilus c. on their side who very liberally give him all the Western Provinces and that too by vertue of the sixth Canon of Nice A concession which they make not so much out of any kindness to the Church of Rome as partly out of a design to magnifie the power and greatness of their own Patriarch of Constantinople who was to share equal priviledges with him of Rome partly because they were willing to keep the Pope within any bounds whose restless ambition they saw carrying all before it and therefore car'd not to throw him the West for his portion for which they had no care or concernment what became of it being mainly intent upon preserving their Jurisdiction at home And here I cannot but by the way remark the indiscreet and injudicious Zeal of a very Learned man who confidently asserts that in the expedition of the Franks for the recovery of the Holy Land God by a peculiar providence let the Eastern Parts be subdued by the Western Armies that so those famous Patriarchal Sees might learn to strike Sail to the See of Rome and own the greatness and dignity of that Church Besides 't is to be considered that in this concession the Greeks took their measures of things from the state of the Church as it was in their time when the Pope had in a manner intirely subdued the Western Provinces to the See of Rome But in the better and more early Ages the case was otherwise And indeed that the Popes Patriarchal Jurisdiction was far enough from extending over the whole West there can be no better evidence than that there was scarce any Western Church in those days that did not upon occasion oppose the power and remonstrate against the Usurpations of the See of Rome In Italy we need go no further than
to those Churches that lay next it I mean the great Churches of Milan Aquileia and Ravenna II. HOW great Milan was and of how great reputation the Bishop of it so that he stood upon a level with him of Rome we briefly noted before it being next Rome the largest richest most plentiful and populous City of the West as Procopius tells us S. Ambrose his Election and Ordination to that See was made purely by the Provincial Bishops and at the command of the Emperour without the least notice taken of the Roman Bishop A case so clear that De Marca fairly gives up the cause and confesses that in those times and for some Ages after the Pope had nothing to do in the Ordination of the Metropolitan of Milan Nay that this was the case of all Metropolitans out of the Popes Jurisdiction in Italy where the Bishops of every Province constantly Ordain'd their own Metropolitans without any authority or so much as consent had from the Bishop of Rome But then not being able to shift off the evidence of truth and yet willing withall to serve his cause he does in order to that design distinguish the Roman Patriarchate into ordinary over a great part of Italy and extraordinary over the whole West A distinction wholly precarious and which is worse false And indeed what kind of Patriarchate that must be that could consist without right of Ordaining Metropolitans the first and most inseparable branch of Patriarchal Power would have become a person of his I say not ingenuity but wisdom and learning to have considered As for Milan the Metropolitick Rights of that Church he confesses continued independant at least till the year DLV. And indeed 't is plain from the Epistle of Pope Pelagius who confesses that the Bishops of Milan did not use to come to Rome but they and the Bishops of Aquileia Ordain'd each other and when he was not able to reduce them by other means he endeavour'd to bring them in by the help of the secular Arm as appears from his Letter to Narses the Emperours Lieutenant to that purpose And afterwards upon a difference that hapened Milan withdrew it self from the Communion of the Church of Rome for Two hundred years together And though with others it was brought at last under the common yoke yet upon every little occasion it reasserted its original liberty Thus when Ann. MLIX great disturbances arose in that Church Pope Nicolaus the Second sent Peter Damian as his Legate to interpose This made it worse the common out-cry presently was That the Ambrosian Church ought not be subject to the Laws of Rome and that the Pope had no power of Judging or ordering matters in that See that it would be a great indignity if that Church which under their Ancestors had been always free should now to their extream reproach which God forbid become subject to another Church The clamour increas'd and the people grew into an higher ferment the Bells are rung the Episcopal Pallace beset the Legate threatned with Death who getting into the Pulpit and having in a short speech set forth the Pope's and S. Peter's power and wheedled the people with some popular insinuations reduc'd things to a better order III. THE Church of Aquileia was much at the same pass with that of Milan the Bishops whereof mutually Ordain'd one another without so much as asking the Pope leave And though Pelagius would insinuate that this was done only to save the trouble and charge of a journy to Rome yet De Marca honestly confesses the true reason was that Milan being the Head of the Italick Diocess the Ordaining the Metropolitan of Aquileia belong'd to him as Primate and the Ordaining the Primate of Milan belong'd to him of Aquileia as being the first Metropolitan of the Diocess of Italy Upon this account and that of the tria capitula this Church held no correspondence with that of Rome for above an Hundred years and when Gregory the Great having got the Emperour on his side attempted by force and armed violence to bring them to answer their stubbornness at Rome the Bishop of Aquileia with his Provincial Synod met and wrote an humble remonstrance to the Emperour Mauricius wherein they set forth the true state of their case and the unjust and violent proceedings of the Pope and plainly tell him that they had at the time of their Ordination given caution in writing to their Metropolitan which they never had nor would violate and that unless his Majesty was pleas'd to remove this compulsion their Successours would not be suffered to come to Aquileia for Ordination but would be forc't to fly to the Arch-bishops of France as being next at hand and receive it there The Emperour was satisfied with their Addresses and wrote to the Pope Baronius calls them imperious Letters written more Tyrannico like a Tyrant commanding him to surcease the Prosecution and to create those Bishops no farther trouble 'till the affairs of Italy were quieted and things might more calmly be enquired into Baronius is strangely angry at this Letter even to the heighth of rudeness and passion especially towards so good an Emperour that he should take upon him arroganti fastu with so much pride and arrogancy not to beseech but to command the Pope which he again says was done not like an Emperour but a Tyrant But the Istrian and Ligurian Bishops little regarded how it thundred at Rome Nay to make the ballance hang more even they had some time since advanc't their Metropolitan to the title and honour of a Patriarch which Baronius himself grants was done while Paulinus was Metropolitan of Aquileia about the year DLXX. An honour a long time resident at Aquileia then translated to Grado and at last fixt at Venice Though withal Aquileia having recovered its broken fortunes resum'd the style and dignity of a Patriarch an honour which it retains to this day IV. LET us next view the Church of Ravenna and see whether that was any more conformable to Rome than the rest Ravenna had for some time especially from the days of Honorius been the Seat of the Roman Emperours and in the declining times of the Empire the Exarchs of Italy who govern'd in chief under the Emperour constantly resided there while Rome was under the command of a petty Duke Swell'd with so much honour and advantage the Bishops of Ravenna for some Ages disputed place with them of Rome the Exarchs taking all occasions to curb and repress the Pope Ann. DCXLIX Maurus sometimes Steward of that Church entred upon the Archiepiscopal See of Ravenna A man as my Author grants wise and of a shrew'd sharp Wit He without taking any notice of Rome was Consecrated by three Bishops of his own Province Ordain'd his own Provincial Bishops and was so far from seeking any Confirmation from the Pope that he received his Pall from the Emperour This gave infinite
the whole West when there 's scarce any one Western Church that did not in those times stoutly appear against the incroachments of Rome But you 'll say where then shall we find the Roman Patriarchate certainly within much narrower limits And here nothing can offer it self with so much rational probability as that his Patriarchal Jurisdiction was concurrent with that of the Vicarius Urbicus or the Lieutenant of Rome as his Metropolitical was with that of the Praefectus Urbis or City-Provost Now the Vicarius Urbicus had ten Provinces under his Government four Consular viz. Campania Tuscia and Umbria Picenum Suburbicarium the Suburbicary as well as other Provinces being in some cases especially that of Tribute under the Inspection of the Praetorian Praefect and his Lieutenant Sicilia Two Correctorial Apulia with Calabria and Lucania Brutiorum Four Praesidial Samnium Sardinia Corsica and Valeria This was the Urbicary Diocess distinct from the Italick Diocess the Metropolis whereof was Milan Within these bounds the Bishops of Rome especially after the times of the Nicene Council took upon them to exercise Jurisdiction to call Synods Ordain Metropolitans and dispatch other Church-afairs Hence they had their usual Synod which was a kind of Council in ordinary to the Bishop of Rome and met upon all important occasions Such was the Synod of Pope Damasus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and of the Bishops that Assembled with him at Rome mention'd by Athanasius as conven'd about his Cause Such that of the Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in those parts spoken of by Pope Julius as concurring with him in his Letter to the Eastern Bishops The old Roman notitia produc'd by Baronius out of the Records of the Vatican but of an Age much later than the times we write of tells us this Synod consisted of LXX Bishops And much about that number we find them in the Acts of Councils as in the Synod under Pope Gelasius and in that under Symmachus Thus we find Pope Leo requiring the Bishops of Sicily to send three of their number every year upon Michaelmus-day to meet the Roman Synod fraterno concilio socâ—andi And the Synod of Sardica sending their Decrees to Pope Julius desire him to communicate them to the Bishops in Sicily Sardinia and Italy i. e. that part of Italy that lay within the Urbicary Diocess that none of them might receive communicatory Letters from any that had been depos'd in that Council And this was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the multitude of Bishops wherewith Pope Leo was encompast and whom by vertue of the power and preheminence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his own proper place and Jurisdidiction he had conven'd out of many Cities in Italy as the Empress Galla Placidia speaks in her Letter to Theodosius Not but that sometimes here as in other places we find foreign Bishops convening in Synods with those under the Jurisdiction of the Roman Bishop especially upon some extraordinary emergencies But then this was only in a Brotherly way and at the invitation of the chief Bishop of those parts and not that they were under his charge and government He had no direct and immediate influence over any but those who lay within the bounds over which the civil Governours who resided at Rome extended their authority and who no doubt fell in the willinglier with his Jurisdiction for the conveniency of their being aided and assisted by the Church of Rome By all which we see that no sooner were Dioceses divided and settled by the civil constitution but the Roman Bishop began to extend his Jurisdiction commensurate to the Urbicary Diocess within which his Metropolitical was at last swallowed up This the Learned Arch-bishop of Paris readily grants and thinks is intimated in the ancient Version of the Nicene Canon which we mention'd before where the Bishop of Rome is said to have Principality over the Suburbicary places and all the Province the first denoting the Government of the Provost the latter that of the Vicarius or Lieutenant of Rome and consequently the one represents the Popes Metropolitical the other his Patriarchal Jurisdiction 'T is true he often tells us of a two-fold Patriarchate the Pope had ordinary and extraordinary the one reaching to the Urbicary Diocess the other over the whole West But with how little reason and pretence of truth we noted before We grant the Pope had always great honour given him by all and more by the Western Churches but authoritative power he had not but over his own special Diocess nor does S. Basil's styling him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the chief of the Western Bishops imply any more than dignity and precedence or the Empires being divided into East and West and in allusion thereto the Churches being sometimes distinguish'd into Eastern and Western make any more for his Western Patriarchate than it did for the Bishop of Constantinoples being Patriarch over the whole East Arguments which I should be asham'd to mention but that they are produc'd by such great Names and are indeed the best they have in this matter I grant that according to the ambitious humour of that Church they were always attempting to enlarge their Borders and to propagate their power beyond its just limits and partly by recommending persons to be Bishops in foreign Churches and thence proceeding to impose them partly by interposing in Ordinations and exacting an Oath of Obedience to the See of Rome from the persons Consecrated partly by challenging the immediate decision of Episcopal Causes and a power to confirme translate excommunicate depose or restore all delinquent Bishops partly by drawing Appeals to Rome and taking the determination of matters from the cognizance of their proper Judges and arrogating the sole priviledge of judging and condemning Heresies partly by claiming to preside in all Councils and if disoblig'd withholding their assent to the Decrees of Synods partly by sending their Legates into foreign Countries to hear and decide cases and take up controversies by taking off and engaging brisk and active Bishops by honourary Imployments by sending Commissions to the Bishops of the greater Sees and lodging certain powers in their hands to act as their Vicars within their several Provinces that so they might seem to derive their authority from the Roman See as they did at Thessalonica Corinth Justiniana Prima Arles c. partly by giving all imaginable encouragement to persons whether of the Clergy or Laity to send to Rome for the resolution of difficult and important cases and partly by dispatching Missionaries to convert Pagan Countries by these and infinite other the like Arts and Methods they grew in time though not 'till some Ages to challenge and exercise a power over all the Churches of the West But from the beginning it was not so The summ then of all that has been discours'd hitherto is this that as 't was the Dignity of the City of Rome gave the Bishops
of that place preheminence above all other Primates or Patriarchs so 't was the division of the Empire made by Constantine exalted his power from that of a Metropolitan to a Patriarch and enlarged it to an equal extent with the Diocess of the Lieutenant of Rome within which Bounds they pretty well contain'd themselves 'till their pride and ambition began more openly to break out and to disturb the peace and order of the Church CHAP. VI. The Encroachments of the See of Rome upon other Sees especially the See of Constantinople The Roman Bishops breaking the bounds of all Laws and Canons Their taking hold of all occasions of magnifying their own power Instances of Julius Damasus Innocent Zosimus to this purpose The briskness and activity of Pope Leo. His many Letters written to advance the reputation of his authority His jealous eye upon the growing greatness of the See of Constantinople The attempts and actings of his Legates in the Council of Chalcedon Their mighty opposition against the passing the XXVIII Canon of that Synod The fraud of Paschasinus in citing the sixth Canon of Nice Their protestation against the power granted to the Bishop of Constantinople Pope Leo's zeal and rage against these Synodal proceedings Faelix his Excommunicating Acacius of Constantinople The pretended occasion of that Sentence The same spleen continued and carried on by Pope Gelasius A reconciliation procur'd by the Emperour Justin between the Bishops of Rome and Constantinople Pope John's insulting over Epiphanius in his own Church at Constantinople John the Seconds raving Letter to Justinian The Bishop of Constantinople assumes the Title of Oecumenical Patriarch This in what sence probably meant The passionate resentment of Pope Pelagius hereat The same zeal shew'd by his Successour Gregory the Great His Letters written upon that occasion The hard words he every where bestows upon that Title His mistake about the offer of that Title to the Pope in the Chalcedon Council The true state of that case This Title frequently given to the Constantinopolitan Bishops in the Council under Menans before John assum'd it Baronius's poor evasion of that matter Gregory still continues to thunder out Anathema's against this Title All this suspected to be but noise and the quarrel only because themselves had not the Title Phocas his Usurpation of the Empire The monstrous villany and wickedness of that Man Pope Gregory's scandalously flattering Caresses to him and his Empress Boniface the Third makes suit to Phocas and procures the Title of Oecumenical to be affixt to the See of Rome The Popes daily enlargement of their Power and Tyranny and their advantages for so doing The whole concluded with the Canons or DICTATES of Pope Hildebrand I. THOUGH Custome and the Canons of the Church had set out the Bishop of Rome his proper Portion in the Ecclesiastick Government yet how hard is it for covetousness and ambition to keep within any bounds A spirit of pride still fermented in that See that made them restless 'till they had thrown down all enclosures and that their Sheaf alone as it was in Joseph's Vision arose and stood upright and the Sheaves of their Brethren stood round about and did obeysance to it In the discovery whereof we shall only remark the more general attempts they made concerning it And first nothing made more way to their Usurpt Dominion than the magnifying their own power and the priviledges of their Church upon all occasions II. TO begin no earlier than Pope Julius in his Letters to the Bishops of Antioch to make them more willing to submit their Cause to be tried at Rome he had it seems highly extoll'd the greatness of that Church and the dignity and authority of his See as appears by the summ of their answer and his rejoynder to their Letter Not long after Pope Damasus writing also to the Eastern Bishops commends them that they had yielded due reverence to the Apostolick See And though this was spoken with modesty enough aw'd hereinto perhaps by the Synod at Rome in whose Name he wrote yet in his Epistle to them of Numidia and in general to all Catholick Bishops if that Epistle be genuine he speaks out telling them that according to ancient institutions they did well in all doubtful cases to have recourse to him as to the head and that this was founded upon Custome and Ecclesiastick Canons concluding his long Epistle thus All which Decretals and the constitutions of all my Predecessors which have been publish'd concerning Ecclesiastical Orders and Canonical Discipline we command to be observ'd by you and all Bishops and Priests so that whoever shall offend against them shall not be received to pardon the Cause properly respecting us who ought to steer the Government of the Church This was most Pontifically spoken and boldly ventured at especially if we consider how little the African Bishops regarded the authority of the Roman Church when the case of Appeals arose a few years after as we have already seen at large Siricius came next to Damasus and he in his Letter to Himerius of Taragon in Spain magnifies the Roman Church as the Head of that Body and bids him convey those Rules he had sent to all the Bishops in that and the neighbour Countries it not being fit that any Bishop should be ignorant of the constitutions of the Apostolick See Innocent the First more than once and again styles the Church of Rome the Fountain and Head of all Churches and this built upon ancient Canons and yet perhaps meant no more than that it was the principal and most eminent Church of the Christian World An honour which upon several accounts intimated before Antiquity freely bestow'd upon it Zosunus in a Letter to the Council of Carthage produc'd by Baronius out of a Vatican Copy makes a mighty flourish with the unlimited power of S. Peter that he had the care not only of the Roman but of all Churches ratified by the Rules of the Church and the tradition of the Fathers that both by Divine and Humane Laws this Power descended upon the Bishop of that See whose sentence none might presume to reverse III. LEO the Great entred that See about the year CCCCXL. A Man of somewhat a brisker and more active temper than those that had been before him and one that studied by all imaginable methods to enlarge his Jurisdiction and being a Man of Parts and Eloquence did amplify and insinuate his power with more advantage He tells the Mauritanian Bishops That he would dispence with the Election of those Bishops who had been immediately taken out of the Laity so they had no other irregularity to attend them not intending to prejudice the commands of the Apostolick See and the Decrees of his Predecessours and that what he pass'd by at present should not hereafter go without its censure and punishment if any one should dare to attempt what he had thus absolutely forbidden And elsewhere that
of Rome upon other Sees especially the See of Constantinople The Roman Bishops breaking the bounds of all Laws and Canons Their taking hold of all occasions of magnifying their own power Instances of Julius Damasus Innocent Zosimus to this purpose The briskness and activity of Pope Leo. His many Letters written to advance the reputation of his authority His jealous eye upon the growing greatness of the See of Constantinople The attempts and actings of his Legates in the Council of Chalcedon Their mighty opposition against the passing the XXVIII Canon of that Synod The fraud of Paschasinus in citing the sixth Canon of Nice Their protestation against the power granted to the Bishop of Constantinople Pope Leo's zeal and rage against these Synodal Proceedings Faelix his Excommunicating Acacius of Constantinople The pretended occasion of that Sentence The same spleen continued and carried on by Pope Gelasius A reconciliation procur'd by the Emperour Justin between the Bishops of Rome and Constantinople Pope John's insulting over Epiphanius in his own Church at Constantinople John the Second's ranting Letter to Justinian The Bishop of Constantinople assumes the title of Oecumenical Patriarch This in what sence probably meant The passionate resentment of Pope Pelagius hereat The same zeal shew'd by his Successor Gregory the Great His Letters written upon that occasion The hard words he every where bestows upon that title His mistake about the offer of that title to the Pope in the Chalcedon Council The true state of that case This title frequently given to the Constantinopolitan Bishops in the Council under Mennas before John assumed it Baronius's poor evasion of that matter Gregory still continues to thunder out Anathema's against this Title All this suspected to be but noise and the quarrel only because themselves had not the title Phocas his Usupation of the Empire The monstrous villany and wickedness of that man Pope Gregory's scandalously flattering Caresses to him and his Empress Boniface the Third makes suit to Phocas and procures the title of Oecumenical to be affixt to the See of Rome The Pope's daily enlargement of their Power and Tyranny and their advantages for so doing The whole concluded with the Canons or DICTATES of Pope Hildebrand Page 267 ERRATA PAge 5. line 8. read whosoever p. 52. l. 21. r. Administration p. 73. marg r. iii. p. 75. l. 12. r. head p. 110. l. 19. r. Crustuminum p. 133. l. 15. r. larger p. 136. l. 3. r. desire p. 152. l. 12. after who add are p. 173. l. 4. r. this p. 187. l. 22. r. them p. 300. l. 4. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 304. l. 13. r. Isidore A DISSERTATION Concerning the GOVERNMENT OF THE ANCIENT CHURCH BY Bishops Metroplitans and Patriarchs c. CHAP. I. The State of the Church-Government and Power of the Roman Bishops till the Council of Nice An Equality among the Apostles as Church Governours appointed by Christ Peters pretended Supremacy over the rest shewed to be vain and groundless If any such had been granted it belong'd not to the Roman Bishops Early appearances of the Pride and Usurpation of the Bishops of that Church Special advantages of that See to set up for Tyranny and Usurpation The foundation of that Church by two great Apostles Peter and Paul Rome the Seat of the Empire The honour and advantages of that Church thereby The Catholick Faith long time preserv'd intire in the Church of Rome It s large Revenues affording liberal Hospitality It s sending forth Emissaries to plant Christianity in other Countries and thereby claiming superiority over them The pride of that Church severely censur'd by St. Basil A general Scheme of the subordination in the Government of the Primitive Church by Bishops Arch-bishops and Patriarchs and the Conformity herein to the Civil State Episcopal Government how it spreads it self at first Metropolitans introduc'd and why A brief account of the ancient way of Ecclesiastical Administration out of Cyprian and others by the Bishop and his Clergy by Provincial Synods What things usually manag'd there Foreign Churches how mutually transacting with one another The Bishops of Rome had no more authority in this Period than the Bishops of other greater Sees Pope Melchiades appointed Commissioner by Constantine Donatus appeals from his Judgment His sentence brought under Examinations in the Synod of Arles I. ORDER and Government are so essentially necessary to the peace and welfare of Mankind that no Society whether civil or sacred can subsist without it Where there is none to command there will be none to obey and where every one is left to do what he please there must be confusion and every evil work No sooner therefore had our Blessed Saviour laid the foundation of the Christian Church but he chose twelve whom he named Apostles to whose care and conduct he committed the administration of it These he invested with equal powers upon these he deriv'd the same mission which he himself had receiv'd from God As my father sent me so send I you All had the same authority to Preach Plant and propagate the Church to feed and rule the flock of Christ to go teach and baptize all Nations the same Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven committed to one as well as another that whatsoever sins they should remit they should be remitted and whosoever sins they retain they should be retained The same Holy Spirit breathed upon all with a receive ye the Holy Ghost Notwithstanding all which it is confidently pretended on the behalf of S. Peter that a paramount authority was conferr'd upon him and that not only above but over the rest that he was constituted by our Lord Prince and Head of the Colledge the other Apostles were indeed Shepherds of the Flock but were themselves Christs Sheep and St. Peter appointed Pastor over them with a great deal more boldly asserted at a venture and attempted to be made good by such warrant from Scripture as any thing but the necessity of maintaining a desperate cause would be ashamed to produce And as no such charter can be produc'd sign'd by our Saviour so neither do we find S. Peter challenging much less exercising any such superiority He submitted to the Orders of the Apostolical Colledge and rendered himself accountable to them for his actions styles himself no more than their Fellow-Presbyter and cautions against Lording over God's Heritage How openly did S. Paul assert that he came not a whit behind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very chiefest Apostles and that the Gospel of the Uncircumcision was committed unto him as well as that of the Circumcision was to Peter James and John are said to be Pillars as well as he nay the whole twelve Apostles are equally styl'd the twelve foundations of the new Jerusalem that descended out of Heaven and it was indifferently promised to all that they should sit upon twelve Thrones judging the twelve Tribes of Israel Nay when a strife arose amongst
Emergencies that might arise Accordingly upon this foundation the Popes built and advanc't a claim to Superiority and Dominion Thus Damasus writing to the Bishops of Africk tells them that in all doubtful cases they ought to have recourse to him as to the head and thence to take their determination from whence they had received their institution and instruction in the Christian Faith And Pope Innocent tells Decentius Bishop of Eugubium that all the Churches in those parts ought to take their measures from Rome and nothing to be valid but what 's received from thence it being evident that no Churches had been planted in Italy France Spain Africk Sicily and the interjacent Islands by any but such as had been Ordain'd by S. Peter or his Successors And this is the Plea we are so often urg'd with whereby the Roman See challenges jurisdiction over England its commissionating Augustine the Monk to convert the Saxons and settle Religion in these parts But were there no more to be offered in answer to it this were enough that Christianity had for several ages been planted here before ever Austin set his foot on English ground as perhaps we may have occasion to shew afterwards In short though it became Churches thus planted to bear a very grateful respect to that Mother Church that was the instrument to convey to them the Christian faith yet did it lay them under no obligation to subjection and servitude however the Church of Rome has handled the matter to its own advantage and from the lenity and tenderness of a Parent had degenerated into the pride and cruelty of a Stepmother and not content to exercise authority over its own Colonies began to advance its banners over all the rest proudly proclaiming it self the Mother and Mistres of all Churches I observe no more then that pride seems to be a vice more peculiar to Rome than other places 't was this put the old Romans upon subduing the world and by this the Emperors tyrannized over it for some ages and when Rome shifted its Lords it did not change its Task-masters the ambition which the Emperors laid down the Popes took up and prosecuted it by far worse arts and methods than ever the Romans did of old S. Basil more than once complains of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the pride of the West and how little help was to be expected from them that neither understood the truth nor would be content to learn it that he was resolved to write to the Pope to let him know that it did not become him to insult over and add to the miseries of the afflicted nor to think pride to be honourable a thing alone sufficient to render a man odious in the sight of God and elsewhere he expresses a very passionate resentment that he hated the pride of that Church V. FURNISHED with these advantages the Roman Prelates set up for themselves and gave not over till they had by right and wrong spread such an Ecclesiastic Empire over the world as would admit neither superior nor equal In order to the discovery whereof it will be necessary to enquire what was of old the proper jurisdiction of the Bishops of Rome before they removed those antient Land-marks which the Fathers had set We have elsewhere observ'd what has been remarkt by many and indeed is evident to any one vers'd in Church-antiquity that in the primitive times the external Polity of the Church was conform'd as near as might be to the Mode that obtain'd in the civil State Now the whole Roman Empire consisted of thirteen Dioceses for so they began to style those large Divisions about the time of Constantine whereof seven in the Eastern parts Egypt the Orient or East properly so call'd Asiana Pontica Thrace Macedonia and Dacia and six in the West Italy Afric Illyricum France Spain and Britain besides the Roman Praefecture extending to the Provinces round about the City which had anciently been a peculiar government equal yea superior in dignity to any Diocess whereof hereafter In each of these Diocesses were several Provinces 118 in all the chief City whereof in every Province was the Metropolis that had a kind of jurisdiction over all the rest both title and dignity being peculiarly settled by imperial constitution Now the civil and Ecclesiastical jurisdiction were concurrent after this manner in every City there was a civil Judge who presided over it and the Towns about it and to him answered the Bishop of that City in every Province a Proconsul or President resided at the Metropolis govern'd that whole division received appeals and determined all important cases brought before him from the inferior Cities Correspondent to him was the Metropolitan or as they after call'd him the Archbishop whose See was in the same City who superintended the several Churches and ordained the several Bishops within his Province And then in every Diocess there was a Vicarius or Lieutenant who kept his residence in the principal City thence dispatcht the Imperial Edicts and there heard and decided those causes that were not finally determin'd by inferiour Courts And concurrent with him in Ecclesiastical matters was the Primate or as some of them were more eminently stiled the Patriarch who presided over the several Metropolitans within that Diocess appointed the conventions of his Clergy Umpir'd the differences that arose between the several Bishops and gave the last determination to all Appeals brought before him And thus by an orderly Subordination of Deacons and Presbyters to their Bishops of Bishops to their immediate Metropolitans of Metropolitans to their respective Primates or Patriarchs and by a mutual correspondence between the several Primates of every Diocess the affairs of the Christian Church were carried on with great decorum and regularity VI. THIS excellent Platform was not fram'd and set up all at once In the more early Ages Christianity being generally first Preacht and planted in the greater Cities and the Ecclesiastical Government settled there thence spread it self into the neighbouring Country and persons were thence dispatcht to Preach and attend the Ministeries of Religion in those rural Plantations who yet were in all things steer'd and directed by the Bishop and his Ecclesiastick Senate residing in the City As Churches multiplied and Christianity extended it self into wider circles it was found necessary to fix a particular Bishop almost in every City to whom was committed the care and superintendency over all the Clergy and people there and in all the Towns and Villages belonging to the jurisdiction of that place But because controversies began to arise between the several Bishops and sometimes between them and the inferiour Clergy which could not easily be determin'd where every ones authority was independant it was necessary that some one should preside over all the other Bishops of that Province as the Proconsul did in the civil state who might convene Synodical Assemblies adjust the differences and manage the Ordinations
Rome than we can suppose that a Prebend of York born and bred in the Church of England should be ignorant how far the Province of Canterbury does extend Nor can there be the least reason to imagine either that by Suburbicary Churches Rufinus should mean any other than what lay within those Provinces that were universally known by that title or that he should dare so openly and in the face of the World to shut up the Bishop of Rome within those Suburbicary Regions had not his power at the time of the Nicene Council whose Canon he must in all reason be suppos'd to explain as things stood at the time of that Synod been notoriously known to have been confin'd within those limits But what need we take pains to vindicate the credit of our witness he stands not alone in this matter his testimony being sufficiently justified by concurrent evidence The ancient Version of the Nicene Canons publish'd by Sirmond out of the Records of the Vatican and another exactly agreeing with it by Mons. Justell from a very ancient Manuscript the Author whereof was perhaps not much later than Rufinus renders it by Suburbicaria loca the Suburbicary places the three Arabick Versions the Alexandrian that of the Melchites and the Paraphrase of Joseph the Egyptian all express it to the same effect that he should have power over his Countries and Provinces and what ever lay next to him Alex. Aristenus and Sim. Logotheta two Greek Canonists and a third ancient Epitomizer of the Canons mention'd by Leo Allatius by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the places and Provinces that lay under Rome i. e. the Suburbicary Countries Nor will it a little contribute to the further clearing of this matter to observe that as the civil Government of the Roman Provost is distinguish'd from that of Italy in the Writings of those times so is this of the Roman Prelate and this distinction very ancient When Paul of Samosata Bishop of Antioch refus'd to give Domnus possession of that Church an appeal was made to the Emperour Aurelian who referr'd the Decision of the case to the Bishops of Italy and of Rome as Eusebius tells us and in the title of the Letter written by the Sardican Synod to the Church of Alexandria 't is said that the Bishops Assembled from Rome and Italy i. e. Italy taken in its strict and peculiar notion as 't is there distingusht from Campania Calabria c. Thence Milan as being Head of the Italick Dioces is in an Ecclesiastick sence call'd the Metropolis of Italy and Dionysius Bishop of that Church styl'd Bishop of the Metropolis of Italy and Sulpitius Severus speaking of Priscilian and his company coming into Italy says they address'd themselves to Damasus Bishop of Rome and Ambrose of Milan as Bishops that had the greatest authority in those days And in this respect in the civil sence Berterius truly makes Rome to be the Metropolis of the Suburbicary Regions as Milan was of the rest of Italy VI. BUT it seems no small prejudice to the great men of that Church that so venerable a person as the Bishop of Rome should be pent up within such narrow limits much inferiour to many others especially him of Alexandria or Antioch But besides that the Eastern Dioceses as some think were generally larger than those of the West the Ecclesiastick Provinces as we noted before were restrain'd to the form of the civil constitution and were more or fewer as it happened in the political Distribution Wherein if the Roman Bishop had not so large an extent as some others yet was it made up in the number and frequency of Episcopal Sees beyond what was in all those times in other places of the like extent And therefore when the Synod at Arles in their Letter to Pope Sylvester say that he did majores Dioeceses tenere a passage frequently quoted by the Writers of the Roman Church possess greater Dioceses besides that the place as Salmasius observes is very corrupt and affords no currant sence 't is plain that the word Diocess there cannot be understood of Patriarchal Dioceses Constantine not having yet made the division of the Empire nor Dioceses come up in a civil much less in an Ecclesiastical sence and must therefore be meant of single Bishopricks in the modern use of the word and which was not unusual in those days as is evident from the Code of the African Church and the conference between the Catholicks and Donatists at Carthage where nothing is more common and obvious than this usage of the word Diocess for a single Episcopal See the places are too numerous to be reckon'd up And thus also Pope Leo uses the word in the case of Restitutus an African Bishop VII AND indeed that the bounds of the Church of Rome for several Ages after the Nicene Council were much narrower than some others appears from an old Greek Notitia Episcopatuum wherein the five Patriarchates are distinctly reckon'd up with all the Provinces and Bishopricks contain'd under them Where under him of Rome are set down no more than six Provinces whereof the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Province of Urbicary Rome is the first containing not above One hundred and eight Episcopal Sees A number far inferiour to the rest especially the Patriarch of Constantinople who had subject to him XXXiii Provinces and in them CCCLXXXiX Bishopricks besides some others then newly added to him This Notitia had been heretofore publisht by Carolus a S. Paulo in his Geographia Sacra but when he came to that part of it that concerns the Diocess of Rome he quite leaps over it pretending the Manuscript Copy to be imperfect and that the words were so corrupted that scarce any one remain'd entire leaving somewhat more than a bare suspicion that he himself or some before him had purposely rac'd the Manuscript least the nakedness of the Country the thinness and smallness of the Roman Diocess in comparison of others should be discovered But to their great confusion it has been lately publish'd intire and perfect out of the Oxford Library where the account that we have given is plain and notorious All which considered with how little reason and pretence to truth does Morinus appeal to the Ecclesiastick Notitia's even such as were made long after the times of Constantine to prove the amplitude of the Roman Province as to the Jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome But to return there can be no reason to expect that the Ecclesiastick limits in those days should be longer than those of the State which were the standard and measure by which the others were ordinarily regulated Nor is the greatness of any Jurisdiction so much to be measured by the largeness of its extent as by the honor and authority of the place where 't is exercised as that of the Lord Mayor of London though reaching no further than the Liberties of the
or but so much as dream't of any supream authority which Christ had immediately given the Bishops of Rome over the whole Church of God Nor was this the only Council that thus honoured the Constantinopolitan See somewhat more than two Ages after met the sixt general Council in the Trullus or great Arch'd-hall or Secretarium of the Pallace who confirm'd what both the former Councils that of Constantinople and the other of Chalcedon had done in this matter and assigned each Patriarch his proper place X. WHAT additions or alterations after Ages made in the See of Constantinople the Reader may perceive somewhat by perusing the following accounts In the Greek Notitia publisht not long since out of the Bodleian Library compos'd in the Reign of the Emperour Leo the Wise about the year DCCCXCI this Patriarchate had under it XXXIII Metropolitans who had under them CCCLXXV Episcopal Sees besides XLI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or independent Arch-bishopricks subject to no Metropolitan Leunclavius presents us with another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or disposition of the Churches of this Patriarchate made by this same Emperour wherein are set down LXXXI Metropolitans containing under them DLXXIV Suffragan Sees and XXXIX Arch-bishopricks But surely this list is either greatly interpolated or must be of a later date than it pretends to being so different from the other both in the number and the names of places and not very consistent with it self For whereas it reckons up LXXXI yet when it comes to set down each Metropolitan with his particular Suffragans it gives but an account of LVII of the number But however this be within an Age or two after partly by the addition of new Provinces partly by erecting new Metropoles it was enlarg'd For in the Notitia or discourse concerning the five Patriarchal Sees written by Nilus Doxopatrius the Archimandrite Ann. MXLIII the account stands thus Metropolitans LXV under the Bishopricks DCXL. Arch-bishopricks without Suffragans and immediately subject to the Patriarch XXXIV Ann. MCCLXXXIII Andronicus Palaeologus entred upon the Empire He publisht an order according to which the Metropolitans were to take place wherein they are reckon'd up to the number of an Hundred and nine And in another agreed upon by the Emperour and the Patriarch put out by Leunclavius but without any date either of time or persons are mention'd LXXX Metropolitical Sees Archiepiscopal XXXIX And thus much for the Patriarchship of Constantinople XI THE fourth that remains is the Patriarchate of Jerusalem the last in time and least in circuit For several Ages the Bishop of Jerusalem was no more than a private Prelate subject to the Metropolitan of Caesarea For so the Notitia publisht by William Archbishop of Tyre informs us that according to ancient tradition and Records of good authority in those parts the Church of Jerusalem had no Bishop under it nor enjoy'd any or very little prerogative till the Reign of Justinian and the times of the fifth general Council though always out of reverence to the place custom and ancient tradition as the Fathers of Nice inform us had allow'd him a peculiar honour and therefore those Fathers decree him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the consequence of honour that is that he should have respect and precedence before all the Bishops of that Province next to his own Metropolitan And indeed whatever they of the Church of Rome may talk of the merit of S. Peter as the foundation of the supereminent authority of that Church surely if any Church might have pleaded merit one might have thought it should have been that of Jerusalem which for so many Ages had been the Metropolis of the Jewish Nation the Seat of their Kings adorn'd with a most magnificent Temple and all the Solemnities of Divine Worship the place where our Blessed Saviour spent the greatest part of his publick Ministry where he Preacht so many Sermons wrought so many Miracles where he suffered died and rose again and whence he ascended into Heaven where the Apostolical Colledge was kept for some years and all affairs of the Church transacted there where S. James the Brother of our Lord was made and that say some of the ancients by our Lords own hands the first Christian Bishop of that See the place where the first Church was planted and from whence Christianity was propagated into all other parts of the World This was the true Mother Church and if merit might have challeng'd Primacy and Power it had more to say for it self than all other Churches in the World besides But Caesarea happening to be the Metropolis of that Province and the Seat of the Roman Governour carried away the Superiority and so Jerusalem though it had an honourary respect continued a private See subject to the Metropolitan of Caesarea as he for some time was to the Patriarch of Antioch But after that the Empire was become Christian and that Constantine the Great and his Mother Helena and some following Emperours began to reflect some peculiar favours upon that place and had grac'd it with stately and magnificent buildings and other marks of honour and after that the Devotion of Christians began to pay an extraordinary respect to the places of our Lords Crucifixion Sepulchre and Resurrection the Bishops of that Church lookt upon themselves as hardly dealt with to be coop'd up within so narrow a compass and to be subjected to another jurisdiction and therefore resolv'd to throw off the yoke and to get what power they could into their own hands The first that graspt at the Metrpolitick Rights was S. Cyrill who disputed the case with Acacius Bishop of Caesarea for which Acacius depos'd him and persecuted him both in the Synod at Seleucia and in that which followed at Constantinople about the latter end of Constantius his Reign What immediately followed in this controversie is uncertain the History of the Church being silent in that matter In the Council of Ephesus Juvenal Bishop of Jerusalem laid claim to the Metropolitical Jurisdiction of that Province and sought to have it confirm'd by a Decree of that Synod But Cyrill of Alexandria President of the Council oppos'd and hindred it After this a high contest arose between him and Maximus Bishop of Antioch who challeng'd Jerusalem and Palestine as within his Diocess The case was brought before the Chalcedon Council where it was debated and at last by compromise between the two contending parties brought to this issue that the Bishop of Antioch should retain the two Phoenicia's and Arabia which it seems were also in dispute and the See of Jerusalem should have the three Palaestine Provinces for the bounds of his Ecclesiastick Jurisdiction This was assented to and ratified by the Decree of the Council And now the Bishop of Jerusalem had his peculiar Diocess though of no very great extent allotted him and the tables were turn'd and Caesarea it self subjected to him and the fifth and last
A DISSERTATION Concerning the Government of the Ancient Church BY BISHOPS METROPOLITANS and PATRIARCHS More particularly Concerning the ancient Power and Jurisdiction of the Bishops of Rome and the Encroachments of that upon other Sees especially the See of Constantinople By WILLIAM CAVE D. D. One of His Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary Omne genus ad Originem suam censeatur necesse est Tert. de praescript c. 20. p. 208. LONDON Printed for R. Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in S. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXIII TO THE RIGHT REVEREND FATHER IN GOD HENRY Lord Bishop of LONDON One of the Lords of His Majesties most Honourable PRIVY-COUNCIL My Lord IN compliance with the good old Rule of S. Ignatius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Do nothing without leave from the Bishop I have taken the confidence to lay these Papers at Your Lordships feet being well content they should receive from You a sentence of Life or Death either to come abroad into open light or be condemn'd to be thrown aside if you shall judge them useless and unprofitable For I am not so fond of my own Undertakings as to flatter my self that any thing that I can do will work much upon the obstinate humour of a perverse and contentious Age. My Lord The Church of England is usually assaulted by two sorts of Adversaries The one declar'd Enemies to the Episcopal Government or if at any time in a good humour they allow the name they deny the thing making the Bishop of the Primitive times no more in effect than a meer Parish-Priest The other are great pretenders to Antiquity and strongly enough assert the Episcopal Order but withall would obtrude upon us a Supreme and Universal Bishop to whom all others are to be subject and accountable and he we may be sure is the Bishop of Rome As for the first of these I have not directly enter'd the Lists with them though what is here said concerning the Ancient Church-Government might be enough to satisfie Men modest and unprejudic'd and more I did not think fit to add They have been so often baffled upon that Argument that nothing but a resolv'd obstinacy could make them keep a post so utterly indefensable But the Men of that way seem generally too over-weaning and opiniative and I have no hopes of doing good upon that Man that 's wiser in his own Conceit than seven Men that can render a Reason Indeed the nature of my design led me more immediately to encounter with the other Party whose cause so far as it relates to the Subject under debate I have examin'd and brought to be tried by the Standard of Antiquity the truest Rule to proceed by in this matter and this managed without any needless Exasperations For I never could think it a reasonable method of Conviction to rail at Popery or to load the Bishop of Rome with ill Names and spiteful Characters The best way sure in such cases is to appeal to the judgment of the Ancients and to enquire what power and authority was allow'd him in the wiser and better Ages of Christianity Which I hope I have done with all truth and fairness in the following Discourse My Lord Your Lordships known Zeal for the Protestant Cause and what next the goodness of the Divine Providence is the strongest Bulwark and Defence of it the honour and interest of the Church of ENGLAND might give you a just Title to this Discourse though there were no other inducement to it But we that are the Clergy of Your Diocess think our selves oblig'd to take all occasions of letting the World know how much we rejoyce under the happy Influences of Your Care and Conduct how much we are beholden to that great Example of Pastoral Industry and Diligence you daily set before us that we have to deal with a temper so incomparably sweet and obliging and that not only in private Converses but in all public Cases that concern the Church under your Charge you are pleased so freely and familiarly to consult and advise with us 'T is this to mention no more that creates in us so just a regard and veneration for Your Lordship And I verily believe since the Primitive Times there never was a more mutual Endearment and Correspondence Never Bishop that treated his Clergy with a more Paternal kindness and Condiscention never Clergy that paid a greater Reverence and a more chearful Obedience to their Bishop That this Concord and Agreement may not only continue but encrease and the happy effects of it visibly spread over your whole Diocess and especially this great CITY is the earnest Prayer of MY LORD Your Lordships faithful and sincerely devoted Servant WILLIAM CAVE TO THE READER AMong the several Virtues wherewith the Religion of our Lord does at once refine and adorn Humane Nature there are none conduce more both to the peace of the World and the quiet of private and particular persons than Humility and Contentment the laying aside the vain and fond opinion of our selves a lowliness of Mind to esteem others better than our selves in honour preferring one another an easiness and satisfaction under that place and portion which the Wisdom of the Divine Providence has thought fit to allot us and a generous Contempt of those little and sordid Arts by which Men hunt after Power and Greatness and impatiently affect Dominion and superiority over others A noble and divine temper of Mind which our Lord has effectually recommended both by his Doctrine and the example of his Life He has taught us that we should not after the proud and hypocritical manner of the Pharisees do our works to be seen of Men make broad our Phylacteries and enlarge the borders of our Garments love the uppermost Rooms at Feasts and the chief Seats in the Synagogue and greetings in the Markets that we should not affect proud Titles and the honour of a Name to be call'd of Men Rabbi Rabbi for that one is our Master even Christ and all we are Brethren not that our Lord here absolutely forbids all Honour and Precedence no more than he does all Mastership and Superiority in what follows but only an inordinate desire a vicious and irregular inclination toward these things and an undue and tyrannical exercise of them that we should call no man our Father upon Earth that is in the same sence and with the same respect wherewith we do God for that one is our Father which is in Heaven neither that we be called Masters for that one is our Master even Christ For that whosoever should exalt himself shall be abased and he that should humble himself shall be exalted And then for his own practice how openly did he protest against seeking his own glory or receiving honour from Men how studiously did he stifle the fame of his own Miracles and whatever might raise him in the esteem and value of the World When an Appeal was made to him to judge a Cause he rebuk'd the
them which of them should be greatest in his Kingdom our Lord on purpose to silence all such ambitious attempts for the future plainly told them that though the Kings of the Gentiles exercised Dominion over their Subjects and they that are great exercised authority upon them Yet ye shall not be so but whosoever will be great among you let him be your Minister and whosoever will be chief among you let him be your Servant II. AND yet after all should it be granted that our Lord gave S. Peter some kind of superiour power over the rest yet what is this to the Bishops of Rome unless it could be prov'd that those priviledges were to be Haereditary and were not to determine and expire with S. Peter's person Bellarmine pleads that it is founded in a Right of Succession and this Right settled jure divino and by our Lords own Institution who expresly commanded S. Peter to fix the Apostolical Seat at Rome The proofs he brings to make good this command are a passage out of an Apocryphal Epistle of Pope Marcellus long since discarded together with the rest as the most notorious cheat and imposture that ever was put upon the Christian Church and at best an uncertain story of our Lords appearing to Peter and that too nothing to his purpose And therefore not daring to trust to them he fairly quits the jus divinum and confesses that the Pontifical Succession has no foundation in Scripture However that 't is not improbable and that 't is a thing piously to be believed that is perhaps it may be so and perhaps not we may do well to believe it but there 's no certain ground for it An admirable foundation to build so important a claim upon and for the sake whereof they have now for many ages created so much trouble and disturbance to the Christian World And besides there 's a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this case lies at the bottom it being generally taken for granted that S. Peter was in a proper sence Bishop of Rome which yet I believe can never be made good That he constituted that Church and laid down his life there for the Confirmation of it I easily grant but this makes him not properly Bishop of it and consequently the Popes cannot properly be his Successours Dye he might there but how comes this to entitle the Bishops of Rome to the Succession If so then as a Learned Man of the Greek Church long since urged in this case because our Lord died at Jerusalem therefore the Bishop of Jerusalem as possessing the Seat of our great High-Priest may claim an Universal superiority and challenge to be as much greater than the Bishop of Rome as Christ is than Peter Once more let it be suppos'd that this Supremacy was entail'd not only upon S. Peter but upon his Successors how comes it to pass that it was not lodg'd in the See of Antioch where they grant S. Peter resided as Bishop several years before he went to Rome and which therefore in all reason ought to challenge a Primary title An Objection which Bellarmin with all the subtilties of his Wit and Learning is not able to claw off So many insuperable barrs are there lying in the way to this soveraign and unaccountable authority of their Church III. BUT what Power soever the Bishops of Rome may pretend to derive from S. Peter sure I am they thus far inherit too much of his spirit and temper that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I mean that rash and busie fervour and eagerness so frequently noted in him by the Ancients Forward like him to speak run and interpose at every turn and forward like him too to smite with the Sword when meeting with the least opposition No sooner were the heats of the fifth persecution somewhat cooled and the Church entred a little upon more calm and prosperous days but we find Pope Victor An. 196. picking a quarrel with some of the Eastern Churches about the time of Celebrating Easter and though they justified themselves to the Christian World by Apostolical practice and a constant uninterrupted observation ever since yet because refusing to comply with the custome of the Church of Rome he hastily threw them under Excommunication to the great disturbance and amazement of the Christian World for which he was severely rebuked by the wise and good men of that time especially the mild and peaceable Irenaeus It was not much above half an Age after this when the practice of Baptizing a new those who had been Baptized by Hereticks begun mightily to prevail in some parts of the East but especially in the African Churches Stephen who was then Bishop of Rome storm'd hereat and in a great rage publickly declared that he would hold no Communion with them and when according to the custome whereby Churches mutually acted in those days they sent some Bishops to give him an account of their opinion and practice he proudly refused either to see them or speak with them and not content to deprive them of the Peace and Communion of the Church he denied them the common offices of humanity and charity forbidding the Christians at Rome so much as to entertain them To Cyprian he gave very hard words calling him false Christ false Apostle deceitful Worker and no better did he treat Firmilian Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia and the Churches of Iconium But Cyprian though a man otherwise of great gentleness and moderation plainly told him that this was nothing but the effect of a proud impertinent imprudent self-contradicting humour that it proceeded from blindness and perverseness from obstinacy and presumption and directly tended to the Patronage and encouragement of error and Heresie Firmilian charg'd him with inhumanity audaciousness and insolence with doing very unjust and unwarrantable things that they at Rome however vainly pretending Apostolical authority did not themselves exactly observe primitive tradition that he could not but disdain Stephens open and manifest folly who while he boasted so much of the eminency of his Episcopal place and contended that he had the Succession of Peter upon whom the foundations of the Church were laid did yet hereby introduce several other rocks and build new Churches upon them And when not long after the controversie came to be canvass'd in a Synod of Eighty seven African Bishops whom Cyprian had assembled at Carthage for that purpose in the speech that he made at the opening of the Council Cyprian tax'd the Pride and ambition of the Bishop of Rome telling them that they should all freely speak their minds without judging or Excommunicating any that were of another opinion that none of them took upon himself to make himself Bishop of Bishops or by a tyrannical threatning to force his Colleagues into a necessity of compliance since every Bishop according to the power and liberty granted to him had his proper rule and jurisdiction and could no more be judg'd by
City which take not in half the Suburbs is yet a more honourable authority than that of a Sheriff of the largest County in England In this regard the Bishop of Rome had though a shorter cut a better and more noble Jurisdiction than any other Prelate in the World besides Rome being the Seat of Majesty and Power the residence of the Emperours the highest Court of Justice the place to which all parts paid either homage or at least respect and veneration honoured with the Title of ROME THE GREAT the Provost whereof was reckoned next in honour to the Emperour and upon all occasions went equal in dignity to the Praetorian Prefect who yet commanded ten times as many Provinces He had the precedence of all the great Officers of Rome and to him belong'd Civilium rerum summa the management of all civil affairs Hence the Title given to Sylvester is that of Bishop of the Imperial City and the Council of Chalcedon tells us that the Fathers therefore gave a Prerogative to the See of Rome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because that was the Governing and Imperial City and Constantius the Emperour though he had already condemn'd and depos'd Athanasius did yet to put the better colour upon it desires to have it ratified by the authority enjoy'd by the Bishops of the eternal City as the Heathen Historian has remark'd And thus much may serve for the Metropolitical bounds of the Roman Prelate CHAP. IV. An Enquiry into the Rise and Original of Patriarchs in the Christian Church An Enquiry into the Rise and Original of Patriarchs in general None before the Council of Nice What that Council contributed to them Civil Dioceses when and by whom introduc'd These gave start to Primary Metropolitans Dioceses when first brought into the Church The title of Patriarch borrowed from the Jews Who their Patriarchs and whence descended Exarchs what The word Patriarch when first us'd by Church-writers in a strict and proper sence The Patriarchs among the Montanists who A short Survey of the four great Patriarchates The extent of the Patriarchate of Alexandria The Dioecesis Aegyptiaca what The Patriarchal Jurisdiction in what sence larger than that of the Augustal Prefect Little gain'd to this Patriarchate more than a title of honour The Patriarchate of Antioch commensurate to the Eastern Diocess The contest about Cyprus how determin'd Palestine for some time under Antioch The Patriarchship of Constantinople By what degrees it rose What priviledge conferr'd upon it by the second general Council The Bishops henceforwards exercising a kind of Patriarchal power over the Churches of the neighbouring Provinces The Power granted to that See by the Council of Chalcedon It 's ninth seventeenth and eight and twentyeth Canons considered to that purpose Jurisdiction over the three Dioceses of Asiana Pontica and Thrace This settled upon a full debate and discussion of the matter This Power own'd by the Synod to have been exercised of a long time before This grant urg'd against the universal Supremacy of the See of Rome The extent of the Constantinopolitan Patriarchate in after times manifested from several ancient Notitiae The Patriarchate of Jerusalem The honour confirm'd to this Church by the Nicene Council It s subjection to the See of Caesarea When first attempting a Metropolitical Power The contest between this Bishop and the Bishop of Antioch How determin'd in the Council of Chalcedon When first styl'd Patriarch The extent of this Patriarchate I. PROCEED we in the second place to consider him as a Patriarch the highest Degree of Ecclesiastick Government which the Church ever owned And in order to the better clearing the whole matter it will be of some advantage and perhaps not unpleasant to the Reader to enquire briefly into the rise and original of Patriarchs in general and then survey each particular Patriarchate The rise of Patriarchs is but obscurely delivered in the Records of the Church the thing not being particularly and by name taken notice of 'till like a River that has run a great way and gathered many tributary rivulets it had swell'd it self into a considerable stream That there were none at the time of the Nicene Council we shew'd before the chief Church-Governours then being the Metropolitans some of which soon after set up for more room and began to enlarge the bounds of their Jurisdiction And two things there were greatly contributed to that attempt First The mighty reputation which the Synod of Nice had given to Metropolitans and especially to the particular Sees of Rome Alexandria and Antioch This inspir'd them with an ambitious affectation of extending their Superiority and Jurisdiction and prepar'd the way among their Brethren for the easier reception of it Socrates observ'd that long before his time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which must reach as far as the Council of Nice at least the Bishop of Rome as he also of Alexandria had gone beyond the bounds of his place and had aspir'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a Power and Dominion over his Brethren A remark so very clear and plain especially as to the Bishop of Rome that nothing is more obvious in the whole History of the Church The Synod of Nice was beholden by all with a just regard and veneration and its Decrees receiv'd as Oracles from Heaven and the Christian World finding what particular care it had taken of those three great Sees were the more ready to submit and strike Sail to their Usurpations Hence the following Popes but especially Leo the First do upon all occasions magnifie the Nicene Canons and amplify their meaning beyond what was at first intended by them Secondly The late division of the Empire and the alteration of it from that form whereinto it had been cast first by Augustus and afterwards by the Emperour Hadrian new modell'd by Constantine the Great much about the time of the Nicene Council gave a singular advantage and opportunity to promote and further this design II. FOR Constantine introduc't four Praetorian Praefectures each Praefecture containing several Dioceses XIII in all and each Diocess comprehending several Provinces the Vicar or civil Lieutenant residing in the Metropolis of every Diocess and presiding over all the Provinces within that division And how easie was it the World being so prepar'd and dispos'd and the Church so readily embraceing the forms of the civil state for the chief Metropolitan of every Diocess to set up for himself The dignity of the City where he resided and the resort of people thither for the dispatch of business made him at first be esteem'd and honored as the First Bishop of the Diocess and this in a little time brought on the priviledge of Ordaining the Metropolitans of the several Provinces and to be intrusted with almost the same powers over Metropolitans which they had over Provincial Bishops And no doubt it made persons more willing to comply with such a Model that haveing frequent occasion of repairing to the
distaste to Pope Martin and 't is like to his Successour Eugenius who sat but one year But Pope Vitalian who succeeded would not so put it up but summons Maurus to appear and answer his contempt at Rome but he slighted the Summons for which the Pope Excommunicated him and he in requital did the like to the Pope nay upon his Death-bed oblig'd his Clergy never to submit themselves to the Bishop of Rome Reparatus his Successour trod in the same steps and procur'd the Emperours Rescript to free that Church from any subjection to the Roman See Ann. DCCVIII Felix of Ravenna was content to receive his Ordination at the hands of the Pope but when he came thither an Oath of Allegiance and Fidelity was required of him to the See of Rome This he utterly denied a confession of his Faith he offered but homage he would not pay nor engage to send money to Rome Nor more he did but home he goes where his people gave him little thanks for what he had done and both agreed to defend their liberty but it cost the old man dear and them too for that attempt For Justinian Rhinotmetes the Emperour who favoured the Pope being made acquainted with what was done at Ravenna a Fleet is sent under the command of Theodorus Patricius the City besieg'd and taken several of prime quality lost their lives and fortunes and the poor Arch-bishop had his eyes put out and was banisht into Pontus where he remain'd 'till the severity of Discipline had taught him better manners The same courage in asserting the priviledges of their Church against the Papal encroachments was afterwards shewn by John and Guibert Successors in that See as were it necessary might be particularly related But the case is too evident to be denied and the argument thence too strong to be evaded how little those times understood of any Patriarchal Jurisdiction which the Pope had over all Italy much less over the whole West V. IF we look into France we shall find them careful to secure the Rights of Metropolitans and the priviledges of Provincial Bishops without being oblig'd to fetch them from Rome The second Council of Arles Ann. CCCCLII decree that no Bishop shall be Ordain'd without his own Metropolitan and three of the Provincial Bishops the rest testifying their consent by Letter The second of Orleans holden Ann. DXXXIII renew the ancient form and manner of Ordaining Metropolitans that it shall be done by the Bishops of the Province which shews how little they depended upon any foreign power in this matter But it 's needless to insist upon this point which the Learned De Marca has so fully cleared and vindicated as a fundamental part of the liberties of the Gallican Church and has deduc't it through the several Ages and Dynasties of their Kings I shall only remark that when Hincmar Arch-bishop of Remes had depos'd Rothald Bishop of Suessons for great misdemeanours Rothald appeal'd to Rome and Pope Nicolaus espous'd his cause wrote sharply to Hincmar and cited him to appear and answer what he had done at Rome But Hincmar would not stir but publisht a large Apologetick to the Pope wherein he justifies his Act and though he gives good words and great deference to the See Apostolick yet stoutly contends that he ought to be content with a general care and inspection and not interrupt the ordinary Rights of Metropolitans and that 't was infinitely reasonable that the criminal should be referr'd to the judgment of his own Province Two years before this viz. Ann. DCCCLXIII a French Synod met at Metz about the Marriage of King Lotharius wherein they determin'd contrary to the liking of the Papal Legates However they sent Letters with the reasons of their proceedings by Guntharius Arch-bishop of Colen and Theatgaud of Triers to Pope Nicolaus The Pope upon their arrival call'd a Synod wherein he Excommunicated the Synod of Metz and depos'd the two Arch-bishops that were sent with the Letters and publisht a manifesto of what he had done To this the Bishops return'd an answer wherein having represented the personal affronts and ill usage they had met with from him they tell him Chap. IV. that as for his froward unjust and unreasonable sentence contrary to all Canons they did not own it yea as being illegal and unwarrantable they together with the rest of their Brethren slighted and despised it and utterly renounc'd Communion with him contenting themselves with the Communion and fellowship of the whole Church over which he had so proudly exalted himself and from which through his pride and contempt he had separated himself And whereas he had styl'd them his Clerks they bid him take notice they were none of his Clerks but persons whom if his pride would have suffer'd him he ought to have own'd and treated as his Brethren and fellow Bishops with much more there spoken with a just but smart resentment And now can any man believe the Pope should have met with such treatment upon all occasions and that from the wisest gravest most learned and eminent persons in their several Ages had his title to the Jurisdiction of the West been so clear and unquestionable as some men seem to represent it The same might be shew'd in other Countries and he must be a great stranger to Church-History that can be at a loss for instances of this nature I shall therefore instance only in two more and with them dispatch this argument the African and the Britanick Churches VI. I chuse to instance in the Churches of Africk because so confidently challeng'd by them of Rome at every turn and because they were under the civil Jurisdiction of the Praetorian Praefect of Italy And here omitting infinite arguments that offer themselves I shall insist only upon the famous case of Appeals commenc'd under Pope Zosimus Ann. CCCCXVIII and not ended 'till some years after which will furnish us with a plain and uncontroulable evidence how little authority more than what was honourary the See of Rome in those days had over those Churches The case as briefly as it can well be summ'd up stands thus Apiarius a Presbyter of Sicca in Africk had been depos'd by his Diocesan Urbanus for very notorious and scandalous offences and the sentence ratified by a Provincial Council Hopeless of any relief at home over he flies to Rome tells his tale to Pope Zosimus who restores him to Communion espouses his cause and sends him back with Faustinus an Italian Bishop and two Roman Presbyters into Africk to see him resettled in his former place When they arriv'd in Africk they found a Council of African Bishops to the number of CCXVII sitting at Carthage to whom they delivered their message partly by word of mouth partly by writing But the writing being demanded a memorial was produc't containing instructions from Pope Zosimus what they should insist upon it consisted of four Heads First concerning the
Appeals of Bishops to the See of Rome Secondly against the busie resorting of Bishops to Court Thirdly concerning the handling the causes of Presbyters and Deacons by the neighbouring Bishops where they were unjustly Excommunicated by their own Fourthly concerning the Excommunicating Bishop Urban who had depos'd Apiarius or at least his appearing at Rome unless he corrected what he had done amiss But the main thing insisted on was that of Appeals and the Popes sending Legates thither to hear causes and this too challeng'd by Zosimus in his memorial by vertue of a Canon of the Council of Nice giving leave to Bishops accus'd or condemn'd to appeal to Rome and power to the Pope to hear and determine those Appeals either immediately by himself or by Commishoners which he should send to that purpose The African Fathers were infinitely surpriz'd to hear such a power claim'd and more to hear it claim'd as due by a Canon of Nice They had search'd into the Canons of that Council which they found to be but twenty and not one of that number to this purpose While these things were debating Zosimus dies and Boniface succeeds and the case is again canvast and the result of the consultation was that for the present things should rest upon that bottom whereon the Popes memorial had plac't them 'till they could send to the three great Churches of Constantinople Antioch and Alexandria for authentick Copies of the Nicene Canons to adjust and decide this matter They wrote likewise to Pope Boniface by his Legates who then return'd acquainting him with the state of the case and what was done in it and withal tell him that if it were as those pretended Canons claim'd the issue would be intolerable to them But they hop'd it would be found otherwise no such thing appearing in their Copies of that Council However they had sent to the Eastern Churches for such as were most authentick and intreated him also to do the like VII SOME years pass'd in this matter at length the Messengers that had been sent into the East return'd and brought Letters from Cyril of Alexandria and Atticus of Constantinople importing that they had sent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most true and exact Copies of the authentick Synod of Nice preserv'd in the Archives of their Churches Copies of which they had also sent to Pope Boniface Hereupon a full Council of African Bishops is conven'd to which Pope Caelestine for Boniface was lately dead dispatcht Faustinus as his Legate And now the case of Apiarius is again brought under examination and found worse than it was before the farther they rak'd into it the more foul and offensive did it appear to them 'till the conviction of his conscience though sore against his Will forc'd him to confess all and save them the trouble of any farther Scrutiny And now this cause being over and the pretence of Appeals overthrown by the authentick Copies of the Canons of Nice nothing remain'd but to write to Caelestine which they did in a quick and smart strain Wherein they first give him an account of the case of Apiarius and how troublesome and injurious his Legate Faustinus had been to the whole Synod in asserting the priviledges of the Church of Rome and by vertue thereof challenging that Apiarius should be readmitted to communion because his Holiness believing his Appeal which yet could not be made good had restor'd him to communion a thing which he ought in no wise to have done Next they proceed earnestly to beseech him that henceforth he would not so easily give ear to those that came from hence nor admit any to communion whom they had excommunicated which he might easily perceive was prohibited by the Council of Nice which if it has taken so much care about the Inferiour Clergy how much more did it intend it in the case of Bishops that where any are suspended from communion within their own Province his Holiness should not rashly and unduly readmit them that he should as became him reject the unwarrantable repairing of Presbyters and others of the Inferiour Clergy there being no Canon of any Council that has depriv'd the African Church of this Right and that the Decrees of Nice have most plainly committed both the Inferiour Clergy and the Bishops themselves to their own Metropolitans having most wisely and justly provided that all affairs shall be determin'd in the very places where they arise and that the Grace of the Holy Spirit will not be wanting to every Province whereby equity may be prudently discern'd and constantly maintain'd by the Ministers of Christ especially since every man has liberty if he be offended with the determination of his Judges to appeal to a Provincial or if need be to a general Council Unless perhaps any one can think that God should enable single persons to examin the Justice of a cause and deny it to a vast number of Bishops Assembled in Council Or how shall a Judgment then made beyond Sea be valid whereto the persons that are necessary to give in evidence either through the infirmity of their Sex or Age and many other impediments that will intervene cannot be brought For that any Commissioners should be sent hither by your Holiness we do not find Ordain'd by the Fathers in any Synod For as to what you long since sent us by Faustinus as part of the Nicene Council in the true and authentick Copies of that Council which we received from Cyril of Alexandria and Atticus of Constantinople and which we sent to your Predecessour Boniface we could find no such matter In conclusion they advise him that he should not upon the request of any man send any of his Clerks thither to execute his sentence nor grant such leave to any lest they should seem to introduce the smoaky pride of the World into the Church of Christ which holds forth the light of simplicity and the brightness of humility to all them that are desirous to see God That as to Faustinus they are confident that Brotherly love continuing through the goodness and moderation of his Holiness Africa shall no longer be troubled with him Such was their Letter to the Pope a Letter not fuller fraught with true matters of fact than fortified with clearness and strength of reason VIII FROM this naked and unartificial representation of the case its plain First That whatever power the â—â—shop of Rome claim'd in Africk was even by his own tacit confession founded upon the Canons of the Church Zosimus did not pretend a Commission from Christ or a Delegation from S. Peter but only a Canon of Nice to justify his proceedings Secondly That the Canons of the Church give the Bishop of Rome no power over foreign Churches either to receive their excommunicated Members to hear and decide their causes or to restore them to communion or to send Legates and Commissioners with authority to determine the cause at home for this say the African Fathers nullâ invenimus
patrum Synodo constitutum Thirdly That Zosimus was guilty of a notorious forgery and imposture in falsifying the Nicene Canons pretending a Canon of Sardica to be a Canon of Nice and as such endeavouring to impose it and his own power by it upon the African Churches Can it be suppos'd that Zosimus should be ignorant what and how many the Nicene Canons were the Popes Legates were present and as we are often told presided in that Synod brought the Decrees home with them as all other great Churches did where they were no doubt carefully preserv'd among the Records of that Church and the frequent occasions of those times made them be daily lookt into Was not the Pope think we able to distinguish between Nice and Sardica between an Oecumenical Council and a Synod only of Western Bishops call'd in another Emperours Reign above Twenty years after No no it was not a sin of ignorance but the Pope knew well enough which Council would best serve his turn that the World had a just and a mighty veneration for that of Nice and that his design would be easily swallowed if he could gild it over with the reputation and authority of that Synod It was obvious to except against Sardica that it was but a particular Council and that the Canon it made for Appeals to Rome was only a Provisionary Decree when the injur'd person was not like to meet with Justice at home but the whole Mass of Bishops was corrupted and set against him as was the case of Athanasius and two or three more in respect of the Arians who were the occasion and for whose sakes that Canon was made But that of Nice was universal and unexceptionable and which he hoped would pass without controul But the African Bishops according to the humour of that Nation were of too honest and blunt a temper to be cajol'd by the arts of Rome They requir'd to have the matter brought to the test and to be Judg'd by the Original Canons and so the fraud was discovered and brought to light in the eye of the World Fourthly That the Church of Africk and accordingly every National Church has an inhaerent power of determining all causes that arise within it self That this Right is founded both upon most evident reason nothing being fitter than that controversies should be ended in the places where they began where there are all advantages of bringing matters to a more speedy and equal trial and upon the wisdom and justice of the Divine providence which would not let his assistance be wanting in one place more than another and especially there where doing right to truth did more immediately make it necessary and that 't was as probable two or three hundred should sift out truth as a single person That the Nicene Synod had made this the Right of the African no less than other Churches and they did not understand how they had forfeited it or that any Council had taken it from them Fifthly That it was not lawful for any person accused or proceeded against in Africk to appeal to Transmarine Churches no not to the See of Rome This they tell Coelestine most expresly and call them improba refugia wicked and unwarrantable refuges Against this they had particularly provided in the Council at Milevis not long before this contest arose that if any Clergyman had a controversie with his Bishop the neighbouring Bishops should hear and determine it But if there were any occasion of appealing they should appeal no further than to an African Council or to the Primates of those Provinces And that if any should resolve to appeal to any Transmarine Judgment no man in Africk should admit them to communion The Canon 't is true expresses only the Appeals of Presbyters Deacons and the Inferiour Clergy but as the Fathers in their Letters to Caelestine argue strongly if this care be taken about the Inferiour Clergy how much more ought it to be observ'd by Bishops Sixthly That the power which the Bishop of Rome sought to establish over other Churches evidently made way to bring pride and tyranny and a secular ambition into the Church of God and that if this course were follow'd it would let in force and domination and a scornful trampling over the Heads of our Brethren and perhaps the calling in the secular arm to remove the opposition it would meet with Principles and Practices infinitely contrary to the mild and humble Spirit of the Gospel And now let the Reader Judge what power the Pope had over the African Churches so solemnly denied so stiffly oppos'd not by two or three but by two or three hundred Bishops twice met in Council upon this occasion and their judgment herein not precipitated but past upon most mature and deliberate debate and consultation and after that the cause had been depending for five or six years together The truth is so great a shock is this to the Papal power that the Advocates of that Church know not which way to decline it At last stands up one who not being able to unty resolv'd to cut the knot directly charging both the Acts of the Council and the Epistles to Boniface and Caelestine without any warrant from Antiquity to be forg'd and supposititious But the best of it is the Writers in this Cause that came after him had not the hardiness to venture in his bottom Nor have any of the many Publishers of the Councils since that time stigmatiz'd them with the least suspicion of being spurious nor taken any notice of the trifling exceptions he makes against them IX FROM Africk let us Sail into Britain and see how things stood in our own Country the first Nation of the whole Western World that received the Christian Faith it being planted here as Gildas an Authour of untainted credit and no inconsiderable antiquity informs us and he speaks it too with great assurance Tempore summo Tiberii Caesaris in the latter time of Tiberius his Reign which admit to have been the very last year of his Life he died March the XVI Ann. Chr. XXXVII it was five or six years before 't is pretended S. Peter ever came at or founded any Church at Rome Christianity though struggling with great difficulties and but lukewarmly entertain'd by some yet as Gildas assures us made shift to keep up its head in the following Ages as is evident from some passes in Origen Tertullian and others and from the known story of King Lucius Leuer Maur as the Britains call him the great Brightness the first Christian King But this we have particularly noted elsewhere Religion being settled that Church Government grew up here as in other Countries by Bishops and then Metropolitans or Superiour Bishops there can be no just cause to doubt At the Council of Arles Ann. CCCXIV we find three British Bishops among others subscribing the Decrees of that Synod Eborius of York Restitutus of London the same perhaps that subscrib'd
lay at the bottom And indeed neither Leo nor any of the Bishops of that See could ever pardon the Chalcedon Synod not only for making the Bishop of Constantinople equal to him of Rome but for placing the Primacy of the Roman Church not in any Divine Right but only in Romes having been the Seat of the Empire VI. HENCEFORWARD they beheld the Bishops of that place with an evil Eye as competitors with them in the Government of the Church and the likeliest persons to give check to their extravagant designs and therefore laid hold upon all occasions to weaken their interest and to vent their spleen against their persons And it was not long after that a fit occasion presented it self John the Tabennosiot had by gifts and bribes enabled thereto by being Steward and Treasurer of that Church procur'd himself to be made Bishop of Alexandria expresly contrary to his Oath lately made to the Emperour Zeno that he would never attempt that See For which he caus'd him to be expell'd and Peter Mongus who had been heretofore consecrated to that place to be restor'd Peter was a Patron of the Eutychian Heresie but which at first he craftily dissembled insinuating himself into the favour and friendship of Acacius Bishop of Constantinople who constantly held Communion with him But was so far from siding with him in any Heretical Sentiments that no sooner did he hear that Peter had publickly Anathematiz'd the Chalcedon Council but he dispatch'd Messengers to Alexandria to know the truth of things before whose Eys Peter cast a mist having form'd a judicial Process about that matter and brought in persons to depose that he had done no such thing Nay he himself wrote to Acacius assuring him that the charge was false and that he had and did confirm and embrace the Council of Chalcedon though all this was pretence and elaborate hypocrisie John driven out from Alexandria flies to Rome giving out himself to be a Martyr for the Cause of Pope Leo and the Faith of the Chalcedon Synod Welcome he was to Pope Simplicius who wrote to the Emperour in his behalf but dying not long after his arrival his Successour Faelix readily espous'd the quarrel and after some preparatory messages and citations wherein he required of the Emperour Zeno that Acacius might be sent to Rome there to answer what John of Alexandria laid to his charge taking advantage of two Synods at Rome held one soon after the other twice excommunicated and depos'd Acacius for communicating with him of Alexandria Letter after Letter he wrote both to the Emperour and the Clergy and People of Constantinople that the Sentence against Acacius might be own'd and put into execution who yet continued in his See 'till his death without any great regard to the Sentence from Rome which he so far slighted that to be even with him he struck the Popes name out of the Diptychs to shew the World he renounc'd all communion with him This so much the more enrag'd his enemies at Rome who all his life long pelted him with continual clamours and threatnings Nay Faelix and his Successours persecuted his very memory denouncing censures against any that should mention his name with respect and honour And I cannot but observe that in the Edict that was pass'd against him at Rome mention is made of nothing but contumacy against the Popes Admonitions the ill usage and imprisonment of his Legates and the affront therein offered to his person and in the Excommunicatory Letter sent to Acacius himself though favouring of Hereticks was the great and indeed only thing pretended abroad yet the very first thing wherewith he charges him is contempt of the Nicene Council and invading the Rights of other mens Provinces It seems though he was loth to speak out it was the Decree of the late Synod of Chalcedon still stuck in his stomach by which the Constantinopolitan Patriarch had been advanc'd to so much power in the East and made equal to him of Rome And indeed Gelasius who came after Faelix says plainly that the Apostolick See never approv'd that part of the Chalcedon Canons that it had given no power to treat about it and by its Legates had protested against it and thence most infallibly inferrs that therefore it was of no authority or value and accordingly Peter of Alexandria which was the second See i. e. according to the constitution of the Nicene Canon could not be duly absolv'd by any other power then that of the first See i. e. his own accounting that of Constantinople as he elsewhere asserts not to be reckon'd so much as among Metropolitan Sees And as he argues in his Epistle to the Emperour Anastasius if Christians be oblig'd in general to submit to their Regular Bishops how much more should submission be made to the Bishop of that See to whom both God and the subsequent piety of the Church have always given the preheminence above all Bishops and so he goes on according to the custome of the men to speak big words of the authority and priviledges of the Apostolick See VII SEVERAL years this breach that had been made remain'd 'till Justin a Man of very mean Originals having by no good arts gain'd the Empire thought it his interest to oblige and unite all parties And first he begins to court the Pope to whome he wrote giving him an account of his advancement to the Empire and begging his prayers to God to confirm and establish it This Hormisda in his answer calls a paying the first fruits of his Empire due to S. Peter Hereupon reconciliation is offered and John Bishop of Constantinople writes to him to that purpose which he at length consents to upon this condition that the name of Acacius might be stricken out of the Diptychs which at last is done and that of the Pope again put in and so a Peace is piec'd up and the Catholick Faith profess'd on both sides according to the Decrees of the four general Councils And though Epiphanius who succeeded John in the See of Constantinople maintain'd the same correspondence yet when ever it came to any important instance the Pope could not forget his proud domineering temper over the Bishops of that Church Which sufficiently appear'd about this very time when John the first Hermisda's Successour being by Theodorick King of the Goths sent Embassadour to Constantinople with this message to the Emperour Justin either that he should restore to the Arians their Churches in the East or expect that the Catholicks in Italy should have the same measures he departed from Rome with weeping eyes and a sad heart being grieved not more to be made the bearer of a message so contrary to his judgment than to be put upon an imployment that seemed a diminution to the Papal dignity he being as Marcellinus observes the only Pope that had ever been commanded out of the City upon any such Errand However
arriving at the Imperial City he resolved to keep up his Port entred with great state and being invited to sit upon a Seat even with that of Epiphanius Bishop of that Church he refus'd telling them he would maintain the Prerogative of the Apostolick See not giving over 'till a more eminent Throne was purposely plac'd for him above that of the Bishop of Constantinople As if it had not been enough to reproach and vilify him at a distance unless contrary to all Laws and Canons and to the Rules of modesty civility and reason he also trampled upon him in his own Church Nay Anastasius adds that the Emperour in honour to God came before him and prostrated himself upon the ground to adore and worship him Pope John the second about ten years after writing to Justinian though there want not very learned men who question the credit of that Epistle talks stylo Romano just after the rate of his Predecessours he tells the Emperour 't was his singular honour and commendation that he preserv'd a reverence for the Roman See that he submitted all things to it and reduc'd them to the unity of it a Right justified by S. Peter's authority conveyed to him by that authentick deed of gift Feed my sheep that both the Canons of the Fathers and the Edicts of Princes and his Majesties own professions declar'd it to be truly the head of all Churches Where yet as in infinite other expressions of that nature in the Pontifical Epistles he warily keeps himself within general terms capable of a gentler or a brisker interpretation as it stood with their interest to improve VIII WEARIED out with continual provocations oppositions and affronts from Rome the Patriarchs of Constantinople began to think upon some way by which they might be better enabled to bear up against them To this end John who from his extraordinary abstinence was Sir-nam'd Nesteutes or the Faster being then Bishop of that See in a Synod conven'd there Ann. DLXXXIX about the Cause of Gregory Bishop of Antioch procur'd the Title of Oecumenical or Universal Bishop to be conferr'd upon him with respect probably to that Cities being the head Seat of the Empire which was usually styl'd Orbis Romanus and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Universe or whole World and it could not be therefore thought extravagant if the Bishop of it did assume a proportionable Title of honour nothing appearing that hereby he laid claim to any extraordinary Jurisdiction Nor indeed is it reasonable to conceive that the Eastern Patriarchs who as Evagrius who was advocate for Gregory in that Synod tells us were all either by themselves or their Legates present in this Council together with very many Metropolitans should at one cast throw up their own power and authority and give John an absolute Empire and Dominion over them and therefore can be suppos'd to grant no more than that he being the Imperial Patriarch should alone enjoy that honorable Title above the rest Besides that every Bishop as such is in a sence intrusted with the care and sollicitude of the Universal Church and though for conveniency limited to a particular charge may yet act for the good of the whole Upon this ground it was that in the ancient Church so long as Order and Regular Discipline was observ'd Bishops were wont upon occasion not only to communicate their Councils but to exercise their power and functions beyond the bounds of their particular Diocess and we frequently find Titles and Characters given to particular Bishops especially those of Patriarchal Sees equivalent to that of Universal Bishop I cannot but mention that passage of Theodorit who speaking of Nestorius his being made Bishop of Constantinople says that he was intrusted with the Presidency of the Catholick Church of the Orthodox there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was nothing less then that of the whole World A passage which perhaps might the more incourage and invite John at this time to assume the Title IX BUT in what sence soever intended it sounded high but especially made a loud noise at Rome where they were strangely surpris'd to find themselves outshot in their own Bow for though they had all along driven on the design with might and main yet they had hitherto abstain'd from the Title Pelagius who at this time sat in that Chair was extreamly netled at it and immediately dispatch'd Letters to John and the Bishops of his Synod wherein he rants against this pride and folly talks high of the invalidity of all Conciliary Acts without his consent and approbation charges them though summon'd by their Patriarch not to appear at any Synod without authority first had from the Apostolick See threatens John with excommunication if he did not presently recant his error and lay aside his unjustly usurpt Title of Universal Bishop affirming that none of the Patriarchs might use that Profane Title and that if any one of them were styl'd Oecumenical the Title of Patriarch would be taken from the rest a piece of insolence which ought to be far from all true Christians with a great deal more to the same effect I know the last publishers of the Councils make this Epistle to be spurious a false piece of Ware patch'd up in Insidore Mercators shop But however that be plain it is from S. Gregory who sent Copies of them to the Bishops of Antioch and Alexandria that Pelagius did write such Letters wherein by the authority of S. Peter he rescinded the Acts of that Synod propter nephandum elationis vocabulum for the sake of that proud and ungodly Title prohibiting his Arch-Deacon then at Constantinople so much as to be present at prayers with the Patriarch of that place X. GREGORY the Great succeeded Pelagius whose Apocrisiarius or Agent he had been at Constantinople when the thing was done A man of good learning and greater piety and of somewhat a more meek and peaceable temper then most of those that had gone before him which perhaps he owed in a great measure to those sad calamitous times he so oft complains of wherein he liv'd And yet as tender in this point as his Predecessours John of Constantinople had lately sent him an account of the proceedings in the case of John Presbyter of Chalcedon wherein he took occasion to style himself Oecumenical Patriarch almost in every sentence This touch'd Pope Gregory to the quick and as he had an excellent talent at writing Letters he presently sends to Mauritius the Emperour to the Empress Constantina to the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch to John himself and to Sabinian his own Deacon then residing at Constantinople In all which he strains all the Nerves of his Rhetoric to load the case with the heaviest Aggravations complaining that by the contrivance of this proud and pompous Title the peace of the Church the holy Laws and venerable Synods yea and the commands of our Lord Jesus himself who by that
Instrument Tu es Petrus c. had committed the care of the whole Church to Peter Prince of the Apostles were disturb'd and shatter'd that it better became Bishops of this time rather to lye upon the ground and to mourn in Sackcloth and Ashes than to affect names of Vanity and to glory in new and profane Titles a piece of Pride and Blasphemy injurious to all other Bishops yea to the whole Church and which it became the Emperour to restrain that by this new Arrogancy and Presumption he had lift up himself above all his Brethren and by his Pride had shewn that the times of Antichrist were at hand that he wondred the Emperour should write to him to be at peace with the Bishop of Constantinople chiding Sabinian his Deacon for not preventing the Emperour's Commands being sent to him To Eulogius Bishop of Alexandria and Anastasius of Antioch whom elsewhere he tickles with their three Sees being the only three Apostolical Sees founded by S. Peter Prince of the Apostles and that they mutually reflected Honour upon each other he represents how great a diminution this was to their Dignity that they should therefore give none this Title for that so much undue Honour as they gave to another so much they took away of what was due to themselves that this fond attempt was the invention of him who goes about as a roaring Lyon seeking whom he may devour and a forerunner of him who is King over all the Children of Pride He tells John himself and that as he pretends with tears in his Eyes that unless he quitted this proud foolish Title he must proceed further with him and that if his profane and ungodly humour could not be cur'd by gentler methods it must be lanc'd by Canonical severity that by this perverse Title he had imitated the Devil and had made himself like to Lucifer Son of the Morning who said I will ascend above the heights of the Clouds I will exalt my Throne above the Stars of God telling us that by Clouds and Stars we are to understand Bishops who water by their Preaching and shine by the light of their Conversation whom while he despis'd and trod upon and proudly lift up himself above them what did he but aspire above the height of the Clouds and exalt his Throne above the Stars of Heaven that such proud Attempts had been always far from him or his Predecessors who had refus'd the Title of Universal Bishop when for the honour of S. Peter Prince of the Apostles the venerable Council of Chalcedon offered it to them XI IN which last passage inculcated by him at every turn no less than four or five several times I cannot but remark either his Carelesness or Insincerity Carelesness in taking such an important passage upon trust or Insincerity if knowing it to be otherwise to lay so much stress upon so false and sandy a foundation For the truth is neither were his Predecessors so modest that I know of as to refuse such a Title neither did the Synod of Chalcedon ever offer it to them There being nothing in all the Acts of that Council that looks this way more than this that four persons that came from Alexandria with Articles against Dioscorus their Bishop exhibited their several Libels of Accusation which they had presented to Pope Leo who had beforehand espoused the quarrel with this inscription To Leo the most holy and religious Oecumenical Archbishop and Patriarch of Great Rome These Libels the Papal Legats desired might be inserted into the Acts of the Council which was done accordingly as is usual in all judiciary Proceedings for no other reason as the Synod it self tells us but this that remaining there they might thence be again rehears'd in Council when Dioscorus himself should appear and come to make his defence This is the true state of the case and now let the Reader judge whether the Council offer'd the Pope this Title when they were so far from approving it that they did not so much as once take notice of it I do not deny but that the Pope's Legats might have an eye that way and design to have that Title remain among the Records of the Council as they were watchful Stewards to improve all advantages for their Master and therefore we find them sometimes subscribing themselves Vice-gerents of Leo of Rome Bishop of the universal Church which yet elsewhere they thus explain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Apostolical and chief Bishop of the whole Church But however they intended it certain it is for any thing that appears to the contrary that the Fathers themselves never dreamt of any such matter and accordingly when they came singly to declare their Judgments about the Epistle of Pope Leo they style him only Pope or Archbishop of Rome nor do his Legates there give him any other Title And in their Synodal Epistle to him they superscribe it only To the most holy and blessed Archbishop of Rome Binius indeed will have the word Oecumenical to have been in the Inscription and that it was maliciously struck out by some Transcriber because says he in the body of the Epistle the Fathers own Leo to be the Head of the Universal Church and the Father of all Bishops When as the Letter has not one word to that purpose more than this That as the Head presides over the Members so did Leo over the Bishops in that Synod which can import no more than his presiding by his Legates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his qui tuas vices gerebant as the last publishers of the Councils truly correct the Translation in that Council But suppose the Pope had had this Title conferr'd upon him as Gregory untruly affirms 't was no more than what was frequently given to the Patriarch of Constantinople as to omit other instances is evident from the Council holden there Ann. DXXXVI under Mennas and another under John 18 years before where John and Mennas successively Bishops of that See have both in the Acts of those Councils and in Libels of Address from whole Synods the Title of Oecumenical Patriarch near twenty times bestow'd upon them And this was several years before it was assum'd by that Patriarch John whom we mention'd before And 't is methinks a sorry evasion of Baronius and his Footman Binius though 't is that which they always have at hand when an Argument pinches which they know not how to decline that this Title was foisted into the Acts of the Council by some later Greeks And yet they produce no authority no nor shadow of pretence from any ancient Copy that ever it was otherwise And what if the Church of Rome did receive the Acts of that Council and yet make no such clamours and loud outcry against it Perhaps it did not intirely admit the Acts of that Synod under John of Constantinople Ann. DXVIII Binius himself says they
Yoak and had restor'd times of Liberty under the conduct of his Imperial Grace and Piety He wrote likewise to the Empress Leontia one who is said to have been not one jot better than her Husband with flattering Caresses and under abundance of good words courts her kindness and patronage to the Church of S. Peter which he fails not to back with Thou art Peter and upon this Rock c. To thee I will give the Keys c. XV. NOT long after Gregory dies and Sabinian who succeeded living not full six Months Boniface the Third of that name takes the Chair He had very lately been Apocrisiarius or the Pope's Legate at Constantinople where he wanted not opportunities to insinuate himself into the favour of Phocas and the Courtiers And now he thought it a fit time to put in for what the Popes notwithstanding all the pretences of Self-denial so much desir'd the Title of Universal Bishop and the rather because Cyriacus Patriarch of Constantinople was at this time under disfavour at Court. From the very first entrance upon the Papacy he dealt with Phocas about this matter and at length gain'd the point though not without some considerable difficulty and opposition aegre nec sine multa contentione as my Authors have it At last out comes an Edict from Phocas commanding that the Church of Rome should be styl'd and esteem'd the Head of all Churches and the Pope Universal Bishop A rare Charter sure not founded upon the Canons of the Church but upon an Imperial Edict and this Edict too granted by the vilest and the worst of Men. But so they had it no matter how they came by it And now that Title that had so lately been new vain proud foolish prophane wicked hypocritical presumptuous perverse blasphemous devilish and Antichristian became in a moment not only warrantable but holy and laudable being sanctified by the Apostolic See XVI FROM henceforth the Church of Rome sate as Queen and govern'd in a manner without control For the Empire being broken in the West by the irruptions of the Lombards into Italy and its Power declining in the East by the successful invasions of the Saracens the Emperours were but little at leasure to support and buoy up the Honour of the Constantinopolitan Patriarchate Advantages which the Popes knew well enough how to improve And indeed every Age made new Additions to the height of the Papal Throne and the Pride of that Church increasing proportionably to its Power and Grandeur hector'd the World into submission to the See of Rome which as imperiously imposed its Commands and Principles upon other Churches as Tyrants do Laws upon conquer'd Countries Witness for a concluding instance those extravagant Canons or Articles DICTATES he calls them which Pope Gregory the Seventh publish'd about the year MLXXV. I know Monsieur Launoy has attempted to shew that these Dictates concerning the Prerogative of the See Apostolic were not fram'd by Gregory the Seventh Whether his Reasons be conclusive I am not now at leasure to enquire Sure I am they are without any scruple own'd for his by Baronius and generally by all the Writers of that Church And Launoy himself is forc'd to grant that several of them are agreeable enough to the Humour Pretensions and Decrees of that Pope They run thus 1. That the Church of Rome is founded by our Lord alone 2. That the Bishop of Rome only can be truly styl'd Universal Bishop 3. That he alone has power to depose or reconcile Bishops 4. That his Legate though of an inferiour Degree is above all Bishops in Council and may pronounce sentence of Deposition against them 5. That the Pope may depose absent Bishops 6. That where any are excommunicated by him we may not among other things so much as abide in the same House with them 7. That he only may according to the necessity of Times make new Laws constitute new Churches turn a Canonry into an Abby and on the contrary divide a rich Bishoprick and unite such as are poor 8. That it is lawful only for him to use the Imperial Ornaments 9. That all Princes shall kiss none but the Pope's Feet 10. That his Name alone shall be recited in Churches 11. That there is but one only name in the World that is that of Pope 12. That it is in his power to depose Emperours 13. That in case of necessity he may translate Bishops from one See to another 14. That wheresoever he please he may ordain a Clerk to any Church 15. That whoever is ordain'd by him may have the Government of any other Church but may not bear Arms nor may receive a superiour Degree from any Bishop 16. That no Council ought to be call'd General without his Command 17. That no Chapter nor Book shall be accounted Canonical without his authority 18. That no Man may reverse Sentence past by him and he only may reverse all others 19. That he ought not to be judg'd by any 20. That none presume to condemn any person that appeals to the Apostolic See 21. That the weightier Causes of every Church ought to be referr'd to that See 22. That the Church of Rome never err'd nor as the Scripture testifies shall ever err 23. That the Bishop of Rome if Canonically ordain'd is by the merits of S. Peter undoubtedly made holy as S. Ennodius Bishop of Pavia bears witness favour'd herein by many of the holy Fathers as is contain'd in the Decrees of the blessed Pope Symmachus 24. That by his leave and command Subjects may accuse their Superiours 25. That without any Synod he may depose and reconcile Bishops 26. That no Man shall be accounted Catholic that agrees not with the Church of Rome 27. That it is in his power to absolve the Subjects of unjust Governours from their Fealty and Allegiance These were Maxims with a witness deliver'd like a true DICTATOR and Head of the Church And it shew'd the World was sunk into a prodigious Degeneracy when a Man durst but so much as think of obtruding such Principles upon the Consciences of Men and imposing them upon the belief of Mankind The END Books Printed for and Sold by RICHARD CHISWELL FOLIO SPeed's Maps and Geography of Great Britain and Ireland and of Foreign Parts Dr. Cave's Lives of the Primitive Fathers in 2. Vol. Dr. Cary's Chronological Account of Ancient Time Wanley's Wonders of the little World or Hist of Man Sir Tho. Herbert`s Travels into Persia c. Holyoak's large Dictionary Latine and English Sir Rich. Baker's Chronicle of England Wilson's Compleat Christian Dictionary B. Wilkin's real Character or Philosophical Language Pharmacopoeia Regalis Collegii Medicorum Londinensis Judge Jones's Reports in Common Law Cave Tabulae Ecclesiasticorum Scriptorum Hobbs's Leviathan Lord Bacon's Advancement of Learning Sir Will. Dugdale's Baronage of England in two Vol. Hooker ' Ecclesiastical Polity Winch's Book of Entries Isaac Ambrose's Works Guillim's Display of Heraldry with large
the determination made by the Sardican Synod Adelfius de civitate Coloniae Londinensium with Sacerdos a Priest and Arminius a Deacon After the Empire had submitted to Christianity we cannot question but that Religion prospered greatly in this Island and that Constantine who made it his business to advance it in all places would much more give it the highest encouragement in that place to which he owed both his first breath and Empire What progress it made afterwards I may not stand nicely to enquire 't is certain it flourish'd here under the Roman Government 'till the Declension of the Empire when that guard and protection being withdrawn the Country became a prey to the neighbour Picts and Scots as not long after to the Saxons a War-like but Pagan Nation whom the Britains had call'd in to their Assistance who drove the remainder of the Britains and with them Religion into the Mountains where yet it throve under the greatest hardships Things continued thus when Ann. DXCVI. Pope Gregory the Great sent Austine the Monk to convert these Saxons who after his first expedition being at Arles consecrated Arch-bishop of Canterbury applied himself more closely to this errand than he had done before He found Paganisme covering the greatest parts of the Island but withal a considerable Church among the Britains seven Bishops they had as Bede informs us A number says Bale conform'd to the seven Churches of Asia their Sees were Hereford Tavensis or Landaff Lhan-Padern-Vaur Bangor Elviensis or S. Asaph Worcester and Morganensis suppos'd by many to be Glamorgan but that being the same with Landaff R. Hoveden reckons Chester in the room of it or as Bishop Usher thinks not improbable it might be Caer-Guby or Holy-head in the Isle of Anglesey These seven were under the superintendency of a Metropolitan whose Archiepiscopal See had been formerly at Caer-leon upon Uske the famous River Isca in Monmouthshire but some years before Austins arival had been translated to Menevia or S. Davids so call'd from the Bishop that translated it in Pembrook-shire though for some time after retaining the Title of Arch-bishop of Caer-Leon And to him were the Welsh Bishops subject and by him Ordain'd as he by them until the time of King Henry the First Besides these Episcopal Sees the Britains had Colledges or Seminaries and in them vast numbers of Christian Monks who dwelt especially at Bangor under the care and superintendency of Abbot Dinooth But that which spoil'd all was that this Church had Rites and Usages vastly different from them of Rome both in the Observation of Easter the Administration of Baptism and many other Customes A most infallible Argument that the Britannick Church had no dependance upon had held no communication with the Church of Rome Their celebration of Easter after the manner of the ancient Asiatick Churches clearly shewing that they had originally deriv'd their Religion from those Eastern parts To reduce therefore this Church into subjection to Rome was a great part of Austins work In order whereunto by the help of King Ethelbert he procur'd a conference with them at a place upon the Borders of Worcester-shire call'd from this occasion Augustins Oke Austin us'd all his arts to prevail upon them perswaded intreated threatned but in vain After a long disputation they declar'd they preferr'd their own ancient Traditions and Customs from which they might not depart without leave and liberty from their own Church Nay if the British fragment produc'd by one of our great Antiquaries be of any credit Abbot Dinoth plainly told him with a Be it known to you and without doubt That they ow'd no more to the Pope of Rome than to every godly Christian vzi. the obedience of Love and Brotherly assistance other than this he knew none due to him whom they call'd Pope and who claim'd to be own'd and styl'd Father of Fathers that for themselves they were under the Government of the Bishop of Caer-Leon upon Uske who under God was to oversee and guide them Austin saw 't was to no purpose at present to treat further and so reserv'd himself for another conference A second therefore and a more general meeting is propounded and agreed to whereto came the seven British Bishops and many other persons of Learning especially of the College of Bangor Austin as before press'd them to a compliance with the Roman and Apostolick Church But they offended with his proud and contemptuous treatment of them never so much as rising out of his Chair at their coming to salute him told him plainly they would do nothing of what he demanded nor would they own him for Archbishop prudently arguing among themselves If he would not now vouchsafe so much as to rise up to us how much more when we have submitted to him will he despise and scorn us Austin finding no good was to be done upon them parted from them with this passionate farewel That since they would not have peace with their Brethren they should have war from their Enemies and for as much as they refus'd to preach the way of life to the English they should be punisht with death by their hands And his word it seems was made good For soon after Ethelfrid King of Northumberland at the instigation as is said of Ethelbert King of Kent march'd with a powerful Army to Caer-Leon and made great havock and destruction and among the rest slew Twelve hundred of the innocent Monks of Bangor who were come along with their Army by fasting and prayer to intercede with Heaven for its prosperous success That Austin was the first spring of this fatal Tragedy moving Ethelbert as he did Ethelfrid there are not only strong suspicions but the thing is expresly affirm'd by several Historians of no inconsiderable credit and antiquity 'T is true Bede says this happened not till after Austins Death But besides the inconsistency in point of Chronology 't is suspicious that passage was foisted into Bede it being wanting in the ancient Saxon Translation of King Alfred done within CL. years after Bedes Death Nay though we should grant the slaughter to have happened after the death of Austin yet who knows not but he might easily lay the design with Ethelbert though himself liv'd not to see the Execution And the proud and haughty spirit of the man gives but too much encouragement to the suspicion What became of the British Churches after this I am not concern'd to relate 'T is enough to my purpose that from the very originals of this Church it was independant upon Rome and that for Six hundred years together nor could be brought to strike Sail 'till Fire and Sword the most powerful Arguments of the Papal cause had converted that is in effect ruin'd and destroy'd it X. FROM the whole of what has been said laid together the impartial Reader will easily make this conclusion how vain and frivolous the pretences are to the Popes Patriarchal Authority over