Bishop usurped an Authority which neither Scripture nor Canon gave unto him It is recorded also that they sometimes acquitted Malefactors without hearing Witnesses and sent Orders for the Restauration of those who made such irregular flights into the Provinces of other Patriarchs that were Subject indeed to the Roman Empire but not within the Province of the Roman Patriarch Nay when those Orders were rejected if some of their own Collectors may be believed the Roman Bishops through favour of the Empire got Magistrates and Souldiers to see them executed by Plain force which grew chiefly scandalous in the times of Zozimus and Boniface of which you may read the three last and best Collections of the Councils set forth by the Papists Binius 〈◊〉 abbè and the Collectio Regia unanimously consenting in their Notes on the sixth Council of Carthage And that this was the cause of calling that Council they confess in like manner For to stop these intolerable Incroachments and to suppress the growth of an Aspiring Tyranny this seasonable Council was called at Carthage consisting of 〈◊〉 Bishops among whom S. Augustine was one present in particular To this Council Zozimus the Roman Patriarch sent three persons one of which was Faustinus an Italian Bishop to plead his Cause with two Canons fathered upon the Nicene Council designing thereby to justifie his Power of receiving Appeals both from Bishops and Priests but by the care and wisdom of that Council they were detected and confounded the Fraud being made a Spectacle to the whole world For first the Copy which Caecilianus Archbishop of Carthage brought from Nice he being himself one of the Fathers in that Council was orderly produced and the two Canons which the Roman Bishop sent were not there Next because it might be pleaded upon the difference of the Copies that the Copy of Carthage must give place to that of Rome Rome being the greater See they sent Messengers to the Patriarch of Alexandria to the Patriarch of Antioch and to the Patriarch of Constantinople and admonished the Bishop of Rome to do so too that he might see sound and fair dealing desiring the Records of the Nicene Council from all the principal parts of the world from the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Alexandria they received Authentick Copies attested with their several known Authorities which agreed exactly with the Copy at Carthage but disagreed with that of Rome the Extract produced out of it by the Name of a Commonitorium being every word apparently forged Upon this the Bishop of Rome was condemned his Arrogance and Usurpation suppressed by Canons and his Pride chastised by Letters the Letters and Canons being yet extant This was done about the year 420. Zozimus dying Boniface and Celestine successively take up the Quarrel without any Dissent appearing in the Roman Clergy nay rather all the Interest of that Chair was imployed to uphold the Forgery whereby it is evident that it was not a Personal Act but the guilt and business of the Church of Rome as appeareth further by all their Successors persisting in the Quarrel by the multitude of her Members defending it and the Forgery both and by all the Popish Collectors conspiring together to maintain the Spurious and Adulterate Canons Among other things which the Fathers wrote out of this Sixth Council of Carthage to Pope Celestine they oppose the true Canons of the Nicene Council against the false ones noting that which is alone sufficient to overthrow the Forgery that these two Popish Canons were really contrary to the Canons and Decrees of the Nicene Council For desiring him no more so easily to admit Appeals nor to receive into Communion those that were Excommunicated in other Churches they tell him he might easily find this matter defined in the Nicene Council for if it seemed fit to be observed in the inferiour Clergy and Lay-men much more in Bishops They tell him that he should chastise and punish such impudent Flights as became him As also that the Canons of the Nicene Council had most openly committed both the inferiour Clergy and Bishops themselves to their own Metropolitans wisely and justly providing that all businesses whatsoever should be determined in the places where they arose Nisi fortè est Aliquis c. unless perhaps there be some one who will say that God is able to give Justice of Judgment to one be he who he will but denies it to innumerable Priests assembled in a Council Which was in those days held so absurd and monstrous a thing to conceive that however the case is altered since they thought no man impudent enough to affirm it In these words they cut the Popes Arrogance sufficiently for that he being but One was so highly conceited of himself at least so behaved himself as if he had an extraordinary Spirit of Infallibility and were fitter to determine the Causes of the Church than a whole Council of Bishops assembled together Finally they charge him with bringing the empty puff of secular pride into the Church of Christ And so proceed to their Canons against him Notwithstanding this the Roman Bishops continued obstinate contending so long till there was a great Rupture made in the Church upon this occasion And if some Records be true namely those Letters that past between Eulalius and another Boniface the Bishops of Rome grew so impudent as to Excommunicate the Eastern Churches because they would not be obedient to an Authority sounded on so base a Forgery If they be not true then there are more Forgeries in the Roman Church than we charge her with For the Letters were feigned as Baronius confesseth by some afterwards that were zealous of the Churches welfare to wit for the better colouring of that Schism which was made by the pride and ambition of Rome These Epistles were set forth by the Papists and were owned at first for good Records but upon the consideration of so many Saints and Martyrs that sprung up in the Churches of Africa during that 100 years wherein it is pretended by those Epistles that they were cut off from the Church of Rome it was afterwards thought better to reject them as Counterfeits because the Roman Martyrologies are filled with the names of those African Saints And it is a stated Rule that no Saint or Martyr can be out of the Church Lest the Eastern Churches therefore should out-weigh the Roman by reason of the Splendour Multitude and Authority of these Eminent Saints these Letters are now condemned by some among themselves vid. Bellarm de Rom. Pont. lib. 2. cap. 25. Baron in Not. Martyrol ad 16. Octobr. and Bin. in Concil Carthag 6. This unfortunate Contest happening so near to the Fourth Century was the first Head-spring or Root of the Schism that is now between us And the matter being so on whose side the fault lay I leave to the Reader How the Roman Church proceeded in this business we may learn from Daillè an able Writer
by the People that it was granted to the Church of Rome by a singular priviledge to open and shut the Kingdom of Heaven to whom she would that none may Appeal from her to any other that the Apostolical See may without any Synod unbind those whom a Synod or Council hath unjustly condemned Of which Sentence she is to be the Judge whether it be just for she may judge all but none her that the Church of Rome is the Foundation and Form of all the Churches so that no Church hath its Essence without that of Rome that from her all the Churches received their beginning Doctrines as true as the Authorities by which they are confirmed and to say no more as true as the last For the Christian Churches received their beginning from Jerusalem before the Church of Rome had any Being Consider it well and you shall find this the removing of a meer stone of highest importance an Encroachment upon the Territories of other Patriarchs an 〈◊〉 of all Spiritual and Secular Power to the subversion of Emperours Kings and Councils For if all are to obey her as Jesus Christ did his Eternal Father if it be granted to the Roman Church by a singular Priviledge to open and shut the Kingdom of Heaven to whom she will if no King Emperour or Council hath power to judge the Pope while he hath power to judge all Kings Emperours and Councils are made Subject to him and nothing can escape the Sublimity of his Cognizance Besides this Treatise of the Primacy Peter Crab has 34 new Canons of the Apostles more than Isidore and Merlin So that Antiquities are daily increasing in the Church of Rome and Records are like Figs new ones come up instead of the old ones The last of these Canons is that of Clement about the Canon of the Bible a Forgery of more Scriptures added to the former in the names of the Apostles defended by honest Turrian zealously and magnified by Nicolinus as the Coronis of the Apostles Canons He has the Roman Pontifical a Treatise of the Lives of Popes fitted exactly to the Decretal Epistles and accordingly most richly stored with all kind of Forgeries and Lyes It is a new Book Fathered upon Pope Damasus which Isidore and Merlin I think were ignorant of for it is not in them and I admire where he had it It is the Text on which he commenteth as a Great Record he useth it as a great proof in doubtful matters and according to it the Method of his Tomes is ordered You will see more of it hereafter He has the counterfeit Council of Sinuessa a new Piece which I find not in Merlin But I verily believe he scraped it up some where else and 't is not his own 't is so full of nonsense A Council sitting in the year 303. and defining from that Text Ex ore tuo justificaberis ex ore tuo condemnaberis that no Council can condemn a Pope nor any other Power but his own mouth For because our Saviour has said Out of thine own mouth thou shalt be justified and out of thine own mouth thou shalt be condemned therefore no body can condemn the Pope but himself alone for which purpose they repeat the Text over and over again very 〈◊〉 and childishly even unto nauseating And the example of Marcellinus is made an instance in the case who being called to an Account for offering Incense to an Idol could not be condemned by this Council and was therefore because he was Pope humbly implored to condemn himself It is a Council of great value because of the President we have in it how Scriptures may be applied to the Bishop of Rome and how places that belong to all the World must peculiarly be ascribed to him alone Howbeit Crab makes a sowre face on 't and is fain to premise this Premonition to the Reader By reason of the intollerable difference and corruption of the Copies whereof the one was old and faulty though written in the best Parchment and Character the other more old but equally depraved as the Beholders might discern with their eyes so far that what they mean sometimes cannot be understood we have set both the Copies without changing a syllable of them in two Columns setting the Letter A over the first and C over the other but the middle Column over which B is placed for its capaeity or rather conjecture endeavours as much as it is able to reconcile the other two so very divers and bring them to some sense He does not tell you plainly that he made the middle Copy but 't is easie to conceive it since he found but two and they were so full of nonsense that he added one which is the third to reconcile them Yet Crabbe's Invention is now recorded by the Collectio Regia and the two old ones for their horrid Barbarismes are thrown out of the Councils and for very shame are cast away for proceeding in his Apology Crab a little after saith Nemo ergo caput subsannando moveat c. Let no man therefore wag his Head in derision who having either gotten more correct Exemplars or being of a more Noble and clear apprehension is able to mend these but rather let him patiently bear with what is done and reduce it himself into better form This is a sufficient Light wherein to see the dissimilitude between Forgeries and true Records For whereas the undoubted were made in great Councils of Holy Men and are all of them clear and pure and well-advised full of Uniformity Sense Gravity Majesty Smoothness Order Perspicuity Brevity Eloquence and Verity it is the common Fare of these Instruments which we accuse as Forgeries being made in a Dark Age by men not so Learned as the Church of Rome could desire and sometimes in a Corner by some silly Monk to swarm with Absurdities Errours Tautologies Barbarismes to be rude and tedious empty and incoherent weak and impertinent yet some of them we confess to be more pure in Language and better in sense than others This Council of Sinuessa is more ridiculous than it is possible well to imagine before you read and consider it He has the Counterfeit Edict of the Emperour Constantine for a good Record It is more warily made than the other and better Latine but of Swinging Importance ' I is but a Deed of Gift wherein the first most Christian Emperour is made to give all the Glory of the Western Empire with its Territories and Regalities to the Bishop of Rome We shall meet with it in others for the Collectors of the Decretal Epistles all of them harp upon this String most strangely As Pope Paul V. so Peter Crab has but 20 Canons of the Nicene Council wherein he agrees with Isidore and Merlin and differs much from some that follow him Nay he agrees and disagrees with Isidore at once in this very thing He agrees with Isidore in his Book it self on the Nicene Council but disagrees
Roman Forgeries Or a TRVE ACCOUNT OF FALSE RECORDS Discovering the IMPOSTURES AND Counterfeit Antiquities OF THE CHURCH OF ROME By a Faithful Son of the Church of ENGLAND LONDON Printed by S. and B. Griffin for Jonathan Edwin at the three Roses in Ludgate-Street 1 Tim. 4. 2. Speaking lies in Hypocrisie having their Conscience seared with an hot iron 2 Tim. 3. 8 9. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses so do these also resist the truth men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the Faith But they shall proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest unto all men as theirs also was TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE S r ORLANDO BRIDGEMAN KNIGHT and BARONET One of HIS MAJESTIES Most Honourable Privy Council The AUTHOR Devoteth his best Services AND DEDICATETH The VSE and BENEFIT of his Ensuing Labors A Premonition THe Bishops of Rome in the persons of Zozimus Boniface and Celestine Successively opposed the Sixth Council of Carthage consisting of 217 Fathers among whom the great S. Augustine is acknowledged to be one in the matter of Appeals which was the first step made by that irregular Chair to the Exorbitant Supremacy which they afterward claimed In vindicating that Claim before the Council they produced two counterfeit Canons fathered upon the Oecumenical Synod at Nice which were by the Records of Carthage Alexandria and Constantinople in the presence of all those Fathers in the sixth Council of Carthage detected to be forgeries as well as by the Tenor of the undoubted Canons of the Nicene Council it self which are contrary to those by the Roman Church pretended and so they were esteemed by the Fathers in that sixth Council who were startled at the sight of those New unheard of Monsters at their first Publication above 1200 years ago Vpon this Passage I redoubled in the Book an observation to make it more remarkable which you will find cap. 2. pag. 9. to this purpose That in the first General Council of Nice it was ordered that the chief in every Province should confirm the Acts of his inferior Bishops And if any Trouble did arise which could not be decided by the Metropolitan Provision was made Can. 5. in words so clear and forcible that none more plain can be put into their places that the last Appeal should be made to Councils and that the Person condemned in any Province should not be received if he fled to others That Parenthesis In words so clear and forcible that none more plain can be put in their places relates to the CANON it self which here follows that you may see how forcible it is and how much plainer then the very Words into which I had contracted it It is worthy your Consideration as on of the most Important Records in Antiquity consented to by all the Popish Compilers of the Councils themselves Can. 5. Concerning those that are Excommunicated whether in the order of the Clergy or the Laitie by the Bishops in every several province let the Sentence prevail according to the Canon that they who are cast out by some be not received by others But let it be required that no man be excluded the Congregation by the Pusillanimitie or contention or any such vice of the Bishop That this therefore might more decently be inquired into we think it fit that Councils should every year throughout every Province twice be celebrated that such Questions may be discussed by the Common Authority of all the Bishops assembled together And so they that have evidently offended against their Bishop shall be accounted Excommunicated according to reason by all till it pleaseth the Community of Bishops to pronounce a milder Sentence on such But let the Councils be held the one before the Quaaragesima before Easter that all dissention being taken away we might offer a most pure Gift unto God and the second about the middle of Autumn Had the Canon said The last Appeal shall be made to Councils they that are accustomed to such shifts without blushing might easily have evaded the Words by affirming the Bishop of Rome to be particularly excepted without any need of expressing the exception because by the general and Tacit Consent of all he is above the Limits of such Laws and above the Authority of that and all other Councils Thus they might still render the matter doubtful by their Subterfuges and Pretences as indeed they do in evading one expression of the Canon it self For whereas the Fathers say Let the Sentence prevail according to the Canon that they who are cast out by some be not received by others Those Popish Hirelings make an exception of the Bishop of Rome where the Oecumenical Synod maketh none and might as well except him here though the Council had said in terms The last Appeal shall be made to Councils For the last Appeal to any subordinate Authority over which the Council had any Legislative Power was ordered they might say to be made to Councils But the Bishop of Rome being the Head of the Church and having the supreme Authority over all Councils was not thought of in this Canon nor was fit he should be at all mentioned because that would imply he was under their authority The Prodigious Height of their usurped Claim being their sole Defence and their incredible Boldness the amazement of ignorant People which is their chief security But the Council adding to the former expression this clause That Councils should every year throughout evry Province twice be celebrated for this very end that such Questions may be discussed by the common authority of all the Bishops assembled together it puts an end to the business especially when they add That they who have evidently offended their Bishop shall be accounted excommunicated according to reason till it pleaseth the community of Bishops to pronounce a milder Sentence But that which renders it most plain and forcible is this Let the Councils be held the one before the Quadragesima before Easter that all Dissention being taken away we might offer a most pure Gift unto GOD. And the second about the middle of Autumn All the wit in the world could not have invented a more clear and apparent provision against the Roman Bishops absurd and impudent Pretences No Evasion I think can possibly be made there from when it is once noted and understood For the Bar put in against the Pope is not here in Words but Things It implies that the Controversie must before Easter be fully determined The very end of calling such a Council and holding it then being the taking away of all dissention that we might offer up a most pure Gift or Sacrifice to God that is That Vnity being restored to the Church at that time we might receive the Sacrament in Peace and Charity Whereas if after the Sentence of the Council the business were to be carried to the Court of Rome Suits and Quarrels could not be ended against Easter but would be lengthened in many Provinces beyond
and were Apostatical rather than Apostolical and that some of them came not in by the Door but were Thi ves and Robbers That it is not impossible to forge Records for the Bolstering up of Heresies those counter eit Gospels Acts Epistles Revelations c. that were put forth by Hereticks in the Names of the Apostles do sufficiently evidence which being extant a little after the Apostles decease are pointed to by Irenaeus condemned in a Roman Council by Gelasius and some of them recorded by Ivo Cartonensis in a Catalogue lib. 2. cap. 〈◊〉 The Itinerary of Clement and the Book called Pastor being two of the number I note the two last because S. Clement in his first Epistle to S. James is made to approve the one and Pope Pius in his Decretal magnifieth the other Which giveth us a little glympse of the Knavery by which those Ancient Bishops and Martyre of Rome were both abused having Spurious Writings fathered upon themselves for had those Instruments been their own they would never have owned such abominable Forgeries But of this you may expect more hereafter Cap. 16. and Cap. 17. These aggravations and degrees of Forgery we have not mentioned in vain or by accident In the process of our discourse the Church of Rome will be found guilty of them all except the first which is beneath her Grandeur and in so doing she is very strangely secured by the height of her impiety For because it does not easily enter into the heart of man to conceive that men especially Christians should voluntarily commit so transcendent a Crime the greatness of it makes it incredible to inexperienced people and renders them prone to excuse the Malefactors while they condemn the Accusers But that the Church of Rome is guilty in all these respects we shall prove not by remote Authorities that are weak and feeble but by demonstrations derived from the Root and Fountain I will not be positive in making comparisons but if my reading and judgment do not both deceive me she is guilty of more Forgeries than all the Hereticks in the world beside Their greatness and their number countenance the Charge and seem to promise that one day it shall pass into a Sentence of Condemnation against her CAP. II. Of the Primitive Order and Government of the Church The first Popish Encroachment upon it backed with Forgery The Detection of the Fraud in the Sixth Council of Carthage IT is S. Cyprian's observation that our Saviour in the first Foundation of the Church gave his Apostles equal honour and power saying unto them Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained Cyprian Tract de Simpl Praelator The place has been tampered with but unsuccessfully For though they have thrust in other words into the Fathers Text in some Editions of their own yet in others they are left sincere As Dr. James in his corruption of the Fathers Part. 2. Cap. 1. does well observe But the most remarkable attempt of the Papists is that whereas they have set a Tract concerning the Primacy of the Roman Church before the Councils containing many Quotations out of the Bastard Decretals which they pretend to be extracted ex Codice antiquo out of an Old Book without naming any Author closing it with this passage of S. Cyprian they leave out these words of Scripture Whose soever sins ye remit c. as rendring the Fathers Testimony unfit for their purpose You may see it in Binius his Collection of the Councils c. When the Apostles had converted Nations they constituted Bishops Priests and Deacons for the Government of the Church and left those Orders among us when they departed from the world It was found convenient also for the better Regiment of the Church when it was much inlarged to erect the Orders of Archbishops and Patriarchs The Patriarchs being Supreme in their several Jurisdictions had each of them many Primates and Archbishops under him with many Nations and Kingdoms allotted to their several Provinces every of which was limited in it self and distinct from the residue as appeareth in that first Oecumenical Council assembled at Nice An. Dom. 327. where it was ordained Can. 6 that the ancient custom should be kept the Jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome being expresly noted to be equal to that of the other Patriarchs In the two preceding Canons they ordain 1. That in every Province Bishops should be consecrated by all the Bishops thereof might it consist with their convenience to meet together if not at least by three being present the rest consenting but the confirmation of their Acts is in every Province reserved to the Metropolitan 2. That the last Appeal should be made to Councils and that the person condemned in any Province should not be received if he fled to others Can. 4. and 5. In the first of these Canons it was ordered that the chief in every Province should confirm the Acts of his Inferiour Bishops the Patriarch of Rome in his and every other Patriarch in his own Jurisdiction In 〈◊〉 last if any trouble did arise that could not be decided by the Metropolitan provision was made in words so clear and forcible that none more plain can be put into their places that the last Appeal should be made to Councils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the City of Rome being in those days Queen of the World and lifted up above all other Cities as the Seat of the Empire the Bishop thereof began to wax proud in after-times and being discontented with the former Bounds invaded the Jurisdictions of his Fellow-Patriarchs For though the Foundation upon which the Government was laid was against it yet when persons were Immorigerous if any Bishop were censured by his Metropolitan or Priest excommunicated by his Bishop or Deacon offended with his Superiour who chastised him for his guilt though the Canon of the Church was trampled under foot thereby which forbad such irregular and disorderly flights the manner was for those turbulent persons to flee to Rome because it was a great and powerful City and the Roman Bishop trampling the Rule under foot as well as others did as is confessed frequently receive them Nay their ambition being kindled by the greatness of the place it tempted them so far as to favour the Delinquents and oftentimes to clear them for the incouragement of others invited by that means to fly thither for relief till at last the Cause of Malefactors was openly Espoused and while they were excommunicated in other Churches they were received to the Communion in the Church of Rome Hereupon there were great murmurings and heart-burnings at the first in the Eastern Churches because Rome became an Asylum or City of Refuge for discontented persons disturbing the Order of the Church spoiling the Discipline of other Provinces and hindering the Course of Justice while her
foolishly for in the beginning of the Book he hath a Preliminary Tract called An Annotation of Synods the Acts where of are contained in this book In which he giveth us this account in the Aquitan Council 18 Fathers made 24 Canons in that of Neocaesarea 16 Fathers made 14 Canons in that of Gangra 16 Fathers made 21 Canons in that of Sardica 60 Fathers made 21 Canons in that of Antioch 30 Fathers made 25 Canons in that of Laodicea 22 Fathers made 59 Canons in the Council of Car thage 217 Fathers made 33 Canons I had a long time coveted a sight of these Canons and finding them numbred in such an Annotation of Synods the Acts whereof are contained in this book I was much comforted with hope of seeing them But when I turned to the place I found them not Surely to slip out 33 Canons at a time made by more Fathers than were in all the other Councils put together is a lusty Deleatur There was never Deed of more importance imbezelled in the World The Nicene Council had 318 Fathers that made 20 Canons for what secret cause therefore he skippeth over the account which he ought especially to give of this is worth the enquiry He mentions it by the by and shuffles it off without an account perhaps because he was loath to say or unsay the story of 70 Canons in the Nicene Council However he dealeth fairly with us in this that having noted Aurelius to have been President in the sixth Council of Carthage he confesseth that S. Augustine Bishop of Hipyo is recorded to have been in that Council in the Reign of Honorius Ibid. Binius and all the Popish Compilers I could ever meet with before clipped off that Council in the midst without so much as signifying the number of its Canons I was glad I had a sight of their number here though I mist of themselves and was confident that however cruelly the Pope dealt with Aurelius Archbishop of Carthage S. Aug. Bishop of Hippo and other holy Fathers in cutting out their Tongues I should at last meet with them And the Learned Justellus with much honesty and honour has made us satisfaction We acknowledge some true Records among these Spurious Abominations but a little poyson spoileth the greatest Mess of the most wholesom Meat much more doth a Bundle of Forgeries that over-poyseth the true Records in size and number The method which he useth in the mixture of the Records and Forgeries is remarkable For beginning with the Counterfeit Epistles of Clement Anacletus c. he first seasoneth the Readers spirit with Artificial Charms and prepossesseth him with the high Authority of the Roman Patriarchs and after he has given him those strong Spells and Philtres composed of Roman Drugs permits him boldly to see some true Antiquities his eyes being dazled in the very Entry with Apparitions of Popes and such other Spectres Lest the Tincture should decay he reserves some of the Forgeries till afterwards that the true Records might be compassed in with an Enchanted Circle and the last Relish of Antiquity go off as strong as the first and be as successful as the prepossession Thus he cometh down with Forgeries to Melchiades and then he breaketh off the Decretal Epistles to make room for the Councils beginning with the Nicene under pretence of its Excellency and putting the Councils before it in time after it in order that he might get a fit occasion to introduce them here so running down in a disorderly manner from Ancyra to Neocaesarea Gangra Sardica Antioch Laodicea Constantinople Ephesus Chalcedon among the Greeks and then up again to the Latine Councils many of which preceded divers of the other as the first second third fourth fifth sixth Council of Carthage all which were before the Council of Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcedon From the seventh Council of Carthage he runneth down to the thirteenth Council of Toledo which happened long after Melchiades Silvester Pope Mark Liberius Felix c. were dead Then he cometh in the second part of his Work up again to Sylvester and so downwards with more Decretals that he might Husband his Forgeries well and not glut us with them altogether And remarkable it is also that he doth not give us the least syllable of notice of any Fraud among them Nay even Constantine's Donation set in the Front before the Nicene and in the midst between the first Order of Counterfeits and the Councils passeth with him silently and gravely for a true and sacred Instrument which is of all other the most impudent Imposture Let Baronius say what he will it was impossible to debauch all Antiquity and Learning with so much Labour and Art without some deep Counsel and Design What use Merlin puts all these things to and how much he was Approved in the Church of Rome you shall see in the next Chapter and how highly also he extolleth this Book ofF orgeries How plainly he fathereth it upon S. Isidore Bishop of Hispalis is manifest by the Coronis of the first Part where with it endeth Give thanks to industrious and learned men studious Reader that now thou hast at hand the Acts of the Councils as well as of the Popes which Isidore the Bishop of Hispalis collected into one Volume c. What shall we believe The first Edition of the Book it self or Baronius his Testimony Old Merlin fathers it upon Isidore before Baronius was born and all the World was made to believe the Bishop of Hispalis was the Author of it though now for shame and for a shift they fly to another Author Now if Isidore were dead before the Booke was made it must needs be a Cheat which as Merlin saith honest Francis Regnault the cunning Printer ended at Paris in the year of our Lord 1535 which unusual form of Concluding instead of allaying increaseth the suspicion CAP. VI. What use Merlin makes of Isidore and the Forgeries therein How much he was approved in the Church of Rome How some would have Isidore the Bishop to be a Merchant others a Sinner HOw false and fraudulent soever the Collection of Isidore be yet its Title is very Splendid and its Authority Sacred in the Church of Rome JAMES MERLIN'S COLLECTION OF THE Four General Councils The NICENE the CONSTANTINOPOLITAN the EPHESINE and the CHALCEDONIAN Which S. Gregory the Great does Worship and Reverence as the Four Gospels TOM I. Of 47 Provincial Councils also and the Decrees of 69 POPES From the APOSILES and their CANONS to ZACHARIAS ISIDORE being the Author ALSO The GOLDEN BULL of CHARLES IV. Emperour concerning the Election of the KING of the ROMANS PARIS At Francis Regnault 1535. All we shall observe upon this Title is this If Gregory the Great did Worship and Reverence the Four General Councils as the Four Gospels they were the more to blame that added 50 Canons to one of them and they much more that stain them all with the Neighbourhood and Mixture of such
hateful Forgeries But who could suspect that so much Fraud could be Ushered in with so fair a Frontispiece or so much Sordid Basene s varnished over with so much Magnificence I have heard of a Thief that robbed in his Coach and a Bishops Pontificalibus of the German Princess and of Mahomet's Dove But I never heard of any thing like this that a 〈◊〉 should trade with Apostles Fathers Emperours Golden Bulls Kings and Councils under the fair pretext of all these to Cheat the World of its Religion and Glory His Grandeur is rendered the more remarkable and his Artifice redoubted by the Greatness of his Retinue Riculphus Archbishop of Mentz Hincmarus Laudunensis Benedictus Levita the Famous 〈◊〉 and his fourscore Bishops Ivo Cartonensis Gratian Merlin Peter Crab Laurentius Surius Carranza Nicolinus Binius Labbè Cossartius the COLLECTIO REGIA Stanistaus Hosius Cardinal Bellarmine Franciscus Turrianus c. Men that bring along with them Emperours and Kings for Authority as will appear in the Sequel Men who think it lawful to Cheat in an Holy Cause and to lye for the Churches Glory These augment the Splendour of his Train Their Doctrine of Pious Frauds is not unknown And if we may do evil that good may come certainly no good like the Exaltation of the Roman Church can possibly be found wherewith to justifie a little evil The Jesuites Morals are well understood Upon their Principles to do evil is no evil if good may ensue Perjury it self may be dispenced with by the Authority of their Superiour An illimited Blind Obedience is the sum of their Profession To equivocate and lye for the Church that is for the advancement of their Order and the Popes benefit is so far from sin that to murder Heretical Kings is not more Meritorious It is a sufficient Warrant upon such grounds to James Merlin our present Author that he was commanded to do what he did by great and eminent Bishops in the Church of Rome as he sheweth in his Epistle Dedicatory To the most Reverend Fathers in Christ and his most excellent Lords Stephen and Francis c. the one of which was Bishop of Paris and the other an Eminent Prelate who ordered all his work by their care and made it publick by their own Authority Conceiving nothing saith he more profitable for the Commonwealth I have not dissembled to bring the Decrees of the Sacred Councils and Orthodox Bishops which partly the blessed Isidore sometime since digested into one partly you most Reverend Fathers having confirmed them with your Leaden Seal gave me to be published in one Volume For every particular appeareth so copiously and Catholickly handled here which is necessary for the convicting of the Errours of mortal men or for the restoring of the now almost ruined World that every man may readily find wherewith to kill Hereticks and Heresies The Protestants being grown so dangerous that they had almost ruined the Popish World by reforming the Church nothing but this Medusa's Head of Snakes and Forgeries was able to affray them The nakedness of the Pontisicians being discovered they had no Retreat from the Light of the Gospel but to this Refuge of Lies Where every one may readily find saith Merlin wherewith to kill Hereticks and Heresies to depress the proud to weary the voluptuous to bring down the ambitious to take the little Foxes that spoil the Vineyard of the Church By the proud and ambitious he meaneth Kings and Patriarchs that will not submit to the Authority and Supremacy of the Roman Church and by the little Foxes such men as the Martyrs in the Reformed Churches the driving away of which was the design of the publication That he meaneth Kings and Patriarchs in the former you will see in the Conclusion And if any one shall hereafter endeavour to fray and drive away these Monsters from the Commonwealth what can be more excellent saith he than the stones of David which this Jordan shall most copiously afford If any one would satisfie the desires of the Hungry what is more sweet and abundant than the Treasures which this Ship bringeth from the remotest Regions but if he desires the path and splendour of Truth by which the clouds of Errour with their Authors may best be dispelled and driven far away what is more apparent than the Sentences of the Fathers which they by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost have brought together into this Heap For here as out of a Meadow full of all kind of Flowers all things may be gathered with ease that conduce to the profit of the Church or the suppressing of Vices or the extinguishing of Lusts. Here the most precious Pearl if you dig a little will strait be found c. Here the Tyranny of Kings and Emperours as it were with a Bit and Bridle is restrained Here the Luxury of 〈◊〉 and Bishops is repressed If Princes differ here peace sincere is hid If Prelates contend about the Primacy here THE ANGEL OF THE GREAT COUNCIL discovers who is to be preferred above the residue c. Are not the Roman Wares set off with advantage here How exceedingly are these Medicines for the Maladies of the Church boasted by these Holy Mountebanks The stones of David that kill Goliah the River that refresheth the City of God the Food of Souls the Ship the very Argonaut of the Church that comes home laden with Treasures from unknown Regions are but mean expressions the Inspirations of the Holy Ghost the Pearl of Price Angelus ille Magni Concilii the Angel of the Covenant are hid here and all if we believe this dreadful Blasphemer declare for the Pope against all the World Here is a Bit and Bridle for Kings and Emperours a Rule for Patriarchs and what not The Councils and true Records we Reverence with all Honour due to Antiquity And for that very cause we so much the more abhor that admixture of Dross and Clay wherewith their Beauty is corrupted Had we received the Councils sincerely from her we should have blest the Tradition of the Church of Rome for her assistance therein But now she loveth her self more than her Children and the Pope which is the Church Virtual is so hard a Father that he soweth Tares instead of Wheat and giveth Stones instead of Bread and for Eggs feedeth us with Scorpions We abhor her practices and think it needful warily to examine and consider her Traditions What provisions are made in Merlin's Isidore for repressing the Luxuries of Popes and Bishops you may please to see in Constantines Donation and the Epilogus Brevis In the one of which so many Witnesses are required before a Bishop be condemned and in the other care is taken for the Pomp. of the Clergy even to the Magnificence of their Shooes and the Caparisons of their Horses As Merlin who was a Doctor of Divinity of Great Account so likewise all the following Collectors among the Papists derive their Streams from this Isidore
the first Collectors of the Councils among the Papists I have taken the more liberty to be somewhat copious in them that I may conveniently be more brief in perusing the residue CAP. VII Of Francis Turrian the Jesuite With what Art and Boldness he defendeth the Forgeries NOtwithstanding all the weakness and uncertainty of Isidore Francis Turrian the Famous Jesuite appears in its defence about 40 years after the first publication of it by Merlin The Centuriators of Magdenburg having met with it to his great displeasure he is so Valiant as not only to maintain all the Forgeries therein contained but the whole Body of Forgeries vented abroad by all the Collectors and Compilers following till himself appeared His Book is expresly formed against the Writers of the Centuries and is a sufficient Evidence that as soon as Isidore came abroad by Dr. Merlin's Labour and the Bishop of Paris Command it was sifted by the Protestants It is dedicated to the most Illustrious and most Reverend D. D. Stanissaus Hosius Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church and Bishop of Collein Printed by the Heirs of John Quintel and approved by Authority An. Dom. 1573. He defends all the Canons of the Apostles which are recounted by other Collectors That you may know the Mettal of the Man I will produce but two Instances The last of those Canons which he maintaineth to be the Apostles is this which followeth Qui Libri sunt Canonici c. Let these Books be Venerable and Holy to you all Of the Old Testament five Books of Moses Genesis Exodus Leviticus Numbers Deuteronomy one of Joshua the Son of Nun one of Judges one of Ruth four of Kings two of Chronicles Hester one three of the Macchabees one of Job one Book of Psalmes three of Solomon Proverbs Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs one of the 12 Prophets one of Isaiah one of Jeremiah one of Ezekiel one of Daniel And without let your young men learn the Wisdom of the Learned Syrach But of ours that is of the New Testament there are four Gospels Matthew Mark Luke and John fourteen Epistles of Paul two Epistles of Peter three of John one of James one of Jude two Epistles of Clement and the Ordinations of Me Clement set forth in Eight Books to you Bishops which are not to be published to all because of the Mysteries contained in them and the Acts of our Apostles This is the eighty fourth Canon and in some Accounts the eighty fifth where you see the Episiles of Clement and Eight Books of his Ordinations put into the Body of the Bible As for the difference of the Accounts he sheweth you the way how to reconcile them If this be one of the Apostles Canons then Clement was an Apostle or had 〈◊〉 Power But if it be a Forgery then not only the Apostles Canons but the very Text of the Holy Scriptures is interlined and forged by the same He maintains all the Decretal Epistles and among the rest S. Clement's Whose genuine Epistle to the Corinthians they leave cut as making nothing to their purpose but five Spurious ones they record the two first of them being written to S. James and the last to the Brethren dwelling with him at Jerusalem It is good sport to see how like the shot of a great Gun the Discovery of the Protestants comes in among them Their keenness in detecting the time of S James his Death shatter the 〈◊〉 and whereas before they were all united they now fly several ways every man 〈◊〉 for himself as he is best able Baronius dislikes suen Arts of upholding the Church not as impious and unlawful but as inconvenient and pernicious Bellarmine 〈◊〉 the Epistles to be Old but dares not attest them Isidore Merlin Peter Crabbe Nicolinus Carranza and Surius own them freely without any scruple For saying nothing of the Quarrel they lay them down simply as good Records Binius Labbè and the Collectio Regia confess some of them to be false and in particular that S James was dead seven years before S. Clement could write his first Epistle to him And to salve the sore they say that it was not written to James but to Simeon who was also Bishop of Jerusalem and Brother to our Lord and that the Name of James crept into the Title Mendosè by Errour and Mistake for that of Simeon But honest Turrian maintains plainly that S. Peter and S. Clement knew very well that S. James was dead before they wrote unto him yet nevertheless they did very wisely both S. Peter in ordering the Epistle and S. Clement in writing it And his Reasons as he bringeth the matter about are pretty specious For my part I protest that such a High Piece of Impudence was to me incredible But that you may see the rare Abilities of a Jesuite to argue well for the absurdest Cause turn to his Book and read his Comment on S. Clement's first Epistle and there you shall see Wit and Folly equal in their height Wit in managing but Folly in attempting so mad a business For the sake of those who are not able to read or get the Book I will give you a Glympse of his Demonstrations First he observeth how Reason it self compelleth us especially being confirmed by so many and so great Testimonies of the Ancients to confess the Epistle to be S. Clement's whose it is reported to be He sophistically pretendeth here that there were great Authorities of the Ancient Fathers extant to prove it Whence saith he it began to be had in every mans hand to be read by the Catholicks to be put among the Decretal Epistles and produced and cited in Ecclesiastical Causes and Judgments The latter part of which Clause is true For as we before observed Gratian Ivo and the rest of the Popes Ministers have brought the Decretals into the Body of the Canon-Law which maketh the matter more fatal and abominable for being really cited in their Ecclesiastical Courts and used both in matters of Controversie and in cases of Conscience they are forced either to defend them or to pluck up their Customs by the very Roots and so further expose the Church of Rome to the shame of Levity or Fraud yet for this very cause it is far more impious and wicked to retain them So that not knowing which way is best some of them retain them and some of them renounce them But you must wink at all this and believe what Turrian says for the Authority of the Roman Church which hath seated the Forgeries in the Chair of Judgment is a greater Argument to them that believe her Infallible than any one Doctor can bring against them Neither was blessed Peter ignorant when he commanded to write to the Dead nor Clement saith he when he wrote by the Commandment but that the Readers would presently see the Epistle to be written to him whom all men knew to be dead before S. Peter they being about
with him in his Preface But then he maketh amends for the Omission for he hath the Synodical Epistle of the Nicene Council a new Record which I find not in Isidore or in any before him It is an humble Address of the Nicene Council to Pope Sylvester beseeching his Holiness to ratifie their Decrees To shew that no Council is of any value unless it be approved by the Bishop of Rome And he has a Gracious Answer too by the same Pen or I am sorely deceived for they are both alike so full of Barbarismes and false Latines that another Dunce can hardly be found like the first to imitate them In good earnest they are the most feculent Forgeries that ever I saw To speak much in little is they are worse than the Sinuessa Council They are without Greek Copies which where all the rest is in Greek is an evil sign But as they are you shall have them when we come to Binius that the more Learned may judge of their Excellency He has a Pseudo-Catholick Council at Rome under Pope Sylvester with the same Premonition to the Reader word for word which he set before the Sinuessa Council Propter Exemplariorum intolerabilem nimiamque Differentiam Depravationem c. He has the other Forgeries of Isidore Mercator and among the rest the Epilogus brevis concerning the number of Witnesses He defaces and suppresses the sixth Council of Carthage as well as his Predecessor What with blotting out and putting in he so disguizes the Face of Antiquity that unless it be to very clear eyes the Primitive Church appeareth not the same Yet are his Voluminous Tomes dedicated to the Invincible Emperour Charles V. being Printed in the year 1538. by Peter Quintell Cum Gratiâ Privilegio tam Caesario quam Regio Colloniae That is At Collein by the consent and Authority both of the King and Emperour So far even Monarchs are deluded sometimes with a shew of Piety and the Light of Depraved and Corrupted Learning CAP. IX of Carranza his Epitome of the Decrees and Councils He owneth the Forgeries CArranza being but a short Compendium was Printed at Paris An. 1564. to wit very fitly for the more general sprcading of the corrupted Councils All the other Collections being great Volumes but this a little Informer or Companion for the Pocket It was dedi ated to the Illustrious Dicgo Hurtado Mendoza Orator in the State of Venice and his Imperial Majesties Vicegerent in the Holy Council of Trent He lays down all the Apostles Canons for good Laws even the last it self being not excepted and selects Decrees out of the Decretal Epistles for good and Catholick Canons The Decretal Epistles themselves would be too long for so short a Compendium and therefore he has not the Decrees themselves but Excerptions He has the Pontisical of the Popes Lives but more modesty than to ascribe it to Damasus It is a part of his Text however He has but 〈◊〉 Canons of the Nicene Council and skippeth over the Council of Sinuessa He omits the Epilogus Brevis but owns the Council to which it is annexed He followeth Isidore and exceeds him a little CAP. X. Of Surius his four Tomes and how the Forgeries are by him desended He hath the Rescripts of Atticus and Cyril by which pope Zozimus was condemned of Forgery in the sixth Council of Carthage LAurentius Surius was a Monk of the Order of the Carthusians He wrote four Tomes He pretends to have all the Antiquities of the Church at large and to mend and restore the defects of the Ancient Manuscripts What their mending and restoring is you begin to discern He dedicates the whole Work to Philip King of Spain Sicily and Neapo lis c. and directeth it in another Epistle to the most August and Invincible Emperour Charles V. It was Printed at Collein by Geruvinus Galenius and the Heirs of John Quintell in the year of our Lord 1567. He has the counterfeit Preface of Isidore Mercator before detected The Treatise of the Primacy of the Roman Church all the 84 Canons of the Apostle and the Apostolical Constitutions of Pope Clement newly added to the Tomes of the Councils for good Records though Isidore Mercator some of the Apostles Canons and Clement's Constitutions are rejected by some of the best of his most able Followers as you shall see hereafter not I suppose upon mature deliberation but inevitable necessity The Liber Pontisicalis of Pope Damasus that notorious Cheat is the ground-work upon which he commenteth It so exactly containeth the Lives and Acts of the Bishops of Rome that when I first approached it I apprehended every Life to have been recorded by some person contemporary with the Pope of which he was writing for it nominates the time of their Session to a Year a Moneth a Week and a Day from S. Peter downward Which being done for no Episcopal Chair beside it made the Roman See seem of more Eminent Concernment than the residue from the very first beginning such a peculiar and extraordinary care being no mean Indication of its High Exaltation above all other Chairs that were not for a long time together so accurately regarded But a little after I found a shrewd sign for beside the errours and contradictions noted before in the midst of all this exactness he 〈◊〉 sometimes 3 4 5 〈◊〉 9 years together This shall be proved hereafter with more than we yet say when we come to Binius He has all the Decretal Epistles and the Donation of Constantine for good Records The Epistle of Melchiades concerning the Munificence of Constantine the Spurious Roman Council under Pope Sylvester with the Epilogus Brevis the Letters between Athanasius and Pope Mark concerning the number of the Nicene Canons Those Letters tell us the Canons of the Nicene Council are 70. and yet he records but 20 of them The most of these Great Appearances are rejected afterwards by Baronius Binius Labbè and the Collectio Regia By good fortune he has the Rescripts of Atticus and S. Cyril the Patriarchs concerning the true Records of the Nicene Council sent to the sixth Council of Carthage upon the occasion of Zozimus before related The Letter of that Council to Celestine the Bishop of Rome concerning that Controversie And a Scrap of the Council it self but he omits the Decrees Did I follow them throughout all Ages my work would be endless We should find much foul Play in following Councils and Records of the Church but for several weighty Reasons I have at present confined my self within the compass of the first 400 years next after the Death of our Lord whose Name is not to be mentioned without praise and glory Note well I go on thus to observe particularly what Forgeries every Collector of the Councils owneth and what Emperours Kings and Popes their Books are dedicated to and what priviledge in all the principal parts of the Popes Jurisdiction they come forth withal and
into the Book and that Hadrian had a finger in it which reached perhaps farther than the beginning If the Book was as new as the Acrostick Dionysius was far enough from being its Author What Faith we are to have in the Papists when they tell us who were the Ancient Compilers of the Councils you may see by Baronius who giving us an Account of their Order reckons Isidore a known Counterfeit for one Dionysius Exiguus for the first Ferdinandus Diaconus for the second Martinus Bracarensis for the third Cresconius for the fourth and after all these Isidore for the fift As certain as Isidore was a Collector of the Councils so certain is it that Dionysius was one but further certainty yet I can see none Charles the Great perhaps having never seen the like before was pleased with the Acrostick and the putting of his Name in Capital Letters before the Councils was delightful to him Syrens sing sweetly while they deceive bloodily Hadrian I. knew well what was a Gift fit for a Scholar and a Pope of Rome If I should produce but one passage which I found in it the matter would be more effectual For after he has done with the Councils he lays down the Decretal Epistles of 13 Roman Bishops beginning with Syricius who lived in the year 385. In his Epistle to Himerius there is this passage Such is our Office saith he that it is not lawful for us to be silent for us to dissemble upon whom a Zeal greater than that of all others of the Christian Religion is incumbent We bear the burdens of all that are oppressed nay rather the blessed Apostle Peter beareth them in us who as we trust protecteth and defendeth us his Heirs in all the things of his Administration Of GOD he saith nothing here but his confidence is all in Peter There is not a word like it in all Antiquity and those words protecteth and defendeth us seem to relate to those Jars that had been before between Hadrian and Charles the King or Emperour These observations carry me to believe what I met with in Daille since Dionysius is gone from under my hands and having searched into the Book since I am further confirmed About 74 years after the Council of Chalcedon Dionysius Exiguus whom we before-mentioned made his collection at Rome which is since Printed at Paris cum Privilegio Regis out of very Ancient Manuscripts Whosoever shall but look diligently into his collection shall find divers alterations in it one whereof I shall instance in only to shew how Ancient this Artifice hath been among Christians The last Canon of the Council of Laodicea which is the 163 of the Greek Code of the Church Universal forbidding to read in Churches any other Books than those which are Canonical gives us withal a long Catalogue of them Dionysius Exiguus although he hath indeed inserted in his collection Num. 162. the beginning of the said Canon which forbiddeth to read any other Books in the Churches besides the sacred Volumes of the Old and New Testament yet hath he wholly omitted the Catalogue or List of the said Books fearing as I conceive lest the Tail of this Catalogue might scandalize the Church of Rome c. A little after he saith the Greek Code represents unto us VII Canons of the first Council of Constantinople which are in like manner found both in Balsamon and in Zonoras and also in the Greek and Latine Edition of the General Councils Printed at Rome The three last of these do not appear at all in the Latine Code of Dionysius though they are very considerable ones as to the business they relate to which is the order of proceeding in passing judgment upon Bishops accused and in receiving such persons who forsaking their communion with Hereticks desire to be admitted into the Church It is very hard to say what should move the Collector to Gueld this Council thus But this I am very well assured of that in the sixth Canon which is one of those he hath omitted and which treateth of judging of Bishops accused there is not the least mention made of Appealing to Rome nor of any Reserved Cases wherein it is not permitted to any save only to the Pope to judge a Bishop The power of hearing and determining all such matters being here wholly and absolutely referred to the Provincial Synods and to their Dio cesans Another instance which he hath is this After the Canons of Constantinople there follow in the Greek Code VIII Canons of the General Council of Ephesus set down also both by Balsamon and Zonoras and Printed with the Acts of the said Council of Ephesus in the first Tome of the Roman Edition but Dionysius Exiguus hath discarded them all c. Daille in his Treatise of the Right 〈◊〉 of the Fathers Cap. 4. pag. 45 46 47. This being true the Authority of Dionysius is very small relating to the matter of the Council of Sardica If any man hath any thing to say against it let him when he answereth this Charge of ours produce what he is able in Defence of Dionysius as to the points whereof he stands accused by Daille but we proceed to Nicolinus CAP. XII Nicolinus his Epistle to Pope Sixtus His contempt of the Fathers He beginneth to confess the Epistle of Melchiades to be dubious if not altogether Spurious He overthrows the Legend about Constantines Donation THat you may know the Genius of the Man a little better how much he was devoted to the service of the Pope and how little he valued the Authority of Councils and Fathers I have thought it meet to give you his Epistle and his Admonition to the Reader recorded by him in the words following To our Most Soveraign Lord Sixtus V. High-Priest It fell out conveniently for me Most Blessed Father in the Universal Joy of the Christian World for your Elevation to the Sublimity of the Apostleship that in so great a multitude flowing from every place to honour you I also among the Oldest Servants of your Holiness had something near at hand which is unworthy neither of the Masty of your Name or Authority and yet very fit for my Occasions to offer at your feet as suitable to the Office of my Gratitude and Veneration It is a new Edition of the Councils for the remarkable addition of two Councils especially the Nicene and the Ephesine never published so entire and full as now For to whom may the Councils of the Church aided by the Inspiration of the H. Ghost according to the seasonableness of various times for the repairing of her Ship more fitly be Dedicated than to her Chief Master to whom it is given from Heaven to call and confirm them especially him who is so well versed in all Scholastical Disciplines and Ecclesiastical History I have used all diligence according to my weak ability sparing no cost omitting no labour the most Catholick and Learned Divines of our Age being
assembled also from every Quarter especially the most Excellent Father Dominicus Bollanus a Noble-Man of Venice of the Order of Preachers never enough commended for his excellent parts who by his Industry Care and Learning was a vast help both to me and to the Work And that I may in one word signifie my study and pains bestowed thereupon lest I should seem to draw the Saw backward and forward too often upon the same Line I have taken care to perform whatever could be done by one man and he a private person that this Edition might come forth from me and be offered to you more Copious and Illustrious than any other Publications hitherto sent abroad In which I trust that as a just and knowing Judge you will discern some Accomplishment Wherefore I suppose I may affirm that nothing is perversly or too concisely exprest but all things most rightly and clearly as far as was possible according to their Primitive Candour This my Gift therefore from which men may receive so great profit and benefit since both those things that before were wanting and those that have hitherto been dispersed may be had together in it and this Work of mine not of less cost in Printing the great expences of which may easily be proved by the magnitude of the Volume than labour to which I was not so much present as presiding earnestly desiring that it should come forth most free from Errour and Faults for the benefit of the Studious I doubt not but according to your Humanity you will accept it with a willing mind as some kind of Token of my will to serve you even as I desire with all my Soul and humbly pray that your Holiness may receive it In the mean time Holy Father I desire that all things may fall out prosperously to your Blessedness And I pray that you may long be preserved in health and more plentifully adorned with Heavenly Gifts for the good of the whole Church Venice VI. Kal. Octob. M. D. LXXXV Here you see one of the Popes Old Servants laying down all the Councils at his Holiness Feet boasting of additions to the Nicene and Ephesine Councils never before published ascribing the Councils to the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost and yet adding for the good of the Roman Church eight and fifty Canons to the most glorious of them all ascribing the power of calling and confirming Councils to the Pope sparing no cost though he draws the Saw too often upon that point which as if he were enchanted he cannot leave throughout all the Epistle assisted as himself confesseth with a confluence of the best Popish Divines permitted to come forth under the Popes Nose with all these Abominations By which you may perceive it is not the work of a private Doctor but the Disease of the Church of Rome His Typographus Lectori His contempt of the Fathers appears in his Printer to the Reader for by one of Turrian's Transfigurations he covers that Admonition with the Printers Name though too Learned for any Printer and evident enough to be his own for he there unfoldeth the matter order and use of the Work far above a Printers reach and especially notes its Corrections and Emendations to us which he reduceth to four Heads 1. To the observation of the time wherein Councils were held and under what Pope Whereupon we note the manner of ordering the Councils under such and such a Pope seemeth a new thing Nicolinus else arrogates too much to himself in ascribing this to his own Invention Certainly the custom of computing times by the Popes Lives is of no long standing but an Artisice lately taken up by his Flatterers to dazle the eyes of their Readers for it adds much to the Splendour of the Chair to see Kings and Councils marshalled under the Reign as it were of this and that and the other Pope down from S. Clement throughout all Ages But from the beginning it was not so 2. To the truth of History and Actions As when various Authors are often cited either for the confirmation of Sentences or to show the variety that is among Writers or to reprehend some falsity Quod interdam parcè tamen timidé fecimus In his Dedicatory Epistle he told the Pope that he did nothing perversty but all things most rightly and clearly as far as was possible according to their Primitive Candour As you see before But here he confesseth the business of repieving falshoods to be a tender work which he went about with great caution and trembling Some he detected but timerousiy and sparingly he durst not meddle with them all 3. To the consutation of some contumacious and rebellions persons who lay hold on the lightest occasions and oftentimes wrest the plainest matters to the disgrace of the H. Roman Church As when from a slight contention of the African Fathers about Appeals to the Church of Rome they foreibly conclude against the very truth of the Acts and the Faith of the History that those Fathers did not acknowledge but refuse its Primacy over them In the Body of his Tomes he 〈◊〉 Epistles of Boniface and Eulalius as good Records testifying the Excommunication of all the African Churches by the Pope yet here he calleth it a light contention Himself wresteth the plainest matters forcibly against the very truth of the Acts and chargeth the fault on the Protestants For in this very place he pretendeth that the African Fathers did not refuse the Primacy of Rome but acknowledge its Supremacy or its Primacy over them Yet it all this but a Copy of his countenance a common flourish in the Frontispiece of their work For if they submitted to the Popes Primacy over them why should they be Excommunicated He knows well enough when we come close to the matter that these Rebellions Protestants and those Catholick Fathers were of the same judgment and acted the same thing By way of provision therefore he addeth that this was far from the mind of those Fathers but if they had conceived so it would have redounded to their Infamy and not at all have tended to the lessening of the Supreme Authority of the Roman Church ordained and established by God Two hundred and seventeen Bishops in an ancient approved Council even the sixth Council of Carthage protested against the Popes Supreme Authority to their perpetual Infamy as Nicolinus would have it for should all the Bishops in the World joyn together they would but dash themselves against that Rock and do things to their Infamy and there 's an end This is the value which Papists have for the Councils and Fathers when they stand in their way And this Impudence comes abroad by the consent of Nicolinus and the Pope without Blushing His fourth Head is Addition His Emendations are referred lastly to Addition either by making those things perfect and entire that before were imperfect and marred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Canons of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts of that
so many did 〈◊〉 use in 〈◊〉 the Apocryphal from Cennine Books and this Sentence was Desinitive by a Pope in his Council So that 2. A Pope in his Council is not 〈◊〉 3. If Einius be right Gelasius and fourscore Bishops did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in condemning the Code 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Canons which S. Clement wrote from the mouth of the Apostles 4. The Church of Rome is divided the New and the Old Church of Rome are against each other The New is all for Additions and the very Apostles Canons allowed in Gelasius his time which was 1260 years ago are not sufficient unless more be added But let us now consider Binius his reasons Quia tamen ex his posterioribus ferè omnes praeter praedictos duos c. But because all these latter almost besides the two forementioned are either by the Authority of the Roman Bishops or by the Decrees of other Councils or by the Sentences of some Fathers confirmed and approved as is manifest by these our Marginals and Annotations So that it may not lightly or rashly he doubted whether they were taken hence by the Bishops Councils and Fathers or rather translated hither and put here out of their Writings Hereupon they may and ought rightly and deservedly all except the two excepted to be taken for Authentick How perplexed his discourse is I suppose you see His courage fails in the midst and it becomes thereupon so rough and difficult that it is scarce intelligible The occasion of its Incoherence is that Parenthesis thrust into the middle For Binius foreseeing a strong Obiection to the Discourse he was going to make claps it Sophistically into the midst of his Argument hoping thereupon that it would never more be retorted upon him Which you may easily see both by the Nature of his Argument and by the resolution of his words For his Argument is this which if you lay aside the Answer to it runs smoothly Almost all these latter Canons besides the two forementioned are either by the Authority of Roman Bishops or the Decrees of other Councils or the Sentences of some Fathers confirmed and approved hereupon they may and ought rightly and deservedly all except the two excepted to be taken for Authentick Now the Answer is the Parenthesis in the midst Certain Sentences like to these Canons are in the Fathers writings but so contained there that it may not lightly or rashly be doubted whether they were taken hence by the Bishops Councils and Fathers or rather translated hither and put here out of their Writings To doubt a thing rashly is nonsense but it may justly be feared that these Canons are Sentences pickt out of other Books and packt into a Body bearing the name of the Apostles Canons His Conscience did convict him and he replieth not a word though it be an important consideration in the case But there is a worse fault in his Logick he argues from Particulars to Vniversals for having said Fere omnes praeter praedictos duos he comes to conclude Omnes praeter praedictos duos Almost all except two are approved therefore all except two are Authentick Such Tricks as these he hath often And sometimes affects an obscure kind of speaking on purpose to blind the Reader especially when he is intangled with some difficult Argument He then Clouds himself like the Cuttle in his own Ink that he might vomit up the Hook in the dark and scape away He might have produced a General Council if he pleased to confirm all the 84 Canons and that under the Name of the Apostles too which had been more to the purpose but then he must have confessed the last Canon of Clement to be true and consequently that his eight Books of Constitutions and his two Epistles are part of the Bible or else that the Decree of the Council confirming these was Spurious or else of necessity that the Pope and Council did err But he had more kindness for the Pope than so and therefore perhaps let the Council alone He would inure you by his words to believe that Popes are equal to Councils Because they are saith he either by the Authority of Roman Bishops or other Councils or some Fathers confirmed they may and ought to be taken for Authentick Some Fathers is a dwindling expression He very well knows that 217 were rejected together in the sixth Council of Carthage Roman Bishops and other Councils are words of some weight But what can other Councils do if the Roman Bishops please to reject them The Roman Bishops and other Councils are so put in contradistinction that the Authority of Roman Bishops is set before that of other Councils And perhaps the proportion being observed the Roman Bishops must be thought as far above other Councils as other Councils above some Fathers In other places they affirm a Pope with his Council to be Infallible Here that the Roman Bishop is a Council Otherwise it is nonsense to say The Roman Bishops or other Councils The Roman Bishop hath a Council in himself And indeed it is requisite that he of all other should be the greatest Council when standing alone he is to judge of a Council and to determine even whether an 〈◊〉 Council shall be approved or disapproved This is a Tast of Binius an Elephants Clee a Scrap of five large Volumes full of the same integrity and perverseness The swelling words which they talk of approved and disapproved Councils are all to be understood of Councils approved or disapproved by the Roman Bishop From his Canons we proceed to his Council for Binius hath a Council of Apostles too on a Prodigious Theme the setting up of Images It is but a short one and hath but one Canon and that is the eighth It is set forth in this form ANTIOCHENA SYNODUS 〈◊〉 Canon 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Salvati ob Idola sed pingant 〈◊〉 Opposite Divinam Humanamque manufactam 〈◊〉 Effigiem Dei veri ac Salvatoris nosire Jesu Christi ipsiusque Servorum contra Idola 〈◊〉 Neque errent in Idolis neque similes siant Judaeis This is all and sure it is old for the Latine is very bare If you construe it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus but hath no Greek Copy A COUNCIL of the APOSTLES at ANTIOCH Canon 3. Let not the Saved be deceived for Idols but let them paint on the Opposite the Divine and Humane unmingled Image of the true God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ made with hands and of his Servants Neither let them err in Idols nor be made like the Jews The first Authority he hath to prove it is the 2 Nicene Council 800 years almost after the Apostles And he collecteth it thence by a blind conjecture not by any evident Assertion of theirs Besides this he citeth one Pamphilus who testifieth that he found it in Origen's Study as Turrian saith against the Writers of Magdenburg So that all this resteth upon Turrian an impudent Corrupter as the World hath any Where we first observe that Origen
we had been agreed before that of these Hermes at least was a Forgerie It seems by Pope Pius his Letter that Hermes was a Doctor and not a Shepherd for in these Days he saith Hermes a Doctor of the faith and of the H. scriptures shined among us Not of old but in these Days Yet it is pretended that the Book of old was by some order from on high to be delivered to Clement the Pope by whom it was to be sent to forreign Cities Notwithstanding all their Contrivance there Wit failes them sometimes that are so accustomed to Lying They have so many Irons in the fire that some of them miscarry whether they will or no. Nevertheless that Hermes received this Commandment from the Angel Tertullian witnesseth in his third Book of verses against Mareion saith Binius I have not heard much of Tertullian's Poetrie I have his Works put forth with the Notes of Beatus Rhenanus and cannot find any such verses among them If he hath all that Binius pretendeth out of them is that Hermes spake Angelical Words Therefore he saw the Angel Pius in his Decretal Epistle applieth this Scripture Not holding the Head from which all the body by joynts and bands having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God to the Pope of Rome Whereupon he saith We instruct you all by our Apostolical authority that you ought to observe the same Commandments because we also observe the same And ye ought not by any means to divide from the Head The Commandment was given to Hermes by an Angel Whereupon Pope Pius after the first complement beginneth very unluckily with forbidding the Religion or worshipping of Angels Whereas upon this occasion some eminent matter ought to have been spoken concerning Angels But because of the words following he puts them together Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility of worshipping Angels c. Not holding the Head from which all the body by joynts and bands c. Where he taketh off the Eternal Head and puts a New one on the Churches shoulders For in these dayes Hermes a Doctor of the Faith and of the Holy Scriptures shined among us And though we observed Easter on the foresaid day yet because some doubted for the confirming of their Souls an Angel of the Lord appeared to the same Hermes in the shape of a Shepheard and commanded him that the Passeover should be celebrated by all on the Lords day Whereupon we also instruct you all by our Apostolical authority that you ought to observe the same Commandments Not because an Angel brought them or GOD sent him but Because we also observe the same and ye ought not by any means to divide from the Head And because the business is to promote the Apostolical Authority above all the Angels instead of extolling and magnifying them which had been the natural method on such a Topick as if he would enervate the evidence of the Angel he biddeth them take heed and that diligently least any one seduce you by any Astrology or Philosophy or vain Fallacy according to the tradition of men after the Rudiments of this World and not after Christ's and true Tradition As if no more heed were to be given to an Angel than to an Asse unless the Pope first approved the Vision Nor is Philosophy nor the Tradition of men nor any thing else to be valued in opposition to him and his true Tradition for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily that ye may be repleat in him who is the Head of all Principality and Power and who bath commanded this Apostolical See to be the Head of all Churches saying to the Prince of the Apostles Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church What it is to walk after Christ and true Tradition you may see Cleerly by this Glos upon our Saviours Text. They that do not hold the Head from which all the Body by Joynts and Bands having nourishment ministered and knit together increaseth with the increase of God are in extream peril of damnation And our Saviour who is the Head of all Principality and Power hath commanded this Apostolical See to be the Head of all Churches Therefore Whosoever holdeth not to this Head is in extream peril of damnation For the Pope is not the Head of all Principality and Power in himself but only by Derivation he is made the Head c. And consequently 't is as necessary to cleave unto him as to Christ himself Since he in whom all the fulness of the Godhead dwelleth Bodily dwelleth in his Vicar even as S. Peter does in like manner So that all Angels and 〈◊〉 of men Reason Philosophy c. 〈◊〉 but feeble Threeds for him that hath 〈◊〉 Potestatis the fulness of Power and may open the Kingdom of Heaven to whom he will It is a Cross Observation to note the little Authority of the Popes Custome For though it it was the Practice of all the Roman Church to Keep Easter in such a manner before yet some doubted that is all the Eastern Churches were of another Opinion till an Angel came to teach them otherwise Yet when he came he must not be believed for his own sake but the Popes nor be obeyed for himself so jealous was the Pope of his Apostolical Authority How weak both the Popes Authority and the Angels were which thus mutually needed each others assistance appeareth by the Event for notwithstanding the Testimony of Pius and the Angel this Controversy was left undetermined till the Nicene Council It continued above 150 years after Pope Pius his days Yet through all that considerable Tract of time this Testimony of the Angel was cited by no Body Only as Ovid makes use of the 〈◊〉 and his Crowing in the Morning to introduce the fable of Alector this wicked Pius maketh use of this Controversy for the fable of the Angel But it was a little Suspicious that the Angel should appear to no body but the Popes Brother and the matter be published by no body but the Pope himself It smelleth of the Forge out of which it came being proved by the Pontifical of Pope Damasus CAP. XVIII A Letter fathered on Cornelius Bishop of Rome in the year 254. concerning the Removal of the Apostles Bones giving Evidence to the Antiquity of many Popish Doctrines but is it self a Forgery THe forgery made in the Name of Pius is fitted to the year 158. You shall now see one made in the Name of Cornelius Bishop of Rome in the year 〈◊〉 54. 100. years after the former excepting four Not as if there were no forgeries between this and that there is scarce a year upon which they have not fastned something but should we trace them all through the weary Length of so many Ages our Travail would be Endless We have chosen one or two as Exemplars of the residue THE FIRST EPISTLE Of Cornelius
Chair And together with the Credit of Rome to take away an Empire Besides the Spiritual Right of being the Rock there are ample Territories and Cities claimed with a Temporal Kingdom Let him therefore pretend what he will the Authority of such Instruments is very convenient And because he knows it well enough he produces the Diplomata or the Patents of other Kings and Emperours to confirm the Churches Secular Right extant as he saith in the Original with their Imperial Seals as particularly those of the Most Christian Princes of France restoring those things which the Longobards took away But he does not tell you by what Arts they got possession of those Territories at first nor by what Ancient Evidences Seals or Patents they held them before the Longobards touched them And because a Kingdom is of much Moment in the Church of Rome he further saith As for the Dominion of things temporal given to the Church herself proves them by the Broad Seals of the very Emperours giving them yet extant in the Originals and she quietly enjoyeth them How quiet her injoyment is you may see by that stir and opposition she meeteth and by all the clamour throughout the Christian World that followeth her Usurpations Which she defendeth here by the Seals of Emperours in general Terms but what Seals they are she scorneth as it were to mention in particular Which argueth her cause to be as Bad as her pretence is Bold But as for the Rights granted to the same Roman Church S. Leo Faelix Romanus Gelasius Hormisda Gregorius and other their Successors that flourished famously from the times of Constantine have defended them saith he not by the Authority of this Constantinian Edict but rather by Divine and Evangelical Authority against all the Impugners of them The man is warily to be understood for some of these whom he pronounceth as Defenders violently oppose their claim as Gregory in particular who for himself and all his Predecessors renounceth that Blasphemons Title which John of Constantinople first arrogated but the Bishops of Rome acquired afterwards by the Gift of Phocas the bloody Emperour So that all these are Mummers brought in as it were in a Masque to shew their vizars and say nothing For of all these Roman Bishops mentioned by Binius Gregory was the last who testifieth that none of his Predecessors ever claimed such a Title We may further note that he speak here with much Confusion because he speaks of the Rights granted to the Roman Church but does not distinguish between the Divine and Humane Rights of which he is treating For the Business he is now upon is the Temporal Klngdom in desending of which these Popes down to Gregory did forbear to use the Authority of this Constantinian Edict as he calleth it by way of scorn not because they had it not but rather as he pretends because they had no need of it having enough to shew by Divine and Evangelical Authority for the same Which is another pretence as bold and impudent as the former For I think none of his own Party will aver that the Bishop of Rome can claim a Temporal Kingdom by the Holy Scripture As for any other Claim by this Constantinian Edict or any Donation else of Emperours before the Longobards he slighteth all especially the Authority of this Constantinian Edict conceruing which he saith None of all those who sate over the Church before the year 1000. many of which saw the genuine Acts of Sylvester recited concerning which we spake above is read to have made any mention of this Edict For as much as the Counterfeit Edict was not yet added to the Acts by the Greek Impostors He does not tell us how he came to know that many of the Roman Bishops saw the genuine Acts of Sylvester before the year 1000. that being an Artifice or Color only as if there were two divers Books of Sylvesters Acts and the one a true one He tells us not a word of the Contents that were in them but he before told us plainly that the Acts of Sylvester the Pope were falsly written in Greek under the name of Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea that they were not known till 1000. years after Christ coming then forth in Eusebius his Name And now he telleth us as plainly that the Counterfeit Edict was not yet added to the Acts by the Greek 〈◊〉 The poor Greeks on whom he layes all the Load of Imposture never injoyed the benefit of these Acts nor ever pleaded the Imposture as the Latines did And in all likelyhood they made it that laid Claim and Title to the Supremacy by it Since therefore the Question is come to this Who were the Impostors we must define against him that the Counterfeit Edict was added to the forged Acts not by the Greek but Latine Impostors For how Counterfeit to ever he will have it Pope Adrian in his Epistle to Constantine and Irene which remains inserted in the Nicene Council recites this whole History almost in the same manner and so confirmes it by the Truth of this Edict As Binius himself telleth us on the words Ipse enim So that the Edict was pleaded long before the Greeks added it to the Acts of Sylvester For Pope Adrian died in the year 795 and the Acts of Sylvester were unknown till the year 1000. Yet this Adrian founded his Epistle to the Emperour and Empress in the second 〈◊〉 Council upon the truth of this 〈◊〉 And in very truth the Story he telleth is the same of Constantine's Leprosie c. contained in the Donation Which if 〈◊〉 had been pleased to remember was published by the Latines in Isidore Mercator's Collection of the Councils about the year 800. Where the Greeks in all probability first found it and were cheated as many Wiser men have since been with the appearance of it there So that searching it up to the Fountain Head it rests still among the Romans By the way to shew you that Binius is his Crafts-Master over against these words concerning Adrian before mentioned he putteth down that Famous Marginal Note Donatio Constantini confirmatur The Donation of Constantine is confirmed not by Binius as the simple Reader would suppose but by Adrian's Epistle recorded in the 2 Nicene Council and expresly containing the whole Fable of Constantine's Leprosie Vision and Baptism So that the first that ever knew it in the World for ought I can yet perceive was this Adrian of whom we have spoken somewhat before Now he comes to shew how greedily the Popes received this Cheat of the Greeks Among those who received the Acts of Sylvcster in good seoth corrupted thus with the addition of this counterfeit Edict by an evil Art and by the sorry faith of the Grecians carried out of the East into the West and that earnestly defended them as Legitimate and Genuine and pure from all fraud and Imposture the first is found saith he to be Pope Leo
Zozimus and Boniface About 100 years after Eulabius sate in the Chair at Alexandria some call him Eulalius Between him and Boniface 2. there are two Epistles extant out of which it is gathered that after the sixth Council of Carthage the African Churches were Excommunicated by the Roman for 100 years and reconciled at last upon the Submission of Eulalius Archbishop of Carthage accursing S. Augustine and his own Predecessors Concerning these two Epistles Cardinal Bellarmine giveth his Opinion thus Valdè mihieas Epistolas esse suspectas c. I have a mighty suspition of these Epistles For first they seem to be repugnant to those things which we have spoken concerning the Union of S. Augustine Eugenius Fulgentius and other Africans with the Roman Church And again either there was no Eulabius of Alexandria to whom Boniface seemeth to write or at least there was none at that time as is evident out of the Chronology of Nicephorus of Constantinople Besides Boniface intimates in his Epistle that he wrote at the Commandment of Justinus the Emperour But Justinus was dead before Boniface began to sit as is manifest out of all Histories Moreover the Epistle which is ascribed to Boniface consists all of it almost of two fragments of which the one is taken out of the Epistle of Pope Hormisda to John the other out of the Epistle of S. Gregory to the Bishops of France even the 52 Epistle of his fourth Book Now S. Gregory was not born at that time nor is it credible that Gregory took those words out of Boniface since the Stile is altogether Gregorian In the Epistle also which is Fathered upon Eulabius the Carthaginian there is a Sentence of S. Gregories inserted out of the 36 Epistle of his fourth Book and the rest of that Epistle is nothing but a sragment of au Epistle of John the Bishop of Constantinople to Pope Hormisda Notwithstanding all these reasons Bellarmine is afraid to damn the Epistles but Cardinal Baronius is a little more bold He judges it inconvenient for the Church of Rome that any such Forgeries were ever made And upon the occasion of these two Epistles utterly disgraces Isidore Mercator for a meer Impostor Whether in so doing he salves the Sores of the Roman Church that hath been guilty of vending them the experience of Ages yet to come will hereafter evidence In the mean time let us fee what he saith In Not. Martyrol ad 16. Octobr. he layeth down these words Scias falsam adulterinam Epistolam illam quae fertur nomine Bonifacii 2. c. Know that the Epistle which is carried abroad in the name of Boniface 2. to Eulalius Bishop of Alexandria which is extant and published in the second 〈◊〉 of the Councils of the latter Edition is false and adulterate And speaking concerning the Schism Excommunication and Re-union of the African Churches he saith Sihaec vera sunt c. If these things are true certainly then all the Martyrs and Confessors which were at that very time crowned with Martyrdom in the African Church or otherwise waxed famous by the Merits of their Eminent Sanctity must be blotted out of the List of Saints which THE HOYL ROMAN CHURCH it self hath in its Martyrology numbred among the Martyrs or reckoned among the Confessors Since it is most manifest by a thousand Sentences of Cyprian Augustine and all the Fathers that out of the Church there can be no Martyrdom nor any kind of Sanctity If Lyes were always consistent Truth would be amazed God doth infatuate the Counsels of his Enemies and turn their Wisdom into Foolishness They run into inconveniences sometimes so great that they cannot be remedied Could a Lye shun all inconvenience and see to its Interest on every side it would be as wife and perfect as Truth itself Quin amplius ex Collegis Aurelii c. But yet further among other Companions of Aurelius the most holy Father S. Augustine the most glorious Beam of the Catholick Church was accused in that Epistle Who being clouded with the same 〈◊〉 of Schism must if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be true be blotted out of the Class of the Doctors of Holy Church out of the number of Saints nay out of the Martyrology nor only so but out of the Kalender of the HOLY ROMAN CHURCH For it is most certain that after the aforesaid Aurelius he departed this life within the space of the time before-mentioned What should I reckon the Fulgentiuses the Eugeniuses and others almost innumerable men most Famous for Holiness and Learning to be accounted in the same condition It is a common Artifice in the Church of Rome to propagate these Forgeries as far as they are able by them to possess the minds of men with great apprehensions of the Popes high and Infallible Power and if at at any time they are detected to cast the blame on private persons while the Church is free they pretend from such Abominations I desire you to note therefore that the HOLY ROMAN CHURCH it self is the Author of Her Martyrologies and Kalendars and that the HOLY ROMAN CHURCH her self hath Canonized her Saints and made Holy-days and put them into her Breviaries And it was this very HOLY ROMAN CHUCH that put the counterfeit Council of Sinuessa into her Martyrologies the Lying Legend of Sylvester into the Roman Breviary Authorized by three Popes and the Council of Trent and her counterfeit Decretals among her Laws in all her Consistories and Ecclesiastical Courts of Highest Judicature So that if Baronius do not 〈◊〉 the ROMAN CHURCH is liable to the Charge of these Bastard-Antiquities For which cause he might well break out into that angry 〈◊〉 Eccè in quod Diserimen Vnus isidorus Mercator illarum Epistolarum Collector res nostras adduxit ut ex 〈◊〉 parte periclitari videatur Ecclesia c. Behold into what peril one Isidore Mercator the Collector of those Epistles hath brought out Affairs So that the CHURCH seemeth on that side to be endangered if we shall say those things which he hath collected or rather 〈◊〉 be 〈◊〉 and certain If the Roman Church be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 in Baronius his judgment 〈◊〉 is utterly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Importance did he only 〈◊〉 the things to be feigned rather than 〈◊〉 which their great 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Isidore their first Author But his acknowledgment of the hazard which the Roman Church runneth is more For they have so many Subterfuges about the Roman Church that it is more difficult to find it than to vanquish it It was not the Pope in a formal Council that Excommunicated the Church of Africa or that put her Saints first into the Roman 〈◊〉 yet it was the 〈◊〉 Roman Church And indeed if the Holy Roman Church and her Authority be not to be found in her Mass books and Breviaries her Courts and Consistories her Laws and 〈◊〉 her Martyrologies and Kalenders her Popes and Doctors I know not where to meet
the Imperial Seat which the Roman Princes had possest and granted it to the profit of the blessed Peter and his Bishops Which considering what follows is far more fit to be understood of the Emperours leaving Rome and granting it to the Bishop whence they pretend he did go on purpose So that the agreement between Optatus Milevitanus and the Epistle of Melchiades is very small or none at all But admit that Melchiades and Optatus Milevitanus had said both of them that the Lateran was given to Melchiades what is that to the Dominion and Temporal Kingdom A single House instead of an Empire Though that the House was given Optatus Milevitanus doth not affirm even by Binius his own confession How the things in this Epistle should be concerning the Donation of Constantine to Melchiades and Sylvester is difficult to conceive because Melchiades was dead before the Donation was made to Sylvesier It is very unlikely therefore that Melchiades should make mention of that Donation His Epistle talking of Constantine his being President in the H. Synod that was called at Nice is a manifest Imposture Melchiades being dead before the Nicene Council as is before observed Yet hence it is proved that Constantine 〈◊〉 a Donation to Melchiades and Sylvester Binius holdeth fast the Donation though he lets go the Epistle Like a Lo gician who lets go the premises but keeps the conclusion For it is most firmly proved by Optatus Milevitanus What is proved by him That Constantine the Great gave the Lateran to Melchiades How is it proved Why he testifieth that a Council of 19 Bishops met in Fausta's house in the Lateran Truly he doth not expresly write that the house was given to Melchiades But it seemeth probable to Binius his imagination And so it is most firmly proved by Optatus Milevitanus a most approved Writer Thus those things that are told concerning the Dominion and Temporal Kingdom given to the See of Rome are manifestly enough proved to be likely by what we said in our Notes upon the former Epistle But it is better proved by the continual possession of those houses by the space of thirteen Ages until now as he afterwards observeth Though the length of an unjust Tenure increaseth the Transgression Having first proved the Donation he proceedeth thus Hoc Edictum à Graecis persidâ Donatione quâ juxta illud Virg. 2. Aeneid Timeo Danaos Dona ferentes donare solent acceptum mutilum esse ac dolosè depravatum hae rationes evidenter demonstrant These following reasons evidently shew this Edict of Constantine by the persidious Donation of the Greeks to be maimed and treacherously depraved He enters upon the business gently pretending at first as if the Donation were true that it was depraved by the Greeks But afterwards when he is a little warm in the Argument and somewhat further off from his Sophistical Defences he falls foul upon it as a Counterfeit and rejects it altogether as in the close will appear to the considerate Reader But here let us see what Arguments he produceth to prove it maimed and treacherously depraved 1. Because it pretendeth the Primacy of the Church to be granted by a Lay-man which was immediately given to Peter by God himself and by our Lord Jesus Christ as is manifest by those words Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church 2. The Emperour by this Edict is made to give a Patriarchal Dignity to the Church of Constantinople Which if it be true how then could Anatolius the Bishop of Constantinople be said to take the Patriarchal Dignity to himself long after even after the Council of Chalcedon was ended Leo Gelasius and other Roman Bishops resisting him How could the Church of Constantinople be a Patriarchal See at this time wherein even the name of Constantinople was not yet given to Byzantium 3. This Edict was first published by Theodorus Balsamon out of the Acts of Sylvester the Pope falsly written in Greek under the name of Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea not that he might do any service to the Church of Rome but that he might shew the Patriarchate of Constantinople to be the eldest Which Acts of Sylvester were not known till a thousand years after Christ coming then forth in Eusebius his name out of a certain Book of Martyrs but were now increased by the Addition of this Edict of Constantine His design is if it be possible to clear the Church of Rome of this too palpable and notorious Counterfeit And for that end he would fain cast it on the Treacherous Greeks that he might thereby acquit the more Treacherous Romans Which he further pursues in the clause following The new found Hereticks that oppose this Edict of Constantine translated out of Greek into Latine with such great endeavour and impertinent study let them know that in this they rather further our Cause than fight against us Who do our selves with Irenaeus Cyprian and other Holy Fathers as well Greek as Latine profess the Priviledges of the Church of Rome not to be conferred and given of men but from Christ to Peter and from Peter to his Successors Where the 〈◊〉 are so great we need not make a Remark on the common Cheat his vain Brag of the Fathers But this we may observe that whereas the Popes Claim is somewhat blind to the Prerogative which is pretended to be given to S. Peter Binius hints at a proper Expedient to make it clear For suppose our Saviour made S. Peter the Rock on which he built his Church How comes the Pope to be that Rock Since S. Peter being an Apostle immediately inspired and able to pen Canonical Scripture some of his Prerogatives were Personal and died with him He tells you that the Priviledge was granted from Christ to Peter and from Peter to his Successors So that it was not Christ but Peter that gave it to the Bishops of Rome Now it would extremely puzzle him to shew where Peter gave that power to the Bishops of Rome in what place at what time by what Act before what Witnesses All he can produce is S. Clement's counterfeit Letter and that miscarries But in opposing the Edict of Constantine the Protestants further their Cause rather than fight against them Is not this a bold Aslertion Their Popes have laid Claim to the whole Empire of the Western World even by this very Edict or Donation of Constantine And yet the Protestants did nothing when they proved it to be a Forgery This Donation is an old Evidence proving the Divine Right of Peter's Primacy and the Popes Supremacy Did they promote their Cause that proved it to be a Cheat Certainly they that have Fingers so long as to grasp at an Empire and Foreheads so hard as to claim it by Frauds will stick at nothing they can conceive for their advantage Is it impertinent to discover Knavery in the Holy Roman Catholick Church or Imposture in the Infallible