a Rescript to Caesarius who was made Praefectus Praetorio by Eutropius the Eunuch after the murther of Rufinus changing his Councils with the change of Ministers of State And that was another unhappy miscarriage of several of the Emperors especially whil'st raw and unexperienced at their first coming to the Government that they were not constant to themselves and their own Measures for that brought contempt not only upon the Laws but upon their own Understandings and frequent change of Opinion argues both fickleness of Mind and want of Consideration And though when once a Law is made though it may not be so convenient as might have been expected it is better to bear with it than lightly to reverse it the reverence that Resolution brings to the Authority of the Government will be an ample compensation for the inconvenience of the Law His next Law is made to give force to all his Royal Fathers Laws against the Meetings of Hereticks and to put them in execution without reserves and limitations whether the Conventicles were held by Bishops or any other Ecclesiastical Order Which last clause was probably added as Gothofred very well observes against the Macedonians at Constantinople who as Sozoâ—en relates had no Bishop of Constantinople at that time but from the time of Eudoxius who deprived them of their Churches under Constantius were under all the succeeding Emperors govern'd only by Presbyters Upon this Aurelian Pro-consul of the lesser Asia where the Hereticks had always chiefly nested though their swarms were never numerous inquires of him in the case of Euresius what his Majesty intended by the name of Heretick To which he returns this short and smart Answer That it comprehended all that departed from the Catholick Church thô in never so small a Matter The meaning of this Law has very much puzled the Canonists or rather they have puzled themselves about it it being their Trade because it is their gain to create obscurity and raise variety of Opinions about all Laws Otherwise the true meaning of this Law is sufficiently evident from the Words themselves and the occasion of its enacting viz. that all departure from the Catholick Church as such is Heresie The Hereticks even of the Arian Faction were subdivided into divers Parties and distinguisht by such Niceties that it was hard to understand their different Metaphysicks and therefore the Emperor to make short work of it and without perplexing his Laws with Entities and Quiddities plainly defines that be they what they will if they are not Catholicks to him they are Hereticks The occasion both of the Inquiry and the Law was Euresius a Luciferian Bishop who coming about that time out of some other Part of the World into the Pro-consular Asia but not joining Communion with the Catholicks nor yet holding any different Opinion from them the Inquiry was Whether he ought to be comprehended in the Catalogue of Hereticks Yes says the Emperor if he be not a Catholick that is enough It concerns not us to inquire into his particular Fancy his meer dissenting be the difference never so small is to us and in the Eye of the Law Heresy This was truly Imperial and became the Greatness of a Sovereign Prince He knew not what Euresius was nor would he inquire as long as he dissented from the Catholick Church whatever was the ground of his Quarrel it was all one to his Government Now the singular conceit of the Luciferians was this that they were over-zealous in the Catholick Faith to the subversion of Catholick discipline and because the Catholick Bishops received the Heretical Clergy upon their repentance to communion in their Clerical Capacity they broke off Communion with them So that though they were in propriety of Speech only Schismaticks yet the Emperor will trouble himself with none of those Niceties and be they what they will they are in the sense of his Law Hereticks This is the plain meaning of this intricated Rescript and though it may seem somewhat severe to punish all Opinions alike and make no difference between the least and the greatest Heresies yet if we consider the design of the Imperial Laws they can make none for it is the Church that is the proper Judg of the Heresie it self so as to proportion the Punishment to the Crime But when that is done the Civil Power only comes in to abet its Sentence for the settlement of Peace in Church and State That is his proper care and province so that if the peace of either be any way broke that is the Crime that he is properly concerned to punish And indeed the less the difference the greater the fault for what it wants in pretence it exceeds in peevishness and that is of all others the rankest Affront to Government it carries open contempt in the Crime 't is disdain as well as disobedience and a plain spitting in the very face of Authority The same year this young Prince issues out an Order to Marcellus the Magister Officiorum to make inquiry after Hereticks in the Army or any Place of Trust particularly the Court and the Guards and if he discover'd any not only to disband or displace them but to banish their Officers by whose connivance they had crept in out of the Walls of Constantinople And in the year following he interdicts all Meetings of all Hereticks not only in Churches but in Vestrys Church-Prisons and all other Places by Night or by Day by which little shifts they thought to elude the Laws of Theodosius the Great that only prohibited their Meetings in Churches And the execution of this Law is injoin'd with a severe Pecuniary Mulct upon Clearchus Prefect of Constantinople to whom it was directed and upon his Under-Officers that had hitherto winked at such illegal Meetings if by his or their connivance such shufflings with the Law should for the time to come be made use of to evacuate its Obligation At this time the Eunomians raised new Tumults by new Divisions among themselves One Theophronius having got a little smattering in Aristotles Logick set up a new Metaphysicks of his own and was opposed by Eurychius an illiterate Trades-man And this made a new fewd not only among themselves but the old Eunomians and upon it the Emperor enacts two Rescripts in the years 396 and 397 to banish all their Leaders first from all Cities and then out of the whole Empire or as they express it câ—â—tibus humanis from the conversation of all Mankind So endless a folly is metaphysical nicenâ—ss in Divinity if once indulged the wantonness of its own curiosity And upon the same account the Macedonians subdivided into two new Factions Dorotheus heading one and Marianus the other there is no end of scabs and scratching when once Men are over-run with the itch of Disputation But upon what account unless the stubbornness of the Faction I know not his next and last Edict against them commands their perpetual
so childish and such meer Legend that out of respect to so great a man I will not recite it All that certainly appears is this that there was at that time some misunderstanding between Justin and Theodorick for that was the Accusation upon which the Great Boëtius was then put to death that he held correspondence with Justin. And that Pope John was sent by Theodorick to treat with the Emperor but what was his particular Errand is not recorded but whatever it was it seems he managed it so as to fall into the King's displeasure and this is all that we have of that Popes Actions and this Emperor's reign § XXI For he dying after he had reign'd nine years in his extreme old Age before his death saw his Nephew Justinian fixt in the actual possession of the Imperial Throne by the choice of the Senate one of the greatest Princes in the whole Succession whether we regard the Success of his Arms the Magnificence of his Buildings or the Wisdom of his Laws the three greatest Ornaments of any Princes Reign And yet Envy and one ill-natur'd Libel of a malecontent Courtier if it be his has been able such is the ill-nature of Mankind to slur all the Miracles of his reign But I find that the ground of all the late displeasure against this great Prince was as some Men suppose his too busie intermedling in Church-Matters this is the thing that is taken unkindly by the Church-Men at Rome as an invasion of their Province But others on the contrary top him up for a Pattern to all Princes to keep the Jurisdiction of the Church in their own hands against all the pretences of Ecclesiasticks But as it falls out and ought so to do they are both equally mistaken for Justinian never attempted any thing in the Church that was not warranted by continued Precedents of his best Predecessors He only protected the Power of the Church in the exercise of its Jurisdiction as they did but never claim'd it to himself howsoever he might err as sometimes he did in the execution of his Office And whereas they load him so severely for presuming to make so many Novels or Laws of his own about Religion the whole charge is founded meerly upon ignorance and mistake they being all known Canons of the Church before ever he enacted them into Laws And therefore he is no more to be blamed than the best of his Predecessors unless it be for his too pious and watchful care to preserve the Discipline of the Christian Church So that it is no less than high ingratitude in the Clergy of Rome to requite so great a Benefactor to the Cause of Religion with nothing but unkind Censures and foul Calumnies But the ground of all their present Quarrel is his taking down the pride of one of their most haughty Popes Vigilius though by their own confession one of the worst of Men and that too was done at a time when their Holinesses had been accustom'd to trample upon the state of the Imperial Majesty it self And if in these contentions the Emperor fell into any indecencies that cannot be justified yet he ought not only in good Manners but in justice to be excused because it is evident from the Design of his whole Reign that his only aim was to resettle the long-disturb'd Peace of the Church and if at any time he fail'd in his Measures his Integrity ought by all the rules of Candor to attone for the defect of his Politicks But whether all his Acts of Government in the Church are justifiable or not I dare insure for all his Laws and for that I shall here account to finish the parallel between the Ecclesiastical and Imperial Laws in this Matter because by this Prince the Imperial Law was brought to its full Perfection And after that it will be needless to inquire into the practice of succeeding Princes who received either the Theodosian or Justinian Body of Laws as the sixt and standing rule of the Imperial Government Though of the two the Theodosian Code met with much the better Fortune for that having had ninety Years possession both in the Eastern and Western Empire it was not easily removed especially when it had been received by the barbarous People that invaded and conquer'd some Parts of the Empire as the only establisht Law of the Romans And so it was by that great wise and prosperous Prince Theodorick King of the Goths who enacted its obligation upon his own People in a compendious Edict drawn out of it consisting of 154 heads extant in Cassiodorus But Alaric his Successor and Grand-child by his Daughter Amalesuntha that greatest of Women made a new body of Institutes out of it vulgarly known by the name of the Breviary of Anianus not that Anianus composed it but because he by his Office compared and examin'd the Original Copy that was laid up among the Crown-Records and subscribed his Approbation from thence in after-Ages it came to bear his Name But after the Goths the Lombards the Franks the Burgundians and other People of Germany over-run the Western Empire and these when they came to settle blended the Theodosian Laws with their own ancient Customs from whence came the Feudal Law that to this day carries the greatest sway in the Government of all the European Nations But as for the Justinian Law that was received only in the Eastern Empire and there it had scarce reign'd 300 years when it was thrust out of Authority by the Basilica of Leo the Philosopher who added to the Justinian Collection the Novels of all the succeeding Emperors down to his own time But in the West it was never so much as heard of for 600 years after the death of Justinian there are not so much as any footsteps of it in the Capitulars of Charles the Great or any other European Laws Neither were they ever made publick to the Western World till the time of that great Prince Lotharius the second Emperor and Duke of Saxony who reign'd not till the year 1125. And he first brought it to light at the perswasion and by the assistance of Irnerius the most learned Man in that Age from which time forward it has kept possession together with the Feudal Law not only in the Schools and Universities but in the Government of the Empire But as for the Law it self it consists of two parts the Code and the Novels that is Laws made by himself after the publication of the Code and these are again to be subdivided into Laws concerning Faith and Laws concerning Discipline in both which he has behaved himself with as much decency and respect to the Church as any of his most admired Predecessors As for the Code it is a Collection of former Laws with some additions of his own Of the former Laws we have treated in order under the several Reigns in which they were enacted and therefore need say nothing of them here but only to vindicate
Idolatry by overthrowing some of their Altars yet he enacted no Laws against it whereas this great and pious Prince is resolutely bent upon its utter Extirpation and therefore forbids all Heathen Rites whatsoever under pain of Proscription But having taken away their Sacrifices he thought good to preserve their Temples and convert them to some other publick Use and to this end he writes the next year to Palladius injoyning them to let the Temple of Edessa lye open to the common use of the People in the Nature of an Exchange or a Guildhall but to be watchful that no Sacrifices be privately offer'd in it and withal to be careful of preserving the Images wherewith it was adorn'd for the sake of their Art and Beauty like the Gyants and Judges in Guildhall In the year 385 he renews his Law against Sacrifices upon pain of Death In the year 391 Valentinian by his Advice who was then with him at Milan Publishes a Rescript both against Sacrifices Temples and Images under a great pecuniary Mulct And himself at the same time Publishes the same Decree upon Pain of Death by which was occasion'd the utter Destruction of the Famous and Ancient Temple of Serapis And in the year 392 he seals up all with a peremptory Rescript against all the particular Rites of the Gentile Worship And lastly as for the Jews he by the same Imperial Authority without the concurrence of the Church made some Laws in their favour to protect and defend them in their Privileges For all the Emperors had all along indulged them the exercise of Discipline among themselves by the Power of Excommunication which was chiefly put in Execution by their Primates or Patriarchs that presided over all the Synagogues within a Province after the same manner as Metropolitans do over all the Churches These were the Supreme Judges of Scandals and Offences and beyond them there lay no appeal to any other Courts But it seems some of the Emperors Judges and Officers and it is much more easie to bank out the Sea than the covetous Encroachments of this sort of Men had broke in upon their Privileges and usurpt a Power to themselves of commanding the restitution of ejected Persons But to restrain this disingenuous Abuse and Subversion of their Discipline the Emperor Publishes a Rescript to all his Officers commanding them not to controul the Decrees of the Primates and Patriarchs who were by the Imperial Law permitted to be the sole Judges in Matters of their Religion And this was no more than a just and reasonable Civility after the grant of Discipline and Jurisdiction among themselves for that could be of no Effect if once Offenders might gain Liberty to appeal to foreign Judicatures And because the Jews had never been forbidden the exercise of their Religion by any Law and yet were at that time disturbed in some Parts in the East by some over-zealous Christians to the spoiling and destruction of their Synagogues he writes to the Governor to restrain these Disorders with all possible severity And this was the occasion of that hot Contest between the Emperor and St. Ambrose when he enjoyn'd the Bishop of the place to rebuild the Synagogue because he had encouraged the People to pull it down In which matter I cannot but think St. Ambrose was more busie and zealous than became him as Men of great Spirits are apt to over-do For what the Emperor enacted in the case was only as Vindex disciplinae Publicae When the Imperial Laws had given the Jews Liberty who had Power to take it away but the Power that granted it And therefore if any of the Christians in a violent and tumultuary way took to themselves the liberty of demolishing them contrary to the Imperial Charter they stood guilty of a Scandalous Riot both against the Laws of the Empire and the Sovereignty of the Emperor And whether the Government did well or ill in granting the Liberty the Subjects had no Authority to controul it They might have addrest to his Imperial Majesty humbly representing the inconveniences of that liberty in that place which had they done it is not to be doubted but this great and pious Prince would have given them both a wise and an obliging Answer But when in a popular Tumult and out of intemperate zeal they shall presume to take a liberty to themselves by force to controul the gracious Concessions of their Prince I think by the good Fathers leave that they deserved a more severe correction then their Prince in his great Clemency was pleased to inflict upon them § IX Having represented in one view the Laws of this great and wise Prince in Ecclesiastical Matters we may now proceed to the remainder of the History of the Church under his Reign in the several Parts of the Empire And the most remarkable transaction next after the great Council of Constantinople in which the Arian Heresy with all its Branches and Of-sets were for ever lopt off from the Body of the Christian Church was the Council of Aquileia summon'd the same year viz. Anno Dom. 381. consisting of Italian French African and Pannonian Bishops that acted in the capacity of Legates from their several respective Provinces This Council was convened by the Emperor Gratian in the West as the Council of Constantinople was by Theodosius in the East two Months after its breaking up which was at the end of July and the meeting of this at the beginning of September The occasion of it was this Some of the Hereticks of the Arian spawn presuming upon the favor and patronage of the Empress Justina complain to the Emperor of their unjust condemnation for the Arian Heresy and petition to purge themselves in a general Council This was vehemently opposed by St. Ambrose as an unreasonable thing that all the Bishops of Christendom should be perpâ—tually forced to leave their Churches only to satify the curiosity or as he calls it the scabbedness of two or three Men. But the Queens importunity overcomes the Emperor so far as to prevail with him for a Council which yet he summons with that moderation as to leave all the foreign Bishops at their own liberty to come or not Which civility all the Bishops of the Western Church use with that respect as to send their Legates and Representatives and as for the Eastern Bishops they inform his Majesty that they had but just before assembled about the same Matter and given in their peremptory determination The Council being met Palladius and Secundianus two Bishops that had been censured for the Heresy together with Attalus a Presbyter appear and for clearing their innocence they are required to condemn the Position of Arius that the Father alone is Eternal This they refuse but this alone will satisfy they must either subscribe his condemnation or submit to it But they refuse both and appeal to a General Council but they are answer'd That it is needless that
they were exempted by Law And in the year 399 the same Law is repeated with a pecuniary Mulct not only upon the Offender that commits the Crime but upon the Judg that connives at it And in the same year another Rescript is publisht to refer Ecclesiastical Causes to the Ecclesiastical judgment but contentious about Civil Rights to the Secular Courts And there are many more Laws of the same strein in the Imperial Code the meaning whereof is not wholly to limit the Judgment of all Ecclesiastical Causes to the Church and of all Civil Causes to the Secular Courts because most Causes as I have shewn above appertain to both But their plain intention is that Causes purely Ecclesiastical or Offences against the Canons Rubricks and Orders of the Church for the preservation of Peace and Decency or Offences against the Rule of Faith shall be judged by the Church alone and as for civil Controversies they are to receive their decision only from Civil Courts For the final power of Decision is all the Authority that can be used in that case but though the Church has none of that yet it has a Power to judg of the same Actions as far as they concern the Laws of their Religion or as Theodosius the younger expresses it Christianam sanctitatem And though when one Man stands convict of having defrauded another they have not Power to right the Person wronged or to inforce a Restitution yet they have a Power to pass sentence upon the injury as a breach of the Christian Law and that sentence will have its effect So that though they have not a Civil Authority in Civil Causes yet they have an Ecclesiastical that is distinguisht not by the Matter but the Penalty of the Law But the true and proper meaning of these Laws is best understood by the occasion upon which they were enacted and the occasion of this was that the Emperors had impowr'd Bishops to decide Controversies by arbitration and the consent of Parties which they in process of time challenge as their right and derive their Authority for it from Apostolical Law as was done by the African Fathers at this time petitioning the Emperor That if any Persons will choose to have their Controversies decided by the Church according to Apostolical Law and one Party shall appeal from the Award that the Priest who was the Judg shall not be cited to the temporal Courts by him to give in any account or testimony of the proceedings To which Petition the Emperor returns this Law as a just denyal though that neither does nor can take away their Power of Ecclesiastical Censures that they received from our Saviour but of civil Decision that was granted them by the favor and indulgence of Princes and when once they pretended to an higher Commission for it it was but time to clip their pretences But in the year 400 he publisht a very remarkable Rescript in defence of the true power and discipline of the Church against all Appeals from their Sentence even to the Imperial Throne it self Whoever shall be deposed from his Office in the Church by a Synod of Bishops if he shall presume against the modesty of the Church and the Peace of the Empire to resume that Office to himself from which he is deposed he shall according to the Law of Gratian of blessed Memory be banisht an hundred Miles from the City that he infested for it is but fit that he should be banisht their Assemblies who is cut off from their Society And be it farther enacted by the force of this Law That no such Persons apply themselves to our Secretaries to procure our Rescripts in their behalf and if they shall by stealth obtain any all Rescripts granted to such Persons as are deposed from their Priesthood are hereby declared null and void And lastly let such Persons upon whose favor they relie take notice that they shall not escape the punishment due to such as shall undertake the protection of such Men as are already cast by the judgment of God This Law of stopping all Appeals from the Church was of all others most necessary for the preservation of discipline in it and therefore it was always with greatest care establisht by the Canons against all Invasions and observed with the greatest tenderness by all the wisest Emperors And we have seen through the whole series of this History that from the very time that Princes took upon them the protection of the Church the only thing that debaucht and defeated the Efficacy of its Discipline was Church-mens taking sanctuary at Court against the Authority of their Superiors And the mischiefs of this abuse having been so often experienced it was but high time to take it quite away insomuch that the Emperor was pleased to tye up his own hands from untying any sentence of the Church As for the occasion of this Law there are many conjectures about it but I think the most probable is that of Gothofred that it was made at the Petition of the African Fathers who were actually sitting at that time to restore the ancient and effectual discipline of the Church and reform the Abuses and Corruptions that were crept or were creeping into it and so among others implore the Emperor that he would be pleased to stop all ways of appeal to Persons that stood legally condemn'd by the sentence of the Church and to injoin this to all his Officers as they word it interpositâ poenâ damni pecuniae atque honoris And this Petition the Emperor grants with that frankness as to take away this abused Power of Appeals not only from his Judges but himself and damn their Authority by this Rescript once for all and for ever In the year 401 he exempts those of the Clergy that were forced to trade to get a Lively-hood from the payment of all Customs the same Law that was made by Constantius in the year 343. So that it seems the Church was not as yet indowed with sufficient Revenues to maintain it self when some of the Clergy were forced to traffick for bread Thô they were afterward forbidden all manner of Trade by Valentinan the third when it seems the Church was grown rich enough to subsist upon its own stock In the year 407 he not only confirms all the ancient Priviledges and Immunities of the Clergy but he grants them a new sort of Tuition viz. Secular Advocates for the management of all their Secular Affairs but lest by this means the Church should be cheated by these Trustees the Bishops of the Province are required to survey their Accounts This Law was made at the Petition of the African Fathers in the fourth Council of Africa and is extant in their Code Canon 97. And it was done for this end that the Clergy might not be forced to appear in Law-Courts and leave their Functions to follow Law-Suits And this is the first time that Lay-men were taken
restrain their outrage and he for a remedy against the Mischief for the time to come makes a Law consisting of these seven heads First to forbid their intermedling with any Proceedings in the Emperor's Courts Secondly to reduce them to the number of 500. Thirdly to enact that none should be capable of admission into the Order but poor Men. Fourthly that they should be chosen by the Citizens And Fifthly approved and confirm'd by the Governor Sixthly that they refrain from all Publick Meetings and Courts of Justice unless as they are forced to appear as Parties And lastly that as vacant Places fell for the time to come they should be fill'd up by the Governor The occasion and history of this Law is described at large by Socrates There had been an old grudg between Orestes the Prefect and Cyril the Bishop of Alexandria because as the Prefect thought the Bishop's great Power in that City seem'd to abate of and check with the Authority of the Emperor 's Vice-Roys and because he knew that Cyril watcht his Government but it hapned once that whilst the Governor was present at a Publick Shew to prevent a Tumult of the Jews there were present several of Cyril's Friends and among the rest one Hierax a zealous School-Master who was seised and punisht for a Spy upon this St. Cyril threatens the Jews and upon his threatnings their Rabble enter into a Conspiracy to destroy the Christians and in the Night raise an out-cry that one of their Churches was on fire and as the Christians run from all Parts to quench it they with Protestant Flails murther them in the Tumult upon which Cyril the next day turn'd them all out of Town and the People plunder'd their Goods This fretted Orestes to the heart so that though Cyril used all means of reconciliation with him he vowed an eternal and implacable Enmity Upon this Animosity the Monks of Nitria as the Historian has it but whatever they were they must by the circumstances of Time and Place be the same Men that this Law calls Parabolani make Tumults in the Streets affront and assault the Prefect in his Chariot and one of them breaks his head with a stone who being taken is wrackt to death by him but honorably buried by Cyril Upon which complaint is made to the Emperor from both sides but he takes his Governors part and for that end makes this Law to put these Ecclesiastical Men under his Government who had hitherto been subject to no Authority but the Bishop's Though 16 or 17 Months after being again reconciled to Cyril he puts them wholly under his Jurisdiction restores the Power of Election and Substitution into his hands and increases their number to six hundred His next Law enacted in the year 421 relates only to the Churches of Illyricum We command that all Innovation ceasing the ancient Canons and Customs that have hitherto prevail'd be observed through all the Provinces of Illyricum and if any Doubt or any Controversie arise it shall be determin'd by the Synod of Bishops but not without consulting the most reverend Arch-Bishop of Constantinople that ought to enjoy the Prerogative of old Rome There is no one piece of Antiquity that has been more canvassed and controverted than this Law among learned Men and yet to this day it lyes undiscover'd in the dark and no wonder whilst the Records of it lay buried in Rubbish It were tedious to recite the several Conjectures of Photius Baronius Perron de Marca Blondell Gothofred and divers others because they are all but meer Guesses without any bottom to support them But since their time the Records have been brought to light by the learned Holstenius who first publisht them to the World out of a Vatican Manuscript in the year 1662. And they agree so punctually with all the Records of that time as by it setting aside the Authority of the Manuscript it self to justifie and in reality demonstrate their own Credit Now the short of the Story is this That the Bishops of Rome and Constantinople were at that time contending for Supremacy of Jurisdiction and Illyricum being situated in the Confines of both Empires was naturally the Seat of War For though all Illyricum had in former times belonged to the Western Empire yet it was divided by Theodosius the Great and one half of it laid to the Eastern and upon that the Bishop of Constantinople claims Jurisdiction over it Constantinople then pretending to the same Prerogative in the East that Rome enjoyed in the West This pretence was set up immediately after the Council of Constantinople that only gave it preheminence of honour next to old Rome and that they fairly construed Equality of Jurisdiction whereas on the other side the Romanists challenged Supremacy of Power over those Churches by prescription from the time of Innocent the first who had set up the Bishop of Theâ—saloniâ—â— as his Legate over all Illyricum and to justifie his Innovation pleads Prescription from Damasus but that is according to the constant Custom of the Man rank Forgery when Damasus never in the least pretended to any such Power but only kept up Correspondence with Acholius Bishop of Thessalonica as the chief Metropolitan in those parts without any Intimation of any such Relation between them But Rufus who was then Bishop of Thessalonica having received such a Supremacy of Power from his Master Innocent was faithful to his Masters Interest and so continued till the very time of this Rescript and fighting it out manfully against the Usurpation of the Constantinopilitans Now the point of War as it was managed by the Bishop of Constantinople was this that Illyricum ought to be wholy governed by its own Synod of Bishops But as by Rome that the Bishop of Thessalonica ought to have and exercise a Supremacy of Jurisdiction over them And so it stood at the time of this Rescript Boniface the first then Bishop of Rome in the year 419 which was but two years before the date of the Rescript commending his Courage and great Service to the Apostolick See and this Victory was so great that as Boniface himself attests the greatest part of the Illyrican Bishops came over to his side But Atticus then Bishop of Constantinople more a Lawyer then a Divine and therefore chiefly governed and over-ruled the Church by Imperial Authority who had bafled an Excommunication of Pope Innocent with the Emperors Rescript and by it seised a Jurisdiction over the Province of Hellespont as I have elsewhere shewn finding Illyricum in danger to be lost procures this crafty Rescript from the Emperor against Rufus and under pretence of asserting the Laws and Liberties of the Church by preserving the Supreme Power of Provincial Synods takes the Supremacy of all to himself in that nothing was to be done or concluded by them without his consent And here the confidence of these men is very remarkable in pleading Antiquity on both sides notwithstanding the
Autoritates quas Ecclesia Vniversalis amplexa est ad arbitrium haereticae petitionis infringere atque ita nullum colligendis ecclesiis modum ponere sed datâ licentiâ rebellandi dilatare magis quam sopire certamina For when the most proper means for securing the Faith is that we acquiesce in those things that are legally settled by the direction of the Holy Ghost otherwise we shall but destroy what is already well settled and affront that Authority that has been own'd by the Catholick Church for the humor of every petulant Heretick and so shall have no means left to preserve the Churches Peace but opening a gap to all rebellion we shall rather propagate than quel Contentions and so concludes ' that when a thing is once determin'd by the Authority of the Universal Church Quis est nisi aut Antichristus aut Diabolus qui pulsare audeat inexpugnabilem firmitatem qui in malitiâ suâ inconvertibilis perseverans per vasa irae et suae apta fallaciae falso diligentiae nomine dum veritatem se mentitur inquirere mendacia desiderat seminare Who but these great Enemies to Christianity the Devil and Antichrist would dare to shake the settled foundation who presevering stubborn in his Malice by his Vessels of Wrath that are apt Tools for his Craft under a false pretence of a greater diligence whilst he counterfeits to search after truth sows his Tares And therefore when the Hereticks only mâ—ved for a conference and the Emperor being inclined to a request as he thought so easie No says Pope Leo this is as great an Affront to the Calcedon Fathers as to grant them a new Council Evidenter agnoscitis quod magnis haereticorum audetur iâ—sidiis ut inter Eutychetis Dioscorique discipulos et eum quem Aposâ—olica sedes direxerit diligentior tanquam nâ—hil ante fuerit definitum tractatus habeatur et quod totius mundi Catholici Sacerdotes in sanctâ Calcedonensi Synodo probant gaudentque firmatum in injuriam etiam sacratissimi Concilii Nicaeni efficiatur infiâ—mum Your Majesty cannot but observe the crafty attempts of Hereticks that there should be a farther Debate between the Hereticks and us as if there had been nothing already determin'd and the settlement made by the Holy Council of Calcedon to the great joy of the Catholick Church all the World over should be slited to a dishonorable reflection upon the Council of Nice it self And whereas the Emperor desired him to send Commissioners he offers to send them not to dispute with the Hereticks that he scorns but to put the Sentence of the Church in effectual execution against them Which was accordingly done and Timotheus Aelurus was deposed banisht and imprison'd and when he petition'd for leave to come to Constantinople there to make a publick declaration against the Eutychian Heresie to this Pope Leo says No again for though that may set him right as to his Faith yet it can never wash away the guilt of his wicked and bloody Actions the Absolution whereof requires some other expiation than fair Confessions and therefore he enjoins Gennadius then Bishop of Constantinople not so much as to admit him into his presence at his peril as he had not long before school'd his Predecessor Anatolius for being too remiss against the Hereticks and suffering one Atticus a Presbyter publickly to dispute the Eutychian Controversie after the determination of the great Council The sum of all is that the matter was already decided by the Authority of the Church and after that there remains no liberty of Dispute And therefore instead of indulging that he advises the Emperor to exert his Imperial Power in defence of the Faith and that when the Church had done its part in declaring it it was now his duty to maintain it against the Assaults of restless Spirits Cùm enim Clementiam tuam Dominus tantâ Sacramenti Illuminatione ditaverit debes incunctanter advertere Regiam Potestatem tibi non solùm ad Mundi regimen sed maximè ad Ecclesiae praesidium esse collatam ut ausus nefarios comprimendo et quae bene sunt statuta defendas et veram pacem his quae sunt turbata restituas c. Seeing your Majesty is by the Grace of God endued with so good an Understanding you ought out of hand to consider that Your Royal Power was given you from above not only for the Government of the Empire but chiefly for the Protection of the Church that by suppressing seditious Attempts you may defend what is already establisht and restore Peace where things are in disorder That is the true state of the use of Regal Power in the Government of the Church to protect and assist it in the free exercise of its own legislative Authority not to assume and annex it to the Imperial Crown It would be an endless thing to transcribe all the Passages to the same purpose out of the several Returns made to the Emperor from the Eastern Bishops they all move upon this one hinge that what was determin'd by the Church was Sacred Law and therefore no review or farther dispute of the Resolution of the Calcedon Council And thus was this stubborn Controversie laid and the Church settled in Peace and Unity all this Emperor's Reign But beside these Laws of Discipline to enforce the Authority of the Church he made divers other Laws in behalf of the Church that were meer acts of his Royal Grace and Favor bestowing several Priviledges and Immunities upon Churches and Church-men Thus he granted the right of Sanctuary to all Religious houses so as to punish its violation with no less Penalty than Death Another Law he enacted to forbid all Plays and prophane Sports on Holy-days and to protect Men from Law-suits Arrests and Vexations at times dedicated to the Service of God upon pain of forfeiture of Estate And a third Law to forbid all but Christians to plead in Courts a fourth against the Sacriledg of Simony and a fifth to exempt the Clergy from being forced to appear before Secular Courts beside a great many other Priviledges granted to particular Churches § XVIII But he dying after he had Reigned 17 Years and 6 Months in the Year 474 his Son-in-Law Zeno unhappily succeeds to the great loss both of Church and State a man altogether unfit for Government being not only a weak a careless and a dissolute Prince but one that affected to expose himself to the contempt of the World by making his Follies and Debaucheries publick esteeming it a poor and sneaking thing to conceal his wickedness but brave and Prince-like to be wicked in sight of the Sun And consequent to this strange folly he was a shameless Oppressor of his Subjects robbing and defrauding them and wherever he could by any indirect shifts seizing any thing into his hands and no wonder when Millions of Worlds are not sufficient to defray the Charges of an unbounded Luxury These practices
to no less than Consular Dignity in the State A pretty Character this of an humane Devil that came into the World to eat up all Mankind But if we take a view of all his Buildings useful or stately Structures he will seem to deserve under God the Title of the Founder of the habitable World And indeed his Foundations were so magnificent and so numerous that it is scarce credible that they should all be the works of one Man neither were they Designs for Pomp or Pleasure but for the use and convenience of Mankind He wasted not his Money upon Pyramids or Amphitheaters but laid it out upon Churches Hospitals Monasteries Fortifications Castles Bridges High-ways Aquaeducts Sea-Moles c. These useful Structures our Libeller blushes not to stile mad and extravagant Buildings Though beside his prodigious Works for Charity and Devotion the greatest part of his Structures were upon the Confines in defence of the Empire against future Invasions On the Persian side he fortified the frontier and important City of Daras repair'd the Walls of Amidas wall'd about Rhapdium so as to make it impregnable and built so many strong Castles at all convenient Passes as were able every where to stop the Impressions of the Persians he re-edified the Walls of Theodosiopolis Constantina and Circesium all strong Garrisons and every where planted Castles at a convenient distance between his Garrisons he repair'd the Walls of Edessa and fenced it in against the Inundations of the River Scirtus he built divers Cities and Castles in Euphratesia he rebuilt and fortified the City of Antioch that had been demolisht by Chosroes in his base second Expedition he repair'd the Cities of Calcis Cyrus and Palmyra All which were in effect one entire Fortification against the Persians and as he wall'd in the Empire on that side so he did on all other Parts especially about Armenia and Illyricum that were the common Inlets of the Barbarians Where the number of Fortresses and Castles either newly founded or rebuilt is scarce to be computed It would amaze a Man only to read the Catalogues of the Names as they are set down by Procopius in his third and fourth Books This I hope may suffice both to shew in what way and method Justinian ruin'd and depopulated the Roman Empire and to expose the Ingenuity of this little Scribler to lay that to the Charge of this great Prince not only without alledging any particular Instances to make good the general Assertion but against the Evidence of such infinite Matter of Fact through his whole reign § XXVIII The next grand Miscarriage of this Princes Government was his siding with the Faction of the Venetae not only not punishing their Murthers and Acts of Violence but encouraging them insomuch that they every where committed all kinds of Villainy with safety and impunity to the endangering of the Empire it self by Tumults and Seditions This is the sum of the Indictment But to traverse it home we must know that there was an old Game derived from the Grecians representing a Contest between the Sea and the Earth for Victory they that plaid on the Earths side wore green Colours representing the Verdure of the Fields they that wrastled for the Sea wore blewish if the green Ribbon-Men overcame that was an Omen of a plentiful Crop for the ensuing year if the blew Men were Masters of the Field that was a fore-boding of good Weather at Sea and good Success in Merchandize This trifling in process of time came to too much good earnest in the Common-Wealth and the Parties became dangerous state-Factions that often imbroil'd the Government In the time of the Emperor Anastasius they burnt down the City of Constantinople but the most famous Tumult that they ever raised was under Justinian and it endanger'd his Crown much more than the Attempts of all his foreign Enemies put together The Factions were come to the utmost out-rage of Hostility and it was now a kind of an open War through the whole Empire it was an ordinary thing to stab one another in the Streets though he that escaped in the duel was certain to be punisht with death And they were so barbarous in their folly that it extinguisht all natural Affection and the nearest Relations would not scruple to cut each other's Throats it was perfect and down-right madness though if the Government went about to suppress them notwithstanding the rage of their Animosities they would then unite and join Forces against it And therefore Justinian at his first coming to the Crown resolves to bridle these insufferable Tumults and Affronts to Authority and for that reason he publishes very severe Laws against all Disorders at the publick Games which for some considerable time over-awed their fury but it hapned in the 6 th or 7 th year of his reign that as some of the Officers were carrying some Offenders of both Factions to the Jail the People fell into a Tumult for their rescue in which some say both Parties were engaged and no doubt but it was as all Tumults are a mixt multitude but the chief Actors were the Prasini and therefore the Author of the Chronicon Alexandrinum who is the most particular Writer in this story makes it the action of that Party and ascribes the Emperor's deliverance from their fury to the loyalty of the Venetae and if so the Emperor could not owe them too much kindness to whose Loyalty he owed both his Life and Empire But the Rabble being embodyed together took for their Word Victory put to the Sword all that will not join with them set the City on fire and industriously destroy the most stately Buildings in it besiege the Emperor's Palace and demand Justice against evil Counsellors and after five days fury set up Hypatius Nephew to the Emperor Anastasius in the Imperial Throne assault the the Emperor's Palace and put him into that danger and his Friends into that consternation that he was advised by his Privy Council to fly by Sea for his own security but the Council was over-ruled by the courage of Theodora and because the Speech expresses an extraordinary and more than masculine greatness of mind I will set it down It is not my Lords material at this time whether it become the modesty of a Woman to act the Man's part amongst Men â—nd upbraid their cowardize by her courage For when things are reduced to the utmost extremity of danger all the nicer considerations of Decency are super-seded and nothing is to be thought on but the most honourable way of encountring or escaping the present danger And as for that my Opinion is that though we could save our selves by flight it would by no means be expedient to our Affairs All Men are born under a Necessity of dying but the Man that has once worn a Crown is bound to scorn to live an Exile and out-live his own Majesty God forbid that any Man should ever see Theodora live to be