then the Cannon of Constantinople and the law of this Emperour But what surprises me is to see Pope Nicholas the first in his Answer to the Interrogatories of the Bulgarians in not making these Impediments of Marriages proceed from the Decrees of his Predecessors but from the laws of Princes and Sovereigns as if what the Church has done in this occasion was only the Execution of the command of Kings and Emperours I will say nothing of the Arabian Cannons attributed to the first Council of Nice the 21th and 23th of which treat of spiritual Cognations because by confession of the Learned which have any candor and sincerity these are forged Cannons and were forged several years after the Council of Nice It is better I should finish the examining of this Article by this remark that when our Discipline declared that these cognations called spiritual hindred not to contract Marriage it follow'd the steps of the Primitive Christians to whom this sort of Affinitys and Relations was unknown for the first 6 whole Centuries or little less for towards the end of the 6th the Emperour Justinian made a Law but 't was not soon observed in the Church IX It is not lawful to Marry the Sister of the deceased Wife such Marriages are forbidden not only by the Laws but also by the Word of God And altho' by the Law of Moses it was ordained that if the Brother died without Children the Brother should raise up seed to his Brother nevertheless such a Law appointed for the People of Israel was temporal regarding only the preserving a Lineage of the said People There is another Reason in the Sister of the deceased Marry'd Person in as much as the Alliance is not contracted by commixture of Blood therefore such a Marriage ought to be receiv'd and approv'd Nevertheless heed must be taken the Magistrate and weak Brethren be not offended CONFORMITY The 19th of the Cannons that go in the Apostles Names does not admit him into holy Orders that has married two Sisters whereupon Balsamon observes that such a marriage is Null And the 2d of the Synod of Neosesaria assembled as is thought in the year 314. Excomunicates for life her that shall have Married two Brothers that is to say that shall have Marry'd them one after another but if in danger of Death she promises to break the Marriage when she is recovered the Sinod by movement of pity shall admit her to do Penance whereas it declares that if she or the Husband dye in this Marriage the Surviver shall scarce be admitted thereunto St. Basil in the 2d or 3d. of his Canonical Letters also condemns Marriages made with two Sisters successively he also explains himself more clearly in a Letter he writes to Diodorus of Tarsus and which is in the 2d Tome of the of the Greek Pandects printed at Oxford of late years and 't is the 197 amongst St. Basil's Letters upon this Letter Balsamon observes that it has no great need of Interpretation because in his time there was no Christian Man that would contract such Marriages that it may be was true in regard of the Greek Church which suffered it not but not in regard of the Latin where the Bishops of Rome grant Dispensations for two Brothers and two Sisters to marry and I admire Balsamon knew nothing of it or if he did that he said nothing of it seeing that even in the Age he lived that is in the 12th Century there is found amongst the Latins these kind of marriages The Frier Blastares in the same Tome of Pandects but now mention'd Pag. 68 59. Lett. â— c. 9. follows the Authority of Ancient Cannons which prohibit the Marriages we now Treat of Avitus of Vienna doth not otherwise in his 14.15 and 16. Letters I may also alledge against these same Marriages a great number of other Cannons as the 18th of the first Council of Orleans of the year 511 the 65 of of that of Agde in the year 506 the 30 of that of Epaume in the year 517 the 21 of the 2d of Tours Anno 567 the 30 of Auxer in the year 578 and several others which are as well as these in the first Volumn of French Councils by Sirmondus but it sufficeth what I have hitherto said I shall only add that I find not in any of the Cannons nor in others made a long time after on the same subject I say I do not find there has been reserved to Bishops nor to Popes the right of dispensing in these occasions because such marriages are prohibited not only by Humane but by Divine Laws as the Fathers of the 2d Council of Tours do plainly acknowledge in the Cannon I but now mention'd But if it be prohibited to marry the sister of the Deceased Wife our Discipline does not condemn marrying the sister of one contracted that is dead because it supposes that an Alliance is not consummated but by Commixtion of Blood or as St. Austin speaks in Gratian Cap. 27. q. 2. by commixture of Sex saying without this Accouplement there 's no Marriage nevertheless this Discipline enjoyns to Act so as not to give distaste to the Civil Magistrate nor weak Brethren scandaliz'd there can nothing be more prudent nor more Circumspect Pope Alexander the 3d. in the Appendix of the Council of Latran Anno 1180 reports this Decree from one Benedict his Predecessor of whom it had been demanded if one might marry the sister of one he had been contracted too who died before accomplishment of the Marriage Tom. 7. conc pag. 692. We order and command by Apostolical censure that it may be done without danger for wherefore should I forbid what the Scripture never says was prohibited and that the very Laws of the Land say nothing against when they reckon up the persons betwixt whom it is not lawful to contract Marriage and this shews by the way cap. 27. q. 2. that the Decrees which Gratian attributes to Julius the I. and to Gregory the I. are but forged Decrees or at least that they were of no use in the Roman Church X. The betrothed may not Marry the Mother of his betrothed deceased CONFORMITY This Article having something in it of the Nature of the former it is with great Justice the Rules of our National Synods refer it to the Magistrate without whose Authority they will not have us proceed in our Churches to the Celebration of such Marriages as are now treated of see here how the National Synod of Charanton in the year 1644 cleared up the Article The betrothed may not marry the Mother of the betrothed defunct unless it be so that the Magistrate has authoris'd it by his Order which shall be known as well by the Pastor as by the Parties contracting which is so much the more reasonable as that the Laws of Emperors formerly prohibited such Marriages XI Neither shall it be lawful for any one to marry the Aunt of his Wife such marriage
reasonably be doubted but that in all times those have been Examin'd in the Church which were to Labour for her Instruction and Edification and which were to serve in Preaching the Word and Administring the Sacraments I grant this Examination may differ according to the diversity of Places and Persons which were to do the Office of Examiners some doing it with more Exactness and Severity and others with more Mildness and Charity and I can't tell if ever there has been seen on this Subject a more strict and exact establishment than that which our Discipline doth prescribe Whatever it is it is most certain that is That the Examination of Life and Doctrine however 't was perform'd always preceded Ordination The 19th Canon of the 1st Council of Nice the 12th of that of Laodicea and the 1st and 4th of Carthage ordaining it should be so although the latter makes it more ample than the two others and declares distinctly the Questions which were to be made and the Articles upon which those were to be Interrogated which were to be called to be Bishops and I make no question but 't was with regard to this Examination That Gregory the first condemn'd in his Pastoral Part. 1. c. 1. T. 1. Paris 1586. The temerity of those which being ignorant and destitute of knowledg would presume to take on them the Office of Pastors never considering that the Conduct of Souls is the Art of Arts That is to say the Noblest and most Excellent of all the Sciences and withal the most Difficult the most Intricate and most Laborious and by consequence requires more Study and Care than any other whatsoever What a shame would it be for a Pastor to speak yet with the same St. Gregory Part. 2. cap. 11. in the same Treatise If he should go about to learn in the time that he should resolve the difficulties should be propos'd to him Whereas he ought always to be ready to give to Believers the satisfaction which they desire upon things which concern Conscience and Salvation This laudable Custom continued a long while after the Death of Gregory but since the Ninth Century the Examination of Pastors was insensibly brought to so mean a State that there needed not much Learning to Answer the Questions that were propos'd And to conclude The greatest part of the Vocation and Consecration of those to whom the Care and Conduct of Souls was committed consisted only in Shew and Ceremony or at least so little heed was taken of their Judgment and Capacity that there was seen to grow in a little time from a practise so different from that of the Primitive Christians that gross Ignorance which was the Spring and Cause of most part of the Evils and Disorders which have befaln the Western Church Not but that several Rules have been made to redress this great Mischief but it had got too deep root Besides Favour and Authority had a greater share in these promotions than the Glory of God and the Instruction of the People especially the Power of the Bishops of Rome who by degrees had gain'd to themselves the greatest part of Ecclesiastical Power bethought themselves about the XI Century to cause to be demanded or demanded themselves of the Bishops which were Examined and in the very moment of their Examination if they did not promise subjection and fealty in all things to St. Peter Tom. 10. Probl. Pat. p. 107. and to his Church to his Viear and to his Successors as appears by the Roman Order which in all likelihood was writ about that time and where is to be seen at this day amongst the Questions made to the Bishop which was Examin'd those which regard the Obedience and Fidellity which I but now mentioned and there is to be seen in the Roman Pontifical Printed at Venice in the Year 1582. Page 25. the Form of the Oath they were made to take and whereunto they ingaged themselves in doing it which are things quite different from the Discipline of the Primitive Christians I know very well that about the year 722. Boniface Archbishop of Mayence made an Oath to Pope Gregory the II. at the time of his Ordination and Promotion to the Prelacy but this Oath did properly contain no more but a Profession of Faith and the Essential Duty of an Apostollical Legat and of a Vicar of the Holy See as they express it which is to make Bishops observe the Canons and to give the Pope Information of the great difficulties which is therein I know also this Prelat Assembled a Council as he recites it in his 105. Letter to the Bishop Cuthbert wherein he made alike profession to the Bishops which there assisted but besides that all this was done but only by Order of the Princes and Bishops of the Kingdom as may be gathered from the very Letter of Boniface and from the 1st Canon of the Synod of Leptines where Prince Carloman protests That by advice of the Bishops and Nobles of the Kingdom he setled Bishops in all Cities and gave them for Chief and Superiour the Archbishop Boniface Legat of the Holy See Besides this I say these Examples now alledged went no farther if my memory fail me not before the time I mention VI. Him whose Ordination shall be signified to the Church shall Preach the Word Three several Sundays in publick but not Administer the Sacraments nor Celebrate Marriage in presence of all the People that they may observe his manner of Teaching The said People being expresly warn'd That if there be any one that know any just cause wherefore the Election of him so signified may not be fully ratified or that he be not liked of they may come and make it known to the Consistory who will patiently hear any one's Reasons to judge of the whole The silence of the People shall be look'd upon as a full consent But if there be murmuring and that the Party named is liked of the Consistory and not of the People or the major part of them his admission shall be deferred and the whole shall be reported to the Colloqui or the Provincial Synod to discern as well the Justification of the Person named as of his Reception and altho' the Person named was there justified yet he shall not be impos'd as a Pastor on the People contrary to their desire nor so much as to the dislike of the greatest part of them nor the Pastor in like manner against his will to the People and the difference shall be clear'd by order as abovesaid at the Charge and Expence of the Church which shall demand it CONFORMITY Although a Minister might be judged capable by the Synod or the Colloqui which have Examin'd him That is not sufficient to Establish him It is moreover requisite that the Flock that is appointed for him be satisfied with his Preaching therefore he is obliged to Preach Three several times before he receives the Imposition of Hands to the
report of Zozomen were made Bishops for Honour sake only without assigning them any Church however Barses in time was made Bishop of Edessa and Enlogius succeeded him XI Those who are Ordained into the Ministry are to understand they are enter'd into it for their whole life if they are not lawfully dismissed for good Considerations and that by the Provincial Synod CONFORMITY The 7th Canon of the Council of Calcedon forbids those that have been once admitted into the Clergy to bear Arms or to exercise any worldly Dignity that is The Synod requires that they should always abide in the Profession they have taken upon them and that they should not forsake the Ministry of the Church Rusticus Bishop of Narbona having writ to Pope Leo the I st That he was so moved with the Scandals which daily hapned that he could wish to be freed from the Episcopal Office to lead a more tranquile and quiet life the Pope answering the Bishops Letter Tom. 1. Conc. Gall. p. 111. intimated to him That he could not with a safe Conscience forsake the Office he had undertaken nor flinch from the Employment committed to his trust It is in this same Sense that Pope Felix the IV. Ann. Dom. 528. wrote to Caesarius Bishop of Arles That the Establishment of Church-Guides ought to be firm and immutable Tom. 1. Conc. Gall. p. 254. Tom. 7. Conc. p. 153. In the Year 895. there was a Council held at Tribury near Mayence compos'd of 22 Bishops which in the 17th Canon renew'd that of Calcedon which we above cited and which anathematiz'd those of the Clergy which did not repent of having left their Cures and which did not return to them Pope Calixtus the II. assembled a Council at Tholouza the Canons whereof are inserted in the 18th Chapter of Monsieur De Marca's 8th Book De Concordia Imperii Sacerdotii The 10th of these Canons Excommunicates the Clergy we speak of until they have repented of their prevarication A great while before Tom. 5. Part. 2. p. 211. Paris 1638. to wit in the Vth Century and before the assembling of the Council of Calcedon St. Cyril of Alexandria complains of this Abuse in his Canonical Epistle There is saith he another thing which doth not agree with the Decrees of the Church which is That there are Priests which present Renunciations by writing for if they are worthy to exercise the holy Ministry they must reside on it and if they are not worthy they do not leave it for their Resignation but because their own Deeds condemn them Thence it is that Loup Abbot of Ferriers in Gattinois said in the IXth Century That as nothing but Adultery could dissolve carnal Wedlock so also it is not permitted to lay aside the Pastoral Charge once received Ep. 2 Paris 1664. whilst one may contribute to the good of the Flock Nevertheless there are sundry Examples of those which in divers times and in divers places have for quietness sake renounced the Ministry that is they have forborn exercising the Functions and exercising the Office of a Bishop thus was was it done by Eustathius Tom. 3. Conc. p. 428 429. Metropolitan of Pamphilia to whom the Oecumenical Council of Ephesus in the year 431. preserv'd the Name Honour and Communion of a Bishop Martirius Bishop of Antioch withdrew himself by reason of the Extravagance of his Clergy the Disobedience of his People and the Corruptions of his Church but in preserving to himself the Honour and Dignity of the Ministry as Theodorus Lector writes in his Ecclesiastical History L. 1. p. 555. In the next Age there hapned almost the same thing to Paul Bishop of the same City of Antioch in the VIth Century and in the very Infancy of Religion St. Clement Tom. 3. Conc. p. 800. Disciple of the Apostles advised Pastors whose Churches were not well satisfied with them he counsell'd them to go elsewhere and to acquiesce to the desire of the People assuring them to obtain a great degree of glory in Christ Jesus adding Ep. ad Cor. p. 69. That those who have lived according to the Rule God has prescrib'd has always and will ever do after this manner because they ought to desire nothing more than the Peace and Edification of the Churches Pope Innocent the IIId in the 1st Book of Decretals tit 9. cap. 10. Nisi cum pridem proposes sundry Reasons wherefore it may be permitted to renounce the Conduct of a Flock for instance The reproach our Consciences makes us of some Crime infirmity of Body want of Knowledg the wickedness of the People some grievous Scandal or some personal Irregularity these are the Reasons for which this Pope thought one might desire to be discharg'd from the Ministry of the Church XII The Office of Ministers is principally to Preach and declare the Word of God to their People and they shall be desir'd to abstain from teaching in any strange way not tending to Edification and conforming to the Simplicity and ordinary Stile of God's Spirit taking heed there may be nothing in their Sermons which might bring any prejudice to the Honour and Authority of the Holy Scriptures They shall not Preach without chusing for the Subject-matter of their Discourse some Text of the Bible which they shall keep close to and their Text they shall take and explain the best they can avoiding all unnecessary Amplifications tedious and needless Digressions of many Passages of Scripture not pertinent to the matter in hand and of reciting various Expositions They shall be moderate in alledging the Writings of Ancient Doctors and much less Prophane Authors and Histories They shall not deliver their Doctrine in Scholastick manner nor intermix with strange Languages To conclude Let them avoid every thing that may tend to Ostentation or any way give Occasion to suspect it to which the Consistories Colloques and Synods shall take special heed CONFORMITY The Preaching of the Word being the principal duty of the Holy Ministry the Compilers of our Discipline have taken particular care exactly to prescribe to Ministers the Subject and Manner of doing it these are the two things contain'd in this great Article As to what regards the Subject of their Sermons it must always be taken in the Holy Scripture The Council of Laodicea calls it The Dispensation of the Word of Faith Can. 12. and of the right and true Word and it is with regard hereunto Tom. 1. Concil p. 728. Tom. 4. Concil p. 820. that of Carthage Ann. 398. appoints in the 20th Canon That the Bishop should apply himself only to Reading Prayer and Preaching of the Word of God The Council of Tolledo assembled in the Year of our Lord 675. employs the 2d of its Canons to prescribe to Pastors their Duty saying They should always have in their mouth the Sword of Truth be powerful in exhorting by holy Doctrine and to convince Gainsayers and not to turn aside from
of our Lord 693. I confess that the tenth of the Council of Galcedon forbids Clerks to inrole themselves in two Churches at once but that of Toledo is formal on the matter I examin That there be not granted to one Priest several Churches because he cannot do service in all nor help the People in the Priestly Functions Since that time this sort of prohibitions have been frequent in the West as may be easily made appear were this the place to do it it shall suffice to alledg at present the demand which Charles the Ninth caused to be made by his Ambassadors at the Council of Trent That but one Benefice be conferr'd on one person in taking away as to what regards Plurality the difference of Benefices Compatibles or Incompatibles because this distinction which is new and unknown to ancient Decrees has also occasion'd great Evils to the Catholick Church and that Regular Benefices be given to Regulars and Secular ones to Seculars and that for those which at present enjoy two or more either that they hold only that which they shall make choice of in a little time or that they suffer the punishments inflicted by the ancient Canons However it be zeal being grown cold and Pastors abating in the care they formerly took in the Edification and Salvation of those committed to their charge there was an absolute necessity of making Laws to enjoyn Residence whereas formerly they did it of their own free-will and inclination to discharge their Consciences of the Duties of their calling Pope Eugenius the Second seeing in the Ninth Century they dispensed themselves from dwelling with their flock Coll. Rom. p. 2. c. 6 7 p. 23 24. made a Decree in a Synod held at Rome having this Title That Bishops do not live out of their Diocesses the Canon is conceiv'd in these terms Bishops should keep always at their Churches to labour with Piety for their edification because the absence of the Bishop many times becomes the misfortune of the People And in the following Canon he will have Cloisters built near the Churches for the Dwellings of inferior Clerks to the end they may give attendance to the study of Ecclesiastical Discipline The Council of Meaux Anno 845 Tom. 3. Conc. Gal. c. 36 p. 42. made another Ordinance much like it That Priests be not suffer'd to lodg abroad where they list but that they keep always at their Churches by reason of Divine Mysteries and to yield to Litanies the services they owe to them and that they have not liberty to dwell elsewhere After abuses had in this regard crept into the Church it cannot be doubted but many Settlements were made to restore things to the ancient Model and to shew the necessity and importance of it because in truth the Obligation of Residency is greater than most people are aware of seeing that Pastors are obliged wholly to their Flocks and all the parts of their Ministry is destin'd for them Nevertheless whatever Decrees have been made to establish the ancient Discipline it could not be prevented but in these latter ages an extream negligence has succeeded in the practice of so holy and sacred a custom therefore in the days of our forefathers the question of Non-residence was debated with much heat in the Council of Trent Hist du Conc. lib. 6. p. 592. ad 600. p. 621. ad 616. avec le livre 2. p. 309 310 311. â— Troys 1627. insomuch that the Spanish Prelates were so stiff that they declared it was Jure Divino of Divine Institution which alarm'd the Legates and gave a furious shock also to the Court of Rome for 't was foreseen if this Article should pass a part of the Pope's Authority should be retrenched the Plurality of Benefices which has occasioned so great mischief in the Church should be abolished and the Cardinals should be depriv'd of that which supported the splendor of their Purple Robes in depriving them of Benefices for Non-residence but means were found to allay these heats and to compose matters to the satisfaction of the Bishop of Rome and his Court However this same Council in the 24th Session and in the Decree of Reformation seems to have prescribed some remedy to the evil which arises by Non-residence but it did it in such a manner as it left the door open to the abuse which far from diminishing has increased more and more But that there may not be any contest on occasion of our Discipline enjoyning Ministers and their Families to make actual residence in their Churches that is with their Wives and Children as if the Ancient Bishops were never Married and as though they never lived in their Churches with their Families it 's necessary to justify our Practise by some Examples The first shall be that of the venerable old Cheremon Bishop of Nile in Egypt for Eusebius mentions in the 42d Chapter of the 6th Book of his Ecclesiastical History That when the Persecution of Decius raged he retired into a Mountain with his Wife who never forsook him And in the 9th Chapter of the 8th Book he makes mention of Phileas Bishop of Thmuis in Thebaide who suffer'd Martyrdom under Dioclesian although the Judge which condemn'd him did what he could possible to make him renounce Jesus Christ in exhorting him especially to have pity of his Wife and Children Spyridion Bishop of Trimythunte in the Isle of Cyprus in the days of the Emperor Constantine liv'd in his Church with his Wife and Children as is witnessed by Zozomen L. 5. c. 11. It 's only needful to Read the 22d Chapter of the 5th Book of Socrates his Ecclesiastical History to see sundry Examples of Bishops that were Married and liv'd with their Wives It cannot be doubted but Synesius did so seeing he accepted not the Bishoprick of Ptolemais but on those terms as he himself tells us in his Hundred and fifth Letter And 't is very likely the greatest number of the Eastern Bishops lived in their Churches with their Wives and Children until the end of the 7th Century That the 6th Council appointed that they should put away their Wives and that they should no longer cohabit with them Can. 12. which they were ever permitted to do before this Decree according to the remark of the Frier Blastares in Syntagm Alphab Litt. G. Cap. 16 17. Besides that in this same Canon the Fathers acknowledg'd that there were several Bishops in Lybia in Africa and elsewhere that lived with their Wives which agreed very well with the 5th Canon called the Apostles which forbids Bishops Priests and Deacons under pain of Suspension and even of Deposing to separate from their Wives under pretext of Religion XV. Those to whom God has given the talent of writing are admonish'd to do it in a modest way and befitting the Majesty of Heaven and consequently not to write in a ridiculous and injurious manner the which gravity and modesty they shall also observe in their
same City of Antioch In the Year 346 Euphrates Bishop of Cologne was also depos'd by a Council Assembled in the same City for an impiety much like that of Paul of Samosatia for he denied that Jesus Christ was God It was on the same ground that in the Ancient Church Pelagius Celestius Julian and their followers Nestorius Eutyches and many others were Anathematiz'd not to speak of what was done against Arrius in the first Council of Nice I do not here make mention of scandalous vices for which Ministers deserve to be depos'd because I shall speak of them in the following Articles I will only add that the 45th Canon of the Apostles deprives of the Communion the Bishop Priest and Deacon which do so much as pray with Hereticks that is to say according to Balsamons interpretation If they have any Communication with them but he deposes them if they permit them to do any Ecclesiastical Function and the 46th if they allow of their Baptism and Oblation XLVIII Those shall not be depos'd who through Sickness Age or other the like accident shall be incapable of doing their Office in which case they shall still enjoy the Honour and shall be recommended to their Churches for a maintenance being provided of another which shall perform their Office CONFORMITY Old Age and Sickness being no lawful cause of deposition it is with good reason they here except them out of the Number of those things for which Bishops and Deacons are wont to be degraded and to turn them into the Rank of Lay-men from the which they were before distinguish'd as for Old Age it is certain that in the Primitive Church when a Pastor was well stricken in years and that by reason thereof he could not perform all things relating to his Office some other was chosen to assist him but in continuing to him the Honour of his Office and a competent Maintenance Euseb Hist Eccles l. 6. c. â— It was so practised at the beginning of the 3d Century in regard of Narcissus Bishop of Jerusalem Aged 116 years for there was by consent of the Neighbouring Bishops given to assist him in that weighty employment Alexander who had been Bishop in Capadocia It was for the same reason that Theotecnus Id. ib. l. 7. c. â—2 p. 288. Bishop of Caesarea of Palestine Consecrated one Anatolius Bishop with whom he divided the care of his Disocess which they govern'd both together for some time These are the two Ancientest Examples of Coadjutors of Bishops as is spoke at this time they were at first introduced for the ease of Ministers who for their extreme Age could not discharge the Duties of their Pastoral Office but since that time Favour and Ambition has had a much greater share in establishing these kind of Coadjutors than Necessity although the Council of Antioch in the year 341 expresly defends it in the 23. Canon which practise St. Austin was a stranger to when Valerius made him his Coadjutor and designed him his Successor as Possidonius observes in the eighth Chapter of his Life where he takes if I be not deceived the Council of Antioch for that of Nice the fourth Canon of which prescribes only the manner of Promotion of Bishops whereas the 23. of Antioch absolutely prohibits a Bishop to establish himself a Successor and by the same means a Coadjutor I come now to Sicknesses and other like accidents for the which we do not think fit a Minister should be deposed we do not indeed in the first Ages of the Church find any Rule on this subject because in all likelihood as yet none were found that would dispute to a Pastor who by reason of Sickness could not discharge the Duties of his Calling the name and quality of Pastor no more than things necessary for his subsistence In the time of Gregory the First things having in all likelihood changed face in this regard this Prelate made a Constitution which is yet to be seen in the 11th Book of his Letters Indict 6. Ep. 7 8. by which he appoints that a Coadjutor shall be provided for the Bishop who by reason of Sickness cannot take care of his Congregation which nevertheless shall be bound to maintain him as before it is much after this sort he deals by the Bishop of Rimini who by his own confession a great pain in the head rendered incapable of discharging his Episcopal Office for which cause he desired to be absolutely discharged that another might be put in his place which could not have been done without his consent but only to have given him a Coadjutor The Bishops of France did otherwise in regard of Heriman or Herman Bishop of Nevers who was troubled with a mighty head-ach but he stoutly resisted them as also Vvemlen Bishop of Sens his Metropolitan for they would have put another in his place against his will but having writ to Pope Nicholas the First in the year 862 he disapproved what they did in the case Tom. â— Cone Gal. Ann. 862. p. 87 88 politickly avoiding the question they put to him touching the forged Decretal of Melchiades In the Appendix at the end of the Letters of Loup Abbot of Ferriers of the last Edition there 's a Letter of Innocent the Third to the Archbishop of Tours writ in the year 1209 whereby he will have the Bishop of Perigueux to resign his Bishoprick to another because he was uncapable and unfit to discharge the Office and that moreover he wasted the Treasure of the Churches altho he judges the former reason sufficient cause for the resignation But Innocent the Sixth in the sixth year of his Popedom that is about the year of Christ 1360 writes to Girlac Archbishop of Mayence to appoint a Coadjutor to Salvian Bishop of Worms by reason of his great age and sickness without leaving the Coadjutor any hopes of succeeding him after his death the Letter is to be seen in the same Appendix Mark Patriarch of Alexandria Apud Beaureg Annot. in Can. Apost To. 2. Pandect p. 37. having demanded of Balsaman the famous Greek Canonist that liv'd in the Twelfth Century If a man that had but one hand or but one eye were worthy the honour of Priesthood and whether 't were permitted to him that after Ordidination chanc'd to be dismembered in any part of his body to celebrate Divine Service or not Balsaman after having alledged the 77 and 78 Canons of those which go in the Apostles names to resolve the difficulty proposed to him adds That those ought not to be established in Ecclesiastical Offices which by reason of their sickness and infirmities are incapable of doing their Duties but as for those which since their Ordination are faln into any mischance he declares That if their inconvenience don't hinder them from discharging their calling they are permitted to continue in it and to celebrate Divine Service but if the inconvenience be such as that it hinders them he will that they
of time and place CONFORMITY In the Christian Church there has ever been persons appointed to take care of the conduct of those which were Members of it and to watch over their Flocks to the end no scandalous actions should be committed therein nothing that should be unbecoming the profession of the Gospel Origen at least tells us that in his time which was the third Century it was so practised for he declares in his answer to Celsus that there was in the Churches Lib. 3. pag. 142. of Cambridge Edit 1658 Persons established to take notice of the life and conversation of those which imbraced the Christian Religion that when they committed any evil actions to expel them out of the Congregations and on the contrary to receive with great affection all those which lived orderly and well to the end to improve and make them better from day to day Tertullian before Origen Apolog. c. 39. had sufficiently intimated this same practice speaking in his Apologetick of Censures inflicted on sinners in Christian Assemblies which banished from their Communion those which were convicted of heinous offences for example of Idolatry Murder and of Fornication which proceeding shews there was in each Church persons intrusted to keep watch over the life and manners of the People and these persons were the same which we call Elders which also is the name St. Austin gives them in the nineteenth Sermon on the words of our Lord and which at this time is the third in the Appendix of the tenth Tome In this Sermon which others attribute to Maximus Bishop of Turin and which is the 66th amongst those of St. Ambrose there is to be seen the Name and the Office of Elders the same in effect as they are amongst us for the Author whoever he be having observed that Soldiers and those in any Office could not bear to be reprov'd and to be told of their Duty he speaks after this manner When the Elders reprove them for any misdemeanor and that any of them are asked why they are drunk wherefore they took away other folks goods wherefore they committed murder They presently answered What would you have me do being one of the World and a Soldier Do I profess to be a Frier or a Clergy-man IV. The office of Deacons is to collect and distribute by direction of the Consistory the Money belonging to the Poor to Prisoners and to sick folks to visit and have care of them CONFORMITY It appears by Chap. 6. of the Acts of the Apostles that the Office of Deacons is what our Discipline does represent because they were first of all appointed to serve at Tables that is to say to take care of the Poor Oecumenius in his Commentaries on this Chapter of the Acts I now mentioned observes expresly that they were appointed to distribute to Widows and Orphans with care the things necessary for their subsistence According to which the Enemies of Cecilian Bishop of Carthage laid it to his charge as a great crime That being Deacon he hindered people from giving meat to the Martyrs whereas he ought to have carried them some himself Fascicul rer Expet fug fol. 32. vers Coloniae 1535. Cardinal Julian who presided at the Council of Basle remonstrates to Pope Eugenius the Fourth That there are several things he ought to do himself and others which he may refer to the care of those which are under him after the example of the Apostles who to attend the more freely to the Preaching of the Word instituted seven Deacons which served Tables and the administration of things of less weight It is nevertheless true Apolog. 2. pag. 99. that in the time of Justin Martyr it was the Pastor that distributed the Money to the Poor which was appointed for their Maintenance which was given by Peoples Charity But this Distribution in all likelihood was made by the Ministry of Deacons Cap. 39. Tertullian indeed in his Apologetick declares one had care of the Poor of Orphans of Old Folks of those which had lost their Goods by Shipwrack of those which laboured in Mines who were banished into Islands or detained in Prisons for the Gospel sake but he don't mention by whom it was done The Church of Rome in the time of Cornelius its Bishop that is about the middle of the third Century Apud Euseb Hist lib 6. c. 43. p. 244. maintained above 1500 poor as well Widows as others who were reduced to poverty or afflicted with sickness or infirmities The charity of that of Antioch was no less conspicuous than that of the Church of Rome as we find by some of St. Chrysostom's Homilies on St. Matthew particularly the 67 and 86th It is true we are not certain that the Deacons were charged with the care of these two Churches in the days of Cornelius and of St. Chrysostom but we know very well the Deacons amongst us attend on the things for which they were established by the Apostles that is that they should take care of the Poor and Necessitous according to their Primitive institution It was on this account that Fabian Bishop of Rome divided amongst seven Deacons in the third Century the fourteen Quarters of the City of Rome that is to say to the end they should take care of the Poor which were in each of these Quarters as is to be seen in the Roman Breviary on the 20th day of January and as Binnius observes in the Life of Fabian Tom. Conc. pag. 114. But what the Deacons did at first was in time performed by the Ministry of Oeconoms and others of which the ancient Canons make so frequent mention in such a way nevertheless that the Bishop had the chief power in the distribution which however was not done without the knowledg of these Deputies when they had taken the place and office of those first Deacons and that it is so I explain what Zozomen says of St. Epiphanius Lib. 7. Chap. 27. Read what shall be said on the second Art of the 4th Chap. V. The office of Deacons is not to Preach the Word of God and administer the Sacraments Nevertheless if necessity require the Consistory may chuse certain Elders and Deacons to Cacechise in Families as also it is permitted to Elders in absence of the Pastor to read Publick Prayers on working-days being chose by the Consistory for that purpose and that they follow the usual form in Reading the Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament As for the Deacons who are wont to Catechise publickly in some Provinces the inconveniences which have already or may hereafter ensue being heard and considered the Churches where this custom is not yet introduced are desired to forbear and the others where it is to continue and to order that the said Deacons if they are found capable would enter into the Ministry of the Gospel as soon as they can possible CONFORMITY What I have said of the Office of Deacons doth highly
justifie the Prohibition here made them of Preaching the Word of God and administring the Sacraments because they were not thereunto appointed as Oecumenius has observed on Chap. 6. of the Acts of the Apostles the words whereof we have alledged in examining the precedent Article I know very well that Philip one of the Seven Deacons established by the Apostles Preached the Gospel but I say it was not in quality of a meer Deacon that he Preached but by vertue of a particular vocation whereby God made him a Herald of his Grace and a dispencer of his Mysteries therefore he is qualified with the Title of Evangelist in the 21. Chap. ver 8. of the Acts Act. 21.8 I do not here mention his Preaching Christ at Samaria after the great Persecution raised against the Church of Jerusalem upon the death of St. Stephen because he did nothing therein but what the others which were scattered abroad did elsewhere by vertue of a general vocation which each Believer has right to exercise at certain times and in certain places As for Baptizing and instructing the Queen of Aethiopia's Eunuch Ibid. the Sacred History informs us that Philip had an express command by the Ministry of an Angel to do it In the Primitive Church a Deacon was not permitted to Preach the Word whilst they were Deacons they must at the least pass from the Order of Deacon to that of Priesthood to be qualified to Preach I said at the least for if in the East Priests were suffered to Preach it was otherwise in the West where Bishops only performed that function for several Ages The first Priest that Preached publickly in Africa was St. Austin by the power granted to him by Valerius his Bishop who was by Birth a Grecian which was found to be irregular because 't was contrary to the use and practice of the Churches of Africa as is observed by Possidonius in the Life of St. Austin If amongst us there 's found a Deacon that was capable and had a desire to exercise the Ministry he was made to pass from one degree to another and then might Preach the Word and administer the Sacraments whereas Deacons were not instituted at first to do the one nor the other In effect if their first Institution permitted them not to Preach neither did it suffer them to administer the Sacraments for these two commonly go together so that if prohibiting them Preaching they were afterwards in process of time suffered to administer the Sacraments besides that things which were joyned together were separated they passed beyond the bounds of their Vocation Thence it is that Oecumenius a Writer of the tenth or eleventh Century which I already have cited several times Ubi supra confesses that the Deacons of his time were quite different from those established by the Apostles and an Order quite another thing than the first In the days of Justin Martyr Apolog. 2. that is to say in the second Century the Deacons distributed the Bread and Wine of the Sacrament after being Consecrated by the Pastor which in all likelihood proceeded from a false Interpretation given of these Tables for the service of which Deacons were appointed for they were not Eucharistical Tables but common Tables where distribution was made of things necessary for the Maintenance of Widows and Orphans and other poor People and where perhaps Christians made their Feasts of Charity which for a time was practised in the Church Tertullian something later than Justin Martyr De Coron c 3 p. 102. testifies the Eucharist was received only from the hand of those which presided that is of Bishops and Pastors in all likelihood 't was at that time the practice of the Churches of Africa and a custom which was not observed in all places The third Canon of the Council of Ancyra in the year 314 suffers Deacons which have done nothing unworthy their degree to distribute both the Symbols But in the same year the Council of Arles prohibits them in the 15th Tom. 1. Conc. Gall. Ibid. Canon by that term to offer which he emplies is taken to administer according to the Explication which is given it by the 15th Canon of the second Council of Nice on the same place The year 462 the great Council of Nice forbids them simply to give the Eucharist to Priests Can. 18. The 25th Canon of that of Laodicea seems to forbid them absolutely to distribute the Bread and the Cup It ought not to be that Ministers saith the Council should distribute the Bread nor that they should bless the Cup. At that time the term of Ministers implied commonly the name of Deacons but in the Canons of this Council it denotes a more inferior Order viz. Subdeacons In conclusion it must be granted that we have innovated nothing in the Deaconship and that our Deacons have always kept within the just bounds of their first Institution which was to serve at Tables and to take care of Widows as St. Jerome observes in his 85 Epistle VI. The Elders and Deacons may be present at the Lectures and Propositions of the Word of God made by Ministers besides the ordinary Preaching Or by those made by young Students and even at the censures made there and give their advice thereon but the decision of the Doctrine is principally reserved to Ministers and Doctors in Divinity duly called to their Offices CONFORMITY Besides the usual Sermons Ministers Preach in the Churches they were wont to Preach by turns in the Colloques they held several times a year and those Exercises were called Propositions much like to those our young Studens in Divinity are wont to make to fit them for Preaching therefore these kinds of Exercises are subject to the Censures of those before whom they are made for they were instituted to judge of the Progress which Ministers as well as Students did make in their Studies and because there are Deacons as well as Elders that sometimes are present either in the Colloques in the quality of Deputies or in the Consistory whereof they are Members they are permitted to speak their opinion which ought not to be thought strange after all which has hitherto been said by the Ancients seeing also the decision of Doctrines is reserved to the Ministers VII The Office of Elders and Deacons as it is at present used amongst us is not perpetual nevertheless inasmuch as 't is prejudicial to change they shall be exhorted to continue in their office as long as may be and if they will be discharged it cannot be without consent of their Churches CONFORMITY The setling of Elders and Deacons depending of the will of the Church in which originally lyes all the Right and Power of Government and the Church not having thought convenient to make these Employments perpetual fearing it might not find persons that would accept them for life she hath yielded to those which accept of them the liberty to be discharged provided they do
several places were excluded from all hope of Pardon in the bosom of the Church as is made appear by the 16th Canon of the Synod of Ancyra in the year 314. XXVI Those which in a Church shall fall into Idolatry thereupon shall come to live in another Church where the fault is not known shall confess their fault only in Consistory on condition that returning to the said Church which they had offended they also acknowledg their fault publickly in it however referring to the discretion of the Consistory to do otherwise if they shall so think expedient for the Edification of the Churches The same Judgment shall be made of all other Faults which shall require publick Confession CONFORMITY Amongst the Primitive Christians when a Sinner had been Excommunicated in a Church when he had been cut off from its body or only debar'd from the Holy Table another Church was not permitted to receive him without the consent of that which had inflicted the punishment It was by this Principle that the Clergy of the Church of Rome the See being vacant after the death of its Bishop Hygin about the year of our Lord 150. would not receive Marcion to the Communion because he had been Excommunicated by his own Father who was Bishop for having debauch'd a young Woman We cannot say they Apud Epiphan Petau Haer. 42. p. 303. do this without the Order of your venerable Father In Theodoret Alexander Bishop of Alexandria complains to Alexander Bishop of Constantinople that some Bishops had received to the Communion some persons which he had Excommunicated The 5th Canon of the great Council of Nice expresly forbids it as also several others which 't is needless to alledge But when there was no Sentence given against a Sinner that he had not appeared before the Guides to acknowledg his Sin or to be convicted of it and that by consequence he had not been Excommunicated it is very probable that if he retired into another Church where the Fault was not committed he there would be treated according to the Rules of Christian Charity without paying the satisfaction which he owed to that which he had scandaliz'd in case he return'd to it It is just what is prescribed by our Discipline whereas there is not that I know of any positive Decree in the Ancient Canons on a matter of the Nature of that which we Examine although it may be reasonably thought there is by what was practis'd in other occasions XXVII All offences confessed and reparation made for them shall be struck out of the Consistory Books except those which being join'd with Rebellion have been censur'd with Suspension from the Lord's Supper or Excommunication CONFORMITY As there were only publick Faults and scandalous Sins which were to be satisfied for in the presence of the People there is great likelihood that in the first Ages the Ecclesiastical Senate kept not a Register of others of a less quality and which deserv'd not to suffer the pain of publick Penance or at least if they were wont to be written they were carefully expung'd after the Sinners had done what was requir'd of them in presence of the Conductors and that the necessary Censures had been applied to them otherwise what the Church has ever carefully distinguished had been confounded and embroil'd XXVIII Consistories shall not give Certificates to Magistrates by Act nor otherwise nor particular Members of Consistories shall discover unto any the Confessions of Penitents which voluntarily or by admonitions given them shall have confessed their faults unto them unless it be in Case of Treason CONFORMITY There is nothing more judicious than this Rule which enjoins to keep the secret of Confession made by Sinners of their faults either to the Bodies of Consistories or to any particular person whereof they are compos'd except the crime of Treason because in effect the Seal of Confession should not be regarded when there is question of the Sacred Persons of Kings and of the safety of their Estates there being no subject of what degree or quality soever he be that in this occasion is not bound in Conscience to disclose the secret which has been revealed to him otherwise he renders himself guilty in the sight of God and deserves to be exemplarily punish'd by the Laws of Men. XXIX Proceeding shall be made by Ecclesiastical Censures even to Excommunication against those which saying they are of the Religion shall cite Pastor and Elders or all the Consistory before the Magistrate to make them give Testimony against Delinquents which shall have confessed their faults before them CONFORMITY The 11th Canon of the Council of Antioch Anno Dom. 341. expresly prohibits Bishops and Priests to address themselves to the Emperor for any business without the consent and Letters of the Bishops of the Province especially of the Metropolitan and the 12th deprives them of the liberty of defending themselves and leaves them no hope of re-establishment if after having been Depos'd by their Synod they have recourse to the Emperor instead of addressing themselves to a greater Synod for example to that of the whole Diocess composed of the Bishops of several Provinces The Oecumenical Council of Constantinople Assembled in the year of our Lord 381. appoints in the 6th Canon not to receive the testimony of those which despising the Authority of Provincial Synods and of those of the whole Diocess have the confidence to implore Justice of the Emperor or of the Civil Magistrate because say the Fathers they do injury to the Canons and they overthrow all Ecclesiastical Discipline XXX As for Crimes which shall be disclos'd to Ministers by those which demand counsel and consolation Ministers are enjoin'd not to reveal them to Magistrates fearing lest blame should be drawn on the Ministry and Sinners should be discouraged for the future to come to Repentance and make Confession of their faults which shall stand good in all crimes confessed except it be Treason CONFORMITY What I have writ on the 28th Article sufficeth for explanation of this which in substance contains the same thing XXXI If one or more of the People stir up dissention to disturb the unity of the Church upon any point of Doctrine or of Discipline or of the form of Catechism the Administration of Sacraments or of Publick Prayers and the Order of Marriage and that hereto particular admonitions are not a sufficient Remedy the Consistory of the place shall endeavour with speed to dissolve and appease the whole matter without noise and with all mildness of the Word of God And if the opposers will not acquiesce the Consistory of the place shall desire the Colloque to assemble in time and place more convenient having first of all made the said Opposers expresly promise which shall be register'd That they shall not spread abroad their Opinions in any sort or manner whatever until the Convocating of the Colloque under pain of being censur'd as Schismaticks yet they may have liberty to
left off as he doth testifie in his 80 Letter It may be thought that the Synod of Ries in Province had given some slight endeavour to the first practice Tom conc Gal. p. 69. Ibid. p. 74. in the year 439 when it confirms it in the Eighth Cannon but under condition that times were quiet That of Orange explains it self fuller in the year 441 Cannon 29 saying it was difficult to assemble twice a year by reason of sad and difficult times The Second thing I mean to observe is Ibid. p. 173. Ib. p. 268 284. That the Synod of Agde in Languedock made a Decree in the 71 Cannon by which it reduces these Synodal Assemblies to hold once a year and it declares in the same Cannon which is of the year 506 that it does so according to the constitution of the Fathers having respect it may 〈◊〉 to the Cannons of Orange and Ries but just now cite The 37 of the 4 of Orleans of the year 541 the 23 an◠〈◊〉 of the year 549 on the same with that of Agde 〈◊〉 â—he 18 of the 3 of Tolledo alleges for a reason in the 〈◊〉 589 the length of the way and poverty of the Churches To. 4 Conc. pa. 505 506. II. Ministers shall bring along with them one or two Elders at the most chosen by the Consistory and the said Ministers and Elders shall shew their Deputations If a Minister comes alone no heed shall be taken of the Certificates he brings along with him no more than there shall be of those an Elder shall produce if he comes alone without a Pastor which Rule shall be of force in all Ecclesiastical Assemblies If they cannot come they shall make their excuse by Letters of the which the Brethren there present shall be Judges and shall send their Memoirs signed by a Pastor and an Elder Those who shall fail of being present at Colloques and at Provincial Synods without lawful Excuse shall be sensur'd and the said Colloques and Provincial Synods may finally judge their Cause and dispose of their Persons CONFORMITY There are in this Establishment several things to be consider'd in the first place the deputing of our Elders with the Pastors to Synods which is very agreeable to the practice of the Antient Church which admitted the Layity into their Synods after the Example of the Apostles who in the Synod of Jerusalem make mention of the Church in distinguishing it not only from themselves but also from ordinary Persons which they design by the term of Elders Acts 15.22 to shew that by the Church they meant the faithful People which assisted at that Holy Assembly according to which the Fathers in the Council of Antioch distinguishes also the Churches of God Aâ—d Euseb l. â— c. 30. from Bishops Priests and Deacons in the Letter wrote to Dennis Bishop of Rome to Maximus Bishop of Alexandria and to all the Churches to inform them of the deposing of this Arch Heretick not that 't is necessary to think that the intire Churches assisted at this Council which was assembled from sundry Provinces but they assisted by some of their Body which represented them that is by some of the Body of the People But to say something more to the purpose I have shewn on the First Article of the Third chap. by Authority of Fermillian and of the African Code that the Elders such as ours were deputed to Synods with the Pastors against whom they sometimes pleaded the right of the People which deputed them The Second thing I observe on this Article is that the Deputies to Synods are obliged to be present there or to excuse themselves by Letter And if their Excuse be not sufficient they are sensur'd as shall be thought fit in the Colloques and in the Provincial Synods which have power to judge definitively of their Excuses and to dispose of their Persons which also is according to the practice of the Primitive Christians the Fortieth Cannon of the Council of Laodicea is conceiv'd in these terms The Bishops which are called to a Synod must not neglect to go thither and if any one does neglect he will condemn himself unless some Sickness doth hinder him The 19th of Calcedon requires that one should reprove in a brotherly way those which fail of coming although they are in good health and that they are hindred by any extraordinary business which might not be deferr'd In France no other Excuse will be admitted but that of Sickness as appears by a great many Cannons and amongst others by that of the First of Epaume by the 1 of the 2 of Orleans by the 80 Letter of Auitus Bishop of Vienna and by several other Decrees which I forbear to cite The Council of Agde in the 35 Cannon joyns to Sickness some command of the King next to which it deprives from the Communion of the Church till the next Synod those which have failed to be present at the former and as it deprives them for that time from the Communion of the Church it also deprives them from the Charity of their Brethren that is from the other Bishops to which the Council of Tarragona in the year 517 reduces in the VI. Cannon all the punishment of those Bishops which neglect to be present at the Synods where they have been called by the Metropolitans and excuses none but them which are hindred by Sickness The 15 of the 11 of Toledo assembled Anno 575 Excommunicates them for one year if they are not hinder'd by some Sickness or by some inevitable necessity the 76 of the African Code wills That they should be content with the Communion of their Church the V. Cannon of the Council of Merrida of which I will speak on the 10 Article of the IX chap. excuses those who are hindred by Sickness or by Order of the Prince As to what our Discipline saith That if the Pastor comes alone no heed shall be taken of the Memorials he shall bring nor of those the Elder brings if he comes without the Minister it agrees not ill with what we read in the 100 Cannon of the African Code where a Bishop complains of his Church but because the Elders the Church had deputed to defend its cause against the Bishop did not appear the Council referr'd the Judgment of this Affair to a certain Number of Bishops whereof some were nominated by the Bishop which was dissatisfied with his Flock and the rest were left to be named by the Elders although absent As for the Memorials whereof mention is made in this Article more may be seen of it in what I shall say on the Third Article of the Ninth Chapter III. Those Churches which have several Ministers shall depute them by turns to Colloques and Synods CONFORMITY This Article is grounded on that That Ministers may not pretend any Authority one over the other as I have made appear on the Sixteenth Article of the First Chapter and having no Power one
over another it is absolutely necessary that to maintain this equality that when there are several in one and the same Church they should alternatively be deputed to Synods and Colloques IV. Ministers and Elders Deputed to Colloques and Provincial Synods shall come thither at the common charges of their Churches CONFORMITY I do not find that in the First Centuries conductors of Christian Churches did observe much formality when they assembled for the deciding of any difference all things were done with so much simplicity Humane Passions being excluded that every one spake as he was inspired of God Read what Eusebius relates of the Two Synods which were held in the Third Century against Paul of Samosatia Hist l. 7. cap. 27 28 29. and I am certain the marks of the simplicity I have now mentioned will be found in them but in process of time Humane Passions being mingled with Charity 't was necessary to Establish some Methods in these Assemblies and choose some one amongst the Bishops to propose the matter which was to be deliberated to gather the Voices and moderate the whole Action an Honour which was commonly conferr'd either to promotion that is to say to him that was the Eldest Minister or to Personal Merit by reason of ones great Learning and sometimes also for the greatness and eminency of the City whereof one was Bishop Palmas as the Eldest of the Bishops of Pontus Ep ad Epâ—â— Privine Viennees Tom. 1. Conc. Gall. p. 85. presided in a Synod which was there held upon occasion of celebrating Easter as Eusebius relates in the 23 chap. of the Fifth Book of his History To this Example may be added what was done by Leo I. in the V. Century in favour of Leoncius Bishop of Frejus in the upper Narbonnes had not the Passion which he expressed against Hillary Bishop of Arles made him violate the Laws of Justice and Equity in depriving him the right whereof he was justly in possession of assembling Synods and which according to the Discipline of those times belonged to his See to invest Leoncius with it because he was the Eldest Bishop of the Province and about the year 397 the First Council of Turin bestowed on Proclus Bishop of Marsellis the precedence over the Bishops of the Second Narbonnes Pâ—â—d p. 27 28. not so much in consideration of the City whereof he was Bishop as in consideration of his Age and Merit In fine the Ecclesiastical Government being wholly fram'd after the Model of the Civil and Politick this right of precedence was joyn'd in the out Provinces to Metropolitan Bishops except the Churches of Africa where this priviledge was conferr'd on Primates and in that Countrey was called Primat which had been first promoted to be Bishop for 't was not to Age alone this I rerogative was attributed but to the time of promotion Our Discipline which refers this to Election does nothing differ from what was practis'd in the Antient Church before the Establishing of Hierarchy especially when precedency was conferred on Persons for their Merit which could not be done but by plurality of Voices because for the most part one Judges differently of the Merit of Men and so 't is St. Athanasius expresses it in his First Apology that Hosius was commonly the chief and President of Synods an Honour conferred on him for his great Merit and perhaps to for his Age as it was in the latter regard bestow'd on For the understanding of this Article it is necessary to read what I have said on the Fifth of the Sixth chap. to which may be added that Synods having been instituted for the good and Edification of the Churches it is more than reasonable they should be charged with the Expences needful to assist at those Assemblies especially seeing the maintenance they allow to their Ministers is so small that 't is not sufficient for their subsistance as it often happens amongst us V. The Churches which shall refuse to allow their Ministers conveniencies for repairing to Colloques and Synods shall be advertis'd to do what is fit and in default thereof so that Ministers are constrain'd to go at their own charges after two or three Admonitions they shall be deprived of the Ministry and the Expences made by the said Ministers shall be repaid by the Churches to whom they were sent Liberty being given to have recourse to the Ingrateful Church according to the Judgment which shall be given by the Provincial Synod CONFORMITY This Establishment being a continuance of the former what I have observed on that may serve for a Commentary on this VI. If there should happen a difference betwixt a Church and the Pastor and that to compose it the Church shall have been advertis'd two several times of the time and place of the Colloque and Synod and refuses to attend the said Colloque or Synod notwithstanding absence of one of the Parties may proceed on to Judgment CONFORMITY The Hundred Cannon of the African Code which I cited on the Second Article do's Authorise this Establishment and justifies the Conformity of our Discipline with the Primitive VII In each Synod as well Provincial as National shall be Elected with a slow Voice by full consent one of the Pastors to preside with one or two to write His business shall be to govern and moderate the whole Session to advise of the Places Dayes and Hours on which the Assembling and Sitting of the Synod shall hold to propose and offer things that shall be in deliberation to take every ones Voice in particular to declare the major part and pronounce the Conclusion Also to take care that every one speaks by Order and not confusedly to impose Silence on such as are contentious and if they will not obey to make them go out to consider of their Sensure and Correction to make Remonstrances and Answers to those which desire Counsel or that send Letters to the Synod Moreover to preside at the Sensures which shall be made at the end of the sitting the whole according to the advice of all the Assembly and no otherwise And he himself also shall be subject to Sensure his Office shall expire at the end of the Synod and it shall be at the choice of the following Synod to Elect him or another The Moderators also of Colloques shall be govern'd after the same manner CONFORMITY The Great Council of Nice in the Sixth Cannon reserves to each Province its Rights and Priviledges that one might not intermeddle in the Affairs of the other nor usurp its Power and Authority To this Establishment may be apply'd the Second and Sixth Cannons of the First Oecumenical Council of Constantinople the VIII of Ephesus the 9 and 17 of Calcedon the 12 and 15 of Antioch the 19 28 and 125 of the African Code with the Letter of the Council of Africa to Pope Cellestin in the same Code in Number 138. St. Cyprian taught almost the same thing about 170 years
Vsher a Letter of Cummin a Priest to the Abbot Seguinus touching the keeping Easter Ep. 11. p. 28. wherein he wrote to him above a 1000 years ago That the Council of Arles composed of 600 Bishops confirm'd in the First Cannon what had been concluded upon for the observing of Easter that is to say that it should be Celebrated all over the World at one time and one day Ado Bishop of Vienna in the Ninth Century writes in the Sixth Age of his Chronicle That in the time that Marin was Bishop of Arles there met a Council of 600 Bishops In the 10th Spicilegium of Dom Luke D' Achery and in the Additions there is to be seen an observation touching Synods which was taken from an Antient Collection writ above 800 years ago wherein mention is made of the Council we speak of Tom 10. p 633. and of the number of 600 Bishops there present and apparently it was in reference to this great number of Prelates Tom. 1. Conc. Gall. p. 105. Tom. 1. Conc. Gall. p. 6. that the Fathers of the Second Council assembled in the same City in the year 542 said in the Eighteenth Cannon That the first was assembled from all parts of the World However it be the Tenth Cannon of the First Council which concerns the business we treat of is expressed in these terms As to young Men that are Believers which surprize their Wifes in Adultery and who are forbidden to marry others It has seem'd good to us that they should be advis'd as much as may be not to marry again during their Wifes life time although Adulteresses I gather two things from this Cannon First Before the holding this Council there were those which prohibited them which left their Wifes for Adultery to marry again Secondly That the Fathers of the Council to the number of 600 amongst which there are Two Priests and Two Deacons of the Church of Rome which held the place of Silvester its Bishop these Prelates having maturely examined the business changed the Prohibition into an Advice which they desired might be followed but no farther than Mans weakness could bear which shews that they did not believe as now a days in the Romish Communion That the Band of Marriage is indissolvable though Adultery should intervene In the year of our Lord 465 there was held a Council at Vannes in Brittany see here its Second Cannon As for those who forsake their Wifes Tom. 1. Gall. p. 138. unless it be in case of Adultery as is expressed in the Gospel and do Marry others without having proved the Adultery we ordain they shall be deprived of the Lords Supper that is to say Excommunicated lest through our remissness Sins unpunished may incline others to licentiousness It appears by this Cannon that when the Adultery was proved it was permitted to conclude another Marriage it was so 't was understood by Father Sirmond on the Letter of Auitus above-mentioned wherein he was followed by his Nephew Mr. De la Lande Treasurer of the Church of St. Framburg of Senlis for in the Supplement of French Councils pag. 349. he explains this Cannon in the same manner as I have explained it and this ought not to be regarded as a private interpretation seeing this Supplement was approved by the Clergy of France assembled at Paris in the years 1655 and 56. The Synod of Agde in Languedoc in the year 506 Tom. 1. Conc. Gall. p. 166. marches in the same steps of that of Vannes in the 25th Cannon which Excommunicate those which put away their Wifes to marry themselves to others before they represent to the Bishops of the Province the causes of their Separation and before their Wifes have been condemn'd that is for Adultery for when they were once convicted Husbands were permitted to Marry others it is what is lawfully inferr'd from this Cannon Theodore Arch-Bishop of Canterbury held a Synod in the year 670 as Beda writes in his Ecclesiastical History of England wherein he made these Cannons relating to Marriage Lib. 4. c. 5. Let no Man forsake his Wife unless it be for Fornication as the Gospel does direct If any one puts away his Wife whom he has lawfully marryed let him not marry another if he will be a good Christian but let him continue as he is or let him be reconcil'd to his own Wife That is If he puts her away for any other cause than for Adultery And it can't be question'd but this is the true meaning of the words of Theodore especially if one considers that in Dom Luke D' Achery's Ninth Spicilegium There are a certain number of Cannons chosen out of all those of the said Theodores the 116th of which formally contains this Decree pag. 62. It is permitted to him whose Wife has committed Adultery to put her away and to take another Gratian attributes this Decree to Pope Zachary who liv'd in the Eighth Century ca. 32. c. 7. Conc. Concnbaiâ—ii You have layn with your Wifes Sister if it be so you cannot have to Wife neither the one nor the other but as for her that was your Wife if she consented not to this crime and that she cannot contain she may marry in the Lord to whom she thinks sit The Antient Copies Manuscripts and Old Editions of Gratian produce this Decree as being Pope Zachary's yet there are Compilers of Decrees which have cited it as having taken it out of the Roman Penitential Binchard lib. 19. c. 5. Enq. but 't is nothing the less considerable seeing 't was the Penitential whereof Zachary was the Compiler The Author of the Gloss explains the last words of the Cannon in this manner Let her marry to whom she will He explains them in adding these others after the Death of her Husband As if a Woman whose Husband was Dead was not in full liberty to re-marry without having any permission for so doing whereas here there is question of a Man convicted of Adultery whereby Marriage is dissolv'd therefore the Woman which is Innocent and has no share in the Husbands Crime she is permitted to re-marry Erasmus on the 7th chap. of the 1. Ep. to the Cor. where he examins the Question Whether Divorce is sometimes permitted amongst Christians Erasmus reproves and condemns the Gloss I but just now cited as being contrary to the words of the Decree and to the intention of Pope Zachary to whom 't is attributed and he does so against the Master of Sentences Lib. 4. dist 34. who had interpreted the Cannon with this addition that is to say after the Death of the Husband The Council of Verberie in Vallois assembled in the year 752 Tom. 2. Conc. Gall. p. 2. made several Decrees the Second whereof is compriz'd in these terms If any one carnally knows his Wifes Daughter he cannot have the Mother nor Daughter and neither she nor him cannot never after marry any others but as for the
that the band of Marriage may be broke by reason of Adultery nevertheless 't is the Doctrine of Jesus Christ who formally declares in the Gospel That 't is only for Adultery that Marriage may be dissolv'd as well to the Bed as the Obligation I know St. Austin and some others have found difficulty in the explication of the Words of our Saviour and that they could not fully resolve to explain them in the manner I just now mention'd at least St. Austin confesses in several places of his Writings That the Question concerning the Dissolving of Marriages for cause of Adultery is very obscure and difficult and is what made him write on this matter things which would seem contradictory if one did not distinguish the times wherein he applied himself to write on this question For it is most certain in what he wrote before the 2d Council of Mileva which was held in the year of our Lord 416. he appear'd unresolv'd and undetermin'd finding great difficulties obstructions almost impassible and depths not easily to be fathomed those that will please to take the pains to see what he writes in the 3d Chapter of his Book against Adimentius in the 7th of the Book touching the Comfort of Marriage in the 8th and 25th Chapters of the 1st Book of Adulterous Marriages that is to say of Marriages dishonoured by Adultery and joyn to these Testimonies which are in the 6th Tome those others which are in the 4th to wit The 19th Chapter of the Book of Faith and Works the last Question of the Book of 83 Questions and the 16th Chapter of the first Book of the Sermon of our Lord on the Mount those I say which will take the pains to read all these places which I have instanc'd will agree to the irresolution and trouble St. Austin was in on the subject now spoke of and especially if they consider the sincere Confession which he makes in one of the places I have cited Having saith he Lib. 1. de Adult Conjug cap 25. Tom. 6. thus Treated and Examin'd these things according to my capacity I am not ignorant that the Question touching Marriages is very obscure and difficult and I do not dare to say that I have yet explained in this Work nor that I am able if you press me to resolve hereafter in any other all the difficulties which accompany it He confesses the same thing Lib. 2. Retract cap. 57. Tom. 1. although in terms a little different in recalling the Books wherein is found the Testimony which justifies what I have alledged of his doubtfulness and declares with his usual humility That he don't think to have given to this Matter all the clearness it requires After this Council of Mileva this Holy Doctor wrote several Treatises wherein he explains himself more fully than he had done in the others for instance In the 19th Chapter of the first Book of Retractaions he saith That 't is out of doubt that one may leave his Wife for the Fornication which is committed in Adultery In his 89th Letter to Hillarius Quest 4. He confesses That by the Laws of Jesus Christ Tom. 2. it is not permitted to leave one's Wife but for the cause of Adultery and that Jesus Christ forbid to put her away for any other Cause but for Adultery And in the 9th Treatise upon St. John It is permitted to put away the Wife for the cause of Adultery Tom. 9. because she has first refused to be a Wife in not keeping her vow of Wedlock to her Husband To judge of the mind of St. Austin by these latter Testimonies which are more formal and positive than the former it may be concluded That he believed having well examin'd the matter that the band of Marriage was broke by Adultery Nevertheless because that in the other writings he could not satisfy himself nor clear all their difficulties wherewith this question seem'd to be always incumbred I would not make use of His Authority for Establishing the Conformity of our Discipline with that of the Primitive Christians This Council of Mileva above-mention'd forbids in the 17th of its Canons which is the 102. in the African Code it forbids him that is repudiated by his Wife and to the Woman put off by the Husband to re-marry themselves to any one else and enjoyns them to live single or to be reconcil'd again threatning to put them into the number of Penitents if they disobey this Decree which the Fathers of the Synod pretend to be conformable to the Evangelical and Apostolical Discipline But in the first place they do not declare whether they speak of a separation occasion'd by Adultery or by some other cause for the which Jesus Christ don't permit of Separation Secondly The Conduct of St. Austin who assisted at this Council makes me suppose that either the Fathers of Mileva spake of Divorces besides for the Cause of Adultery or at least if they regarded Divorces grounded upon Adultery St. Austin did not forbear Writing after the Convocation of this Assembly That 't is permitted to put away the Wife for the matter of Adultery Thirdly When the Council it self with some other Doctors should more fully explain themselves and that they should have formally condemn'd the second Marriage of those which had been put away for Adultery it would not from thence follow that I have not made appear that our Discipline does not suffer in this occasion only what the Ancient Christian Discipline of the Church suffered seeing I have proved it by the Canons of divers Councils by the Decrees of some Popes in their Synods and by the practice of all the Greek Church a practice which the Council of Trent dared not to condemn after the Remonstrances made by the Ambassador of Venice And yet farther It is what a famous Doctor of the Communion of Rome has fully justified without thinking of us nor the innocency of our Conduct on the point in Controversy in a Book which he published two or three years ago touching the power of Kings and Sovereigns over Marriages for in the 3d Part Art 1. Chap. 5. he hath at large represented to the Reader the Tradition of the Church on the matter of Marriages occasion'd by Adultery whereas I have contented my self to relate in my Work what is most definitive in the Tradition and least of all subject to Controversy and Contestation Whatever's the matter after so many explanations there is hope to believe That Men will not for the future cry so much against this Article of our Discipline which has given occasion to our Enemies to accuse us of favouring Vice and Libertinisme I could if it were needful mention other Cavils of some lesser Disputers against the Holiness of our Ecclesiastical Laws which they have spoke very injuriously of as if they were directly contrary to the Rules of the first Christians and as if those which made them had taken pleasure quite to forsake its use and
usual Sermons Those who have received the gift of Writing shall be chosen by the Provinces and if it happens any Book be Publish'd against the Orthodox Religion it shall be sent to them that they may answer it a Colloque being deputed in each Province to inspect what shall be Writ and Publish'd to dispose of the Copies as shall be thought fit CONFORMITY There was never greater Liberty of Writing than in the first Ages of the Church at which time every body writ in the manner which he thought best and most convenient without being obliged to communicate his Works to any to be Examin'd for their Approbation nevertheless seeing there has been at all times amongst Christians some Bishops and Pastors fitter for this purpose than others such were for the most part employ'd for the defence of the Truth against Schismaticks and Hereticks It was for this Cause that the Book of Phaebadius or Phaegadius Bishop of Agen in Guien written against the Arrians of the East and West holds the Degree of the Epistle of a Council of Vaison of the Year 358. P. 3. Paris 1666. and bears the Name in the Supplement of the Councils of France St. Austin even to his Death was the Pen of Africa against the Enemies of the Church particularly against the Donatists and Pelagians and St. Fulgentius in the following Age succeeded him in a manner in the same Office especially during the time that above Sixty African Bishops of which Number he was one was Exil'd into the Isle of Sardegnia for although he was the youngest of them all the Author of his Life does observe that he was the Mouth and Spirit And it may yet be said of these two famous Writers That they exactly observed the Modesty Sobriety and Decorum prescribed by our Discipline to all those who put Pen to Paper for the Defence and Vindication of Truth Examples which should be carefully imitated and in the mean time condemn the rashness of Agobard Bishop of Lyons who Writing in the 9th Century against Amalarius Fortunatus cruelly rails against him and much more that of Lucifer Bishop of Caillari against the Emperor Constantius in the Library of the Fathers Tom. 9. of the Edition of Paris 1644. XVI Ministers should not pretend Precedency one over the other CONFORMITY S. Jerom informs us in in his Commentaries upon the Epistle to Titus and in his Letter to Evagrius That at the beginning of Christianity the Churches were Govern'd by the joynt advice of the Priests or Elders and this form of Government lasted until that by the instinct of the Devil there arose Parties in Religion saith the same St. Jerom for then recourse must be had to Election so that to avoid Schisms and Divisions one of the Company was chose to whom Election gave the precedency to all the rest whereas before it was the time of promotion as is testified by the Deacon Hillary in his Commentaries upon the 4th Chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians amongst the Works of St. Ambrose for he saith That at first the Priests were called Bishops and that the one being Dead the other Succeeded that is to say That it was granted to the Ancientest Priest in promotion to bear the first rank or place this primacy being a primacy of Order and not of Power and Authority over others the only primacy forbidden by our Discipline in effect the first admitted held the first place in the Pesbytery just as the Dean amongst Councellors of Parliament or as the Dean of Prebends in a Chapter From hence it is also that after the Establishing of the Hierarchy in the Church Equality was still observed amongst the Clergy except 't was in the Power of Metropolitans over the Bishops of their Provinces and also it was a very limitted Power seeing it consisted only in the right of calling the Synods of their Provinces to preside and to take notice of all Ecclesiastical matters which passed in the compass of their District only but could not decide nor determin without the consent of their Suffragans after the manner of speaking at this time As for all the rest they had no kind of prerogative but the Order according to the time of their Reception the which is punctually observ'd amongst us and accordingly St. Austin finds it strange that in the Letter which the Primate of Numidia writ to his Brother Bishops to Assemble them in a Synod I say he thinks it strange to see himself named the third in it knowing that there were several others before him which saith he is injurious to others and exposes me to envy Ep. 207 To. 2. And in the Life of St. Fulgentius Bishop of Rusp in Africa which the Jesuit Chifflet caus'd to be Printed at Dijon An. Dom. 1649. with the Works of the Deacon Forran it is observed Chap. 20. That in the Assemblies of Exil'd Bishops in Sardignia he was seated lowest of all although he was the most considerable in Worth and Value because he had been last of all Ordain'd to be Bishop Tom. 4. Conc. p. 422. The 86th Canon of the African Code so appoints it the 24th of the first Council of Prague in the Year 563. Ordains the same thing as also the 3d of the 4th Council of Toledo in the Year 633. and the 112th Letter of Gregory I. his 7th Book to which we may add the 6th Letter of Hincmar Chap. 16. in the 16th Tome of the Library of the Fathers Ibid. p. 581. Page 408. It is the Reason that in Africa one was enjoyn'd to observe the precise day of Promotion and the Consulat African Code Can. 89. which is the 14th of Mileva Theodore Archbishop of Canterbury held a Synod Anno 679. the 8th Canon whereof is conceiv'd in these terms Apud Bedan Hist l. 4. c. 5. Let no Bishop prefer himself before another through ambition but let every one know the Time and Order of their Ordination XVII Ministers shall preside in Order in their Consistories to the end that none might pretend superiority over each other and none of them shall give testimony of any matter of importance until they have first communicated it to the Ministers his Brethren and Companions CONFORMITY This Article is only a continuance of the former for if there is to be an Equality amongst Ministers so that they cannot pretend superiority one above the other it is just that when there are several in one Church that they should preside every one in his Turn and Rank in the Consistory and that none of them should do any thing of his own head without taking along the advice of his Brethren and even of all those who have share in the conduct of the Flock especially when there is question of any thing of importance XVIII Heed shall be taken to avoid the Custom practis'd in some places of deputing certain Ministers by the Provincial Synods to visit Churches the Order hitherto used being sufficient to have cognisance
there was need of establishing this sort of Government I have spoke of and of which the Holy Pen-men have not mentioned the time of its settlement because it may be they had no particular occasion of doing it as St. Luke had of writing the History of the Institution of Deacons which probably might also have been unknown to us if the murmuring of the Greeks against the Jews because their Widows were neglected at the ordinary Service had not oblig'd him to transmit it in writing However it be That it may not be imagin'd I only insist on meer conjectures and conjectures utterly destitute of the Authority of Tradition I 'll produce the formal Testimony of Hillary Deacon of Rome a Writer of the 4th Century who speaks in this manner In 1 Tim. 5. 1 2. apud Ambrose Tom. 3. p. 582. The Synogogue and the Church afterwards had Elders without whose advice nothing was done in the Church and I can't tell by what negligence the same has been abolish'd if it be not probably by the slothfulness of Doctors or rather through their Pride to make it be believ'd they are some-bodies It appears plainly by these words of the Deacon Hillary That the Church had her Elders as well as the Synogogue and that very early she began to make use of them when he began to write his Commentaries on St. Paul's Epistles for he complains of the abolishing this holy Custom which in all likelihood held a considerable time after its first institution and in the very place it self where it was extinct by the negligence and malice of vain and ambitious Men which doth justify as I take it what I have said of its Antiquity that is to say That the first establishing of it was by the Apostles or at least by their immediate Successors if it were so that we could not find the Footsteps in the Monuments of Ecclesiastical Writers that immediately followed the Age of the Apostles Nevertheless who knows but Claudius Ephebius Valerius Biton and Fortunatus which St. Clement Disciple of the Apostles sent to the Church of Corinth with the Excellent Letter which he wrote to appease the troubles wherewith it was agitated who I say can tell but they were of those Elders whose original Institution we seek for for he says nothing at all which may induce us to think they were either Pastors or Deacons Moreover in the third Century Firmillian Bishop of Caesaria in Cappadocia and one of the most celebrated Prelates of his time makes mention of Elders which he joyns with Pastors for the treating of affairs which concerned the good and edification of the Churches Seniores Praepositi Apud Cypri pag. 144. Optat. l. 1. p. 41. Par. 1631. We meet together saith he every year Elders and Ministers to settle and order matters committed to our care and with common consent to treat of the weightiest and most important affairs About fifty years after Mensurius Bishop of Carthage having received orders to follow the Emperor's Court he committed to the trust of certain Elders saith Optatus of Milvetan several Ornaments of Gold and Silver which appertained to the Church But afterwards he made a Note of them which he gave to an old Woman with orders to give it to his Successor if it hapned that he died in his Journey as it fell out he did so that Cecilian having been Established in the place of Mensurius the Woman failed not to give him the Note she had by vertue of which he called for those Elders to whom Mensurius had committed this trust in the belief he had that they were good honest men but these perfidious persons willing to satisfie their own covetous desires converted the Gold and Silver to their own private uses Cecillian was frustrated of his expectation and as he was going about to compel them they rent from the Communion of the Church a good part of the People and began the Schism of the Donatists which prov'd so destructive to the Churches of Africa And what invincibly proves they were Lay-Elders like ours is that Optatus expresly distinguishes them from Botrus and Celesius which were of the Clergy of the Church of Carthage and who not attaining to the Degree of Bishops to which their ambition made them aspire they herded with these corrupt Elders together with Lucilla a factious and powerful Woman who of a long time endeavoured the ruin of Cecilian See here already sufficient Arguments of the truth of the matter we examine nevertheless because many do imagin that our practise in regard of Elders is new and unknown to the ancient Church it will not be amiss to insist a little longer on this subject and to alledg farther proofs the better to establish the Antiquity of the practise which we defend I 'le begin with the Acts of Justification of Cecilian and of Foelix of Aptonge his Ordainer which are at the end of Monsieur de Laubespine Bishop of Orleans his Notes on Optatus Bishop of Mileva in Numidia In these Acts which are ancienter than the Council of Nice there are several things which directly regard our Subject as what is said on occasion of Money given by Lucilla a Woman of Quality to have made Majorinus Bishop Pag. 268. That all the Bishops the Priests the Deacons and the Elders had knowledg of it And some lines after a Bishop called Purpurius writes to Silvanus Bishop of Cirthe who was accused of several things To employ those of his Clergy and the Elders of the People which are Ecclesiastical persons to the end they might give an account of the nature of these dissentions and in the following page there is mention made of a Letter writ to the Clergy and to the Elders and six pages after one Maximus saith Pag. 276. Inst I speak in the name of the Elders and Christian People of the Catholick Law St. Tom. 7. Pag. 191. c. 56. Tom. 2. p. 250. Austin in his third Book against Cresconius speaks of a stranger Priest and the Elders of the Church of the Country of Mâ—slitan The Title of his 137th Letter is conceiv'd in these terms To my beloved Brethren the Clergy thâ— Elders and all the People of the Church of Bonne Tom 8. in Psal 36. Conc. 2. p. 119. Extr. or Hippone whom I serve in the Love of Jesus Christ There is in this same Father's Sermons on the Psalms a Synodal Letter of the Cabarsussitan Council which speaking of Primian the Donatist saith He was given to be Bishop to the People of Carthage according to the request made of the Elders of the Church by Letters And in the next Page there is again mention made of Letters and Deputies of the Elders of the Church In the Nineteenth Sermon on the words of our Lord which is the third in the Appendix of the 10th Tome he makes appear wherein consisted one part of the Duty of their Employments The 100th Canon of the African Code attributed
it in due form and with the leave of the Churches which called them to this Employment VIII Neither Deacons nor Elders can expect Superiority or Dominion one over another whether it be in being nominated to the People or in taking place or giving their judgment or any thing else relating to their office CONFORMITY If Ministers cannot pretend precedency one of another as we have fully shewed on Art 16. of Chap. 1. It would not be reasonable that Elders and Deacons should pretend any Soveraignty over their Companions and Equals IX The Elders and Deacons shall be deposed for the same causes as the Ministers of the Word of God in their degree It being condemned by the Consistory if they appeal they shall remain suspended from their Offices until things are determined by a Provincial Colloque or Synod CONFORMITY The Deacons and Elders making up with the Ministers one Body that is to say one Consistory and sharing with them the care of conducting the Flocks it is just they should be punished with the same pains as the Ministers when they commit the same Offences whereof we have treated at large on Articles the 47. and 49. of Chap. 1. to which I refer the Reader X. The restitution of Deacons and Elders which have been deposed shall not be done but in the same manner as the restoring of deposed Ministers is done CONFORMITY This Article is a necessary consequence of the former for if the Elders and Deacons are deposed for the same reasons as Ministers it is evident that the restitution ought to be made in the same manner Read what has been said on the 35. Art of Chap. 1. CHAP. IV. Of the Deaconry that is to say of Administring the Poor's Money by the Deacons ARTICLE I. THE Money for the Poor shall not be given out by any but by the Deacons by the Advice and Order of the Consistory CONFORMITY What I have said on the 4th Article of the 3d Chapter sufficeth for the explaining of this and to establish the Conformity of our Discipline with that of the Ancient Churches to which may be added the Order given by Pope Gregory I. to Anthemius his Sub-Deacon That he should take care of the Poor of those places whither he sent him II. In the common Distributions 't is requisite one or two Ministers should be present if it may be conveniently but especially at passing the Accounts CONFORMITY Although I might refer the Reader for the Explication of this Article where I did for the former nevertheless I will add to what I have said some Rules which are not incoherent to the Subject we Examine for Example the 7th and 8th Canons of the Council of Gangres assembled in the Year of our Lord 325. as is commonly said but 't was later where 't is forbid to dispose of the Church-Revenue without the consent of the Bishop or of him he has appointed to distribute these Alms. The 24th and 25th Canons of the Synod of Antioch Anno Dom. 341. Tom. 2. Conc. Gall. c. 47. p. 146. Orders the Bishop to make this distribution by advice of the Priests and Deacons Charlemain's Capitulary in the year 789. renews the prohibition of the Council of Gangres III. The People shall have notice of Passing the Accounts that so every one that please may be there present as well to discharge those who disburse the Money as to make known to every body the Necessities of the Church and the Poor thereby the more to incourage people to contribute towards their relief CONFORMITY St. Austin practis'd something of this kind as our Discipline doth here prescribe for when the Church-stock fail'd he gave notice to the Christian People that he had not wherewithal to supply the wants of the Poor which in all likelihood he would not have done if on the other hand he had not given them an account how he had dispos'd of their Charity and of the Money committed to his trust Aug. Tom. 1. p. 13. and which he consign'd over to the management of Persons as he deem'd fit for the purpose as is related at large by Possidonius in the 24th Chapter of his Life IV. To prevent the Inconveniences which dayly happen by Attestations given to the Poor every Church shall use their utmost endeavour to maintain their own Poor and in case any one for his necessary Affairs was forc'd to Travel Ministers shall in their Consistories Examine if the Cause be just and in that case shall give them recommendatory Letters to the next Church in the direct way from the place whither they go expressing the Name Age Stature Complexion the Place whither they go the cause of their Journey and the Assistance which has been given them and the date of the Day and Year shall not be omitted Which Letters the Churches shall keep to whom they were directed and shall give them others to the next Church And all Attestations before granted shall be Void and Null CONFORMITY It cannot be denied but great abuses are committed and that at all times there has been abuses committed in the Church upon account of Attestations and Testimonies granted to those of the same Communion which desire to go from one place to another to the end they might be known to be Members of the same Church and to be assisted in case of necessity The Primitive Christians endeavour'd to remedy these inconveniencies two ways The first By ordering that each Church should maintain their own Poor The second In using a great deal of caution in granting these Attestations which is exactly the two things prescrib'd by our Discipline As to the former of these two Means Can. 85 101. Tom. 1. Concil p. 730. the 4th Council of Carthage in the Year 398. declares That the Poor and Ancient people of the Church ought to be more assisted than any others and that young Widows who are weak of Body should be maintain'd at the charge of the Church to which they belong In the 2d Council of Tours assembled An. Dom. 567. the 5th Canon's Title is That each City shall maintain its Poor and runs in these terms That each City doth furnish according to its ability Provisions sufficient to all those of its Inhabitants which are poor and incommoded and that as well the Curates of Villages Tom. 1. Conc. Gall. p. 332. as all the Farmers which dwell there do each nourish their own Poor to the end they may not stray and wander about to other Towns In the 3d Council of the same place assembled in the Year 813. there are several directions in this matter for the Fathers command in the 11.16 36. Canons Tom. 2. Conc. Gal. pag. 297 298 302. That Bishops shall be permitted to take out of the Church stores according to the Canonical Rules in presence of the Priests and Deacons what shall be necessary to maintain the Family and Poor of the Church That the Tythes which shall be given to particular Churches
we Examine That of Charanton I say in the year 1623. enjoins Exactly to Examine as well the Attestations as those which have them to have from their own mouth testimony of their Religion and Instruction As for the Order our Discipline prescribes to give and renew from Church to Church the Recommendatory Letters it is the same in substance of that establish'd by the Synod of Sardis An. Dom. 347. in the 8 9 10 and 11. Canons and particularly in the last where it appoints Bishops which are on the way to Examine these Letters of Recommendation and to ask of those which have them the Cause and Reason of their Travelling or to subscribe their Letters if they are just and to refuse them Communion if they have fraudulently got them CHAP. V. Of CONSISTORIES ARTICLE I. IN each Church there shall be a Consistory compos'd of persons which shall have the conduct of it to wit of Pastors and Elders and the Ministers in this company are to preside as also in all other Ecclesiastical Assemblies CONFORMITY From the very first Establishing of Christian Churches there was in each of them a certain number of Persons to whom the Government of it was committed and who were distinguish'd from the rest of the People by the Offices which they Exercis'd and by the choice which had been made of them for supervising the whole Flock and 't is what we call Consistory Origen calls it the Ecclesiastical Senate and makes it parallel with the Politick Senate of each City to shew that the Ecclesiastical Senate very much surpasses the other being compos'd of Persons of more virtue and knowledg than those which are Members of Politick Senates in Cities The Ecclesiastical Senate or Consistory is compos'd amongst us of Ministers and Elders and it ought not to be thought strange that we joyn Elders with the Ministers after all we have said on the 3d Chapter particularly on the 1st Article where we have at large prov'd that the Elders have had share for several Centuries in the Government of the Churches and that they in all likelihood would have still continued if the ambition of Bishops and their Clergy had not insensibly abolish'd this laudable practise The Deacon Hillary as has been shewn complained of it in his time But altho' the Elders partake with the Ministers in Governing the Flocks yet the right of precedency appertains to the Ministers therefore in these testimonies we have alledged to prove that the Church has had great advantage in the first Ages of Lay-Elders like ours they are for the most part named after the Clergy II. As for Deacons seeing the Churches for the necessity of the times hath to this day happily employed them in Governing the Church as Exercising also the Office of Elders those which hereafter shall chuse such or continue them they shall with the Pastors and Elders bear a part in the Governing the Church and therefore shall frequently be with them in the Consistory yea even at the Colloques and Synods if they are thither sent by the Consistories CONFORMITY The care of the Poor making one of the most considerable parts of the Church-Government it is with great reason we therein admit the Deacons because they were properly instituted to attend on this thing as has been above proved at large III. In places where the Exercise of Religion is not setled Christians shall be exhorted by the Colloques to have Elders and Deacons and to follow the Ecclesiastical Discipline and at the said Colloques they shall be inform'd to what Church to joyn themselves for their convenience and exercise of their Ministry from whence also they may not depart without communicating it also to the said Colloques CONFORMITY In the places where there is no publick exercise of our Religion although there are a considerable number of Families which profess it care must be taken they do not live without Discipline and to this purpose there must be Establish'd amongst them Deacons and Elders to take care of the Poor and to watch over the Life and Conversation of private persons whereof they shall give account at the Church-Consistory to the which they shall be joyn'd for the publick Exercises of Piety and the Service of God and there 's no question to be made but something of this Nature was done in the Primitive Church Apolog. p. 98. for instance in the days of St. Justin Martyr that they Assembled from the Country and Cities unto one place which sheweth plainly these Assemblies were not made every where although according to all appearance there was in all places one and the same Order for the conduct of Christians to the end they should do nothing unworthy the holiness of their Profession IV. There shall be but one Consistory in each Church and it shall not be permitted to Establish other Council for any Church-business whatever If in any Church there shall any other Council be established different from the Consistory it shall forthwith be suppress'd Nevertheless the Consistory can sometimes call to its aid such of the Church as shall be thought convenient when occasion requires and that Ecclesiastical matters be treated of only in the place where the Consistory doth Assemble CONFORMITY There was not anciently in each Christian Church any more than one Ecclesiastical Senate as we have heard by Origen and this Senate was not properly any thing else but what we call Consistory which is a company of Persons which the Church does invest with her Rights and Power to Govern the Flock V. It is in the Power of the Consistory to admit of Father and Son or of two Brothers in the same Consistory unless there was some other reason to the contrary of which the Colloque or Provincial Synod shall take cognizance CONFORMITY The Church being the Spouse of Jesus Christ and by consequence the Mistress of all the Power and of all the Ecclesiastical Authority which resides in Her as in its Fountain and in the Consistories as in Societies which she establishes for the use and exercise of this Power She may then have authoris'd the Ecclesiastical Senate and the Consistory to admit into its Body the Father and Son or two Brothers provided they are agreeable to the Church which has in general given this Power to the Consistory VI. It is also refer'd to the discretion of Consistories to call unto them young Students although they have no Office in the Church but not without weighty causes and considerations and when their Wisdom is known the said Students shall be there present not to have any voice in what Affairs shall be debated but that by their presence there they may the sooner become fit and proper to Govern the Church when it shall please God lawfully to call them thereunto Nevertheless it shall be at the Pastor's free choice to demand their Judgment to make tryal of their abilities which shall be done with great prudence and caution and promise not to make
be injustice to refuse it to the Christian Church seeing also Jesus Christ her Head and Spouse has commanded us in his Gospel to look on him that refuses to hear the Church as a Pagan and Heathen that is to say Matt. 18.17 he will that he be cast out of the Church or that he be Excommunicated which amounts all to one thing St. Paul has expressed this action by delivering over to Satan 1 Cor. 5.5 1 Tim. 1.20 unless one will say that there was something more in St. Paul's Excommunication than in that designed by Jesus Christ in the Gospel However it be the Governours of Churches strengthned by the command of the Lord Jesus and by the Example of his Apostles have always Exercised this Ecclesiastical power against enormous and scandalous sins Tertullian and Origen have shewn on the fifteenth Article That it was the practise of their times which is also verified by the places I have cited out of the same Origen on the precedent Article and by another of Tertullian's who writes in his Book of Pudicity Chap 4. that these sinners should be driven away from the Inclosure of the Church and the place of the Assembly and this was the great and true Excommunication whereas the other was only a privation from the Sacraments To these two Witnesses we may joyn St. Cyprian Contemporary with Origen who very often in his Epistles makes mention of this Censure Ep. 28.38 55 62 of the last Edit when he speaks of removing from the Communion of not Communicating with some one to banish and to cast out of the Church to condemn by the mouth of the Pastor to kill with the Spiritual Sword And other Expressions he uses to declare the same thing The tenth of the Canons attributed to the Apostles does not suffer us to be ignorant of this ancient Discipline Seeing he Excommunicates him that prays with an Excommunicated person in the House only I 'le inlarge no farther seeing one must make a Volume if one would collect all the Canons and Testimonies of the Fathers which treat of Excommunication and more also should one treat of the History of Interdiction which Popes to render their Power more formidable have sent abroad in these last Ages contrary to the use and practise of the Primitive Church to which they were utterly unknown As for the Order which is to be followed according to our Discipline before debarring a sinner from the Communion of the Church besides that it is grounded on the Laws and Precepts of Charity it is also conformaable to the practise of the Primitive Christians Hom. in Jos Tom. 1. p. 185. who by Origen's report reproved and warned the guilty three several times before they came to this last Extremity Thence it is also the same method was observed when there was any mention of deposing an Ecclesiastical Person because in sundry occasions the same faults which deserved Deposition of a Church-man was punished with Excommunication in a Secular as appears by divers Canons particularly by the sixth and seventh of the first Oecumenical Council of Ephesus where we find these words If they are Bishops See the Can. 8 17. of the Counc of Calced or others of the Clergy which are deposed the Bishops from Episcopacy the others from the degree they-held in the Clergy from whence they are quite excluded but if they are Lay persons let them be Excommunicated And we have made appear on the 49th Artic. of Chap. 1. that a Bishop was cited three times or any other Ecclesiastical person before proceeding to his deposing I don't insist on the form of Excommunication repeated after the Article on which I have made the necessary remarks because 't is in the liberty of the Church in such like occasions to make use of what terms it shall judge most fitting provided that in the main it don't depart from the bounds which the Gospel does prescribe nor from the Example of the Holy Apostles Neither do we see that in the Primitive Church they were confined to the use of a sorm of words when any one was Excommunicated those which condemned Sinners to that punishment having been always Masters of the form and manner of Excommunication which is always the same in substance what variety soever there may be in the form wherein it is conceived XVII For the future all Sentences of Excommunication confirmed by the Provincial Synod shall continue firm as also all Sentences of Suspension from the Lords Supper given by the Consistory the which not being published to the People shall hold good altho the party suspended appealed to the Colloque or Provincial Synod CONFORMITY There 's nothing in this Article but what is very conformable to the ancient Discipline according to which each Church had power to inflict throughout the whole extent of its Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction the necessary punishments and Censures against all sorts of offences so that when a Bishop had Excommunicated any one none but the Synod of the Province could take off the Excommunication as there was none but the Synod of the whole Diocess which comprehended several Provinces which could reverse the Sentence of a Provincial Synod Therefore 't is that the Sixth Canon of the first Oecumenical Council of Constantinople the 9. and 17. of that of Chalcedon suffers to appeal from the Bishop to the Provincial Synod and from the Provincial to that of the whole Diocess of which we have a resemblance in our National Synods XIX Those which have deserted the profession of the True Religion to embrace Idolatry if they persist in this Apostacy after means used to return them to the flock they shall publickly be declared Apostates to wit those who lately shall turn to be such unless the Consistory shall think such a publication to cause some notable damage and prejudice to the Church in which case nothing shall be done but by advice of the Provincial Synod As for those which of a long time shall be revolted the execution of this publication is refer'd to the discretion of Consistories CONFORMITY In the Primitive Church Idolatry and Apostacy were in several places excluded from pardon and absolution Tom. 1. Conc. p. 232 236. Tom. 1. Conc. Gall. p. 8. during the two first Centuries of Christianity as is made appear by the first and 46. Canons of the Council of Eliberi assembled Anno Dom. 305. and by the last of the first Council of Arles in the year 314 but it also appears by these same Canons that bare Apostacy was not without hope of being pardoned by the Church but only when it was accompanied with Idolatry which the ancient Christians looked upon as the blackest of all crimes Paran ad Poen Tom. 3. Bib. Pat. pag. 71. and the most heinous of all sins But the great Council of Nice removed this difference in the 11th Canon and made them all hope to find absolution in a certain time as well Idolaters as meer Apostates
confer with the Ministers and Elders if they have not been sufficiently instructed And in case the gainsaying Brethren refuse to make the said promises they shall be censur'd as Rebels according to the Discipline and the Colloque being assembled shall proceed as above And if the said Opposers have been patiently heard and refuted by consent the whole shall be Registred if not the Provincial Synod shall be desir'd to meet extraordinarily if need require at the time and place that the said Colloque shall judge most convenient after the Promise as above-mention'd reiterated by the said Opposers The Synod assembled shall first of all consider with good deliberation and consideration of the Matter the Places the Time and Persons whether it shall be expedient that the Conference with the said Opposers be made in presence of the People the Doors shut or open and that Audience be given to any of the Parties present that would speak or not and that in all Cases the decision should belong to others than to those called in the Province and the whole according to the Order contain'd in the Discipline And that then if the said gain-sayers will not obey they shall make the same Promise as above and shall be transmitted over to the National Synod ordinarily or if necessity require extraordinarily assembled the which shall hear them with all Holy Liberty and there the intire and final resolution shall be made by the Word of God to which if they refuse to acquiesce from Point to Point and with express dislike of their Errors Registred they shall be cut off from the Church CONFORMITY This Article shall be Explain'd in what I shall observe on that which follows XXXII A Pastor or Elder breaking the Vnity of the Church or stirring up contention about some Point of Doctrine or of Discipline which he has subscribed or of the form of Catechism or Administring the Sacraments or publick Prayers or Marriages refusing to obey what the Colloque has determin'd shall then be suspended from his Office to be farther proceeded against at the Provincial or National Synod CONFORMITY A Council of Africa Ep. 71. p. 121. ult Edit in the time of St. Cyprian Deposed those of the Clergy which by their Rebellions disturb'd the Concord and Unity of the Church St. Basil in his 1st Canon of his 1st Canonical Epistle to Amphilochius prescribes after what manner one should act not only against true Schismaticks but likewise against all those which stir up Divisions in the Church and which also make Conventicles and Assemblies apart He speaks in the same place of Hereticks and as these are three sorts of Persons very different one from another this Doctor doth also adjudge diversity of Punishments But besides what I have now remark'd we have also several Canons of Ancient Councils which do favour the Order of our Discipline the 6th of the 1st Universal Council of Constantinople is against those which endeavour to confound and overthrow the Ecclesiastical Order The VII first of the 1st of Ephesus which is the 3d Oecumenical were compos'd against all such of the Clergy as well as People which should depart from the Decrees of the Council and that should adhere to Revolt or Apostatize The 18th of Chalcedon forbids all sorts of Fraternities and Combinations against the Church observing That seeing this Crime is forbid by the Civil Laws that it ought much more to be defended in the Church It is for this Cause ought to be cited the 21st Canon of the 3d Council of Orleans in the year 538. Tom. 1. Conc Gal. p. 254. Ib. p. 480. and the second Decree made by the Synod of Rheims in the year of our Lord 630. XXXIII In each Church there shall Memorials be made of all remarkable things in Matters of Religion and a Minister shall be deputed to each Colloque to receive and carry them to the Provincial and from thence to the National Synod CONFORMITY Pope Fabian who finished his Days by a Glorious Martyrdom for the Cause of Jesus Christ during the Persecution of Decius about the year of Christ 250. Pope Fabian Tom. 1. Coâ—il p. 113â— I say Established persons to Collect the Acts of Martyrs as is to be seen in the Pontifical Book commonly attributed to Damasus and it may truly be said this was the principal subject our Discipline aimed at in the Article which we Examine as appears by this Establishment of the National Synod of Privas in the year 1612. The Provinces shall be exhorted carefully to recollect the Histories of Pastors and other Believers which in these last times have suffer'd for the Truth of the Son of God and such Memoirs shall be sent to Geneva to be made publick In the same Pontifical of Damasus Ubi supra p. 30. which I but now spoke of it is observ'd That St. Clement Disciple of the Apostles had a long time before Fabian divided the seven quarters of the City of Rome to seven faithful persons of the Church that each might exactly enquire in his District the Acts of Martyrs in the number of which he was put himself Ib. p. 110. about the year our Lord 100. Pope Anterus Predecessor to Fabian did near-hand the same as was done by Clement But if that was done in the Church of Rome it was also practised in divers others St. Cyprian testifies it was practised by that of Africa in his 37th Epistle where he ordains That the Day of the Death of Martyrs should be taken account of to the end to celebrate their Memory It is in this regard Tertullian speaks De Coron c. 13. des Fastes of the Feasts of the Church and the Letter of the Church of Smyrna touching the Martyrdom of St. Pollycarp gives us also a proof of the thing now in question and which ought to be looked upon as the Original of what we call Martyrologies which comprehend not the Martyrs of one Church only but generally of all as can be discover'd in which 't is thought Eusebius first laboured CHAP. VI. Of the Union of Churches ARTICLE I. NO Church can pretend Precedencie nor Domination over another nor one Province over another CONFORMITY Let the Reader see what I have said already on the Sixteen and Eighteen Articles of the first Chap. where he will find this Article Established and its conformity to the ancient Cannons II. No Church can transact any matter of great consequence wherein the Interest or Dammage of other Churches may be concern'd without the advice of the Provincial Synod if it be possible to assemble it and if the matter be pressing it shall communicate and have the advice of the other Churches of the Provinces at least by Letters CONFORMITY This Second Article is also very conformable to the Antient Discipline according to which the Affairs of each Province were administred by the Provincial Synods it is partly the Subject of the Second Cannon of the First Oecumenical Council of Constantinople
Fasts an order which we exactly follow and which is grounded in that Jesus Christ nor his Apostles have not prescrib'd in any place of the New Testament on what dayes one should or should not fast as St. Austin has observ'd in his 86 Epistle to Casulanus IV. Those Churches which have been accustom'd to make publick Prayers on certain dayes may keep the order they have for a long time happily used and others may conform thereunto according to the means which God shall please hereafter to give them and as their Edification shall require CONFORMITY This Article has no other Scope but to establish an intire Conformity in the Churches as to what regards the Exercises of Piety and Religion can 27. Tom. 1. conc Gal. p. 199. near hand as when the Council of Epaume in the year 517. ordain'd that in the out Provinces for celebration of Divine Offices the same Order should be observ'd as is by the Metropolitan the same thing was concluded the same year in Spain in the 1 Council of the Synod of Gironda can 55. To. 3. conc pag. 806 and Anno 633 in the 2 Cannon of the 4 of Tolledo To. 4. conc pag. 582. and in the year 465 a Council of Vannes had appointed that throughout the whole Province the same Order and Rule for Divine Offices and for singing of Psalms should be observ'd V. There shall no Prayer or Sermon nor publick Alms be given at Burials to shun Superstitions and those which accompany the Corps shall be exhorted to behave themselves with modesty during the time meditating according to the object before their Eyes as well the miseries and shortness of this life as the happiness of the life to come CONFORMITY All pretence towards superstition whereunto Men are too apt to incline is in this Article endeavour'd to be avoided VI. Because Mourning don 't consist in Apparel but in the Heart Believers shall be warned to demean them therein with all Modesty rejecting all Ambition Hypocrisie Vanity and Superstition CONFORMITY This last Article prescribes Modesty and excludes Hycoprisie and Ambition which were generously opposed by the Primitive Christians CHAP. XI Of BAPTISME ARTICLE I. BAptism administred by one that has no Vocation is absolutely Void CONFORMITY The Author of Apostolical Constitutions contents not himself to forbid Women to Baptise he also prohibits all Lay Persons because they are not called to it in effect having employ'd the Ninth Chapter of the Third Book to shew that Women should not Baptise he thus begins the Tenth Neither do we suffer a Lay Person to Exercise any Priestly Function as to offer Sacrifice that is to say to celebrate the Sacrament or to Baptise or impose hands or to give the Benediction whether more or less for none takes to him this honor but he enjoys it which is called of God St. Basil was of no other Mind as the Jesuit Petau confesses in his Notes upon St. Epiphanius where he says St. Basil seems to have believed that Baptism conferr'd by Lay persons was Null and to speak the Truth this Holy Doctor speaking of the Opinion of St. Cyprian of Firmilian Pag. 351. and others which taught that all those ought to be Re-Baptis'd which had been Baptis'd by Hereticks he saith Epist ad Ampluit can 1. To. 3. p. 21. That they had appointed they should be purisied anew by the true Baptism of the Church no more nor less then if they had been Baptis'd by Lay Persons St. Basil would not have spoke after this Manner had he not been perswaded that Baptism administred by Lay Men is not true Baptism As for Baptism administred by a Woman cap. 17. p. 231. Tertullian had before condemn'd it in his time in his Treatise of Baptism and had shewn that they were not permitted to teach nor to Baptise St. Epiphanius in the Heresie of the Collyridians which is the 79 in order inlarges much in proving the same thing to stop the rashness of Women who would undertake to Baptise pag. 1059 1060. observing also that the Holy Virgin had not this power for if she had it Jesus Christ might have been Baptis'd by her rather than by John Baptist The fourth Council of Carthage made this Decree Anno 398 That a Woman should not presume to Baptise It is not then to be wonder'd that St. Epiphanius in the forty two Heresie observes as a thing blameable Tom. 1. conc can 〈…〉 That the Arch-Heretick Marcion permitted Women to Baptise II. A Doctor in the Church cannot Preach nor administer the Sacraments unless he be both Doctor and Minister CONFORMITY This Article is but a continuance of the former for seeing a Doctor in quality of a meer Doctor hath no vocation to Preach the Word nor to administer the Sacraments it is unquestionable the Baptism which he shall confer shall be no other than that which shall be administred by a Meer Lay Man to do it Lawfully he must not only be a Doctor but also a Minister III. A Jew or Pagan of what Age soever he be ought not to be Baptised before being well Instructed in the Christian Religion and that it appears they are so by their Confession CONFORMITY There 's nothing in this Establishment but what was practis'd in the Antient Church St. Justin Martyr testifies in his second or rather his first Apology that the Christians of those times would not Baptise those who would turn to their Communion until after they had believed and were throughly perswaded of the Truth of their Doctrine and moreover promised to live conformable to the holiness of their Laws and profession Pope Victor the 1 ordain'd towards the end of the second Century as the Pontifical Book saith in his Life that in case of Necessity one may Baptise all those that turn from Paganism to Christianity either in a River or in the Sea or in a Fountain or in a Lake upon condition nevertheless that in the first place they should give an Account of the Christian Faith and make an open Confession of it The Ten Books of Recognitions falsly attributed to St Clement Disciple of the Apostles are very ancient but forged and writ before Origen who liv'd in the third Century in the VI of these Books at the end we read St. Peter Baptised near the Sea Those which had fully received the Faith of our Lord and Saviour that is to say those which believed in him and which had been Instructed in the knowledge of his Gospel St. Jerom expounding these words of our Saviour to his Apostles Math. 28.19 Go teach all Nations baptising them in the name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost St. Jerom observes In cap. 28. Mat. Tom. 6. pag. 66. the Apostles taught them first and that after having instructed them they baptised them with Water for saith he It cannot be that the Body should receive the Sacrament of Baptism unless the Soul has first received
pag 453. which he held Anno 1565 forbids the same thing to all that are Excommunicated XII Ministers shall diligently warn Godfathers and Godmothers to weigh and consider the promises they make at the Celebration of Baptisme and Fathers and Mothers also to choose Godfathers and Godmothers well instructed in Religion and of good Life and Conversation and that may be of their Acquaintance as near as may be and that by their means there may be appearance in case of need the Children may be well Educated CONFORMITY The Author of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy Tom. 2. cap. 7. p. 361 362. under the name of Dennis the Areopagite prescribes just what is appointed by our Discipline Jonas Bishop of Orleans follows the same Steps in the Ninth Century and Establishes by the words of St. Austin the Duties wherein Godfathers and Godmothers stand bound to those which they present to be Baptized it is to what he imploys the Sixth Chapter of the First Book of Instruction of the Layity and the words of St. Austin he makes use of Tom. 1. Spicil pag. 19. are taken out of the Sermon 133 of Time which is in the Tenth Tome of his works Tom. 9. Conc. pag 453. Cardinal Borrome in his first Council of Millan Anno 1565 follows the same steps with the Antients ordering to warn Godfathers of their Duty towards their Neophytes Tom. 5. Spicil pag. 212. both as to Doctrine and Manners where Fathers and Mothers are wanting A long while before this Council of Millan St. Eloy had recommended the same thing to Godfathers and in the Second Book of Capitularies chap. 46. Godfathers are enjoyn'd to apply themselves to teaching Children they have presented in Baptism because they have answer'd for them It is also the subject of a Cannon of a Council of Reims in Reginon Lib. 1. cap. 272. XIII Those which by Trustees shall present Children to be Baptized in the Churches of Rome shall be severely sensur'd as consenting to Idolatry CONFORMITY In the Antient Church those which lived in a Communion separate from others never presented their Children to be baptized in those Societies whereof they were not Members and with whom they held no fellowship nor correspondence in matters relating to Religion and the service of God XIV As for Names given to Children Ministers shall reject as much as in them lies and as shall be expedient those that savour of Antient Paganisme and shall impose on the said Infants the Names attributed to God in the Church as Emanuel and the like and moreover shall admonish Fathers and Godfathers to choose Names approv'd in the Holy Scripture as much as may be possible If they have a desire to some other they may be admitted those abovesaid only excepted and such as may tend to indecency CONFORMITY Dennis Bishop of Alexandria observes in Eusebius That the Antient Christians were wont to give their Children the Names of Peter Paul and other Holy Men as well to shew the Love and Respect they bore those Holy Persons as to render their Children as dear in the sight of God as those Holy Men were St. Chrysostom writes that the Antiochians loved Miletius their Pastor so tenderly that they call'd their Children by his Name for this end forgetting that of their Ancestors And in the Twenty First Homily on Genesis which is in the Second Volumne he Exhorts his Auditors not too lightly to impose all sorts of Names no not even those of their Grandfathers and Great Grandfathers and those which have been illustrious by Birth on their Children but rather the Names of these Holy Men which have been celebrated for their Vertues and in favour with God and elsewhere he complains of those which do otherwise according to which Eusebius speaks in his Book of the Martyrs of Pallestine chap. 11. of Five Martyrs that having quitted the Names they received from their Fathers because saith he they were it may be some Idol Names they took the Names of Elias of Jeremiah of Esaiah of Samuel and Daniel The Fourth Council of Millan whereof we spake on the Tenth Article requires this Custom to be followed I think therefore our Discipline does very well in keeping the medium betwixt too great a Severity and too great Indulgence whereunto the Establishments of our National Synods agree very well on this Article XV. Ministers shall warn their Flocks to behave them with all due Reverence when the Sacrament of Baptism is administred And to avoid the contempt most People make of Baptism either going out of the Assembly or behaving themselves in it irreverently when it is administred it has been thought good that for the future it be administred before singing the last Psalm or at least before the last Prayer and the People shall be warned to bear the same Reverence in the Administration of Baptism as of the Lords Supper seeing Jesus Christ with his benefits is offered us in the one as well as the other Sacrament CONFORMITY In the Fifth Action of the Council of Constantinople under Memma Tom. 4. Conc. pag. 109. which was its Bishop about the Year of our Lord 536 there is a request of the Church of Apamia where is shewn the profound respect one ought to have in the time of administring Baptism thence it is the Antient Doctors do call it a Mistery or terrible Misteries There is in the Euchology or Ritual of the Greek Church an excellent Oration to the Catecumeny which are on the point of receiving Baptisme Pag. 340. Par. 1647 in the which is represented in a touching and Pathetical manner the dignity of this August Sacrament with the reverence and holy fear one should have when one celebrates it Cardinal Borrome in his Fifth Council of Millan assembled Anno Dom. 1579. Appoints all Curates To warn frequently all those which assist at the Celebration of Holy Baptisme Tom. 9. Conc. pag. 616. to bring all manner of Piety Devotion and attention meditating secretly and with care the promises they have made to God when they were Baptized It is not therefore to be wonder'd if St. Chrysostom speaks of the Baptismal Fountain as of a redoubtable and desirable Pool both together In illud fiâ—â—◠〈◊〉 reg Caesor Patrisam Tom. 6. p. â—â—0 and if he Exhorts those which are going to be baptized to prostrate themselves as Captives before their King to cast themselves on their knees lifting up their hands to Heaven where the King of us all saith he is sitting on a Royal Throne because in effect we owe this respect and veneration to his Sacraments at all times that we are present when they are Celebrated XVI The Consistory shall have an Eye over those which without great Considerations keep their Children long from being Baptized CONFORMITY St. Cyprian Ep. 59. pag. 95. or rather a Synod of 66 Bishops of which he was Chief appointed that Infants newly born should be Baptised without deferring too long Baptising them and
matters that those which were to be baptised were bound to recite the Symbol of their Faith to renounce the Devil to his Power and his Angels to acknowledge that they were by Nature Children of Wrath and to shew Repentance and Sorrow for their Sins committed during the time of their Ignorance and if they were instructed in the knowledge of Heavenly things they were also taught to live well that is to say holily and in a way answerable to their Vocation The Nature and Fruits of Baptism was explain'd to them They had also some Light of the Eucharist shewed them because they did communicate presently after being baptised and all these things were accompanied with Ardent Prayers to God as well to render him thanks for calling them to his blessed Communion as to implore his Grace and Benediction on them at the very instant that he honour'd them with the seal of his Covenant and Sacrament of our Salvation After all I have said the perfect resemblance may easily be seen which is found in the Matter I Examin betwixt our practice and that of the Ancient Church if you except what regards Anabaptists which appearing but in the last Century could be neither the Subject nor Matter of any of the Decrees of the Cannon Law CHAP. XII Of the LORDS SUPPER ARTICLE I. WHere there is not a settled Church it is not permitted to celebrate the Lords Supper CONFORMITY The reason of this First Article is because the Lords Supper is so called by reason of the Communion of those which participate thereof it is the Opinion of St. Chrysostom which he has thus Expressed Hom. 21. Tom. 5. pag. 312. The Apostle calls it the Lords Supper because all those which are invited take it in common with concord The Author of the Commentaries on St. Pauls Epistles in St. Jerom's Works saith That the Lords Supper ought to be common to all In 4 Cor. 11. The Lords Supper saith St. Isidore of Sevil is so called from the Communion of those which Eat of it and the Communicants from their assembling in Common Orig. l. 20. pag. 132. thence it is that Justin Martyr writes in his first Apology that they assembled on Sundays from the Cities and from the Country round about to hear the Word of God pag. 93. cum 97. and to partake of the Holy Sacrament and he also observes they sent some to the absent to shew doubtless the Communion they had together and I can't tell but 't was with respect hereunto that the Council of Laodicea conceived in these Terms the 58th Cannon Bishops nor Priest must not make Oblations in private Houses that is to say that they should not there Celebrate the Eucharist which was not begun to be celebrated without Communicants till about the 12th Century Part. 1. c. 11. as I have sufficiently proved in the History of the Sacrament II. Children under twelve years of Age shall not be admitted to the Lords Supper but above this Age it shall be at the discretion of the Ministers to Judge of those which shall be fit to be admitted or not CONFORMITY It may seem to be collected from the place in St. Justin Martyr which I cited on the other Article that only persons of Age and not little Children were admitted to the Holy Sacrament and it is very probable that Tertullian was of this Opinion because he thought fit to defer the Baptising of Children for some years as well as Gregory Nazianzen as I shewed on the foregoing Chapter It 's true that since the time of St. Cyprian until about the 12th Century Children were received to the Communion but this Custom is justly rejected by those also of the Church of Rome as well as Protestants In effect young Children are incapable of the Examination St. Paul requires of those which approach to the Holy Table III. Priests Friers and other Ecclesiastical Persons of the Church of Rome shall not be admitted to the Lords Supper until they have first made confession in publick of their past life and profession CONFORMITY This practice is wholly conformable to that of the first Christians It is not permitted unto any one whatsoever saith St. Justin Martyr to partake with us of the Sacrament unless he be fully perswaded of the truth of our Doctrine that he has been Baptized to obtain Remission of his Sins with a new Birth Apol. 1. p. 97 98. and that he lives according to the Laws of Jesus Christ IV. Dignitaries which bear the Name and Title of their benefices and those which therewith mingle Idolatry Directly or Indirectly whether they enjoy their Benefices by their own hands or by the hands of others shall not be admitted to the Lords Supper CONFORMITY Those here described not being in the State nor Disposition desired by Justin Martyr they cannot be received to the Holy Communion in a Christian Society whose Doctrine they do not believe or that don't gather themselves within the Laws and under the Discipline observed in the midst of them V. Ministers shall be warned not to receive to the Lords Supper Persons of other Churches unless they have sufficient testimony from its Minister or in default thereof from an Elder if it possible may be CONFORMITY The Church has observed this Order from the First Ages for the Council of Antioch in the Year 341 forbids in the Seventh Cannon to admit of any Stranger without having Pacifick Letters The Seventh Cannon of the First Council of Carthage Assembled under Gratus about the Year 348 speaks also more clearly forbidding plainly both Clergy and Layity to communicate in any other Church without their Bishops Letter Lib. 2. c. 51. The Author of Apostolical Constitutions prescribes almost the same thing Pag. 601 602. In the Third Volumne of the French Councils there is a Synod of Nants the time it held is somewhat uncertain the Two First Cannons whereof are imployed to confirm this same practice VI. A Man that 's Deaf and Dumb which by evident Signs Tokens and Gestures shewing his Piety and Religion what he can may be admitted to the Holy Sacrament when by a long Experience of the Holiness of his Life the Church shall perceive he has Faith and shall be truly taught of God CONFORMITY The Church never required of Communicants more than a Holy Mind and Disposition wherefore if it is found in a Deaf and Dumb Man and that he gives signs of it he ought to be admitted to the Sacrament and when I speak of the Church I mean that of the Primitive Christians for in process of time they imposed on Communicants an Obligation of Auricular Confession especially since the days of Innocent the Third who made the first Decree for it in his Latteran Council in the Year of Christ 1215. VII The Bread of the Sacrament ought to be administred to those which cannot drink Wine in making protestation that 't is not through contempt and doing what they can possible
same thing The Third Council of Toledo made a like Decree Thirty Two years after the Synod of Paris and 't is still to be seen in the Fourth Volumne of the Councils and in the Tenth Cannon it is to what amounts the 358 chap. of VII Book of the Capitularies of Charlemain and Lewis the Debonnaire Photius Patriarch of Constantinople saies the same in the Fifth of his Letters taken out of an Ancient Eastern Manuscript there is not so much as the very cheat that has forg'd Two Decrees in the Name of Pope Evaristas pag. 391. but has in the first of them taught the same Doctrine and word for word as it is expressed in the Capitulary but now cited so that of necessity one must have borrowed it of the other It is easie to judge after all I have hitherto said Whether the Council of Trent does march in the steps of the Antient Tradition when in the 24th Session which is the Eighth under Pius the Fourth in the Year 1563 and in the First chap. of the Decree touching the Reformation of Marriage Tom. 9. Conc. p. 411. It anathematises those which affirm Marriages contracted by Children without consent of the Father and Mother are void and that the Father and Mother may break or ratifie them a Condemnation wherein Pope Celestin the First is concern'd if we believe what Gratian reports of him in the First Volume of the Councils cap. 4. p. 910. Whereas our Discipline adds That if Fathers and Mothers should be so unreasonable as not to consent to so holy and profitable a thing the Consistory may advise the I arties to have their recourse to the Magistrate it says nothing therein but what is agreeable to the Antient Practice as we find by the Letter of Photius pag. 392. which I mention'd for he declares that then the Judge may take cognizance of the Marriage and declare it lawful in preferring the protection of the Children and their lawful desire before the perverseness of Father and Mother II. As for those which are of Age and in possession of their own Rights they shall be warned by the Ministers and Publick Assemblies of the Church not to make any promise of Marriage but in presence of their Parents Relations Neighbours and good Friends and those which do otherwise shall be sensur'd of their lightness and slight of the said warning and 't were to be wished the said promises of Marriage were made with invocation on the Name of God CONFORMITY This Establishment was made to prevent Clandestine Marriages there are put into the First Volume of the Council some Decrees attributed by Gratian to Pope Celestine the First which in the 4th ordains that Parents of both Sexes should be present to witness the Marriage Paulinus Bishop of Aquilea in the Council he caused to assemble in a part of his Diocess called forum-Julii desires the Neighbours and chief of the place should be present at Contracts of Marriage to prevent the mischiefs may ensue by Clandestine Marriages The Council of Trent in the 24th Session which I mention'd on the other Article and in the same Decree of Reforming Marriages chap. 1. Will That it be done in presence of the Curate or some other Priest that supplies his place and of Two or Three Witnesses Which thing is renewed by Cardinal Borrome in the Fifth and Sixth Councils of Millan III. Believers which are of Age although they have been marryed yet shall so far honour their Father and Mother as not to conclude upon Marriage without first communicating it to them and for not so doing shall be sensur'd by the Consistory CONFORMITY We have already seen on the First Article That Children under Power of Father and Mother cannot lawfully contract Marriage without their consent In this there is mention of those which have already been marryed and who being desirous to marry a second time ought in civility to impart it to them St. Ambrose in the Ninth chap. of the First Book touching Abraham requires that the Widow Woman which intends to re-marry should refer to Father and Mother to make choice of the Person which she ought to marry Balzamon and Zonaras explaining the 42 Cannon of St. Basils second Canonical Epistle distinguishes Widows which are under the power of any Relation from those which depend only of themselves And for these last they pretend they are at liberty to marry to whom they please so it be in the Lord and according to the Laws and Cannons but as for the others they think they ought to have the consent of those under whose Tuition they are and who without it have right to dissolve the Marriage There is in the Third Tome of the Councils a Decree Attributed to some Council of Arles pag. 823. where there 's mention of the Marriage of Widows and of the consent of Fathers and Mothers IV. Fathers and Mothers making profession of the Reformed Religion whose Idolatrous Children would contract Marriage with Idolatrous Wifes shall be warn'd as much as possible to divert their Children from such Marriages and especially when they are not too hasty the Fathers shall imploy their Paternal Power to hinder them if they cannot prevail with them being present when contract marriage is passing they shall declare to have abhorrence of the Idolatry wherein their Children do more and more plunge themselves which being done the said Fathers may consent to the promises and conditions concerning the Portion and the like and shall represent in Consistory the endeavours they have used to prevent such marriages CONFORMITY We shall see on the Twentieth Article that it was prohibited to the Orthodox to marry with Persons of a contrary Religion unless they promised to imbrace the Orthodox Religion and that they should accomplish their promise before Marriage therefore the Fathers and Mothers could not consent to such Marriages but under the Conditions enjoyned by the Cannons It cannot then be said that our Discipline differs from that of the Antient Christians in the Matter which we Examin and the which shall receive farther Explanation from what shall be said on the Twentieth Article V. Henceforward shall be used in promises and Contracts of Marriage terms of the Future Tense and the said words shall not be esteemed so binding as words of the Present seeing words of the Present do not promise Marriage but does it in effect nevertheless these promises by words of the Future shall not be dissolved without great and lawful causes CONFORMITY Of all the Articles of our Discipline there has scarce any one been so often touched by the National Synods as this by reason of the difference which is found betwixt the Ancient and Modern way of Marrying for formerly the promises of Marriage were made by words of the Present and now they are made by words of the Future Tense according to the Laws of the Kingdom and the Establishment of this same Discipline I find nothing in the first Ages of the
Ancient Eastern Manuscript he sets down insufficiency as a lawful cause of separation with free liberty to the other party whither the Man or Woman to re-marry XV. Marriages shall be proposed in the Consistory with sufficient attestations of promises CONFORMITY This Establishment is to prevent Clandestin Marriages I will shew on the 19th Article that it is conformable to the Ancient Discipline XVI Baines shall be asked in places where the Parties do reside and are known and if they will be Married in some other place than where their Banes have been called they shall take sufficient attestation that they have been published three several times CONFORMITY Pope Innocent the third making Answer to the Bishop of Beavais in the 4th Book of Decretals Tit. 1 de Sponsal cap. 27. makes mention of a publication of Banes and in the Council of Latran which he assembled in the year 1215 he appointed that the Custom of publishing Banes of Marriage in Churches observed in some places should be generally observed in all places Tom. 7. conc cap. 51. p. 818 accordingly we Read in the second volume of Dom. Luke D' Achery a Benedictine Friers Spirilegium that Nicholas Bishop of Anger 's prohibited in the year 1270 pag. 217 221 222. to confirm or celebrate any marriage whatsoever until publication was first made of it in the Church he also mentions the same practise in another Synod in the year 1274 Ib. p. 255. Tom. 9. conc pag. 411. Decret de refor Matrim cap. 1. which William his successor also renewed in the year 1304. The Council of Trent in the 24th Session the 11th of November 1563. the 8th under Pius the IV prescribes also the same thing Cardinal Borrome failed not to confirm this custom and to recomend the observing of it in his Councils at Millan and 't is to be observed the testimonies I have alledged require that publication shall be made in the Churches of the parties contracting XVII Banes shall be published three several Sundays in places when there is Sermons and in other places when publick prayers may be said However the Publication ought to continue the space of 15 dayes after which time the Marriage may be Solemniz'd in the Assembly and even on the third Sunday CONFORMITY The same Testimonies I alledged on the foregoing Article do prescribe in substance the same thing as our Discipline doth for some will have it that the publication now spoke of should be made in a certain time which should give leisure to those who would oppose a Marriage to prepare their Reasons others that Banes should be asked several times on Holy-daies others to the Number of three several times XVIII Those which live in places where the usual Exercise of Religion is not Established may cause their Banes to be published in Romish Churches inasmuch as 't is a matter partly political CONFORMITY The publishing of Banes being a thing meerly political our Discipline had reason when it suffer'd those of our Religion in the case hinted at to have them done in Temples of the Romish perswasion XIX The Churches shall not Marry any body without having ful knowledge and approbation CONFORMITY Besides what I have said on the second Article it appears by the first Cannon of the Council of Laodicea that Clandestin Marriages were condemned even in that time There is in the third Volume of Councils a Decree of Pope Hormisdas taken out of Gratian and is conceived in these Terms Can. 2. pag. 801. That no Believer of what quality soever do not Marry clandestinely and in secret but let him Marry publickly in our Lord Tom. 3. conc Gal. pag. 116. Tom. 7. conc pag. 818. in receiving the Priests Benediction This Hormisdas was Pope in the beginning of the 6th Century Herrald Bishop of Tours makes the same prohibition in the 130 chap. of his Capitulary Anno Dom. 858. and the 15th Can. of those which Pope Innocent the third proposed and caused to pass at the Council of Latteran in the year 1215 contain the very like constitution It is therefore that in our Churches no Stranger is Married without having a good attestation from the Church whereof he is member to know if the Banes have there been published three several Lords dayes without any opposition Cardinal Borrome in his second Council of Millan Anno Dom. 1569 Decree 26 will have it so practis'd Tom. 9. conc pag. 590. according to the Ordinance of the Council of Trent XX. When one of the parties is of a contrary Religion the promises of Marriage shall not be received nor published in the Church until the party of contrary Religion be sufficiently instructed doth protest publickly in the Church of the place where the said party is known that with full resolution he renounces all Idolatry and Superstition particularly the Mass and will by Gods assistance persevere therest of his life in his true worship and service of which instruction the Consistory shall take account And it shall not be lawful for any Pastor or Consistory to do otherwise under pain of being suspended and even of being turn'd out of their office CONFORMITY Even from the first Ages of Christianity the Orthodox were forbidden to Marry with Persons which were not of their Communion but of some other Sect which was looked on as Heretical and contrary Tom. 1. conc pag. 234. The Council of Elebori or Eluira in Spain in the year 305 imploys to this purpose the 6th of its Cannons The 10th and 31st of Laodicea about the year 360 treat of the same thing But the 14th of Calcedon is more full for it prohibits those kind of Marriages unless him that intends to Marry an Orthodox Maid Let. G. c. 12. doth promise to be converted to the true Faith The Frier Blastares in his Pandects printed at Oxford of whom I have spoke already explaining this Cannon of Chalcedon makes two considerable remarks first that the Consummation of Marriage now spoke of ought to be deferr'd until the Heterodox party has accomplish'd his promise the second that the same thing is to be required of Latins that is to say of those of the Church of Rome when they desire to marry Women that are Orthodox an evident proof that the Latin Church was esteemed a Hetorodox Church by the Greeks in Blastares's time which was in the XIV Century I may alledge several other Cannons against the Marriages now spoke of Tom. 1. conc Gall. pag. 231. 242. as the 72 of the 6th Oecumenical Council at the end of the 7th Century The 19th of the 2d Council of Orleans in the year 533. the 6th of that of Auvergne assembled 2 years after and the 25 and 26 Decrees of the 1 Title of the 2d Council of Millan which I cited on the foregoing Article If from Councils we pass to Ecclesiastical Writers Tom. 1 p 239 240. we shall find several which have explained themselves after the same manner
Husband it was also the Opinion of Innocent I. Ep. 9. Theodore Archbishop of Canterbury whom I cited on the 29th Article Can. 113.4 q. Spicil p. 62. suffers a Lay man whose Wife has absented to marry another at the expiration of seven years with consent of the Bishop and at the End of one year if she has been taken away Captive by force The 83 Caunon of the 6 universal Council Tom. 5. conc pag. 347. follows near hand the Discipline of St. Basil and partly that of Leo the First The 9th of that of Verbery which I have mention'd several times suffers a Man who is forced to change Countries and whose Wife will not follow him it suffers him to marry another if he cannot contain Tom. 2. Conc. Gall. pag. 3. Photius in the 13 Title Can. 2. of his Nomocanon declares the Time and the Manner that the Wife of the absent Husband is to observe before she re-marries The Friar Blastares follows the steps of Photius and when the absence of the Husband or the Wife is caused by Captivity he determins that if in five years no news be heard the Marriage is void XXXII As for the Wifes of Priests and Friers which revolt and return to Idolatry singing Mass or returning to their Cloysters from whence they came out before they are advertis'd to inhabit no longer with their said Husbands during their Apostasie not to load Marriage with blame and ignominy and also shall not marry with others until the first marriage be dissolv'd by the Magistrate CONFORMITY To this Article may be referr'd the 44 Cannon of the 2d Cannonical Epistle of St. Basil with the interpretations of Balsamon and Zonaras the 13th Cannon of the first Council of Orleans of the year 511. and the 3d. of that of Verbery assembled Anno 752. for in all these places Tom. 1. conc Gall. pag. 150. Tom. 2. pag. 2. something is ordain'd which comes very nigh the Establishment of our Discipline CHAP. XIV Of Particular Rules and Advertisements ARTICLE I. NO Body shall be received to the Communion of the Church until he has first publickly renounced all Superstitions and Idolatries of the Church of Rome and of the Mass especially CONFORMITY The Church in all Ages has refused to receive Persons into her Communion until they had first given an account of their Faith and had renounced all Errors they had formerly professed and all the false Worship they had before preached I may prove this Truth by sundry Cannons but I 'le only produce some the thing being clear of it self The Sixth Cannon of Laodicea is express on this Subject Hereticks must not be permitted to enter into the House of God if they persevere in their Heresie The Seventh is no less formal Those amongst the Novatians Photinians or Quarto decimans nor those amongst them they call Believers until they first anathematize all Heresie especially that wherein they were detain'd To this same Subject may be apply'd the 37th and 58th Cannons of the same Synod about Forty years before the Great Council of Nice had order'd in the VIII Cannon touching the Catharians that when they return'd to the Communion of the Church they should be oblig'd to declare by writing That they imbrac'd all the Doctrines of the Catholick and Apostolick Church And that by consequence they renounce all the Errors contrary to them and wherewith they had been infected and because all Errors are not alike dangerous the Second Oecumenical Council assembled at Constantinople in the year 381 prescribes in the Seventh Cannon the manner of receiving those which turn to the Church and this method is different according to the Diversity of Errors of those which are converted but after all the least that is expected of them Is to anathematize by Writing all manner of Heresie as doth not agree with the Dogma's of the Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church II. A Believer is not permitted to intermeddle in any thing wherein there may be an intermixture of Idolatry as that which is called the Kiss of the hand or the Ceremony of the Church keep Masses Vigils and maintain Friers which are appointed for that purpose But to hold Priories Revenues Rents Chappellanies and Tythes to pay the Revenue to Churchmen inasmuch as they are Temporal Lords it is a thing indifferent and at the liberty of those that please to do it Nevertheless Believers are advertis'd not to intermeddle in those matters if they find any abuse therein or appearance of any ill consequence whereof the Consistories shall take special heed CONFORMITY It 's only requisite to read what I have said on the Nineteenth Article of the Fifth chap. which is that of Consistories to see after what manner those are treated in the Primitive Church as were any way poluted with Idolatry I will here only add two things First That the Ancient Fathers called Idolatry Crimen principale summum scelus principale crimen genneris humani summum saeculi reatus tota causa judicii And by these expressions they would let Christians see how much they should abhor Idolatry seeing it breaks all manner of Communion with God Secondly That the Council of Laodicea after having declared in the 35th Cannon that Christians should not forsake the Church of God to follow Angels to invoke them it makes this Mennace If any one be found to serve this hidden Idolatry let him be anathematised because he has forsaken our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God and is turn'd to Idolatry The Reader may observe if he please that the Fathers of Laodicea think one abandons Jesus Christ and for sakes him at the very instant one makes any step towards Idolatry and 't will be to no purpose to say that one often thinks there is Idolatry where there is none because that as soon as ever a Man thinks there is Idolatry he ought not be concern'd more nor less although he might be mistaken in his Judgment for he would betray his own Conscience and indanger his Salvation seeing that in matter of Religion all that is done without Faith is Sin as St. Paul saith III. Those who by unlawful means as by Popes Bulls or for Money shall hold Benefices and also those which shall uphold Idolatry directly or indirectly are declared unworthy to be admitted to the Holy Communion of the Lords Supper As for benefices conferr'd on any Body by right of Patronage whether it be by Provision of the Lord Lay Patron or by Collation of the Bishop Believers are advertis'd not to accept of any that shall be given them under any open or tacit condition of service deditated to the Idol CONFORMITY This Article being a consequence and dependance on the former it has no need of any other Interpretation IV. Printers Booksellers Painters and other Tradesmen and in general all Believers especially those who have any Office in the Church shall be admonished not to make any thing in their way as depends directly on the
Superstitions of the Church of Rome And as for private Actions and the corrections proper thereunto it shall be what the Consistory shall judge convenient CONFORMITY The same may be said almost of this as I said of the Third and add withal That after our Separation from the Church of Rome for things which we do not approve we cannot with safe Conscience practice any of those things which have been the motive and cause of our Separation V. Notaries Secretaries and others who by their Offices are obliged to Sign and Seal things indifferently which are presented to them shall not be blamed for receiving Testaments passing Contracts and dispatching Letters of things which concern Idolatry nor Judges for judging causes concerning Ecclesiastical Matters and the Execution of Edicts CONFORMITY The Authors of our Discipline have prudently permitted those of our Communion in preferrence to those of the Church of Rome to do all things as may be done without prejudicing ones Conscience or indangering Salvation VI. Arbitrators shall not meddle with any Matters that concern Idolatry directly nor Indirectly CONFORMITY There needs no other Commentary on this Establishment then what I have remarked on the Tenth and Eleventh VII Advocates and Attorneys may not plead in causes which tend to taking away Preaching and setting up Mass and generally they shall not be suffered to give Council to the Romish Clergy in causes which tend directly or indirectly to the oppression of the Church and true Religion CONFORMITY There can be nothing more just than to forbid all Persons of our Religion to Establish what we do condemn and to destroy what we set up VIII Neither Bishops nor Officials nor Arch-Deacons such as they are at present have by right any Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical nor Civil Nevertheless because Believers are sometimes constrain'd to appear before them to gain their Right which otherwise were not to be obtain'd they may thither make their address being referr'd by the Magistrate to whom they are first to apply themselves CONFORMITY One may and ought also submit to all the Jurisdictions Established in a Country by Consent and Authority of the Sovereign especially when one is appointed so to do by Order of the Magistrate under this condition nevertheless That the Service of God be not thereby injur'd nor the Conscience concern'd IX Advocates that are Believers ought not to plead on any account whatsoever before Officials but only in cases for which one may prosecute their Right before them according to the precedent Article CONFORMITY This Article depending of the former its needless to look for any other Explication X. It is not a thing unlawful in it self to exercise Civil Jurisdictions and Procurations under Ecclesiastical Persons which do not at all concern that which they call the Spirituality CONFORMITY Seeing it is permitted to acknowledge the Jurisdictions of Ecclesiastical Persons on certain occasions and in the manner above established it may also be permitted to Exercise them XI Believers may not obtain nor publish Monitories nor Excommunications of the Roman Church CONFORMITY The Protestants not acknowledging the Popes Authority to be Legitimate they ought not to have recourse to it Directly nor Indirectly XII Inasmuch as it is not lawful nor expedient to go hear the Preachers of the Church of Rome or others that intrude themselves without being lawfully called the Flocks shall be hinder'd by the Ministers from going thither and those that will go shall be summon'd before the Consistory and sensur'd as the case shall require CONFORMITY It 's above Thirteen Hundred years ago that the Council of Laodicea made this Decree Those which are Members of the Church shall not be permitted to go to Church yards nor to Oratories of any Hereticks whatsoever either to Pray or to obtain the healing of any Sickness but the Believers that have so done shall for a time be deprived of the Holy Communion and upon confessing and repenting their fault shall afterwards be restor'd again XIII Lords Gentlemen and others shall be advertised not to entertain in their Houses scandalous and incorrigible Persons and especially if they suffer Priests singing Mass or discoursing to debauch their Servants or if they do anew take and receive such into their Service CONFORMITY This Establishment tends only to the purity of Life and preservation of true Religion which are things to which every body ought diligently to apply themselves XIV Fathers and Mothers shall be Exhorted to take great care in Teaching and Educating their Children which are the Seed and Nursery of the Church And those which send them to the Schools of Priests Friers Jesuits and Nuns shall be prosecuted by the severest Church Sensures Those also which put their Children to be Pages or otherwise to Lords and Gentlemen of the contrary Religion shall be advis'd how they do so CONFORMITY This proceeds from the same principle the other did and was made by the same Motives which are Motives very reasonable and very conformable to the practice of the Antient Church XV. Those who have Brothers Sisters and other Relations who having quitted Monasteries to serve God with a pure and good Conscience shall be Exhorted to assist them and to do according to the Laws of Humanity and Affinity CONFORMITY If Christians are obliged and they are obliged by the word of God and by the Ancient Cannons to exercise towards all Men Works of Charity of greater Reason should they do them to their near Friends and Relations especially when they are reduc'd to necessity for serving God with a good Conscience in departing from a Communion wherein they were fully perswaded they could not be saved XVI Ministers nor any else in the Church cannot Print Books made by themselves or others touching Religion nor any way publish them without communicating them to the Colloque or if need be to the Provincial Synod and if the matter require hast to the Accademies or to two Pastors which shall be nominated by the Synod and shall attest the Examination by them made of the said Writings CONFORMITY This Ordinance is very necessary to prevent all the evil consequences as may sometimes ensue without the Examination therein prescribed the same thing is done amongst the Papists whose works are commonly approved by some Doctors and at Rome by the Master of the Sacred Pallace See what I have said on the Fifteenth Article of the First Chapter XVII Those which take Pen in hand to treat the Histories of the Holy Scriptures in Meter are advertis'd not to mix therein any Poetical Fables and not to attribute to God the Name of false Gods and not to add nor diminish to the Holy Scriptures but to keep as near as may be to the Stile of it CONFORMITY This Article will find it self sufficiently explain'd by the things I have remarked on the Twelfth Article of the First Chapter whether I refer the Reader XVIII The Books of the Bible whether Cannonical or Appocriphal shall not be transformed into Comedies nor
Church that can inform me the manner that was used in contracts of Marriage that is to say whether promises of Marriage were conceived by words of the Present or by words of the Future Tense I only judge by things hapned in the latter Ages that in some places these promises were made by words of the Present which at last was forbidden In effect Tom. 11. Spicil p. 205. in the year 262. Nicholas Gilant Bishop of Anger 's made this Synodal Decree We appoint our Priests that they do not consent but to forbid publickly in their Churches to contract Marriage by words of the Present until one be come to the Nuptial benediction The Fifth Council of Millan under Cardinal Borrome â—â—â—scribes the same thing in the Year 1â—79 Tom. 9. Conc. p 633. VI. As for Consanguinity and Affinity Believers cannot contract Marriage any other way than is permitted by the Kings Edict CONFORMITY When one lives in a Country one must submit to the Laws Established for the quiet of the Subjects as to what concerns the things of this Life and 't is by this maxim that we carefully observe the Edicts and Laws of our Kings touching the Degrees of Affinity and Consanguinity in marriage VII It is by no means Lawful to go to the Pope to demand to be dispensed in the hindrances of Marriage because in doing hereof one owns his Tyranny but one may in a Degree not forbidden of God though prohibited by the Civil Power Address one self to the King CONFORMITY As we do not acknowledge the Popes Power we do not vouchsafe to Address our selves to him to obtain any dispensings touching the hindrances of marriage It is to the King we Address our selves to be dispensed of Degrees forbidden by the Civil Law of his Kingdom and not by the Word of God VIII The Cognations called Spiritual are not so much as compriz'd nor understood by the Words of Consanguinity or Affinity in the Kings Edict and cannot hinder the contract of Marriage CONFORMITY The more I read our Discipline the more I therein find a resemblance with that of the Ancient Christians I speak of Christians of the first Centuries for those which have apply'd themselves to the reading Ecclesiastical Antiquity might perceive the changes that have succeeded in process of time in the Ancient Discipline as well as in the Doctrine the Establishment I am about to Examine is an Authentick proof for until the 7th Century or at least to the end of the 6th it was never thought of to propose in the works of Ecclesiastical Writers nor in Councils Spiritual Cognations as lawful hindrances of wedlock If the Epistle attributed to Pope Deus-dedit were true it would not be deny'd that since the 7th Century these pretended Spiritual Cognations were admitted in the Church but 't is most certain 't is false and spurious it needs only to Read it to find that 't is false and forged besides that a good while since Pseudoisid pag. 676. the late Mr. Blondell has shewed clearly in the Judgment he gave of it that 't was the work of a Cheat and Impostor I know there is in the 2d Volumn of the works of Gregory the Great certain Decrees in one of which one Anathematises him that shall have Marry'd his spiritual Gossip so that if these Cannons are truly his one must own that these spiritual Cognations has been used in the Latin Church since the latter end of the 6th Century but what makes me doubt if these Constitutions were his is that Dom. Luke D' Achery who has caused them to be printed in the 2 Volumns of his Spicilegium amongst an Ancient Collection of Cannons which he thinks to have been Antecedent to the 9th Century does indeed represent them under the Name of Gregory but somthing dubiously not saying of what Gregory so that they may as well be of some other Gregory for Example to the second or third and so the one must come down to the 8th Century in which the one and the other filled the Roman See In effect in that Century Tom. 2. conc Gal. p. 5. spiritual Affinity were frequently in the West a hindrance of Marriage as appears by the first Cannon of a Synod held at Metz under Pepin in the year 753 by the 5th Chap. of the 5th Book of Capitularys Ibid. p. 15 and by the answer of Pope Stephen the 2d to the 4th Question was made him on this Matter as also by the 12th Cannon of the Council of Compeigne Anno 757. Ibid. p. 43 Since that time the Latins has almost always prohibited marriages of persons betwixt whom there was any spiritual affinity as for having presented a Child together to be Christened I observe nevertheless in the 10 Century that a certain Bishop called Azo Tom. 8. Spicil p. 113. ad 118. maintained by the holy scriptures against Atto Bishop of Verceil that these spiritual affinities were not sufficient to hinder Marriage whereas Atto did not defend himself to any purpose but by the Laws and Customs of Princes and Sovereigns especially by that of Luitprandus who Reigned then in Italy It is not therfore to be wondered if the Council of Trent Authoriz'd this sort of Affinities the 11th of November Anno 1563 in the 24th Session Tom. 9. conc pag. 412. under Pius the 9th as is explained in the second Chap. of the Decree of Reformation of Marriage although at the end of the 9th Century it was not exactly observed in all the West as appears by the Cannons 47 and 48 of the Council of Tribur of which I will speak of on the 13th Article The Greek Church would in nothing come behind the Latin in this matter for at the end of the 8th Century the 6th Oecumenical Council assembled at Constantinople made a decree when after having establish'd that the affinity of the Spirit is more considerable than that of the Body the Fathers declare it is come to their knowledge that in some places those which have presented Children to be Baptised do after marry the Mothers of those Children when they are become Widows which the Council forbids to be done for the future and do even make null Marriages of this kind which shall be made after the Prohibition ' and condemn those which contract them to the punishment of Fornicators We learn by this Decree that till then no difficulty was made in divers Places to make these kinds of marriages and to pass by the consideration of spiritual Cognations which might be betwixt those as made them Nevertheless since the 6th Century the Emperour Justinian had ordained that spiritual Cognation should be a lawful hinderance of Marriage Lib. 5. Cod. Just tit 4. cap. 26. although the Greek Church made no Decree before that I but now cited and which is after that of Justiniam above a 100 years Also the Greek Cannonists which have searched the Original of this custom have gone no farther