so childish and such meer Legend that out of respect to so great a man I will not recite it All that certainly appears is this that there was at that time some misunderstanding between Justin and Theodorick for that was the Accusation upon which the Great Boëtius was then put to death that he held correspondence with Justin. And that Pope John was sent by Theodorick to treat with the Emperor but what was his particular Errand is not recorded but whatever it was it seems he managed it so as to fall into the King's displeasure and this is all that we have of that Popes Actions and this Emperor's reign § XXI For he dying after he had reign'd nine years in his extreme old Age before his death saw his Nephew Justinian fixt in the actual possession of the Imperial Throne by the choice of the Senate one of the greatest Princes in the whole Succession whether we regard the Success of his Arms the Magnificence of his Buildings or the Wisdom of his Laws the three greatest Ornaments of any Princes Reign And yet Envy and one ill-natur'd Libel of a malecontent Courtier if it be his has been able such is the ill-nature of Mankind to slur all the Miracles of his reign But I find that the ground of all the late displeasure against this great Prince was as some Men suppose his too busie intermedling in Church-Matters this is the thing that is taken unkindly by the Church-Men at Rome as an invasion of their Province But others on the contrary top him up for a Pattern to all Princes to keep the Jurisdiction of the Church in their own hands against all the pretences of Ecclesiasticks But as it falls out and ought so to do they are both equally mistaken for Justinian never attempted any thing in the Church that was not warranted by continued Precedents of his best Predecessors He only protected the Power of the Church in the exercise of its Jurisdiction as they did but never claim'd it to himself howsoever he might err as sometimes he did in the execution of his Office And whereas they load him so severely for presuming to make so many Novels or Laws of his own about Religion the whole charge is founded meerly upon ignorance and mistake they being all known Canons of the Church before ever he enacted them into Laws And therefore he is no more to be blamed than the best of his Predecessors unless it be for his too pious and watchful care to preserve the Discipline of the Christian Church So that it is no less than high ingratitude in the Clergy of Rome to requite so great a Benefactor to the Cause of Religion with nothing but unkind Censures and foul Calumnies But the ground of all their present Quarrel is his taking down the pride of one of their most haughty Popes Vigilius though by their own confession one of the worst of Men and that too was done at a time when their Holinesses had been accustom'd to trample upon the state of the Imperial Majesty it self And if in these contentions the Emperor fell into any indecencies that cannot be justified yet he ought not only in good Manners but in justice to be excused because it is evident from the Design of his whole Reign that his only aim was to resettle the long-disturb'd Peace of the Church and if at any time he fail'd in his Measures his Integrity ought by all the rules of Candor to attone for the defect of his Politicks But whether all his Acts of Government in the Church are justifiable or not I dare insure for all his Laws and for that I shall here account to finish the parallel between the Ecclesiastical and Imperial Laws in this Matter because by this Prince the Imperial Law was brought to its full Perfection And after that it will be needless to inquire into the practice of succeeding Princes who received either the Theodosian or Justinian Body of Laws as the sixt and standing rule of the Imperial Government Though of the two the Theodosian Code met with much the better Fortune for that having had ninety Years possession both in the Eastern and Western Empire it was not easily removed especially when it had been received by the barbarous People that invaded and conquer'd some Parts of the Empire as the only establisht Law of the Romans And so it was by that great wise and prosperous Prince Theodorick King of the Goths who enacted its obligation upon his own People in a compendious Edict drawn out of it consisting of 154 heads extant in Cassiodorus But Alaric his Successor and Grand-child by his Daughter Amalesuntha that greatest of Women made a new body of Institutes out of it vulgarly known by the name of the Breviary of Anianus not that Anianus composed it but because he by his Office compared and examin'd the Original Copy that was laid up among the Crown-Records and subscribed his Approbation from thence in after-Ages it came to bear his Name But after the Goths the Lombards the Franks the Burgundians and other People of Germany over-run the Western Empire and these when they came to settle blended the Theodosian Laws with their own ancient Customs from whence came the Feudal Law that to this day carries the greatest sway in the Government of all the European Nations But as for the Justinian Law that was received only in the Eastern Empire and there it had scarce reign'd 300 years when it was thrust out of Authority by the Basilica of Leo the Philosopher who added to the Justinian Collection the Novels of all the succeeding Emperors down to his own time But in the West it was never so much as heard of for 600 years after the death of Justinian there are not so much as any footsteps of it in the Capitulars of Charles the Great or any other European Laws Neither were they ever made publick to the Western World till the time of that great Prince Lotharius the second Emperor and Duke of Saxony who reign'd not till the year 1125. And he first brought it to light at the perswasion and by the assistance of Irnerius the most learned Man in that Age from which time forward it has kept possession together with the Feudal Law not only in the Schools and Universities but in the Government of the Empire But as for the Law it self it consists of two parts the Code and the Novels that is Laws made by himself after the publication of the Code and these are again to be subdivided into Laws concerning Faith and Laws concerning Discipline in both which he has behaved himself with as much decency and respect to the Church as any of his most admired Predecessors As for the Code it is a Collection of former Laws with some additions of his own Of the former Laws we have treated in order under the several Reigns in which they were enacted and therefore need say nothing of them here but only to vindicate
he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 occasion'd by a false Translation of Suidas against the Greek Copy it self putting Justinian for Justin of whom Suidas relates it and with what probability I have shewn above but as for Justinian there is not so much as the shadow of any ground to lay it to his Charge beside that dull and evident mistake of a Translator But on the contrary he carried away the Title of Doctissimus in his own time that is frequently given him by Theodatus King of the Goths and the Fathers of the 5th General Council all these are pregnant Proofs of a natural Fool. But what shall we say to his Administration of publick Affairs when the Empire never flourished more under any Prince then his Government when he not only preserved and emproved what he was possest of but recovered all that had been lost and secured it to his Successors by fortifying it on all sides against the Incursions of all Enemies If these are the sports and projects of a Fool I would be inform'd by our worthy Historian what undertakings are becoming a wise man But as for the Learned Librarian whil'st he goes about to stop this hole of his Author he has made a much wider mistake of his own by excusing it that the Author only intends this Character not of the vigour of Justinian's Age but of his Dotage This excuse if it were true is very key-cold but it is enough that the Comment contradicts the Text for the Author speaks plainly of the Emperors natural Constitution and habitual course of his life and therefore to Apologize for such a false Character by applying it to the time of dotage is to confess his Author a false Calumniator for dotage is no natural folly But if he had doted what then Is it not base and disingenious to upbraid a Great Man with the natural infirmities of extreme old Age He lived to the utmost bounds of Nature and if he out-lived himself can any man of sense or manners think it decent or ingenuous to brand him to all Posterity with the mark of a Fool and an Ass But then beside this the excuse is false for the Anecdota are pretended to have been written Seven Years before Justinian's death in which Interval of Time he perform'd many great Actions as may be seen at large in Agathias de rebus Justiniani Procopius de Aedificiis And yet Alemannus after hâ—s rate of pertinent Quotation cites Agathias on his side for relating that the Emperor in his extreme old Age chose to quit the designs of War and betake himself to Artifice and stratagem not to destroy the Enemies of the Empire by hazardous Battels but by dividing them among themselves by which Wisdom he destroyed the Nation of the Huns only by making and enflaming dissensions among themselves and so free'd the Empire of one of its greatest Plagues forever This great reach of Policy is the last Act that we hear of in his life and that was no Act of Folly though Alemannus is so great a Fool himself as to alledge it to prove the Emperor one nay worse than this he has suffer'd his passion to be transported to that degree of Malice as to alledge it in confirmation of the Anecdota as an instance of the Emperors Craft and Treachery beyond the common Capacity of Humane Nature De illius fraudibus atque fallaciis uberius quà m Procopius scripsit Agathias Myrrhinaeus nam artes Epistolarum exempla profert quibus Hunnorum ducibus ad invidiam odia excitatis ad civilia bella crudelissimo dissidio inflammatis eam gentem penitùs abolevit This it is to have a good Will to a Cause every thing will serve for a weapon to strike an Enemy What he did afterward and how he died is unknown to us all the Ancients which is strange being utterly silent in it Some Modern Writers say he died mad but they mistake him for his Nephew and Successor Justin who run mad with the ill Success of his Wars against the Persians but as for Justinian there is nothing certain concerning him after the end of Agathias his History and that is about two years before his death unless it be that he retired from the Affairs of this Life to prepare himself for the next as Corippus informs us Nulla fuit jam cura senis jam frigidus omnis Alterius vitae solo fervebat amore In coelum mens omnis erat jam corporis hujus Immemor hanc mundi faciem transisse putabat This is spoken in the Person of his Successor Justin to excuse the Miscarriages of his Uncles Reign that they were the defects of his old Age when he gave over his Care of the Publick And yet Baronius and Alemannus make use of the Authority of Coâ—ippus to prove that Justinian run his Exchequer deep in debt to his Subjects when this was not done till Justinian had resigned the Government into other mens hands But Alemannus is so ingenuous as to leave this Note upon this passage how dully the Poet endeavours to turn his stupidity into devotion Ex quibus intelligas quà m frigidè Corippus eam stoliditatâ—â— in sanctimoniam accipiat ac interpretetur but if the Text be dull the Comment is much more so without any ground or pretext to conclude his Devotion to have been nothing but Dotage and Folly § XXX The next Link in this Emperors long Chain of Vertues is twisted up of the most oppressive Covetousness and the most profuse Prodigality and it is the second part of the Character of Don John a man made up of nothing but Contradictions a natural Fool and a crafty Knave a griping Extortioner and a careless Prodigal But the Libeller it seems is resolved to say all the ill things of him that are to be said of all the ill men in the World and therefore has in his crude and indigested way amass'd together all the Common-Places of Rudeness and Calumny But though profuseness be inconsistent with Covetousness yet because it is not so with oppression but is rather supported by it being a bottomless-pit that devours all things therefore we will consider these Vices apart and examine what instances of either are to be found in the Reign of Justinian First then as for Prodigality it is a Childish kind of Vice that wasts it self in wanton and unnecessary expences Now I pray what were the trifles upon which this Emperor laid out the publick Revenues What! he exhausted it in Presents to the Barbarians and in putting shackles upon the Ocean But was this all If it were not then is it a malicious slander in the Author of the Anecdota to over-look all his other magnificent works and insist so impetuously upon it as if these two had been the only sinks of all these immense expences And this thing alone lays open both the Malice and the Folly of the Man for no man of any Sense or Modesty could
of our times that there is no Faith in Man as he often does in his Epistles but especially in the 79 th to Eustathius himself And all this upon no other account Good man than because he could not compass a kind Office for an unworthy and ungrateful Man and this found him work to his Dying day especially as he expresses it with the Pride and Superciliousness of the Church of Rome But among these various Transactions the great Athanasius dies about the year 371 or 372 perhaps sooner or later for I am not concerned in Chronological Niceties my Business is to trace the Tradition of Christian Truth not to turn Hour-glasses or watch the Motions of Pendulums But his Fall was the occasion of great stirs in the Church both Parties being at such a time highly concern'd for a fit Successor to so great a Man and so great a See Peter a grave and ancient Presbyter of that Church was by the dying recommendation of Athanasius unanimously chosen but Euzoius the Arian Bishop of Antioch upon the first News of the Vacancy flies to Court to move for his Friend Lucius who had been join'd in Ambassy with him to Jovian against Athanasius and by the help of the Eunuchs succeeds and is sent to Alexandria with Magnus a great Court-Trader in the Cause but before they came the Praefect of the City a zealous Heathen had driven Peter into Banishment and when they came the People were so averse to the Intruder that they were forced to place him in the See by Military Power upon which what bloody Tumults and Disorders followed may be seen in all the Historians but most accurately in Theodoret. Somewhat before this time arose the Heresie of Apollinaris consisting of a great many Prophane or rather wanton Novelties the chief whereof was That our Saviour had no other Soul than the Divinity it self and the Conceit because it was a new one began to take very much among the People who naturally run after any thing that is strange and unusual But it is soon quasht by the diligence of the Pastors of the Church and that not only by Writing though all the Learned Men of that Age appear'd against it as Athanasius Gregory Nazianzen Gregory Nyssen St. Basil and Epiphanius but much more effectually by the Discipline of the Church A Council was call'd at Rome by Damasus the active and leading Bishop of his time though he was here more particularly concern'd because he had unwarily given reputation to the Hereticks by granting them recommendatory Letters And here every particular Article is condemn'd by an Express Anathema against it and an account of their Proceedings is given by Damasus in a Synodical Epistle to the Eastern Bishops the Epistle is of a very peculiar strein and shews that the Gentleman began to have some thoughts of advancing the state of the Apostolick See and it is the first that I have observed of that stiff strein But however the Heresie was soon quasht by that unanimous Agreement of all Churches to suppress it every where by executing the effectual Discipline of the Church upon all its Followers In so much that I can not call to Mind more than one Imperial Law against them at that time and that was enacted by Arcadius in the year 397. against their secret Conventicles at Constantinople they not presuming to appear in Publick And when a Sect is brought so low as that it dares not venture to make any publick Appearance it is vanquisht and scarce worth the Notice of the Government § IV. In the year following i. e. Anno 374. a Council was held at Valentia in France for reforming some Abuses and Corruptions that had crept into that Church and restoring the force of some ancient useful Canons In the same year hapned that strange Election of St. Ambrose to the Bishoprick of Milan after this manner Upon the Death of Auxentius the Emperor Valentinian hapning to be then at Mâ—lan calls the Bishops together and Exhorts them to take care to choose a Person of eminent Abilities for so great a See They in all humility refer it to his Majestie 's own choice No says he that is a Province not proper for me to undertake but to you that are inlightned by the Divine Spirit most properly belongs the Office of choosing Bishops Upon this the Bishops take time to debate among themselves but whilst they are consulting the People of each Faction flock together into the Market-place and there as it usually happens in popular Assemblies from Disputing proceed to Tumult St. Ambrose being Governor of the Place flies according to his Office to appease the Multitude Who no sooner appears than they all cry out An Ambrose an Ambrose for their Bishop at which he being astonish't ascends the Tribunal with an austere Countenance as if he were resolved to put some of them to Death but they still cry the louder Upon that he accuses himself of such scandalous Crimes as by the Canons of the Church render him uncapable of the Episcopal Office but that is all one to them neither will they believe him And therefore in the last place he betakes himself to flight by Night and designs for Ticinum but having wandred all Night and thinking himself near his Journeys end he found in the Morning that he had walkt in a Circle and was just entring into one of the Gates of Milan at which being surprized and fearing lest there should be something of the hand of God in it he returns home and submits they acquaint the Emperor with it for his consent because by the Constitution of Constantine the Great they were forbidden to take any Officers either Civil or Military into the Clergy without it lest the Common-wealth should be left destitute of able Men. But the Emperor is highly pleased with the Election and is proud of his own choosing such Magistrates as are fit to be made Bishops and through this odd concurrence of Circumstances is he made Bishop contrary to the Canons for he was then no more than a Catechumene which Learned Men think may be excused by the miraculousness of the thing as if it had been immediately brought about by the special Interposition and Authority of God himself and for such extraordinary cases the Canon it self has provided an Exception adding this Clause at the end of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless it be done by the special favour of God And that this was so done all Parties concern'd in it thought they had good reason to conclude from so great a Conjunction of Wonders Soon after this Valentinian dies of an Apoplexy or some suddain Death upon which Ammianus Marcellinus reads a Lecture with as much Gravity as if he were President of the College of Physicians as he takes all Opportunity of shewing his Knowledge in all sorts of Learning a fondness very incident to all half-learned Men. But in the mean time Valens goes on in
Religion and Loyalty The Second Part. OR THE History of the Concurrence of the Imperial and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in the Government of the Church from the Beginning of the Reign of Jovian to the End of the Reign of Justinian By SAMUEL PARKER D.D. Arch-Deacon of Canterbury LONDON Printed for John Baker at the Three Pigeons in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXV TO THE READER THE Church of England having acknowledged and declared His Majestie 's Supremacy in Causes Ecclesiastical to be of the same Nature and Extent with that Authority that the Christian Emperors claim'd and exercised in the Primitive Church I deem'd it no unuseful piece of Service to my King and Country to inform my self and my Fellow-Subjects out of the Records of those times of our true Duty to the Royal Supremacy And to this end I have drawn up as exact a Chart as my little Skill could reach of the Primitive Practice of the Three first Centuries after the Empire became Christian. Neither have I only Surveyed and coasted the general History but have sounded every part of it and not only described the safe Passages and right Chanels through which the abler Pilots steer'd their Courses but the Shallows the Gulfs the Rocks and the Sands upon which the less Skilful or less Fortunate Shipwrackt their Governments Neither have I presumed to make any Political Remarks of my own but have only observed the Natural and Historical Events of Matters of Fact And by the Experience of 300 years in which all Experiments were tryed we are fully instructed in all the right and all the wrong Measures of Government in the Christian Church In the Reigns of the great Constantine Jovian Gratian Theodosius the Great Arcadius Honorius Theodosius the younger Marcian Leo Justin and Justinian are exemplified the Natural good Effects of abetting the Power of the Church by good Laws and their effectual Execution In the Reigns of Julian and Valentinian we may observe the inevitable Mischiefs of Toleration and Liberty of Conscience In the Reigns of Constantius and Valens but especially of Zeno and Anastasius are to be seen the fatal and bloody Consequences of pretended Moderation or as we phrase it comprehension that indeed unites all Parties but then it is like a Whirlpool into one common Gulf of Ruin and Confusion This is the short account of this Undertaking and the Historical Events of things being withal so very Natural they will of themselves amount to a fair Demonstration of the Necessity of Discipline in the Church and Penal Laws in the State All that I can ensure for the Performance is its Truth and Integrity I have faithfully and impartially perused all the most Material and Original Records both of Church and State and out of them and them alone have Collected the ensuing History and if that prove true and for that I stand bound the Conclusion that I aim at will make it self The CONTENTS SEct. I. The State of the Church under Jovian The Hypocrisie both of the Eusebians to recover their Bishopricks and of the Acacians to preserve theirs in owning the Nicene Faith page 1. § II. Of Valentinian his Edict for Liberty of Conscience The struglings of the Eusebians against the Acacians Their Councils at Lampsacus and Tyana to that end They are defeated by the juglings of the Acacians The dishonest craft of the two Leaders Eudoxius in the East and Auxentius in the West p. 7. § III. The Persecution of St. Basil by the Eudoxians his discourse with the Prefect Modestus Dear to the Emperor Valens Valens himself no Arian but abused by the Eudoxians the deplorable State of the Eastern Church at that time under their Oppressions St. Basil's misfortune in receiving Eustathius of Sebasta to communion The death of St. Athanasius The Heresie of Apollinaris how suppressed p. 27. § IV. The Election of St. Ambrose to the See of Milan The death of Valentinian the mischiefs he brought upon the Empire by his principle of Liberty of Conscience Themistius the Philosopher's Address to Valens in behalf of the Orthodox The Emperor Gratian's Rescripts and effectual Proceedings against Hereticks His restitution of the Discipline of the Church The bounds of the Imperial and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction briefly stated The great Schism at Antioch occasion'd by Julian's toleration p. 35. § V. The singular care of Theodosius the Great to settle the Church and Orthodox Faith Vindicated in his Institution of the Communicatory Bishops He summons the general Council at Constantinople and confirms all their Decrees by several Imperial Rescripts Wisely forbids all Disputes about Religion Assists the young Valentinian against the Tyrum Maximus and prevails with him to reverse his severe Rescript against the Catholicks p. 55. § VI. Valentinian made the first open breach upon the Power of the Church in taking to himself the Power of Judicature in Matters of Faith St. Ambrose his Sufferings upon that account His Embassy to Maximus his Wisdom and Courage Maximus his Conquest of Italy and overthrow by Theodosius The Stars raised by the Hereticks at Constantinople in the Emperor's absence The method of lying People into Tumults His effectual enacting and executing Laws against them settles the Church in Peace p. 66. § VII His Laws made without the concurrence of the Church for reforming the Abuses of Widows and Deaconesses the disorders of Monks and the Abuse of Church-Sanctuary p. 81. § VIII His Laws without the same concurrence against Manichees Apostates Pagans and in behalf of the Jews p. 89. § IX Of the Council of Aquileia Of the Schism at Rome between Damasus and Ursicinus Of the Schism at Alexandria between Peter and Lucius Of the Schism at Antioch between Paulinus and Flavianus p. 98. § X. The unparallell'd Immorality of the Priscillian Heresie The Prosecution of them by Ithacius justified against Mr. B. they were executed as Malefactors and Traitors not as Hereticks St. Martin's great indiscretion in interceding for them p. 124. § XI The praise of Theodosius against the Calumnies of Zosimns The Laws of his Son Arcadius against the Hereticks p. 152. § XII His Laws of Privilege to the Catholicks The several Laws of Tuition The Law of civil Decision in the Church by Arbitration The Laws against Appeals from the Church to the civil Power p. 167. § XIII His Laws of Reformation of Discipline Against the tumults of Monks the abuse of Sanctuary against the Johannites against Apostates In behalf of the Jews The Laws of Honorius against and for the Jews The Laws of both Emperors under the Title de Paganis p. 180. § XIV The history and design of the Theodosian Code Theodosius his own Novels Of the Parabolani of Alexandria The famous Law concerning the Churches of â—lâ—yricum explain'd together with his other Laws and the Laws of Valentinian the third p. 198. § XV. The History and Acts of the Council of Ephesus against Nestorius and Imperial ratification of the Decreeâ—â—f the Church by Marcian p. 225. § XVI The
rational discourse of the true use of Councils and their Authoritative determinations in the Christian Church It is not say they to make new Doctrines of Faith but to protect the old Truths against the wantonness of Innovators so that if all men would be content with the Ancient Faith it would be needless for the Church to make any new Declarations but when men leave the old Track of Religion to loose themselves in their own new contrived Labyrinths and corrupt the plain and simple Truth with over nice and curious Inventions it is then necessary for the Church to stop their Vanity by its Authoritative Declaration of the Truth it self Not as if there were something defective in the Faith and the Church were always adding to it but to make such wholesome Provisions as it judges most convenient against all Innovated Doctrines And this they exemplifie by â—ll the Decrees of the several Councils against the Prophane Novelties of Arius Pâ—â—tinus Macedonius and Nestorius and shew that they were only Fences to guard and defend the simplicity of the Ancient Faith against the petulâ—nt Assaulâ—s of these several Hereticks and that they declare to be the ground of their present determination against Eutyches that it was only a Declaration of the old Truth against a new Heresie And much more to this purpose and it is the true State of the Authority of Councils to make Decrees to stop the vanities and singularities of Innovators and when they are made they become obligatory by their own Authority and nothing can hinder or take off their Obligation but an apparent contrariety to the Divine Law So that it neither concerns nor becomes the Subject to make a strict and Philosophical search after the truth of the Decree it is enough to him that it is not apparently false In all other Cases the Authority of the Church is sufficient to justifie his Obedience before God by whose Providence they were placed under their Government And the want of this just Civility to Superiors has in all Ages been the true Original of all disturbances in the Christian Church And this was the sence of the Emperor himself who immâ—dâ—ately upon the Receipt of this Report from the Fathers publishes an Edict to the talking Citizens of Constantinople forbidâ—ing all farther disputations about the Christian Faith in that all Controversies were now determined by the Authority of the Council against which he says it were prophaneness and sacriledge for any man to presume to set up his own Opinion and no less madness then to grâ—pe after more Light at noon day and therefore after this clear discovery of the â—ruth whoever will not acquiesce in it but makes farther Enquiry he can neither seek nor find any thing but falshood And for this reason all farther disputes are peremptorily forbidden as an insolent and intolerable affront to the Sacred Authority of the Council and this is enacted under the forementioned Penalties that he declared in the 6th Session for the Confirmation of their Exposition of Faith Deposition of the Clergy Disbanding of Souldiers and Banishment of Citizens And this was afterward alledged as a proper instance by Facundus Hermianensis to the Emperor Justinian against the condemnation of the tria capitula after they had been tryed and acquitted by the Council of Calcedon with this remark upon it The Emperor Marcian judged it no less than Prophaneness and Sacriledg to review the Sacerdotal Judgment and therefore that being once pass't it was an end of all Controversie Here behold a Prince indeed a true Father of the Common-Wealth and a true Son of the Church that does not dictate but follow Ecclesiastical Decrees declaring by his Edict That whoever after the settlement of the truth shall pretend to make any farther inquiry can seek for nothing but Error For this saying forever blessed be his Memory all the World over who not only recover'd the sinking Empire but also restored lasting Peace to the poor distracted Church This Edict was reinforced by a second a Month after and Copies of it sent to all the several Praefecti-praetorio for its more effectual Execution And they are both revived in a third Rescript published the year following in which this Heresie and all the ways of propagating it are supprest by all the punishments against all other Heretiques So that it is in reality a neat Compendium of all the Laws under the Title de Haereticis in the Theodosian Code And because the bastard Council of Ephesus under Dioscorus in which Flavianus Eusebius Theodoret and many other Catholick Bishops were condemn'd had been ratified by a Rescript of Theodosius he here cancels its full force as to all the Sufferers that were surviving And because the Eutychian Itch was got among the Monks of Jerusalem and Alexandria to the raising of botches and tumults especially at Jerusalem by the disorderly behavior of one Theodosius who made himself Bishop of the place the Emperor and Empress write to them to desist at their farther peril But it seems some were stubborn and irreclaimable and no sort of Men so obstinate as those that live remote from the Conversation of the World and therefore in the year 455 the Emperor renews his former Rescript particularly to be put in Execution at Alexandria where the Heresie most reign'd and that is the last time that he appear'd against them And thus in four years time by protecting the Church in its due Authority and by abetting their Decrees with Penal Laws and by seeing his own Laws put in effectual Execution he put an end to this powerful and prevailing Heresie though it had gain'd both the Eunuchs and the Empire to its side § XVII And thus this great Prince this pattern of Government to all his Successors as Evagrius stiles him having settled all things both in Church and State two years after dyes and is succeeded in the year 457 by Leo who was chosen by the unanimous Vote both of the Senate and the Army a Prince says Nicephorus that would have carried the Election in the most flourishing times of the old Common-Wealth when only worth gave right and title to Preferm%nt a Man of that strict and severe Vertue that he must have been chosen Augustus by the Cato's themselves But as great a Man as he was he found it an hard task to keep things in that good order in which they were left by his Predecessor For no sooner came the news of Marcian's death to Alexandria that Metropolis of Sedition but a few of the Eutychian Party among whom were only two Bishops accompanied with the City-rabble make Timotheus Aelurus their Bishop and most inhumanely murther Proterius at Divine service who had been chosen to that See by the Bishops of the Province upon the deposition of Dioscorus and not content with his blood they treat the dead body with all the circumstances of rudeness and barbarity Upon this Complaints are carried to the Emperor by both Parties
poison'd himself upon Zeno's recovering the Empire Peter Moggus was chosen his Successor by the Eutychian Faction but is deposed by the Emperor 's own Command and Timotheus Salophasiolus their Lawful Bishop is restored This Timotheus was chosen to the See of Alexandria upon the deposition of Timotheus Aelurus by the Emperor Leo was ejected by Basiliscus restored by Zeno and after 23 years from the date of his Election dyes And his keeping that See so long did not a little contribute to the Disorders of that Church he being a softly and unactive Man that would never put the Discipline of the Church nor the Imperial Laws in execution against the Hereticks and though Complaints of his remisness were carried to the Emperor and though the Emperor sent him particular Orders to break up their Conventicles he could not be prevail'd upon to act but instead of that suffer'd himself to be prevail'd with upon pretence of Peace and reconciling to put Dioscorus himself into the Dyptichs and by this gentleness he became very popular among the factious Alexandrians insomuch that as he at any time passed through the Streets the Rabble were wont to salute him with this out-cry viz. That though we cannot communicate with thee yet we cannot but love thee And the silly Man was so charmed with this childish Rattle that he parted with his Episcopal Authority to purchase it and by this means it was that the Faction grew so great in that City And certain it is that the Courtiers of Popularity are of all Men most unfit for Government in the Church they will certainly betray their Trust and their Duty to the applause of the People But upon his death in the year 482 the Clergy of Alexandria elect Joannes Talaia who is rejected by the Emperor's Command and who but Petrus Moggus put in his stead This the Historians say was done by the instigation of Acacius out of a private picque against Talaia for neglecting to send Synodical Epistles according to custom to signifie his election to him as he had done to the other great Sees But however outed he was upon pretence of enormous Crimes Perjury and Simony in that he had obliged himself under Oath never to accept of that Bishoprick and yet for all that had purchased it with Money as Evagrius reports from Zacharias Rhetor the Eutychian Historian And Liberatus says that he was Treasurer of the Church of Alexandria and out of the Churches Treasure purchased the Bishoprick of Count Illus at that time a powerful Man at Court It is certain that that was the occasion of the miscarriage of his Synodical Letters to Acacius they being inclosed in others directed to his Patron Illus who hapning to be absent at that time as far as Antioch the Messenger thought himself obliged to continue his Journey forward for the safe delivery of his Letters in which Interval of time Acacius being a very proud man was pleased to conceive his Jealousy against Joannes Talaia and procure his deposition upon the fore-mention'd Articles and then treats with Petrus Moggus and his Court-Patrons and receives him to communion upon his acceptance of the Emperor's instrument of Union but that was to please the Emperour for in private he obliged him to receive the faith and authority of the Council of Calcedon as himself like a time-rigling Knave as the Historian calls him declares over and over in his Apologetical Epistle to Acacius to vindicate himself from the calumny of his having contrary to his Faith renounced the Council And the same shuffling Arts are observed of him by Liberatus that he prevaricated with both Parties pretending to Acacius to communicate with the Synod and to the Alexandrians to defy it And the Emperour Zeno himself assures Pope Foelix that he was not admitted to his Bishoprick but upon his owning the Council of Calcedon in an Epistle extant in Liberatus But when the wicked man had gain'd his point he forswears all his subscriptions anathematises the Council and Leo's Epistle blots Proterius and Salophasiolus out of the Dypticks and puts in Dioscorus and Timotheus Aelurus And now here do we find by vertue of this Imperial Instrument of Union the whole Christian World involved in a Civil Warr one Party asserting the Council of Calcedon another anathematising it a third despising both and trampling upon all the Discipline of the Church in defence of a Court-irregularity But the quarrel run highest between the two powerful Bishops of Rome and Constantinople for Acacius Bishop of Constantinople having the Court and the Emperour to back him bids defyance not only to the Pope but to the Catholique Church and all its Laws For though himself was the first man that had appear'd against Petrus Moggus and convicted him of manifest Heresy and certified his conviction to Pope Simplicius yet now without any due satisfaction receives him not only to Communion but prefers him to one of the highest dignities in the Christian Church And thô after all these obliging streins of Courtesie Moggus discover'd his obstinacy by anathematising the Council and changing the Dypticks Acacius winks hard and will not see it but stands by him to the last drop of blood calls all the Power of the Court into his assistance to support him against the Discipline and Authority of the Church slites he admonitions of the greatest Bishops in it Imprisons their Legates defies their Sentence lives and dyes excommunicate and all this for a Man that himself could not but know to be a sâ—ubborn Heretick The full account of all these transactions beside the Relations of the Historians Liberatus and Evagrius is to be seen in the Letters of Pope Simplicius and Foelix the Breviculus Histâ—riae Eutychianistarum and the Acts produced in the Cause of Acacius at the Council at Rome all which are printed together in their proper place and order of time in Labbe's Councils The first correspondence about this matter against Petrus Moggus was as I have already intimated opened by Acacius himself in his Epistle to Simplicius informing him that upon the death of Timotheus Aelurus one Petrus Moggus an excommunicate Person being a Thief and a Son of Darkness had at midnight stoln into the Throne of Alexandria having only one Companion to attend him by which Act of madness he made himself obnoxious to greater Punishments than had been hitherto pronounced against him but however he was defeated of his Design for Timotheus Salophasiolus being restored to his Throne this foolish thief durst never shew his head more In answer to this Simplicius returns divers congratulatory Letters not only to Acacius but the Emperor Zeno exhorting him to banish Moggus out of the City But in the next Letters he complains of the neglect of his Advice and suspects warping and luke warmness in Acacius and the next news we hear is that upon the death of Timotheus Petrus Moggus is by the power of Acacius advanced
and Reconciliation and insists upon no other terms than only the suppression of the name of Acacius But now the Emperor instead of yielding to any Rules of Discipline finding he had a coming Pope endeavors to draw him to the Henoticon and obliges one Festus a Senator of Rome then at Constantinople to undertake it but before his return home the Pope dyed in the year 498. And he is with great difficulty succeeded by Symmachus for Festus to carry on his Design of Comprehension set up against him one Laurentius a Man that he very well knew would do any thing to comply with the Emperor's Will for the advancement of his own Ends. And that gave Being to one of the most furious Schisms that ever hapned in that Church not only the People and the Clergy but the Senators themselves being ingaged in each Party even to Blood and Slaughter And the Quarrel grew so high that King Theodorick was at last forced to repair to the City with his Army to prevent a Civil War and at length after great pains by the Assistance of a Council at Rome commonly call'd the Synodus Palmaris gave Symmachus Possession And at Constantinople Tumults became so furious that above 3000 of the Orthodox Christians were murther'd at one time at Divine Service by the Soldiers as was affirm'd by the Emperor's Instigation And upon it Symmachus writes to him to reprove him for the cruelty of the Action and require him to forbear all farther Communion with Hereticks but he grows more violent and so is excommunicated but that transports him to that indecency of Passion that he condescends to write Libels against the Pope that are answer'd again with sufficient rudeness the Pope telling him in plain terms that he is as good a Man as himself Upon this the Emperor looses all patience and so with as great an Extravagance on the other side publishes a fraudulent Rescript that no Man shall be capable of any Preferment in Church or State unless he take the Sacrament upon it that he will be true to the Orthodox Faith and what he meant by that is too too evident from his present wild behavior about the Henoticon and so the Rescript is interpreted by Theodorus Lector And sometime after i. e. in the year 510 he publishes another Rescript to incapacitate all that were not Orthodox in his own sense for all Ecclesiastical Preferment And at the same time indeavors with all his might to remove Macedonius from the See of Constantinople though he had been placed there by himself upon the banishment of Euphemius till at length the barbarous Rabble and Soldiers again broke in with Clubs and Staffs upon the Catholicks as they were at Divine Service in the Church of Arch-Angel adding after the Trisagion this form of Words who was Crucified for us This came to blows and tumults that were chiefly managed by Severus the Monk of whose goodly Vertues more anon and Julian Bishop of Halicarnassus a Man much of the same Kidney till a vast Rabble of the Orthodox join'd in a Body together and as is the manner of Tumults cryed one and all so that the Emperor was forced to engarrison himself within his own Palace and was taking Ship to secure himself by flight but that bethinking himself to send for Macedonius and sweeten him with some good Words by his means who good Man was much more troubled at the Disorders than the Emperor himself appeased the Tumult and for his reward of so good a piece of Service he was immediately conveyed away by night kept in close Prison and one Timotheus placed in his See And the same Method of Moderation was put in practice every where in the Eastern Church and among the rest the great Flavianus of Antioch was banisht and Severus the Monk that mortified Man who had long watcht for the See of Constantinople placed in his stead He was first bred to the Law where he might if he would but give his Mind to it learn all the shifts of fraud and oppression from thence he betook himself to a Monastery to accomplish himself with all the slites of Hypocrisie being expell'd thence he at last betakes himself to Court to make all his other good Qualities useful and practicable by a sufficient stock of Impudence and what cannot that Man do that is made up of so good a warp of knavery so well wooft with Hypocrisie lin'd through with immodesty Thus accoutred to Court the demure Man comes and finding which way the Weather-cock of Preferment stood soon insinuates himself into the favor of the Religious Empress and that was an easie passage to the Emperor whom he soon got into his possession and put him upon his severe Courses in pursuance of moderation only to make some good vacancy for himself He had heav'd twice at the Bishoprick of Constantinople in the Expulsion of Euphemius and Macedonius but finding it would not take there he is content with Antioch and so procures the expulsion of Flavianus for his not quitting the Council And though the Emperor according to the Tenor of his Henoticon obliged him by Oath never to anathematise it yet he could not forbear doing it publickly in the Church at the very time of his Consecration Neither does his zeal and fury confine it self to his own Church but he vents it in other Diocesses and particularly procures the banishment of Elyas Bishop of Jerusalem who had with many Conflicts and for many Years weather'd it against the Emperor's own folly But at last his Enormities grew so intolerable and his contempt of the Canons so scandalous that notwithstanding all his power at Court he is solemnly excommunicated by a Council at Constantinople at the Emperor 's own doors and such was the rudeness of his Tongue as well as his Actions that after the death of Anastasius it was condemn'd by the Emperor Justin at the instigation of the Courtiers to be cut out for a Penance for its foul language had he not saved both that and himself by â—light 'T is still we see this sort of precious Saints that are for promoting the dissettlement and oppression of the Church for their own ambitious Ends. But things being every where in such confusion and the People under such discontents this gives both a pretence and an opportunity to Vitalian General of the Army to revolt and he God knows his heart takes up Arms only to right and restore the banisht Bishops and at last yields to a Peace upon condition that the Emperor would call a free Council at Heraclea for the settlement of the Church and the restitution of the Bishops and the Emperor to make good the Article summons about 200 to the place appointed but dismisses them without any Debate Upon this Vitalian threatens and arms again but is at present bought off with a round sum of Money And now the Emperor finding at last into what streights he had brought himself and his Government by
he was really of their Communion but desires that it may be kept secret and that they would seem to suspect him more than ever that he might have the better opportunity of doing effectual service to the Cause This is the substance of the Letter but Baronius and the Roman Writers suspect it to have been forged because in all his following scuffles about the tria capitula he was never upbraided with it But what wonder is that when the thing was to be kept secret though it might and it seems did come to the knowledg of some as appears by Liberatus an Actor in the business who procured and publisht a Copy of it But he having secured possession of his Throne by the death of Silverius he now writes a flattering Epistle to the Emperor for the Council of Calcedon damns all the Hereticks disclaims all correspondence with the Acephali assures him that he will live and dye by the Council and requests him not to believe any Information whatsoever against him to the contrary But after all he is so crafty as to send his main Message about the best means for settlement of the Church by word of Mouth to baulk as much as it was possible the full discovery of himself All which atheistical hypocrisie Baronius takes great pains to impute to his miraculous Conversion only by vertue of St. Peter's Chair But the Emperor having publisht his Rescript against the tria capitula and finding storms gathering upon it sends to Vigilius whoâ—e private sense he understood to repair to Constantinople with his advice and thither he comes being ready to sieze any opportunity to shew his Power but instead of joining in free Council with the Bishops in effect takes the whole judgment to himself Of his fraudulent behavior in that whole transaction Facundus who was an Eye-witness and indeed the chief Transactor in it has given us a particular account viz. That when he dissembled ignorance of the whole Controversie and Facundus offerd his service to give him full information he having afore-hand obliged himself by promise to give sentence against the Capitula and designing to excuse himself with pretence of Ignorance shamelesly refuses the proffer cuts off all farther proceedings and desires the Bishops that sat with him to give in their Answers singly in writing For they being newly come to Constantinople to consult with his Holiness and being not pre-engaged by any subscription were by this Artifice over-reacht to give in their Answer against the Capitula and the Council And to prevent their drawing back they are obliged to do it not by Vote but by Writing And when he had received their several Answers away he carries them to Court and there delivers them into the hands of the Acephali to be laid up among the former subscriptions that had been made against the Council And that he might not be thought a Traitor by his own Party for he hitherto pretended to side with the Orthodox he pretends that he would not keep them himself lest hereafter there should be found in the Registry of the Church of Rome so many Subscriptions against the Council As if says Facundus he could not as well have torn or burnt them or return'd them back to the Authors from whom he ought never to have received much less to have extorted them if he had been at all concern'd that nothing should be done in prejudice of the Council And thus says he by this his customary dissimulation counterfeiting a zeal in behalf of the Council he effectually promotes the designs of its Enemies And what could do it more than that 70 Bishops sitting in Council with the great Bishop of Rome should beside those many more that had before subscribed prejudg the Controversie All this prevarication Baronius out of his infinite zeal to the Apostolick See endeavors to excuse because before Vigilius heard the Cause he supposed that the condemnation of the tria capitula reflected upon the Authority of the Council but now upon hearing the reasons on both sides and being satisfied that it was unconcern'd in the Controversie he grew more moderate and indifferent and for Peace sake inclined to comply with the Emperor and the Eastern Bishops But what ever Apology this may be for his change of mind it is no excuse for his jugling and underhand dealing and withal as for his change of mind by the Cardinals good leave to condemn writings of Heresie by an Imperial Rescript that had been clear'd of the Charge by the Sentence of a General Council is plainly to subvert not the Authority of that Council alone but of the whole Catholick Church This was the blot of Justinian's Reign that no Candor can cover nor Excuse wipe off And his Holiness by his time-serving complyance with it did but give a cast of his old dishonesty when by the Cardinal 's own account he exceeded all Mankind in Wickedness and proves that he was still acted by his six-fold Female Devil Theodora as he calls her who was the great stickler in the design in favor of the Eutychians because whether the condemnation of the tria capitula were in it self any direct reflection upon the Council or not those that promoted it were resolved to make that use of it And that was the true ground of the zeal of the African Bishops against it as Facundus himself declared to Vigilius at the Conference Ego enim fateor simpliciter beatitudini vestrae non pro Theoâ—ori Mopâ—suesteni damnatione me à contradicentiae communione subtraxisse hoc enim vel si approbandum non sit ferendum tamen existimo nec tantam esse causam judico pro quâ deberemus à communione multiplici segregari sed quòd ex Personâ Theodori Epistolam Ibae Nestorianianam probare conati sunt quòd ex Epistolâ Ibae Synodum Calcedonensem à quâ suscepta est improbare nam quae alia causa fuisse dicenda est ut post centum viginti suae defunctionis annos damnaretur cum dogmatibus suis Episcopus in Ecclesiae pace defunctus I confess freely to your Holiness that I am not concern'd about the Condemnation of Theodorus for though it be not to be approved yet it may be born neither do I think the thing of that weight that we need to divide Communion about it but because from a Sentence against the Person of Theodorus they endeavour to charge the Epistle of Ibas with Nestorianism in which his Writings are commended and then from the Epistle of Ibas to strike at the Council it self by whom it was allowed for what other Cause can be imagined of all this stir that a Bishop who died in the Peace of the Churchâ— shoud be brought to Judgment above one Hundred and Twenty Years after his death And that was the reason that the Africans were so resty which Vigilius finding and withal his own Clergy offended he again shrinks back and in a Consult with Theodorus and Mennas
common ruin And again Justinian and Theodora seemâ—d to me and all othâ—rs of the Senatorian Order not of the race of Mankind but the worst breed of Devils and the very Plagues of Humane kind that consulted together how they might destroy the Universe with most expedition and for that reason assumed Humane shapes being as it were half-Man half Devil and so over-turn'd the whole World And this may be proved by the great enormity of their Wickedness in which these Devils infinitely out-stript all the villainy that Mankind is capable of acting For thô there have been divers Tyrants in former Ages that were cruel beyond all bounds of Barbarity that dispeopled whole Cities Provinces and Kingdoms yet these were the first that utterly destroyed the Race of Mankind and laid wast the universal World And once more not to be too tedious this Story of mowing down the Inhabitants of the whole World being the Subject of every Page That Justinian was in reality no Man but the Devil in the shape of a Man is evident from those unparallell'd Mischiefs that he brought upon Mankind for the height of all Wickedness is to be taken from the depth of it Authors Villainy But for that it were more easie to compute the Sand upon the Sea-shore then all the Nations destroyed by Justinian And as for my own part I am able to reckon up two hundred and ten Millions of Men that were offer'd Victims to his Barbarity A very fair reckoning this were the particulars well cast up for by the summ total one could expect to hear of no less than the old Pranks of Caligula Nero and Commodus of Phalaris his ten thousand bulls and Pharaohs ten millions of Brick-Kills of the out-rages of the thirty Tyrants and the fury of the ten persecutions of firing the City assassinating the Senate putting whole Provinces to the Sword but what do I speak of all these trifles of Cruelty if compared to the destruction of the whole habitable World for that is the Chorus to all our Tragedies that he did not only cut the throats of all the Inhabitants of the Roman Empire but buried the whole World in one common ruin What not one Man left alive the whole Race at once destroyed How then came the face of the Earth to be peopled again by Deucalion's Stones or Cadmus's Teeth Oh no says Alemannus these are only certain Schemes of Speech that the learned call hyperbolical Expressions It may be so but we that are unlearned cannot distinguish them from impudent Lies and Impossibilities For if every Man living were not destroyed then the tale as it is told is all fable but if the destruction were universal then the question returns how the Earth ever came to be re-inhabited without those Absurdities that we commonly call poetical Hyperboles But not to be too severe upon the licence of Lampoons we will grant that possibly the Hydra or the Dragon might spare some few alive but in compensation let us compute how many millions of his Subjects he devoured at every meal Where lay the Cities where the Provinces where the Nations that he so universally dispeopled How great a part of the Empire he recover'd we know from his Wars with the Goths and Vandals in Italy and Africk but that he ever destroyed any one Province is news to this very day How many stately Cities he built is recorded by Procopius but if he ever reduced either any of them or any other to Ashes he would have done well to have told us in his own defence if he could but have alledged any one Example What strange way of writing history is this to tell us of such vast numbers of Cities Provinces and Nations destroyed without specifying but one Village But though he might not mow down whole Cities and Provinces at a stroak yet he might commit such vast numbers of out-rages at divers times and in divers places as might amount to the two hundred and ten millions of lives That may be but as vast as the Empire was I doubt it would scarce afford pasture enough for so great a Butchery But if it would I would only know where when and by whom these vast Oceans of blood were shed He reign'd 39 years by himself and govern'd nine years more under his Unkle Justin in all which time if we inquire of our Libeller the Catalogue of his Executions Why to be short Amantius and Vitalvanus were put to death They were so but what are two Men above two hundred millions of Men This is the priviledg of hyperbolical Historians But seeing this is all our Martyrology let us inquire into the merits of the Cause for it is that they say and not the suffering that makes the Martyr and by that we shall easily discern that these unheard of Cruelties were so far from that that they were not only necessary Acts of Government but of common Justice too Amantius had been the Author of all the Severities against the Catholicks under Anastasius insomuch that at the Coronation of the Emperor Justin the People cryed out for his blood But that was not the cause of his death but his endeavor to set up Theocritus against him in the Empire for which as they were both justly put to death so was it an Action necessary to the preservation of the Government it self But as the Author of the Libel tells the Story he discovers himself to be no true Procopius for first he says that Amantius was put to death by Justinian whereas he was immediately executed by Justin at his first coming to the Crown as appears not only from all the co-temporary Historians Marcellinus Comes Jornandes Evagrius Victor Tunonensis but from the matter of Fact it self he being taken off for setting up Theocritus for the title of the Crown against Justin. But when he farther adds the Cause of his death he utterly betrays the Imposture of the whole Libel viz. that he had been too saucy in his language to John Bishop of Constantinople whereas there was no such Bishop of that name in all the long Reign of Justinian till the last year of his life But here for a Reconciler commend me to the Apostolical Librarian that when there were two Patriarchs of Constantinople one that dyed in the first year of Justin surnamed Cappadox and another that came to that See in the last year of Justinian surnamed Scholasticus to make sure of a John in his reign he pieces up one Bishop of these two Men and says that Procopius meant Johannes Scholasticus Cappadox though Cappadox was dead near 50 years before Scholasticus was consecrated and four Bishops of other Names were ranged in the Dypticks between them Epiphanius Anthimus Mennas and Eutychius And yet the learned Librarian is so strangely or rather so wilfully ignorant as to make that the grand Article against Justinian that he was the Man who first granted the Title of Oeâ—umenical Bishop to this Joannes Scholasticus
we have by sad experience found a long and fatal Schism till the Divine Providence cured the wound by your Majesties Care and Power speaking to Justinian and therefore great Sir in the name of God persevere in so good a work that has been accepted with the joy of the whole Christian World and blot not out its glory by deserting it c. And that is the natural and inevitable Event of all trimming tricks that instead of reconciling Parties as 't is pretended it only lets them loose to worry one another And withal first adds to the insolence of that Party that had been tyed up the contempt of that Authority that restrain'd it and then kindles the rage and indignation of the other Party that had gained the upper-hand and lastly that which is worst of all it makes breaches for new Divisions And so it hap'ned here Peter Mongus having by this device got possession of his Bishoprick he endeavours to trim and comply with both Parties and by it incurs the hatred of both loosing his own without winning the other And they communicating neither with the Catholicks nor with their own Bishop became a new Sect called Acephali i. e. Men without an Head so natural is it for all shufflings in Government to end in Anarchy and Confusion It was this wise way of quacking to cure the wounds of the Church by Irenicum Plaisters and comprehensive Weapon-salves that brought the breach between the Eastern and Western Churches to an incurable Eresipulus or Fire of Contention over the Face of the Christian Church For Petrus Moggus being by that means received by Acacius not only to Catholick Communion but advanced to a Top-Bishoprick contrary not only to the ancient Canons but to the late Decree of the Council of Calcedon Acacius is upon it call'd to account by Pope Simplicius and persisting in his Treachery is excommunicated in a Council at Rome and that laid the ground of all those Contests that followed after upon the Acacian Schism as the Romanists stile it to the final Separation of both Churches And what else can be expected from such a daubing Cement of Peace to unite men in the same Communion as leaves them under all their differences and contrarieties of Opinion a contradiction in the nature of the thing for if they are in good earnest they will pursue their differences if they are not indulgence is needless and they are to be reclaim'd another way but whether they are or are not if they are allowed their liberty every man will be of his own mind and an enemy to every man that is not and the result of all is that how much soever they dissent among themselves they shall be forced to counterfeit an agreement but dissembling is no Tye. And therefore after such devices the next thing that we always hear of is that the breach is made much wider And thus here beside the Contest between Acacius and Simplicius Petrus Moggus falls out with both and instead of taking the Catholicks into his comprehensive Embrace in a short time finding they would not quit their Principles and the Council of Calcedon raises a severe Persecution against them and peremptorily refuses all Communion to all that adhere to the Council and upon it the Church of Alexandria continued in a State of Schism through a long Succession of Bishops into the next Century till the Pacisicators again fell out among themselves and subdivided into new and fiercer Factions and Animosities And not only that Church to which the healing Henoticon was particularly directed but the whole Catholick Church was every where dissolved into irreconcileable Wars and Confusions But as sad as the event of the Henoticon proved there is one pleasant Passage to be observed about it that whereas before there were but two Factions in the Church i. e. for and against the Council of Calcedon this created a third call'd the Haesitantes or Neuters that were neither for nor against the Council and as both Parties hated these more than they did one another as Traitors to both so they again under pretence of indifferency and moderation requited them with all the violence of Persecution and when they had got the Emperor Anastasius a serious Prince into their hands they stir'd him up to prosecute both the extreme Parties with a more than ordinary severity as we shall see more at large when we come to his Reign But first let us take a view of the particular Mischiefs that it soon produced under Zeno himself who too after all his trimming was forced at last to turn Persecutor By whom the Henoticon was contrived it is not easie to determine with any certainty I know it is generally laid upon Acacius but I suspect that Report to have been raised by his Enemies at Rome only to blast his Reputation But though there is no clear Evidence that it was his contrivance yet it is undeniable that he gave it too great acceptance and by that means gave too just advantage to the Bishops of Rome to insult over him For though their private Design was to beat down the growing greatness of the See of Constantinople yet he deserved the utmost severity that they could use against him by betraying the Discipline and Authority of the Christian Church so dishonorably as to receive such Persons into its Communion that had been cast out of it by no less Judgment than the Sentence of a General Council and that upon no better Warrant than a Mandate from Court And that I take to be the Shop in which the wise Contrivance was forged between the Courtiers out of an Itch to be tampering with Church-work and the outed Eutychians either to recover their Preferments or usurp other Mens and through the whole sequel of the Story we shall find the old Eusebian Game playing over again But whoever was the Author of it it was cunningly enough contrived to impose upon the World and serve the Eutychian Cause without owning it The best copy of it is the Greek in Evagrius The Latin Version in Liberatus is false and barbarous perverting the sense for want of sufficient skill in both Languages It establisht the Nicene Faith as own'd by the following Councils it condemn'd both Nestorius and Eutyches by name and though it says nothing of the Council of Calcedon it self it establisht the Faith of the Council but without regard to its Authority and the Emperor himself declares That as for his own part he imbraced the Council of Calcedon though he would not have it imposed upon the Catholick Church So that at the bottom the whole design of the Project was only to take off the Authority of that Council and then the Eutychians were at liberty to play their Game and drive their own Bargains and so the Markets were soon set up in the greatest Sees and the chief Chapmen were Peter Moggus at Alexandria and Peter â—ullo at Antioch Upon the death of Timotheus Aelurus who
to the See of Alexandria Of which when Simplicius sends him Letters of Complaint one after another he would never vouchsafe him any Answer and so Simplicius dying the â—udgels are immediately taken up by his Successor Foelix the 3 d and the first Act of his Government is to call a Council in which a Synodical Letter of Admonition is written to Acacius chiding him for his sullenness to Simplicius charging him with Pride and ill-manners towards the Apostolick See advising him to use his Interest with the Emperor to rectifie the late Misdemeanors at Alexandria in the election of Moggus otherwise he must be thought an Apostate from his own Principles and a Renegado to the Hereticks for not to proceed against wicked Men when it is in a Man's power to curb them is to give them protection and he incurs suspicion of secret friendship who gives over his opposition to a manifest impiety And in tâ—e same Council another long and pathetical Letter is drawn up to the Emperor and sent by the same Legates Vitalis and Micenus conjuring him to keep fast to his old Principles against the Hereticks and gauling him in the same Dilemma in which they had involved Acacius viz. That if he stood firm to the Council of Calcedon he must renounce the Hereticks and therefore if he did not oppose them he protected them against the Council and that was manifest opposing it But the Emperor was big with his new Project of comprehension and was deaf to all advice against it and Acacius being secure of him he slites Foelix his Letters imprisons his Legates and draws them in to join Communion with himself and Moggus Upon the news whereof another Council is immediately summon'd at Rome where the sentence of Deposition and Excommunication is denounced against him But he being warm and safe at Court slites the force of all Ecclesiastical Discipline and requites Foelix in his own coin striking his name out of the Dypticks and persisted in the exercise of his own Function to his dying day which was 4 years after the Sentence that was decreed in the year 484 and he dyed in the year 488. This was the effect of this shrewd Instrument of Comprehension in these three head Churches of Rome Constantinople and Alexandria nothing less than a total breach of Communion and one of the fiecrest Schisms that ever befel the Christian Church and though the Peace between them was patcht up about 34 years after by the Power and Activity of Pope Hormisdas yet they were never heartily reconcil'd to this very day As for Acacius it is a dispute what he was some indict him of Heresie or Church-treason others only of high Misdemeanors though as for my own part after all streins of Candor I cannot but think him guilty of both or I fear something worse the want of a serious sense of Religion To free him from the high charge of Heresie it is pleaded that he never in the least own'd the Eutychian Faith that he ever declared against it that he was never charged with it by the Ancients and that in the Sentence against him at Rome where all his Crimâ—s were strictly enough enumerated this is no Article against him But yet for all this I see not how he can be absolved from it for in the Eye of the Law and indeed the common sense of the World all Communâ—on with Hereticks is and ought to be judged Heresie as in all Civil Laws all consulting with Traitors is deem'd Treason For it concerns not the Government to fish out every Man's Opinion or motive of his Practice that can judg only by overt-acts and then to communicate with Hereticks is Heresie and to consult with Traitors Treason But much more in this particular Case in which all Communion with the Hereticks had been Canonically declared Heresie by the Church in the great Council of Calcedon and without it the sentence of the Church had been of no force for that can reach no farther than their outward Communion So that after all the Henoticon was so far from compromising the Controversies as it pretended and I believe design'd that it only reverst and contradicted the Decree of the Church and by an Imperial Rescript declared that to be no Heresie that had been judged so by the Council and that I take it is plain bidding defyance to it and its Authority As for the other Crimes charged upon him they are enormous enough his very friendship with such ill Men as Moggus and Fullo shews he had but very little sense of Honesty or indeed of Reputation otherwise he would have loath'd and defyed Men of such rank Practices But the leading Sin that betray'd him into all his other Miscarriages was his Pride and Ambition and to gratifie that it is plain that he stuck not to subvert all the Discipline of the Christian Church For finding the Emperor Zeno fond of his Henoticon he at least frankly complyed with it to the subversion of the first and fundamental Law of all Church-Communion in receiving Hereticks into it without Canonical Repentance and Satisfaction And this is suggested in the Decree of the Council at Rome against him that he preferr'd the Emperor's favor above his own Faith and then it is no matter to what Religion such perfidious Men pretend when it is too apparent that they have really none at all And the case of the Church at this time was much the same as it was under the Reigns of Constantius and Valens ill Men got into the Court and from thence crept into the Church and to gain Preferments for themselves flatter'd the Prince into an exorbitant use of his Power against the true and regular Discipline of it And that would at once give them interest at Court and make vacancies in the Church for themselves and this weak Prince was so drunkenly fond of this little Project that he would throw away the best Preferments in the Church upon any Parasite that would but seem to hugg his fondling-Ape by which means great numbers of very bad Men came into the best Churches But one of the greatest Instances of it is the great Church of Antioch we have already seen the other three leading Churches brought into a Civil War among themselves but here it came to blows and cutting of Throats that I shall very briefly describe as another observable Example of the good Effects of this gracious Instrument of Accommodation Petrus Fullo a Monk had been expell'd his Monastery for the Eutychian Heresie in the time of the Emperor Leo flies to Calcedon and being a talkative Man is soon driven thence for the same Cause and so takes shelter at Constantinople and there insinuates himself into the favor of the Princess Ariadne and by her recommends himself to the Patronage of her husband Zeno and having gain'd that he endeavors to dis-place Martyrius Bishop of Antioch Zeno being then Governor of the Place but Martyrius making his Application to the