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ground_n	apostle_n	church_n	time_n	1,642	5	3.9468	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31419	A dissertation concerning the government of the ancient church by bishops, metropolitans, and patriarchs more particularly concerning the ancient power and jurisdiction of the bishops of Rome and the encroachments of that upon other sees, especially the See of Constantinople / by William Cave ...	Cave, William, 1637-1713.	1683 (1683)	Wing C1595; ESTC R19344	102,691	402

Instrument Tu es Petrus c. had committed the care of the whole Church to Peter Prince of the Apostles were disturb'd and shatter'd that it better became Bishops of this time rather to lye upon the ground and to mourn in Sackcloth and Ashes than to affect names of Vanity and to glory in new and profane Titles a piece of Pride and Blasphemy injurious to all other Bishops yea to the whole Church and which it became the Emperour to restrain that by this new Arrogancy and Presumption he had lift up himself above all his Brethren and by his Pride had shewn that the times of Antichrist were at hand that he wondred the Emperour should write to him to be at peace with the Bishop of Constantinople chiding Sabinian his Deacon for not preventing the Emperour's Commands being sent to him To Eulogius Bishop of Alexandria and Anastasius of Antioch whom elsewhere he tickles with their three Sees being the only three Apostolical Sees founded by S. Peter Prince of the Apostles and that they mutually reflected Honour upon each other he represents how great a diminution this was to their Dignity that they should therefore give none this Title for that so much undue Honour as they gave to another so much they took away of what was due to themselves that this fond attempt was the invention of him who goes about as a roaring Lyon seeking whom he may devour and a forerunner of him who is King over all the Children of Pride He tells John himself and that as he pretends with tears in his Eyes that unless he quitted this proud foolish Title he must proceed further with him and that if his profane and ungodly humour could not be cur'd by gentler methods it must be lanc'd by Canonical severity that by this perverse Title he had imitated the Devil and had made himself like to Lucifer Son of the Morning who said I will ascend above the heights of the Clouds I will exalt my Throne above the Stars of God telling us that by Clouds and Stars we are to understand Bishops who water by their Preaching and shine by the light of their Conversation whom while he despis'd and trod upon and proudly lift up himself above them what did he but aspire above the height of the Clouds and exalt his Throne above the Stars of Heaven that such proud Attempts had been always far from him or his Predecessors who had refus'd the Title of Universal Bishop when for the honour of S. Peter Prince of the Apostles the venerable Council of Chalcedon offered it to them XI IN which last passage inculcated by him at every turn no less than four or five several times I cannot but remark either his Carelesness or Insincerity Carelesness in taking such an important passage upon trust or Insincerity if knowing it to be otherwise to lay so much stress upon so false and sandy a foundation For the truth is neither were his Predecessors so modest that I know of as to refuse such a Title neither did the Synod of Chalcedon ever offer it to them There being nothing in all the Acts of that Council that looks this way more than this that four persons that came from Alexandria with Articles against Dioscorus their Bishop exhibited their several Libels of Accusation which they had presented to Pope Leo who had beforehand espoused the quarrel with this inscription To Leo the most holy and religious Oecumenical Archbishop and Patriarch of Great Rome These Libels the Papal Legats desired might be inserted into the Acts of the Council which was done accordingly as is usual in all judiciary Proceedings for no other reason as the Synod it self tells us but this that remaining there they might thence be again rehears'd in Council when Dioscorus himself should appear and come to make his defence This is the true state of the case and now let the Reader judge whether the Council offer'd the Pope this Title when they were so far from approving it that they did not so much as once take notice of it I do not deny but that the Pope's Legats might have an eye that way and design to have that Title remain among the Records of the Council as they were watchful Stewards to improve all advantages for their Master and therefore we find them sometimes subscribing themselves Vice-gerents of Leo of Rome Bishop of the universal Church which yet elsewhere they thus explain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Apostolical and chief Bishop of the whole Church But however they intended it certain it is for any thing that appears to the contrary that the Fathers themselves never dreamt of any such matter and accordingly when they came singly to declare their Judgments about the Epistle of Pope Leo they style him only Pope or Archbishop of Rome nor do his Legates there give him any other Title And in their Synodal Epistle to him they superscribe it only To the most holy and blessed Archbishop of Rome Binius indeed will have the word Oecumenical to have been in the Inscription and that it was maliciously struck out by some Transcriber because says he in the body of the Epistle the Fathers own Leo to be the Head of the Universal Church and the Father of all Bishops When as the Letter has not one word to that purpose more than this That as the Head presides over the Members so did Leo over the Bishops in that Synod which can import no more than his presiding by his Legates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his qui tuas vices gerebant as the last publishers of the Councils truly correct the Translation in that Council But suppose the Pope had had this Title conferr'd upon him as Gregory untruly affirms 't was no more than what was frequently given to the Patriarch of Constantinople as to omit other instances is evident from the Council holden there Ann. DXXXVI under Mennas and another under John 18 years before where John and Mennas successively Bishops of that See have both in the Acts of those Councils and in Libels of Address from whole Synods the Title of Oecumenical Patriarch near twenty times bestow'd upon them And this was several years before it was assum'd by that Patriarch John whom we mention'd before And 't is methinks a sorry evasion of Baronius and his Footman Binius though 't is that which they always have at hand when an Argument pinches which they know not how to decline that this Title was foisted into the Acts of the Council by some later Greeks And yet they produce no authority no nor shadow of pretence from any ancient Copy that ever it was otherwise And what if the Church of Rome did receive the Acts of that Council and yet make no such clamours and loud outcry against it Perhaps it did not intirely admit the Acts of that Synod under John of Constantinople Ann. DXVIII Binius himself says they

him with a vast power putting him into a capacity of receiving and determing final appeals from all those parts The same they again ratify by their seventeenth Canon and by their twenty-eight make a more particular provision for him First they profess in general altogether to follow the Decrees of the Holy Fathers then they recognize the third Canon of the second general Council which was then read before them and Decree the same Priviledges and upon the same account as that had done to the Church of Constantinople Forasmuch say they as the reason why the Fathers conferr'd such Priviledges upon the See of Old Rome was that it was the Imperial City And upon the same consideration the Bishops of that second general Council gave equal Priviledges to the See of New Rome rightly judging as the Canon goes on that the City which was honoured with the Empire and the Senate and enjoy'd equal Priviledges with old Imperial Rome should also in Ecclesiastical matters have the same honour with it only coming after it in the second place And because the Bishop of Constantinople had hitherto had no certain Diocess nor any place wherein to exercise Jurisdiction but what he held precariously and as it were by courtesie in the latter part of the Canon they fix his bounds giving him power over the three Dioceses of Pontica Asiana and Thrace that the Metropolitans of all those places and all the Bishops of the Barbarous Countries belonging to those Dioceses should be bound to come and receive their Ordination from the Bishop of Constantinople And now he lookt like Bishop of the Imperial City being invested with so ample and extensive a Jurisdiction For the three Dioceses of Asiana Pontica and Thrace were great and large The First containing eight Provinces viz. Pamphylia Lydia Caria Lycia Lycaonia Pisidia Phrygia Pacatiand and Phrygia Salutaris both which were anciently comprehended under the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or greater Phrygia as it stood oppos'd to the lesser that lay upon the Hellespont the Second eleven Bithynia Galalatia Paphlagonia Honorias Galatia Salutaris Cappadocia Prima Cappadocia Secunda Hellenopontus Pontus Polemoniacus Armenia Prima Armenia Secunda the third six Europa Thracia Haemimontus Rhodopa Maesia Secunda Scythia The Popes Legates were infinitely enrag'd at this Canon and the Powers and Priviledges hereby given to the See of Constantinople and us'd all possible arts to overthrow it but all in vain it pass'd clearly and was subscrib'd by all the Bishops then present in the Synod amounting to a very great number whose subscriptions are still extant in the Acts of the Council After a full discussion of the whole matter that no pretence of force or fraud might be objected as many of the Bishops of Asiana and Pontica as were then in the Synod were desir'd to declare whether they had freely submitted to this constitution Who accordingly stood up and one after another did most solemnly protest that they had voluntarily and unconstrainedly assented to and subscrib'd the Canon and that nothing was more acceptable to them And many of them expresly declar'd they did it for this reason because not only themselves but their Predecessors had been Ordain'd by the Bishops of Constantinople and that the See of Constantinople had these rights 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from Canons and precedent customs So that it 's more than probable that the Bishop of Constantinople had exercised this power within those Dioceses almost ever since the time of and by virtue of the third Canon of the second general Council And 't is observable what Eusebius Bishop of Dorylaeum a City of the greater Phrygia tells the Synod upon this occasion that he had been at Rome and there in the presence of the Clergy of Constantinople that were with him had read the Canon I suppose he means that of the second general Council to the Pope who approv'd and received it which I the rather take notice of because not only modern Writers but Gregory the Great so confidently affirms that the Church of Rome neither had Copies nor did admit the Acts and Canons of that Council And whereas Eusebius of Ancyra scrupled to subscribe yet he confest that he himself had been Ordain'd by the Bishop of Constantinople that he had ever declin'd Ordaining Provincial Bishops and had done it only by direction of the Bishop of Constantinople And after Thalassius of Caesarea in Cappadocia told the Synod that they were of Arch-bishop Anatolius his side and did decree the same thing The Judges hereupon having weighed all that had past declar'd that in the first place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that precedency and singular honour should according to the Canons be paid to the Arch-bishop of Old Rome and that withal the Arch-bishop of the Imperial City of Constantinople being New Rome ought to enjoy the same Priviledges of honour and to have besides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 power of himself and by his own authority to Ordain the Metropolitans within the Dioceses of Asiana Pontica and Thrace the Election being first duly made within every Province and that then it shall be at the choice of the Arch-bishop of Constantinople whether the Metropolitan Elect shall come to him for his Consecration or whether by his permission it shall be done at home by the Provincial Bishops and that this shall no ways prejudice the Rights of Metropolitans and Provincial Bishops in Ordaining private and particular Bishops wherein the Arch-bishop of Constantinople shall not interpose Whereupon all with one voice cried out 't was a righteous Sentence that they were all of that mind that this just judgment pleas'd them all that the things that had been establisht should take place and that every thing had been done decently and in order In conclusion they wrote a Synodical Letter to Pope Leo acquainting him with what had past and upon what grounds they had done it and desiring his concurrence in it And we may observe they tell him that in settling this power upon the See of Constantinople they did but confirm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the custome which that Church had of a long time obtained over those three Dioceses Which puts it past all peradventure what we noted before that from the very time of the second general Council the Constantinopolitan Bishops had exercised a kind of Patriarchal Jurisdiction over those Churches though never till now settled by Canon IX AND now let the Reader impartially reflect upon the whole affair and when he has considered what this wise and great Council expresly affirm that the Priviledges which the Fathers gave to the See of Rome were meerly upon the account of its being the Imperial City and that for the very same reason they gave equal Priviledges to the See of Constantinople only reserving a honourary precedence to him of Rome let him tell me whether it can be suppos'd they could or would have said and done this had they known