by the People that it was granted to the Church of Rome by a singular priviledge to open and shut the Kingdom of Heaven to whom she would that none may Appeal from her to any other that the Apostolical See may without any Synod unbind those whom a Synod or Council hath unjustly condemned Of which Sentence she is to be the Judge whether it be just for she may judge all but none her that the Church of Rome is the Foundation and Form of all the Churches so that no Church hath its Essence without that of Rome that from her all the Churches received their beginning Doctrines as true as the Authorities by which they are confirmed and to say no more as true as the last For the Christian Churches received their beginning from Jerusalem before the Church of Rome had any Being Consider it well and you shall find this the removing of a meer stone of highest importance an Encroachment upon the Territories of other Patriarchs an 〈◊〉 of all Spiritual and Secular Power to the subversion of Emperours Kings and Councils For if all are to obey her as Jesus Christ did his Eternal Father if it be granted to the Roman Church by a singular Priviledge to open and shut the Kingdom of Heaven to whom she will if no King Emperour or Council hath power to judge the Pope while he hath power to judge all Kings Emperours and Councils are made Subject to him and nothing can escape the Sublimity of his Cognizance Besides this Treatise of the Primacy Peter Crab has 34 new Canons of the Apostles more than Isidore and Merlin So that Antiquities are daily increasing in the Church of Rome and Records are like Figs new ones come up instead of the old ones The last of these Canons is that of Clement about the Canon of the Bible a Forgery of more Scriptures added to the former in the names of the Apostles defended by honest Turrian zealously and magnified by Nicolinus as the Coronis of the Apostles Canons He has the Roman Pontifical a Treatise of the Lives of Popes fitted exactly to the Decretal Epistles and accordingly most richly stored with all kind of Forgeries and Lyes It is a new Book Fathered upon Pope Damasus which Isidore and Merlin I think were ignorant of for it is not in them and I admire where he had it It is the Text on which he commenteth as a Great Record he useth it as a great proof in doubtful matters and according to it the Method of his Tomes is ordered You will see more of it hereafter He has the counterfeit Council of Sinuessa a new Piece which I find not in Merlin But I verily believe he scraped it up some where else and 't is not his own 't is so full of nonsense A Council sitting in the year 303. and defining from that Text Ex ore tuo justificaberis ex ore tuo condemnaberis that no Council can condemn a Pope nor any other Power but his own mouth For because our Saviour has said Out of thine own mouth thou shalt be justified and out of thine own mouth thou shalt be condemned therefore no body can condemn the Pope but himself alone for which purpose they repeat the Text over and over again very 〈◊〉 and childishly even unto nauseating And the example of Marcellinus is made an instance in the case who being called to an Account for offering Incense to an Idol could not be condemned by this Council and was therefore because he was Pope humbly implored to condemn himself It is a Council of great value because of the President we have in it how Scriptures may be applied to the Bishop of Rome and how places that belong to all the World must peculiarly be ascribed to him alone Howbeit Crab makes a sowre face on 't and is fain to premise this Premonition to the Reader By reason of the intollerable difference and corruption of the Copies whereof the one was old and faulty though written in the best Parchment and Character the other more old but equally depraved as the Beholders might discern with their eyes so far that what they mean sometimes cannot be understood we have set both the Copies without changing a syllable of them in two Columns setting the Letter A over the first and C over the other but the middle Column over which B is placed for its capaeity or rather conjecture endeavours as much as it is able to reconcile the other two so very divers and bring them to some sense He does not tell you plainly that he made the middle Copy but 't is easie to conceive it since he found but two and they were so full of nonsense that he added one which is the third to reconcile them Yet Crabbe's Invention is now recorded by the Collectio Regia and the two old ones for their horrid Barbarismes are thrown out of the Councils and for very shame are cast away for proceeding in his Apology Crab a little after saith Nemo ergo caput subsannando moveat c. Let no man therefore wag his Head in derision who having either gotten more correct Exemplars or being of a more Noble and clear apprehension is able to mend these but rather let him patiently bear with what is done and reduce it himself into better form This is a sufficient Light wherein to see the dissimilitude between Forgeries and true Records For whereas the undoubted were made in great Councils of Holy Men and are all of them clear and pure and well-advised full of Uniformity Sense Gravity Majesty Smoothness Order Perspicuity Brevity Eloquence and Verity it is the common Fare of these Instruments which we accuse as Forgeries being made in a Dark Age by men not so Learned as the Church of Rome could desire and sometimes in a Corner by some silly Monk to swarm with Absurdities Errours Tautologies Barbarismes to be rude and tedious empty and incoherent weak and impertinent yet some of them we confess to be more pure in Language and better in sense than others This Council of Sinuessa is more ridiculous than it is possible well to imagine before you read and consider it He has the Counterfeit Edict of the Emperour Constantine for a good Record It is more warily made than the other and better Latine but of Swinging Importance ' I is but a Deed of Gift wherein the first most Christian Emperour is made to give all the Glory of the Western Empire with its Territories and Regalities to the Bishop of Rome We shall meet with it in others for the Collectors of the Decretal Epistles all of them harp upon this String most strangely As Pope Paul V. so Peter Crab has but 20 Canons of the Nicene Council wherein he agrees with Isidore and Merlin and differs much from some that follow him Nay he agrees and disagrees with Isidore at once in this very thing He agrees with Isidore in his Book it self on the Nicene Council but disagrees
and were Apostatical rather than Apostolical and that some of them came not in by the Door but were Thi ves and Robbers That it is not impossible to forge Records for the Bolstering up of Heresies those counter eit Gospels Acts Epistles Revelations c. that were put forth by Hereticks in the Names of the Apostles do sufficiently evidence which being extant a little after the Apostles decease are pointed to by Irenaeus condemned in a Roman Council by Gelasius and some of them recorded by Ivo Cartonensis in a Catalogue lib. 2. cap. 〈◊〉 The Itinerary of Clement and the Book called Pastor being two of the number I note the two last because S. Clement in his first Epistle to S. James is made to approve the one and Pope Pius in his Decretal magnifieth the other Which giveth us a little glympse of the Knavery by which those Ancient Bishops and Martyre of Rome were both abused having Spurious Writings fathered upon themselves for had those Instruments been their own they would never have owned such abominable Forgeries But of this you may expect more hereafter Cap. 16. and Cap. 17. These aggravations and degrees of Forgery we have not mentioned in vain or by accident In the process of our discourse the Church of Rome will be found guilty of them all except the first which is beneath her Grandeur and in so doing she is very strangely secured by the height of her impiety For because it does not easily enter into the heart of man to conceive that men especially Christians should voluntarily commit so transcendent a Crime the greatness of it makes it incredible to inexperienced people and renders them prone to excuse the Malefactors while they condemn the Accusers But that the Church of Rome is guilty in all these respects we shall prove not by remote Authorities that are weak and feeble but by demonstrations derived from the Root and Fountain I will not be positive in making comparisons but if my reading and judgment do not both deceive me she is guilty of more Forgeries than all the Hereticks in the world beside Their greatness and their number countenance the Charge and seem to promise that one day it shall pass into a Sentence of Condemnation against her CAP. II. Of the Primitive Order and Government of the Church The first Popish Encroachment upon it backed with Forgery The Detection of the Fraud in the Sixth Council of Carthage IT is S. Cyprian's observation that our Saviour in the first Foundation of the Church gave his Apostles equal honour and power saying unto them Whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained Cyprian Tract de Simpl Praelator The place has been tampered with but unsuccessfully For though they have thrust in other words into the Fathers Text in some Editions of their own yet in others they are left sincere As Dr. James in his corruption of the Fathers Part. 2. Cap. 1. does well observe But the most remarkable attempt of the Papists is that whereas they have set a Tract concerning the Primacy of the Roman Church before the Councils containing many Quotations out of the Bastard Decretals which they pretend to be extracted ex Codice antiquo out of an Old Book without naming any Author closing it with this passage of S. Cyprian they leave out these words of Scripture Whose soever sins ye remit c. as rendring the Fathers Testimony unfit for their purpose You may see it in Binius his Collection of the Councils c. When the Apostles had converted Nations they constituted Bishops Priests and Deacons for the Government of the Church and left those Orders among us when they departed from the world It was found convenient also for the better Regiment of the Church when it was much inlarged to erect the Orders of Archbishops and Patriarchs The Patriarchs being Supreme in their several Jurisdictions had each of them many Primates and Archbishops under him with many Nations and Kingdoms allotted to their several Provinces every of which was limited in it self and distinct from the residue as appeareth in that first Oecumenical Council assembled at Nice An. Dom. 327. where it was ordained Can. 6 that the ancient custom should be kept the Jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome being expresly noted to be equal to that of the other Patriarchs In the two preceding Canons they ordain 1. That in every Province Bishops should be consecrated by all the Bishops thereof might it consist with their convenience to meet together if not at least by three being present the rest consenting but the confirmation of their Acts is in every Province reserved to the Metropolitan 2. That the last Appeal should be made to Councils and that the person condemned in any Province should not be received if he fled to others Can. 4. and 5. In the first of these Canons it was ordered that the chief in every Province should confirm the Acts of his Inferiour Bishops the Patriarch of Rome in his and every other Patriarch in his own Jurisdiction In 〈◊〉 last if any trouble did arise that could not be decided by the Metropolitan provision was made in words so clear and forcible that none more plain can be put into their places that the last Appeal should be made to Councils 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the City of Rome being in those days Queen of the World and lifted up above all other Cities as the Seat of the Empire the Bishop thereof began to wax proud in after-times and being discontented with the former Bounds invaded the Jurisdictions of his Fellow-Patriarchs For though the Foundation upon which the Government was laid was against it yet when persons were Immorigerous if any Bishop were censured by his Metropolitan or Priest excommunicated by his Bishop or Deacon offended with his Superiour who chastised him for his guilt though the Canon of the Church was trampled under foot thereby which forbad such irregular and disorderly flights the manner was for those turbulent persons to flee to Rome because it was a great and powerful City and the Roman Bishop trampling the Rule under foot as well as others did as is confessed frequently receive them Nay their ambition being kindled by the greatness of the place it tempted them so far as to favour the Delinquents and oftentimes to clear them for the incouragement of others invited by that means to fly thither for relief till at last the Cause of Malefactors was openly Espoused and while they were excommunicated in other Churches they were received to the Communion in the Church of Rome Hereupon there were great murmurings and heart-burnings at the first in the Eastern Churches because Rome became an Asylum or City of Refuge for discontented persons disturbing the Order of the Church spoiling the Discipline of other Provinces and hindering the Course of Justice while her
thereupon to enquire diligently into the cause thereof and seeking to find it Nay this was the design of the blessed Peter and therein he imitated the Holy Scripture Whether to counterfeit or blaspheme the Scriptures be the worse I cannot tell but of this I am sure that they who think such courses lawful as this fastned on S. Peter and the Holy Scripture here will stick at nothing which they take for their advantage For that it was lawful to counterfeit S. James his Name he proveth afterwards very largely and now he is giving the reasons of it One intention was to stir up all people to Enquiry their admiration at so strange a thing being very prone to make them diligent to learn the cause of it Another was that all Bishops might see the more clearly that they were taught in the person of James For James being dead and uncapable of receiving the instruction it is evident that he was not intended thereby and therefore it must be for others in his capacity A third reason was the preventing of envy for had S. Peter vouchsafed being our Saviours Vicar and Head of the Church to write to any Bishop alive the Honour done unto that Bishop had been so great that all the rest had been tempted to maligne him shrewdly for that advantage His intention was saith he to transfigure these things in the person of James after the manner of the Holy Scripture and that as well for other Bishops as especially those that should succeed him in the Church of Jerusalem whence the preaching of the Gospel began according to the Prophesie of Isaiah that they might thus think with themselves If the Prince of the Apostles commanded Clement to write these things to James the Brother of our Lord whom Peter James and John did first of all ordain who now ceased to be a Shepherd and was rewarded with his Crown he certainly did not command him to write for his sake but for us to whom Solomon saith Look diligently to the face of thy Cattel and consider thy Herds c. Let this saith he be one cause of the Transfiguration or counterfeiting a person in this Epistle Having noted how S. Paul transferred a certain business on himself and Apollos by a Figure he concludeth thus Why therefore may we not think that S. Peter for the same reason commanded Clement to transfer his Epistle concerning his Death and Doctrine pertaining in common to every Bishop by a Figure to S. James already dead lest if he should have commanded him to have written to Simon the Bishop of Jerusalem who succeeded S. James or to any other as to Mark the Bishop of Alexandria or Ananias of Antioch or any other he should then perhaps seem to love him or honour him more than the residue Much more he saith to this purpose but all made vain with one small observation Whereas he pretends that Clement knew S. James to be dead there is a 〈◊〉 Epistle written by the same Clement To his most dearly beloved Brethren dwelling at Jerusalem together with his dearest Brother James his Fellow-Disciple So that S. James after all was still thought to be alive by those that transferred this Epistle on S. Clement by a Figure S. Peter's influence over the Bishop of Jerusalem and our Lords Brother was thought a considerable Circumstance for the Establishment of the following Popes And till the Protestants discovered the Fraud let Turrian say what he will there was scarce a person in the World that thought not the Letter timed well enough for the purpose And whereas he pretendeth so many and so great Testimonies of the Ancients confessing the Epistle to be S. Clement's he is not able nor does he so much as attempt to name one from S. Clement downward till this Spurious Isidore that affirmed any such matter Howbeit he quotes Origen Theodoret Gregory Nazianzen c. to prove the lawfulness of a Transfiguration and makes great Ostentation of the Fathers in shewing that S. Peter and S. Clement did wisely in the business CAP. VIII Of Peter Crabbe's Tomes of the Councils Wherein he agrees with and wherein he differs from Isidore and Merlin BEsides the Forgeries that are in Merlin and the Bastard Isidore Peter Crabbe whose Tomes of the Councils were published eight years after the first Edition of Merlin published more of as great importance as the former not omitting those of Isidore and Merlin but recording and venting them altogether He pretends to give an account of all those Councils that have been from S. Peter the Apostle down to the Times of Pope John II. He wrote before Turrian as Carranza and Surius did whom it is Turrian's business to defend The End being proposed before the Means with what design these Editions of the Councils are so carefully multiplied we may conjecture by a Treatise that is set in the Front of them concerning the Roman Primacy Almost all the Compilers after Peter Crabbe having prefixed the same with one consent before their Work as the Aim of their ensuing Labours It is extant in Crab Surius Nicolinus Binius Labbe and Cossartius and the Collectio Regia Carranza hath it not nor Paul V. Paul V. in his own Work published at Rome Anno Dom. 1608. touches the Forgeries but very sparingly It does not become the Majesty of a Pope in his own Name to utter them It is moreover a thing of hazardous consequence for him to appear in Person in such a disgraceful business It besits his Holiness to act rather by Emissaries and Inferiour Agents as all great Statesmen and Polititians do being unseen themselves in matters that reflect too much upon their safety that Method you know is more stately as well as more Honourable and secure Yet he approveth others at a distance as his dear Son Severinus Binius in particular who dedicated all his Tomes to Pope Paul V. in the year 1608. and has a particular Letter of Thanks from Pope Paul himself as a Badge of his Favour before the Work As for Carranza he is but an Abstract or brief Compendium This Treatise of the Primacy thus put before the Councils containeth a Collection of Testimonies out of Counterfeit Epistles of the Primitive Bishops and Martyrs of Rome proving under the Authorities of most Glorious Names that the Holy Apostolical Church obtained the Primacy not from the Apostles but from our Lord himself that it is the Head and Hinge of all the Churches that all Appeals are to be made thereunto the greater causes and the contentions of Bishops being to be determined only by the Apostolical See that she is the Mother of all Churches and as the Son of God came to do the Will of his Father so ought all Bishops and Priests to do the Will of their Mother that all the Members ought to follow the Head which is the Church of Rome that the first See ought to be judged by no man neither by the Emperour nor by Kings nor
the Imperial Seat which the Roman Princes had possest and granted it to the profit of the blessed Peter and his Bishops Which considering what follows is far more fit to be understood of the Emperours leaving Rome and granting it to the Bishop whence they pretend he did go on purpose So that the agreement between Optatus Milevitanus and the Epistle of Melchiades is very small or none at all But admit that Melchiades and Optatus Milevitanus had said both of them that the Lateran was given to Melchiades what is that to the Dominion and Temporal Kingdom A single House instead of an Empire Though that the House was given Optatus Milevitanus doth not affirm even by Binius his own confession How the things in this Epistle should be concerning the Donation of Constantine to Melchiades and Sylvester is difficult to conceive because Melchiades was dead before the Donation was made to Sylvesier It is very unlikely therefore that Melchiades should make mention of that Donation His Epistle talking of Constantine his being President in the H. Synod that was called at Nice is a manifest Imposture Melchiades being dead before the Nicene Council as is before observed Yet hence it is proved that Constantine 〈◊〉 a Donation to Melchiades and Sylvester Binius holdeth fast the Donation though he lets go the Epistle Like a Lo gician who lets go the premises but keeps the conclusion For it is most firmly proved by Optatus Milevitanus What is proved by him That Constantine the Great gave the Lateran to Melchiades How is it proved Why he testifieth that a Council of 19 Bishops met in Fausta's house in the Lateran Truly he doth not expresly write that the house was given to Melchiades But it seemeth probable to Binius his imagination And so it is most firmly proved by Optatus Milevitanus a most approved Writer Thus those things that are told concerning the Dominion and Temporal Kingdom given to the See of Rome are manifestly enough proved to be likely by what we said in our Notes upon the former Epistle But it is better proved by the continual possession of those houses by the space of thirteen Ages until now as he afterwards observeth Though the length of an unjust Tenure increaseth the Transgression Having first proved the Donation he proceedeth thus Hoc Edictum à Graecis persidâ Donatione quâ juxta illud Virg. 2. Aeneid Timeo Danaos Dona ferentes donare solent acceptum mutilum esse ac dolosè depravatum hae rationes evidenter demonstrant These following reasons evidently shew this Edict of Constantine by the persidious Donation of the Greeks to be maimed and treacherously depraved He enters upon the business gently pretending at first as if the Donation were true that it was depraved by the Greeks But afterwards when he is a little warm in the Argument and somewhat further off from his Sophistical Defences he falls foul upon it as a Counterfeit and rejects it altogether as in the close will appear to the considerate Reader But here let us see what Arguments he produceth to prove it maimed and treacherously depraved 1. Because it pretendeth the Primacy of the Church to be granted by a Lay-man which was immediately given to Peter by God himself and by our Lord Jesus Christ as is manifest by those words Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church 2. The Emperour by this Edict is made to give a Patriarchal Dignity to the Church of Constantinople Which if it be true how then could Anatolius the Bishop of Constantinople be said to take the Patriarchal Dignity to himself long after even after the Council of Chalcedon was ended Leo Gelasius and other Roman Bishops resisting him How could the Church of Constantinople be a Patriarchal See at this time wherein even the name of Constantinople was not yet given to Byzantium 3. This Edict was first published by Theodorus Balsamon out of the Acts of Sylvester the Pope falsly written in Greek under the name of Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea not that he might do any service to the Church of Rome but that he might shew the Patriarchate of Constantinople to be the eldest Which Acts of Sylvester were not known till a thousand years after Christ coming then forth in Eusebius his name out of a certain Book of Martyrs but were now increased by the Addition of this Edict of Constantine His design is if it be possible to clear the Church of Rome of this too palpable and notorious Counterfeit And for that end he would fain cast it on the Treacherous Greeks that he might thereby acquit the more Treacherous Romans Which he further pursues in the clause following The new found Hereticks that oppose this Edict of Constantine translated out of Greek into Latine with such great endeavour and impertinent study let them know that in this they rather further our Cause than fight against us Who do our selves with Irenaeus Cyprian and other Holy Fathers as well Greek as Latine profess the Priviledges of the Church of Rome not to be conferred and given of men but from Christ to Peter and from Peter to his Successors Where the 〈◊〉 are so great we need not make a Remark on the common Cheat his vain Brag of the Fathers But this we may observe that whereas the Popes Claim is somewhat blind to the Prerogative which is pretended to be given to S. Peter Binius hints at a proper Expedient to make it clear For suppose our Saviour made S. Peter the Rock on which he built his Church How comes the Pope to be that Rock Since S. Peter being an Apostle immediately inspired and able to pen Canonical Scripture some of his Prerogatives were Personal and died with him He tells you that the Priviledge was granted from Christ to Peter and from Peter to his Successors So that it was not Christ but Peter that gave it to the Bishops of Rome Now it would extremely puzzle him to shew where Peter gave that power to the Bishops of Rome in what place at what time by what Act before what Witnesses All he can produce is S. Clement's counterfeit Letter and that miscarries But in opposing the Edict of Constantine the Protestants further their Cause rather than fight against them Is not this a bold Aslertion Their Popes have laid Claim to the whole Empire of the Western World even by this very Edict or Donation of Constantine And yet the Protestants did nothing when they proved it to be a Forgery This Donation is an old Evidence proving the Divine Right of Peter's Primacy and the Popes Supremacy Did they promote their Cause that proved it to be a Cheat Certainly they that have Fingers so long as to grasp at an Empire and Foreheads so hard as to claim it by Frauds will stick at nothing they can conceive for their advantage Is it impertinent to discover Knavery in the Holy Roman Catholick Church or Imposture in the Infallible
Chair And together with the Credit of Rome to take away an Empire Besides the Spiritual Right of being the Rock there are ample Territories and Cities claimed with a Temporal Kingdom Let him therefore pretend what he will the Authority of such Instruments is very convenient And because he knows it well enough he produces the Diplomata or the Patents of other Kings and Emperours to confirm the Churches Secular Right extant as he saith in the Original with their Imperial Seals as particularly those of the Most Christian Princes of France restoring those things which the Longobards took away But he does not tell you by what Arts they got possession of those Territories at first nor by what Ancient Evidences Seals or Patents they held them before the Longobards touched them And because a Kingdom is of much Moment in the Church of Rome he further saith As for the Dominion of things temporal given to the Church herself proves them by the Broad Seals of the very Emperours giving them yet extant in the Originals and she quietly enjoyeth them How quiet her injoyment is you may see by that stir and opposition she meeteth and by all the clamour throughout the Christian World that followeth her Usurpations Which she defendeth here by the Seals of Emperours in general Terms but what Seals they are she scorneth as it were to mention in particular Which argueth her cause to be as Bad as her pretence is Bold But as for the Rights granted to the same Roman Church S. Leo Faelix Romanus Gelasius Hormisda Gregorius and other their Successors that flourished famously from the times of Constantine have defended them saith he not by the Authority of this Constantinian Edict but rather by Divine and Evangelical Authority against all the Impugners of them The man is warily to be understood for some of these whom he pronounceth as Defenders violently oppose their claim as Gregory in particular who for himself and all his Predecessors renounceth that Blasphemons Title which John of Constantinople first arrogated but the Bishops of Rome acquired afterwards by the Gift of Phocas the bloody Emperour So that all these are Mummers brought in as it were in a Masque to shew their vizars and say nothing For of all these Roman Bishops mentioned by Binius Gregory was the last who testifieth that none of his Predecessors ever claimed such a Title We may further note that he speak here with much Confusion because he speaks of the Rights granted to the Roman Church but does not distinguish between the Divine and Humane Rights of which he is treating For the Business he is now upon is the Temporal Klngdom in desending of which these Popes down to Gregory did forbear to use the Authority of this Constantinian Edict as he calleth it by way of scorn not because they had it not but rather as he pretends because they had no need of it having enough to shew by Divine and Evangelical Authority for the same Which is another pretence as bold and impudent as the former For I think none of his own Party will aver that the Bishop of Rome can claim a Temporal Kingdom by the Holy Scripture As for any other Claim by this Constantinian Edict or any Donation else of Emperours before the Longobards he slighteth all especially the Authority of this Constantinian Edict conceruing which he saith None of all those who sate over the Church before the year 1000. many of which saw the genuine Acts of Sylvester recited concerning which we spake above is read to have made any mention of this Edict For as much as the Counterfeit Edict was not yet added to the Acts by the Greek Impostors He does not tell us how he came to know that many of the Roman Bishops saw the genuine Acts of Sylvester before the year 1000. that being an Artifice or Color only as if there were two divers Books of Sylvesters Acts and the one a true one He tells us not a word of the Contents that were in them but he before told us plainly that the Acts of Sylvester the Pope were falsly written in Greek under the name of Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea that they were not known till 1000. years after Christ coming then forth in Eusebius his Name And now he telleth us as plainly that the Counterfeit Edict was not yet added to the Acts by the Greek 〈◊〉 The poor Greeks on whom he layes all the Load of Imposture never injoyed the benefit of these Acts nor ever pleaded the Imposture as the Latines did And in all likelyhood they made it that laid Claim and Title to the Supremacy by it Since therefore the Question is come to this Who were the Impostors we must define against him that the Counterfeit Edict was added to the forged Acts not by the Greek but Latine Impostors For how Counterfeit to ever he will have it Pope Adrian in his Epistle to Constantine and Irene which remains inserted in the Nicene Council recites this whole History almost in the same manner and so confirmes it by the Truth of this Edict As Binius himself telleth us on the words Ipse enim So that the Edict was pleaded long before the Greeks added it to the Acts of Sylvester For Pope Adrian died in the year 795 and the Acts of Sylvester were unknown till the year 1000. Yet this Adrian founded his Epistle to the Emperour and Empress in the second 〈◊〉 Council upon the truth of this 〈◊〉 And in very truth the Story he telleth is the same of Constantine's Leprosie c. contained in the Donation Which if 〈◊〉 had been pleased to remember was published by the Latines in Isidore Mercator's Collection of the Councils about the year 800. Where the Greeks in all probability first found it and were cheated as many Wiser men have since been with the appearance of it there So that searching it up to the Fountain Head it rests still among the Romans By the way to shew you that Binius is his Crafts-Master over against these words concerning Adrian before mentioned he putteth down that Famous Marginal Note Donatio Constantini confirmatur The Donation of Constantine is confirmed not by Binius as the simple Reader would suppose but by Adrian's Epistle recorded in the 2 Nicene Council and expresly containing the whole Fable of Constantine's Leprosie Vision and Baptism So that the first that ever knew it in the World for ought I can yet perceive was this Adrian of whom we have spoken somewhat before Now he comes to shew how greedily the Popes received this Cheat of the Greeks Among those who received the Acts of Sylvcster in good seoth corrupted thus with the addition of this counterfeit Edict by an evil Art and by the sorry faith of the Grecians carried out of the East into the West and that earnestly defended them as Legitimate and Genuine and pure from all fraud and Imposture the first is found saith he to be Pope Leo