facere Sepulturam I shall name but that one instance or Novatus of whom St. Cyprian tells us Epist 49. ad Cornelium that he suffered his Father to dye for want of Bread in a neighbouring Village and would not permit him to be Buried when he was Dead He kicked his Wife so as to cause an Abortion And in a word among such as Novatus and Donatus were they are esteemed most Religious that are most cruel and unnatural as if they had a command to hate Father and Mother c. Of their Pride They thought so well of themselves that they would not sit with the Catholicks and thought themselves injured if the Catholicks called them Brethren as St. August contra Gaudentium Opt. p. 52. l. 3. So Petilian refused to sit with the Bishops in the Conference at Carthage pretending it was forbidden in Scripture to sit with the wicked Donatus the first was a Person that often affronted the Emperor's Chief Officers and as the Emperor complained much hindred his service by the Tumults which he raised against them He kept the Bishops of his own Party at such a distance as if they all had their dependance on him When he met any of them his question was Quid agitur de parte meâ What success have my Party and the Bishops thought it a great honour to write themselves as they did in publick acts Episcopos ex parte Donati and as if the Title of Bishop had been too mean for him he was called Donatus of Carthage by way of eminency Donatus the Second whom they called Magnus after the Title of him that subdued the whole World was not content with civil honour Eum non minori metu omnes Episcopi venerabantur quam Deum All his Bishops honoured him as if he had been a God They did not only jurare in verba resign themselves to his sole conduct as if he ruled them by an Infallible Spirit but sware by him which is not lawful to do by any but God Opt p. 65. and seeing he did not forbid it it is plain that he made himself as God And the People generally reputed him as their Tutelar Angel by whom Carthage was preserved and all Africa blessed He pretended such familiarity with God as if he had immediate Answers to all his desires Oravit Donatus respondit ei Deus de Coelo Seldome did he converse with any of his Brethren but as an Oracle to give rare and indisputable Answers which Tichonius objected against him who though he continued in Donatus his Party yet found his Pride to grow intolerable for he gave no other reason for his practice but Quod volumus sanctum est St. August Epist 193. When Marcellinus at the Conference of Carthage had entreated the Bishops to sit down refusing to sit himself though he then represented the Emperor until they had taken their Places the Catholick Bishops sate down but the Donatists refused and began to dispute the lawfulness of it urging that of the Psalmist Odi Ecclesiam Malignantium Psalm 26. I hate the Congregation of the wicked To which the Catholicks relplyed first wittily that the Psalmist said also Cum iniquis non ingrediar that he would not enter into the Assembly of the wicked and seeing they had condescended so far as to come into their Company they might as lawfully sit down with them And then they desired them more seriously to remember that David did not so hate the wicked as for their sakes to forsake the Temple of the Lord Delib Hist p. 218. And so after much intreaty they were perswaded to sit but desired the Publick Notary to enter it among his Acts that they did it at the pleasure of Marcellinus not of their own accord The like pride was expressed by Parmenian who being in Conference with some Catholicks and brought to a non-plus rose up in a fume and said Modicum fermentum totam Massam corrumpit Dixit hoc Parmenianus abiit l. 3. contra Parmen A little Leaven leaveneth the whole Lump and so went away This pride of Spirit appears in that when they entred upon the Churches of the Catholicks Opt. p. 98. they did wash the very Pavement and whited the Walls they broke the consecrated Chalices and sold them away and lest any part of the Sacrament which the Catholicks had consecrated should have touched the Linnen Cloaths wherewith at the administration of the Sacrament they covered the Altars Quis fidelium nescit ipsa ligna linteamine cooperiri they did not only remove them but the Altars themselves which they razed even to the ground * Ne ad Deum solito more supplicatio ascenderet impia manu scalas subducere laborastis Opt. p. 94. Optatus l. 6. p. 95. bids them dig deeper seeing they knew not how far the pollution might extend Altam facite scrobem sed observate ne veniatis ad inferos illic inveniatis Core Dathan Abiron Schismaticos Magistros vestros but beware saith he that you did not so low as Hell where you may find your Schismatical Masters Core Dathan and Abiron These Men saith St. Augustine thought better of themselves than the Apostles did and worse of their Brethren than they did of Judas Com quo Apostoli acceperunt primum Sacramentum Coenae with whom they received the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper Psalmo contra Donatistas So that it will be a hard matter to find out any sort of Men to whom that Character of the Man of sin 2 Thess 2.4 better agreeth Who opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God and is worshipped And thus having shewn to what height of impiety and mischief this Schisme did grow from very small and inconsiderable beginnings so by that all Men may see the madness of such as give themselves up to dividing Principles as manifest as the Scripture said it should be and though I have not painted the Sin as black as it was 2 Tim. 3.9 yet enough is done to affright all such as profess the Gospel of Peace and pretend to the Spirit of Love from such destructive practices For as Solomon says they are fools that make a mock of sin and think light of so great an evil That cast Fire-brands Arrows and Death and make themselves sport as if their work and their Religion ingaged them as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Priests of Mars to scatter Fire in the Church of God Behold saith St. James how great a matter a little fire kindleth that fire he means which is kindled in the Hearts and Tongues of such as profess the Christian Religion from beneath when they think themselves inspired from above All Africa was not fuel enough it put Rome and France and Spain into a flame and that not for the present Age only in Epistle but St. Gregory says it continued both name and thing to his time and though those flames were for a good while after abated the heat
the Munster Anabaptists had their good effect Most Men are severe censurers of the same sins in others which they do indulge and allow in themselves There is scarce a Separatist among us who when he shall impartially consider the grievous and continued troubles of the African Churches occasioned by the Schisme of the Donatists who upon false or frivolous pretences first forsook the Communion of the Catholick Church and then raised Parties to oppose it falsly accusing condemning persecuting and murthering their Fathers and Brethren affronting the Magistrates despising their Laws raising Tumults and Armies and pronouncing them Martyrs that dyed in Rebellion I say there is not any but will readily condemn these though he have been seduced to joyn with such as have practised the same or worse things The Ancients resembled a wise Man to the Image of Janus which looked both forward and backward and it would certainly be a point of Prudence in us to look back upon the transactions and counsels of former Ages and to observe what Opinions and practices have been condemned by wise and good Men and carefully avoid such As also to look forward and to consider to what dangers and precipices our present Opinions may betray us what out-rages and cruelties our ambition may lead us to though for the present we think it impossible that ever our lusts or any temptations or advantages should be able to transform us into such ravenous beasts as afterward we may appear to be Had Cromwel been foretold as Hazael was what horrid Massacres and Regicide he should commit he would have thought it a slander though from the mouth of a Prophet 2 Kings 8.12 And if such as have given themselves up to dividing principles did but consider how easily they may be taught to act over the same Tragical Scenes of Sacrilege Rapine and Blood when their Masters shall get power and opportunities agreeable to their malice which both ancient and modern Sectaries have done before them they may find just cause to grow jealous of themselves though they have yet the sheeps clothing on them and to suspect their Teachers though transformed into Angels of light for the Ministers of Satan whose design it is to attempt the ruine of the Church by the abused zeal of her seduced Children which he could not effect by the cruelty of her professed Enemies To undeceive such Persons and render Schisme and Faction as odious and pernicious as the Scripture doth describe them and both the History of former Ages and the sad experience of our own do demonstrate them to have been and that all who profess the Name of Christ may agree in the truth of his Holy Word and live in Vnity with their Brethren and in due Obedience to their lawful Governors both in Church and State is the only Design and hearty Prayer of Si sapitis benè recte si non sapitis vestri curam gessisse non poenitebit quia etsi cor vestrum ad pacem non convertitur pax nostra ad cor nostrum convertetur August ad Petil. l. 3. IMPRIMATUR G. Jame R.P.D. Hen. Episc Lond. à Sacris Dom. THE HISTORY OF THE DONATISTS WHen Dioclesian as a Romish Wolf had worried and scattered the Flock of Christ and exhausted Rivers of that precious Blood he perceived that he could neither diminish their Numbers nor abate any thing of that primitive Spirit which like a Rock did not only stand firm but broke in pieces the Fluctus Decumanos most impetuous Waves of the greatest persecution Ann. 300 The Tyrant thought therefore of a more probable way to extinguish that Spirit which was to withdraw the word of life and accordingly in the Nineteenth Year of his Empire like another Antiochus Epiphanes who did Mosaicis libris bellum indicere he publisheth his Edict That the Christian Churches should be levelled with the ground the Ornaments seized to his use the Holy Scriptures consumed in the Fire and all that professed Christianity be deprived of all Liberties Offices and Dignities unless they would offer Sacrifice to the Heathen Gods Immediately upon publishing this Edict his Officers do generally become Inquisitors and strictly require all the Christians to deliver up the Utensils of their Churches and the Testament of their Lord to be consumed in the Fire which if any refused they themselves were condemned to the Flames Among other Confessors Felix Deacon of Autramitum was summoned by the Inquisitors Optarus p. 40. to deliver up the Ornaments of his Church and the Evangelical Books which were in his custody whereupon he hid himself with Mensurius Bishop of Carthage whereof the Officers being informed they require Mensurius to deliver him up or to appear on a set Day at the Emperors Court to answer the contempt Where it is observable that Episcoporum domus nè in persecutionibus fas erat violare the Bishops Houses even in times of Persecution were accounted as a Sanctuary by the very Heathen Mensurius was too much a Christian to betray his Brother and therefore he chose rather to submit himself to the Emperors sentence and to appear at the appointed time but in the interim he is careful to secure the Goods belonging to his Church And in those Days as the Christians had Churches called Basilicas so those Churches had their Ornaments St. August contr Cresconium says that the Church of Cirta in the time of Dioclesian had two Chalices of Gold six Cups of Silver and a Silver Candlestick Yet the Treasuries of those Churches were much exhausted in those days it being the frequent practice of those Primitive Christians to sell their Plate and Ornaments to redeem the lives or to relieve the necessities of their persecuted Brethren Mensurius therefore causeth an Inventory of the Treasury of the Church of Carthage to be made and committing the Treasury it self to the custody of the Elders as Optatus saith he leaves the Inventory with an ancient Woman p. 41. whom he had always found faithful charging her to preserve it for his Successors if it should please God to account him worthy of Martyrdom * Erant in illâ Ecclesiâ quamplurima Ornamenta Auri Argenti St. Augustine saith there were in that Church very many Ornaments of Gold and Silver Concerning the Death of Mensurius we have no certain account in Ecclesiastical History only we find the Bishoprick of Carthage to be void shortly after and Dioclesian languishing under a surfeit of Christian blood resigned his Empire to Maxentius who was overthrown sometime after by Constantine as also Maximinus another Tyrant by Licinius and thereupon Constantius the Father of Constantine though he were then in England was proclaimed Emperor but he dyed in York and so the whole Empire was devolved on Constantine who by his Mother Helena had been from his Childhood instructed in the Principles of the Christian Religion Which Baronius observes to be true notwithstanding the opinion of some ancient Writers to the contrary for
had been Deacon to Cecilian to be Bishop of Carthage By this you may perceive how many sins and lusts were in conjunction when this Monster of Schisme was first produced The defeated Ambition of some the sacrilegious covetousness of others the restless guilt and feminine malice of others and therefore it is rightly numbred among the works of the flesh Gal. 5.20 Jude 19. and the Authors condemned for sensual Persons It is generally true of all Schisme what is particularly observed of this Iracundia peperit Ambitio nutrivit Avaritia roboravit Discontent is the Mother Opt. p. 41. Ambition the Nurse and Covetousness a Champion to defend it To which agrees another ancient Observation Quicunque pacem ecclesiae perturbant aut Superbiae tumore furiosi aut invidentiae Livore vesani aut Seculari commoditate corrupti aut cannali concupiscentia perversi Aug. contr Parm. l. 3. The Faction being by these Arts propagated and become numerous begins to remonstrate against Cecilian not sparing Mensurius his Predecessor nor Felix who ordained him but charged them all to have been Traditors and particularly that Cecilian while he was a Deacon under Mensurius did forbid and hinder all relief from those that were imprisoned and ready to suffer Martyrdom in the days of Dioclesian And which is usual with such Persons by how much the more guilty of such practices they themselves were so much the more vehemently do they accuse others that their pretended zeal against those sins falsly imputed to others may serve as a cloak to cover the real guilt which defiled themselves Vt crimina in silentium mitterent sua vitam infamant alienam And now they begin to perswade the People that Cecilian is no Minister of Christ nor the People that adhered to him Members of the true Church that they had no true Sacraments nor saving Ordinances Opt. p. 42. but all were corrupted by Idolatry and Superstition And thus they generally called the Catholicks Pagans and Idolaters Adhuc Paganus es They would tell those whom they intended to seduce that they were very Pagans Donatus de Casâ nigrâ is the first that sets up Private Meetings L. 1. as Optatus observes Nolebat cum allis sacrificare sed in domibus secretò He withdraws from the Communion of Cecilian and the Bishops that adhered to him though they had Communicatory Letters from the chiefest Churches of the World and gathering the People into Coventicles for so both Optatus and St. Augustine call those Meetings they Preach against the Corruption of Cecilian and other Catholick Bishops and the Idolatrous and Superstitious practices that had defiled the whole Church of Carthage into whose Communion they say lapsed Persons and profane Traditors were promiscuously admitted to the defiling of all that joyned with them seeing the Church of Christ is to consist only of such as were holy and without spot and wrinkle and such said Donatus were to be found only in his separated Congregations where were better Ministers and purer Ordinances Having laid this Foundation no Pharisees were ever so industrious in gaining Proselytes as Donatus and his Party to seduce the People of Carthage from the Church under Cecilian to their own Conventicles for they run from House to House and from Village to Village and pick up one of a Family and two or three of a Village by foul and false accusations of others and fair pretences in behalf of themselves pitying the People and perswading them that they lived among Idolaters and were defiled by their communion with them Their manner of seducing the People is recorded both by Optatus and St. Augustine Caius Seius or Caia Seia adhuc Paganus es consule animae tuae esto Christianus p. 75. Bonus Homo si non esses Traditor i. e. Good Man or good Woman you are yet a rank Idolater be advised by me for the Salvation of thy Soul come out of that Babylon and be made a Christian thou hast good affections if they were sanctified and placed aright thou may'st become an eminent Saint Against this Un-christian practice St. Augustine most passionately declaimes O improbam rabiem cùm Christiano dicitur esto Christianus hoc est dicere nega Christum O accursed madness to perswade them that were true Christians already to renounce their Christianity under a pretence that they should be admitted to a higher form What is this saith he but to deny Christ which to prevent the Servants of Christ have been alway ready to lay down their Lives Opt. p. 75. and resist even to Blood Vnus consensus manus tuae porrectio pauca verba Christianum faciunt de Christiano As if the being admitted into their Congregations did contribute more to their Christianity than their Baptism By these insinuations they skrued themselves into the affections of the younger and weaker sort Opt. l. 3. p. 73. Aut exivit Vxor resedit Maritus c. Either the Wife separated and the Husband remained in the Catholick Communion or the Children and Servants were seduced from their obedience to their earthly as well as heavenly Parents and Masters until they had rent the Church of God into pieces and of one Church made many Synagogues of Satan Persuasionibus vestris divisa sunt corpora nomina pietatis The Church and the City the Townes and Families Husbands and Wives Parents and Children were divided and were no longer known by the Name of Christians but one was a Majorite another a Donatist a third a Maximianist and all of them professed Enemies to the Communion of the Catholick Church And whereas they pretended to greater purity than other Congregations yet such as joyned with them were Persons of least honesty and charity Ille vobis Christianus erit qui quod vultis fecerit non quem fides adduxerit He shall be a choice Christian among you saith Optatus whom a blind obedience to you and not faith in Christ hath p. 75. brought over Tertullian commended the Christian Religion in his days because it did so alter the dispositions of Men as to make those who were fierce and cruel as Bears or Tygers to be meek and innocent as Lambs or Doves but the spirit of Donatisme did Hominem de homine tollere Optat. p. 79 rob Men of their Humanity and made them that were formerly harmless and peaceable to be unnatural and implacable and yet as bad as they were they promised forgiveness of sins and a Crown of Martyrdome too to such as not only shed the blood of their Brethren but desperately cast away their own Lives Of which I shall give too many instances in the insuing History The Faction being increased by such arts they begin to leave their private Houses and build Basilicas non necessarias Optat. p. 61 unnecessary Churches when those of the Orthodox were sufficient and having first departed from Cecilian they departed also from the Catholick Church affirming that they only and
Person and tells the World that he thought it his duty so to do for writing to Ablavius he says If he should neglect to put an end to those Divisions the Supreme Deity might justly be displeased with Mankind but especially with him to whose care by the Heavenly command the moderation of all earthly things was committed The like he saith in an Epistle to Celsus his Lieutenant in Africa Opt. 286. Nil potius à me agi pro instituto meo ipsiusque Principis munere oporteat quam ut discussis erroribus omnibusque temeritatibus amputatis veram religionem universos concordemque simplicitatem atque meritam Omnipotenti Deo culturam praesentare perficiam He thought it not only his duty as a Man but as a Prince to banish error and by cutting off rash judging which was the thing they complained of in the Judges at Rome all Men might preserve the true Religion c. And in another place he tells his Bishops that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Bishop under God in the external affairs of the Church So that the Objection made by the Popish Authors that Constantine was a Novice and understood not his own Power nor the Laws of the Church but invaded the rights of Meltiades or that he was forced thereunto by the restless importunity of the Donatists and afterward asked pardon for his offence will signifie nothing if we consider that as he was bred a Christian so he was too tender of the Bishops rights to invade them which he defended to his utmost power and he was also more prudent than to neglect his own duty or that authority which God had given him for the welfare of the Church In which also Saint Augustine Epistle 162. defendeth the Emperor Peradventure saith he Meltiades with his Colleagues the Transmarine Bishops ought not to have usurped the judgment that had been determined by the 70. African Bishops Tigisitanus sitting Primate And what say you if he did not usurp this Power saith St. Augustine for the Emperor being desired sent Bishops to be Judges who sate with him and determined what was just and to his care whereof he was to give an account to God that business did belong Where it is observable that in the judgment of St. Augustine Meltiades ought not to have interposed in the difference of the Bishops beyond the Seas but it had been an Usurpation so to do and when he did meddle it was by the Emperors command who joyned other Bishops with him And doubtless had the Africans owned the Pore's Universal Pastorship they would have gone directly to him whereas they intreated not the Pope's Holiness but the Piety of the Emperor to appoint them Judges Or at least they would have stood to the Pope's determination which they did not either at Rome or at Arles but appealed from both to the Emperor And if the Appeal had been unlawful either Meltiades or his Successor would have found a means to let the Emperor know his Error who was more likely to gratifie them in their just demands than the Donatists in what was unjust The Popes of later Ages would have been as loud as the Donatists were when they found the Emperor severe against them Quid est Imperatori cum Ecclesiâ What hath the Emperor to do with the Church But we find not any of that Age to contradict what the Emperor had done but contrarily they approved and submitted to it And when the Donatists objected in the case of Felix wh◠was acquitted by Aelian the Proconsul Th◠Bishops ought not to be judged by the Secular Power St. Augustine defended it sayin◠it was not Felix his seeking but the Emperor appointing to whom it did belong Epistle 16◠But Constantine is made to pay dearly so his medling with the concerns of the Pope and if the Donation which the Church o◠Rome boasteth of had not been forged th◠Pope's Universal Pastorship would have bee◠proved more irrefragably from this Donation than from that of Christ to St. Peter o◠which they boast with equal vanity And because the very mentioning of thi◠Donation will be confutation enough I wil◠give a brief account of it as I find it in their late Writers for among the Ancients there is no foot-step of it Baronius who is wont to improve every thing for the Pope's Power being ashamed of this doth only refer to the Writers that have particularly treated of it This Donation is said to be made to Pope Silvester at Rome the Third of the Calends of April Augusto Constantino 4 to Gallicano 4 to Coss The Original is pretended to have been found written in the Greek Tongue in the Vatican at Rome among other old Records by Bartholomaeus Pincernus who translated it into Latine and presented it to Pope Julius the Second The occasion of it mentioned in the Grant it self is said to be this That Constantine having revolted from the Christian Religion and persecuted many of the Bishops he was smitten with a loathsome Leprosie all over his Body and having tried many physicians in vain he was at length advised by the Priests of the Capitol to slay so many Infants as should fill a Cistern with their bloud and bath himself therein while it was warm but being moved at the cries of the Mothers of those Infants that were appointed to be slain he resolved rather to indure his Disease and the Night after that he had dismissed the Infants Peter and Paul appeared to him and discovered a surer Remedy which was that he should send for Silvester Bishop of Rome who for fear of the Persecution raised by Constantine had hid himself in the Caves of the Mountain Soracte and by him his Leprosie should be cured Hereupon Silvester is brought to him and the first question that Constantine is there said to ask him was Who those Gods were that were called Peter and Paul and whether he had any Pictures of them whereby they might be known Silvester presently sent his Deacon to bring the Pictures of Peter and Paul at the sight of which Constantine knew them to be the same that appeared to him in his Vision and had willed him to send for Silvester To him he therefore confessed his sins and desired his advice for his health The Pope injoyns him for certain Days to go in Sackcloth within the Lateran and afterward to receive the Sacrament of Baptism and then he should be whole Accordingly Constantine submits to the Penance and prepares for his Baptism And being in the Holy Font he saw a Hand stretched from Heaven to support and cleanse him and being baptized by Silvester he came forth sound and clean from his Disease Then was he clothed in white and anointed with Chrisme and had the Pope's benediction which was Pax tibi and all the Clergy answered Amen The most of these particulars are mentioned by Baronius Anno Constan. 19. But nothing of the Donation it self After this he makes a
as the Emperor had given them instructions he not only refused to accept of the Emperor's Largess but returned many opprobrious speeches Quid est imperatori cum Ecclesia What hath the Emperor to do with the Church aut quid est Ecclesiae cum Regibus Seculi quos nunquam nisi invidos Christianitas sensit multa maledicta effudit or what hath the Church to do with the Kings of this World who have been always adversaries to Christianity and so he rejected the Emperor's propositions for peace with as much pride and contempt as the Emperor did with Humility and Charity offer them There was at this time another Donatus Bishop of Bagaia who gathered great Troops of the Circumcellians to oppose the Emperor's Legates to intercept the Gifts and Moneys which they were dispersing for the relief of the several Churches Of which the Legates being advised and apprehending themselves in great danger by reason of the flocking together of those desperate persons They sent to Silvester who had then the command of the Souldiers to send them a Guard of Souldiers not that they intended to be Aggressors but only vim vi repellere to defend themselves against those furious Persons that were in an extraordinary manner assembled And the event proved that they did but what was necessary for the People were stirred up to Sedition by jealousies and prejudices against the Emperor which the Donatists had scattered through all Africa perswading them that Paulus and Macarius had brought with them certain Images which they intended to set upon the Altars and to command a Superstitious Worship and Sacrifice to them whereas they came only as Ambassadors of Peace and Instruments of Union And notwithstanding all the affronts which they received from that furious and desperate Party who often set upon the Guards of Souldiers to their own destruction the Legates at the request of the Catholicks did forbear any farther acts of Hostility nor did they act any thing prejudicial to the true Religion Nulli dictum est Nega Deum Incende testamentum c. Opt. p. 62. None were required to deny God to burn their Bibles or destroy the Churches Sola fuerunt ad pacem hortamenta ut Deus Christus ejus à Populo in unum conveniente pariter rogaretur They only endeavoured according to the Emperor's instruction to exhort them to peace and unity that they would worship God and Christ with one consent in an uniform manner But these exhortations to peace did more offend them than the tidings of War they loved the inheritance of Schisme more than the Legacy of Christ Nunciatâ unitate omnes fugistis at the very name of peace they all desert the Legates Opt p. 64. and become their Enemies and both by open violence and secret plots by their slanders and Swords too are always provoking them And yet these Donatists did not only complain of Persecution by the Legates but imputed it to the Catholicks as if they had procured those Bands of Souldiers with a purpose to destroy them p. 69. to which Optatus answereth Quod ab aliis vobis provocantibus factum est nobis non debet imputari quicquid objecistis vos fecistis that if it were true that the Donatists were slain by the Souldiers yet it was false that it was done by the procurement of the Catholicks who always mediated with the Officers to spare them And that in truth the Emperor's Officers never used violence but when they were first provoked Nullus erat primitùs terror nemo vidit virgam nemo custodiam there was no terror against any but evil doers no punishment or Prison threatned to any peaceable Christian the Emperor only preserved peace in the State And about the end of Constans his Reign there was a Council held at Carthage Anno 349. Gratus being then Bishop to restore peace to the Church in which they decreed divers Canons against rebaptizing and to prevent that desperate practice of the Circumcellians to cast themselves from high precipices and by other violent practices to destroy themselves And thus for a while the fury of the Donatists was abated and the hopes of peace and settlement comforted the Church But this good Emperor is untimely slain by divers Military men who conspired against him thinking to divide the Empire among themselves One Marcellinus invites him to a Supper and continuing with him late at Night Magnentius one of the Conspirators begins to affright him whereupon the Emperor fled to Helena whither they sent a selected Company of Souldiers and murthered him But Constantius his Brother succeeded him who at his entrance on the Government did seem to favour the Orthodox against the Arians and Donatists but being setled in the Empire he declares himself an Arian and consequently an Enemy to the Orthodox Christians whereby the Arians and Donatists rage every where against them Donatus himself and many of his Faction joyned themselves with the Arian Hereticks although they had formerly declared their abhorrence of them in hope of obtaining the greater power against the Catholicks by the Emperor's favour And to this end Donatus wrote a Book de Spirit◠Sancto as St. Hierome hath observed agreeable to the Arian Doctrine And others of the Faction joyned with the Macedonians and as St. Ambrose * De Spiritu Sancto l. 3. c. 11. says blotted out of their Books those words of St. John God is a Spirit Maximus Bishop of Neapolis was deprived of his dignity and function for not complying with the Arians who placed one Zosimus in his See Maximus keeps to his charge and function until they ejected him by force and then he denounceth an Anathema against the Intruder whereof the Intruder taking no notice applyed himself to the discharge of his new Office and endeavouring to speak unto the People his Tongue hung out of his Mouth so that he could not speak nor draw it in again until he went out of the Church and then he recovered the use of it and this befell him a second and a third time whereupon he forsook his new Dignity And now lived that famous Ecebolius a Sophist of Constantinople who while Constantius was a Catholick professed himself so too and with him turned Arian and when Julian was Emperor was an Idolater and in the days of Jovianus would become a Catholick again and lay at the Church Doors crying to the Faithful Me salem infatuatum pedibus conculcate to trample on him as unsavory Salt fit for nothing But it is more worthy our observation that within a short time that Constantius had declared against the Deity of the Son of God the Empire was taken from him and given to Julian This Julian the Apostate who had from his Childhood been instructed in the Christian Religion l. 3. c. 1. and as Socrates says had been a Reader in the Church at Nicomedia being of an unstable wit declares himself an open Enemy to the Christians forbidding
a Christian Emperor to deny his Subjects Power to destroy other Mens lives and to leave them Power to destroy their own and other Mens Souls And when the Emperor makes Laws for falshood against the truth they that are faithful are approved and they that persevere are crowned And when he makes Laws for truth against falshood those that were cruel are restrained and those that are intelligent are reformed He therefore that will not obey the Laws of the Emperor made against the truth obtains a great reward and he that will not obey the Laws made for the truth deserves a great punishment See Epistle 50. It hapned that Donatus a Presbyter was summoned to appear at one of the Councils at Carthage to prevent the censure that he expected there he threw himself into a Well and would have certainly perished there had not others been more charitable to him Epist 204. than he was to himself From this accident Saint Augustine reasons thus If they be justly esteemed your Friends that preserved your Natural Life when you endeavoured desperately to destroy it how can you think them your Enemies who in love to your Soul seek to preserve that unto Eternal Life An justior est privata violentia quam regia diligentia And again Contra Parm. l. 1. An perperam agitur cum Reges prohibent divisionem non cum Episcopi dividunt unitatem Doubtless the good Laws which were made and executed by publick Authority to prevent such barbarous actions were much more just than those acts of violence whereby they destroyed themselves and others Therefore he proves that none of the Donatists were so severely dealt with by the lawful power of the Christian Emperors for the Peace and Unity of the Church as they dealt with one another in their private Divisions nor as they dealt with themselves in violently procuring their own Deaths and yet their Survivors justified this practice from the Example of Razius 2. Macchab. which St. Augustine confutes at large in the 61. Epistle And in his second Book against Petilian he saith Nemo vobis aufert liberum Arbitrium sed attendite quid potius eligatis utrum correcti vivere in pace an in malitia perseverantes falfi Martyrii nomine vera supplicia sustinere That good Laws did not deprive them of the liberty of their wills but did require them to consider what was most eligible whether by gentle correction to be kept within the bounds of peace or by persevering in malice instead of a pretended Martyrdome to suffer deserved punishments It may here be seasonable to Answer an Objection which is made by some Persons for Liberty of Conscience and against the enacting of Penal Laws in the Cause of Religion which I am obliged to take notice of because it particularly asserts that none of those Christian Emperors through whose Lives I have drawn the Series of this History did enact any Laws or use any force for the Suppression of Sectaries or Hereticks but granted them all a free Toleration Dr. Stubs improved this Objection to the utmost in a Treatise concerning the Power of the Civil Magistrate in things of Spiritual concernment which Treatise I hope he hath put among his Retractations as St. Augustine did some Opinions of the like nature And first I wonder why he should mention p. 4th that Law of the Twelve Tables Separatìm nemo habessit Deos neve novos sed nec advenas nifi publice adscitos privatim colunto the breach whereof the Romans often punished with Death unless he thought the Christian Magistrate less obliged to take care of the true Religion than the Heathen were of a false It being matter of fact which I am concerned to Answer I might confute the Objection as the Philosopher did him that denied motion by rising up and walking before him by transcribing the several Imperial Laws made to restrain both Schismes and Heresies which I shall add by themselves hereafter and shall now reflect on those which he says were made in favour of them And first I say in general with St. August contra Parmen Nec pro pro iis aliquid promulgasse quis invenitur nisi Julianus Apostata That Constantine was he first that published many Edicts against them which have been particularly mentioned already and that none but Julian the Apostate may be found to have enacted any thing in their favour And yet p. 55. the Objector says Constantine did allow an Universal Toleration and to that purpose he quoteth Eusebitus in the 2d Book of the Life of Constrantine c. 55. where the Reader may easily observe that the Liberty there granted was to the Heathen whom he distinguisheth from the faithful and says he let them if they will erect Groves and Altars to Vanity for indeed they would do it whether the Emperor would or no All the Senators and the far greatest part of his Dominions being Heathen and Constantine could not deny them their Ancient Rites Vt Senatui morem gereret lest he should displease the Senate And the Objector notes that Eusebius spake largely of this to no other end but to confute those who had given out that he had abolished the Heathenish Rites and Customes And indeed he did not seek to bring the Heathen to Christianity by force but that he did by force endeavour to keep Christians in Unity is beyond all doubt And those very Edicts which seem to grant Liberty to the Heathen were framed purposely in favour of the Christians as that made by Constantine and Licinius mentioned by Eusebius l. 10. c. 5. For Licinius being a Heathen violently Persecuted the Christians under his Dominions to prevent which this Edict seems to grant a General Toleration but it especially respected the welfare of Christians for the Heathen as I have said were not to be suppressed as That Liberty be not denied to any to imbrace and imitate the Christian Religion without molestation And Nominatim Christianis decernimus that such Places wherein the Christians were wont to meet however alienated should be restored to them whether they had been seized by the Emperors or by them given or sold to any other After this we are told Of several Pagan Philosophers that were in favour with the Emperors as Sopater with Constantine who sate him sometime at his right hand Libanius who under Constantius had the tuition of Julian as also Maximus Tyrius had so Themistius was a Senator in the time of Theodosius Symmachus was Praefectus Vrbis in the days of Valentinian and Valens and Consul in Theodosius his Raign of all which we may say as the Objector doth concerning Generidus who was made General under Honorius That the Emperor did it out of necessity p. 88. But that Honorius favoured the Donatists and did only punish them a while by the instigation of Stilicho the Donatists found to be an untruth when after the Death of Stilicho the same Laws were still executed upon them so severely that
of those distempers having consumed the vitals of religion the true knowledge and fear of God and although the fire was raked up under the ashes of ignorance and impiety yet at length some rash and unwary Persons brought home from beyond the Seas into these Kingdomes such burning Coals as meeting with combustible matter and having glowed a while and only obscured and sullied the beauty of our Church by their smoke at length brake put into a devouring flame and not to renew our sorrows by recounting the almost innumerable mischiefs that it did consumed the very foundations both of Church and State And though by the wonderful compassions of God which because they failed not therefore we were not consumed our foundations were not only new layed but glorious structures to the envy and admiration of our enemies were raised on them yet we still feel such unnatural heats though God be thanked we do not yet see the flame that we have no Reason to be secure or to think our building and establishment to be safe though the foundations be sure especially if we shall consider how like this fire hath been to that of Hell it having been for so many Hundred Years unquenchable How much the Holy Waters of the Church of Rome which have been abundantly sprinkled on us have contributed to the increasing of our flames notwithstanding the boast of their extinguishing Vertue is more to be deplored than disputed If any thing may be available our penitent Tears and importunate Prayers to the God of Peace That he would give Peace in these our days may be most effectual And of this blessing we need not doubt if every one would sincerely endeavour to withdraw that fuel of spiritual Pride and Vain-glory of Envy and Malice of Carnal Lusts and Secular Interests and let the Word of God the Water of Life dwell richly in him for those living Plants of the knowledge and fear of God obedience to our Governors love and good will to our Brethren of humility and a mean conceit of our selves would resist and suppress those flames whereas our formality and empty profession a zeal without knowledge a spirit of pride contention and contradiction and ambitious aspiring as the bramble in the Parable of Jotham makes us like so many dry sticks and sapless Leaves ready to take fire at every blast and motion of the Winds Let us therefore study to be quiet and to do our own business to repent of our own sins and amend every one his own life instead of Reforming Churches and Kingdomes And as Solomon adviseth Fear God and the King and not meddle with them that are given to change POST-SCRIPT I Have thought fit to Transcribe some few of those Laws made by the most Christian Emperors against this rude Faction the execution whereof when all other means had been used iâ— vain gave a check to its growth Constantine as his Nature and his Religion more especially inclined him had long endeavoured to reduce them by lenity and indulgence but the insolence of the Faction necessitated him to a greater rigour for he well perceived that his Indulgence to the Donatists was not only an occasion of their Cruelty to the Catholicks but of great disturbance in his Empire St. Augustine also who had been an Advocate for them against the rigour of the Emperial Laws saw it to be expedient to execute those Laws against them in all their Sanctions except only in the case or Life And whoever shall impartially consider the History of those Times may observe with me these two things First That as the Emperors and their Councils became more zealous for the Christian Religion they made stricter Laws and with greater severity caused them to be put in Execution 2ly That by the diligent execution of such Laws the insolency of the Faction was much restrained and unity and peace in a good measure established in the Church And indeed the life of the Laws as Sir Francis Bacon observes is in the execution of them without which they are always a dead and sometime a killing Letter and it were much more convenient not to have them made than being made not to have them executed for by this neglect the Offenders are animated and Authority contemned As in the Natural body when physick hath not its due operation but only stirreth the humors without purging them it causeth a new fermentation of bloud and makes way for the noxious humors to seize on the vital parts Or like the placing of an impotent Dam to a growing River which causeth the Waters to swell and roar and with a greater impetus than they could have otherwise exerted to overflow all bounds What Solomon observed of the Laws of God is as true of the Laws of Men Eccles 8.11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil Common experience teacheth us that if we only threaten our Children or Servants and chastise them not as they deserve they grow the more presumptuous and self-willed And Solomon says Prov. 13.24 He that spareth the rod hateth his Son but he that loveth him chastneth him betimes Besides what prejudice and jealousies doth such a neglect beget between a Prince and his People The Prince sees a necessity of curbing the insolency of his People by making wholesome Laws The People fancy that the Prince hath an inclination to Tyranny but not executing those Laws they suppose him to want power and to be like a foolish Builder who having begun to build is not able to finish And when they perceive a defect in power as well as in prudence to manage the Reins of Government they endeavour to get the Bit that was put into their Mouths between their Teeth and run away with their Rider In a word there is no Fruit more desirable to corrupt Nature than that which is forbidden the very prohibition doth endear it and irritate our desires to an enjoyment How many have publickly declared that they could and would have conformed to our Liturgy and Ceremonies had they not been imposed by a Law as if those things which are in their own nature lawful and good became evil and unlawful when inforced by a Law This was long since practised by some Nonconformists in the days of Archbishop Laud who commending to his Clergy the wearing of short Hair they that had been zealous for it before that time did afterwards suffer their Hair to grow to an excessive length This is such a spirit of contradiction as will not be charmed with Reason and Arguments though the Charmer be never so wise Nor will good Laws silence or suppress it without a seasonable and vigorous execution of them which was the course taken by the first Christian Emperors as appears by the following Instances Sozomen Hist Tripartit l. 3. c. II. De Novatianis Phrygibus Valentinianis c. Contra hos omnes Imperator