AN Historical Treatise OF THE FOUNDATION AND PREROGATIVES OF THE Church of Rome And of Her BISHOPS Written Originally in French By Monsieur MAIMBOURG And Translated into English By A. LOVEL A. M. LONDON Printed for Jos Hindmarsh Bookseller to His Royal Highness at the Black Bull in Cornhill MDCLXXXV The TRANSLATOR to the READER I Should be thought perhaps no less unmannerly than fanciful if I offered any other reason of the Authors publishing this Book than what he himself is pleased to give in his Epistle Dedicatory to his Great Master the Most Christian King which is that he might thereby according to his duty second the grand design of the King and his Gallican Church in removing those obstacles that hinder the reconciliation of Dissenting Believers and in confuting the mistakes of Authors who have occasioned either a scandalous separation from the Unity of the Church or a persistance in that Separation Yet seeing the Book before it came out and since it hath been Published hath made no small noise at Rome the French Court and elsewhere The Reader possibly may think that so Publick and Religious a design hath been either very ill Managed or far worse Interpreted I have nothing to say as to that it being a matter above my reach but I know the Ingenious will be apt to make remarks such as are now a days very frequent that no great matter ought or indeed can be brought about if Religion came not in for a share and if that turn not the World it will be hard for any thing else to convert it There is Religion so called that makes Turks fight against Christians and Christians not fight against Turks that makes some States invade the Rights of the Church and some Churches usurp upon the State that makes the Godly Plot and fight for Peace sake and the harmless Doves as innocent as Serpents And since these and many other such Principles are now a days in great vogue over most part of the World one may venture to say of the Religion which many nay I would it were not most Men practise at present what the Great Author of our true Religion says of the Wind It bloweth where it listeth and Men hear the sound of it but neither know whence it cometh nor whither it goeth And I should not be irreverent beyond example if I called it downright Hocus Pocus This may seem to the Reader an extravagance and a start out of the road but I had nothing else to say for my self in attempting to Translate a Book that like a Quarter-Staff strikes on both Hands pelts Protestants and knocks down the Pope save only that nothing of Modern Religion moved me to it for indeed I find not that I have any inward call to labour in anothers Vineyard but perceiving that this is an Age wherein People either open their own Eyes or desire they should be opened I was very willing since I am no loser nor I hope the Government offended by it to reach to others the Eye-salve that hath been handed to me And truly if by impartial Readers the issue of a Mans Religion should be tried by the verdict of the Authors Book perhaps it would be no easie matter to decide the Point since they 'll find in it too much either for a True Protestant or a truly Jesuited Papist How far this may justifie my undertaking I cannot tell but since the Bookseller can satisfie the Reader with how great dispatch it hath been Translated I hope he will be so kind as to pardon the hasty mistakes of the Translator A. Lovell The Authors Epistle Dedicatory TO THE FRENCH KING SIR ONE of the greatest impediments that hinders the re-union of Protestants with the Roman Church from which by a fatal Schism they are separated is that false Opinion wherewith they are prejudiced that we raise the Popes even above the Universal Church in attributing to them what only belongs to her and in giving them an absolute and unlimited Power not only in Spirituals but also over the Temporal and Crowns of Princes The Gallican Church willing to help on that great zeal which Your Majesty makes so conspicuously successful for the Conversion of your Subjects who continue still in Error hath thought that she could not do any thing to better purpose than to remove that obstacle by undeceiving them and professing as she hath done by a solemn Declaration upon a Point of that importance her Doctrin which is in all things conform to that of the Ancient Church It is the business of this Treatise which is purely Historical to make this out by matters of fact against which no subtlety argumentation nor Artifice of Novelty can hold good Nay Sir I dare even present it to Your Majesty as a Work that perhaps may be so happy as to contribute somewhat in making the Justice of your Edict known to the World whereby in quality of Protector of the Canons you make the Ancient belief current in the most Christian Kingdom This it is Sir that makes it truly to be said that Your Majesty hath done more for the Church of Rome than the Kings your Predecessors who have enriched her with the great Revenues she possesses and who have raised her to the pinacle of Temporal Grandeur and Dignities For indeed all that Wealth and these Worldly Grandeurs belong not to her true Kingdom which being that of Jesus Christ ought not to be of this World But in commanding by your Laws that this Doctrin of Antiquity be maintained in France to which the Gallican Church which hath always vigourously defended the interests and just Prerogatives of the Church of Rome hath in all Ages inviolably adhered You most solidly establish the Primacy of the Pope against the Novel attempts of Hereticks who dispute it and do all that they can to snatch it from him At the same time you take from them the pretext of their Revolt by letting them see that we believe not that which scandalises them and which some late Divines attribute to him of their own Head against the manifest Judgment of Antiquity That Sir is what may be called an effectual endeavour for restoring the true Kingdom of the Church of Rome to its Just Rights from which Hereticks who have separated from it through erroneous Notions that have been given them of our Doctrin have in little more than an Age rent away a great part of Europe Your Majesty who hath wrought and still work so many Miracles to render your Kingdom more Powerful and more flourishing than ever and to grant us once more a general Peace by making our Enemies accept it upon the conditions you thought fit to prescribe to them is apparently appointed of God to work the greatest of all in pacifying the troubles of Religion and in rendering to the Kingdom of the Church in France its ancient extent by the reduction of the remnant of our Protestants For my own part who have but very
recessara sit The first That it is not the Doctrin of the Faculty that the Pope hath any Authority over the Temporal of the most Chrishian King that on the contrary it hath always opposed even those who would have that Authority only indirect The other That it is the Doctrin of the same Faculty that the most Christian King hath no other Superior in Temporal affairs but God alone and than that is the ancient Doctrin of the Faculty from which it will never swerve After all these Decrees of the Gallican Church and of the sacred Faculty have always been powerfully supported by the Edicts of the Kings and the thundring sentences of Parliament against all such as ever durst in France maintain and teach that pernicious Doctrin condemned by these Decisions and Censures Of 2 Decemb. 1561.4 Januar. 1594. 7 10 Jan. 1595. 27 May 26 Nov. 1610. 27 July 1614. 2 Jan. 1615. c. which in this Kingdom are reverenced as proceeding from God upon whose word they are grounded So that a Doctrin so well established and which all France look upon as the chief foundation of our Liberties can never be shaken much less overturned by Novelty which whatsoever effort it may make shall never amongst us prevail against Antiquity to which we will always stick close as to the Principle and solid Foundation of true Tradition And therefore also it is that the King as Protector of the Canons of the Councils received in France and of the Gallican Church in particular by his perpetual Edict registred in all the Parliaments not only prohibits all his Subjects and all strangers within his Kingdom to teach or write any thing contrary to the Doctrin contained in the Declaration of the Clergy of France but also commands all secular and regular Professors to submit to and teach it Wherein it is most evident that his Majesty does no more but what many Generals of Orders do who for preserving the uniformity of Doctrin in their Congregation as to Points which they look upon to be of great importance for the good and reputation of their Body oblige their inferiours to maintain and teach certain Opinions which the whole Order hath adopted against others who dispute them Much more ought it to be lawful for so great a King so zealous for Religion and for the Ancient Doctrin upon which are founded the inviolable rights of one of the most August Crowns of Christendom and liberties of the Gallican Church to oblige his Subjects for preservation of Uniformity of Opinion within his Kingdom as to Points of that importance to maintain and teach the Doctrin of the Clergy of France in all things conform to that of the Ancient Church And so much I had to say in this Treatise wherein always following that Principle which both Catholicks and Protestants equally agree to I have held a mean betwixt the two extremes that ought to be shunned One is of those who blinded by the hatred which they have conceived against the Church of Rome from which they have separated would take from the Pope the Prerogatives which Antiquity hath believed were given him by Jesus Christ as Successor of St. Peter The other of those who through a zeal not according to knowledg nay and if I dare say with those Cardinals of Paul III. through a too great compliance with Popes attribute to them what Antiquity instructing us by the Fathers the Councils and even by the most Ancient and most holy Popes themselves have believed they never have received from Jesus Christ Seeing the mean is the place of Virtue and Truth I think one cannot mistake the way when he follows Antiquity for his guide which placing us with it self in that lovely mean will make us condemn our Protestants who are in the first extreme and abandon those who abandon themselves to novelty under the conduct whereof they are fallen into the other extremity Now if it be said to me that these new Authors who have fallen into that which I call the second extreme have only done so out of the great zeal which they have for Religion It will be easie for me to answer with the great Pope St. Leo That many times Men carry on their private interests under a specious pretext of Piety Privatae causae pietatis aguntur obtentu câ—piditatum quisque suarum Religionem habet velut pedissequam St. Leo Epist 25. ad Theodos Imper. and that every one maketh Religion to be the handmaid of his lusts and desires The truth is it may very well be that the lustre of the Purple wherewith at Rome the three Authors who have most highly exalted the Power of Popes by raising it beyond all the bounds that Antiquity prescribed to it were cloathed may have dazled the Eyes of that croud of Modern who have followed them and who for all that what ever they may have expected never received a like reward But not to Judge of the secret motives of their Heart which it belongs to God alone to dive into I had rather Answer with Vincentius Lirinensis one of the most zealous Defenders of the true Doctrin Mos iste semper in Ecclesiâ viguit ut quo quisque religiosior foret Vincent Lerin l. 1. Commonit c. 3. eo promptius novellis adventionibus contrairet It hath always been the custom in the Church that the more of Piety and Religion any one had the more ready he was to oppose all new inventions in Doctrin And to conclude my Work with the excellent words of the same Author I should be glad that Men would think that in composing it I have had no other design but to discharge the duty of a good Catholick by doing what he enjoyns me when he says Christianus Catholicus providebit ut Antiquitati inhaereat quae prorsus non potest ab ulla Novitatis fraude seduci The Catholick Christian will have great care to stick close to Antiquity which cannot be deceived by the artifice of Novelty FINIS Books Printed for and sold by Joseph Hindmarsh at the Black Bull in Cornhill over against the Royal Exchange THE famous History of Auristella Translated from the Spanish The whole Art of Converse Cicero's three Books touching the Nature of the Gods done into English A Breviary of the Roman History written in Latin by Eutropius Translated into English by several young Gentlemen privately Educated in Hatton-Garden The Countermine by Dr. Nalson History of Count Zosimus done into English Love Letters between a Noble Man and his Sister The Doctors Physitian or Dialogues concerning Health Translated out of French The Prerogative of Primogeniture by David Tenner B. D. Navigation rectified by Peter Blackborough The Works of Mr. John Oldham together with his Remains A Discourse of Monarchy as it Relates to the Succession of his Royal Highness James D. of York Seneca's Morals by way of Abstract by Mr. Lestrange Beaufions or a new discovery of Treason in an Answer to the Protestant Reconciler Familiar Epistles of Col. Hen. Martin The Rampant Alderman a Farce Dame Dobson or the Cunning Woman a Comedy Jovial Crew or Merry Beggar a Comedy Venice preserved a Tragedy Sir Hercules Buffoon a Comedy The disappointment a Play An Essay upon Poetry Choice new Songs never before Printed by Tho. Dirfey Gent. The Malecontent being the sequel of the progress of Honesty Vivat Rex a Sermon Preach'd at Bristol on the 9th of Septemb. 1683. by Mr. Kingston The History of the Civil Wars of France Written in Italian by H.C. D'Avila Translated out of the Original The Second Impression whereunto is added a Table FINIS
History of Monothelism Pope Honorius willing to agree both parties writes Letters to Patriarch Sergius which the Monothelites made use of for Authorising their Heresie The Popes John IV. Theodore and St. Martin follow a contrary conduct to his The Emperor Constantine Pogonatus with consent of Pope Agatho calls the sixth Council The History of that Council The Letters of Sergius and Honorius are examined there They are condemned of Heresie and that Pope is Anathematised He is also condemned in the Emperors Edict in the Letter of Leo II. to the Emperor In the Ancient diurnal Book of Rome in the Ancient Breviaries and in the VII and VIII Councils Convincing Arguments that the Acts of the sixth Council have not been falsified and that it cannot be said that the Fathers of that Council understood not well the meaning of Honorius All Antiquity which hath received that Council as we have it hath believed that the Pope is not infallible p. 143 CHAP. XIII Of the Popes Clement III. Innocent III. Boniface VIII and Sixtus V. THE Error of Clement in his Decretal Laudabilem recalled by Innocent III. The Error of Innocent concerning the secret of Confession He condemns that Error in the Council of Lateran That of Boniface in his Bull unam Sanctam recalled at the Council of Vienna That of Sixtus V. in the Edition of his Bible A ridiculous Answer of some Moderns p. 165 CHAP. XIV The instance of John XXII WHAT he did for Establishing his Error concerning the beatifick vision The sacred Faculty of Paris declares the Doctrin of that Pope heretical It had been condemned by Clement IV and was since in the Council of Florence King Philip of Valois obliges that Pope to recant p. 173 CHAP. XV. The tradition of the Church of Rome as to that THE Popes themselves have acknowledged that for ending difference in Religion by a Sovereign and infallible sentence there was a necessity of a Council The Heresies which Popes have condemned without a General Council have been so condemned by the consent of the Church Popes who have confessed that they had not the gift of Infallibility p. 179 CHAP. XVI The state of the question concerning the Superiority of the Council over the Pope or of the Pope over a Council WHether after a Council is lawfully Assembled the Pope being present in it or not that Council has or has not Supreme Authority over the Head as well as over the other Members of the Church or whether or not all its Authority depends on the Pope p. 187 CHAP. XVII That it is the Holy Ghost which in the definitions of Faith pronounces by the mouth of the Council WHAT is to be concluded from that Principle What it is according to the Doctrin of Antiquity to approve and confirm a Council p. 190 CHAP. XVIII That the Ancient Councils have examined the Judgments of Popes to give a last and definitive sentence upon them THE History of the Patriarch Flavian and the Pope St. Leo who submits his Judgment to that of a General Council An instance of the fifth Council that rescinds a sentence solemnly pronounced by the Pope and of the sixth which examines the sentences of Martin I. and Honorius I. approves the one and rejects the other The History of Constantine of the Donatists and of the first Council of Arles which examines the sentence given by Pope Melchiades in his first Council of Rome p. 199 CHAP. XIX That the Ancient Popes have always acknowledged and protested that they were subject to Councils THE History of Pope Sicicius and of the Council of Capona Of St. Leo in the case of St. Chrysostom against the Patriarch Theophilus Of Innocent III. in the case of the Marriage of Philip the August Instances of Pope St. Agapetus and Silvester II. p. 213. CHAP. XX. That the Ancient Popes have believed that they were subject to the Canons PRoofs of this from the conduct and protestations of the Popes Celestin I. St Leo St. Martin St. Gregory the Great John VIII Eugenius III. and Silvester II. What the Council of Florence hath defined as to that The true sense of these words against a false interpretation that hath been made of them Popes are obliged to govern the Church according to the Canons In what case they can dispense with them That they may abuse their Power Of an Appeal to a Council and of an Appeal as abusive to a Parliament p. 225 CHAP. XXI What General Councils have decided as to that Point THE History of the Council of Pisa where that question was first canvassed The debates that arose upon that Subject in the Council of Constance which is a continuation of that of Pisa The Decrees of that Council of Constance and of that of Basil upon the same Point The approbation of these Decrees by the Popes Martin V. and Eugenius IV. p. 241 CHAP. XXII Of the Writing of the Sieur Emmanuel Schelstrate against the two Decrees of the Council of Constance THE Declaration which the Clergy of France met in the Year 1682. made of their Opinion touching these two Decrees which they hold to be of infallible Authority approved by Popes and for those times when there is no Schism as well as during a Schism The Sieur Emmanuel Schelstrate undertakes to refute these three Articles in the three Chapters of his Dissertation p. 256 CHAP. XXIII A Refutation of the first Chapter of the Dissertation of M. Schelstrate THE Decree of the fourth Session hath not been falsified by the Fathers of Basil The Manuscripts of M. Schelstrate are defective and ours are true A demonstration of this Truth by two Sermons of John Gerson who rehearses that Decree before the whole Council of Constance word for word as we have it The Manuscripts by which these two Sermons have been reviewed and the other places were Gerson relates the same Decree An other demonstration of that truth by Pope Eugenius IV. and even by the Manuscripts of M. Schelstrate That question was sufficiently examined The Council consisted of the greatest and soundest part of the three obediences and the absence of others hinders not the Council from being lawful p. 261 CHAP. XXIV A Refutation of one of the two other Chapters of M. Schelstrate PRoofs of the approbation of these two Decrees of Constance The true interpretation of that word Conciliariter The abuse that may be made of the Appeal to a Council is condemned but not the Appeal it self All the Authority of Councils proceeds not from the Pope but chiefly from the Catholick Church p. 297 CHAP. XXV A Refutation of the other Chapter of M. Schelstrate THese two Decrees of the Council of Constance are for all times whilst there was a Schism and when there is none An Ecumenical Council is a whole whereof the Pope is but a part The Pope is the Head but not the Master of the Church The difference betwixt the Power of Popes and of Kings An authentick act of the Superiority of a
non habet ac dignitates regales conferendi sic neque Imperator in Ecclesias introspiciendi c. Gregor II. Ep. 2. ad Leon. Isaur nor of conferring Royal Dignities so neither hath the Emperor any right to meddle with the Government of the Church This is enough to shew that Cardinal Bellarmine hath impertinently made use of the example of that Pope against us because according to the relation of some Greek Historians though the Latins of that time take no notice of it he by his Authority hindered the Romans his Subjects from paying the Tribute which they owed him To overthrow this weak Argument there needs no more but to consider Gregory in the quality of Pope and then in the quality of the chief Citizen of Rome As Pope he wrote to that Iconoclast Emperor long and excellent Letters wherein joyning force to affection he admonishes reproves and exhorts him he prays him and threatens him with the Judgments of God and then so far was he from deposing him from his Empire that he prevents as much as in him lay all Italy from revolting against him and from acknowledging another Emperor thereby maintaining the People who were ready to shake off the insupportable yoak of so wicked a Prince in their obedience But when he saw that Leo grew more and more obdurate in his impiety that he had attempted two or three times to have him assassinated and that he gathered together all the Forces of the Empire to come and do at Rome as he gave it out in all places what he had done at Constantinople in beating down the Holy Images and putting all to Fire and Sword if they renounced not the Ancient Religion Then having as Pope declared him Excommunicated he did as chief Citizen of Rome as the rest did what the Law of nature allows to wit take the Arms out of a mad Man's Hand and prevent the giving him money which he would have used for their ruine and desolation and afterward he put himself with the other Romans under the protection of Charles Martel for the safety of their Religion and Lives though for all that this Pope never offered to depose Leo nor to absolve his Subjects from their Oath of Allegiance For he himself and his Successors long after acknowledged the Greek Emperors for their Sovereigns and it was not before the Empire of Constantin and Irene that the Romans and with them the Pope as a Member of that Civil and Politick Body and not by his Pontifical Authority seeing that they could no longer be defended against the Lombards by the Greeks who had abandoned them submitted to Charlemagne This is fully and clearly made out in my History of the Iconoclasts Wherein it may be seen that the example of Gregory II. which Bellarmin alledges against us is nothing at all to the purpose As also more it may be seen there that Pope Adrian I. wrote to Constantin Copronymus and to Leo his Son both great Hereticks in very submissive terms as to his Masters and Sovereigns and that 's a thing which the Ancient Popes never failed to do Let it be considered with what submission Pelagius I. wrote to Childebert King of France who would have him send to him a Confession of his Faith He obeyed his orders and told him that according to Holy Scripture Popes ought to be subject to Kings as well as other Men Quibus nos etiam subditos esse Sacrae Scripturae testantur In what manner did Stephen II. implore the assistance of Pepin against the Lombards I beg of you Peto à te tanquam praesenti aliter assistens provolutus terrae tuis vestigiis prosternens Steph. II. Ep. 4. ad Pip. saies he that favour as if I were in your presence prostrate upon the ground at your Feet Can there be terms of greater humility and of a more perfect obedience than those which the great St. Gregory makes use of in one of his Letters to the Emperor Mauricius who enjoined him a thing to which he had great aversion and which in his own Judgment he thought contrary to the Service of God Ego verò haec Dominis iners loquens quid sum nisi pulvis vermis Ego quidem Jussioni subjectus c. Greg. l. 2. Jud. 11. Ep. 62. ad Mauric What am I saies he who represent this to my Masters but a little Dust and a Worm For my part who am obliged to obey I have done what hath been commanded me and so I have fulfilled my obligations on both sides for on the one Hand I have executed the Emperors order and on the other I have not failed to represent what the cause of God required And in another Letter upon occasion of his being informed that the Lombards had put a Bishop to death in prison De quâ re unum est quod brevitur suggeras serenissimus Dominis nostris c. he would have it represented to the Emperors whom he calls his most Serene Masters that if he would attempt any thing against the lives of the Lombards that Nation should have no more King Duke nor Count But because I fear God saies he Sed quia Deum timeo in mortem cujuslibet hominis me miscere formido l. 7. Jud. 1. Ep. 1. I am loth to have an Hand in any Mans death He therein followed the example of one of his Predecessors St. Martin I. who would never resist tho it was in his Power the orders of the Emperor Constans a Monothelite Heretick who caused him to be carried away from Rome to Constantinople and from thence into banishment And although those who would have opposed that violence called out to him Nulli eorum accommodavi aurem ne subito fierent homicidia Melius Judicavi decies mori quam uniuscujusqu◠sanguinem in terram fundi Epist Mart. 1. ad Theodor. that he should not yield and that he should be well backed yet he would not listen to them for fear it might come to Arms and Slaughter be committed Judging it better said he to die ten times than to suffer the Blood of one single Man to be shed These holy Popes who were so afraid lest the least drop of humane Blood should be spilt were far from deposing Kings and Emperors and giving away their Dominions to others under pretext of the good of Religion as long after them some of their Successors did which was the cause of so many cruel Wars that with Blood and Butchery filled Italy Germany and France it self during the League In this manner the ancient Popes kept within the bounds of their Power purely Spiritual rendering the honour and obedience which they owed to Temporal Powers and especially to their Sovereigns nay even to their Sovereigns who were hereticks and Enemies of their Religion This makes it very apparent what learned Men have so clearly proved that it is no more to be doubted of to wit that these Letters of St. Gregory are
seemed they had done in the first Article of their address That was the sole cause of the difference that was betwixt the two Chambers as that of the Clergy informed Pope Paul V. in the answer they made to his Brief of the last of January one thousand six hundred and fifteen Augebamur enim non mediocriter cum videremus ipses Catholicos zelo quodam minus prudenti abreptos cognitionem earum rerum quae ad fidem pertinent ad se trahere de quaestionibus ejusmodi statuere velle quas nisi pastorum suorum vocibus edocti non debeant attingere Sed ea molestia è vestigio in laetitiam versa est postquam iidem nostris monitis justis rationibus adducti demum agnoverunt omnem hanc autoritatem penes Ecclefiam eosque solos esse quos illa fidelium gregi preesse voluerit 7 Calend. Nartii We were not a little troubled say these Prelates to see even Catholicks transported with an undiscreet zeal offer to take cognisance of matters relating to Faith and to decide such kind of questions as they must needs first be instructed about by their Pastors before they can meddle with them But our grief was soon changed into gladness when these Gentlemen yielding to our Admonitions and just Remonstrances at length acknowledged that none but the Church hath that Authority and that none but the Pastors have from her received the Power and Right of instructing and guiding the Flock That was the thing in question and not at all the substance of the Article wherein the Clergy of France agreed though they judged it not a proper business to be proposed in the Estates especially at that time The truth is that Chamber of the Clergy was so far from invalidating in the least the substance of the Doctrin contained in that Article and in all times received in France concerning the absolute independence of our Kings as to Temporals that on the contrary they oftener than once protested that they acknowledged that independence Manifeste de ce qui se passa aux Estat Generaux entre le Clergi et le Tiers Estat 1615 and that it ought to be held for a Maxim That the King in Temporals can have no other Superiour but God alone Discours veritable de ce qui se passa aux Estats Generaux and that the Vicar of Jesus Christ hath no jurisdiction over matters purely Temporal So that although the Clergy declared that it belonged only to the Church to handle and decide a Point of Doctrin and Religion nay and that that was not an affair to be consulted about in the Estates Procés verbal de cequi s'est passé en la Chambre du Tiers Estat Avis donné au Roy en son Conseil par M. le Prince sur le Cahier du Tiers Estat yet they avowed that they believed in substance the same thing which the third Estate had proposed and which the late Prince of Conde a great Defender of the Catholick Faith most prudently represented to the King in Council the fourth of January the same year and which the University of Paris expressed in most significant terms in their Petition presented to the Estates upon the same occasion the two and twentieth of January To wit Discours veritable dece qui s'est passé c. That our Kings depend upon none but God us to Temporals and that there is no Power upon Earth that can depose them nor dispence with or absolve their Subjects from the Obedience and Allegiance that they owe to them under any pretext whatsoever That was their Doctrin which they would not have to be weakned or impaired in the Remonstrances which they had caused Cardinal Du Perron to make to the Chamber of the third Estate And certainly after so many proofs one cannot doubt of the Opinion of that learned Clergy always uniform as to that Point I might here produce a great many very convincing Testimonies but that would not be necessary now after that famous declaration which the Archbishops and Bishops assembled at Paris by order of the King in the year one thousand six hundred and eighty two as representing the Gallican Church have made of their Judgment concerning the Ecclesiastical Power This is the first Article of it whereby they declare That God hath given to St. Peter and his Successors the Vicars of Jesus Christ and to the Church Power over Spiritual matters which belong to Eternal Salvation but not over Civil and Temporal The Lord having said My Kingdom is not of this World and Render unto Cesar the things that are Cesars and unto God the things that are Gods And that Apostolical Decree ought to remain firm and inviolable Let every Soul be subject unto the higher Powers for there is no Power but of God The Powers that be are ordained of God whosoever therefore resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God That Kings and Princes then according to the Ordinance of God are not subject to any Ecclesiastical Power and that they cannot be deposed neither directly nor indirectly by the Power and Authority of the Keys of the Church that their Subjects cannot be exempted from the obligation that lies upon them to obey them nor be absolved from the Oath of Allegiance which they have taken to them and that that Doctrin ought inviolably to be observed as not only necessary for the publick Peace but also useful to the Church And as being conform to the word of God the Tradition of the Fathers and the examples of Saints This now is a positive Doctrin that saith all and all that I have written upon this Subject hath only been to exhibit the convincing proofs of all the parts of that Article which contains so excellent and solid a Declaration As to the sacred Faculty of Theology it hath never failed on any occasion to evidence its zeal for the true Doctrin authorising and confirming this by its Decrees and Censures of the contrary opinion from time to time renewed especially in the years 1413. 1561. 1595. 1610. 1611. 1620. 1726. And lately in the condemnation of an ultramontanean Jacobin by renewing the censure of the Book of Santarelli This appears still in a stronger and more Authentick manner Non esse Doctrinam Facultatis quod sammus Pontifex aliquam in Temporalia Regis Christianissimi antoritatem habeat imo Facultatem semper obstitisse etiam iis qui indirectam tantum modo illam Authoritatem esse voluerunt by the six Propositions that were presented to the King in the year one thousand six hundred threescore and three in name of the Faculty By my Lord De Prefixe Archbishop of Paris Visitor of the Sorbonne Take here two of them which relate to that Article Esse Doctrinam Facultatem ejusdem quod Rex Christianissimus nullum omnino in temporalibus habet supersorem praeter Deum eamque esse suam antiquam Doctrinam à quâ nunquam