all Brethren by the Right of Nature but because we all acknowledge One and the same God for our Father because we have all one and the same Spirit which sanctifies us And lastly because all things are common among us but our Women Our Feasts are called Agapae that is to say Entertainments of Love and Charity They were not Instituted for debauched Parasites but for the Entertainment of the Poor being assured that God has a more especial Regard for them And if the Reason of the Institution of these Feasts is wholly Sacred the Consequences of them are equally so There is nothing here to be seen that is any ways contrary to Civility and Modesty They do not sit down at Table till they have refreshed and nourished the Soul by Prayer they eat no more than what is necessary to suffice Nature and they drink no more than what is fitting and convenient for chaste and regular Persons they take care not to glut themselves so as to hinder their rising in the night to worship God They discourse of such things as are profitable because they look upon themselves as in the Presence of God who is a Witness of every thing that we say The Supper is concluded with Prayer and they do not break up in a Tumult or Disorder but they retire regularly and with great modesty as it is not hard for such Persons to do who take greater care to nourish their Souls with that holy Discipline in which they are instructed than their Bodies with the Victuals which they eat After having thus described the Assemblies of the Christians he shews that those Calamities and Misfortunes which happen in the World are unjustly attributed to them as if they were the cause of them He maintains that 't is these are the Men who divert and prevent them and that they are very far from being any ways the occasion of attracting them He concludes by proving that we admire those Virtues in the Philosophers which are discernable in a much more excellent and higher Degree in the Christians The Two Books to the Nations are almost of the very same Subject with the Apology And Tertullian repeats therein the greatest part of the things which he had said before in his Apology but he puts them in another Order explaining and enlarging upon them So that the difference between these two Books is this that the first is written with Heat and without much Study and the second is a Methodical Treatise and composed with great Consideration The Second Book to the Nations was written against the false Gods of the Heathens wherein he gave an exact Account of the Deities of the several prophane Religions and shewed how exceedingly foolish a thing it is to own them but this Book is so imperfect and there is so little Coherence in all that we have extant of it that it cannot be of any great advantage to us In the Book of The Testimony of the Soul he enlarges upon one Proof for Religion which he had advanced before in his Apology that the Soul does naturally and even against its will acknowledge that there is but one God and that there is another Life after this He proves it by those Notions which Nature hath inspired into us and which are so deeply engraven in our Minds that nothing is able to efface them So that they often come from a Man when he thinks of them the least As when one says without any reflection God grant it what pleases God God help me good God c. Expressions that manifestly suppose that the Soul is penetrated with the knowledge of a God as the Fear which we naturally have of Death the desire of leaving behind us a Name to Posterity and that Compassion which we have for the Dead do evidently suppose that there is another Life after this Now these Notions being natural to the Soul and to be found in every Body it must necessarily follow that they come from God And this is the Subject which Tertullian enlarges upon very ingeniously in this little Treatise The Book to Scapula was composed to dissuade the Governour of Africa from the Persecution which he had raised against the Christians He begins by representing to him that the Christians rather wished for Martyrdom than feared it and that therefore it was not out of any Apprehension he had of them that induced him to direct this Discourse to him but the earnest Desire which he had for the Salvation of the Heathens because the Religion of the Christians obliges them to love their Enemies and to endeavour to convert them from the Error wherein they are at present He afterwards tells him that the Christians adore that God whom Mankind knows by Nature he represents to him that it ought to be left to the free Direction of Men to embrace that Religion which seems to them to be most agreeable to Truth That another Man's Religion does neither hurt nor good to any body That it is not an Act of Religion to constrain Men to embrace a Religion which they ought to chuse voluntarily This must be owned to have been a great piece of Ingenuity in a Doctor of Sorbon when the Persecution of the Hugonors was at the height in France Non est Religionis cogere Religionem quae sponte suscipi debet non vi He adds that the Life of Christians is unblameable that they pay an entire Obedience to the Emperors that they were never found engaged in a Party with the Rebels They are says he Enemies to no Man and least of all to the Emperor very well knowing that it is their God who has established him they love honour and respect him most heartily wishing his Preservation and that of the Empire as long as the World shall continue We therefore honour the Emperor after that manner which is lawful for us and which only can be of advantage to him that is to say as a Man who is next under God and who has received from God every thing that he has We likewise offer Sacrifices for his safety but they are the Sacrifices of Prayer For God does not stand in need of Incense nor of the Blood of Victims After having thus vindicated the Christians from the Crime of High-Treason he dissuades Scapula from the Persecution against Christians by the Examples of those who have been punished for persecuting of them and likewise by the Examples of those who have had so much moderation as to permit them to enjoy their Liberty and Tranquility And these are the Books written by Tertullian in defence of the Christian Religion against the Gentiles There is but one Book of his against the Jews wherein First he proves that the Law of Moses and its Ceremonies were established but for a time and that they were to cease at the coming of Jesus Christ. And Secondly that the Messiah expected by the Jews and foretold by the Prophets is already come and that this is Jesus
his Poetry 't is an easie matter to see that it is not Supposititious Gelasius places his Books amongst those which he calls Apochryphal because the Millenary Opinion is here maintain'd and Gennadius speaks of this Author in the following Words Commodianus giving up himself to the Study of Humane Learning read also the Books of the Christians This gave him a favourable Opportunity of embracing the Faith Being now become a Christian and desirous to offer to Jesus Christ the Author of his Salvation a Present befitting a Man of Learning he wrote a Treatise against the Pagans in Verse which is composed in a middle Stile neither Verse nor Prose And because he had but slightly turned over our Authors he was able to confute the Pagan Religion with more ease than to establish that of the Christians Hence it is that he speaks of the Divine Recompences after a gross manner following in this the Opinion of Tertullian Lactantius and Papias But his Morals are Excellent and he persuâ—des Men to embrace a voluntary Poverty This is the Opinion of Gennadius concerning this Author who lived in the Beginning of the Fourth Age in the time of Pope Sylvester a In the time of Pope Sylvester Chap. 33. He exhorts the Pagans to join themselves to the Congregation of Sylvester which plainly shows that he lived at that time and wrote in Rome or in Italy though his Stile is African He calls himself Commodianus b Commodianus At the end of his Work he tells us That his Name may be found out by searching after it in his Verses now if we take the first Letters of every Verse in the last Strophe and put them together we shall find Commodianus Mendicus Christi and by way of Allusion Gazaeus c Gazaeus In all Probability he is so called à Gaza as he is named Commodianus à Commodis and gives himself the Title of the Beggar of Jesus Christ. He tells us That he was once engaged in the Errors of the Heathens but that he was converted by reading the Law of the Christians His Work is entituled Instructions and is composed after the Fashion of Verse I say after the Fashion of Verse because he neither observes Measure nor Cadence in it but only takes care that every Line shall comprise a finished sence and shall begin with an Acrostick in such manner that all the Letters of the Title of every Strophe are to be found one after another at the beginning of each Verse and thus by taking all the first Letters of the Verse we find the entire Title His Stile is harsh his Words barbarous and his Thoughts are seldom elevated The Author appears to have been a Good Man very simple very humble very charitable thoroughly affected with the love of Jesus Christ zealous for his Religion austere in his Morals an enemy to Vice far removed from the Pleasures of the World and a singular good Monk as Rigaltius has observed of him Though after all we must own that he was not very Ignorant for there is a tolerable store of Prophane Learning in his Work and we meet there with several Remarks upon the Pagan Deities that are exceeding Curious and Rare as well as Entertaining He seems to have had a great deal of good Sence of Quickness and Christian Morality This Treatise was for a long time buried in Obscurity and was lately found in our days Sirmondus had it Copied from an old Manuscript and Rigaltius made use of this Copy and Printed it separately in the Year 1650. We may divide it into Three Parts The First which contains Thirty six Strophes is addressed to the Gentiles whom he exhorts to embrace the Religion of Jesus Christ after has exposed the Falshood he of the Divinities which they Adored The Second is directed to the Jews whom he likewise persuades to embrace the Christian Religion showing them that the Law was merely Figurative He there speaks concerning Anti-christ the last Judgment and the Resurrection The Last is addressed to the Christian Catechumens to the Faithful and to the Penitents to whom he gives admirable Instructions in Morality It begins at the Forty sixth Strophe We find in this Author most of the Errors of the Ancients He is of Opinion that the Daemons 〈◊〉 Angels that were deâ—â—â—ched with the love of Women and that the Giants came from this 〈◊〉 Commerce That the World will end after Six Thousand Years That Nero was Anti-christ That there will be Two Resurrections That of the Just before the Reign of the Thousand Years and the General One at the Day of Judgment That the Just after the First Resurrection shall live a Thousand Years upon the Earth That 〈◊〉 that time all Men shall be Judged the Wicked thrown head long into Fire and the whole â—ead of Nature changed His Moral Instructions are very Excellent He recommends to the Consideration of the Catechumens to lead a Life free from Sin He advices the Penitents to pray Night and Day to live after an austere manner that they may obtain Remission of their Sins He Exhorts the Faithful to avoid all Evil and to banish from their Hearts the very Motions of Hatred assuring them That Martyrdom will stand them in little stead if they have an Aversion towards their Brethren He represents to Apostates the greatness of their Sin and admonishes all Christians in general that being Souldiers of Jesus Christ they ought continually to wage War with their Passions He prohibits them to appear at the Prophane Shows He advises Christian Women to be Modest to avoid Luxury and Magnificence of Apparel He gives incomparable Instructions to Ministers and Priests that they may acquit themselves worthily in their Ministry and persuades them to lead a Life unblameable and exempt from Avarice but above all to relieve the Necessities of the Poor He counsels the Rich not to value themselves the more highly upon the score of their Riches but to communicate part to the Indigent to assist and visit those that are in Sickness and to Comfort those that labour under Affliction He says That we ought not to lament the Death of our Children or Relations He condemns all Funeral Pomps and proud Interments He powerfully reprehends those Persons that don't observe Silence in the Church The Priest of the Lord says he has said Lift up your Hearts to God you answer That you have and yet immediately forget the Word He prays to the Lord in behalf of the People and in the mean time you are entertaining one another with Stories you Laugh you speak Evil of your Neighbours you talk inconsiderately as if God were absent even he that has made all that sees all and understands all He advises those that Pray to God to purifie their Hearts before they address themselves to Him by way of Prayer In a word The last Part of his Instructions contains excellent Exhortations to incline Christians to the Love and Practice of Vertue to turn
suddenly expire and that the Law of the Spirit a great deal more perfect would succeed it This Doctrine spread among a great many Spiritual Men and one of â—hem made a Book to establish it to which he gave the Title of The Eternal Gospel This Piece The Book call'd the Eternal Gospel appear'd about the beginning of this Century but what is the Author's Name is not known Matthew Paris ascribes it to the Order of the Jacobines Aimeric to John the Seventh General of the Franciscans Let the Case be how it will 't is certain that a great many Monks approv'd of this Work and that some of them would have Taught this Doctrine Publickly in the University of Paris in the Year 1254 but the Bishops oppos'd it And the Book of the Eternal Gospel was Condemn'd to be The Condemnation of that Book Burnt in the Year 1256 by Pope Alexander IV. who at the same time Proscrib'd those who maintain'd the Doctrine of that Book as William of Saint Amour and Ptolemey of Lucca assure us All the Errors of this Book turn upon this Principle That the Law of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was The Errors of that Book imperfect in comparison of the law of the Spirit which was to succeed it For according to this Book the Law of the Gospel was to last no longer than Twelve hundred and sixty Years and consequently was upon expiring The Author of that Book advanc'd besides this several particular Errors viz. That none but Spiritual Men had the true Knowledge of the Scriptures That only those who went Bare-foot were capable of Preaching the Spiritual Doctrine That the Jews tho' adhering to their Religion shall be loaded with good things and deliver'd from their Enemies That the Greeks were more Spiritual than the Latines and that God the Father should Save them That the Monks were not oblig'd to suffer Martyrdom in Defence of the Worship of Jesus Christ That the Holy Ghost receiv'd something of the Church as Jesus Christ as Man had receiv'd of the Holy Ghost That the Active Life had lasted till Abbot Joachim but that since his time it was become useless That the Contemplative Life had begun from his time and that it should be more perfect in his Successors That there should be an Order of Monks by far more perfect which should flourish when the Order of the Clergy was perished That in this Third State of the World the Government of the Church would be wholly Committed to those Monks who should have more Authority than the Apostles ever had That those Preachers persecuted by the Clergy should go over to the Infidels and might excite them against the Church of Rome These are some of the Extravagancies which the Authors relate as extracted out of the Book of the Eternal Gospel The Maintainers of this Work are call'd Joachites or rather Joachimites in the Council of Arles 1260 The Condemnation of the Joachimites in the Council of Arles 1260. wherein their Doctrine was Examin'd and Condemn'd in these Terms Among the False Prophets who appear at this time none are more Dangerous than those who taking for the Foundation of their Folly several Ternaries in part true and making false Applications of them establish'd a very pernicious Doctrine and wickedly affecting to do Honour to the Holy Ghost do impudently derogate from the Redemption of Jesus Christ by aiming to include the Time of the Reign of the Son and his Works within a certain Number of Years after which the Holy Ghost shall Act As if the Holy Ghost were to Act with more Power and Majesty for the future than he has done yet since the beginning of the Church These Joachites by a Chimerical Concatenation of certain Ternaries maintain That the time of the Holy Ghost shall for the future be inlighten'd with a more perfect Law laying down for the Foundation of their Error this Holy and Coelestial Ternary of the Ineffable Persons of the Ever-blessed Trinity Father Son and Holy Ghost and are for establishing their Error on the Basis of all these Truths They add to this Sovereign Truth other Ternaries by asserting That there shall be Three States or Orders of Men who have had or shall have each their proper Season The First is that of Marry'd Persons which was in Repute in the time of the Father that is under the Old Testament The Second is that of Clerks which has been in esteem in the time of Grace by the Son in this Age of the World The Third is the Order of the Monks which shall be glorify'd in time with a larger measure of Grace which shall be given by the Holy Ghost Three sorts of Doctrines answer to these Three States the Old Testament the New and the Eternal Gospel or the Gospel of the Holy Ghost Lastly They distinguish the whole Duration of the World into Three Ages The time of the Spirit of the Law of Moses which they attribute to the Father the time of the Spirit of Grace which they attribute to the Son and which has lasted 1260. Years and the time of a more Ample Grace and of unveil'd Truth which belongs to the Holy Ghost and of which Jesus Christ speaks in the Gospel when he saies When that Spirit of Truth shall come he will teach you all Truth In the First State Men liv'd according to the Flesh in the Second between Flesh and Spirit and in the Last which shall endure to the end of the World they shall live according to the Spirit The Consequence which they draw from this Fiction of Ternaries is That the Redemption of Jesus Christ has no more place and that the Sacraments are Abolish'd which the Joachites have almost the Impudence to Advance by asserting That all Types and Figures shall be Abolish'd at this time and that the Truth shall appear all naked without the Veil of Sacraments Maxims these are which ought to be Abominated by all Christians who have Read the Holy Fathers and who firmly believe that the Sacraments of the Church are visible Signs and Images of Invisible Grace under the Elements of one of which the Son of God abides as he has promised in his Church to the End of the World This Council adds That tho' this Doctrine had been Condemn'd a while ago by the Holy See in its Censure of the Book of The Eternal Gospel yet because several Persons maintain'd it under a pretence That the Books which serv'd as a Foundation to that Error had not been Examin'd nor Condemn'd viz. the Book of Concordances and the other Books of the Joachites which till then remain'd undiscuss'd because they lay conceal'd in the Hands of some Monks and began then to appear in the World and to Infatuate the Minds of many it Condemns and Disapproves of those Works and prohibits the making use of them under pain of Excommunication In the Year 1240 William Bishop of Paris having Conven'd all the Regent Doctors of the University
have confest that there was but One true God and that even the most ancient Poets as Aratus Hesiod Euripides and Orpheus have been obliged to acknowledge the same and that the Sibyls the Prophets and the Books of Scriptures teach only the Worship of One God Afterwards he is very earnest to persuade Men to embrace the Christian Religion in Consideration of the great Advantages that it carries along with it towards the Attainment of eternal Salvation which they cannot otherwise hope for and for preserving themselves from eternal Torments which they cannot possibly avoid but by believing in Jesus Christ and by living conformably to his Laws If you were permitted says he to purchase eternal Salvation what would you not give for it And now you may obtain it by Faith and Charity There is nothing can hinder you from acquiring it neither Poverty nor Misery nor Old Age nor any other State of Life Believe therefore in One God who is God and Man and receive eternal Salvation for a Recompence Seek God and you shall live for ever Thus he concludes with a long Exhortation wherein he most earnestly presses Men to quit their Idolatry and Vices and to live and believe as the Christians do The Second Book Entituled the Pedagogue is a Discourse entirely of Morality It is divided into three Books In the first he shews what it is to be a Pedagogue that is to say a Conductor Pastor Book I. or Director of Men He proves that this Quality chiefly and properly belongs only to the WORD Incarnate He says that it is the part of the Pedagogue to regulate the Manners conduct Chap. 1. Chap. 2. Chap. 3. Chap. 4. the Actions and cure the Passions That he preserves Men from Sins and heals them when they have been already Guilty That the WORD performs these Functions by forgiving our Sins as he is God and instructing Us as he is Man with great Sweetness and Charity That he equally informs Men and Women the Learned and the Ignorant because all Men stand in need of Instruction being all Children in one Sense Yet however that we must not think that the Doctrine of the Christians is Childish and Contemptible But that on the contrary the Quality of Children which they receive in Baptism renders them perfect in the knowledge of Divine Things by delivering them from Sins by Grace and inlightning them by the Illumination of Faith And that so we are at the same time both Children and perfect Men and that the Milk wherewith we are nourished being Chap. 5. Chap. 6. Chap. 7. both the Word and the Will of God is a very Solid and Substantial Nourishment That the WORD guided the Jews in the Old Testament by Fear but that after it was Incarnate it has changed this Fear into Love That Reproaches Afflictions and Punishments which the WORD makes Chap. 8. use of to chastise Men are not Signs of his bearing any hatred towards them but Effects of his Justice and of the Care which he takes to Correct them That it is the same God the Creator of the World who is both Good and Just that punishes and shews Mercy That he is good upon his own Chap. 9. Account and just as to Men That Reproofs and Chastisements are for their Good that there are two kinds of Fear the Fear which Children have of their Father or Subjects of their King and the Fear which Slaves have of their Master That both these Sorts of Fear are profitable to Men but that the First is by much the most perfect That the WORD inclines Men to good by its Exhortations and prevents them from Sinning by its Threatnings That he performed the Function of a Chap. 10. Pedagogue by Moses and the Prophets and that he is at last come himself to give Men suitable Remedies to their several Miseries and to Conduct them according to the Dictates of right Reason Last Chap. That the whole Life of a Christian is a continued Series of Actions conformable to Reason and that Sin is produced by the going out of that way In the 2d and 3d. Book of the Pedagogue S. Clement descends to the Recapitulation of humane Actions and gives Rules for Temperance and Christian Modesty In the former of these he shews Book II. Chap. 1. Chap. 2. Chap. 3. Chap. 4. Chap. 5. Chap. 6. Chap. 7. that the End and Design of Eating ought not to be Pleasure but Necessity and that therefore we must avoid Excess both in the Quantity and the Quality of our Meat That Wine is not to be Drunk but with great Moderation and that young Persons particularly ought wholly to abstain from it He finds great Fault with Luxury in Houshold-stuff and Moveables He is of Opinion that Vocal and Instrumental Musick ought to be banished from the Christian Festivals and that we should only celebrate therein the Praises of God He is against immoderate Laughter and uttering such Words as are unseemly He requires that exact Modesty be observed in the Countenance and in Discourse he reprehends those who put Crowns and Garlands upon their Heads and who perfumed themselves with Balm He allows but little Sleep and that in such Beds that are neither too Chap. 8. Chap. 10. Chap. 11. and 12. Book III. Chap. 1 2 3 4 and 5. stately nor too delicate That it is not lawful to Marry but with a Design of begetting Children That we should not make use of Clothes but for the sake of Decency He declaims against Luxury of Apparel against precious Stones against Fantastical Dresses in Men or Women and against publick Baths He describes and enveighs against all these things better than ever Juvenal or any of the ancient Satyrists had done before him He intermixes his Satyr with several Curious Instructions and descends to particulars like a Casuist He passes in the next Place to the Precepts of Vertue opposite to the Vices he has been reprehending Chap. 6. Chap. 7. and 8. Chap. 9 and 10. Chap. 11. Last Chap. He shews that there is none but the Christian who is truly rich That he ought to live in an entire Frugality That he must not make use of any Exercises and Pleasures no farther than is absolutely necessary for his Health He adds moreover divers Instructions more particularly suited to the Women to perswade them to carry themselves always Civilly and Modestly and more especially in Churches Lastly he makes a Collection of several Places of Scripture which relate to Morality and the Conduct of our Life and concludes by exhorting Men to hearken unto and to obey the Precepts of Jesus Christ their Supreme and Sovereign Pedagogue to whom he Addresses a Prayer praising him with the Father and the Holy Ghost and returning him Thanks for making him a Member of his Church These Books are very profitable for those that study Morality and if the Casuists of our Times had perused and considered them well they had not faln
Happiness and the Wicked everlastingly Punished They never disquieted themselves in examining wherein the Beatitude consisted but they were perswaded That the Wicked should be punished with Fire and that not Metaphorical but Real They advanced Man's Free-Will very highly and maintained that he might carry himself either to Good or Evil and yet they acknowledged That since the Transgression of the First Man we were naturally inclined to Evil and that we stood in need of the Assistance and Grace of God to determine us to what was Good They did not Philosophize too far about the Nature and several Species of Angels but only satisfied themselves that there were good Angels and likewise bad ones called Daemons They were of Opinion that both the one and the other were Corporeal and imagined that the bad Angels were lost for their love of Women and they positively asserted that the good Ones took care of things below All of them were sensible of the Wounds and Punishment of Adam's Sin but they don't seem to agree that Infants were born subject to Sin and worthy of Damnation Nevertheless this appears to be the common Opinion as is evident from St. Cyprian who says That it was requisite to Baptize Infants before the Eighth day for fear lest if they died without Baptism this delay should prove the occasion of their Destruction They often spoke of the Necessity and wonderful Effects of Baptism and said that the Holy Ghost descended by the Imposition of the Hands of the Bishop They maintained That the Church had Power to reconcile those that repented of their Sins and did not doubt but that the Eucharist was the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and accordingly called it by that Name They extolled Virginity without condemning Marriage they honoured the Saints and Martyrs as the Servants of God they spoke of the Virgin Mary with a great deal of respect and yet with no less discretion and advisedness St. Clement affirms That she continued a Virgin after her Delivery but Origen Tertullian and some others were of the contrary Opinion We find nothing in the Three first Ages of the Church either for or against the Assumption there is a Passage in St. Irenaeus that is not favourable to the immaculate Conception They believed that the Holy Scriptures were written by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost that they contain all the principal Articles of our Faith that though they are obscure in some places yet they are clear enough in many others and that even their Obscurity has its Use and that all Christians might read them provided they made good use of them That it is necessary to believe what the Scripture Tradition and the Church teach us without endeavouring to search too deep into the Mysteries of our Religion and disputing about them They acknowledged no other Books of the Old Testament to be Canonical but those that were received into the Canon of the Jews though now and then they cited some other Books as very good and useful In the New Testament they received as Canonical the Four Evangelists the Fourteen Epistles of St. Paul though some of them questioned that to the Hebrews and many Persons attributed it to another and not to St. Paul the First Epistles of St. John and of St. Peter The Epistles of St. James and St. Jude The Second of St. Peter the Second and Third of St. John were received by some and rejected by others as well as the Apocalypse They sometimes cited the Apochryphal Books but never reckoned them amongst the Canonical Scriptures Thus I have given you a short Summary of part of the Opinions of the Fathers in the Three First Ages of the Church The most part of the Proofs which I have here laid down are to be found in the Abridgment of those Authors that I have made in this Volume and I don 't in the least question but that those Persons who will carefully read over the same Authors will be sensible that I have imposed nothing upon them and that their Doctrine is what I have now represented it An Abridgment of the Discipline WE cannot say of the Discipline of the Church what we have affirmed concerning its Doctrine viz. That it is the same in all Times and all Places because it is an undeniable An Abridgment of Discipline Truth that it has been different in many Churches and has been from time to time subject to change We ought not however to conclude from this Principle that it is unnecessary to study the Primitive Discipline or that we are obliged only to learn that of the Time and Church where we live for besides that those Persons who are ignorant of the Discipline of the Primitive Church cannot pretend to understand the Books of the Ancients this ancient Discipline is the Foundation of ours And though the Exteriour part has been changed yet the Spirit of the Church is always the same It is not therefore an unprofitable Labour as some have vainly imagined to busie ones self in examining the Discipline of the Ancient Church on the contrary it is a Study extremely useful and necessary for a Divine It must be acknowledged that the Discipline that was observed in the Infancy of the Church however Holy it was in its Simplicity yet was not arrived to its Perfection for the Apostles altogether applying themselves to what was necessary at the beginning were content to Preach the Doctrine and Morality of our Blessed Saviour without giving themselves the trouble to regulate what related to the Ceremonies or Discipline of the Church Nevertheless we are not to imagine that they intirely neglected it and St. John who lived longer than the rest of the Apostles seems to have applied himself more particularly to it But the Successors of the Apostles by little and little regulated the Ceremonies that ought to be observed as well in the Administration of the Sacraments as in the Assemblies of Christians and made particular Orders about the Government of Churches the Form of Ecclesiastical Judicatures and many other Points of Discipline These Ceremonies were exceedingly augmented in the Fourth Century when the Church began to enjoy the benefits of Peace and Tranquillity and Publickly celebrated the Divine Service in the time of the Emperour Constantine Then it was that the Bishops met together with Liberty being supported by the Authority of Princes and made abundance of Rules concerning the Government of the Church the Rights of the Bishops of the greater Sees the Forms of Judicature and infinite Numbers of other Matters We have here obliged our selves to speak only of the Discipline that was observed in the Three First Ages of the Church Then it was plain and simple and had scarce any other Splendor to recommend it but what the Holiness of the Manners and Lives of the Christians gave to it They Assembled every Sunday in particular in certain Places appointed and set apart for Publick Devotion where they continued a long
has prefix'd to his Version a Preface wherein he briefly takes notice of the principal Errors of Eusebius and passes a very sound and solid Judgment upon his History and his Person The Chronicle of Eusebius or the Abridgment of the Universal History of all Times and Places from the Beginning of the World down to his own time was divided into Two Parts The First was entituled Canons of Universal History or Universal Chronography and the Second Chronical Canons In the first he has collected the Origin and History of all Nations severally the Succession of all Kings and Princes of the World of the High Priests of the Jews and the Bishops of the Chief Churches from the Birth of Jesus Christ. In the second he has enlarg'd and digested these Histories according to the order of Time St. Jerom has translated both Parts m St. Jerom has translated both Parts St. Jerom in his Commentary upon Daniel Ch. 9. saith That there was found in the Version of the Chronicle of Eusebius an Explication of two Passages of Scripture both which were in his First Part Marcellinus says also plainly That St. Jerom translated the First Part. St. Jerom in the Preface to his Version says That he translated Eusebius word for word from the time of Abraham to the taking of Troy and that from the taking of Troy to the time of Constantine he had added many things of his own Head particularly about those Matters that concern the Roman History which Eusebius had neglected and that he was the Author of what follows after the time of Constantine down to the Sixth Consulship of Valens But there was nothing remaining of the Translation of the First but some Extracts containing the Names of Kings which are Printed with the Version of the Second Part. This Translation of St. Jerom which was thus Printed at Basle was afterwards Publish'd more exactly by Arnaud de Pontac Bishop of Bazas in the Year 1605. But none took care to Collect the Greek Fragments of the Original of Eusebius before the famous Joseph Scaliger who Publish'd them in the Year 1606 in a Book entituled The Treasure of Time wherein he gives a larger Version of the First Part of the Chronicle than any other Edition and renders the Version of the Second Part more Correct and Exact to which he adds many very considerable Greek Fragments taken out of some later Greek Authors This Book of Eusebius is a Work of Prodigious Study and most Accomplish'd Learning For he must have read an infinite number of Books and Ancient Monuments to compose such an Universal History and at the same time he must have a well-poiz'd Judgment to collect so many Particulars and relate every one of them in their proper time This infinite Labour is an evident Proof that Eusebius was a Man of vast Reading and a Prodigious Memory Nevertheless it must be confess'd that the Chronicle of Africanus was a great help to him and that he took almost all his Chronicle from Africanus's Chronicon which he had Copied He corrected indeed some of the Faults which he found in him but then he himself committed many more n But then he himself committed many more Errors in Chronology You may see them observed by Scaliger in the Prolegomena to his Treasure of Time And indeed it is next to impossible to avoid all Errors in so long and knotty a Work as an Universal Chronicle These Faults are pardonable in a Book of this Nature and do not hinder but that it ought to be esteemed one of the most useful Books of all Antiquity The Four Books of the Life of Constantine are properly speaking a Panegyrick in which he gives an Account as an Orator rather than as an Historian not only of the Life of this Emperour but also of the Revolutions of the Empire and the Affairs of the Church in which Constantine had a hand The Stile of this Work is more Sublime and Florid than that of the other Books of Eusebius and yet it is not finer nor more agreeable He does nothing for the most part but give slight hints of the Relations which he has given at large elsewhere and deliver the Heads of them leaving out the Circumstances and Particulars He has added at the End of those Four Books Constantine's Oration to the Convention of the Saints i. e. to the Christians and a Harangue in Praise of this Emperor which he spoke before him at the Festival Solemnity of the 30th Year of his Reign In this Piece he enlarges upon the Praises of God the Wonders of his Providence the Mystery of the Incarnation the Benefits of Jesus Christ to Mankind more than upon the Commendation of the Emperor which he intermixes only now and then for he praises him as a Christian Prince ought to be prais'd that is to say by publishing those Vertues which have a relation to Piety and Religion This Discourse is the most Eloquent of all his Works and is compos'd with much Art and Fineness The Fifteen Books of Evangelical Preparation address'd to Theodorus who is believ'd to have been Bishop of Laodicea and is mention'd in the 32th Chapter of the Seventh Book of his Ecclesiastick History were written on purpose to dispose the Minds of Men to embrace the Christian Religion In them Eusebius shows that the Theology of the Pagans was ridiculous and contrary to good Sence and that the Christian Theology was Holy and Reasonable The First Part of this Proposition he proves in the First Six Books and the Second Part in the other Nine He begins with a General Description of the Doctrine of Christ and to render it the more enticing he gives an account of the ineffable Blessings it has reveal'd to Mankind and how it conduces to Piety by teaching them to know and honour one God After this he alledges some Prejudices in favour of the Christian Religion such as the Accomplishment of Prophecies the Holiness of the Lives of Christians and the wonderful facility with all Persons even those that were more dull and barbarous found in comprehending the greatest and sublimest Truths After he has thus dispos'd his Readers to be favourable to the Christian Religion he destroys the Religions of all the Nations of the World and lays open the Falshood of every one of them in particular not only as to what concerns their History but as to their pretended Mysteries and Prophane Morality In the Fourth Book he confutes the strongest Argument of the Pagans taken from the Predictions of their Oracles He shows that the Gods whom they worship'd were Evil Spirits call'd Daemons as the Philosophers themselves have acknowledg'd In the Sixth Book he opposes Destiny or Fatal Necessity and proves there by many Reasons and Testimonies that Man is entirely a free Agent In the following Nine Books he shews that the Christians had reason to embrace the Theology of the Hebrews because none but that affords solid Foundations for a Sincere Piety
was dearest to him in this World He confutes the Opinion of the Pharisees who held that Men are raised again from the dead to eat and drink and enjoy the same Pleasures which they â—…d in this Life The Fourth Tract is a Discourse upon the Day of the Ascension of Jesus Christ wherein he proves the Truth of his Resurrection and Ascension by the Constancy of the Martyrs and Apostles and by the wonderful Promulgation of the Gospel He observes how impossible it was that ever the Apostles should undertake to Preach the Christian Religion and succeed in their Attempt if God had not encourag'd them by his Spirit and dispos'd the Hearts of Men to receive their Doctrine In this Discourse he describes also the Martyrdom of St. Romanus Deacon of Antioch In the Six following Tracts he discourses of things Spiritual and Invisible and in the First he shows That God is Incorporeal and Invisible and demonstrates that things Incorporeal and Invisible are infinitely more Excellent than those that are Material and Earthly In the Second and Third he proves That the Soul of Man is Immortal and Spiritual and describes the great Advantages it gives a Man above the Beasts The Fourth Tract is concerning the Thought of Man which has these Remarkable Properties First That it knows it self and Secondly That it resists and checks the Motions of Lust. In the Fifth He goes on still to prove That God is Invisible and Incorporeal and takes Notice as he goes along That Angels are Spiritual In the Sixth He answer some Passages of Scripture which seem to attribute Members to God The following Discourse is concerning the Advantages of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ and the great Benefits it hath procur'd to Mankind There he explains that saying of our Saviour I came not to bring Peace but War by shewing That Jesus Christ came indeed to bring Peace but Men being unwilling to receive it there must be War by necessary consequence as arising only from the bad Disposition of their own Hearts Towards the end of this Discourse he praises those that suffer for the Religion of Jesus Christ and continues the same Subject in the following Discourse wherein he shews upon occasion of those Words of our Saviour Preach ye upon the House-tops what has been said to you in secret That nothing can dispense with a Christian's suffering for the Religion of Christ. He adds That tho' there be no Persecution yet we are oblig'd to suffer and to be as one may say continually Martyrs because we are always to fight against the World and our selves The Two last Discourses are concerning good Works in the First of which he recommends it to Christians if they would be happy to follow after that which is Good and shun that which is Evil. And in the Second he exhorts them to the practice of good Works and chiefly to giving of Alms. This is the Subject of those Discourses which are more concerning Doctrines than Morality wherein there appears a great deal of Wit good Sence and Eloquence but little of Order and Method Eusebius was one of the most Learned Men of all Antiquity as both his Friends and Enemies do equally acknowledge r Eusebius was one of the most Learned Men of all Antiquity as both his Friends and Enemies do equally acknowledge See here a part of the Testimonies which the Ancients have given to the Learning of Eusebius Constantine in his Epistle to those of Antioch and in a Letter which he wrote to himself praises his vast Learning St. Basil in his Book of the H. Spirit Ch. 29. calls him an Author worthy of Credit because of his Universal Learning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 St. Jerom tho' the great Enemy of Eusebius could not forbear often-times to praise his Learning to confess that he priz'd his Books and to say in his Second Book against Ruffinus That he was a most Learned Man Vir doctissimus Eusebius doctissimum dico non Catholicum The most Learned Eusebius I call him most Learned but not Catholick It is not to be wondered at that Ruffinus his Friend gives him the same Title Antipater of Bostria tho' he did not favour him yet gives him the Name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. one very knowing in most Matters and further says of him That he had read all the Books of the Ancients examin'd and explain'd all their Opinions and that he had written himself most useful Books Philostorgius praises him for his History Socrates and Sozomen vindicate him Victorius calls him a most Learned Man Gelasius the Pope durst not reject his History because of it's great Learning and singular usefulness for information Pelagius assures us That there is no History that deserves greater Esteem than that of Eusebius Photius who censures the Stile and Doctrine of Eusebius nevertheless commends his Knowledge and Learning I take no Notice of the Testimonies of Modern Authors of whom it may be said without fear of mistaking That there was no Man of so great Reading and Learning amongst all our Greek Authors Almost all his Books are the effects of prodigious Labour and very long and laborious Enquiries And yet it must be confessed that he had great Helps by the Memoirs of those who had written before him upon the same Subjects whose Works he makes no scruple to Transcribe He did not much Study to polish his Discourses which is the common Fault of almost all those that make Knowledge and Learning their chief Business His Stile is neither Elegant nor Grateful as Photius has many times observed but dry and barren and extremely unpleasant He is very proper to teach those who apply their minds seriously to Study and search after Truth and love to consider it absolutely naked despoil'd of all the Ornaments of Language but he is not at all proper to entice those who are taken with the manner of Expressing things and the force of Eloquence I shall not here add any thing to what I have said concerning his Learning But as to what concerns his Person he seems to have been very impartial very sincere and a great Lover of Peace Truth and Religion For altho' he maintain'd an intimate Correspondence with the Enemies of St. Athanasius it does not appear that he was his Enemy nor that he sided much with any Party in the Controversy of the Bishops of that time He was present indeed in the Councils wherein unjust things were done to Eustathius and St. Athanasius but it does not appear that he gave any Signs of an angry Temper nor that he serv'd the Passions of other Men. He was not the Author of New Confessions of Faith neither did he carry on any Plot to the Destruction of St. Athanasius or the Ruin of his Party but he only desir'd to accommodate Differences and reconcile the two Parties He did not abuse the Credit which he had with the Emperor to Advance himself nor to Destroy his Enemies as Eusebius of
going out of Milan they allow'd the Christians by a second Edict the Publick Exercise of their Religion and commanded that those places should be restor'd to them wherein they had usually kept their Assemblies A short time after this the two Emperours quarrelled and declar'd War against one another in the Year 314. Licinins lost at first a great Battel in Pannonia but at the second in Thracia the Advantage was equal on both Sides which induc'd the Emperours to make Peace for that time The Wars and Affairs of the Empire did not hinder Constantine from concerning himself with the Affairs of the Christians For having receiv'd Complaints in behalf of the Donatists against Caecilian and other African Bishops he appointed for Judges such as liv'd out of Africk and summon'd a Council to meet at Rome under Miltiades about this Matter But the Donatists still complaining of this Decision c But the Donatists still complaining of this Decision Valesius has prov'd in his Dissertation about the History of the Donatists That the Donatists did not appeal from the Synod at Rome but only complain'd to the Emperour that their Cause was not fully examin'd and that they appeal'd afterwards from the determination of the Council at Arles to that of the Emperour he call'd a Council at Arles where they were condemned anew and at last when they appeal'd from the Determination of this Council to the Emperour either because he believ'd that he might take cognizance of the Matter since there was nothing alledg'd but a particular Accusation against Caecilian which was Matter of Fact or because he would oblige the Donatists to yield as St. Austin observes he himself gave Judgment at Milan in favour of Caecilian condemn'd the Donatists and wrote against them in Africk caus'd an Information to be drawn up against Silvanus who was of their Party and their Temples to be taken from them but yet he recommended them to be gently dealt withal as a means to bring them back again into the Bosom of the Church About this time he made many Laws in favour of the Christians He permitted Masters to grant Liberty to their Slaves that were within the Church in presence of the Bishop and the People He made Laws for the due Observation of Sunday forbidding all sorts of Persons to Travel on that Day and allow'd Men to leave their Goods to the Church by Testament On the contrary Licinius Emperour of the East publish'd Edicts against the Christians caus'd their Churches to be demolish'd and themselves to be Persecuted or at least conniv'd at those that did so Constantine declar'd War against him in 324 conquer'd him near Adrianople and Chalcedon and then besieged him in Nicomedia whither he had retir'd after his Defeat Licinius seeing that he was not able to maintain the Siege came and threw himself at Constantine's Feet who gave him his Life at the instance of his Wife who was Licinius's Daughter and then sent him to Thessalonica where a little after he caused him to be put to Death under pretence that he design'd to stir up Sedition After this Constantine Abrogated the Edicts of Licinius against the Christians and commanded that those who were Condemn'd to the Mines or Banishment or had been depriv'd of their Honour or Goods upon the account of Religion should be releas'd and re establish'd in their former Estate That the Goods of the Martyrs which had been Consiscated should be return'd to their Heirs That the Churches of Christians should be Rebuilt and their Burial-places restor'd unto them Then he Exhorted all his Subjects very earnestly in a Letter to embrace the Christian Religion And he did not only take care to preserve the Church in Peace against the Attempts of its Enemies but he us'd his utmost endeavours to hinder all Divisions in its Bowels by the Disputes of those who were its profess'd Members He applied himself to allay the Controversy between Arius and Alexander by writing a Letter to them wherein he earnestly Exhorts them to Peace in a most moving and persuasive manner assuring them that he had delay'd his Voyage to the East for fear of finding them there at Variance and praying them to open by their good Agreement his Passage to the East which they had hitherto as one may say stopt up by their Differences He sent this Letter by Hosius Bishop of Corduba a Man commendable for his Worth and Prudence This Bishop having call'd a Synod in the City of Alexandria did all that in him lay to appease their Differences but not being able to compass his Design Constantine judged that the best way to restore Peace to the Church was to summon a General Council of the East and West in the City of Nice in Bithynia He himself Assisted at it Exhorted the Bishops to Peace and refus'd to receive the Accusations which one Party form'd against the other He made them agree in the same Doctrine and approv'd the Decision of the Council to which they all Subscribed except Secundus and Theonas He wrote himself to all the World and Exhorted all the Bishops to receive the Decrees of this Council He banish'd Arius and two Bishops that had taken his Part in the Synod he caus'd the Books of that Heretick to be burnt he forbad all his Subjects to keep them and wrote in particular two very earnest Letter against Arius and his followers In short He treated the Bishops of the Council magnificently testified a great deal of Friendship to them and sent them away laden with Presents Eusebius and Theognis having publish'd anew their Errors after the Council altho' they had Subscribed to its Decrees were by him sent into Banishment After this he caus'd the Sepulchre of Jesus Christ to be found out in Jerusalem and built a stately Church there as well as at Bethlehem and at the Mount of Olives It 's said That he discover'd the Cross of Christ and some pretend that many Miracles were then done by it And yet it is very strange that Eusebius an Eye-witness of those things who has exactly described all the Circumstances of the Discovery of Christ's Sepulchre and who forgets nothing that may be to the Advantage of Religion should not say one word neither of the Cross of Christ nor of the Miracles that are pretended to be wrought by it About the same time he gave the Name of Constantinople to the City of Byzantium and endow'd it with the same Privileges which Old Rome enjoy'd from whence it had the Name of New Rome After this he labour'd more than ever he had done to aggrandize the Church he made Laws against Hereticks wrote to the King of Persia in favour of the Christians destroy'd the Temples of Idols gave great Gifts to Churches and caus'd magnificent Copies of the Bible to be made In a word he did so much for Religion that he had good right to be call'd Bishop of the Church as to those things that concern its External Policy And
a Zeal that he might deserve to be accus'd of too violent a Passion if it were not otherwise certain that he was acted only from a principle of Love to the Truth * The best Excuse that can be made for St. Hilary is That Oppression may make a Wise Man mad and St. Athanasius needs it as much as he for in his Letter to all those that lead a Monastick Life he shews as great Marks of Rage and Anger against Constantius as St. Hilary does here and yet St. Gregory Nazianzen a Man that was never suspected of Arianism has said very great Things of that Prince when he set him against Julian the Apostate He begins with these Words which are all Sparks of Fire 'T is time to Speak since the time to be Silent is past we must wait upon Jesus Christ since Anti-Christ Governs Let the True Pastors cry aloud since the Hirelings are fled Let us die for the Sheep since the Thieves are entered and the Lion full of Rage goes about the Sheepfold After he has exhorted the Pastors in these Words and many others of the same Nature to Defend the Truths of the Gospel with Courage and Boldness He gives an Account of the Conduct which he had observ'd since his Banishment He says That he kept Silence in Modesty hoping that things would change for the better but there being now no further place for hope he found himself oblig'd to speak He declares That he wishes he had rather been in the time of Decius or Nero than in that wherein he liv'd That neither Tortures nor the Fire nor the Cross could have made him afraid but he would boldly have maintain'd the Combate against his declared Enemies and suffer'd with Constancy in this publick Persecution But now adds he we oppose a Persecutor that deceives us with false appearances an Enemy that puts on a Friendly Countenance to us Constantius the Anti-Christ who Persecutes the Church under a mask of designing its advancement He professes says he to be a Christian that he may deny Jesus Christ He procures Union to hinder Peace He stifles Heresies to ruine Christianity He honours the Bishops that he may make them lose the Title of the Ministers of Jesus Christ He builds up Churches that he may destroy the Faith Let him not imagine adds he that I Charge him falsly That I Reproach him The Ministers of Jesus Christ ought to speak the Truth If what I have propos'd be a Calumny I am willing to pass for an infamous Person but if it be true and publickly known I use the freedom of an Apostle in reproving it after a long Silence After this He Justifies his calling Constantius Anti-Christ by giving a horrible Representation of the Persecution that he raised He adds That it was neither through Indiscretion nor Rashness nor Anger that he spoke so of him but that his Reason his Constancy and his Faith oblig'd him to say these things Yes says he addressing himself to Constantius I tell you what I should have told Nero what Dioclesian and Maximian should have heard from my Mouth You fight against God You use Cruelties to the Church You Persecute the Saints You hate those that Preach Jesus Christ You utterly abolish Religion In a word You are a Tyrant I speak not with reference to the Things of this World but with reference to the Things of God This is what is common to you with the Pagan Emperours Let us now come to that which is peculiar to your self You feign your self to be a Christian and you are the Enemy of Jesus Christ You are become Anti-Christ and have begun his Work You intrude into the Office of procuring New Creeds to be made and you live like a Pagan You teach things Profane and are ignorant of Piety and Religion You give Bishopricks to those of your own Faction and take them away from the good Bishops that you may bestow them upon the Bad. You put the Bishops in Prison You keep your Armies in the Field to terrify the Church You assemble Councils to establish Impiety in them and you compel the Western Bishops to renounce the Faith that they may embrace Error You shut them up in a City to weaken them by Famine to kill them with the Rigor of the Winter and to corrupt them by your Dissimulation You foment the Dissentions of the East by your Artifices He adds also many other Accusations of the same Nature and to compleat all he says That the Church never suffer'd so much under Nero under Decius and Maximianus as it has done under Constantius who is more cruel than all those Tyrants because the former gave Martyrs to the Church who overcame Devils whereas Constantius makes an Infinite number of Prevaricators who cannot so much as comfort themselves by saying that they were overcome by the violence of their Torments I should never have done if I should relate all that St. Hilary says in this place of the Persecution of Constantius He charges him particularly with the Banishment of Paulinus and Liberius and the Troubles wherewith he exercis'd the Church of Tholouse and concludes with saying That all those things that he had accus'd him of were publick and certain and therefore he had Just Cause to call him Anti-Christ He shows afterwards the Impiety of those Bishops that Assisted at the Council of Seleucia who maintain'd that the Father was not like in Substance to the Son and condemn'd the Words Consubstantial and like in Substance He answers what Constantius alledges as the Reason of condemning these Terms That we must not make use of any but Scripture Expressions He answers I say That these Terms agree with the Doctrine of the Gospel That Constantius and those of his Party are also forc'd to make use of such Terms as are not to be found in Scripture and in short That the Scripture makes use of Terms more Emphatical since it establishes the Equality and Unity of the Father and the Son He blames Constantius for the variety and contrariety of those Creeds that were made after that of the Council of Nice He explains the Faith of the Church concerning the Majesty of God and proves by many Examples That we are not to wonder if the Eternal Generation of the Son is Incomprehensible This Book is also imperfect The Book of Fragments is a Collection of many Pieces taken out of two Books of St. Hilary and likewise of some Passages out of his other Works 'T is not known who is the Author of this Abridgment nor when he liv'd The Passages that are cited in it are certainly St. Hilary's and for the most part the Pieces that are collected in it are ancient but he does not observe any Order in this Collection He begins with a Fragment of St. Hilary's Preface wherein after he had spoken of the Excellency of Faith Hope and Charity he declares That he had undertaken to publish a Work of great Importance and vast
Fire All that I can do is to exhort you 't is your part to Labour and God's to Perfect Raise up your Minds direct your Intentions prepare your Hearts it is for your Souls that you fight and they are Eternal Treasures which you hope for The First Lecture is also an Exhortation to those that are to be baptiz'd to prepare themselves by a Holy Life and by Good Works that so they may receive the Grace of Baptism It is compos'd upon a Lesson taken out of the First Chapter of Isaiah Verse 16. which begins with these words Wash you make you clean put away the evil of your doings c. He exhorts them wholly to put off the Old-man sincerely to renounce all Sin and to spend in the Exercises of Piety the 40 Days that are appointed to Prepare them for Baptism The Second is concerning Sin and Penance He teaches them That Sin is committed voluntarily by the bad use we make of our Free-Will That the Devil was the first Sinner that afterwards he made the first Man sin That by the Sin of the first Man all Men fell under Blindness and Death That he who rais'd Lazarus rais'd our Souls and deliver'd them from Sin by his Blood That therefore we ought not to despair whatsoever Sins we have committed but to trust to the Mercy of God and to have recourse to the Remedy of Repentance He relates many Examples of God's Mercy towards the greatest Sinners He alledges also the Example of the Angels to whom he thinks God pardon'd many Faults He adds towards the end the Example of St. Peter and concludes with these words These are my Brethren the many Examples of Sinners whom God hath pardon'd as soon as they repented Do you also Confess your Sins unto the Lord and you shall obtain the Kingdom of Heaven and enjoy the Heavenly Reward together with all the Saints in Jesus Christ to whom be Glory for ever and ever The Third Lecture is concerning the Necessity of Baptism and of Penance which ought to precede it You must prepare your selves says he by Purity of Conscience for you ought not to consider the External Baptism but the Spiritual Grace which is given with the Water that is Sanctified by the Invocation of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost The Water washes the Body but the Spirit sanctifies the Soul that we being purified may become worthy to approach unto God You cannot be perfect unless you be sanctified by the Water and the Spirit So if any one be baptiz'd without having the Holy Spirit he receives not the Grace of Baptism and likewise if any one receive not Baptism though his Conversation were never so well order'd he shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven This Discourse is bold but it is not mine but Jesus Christ's who has pronounc'd this Sentence when he said Except a man be born again of Water and the Holy Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven He proves this Truth by the Example of Cornelius then he shows the Necessity of Baptism by Water and says That none but Martyrs only can enjoy the Kingdom of Heaven without being baptiz'd The Ancients generally believed that Martyrdom was that Baptism by Fire which John Baptist fore-told Mat. 3. 11. and that was the Cup which our Saviour foretold Zebedee's Children that they should drink and the Baptism wherewith they were to be baptized He teaches That since Jesus Christ was baptiz'd to sanctifie the Waters of Baptism we must descend into the Water to be sanctified and as the Holy Spirit did then visibly appear so now he descends likewise though after an invisible manner upon those that are baptiz'd if they be well prepared for it In short he still exhorts those to whom he speaks to prepare themselves in the remaining part of Lent that so they may obtain by Baptism the Pardon of their Sins and the Grace of the Holy Spirit St. Cyril begins in the Fourth Catechetical Discourse with the Explication of the Articles of our Faith He says in his Exordium That the Worship of God consists in two things in the belief of those Doctrines that Religion teaches us and in the practice of Good Works That Faith is unprofitable without Good Works and that Good Works will prevail nothing without Faith He observes That the Articles of Faith are opposed by Pagans Jews and Hereticks and therefore it is necessary to propose it and explain it to those that enter into the Church He says That before he explains them more largely he will first give a summary of them and prays those that are already instructed to hear with Patience his Catechetical Discourses Afterwards he summarily explains the chief Doctrines of our Religion He instructs them concerning the Divinity That there is but one God only the Creator of all things who is every where present who knows all things who can do all things who never changes who will reward the Good and punish the Wicked c. He adds That we must believe also in Jesus Christ our Lord the only Son of God God begotten of God like in all things to him who begat him who was from all Eternity who sitteth now at his right hand and reigneth with him That we must not believe that the Son is of another Nature than the Father nor confound the Persons of the Father and the Son That he is the Word and the Word of God but a Word subsisting which is nothing like to the Word of Men That this Word was truly and really united to the Humane Nature That he assum'd real Flesh from the Virgin That he was truly Man subject to Humane Infirmities and to Death it self That he was crucified for our Sins That he was buried in the Grave and that he descended into Hell to deliver the Just who had been shut up there a long time with Adam That he was truly risen from the Dead That being ascended into Heaven he was worship'd by all the World and that he shall come again to Judge the Quick and the Dead and to establish an Eternal Kingdom Concerning the Holy Spirit he teaches That we ought to have the same Notions of him as of the Father and the Son That he is One Indivisible and Almighty That he knows all things That he descended in the form of a Dove upon Jesus Christ That he spoke by the Prophets That he Sanctifies the Soul in Baptism and that he ought to be honoured as the Father and the Son being one and the same Divinity He Exhorts his Auditors to hold fast this Creed and gives them Notice That he will prove it in the following Discourse by Testimonies of Scripture For says he we ought not to teach any thing concerning Divine Mysteries but what we can confirm by the Testimonies of Scripture Do not believe what I say if I do not prove it by the Holy Scriptures St. Cyril after having inform'd those whom he instructs what they ought
for governing the Church of Constantinople by describing the wonderful Effects he had produc'd in that Church he prays them to grant him a Successor with as much Earnestness as others desire the Greatest Sees The Reasons which he alledges for obtaining Permission to retire are First his great Age the Quarrels of Churches and Bishops the Envy that some bore to him the Division of the East and the West and his Love of Retirement and Solitude He adds some other Reasons which tend to the Confusion of his Enemies such as the Persecutions which he had endur'd with Patience his Frugality his Modesty his Humility At last He conjures them to create another Bishop who should be more agreeable to the relish of the World Here he represents very naturally the Luxury Ambition and Arts which were but too common among the Bishops of the Great Sees At last He bids Adieu to his Dear Anastasia to the other Churches of Constantinople to the Council the Clergy the People and to the Court These Adieu's are pathetical to those that had an Esteem of him and are very picquant to those that were his Enemies and wish'd that he would abdicate his Charge 'T is plain that this Discourse is the last of those which he spoke at Constantinople The Five following Discourses are Entitled Of Theology because St. Gregory Nazianzen explains there what concerns the Divine Nature and the Trinity of Persons There he treats of the Rules which ought to be observed in the Administration of the Word of God He says First That this Function does not suit all Men That he who discharges it must be pure in Heart and Mind That he should not apply himself to it but with a sedate Temper and Lastly That he ought not to treat of those Matters before Pagans nor before those who have no sence of Religion and who think of nothing but Pleasures He adds many fine things about the Dispositions and Qualifications that are necessary to a Divine He blames those who having their Hands tied that is who do no Good Works yet have a wonderful Itch to prate and those who think to be great Divines because they understand the Subtilties of Aristotle's Logick and the Gentile Philosophy which they make use of nothing to the purpose when they Discourse about Mysteries In the 2d Discourse he enquires what may be conceiv'd concerning the Nature of God He says That his Existence is known by the Creatures That his Immensity Spirituality and his other Attributes are known but that it does not follow from hence that his Essence and Nature can be comprehended which he proves against Eunomius in the second Discourse of Theology which contains many great Notions concerning the Nature and Attributes of God In the 3d. he proves the Equality of the Three Persons of the Divinity and the Son and answers the most part of Eunomius's Sophisms The 4th continues the same subject and in the 5th he proves That the Holy Spirit is a Divine Person distinct from the Father and the Son That he proceeds from the Father and that he is not begotten as the Son tho' he be of the same Substance and the same Nature He observes towards the End of this Discourse That under the Old Testament the Father only was distinctly known That the Son is clearly Reveal'd in the New That in it also there are found Passages enough to prove the Divinity of the Holy Spirit but that it was fully clear'd by the Tradition of the Church These Discourses seem also to have been spoken at Constantinople And thus we are come to the 38th Sermon upon the Festival of the Birth of Jesus Christ. In it St. Gregory admires the Wonders of the Mysteries of the Incarnation He describes the Fall of the first Man which he supposes to have been the Cause of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ and reckons up the Advantages which Mankind receiv'd by this Mystery At last He teaches Christians to Celebrate the Festival of Christmas by purifying themselves from their Sins by imitating the Vertues of Jesus Christ and particularly his Patience and Humility The 39th Discourse is a Sermon upon the Festival Of Lights that is upon the Feast of Epiphany on which also the Solemnity of the Baptism of Jesus Christ is observ'd There he speaks of the Wonderful Effects of this Baptism which had the Vertue of purifying us He distinguishes many sorts of Baptism viz. The Baptism of Moses the Baptism of St. John the Baptism of Jesus Christ the Baptism of the Martyrs and the Baptism of Penance which he calls a Laborious Baptism and taking occasion from this last he Discourses against the Error of the Novatians Last of all He adds also to this Baptism which we have already mentioned the Baptism of Fire wherewith he says one may be baptiz'd in another Life The following Discourse was spoken the next Day 'T is an Instruction about Baptism to those that are to be baptiz'd There he observes the Excellence of Baptism and its marvellous Effects He sets down and explains the different Names that are given to this Sacrament He observes That it consists in Two Things the Water and the Spirit That the washing the Body with Water represents the Operation of the Spirit in purifying the Soul He says That Baptism is a Compact which we make with God by which we oblige our selves to lead a New Life That 't is very dangerous to break the Promise which we made at Baptism for there is no more Regeneration nor perfect Renovation to be hop'd for afterwards That we may indeed cover the Wound by a multitude of Tears and Sighs but that it would be much better not to need this Second Remedy because it is very difficult and troublesome and that we can have no assurance but Death may surprize us before our Penance be finish'd You says he addressing himself to the Ministers of Jesus Christ you can as the Gardener mention'd in the Gospel pray the Lord to excuse the barren Fig-tree yet a little longer you can desire him that he would not cut it down and that he would permit you to dung it that 's to say to impose as a Penance upon it Weeping Watching lying upon the hard Ground Corporal Mortifications and making humble Satisfaction but what certainty have you that God will pardon him Wherefore my Brethren being buried by Baptism with Jesus Christ let us rise with him let us descend with him into the Waters that we may ascend with him into Heaven He proves afterwards that we ought not to delay the Receiving of Baptism and refutes the vain pretences of those who delay it He says that Infants are to be Baptiz'd to consecrate them to Jesus Christ from their Infancy He distinguishes Three Sorts of Persons that are Baptiz'd the First are those who do Evil wilfully and with Delight the Second are those who commit Sin with some reluctancy and without approving it the Third are those who live well
Favour address'd to Cynegius the Praetorian Prefect wherein he testifies his Indignation against the manner of treating them and ordains That the Bishops Gregory of Spain and Heraclides of the East who are mentioned in their Petition and all those who communicate with them be suffered to live in quiet This Petition must have been presented after the Year 383 because Arcadius to whom it is address'd was not admitted a Partner of the Empire till that Year and the Rescript must be before 388 which was the Year wherein Cynegius died It seems to have been presented while Damasus liv'd who died in the Year 384. There is some probability that Faustinus presented the Confession of Faith which goes under his Name in the Roman Code publish'd by Monsieur Quesnel at the End of the Works of St. Leo along with this Petition I know very well that this Learned Man pretends that this Confession of Faith was made about the Year 379 before the Council of Constantinople but his Conjectures are not convincing He attributes to the Priest Marcellinus the Confession of Faith which precedes this in the New Code but this also is a Conjecture that is not absolutely certain The Stile of Faustinus in his Treatise of the Trinity is very plain and simple He contents himself with producing Passages of Scripture from which he draws consequences to prove the Doctrine of the Church and with answering the Objections of the Arians but the Stile of his Petition is swelling and pathetical In it you Every Reader must needs see that these Reflections were inserted here more for the sake of the Protestants than of the Luciferians Either all Abuses ought always to be tolerated or a Reformer is not to be blamed upon the score of his Office And when Men set up for Reformers the Cause only is to be considered not the Pretences which if it be just they have no reason to be ashamed of any of these things here urged against them as Marks of Obloquy if their Numbers are small they ought to shew by a proportionable firmness of Mind that they place their Confidence in a Being that is Superiour to any Powers here below and if they find Fault with the multitude who do not joyn with them they Act according to their own Principles since all Men who think themselves to be in the Right must believe that their Adversaries are mistaken their standing to their own Assertions cannot reasonably be Interpreted to be injurious to Men in Eminent Places Constancy Contempt of the World of Life Riches and Honours are Vertues which when Supported by a good Cause are glorious Ingredients in the Characters of the greatest Saints and therefore are favourable Prejudices for all those Reformers in whom they are to be found if they are too apt to attribute the ill Successes of their Enemies to Divine Vengeance they are not Singular since all Parties and even all Religions constantly practise it if they are hardly used they may reasonably complain of their Usage and Mr. du Pin knows that his Church has always taken very particular Care that her Adversaries should never complain against her for Persecuting without Just Cause whilest they believe themselves to be in the right Reformers as all Men naturally do will aggravate their Sufferings that they may lay load upon their Persecutors and last of all every Man is tempted to think his Adversary's Zeal for Religion to be only Hypocritical If we consider what good Success these Two Luciferian Priests had in their Business we ought not hastily to condemn them Theodosius the Great always shew'd an unshaken Zeal for the Orthodox Faith and his Carriage towards St. Ambrose who censured him for his hasty and cruel Orders against the Thessalonians was an Evidence how very much he Reverenc'd the Orders and Discipline of the Church and besides if we reflect upon the Accounts which Ammianus Marcellinus gives us of the Differences between Damasus and Ursicinus they will seem to plead for Ursicinus's Party His being a Heathen is no prejudice against him in this Matter because he was not a Bigot against the Christian Religion so that it rather gave him the Advantage which all Neuters have of judging impartially of both sides may see the Humour and Genius of all Reformers who Glory in their small number who blame the Multitude who rend in Pieces the Reputation of those who are promoted to Dignities who testify their Indignation against the Higher Powers who make a show of much Firmness and Constancy of a great Contempt of this Life of Honours and Riches who look upon themselves as unblameable and attribute to the Divine Vengeance all the Fatal Accidents which happen to those that are not their Friends who are always complaining of being Persecuted and ill used who exaggerate the Evils which they justly suffer and affect to show a great Zeal for Plety and Religion PHILASTRIUS PHILASTRIUS Bishop of Brescia flourish'd under the Elder Theodosius and was one of the Bishops in the Council of Aquileia St. Austin says That he had seen him sometimes with Philastrius St. Ambrose We have his Life written as is thought by St. Gaudentius his Successor He died before St. Ambrose about the Year 387 a About the Year 387. The Author of this Life says That he died before St. Ambrose In Heresy 63 't is said that he wrote in the Year 430 but 't is plain that this was the Mistake of a Figure and that they put a C for an L which would make it just 380. He wrote a Treatise of Heresies wherein he reckons 20 Heresies before the Birth of Jesus Christ and 128 afterwards to the Year 380 in which he wrote and tells in a few Words the principal Errors of each of them St. Austin observes at the beginning of his Book about Heresies that it was a surprizing thing that Philastrius who was much less learned and less exact than St. Epiphanius should reckon up many more Heresies than he did from whence he concludes that these two Authors could not have the same Notions of Heresy because indeed it is very difficult to give a just Definition of it Wherefore adds St. Austin in giving the Catalogue of Heresies we must carefully avoid these two opposite extremes whereof one is to make those Heresies that are not and the other is to omit those Heresies which really are such 'T is a rare thing for those who make the Catalogues of Heresies to fall into this last Fault but the first is very common and Philastrius was more subject to it than any body For he feigns a multitude of Heresies that never were b Heresies that never were As the Nazareans the Heliognosts the Adorers of Mice the Muscaronnites the Troglodites in the Old Testament the Fortunatians the Baalites the Celebites the Molochites the Tophites making several Sects of Hereticks of the Abominations committed by the Jews and the Sacrifices of the People that were their Neighbours
of the Church built there 255. JESUS CHRIST His Divinity 44. Images defaced by St. Epiphanius at Anablatha Incarnation of JESUS CHRIST Explication of that Mystery 5. 7 8. 44. 47. 111. 149. 170 171. Its Causes and Effects 9. 43. Instantius a Priscillianist 190. 275. Joy of a Christian in Afflictions 151. Ischyras a false Priest His History 29. Ision a Meletian Bishop 29. Italy Council of Italy in 362. against the Synod of Ariminum 266. Ithacius or Idacius Bishop A Spanish Author Enemy of the Priscillianists 191 192. Judgment Last In what place it will be made 75. 77. Judgments Ecclesiastical 249. 257. 278 279 c. Julian the Apostate Succeeds Constantius and concerns not himself in the Affairs of the Christians 31. Sends an Order to Alexandria to drive St. Athanasius thence and what followed thereupon 31 32. Declaration against Julian 162 163. St. Julitta Her Martyrdom 151. Julius Bishop of Rome Assembles a Council at Rome and declares St. Athanasius innocent 51. His Judgment in favour of that Saint 30. 40. History of the Life of this Pope 51. His Writings ibid. His Letters upon the Incarnation and his Decretals supposititious 52. Death ibid. Just. Of the State of their Souls between their Death and the last Judgment 165. Justina an Arian Persecutes St. Ambrose 200. 223 c. Justinian Emperor Become Master of Italy Treats the Popes hardly 18. Justinian the Younger Causes Pope Sergius to be banished 19. Juvencus a Christian Poet. His Life and Writings 20 21. K. KIngs Respect and Obedience due to them 39. 41. 91 92. Ought not to meddle with Matters of Faith 41. 224 225 226. Ought to protect Religion 222. L. LAmpsacus Council there in 365. under the Emperors Valens and Valentinian 266. Laodicea Council celebrated between 360. and 370. the Canons of it received by the whole Church 268 c. St. Lawrence History of his Martyrdom 207. A good Action of his ibid. Law of the Jews but for one Nation 6. Leo Isauricus Would have killed Pope Gregory II. 19. Leontius Governor of Rome puts Pope Liberius in Prison 19. Liberius Bishop of Rome Successor to Julius 60. Imprisoned by Constantius 18. Letter to the Bishops of the East attributed to him is not Genuine 60. Maintains the Party of St. Athanasius with Vigour 61. Therefore banished ibid. He signs the Condemnation of St. Athanasius approves an Heretical Profession of Faith 62. and c. Returns to Rome and changes his Opinion 63. Defends St. Athanasius and the Faith of the Church ibid. His Death ibid. and d. Letters and Writings ibid. A Judgment upon this Bishop ibid. Liberty of the Christian Religion where first allowed 12. Licinius Emperor of the East Loses a Battel against Constantine in Pannonia 12. Second Battel in Thrace between them ibid. Publishes Edicts against the Christians and persecutes them ibid. Overcome at the Siege of Nicomedia throws himself at Constantine's Feet who gives him his Life ibid. Put to Death afterwards by Constantine at Thessalonica ibid. Longinus first took upon him the Quality of Exarch or Vice-Roy of Italy 18. Lord's Day Celebration of the Lord's Day 12. 14. f. 17. 26. Not to fast on it 203. Succeeded the Jewish Sabbath 45. Lucifer Bishop of Calaris Deputed by Pope Liberius to Constantinople 79. Assists at the Council of Milan and vigorously defends St. Athanasius ibid. His Constancy and Steadiness causes his Exile ibid. Genius and Writings ibid. Unadvisedly ordains Paulinus Bishop of Antioch 80. Separates from the Church ibid. Judgment upon his Style ibid. Subject of his Writings ibid. Lucilla a Lady of Carthage her History 89. Lucius Bishop of Alexandria an Arian Author of some Letters touching the Feast of Easter and of some Books upon several Subjects 106. Ludovicus Pius Son of Charlemaigne Sends Bernard to Rome and why 19. Luitprandus King of the Lombards 19. M. MAcarius Priest of Alexandria Defends St. Athanasius before Constantine 29. Accused of breaking a Chalice ibid. The Macarii How many of them 55. Their Works 56 57. Rules attributed to the Macarii 58. Maccabees Their Panegyrick 167. Macrobius a Donatist Priest Author of a Book addressed to Confessors and Virgins 53. Magick Canons against Magicians 269. Mamas Martyr His Panegyrick 156. Marcellus of Ancyra Wrote against his Brethren and why 3. i. 6. Life Fortune and Actions 50. St. Athanasius always defended him ibid. Fragments of his Works ibid. Judgment upon his Doctrine ibid. Refutation of his Errours 6. Marcellus Bishop in Campania Sent by Pope Liberius to the Council of Arles 61. Marcellinus Bishop of Rome Never sacrificed to Idols Marcellina St. Ambrose's Sister 210. Marriage Not forbidden 47 110. Canons against Marriages forbidden by the Laws See St. Basil's Canons of Penance 140. and c. In what manner married Persons ought to behave themselves 110. Marriage between Brother and Sister-in-Law forbidden 137. 140. Divorce 237. Polygamy forbidden 197. Of the Marriage of Children under the Power of their Parents 142. 229. Second and Third Marriages 140 141 142. Marriage with Infidels forbidden 223. Martyrs History and Commendation of the Forty Martyrs 156. Martyrs may be saved without Baptism 110. Matter not Eternal 5. Matronianus a Priscillianist 190. Maxentius Tyrant Destroys Rome afterwards Conquered by Constantine 11. Maximus Philosopher of Alexandria 186. His Panegyrick 167. Procures himself to be Ordained Bishop of Constantinople 160. His irregular Manners 169. His Writings 186. Meletius His Life Ordination and Actions 187. Melitius Author of the Sect of Melitians condemned by Peter of Alexandria 26. 242. Melitians Schismaticks 28. and f. Judgment of the Council of Nice concerning them 251. Melitine Synod there about the Year 357. 265. Metropolitan His Authority and Rights 257. 269. 277. 278. Ought not to assume the Quality of Prince of Priests or Sovereign Priest 278. Messiah Came into the World for all Mankind 6. Milan Council there in 346. To find means of terminating the Differences between the Bishops Another Council in 355 under Pope Liberius Another against Jovinian 390. Monks Institution of Monks 53. Precepts and Instructions for Monks 124. 156. A good Description of Monks anciently 164. Of their Habits and of the Austerity of their Life 165. Might be Ordained Bishops 45. Musculus a Protestant His Translation of Eusebius's History what 4. Mysteries hidden from Catechumens and Pagans 48. N. NArses Count. Delivers Italy from the Tyranny of the Barbarians 1. Nature Not Evil of its self 59. Nectarius Bishop of Constantinople His Death 195. A Judgment upon this Author ibid Neocaesarea Council there in 314. 248. Canons 248 249 c. Nice in Bithynia History of the Council of Nice and Circumstances concerning it 2. 7. 12. 15. 23. 250 c. The Nicene Creed the only Rule of Faith 42. Nicephorns Callistus composed an Ecclesiastical History and when 4. Put many uncertain and Fabulous Stories into it ibid. Nisibis a City of Mesopotamia 49. Nismes Council held in that City in the Time of St. Martin 275. Nonna Mother of St. Gregory Nazianzen 166.
of great Sins and there is no doubt but that after Penance they also gave them Absolution when they feared that they should be Condemned to Die but upon condition that if they escaped Death they should fulfil their Penance At last St. Augustin sets Marcellinus his Innocence against the Cruelty and unworthiness of Marinus's Action whom he describes as a very ill man who had Sacrificed those two innocent Persons to please the Donatists He again advises Caecilian to abhorr that Action and to conceive such an Indignation against him that committed it as might oblige him to a Penance proportionable to the greatness of his Crime At last he tells him That being of such an Age and of such Probity he ought no longer to continue a Catechumen Marcellinus who had been so barbarously used by Marinus was justified at Court St. Augustin saith That there was not so much as need of a Pardon from the Emperor and had not Marinus hastned the Judgment against Marcellinus without waiting for the Bishop's Answer who was sent to the Emperor to sollicit his Pardon he had been acquitted and accordingly Marinus was disgraced and the Memory of Marcellinus honoured by the Emperor Honorius who by a Law of the Third of August 414. Registred in the Theodosian Code B. 16. Tit. 5. L. 55. confirms all that he had done against the Donatists and gives him the Title of Marcellinus of Glorious Memory The 152d Letter is from Macedonius Lieutenant of Africa who desires to know of St. Augustin whether Religion permits Bishops to make Applications to Judges to obtain favour for Enemies as they did at that time and as St. Augustin often did of Macedonius This Magistrate could hardly believe that Religion authorized that Practice Seeing that God doth so severely forbid Sin that a Man is not admitted to Penance after the first time and that it seems to be a countenancing of Crimes when we show an unwillingness to have them punished St. Augustin in the 153d Letter answereth That Bishops intercede for Criminals because they hope they may amend They abhorr the Crime but they pity the Criminals That Repentance having no place but in this Life there is reason to intercede for the Guilty lest by this finite Punishment which ends their life they may fall into a Punishment that shall never end So that none can doubt but that Religion approveth that Practice since God himself in whom is no Injustice who seeth what every Man is and what he ought to be and cannot be mistaken in his Judgments causeth his Sun to rise upon the bad as well as upon the good and by his long forbearance invites Sinners to Repentance That when Bishops by their Intercessions have rescued any from the severity of the Judges they put him to do Penance that the Crime may not remain unpunished For saith he a true Penitent hath no other prospect than that the Evil which he hath done may be punished That if there be any Persons whose Malice is so great that after Penance and being reconciled and admitted to the Holy Mysteries they relapse into their Disorders and sometimes into greater then indeed the Church admits them no more to do Penance lest a Remedy which is so much the more profitable that it is least exposed to the contempt of Sinners should lose its Virtue if it become more common But yet we despair not of their Salvation which they may obtain through God's Mercy by being converted and altering their Life Afterwards St. Augustin alledgeth several Reasons in Equity and several Examples to shew That we are not forbidden to intercede for Criminals and that all Men ought to be inclined to Meekness and Pity The principal Consideration which he makes use of is the State of Man in this Life which cannot be without Sin For saith he Though the Sins which we commit after the general abolishment in Baptism are not of the same quality with those for which Men are separated from the Altar yet they must be expiated not by a barren Sorrow but by a Sacrifice of the Works of Mercy St. Augustin acknowledgeth That the Soveraign Power of Princes the Power of Life and Death and the dread of Punishments are all necessary to restrain Wicked Men and the Terror which these things strike into the Hearts of Men is of great advantage not only to the good who by this means live securely among the wicked but even to the wicked themselves because whil'st their Hands are tied by the fear of Punishment their Hearts may call upon God and turn from Evil to Good For saith he they are not good Men because they abstain from Evil through fear of Suffering for Fear does not make Men Good but only the Love of Righteousness He tells us further That upon some occasions it is Mercy to Punish and in others Cruelty to Forgive Sicut enim est aliquando misericordia puniens ita est crudelitas parcens He speaketh at last of Restoring Stoin Goods or such as are ill gotten And concerning these he saith 1. That it is a Mockery not to do Penance not to restore when it is in our power the Goods that are gotten by those Crimes for which we pretend to do Penance 2. That though a Judge may without Injustice appoint Punishments to oblige a Thief to make Restitution yet one may intercede for him not to prevent restoring what is taken away since we bind them to it by the dread of God's Judgments and debarr them from the Communion till they have done it but only by way of preventing unnecessary Cruelty against a Man that is supposed not to be in a capacity of making Restitution or not fully convicted of the Theft 3. That when we have not evident Proofs that such a one is possessed of our Goods it is better to hazard losing them though perhaps he is guilty but denies it than to torment and put him to Death perhaps unjustly if he hath them not An excellent Caveat to teach Masters not to be too forward to seize upon their Servants merely upon Suspicion 4. That Lawyers may take Money for their Advice in a just Cause but not Judges to do Justice nor Witnesses to give Testimony to Truth and that both are exceedingly guilty when they take Money the one for an Unjust Sentence and the other for a False Witness 5. That Lawyers having taken Money â—o defend an ill Cause or to blind the Judge are obliged to make Restitution as well as the Witnesses or Officers who exact Fees beyond what belong to their Places 6. That Estates gotten by Stealth False Accusation or Oppression ought to be restored and that it is not enough to bestow them upon the Poor 7. That in some sence it may be said That wicked Men have Nothing but that All things belong to the Faithful For saith St. Augustin whatsoever we have which we have no Right to belongs to another and we have Right to nothing but what we justly
Questions upon Genesis and part from the Morals of St. Gregory This very Book is found in the 3d. Book of the Commentary upon Genesis attributed to St. Eucherius Bishop of Lyons VVe have observed already speaking of the VVorks of Hilary the Deacon in the Second Volume of this Bibliotheca that the Questions upon the Old and the New Testament are not St. Augustin's and the Conjectures for which they were ascribed to Hilary the Deacon were there set down He that desires more Arguments to prove That they are not St. Augustin's should read the First Part of the Benedictines Preface to this Treatise It remains only That we take notice with them That in all probability these Questions are not at all written by the same Author In some Manuscripts there are only the 127 Questions which were published at first others have 151. but in these there are not all those that are in the first Manuscript and among the rest the 44th and the 115th which afforded Conjectures concerning the Age and the Country of their Author This makes it difficult to affirm any thing certainly concerning the Author of these Questions The Explication of the Apocalypse which is the last Book that is added to this Volume of St. Augustin is a Collection of Notes upon the Revelations taken out of the Commentaries of Victorinus Primasius and Bede and disposed into the Form of Homilies Those that thought that this was the Commentary of Tychonius the Donatist upon the Revelations did not take notice that it was so far from containing things favourable to the Donatists Sect That on the contrary it refutes their Errors and particularly that of Rebaptization in the Sixth Homily upon the Revelations Vers. 11. Neither do we find here those Expositions which Bede mentions as written by Tychonius nor the long Dissertation to prove That the Angels spoken of in the Revelations are those Churches which Tychonius had inserted into his Commentary as St. Augustin observes in the Thirtieth Chapter of the Third Book of Christian Doctrine The FOURTH TOME THE Fourth Tome of St. Augustin's Works contains This Father's Explications upon the Tome IV. Psalms which make too large a Book to be comprised in one Volume with his other Commentaries upon the Holy Scripture He composed them not in that order wherein we find them but some at one time and others at another and not all after the same manner Some are Commentaries written in his Study and the others which make by far the greater number are Discourses made to his People Cassiodore observes That in his time they were divided into Fifteen Decads this division is not observed at present and it is not likely that St. Augustin made it St. Augustin understanding no Hebrew followed the Latin Translations made from the Greek Version of the Septuagint to the Text whereof he often referrs In some of these Explications and particularly in those that were not written to the People as the Thirteen first he only makes Allegorical Notes upon the Text of the Psalms but in the rest he is either very diffuse and enlargeth much upon Reflections that are not very solid or else he goeth from his Subject by long Digressions He professes to explain the Letter but his literal sence is almost always Spiritual or Moral If he clears any term or insists upon the Signification of any word it is always to extract an Allegory or something Moral from it He brings all to Jesus Christ to the Mysteries of our Religion and to the Church The Recompences and Blessings mentioned in the Psalms are always in his opinion Spiritual Recompences and Eternal Blessings He often gives several sences of the same place and very frequently makes a digression against the Schism or the Heresies of his own time He is full of useless Allusions ill-grounded Subtilties and improbable Allegories His very Moral Thoughts are seldom such as might have been naturally inferred from the Scripture Text but ordinarily such far-fetch'd Notions as could never fall into the Mind of any Man that should read the Text. Yet here and there one may meet with lively and fervent Exhortations which raised his People and profitable Instructions upon the most important Truths of Religion So that though this Work cannot pass for a good Commentary upon the Psalms yet it may be looked upon as a wonderful Collection of Christian and Moral Notions and if it be of no great use for those that enquire after the literal sence of the Scripture yet it will prove very Profitable to Preachers who desire to fit their Minds with necessary Thoughts and Rules to help them to discharge well that part of their Ministery The FIFTH TOME MOst of St. Augustin's Sermons being Homilies upon the Scripture they are with a great Tome V. deal of Reason brought in to make up this Volume which follows immediately after St. Augustin's Commentaries upon the Holy Scripture They had hitherto been in great confusion because new Collections of them were still Printed as new Sermons were discovered There was a great number of Supposititious or Doubtful ones among the True most Editions were full of Faults so that it was necessary that Persons so exact learned and versed in such Matters as these Benedictines are should undertake to set them in order to distinguish St. Augustin's from those that are Supposititious and to Correct the Text from the best and ancientest Manuscripts This they have performed most happily in the Fifth Tome which containeth all St. Augustin's Sermons placed in very good order and divided into five Classes The First containeth 183 Sermons upon several Passages both of the Old and New Testament The Second is made up of 88 Sermons upon the great Festivals of the Year In the Third are 69 upon the Festivals of the Saints The Fourth comprehendeth 23 upon various Subjects as The Love of God Fear Penance Contempt of the World Behaviour of the Clergy Peace and Concord Resurrection from the St. Augustin Tome V. Dead c. The last Classis is composed of such Sermons as cannot be certainly affirm'd to be St. Augustin's though there is no certainty that they are none of his among these there are some of which we have more reason to doubt which are Printed in a smaller Character there are not above 31 of them They have also added at the latter end Fragments of some other Sermons of St. Augustin's which are taken out of the Collections of Eugyppius Bede Florus and John a Deacon of the Church of Rome Another Fragment of the Sermon upon the Ascension and a Sermon of Heraclius a Disciple of St. Augustin's The Addition contains 317 Spurious Sermons divided into four Classes according to the order observed in the true ones At the Head of each is a very exact Critick Several of them are restored to Caesarius their true Author Some are found to belong to Rhabanus and some others are taken out of Origen's Homilies or out of the Works of St.
the Spirit of God as Sampson was He concludes with a Description of the Depravation of the Romans and the Disorders of their Manners at that time In the Second Book he affirms That the corruption of Manners which is the greatest of Mischiefs was always reigning in Rome and that the Gods they Worshipped were so far from prescribing them Laws for the Reformation of their Manners that on the contrary they encouraged them to Vice by their Examples and by the Ceremonies that were used in their Worship In the Third Book he goes back as far as the Siege of Troy and then takes a view of the principal Events which happened to the People of Rome to convince the most Stubborn That their Gods preserved them not from the same Disasters and Calamities which the Heathen now imputed to the Christian Religion In the Fourth Book he shews That the encrease of the Roman Empire can be attributed neither to all the Divinities which they adored nor to any one in particular That however no Empire is to be called Happy which is encreased only by War as the Roman Empire was That great Empires without Justice were but great Robberies and that the true God alone is the sole Dispenser of the Kingdoms of the Earth He prosecuteth the same Subject in the Fifth Book and proves in the beginning That the greatness of Empires depends not upon Chance nor upon a particular Conjunction of the Stars Which gives him occasion to speak of Destiny and to refute judicial Astrology at large He acknowledges a Destiny if by this Term is meant a series and concatenation of all Causes which God foresaw from all Eternity but he advises Men rather not to use that word which may have an ill Sence He endeavours to make God's Fore-knowledge and the infallibility of those Events which he foresees to agree with Man's Free-Will Then from this Disposition of Things he comes to enquire into the Causes of the Roman Victories and he meets with none more probable than their Honesty He confesses That God rewarded their moral Vertues with those sorts of Recompences adding That thereby God made the Inhabitants of the eternal City to know what Recompence they were to expect for their Christian Vertues Since the counterfeit Vertues of the Heathen were so well rewarded that he set this Example before their Eyes to teach them how much they ought to be in love with their Heavenly Country for an immortal Life since the Inhabitants of an Earthly Country were so much in love with it for an humane and a mortal Glory and how hard they were to Labour for that Heavenly Country since the Romans had taken such great Pains for their Earthly One. He examineth afterwards wherein consists the true Happiness of Christian Kings and Princes And he shews That they are not Happy for having reigned long for dying in Peace and leaving their Children successors of their Crowns nor for the Victories which they obtained because such Advantages are common to them with ungodly Kings But that Christian Princes are said to be Happy when they set up Justice when in the midst of the Praises that are given them and the Honours that are pay'd unto them they are not swell'd with Pride when they submit their Power to the Sovereign Power of God and use it to make his Worship to flourish When they fear love and worship God when they preferr before this which they now enjoy that wherein they are not afraid to meet with any Competitours when they are slow to Punish and ready to Forgive when they punish only for the good of the Publick and not to satisfie their Revenge and when they forgive purely that Men may be Corrected and not that Crimes may be Countenanced when being obliged to use Severity they temper it with some Actions of Meekness or Clemency when they are so much the more temperate in their Pleasures by how much they have a greater Liberty to exceed when they affect to Command their Passions rather than all the Nations of the World and they do all these Things not out of Vain-Glory but to obtain eternal Happiness and in short when they are careful to offer unto God for their Sins the Sacrifice of Humility Mercy and Prayer These saith St. Augustin are the Christian Princes whom we call Happy Happy even in this World by Experience and really Happy when what we look for shall come Finally he proposes the Examples of some Christian Emperours and particularly of Constantine and Theodosius whose Greatness and Prosperities he extols and sets forth In the Sixth Book St. Augustin proves by the Authority of Varro that the fabulous Divinity of the Heathen is ridiculous he makes the same Conclusion concerning their civil Theology and grounds what he saith of it upon Seneca's Authority He goes on in the Seventh to discover the Falshood of the Heathen civil Theology shewing That their chiefest Divinities or select Gods do not deserve to be called Gods and that the Christian's God alone governs the World The Eighth Book refutes the natural Theology of their Philosophers He preferrs the Platonists before all other Philosophers and owns that they knew the True God shewing withall that they were deceiv'd by honouring Daemons as subaltern Deities and Mediators betwixt God and Men He shews That the Christians never committed this Mistake and that they are so far from adoring the Daemons which are evil Spirits that they do not worship the Angels nor the Holy Martyrs that they do indeed Honour and Reverence them as the Servants of God but that they did not build Temples for them nor consecrate Priests nor offer Sacrifices unto them For saith he who among Christians ever saw a Priest before an Altar consecrated to God upon the Body of a Martyr say in his Prayer Peter Paul or Cyprian I offer you this Sacrifice It is offered to God though it be upon the Monuments of Martyrs and these Ceremonies were appointed to be performed upon their Monuments for no other end but to give the True God Thanks for the Victories which they had obtained and at the same time to stir up Christians to imitate their Courage and to make themselves worthy to have a share in their Crowns and Rewards So that all the Acts of Piety and Religion which are done at the Tombs of the Holy Martyrs are Honours pay'd to their Memory and not Sacrifices offered to them as Divinities But forasmuch as they owned Two sorts of Daemons some good and some bad St. Augustin examines that Distinction in the next Book where he shews by the Principles both of Apuleius and of the Chief of Heathenish Authors that all Daemons are Evil. Whence he concludes That they cannot be Mediatours between God and Men. He doth not believe That Angels deserve that Title affirming That it belongeth to none but Jesus Christ alone In the Tenth Book he treateth at large of Angel Worship He saith That they are Creatures whose Felicity is all
in God that they worship God and their Desire is that all Men would worship him that they require of us neither Adoration nor Sacrifices and that God doth not expect from us Sacrifices like those of the Heathen but a Sarcifice of Union such as the Church celebrates in the Eucharist and which the Faithful know That the Miracles which were wrought by the interposition of Angels not of Daemons whose Prodigies are nothing but illusions These Miracles I say were wrought by God's Power to make himself known unto Men That the invisible God becomes visible by the ministry of his Angels whom he made use of to deliver his Law to the World That it is so true that no Sacrifice is to be offered to any but God that Jesus Christ as Man would be made a Sacrifice himself and not receive one from any Body else That God alone can purifie Men of their Sins as the Platonists themselves acknowledge that so it was necessary that God should be made Man to be a true Mediator That the just Men under the old Law were not Saved but by Faith in this Mediator That Pride alone keeps the Platonists from owning the Incarnation That the Soul is not Co-eternal with God as they imagine And Lastly That the Means of delivering the Soul which they sought after to so little purpose is nothing but the Christian Religion In the 11th Book St. Augustin finds the Original of both Cities in the diversity of Angels which gives him occasion to treat of the Creation of the visible World which was immediately preceded by that of the invisible that is of the Angels whom he created all in a State of Righteousness from which some are fallen through their own fault He makes some digressions to speak of the Trinity and of several Circumstances of the Creation of the VVorld Having proved in the 12th That the difference of good and evil Angels doth not proceed from their Nature but from their VVill because God created nothing but what was both Good and Perfect He comes to discourse of Mankind and proves That Men are not from Eternity but that God created Man in time And he mentions something concerning the Fall of the First Man whereof he speaks more at large in the 13th Book where he shews That the death both of Body and Soul was the Consequence and the Punishment of Adam's Fall There one may meet with several curious Notions concerning Death and several Reflections upon the Resurrection and the Quality of glorified Bodies He goes on in the 14th Book to speak of the Fall of the First Man and of the lamentable Consequences that attended it and particularly of irregular Desires and shameful Passions He enquires VVhether the First Man was subject to Passions and how he could Sin being free from them Lastly He asketh several Questions rather nice than necessary how Men should have had Children in the Earthly Paradise had they continued in the State of Innocence The Fifteenth Book is the first of those wherein he examineth the Progress of both the Cities He finds the History of it in the Old Testament where he shews who were the Citizens of both those Cities This Book prosecutes this History from the Creation to the Flood On the one side we see Abel and Isaac and on the other Cain and Esau And both these Cities may be taken notice of in the Marriages of the Sons of God with the Daughters of Men. The Church is represented by Noah's Ark. There are in this Book curious Allegories and several Reflections upon the History of Genesis Amongst other Things he examines the length of the Lives of the First Patriarchs and the Difference betwixt the Translation of the Septuagint and the Hebrew Text about the Number of the Generations In the 16th Book he carries on the History of both Cities from Noah to Abraham and from Abraham to the Kings of Israel He doth not find that the Scripture takes notice of any that served God from Noah to Abraham He speaks of the Posterity of the Children of Noah of the Confounding of Languages of the Antiquity of the Hebrew Tongue and of the Multiplication of Mankind He questions whether there be Antipodes In the rest of the Book he clears the History of Abraham and of his Posterity which is explained with relation to the City of God In the 17th taking a View of the History both of the Kings and of the Prophets he relates and expounds the Prophecies which are in the Books of Kings in the Psalms and in the Books of Solomon which relate to Christ or his Church Now as he had quitted the History of the City of the World when he was come to Abraham so he resumeth it in the beginning of the 18th Book which contains an Abridgment of the History of the Principal Monarchies in the VVorld the times whereof he makes to agree with the History of the Bible and he omits not to speak of the Fabulous Histories and of the Metamorphoses Afterwards he quotes the Sibylline Oracles but he insists most upon the Predictions of the Prophets which he produces in all their Particulars He speaks also of the Books of the Maccabees and having made some Reflections upon the Authority of the History of the Canonical Books and of the Translation of the LXX he describeth in few words the Fall of the Jewish Empire and so he comes to the Nativity of Jesus Christ the Dispersion of the Jews the Settlement of the Church the Persecutions and Heresies which immediately followed St. Augustin makes very ingenious Reflections upon all these Articles and concludes this Book by showing That the End of the VVorld is Unknown and he refutes a false Prediction which the Heathens published That the Christian Religion should last but Three hundred sixty five Years The 19th Book treateth of the End of both Cities Each one aims at the chiefest Good but the Inhabitants of the Terrestrial know so little of it that their Philosophers the Wisest among them could never agree wherein it consisted Varro reckoneth Two hundred eighty eight different Opinions of Philosophers about it The Christian Religion discovers the Falsity of all those Opinions by letting Man know That he cannot be Happy in this Life but only in Hope because he cannot enjoy here Peace and perfect Tranquility The 20th Book contains a Description of the Last Judgment of the Renewing of the World of the Resurrection and of the Heavenly Jerusalem The 21st treateth of the End of the Earthly City and represents the Horror of the Torments of Daemons and Damned Men and of the Eternal Fire of Hell St. Augustin refutes the vain Reasons of those that doubt of it and the Fancy of some who affirmed That those Torments should have an End and that Men should be kept from them by the Intercession of the Saints by the Use of Sacraments and by Almsdeeds The Last Book is concerning the Happiness which the Saints shall enjoy to Eternity The
you shall Pray for a poor for lorn Man who wants all things and needs help not daring to address to God for himself for I perceive that every thing is against me since I undertook to Minister at the Altar who am laden with Sins who was brought up out of the Church and followed all my life-time a Profession different from this This Letter is of the Year 411. In the 76th Letter Synesius recommends to Theophilus Antonius who had been chosen Bishop of Olbiata a Town of his Province and was going to Alexandria to be ordained by Theophilus according to the Custom of that time The 95th was written by Synesius Seven Months after he was made Bishop He expresses with what difficulty he accepted of the Office and begs of God Grace to discharge it well The 105th is that famous Letter which he writ to his Brother when he was chosen Bishop of Cyrene wherein he sets down the Reasons that kept him from being promoted to that Dignity The rest of the Letters contain nothing that is remarkable touching Religion We have but two Homilies of Synesius which are not entire The First is the beginning of a Homily upon God's Law of which he understandeth what is said in the 75th Psalm In the Hand of the Lord there is a Cup c. The Second is likewise imperfect It is the Fragment of a Sermon preached upon Easter-Eve Both these Fragments shew That Synesius did not excel in this kind so much as he did in others yet he was Eloquent and composed Pieces of Rhetorick very well as appears by his Discourse concerning the Ruine of his Province And by his Panegyrick upon Anysius which come after the two Homilies now mentioned but there is a particular sort of Eloquence necessary for the Pulpit which he seems not to have had He had a better genius for Hymns We have Ten of his which are very excellent in which there are some Platonick Principles concerning the Trinity This Author ascribes much to God's Help and to the Grace of Jesus Christ which he requires us to ask by fervent Prayer that we may be delivered from those Passions and disorderly Desires of Lust wherewith we are transported We have lost a Philosophical Work of his Intituled Cynegeticks mentioned in the 153d Letter Synesius's Stile according to Photius's Judgment is great and lofty but something Poetical He chiefly excelleth in Narratives and Descriptions He varies the Matters which he treats of with long Prefaces and frequent Digressions He makes them agreeable by excellent Passages out of Histories and Fables and by the best Thoughts of the Profane Poets His Philosophy hath nothing harsh or disgusting He has found a way to render it pleasant and easie He seems to have designed only to recreate when he discovers the main Points of Wisdom The Reader is brought insensibly to the Knowledge of most Important Truths when he thought to read only pleasant Relations He observes in his first Letter That he writ two sorts of Books some of the most refined Philosophy and others Rhetorical Pieces but that they are easily known to be all written by the same Person who applies himself sometimes to serious things and sometimes to pleasant ones And indeed it maintains every where the same Character His Philosophical Works are adorned with Rhetorical and Poetical Figures and his Pieces of Eloquence are supported with Philosophical Thoughts He had a thorough Knowledge of Plato's Writings and from that Fountain he drew the noblest and the sublimest Notions in the old Philosophy concerning the Knowledge of the Supream Being and Principles of Morality He wrote but little touching our Religion and he was far from understanding it so well as he did Plato's Philosophy Yet one may see by his Letters that he was a very Wise Prudent and good Bishop He avoided Business as much as he could but when he was ingaged he acted very dexterously and brought every thing to a good issue His Behaviour was accompanied with great Freedom and Uprightness of Heart He wanted neither Courage nor meekness as there was occasion His endeavours to avoid being a Bishop and his manner of speaking of himself show his great Humility The Year of his Death is not known The Book of Dreams was Printed in Greek and Latin Translated by Ficinus at Venice in 1497. and at Lyons in 1541. In 1553. Turnebus published most of his Works in Greek The Letters were Printed in Greek at Venice in 1499. at Basle in 1558. and at Paris in 1605. with Turnebus's Translation The Hymns were likewise Printed in 1590. with the Poems of St. Gregory Nazianzen and those of St. Cyril of Alexandria and Reprinted in 1603. in Latin by Portus In 1653. Janus Cornarius translated most of Synesius's Works and his Translation was Printed at Basle in 1560. The Discourse of Government of the same Translation was Printed by it self at Francfort in 1583. At last Petavius having review'd and translated a new all Synesius's Works caused them to be Printed in Greek and Latin at Paris by Morellus in 1612. With Nicephorus's Notes and Commentary upon the Book of Dreams This Edition was corrected and augmented in 1640. wherein Synesius's Works are joined with St. Cyril's Catechetical Lectures POLYCHRONIUS POLYCHRONIUS Bishop of Apamea Brother of Theodorus of Mopsuesta and Disciple of Diodorus of Tarsus writ some Commentaries upon Job and Ezekiel whereof you Polychronius may find some Fragments in the Greek Catenae and in St. John Damascen if any Credit may be given to that sort of Quotations There are Spurious Acts of St. Sixtus with Polychronius dated after his Death He lived about the latter End of the Fourth Century Councils Assembled From the Beginning of the FIFTH CENTURY To the YEAR 430. The Canons of a Council supposed to have been held at Rome under Pope Innocent I. SIRMONDUS hath published some Regulations written in the Name of a Synod at Spurious Council of Rome under Innocent I. Rome to the Bishops of Gaul which are certainly ancient though it be unknown to what time they are to be referred but because they appeared to Sirmondus to be written in the Style of St. Innocent's Letters he believed they might belong to this Pope however they are placed immediately after his Letters and these are the Contents of them After a short Preface in the two first Canons according to Sirmondus's Distinction they speak of those Virgins Penance who having solemnly put on the Veil and received the Priests Benediction commit Incest or contract prohibited Marriages it is ordained That they shall do several Years Penance to bewail their Fault Penance is likewise imposed upon those that made the single Vow of Virginity though they made no solemn Profession nor received the Veil when they happen to Marry or suffer themselves to be taken away The Third Canon is concerning the Sanctity of Bishops of Priests and of Deacons they are told That they ought to give Example to the People That they are
of the Manners of the Manichees Of the Usefulness of Faith Of Two Souls Conference with Fortunatus and Felix Against Adimantus Against the Epistle of the Foundation of the Manichees Against Faustus Thirty three Books Of the Nature of Good Against Secundinus Against the Adversary of the Law and the Prophets Two Books Letters 79th and 236th ORIGENISTS Anastasius's Letter to John of Jerusalem and a fragment of a Synodical Letter of his against Origen John of Jerusalem his Apology Theophilus's Paschal Letters St. Jerom's Apologetick to Domnion and Pammachius Letters to Apronius and Avitus against the Errours of Origen His three Books of Apology against Rufinus 〈◊〉 Invectives of Rufinus against St. Jerom. His Apology to Pope Anastâ—sius 〈…〉 Augustin's Freatise against the Origenists and Prisâ—… His 237th Letter against the Priscillianists His 265th Letter against the Novatians ARIANS 〈…〉 Jerom's Treatise against Helvidius His two Books against Jovinian with his Apology to Pammachius His Treatise against Vigilantius and two Books against the same Dialogue against the Lucifâ—rians 〈…〉 Augustin's Answer to the Discourse of an Arian His Conference against Maximinus His Letters 238th 239th 240th 241st and 242d PELAGIANS 〈…〉 Jerâ—â—'s Letter to Câ—esiphon and three Books of Dialogues against the Pelagians 〈…〉 Aâ—gustin's Treatise against the Pelagians contained in the tenth Tome of his Works whereof see the Catalogue in the preceding Table His Letter 140th and others noted in the Table of Letters disposed according to their Arguments by the Benedictines 〈◊〉 of the Council of Carthage of the Year 4â—8 Acts of the Council of Diospolis of the Conference of Jerusalem and of the Councils of Carthage and Mileâ—… against Pelagius and Coelestius DONATISTS St. Augustin's Treatises against the Donatists contained in the ninth Tome of his Works See the Catalogue as above His other Treatises and Letters against the same Hereticks whereof there is a Table at the end of the ninth Tome His Letter 23d and others marked by the Benedictines in the Table of Letters Treatises upon the Articles of Religion St. Chrysostom's six Discourses of the incomprehensible Nature of God His Treatise of the Divine Providence to Stagyrius Treatise of Virginity â—…us's Explication of the Creed The Confeâ—sions of Faith of Pelagius and Coelestius St. Augustin's Treatises of the true Religion and the Manners of the Church his explication of the Creed Manual to Laurentius Dâ—scourse of the Instruction of the Ignorant Discourse of the Belief of things we cannot comprehend Treatise of Faith and Good Works Treatise of the Usefulness of Faith Letters upon dâ—vers Articles of Religion marked in the Catalogue of the Benedictines his Books of Retractations Upon the Trinity St. Jerom's two Letters to Damasâ—s upon the Hâ—postaâ—es St. Chrysostom's Sermon concerning the Consubstantiality A Treatise of Isaac a 〈…〉 〈◊〉 vpon the Trinity and the 〈◊〉 St. Augustin's fifteen Books upon the Trinity Upon the Incarnation Fragments of Homilies of Flavianus and Antiochus produced by Theodoret. Fragments of Theodorus Mopsuestenus St. Chrysostome's Letter to Caesarius against the Errors of Apollinaâ—is where also the Eucharist is spoken of Upon different Subjects St. Chrysostom's Homily concerning the Resurrection of the Dead his Sermon concerning Daemons St. Paulinus's Twelfth and Forty second Letters concerning the Fall of Man and the Merits of Jesus Christ. St. Augustin's Books against the Academicks his Treatise of Blessedness Treatise of Immortality and of the quantity of the Soul Discourse of Musick Book of a Master Three Books of Free will Answers to several Questions Answers to the Questions of Simplicianus and Dulcitius Two Discourses against Lying Another Discourse concerning the Pâ—…diction of Daemons Four Books concerning the Origination of the Soul Treatises concerning the Discipline of the Church The Canonical and Paschal Letters of Theophilus The Letters of Pope Innocent I. Some of St. Chrysostom's Sermons upon the chief Feasts of the Year St. Chrysostom's Defence of a Monastick Life Comparison between a Monk and a King Books of the Priesthood Two Discourses to Theodoruâ— Three Treatises of Compunction of heart Treatise of Virginity Two Discourses against Women's â—ohabiting with Clerks Discourse to a Nun against Raillery Two Discourses to a Young Widow Homily of Anathema and some others of his St. Jerom's Letters contained in the first Tome of his Works Treatises against Jovinian and Vigilantius Several Letters of St. Paulinus and particularly the 1st 2d 45th 46th 22d 23d 26th 29th 30th 32d 38th Letter of Bachiarius concerning Penance Ursinus's Treatise against the Reiteration of Baptism conferr'd by Hereticks St. Augustin's Treatises concerning Continence and the benefits of Marriage of Holy Virginity of the advantages of Widowhood of adulterous Marriages of the labour of Monks and of the care they ought to have for the Dead his Answers to the Questions of Dulcitius Letters marked in the Table of the Benedictins The Letter of Pope Zosimus and Pope Boniface I. Synesius's Letters and particularly the 5th 9th 11th 12th 13th 57th 58th 79th 89th 66th 67th 76th 95th and 105th Canons of the Councils related at the end of this Volume Books of Morality and Piety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fragments of Books of Evagrius Ponticus â—…urses of Mark the Hermit 〈…〉 Psychomachia Cathemerinon and Hamarâ—… 〈…〉 Hundred Chapters of a Spiritual Life 〈…〉 among the Works of St. Chrysostom 〈…〉 〈◊〉 Sermons with the Extracts of Phoâ—… â—…ks â—…tters contained in the first Tome of â—…ks 〈…〉 â—â—â—mons whereof see the Catalogue in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 〈◊〉 â—â—scourses of Piety and Morality see the Ca 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 part of his Letters 〈…〉 Seven Letters â—… part of the Letters of St. Paulinus 〈…〉 〈◊〉 13th 22d 23d 30th 32d 〈…〉 〈◊〉 to Aâ—â—thius entituled the Eccleâ—… 〈…〉 〈…〉 〈◊〉 â—o Câ—lancia attributed to St. Pauâ—… â—… Thirty two Poems 〈…〉 Demetrià s and some others in St. 〈…〉 â—…s â—…manners of the Church 〈…〉 Bâ—… 〈…〉 â—eligion most part of â—â—s Sermons chiefly those of the â—… â—â—ird and 〈◊〉 Clâ—…s Treâ—… of 〈◊〉 and Good Works 〈…〉 â—anual â—o Lâ—…ius â—… Comâ—…at 〈◊〉 of Patience 〈…〉 Letters mentioned in the Table of the â—… 〈…〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 〈◊〉 particularly that of the 〈◊〉 of well 〈◊〉 and those concerning Proâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 particularly the 95th 〈…〉 and Discourses upon the Holy Scripture BOOKS of Criticism 〈◊〉 's Tâ—…se of the best manner of Translating his Book of the Names of Countries and Cities spoken of 〈◊〉 Scripture Explication of the proper Names of the Hebrews Explication of the Hebrew Alphabet Book of the Tradition of the Jews â—… Letters upon divers critical Questions â—… â—… to Minerius and Paulinus Verâ—…s of the Text of the Bible from the Sepâ—…t and from the Hebrew â—… Harmony of the four Gospels St. Chrysosioâ—…'s Homily upon the beginning of the Acts of the Usefulness of reading the Holy Scripture and 〈◊〉 others St. â—â—gustâ—â—'s four 〈◊〉 of the Christian Doctrine his 〈◊〉 â—…ks of particular ways of speaking used in 〈◊〉 â—…en 〈◊〉 Books of the Bible and Questions upo◠〈◊〉 same Books â—… 〈◊〉 Scripture â—…
the Clergy 85 Charity ought to be the sole end of all our Actions 142. The Duties of Christian Charity cannot diminish and the more we perform the more we have to do 159 Children A Father that brings up his Son ill is more cruel than if he had put him to Death 47 Chromacius Bishop of Aquileia 58 S. John Chrysostom Native of Antioch 6. Baptized by Meletius 7. Hides himself and flie to avoid being Ordain'd Bishop ibid. Ordained Deacon by Meletius and Priest by Flavianus ibid. Elected Bishop of Constantinople and ordain d by Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria his Enemy ibid. His strict Discipline caused him to be hated ibid. His pastoral Vigilance ibid. Reunites the Eastern and Western Churches 8. Assembles a Synod at Ephesus ibid. The Empress Eudoxia enraged against him urges Theophilus to come to Constantinople 9. He holds a Synod in the Suburbs of Chalcedon against S. Chrysostom who refuses to be judged by that Council his Enemies being the principal Judges ibid. He was there deposed ibid. The Emperor orders him to be banish'd and he was accordingly conducted to a little City in Bithynia 10. His return to Constantinople ibid. Another Discontent of Eudoxia ibid. A new Council confirms the first Sentence of Deposition against this Saint ibid. Violences and Edicts against S. Chrysostom ibid. He Surrenders himself into the hands of those that had Orders to Arrest him and is conducted to Nice and from thence to Cucusus the place of his Exile ibid. Calamities at Constantinople after the removal of S. Chrysostom ibid. He writes to Pope Innocent and to the Bishops of the West to implore their help 11. The Pope sends him Letters of Communion ibid. And also obtains Letters from Honorius to his Brother Arcadius in his Favour ibid. Violence offer'd to the Persons that brought those Letters ibid. S. Chrysostom remov'd from Cucusus to Pityus a City upon the Euxin Sea and dies in this Journey ibid. Peace restored after his Death 12. Critical Remarks upon his Works ibid. The Church consists not in the Walls of it but in the Holy Union with the Members of Jesus Christ 13. It 's perpetuity is an invincible proof of the truth of Religion 34. The Church mixes the good with the bad till the day of Judgment 198 Clinicks Those who receive Baptism in their Bed at the point of Death 36 Comedies It is a kind of Adultery to go to Comedies 46 Communion The forgetting of Injuries and Reconciliation is a condition Essentially necessary to the worthy receiving the Sacrament 21. The Revengeful is as unworthy of the Holy Communion as the Blasphemer and Adulterer 41. Disposition for worthy receiving 43 Council of Carthage of the Year 403 P. 218 Council of Carthage of the Year 404 ibid Council of Carthage of the Year 405 ibid Council of Carthage of the Year 407 ibid Two Councils of Carthage of the Year 408 p. 219 Council of Carthage of the Year 409 ibid Council of Carthage in the Year 410 ibid The First Council of Carthage against Coelestius in the Year 412 p. 221 Council of Carthage in the Year 417 p. 222 Councils of Carthage in the Year 418 ibid Council of Carthange in the Years 418 and 419 concerning the Cause of Apiarius 224 Council of Carthage in the Year 420 Council of Carthage in the Year 427 against Leporius Council in the Suburbs of Chalcedon at the Oak in 403 p. 217 Council of Cirta or Zerta in the Year 412 p. 221 Councils held by S. Chrysostom at Constantinople and at Ephesus in 400 and 401 p. 217 Council of Constantinople in the Year 426 Council of Constantinople in the Year 428 Council of Diospolis in the Year 418 p. 221 Council of Milevis held in the Year 402 p. 217 Council of Milevis against Coelestius and Pelagius in the Year 416 p. 222 Council of Ptolemais in Pentapolis in the Year 411 p. 220 Council of Ravenna in the Year 419 Council of Tella or Zella c. of the Year 418 p. 224 Concupiscence and an Inclination to evil are the Consequents of the Sin of the first Man 35 Conference of Carthage in the Year 411 p. 220 Conference of Jerusalem in the Year 415 p. 221 Continence True Continence consists in the suppressing all the Passions 180 Conversion It is never too late to be converted 78 Correction Ecclesiastical Princes have submitted to it as well as others of the Faithful 38 Covetousness a kind of Idolatry 45. Consists in the desire of having more than we ought to have Other Vices diminish in time but Covetousness encreases as we grow in years 55 Custom is a bad Reason where it is sinful 17 Customs of Churches ought to be observed 82 139 141 Cross. The Efficacy of the Sign of the Cross 5 Curiosity will not make us discover Mysteries but it will make us lose the Faith that must carry us to Salvation and eternal Life 60 D DEad Oblations for the Dead received in the Church 138. When the Eucharist is administred or Alms made for all the Dead that have been baptized they are Thanksgivings for those that have been extremely Good they are Intercessions for those that have not been great Sinners and as for those that have been very bad if these things bring no Comfort to them they serve at least for Consolation to the living 178 179. The Dead not to be lamented but to rejoyce that they have left this unhappy Life to enjoy an eternal Blessed one 48. Their Relations ought to give Alms for them 38 Death A Christian instead of fearing ought to desire it 48 Decentius Bishop of Eugubium a City of Umbria in Italy 67 Devotion Women ought not to give any cause of Discontent to their Husbands by an indiscreet Devotion 167 Diadochus Bishop of Photice a City of the ancient Epirus 5 Diadorus Superior of the Monks in the Suburbs of Antioch 7 Dioscorus a Monk of Egypt 8 Divinity impossible to define it 2 Donatus S. Jerom's Master 73 Drunkenness is of all Vices the most dangerous and the most to be hated 45 E ECclesiasticks their Dignity 75 76 their Duties ibid. Their Habits 77 Education of Children 79. Mothers are not less charg'd with the Education of Children than Fathers 12 18. Education of Daughters 78 80 S. Epiphanius Bishop of Cyprus a great Enemy to Origen 9 Evagrius Three of that Name Evagrius Ponticus Evagrius of Antioch Evagrius Scholasticus 1 Eucharist Sacrament 105. Eucharist explained 59 60. Disposition fit to partake of it ibid. To receive it Fasting 142. Dispositions requisite to worthy Communicating 37 Eudoxia Empress of Constantinople enraged against S. Chrysostom 9 10 Evodius Bishop of Uzala in Africa 122 Eusebius Bishop of Valentinople in Asia 8 Eusebius Father of S. Jerom. 73 Eusebius an Ecclesiastical Author of the Fifth Century 123 Euthymius a Monk of Egypt 8 Excommunication unjust does more Injury to him that Pronounces it than to him against whom it is pronounced 167 Exuperius Bishop of Tholouse to whom
or 458. in the Seventieth or Eightieth Year of his Age. But his Enemies after his Death revived the Accusations That they had formed against him in his Life-time and contrary to the Judgment of the Council of Chalcedon used all their Endeavours to obscure his Memory The Ring-leaders of this Faction designed it against the Council it self and did not attack the Memory of Theodoret with any other Design but that they might give a Blow to the Council it self But they had insensibly drawn over many Orthodox persons to their Opinion and being upheld by the Authority of Justinian the Emperor they brought about their Undertaking by causing his Writings to be condemned in the Council which they account the Fifth General Council But notwithstanding the Judgment of this Council many of the Orthodox have always defended and do still defend his Person and Writings But this is not a convenient Place to treat of this Matter of which I shall speak afterward This sufficeth to have advertised you That Theodoret met with as bad Usage almost after his Death as he had while he lived Of all the Fathers who have composed Works of different kinds Theodoret is one of those who hath been very lucky in every one of them There are some who have been excellent Writers in Matters of Controversie but bad Interpreters Others have been good Historians but naughty Divines Some have good success in Morality who have no skill in Doctrinal Points Those who have applied themselves to confute the Pagan Religion by their own Principles and Authors have ordinarily little knowledge in the Mysteries of our Religion Lastly It is very rare for those who have addicted themselves to Works of Piety to be good Criticks Theodoret had all these Qualities and it may be said That he hath equally deserved the Name of a good Interpreter Divine Historian Writer of Controversies Apologist for Religion and Author of Works of Piety But he hath principally excelled in his Composures upon the Holy Scripture He hath out-done almost all other Commentators in that kind according to the Judgment of the learned Photius His Language saith the same Author is very proper for a Commentary for he explains in proper and significant Terms whatsoever is obscure and difficult in the Text and renders the Mind more fit to read and understand it by the pleasantness and elegancy of his Discourse He doth not weary his Reader by long Digressions but on the contrary he labours to instruct him ingeniously clearly and methodically in every thing that seems hard He never departs from the Purity and Elegancy of the Attick Tongue if there be nothing that obliges him to speak of abstruse Matters to which the Ears are not accustomed For it is certain That he passes over nothing that needs Explication and it is almost impossible to find any Interpreter who unfolds all manner of Difficulties better and leaves fewer things obscure We may find many others who speak elegantly and explain clearly but we shall scarcely find any who have written well and who have forgotten nothing which hath need of Illustration without being too diffuse nor without running out into Digressions at least such as are not absolutely necessary for clearing the Matter in Hand Nevertheless this is what Theodoret has observed in all his Commentaries upon Holy Scripture in which he hath wonderously well opened the Text by his Labour and diligent Search There are two sorts of Works of Theodoret upon Holy Scripture The one is by way of Question and Answer the other is a Commentary wherein he followeth the words of the Text. The eight first Books of the Bible that is to say the Pentateuch of Moses the Books of Joshua Judges and Ruth the Books of Kings and Chronicles are explained after the first manner the other are expounded by Commentaries The first of these Works is intitl'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is translated thus Of some select doubtful Questions of Holy Scripture but may be better translated Select Questions upon the difficult places of Holy Scripture It is written by way of Questions and Answers The Question propounds the difficulty and the Answer resolves it This is the last of the Works of Theodoret. He composed it at the desire of Hypatius as he tells him in the Preface where he observes That there were two sorts of Persons who raise difficulties out of the Holy Scriptures the one do it with a wicked intent to find in the Holy Scriptures Falsities or Contradictions but others do it with a design to inform themselves and learn that which they demand Theodoret undertakes to stop the Mouth of the former by making it appear That there is neither Falsity nor Contradiction in Holy Scripture and to content the latter by satisfying all their Doubts so that the intent of this Work is not so much to explain the Literal Sence of Holy Scripture as to answer the Scruples that might rise in the Mind by reading the Text. There are some of the Questions which are very useless and which do not naturally come into the Mind As for Example he demands in the first Question Why the Author of the Pentateuch did not make a Discourse upon the Being and Nature of God before he spake of the Creation Few Men would make that Doubt Theodoret says That he condescended to the Weakness of those he had to instruct in speaking first of the Creatures which they knew that he might make known the Creator to them for he hath sufficiently discovered the Eternity Wisdom and Bounty of that Being in composing a History of the Creation and lastly because he spake to Persons who had already some Idea of him since Moses had spoken already in Aegypt in his Name and had taught them that he is what he is a Name that signifies his Eternity The following Questions are concerning the Angels He pretends That Moses hath not spoken of their Creation for fear they should be taken for Gods He teaches That they are created and finite Beings That they keep their place in the Universe That they are appointed to defend the People and Nations and likewise That every Person hath his Guardian Angel That they were created at the same time with the World tho' it may be said That their Creation was before that of Heaven and Earth After these Preliminary Questions which serve only for the explication of the Text he resolves others that serve to clear the Text. One of the Principal is upon these words The Spirit of God moved upon the Face of the Waters Some saith he believe That it is the Holy Spirit who animated the Waters and made them fruitful but I am of Opinion That it is the Air which is called in this place the Spirit of God For having said That God created the Heaven and Earth and made mention also of the Waters under the Name of the Abyss he ought necessarily to speak of the Air which is extended upon the Surface of the Waters
that the Word of God is the God of Christ. The Seventh is against him who says that Jesus Christ as he was Man was moved by the Word and was cloathed with his Glory as being a Person distinct from him The Eighth is against him who asserts that we ought to Worship the Manhood with the Word and will not give the same Adoration to Immanuel i. e. to the Word Incarnate The Ninth is against him who says that Jesus Christ did Miracles by the power of the Holy Spirit and not by his own The Tenth is against him who affirms that it is not the Word that is our High-Priest and Apostle who was Sacrificed for us but it is the Man who dyed for himself and for us The Eleventh is against him who denies that the Flesh was the Living Flesh of the Word but the Flesh of the Man united with the Godhead by a Moral Union because it dwells and inhabits in it The Twelfth is against him who will not say that the Word hath suffered truly in his Flesh and that he dyed and rose again according to the Flesh. About this time also S. Cyril wrote his three Treatises about the Incarnation One of which he dedicated to the Emperor and the other two to the Empresses Eudocia and Pulcheria in which 1. p. Act. Conc. c. 3 4 5. he explains and proves his Doctrine at large Before the Sentence of Caelestine and S. Cyrill's Letter were signified to Nestorius he fore-seeing the Storm which was about to fall upon him desired Theodosius that he would call a Council And since his Anger against the Monks of Constantinople who were not of his Party increased Ibid. c. 20. every Day more and more they also petitioned That a Council might be assembled and in the sequel addressed the Emperor praying him That the Governor of Constantinople would restrain the Outrages committed against them till the Matter were determined by a Council Theodosius seeing that a Council was desired by both sides and believing it necessary to appease the Troubles of the Church appointed it at Ephesus on Pentecost in the following Year The Circular Letter which he wrote to invite the Chief Metropolitans to it bears date Nov. 19. Anno 430. In it Ibid. c. 31. he says that it was his Duty to provide for the Peace and Welfare of the Church to hinder that it be not troubled with Schisms and Divisions to provide that Religion be preserved in its Purity and that the Clergy and Bishop live an unblameable Life In this Letter he doth not alledge any particular Reason which he called this Council but only tells the Bishops That it was for the Good of the Church and that they that did not come to it could not be excused neither before God nor Men. The Fame of S. Austin induced the Emperor to require him in particular and for that end wrote to him although he was a Bishop but of a small City But the Emperor's Letters not being received in Africa till about Easter Anno 431. S. Austin was then dead and the other African Bishop being encompassed with so many Enemies could not come to the Council The Emperor wrote a Letter particularly to S. Cyril to tell him That he looked upon him as Ibid. c. 31. 32. the Author of this Trouble and therefore commanded him peremptorily to be present at the Council He also particularly blamed him for disturbing the Church creating Divisions in the Royal Family by writing to the Empresses severally for meddling with an Affair that nothing concerned him for acting imperiously and imprudently Nestorius also wrote to S. Caelestine against S. Cyril and informs him That Theodosius had appointed In Marius Mercator a General Council and prays him to accommodate the Differences which were between those who called the Virgin the Mother of God and those who would give her no other Title than the Mother of a Man by calling her the Mother of Christ. In the mean while the four Bishops deputed by the Council of Alexandria to signifie to Nestorius the Judgment passed against him by the Synod of Rome arrived at Constantinople and delivered the Letter of the Council into his own Hands in the presence of his Clergy Decemb. 7. Anno 430. which was the Lords-Day He put off their Answer till the next Day but when he saw what it contain'd he would see them no more but still continued to Preach after the same manner as he had done before He sent John Bishop of Antioch a Copy of the Letter Confession of Faith and 12 Anathema's of S. Cyril's and desired him to set some Person to write against them and himself opposed 12 other Anathema's to them In the First he pronounces Anathema against him that says That he that is called Immanuel in Scripture is a God only and not a God dwelling with us that is to say United to our Nature which he took of Mary against him that calls the Virgin the Mother of God and not of Immanuel or that says That the Word is changed into Flesh. The Second iâ— against them that said That by the Union of the Word and Flesh the Godhead hath received some alteration or that it is united to the Flesh in part only or that saith That the Godhead and Manhood in Jesus Christ are of the same Nature The Third is against those who said That Jesus Christ is one Son only made of two Natures without any Mixture The Fourth is against them who take that which is spoken concerning the Person of Jesus Christ in Scripture as agreeing to one Nature only and so attribute the Sufferings to the Word of God The Fifth is against those who dare affirm That there is but one Jesus Christ according to Nature The Sixth is against him who gives the Word who was Incarnate any other Name than that of Christ or who makes the Nature of Man to be Uncreated as that of the Word is The Seventh is against him that saith That the Person who was born of Mary is the only Son of God and are not contented to say That he became the Son of God by an Union with the only Son of God The Eighth is against him who believes That we must honour the Form of a Servant for it self and not because it is United with the Nature of the Word The Ninth is against him that saith That the Form of a Man in Jesus Christ is Consubstantial with the Holy Spirit and That it had not the Power of doing Miracles by the Union that it had with the Word The Tenth is against them who affirm That the Word was sacrificed and suffered for us and not Immanuel The Eleventh is against them who said That the Flesh of Jesus Christ is enlivening of its own Nature as it is Flesh. The Twelfth is against them who attribute to the Word the Sufferings of the Flesh of Jesus Christ. These Anathema's of Nestorius being published at Constantinople were confuted
helps forward the possession of the People 2. to be given to modest poor ibid. not to be bestowed on professed Beggars ibid. to be given to the poor of any Religion ibid. The Commendation of Almsgiving 27. all Christians are obliged to it and therefore are instructed about it 147. Sinners as well as Good Men are obliged to it ibid. Aurelius Bishop of Carthage 47. Altar Built at Athens to the Unkown God Some conjectures of S. Isidore about it 5. Author of the Books of the Vocation of the Gentiles and the Epistle to Demetrias 128 c. Author of the Confessions of Faith attributed to Rufinus Some Authors Opinions about this Work 20. Author of the Memoir concerning the affair of Acacius This Name is not known 175. Authority Civil and Spiritual they are two distinct powers the one hath no Jurisdiction over the other 110 Auxiliares a Roman Orator 112 178. Asylum a Privilege of Churches 244. B BAptism Baptism for the Dead in S. Paul what it is 5. The Effects of Baptism 6. Infant-Baptism ib. The day for Baptism 53 It 's use 71. It came in stead of the Jewish Washings ibid. At what time it ought to be administred 94. Some Questions about Baptism 104. How it ought to be used with those that have been Baptized and Rebaptized by Hereticks 85 c. They ought to be Rebaptized who can't prove that they have been Baptized already ib. They ought not to be Rebaptized who can remember that they have been Baptized tho' they can't tell by what Sect ib. Solemn Baptism S. Leo affirms ought not to be administred on the Feast of Epiphany 93 nor on any other Festivals besides Easter and Pentecost 104. The Necessity of Baptism 20. They are not to be Rebaptized who have been Baptized in the Name of the Trinity 186. The Ceremonies and Effects of Baptism ib. Reasons for Infant-Baptism 190. When it is to be reiterated 247. Baradatus and Thalalaeus Monks who were always bowed down and shut up 67. Bardesanes an Heretick 68. Basilius Bishop of Antioch 102. Basil Bishop of Seleucia His Life 139. His Homilies and their Abridgment ibid. A Censure upon his Style and manner of Writing 140. The Edition of his Homilies 141. Bassianus Bishop of Evasa his Petition in his own defence 138. Bassianus The difference between him and Stephen who both pretend to the Bishoprick of Ephesus determined in the Council of Chalcedon 238. Bassus His accusation of Sixtus III. a Fable 48. Beasts difference between the clean and unclean 139 Bishops their duty to teach in the Churches 22. They ought to observe the Canons 26. the names of the Bishops of the Nestorian party 44. the names of the Orthodox Bishops of S. Cyril's side 47 must not be such as have had two Wives or have Married a Widow 83. the Ancient right of the African Bishops 84. subject to the Law of Continence ibid. ought not be Married to two Wives 87 ought to go to the Synods ib. ought to observe the Canons ibid. Canons about Bishops 91 c. He that goes from one Church to another contemning his own shall be deprived of both ib. are all equal in what sense 92. ought not to pawn the Goods of their Church 94 a description of good and evil Bishops 183 c. The Virtues of Bishops 185. they ought not to receive or ordain the Clergy of other Bishops 236 nor Usurp their Churches ibid. Bruno Bishop of Signi 118. C CAnticles the Authority and meaning of that Book 61. acknowledged to be Divine by the Fathers 62 63. not to be read by Young and Illiterate persons ib. Chalcedon a general Council held in 451 in that City 37 230. Calliopius a Priest of Nice 2. Caprasius a Monk of Lerins 117. Capreolus Bishop of Carthage Successor of Aurelius He sent his Deputy to the Council of Ephesus 49 and wrote a small Treatise against Nestorius ib. Carosus a Monk 101. Cartenna a City of Mountania 121. Carthage by whom and at what time taken 147. Cassian his Conferences 11 c. Catechumens the Gospel ought to be read to them 245. they ought not to go into the Baptistery nor be with the Faithful ibid. Causes of greater consequence to be determined before whom 92. S Caelestine his Life and Writings 22. where the Aphorisms of Grace are his 22 c. Nestorius and wrote to S. Cyril and John Bishop of Antioch 194. his Letters after the Council of Ephesus 204 his Death 47. Caelestius a Scholar of Pelagius 35. Caelibacy preferred before Marriage 6. Different practises of Churches concerning the Caelibacy of the Clergy 53. It was extended to Deacons and Sub-Deacons tho' not in all Churches 85 91. Caelebacy injoyned Deacons for the future 245. Celidonins a French Bishop condemned by Hilary Bishop of Arles 90. Cerealis his Confession of Faith 154. Ceremonies of the old Law were intended only for Men in an Imperfect State 73. Caesarius Bishop of Arles Author of a great many Sermons 118. Charesius a Priest of the Church of Philadelphia he presented a Petition and Confession of Faith to the Council of Ephesus 47. Charity the Effects of it 13. Cheremon an Abbot 12. Children how to bring them up 147. Chrism the Priests receive it of the Bishop and make use of it 243. Christians their Doctrine about the Creation of the World is more reasonable than that of the Heathens 72. Chrysippus a Priest of Jerusalem a Sermon of his upon the Virgin 141. Church-Catholick the Idea and definition of it 6. some Ceremonies of the Church explain'd ib. it abhors sanguinary punishments 93. a Church not to be built by exactions from the People 6. Situation of Churches different 53. cannot give pawn change or sell the Goods of the Church 94. Church of Rome prerogatives granted to it by the Emperor 91. and is certainly the first Cimele a City of the Sea-Alps an old Bishoprick 121. Claudianus Mamertus a Priest of the Church of Vienna an abridgment of his treatise of the Soul 150 c. Clergy-men ought to be Men of Worth 83. Rules for them 85. they ought not to leave the Church where they have been Ordained 87. nor go from one Church to another ibid. A Bishop ought not to take the Clergy of another Bishop 92. a Point of discipline concerning the Clergy ib. they may not hold Forms 236. ought not to be Ordained without a title to some Church and may not have two 240. ought not to contend with any but before his Bishop 241. Rules for the Lives of the Clergy 247 c. ought not be present at Marriages or Feasts 249. Cloak a Bishops Ornament 6. Caelius Sedulius a Christian Poet. An Abridgment of his Poem upon the Life of Jesus Christ 50. his temper ibid. a different Person from him who made a Comment upon all S. Paul's Epistles ibid. the Edition of his Poem 51. Collections for the Poor from Apostolick Tradition 109 Comedies forbidden 7. Comaedians their Art noxious and a corrupter of
Conference with the Arian Bishops The King told him with a stern Countenance If your Religion be good why do not you hinder the King of the Franks your Soveraign from making War upon me Avitus answer'd That he did not know the Reasons which his Prince had to make War upon him butif he would submit to the Law of God he did not doubt to obtain a Peace for him The King answer'd That he did acknowledge the Law of God but he would not acknowledge three Gods Avitus gave him to understand that the Catholicks do not acknowledge but one God only and then he fell prostrate at his Feet The next day the King told them That his Bishops were ready to enter into a Conference with them but that it must not be held before the People but only in his presence and before such Senators as he should choose To Morrow is appointed for the day The same Night the Lessons were read which mention'd the hardning of Pharaoh's heart and of the Jews which was a bad Omen When the time for the Conference was come the Bishops of both Parties were present at the Place appointed Avitus explain'd the Faith of the Church about the Mystery of the Trinity and prov'd it by Testimonies of the Holy Scripture Boniface being the Arian Bishop that was to speak answer'd nothing to Avitus's Discourse but only propos'd many subtil and entangling Questions about the Mystery of the Trinity and then broke forth into reproachful Language The King respited the Answer of Boniface till to morrow An Officer call'd Aredius would have perswaded the Catholicks to retire telling them That this sort of Conferences did nothing but exasperate mens minds Bishop Stephen answer'd him That on the contrary it was the only means to clear up the truth and to reconcile men to one another and bring them to a good understanding But notwithstanding this Admonition the Catholick Bishops entred into the Place King Gondebaud seeing them came to meet them and spoke reproachfully of the King of the Franks whom he accused of solliciting his Brother against him The Bishops answer'd him That the way to make Peace was to agree about the Faith and that they themselves would be Mediators for it and then every one took his place Avitus being desirous to wipe off the Calumnies of Boniface who had accus'd the Catholiks of worshipping many Gods prov'd that the Catholicks acknowledg'd one God only Boniface instead of answering continued still to reproach them The King seeing that this would not put an end to the difference rose up with indignation Avitus insisted that he should either answer his Reasons or yield But to shew clearly on whose side the Truth was he propos'd That he should go immediately to the Monument of St. Justus and ask the Saint about the truth of the one and the other's Belief and then report what he had said The King approv'd this Proposal but the Arians refus'd it saying They would not do as Saul did who had recourse to Charms and Divination that the Scripture was sufficient for them which was much more powerful then all other means The King going away carried with him to his Chamber Stephen and Avitus and bidding them farewel he embraced them and intreated them to pray to God for him Which discover'd to them says the Author of this Relation what a perplexity he was in But because the heavenly Father had not drawn him he could not come to the Son that this word of truth might be fulfill'd 'T is not he that willeth nor he that runneth but God that sheweth mercy After this day many Arians were converted and baptiz'd some days after and God exalted our Faith by the Intercession of St. Justus These are the very words of the Acts of this Conference ENNODIUS Bishop of PAVIA MAgnus Felix Ennodius descended of an illustrious Family among the Gauls a Descended of an illustrious Family among the Gauls says in many places of his Works that his Parents were Gauls He was a Kinsman to the greatest Lords in his time as to Faustus â—oetius Avienus Olybrius Senarius Florianus c. was born in Italy b In Italy 'T is certain that he pass'd his first years in Italy in the Year 473 c In the Year 473. In the Panegyrick which he made upon Theodoric he declares that he was sixteen years old when that King entred into Italy in the Year 489. Having lost at the Age of Sixteen an Aunt who gave him Maintenance and Education he was reduc'd to low Circumstances in the World but by marriage to a rich Fortune he was restor'd to a plentiful Estate He enjoy'd for some time the Advantages and Pleasures which Riches afford but knowing the danger of them he resolv'd to lead a more Christian Life He entred into Orders with the consent of his wife who for her part embrac'd a chast and religious Life 'T was at this time that he became famous for his Letters and other Writings He was chosen to make a Panegyrick upon King Theodoric and undertook the Defence of the Council of Rome which acquitted Pope Symmachus For his Merits he was promoted to the See of Pavia about the Year 510 d About the Year 510 Father Labbe says that he was made Bishop of Pavia in 490 but this cannot be since he was not then seventeeen years old He was not yet Bishop when his Book was approv'd in the Synod of Rome in 503 for the Title of Bishop is not given him After this he was made choice of to endeavour the Re-union of the Eastern to the Western Church Upon which occasion he made two Journeys into the East the first in the Year 515 with Fortunatus Bishop of Catana and the second in 517 with Peregrinus Bishop of Misena These Journeys had not the success which he desir'd but they discover'd his Prudence and Courage For the Emperor Anastasius did all he could to seduce or corrupt him but not being able to compass his design after many affronts at last he caus'd him to put to Sea in an old rotten Vessel and forbad all persons to suffer him to land at any Port of Greece whereby he was expos'd to manifest danger Nevertheless he arriv'd safe in Italy and return'd to Pavia where he died a little time after on the first day of August in the Year 521 aged 48 years There are many Writings of this Author which have no relation to Ecclesiastical Matters Among his 297 Letters which are divided into nine Books there are but very few from whence any weighty observation can be made about the Doctrine or Discipline of the Church The fourteenth Letter of the second Book is one of this number It is written to the Christians of Africk whom he comforts under the Persecution which they had suffer'd for a long time and the loss of their Bishops Fear not says he to them because you see your selves destitute of Bishops you have amongst you him who is both
his Grace to enlighten them and to make the Word fruitful in them for in vain does the Word of God strike our Ears if God does not open our Understanding by his Grace Thus ends this Answer of the Bishops of Afric which is worthy of the Faithful Disciples of St. Austin The Books of Faustus against these Principles were publish'd at Constantinople and because they made a great noise these Monks sent them to St. Fulgentius who wrote seven Books to refute them This Work is not printed Father Vignerus of the Oratory had a Manuscript of it but since his Death it is not known what is become of it St. Fulgentius had finish'd it before he was call'd back into Afric When he was upon his return thither he wrote upon the same subject and according to the same Principles three Books of Predestination and Grace address'd to John the Priest and Venerius a Deacon He shows in the first Book That Predestination is purely gratuitous and that it does not depend upon the prospect of Men's Merits The example of Infants is one of his strongest Proofs But whereas some save themselves by saying That God permits them to receive or not to receive Baptism according to the knowledge of the good or evil which he foresaw they should have done if they had liv'd he rejects this Solution and this middle Science In the second Book he confesses that the Good and Evil have a Free-will but he maintains that it is aided and improv'd in good Men by Grace and that it is weakned and punish'd in the bad that it is God who converts us and worketh in us to will that which is good that 't is he who gives us the design and will to pray that the Will of Man always follows the grace of God which precedes it Towards the end he confutes the Opinion of his Adversaries who affirm'd That the Vessels of honour and dishonour mention'd by the Apostle are not the Predestinate and the Reprobate but the Vessels of dishonour are the Poor the Monks and Ecclesiasticks and the Vessels of honour are the Noble the Rich and the Potentates of this World He proves that this Exposition is false and hereupon he says That in this World there is no Dignity in the Church above that of a Bishop nor in Secular Affairs above that of a Christian Emperor but all the Bishops and Emperors are not Vessels of Mercy but only those who acquit themselves well in their Offices A Bishop says he shall not be sav'd because he is a Bishop but he shall be sav'd if he watch over his Flock if he preach the Word in season and out of season if he reproves sinners if he uses to them Entreaties and Rebukes with all kind of patience and meekness if he has not the spirit of domineering and pride if according to the Command of the Apostle he serves for an Example to all his Flock So likewise an Emperor is not a Vessel of Mercy destin'd to Glory because he has the Soveraign Power but he shall be if he live in the Orthodox Faith if being possessed of true Humility he makes his Royal Dignity subservient to Religion if he loves rather to serve God with fear then to command his People with pride if he moderates his severity by a spirit of meekness if his power is accompanied with goodness if he would rather be lov'd then fear'd if he minds nothing but the good of his Subjects if hâ— loves Justice without forgetting Mercy if he remembers in all his Actions that he is a Son of the Church and that he ought to employ his power for its quiet and peace For this Honour for the Church makes the Emperors greater and more glorious then all their Battels and Victories In the third Book he returns to Predestination and having affirm'd that it is gratuitous that Vocation Justification and Glory are its effects that it is infallible and certain that the number of the Predestin'd is determin'd and that it is impossible to add too or take away any from them he answers this great Objection That if this were so we ought then neither to pray nor watch but follow our own Wills since if we are of the number of the predestin'd we shall infallibly be sav'd and if we are not we cannot be sav'd He says That this Objection is like that of those to whom God should promise a long Life when they infer from this promise that they will no more take those things that are necessary to maintain this Life He adds That as the love of Life makes him to whom this promise is made seek for those things which are necessary to maintain it so the Grace which God has prepared for us by his Predestination does infallibly make us watch pray and labour Afterwards he enlarges upon this Passage God would have all men to be sav'd and is of Opinion that the true sense of it is That God would have some Men of all Nations Ages and Conditions sav'd and not that he wills the Salvation of every Man in particular since he would not make himself known to such Men as would have believed in him if he had made himself known unto them From hence he passes to consider the difference between the state of the first Man and ours The first Man was perfectly and fully free he had no inclination to evil and he had the power to do good by the assistance of that Grace which he could use or not use But since sin entred the liberty of Man's Will is deprav'd and his Free-will is become a Slave to sin and he has need of a powerful preventing Grace to deliver him from the unhappy necessity of sinning and to render him victorious over Temptations Lastly He treats of the Origine of Souls whether they be created and put into the Body or produc'd by other Souls He follows and approves the Modesty of St. Austin who treating of this Question left it undecided He shews what Difficulties there are to reconcile the first Opinion with the belief of Original Sin and the second with the manner of propagating Mankind And so without determining any thing upon the Question he says only That we must believe that the Soul is not a Body but a Spirit that it is not a part of the very Substance of God but a Creature that it is not put into the Body as a Prison for sins that are past but that it is put into the Body by the appointment of God to animate it and that being united to the Flesh it contracts Original Sin from which it is purified by Baptism He refutes in a few words these Errors and those who asserted them St. Fulgentius wrote also a Letter in the Name of the Bishops of Afric to John and Venerius to whom he address'd these two Books This Letter contains the same Principles and the same Doctrine about Grace and Predestination There they observe that God permits some Persons to
concerns the Affair of Contumeliosus This Bishop being condemn'd had appeal'd to Rome The Pope had appointed Judges upon the Places yet the Bishops of the Gauls caus'd their own Judgment to be put in Execution The Pope wrote to Caesarius that it would be better to suspend the Execution till his Cause were decided a-new or at least to permit him to withdraw and not to shut him up in a Religious House He ordains that his Goods should be restor'd to him but that he should not dispose of the Revenues of the Church nor be permitted to celebrate Mess that the Arch-deacon of his Church should be nam'd as Deputy in his room who should have the Administration of Affairs until he was sentenc'd on condition that the first Judgment given against him should be no wise prejudicial to him and that no consideration should be had of it in the second These Letters are dated the 18th day of August in the Year 535. There may be a fault in the Date of the Consulship I say nothing of a Letter of Agapetus to Anthimus because it is a Piece taken out of the 97th Epistle of St. Leo according to the Custom of Isidore All the seven Epistles are publish'd Concil Tom. 4. p. 1789. There is also another Letter to Peter the Patriarch of Jerusalem concerning the Deposition of Anthimus Gr. Lat. in the Act. 1. of the Council of Constantinople under Mennas Conc. Tom. 5. p. 47. Cave p. 407. St. EPHREM Patriarch of Antioch ST Ephrem altho a Syrian by Nation understood perfectly the Greek Tongue After he had pass'd thro Secular Offices he arriv'd at the Dignity of a Count in the East and was promoted to the See of the Church of Antioch about the Year 526. He signaliz'd himself chiefly by the great Alms he gave He compos'd many Treatises of which three Volumes fell into the hands of Photius who assures us That all the Works of this Author were written in Defence of the Doctrine of the Church and of the Holy Council of Chalcedon The same Author makes long Extracts out of those which he had seen The first is a Collection of divers Pieces whereof the first is a Letter address'd to Zenobius Scholasticus of Emesa who was infected with the Error of the Acephali St. Ephrem there defends the Letter of St. Leo and the use of the Trisagion He observes in the first place that the Orientalists attribute to Jesus Christ this Epithet in praise of him Holy holy holy and then they add who was crucified for us whereas those of Constantinople and the West refers this Epithet to the Trinity and therefore cannot add who were crucified because the three Divine Persons cannot be subject to Sufferings That in many Churches of Europe instead of these words Who were crucified for us are put these other words Holy Trinity have pity on us He adds That according to these two different senses this Expression may be us'd or not us'd but that the Hereticks Acephali having abus'd it he thought fit not to use it at all After this Remark he undertakes the Defence of St. Leo's Letter and observes that we must not compare what St. Leo says when he speaks of the Incarnation with what the Fathers say when they speak of the Divinity but with those places where they speak of the Incarnation He proves afterwards that St. Leo in this Letter acknowledg'd the two Natures in the Union of one Person only and plainly condemn'd the Error of Nestorius In the second Chapter he proves that the Expressions which this Pope us'd to denote the difference of the Natures and Operations were agreeable to those of the Greek Fathers and even to the Doctrine of St. Cyril In the third he proves that the Articles which are added to note the distinction of the two Natures do not signifie that there are two Persons in Jesus Christ but only two Natures united with an inseparable Union In the fourth and fifth he defends some particular Expressions of St. Leo by comparing them with the modes of speaking us'd by the other Fathers which are altogether like them This Letter to Zenobius was follow'd with many others There is one to the Emperor Justinian wherein he commended this Prince for being Religions another concerning the Monks who liv'd in the Desert wherein he gives good 〈◊〉 of his Piety In the third he maintains that the Acts of the Syâ—… Decision of Aâ—… contain nothing contrary to Faith The fourth was written to Anthimus himself after 〈◊〉 was past against him He does not dissemble his Approbation of Condemning him but he declares thoe he would have him receiv'd tho with very much Precaution There is a fifth Letter to Domitiâ—… about the manner in which the two Natures are united in Jesus Christ and a sixth to Syneletiâ—… of Tarsus wherein he explains the Judgment of the Fathers about the Union of the two Natures The seventh was address'd to Anthimus Bishop of Trebizonde against the Error of Eutyches wherein he pâ—â—ises Justinian as a most Catholick Prince The eighth was to one Persaâ—… called Barses wherein be explains the Mystery of the Trinity and the Incarnation by the Scripture The ninth was address'd to the Monks who desir'd to be undeceiv'd of the Errors which they held by showing them from Testimonies of the Fathers that the Actions of the two Natures are found in one Person only This Letter was follow'd with the Synodical Letter of a Council held by St. Ephrem against Syncleticus Bishop of Tarsus and against the Monk Stephen his Chaplain who was accus'd of the Eutychian Errors In it is explain'd this famous Maxim of St. Cyril That there is but one Nature of the Word Incarnate by saying that he us'd the Word Nature for that of Person There it is noted that Syncleticus did make Confession of the true Faith before the end of the Council There was after this a Letter to Magnus Bishop of Berraea wherein St. Ephrem justifies the Doctrine of the fourth General Council that Jesus Christ was composed of two Natures and proves that this Expression That there is but one Nature of the Word Incarnate was us'd against those who separated the two Natures but not against those who distinguish'd them tho they were united in one and the same Person There was another Letter to the Monk Eunoius about Corruption and Immortality wherein he proves that Immortality was a Perfection of our Nature before its Fall and that Corruption was an Imperfection After these Letters follow seven Sermons The first upon the Festival of the Prophets the second upon the Feast Christmas the third upon the Fasts of the Year the fourth about the Instruction of Catechumens the fifth about the Feast of St. Michael which was preach'd at Daphne the Suburbs of Antioch the sixth about Lent the seventh about a Sunday of Lent the eighth to the Novices in the four first days of their Baptism This is what is contain'd in the first Volume
allows to Bishops the Knowledge and Decision of the Causes which concern Religious Men and Women The 81st exempts him from Paternal Power who is made a Bishop The 83d ordains That if any one has any Civil Affair with a Clergy-man he shall first apply himself to his Bishop That if the Bishop cannot be Judge of it either because of the nature of the Business or for some other Difficulty then he may apply himself to the Judges That if it be a Criminal Cause then the Civil Judges shall take Cognizance of it and if they judge the Party accus'd to be guilty then he shall be Degraded by his Bishop before he be Condemned by the Secular Judge That if it be an Ecclesiastical Fault which deserves only an Ecclesiastical Penalty the Cognizance of it shall belong to the Bishop only The 86th Empowers the Bishops to oblige the Judges to do Justice to Parties and also to judge them when the Judges are suspected The 111th grants the Prescription of forty years to Churches The 117th contains the Reasons for which a Divorce may be granted A Man may divorce his Wife if she has conspir'd against the State if she is convicted of Adultery if she has attempted her Husband's Life if she has dwelt or wash'd with Strangers against her Husband's will if she be present at Publick Sports in spite of him The Woman may also be parted from her Husband if he be a Criminal to the State if he has attempted her Life if he would have prostituted her if he cohabits with other Women after his Wife has admonish'd him to forsake their Company He forbids the Dissolution of Marriages which are made with the Consent of both Parties unless it be for a reasonable Cause as to preserve Chastity Justinian repeals here what he had Ordain'd concerning Persons who were in the Army and Ordains That it shall never be lawful for a Woman to marry again unless she has sufficient Proof or Witnesses whereby it may appear that her Husband is dead The 120th contains many Orders concerning the Revenues of the Church The 123th is one of those which contains most Regulations of Ecclesiastical Discipline The first concerns the Ordination of Bishops Justinian ordains That the Clergy and Great Men should choose three Persons after they have taken an Oath upon the Holy Gospels that they shall not make this Election with respect to any Promise or Gift or to favour their Friend That these three Persons must be capable and have the necessary Qualifications that they must at least be 35 years old That they may choose of those who are in Publick Offices Curialis aut Officialis provided they have been 15 years in a Monastery and even one of the Laity on condition that he shall not be ordain'd Bishop till he has been three years in Inferior Orders He allows That if three Persons cannot be found who have the necessary qualifications that they choose one or two of them He adds That it these to whom the Election belongs do not choose in six Months time he that has a Right to Ordain the Bishop may do it by choosing one Person who has the necessary qualifications When any of the Persons chosen is accus'd his Cause ought to be heard and 't is forbidden to Ordain him until he has purg'd himself from the Accusation T is forbidden to offer or give any thing for the Election or Ordination But a Bishop is allow'd to give his Estate or part of it to his Church 'T is allo allow'd to Patriarchs or Metropolitans to take a certain Sum of those who are Ordain'd provided it exceed not that which it is the Custom to give and that is here expresly set down The following Titles contain divers Priviledges of Bishops as deliverance from Bondage exemption from Tutelage and publick Offices discharging them from the Obligation to appear before Judges to make Oath and exempting them from the Jurisdiction of Secular Judges After which Bishops are forbidden to abandon their Churches 'T is ordain'd That Archbishops and Patriarchs shall hold Synods once or twice in a year As to what concerns the Clergy the Novel forbids to Ordain them unless they have studied and understand their Religion and be of a good Life They must have no Concubine nor Natural Children but they must be Virgins or such as are married only once to one Woman Those who are ordain'd Priests ought to be 30 years old the Deacons and Sub-deacons 23 the Clerks 18 and the Deaconesses 40 years old If any Person be accus'd who is design'd for the Clergy before he is Ordain'd he must be clear'd from this Accusation If he who is to be Ordain'd has not a Wife then before he is Ordain'd he must engage to live in Celibacy but he who Ordains a Deacon or Sub-deacon may permit him to marry after his Ordination That if a Priest or Deacon or Sub-deacon happen to espouse a Woman after his Ordination he is to be turn'd out from the Clergy That a Reader may marry but if he contract a second Marriage or espouse a Widow he cannot ascend to a higher Dignity among the Clergy 'T is forbidden to Ordain those as Clerks who are engag'd in Offices for the Publick Curialis aut Officialis at least unless they have been 15 years Monks That if any marry after they have been among the Clergy they shall return to their first Condition 'T is forbidden also to give any thing for Ordinations or Benefices If a Slave be Ordain'd with the consent of his Master he becomes free if it be without his Master's knowledge he may redeem him in a year but however this be if he be of the Clergy he shall be restor'd to his Master When any Person founds a Chappel and endows it with Revenues necessary for the Maintenance of the Clergy it is allow'd to Him and his Heirs to name the Clergy that shall serve in it and those whom he names ought to be Ordain'd if they be worthy and capable if not the Bishop may place there such as he shall judge more worthy Liberty is given to all Clergy-men to dispose of their Estates Penalties are appointed against all those who bear false witness 'T is order'd that those who have any business against a Clergy-man a Monk a Deaconess a Religious Man or Woman do first apply themselves to the Bishop who shall judge them if the Parties acquiesce in his Judgment it shall be put in execution if not the matter shall be examin'd before a Secular Judge If he confirms the Bishop's Sentence there shall lye no further Appeal but if his Sentence be different there shall be room for an Appeal If it be a Criminal Cause and the Bishop has been inform'd of it he shall Degrade the guilty Person and after that the Secular Judge shall Condemn him If a Civil Judge has been inform'd of it he shall communicate the Informations to the Bishop If the Informations be found just and the
give an Account what Letters had been Intercepted that being reported to the Council it might be Examined by them Lewis the Emperour of Italy being dead Aug. 8. 875 Charles was Crowned Emperour at Rome on Christmass-Day of the same year by Pope John the VIII and at his return received the Crown of Lombardy at Pavia and the Confirmation of his Imperial Crown in an Assembly of the Nobles and Bishops of that Countrey held Feb. 876 at which the Pope was present in person After this to acknowledge the Obligations he had to the Pope he made a Constitution in which he decreed That all persons should pay an especial Veneration to the Holy Roman Church the Head of all other Churches that no Man should dare to attempt any thing in violation of her Power and Privileges but should enjoy her full Authority and exercise her Pastoral care over all the Church that they should particularly honour the Supreme Bishop and Universal Pope John that his Decrees should be received with all due regard and Obedience be given him in all things he hath right to He forbids all persons encroaching upon the Lands and Revenues of the Church of Rome He then commands that due respect be paid to the Sacerdotal Authority and Clergy that all should submit to the Imperial Authority and none should be so bold as to resist his Orders That Bishops should freely exercise their Function and punish Offenders that they be careful to Preach He enjoyns the Lay-men which dwell in the Cities to be present at the Assemblies of the Church on Festival-days and forbids them having private Chapels in their Houses He requires that Bishops should have Colleges for their Prebendaries near the Church that Prebendaries should live according to the Canonical Rules and be subject to their Bishop He forbids Clergy-men dwelling or conversing with Women as also Hunting He provides for the preservation of the Church-Revenues and payment of Tithes He commends Friendship between the Nobility and Clergy This was published and received at Pontigon in July 876. Lastly Charles the Bald held an Assembly of his Nobles at Quiercy June 877 in which he made several Constitutions by his own Authority and propounded others to his Nobles for their Advice The Constitutions now made about Discipline are these The First was about the Honour and Liberty of Churches so often repeated By the 2d he confirms the Privileges of the Abbey of S. Mary of Compeigne granted by the Pope received by the Bishops and Authorized by the King's Letters The 8th secures the Revenues of Vacant Arch-bishopricks and Bishopricks In the 12th he nominates several Bishops Abbots and Earls to dispose of his Alms which he should give by Will after his Death The rest contain several Directions for doing what is necessary for the good of his Kingdom and Children after his Decease Two days after he renewed again the Constitution about the Honour of Churches and Authority of Bishops he confirmed several Ecclesiastical and Civil Laws and promised to put them in Execution He provides for the preservation of the Estate of an Earl lately deceased till his Son was in possession of it and for the security of those Churches who have lost their Bishop Abbot or Superiour till they have a Successor These are the last Constitutions of Charles the Bald who died August the 28th following at Frankfort in the 70th year of his Age and 59th from his first Coronation He was a Lover of Justice Religion and of the Church and was the nearest of any Prince of his Race to Charles the Great in his good Qualities and Vertues The Council of Mentz held Anno 847. THis Council was held under Rabanus An. 847. It was made up of 12 Bishops some Suffragans The Council of Mentz several Abbots Monks Priests and others of the Clergy The Bishops and Clergy made one body and had the Gospels Canons and Fathers laid before them The Monks the Rule of St. Benedict that they might unanimously endeavour a Reformation of the Clergy and the Monastick Life First They particularly recommended it to the Bishops that they should take care that the people be well-instructed in the Fundamentals of Religion and for that end certain Homilies should be composed in the Vulgar Tongue Secondly That Baptism should be administred according to the Rites of the Church of Rome and at the times appointed by the Pope's Decretals They exhort all Men to Peace and order That not onely those Men should be Excommunicated who attempt any thing against the King or State but those who by surprize contrary to his good affection to Religion obtain of him the Lands and Revenues that belong to the Church They leave the whole disposal of the Church's Revenues in the power of the Bishops and forbid the Clergy to make use of them to augment their own Estates or dispose of them They secure their Tythes and other Rights to the Churches They revive the Canons concerning such Employments as are forbid Clergy-men and Monks They forbid Monks to have any possessions of their own to covet the enjoyment of worldly things which they have renounced and to take on them any Cure of Souls without the consent of the Bishop They forbid Abbesses to go out of their Monasteries without great necessity and without the leave of the Bishop They revive the Ancient Canons of the Council of Ancyra against Man-slayers They declare touching the Administration of the Sacraments to the Sick that the Priests ought to require of them a sincere Confession without imposing on them any rigorous Penance but onely to bring their sins to remembrance and comfort them under them by the Prayers of their Friends and by their Alms and so Absolve them upon condition nevertheless that if they recover their health they shall undergoe what Penance shall be imposed on them after which they may Administer the Unction and then the Communion as their Viaticum They are not afraid to grant such Malefactors as suffer for their Crimes if they confess their sins and are penitent the honour of a Christian Burial and that their Offerings be received and Masses said for them Lastly After they have forbidden all Contracts of Marriages either Incestuous or within the Degrees of Consanguinity prohibited by the Laws they command that Penances proportionable to Mens Crimes shall be imposed upon them that publick Sinners shall do publick Penance and they whose sins are secret shall undergoe private Penance This is almost all that is contained in the One and thirty Canons of this Council We shall not here speak of the Council of Mentz held the next year against Goteschalcus nor of those that concern his Affair nor Ebbo's because we have spoken of them at large in another place The Council of Pavia THe Emperour Lotharius and his Son Lewis held an Assembly at Pavia Anno 850. in which The Council of Pavia the Bishops made 25 Articles or Constitutions In the First they order that the
Church which they had usurped The Lords would not agree to the Restitution of them The Emperour thought to accommodate the matter between the Bishops and Nobles by causing a part to be restored only but the Nobles not contented with it declared at Length that they would not hear of any accommodation and complained grievously against Agobard as a Man whohâ—d raised a question which was fit to trouble both Church and State In this Book he defends himself by bringing Authorities out of the Old and New Testament to shew that it is a great Crime to meddle with the Goods Consecrated to the Temple Altars maintenance of Ministers and relief of the Poor To them he joyns the Authority of the Canons and chiefly those of the French Church He observes that some would not receive them because the Popes and Emperours Deputies were not present at the Councils that made them but 't is his Judgment that where-ever Orthodex Bishops are met in the name of Jesus Christ for the good of the Church the Decisions they make ought to be respected and followed which says he is established upon the Authority of the Popes who have ordained that every two Years two Councils shall be held in every Province and have commended great Councils Lastly Agobard not only condemns the â—ay-men who make use of the Revenues of the Church to maintain Doggs and Horses and great Retinues of Servants or to satisfie their Pleasures and Passions or spend them in Sports and superfluous Gallantry but he involves in the same Condemnation the Bishops Abbots and Clergy-men who put those Revenues to any other use tâ—…n is allowed by the Laws of the Church and Doctrine of the Fathers Agobard's Treatise against the Judgment of God i. e. the proofs made of Mens Innocency either by single Combat or by holding a red-hot-Iron or by standing immoveable by a Cross or by any other proof of like Nature contains several Maxims taken out of the Holy Scripture and chiefly out of the New Testament by which he proves that this usage is contrary to the Gospel Christian Charity Right Reason and the Principles of our Religion In his Discourse of the Faith Agobard runs through the chief Articles of our Belief as the Trinity Incarnation Redemption the Union of Jesus Christ with his Church the Necessity of the Grace of Jesus Christ to doe Good and Resist Temptations Patience in Adversity Obligation to Prayer c. and sets down on every point Texts of Scripture or Fathers 'T is rather a Sermon than a Doctrinal Treatise The Letter of Lamentation about the Division of Europe Dedicated to Lewis the Godly was Written by Agobard in 833. when that Emperour made War against his Children Agobard who wished for peace although he was of Lotharius's party sent this Letter to him He first of all represents to him that it is the duty of a faithful Subject and chiefly of a Prelate to admonish his Prince when he sees him ready to engage in a bad Cause where his Soul is endanger'd He calls God to witness that this was the onely cause of his Writing to Lewis the Godly Lastly After he hath lamented the Calamities and Disorders which the War had caused he tells him That he did some time since part his Countrey between his Children and made Lotharius a Partner in the Empire That it was done with all the Solemnity possible and with the consent of the Nobles and Bishops That to consult the Will of God about it he had commanded a Fast continual Prayers and Alms for three days That the thing being finished he sent the Act to Rome to have it confirmed by the Pope Lastly That he obliged them all to Swear that they approved the Election of Lotharius and Division of the Empire That at first all Letters and Edicts bore the Name of the Two Emperours in the front of them but afterward he put out the Name of Lotharius without any Reason and attempted to dispossess him of it He beseeches Lewis the Godly not to persist in that design He lets him know that the Oath he had taken obliged him to be of Lotharius's party and he endeavours to terrifie that Prince who was of a fearful spirit by threatning the Judgments of God and hatred of Men upon him About the same time he sent a Treatise to Lotharius Entituled A Comparison between the Ecclesiastical and Civil Government in Answer to an Order which the Emperour had given to the Nobles as well of the Clergy as Laity to be ready to fight for him the one with the Sword and the other with the Tongue Agobard tells him That he ought in War to put his trust in God's help more than his own Forces and that in all Disputes we should seek for Truth rather than Eloquence Since he was one of those that Lotharius had Commanded not daring to come himself he Admonished him by Writing of the Respect he ought to give the Holy See and to perswade him to it he Cites a Passage of Pope Pelagius against some Bishops who would not recite the Pope's Name at Mass And another passage out of St. Leo about the Primacy of Peter Agobard touched upon this string because Lotharius carried Pope Gregory the IVth along with him to Authorize his own party and make his Father 's odious He knew what the other Bishops of France said That if he came to Excommunicate them he should return Excommunicated himself Si Excommunicaturus verniret Excommunicatus abiret Agobardus That if Gregory came with an ill design to foment the War he deserved to be sent away with Disgrace but he maintains that if he came to procure the Peace and Quiet of the Empire they ought to obey him and not resist him Now he affirms that this is the end of his Voyage since he came to settle what was done by the will of Lewis and consent of all the Members of the Empire and confirmed by the Authority of the Holy See He adds That he had received Letters from him commanding that Prayers and Fasting be made for the Restoration of the Peace and Agreement of the Empire and in the Emperour's Family Lastly Agobard exhorts Lewis the Godly to be of that Mind This Writing is followed by a Letter or rather a Fragment of a Letter of Gregory the Fourth to the Bishops of France who would not receive him It serves for an Answer to a Letter which they Wrote to him In the beginning of it he finds fault that they had called him Father and Pope in the Superscription of their Letter He requires them to give him the Name of Father as if the Bishops were not his Brethren and had not that Title given upon many occasions yea in those very Letters he sent to them The Second thing that Gregory finds fault with in the French Bishops Letter is That they declare their Joy for his Arrival being perswaded that it would be profitable for their Prince and his
and the Conversion of the Bulgarians Which are not necessary to be any farther spoken of here because I have treated of them in other places of this Volume And this is also the reason that I have but little to say of his Letters which are near an hundred because the Course of our History about these Affairs hath obliged us to make an Extract of them upon other occasions The first sixteen are a Collection which he made himself of those which related to the Case of Ignatius and Photius The rest concern the Affairs of France the Peace between the Kings the Divorce of Thietberga of Lotharius the Excommunication of Waldrada the pardoning of Count Baldwin the affair of Ingletruda and Boson the Judgment pronounc'd against Rothadus Bishop of Soissons the affair of Ebbo the Privileges of some Abbeys the Promotion of Hilducius to the Bishoprick of Cambray the Dispute between the Bishop of Mans and the Monks of S. Kallais the Pall granted to Egilo Arch-Bishop of Sens the Bishopricks of Brittany which the Dukes of that Country had a mind to take away from the Metropolis of Tours and the Objections of the Greeks against the Church of Rome about which he consults the Bishops of France But there is one of these Letters in which he Answers Rodulphus Arch-Bishop of Bourges about several Points of Discipline which we cannot pass over in silence It contains seven Articles The first relates to the Ordaining of Priests and Deacons by Suffragans Some Bishops of France Deposed those they had Ordained and others Re-ordained them Because says he Suffragans were created in imitation of the Seventy Disciples who might perform Episcopal Functions But because the Canons forbid Suffragans to execute these Functions he orders the Canons for the future to be observ'd The second is upon the Complaint the Arch-Bishop of Narbonne made That the Arch-Bishop of Bourges forc'd his Clergy to Commence their Differences in his Courts and be tried by him and that he disposed of several Matters that belong'd to his Diocese without consulting him about it Nicholas admonished the Arch-Bishop of Bourges of this and told him that his Quality of Primate and Patriarch did not allow him that Privilege And that he ought to content himself to be Judge of Appeals of Causes which had been tried before by the Arch-Bishop of Narbonne He repeats anew upon this occasion the Canons that constitute the Rights of Patriarchs and Primates In the third he declares That in the Church of Rome they never anoint the Hands of those Priests and Deacons that are Ordain'd with the Chrism Adding that he never read that it was practised The fourth permits the Arch-Bishop of Bourges to moderate the Penance and relax something of the rigour of Canons made against such as having undertaken a state of Penance return again to the World The fifth is about those that are obliged to bring to Confirmation such Children as their Wives have had by a former Husband He says That if they have been guilty of the neglect of it thro' Ignorance they ought not to be parted from their Wives but only made to do Penance The sixth orders That such as have kill'd their Wives unless they have taken them in Adultery shall be made to undergo the Penance of Homicides The seventh intimates That the Bishops ought to repeat the Gloria in Excelsis on Holy-Thursday at Mass. But it is not permitted to any to wear the Pall on this day unless they have leave from the Holy See F. Dacherius in the Twelfth Tome of his Spicilegium has publish'd another Canonical Letter of Nicholas the first sent to Harduicus Arch-Bishop of Besançon in which the Pope prescribes the following Rules First he proves by the Canons That such as have married two Sisters may not marry any more for the future Secondly That those that have married their Relations and are upon that account divorc'd cannot marry as long as either of them lives but that it is not forbidden when one of them dies Thirdly he also believes That Marriage ought not to be absolutely forbidden to such as have committed the Crime of Sodomy provided they repent of their Sin and have left off that cursed habit Fourthly he shews That the Election of a Bishop by the Clergy and chief Men of the Diocese ought to stand good In the fifth Article he says That it is forbidden Suffragans not only to Ordain Priests and Deacons but also to Consecrate Churches and Confirm Children which only belongs to the Bishops as wemay observe not only by the Customs of the Church but also by the Acts of the Apostles The last shews That a Priest that is once fall'n into and convict of a foul Crime can no more be restored to his Function There is another Work of Nicholas the first concerning Church Discipline yet more considerable than the former 'T is his Answer to the Questions of the Bulgarians which contains * Viz. 106. above 100. Articles In the first he says That the Religion of Jesus Christ consists in Faith and Good Works The second is concerning the Spiritual Affinity between God-fathers and their God-children which hinders their ever marrying together The third is about the Ceremonies of Marriage He says that after the betrothing the Priest ought to cause the Persons to come into the Church with their Offerings and there give them his Benediction and the Voil which is not to be given in second Marriages That being gone out of the Church they should wear Crowns upon their heads These are the ordinary and solemn Ceremonies which as the Greeks say of theirs need not nevertheless always be observed That consent accordding to the Laws might suffice and that if that be wanting the rest signifies nothing The fourth sets down the Fasts which are observed in the Church of Rome 1. Lent 2. The Fast after Whitsunday 3. That before the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin 4. That before Christmas 5. The sixth day of every Week and 6. All the Vigils or Eves of great Feasts In the fifth he says That the Fast on Wednesday is not commanded but that of Friday is In the sixth That it is not forbid to bathe on those days In the seventh and eighth he approves of the Custom of Carrying and Kissing the Cross and of the Reliques in Lent In the ninth he extolls the Custom of Communicating every day in Lent provided the Communicant be engaged in no Sin nor has any Mortal Crime lying upon his Conscience The tenth is about the Celebration of Sunday The eleventh sets down the Feasts in which we must forbear working to assist at Divine Service In the twelfth he says it is to be wisht that Men would on those days forbear also trying Civil and Criminal Affairs In the thirteenth he excuses himself for not sending them Civil Laws In the fourteenth he aggravates the Cruelty which was us'd towards a Greek who had his ears and nose cut off for pretending to
took much pains in this matter and made two Martyrologies the one in Prose the other in Verse but both of them being Imperfect Florus a Deacon Florus a Deacon of Lyons of the Church of Lyons made several Additions to Bede's Martyrology in the Age we are speaking of and put it almost into that form it is at present in as is observed by Bollandus who hath published the true Martyrology of Bede with Florus's Additions in his 2. Tome of March Wandelbert a Deacon and Monk of Prom a Monastery in the Diocese of Treves composed Wandelbert a Monk of Prom. about the year 850 a Martyrology in Heroick Verse taken out of Bede and Florus Sigebert and Trithemius make mention of him It has been Printed under the name of Bede at the end of Bede's Ephemerides in the Basil Edition and afterwards by Molanus at the end of Usuardus's Martyrology But F. Dacherius hath Printed it more exact and correct in Tom. 3 Spicileg About the same time also Rabanus Composed a Martyrology Published by Canisius in the Rabanus of Mentz VI Tome of his Ecclesiastical Antiquities After him Ado Arch-bishop of Vienna Composed a Work of the same nature more exact than Ado Arch-bishop of Vienna any of the former He modeled it by an ancient Martyrology which he found at Aquileia brought thither from Rome which contain'd the Names Qualities and various Torments of the Saints that suffer'd Martyrdom He hath put at the beginning of his Martyrology a small Tract of the Festivals of the Apostles in which he writes the History of their Martyrdom The same Author hath made a short Chronology from the beginning of the World to the Birth of Charles the Simple the Son of Lewis the Stammerer which was in 879 of our Account He divides the duration of the World into six Ages The 1. is from the Creation of the World to the Flood The 2. From the Flood to the Birth of Abraham The 3. From Abraham to David The 4. From David to the Captivity in Babylon The 5. From the Captivity to the Birth of our Saviour And the 6. From the Nativity of Jesus Christ to the end of the World This Chronology is Printed with the Works of Gregory Bp. of Tours at Paris in 1512 and 1567 and at Basil 1568 and by it self at Paris in 1522. It is also inserted in the Biblioth Patr. Tome 16 p. 768. His Martyrology is Published by Lippomannus in the Lives of the Fathers and after by Bollandus in his Supplement to Surius and last of all by Rosweidus who first Printed the ancient Martyrology which Ado had put before his Works at Antwerp in 1613 and at Paris in 1645. There are also two Lives which bear the name of Ado the one is of Desiderius Arch-bishop of Vienna put out by Canisius in his Antiquities and the other is of S. Theudorius an Abbot of the same City published by F. Mabillon in Tome 1. of his Saec. Benedict Some think this Author Died in 814. which makes some say that he added some years to his Chronology but to me it seems not probable It is most agreeable to Truth to six his death a little after 879. Lastly Usuardus a Monk of S. Germans de Prez a A Monk of S. Germans Some make him the Abbot of Fulda and others the Abbot of S. Saviours but it is evident that he was a Monk of S. Germans by an ancient Manuscript of that Abbey Some call him Isuard hath composed a Martyrology more considerable Usuardus a Monk of S. Germans de Prez than any of the former under the Reign of the Emperor b Charles the Bald His Book was Dedicated to Charles some have thought it was to Charles the Great but Aimonius a Monk of S. Germans in his Translation of the Martyrs Gregory Aurelius c. observes that Usuard lived in 858 and we find in that Martyrology the Names of Eulogius and other Martyrs that suffer'd in Spain in 857. In an ancient Manuscript of this Martyrology which may be thought the Original we find the Death of Queen Hermentruda set down in the first place and Charles in the second which shews that 't was Written after the year 869 in which the Queen died and before 875 in which the death of Charles the Bald happened Charles the Bald to whom he Dedicated it in 870. This Work being much larger and more perfect than any that were written before upon the same Subject was much approved and well accepted in all Churches which began to make use of it in their Offices Some think also that the Church of Rome took it into their Services and used it before they had one of their own This Martyrology hath been Printed at Antwerp in 1538t and at Lovain in 1568 with Molanus's Notes and Additions and since in several other places as Antwerp 1583 with Hissel's Censure but all that was displeasing to the Papists is left out of this Edition as Usher tells us in his Biblioth Theol. M S. To thse Author's might have been added Gildas who made a Kalendar of the Saints of which Gildas Bishop Usher hath Printed the Preface in Epist. Heb. Syll. p. 55 and some other Authors of the IXth Age which are purposely omitted as well as some Historical matters of little or no Consequence which we could not think necessary to put into this Work for it is not our design to make compleat Annals year by year but only to explain the most important Matters treated of in this Age which is the principal and most profitable part of Ecclesiastical History for in that our particular Enquiry ought not to be after a meer Narration of Matters of Fact which is of little use but what concerns the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church and upon Questions and Works of that nature it is that we have chiefly insisted That our Reader may have a competent knowledge of them we shall account it a very great happiness if this Work may be serviceable in any measure to clear the difficult Questions and confirm the important Doctrines of the Christian Religion But how severe so ever others Censures may be upon it it will be always some comfort to us that we have laboured in and aimed at so good a Design and we hope that though our pains may not have the wish'd for Effect among Men yet it shall be of some real advantage to us with him who knows and rewards the good Intentions as well as the good Actions of Men according to the words of S. Bernard Ep. 360 Laboravimus quantum potuimus si quo minus impetravimus quod optavimus manet tamen fructus Laboris nostri apud Deum apud quem nullum bonum irremuneratum est in fine Chronological Tables And other Necessary INDEXES TABLES A. C Popes Eastern Emperors Western Emperors Kings of France Italy Lor rain c. Ecclesiastical Affairs Councils Ecclesiastical Writers 801 Leo III. in the
back with him the Goods he had sacrilegiously carried away from the Monastry Richerius Arch-Bishop of Sens dying in the beginning of the Year 1096 the Clergy elected Daimbert and sent to Ivo to Ordain him both Priest and Bishop who answers them in the LVIIIth Letter That he could not do it but within the Times appointed for Ordinations and that before his Election could be confirm'd he must confer with the rest of his Brethren the Bishops about an Obstacle that offer'd itself This Obstacle was the Opposition of Hugh Arch-Bishop of Lions who gave out That no Bishops could be Ordain'd in France without his Permission and that he would in particular do all he could to hinder Daimbert's succeeding to the Arch-Bishoprick of Sens 'till he should acknowledge the Primacy of Lyons Ivo therefore in the LIXth Letter demands of Hugh If he may Ordain him And prays his Answer with all speed Hugh absolutely refusing to give him Leave to do it Ivo lets him know by the LXth Letter That he will obey his Pleasure therein and had communicated it to the Bishops of his Province but he intreats and advises him to be more moderate and reserv'd for the future in the Exercise of his Authority and not to insist so rigorously in exacting their Obedience to all the Commands of the Holy See least by imposing on them Burdens too heavy for them to bear he force them to disown her Power through an impossibility of performing what she lays upon them or out of some necessity and expediency of acting contrary to it That tho' they are all very well inclin'd to pay due Observance to the Orders or Prohibitions of the Holy See in Matters relating to Faith and Morality either concerning the Defence of Religion the Punishment of wicked Men the preventing Dangers and Evils and the like and tho' they are ready to suffer any thing in Obedience to what she shall Command and Appoint to any such Good Ends and Purposes yet as to indifferent Matters the observing or not observing of which has no Influence upon our Salvation And as to the Endeavours of the Court of Rome to alter ancient Customs established by the Holy Fathers he intreats him to consider with himself Whether they ought not rather to adhere to what they have established than to receive her new Constitutions The ancient Canons he tells him do constantly order that Metropolitans be Consecrated by the Bishops of the Province and therefore he wonders that Hugh should go about to introduce another Custom and pretend to oblige the New-elected Arch-Bishop of Sens to come to him before his Consecration and to promise Submission and Obedience to him which is contrary to what was ever practised in the Province of France or in any other Country and that since Daimbert had not been accused of any Crimes and had been elected duly and without Simony he had no Authority to Cite him before him And whereas Hugh complains in his Letter that Daimbert had receiv'd Investiture from the King's Hands Ivo tells him he knew of no such Matter and that tho' it were so he could not see how that Ceremony should concern Faith and Religion since upon a Canonical Election their Kings had always assum'd a Right of Conferring Bishopricks and the Popes themselves had written to them to give Investiture to such as had been duly Elected and sometimes had sent Orders to defer the Consecrations of Bishops who had not obtain'd the King's Consent He urges more-over That Pope Urban oppos'd only the real Investitures and did not exclude their Kings from Electing or Confirming Elections And tho' the Eighth General Council prohibited their being present at Elections yet it allow'd them to admit the Person Elected to the Possession of his Bishoprick that it matters not whether that Ceremony be administred by the Hand or some other Sign whether by pronouncing any Form or giving the Pastoral Staff since Kings pretended not to convey any thing Spiritual but only to shew their Approbation of the People's Choice of a Pastor and to give him Possession of such Lands and other Ecclesiastical Profits and Advantages as the Churches were entituled to from the Liberality of Princes that the putting a stop to the Practice of such Investitures had occasion'd many Evils in the Church which could not be prevented or remedied but by permitting again the Exercise of them Not that he speaks this out of any Disrespect to the Authority of the Holy See but to shew how much he wisheth that the Ministers of the Church of Rome would apply themselves to the Correcting the greatest Evils and Distempers and not lay out themselves so much upon such small and insignificant Matters And therefore Ivo demands again with much Earnestness That he and his Brethren may be permitted to Consecrate the Arch-Bishop of Sens which if Hugh will grant them he promises to prevail on him to own the Primacy of Lions but if he deny this their Request tho' they did not at present think of doing it without his Leave yet if a Schism should hereupon break out in the Church the Blame would not lie at their Doors Ivo ends this large Epistle by letting Hugh understand That he had Reason to demand Satisfaction of him for the Wrong done to himself and his Church by those of Puiset who lay under an Excommunication which Hugh had taken off without his knowledge whereby they had been encourag'd to farther Sacrilegious Attempts presuming to get off so again for the future But this was not the only Instance of the strange Carriage of Hugh Arch-Bishop of Lions For he pretended also to oblige the New-elected Bishop of Nevers to wait upon him for his Consecration at Autun And herein Ivo oppos'd him again and tells him in the LXIst Letter That the Privilege he assum'd was a Violation both of the Laws and Customs of the Church by which Bishops were to be Consecrated by their Metropolitan or when that could not be by the Bishops of the same Province Ivo having accommodated Matters with Adelecia Countess of Puiset writes the LXIId Letter to Sanction Bishop of Orleans letting him know That the Agreement made between them did not at all meddle with the Difference that Bishop had with the Clergy and Monks of Puiset that he may still execute the Sentence of the Canon upon them for Celebrating Divine Service while they lay under an Interdict from him tho' he would advise him not to meddle with them but by the Arch-Bishop of Lions's Consent without which he would not get Justice done upon them He tells him also He need not wonder at his having receiv'd Gervase Count of Chîteauneuf in Thimerais into the Communion of the Church being oblig'd so to do out of Respect to the King by the Canon which enjoyns That if the King admit any Excommunicated Person to cat at his Table the Bishops are to restore him to Ecclesiastical Communion In the LXIIId Letter he proves That none but such as
observe the Week of Tyrophagia 20. That they appear before the Altar with their ordinary Habits and that they keep their Hats on during the Celebration of Divine Service 21. That they do not administer the Communion on Holy Thursday 22. That they imitate the Jews in eating a Paschal Lamb on Easter-day with the Blood of which they sprinkle their Door-Posts and keep the rest to serve for Benedictions causing a Victim painted red to be brought to the Church-door where they sacrifice it with a great deal of Ceremony About that time the Armenians sent Legates to Rome to Pope Eugenius III. to enter into a Union with the Latin Church whose Custom they follow'd in the use of unleaven'd Bread and in some other Matters This Embassy is referr'd to by Otho of Frisinghen MICHAEL GLYCAS a Sicilian compos'd in the beginning of this Century his Annals divided into Four Parts which is not only an Historical Work but also has some relation to Divinity Michael Glycas a Sicilian and natural Philosophy In the First Part he treats of the Creation of the World The Second contains an History from the Creation of the World to the Nativity of Jesus Christ The Third continues the History from our Saviour to Constantine the Great And in the Fourth it is brought down to the Death of Alexis Commenus These Annals were printed in Latin of Lewenclavius's Version at Basil A. D. 1572. But they were published in Greek and Latin by Father Labbâ— and printed at Paris in 1660. Jacobus Pontanus likewise set forth two Discourses of the same Author with the Dioptron of Philip the Solitary printed at Ingolstadt in 1604. Leo Allatius produces several Fragments of divers Letters written by Michael Glycas and cites a Treatise which he compos'd about the Procession of the Holy Ghost dedicated to Maximus Semenieta another Piece concerning the Question Whether Jesus Christ made use of unleaven'd Bread at his last Supper And a Tract of the State of Souls separated from the Body Lastly Possevainus observes that there are certain Treatises of this Author on the Holy Scripture in the Emperor's Library at Vienna At the same time NICETAS a Philosopher or Monk of Constantinople wrote an Apologetical Nicetas of Constantinople Treatise for the Council of Chalcedon against a certain Prince of Armenia which was published by Allatius in the First Tome of his Graecia Orthodoxa CONSTANTIN MANASSES flourished in Greece A. D. 1150. and wrote an Epitome of Constantin Manasses History dedicated to Irene the Sister of the Emperor Manuel Comnenus from the Creation of the World to the Reign of Alexis Commenus that is to say to the Year 1081. The Latin Version of this Chronicle by Lewenclavius was printed at Basil in 1573. The Greek Text was published separately by Meursius at Amsterdam in 1616. but it was printed in Greek and Latin with the Notes of Lewenclavius Meursius Allatius and Fabrottus in Folio at Paris A. D. 1655. CONSTANTINUS HARMENOPULUS a Judg of Thessalinaca flourished A. D. 1150. at the Constantinus Harmenopulus time when the Heresy of the Bogomiles began to appear He was an able Lawyer and compil'd a Dictionary of the Civil Law which was printed in Greek at Paris in 1540. in Latin at Lyons in 1556. and in Greek and Latin with the Notes of Joan. Mercerus and Dionysius Gothofredus at Geneva in 1587. as also a Collection of Canons divided into Six Titles or Articles and published in Greek and Latin by Lewenclavius in the First Tome of his Jus Graeco-Romanum or Collection of Greek and Roman Laws To these Works may be added his Treatise of the Sects of Hereticks with a Confession of Faith which is inserted in the first Tome of Fronto Ducaeus's Supplement to the Bibliotheca Patrum JOHN a Monk of the Island of Oxia and Patriarch of the Greek Church of Antioch A. D. 1150. John Patriarch of Antioch is the Author of a small Treatise against the Custom that was then introduced of conferring Monasteries on Noble men or Laicks This Tract is mention'd by Balsamon and Blasteres and was published by Cotelerius in the First Tome of his Monuments of the Greek Church Perhaps it may not be improper here to shew after what manner he treats of the Original and Progress of the Monastick Life Our Lord Jesus Christ says he having descended from Heaven to Earth for the Salvation of Mankind having also actually redeemed us by his Death and established his Religion throughout the whole World the Devil us'd his utmost Efforts to cause Men to return to their former exorbitant Courses To which purpose he at first excited the Emperors and Potentates to raise cruel Persecutions against the Christians Afterwards when the Christian Religion was embraced by Kings and Princes he caus'd Heresies to succeed Superstitions but when these means in like manner prov'd ineffectual he made use of another Method which was to induce the Christians to defer the Administration of Baptism But our Ancestors the Successors of the Apostles perceiving the dammage such Procrastinations brought to the Catholick Church and that many Persons died without Baptism ordain'd that all Infants should be Baptiz'd and Educated in the Christian Religion by their Parents or by their God-fathers and God-mothers The Devil being thus defeated had recourse to another Artifice which was to corrupt the Manners of baptized Persons well knowing that Faith without good Works is unprofitable to Salvation Whereupon the Church enjoyn'd Pennance as an Antidote against these Disorders but the Devil often caus'd the Penitents to fall again into the same vicious Courses before the time of their Pennance was expir'd This difficulty of living Vertuously and Soberly in the World caus'd many Persons to take a Resolution to retire to Solitary Places there to lead an Ascetick Life insomuch that their Reputation drew many People thither who imitated their manner of Living and their Number being thus encreased they form'd Regular Societies and erected Monasteries This Institution began in Aegypt and from thence was spread abroad throughout the whole World as St. Athanasius and Theodorus Studita have observ'd The Bishops to render the Monastick Life more recommendable thought fit to confer on the Monks a kind of Consecration or Benediction which is as it were a renewing of the Baptismal Vows There were among the Monks a great number of Saints who wrote excellent Books relating to the Monastick Discipline and by that means brought it to perfection In the mean while the Devil not being able to endure their Proceedings at first attacked them by Leo the Image-breaker who endeavour'd to extirpate their Order but this Emperor was destroy'd and after his Reign the Monks obtain'd so great Reputation that they were permitted to receive Confessions to impose Pennances and to give Absolution How many Attempts has the Devil made to ruin an Order so well established He has caus'd Monasteries and Hospitals to be made over by Princes and Patriarchs to Lay-men Indeed at
in 1482. See the Judgment that Gerson gives of this Author and his Works in his Treatise about the Books which Monks ought to read In my opinion says he one of the best Authors that a Man can read is Eustachius for so one may translate his name of Bonaventure he is the Man of all the Catholick Doctors not to derogate from the rest that seems to me the most proper and safe for the enlightning of the Judgment and inflaming the Heart To be convinced of this one need not read any more than two of his Works I mean his Breviloquy and his Itinerary which are written with so much art and brevity that nothing can be beyond them and though they are more difficult and scarce than his other Works yet all Christians ought to search and examine them Mystical Theology being proper for the Faithful In another place in his Book of the examination of Doctrines he says That if any one should ask him which of the Doctors he thought most proper for the instruction of the Faithful his Answer should be without detracting from the rest St. Bonaventure because he is solid safe pious just and devout and keeps as far as he can from Niceties not meddling with Logical or Physical Questions which are alien to the matter in hand disguised under Theological Expressions as too many do and because by clearing the Understanding he sets off Religion and Piety in their true Colours which is the reason adds he that the indevout Schoolmen which the more is the Pity make the greater number cast him by though there is nothing more noble more divine more conducive to Salvation and fitter for Divines than the Doctrine of this Author Trithemius makes almost the same Judgment of him in these words St. Bonaventure wrote many very deep and devout Works all his Expressions are full of heat and inflame the Hearts of those that read him as well as inlighten their Minds by a holy Light for his Works surpass all those of the Doctors of his time in their usefulness the Spirit of the Love of God and of Christian Devotion shining through them He is deep without Prolixity subtile without Nicety eloquent without Vanity his words are full of spirit yet not bombastick which is the reason that such as are touched with the Love of God read him with the more safety understand him with the greater ease and remember him with the greater profit Many Authors teach Doctrine and others preach Devotion but there are very few to be met with who have joined these two things together in their Writings But in St. Bonaventure they are united for his Devotion instructs in Doctrine and his Doctrine inspires with Devotion So that whoever desires both Knowledg and Devotion cannot do better than apply himself to the reading of his Works Much of the same opinion is St. Antoninus who remarks That such as desire Divine Knowledg more than Aristotelical Vanity find his Works easy to be understood Indeed the greatest part of St. Bonaventure's Works are mystical and spiritual they make eight Volumes printed at Rome in 1588. The first contains Commentaries upon some Books of the Old Testament viz. A sort of Preface intituled Principles of the Holy Scripture Thirty three Sermons upon the Six days Work or the Creation of the World Explications or Postilles upon the Psalms upon Ecclesiastes upon the Book of Wisdom and upon the Lamentations of Jeremy The second Volume contains Commentaries upon the Gospels of St. Mathew St. Luke and St. John with Conferences upon the last of them The third is Sermons of time and of the Saints The fourth and fifth are Commentaries upon the four Books of the Master of the Sentences The sixth Tome contains the first and second parts of his Opuscula the Titles of which are Of the reducing of Arts to Divinity The Breviloquy The Centiloquy The Quiver An Explanation of the Terms of Theology An Abridgment of the Books of the Sentences Four Books of Sentences in Verse Of the four Cardinal Virtues Of the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit Of the three Ternaries of Sins Of the Resurrection from Sin to Grace The Diet of Salvation Of the Hierarchy of the Church Those of the second Part are the Soliloquâ— Meditations upon the Life of Jesus Christ Of the seven Degrees of Contemplation Of the five Feasts of the Child Jesus The Office of the Passion The Elogy of the Cross The Wood of Life The Mirror of the Praises of the Virgin The Crown of the Virgin The Compassion of the Virgin The Nightingale of the Passion of our Lord fitted to the seven hours On the seven Words of our Saviour on the Cross The Great Psalter of the Virgin The Little Psalter on the Salutation of the Angel and the Salve Regina The seventh Tome contains the third Part of his Moral Opuscula which are Of the ordering of a Christian Life Of the Government of the Soul The Mirror of the Soul Of the ten Commandments Of the degrees of Virtues The Itinerary of the Spirit of God Of the seven Paths of Eternity The Spur of Divine Love The Fire of Love The Art of loving The Book of Spiritual Exercises The Fasâ—iculary The five and twenty Memorials The Confessional Of the manner of confessing Of Purity of Conscience Of the Priests Preparation for the Mass An Explication of the Mass Of the six Wings of the Cherubims and the six Wings of the Seraphims The eighth Volume contains the Opuscula which concern the Religious the Catalogue of which I shall set down A Treatise of the threefold Estate of Religiouses The Mirror of Discipline for Novices which some call in question The twenty steps of Novices Of Advancement in Religion Of the Contempt of the World Of the Reformation of the Spirit The little Alphabet of a good Monk which is Thomas a Kempis's Of the Perfection of a Religious Life An Explanation of the Rule of the Minor Friars Questions about this Rule Why the Minor Friars preach Of the Poverty of Jesus Christ That Jesus Christ and his Apostles went barefoot An Apology for Evangelical Poverty A Treatise against the Reviler of the Order of St. Francis An Apologetick against the Adversaries of the Order of Minor Friars A Treatise intituled De non frequentandis quaestionibus Conferences to the Brothers of Tholouse which are not St. Bonaventures A Treatise of the Reform of the Minor Friars address'd to the Provincials of the Order In this Tome there is an Appendix containing An Abridgment of Theology Treatises upon the Essence Invisibility and Immensity of God and a Work of Mystical Divinity The Life of St. Francis related by Surius in October 4. is likewise ascribed to St. Bonaventure St. THOMAS of Aquino Sirnamed the Angelical Doctor of the House of the Earls of Thomas Aquinas Aquino descended from the Kings of Sicily and Arragon was born in 1224 in the Castle of Aquino which is in the Country of Lavoro in Italy
on the Cross and the Two Sermons on Fasting Publish'd by Gretser under the Name of Germanus Patriarch of Constantinople are his since it appears that the Person who compos'd them wrote at that time when the Greek Emperors were at War with the Latins Lastly there is no Question to be made but that the Two Letters directed to the Greeks of the Isle of Cyprus Publish'd by Cotelerius in the Second Tome of his Monumenta Ecclesiae Graecae belong to Germanus II. since he warmly exhorts the Greeks of his Communion not to communicate with those who observ'd the Rites and Usages of the Latins or who were united to them and opposes the Addition of the Phrase Filioque made to the Creed and the other Customs of the Latins He Likewise wrote against the Latins a Treatise of the Procession of the Holy Ghost a Synodal Epistle in answer to the Minor Friars and the other Latin Missionaries several Opuscula upon Unleaven'd Bread upon Purgatory and upon the Three ways of Administring the Sacrament of Baptism which are found in Manuscript and made mention of by Allatius This Patriarch is likewise Author of Three Constitutions concerning the Patriarchal Monasteries which are to be met with in the Third Tome of the Jus Graeco-Romanum of Lewenclavius NICEPHORUS BLEMMIDAS Priest and Monk of Mount Athos where he led a very Holy Life Nicephorus Blemmidas Monk of Mount Athes was very favourable to the Latins and more inclinable to the Peace than any other Greek of this Century 'T is in this Temper of Mind that he compos'd Two Treatises of the Procession of the Holy Ghost The one is directed to James Patriarch of Bulgaria and the other to the Emperor Theodore Lascaris He therein very strongly confronts the Opinion of several Greeks who maintain'd that we could not say that the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father and the Son and proves that this Expression was very Orthodox and Conformable to the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures and of the Holy Fathers of the Greek Church These Two Tracts are Printed in Greek and Latin at the end of the First Tome of Raynaldus and in the Graecia Orthodoxa of Allatius who has likewise given us in the Second Book of his Tract concerning the Concord of the Greek and Latin Churches a Letter which Nicephorus wrote after he had with disgrace turn'd out of the Church belonging to his Monastery Marchesina the Mistress of the Emperor John Ducas as unworthy to enter that Holy Place There is likewise Printed in Greek at Augsburgh in the Year 1605 under the Name of this Author an Abridgment of Logick and Natural Philosophy There are also several other Theological Pieces of the same Author in the Vatican Library and in the Library of Bavaria such as the Panegyrick of Saint John the Evangelist a Discourse concerning the Soul another concerning the Body several Commentaries on the Psalms and Opuscula on Faith Vertue and Religion His Treatise on the Procession of the Holy Ghost shews him to be a Man of a just Reason well vers'd in the Scriptures and the Fathers and full of good Principles of Divinity ARSENIUS AUTORIANUS Patriarch of Constantinople Monk of Mount Athos was Advanc'd in the Year 1257. as we have already observ'd to be of Patriarch of Constantinople and Arsenius Autorianus Patriarch of Constantinople he had not only the Title of it as his Predecessors had but likewise the happiness of re-entering that Church after the Greeks had re-taken Constantinople from the Latins Having faln into disgrace with Michael Palaeologus he was turn'd out and depos'd in the Year 1268. and sent into Exile where he liv'd several Years He has Compos'd an Abridgment of the Canons extracted from the Fathers and Councils and divided into One Hundred forty one Heads which is to be met with in the second Tome of the Bibliotheca Juris Canonici by Justel Cotelerius has since Publish'd in the second Tome of his Monumenta Ecclesiae Graecae the Last Will and Testament of this Patriarch wherein he gives an Account of the Contests he had with the Emperor Michael Paloeologus and renews the Excomunication which he had Issu'd out against him THEODORE LASCARIS Junior Sirnam'd DUCAS the Greek Emperor Grandson to that Theodore Lascaris who took upon him the Quality of Emperor at Nice after the taking of Constantinople Theodore Lascaris Sirnam'd Ducas the Greek Emperor by the Latins and Son of John Ducas who was likewise Emperor of the Greeks at Nice by Virtue of his Wife Irene Daughter to Theodore the Elder Succeeded his Father about the Year 1255. But not being able to undergo the Fatigue of the Empire he retir'd soon after into a Monastery where he dy'd in the Year 1259. in the 36th Year of his Age. This Prince who minded his Studies more than the Affairs of the State Compos'd several Pieces of Theology among others a Treatise concerning the Procession of the Holy Ghost against the Latins Directed to the Bishop of Corona the Preface of which Dr. Cave makes mention of as taken out of a Manuscript of this Treatise which is in England Allatius makes mention of several Theological discourses belonging to this Prince upon the Trinity and the Incarnation Freherus speaks of a Book which he made concerning Natural Communication and these are to be met with in the French King's Library several Manuscript-Tracts of this Author's such as a Treatise of the Trinity a Discourse of Vertue a Treatise of Fasting c. The Medals of this Emperor represent him to us holding a Cross in his Right Hand and a Book in his Left an Emblem of his Learning and Piety GEORGE PACHYMERES flourish'd about the Year 1280. He was Born at Nice in the Year George Pachymeres 1242. where he had his Education He afterwards entred into Orders had the greatest share with the Patriarch of Constantinople in all Affairs both Ecclesiastical and Civil and gain'd so great a Repute that he was Chosen in the Year 1267. to Try Arsenius Patriarch of Constantinople who was Accus'd of High Treason In the Year 1273. he Compos'd a Book concerning the Union of the Greek and Latin Churches He liv'd several Years in the ensuing Century when he dy'd is uncertain His History is divided into Thirteen Books which contain what occur'd under the Emperors Michael and Andronicus Palaeologus from the Year 1258 to the Year 1308. There have been Publish'd several Extracts of it by Wolfius at the End of the History of Nicephorus Gregoras Printed at Basil in the Year 1562. Petavius Publish'd a part of the rest with the Abridgment of the Patriarch Nicephorus in the Year 1616. But at last Father Poussin has Publish'd this History compleat in Greek and Latin in two Volumes in Folio Printed at Rome in 1666 and 1669. Pachymeres is likewise the Author of a Commentary on the Works of Saint Dionysius Printed several times with the Works of the Author and of a little Piece concerning the
different times and which he afterwards collected together and address'd to his Brethren under the Name of a Pilgrim Friar These Discourses contain wholsome Instructions and Advices to the young Regulars founded upon Passages of Scripture and supported by some Examples which are related at the end Secondly Nine Discourses to his Brethren containing most sublime Thoughts upon the principal Vertues of Regulars viz. upon Self-denial Compunction Chastity Silence and Solitude Thirdly Thirty six Discourses upon the Incarnation the Birth the Life the Death the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus Christ and also upon the Mission of the Holy Ghost and upon the Primitive Church which are almost wholly compos'd of Passages of the Holy Scripture The Second Tome contains Spiritual Treatises at the head of which are the four Books of the Imitation of Jesus Christ The Title of the first is Useful Advices for the Spiritual Life Of the second Advices or Documents of the Interiour Life Of the third Of inward Consolation Of the fourth Of the August Sacrament of the Eucharist Or A devout Exhortation to the Holy Communion After this Treatise of Thomas a Kempis which is contested there follow many others which without scruple are attributed to him The first is the Soliloquy of the Soul wherein he hath collected many Meditations drawn out of the Holy Scripture containing divers Thoughts and Motions of Piety of the Thankfulness and Affection of the Soul towards God The second is a Work entitled The little Garden of Roses containing divers Advices for the Spiritual Life which are also in the third entitled The Valley of Lillies In the fourth which bears this Title Of the three Tabernacles he treats of Poverty of Humility and Patience The fifth is of the Discipline of those who are in the Cloister There he treats of the Duties Employments Exercises of those who are in the Cloister and of the means they ought to use for performing them well The fifth is about a faithful Steward or the Ministery of Martha where he speaks of the external Employments of the Regulars The seventh is entitled The Hospital of the Poor Or of the Contempt of the Things of this World It contains divers Spiritual Instructions particularly about Prayer Temptations and Humility The eighth is a Dialogue about Novices wherein he brings in a Novice speaking to an ancient Regular who instructs him in the chief Duties of Religion The Spiritual Exercises are the ninth Work whereof the first part is about interiour Duties and the second of external Employments The tenth is entitled The Doctrinal or the Manual of young People There he recommends the reading of the Holy Scripture the study of good Books Singing frequenting Divine Service Humility Diligence Self-denial and Affection to Heavenly Things The Book of Compunction of Heart is a most fervent Prayer to God of one who acknowledges himself a Sinner and lays open his own Misery The twelfth Book after that about the Imitation discovers the Usefulness of Solitude and Silence These are the Treatises contain'd in the first Part of the Second Tome the second contains many other shorter Tracts the Titles whereof are these Of the Acknowledgment of our own Frailty a short Epitaph or a Manual of the Monks the Manual of Little Ones of the Elevation of the Mind to God to seek after the Sovereign Good the little Alphabet of a Monk for the School of Jesus Christ the Consolation of the Poor and Sick seven Prayers little pieces of the Mortification of our selves of Humility of a good and peaceable Life the Life of a good Monk in Rhime and some Hymns The third Tome contains in the first part the Life of Gerardle Grand of Florentius and nine of his Disciples who are John Grond John Brinkerincke Robert Berner Henry Brune Gerard of Zutphen Aemilius of Buren James of Viana John Ketel Arnold of Schoonhove In the second it contains the Life of Lidwine or Lidewige a Virgin in two parts in the third six Letters of Piety many Prayers and some Hymns These are the Works which go under the Name of Thomas a Kempis and which have been printed at Nuremberg in 1494. At Paris of the Impression of Badius in 1520 1521 and 1523. And of the Impression of Roginius in 1549. At Venice in 1535 1568 and 1576. At Antwerp in 1574. and by Sammalius in 1660. and 1607. At Bilingen in 1576. And at Colen in 1660. The Book of the Imitation of Jesus Christ which is among these Works under the Name of Thomas a Kempis is found also printed under the Name of Gerson and has since been ascrib'd to the Abbot Gerson upon the Credit of some Manuscripts who is pretended to be of the Order of St. Benedict which has occasion'd a very hot Dispute between the Canons Regular and the Benedictines of which we shall give the History in a particular Dissertation at the end of this Volume where we shall examine the Authorities and Reasons which are alledg'd on both sides John Busch a Canon Regular of Windesem at Zwoll in Overyssel entred into this Convent John Busch a Canon Regular about the beginning of this Century where he continued till the Year 1464. that he finish'd his Chronicle of Windesem which is divided into two Books whereof one contains the Establishment of the Convent of Gerard le Grand and of the Monasteries that depend upon it and the other contains the History and Life of the Illustrious Men who have flourish'd in the Monastery of Windesem since its Establishment This Work was publish'd by Rosweyde and printed at Antwerp in 1621. with a Letter which Trithemius attributes to him about Spiritual Exercises upon the Life and Passion of Jesus Christ which is the Work of John Huesden Prior of Windesem full of Spiritual Maxims and Thoughts John Busch died about the Year 1470. William Houpeland a Native of Bullen in Picardy Doctor of Paris Curate of St. Severine and afterwards Canon of Notre-Dame and Arch-deacon of Brye died when he was Dean of the William Houpeland a Doctor of Paris Faculty of Theology of Paris August the 11th in the Year 1492. He wrote a Book of the Immortality of the Soul and of its State after death fill'd with many Passages of the Holy Fathers Philosophers Poets and Doctors printed at Paris in 1499. Denys Rickel so call'd from the Name of the Place where he was born which is situated in the Diocese of Liege is known by the Name of DENYS THE CARTHUSIAN because Denys Rickel a Carthusian he entred in the 21st Year of his Age into the Order of the Carthusians and there spent the remainder of his Days until the Year 1471. in which he died March the 12th aged 69 Years There is no Author whom he may not Rival for the great Number of Works he compos'd whereof he himself made a Catalogue In which there are Commentaries upon all the Books of the Old and New Testament printed at Colen in 1538. A Work entitled