rational discourse of the true use of Councils and their Authoritative determinations in the Christian Church It is not say they to make new Doctrines of Faith but to protect the old Truths against the wantonness of Innovators so that if all men would be content with the Ancient Faith it would be needless for the Church to make any new Declarations but when men leave the old Track of Religion to loose themselves in their own new contrived Labyrinths and corrupt the plain and simple Truth with over nice and curious Inventions it is then necessary for the Church to stop their Vanity by its Authoritative Declaration of the Truth it self Not as if there were something defective in the Faith and the Church were always adding to it but to make such wholesome Provisions as it judges most convenient against all Innovated Doctrines And this they exemplifie by â—ll the Decrees of the several Councils against the Prophane Novelties of Arius Pâ—â—tinus Macedonius and Nestorius and shew that they were only Fences to guard and defend the simplicity of the Ancient Faith against the petulâ—nt Assaulâ—s of these several Hereticks and that they declare to be the ground of their present determination against Eutyches that it was only a Declaration of the old Truth against a new Heresie And much more to this purpose and it is the true State of the Authority of Councils to make Decrees to stop the vanities and singularities of Innovators and when they are made they become obligatory by their own Authority and nothing can hinder or take off their Obligation but an apparent contrariety to the Divine Law So that it neither concerns nor becomes the Subject to make a strict and Philosophical search after the truth of the Decree it is enough to him that it is not apparently false In all other Cases the Authority of the Church is sufficient to justifie his Obedience before God by whose Providence they were placed under their Government And the want of this just Civility to Superiors has in all Ages been the true Original of all disturbances in the Christian Church And this was the sence of the Emperor himself who immâ—dâ—ately upon the Receipt of this Report from the Fathers publishes an Edict to the talking Citizens of Constantinople forbidâ—ing all farther disputations about the Christian Faith in that all Controversies were now determined by the Authority of the Council against which he says it were prophaneness and sacriledge for any man to presume to set up his own Opinion and no less madness then to grâ—pe after more Light at noon day and therefore after this clear discovery of the â—ruth whoever will not acquiesce in it but makes farther Enquiry he can neither seek nor find any thing but falshood And for this reason all farther disputes are peremptorily forbidden as an insolent and intolerable affront to the Sacred Authority of the Council and this is enacted under the forementioned Penalties that he declared in the 6th Session for the Confirmation of their Exposition of Faith Deposition of the Clergy Disbanding of Souldiers and Banishment of Citizens And this was afterward alledged as a proper instance by Facundus Hermianensis to the Emperor Justinian against the condemnation of the tria capitula after they had been tryed and acquitted by the Council of Calcedon with this remark upon it The Emperor Marcian judged it no less than Prophaneness and Sacriledg to review the Sacerdotal Judgment and therefore that being once pass't it was an end of all Controversie Here behold a Prince indeed a true Father of the Common-Wealth and a true Son of the Church that does not dictate but follow Ecclesiastical Decrees declaring by his Edict That whoever after the settlement of the truth shall pretend to make any farther inquiry can seek for nothing but Error For this saying forever blessed be his Memory all the World over who not only recover'd the sinking Empire but also restored lasting Peace to the poor distracted Church This Edict was reinforced by a second a Month after and Copies of it sent to all the several Praefecti-praetorio for its more effectual Execution And they are both revived in a third Rescript published the year following in which this Heresie and all the ways of propagating it are supprest by all the punishments against all other Heretiques So that it is in reality a neat Compendium of all the Laws under the Title de Haereticis in the Theodosian Code And because the bastard Council of Ephesus under Dioscorus in which Flavianus Eusebius Theodoret and many other Catholick Bishops were condemn'd had been ratified by a Rescript of Theodosius he here cancels its full force as to all the Sufferers that were surviving And because the Eutychian Itch was got among the Monks of Jerusalem and Alexandria to the raising of botches and tumults especially at Jerusalem by the disorderly behavior of one Theodosius who made himself Bishop of the place the Emperor and Empress write to them to desist at their farther peril But it seems some were stubborn and irreclaimable and no sort of Men so obstinate as those that live remote from the Conversation of the World and therefore in the year 455 the Emperor renews his former Rescript particularly to be put in Execution at Alexandria where the Heresie most reign'd and that is the last time that he appear'd against them And thus in four years time by protecting the Church in its due Authority and by abetting their Decrees with Penal Laws and by seeing his own Laws put in effectual Execution he put an end to this powerful and prevailing Heresie though it had gain'd both the Eunuchs and the Empire to its side § XVII And thus this great Prince this pattern of Government to all his Successors as Evagrius stiles him having settled all things both in Church and State two years after dyes and is succeeded in the year 457 by Leo who was chosen by the unanimous Vote both of the Senate and the Army a Prince says Nicephorus that would have carried the Election in the most flourishing times of the old Common-Wealth when only worth gave right and title to Preferm%nt a Man of that strict and severe Vertue that he must have been chosen Augustus by the Cato's themselves But as great a Man as he was he found it an hard task to keep things in that good order in which they were left by his Predecessor For no sooner came the news of Marcian's death to Alexandria that Metropolis of Sedition but a few of the Eutychian Party among whom were only two Bishops accompanied with the City-rabble make Timotheus Aelurus their Bishop and most inhumanely murther Proterius at Divine service who had been chosen to that See by the Bishops of the Province upon the deposition of Dioscorus and not content with his blood they treat the dead body with all the circumstances of rudeness and barbarity Upon this Complaints are carried to the Emperor by both Parties
Nicomedia and ever after kept on foot by the Faction For the Western Church had been all along true and faithful to the Orthodox Faith and happy in a succession of Orthodox Emperors and therefore the Easterling Merchants that hitherto made a trade of their Religion and changed their Faith with their Interest greedily seized all Opportunities of breaking with the West where the Faith was fixt and settled because such a settlement would break the Court-Exchange for Preferments upon every Turn of Affairs And such Eceboliuses were the Bishops that raised and promoted this disorder They had ever changed their Faith with the Times and as they had bought their Bishopricks of the Courtiers under Constantius and Valens so were they resolved to keep them under Theodosius And therefore finding his Resolution to stand by the Nicene Faith they readily vote with the Council for its establishment but to prevent the establishment of the Church they start this new and unseasonable Controversie about the Ordination of Paulinus to keep up the division between the East and West Their wrigling and changing of Faith and their buying and selling of Preferments is admirably described by Gregory himself in the Poem of his own Life upon his resignation from whence I have chiefly collected this whole Story You are welcome Chap-Men how often soever you may have barter'd your Faith now 't is high Fair-time let no Man depart without a good penny-worth And now let R. B. here set his Presbyterian hand as his custom is to point out this Character of this prophane Faction against all the good Catholick Bishops with his cold Exclamation Are not these lamentable descriptions of the Bishops of those happy Times and excellent Councils But no multiplying-Glass like Malice unless perhaps Ignorance Upon this Hinge all along turn'd this Controversy it was not kept up by any zeal for the Arian Heresie but the Heresie it self was only pretended to keep up divisions in the Church and by that means a good Exchange was kept up at Court for the sale of Church-Preferments upon every turn of Times And so here upon Gregory's Resignation every Man hoped for a good penny-worth but the Courtiers were grown too cunning and it being so valuable a prize instead of sharing with the Church-men by Simony seize the Bishoprick for themselves Nectarius an unlearned Man but a great Courtier I know not by what art but I am sure by too much interposition of the Emperor being against all the Canons of the Church hoisted into it And it is the great blemish of that Princes reign though it may perhaps be some excuse that he stretcht a point to serve a Friend But the Western Church is startled at these irregular Proceedings and upon them Pope Damasus a resolute Man and one of the first that valued himself upon the great Authority of the Apostolick See moves the Emperors Gratian and Theodosius to grant a General Council at Rome for the better settlement of things But the Eastern Bishops baulk their appearance upon pretence that they cannot be so long absent from their Flocks having been assembled the year before at Constantinople and therefore send only their Legates with a Copy of the Acts of the Council With which the Council at Rome were so 〈◊〉 satisfied 〈◊〉 with very little 〈…〉 adjudged the See of Antioch to Paulinus alone and yet forbore to denounce the sentence of Deposition against Flavianus for fear the Faction should take the advantage that they watcht for to break off Communion with them In order to which it is probable that they raised the Bishop of Constantinople to so great an height of dignity as to take place and precedency next to the Bishop of Rome who upon the account of the Grandeur of the Imperial City had all along held the greatest esteem in the Christian Church And by vertue of this Decree of the Council at Rome Paulinus takes and keeps possession of his Bishoprick to his dying day and is succeeded in it by Evagrius Of the legality of his Succession against the claim of Flavianus see St. Ambrose his 78 th Epistle that runs parallel so luckily with Theodoret's partial story as to discover all its particular flaws and dawbings For says Theodoret after this they would never let Flavianus be at quiet but tired the Emperor with Complaints against him till he undertook his defence himself and by it so satisfied the Western Bishops that they promised reconciliation to him upon which he sent his Legates to treat the Peace which was at last agreed on in the time of Innocent the first But according to St. Ambrose his account who was an Actor in the business the Story runs thus The Emperor upon the Complaint of Siricius that succeeded Damasus against Flavianus refers the Cause to a Council at Capua but Flavianus refuses to appear and moves for an Eastern Synod But the Bishops at the Council being aware of this old device of dividing between East and West immediately vote Communion with all Bishops of the Eastern Church that own'd the Nicene Faith of whatsoever side in this Controversy to cut off that old pretence of Schism upon which Flavianus relyed Upon it he peremptorily refuses all appearance and upon that they refer it to Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria and the Egyptian Bishops but he shuns the reference and takes shelter at Court. Upon which the good Father thus expostulates Frustra ergo tantorum sacerdotum fusus labor Iterum ad hujus seculi Judicia revertendum Iterum ad Rescripta Iterum vexabuntur Sacerdotes senes transfretabunt maria Iterum invalidi corpore patriam peregrino mutabunt solo Iterum sacrosancta Altaria deserentur ut in longinquum proficiscamur Iterum pauperum turbae Episcoporum quibus ante onerosum paupertas non erat externae opis egentes compellentur inopiam gemere aut certè victum inopum itineris usurpare Interea solus exlex Flavianus ut illi videtur non venit quando omnes convenimus But soon after this Evagrius dyes and Flavianus bestirs himself that no Successor should be chosen but yet for all that the People would not be reconciled to him And St. Chrysostom coming at this time to the Throne of Constantinople he prevails with Theophilus of Alexandria to join with him in an Ambassy to Rome to reconcile Flavianus to the Western Church and by that means to remove those heart-burnings that were kept up between the Eastern and Western Bishops upon that account Which was done with some success for it abates the Schism though it does not end it And so things stood till the death of Flavianus in the year 404 who is succeeded by Porphyrius a Bishop of the Court-mould of as bad a Character and as true an Huckster as ever was bred up in the shop of the Nicomedian Eusebius He procured both the banishment of his Competitor and his own Ordination by money and when he had once got into his See
Religion and Loyalty The Second Part. OR THE History of the Concurrence of the Imperial and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in the Government of the Church from the Beginning of the Reign of Jovian to the End of the Reign of Justinian By SAMUEL PARKER D.D. Arch-Deacon of Canterbury LONDON Printed for John Baker at the Three Pigeons in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXV TO THE READER THE Church of England having acknowledged and declared His Majestie 's Supremacy in Causes Ecclesiastical to be of the same Nature and Extent with that Authority that the Christian Emperors claim'd and exercised in the Primitive Church I deem'd it no unuseful piece of Service to my King and Country to inform my self and my Fellow-Subjects out of the Records of those times of our true Duty to the Royal Supremacy And to this end I have drawn up as exact a Chart as my little Skill could reach of the Primitive Practice of the Three first Centuries after the Empire became Christian. Neither have I only Surveyed and coasted the general History but have sounded every part of it and not only described the safe Passages and right Chanels through which the abler Pilots steer'd their Courses but the Shallows the Gulfs the Rocks and the Sands upon which the less Skilful or less Fortunate Shipwrackt their Governments Neither have I presumed to make any Political Remarks of my own but have only observed the Natural and Historical Events of Matters of Fact And by the Experience of 300 years in which all Experiments were tryed we are fully instructed in all the right and all the wrong Measures of Government in the Christian Church In the Reigns of the great Constantine Jovian Gratian Theodosius the Great Arcadius Honorius Theodosius the younger Marcian Leo Justin and Justinian are exemplified the Natural good Effects of abetting the Power of the Church by good Laws and their effectual Execution In the Reigns of Julian and Valentinian we may observe the inevitable Mischiefs of Toleration and Liberty of Conscience In the Reigns of Constantius and Valens but especially of Zeno and Anastasius are to be seen the fatal and bloody Consequences of pretended Moderation or as we phrase it comprehension that indeed unites all Parties but then it is like a Whirlpool into one common Gulf of Ruin and Confusion This is the short account of this Undertaking and the Historical Events of things being withal so very Natural they will of themselves amount to a fair Demonstration of the Necessity of Discipline in the Church and Penal Laws in the State All that I can ensure for the Performance is its Truth and Integrity I have faithfully and impartially perused all the most Material and Original Records both of Church and State and out of them and them alone have Collected the ensuing History and if that prove true and for that I stand bound the Conclusion that I aim at will make it self The CONTENTS SEct. I. The State of the Church under Jovian The Hypocrisie both of the Eusebians to recover their Bishopricks and of the Acacians to preserve theirs in owning the Nicene Faith page 1. § II. Of Valentinian his Edict for Liberty of Conscience The struglings of the Eusebians against the Acacians Their Councils at Lampsacus and Tyana to that end They are defeated by the juglings of the Acacians The dishonest craft of the two Leaders Eudoxius in the East and Auxentius in the West p. 7. § III. The Persecution of St. Basil by the Eudoxians his discourse with the Prefect Modestus Dear to the Emperor Valens Valens himself no Arian but abused by the Eudoxians the deplorable State of the Eastern Church at that time under their Oppressions St. Basil's misfortune in receiving Eustathius of Sebasta to communion The death of St. Athanasius The Heresie of Apollinaris how suppressed p. 27. § IV. The Election of St. Ambrose to the See of Milan The death of Valentinian the mischiefs he brought upon the Empire by his principle of Liberty of Conscience Themistius the Philosopher's Address to Valens in behalf of the Orthodox The Emperor Gratian's Rescripts and effectual Proceedings against Hereticks His restitution of the Discipline of the Church The bounds of the Imperial and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction briefly stated The great Schism at Antioch occasion'd by Julian's toleration p. 35. § V. The singular care of Theodosius the Great to settle the Church and Orthodox Faith Vindicated in his Institution of the Communicatory Bishops He summons the general Council at Constantinople and confirms all their Decrees by several Imperial Rescripts Wisely forbids all Disputes about Religion Assists the young Valentinian against the Tyrum Maximus and prevails with him to reverse his severe Rescript against the Catholicks p. 55. § VI. Valentinian made the first open breach upon the Power of the Church in taking to himself the Power of Judicature in Matters of Faith St. Ambrose his Sufferings upon that account His Embassy to Maximus his Wisdom and Courage Maximus his Conquest of Italy and overthrow by Theodosius The Stars raised by the Hereticks at Constantinople in the Emperor's absence The method of lying People into Tumults His effectual enacting and executing Laws against them settles the Church in Peace p. 66. § VII His Laws made without the concurrence of the Church for reforming the Abuses of Widows and Deaconesses the disorders of Monks and the Abuse of Church-Sanctuary p. 81. § VIII His Laws without the same concurrence against Manichees Apostates Pagans and in behalf of the Jews p. 89. § IX Of the Council of Aquileia Of the Schism at Rome between Damasus and Ursicinus Of the Schism at Alexandria between Peter and Lucius Of the Schism at Antioch between Paulinus and Flavianus p. 98. § X. The unparallell'd Immorality of the Priscillian Heresie The Prosecution of them by Ithacius justified against Mr. B. they were executed as Malefactors and Traitors not as Hereticks St. Martin's great indiscretion in interceding for them p. 124. § XI The praise of Theodosius against the Calumnies of Zosimns The Laws of his Son Arcadius against the Hereticks p. 152. § XII His Laws of Privilege to the Catholicks The several Laws of Tuition The Law of civil Decision in the Church by Arbitration The Laws against Appeals from the Church to the civil Power p. 167. § XIII His Laws of Reformation of Discipline Against the tumults of Monks the abuse of Sanctuary against the Johannites against Apostates In behalf of the Jews The Laws of Honorius against and for the Jews The Laws of both Emperors under the Title de Paganis p. 180. § XIV The history and design of the Theodosian Code Theodosius his own Novels Of the Parabolani of Alexandria The famous Law concerning the Churches of â—lâ—yricum explain'd together with his other Laws and the Laws of Valentinian the third p. 198. § XV. The History and Acts of the Council of Ephesus against Nestorius and Imperial ratification of the Decreeâ—â—f the Church by Marcian p. 225. § XVI The
the Church by a Rescript bearing date the year 376 that the same Custom should be observed in Ecclesiastical Affairs as was in Civil Causes that Controversies belonging to Religion should be judged by the Synod of the Diocess but all criminal Causes should be reserved to the Audience of the Secular Governors Not to inquire at present into the particular occasion of this Law which Gothofred conjectures was made in the controversy of punishing the Priscillianists with the Sword it is agreeable with the practice of the Empire and so this learned Civilian divides all Controversies into Causes ecclesiastical and political the Ecclesiastical into Controversies of Faith or Discipline these he says appertain to the Church The political are divided into Causes pecuniary or Causes criminal and these he says appertain to the Civil Power This I know is the common state of the bounds of Jurisdiction and has made great confusions in Christendom whilst both Powers contend to keep their own ground and especially since the power over the Catholick Church was swallowed up into the papal Omnipotency what troubles have the Popes given the Christian Emperors for daring to intermeddle with spiritual Matters But this Argument of the bounds of Jurisdiction I shall fully state when I have first set down the exercise of it in matter of Fact and therefore though I need at present only say that it is a dangerous Mistake to divide them by the different Matters about which they are conversant when they are both conversant about the same Matters and unless they are so both of them will be too weak to attain the ends of their Institution Yet because it is the fundamental Mistake on both sides and because I may never come to finish this wide undertaking and lastly because I find it to be the great stumbling block to the wiser and more judicious Men of the Church of Rome I shall here a little briefly consider its consequence The learned Petrus de Marca one of the wisest Writers of that Church affirms and believes the bounds of these two Jurisdictions to be so plainly determin'd by the Matters themselves about which they are imployed that no Man can possibly miss their true boundaries that does not industriously over-look them in that it is so evident that the regal Power extends only to things secular and the Ecclesiastical to things spiritual Whereas on the contrary nothing is more evident than that all Actions are both Secular and Spiritual the same Action as it relates to the peace of the World and the Civil Government of Mankind is of a secular Nature and as it is a moral Vertue and required by the Law of God as a duty of Religion so it is of a spiritual Nature And so on the other side those things that are esteem'd Spiritual yet as they have an influence upon the publick Peace and nothing has a greater they must come under the cognizance of the civil Government So that these Jurisdictions are so far from being distinguisht by the Objects about which they are conversant that they are always both equally extended to the same Objects so as that if we limit either to one sort of Actions we destroy both For to take Matters spiritual in their strictest acceptation and as they are vulgarly understood for the Offices of divine Worship and especially the publick Devotions that are performed by the Sacerdotal Order in the publick Assemblies yet if the Sacerdotal Power reach not beyond this to secular things it can never reach its end for that is to procure the future happiness of the Souls of Men and that very much depends upon their good or bad behavior in the Affairs of this life so that if their spiritual Guides and Governors are barr'd from intermedling in all such Matters they are cut off from the chief part of their Office and what remains will be too weak to attain its end for when Men have been never so careful in all the Offices of Religion yet if care be not taken to regulate the Actions of humane intercourse all their Devotion will avail them very little in the World to come So on the other side when the Civil Power has done all that it can to settle and secure the quiet of the Common-Wealth by the wisest Laws of Justice and Honesty yet if they may not take notice of what Doctrins are instill'd into their Subjects by their Teachers or what divisions or commotions are raised by them in the Church they may soon be involved into disturbance or confusion without any Power to relieve themselves I am not at present concern'd to prove that this is now actually done by any Party of Men it is enough to my present purpose that it is a possible thing to disturb the peace of Government under Pretences or by Mistakes of Religion or to pray and preach Men into Rebellion And if it be so then the consequence is unavoidable that it must be subject to the power of the Civil Magistrate if that be any of its Office to take any care of the peace and quiet of the World But in truth this distinction has been all along chiefly cherisht by the Bishops of Rome since the time of their Usurpation because when they had got all the spiritual Power of the Church into their own hands their next care was to hug and keep it intire to themselves and therefore they confin'd the Power of Princes wholly to Matters of State but as for all things that concern'd the Church they were bound with all submission to resign themselves to his Holinesses Orders and if they presumed to gain-say any of his Edicts though never so prejudicial to their own Affairs it was open defyance to Holy Church and though the Popes never proceeded any farther against him as none of them did till Hildebrand yet that alone was at that time a forfeiture of the Affections of his best Subjects i. e. all those plain and good People that have any real love or value for their Religion And this one thing alone gave the Popes of Rome though they had never proceeded to the scandalous boldness of deposing Princes an absolute Empire and Authority over all the Princes of Christendom And it is observable that they were the high flying Popes that were the chief sticklers for the advancement of this distinction as appears not only from the Collection of Gratian Distinct. 69. where it is largely exemplified but from Petrus de Marca himself warranting the truth of this Doctrin from the Authorities of Gelasius Symmachus Gregory the second Nicolaus the first Innocentius the third who in their several high Contests with the Emperors that indeavour'd to check and bridle their Ecclesiastical Insolence still bid them mind their own business and not presumâ— to meddle with the Church the Government whereof was intrusted to St. Peter and his Successors But their Adversaries have been even with them especially the Erastian Hereticks for what greater Heresy can
best Man in the Company next to himself And this piece of rudeness the Emperor was forced to applaud because his Interâ—st at that time obliged him to flatter the holy Man though otherwise as far as I can discern it seems very much to exceed the sawcy Answer of Diogenes to Alexander the great when he offer'd him whatever he would ask thrusting him aside with a Prethee friend stand out of my Sun This Cynical Vanity is very incident to Monkish Men and there are few of them that escape the itch but when it is predominant and meets with success and applause in the World as it did in this good Man it becomes down-right Enthusiasm and perfect drunkenness whence came his so frequent Visions and converse with Angels and incounters with Devils and a great number of strange things that he told of himself the poor Man seriously believing his own dreams and deliriums for want of animal Spirits to have been true and real transactions But to let that pass whether there were any touch of vanity in this intercession for the Priscillianists or not I am sure there was very little discretion Baronius would excuse him from the reason upon which he proceeded viz. the abuse that would follow upon an inquisition of the Hereticks which Maximus intended in Spain That I confess was one reason and I think a good one too for disswading the Emperor from sending the Inquisitors such Persons being so very apt to abuse their trust as he had already found by experience but the general ground that he stood upon was this that they ought not to be punisht by imperial Laws but only by the Censures of the Church and that it was no less than an act of unheard of prophaneness in the Emperor to proceed against them That reason is general and extends to all proceedings abstracting from the abuse and so Sulpitius Severus confesses in the very place where he gives that reason in the life of St. Martin as well as in the history it sâ—lf as it is set down above For St. Martin was possess 't with a religious care that not only the good Christians that might have been prosecuted under that pretence but the Hereticks themselves might escape the Prosecution So that when Priscillian had confess 't such foul things at his Tryal as are recorded by Sulpitius and were not to be endured in any heathen Common-Wealth yet because he call'd himself a Christian he was not according to St. Martin's Politicks to be punisht according to the merits of his Crimes and that is the thing that Maximus himself informs him of that they were condemn'd by the common Rules of Justice and ordinary proceedings of Courts rather than the prosecutions of the Bishops And yet even St. Ambrose himself seems to be against cutting them off with the Civil Sword but at that distance of place it is to be supposed that he understood not their Offences but only took them for a new sort of Hereticks as is clear from the Epistle it self And in point of Heresie all Men would be tender of sanguinary Laws and so most of the ancient Fathers were who though they were for Laws penal yet they were for such only as reacht not Mens lives But the case of the Priscillianists was of another kind they were not Hereticks from the Faith but Apostates from humane nature and the common Faith of Mankind And therefore if St Ambrose had understood the secrets of the Sect he would never have opposed cutting off such unheard of Crimes with the Civil Sword that were not to be indured under any Government without any regard to religion And therefore when the heathen Orator Pacatus in his Panegyrick to Theodosius the Great aggravates this prosecution of the Bishops as unbecoming their Function his design was only to cast an Odium upon them and their Religion otherwise it was no piece of inhumanity to prosecute such enormous Crimes as were proved by the very Confessions of the Offenders themselves and that the Orator himself thô an heathen nay though an Atheist ought to have been as vehement in their prosecution as he represents the Bishops to have been though it were not only to preserve the present Peace and Government of the World and that is every Man's concern for his own particular safety And as for Sulpitius Severus his angry remarque upon it that it gave Priscillian the advantage and reputation of Martyrdom and by that means gave new life and confidence to the Party it is a weaker surmise than all the rest For though Martyrdom in a good Cause is a very popular Argument yet in a bad one it soon sinks into the dishonor of a just Execution And though it is no hard matter to bear it up a little time among the People to support the honor of a Faction as was done by the Donatists of old and our Regicides of late yet when they have done all such foul things will sink by the weight of their own Wickedness And so did this for after this time we hear no more of them in the Imperial Laws For though there are some Laws enacted against the Priscillianists by Honorius and Theodosius the younger among the whole rout of Hereticks especially the 40 th and 65 th de Haereticis yet these related not to the followers of Prisâ—illian in Spain but to a branch of the old Gnostick Heresie that as Pancirolus and Baronius observe had their name from Priscilla and was synonymous with the old name of Phryges So that this severity of Maximus was so far from animating the Party as Sulpitius injudicouisly suggests that for all their great noise of triumph it struck it dead For though leud Men will venture upon strange and extravagant things where they have any presumption of impunity yet when they find their lives at stake for the debaucht frolick that quickly spoils the jest And that was the case here the leud Heresie was really chopt off with the Author And though Sulpitius complains that it lasted 15 years yet it lasted no longer and was the most short-lived of all the Heresies whereas the Gnosticks and the Manichees of both which it was compounded continued some Ages because not prosecuted with the same severity And this too might have ended sooner had it not been protected by the indiscretion of St. Martin and some others that either did not or would not understand the true state of the Controversy Which after all accounts of it is best stated by Pope Leo in his Epistle to Turibius Bishop of Asturicum In whose time the Vermin began to appear again in a remote corner of Spain or Portugal as they did again afterwards but never more in the time of Pope Vigilius as appears by his Letter concerning them to Eutherius or Profuturus a Bishop in those Parts Pope Leo's Epistle determines the Matter thus Meritò Patres nostri sub quorum temporibus haeresis
to the See of Alexandria Of which when Simplicius sends him Letters of Complaint one after another he would never vouchsafe him any Answer and so Simplicius dying the â—udgels are immediately taken up by his Successor Foelix the 3 d and the first Act of his Government is to call a Council in which a Synodical Letter of Admonition is written to Acacius chiding him for his sullenness to Simplicius charging him with Pride and ill-manners towards the Apostolick See advising him to use his Interest with the Emperor to rectifie the late Misdemeanors at Alexandria in the election of Moggus otherwise he must be thought an Apostate from his own Principles and a Renegado to the Hereticks for not to proceed against wicked Men when it is in a Man's power to curb them is to give them protection and he incurs suspicion of secret friendship who gives over his opposition to a manifest impiety And in tâ—e same Council another long and pathetical Letter is drawn up to the Emperor and sent by the same Legates Vitalis and Micenus conjuring him to keep fast to his old Principles against the Hereticks and gauling him in the same Dilemma in which they had involved Acacius viz. That if he stood firm to the Council of Calcedon he must renounce the Hereticks and therefore if he did not oppose them he protected them against the Council and that was manifest opposing it But the Emperor was big with his new Project of comprehension and was deaf to all advice against it and Acacius being secure of him he slites Foelix his Letters imprisons his Legates and draws them in to join Communion with himself and Moggus Upon the news whereof another Council is immediately summon'd at Rome where the sentence of Deposition and Excommunication is denounced against him But he being warm and safe at Court slites the force of all Ecclesiastical Discipline and requites Foelix in his own coin striking his name out of the Dypticks and persisted in the exercise of his own Function to his dying day which was 4 years after the Sentence that was decreed in the year 484 and he dyed in the year 488. This was the effect of this shrewd Instrument of Comprehension in these three head Churches of Rome Constantinople and Alexandria nothing less than a total breach of Communion and one of the fiecrest Schisms that ever befel the Christian Church and though the Peace between them was patcht up about 34 years after by the Power and Activity of Pope Hormisdas yet they were never heartily reconcil'd to this very day As for Acacius it is a dispute what he was some indict him of Heresie or Church-treason others only of high Misdemeanors though as for my own part after all streins of Candor I cannot but think him guilty of both or I fear something worse the want of a serious sense of Religion To free him from the high charge of Heresie it is pleaded that he never in the least own'd the Eutychian Faith that he ever declared against it that he was never charged with it by the Ancients and that in the Sentence against him at Rome where all his Crimâ—s were strictly enough enumerated this is no Article against him But yet for all this I see not how he can be absolved from it for in the Eye of the Law and indeed the common sense of the World all Communâ—on with Hereticks is and ought to be judged Heresie as in all Civil Laws all consulting with Traitors is deem'd Treason For it concerns not the Government to fish out every Man's Opinion or motive of his Practice that can judg only by overt-acts and then to communicate with Hereticks is Heresie and to consult with Traitors Treason But much more in this particular Case in which all Communion with the Hereticks had been Canonically declared Heresie by the Church in the great Council of Calcedon and without it the sentence of the Church had been of no force for that can reach no farther than their outward Communion So that after all the Henoticon was so far from compromising the Controversies as it pretended and I believe design'd that it only reverst and contradicted the Decree of the Church and by an Imperial Rescript declared that to be no Heresie that had been judged so by the Council and that I take it is plain bidding defyance to it and its Authority As for the other Crimes charged upon him they are enormous enough his very friendship with such ill Men as Moggus and Fullo shews he had but very little sense of Honesty or indeed of Reputation otherwise he would have loath'd and defyed Men of such rank Practices But the leading Sin that betray'd him into all his other Miscarriages was his Pride and Ambition and to gratifie that it is plain that he stuck not to subvert all the Discipline of the Christian Church For finding the Emperor Zeno fond of his Henoticon he at least frankly complyed with it to the subversion of the first and fundamental Law of all Church-Communion in receiving Hereticks into it without Canonical Repentance and Satisfaction And this is suggested in the Decree of the Council at Rome against him that he preferr'd the Emperor's favor above his own Faith and then it is no matter to what Religion such perfidious Men pretend when it is too apparent that they have really none at all And the case of the Church at this time was much the same as it was under the Reigns of Constantius and Valens ill Men got into the Court and from thence crept into the Church and to gain Preferments for themselves flatter'd the Prince into an exorbitant use of his Power against the true and regular Discipline of it And that would at once give them interest at Court and make vacancies in the Church for themselves and this weak Prince was so drunkenly fond of this little Project that he would throw away the best Preferments in the Church upon any Parasite that would but seem to hugg his fondling-Ape by which means great numbers of very bad Men came into the best Churches But one of the greatest Instances of it is the great Church of Antioch we have already seen the other three leading Churches brought into a Civil War among themselves but here it came to blows and cutting of Throats that I shall very briefly describe as another observable Example of the good Effects of this gracious Instrument of Accommodation Petrus Fullo a Monk had been expell'd his Monastery for the Eutychian Heresie in the time of the Emperor Leo flies to Calcedon and being a talkative Man is soon driven thence for the same Cause and so takes shelter at Constantinople and there insinuates himself into the favor of the Princess Ariadne and by her recommends himself to the Patronage of her husband Zeno and having gain'd that he endeavors to dis-place Martyrius Bishop of Antioch Zeno being then Governor of the Place but Martyrius making his Application to the
either have dared to record it or expect to gain belief to it when it is so apparently contradicted not only by the whole History of the Justinian Reign but by the very Libel it self For when he makes mention of the Wars with the Persians the Goths and the Vandals I would know whether nothing were expended in defraying the Charges of those great Expeditions And if they cost any thing then all the publick Treasury was not exhausted in Gifts to the Barbarians and unprofitable Sea-walls But for our better satisfaction let us briefly audit his Accounts and then we shall find that no Prince ever did so great things for the Common-wealth with so little Charge to the Subject so hard a thing is it to defend him from the Malice of his Enemies without writing â—anegyricks upon all his Actions so Heroick and Glorious was the whole Course of his Reign At present to say nothing of his many great and successful Wars that could not but require an immense Treasury to maintain them though as they were managed they more then paid their own Charges as I shall shew anon The vast number of his Allyes put him to prodigious expenses especially in the Circumstances of his Reign For he being a great Lover of his Religion spared neither Cost nor Pains for its Propagation and he gave himself one great advantage in it by his Bounty and Courtesie to Ambassadors and Gentlemen of Forreign Nations who repairing from all parts to Constantinople to see the grandeur of that Court then famous through all the World and being overcome by the great kindness and urbanity of the Prince they return'd home with a kind of transported opinion of the Christian civility And the good Emperor the better to compass his pious designs sent some of his best-bred Clergy to wait upon them home who by the Modesty and Neatness of their Address rivetted such an Interest at Court as easily made way for the entertainment of the Christian Faith And by this means he reformed the barbarous People with much more fineness then Constantine did the Empire For when that great Prince had once declared for the Christian Faith all Orders and Professions of men naturally flock't into it for Interest and Preferment whereas this great Prince won and vanquish't several Nations not at all subject to his Empire by nothing but the Power of Courtesie and Civility The first that were reduced were the Blemmyes and Nobatae two barbarous African Nations situated on the other side the Nile that to that timâ— worship't the old Egyptian Idols Isis Osyris and Priapus and kept up that inhumane Custom of humane Sacrifices all whose Temples were demolish't by Justinian their Priests Cashier'd and imprisoned and their obscene Images sent to Constantinople and there destroyed and that put an end to that old Superstition The next were the Eruli seated on the North side the Ister these exceeded the former in the barbarity of their manners for beside the Humane Sacrifices to their Gods it was a Religious Custom among them to cut the Throats of all old and sick People and the duty of Wives to hang themselves at their Husbands Graves These People in the time of Anastasius being vanquish't by the Long-beards seated themselves on this side the Ister and submitted to the Jurisdiction of the Empire without any Change of their Religion but Justinian so wrought upon them as to bring them over to the profession of the Christian Faith though such was the innate petulancy of the Nation that it was little to its Credit because though they took up a new Religion they for the most part kept up their old manners The third were the Abasgi inhabiting at the Foot of the Mountain Caucasus a barbarous sort of People that worshipt Trees for Gods though the worst barbarity practiced among them was the Custom of their Princes to make all their handsome Youths Eunuchs and sell them to the Romans But Justinian finding the Court full of Boys of this Nation sends Euphrates a grave Eunuch to prevail with the Prince for the time to come to lay aside this barbarous Custom and imbrace the civility of the Christian Faith and succeeding in it he sent a Christian Bishop to instruct and govern them and built for their use a Cathedral Church dedicated to the Virgin Mary These were followed by the Tetraxitae inhabiting upon the River Tanais where it discharges it self into the Lake Maeotis who being a wild and barbarous sort of Christians and hearing that the great Christian Emperor had sent a Bishop to the Abasgi they request the same favor of him for themselves a Request that was no doubt with more ease granted than it was asked The next are the Inhabitants about Pentapolis in Lybia that worshipt Jupiter Ammon and Alexander the Great these the Emperor with great pains reclaimed from their Superstition to the Christian Faith and built for them a Temple consecrated to the Virgin Mary And what is the hardest of all he over-came the stubbornness of the Jews who thô they had an ancient Temple in the Citâ— of Borium founded as Tradition weâ—â— by King Solomon they were prevail'd upon to quit their old Religion and transform their Temple into a Christian Church The next are the Maurusians and Gadabitans in Africk who retain'd the old barbarous Superstition of Greece whom he brought off to Christianity and encompassed their City of Sabaratha with Walls and founded a Church in it for the Service of God To these may be added the Iberians who are commended by Procopius as the best of the Christian Converts and them the Emperor protected from the fury of the barbarous Persians and with great sums of Money hired the Huns to come to their assistance And to mention no more the conversion of the Zani seems more remarkable then all the rest they inhabited a barren Country on the North of Armenia were subject to no settled Government but lived like herds of beasts worshipt Trees and Birds for their Gods and subsisted upon nothing but plunder and robbery but being vanquisht by Justinian who was the first that ever master'd them they imbraced the Christian Faith and at the same time cast off their barbarous Manners and the Empeeror to secure their perseverance built them a stately Church These correspondencies I hope are no Childrens Rattles for beside their great piety in bringing over so many barbarous People to the Christian Faith it was a mighty Point of State to unite Religion as well as Interest that being the strongest Cement of all Allyances So that laying all this together the Emperor 's generous bounty to all Strangers his religious care of all his Allies his bestowing magnificent Churches upon all coâ—verted Nations it is at once an undenyable proof of his Prudence and Piety and as great a reproof to all charges of profuseness and prodigality This is the first sum of his Accounts which I am sure the
which he has no better defence than that Theophanes thought they were too severe so that himself could not but detest them And yet Theophanes says no such thing but only that they were severely punisht without any intimation of dislike much lesss of abhorrence But it was executed upon two Thracian Bishops to the great scandal of the Church whereas Constantine the Great would rather have cover'd them in the Fact with his Imperial Robe That was a great Complement of that great Emperor and 't is likely enough that if the Crime had been known to himself alone such was his generous Nature that he would never have divulged it But that was not Justinian's case for the Crime was become publick before it came to his knowledg and after that it had been a Scandal with a witness to let it pass unpunisht But that after all is the thing that gauls at the Court of Rome that a Secular Prince should challenge any Power to correct Ecclesiastical Persons which though it has long obtain'd as an unquestionable Rule in that Court yet I have proved through the whole series of this History that it was both claim'd by all the Emperors and acknowledg'd by all the Popes and Councils But beside as for this story of Theophanes concerning the two Bishops by my Rules of critick Law I must pass it for meer fable because destitute of timely and sufficient Testimony For so I cannot but esteem the Reports of all Writers that live at too great a distance of time from the matter of Fact And that is the case of this little Story there are no foot-steps of any Record of it either in that or the next Ages whereas Theophanes that was its first Founder reports it not till above 250 years after it was done and then what reason have we to believe him in a matter of Fact that had been so many years beyond the memory of Mankind any more than if he had lived at twice the distance of time For when a thing is once got out of the reach of the memory of Man an hundred and a thousand years are the same thing And then it is never to be admitted to any capacity of belief without some more credible and timely Records And for that reason I have industriously neglected all the latter Greek Historians as to any matter of Fact done at any considerable distance from their own Age. For if they are voucht by any more ancient Authority that is proof enough without them if they are not their own is none at all And the truth is they are so much addicted to the humor of patching Fables to the ancient Records of the Church that whatever we find in them not reported before them we ought for that reason to conclude it meer Fable and Fiction But in the last place which way will he bring off his Author in finding fault with the severity of this Law for reaching such as were Offenders before its publication when the Law declares it self to have been only enacted in pursuance of the known establisht Laws of the Empire especially the famous Law of Constantiâ—s and Constans that was ever after in force What a childish piece of malice then is it in this Author to insinuate as if this Law had taken hold upon Offenders at a time when there was no known Law against them As for the Law against Astrologers our Librarian has so much wit as not to touch it and to leave his Author in the lurch to answer for himself For these Men commonly call'd Astrologers that is such as profess to read all Mens Fates in the Stars were ever lookt upon as the most mischievous and most dangerous Traitors to the Government and any Man that has but cast an eye upon the Imperial Story cannot but know that there never was any one Act of Treason contrived against the Prince's Life or Govâ—rnment without their encouragement or direction as in the present case Joannes Cappadox was put upon his Treason against Justinian by their instigation And for this reason it was ever punisht with the greatest severity by all Princes as well Heathen as Christian. Under the heathen Emperors down from Caesar himself by banishment under the Christian from Constantine by death And yet this wretched Satyrist is so infatuated as to inveigh against it as a new piece of Cruelty in Justinian only for setting them in a disgraceful posture upon Camels and so whipping them through the City when by the Law they ought to have been executed But upon occasion of this fierce censure of the counterfeit Procopius upon the Emperor's prosecuting of Heathens and Hereticks it is become a dispute what Religion the true Procopius adhered to or whether to any at all Alemannus will have him an Atheist Rivius and Eichelius a bigotted Pagan but they are both apparently too severe and equally in the wrong when through all his Writings he expresses so high a sense of honor and kindness for the Christian Religion especially in his last Books de Aedificiis that are for the most part a Panegyrick upon Justinian's great zeal to advance and propagate the Christian Faith And let the Reader only peruse the first Book of that History and he will soon be satisfied of the Author 's own sense of Religion But they say that he was only a counterfeit Christian for Interest and Preferment But this they may say if they please of any Man as well as Procopius But he has dropt some loose and slite Expressions of the Christian Religion and both Parties instance in the passage out of his Books de Bello Gothico wherein he expresses a great dislike of the Controversies on foot at that time that is the violent heats about the tria Capitula Which it is evident from his own description of them that he did not in the least understand but supposed them to have been too curious and philosophical Inquiries into the Secrets of the divine Nature whereas he says it is satisfaction enough to him that God Almighty govern'd the World with a wise and good Providence and as for other more nice Speculations every Man might for him quietly enjoy his own Opinion This though it be very false Politicks as we have seen by the Henoticon and our own late too dear bought Experience yet it is neither Atheism nor Paganism For a good and wise Providence that governs the World is the only Principle opposed to Atheism and though it may thô very hardly be consistent with philosophick Paganism yet it is the fundamental Article of Christianity Now the dispute as he states it was not between the two Religions but about an Argument common to both viz. as he supposed the Nature of God and like a Gentleman he frankly declares his Opinion against all bigottry in these nice and obscure Controversies and thinks that Men ought not to inquire farther into the divine Nature than the Wisdom and Goodness of his Providence This is