Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
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A62339
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A dissertation concerning patriarchal & metropolitical authority in answer to what Edw. Stillingfleet, Dean of St. Pauls hath written in his book of the British antiquities / by Eman. à Schelstrate ; translated from the Latin.
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Schelstrate, Emmanuel, 1645-1692.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing S859; ESTC R30546
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96,012
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175
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A DISSERTATION CONCERNING Patriarchal Metropolitical AUTHORITY In Answer to what Edw. Stillingfleet DEAN of St. PAVLS Hath written in his BOOK OF THE BRITISH ANTIQUITIES By Eman. Ã Schelstrate S.T.D.C.L. And Prefect of the Vatican Library Translated from the Latin. With Allowance LONDON Printed for Matthew Turner at the Lamb in Holbourn MDCLXXXVIII TO JAMES the II. OF Great Britain c. KING DEFENDER of the FAITH CONQUERER TRIUMPHANT PEACEMAKER THE Immortal God Supreme Governour of Kings and Ruler of the World hath by his Providence order'd it as auspicious to the Catholic Faith That in these times wherein other Christian Princes are restoring the Kingdoms of Hungary and Greece to the Church Your Majesty should ascend the British Throne and invite the renown'd English Nation to embrace the true Religion by your Royal Example It is by the conduct of Divine not Human Wisdom that Kings reign Prov 8.15 and Law-givers decree Justice Which being spoken of all Princes in this World cannot but be understood of Your Majesty who governing the British World in Justice reign so happily that You seem to have ravish'd the hearts of all your Subjects with Love and the Eyes of all Strangers with Admiration It is a Maxim of the Ancients and the Oracle of Wisdom it self that the Love of the People is the Princes chief Safeguard Which made Pliny the second say in his Panegyric to Trajan that the Kings Palace is no where better secured than where Love keeps the Court of Guard. And Themistius the fam'd Graecian Orator hath given this excellent Admonition that it is far better to allure Subjects by Love and Favour than to awe them with Fear and Terror By Love Mens minds are united and made to agree in one and by Agreement Empires cement as by Discord they fall asunder Which Your Majesty very well understanding presently quell'd the dissention that in the beginning of your Reign threatned destruction to all Britain and when you had cut off the Principal Conspirators Victorious and Triumphant You either intirely pacify'd or wholly restrain'd the minds of the rest by Sweetness and Love. Being excellently well read in the tempers of Men You knew that he is in vain arm'd with dread who is not fenc'd with love and affection Having therefore freed your Subjects from terror and fear You won their hearts by your serene Countenance and affable Conversation who the more freely acknowledg they owe the Public Safety to Your Majesty the more other Nations look upon it with admiration O thrice happy Prince who whilst you embrace your People with Kindness gain Veneration at home Renown abroad and are purchasing with God a blessed Eternity I will not speak here of that Frankness with which you receive all of that Clemency which makes you easie to be intreated of that Liberality wherewith you relieve the Needy and Miserable of the indefatigable Industry wherewith you manage the Affairs of your Kingdom of that firm Constancy which enables You to undertake the most difficult Enterprises For these and many other gracious Endowments wherewith the Great God of Heaven hath richly adorn'd your Royal Mind might here be highly extoll'd But since they would be too copious a Subject for a short Epistle I shall only intreat this Favour that not being mindful of Your Majesty but my meaness you would so far condescend as favourably to receive this small Treatise concerning Ecclesiastical Hierarchy which I have put forth in Answer to an English Author and to protect it with the Patronage of Your Great Name Nor can any one induce Your Majesty to believe That I seek to shelter Novelty under the Protection of Your Royal Name for in this small Book I do not undertake to defend an Error lately invented but a truth anciently receiv'd I treat concerning the Roman Patriarchate which the Catholic Kings Your Predecessors acknowledg'd for the space of Thirteen hundred years and which even since the Schism Your Grand-father King James of Illustrious Memory hath not obscurely asserted For in the Apology for the Oath of Allegiance which he sent to Rudolphus the Emperor to the Christian Monarchs and to both the Catholic and Protestant Princes * Jacobus Augliae Rex in apologia pro juramento fidelitatis Scio inquit Patriarchas in Ecclesia primitiva extitisse institutionem illam ordinis discriminis causa amplexor sed inter illos de Principatu magna contentione certatum est quod si in eo quaestio adhuc verteretur meo libens suffragio primum locum Episcopo Romano deferrem Ego Occidentalis Rex Occidentali Patritarchae adhaererem I know saith that Prince That there were Patriarchs in the Primitive Church and I embrace that Institution for Order and Distinction Sake there was also great Contention amongst them who should be Chief but if that were still the question I would freely give my suffrage that the Bishop of Rome should have the first place I being a Western King would adhere to the Western Patriarch That which King James the First a Prince of the same name with Your Majesty here asserts I explain more clearly in this Dissertation and prove from the Testimonies of the Antients and the Decrees of Synods that the Authority of the Roman Patriarchate extends it self over all the West So that I may use almost the same words which Honorius did when he exhorted the Emperor Theodosius to preserve the Priviledges long before granted to the Roman See that the Roman Church may not lose under a Catholic Prince what she ought not to have lost under other KIngs who fell into Schism Honorius Epistâ—ad Theod. Suffer therefore Most Gracious Prince that this small Treatise may come forth under your Protection in which the only thing I earnestly contend for is that the Roman Church which is the special Head of all the Western Churches and the Principal Head of all the Churches in the World may not be disturbed because from thence the Rights of admonishing others issue forth all over the West as well as over the whole World. Written from Rome by Your Majesties Most humble and most obedient Servant Emanuel of Antwerp in the Low Countries THE PREFACE TO THE READER I Know not Courteous Reader how it came to be my Lot in one years time this proves my second Contest with Adversaries that write in the Language of their own Countries At the beginning of this year I had to deal with Maimbourg who set forth a Treatise in French concerning the Roman Bishops Supremacy over the Vniversal Church Now towards the end of the year I must fall to work with the Dean of St. Paul's who hath publish'd a Book in English wherein he calls in question the Bishop of Romes Patriarchal Power over all the West The former Authors Work though it ought not to have been written in French did not create me any difficulty because I understood that Language But the second in English although the Idiom in
Head but also Autocephalic that is under its own proper Jurisdiction only and subject to no Patriarch from the time that the Faith first began to be planted there till the coming of Augustine the Monk. There are therefore two things which the Author hath undertaken to prove against me one that the Bounds of the Roman Patriarchate ought to be restrain'd so as not to extend to Britain the other that the Hierarchy of the English Church which acknowledges no Authority Superior to that of a Metropolitan is Ancient 'T is chiefly for the Proof of these things the Author hath made use of his utmost Endeavours Industry and Ability not treading in the Foot-steps of the Ancients but walking in new Paths which lead from the Truth as I shall endeavour briefly to shew in this Dissertation For whereas this Author hath brought those things for the Proof of his Opinions which have been lately invented partly by him and partly by Launoy I thought it might be profitable to lay them before you and to shew in the following Discourse how far different they are from the true Discipline of the Church from the Judgment of the Ancient Fathers from the Decrees of Councils and from the Sense of all Antiquity I shall therefore divide this Dissertation into six Chapters in the four first of which I shall alledg those things which relate to the Origin of the British Church and the Patriarchal Rights over it in the two last I shall examine those things that the Dean of St. Paul's hath written to prove that the Metropolitical Authority is Supreme and confute them by the Testimonies of those very Authors which he alledges He thought that the Patriarchal and Papal Authority was unknown to the British Church in the six first Ages and that this was manifestly prov'd from the Answer of Dinoth the Abbot and the Sayings of the Monks of Banchor I shall shew that there was no doubt at all made concerning the Supreme Authority of the Bishop of Rome but that Britain did venerate the Authority of the Apostolic See from the time that King Lucius First embraced the Catholic Religion till the breaking in of the Saxons and the coming of Augustine the Monk. And when I shall have made this appear from several Monuments of the British Church and by the Histories of that Nation I shall conclude with an Exhortation to the Ministers of the English Church in which I shall plainly shew them how far those Err from the Truth who think that the Church fail'd thoughout the whole World and was afterwards found by a few Persons in a narrow Corner of the Earth I shall bring the Testimony of Optatus Milevitanus wherein he reproves the Donatists for the like Error because they heretofore reduc'd the Catholic Church to a small number and confin'd the large Extent of Kingdoms as it were to a narrow Prison I shall bring other Testimonies of the Ancients by which it will appear that the true Church is to be found diffused throughout the whole World because it is Catholic and that it is one because it agrees in the Society of one Communion under One visible Head and that none can obtain Salvation who is either divided from that Head by Schism or separated by Heresie So that St. Jerom did not write by way of Exaggeration as a certain Person of late hath rashly given out but truly to Pope Damasus I saith he following none but Christ in the first place do consociate in Communion with your Beatitude that is the See of Peter I know the Church is built upou that Rock Whoever eats the Lamb out of this House is prophane If any one is not in the Ark of Noah he shall perish when the Deluge reigns CHAP. I. That the British Church was instituted either by St. Peter or his Successors 1. The Opinion of an English Author who contends that the British Church was instituted by Paul rather than Peter The Testimony of Gildas the wise is not alledged by him it may be because he foresaw that it proved the Institution of the British Church by Peter 2. The Testimony of Eusebius brought out of Metaphrastes by which it appears that the British Church owes its Institution to Peter The same thing is proved by Metaphrastes asserted by John V. and affirmed by Kenulphus King of the Mercians 3. The Testimonies of Eusebius Theodoret and S. Jerome are produced out of which the Author is confident he shall clearly prove that the Islands scituated in the Ocean were first instructed in the true Faith by Paul. 4. The foresaid Testimonies of Eusebius are weighed the two former of which make nothing for Paul's coming into Britain rather than Peter's and the third of Jerome intimates not that Paul preach'd the Faith from the Spanish to the British Ocean as our Author believes but from the Arabic to the Spanish Ocean which is nothing at all to the purpose 5. The Testimony of Clemens Romanus is cited in which it is asserted that Paul came to the Borders of the West it is not said that he came to Britain 6. The Opinion of Launoy who questions the Authority of this Epistle of Clemens is disapproved of and the Testimony of Severus Sulpitius is brought wherein it is said that the Religion of God was received more lately beyond the Alpes and the distinction of our Author for avoiding the difficulty mov'd from the Testimony of Severus is rejected 7. Venerable Bede agrees with Severus Sulpitius whilst he puts us in mind that King Lucius was converted to the Faith about the time Sulpitius tell us that the Faith was receiv'd beyond the Alps with whom Tertullian seems to concur in Opinion who liv'd almost at the same time that Luclus King of Britain was converted under Pope Elcutherius 8. Other Testimonies of the Ancionts concerning the Conversion of King Lucius are brought likwise the Opinion of our Author concerning the Embassie that Lucius sent to Pope Eleutherius at Rome viz. That this Embassie was sent to Rome because it was the Imperial City as he asserts out of Irenaeus 9. The Testimony of Irenaeus is cited and it is shewed that our Author miss-interprets him Irenaeus asserts that all the Faithful ought to consent to the Roman Faith not because of the more powerful Principality of the Roman City but of the Roman Church The Emperor Honorius 's Testimony concerning the Principality of the Imperial Seat and the Principle of Priesthood's being establish'd at Rome the Authority of Augustin is added who tells us that the Principality of the Apostolic See ever prevail'd at Rome which when our Author denies he opposes a manifest Truth IN treating concerning the Antiquities of the British Church its Primitive Institution is to be enquired after which Modern Writers have attributed to divers Apostles and divers Disciples of Christ I have not leisure to recite all their Opinions in this Dissertation but shall only weigh that of our Author who to exclude the