there be in the Church than to take away the very Being of the Church by distinguishing between the sacred Function which they grant to be the proper office of the Church and the Power over sacred things which they annex intirely to the Civil Power by which distinction they leave the Governors of the Church no other Power than to administer the Offices of Religion without any Power of punishing Offenders against the Laws of Religion and then they have none at all for there can be no power without a Power of inflicting Penalties And there lyes the true distinguishing point between these two Jurisdictions not in the Matters about which their Power is imployed but in the Penalties by which it is inforced Thus to be short and give one example for all whereas Justinian leaves to the Church the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sins committed against the Ecclesiastical Order by the Clergy and to the State the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Sins against the Laws of the State This division is so far from being true that both Powers are equally concern'd in both Crimes for if any Clergy-man disturb the Government as the Donatists did by a Contest about a Canon of the Church then though it were an Ecclesiastical sin it concern'd the Civil Government to check the Mischief by the proper Penalties of Sedition as Honorius drove them into banishment and thereby restored the long interrupted Peace of the Empire And on the other hand if any Clergy-Man let him be never so regular to the Laws and Rules of the Church shall in a state-Faction ingage in a Rebellion against his Soveraign that is properly a Political sin the Church is bound to inflict such Penalties upon him as are denounced by the Laws of their Religion against all Traitors and Rebels i. e. to cast him out of their Society and the capacity of Salvation And that is the only difference in the case that when the King cuts a Traitor off for this life the Church cuts him off â—or the next and so it is in all other Crimes where the Prince punishes for breach of the Laws of the Land the Church punishes proportionably for breach of the Laws of Religion And as by the Laws of the Land the Penalty is proportionable to the Crime so is it by the Laws of the Church for as some Offences are Capital and some only Penal in the State so in the Church some are punisht by Penance some by utter excision or cutting off from the Kingdom of Heaven which is the same thing in its kind as cutting off life in this World So that the same Crimes are so far from belonging to different Judicatures that all belong to both the only difference is that one punishes here and the other hereafter And now this one observation of the difference of Penalties in the same cause being supposed which cannot be be avoided without destroying or intrenching upon the Rights of Church or State the bounds of Jurisdiction are evident enough without splitting of Causes and it is easy enough to understand how the same Causes belong to both Jurisdictions from their different ends without setting any restraint to either Power And thus having in this short digression as briefly as I could secured this point of the Controversy which is the main Hinge upon which depends the disingenuous Contention of both the extreme Parties both Papal and Erastian I now return to the course of the History which was broke off at the year 376. At which time the Huns breaking into the Eastern Empire and Valens being extremely distrest by them and the Goths at the same time St. Jerom and Crosius say that he repented of his former severity and upon it recall'd the Orthodox Bishops from banishment but Socrates only says and that much more probably that being otherwise imployed he desisted and so the banisht Bishops particularly Peter of Alexandria had opportunity of returning home And that I doubt was all notwithstanding St. Jerom's lavish story of his Repentance which good Father partly by his boldness partly by his eagerness has occasion'd the greatest Mistakes in the story of the Church and therefore when he is a single witness his Testimony is not to be regarded in any Matter of Fact unless when he speaks of his own knowledg for he was an honest Man and would not lye yet he was so very hot-headed that it often betrayed him into false-hoods and therefore his single Authority ought not to be trusted unless in Matters of his own knowledg And by relying upon it and that contrary to the testimony of calmer Authors great darkness has been brought upon the Records of the Church and has particularly blemisht Baronius his Annals who has very often followed his Authority not only without but against all other Authors and by it run himself into a great many Mistakes against the best Records of the Church And this I take to be one though no material one that Valens repented of his Persecution and callâ—d back the banisht Bishops for which there is no proof but only his saying so and they that followed his Authority otherwise we do not find that they were solemnly recall'd till Gratian came into the East after his death when indeed all the Historians agree that they were restored In the Year 377 a Council was held at Antioch for preventing or rather curing a Schism in that Church that was first created by Julian's spiteful and treacherous toleration to all Sects for by that means 3 Bishops had been set up in one Church Meletius who was first an Acacian but afterwards revolting to the Nicene Faith Euzoius was put in his place by the Acacian Faction and Paulinus set up by that hot Man Lucifer Calaritanus who would accept of none of Meletius his repentance in opposition to both With Meletius the Arian Converts communicated with Paulinus the old Orthodox because Paulinus himself had ever been so and as for Euzoius he presided over the Acacian Party But he dying about this time a Controversy arose who should be the true and proper Bishop of the Place in which not only the People of the City made Parties but the Bishops of other Churches St. Basil was zealous for Meletius Pope Damasus for Paulinus so that it became a Controversy between the East and West But at last this expedient was found out that both during their lives should keep their own shares but when ever one of them dyed the surviver should govern the whole Church and that the Schism might not be perpetuated an Oath was administred to six of the eldest Presbyters of that Church who were the only Candidates for the Election to submit to the Decree and this for the present ended the Quarrel And yet when after this Meletius dyed Flavianus one of the six Presbyters that had sworn never to invade the Bishoprick whilst either of the present Bishops survived violently thrusts himself into the See and
his old road as his Eunuchs are pleased to drive him till Gregory Nazianzen solicites his ingenious Friend Themistius a great Philosopher and a great Man in the State to take him off from his Fury which he might the more easily do as being unconcern'd in the quarrel and like a Gentleman he undertakes it and in his Speech entituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perswades the Emperor for some time to lay aside his Bigotry for the Eudoxian Faction And to say the truth of him he was both a Gentleman and a Philosopher he was first made Prefect of the City by Julian who was possess 't with a vehement Ambition of preferring Learned Men he was always a Friend to the Catholicks for their Integrity and as much as a Man of his Temper and Principles could be an Hater of the Eusebians of all sorts for their shuffling and dishonesty saying in his Oration to Jovian that they Worship't not God but the Imperial Purple And after the overthrow of Procopius he out of pure good Nature intercedes with the Emperor for Mercy and Clemency to the vanquisht and withal advises him to beware of listning to Whisperers and Flatterers by whom he means his Eudoxian Courtiers that thrust him upon all his extravagant Actions So now here at the request of his Friend Nazianzen he rubs up the Emperor's good Nature in behalf of the Catholicks And for the sweetness and gentleness of his temper he was a Favourite to all the Emperors from Julian to Theodosius the Great between whom notwithstanding the difference of their Religion and the distance of their Station there was a particular Friendship and Endearment cemented purely by the likeness of their Tempers in so much that the Emperor Theodosius left him the Guardianship of his young Son Arcadius But notwithstanding this learned Gentlemans advice to Valens his Officers proceed in their old Track of Violence in the East whilst his Nephew the young Emperor Gratian in the West steers the contrary course for being sensible of the great disorders in the Church and Common-Wealth by reason of his Father Valentinian's remisness he thought it high time to settle things better by a stricter Government for though Valentinian was a wise Prince and Orthodox in the Faith yet he was possest with one unhappy Principle that spoil'd his reign that indeed has been most fatal to Princes in all Ages and that is as Ammianus describes it Postâ—emò hoc moderamine principatus inclaruit quod inter religionum diversitates medius stetit nec quenquam inquietavit neque ut hoc coleretur imperavit aut illud neque interdictis minaâ—ibus subjectorum cervicem ad id quod ipse voluit inclinabat sed intemeratas reliquit has partes ut reperit He excelled in the moderation of his Government in that he stood unconcern'd among all the diversities of Religions and never disturb'd any Man neither commanded this or that way of Worship nor forced his Subjects necks to look which way he pleased but left these Matters altogether inviolated But by the Souldiers leave who was not bound to be an accurate Lawyer this is not universally true for there is extant in the Theodosian Code a particular Law of his own making against the Donatists to forbid their rebaptising upon pain of Deposition and there is another under the title de Haereticis against the Manichees though indeed they were rather Villains than Heretiques who taught and practised all kinds of Vice and Wickedness as the Principles of their Sect and therefore no wonder if they were excepted out of his Clemency but otherwise it extended equally to all By which means the Christian Church was not only over-run with Heresies and its discipline utterly defeated as we have seen in the case of that wicked Man Auxentius who though he were so justly deposed by the Judgment of the Catholick Church yet it took no effect because Valentinian was withheld by this Principle from doing the Office of a Christian Emperor in abetting the legal Decrees of the Church and such an one he himself thought that against Auxentius But beside this Calamity within the Church Heathenism hereby gain'd great ground and appear'd publickly in the World especially by his Edict to restore the heathen Priests to their ancient Immunities and for the sake of this it is that Ammianus commends this Emperor's moderation for it is the most certain rule of Government that all Parties that are under most are for this Principle because it is the only ground that can give them advantage to mount uppermost But the young Emperor Gratian a Prince of great Wisdom and Vertue finding things in so great a disorder by it he at his first coming to the Crown takes particular care for the Churches Peace and Settlement And publishes a Rescript against the publick Meetings of all Hereticks i. e. as the Law it self defines it all Parties whatsoever that did not join in Communion with the Catholicks under punishment of Confiscation of their meeting Places whether Fields or Houses and because by reason of the connivance or corruption of his Officers it was not executed he reinforces it two years after with a threatning Injunction to his Judges to neglect its execution at their Peril And yet Valens perishing soon after in the East and that part of the Empire falling to this Emperor who left the Western Parts that were better settled to his younger Brother Valentinian when he came thither he found things in such confusion by Valens his mis-government that he was forced to submit to the necessity of the Times and for that reason publisht an Edict at Sirmium granting the liberty of publick Assemblies to all Sects excepting only Manichees Photinians and Eunomians This the Historians Socrates and Sozomen set down as the first act of his Government but they were ignorant of what he had enacted in the West As for Theodoret he is quite lost in the whole story turning this act of Indulgence into a severe Law but the apparent ground of his Mistake is his confounding this Rescript with another of Theodosius de fide Catholicâ that bears this Emperor's Name though enacted by Theodosius alone For that was the custom that though the Law were made by one Emperor it was publisht in the name of all But to proceed with Gratian he having setled things as well as he could in the East and returning the year after into the West publishes a Rescript at Milan to cancel the Sirmian indulgence and forbid the Assemblies of all Sects that had been adjudged Hereticks by the Church and Imperial Laws thus we may see what Princes are frequently forced to do as to their Penal Laws by the necessity of the Times and vary their Edicts as the present temper of the World will bear them But now this Emperor having by this seasonable Law given check to the Hereticks in the next place he restores the effectual Discipline of
into open wickedness and practise all the lewd and dishonest things that the worst of Men can act with the confidence and authority of a divine Commission I am sure it was no more severe than what was done by the great Theodosius himself in his Laws against the Manichees in one of which he distinguishes between the Contemplative and the Practical Hereticks the first he out-laws but as for the others known by the names of Eucratitae Saccophori Hydroparastatae and I know not what salvage Sects more he brings them under the sentence of death And is withal so severe as to appoint an Inquisition for their discovery and in truth no care can be too great nor punishment too severe when Men under pretences of a stricter Piety bring in the practice of all sorts of uncleanness and immorality And that was the case of these brutish Wretches they pretended to singular mortification and under it acted all the Wickedness that humane Nature was capable of committing And therefore in such Cases as these it was a great mistake in St. Martin to think a Censure of the Church sufficient punishment and to disswade the Prince from drawing the temporal Sword against them when if ever it is necessary it is certainly most so when Men pervert Religion to the subversion of humane Society And then if they are executed it is not for their Heresie against the Faith but their Treason against the State and such Traitors all such Men are that teach such Doctrins as destroy the Faith of Mankind and the Peace of humane Society And therefore how blame-worthy soever Ithacius might be in his own life or manner of prosecuting and Sulpitius gives him a very ill Character as to both no wise Man could ever have blamed him so severely as he has done as to the prosecution it self and no good Man could have been too active in bringing such brutal Wretches to their due punishment And therefore it was at best but an indiscreet action supposing the truth of the Indictment which Sulpitius himself allows in Theognostus and his Followers in separating Communion from him for prosecuting though in a cause of blood When what he did in that case he was obliged to do as a Member of the Common-Wealth and antecedently to his holy Orders which certainly to whatsoever degree of Gentleness they may oblige a Man they cannot cancel that duty that by nature he owes to his Country And it is no better than Julian's Sarcastick Abuse of our Saviour's Laws to apply his Precepts of Mercy and Forgiveness against the just execution of Laws as if his Religion were set up as the Apostate prophanely objected to it only for the subversion of Civil Government The duty that he commands is a point of Prudence as well as Vertue that Men preserve the temper of their Minds in all the intercourses of life they may prosecute a Malefactor to the Gallows without strangling themselves with spite and revenge but only for the same ends for which the Government that owes him no malice inflicts the Penalty of the Law upon him A Man may hang a Thief and forgive him too And therefore it was no better than a rash and weak action of Theognostus St. Martin and their Adherents in general to condemn Ithacius his prosecution of the Priscillianists as if it had been inconsistent with the meekness of a Christian but much more the exemplary mercy of a Bishop It is indeed an Office that no good-natur'd Man can ever be fond of and less becomes a Clergy-man than any other but yet it is not unlawful nor the breach of any Precept of our Religion and therefore he could not be justly condemn'd for it nay it was so far from being a Sin that it was a duty both in him and all other good Subjects to take care of the preservation of the Common-Wealth by indeavouring to remove such plague-sores out of it And therefore Maximus did but do him justice to call a Synod at Trâ—ives to absolve him from the Excommunication of Theognostus and if he had beside that punisht Theognostus for indeavouring to intercept and obstruct publick Justice I cannot see but that he had acted as became a good and a wise Governor At least I am sure it is much less decent for a Clergy-man to patronize wicked Men against the Laws than to prosecute them provided they have reputation enough which the Civil Law requires and all other Laws ought to do to qualifie them for Evidences If indeed these had been Malefactors of an ordinary size it might not have been unbecoming a Bishop to interpose for mercy but Men that were made up of nothing but Villainy were beyond the reach of compassion and no Man in whatsoever station he was placed ought to spare their prosecution And therefore it was no better than Monkish stubbornness in St. Martin to refuse communion with the Prosecutors after the judgment of the Council and though he was at last induced to communicate with the Council it self by Maximus who bought that condescension of him by giving him the Lives of two of his Friends that had been loyal Officers under Gratian though our crude Abridger says that it was for the sake of a great Priscillianist yet upon it he quitted the Council and could have no peace till he received absolution from an Angel after which he would never more communicate with the Bishops and that I take to be no better than Monkish Enthusiasm These affectations of mercy are very popular things and easily seize Men possess 't and tainted with mortified Vanity for there is generally the height of pride and ostentation under the pomps and shews of Humility And this I doubt was St. Martin's case who though he was a devout Man yet he was altogether unlearned and indiscreet and most miserably over-run with the Scurvy of Enthusiasm and not understanding the true nature of Pride as none of that sort of Men do he was apparently acted by it in all his singularities to the very height of a Cynical vanity that is the rankest sort of Insolence in the World And this is too evident from his Story as it is told by Sulpitius himself To give one instance for all when he was treated by the Emperor who invited all his Nobles to the Entertainment he carried one of his Presbyters along with him and the Emperor being very proud that he had reconciled to himself and his ill Cause a Man so much adored by the People treats him with all the flatteries of Civility seats him next himself and places his Presbyter in the midst of his Nobles that was the highest Place at the Table A Cup is brought to the Emperor according to custom to drink in the first place he commands it to be given to St. Martin expecting at least that he would have return'd the Complement but he without any farther formality very fairly takes off his draught and so delivers the Cup to his Presbyter as 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