at Antioch he saith gave out that both Osius and Liberius had renounced the Nicene Faith and declared the Son to be unlike the Father but Liberius clear'd himself by rejecting the Doctrine of the Anomaeans i. e. the open and professed Arians and this Vrsacius Valens and Germinius then at Sirmium were willing to accept of having a farther Design to carry on in these Parts which was like to be spoiled by the Anomaeans appearing so openly and unseasonably in the East And for the same Reason they were willing to call in that which Hilary calls the Blasphemy of Osius and Potamius as being too open and giving Offence to the Followers of Basilius of Ancyra in the East For now the Emperour having banished so many Bishops and struck so much terrour into the rest thought it a convenient time to settle the Church-affairs to his mind in these Western Parts and to that end he summoned a General Council but justly fearing the Eastern and Western Bishops would no more agree now than they did before at Sardica he appoints the former to meet at Seleucia in Isauria and the latter at Ariminum whose Number saith Severus Sulpicius came to above four hundred and to the same purpose Sozomen When they were assembled Valens and Vrsacius acquainted them with the Emperour 's good Intentions in calling them together and as the onely Expedient for the Peace of the Church they proposed that all former Confessions of Faith should be laid aside as tending to dissension and this to be universally received which they had brought with them from Sirmium where it was drawn up by several Bishops and approved by the Emperour Upon the reading this New Confession of Faith wherein the Son is said to be like the Father according the Scriptures and the Name of Substance agreed to be wholly laid aside the Bishops at Ariminum appeared very much unsatisfied and declared they were for keeping to the Nicene Faith without alteration and required of the Arian Party there present to subscribe it before they proceeded any farther which they refusing to doe they forthwith excommunicated and deposed them and protested against all Innovations in matters of Faith And of these Proceedings of theirs they send an account by several Legates of their own wherein they express their Resolution to adhere to the Nicene Faith as the most effectual Bar against Arianism and other Heresies and they add that the removing of it would open the Breach for Heresie to enter into the Church They charge Vrsacius and Valens with having once been Partakers of the Arian Heresie and on that account thrown out of the Church but were received in again upon their Submission and recantation but now they say in this Council of Ariminum they had made a fresh Attempt on the Faith of the Church bringing in a Doctrine full of Blasphemies as it is in Socrates but in Hilary's Fragments it is onely that their Faith contained multa perversae Doctrinae which shews that they looked on the Sirmian Creed as dangerous and heretical And in the same Fragments it appears by the Acts of the Council that they proceeded against Valens Vrsacius Germinius and Caius as Hereticks and Introducers of Heresie and then made a solemn Protestation that they would never recede from the Nicene Faith Their ten Brethren whom they sent to Constantius to acquaint him with the Proceedings of the Council he would not admit to speak with him For he was informed beforehand by the Arian Party how things went in the Council at which he was extremely displeased and resolved to mortifie the Bishops so as to bring them to his Will at last He sends word to the Council how much his thoughts were then taken up with his Eastern Expedition and that these matters required greater freedom of Mind to examine them than he had at such a time and so commands the Legates to wait at Hadrianople till his Return The Council perceived by this Message that his Design was to weary them out hoping at last as Theodoret expresses it to bring them to consent to the demolishing that Bulwark which kept Heresie out of the Church i. e. the Authority of the Council of Nice To this smart Message the Council returned a resolute Reply That they would not recede from their former Decree but humbly beg leave to return to their Bishopricks before Winter being put to great hardships in that strait Place This was to let the Emperour know how he might deal with them and he sends a charge to his Lieutenant not to let them stir till they all consented And in the mean time effectual means were used with their Legates in the East to bring them to terms an account whereof we have in Hilary's Fragments which were to null all the former Proceedings and to receive those who were there deposed to Communion Which being done they were sent back to decoy the rest of the Council who at first were very stiff but by degrees they were so softned that they yielded at last to the Emperour 's own Terms The very Instrument of their Consent is extant in Hilary's Fragments wherein they declare their full Agreement to the laying aside the Terms of Substance and Consubstantial in the Creed i. e. to the voiding the Authority of the Council of Nice which was the thing all along aimed at by the Arian Party And Athanasius saith it was there declared unlawfull to use the word Substance or Hypostasis concerning God It is time now to consider how far those Churches can be charged with Arianism whose Bishops were there present and consented to the Decrees of this Council It is a noted Saying of St. Jerome on this Occasion that the World then groaned and wondered at its being become Arian Which a late Authour saith is a passage quite worn out by our Innovatours Whom doth he mean by these Innovatours The Divines of the Church of England who from time to time have made use of it Not to prove an Apostasie of the Catholick Church from the true Faith which no Man in his Wits ever dreamt of but from hence to overthrow the pretended Infallibility of General Councils or such as have been so called And notwithstanding the opprobrious Name of Innovatours which as we find in those of the Church of Rome often belongs to those who give it to others it is very easie to prove that this one Instance of the Council of Ariminum doth overthrow not onely the Pretence to the Infallibility of General Councils but the absolute binding Authority of any till after due examination of the Reasons and Motives of their Proceedings For it is apparent by the whole Series of the Story as I have faithfully deduced it that the whole Design of the Arian Party was to overthrow the Authority of the Council of Nice which they were never able to compass by a General Council till this of Ariminum agreeing as they
Banchor and the ancient Western Monasteries and their difference as to Learning from the Benedictine Institution Of Gildas his Iren whether an Vniversity in Britain Of the Schools of Learning in the Roman Cities chiefly at Rome Alexandria and Constantinople and the Professours of Arts and Sciences and the publick Libraries there Of the Schools of Learning in the Provinces and the Constitution of Gratian to that purpose extending to Britain Of the publick Service of the British Churches The Gallican Offices introduced by St. German The Nature of them at large explained and their Difference from the Roman Offices both as to the Morning and Communion Service The Conformity of the Liturgy of the Church of England to the ancient British Offices and not derived from the Church of Rome as our Dissenters affirm THE Succession of the British Churches being thus deduced from their original to the times of the Christian Emperours it will be necessary to give an account of the Faith and Service which were then received by them And it is so much the more necessary to enquire into the Faith of the British Churches because they are charged with two remarkable Heresies of those times viz. Arianism and Pelagianism and by no less Authority than that of Gildas and Bede The Charge of Arianism is grounded upon the universal spreading of that Heresie over the World as Bede expresses it and therefore to shew how far the British Churches were concerned we must search into the History of that Heresie from the Council of Nice to the Council of Ariminum where the British Bishops were present It is confidently affirmed by a late Writer That the Arian Faction was wholly supprest by the Nicene Council and all the Troubles that were made after that were raised by the Eusebians who were as forward as any to anathematize the Arians and all the Persecutions were raised by them under a Pretence of Prudence and Moderation That they never in the least appear'd after the Council of Nice in behalf of the Arian Doctrine but their whole fury was bent against the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Athanasius That in the times of Constantius and Constans the Cause of Arius was wholly laid aside by both Parties and the onely Contest was about the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Eusebian Cause was not to restore Arianism but to piece up the Peace of the Church by comprehending all in one Communion or by mutual forbearance But if it be made appear that the Arian Faction was still busie and active after the Nicene Council that the Contest about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was with a design to overthrow the Nicene Faith that the Eusebians great business was if possible to restore Arianism then it will follow that some Mens hatred of Prudence and Moderation is beyond their skill and judgment in the History of the Church and the making out of these things will clear the History of Arianism to the Council of Ariminum But before I come to the Evidence arising from the Authentick Records of the Church it will not be unpleasant to observe that this very Writer is so great an Enemy to the design of Reconcilers that it is hardly possible even in this matter to reconcile him to himself For he tells us that the most considerable Eusebians in the Western Churches viz. Valens Ursacius and their Associates had been secret Arians all along that the word Substance was left out of the third Sirmian Creed to please Valens and his Party who being emboldned by this Creed whereby they had at length shaken off all the Clogs that had been hitherto fasten'd on them to hinder their return to Arianism moved at the Council at Ariminum that all former Creeds might be abolished and the Sirmian Creed be established for ever Doth this consist with the Arian Factions being totally supprest by the Council of Nice and none ever appearing in behalf of the Arian Doctrine after and the Eusebians never moving for restoring Arianism but onely for a sort of Comprehension and Toleration In another place he saith the Eusebians endeavoured to supplant the Nicene Faith though they durst not disown it And was the Arian Faction then totally supprest while the Eusebians remained These are the Men whom he calls the old Eusebian Knaves And for the Acacians he saith when they had got the Mastery they put off all disguise and declared for Arianism Is it possible for the same person to say that after the Nicene Council they never appeared in behalf of the Arian Doctrine in the Eastern and Western Churches and yet When they put off their disguise they declared for Arianism What is this but appearing openly and plainly for the Arian Doctrine And if we believe so good an Authour as himself their Contest after the Council of Nice was so far from being merely about the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he frequently saith that Controversie did take in the whole Merits of the Cause as will appear from his own words in several places As when he speaks of the Council of Nice he saith The whole Controversie was reduced to the word Consubstantial which the Eusebians at first refused to admit as being no Scripture word but without its admission nothing else would satisfie the Council and good reason they had for it because to part with that word after the Controversie was once raised would have been to give up the Cause for it was unavoidable that if the Son were not of the same substance with the Father he must have been made out of the same common and created substance with all other Creatures and therefore when the Scriptures give him a greater Dignity of Nature than to any created Being they thereby make him of the same uncreated Substance with the Father so that they plainly assert his Consubstantiality though they use not the word But when the Truth itself was denied by the Arian Hereticks and the Son of God thrust down into the rank of created Beings and defined to be a Creature made of nothing it was time for the Church to stop this Heresie by such a Test as would admit of no Prevarication which was effectually done by this word and as cunning and shuffling as the Arians were they were never able to swallow or chew it and therefore it was but a weak part of the Eusebians to shew so much zeal against the word when they professed to allow the thing For if our Saviour were not a mere Creature he must be of the same uncreated substance with the Father because there is no middle between created and uncreated Substance so that whoever denied the Consubstantiality could not avoid the Heresie of Paulus Samosatenus which yet the Arians themselves professed to defie for if he were a mere Creature it is no matter how soon or how late he was created And therefore it is not be imagined that the
Substance with the Father after the same manner that the Son of Man is For as he is the Son so he is the Word and Wisedom of the Father and the internal Word or Conception in Man is no divisible part of himself but lest the Notion of Word should seem to destroy his real Subsistence therefore the Notion of Son is added in Scripture to that of Word that we may know him to be a living Word and substantial Wisedom So that when we say the Son is consubstantial to the Father we understand it not by way of Division as among Bodies but abstracting our Minds from all corporeal things we attribute this to the Son of God in a way agreeing to the Divine Nature and mean by it that he is not produced by his Will as the Creatures are nor merely his Son by Adoption but that he is the true Eternal Son of God by such an emanation as Splendour from Light or Water from the Fountain And therefore when they interpreted the term Son in a way agreeable to the Divine Nature he wonders they should stick so much at the word Consubstantial which was capable of the same Interpretation The second Objection was That those who condemned the Samosatenian Heresie rejected the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In answer to this Athanasius shews that the word was so much used and allowed in the Christian Church before the Samosatenian Heresie was heard of that when Dionysius of Alexandria was accused to Dionysius of Rome for rejecting it the Council thereupon was so much concerned that the Bishop of Rome wrote their sense to the Bishop of Alexandria about it he returns an Answer wherein he owns all the sense contained under it as appears by his Epistle in Athanasius but for those who opposed Paulus Samosatenus he saith they took the Word in a corporeal sense as if it implied a distinct Substance from the Father But saith he those who condemned the Arians saw farther into this matter considering that it ought not to be applied to the Divine Nature as it is to corporeal Substances and the Son of God not being a Creature but begotten of the Substance of the Father therefore with great Reason they used the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as being most proper to express the Sense of the Christian Church against the Arian Heresie as he shews there at large From these passages of Athanasius it appears that there was a third Party then in the Church distinct from the Nicenists and the Eusebians The former would by no means yield to any relaxation of the Council of Nice because they evidently saw that this Design was carried on by those who made it their business under that pretence to introduce Arianism who were the Eusebians But there were others extremely concerned for the Peace of the Church and on that account were willing to let go the term 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hoping the Doctrine might be secured by other expressions and this facility of theirs gave the greatest advantage to the Eusebian Party in all their Councils who continually almost overreached and outwitted them under the pretence of Accommodation For by this Artifice they gained their Votes and when they had them made use of them merely to serve their own Designs as appears by the Account the Historians give of the management of the Arian Affairs under the Reign of Constantius Socrates saith that immediately after the death of Constantine Eusebius and Theognis the Heads of the Arian Faction apprehended it now to be a convenient season for them to throw down the Nicene Faith and to set up Arianism and to this purpose they endeavoured to hinder Athanasius from returning to Alexandria But first they gained the Eunuchs and Court-favorites then the Wife of Constantius himself to embrace Arianism and so the Controversie of a sudden spread into the Court Camp Cities and all Places of the East for the Western Churches continued quiet during the Reign of Constans to whose share all the Western Provinces in a short time fell After the Death of Alexander Bishop of Constantinople the two Parties openly divided in the Choice of a Successour the one chusing Paulus and the Arians Macedonius this nettled Constantius who coming to Constantinople calls a Council of Arian Bishops who depose Paulus and set up Eusebius of Nicomedia who presently falls to work going with the Emperour to Antioch where under the pretence of a Dedication as is observed in the precedent Chapter a Council of ninety Bishops was assembled but the Design was saith Socrates to overthrow the Nicene Faith Here they made some Canons to ensnare Athanasius of which before As to the matter of Faith they durst not openly propose the nulling the Council of Nice but they gained this great Point That the Matters of Faith might be discussed after it and so they set open the Gate for New Councils which by degrees might establish the Arian Heresie Sozomen saith that after the death of Constantine the secret Arians began to shew themselves more openly among whom Eusebius and Theognis especially bestirr'd themselves to advance Arianism He agrees with Socrates as to the spreading of it in the Court and elsewhere and in the other particulars to the Council at Antioch but he saith they framed their Confession of Faith in such ambiguous terms that neither Party could quarrel with the Words But they left out any mention of the Substance of Father and Son and the word Consubstantial and so in effect overthrew the Council of Nice This is that Confession of Faith which the Council in Isauria called the Authentick one made at Antioch in the Dedication But it was not so Authentick but they thought good to alter it and some months after sent another to Constans to explain themselves more fully whereby they reject those who said the Son was made of Nothing or of another Hypostasis and not from God Who could imagine these to have been any other than very sound and orthodox Men Especially when three years after they sent a larger Confession of Faith into the Western Parts for their own Vindication wherein they anathematize those who held three Gods or that Christ was not God or that he was begotten of any other Substance besides God c. But that there was juggling under all this appears because as Athanasius observes they were still altering their Forms for this again was changed several times at Sirmium before they resolved upon that which was to be carried to the Council of Ariminum And although the difference in the matters of Faith as delivered by them seem'd now very nice and subtile yet they were irreconcilably set against the Council of Nice and all that adhered to it Which was a plain Evidence that they concealed their sense under ambiguous words or that they saw it necessary at present to seem orthodox that so they might the better set aside the Council of Nice
NO Christian Church planted in Britain during the Reign of Tiberius Gildas his Words mis-understood The Tradition concerning Joseph of Arimathea and his Brethren coming to Glassenbury at large examined No Foot-steps of it in the British times The pretended Testimonies of British Writers disproved St. Patrick's Epistle a Forgery Of the Saxon Charters especially the large one of King Ina. The Antiquity of Seals in England Ingulphus his Testimony explained All the Saxon Charters suspicious till the end of the seventh Century The occasion of this Tradition from an old British Church there The Circumstances about Joseph of Arimathea and Arviragus very improbable Sr. Henry Spelman vindicated The State of the Roman Province in Britain about that time No such King as Arviragus then Not the same with Caractacus A Christian Church proved to be Planted here in the Apostles times The Authentick Testimonies of Eusebius Theodoret and Clemens Romanus to that purpose St. Paul in Probability the first Founder of a Church here The Time and Opportunity he had for it after his Release Of Pomponia and Graecina Claudia Rufina Christians at Rome and their influence on his coming hither St. Peter and St. Paul compared as to their Preaching here and the far greater Probability of St. Paul's IT is an Opinion generally received among our later Writers as one of them tells the World That the Conversion of the British Nation to the Christian Faith was performed towards the latter end of the Reign of Tiberius Caesar i. e. about thirty seven years after Christ's Nativity But whosoever compares the Circumstances of those times and considers the small number of the years between our Saviour's Passion and the death of Tiberius will find very little Probability of the founding a Christian Church so soon in a place so remote as Britain To make this appear I shall not insist upon the Testimony of Apollonius in Eusebius concerning the ancient Tradition That our Saviour commanded his Apostles not to depart from Jerusalem within twelve Years after his Ascension nor on that of the Alexandrian Chronicle wherein it is said That the Apostles did not separate till after the Council at Jerusalem nor on that of Hippolytus Thebanus in Glycas and of Euodius in Nicephorus who reckon the Martyrdom of St. Stephen to be seven Years after Christ's Resurrection which some learned Chronologers think more probable than the common Computation which allows but one before which time it is not pretended by any that the Disciples were dispersed abroad But that which is of greater force and certainty is supposing the dispersion to have been within the Reign of Tiberius yet the Scripture gives such an Account of the Extent and Design of the Disciples preaching upon it as utterly overthrows any Probability of their coming hither for the Words are Now they which were scattered abroad upon the Persecution that arose about Stephen travelled as far as Phenice and Cyprus and Antioch Preaching the Word unto none but unto the Jews alone But the nearest of these places is at a great distance from Britain and if they Preached to none but to the Jews they were not likely to convert the Gentile Britains Baronius grants A. D. 35. That hitherto the Jews had onely the Gospel preached to them Although at the same time he pleads for the Tradition of Lazarus Mary Magdalen Martha and Marcella coming then with Maximinus in a Ship without Oars to Marseilles with a design no doubt to spread the Gospel among the Gentiles in Gaul for Lazarus is supposed to have been Bishop of Marseilles and Maximinus of Aix And he adds out of a Manuscript in the Vatican Library which not onely like the Housholder in the Gospel brings forth things New and Old but sometimes things New for Old as happens in the Case of this Manuscript it being lately written as Archbishop Vsher hath observed That Joseph of Arimathea did bear them Company and came over into Britain to Preach the Gospel Which according to his own Supposition must be onely to the Jews in Britain if there were any here But if it be understood of the Gentiles Jac. Sirmondus saith in plain Terms This Tradition contradicts the Scripture For saith he If the People of Marseilles or Britain had the Gospel Preached to them so soon how comes it to pass that six Years after Cornelius is said to be the first Fruits of the Gentiles And that upon the Incouragement of his Example those of the Dispersion began to Preach to the Gentiles at Antioch Which is confessed by Baronius himself The strength of which Argument hath prevailed so much in France That the Defenders of this Tradition have been there contented to let go the Reign of Tiberius and to place it a great deal later Anno Dom. 62. For they evidently saw there was no Possibility of defending it upon other Terms although hereby they make Lazarus and Joseph of Arimathea of great Age when they undertook this Voyage with their Companions But when such a Tradition is either wholly rejected there as disagreeing to the Scripture or set so much later on purpose to reconcile it with the Acts of the Apostles it cannot but seem strange among us that there should be such an Opinion still so generally received That the Gospel should be here Preached before the end of the Reign of Tiberius But that which hath mis-led most of our Writers hath been a passage in Gildas which they have applyed to the particular Preaching of the Gospel in Britain whereas it seems onely to be understood of the General Liberty of Preaching it throughout the World as will best appear by considering not barely the Words but the Circumstances of them Gildas having undertaken to give some Account of the ancient British Church in the beginning of his Epistle In the first place sadly laments the want of any Domestick Monuments to give him certain information For saith he If there were any such they were either burnt by our Enemies or carried so far by the Banishment of our Countreymen that they no longer appear and therefore he was forced to pick up what he could out of Foreign Writers without any continued Series From hence he proceeds to speak of the Romans easie Conquest of Britain but Difficult keeping of it the Inhabitants being so unable to withstand the Romans and yet so unwilling to obey them Of which he gives a remarkable instance in the Revolt under Boadicea and the harder usage of the Britains after it Interea saith he Interea glaciali frigore rigenti Insulae veluti longiore terrarum recessu soli visibili non proximae verus ille non de firmamento solum L. Sol temporali sed de summa etiam coelorum arce tempora cuncta excedente universo orbi praefulgidum sui coruscum ostendens tempore ut scimus summo Tiberii Caesaris quo absque ullo impedimento ejus propagabatur Religio