e. under instruction in order to their Baptism or by reason of any hainous crime under the censures and suspension of the Church and not yet passed through the several stages of the Penitents might not communicate and were therefore commanded to depart the Church when the rest went to the celebration of the Sacrament for looking upon the Lords Supper as the highest and most solemn act of Religion they thought they could never take care enough in the dispensing of it accordingly who ever was found guilty of any scandalous fault was according to the nature of the offence debarred the Communion a shorter or a longer time and sometimes all their life not to be reconciled and taken into the communion of the Church till they had continued their repentance to their death-bed As for those persons that could not be present either through distance of place sickness or any other just cause the Eucharist was wont to be sent home to them some little pieces of the consecrated bread dipt in the sacramental Cup which were usually carried by the Deacon or some inferior Officer of the Church or in cases of necessity by any other person as in the case of Serapion of whom Dionysius of Alexandria relates that having been all his life a good man at last lapsed in a time of persecution and though he oft desired reconciliation yet none would communicate with him not long after he was seized upon by a mortal sickness depriv'd of the use of his speech and senses but coming to himself after four days he sends his Nephew a little Boy late at night for one of the Presbyters to come to him the Minister was at that time sick but considering the exigence of the case gives the Boy a little piece of the Eucharist bids him to moisten it with a little water and so give it him in his mouth which he did and immediately the old man chearfully departed this life For the better understanding of which we are to observe that those who had lapsed into Idolatry were to undergo a very long time of penance and were not many times admitted to the Communion till they were near their death and because it sometimes hapned that they were overtaken with sudden death before the Sacrament could be administred to them thence a custom sprung up to give it them after they were dead which they did doubtless upon this ground that they might give some kind of evidence that those persons died in the peace and communion of the Church though this usage was afterwards by many Councils abrogated and laid aside I take no notice in this place of their giving the Eucharist to new-baptized Infants the case being so commonly known and obvious In those early times nothing was more common than for Christians either to carry or to have sent to them some parts of the Eucharist which they kept in some decent place in their houses against all emergent occasions especially to fortifie and strengthen their faith in times of persecution and to encrease kindness and amity with one another whence one that was well versed in Church-Antiquities conjectures that when ever they entertained Friends or Strangers they used before every meal first to give them some parts of the holy Eucharist as being the greatest badge the strongest band of true love and friendship in the world Besides these parcels of the sacramental Elements there were wont at the celebration of the Communion to be pieces of bread which remained of the Offerings of the people which being solemnly blessed by the Bishop might be given to those who had no right to be at the Lords Table as to the Catechumens and such like and were to them instead of the Sacrament These pieces were properly called Eulogiae because set apart by solemn benediction and were sent up and down the Towns and Villages round about to testifie and represent their mutual union and fellowship with one another nay and sometimes from Churches in one Country to those that were in another which was also done by the Eucharist it self for so Irenaeus in a Letter to Pope Victor tells us that the Ministers of Churches though differing in some little circumstances did yet use to send the Eucharist to one another Which custom is also taken notice of by Zonaras but because the carrying the Sacramental Elements up and down the World was thought not so well to consist with the reverence and veneration that is due to this solemn Ordinance therefore it was abolished by the Laodicean Synod and these Eulogiae or pieces of bread appointed at Easter to be sent up and down in their room For the Time the next circumstance when they met together for this solemn Action it was in general at their publick Assemblies on the Lords day always or the first day of the week as we find it in the History of the Apostles Acts besides other days and especially Saturday on which day all the Churches in the World those of Rome only and Alexandria excepted used to celebrate this Sacrament as the Historian informs us What time of the day they took to do it is not altogether so certain our blessed Saviour and his Apostles celebrated it at night at the time of the Jewish Passover but whether the Apostles and their immediate Successors punctually observed this circumstance may be doubted 't is probable that the holy Eucharist which S. Paul speaks of in the Church of Corinth was solemnized in the morning the Apostles calling it a Supper as Chrysostom thinks not because 't was done in the evening but the more effectually to put them in mind of the time when our Lord did institute those holy Mysteries Tertullian assures us in his time 't was done in tempore victus about Supper-time as all understand him and very often in the morning before day when they held their religious Assemblies of which Pliny also takes notice in his Letter to the Emperour for in those times of Persecution when they were hunted out by the inquisitive malice of their enemies they were glad of the remotest corners the most unseasonable hours when they could meet to perform the joynt offices of Religion But this communicating at evening or at night either lasted only during the extreme heats of Persecution or at least wore off apace for Cyprian expresly pleads against it affirming that it ought to be in the morning and so indeed in a short time it prevailed over most parts of the World except in some places of Egypt near Alexandria of which Socrates tells us that after they had sufficiently feasted themselves in the evening they were wont to receive the Sacrament Under this circumstance of time we may take occasion to consider how oft in those days they usually met at this table And at first while the Spirit of Christianity was yet warm and vigorous and the hearts of men passionately inflamed with the
up the blood and ravenously tear off and snatch away the several parts of it and with this sacrifice their confederacy and combination is made and by the conscience of so great a villany they are mutually obliged to silence Such sacred rites as these being more horrid and barbarous than the highest sacriledges in the world To this monstrous and horrid charge the Christians returned these answers That they appeal'd to the common Faith of mankind whether they could really believe them to be guilty of these things so abhorrent to all the principles of Humane Nature and to the Christians known Principles and practices in all other things that they should measure the Christians by themselves and if they themselves could not be guilty of such things they should not suspect it by the Christians who were endued with the same Principles of humanity with other men that they were so far from being friends to murder or man-slaughter that they held it unlawful to be present at the Gladiatory sports where mens lives were so want only sacrificed to the pleasure and curiosity of the people that they accounted it murder for any woman by evil arts to procure abortion to stifle the embryo to kill a child in a manner before it be alive it being much at one to hinder life as to take it away to kill a man or destroy what would be one seeing he truly destroys the fruit that kills it in the seed that it was not likely they should delight in mans blood who never tasted any blood at all abstaining from things strangled and from blood And that the very Heathens themselves confessed this when amongst the several arts they used to discover whether men were Christians they used to offer them bladders full of blood knowing that they held it unlawful to taste any and therefore it was mightily improbable they should thirst after humane blood who abhorred even the blood of beasts That they heartily believed the Resurrection of the dead and therefore would not make themselves the Sepulchers of those bodies which were to rise again and feed upon them as they did upon other bodies which were to have no resurrection that the truth was if this charge was true of any it was true only of the Gentiles themselves amongst whom these things were daily allowed and practised That Saturn one of their chief deities did not only expose but eat his own children to him infants in Africk were offered in sacrifice by their own parents a custome that openly continued till the Proconsul-ship of Tiberius which though he abolished it yet it continued still in corners in Tertullians days To his Son Jupiter they offered humane sacrifices even in Rome it self and that even to the time of M. Foelix as he himself testifies which is no more than what Porphyry himself after he had reckoned up in how many parts of the world Humane sacrifices were in use confesses was done at Rome in the Feast of Jupiter Latialis even in his time Many other instances of such barbarous practices are there produced by those two Apologists which they urge with great advantage upon their adversaries whom they challenged to make any such thing good against them And no sooner did discipline begin to be regularly setled but their principles herein were every where confirmed by the Canons of the Church either private or publick the woman that industriously made her self miscarry was adjudged to be guilty of murder and condemn'd to the same punishment a ten years penance which was adjudg'd to be the case of any that brought forth upon the way and exposed her Infant By the law of the State made by the Emperour Valentinian whosoever whether man or woman kill'd an Infant was to be subject to the same capital punishment as if he had kill'd an adult person which may very well be understood even of Infants kill'd in the womb the punishment whereof was formerly for the most part no more than banishment He that was guilty of wilful murder was by S. Basil's rule to undergo a twenty years penance before he was admitted to the Sacrament though by several passages in Tertullian it appears that Homicides in his time were more severely treated by the Church for they were not only bound to a perpetual penance but were not absolv'd at death But this severity shortly after began to relax and such persons though obliged to acts of repentance all their life yet at death were absolved and admitted to Communion as is expresly provided by the decree of the Ancyran Council Thus clear did the Christians all along stand from any just suspicion of that gross piece of inhumanity which their enemies so confidently charged upon them As for the rise and occasion of this malicious charge it was doubtless of the same growth with that of their incestuous mixtures spoken of before both springing from the abominable practices of some filthy Hereticks who sheltred themselves under the name of Christians Epiphanius particularly reporting of the Gnosticks what the Heathens generally charged upon the Christians for he tells us of them that at their meetings they were wont to take an Infant begotten in their promiscuous mixtures and beating it in a mortar to season it with honey and pepper and some other spices and perfumes to make it palatable and then like swine or dogs to devour it and then to conclude all with prayer and this they accounted their perfect pass-over I am not ignorant that a learned man will by no means believe that any of the ancient Hereticks did ever arrive to so much barbarousness and immanity as to be guilty of such things and conceives them to have been feigned meerly out of hatred to those pestilent hereticks but there 's little reason to suspect the truth of it Epiphanius assuring us that he had the account that he gives from the mouths of the Gnosticks themselves and that many of the women who were deceiv'd into those abominable errours did not only discover these things to him but that he himself in his younger years while he was in Egypt had been assaulted by them and by all the arts of flattery and perswasion of wantonness and immdesty had been set upon to joyn himself to them And certainly 't is not imaginable that a person so venerable for learning and piety as Epiphanius was should impose upon us by feigning so gross and notorious a falshood Besides whoever reads Irenaeus in whose time these heresies were most riâ—e and predominant and considers the account that he gives of them which he mainly received from persons of their own party after they were returned back to the Church will see little reason either to think any wickedness too great for them to boggle at or to doubt of the truth of what he reports concerning them CHAP. II. Of their admirable Love and Charity The excellent temper of the
that stood under this capacity a formal sentence was always denounced against him it being many times sufficient that the fact he had done was evident and notorious as in the case of the lapsed that had offered sacrifice for in this case the offender was look'd upon as ipso facto excommunicate and all religious commerce forborn towards him 'T is true that in some cases the Martyrs as we shall see more anon finding such lapsed persons truly penitent did receive them into private Communion so did those Martyrs Dionysius Alexandrinus speaks of in his Letter to Fabius Bishop of Antioch they took the penitents that had fallen into idolatry into their company and Communicated with them both at Prayers and Meals but to publick Communion they were never admitted till they had exactly fulfilled the discipline of the Church which principally consisted in many severe acts of repentance and mortification more or less according to the nature of the offence During this space of penance they appeared in all the formalities of sorrow and mourning in a sordid and squalid habit with a sad countenance and a head hung down with tears in their eyes standing without at the Church doors for they were not suffered to enter in falling down upon their knees to the Ministers as they went in and begging the prayers of all good Christians for themselves with all the expressions and demonstrations of a sorrowful and dejected mind reckoning the lower they lay in repentance the higher it would exalt them the more sordid they appeared the more they should be cleansed and purified the less they spared themselves the more God would spare them at these times also they made open confession of their faults this being accounted the very spring of repentance and without which they concluded it could not be real Out of confession says Tertullian is born repentance and by repentance God is pacified and therefore without this neither riches nor honour would procure any admission into the Church Thus Eusebius reports that when Philippus the Emperour would have gone in with the rest of the Christians upon Easter-eve to have partaked of the prayers of the Church the Bishop of the place would by no means suffer it unless he first made confession of his sins and passed through the order of the Penitents being guilty of very great and enormous sins which 't is said he very willingly submitted to testifying by his actions his real and religious fear of the Divine Majesty This story though as to the main of it it might be true yet as fastened upon Philip the Emperour I have formerly shewed it to be false and that it 's rather meant of one Philippus who was Governour in Egypt and professed himself a Christian but however this was 't is certain that a person as great as he Theodosius the Great for his bloody and barbarous slaughter of the Thessalonians was by S. Ambrose Bishop of Millain suspended brought to publick confession and forced to undergo a severe course of penance for eight months together when after great demonstrations of a hearty sorrow and sincere repentance not more rigidly imposed upon him than readily and willingly received by him after his usual prostrations in the Church as if unworthy either to stand or kneel crying out in the words of David My soul cleaveth unto the dust quicken thou me according to thy word after having oft torn his hair beat his forehead water'd his cheeks with tears and humbly beg'd peace and pardon he was absolved and restored to Communion with the Church of which passage they who would know more may find the story largely related by Theodoret. This severity was used towards offenders partly to make them more sensible of their sins partly to affright and deterr others but principally to give satisfaction both to God and his Church concerning the reality and sincerity of their repentance Hence it is that these Penances in the Writings of those times are so often called satisfactions for whenever those Fathers use the word 't is either with respect to men or God if to men then the meaning is that by these external acts of sorrow and mortification they satisfie the Church of their repentance and make reparation for those offences and scandals which they had given by their sins If to God then 't is taken for the acknowledgement of a mans fault and the begging of pardon and remission Thus Cyprian speaking of the state of impenitent sinners aggravates it by this that they do peccare nec satisfacere sin but make no satisfaction i.e. as in the very next words he explains it they do not peccata deflere confess and bewail their sins and before discoursing about Gods being the only object of tears and sorrow for sin which is to be addressed to God and not man he tells us 't is God that is to be appeased by satisfaction that he being greatly offended is to be intreated by a long and full repentance as being alone able to pardon those sins that are committed against him So that the satisfaction which they reckon'd they made to God consisted in seeking to avert his displeasure and to regain his forfeited favour by a deep contrition and sorrow for sin by a real acknowledgement and forsaking of their faults and by an humble giving to God the glory both of his mercy and his justice Thence confession is called by Tertullian the Counsel or Intendment of satisfaction And a little after he describes it thus Confession says he is that whereby we acknowledge our offence to God not as if he were ignorant of it but inasmuch as by confession satisfaction is forwarded by confession repentance is produced and by repentance God is appeased The same both he Cyprian and others frequently use in the same sence which I note the rather because of that absurd and impious doctrine so currant amongst the Papists and which they pretend to derive from these very Fathers that by works of penance compensation is made to God for the debt of punishment that was contracted whereby at least the temporal penalties due to sin are meritoriously expiated and done away But this besides that it is flatly repugnant to the doctrine of antiquity how much 't is derogatory to the honour of divine grace and the infinite satisfaction of the Son of God I shall not now stand to dispute To return therefore This term of penance was usually exacted with great rigour and seldom dispensed with no indulgence or admission being granted till the full time was compleated Therefore Cyprian smartly chides with some Presbyters who had taken upon them to absolve the lapsed before their time and that whereas in lesser offences men were obliged to the just time of penance and to observe the order of discipline they in a crime of so heinous a nature had hand over head admitted them to Communion before they had gone through their penance
his particular lot and portion comprehending the body of the people in general But afterwards this title was confin'd to narrower bounds and became appropriate to that Tribe which God had made choice of to stand before him to wait at his Altar and to minister in the services of his Worship And after the expiration of their Oeconomy was accordingly used to denote the ministry of the Gospel the persons peculiarly consecrated and devoted to the service of God in the Christian Church the Clergie being those qui divino cultui ministeria religionis impendunt as they are defin'd in a Law of the Emperour Constantine who are set apart for the ministeries of Religion in matters relating to the Divine Worship Now the whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 't is often called in the Apostles Canons the roll of the Clergie of the ancient Church taking it within the compass of its first four hundred years consisted of two sorts of persons the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who were peculiarly consecrated to the more proper and immediate acts of the Worship of God and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as were set apart only for the more mean and common services of the Church Of the first sort were these three Bishops Presbyters and Deacons The first and principal Officer of the Church was the President or Bishop usually chosen out of the Presbyters I shall not here concern my self in the disputes whether Episcopacy as a superior order to Presbytery was of divine institution a controversie sufficiently ventilated in the late times it being enough to my purpose what is acknowledged both by Blondel and Salmasius the most learned defenders of Presbytery that Bishops were distinct from and superior to Presbyters in the second Century or the next Age to the Apostles The main work and office of a Bishop was to teach and instruct the people to administer the Sacraments to absolve Penitents to eject and excommunicate obstinate and incorrigible offenders to preside in the Assemblies of the Clergy to ordain inferiour Officers in the Church to call them to account and to suspend or deal with them according to the nature of the offence to urge the observance of Ecclesiastical Laws and to appoint and institute such indifferent Rites as were for the decent and orderly administration of his Church In short according to the notation of his name he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Watchman and Sentinal and therefore oblig'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diligently and carefully to inspect and observe to superintend and provide for those that were under his charge This Zonaras tells us was implied in the Bishops Throne being placed on high in the most eminent part of the Church to denote how much 't was his duty from thence to overlook and very diligently to observe the people that were under him These and many more were the unquestionable rights and duties of the Episcopal Office which because it was very difficult and troublesom for one man to discharge especially where the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Diocess as we now call it was any thing large therefore upon the multiplying of Country Churches it was thought fit to take in a subordinate sort of Bishops called Chorepiscopi Country or as amongst us they have been called suffragan Bishops whose business it was to superintend and inspect the Churches in the Country that lay more remote from the City where the Episcopal See was and which the Bishop could not always inspect and oversee in his own person These were the Vicarii Episcoporum as they are called in Isidores Version of the thirteenth Canon both of the Ancyran and Neocaesarean Council the Bishops Deputies chosen out of the fittest and gravest persons In the Canon of the last mentioned Council they are said to be chosen in imitation of the seventy not the seventy Elders which Moses took in to bear part of the Government as some have glossed the words of that Canon but of the seventy Disciples whom our Lord made choice of to send up and down the Countries to preach the Gospel as both Zonaras and Balsamon understand it and thereupon by reason of their great care and pains are commanded to be esteemed very honourable Their authority was much greater than that of Presbyters and yet much inferior to the Bishop Bishops really they were though their power confin'd within narrow limits they were not allowed to ordain either Presbyters or Deacons unless peculiarly licens'd to it by the Bishop of the Diocess though they might ordain sub-Deacons Readers and any inferiour Officers under them They were to be assistant to the Bishop might be present at Synods and Councils to many whereof we find their subscriptions and had power to give Letters of peace i. e. such Letters whereby the Bishop of one Diocess was wont to recommend any of his Clergy to the Bishop of another that so a fair understanding and correspondence might be maintained between them a priviledge expresly denied to any Presbyter whatsoever But lest this wandring employment of the Chorepiscopi should reflect any dishonour upon the Episcopal Office there were certain Presbyters appointed in their room called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Visiters often mentioned in the ancient Canons and Acts of Councils who being tied to no certain place were to go up and down the Country to observe and correct what was amiss And these doubtless were those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spoken of in the thirteenth Canon of the Neocaesarean Council those rural Presbyters who are there forbid to consecrate the Eucharist in the City Church in the presence of the Bishop or the Presbyters of the City As Christianity encreased and overspread all parts and especially the Cities of the Empire it was found necessary yet farther to enlarge the Episcopal Office and as there was commonly a Bishop in every great City so in the Metropolis as the Romans called it the Mother City of every Province wherein they had Courts of Civil Judicature there was an Archbishop or a Metropolitan who had Ecclesiastical jurisdiction over all the Churches within that Province He was superior to all the Bishops within those limits to him it belonged either to ordain or to ratifie the elections and ordinations of all the Bishops within his Province insomuch that without his confirmation they were looked upon as null and void Once at least every year he was to summon the Bishops under him to a Synod to enquire into and direct the Ecclesiastical affairs within that Province to inspect the lives and manners the opinions and principles of his Bishops to admonish reprove and suspend them that were disorderly and irregular if any controversies or contentions happened between any of them he was to have the hearing and determination of them and indeed no matter of moment was done within the whole Province without first consulting him in the case Besides this Metropolitan there was many times another in the same
off the sacred obligation of thy Baptism and the true faith which thou didst then profess and take upon thee Thesese were the main and most considerable circumstances wherewith Baptism was administred in the primitive Church some whereof were by degrees antiquated and disused other rites there were that belonged only to particular Churches and which as they were suddenly taken up so were as quickly laid aside others were added in after-times till they encreased so fast that the usage and the number of them became absurd and burdensom as may appear by the office for Baptism in the Romish Ritual at this day As a conclusion to this Chapter I had once thought to have treated concerning Confirmation which ever was a constant appendage to Baptism and had noted some things to that purpose but shall supersede that labour finding it so often and so fully done by others in just discourses that nothing considerable can be added to them only I shall give this brief and general account of it all persons baptized in the ancient Church according to their age and capacity persons adult some little time after Baptism Children when arrived to years of competent ripeness and maturity were brought to the Bishop there further to confirm and ratifie that compact which they had made with God in Baptism and by some solemn acts of his ministry to be themselves confirmed and strengthned by having the grace and blessing of God conferred upon them to enable them to discharge that great promise and engagement which they had made to God This was usually performed with the Ceremony of Vnction the person confirmed being anointed by the Bishop or in his absence by an inferiour Minister and indeed Unction was an ancient rite used in the Jewish Church to denote the conferring of gifts or graces upon persons and thence probably amongst other reasons as many other usages were might be derived into the Christian Church though a learned man is of opinion that unction was never used in confirmation but where the person being in case of necessity baptized by some of the inferior Clergy had not been before anointed otherwise those who had received compleat Baptism were not afterwards anointed at their confirmation for which the Council of Orange is most express and clear And indeed that Confirmation was often administred without this unction no man can doubt that knows the state of those times being done only by solemn imposition of the Bishops hands and by devout and pious prayers that the persons confirmed might grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ and be enabled to perform those vows and purposes and that profession of Faith which they had before embraced in Baptism and then again owned before the whole Congregation Till this was done they were not accounted compleat Christians nor admitted to the holy Communion nor could challenge any actual right to those great priviledges of Christianity whence it is that the Ancients so often speak of Confirmation as that which did perfect and consummate Christians as being a means to confer greater measures of that grace that was but begun in Baptism upon all which accounts and almost exactly according to the primitive usage it is still retained and practised in our own Church at this day and happy were it for us were it kept up in its due power and vigour sure I am 't is too plain that many of our unhappy breaches and controversies in Religion do if not wholly in a great measure owe their birth and rise to the neglect and contempt of this excellent usage of the Church CHAP. XI Of the Lords Supper and the administration of it in the ancient Church The persons dispensing this Ordinance who The persons Communicating the Baptized or the Faithful Suspension from this Ordinance according to the nature of the offence The Eucharist sent home to them that could not be present The case of Serapion A custom in some places to give the Sacrament to persons when dead if they dyed before they could receive it and why The Eucharist kept by persons at home Sent abroad This laid aside and in its stead Eulogiae or pieces of consecrated Bread sent from one Church to another as tokens of communion The time of its administration sometimes in the morning sometimes at night varied according to the peace they enjoyed How oft they received the Eucharist At first every day This continued in Cyprian's time Four times a week Afterwards less frequented The usual place of receiving the Church ordinarily not lawful to consecrate it elsewhere Oblations made by persons before their communicating Their Agapae or Love-Feasts what Whether before or after the Sacrament How long continued in the Church The manner of celebrating this Sacrament collected out of the most ancient Authors The holy Kiss The general prayer for the Church and the whole world The consecration of the Sacrament the form of it out of S. Ambrose The Bread common Bread The sacramental Wine mixed with Water This no necessary part of the institution Why probably used in those Countries The posture of receiving not always the same Singing Psalms during the time of celebration Followed with prayer and thanksgiving The whole action concluded with the Kiss of peace THE holy Eucharist or Supper of our Lord being a rite so solemnly instituted and of such great importance in the Christian Religion had place accordingly amongst the Ancients in their publick offices and devotions In speaking to which I shall much what observe the same method I did in treating concerning Baptism considering the persons the time the place and the manner of its celebration The persons administring were the ordinary Pastors and Governours of the Church those who were set apart for the ministration of holy offices the institution was begun by our Lord himself and the administration of it by him committed to his Apostles and to their ordinary successors to the end of the world We find in Tertullian that they never received it from any but the hand of the President which must either be meant of the particular custom of that Church where he lived or of consecration only for otherwise the custom was when the Bishop or President had by solemn Prayers and blessings consecrated the sacramental elements for the Deacons to distribute them to the people as well to those that were absent as to them that were present as Justin Martyr expresly affirms and as the custom generally was afterwards For the persons communicating at this Sacrament at first the whole Church or body of Christians within such a space that had embraced the doctrine of the Gospel and been baptized into the faith of Christ used constantly to meet together at the Lords Table As Christians multiplied and a more exact discipline became necessary none were admitted to this ordinance till they had arrived at the degree of the Faithful for who ever were in the state of the Catechumens i.
Christian Religion The Gospel principally enjoyns kindness and charity The Primitive Christians eminently of this spirit They accounted all brethren but Christians more especially Their mutual love noted and recorded by their enemies Their mighty zeal and charity for the souls of men to recover them from vice and errour to truth and vertue This the matter of their daily prayer and most serious endeavours even towards their greatest enemies Pamphilus his charity in bestowing Bibles freely upon the poor Preachers maintained for converting the Gentile Phenicians to Christianity The famous story of John's hazarding himself for the regaining a young man debauched by bad companions Monica's care and sollicitude about S. Augustin Some that have sold themselves for slaves that they might convert their Heathen or Heretical Masters Christians not shy of communicating the knowledge of their Religion Their Charity as it respected the necessities of the outward life This noted in several instances of charity Their liberal providing for the poor The bounty of particular persons Divers instances of it The immense charity of Epiphanius exemplary vengeance upon some that abused it The poor accounted the Treasure and Ornaments of the Church represented in the case of Laurentius the Deacon and a story related by Palladius Their visiting and assisting the sick in their own persons eminently noted in the Empress Placilla and the Lady Fabiola The Christians care of their brethren in a great plague at Alexandria Persons appointed on purpose to cure and attend the sick The Parabolani who Their office and number Redemption of Captives Great sums contributed by Cyprian and his people for it Church-plate sold to redeem Christians nay captiv'd enemies Christians embondaging themselves to redeem others The strange charity of Paulinus Bishop of Nola making himself a slave to ransom a poor widows son Their care about the bodies of the dead Decent burial very fit and desirable A piece of piety remarkable in the Christians of those times Their abstaining from the common custome of burning the dead as barbarous The great cost they laid out upon their funerals in embalming intombing c. The Copiatae who What their office and order The Decani or Deans in the Church of Constantinople their number and duty Their providing fit places of Sepulture Their Coemeteria or burying-places in the fields Burying in Cities and Churches when brought in and to whom first granted Their Coemeteria under ground What kind of places they were The great number and vast capacities of them A particular account of one out of Baronius discovered in his time How the Christians were enabled to all these acts of charity At first all in common after by usual contributions The standing stock or treasury of the Church This charity of Christians largely attested by Julian and Lucian Their love and charity universal Doing good to enemies An excellency proper to Christians This manifested in several remakable instances Plainly acknowledged by Julian himself The whole sum'd up in an elegant discourse of Lactantius concerning mercy and charity THat the Christian Religion was immediately designed to improve and perfect the principles of humane nature appears as from many other instances of it so especially from this that it so strictly enjoyns cherishes and promotes that natural kindness and compassion which is one of the prime and essential inclinations of mankind wherever the Gospel is cordially complied with it begets such a sweet and gracious temper of mind as makes us humble affable courteous and charitable ready and disposed to every good work prompt to all offices of humanity and kindness it files off the ruggedness of mens natures banishes a rude churlish and pharisaical temper and infuses a more calm and treatable disposition It commands us to live and love as brethren to love without hypocrisie to have fervent charity amongst our selves and to be kindly affectioned one towards another It lays the sum of our duty toward others in this to love our neighbour as our selves This our Saviour seems to own as his proper and peculiar law and has ratified it with his own solemn sanction A new Commandment I give unto you that you love one another as I have loved you that you also love one another and then makes this the great visible badge of all those who are truly Christians by this shall all men know that you are my Disciples if you have love one to another And so indeed it was in those first and best ages of Religion for no sooner did the Gospel fly abroad into the world but the love and charity of Christians became notorious even to a Proverb the Heathens taking notice of the Christians of those times with this particular remark See how these Christians love one another They were then united in the most happy fraternity a word much used by Christians in those days and objected against them by the Heathens they liv'd as brethren and accounted themselves such not only as being sprung from one common Parent for in this respect that they had Nature for their common Mother they acknowledged the very Heathens to be brethren though otherwise little deserving the name of men but upon much higher accounts viz. that they had one and the same God for their Father drank all of the same spirit of holiness were brought out of the same womb of darkness and ignorance into the same light of truth that they were partakers of the same Faith and co-heirs of the same hope This Lucian himself confesses of them and that it was one of the great Principles that their Master instilled into them that they should all become Brethren after once they had thrown off the Religion of the Gentiles and had embraced the worship of their great crucified Master and given up themselves to live according to his Laws The truth is so ready intire and constant was their kindness and familiarity that the Heathens accused them for having privy marks upon their bodies whereby they fell in love with each other at first sight Indeed they never met but they embraced one another with all the demonstrations of a hearty and sincere affection saluting each other with aâ— holy kiss not only in their own houses but at their Religious Assemblies as a badge and bond of that Christian fellowship and communion that was maintained amongst them But the love and kindness of those Christians of old did not lie only in a smooth complemental carriage or in a parcel of good words depart in peace be you warm'd or fill'd but in the real exercises of charity and mercy Now because the two great objects of Charity are the good of mens souls and their outward and bodily welfare and happiness we shall find that the Primitive Christians were highly eminent and exemplary for both these The soul being of a much higher and nobler nature and consequently infinitely more precious and valuable than the body they were accordingly infinitely careful and solicitous to save mens
their number to five hundred which being found too little by a second Constitution he enlarged it to six hundred The truth is these Parabolani were a kind of Clergy-Physicians for that they were under an Ecclesiastical cognizance is plain being reckon'd up with the Clergy and accordingly by the latter Constitution of Theodosius are appointed to be chosen by and to be immediately subject to the Bishop of the place A third instance of their Love and Charity and which S. Ambrose calls the highest piece of liberality was their care of those that were in captivity groaning under the merciless tyranny and oppression of their enemies to relieve them under to redeem them out of their bondage and slavery Cyprian in a letter to the Bishops of Numidia about this very thing the redemption of those Christians amongst them that had been taken captive by the Barbarians elegantly bewails their misery and earnestly presses their redemption and as a help towards it sent them Sestertium centum millia nummûm which Rigaltius computes to twenty five thousand pounds French though others more truly reduce it to a much lower sum viz. seven thousand five hundred or two thousand five hundred Crowns which he and his people had liberally contributed to it Of Acacius Bishop of Amida we read in Socrates that when the Roman Army had taken seven thousand Persians captive and would neither release them without a ransom nor yet give them food to keep them alive this good Bishop with the consent of the Clergy of his Church caused all the Gold and Silver Plate and vessels that belonged to their Church to be melted down ransom'd the wretches fed them and then freely sent them home to their own Prince with which generous Charity the King of Persia as he well might was strangely amaz'd finding that the Romans knew how to conquer an enemy by kindness no less than by force of arms The like S. Ambrose relates of himself that he caused the Communion Plate of his Church to be broke in pieces to redeem Christians taken captive by the enemy for which though he was blam'd by the Arrian party yet he elegantly defends the fact as not only a justifiable but a proper and eminent act of charity And indeed 't is the only case wherein the Imperial Constitutions make it lawful to sell or pawn the Plate and gifts belonging to the Church it being otherwise made sacriledge to receive them and the things absolutely forfeited by those that bought them This was very great but yet we meet with a stranger Charity than this in the Primitive Church some that have parted with their own liberty to purchase freedome unto others So S. Clemens assures us in his famous Epistle to the Corinthians We have known many amongst our selves says he who have delivered themselves into bonds and slavery that they might restore others to their liberty many who have hir'd out themselves servants unto others that by their wages they might feed and sustain them that wanted Of which this one strange instance shall suffice Under the Vandalic persecution many Christians were carried slaves out of Italy into Africk for whose redemption Paulinus then Bishop of Nola had expended his whole estate at last a widow comes to him intreats him to give her as much as would ransome her only Son then slave to the King of the Vandals Son-in-law he told her he had not one penny left nothing but his own person and that he would freely give her to make her best of and to procure her sons ransome this the woman look'd upon from a person of his quality as rather a deriding her calamity than a pittying of her case but he assur'd her he was in earnest and at last induced her to believe him whereupon they both took shipping for Africk whither they were no sooner come but the good Bishop addressed himself to the Prince beg'd the release of the widows Son and offer'd himself in his room The issue was the woman had her Son restor'd her and Paulinus became the Princes slave who imployed him in the dressing and keeping of his Garden How he afterwards ingratiated himself into the favour of his Master and came to be discovered to him who he was how the Prince set him at liberty and gave him leave to ask what he would which he made no further use of than to beg the release of all his Country men then in bondage which was accordingly granted and all joyfully sent home with their ships laden with Corn and Provisions I omit as not pertinent to my purpose they that are desirous to know more of it may read it in the Dialogues of S. Gregory from whence I have borrowed the story This certainly was Charity with a witness an act that will find more to admire and commend it than to imitate and follow it A fourth instance of Primitive Charity was the great care they took about the bodies of the dead in giving them decent and where they could honourable burial all men naturally have a kindness for their bodies and therefore desire that what has so long been the mansion of an immortal tenant may upon its dis-lodging be orderly taken down and the ruins of it laid up with honour and safety Mans body besides that 't is the cabinet of an invaluable jewel is a curious piece of artifice fearfully and wonderfully made the excellent contrivance of the divine omniscience and in that respect challenges not to be carelesly thrown aside or rudely trampled in the dirt This seems to be the common sence of mankind it being the care and practice of almost all Nations in the world religiously to enshrine the remains of their deceased friends in Tombs and Sepulchres thinking it but reasonable to testifie so much kindness to their departed friends as to honour their memories and to secure from rude barbarous violence what they left behind them when they put off mortality Sure I am this was eminently the care of Christians no dangers or threatnings could affright them from doing this last office to their deceased brethren especially such as had been Martyrs and Champions for the Truth The Roman Clergy in an Epistle to them of Carthage reckons it as one of the greatest instances of Charity above that of relieving the poor ministring to the sick or the rest which they there enumerate and reckon up tells them that it could not be neglected without great danger and that fidelity in this matter would be highly acceptable to God and rewarded by him Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria speaking of the Plague that raged there which we mentioned but now commends the Christians for assisting their sick dying brethren that they closed their eyes laid them out washed their bodies dressed and adorned them up for burial and carried them out upon their own shoulders which they chearfully did notwithstanding the imminent danger that attended it and that it was not
whereby leave was given to persons going into another Diocess either to be Ordained by the Bishop of that place or if ordain'd already to be admitted and incorporated into the Clergy of that Church Upon which account the ancient Councils every where provide that no stranger shall either receive ordination at the hands of another Bishop or exercise any ministerial act in another Diocess without the consent and dimissory Letters of the Bishop of that place from whence he comes The third were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 letters of Peace granted by the Bishop to the poor that were oppressed and such as fled to the Church for its protection and assistance but esp ecially to such of the Clergy as were to go out of one Diocess into another it being directed to the Bishop of that Diocess that he would receive him that so he might take no offence but that peaceable concord and agreement might be maintained between them By these arts the prudence of those times sought to secure the peace of the Church and as much as might be prevent all dissentions that might arise And where matters of any greater moment fell out how quickly did they flock together to compose and heal them Hence those many Synods and Councils that were conven'd to umpire differences to explain or define Articles of Faith to condemn and suppress the disturbers of the Church and innovators in Religion What infinite care did the good Emperour Constantine take for composing the Arrian controversies which then began first to infect and over-run the world How much his heart was set upon it his sollicitous thoughts taken up about it how many troublesome days and restless nights it cost him with what strong and nervous arguments what affectionate intreaties he presses it may be seen in that excellent Letter yet extant in his Life which he wrote to the Authors of those impious and unhappy controversies But when this would not do he summon'd the great Council of Nice consisting of three hundred and eighteen Bishops and in his Speech at the opening of that Council conjur'd them by all that was dear and sacred to agree and to compose those dissentions which were risen in the Church which he seriously protested he looked upon as more grievous and dangerous than any war whatsoever and that they created greater trouble and inquietude to his mind than all the other affairs of his Empire And when several of the Bishops then in Council had preferred Libells and Accusations one against another without ever reading them he bundled and seal'd them all up together and having reconciled and made them friends produc'd the papers and immediately threw them into the fire before their faces So passionately desirous was that good Prince to extinguish the flames and to redeem the peace of the Church at any rate Were any ejected and thrown out of the Church of which there might be a suspicion of private grudges or designs the Nicene Council wisely provided That in every Province a Synod should be held twice a year where all the Bishops meeting together might discuss the case and compose the difference Or as Joseph the Egyptian in his Arabick version of that Canon tells us an Arbitrator was to be appointed between the differing parties to take up the quarrel that it might not be a scandal to Religion Nor did there want meek and peaceable-minded men who valued the publick welfare before any private and personal advantage and could make their own particular concerns strike sail when the peace and interest of the Church called for it When great contests and confusions were raised by some perverse and unquiet persons about the See of Constantinople then possest by Gregory Nazianzen he himself stood up in the midst of the Assembly and told the Bishops how unfit it was that they who were preachers of peace to others should fall out amongst themselves beg'd of them even by the Sacred Trinity to manage their affairs calmly and peaceably and if I says he be the Jonas that raises the storm throw me into the Sea and let these storm and tempests cease I am willing to undergo what ever you have a mind to and though innocent and unblameable yet for your peace and quiet sake am content to be banished the throne and to be cast out of the City only according to the Prophets counsel be careful to love truth and peace And therewith freely resigned his Bishoprick though legally setled in it by the express command and warrant of the Emperour and the universal desires and acclamations of the people The same excellent temper ruled in S. Chrysostome one of his successours in that See when having elegantly pressed the unity of the Church and refuted those petty cavils which his adversaries had against himself But if you says he to his people suspect these things of us we are ready to deliver up our place and power to whomsoever you will only let the Church be preserved in peace and unity This was the brave and noble disposition of mind to which S. Clemens sought to reduce the Corinthians after they had fallen into a little Schism and disorder Who is there among you says he of that generous temper that compassionate and charitable disposition Let him say if this Sedition these Schisms and contentions have arisen through my means or upon my account I 'le depart and be gone whithersoever you please and will do what the people shall command only let Christs sheep-fold together with the Elders that are placed over it be kept in peace Nay when good men were most zealous about the main and foundation-articles of Faith so as sometimes rather to hazard Peace than to betray the Truth yet in matters of indifferency and such as only concern'd the rituals of Religion they mutually bore with one another without any violation of that Charity which is the great law of Christianity Thus in that famous controversie about the keeping of Easter so much agitated between the Eastern and Western Churches Irenaeus in a Letter to Pope Victor who of all that ever sat in that chair had raised the greatest stirs about it tells him that Bishops in former times however they differed about the observation of it yet alwayes maintain'd an intire concord and fellowship with one another the Churches being careful to maintain a peaceable communion though differing in some particular Rites and Ceremonies yea even when their rites and customs seemed to clash by meeting together at the same place Thus when Polycarp came to Rome from the Churches of the East to treat with Pope Anicetus about this and some other affairs though they could not satisfie each other to yield the controversie yet they kissed and embraced one another with mutual endearments received the Holy Communion together and Anicetus to do the greater honour to Polycarp gave him leave to celebrate and consecrate the Eucharist in his Church and at last they parted in
and confession and fulfilled the regular customs and orders of the Church The time of penance being ended they addressed themselves to the Governours of the Church for Absolution hereupon their repentance was taken into examination and being found to be sincere and real they were openly re-admitted into the Church by the imposition of the hands of the Clergy the party to be absolv'd kneeling down between the knees of the Bishop or in his absence of the Presbyter who laying his hand upon his head solemnly blessed and absolved him whence doubtless sprang that absurd and senceless calumny which the Heathens laid upon the Christians that they were wont Sacerdotis colere genitalia so forward were they to catch at any reproach which the most crooked and malicious invention could insinuate and suggest The penitent being absolved was received with the universal joy and acclamation of the people as one returned from the state of the dead for such 't is plain they accounted them while under a state of guilt especially the lapsed as Cyprian positively affirms them to be being embraced by his brethren who blessed God for his return and many times wept for the joy of his recovery who upon his absolution was now restored to a participation of the Lords Supper and to all other acts of church-Church-Communion which by his crimes he had forfeited and from which he had been suspended till he had given satisfactory evidence of his repentance and purpose to persevere under the exact discipline of Christianity This was the ordinary way wherein they treated criminals in the Primitive Church but in cases of necessity such as that of danger of death they did not rigidly exact the set time of penance but absolved the person that so he might dye in the peace and communion of the Church The story of Serapion at Alexandria we have formerly mentioned who being suddainly surpriz'd with death while he was under the state of penance and not being able to dye till he had received absolution sent for the Presbyter to testifie his repentance and absolve him but he being also at that time sick sent him a part of the Consecrated elements which he had by him upon the receiving whereof he breathed out his soul with great comfort and satisfaction that he now died in Communion with the Church The truth is the time of these Penitentiary humiliations often varied according to the circumstances of the case it being much in the power of the Bishops and Governours of the Church to shorten the time and sooner to absolve and take them into Communion the Medicinal vertue of repentance lying not in the duration but the manner of it as S. Basil speaks in this very case A learned man has observed to my hand four particular cases wherein they were wont to anticipate the usual time of absolution The first was what I observed but now when persons were in danger of death this was agreed to by Cyprian and the Martyrs and the Roman Clergy and the Letters as he tells us sent through the whole World to all the Churches this also was provided for by the great Council of Nice That as for those that were at the point of death the ancient and Canonical rule should be observed still that when any were at the point of death they should by no means be deprived of the last and necessary Viaticum i.e. the Holy Sacrament which was their great Symbol of Communion And here for the better understanding some passages it may not be unuseful once for all to add this note that whereas many of the ancient Canons of the Illiberine Council especially positively deny communion to some sorts of penitents even at the hour of death they are not to be understood as if the Church mercilesly denied all indulgence and absolution to any penitent at such a time but only that it was thought fit to deny them the use of the Eucharist which was the great pledge and testimony of their communion with the Church The second case was in time of eminent persecution conceiving it but fit at such times to dispense with the rigour of the discipline that so Penitents being received to the Grace of Christ and to the communion of the Church might be the better armed and enabled to contend earnestly for the Faith This was resolved and agreed upon by Cyprian and a whole Council of African Bishops whereof they give an account to Cornelius Bishop of Rome that in regard persecution was drawing on they held it convenient and necessary that communion and reconciliation should be granted to the lapsed not only to those that were a dying but even to the living that they might not be left naked and unarmed in the time of battel but be able to defend themselves with the shield of Christs body and blood For how say they shall we teach and perswade them to shed their blood in the Cause of Christ if we deny them the benefit of his blood How shall we make them fit to drink the cup of martyrdom unless we first admit them in the Church to a right of communication to drink of the cup of the blood of Christ A third case wherein they relaxed the severity of this discipline was when great multitudes were concerned or such persons as were likely to draw great numbers after them in this case they thought it prudent and reasonable to deal with persons by somewhat milder and gentler methods lest by holding them to terms of rigour and austerity they should provoke them to fly off either to Heathens or to Hereticks This course Cyprian tells us he took he complied with the necessity of the times and like a wise Physician yielded a little to the humour of the patient to provide for his health and to cure his wounds and quotes herein the example of Cornelius of Rome who dealt just so with Trophimus and his party and elsewhere that out of an earnest desire to regain and resettle the brethren he was ready to connive at many things and to forgive any thing and did not examine and exact the greatest crimes with that full power and severity that he might insomuch that he thought he did almost offend himself in an over-liberal remitting other mens offences Lastly in absolving penitents and mitigating the rigours of their repentance they used to have respect to the person of the penitent to his Dignity or Age or Infirmity or the course of his past life sometimes to the greatness of his Humility and the impression which his present condition made upon him Thus the Ancyran Council impowers Bishops to examine the manner of mens Conversion and Repentance and accordingly either to moderate or enlarge their time of penance but especially that regard be had to their Conversation both before and since their offence that so clemency and indulgence may be extended to them So for the case of persons of
more than ordinary rank and dignity or of a more tender and delicate Constitution Chrysostome determines that in chastising and punishing their offences they be dealt withal in a more peculiar manner than other men lest by holding them under over-rigorous penalties they should be tempted to fly out into despair and so throwing off the reins of modesty and the care of their own happiness and salvation should run headlong into all manner of vice and wickedness So wisely did the prudence and piety of those times deal with offenders neither letting the reins so loose as to patronize presumption or encourage any man to sin nor yet holding them so strait as to drive men into despair The fourth and last circumstance concerns the Persons by whom this discipline was administred now though 't is true that this affair was managed in the Publick Congregation and seldom or never done without the consent and approbation of the people as Cyprian more than once and again expresly tells us yet was it ever accounted a ministerial act and properly belonged to them Tertullian speaking of Church censures adds that the Elders that are approv'd and have attain'd that honour not by purchase but testimony preside therein and Firmilian Bishop of Caesarea Cappadocia in a Letter to S. Cyprian speaking of the Majores natu the Seniors that preside in the Church tells us that to them belongs the power of baptizing imposing hands viz. in penance and ordination By the Bishop it was primarily and usually administred the determining the time and manner of repentance and the conferring pardon upon the penitent sinner being acts of the highest power and jurisdiction and therefore reckoned to appertain to the highest order in the Church Therefore 't is provided by the Illiberine Council that penance shall be prescribed by none but the Bishop only in case of necessity such as sickness and danger of death by leave and command from the Bishop the Presbyter or Deacon might impose penance and absolve Accordingly we find Cyprian amongst other directions to his Clergy how to carry themselves towards the lapsed giving them this that if any were over-taken with sickness or present danger they should not stay for his coming but the sick person should make confession of his sins to the next Presbyter or if a Presbyter could not be met with to a Deacon that so laying hands upon him he might depart in the peace of the Church But though while the number of Christians was small and the bounds of particular Churches little Bishops were able to manage these and other parts of their office in their own persons yet soon after the task began to grow too great for them and therefore about the time of the Decian persecution when Christians were very much multiplyed and the number of the lapsed great it seem'd good to the prudence of the Church partly for the ease of the Bishop and partly to provide for the modesty of persons in being brought before the whole Church to confess every crime to appoint a publick penitentiary some holy grave and prudent Presbyter whose office it was to take the confession of those sins which persons had committed after baptism and by prayers fastings and other exercises of mortification to prepare them for absolution He was a kind of Censor morum to enquire into the lives of Christians to take an account of their failures and to direct and dispose them to repentance This Office continued for some hundreds of years till it was abrogated by Nectarius S. Chrysostomes predecessor in the See of Constantinople upon the occasion of a notorious scandal that arose about it A woman of good rank and quality had been with the Penitentiary and confessed all her sins committed since baptism he enjoyn'd her to give up her self to fasting and prayer but not long after she came to him and confessed that while she was conversant in the Church to attend upon those holy exercises she had been tempted to commit folly and leudness with a Deacon of the Church whereupon the Deacon was immediately cast out but the people being excedingly troubled at the scandal and the Holy Order hereby exposed to the scorn and derision of the Gentiles Nectarius by the advice of Eudaemon a Presbyter of that Church wholly took away the Office of the publick Penitentiary leaving every one to the care and liberty of his own conscience to prepare himself for the Holy Sacrament This account Socrates assures us he had from Eudaemon's own mouth and Sozomen adds that almost all Bishops follow'd Nectarius his example in abrogating this Office But besides the ordinary and standing office of the Clergy we find even some of the Laity the Martyrs and Confessors that had a considerable hand in absolving penitents and restoring them to the communion of the Church For the understanding of which we are to know that as the Christians of those times had a mighty reverence for Martyrs and Confessors as the great Champions of Religion so the Martyrs took upon them to dispense in extraordinary cases for it was very customary in times of persecution for those who through fear of suffering had lapsed into Idolatry to make their address to the Martyrs in prison and to beg peace of them that they might be restored to the Church who considering their petitions and weighing the circumstances of their case did frequently grant their requests mitigate their penance and by a note signed under their hands signifie what they had done to the Bishop who taking an account of their condition absolved and admitted them to communion Of these Libelli or Books granted by the Martyrs to the lapsed there is mention in Cyprian at every turn who complains they were come to that excessive number that thousands were granted almost every day this many of them took upon them to do with great smartness and authority and without that respect that was due to the Bishops as appears from the note written to Cyprian by Lucian in the name of the Confessors which because 't is but short and withall shews the form and manners of those pacifick Libells it may not be amiss to set it down and thus it runs All the Confessors to Cyprian the Bishop Greeting Know that we have granted peace to all those of whom you have had an account what they have done how they have behaved themselves since the commission of their crimes and we would that these presents should by you be imparted to the rest of the Bishops We wish you to maintain peace with the holy Martyrs Written by Lucian of the Clergy the Exorcist and Reader being present This was looked upon as very peremptory and magisterial and therefore of this confidence and presumption and carelesness in promiscuously granting these letters of peace Cyprian not without reason complains in an Epistle to the Clergy of Rome Besides these Libells granted by the Martyrs there