Settlement to the end of the world This they all agree in for the matter and scope of the whole Book tho' they infinitely differ about the Explication of the several parts of it And there cannot be a greater invitation to engage the curiosity of any that are concerned for Useful and Important Truths than that Consideration The great variety of the apprehensions of Interpreters about these things ought not to discourage mens hopes of a clear Interpretation more than the same differences amongst them about almost every other Book of Scripture For it will be found that they do almost as generally agree about the first Grounds of the Interpretation of these Visions as about other Books of Scripture that seem to be less mystical The Language of Prophecy already explained by accomplishments is in these things as sure a Rule of Interpretation as the more common Language of Scripture is for the other Books of it that are more plain And those that seem the most impartial in these things Mr. Mede B p. Usher Dr. More are very confident that there are plain grounds upon that foundation to build a demonstrative Evidence of the Sense of the chief design of these Visions upon With this encouragement it will be first enquired What sure grounds there are for the certainty of the Apostolical Authority of this Book as the only foundation of all satisfaction that can possibly be had from the clearest Interpretation of it There are two ways by which the Authority of any Book of Scripture is secured to us The First An Universal Tradition concerning it in the first Times of the Church soon after the writing of it And the Other The Determination of the Universal Church concerning it after some doubts and scruples concerning it And by both these ways of assurance is the Authority of the Apocalypse secured Two of the first Writers after the writing of the Apocalypse were Justin Martyr and Irenaeus Justin Martyr was contemporary with those who knew the Apostle whose Name it bears Anno 160. and that conversed with him and He in his Dialogue with Trypho the Jew pag. 308. quotes the Apostle St. John about the Thousand Years under the Name of A certain man amongst them who was one of the twelve Apostles of Christ speaking of that matter in the Revelation which was given him which all know to be the Subject of the 20th Chapter of the Apocalypse And accordingly does Eusebius l. 4. c. 18. Eccl. Hist quote Justin Martyr as attributing the Apocalypse to the Apostle St. John But Irenaeus does the most satisfactorily put an end to all Controversie about this in his time and Irenaeus was contemporary with Justin Martyr And to assure us of the truth of what he affirms he says he had it from Polycarp whose diligent Auditor Lib. 3. contra Haeres cap. 3. he was and Polycarp was a Disciple of St. John himself and died a Martyr and so secures the truth of his Testimony But Irenaeus his Testimony concerning the Apocalypse is most full in his fifth book contra Haeres sect ult where speaking of the Number of Antichrist he says That that Number was in all the ancient and approved Copies and that he had it also confirmed to him by those who had seen St. John face to face There can hardly be given a more unquestionable or more particular Testimony concerning the true Author of a Book at any distance from the time that it was wrote in than this is Here is a particular search after all the Copies of it soon after the writing of it with the concurrent Testimony of those who knew the Author himself And further to shew the utter unlikelihood of any falsification of the Name of the Author of it a little after speaking of the Name of Antichrist Knowing this says he that if his Name Lib. 5. sect ult were to have been openly known at this present time it would certainly have been expressed by him who saw the Revelation for it is not long ago since he saw it but almost in this present Age at the latter-end of the Reign of Domitian The little distance betwixt the time of Irenaeus and the time of the writing this Book together with the care that he took to look into all the various Copies of it and the Traditions of the Ear-witnesses of the Apostle about it and the confirmation of his own Testimony in all this by dying a Martyr himself does silence all scruples about the Apostolical Authority of this Book But yet about 100 years after the time of Irenaeus Dionysius of Lib. 2. Alexandria in his Disputes against the Millenaries of his time does affirm That many of his Predecessors did reject this Book But then he says It was because they saw it obscure and full of too gross ignorance about the Millenarian state not from any new knowledge they had got of the forgery of it And their grounds were so small for it that tho' he was the chief Head of the Anti-millinarian Party yet he says he believed it to be divinely inspired Tho' from the difference of the Style of it from that of the Gospel and Epistles of John the Evangelist he judged it to be wrote by some other John contemporary with him And yet there are some expressions in the Revelations so peculiar to the Gospel and Epistles of John the Evangelist and used by no other Apostle that it must be either He himself or a very near Friend of his that must be the Author of them such as are The Lamb The Word The bearing record or witness of the Word They that pierced him shall see him The Testimony of Jesus Christ He that overcometh As I received of my Father c. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely and Let him that is athirst come And whosoever will let him take of the water of life freely Which are all expressions peculiar to the Gospel and Epistles of St. John St. Jerem indeed says That the Greek Church rejected the Authority of it But as Baronius well observes about it An. 96. St. Jerom must necessarily mean that only of the meaner and lower part of the Greek Church For as he there shews almost every one of the Greek Fathers does quote it under the Name of St. John the Apostle And Eusebius who relates the dissent of some of the Ancients about it and was the most eminent Antiquary of the Greek Church does name Justin Martyr Irenaeus Melito of Sardis Theophilus Antiochenus Origen Dionysius Alexandrinus the chief Writers of the Greek Church before him as Asserters of the Apostolical Authority of this Book If we go to the Judgment of after-Ages we have the Universal Consent of the Christian Church for the Canonical Authority of the Apocalypse after it had been scrupled by some which is the other way of assuring the right Tradition of a Canonical Book The third Council
Laws and their Sanctions of Councils as the Will of God about the way to Salvation or make them receive the Roman Religion it self as the Gospel of Christ only upon the account of its being the Doctrine of the Roman Church which has all the Authority that it lays claim to from the will of the Emperors only in veneration to the Majesty of that Empire and the Supream Ruler of it or when the Pope does make the Emperors to be owned for the r Gregor 7. Ep. poll 18. l. 6. Richard Prince of Capua takes this as part of his Oath to the Pope I will acknowledg the Emperour Henry for every thing else and will Swear fealty to him when I shall be exhorted to it by thee or thy Successours always with the exception of the Holy Church c. And it is the general practice of that Church in case of the Emperor's failure of this Defence of the Church or in case of Heresie contrary to it He is to be deposed defenders of the Faith of that Church by a Divine Commission to them from his hands at their confirmation in the Imperial Dignity and thus recommends them under that Sacred Character as the immediate and special Ordinance of God in the Roman Church whose will must be submitted to in their commands for the owning of the Infallibility of the Roman Church or the Divine inspiration of it in all things The next exercise of the False Prophets power is by all the deceitful Arts of persuasion to get the World to make an Image to Rev. 13 14. the Beast which does set out the great industry of the Papal Power upon its exaltation to the Supremacy over the Church to make the Church of Rome to be as Universal an Empire over the World as the Civil state of it was and so to be the Image of the Roman Empire When this was obtained it is said That he had power also to V. 15. give life to this Image and questionless all will own the Church of Rome to have almost all its life from s This appears from the Oath that all the dignified Clergy of the Church of Rome take at their Creation the form of which is thus set down Lib. 2. Decret Tit. 24. I N. N. by the Grace of God and of the Apostolick See Bishop of c. will assist for the retaining of the Roman Pacy and the Regalia of St. Peter and to the maintaining them against every Man I will take care to preserve encrease defend and further the Rights Honours Priviledges and Authority of the Roman Church of our Lord the Pope and his Successors I will prosecute and suppress to my power all Hereticks Schismaticks and Rebels against our Lord the Pope Add to this the Oath that the Emperour and Kings take at their Coronation to defend the Rights of the Apostolick See and then the Papal Authority seems to be the sole Head of the Image and the inspirer of it the Papal Authority in it Of which there could be no more lively a proof than to Ibid. make the Image speak and cause all to be killed that would not worship it And does not this very exactly agree with the Decrees and Canons of that Church put in execution by its own Courts of Judicature and by the concurrence of the Secular Arm which it makes its Officers and Executioners It is known That any dissent from the Faith of that Church is judged by them to be Herefie and that the punishment of Heresie is death And since all the Government of the Church is made a Papal Monarchy and the Pope the Supream Head of it it is very properly said that he does cause the Church to do all these things The last mentioned exercise of the False-Prophet's power is to make all men receive a mark in their hand or forehead or to Rev. 13 16 17. have the name of the Beast or the number of his name This seems to be very mystical at the first sight of it But the custom of all the Eastern parts to give their Soldiers and Slaves a mark to know them for their own does make it plain that it is to be understood of some t Malvenda de Antichristo Pag. 434. Let it therefore be taken for clear and undoubted which all the Fathers did unquestionably teach That this number of the name of the Beast 666 does not relate to either the birth or death of Christ or to any kind of duration or space of time but that it is to be the real name of Antichrist And he there mentions Romanists and Latines Alcasar in c. 13. Apoc. de Charactere Bestiae The Mark says he is not here any thing distinct from the number and the name 1. because it is said the Mark or the Name or the Number of the Name which does not intimate three distinct things but only three distinct Names of the same things 2. Because Chap. 20. Apoc. it is said That all that had not received the Mark of the Beast did Reign with Christ where the Mark includes in it the Name and Number 3. Because Chap. 14. 9. It is said also of the punishment of the followers of the Beast That it was to those who should receive the Mark where all that had the name and the number are also comprehended He there also adds That it was the Custom for Soldiers to receive the name of their Prince in their Skin So Vegelius l. 1. c. 8. and l. 2. c. 5. Soldiers are Listed by being pricked in the Skin with the name of the Prince or General So Lipsius l. 1. c. 9. Quotes Justinian's Code for it St. Augustine Chrysostom and Prudentius The Society of Bacchus were thus marked with an Ivy-leaf peculiar mark and name which does distinguish those of the Roman Church from all other Christians But that which does the best open the mystery of these expressions is that observation of Grotius upon this place That it was a common fashion in St. John 's time for every Heathen God to have a particular Society or Fraternity belonging to him and the way of admitting any into these fraternities was 1. By giving them some Hieroglyphick mark in their Hands or Forehead which was accounted Sacred to that particular God as that of an Ivy-leaf to own themselves of the fraternity of Bacchus 2. By Sealing them with the Letters of the name of that God And 3. with that number which the Greek Letters of their name did make up for the Numeral Cyphers of the Greeks were the Letters of the Alphabet Thus the Greek Letters of the Name of the Sun did in all make up 608. And therefore his fraternity were marked with XH A very great confirmation of this way of interpreting the Name and Number of the Name is Irenaeus's Testimony from Irenaeus l. 5. c. 24. the mouth of those who had received it from St. John That the Number of the Name of
these New Interpreters does still prejudice any that are otherwise curious against these kind of Enquiries here is all this to make them very uneasie under it viz. That they rely upon such for it as the best Judges amongst those whose Cause they most befriend by it do impartially cry out against as Men void of common Sense for the grounds that they go upon for it and that they prefer the Judgment of these men in opposition to the Doctrine of the Church of England it self and of the best Learned and the most impartial Defenders of it almost ever since the Reformation and also in opposition to the Judgment of all Reformed Churches besides I do moreover here pretend to lay a surer and deeper foundation for the demonstration of the Protestant Applications than has yet been offered which may make my endeavours for it at least worth the examining And for the better apprehending of the force of all I will here give a general Idea of my whole process in it The chief foundation of my Design is the constant usage of Figures of the like kind in the Prophecy of Daniel For there is this great advantage from Daniel's Figures That they are both the Original Copy of that in the Revelations and have also a great variety of like Schemes and were almost all of them fulfilled before the writing of the Apocalypse as it has been by the Consent of the Learned See Consent of the Ancients at the end of almost all Parties and Ages agreed upon This makes the signification of the Schemes of Daniel to be certainly determined and to be so many Data and Rules for the determination of the like but less known Phrases in the Revelations I have therefore taken some pains to make sure of the Interpretation of the Figures of Daniel in such a way of proof as I hope may bear the most critical Examination which was never before clearly done but is the most requisite of any thing for a full satisfaction about the sense of the Apocalypse For by this means I have reduced all the kinds of Schemes signifying Dominion to certain and uniform Definitions which is a much larger Basis to establish the Interpretation of these Mysteries upon and which I found much wanting in Mr. Mede's and Dr. More 's Method The Prophetical Terms in the Revelations do by this appear to have been well known to the Apostle before and the signification of the chief of them to contain in them so large a space of time as determines their accomplishment to many Ages after his time which is a great confirmation of the Divine Authority of the Prophecy This is the whole business of the Second Book which ought to be the most nicely and attentively examined But to make the demonstration of this the more secure I thought it most convenient to make use of some of the most undoubted and acknowledged things about Babylon and the Figure of the Beast in the Revelations which do the most openly and unquestionably determine the scene of these things to one certain Empire Whereby the Fourth Beast in the 7th of Daniel which is proved necessarily to be the same with that in the Apocalypse is more certainly made known and all the rest of the Kingdoms there mentioned more unavoidably confined in their particular significations This therefore was thought fit to be premised in the First Book In the doing of this I had another aim which I apprehended to be of very useful importance and that was to make sure of the foundation of Mr. Mede's Syncronisms that is That the Term of the Beast all over the Revelations does denote but one and the same particular state of it the want of a close proof of which gives a great advantage to the Grotian Interpretation to evade the force of his Demonstrations by taking that Term in various acceptations Dr. Moor has indeed taken great pains for this purpose but I could not be satisfied till I found it more absolutely necessary for that term to be every-where but the same particular state than his Eighteen Congruities or Likenesses do seem to make it The Third Book does apply the general Notions in the Two former to the Beast in the Revelations Thus far I have generally endeavoured to carry on my whole Process upon Principles common to all the several ways of Protestant Interpreters and have therefore offered mine own particular Apprehensions about the Application and first date of the Reign of the Beast by way of Queries only that I might lay the stress of the business upon a foundation large enough to fit almost all the different Judgments of Protestant Interpreters and not venture it upon the narrow bottom of one particular man's Fancy and Method And I have made use of no Authorities to confirm any thing of moment but the Consent of Papists themselves And their Consent about almost all the Propositions in the First and Second Book which are the Principles and foundation of the Design was a very great confirmation to me of the strength and certainty of all that follows But yet I am so throughly sensible of the strange and violent heats that the study of these things do generally possess all men with that engage in it that I must desire that Justice of the Reader not to be deterred from the perusal of this performance by the confident Censures of any that may observe some small Conclusions here not so agreeable to their own Fancies For the most eminent and admired in other parts of Learning have been found to be the most absurd and gross in their Confident Mistakes about these matters Nothing indeed does make men so obnoxious to mistakes here as a more than ordinary measure of quickness of Parts and of assurance from great improvements in other ways If I have at all succeeded in this Attempt I must wholly attribute it under God's assistance to the peculiar scepticalness of my nature and the continual distrust of my own Apprehensions and Performances which would not suffer me to fix upon scarce any thing before I had by often repeated corrections of my first thoughts about it made it appear not only clear but necessary to me It is enough to revive the Curiosity of the present Age for the examination of this Attempt to reflect but upon the peculiar advantages of it if performed My Design The Usefulness of the Design is to give a clear and necessary proof That the Church of Rome is that Great Enemy of God's Church which is much the business of the Revelations And one very great advantage of this would be That it would cut off many voluminous and intricate Disputes which take up so much of the choicest time of the Best Men. If it were once made sure That God had here so openly exposed the distinguishing marks of that Church almost every one of Bellarmin's Notes of his Church ought without any dispute to be granted him Nay If that alone be
of Carthage after the time of these scruples of the Antimillenarians and before the degeneracy of the Church to which the aim of the Apocalypse is applied by Protestants viz. before the year 400 does in its 47th Canon ordain the Book of the Apocalypse to be read in the Church as Canonical Scripture And this Provincial Council is confirmed to oblige the Universal Church both the Greek and Latin by the sixth Synod in Trullo at Constantinople Can. 2. Anno 707. But it was unquestionably a Decree of the Greek Church where the Apocalypse had alone been scrupled But the most authentick Evidence of this is the Authority of the fourth Council of Toledo when it could not possibly be any Interest of the then Ruling Party of the Church to plead for the Apocalypse but might possibly enough endanger the Interest of it because it was about the year 640. after the time that the Protestants Applications of that Book do generally date the degeneracy of the Church of Rome from So that the sense of that Council is the Testimony of an Adversary to the General Consent of the Church about the Tradition of this Book The words of it are these The Authority of many Councils and the Synodical Decrees Concil Toletan 4. Can. 16. about the year 640. of the holy Bishops of Rome have determined the Book of the Apocalypse to have been wrote by John the Evangelist and to be received amongst the Books divinely inspired And because there are many that do not receive it for Authentick and scorn to read it in the Church of God if any one for the future shall refuse to receive it or to read it in the Church in the time of Mass from Easter to Whitsuntide he shall be Excommunicated By this it does appear how the Apocalypse came to lose its authenticalness among the meaner part of the Church It was it seems so disused in the Church that it passed for an useless Book the Interpretations that were given of it were either so fanciful or so little concerning the Times when it was neglected that it passed amongst them for a kind of Book of Dreams in which the Church was not concerned and which none knew the meaning of And this cannot much be wondred at when it is considered how little regard is had to these Revelations even in these days unto which they are by the best Learned amongst us judged to belong in matters of the highest importance for the Church to know But as for that suggestion That Cerinthus was the Author of the Apocalypse which was always the most current ground amongst those who rejected the Authority of it there is assurance enough of the falshood of it out of Irenaeus for he was the Scholar of Polycarp who was the Disciple and Companion of St. John to whom Irenaeus every-where attributes Euseb l. 5. Eccles Histor c. 18. the Apocalypse and writes against Cerinthus and reports from Polycarp the great detestation that St. John had against Cerinthus And how absurd a thing would it be to imagine that Irenaeus after so diligent so long and familiar a conversation with Polycarp the Companion of St. John as he particularly mentions of himself should make the Apostle to be the Author Lib. 3. contra Haeres cap. 3. of a Book which was really wrote by his worst Adversary to propagate his Errors Whatever was the true reason of the rejection of the Authority of this Prophecy it is certain That no Book of Scripture has had a more express and unexceptionable Tradition of its Apostolical Authority since it was confirmed by the Testimony of two Learned Martyrs soon after the writing of it who also had searched into all the Copies of it and were confirmed in it by those who were conversant with the Apostle himself that wrote it and that in the very times that it was scrupled it was believed to be Authentical by all the Eminently-learned Fathers of those days and that after the times that it had been scrupled it was owned by the General Consent of the Christian Church This I thought fit to premise for the full satisfaction of those that are altogether sceptical in the first foundation of these Interpretations But the Romanists whose whole concern it is to make every thing in this kind dubious do agree with all other Christian Churches in the World at this time about the unquestionableness of the Canonical Authority of this part of the New Testament And now it may appear to be our Duty and Concern to enquire with diligence after the best understanding that we can get of this Prophecy when we consider what pressing Motives there are to it more in this Book than in any other Book of Scripture beside In the beginning Blessed is he that readeth Rev. 1. 3. 13. 9. and they that hear the words of this Prophecy And again If any man have an ear let him hear And the matter of it is said to be The Revelation that God gave unto Jesus Christ to shew Chap. 1. 1. unto his Servants And that whosoever should add to or take Chap. 22. 18 19. from the words of this Book above any other should have the plagues of God added to him or his part of Eternal Life taken away The First BOOK THE Uniform Constant Notion Of the Term of THE BEAST All over the REVELATIONS CHAP. I. The Ground of the Method here used The first Proposition That Babylon is the City of Rome in an Antichristian and Idolatrous Reign Scruples moved against it The Demonstration of it from the Text confirmed by General Consent NOne could be more disposed to the common prejudices against the study of the Revelations than I was at the time that I first engaged in those things I had till then been so almost wholly confin'd to such Enquiries as are the closest Exercise of Ratiocination upon clear and sure grounds That I was come to have a natural aversion against all such loose Conjectures as the Interpretations of those Visions are generally reputed to be But Mr. Mede's Synchronisms and his offers at Demonstration in them which I lighted on by chance some years since in a solitary retirement did tempt my curiosity to enquire What could be the ground of such a confidence in one of so known a Character for a cautious and imparial Judgment in Scriptural Rev. XVII Expositions At the first cursory view of his performance I was extremely surprized to see such fair grounds of a clear Explication about so intricate and obscure a Subject And tho' upon a more critical examination of the strength of them I found most of his Synchronisms far short of a close and cogent proof in them yet I could not but think that the Subject might be capable of a more certain determination to the Conclusion that he aimed at I did thereupon set my self upon a particular search after a closer demonstration of that Application that he had made
whole Church which shows the Emperor's share in the Legislative Power of the Church to be near a-kin to his Power in the Senate about Civil Affairs but at least very near as great in the Councils as the Papal Authority was afterwards before it came to its full height And then in the Execution of the Laws and Canons of the Church the Imperial Authority appears every-where to be the last resort and the last Power that they k Hieron Rubeus Histor Ravennat p. 180. The Archbishops of Ravenna do there contend with the Popes of Rome for the Superiority John the Archbishop had many of the Italian Bishops of his Party in it And Sigonius de Regno Ital. l. 2. Blondus Decad. 1. l. 9. Ann. 608. gives an account of this Contest of Ravenna with Rome all the days of Pope Martin the First Eugenius the First Vitalian and Adeodat They would have no Pallium nor Consecration from Rome in acknowledgment of any dependance upon them S. Hierom. ad Evagre If you dispute about the Authority of the whole World Orbis major est Urbe Wheresoever there is a Bishop whether at Rome or Eugubium at Constantinople or Rhegium he is of the same Dignity and of the same Priesthood Cardinal Cusan l. 2. c. 12. shews that all Bishops are equal But the execution of their Office is bounded by Human Laws and Orders which if they come to cease those Differences of Greater and Less return again to their natural Right that is to an Equality Aeneas Sylvius Comment l. 2. Before the Council of Nice every Bishop lived independent in his own Jurisdiction appeal to for redress Dr. Barrow p. 324. to p. 372. Grot. in Decal Praecep 2. Note the 3d. or for correction of Church-Governours which shews it to have had also the full possession of the Executive Power And accordingly do we find the Title of the Vniversal Bishop of the Church in respect of the External Government of it assumed by Constantine In this state did the Imperial Authority continue in the Church when the exercise of its power was the most unblameable So that here was a Roman Catholick Church established from the very first appearance of the Imperial Throne in the Church and no other Political Vnity was there then of the Roman Church but only this Imperial Headship The particular Jurisdiction of the l Ludovic Bebenberg de jurib R. Imp. Romanor pag. 142. In Commentar M. Freherus When the Emperor Henry had objected to the Romans why against the custom of their Ancestors they had chosen them a Pope without the leave of the King The Pope excused himself that he was chosen by force but that he would not be consecrated till he did perfectly understand by an Embassy that both the Emperor and the Princes had consented to his Election Hieron Balbus de Coronatione cap. 14. It had been an ancient Custom that the Clergy and People of Rome should nominate the Pope After which it was in the Emperor's power to confirm or invalidate the Election and as he pleased either to admit him or to substitute another in his room c. Agatho 63. distinct And this Custom continued to the time of Pope Adrian Anno 815. who would have changed it But the old Custom obtained again of expecting the Pope's Confirmation from the Emperor as Platina observes in Gregor 9. in the Year 1072. Gregory was reconciled to the Emperor Henry who confirmed him Pope as it was then the custom Caronza Concil summa pag. 437. Severinus Papa in locum Honorii subrogatus ab Isaacio Hexarcho in Pontificatu confirmatur c. Severinus was confirmed Pope by Isaac the Hexarch of Italy For the Election by the People and Clergy was not accounted valid in those days unless the Emperors or their Exarchs had confirmed them Platina says the same in Severinus And Blondus the same with this of Caranza l. 9. Decad. 1. and adds That the Confirmation was put off for a year and an half because Isaac did not go from Ravenna to Rome before Sigebert in his Chronicle mentions a Council held by Charlemaigne at Rome before he was crowned Emperor by virtue of his being made Defender of the Church by Adrian And there Adrian and 150 Bishops did confer the Right of chusing the Pope upon Charles and of ordering the Apostolick See and the Dignity of the Prince The same is mentioned by Gratian D. 69. c. Hadrianus 22. And by Sigonius de Regno Ital. l. 4. In the time of the Emperor Ludovicus the Son of Charlemaigne upon Pope Stephen's being elected contrary to the Order without the Emperor's Command Stephen to mend the matter makes this Order in the Canon Quia Sancta D. 52. Because the Roman Church suffers great Violences at the Death of the Pope when the Election is made without the Emperor's knowledge We ordain That when the Bishop of Rome is to be chosen that he be elected in a full Assembly of the Bishops and Clergy and in the presence of the Senate and People and so being chosen in the presence of the Legate of the Emperor that he be consecrated Baronius Anno 827. says of the Election of Pope Valentinus That his Consecration was deferred till the Emperour should be consulted about it Pope Leo the Eighth Anno 963. makes this Order in behalf of the Emperor Otho That according to the Example of Adrian Bishop of the Apostolick See who granted unto the Emperor Charles the ordering the Apostolick See That he likewise with all the Clergy did constitute and by his Authority corroborate to his Lord Otho first King of the Theutons and to his Successors in the Kingdom of Italy The power of chusing a Successor and of disposing of the Bishop of the Sovereign Apostolick See and for that purpose that the Archbishops and Bishops should take investiture from him And that none for the future should take upon them the power of electing or consecrating the Bishop of Rome or of any other See without the Consent of the said Emperor D. 63. in Synodo 23. The Title of the Canon in Gratian is The Election of the Bishop of Rome does of right appertain to the Emperor Bishoprick of the City of Rome was in no other account for Supremacy than the rest of the Episcopal Jurisdictions and all of them were confined to their own particular Territories But it was reputed just and fitting at the coming in of the Emperors into the Church that the Bishop of their Ruling City should have a mark of distinction from the rest as an honour due to the Emperor's Court and Residence And thus came the Bishop of Rome to have the precedence of all other Bishops in the Church And upon the same account had Constanstinople the second place to that of Rome when that City became the Seat of a new Empire This Primacy gave the Bishops of Rome a great advantage over the Interests of their Fellow-Bishops And being become very