Elaborate manner That the Bishop of Rome had a secret hand in the contrivance and publication of them is probable if not clear from divers Reasons 1. Before they were published Hadrian 1. maketh use of the Tale of Constantines Leprosie Vision and Baptism by Pope Sylvester things till then never heard of in the world but afterwards contained in the Donation of Constantine a Forgery which in all probability lay by this Hadrian but of his own preparing when he wrote his Letter to Constantine and Irene which Letter was read and is recorded in the 2. Nicene Council on the behalf of Images being sent abroad like a Scout as it were to try what success it would find in the world before he would adventure the whole Body of his Players to publick view For if that were swallowed down without being detected the rest might hope for the same good Fortune if not the first might pass for a mistake and its Companions be safely suppressed without any mischief following 2. The Emperour and the Council having digested the first Legend exposed by the Pope so crastily to publick view the other Forgeries were a little after boldly published in this Book of Isidore together with the Legend and Donation of Constantine which when Hincmarus Archbishop of Rhemes upon its first publication set himself to write against he was taken up so roundly for the same by the Authority of Rome that he was fain gladly to acquit the Attempt for ever And their tenderness over it is I think a sufficient Indication of their Relation to it every Creature being naturally affectionate to its own Brood and prone to study its preservation The Church of Rome was so tender of Isidores Edition that as some say Hinemarus was forced to recant his Opinion and to declare that he believed and received the Book with Veneration 3. It is recorded by Justellus that the forementioned Hadrian was careful to give Charles the Great a Copy of the Councils and Decretal Epistles drawn up as he affirmed by Dionysius Exiguus Daillè accuses the Book of many faults but whether Hadrian or Dionysius were guilty of them is little material only 't was done as a Pledge of Reconciliation after several Bickerings between the Giver and Receiver Charles the Great having several times invaded Rome and now departing thence with Friendship which makes me a little the more prone to suspect Dionysius too for one of those Danaum Dona which are given like Nessus his Shirt when wounded by Hercules to his Enemies Wife for the destruction of her Husband Be it how it will it shews that Hadrian I. was a busie man that he understood the influence and power of Records what force they would have upon the minds of Lay-men and that his eyes and hands were sometimes busied in such Affairs But that which above all other Arguments discovers the Popes to have a hand if not in the Publication yet in the Reception of the Forgeries is this that the Roman Canonists Ivo Gratian c. have digested them into the Popes Laws and they are so far countenanced by the Popes themselves that almost from the time of their publication throughout all Ages since they have been received for Authentick in the apal Jurisdiction and are used as such in all the Ecclesiastical Courts under the Popes Dominion as the chief of their Rules for the deciding of Causes So that they are not only fostered but exalted by the Authority of Rome The Glory which they acquired in the Throne of Judgment advancing them for a long time above the reach of Suspition The Veneration which is due to the Chair of Holiness was their best security By the influence of the Popes Authority they were received into the Codes of Princes being as we shall shew out of Baronius in the next Chapter introduced into the Capitular Books of the Kings of the Franks by Benedictus Levita and at his instant request confirmed and approved by the 〈◊〉 Chair The Forgeries in Isidore being scattered abroad it is difficult to conceive to what a vast Height the Roman See by degrees 〈◊〉 The Splendour of so many Ancient Martyrs 〈◊〉 together with so many Canons and Decrees in her behalf so far wrought that her Bishop came at last to Claim all Power over all persons Spiritual and Temporal to have the sole power of forgiving sins to be alone Infallible to be Cods Vicar upon Earth the only Oracle in the world nay the sole Supreme and Absolute Monarch disposing of Empires and Kingdoms according to the Tenour of the Doctrines contained in those Forgeries wherein he is made the sole Independent Lord without Controul able to do what ever he lifted Some few Ages after this first Publication of Isidore there were other Records put forth though lately seen yet bearing the countenance of 〈◊〉 Antiquitie which so ordered the matter that according to them the Evangelists brought their Gospels to S. Peter to confirm them and several books of S. Clement S. Peter's Successor were put into the Canon of the Holy Bible the whole number of Canonical books being setled and defined by his sole Authority In token doubtless of the Power Inherent in all S. Peter's Successors at Rome to dispose of the Apostles and their Writings as they please S. 〈◊〉 own Canon for that purpose being numbered among those of the Aposiles That the Pope was uncapable of being judged by any that no Clergy-man was to be Subject to Kings but all to depend immediately upon the Bishop of Rome that he was the Rock and Head of the Church was the constant Doctrine of all those Forgeries when put together with many other Popish Points of less concernment sprinkled up and down in them at every turning Cui bono Among the Civilians 't is a notable mark of Detection in a blind Cause whose Good whose Exaltation whose Benefit is the drift and scope of things and 't is very considerable for the sure finding out of the first Authors That they are Forgeries is manifest Now whose they are is the Question in hand and if Agents naturally intend themselves in their own Operations it is easily solved How excessively the World was addicted to Fables about the time of Isidore's Appearance we may see by the Contents of the 2. Nicene Council Dreams Visions and Miracles being very rife in their best demonstrations and among other Legends a counterfeit Basil a counterfeit Athanasius a counterfeit Emperour maintaining and promoting the Adoration of Images As may perhaps in another Volume be more fully discovered when we descend from these first to succeeding Ages The Counterfeits in Isidore being mingled with the Records of the Church like Tares among Wheat or false Coyns among heaps of Cold lay undistinguished from true Antiquities and after Hincmarus his ill success were little examined by the space of 500 or 600 years Some small opposition there was made in particular by the Bishops in France and
any diligent observation If he trusted others he was an unwise man to be so confident in maintaining it upon the report of those that read and transcribed it for him For their inadvertency hath deceived him For S. Clement himself if that Epistle be his owneth the Forgery of S. Clement's Itinerary which Binius so extremely abhorreth It must needs be a Forgery therefore because in this case nothing but a Forgery can defend a Forgery no Author if a Saint acknowledging those Forgeries for his which he never made After a long Oration which S. Clement fendeth to S. James in that Epistle out of S. Peter's mouth concerning the Dignity and Excellency of the Roman Chair he has these words speaking of S. Peter When he had said these things in the midst before them all he put his hands on me and compelled me wearied with shamefacedness to sit in his Chair And when I was sate again he spake these things unto me I beseech thee O Clement before all that are present that after as the Debt of Nature is I have ended this present life thou wouldst briefly write to James the Brother of our Lord either those things that relate to the beginning of thy Faith or those thoughts also which before thy Faith thou hast born and after what sort thou hast been a companion to me from the beginning even to the end of my Journey and my Acts and what being a Solicitous Hearer thou hast taken from me disputing through all the Cities and what in all my preaching was the order either of my words or actions as also what End shall find me in this City as I said all things being as thou art able briefly comprehended let it not grieve thee to destine unto him Neither fear that he will be much grieved at my End since he will not doubt but I endure it for piety But it will be a great solace to him if he shall learn that no unskilful man or unlearned and ignorant of the Discipline of 〈◊〉 Order and the Rule of Doctrine hath undertaken my Chair For he knows if an unlearned or an unskilful man take upon him the Office of a Doctor without the Hearers and Disciples being involved in a Cloud of Ignorance shall be drowned in destruction Wherefore I my Lord James when I had received these precepts from him held it necessary to fulfil what he commanded informing thee both concerning these things and briefly comprehending concerning those which going through every City he either uttered in the word of preaching or wrought in the vertue of his deeds Though concerning these things I have sent thee 〈◊〉 and more fully described already at his command under that very Title which he ordered to be prefixed that is Clementis Itinerarium The Itinerary of Clement not the preaching of Peter In these words he telleth us how S. Peter taking his leave of the World placed him in his Chair and by that Ceremony installed him in the Episcopal Throne in the presence of them all What a charge he gave him in that moving circumstance of time just before his piercing and bitter Passion to write to S. James How he ordered him to make an Itinerary of his Circuits throughout the World and furnished him at the same time with the Materials and Title of the Book The Itinerary of Clement not the preaching of Peter S. Peter's modesty as is to be supposed giving the Honour of the Title not to himself that was the Subject but to the Author How S. Clement according to this commandment had sent to S. James not only this Epistle but the Book it self long before it wherein the Journeys and the Acts of Peter were more fully described And the great care which S. Peter took 〈◊〉 the dead man should be grieved by the Solace he provided in the Tydings sent unto him concerning the perpetual certainty of Skilfulness and Learning in all his Successors securing at once both the Church and his Chair is very remarkable All these things out of the very Bowels of the Epistle disgrace 〈◊〉 Chimera's of Binius and 〈◊〉 For what Saint being well in his Wits would tell the World that S. Peter commanded him to make a Forgery nay a putid Forgery stussed with loathsom Fables S. James his Name is over and over in the body of the Epistle not only in the Title The Epistle was not sent to S. James by a Figure but it plainly tells S. James that he had sent him the 〈◊〉 before which consisting of ten books must be some considerable time after S. Peter's Death in making some time in going from Rome to Jerusalem and some time must be 〈◊〉 in coming back with the Answer that certified him of S. James his receiving it After all which this new Letter was written to S James impertinently giving him an account of the same business And yet all this while S. James was dead before S. Peter For as Binius observes S. Peter was put to Death in the thirteenth year of Nero and S. James in the seventh The Compiler of this Epistle finding S. Clements Itinerary extant in the World several hundreds of years before himself and being not aware of its unfoundness took it up as a good Record and so fitted the Epistle and Fable to the purpose in hand being himself cheated with a Forgery as many others are and not expecting to be detected so clearly as it hath since happened But to make the matter more absurd they have a second Letter to S. James De Sacratis 〈◊〉 vel 〈◊〉 Wherein he divides the Priesthood as Pius in his Decretal afterwards 〈◊〉 into three Orders of Presbyter Deacon and 〈◊〉 With what design I cannot tell unless he would have us think the Pope the only Bishop Wherein he also takes care about the Lords Body orders the Priests with what Ceremony of Fasting and Reverence it shall be consumed Gives Commands about the Pall the Chair the Candlestick and the Vail speaks of the Altar the Worship of the Altar the Door-keepers the Vails for the Gates the covering of the Altar c. As if there were stately Temples Attires Ornaments and Utensils in those early days of poverty Persecution when a Den or a Cave was both Sanctuary and Temple Among other things he orders that no man should through ignorance believe a dead man ought to be wrapt in a Fryers Coul a Novel superstitious Errour All which he speaks out of the mouth of S. Peter whom he calls the Father and Prince of the Apostles In the end of the Letter he denounces a Curse against all them that will not keep S. Peter's Commandments So that Peter's Name and Peter's Authority is used for every thing appertaining to the Chair and all the Apostles to be ordered by S. Peter's Successors as S. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our Lord was CAP. XVII Of Higinus and Pius as they are represented in the Pontifical and of a notable Forgery in the name of Hermes
great ease and satisfaction of the Roman Clergy For it reaches down you know to the lowest Orders of Readers and Door keepers So that they may write as many Forgeries as they will If it be a Pope no man can condemn him If it be a Bishop no less than threescore and twelve Bishops must on their Corporal Oath prove the Fact against him forty four Equals against a Cardinal-Priest twenty six must depose against a Cardinal-Deacon of the City of Rome and seven against a Door keeper all which must be at least his Equals A Marvellous Priviledge for the City of Rome Which word Rome though annexed only to Cardinal-Deacons yet for ought I know the Judge will interpret its Extent to all the other Orders or use it Equivocally as himself listeth or as his Superiour pleaseth So that in Causes pertaining to the Interest of the Roman Church other Priests perhaps beside them in the City of Rome shall enjoy the benefit of this Law but in Causes displeasing the Pope and his Accomplices none shall enjoy it but the Priests of Rome Many such Trap-doors are prepared in Laws where Rulers are perverse and Tyrannical and whether this be not one of those I leave to the Readers further Examination Mark succeeded Sylvester in the See of Rome Between whom and Athanasius there were certain Letters framed that stand upon Record to this day to prove the Canons of the Nicene Council to be Threescore and ten Heretofore they were good old Records magnificently cited but now they are worn out for Baronius and Bellarmine have lately rejected them who are followed by Binius as he is by Labbe and Cossartius and the Collectio Regia all concluding the Letters to be Forged The three last have this Note upon that of Athanasius Hanc Surreptitiam ab aliquo confict am fuisse quinque rationibus ostenditur c. That this Epistle is a Counterfeit devised by some body appeareth evidently by five reasons Whereof the first is this In the Controversie between the African Churches and the Roman Bishops Zozimus and Boniface concerning the number of the Nicene Canons this Epistle was unknown 2. Athanasius as is manifest by what went before was at this time fled into France and so it could not be written from Alexandria and from the Bishops in Egypt 3. That Divastation fell upon the Church of Alexandria many years after these times in the Reign of Constantius c. As Athanasius himself witnesseth in his Epistle ad omnes Orthodoxos 4. Mark died in the Nones of October this present year Constantine himself being yet alive 5. If Pope Mark had sent a Copy of the Nicene Council out of the Roman Archives to them at Alexandria surely the Roman Copy and that of Alexandria would have agreed thenceforth as the same How then were those three Canons wanting in the Copy which S. Cyril sent from Alexandria to the Africans which were found in the Roman Copy He pointeth to the Commonitorium sent from Rome to the Sixth Council of Carthage and verifies all the Story we have related by rejecting these Letters of Mark and Athanasius made on purpose to defend the Forgeries there detected For which he cites Baron An. 336. nn 59 60. and Bellarm. de Rom. Pont. lib. 2. cap. 25. This Epistle was alledged by Harding against Jewel and by Hart against Rainolds for a good Record How formally it was laid down by the Elder Collectors you may see with your eyes and may find it frequently cited by the most learned Papists Such as these being their best and only Evidences After Mark Julius succeeded The Epistle sent by the Bishops of the East to Pope Julius 1. is now confessed to be a Forgery Veram germanam non extare praeter authoritatem Baronii illud asserentis ea quae supra in principio Epistolarum Julii annotavi confirmant Saith Binius Again he saith This Epistle which is put in the second place bearing the Names of the Bishops of the East seems to be compiled by some uncertain Author both by the concurrent Testimony of Sozomen and Socrates and because thou mayest observe many things to be wanting and some in the words and things expressed to be changed Rescriptum Julii The Epistle which Julius returned in answer hath the like Note upon it Hanc mendosam corruptam a quodam ex diversts compilatam c. That this Epistle is counterfeit corrupt and compiled by some body out of divers Authors the Consulships of Felicianus and Maximianus evidently shew c. The matter in these Epistles is the Popes Supremacy the unlamfulness of calling Councils but by his Authority his Right of receiving Appeals with other Themes which Ambition and self Interest suggest and of which genuine Antiquity is totally silent Having so fortunately glanced upon that Sixth Council I shall not trouble the Reader with any more but bewailing what I observe beseech him earnestly to weigh this Business walking in the Dark and take heed of a Pope and a Church that hath exceeded all the World in Forgerie For let the Earth be searched from East to West from Pole to Pole Jews Turks Barbarians Hereticks none of them have soared so high or so often made the Father of Lies their Patron in things of so great Nature and Importance Since therefore the Mother of Lyes hath espoused the Father of Lies for her assistance and the accursed production of this adulterate brood is so numerous I leave it to the Judgement of every Christian what Antiquity or Tradition she can have that is guilty of such a Crime and defiled with so great an Off-spring of notorious Impostures AN APPENDIX Cardinal Baronius his Grave Censure and Reproof of the Forgeries His fear that they will prove destructive and pernicious to the See of Rome APiarius a Priest of the Church of Africa being Excommunicated by his Ordinary for several notorious crimes flies to Rome for Sanctuary Zozimus the Bishop receives him kindly gives him the Communion and sends Orders to see him restored Hereupon the African Churches convene a Council namely the sixth Council of Carthage whence they send a modest Letter but as Sincere as Powerful shewing how after all shifts and Evasions Apiarius had confessed his Enormities and that both the Nicene Council and clear Reason was against the disorder of such Appeals All Causes being to be determined in the Province where they arose by a Bishop Patriarch or Council upon the place Otherwise say they how can this Beyond-Sea Judgment be sirm where the necessary appearance of Witnesses cannot be made either by reason of weakness of Nature or Old Age or many other Impediments They decry the Innovation of the Bishop of Rome in arrogating that Authority lest the smoakie 〈◊〉 of the pride of this World should be brought into the Church of Christ. This Epistle is on all sides owned and confessed to be a good Record It was sent to Celestine the Successor of