Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	church_n	council_n	rome_n	6,864	5	7.0948	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66482	The Julian and Gregorian year, or, The difference betwixt the old and new-stile shewing, that the reformed churches should not alter their old-stile, but that the Romanists should return to it.	Willes, John, 1646 or 7-1700.	1700 (1700)	Wing W2808; ESTC R8290	14,247	34

feuds were then amongst Christians occasion'd by the different Rules they had for finding of Easter And so long as this matter stood undetermin'd by a General Council every National Church follow'd its own way and all the Threats of Rome by Victor and other Bishops of that See signified very little towards ending of the Controversie till it was at length happily determin'd by the First General Council at Nice to whose Authority all the Churches of the World quietly submitted and Peace and Uniformity were establish'd till at length above a Thousand years after Pope Gregory revived the difference and set up the Authority of that one See above the Decree of a General Council And this the Bigots of that Religion pretend to justify How did the Church of Rome at the beginning of the Reformation Triumph over the Protestants that the Fathers and Councils were all on their side but after they had been sufficiently baffled by Bishop Jewel and other Learned Protestants and it hath been sufficiently proved that the Fathers and Councils are on our side they are run into the quite contrary Extream and in a needless controversy left the Protestants in full possession of a General Council on their side whilst they themselves ran schismatically into a manifest contempt of it and publickly own'd the laying of it aside Had the Reformed Churches done this the whole World would have been fill'd with Clamours against them and a great Outcry made of their Schism Thirdly WERE the Church of Rome in the right and the Gregorian Style far better than the Julian yet we should be backward in complying with them both upon the account of the Romanists who will construe this to be a Compliance with the Decree of Pope Gregory whose Language in this matter is very absolute and imperious Nulli ergo hominum liceat hanc paginam voluntatis nostrae infringere vel ei ausu temerario contraire si quis autem hoc attentare praesumpserit indignationem Omnipotentis Dei ac beatorum Petri Pauli Apostolorum ejus se noverit incursurum and again qui secus secerit Excommunicationem incurrat i. e. Let no one dare to contradict this our Decree about the New Style and if any one shall presume to attempt it let him know that he incurs the indignation of Almighty God and of his holy Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul and shall forthwith be excomnnicated out of the Church Hitherto we in England have layn under this horrible Curse and what will our present Compliance be construed but a fear of the Papal Thunder and at least a tacit Submission to that Chair Hoc Ithacus velit Much less should we comply upon the account of the Protestant Dissenters who have been always jealous of our inclining too much towards Rome and in this matter should we do it will most certainly censure and upbraid us for the Compliance and observing the Decrees of a Pope of Rome made since the Reformation and let us before-hand consider how we shall be able to answer them However it was the Wisdom of our first Reformers to comply as far as possible with the Rites and Customs of the Church of Rome and thereby bring over many of them to our Communion yet since now there is little of that nature to be hoped for our wisest Bishops have laid aside all thoughts of working upon them any further by compliance and much rather take care to Convince the Dissenting Protestants who are far the more numerous Party that we are not Popishly inclined When there was lately a Controversy in England about the Feast-day of Matthias our late Arch-Bishop to prevent a seeming compliance with the Rules of the Romish Church order'd it to be kept on the 24th day of February even in Leap-Year notwithstanding the Church had been then long in possession of a different practice and was in some measure countenanc'd in it by an Act of Parliament that order'd the 24th and 25th of February in Leap-Year to be esteem'd as the same day If we look back into former Ages we may learn from our own Bede what Struglings and long Contentions our Bishops had with the Church of Rome rather than they would alter their old way of keeping of EASTER One thing in that Controversy is very remarkable to our present purpose viz. That the Bishops of Rome did then urge against our Bishops the Decrees of the Vniversal Church in the Council of Nice Bedae Eccl. H. l 2. c. 19. and that their way of finding Easter was practised in Africa Asia Egypt Greece and almost all the World ib. l. 3 c. 25. Now it seems very unreasonable after we have been perswaded to comply with them upon those Reasons that the same Persons should now endeavour to perswade us to leave that very way which they have taught us and that too not with as formerly but against the Authority of the first general Council and the consent of the Asian African and Greek Churches which are now on our side So far will our compliance be from promoting the peace of the Church that in our joining with the Romanists we shall manifestly fall off from the Grecian Asian and other Eastern Churches who to this day critically observe the Rules of the first Nicene Council There is one considerable reason why we should be govern'd by the Rules of that Council and that is because we were at that time Subjects of Constantine the Emperor who summon'd that Council and confirm'd their Sanctions and did then submit to their Decrees about keeping of Easter as appears from that Emperors Letter preserv'd by Eusebius in his Life of Constantine One of our late Acts of Parliament Stat. 1. Eliz. ch 1. declares the Authority of that Council as next to that of the Holy Scriptures and our present Act of Vniformity hath not only Authoritatively settled the Nicene Creed but the Nicene Rules also for finding of Easter so that this matter cannot be alter'd without an Act of Parliament and change of our Liturgy which since we have been so averse to for the sake of our own Protestant Dissenters it will seem very unreasonable to do it in compliance with the Romanists That which will be a matter of the greatest moment for us to consider is whether this alteration by Pope Gregory be correct and true or whether if we should now comply with them some new Pope may not correct these Alterations and think some other way more exact as was famously done in the correct Edition of the Bible by Pope Clement VIII who in 2000 places chang'd the Infallible Edition of the Bible publish'd but two years before by Pope Sixtus V. and then we shall be again importun'd to dance after them and leave the Gregorian as they would now have us leave the Julian Account I shall therefore in the next place examine the Errors and Mistakes of Pope Gregory in correcting the Year and that First IF we would have corrected the Paschal Tables we