occasion did invite and circumstances of things did permit interdicting Princes absolving Subjects from their Allegeance raising or encouraging Insurrections as appeareth by their transactions not long since against our Princes and those of France which shews the very See imbued with those Notions 7. They do oblige all Bishops most solemnly to avow this Doctrine and to engage themselves to practise according to it For in the Oath prescribed to all Bishops they are required to avow that they will observe the Apostolical commands with all their power and cause them to be observed by others that they will aid and defend the Roman Papacy and the Royalties of Saint Peter against every man that they will to their power persecute and impugn Hereticks Schismaticks and Rebels to the Pope or his Successours without any exception which was I suppose chiefly meant against their own Prince if occasion should be together with divers other points importing their acknowledgment and abetting the Pope's universal Domination These horrible Oaths of Bishops to the Pope do seem to have issued from the same shop with the high Hildebrandine dictates for the Oath in the Decretals is ascribed to Pope Gregory I suppose Greg. VII And in the sixth Roman Synod under Greg. VII there is an Oath of like tenour exacted from the Bishop of Aquileia perhaps occasionally which in pursuance of that example might be extended to all And that before that time such Oaths were not imposed doth appear from hence that when P. Paschal II. did require them from some great Bishops the Bishop of Palermo and the Archbishop of Poland they did wonder and boggle at it as an uncouth Novelty nor doth the Pope in favour of his demand alledge any ancient precedent but onely proposeth some odd reasons for it You have signified unto me most dear Brother that the King and his Nobles did exceedingly wonder that an Oath with such a condition should be every-where offered you by my Commissioners and that you should take that Oath which I had written and they tendered to you § VI. All Romanists in consistence with their Principles do seem obliged to hold this opinion concerning the Pope's Universal Power For seeing many of their standing Masters and Judges of Controversies have so expresly from their Chair declared and defined it all the Row for many Ages consenting to it and countenancing it not one of them having signified any dissent or dislike of it And considering that if in any thing they may require or deserve belief it is in this point for in what are they more skilfull and credible than about the nature of their own Office What saith Bellarmine wisely may they be conceived to know better than the Authority of their own See Seeing it hath been approved by their most great and famous Councils which they hold Universal and which their adored Synod of Trent doth alledge for such the Laterane under P. Innocent III. that of Lions under P. Innocent IV. the other Laterane under P. Leo X. Seeing it hath been current among their Divines of greatest vogue and authority the great Masters of their School Seeing by so large a consent and concurrence during so long a time it may pretend much better than divers other Points of great importance to be confirmed by Tradition or Prescription Why should it not be admitted for a Doctrine of the Holy Roman Church the Mother and Mistress of all Churches How can they who disavow this Notion be true Sons of that Mother or faithfull Scholars of that Mistress How can they acknowledge any Authority in their Church to be infallible or certain or obliging to assent How can they admit the Pope for authentick Judge of Controversies or Master of Christian Doctrine or in any Point credible who hath in so great a matter erred so foully and seduced the Christian world whom they desert in a Point of so great consideration and influence on practice whom they by virtue of their dissent from him in this Opinion may often be obliged to oppose in his proceedings How can they deny that bad Doctrines might creep in and obtain sway in the Church by the interest of the Pope and his Clients How can they charge Novelty or Heterodoxy on those who refuse some Dictates of Popes of Papal Councils of Scholastick Divines which stand upon no better grounds than those on which this Doctrine standeth Why hath no Synod of the many which have been held in all parts of Christendom clearly disclaimed this Opinion but all have let it slip or have seemed by silence to approve it Yea how can the Concord and Unity of that Church well consist with a Dissent from this Doctrine For No man apprehending it false seemeth capable with good conscience to hold Communion with those who profess it for upon supposition of its falshood the Pope and his chief adherents are the teachers and abettours of the highest violation of Divine Commands and most enormous sins of Usurpation Tyranny Imposture Perjury Rebellion Murther Rapine and all the villanies complicated in the practical influence of this Doctrine It seemeth clear as the Sun that if this Doctrine be an Errour it is one of the most pernicious Heresies that ever was vented involving the highest Impiety and producing the greatest Mischief For If he that should teach Adultery Incest Simony Theft Murther or the like Crimes to be lawfull would be a Heretick how much more would he be such that should recommend Perjury Rebellion Regicide things inducing Wars Confusions Slaughters Desolations all sorts of Injustice and Mischief as Duties How then can any man safely hold Communion with such persons May we not say with P. Symmachus that to communicate with such is to consent with them with P. Gelasius that it is worse than ignorance of the truth to communicate with the enemies of truth and that He who communicateth with such an Heresie is worthily judged to be removed from our society § VII Yet so loose and slippery are the Principles of the Party which is jumbled in adherence to the Pope that divers will not allow us to take this Tenent of Infinite Power to be a Doctrine of their Church for divers in that Communion do not assent to it For there is a sort of Hereticks as Bellarmine and Baronius call them sculking every-where in the bosome of their Church all about Christendom and in some places stalking with open face who restrain the Pope's Authority so far as not to allow him any Power over Sovereign Princes in Temporal affairs much less any power of depriving them of their Kingdoms and Principalities They all are branded for Hereticks who take from the Church of Rome and the See of Saint Peter one of the two Swords and allow onely the Spiritual This Heresie Baronius hath nominated the Heresie of the Politicks This Heresie a great Nation otherwise sticking to the Roman Communion doth stiffly maintain not enduring the
had been then as commonly known and avowed 23. Whereas divers of the Fathers purposely do treat on methods of confuting Hereticks it is strange they should be so blind or dull as not to hit on this most proper and obvious way of referring debates to the decision of him to whose Office of Universal Pastour and Judge it did belong Particularly one would wonder at Vincentius Lirinensis that he on set purpose with great care discoursing about the means of setling points of Faith and of overthrowing Heresies should not light upon this notable way by having recourse to the Pope's Magisterial sentence yea that indeed he should exclude it for he after most intent study and diligent inquiry consulting the best and wisest men could find but two ways of doing it I saith he did always and from almost every one receive this answer that if either I or any other would find out the frauds and avoid the snares of up-start Hereticks and continue sound and upright in the true Faith he should guard and strengthen his Faith God helping him by these two means viz. First by the Authority of the Divine Law and then by the Tradition of the Catholick Church And again We before have said that this hath always been and is at present the custome of Catholicks that they prove their Faith by these two ways First by Authority of the Divine Canon then by the Tradition of the Vniversal Church Is it not strange that he especially being a Western man living in those parts where the Pope had got much sway and who doth express great reverence to the Apostolick See should omit that way of determining points which of all according to the modern conceits about the Pope is most ready and most sure 24. In like manner Tertullian professeth the Catholicks in his time to use such compendious methods of confuting Hereticks We saith he when we would dispatch against Hereticks for the Faith of the Gospel do commonly use these short ways which do maintain both the order of times prescribing against the lateness of impostours and the Authority of the Churches patronizing Apostolical tradition but why did he skip over a more compendious way than any of those namely standing to the judgment of the Roman Bishop 25. It is true that both he and St. Irenaeus before him disputing against the Hereticks of their times who had introduced pernicious novelties of their own devising when they alledge the general consent of Churches planted by the Apostles and propagated by continual successions of Bishops from those whom the Apostles did ordain in doctrines and practices opposite to those devices as a good argument and so indeed it then was next to a demonstration against them do produce the Roman Church as a principal one among them upon several obvious accounts And this indeed argueth the Roman Church to have been then one competent witness or credible retainer of tradition as also were the other Apostolical Churches to whose Testimony they likewise appeal but what is this to the Roman Bishop's judicial Power in such cases why do they not urge that in plain terms they would certainly have done so if they had known it and thought it of any validity Do but mark their words involving the force of their argumentation When saith Irenaeus we do again after allegation of Scripture appeal to that tradition which is from the Apostles which by successions of Presbyters is preserved in the Churches and That saith Tertullian will appear to have been delivered by the Apostles which hath been kept as holy in the Apostolical Churches let us see what milk the Corinthians did draw from Paul what the Philippians the Thessalonians the Ephesians do reade what also the Romans our nearer neighbours do say to whom both Peter and Paul did leave the Gospel sealed with their Bloud we have also the Churches nursed by John c. Again It is therefore manifest saith he in his Prescriptions against Hereticks that every doctrine which doth conspire with those Apostolical Churches in which the Faith originally was planted is to be accounted true as undoubtedly holding that which the Churches did receive from the Apostles the Apostles from Christ and Christ from God but all other doctrine is to be prejudged false which doth think against the truth of the Churches and of the Apostles and of Christ and of God their argumentation then in short is plainly this that the conspiring of the Churches in doctrines contrary to those which the Hereticks vented did irrefragably signifie those doctrines to be Apostolical which discourse doth no-wise favour the Roman pretences but indeed if we do weigh it is very prejudicial thereto it thereby appearing that Christian Doctrines then in the canvasing of points and assuring tradition had no peculiar regard to the Roman Churche's testimonies no deference at all to the Roman Bishop's Authority not otherwise at least than to the Authority of one single Bishop yielding attestation to tradition 26. It is odd that even old Popes themselves in elaborate tracts disputing against Hereticks as Pope Celestine against Nestorius and Pelagius Pope Leo against Eutyches do content themselves to urge testimonies of Scripture and arguments grounded thereon not alledging their own definitive Authority or using this parlous argumentation I the Supreme Doctour of the Church and Judge of controversies do assert thus and therefore you are obliged to submit your assent 27. It is matter of amazement if the Pope were such as they would have him to be that in so many bulky Volumes of ancient Fathers living through many ages after Christ in those vast treasuries of learning and knowledge wherein all sorts of truth are displayed all sorts of duty are pressed this momentous point of doctrine and practice should nowhere be expressed in clear and peremptory terms I speak so for that by wresting words by impertinent application by streining consequences the most ridiculous positions imaginable may be deduced from their Writings It is strange that somewhere or other at least incidentally in their Commentaries upon the Scripture wherein many places concerning the Church and its Hierarchy do invite to speak of the Pope in their Treatises about the Priesthood about the Unity and Peace of the Church about Heresie and Schism in their Epistles concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs in their Historical narrations about occurrences in the Church in their concertations with heterodox adversaries they should not frequently touch it they should not sometimes largely dwell upon it Is it not marvellous that Origen St. Hilary St. Cyril St. Chrysostome St. Hierome St. Austin in their Commentaries and Tractates upon those places of Scripture Tu es Petrus Pasce oves whereon they now build the Papal Authority should be so dull and drowsie as not to say a word concerning the Pope That St. Austin in his so many elaborate Tractates against the Donatists wherein he discourseth so prolixly about the Church its Unity Communion
to defend and advance the Papal Empire What meaneth the Doctrine concerning that middle Region of Souls or Cloister of Purgatory whereof the Pope holdeth the Keys opening and shutting it at his pleasure by dispensation of pardons and indulgences but that he must be Master of the Peoples condition and of their purse What meaneth the treasure of Merits and supererogatory works whereof he is the Steward but a way of driving a trade and drawing money from simple People to his treasury Whither doth the entangling of Folks in perpetual Vows tend but to assure them in a slavish dependance on their interests eternally without evasion or remedy except by favourable dispensation from the Pope Why is the opus operatum in Sacraments taught to confer grace but to breed a high opinion of the Priest and all he doeth Whence did the monstrous Doctrine of Transubstantiation urged with so furious zeal issue but from design to magnify the credit of those who by saying of a few words can make Our God and Saviour and withall to exercise a notable instance of their power over men in making them to renounce their Reason and Senses Whither doth tend the Doctrine concerning the Mass being a propitiatory Sacrifice for the Dead but to engage men to leave in their Wills good sums to offer in their behalf Why is the Cup withholden from the Laity but to lay it low by so notable a distinction in the principal mystery of our Religion from the Priesthood Why is saying private Mass or celebrating the Communion in solitude allowed but because Priests are pay'd for it and live by it At what doth the Doctrine concerning the necessity of auricular Confession aim but that thereby the Priests may have a mighty awe on the Consciences of all People may dive into their secrets may manage their Lives as they please And what doth a like necessary particular Absolution intend but to set the Priest in a lofty state of Authority above the People as a Judge of his condition and dispenser of his Salvation Why do they equal Ecclesiastical Traditions with Scripture but that on the pretence of them they may obtrude whatever Doctrines advantageous to their designs What drift hath the Doctrine concerning the Infallibility of Churches or Councils but that when opportunity doth invite he may call a company of Bishops together to establish what he liketh which ever after must pass for certain truth to be contradicted by none so enslaving the minds of all men to his dictates which always sute to his interest What doth the prohibition of Holy Scripture drive at but a monopoly of knowledge to themselves or a detaining of People in ignorance of truth and duty so that they must be forced to rely on them for direction must believe all they say and blindly submit to their dictates being disabled to detect their errours or contest their opinions Why must the Sacraments be celebrated and publick devotions exercised in an unknown Tongue but that the Priests may seem to have a peculiar interest in them and ability for them Why must the Priesthood be so indispensably forbidden marriage but that it may be wholly untacked from the State and rest addicted to him and governable by him that the Persons and Wealth of Priests may be purely at his devotion To what end is the clogging Religion by multiplication of Ceremonies and Formalities but to amuse the People and maintain in them a blind reverence toward the Interpreters of the dark mysteries couched in them and by seeming to encourage an exteriour shew of Piety or form of godliness to gain reputation and advantage whereby they might oppress the interiour virtue and reality of it as the Scribes and Pharisees did although with less designs Why is the veneration of Images and Reliques the credence of Miracles and Legends the undertaking of Pilgrimages and voyages to Rome and other places more holy than ordinary sprinklings of Holy-water consecrations of baubles with innumerable foppish knacks and trinkets so cherished but to keep the People in a slavish credulity and dotage apt to be led by them whither they please by any sleeveless pretence and in the mean while to pick various gains from them by such trade What do all such things mean but obscuring the native simplicity of Christianity whereas it being represented intelligible to all men would derogate from that high admiration which these men pretend to from their peculiar and profound wisedom And what would men spend for these toys if they understood they might be good Christians and get to Heaven without them What doth all that pomp of Religion serve for but for ostentation of the dignity of those who administer it It may be pretended for the honour of Religion but it really conduceth to the glory of the Priesthood who shine in those pageantries Why is Monkery although so very different from that which was in the ancient times so cryed up as a superlative state of perfection but that it filleth all places with swarms of lusty People who are vowed servants to him and have little else to doe but to advance that Authority by which they subsist in that dronish way of life In fine perusing the Controversies of Bellarmine or any other Champion of Romanism do but consider the nature and scope of each Doctrine maintained by them and you may easily discern that scarce any of them but doth tend to advance the interest of the Pope or of his sworn Vassals Whereas indeed our Lord had never any such design to set up a sort of men in such distance above their brethren to perk over them and suck them of their goods by tricks it onely did charge People to allow their Pastours a competent maintenance for a sober life with a moderate respect as was needfull for the common benefit of God's People whom they were with humility and meekness to instruct and guide in the plain and simple way of Piety This is a grievous inconvenience there being nothing wherein the Church is more concerned than in the preservation of its Doctrine pure and incorrupt from the leaven of hurtfull errours influential on practice 4. The errours in Doctrine and miscarriages in practice which this Authority in favour to it self would introduce would be established immoveably to the irrecoverable oppression of Truth and Piety any reformation becoming impossible while it standeth or so far as it shall be able to oppose and obstruct it While particular Churches do retain their liberty and Pastours their original co-ordination in any measure if any Church or Bishop shall offer to broach any novel Doctrine or Practice of bad import the others may endeavour to stop the settlement or progress of them each Church at least may keep it self sound from contagion But when all Churches and Bishops are reduced into subjection to one Head supported by the guards of his Authority who will dare to contest or be able to withstand what he shall say or doe It
servants But the Papists curse those who although out of humility and modesty will not acknowledge the good works of justified persons to be truly meritorious deserving the encrease of grace eternal life and augmentation of glory so forcing us to use saucy words and phrases if not impious in their sense The Scripture teacheth one Church diffused over the whole world whereof each part is bound to maintain charity peace and communion with the rest upon brotherly terms But the Romanists arrogate to themselves the name and privilege of the onely Church condemning all other Churches beside their own and censuring all for Apostatical who do not adhere to them or submit to their yoke Just like the Donatists who said that the world had apostatized excepting those who upon their own terms did communicate with them onely the communion of Donatus remained the true Church The Holy Scripture biddeth us take care of persons pretending to extraordinary Inspirations charging on the Holy Spirit their own conceits and devices Such have been their Synods boldly fathering their Decrees on God's Spirit And their Pope is infallible by virtue of inspiration communicated to him when he pleaseth to set himself right in his Chair Whence we may take them for bodies of Enthusiasts and Fanaticks the difference onely is that other Enthusiasts pretend singly they conjunctly and by conspiracy Others pretend it in their own direction and defence these impose their dreams on the whole Church If they say that God hath promised his Spirit to his Church it is true but he hath no less plainly and frequently promised it to single Christians who should seek it earnestly of him The ancient Fathers could in the Scriptures hardly discern more than two Sacraments or Mysterious Rites of our Religion by positive Law and Institution of our Saviour to be practised But the Popes have devised others and under uncharitable curses propound them to be professed for such affirming them to confer grace by the bare performance of them Every Clergy-man and Monk is bound by Pius IV. to profess there are just seven of them and the Tridentine Synod anathematizeth all those who do say there are more or fewer although the Ancients did never hit on that number But these our Sacraments both contain grace and also confer it upon those who worthily receive them They require men to believe under a curse that each of those were instituted of Christ and confer grace by the bare performance Particularly they curse those who do not hold matrimony for a Sacrament instituted by Christ and conferring grace What can be more ridiculous than to say that marriage was instituted by Christ or that it doth confer grace Yet with another anathema they prefer Virginity before it and why forsooth is not that another Sacrament And then they must be comparing the worth of these Sacraments condemning those heavily who may conceive them equal as being Divine Institutions If any say that these seven Sacraments are so equal one to another that one is in no respect of more worth than another let him be Anathema The first as it seemeth who reckoned the Sacraments to be seven was Peter Lombard whom the Schoolmen did follow and Pope Eugenius IV. followed them and afterward the Trent men formed it into an Article back'd with an Anathema Upon which rash and peremptory Sentence touching all ancient Divines we may note 1. Is it not strange that an Article of Faith should be formed upon an ambiguous word or a term of art used with great variety 2. Is it not strange to define a Point whereof it is most plain that the Fathers were ignorant were in they never did agree or resolve any thing 3. Yea whereof they speak variously 4. Is it not odd and extravagant to damn or curse people for a point of so little consideration or certainty 5. Is it not intolerable arrogance and presumption to define nay indeed to make an Article of Faith without any manner of ground or colour of Authority either from Scripture or the Tradition of the ancient Fathers The Holy Scripture forbiddeth us to call any man Master upon earth or absolutely to subject our Faith to the dictates of any man It teacheth us that the Apostles themselves are not Lords of our faith so as to oblige us to believe their own inventions It forbiddeth us to swallow whole the Doctrines and Precepts of men without examination of them It forbiddeth us to admit various and strange doctrines But the Pope and Roman Church exact from us a submission to their Dictates admitting them for true without any farther enquiry or discussion barely upon his Authority They who are provided of any Benefices whatever having cure of Souls let them promise and swear obedience to the Roman Church They require of us without doubt to believe to profess to assert innumerable Propositions divers of them new and strange no-wise deducible from Scripture or Apostolical Tradition the very terms of them being certainly unknown to the Primitive Church devised by humane subtilty curiosity contentiousness divers of them being in all appearance to the judgment of common sense uncertain obscure and intricate divers of them bold and fierce divers of them frivolous and vain divers of them palpably false Namely all such Propositions as have been taught by their Great Junto's allowed by the Pope especially that of Trent Moreover all other things delivered defined and declared by the Sacred Canons and Oecumenical Councils and especially by the Holy Synod of Trent I undoubtedly receive and profess and also all things contrary thereunto and all heresies whatsoever condemned and rejected and anathematized by the Church I in like manner do condemn reject and anathematize This is the true Catholick Faith out of which there can be no Salvation This Usurpation upon the Consciences of Christians none like whereto was ever known in the world they prosecute with most uncharitable censures cursing and damning all who do not in heart and profession submit to him obliging all their consorts to join therein against all charity and prudence The Scripture enjoineth us to bear with those who are weak in faith and err in doubtfull or disputable matters But the Popes with cruel uncharitableness not onely do censure all that cannot assent to their devices which they obtrude as Articles of Faith but sorely persecute them with all sorts of punishments even with death it self a practice inconsistent with Christian meekness with equity with reason and of which the Fathers have expressed the greatest detestation They have unwoven and altered all Theology from head to foot and of Divine have made it Sophistical The Pope with his pack of mercenary Clients at Trent did indeed establish a Scholastical or Sophistical rather than a Christian Theology framing Points devised by the idle wits of latter times into Definitions and peremptory Conclusions back'd with Curses and Censures concerning
offices of humanity toward their subjects travelling or trading any where in the World common Reason doth require such things But may common Unity of Polity from hence be inferr'd Arg. X. The effectuâ—â— Preservation of Unity in the primitive Church is alledged as a strong Argument of its being united in one Government Answ. 1. That Unity of Faith and Charity and Discipline which we admit was indeed preserved not by influence of any one Sovereign Authority whereof there is no mention but by the concurrent vigilance of Bishops declaring and disputing against any Novelty in Doctrine or Practice which did start up by their adherence to the Doctrine asserted in Scripture and confirmed by Tradition by their aiding and abetting one another as Confederates against Errours and Disorders creeping in Answ. 2. The many Differences which arose concerning the Observation of Easter the Re-baptization of Hereticks the Reconciliation of Revolters and scandalous Criminals concerning the decision of Causes and Controversies c. do more clearly shew that there was no standing common Jurisdiction in the Church for had there been such an one recourse would have been had thereto and such Differences by its Authority would easily have been quashed Arg. XI Another Argument is grounded on the Relief which one Church did yield to another which supposeth all Churches under one Government imposing such Tribute Answ. 1. This is a strange Fetch as if all who were under obligation to relieve one another in need were to be under one Government Then all Mankind must be so Answ. 2. It appeareth by St. Paul that these Succours were of free Charity Favour and Liberality and not by Constraint Arg. XII The use of Councils is also alledged as an Argument of this Unity Answ. 1. General Councils in case Truth is disowned that Peace is disturbed that Discipline is loosed or perverted are wholsome Expedients to clear Truth and heal Breaches but the holding them is no more an Argument of political Unity in the Church than the Treaty of Munster was a sign of all Europe being under one civil Government Answ. 2. They are extraordinary arbitrary prudential means of restoring Truth Peace Order Discipline but from them nothing can be gathered concerning the continual ordinary State of the Church Answ. 3. For during a long time the Church wanted them and afterwards had them but rarely For the first three hundred years saith Bell. there was no general assembly afterwards scarce one in a hundred years And since the breach between the Oriental and Western Churches for many Centenaries there hath been none Yet was the Church from the beginning One till Constantine and long afterwards Answ. 4. The first General Councils indeed all that have been with any probable shew capable of that denomination were congregated by Emperours to cure the Dissentions of Bishops what therefore can be argued from them but that the Emperours did find it good to settle Peace and Truth and took this for a good mean thereto Alb. Pighius said that General Councils were an invention of Constantine and who can confute him Answ. 5. They do shew rather the Unity of the Empire than of the Church or of the Church as National under one Empire than as Catholick for it was the State which did call and moderate them to its Purposes Answ. 6. It is manifest that the congregation of them dependeth on the permission and pleasure of secular Powers and in all equity should do so as otherwhere is shewed Answ. 7. It is not expedient that there should be any of them now that Christendom slandeth divided under divers temporal Sovereignties for their Resolutions may intrench on the Interests of some Princes and hardly can they be accommodated to the Civil Laws and Customs of every State Whence we see that France will not admit the Decrees of their Tridentine Synod Answ. 8. There was no such inconvenience in them while Christendom was in a manner confined within one Empire for then nothing could be decreed or executed without the Emperour's leave or to his prejudice Answ. 9. Yea as things now stand it is impossible there should be a free Council most of the Bishops being sworn Vassals and Clients to the Pope and by their own Interests concerned to maintain his exorbitant Grandeur and Domination Answ. 10. In the opinion of St. Athanasius there was no reasonable cause of Synods except in case of new Heresies springing up which may be confuted by the joint consent of Bishops Answ. 11. As for particular Synods they do onely signifie that it was usefull for neighbour Bishops to conspire in promoting Truth Order and Peace as we have otherwhere shewed Councils have often been convened for bad Designs and been made Engines to oppress Truth and enslave Christendom That of Antioch against Athanasius of Ariminum for Arianism The second Ephesine to restore Eutyches and reject Flavianus The second of Nice to impose the Worship of Babies The Synod of Ariminum to countenance Arians So the fourth Synod of Laterane sub Inn. III. to settle the prodigious Doctrine of Transubstantiation and the wicked Doctrine of Papal Authority over Princes The first Synod of Lions to practise that hellish Doctrine of Deposing Kings The Synod of Constance to establish the maime of the Eucharist against the Calistines of Bohemia The Laterane under Leo X. was called as the Arch-bishop of Patras affirmed for the Exaltation of the Apostolical See The Synod of Trent to settle a raff of Errours and Superstitions Obj. II. It may farther be objected that this Doctrine doth favour the Conceits of the Independents concerning Ecclesiastical Discipline I answer No. For 1. We do assert that every Church is bound to observe the Institutions of Christ and that sort of Government which the Apostles did ordain consisting of Bishops Priests and People 2. We avow it expedient in conformity to the primitive Churches and in order to the maintenance of Truth Order Peace for several particular Churches or Parishes to be combined in political Corporations as shall be found convenient by those who have just Authority to frame such Corporations for that otherwise Christianity being shattered into numberless shreds could hardly subsist and that great Confusions must arise 3. We affirm that such Bodies having been established and being maintained by just Authority every man is bound to endeavour the upholding of them by Obedience by peaceable and compliant Demeanour 4. We acknowledge it a great Crime by factious behaviour in them or by needless separation from them to disturb them to divide them to dissolve or subvert them 5. We conceive it fit that every People under one Prince or at least of one Nation using the same Language Civil Law and Fashions should be united in the bands of Ecclesiastical Polity for that such a Unity apparently is conducible to the peace and welfare both of Church and State to the furtherance of God's worship and
true wonder of the world and changer of the Age did affirm the Pontifical Authority so much to exceed the Royal Power as the Sun doth the Moon and applieth to the former that of the Prophet Jeremy Ecce constitui te super gentes regna See I have set thee over the Nations and over the Kingdoms to root out and to pull down and to destroy and to throw down c. Of this Power that Pope made experiment by deposing the Emperour Otho IV whom saith Nauclerus as rebellious to the Apostolical See he first did strike with an Anathema then him persevering in his obstinacy did in a Council of Prelates held at Rome pronounce deposed from Empire The which Authority was avowed by that great Council under this Pope the which according to the men of Trent did represent or constitute the Church wherein it was ordained that If a Temporal Lord being required and admonished by the Church should neglect to purge his Territory from Heretical filth he should by the Metropolitan and the other Comprovincial Bishops be noosed in the band of Excommunication and that if he should slight to make satisfaction within a year it should be signified to the Pope that he might from that time denounce the Subjects absolved from their Fealty to him and expose the Territory to be seised on by Catholicks c. Before that Pope Paschal II. deprived Henry IV. and excited enemies to persecute him telling them that they could not offer a more acceptable Sacrifice to God than by impugning him who endeavoured to take the Kingdom from God's Church Before him Pope Vrban II. called Turban by some in his Age did preach this Doctrine recommended to us in the Decrees that Subjects are by no authority constrained to pay the Fidelity which they have sworn to a Christian Prince who opposeth God and his Saints or violateth their Precepts An instance whereof we have in his granting a privilege to the Canons of Tours which saith he if any Emperour King Prince c. shall wilfully attempt to thwart let him be deprived of the dignity of his honour and power But the great Apostle if not Authour of this confounding Doctrine was Pope Gregory VII a man of a bold spirit and fiery temper inured even before his entry on that See to bear sway and drive on daring projects possessed with resolution to use the advantages of his place and time in pushing forward the Papal Interest to the utmost who did lift up his voice like a trumpet kindling Wars and Seditions thereby over Christendom His Dictates and Practices are well known being iterated in his own Epistles and in the Roman Councils under him extant Yet it may be worth the while to hear him swagger in his own language For the dignity and defence of God's Holy Church in the name of Almighty God the Father Son and Holy Ghost I depose from Imperial and Royal Administration King Henry Son of Henry sometime Emperour who too boldly and rashly hath laid hands on thy Church and I absolve all Christians subject to the Empire from that Oath whereby they were wont to plight their faith unto true Kings for it is right that he should be deprived of Dignity who doth endeavour to diminish the Majesty of the Church Go to therefore most Holy Princes of the Apostles and what I said by interposing your Authority confirm that all men may now at length understand if ye can bind and loose in Heaven that ye also can upon Earth take away and give Empires Kingdoms and whatsoever mortals can have for if ye can judge things belonging unto God what is to be deemed concerning these inferiour and profane things And if it is your part to judge Angels who govern proud Princes what becometh it you to doe toward their servants Let Kings now and all Secular Princes learn by this man's example what ye can doe in Heaven and in what esteem ye are with God and let them henceforth fear to slight the commands of Holy Church but put forth suddenly this judgment that all men may understand that not casually but by your means this Son of iniquity doth fall from his Kingdom So did that Pope not unadvisedly in heat or passion but out of settled judgment upon cool deliberation express himself in his Synods at Rome This Pope is indeed by many held the inventour and broacher of this strange Doctrine And even those who about his Age did oppose it did express themselves of this mind calling it the novel Tradition Schism Heresie of Hildebrand Pope Hildebrand saith the Church of Liege in their answer to the Epistle to P. Paschal is authour of this new Schism and first did raise the Priests lance against the Royal Diadem Who first did girt himself and by his example other Popes with the sword of war against the Emperours This onely Novelty saith Sigebert not to say Heresie had not yet sprang up in the world that the Priests of him who saith to the King Apostate and who maketh hypocrites to reign for the sins of the people should teach the people that they owe no subjection to bad Kings and although they have sworn Allegeance to the King they yet owe him none and that they who take part against the King may not be said to be perjured yea that he who shall obey the King may be held excommunicate he that shall oppose the King may be absolved from the crime of injustice and perjury Indeed certain it is that this man did in most downright strains hold the Doctrine and most smartly apply it to practice yet did he disclaim the invention or introduction of it professing that he followed the notions and examples of his predecessours divers of which he allegeth in defence of his proceedings We saith he holding the Statutes of our Holy Predecessours do by Apostolical authority absolve those from their Oath who are obliged by Fealty or Sacrament to Excommunicate persons and by all means prohibit that they observe Fealty to them And so it is that although for many successions before Pope Hildebrand the Popes were not in condition or capacity to take so much upon them there having been a row of persons intruded into that See void of vertue and of small authority most of them very beasts who depended upon the favour of Princes for their admittance confirmation or support in the place yet we may find some Popes before him who had a great spice of those imperious conceits and upon occasion made very bold with Princes assuming power over them and darting menaces against them For Pope Leo IX telleth us that Constantine M. did think it very unbecoming that they should be subject to an Earthly Empire whom the Divine Majesty had set over an Heavenly and surely he was of his authour's mind whom he alledged although indeed this Pope may be supposed to speak this and other
Papal Sovereignty over Princes in Temporals to be preached in it There were many persons yea Synods who did oppose Pope Hildebrand in the birth of his Doctrine condemning it for a pernicious Novelty and branding it with the name of Heresie as we before shewed Since the Hildebrandine Age there have been in every Nation yea in Italy it self divers Historians Divines and Lawyers who have in elaborate Tracts maintained the Royal Sovereignty against the Pontifical This sort of Hereticks are now so much encreased that the Hildebrandine Doctrine is commonly exploded Which by the way sheweth that the Roman Party is no less than others subject to change its sentiments Opinions among them gaining and losing vogue according to circumstances of time and contingencies of things § VIII Neither are the adherents to the Roman Church more agreed concerning the extent of the Pope's Authority even in Spiritual matters For although the Popes themselves plainly do claim an absolute Supremacy in them over the Church although the stream of Divines who do flourish in favour with them doth run that way although according to their principles if they had any principles clearly and certainly fixed that might seem to be the Doctrine of their Church Yet is there among them a numerous party which doth not allow him such a Supremacy putting great restraints to his Authority as we shall presently shew And as the other party doth charge this with Heresie so doth this return back the same imputation on that § IX That their Doctrine is in this matter so various and uncertain is no great wonder seeing Interest is concerned in the question and Principles are defective toward the resolution of it 1. Contrary Interests will not suffer the Point to be decided nor indeed to be freely disputed on either hand On one hand the Pope will not allow his Prerogatives to be discussed according to that maxime of the great Pope Innocent III. When there is a question touching the Privileges of the Apostolick See we will not that others judge about them Whence as we before touched the Pope did peremptorily command his Legates at Trent in no case to permit any dispute about his Authority On the other hand the French will not permit the Supremacy of their King in Temporals or the Privileges of their Church in Spirituals to be contested in their Kingdom Nor we may suppose would any Prince admit a Decision prejudicial to his Authority and welfare subjecting and enslaving him to the will of the Roman Court. Nor we may hope would any Church patiently comport with the irrecoverable oppression of all its rights and liberties by a peremptory establishment of Papal Omnipotency 2. Nor is it easie for their Dissentions to be reconciled upon Theological grounds and authorities to which they pretend deference For not onely their Schools and Masters of their Doctrine do in the case disagree but their Synods do notoriously clash § X. Yea even Popes themselves have shifted their pretences and varied in style according to the different circumstances of time and their variety of humours designs interests In time of prosperity and upon advantage when they might safely doe it any Pope almost would talk high and assume much to himself but when they were low or stood in fear of powerfull contradiction even the boldest Popes would speak submissly or moderately As for instance Pope Leo I. after the second Ephesine Synod when he had to doe with Theodosius II. did humbly supplicate and whine pitifully but after the Synod of Chalcedon having got the Emperour favourable and most of the Bishops complacent to him he ranted bravely And we may observe that even Pope Gregory VII who did swagger so boisterously against the Emperour Henry was yet calm and mild in his contests with our William the Conquerour who had a spirit good enough for him and was far out of his reach And Popes of high spirit and bold face such as Leo I. Gelasius I. Nic. I. Gregory II. Gregory VII Innocent III. Boniface VIII Julius II. Paul IV. Sixtus V. Paulus V. c. as they did ever aspire to scrue Papal authority to the highest peg so would they strain their language in commendation of their See as high as their times would bear But other Popes of meeker and modester disposition such as Julius I. Anastasius II. Gregory I. Leo II. Adrian VI. c. were content to let things stand as they found them and to speak in the ordinary style of their times yet so that few have let their Authority to goe backward or decline We may observe that the pretences and language of Popes have varied according to several periods usually growing higher as their State grew looser from danger of opposition or controll In the first times while the Emperours were Pagans their pretences were suted to their condition and could not soar high they were not then so mad as to pretend to any Temporal Power and a pittance of Spiritual eminency did content them When the Empire was divided they could sometimes be more haughty and peremptory as being in the West shrowded under the wing of the Emperours there who commonly did affect to improve their Authority in competition to that of other Bishops and at distance from the reach of the Eastern Emperour The cause of Athanasius having produced the Sardican Canons concerning the Revision of some causes by the Popes by colour of them they did hugely enlarge their Authority and raise their style especially in the West where they had great advantages of augmenting their Power When the Western Empire was fallen their influence upon that part of the Empire which came under protection of the Eastern Emperours rendring them able to doe service or disservice to those Emperours they according to the state of Times and the need of them did talk more big or more tamely Pope Boniface III. having by compliance with the Usurper Phocas obtained a declaration from him concerning the Headship of the Roman Church did make a considerable step forward toward the height of Papal Greatness After that Pope Greg. II. had withdrawn Italy from the Oriental Empire and Rome had grown in a manner loose and independent from other secular powers in the confusions of the West the Pope interposing to arbitrate between Princes trucking and bartering with them as occasion served for mutual aid and countenance did grow in Power and answerably did advance his pretences The spurious Decretal Epistles of the ancient Popes which asserted to the Pope high degrees of Authority being foisted into mens hands and insensibly creeping into repute did inspire the Pope with confidence to invade all the ancient Constitutions Privileges and Liberties of Churches and having got such interest every-where he might say what he pleased no Clergy-man daring to check or cross him Having drawn to himself the final decision of all Causes having got a finger in disposal of all Preferments having by Dispensations Exemptions and Grants of privileges tyed
Churches settled in them agreeably to the ancient Canons of the Church Universal There are those who assert to General Councils a power of Reforming the Church without or against the Pope's consent There are those who as Bellarmine telleth us do allow the Pope to be no more in the Ecclesiastical Republick than as the Duke of Venice in his Senate or as the General of an Order in his Congregation and that he therefore hath but a very limited and subordinate Power There are consequently those who conceive the Pope notoriously erring or misdemeaning himself to the prejudice of the Christian State may be called to an account may be judged may be corrected may be discarded by a General Synod Such notions have manifestly prevailed in a good part of the Roman Communion and are maintained by most Divines in the French Church and they may be supposed every-where common where there is any liberty of judgment or where the Inquisition doth not reign There have been seasons wherein they have so prevailed as to have been defined for Catholick Truths in great Synods and by them to have been applied to practice For In the first great Synod of Pisa it was declared that Councils may reform the Church sufficiently both in Head and Members and accordingly that Synod did assume to judge two Popes Gregory XII and Benedict XIII contending for the Papacy whereof one was the true Pope and deposing them both did substitute Alexander V. who for one year as Antoninus reporteth according to the common opinion did hold the Seat of Peter The Synod of Constance declared that the Synod lawfully assembled in the Holy Ghost making a General Council representing the Catholick Church militant hath immediately power from Christ to which every one of whatever state or dignity he be although it be Papal is bound to obey in those things which belong to Faith and the extirpation of the said Schism and the general reformation of the Church of God in Head and Members The which Doctrine they notably put in practice exercising jurisdiction over Popes and for Errours Misdemeanours or Contumacies discarding three of whom it is hard if one were not true Pope and chusing another who thereafter did pass for a right Pope and himself did confirm the Acts of that Council So that this Semi-heresie hath at least the authority of one Pope to countenance it Our most holy Lord the Pope said in answer thereunto that he would maintain and inviolably observe all and every of those things that were conciliarly determin'd concluded and decreed by the present Council in matters of Faith The Synod of Basil declared the same Point that Councils are superiour to Popes to be a truth of Catholick Faith which whoever doth stiffly oppose is to be accounted a Heretick Nor say they did any skilfull man ever doubt the Pope to be subject to the judgment of General Synods in things concerning Faith In virtue of which Doctrine and by its irresistable authority the Synod did sentence and reject Pope Eugenius as criminal heretical and contumacious These Synods although reprobated by Popes in Counter-synods are yet by many Roman Catholick Divines retained in great veneration and their Doctrine is so current in the famous Sorbonne that if we may believe the great Cardinal of Lorrain the contrary is there reputed heretical § XVI Yet notwithstanding these oppositions the former Opinion averring the Pope's absolute Sovereignty doth seem to be the genuine Doctrine of the Roman Church if it have any For those Divines by the Pope and his intimate confidents are looked upon as a mongrel brood or mutinous faction which he by politick connivence doth onely tolerate because he is not well able to correct or suppress them He is afraid to be violent in reclaiming them to his sense lest he spend his artillery in vain and lose all his power and interest with them Nor indeed do those men seem to adhere to the Roman Party out of entire judgment or cordial affection but in compliance with their Princes or upon account of their Interest or at best with regard to peace and quiet They cannot conveniently break with the Pope because his Interest is twisted with their own so as not easily to be disentangled For how can they heartily stick to the Pope whenas their Opinion doth plainly imply him to be an Usurper and a Tyrant claiming to himself and exercising authority over the Church which doth not rightfully belong to him to be a Rebel and Traitour against the Church invading and possessing the Sovereignty due to it for such questionless the Duke of Venice would be should he challenge and assume to himself such a Power over his Commonwealth as the Pope hath over Christendom to be an Impostour and Seducer pretending to infallible conduct which he hath not How can they honestly condemn those who upon such grounds do shake off such yokes refusing to comply with the Pope till he correct his Errours till he desist from those Usurpations and Impostures till he restore to the Church its Rights and Liberties How are the Doctrines of those men consistent or congruous to their practice For they call the Pope Monarch of the Church and Universal Pastour of Christians by God's appointment indefectibly yet will they not admit all his Laws and reject Doctrines which he teacheth particularly those which most nearly touch him concerning his own Office and Authority They profess themselves his loyal Subjects yet pretend Liberties which they will maintain against him They hold that all are bound to entertain Communion with him yet confess that he may be heretical and seduce into Errour They give him the name and shadow of a Supremacy but so that they can void the substance and reality thereof In fine where should we seek for the Doctrine of the Roman Church but at Rome or from Rome it self where these Doctrines are Heterodoxies § XVII We shall not therefore have a distinct regard to the Opinion of these Semi-romanists nor consider them otherwise than to confirm that part of Truth which they hold and to confute that part of Errour which they embrace allowing at least in word and semblance more power to the Pope than we can admit as due to him Our discourse shall be levelled at him as such as he pretendeth himself to be or as assuming to himself the forementioned Powers and Prerogatives § XVIII Of such vast Pretences we have reason to require sufficient Grounds He that demandeth assent to such important Assertions ought to produce clear proofs of them He that claimeth so mighty Power should be able to make out a good Title to it for No man may take this more than Pontifical honour to himself but he that is called by God as was Aaron They are worthily to be blamed who tumultuously and disorderly fall upon curbing or restraining those who by no law are subject to them We cannot well be justified
time was in all anciently priority in ordination did ground a right to precedence as it is in ours with some exception so might Saint Peter upon this account of being first ordained Apostle obtain such a Primacy 2. Saint Peter also might be the first in age which among Persons otherwise equal is a fair ground of preference for he was a married man and that before he was called as is intimated in Saint Luke and may be inferred from hence that he would not have married after that he had left all and devoted himself to follow our Lord. Upon which account of age St. Hierome did suppose that he was preferred before the beloved Disciple why saith he was not Saint John elected being a Batchelour it was deferred to age because Peter was elder that a youth and almost a boy might not be preferred before men of good age I know that Epiphanius affirmeth St. Andrew to have been the elder Brother but it doth not appear whether he saith it from conjecture or upon any other ground And his Authority although we should suppose it bottomed on tradition is not great tradition it self in such matters being very slippery and often one tradition crossing another 3. The most eminent qualifications of Saint Peter such as we before described might procure to him this advantage They might breed in him an honest confidence pushing him forward on all occasions to assume the former place and thence by custom to possess it for qui sibi fidit Dux regit examen it being in all action as in walking where he that naturally is most vigorous and active doth goe before the rest They might induce others to a voluntary concession thereof for to those who indisputably do excell in good qualities or abilities honest and meek persons easily will yield precedence especially on occasions of publick concernment wherein it is expedient that the best qualified persons should be first seen They probably might also move our Lord himself to settle or at least to insinuate this order assigning the first place to him whom he knew most willing to serve him and most able to lead on the rest in his service It is indeed observable that upon all occasions our Lord signified a particular respect to him before the rest of his Collegues for to him more frequently than to any of them he directed his discourse unto him by a kind of anticipation he granted or promised those gifts and privileges which he meant to confer on them all Him he did assume as Spectatour and Witness of his glorious Transfiguration Him he picked out as Companion and Attendant on him in his grievous Agony His Feet he first washed to him he did first discover himself after his Resurrection as Saint Paul implieth and with him then he did entertain most discourse in especial manner recommending to him the pastoral care of his Church by which manner of proceeding our Lord may seem to have constituted Saint Peter the first in order among the Apostles or sufficiently to have hinted his mind for their direction admonishing them by his example to render unto him a special deference 4. The Fathers commonly do attribute his priority to the merit of his Faith and Confession wherein he did outstrip his Brethren He obtained supereminent glory by the confession of his blessed faith saith St. Hilary Because he alone of all the rest professeth his love John 21. therefore he is preferred above all saith St. Ambrose 5. Constantly in all the Catalogues of the Apostles Saint Peter's name is set in the front and when actions are reported in which he was concerned jointly with others he is usually mentioned first which seemeth not done without carefull design or special reason Upon such grounds it may be reasonable to allow Saint Peter a primacy of order such an one as the Ring-leader hath in a Dance as the primipilar Centurion had in the Legion or the Prince of the Senate had there in the Roman State at least as among Earls Baronets c. and others co-ordinate in degree yet one hath a precedence of the rest IV. As to a Primacy importing Superiority in power command or jurisdiction this by the Roman Party is asserted to Saint Peter but we have great reason to deny it upon the following considerations 1. For such a Power being of so great importance it was needfull that a Commission from God its Founder should be granted in down-right and perspicuous terms that no man concerned in duty grounded thereon might have any doubt of it or excuse for boggling at it it was necessary not onely for the Apostles to bind and warrant their Obedience but also for us because it is made the sole foundation of a like duty incumbent on us which we cannot heartily discharge without being assured of our obligation thereto by clear revelation or promulgation of God's will in the Holy Scripture for it was of old a current and ever will be a true Rule which St. Austin in one case thus expresseth I do believe that also on this side there would be most clear authority of the Divine Oracles if a man could not be ignorant of it without damage of his salvation and Lactantius thus Those things can have no foundation or firmness which are not sustained by any Oracle of God's word But apparently no such Commission is extant in Scripture the allegations for it being as we shall hereafter shew no-wise clear nor probably expressive of any such Authority granted by God but on the contrary divers clearer testimonies are producible derogating from it 2. If so illustrious an Office was instituted by our Saviour it is strange that no-where in the Evangelical or Apostolical History wherein divers acts and passages of smaller moment are recorded there should be any express mention of that Institution there being not onely much reason for such a report but many pat occasions for it The time when Saint Peter was vested with that Authority the manner and circumstances of his Installment therein the nature rules and limits of such an Office had surely well deserved to have been noted among other occurrences relating to our Faith and Discipline by the Holy Evangelists no one of them in all probability could have forborn punctually to relate a matter of so great consequence as the settlement of a Monarch in God's Church and a Sovereign of the Apostolical College from whom so eminent Authority was to be derived to all posterity for compliance wherewith the whole Church for ever must be accountable particularly it is not credible that Saint Luke should quite slip over so notable a passage who had as he telleth us attained a perfect understanding of all things and had undertaken to write in order the things that were surely believed among Christians in his time of which things this if any was one of the most considerable The time of his receiving Institution to such
add If an Angel from Heaven should tell you beside what you have received in the Legal and Evangelical Scriptures let him be anathema in which words we have St. Austin's warrant not onely to refuse but to detest this Doctrine which being nowhere extant in Law or Gospel is yet obtruded on us as nearly relating both to Christ and his Church as greatly concerning both our Faith and Practice 2. To enforce this Argument we may consider that the Evangelists do speak about the propagation settlement and continuance of our Lord's Kingdom that the Apostles do often treat about the state of the Church and its edification order peace unity about the distinction of its Officers and Members about the qualifications duties graces privileges of Spiritual Governours and Guides about prevention and remedy of Heresies Schisms Disorders upon any of which occasions how is it possible that the mention of such a Spiritual Monarch who was to have a main influence on each of those particulars should wholly escape them if they had known such an one instituted by God In the Levitical Law all things concerning the High-Priest not onely his Designation Succession Consecration Duty Power Maintenance Privileges but even his Garments Marriage Mourning c. are punctually determined and described and is it not wonderfull that in the many descriptions of the New-Law no mention should be made concerning any Duty or Privilege of its High-Priest whereby he might be directed in the administration of his Office and know what observance to require 3. Whereas also the Scripture doth inculcate duties of all sorts and doth not forget frequently to press duties of respect and obedience toward particular Governours of the Church is it not strange that it never should bestow one precept whereby we might be instructed and admonished to pay our duty to the Universal Pastour especially considering that God who directed the Pens of the Apostles and who intended that their Writings should continue for the perpetual instruction of Christians did foresee how requisite such a precept would be to secure that duty for if but one such precept did appear it would doe the business and void all contestation about it 4. They who so carefully do exhort to honour and obey the temporal Sovereignty how come they so wholly to wave urging the no less needfull obligations to obey the Spiritual Monarch while they are so mindfull of the Emperour why are they so neglectfull of the Pope insomuch that divers Popes afterward to ground and urge obedience to them are fain to borrow those precepts which command obedience to Princes accommodating them by analogy and inference to themselves 5. Particularly Saint Peter one would think who doth so earnestly injoin to obey the King as Supreme and to honour him should not have been unmindfull of his Successours or quite have forborn to warn Christians of the respect due to them surely the Popes afterward do not follow him in this reservedness for in their Decretal Epistles they urge nothing so much as obedience to the Apostolical See 6. One might have expected something of that nature from St. Paul himself who did write so largely to the Romans and so often from Rome that at least some word or some intimation should have dropped from him concerning these huge Rights and Privileges of this See and of the regard due to it Particularly then when he professedly doth enumerate the Offices instituted by God for standing use and perpetual duration for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edifying of the Body of Christ till we all come in the Vnity of Faith c. He commendeth them for their Faith which was spoken of through the whole world yet giveth them no advantage above others as St. Chrysostome observeth on those words for obedience to the Faith among all Nations among whom also are ye this saith St. Chrysostome he saith to depress their conceit to void their haughtiness of mind and to teach them to deem others equal in Dignity with them When He writeth to that Church which was some time after Saint Peter had setled the Popedom he doth onely style them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 called Saints and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beloved of God which are common adjuncts of all Christians He saith their Faith was spoken of generally but of the fame of their Authority being so spread he taketh no notice that their obedience had come abroad to all men but their commands had not it seemeth come anywhere He wrote divers Epistles from Rome wherein he resolveth many cases debated yet never doth urge the Authority of the Roman Church for any point which now is so ponderous an Argument 7. But however seeing the Scripture is so strangely reserved how cometh it to pass that Tradition is also so defective and staunch in so grand a case We have in divers of the Fathers particularly in Tertullian in St. Basil in St. Hierome Catalogues of Traditional Doctrines and Observances which they recite to assert Tradition in some cases supplemental to Scripture in which their purpose did require that they should set down those of principal moment and they are so punctual as to insert many of small consideration how then came they to neglect this concerning the Papal Authority over the whole Church which had been most pertinent to their design and in consequence did vastly surpass all the rest which they do name 8. The designation of the Roman Bishop by succession to obtain so high a degree in the Church being above all others a most remarkable and noble piece of History which it had been a horrible fault in an Ecclesiastical History to slip over without carefull reporting and reflecting upon it yet Eusebius that most diligent Compiler of all passages relating to the original Constitution of the Church and to all transactions therein hath not â—ne word about it who yet studiously doth report the Successions of the Roman Bishops and all the notable occurrences he knew concerning them with favourable advantage 9. Whereas this Doctrine is pretended to be a Point of Faith of vast consequence to the subsistence of the Church and to the Salvation of men it is somewhat strange that it should not be inserted into any one ancient Summary of things to be believed of which Summaries divers remain some composed by publick consent others by persons of Eminency in the Church nor by fair and forcible consequence should be deducible from any Article in them especially considering that such Summaries were framed upon occasion of Heresies springing up which disregarded the Pope's Authority and which by asserting it were plainly confuted We are therefore beholden to Pope Innocent III. and his Laterane Synod for first Synodically defining this Point together with other Points no less new and unheard of before The Creed of Pope Pius IV. formed the other day is the first as I take it
which did contain this Article of Faith 10. It is much that this point of Faith should not be delivered in any of those ancient Expositions of the Creed made by St. Austin Ruffin c. which enlarge it to necessary points of Doctrine connected with the Articles therein especially with that of the Catholick Church to which the Pope's Authority hath so close a connexion that it should not be touched in the Catechetical Discourses of Cyril Ambrose c. that in the Systemes of Divinity composed by Saint Austin Lacâ—antius c. it should not be treated on The world is now changed for the Catechism of Trent doth not overlook so material a Point and it would pass for a lame Body of Theology which should omit to treat on this Subject 11. It is more wonderfull that this Point should never be defined in downright and full terms by any ancient Synod it being so notoriously in those old times opposed by divers who dissented in opinion and discorded in practice from the Pope it being also a Point of that consequence that such a solemn declaration of it would have much conduced to the ruine of all particular Errours and Schisms which were maintained then in opposition to the Church 12. Indeed had this Point been allowed by the main Body of Orthodox Bishops the Pope could not have been so drowsie or stupid as not to have solicited for such a definition thereof nor would the Bishops have been backward in compliance thereto it being in our adversaries conceit so compendious and effectual a way of suppressing all Heresies Schisms and Disorders although indeed later Experience hath shewed it no less available to stifle Truth Justice and Piety The Popes after Luther were better advised and so were the Bishops adhering to his Opinions 13. Whereas also it is most apparent that many persons disclaimed this Authority not regarding either the Doctrines or Decrees of the Popes it is wonderfull that such men should not be reckoned in the large Catalogues of Hereticks wherein Errours of less obvious consideration and of far less importance did place men If Epiphanius Theodoret Leontius c. were so negligent or unconcerned yet St. Austin Philastrius Western men should not have overlooked this sort of desperate Hereticks Aerius for questioning the dignity of Bishops is set among the Hereticks but who got that name for disavowing the Pope's Supremacy among the many who did it It is but lately that such as we have been thrust in among Hereticks 14. Whereas no Point avowed by Christians could be so apt to raise offence and jealousie in Pagans against our Religion as this which setteth up a Power of so vast extent and huge influence whereas no novelty could be more surprizing or startling than the Erection of an Universal Empire over the Consciences and religious Practices of men whereas also this Doctrine could not but be very conspicuous and glaring in ordinary practice it is prodigious that all Pagans should not loudly exclaim against it It is strange that Pagan Historians such as Marcellinus who often speaketh of Popes and blameth them for their luxurious way of living and pompous garb as Zozimus who bore a great spight at Christianity as all the Writers of the Imperial History before Constantine should not report it as a very strange pretence newly started up It is wonderfull that the eager Adversaries of our Religion such as Celsus Porphyrie Hierocles Julian himself should not particularly level their Discourse against it as a most scandalous position and dangerous pretence threatning the Government of the Empire It is admirable that the Emperours themselves enslamed with emulation and suspicion of such an Authority the which hath been so terrible even to Christian Princes should not in their Edicts expresly decry and impugn it that indeed every one of them should not with extremest violence implacably strive to extirpate it In consequence of these things it may also seem strange that none of the Advocates of our Faith Justin Origen Tertullian Arnobius Cyril Austin should be put to defend it or so much as forced to mention it in their elaborate Apologies for the Doctrines and Practices which were reprehended by any sort of Adversaries thereto We may add that divers of them in their Apologies and representations concerning Christianity would have appeared not to deal fairly or to have been very inconsiderate when they profess for their common belief assertions repugnant to that Doctrine as when Tertullian saith We reverence the Emperour as a man second to God and less onely than God when Optatus affirmeth that above the Emperour there is none beside God who made the Emperour and that Donatus by extolling himself as some now do above the Emperour did in so doing as it were exceed the bounds of men that he did esteem himself as God not as a man When St. Chrysostome asserteth the Emperour to be the crown and head of all men upon earth and saith that even Apostles Evangelists Prophets any men whoever are to be subject to the temporal Powers when St. Cyril calleth the Emperour the Supreme top of glory among men elevated above all others by incomparable differences c. When even Popes talk at this rate as Pope Gregory I. calling the Emperour his Lord and Lord of all telling the Emperour that his Competitour by assuming the title of Universal Bishop did set himself above the honour of his Imperial Majesty which he supposeth a piece of great absurdity and arrogance and even Pope Gregory II. doth call that Emperour against whom he afterward rebelled the Head of Christians Whereas indeed if the Pope be Monarch of the Church endowed with the Regalities which they now ascribe to him it is plain enough that he is not inferiour to any man living in real power and dignity wherefore the modern Doctours of Rome are far more sincere or considerate in their Heraldry than were those old Fathers of Christendom who now stick not down-rightly to prefer the Pope before all Princes of the World not onely in Doctrine and Notion but in the Sacred Offices of the Church for in the very Canon of their Mass the Pope together with the Bishop of the Diocese one of his Ministers is set before all Christian Princes every Christian Subject being thereby taught to deem the Pope superiour to his Prince Now we must believe for one Pope hath written it another hath put it in his Decretals and it is current Law that the Papal Authority doth no less surpass the Royal than the Sun doth outshine the Moon Now it is abundantly declared by Papal definition as a point necessary to Salvation that every humane creature neither King nor Kesar excepted is subject to the Roman High-priest Now the mystery is discovered why Popes when summoned by Emperours declined to go in Person to General Synods because it was not tolerable that the Emperour who sometime would be present in Synods
thereby for above three hundred years but however such as they are they do not reach home to the purpose They alledge Flavianus Bishop of Antioch deposed by Pope Damasus as they affirm But it is wonderfull they should have the face to mention that Instance the story in short being this The great Flavianus a most worthy and Orthodox Prelate whom St. Chrysostome in his Statuary Orations doth so highly commend and celebrate being substituted in the place of Meletius by the Quire of Bishops a party did adhere to Paulinus and after his decease they set up Evagrius ordaining him as Theodoret who was best acquainted with passages on that side of Christendom reporteth against many Canons of the Church Yet with this party the Roman Bishops not willing to know any of these things three of them in order Damasus Siricius Anastasius did conspire instigating the Emperour against Flavianus and reproaching him as supporter of a Tyrant against the Laws of Christ. But the Emperour having called Flavianus to him and received much satisfaction in his demeanour and discourse did demand and settle him in his place The Emperour saith Theodoret wondring at his courage and his wisedom did command him to return home and to feed the Church committed to him at which proceeding when the Romans afterward did grumble the Emperour gave them such reasons and advices that they complyed and did entertain communion with Flavianus It is true that upon their suggestions and clamours the Emperour was moved at first to order that Flavianus should go to Rome and give the Western Bishops satisfaction but after that he understood the quality of his plea he freed him of that trouble and without their allowance settled him in his See Here is nothing of the Pope's deposing Flavianus but of his embracing in a Schism the side of a Competitour it being in such a case needfull that the Pope or any other Bishop should chuse with whom he must communicate and consequently must disclaim the other in which choice the Pope had no good success not deposing Flavianus but vainly opposing him wherefore this allegation is strangely impertinent and well may be turned against them Indeed in this Instance we may see how fallible that See was in their judgment of things how rash in taking parties and somenting discords how pertinacious in a bad cause how peevish against the common sense of their brethren especially considering that before this opposition of Flavianus the Fathers of Constantinople had in their Letter to Pope Damasus and the Occidental Bishops approved and commended him to them highly asserting the legitimateness of his Ordination In fine how little their authority did avail with wise and considerate persons such as Theodosius M. was De Marca representeth the matter somewhat otherwise out of Socrates but take the matter as Socrates hath it and it signifieth no more than that both Theophilus and Damasus would not entertain communion with Flavianus as being uncapable of the Episcopal Order for having violated his Oath and caused a division in the Church of Antioch what is this to judicial Deposition and how did Damasus more depose him than Theophilus who upon the same dissatisfaction did in like manner forbear communion whenas indeed a wiser and better man than either of them St. Chrysostome did hold communion with him and did at length saith Socrates not agreeing with Theodoret reconcile him to them both They alledge the Deposition of Nestorius But who knoweth not that he was for heretical Doctrine deposed in and by a General Synod Pope Celestine did indeed threaten to withdraw his communion if he did not renounce his errour But had not any other Bishop sufficient authority to desert a perverter of the Faith Did not his own Clergy doe the same being commended by Pope Celestine for it Did not Cyril in writing to Pope Celestine himself affirm that he might before have declared that he could not communicate with him Did Nestorius admit the Pope's judgment no as the Papal Legates did complain He did not admit the constitution of the Apostolical Chair Did the Pope's Sentence obtain effect No not any for notwithstanding his threats Nestorius did hold his place till the Synod the Emperour did severely rebuke Cyril for his fierceness and implicitly the Pope and did order that no change should be made till the Synod should determine in the case not regarding the Pope's judgment So that this instance may well be retorted or used to prove the insignificancy of Papal authority then They alledge also Dioscorus of Alexandria deposed by Pope Leo but the case is very like to that of Nestorius and argueth the contrary to what they intend He was for his misdemeanours and violent countenancing of heresie solemnly in a General Synod accused tried condemned and deposed the which had long before been done if in the Pope his professed and provoked Adversary there had been sufficient power to effect it Bellarmine also alledgeth Pope Sixtus III. deposing Polychronius Bishop of Jerusalem But no such Polychronius is to be found in the Registers of Bishops then or in the Histories of that busie time between the two great Synods of Ephesus and Chalcedon and the Acts of Sixtus upon which this allegation is grounded have so many inconsistences and smell so rank of forgery that no conscionable nose could endure them and any prudent man as Binius himself confesseth would assert them to be spurious Wherefore Baronius himself doth reject and despise them who gladly would lose no advantage for his Master Yet Pope Nicholas I. doth precede Bellarmine in citing this trash no wonder that being the Pope who did avouch the wares of Isidore Mercator They alledge Timotheus the Usurper of Alexandria deposed by Pope Damasus and they have indeed the sound of words attesting to them These are Heads upon which the B. Damasus deposed the Hereticks Apolinarius Vitalius and Timotheus The truth is that Apolinarius with divers of his Disciples in a great Synod at Rome at which Petrus Bishop of Alexandria together with Damasus was present was condemned and disavowed for heretical Doctrine whence Sozomen saith that the Apolinarian Heresie was by Damasus and Peter at a Synod in Rome voted to be excluded from the Catholick Church On which account if we conclude that the Pope had an authority to depose Bishops we may by like reason infer that every Patriarch and Metropolitan had a power to doe the like there being so many Instances of their having condemned and disclaimed Bishops supposedly guilty of heresie as particularly John of Antioch with his convention of Oriental Bishops did pretend to depose Cyril and Memnon as guilty of the same Apolinarian heresie alledging that to exscind them was the same thing as to settle Orthodoxy The which Deposition was at first admitted by the Emperour The next Instance is of Pope Agapetus in Justinian's time for so deep into time is
presume of a fair and favourable hearing so did Athanasius Flavianus St. Chrysostome Theodoret apply themselves to the same Bishops flourishing in so great reputation and wealth So did the Monks of Egypt Ammonius and Isidorus from the persecutions of Theophilus fly to the protection and succour of St. Chrysostome which gave occasion to the troubles of that incomparable Personage the which is so illustrious an instance that the words of the Historian relating it deserve setting down They jointly did endeavour that the trains against them might be examined by the Emperour as Judge and by the Bishop John for they conceived that he having conscience of using a just freedom would be able to succour them according to right but he did receive the men applying to him courteously and treated them respectfully and did not hinder them from praying in the Church He also writ to Theophilus to render communion to them as being Orthodox and if there were need of judging their case by law that he would send whom they thought good to prosecute the cause If this had been to the Pope it would have been alledged for an Appeal and it would have had as much colour as any Instance which they can produce 4. And when men either good or bad do resort in this manner to great friends it is no wonder if they accost them in highest terms of respect and with exaggerations of their eminent advantages so inducing them to regard and favour their cause 5. Neither is it strange that great persons favourably should entertain those who make such addresses to them they always coming crouching in a suppliant posture and with fair pretences it being also natural to men to delight in seeing their power acknowledged and it being a glorious thing to relieve the afflicted for Eminence is wont to incline toward infirmity and with a ready good will to take part with those who are under So when Basilides when Marcellus when Eustathius Sebastenus when Maximus the Cynick when Apiarius were condemned the Pope was hasty to engage for them more liking their application to him than weighing their cause 6. And when any person doth continue long in a flourishing estate so that such addresses are frequently made to him no wonder that an opinion of lawfull power to receive them doth arise both in him and in others so that of a voluntary Friend he become an authorized Protectour a Patron a Judge of such persons in such cases X. The Sovereign is fountain of all Jurisdiction and all inferiour Magistrates derive their Authority from his warrant and Commission acting as his Deputies or Ministers according to that intimation in St. Peter whether to the King as Supreme or to Governours as sent by him Accordingly the Pope doth challenge this advantage to himself that he is the fountain of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction pretending all Episcopal power to be derived from him The rule of the Church saith Bellarmine is Monarchical therefore all authority is in one and from him is derived to others the which Aphorism he well proveth from the form of creating Bishops as they call it We do provide such a Church with such a person and we do prefer him to be Father and Pastour and Bishop of the said Church committing to him the administration in temporals and spirituals in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Pope Pius II. in his Bull of Retractation thus expresseth the sense of his See In the militant Church which resembleth the triumphant there is one moderatour and Judge of all the Vicar of Jesus Christ from whom as from the Head all power and authority is derived to the subject members the which doth immediately flow into it from the Lord Christ. A Congregation of Cardinals appointed by Pope Paulus III. speaking after the style and sentiments of that See did say to him Your Holiness doth so bear the care of Christ's Church that you have very many Ministers by which you manage that care these are all the Clergy on whom the service of God is charged especially Priests and more especially Curates and above all Bishops Durandus Bishop of Mande according to the sense of his Age saith The Pope is head of all Bishops from whom they as members from an head descend and of whose fulness all receive whom he calls to a participation of his care but admits not into the fulness of his power This pretence is seen in the ordinary Titles of Bishops who style themselves Bishops of such a place By the grace of God and of the Apostolick See O shame The men of the Tridentine Convention those great betrayers of the Church to perpetual slavery and Christian truth to the prevalency of falshood till God pleaseth do upon divers occasions pretend to qualifie and empower Bishops to perform important matters originally belonging to the Episcopal Function as the Pope's Delegates But contrariwise according to the Doctrine of Holy Scripture and the sense of the Primitive Church the Bishops and Pastours of the Church do immediately receive their Authority and Commission from God being onely his Ministers The Scripture calleth them the Ministers of God and of Christ so Epaphras so Timothy in regard to their Ecclesiastical function are named the Stewards of God the Servants of God Fellow-servants of the Apostles The Scripture saith that the Holy Ghost had made them Bishops to feed the Church of God that God had given them and constituted them in the Church for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edifying of the body of Christ that is to all effects and purposes concerning their Office for the work of the Ministery comprizeth all the duty charged on them whether in way of Order or of Governance as they now do precariously and groundlesly in reference to this case distinguish And edifying the body doth import all the designed effects of their Office particularly those which are consequent on the use of Jurisdiction the which Saint Paul doth affirm was appointed for edification according saith he to the authority which God hath given me for edification and not for destruction They do preside in the Lord. They allow no other Head but our Lord from whom all the body c. The Fathers clearly do express their Sentiments to be the same St. Ignatius saith that the Bishop doth preside in the place of God and that we must look upon him as our Lord himself or as our Lord 's Representative that therefore we must be subject to him as unto Jesus Christ. St. Cyprian affirmeth each Bishop to be constituted by the judgment of God and of Christ and that in his Church he is for the present a Judge in the place of Christ and that our Lord Jesus Christ one and alone hath a power both to prefer us to the government of his Church and to judge of our acting St. Basil A
or inferiour to a Senate or any Assembly in his Territory Therefore the Pope doth claim a Superiority over all Councils pretending that their determinations are invalid without his consent and confirmation that he can rescind or make void their Decrees that he can suspend their Consultations and translate or dissolve them And Baronius reckons this as one errour in Hincmarus Bishop of Rhemes that he held as if the canons of councils were of greater authority in the Church of God than the decrees of Popes which says he how absurd and unreasonable an opinion it is c. That the authority of the Apostolick See in all Christian Ages has been preferred before the universal Church both the canons of our predecessours and manifold tradition do confirm This is a question stiffly debated among Romanists but the most as Aeneas Sylvius afterward Pope Pius II. did acutely observe with good reason to adhere to the Pope's side because the Pope disposeth of Benefices but Councils give none But in truth anciently the Pope was not understood Superiour to Councils for greater is the authority of the world than of one city says St. Hierome He was but one Bishop that had nothing to doe out of his precinct He had but his Vote in them He had the first Vote as the Patriarch of Alexandria the second of Antioch the third but that order neither gave to him or them any advantage as to decision but common consent or the suffrages of the majority did prevail He was conceived subject to the Canons no less than other Bishops Councils did examine matters decreed by him so as to follow or forsake them as they saw cause The Popes themselves did profess great veneration and observance of Conciliar Decrees Pope Leo I. did oppose a Canon of the Synod of Chalcedon not pretending his Superiority to Councils but the inviolability of the Nicene Canons but it notwithstanding that opposition did prevail Even in the dregs of times when the Pope had clambred so high to the top of power this Question in great numerous Synods of Bishops was agitated and positively decided against him both in Doctrine and practice The Synod of Basil affirmeth the matter of these Decrees to be a verity of the Christian faith which whoever doth pertinaciously resist is to be deemed a heretick Those Fathers say that none of the skilfull did ever doubt of this truth that the Pope in things belonging to faith was subject to the judgment of the same General Councils that the Council has an authority immediately from Christ which the Pope is bound to obey Those Synods were confirmed by Popes without exception of those determinations Great Churches most famous Vniversities a mighty store of learned Doctours of the Roman Communion have reverenced those Councils and adhered to their Doctrine Insomuch that the Cardinal of Lorrain did affirm him to be an Heretick in France who did hold the contrary These things sufficiently demonstrate that the Pope cannot pretend to Supremacy by universal Tradition and if he cannot prove it by that how can he prove it not surely by Scripture nor by Decrees of ancient Synods nor by any clear and convincing reason XV. The Sovereign of the Church is by all Christians to be acknowledged the chief Person in the world inferiour and subject to none above all commands the greatest Emperour being his Sheep and Subject He therefore now doth pretend to be above all Princes Divers Popes have affirmed this Superiority They are allowed and most favoured by him who teach this Doctrine In their Missal he is preferred above all Kings being prayed for before them But in the primitive times this was not held for St. Paul requires every soul to be subject to the higher powers Then the Emperour was avowed the first person next to God To whom says Tertullian they are second after whom they are first before all and above all Gods Why c. we worship the Emperour as a man next to God and less onely than God And Optatus since there is none above the Emperour but God who made him while Donatus extolleth himself above the Emperour he raises himself as it were above humanity and thinks himself to be God and not Man For the King is the top and head of all things on earth Then even Apostles Evangelists Prophets all men whoever were subject to the Emperour The Emperours did command them even the blessed Bishops and Patriarchs of old Rome Constantinople Alexandria Theopolis and Jerusalem Divers Popes did avow themselves subject to the Emperour XVI The Confirmation of Magistrates elected by others is a Branch of Supremacy which the Pope doth assume Baronius saith that this was the ancient custome and that Pope Simplicius did confirm the Election of Calendion Bishop of Antioch Meletius confirm'd the most holy Gregory in the Bishoprick of Constantinople But the truth is that anciently Bishops being elected did onely give an account of their choice unto all other Bishops especially to those of highest rank desiring their approbation and friendship for preservation of due communion correspondence and peace So the Synod of Antioch gave account to the Bishops of Rome and Alexandria and all their Fellow-ministers throughout the world c. of the election of Domnus after Paulus Samosatenus So the Fathers of Constantinople acquainted Pope Damasus and the Western Bishops with the Constitution of Nectarius Flavianus c. This was not to request Confirmation as if the Pope or other Bishops could reject the Election if regular but rather to assure whom they were to communicate with We have say the Fathers of the Synod against Paulus Samosatenus signified this our chusing of Domnus into Paulus his room that you may write to him and receive letters of communion from him And St. Cyprian That you and our Collegues may know to whom they may write and from whom they may receive letters Thus the Bishops of Rome themselves did acquaint other Bishops with their Election their Faith c. So did Cornelius whom therefore St. Cyprian asserteth as established by the consent and approbation of his Collegues When the place of Peter and the Sacerdotal Chair was void which by God's will being occupied and with all our consents confirmed c. and the testimony of our Fellow-bishops the whole number of which all over the world unanimously consented The Emperour did confirm Bishops as we see by that notable passage in the Synod of Chalcedon where Bassianus Bishop of Ephesus pleading for himself saith Our most religious Emperour knowing these things presently ratified it and by a memorial published it confirming the Bishoprick afterwards he sent his rescript by Eustathius the Silentiary again confirming it XVII It is a Privilege of Sovereigns to grant Privileges Exemptions Dispensations This he claimeth but against the Laws of God and Rights of Bishops Against the Decrees of Synods against the
Christians If he claimeth exorbitant Power and exerciseth Oppression and tyrannical Domination over his Brethren cursing and damning all that will not submit to his Dictates and Commands If instead of being a Shepherd he is a Wolf worrying and tearing the Flock by cruel Persecution He by such behaviour ipso facto depriveth himself of Authority and Office He becometh thence no Guide or Pastour to any Christian there doth in such case rest no obligation to hear or obey him but rather to decline him to discost from him to reject and disclaim him This is the reason of the case this the Holy Scripture doth prescribe this is according to the Primitive Doctrine Tradition and Practice of the Church For 10. In reason the nature of any spiritual Office consisting in Instruction in Truth and Guidance in Vertue toward attainment of Salvation if any man doth lead into pernicious Errour or Impiety he thereby ceaseth to be capable of such Office As a blind man by being so doth cease to be a Guide and much more he that declareth a will to seduce for Who so blind as he that will not see No man can be bound to follow any one into the ditch or to obey any one in prejudice to his own Salvation to die in his iniquity Seeing God saith in such a case 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In vain do they worship me teaching for Doctrines the Precepts of men They themselves do acknowledge that Hereticks cease to be Bishops and so to be Popes Indeed they cease to be Christians for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a one is subverted 11. According to their Principles the Pope hath the same relation to other Bishops and Pastours of the Church which they have to their people he being Pastour of Pastours But if any Pastour should teach bad Doctrine or prescribe bad Practice his people may reject and disobey him therefore in proportion the Pastours may desert the Pope misguiding or misgoverning them In such cases any Inferiour is exempted from obligation to comply with his Superiour either truly or pretendedly such 12. The case may be that we may not hold communion with the Pope but may be obliged to shun him in which case his Authority doth fail and no man is subject to him 13. This is the Doctrine of the Scripture The High Priest and his fellows under the Jewish Oeconomy had no less Authority than any Pope can now pretend unto they did sit in the Chair of Moses and therefore all their True Doctrines and Lawfull Directions the people were obliged to learn and observe but their false Doctrines and impious Precepts they were bound to shun and consequently to disclaim their Authority so far as employed in urging such Doctrines and Precepts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let them alone saith our Saviour they are blind leaders of the blind Under the Christian dispensation the matter is no less clear our Lord commandeth us to beware of false Prophets and to see that no man deceive us although he wear the cloathing of a Sheep or come under the name of a Shepherd coming in his name Saint Paul informeth us that if an Apostle if an Angel from heaven doth preach beside the old Apostolical Doctrine introducing any new Gospel or a Divinity devised by himself he is to be held accursed by us He affirmeth that even the Apostles themselves were not Lords of our faith nor might challenge any power inconsistent with the maintenance of Christian Truth and Piety We saith he can doe nothing against the truth but for the truth the which an ancient Writer doth well apply to the Pope saying that he could doe nothing against the truth more than any of his Fellow-priests could doe which S. Paul did in practice shew when he resisted Saint Peter declining from the truth of the Gospel He chargeth that if any one doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 teach heterodoxies we should stand off from him that if any brother walketh disorderly and not according to Apostolical tradition we should withdraw from him that if any one doth raise divisions and scandals beside the doctrine received from the Apostles we should decline from him that we are to refuse any heretical person He telleth us that grievous Wolves should come into the Church not sparing the flock that from among Christians there should arise men speaking perverse things to draw disciples after them but no man surely ought to follow but to shun them These Precepts and Admonitions are general without any respect or exception of Persons great or small Pastour or Lay-man nay they may in some respect more concern Bishops than others for that they declining from truth are more dangerous and contagious 14. The Fathers in reference to this case do clearly accord both in their Doctrine and Practice St. Cyprian telleth us that a people obedient to the Lord's commandments and fearing God ought to separate it self from a sinfull Bishop that is from one guilty of such sins which unqualifie him for Christian Communion or Pastoral charge and Let not addeth he the common people flatter it self as if it could be free from the contagion of guilt if it communicate with a sinfull Bishop whose irreligious Doctrine or Practice doth render him uncapable of communion for how saith he otherwhere can they preside over integrity and continence if corruptions and the teaching of vices do begin to proceed from them They who reject the commandment of God and labour to establish their own tradition let them be strongly and stoutly refused and rejected by you St. Chrysostome commenting on Saint Paul's words If I or an Angel saith that Saint Paul meaneth to shew that dignity of persons is not to be regarded where truth is concerned that if one of the chief Angels from heaven should corrupt the Gospel he were to be accursed that not onely if they shall speak things contrary or overturn all but if they preach any small matter beside the Apostolical doctrine altering the least point whatever they are liable to an anathema And other-where very earnestly persuading his Audience to render due respect and obedience to there Bishop he yet interposeth this exception If he hath a perverse opinion although he be an Angel do not obey him but if he teacheth right things regard not his life but his words Ecclesiastical Judges as men are for the most part deceived For neither are Catholick Bishops to be assented to if peradventure in any case they are mistaken so as to hold any thing contrary to the canonical Scriptures of God If there be any Church which rejects the faith and does not hold the fundamentals of the Apostolical doctrine it ought to be forsaken lest it infect others with its heterodoxy If in such a case we must desert any Church then the Roman if any Church then much more any Bishop particularly him of
Church we are not merely upon that score to condemn or reject from communion of Charity or Peace for in that they do but use their Liberty 10. But if such Churches do maintain impious Errours if they do prescribe naughty Practices if they do reject Communion and Peace upon reasonable terms if they vent unjust and uncharitable Censures if they are turbulent and violent striving by all means to subdue and enslave other Churches to their will or their dictates if they damn and persecute all who refuse to be their Subjects in such cases we may reject such Churches as heretical or schismatical or wickedly uncharitable and unjust in their Proceedings A TABLE of the AUTHOURS quoted in the Treatise of the Pope's Supremacy and Vnity of the Church A. S. AMbrosius 155. in Luc. 277. de Poen 274. de Sac. 128. Anastasius in vit Joh. 204.210 Anton. de Concil Pis. 24. Anselmus in Joh. 60. Apost Can. 324. Aquinas Tho. 278. Arist. Pol. 131.142.314 S. Athanas. Disp. contra Arium 3. Athanas. 73.115.148.155.202 Athanas. de Syn. 321. August Triumph 3. S. Augustinus contra Crescon 48.53.127.133 Idem de Unit. Eccles. 26.123.250.251.277.296.301.307 Ep. 128.155.249.155.305.314 in S. Joh. 31. contra Don. 54. de Bapt. 150.300 in Psal. 296. contra Jul. 223. B. BAlusius 170. Not. ad Agorbard 26. Baronius 5.10.82.142.151.161.122.180.187.203.216.232.234.239.241.151.256.215.264.318 S. Basil. 68.115.246.264 Epist. 61.160.244 in Is. 61. de Judicio Dei 33. Bellarminus 2.3.15.51.59.69.71.137.148.153.193.256.269.257.261.287.321 S. Bernardus 141.145.281 de Consid. 40.265 Binius 6.8.52.65.152.192.265.277.325 Bochell 2. Bodin de Rep. 147. Bullae Variorum P. 5. c. C. CAmd Hist. 5. Canon Apost 164.178.241 Cajet in 1 Cor. 284. Canus 6. Celest. ad Cyril 203.213 Chrysol 62. S. Chrysostomus 30.31.32.63.67.74.75.82.264.269.281.313 Idem in Ephes. 40. in Act. Apost 44.45 in S. Joh. 49. in Galat. ibid. 55. Ep. 135.159 in Colos. 283. in 1 Cor. 301. Claudianus 132. Clemens ad Corinth 48.58.113 S. Clemens Alex. 118.297.299.308 Clemens Alex. apud Euseb. 57. Cod. Afr. 164.241.248 Cod. Lib. 1.179 Concilium Ant. Bas. 25.264.132.135.141.267.268 Chalced. 165.166.163.225.135.136.248.270.303.202.203.204.205.206.121 Sard. 84.233 Trid. 2.7.135.136.280.283.285.286.230 Lat. 41.136.185.281.325 Ludg. 146. Tolet. 227. Nic. 241.121 Trull 84. Eph. 234.278.155 Florent 21. Cons. 25.330.121.248 Miler 248. Carth. ibid. Conc. sub Men. 85.231 Const. Apost 230. Card. Cusanus de Conc. Carth. 43. S. Cyprianus 149.150.150.252.263.269 de Unit. Eccles. 58.62 in Conc. Carth. 211.216 Ep. 54.71.67.79.113.115.124.125.129.153.157.158.162.229.232.235.243.248.249.276.277.269.301.302.304.305.312.315.318.323 S. Cyril 68.78.282 D. DAmasi P. Ep. Distinct. 228 c. Durandus 263. Dionysius de Eccl. Hier. 58. E. EAdmeri Hist. 182.270 S. Epiphan 83.252 Haer. 34.51.324.298.308 Erasmi Praefat. ad Hieron 288. Evag. 239.240 Euseb. 158.173.273.202 Hist. 32.73.298.318 de Vit. Const. 86.186.304.305.306 F. FAC. Hermian 276. Florus 131. G. POpe Gelas. distinc 58. Ep. Georg. Alex. vita Chrys. 12. Gervas Dorob apud Twisd 151. Grat. Dist. 10.41 Greg. Decret 15. Greg Past. 53. Greg. M. Ep. 122.124.125.265.225.169 S. Greg. Naz. 130.152.159.257 Guicc 136.143 Gunth Lig. 180. H. HEgesippus apud Euseb. 57. Hesychius apud Photium 46. Hieron adv Evagr. 152.125 Hieron Ep. 129. S. Hier. in Matt. 33. in Jovin 42. Hilar. de Trin. 35. Hilar. 153.155.213 Hist. Trident. 321. Horat. 177. I. IGnat ad Trall 294. S. Iren. 87.88.119.158.299.311.316.318 Joseph de Bello Jud. 160. Isid. Dist. 169. Isid. Hispal 128.58 Isid. Pelusiot 130. Justini Cod. 204. Justini Novell 235. L. LActantius 35. Lateran Concil 46. Launoius 12.116.185 P. Leo Ep. 126.273.204.205.208.209.225.230.225.254 Livius 178. M. MAchivel 144. De Marc. 170. Marsil Patav. 17. Matt. Paris 6.7.182.183.192.251.262.265 Memor Hist. de 5 Propos. 267. N. POpe Nic. Ep. 174.175.200.210 O. OCcam 17. Optat. lib. 2.303 Orient Relat. ad Imper. Act. 208. Orig. in Matt. 62. Otho Frising Chron. 13. P. POpe Pash Ep. apud Eadmer 261.262 Pelag. Ep. 123.201.86 Petr. ad Jacob. 83. Photius 33.42 Pighius de Hier. 265. Platina de Vit. Pont. 8.28.41.145.150.215.228 Plut. in Pyrr 174. Prudent in Apotheos 290. R. RIgalt in Cypr. Ep. 60. 157.237 Ruffinus 170. S. SEnec de Benef. Sigeberti Chron. 9. Sleid. 139.141 Socrates Sozom. 12.87.120.173.186.167.208.216.234.242.226.232.252.253.256 Spalatens 5. Suetonius 83. P. Symac Ep. 325. Synes Ep. 325. Synod Ant. 157.216.312.231 Ansel. 85. Bas. 133.314 Chalc. 158 159.167.168.184.231·233.245.254.257.264 Const. 165.159 Eph. 168. Trull 201. Nic. 164.166.231 Flor. 177. Laod. 166. Sard. 324. T. TAcitus 131.142 Ann. 174. de Morib Germ. 178. Tertullianus 26.50.58.63.67.77.80.118.119.164.298.216.269.280.282.294.297.309.318 Theod. 156.161.166.187.208.227.229.237.238.255.256.323 Theoph. in Matth. 33.253 Tho. Aq. 3.6 Tho. Cajet Orat. 267. Thorn 318. Thuan. 146. Tort. Tort. 147. Trid. Concil 41. Twisd 184. V. VAles in Euseb. 310. P. Vrb. Ep. 7. Vsserius 242.315 Z. ZAbarellus 4. Zozomen 117.131.161.213.225.227.232.239.250 A TABLE OF Things or the Chief Matters contained in the Treatise of the Pope's Supremacy and of the Vnity of the Church A. ABsolution Particular Absolution why allowed in the Church of Rome 139. Anacletus and Cletus by some thought to be the same 88. Anathema's of the Romanists 289. Angels Popish Doctrine of worshipping them contrary to Scripture 280. Apostles Which the Elder 34. That Office of the greatest Authority in the Primitive Church 37. This Authority of their Office they frequently assert never Superiority over one another 50. Their manner of Life ibid. Their Equality attested by the Fathers and plain from Scripture 57 59. Their extraordinary Privileges and miraculous Powers not successive nor communicable 78. Appeals to the Pope disclaimed 248 249. B. S. BAsil His Authority against the Pope's Supremacy 123. Bishops How to discharge their Office 40. In what sense said to be Successours of the Apostles 79. All Bishops styled Clavigeri by the Council of Compeigne 65. Their Residence and Translation 84 85. The Highest Order in the Church 128. Their Equality notwithstanding some Differences in Order and Privileges 125 129 151. An Answer to such who object They had a Power as well as Emperours to call General Councils 193. Metropolitan Bishops in their Provinces had far more Power and more truly grounded than the Pope had in the whole Church 212. What kind of Authority they had heretofore in Synods ibid. Their Ordination in whose Power Their Authority and Rights 215 216. Constitution of them not in the Power of the Pope but Emperour 225. Nor Censuring them in the power of the Pope 231 232. No power in the Pope to depose them 233 The contrary Assertions examined and confuted in seq v. 241. Confirmation of them belongs not to the Pope 269. Bishops and Pastours Their Authority in Church Government in the Primitive Church 312 313. Their Character ibid. C. CAnon Law The vain pretence for the Obligation thereof 210. Canons Ancient Canons their silence concerning the Pope's Authority 120 121. Canons Universal Canons Popes no Power to alter them nor Exemption from them 213 their policy herein ibid. contrary Opinion from whence arising ibid. Canons of Popes why set above General Councils 268.
Tyrant according to the definition of Aristotle Pol. 4.10 Cui plus licet quà m par est plus vult quà m licet Vnde sicut languescente capite reliquum postea corpus morbus invadat Conc. Bas. Sess. 23. p. 64. Whence it comes to pass that if the Head be sick the rest of the Body afterward grows diseased Vid. Conc. Bas. p. 87. Conc. Const. p. 1110. Vid. dist 40. cap. 6. hujus culpas etsi Vid. Alv. Pelag. apud Riv. Cath. Orth. p. 141. Baron Pope Marcellus II. doubted whether a Pope could be saved Thuan. lib. 15. p. 566. From John VIII to Leo IX what a rabble of rake-hells and soâ—ts did sit in that Chair Machiavel Hist. lib. 16. p. 1271. Baron Ann. 912. § 8. Baron Ann. 897. § 5. It was said of Vespasian solus imperantium melior so apt is power to corrupt men Solus omnium ante se Principum in melius mutatus est Tac. Hist. 1. p. 451. How vain is that which P. Greg. VII citeth out of P. Symmachus B. Petrus perennem meritorum dotem cum haereditate innocentiae misit ad posteros Greg. VII Ep. 8.21 Quòd Romanus Pontifex si canonicè fuerit ordinatus meritis B. Petri indubitanter efficitur sanctus was one of P. Greg. VII his dictates That the Roman Pontif if canonically elected is undoubtedly made holy by the merits of Blessed Peter Sap. 1.5 Vid. Guicciard Machiav His. Fl. p. 19. Conc. Bas. p. 65. Cùm non ob religionem Dei cultum appetere Pontificatum nostri Sacerdotes videantur sed ut fratrum vel nepotum vel familiarium ingluviem avaritiam expleant Plat. in Joh. XVI p. 298. Whereas our Priests seem to desire the Popedom not for Religion and the worship of God but that they may fill the ravening appetite and covetousness of their brethren or nephews or familiars 1 Tim. 2.1 2. Matt. 6.24 Bell. 5.6 p. 1415. Matth. 12.25 P. Pasch. II. Ep. 7. Vid. Mach. Hist. Flor. p. 18. Impeti possunt humanis praesumptionibus quae divino sunt judicio constituta vinci autem quorumlibet potestate non possunt P. Gel. Ep. 8. Felix P. Ep. 1. p. 597. Non enim volumus aut propter Principum potentiam Ecclesiasticâ—m minui dignitatem aut pro Ecclesiastica dignitate Principum potentiam mutilari P. Pasch. II. Ep. 28 29. For we will not that either the Ecclesiastical dignity should be diminished by reason of the Prince's power or that the Prince's power should be curtail'd for the Ecclesiastical dignity In vain did S. Bernard de Consid. 1. câ—y Quid fines alienos invaditis quid falcem vestram in alienam messam extenditis Why do you invade other mens territories why thrust you your sickle into other mens harvest * Arietes furiosos Bell. 5.7 Vid. Tort. T. p. 216. Greg. VII Ep. 1.7.112.13 63. Vid. Plat. de Bonif. VIII p. 467. Jul. 2. Non sine suspicione quod illorum temporum Pontifices qui bella extinguere discordias tollere debuissent suscitarent ea potiùs atque nutrirent Episc. Modrus in Conc. Lat. V. Sess. 6. p. 72. Not without suspicion that the Popes of those times who ought to have extinguished wars and put an end to dissentions did rather raise them up and cherish them See Greg. VII Ep. 4.2.8.21 Vid. Concil Lugd. p. 851. Auctoritate Apostolica de fratrum nostrorum consilio declaramus illa juramenta praedicta fidelitatis existere censeri debere Clementin lib. 2. Tit. 9. cap. unicum We declare out of our Apostolical authority by the advice of our brethren that the foresaid oaths of fealty ought to be and be so esteemed Thuan. lib. 1. Abutente Christianorum Pastore Christianorum Principum viribus ut privatae ambitioni suorum libidini inserviret Thuan. lib. 1. p. 42. The Pastour of Christians abusing the power of Christian Princes that he might gratifie his private ambition and the will and lust of his friends Observ. Tort. T. p. 210. * P. Anast. calleth the Emperour Anast. Vicarium Epist. p. 670. Eccles. Leod. p. â—22 Secundum mutationes temporum transferuntur etiam regna terrarum unde etiam Ecclesiasticarum parochiarum fines in plerisque provinciis mutari expedit transferri P. Pasch. II. Ep. 19. Vid. Bod. de Rep. 1.9 p. 195. Car les Princes Chrestien avoient presque tous opinion que le Pape estoit absolvement seigneur sovereigne de tous les Roydumes dela Chrestiente Bod. ibid. p. 196. Tort. Tort. p. 216 c. Greg. VII Ep. 1.7.2.13 Alex. II. Ep. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas. de Jud. Dei T. 2. p. 259. So great a dissonancy and jarring there is among men in the Church while every one swerves from the Doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ and asserts certain conceits and rules of his own by his own authority and had rather rule contrary to the Lord than be rul'd by the Lord. Necesse est ut omnes fideles idem sentiant Bell. 1.9 It is necessary that all the faithfull should be of the same opinion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ath. Nemini praescribentes Manenâ—e concordiae vinculo perseverante Catholicae Ecclesiae individuo Sacramento actum suum disponit dirigit unusquisque Episcopus rationem propositi sui Domino redditurus Cypr. Ep. 52. ad Antonianum Caeterùm scimus quosdam quod semel imbiberint nolle deponere nec propositum suum facilè mutare sed salvo inter Collegas pacis concordiae vinculo quaedam propria quae apud se semel sint usurpata retinere qua in re nec nos vim cuiquam facimus aut legem damus cùm habeat in Ecclesiae administratione voluntatis suae liberum arbitrium unusquisque praepositus rationem actûs sui Domino redditurus Cypr. Ep. 72. ad Stephanum Haec ad conscientiam tuam frater charissime pro honore communi pro simplici dilectione pertulimus c. Consensu auctoritate communi Nam cum statâ—tum sit omnibus nobis aequum sit pariter ac justum ut uniuscujusque causa illic audiatur ubi est crimen admissum singulis Pastoribus portio gregis sit adscripta quam regat unusquisque gubernet rationem actûs sui Domino redditurus oportet utique eos quibus praesumus non circumcursare c. Cypr. Epist. 55. ad Cornelium Haec tibi breviter pro nostra mediocritate rescripsimus frater charissime nemini praescribentes aut praejudicantes quo minùs unusquisque Episcoporum quod putat faciat habens arbitrii sui liberam potestatem Cypr. Epist. 73. ad Jubabaianum Quâ in parte nemini verecundia modestia nostra praejudicat quo minùs unusquisque quod putat sentiat quod senserit faciat Cypr. Epist. 76. ad Magnum Nemini praescribentes quo minùs statuat quod putat unusquisque Praepositus actûs sui rationem Domino redditurus secundum quod Apostolus c. Ibid. Superest ut de hac re singuli quid
A TREATISE OF THE POPE'S SUPREMACY To which is added A DISCOURSE Concerning the Unity of the Church By ISAAC BARROW D. D. Late Master of Trinity College in Cambridge and one of His MAJESTY'S Chaplains in Ordinary The Second Edition Corrected With a TABLE to the Whole LONDON Printed by M. Flesher and J. Heptinstall for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1683. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE HENEAGE Earl of Nottingham Lord High CHANCELLOUR OF ENGLAND And one of His MAJESTY'S most Honourable PRIVY COUNCIL THOMAS BARROW the Authour's Father Humbly Dedicateth this TREATISE The Publisher TO THE READER THIS excellent and elaborate Treatise of the Pope's Supremacy which I here present thee withall the learned Authour of it upon his Death-bed gave me particular permission to publish with this modest Character of it that he hoped it was indifferent perfect though not altogether as he intended it if God had granted him longer life He designed indeed to have transcribed it again and to have fill'd up those many spaces which were purposely left in it for the farther confirmation and illustration of several things by more Testimonies and Instances which probably he had in his thoughts And it would certainly have added much to the beauty and perfection of this Work had it pleased God that he had lived to finish it to his mind and to have given it his last hand However as it is it is not onely a just but an admirable Discourse upon this Subject which many others have handled before but he hath exhausted it insomuch that no Argument of moment nay hardly any Consideration properly belonging to it hath escaped his large and comprehensive Mind He hath said enough to silence the Controversie for ever and to deâ—er all wise men of both Sides from medling any farther with it And I dare say that whoever shall carefully peruse this Treatise will find that this Point of the Pope's Supremacy upon which Bellarmine hath the confidence to say the whole of Christianity depends is not onely an indeâ—ensible but an impudent Cause as ever was undertaken by learned Pens And nothing could have kept it so long from becoming ridiculous in the judgment of mankind but its being so strongly supported by a worldly interest For there is not one tolerable Argument for it and there are a thousand invincible Reasons against it There is neither from Scripture nor Reason nor Antiquity any evidence of it The past and the present state of Christendom the Histories and Records of all Ages are a perpetual Demonstration against it And there is no other ground in the whole world for it but that now of a long time it hath been by the Pope's Janizaries boldly asserted and stiffly contended for without reason So that any one might with as much colour and evidence of truth maintain that the Grand Seignior is of right and for many Ages hath been acknowledg'd Sovereign of the whole World as that the Bishop of Rome is of right and in all Ages from the beginning of Christianity hath been own'd to be the Universal Monarch and Head of the Christian Church To this Treatise of The Pope's Supremacy I have for the affinity of the Argument added by way of Appendix another Discourse of the same Authour 's concerning The Unity of the Church which he so explains as quite to take away the necessity of a Visible Head over the whole Church for the preservation of its Unity which is the onely specious but yet a very remote pretence for the Pope's Supremacy For if a Visible Monarch of the Church were granted necessary many things more must be supposed which neither yet are nor ever can be proved to make the Bishop of Rome the Man The Testimonies relating to both Parts were very few of them translated by the Authour which he certainly intended having left spaces for it and is since done with great care by two of his Worthy and Learned Friends of his own College This is all the Advertisement I thought necessary J. Tillotson THE CONTENTS THE Introduction Page 1. The Suppositions upon which the Pope's Supremacy is grounded p. 29. I. That Saint Peter had a Primacy over the Apostles p. 30. II. That Saint Peter's Primacy with its Rights and Prerogatives was not personal but derivable to his Successours p. 76. III. That Saint Peter was Bishop of Rome p. 82. IV. That Saint Peter did continue Bishop of Rome after his translation and was so at his decease p. 88. V. That the Bishops of Rome according to God's institution and by original right derived thence should have an Vniversal Supremacy and Jurisdiction over the Christian Church p. 94. VI. That in fact the Roman Bishops continually from Saint Peter's time have enjoyed and exercised this Sovereign Power p. 185. VII That this Power is indefectible and unalterable p. 271. IMPRIMATUR Ex Aedibus Lamb. Febr. 27. 1678 9. Geo. Thorp Rmo in Christo Patri D no D no Gulielmo Archiep. Cant. à Sacris Domesticis A TREATISE OF THE Pope's Supremacy INTRODUCTION § I. THE Roman Party doth much glory in Unity and Certainty of Doctrine as things peculiar to them and which no other men have any means to attain Yet about divers matters of notable consideration in what they agree or of what they are certain it is hard to descry They pretend it very needfull that Controversies should be decided and that they have a special knack of doing it Yet do many Controversies of great weight and consequence stick on their hands unresolved many Points rest in great doubt and debate among them The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Roman Sect concerning Doctrine Practice Laws and Customs of Discipline Rites and Ceremonies are of divers sorts or built on divers grounds 1. Some established by pretended general Synods 2. Some founded on Decrees of Popes 3. Some entertained as upon Tradition Custom common Agreement 4. Some which their eminent Divines or Schoolmen do commonly embrace 5. Some prevailing by the favour of the Roman Court and its zealous Dependents Hence it is very difficult to know wherein their Religion consisteth for those Grounds divers times seem to clash and accordingly their Divines some building on these some on others disagree This being so in many Points of importance is so particularly in this For instance The Head of their Church as they call it is one would think a Subject about which they should thoroughly consent and which they by this time should have cleared from all disputes so that so far as their decisive faculty goeth we might be assured wherein his Authority consisteth and how far it doth extend seeing the resolution of that Point so nearly toucheth the heart of Religion the Faith and Practice of all Christians the good of the Church and peace of the world seeing that no one Question perhaps not all Questions together hath created so many tragical Disturbances in Christendom as that concerning the
sayings to that purpose by suggestion of Hildebrand by whom he was much governed Pope Stephanus VI. told the Emperour Basilius that he ought to be subject with all veneration to the Roman Church Pope John VIII or IX did pretend Obedience due to him from Princes and in default thereof threatned to excommunicate them Pope Nicolas I. cast many imperious sayings and threats at King Lotharius these among others We do therefore by Apostolical authority under obtestation of the Divine judgment injoin to thee that in Triers and Colen thou shouldst not suffer any Bishop to be chosen before a report be made to our Apostleship Was not this satis pro imperio And again That being compelled thou mayst be able to repent know that very soon thou shalt be struck with the Ecclesiastical Sword so that thou mayst be afraid any more to commit such things in God's holy Church And this he suggesteth for right Doctrine that Subjection is not due to bad Princes perverting the Apostle's words to that purpose Be subject to the King as excelling that is saith he in vertues not in vices whereas the Apostle meaneth eminency in power Pope Gregory VII doth also alledge Pope Zachary who saith he did depose the King of the Franks and did absolve all the French from the Oath of fidelity which they had taken unto him not so much for his iniquities as because he was unfit for such a Power This indeed was a notable act of jurisdiction if Pope Gregory's word may be taken for matter of fact but divers maintain that Pope Zachary did onely concur with the rebellious deposers of King Chilperick in way of advice or approbation not by authority It was pretty briskly said of Pope Adrian I. We do by general decree constitute that whatever King or Bishop or Potentate shall hereafter believe or permit that the Censure of the Roman Pontifes may be violated in any case he shall be an execrable Anathema and shall be guilty before God as a betrayer of the Catholick Faith Constitutions against the Canons and Decrees of the Bishops of Rome or against good manners are of no moment Before that Pope Gregory II. because the Eastern Emperour did cross the worship of Images did withdraw Subjection from him and did thrust his Authority out of Italy He saith Baronius did effectually cause both the Romans and Italians to recede from Obedience to the Emperour This was an act in truth of Rebellion against the Emperour in pretence of Jurisdiction over him for how otherwise could he justify or colour the fact So as Baronius reflecteth he did leave to posterity a worthy example forsooth that Heretical Princes should not be suffered to reign in the Church of Christ if being warned they were found pertinacious in errour And no wonder he then was so bold seeing the Pope had obtained so much respect in those parts of the World that as he told the Emperour Leo Is. all the Kingdoms of the West did hold Saint Peter as an earthly God of which he might be able to seduce some to uphold him in his rebellious practices This is the highest source as I take it to which this extravagant Doctrine can be driven For that single passage of Pope Felix III. though much ancienter will not amount to it It is certain that in causes relating to God 't is the safest course for you that according to his institution ye endeavour to submit the will of the King to the Priests c. For while the Emperour did retain any considerable Authority in Italy the Popes were better advised than to vent such notions and while they themselves did retain any measure of pious or prudent Modesty they were not disposed to it And we may observe divers Popes near that time in word and practice thwarting that practice For instance Pope Gelasius a vehement stickler for Papal Authority doth say to the Emperour Anastasius I as being a Roman born do love worship reverence thee as the Roman Prince And he saith that the Prelates of Religion knowing the Empire conferr'd on him by Divine Providence did obey his Laws And otherwhere he discourseth that Christ had distinguished by their proper acts and dignities the offices of Ecclesiastical and Civil Power that one should not meddle with the other so disclaiming Temporal Power due to himself being content to scrue up his Spiritual Authority After him as is well known Pope Gregory I. as became a pious and good man did avow the Emperour for his Lord by God's gift superiour to all men to whom he was subject whom he in duty was bound to obey and supposed it a high presumption for any one to set himself above the honour of the Empire by assuming the title of Universal Bishop After him Pope Agatho in the Acts of the sixth General Council doth call the Emperour Constantine Pogonatus his Lord doth avow himself together with all Presidents of the Churches servants to the Emperour doth say that his See and his Synod were subject to him and did owe Obedience to him Presently after him Pope Leo II. who confirmed that General Synod doth call the Emperour the prototype Son of the Church and acknowledgeth the body of Priests to be servants meanest servants of his Royal Nobleness After him Pope Constantine the immediate Predecessour of Pope Greg. II. when the Emperour did command him to come to Constantinople The most holy man saith Anastasius in his Life did obey the Imperial Commands Yea Pope Gregory II. himself before his defection when perhaps the circumstances of time did not animate him thereto did in his Epistle to Leo Isaurus acknowledge him as Emperour to be the Head of Christians and himself consequently subject to him This Gregory therefore may be reputed the Father of that Doctrine which being fostered by his Successours was by Pope Gregory VII brought up to it s robust pitch and stature I know Pope Gregory VII to countenance him doth alledge Pope Innocent I. excommunicating the Emperour Arcadius for his proceeding against St. Chrysostome and the Writers of St. Chrysostome's Life with others of the like age and credit do back him therein But seeing the Historians who lived in St. Chrysostome's own time and who write very carefully about him do not mention any such thing seeing that being the first Act in the kind must have been very notable and have made a great noise seeing that story doth not sute with the tenour of proceedings reported by those most credible Historians in that case seeing that fact doth no-wise sort to the condition and way of those Times that report cannot be true and it must be numbred among the many fabulous narrations devised by some wanton Greeks to set out the Life of that excellent Personage The same Pope doth also alledge St. Gregory M. denouncing Excommunication and Deprivation of honour to all Kings Bishops Judges
to him so many Dependents what might not he say or doe Pope Gregory VII being a man of untameable Spirit and taking advantage from the distractions and corruptions of his Times did venture to pull a feather with the Emperour and with success having mated him did set up a peremptory claim to Sovereignty over all Persons in all Causes In his footsteps his Successours have trodden being ever ready upon occasion to plead such a title and to practise according to it No Pope would foregoe any Power which had been claimed by his Predecessours And Popes would ever be sure to have dancers after their pipe numberless abetters of their pretences No wonder then that persons deferring much regard to the Authority of Popes and accommodating their conceits to the Dictates of them or of persons depending on them should in their opinions vary about the nature and extent of Papal Authority it having never been fixed within certain bounds or having in several Ages continued the same thing § XI Wherefore intending by God's help to discuss the pretended Authority of the Pope and to shew that He by no Divine institution and by no immutable right hath any such Power as he doth claim by reason of this perplexed variety of Opinions I do find it difficult to state the Question or to know at what distinct mark I should level my Discourse § XII But seeing his pretence to any Authority in Temporals or to the Civil Sword is so palpably vain that it hardly will bear a serious dispute having nothing but impudence and sophistry to countenance it seeing so many in the Roman Communion do reject it and have substantially confuted it seeing now most are ashamed of it and very few even among those Sects which have been its chief Patrons will own it seeing Bellarmine himself doth acknowledge it a Novelty devised about 500 years ago in St. Bernard's time seeing the Popes themselves what-ever they think dare now scarce speak out and forbear upon sufficient provocation to practise according to it I shall spare the trouble of meddling with it confining my Discourse to the Pope's Authority in Ecclesiastical affairs the pretence whereto I am persuaded to be no less groundless and no less noxious than the other to Christendom the which being overthrown the other as superstructed on it must also necessarily fall § XIII And here the Doctrine which I shall contest against is that in which the Cordial partizans of that See do seem to consent which is most common and current most applauded and countenanced in their Theological Schools which the Popes themselves have solemnly defined and declared for standing law or rule of jurisdiction which their most authentick Synods whereby their Religion is declared and distinguished from others have asserted or supposed which the tenour of their Discipline and Practice doth hold forth which their Clergy by most solemn professions and engagements is tied to avow which all the Clients and Confidents of Rome do zealously stand for more than for any other point of Doctrine and which no man can disclaim without being deemed an enemy or a prevaricator toward the Apostolick See § XIV Which Doctrine is this That in the words of the Florentine Synod's Definition the Apostolical Chair and the Roman High-Priest doth hold a Primacy over the Vniversal Church and that the Roman High-Priest is the Successour of Saint Peter the Prince of the Apostles and the true Lieutenant of Christ and the Head of the Church and that he is the Father and Doctour of all Christians and that unto him in Saint Peter full Power is committed to feed and direct and govern the Catholick Church under Christ according as is contained in the Acts of General Councils and in the Holy Canons That in the words of Pope Leo X. approved by the Laterane Synod Christ before his departure from the world did in solidity of the Rock institute Peter and his Successours to be his Lieutenants to whom it is so necessary to obey that who doth not obey must die the death That to the Pope as Sovereign Monarch by Divine Sanction of the whole Church do appertain Royal Prerogatives Regalia Petri the Royalties of Peter they are called in the Oath prescribed to Bishops Such as these which follow To be Superiour to the whole Church and to its Representative a General Synod of Bishops To convocate General Synods at his pleasure all Bishops being obliged to attend upon summons from him To preside in Synods so as to suggest matter promote obstruct over-rule the debates in them To confirm or invalidate their Determinations giving life to them by his assent or subtracting it by his dissent To define Points of Doctrine or to decide Controversies authoritatively so that none may presume to contest or dissent from his Dictates To enact establish abrogate suspend dispense with Ecclesiastical Laws and Canons To relax or evacuate Ecclesiastical Censures by indulgence pardon c. To void Promises Vows Oaths Obligations to Laws by his Dispensation To be the Fountain of all Pastoral Jurisdiction and Dignity To constitute confirm judge censure suspend depose remove restore reconcile Bishops To confer Ecclesiastical Dignities and Benefices by paramount Authority in way of Provision Reservation c. To exempt Colleges Monasteries c. from Jurisdiction of their Bishops and ordinary Superiours To judge all persons in all Spiritual Causes by calling them to his cognizance or delegating Judges for them with a final and peremptory Sentence To receive Appeals from all Ecclesiastical Judicatories and to reverse their Judgments if he findeth cause To be himself unaccountable for any of his doings exempt from judgment and liable to no reproof To erect transfer abolish Episcopal Sees To exact Oaths of Fealty and Obedience from the Clergy To found Religious Orders or to raise a Spiritual Militia for propagation and defence of the Church To summon and commissionate Souldiers by Croisade c. to fight against Infidels or persecute Infidels Some of these are expressed others in general terms couched in those words of P. Eugenius telling the Greeks what they must consent unto The Pope said he will have the Prerogatives of his Church and he will have Appeals to him and to feed all the Church of Christ as Shepherd of the Sheep Beside these things that he may have authority and power to convoke General Synods when need shall be and that all the Patriarchs do yield to his will That the Pope doth claim assume and exercise a Sovereignty over the Church endowed with such Prerogatives is sufficiently visible in experience of fact is apparent by the authorized dictates in their Canon-law and shall be distinctly proved by competent allegations when we shall examine the branches of this pretended Authority In the mean time it sufficeth to observe that in effect all Clergy-men do avow so much who bonâ fide and without prevarication do submit to take the Oaths and Engagements prescribed to them
of course by Papal appointment For this surely according to the Pope's meaning by which their obligation is to be measured is designed in the profession ordained by Pope Pius IV. wherein every beneficed Clergy-man is injoined to say And I do promise and swear true Obedience to the Roman Pontife the Successour of Saint Peter and the Vicar of Jesus Christ. Which profession was appointed in pursuance of a Sanction made by the Trent Council that all such persons should vow and swear to abide in Obedience to the Roman Church and consequently how hard soever its Yoke should be they would not shake it off which inferreth most absolute Sovereignty of that Church or of the Pope who ruleth the roast in it But what that true Obedience doth import or how far the Papal Authority in the Pope's own sense and according to the publick spirit of that Church doth stretch is more explicitly signified in the Oath which all Bishops at their Consecration and all Metropolitans at their Instalment are required to take the which as it is extant in the Roman Pontifical set out by order of Pope Clement VIII doth run in these terms I N. Elect of the Church of N. from henceforward will be faithfull and obedient to Saint Peter the Apostle and to the Holy Roman Church and to our Lord the Lord N. Pope N. and to his Successours canonically coming in I will neither advise consent or doe any thing that they may lose life or member or that their Persons may be seised or hands any-wise laid upon them or any injuries offer'd to them under any pretence whatsoever The counsel which they shall entrust me withall by themselves their messengers or Letters I will not knowingly reveal to any to their prejudice I will help them to defend and keep the Roman Papacy and the Royalties of Saint Peter saving my Order against all men The Legate of the Apostolick See going and coming I will honourably treat and help in his necessities The rights honours privileges and authority of the Holy Roman Church of our Lord the Pope and his foresaid Successours I will endeavour to preserve defend increase and advance I will not be in any counsel action or treaty in which shall be plotted against our said Lord and the said Roman Church any thing to the hurt or prejudice of their Persons right honour state or power and if I shall know any such thing to be treated or agitated by any whatsoever I will hinder it to my power and as soon as I can will signify it to our said Lord or to some other by whom it may come to his knowledge The Rules of the Holy Fathers the Apostolick decrees ordinances or disposals reservations provisions and mandates I will observe with all my might and cause to be observed by others Hereticks Schismaticks and Rebels to our said Lord or his foresaid Successours I will to my power persecute and oppose I will come to a Council when I am call'd unless I be hinder'd by a Canonical impediment I will by my self in person visit the threshold of the Apostles every three years and give an account to our Lord and his foresaid Successours of all my Pastoral Ossi and of all things any-wise belonging to the state of my Church to the discipline of my Clergy and People and lastly to the salvation of Souls committed to my trust and will in like manner humbly receive and diligently execute the Apostolick commands And if I be detain'd by a lawfull impediment I will perform all the things aforesaid by a certain Messenger hereto specially impower'd a member of my Chapter or some other in Ecclesiastical Dignity or else having a Parsonage or in default of these by a Priest of the Diocese or in default of one of the Clergy of the Diocese by some other Secular or Regular Priest of approved integrity and Religion fully instructed in all things above-mentioned And such impediment I will make out by lawfull proofs to be transmitted by the foresaid Messenger to the Cardinal Proponent of the Holy Roman Church in the Congregation of the Sacred Council The Possessions belonging to my Table I will neither sell nor give away nor mortgage nor grant anew in fee nor any-wise alienate no not even with the consent of the Chapter of my Church without consulting the Roman Pontife And if I shall make any alienation I will thereby incur the Penalties contain'd in a certain Constitution put forth about this matter So help me God and these Holy Gospels of God Such is the Oath prescribed to Bishops the which is worth the most serious attention of all men who would understand how miserably slavish the condition of the Clergy is in that Church and how inconsistent their obligation to the Pope is with their duty to their Prince And in perusing it we may note that the clauses in a different character are in the more ancient Oath extant in the Gregorian Decretals by which it appeareth how the Pope doth more and more enlarge his Power and straiten the bands of Subjection to him And it is very remarkable that the new Oath hath chang'd those words REGVLAS SANCTORVM PATRVM into REGALIA SANCTI PETRI i. e. THE RVLES OF THE HOLY FATHERS into THE ROYALTIES OF SAINT PETER § XV. I know there are within the Roman Communion great store of Divines who do contract the Papal Sovereignty within a much narrower compass refusing to him many of those Prerogatives yea scarce allowing to him any of them There are those who affirm the Pope in Doctrine and Discipline subject to the Church or to a General Synod representing it Which opinion thwarteth a proposition in Bellarmine's opinion e'en almost an Article of faith but to be even with him they do hold his proposition to be quite heretical The Pope is simply and absolutely above the Vniversal Church this proposition is almost an Article of faith saith Bellarmine The Cardinal of Lorrain on the contrary But I saith he cannot deny but that I am a French-man and bred up in the Church of Paris which teaches that the Roman Pontife is subject to a Council and they who teach the contrary are there branded as Hereticks There are those who affirm the Pope if he undertake Points of Faith without assistence of a General Synod may teach Heresie which opinion as Bellarmine thought doth closely border on heresie And those who conceive that Popes may be and have been Hereticks whence Christians sometimes are not obliged to admit their Doctrine or observe their pleasure There are those who maintain the Pope no less than other Bishops subject to the Canons or bound to observe the Constitutions of the Church that he may not infringe them or over-rule against them or dispense with them and that to him attempting to doe so obedience is not due There are those who maintain that the Pope cannot subvert or violate the Rights and Liberties of particular
from a stupid Easiness in admitting such a Lieutenancy to our Lord if we do not see exhibited to us manifest and certain Patents assuring its Commission to us We should love the Church better than to yield up its Liberty to the will of a Pretender upon slight or no ground Their boldly claiming such a Power their having sometime usurped such a Power will not excuse them or us Nor will precarious Assumptions or subtile Distinctions or blind Traditions or loose Conjectures serve for probations in such a case § XIX Such demands they cannot wholly balk wherefore for satisfaction to them not finding any better plea they hook in Saint Peter affirming that on him by our Lord there was instated a Primacy over his brethren all the Apostles and the Disciples of our Lord importing all the Authority which they claim and that from him this Primacy was devolved by succession to the Bishops of Rome by right indefectible for all future Ages Which Plea of theirs doth involve these main Suppositions I. That Saint Peter had a Primacy over the Apostles II. That Saint Peter 's Primacy with its Rights and Prerogatives was not personal but derivable to his Successours III. That Saint Peter was Bishop of Rome IV. That Saint Peter did continue Bishop of Rome after his translation and was so at his decease V. That the Bishops of Rome according to God's institution and by original right derived thence should have an Vniversal Supremacy and Jurisdiction over the Christian Church VI. That in fact the Roman Bishops continually from Saint Peter's time have enjoyed and exercised this Sovereign Power VII That this Power is indefectible and unalterable The truth and certainty of these Propositions we shall in order discuss so that it may competently appear whether those who disclaim these Pretences are as they are charged guilty of Heresie and Schism or they rather are liable to the imputations of Arrogancy and Iniquity who do obtrude and urge them A TREATISE OF THE Pope's Supremacy MATTH 10.2 Now the names of the twelve Apostles were these the first Simon who is called Peter AMONG the Modern Controversies there is scarce any of greater consequence than that about Universal Supremacy which the Bishop of Rome claimeth over the Christian Church the assertion whereof on his side dependeth upon divers Suppositions namely these I. That Saint Peter by our Lord's appointment had a Primacy implying a Sovereignty of Authority and Jurisdiction over the Apostles II. That the Rights and Prerogatives of this Sovereignty were not personal but derivable and transmitted to Successours III. That Saint Peter was Bishop of Rome IV. That Saint Peter did continue Bishop of Rome after his translation and was so at his decease V. That hence of Right to the Bishops of Rome as Saint Peter 's Successours an Vniversal Jurisdiction over the whole Church of Christ doth appertain VI. That in Fact the said Bishops continually from Saint Peter 's time have enjoyed and exercised this Power VII That this Power is indefectible such as by no means can be forfeited or fail In order to the discussion and resolution of the first Point I shall treat upon the Primacy of Saint Peter endeavouring to shew what Primacy he was capable of or might enjoy what he could not pretend to nor did possess SUPPOSITION I. The first Supposition of those who claim Universal Jurisdiction to the Pope over the Church is That Saint Peter had a primacy over the Apostles IN order to the resolution of this Point we may consider that there are several kinds of Primacy which may belong to a person in respect of others for there are 1. A Primacy of Worth or Personal Excellency 2. A Primacy of Reputation and Esteem 3. A Primacy of Order or bare Dignity and Precedence 4. A Primacy of Power or Jurisdiction To each of these what title Saint Peter might have let us in order examine I. As for the first of these a Primacy of Worth or Merit as some of the Ancients call it we may well grant it to Saint Peter admitting that probably he did exceed the rest of his Brethren in personal endowments and capacities both natural and moral qualifying him for the discharge of the Apostolical Office in an eminent manner particularly that in quickness of apprehension in boldness of spirit in readiness of speech in charity to our Lord and zeal for his Service in resolution activity and industry he was transcendent may seem to appear by the tenour of the Evangelical and Apostolical Histories in the which we may observe him upon all occasions ready to speak first and to make himself the mouth as the Fathers speak of the Apostles in all deliberations nimble at propounding his advice in all undertakings forward to make the onset being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 always hot and eager always prompt and vigorous as S. Chrysostome often affirmeth concerning him these things are apparent in his demeanour and it may not be amiss to set down some instances When our Lord observing the different apprehensions men had concerning him asked the Apostles but whom say ye that I am up starteth he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he skippeth forth and preventeth the rest crying Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God The other Apostles were not ignorant of the Point for they at their Conversion did take Jesus for the Messias which even according to the common Notion of the Iews did imply his being the Son of God Nathanael that is Saint Bartholomew as is supposed had in terms confessed it the whole company upon seeing our Lord walk on the Sea had avowed it Saint Peter before that in the name of them all had said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We have believed and have known that thou art the Christ the Son of the living God They therefore had the same Faith but he from a special alacrity of spirit and expedition in utterance was more forward to declare it He was more hot saith St. Greg. Naz. than the rest at acknowledging Christ. When our Saviour walked on the Sea who but He had the Faith and the Courage to venture on the Waters towards him When our Lord was apprehended by the Souldiers presently up was his spirit and out went his Sword in defence of him When our Lord predicted that upon his coming into trouble all the Disciples would be offended and desert him he was ready to say Though all men shall be offended because of thee yet will I never be offended and Though I should dye with thee yet will I not deny thee such was his natural courage and confidence When our Lord was discoursing about his Passion he suddenly must be advising in the case and urging him to spare himself upon which St. Chrysostome biddeth us to consider not that his answer was unadvised but that it came from a genuine and fervent affection And at the Transfiguration he
Authority can hardly be assigned For was it when he was constituted by our Lord an Apostle Then indeed probably he began to obtain all the primacy and preeminence he ever had but no such power doth appear then conferred on him or at any time in our Saviour's life at least if it was it was so covertly and indiscernibly that both he himself and all the Apostles must be ignorant thereof who a little before our Lord's Passion did more than once earnestly contest about Superiority And it is observable that whereas our Lord before his Passion did carefully teach and press on the Apostles the chief duties which they were to observe in their behaviour toward each other The maintenance of peace of charity of unity of humility toward one another yet of paying due respect and obedience to this Superiour he said nothing to them The collation of that Power could not well be at any time before the celebration of our Lord's Supper because before that time Saint Peter was scarce an Ecclesiastical Person at least he was no Priest as the Convention of Trent under a curse doth require us to believe for it were strange that an unconsecrated Person or one who was not so much as a Priest should be endowed with so much spiritual Power After his Resurrection our Lord did give divers common Instructions Orders and Commissions to his Apostles but it doth not appear that he did make any peculiar grant to St. Peter for as to the pretence of such an one drawn out of the Appendix to Saint John's Gospel or grounded on the words Pasce oves we shall afterward declare that to be invalid 4. If Saint Peter had been instituted Sovereign of the Apostolical Senate his Office and state had been in nature and kind very distinct from the common Office of the other Apostles as the Office of a King from the Office of any Subject as an ordinary standing perpetual successive Office from one that is onely extraordinary transitory temporary personal and incommunicable to speak according to distinctions now in use and applied to this case whence probably as it was expedient to be it would have been signified by some distinct name or title characterizing it and distinguishing it from others as that of Arch-apostle Arch-pastour High-priest Sovereign Pontife Pope his Holiness the Vicar of Christ or the like whereby it might have appeared that there was such an Officer what the nature of his Office was what specialty of respect and obedience was due to him But no such name or title upon any occasion was assumed by him or was by the rest attributed to him or in History is recorded concerning him the name of an Apostle being all that he took on him or by others was given to him 5. There was indeed no Office above that of an Apostle known to the Apostles or to the primitive Church this saith St. Chrysostome was the greatest authority and the top of authorities there was saith he none before an Apostle none superiour none equal to him this he asserteth of all the Apostles this he particularly applieth to Saint Paul this he demonstrateth from Saint Paul himself who purposely enumerating the chief Officers instituted by God in his Church doth place Apostles in the highest rank Our Lord saith Saint Paul gave some Apostles some Prophets some Evangelists some Pastours and Teachers and God hath set some in his Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why not first a Pope an Universal Pastour an Oecumenical Judge a Vicar of Christ a Head of the Catholick Church Could Saint Paul be so ignorant could he be so negligent or so envious as to pass by without any distinction the Supreme Officer if such an one then had been As put case that one should undertake to recite the Officers in any State or Republick would he not do strangely if he should pretermit the King the Duke the Consul the Major thereof would not any one confiding in the skill diligence and integrity of such a relatour be induced from such an omission to believe there was no such Officer there St. Chrysostome therefore did hence very rationally infer that the Apostolical Office was the Supreme in the Christian state having no other Superiour to it Saint Peter therefore was no more than an Apostle and as such he could have no command over those who were in the same highest rank co-ordinate to him and who as Apostles could not be subject to any 6. Our Lord himself at several times declared against this kind of Primacy instituting equality among his Apostles prohibiting them to affect to seek to assume or admit a superiority of Power one above another There was saith Saint Luke among the twelve at the participation of the Holy Supper a strife among them who of them should be accounted the greatest or who had the best pretence to Superiority this strife our Lord presently did check and quash but how not by telling them that he already had decided the case in appointing them a Superiour but rather by assuring them that he did intend none such to be that he would have no Monarchy no exercise of any Dominion or Authority by one among them over the rest but that notwithstanding any advantages one might have before the other as greater in gifts or as preceding in any respect they should be one as another all humbly condescending to one another each being ready to yield help and service to one another The Kings said he of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them and they that exercise authority over them are called benefactours but ye shall not be so but he that is greater among you let him be as the younger and he that is leader as he that doth minister that is whatever privilege any of you obtaineth let it not be employed in way of command but rather of compliance and subserviency as occasion shall require let him not pretend to be a Superiour but rather behave himself as an Inferiour thus our Lord did smother the debate by removing from among them whatever greatness any of them did affect or pretend to forbidding that any of them should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exercise any Dominion or Authority over the rest as worldly Princes did over their Subjects Again upon another occasion as the circumstances of the place do imply when two of the Apostles of special worth and consideration with our Lord Saint James and Saint John the Sons of Zebedee did affect a preeminence over the rest requesting of our Lord Grant unto us that we may sit one on thy right hand and the other on thy left hand in thy glory or in thy Kingdom as Saint Matthew hath it that is in that new state which they conceived our Lord was ready to introduce which request doth not seem to import any great matter of Authority
you for the seal of mine Apostleship are ye in the Lord. And By the grace of God I am what I am and his grace which was on me became not in vain but I laboured more abundantly than they all In the discharge of his Office he immediately after that he had received his call and charge from our Saviour without consulting or taking licence from any man did vigorously apply himself to the work Immediately saith he I conferred not with flesh and bloud neither went I up to Jerusalem to them that before me were Apostles so little did he take himself to be accountable to any man In settling order and correcting irregularities in the Church he professed to act merely by his own Authority conferred on him by our Lord Therefore saith he being absent I write these things that being present I may not use severity according to the authority which the Lord hath given me for edification not for destruction Such being the privileges which he did assert to himself with all confidence he did not receive for it any check from other Apostles but the chief of them knowing the grace that was given unto him gave unto him the right hand of fellowship in token of their acknowledgment and allowance of his proceedings Upon these considerations plainly signifying his absolute independence in the reception and execution of his Office he doth more than once affirm and in a manner boast himself to be inferiour in nothing to the very chief Apostles in nothing that is in nothing pertinent to the Authority or substantial Dignity of his place for as to his personal merit he professeth himself much less than the least of the Apostles but as to the authentickness and authority of his Office he deemed himself equal to the greatest being by the grace of God what he was a Minister of the Gospel according to the gift of the grace of God which was given him according to the effectual working of his power When he said he was behind none he could not forget Saint Peter when he said none of the chief he could not but especially mean him he did indeed as St. Chrysostome saith intend to compare himself with St. Peter when he said in nothing he could not but design that which was most considerable the Authority of his place which in the context he did expresly mention For when he objected to himself the semblance of fondness or arrogance in speaking after that manner he declared that he did not speak rashly or vainly but upon serious consideration and with full assurance finding it very needfull or usefull to maintain his Authority or to magnify his Office as he otherwhere speaketh If things had been as now we are taught from the Roman School it is strange that Saint Paul should compare himself so generally not excepting Saint Peter that he should express nor by the least touch intimate no special consideration for his as they tell us ordinary Pastour that he should not consider how lyable such words were to be interpreted in derogation to Saint Peter's due prerogatives But it is no wonder that Saint Paul in Saint Peter's absence should thus stand on his own legs not seeming to mind him whenas in immediate transactions with him he demeaned himself as his fellow yielding to him no respect or deference as to his Superiour For When Saint Paul went to Jerusalem to have conference with Saint Peter and other Apostles who were chief in repute he professeth that they did not confer any thing to him so as to change his opinion or divert him from his ordinary course of practice which was different from theirs this was it seemeth hardly proper or seemly for him to say if Saint Peter had been his Sovereign but he seemeth to say it on very purpose to exclude any prejudice that might arise to his Doctrine from their authority or repute their authority being none over him their repute being impertinent to the case for whatsoever addeth he they were it maketh no matter to me God respecteth no man's person the which might well be said of Persons greater in common esteem but not so well of one who was his Superiour in Office to whose opinion and conduct as of his Judge and Pastour by God's appointment he did owe a special regard Again St. Paul at Antioch observing St. Peter out of fear and policy to act otherwise than became the simplicity and sincerity of Christians to the prejudice of Evangelical Truth Charity and Liberty against his own judgment and former practice drawing others by his pattern into the same unwarrantable course of behaviour did withstand him to the face did openly reprove him before all because he was blameable did as P. Gelasius I. affirmeth to excuse another Pope misbehaving himself worthily confute him did as St. Augustine often doth affirm and urge in proof that greatest Persons may sometimes err and â—ail correct him rebuke him chide him Which behaviour of Saint Paul doth not well consist with the Supposition That Saint Peter was his superiour in Office if that had been Porphyrius with good colour of reason might have objected procacity to Saint Paul in taxing his betters for he then indeed had shewed us no commendable pattern of demeanour toward our Governours in so boldly opposing Saint Peter in so openly censuring him in so smartly confuting him More unseemly also it had been to report the business as he doth in writing to the Galatians for to divulge the miscarriages of Superiours to revive the memory of them to register them and transmit them down to all posterity to set forth our clashing and contests with them is hardly allowable if it may consist with justice and honesty it doth yet little favour of gravity and modesty It would have been more seemly for Saint Paul to have privately and humbly remonstrated to Saint Peter than openly and downrightly to have reprehended him at least it would have become him in cold bloud to have represented his carriage more respectfully consulting the honour of the Universal Pastour whose reputation was like to suffer by such a representation of his proceedings Pope Pelagius II. would have taught Saint Paul better manners who saith that they are not to be approved but reprobated who do reprove or accuse their Prelates and Pope Gregory would have taught him another lesson namely that the evils of their Superiours do so displease good Subjects that however they do conceal them from others and Subjects are to be admonished that they do not rashly judge the life of their Superiours if perhaps they see them doe blameably c. It is plain that Saint Paul was more bold with Saint Peter than any man now must be with the Pope for let the Pope commit never so great crimes yet no mortal saith the Canon Law presume to reprove his faults But if Saint Peter were not in Office
superiour to Saint Paul but his Collegue and equal in Authority although precedeing him in standing repute and other advantages then Saint Paul's free proceeding toward him was not onely warrantable but wholesome and deserving for edification to be recited and recorded as implying an example how Collegues upon occasion should with freedom and sincerity admonish their Brethren of their errours and faults Saint Peter's carriage in patiently bearing that correption also affording another good pattern of equanimity in such cases to which purpose S. Cypr. alledged and approved by S. Austin doth apply this passage for saith he neither Peter whom the Lord first chose and upon whom he built his Church when Paul afterward contested with him about circumcision did insolently challenge or arrogantly assume any thing to himself so as to say that he did hold the primacy and that rather those who were newer and later Apostles ought to obey him neither despised he Saint Paul because he was before a persecutour of the Church but he admitted the counsel of truth and easily consented to the lawfull course which Saint Paul did maintain yielding indeed to us a document both of concord and patience that we should not pertinaciously love our own things but should rather take those things for ours which sometimes are profitably and wholesomely suggested by our Brethren and Collegues if they are true and lawfull this St. Cyprian speaketh upon supposition that Saint Peter and Saint Paul were equals or as he calleth them Collegues and Brethren in rank co-ordinate otherwise St. Cyprian would not have approved the action for he often severely doth inveigh against Inferiours taking upon them to censure their Superiours What tumour saith he of pride what arrogance of mind what inflation of heart is it to call our Superiours and Bishops to our cognisance St. Cyprian therefore could not conceive Saint Peter to be Saint Paul's Governour or Superiour in Power he doth indeed plainly enough in the forecited words signifie that in his judgment Saint Peter had done insolently and arrogantly if he had assumed any obedience from Saint Paul St. Austin also doth in several places of his Writings make the like application of this passage The ancient Writer contemporary to St. Ambrose and passing under his name doth argue in this manner Who dared resist Peter the first Apostle to whom the Lord did give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven but another such an one who in assurance of his election knowing himself to be not unequal to him might constantly disprove what he had unadvisedly done It is indeed well known that Origen and after him St. Chrysostome and St. Hierome and divers of the Ancients beside did conceive that Saint Paul did not seriously oppose or tax Saint Peter but did onely doe it seemingly upon confederacy with him for promoting a good design This interpretation however strained and earnestly impugned by Saint Austin I will not discuss but onely shall observe that it being admitted doth rather strengthen than weaken our discourse for if Saint Peter were Saint Paul's Governour it maketh Saint Peter to have consented to an act in all appearance indecent irregular and scandalous and how can we imagine that Saint Peter would have complotted to the imparing his own just Authority in the eye of a great Church doth not such a condescension imply in him a disavowing of Superiority over Saint Paul or a conspiracy with him to overthrow good Order To which purpose we may observe that St. Chrysostome in a large and very elaborate discourse wherein he professeth to endeavour an aggravation of the irregularity of Saint Paul's dâ—meanour if it were serious doth not lay the stress of that aggravation upon Saint Paul's opposing his lawfull Governour but his onely so treating a Co-apostle of such eminency neither when to that end he designeth to reckon all the advantages of Saint Peter beyond Saint Paul or any other Apostle doth he mention this which was chiefly material to his purpose that he was Saint Paul's Governour which observations if we do carefully weigh we can hardly imagine that St. Chrysostome had any notion of Saint Peter's Supremacy in relation to the Apostles In fine the drift of Saint Paul in reporting those passages concerning himself was not to disparage the other Apostles nor merely to commend himself but to fence the truth of his Doctrine and maintain the liberty of his Disciples against any prejudice that might arise from any authority that might be pretended in any considerable respects superiour to his and alledged against them to which purpose he declareth by arguments and matters of fact that his Authority was perfectly Apostolical and equal to the greatest even to that of Saint Peter the prime Apostle of Saint John the beloved Disciple of Saint James the Bishop of Jerusalem the judgment or practice of whom was no law to him nor should be to them farther than it did consist with that Doctrine which he by an independent Authority and by special revelation from Christ did preach unto them He might as St. Chrysostome noteth have pretended to some advantage over them in regard that he had laboured more abundantly than them all but he forbeareth to do so being contented to obtain equal advantages Well therefore considering the disadvantage which this passage bringeth to the Roman pretence might this History be called by Baronius a History hard to be understood a stone of offence a rock of scandal a rugged place which Saint Austin himself under favour could not pass over without stumbling It may also be considered that Saint Paul particularly doth assert to himself an independent authority over the Gentiles co-ordinate to that which Saint Peter had over the Jews the which might engage him so earnestly to contest with Saint Peter as by his practice seducing those who belonged to his charge the which also probably moved him thus to assert his authority to the Galatians as being Gentiles under his care and thence obliged especially to regard his authority They saith Saint Paul knowing that I was entrusted with the Gospel of uncircumcision as Peter was entrusted with that of circumcision gave unto me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship the which words do clearly enough signifie that he took himself and that the other Apostles took him to have under Christ an absolute charge subordinate to no man over the Gentiles whence he claimeth to himself as his burthen the care of all the Churches he therefore might well contest for their liberty he might well insist upon his authority among them Thus did St. Chrysostome understand the case for Christ saith he committed the Jews to Peter but set Paul over the Gentiles and He saith that great Father farther doth shew himself to be equal to them in dignity and compareth himself not onely to the others but even to the ring-leader shewing that each did enjoy equal dignity
had a peculiar or sole faculty of catching men why might it not by as good a consequence as this whereby they would appropriate to him this opening faculty Many such instances might in like manner be used III. They produce those words of our Saviour to Saint Peter Feed my sheep that is in the Roman interpretation Be thou Vniversal Governour of my Church To this allegation I answer 1. From words which truly and properly might have been said to any other Apostle yea to any Christian Pastour whatever nothing can be concluded to their purpose importing a peculiar duty or singular privilege of Saint Peter 2. From indefinite words a definite conclusion especially in matters of this Kind may not be inferred it is said do thou feed my Sheep it is not said do thou alone feed all my Sheep this is their arbitrary gloss or presumptuous improvement of the Text without succour whereof the words signify nothing to their purpose so far are they from sufficiently assuring so vast a pretence for instance when Saint Paul doth exhort the Bishops at Ephesus to feed the Church of God may it thence be collected that each of them was an Universal Governour of the whole Church which Christ had purchased with his own bloud 3. By these words no new power is assuredly at least granted or instituted by our Lord for the Apostles before this had their Warrant and Authority consigned to them when our Lord did inspire them and solemnly commissionate them saying As the Father did send me so I send you to which Commission these words spoken occasionally before a few of the Disciples did not add or derogate At most the words do onely as St. Cyril saith renew the former Grant of Apostleship after his great offence of denying our Lord. 4. These words do not seem institutive or collative of Power but rather onely admonitive or exhortative to duty implying no more but the pressing a common duty before incumbent on Saint Peter upon a special occasion in an advantagious season that he should effectually discharge the Office which our Lord had committed to him Our Lord I say presently before his departure when his words were like to have a strong impression on Saint Peter doth earnestly direct and warn him to express that special ardency of affection which he observed in him in an answerable care to perform his duty of feeding that is of instructing guiding edifying in faith and obedience those Sheep of his that is those Believers who should be converted to embrace his Religion as ever he should find opportunity 5. The same Office certainly did belong to all the Apostles who as Saint Hierome speaketh were the Princes of our Discipline and Chieftains of the Christian Doctrine they at their first vocation had a commission and command to go unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel that were scattered abroad like sheep not having a shepherd they before our Lord's Ascension were enjoyned to teach all Nations the Doctrines and Precepts of Christ to receive them into the fold to feed them with good instruction to guide and govern their Converts with good Discipline Hence All of them as Saint Cyprian saith were shepherds but the flock did appear one which was fed by the Apostles with unanimous agreement 6. Neither could Saint Peter's charge be more extensive than was that of the other Apostles for they had a general and unlimited care of the whole Church that is according to their capacity and opportunity none being exempted from it who needed or came into the way of their discharging Pastoral Offices for them They were Oecumenical Rulers as St. Chrysostome saith appointed by God who did not receive several Nations or Cities but all of them in common were entrusted with the world Hence particularly St. Chrysostome calleth Saint John a pillar of the Churches over the world and Saint Paul an Apostle of the world who had the care not of one House but of Cities and Nations and of the whole Earth who undertook the World and governed the Churches on whom the whole world did look and on whose soul the care of all the Churches every-where did hang into whose hands were delivered the Earth and the Sea the inhabited and uninhabited parts of the World And could Saint Peter have a larger Flock committed to him could this charge feed my sheep more agree to him than to those who no less than he were obliged to feed all Christian people every-where 7. The words indeed are applicable to all Christian Bishops and Governours of the Church according to that of St. Cyprian to Pope Stephen himself we being many Shepherds do feed one flock and all the sheep of Christ for they are styled Pastours they in terms as indefinite as those in this text are exhorted to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own bloud to them as the Fathers commonly suppose this Injunction doth reach our Lord when he spake thus to Saint Peter intending to lay a charge on them all to express their love and piety toward them in this way by feeding his Sheep and People Which Sheep saith Saint Ambrose and which Flock not onely then Saint Peter did receive but also with him all we Priests did receive it Our Lord saith Saint Chrysostome did commit his Sheep to Peter and to those which came after him that is to all Christian Pastours as the scope of his discourse sheweth When it is said to Peter saith Saint Austin it is said to all Feed my Sheep And we saith Saint Basil are taught this obedience to Superiours by Christ himself constituting Saint Peter Pastour after himself of the Church for Peter saith he dost thou love me more than these feed my Sheep and conferring to all Pastours and Teachers continually afterward an equal power of doing so whereof it is a sign that all do in like manner bind and do loose as he Saint Austin comprizeth all these considerations in those words How could these great Masters more clearly express their mind that our Lord in those words to Saint Peter did inculcate a duty no-wise peculiar to him but equally together with him belonging to all Guides of the Church in such manner as when a Master doth press a duty on one Servant he doth thereby admonish all his Servants of the like duty whence St. Austin saith that Saint Peter in that case did sustain the person of the Church that which was spoken to him belonging to all its members especially to his Brethren the Clergy It was saith Cyril a lesson to Teachers that they cannot otherwise please the Arch-pastour of all than by taking care of the welfare of the rational Sheep 8. Hence it followeth that the Sheep which our Saviour biddeth St. Peter to feed were not the Apostles who were his Fellow-shepherds designed to feed others and needing not to be
fed by him but the common Believers or People of God which St. Peter himself doth call the Flock of God Feed saith he to his fellow-Elders the flock of God which is among you and Saint Paul Take heed therefore unto your selves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers 9. Take Feeding for what you please for Teaching for Guiding the Apostles were not fit objects of it who were immediately taught and guided by God himself Hence we may interpret that saying of St. Chrysostome which is the most plausible argument they can alledge for them that our Lord in saying this did commit to St. Peter a charge or presidency over his brethren that is he made him a Pastour of Christian people as he did others at least if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be referred to the Apostles it must not signifie authority over them but at most a primacy of order among them for that Saint Peter otherwise should feed them St. Chrysostome could hardly think who presently after saith that seeing the Apostles were to receive the administration of the whole world they ought not afterward to converse with one another for that would surely have been a great damage to the world 10. But they forsooth must have Saint Peter solely obliged to feed all Christ's sheep so they do impose upon him a vast and crabbed Province a task very incommodious or rather impossible for him to undergo how could he in duty be obliged how could he in effect be able to feed so many flocks of Christian people scattered about in distant Regions through all Nations under Heaven he poor man that had so few helps that had no Officers or dependents nor wealth to maintain them would have been much put to it to feed the sheep in Britaine and in Parthia unto infinite distraction of thoughts such a charge must needs have engaged him But for this their great Champion hath a fine expedient Saint Peter saith he did feed Christ's whole flock partly by himself partly by others so that it seemeth the other Apostles were Saint Peter's Curates or Vicars and Deputies this indeed were an easie way of feeding thus although he had slept all his time he might have fed all the sheep under heaven thus any man as well might have fed them But this manner of feeding is I fear a later invention not known so soon in the Church and it might then seem near as absurd to be a shepherd as it is now in his own account to be a just man by imputation that would be a kind of putative pastorage as this a putative righteousness However the Apostles I dare say did not take themselves to be St. Peter's Surrogates but challenged to themselves to be accounted the Ministers the Stewards the Ambassadours of Christ himself from whom immediately they received their Orders in whose name they acted to whom they constantly refer their Authority without taking the least notice of Saint Peter or intimating any dependence on him It was therefore enough for Saint Peter that he had Authority restrained to no place but might as he found occasion preach the Gospel convert confirm guide Christians every where to truth and duty nor can our Saviour's words be forced to signifie more In fine this together with the precedent Testimonies must not be interpreted so as to thwart Practice and History according to which it appeareth that Saint Peter did not exercise such a Power and therefore our Lord did not intend to confer such an one upon him IV. Farther in confirmation of their Doctrine they do draw forth a whole shole of Testimonies containing divers Prerogatives as they call them of Saint Peter which do as they suppose imply this Primacy so very sharp-sighted indeed they are that in every remarkable accident befalling him in every action performed by him or to him or about him they can descry some argument or shrewd insinuation of his preeminence especially being aided by the glosses of some fancyfull Expositour From the change of his Name from his walking on the Sea from his miraculous draught of Fish from our Lord 's praying for him that his Faith should not fail and bidding him to confirm his Brethren from our Lord 's ordering him to pay the tribute for them both from our Lord's first washing his feet and his first appearing to him after the Resurrection from the prediction of his Martyrdom from sick persons being cured by his shadow from his sentencing Ananias and Saphira to death from his preaching to Cornelius from its being said that he passed through all from his being prayed for by the Church from Saint Paul's going to visit him from these passages I say they deduce or confirm his Authority Now in earnest is not this stout arguing is it not egregious modesty for such a point to alledge such proofs what cause may not be countenanced by such rare fetches who would not suspect the weakness of that Opinion which is fain to use such forces in its maintenance In fine is it honest or conscionable dealing so to wrest or play with the Holy Scripture pretending to derive thence proofs where there is no shew of consequence To be even with them I might assert the Primacy to Saint John and to that purpose might alledge his Prerogatives which indeed may seem greater than those of Saint Peter namely that he was the beloved disciple that he leaned on our Lord's breast that Saint Peter not presuming to ask our Lord a question desired him to doe it as having a more special confidence with our Lord that Saint John did higher service to the Church and all posterity by writing not onely more Epistles but also a most divine Gospel and a sublime Prophecy concerning the state of the Church that Saint John did outrun Peter and came first to the Sepulchre in which passage such acute devisers would find out marvellous significancy that Saint John was a Virgin that he did out-live all the Apostles and thence was most fit to be Universal Pastour that St. Hierome comparing Peter and John doth seem to prefer the latter for Peter saith he was an Apostle and John was an Apostle but Peter was onely an Apostle John both an Apostle and an Evangelist and also a Prophet and saith he that I may in brief speech comprehend many things and shew what privilege belongeth to John yea Virginity in John by our Lord a Virgin his Mother the Virgin is commended to the Virgin Disciple thus I might by Prerogatives and passages very notable infer the Superiority of Saint John to Saint Peter in imitation of their reasoning but I am afraid they would scarce be at the trouble to answer me seriously but would think it enough to say I trifled wherefore let it suffice for me in the same manner to put off those levities of discourse V. They argue this Primacy from the constant placing
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal in honour to Saint Peter as we before shewed The like we declared of St. Hierome St. Cyril c. And as for St. Cyprian who did allow a Primacy to Saint Peter nothing can be more evident than that he took the other Apostles to be equal to him in power and honour The like we may conceive of St. Austin who having carefully perused those Writings of St. Cyprian and frequently alledging them doth never contradict that his sentiment Even Pope Gregory himself acknowledgeth Saint Peter not to have been properly the Head but onely the first member of the universal Church all being members of the Church under one head 6. If Pope Leo I. or any other ancient Pope do seem to mean farther we may reasonably except against their Opinion as being singular and proceeding from partial affection to their See such affection having influence on the mind of the wisest men according to that certain maxime of Aristotle every man is a bad Judge in his own case 7. The Ancients when their subject doth allure them do adorn other Apostles with the like titles equalling those of Saint Peter and not well consistent with them according to that rigour of sense which our adversaries affix to the commendations of Saint Peter The Epistle of Clemens Rom. to Saint James an Apocryphal but ancient Writing calleth St. James our Lord's Brother The Bishop of Bishops the Clementine Recognitions call him the Prince of Bishops Ruffinus in his translation of Eusebius The Bishop of the Apostles St. Chrysost. saith of him that he did preside over all the Jewish believers Hesychius Presbyter of Jerusalem calleth him the chief Captain of the New Jerusalem the Captain of Priests the Prince of the Apostles the top among the Heads c. The same Hesychius calleth Saint Andrew the first-born of the Apostolical Choire the first setled pillar of the Church the Peter before Peter the foundation of the foundation the first-fruits of the beginning c. St. Chrysostome saith of Saint John that he was a pillar of the Churches through the world he that had the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven c. But as occasion of speaking about Saint Paul was more frequent so the elogies of him are more copious and indeed so high as not to yield to those of Saint Peter He was saith St. Chrysostome the ringleader and guardian of the Choire of all the Saints He was the tongue the teacher the Apostle of the world He had the whole world put into his hands and took care thereof and had committed to him all men dwelling upon Earth He was the light of the Churches the foundation of Faith the pillar and ground of Truth He had the patronage of the World committed into his hands He was better than all men greater than the Apostles and surpassing them all Nothing was more bright nothing more illustrious than he None was greater than he yea none equal to him Pope Gregory I. saith of Saint Paul that he was made head of the Nations because he obtained the principate of the whole Church These Characters of Saint Paul I leave them to interpret and reconcile with those of Saint Peter 8. That the Fathers by calling Saint Peter Prince Chieftain c. of the Apostles do not mean Authority over them may be argued from their joining Saint Paul with him in the same appellations who yet surely could have no Jurisdiction over them and his having any would destroy the pretended Ecclesiastical Monarchy St. Cyril calleth them together Patrons or Presidents of the Church St. Austin or St. Ambr. or Max. calleth them Princes of the Churches The Popes Agatho and Adrian in their General Synods call them the ring-leading Apostles The Popes Nicholas I. and Gregory VII c. call them Princes of the Apostles St. Ambrose or St. Austin or St. Maximus Taur chuse you which doth thus speak of them Blessed Peter and Paul are most eminent among all the Apostles excelling the rest by a kind of peculiar prerogative but whether of these two be preferred before the other is uncertain for I count them to be equal in merit because they are equal in suffering c. To all this discourse I shall onely adde that if any of the Apostles or Apostolical men might claim a presidency or authoritative headship over the rest Saint James seemeth to have the best title thereto for Jerusalem was the mother of all Churches the fountain of the Christian Law and Doctrine the See of our Lord himself the chief Pastour He therefore who as the Fathers tell us was by our Lord himself constituted Bishop of that City and the first of all Bishops might best pretend to be in special manner our Lord's Vicar or Successour He saith Epiphanius did first receive the Episcopal Chair and to him our Lord first did entrust his own Throne upon Earth He accordingly did first exercise the Authority of presiding and moderating in the first Ecclesiastical Synod as St. Chrysostome in his Notes thereon doth remark He therefore probably by Saint Paul is first named in his report concerning the passages at Hierusalem and to his orders it seemeth that Saint Peter himself did conform for 't is said there that before certain came from Saint James he did eat with the Gentiles but when they were come he withdrew Hence in the Apostolical Constitutions in the Prayer prescribed for the Church and for all the Governours of it the Bishops of the principal Churches being specified by name Saint James is put in the first place before the Bishops of Rome and of Antioch Let us pray for the whole Episcopacy under Heaven of those who rightly dispense the word of thy Truth and let us pray for our Bishop James with all his Parishes let us pray for our Bishop Clemens and all his Parishes let us pray for Evodius and all his Parishes Hereto consenteth the Tradition of those ancient Writers afore cited who call Saint James the Bishop of Bishops the Bishop of the Apostles c. SUPPOSITION II. I proceed to examine the next Supposition of the Church Monarchists which is That Saint Peter's Primacy with its Rights and Prerogatives was not personal but derivable to his Successours AGainst which Supposition I do assert that admitting a Primacy of Saint Peter of what kind or to what purpose soever we yet have reason to deem it merely personal and not according to its grounds and its design communicable to any Successours nor indeed in effect conveyed to any such It is a rule in the Canon Law that a personal Privilege doth follow the Person and is extinguished with the Person and such we affirm that of St. Peter for 1. His Primacy was grounded upon personal acts such as his chearfull following of Christ his faithfull confessing of Christ his resolute adherence to Christ his embracing
special Revelations from God or upon personal graces his great Faith his special love to our Lord his singular zeal for Christ's Service or upon personal gifts and endowments his courage resolution activity forwardness in apprehension and in speech the which advantages are not transient and consequently a preeminency built on them is not in its nature such 2. All the pretence of Primacy granted to Saint Peter is grounded upon words directed to Saint Peter's Person characterized by most personal adjuncts as name parentage and which exactly were accomplished in Saint Peter's personal actings which therefore it is unreasonable to extend farther Our Lord promised to Simon Son of Jona to build his Church on him accordingly in eminent manner the Church was founded upon his Ministery or by his first preaching testimony performances Our Lord promised to give him the Keys of the Heavenly Kingdom this Power Saint Peter signally did execute in converting Christians and receiving them by Baptism into the Church by conferring the Holy Ghost and the like administrations Our Lord charged Simon Son of Jonas to feed his Sheep this he performed by preaching writing guiding and governing Christians as he found opportunity wherefore if any thing was couched under those promises or orders singularly pertinent to Saint Peter for the same reason that they were singular they were personal for These things being in a conspicuous manner accomplished in St. Peter's Person the sense of those words is exhausted there may not with any probability there cannot with any assurance be any more grounded on them whatever more is inferred must be by precarious assumption and justly we may cast at those who shall infer it that exposâ—ulation of Tertullian What art thou who dost overturn and change the manifest intention of our Lord personally conferring this on Peter 3. Particularly the grand promise to Saint Peter of founding the Church on him cannot reach beyond his person because there can be no other foundations of a Society than such as are first laid the successours of those who first did erect a Society and establish it are themselves but superstructures 4. The Apostolical Office as such was personal and temporary and therefore according to its nature and design not successive or communicable to others in perpetual descendence from them It was as such in all respects extraordinary conferred in a special manner designed for special purposes discharged by special aids endowed with special privileges as was needfull for the propagation of Christianity and founding of Churches To that Office it was requisite that the Person should have an immediate designation and commission from God such as Saint Paul so often doth insist upon for asserting his title to the Office Paul an Apostle not from men or by man not by men saith St. Chrysostome this is a property of the Apostles It was requisite that an Apostle should be able to attest concerning our Lord's Resurrection or Ascension either immediately as the twelve or by evident consequence as Saint Paul thus Saint Peter implyed at the choice of Matthias wherefore of those men which have companyed with us must one be ordained to be a witness with us of the Resurrection and Am I not saith Saint Paul an Apostle have I not seen the Lord according to that of Ananias The God of our Fathers hath chosen thee that thou shouldest know his will and see that just one and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth for thou shalt bear witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard It was needfull also that an Apostle should be endowed with miraculous gifts and graces enabling him both to assure his Authority and to execute his Office wherefore Saint Paul calleth these the marks of an Apostle the which were wrought by him among the Corinthians in all patience or perseveringly in signs and wonders and mighty deeds It was also in St. Chrysostome's opinion proper to an Apostle that he should be able according to his discretion in a certain and conspicuous manner to impart Spiritual Gifts as Saint Peter and Saint John did at Samaria which to doe according to that Father was the peculiar gift and privilege of the Apostles It was also a privilege of an Apostle by virtue of his commission from Christ to instruct all Nations in the Doctrine and Law of Christ He had right and warrant to exercise his function every where His charge was universal and indefinite the whole world was his Province he was not affixed to one place nor could be excluded from any he was as St. Cyril calleth him an Oecumenical Judge and an Instructour of all the Subcelestial World Apostles also did govern in an absolute manner according to discretion as being guided by infallible assistence to the which they might upon occasion appeal and affirm It hath seemed good to the Holy Ghost and us Whence their Writings have passed for inspired and therefore Canonical or certain Rules of Faith and Practice It did belong to them to found Churches to constitute Pastours to settle orders to correct offences to perform all such Acts of Sovereign Spiritual Power in virtue of the same Divine assistence according to the Authority which the Lord had given them for edification as we see practised by Saint Paul In fine the Apostleship was as St. Chrysostome telleth us a business fraught with ten thousand good things both greater than all privileges of grace and comprehensive of them Now such an Office consisting of so many extraordinary privileges and miraculous powers which were requisite for the foundation of the Church and the diffusion of Christianity against the manifold difficulties and disadvantages which it then needs must encounter was not designed to continue by derivation for it containeth in it divers things which apparently were not communicated and which no man without gross imposture and hypocrisie could challenge to himself Neither did the Apostles pretend to communicate it they did indeed appoint standing Pastours and Teachers in each Church they did assume Fellow-labourers or Assistents in the work of Preaching and Governance but they did not constitute Apostles equal to themselves in Authority Privileges or Gifts For who knoweth not saith St. Austin that principate of Apostleship to be preferred before any Episcopacy and the Bishops saith Bellarmine have no part of the true Apostolical Authority Wherefore Saint Peter who had no other Office mentioned in Scripture or known to Antiquity beside that of an Apostle could not have properly and adequately any Successour to his Office but it naturally did expire with his Person as did that of the other Apostles 5. Accordingly whereas the other Apostles as such had no Successours the Apostolical Office not being propagated the Primacy of Saint Peter whatever it were whether of Order or Jurisdiction in regard to his Brethren did cease with him for when there were no Apostles extant there could be no Head or Prince of
the Apostles in any sense 6. If some privileges of Saint Peter were derived to Popes why were not all why was not Pope Alexander VI. as holy as Saint Peter why was not Pope Honorius as found in his private judgment why is not every Pope inspired why is not every Papal Epistle to be reputed Canonical why are not all Popes endowed with power of doing miracles why doth not the Pope by a Sermon convert thousands why indeed do Popes never preach why doth not he cure men by his shadow he is say they himself his shadow what ground is there of distinguishing the privileges so that he shall have some not others where is the ground to be found 7. If it be objected that the Fathers commonly do call Bishops Successours of the Apostles to assoil that objection we may consider that whereas the Apostolical Office virtually did contain the functions of Teaching and ruling God's people the which for preservation of Christian doctrine and edification of the Church were requisite to be continued perpetually in ordinary standing Offices these indeed were derived from the Apostles but not properly in way of succession as by univocal propagation but by Ordination imparting all the power needfull for such Offices which therefore were exercised by persons during the Apostles lives concurrently or in subordination to them even as a Dictatour at Rome might create inferiour Magistrates who derived from him but not as his Successours for as Bellarmine himself telleth us there can be no proper succession but in respect of one preceding but Apostles and Bishops were together in the Church The Fathers therefore so in a large sense call all Bishops Successours of the Apostles not meaning that any one of them did succeed into the whole Apostolical Office but that each did receive his power from some one immediately or mediately whom some Apostle did constitute Bishop vesting him with Authority to feed the particular Flock committed to him in way of ordinary charge according to the sayings of that Apostolical person Clemens Rom. The Apostles preaching in Regions and Cities did constitute their first Converts having approved them by the Spirit for Bishops and Deacons of those who should afterward believe and having constituted the foresaid Bishops and Deacons they withall gave them farther charge that if they should dye other approved men successively should receive their Office thus did the Bishops supply the room of the Apostles each in guiding his particular charge all of them together by mutual aid conspiring to govern the whole Body of the Church 8. In which regard it may be said that not one single Bishop but all Bishops together through the whole Church do succeed Saint Peter or any other Apostle for that all of them in union together have an universal Sovereign Authority commensurate to an Apostle 9. This is the notion which St. Cyprian doth so much insist upon affirming that the Bishops do succeed Saint Peter and the other Apostles by vicarious ordination that the Bishops are Apostles that there is but one chair by the Lord's word built upon one Peter One undivided Bishoprick diffused in the peacefull numerosity of many Bishops whereof each Bishop doth hold his share One Flock whom the Apostles by unanimous agreement did feed and which afterward the Bishops do feed having a portion thereof allotted to each which he should govern So the Synod of Carthage with St. Cyprian So also St. Chrysostome saith that the Sheep of Christ were committed by him to Peter and to those after him that is in his meaning to all Bishops 10. Such and no other power Saint Peter might devolve on any Bishop ordained by him in any Church which he did constitute or inspect as in that of Antioch of Alexandria of Babylon of Rome The like did the other Apostles communicate who had the same power with Saint Peter in founding and settling Churches whose Successours of this kind were equal to those of the same kind whom St. Peter did constitute enjoying in their several precincts an equal part of the Apostolical power as St. Cyprian often doth assert 11. It is in consequence observable that in those Churches whereof the Apostles themselves were never accounted Bishops yet the Bishops are called Successours of the Apostles which cannot otherwise be understood than according to the sense which we have proposed that is because they succeeded those who were constituted by the Apostles according to those sayings of Irenaeus and Tertullian we can number those who were instituted bishops by the Apostles and their Successours and All the Churches do shew those whom being by the Apostles constituted in the Episcopal Office they have as continuers of the Apostolical seed So although Saint Peter was never reckoned Bishop of Alexandria yet because 't is reported that he placed Saint Mark there the Bishop of Alexandria is said to succeed the Apostles And because Saint John did abide at Ephesus inspecting that Church and appointing Bishops there the Bishops of that See did refer their Origine to him So many Bishops did claim from Saint Paul So St. Cyprian and Firmilian do assert themselves Successours of the Apostles who yet perhaps never were at Carthage or Caesarea So the Church of Constantinople is often in the Acts of the Sixth General Council called this great Apostolick Church being such Churches as those of whom Tertullian saith that although they do not produce any of the Apostles or Apostolical men for their authour yet conspiring in the same faith are no less for the consanguinity of doctrine reputed Apostolical Yea hence St. Hierome doth assert a parity of merit and dignity Sacerdotal to all Bishops because saith he all of them are Successours to the Apostles having all a like power by their ordination conferred on them 12. Whereas our Adversaries do pretend that indeed the other Apostles had an extraordinary charge as Legates of Christ which had no succession but was extinct in their persons but that Saint Peter had a peculiar charge as ordinary Pastour of the whole Church which surviveth To this it is enough to rejoyn that it is a mere figment devised for a shift and affirmed precariously having no ground either in Holy Scripture or in ancient Tradition there being no such distinction in the Sacred or Ecclesiastical Writings no mention occurring there of any Office which he did assume or which was attributed to him distinct from that extraordinary one of an Apostle and all the Pastoral charge imaginable being ascribed by the Ancients to all the Apostles in regard to the whole Church as hath been sufficiently declared 13. In fine If any such conveyance of power of power so great so momentous so mightily concerning the perpetual state of the Church and of each person therein had been made it had been for general direction and satisfaction for voiding all doubt and debate about it for stifling these pretended Heresies
was at Rome may well be collected from St. Paul's Writings for he writing at different times one Epistle to Rome and divers Epistles from Rome that to the Galatians that to the Ephesians that to the Philippians that to the Colossians and the Second to Timothy doth never mention him sending any salutation to him or from him Particularly Saint Peter was not there when Saint Paul mentioning Tychicus Onesimus Aristarchus Marcus and Justus addeth these alone my fellow-workers unto the Kingdom of God who have been a comfort unto me He was not there when Saint Paul said at my first defence no man stood with me but all men forsook me He was not there immediately before Saint Paul's death when the time of his departure was at hand when he telleth Timothy that all the brethren did salute him and naming divers of them he omitteth Peter Which things being considered it is not probable that Saint Peter would assume the Episcopal Chair of Rome he being little capable to reside there and for that other needfull affairs would have forced him to leave so great a Church destitute of their Pastour 7. It was needless that he should be Bishop for that by virtue of his Apostleship involving all the power of inferiour degrees he might whenever he should be at Rome exercise Episcopal Functions and Authority What need a Sovereign Prince to be made a Justice of Peace 8. Had he done so he must have given a bad example of Non-residence a practice that would have been very ill relished in the Primitive Church as we may see by several Canons interdicting offences of kin to it it being I think then not so known as nominally to be censured and culpable upon the same ground and by the sayings of Fathers condemning practices approaching to it Even latter Synods in more corrupt times and in the declension of good Order yet did prohibit this practice Epiphanius therefore did well infer that it was needfull the Apostles should constitute Bishops resident at Rome It was saith he possible that the Apostles Peter and Paul yet surviving other Bishops should be constituted because the Apostles often did take journeys into other Countries for preaching Christ but the City of Rome could not be without a Bishop 9. If Saint Peter were Bishop of Rome he thereby did offend against divers other good Ecclesiastical Rules which either were in practice from the beginning or at least the reason of them was always good upon which the Church did afterward enact them so that either he did ill in thwarting them or the Church had done it in establishing them so as to condemn his practice 10. It was against Rule that any Bishop should desert one Church and transfer himself to another and indeed against Reason such a relation and endearment being contracted between a Bishop and his Church which cannot well be dissolved But Saint Peter is by Ecclesiastical Historians reported and by Romanists admitted to have been Bishop of Antioch for seven years together He therefore did ill to relinquish that Church that most ancient and truly Apostolick Church of Antioch as the Constantinopolitan Fathers call'd it and to place his See at Rome This practice was esteemed bad and of very mischievous consequence earnestly reproved as heinously criminal by great Fathers severely condemned by divers Synods Particularly a transmigration from a lesser and poorer to a greater and more wealthy Bishoprick which is the present case was checked by them as rankly savouring of selfish ambition or avarice The Synod of Alexandria in Athanasius in its Epistle to all Catholick Bishops doth say that Eusebius by passing from Berytus to Nicomedia had annulled his Episcopacy making it an adultery worse than that which is committed by marriage upon divorce Eusebius say they did not consider the Apostle's admonition Art thou bound to a wife do not seek to be loosed for if it be said of a woman how much more of a Church of the same Bishoprick to which one being tyed ought not to seek another that he may not be found also an adulterer according to the Holy Scripture Surely when they said this they did forget what Saint Peter was said to have done in that kind as did also the Sardican Fathers in their Synodical Letter extant in the same Apology of Athanasius condemning translations from lesser Cities unto greater Dioceses The same practice is forbidden by the Synods of Nice I. of Chalcedon of Antioch of Sardica of Arles I. c. In the Synod under Mennas it was laid to the charge of Anthimus that having been Bishop of Trabisond he had adulterously snatched the See of Constantinople against all Ecclesiastical Laws and Canons Yea great Popes of Rome little considering how peccant therein their Predecessour Pope Peter was Pope Julius and Pope Damasus did greatly tax this practice whereof the latter in his Synod at Rome did excommunicate all those who should commit it In like manner Pope Leo I. These Laws were so indispensable that in respect to them Constantine M. who much loved and honoured Eusebius acknowledging him in the common judgment of the world deserving to be Bishop of the whole Church did not like that he should accept the Bishoprick of Antioch to which he was invited and commended his waving it as an act not onely consonant to the Ecclesiastical Canons but acceptable to God and agreeable to Apostolical Tradition so little aware was the good Emperour of Saint Peter being translated from Antioch to Rome In regard to the same Law Gregory Nazianzene a person of so great worth and who had deserved so highly of the Church at Constantinople could not be permitted to retain his Bishoprick of that Church to which he had been call'd from that small one of Sasima The Synod saith Sozomen observing the ancient laws and the Ecclesiastical rule did receive his Bishoprick from him being willingly offered no-wise regarding the great merits of the person the which Synod surely would have excluded Saint Peter from the Bishoprick of Rome and it is observable that Pope Damasus did approve and exhort those Fathers to that proceeding We may indeed observe that Pope Pelagius II. did excuse the translation of Bishops by the example of Saint Peter for who ever dareth to say argueth he that Saint Peter the Prince of the Apostles did not act well when he changed his See from Antioch to Rome But I think it more adviseable to excuse Saint Peter from being Authour of a practice judged so irregular by denying the matter of Fact laid to his charge 11. It was anciently deemed a very irregular thing contrary saith St. Cyprian to the Ecclesiastical disposition contrary to the Evangelical Law contrary to the unity of Catholick Institution a Symbol saith another Ancient Writer of dissention and disagreeable to Ecclesiastical Law which therefore was condemned by the Synod of Nice
by Pope Cornelius by Pope Innocent the First and others that two Bishops should preside together in one City This was condemned with good reason for this on the Churches part would be a kind of spiritual Polygamy this would render a Church a monster with two heads this would destroy the end of Episcopacy which is unity and prevention of Schisms But if Saint Peter was Bishop of Rome this irregularity was committed for the same Authority upon which Saint Peter's Episcopacy of Rome is built doth also reckon Saint Paul Bishop of the same the same Writers do make both Founders and Planters of the Roman Church and the same call both Bishops of it wherefore if Episcopacy be taken in a strict and proper sense agreeable to this Controversie that rule must needs be infringed thereby Irenaeus saith that the Roman Church was founded and constituted by the two most glorious Apostles Peter and Paul Dionysius of Corinth calleth it the plantation of Peter and Paul Epiphanius saith that Peter and Paul were first at Rome both Apostles and Bishops so Eusebius implyeth saying that P. Alexander derived a succession in the fifth place from Peter and Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Donys Corinth apud Euseb. 2.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiph. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eus. 4.1 Wherefore both of them were Roman Bishops or neither of them In reason and rule neither of them may be called so in a strict and proper sense but in a larger and improper sense both might be so styled Indeed that Saint Paul was in some acception Bishop of Rome that is had a Supreme superintendence or inspection of it is reasonable to affirm because he did for a good time reside there and during that residence could not but have the chief place could be subject to no other He saith Saint Luke did abide two whole years in his own hired house and received all that entred in unto him preaching the Kingdom of God and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence no man forbidding him It may be enquired if Saint Peter was Bishop of Rome how he did become such did our Lord appoint him such did the Apostles all or any constitute him did the people elect him did he put himself into it of none of these things there is any appearance nor any probability Non constat SUPPOSITION IV. They affirm That Saint Peter did continue Bishop of Rome after his translation and was so at his decease AGainst which Assertions we may consider 1. Ecclesiastical Writers do affirm that Saint Peter either alone or together with Saint Paul did constitute other Bishops wherefore Saint Peter was never Bishop or did not continue Bishop there Irenaeus saith that the Apostles founding and rearing that Church delivered the Episcopal Office into the hands of Linus if so how did they retain it in their own hands or persons could they give and have Tertullian saith that Saint Peter did ordain Clement In the Apostolical Constitutions a very ancient Book and setting forth the most ancient Traditions of the Church the Apostles ordering Prayers to be made for all Bishops and naming the principal do reckon not St. Peter but Clement Let us pray for our Bishop James for our Bishop Clemens for our Bishop Evodius c. These reports are consistent and reconciled by that which the Apostolical Constitutions affirm that Linus was first ordained Bishop of the Roman Church by Paul but Clemens after the death of Linus by Peter in the second place Others between Linus and Clemens do interpose Cletus or Anacletus some taking these for one others for two persons which doth not alter the case Now hence we may infer both that Saint Peter never was Bishop and upon supposition that he was that he did not continue so For 2. If he had ever been Bishop he could not well lay down his Office or subrogate another either to preside with him or to succeed him according to the ancient Rules of Discipline and that which passed for right in the Primitive Church This practice Pope Innocent I. condemned as irregular and never known before his time We saith he in his Epistle to the Clergy and People of Constantinople never have known these things to have been adventured by our Fathers but rather to have been hindred for that none hath power given him to ordain another into the place of one living He did not it seems consider that Saint Peter had used such a power Accordingly the Synod of Antioch to secure the tradition and practice of the Church which began by some to be infringed did make this Sanction that it should not be lawfull for any Bishop to constitute another in his room to succeed him although it were at the point of death 3. But supposing Saint Peter were Bishop once yet by constituting Linus or Clemens in his place he ceased to be so and devested himself of that place for it had been a great irregularity for him to continue Bishop together with another That being in St. Cyprian's judgment the Ordination of Linus had been void and null for seeing saith that H. Martyr there cannot after the first be any second whoever is after one who ought to be sole Bishop he is not now second but none Upon this ground when the Emperour Constantius would have procured Felix to sit Bishop of Rome together with Pope Liberius at his return from Banishment after his complyance with the Arians the people of Rome would not admit it exclaiming One God one Christ one Bishop and whereas Felix soon after that dyed the Historian remarketh it as a special providence of God that Peter's Throne might not suffer infamy being governed under two Prelates he never considered that Saint Peter and Saint Paul Saint Peter and Linus had thus governed that same Church Upon this account St. Austin being assumed by Valerius with him to be Bishop of Hippo did afterward discern and acknowledge his errour In fine to obviate this practice so many Canons of Councils both general and particular were made which we before did mention 4. In sum when Saint Peter did ordain others as story doth accord in affirming either he did retain the Episcopacy and then beside need reason and rule there were concurrently divers Bishops of Rome at one time or he did quite relinquish and finally divorce himself from the Office so that he did not dye Bishop of Rome the which overturneth the main ground of the Romish pretence Or will they say that Saint Peter having laid aside the Office for a time did afterward before his death resume it then what became of Linus of Cletus of Clemens were they dispossessed of their place or deposed from their function would Saint Peter succeed them in it this in Bellarmine's own judgment had been plainly intolerable 5. To avoid all which difficulties in the case and
for the like reason Saint Peter might assume the Bishoprick of Rome I answer 1. It is not certain that Saint James the Bishop of Jerusalem was an Apostle meaning an Apostle of the primary rank for Eusebius the greatest Antiquary of old times doth reckon him one of the 70 disciples So doth the Authour of the Apostolical Constitutions in divers places suppose Hegesippus that most ancient Historian was of the same mind who saith that there were many of this name and that this James did undertake the Church with the Apostles Of the same opinion was Epiphanius who saith that Saint James was the Son of Joseph by another Wife The whole Greek Church doth suppose the same keeping three distinct solemnities for him and the two Apostles of the same name Gregory Nyssene St. Hierome and divers other ancient Writers do concur herein whom we may see alledged by Grotius Dr. Hammond who themselves did embrace the same opinion Valesius Blondel c. Salmasius after his confident manner saith it is certain that he was not one of the twelve I may at least say it is not certain that he was and consequently the objection is grounded on an uncertainty 2. Granting that Saint James was one of the Apostles as some of the Ancients seem to think calling him an Apostle and as divers modern Divines conceive grounding chiefly upon these words of Saint Paul But other of the Apostles saw I none save James the Lord's Brother and taking Apostles there in the strictest sense I answer That the case was peculiar and there doth appear a special reason why one of the Apostles should be designed to make a constant residence at Jerusalem and consequently to preside there like a Bishop For Jerusalem was the Metropolis the Fountain the Centre of the Christian Religion where it had birth where was greatest matter and occasion of propagating the Gospel most people disposed to embrace it resorting thither where the Church was very numerous consisting as St. Luke or Saint James in him doth intimate of divers myriads of believing Jews whence it might seem expedient that a person of greatest Authority should be fixed there for the confirming and improving that Church together with the propagation of Religion among the people which resorted thither the which might induce the Apostles to settle Saint James there both for discharging the Office of an Apostle and the supplying the room of a Bishop there According to him saith Eusebius The Episcopal Throne was committed by the Apostles or our Lord saith Epiphanius did entrust him with his own Throne But there was no need of fixing an Apostle at other places nor doth it appear that any was so fixed especially Saint Peter was uncapable of such an employment requiring settlement and constant attendance who beside his general Apostleship had a peculiar Apostleship of the dispersed Jews committed to him who therefore was much engaged in travel for propagation of the Faith and edifying his Converts every where 3. The greater consent of the most ancient Writers making St. Iames not to have been one of the twelve Apostles it is thence accountable why as we before noted Saint James was called by some ancient Writers the Bishop of Bishops the Prince of Bishops c. because he was the first Bishop of the first See and Mother Church the Apostles being excluded from the comparison Upon these considerations we have great reason to refuse the assertion or scandal cast on Saint Peter that he took on him to be Bishop of Rome in a strict sense as it is understood in this controversie SUPPOSITION V. A father Assertion is this superstructed by consequence on the former That the Bishops of Rome according to God's institution and by original right derived thence should have an Vniversal Supremacy and jurisdiction containing the privileges and prerogatives formerly described over the Christian Church THIS Assertion to be very uncertain yea to be most false I shall by divers considerations evince 1. If any of the former Suppositions be uncertain or false this Assertion standing on those legs must partake of those defects and answerably be dubious or false If either Peter was not Monarch of the Apostles or if his privileges were not successive or if he were not properly Bishop of Rome at his decease then farewell the Romish claim if any of those things be dubious it doth totter if any of them prove false then down it falleth But that each of them is false hath I conceive been sufficiently declared that all of them are uncertain hath at least been made evident The Structure therefore cannot be firm which relieth on such props 2. Even admitting all those Suppositions the inference from them is not assuredly valid For Saint Peter might have an Universal Jurisdiction he might derive it by Succession he might be Bishop of Rome yet no such Authority might hence accrue to the Roman Bishop his Successour in that See For that Universal Jurisdiction might be derived into another Chanel and the Bishop of Rome might in other respects be Successour to him without being so in this As for instance in the Roman Empire before any Rule of Succession was established therein the Emperour was Sovereign Governour and he might dye Consul of Rome having assumed that place to himself yet when he dyed the Supreme Authority did not lapse into the hands of the Consul who succeeded him but into the hands of the Senate and People his Consular Authority onely going to his Successour in that Office So might Saint Peter's Universal Power be transferred unto the Ecclesiastical College of Bishops and of the Church his Episcopal inferiour Authority over the singular 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Province of Rome being transmitted to his Followers in that Chair 3. That in truth it was thus and that all the Authority of Saint Peter and of all other Apostles was devolved to the Church and to the representative Body thereof the Fathers did suppose affirming the Church to have received from our Lord a Sovereign Power This saith St. Cyprian is that One Church which holdeth and possesseth all the power of its Spouse and Lord in this we preside for the honour and unity of this we fight saith he in his Epistle to Jubaianus wherein he doth impugn the proceedings of Pope Stephanus the which Sentence St. Austin appropriateth to himself speaking it absolutely without citing St. Cyprian To this Authority of the Church St. Basil would have all that confess the faith of Christ to submit To which end we exceedingly need your assistence that they who confess the Apostolick faith would renounce the schisms which they have devised and submit themselves henceforth to the Authority of the Church They after the Holy Scripture which saith that each Bishop hath a care of God's Church and is obliged to feed the Church of God and is appointed to edify the body of Christ do suppose the administration
of Ecclesiastical Affairs concerning the publick state of the Church the defence of the common Faith the maintenance of order peace and unity jointly to belong unto the whole body of Pastours according to that of St. Cyprian to Pope Stephanus himself Therefore most dear brother the body of Priests is copious being joined together by the glue of mutual concord and the bond of unity that if any of our College shall attempt to make heresie and to tear or waste the flock of Christ the rest may come to succour and like usefull and mercifull shepherds may recollect the sheep into the flock And again Which thing it concerns us to look after and redress most dear brother who bearing in mind the divine clemency and holding the scales of the Church-government c. So even the Roman Clergy did acknowledge For we ought all of us to watch for the body of the whole Church whose members are digested through several Provinces Like the Trinity whose power is one and undivided there is one Priesthood among divers Bishops So in the Apostolical Constitutions the Apostles tell the Bishops that an universal Episcopacy is entrusted to them So the Council of Carthage with St. Cyprian Clear and manifest is the mind and meaning of our Lord Jesus Christ sending his Apostles and affording to them alone the power given him of the Father in whose room we succeeded governing the Church of God with the same power Christ our Lord and our God going to the Father commended his Spouse to us A very ancient Instance of which administration is the proceeding against Paulus Samosatenus when the Pastours of the Churches some from one place some from another did assemble together against him as a pest of Christ's flock all of them hastning to Antioch where they deposed exterminated and deprived him of communion warning the whole Church to reject and disavow him Seeing the Pastoral charge is common to us all who bear the Episcopal Office although thou fittest in a higher and more eminent place Therefore for this cause the Holy Church is committed to you and to us that we may labour for all and not be slack in yielding help and assistence to all Hence Saint Chrysostome said of Eustathius his Bishop For he was well instructed and taught by the grace of the Holy Spirit that a President or Bishop of a Church ought not to take care of that Church alone wherewith he is entrusted by the Holy Ghost but also of the whole Church dispersed throughout the world They consequently did repute Schism or Ecclesiastical Rebellion to consist in a departure from the consent of the body of the Priesthood as St. Cyprian in divers places doth express it in his Epistles to Pope Stephen and others They deem all Bishops to partake of the Apostolical Authority according to that of St. Basil to St. Ambrose The Lord himself hath translated thee from the Judges of the Earth unto the Prelacy of the Apostles They took themselves all to be Vicars of Christ and Judges in his stead according to that of St. Cyprian For Heresies are sprung up and Schisms grown from no other ground nor root but this because God's Priest was not obeyed nor was there one Priest or Bishop for a time in the Church nor a Judge thought on for a time to supply the room of Christ. Where that by Church is meant any particular Church and by Priest a Bishop of such Church any one not bewitched with prejudice by the tenour of Saint Cyprian's discourse will easily discern They conceive that our Saviour did promise to Saint Peter the Keys in behalf of the Church and as representing it They suppose the combination of Bishops in peaceable consent and mutual aid to be the Rock on which the Church is built They alledge the Authority granted to Saint Peter as a ground of claim to the same in all Bishops jointly and in each Bishop singly according to his rata pars or allotted proportion Which may easily be understood by the words of our Lord when he says to blessed Peter whose place the Bishops supply Whatsoever c. I have the sword of Constantine in my hands you of Peter said our great King Edgar They do therefore in this regard take themselves all to be Successours of Saint Peter that his power is derived to them all and that the whole Episcopal Order is the Chair by the Lord's voice founded on Saint Peter thus St. Cyprian in divers places before touched discourseth and thus Firmilian from the Keys granted to Saint Peter inferreth disputing against the Roman Bishop Therefore saith he the power of remitting sins is given to the Apostles and to the Churches which they being sent from Christ did constitute and to the Bishops which do succeed them by vicarious ordination 4. The Bishops of any other Churches founded by the Apostles in the Fathers style are Successours of the Apostles in the same sense and to the same intent as the Bishop of Rome is by them accounted Successour of Saint Peter the Apostolical power which in extent was universal being in some sense in reference to them not quite extinct but transmitted by succession yet the Bishops of Apostolical Churches did never claim nor allowedly exercise Apostolical Jurisdiction beyond their own precincts according to those words of St. Hierome Tell me what doth Palestine belong to the Bishop of Alexandria This sheweth the inconsequence of their discourse for in like manner the Pope might be Successour to Saint Peter and Saint Peter's universal power might be successive yet the Pope have no singular claim thereto beyond the bounds of his particular Church 5. So again for instance Saint James whom the Roman Church in her Liturgies doth avow for an Apostle was Bishop of Jerusalem more unquestionably than Saint Peter was Bishop of Rome Jerusalem also was the root and the mother of all Churches as the Fathers of the Second General Synod in their Letter to Pope Damasus himself and the Occidental Bishops did call it forgetting the singular pretence of Rome to that Title Yet the Bishops of Jerusalem Successours of Saint James did not thence claim I know not what kind of extensive Jurisdiction yea notwithstanding their succession they did not so much as obtain a metropolitical Authority in Palestine which did belong to Caesarea having been assigned thereto in conformity to the Civil Government and was by special provision reserved thereto in the Synod of Nice whence St. Jerome did not stick to affirm that the Bishop of Jerusalem was subject to the Bishop of Caesarea for speaking to John Bishop of Jerusalem who for compurgation of himself from errours imputed to him had appealed to Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria he saith Thou hadst rather cause molestation to ears possessed than render honour to thy Metropolitan that is to the Bishop of Caesarea By which
should sit above the Pope as in the pride of his heart he might perhaps offer to do I cannot forbear to note what an ill conceit Bellarmine had of Leo I. and other Popes that they did forbear coming at Synods out of this villainous pride and haughtiness 15. One would admire that Constantine if he had smelt this Doctrine or any thing like it in Christianity should be so ready to embrace it or that so many Emperours should in those times do so some Princes then probably being jealous of their honour and unwilling to admit any Superiour to them It is at least much that Emperours should with so much indulgence foster and cherish Popes being their so dangerous rivals for dignity and that it should be true which Pope Nicholas doth affirm that the Emperours had extolled the Roman See with divers privileges had enriched it with gifts had enlarged it with benefits had done I know not how many things more for it surely they were bewitched thus to advance their concurrent Competitour for Honour and Power one who pretended to be a better man than themselves Bellarmine in his Apology against King James saith that the Pope was vellet nollet constrained to be subject to the Emperours because his Power was not known to them it was well it was not but how could it be concealed from them if it were a Doctrine commonly avowed by Christians it is hard keeping so practical a Doctrine from breaking forth into light But to leave this consideration Farthermore We have divers ancient Writings the special nature matter scope whereof did require or greatly invite giving attestation to this Power if such an one had been known and allowed in those times which yet do afford no countenance but rather much prejudice thereto 16. The Apostolical Canons and the Constitutions of Clement which describe the state of the Church with its Laws Customs and Practices current in the times of those who compiled them which times are not certain but ancient and the less ancient the more it is to our purpose wherein especially the Ranks Duties and Privileges of all Ecclesiastical Persons are declared or prescribed do not yet touch the Prerogatives of this Universal Head or the special respects due to him nor mention any Laws or Constitutions framed by him Which is no less strange than that there should be a Body of Laws or description of the state of any Kingdom wherein nothing should be said concerning the King or the Royal Authority It is not so in our modern Canon-law wherein the Pope doth make utramque paginam we reade little beside his Authority and Decrees made by it The Apostolical Canons particularly do prescribe that the Bishops of each Nation should know him that is first among them and should esteem him the Head and should doe nothing considerable or extraordinary without his advice as also that each one of those Head-bishops should onely meddle with those affairs which concerned his own precinct and the places under it also that no such Primate should doe any thing without the opinion of all that so there may be concord Now what place could be more opportune to mention the Pope's Sovereign Power how could the Canonist without strange neglect pass it over doth he not indeed exclude it assigning the Supreme disposal without farther resort of all things to the arbitration of the whole body of Pastours and placing the maintenance of concord in that course 17. So also the Old Writer under the name of Dionysius the Areopagite treating in several places about the degrees of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy was monstrously overseen in omitting the Sovereign thereof In the fifth Chapter of his Ecclesiastical Hierarchy he professeth carefully to speak of those Orders but hath not a word of this supereminent rank but averreth Episcopacy to be the first and highest of divine Orders in which the Hierarchy is consummated and in his Epistle to Demophilus there is a remarkable place wherein he could hardly have avoided touching the Pope had there been then one in such vogue as now for advising that Monk to gentleness and observance toward his Superiours he thus speaketh Let passion and reason be governed by you but you by the holy Deacons and these by the Priests and the Priests by the Bishops and the Bishops by the Apostles or by their Successours that is saith Maximus those which we now call Patriarchs and if perhaps any one of them shall fail of his duty let him be corrected by those holy persons who are co-ordinate to him why not in this case let him be corrected by the Pope his Superiour but he knew none of an Order superiour to the Apostles Successours 18. Likewise Ignatius in many Epistles frequently describeth the several Ranks of the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy extolleth their Dignity and Authority to the highest pitch mightily urgeth the respect due to them yet never doth he so much as mention or touch this Sovereign degree wherein the Majesty of the Clergy did chiefly shine In his very Epistle to the Romans he doth not yield any deference to their Bishop nor indeed doth so much as take notice of him is it not strange he should so little mind the Sovereign of the Church or was it for a sly reason because being Bishop of Antioch he had a pique to his brother Jacob who had supplanted him and got away his birthright The counterfeiter therefore of Ignatius did well personate him when he saith that in the Church there is nothing greater than a Bishop and that a Bishop is beyond all rule and authority for in the time of Ignatius there was no domineering Pope over all Bishops 19. We have some Letters of Popes though not many for Popes were then not very scribacious or not so pragmatical whence to supply that defect lest Popes should seem not able to write or to have slept almost 400 years they have forged divers for them and those so wise ones that we who love the memory of those good Popes disdain to acknowledge them Authours of such idle stuff we have yet some Letters of and to Popes to and from divers eminent Persons in the Church wherein the former do not assume nor the latter ascribe any such power the Popes do not express themselves like Sovereigns nor the Bishops address themselves like Subjects but they treat one another in a familiar way like brethren and equals this is so true that it is a good mark of a spurious Epistle whereof we have good store devised by colloguing Knaves and fathered on the first Popes when any of them talketh in an imperious strain or arrogateth such a Power to himself 20. Clemens Bishop of Rome in the Apostolical times unto the Church of Corinth then engaged in discords and factions wherein the Clergy was much affronted divers Presbyters who had well and worthily behaved themselves were ejected from their Office in a seditious manner did write a very
large Epistle wherein like a good Bishop and charitable Christian brother he doth earnestly by manifold inducements persuade them to charity and peace but no-where doth he speak imperiously like their Prince In such a case one would think if ever for quashing such disorders and quelling so perverse folks who spurned the Clergy it had been decent it had been expedient to employ his Authority and to speak like himself challenging obedience upon duty to him and at their peril How would a modern Pope have ranted in such a case how thundring a Bull would he have dispatched against such outragious contemners of the Ecclesiastical Order how often would he have spoken of the Apostolick See and its Authority we should infallibly have heard him swagger in his wonted style Whoever shall presume to cross our will let him know that he shall incur the indignation of Almighty God and his blessed Apostles Peter and Paul but our Popes it seemeth have more wit or better mettle than Pope Clement that good Pope did not know his own strength or had not the heart to use it 21. Among the Epistles of St. Cyprian there are divers Epistles of him to several Popes to Cornelius to Lucius to Stephanus in the which although written with great kindness and respect yet no impartial eye can discern any special regard to them as to his Superiours in Power or Pastours in Doctrine or Judges of Practice he reporteth matters to them he conferreth about Points with all freedom he speaketh his sense and giveth his advice without any restraint or awe he spareth not upon occasion to reprove their practices and to reject their opinions he in his addresses to them and discourses of them styleth them Brethren and Collegues and he continually treateth them as such upon even terms When saith he to the Clergy of Rome dearest Brethren there was among us an uncertain rumour concerning the decease of the good man my Collegue Fabianus upon which words Rigaltius had cause to remark How like an equal and fellow-citizen doth the Bishop of Carthage mention the Bishop of Rome even to the Roman Clergy but would not any man now be deemed rude and sawcy who should talk in that style of the Pope Pope Cornelius also to Saint Cyprian hath some Epistles wherein no glimpse doth appear of any Superiority assumed by him But of St. Cyprian's judgment and demeanour toward Popes we shall have occasion to speak more largely in a way more positively opposite to the Roman pretences Eusebius citeth divers long passages out of an Epistle of Cornelius to Fabius Bishop of Antioch against Novatus wherein no mark of this Supremacy doth appear although the magnitude and flourishing State of the Roman Church is described for aggravation of Novatus his Schism and ambition Pope Julius hath a notable long Epistle extant in one of Athanasius's Apologies unto the Bishops assembled at Antioch wherein he had â—he fairest occasion that could be to assert and insist upon this Sovereign Authority they flatly denying and impugning it questioning his proceedings as singular supposing him subject to the Laws of the Church no less than any other Bishop and downrightly affirming each of themselves to be his equal about which Point he thought good not to contend with them but waving pretences to Superiority he justifieth his actions by reasons grounded on the merit of the cause such as any other Bishop might alledge But this Epistle I shall have more particular occasion to discuss Pope Liberius hath an Epistle to St. Athanasius wherein he not onely for his direction and satisfaction doth inquire his opinion about the Point but professeth in complement perchance that he shall obediently follow it Write saith he whether you do think as we do and just so about the true faith that I may be undoubtedly assured about what you think good to command me was not that spoken indeed like a courteous Sovereign and an accomplished Judge in matters of Faith The same Pope in the head of the Western doth write to a knot of Eastern Bishops whom they call their beloved Brethren and fellow Ministers and in a brotherly strain not like an Emperour In the time of Damasus Successour to Liberius St. Basil hath divers Epistles to the Western Bishops wherein having represented and bewailed the wretched state of the Eastern Churches then overborn with Heresies and unsettled by Factions he craveth their charity their prayers their sympathy their comfort their brotherly aid by affording to the Orthodox and sound Party the countenance of their Communion by joining with them in contention for Truth and Peace for that the Communion of so great Churches would be of mighty weight to support and strengthen their Cause giving credit thereto among the People and inducing the Emperour to deal fairly with them in respect to such a multitude of adherents especially of those which were at such a distance and not so immediately subject to the Eastern Emperour for If saith he very many of you do concur unanimously in the same opinion it is manifest that the multitude of consenters will make the doctrine to be received without contradiction and I know saith he again writing to Athanasius about these matters but one way of redress to our Churches the conspiring with us of the Western Bishops the which being obtained would probably yield some advantage to the publick the secular power revering the credibility of the multitude and the people all about following them without repugnance and You saith he to the Western Bishops the farther you dwell from them the more credible you will be to the people This indeed was according to the ancient Rule and Practice in such cases that any Church being oppressed with Errour or distracted with Contentions should from the Bishops of other Churches receive aid to the removal of those inconveniences That it was the Rule doth appear from what we have before spoken and of the Practice there be many instances for so did St. Cyprian send two of his Clergy to Rome to compose the Schism there moved by Novatian against Cornelius so was St. Chrysostome called to Ephesus although out of his Jurisdiction to settle things there so to omit divers instances occurring in History St. Basil himself was called by the Church of Iconium to visit it and to give it a Bishop although it did not belong to his ordinary inspection and he doth tell the Bishops of the Coasts that they should have done well in sending some to visit and assist his Churches in their distresses But now how I pray cometh it to pass that in such a case he should not have a special recourse to the Pope but in so many addresses should onely wrap him up in a community why should he not humbly petition him to exert his Sovereign Authority for the relief of the Eastern Churches laying his charge and inflicting censures on the dissenters why should he
Discipline should never insist upon the duty of Obedience to the Pope or charge those Schismaticks with their rebellion against him or alledge his Authority against them If we consider that the Pope was Bishop of the Imperial City the Metropolis of the World that he thence was most eminent in rank did abound in wealth did live in great splendour and reputation had many dependences and great opportunities to gratify and relieve many of the Clergy that of the Fathers whose Volumes we have all well affected towards him divers were personally obliged to him for his support in their distress as Athanasius Chrysostome Theodoret or as to their Patrons and Benefactours as St. Hierome divers could not but highly respect him as Patron of the cause wherein they were engaged as Basil Gregory Nazianzene Hilary Gregory Nyssene Ambrose Austin some were his partizans in a common quarrel as Cyril divers of them lived in places and times wherein he had got much sway as all the Western Bishops that he had then improved his Authority much beyond the old limits that all the Bishops of the Western or Latine Churches had a peculiar dependence on him especially after that by advantage of his Station by favour of the Court by colour of the Sardican Canons by voluntary deferences and submissions by several tricks he had wound himself to meddle in most of their chief Affairs that hence divers Bishops were tempted to admire to court to flatter him that divers aspiring Popes were apt to encourage the commenders of their Authority which they themselves were apt to magnifie and inculcate considering I say such things it is a wonder that in so many voluminous discourses so little should be said favouring this pretence so nothing that proveth it so much that crosseth it so much indeed as I hope to shew that quite overthroweth it If it be asked how we can prove this I answer that beside who carefully peruseth those old Books will easily see it we are beholden to our Adversaries for proving it to us when they least intended us such a favour for that no clear and cogent passages for proof of this pretence can be thence fetched is sufficiently evident from the very allegations which after their most diligent raking in old Books they produce the which are so few and fall so very short of their purpose that without much stretching they signifie nothing 28. It is monstrous that in the Code of the Catholick Church consisting of the decrees of so many Synods concerning Ecclesiastical order and discipline there should not be one Canon directly declaring his Authority nor any mention made of him except thrice accidentally once upon occasion of declaring the Authority of the Alexandrine Bishop the other upon occasion of assigning to the Bishop of Constantinople the second place of honour and equal privileges with him If it be objected that these discourses are negative and therefore of small force I answer that therefore they are most proper to assert such a negative proposition for how can we otherwise better shew a thing not to be than by shewing it to have no footstep there where it is supposed to stand how can we more clearly argue a matter of right to want proof than by declaring it not to be extant in the Laws grounding such right not taught by the Masters who profess to instruct in such things not testifyed in records concerning the exercise of it such arguments indeed in such cases are not merely negative but rather privative proving things not to be because not affirmed there where in reason they ought to be affirmed standing therefore upon positive Suppositions that Holy Scripture that general tradition are not imperfect and lame toward their design that ancient Writers were competently intelligent faithfull diligent that all of them could not conspire in perpetual silence about things of which they had often fair occasion and great reason to speak In fine such considerations however they may be deluded by Sophistical Wits will yet bear great sway and often will amount near to the force of demonstration with men of honest prudence However we shall proceed to other discourses more direct and positive against the Popish Doctrine II. Secondly we shall shew that this pretence upon several accounts is contrary to the Doctrine of Holy Scripture 1. This pretence doth thwart the Holy Scripture by assigning to another the prerogatives and peculiar Titles appropriated therein to our Lord. The Scripture asserteth him to be our onely Sovereign Lord and King To us saith it there is one Lord and One King shall be King over them who shall reign over the house of David for ever and of his Kingdom there shall be no end who is the onely Potentate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords the One Law-giver who is able to save and to destroy The Scripture speaketh of one Arch-Pastour and great Shepherd of the Sheep exclusively to any other for I will said God in the Prophet set up one Shepherd over them and he shall feed the Sheep and There saith our Lord himself shall be one Fold and one Shepherd who that shall be he expresseth adding I am the good Shepherd the good Shepherd giveth his life for the Sheep by Pope Boniface his good leave who maketh Saint Peter or himself this Shepherd The Scripture telleth us that we have one High-Priest of our Profession answerable to that one in the Jewish Church his Type The Scripture informeth us that there is but one Supreme Doctour Guide Father of Christians prohibiting us to acknowledge any other for such Ye are all Brethren and call ye not any one Father upon Earth for one is your Father even he that is in Heaven Neither be ye called Masters for one is your Master even Christ. Good Pope Gregory not the seventh of that name did take this for a good argument for What therefore dearest Brother said he to John of Constantinople wilt thou say in that terrible trial of the Judge who is coming who dost affect to be called not onely Father but General Father in the World The Scripture representeth the Church as a building whereof Christ himself is the chief Corner-stone as a Family whereof he being the Pater-familias as all others are fellow-servants as one Body having one Head whom God hath given to be Head over all things to the Church which is his Body He is the One Spouse of the Church which title one would think he might leave peculiar to our Lord there being no Vice-husbands yet hath he been bold even to claim that as may be seen in the Constit. of Pope Greg. X. in one of their General Synods It seemeth therefore a Sacrilegious arrogance derrogating from our Lord's Honour for any man to assume or admit those Titles of Sovereign of the Church Head of the Church our Lord Arch-Pastour Highest-Priest Chief Doctour Master Father Judge of Christians upon what
pretence or under what distinction soever these pompatick foolish proud perverse wicked profane words these names of singularity elation vanity blasphemy to borrow the Epithets with which Pope Gregory I. doth brand the Titles of Vniversal Bishop and Oecumenical Patriarch no less modest in sound and far more innocent in meaning than those now ascribed to the Pope are therefore to be rejected not onely because they are injurious to all other Pastours and to the People of God's heritage but because they do encroach upon our onely Lord to whom they do onely belong much more to usurp the things which they do naturally signifie is a horrible invasion upon our Lord's Prerogative Thus hath that great Pope taught us to argue in words expressly condemning some and consequently all of them together with the things which they signifie What saith he writing to the Bishop of Constantinople who had admitted the title of Vniversal Bishop or Patriarch wilt thou say to Christ the Head of the Vniversal Church in the trial of the last judgment who by the appellation of VNIVERSAL dost endeavour to subject all his Members to thee whom I pray dost thou mean to imitate in so perverse a word but him who despising the Legions of Angels constituted in fellowship with him did endeavour to break forth unto the top of Singularity that he might both be subject to none and alone be over all who also said I will ascend into heaven and will exalt my throne above the stars for what are thy brethren all the Bishops of the Vniversal Church but the stars of heaven to whom while by this haughty word thou desirest to prefer thy self and to trample on their name in comparison to thee what dost thou say but I will climb into heaven And again in another Epistle to the Bishops of Alexandria and Antioch he taxeth the same Patriarch for assuming to boast so that he attempteth to ascribe all things to himself and studieth by the elation of pompous speech to subject to himself all the members of Christ which do cohere to One Sole Head namely to Christ. Again I confidently say that whoever doth call himself Universal Bishop or desireth to be so called doth in his elation forerun Antichrist because he pridingly doth set himself before all others If these argumentations be sound or signifie any thing what is the pretence of Vniversal Sovereignty and Pastourship but a piece of Luciferian arrogance who can imagine that even this Pope could approve could assume could exercise it if he did was he not monstrously senseless and above measure impudent to use such discourses which so plainly without altering a word might be retorted upon him which are built upon suppositions that it is unlawfull and wicked to assume Superiority over the Church over all Bishops over all Christians the which indeed seeing never Pope was of greater repute or did write in any case more solemnly and seriously have given to the pretences of his Successours so deadly a wound that no balm of Sophistical interpretation can be able to heal it We see that according to St. Gregory M. our Lord Christ is the one onely Head of the Church to whom for company let us adjoin St. Basil M. that we may have both Greek and Latin for it who saith that according to Saint Paul we are the body of Christ and members one of another because it is manifest that the one and sole truly head which is Christ doth hold and connect each one to another unto concord To decline these allegations of Scripture they have forged distinctions of several kinds of Churches and several sorts of Heads the which evasions I shall not particularly discourse seeing it may suffice to observe in general that no such distinctions have any place or any ground in Scripture nor can well consist with it which simply doth represent the Church as one Kingdom a Kingdom of Heaven a Kingdom not of this world all the Subjects whereof have their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in heaven or are considered as members of a City there so that it is vain to seek for a Sovereign thereof in this world the which also doth to the Catholick Church sojourning on earth usually impart the name and attributes properly appertaining to the Church most universal comprehensive of all Christians in heaven and upon earth because that is a visible representative of this and we by joining in offices of piety with that do communicate with this whence that which is said of one concerning the Unity of its King its Head its Pastour its Priest is to be understood of the other especially considering that our Lord according to his promise is ever present with the Church here governing it by the efficacy of his Spirit and Grace so that no other corporeal or visible Head of this Spiritual Body is needfull It was to be sure a visible Headship which St. Gregory did so eagerly impugn and exclaim against for he could not apprehend the Bishop of Constantinople so wild as to affect a Jurisdiction over the Church mystical or invisible 2. Indeed upon this very account the Romish pretence doth not well accord with Holy Scripture because it transformeth the Church into another kind of Body than it was constituted by God according to the representation of it in Scripture for there it is represented as a spiritual and heavenly Society compacted by the bands of one faith one hope one Spirit of Charity but this pretence turneth it into a worldly frame united by the same bands of interest and design managed in the same manner by terrour and allurement supported by the same props of force of policy of wealth of reputation and splendour as all other secular Corporations are You may call it what you please but it is evident that in truth the Papal Monarchy is a temporal Dominion driving on worldly ends by worldly means such as our Lord did never mean to institute so that the Subjects thereof may with far more reason than the People of Constantinople had when their Bishop Nestorius did stop some of their Priests from contradicting him say We have a King a Bishop we have not so that upon every Pope we may charge that whereof Anthimus was accused in the Synod of Constantinople under Menas that he did account the greatness and dignity of the Priesthood to be not a spiritual charge of souls but as a kind of politick rule This was that which seeming to be affected by the Bishop of Antioch in encroachment upon the Church of Cyprus the Fathers of the Ephesine Synod did endeavour to nipp enacting a Canon against all such invasions lest under pretext of holy discipline the pride of worldly authority should creep in and what pride of that kind could they mean beyond that which now the Popes do claim and exercise Now do I say after that the Papal Empire hath swollen to such a
exclaimed against as tyrannical When Primates did begin to swell and encroach good men declared their displeasure at it and wished it removed as is known particularly by the famous wish of Gregory Nazianzene But we are discoursing against a Superiority of a different nature which soundeth it self in the Institution of Christ imposeth it self on the Church is not alterable or governable by it can endure no check or controll pretendeth to be endowed with an absolute power to act without or against the consent of the Church is limited by no certain bounds but its own pleasure c. IV. Farther this pretence may be impugned by many Arguments springing from the nature and reason of things abstractedly considered according to which the exercise of such an Authority may appear unpracticable without much iniquity and great inconvenience in prejudice to the rights of Christian States and People to the interests of Religion and Piety to the peace and welfare of Mankind whence it is to be rejected as a pest of Christendom 1. Whereas all the world in design and obligation is Christian the utmost parts of the earth being granted in possession to our Lord and his Gospel extending to every creature under heaven and may in effect become such when God pleaseth by acceptance of the Gospel whereas it may easily happen that the most distant places on the Earth may embrace Christianity whereas really Christian Churches have been and are dispersed all about the World it is thence hugely incommodious that all the Church should depend upon an Authority resident in one Place and to be managed by one Person the Church being such is too immense boundless uncircumscribed unweildy a bulk to be guided by the inspection or managed by the influence of one such Authority or Person If the whole World were reduced under the Government of one Civil Monarch it would necessarily be ill governed as to Policy to Justice to Peace The skirts or remoter parts from the Metropolis or centre of the Government would extremely suffer thereby for they would feel little light or warmth from Majesty shining at such a distance They would live under small awe of that Power which was so far out of sight They must have very difficult recourse to it for redress of grievances and relief of oppressions for final decision of causes and composure of differences for correction of offences and dispensation of justice upon good information with tolerable expedition It would be hard to preserve peace or quell seditions and suppress insurrections that might arise in distant quarters What man could obtain the knowledge or experience needfull skilfully and justly to give Laws or administer Judgment to so many Nations different in Humour in Language in Customs What mind of man what industry what leisure could serve to sustain the burthen of that care which is needfull to the weilding such an Office How and when should one man be able to receive all the addresses to weigh all the cases to make all the resolutions and dispatches requisite for such a charge If the burthen of one small Kingdom be so great that wise and good Princes do grown under its weight what must that be of all Mankind To such an extent of Government there must be allowed a Majesty and power correspondent the which cannot be committed to one hand without its degeneration into extreme Tyranny The words of Zosimus to this purpose are observable who saith that the Romans by admitting Augustus Caesar to the Government did doe very perillously for If he should chuse to manage the Government rightly and justly he would not be capable of applying himself to all things as were fit not being able to succour those who do lie at greatest distance nor could he find so many Magistrates as would not be ashamed to defeat the opinion conceived of them nor could he sute them to the differences of so many manners Or if transgressing the bounds of Royalty he should warp to Tyranny disturbing the Magistracies overlooking misdemeanours bartering right for money holding the Subjects for slaves such as most Emperours or rather near all have been few excepted then it is quite necessary that the brutish Authority of the Prince should be a publick calamity for then flatterers being by him dignifyed with gifts and honours do invade the greatest commands and those who are modest and quiet not affecting the same life with them are consequently displeased not enjoying the same advantages so that from hence Cities are filled with seditions and troubles And the Civil and Military employments being delivered up to avaritious persons do both render a peaceable life sad and grievous to men of better disposition and do enfeeble the resolution of Souldiers in war Hence St. Austin was of opinion that it were happy for mankind if all Kingdoms were small enjoying a peacefull neighbourhood It is commonly observed by Historians that Rome growing in bigness did labour therewith and was not able to support it self many distempers and disorders springing up in so vast a body which did throw it into continual pangs and at length did bring it to ruine for Then saith St. Austin concerning the times of Pompey Rome had subdued Africk it had subdued Greece and widely also ruling over other parts as not able to bear it self did in a manner by its own greatness break it self Hence that wise Prince Augustus Caesar did himself forbear to enlarge the Roman Dominion and did in his Testament advise the Senate to doe the like To the like inconveniences and much greater in its kind Temporal things being more easily ordered than Spiritual and having secular Authority great advantages of power and wealth to aid it self must the Church be obnoxious if it were subjected to the government of one Sovereign unto whom the maintenance of Faith the potection of Discipline the determination of Controversies the revision of Judgments the discussion and final decision of Causes upon appeal the suppression of disorders and factions the inspection over all Governours the correction of Misdemeanours the constitution relaxation and abolition of Laws the resolution of all matters concerning Religion and the publick State in all Countries must be referred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what Shoulders can bear such a charge without perpetual miracle and yet we do not find that the Pope hath any promise of miraculous assistence nor in his demeanour doth appear any mark thereof what mind would not the care of so many affairs utterly distract and overwhelm who could find time to cast a glance on each of so numberless particulars what sagacity of wit what variety of learning what penetrancy of judgment what strength of memory what indefatigable vigour of industry what abundance of experience would suffice for enabling one man to weigh exactly all the controversies of Faith and cases of Discipline perpetually starting up in so many Regions What reach of skill and ability would serve for
accommodation of Laws to the different humours and fashions of so many Nations Shall a decrepit old man in the decay of his age parts vigour such as Popes usually are undertake this May we not say to him as Jethro did to Moses Vltra vires tuas est negotium The thing thou doest is not good thou wilt surely wear away both thou and this People that is with thee for this thing is too heavy for thee thou art not able to perform it thy self alone If the care of a small Diocese hath made the most able and industrious Bishops who had a Conscience and sense of their duty to grown under its weight how insupportable must such a thing be The care of his own particular Church if he would act the part of a Bishop indeed would sufficiently take up the Pope especially in some times whenas Pope Alex. saith Vt intestina nostrae specialis Ecclesiae negotia vix possemus ventilare nedum longinqua ad plenum extricare If it be said that Saint Paul testifieth of himself that he had a care of all the Churches incumbent on him I answer that he and other Apostles had the like questionless had a pious solicitude for the welfare of all Christians especially of the Churches which he had founded being vigilant for occasions to edifie them but what is this to bearing the charge of a standing government over all Churches diffused through the world that care of a few Churches then was burthensome to him what is the charge of so many now to one seldom endowed with such Apostolical graces and gifts as Saint Paul was How weak must the influence of such an Authority be upon the circumferential Parts of its Oecumenical Sphere How must the outward branches of the Churches faint and fade for want of sap from the root of Discipline which must be conveyed through so many obstructions to such a distance How discomposed must things be in each Country for want of seasonable resolution hanging in suspence till information do travell to Rome and determination come back thence How difficult how impossible will it be for him there to receive faithfull information or competent testimony whereupon to ground just decisions of Causes How will it be in the power thence of any malicious and cunning person to raise trouble against innocent persons for any like person to decline the due Correction laid on him by transferring the Cause from home to such a distance How much cost how much trouble how much hazard must parties concerned be at to fetch light and justice thence Put case a Heresie a Schism a Doubt or Debate of great moment should arise in China how should the Gentleman in Italy proceed to confute that Heresie to quash that Schism to satisfie that Doubt to determine that Cause how long must it be ere he can have notice thereof to how many cross accidents of weather and way must the transmitting of information be subject how difficult will it prove to get a clear and sure knowledge concerning the state of things How hard will it be to get the opposite parties to appear so as to confront testimonies and probations requisite to a fair and just decision how shall witnesses of infirm sex or age ramble so far how easily will some of them prepossess and abuse him with false suggestions and misrepresentations of the case how slippery therefore will the result be and how prone he to award a wrongfull sentence How tedious how expensive how troublesome how vexatious how hazardous must this course be to all parties Certainly Causes must needs proceed slowly and depend long and in the end the resolution of them must be very uncertain What temptation will it be for any one how justly soever corrected by his immediate Superiours to complain hoping thereby to escape to disguise the truth c. who being condemned will not appeal to one at distance hoping by false suggestions to delude him This necessarily will destroy all Discipline and induce impunity or frustration of Justice Certainly much more convenient and equal it should be that there should be near at hand a Sovereign Power fully capable expeditely and seasonably to compose differences to decide causes to resolve doubts to settle things without more stir and trouble Very equal it is that Laws should rather be framed interpreted and executed in every Countrey with accommodation to the tempers of the People to the circumstances of things to the Civil State there by persons acquainted with those particulars than by strangers ignorant of them and apt to mistake about them How often will the Pope be imposed upon as he was in the case of Basilides of whom St. Cyprian saith going to Rome he deceived our Collegue Stephen being placed at distance and ignorant of the fact and concealed truth aspiring to be unjustly restored to the Bishoprick from which he was justly removed As he was in the case of Marcellus who gull'd Pope Julius by fair professions as St. Basil doth often complain As he was in aiding that versatile and troublesome Bishop Eustathius of Sebastia to the recovery of his Bishoprick As he was in rejecting the man of God and most admirable Bishop Meletius and admitting scandalous reports about him which the same Saint doth often resent blaming sometimes the fallacious misinformation sometimes the wilfull presumption negligence pride of the Roman Church in the case As he was in the case of Pelagius and Celestius who did cajole Pope Zosimus to acquit them to condemn Eros and Lazarus their accusers to reprove the African Bishops for prosecuting them How many proceedings should we have like to that of Pope Zosimus I. concerning that scandalous Priest Apiarius whom being for grievous crimes excommunicated by his Bishop that Pope did admit to communion and undertake to patronize but was baffled in his enterprize This hath been the sense of the Fathers in the case St. Cyprian therefore saith that seeing it was a general statute among the Bishops and that it was both equal and just that every one's cause should be heard there where the crime was committed and that each Pastour had a portion of the Flock allotted to him which he should rule and govern being to render unto the Lord an account of his doing St. Chrysostome thought it improper that one out of Egypt should administer justice to Persons in Thrace and why not as well as one out of Italy The African Synod thought the Nicene Fathers had provided most prudently and most justly that all affairs should be finally determined there where they did arise They thought a transmarine judgment could not be firm because the necessary persons for testimony for the infirmity of sex or age or for many other infirmities could not be brought thither Pope Leo himself saw how dilatory this course would be and that longinquity of region doth cause the examination of truth
will then be deemed high presumption contumacy rebellion to dissent from his determinations how false soever or tax the practices countenanced by him however irregular and culpable He will assume to himself the privilege not to be crossed in any thing and soon will claim infallibility the mother of incorrigibility No errour can be so palpable which that Authority will not protect and shroud from confutation no practice so enormous which it will not palliate and guard from reproof There will be Legions of mercenary Tongues to speak and stipendiary Pens to write in defence of its Doctrines and Practices so that whoever will undertake to oppose it shall be voted down and overwhelmed with noise and shall incur all the discouragement and persecution imaginable So poor Truth will become utterly defenceless wretched Vertue destitute of succour or patronage This is so in speculation and we see it confirmed by experience for when from the influence of this Power as P. Adrian VI. did ingenuously confess an apparent degeneracy in Doctrine in Discipline in Practice had seised on Christendom all the world feeling it and crying out loudly for reformation yet how stiff a repugnance did the adherents to this interest make thereto with what industry and craft did Popes endeavour to decline all means of remedy What will not this Party doe rather than acknowledge themselves mistaken or liable to errour what palliations what shifts do not they use what evidence of light do they not outface 5. The same will induce a general corruption of manners For the chief Clergy partaking of its growth and protected by its interest reciprocally supporting it and being sheltred by it from any curb or controll will swell into great pride and haughtiness will be tempted to scrape and hoard up wealth by rapine extortion simony will come to enjoy ease and sloth will be immersed in sensuality and luxury and will consequently neglect their charge The inferiours will become enamoured and ambitious of such dignity and will use all means and arts to attain it Thence emulation discord sycophantry will spring Thence all Ecclesiastical Offices will become venal to be purchased by bribes flattery favour The higher ranks will become fastuous supercilious and domineering The lower will basely crouch cogg What then must the people be the guides being such Were such guides like to edifie the people by their Doctrine Were they not like to damnifie them by their Example That thus it hath happened Experience doth shew and History doth abundantly testifie This was soon observed by a Pagan Historian Am. Marcellin By St. Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What mischief this what scandal to Religion what detriment to the Church what ruins of Souls it produceth is visible The descriptions of Rome and of that Church by Mantuan do in a lively manner represent the great degeneracy and corruptions of it 6. This Authority as it would induce corruption of manners so it would perpetuate it and render the state of things incorrigible For this Head of the Church and the supporters of his Authority will often need reformation but never will endure it That will happen of any Pope which the Fathers of Basil complained of in Pope Eugenius If the Pope would as Pope Adrian VI. yet he will not be able to reform the interests of his dependents crossing it If there hath happened a good Pope who desired to reform yet he hath been ridiculous when he endeavoured it and found it impossible to reform even a few particulars in his own house the incorrigible Roman Court. The nature and pretended foundation of this spiritual Authority doth encourage it with insuperable obstinacy to withstand all reformation for whereas if any temporal Power doth grow intolerable God's Providence by Wars and Revolutions of State may dispense a redress they have prevented this by supposing that in this case God hath tied his own hands this Authority being immovably fixed in the same hands from which no revolution can take it whence from its exorbitancies there can be no rescue or relief 7. This Authority will spoil him in whom it is seated corrupting his mind and manners rendring him a Scandal to Religion and a pernicious Instrument of wickedness by the influence of his example To this an uncontrollable power bridled with no restraint and impunity doth naturally tend and accordingly hath it been How many notorious Reprobates Monsters of wickedness have been in that See If we survey the Lives of the Popes written by Historians most indifferent or as most have been partial in favour to them we shall find at first good ones Martyrs Confessours Saints but after this exorbitant power had grown how few good ones how many extremely bad The first Popes before Constantine were Holy men the next were tolerable while the Papacy kept within bounds of modesty but when they having shaked off their Master and renounced allegiance to the Emperour i. e. after Gregory II. few tolerable generally they were either rake-hells or intolerably arrogant insolent turbulent and ravenous Bellarmine and Baronius do bobb off this by telling us that hence the providence of God is most apparent But do they call this preserving the Church the permission of it to continue so long in such a condition under the prevalence of such mischiefs when hath God deserted any People if not then when such Impiety more than Pagan doth reign in it But what in the mean time became of those Souls which by this means were ruined what amends for the vast damage which Religion sustained for the introducing so pernicious Customs hardly to be extirpated To what a pass of shameless wickedness must things have come when such men as Alexander VI. having visibly such an impure brood should be placed in this Chair Even after the Reformation began to curb their impudence and render them more wary yet had they the face to set Paul the Third there How unfit must such men be to be the Guides of all Christendom to breathe Oracles of Truth to enact Laws of Sanctity How improper were those Vessels of Satan to be Organs of that Holy Spirit of discipline which will flee deceit and remove from thoughts that are without understanding and will not abide where unrighteousness cometh in It will engage the Popes to make the Ecclesiastical Authority an Engine of advancing the Temporal concerns of his own Relations his Sons his Nephews What indeed is the Popedom now but a Ladder for a Family to mount unto great estate What is it but introducing an old man into a place by advantage whereof a Family must make hay while the Sun shines 8. This Pretence upon divers obvious accounts is apt to create great mischief in the world to the disturbance of Civil Societies and destruction or debilitation of temporal Authority which is certainly God's Ordinance and necessary to the well-being of mankind so that supposing it we may in
Have they not challenged propriety in both Swords Ecce duo Gladii How many Princes have they pretended to depose and dispossess of their Authority Consider the Pragmatical Sanctions Provisors Compositions Concordats c. which Princes have been forced to make against them or with them to secure their Interest Many good Princes have been forced to oppose them as Henry the Second of England King Lewis the Twelfth of France that Just Prince Pater Patriae Perdam Babylonis nomen How often have they used this as a pretence of raising and fomenting Wars confiding in their Spiritual Arms interdicting Princes that would not comply with their designs for advancing the interests not onely of their See but of their private Families Bodin observeth that Pope Nicholas I. was the first who excommunicated Princes Platina doth mention some before him But it is remarkable that although Pope Leo I. a high spirited Pope Fortissimus Leo as Liberatus calleth him was highly provoked against Theodosius Junior Pope Gelasius and divers of his Predecessours and Followers Pope Gregory II. against Leo Vigilius against Justinian c. yet none of them did presume to excommunicate the Emperours All these dealings are the natural result of this Pretence and supposing it well grounded are capable of a plausible justification for is it not fit seeing one must yield that Temporal should yield to Spiritual Indeed granting the Papal Supremacy in Spirituals I conceive the high flying Zelots of the Roman Church who subject all Temporal Powers to them have great reason on their side for co-ordinate Power cannot subsist and it would be onely an eternal Seminary of perpetual discords The quarrel cannot otherwise be well composed than by wholly disclaiming the fictitious and usurped power of the Pope for Two such Powers so inconsistent and cross to each other so apt to interfere and consequently to breed everlasting mischiefs to mankind between them could not be instituted by God He would not appoint two different Vicegerents in his Kingdom at the same time But it is plain that he hath instituted the civil Power and endowed it with a Sword That Princes are his Lieutenants That in the ancient times the Popes did not claim such Authority but avowed themselves Subjects to Princes 9. Consequently this Pretence is apt to engage Christian Princes against Christianity for they will not endure to be crossed to be depressed to be trampled on This Popes often have complained of not considering it was their own insolence that caused it 10. Whereas now Christendom is split into many parcels subject to divers civil Sovereignties it is expedient that correspondently there should be distinct Ecclesiastical Governments independent of each other which may comply with the respective civil Authorities in promoting the good and peace both of Church and State It is fit that every Prince should in all things govern all his Subjects and none should be exempted from subordination to his Authority As Philosophers and Physicians of the Body so Priests and Physicians of the Soul not in exercising their Function but in taking care that they do exercise it duly for the honour of God and in consistence with publick good otherwise many grievous inconveniences must ensue It is of perillous consequence that foreigners should have authoritative influence upon the Subjects of any Prince or have a power to intermeddle in affairs Princes have a natural Right to determine with whom their Subjects shall have intercourse which is inconsistent with a Right of foreigners to govern or judge them in any case without their leave Every Prince is obliged to employ the power entrusted to him to the furtherance of God's Service and encouragement of all good works as a Supreme power without being liable to obstruction from any other power It would irritate his power if another should be beyond his coercion It is observable that the Pope by intermeddling in the affairs of Kingdoms did so wind himself into them as to get a pretence to be Master of each Princes being his Vassals and Feudatories 11. Such an Authority is needless and useless it not serving the ends which it pretendeth and they being better compassed without it It pretendeth to maintain Truth but indeed it is more apt to oppress it Truth is rather as St. Cyprian wisely observeth preserved by the multitude of Bishops whereof some will be ready to relieve it when assaulted by others Truth cannot be supported merely by humane Authority especially that Authority is to be suspected which pretendeth dominion over our minds What Controversie being doubtfull in it self will not after his Decision continue doubtfull his Sentence may be eluded by interpretation as well as other Testimonies or Authorities The opinion of a man's great wisedom or skill may be the ground of assent in defect of other more cogent Arguments but Authority of Name or Dignity is not proper to convince a man's understanding Men obey but not believe Princes more than others if not more learned than others It pretendeth to maintain Order but how by introducing Slavery by destroying all Rights by multiplying Disorders by hindring Order to be quietly administred in each Countrey It pretendeth to be the onely means of Unity and Concord in Opinion by determining Controversies which its Advocates affirm necessary But how can that be necessary which never was de facto not even in the Roman Church Hath the Pope effected this do all his followers agree in all points do they agree about his Authority Do not they differ and dispute about infinity of questions Are all the points frivolous about which their Divines and Schoolmen dispute Why did not the Council of Trent it self without more adoe and keeping such a disputing refer all to his Oracular Decision Necessary points may and will by all honest people be known and determined without him by the clear Testimony of Scripture by consent of Fathers by General Tradition And other points need not to be determined That he may be capable of that Office he must be believed appointed by God thereto which is a question it self to be decided without him to satisfaction His power is apt no otherwise to knock down Controversies than by depressing Truth not suffering any Truth to be asserted which doth not favour its Interests Concord was maintained and Controversies decided without them in the ancient Church in Synods wherein he was not the sole Judge nor had observable influence The Fathers did not think such Authority needfull otherwise they would have made more use of it A more ready way to define Controversies is for every one not to prescribe to others or to prosecute for then men would more calmly see the Truth and consent It pretendeth to maintain Peace and Unity But nothing hath raised more fierce Dissentions or so many bloudy Wars in Christendom as it It is apt by tyrannical administration to become intolerable and so to break the
for his actions to any other Judge but God That this notion of liberty did continue a good time after in the Church we may see by that Canon of the Antiochene Synod ordaining that every Bishop have power of his own Bishoprick govern it according to the best of his care and discretion and provide for all the Country belonging to his City so as to ordain Priests and Deacons and dispose things aright The Monks of Constantinople in the Synod of Chalcedon said thus We are sons of the Church and have one Father after God our Archbishop they forgot their Sovereign Father the Pope The like notion may seem to have been then in England when the Church of Canterbury was called the common mother of all under the disposition of its Spouse Jesus Christ. VI. The Ancients did hold all Bishops as to their Office originally according to Divine Institution or abstracting from humane Sanctions framed to preserve Order and Peace to be equal for that all are Successours of the Apostles all derive their Commission and Power in the same tenour from God all of them are Ambassadours Stewards Vicars of Christ entrusted with the same Divine Ministeries of instructing dispensing the Sacraments ruling and exercising Discipline to which Functions and Privileges the least Bishop hath right and to greater the biggest cannot pretend One Bishop might exceed another in Splendour in Wealth in Reputation in extent of Jurisdiction as one King may surpass another in amplitude of Territory but as all Kings so all Bishops are equal in Office and essentials of Power derived from God Hence they applied to them that in the Psalm Instead of thy Fathers shall be thy Children whom thou mayst make Princes in all the earth This was St. Hierome's Doctrine in those famous words Whereever a Bishop be whether at Rome or at Eugubium at Constantinople or at Rhegium at Alexandria or at Thenis he is of the same worth and of the same Priesthood the force of wealth and lowness of poverty doth not render a Bishop more high or more low for that all of them are Successours of the Apostles to evade which plain assertion they have forged distinctions whereof St. Hierome surely did never think he speaking simply concerning Bishops as they stood by Divine Institution not according to humane Models which gave some advantages over other That this notion did continue long in the Church we may see by the Elogies of Bishops in later Synods for instance that in the Synod of Compeigne It is convenient all Christians should know what kind of Office the Bishops is who 't is plain are the Vicars of Christ and keep the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven And that of the Synod of Melun And though all of us unworthy yet are the Vicars of Christ and Successours of his Apostles In contemplation of which verity St. Gregory Nazianzene observing the declension from it introduced in his times by the ambition of some Prelates did vent that famous exclamation O that there were not at all any presidency or any preference in place and tyrannical enjoyment of prerogatives which earnest wish he surely did not mean to level against the Ordinance of God but against that which lately began to be intruded by men And what would the good man have wished if he had been aware of those pretences about which we discourse which then did onely begin to bud and peep up in the World 1. Common practice is a good Interpreter of common sentiments in any case and it therefore sheweth that in the primitive Church the Pope was not deemed to have a right of Universal Sovereignty for if such a thing had been instituted by God or established by the Apostles the Pope certainly with evident clearness would have appeared to have possessed it and would have sometimes I might say frequently yea continually have exercised it in the first Ages which that he did not at all we shall make I hope very manifest by reflecting on the chief passages occurring then whereof indeed there is scarce any one which duly weighed doth not serve to overthrow the Roman pretence but that matter I reserve to another place and shall propound other considerations declaring the sense of the Fathers onely I shall add that indeed 2. The state of the most primitive Church did not well admit such an universal Sovereignty For that did consist of small bodies incoherently situated and scattered about in very distant places and consequently unfit to be modelled into one political Society or to be governed by one Head Especially considering their condition under Persecution and Poverty What convenient resort for Direction or Justice could a few distressed Christians in Egypt Ethiopia Parthia India Mesopotamia Syria Armenia Cappadocia and other Parts have to Rome what trouble what burthen had it been to seek Instruction Succour Decision of Cases thence Had they been obliged or required to doe so what offences what clamours would it have raised seeing that afterward when Christendom was connected and compacted together when the state of Christians was flourishing and prosperous when passages were open and the best of opportunities of correspondence were afforded yet the setting out of these pretences did cause great oppositions and stirs seeing the exercise of this Authority when it had obtained most vigour did produce so many grievances so many complaints so many courses to check and curb it in Countries feeling the inconveniences and mischiefs springing from it The want of the like in the first Ages is a good Argument that the cause of them had not yet sprung up Christendom could not have been so still if there had been then so meddlesome a body in it as the Pope now is The Roman Clergy in their Epistle to St. Cyprian told him that because of the difficulty of things and times they could not constitute a Bishop who might moderate things immediately belonging to them in their own precincts how much more in that state of things would a Bishop there be sit to moderate things over all the World when as Rigaltius truly noteth the Church being then oppressed with various vexations the communication of Provinces between themselves was difficult and unfrequent Wherefore Bellarmine himself doth confess that in those times before the Nicene Synod the authority of the Pope was not a little hindred so that because of continual persecutions he could not freely exercise it The Church therefore could so long subsist without the use of such Authority by the vigilance of Governours over their Flocks and the friendly correspondence of neighbour Churches And if he would let it alone it might do so still That could be no Divine Institution which had no vigour in the first and best times but an Innovation raised by Ambition VII The Ancients when occasion did require did maintain their equality of Office and Authority particularly in respect to the Roman Bishops not onely interpretatively by practice but directly and
the authority of a Church especially then when no Church did appear to have either Principality or Puissance And that sense may clearly be evinced by the context wherein it doth appear that St. Irenaeus doth not alledge the judicial Authority of the Roman Church but its credible Testimony which thereby became more considerable because Christians commonly had occasions of recourse to it Such a reason of precedence St. Cyprian giveth in another case Because saith he Rome for its magnitude ought to precede Carthage For this reason a Pagan Historian did observe the Roman Bishop had a greater authority that is a greater interest and reputation than other Bishops This reason Theodoret doth assign in his Epistle to Pope Leo wherein he doth highly complement and cajole him for this city saith he is the greatest and the most splendid and presiding over the world and flowing with multitude of people and which moreover hath produced the Empire now governing This is the sole ground upon which the greatest of all ancient Synods that of Chalcedon did affirm the Papal eminency to be founded for to the throne say they of ancient Rome because that was the royal city the Fathers reasonably conferred the privileges the fountain of Papal eminence was in their judgment not any divine Institution not the Authority of Saint Peter deriving it self to his Successours but the concession of the Fathers who were moved to grant it upon account that Rome was the Imperial City To the same purpose the Empress Placidia in her Epistle to Theodosius in behalf of Pope Leo saith It becometh us to preserve to this city the which is mistress of all lands a reverence in all things This reason had indeed in it much of equity of decency of conveniency it was equal that he should have the preference and more than common respect who was thence enabled and engaged to do most service to Religion It was decent that out of conformity to the State and in respect to the Imperial Court and Senate the Pastour of that place should be graced with repute it was convenient that he who resided in the centre of all business and had the greatest influence upon affairs who was the Emperour's chief Counsellour for direction and Instrument for execution of Ecclesiastical affairs should not be put behind others Hence did the Fathers of the Second General Synod advance the Bishop of Constantinople to the next privileges of honour after the Bishop of Rome because it was new Rome and a Seat of the Empire And the Fathers of Chalcedon assigned equal privileges to the most Holy See of Rome with good reason say they judging that the city which was honoured with the Royalty and Senate and which otherwise did enjoy equal privileges with the ancient Royal Rome should likewise in Ecclesiastical affairs be magnified as it being second after it Indeed upon this score the Church of Constantinople is said to have aspired to the supreme Principality when it had the advantage over old Rome the Empire being extinguished there and sometimes was styled the Head of all Churches It is also natural and can hardly be otherwise but that the Bishop of a chief City finding himself to exceed in wealth in power in advantages of friendships dependencies c. should not affect to raise himself above the level it is an ambition that easily will seise on the most moderate and otherwise religious minds Pope Leo objected it to Anatolius and Pope Gregory to John from his austere life called the Faster Upon the like account it was that the Bishops of other Cities did mount to a preeminency Metropolitane Primatical Patriarchal Thence it was that the Bishop of Alexandria before Constantine's time did acquire the honour of second place to Rome because that City being head of a most rich and populous Nation did in magnitude and opulency as Gregory Nazianzene saith approach next to Rome so as hardly to yield the next place to it Upon that account also did Antioch get the next place as being the most large flourishing commanding City of the East the which as Josephus saith for bigness and for other advantages had without controversie the third place in all the world subject to the Romans and the which St. Chrysostome calleth the head of all cities seated in the East Saint Basil seemeth to call the Church thereof the principal in the world for what saith he can be more opportune to the Churches over the world than the Church of Antioch the which if it should happen to be reduced to concord nothing would hinder but that as a sound head it would supply health to the whole body Upon the same account the Bishop of Carthage did obtain the privilege to be standing Primate of his Province although other Primacies there were not fixed to places but followed Seniority and a kind of Patriarch over all the African Provinces Hence did Caesarea as exceeding in temporal advantages and being the Political Metropolis of Palestine o'ertop Jerusalem that most ancient noble and venerable City the source of our Religion It was indeed the general Rule and practice to conform the privileges of Ecclesiastical dignity in a proportion convenient to those of the secular Government as the Synod of Antioch in express terms did ordain the ninth Canon whereof runneth thus The Bishops in every Province ought to know that the Bishop presiding in the Metropolis doth undertake the care of all the Province because all that have business do meet together in the Metropolis whence it hath been ordained that he should precede in honour and that the Bishops should doe nothing extraordinary without him according to a more ancient Canon holding from our Fathers that is according to the 34th Canon of the Apostles It is true that the Fathers do sometimes mention the Church of Rome being founded by the two great Apostles or the succession of the Roman Bishop to them in Pastoral charge as a special ornament of that Church and a congruous ground of respect to that Bishop whereby they did honour the memory of Saint Peter but even some of those who did acknowledge this did not avow it as a sufficient ground of preeminence none did admit it for an argument of authoritative Superiority St. Cyprian did call the Roman See the chair of Saint Peter and the principal Church yet he disclaimed any authority of the Roman Bishops above his brethren Firmilian did take notice that Pope Stephanus did glory in the place of his Bishoprick and contend that he held the succession of Peter yet did not he think himself thereby obliged to submit to his authority or follow his judgment but sharply did reprehend him as a favourer of Hereticks an authour of Schisms and one who had cut himself off from the communion of his brethren The Fathers of the Antiochene Synod did confess that in writings all did willingly honour the Roman
Church as having been from the beginning the School of the Apostles and the Metropolis of Religion although yet from the East the instructours of the Christian Doctrine did go and reside there but from hence they desired not to be deemed inferiours because they did not exceed in the greatness and numerousness of their Church They allowed some regard though faintly and with reservation to the Roman Church upon account of their Apostolical foundation they implied a stronger ground of pretence from the grandeur of that City yet did not they therefore grant themselves to be inferiours at least as to any substantial Privilege importing Authority If by Divine right upon account of his succession to Saint Peter he had such preeminence why are the other causes reckoned as if they could add any thing to God's Institution or as if that did need humane confirmation The pretence to that surely was weak which did need corroboration and to be propp'd by worldly considerations Indeed whereas the Apostles did found many Churches exercising Apostolical authority over them eminently containing the Episcopal why in conscience should one claim privileges on that score rather than or above the rest Why should the See of Antioch that most ancient and truly Apostolical Church where the Christian name began where Saint Peter at first as they say did sit Bishop for seven years be postponed to Alexandria Especially why should the Church of Jerusalem the Seat of our Lord himself the mother of all Churches the fountain of Christian Doctrine the first Consistory of the Apostles enobled by so many glorious performances by the Life Preaching Miracles Death Burial Resurrection Ascension of our Saviour by the first preaching of the Apostles the effusion of the Holy Spirit the Conversion of so many people and Constitution of the first Church and Celebration of the first Synods upon these considerations not obtain preeminence to other Churches but in honour be cast behind divers others and as to Power be subjected to Caesarea the Metropolis of Palestine The true reason of this even Baronius himself did see and acknowledge for that saith he the Ancients observ'd no other rule in instituting the Ecclesiastical Sees than the division of Provinces and the Prerogative before established by the Romans there are very many examples Of which examples that of Rome is the most obvious and notable and what he so generally asserteth may be so applied thereto as to void all other grounds of its preeminence X. The truth is all Ecclesiastical presidencies and subordinations or dependencies of some Bishops on others in administration of spiritual affairs were introduced merely by humane Ordinance and established by Law or Custome upon prudential accounts according to the exigency of things Hence the Prerogatives of other Sees did proceed and hereto whatever Dignity Privilege or Authority the Pope with equity might at any time claim is to be imputed To clear which point we will search the matter nearer the quick propounding some observations concerning the ancient forms of Discipline and considering what interest the Pope had therein At first each Church was settled apart under its own Bishop and Presbyters so as independently and separately to manage its own concernments each was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 governed by its own head and had its own Laws Every Bishop as a Prince in his own Church did act freely according to his will and discretion with the advice of his Ecclesiastical Senate and with the consent of his people the which he did use to consult without being controllable by any other or accountable to any farther than his obligation to uphold the verity of Christian profession and to maintain fraternal communion in charity and peace with neighbouring Churches did require in which regard if he were notably peccant he was liable to be disclaimed by them as no good Christian and rejected from communion together with his Church if it did adhere to him in his misdemeanours This may be collected from the remainders of State in the times of St. Cyprian But because little disjointed and incoherent Bodies were like dust apt to be dissipated by every wind of external assault or intestine faction and peaceable union could hardly be retained without some ligature of discipline and Churches could not mutually support and defend each other without some method of entercourse and rule of confederacy engaging them Therefore for many good purposes for upholding and advancing the common interests of Christianity for protection and support of each Church from inbred disorders and dissentions for preserving the integrity of the faith for securing the concord of divers Churches for providing fit Pastours to each Church and correcting such as were scandalously bad or unfaithfull it was soon found needfull that divers Churches should be combined and linked together in some regular form of Discipline that if any Church did want a Bishop the neighbour Bishops might step in to approve and ordain a fit one that if any Bishop did notoriously swerve from the Christian rule the others might interpose to correct or void him that if any errour or schism did peep up in any Church the joint concurrence of divers Bishops might avail to stop its progress and to quench it by convenient means of instruction reprehension and censure that if any Church were oppressed by persecution by indigency by faction the others might be engaged to afford effectual succour and relief for such ends it was needfull that Bishops in certain precincts should convene with intent to deliberate and resolve about the best expedients to compass them And that the manner of such proceeding to avoid uncertain distraction confusion arbitrariness dissatisfaction and mutinous opposition should be settled in an ordinary course according to rules known and allowed by all In defining such precincts it was most natural most easie most commodious to follow the divisions of Territory or Jurisdiction already established in the Civil State that the Spiritual administrations being in such circumstances aptly conformed to the Secular might go on more smoothly and expeditely the wheels of one not clashing with the other according to the judgment of the two great Synods that of Chalcedon and the Trullane which did ordain that if by Royal authority any city be or should hereafter be re-established the order of the churches shall be according to the civil and publick form Whereas therefore in each Nation or Province subject to one Political Jurisdiction there was a Metropolis or Head-city to which the greatest resort was for dispensation of Justice and dispatch of principal Affairs emergent in that Province it was also most convenient that also the determination of Ecclesiastical matters should be affixed thereto especially considering that usually those places were opportunely seated that many persons upon other occasions did meet there that the Churches in those Cities did exceed the rest in number
in opulency in ability and opportunity to promote the common interest in all kinds of advantages Moreover because in all Societies and Confederacies of men for ordering publick affairs for the settling things in motion for effectual dispatch for preventing endless dissentions and confusions both in resolving upon and executing things it is needfull that one person should be authorized to preside among the rest unto whom the power and care should be entrusted to convoke Assemblies in fit season to propose matters for consultation to moderate the debates and proceedings to declare the result and to see that what is agreed upon may be duly executed Such a charge then naturally would devolve it self upon the Prelate of the Metropolis as being supposed constantly present on the place as being at home in his own seat of presidence and receiving the rest under his wing as incontestably surpassing others in all advantages answerable to the secular advantages of his City for that it was unseemly and hard if he at home should be postponed in dignity to others repairing thither for that also commonly he was in a manner the spiritual Father of the rest Religion being first planted in great Cities and thence propagated to others so that the reverence and dependence on Colonies to the mother City was due from other Churches to his See Wherefore by consent of all Churches grounded on such obvious reason of things the presidency in each Province was assigned to the Bishop of the Metropolis who was called the first Bishop the Metropolitane in some places the Primate the Archbishop the Patriarch the Pope of the Province The Apostolical Canons call him the first Bishop which sheweth the Antiquity of this Institution the African Synods did appoint that name to him as most modest and calling him Primate in that sense other ancient Synods style him the Metropolite and to the Metropolites of the principal Cities they gave the Title of Archbishop The Bishops of Rome and Alexandria peculiarly were called Popes although that name was sometimes deferred to any other Bishop During this state of things the whole Church did consist of so many Provinces being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 independent on each other in Ecclesiastical administrations each reserving to it self the constitution of Bishops the convocation of Synods the enacting of Canons the decision of Causes the definition of Questions yet so that each Province did hold peacefull and amicable correspondence with others upon the like terms as before each 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Episcopal precinct did hold intercourse with its neighbours And whoever in any Province did not comply with or submit to the Orders and Determinations resolved upon in those Assemblies was deemed a schismatical contentious and contumelious person with good reason because he did thwart a Discipline plainly conducible to publick good because declining such judgments he plainly shewed that he would admit none there not being any fairer way of determining things than by common advice and agreement of Pastours because he did in effect refuse all good terms of communion and peace Thus I conceive the Metropolitical governance was introduced by humane prudence following considerations of publick necessity or utility There are indeed some who think it was instituted by the Apostles but their Arguments do not seem convincing and such a constitution doth not as I take it well sute to the state of their times and the course they took in founding Churches Into such a Chanel through all parts of Christendom though with some petty differences in the methods and measures of acting had Ecclesiastical administrations fallen of themselves plain community of reason and imitation insensibly propagating that course and therein it ran for a good time before it was by general consent and solemn sanction established The whole Church then was a Body consisting of several confederations of Bishops acting in behalf of their Churches under their respective Metropolitanes who did manage the common affairs in each Province convoking Synods at stated times and upon emergent occasions in them deciding Causes and Controversies incident relating to faith or practice framing Rules serviceable to common Edification and decent uniformity in God's service quashing Heresies and Schisms declaring truths impugned or questioned maintaining the harmony of communion and concord with other Provinces adjacent or remote Such was the state of the Church unto which the Apostolical Canons and Constitutions do refer answerable to the times in which they were framed and which we may discern in the practice of ancient Synods Such it did continue when the great Synod of Nice was celebrated which by its authority presumed to represent the authority of all Bishops in the World who were summoned thereto backed by the Imperial Authority and Power did confirm those Orders as they found them standing by more general custome and received Rules in most Provinces reducing them into more â—â—â—orm practice so that what before stood upon reason customary usage particular consent by so august sanction did become universal Law and did obtain so great veneration as by some to be conceived everlastingly and immutably obligatory according to those maximes of Pope Leo. It is here farther observable that whereas divers Provinces did hold communion and entercourse so that upon occasion they did by their formed Letters render to one another an account of their proceedings being of great moment especially of those which concerned the general state of Christianity and common faith calling when need was for assistence one of other to resolve points of faith or to settle order and peace there was in so doing a special respect given to the Metropolites of great Cities and to prevent dissensions which naturally ambition doth prompt men to grounded upon degrees of respect an Order was fixed among them according to which in subscriptions of Letters in accidental congresses and the like occasions some should precede others that distinction being chiefly and commonly grounded on the greatness splendour opulency of Cities or following the secular dignity of them whence Rome had the first place Alexandria the second Antioch the third Hierusalem the fourth c. Afterward Constantine having introduced a new partition of the Empire whereby divers Provinces were combined together into one Territory under the regiment of a Vicar or a Lieutenant of a Praefectus-praeterio which Territory was called a Diocese the Ecclesiastical state was adapted in conformity thereto new Ecclesiastical Systems and a new sort of spiritual Heads thence springing up so that in each Diocese consisting of divers Provinces an Ecclesiastical Exarch otherwise sometimes called a Primate sometimes a Diocesan sometimes a Patriarch was constituted answerable to the Civil Exarch of a Diocese who by such constitution did obtain a like Authority over the Metropolitanes of Provinces as they had in their Province over the Bishops of Cities so that it appertained to them to call together the Synods of the whole Diocese to preside
in them and in them to dispatch the principal affairs concerning that precinct to ordain Metropolitanes to confirm the Ordinations of Bishops to decide Causes and Controversies between Bishops upon appeal from Provincial Synods Some conceive the Synod of Nice did establish it but that can hardly well be for that Synod was held about the time of that division after that Constantine was setled in a peacefull enjoyment of the Empire and scarce could take notice of so fresh a change in the State that doth not pretend to innovate but professeth in its sanctions specially to regard ancient custome saving to the Churches their privileges of which they were possessed that onely mentioneth Provinces and representeth the Metropolitanes in them as the chief Governours Ecclesiastical then being that constituteth a peremptory decision of weighty causes in Provincial Synods which is inconsistent with the Diocesan Authority that taketh no notice of Constantinople the â—rincipal Diocese in the East as seat of the Empire and the Synod of Antioch insisting in the footsteps of the Nicene doth touch onely Metropolitanes Can. 19. and the Synod of Laodicea doth onely suppose that Order In fine that Synod is not recorded by any old Historian to have framed such an alteration which indeed was so considerable that Eusebius who was present there could not well have passed it over in silence Of this opinion was the Synod of Carthage in their Epistle to Pope Celestine I. who understood no jurisdiction but that of Metropolitanes to be constituted in the Nicene Synod Some think the Fathers of the Second General Synod did introduce it seeing it expedient that Ecclesiastical administrations should correspond to the Political for they did innovate somewhat in the form of Government they do expresly use the new word Diocese according to the civil sense as distinct from a Province they do distinctly name the particular Dioceses of the Oriental Empire as they stood in the civil establishment they do prescribe to the Bishops in each Diocese to act unitedly there not skipping over the bounds of it they order a kind of appeal to the Synod of the Diocese prohibiting other appeals The Historians expresly do report of them that they did distinguish and distribute Dioceses that they did constitute Patriarchs that they did prohibit that any of one Diocese should intrude upon another But if we shall attently search and scan passages we may perhaps find reason to judge that this form did soon after the Synod of Nice creep in without any solemn appointment by spontaneous assumption and submission accommodating things to the Political course the great Bishops who by the amplification of their City in power wealth and concourse of people were advanced in reputation and interest assuming such authority to themselves and the lesser Bishops easily complying And of this we have some Arguments Cyril Bishop of Jerusalem being deposed and extruded by Acacius Metropolitan of Palestine did appeal to a greater Judicatory being the first as Socrates noteth who ever did use that course because it seemeth there was no greater in being till about that time which was some years before the Synod of Constantinople in which there is a mention of a greater Synod of the Diocese There was a convention of Bishops of the Pontick Diocese at Tyana distinguished from the Asian Bishops whereof Eusebius of Caesarea is reckoned in the first place as President in the time of Valens Nectarius Bishop of Constantinople is said by the Synod of Chalcedon to have presided in the Synod of Constantinople A good Argument is drawn from the very Canon of the Synod of Constantinople it self which doth speak concerning Bishops over Dioceses as already constituted or extant not instituting that Order of Bishops but supposing it and together with an implicit confirmation regulating practice according to it by prohibiting Bishops to leap over the bounds of their Diocese so as to meddle in the affairs of other Dioceses and by ordering appeals to the Synod of a Diocese Of Authority gained by such assumption and concession without law there might be produced divers instances As particularly that the See of Constantinople did assume to it self Ordination and other acts of Jurisdiction in three Dioceses before any such power was granted to it by any Synodical Decree the which to have done divers instances shew some whereof are alledged in the Synod of Chalcedon as St. Chrysostome of whom it is there said That going into Asia he deposed fifteen Bishops and consecrated others in their room He also deposed Gerontius Bishop of Nicomedia belonging to the Diocese of Pontus Whence the Fathers of Chalcedon did aver That they had in a Synod confirmed the ancient custome which the Holy Church of God in Constantinople had to ordain Metropolitanes in the Asian Pontic and Thracian Dioceses The which custome consistent with reason and becoming the dignity of the Empire and gratefull to the Court that great Synod did establish although the Roman Church out of jealousie did contest and protest against it But the most pertinent instances are those of the Roman Alexandrine and Antiochene Churches having by degrees assumed to themselves such power over divers Provinces in imitation of which Churches the other Diocesan Bishops may well be thought to have enlarged their Jurisdiction This form of government is intimated in the Synod of Ephesus by those words in which Dioceses and Provinces are distinguished and the same shall be observed in all Dioceses and all Provinces every were However that this form of Discipline was perfectly setled in the times of the Fourth General Synod is evident by two notable Canons thereof wherein it is decreed that if any Bishop have a controversie with his Metropolitan of his Province he shall resort to and be judged by the Exarch of the Diocese or by the See of Constantinople This was a great privilege conferred on the Bishop of Constantinople the which perhaps did ground to be sure it did make way for the plea of that Bishop to the Title of Oecumenical Patriarch or Vniversal Bishop which Pope Gregory did so exagitate and indeed it soundeth so fairly toward it that the Pope hath nothing comparable to it to alledge in favour of his pretences this being the Decree of the greatest Synod that ever was held among the Ancients where all the Patriarchs did concur in making these Decrees which Pope Gregory did reverence as one of the Gospels If any ancient Synod did ever constitute any thing like to Vniversal Monarchy it was this wherein a final determination of greatest Causes was granted to the See of Constantinople without any exception or reservation I mean as to semblance and the sound of words for as to the true sense I do indeed conceive that the Canon did onely relate to causes emergent in the Eastern parts and probably it did onely respect the three Dioceses of Asia Pontus and Thrace which were
immediately subjected to his Patriarchal Jurisdiction Pope Nicholas I. doth very jocularly expound this Canon affirming that by the Primate of the Diocese is understood the Pope Diocese being put by a notable figure for Dioceses and that an appeal is to be made to the Bishop of Constantinople onely by permission in case the Party will be content therewith We may note that some Provincial Churches were by ancient custome exempted from dependence on any Primacy or Patriarchate Such an one the Cyprian Church was adjudged to be in the Ephesine Synod wherein the privileges of such Churches were confirmed against the invasion of greater Churches and to that purpose this general Law enacted Let the same be observ'd in all Dioceses and Provinces every where that none of the Bishops most beloved of God invade another Province which did not formerly belong to him or his Predecessours and if any one have invaded one and violently seiz'd it that he restore it Such a Church was that of Britain anciently before Austin did introduce the Papal Authority here against that Canon as by divers learned Pens hath been shewed Such was the Church of Africk as by their Canons against transmarine appeals and about all other matters doth appear It is supposed by some that Discipline was scrued yet one peg higher by setting up the Order of Patriarchs higher than Primates or Diocesan Exarchs but I find no ground of this supposal except in one case that is of the Bishop of Constantinople being set above the Bishops of Ephesus Caesarea and Heraclea which were the Primates of the three Dioceses It is a notable fib which Pope Nicholas II. telleth as Gratian citeth him That the Church of Rome instituted all Patriarchal Supremacies all Metropolitan Primacies Episcopal Sees all Ecclesiastical Orders and Dignities whatsoever Now things standing thus in Christendom we may concerning the interest of the Roman Bishop in reference to them observe 1. In all these transactions about modelling the spiritual Discipline there was no Canon established any peculiar Jurisdiction to the Bishop of Rome onely the 2. Synod of Nice did suppose that he by custome did enjoy some Authority within certain precincts of the West like to that which it did confirm to the Bishop of Alexandria in Egypt and the Countries adjacent thereto 3. The Synods of Constantinople did allow him honourary privileges or precedence before all other Bishops assigning the next place after him to the Bishop of Constantinople 4. In other privileges the Synod of Chalcedon did equall the See of Constantinople to the Roman 5. The Canons of the two First and Fourth General Synods ordering all affairs to be dispatched and causes to be determined in Metropolitan or Diocesan Synods do exclude the Roman Bishop from meddling in those concerns 6. The Popes out of a humour natural to them to like nothing but what they did themselves and which served their Interests did not relish those Canons although enacted by Synods which themselves admitted for Oecumenical That subscription of some Bishops made above sixty years since as you boast does no whit favour your persuasion a subscription never transmitted to the knowledge of the Apostolick See by your Predecessours which from its very beginning being weak and long since ruinous you endeavour now too late and unprofitably to revive So doth Pope Leo I. treat the Second Great Synod writing to Anatolius and Gregory speaking of the same says That the Roman Church has not the acts of that Synod nor receiv'd its Canons 7. Wherefore in the West they did obtain no effect so as to establish Diocesan Primacies there The Bishops of Cities which were Heads of Dioceses either did not know of these Canons which is probable because Rome did smother the notice of them or were hindred from using them the Pope having so winded himself in and got such hold among them as he would not let go 8. It indeed turned to a great advantage of the Pope in carrying on his Encroachments and enlarging his worldly Interests that the Western Churches did not as the Eastern conform themselves to the Political frame in embracing Diocesan Primacies which would have engaged and enabled them better to protect the Liberties of their Churches from Papal Invasions 9. For hence for want of a better the Pope did claim to himself a Patriarchal authority over the Western Churches pretending a right of calling to Synods of meddling in Ordinations of determining Causes by appeal to him of dictating Laws and Rules to them against the old rights of Metropolitans and the later Constitutions for Primacies Of this we have an Instance in St. Gregory where he alledging an Imperial Constitution importing that in case a Clergy-man should appeal from his Metropolitan the cause should be referred to the Archbishop and Patriarch of that Diocese who judging according to the Canons and Laws should give an end thereto doth consequentially assume an appeal from a Bishop to himself adjoyning If against these things it be said that the Bishop had neither Metropolitan nor Patriarch it is to be said that this cause was to be heard and decided by the Apostolical See which is the head of all Churches 10. Having got such advantage and as to extent stretched his Authority beyond the bounds of his sub-urbicarian precincts he did also intend it in quality far beyond the privileges by any Ecclesiastical Law granted to Patriarchs or claimed or exercised by any other Patriarch till at length by degrees he had advanced it to an exorbitant omnipotency and thereby utterly enslaved the Western Churches The ancient Order did allow a Patriarch or Primate to call a Synod of the Bishops in his Diocese and with them to determine Ecclesiastical Affairs by majority of suffrages but he doth not doe so but setting himself down in his Chair with a few of his Courtiers about him doth make Decrees and Dictates to which he pretendeth all must submit The ancient Order did allow a Patriarch to ordain Metropolitans duly elected in their Dioceses leaving Bishops to be ordained by the Metropolitans in their Provincial Synods but he will meddle in the Ordination of every Bishop suffering none to be constituted without his confirmation for which he must soundly pay The ancient Order did allow a Patriarch with the advice and consent of his Synod to make Canons for the well ordering his Diocese but he sendeth about his Decretal Letters composed by an infallible Secretary which he pretendeth must have the force of Laws equal to the highest Decrees of the whole Church The ancient Order did suppose Bishops by their Ordination sufficiently obliged to render unto their Patriarch due observance according to the Canons he being liable to be judged in a Synod for the transgression of his duty but he forceth all Bishops to take the most slavish oaths of obedience to him that can be imagined The ancient Order did appoint that Bishops accused for
offences should be judged in their Provinces or upon appeal from them in Patriarchal Synods but he receiveth appeals at the first hand and determineth them in his Court without calling such a Synod in an age for any such purpose The ancient Patriarchs did order all things as became good Subjects with leave and under submission to the Emperour who as he pleased did interpose his confirmation of their Sanctions but this man pretendeth to decree what he pleaseth without the leave and against the will of Princes Wherefore he is not a Patriarch of the Western Churches for that he acteth according to no Patriarchal Rule but a certain kind of Sovereign Lord or a tyrannical Oppressour of them 11. In all the transactions for modelling the Church there never was allowed to the Pope any dominion over his Fellow-patriarchs or of those great Primates who had assumed that name to themselves among whom indeed for the dignity of his City he had obtained a priority of honour or place but never had any power over them setled by a title of Law or by clear and uncontested practice Insomuch that if any of them had erred in Faith or offended in Practice it was requisite to call a General Synod to judge them as in the cases of Athanasius of Gregory Nazianzene and Maximus of Theophilus and St. Chrysostome of Nestorius and of Dioscorus is evident 12. Indeed all the Oriental Churches did keep themselves pretty free from his encroachments although when he had swollen so big in the West he sometimes did take occasion to attempt on their Liberty which they sometimes did warily decline sometimes stoutly did oppose But as to the main those flourishing Churches constantly did maintain a distinct administration from the Western Churches under their own Patriarchs and Synods not suffering him to interlope in prejudice to their Liberty They without his leave or notice did call and celebrate Synods whereof all the first great Synods are instances their Ordinations were not confirmed or touched by him Appeals were not with publick regard or allowance thence made to him in causes great or little but they decided them among themselves they quashed Heresies springing up among them as the Second General Synod the Macedonians Theophilus the Origenists c. Little in any case had his Worship to doe with them or they with him beyond what was needfull to maintain general communion and correspondence with him which they commonly as piety obliged were willing to doe And sometimes when a pert Pope upon some incidental advantage of differences risen among them would be more busie than they deemed convenient in tampering with their affairs they did rap his fingers so Victor so Stephanus so Julius and Liberius of old did feel to their smart so afterward Damasus and other Popes in the case of Flavianus Innocent in the case of St. Chrysostome Felix and his Successours in the case of Acacius did find little regard had to their interposals So things proceeded till at length a final rupture was made between them and they would not suffer him at all to meddle with their affairs Before I proceed any farther I shall briefly draw some Corollaries from this Historical account which I have given of the original and growth of Metropolitical Primatical and Patriarchal Jurisdiction 1. Patriarchs are an humane Institution 2. As they were erected by the power and prudence of men so they may be dissolved by the same 3. They were erected by the leave and confirmation of Princes and by the same they may be dejected if great reason do appear 4. The Patriarchate of the Pope beyond his own Province or Diocese doth not subsist upon any Canon of a General Synod 5. He can therefore claim no such power otherwise than upon his invasion or assumption 6. The Primates and Metropolitans of the Western Church cannot be supposed otherwise than by force or out of fear to have submitted to such an authority as he doth usurp 7. It is not really a Patriarchal Power like to that which was granted by the Canons and Princes but another sort of power which the Pope doth exercise 8. The most rightfull Patriarch holding false Doctrine or imposing unjust Laws or tyrannically abusing his power may and ought to be rejected from communion 9. Such a Patriarch is to be judged by a free Synod if it may be had 10. If such a Synod cannot be had by consent of Princes each Church may free it self from the mischiefs induced by his perverse doctrine or practice 11. No Ecclesiastical Power can interpose in the management of any affairs within the Territory of any Prince without his concession 12. By the Laws of God and according to ancient Practice Princes may model the bounds of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction erect Bishopricks enlarge diminish or transfer them as they please 13. Wherefore each Prince having Supreme Power in his own Dominions and equal to what the Emperour had in his may exclude any foreign Prelate from Jurisdiction in his Territories 14. It is expedient for peace and publick good that he should doe thus 15. Such Prelate according to the rules of Christianity ought to be content with his doing so 16. Any Prelate exercising power in the Dominion of any Prince is eatenus his Subject as the Popes and all Bishops were to the Roman Emperours 17. Those joints of Ecclesiastical Discipline established in the Roman Empire by the confirmation of Emperours were as to necessary continuance dissolved by the dissolution of the Roman Empire 18. The power of the Pope in the Territories of any Prince did subsist by his authority and favour 19. By the same reason as Princes have curbed the exorbitancy of Papal power in some cases of entertaining Legats making Appeals disposing of Benefices c. by the same they might exclude it 20. The practice of Christianity doth not depend upon the subsistence of such a form instituted by man Having shewed at large that this Universal Sovereignty and Jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome over the Christian Church hath no real Foundation either in Scripture or elsewhere it will be requisite to shew by what ways and means so groundless a claim and pretence should gain belief and submission to it from so considerable a part of Christendom and that from so very slender roots from slight beginnings and the slimmest pretences one can well imagin this bulk of exorbitant power did grow the vastest that ever man on earth did attain or did ever aim at will be the less wonderfull if we do consider the many causes which did concur and contribute thereto some whereof are proposed in the following Observations 1. Eminency of any kind in wealth in honour in reputation in might in place or mere order of dignity doth easily pass into advantages of real power and command over those who are inferiour in those respects and have any dealings or common transactions with such Superiours For to persons endowed with such eminency by
Authority whenas the actions of such Fathers and their discourses upon other occasions do manifest their serious judgment to have been directly contrary to his pretences wherefore the Emperour of Constantinople in the Florentine Synod had good reason to decline such sayings for arguments for if saith he any of the Saints doth in an Epistle honour the Pope shall he take that as importing privileges 9. Good men commonly out of charitable simplicity meekness modesty and humility love of peace and aversness from contention are apt to yield to the encroachments of those who any-wise do excell them and when such men do yield others are ready to follow their example Bad men have little interest to resist and no heart to stand for publick good but rather strike in presently taking advantage by their compliance to drive a good market for themselves Hence so many of all sorts in all times did comply with Popes or did not obstruct them suffering them without great obstacle to raise their power 10. If in such cases a few wise men do apprehend the consequences of things yet they can doe little to prevent them They seldom have the courage with sufficient zeal to bustle against encroachments fearing to be overborn by its stream to lose their labour and vainly to suffer by it If they offer at resistence it is usually faint and moderate whereas power doth act vigorously and push it self forward with mighty violence so that it is not onely difficult to check it but dangerous to oppose it Ambiguity of words as it causeth many debates so yieldeth much advantage to the foundation and amplification of power for whatever is said of it will be interpreted in favour of it and will afford colour to its pretences Words innocently or carelesly used are by interpretation extended to signifie great matters or what you please For instance The word Bishop may import any kind of superintendency or inspection hence Saint Peter came to be reckoned Bishop of Rome because in virtue of his Apostolical Office he had inspection over that Church founded by him and might exercise some Episcopal acts The word Head doth signifie any kind of eminency the word Prince any priority the word to preside any kind of superiority or preeminence hence some Fathers attributing those names to Saint Peter they are interpreted to have thought him Sovereign in power over the Apostles And because some did give like terms to the Pope they infer his Superiority in power over all Bishops notwithstanding such Fathers did express a contrary judgment The word Successour may import any derivation of power hence because Saint Peter is said to have founded the Church of Rome and to have ordained the first Bishop there the Pope is called his Successour The word Authority doth often import any kind of influence upon the opinions or actions of men grounded upon eminence of place worth reputation or any such advantage Hence because the Pope of old sometimes was desired to interpose his authority they will understand him to have had right to command or judge in such cases although authority is sometimes opposed to command as where Livy saith that Evander did hold those places by authority rather than by command and Tacitus of the German Princes saith They are heard rather according to their authority of persuading than power of commanding The word Judge saith Canus is frequently used to signifie no more than I do think or conceive whereby he doth excuse divers Popes from having decreed a notable errour for Alexander III. says of them that they judged that after a matrimony contracted not consummated another may be valid that being dissolved Yet if the Pope is said to have judged so or so in any case it is alledged for a certain argument of proper Jurisdiction 11. There is a strange inchantment in words which being although with no great colour of reason assumed do work on the fancies of men especially of the weaker sort Of these power doth ever arrogate to it self such as are most operative by their force sustaining and extending it self So divers prevalent Factions did assume to themselves the name of Catholick and the Roman Church particularly hath appropriated that word to it self even so as to commit a Bull implying Rome and the Universe to be the same place and the perpetual canting of this Term hath been one of its most effectual charms to weak people I am a Catholick that is an Vniversal therefore all I hold is true this is their great Argument The words Successour of Peter Apostolick See Prima Sedes have been strongly urged for Arguments of Papal Authority the which have beyond their true force for indeed they signifie nothing had a strange efficacy upon men of understanding and wisedom 12. The Pope's power was much amplified by the importunity of persons condemned or extruded from their places whether upon just accounts or wrongfully and by faction for they finding no other more hopefull place of refuge and redress did often apply to him for what will not men doe whither will not they go in straits Thus did Marcion go to Rome and sue for admission to communion there So Fortunatus and Felicissimus in St. Cyprian being condemned in Africk did fly to Rome for shelter of which absurdity St. Cyprian doth so complain So likewise Martianus and Basilides in St. Cyprian being outed of their Sees for having lapsed from the Christian profession did fly to Stephen for succour to be restored So Maximus the Cynick went to Rome to get a confirmation of his election at Constantinople So Marcellus being rejected for Heterodoxy went thither to get attestation to his Orthodoxy of which St. Basil complaineth So Apiarius being condemned in Africk for his crimes did appeal to Rome And on the other side Athanasius being with great partiality condemned by the Synod of Tyre Paulus and other Bishops being extruded from their Sees for Orthodoxy St. Chrysostome being condemned and expelled by Theophilus and his complices Flavianus being deposed by Dioscorus and the Ephesine Synod Theodoret being condemned by the same did cry out for help from Rome Chelidonius Bishop of Resanon being deposed by Hilarius of Arles for crimes did fly to Pope Leo. Ignatius Patriarch of Constantinople being extruded from his See by Photius did complain to the Pope 13. All Princes are forward to heap honour on the Bishop of their Imperial City it seeming a disgrace to themselves that so near a relation be an inferiour to any other who is as it were their Spiritual Pastour who is usually by their special favour advanced The City it self and the Court will be restless in assisting him to climb Thus did the Bishop of Constantinople arise to that high pitch of honour and to be Second Patriarch who at first was a mean Suffragan to the Bishop of Heraclea this by the Synods of Constantinople and Chalcedon is assigned for the reason of his advancement And
how ready the Emperours were to promote the dignity of that Bishop we see by many of their Edicts to that purpose as particularly that of Leo. So for the honour of their City the Emperours usually did favour the Pope assisting him in the furtherance of his designs and extending his Privileges by their Edicts at home and Letters to the Eastern Emperours recommending their affairs So in the Synod of Chalcedon we have the Letters of Valentinian together with those of Placidia and of Eudoxia the Empresses to Theodosius in behalf of Pope Leo for retractation of the Ephesine Synod wherein they do express themselves engaged to maintain the honour of the Roman See Seeing that saith Placidia Mother of Theodosius it becometh us in all things to preserve the honour and dignity of this chief City which is the Mistress of all others So Pope Nicholas confesseth that the Emperours had extolled the Roman See with divers privileges had enriched it with gifts had enlarged it with benefits or benefices c. 14. The Popes had the advantage of being ready at hand to suggest what they pleased to the Court and thereby to procure his Edicts directed or dictated by themselves in their favour for extending their power or repressing any opposition made to their encroachments Baronius observeth that the Bishops of Constantinople did use this advantage for their ends for thus he reflecteth on the Edict of the Emperour Leo in favour of that See These things Leo but questionless conceived in the words of Acacius swelling with pride And no less unquestionably did the Popes conceive words for the Emperour in countenance of their Authority Such was the Edict of Valentinian in favour of Leo against Hilarius Bishop of Arles in an unjust cause as Binius confesseth who contested his Authority to undo what was done in a Gallicane Synod And we may thank Baronius himself for this Observation By this Reader thou understandest that when the Emperours ordained Laws concerning Religion they did it by transcribing and enacting the Laws of the Church upon the admonition of the Holy Bishops requiring them to doe their duty It was a notable Edict which Pope Hilarius alledgeth It was also decreed by the Laws of Christian Princes that whatsoever the Bishop of the Apostolick See should upon examination pronounce concerning Churches and their Governours c. should with reverence be received and strictly observed c. Such Edicts by crafty suggestions being at opportune times from easie and unwary Princes procured did hold not being easily reversed and the Power which the Pope once had obtained by them he would never part with fortifying it by higher pretences of Divine immutable right The Emperour Gratian having gotten the World under him did order the Churches to those who would communicate with Pope Damasus This and the like countenances did bring credit and authority to the Roman See 15. It is therefore no wonder that Popes being seated in the Metropolis of the Western Empire the head of all the Roman State should find interest sufficient to make themselves by degrees what they would be for they not onely surpassing the Provincial Bishops in wealth and repute but having power in Court who dared to pull a feather with them or to withstand their encroachments What wise man would not rather bear much than contest upon such disadvantages and without probable grounds of success 16. Princes who favoured them with such concessions and abetted their undertakings did not foresee what such encrease of power in time would arise to or suspect the prejudice thence done to Imperial Authority They little thought that in virtue thereof Popes would check and mate Princes or would claim superiority over them for the Popes at that time did behave and express themselves with modesty and respect to Emperours 17. Power once rooted doth find seasons and favourable junctures for its growth the which it will be intent to embrace The confusions of things the eruptions of Barbarians the straits of Emperours the contentions of Princes c. did all turn to account for him and in confusion of things he did snatch what he could to himself The declination and infirmity of the Roman Empire gave him opportunity to strengthen his interests either by closing with it so as to gain somewhat by its concession or by opposing it so as to head a Faction against it As he often had opportunity to promote the designs of Emperours and Princes so those did return to him encrease of Authority so they trucked and bartered together For when Princes were in straits or did need assistence from his reputation at home to the furtherance of their designs or support of their interest in Italy they were content to honour him and grant what he desired as in the case of Acacius which had caused so long a breach the Emperour to engage Pope Hormisdas did consent to his will And at the Florentine Synod the Emperour did bow to the Pope's terms in hopes to get his assistence against the Turks When the Eastern Emperours by his means chiefly were driven out of Italy he snatched a good part of it to himself and set up for a Temporal Prince When Princes did clash he by yielding countenance to one side would be sure to make a good market for himself for this pretended Successour to the Fisherman was really skilled to angle in troubled Waters They have been the incendiaries of Christendom the kindlers and fomenters of War And would often stir up Wars and inclining to the stronger part would share with the Conquerour as when he stirr'd up Charles against the Lombards They would upon spiritual pretence be interposing in all affairs He did oblige Princes by abetting their Cause when it was unjust or weak his spiritual Authority satisfying their Conscience whence he was sure to receive good acknowledgment and recompence As when he did allow Pepin's usurpation He pretended to dispose of Kingdoms and to constitute Princes reserving obeisance to himself Gregory VII granted to Robert Guislard Naples and Sicily beneficiario jure Innocent II. gave to Roger the title of King There is scarce any Kingdom in Europe which he hath not claimed the Sovereignty of by some pretence or other Princes sometime for quiet sake have desired the Pope's consent and allowance of things appertaining of right to themselves whence the Pope took advantage to claim an original right of disposing such things The proceeding of the Pope upon occasion of Wars is remarkable when he did enter League with a Prince to side with him in a War against another he did covenant to prosecute the Enemy with Spiritual Arms that is with Excommunications and Interdicts engaging his Confederates to use Temporal Arms. So making Ecclesiastical Censures tools of Interest When Princes were in difficulties by the mutinous disposition of Princes the emulation of Antagonists he would as served his interest interpose hooking in some advantage
the Pope with him in his actings He thereby might pretend to the first place of sitting and subscribing which kind of advantages it appeareth that some Bishops had in Synods by the virtue of the like substitution in the place of others but he thence could have no authoritative Presidency for that the Pope himself could by no delegation impart having himself no title thereto warranted by any Law or by any Precedent that depended on the Emperour's will or on the Election of the Fathers or on a tacit regard to personal eminence in comparison to others present This distinction Evagrius seemeth to intimate when he saith that the divine Cyril did administer it and the place of Celestine where a word seemeth to have fallen out and Zonaras more plainly doth express saying that Cyril Pope of Alexandria did preside over the Orthodox Fathers and also did hold the place of Celestine and Photius Cyril did supply the seat and the person of Celestine If any latter Historions do confound these things we are not obliged to comply with their ignorance or mistake Indeed as to Presidency there we may observe that sometime it is attributed to Cyril alone as being the first Bishop present and bearing a great sway sometimes to Pope Celestine as being in representation present and being the first Bishop of the Church in Order sometimes to both Cyril and Celestine sometimes to Cyril and Memnon Bishop of Ephesus who as being very active and having great influence on the proceedings are styled the Presidents and Rulers of the Synod The which sheweth that Presidency was a lax thing and no peculiarity in right or usage annexed to the Pope nor did altogether depend on his grant or representation to which Memnon had no title The Pope himself and his Legats are divers times in the Acts said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to sit together with the Bishops which confidence doth not well comport with his special right to Presidency Yea it is observable that the Oriental Bishops which with John of Antioch did oppose the Cyrillian Party in that Synod did charge on Cyril that he as if he lived in a time of Anarchy did proceed to all irregularity and that snatching to himself the Authority which neither was given him by the Canons nor by the Emperours Sanctions did rush on to all kind of disorder and unlawfulness whence it is evident that in the judgment of those Bishops among whom were divers worthy and excellent persons the Pope had no right to any authoritative Presidency This word Presidency indeed hath an ambiguity apt to impose on those who do not observe it for it may be taken for a privilege of Precedence or for Authority to govern things the first kind of presidence the Pope without dispute when present at a Synod would have had among the Bishops as being the Bishop of the first See as the Sixth Synod calleth him and the first of Priests as Justinian called him and in his absence his Legates might take up his Chair for in General Synods each See had its Chair assigned to it according to its order of dignity by custom And according to this sense the Patriarchs and chief Metropolitans are also often singly or conjunctly said to preside as sitting in one of the first Chairs But the other kind of Presidency was as those Bishops in their complaint against Cyril do imply and as we shall See in practice disposed by the Emperour as he saw reason although usually it was conferred on him who among those present in dignity did precede the rest this is that authority 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Syrian Bishops complained against Cyril for assuming to himself without the Emperour's warrant and whereof we have a notable Instance in the next General Synod at Ephesus For In the Second Ephesine Synod which in design was a General Synod lawfully convened for a publick cause of determining truth and settling peace in the Church but which by some miscarriages proved abortive although the Pope had his Legates there yet by the Emperour's order Dioscorus Bishop of Alexandria did preside We said Theodosius in his Epistle to him do also commit to thy godliness the authority and the preeminency of all things appertaining to the Synod now assembled and in the Synod of Chalcedon it is said of him that he had received the authority of all affairs and of judgment and Pope Leo I. in this Epistle to the Emperour saith that Dioscorus did challenge to himself the principal place insinuating a complaint that Dioscorus should be preferred before him although not openly contesting his right The Emperour had indeed some reason not to commit the Presidency to Pope Leo because he was looked upon as prejudiced in the cause having declared in favour of Flavianus against Eutyches whence Eutyches declined his Legate's interessing in the judgment of his cause saying they were suspected to him because they were entertained by Flavianus with great regard And Dioscorus being Bishop of the next See was taken for more indifferent and otherwise a person however afterward it proved of much integrity and moderation He did saith the Emperour shine by the grace of God both in honesty of life and orthodoxy of faith and Theodoret himself before those differences arose doth say of him that he was by common fame reported a man adorned with many other kinds of vertue and that especially he was celebrated for his moderation of mind It is true that the Legates of Pope Leo did take in dudgeon this preferment of Dioscorus and if we may give credence to Liberatus would not sit down in the Synod because the presession was not given to their Holy See and afterwards in the Synod of Chalcedon the Pope's Legate Paschasinus together with other Bishops did complain that Dioscorus was preferred before the Bishop of Constantinople but notwithstanding those ineffectual mutinies the Emperour's will did take place and according thereto Dioscorus had although he did not use it so wisely and justly as he should the chief managery of things It is to be observed that to other chief Bishops the Presidency in that Synod is also ascribed by virtue of the Emperour's appointment Let the most reverend Bishops say the Imperial Commissaries in the Synod of Chalcedon to whom the authoritative management of affairs was by the Royal Sovereignty granted speak why the Epistle of the most Holy Archbishop Leo was not read and You say they again to whom the power of judging was given and of Dioscorus Juvenalis Bishop of Jerusalem Thalassius of Caesarea Eusebius of Ancyra Eustathius of Beristus Basilius of Selencia it is by the same Commissioners said that they had recieved the authority and did govern the Synod which was then and Elpidius the Emperour's Agent in the Ephesine Synod it self did expresly style them Presidents and Pope Leo himself calleth them Presidents and Primates of the Synod Whence it
judgment as this even humane affairs are not to be trusted much less the integrity of the divine Law It is not reasonable that any person should have such a Prerogative which would be an engine of mischief for thereby bearing sway in general Assemblies of Bishops he would be enabled and irresistibly tempted to domineer over the world to abuse Princes and disturb States to oppress and enslave the Church to obstruct all Reformation to enact Laws to promote and establish Errours serviceable to his Interest the which effects of such power exercised by him in the Synod of Trent and in divers other of the later General Synods experience hath declared III. If the Pope were Sovereign of the Church the Legislative power wholly or in part would belong to him so far at least that no Synod or Ecclesiastical Consistory could without his consent determine or prescribe any thing His approbation would be required to give life and validity to their Decrees He should at least have a negative so that nothing might pass against his will This is a most essential ingredient of Sovereignty and is therefore claimed by the Pope who long hath pretended that no Decrees of Synods are valid without his consent and confirmation But the Decrees made by the Holy Popes of the chief See of the Roman Church by whose authority and sanction all Synods and holy Councils are strengthened and established why do you say that you do not receive and observe them Lastly as you know nothing is accounted valid or to be receiv'd in universal Councils but what the See of Saint Peter has approv'd so on the other side whatever she alone has rejected that onely is rejected We never read of any Synod that was valid unless it were confirm'd by the Apostolick authority We trust no true Christian is now ignorant that no See is above all the rest more oblig'd to observe the Constitution of each Council which the consent of the universal Church hath approv'd than the prime See which by its authority confirms every Synod and by continued moderating preserves them according to its principality c. But this pretence as it hath no ground in the Divine Law or in any old Canon or in primitive Custom so it doth cross the sentiments and practice of Antiquity for that in ancient Synods divers things were ordained without the Pope's consent divers things against his pleasure What particular or formal confirmation did Saint Peter yield to the Assembly at Jerusalem That in some of the first General Synods he was not apprehended to have any negative voice is by the very tenour and air of things or by the little regard expressed toward him sufficiently clear There is not in the Synodical Epistles of Nice or of Sardica any mention of his confirmation Interpretatively all those Decrees may be supposed to pass without his consent which do thwart these pretences for if these are now good then of old they were known and admitted for such and being such we cannot suppose the Pope willingly to have consented in derogation to them Wherefore the Nicene Canons establishing Ecclesiastical administrations without regard to him and in authority equalling other Metropolitans with him may be supposed to pass without his consent The Canons of the Second General Council and of all others confirming those as also the Canons of all Synods which advanced the See of Constantinople his Rival for Authority above its former state first to a proximity in Order then to an equality of Privileges with the See of Rome may as plainly contrary to his interest and spirit be supposed to pass without his consent And so divers Popes have affirmed if we may believe Pope Leo as I suppose the Canons of the Second Council were not transmitted to Rome they did therefore pass and obtain in practice of the Catholick Church without its consent or knowledge Pope Gregory I. saith that the Roman Church did not admit them wherein it plainly discorded with the Catholick Church which with all reverence did receive and hold them and in despight to the Canon of that Synod advancing the Royal City to that eminency Pope Gelasius I. would not admit it for so much as a Metropolitan See O proud insolency O contentious frowardness O rebellious contumacy against the Catholick Church and its peace Such was the humour of that See to allow nothing which did not sute with the interest of its Ambition But farther divers Synodical Decrees did pass expresly against the Pope's mind and will I pass over those at Tyre at Antioch at Ariminum at Constantinople in divers places of the East the which do yet evince that commonly there was no such Opinion entertained of this privilege belonging to the Pope and shall instance onely in General Synods In the Synod of Chalcedon equal privileges were assigned to the Bishop of Constantinople as the Bishop of Rome had this with a general concurrence was decreed and subscribed although the Pope's Legates did earnestly resist clamour and protest against it The Imperial Commissioners and all the Bishops not understanding or not allowing the Pope's negative voice And whereas Pope Leo moved with a jealousie that he who thus had obtained an equal rank with him should aspire to get above him did fiercely dispute exclaim inveigh menace against this Order striving to defeat it pretending to annull it labouring to depress the Bishop of Constantinople from that degree which both himself and his Legates in the Synod had acknowledged due to him In which endeavour divers of his Successours did imitate him Eusebius Bishop of Dorylaeum said I have willingly subscrib'd because I have read this Canon to the most holy Pope of Rome the Clergy of Constantinople being present and he receiv'd it Yet could not he or they accomplish their design the veneration of that Synod and consent of Christendom overbearing their opposition the Bishop of Constantinople sitting in all the succeeding General Synods in the second place without any contrast so that at length Popes were fain to acquiesce in the Bishop of Constantinople's possession of the second place in dignity among the Patriarchs In the Fifth General Synod Pope Vigilius did make a Constitution in most express terms prohibiting the condemnation of the three Chapters as they are called and the anathematization of persons deceased in peace of the Church We dare not our selves says he condemn Theodorus neither do we yield to have him condemn'd by any other and in the same Constitution he orders and decrees That nothing be said or done by any to the injury or discredit of Theodoret Bishop of Cyrus a man most approv'd in the Synod of Chalcedon and the same says he have the Decrees of the Apostolical See determined that no man pass a new judgment upon persons dead but leave them as death found them Lastly by that Constitution he specially provides that as he had before said nothing might
be derogated from persons dying in the peace and communion of the universal Church by his condemning that perverse opinion Yet did the Synod in smart terms reflecting on the Pope and giving him the lie not regarding his opinion or authority decree that persons deceased were liable to be anathematized they did anathematize Theodorus they did expresly condemn each of the Chapters they threatned deposition or excommunication on whoever should oppose their Constitutions they anathematize whoever doth not anathematize Theodorus But Pope Vigilius did refuse to approve their Doctrine and Sentence and therefore which was the case of many other Bishops as Baronius himself doth confess and argue was driven into banishment wherein he did expire Yet posterity hath embraced this Synod as a legitimate and valid General Synod and the Popes following did profess the highest reverence thereto equally with the preceding General Synods so little necessary is the Pope's consent or concurrence to the validity of Synodical definitions Upon this Baronius hath an admirable reflexion Here stay saith he O Reader and consider the matter attently Ay do so I pray That it is no new thing that some Synod in which the Pope was not even present by his Legates but did oppose it should yet obtain the title of an Oecumenical Synod whenas afterward the Pope's will did come in that it should obtain such a title So in the opinion of this Doctour the Pope can easily change the nature of things and make that become a General Synod which once was none yea which as it was held did not deserve the name of any Synod at all O the virtue of Papal Magick or rather O the Impudence of Papal Advocates The Canons of the sixth General Council exhibited by the Trullane or Quinisext Synod clearly and expresly do condemn several Doctrines and Practices of Rome I ask whether the Pope did confirm them they will to be sure as they are concerned to do answer No and indeed Pope Sergius as Anastasius in his Life reporteth did refuse them yet did they pass for legitimate in the whole Church for in their general Synod the second Nicene without contradiction one of them is alledged out of the very original paper wherein the Fathers had subscribed as a Canon of the Holy General Sixth Synod and avowed for such by the Patriarch Tarasius both in way of argument of defence and of profession in his Synodical Epistle to the Patriarchs where he saith that together with the divine doctrines of the Sixth Synod he doth also embrace the Canons enacted by it of which Epistle Pope Adrian in his Answer thereto doth recite a part containing those words and applaud it for Orthodox signifying no offence at his embracing the Trullane Canons And all those 102 Canons are again avowed by the Synod in their Antithesis to the Synod of Constantinople In fine if we believe Anastasius Pope John VII did being timorous out of humane frailty direct these Canons without amendment by two Metropolites to the Emperour that is he did admit them so as they stand But it may be instanced that divers Synods have asked the Popes consent for ratification of their Decrees and Acts. So the Fathers of the Second General Synod having in an Episstle to Pope Damasus and the Western Bishops declared what Constitutions they had made in the close speak thus In which things being legally and canonically settled by us we do exhort your reverence to acquiesce out of spiritual charity and fear of the Lord So the Synod of Chalcedon did with much respect ask from Pope Leo the confirmation of its Sanctions That you may know how that we have done nothing for favour or out of spite but as guided by the divine direction we have made known to you the force of all that has been done for your concurrence and for the confirmation and approbation of the things done Of the Fifth Synod Pope Leo II. saith that he agrees to what was determin'd in it and confirms it with the authority of the Blessed Saint Peter To these allegations we reply That it was indeed the manner of all Synods for notification of things and promulgation of their Orders for demonstration and maintenance of concord for adding weight and authority to their determinations for engaging all Bishops to a willing complyance in observing them for attestation to the common interest of all Bishops in the Christian truth and in the governance and edification of the Church having framed Decrees concerning the publick State to demand in fairest terms the consent to them of all Catholick Bishops who were absent from them to be attested by their subscription So did Constantine recommend the Nicene Decrees to all Bishops undertaking that they would assent to them So more expresly the Synod of Sardica in their Epistle to all Bishops of the Catholick Church Do ye also our brethren and fellow-ministers the more use diligence as being present in spirit with our Synod to yield consent by your subscription that concord may be preserved every where by all the fellow-ministers So did Pope Liberius request of the Emperour Constantius that the faith delivered at Nice might be confirmed by the subscription of all Bishops So did Athanasius procure a Synod at Alexandria to confirm the Decrees at Sardica and in Palestine concerning him So the Macedonian Bishops are said to have authorized their Agents to ratifie the faith of Consubstantiality Many such Instances occur in story by which it may appear that the Decrees of Synods concerning Faith or concerning any matters of common interest were presented to all Bishops and their consent requested or required because say the Roman Clergy in Saint Cyprian a decree cannot be firm which has not the consent of many Whence it is no wonder if any Synods did thus proceed toward so eminent a Bishop as was he of Rome that they should endeavour to give him satisfaction that they should desire to receive satisfaction from him of his conspiring with them in Faith of his willingness to comply in observing good Rules of Discipline that as every vote had force so the suffrage of one in so great dignity and reputation might adjoin some regard to their judgment The Pope's confirmation of Synods what was it in effect but a declaration of his approbation and assent the which did confirm by addition of Suffrage as those who were present by their Vote and those who were absent by their Subscription are said to confirm the Decrees of Councils every such consent being supposed to encrease the authority whence the number of Bishops is sometimes reckoned according to the subscriptions of Bishops absent as the Council of Sardica is sometimes related to consist of three hundred Bishops although not two hundred were present the rest concurring by subscription to its definitions Other Bishops in yielding their suffrage do
express it by I confirm I define I decree But the effectual confirmation of Synods which gave them the force of Laws was in other hands and depended on the Imperial Sanction So Justinian affirmeth generally All these things at diverse times following our above-named predecessours of pious memory corroborated and confirm'd by their Laws what each Council had determin'd and expell'd those Hereticks who attempted to resist the definitions of the aforesaid four Councils and disturb the Churches So particularly Constantine as Athanasius himself reporteth did by Law confirm the decrees of the great Synod of Nice and Eusebius assureth the same He saith he did ratifie the decrees of the Synod by his authority His Letters are extant which he sent about the world exhorting and requiring all to conform to the constitutions of that Synod So Theodosius did confirm the Decrees of the Second General Synod adding saith Sozomen his confirmatory suffrage to their decree the which he did at the supplication of the Fathers addressed to him in these terms We therefore do beseech your Grace that by your pious Edict the sentence of the Synod may be authorized that as by the letters of convocation you did honour the assembly so you would also confirm the result of things decreed The third General Synod was also confirmed by Theodosius II. as Justinian telleth us The above-named Theodosius of pious memory maintaining what had been so justly determined against Nestorius and his impiety made his condemnation valid And this Emperour asserted this privilege to himself as of right and custom belonging to him writing to the Synod in these words for all things so as may please God without contentiousness and with truth being examined ought so to be established by our religiousness The other abortive Synod at Ephesus was also confirmed by Theodosius Junior as Dioscorus in his defence alledged in these words which shew the manner of practice in this case We then indeed did judge the things which were judged the whole Synod did accord with us and gave verdict by their own votes and subscribed and they were referred to the most religious Emperour Theodosius of happy memory and he did by a general Law confirm all things judged by the Holy and Oecumenical Synod So also did the Emperour Marcian confirm the Synod of Chalcedon as himself telleth us in his Royal Edict We saith He having by the sacred Edict of our serenity confirmed the Holy Synod did warn all to cease from disputes about religion with which Pope Leo signifieth his compliance in these terms But because by all means your piety and most religious will must be obeyed I have willingly approv'd the Synodical Constitutions about confirming the Catholick faith and condemning hereticks which pleased me Justinian did with a witness confirm the Fifth Synod punishing with banishment all who would not submit to its determinations In the Sixth Synod the Fathers did request the Emperour according to custom to confirm its definitions in these very words To what we have determined set your Seal your royal ratification by writing and confirmation of them all by your sacred edicts and holy constitutions according to custom We beg that by your sacred signing of it you would give force to what we have defined and subscribed We intreat the power of our Lord guided by God's wisedom to confirm for the great strength and security of the orthodox faith the copies of our determination read in the hearing of your most serene Majesty and subscribed by us that they may be delivered to the five Patriarchal Sees with your pious confirmation Accordingly he did confirm that Synod by his Edict All these things being thus ordered by this Sixth Holy and Oecumenical Synod We decree that none whosoever trouble himself farther about this faith or advance any new inventions about it So he told Pope Leo II. in his Epistle to him This divine and venerable determination the Holy Synod has made to which we also have subscribed and confirmed it by our Religious Edicts exhorting all our people who have any Love for Christ to follow the faith there written Pope Leo tells his name-sake Leo the Emperour That he must always remember that the Imperial power was given him not onely to rule the world but more especially to protect the Church So by long prescription commencing with the first General Synod did the Emperour enjoy this Prerogative and with good reason He having an unquestionable warrant and obligation to promote the welfare of the Church designed by those Conventions He being the Guardian of Concord among his Subjects and protectour of their Liberties which might be nearly concerned in Conciliar proceedings the power of enacting Laws being an incommunicable branch of Sovereign Majesty He alone having power committed to him able to enforce the observance of Decrees without which they would in effect signifie little Because also commonly the Decrees of Synods did in a manner retrench some part of the Royal Prerogative translating or imparting to others Causes before appropriate to his Jurisdiction as in the case of appeals and of prohibiting addresses to Court ordered in the Sardican and other Synods of exempting Clergymen from secular Jurisdiction from taxes and common burthens c. which ought not to be done without his licence and authority So that the Oriental Bishops had good reason to tell the Emperour that it was impossible without his authority to order the matters under consideration with good law and order It is no-wise reasonable that any other should have this power it being inconsistent with publick peace that in one State there should be two Legislative powers which might clash the one with the other the one enacting Sanctions prejudicial to the interest and will of the other wherefore the Pope being then a Citizen of Rome and a Subject to the Emperour could not have a Legislative power or a negative Vote in Synods but that wholly did belong to the Imperial authority But it is opposed that some Synods have been declared invalid for want of the Pope's confirmation for to the Decrees of the Synod at Ariminum it was excepted that they were null because the Bishop of Rome did not consent to them There could not say the Roman Synod in Theodoret be any prejudice from the number of those assembled in Ariminum it being plain that neither the Roman Bishop whose suffrage ought first to have been received nor Vicentius who for so many years did hold his Episcopacy blameless nor others agreeing to such things To which exception I answer that 1. That which is alledged against the Synod of Ariminum is not the defect of the Pope's confirmation subsequent but of his consent and concurrence before it or in it which is very reasonable because he had a right to be present and to concur in all such Assemblies especially being so eminent a Bishop 2. The same exception every
to govern his Church and it was deemed a tyrannical enterprise for one to prescribe to another or to require obedience from his Collegues as otherwhere by many clear allegations out of that Holy man we have shewed For none of us saith he makes himself a Bishop of Bishops or by a tyrannical terrour compels his Collegues to a necessity of obedience since every Bishop according to the licence of his own liberty and power hath his own freedom and can no more be judged by another than he himself can judge another If any new Law were then introduced or Rule determined for common practice it was done by the general agreement of Bishops or of a preponderant multitude among them to whom the rest out of modesty and peaceableness did yield complyance according to that saying of the Roman Clergy to Saint Cyprian upon occasion of the debate concerning the manner of admitting lapsed persons to communion that Decree cannot be valid that hath not the consent of the major part The whole validity of such Laws or Rules did indeed wholly stand upon presumption of such consent whereby the common liberty and interest was secured 2. After that by the Emperours Conversion the Church enjoying secular protection and encouragement did reduce it self as into a closer union and freer communication of parts so into a greater uniformity of practice especially by means of great Synods wherein the Governours and Representatives of all Churches being called unto them and presumed to concur in them were ordained Sanctions taken to oblige all The Pope had indeed a greater stroke than formerly as having the first place in order or privilege of honour in Ecclesiastical Assemblies where he did concur yet had no casting Vote or real advantage above others all things passing by majority of Vote This is supposed as notorious in the Acts of the Fifth Council This say they is a thing to be granted that in Councils we must not regard the interlocution of one or two but those things which are commonly defined by all or by the most So also in the Fifth Council George Bishop of Constantinople saith that seeing every where the Council of the multitude or of the most doth prevail it is necessary to anathematize the persons before mentioned 3. Metropolitan Bishops in their Provinces had far more power and more surely grounded than the Pope had in the whole Church for the Metropolitans had an unquestioned authority settled by custome and confirmed by Synodical Decrees yet had not they a negative voice in Synodical debates for it is decreed in the Nicene Synod that in the designation of Bishops which was the principal affair in Ecclesiastical administrations plurality of votes should prevail It is indeed there said that none should be ordained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without the opinion of the Metropolitan but that doth not import a negative voice in him but that the transaction should not pass in his absence or without his knowledge advice and suffrage for so the Apostolical Canon to which the Nicene Fathers there did allude and refer meaning to interpret it doth appoint that the Metropolitan should doe nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without the opinion of all that is without suffrage of the most concluding all for surely that Canon doth not give to each one a negative voice And so the Synod of Antioch held soon after that of Nice which therefore knew best the sense of the Nicene Fathers and how the custome went doth interpret it decreeing that a Bishop should not be ordained without a Synod and the presence of the Metropolitan of the Province in which Synod yet they determine that plurality of votes should carry it no peculiar advantage in the case being granted to the Metropolitan Seeing therefore Provincial Synods were more ancient than General and gave pattern to them if we did grant the same privilege to the Pope in General Synods as the Metropolitans had in Provincial which yet we cannot do with any good reason or ground yet could not the Pope thence pretend to an authority of making Laws by himself 4. It was then a passable opinion that He as one was in reason obliged to yield to the common judgment of his Collegues and Brethren as the Emperour Constantius told Pope Liberius that the Vote of the plurality of Bishops ought to prevail 5. When Pope Julius did seem to cross a rule of the Church by communicating with persons condemned by Synods the Fathers of Antioch did smartly recriminate against him shewing that they were not to receive Canons from him 6. So far was the Pope from prescribing Laws to others that he was looked upon as subject to the Laws of the Church no less than others as the Antiochene Fathers did suppose complaining to Pope Julius of his transgressing the Canons the which charge he doth not repell by pretending exemption but by declaring that he had not offended against the Canons and retorting the accusation against themselves as the African Fathers supposed when they told Pope Celestine that he could not admit persons to communion which had been excommunicated by them that being contrary to a Decree of the Nicene Synod as the Roman Church supposed it self when it told Marcian that they could not receive him without leave of his Father who had rejected him This the whole tenour of Ecclesiastical Canons sheweth they running in a general style never excepting the Pope from the Laws prescribed to other Bishops 7. The privilege of dispensing with Laws had then been a strange hearing when the Pope could in no case dispense with himself for infringing them without bringing clamour and censure upon him 8. It had indeed been a vain thing for Synods with so much trouble and solemnity to assemble if the Pope without them could have framed Laws or could with a puff of his mouth have blown away the results of them by dispensation 9. Even in the growth of Papal Dominion and after that the Seeds of Roman ambition had sprouted forth to a great bulk yet had not Popes the heart or face openly to challenge power over the universal Canons or exemption from them but pretended to be the chief observers guardians defenders and executours of them or of the Rights and Privileges of Churches established by them for while any footsteps of ancient liberty simplicity and integrety did remain a claim of paramount or lawless Authority would have been very ridiculous and very odious Pope Zosimus I. denieth that he could alter the Privileges of Churches 10. If they did talk more highly requiring observance to their Constitutions it was either in their own precinct or in the Provinces where they had a more immediate jurisdiction or in some corners of the West where they had obtained more sway and in some cases wherein their words were backed with other inducements to obedience for the Popes were commonly wise
in their generations accommodating their discourse to the state of times and places 11. It is also to be observed that often the Popes are supposed to speak and constitute things by their own authority which indeed were done by Synods consisting of Western Bishops more closely adhering to that See in regard to those Regions the Decrees of which Synods were binding in those places not so much by virtue of Papal authority as proceeding from the consent of their own Bishops how ready soever He were to assume all to himself pretending those Decrees as precepts of the Apostolical See Whence all the Acts of modern Popes are invalid and do not oblige seeing they do not act in Synod but onely of their own Head or with the advice of a few Partizans about them men linked in common interest with them to domineer over the Church 12. Yet even in the Western Countries in later times their Decrees have been contested when they did seem plainly to clash with the old Canons or much to derogate from the Liberties of Churches nor have there wanted learned Persons in most times who so far as they durst have expressed their dislike of this Usurpation For although the Bishop of Rome be more venerable than the rest that are in the world upon account of the dignity of the Apostolical See yet it is not lawfull for him in any case to transgress the order of Canonical governance for as every Bishop who is of the Orthodox Church and the Spouse of his own See doth intirely represent the Person of our Saviour so generally no Bishop ought pragmatically to act any thing in anothers Diocese 13. In the times of Pope Nicolas I. the Greeks did not admit the Roman Decrees so that Pope in an Epistle to Photius complains that he did not receive the Decrees of the Popes whenas yet they ordained nothing but what the Natural what the Mosaical and what the Law of Grace required And in another Epistle he expostulates with him for saying that they neither had nor did observe the Decrees made by the Holy Popes of the Prime See of the Roman Church 14. That which greatly did advance the Papal Jurisdiction and introduced his Usurpation of obtruding new Decrees on the Church was the venting of the forged Decretal Epistles under the name of Old Popes which when the Pope did alledge for authorizing his practices the French Bishops endeavouring to assert their Privilege did alledge that they were not contained in the whole body of their Canons 15. The power of enacting and dispensing with Ecclesiastical Laws touching extoriour Discipline did of old belong to the Emperour And it was reasonable that it should because old Laws might not conveniently sute with the present state of things and the publick welfare because new Laws might condâ—ce to the good of Church and State the care of which is incumbent on him because the Prince is bound to use his power and authority to promote God's Service the best way of doing which may be by framing Orders conducible thereto Accordingly the Emperours did enact divers Laws concerning Ecclesiastical matters which we see extant in the Codes of Theodosius and Justinian These things saith the Council of Arles we have decreed to be presented to our Lord the Emperour desiring his clemency that if any thing be defective it may be supplied by his prudence if any thing be unreasonable it may be corrected by his judgment if any thing be reasonably ordered it may by his help the Divine Grace assisting be perfected We may observe that Popes did allow the validity of Imperial Laws Pope Gregory I. doth alledge divers Laws of divers Emperours concerning Ecclesiastical affairs as authentick and obligatory Rules of practice 16. Divers Churches had particular rights of independency upon all power without themselves Such as the Church of Cyprus in the Ephesine Synod did claim and obtain the confirmation of Such was the ancient Church of Britain before Austin came into England The Welch Bishops are consecrated by the Bishop of St. Davids and he himself in like manner is ordained by others who are as it were his Suffragans professing no manner subjection to any other Church V. Sovereign power immediately by it self when it pleaseth doth exercise all parts of Jurisdiction setting it self in the Tribunal or mediately doth execute it by others as its Officers or Commissioners Wherefore now the Pope doth claim and exercise Universal Jurisdiction over all the Clergy requiring of them engagements of strict submission and obedience to him demanding that all causes of weight be referred to him citing them to his bar examining and deciding their causes condemning suspending deposing censuring them or acquitting absolving restoring them as he seeth cause or findeth in his heart He doth encourage people to accuse their pastours to him in case any doth infringe his Laws and Orders But in general that originally or anciently the Pope had no such right appropriate to him may appear by arguments by cross instances by the insufficiency of all pleas and examples alledged in favour of this claim For 1. Originally there was not at all among Christians any Jurisdiction like to that which is exercised in Civil Governments and which now the papal Court doth execute For this our Saviour did prohibit and Saint Peter forbad the Presbyters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And St. Chrysostome affirmeth the Episcopal power not to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Ecclesiastical History doth inform us that such a Jurisdiction was lately introduced in the Church as by other great Bishops so especially by the Bishop of Rome For saith Socrates from that time the Episcopacy of Alexandria beyond the Sacerdotal Order did assume a domineering power in affairs The which kind of power the Roman Bishops had long before assumed for saith he the Episcopacy of Rome in like manner as that of Alexandria had already a great while agoe gone before in a domineering power beyond that of the Priesthood At first the Episcopal power did onely consist in Paternal admonition and correption of offenders exhorting and persuading them to amendment and in case they contumaciously did persist in disorderly behaviour bringing them before the Congregation and the cause being there heard and proved with its consent imposing such penance or correction on them as seemed needfull for the publick good or their particular benefit All things saith St. Cyprian shall be examin'd you being present and judging And elsewhere according to your divine suffrages according to your pleasure 2. Originally no one Bishop had any Jurisdiction over another or authority to judge his actions as St. Cyprian who well knew the current judgment and practice of his age in many places doth affirm who particularly doth reflect on the Roman Bishop for presuming to censure his brethren who dissented from him Let us all saith he
consent of the order and people be observed let him who is to preside over all be chosen by all And Pope Nicholas I. Because we know the custom of your Royal City that none can arrive at the top of the highest Priestly power without the assent of the Ecclesiastical people and the Emperour's suffrage Now in all these proceedings it is most apparent that there was no regard had to the Pope or any thought of him out of his particular Territory which he had as Metropolitan or afterward as Primate in some parts of the West No where else had he the least finger in the Constitution of a Bishop any where through the whole Church no not of the least Clergy-man When by Saint Cyprian so largely and punctually the manner of Constituting Bishops is declared when the Nicene Canons and those of other Synods do so carefully prescribe about the Ordination of them when so many reports concerning the Election of Bishops do occur in History why is there not a tittle of mention concerning any special interest of the Roman Bishops about them So true is that of Alb. Crantzius There was no need then of Apostolical confirmation it was sufficient if the Election were approv'd by the Archbishop now the Church of Rome has assum'd to her self the rights of all Churches We may by the way observe that in the first times they had not so much as an absolute power of ordaining a Presbyter in the Church of his own City without leave of the Clergy and People as may be inferred from that passage in Eusebius where Pope Cornelius relateth that the Bishop who ordained Novatus being hindred from doing it by all the Clergy and by many of the Laity did request that it might be granted to him to ordain that one person and he that so hardly could ordain one Priest in his own Church what authority could he have to constitute Bishops in all other Churches To all these Evidences of Fact our Adversaries do oppose some Instances of Popes meddling in the Constitution of Bishops as Pope Leo I saith that Anatolius did by the favour of his assent obtain the Bishoprick of Constantinople The same Pope is alledged as having confirmed Maximus of Antioch The same doth write to the Bishop of Thessalonica his Vicar that he should confirm the Elections of Bishops by his authority He also confirmed Donatus an African Bishop we will that Donatus preside over the Lord's flock upon condition that he remember to send us an account of his faith Also Gregory I. doth complain of it as of an inordinate Act that a Bishop of Salonae was ordained without his knowledge Pope Damasus did confirm the Ordination of Peter Alexandrinus The Alexandrians saith Sozomen did render the Churches to Peter being returned from Rome with the Letters of Damasus which confirmed both the Nicene Decrees and his Ordination But what I pray doth Confirmation here signifie but approbation for did he otherwise confirm the Nicene Decrees did they need other confirmation To the former Instances we answer that being well considered they do much strengthen our Argument in that they are so few so late so lame so impertinent for if the Pope had enjoyed a power of constituting Bishops more instances of its exercise would have been producible indeed it could not be but that History would have been full of them the constitution of Bishops being a matter of continual use and very remarkable At least they might have found one Instance or other to alledge before the time of that busie Pope Leo in whose time and by whose means Papal Authority began to overflow its banks And those which they produce do no-wise reach home to the point Anatolius did obtain the Bishoprick of Constantinople by the help of the Emperour and by the assent of the Pope's favour what then Anatolius being put into that See in the room of Flavianus by the influence of Dioscorus whose Responsal he had been and having favoured the Eutychian Faction Pope Leo might thence have had a fair colour to disavow him as uncapable of that Function and Dignity he being so obnoxious both having such a flaw in his Ordination and having been guilty of great faults adherence to the party of Dioscorus and irregularly ordaining the Bishop of Antioch but he out of regard to the Emperour's intervention did acknowledge Anatolius for Bishop this was the favourable assent with which he upbraideth Anatolius having displeased him and what doth this signifie Again Pope Leo did not reject Maximus Bishop of Antioch from communion nor disclaimed his Ordination although liable to exception what then is this a confirmation of him No such matter it was onely which in such a vixonely Pope was a great favour a forbearance to quarrel with him as not duely ordained which any other Bishop might have done If a Pope had a flaw in his Ordination another Bishop might refuse him Again Pope Leo did injoin the Bishop of Thessalonica to confirm Ordinations what is that to the purpose It belonged to that Bishop as a Metropolitan by the Canons to confirm those in his Province or as a Primate to confirm those in his Diocese It belonged to him as the Pope's Vicar in those Territories to which the Pope had stretched his Jurisdiction to execute the Pope's Orders but what is this to Universal Authority It is certain that Illyricum was then in a more special manner subjected to the Pope's Jurisdiction than any of the other Eastern Churches what therefore he did there cannot be drawn into consequence as to other places The same may be said in answer to the complaint of Pope Gregory and to any the like Instances Moreover surreptitious presumptuous pragmatical intrusions or usurpations of power do not suffice to found a right in this or any other case to which purpose and wholly to invalidate any such pleas these Observations may be considered 1. There do occur divers Instances of Bishops who did meddle in Ordinations of other Bishops so as to bear great stroke in constituting them who did not thereby pretend to Universal Jurisdiction and it would be extremely ridiculous thence to infer they had any reasonable claim thereto Thus it was objected to Athanasius that he presum'd to ordain in Cities which did not belong to him Eusebius of Constantinople did obtrude Eusebius Emissenus to be Bishop of Alexandria Eustathius of Antioch did ordain Evagrius Bishop of Constantinople Euzoius delivered unto Lucius the Bishoprick of Alexandria Lucifer a Sardinian Bishop did ordain Paulinus Bishop of Antioch they for a Salvo say as the Pope's Legate but upon what ground or testimony why did not Historians tell us so much The Pope had then been hissed at if he had sent Legates about such errands it was indeed out of presumption and pragmatical zeal to serve a party then ordinary in persons addicted to all parties right and wrong it not being
of Rome under Pope Silvester of Rome under Sixtus III. but they are palpably spurious and the learned among them confess it But antiquity was not of this mind for it did suppose him no less obnoxious to judgment and correction than other Bishops if he should notoriously deviate from the faith or violate canonical discipline The Canons generally do oblige Bishops without exception to duty and upon defailance to correction why is not he excepted if to be excused or exempted It was not questioned of old but that a Pope in case he should notoriously depart from the faith or notably infringe discipline might be excommunicated the attempting it upon divers occasions do shew their opinion although it often had not effect because the cause was not just and plausible the truth and equity of the case appearing to be on the Pope's side St. Isidore Pelusiota denieth of any Bishop's office that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an uncontrollable government In the times of Polycrates and Pope Victor the whole Eastern Church did forbear communion with the Pope Firmilian told Pope Stephanus that by conceiting he might excommunicate all other Bishops he had excommunicated himself The Fathers of the Antiochene Synod did threaten to excommunicate and depose Pope Julius They did promise to Julius peace and communion if he did admit the deposition of those whom they had expelled and the constitution of those whom they had ordained but if he did resist their decrees they denounced the contrary The Oriental Bishops at Sardica did excommunicate and depose him St. Hilary did anathematize Pope Liberius upon his defection to the Arians Dioscorus did attempt to excommunicate Pope Leo. Acacius of Constantinople renounced the communion of Pope Felix Timotheus Aelurus cursed the Pope The African Bishops did Synodically excommunicate Pope Vigilius Pope Anastasius was rejected by his own Clergy Pope Constantine by the people and so was Pope Leo VIII Divers Bishops of Italy and Illyricum did abstain from the Pope's communion for a long time because they did admit the fifth Synod Photius did excommunicate and depose Pope Nicholas I. Maurus Bishop of Ravenna did anathematize Pope Vitalianus The Emperour Otho II. having with good advice laboured to reclaim Pope John XII without effect did indict a Council calling together the Bishops of Italy by the judgment of whom the life of that wicked man should be judged and the issue was that he was deposed Pope Nicholas I. desired to be judged by the Emperour The fifth Synod did in general terms condemn Pope Vigilius and the Emperour Justinian did banish him for not complying with the decrees of it The sixth and seventh General Synods did anathematize Honorius by name when he was dead because his heresie was not before confuted and they would have served him so if he had been alive Divers Synods that of Worms of Papia of Brescia of Mentz of Rome c. did reject Pope Gregory VII Pope Adrian himself in the VIII Synod so called did confess that a Pope being found deviating from the faith might be judged as Honorius was Gerbertus afterward Pope Sylvester II. did maintain that Popes might be held as Ethnicks and Publicans if they did not hear the Church The Synod of Constance did judge and depose three Popes The Synod of Basil did depose Pope Eugenius affirming that The Catholick Church hath often corrected and judged Popes when they either err'd from the faith or by their ill manners became notoriously scandalous to the Church The practice of Popes to give an account of their faith when they entred upon their office to the other Patriarchs and chief Bishops approving themselves thereby worthy and capable of communion doth imply them liable to judgment Of the neglect of which practice Euphemius Bishop of Constantinople did complain Of this we have for example the Synodical Epistles of Pope Gregory I. XII To the Sovereign in Ecclesiastical affairs it would belong to define and decide controversies in faith discipline moral practice so that all were bound to admit his definitions decisions interpretations He would be the supreme Interpreter of the divine law and Judge of controversies No point or question of moment should be decided without his cognizance This he therefore doth pretend to taking upon him to define points and requiring from all submission to his determinations Nor doth he allow any Synods to decide questions But the ancients did know no such thing In case of Contentions they had no recourse to his judgment they did not stand to his opinion his authority did not avail to quash disputes They had recourse to the Holy Scriptures to Catholick Tradition to reason they disputed and discussed points by dint of argument Irenaeus Tertullian Vincentius Lirinensis and others discoursing of the methods to resolve points of Controversie did not reckon the Pope's authority for one Divers of the Fathers did not scruple openly to dissent from the opinions of Popes nor were they wondred at or condemned for it So Saint Paul did withstand Saint Peter So Polycarpus dissented from Pope Elutherius So Polycrates from Pope Victor So St. Cyprian from Pope Stephen So Dionysius Alex. from Pope Stephen all which persons were renowned for wisedom and piety in their times Highest Controversies were appeased by Synods out of the Holy Scripture Catholick Tradition the Analogy of faith and common Reason without regard to the Pope Divers Synods in Africk and Asia defined the Point about rebaptization without the Pope's leave and against his opinion The Synod of Antioch condemned the doctrine of Paulus Samosatenus without intervention of the Pope before they gave him notice In the Synod of Nice the Pope had very small stroke The General Synod of Const. declared the Point of the Divinity of the H. Ghost against Macedonius without the Pope who did no more than afterward consent This the Synod of Chalcedon in their compellation to the Emperour Marcian did observe The Fathers met in Sardica to suppress the reliques of Arianism communicated their decrees to the Eastern Bishops and they who here discovered the pestilence of Apolinarius made known theirs to the Western The Synod of Africk defined against Pelagius before their informing Pope Innocentius thereof not seeking his judgment but desiring his consent to that which they were assured to be truth Divers Popes have been incapable of deciding Controversies themselves having been erroneous in the questions controverted as Pope Stephanus in part Pope Liberius P. Felix P. Vigilius P. Honorius c. And in our opinion all Popes for many ages It is observable how the Synod of Chalcedon in their allocution to the Emperour Marcian do excuse P. Leo for expounding the faith in his Epistle the which it seems some did reprehend as a novell method disagreeable to the Canons Let not them say they object to us the Epistle of the marvellous Prelate
as well in the places and bounds of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as of Secular Empire Wherefore Saint Peter's Monarchy reason requiring might be cantonized into divers spiritual Supremacies and as other Ecclesiastical Jurisdictions have been chopp'd and chang'd enlarged or diminished removed and extinguished so might that of the Roman Bishop The Pope cannot retain power in any State against the will of the Prince he is not bound to suffer correspondences with Foreigners especially such who apparently have interests contrary to his honour and the good of his people 5. Especially that might be done if the continuance of such a Jurisdiction should prove abominably corrupt or intolerably grievous to the Church 6. That power is defectible which according to the nature and course of things doth sometime fail But the Papal Succession hath often been interrupted by contingencies of Sedition Schism Intrusion Simoniacal Election Deposition c. as before shewed and is often interrupted by Vacancies from the death of the Incumbents 7. If leaving their dubious and false suppositions concerning Divine Institution Succession to Saint Peter c. we consider the truth of the case and indeed the more grounded plea of the Pope that Papal preeminence was obtained by the wealth and dignity of the Roman City and by the collation or countenance of the Imperial authority then by the defect of such advantages it may cease or be taken away for when Rome hath ceased to be the Capital City the Pope may cease to be Head of the Church When the Civil powers which have succeeded the Imperial each in its respective Territory are no less absolute than it they may take it away if they judge it fit for whatever power was granted by humane Authority by the same may be revoked and what the Emperour could have done each Sovereign power now may doe for it self An indefectible power cannot be settled by man because there is no power ever extant at one time greater than there is at another so that whatever power one may raise the other may demolish there being no bounds whereby the present time may bind all posterity However no humane Law can exempt any Constitution from the providence of God which at pleasure can dissolve whatever man hath framed And if the Pope were devested of all adventitious power obtained by humane means he would be left very bare and hardly would take it worth his while to contend for Jurisdiction 8. However or whencesoever the Pope had his Authority yet it may be forfeited by defects and defaults incurred by him If the Pope doth encroach on the rights and liberties of others usurping a lawless domination beyond reason and measure they may in their own defence be forced to reject him and shake off his yoke If he will not be content to govern otherwise than by infringing the Sacred Laws and trampling down the inviolable Privileges of the Churches either granted by Christ or established by the Sanctions of General Synods he thereby depriveth himself of all Authority because it cannot be admitted upon tolerable terms without greater wrong of many others whose right out-weigheth his and without great mischief to the Church the good of which is to be preferred before his private advantage This was the Maxime of a great Pope a great stickler for his own dignity for when the Bishop of Constantinople was advanced by a General Synod above his ancient pitch of dignity that Pope opposing him did say that whoever doth affect more than his due doth lose that which properly belonged to him the which Rule if true in regard to another's case may be applied to the Pope for with what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged and with what measure ye mete it shall be measured to you again On such a supposition of the Papal encroachment we may return his words upon him It is too proud and immoderate a thing to stretch beyond ones bounds and in contempt of antiquity to be willing to invade other mens right and to oppose the Primacies of so many Metropolitans on purpose to advance the dignity of one For the privileges of Churches being instituted by the Canons of the holy Fathers and fixt by the Decrees of the venerable Synod of Nice cannot be pluckt up by any wicked attempt nor altered by any innovation Far be it from me that I should in any Church infringe the Decrees of our Ancestours made in favour of my Fellow-priests for I do my self injury if I disturb the rights of my brethren The Pope surely according to any ground of Scripture or Tradition or ancient Law hath no Title to greater Principality in the Church than the Duke of Venice hath in that State Now if the Duke of Venice in prejudice to the publick right and liberty should attempt to stretch his power to an absoluteness of command or much beyond the bounds allowed him by the constitution of that Common-wealth he would thereby surely forfeit his Supremacy such as it is and afford cause to the State of rejecting him the like occasion would the Pope give to the Church by the like demeanour 9. The Pope by departing from the Doctrine and Practice of Saint Peter would forfeit his Title of Successour to him for in such a case no succession in place or in name could preserve it The Popes themselves had swerved and degenerated from the example of Peter They are not the Sons of the Saints who hold the places of the Saints but they that doe their works Which place is rased out of St. Hierome They have not the inheritance of Peter who have not the faith of Peter which they tear asunder by ungodly division So Gregory Nazianzene saith of Athanasius that he was Successour of Mark no less in piety than presidency the which we must suppose to be properly succession otherwise the Mufti of Constantinople is Successour to St. Andrew of St. Chrysostome c. the Mufti of Jerusalem to St. James If then the Bishop of Rome instead of teaching Christian Doctrine doth propagate Errours contrary to it If instead of guiding into Truth and Godliness he seduceth into Falshood and Impiety If instead of declaring and pressing the Laws of God he delivereth and imposeth Precepts opposite prejudicial destructive of God's Laws If instead of promoting genuine Piety he doth in some instances violently oppose it If instead of maintaining true Religion he doth pervert and corrupt it by bold Defalcations by Superstitious additions by Foul mixtures and alloys If he coineth new Creeds Articles of Faith new Scriptures new Sacraments new Rules of Life obtruding them on the Consciences of Christians If he conformeth the Doctrines of Christianity to the Interests of his Pomp and Profit making gain godliness If he prescribe Vain Profane Superstitious ways of Worship turning Devotion into Foppery and Pageantry If instead of preserving Order and Peace he fomenteth Discords and Factions in the Church being a Make-bate and Incendiary among
Rome This hath been the Doctrine of divers Popes Which not onely the Apostolical Prelate but any other Bishop may doe viz. discriminate and severe any men and any place from the Catholick communion according to the rule of that fore-condemned heresie Faith is universal common to all and belongs not onely to Clergymen but also to Laicks and even to all Christians Therefore the sheep which are committed to the cure of their Pastour ought not to reprehend him unless he swerve and go astray from the right faith 15. That this was the current opinion common practice doth shew there being so many instances of those who rejected their Superiours and withdrew from their communion in case of their maintaining errours or of their disorderly behaviour such practice having been approved by General and Great Synods as also by divers Popes When Nestorius Bishop of Constantinople did introduce new and strange Doctrine divers of his Presbyters did rebuke him and withdraw communion from him which proceeding is approved in the Ephesine Synod Particularly Charisius did assert this proceeding in those remarkable words presented to that same Synod 'T is the wish and desire of all well affected persons to give always all due honour and reverence especially to their spiritual Fathers and Teachers but if it should so happen that they who ought to teach should instill unto those who are set under them such things concerning the faith as are offensive to the ears and hearts of all men then of necessity the order must be inverted and they who teach wrong Doctrine must be rebuked of those who are their inferiours Pope Celestine I. in that case did commend the people of Constantinople deserting their Pastour Happy flock said he to whom the Lord did afford to judge about its own Pasture St. Hierome did presume to write very briskly and smartly in reproof of John Bishop of Hierusalem in whose Province he a simple Presbyter did reside Who makes a schism in the Church we whose whole house in Bethlehem communicate with the Church or thou who either believest aright and proudly concealest the truth or art of a wrong belief and really makest a breach in the Church Art thou onely the Church and is he who offendeth thee excluded from Christ Malchion Presbyter of Antioch disputed against Paulus Samosatenus his Bishop Beatus Presbyter confuted his Bishop Elipandus of Toledo But if the Rectour swerve from the faith he is to be reproved by those who are under him 16. The case is the same of the Pope for if other Bishops who are reckoned Successours of the Apostles and Vicars of Christ within their precinct if other Patriarchs who sit in Apostolical Sees and partake of a like extensive Jurisdiction by incurring heresie or schism or committing notorious disorder and injustice may be deprived of their Authority so that their Subjects may be obliged to forsake them then may the Pope lose his for truth and piety are not affixed to the Chair of Rome more than to any other there is no ground of asserting any such Privilege either in Holy Scripture or in old Tradition there can no promise be alledged for it having any probable shew that of Oravi pro te being a ridiculous pretence it cannot stand without a perpetual miracle there is in fact no appearance of any such miracle from the ordinary causes of great errour and impiety that is ambition avarice sloth luxury the Papal state is not exempt yea apparently it is more subject to them than any other all Ages have testified and complained thereof 17. Most eminent persons have in such cases withdrawn communion from the Pope as other-where we have shewed by divers Instances 18. The Canon Law it self doth admit the Pope may be judged if he be a Heretick Because he that is to judge all persons is to be judged of none except he be found to be gone astray from the faith The supposition doth imply the possibility and therefore the case may be put that he is such and then he doth according to the more current Doctrine ancient and modern cease to be a Bishop yea a Christian Hence no obedience is due to him yea no communion is to be held with him 19. This in fact was acknowledged by a great Pope allowing the condemnation of Pope Honorius for good because he was erroneous in point of Faith for saith he in that which is called the Eighth Synod although Honorius was anathematized after his death by the Oriental Bishops it is yet well known that he was accused for heresie for which alone it is lawfull for inferiours to rise up against superiours Now that the Pope or Papal succession doth pervert the truth of Christian Doctrine in contradiction to the Holy Scripture and Primitive Tradition that he doth subvert the practice of Christian piety in opposition to the Divine commands that he teacheth falshoods and maintaineth impieties is notorious in many particulars some whereof we shall touch We justly might charge him with all those extravagant Doctrines and Practices which the high flying Doctours do teach and which the fierce Zealots upon occasion do act for the whole succession of Popes of a long time hath most cherished and encouraged such folks looking squintly on others as not well affected to them But we shall onely touch those new and noxious or dangerous positions which great Synods managed and confirmed by their Authority have defined or which they themselves have magisterially decreed or which are generally practised by their influence or countenance It is manifest that the Pope doth support and cherish as his special Favourites the Venters of wicked Errours such as those who teach the Pope's infallibility his power over temporal Princes to cashier and depose them to absolve subjects from their allegiance the Doctrine of equivocation breach of faith with hereticks c. the which Doctrines are heretical as inducing pernicious practice whence whoever doth so much as communicate with the maintainers of them according to the principles of ancient Christianity are guilty of the same crimes The Holy Scripture and Catholick Antiquity do teach and injoin us to worship and serve God alone our Creatour forbidding us to worship any Creature or Fellow-servant even not Angels For I who am a Creature will not endure to worship one like to me But the Pope and his Clients do teach and charge us to worship Angels and dead men yea even to venerate the reliques and dead bodies of the Saints The Holy Scripture teacheth us to judge nothing about the present or future state of men absolutely before the time untill the Lord come who will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of hearts and then each man shall have praise of God But the Pope notoriously in repugnance to those precepts anticipating God's judgment and arrogating to himself a knowledge requisite thereto doth presume to determine
Scripture And also receives and venerates with the like pious respect and reverence the Traditions themselves which have been preserved by continual succession in the Catholick Church Among which Traditions they reckon all the tricks and trumpery of their Mass-service together with all their new notions about Purgatory Extreme unction c. He also used several ceremonies as mystical benediction lights incensings garments and many other such things from Apostolical discipline and tradition The Scriptures affirm themselves to be written for common instruction comfort edification in all piety they do therefore recommend themselves to be studyed and searched by all people as the best and surest means of attaining knowledge and finding truth The fathers also do much exhort all people even women and girles constantly to reade and diligently to study the Scriptures But the Pope doth keep them from the people locked up in Languages not understood by them prohibiting Translations of them to be made or used The Scripture teacheth and common sense sheweth and the Fathers do assert nothing indeed more frequently or more plainly that all necessary points of faith and good morality are with sufficient evidence couched in Holy Scripture so that a man of God or pious men may thence be perfectly furnished to every work But they contrary-wise blaspheme the Scriptures as obscure dangerous c. Common sense dictateth that devotions should be performed with understanding and affection and that consequently they should be in a known tongue And Saint Paul expresly teacheth that it is requisite for private and publick edification from this Doctrine of Paul it appears that it is better for the edification of the Church that publick prayers which are said in the audience of the people should be said in a tongue common to the Clergy and the people than that they should be said in Latin All ancient Churches did accordingly practise and most others do so beside those which the Pope doth ride But the Pope will not have it so requiring the publick Liturgy to be celebrated in an unknown tongue and that most Christians shall say their devotions like Parrots He anathematizeth those who think the Mass should be celebrated in a vulgar tongue that is all those who are in their right wits and think it fit to follow the practice of the ancient Church The Holy Scripture teacheth us that there is but one Head of the Church and the Fathers do avow no other as we have otherwhere shewed But the Pope assumeth to himself the headship of the Church affirming all power and authority to be derived from him into the subject members of the Church We decree that the Roman Pontife is the true Vicar of Christ and the head of the whole Church The Scripture declareth that God did institute marriage for remedy of incontinency and prevention of sin forbidding the use of it to none who should think it needfull or convenient for them reckoning the prohibition of it among heretical doctrines implying it to be imposing a snare upon men But the Pope and his Complices do prohibit it to whole Orders of men Priests c. engaging them into dangerous vows Our Lord forbiddeth any marriage lawfully contracted to be dissolved otherwise than in case of adultery But the Pope commandeth Priests married to be divorced And that marriages contracted by such persons should be dissolved He dissolveth matrimony agreed by the profession of monkery of one of the espoused If any shall say that matrimony confirmed not consummate is not dissolved by the solemn profession of religion of either party let him be Anathema Our Saviour did institute and enjoin us under pain of damnation if we should wilfully transgress his order to eat of his body and drink of his bloud in participation of the Holy Supper The Fathers did accordingly practise with the whole Church till late times But notwithstanding Christ's institution as they express it Papal Synods do prohibit all Laymen and Priests not celebrating to partake of Christ's bloud so maiming and perverting our Lord's Institution and yet they decline to drink the bloud of our redemption In defence of which practice they confound body and bloud and under a curse would oblige us to believe that one kind doth contain the other or that a part doth contain the whole Whereas our Lord saith that whoso eateth his flesh and drinketh his bloud hath eternal life and consequently supposeth that bad men do not partake of his body and bloud yet they condemn this assertion under a curse The Holy Scripture and the Fathers after it commonly do call the elements of the Eucharist after consecration bread and wine affirming them to retain their nature But the Popish Cabal anathematizeth those who say that bread and wine do then remain If any shall say that in the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist the substance of bread and wine remain let him be Anathema The nature of the Lord's Supper doth imply communion and company but they forbid any man to say that a Priest may not communicate alone so establishing the belief of non-sense and contradiction The Holy Scripture teacheth us that our Lord hath departed and is absent from us in body untill that he shall come to judge which is called his presence that heaven whither he ascended and where he sitteth at God's right hand must hold him till the times of the restitution of all things But the Pope with his Lateran and Tridentine Complices draw him down from heaven and make him corporally present every day in numberless places here The Scripture teacheth us that our Lord is a man perfectly like to us in all things But the Pope and his adherents make him extremely different from us as having a body at once present in innumerable places insensible c. devested of the properties of our body thereby destroying his humane nature and in effect agreeing with Eutyches Apollinarius and other such pestilent Hereticks The Scripture representeth him born once for us but they affirm him every day made by a Priest uttering the words of consecration as if that which before did exist could be made as if a man could make his Maker The Scripture teacheth that our Lord was once offered for expiation of our sins but they pretend every day to offer him up as a propitiatory Sacrifice These devices without other foundation than a figurative expression which they resolve to expound in a proper sense although even in that very matter divers figurative expressions are used as they cannot but acknowledge they with all violence and fierceness obtrude upon the belief as one of the most necessary and fundamental Articles of the Christian Religion The Scripture teacheth us humbly to acknowledge the rewards assigned by God to be gratuitous and free and that we after we have done all must acknowledge our selves unprofitable
which Conclusions it is evident That the Apostles themselves would not be able to understand many of them That ancient Fathers did never think any thing about them That divers of them consist in application of artificial terms and phrases devised by humane subtilty That divers of them are in their own nature disputable were before disputed by wise men and will ever be disputed by those who freely use their judgment That there was no need of defining many of them That they blindly lay about them condemning and cursing they know not who Fathers Schoolmen Divines c. who have expresly affirmed points so damned by them That many Truths are uncharitably back'd with Curses which disparageth them seeing a man may err pardonably 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in many things we offend all For instance what need was there of defining what need of cursing those who think concupiscence to be truly and properly sin upon Saint Paul's Authority calling it so That Adam presently upon his transgression did lose the sanctity and justice in which he was constituted What need of cursing those who say that men are justified by the sole remission of sins according to Saint Paul's notion and use of the word Justification What need of cursing those who say the grace of God by which we are justified is onely the favour of God whereas it is plain enough that God's grace there in Saint Paul doth signifie nothing else applied to that case Or that Faith is nothing else but a reliance in God's mercy remitting sins for Christ seeing it is plain that Saint Paul doth by Faith chiefly mean the belief of that principal point of the Gospel Or that good works do not cause an encrease of justification seeing Saint Paul doth exclude justification by works and it is a free work of God uncapable of degrees Or that after remission of sin in justification a guilt of paying temporal pain doth abide Or that a man cannot by his works merit encrease of grace and glory and eternal life seeing a man is not to be blamed who doth dislike the use of so sawcy a word the which divers good men have disclaimed What need of cursing those who do not take the Sacraments to be precisely Seven or who conceive that some one of their seven may not be truly and properly a Sacrament seeing the word Sacrament is ambiguous and by the Fathers applied to divers other things and defined generally by St. Austin Signum rei sacrae and that before Peter Lombard ever did mention that number What need of damning those who do conceive the Sacraments equal in dignity What need of defining that Sacraments do confer grace ex opere operato which is an obscure Scholastical phrase What need of cursing those who say that a Character is not impressed in the soul of those who take Baptism Confirmation or Orders seeing what this Character is or this spiritual and indeleble mark they do not themselves well understand or agree What need of cursing those who do not think that the validity of Sacraments and consequently the assurance of our being Christians dependeth on the Intention of the Minister What need of cursing those who think that a Pastour of the Church may change the Ceremonies of administring the Sacraments seeing St. Cyprian often teacheth that every Pastour hath full authority in such cases within his own precinct What need of defining the Second Book of Maccabees to be Canonical against the common opinion of the Fathers most expresly of St. Austin himself of the most learned in all Ages of Pope Gelasius himself in decret which the authour himself calling his work an Epitome and asking pardon for his errours disclaimeth and which common sense therefore disclaimeth Their new Creed of Pius IV. containeth these novelties and heterodoxies 1. Seven Sacraments 2. Trent Doctrine of Justification and Original sin 3. Propitiatory Sacrifice of the Mass. 4. Transubstantiation 5. Communicating under one kind 6. Purgatory 7. Invocation of Saints 8. Veneration of Reliques 9. Worship of Images 10. The Roman Church to be the Mother and Mistress of all Churches 11. Swearing Obedience to the Pope 12. Receiving the Decrees of all Synods and of Trent A DISCOURSE Concerning the UNITY OF THE CHURCH By ISAAC BARROW D. D. late Master of Trinity College in Cambridge Aug. de Bapt. 3. Non habet Charitatem Dei qui Ecclesiae non diligit Vnitatem LONDON Printed for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhill 1683. A DISCOURSE Concerning the UNITY OF THE CHURCH EPHES. 4.4 One Body and one Spirit THE Vnity of the Church is a Point which may seem somewhat speculative and remote from Practice but in right Judgments it is otherwise many Duties depending upon a true notion and consideration of it so that from ignorance or mistake about it we may incur divers offences or omissions of Duty hence in Holy Scripture it is often proposed as a considerable Point and usefull to Practice And if ever the Consideration of it were needfull it is so now when the Church is so rent with Dissentions for our satisfaction and direction about the Questions and Cases debated in Christendom for on the Explication of it or the true Resolution wherein it doth consist the Controversies about Church-Government Heresie Schism Liberty of Conscience and by consequence many others do depend yea indeed all others are by some Parties made to depend thereon Saint Paul exhorting the Ephesians his disciples to the maintenance of Charity and Peace among themselves doth for inducement to that Practice represent the Unity and Community of those things which jointly did appertain to them as Christians the Unity of that Body whereof they were members of that Spirit which did animate and act them of that Hope to which they were called of that Lord whom they all did worship and serve of that Faith which they did profess of that Baptism whereby they were admitted into the same state of Duties of Rights of Privileges of that one God and universal Father to whom they had all the same relations He beginneth with the Vnity of the Body that is of the Christian Church concerning which Unity what it is and wherein it doth consist I mean now to discourse In order to clearing which Point we must first state what the Church is of which we discourse for the word Church is ambiguous having both in Holy Scripture and common use divers senses somewhat different For 1 Sometimes any Assembly or Company of Christians is called a Church as when mention is made of the Church in such a house whence Tertullian saith Where there are three even Laicks there is a Church 2. Sometimes a particular Society of Christians living in spiritual Communion and under Discipline as when the Church at such a Town the Churches of such a Province the Churches all the Churches are mentioned
any of the dissenting Parties to the Judgment of such Authority Indeed if such an Authority had then been avowed by the Christian Churches it is hardly conceivable that any Schisms could subsist there being so powerfull a Remedy against them then notably visible and most effectual because of its fresh Institution before it was darkned or weakned by Age. Whereas the Apostolical Writings do inculcate our Subjection to one Lord in Heaven it is much they should never consider his Vicegerent or Vicegerents upon Earth notifying and pressing the Duties of Obedience and Reverence toward them There are indeed Exhortations to honour the Elders and to obey the Guides of particular Churches but the Honour and Obedience due to those Paramount Authorities or Universal Governours is passed over in dead silence as if no such thing had been thought of They do expresly avow the Secular Pre-eminence and press Submission to the Emperour as Supreme why do they not likewise mention this no less considerable Ecclesiastical Supremacy or enjoin Obedience thereto why Honour the King and be subject to Principalities so often but Honour the Spiritual Prince or Senate doth never occur If there had been any such Authority there would probably have been some intimation concerning the Persons in whom it was setled concerning the Place of their residence concerning the Manner of its being conveyed by Election Succession or otherwise Probably the Persons would have some proper Name Title or Character to distinguish them from inferiour Governours that to the Place some mark of Pre-eminence would have been affixed It is not unlikely that somewhere some Rules or Directions would have been prescribed for the management of so high a Trust for preventing Miscarriages and Abuses to which it is notoriously liable It would have been declared Absolute or the Limits of it would have been determined to prevent its enslaving God's heritage But of these things in the Apostolical Writings or in any near those times there doth not appear any footstep or pregnant intimation There hath never to this day been any place but one namely Rome which hath pretended to be the Seat of such an Authority the Plea whereof we largely have examined At present we shall onely observe that before the Roman Church was founded there were Churches otherwhere there was a great Church at Jerusalem which indeed was the Mother of all Churches and was by the Fathers so styled however Rome now doth arrogate to her self that Title There were issuing from that Mother a fair Offspring of Churches those of Judaea of Galilaea of Samaria of Syria and Cilicia of divers other places before there was any Church at Rome or that Saint Peter did come thither which was at least divers years after our Lord's Ascension Saint Paul was converted after five years he went to Hierusalem then Saint Peter was there after fourteen years thence he went to Hierusalem again and then Saint Peter was there after that he met with Saint Peter at Antioch Where then was this Authority seated How then did the political Unity of the Church subsist Was the Seat of the Sovereign Authority first resident at Jerusalem when Saint Peter preached there Did it walk thence to Antiochia fixing it self there for seven years Was it thence translated to Rome and setled there ever since Did this roving and inconstancy become it 5. The primitive State of the Church did not well comport with such an Unity For Christian Churches were founded in distant places as the Apostles did find opportunity or received direction to found them which therefore could not without extreme inconvenience have resort or reference to one Authority any where fixed Each Church therefore separately did order its own Affairs without recourse to others except for charitable Advice or Relief in cases of extraordinary difficulty or urgent need Each Church was endowed with a perfect Liberty and a full Authority without dependence or subordination to others to govern its own Members to manage its own Affairs to decide Controversies and Causes incident among themselves without allowing Appeals or rendring Accounts to others This appeareth by the Apostolical Writings of Saint Paul and Saint John to single Churches wherein they are supposed able to exercise spiritual Power for establishing Decency removing Disorders correcting Offences deciding Causes c. 6. This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Liberty of Churches doth appear to have long continued in practice inviolate although tempered and modelled in accommodation to the circumstances of place and time It is true that if any Church did notoriously forsake the Truth or commit Disorder in any kind other Churches did sometime take upon them as the Case did move to warn advise reprove it and to declare against its proceedings as prejudicial not onely to the welfare of that Church but to the common interests of Truth and Peace but this was not in way of commanding Authority but of fraternal Solicitude or of that Liberty which Equity and Prudence do allow to Equals in regard to common good So did the Roman Church interpose in reclaiming the Church of Corinth from its Disorders and Seditions So did Saint Cyprian and Saint Denys of Alex. meddle in the Affairs of the Roman Church exhorting Novatian and his Adherents to return to the Peace of their Church It is also true that the Bishops of several adjacent Churchs did use to meet upon Emergencies concerning the maintenance of Truth Order and Peace concerning Settlement and Approbation of Pastours c. to consult and conclude upon Expedients for attaining such Ends this probably they did at first in a free way without rule according to occasion as Prudence suggested but afterwards by confederation and consent those Conventions were formed into method and regulated by certain Orders established by consent whence did arise an Ecclesiastical Unity of Government within certain Precincts much like that of the United States in the Netherlands the which course was very prudential and usefull for preserving the Truth of Religion and Unity of Faith against heretical Devices springing up in that free age for maintaining Concord and good Correspondence among Christians together with an Harmony in Manners and Discipline for that otherwise Christendom would have been shattered and crumbled into numberless Parties discordant in Opinion and Practice and consequently alienated in Affection which inevitably among most men doth follow Difference of Opinion and Manners so that in short time it would not have appeared what Christianity was and consequently the Religion being overgrown with Differences and Discords must have perished Thus in the case about admitting the Lapsi to Communion Saint Cyprian relates when the persecution of Decius ceased so that leave was now given us to meet in one place together a considerable number of Bishops whom their own faith and God's protection had preserved sound and entire from the late Apostasie and Persecution being assembled we deliberated of the composition of the matter with wholsome moderation
c. Which thing also Agrippinus of blessed memory with his other Fellow-bishops who then governed the Church of Christ in the African Province and in Numidia did establish and by the well-weighed examination of the common advice of them all together confirmed it Thus it was the custome in the Churches of Asia as Firmilian telleth us in those words Vpon which occasion it necessarily happens that every year we the Elders and Rulers do come together to regulate those things which are committed to our care that if there should be any things of greater moment by common advice they be determined Yet while things went thus in order to common Truth and Peace every Church in more private matters touching its own particular state did retain its Liberty and Authority without being subject or accountable to any but the common Lord in such cases even Synods of Bishops did not think it proper or just for them to interpose to the prejudice of that Liberty and Power which derived from a higher Source These things are very apparent as by the course of Ecclesiastical History so particularly in that most pretious Monument of Antiquity St. Cyprian's Epistles by which it is most evident that in those times every Bishop or Pastour was conceived to have a double relation or capacity one toward his own Flock another toward the whole Flock One toward his own Flock by virtue of which he taking advice of his Presbyters together with the conscience of his People assisting did order all things tending to particular Edification Order Peace Reformation Censure c. without fear of being troubled by Appeals or being liable to give any account but to his own Lord whose Vicegerent he was Another toward the whole Church in behalf of his People upon account whereof he did according to occasion or order apply himself to confer with other Bishops for preservation of the common Truth and Peace when they could not otherwise be well upheld than by the joint conspiring of the Pastours of divers Churches So that the Case of Bishops was like to that of Princes each of whom hath a free Superintendence in his own Territory but for to uphold Justice and Peace in the World or between adjacent Nations the entercourse of several Princes is needfull The Peace of the Church was preserved by communion of all Parts together not by the subjection of the rest to one Part. 7. This political Unity doth not well accord with the nature and genius of the Evangelical dispensation Our Saviour affirmed that his Kingdom is not of this World and Saint Paul telleth us that it consisteth in a Spiritual influence upon the Souls of men producing in them Vertue Spiritual Joy and Peace It disavoweth and discountenanceth the elements of the world by which worldly designs are carried on and worldly frames sustained It requireth not to be managed by politick artifices or fleshly wisedom but by Simplicity Sincerity Plain-dealing as every Subject of it must lay aside all guile and dissimulation so especially the Officers of it must doe so in conformity to the Apostles who had their conversation in the world and prosecuted their design in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisedom but by the grace of God not walking in craftiness or handling the word of God deceitfully c. It needeth not to be supported or enlarged by wealth and pomp or by compulsive force and violence for God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and the weak things of the world to confound the mighty and base despicable things c. that no flesh should gloâ—y in his presence And The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God c. It discountenanceth the imposition of new Laws and Precepts beside those which God hath injoined or which are necessary for order and edification derogating from the Liberty of Christians and from the Simplicity of our Religion The Government of the Christian State is represented purely spiritual administred by meek persuasion not by imperious awe as an humble ministery not as stately domination for the Apostles themselves did not Lord it over mens faith but did co-operate to their joy they did not preach themselves but Christ Jesus to be the Lord and themselves their servants for Jesus It is expresly forbidden to them to domineer over God's people They are to be qualified with Gentleness and Patience they are forbidden to strive and enjoined to be gentle toward all apt to teach patient in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves They are to convince to rebuke to exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine They are furnished with no Arms beside the divine Panoply they bear no sword but that of the Spirit which is the word of God they may teach reprove they cannot compell They are not to be entangled in the cares of this life But supposing the Church was designed to be one in this manner of political regiment it must be quite another thing nearly resembling a worldly state yea in effect soon resolving it self into such an one supposing as is now pretended that its management is committed to an Ecclesiastical Monarch it must become a worldly Kingdom for such a Polity could not be upheld without applying the same means and engines without practising the same methods and arts whereby secular Governments are maintained It s Majesty must be supported by conspicuous Pomp and Phantastry It s Dignity and Power must be supported by Wealth which it must corrade and accumulate by large Incomes by exaction of Tributes and Taxes It must exert Authority in enacting of Laws for keeping its State in order and securing its Interests backed with Rewards and Pains especially considering its Title being so dark and grounded on no clear warrant many always will contest it It must apply Constraint and Force for procuring Obedience and correcting Transgression It must have Guards to preserve its Safety and Authority It must be engaged in Wars to defend its self and make good its Interests It must use Subtilty and Artifice for promoting its Interests and countermine the Policies of Adversaries It must erect Judicatories and must decide Causes with Formality of legal process whence tedious Suits crafty Pleadings Quirks of Law and Pettifoggeries Fees and Charges Extortion and Barretry c. will necessarily creep in All which things do much disagree from the original constitution and design of the Christian Church which is averse from pomp doth reject domination doth not require craft wealth or force to maintain it but did at first and may subsist without any such means I do not say that an Ecclesiastical Society may not lawfully for its support use Power Policy wealth in some measure to uphold or defend it self but that a Constitution needing such things is not Divine or that so far as it doth use them it is
no more than Humane Thus in effect we see that it hath succeeded from the Pretence of this Unity the which hath indeed transformed the Church into a mere worldly State wherein the Monarch beareth the garb of an Emperour in external splendour surpassing all worldly Princes crowned with a triple Crown He assumeth the most haughty Titles of Our most holy Lord the Vicar general of Christ c. and he suffereth men to call him the Monarch of Kings c. He hath Respects paid him like to which no Potentate doth assume having his Feet kissed riding upon the backs of men letting Princes hold his Stirrup and lead his Horse He hath a Court and is attended with a train of Courtiers surpassing in State and claiming Precedence to the Peers of any Kingdom He is encompassed with armed Guards He hath a vast Revenue supplied by Tributes and Imposts sore and grievous the exaction of which hath made divers Nations of Christendom to groan most lamentably He hath raised numberless Wars and Commotions for the promotion and advancement of his Interests He administreth things with all depth of Policy to advance his Designs He hath enacted Volumes of Laws and Decrees to which Obedience is exacted with rigour and forcible constraint He draweth grist from all Parts to his Courts of Judgment wherein all the formalities of suspence all the tricks of squeezing money c. are practised to the great trouble and charge of Parties concerned Briefly it is plain that he doth exercise the proudest mightiest subtlest Domination that ever was over Christians 8. The Union of the whole Church in one Body under one Government or Sovereign Authority would be inconvenient and hurtfull prejudicial to the main designs of Christianity destructive to the Welfare and Peace of Mankind in many respects This we have shewed particularly concerning the Pretence of the Papacy and those Discourses being applicable to any like Universal Authority perhaps with more advantage Monarchy being less subject to abuse than other ways of Government I shall forbear to say more 9. Such an Union is of no need would be of small use or would doe little good in balance to the great Mischiefs and Inconveniences which it would produce This Point also we have declared in regard to the Papacy and we might say the same concerning any other like Authority substituted thereto 10. Such a Connexion of Churches is not any-wise needfull or expedient to the Design of Christianity which is to reduce Mankind to the Knowledge Love and Reverence of God to a just and loving Conversation together to the practice of Sobriety Temperance Purity Meekness and all other Vertues all which things may be compassed without forming men into such a Policy It is expedient there should be particular Societies in which men may concur in worshipping God and promoting that Design by instructing and provoking one another to good practice in a regular decent and orderly way It is convenient that the Subjects of each temporal Sovereignty should live as in a civil so in a spiritual Uniformity in order to the preservation of Goodwill and Peace among them for that Neighbours differing in opinion and fashions of practice will be apt to contend each for his way and thence to disaffect one another for the beauty and pleasant harmony of Agreement in Divine things for the more commodious succour and defence of Truth and Piety by unanimous concurrence But that all the World should be so joined is needless and will be apt to produce more mischief than benefit 11. The Church in the Scripture sense hath ever continued One and will ever continue so notwithstanding that it hath not had this political Unity 12. It is in fact apparent that Churches have not been thus united which yet have continued Catholick and Christian. It were great no less folly than uncharitableness to say that the Greek Church hath been none There is no Church that hath in effect less reason than that of Rome to prescribe to others 13. The Reasons alledged in proof of such an Unity are insufficient and inconcluding the which with great diligence although not with like perspicuity advanced by a late Divine of great repute and collected out of his Writings with some care are those which briefly proposed do follow together with Answers declaring their invalidity Arg. I. The name Church is attributed to the whole body of Christians which implieth Unity Answ. This indeed doth imply an Unity of the Church but determineth not the kind or ground thereof there being several kinds of Unity one of those which we have touched or several or all of them may suffice to ground that comprehensive Appellation Arg. II. Our Creeds do import the belief of such an Unity for in the Apostolical we profess to believe the Holy Catholick Church in the Constantinopolitan the Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church Answ. 1. The most ancient Summaries of Christian Faith extant in the first Fathers Irenaeus Tertullian Cyprian c. do not contain this Point The word Catholick was not originally in the Apostolical or Roman Creed but was added after Ruffin and Saint Austin's time This Article was inserted into the Creeds upon the rise of Heresies and Schisms to discountenance and disengage from them Answ. 2. We do avow a Catholick Church in many respects One wherefore not the Unity of the Church but the Kind and Manner of Unity being in question the Creed doth not oppose what we say nor can with reason be alledged for the special kind of Unity which is pretended Answ. 3. That the Unity mentioned in the Constantinopolitan Creed is such as our Adversaries contend for of external Policy is precariously assumed and relieth onely upon their interpretation obtruded on us Answ. 4. The genuine meaning of that Article may reasonably be deemed this That we profess our adhering to the Body of Christians which diffused over the World doth retain the Faith taught the Discipline setled the Practices appointed by our Lord and his Apostles that we maintain general Charity toward all good Christians that we are ready to entertain communion in Holy Offices with all such that we are willing to observe the Laws and Orders established by Authority or Consent of the Churches for maintenance of Truth Order and Peace that we renounce all heretical doctrines all disorderly practices all conspiracy with any factious combinations of people Answ. 5. That this is the meaning of the Article may sufficiently appear from the reason and occasion of introducing it which was to secure the Truth of Christian Doctrine the Authority of Ecclesiastical Discipline and the common Peace of the Church according to the Discourses and Arguments of the Fathers Irenaeus Tertullian St. Austin Vincentius Lirinensis the which do plainly countenance our Interpretation Answ. 6. It is not reasonable to interpret the Article so as will not consist with the State of the Church in the Apostolical and
most primitive ages when evidently there was no such a political Conjunction of Christians Arg. III. The Apostles delivered one Rule of Faith to all Churches the embracing and profession whereof celebrated in Baptism was a necessary condition to the admission into the Church and to continuance therein therefore Christians are combined together in one political Body Answ. 1. The Consequence is very weak for from the Antecedent it can onely be inferred that according to the Sentiment of the Ancients all Christians should consent in one Faith which Unity we avow and who denieth Answ. 2. By like reason all Mankind must be united in one political Body because all men are bound to agree in what the Light of nature discovereth to be true and good or because the Principles of natural Religion Justice and Humanity are common to all Arg. IV. God hath granted to the Church certain Powers and Rights as Jura Majestatis namely the Power of the Keys to admit into to exclude from the Kingdom of Heaven a Power to enact Laws for maintenance of its Order and Peace for its Edification and Welfare a Power to correct and excommunicate Offenders a Power to hold Assemblies for God's Service a Power to ordain Governours and Pastours Answ. 1. These Powers are granted to the Church because granted to each particular Church or distinct Society of Christians not to the whole as such or distinct from the Parts Answ. 2. It is evident that by virtue of such Grants particular Churches do exercise those Powers and it is impossible to infer more from them than a Justification of their Practice Answ. 3. St. Cyprian often from that common Grant doth infer the Right of exercising Discipline in each particular Church which Inference would not be good but upon our Supposition nor indeed otherwise would any particular Church have ground for its Authority Answ. 4. God hath granted the like Rights to all Princes and States but doth it thence follow that all Kingdoms and States must be united in one single Regiment the Consequence is just the same as in our Case Arg. V. All Churches were tied to observe the same Laws or Rules of Practice the same Orders of Discipline and Customes therefore all do make one Corporation Answ. 1. That All Churches are bound to observe the same Divine Institutions doth argue onely an Unity of relation to the same Heavenly King or a specifical Unity and Similitude of Policy the which we do avow Answ. 2. We do also acknowledge it convenient and decent that all Churches in principal Observances introduced by humane prudence should agree so near as may be an Uniformity in such things representing and preserving Unity of Faith of Charity of Peace Whence the Governours of the primitive Church did endeavour such an Uniformity as the Fathers of Nice profess in the Canon forbidding of Genu-flexion on Lord's days and in the days of Pentecost Answ. 3. Yet doth not such an agreement or attempt at it infer a political Unity no more than when all men by virtue of a primitive general Tradition were tied to offer Sacrifices and Oblations to God that Consideration might argue all men to have been under the same Government or no more than the usual Agreement of neighbour Nations in divers fashions doth conclude such an Unity Answ. 4. In divers Customes and Observances several Churches did vary with allowance which doth rather infer a difference of Polity than agreement in other Observances doth argue an Unity thereof Answ. 5. St. Cyprian doth affirm that in such matters every Bishop had a Power to use his own discretion without being obliged to comply with others Arg. VI. The Jewish Church was one Corporation and in correspondence thereto the Christian Church should be such Answ. 1. As the Christian Church doth in some things correspond to that of the Jews so it differeth in others being designed to excell it wherefore this argumentation cannot be valid and may as well be employed for our Opinion as against it Answ. 2. In like manner it may be argued that all Christians should annually meet in one place that all Christians should have one Arch-priest on Earth that we should all be subject to one temporal Jurisdiction that we should all speak one Language c. Answ. 3. There is a great difference in the case for the Israelites were one small Nation which conveniently might be embodied but the Christian Church should consist of all Nations which rendreth Correspondence in this particular unpracticable at least without great inconvenience Answ. 4. Before the Law Christian Religion and consequently a Christian Church did in substance subsist but what Unity of Government was there then Answ. 5. The Temporal Union of the Jews might onely figure the spiritual Unity of Christians in Faith Charity and Peace Arg. VII All Ecclesiastical Power was derived from the same Fountains by succession from the Apostles therefore the Church was one political Body Answ. 1. Thence we may rather infer that Churches are not so united because the Founders of them were several Persons endowed with co-ordinate and equal Power Answ. 2. The Apostles did in several Churches constitute Bishops independent from each other and the like may be now either by succession from those or by the constitutions of humane prudence according to emergences of occasion and circumstances of things Answ. 3. Divers Churches were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and all were so according to Saint Cyprian Answ. 4. All temporal power is derived from Adam and the Patriarchs ancient Fathers of families Doth it thence follow that all the World must be under one secular Government Arg. VIII All Churches did exercise a Power of Excommunication or of excluding Hereticks Schismaticks disorderly and scandalous people Answ. 1. Each Church was vested with this Power this doth therefore onely infer a resemblance of several Churches in Discipline which we avow Answ. 2. This argueth that all Churches took themselves to be obliged to preserve the same Faith to exercise Charity and Peace to maintain the like Holiness of conversation What then Do we deny this Answ. 3. All Kingdoms and States do punish Offenders against Reason and Justice do banish seditious and disorderly persons do uphold the Principles and Practice of common Honesty and Morality Doth it thence follow that all Nations must come under one civil Government Arg. IX All Churches did maintain entercourse and commerce with each other by formed communicatory pacificatory commendatory synodical Epistles Answ. 1. This doth signifie that the Churches did by Admonition Advice c. help one another in maintenance of the common Faith did endeavour to preserve Charity Friendship and Peace this is all which thence may be concluded Answ. 2. Secular Princes are wont to send Ambassadours and Envoys with Letters and Instructions for settlement of Correspondence and preserving Peace they sometimes do recommend their Subjects to other Princes they expect
Service to the edification of People in Charity and Piety by the encouragement of secular Powers by the concurrent advice and aid of Ecclesiastical Pastours by many advantages hence arising 6. We suppose all Churches obliged to observe friendly communion and when occasion doth invite to aid each other by assistence and advice in Synods of Bishops or otherwise 7. We do affirm that all Churches are obliged to comply with lawfull Decrees and Orders appointed in Synods with consent of their Bishops and allowed by the Civil Authorities under which they live As if the Bishops of Spain and France assembling should agree upon Constitutions of Discipline which the Kings of both those Countries should approve and which should not thwart God's Laws both those Churches and every man in them were bound to comply in observance of them From the Premisses divers Corollaries may be deduced 1. Hence it appeareth that all those clamours of the pretended Catholicks against other Churches for not submitting to the Roman Chair are groundless they depending on the supposition that all Churches must necessarily be united under one Government 2. The Injustice of the Adherents to that See in claiming an Empire or Jurisdiction over all which never was designed by our Lord heavily censuring and fiercely persecuting those who will not acknowledge it 3. All Churches which have a fair settlement in several Countries are co-ordinate neither can one challenge a Jurisdiction over the other 4. The nature of Schism is hence declared viz. that it consisteth in disturbing the Order and Peace of any single Church in withdrawing from it Obedience and Compliance with it in obstructing good Correspondence Charity Peace between several Churches in condemning or censuring other Churches without just cause or beyond due measure In refusing to maintain Communion with other Churches without reasonable cause whence Firmilian did challenge P. Stephanus with Schism 5. Hence the right way of reconciling Dissentions among Christians is not affecting to set up a political Union of several Churches or subordination of all to one Power not for one Church to enterprize upon the Liberty of others or to bring others under it as is the practice of the Roman Church and its Abettors but for each Church to let the others alone quietly enjoying its freedom in Ecclesiastical Administrations onely declaring against apparently hurtfull Errours and Factions shewing Good-will yielding Succour Advice Comfort upon needfull occasion according to that excellent Advice of the Constantinopolitane Fathers to the Pope and Western Bishops after having acquainted them with their proceedings towards the conclusion they thus exhort them We having in a legal and canonical way determined these Controversies do beseech your Reverence to congratulate with us your Charity spiritually interceding the fear of the Lord also compressing all humane affection so as to make us to prefer the edification of the Churches to all private respect and favour toward each other for by this means the word of faith being consonant among us and Christian Charity bearing sway over us we shall cease from speaking after that manner which the Apostle condemns I am of Paul and I am of Apollos but I am of Cephas for if we all do appear to be of Christ who is not divided amongst us we shall then through God's grace preserve the body of the Church from Schism and present our selves before the throne of Christ with boldness 6. All that withdraw their communion or obeysance from particular Churches fairly established unto which they do belong or where they reside do incur the guilt of Schism for such persons being de Jure subject to those particular Churches and excommunicating themselves do consequentially sever themselves from the Catholick Church they commit great wrong toward that particular Church and toward the whole Church of Christ. 7. Neither doth their pretence of joining themselves to the Roman Church excuse them from Schism for the Roman Church hath no reason or right to admit or to avow them it hath no power to exempt or excuse them from their duty it thereby abetteth their Crime and involveth it self therein it wrongeth other Churches As no man is freed from his Allegiance by pretending to put himself under the protection of another Prince neither can another Prince justly receive such disloyal Revolters into his Patronage It is a Rule grounded upon apparent Equity and frequently declared by Ecclesiastical Canons that no Church shall admit into its protection or communion any persons who are excommunicated by another Church or who do withdraw themselves from it for Self-excommunication or Spiritual felony de se doth involve the Churches Excommunication deserving it and preventing it Which Canon as the African Fathers do alledge and expound it doth prohibit the Pope himself from receiving persons rejected by any other Church So when Marcion having been excommunicated by his own Father coming to Rome did sue to be received by that Church into communion they refused telling him that they could not doe it without the consent of his Reverend Father between whom and them there being one faith and one agreement of mind they could not doe it in opposition to their worthy fellow-labourer who was also his Father St. Cyprian refused to admit Maximus sent from the Novatian party to communion So did P. Cornelius reject Felicissimus condemned by St. Cyprian without farther inquiry It was charged upon Dioscorus as a heinous misdemeanour that he had against the Holy Canons by his proper authority received into communion persons excommunicated by others The African Synod at the suggestion of St. Austin decreed that if it happen'd that any for their evil deeds were deservedly expell'd out of the Church and taken again into communion by any Bishop or Priest whosoever that he also who received him should incur the same penalty of Excommunication The same is by latter Papal Synods decreed The Words of Synesius are remarkable He having excommunicated some cruel Oppressours doth thus recommend the case to all Christians Upon which grounds I do not scruple to affirm the Recusants in England to be no less Schismaticks than any other Separatists They are indeed somewhat worse for most others do onely forbear communion these do rudely condemn the Church to which they owe Obedience yea strive to destroy it they are most desperate Rebels against it 8. It is the Duty and Interest of all Churches to disclaim the Pretences of the Roman Court maintaining their Liberties and Rights against its Usurpations For Compliance therewith as it doth greatly prejudice Truth and Piety leaving them to be corrupted by the ambitious covetous and voluptuous Designs of those men so it doth remove the genuine Unity of the Church and Peace of Christians unless to be tyed by compulsory Chains as Slaves be deemed Unity or Peace 9. Yet those Churches which by the voluntary consent or command of Princes do adhere in confederation to the Roman
Aeneas Sylvius his Account hereof Ibid. Catholick How much the abuse of that Word hath conduced to the Pope's Pretences 264. Censures Ecclesiastical Censures the great advantages made from them by the Pope 182. Ceremonies Why multitude of them in the Church of Rome 139. Charity Want thereof in the Church of Rome 286. Charity among Christians 299 301. breach thereof denominates a man to be no Christian 300. Charity to the Poor of other Churches in primitive Times no Argument of Unity of Church Government 320. Church Unity thereof 293. The various acceptations of the Word Church 294. The Titles and Privileges thereof 295. Church Government and Discipline in ancient times 162 c. Church Government No necessity of one kind onely of external Admistration thereof 306 307. The contrary shewed to be most proper and convenient in seq Church of Rome An Account of them who by voluntary Consent or Command of Princes do adhere in Confederation to the Church of Rome 325. Civil Magistrates Authority 271. Clergy Romish Clergy's Exemption from secular Jurisdiction whence 138. Communion Church Communion 296. Community of Men on several accounts may be termed One 297. Confession Auricular Confession 139. Confirmation of Magistrates belongs not to the Pope 269. Conscience The Usurpations made thereupon by the Popish Doctrines 288. Constantine M. His Judgment of Eusebius 86. No General Synod before his Reign 185. Controversies in the Church how in ancient times determined 115 149 264 303 304. Council of Trent Their Character 2. Enjoyned the Pope's Supremacy should not be disputed 18. Councils Their Authority above the Pope's 25. Councils Their Infallibility why pretended 139. Councils General Councils which so esteemed 188 first called by the Emperours ibid. when first celebrated 209 Use of them proves not there was Unity of Government in the Primitive Church 320 the proper occasion of General Councils assigned ibid Cup in the Sacrament why with-holden from the Laity 139. S. Cyprian's Account of S. Peter's primacy of Order 33 his Epistle concerning the deposing Marcianus examined 235 c. S. Cyril's supplying the Place of P. Celestine in the General Council 203 204. Cyril of Hierusalem the first according to Socrates who did introduce Appeals 249. D. POpe Damasus An Epistle of his in Theodoret whence Bellarmine's pretence for the Pope's Supremacy adjudged spurious 156 157. Decrees of Popes when contested against the ancient Canons 214. Whence their new Decrees introduced ibid. Decretal Epistles Their forgery and great advantage to the Church of Rome 184. Discipline and Order of the Primitive Church 211. Discipline The enacting and dispensing with Ecclesiastical Laws about the same belong'd of old to Emperours 214. Discipline of the Church 305. main Form thereof not to be violated ibid. Dispensations 184. the Pope no power to grant them 270 281. Dissentions The Mischiefs arising from them 175 18â— The Profits accrewing from hence to the Romanists ibid. Dissentions How reconciled among Christians 323. E. ECclesiastical Jurisdiction not impugn'd by disclaiming S. Peter's Superiority 40. Emperours not Popes did first conâ—â—â—gate General Synods 185. Testimonies of Popes owning the same 193. Emperours themselves or Honourable Persons authorized by them did heretofore preside in General Synods 203. Empires Their Original and Increase 174. Episcopacy The Ends assigned of that Order 87. Eusebius Constantine M. his Character of him 86. Excommunicated Persons not admitted into Communion by other Churches 305 324 325. Exemptions The Pope no Power to grant them 270. F. FAith Unity of the Church preserved by it 299. Fathers What regard to be given to their account of S. Peter's Primacy of Order or bare Dignity 32. Fathers A Censure of their Writings 71. Bellarmine's account of the same ibid. The latter Fathers most guilty in Expressions 72. Fathers A Character of their Writings 119. Feed my sheep The Romish Interpretation rejected and the true established ibid. G. GLosses of the Romanists on Scripture 70 their Corruptions and Partiality herein 73. Gregory M. his Character and Authority against the Pope 123. H. HEresie of Simony Popes guilty of it 266. Hereticks How confuted in ancient times 115 c. Humility strictly enjoyned to Christ's Apostles and Followers 39. I. JEsuites Their Character 182. Jesus according to common notion of the Jews did imply his being the Son of God 30. Ignorance of Popes in Divinity 267. Ignorance How serviceable to the Church of Rome 182. Image Worship 139 280. Indulgences 184. Infallibility Pretence to it the greatest Tyranny 137. Whence pretended 139. The mother of Incorrigibility and Corruption of Manners 140. v. 265. Inspiration The Popes and Synods bold pretensions to it 286. Jurisdiction Universal Jurisdiction over the Clergy the Pope's Presumption herein and when begun 215. Jurisdiction Temporal and Ecclesiastical nature thereof 271. K. KEys Power thereof as also all other Authority communicated to all the Apostles equally 42 64. Kings have the Power onely of calling General Councils 191. The unreasonableness of the contrary 192. v. Emperours L. LEgends of the Church of Rome the Profits arising from them 184. Laws Ecclesiastical Laws In whose Power to enact them 212. The Pope subject to them ibid. M. MArriage The Romanists abuse thereof 284. Why forbidden to their Priests 139. Mass. Doctrine thereof ibid. Merit Doctrine thereof in the Chur. of Rome 138 286. Miracles Why pretended to by the Romanists 139. Monarchy Universal Monarchy not politick nor convenient 130 neither in Church nor State 152. Monarchy less subject to abuse than other ways of Government 315. Monastries why exempted by the Pope from secular Jurisdiction 138. Monkery 140. N. POpe Nicholas the first who excommunicated Princes secundum Bodin 146. O. OAth of Bishops of Rome at their Election 22. Obedience Blind Obedience 177. Order and Discipline of the Primitive Church 211. v. Discipline Ordination Priority therein did anciently ground a Right to Precedence 34. Orthodox Who such in the Primitive Church 299. P. PAstours of the Church Their duty to maintain Peace and Charity 304. Patriarchs not an higher Order than Primates 169 their Institution and Authority 170 171. Peace to be inviolable among Christians 301 the Sacraments conducive to the same 302 as also Convocation of Synods ibid. S. Peter in personal accomplishments most eminent among the Apostles 32 It is probable he was first called to the Apostolical office 33 his Zeal and Activity 30 34 his Superiority in Power rejected 35 was no Priest at the Celebration of our Lord's Supper contra Concil Trid. 36 not Bishop of Rome 82 whether ever at Rome 83 whence his Primacy asserted 27. Popes Supremacy The Controversies about it 1 The great Disturbances it hath caused 2 pretended authority to depose Princes 3 their behaviour according to their circumstances 17 pretended Supremacy in Spirituals 20 their imperious arbitrary Government 40 the insolent Titles given them 41 no Judge of Controversies 115 c. their Character before and after Constantine 142 Usurpation on Princes 145 Causes of the growth of pretended Supremacy 172
112. § 8. P. Greg. VII Ep. 3.7 P. Jul. in Conc. Lat. Sess. 5. p. 57. Non solùm hujusmodi Electio vel assumptio eo ipso nulla existat c. Vide sup § 12. Such an Election or assumption let it not onely be upon that account void and null Vide quaeso quantum isti degeneraverint à majoribus suis Illi enim utpote viri Sanctissimi Dignitatem ultrò oblatam contemnebant orationi Doctrinae Christianae vacantes hi verò largitione ambitione Pontificatum quaerentes adepti posthabito divino cultu c. Plat. in Serg. 3. p. 279. Vid. in Bened. IV. p. 277. See I beseech you how much they have degenerated from their Ancestours For they as being very Holy men did contemn that Dignity when freely offered giving themselves wholly to Prayer and the Doctrine of Christ but these by bribery and ambition seek and obtain the Papacy Plat. in Joh. 10. p. 275. Pontifices ipsi à Petri vestigiis discesserant The Popes had swerv'd from the Examples of Peter Possessor malae fidei ullo tempore non praescribit Reg. â—ur 2. in Sexto He that has no right to the thing he possesses cannot prescribe or plead any length of time to make his possession lawfull Nec vero simile sit ut rem tam nocessariam ad Ecclesiae unitatem continendam Christus Dominus Apostolis suis non revelârit Melch. Can. 6.8 Neither is it likely that our Lord Christ would not have revealed to his Apostles a thing so necessary for preserving the Unity of the Church Ad Firmamentum igitur Coeli hoc est Vniversalis Ecclesiae fecit Deus duo magna Luminaria id est duâ—s instituit Dignitates quae sunâ— Pontificalis auctoritas Regalis potestas sed illa quae praeest diebus id est Spiritualibus major est quae verò Carnalibus minor c. Innoc. III. in Decret Greg. I. 33.6 For the Firmament therefore of Heaven i. e. of the Universal Church God made two great Lights i. e. he ordained two Dignities or Powers which are the Pontifical Authority and the Regal Power but that which rules the days i. e. Spiritual matters is the greater but that which governs Carnal things is â—he lesser c. Proinde sive de Christo sive de ejus Ecclesia sive de quacunque alia re quae pertinet ad fidem vitamque nostram non dicam Nos nequaquam comparandi ei qui dixit licet si nos sed omnino quod sequutus adjecit si Angelus de coelo vobis annunciaverit praeterquam quod in Scripturis Legalibus ac Evangelicis accepistis anathema sit Aug. contr Petil. 3.6 Exod. 28.1 Exod. 28.4 Levit. 21. P. Nic. I. Ep. 10. P. Leo. IX Ep. 1. P. Greg. VII Ep. 1.22 1 Pet. 2.13 17. Eph. 3.11 12 13. 1 Cor. 12.28 Quarum laudum gloriae degenerem suisse maximum crimen est Cl. Rom. ad Cypr. Ep. 31. To degenerate from which praise and glory is an exceeding great crime Rom. 1.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Vid. Chrys. Theo. Hier. Baron Anno 58. § 46. c. Rom. 1.7.1.8.16.19 Tertull. de Cor. Mil. 3. Basil. de Sp. S. 27. Hier. advers Lucif 4. Const. Apost 7.41 a full Creed at Baptism Conc. Lat. 4. cap. 5. Anno 1215. procedantque vehiculis insidentes circumspectè vestiti epulas curantes profusas adeò ut eorum convivia Regales superent mensas Marcell lib. 27. p. 338. They travel sitting in Chariots curiously apparelled procuring profuse dainties insomuch as their meals exceed the feasts of Kings Sentiunt enim Deum esse solum in cujus solius potestate sunt à quo sunt secundi post quem primi ante omnes super omnes Deos. Quidni cùm super omnes homines qui utique vivunt mortuis antistant Tertull. Apolog c. 30. For they think it is God alone in whose power they are next to whom they are the chief before all and above all Gods And why not when they are above all men alive and surpass the dead ‖ Colimus Imperatorem ut hominem à Deo secundum solo Deo minorem Tertull. ad Scap. 2. * Cùm super Imperatorem non sit nisi solus Deus quì fecit Imperatorem Opt. lib. 3. †dum se Donatus super Imperatorem extollit jam quasi hominum excesserat modum ut se ut Deum non hominem aestimaret Id. ibid. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. p. 463. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrys. in Rom. â—3 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrys. suprá Por he that is thus wrong'd has not his equal upon earth for he is King c. †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril ad Theod. in Conc. Eph. part 1. cap. 3. p. 20. ‖ P. Greg. M. Ep. 2.62 Quia Sereniss Domine ex illo jam tempore Dominus meus fuisti quando adhuc Dominus omnium non eras Ego quidem jussioni subjectus Ibid. Ad hoc enim potestas Dominorum meorum pietati coelitus data est super omnes homines c. Ibid. Ego indignus famulus vester Ib. Qui honori quoque Imperii vestri se per privatum vocabulum superponit P. Greg. I. Ep. 4.32 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 P. Greg. II. in Epist. 1. ad Leon. Isaur apud Bin. Tom. 5. p. 502. As King and Head of Christians una cum famulo tuo Papa nostro N. Antistite nostro N. Rege nostro N. omnibus Orthodoxis c. Together with thy Servant our Pope N. and our Bishop N. and our King N. and all Orthodox c. * Fiat autem oratio pro dignitate Regia post orationem factam pro Papa quia potestas suprema Sacerdotalis excedit Regiam antiquitate dignitate utilitate c. Gab. Biel in Can. mis. Let prayer be made for the King after prayer made for the Pope because the supreme Sacerdotal power exceeds the Kingly in antiquity dignity and utility c. Subesse Romano Pontifici omni humanae creaturae declaramus dicimus definimus pronunciamus omnino esse de necessitate salutis P. Bonif. VIII in Extrav com lib. 1. tit 38. At quamvis utcunque tolerabile sit ut Principes seculares in Concilio sedeant ante alios Episcopos tamen nullo modo convenit ut ante ipsum summum Pontificem c. Bell. de Conc. 1.19 Quapropter attendat clementia vestra quantus fuerit erga sedis Apostolicae reverentiam Antecessorum véstrorum piorum duntaxat Imperatorum amor studium qualiter eam diversis privilegiis extulerint donis ditaverint beneficiis ampliaverint qualiter eam literis suis honoraverint ejus votis annuerint c. P. Nich. I. Epist. 8. ad Mich. Imp. Apol. Bell. p. 202. Const. Apost 8.4 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Apost Can. 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dionys. de Hier. Eccl. cap. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
bounds of Papal Authority This disagreement of the Roman Doctours about the nature and extent of Papal Authority is a shrewd prejudice against it If a man should sue for a piece of Land and his Advocates the notablest could be had and well payed could not find where it lieth how it is butted and bounded from whom it was conveyed to him one would be very apt to suspect his Title If God had instituted such an Office it is highly probable we might satisfactorily know what the Nature and Use of it were the Patents and Charters for it would declare it Yet for resolution in this great Case we are left to seek they not having either the will or the courage or the power to determine it This insuperable Problem hath baffled all their infallible methods of deciding Controversies their Traditions blundering their Synods clashing their Divines wrangling endlesly about what kind of thing the Pope is and what Power he rightly may claim There is saith a great Divine among them so much controversie about the plenitude of Ecclesiastical Power and to what things it may extend it self that few things in that matter are secure This is a plain argument of the impotency of the Pope's power in judging and deciding Controversies or of his Cause in this matter that he cannot define a Point so nearly concerning him and which he so much desireth an Agreement in that he cannot settle his own Claim out of doubt that all his Authority cannot secure it self from contest So indeed it is that no Spells can allay some Spirits and where Interests are irreconcilable Opinions will be so Some Points are so tough and so touchy that no-body dare meddle with them fearing that their resolution will fail of success and submission Hence even the anathematizing Definers of Trent the boldest undertakers to decide Controversies that ever were did wave this Point the Legates of the Pope being injoined to advertise That they should not for any cause whatever come to dispute about the Pope's Authority It was indeed wisely done of them to decline this Question their Authority not being strong enough to bear the weight of a Decision in favour of the Roman See against which they could doe nothing according to its Pretences as appeareth by one clear instance For whereas that Council took upon it incidentally to enact that any Prince should be excommunicate and deprived of the dominion of any City or place where he should permit a Duel to be fought the Prelates of France in the Convention of Orders Anno 1595. did declare against that Decree as infringing their King's Authority It was therefore advisedly done not to meddle with so ticklish a point But in the mean time their Policy seemeth greater than their Charity which might have inclined them not to leave the world in darkness and doubt and unresolved in a Point of so main importance as indeed they did in others of no small consequence disputed among their Divines with obstinate Heat viz. The Divine Right of Bishops the Necessity of Residence the immaculate Conception c. The Opinions therefore among them concerning the Pope's Authority as they have been so they are and in likelihood may continue very different § II. There are among them those who ascribe to the Pope an universal absolute and boundless Empire over all Persons indifferently and in all Matters conferred and settled on him by Divine immutable sanction so that all men of whatever degree are obliged in conscience to believe whatever he doth authoritatively dictate and to obey whatever he doth prescribe So that if Princes themselves do refuse obedience to his will he may excommunicate them cashier them depose them extirpate them If he chargeth us to hold no Communion with our Prince to renounce our Allegeance to him to abandon oppose and persecute him even to death we may without scruple we must in duty obey If he doth interdict whole Nations from the exercise of God's Worship and Service they must comply therein So that according to their conceits he is in effect Sovereign Lord of all the World and superiour even in Temporal or Civil matters unto all Kings and Princes It is notorious that many Canonists if not most and many Divines of that Party do maintain this Doctrine affirming that all the Power of Christ the Lord of Lords and King of Kings to whom all Power in Heaven and Earth doth appertain is imparted to the Pope as to his Vice-gerent This is the Doctrine which almost 400 years agoe Augustinus Triumphus in his egregious Work concerning Ecclesiastical Power did teach attributing to the Pope an incomprehensible and infinite Power because great is the Lord and great is his Power and of his Greatness there is no end This is the Doctrine which the leading Theologue of their Sect their Angelical Doctour doth affirm both directly saying that in the Pope is the top of both Powers and by plain consequence asserting that when any one is denounced excommunicate for Apostasie his Subjects are immediately freed from his dominion and their Oath of Allegeance to him This the same Thomas or an Authour passing under his name in his Book touching the Rule of Princes doth teach affirming that the Pope as Supreme King of all the world may impose taxes on all Christians and destroy Towns and Castles for the preservation of Christianity This as Card. Zabarell near 300 years agoe telleth us is the Doctrine which for a long time those who would please Popes did persuade them that they could doe all things whatever they pleased yea and things unlawfull and so could doe more than God According to this Doctrine then current at Rome in the last Laterane Great Synod under the Pope's nose and in his ear one Bishop styled him Prince of the World another Oratour called him King of Kings and Monarch of the Earth another great Prelate said of him that he had all Power above all Powers both of Heaven and Earth And the same roused up Pope Leo X. in these brave terms Snatch up therefore the two-edged sword of Divine Power committed to thee and injoyn command and charge that an universal Peace and Alliance be made among Christians for at least 10 years and to that bind Kings in the fetters of the great King and constrain Nobles by the iron manacles of Censures for to thee is given all Power in Heaven and in Earth This is the Doctrine which Baronius with a Roman confidence doth so often assert and drive forward saying that there can be no doubt of it but that the Civil Principality is subject to the Sacerdotal and that God hath made the Political Government subject to the Dominion of the Spiritual Church § III. From that Doctrine the Opinion in effect doth not differ which Bellarmine voucheth for the common Opinion of Catholicks that by reason of the Spiritual Power the Pope at least indirectly hath a Supreme