of the Canons but were written in the Collection of Isidore Mercator were of equal Authority with the residue For the making of which Controversie the more plain and to shew what they mean by the Body of the Canons he tells us It is certain that the more Ancient Collection of the Decretal Epistles of the Roman Bishops and the Canons of divers Councils acquired such a name that the Volum was called The Book or Code or BODY of CANONS increased by the addition of other Councils which were afterwards celebrated But the more ancient and full collection of the Epistles of Roman Bishops and Canons of Councils was that of Cresconius of which I have spoken before saith he Which being increased by the addition of many Canons and Epistles went under the name of the Book or BODY of CANONS and whereas there were many other Collections of Canons compiled that which is the richest of all made by Isidore sirnamed Mercator containing the Epistles of the Ancient Roman Bishops beginning from Clement was Longè recentior far younger than they all as Hincmarus Archbishop of Rhemes does testifie Forasmuch as it was not brought out of Spain into France before the times of Charles the Great by Riculphus Archbishop of Mentz For so he testifies in a Letter of his to Hincmarus Laudunensis beginning Sicut de Libro c. But he who first collected Canons out of the foresaid Epistles published at first by Isidore and inserted them into the books of the Kings of the Franks was Benedictus Levita as he testifieth of himself in his preface before the fifth book of those Canons who writ in the times of the Sons of Ludovicus Pins the Emperour Ludovicus Lotharius and Charles as me shewed where he saith I have inserted these Canons c. to wit those WARES of Isidore Mercator which were brought as thou hast heard of Hincmarus into France out of Spain by Riculphus Nè quis calumniari possit ab Ecclesiâ Romanâ aliquid hujusmodi commentum esse Lest any one should slander us and say the Church of Rome invented such a business as this I think here is enough He looks upon it as a Commenium a meer Fiction and is 〈◊〉 left any one should have the advantage of Fathering such a dreadful Bastard on the Church of Rome He calls them Isidore the Merchants Wares he does not refel the Bishops of France he dares not affirm they were in the Ancient Code of Epistles and Councils he acknowledgeth them far younger than the BODY of CANONS and subscribes to Hincmarus Archbishop of Rhemes citing him who writ against Isidore as a good and Authentick Author He confesseth that they were never known in France till the times of Charles the Great that is 700 years after they first began to be written and that they were introduced into the books of the Kings of the Franks by Benedictus Levita in the times of Ludovicus Lotharius which was about the year 850. So that the Church was governed well enough without them and about 800 years after our Saviours Birth they were first hateht as meer Innovations This is too large a Chink for an Enemy to open but he proceedeth further That the same Riculphus Bishop of Mentz did live in the times of Charles the Great many Monuments of that Age do make it certain especially the Testament of the same Charles the Great to which this Riculphus is found to have subscribed among divers others We find that he was President also in a Council at Mentz held in the year of our Redemption 813. c. Since therefore the French Regions which are nearest to Spain knew not the Collection of Isidore before the times of Riculphus much less Italy it is a conjecture that this Isidore did live and write not long before and so it was first published by Riculphus who brought it thither then by Benedictus who put it into the Capitular books and lastly by Hincmarus Junior Bishop of Laon the last Collector unto this our Age which Hincmarus of Rhemes a man of a keener smell reprehendeth in many things defaming that collection of Isidore which the other used for which cause he was accused For Frodoardus in his History of Rhemes Cap. 16. near the end saith of him that being accused because he had condemned the Decretal Epistles of the Roman Bishops he professed and protested otherwise that he admitted held and approved them with the greatest honour Vpon this occasion to wit it appears he was branded with a mark because he had signified himself not to have approved that Collection of Isidore in all things Baronius you see who is one of the greatest Friends to the See of Rome endeavours to remove the matter of Isidore as far as he can from the Roman Chair being sore afraid lest the guilt of so many Forgeries should too apparently be charged upon 〈◊〉 For which cause he will not have the book so much as known in Italy nay not in France which is nearer unto Spain for 800 years time but that it came out of Spain first being brought by Riculphus Perhaps Riculphus was never there He doth not tell us that he went into Spain for ought I can find nor upon what occasion nor in what City nor of whom he received Isidore which putteth me in mind of Cacus his device who being a strong Thief and robbing Hercules of his Oxen drew them all backward by the Tail into his Den that the print of their heels being found backwards they might not be tracked but seem to be gone another way But he fails in his design for as it is strange that Italy should not know the Decretal Epistles of its own Popes for 800 years till Riculphus brought them out of Spain so is it more strange that being such Forgeries as he would have them Hincmarus Archbishop of Rhemes should be accused for condemning them and ratled up and Branded in such a manner and compelled to recant by so powerful an Enemy for it seems he had no way to save himself but by renouncing his Opinion The jealousie of the Roman Church and its tenderness over Isidore appeareth most exceeding great in the hard dealing which Hincmarus met with who though he did recant was still noted with infamy as if to speak against Isidore were a Crime not to be washed off by the Tears of Repentance in the Church of Rome Perhaps the poor Bishop was an Hypocrite in that forced Confession and for this was branded because he confessed a lye as men upon the Rack are wont to do for his own deliverance for that he knew still that Isidore was a Counterfeit and must therefore be reputed a rotten Member of the Church of Rome This Baronius observes while he ascribeth Hincmarus his reprehending Isidore's Collection to his keener scent whereby he was able more readily than others to smell a Rat and discover the Cheat. Baronius proceedeth further in condemning the collection of Isidore thus But
Nicholas the Pope seemed to abstain from it on purpose for though he was often ingaged in these Controversies concerning Appeals to the Apostolick Chair and there were in it many and those most powerful Testimonies of most holy Popes and they Martyrs too whose Authority might be of highest force in the Church yet he wholly abstained from them which that he knew to be doubtful at least is not to be doubted using only those concerning which there was never any doubt in the Church of God because the Church did not want those adventitious and late invented Evidences because it might receive them abundantly from other places but Benedictus Levita himself also though as you have heard from Hincmarus and as he himself testifies in the Preface before his books he took many things out of that same Collection of Isidore yet being conscious in himself that the Authority of those Epistles was not so sure but that it nodded exceedingly he never cited any Author of them as he did in the other Epistles of the Roman Bishops Innocent Leo Gelasius Symmachus and Gregory naming the Authors of those whose Faith was clear and certain But further yet with great caution because he knew the Evidences taken from them not to be so firm he took care as he testifies in the end to have them confirmed by the Apostolick Authority Is not here a merry passage Benedictus Levita knew the Decretal Epistles to be false and therefore he got them to be made true by the Popes Authority at least to be confirmed as true whereas they were doubtful before It is the manner of sometimes to get others to propose the matters which they themselves design to be done that the business springing from the request of others might appear more graceful in the eye of the people We may justly enquire whether Benedictus Levita were not ordered what to Petition by private instructions from his Holiness before he made his motion to the Chair for it had otherwise been an extravagant impudence to have assaulted the Chair with such a request as that is of craving a Confirmation of new-found Records so feeble and suspected Whatever the Intrigue was the event is clear Benedictus Levita got them confirmed and so they were adopted for his Holiness Children though Pope Nicholas was shy a little out of shame and modesty and blushed to acknowledge his poor Kindred It is further observable that these counterfeit Epistles were first brought in into the Records of the Franks without naming their Authors and that a little after their quiet publication some Favourite of the Chair grew more bold and added their names unto them this of Clement that of Anacletus c. And that the work was thus perfected by degrees Baronius shews us in the following passage But he who first published the Decrees extracted out of those Epistles with the Title of the Roman Bishops in whose names they are recorded was that Hincmarus we mentioned the Bishop of Laon as appears by an Epistle or book written against him by Hincmarus of Rhemes who receiving that work of the Bishop of Laon read it not without indignation and in very many things reprovedit But others have followed the Bishop of Laon as Burchardus who writ in the following Age and others after him who prefixed the names of the very Roman Bishops before all the Chapters which Gratian also did the last of all But that those Epistles are rendered suspitious by many things which we have said in the second Tome of our Annals while we mentioned each in particular is sufficiently demonstrated Where we shewed withal that the holy Roman Church did not need them so as if they should be detected of falsity to be bereaved of its Rights and Priviledges since though she wanteth them she is abundantly strengthened and confirmed by the Legitimate and Genuine Decretal Epistles of other Popes But that the Chapters taken out of them by Benedictus Levita were at first approved as agreeable to the Canons as himself testifies by the Authority of the Roman Bishops which was done also by the latter Collectors it happened rather by long use than for any strength or firmness in themselves Thus Baronius in his Annals An. 865. nu 5 6 7 8. all together In Notis Martyrol ad 4. April he saith Vasaeus is convicted to have erred who thought this Isidore Pacensis that Isidore who collected the Epistles of the Roman Bishops and the Councils c. Hincmarus Laudunensis also and Trithemius and others err who ascribe that collection to Isidore of Hispalis That Opinion is refelled first because Brauleus and Ildephonsus who lived in those times drawing up a Catalogue of his Writings make not the least mention of that work But further all doubt is taken away concerning this matter while the Author of that work speaking there concerning the manner of holding a Council recites the words of the first Canon of the eleventh Council of Toledo and mentions Agatho the Pope in his Preface since Isidore of Hispalis departed this life long before the times of that Council and Pope Agatho Had we time we might make many curious reflexions upon these passages of Baronius He afterwards talks of another Isidore called sometimes Mercator and sometimes Peccator but of what Parents what Calling what City or what Country he was he mentioneth nothing So that this Child among all those Isidores and Fathers that are found out for it must rest at last in one that is unknown All that can be gathered from this whole discourse of Baronius is this That a new Book of Councils richly fraught with Evidences for the Roman Church and Religion came abroad under the name of Isidore containing Decrees and Decretal Epistles that were never before heard of in the world that this Book was falsly Fathered upon Isidore of Hispalis and that all those ancient Epistles of the Roman Bishops from S. Peter down to Siricius are justly suspected Nay he confesses them to be insirm adventitions and lately invented or newly found and to nod exceedingly He opposeth them to those Records which are Legitimate and Genuine though they are of late magnified and followed by all the Collectors of the Decrees and Councils being though waved by some cited and approved by other Popes as well as Doctors Jesuites Cardinals c. This is the last and best Story that can be made on the behalf of that Book the Counterfeits in which as we observed before were because they extol and magnifie the Popes Chair received for good and Authentick Laws in the Church of Rome For Baronius died not long since about the year 1607. in this last Century and when he had seen the truth of those Arguments that are urged against the Forgeries endeavours so to handle this matter in his History as to clear the Church of Rome from the imputation Bellarmine that saw not into this Mystery so clearly takes another course which when we have intimated one or
as their Fountain And for this cause I was the more desirous to see the Book which is very scarce to be found and the more scarce I suppose because if the Fountain be unknown a greater Majesty will accrue to the Streams The Booksellers-Shops afforded me none but at last I met with two of them the one with the Learned Dr. Barlow Margaret Professor and Provost of Queens Colledge in Oxford the other in the Bodleian Library The one was Printed at Collein An 1530. The other at Paris before-mentioned Either had all and both affirm Ifidore Hispalensis to be the Author Though some afterwards are careful to distinguish Isidore Hispalensis from Isidore Mercator The one failing the other is obtruded as the Author of the Work the latter Collectors unanimously leaving out Hispalensis and calling him only by the Name of Mercator But how the Name of Isidore Mercator should come before the Book the Wisest Man in the World I suppose can scarcely Divine It is said that Eulogius Bishop of Corduba had a Brother whose Name was Isidore whose condition of Life Banishment whose Nation Spain whose Trade was Merchandize And that this Spanish Merchant flying out of his Country upon the account of Religion chose rather to intrust this most precious Treasure which he had saved from the Lust of Barbarians to the care of the Germans than to expose it to the Rage of those Wasters and Destroyers wherewith Spain was at that time infested as the Monks of Mentz at least who upon his having sojourned there took occasion to put his Name before the Book that was then in their hands would have the World really to believe This is Blondel's conjecture which he raiseth from the real existence of such an Isidore But he excuseth himself for conjecturing barely in such an affair because the Work is a Work of Darkness and they that did it hated the Light because their Deeds were evil And the Patcher up of those Epistles coming forth in the Vizor of another Name in such a business a conjecture may suffice Let them that imposed the Name give us a Reason why they did it it is not incumbent on us to render an account of what other men are pleased without reason at any time to do It is not impossible but a Knave called Isidore might be sent abroad with the Book being pickt out on purpose that the Famous Isidore Bishop of Hispalis might be believed to be the Author He might come to Mentz and sojourn there under the notion of a Spaniard and give Riculphus or the Monks a sight of the Book as a rare inestimable Treasure For Sinon was let loose with as little Artifice as this to the Destruction of Troy Thus whence it came really could hardly be discovered and the Thing too would be the more admired because it came from the farthest Regions as Merlin speaks being saved so Miraculously from the hands of Barbarians But where did this Traveller find it this Merchant of whom did he receive it For morally speaking it is impossible that a Merchant should be the Author of it especially at that time when the Records lay scattered perhaps in an hundred Libraries and were all to be sought in obscure Manuscripts An Ass may be expected to meddle with an Harp as soon as a Merchant with the Mysterious Records of the Church How come Lay-men to be so Judicious Had any Merchant so great a Skill as this imports It is improbable fourscore Bishops should know its much more that they should urge him to do that which their own Learning and Function fitted them to do far better Yet Isidore in his Preface writeth thus You Eighty Bishops who urged me to begin and perfect this Work ought to know as ought all other Priests of the Lord also that we have found more than those 20 Chapters of the Nicene Council c. It is a shame to the Church of Rome that a Lay-man should be the Fountain of all her Records and that in very deed the greater part of them should be in no Manuscript nor Library in the World being never seen nor heard of till Isidore brought them out of Spain That no man can tell what Isidore made the Book which is now the President and the sole Store-house of all their Collections is a 〈◊〉 infamous especially since they believed of old unanimously that the Bishop Isidore of Hispalis was its ancient Author Baronius when he had irrefragably disproved him puts nothing certain in his stead but having a Wolf by the ears and being willing to say something raises a dust and goes out in the Cloud In the ancient Manuscripts saith he we find this Isidore the Collector of the Councils sirnamed Mercator as in those which we have in our Library but in the Inscription of the Books lately Printed he is stilled not Mercator but Peccator according to the manner of some of the ancient Fathers who for Humility sake were 〈◊〉 to superscribe and subscribe themselves so I conceive it crept in by a mistake that Mercator was written for 〈◊〉 but since the Author of that Collection reciting the General Councils in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the sixth it is evident that 〈◊〉 after the sixth Council and before 〈◊〉 seventh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is here He had before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 detected the Collection for a 〈◊〉 and yet he now gravely troubles his Brains to know what Isidore this might be It is a blind Isidore that has left no mark of his Life behind him but only that which lies in this counterfeit Preface an Isidore that can no where else be found by the great 〈◊〉 Baronius He has no other help to know the time about which he lived but the Preface Whether Peccator or Mercator is but a superficial Controversie whether any Isidore made the Book is a deeper enquiry The old Manuscripts of Baronius are Books of yesterday all written since the counterfeit Isidore was published The variety shows that the Papists can rest no where And the liberty they take to alter what they see in Manuscripts as they please is an ill sign of a large Conscience which studies not what is faithfully to be published but conveniently For because the Name of Mercator did smell too strong of the Wares left the World should wonder how the Inscription of a Merchant should come out before the Councils they thought it fit to strain the courtesie of a Letter and because Peccator is an humble Name to turn the Merchant into a Sinner That it was a Sinner I dare be sworn and a fly Merchant too lucky Names both of them but the last is capable of a siner pretence no Cheat being so vigorous and unavoidable as that of a penitent we ping Sinner The Pride of Rome comes cloathed in Humility after the example of her Supreme Head who stileth himself the Servant of Servants while he aspires by these very Records to be the King of Kings Isidore and Merlin being two of
very next line he is at it again THE LIFE EPISTLES AND DECREES OF CLEMENT EX LIBRO PONTIFICALI DAMASI P. The Pontifical is afresh ascribed to Damasus For Friends may quarrel without falling out eternally But if they are so angry what make they together What have Scholars to do in so scandalous a Fellows Company Why of all Books in the World do they take this to follow All of them from Peter Crab to the Collectio Regia Why not the Grave Sincere and Learned Why not a true Record Why do they chuse a Counterfeit so full of lyes and contradictions It is the highest Symptom of a deadly cause that they take such a Fellow to be their Copy to write after their Text to gloss on their Guide to follow For all these gross mistakes are committed within the compass of some 30 or 40 lines in four Lives of one hundred and six And in every Life almost throughout they are exercised in the same manner If this be the best Record they can find for the purpose and all their Antiquities be like this they are as mouldy and rotten as can well be desired CAP. XVI Of the Decretal Epistles forged in the Names of the first holy Martyrs and Bishops of Rome The first was sent as they pretend from S Clement by S. Peter's order to S. James the Bishop of Jerusalem seven years after he was dead and by the best Account 27. S. Clement's Recognitions a corsessed Forgery TO stumble in the Threshold is Ominous If the first of all the Decretals be a Forgery it is a leading Card to the residue Binius his Title and the Text of the Pontifical is represented thus THE LIFE EPISTLES AND DECREES OF POPE CLEMENT I. Out of the Pontifical of Pope DAMASVS He made two Epistles that are called Canonical This man by the Precept of S. Peter undertook the Government of the Church as by Jesus Christ our Lord the Chair was committed to him In the Epistle which he wrote to S. James you shall find after what manner the Church was committed from S. Peter Linus and Cletus are therefore recorded to be before him because they were made Bishops by the Prince of the Apostles himself and ordained to the 〈◊〉 Office before him NOTES After the Method of Binius He made two Epistles called Canonical These words are adapted to the 84th Canon of the Apostles where two Epistles of Clement and his eight Books of Ordinations are made parts of the Canonical Scripture In the Epistle which he wrote to S. James Here the Pontifical openly voucheth his Epistle to S. James which Binius afterwards tells you was written to Simeon If the Pontifical be right Binius was overseen in saying the name of S. James crept by corruption into the Title of the Epistle for that of Simeon The Tales do not hang together They were made Bishops by the Prince of the Apostles c. You understand here that S. Peter out of his superabundant care for the Church made three Bishops of Rome in his own life time So that Rome had four Popes at once S. Peter S. Clement S. Linus and S. Cletus Some think that Linus and Cletus were S. Clement's Adjutants in External Affairs Some that they succeeded each other in order Some that they presided over the Church together Some say that Clement out of modesty refused the Chair till he was grown older belike It is a world to see what a variety and puzzle they are at in this matter The confusion springeth from two causes The first is the obscurity of the State of Rome in the beginning The second is the ignorance of the Forger that made S. Clement's Letter to S. James For happening so heedlesly to Father it on S. Clement he has made all the Story inconvenient S. Clement saith not one word of refusing the Chair in his Epistle nor of Linus and 〈◊〉 coming between him and it but 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 fair Hypocritical shew 〈◊〉 in his 〈◊〉 to S. James that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by S. Peter and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whereupon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will have this Epistle to be a good and true Record are forced of necessity to say that S. Peter did himself ordain Clement though they very well know that Linus and Cletus or Anacletus were both in their Order Bishops before him For a sure Token either that the Church of Rome was little considered in the dawning of the Gospel or that their ignorance marred her Officious Impostors nothing is more obscure and doubtful than the order and manner of her first Bishops The Pontifical undertakes to reconcile all and does it luckily were it not that it contradicts it self For he saith of Clement that he undertook the Government of the Church by the precept of Peter And yet of Linus and Cletus it saith they are recorded to be before him because by the Prince of the Apostles they were made Bishops before him Be that a contradiction or no it was neither Linus nor Cletus it seems but Clement who writ the Epistle to S. James about the death of Peter He made many books Binius upon those words observes that before his Epistles he wrote the Constitutions of the Apostles c. He did not make but write the Apostles Canous in Greek c. It is much he did not make them for the Coronis of them as Nicolinus calleth it hath by me Clement in it and for ought I know a Pope that hath the fulness of power Apostolical may make Apostles Canons at any time It is an odd observation He did not make but write the Apostles Canons Among his other Monuments saith Binius there are ten books of the circuits of Peter which by some are called The Itinerary of Clement by others his Recognitions Which since they are stuffed with Loathsome Fables and the Fathers abstained from the use of them as Gelasius also in a Roman Council rejected them for Apocryphal all wise men will advisedly abstain from reading them It is a Tradition that Clement left the Rite of offering Sacrifice to the Church of Rome in writing It is reported also that many pieces are falsly published under the Name of Clement Forgeries are you see thick and threefold in the Church of Rome but this of Clement's Itinerary which Binius disswadeth all men from reading even ten Books Cum insulsis fabulis reserti 〈◊〉 since they are stust with loathsome Fables I desire you to take special notice of because this Confession of his will discover him to be either a false man or a Fool. It is a delicate Snare and will detect S. Clement and S. Binius together As for Binius who defendeth the first Epistle of Clement to S. James for a good Record if he did read the Epistle and note what he read he was a false man for defending it against his Judgment and Conscience He that so mortally hated the Itinerary of Clement could not but know the Epistle to be Forged if he read it with
mentioneth the foresaid business at Carthage but so briefly that it is clear he did not like it And to close up all in the Life of this Boniface he endeavours to strengthen the Title of the Roman Bishop against the Patriarch of Constantinople by the Donation of Constantine another Forgery of which hereafter The two counterfeit Canons contained in the Commonitorium which the Roman Bishop sent to the sixth Council of Carthage are these as Faustinus the Italian Bishop delivered them in Greek to be read by Daniel the Pronotary in the Council 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. We are pleased that if a Bishop be accused and the Bishops of his Country being assembled together have judged him and deposed him from his Degree and he thinks fit to Appeal and shall fly to the most blessed Bishop of the Roman Church and shall desire to be heard and he shall think it just that the Tryal be renewed then he the Roman Bishop shall vouchsafe to write to the B. shops of the adjoyning and bordering Province that they should diligently examine all and define according to the Truth But if any one thinks fit that his Cause be heard again and by his own Supplication moves the Bishop of Rome that he should send a Legate or Priest from his side it shall be in his power to do as he listeth and as he thinketh fit And if he shall decree that some ought to be sent that being present themselves might judge with the Bishops having his Authority by whom they were sent it shall be according to his judgment but if he think the Bishops sufficient to end the business he shall do what in his most wise counsel he judgeth meet Here the Roman Bishop nay the meanest Priest he shall please to send as his Legate is exalted above all Councils Bishops and Patriarchs in the world he may do and undo act add rescind diminish alter whatsoever he pleaseth in any Council when the Causes of the most Eminent Rank in the Church do depend in the same All Bishops are by this Canon made more to fear the Roman Bishop than their own Patriarch and are ingaged if need be to side with him against their Patriarch the Gate is open for all the Wealth in the World to flow into his Ecclesiastical Court which is as much above the Court of any other Patriarch by this Right of Appeals as the Archbishops Court above any inferiour Bishops while we may Appeal to that from these at our pleasure Thus Bishops and Patriarchs are made to buckle under the Popes Cirdle and the Decrees of Councils are put under his foot And all this is no more but half a Step to the Popes Chair The other part of the Step in this Commonitorium was the following Canon concerning Priests 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. I ought not to pass that over in silence that does yet move me If any Bishop happen to be angry as he ought not and be suddenly or sharply moved against his Priest or Deacon and would cast him out of his Church Provision must be made that he be not condemned being Innocent or lose the Communion Let him that is cast out have power to Appeal to the Borderers that his Cause might be heard and handled more carefully for a Hearing ought not to be denied him when he asks it And the Bishop which hath either justly or unjustly ejected him shall patiently suffer that the business be lookt into and his Sentence either confirmed or rectified c. What is the meaning of this c. in Binius Labbè Cossartius and the Collectio Regia I cannot tell but doubtless the Canon intends the same in the close with the former that the last Appeal is reserved to the Roman Chair which made the Fathers in the sixth Council of Carthage so angry as we find them to see things so false and presumptuous fastned upon the first most Glorious Oecumenical Council which decreed the clean contrary in the 4 and 5 Canons The substance and force of which as we gave you before so shall we now the words of the Canons themselves Can. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It is fit that a Bishop chiefly be ordained by all the Bishops that are in the Province but if this be found difficult either because of any urgent necessity or for the length of the journey then the Ordination ought to be made by Three certainly meeting together the absent Bishops agreeing and consenting by their Writs but let the confirmation of the Acts be given throughout every Province to the Metropolitan Can. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Concerning those that are Excommunicated whether in the Order of the Clergy or the Laity by the Bishops in every several Province let the Sentence prevail according to the Canon that they who are cast out by some be not received by others but let it be required that no man be excluded the Congregation by the pusillanimity or contention or by any such vice of the Bishop That this therefore might more decently be inquired into we think it fit that Councils should every year throughout every Province twice be celebrated That such Questions may be discussed by the common Authority of all the Bishops assembled together And so they that have evidently offended against their Bishop shall be accounted Excommunicated according to to reason by all till it pleaseth the community of Bishops to pronounce a milder Sentence upon such But let the Councils be held the one before the Quadragesima before Easter that all Dissention being taken away we might offer a most pure Gift unto God and the second about the middle of Autumn The last Appeal you see is ordered by the Canon to Councils and as they please the Controversie is to be ended without flying from one to another Bishop These are the true and Authentick Canons of the Nicene Council overthrown by the Forgery CAP. III. A multitude of Forgeries secretly mingled among the Records of the Church and put forth under the Name of Isidore Bishop of Hispalis Which Book is owned defended and followed by the Papists THe Roman Chair being thus lifted up to the utmost Height it could well desire care must be taken to secure its Exaltation After many secret Councils therefore and powerful Methods used for its Establishment for the increase of its Power and Glory furthered by the Luxury and Idleness of the Western Churches of which Salvian largely complains in his Book De Providentiâ written to justifie the Dispensation of GOD in all the Calamities they suffered by the Goths who sacked Rome in the days of the forenamed Zozimus there came out a collection of Councils and Decretal Fpistles in the Name of Isidore Bishop of Hispalis about the year 790. In which Book there are neatly interwoven a great company of forged Evidences or feigned Records tending all to the advancement of the Popes Chair in a very various copious and
had no Images himself neither adored any 2. That Images were forbidden in the H. Scripture especially in the Old Testament 3. The Apostles were wont to allure the Jews and not to offend them To the Jews saith S. Paul I became as a Jew that I might gain the Jews Whereas to set up Images was the only way to drive them out of the Temple 4. That all other Councils Nice Constantinople Ephesus Chalcedon Arles Eleberis Antioch Laodicea Sardis Jerusalem Alexandria Rome c. during all the time of 800 years were silent of this Apostolical Canon Concerning which I beseech you to consider further 1. That admitting it were in the 2 Nicene Council that was an Idolatrons Council addicted to Fables and full of Forgeries for which it is rejected by all the knowing and sounder part of the World 2. The Apostles were not obeyed in this Commandment neither in their own Age nor in divers Ages after 3. Binius himself seemeth conscious of its unsoundness for he putteth it not among the Councils of the Apostles which are before their Canons altogether but in another place stragling by it self in his own Notes and after the Apostles Canons 4. Since the Apostles wrote in Greek this is rendered suspitious by wanting a Greek Copy 5. No Collector produceth one word besides himself in the whole Circuit of the first 400 years on the behalf of Images 6. The Fathers unanimously write against Images in the Church of GOD. 7. You may perceive by the dulness of the Sense out of what Storehouse this Fragment came and by the horrid incongruity of making a Divine and Humane Image unmingled with hands The Divinity and and Humanity being Natures infinitely distant cannot be painted in the same Picture But for want of a better this Musty Evidence must serve the turn CAP. XV. Of the Pontisical Falsety Fathered upon Damasus Bishop of Rome An. 397. How the Popish Collectors use it as their Text yet confess it to be a Forgery full of Lyes and contradictions THe Liber Pontifiealis is a Legend so stuffed with Lyes that the very Title of it is notorious The very first Inscription of the Book miscarries not so as to need like the former Counterfeits either those of the Apostles Canons or their Council or the Preface of Isidore a long Circuit of Deductions to prove the Forgery Binius Labbe and the Collectio Regia immediately confess it It beginneth thus THE BOOK OF POPES From Pope Peter down to Pope Nicholas of that Name the First in which their Acts are described The Acts of the first Popes by Pope Damasus The rest by other * Ancient Men and * worthy of credit Upon this Title Binius noteth Hujus libri Pontificalis Damasus Auctor non est c. Damasus is not the Author of this Pontifical but rather it is patched up of two divers Authors as may be proved by this that almost in every Popes Life it contains things fighting with themselves And so no account can be given of Things and Writings clashing with one another And for this he cites Baronius An. Christ. 69. nu 35. Au. 348. nu 16. 17. Anton. Possevin Apparat. Sac. on the word Damasus Now a man would expect he should lay aside the Book and refuse to make use of such an odious Pamphlet But for want of a better he takes it in as his most Learned Companions do and so they labour all under the miserable Fate of making a Forgery the Text upon which their Notes and Volumes are the Commentary It is meet before I pass to make some use of what is given us for Observation is the Life of History Reflexions digesting the Objects that are before us and turning them into nourishment What is here said concerneth not a Page but a whole Book stuffed with Legends and Lives of Popes It was set forth as a Book made by Damasus a Learned Grave and Ancient Bishop of Rome that his name might give colour and Authority to the same Because it could not be believed that 〈◊〉 should write of Popes that followed after he was dead part of it is ascribed to other ancient men and worthy of credit naming no body for the greater Reverence and shew of Antiquity and the more pious estimation of unknown persons How ancient and how worthy of credit they are that 〈◊〉 such Cheats and what a Mystery of Iniquity they make of Antiquity you may easily conjecture Sometimes 〈◊〉 are thrown upon 〈◊〉 Greeks and 〈◊〉 but here is one made and compiled by the more Famous Romans Binius knew it to be a Forgery by the baseness of the Stile Consarcinatus est It was patched up That is his word a Metaphor implying the Taylors were but Botchers that made it Secondly By the contradictions that are in it he knew they were divers Authors because they jangle and cannot agree The parts of it are so irreconcileable that the Story will by no means hang together It is a Vein of Lyes reaching from S. Peter to Damasus and from Damasus to Nicholas 1. containing the Lives of above 100 Popes from S. Peter to the year 860. About the time of this Nicholas 1. the Popedom was exalted above the Clouds and was of necessity to be secured by as evil means as it was gotten When loe the Witch of Endor raises up Samuel in the good old Damasus to tell the World that Peter was a Prince and all his Successors Vniversal Heads of the Catholick Church Nicholas 1. began to sit about 50 years after the death of Hadrian 1. the Pope that is suspected by us to be the Father of the 〈◊〉 So great an Impression therefore being made by the Publication of Isidore a little before it was thought good to follow the Blow by this Pontifical and a more ancient Father than Isidore must be awakened out of his dust to justifie him For as Light answered Light in Solomons Buildings so do the Lives and Letters of the Popes their Lives in the Pontifical and their Letters in the Decretal The Artifice shews contrivance and the design of it a deep and hidden Correspondence The World has been cheated for so long a time by the attempt of wicked and deceitful men Peter Crab Carranza surius Nicolinus the Elder Compilers of the Councils use it boldly and freely without warning their Readers to suspect it or confessing it to be a Forgery though Binius and the last Compilers upon necessary Conviction are forced to do it 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 have it not at all we may justly wonder therefore where these latter 〈◊〉 got it The Forgery is not about mean matters but things most Sacred the Rights of the Church and the Souls of men Here the 〈◊〉 are detected by their own confession and he that is once 〈◊〉 is still suspected The Works of Darkness are seldom 〈◊〉 so that more are committed than 〈◊〉 known All these Forgeries that are now acknowledged did pass about 200 years ago for good
Chair And together with the Credit of Rome to take away an Empire Besides the Spiritual Right of being the Rock there are ample Territories and Cities claimed with a Temporal Kingdom Let him therefore pretend what he will the Authority of such Instruments is very convenient And because he knows it well enough he produces the Diplomata or the Patents of other Kings and Emperours to confirm the Churches Secular Right extant as he saith in the Original with their Imperial Seals as particularly those of the Most Christian Princes of France restoring those things which the Longobards took away But he does not tell you by what Arts they got possession of those Territories at first nor by what Ancient Evidences Seals or Patents they held them before the Longobards touched them And because a Kingdom is of much Moment in the Church of Rome he further saith As for the Dominion of things temporal given to the Church herself proves them by the Broad Seals of the very Emperours giving them yet extant in the Originals and she quietly enjoyeth them How quiet her injoyment is you may see by that stir and opposition she meeteth and by all the clamour throughout the Christian World that followeth her Usurpations Which she defendeth here by the Seals of Emperours in general Terms but what Seals they are she scorneth as it were to mention in particular Which argueth her cause to be as Bad as her pretence is Bold But as for the Rights granted to the same Roman Church S. Leo Faelix Romanus Gelasius Hormisda Gregorius and other their Successors that flourished famously from the times of Constantine have defended them saith he not by the Authority of this Constantinian Edict but rather by Divine and Evangelical Authority against all the Impugners of them The man is warily to be understood for some of these whom he pronounceth as Defenders violently oppose their claim as Gregory in particular who for himself and all his Predecessors renounceth that Blasphemons Title which John of Constantinople first arrogated but the Bishops of Rome acquired afterwards by the Gift of Phocas the bloody Emperour So that all these are Mummers brought in as it were in a Masque to shew their vizars and say nothing For of all these Roman Bishops mentioned by Binius Gregory was the last who testifieth that none of his Predecessors ever claimed such a Title We may further note that he speak here with much Confusion because he speaks of the Rights granted to the Roman Church but does not distinguish between the Divine and Humane Rights of which he is treating For the Business he is now upon is the Temporal Klngdom in desending of which these Popes down to Gregory did forbear to use the Authority of this Constantinian Edict as he calleth it by way of scorn not because they had it not but rather as he pretends because they had no need of it having enough to shew by Divine and Evangelical Authority for the same Which is another pretence as bold and impudent as the former For I think none of his own Party will aver that the Bishop of Rome can claim a Temporal Kingdom by the Holy Scripture As for any other Claim by this Constantinian Edict or any Donation else of Emperours before the Longobards he slighteth all especially the Authority of this Constantinian Edict conceruing which he saith None of all those who sate over the Church before the year 1000. many of which saw the genuine Acts of Sylvester recited concerning which we spake above is read to have made any mention of this Edict For as much as the Counterfeit Edict was not yet added to the Acts by the Greek Impostors He does not tell us how he came to know that many of the Roman Bishops saw the genuine Acts of Sylvester before the year 1000. that being an Artifice or Color only as if there were two divers Books of Sylvesters Acts and the one a true one He tells us not a word of the Contents that were in them but he before told us plainly that the Acts of Sylvester the Pope were falsly written in Greek under the name of Eusebius Bishop of Caesarea that they were not known till 1000. years after Christ coming then forth in Eusebius his Name And now he telleth us as plainly that the Counterfeit Edict was not yet added to the Acts by the Greek 〈◊〉 The poor Greeks on whom he layes all the Load of Imposture never injoyed the benefit of these Acts nor ever pleaded the Imposture as the Latines did And in all likelyhood they made it that laid Claim and Title to the Supremacy by it Since therefore the Question is come to this Who were the Impostors we must define against him that the Counterfeit Edict was added to the forged Acts not by the Greek but Latine Impostors For how Counterfeit to ever he will have it Pope Adrian in his Epistle to Constantine and Irene which remains inserted in the Nicene Council recites this whole History almost in the same manner and so confirmes it by the Truth of this Edict As Binius himself telleth us on the words Ipse enim So that the Edict was pleaded long before the Greeks added it to the Acts of Sylvester For Pope Adrian died in the year 795 and the Acts of Sylvester were unknown till the year 1000. Yet this Adrian founded his Epistle to the Emperour and Empress in the second 〈◊〉 Council upon the truth of this 〈◊〉 And in very truth the Story he telleth is the same of Constantine's Leprosie c. contained in the Donation Which if 〈◊〉 had been pleased to remember was published by the Latines in Isidore Mercator's Collection of the Councils about the year 800. Where the Greeks in all probability first found it and were cheated as many Wiser men have since been with the appearance of it there So that searching it up to the Fountain Head it rests still among the Romans By the way to shew you that Binius is his Crafts-Master over against these words concerning Adrian before mentioned he putteth down that Famous Marginal Note Donatio Constantini confirmatur The Donation of Constantine is confirmed not by Binius as the simple Reader would suppose but by Adrian's Epistle recorded in the 2 Nicene Council and expresly containing the whole Fable of Constantine's Leprosie Vision and Baptism So that the first that ever knew it in the World for ought I can yet perceive was this Adrian of whom we have spoken somewhat before Now he comes to shew how greedily the Popes received this Cheat of the Greeks Among those who received the Acts of Sylvcster in good seoth corrupted thus with the addition of this counterfeit Edict by an evil Art and by the sorry faith of the Grecians carried out of the East into the West and that earnestly defended them as Legitimate and Genuine and pure from all fraud and Imposture the first is found saith he to be Pope Leo
and how the Forgeries are by him confirmed He hath the 〈◊〉 of Atticus and 〈◊〉 by which Pope Zozimus was convicted of Forgery in the sixth Council of Carthage Cap. 11. Of Nicolinus his Tomes and their Contents for the first 〈◊〉 years How full of Forgeries His Testimony concerning the sixth Council of Carthage with his way of desending the Popes Forgery therein Cap. 12. Nicolinus his Fpisile to Pope Sixtus V. His contempt of the Fathers He beginneth to confess the Epistle of Melchiadcs to be naught He overthroweth the Legend about Constantines Donation Cap. 13. The Epistle of Pope Damasus to Aurelius Archbishop of Carthage commanding the Decretals of the Roman Bishops to be preached and published and Fathering those Forgeries on the H. Ghost Cap. 14. Counterfeit Canons made in the Apostles names defended by Binius A Glympse of his Pretences Sophistries and Contradictions A forged Council of the Apostles concerning Images defended by Binius and Turrian Cap. 15. A Book called the Pontifical falsly fathered upon Damasus an Ancient Bishop of Rome How the most Learned of the Popish Collectors use it as the Text on which they Comment in their voluminous Books yet confess it to be a Forgery full of lyes and contradictions Cap. 16 Of the Decretal Epistles forged in the Names of Holy Martyrs and Bishops of Rome for many hundred years together The first was sent from S. Clement by S. Peters Order to S James as they pretend Bishop of Jerusalem seven years at least and by the truest account more than seven and twenty years after he was in his Grave S. Clements Recognitions a cónfessed Forgery which detecteth the first Epistle of S. Clement to be a real fraud Cap. 17. Of Higinus and Pius A notable Forgery in the name of Hermes Where you have the Testimony of an Angel concerning the Celebration of Easter never cited while the matter was in controversie Cap. 18 A Letter Eathered on Cornelius Bishop of Rome concerning the removal of the Apostles Bones about the year 2 4. It gives Evidence to the Antiquity of many Popish Doctrines but is it self a Forgery Cap. 9. The ridiculous Forgery of the Council of Sinuessa put into the Roman Martyrologies How the City and the Name of it was consumed no man can tell when by an Earthquake c. Cap. 20. Divers things premised in order first to the Establishment and then to the Refutation of Constantines Donation the first by Binius the latter by the Author The Forgeries of 〈◊〉 Pope Eusebius and Binius together opened Cap. 21. The counterfeit Edict of our Lord Constantine the Emperour wherein the Western Empire was given to the Bishop of Rome Cap. 22. The Donation of Constantine proved to be a Forgery by Binius himself He confesseth the Acts of Pope Sylvester which he before had cited for good to be Forged Cap. 23. Pope Melchiades Epistle counterfeited Isidore Mercator the Great Seducer of all the Roman Collectors confessed to be a Forger The Council of Laodicea corrupted by the fraud of the Papists Cap. 21. Threescore Canons put into the Nicene Council after Finis by the care and Learning of Alphonsus Fisanus Epistles counterfeited in the name of Sylvester and that Council A Roman Council under Pope Sylvester wholly counterfeited Spurious Letters Father'd on Pope Mark Athanasius and the Bishops of Egypt to defend the Forgeries that were lately added to the Nicene Council Appendix Cardinal Baronius his Grave Censure and Reproof of the Forgeries His fear that they will prove destractive and pernicious to the See of Rome A TRUE ACCOUNT OF FALSE RECORDS Discovering THE FORGERIES OR Counterfeit-Antiquities OF THE CHURCH of ROME CAP. I. Of the Nature Degrees and Kinds of Forgery THe Sin of Forgery is fitter to be ranked with Adultery Theft Perjury and Murder than to be committed by Priests and Prelates One Act of it is a Crime to be punished by the Judges what then is a whole Life spent in many various and enormous Offences of that nature If a Beggar forge but a Pass or a Petition putting the Hands and Seals of two Justices of the Peace to it he is whipt or clapt into the Pillory or marked for a Rogue though he doth it only to satisfie his Hunger If a Lease a Bond a Will or a Deed of Gift be razed or interlined by Craft it passeth for a Cheat but if the whole be counterfeited the Crime is the greater If an Instrument be forged in the Kings Name or his Seal counterfeited and put to any Patent without his privity and consent it is High Treason If any Records of Antiquity be defaced or wilfully corrupted relating to the benefit of men it is like the Crying Sin of removing thy Neighbours Land-mark which Solomon censures in the Proverbs But if those Records appertain to the Right of Nations the Peace of Mankind or the Publick Welfare of the World the Sin is of more mysterious and deeper nature If Counterfeits be shufled in among good Records to the disorder and confusion of the Authentick and a Plea maintained by them which without those Counterfeits would fall to the ground upon the deposition of False Witnesses Theft and Perjury are effectually couched together with Lying in the Cheat. If the Records so counterfeited concern the Church either in her Customs or Laws her Lands or the limits of her Jurisdiction the Order of her Priests or any other Spiritual or Ecclesiastical Affair besides other sins contained in it there is superadded the Sin of Sacriledge The highest degree of Forgery is that of altering the Holy Scriptures because the Majesty offended being Infinite as well as the Concernment the Crime is the more heincus The highest next under that is to counterfeit Rules in the Names of the Apostles Oecumenical Councils most glorious Martyrs and Primitive Fathers that is to make Canons letters Books and Decrees in their Names of which they were not the Authors If the Church of Rome be guilty of this Crime her Antiquity and Tradition the two great Pillars upon which she standeth are very rotten and will moulder into nothing If Money be spent in promoting the Forgery or any thing given directly or indirectly to its Fautors and Abettors in order to the Usurpation of any Spiritual Priviledge or Power he that doth it is guilty of Simony And in many cases Simony Lying and Sacriledge are blended together Finally If they that make the Forgeries ather them upon GOD or upon the Holy Ghost the Sin of Blasphemy is added to Forgery for it maketh God the Father of Lies and being done maliciously it draweth near to the unpardonable sin That some Popes have been guilty of Simony cannot be doubted by them that are any thing versed in Church Antiquty Hart in his Conference with Reynolds 〈◊〉 out of Dr. Genebrard that the Popes for the space of seven score years and ten almost from John VIII to Leo IX about fifty Popes did revolt wholly from the vertue of their Ancestors
Elaborate manner That the Bishop of Rome had a secret hand in the contrivance and publication of them is probable if not clear from divers Reasons 1. Before they were published Hadrian 1. maketh use of the Tale of Constantines Leprosie Vision and Baptism by Pope Sylvester things till then never heard of in the world but afterwards contained in the Donation of Constantine a Forgery which in all probability lay by this Hadrian but of his own preparing when he wrote his Letter to Constantine and Irene which Letter was read and is recorded in the 2. Nicene Council on the behalf of Images being sent abroad like a Scout as it were to try what success it would find in the world before he would adventure the whole Body of his Players to publick view For if that were swallowed down without being detected the rest might hope for the same good Fortune if not the first might pass for a mistake and its Companions be safely suppressed without any mischief following 2. The Emperour and the Council having digested the first Legend exposed by the Pope so crastily to publick view the other Forgeries were a little after boldly published in this Book of Isidore together with the Legend and Donation of Constantine which when Hincmarus Archbishop of Rhemes upon its first publication set himself to write against he was taken up so roundly for the same by the Authority of Rome that he was fain gladly to acquit the Attempt for ever And their tenderness over it is I think a sufficient Indication of their Relation to it every Creature being naturally affectionate to its own Brood and prone to study its preservation The Church of Rome was so tender of Isidores Edition that as some say Hinemarus was forced to recant his Opinion and to declare that he believed and received the Book with Veneration 3. It is recorded by Justellus that the forementioned Hadrian was careful to give Charles the Great a Copy of the Councils and Decretal Epistles drawn up as he affirmed by Dionysius Exiguus Daillè accuses the Book of many faults but whether Hadrian or Dionysius were guilty of them is little material only 't was done as a Pledge of Reconciliation after several Bickerings between the Giver and Receiver Charles the Great having several times invaded Rome and now departing thence with Friendship which makes me a little the more prone to suspect Dionysius too for one of those Danaum Dona which are given like Nessus his Shirt when wounded by Hercules to his Enemies Wife for the destruction of her Husband Be it how it will it shews that Hadrian I. was a busie man that he understood the influence and power of Records what force they would have upon the minds of Lay-men and that his eyes and hands were sometimes busied in such Affairs But that which above all other Arguments discovers the Popes to have a hand if not in the Publication yet in the Reception of the Forgeries is this that the Roman Canonists Ivo Gratian c. have digested them into the Popes Laws and they are so far countenanced by the Popes themselves that almost from the time of their publication throughout all Ages since they have been received for Authentick in the apal Jurisdiction and are used as such in all the Ecclesiastical Courts under the Popes Dominion as the chief of their Rules for the deciding of Causes So that they are not only fostered but exalted by the Authority of Rome The Glory which they acquired in the Throne of Judgment advancing them for a long time above the reach of Suspition The Veneration which is due to the Chair of Holiness was their best security By the influence of the Popes Authority they were received into the Codes of Princes being as we shall shew out of Baronius in the next Chapter introduced into the Capitular Books of the Kings of the Franks by Benedictus Levita and at his instant request confirmed and approved by the 〈◊〉 Chair The Forgeries in Isidore being scattered abroad it is difficult to conceive to what a vast Height the Roman See by degrees 〈◊〉 The Splendour of so many Ancient Martyrs 〈◊〉 together with so many Canons and Decrees in her behalf so far wrought that her Bishop came at last to Claim all Power over all persons Spiritual and Temporal to have the sole power of forgiving sins to be alone Infallible to be Cods Vicar upon Earth the only Oracle in the world nay the sole Supreme and Absolute Monarch disposing of Empires and Kingdoms according to the Tenour of the Doctrines contained in those Forgeries wherein he is made the sole Independent Lord without Controul able to do what ever he lifted Some few Ages after this first Publication of Isidore there were other Records put forth though lately seen yet bearing the countenance of 〈◊〉 Antiquitie which so ordered the matter that according to them the Evangelists brought their Gospels to S. Peter to confirm them and several books of S. Clement S. Peter's Successor were put into the Canon of the Holy Bible the whole number of Canonical books being setled and defined by his sole Authority In token doubtless of the Power Inherent in all S. Peter's Successors at Rome to dispose of the Apostles and their Writings as they please S. 〈◊〉 own Canon for that purpose being numbered among those of the Aposiles That the Pope was uncapable of being judged by any that no Clergy-man was to be Subject to Kings but all to depend immediately upon the Bishop of Rome that he was the Rock and Head of the Church was the constant Doctrine of all those Forgeries when put together with many other Popish Points of less concernment sprinkled up and down in them at every turning Cui bono Among the Civilians 't is a notable mark of Detection in a blind Cause whose Good whose Exaltation whose Benefit is the drift and scope of things and 't is very considerable for the sure finding out of the first Authors That they are Forgeries is manifest Now whose they are is the Question in hand and if Agents naturally intend themselves in their own Operations it is easily solved How excessively the World was addicted to Fables about the time of Isidore's Appearance we may see by the Contents of the 2. Nicene Council Dreams Visions and Miracles being very rife in their best demonstrations and among other Legends a counterfeit Basil a counterfeit Athanasius a counterfeit Emperour maintaining and promoting the Adoration of Images As may perhaps in another Volume be more fully discovered when we descend from these first to succeeding Ages The Counterfeits in Isidore being mingled with the Records of the Church like Tares among Wheat or false Coyns among heaps of Cold lay undistinguished from true Antiquities and after Hincmarus his ill success were little examined by the space of 500 or 600 years Some small opposition there was made in particular by the Bishops in France and
Bellarmine and Baronius though they still carry on the Design of the first Inventers by some other Methods which they hope will succeed better Nor is it any wonder that a Secular Kingdom should make men more active than the love of Heaven since we daily see how the Kings of the world expend vast Treasures of Gold and Silver and run through all dangers of Death and Battel for their own preservation and the Conquest of their Neighbours The same care which they take in building Forts and Cittadels being taken by the Bishop of Rome in maintaining Seminaries Universities Printing-Houses c. which depend absolutely on him for the securing of all that Wealth and Empire which he hath by his Wit and Policy acquired It standeth him upon for if his Religion falls his Glory vanisheth and his Kingdom is abolished What men will do for Secular Ends beyond all the belief and expectation of the Vulgar we see in Hamor and Shechem the first and most Ancient Myrrour of that kind in the world who for the accomplishment of their desires introduced a new Religion troubling themselves and their Citizens unto Blood meerly to get possession of Dinah Jacob's Daughter 〈◊〉 's Policy is about 2500 years old though much more late When the ten Tribes revolted from the House of David for fear lest they should return to their Allegiance if they went up yearly to Jerusalem according to the Law he set up two Calves for the people to worship and underwent a great expence besides the Gold in the Calves in erecting a new Order of Friests that the people might be kept at home in their perverse Obedience He very well knew those Calves were no Deities yet for secular ends he promoted their worship and was followed therein by all the Line of the Kings of Israel several hundred of years together What Demetrius the Silver-Smith did for Diana of the Ephesians and what an uproar he made purely for Gain in making her Shrines all the Christian World understandeth But the High-Priests Scribes and Elders of the Jews in acting against all the Miracles of Christ and against their Conscience especially in giving Money to the Souldiers to hold their peace when they brought the news of his Resurrection their resisting of the Holy Ghost at his Miraculous Descent these are a sufficient instance of the incredible obdurateness of mans heart and his obstinate 〈◊〉 allures his hopes as the immediate Crown of his Labours The Diana of the Romans is much more prosicuous than the Diana of the Ephesians The fattest places of the Provinces and the greatest Empire in the World are the Game they Play This Dinah animateth all their Strength to impose on the people And for the easing of their own Charge it is a usual thing with Popes to permit their Priests and Fryers for their better support to deceive the people which Dr. Stillingfleet in his Book of Popish Counterfeit Miracles does excellently open in which and in all other Arts and Tricks they have a special connivance provided they keep the poor simple Sheep within the bounds of their Jurisdiction and contribute to the continuance of their Secular Kingdom This is the truth of the Story and these are the circumstances of the whole procedure which remains now to be proved CAP. IV. James Merlin's Editions of the Councils who lately published Isidore Hispalensis for a good Record which is now detected and proved to be a Forgery JAmes Merlin's pains was to publish Isidore with some Collections and Additions of his own He positively affirmeth him to be that Famous Isidore of Hispalis a Saint a Bishop and a Father of the Church though as Blondel and Dr. Reynolds accurately observe S. Isidore of Hispalis was dead 40 50 60 years before some things came to pass that are mentioned in that Book of the Councils Blondel in a Book of his called Pseudo-Isidorus or Turrianus Vapulans Cap 2. observes how the lowest that write of Isidores death fix it on the year 647. as Vasaeus in his Chronicle Others on the year 643. as Rodericus Toletanus Hist. lib. 2. cap. 18. Or on the year 635. as the proper Office of the Saints of Spain or on the year 636. when Sinthalus entered his Kingdom as Redemptus Diaconus an eye-witness De Obitu Isidori Brauleo Bishop of Caesar-Augustana Lucas Tudensts Baronius the great Annalist Mariana Grialus and others agree with the last which is eleven years sooner than Vasaeus So that the general prevailing Opinion is that Isidore of Hispalis died in the year 636. However that we may deal most fairly with them we will allow them all they can desire and calculate our affair by the last Account which is most for their advantage Admit Vasaeus in the right that Isidore lived till the year 647. yet the Book which is Fathered upon him can be none of his for it mentions things which came to pass long after It is observed by Blondel that Honoratus who succeeded Isidore in the See of Hispalis is found in the sixth Council of Toledo whereas this pretended Isidore makes mention of the eleventh Council in the same place He talks of the sixth Oecumenical Council in the year 681. no less than 46 years after his own death by the lowest account He writes of Boniface of Mentz slain as Baronius observes in the year 755. which was threescore and sixteen years after Isidores death Yet Possevin upon the word Isidorus Hisp. and Hart in his Conference with Reynolds contend the Author of this Book to be the true Isidore Bishop of Hispalis as Merlin who first published Isidore in print and others did before them Among his Witnesses produced against this Counterfeit the first which Blondel useth is the Code of the Roman Church in which onely the Epistles of 13 Roman Bishops are contained beginning with Siricius Whereas there are in Isidore above 60. whereof five or six and thirty lived before Siricius and were all unknown until the time of Isidore His next Testimony is that of the Bishops of France about the year 865. who concluded that Isidore's Wares then newly beginning to be sold could not have the force of Canons because they were not contained in the Authentick Code or Book of Canons formerly known He next citeth the Council of Aquisgranum An. 816. the Bishops of Paris An. 829. Henricus Caltheisensis Erasmus Greg. Cassander Anton. Contius the famous Lawyer Bellarmine and Baronius the Learned Cardinals The Testimony of Baronius being more largely cited than the residue I thought it meet to search the Author and there I found these following passages Writing upon the Contest between Pope Nicholas and the French Bishops concerning Appeals he beginneth to shew how they complained that the Causes of Bishops which ought to be tryed in Councils by their Fellow Bishops were removed to the Apostolick Chair And they questioned in their Letters whether those Epistles of the more Ancient Bishops which were not inserted into the Body
foolishly for in the beginning of the Book he hath a Preliminary Tract called An Annotation of Synods the Acts where of are contained in this book In which he giveth us this account in the Aquitan Council 18 Fathers made 24 Canons in that of Neocaesarea 16 Fathers made 14 Canons in that of Gangra 16 Fathers made 21 Canons in that of Sardica 60 Fathers made 21 Canons in that of Antioch 30 Fathers made 25 Canons in that of Laodicea 22 Fathers made 59 Canons in the Council of Car thage 217 Fathers made 33 Canons I had a long time coveted a sight of these Canons and finding them numbred in such an Annotation of Synods the Acts whereof are contained in this book I was much comforted with hope of seeing them But when I turned to the place I found them not Surely to slip out 33 Canons at a time made by more Fathers than were in all the other Councils put together is a lusty Deleatur There was never Deed of more importance imbezelled in the World The Nicene Council had 318 Fathers that made 20 Canons for what secret cause therefore he skippeth over the account which he ought especially to give of this is worth the enquiry He mentions it by the by and shuffles it off without an account perhaps because he was loath to say or unsay the story of 70 Canons in the Nicene Council However he dealeth fairly with us in this that having noted Aurelius to have been President in the sixth Council of Carthage he confesseth that S. Augustine Bishop of Hipyo is recorded to have been in that Council in the Reign of Honorius Ibid. Binius and all the Popish Compilers I could ever meet with before clipped off that Council in the midst without so much as signifying the number of its Canons I was glad I had a sight of their number here though I mist of themselves and was confident that however cruelly the Pope dealt with Aurelius Archbishop of Carthage S. Aug. Bishop of Hippo and other holy Fathers in cutting out their Tongues I should at last meet with them And the Learned Justellus with much honesty and honour has made us satisfaction We acknowledge some true Records among these Spurious Abominations but a little poyson spoileth the greatest Mess of the most wholesom Meat much more doth a Bundle of Forgeries that over-poyseth the true Records in size and number The method which he useth in the mixture of the Records and Forgeries is remarkable For beginning with the Counterfeit Epistles of Clement Anacletus c. he first seasoneth the Readers spirit with Artificial Charms and prepossesseth him with the high Authority of the Roman Patriarchs and after he has given him those strong Spells and Philtres composed of Roman Drugs permits him boldly to see some true Antiquities his eyes being dazled in the very Entry with Apparitions of Popes and such other Spectres Lest the Tincture should decay he reserves some of the Forgeries till afterwards that the true Records might be compassed in with an Enchanted Circle and the last Relish of Antiquity go off as strong as the first and be as successful as the prepossession Thus he cometh down with Forgeries to Melchiades and then he breaketh off the Decretal Epistles to make room for the Councils beginning with the Nicene under pretence of its Excellency and putting the Councils before it in time after it in order that he might get a fit occasion to introduce them here so running down in a disorderly manner from Ancyra to Neocaesarea Gangra Sardica Antioch Laodicea Constantinople Ephesus Chalcedon among the Greeks and then up again to the Latine Councils many of which preceded divers of the other as the first second third fourth fifth sixth Council of Carthage all which were before the Council of Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcedon From the seventh Council of Carthage he runneth down to the thirteenth Council of Toledo which happened long after Melchiades Silvester Pope Mark Liberius Felix c. were dead Then he cometh in the second part of his Work up again to Sylvester and so downwards with more Decretals that he might Husband his Forgeries well and not glut us with them altogether And remarkable it is also that he doth not give us the least syllable of notice of any Fraud among them Nay even Constantine's Donation set in the Front before the Nicene and in the midst between the first Order of Counterfeits and the Councils passeth with him silently and gravely for a true and sacred Instrument which is of all other the most impudent Imposture Let Baronius say what he will it was impossible to debauch all Antiquity and Learning with so much Labour and Art without some deep Counsel and Design What use Merlin puts all these things to and how much he was Approved in the Church of Rome you shall see in the next Chapter and how highly also he extolleth this Book ofF orgeries How plainly he fathereth it upon S. Isidore Bishop of Hispalis is manifest by the Coronis of the first Part where with it endeth Give thanks to industrious and learned men studious Reader that now thou hast at hand the Acts of the Councils as well as of the Popes which Isidore the Bishop of Hispalis collected into one Volume c. What shall we believe The first Edition of the Book it self or Baronius his Testimony Old Merlin fathers it upon Isidore before Baronius was born and all the World was made to believe the Bishop of Hispalis was the Author of it though now for shame and for a shift they fly to another Author Now if Isidore were dead before the Booke was made it must needs be a Cheat which as Merlin saith honest Francis Regnault the cunning Printer ended at Paris in the year of our Lord 1535 which unusual form of Concluding instead of allaying increaseth the suspicion CAP. VI. What use Merlin makes of Isidore and the Forgeries therein How much he was approved in the Church of Rome How some would have Isidore the Bishop to be a Merchant others a Sinner HOw false and fraudulent soever the Collection of Isidore be yet its Title is very Splendid and its Authority Sacred in the Church of Rome JAMES MERLIN'S COLLECTION OF THE Four General Councils The NICENE the CONSTANTINOPOLITAN the EPHESINE and the CHALCEDONIAN Which S. Gregory the Great does Worship and Reverence as the Four Gospels TOM I. Of 47 Provincial Councils also and the Decrees of 69 POPES From the APOSILES and their CANONS to ZACHARIAS ISIDORE being the Author ALSO The GOLDEN BULL of CHARLES IV. Emperour concerning the Election of the KING of the ROMANS PARIS At Francis Regnault 1535. All we shall observe upon this Title is this If Gregory the Great did Worship and Reverence the Four General Councils as the Four Gospels they were the more to blame that added 50 Canons to one of them and they much more that stain them all with the Neighbourhood and Mixture of such
so many did 〈◊〉 use in 〈◊〉 the Apocryphal from Cennine Books and this Sentence was Desinitive by a Pope in his Council So that 2. A Pope in his Council is not 〈◊〉 3. If Einius be right Gelasius and fourscore Bishops did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in condemning the Code 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Canons which S. Clement wrote from the mouth of the Apostles 4. The Church of Rome is divided the New and the Old Church of Rome are against each other The New is all for Additions and the very Apostles Canons allowed in Gelasius his time which was 1260 years ago are not sufficient unless more be added But let us now consider Binius his reasons Quia tamen ex his posterioribus ferè omnes praeter praedictos duos c. But because all these latter almost besides the two forementioned are either by the Authority of the Roman Bishops or by the Decrees of other Councils or by the Sentences of some Fathers confirmed and approved as is manifest by these our Marginals and Annotations So that it may not lightly or rashly he doubted whether they were taken hence by the Bishops Councils and Fathers or rather translated hither and put here out of their Writings Hereupon they may and ought rightly and deservedly all except the two excepted to be taken for Authentick How perplexed his discourse is I suppose you see His courage fails in the midst and it becomes thereupon so rough and difficult that it is scarce intelligible The occasion of its Incoherence is that Parenthesis thrust into the middle For Binius foreseeing a strong Obiection to the Discourse he was going to make claps it Sophistically into the midst of his Argument hoping thereupon that it would never more be retorted upon him Which you may easily see both by the Nature of his Argument and by the resolution of his words For his Argument is this which if you lay aside the Answer to it runs smoothly Almost all these latter Canons besides the two forementioned are either by the Authority of Roman Bishops or the Decrees of other Councils or the Sentences of some Fathers confirmed and approved hereupon they may and ought rightly and deservedly all except the two excepted to be taken for Authentick Now the Answer is the Parenthesis in the midst Certain Sentences like to these Canons are in the Fathers writings but so contained there that it may not lightly or rashly be doubted whether they were taken hence by the Bishops Councils and Fathers or rather translated hither and put here out of their Writings To doubt a thing rashly is nonsense but it may justly be feared that these Canons are Sentences pickt out of other Books and packt into a Body bearing the name of the Apostles Canons His Conscience did convict him and he replieth not a word though it be an important consideration in the case But there is a worse fault in his Logick he argues from Particulars to Vniversals for having said Fere omnes praeter praedictos duos he comes to conclude Omnes praeter praedictos duos Almost all except two are approved therefore all except two are Authentick Such Tricks as these he hath often And sometimes affects an obscure kind of speaking on purpose to blind the Reader especially when he is intangled with some difficult Argument He then Clouds himself like the Cuttle in his own Ink that he might vomit up the Hook in the dark and scape away He might have produced a General Council if he pleased to confirm all the 84 Canons and that under the Name of the Apostles too which had been more to the purpose but then he must have confessed the last Canon of Clement to be true and consequently that his eight Books of Constitutions and his two Epistles are part of the Bible or else that the Decree of the Council confirming these was Spurious or else of necessity that the Pope and Council did err But he had more kindness for the Pope than so and therefore perhaps let the Council alone He would inure you by his words to believe that Popes are equal to Councils Because they are saith he either by the Authority of Roman Bishops or other Councils or some Fathers confirmed they may and ought to be taken for Authentick Some Fathers is a dwindling expression He very well knows that 217 were rejected together in the sixth Council of Carthage Roman Bishops and other Councils are words of some weight But what can other Councils do if the Roman Bishops please to reject them The Roman Bishops and other Councils are so put in contradistinction that the Authority of Roman Bishops is set before that of other Councils And perhaps the proportion being observed the Roman Bishops must be thought as far above other Councils as other Councils above some Fathers In other places they affirm a Pope with his Council to be Infallible Here that the Roman Bishop is a Council Otherwise it is nonsense to say The Roman Bishops or other Councils The Roman Bishop hath a Council in himself And indeed it is requisite that he of all other should be the greatest Council when standing alone he is to judge of a Council and to determine even whether an 〈◊〉 Council shall be approved or disapproved This is a Tast of Binius an Elephants Clee a Scrap of five large Volumes full of the same integrity and perverseness The swelling words which they talk of approved and disapproved Councils are all to be understood of Councils approved or disapproved by the Roman Bishop From his Canons we proceed to his Council for Binius hath a Council of Apostles too on a Prodigious Theme the setting up of Images It is but a short one and hath but one Canon and that is the eighth It is set forth in this form ANTIOCHENA SYNODUS 〈◊〉 Canon 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Salvati ob Idola sed pingant 〈◊〉 Opposite Divinam Humanamque manufactam 〈◊〉 Effigiem Dei veri ac Salvatoris nosire Jesu Christi ipsiusque Servorum contra Idola 〈◊〉 Neque errent in Idolis neque similes siant Judaeis This is all and sure it is old for the Latine is very bare If you construe it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus but hath no Greek Copy A COUNCIL of the APOSTLES at ANTIOCH Canon 3. Let not the Saved be deceived for Idols but let them paint on the Opposite the Divine and Humane unmingled Image of the true God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ made with hands and of his Servants Neither let them err in Idols nor be made like the Jews The first Authority he hath to prove it is the 2 Nicene Council 800 years almost after the Apostles And he collecteth it thence by a blind conjecture not by any evident Assertion of theirs Besides this he citeth one Pamphilus who testifieth that he found it in Origen's Study as Turrian saith against the Writers of Magdenburg So that all this resteth upon Turrian an impudent Corrupter as the World hath any Where we first observe that Origen
any diligent observation If he trusted others he was an unwise man to be so confident in maintaining it upon the report of those that read and transcribed it for him For their inadvertency hath deceived him For S. Clement himself if that Epistle be his owneth the Forgery of S. Clement's Itinerary which Binius so extremely abhorreth It must needs be a Forgery therefore because in this case nothing but a Forgery can defend a Forgery no Author if a Saint acknowledging those Forgeries for his which he never made After a long Oration which S. Clement fendeth to S. James in that Epistle out of S. Peter's mouth concerning the Dignity and Excellency of the Roman Chair he has these words speaking of S. Peter When he had said these things in the midst before them all he put his hands on me and compelled me wearied with shamefacedness to sit in his Chair And when I was sate again he spake these things unto me I beseech thee O Clement before all that are present that after as the Debt of Nature is I have ended this present life thou wouldst briefly write to James the Brother of our Lord either those things that relate to the beginning of thy Faith or those thoughts also which before thy Faith thou hast born and after what sort thou hast been a companion to me from the beginning even to the end of my Journey and my Acts and what being a Solicitous Hearer thou hast taken from me disputing through all the Cities and what in all my preaching was the order either of my words or actions as also what End shall find me in this City as I said all things being as thou art able briefly comprehended let it not grieve thee to destine unto him Neither fear that he will be much grieved at my End since he will not doubt but I endure it for piety But it will be a great solace to him if he shall learn that no unskilful man or unlearned and ignorant of the Discipline of 〈◊〉 Order and the Rule of Doctrine hath undertaken my Chair For he knows if an unlearned or an unskilful man take upon him the Office of a Doctor without the Hearers and Disciples being involved in a Cloud of Ignorance shall be drowned in destruction Wherefore I my Lord James when I had received these precepts from him held it necessary to fulfil what he commanded informing thee both concerning these things and briefly comprehending concerning those which going through every City he either uttered in the word of preaching or wrought in the vertue of his deeds Though concerning these things I have sent thee 〈◊〉 and more fully described already at his command under that very Title which he ordered to be prefixed that is Clementis Itinerarium The Itinerary of Clement not the preaching of Peter In these words he telleth us how S. Peter taking his leave of the World placed him in his Chair and by that Ceremony installed him in the Episcopal Throne in the presence of them all What a charge he gave him in that moving circumstance of time just before his piercing and bitter Passion to write to S. James How he ordered him to make an Itinerary of his Circuits throughout the World and furnished him at the same time with the Materials and Title of the Book The Itinerary of Clement not the preaching of Peter S. Peter's modesty as is to be supposed giving the Honour of the Title not to himself that was the Subject but to the Author How S. Clement according to this commandment had sent to S. James not only this Epistle but the Book it self long before it wherein the Journeys and the Acts of Peter were more fully described And the great care which S. Peter took 〈◊〉 the dead man should be grieved by the Solace he provided in the Tydings sent unto him concerning the perpetual certainty of Skilfulness and Learning in all his Successors securing at once both the Church and his Chair is very remarkable All these things out of the very Bowels of the Epistle disgrace 〈◊〉 Chimera's of Binius and 〈◊〉 For what Saint being well in his Wits would tell the World that S. Peter commanded him to make a Forgery nay a putid Forgery stussed with loathsom Fables S. James his Name is over and over in the body of the Epistle not only in the Title The Epistle was not sent to S. James by a Figure but it plainly tells S. James that he had sent him the 〈◊〉 before which consisting of ten books must be some considerable time after S. Peter's Death in making some time in going from Rome to Jerusalem and some time must be 〈◊〉 in coming back with the Answer that certified him of S. James his receiving it After all which this new Letter was written to S James impertinently giving him an account of the same business And yet all this while S. James was dead before S. Peter For as Binius observes S. Peter was put to Death in the thirteenth year of Nero and S. James in the seventh The Compiler of this Epistle finding S. Clements Itinerary extant in the World several hundreds of years before himself and being not aware of its unfoundness took it up as a good Record and so fitted the Epistle and Fable to the purpose in hand being himself cheated with a Forgery as many others are and not expecting to be detected so clearly as it hath since happened But to make the matter more absurd they have a second Letter to S. James De Sacratis 〈◊〉 vel 〈◊〉 Wherein he divides the Priesthood as Pius in his Decretal afterwards 〈◊〉 into three Orders of Presbyter Deacon and 〈◊〉 With what design I cannot tell unless he would have us think the Pope the only Bishop Wherein he also takes care about the Lords Body orders the Priests with what Ceremony of Fasting and Reverence it shall be consumed Gives Commands about the Pall the Chair the Candlestick and the Vail speaks of the Altar the Worship of the Altar the Door-keepers the Vails for the Gates the covering of the Altar c. As if there were stately Temples Attires Ornaments and Utensils in those early days of poverty Persecution when a Den or a Cave was both Sanctuary and Temple Among other things he orders that no man should through ignorance believe a dead man ought to be wrapt in a Fryers Coul a Novel superstitious Errour All which he speaks out of the mouth of S. Peter whom he calls the Father and Prince of the Apostles In the end of the Letter he denounces a Curse against all them that will not keep S. Peter's Commandments So that Peter's Name and Peter's Authority is used for every thing appertaining to the Chair and all the Apostles to be ordered by S. Peter's Successors as S. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our Lord was CAP. XVII Of Higinus and Pius as they are represented in the Pontifical and of a notable Forgery in the name of Hermes
Where you have the Testimony of an Angel concerning the Celebration of Easter cited by no body while the matter was in 〈◊〉 HIginus sate saith the Pontifical four years three moneths and four days Binius faith He sate four years except two days counterfeiting as much exactness as the other If we should follow him in his Consuls saith he we should make Higinus sit twelve years But the Pontifical is guilty of a more arrogant and ambitious errour The Hierarchy of the Church it saith was made by Higinus to wit the Order wherein Presbyters were inferiour to Bishops Deacons to Presbyters the people to Deacons Binius mendeth it as well as he is able interpreting it only of a Reformation of Collapsed Discipline But it 〈◊〉 so exactly with the distinction before made in S. Clement's second Epistle who will have the Priesthood divided into the Order of Presbyter Deacon and Minister that the design seemeth deeper than so He doth not say the Hierarchy of the Church was corrected but made by Hyginus which strikes at the Root of Episcopacy as if it were not of Divine but Humane Institution and being made by the Pope alone depended only on the Popes pleasure Binius is not able to name the time wherein the Discipline of the Church was in this respect corrupted so as to need the Reformation pretended Next after Hyginus the Pontifical bringeth in Pius an Italian the Brother of a Shepherd He sate nineteen years four moneths and three days in the times of Antoninus Pius Hermes his own Brother wrote a book in which a Commandment was contained given him by an Angel of the Lord coming to him in the Habit of a Shepherd that Easter should be observed on the Lords Day This man ordained that an Heretick coming from among the Jews should be baptized c This Hermes saith Binius in his Notes on the place is the same whom S. Paul mentioneth in his Epistle to the Romans Salute Asyncritus Phlegon Hermas Patrobus Hermes c. He was at Mans Estate when S. Paul saluted him and a very old man sure for a Writer of Books in the time of Pius Binius is not willing to have him so obscure as a Shepherd but faith He was called Pastor either because he was of the Family of Junius Pastor who in the third year of Aurelian was Consul or more probably because the Angel appeared to him in the form of a Shepherd In this his Guess he is upon the brink of rejecting the Pontifical Howbeit he quits it not of a Lye for instead of nineteen years which the Pontifical giveth him Binius faith he sate but nine years A small mistake in this Learned Pontifical Concerning the Book which Hermes the Shepherd wrote he saith It was almost unknown among the Latines but very famous among the Greeks Which was very strange considering he was the Popes Brother A Book made by so eminent a person and so near home unknown among the Latines But his meaning is perhaps it was better known than trusted For a little after he saith The Latines esteemed it Apocryphal as Tertullian Athanasius and Prosper witness and as Gelasius decreed Can. Sanct. Dift 15. Now because their unmannerliness doth refiect a little upon the Pope himself who in his Decretal Epistle annexed owns his Brother with an Honourable mention of the Angelical Vision Binius to display more Learning on the behalf of the Pontifical and Pius his Decretal tells you that the Book of the true Hermes Pastor praised so much by Tertullian Origen Athanasius Eusebius Jerome c. is not now Extant Which is evident he saith because in that we now have there is no Mention at all of Easter Nay the Author of it saith he was admonished to deliver it to Clement the Pope by whom it was to be sent to forreign Cities They have as good Luck at Rome as if they held Intelligence with Purgatorie The Dead and they have as intimate a Correspondence as if the Pope knew the Way to send his Bulls thither Here is another Forgerie detected by its Dedication to S. Clement who by no unusual Providence is served just in his own kind for he disturbed S. James and another disturbes him in his Crave Yet Binius is very much inclined to this Opinion for from hence he gathereth it was longè ante haec Tempora Scriptus a Book written long before the time of Pius As no doubt it must if it be not the same that was praised by Tertullian Origen Athanasius c. For all Forgeries must be old and True or they are not worth a farthing But how comes Tertullian and Athanasius c. to esteem it Apocryphal and yet to praise it so much in the same 〈◊〉 It is Binius his Breath not theirs They poor men are made like Stage players to say whatsoever the Poet listeth Or else as Binius observes there were two Books of Hermes though it be double dealing thus to have two of a Sort the one right and the other Apocryphal But then Gelasius did very ill there being two of a Sort to condemn the one and not tell us of the other And so did Ivo For this Pastor is one of the Catalogue we told you of in the Beginning But Binius has a fetch beyond this He teaches you a way how to take both these persons for the same man and what you may say in defence of your self if you so do However saith he if any one be disposed to take them for the same Author Ex Sententiâ Illustriss Card. Barona dicendum est c. He must necessarily say as Baronius gives his Opinion that they were two commentaries written at divers times where of the first was more famous among the Greeks the later more obscure among the Latines A brave Antithesis So that upon the point the Latines had none The more obscure among the Latines was obscure every where the more famous among the Greeks and the more obscure among the Latines The Antathesis makes a shew of giving you some Solid matter but when you grasp it in your hand it turnes to Air. Unless perhaps you will learn thereby that the more obscure among the Latines was a Book made in an instant by a meer Conjecture and a pretty Mockery to gull the Reader as a shadow at least of some proof that the Pontifical and the Decretals are not Lyars Among other Things their Allowances are considerable for they are good honest reasonable men and will let you think what you will of the Book so you consent to the main and believe the Popes Supremacy And next that their Art of Instruction is to be weighed Whether it be true or no no matter If the Disciple can but defend himself by a Distinction and escape the Conviction of an Absurdity it is enough Bellarmine is at such Dicendums often Though 't is a Secret among themselves they teach their Disciples What to say not What is True But I thought