condemn it may be seen that the ancient Church believed and did what Catholicks believe and practise concerning the Eucharist the Sacrifice of the Mass the seven Sacraments the Consistency of Grace with Free-will the Authority of Tradition the Invocation of Saints Churches dedicated and consecrated to God in memory of them the Veneration of their Relicks and Images Prayer for the dead the Fasts of Lent and of the Ember weeks the distinction of Holy days and working days that of the Habits of Lay-men and Church-men the single life of the Clergy Vows Sacred Ceremonies in the administration and use of the Sacraments and in publick Worship Divine Worship in Greek all over the East and in the Latine Tongue in the West though in most Provinces this was not understood but by the Learned in a word concerning all that distinguishes us from Protestants but especially Calvinists This the famous Cardinal Perron made out by unquestionable testimonies in his Reply to the King of Great Britain where he shews the conformity of the Ancient Catholick Church with ours in the Eighteenth Chapter of the first Book and throughout the whole Third Fourth Fifth and Sixth Books of that Learned Work And to which also David Blondel a Man incomparably more able than Calvin especially in the knowledge of Antiquity thought it not fit to make an Answer in that overgrown Volume which he wrote against the Reply and wherein he thought it convenient to begin his pretended refutation onely at the Three and twentieth Chapter of the first Book and to end it with the Four and thirtieth of the same Book But to pass by the Protestants against whom I pretend not to Dispute It is enough to me that hitherto without any disputation I have proved by Antiquity alone the Primacy of St. Peter and of the Popes his successours in the Chair of Rome and the Prerogatives and Rights which are inseparable from that Primacy wherein all Catholicks agree However it is very well known that at present they are not all of the same mind as to certain other Prerogatives which some grant and others will not allow to him and especially these four which are Infallibility Superiority over a General Council the Absolute Power of Governing the Church independantly of the Canons and the Direct or Indirect Power over Temporals And therefore I must now without deviating from my Principle drawn from Antiquity make appear without disputing and reasoning but as a bare Relater of the sentiments of the Councils and Fathers nay and of the Popes themselves what venerable Antiquity hath always believed concerning these points CHAP. VI. The Question stated concerning the Infallibility of the Pope THE Question here is not to know whether the Pope as a private Doctour and onely giving his opinion and thought of a point of Doctrine concerning Faith and Manners may be deceived for it was never doubted but that in that quality he speaks onely as another Man and that by consequent through the weakness and infirmity which is incident to all Men he is subject to Errour according to the saying of the Psalmist Omnis homo mendax Nor is it the question neither to enquire whether he be infallible when he pronounces from the Chair of the Universal Church jointly with the Members that are subject to him as to their head whether it be in a General Council where he presides in person or by his Legats or with the consent of the greatest part of Catholick Churches and Bishops For as we all allow that Jesus Christ hath given the gift of Infallibility to his Church and to a Council which represents it for determining Sovereignly by the Word of God the differences that might arise amongst Catholicks concerning these points of Doctrine so we do confess that when the Pope speaks and decides in that manner according to which he may say Visum est Spiritui Sancto nobis his words and decisions are Oracles and he can in no ways be deceived As to this there is no disagreement amongst Catholicks The question then that may be debated is to know whether when he speaks from his Chair of Rome as the Master and Teacher of all Believers and having well examined the point in hand in several Congregations his Consistory or his Synod of his Suffragans of his Cardinals and Doctours nay and having consulted Universities and by most publick and solemn Prayers begg'd the assistance of the Holy Ghost he teaches all Christians defines proposes to the whole Church by a Bull or Constitution what Christians are to believe whether I say when he pronounces in this manner he be Infallible or not and whether his Judgment given and declared in that manner may not be corrected by an Universal Council And this methinks is all that can be said in clear and formal terms as to the state of this formal question And it is the very same about which all Catholick Doctours do not agree For most part of the Doctours on t'other side of the Alpes especially the famous Cardinals Cajetan Baronius and Bellarmine and all the Authours who have followed them will have the Pope in that case when he declares solemnly to all Believers by his Constitutions what they are to believe as to any controverted point to be no ways liable to a mistake On the contrary an infinite number of the most noted Doctours of their time as Gerson Major Almanus the Faculty of Theologie of Paris so often and so publickly praised by the Popes and all France as it is even acknowledged by the Doctours Navarr Victoria and John Celaia Spaniards Denis the Carthusian Tostatus Bishop of Avila in his Commentaries upon St. Matthew and in the second part of his Defensorium Thomas Illyrius a Cordelier in his Buckler against Luther which he dedicated to Pope Adrian VI. The Cardinals of Cusa of Cambray and of Florence the Bishops of France in their Assembly representing the Gallican Church Aeneas Sylvius before he was Pope Pope Adrian VI. when he was Professour at Louvain in his Commentary upon the Fourth of the Sentences which he caused to be reprinted at Rome when he was Pope without any alterations and a thousand other most Catholick Doctours of the Universities of France Germany Poland and of the Low Countries who have all very well defended the Primacy of the Pope all these I say maintain that he is not Infallible if he do not pronounce in a General Council or with the consent of the Church The diversity of Sentiments amongst Catholicks about that Subject is then a matter of fact not to be question'd But what part are we best to take in this dispute as the most rational and best grounded that 's a question which I ought not to answer according to the design I have taken and the method that I have proposed to my self in this Treatise I shall onely then barely relate what hath been believed as to that in Antiquity and I shall do it without touching at the
quamvis incomparabiliter inferior Cypriano sicut illud Apostoli Petri quod Gentes Judaizare cogebat nec accipio nec facio quamvis inferior incomparabiliter Petro. l. 2. contra Craescon c. 32. though I be incomparably inferiour to that great Man as though I be incomparably less than St. Peter yet I admit not neither doe what he did in compelling the Gentiles to Judaize An infinite number of great Men have in that followed St. Augustine as the Master and chief of the Doctours but at present I shall onely produce one whose authority far surpasses that of all the rest And that is Pope Pelagius II. who following the example of St. Austine in relation to St. Cyprian acknowledges and at the same time excuses the errour of Pope Vigilius by that of St. Peter It is a very remarkable matter of fact Take it thus After that wicked Nestorius had been condemned in the Council of Ephesus some of his party published certain Writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia Liberat. in Breviar c. 10. wherein under other terms than those which that Heresiarch had used he said almost the same thing making it apparent enough that by the two natures which he admitted to be in Jesus Christ he understood two distinct Persons But seeing that errour was not expressed in such formal termes that all men might discover it and that besides this same Theodore had in his life-time been held in great veneration that as it commonly happens occasioned great debates some as John Patriarch of Antioch saying that there was nothing to be found fault with in his Book Others who were headed by Rabula Bishop of Edessa maintaining that it contained pure Nestorianism a little disguised This dispute growing hotter after the death of Rabula Ibas who succeeded him in the Bishoprick of Edessa taking a course quite contrary to his Predecessour wrote a long Letter to Maris Persan a Nestorian Heretick wherein he thought it not enough to give great praises to Theodore but inveighs also sharply against St. Cyrill of Alexandria the scourge of Nestorianism though at the same time he condemns the Doctrine of Nestorius whether he spake sincerely or that he would thereby caution himself against the process that might have been brought against him for that he had so openly declared for Theodore The truth is sometime after he was accused in the famous Council of Chalcedon where that Letter was produc'd against him Ann. 451. Concil Chalced. Act. 16. and read in full Council But seeing there was nothing to be found in it but praises of Theodore whose Book had not been examined and invectives against the person and conduct of St. Cyril and besides that Ibas in that Council pronounced Anathema against Nestorius and condemned his Doctrine more severely than he had even done in his Letter He was Absolved as well as Theodoret who did the same though he had Written against St. Cyrill more bitterly than Ibas had done But the Council took no notice of that Treatise Nevertheless seeing these three Writings which are very well known by the famous name of the Three Chapters so much talked of favoured Nestorianism and that that Heresie is directly opposite to that of Eutyches which admits indeed but one person but also but one nature in Jesus Christ The Emperour Justinian was easily persuaded that if these Three Chapters were condemned the Catholicks might be reconciled with the Acephali who were a remnant of Eutychians Ann. 546. This Prince who at that time desired nothing more than the Peace of the Church zealously undertook that affair He made an Edict against these Three Chapters Petav. 1. p. Ration l. 7. c. 7. which was signed by Mennas and the other Patriarchs of the East and to render that condemnation still more authentick seeing he was at that time Master of Italy having driven the Goths out of it he made Pope Vigilius come to Constantinople that he might oblige him to sign it as the other Patriarchs of the East had done There is nothing in History more extraordinary than the fortune of that Pope His ambition at first made him Anti-Pope having got himself to be chosen by the interest of the Empress Theodora who put him in the place of Sylverius the lawfull Pope Liber c. 28. that she caused to be deposed and banished and to whom that Intruder promised to condemn the Three Chapters Victor Tunon in Chron. and to approve the faith of Anthimius as he did And therefore Sylverius for all he was banished Sylver Epist c. Excommunicated him as an Anti-pope This holy Prelate dying shortly after that Condemnation the Clergy of Rome for avoiding a Schism elected of new Vigilius Canonically who by that means became true Pope and then changing his conduct that he might overturn all that he had done in favour of Theodora he condemned Anthimius as an Eutychian Greg. l. 2. c. 36. Paul diacon l. 17. and recalled the Condemnation of the Three Chapters which indeed were contrary to the Eutychians but also bordering upon the other extreme mightily favoured the Nestorians In this condition was he then when the Emperour called him to Constantinople to approve the Condemnation of the Three Chapters He had much adoe to resolve upon it Forundus Hermianen because he thought as many Occidentals did that that was to empeach the Council of Chalcedon which had received Ibas and Theodoret the defenders of Theodore of Mopsuestia But it was represented to him that the Council had not received them untill they had condemned the Nestorians and that it had not examined neither the Book of Theodore nor that of Theodoret and that seeing now they were sufficiently convinced and persuaded that the Doctrine of Nestorius condemned in the Council of Ephesus was contained in these Writings he ought to condemn them thereby to take all advantage from the Nestorians Vigilius at length Ann. 547. Judicatum acquiesced to these Remonstrances and the year following made his Decree whereby he condemns the Three Chapters but with this reserve Saving the respect and submission which is due to the Council of Chalcedon Justinian not satisfied with that would have the Pope seeing the question concerned not that Council which had not examined these Books to condemn them absolutely and without that modification lest the Nestorians might make use of it for eluding a like condemnation But Vigilius who was always loth to offend that Council would not condescend to it how badly soever they treated him to oblige him to doe so In fine after many debates about the subject Justinian who resolved to put an end to that affair for restoring peace to the Church caused the Fifth Council to be held at Constantinople in spight of Vigilius Ann. 553. V. Syn. 5. Tom. 3. Concil Constitutum who was so far from granting the Emperour what he desired that he made a new Constitution wherein he again takes upon him the protection of the
were not reputed Hereticks Victori non dederunt manus Hieron Ibid. cut off from the communion of Catholicks It was about an hundred and eight years after that the great Council of Nice abolished that custome in respect that Saint John had onely allowed it for a time in these Provinces of Asia that bordered upon the Jews to give an honourable Funeral to the Synagogue and that the other practice was taken universally as transmitted from the Apostles after which there lay an obligation upon Christians to submit to that Decree and they who headstrongly refused to obey it were declared Hereticks under the name of Quartodecumans This being so it is evident to all Men that neither these Bishops of Asia and of the East nor St. Irenaeus and the Gallican Church nor the Bishops of other Countries who wrote so smartly to Pope Victor in favour of these Eastern Churches did believe the Pope to be Infallible For had they believed it it is certain on the one hand that these Asiaticks would have submitted to the Decree of the Pope as they afterwards submitted to that of a Council because they believed as all other Catholicks doe that a Council is Infallible and on the other hand it is very clear that St. Irenaeus and so many other Bishops would not have written as they did to Pope Victor and found fault with his conduct For they never questioned but that those who refused to obey an Infallible Tribunal ought to be condemned and punished It was not then believed in the Church that the Pope had the gift of Infallibility though he might make a Decree for the instruction of all believers CHAP. IX What inference is to be made from that famous contest that happened betwixt the Pope St. Stephen and St. Cyprian concerning the Baptism of Hereticks THis famous question that hath made so much noise in the Church was fourty years before St. Cyprian solemnly examined in a Council held in Africa by Agrippinus Bishop of Carthage Ann. 217. and there it was determined that the Baptism of Hereticks being null there was a necessity of Re-baptizing all those who having abjured their Heresie should return to the bosome of the Church Cypr. Epist 71. ad Quin. Epist ad Jubaian Commonit 6.9 Vincentius Lirinensis hath Written that that same Agrippinus was the first who contrary to the custome of the Universal Church and the determination of his Brethren thought that Hereticks ought to be Re-baptised But saving the honour and respect that is due to so great a Man it is evident he was mistaken For besides that the Bishops of Africa and Numidia Cypr. loc citat with common consent and in conjunction with Agrippinus decided the same thing Tertullian Ann. 203. Cap. 12. who Wrote his excellent Book of Prescriptions against Hereticks fourteen years before the Council of Agrippinus says therein very plainly that their Baptism is not valid Cap. 15. Which in his Book of Baptism he also asserts in most express terms a Book Written by him before he fell into the Heresie of the Montanists Ann. 200. Strommat 1. Clemens Alexandrinus who flourished in the same time also rejects the Baptism of Hereticks which shews that it was the doctrine and custome of the Church of Alexandria the chief and most illustrious Church next to that of Rome So that Agrippinus and the Bishops of Africa and Numidia whom he assembled in a Council to determine that Question are not the first who established that Custome and Disipline which appoints all Hereticks who return into the bosome of the Church to be Re-baptized Probably it may be objected by some that what these ancient Authours say ought onely to be understood of the Hereticks of their times who all of them blaspheming against the most Holy Trinity Baptized not in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost and that therefore their Baptism was null which is most true But the reason whereupon they ground the nullity of the Baptism of Hereticks to wit that they are strangers without the Pale of the Church Ad quos vetamur accedere quis servus cibaria ab extraneo ne dicam ab inimico domini sui petat c. Tertull. de praescrip Quos extraneos utique testatur ipsa ademptio communicationis Id. de Baptis Trajicies aquam alienam c. Clem. Alex and that we are forbidden to have any commerce with them proves manifestly that what they said ought to be understood of all sorts of Hereticks both present and to come because they are all out of the Pale of the Church Now seeing some considerable time after the Council of Agrippinus Novation who was the first Anti-pope caused Catholicks who followed the party of the true Pope Cornelius to be Re-baptized the Question concerning the Baptism of Hereticks was argued afresh in Africa where it was put Whether or not the Novatian Schismaticks who returned to the Church ought to be Re-baptized Litt. Synod ad Epis ad Episc humid ap Cypr. Epist 90. Numid ap Cypr. Epist 70. Whereupon St. Cyprian having assembled a Provincial Council at Carthage it was there declared that since no body can be lawfully Baptized out of the Church there was a necessity of Re-baptizing Hereticks and Schismaticks those excepted who having been Baptized in the Catholick Church Cypr. Epist 74. ad Pomp. had afterward separated from it because Baptism once rightly administred could never again be reiterated The Bishops of Numidia who had received the Decree of the Council of Agrippinus Litt. Synod ad Epise Numid having consulted Saint Cyprian upon that new emergent received also the Decree of the Council of Carthage and that it might be rendered more Authentick Saint Cyprian assembled them together with the Bishops of his Province in a second Synod where the decision of the former was confirmed And thereupon a Synodal Letter was written to the Pope St. Stephen Cypr. Epist 73. ad Jubai informing him of what had been decided in those two Councils to wit that all those who being out of the Church Eos qui sunt foris extra Ecclesiam tincti apud haereticos schismaticos profanae aquae labe maculaeti quando ab nos venerint Baptisare oportere eo quod parum sit eis manum imponere Epist 70. Apud Cypr. ap August l. 6. 7. de Bapt. had been polluted by the profane Baptism of Hereticks and Schismaticks ought to be Re-baptised which was also confirmed in a third Council wherein were present the Bishops of Mauritania with those of Africa and Numidia Pope Stephen though his Predecessours had not opposed the Council of Agrippinus but left the Africans in the possession of their custome thought that he ought to condemn it as contrary to Apostolical Tradition And thereupon Euseb Hist l. 6. c. 5. in two Letters which he Wrote to the Africans he made a Decree quite contrary to that of St. Cyprian
contradiction which that great Cardinal had not leisure to mind For the Patriarch Denis speaks onely here of what these Bishops had done under the Pontificate of Pope Cornelius and he prays Stephen the Successour of that Pope not to use them harshly for the Judgment they are of that the Baptism of Hereticks is null Them says he who under his Predecessour condemned the Heresie of Novatian Is there any thing clearer than that Baronius without minding it hath taken the Counter-sense and besides Denis of Alexandria would have had care not to call an opinion which he believed to be true an Heresie Firmilian then and the Asiaticks persisted still in their opinion as well as St. Cyprian the Africans and their successours till the decision of a General Council as may be clearly seen in an hundred passages of the Books of St. Austine which he Wrote concerning Baptism against the Donatists I know that St. Jerome says in the Dialogue against the Luciferians that the Bishops of Africa returned to the ancient custome saying What do we doe and that abandoning St. Cyprian they made a new Decree conform to that of Saint Stephen But all the Learned agree that that holy Doctour who Wrote that Dialogue before the most part of his other Works had taken that out of some Apocryphal Writings such as that which bears for Title The Repentance of St. Cyprian and was declared false and supposititious in a Synod held at Rome Threescore and fourteen years before the death of St. Jerome For to be short the quite contrary is to be seen in the Books of St. Austine that I have just now alledged in the Letter of Saint Basil to Amphilochius and in the Eighth Canon of the first Council of Arles Now if during the life of Saint Stephen there were so many Bishops who refused to obey his Decree there were as many that opposed it after his death For the Patriarch Denis of Alexandria Wrote in a high strain to Pope Sixtus the Successour of St. Stephen Euseb l. 7. hist c. 4. exhorting him to follow a conduct contrary to that of his Predecessour and not to break as he had done with so many Bishops for a constitution contrary to his own since it had been approved in several Councils Hic in Cypriani Africanae Synodi dogma consentiens de Haereticis Re-baptizandis ad diversos plurimas mifit epistolas quae usque hodie extant Hieron de script Ecclesias in Dionys and St. Jerome himself in his Treatise of Ecclesiastical Writers which he made long after his Dialogue against the Luciferians assures us that that great Man declared openly for the Doctrine of Saint Cyprian and African Bishops and that he thereupon Wrote many Letters which were still extant in his time That was the cause that the Successours of Sixtus entertained Peace with the African and Asiatick Bishops every one freely following their custome and opinion as to that Point without being blamed for it untill that a General Council had pronounced Supremely in the matter This we learn from St. Austine in his Books of Baptism against the Donatists These August l. 1. de Bapt. contra Donatis c. 7. who began their Schism against Cecilian Bishop of Carthage in the year Three hundred and two alledged continually the example of St. Cyprian and of his fellow Bishops to justifie the conduct which they held as well as those in Re-baptizing all Hereticks It is most evident that they durst not have made use of that instance if St. Cyprian and those Bishops had retracted For St. Austine would have confounded these Schismaticks upon the spot by saying that all these Bishops had condemned their former opinion Yet he never did so On the contrary he confesses that they always believed that Hereticks must be Re-baptized but he adds that it was lawfull for them to believe it and for all who have succeeded them to doubt of that point which was then in controversie and to dispute about it As indeed there were many conferences great disputes and debates on Church decided that difference and all submitted to that Sovereign Authority Cui ipse cederet si jam eo tempore quaestionis hujus veritas eliquata declarata per plenarium concilium solidaretur Ibid. c. 4.89 as St. Cyprian would have done without doubt saith St. Austine if the whole Church in a full and general Council had in his time pronounced concerning that point And because the Donatists would not submit to the Decree of that Council in that they added Heresie to their Schism Now before we come to shew what that General Council decided as to that point we must make a serious and solid reflexion upon what we have now said which will suffise to make it clearly out to us what Antiquity hath believed concerning the Infallibility of the Pope Here then we have a Pope of famous memory in the Church who makes a Decree whereby he instructs all Believers concerning a point of highest importance where the question is about the validity or nullity of Baptism without which one cannot be saved and by that Decree he pretends to oblige the whole Church to believe that Hereticks who are converted ought not to be Re-baptized and does so pretend it that he cuts off from his communion great Bishops who would not submit to his Decree And nevertheless St. Cyprian all the Bishops of Africa Mauritania and Numidia those of Cappadocia Cilicia Galatia and Phrygia Denis Patriarch of Alexandria and the Bishops of his Patriarchate will not receive that so solemn a Decree of Stephen Pope of Rome Besides St. Austine and all the African Catholicks united with that great Doctour of the Church against the Donatists say that before the decision of the Council that came not till long after that Decree of the Pope it might freely without making a separation from the Church be held what St. Cyprian had believed concerning the Baptism of Hereticks In fine St. Athanasius St. Optatus Melevitanus Athanas Or. 3. contra Arian St. Cyril of Jerusalem Optat. l. 4. Cont. Parmen St. Basil and some others Cyril Hieros praef in Catech. who have Written as well as they after that General Council Basil Epist 3. Con. 47. whereof St. Austine speaks and before that of Constantinople have believed that all Hereticks who have not the true Faith of the Trinity ought to be Re-baptized who in those first Ages of the Church were incomparably more numerous than the other Hereticks who believed that great Mystery These are not bare conjectures that may be doubted of but uncontroverted matters of fact A Man needs no more but eyes in his head to prove them by Reading the testimonies alledged It must necessarily then follow seeing they submitted to a Council because they knew it to be Infallible which was not done in regard to the Pope St. Stephen that St. Cyprian Firmilian of Caesarea Denis of Alexandria St. Athanasius Saint
As to the Epistles of Pope Leo Father Francis Cambesis a learned Jacobin Edit Paris 1648. hath so cleared the truth of them that at present no body doubts of it And besides he hath given us a very rare piece which alone might end the Controversie if there still remained any about a point so fully determined That is a little work of the Deacon Agatho Keeper of the Records and Vice-Chancellour of the Church of Constantinople For he saith there that Officiating as Secretary in the Sixth Council he Transcribed all the Acts with his own hand which were carefully kept in the Imperial Palace and that by the command of the Emperour he took five Copies of them for the five Patriarchs that so the Decisions of the Council might not be altered by Consequent it was one of these Copies which the Legats carried to the Pope who without doubt is the first of the five Patriarchs A little after he adds Id praeterea autoritate decernens ut Sergii Honoriique ac caeterorum pariter ab eâdem sanctâ oecumenicâ Synodo ejectorum nomina in sacra Ecclesiarum dyptica praeconio publico referrentur eorumque per loca imagines erigerentur that Philippicus who from his youth was bred in the Heresie of the Monothelites being advanced to the Empire caused a Picture to be removed from before the Gate of the Palace before he would enter it which represented the Sixth Council and commanded that the Images should be set up again and that the Names of Sergius Honorius and of all the rest who had been Anathematised in the Holy Ecumenical Council should be replaced in the Sacred Dypticks So many convincing evidences make it manifestly out that the Acts of that Council have not been corrupted by the Greeks And therefore most part of those that said it before abandoning so weak a defence have retrenched themselves behind another saying That the Fathers were mistaken in not having rightly understood the sense and meaning of the Epistles of Honorius who made use of a wise dispensation for uniting and calming all Winds But that is a worse and far more dangerous Answer than the former For it strikes onely at some private persons who are accused but not known upon bare conjectures of having falsified the Acts but the other attacks a whole Ecumenical Council robbing it of all the authority and force which it ought to have against Hereticks The truth is by the same liberty that is taken to say that the Council hath not rightly understood the Letters of Pope Honorius thought it hath examined them the Monothelites if there were any at present might say That it hath not rightly understood the Scriptures nor the Fathers upon the credit of whom it pretends to have rightly condemned the doctrine of Theodore of Pharan Sergius Pyrrhus Paul of Constantinople and of Macarius of Antioch and thereby are made useless all the Decrees of Councils and all the Constitutions of Popes received in the Church which have condemned as Heretical certain doctrines and certain propositions particularly pointed at and contained in the Books of some Authours as the Fathers of the Fifth Council did in regard of the Three Chapters and in our time Pope Innocent X. and Alexander VII in regard of the Book of Jansenius These are Arguments which in my opinion can never be answer'd But since the method of this Treatise is not the way of Arguments which draws always Dispute after it against those who that they may not seem to be at a stand when they are put to it by evident reason never fail of the subterfuges of perplexed distinctions which are never well understood I 'll keep within the bounds that I have set to my self and onely make use of unquestionable matters of Fact in Antiquity that History furnishes us with Upon that ground then I say for an Answer to both in the first place that whether the Acts of the Sixth Council have been corrupted or not it is certain that all Antiquity hath received it in the same manner as we have it at present with the Condemnation of Honorius Detestamurque cum eâ Sergium Honorium c. Act. ult That appears not to say any thing of Pope Leo by the Decree of the seventh Council which as the sixth did anathematises Sergius Pyrrhus and Honorius Anastas in Vit. Leon Epist. ad Joâ—â— diacon by Anastasius the Library-keeper who certainly saw the Copy that was brought from Constantinople and who in the Life of Leo II. saith that that Pope received the sixth Council where Cyrus Sergius Pyrrhus and Honorius were condemned by that Letter of Adrian II which I have alledged by the determination of the eighth Council and by the Confession of Faith which the ancient Popes made after their Election nay more than that by the constant Tradition of the Gallican Church as it may be seen in the Chronicle of Ado and in the most ancient Manuscript of his Martyrology Aetat 6. which is to be found in the Mazarine Bibliotheke This is also to be seen in the Opuscles of Hincmar Archbishop of Reims Opusc de non Trin unit where he puts the Condemnation of Honorius in the sixth Council with that of the other Monothelites And for that very reason it was that writing to Pope Nicolas he saith Opusc 33. c. 20. That it is known that all the Churches of France are subject to that of Rome and that all the Bishops are subjected to the Pope by reason of his Primacy and that therefore they ought all to obey him Apud Flodard l. 3. Hist c. 13. but salva fide adds he the Faith being secured which it is most clear he would not have added had it not been believed in France as elsewhere that Popes might err as well as Pope Honorius In fine for an authentick Confirmation of all this there is no Author to be found who before some Moderns of the last Age durst say even contrary to the Tradition of the Church of Rome that the Acts of the sixth Council have been corrupted by the Greeks This is so true that in the ancient Breviary of Rome printed at Venice in the year 1482 and 61 years after at Paris in the Year 1543 after that it is said in the first Lesson of the second Nocturn of the Office of St. Leo on the eight and twentieth of June Hic suscepit sanctam sextam Synodum in the second it is to be read In qua synodo damnati sunt Cyrus Sergius Honorius Pyrrhus Paulus c. But in the new Breviary the Name of Honorius is left out and it hath been thought sufficient to put into that second Lesson In eo Concilio Cyrus Sergius Pyrrhus condemnati sunt Whereupon it is easie to conclude from most manifest matters of Fact alone that all Antiquity Oecumenick Councils Popes all the Gallican Church nay and even the Church of Rome until the last Age have believed that
been in that Belief that the ancient Popes have always protested in their true Epistles for I speak not of those which are supposititious that they were obliged in the Exercise of their Power and in the Government of the Church to square their Conduct according to the Canons and holy Decrees of Councils against which they could undertake nothing Is there any thing plainer as to that point than what is to be seen in the Epistle of Pope Gelasus to the Bishops of Dordany Vniuscujusque Synodi constitutum quod universalis Ecclesiae probavit assensus non aliquam magis exequi sedem prae caeteris oportere quam primam That no man ought more exactly to execute what is ordained by the Universal Council than the Bishop of the chief See In that of Celestin I. to the Bishops of Illyrium The Regulation of Councils must be our Rules and have dominion over us Dominentur nobis regulae non regulis dominemur â—imus subjecti canonibus dum canonum praecepta servam 〈◊〉 and not that we should raise our selves above these holy Rules that we may dispose of them at our Pleasure let us submit our selves to the Canons by observing what they enjoyn In what St. Leo wrote to Anatolius Nimis haec improba nimis sunt prava quae sacratissimis canonibus inveniantur esse contraria Whatsoever is contrary to the most holy Canons is too wicked and d praved to be tolerated In the Letter of Simplicius to the Patriarch Acacius Per universum mundum indissolubili observatione retiâ—etur quod à sacerdotum universitate est constitutum What is established by an Vniversal Council is retained throughout the whole World by an inviolable Observation In that of Pope St. Martin to Jâ—hn Bishop of Philadelphia Defensores divinorum canonum custodes sumus non Fravaricatores quandoquidem Praevaricatoribus conjunctae sunt retributiones We are the Defenders and Guardians of the holy Canons and not the Prevaricators of them for we know that great Correction is reserved for those that betray thâ—m St. Gregory the Great speaks with as much force as these in an hundred places of his Epistles as when he says in the thirty seventh of his first Book Absit hoc à me â—t statuta majorum in qualibet Ecclesiâ infringam Far be it from me that I should infringe the Statutes of our Predecessors in any Church whatsoever And writing to John Patriarch of Constantinople Dum concilia universali sunt consensu constituta se non illa destruit quis â—uts praesumit aut solvere quos ligant aut lâ—gare quos solvunt He that presumes to loose those whom General Councils have bound or to bind those whom they have loosed destroys himself and not the Councils He was so well persuaded of his Duty that obliged him to observe the Canons that he even thought that that Obligation extended to matters which he found to be established by an ancient Custom and Tradition in his Church For the Empress Constantina having entreated him to send her either the Head or some other considerable part of the Body of St. Paul to be put in a Church which she had built to the Memory of that great Apostle that holy Pope wrote back to her Illa praecipitis quae facere nec possum nec audeo c. In Romanis vel totius occidentis partibus intolerabile est atque sacrilegium si sanclorum corpora tangere quisquam â—ortasse volucrit quod si praesumpserit câ—â—ium est quia haec temeritas impunita nullo modo remanebit lib. 3. Indic 12. Ep. 30. ad Constant Augusâ—am That he could have passionately desired that her Serenity had commanded him in any thing wherein he could have served and obeyed her but as to what she ordered him to do he neither could nor durst do it because said he it is at Rome nay in all the West looked upon as unsupportable and a great Sacriledge to touch the Bodies of the Saints and if any one have the boldness to attempt it his rashness will never pass unpunished Perhaps if at Rome they had made any Reflexion on this Epistle when it was resolved there to have an Arm of the Body of St. Francis Xavier the Apostle of the Indies which was then to be seen at Goa in his stately Monument above threescore years after his Death as fresh and ruddy as when he was alive they would not have given Orders to have it cut off and that if he who obeyed that Command had read that Letter he would have answered with as much respect as St. Gregory did Nec possum nec audio For besides that that Arm which is now to be seen at Rome is all withered and that since that time the holy Body is not so fresh as it was before they who were employed in that Office and had the boldness to lay hands upon that sacred Body died within the Year And I have learned of a very honest Gentleman of Quality who lately returned from the Indies that those of Goa attribute to that Action all the Evils they have been afflicted with since that time and all the Losses which the Portuguese have sustained in the East-Indies Thus the holiest Popes when they were desired any thing to the prejudice of the Canons or even of the ancient Customs which pass for so many Laws have not scrupuled to confess that their power extended not so far For besides the Instances that I have just now alledged Ne in aliquo patrum terminos praeterire videamâ—r contra majorum statuta agâ—re neqâ—iviâ—us Joan. VIII Epist ad Carol. Reg. John VIII speaks in the same manner to one of the Kings of France We could not act against the Decrees of our Predecessors lest it should seem that we transgress the Bounds set to us by our Fathers Contra Deum sacrâ—rum câ—nonum sanctiâ—es nulli omniâ—o petitioni possumus praeberâ— consâ—â—sum And Eugenius III. to the Bishops of Germany We can grant no Demand against God and against the Decrees of the sacred Canons The meaning of that is that as the Pope can grant nothing against the Service of God because he is inferiour to God so neither can he grant any thing against the Canons of Oecumenical Councils because he is under them In fine that we may not alledge an infinite number of other Testimonies which may be seen in the true Epistles of the Popes since Syricius I shall conclude with that of Silvester II. to the Archbishop of Sens Sit lex communis Eâ—â—â—â—sie Catholinae Evanâ—â—lium Aposâ—oli Prophetâ— Canones spirâ—tu Dâ—i condati 〈◊〉 totius mundi reverentia consâ—â—erati decretâ— seâ—as Apostolicae oh his non disâ—oâ—dantia Epist ad Seguin Arch. Senon wherein he says This is the Law according to which the Catholick Church is to be governed The Gospel the Writings of the Apostles and Prophets the Canons which
People except a very few who still adhered to the Schismaticks Martin V. who was chosen Pope in place of John XXIII in the forty fifth Session approved the Decrees which had solemnly been made in that Council and protested that he would observe them inviolably In fine in the Bull wherein he enjoyns what is to be asked of Hereticks who return from their Heresie amongst others this Article is put Whether they believe not that all Believers ought to approve and hold what the holy Council of Constance representing the Vniversal Church holds and approves for the Integrity of the Faith and the Salvation of Souls and whether they condemn not and repute not condemned what the same holy Council hath condemned and condemns as contrary to the Faith and good Manners This without doubt is one of the most authentick Approbations that a Pope can give to a Council Now seeing in compliance with a Decree of this Council the Pope had called another at Pavia afterward at Sienna and lastly at Basil where it was held fourteen Years after that of Constance under Eugenius IV. who caused the Cardinal Julian of St. Angelo named by his Predecessor for that Function to preside in it in his place that Council in the second Session when without contradiction it was very lawful the Pope presiding therein by his Legate renewed those two Decrees and defined the same thing in the same terms touching the Superiority of General Councils to which Popes were obliged to submit in matters concerning the Faith the extinction of Schism and the Reformation of the Church in its Head and Members This was not all for sometime after Eugenius having sent the Archbishops of Colossis and Taranto to the Council to represent the Reasons and Authority that he had to dissolve it and to transfer it to another place The Fathers in a general Assembly made a Synodal Respons Synod Sess 6. Answer by way of Constitution containing more than twenty four large Pages wherein having refuted all the Reasons whereby one of these Archbishops would have proved the Superiority of the Pope over a Council Septemb. 1432. they on the contrary evince by many Reasons and by the Authority of the Council of Constance and of the Gospel which remits St. Peter to the Church that the Council which represents her hath all her Authority and again define once more that the Council is above the Pope However Eugenius dissolved it contrary to the Advice of Cardinal Julian who presided therein But when he perceived that that began to produce very bad Effects Ann. 1433. he made the Year following a new Constitution whereby annulling and rescinding all that he had done for dissolving it Illas alias quascunque quicquid per nos aut nestro nomine in praejudicium derâ—gationem sacri Concilii B siliensis seu contra ejus authoritatem factum attentatum seu assertum est cassamus revocamus nullas irritas esse declaramus that that Council had lawfully continued till then from the Beginning and approves whatever had been done in it even so far as to declare null certain Constitutions in one whereof he declared that in matters belonging to the Government of the Church he had power over all Councils And that was so authentick and solemn that Pius II. even in the Bull of his Retractation ingenuously confesse that Pope Eugenius consented to the Decrees of that Council Accessit iâ—sias Eâ—gâ—nit consenâ—us qui dissolutionem Conâ—â—â—ii à se sactam revocavit progressam eâ—â—e approbavit approved its progress and continuation and recalled the Bull whereby he had dissolved it There are two Councils then without speaking of that of Pisa whereof the Council of Constance was a continuation and two Councils in formal terms approved by two Popes Martin V. and Eugenius IV. and these Councils determine the one during the Schism and the other after the Schism was extinct that every Council representing the Universal Church is superiour to the Pope Now all the Doctors of that party which hold for the Pope's Superiority acknowledge that a Council universal and approved cannot err in its Decisions whence it may easily be concluded that since the Decrees of these Councils one is obliged to believe what all Antiquity before these Councils believed that is that an Oecumenical Council lawfully assembled is above the Pope I don't see how one can avoid this without finding ways to invalidate the Authority of the Councils and particularly of that of Constance which is held for the sixteenth General Council And this a modern Author hath attempted to do in a Book written on purpose and last Year printed at Antwerp by John Baptista Verdussen We are now to see how he hath succeeded in it CHAP. XXII Of the Writing of the Sieur Emmanuel Schelstrate against these two Decrees of the Council of Constance THree years since Ann. 1682. Cleri Gallicani de Ecclesiasticâ potestate declaratio the Clergy of France representing the Gallican Church being by Order of the King assembled at Paris made an authentick Declaration in four Articles of what they believe and define concerning Ecclesiastical Power conform to the Holy Scriptures Tradition and the practice of the whole Church and particularly of that of France Amongst other things they declare in the second Article That the Popes Successors of St. Peter have in such manner full power over the spiritual That the Decrees of the holy Council of Constance approved by the Holy Apostolick See and contained in the fourth and fifth Session concerning the Authority of General Councils must also remain in their full force and not at all be infringed And they add That the Gallican Church approves not the Opinion of those who would weaken these Decrees and rob them of all their force saying that their Authority may be called in question that they are not sufficiently approved or that they extend not beyond the time when there is a Schism in the Church Doubtless there is nothing more authoritative and at the same time more modest than that Declaration of a Church so venerable in all Ages as the Gallican hath been and which next to that of the Apostles hath always maintained and made the Catholick Faith to flourish in France in its full Integrity without having been ever suspected of the least Error Nevertheless there is a late Writer to wit the Sieur Emmanuel Schelstrate Canon of Antwerp and Under-Library-keeper of the Vatican who as he declares at first in the Scheme of his Dissertation undertakes to overthrow all that the Clergy of France hath asserted concerning these Decrees and to shew in three Chapters first that one may and ought rationally to doubt of their Authority secondly that it is only to be understood during the time of a Schism and in regard of controverted Popes and lastly that they are so far from being approved that they have been manifestly rejected by an express Bull. Now
recessara sit The first That it is not the Doctrin of the Faculty that the Pope hath any Authority over the Temporal of the most Chrishian King that on the contrary it hath always opposed even those who would have that Authority only indirect The other That it is the Doctrin of the same Faculty that the most Christian King hath no other Superior in Temporal affairs but God alone and than that is the ancient Doctrin of the Faculty from which it will never swerve After all these Decrees of the Gallican Church and of the sacred Faculty have always been powerfully supported by the Edicts of the Kings and the thundring sentences of Parliament against all such as ever durst in France maintain and teach that pernicious Doctrin condemned by these Decisions and Censures Of 2 Decemb. 1561.4 Januar. 1594. 7 10 Jan. 1595. 27 May 26 Nov. 1610. 27 July 1614. 2 Jan. 1615. c. which in this Kingdom are reverenced as proceeding from God upon whose word they are grounded So that a Doctrin so well established and which all France look upon as the chief foundation of our Liberties can never be shaken much less overturned by Novelty which whatsoever effort it may make shall never amongst us prevail against Antiquity to which we will always stick close as to the Principle and solid Foundation of true Tradition And therefore also it is that the King as Protector of the Canons of the Councils received in France and of the Gallican Church in particular by his perpetual Edict registred in all the Parliaments not only prohibits all his Subjects and all strangers within his Kingdom to teach or write any thing contrary to the Doctrin contained in the Declaration of the Clergy of France but also commands all secular and regular Professors to submit to and teach it Wherein it is most evident that his Majesty does no more but what many Generals of Orders do who for preserving the uniformity of Doctrin in their Congregation as to Points which they look upon to be of great importance for the good and reputation of their Body oblige their inferiours to maintain and teach certain Opinions which the whole Order hath adopted against others who dispute them Much more ought it to be lawful for so great a King so zealous for Religion and for the Ancient Doctrin upon which are founded the inviolable rights of one of the most August Crowns of Christendom and liberties of the Gallican Church to oblige his Subjects for preservation of Uniformity of Opinion within his Kingdom as to Points of that importance to maintain and teach the Doctrin of the Clergy of France in all things conform to that of the Ancient Church And so much I had to say in this Treatise wherein always following that Principle which both Catholicks and Protestants equally agree to I have held a mean betwixt the two extremes that ought to be shunned One is of those who blinded by the hatred which they have conceived against the Church of Rome from which they have separated would take from the Pope the Prerogatives which Antiquity hath believed were given him by Jesus Christ as Successor of St. Peter The other of those who through a zeal not according to knowledg nay and if I dare say with those Cardinals of Paul III. through a too great compliance with Popes attribute to them what Antiquity instructing us by the Fathers the Councils and even by the most Ancient and most holy Popes themselves have believed they never have received from Jesus Christ Seeing the mean is the place of Virtue and Truth I think one cannot mistake the way when he follows Antiquity for his guide which placing us with it self in that lovely mean will make us condemn our Protestants who are in the first extreme and abandon those who abandon themselves to novelty under the conduct whereof they are fallen into the other extremity Now if it be said to me that these new Authors who have fallen into that which I call the second extreme have only done so out of the great zeal which they have for Religion It will be easie for me to answer with the great Pope St. Leo That many times Men carry on their private interests under a specious pretext of Piety Privatae causae pietatis aguntur obtentu câ—piditatum quisque suarum Religionem habet velut pedissequam St. Leo Epist 25. ad Theodos Imper. and that every one maketh Religion to be the handmaid of his lusts and desires The truth is it may very well be that the lustre of the Purple wherewith at Rome the three Authors who have most highly exalted the Power of Popes by raising it beyond all the bounds that Antiquity prescribed to it were cloathed may have dazled the Eyes of that croud of Modern who have followed them and who for all that what ever they may have expected never received a like reward But not to Judge of the secret motives of their Heart which it belongs to God alone to dive into I had rather Answer with Vincentius Lirinensis one of the most zealous Defenders of the true Doctrin Mos iste semper in Ecclesiâ viguit ut quo quisque religiosior foret Vincent Lerin l. 1. Commonit c. 3. eo promptius novellis adventionibus contrairet It hath always been the custom in the Church that the more of Piety and Religion any one had the more ready he was to oppose all new inventions in Doctrin And to conclude my Work with the excellent words of the same Author I should be glad that Men would think that in composing it I have had no other design but to discharge the duty of a good Catholick by doing what he enjoyns me when he says Christianus Catholicus providebit ut Antiquitati inhaereat quae prorsus non potest ab ulla Novitatis fraude seduci The Catholick Christian will have great care to stick close to Antiquity which cannot be deceived by the artifice of Novelty FINIS Books Printed for and sold by Joseph Hindmarsh at the Black Bull in Cornhill over against the Royal Exchange THE famous History of Auristella Translated from the Spanish The whole Art of Converse Cicero's three Books touching the Nature of the Gods done into English A Breviary of the Roman History written in Latin by Eutropius Translated into English by several young Gentlemen privately Educated in Hatton-Garden The Countermine by Dr. Nalson History of Count Zosimus done into English Love Letters between a Noble Man and his Sister The Doctors Physitian or Dialogues concerning Health Translated out of French The Prerogative of Primogeniture by David Tenner B. D. Navigation rectified by Peter Blackborough The Works of Mr. John Oldham together with his Remains A Discourse of Monarchy as it Relates to the Succession of his Royal Highness James D. of York Seneca's Morals by way of Abstract by Mr. Lestrange Beaufions or a new discovery of Treason in an Answer to the Protestant Reconciler Familiar Epistles of Col. Hen. Martin The Rampant Alderman a Farce Dame Dobson or the Cunning Woman a Comedy Jovial Crew or Merry Beggar a Comedy Venice preserved a Tragedy Sir Hercules Buffoon a Comedy The disappointment a Play An Essay upon Poetry Choice new Songs never before Printed by Tho. Dirfey Gent. The Malecontent being the sequel of the progress of Honesty Vivat Rex a Sermon Preach'd at Bristol on the 9th of Septemb. 1683. by Mr. Kingston The History of the Civil Wars of France Written in Italian by H.C. D'Avila Translated out of the Original The Second Impression whereunto is added a Table FINIS