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
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
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
Easter both by reason of the Seas and Regions to be passed over by old and Crazy Persons such as the venerable Bishops were before they could come from their own Countries to the Roman Chair and by those Prolatory delays they might find there the matter being wholy referred to the Popes pleasure The Variation of the Letter in the Book made my Note on this place look too like the Text of the Council it self which for as much as it happened in a most weighty Place I could not with a good Conscience let it pass without acquainting the Pious Reader with the same Though the Letter of the Canon it self to prevent mistakes is faithfully translated afterwards page 26 and 27. Yet without giving this Gloss upon the Canon which was the occasion of this Pramonition because so necessary to a clear and full understanding of all the procedure This Note is the more weighty because the Nicene Council is confessed on both sides by us for its own sake and its conformity to the Scriptures by the Papists for the Popes that have ratified it to be of great Authority next to the Holy Bible the very first and most indisputable that is Yet this Canon laid in the foundation utterly overthrowes all the following Pretences and Forgeries of the Roman Bishops Which I beseech the Reader to examine more perfectly For though by many Arts and long Successes the Bishop of Rome bas ascended to an Ecclesiastical Supremacy and a subtile Train of Doctrines is laid to make him the Universal Monarch of the World as much higher then the Emperour as the Sun is greater than the Moon as they expresse it Yet the Sentence of an Eminent Divine well acquainted with these Affairs in a late Sermon preached before the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen in the City of London and now published is very true The Supremacy of the Roman Church was a meer Usurpation begun by Ambition advanced by Forgery and defended by Cruelty ERRATA THe Reader before he enters upon the Book is desired to correct these as the principal Errata's with his Pen. Page 35 line 15 dele now p. 43 l. 21 r. love of the world that p. 55 for Councits r. Statesmen p. 66l 16 aft Magdenburg r. and. p. 83 l. 21 for 1635 r. 1535. p. 104 l. 16 for fit r. fift p 107l 10 for 1618 r. 1608. p. 109 adde in the Margin 11. p. 137l 7 r Right use of the Fathers p 157 〈◊〉 r. Transeunt p 172 Cap. 15. Contents for Falsity r. Falsely AN ADVERTISEMENT TO THE READER IRenaeus one of the most Ancient Fathers Scholar to S. Polycarp S. John's Disciple in his Book against Heresies giveth us four notable marks of their Authors First he sheweth how they disguize their Opinions Errour never shews It Self saith he lest it should be taken naked but is artificially adorned in a splendid Mantle that it may appear truer than Truth it self to the more unskilful 2. That having Doctrines which the Prophets never preached nor God taught nor the Apostles delivered they pretend unwritten Traditions Ex non Scriptis legentes as he phraseth it 3. They make a Rope of Sand that they may not seem to want Witnesses passing over the Order and Series of Writings and as much as in them lies loosing the Members of the Truth and dividing them from each other for they chop and change and making one thing of another deceive many c. But that which I chiefly intend is the fourth They bring forth a vast multitude of Apocryphal and Spurious Writings which themselves have feigned to the amazement of Fools and that those may admire them that know not the Letters or Records of the Truth How far the Papists have trodden the foregoing Paths it is not my purpose to unfold only the last the Heretical pravity of Apocryphal and Spurious Books how much they have been guilty of imposing on the World by feigned Records I leave to the evidence of the ensuing Pages which I heartily desire may be answerable to the Merit of so great a Cause Vincentius Lirinensis another eminent Father praised by Gennadius died in the time of Theodosius and Valentinian He wrote a Book against Heresies in like manner wherein preparing Furniture and Instructions against their Wiles he at first telleth us that the Canon of the Scripture is alone sufficient Then that the concurrence of the Fathers is to be taken in for the more clear certainty of their sense and meaning Upon this latter point he saith afterwards But neither are all Heresies to be assaulted this way nor at all times but only such as are New and Green to wit when they first spring up before they have falsified the Rules of the Ancient Faith while they are hindered by straitness of time and before the Poyson spreading abroad they have endeavoured to corrupt the Writings of the Fathers So that Hereticks have inclination enough where they are not hindered by straitness of time to corrupt the most Ancient Writings of the Church For which cause he further saith in the same place But Heresies that are spread abroad and waxen old must not be set upon in this sort because by long continuance they have had opportunity to steal away the Truth Whatsoever 〈◊〉 nesses there be therefore either of Schismes or Heresies that are grown Ancient we 〈◊〉 in no case otherwise to deal with them then either to convince them if it be needful by the Authority of the Scriptures only or at least to avoid them as convicted of old and condemned by Vniversal Councils In this Admonition the Father informs us of two things First that it is possible for Errour to prevail and spread abroad to continue long and wax old Secondly that having gotten possession of Books and Libraries it may falsisie the Rules of the Ancient Faith and steal away the Truth by corrupting the Writings of the Fathers In which case he will not have the Controversie decided by the Fathers but by the Scriptures only or by old Vniversal Councils But if Errour proceed so far as to corrupt the Councils too then of necessity we must have recourse to some other remedy either to the Scriptures alone as he directeth or else we must detect the frauds whereby the Councils themselves are falsified For that they are liable to the same inconvenience is evident both by the paueity of Ancient Records and the many Revolutions that have been in the World especially since Nature teacheth men to strike at the Root attempts are more apt to be made upon them because Hereticks are prone to be most busie in undermining the Foundation That it is possible for men so far to act against their Consciences as to corrupt the Ancient Records of Truth you see by the premises and that it is an easie thing for them to effect it that have gotten all kind of Books and Libraries into their hands is apparent because they that keep
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
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
Records excepting some perhaps that were since invented And if the last two Ages brought so many to light an Age or two more may through Gods blessing accomplish Wonders The Secular state and security of the Pope with his Adherents which Binius in his Epistle to Pope Paul V. calls Honor Augmentum 〈◊〉 was the end of all And if men excogitate Titles to Crowns and patch up 〈◊〉 with some Flaws yet serviceable enough with the help of a Long Sword then a Chair so Politick is able to do it more neatly having had the strong Holds of the Church so long in their hands Now we shall note some few of those many Errours that are in the Pontifical which though it be a duty circumstance to have such a Text to gloss on is the Basis of their Discourses and the Rule of their Method both in the Popes and Councils It beginneth thus Peter the blessed Apostle and Prince of the Apostles the Son of John of the Province of Galilee of the City 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Brother of Andrew sate in the Chair of Antioch seven years In the end it 〈◊〉 us how long S. Peter Reigned just twenty five years two moneths and three days Binius tells us with the consent of Baronius it was rather twenty four years five moneths and eleven days The Pontifical saith Peter was Martyred with Paul on the same day Though Prudentius and S. Angustine say It was not the same year Binius reconcileth them They were slain the same day indeed but not the same year Therefore say we Peter was not Martyred with S. Paul The Pontifical says It was 38 years after the Passion of our Lord. More truly the 35. saith Binius in the 13 year of Nero and the 69 after the Birth of Christ. S Peter's Name is the Patron and 〈◊〉 of the Roman Church and therefore inserted like a Shield in the Front Next his Notes on S. Peter's Life Binius inserts the Treatise of the Roman Churches Primary Ex antiquo Codice out of an Old Book without any name at all Which puts me in mind of the Gibeonites old Bottles clouted Shooes and mouldy Bread and the notable Cheat which thereby they put on the Israelites All is Old and Ancient in the Church of Rome and this Old Book of the Primacy set before the Councils according to the Rules of Art because the End is to be proposed before the Means After this old Treatise of the Primacy he cometh to S. Linus Pope and Martyr He is pleased to call him Pope as well as Pope Peter not as if his Contemporaries called him so but because the Modern Title will not sit well on the present Popes unless it be given to S. Peter and the first Bishops of that See And ever and anon he begins with a known Lye in the top of the Chapter formally set by it self the more pleasingly to take the eye after the manner of a Title Ex Libro Pontificali Damasi Papae OUT OF THE PONTIFICAL OF POPE DAMASVS This course he continues from Life to Life throughout all the Popes so far as the Pontifical lasteth intermixing the Decretal Epistles first and then the Councils in the Lives of the several Popes or to use his form under the pope in whose Life they happened And all his Tomes being moulded into that form it makes every Pope seem to him that is not aware of the fetch the Supreme over all Councils from the beginning And with this Method he always goes on Ex libro Pontificali Damasi Papae hoping perhaps that in long tract of time he should be at last believed In all the Book there is scarce a Life wherein there are not as many Errours as in S. Peter's As in example Linus sate eleven years three moneths and twelve days 〈◊〉 the Pontifical Binius saith It was eleven years two moneths and twenty three days A days difference where the exactness is pretended to be so great shews all to be Counterfeit He saith 〈◊〉 sate twelve years one moneth and eleven days Binius tails on him for the mistake though he agrees with him in the 〈◊〉 that Linus and Cletus sate some twenty three years between Peter and Clement So that on this account S. James was dead above 27 years before S. Clement who wrote a 〈◊〉 Epistle to him came to the Chair For before he was Pope he might write an Epistle but not a Decretal Epistle Cletus saith Binius was by S. Irenaeus Ignatius and 〈◊〉 called 〈◊〉 which Baronius thinks was a mistake among the Greeks 〈◊〉 by the Errour of Writers and Libraries What shifts will a man be driven to by a desperate Cause Three of the best and most Ancient Fathers were cheated with the Errour of Writers and Libraries concerning a mans Name that was alive either not long before or together with themselves S. Irenaeus and Ignatius are extremely Ancient Ignatius lived before Anacletus was Bishop of Rome much more before his Name was put into Libraries and much more yet before it could be corrupted there by the mistake of Scribes and Writers But such Errours of Writers and Libraries are a good hint how capable they are of them and how much the Church of Rome is acquainted with them Binius is at last terribly provoked with the nonsense of the Pontifical for whereas it saith Cletus was in the Church from the seventh Consulship of 〈◊〉 and fifth of Domitian to the ninth of Domitian and the Consulship of Rufus that is from the 78 year of Christ to the 85. Binius speaking as if he were present takes him up 〈◊〉 Errorem igitur Errori addis quisquis 〈◊〉 Pontificalis Authores c. Whoever thou be that art the Author of this Pontifical thou addest Errour to Errour For if Cletus began to sit in the forementioned Consulship in the 78 year of Christ how did he immediately succeed Linus dying as thou saidst in the 69 year of Christ Capito and Rufus being Consuls How wilt thou excuse a 9 years Interregnum in the Chair made only by thy Authority contradicting it self How sayest thou that Cletus sate twelve years whose continuance thou doest circumscribe by two Consulships in the space of 7 years distant from themselves How which is more intollerable and absurd doest thou say that Clement sate from the Consulship of Trachilus and Italicus even to the third year of Trajan which is from the 70 year of Christ to the 102. and so to have administred the See 33 years whom in his Life thou affirmest to have continued only 9 years Thus far Binius When Cato saw the Southsayers saluting one another in the Roman Market-place he said I wonder they can forbear laughing to think how delicately they cheat the people Hence therefore saith Binius O Reader thou mayest perceive on what Rocks he shall 〈◊〉 whosoever shall suppose the writings of this Book to be taken up upon Trust without any Inquisition Yet when the fit is over in the
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
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
answer the Discoveries which makes Dr. James his Treatise and Blondels Pseudo-Isidorus so rare among the people Matters of Fact may be manifest enough where the means of contriving them remain unknown a conjecture in a circumstance therefore destroys not the Foundation You will find other kinds of Arguments in the subsequent Epitome than bare conjectures In the mean time be pleased to remember that the Papists have had all kind of Books nay and Libraries in their hands that the Roman Clergy especially those that attend the Chair have Glory Wealth and Pleasure enough to tempt them to such endeavours that the Pope hath Power enough to reward his Creatures and that they have actually endeavoured to corrupt such Books by their Indices Expurgatorii as also to put forth Apocryphal and Spurious Pieces which Dr. Reynolds Dr. James Bishop Jewel and the Learned Crashaw as well as the Indices themselves do evidently declare It shall here appear more clearly that they have adulterated all by Counterfeit Records the very places and things corrupted being themselves produced detected and reproved I shall not descend into the latrer Ages but keep within the compass of the first 420 years and lay open so many of their frauds as disguize and cover the face of Primitive Antiquities which ought to be preserved most sacred and pure It is sufficient to prove that all the Streams are infected by the Poyson that is thrown into the Fountain-head and to expatiate downwards would over-swell the Book which is intended to be little for the use and benefit of all Neither shall I talk of the Fathers at large I will not meddle with their Amphilochius Abdias S. Denis c. but keep close to Records and publick instruments of Antiquity which have the force of Laws Such as Apostles Canons Decretal Epistles and Ancient Councils which they have either depraved by altering the Text or falsified as it were by Whole-sale in the intire Lump And I shall concern my self in the 〈◊〉 more than the former I desire the Reader to note that I do not trust other mens information but mine own eyes having my self seen the Collectors of the Councils and searched into all their Compilers for the purpose Neither do I use our own but their most affectionate and Authentick Writers the circumstances of the things themselves in their most approved Authors detecting the Forgeries Before I stir further I shall add one passage which befel me in the Schools as I was studying these things and searching the most Old and Authentick Records in pursuance of them One Evening as I came out of the Bodleian Library which is the Glory of Oxford and this Nation at the Stairs-foot I was saluted by a Person that has deserved well both of Scholars and Learning who being an intimate Friend of mine told me there was a Gentleman his Cosen pointing to a Grave Person in the Quadrangle a man that had spent many thousand pounds in promoting Popery and that he had a desire to speak with me The Gentleman came up to us of his own accord We agreed for the greater liberty and privacy to walk abroad into the New-Parks He was a notable man of an Eloquent Tongue and competent Reading bold forward talkative enough He told me that the Church of Rome had Eleven Millions of Martyrs Seventeen Oecumenical Councils above an Hundred Provincial Councils all the Doctors all the Fathers Unity Antiquity Consent c. I desired him to name me One of his Eleven Millions of Martyrs excepting those that died for Treason in Queen Elizabeths and King James his days For the Martyrs of the Primitive times were Martyrs of the Catholick but not of the Roman Church They only being Martyrs of the Roman Church that die for Transubstantiation the Popes Supremacy the Doctrine of Merits Purgatory and the like So many he told me they had but I could not get him to name one As for his Councils Antiquities and Fathers I asked him what he would say if I could clearly prove that the Church of Rome was guilty of forging them so far that they had published Canons in the Apostles names and invented Councils that never were forged Letters of Fathers and Decretal Epistles in the name of the first Bishops and Martyrs of Rome made 5 6 700 years after they were dead to the utter disguizing and defacing of Antiquity for the first 400 years next after our Saviour Tush these are nothing but lyes quoth he whereby the protestants endeavour to disgrace the Papists Sir answered I you are a Scholar and have heard of Isidore Mercator James Merlin Peter Crabbe Laurentius Surius Severinus Binius Labbè Cossartius and the Collectio Regia Books of vast Bulk and Price as well as of great Majesty and Magnificence You met me this Evening at the Library door if you please to meet me there tomorrow morning at eight of the Clock I will take you in and we will go from Class to Class from Book to Book and there I will first shew in your own Authors that you publish such Instruments for good Records and then prove that those Instruments are downright frauds and forgeries though cited by you upon all occasions He would not come but made this strange reply What if they be Forgeries what hurt is that to the Church of Rome No! cryed I amazed Is it no hurt to the Church of Rome to be found guilty of forging Canons in the Apostles names and Epistles in the Fathers names which they never made Is it nothing in Rome to be guilty of counterfeiting Decrees and Councils and Records of Antiquity I have done with you whereupon I turned from him as an obdurate person And with this I thought it meet to acquaint the Reader AN ABRIDGMENT OF THE CHAPTERS Cap. 1. OF the Nature Degrees and Kinds of Forgery Cap. 2. Of the Primitive Order and Government of the Church The first Popish Encroachment upon it backed with Forgery The Detection of the Fraud in the Sixth Council of Carthage Cap. 3. A multitude of Forgeries secretly mingled with 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 Cap. 4. James Merlins Edition of the Councils who lately published Isidore Hispalensis for a good Record which is now detected and proved to be a Forgery Cap. 5. Divers Forgeries contained in Isidores counterfeit Collection mentioned in particular Cap. 6. A further account of Merlins design How some would have Isidore to be a Bishop others a Merchant others a Sinner no man knowing well what to make of him Cap. 7. Of Francis Turrian the famous Jesuite with what Art and Soldness he defendeth the Forgeries Cap. 8. Of Peter Crabbe his Tomes of the Councils Wherein he agrees with and wherein he differs from Indore and Merlin Cap. 9. Of Carranza his Epitome He owneth and useth the Forgeries for good Records Cap. 10. Of Surius his four Tomes
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
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
two Marginal Notes in Baronius we shall declare Baronius deals more fairly with us than Binius for the one in his Marginal Notes contradicteth his Text sometimes to delude the Reader but Baronius fairly notes in the Margin Isidori collectio vulgata in Galliis Isidori collectio ab Antiquis non adeo probata Isidori collectio ut minùs sincera notata c. Soft words for a Treatise rejected but strong Indications of a Desperate Cause The Ancients approved not the collection of Isidore It was not so sincere as it ought c. Cardinal Bellarmine to prove the Popes Supremacy draweth one Argument from the Popes themselves whose Testimonies he casteth into three Classes The first saith he contains the Epistles of Popes that sate from S. Peter to the year 300. in which Calvin and the Magdenburgenses confess the Primacy to be plainly asserted and that those Bishops were holy men and true Bishops but they say the Epistles are forged and new and falsly Fathered on those Bishops In this Class he affirmeth These Holy Fathers do clearly assert the Primacy Clemens in his first Epistle Anacletus in his third Evaristus Epist. 1. Pius Epist. 1 and 2. Anicetus Epist. 1. Victor Epist. 1. Zephirinus Epist. 1. Calixtus Epist. 1. Lucius Epist. 1. Marcellus in Epist. 1. Eusebius Epist. 3. Melchiades Epist. 〈◊〉 Marcus Epist. 1. After this he saith Quamvis aliquos Errores c. Though I cannot deny but that some Errours are crept into them and dare not affirm that they are indubitable yet I doubt not at all but that they are very Ancient As if an old Deed being called into question and the matter of Fact made certain that it was a real Forgery he that holds his possession by it should say It has been interlined indeed and corrupted in many places but 't is very old Let us see however what his reason is for the Antiquity of it He is rough with his Opponents and telleth us The Magdeburgenses do lye when they say Cent. 2. Cap. 7. near the end that no Author worthy of credit ever cited these Epistles before Charles the Great For Isidore who is 200 years older than Charles the Great in the Proem of his collection of the Holy Canons saith that by the advice of 80 Bishops he collected Canons out of the Epistles of Clement Anacletus c. Isidore did indeed begin to flourish near to the year 610. So that Bellarmine takes him right for the same Isidore Bishop of Hispalis But had he well examined the matter he would have forborn to give the Lye to men more in the right than himself confiding in the rotten Antiquity of this Counterfeit Isidore For Isidores Preface is a Counterfeit too made on purpose to countenance the Forgeries not 200 years older than Charles the Great things after the Death of Isidore its pretended Author being mentioned in the same Dr Reynolds in his Conference with Hart having smartly checked him for his fourscore Bishops out of one Isidore asked him About what year of Christ Isidore did die How doth Genebrard write because Genebrard was Hart's most admired Author He answereth About the year 637. as he proveth out of Vasaeus Asking him When the General Council of Constantinople under Agatho was kept He answereth In the year 681. or 682. or thereabout Then Isidore was dead above 〈◊〉 years saith Reynolds before that General Council He was saith Hart but what of that Of that it doth follow that the preface written in Isidores name and set before the Councils to purchase credit to those Epistles is a counterfeit and not Isidore's For in that Preface there is mention made of the General Council of Constantinople held against Bishop Macarius and Stephanus in the time of Pope Agatho and the Emperour Constantine which 〈◊〉 it was held above 40 years after Isidore 〈◊〉 dead by Genebrard's own confession by his own confession Isidore could not tell the fourscore Bishops of it And so the 80 Bishops which Turrian hath found out in one Isidore are dissolved all into one Counterfeit abusing both the name of Isidore and fourscore Bishops Hart was unable to answer him and 〈◊〉 from the Point Harding in his Book against Bishop Jewel citeth these Forgeries frequently and briskly Upon the failure of which though Baronius pretends an abundant number of other Evidences yet in the loss of 30 or 40 Primitive Bishops and Martyrs that were so long time for the first 300 years after Christ together thought to speak for the Supremacy of the Church of Rome one of the fairest Feathers in the Popes Crown is placked away and the younger Evidences in which Baronius trusts being none but the Malepert and Arrogant Testimonies of Junior Popes in their own Causes will make but a slight impression in the minds of men that have found themselves deluded with more ancient 〈◊〉 of the grave and unspotted Authorities of Holy Men that Sacrificed themselves for the Glory of God and the good of the World and sealed their Testimony 〈◊〉 their latest blood which the latter Bishops of Rome have been more Secular and Pompous than to be doing like their Predecessors CAP. V. Divers Forgeries contained in Isidore's Collection mentioned in particular Isidore as he now standeth set forth by Merlin has 50 Canons of the Apostles for pure and good Records many Decretal Epistles made as he pretends by the first Martyrs and Bishops of Rome very long and full of Popery He has two Epistles of S. Clement written to S. James Bishop of Jerusalem that was dead before S. Clement came to the Chair one to the Brethren dwelling with S. James and two others in his name He has four Epistles in the name of Anacletus who lived in the time of Trajan and sate in the Roman Chair An. 〈◊〉 In the last of which the Counterfeit Anacletus feigneth That all the Primacies and Archbithopricks in the World were divided and fetled by S. Peter and S. Clement that the Church of Rome is the Head and Hinge of all the Churches and that all the Patriarchal Sees were made such by vertue of S. Peter Antioch because he sate there before he came to Rome Alexandria because S. Mark came to sit there from S. Peter but Rome especially the first See because it is sanctified by the death of S. Peter and S. Paul As if our Saviours Death were nothing able to sanctifie Jerusalem as S. Peter's death was to sanctifie Rome though besides the Death of Christ Jerusalem hath this advantage that it is the first Church and the Mother of us all That you may a little discein the dealings of the Papists note here that Anacletus his first and second Epistles are cited by Bellarmine for good Records in the very same book where he confesseth them to be Counterfeits For though in one little passage they be confessed for the present satisfaction of a stiff Oppanent yet where men are minded to be corrupt they may serve
the turn in an hundred other places by a Pious Fraud and the Confession being over-skipped they may still seem Authentick especially if the place happen to be unseen where the Confession was made as it often cometh to pass in voluminous writings 〈◊〉 has besides these 2 counterfeit Epistles of 〈◊〉 3 of Alexander 2 of Sixtus 1 of Telesphorus 2 of Higinus 2 of Pius 1 of Anitius 2 of Soter 1 of 〈◊〉 2 of Victor 2 of Zephirinus 2 of 〈◊〉 1 of 〈◊〉 2 of Pontianus 1 of 〈◊〉 3 of Fabian 2 of Cornelius 1 of 〈◊〉 2 of Stephen 2 of Sixtus 2 of Dionysius 3 of 〈◊〉 2 of 〈◊〉 1 of 〈◊〉 2 of Marcellinus 2 of Marcellus 3 of Eusebius 1 of 〈◊〉 All laid down without the least 〈◊〉 of any Fraud though the later 〈◊〉 of the Councils having their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Century-Writers of 〈◊〉 the care of other I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to acknowledge several of them to be Forgeries These Episiles have one common blast upon them they were first seen in a counterfeit book and never known to the World 〈◊〉 hundred years after their pretended Authors were set in their Craves They cannot all be 〈◊〉 at once the Reader therefore must have patience till we meet with them in their places In the mean time see what Bishop Jewel saith concerning them a 〈◊〉 ever answered by any especially as to these points wherein he 〈◊〉 them with Forgery Gratian sheweth that the Decretal Epistles have been doubted of among the Learned Dr. Smith declared openly at Paul's Cross that they cannot possibly be theirs whose names they bear And to utter some reasons shortly for proof thereof these Decretal Epistles manifestly 〈◊〉 and abuse the Scriptures as it may soon appear to the Godly Reader upon sight They maintain nothing so much as the State and Kingdom of the Pope and yet there was no such State erected in many hundred years after the Apostles time They publish a multitude of vain and Superstitious 〈◊〉 and other like fantasies far unlike the Apostles Doctrine They proclaim such things as Mr. Harding knoweth to be open and known 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that was next after Peter willeth and 〈◊〉 commandeth that all Bishops once in the year do visit the 〈◊〉 of S. Peter's Church in Rome which they call Limina 〈◊〉 yet was there then 〈◊〉 Church as yet built there in the name of Peter Pope Antherus maketh mention of Eusebius Alexandrinus and Felix which lived a long time after him Fabianus writeth of the coming of Novatus into Italy yet 't is clear by S. Cyprian and 〈◊〉 that Novatus came first into Italy in the time of Cornelius who was next after Fabianus One Petrus Crab the Compiler of the Councils complaineth much that the examples from whence he took them were wonderfu ly corrupted and not one of them agreeing with another Gratian himself upon good advice is driven to say that al such Epistles ought to have place rather in debating matter of Justice in the Consistory than in determining and weighing the truth of the Scriptures Besides this neither S. Hierom nor Gennadius nor Damasus nor any other Old Father ever alledged these Epistles or made any account of them nor the Bishops of Rome themselves at the first no not when such Evidences might have stood them in best stead in their ambitious contention for Superiority over the Bishops of Africa The Contents of them are such as a very Child of any judgment may soon be able to 〈◊〉 them Here he nameth St. Clement's writing to St. James when he was dead Marcellus charging the Emperour Maxentius an Infidel and a Tyrant with the Authority of Clement with several things of this kind In his Reply to Harding's Answer Artic. 1. and 4. But I proceed with Isidore or rather Merlin that first printed him He has besides all these Epistles certain counterfeit Decrees of Sylvester Bishop of Rome in the time of Constantine the Great and the Epilogus brevis Romani 〈◊〉 post 〈◊〉 celebrati which Hincmarus Archbishop of Rhemes is reported particularly to have excepted against as absurd because it ordaineth 1. That no Lay-man ought to accuse a Clergy-man 2. That no Inferiour Priest may accuse his Superiour 3. That a 〈◊〉 may not be condemned without 72 Witnesses a Cardinal Priest not without 43 a Cardinal Deacon of the City of Rome not without 27 a Sub-Deacon an 〈◊〉 a Reader a Door-keeper not without 7 〈◊〉 It is further provided that every one of these 〈◊〉 must be without any spot of infamy no Lay-man at all nor any inferiour Clergy man So that upon the matter a safe Indemnity is prepared for all kind of Priests especially the great ones to swim in any Excess as himself listeth provided he be not guilty of the Protestants faults that is to say that he doth not touch the Popes Crown or the Monks Belly This Decree is most solemnly put among the Councils by Isidore and Merlin by Peter Crabbe Surius Binius Labbe and Cossartius and the Collectio Regia and as solemnly put among the Popes Laws by Ivo an ancient Bishop a great Civilian and one of the Eldest Digesters of the Canon Law before Gratian This brief Epilogue set before the Council giveth you to wit that there were Cardinals in Rome in the time of Constantine the first Christian Emperour But if you please to examine Antiquities you will hardly sind Cardinals so ancient Isidore in his Preface directed to one whom he calls his Fellow-servant and Father of the Faith mentioneth 70 Canons of the Nicene Council somewhat too affectedly You 80 Bishops saith he who have compelled me to begin and perfect this work ought to know and so ought all other Priests of the Lord that we have found more than those 20 Canons of the Nicene Council that are with us And we read in the Decrees of Julius the 〈◊〉 that there ought to be 〈◊〉 Chapters of that Synod Yet when he cometh to the Council it self he forgets himself so far as to lay down but 20 the 50 forged 〈◊〉 receiving a fair Countenance only by that Preface or Epistle set for shew before the work He has an Epistle of Athanasius and the Bishops of Egypt to Pope Mark wherein they tell him that there were 70 Canons of the Nicene Council and desire him to send them into Egypt from Rome since all their own were burnt at Alexandria by the Arrians Mark was dead 9 years before the Burning happened howbeit he sent them a Gracious Answer with the 70 Canons The 〈◊〉 of these was seriously cited to 〈◊〉 by a Learned Son of that Church to prove the Bishop of Rome was called Pope to wit by Athanasius and all the Bishops of Egypt within the first 〈◊〉 years But some of their latest Authors begin to blush at it as Binius and Baronius do in particular Next to these he has three Epistles of Julius the Pope as very Counterfeits as the former yet generally
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
especially what a multitude of men have been encouraged to carry on this Design that you might see the Conspiracy of the Members with the Head and the general Guilt of that Church in so Enormous an Affair To which we might add the innumerable Armies of Learned men that have cited them in that Church and the Company of Captains that have defended them But it had been better for them that they had never medled with the Protestant Objections for they have made the matter worse than they found it and bewraid themselves in all their Answers nay they have made the Frauds more eminent and notorious by disturbing the Reader while they give him Warning by their Notes though the intent be to defend them This I speak especially upon the last from Binius downward CAP. XI Of Nicolinus his Tomes and their Contents for the first 420 years His Testimony concerning the sixth Council of Carthage NIcolinus is printed in five Volumes Sixti V. Pont. Max. faelicissimis Auspictis as himself phraseth it I think he means By the favourable Permission and Authority of Pope Sixtus V. He dedicates his Tomes to the same most Holy Lord Sextus c. which were printed at Venice An. 1585. Among other things in which I should sav he is peculiar had not Merlin in his Isidore done the same he sets a counterfeit Epistle of Aurelius Archbishop of Carthage to Damasus the Pope and the Popes Answer in the Front of his Work The Epistle requesteth a Copy of all the Decretals that were made by the Bishops of Rome from S. Peter downwards The Answer intimates a Copy commanding him to preach and publish the same In both these Collectors the Epistles are displaced above 〈◊〉 years out of their due order meerly that they might face the Forgeries with the great Authorities of Aurelius and Damasus who were both dead 300 or 400 years before the Counterfeits were made Howbeit the Pageant does well to adorn the Scene it entertains the Spectators as a fit Praeludium to make the way more fair for these disguized Masquer's In the last of these Epistles the Counterfeit Decrees are Fathered on the Holy Ghost and whosoever speaketh against them is charged with Blasphemy Yet for all 〈◊〉 though the Epistles were desired by Aurelius and sent by Damasus and commanded to be preached and published throughout the world they were never heard of by the space of 700 or 800 years after their first Authors nor for 300 or 400 years after this Damasus and Aurelius though pretended to be the Canons of the Holy Fathers so Sacred and so Divinely inspired by the Holy Ghost This is that Damasus upon whom the Famous Pontifical is Fathered He sate in the Chair An. 370. The Forgeries were unknown till about the year 800. This Aurelius is he who tasted the Decrees of Zozimus and had experience of their sincerity when he resisted the Encroachments of the Roman Chair But to return to Nicolinus he has Isidore's Preface The Treatise conceruing the Primacy of the Roman Church containing so many Testimonies out of forged Bishops Martyns and Fathers All the Apostles Canons of which he maketh S. Clement's the Top and Coronis concluding that Impious Counterfeit with this affected phrase Coronidis ipsorum Canonum Apostolorum finis The end of the Coronis of the Apostles Canons Francis Turrian is in so much esteem with him that he hath Eight Books of Clement's Constitutions with Turrian's Proem and Explanatory Defences upon them The Liber Pontificalis drawn from the beginning like a Vein of Lies through the tedious length of 800 years infecting all these Ages with Forgery It is his Text in like manner He has all the Decretal Epistles without Exception the Council of Sinuessa or condemnation of Pope Marcellinus with the same Premonition you saw in Peter Crab to the Reader The Donation of the Emperour Constantine which by this time one would think to be a sound and admirable Record having so many Hands subscribing it and so many Pens inserting it among the Councils without the least note of any dubiousness or blemish in it He has threescore and eighteen Canons of the Nicene Council and professeth himself to be the first which added them thereunto And he had them of a certain man that brought fourscore of them in Arabick to Alexandria as his Printer does witness for him to the Reader But surely had there been so many Pope Paul V. and all the Collectors before him had not omitted them Some 40 years hence we may expect fourscore more for as for those naked and vulgar Canons as he calleth the Old and Authentick Records they will not serve the turn nor yet the old Seventy mentioned by Isidore Athanasius and Pope Mark by which you may see they are always growing and may come to a Million if the continuance of the World permit it and their need require it What say you In good earnest methinks the year 1585. is very late for the finding of eight and fifty Canons of the Nicene Council That Council was assembled in the year 327. and made its Canons above one thousand and two hundred years before Nicolinus time They were written in Greek and these lay dormant in Arabick so many Ages no man can tell where But the blessed Jesuites or one of the same Society luckily found them the other day Here and there he has a true Record and among the rest a piece of the sixth Council of Carthage though mangled too where concerning the two Counterfeit Canons of Pope Zozimus he saith The African Fathers not finding any such Canons as these in the Codes which they had of the Nicene Council both in Greek and Latine promised that they would keep them only so long as the time would be that they might get the true Copies out of Greece Which when they had been sent for and were brought from Cyril of Alexandria and Atticus of Constantinople they were found imperfect as not containing but only those 20 Canons which were extant also among the Latines in which nothing is contained concerning Appeals to the Roman Bishop Nay those African Fathers from the fifth and sixth of those Canons gathering the contrary did earnestly beseech Celestine the Pope that succeeded Boniface who was the Successor of Zozimus that he should not admit Appeals which they said as it was most prudently and justly provided for by the Nicene Council so they found it in no Synod of the Fathers that any should be sent from the side of his Holiness What Boniface and Celestine answered it is not certain Acta enim illa valdè concisa sunt mutila For those Records are cut very short and maimed and therefore the matter is the more obscure Who maimed those Records is worth the Enquiry Some-Body that was concerned in them and whose influence must be exceeding great for the attempting of such a thing hath out them short that Records so offensive and pernicious to him might
into the Book and that Hadrian had a finger in it which reached perhaps farther than the beginning If the Book was as new as the Acrostick Dionysius was far enough from being its Author What Faith we are to have in the Papists when they tell us who were the Ancient Compilers of the Councils you may see by Baronius who giving us an Account of their Order reckons Isidore a known Counterfeit for one Dionysius Exiguus for the first Ferdinandus Diaconus for the second Martinus Bracarensis for the third Cresconius for the fourth and after all these Isidore for the fift As certain as Isidore was a Collector of the Councils so certain is it that Dionysius was one but further certainty yet I can see none Charles the Great perhaps having never seen the like before was pleased with the Acrostick and the putting of his Name in Capital Letters before the Councils was delightful to him Syrens sing sweetly while they deceive bloodily Hadrian I. knew well what was a Gift fit for a Scholar and a Pope of Rome If I should produce but one passage which I found in it the matter would be more effectual For after he has done with the Councils he lays down the Decretal Epistles of 13 Roman Bishops beginning with Syricius who lived in the year 385. In his Epistle to Himerius there is this passage Such is our Office saith he that it is not lawful for us to be silent for us to dissemble upon whom a Zeal greater than that of all others of the Christian Religion is incumbent We bear the burdens of all that are oppressed nay rather the blessed Apostle Peter beareth them in us who as we trust protecteth and defendeth us his Heirs in all the things of his Administration Of GOD he saith nothing here but his confidence is all in Peter There is not a word like it in all Antiquity and those words protecteth and defendeth us seem to relate to those Jars that had been before between Hadrian and Charles the King or Emperour These observations carry me to believe what I met with in Daille since Dionysius is gone from under my hands and having searched into the Book since I am further confirmed About 74 years after the Council of Chalcedon Dionysius Exiguus whom we before-mentioned made his collection at Rome which is since Printed at Paris cum Privilegio Regis out of very Ancient Manuscripts Whosoever shall but look diligently into his collection shall find divers alterations in it one whereof I shall instance in only to shew how Ancient this Artifice hath been among Christians The last Canon of the Council of Laodicea which is the 163 of the Greek Code of the Church Universal forbidding to read in Churches any other Books than those which are Canonical gives us withal a long Catalogue of them Dionysius Exiguus although he hath indeed inserted in his collection Num. 162. the beginning of the said Canon which forbiddeth to read any other Books in the Churches besides the sacred Volumes of the Old and New Testament yet hath he wholly omitted the Catalogue or List of the said Books fearing as I conceive lest the Tail of this Catalogue might scandalize the Church of Rome c. A little after he saith the Greek Code represents unto us VII Canons of the first Council of Constantinople which are in like manner found both in Balsamon and in Zonoras and also in the Greek and Latine Edition of the General Councils Printed at Rome The three last of these do not appear at all in the Latine Code of Dionysius though they are very considerable ones as to the business they relate to which is the order of proceeding in passing judgment upon Bishops accused and in receiving such persons who forsaking their communion with Hereticks desire to be admitted into the Church It is very hard to say what should move the Collector to Gueld this Council thus But this I am very well assured of that in the sixth Canon which is one of those he hath omitted and which treateth of judging of Bishops accused there is not the least mention made of Appealing to Rome nor of any Reserved Cases wherein it is not permitted to any save only to the Pope to judge a Bishop The power of hearing and determining all such matters being here wholly and absolutely referred to the Provincial Synods and to their Dio cesans Another instance which he hath is this After the Canons of Constantinople there follow in the Greek Code VIII Canons of the General Council of Ephesus set down also both by Balsamon and Zonoras and Printed with the Acts of the said Council of Ephesus in the first Tome of the Roman Edition but Dionysius Exiguus hath discarded them all c. Daille in his Treatise of the Right 〈◊〉 of the Fathers Cap. 4. pag. 45 46 47. This being true the Authority of Dionysius is very small relating to the matter of the Council of Sardica If any man hath any thing to say against it let him when he answereth this Charge of ours produce what he is able in Defence of Dionysius as to the points whereof he stands accused by Daille but we proceed to Nicolinus CAP. XII Nicolinus his Epistle to Pope Sixtus His contempt of the Fathers He beginneth to confess the Epistle of Melchiades to be dubious if not altogether Spurious He overthrows the Legend about Constantines Donation THat you may know the Genius of the Man a little better how much he was devoted to the service of the Pope and how little he valued the Authority of Councils and Fathers I have thought it meet to give you his Epistle and his Admonition to the Reader recorded by him in the words following To our Most Soveraign Lord Sixtus V. High-Priest It fell out conveniently for me Most Blessed Father in the Universal Joy of the Christian World for your Elevation to the Sublimity of the Apostleship that in so great a multitude flowing from every place to honour you I also among the Oldest Servants of your Holiness had something near at hand which is unworthy neither of the Masty of your Name or Authority and yet very fit for my Occasions to offer at your feet as suitable to the Office of my Gratitude and Veneration It is a new Edition of the Councils for the remarkable addition of two Councils especially the Nicene and the Ephesine never published so entire and full as now For to whom may the Councils of the Church aided by the Inspiration of the H. Ghost according to the seasonableness of various times for the repairing of her Ship more fitly be Dedicated than to her Chief Master to whom it is given from Heaven to call and confirm them especially him who is so well versed in all Scholastical Disciplines and Ecclesiastical History I have used all diligence according to my weak ability sparing no cost omitting no labour the most Catholick and Learned Divines of our Age being
Zozimus and Boniface About 100 years after Eulabius sate in the Chair at Alexandria some call him Eulalius Between him and Boniface 2. there are two Epistles extant out of which it is gathered that after the sixth Council of Carthage the African Churches were Excommunicated by the Roman for 100 years and reconciled at last upon the Submission of Eulalius Archbishop of Carthage accursing S. Augustine and his own Predecessors Concerning these two Epistles Cardinal Bellarmine giveth his Opinion thus Valdè mihieas Epistolas esse suspectas c. I have a mighty suspition of these Epistles For first they seem to be repugnant to those things which we have spoken concerning the Union of S. Augustine Eugenius Fulgentius and other Africans with the Roman Church And again either there was no Eulabius of Alexandria to whom Boniface seemeth to write or at least there was none at that time as is evident out of the Chronology of Nicephorus of Constantinople Besides Boniface intimates in his Epistle that he wrote at the Commandment of Justinus the Emperour But Justinus was dead before Boniface began to sit as is manifest out of all Histories Moreover the Epistle which is ascribed to Boniface consists all of it almost of two fragments of which the one is taken out of the Epistle of Pope Hormisda to John the other out of the Epistle of S. Gregory to the Bishops of France even the 52 Epistle of his fourth Book Now S. Gregory was not born at that time nor is it credible that Gregory took those words out of Boniface since the Stile is altogether Gregorian In the Epistle also which is Fathered upon Eulabius the Carthaginian there is a Sentence of S. Gregories inserted out of the 36 Epistle of his fourth Book and the rest of that Epistle is nothing but a sragment of au Epistle of John the Bishop of Constantinople to Pope Hormisda Notwithstanding all these reasons Bellarmine is afraid to damn the Epistles but Cardinal Baronius is a little more bold He judges it inconvenient for the Church of Rome that any such Forgeries were ever made And upon the occasion of these two Epistles utterly disgraces Isidore Mercator for a meer Impostor Whether in so doing he salves the Sores of the Roman Church that hath been guilty of vending them the experience of Ages yet to come will hereafter evidence In the mean time let us fee what he saith In Not. Martyrol ad 16. Octobr. he layeth down these words Scias falsam adulterinam Epistolam illam quae fertur nomine Bonifacii 2. c. Know that the Epistle which is carried abroad in the name of Boniface 2. to Eulalius Bishop of Alexandria which is extant and published in the second 〈◊〉 of the Councils of the latter Edition is false and adulterate And speaking concerning the Schism Excommunication and Re-union of the African Churches he saith Sihaec vera sunt c. If these things are true certainly then all the Martyrs and Confessors which were at that very time crowned with Martyrdom in the African Church or otherwise waxed famous by the Merits of their Eminent Sanctity must be blotted out of the List of Saints which THE HOYL ROMAN CHURCH it self hath in its Martyrology numbred among the Martyrs or reckoned among the Confessors Since it is most manifest by a thousand Sentences of Cyprian Augustine and all the Fathers that out of the Church there can be no Martyrdom nor any kind of Sanctity If Lyes were always consistent Truth would be amazed God doth infatuate the Counsels of his Enemies and turn their Wisdom into Foolishness They run into inconveniences sometimes so great that they cannot be remedied Could a Lye shun all inconvenience and see to its Interest on every side it would be as wife and perfect as Truth itself Quin amplius ex Collegis Aurelii c. But yet further among other Companions of Aurelius the most holy Father S. Augustine the most glorious Beam of the Catholick Church was accused in that Epistle Who being clouded with the same 〈◊〉 of Schism must if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be true be blotted out of the Class of the Doctors of Holy Church out of the number of Saints nay out of the Martyrology nor only so but out of the Kalender of the HOLY ROMAN CHURCH For it is most certain that after the aforesaid Aurelius he departed this life within the space of the time before-mentioned What should I reckon the Fulgentiuses the Eugeniuses and others almost innumerable men most Famous for Holiness and Learning to be accounted in the same condition It is a common Artifice in the Church of Rome to propagate these Forgeries as far as they are able by them to possess the minds of men with great apprehensions of the Popes high and Infallible Power and if at at any time they are detected to cast the blame on private persons while the Church is free they pretend from such Abominations I desire you to note therefore that the HOLY ROMAN CHURCH it self is the Author of Her Martyrologies and Kalendars and that the HOLY ROMAN CHURCH her self hath Canonized her Saints and made Holy-days and put them into her Breviaries And it was this very HOLY ROMAN CHUCH that put the counterfeit Council of Sinuessa into her Martyrologies the Lying Legend of Sylvester into the Roman Breviary Authorized by three Popes and the Council of Trent and her counterfeit Decretals among her Laws in all her Consistories and Ecclesiastical Courts of Highest Judicature So that if Baronius do not 〈◊〉 the ROMAN CHURCH is liable to the Charge of these Bastard-Antiquities For which cause he might well break out into that angry 〈◊〉 Eccè in quod Diserimen Vnus isidorus Mercator illarum Epistolarum Collector res nostras adduxit ut ex 〈◊〉 parte periclitari videatur Ecclesia c. Behold into what peril one Isidore Mercator the Collector of those Epistles hath brought out Affairs So that the CHURCH seemeth on that side to be endangered if we shall say those things which he hath collected or rather 〈◊〉 be 〈◊〉 and certain If the Roman Church be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 in Baronius his judgment 〈◊〉 is utterly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Importance did he only 〈◊〉 the things to be feigned rather than 〈◊〉 which their great 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Isidore their first Author But his acknowledgment of the hazard which the Roman Church runneth is more For they have so many Subterfuges about the Roman Church that it is more difficult to find it than to vanquish it It was not the Pope in a formal Council that Excommunicated the Church of Africa or that put her Saints first into the Roman 〈◊〉 yet it was the 〈◊〉 Roman Church And indeed if the Holy Roman Church and her Authority be not to be found in her Mass books and Breviaries her Courts and Consistories her Laws and 〈◊〉 her Martyrologies and Kalenders her Popes and Doctors I know not where to meet