into open wickedness and practise all the lewd and dishonest things that the worst of Men can act with the confidence and authority of a divine Commission I am sure it was no more severe than what was done by the great Theodosius himself in his Laws against the Manichees in one of which he distinguishes between the Contemplative and the Practical Hereticks the first he out-laws but as for the others known by the names of Eucratitae Saccophori Hydroparastatae and I know not what salvage Sects more he brings them under the sentence of death And is withal so severe as to appoint an Inquisition for their discovery and in truth no care can be too great nor punishment too severe when Men under pretences of a stricter Piety bring in the practice of all sorts of uncleanness and immorality And that was the case of these brutish Wretches they pretended to singular mortification and under it acted all the Wickedness that humane Nature was capable of committing And therefore in such Cases as these it was a great mistake in St. Martin to think a Censure of the Church sufficient punishment and to disswade the Prince from drawing the temporal Sword against them when if ever it is necessary it is certainly most so when Men pervert Religion to the subversion of humane Society And then if they are executed it is not for their Heresie against the Faith but their Treason against the State and such Traitors all such Men are that teach such Doctrins as destroy the Faith of Mankind and the Peace of humane Society And therefore how blame-worthy soever Ithacius might be in his own life or manner of prosecuting and Sulpitius gives him a very ill Character as to both no wise Man could ever have blamed him so severely as he has done as to the prosecution it self and no good Man could have been too active in bringing such brutal Wretches to their due punishment And therefore it was at best but an indiscreet action supposing the truth of the Indictment which Sulpitius himself allows in Theognostus and his Followers in separating Communion from him for prosecuting though in a cause of blood When what he did in that case he was obliged to do as a Member of the Common-Wealth and antecedently to his holy Orders which certainly to whatsoever degree of Gentleness they may oblige a Man they cannot cancel that duty that by nature he owes to his Country And it is no better than Julian's Sarcastick Abuse of our Saviour's Laws to apply his Precepts of Mercy and Forgiveness against the just execution of Laws as if his Religion were set up as the Apostate prophanely objected to it only for the subversion of Civil Government The duty that he commands is a point of Prudence as well as Vertue that Men preserve the temper of their Minds in all the intercourses of life they may prosecute a Malefactor to the Gallows without strangling themselves with spite and revenge but only for the same ends for which the Government that owes him no malice inflicts the Penalty of the Law upon him A Man may hang a Thief and forgive him too And therefore it was no better than a rash and weak action of Theognostus St. Martin and their Adherents in general to condemn Ithacius his prosecution of the Priscillianists as if it had been inconsistent with the meekness of a Christian but much more the exemplary mercy of a Bishop It is indeed an Office that no good-natur'd Man can ever be fond of and less becomes a Clergy-man than any other but yet it is not unlawful nor the breach of any Precept of our Religion and therefore he could not be justly condemn'd for it nay it was so far from being a Sin that it was a duty both in him and all other good Subjects to take care of the preservation of the Common-Wealth by indeavouring to remove such plague-sores out of it And therefore Maximus did but do him justice to call a Synod at Trâ—ives to absolve him from the Excommunication of Theognostus and if he had beside that punisht Theognostus for indeavouring to intercept and obstruct publick Justice I cannot see but that he had acted as became a good and a wise Governor At least I am sure it is much less decent for a Clergy-man to patronize wicked Men against the Laws than to prosecute them provided they have reputation enough which the Civil Law requires and all other Laws ought to do to qualifie them for Evidences If indeed these had been Malefactors of an ordinary size it might not have been unbecoming a Bishop to interpose for mercy but Men that were made up of nothing but Villainy were beyond the reach of compassion and no Man in whatsoever station he was placed ought to spare their prosecution And therefore it was no better than Monkish stubbornness in St. Martin to refuse communion with the Prosecutors after the judgment of the Council and though he was at last induced to communicate with the Council it self by Maximus who bought that condescension of him by giving him the Lives of two of his Friends that had been loyal Officers under Gratian though our crude Abridger says that it was for the sake of a great Priscillianist yet upon it he quitted the Council and could have no peace till he received absolution from an Angel after which he would never more communicate with the Bishops and that I take to be no better than Monkish Enthusiasm These affectations of mercy are very popular things and easily seize Men possess 't and tainted with mortified Vanity for there is generally the height of pride and ostentation under the pomps and shews of Humility And this I doubt was St. Martin's case who though he was a devout Man yet he was altogether unlearned and indiscreet and most miserably over-run with the Scurvy of Enthusiasm and not understanding the true nature of Pride as none of that sort of Men do he was apparently acted by it in all his singularities to the very height of a Cynical vanity that is the rankest sort of Insolence in the World And this is too evident from his Story as it is told by Sulpitius himself To give one instance for all when he was treated by the Emperor who invited all his Nobles to the Entertainment he carried one of his Presbyters along with him and the Emperor being very proud that he had reconciled to himself and his ill Cause a Man so much adored by the People treats him with all the flatteries of Civility seats him next himself and places his Presbyter in the midst of his Nobles that was the highest Place at the Table A Cup is brought to the Emperor according to custom to drink in the first place he commands it to be given to St. Martin expecting at least that he would have return'd the Complement but he without any farther formality very fairly takes off his draught and so delivers the Cup to his Presbyter as the
Reign of the Emperor Leo his Method of preserving the Peace of the Church by way of Encyclical correspondence Pope Leo's concurrence p. 260. § XVII Of the Emperor Leo and the Tyrant Basiliscus The great mischiefs of Zeno's Henoticon or Act of Comprehension Of the Acephali and the Haesitantes i. e. the moderate Men. Of the numberless Schisms occasion'd in the Church by this healing Instrument p. 296. § XIX The reign of Anastasius his outragious zeal for the Henoticon his persecution in pursuance of Moderation till at last the design ended in Wars Tumults and Rebellions p. 335. § XX. Justin's restitution of the Council of Calcedon The re-union of the Eastern and Western Churches thereby The Tumults of the Scythian and Acaemetan Monks His Laws against the Hereticks p. 349. § XXI A general vindication of the Justinian Code A short history of both the Codes Theodosian and Justinian Tribonian's Integrity vindicated in his reciting the Laws of former Emperors against the accusations of Gothofred p. 366. § XXII All Justinian's own Novels vindicated from any Invasion upon the Power of the Church and proved to have been nothing else than Canons enacted into Laws p. 376. § XXIII All his Actions vindicated against Alemannus and the Anecdota The history of the Contest about the tria Capitula with an account of the extravagant behaviour of Pope Vigilius p. 391. § XXIV The Contest between Paul the 5th and the state of Venice the cause of all the displeasure of the Court of Rome against Justinian The Anecdota proved to be spurious and none of Procopius his writings p. 426. § XXV Justinian vindicated from the charge of Cruelty p. 443. § XXVI The unparallel'd gentleness of his reign the Empress Theodora Antonia and the great Belisarius vindicated from the Calumnies of the Anecdota p. 455. § XXVII An account of Justinian's Persian Vandalick and Gothick Wars p. 479. § XXVIII The reason of his siding with the Venetae against the Prasmi i. e. the Tories against the Whigs p. 497. § XXIX His vindication from Folly and Knavery p. 502. § XXX Item From Covetousness and Prodigality p. 510. § XXXI Item From Oppression in putting the Laws in execution p. 523. § XXXII Item From inconstancy and falsehood to his Friends From Vanity from Forgery from Lust from Vnkindness and Overâ—kindness to his Clergy p. 547. § XXXIII An Answer to the whole Rhapsody of smaller Cavils and Calumnies p. 573. ERRATA PAg. 2. l. 3. They kept it themselves Read They kept it to themselves P. 192. l. 2. Welly r. well P. 200. l. 6. Hair r. hare P. 224. l. 2. tyed r. lyed P. 267. l. 8. rehearse r. rehear P. 310. l. 8. Possessions r Possession P. 336. l. 12. Syntax r. Sin-tax P. 354. l. 27. upon r. up P. 378. l. 29. and r. an P. 394. l. 28. onâ—y r. on the contrary P. 404. l. penult Summary r. Summoning P. 406. l. 7. Bishops r. Bishop P. 429. l. 19. Eusebius r. Eichelius P. 432. l. ult Helâ—sted r. Helmsted P. 439. l. 29. Oversâ—en r. Over-keen P. 456. l. 18. Patriarchate r. Patriciate Ibid. l. 22. Patriarchate r. Patriciate P. 466. l. 24. Theodorus r. Theodora ' s. P. 479. l. 20. use r. vie P. 546. l. friends r. fâ—nds P. 550 l. penult Solomons r. Solomon PART I. SECT I. UPon the death of Julian there was another quick and suddain turn of Affairs by the Election of Jovian a Christian to the Empire though the change was rather made in the Emperor than the Religion For Christianity was so universally entertain'd that Julian with all his Arts of Undermining and Persecution could make but very little alteration in the Church and at last left it in the very same or a much better Condition than that in which he found it And for that reason Gregory Nazianzen derides his folly and madness in endeavouring to destroy Christianity when it had so universally prevail'd and himself was so sensible of it that he was forced for a time to conceal his own Religion and as he marched out of France towards Rome he was forced to keep Christmas at Vienna that he might seem to be of the same Religion with his Army And so during his reign they kept it themselves so as to keep it in reality for when Jovian was chosen Emperor upon his death he refused it as being a Christian and so unfit to command Julian's Army whom he could not but suppose to be of the same Religion with their Master At which a great shout was made O Sir take no care for that for you shall command Christian Men and such as are educated in the Discipline and Piety of the Christian Church for the eldest among us were train'd up under Constantine and the younger under Constantius and as for the time of Julian it was too short to make any alteration as to the Principles of our Religion Upon which declaration when he had made them repeat it several times as Socrates tells the Story he accepts the Empire and immediately restores all the Revenues Privileges and Immunities that had been given to the Church by Constantine and his Sons and taken away by Julian And withal restores all the banished Bishops and particularly St. Athanasius with especial regard to his Person to whom he writes for Instructions in order to the settlement of the true Faith who upon it immediately calls a Council and to prevent the Application of the Hereticks sends him out of hand the Nicene Confession not only as the true old Apostolical Faith which Arius and his followers had endeavour'd to corrupt by their prophane Novelties and others i. e. the Eusebians endeavour'd to supplant though they durst not disown it But as the sense of the Catholick Church ever since the Nicene Council in Spain in Britain in France in Italy Dalmatia Mysia Macedonia Greece Affrick Sardinia Cyprus Creet Pamphylia Lysia Isauria Egypt Lybia Pontus Cappadocia and all the Eastern Churches a very few only excepted all whose subscriptions he says and many others more remote we have in our own Possession and therefore though there are some few scatter'd Dissenters that ought to be no prejudice to the Faith of the whole World And this is another clear Confutation of that uncatholick surmise from the mistaken Sense of St. Jerom that all the World were at that time turn'd Arians But the most pleasant Scene of that time was the Council of Antioch when all the Arian World if any such there were would needs turn Orthodox for the Eusebians that had been supplanted by the Acacians under Constantius finding now that they had a Christian Emperor they petition him in his return from Persia that the Acacians who taught the Son to be unlike the Father might be displaced out of their Bishopricks and themselves restored but they receiving no kind answer from him who understood them too well and the Acacians who resolved to keep their hold finding
which way his Pulse beat tamper with Meletius the Orthodox Bishop of Antioch and dear to the new Emperor who at that time resided there to call a Council and though they had in the time of Constantius deposed him for his Apostasie to the Nicene Faith yet now in this Council they unanimously declare for it and signify their Decree and the necessity of it to the Emperor in that they were now convinced that there was no other stop to be put to the Arian Blasphemy viz. that the Son was created out of nothing and by this false and dishonest shufling they out-witted the old Eusebian Knaves and riveted themselves in their new usurpt Preferments But this goes to the very heart of the poor outed Eusebians to be thus over-reach't and supplanted and to turn the whole Game it drives them into their old out-rage against the vir gregis the great Athanasius And so away post Euzoius the then deposed Bishop of Antioch and Lucius the pretended Bishop of Alexandria to Court and there take their old Method of ingaging some of the Eunuchs into their Party and particularly Probatius the Praepositus Cubiculi that succeeded Eusebius in that Office who had done so much mischief in the reign of Constantius and having secured their Patrons they accuse Athanasius to the Emperor upon these three Topicks First that there had been continual Complaints against him during the whole time of his Episcopacy Secondly that upon the truth of those Complaints he had been often banisht by his Predecessors Thirdly that he was the sole Author of all the present Troubles and Disturbances in the Church This is their old train of boldness but the Emperor was a wise Man and saw thrô their Designs and therefore sends them away with very severe threatnings and charges his Eunuchs never to meddle with such Matters under no less Penalty than the Rod and the Cudgel and entertains Athanasius with all the highest expressions of Respect and Honor and so for his short time setled the Church both in Peace and Truth This is the true state and story of the revival of the Arian Controversy under this Emperor that had slept under Julian And not as Sozomen suggests the contentiousness of the Bishops who he says under Julian when the Christian Religion lay at stake pieced together for the security of the common Cause as 't is the custom of all Men to make peace and join forces against a common Enemy but as soon as the danger is blown over to return to their old Fewds and Animosities The observation in general is too true but not rightly applyed to this particular case for the ground of the quarrel here was not the natural contentiousness of Mankind whilst in a condition of peace as the Historian remarks in that the Orthodox had never pieced with any of the other Parties either Eusebians or Acacians under Julian but as we have already seen casheir'd and condemn'd them both and setled the Nicene Faith So that under Jovian there was no new breach but even according to Sozomen's own account the new contest was raised by the Eusebian Bishops that had lost their Bishopricks under Constantius after the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia when they were over-reach't by the Acacians And that is the Argument of their Petition to this Emperor that things might stand as they were left by those Councils and that all after acts might be null'd i. e. that themselves might be restored to their Bishopricks That was the present quarrel and no dispute against the setled Faith for they had already declared for the Nicene Confession And therefore the Acacians upon their complaint against them for the Aëtian Heresy immediately protest against it to secure their Preferments And that was all along the state of this Controversy both before and after this time the zeal of good Men on one side for the true Faith and the Arts of ill Men on the other for Preferment and Court-favor This is hitherto evident from the beginning of the quarrel of Eusebius of Nicomedia with Athanasius and will appear as clearly in all the same Contests as long as they lasted under the succeeding Emperors § 2. Jovian dying suddainly no body knows of what though several wise philosophical Conjectures are made about it by the Historians after him Valentinian is chosen Emperor with a Nemine contradicente being a Man as Marcellinus himself confesses of universal reputation And he deserved it though it were only for that Prince-like saying after his Election when those that chose him press't him to take an Assistant in the Government he replyed when the Empire was vacant it was in your Power to choose me Emperor but now I am in possession of the Crown it is my business and none of yours to take care of the Common-Wealth He understood the true Rights of Soveraign Power in all Monarchies whether Hereditary or Elective and unless it be supreme and unaccountable it is so far from being any Power at all that it is the lowest and most abject kind of Subjection and of a great General he would by his being made Emperor have only become the publick Slave of the Rabble But he coming to the Crown after so many suddain turns and supposing the Empire very much distracted about Religion by so many changes of Government publishes an Edict for Liberty of Conscience ut unicuique quod animo imbibisset colendi libera facultas tributa sit that every Man may have liberty to use what Worship he will according to those Opinions that he had suckt in But then again soon finding himself setled in the Empire in the very same year anno 364 he forbids the night Sacrifices of the Heathens but is prevail'd upon to tolerate all those religious Rites that were celebrated by day And having gain'd so much ground he proceeds to countermine and blow up the Crafts of Julian who made all his Laws with a malicious Aspect towards the Christians and particularly that famous Law that no Man should be allowed to practise Physick or teach any Art or Science but by the approbation of the Magistrates of the place with his own impeperial Consent and by that means he shut all Christians out of any learned or ingenuous Imployment and therefore Valentinian as soon as he comes to the Crown cancels that Law and restores all Professors of Learning to their respective Thrones But as for the Church the Emperor being setled the poor hungry Eusebians that had been so long sequestred out of their Bishopricks resolve once more to try their Fortune and they poor Men had hard luck to quit their Faith as they had done under Jovian and yet not get their Preferments But they hope to meet with kinder usage from this Emperor and therefore send Hypatianus Bishop of Heraclea in an Ambassy to him to request a Council to which he as he was a very civil Gentleman and obliged at that time to
into the concerns of the Church and that not to intermeddle with any thing of its discipline and jurisdiction but only as their Stewards and Solicitors And this Emperor was so kind to them as to follow this Rescript with another commanding that the Advocates of the Church should be put to no delays in the Common-Law-Courts but admitted to Audience at their first appearance In the year 412 he recites the particular Priviledges granted to the Clergy and commands all his Officers to keep them inviolable upon pain of perpetual Banishment The Priviledges he enumerates are these six 1 Exemption from Offices 2 From repairing of High-ways 3 From extraordinary Taxes 4 From building of Bridges 5 From maintaining the publick Carriages 6 From the Gold-Contribution which was a particular Tax imposed at that time In short they were excused from all Payments but their Canonical Tribute the rate of which was known and customary For their Lands were never exempt from Taxes and the proportion that they paid was call'd the Canonical Contribution and whatever Officer demanded more than their standing rate he was by this Rescript banisht for ever as a sacrilegious Person In the same year he publishes another Rescript forbidding the accusation of Clergy-men before any Judg but the Bishops and if any Person of what degree and quality soever shall bring an Indictment against them and be not able to make it good he shall be branded with publick Infamy as the Person accused must have been if found guilty This Rescript notwithstanding its general words that the Clergy ought to be accused before the Bishops and not else where the Lawyers will have to be understood of Ecclesiastical and not Civil Crimes but this proceeds from their common Prejudice that I have noted above that only Ecclesiastical Offences fall under the Judicature of the Church but Civil and Political Crimes are restrain'd to the cognisance of the State whereas both are punishable by both with those different Penalties that are proper to the different Jurisdictions And as for this Law in particular it cannot be understood of any other but Civil Crimes and this is evidently proved by those very Arguments that are alledged by Gothofred himself to appropriate it to Ecclesiastical Miscarriages First that they are such Crimes as are punisht by the shame of Deposition and therefore most properly Civil Crimes for there were very few Ecclesiastical Offences so great as to deserve so high a Punishment and those few that did so as in the case of Schism and Heresy were always appropriated to the Ecclesiastical Judicature before this Rescript and therefore not by it And this appears more pregnantly from his second reason the cause of enacting this Law viz. that Lay-men and even Persons of the greatest Quality being apt upon slite provocations to bear spite to the Clergy would be apt enough to way-lay their Reputation with popular defamations and false reports So that the apparent design of the Law was to prevent these scandalous Informations before the Secular Judges and restrain them from so much as taking them till they had been first examin'd by the Ecclesiastical Judicature And in the last place this is still more evident from the particular occasion of this Law that Heros a worthy Man Bishop of Arles had been thrust out by Constantius a great Court-Officer there and afterwards Emperor for six Months upon a tumultuary Accusation and Patroclus an infamous Person placed in his stead and therefore to prevent the like Disorders for the time to come it was but seasonable to enact this Law to restrain Secular Governors from receiving accusations against the Clergy till they have been first heard by the Provincial Synod So that this Law does not exempt the criminal Actions of the Clergy from the Civil Courts as Gothofred imagines when he objects that it is against the Jus Commune but only limits the exercise of their Jurisdiction viz. that they neither receive nor proceed in such Causes till the Judgment of the Church had been pass't upon them and after that they were at liberty to punish them according to Law This is the fairest and most ingenuous sense that I can make of this Law These are the chief Laws of these Emperors in the Church the Penal Laws against the Hereticks and the Laws of Priviledg to the Catholicks § XIII But beside these there were divers others enacted either to abet the Discipline of the Church by removing Abuses that were crept in upon its ancient Constitutions or by backing its present Decrees with the Imperial Authority Or else to set in order such Matters of Religion that though they related to the Church were yet without its Jurisdiction i. e. those Laws that concern Jews Heathens and Apostates in all which they followed the example of their Royal Father Theodosius And first they take care of the due and regular Ordination of the Clergy Constantine the Great had been forced to forbid his Officers both Civil and Military to be admitted into Holy Orders and the same Decree was frequently renewed by his Successors with alterations and limitations as the Prince thought most convenient for the present time that the State might not be defrauded or indamaged by too much bounty to the Church and when Men flockt so fast into it it was but requisite to lock its doors upon such as were already useful to the Common-Wealth Which Constantine did with a peremptory and universal Law but Valentinian the first with this limitation That any Person who had an Office in the State might be admitted into the Church so that he provided an able Person to supply his former Office But before this time the Priviledg of Clergy had taken place and the Bishop was impowr'd to redeem any Criminal from Justice or Debtor from Goal if he judged him qualified for doing Service in the Church that was grown into such an abuse that the Monks took them away by force and tumult to the hindrance of Publick Justice and the subversion of private Mens rights For when they were once enter'd into a Monastery or into Orders their Crimes were cancel'd and their Debts paid to redress which abuse Arcadius enacts a severe Law in the year 398 as his Father Theodosius had done before him against these violent interpositions of the Monks and threatens the Bishops that if any such Riots were made by the Monks under their Jurisdictions and not punisht by them the fault should lye at their Doors and commands them for the time to come that whenever they wanted Clerks they should take them from the Colledges of Monks if they found them clear of all Debts both Publick and Private otherwise as they ought not to have been admitted into the Monasteries so he now commands that they shall not be admâ—tted into Orders And this Law was but agreeable to the Constitution of things in those Times when the Monasteries as now our Universities were the proper Seminaries
all the Acts of the Council to be read over as their Master Celestine had given them in command which being done they by the Sovereign Authority of St. Peter and his Successors in the Apostolick See give validity to the Sentence without which state of the Papal Veult Le Roy it could have had no effect But the Council were glad of their Concurrence to ballance it against the opposition of John of Antioch and upon it they write a second Letter to the Emperor informing him of the agreement both of the Eastern and Western Church in the Sentence against Nestorius and request him not to credit thâ— Letters that after the sentence of tâ—e Catholick Church so fully declared in Council were threatned to be sent abroad by some Men thaâ— preferr'd their friendship to Nestorius before the Peace of the Church After this Cyril and Memnon move the Council to call John of Antioch to account for the injury that he had done to them in their Deposition and to the whole Council in controuling its sentence Upon this they send some of their number to cite John to appear but by the favor of Candidianus he has his Guards as well as Nestorâ—us and by them the Bishops are affronted and repulst and finally refusing to appear he and his Associates are condemned and deposed and their deposition certified to the Emperor and Pope Celestine But the Schismaticks had the Courtiers to back them and therefore are so far from submitting to the Sentence of the Council that they both defie that and depose the Council it self and send their Complaints to the Emperor of the violent courses used against them as if they were in continual danger of their Lives and ply the Courtiers with dismal stories of barbarous usage beg them by all the motives of Humanity to rescue them from their dismal condition But their complaints to the Emperor being vouch't by Candidianus the Emperor sends Letters to the Council by Palladius to null all their Acts for which the Schismaticks you may be sure return their letter of humble thanks applauding the Wisdom and Goodness of his Imperial Majesty But the Council finding hereby that the Emperor had been abused with false tales write to him by Palladius to assure his Majesty of the truth of those Acts that they had sent him and whereas Candidianus had given him other Information out of his friendship to Nestorius they assure him that he was altogether ignorant of the Proceedings of the Council and had not so much as ever seen the Books in which their Acts were enter'd That the Bishops who join'd with Nestorius were either such as had been already deposed or such as knew themselves obnoxious to the Discipline of the Church and so must have been deposed though they had continued with the Council And as for their complaints of Violence they were so far from truth that all the Guards attended Nestorius and his Party that Irenaeus broke into the Council in a tumultuary way and with Military force to the great danger of their Lives and humbly petition his Majesty that five of the Council might attend him to give him farther Information in the presence of Candidianus Upon this Irenaeus who was a Courtier that accompanied Candidianus to the Council out of meer zeal for Nestorius is posted away to Constantinople by the schismatical Party with fresh Certificates of the wild and disorderly behavior of Cyril and Memnon Neither was he remiss in his Embassy and so improved their Tales by word of Mouth that though he had been prevented by Messengers from the Council who came three days before him and had pâ—epossest the greatest part of the People and stagger'd the Emperor himselâ— yet he so satisfied him with his Relation of the whole Matter that he confirm'd the deposition of Cyril and Memnon as well as Nestorius And sends John his Comes Sacrorum another favourer of Nestorius to see it put in execution who finding the City in a Tumult about those three Persons he commits them all to prison and then takes upon him to preâ—ch Peace and Reconciliation to the Bishops and censures them very severely for being so implacable in their Quarrels as he is pleased to call their resolution for the Orthodox Faith and the Discipline of the Church And setting aside the cause of truth in the case it was an unpardonable Affront to the Discipline of the Church that when the Controversie had been determin'd and the Hereticks deposed by the sentence of so great a Council this unlearned Courtier should presume to set aside their Authority and as if they stood upon equal ground after the sentence of the Church was pass't advise both Parties to shake hands and be friends and because the Bishops scorn'd to put such a childish slur upon their own Authority and the discipline of the Church as to admit Offenders to communion without Canonical satisfaction call them implacable Prelates But now the Council finding that both the Emperor and themselves had been abused in that the Letter of the Nestorians to the Emperor about the deposition of Cyril and Memnon was written in the name of the Council and the Emperors Letter to confirm their deposition as well as that of Nestorius was directed both to the Council and the Conventicle as if they had been but one body of Men they write two Letters to him to inform him of the Imposture but they are intercepted by the Courtiers who still persist to lay all the blame of all these heats and disorders upon the Council it self In which Office Count John was most busie at his return home thinking himself affronted by the Council when they would not prostitute the sacred Discipline of the Church to his illiterate device of Peace and Comprehension But the Council having no return from the Emperor to their Letters and suspecting their suppression they write to the Clergy of Constantinople to inform the Emperor by Address of all the Abuses that were put upon his Majesty and the Council But this falls short for the next Letter that we have is from the Clergy of Constantinople to the Council complaining of the want of Correspondence all Passages both by Sea and Land being blockt up and declaring that they were ready to do any service that the Council would be pleased to command them By which the Council perceive that the first came not to their lands and therefore send a second to the same effect that came safe and upon it they petition the Emperor and inform hâ—m of the true state of the whole Matter and the Emperor being puzled with al these cross Stories orders Commissioners from both Parties to repair to Constantinople that he might understand the real Truth of the Controversy Eight Commissioners are sent on each side and the Legates of the Council are commanded in their Instructions to insist upon the deposition of Nestorius and nothing else as the Article of Peace And the Legates from
they intended to make a new Creed but as a necessary declaration of the ancient Faith against his upstart Heresie The sixth Action is one of the most remarkable Instances of the right use of the Imperial Power in the Christian Church that we have upon record in all the Histories of it For the Council being fully agreed about the settlement of the Faith in the last Session in this the Emperor with his Empress attended by a great Train of Nobles comes to confirm their Decrees as he professes in his Speech to the Holy Fathers Nos enim ad sidem confirmandam non ad potentiam aliquam exercendam exâ—mplo religiosi Principis Constantini Synodo interesse voluimus He came into the Council not to make but confirm and ratifie their Decrees by his Imperial Power And therefore having the Acts of the last Session read before him with the Subscriptions of all the Bishops to the Confession of Faith he there immediately enacts this Penal Law to inforce the observation of their Decree The Catholick Faith being declared by the holy Synod according to the Tradition of the Fathers we think it both decent and our duty to cut off for the time to come all farther Debates about it If therefore any private Citizen Soldier or Clergy-man shall hereafter make any disturbance by attempting any publick Disputation about the Faith the Citizen shall be banisht the Soldier disbanded and the Clerk deposed and be obnoxious to further punishment at our Royal Pleasure And thus having with so much Prudency and Decency exerted his Imperial Authority in Controversies of Faith 〈◊〉 not at all to interpose his own Power in making the determination but to imbrace and confirm the resolution of the Holy Fathers the proper Judges in the Case in the next place he exerts his Authority in matters of Discipline For having observed some defects in the Clergy both against the ancient Canons and the Imperial Laws he propounds it to the Council that they would take care to provide for their Reformation And this he declares he does out of meer Respect and Honor to their Function as thinking it more decent that they should be canonically determin'd in Council then enacted and inforced by his own Imperial Laws And as it was a civil Decency so it was no more for the Abuses that he complain'd of were such as concern'd the Peace of the Empire as well as the Church as the Tumults and Disorders of the Monks frequent Instances whereof as we have met with through the whole progress of this Story so were they the Masters of these present Revels And certainly such Disorders concern'd his own Imperial Power if the Peace of the Empire did so As for his other two Proposals the first against the trading and the second against the wandring of the Clergy they were properly subject to the Imperial Power because though these and the like irregularities were first forbidden by the Ecclesiastical Canons yet they had before this time been often restrain'd by the Imperial Laws as we have seen above out of the Theodosian Code After this the Emperor in Complement to the memory of the Holy Martyr St. Euphemia in whose Church the Council was held gives the City of Calcedon the honor of a Titular Metropolis securing all the Rights of Metropolitical Power to the Metropolitan of Nicomedia And here some say the Council ended the Fathers having dispatcht the whole work for which they were summon'd the following Sessions being only taken up with casual and personal Controversies and therefore by some of the Ancients they are made distinct Councils and this latter part in some of their Writings goes under the name of the 5 th Council The seventh Session is spent in confirming the Agreement or Concordate between Juvenal of Jerusalem and Maximus of Antioch about dividing their Usurpations How Juvenal that had been all along such an active Confederate with Dioscorus and stood guilty of the same Crimes came to meet with so much favor is easie enough to conceive being a great Court-Parasite and Church-trimmer and so by his cringings and flatteries had wrigled himself into the good Opinion of the Fathers In the 8 th Action Theodoret is restored to his Church upon his anathematising Nestorius and his Heresie and that was a very easie matter for him to do when he had all along done the same having only opposed the unseasonable imposition of Cyril's Anathema's The 9 th and 10 th Actions were taken up with the case of Ibas Bishop of Edessa who had been accused to the Emperor Theodosius by some Eutychians as guilty of the Nestorian Heresie and by him the cause was referr'd to a Synod at Beryte in which he anathematised Nestorius and all his Doctrines and was cleared of his Indictment But in the violent Council of Ephesus he was again accused by Eutyches himself and without being heard deposed and imprison'd But now upon his Petition is heard in this Council and after the examination of all Records and Witnesses he is again found clear of the Nestorian Heresie all the Accusation being grounded upon his opposition to Cyril's Anathema's And the true State and Account of that Controversie between Cyril and Nestorius and the Eastern Bishops against both is best described by Ibas himself in his Famous Epistle to Maris Persa recorded among the Acts of the 10th Session The subject of the 11th and 12th Actions was a Contest between Bassianus and Stephanus for the Bishoprick of Ephesus but they being both uncanonically ordeined are both deposed Upon this occasion the Asiaticks move that the new Bishop may be Consecrated at Ephesus according to the Canons No say the Constantinopolitans but in this City according to Custom as they falsly pretended for all their Usurpations to do illegal things and then make them a Precedent to warrant their illegal doings This occasions a new Contest about the Prerogative of the Bishop of Constantinople to ordein other Metropolitans but he and his Party being conscious to themselves of the weakness of their own pretence they let fall the Controversie The most observable passage in this Action next to the Contest it self and the Constantinopolitan Plea to justifie their Usurpation by illegal Custom against Canon is the Plea of Bassianus to make good the Title to his Bishoprick viz. That he was Consecrated by the Bishops of the Province and his Consecration allowed and confirmed by the Emperor and that is an instance of the Custom of those times that the Princes Approbation was necessary to the Instalment of a Bishop though the Power of Election was placed in the Provincial Synod Upon what reason of State this Power of the Prince was grounded I shall shew when I come to argue the reason of the thing at present I only alledge this as an instance of the practice And of the same nature is the next Action of a Case setting up a new Custom and the pretence of an Imperial Rescript against Canon and Ancient
not to say a greater only to avoid envy a Benefactor to Mankind as any Prince in the whole Succession He delivered Christendom from the Incursions of the Barbarians and when he found it not so properly invaded as besieged and in a great measure possest by them he not only subdued them all to the Empire but which was a much greater work to Civility and the Christian Faith and by that means he left the Peace of the World much better secured and its manners much more improved then they were before His next Improvement of the Creation were his numberless and prodigious Buildings by which he lest the World more habitable then he found it neither do I speak meerly of that vast number of great Cities that he built but of his great care to make Commerce easie and pleasant and remove the difficulties of travelling by building Bridges making High-ways founding Publick-houses for the reception of Strangers in all convenient places in these kind of works he was so munificent in all places that he might not improperly be stiled the Founder of the Roman Empire that as it were turned those vast Dominions into one City A Third Benefit to Posterity is his excellent Body of Laws and Rules of Government gathered out of the Records of that wise State for about 1300 Years A work so glorious in it self that it had been often attempted by the greatest men not only those of the more ancient Common-wealth but of the most polite and emproved Age it entertain'd the ambitious thoughts both of Caesar and Cicero But in vain so great a work was preserved for the glory of Justinian and though if we consider the remote Antiquity of the Laws the seeming inconsistency among themselves and the immense bulk of Books and Records in so long a Tract of time the undertaking must have seem'd an impossible thing to any other man yet he pursued it with that diligence as to bring the greatest work that was ever undertaken to perfection in a little time Now for all these good Deeds that he has done to all Posterity I think no man that pretends to any thing of gratitude or ingenuity can excuse himself from the obligation of doing honour but much more right to his Memory But beside all this his Cause is become the Controversie of all Christendom because the Power that he challenged and exercised in the Christian Church for which he is so much condemned by the Court of Rome is one of the inseparable Branches of Soveraignty and was always challenged by all Christian Emperors so that if the Princes of Christendom should suffer themselves to be stript of it they are thereby outed of one half of their Empire And the true rise of the Court of Romes displeasure against him was not upon the account of any of his own Actions but a late Contest viz. The Famous Quarrel between Paul the 5th and the State of Venice as Eusebius has very well observed about these three Articles 1. The Power of the Civil Magistrate to judge the Clergy in Criminal Causes 2. The Decree of the Senate to prohibit the erecting of new Churches or Religious Houses without the Consent of the State 3. Their Statute of Mortmain against settling Lands upon the Church without the same Consent How high this Quarrel run is vulgarly known but it was so managed by the Learned Men that appeared in behalf of the Senate as to refer its whole decision to the Justinian Law whereas the Pope on the contrary challenged a Superiority over all Laws and would submit to no Rule but his own Authority Now the reason why the Venetian Advocates insisted so stubbornly upon the Justinian Code was not only for the advantage of those several Precedents that we have seen above to warrant the proceedings of the State in the several matters of the present Controversie but chiefly because the Code of the Canons of the Universal Church were taken into the Justinian Code and made part of the Imperial Law and if they could but bring the Pope any way under the Canons that would carry their Cause for it not only proved in behalf of the State that the power of prohibiting Ecclesiastical Laws to be imposed upon their Subjects without their Consent was a right challenged by all Christian Princes but own'd by the Church in the General Councils it being the known Custom of the Fathers to send their Decrees to their Imperial Majesties for Approbation before they presumed to publish them to the World or impose them upon the Church This is the Argument insisted upon by Jacobus Leschasserius a Learned Civilian at Paris in his Apology in behalf of the Senate who recommends the Justinian Code as the Bull-wark of the Liberties of Christendom And this little Treatise first gave the hint to Christophorus Justellus to publish the Code of the Canons of the Universal Church Now when the Court of Rome had for so many Ages been used to an absolute and unlimited Authority it could not but gawl and fret their proud Spirits to hear of being brought into subjection to Imperial Laws and for that reason they set themselves with all the Arts of Malice to beat down the Credit and Reputation of the Justinian Code till at length from his Laws they proceeded to vent their Revenge upon his Person and that was the thing that gave so much joy and transport to Alemannus his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that now the World might see what kind of man this Justinian was who was so prophane as to take upon him a power of medling with Sacred Things and controuling Popes themselves But the indignity of so base a design soon provoked Learned Men to expose it to the World with that scorn that it deserved The first that appeared in the Cause that I know of was a Learned Man of our own Nation in the Year 1626 viz. Dr. Rive Advocate to his late Majesty a Gentleman equally eminent both for Learning and Loyalty in a little but a very ingenious Treatise upon the Argument Entituled Imperatoris Justiniani desensio adversus Alemannum The Book which is great pity is hard to be procured neither indeed had the Learned Author the advantage of some considerable Records that are now brought to light and though he was a Learned Man not only in his own Profession but all other Polite Learning yet I find that he was not so well acquainted with the Records of the Church as to be able to state that matter aright And therefore he is altogether mistaken in that part of his defence especially as to the Controversie of the tria Capitula but he followed the common opinion as it was stated by the Romanists against the Africans as I think all Writers have done to this very day But otherwise he has with great eloquence and strength of reason cleared the reputation of this great Prince from all their dull and dirty aspersions and Convicted the whole design of
that great and enormous difficulty that has so long puzled us to make out how this Council should be so received in the Church among the General Councils without the Popes Authority But whether the Recantation were spurious or genuine and that is still in the dark it will not salve the business for if it were genuine it is only a confession of his old Wickedness and that he was managed in it by the Devil after he sat in St. Peter's Chair but what the real Devil was that tempted him is too evident from his shifting sides as his Interest lay Though the greatest demonstration of it is his Plea that he had hitherto erred for want of information and right understanding of the Controversie whereas it is too notorious from the whole progress of it that no Man could be better acquainted with it than himself and whoever reads his Judicatum upon it at the conference at his first coming to Constantinople and his Constitutum sent to the Council seven years after will never of all Excuses allow that of ignorance If it be spurious then if the Apology were good for any thing 't is lost And I must confess it seems somewhat incredible to me that so publick an Instrument concerning so great an Affair should be altogether unknown to his immediate Successors that were so deeply ingaged in the Controversie against the Schismaticks especially Pelagius the second and Gregory the Great who never produced its Authority against them but most of all Gregory who transmitted the Acts of the Council to Queen Theodelinda But though the writing be forged it is plain enough that he actually complied as Eustathius a Cotemporary Writer affirms in the life of Eutychius and Liberatus broadly suggests when he says that Vigilius suffer'd much in the Cause though he were not crown'd which was then the proper Phrase for Apostasie But that he was received into the Emperor's Favor appears from the Imperial Grant of certain Priviledges to the Citizens of Rome that was sent by Vigilius to endear him to the City though in his return home he dyed of the Stone in Sicily and is succeeded by Pelagius the first who though he had been banisht by Justinian whilst he was Apâ—crisiary at Constantinople to Vigilius upon account of his zeal in defence of the tria Capitula yet before he is admitted to the Papacy he both owns the Authority of the Council of Calcedon and condemns the Capitula and after incites Narses then Governor of Italy to reduce the Schismaticks of Venice and Istria by the Secular Power and the same was done by all his Successors till the Schism dyed So that in short it was not the Pope that determin'd the Council but the Council that determin'd the Pope and if it was confirm'd by Vigilius as that does not make the Council good so it is only another proof of the shuffling dishonesty of the Man If it were not confirm'd by him but by his Successors and that was the only Plea in its behalf before De Marca's discovery then it is not the Pope that makes or unmakes a General Council for if so then this was none because rejected by the present Pope Vigilius and yet it was one by the approbation of his Successors Though when all is done the Notion of a General Council is but a Notion for there was never any such thing in reality and all those that bear that name were more properly Councils of the Eastern Empire there being very few Western Bishops present at them And they were only call'd General Councils in opposition to Provincial and ought rather to have been stil'd Imperial as summon'd by the Emperor himself whereas other lesser Councils were summon'd by the Bishops themselves And that places this Council in the same rank with the other four because it was summon'd out of all parts of the Empire and not confin'd to Provinces and Diocesses as the Metropolitical or Patriarchal Councils were But that the Summons of the Bishop of Rome was necessary to the calling of a General Council and his confirmation of their Decrees necessary to their Validity is one great branch of the Papal Usurpation as I hope in its due place to prove at large against Petrus de Marca But to proceed in the business of this present Council all Parties concern'd in it labor to clear themselves of all blame and lay all the burthen of these Disorders upon other Mens shoulders but though it may seem a severe yet it is an impartial Judgment that they were all too faulty As for the Emperor 's own part it is evident that the publication of his Imperial Edict was an illegal act because against the Authority of a Council owned by himself though had he understood it so he would never have done it but he was perswaded that it was no reflection upon the Council it self because it was no contradiction to any of their own direct Decrees but only concern'd the Opinions of some private Persons that the Council thought not fit to condemn at that time though seeing what use the Eutychians made of it he supposed it now useful to the settlement of the Church without any Affront to the Council it being only to change Counsels with change of Affairs This was all the Emperor's meaning and it could have done no great mischief had it not been abused by the craft of Theodorus and his Acephali who perswaded him that it could be no abatement to the Authority of the Council and yet when it was done used it as an Argument to subvert it And then as for those that fought so furiously as the Africans did for the honor of the Council against the tria Capitula though the honor of the Council was remotely concernâ—d in it yet because it was not so apprehended or intended by the Emperor they might and ought in duty to have complyed with his Royal Pleasure only adding a Sa vo to the honor of the Council that had been easily granted and that would have disappointed the craft of the Eâ—tychians and caught them in a snare of their own setting and they must either have own'd the Council or put off their Vizard So that which side soever was in the right they were all in the wrong when they made a Schism in the Church about it for the thing was not Tanti in it self as to warrant the breach of Catholick Communion Though at last the bottom of all these unhappy Quarrels was founded in St. Cyril's over-doing Anathema's against Nestorianism that yet he endeavour'd to impose upon the Catholick Church as so many Articles of Faith Which because Theodoret and Ibas supposed to be too hard an Imposition the Eutychians took advantage of to represent them as Favourers of the Nestorian Heresie though it is plain from the tenour of all their Writings that they were as little guilty of that as Cyril himself but were cautious of spoiling the Cause by too much niceness of Speculation and
thought it sufficient to condemn the Heresie it self without imposing his private Anathema's as necessary Conditions of Peace and Articles of Christian Faith upon the Catholick Church And this was if we pursue it to its head the true Case of the tria Capitula and St. Cyril was so well convinced of it at last that he let fall his Anathema's and allowed the Epistle of Ibas that condemn'd them of rashness Natalis Alexander has written a long dissertation to prove that the tria capitula were justly condemn'd but I find very light weight in the Arguments For as for Theodorus and the several Fragments alledged out of him by Marius Mercator and the Council it self I can discern no designed Nestorianism in them and at worst they seem no worse than unwary Expressions before the starting of the Controversie in his zeal against the Heresie of Apollinaris and so he is excused by St. Cyril himself in his Epistle to John of Antioch And as for the sixty Capitula collected by Vigilius out of his Writings and charged with blasphemy in his Constitutum it is plain that he draws blood of his Premises to wring out his Conclusion And in real truth Church-men were by this time as Baronius himself complains in this very case grown too nice and speculative in Matters of Faith and were not content with the simplicity of the old Tradition but were every day starting new Points of subtilty in so much that it was a very difficult thing for a Man to express himself so warily as to avoid the exceptions of one or other Party And this Facundus Hermianensis insists upon beside his vindication of particular Passages from their perverse Glosses through his whole third Book which this late learned Author either ought to have answer'd or to have let the Argument alone and withal shews that there are none of the Ancients who lived before the birth of the Heresie out of whom he is not able to alledg as offensive Passages as any that they have cull'd out of the Writings of Theodorus And therefore it is not fairly done of our Historian to conclude against the tria Capitula so severely as he has done without examining the Arguments of Facundus in their defence when he has so long since prevented all his Objections But more particularly when he has written so many learned and accurate Books in defence of Theodorus and his Writings and the several Passages objected against him by his Adversaries I must confess it looks somewhat odd that this Writer should over-look all these large Discourses and only cast his Eye upon one stragling Passage that was casually cast in upon another Man's Cause as he has done out of the 7 th Book and 6 th Chapter for that is all that he cites out of Facundus in the Cause of Theodorus But it was wisely done to take so little notice of that acute Writer that has for ever bafled the Cause of the tria Capitula and as he was never answer'd then so I am sure he never can be now I mean as to the main design of his Discourse abstracted from his African heat that for a time run him beyond his Argument into a needless Schism As for that part o◠the Argument against Theodorus that he was put out of the Dypticks of his own Church I answer that it is certain that he was kept in all Theodoret's time i. e. to the year 457. but when he was put out and by whom is uncertain and it is very probably conjectur'd by the learned Jesuite Garnerius that it was done by Petrus Fullo and the Eutychians in the Reigns of Basiliscus or Zeno when all things were in confusion and the Eutychians under the Conduct of Fullo committed whatever Disorders they pleased and then it was that they might with ease suppress the old Dypticks and in their room coin new ones and so put out Theodorus that they accused of Nestorianism and put in Cyril whom the Eutychians boasted to be Head and Father of their Party The only proof against Theodoret is taken from his Writings and Actings against St. Cyril in opposing his 12 Anathema's But this as I have shewen above is founded upon meer mistake as if his Zeal in the case had been ingaged in behalf of the Nestorian Heresie whereas it was only levell'd against the Bigotry of Cyril in imposing his own nice Propositions upon the Catholick Church And when Cyril recall'd them or rather let them fall they were friends and Theodoret was as ready to anathematise the Nestorian Heresie as himself ever was in the greatest heat or huff of the Controversie And the case of Ibas was the same nothing but his zeal against the rigor of Cyril's Anathema's as is evident from the whole Tenor of the Epistle it self And therefore in the Result of all I cannot but think that this packt Council and so it was would have done better to have let these Men lie quiet in their Graves when they had been Canonically discharged upon fair Trial by the great Council of Calcedon though they had been guilty of those mis-prisions of Heresie for which their Ashes were now arraign'd and condemn'd But yet when a needless Decree was made against them I cannot but think too that the dissenting Bishops would have been much better advised to let it pass rather than to have raised a Schism in the Church about it And so as far as we can find by the Records of the Church the Illyricans and Africans did in a short time though the Schismaticks in the Western Church kept up the separation with great zeal and fury into after-ages And thus having given a true and impartial account of this Transaction of Justinian that created him so many enemies both in his own time and afterward as long as the unhappy Schism lasted I now come to a particular Examination of the several Accusations against him by the supposed Procopius but real Alemannus And when I have vindicated this greatest of Princes from their unmannerly slanders it will be time to put a Conclusion to this work and to end it with his life because with it ends the Body of the Imperial Law § XXIV And though this may at first sight seem to be no more then a private Controversie concerning the reputation of one man that has been dead above this 1200 years and so at best but an entertainment of curiosity rather then any useful enquiry for the benefit of our own Age Yet granting it were so it is a duty that all men owe to those great Persons that in their times were Benefactors to the World Fathers and Patrons to all Posterity leaving them a better World then themselves found to preserve their Monuments from dust but much more from dirt not only to honour their names but vindicate their honours from all unworthy aspersions And if any man may challenge this respect it is Justinians right who as will appear by his Story was as great