it voideth the gifts sales and exchanges of ecclesiastical goods made by the Bishop without the subscription of his Clarks The Councill of Hispalis We decree according to the rule of the ancient fathers that none of vs presume to degrade a Presbyter or Deacon without the examination of a Councill for there are many that condemne them without discussing their causes rather by tyrannicall power then by Canonicall authoritie Manie like cases there are in which the bishop might not meddle without his Presbytery or a Synode whereof some are altered by laws some rest in force at this present Against this tyrannicall power which you mention wee repine that Bishops alone should excommunicate and depriue Presbyters at their pleasures Did you acknowledge the Canonicall authoritie of bishops we should soone conclude for the tyrannicall but vnder the shew of the one you impugne the other and when you come to redresse it you establish a plainer tyrannie in steade of it True it is that the frequencie of Synodes did first rebate the credite and decaie the vse of Presbyteries For when the bishops of eche prouince as by the generall Councils of Nice and Chalcedon they were bound met twise euerie yeere to heare and moderate Ecclesiasticall griefes and causes Presbyters were lesse regarded and lesse emploied then before Synodes as superiour Iudges entring into the examination and decision of those things which were wont to be proposed in Presbyteries And when priuat quarrels questions increasing Synodes began to be tired with continuall sitting about such matters and the bishops of most Churches to be detained from their cures and attend the debating deciding of griefs displeasures betwixt man and man the burden grew so intollerable that Synodes were forced to settle an appeale froÌ„ the bishop to the Metropolitane commit it to the care of the Primate what causes were fit for Synodall cognition The Council of Sardica If any Bishop in a rage hastily mooued against a Presbyter or Deacon will cast him out of the Church we must prouide that an innocent be not condemned and depriued the Communion All answered Let the partie so eiected haue libertie to flie to the Metropolitane of the same prouince and desire his cause to be more aduisedly heard The great Councill of Affrica finding howe troublesome it was for the bishops of that whole Region to meete and staie the hearing of all matters chose out three of euerie Prouince to end causes vndetermined and by reason they could not assemble twice a yeare for the length of the way they were contented with one full Councill in the yeere and left the causes and complaints of Presbyters Deacons and other Clergie men first to the bishops that were nearest and then to the Primate or Metropolitane of the same prouince We decree that Presbyters Deacons and other inferiour Cleargie men if in any matters they finde themselues agreeued with the iudgements of their own Bishops the Bishops that are neerest shall giue them audience And if they thinke good to appeale from them they shall not appeale to the Tribunals beyond the Seas but to the Primates of their owne Prouince euen as wee haue often decreed of Bishops These Canons did not establish but represse tyrannicall power in bishops if any did assert it and required the bishop before he proceeded against Presbyter or Deacon to take vnto him assessours of the neerest bishops such as the parties conuented should demand and if they coulde not ende the cause with the liking of both sides then the Primate to haue the hearing of it and lastlie the Councill if either parte woulde appeale from the Primate Thus did the Bishops of the Primitiue Church order the hearing of causes within their prouinces neither prowdly nor Antichristianly but in my iudgement soberly and wisely referred them from the Bishop to the Primate thereby to ripen causes and search into the trueth of eche complaint with a great deale lesse trouble and no lesse indifferencie then if it had bene immediatly brought to the Councill And were you as moderate as you be resolute you woulde perceiue what a tedious labour it is and in our State superfluous for a Synode of Bishops to sit all a yeere long hearing priuate griefes complaints and contentions If you be so desirous of it I would you were for a while fast tied to it that you might learne to be wise you would bee the willinger as long as you liued to let courts alone and spend your time better then in examinations depositions and exceptions of witnesses Howbeit in our realme vnlesse you change all your Ecclesiasticall lawes I see not how Synodes or Presbyteries should intermeddle with any such matters for how shal your Presbyters iudge by discretion or by law Your discretions I know no man so foolish that wil trust What greater tyranny iniury can be vrged on a christian realme then instede of Laws to offer the determinations of your Presbyteries Shal ech mans safetie and soule depend on your pleasures But your Presbyteries you meane shall be tied to execute the same Lawes that are alreadie settled Alas good men howe many hundred yeres will you aske before your Presbyteries in cities and villages will be able to reade them and howe many thousand before they vnderstand them Are you well in your wiâ—â—es to claime the execution of those Lawes for your Presbyteries which they neither doe nor euer will conceiue first set them to schoole and when they can reade law send them to the vniuersities and vpon their growing to such perfection that they can heare decide eche mans case by the Lawes of this realme make petition for them to haue them authorized in euerie parish insteade of the Arches If otherwise you will haue them sit Iudges in all mens cases before they can reade either Latin or Law the world will muse at your madnesse Your Bishops are no such great Lawyers And therefore they haue the more neede of Chancellors and Registers that are better acquainted with the Lawes then themselues are and as for appeales vnlesse you looke to treade gouernement vnder your feet and ouer-rule all things by the meere motions of your owne wils though they sometimes aduantage offendours yet were they prouided to protect innocents and are Christian remedies to do euerie man right that thinketh he hath wrong They doe not maintaine the Antichristian pride of bishops there can bee none other nor better waie to represse it then by appeale to bring the iudgements of all their Courts and Officers to bee tried and examined by the princes power and delegates which I trust you take to bee no tyrannie If corruption sometimes creepe in through mens fingers to bolster bad causes the Lawes are farre from allowing and I as farre from defending it What hath bene so sacred that couetousnesse hath not expugned and your Presbyteries except they consist of Angels and not of men will soone shew both what affections and
short meetings vnto the hearing and iudgement of the Metropolitane or Primate of the prouince country where y â— strifes arose The Councill in Trullo saith The things which were determined by our sacred Fathers wee will haue to stand good in all points and renue the Canon which commaundeth Synodes of Bishops to be kept euery yeere in euery Prouince where the Metropolitane shall appoint But since by reason of the inuasions of the Barbarians and diuers other occasions the Gouernors of the Church cannot possibly assemble in Synode twise euery yeere wee decree that in any case there shall be a Synode of Bishops once euery yeere for Ecclesisticall questions likelie to arise in euery Prouince at the place where the Metropolitane shal make choice The second Nicene Councill Where the Canon willeth iudiciall inquisition to be made twise euery yeere by the assemblie of Bishops in euery Prouince and yet for the misery and pouertie of such as should trauell the Fathers of the sixt Synode decreed it should be once in the yeere and then things amisse to bee redressed we renue this later Canon insomuch that if any Metropolitane neglect to doe it except he be hindered by necessitie violence or some other reasonable cause he shall be vnder the punishment of the Canons The Council of Affrica The decrees of the Nicene Councill did most plainely leaue both inferiour Clerkes and Bishops TO THEIR OVVNE METROPOLITANES They did wisely and rightly perceiue that all causes ought to be ended in the places where they did first spring for they dâ—d not thinke any Prouince shoulde bee destitute of the grace of the holy Spirit whereby iustice shoulde bee prudently discerned constantly pursued by the Priests of Christ specially when as euery man hath libertie if he find himselfe grieued with the censure of those that examine his cause to appeale to the Synodes of the same Prouince or to a general Council And againe It hath pleased vs that Presbyters Deacons and other inferiour Clergie men if they complaine of the iudgements of their owne Bishops shall be heard by the Bishops adioyning And if they thinke good to appeale from them let them not appeale but either to the Synodes of Africa OR TO THE PRIMATES of their owne Prouinces So the Council of Sardica If a Bishop in a rage wil by and by cast a Presbyter or Deacon out of the Church we must prouide that being innocent he be not condemned nor depriued the communion Al the Bishops answered Let him that is eiected haue liberty TO FLIE TO THE METROPOLITANE of that Prouince The Emperor confirmed the same If the Bishops of one Synode haue anie matter of variance betwixt themselues either for Ecclesiastical right or any other occasions first the Metropolitane with other Bishops of that Synode shall examine and determine the cause and if either part dislike the iudgement THEN THE PATRIARKE of that Dioecese shall giue them audience ACCORDING TO THE ECCLESIASTICALL CANONS AND OVR LAVVES neither side hauing libertie to contradict his iudgement But if anie of the Cleargie or whosoeuer complaine against his Bishop for anie matter LET THE CAVSE BE IVDâ—ED BY THE METROPOLITANE answerable to the sacred Rules and our Lawes And if any man appeale from his sentence let the cause be brought TO THE ARCHBISHOP Patriarke of that Dioecese and he according to the Canons and Lawes shall make a finall end So that not Antichrist but ancient Councils and Christian Emperours perceiuing the mightie troubles and intolerable charges that the Bishops of euery prouince were put to by staying at Synodes for the hearing and determining of al priuate matters quarrels occurrent in the same Prouince and seeing no cause to busie and imploy the bishops of the whole world twise euerie yeere to sit in iudgement about petite and particular strifes and brables till al parties were satisfied but finding rather that by that means all matters must either be infinitely delayed or slenderly examined and hastily posted ouer as well the Princes as the Bishops not to increase the pride of Archbishops but to settle an indifferent course both for the parties and the Iudges referred not the making of Lawes and Canons but the execution of them alreadie made to the credite and conscience of the Archbishop And though the Fathers leaue an appeale either to the Councils or to the Primates of euerie Nation and Countrie yet the Emperour seeing howelong causes woulde depend before Councils coulde duelie examine and determine them and that to bring all priuate matters from Prouinciall Synodes to Nationall Councils were to breede a worse confusion then the former was decreed that all appeales should go to the Archbishop If you murmure at this alteration first established by the Romane Emperours and stil continued by the Lawes of this realme now in force remember how vnreasonable and intolerable a matter it were for al the bishops of this realme to assemble and at their owne charges to stay the hearing examining and sentencing of all the doubts wrongs quarrels and contentions which al the Consistories throughout England at this day do handle and determine Did you exclude matters of tithes testaments legacies contracts marriages and such like which the ancient Lawes of all Nations commit to episcopall audience and reserue onely matters of correction for Synodes see you not by experience how long causes by reason of the number and weight of them depend in the Arches in the Audience afore the high Commission though the Iudges thereof sit all the yeere long at the dayes prefixed without intermission were it not a proper peece of work for your pleasures to bring all the pastours of this land to keepe continually in one place and to doe nothing else but attend for appeales that must and woulde bee sent from all the shires and quarters of this realme who shoulde teach and administer the Sacraments to the people in the meane time who shoulde defray the expences of so many hundred pastours as are not able to maintaine their families at home and themselues abroade who shall instruct them in the knowledge of the Lawes without which they shalldoe more wrong then right How long will it be afore so great a number or the most part of them concurre in one minde to conclude euerie cause that is brought vnto them And when all these inconueniences be endured and absurdities digested to what purpose since euerie man may presently appeale from them to the Princes power and delegates If Synodes were supreme Tribunals though it were not worth their paines and expences yet they shoulde ende strifes but now you would haue them waste their time spend their liuings and wearie themselues in loosing their labour whiles euerieman that liketh not their order may foorthwith appeale and frustrate their proceedings We could deuise many ways to preuent al this that you obiect if we might be suffred for we would haue standing Synodes in euery Citie that should
of Constantinople and Chalcedon supplied the places of Bishops as their Legates and substitutes which in the Council of Chalcedon is more fully expressed But what need we rip vp these things at large which pertaine not so much to our purpose we seeke nowe for the antiquitie and authoritie of Metropolitanes and those we find not onely receiued and established in the foure first generall Councils but confessed by them to haue anciently continued in the Church euen from the beginning And surely if you graunt Prouinciall Synodes to be ancient and necessarie in the Church of Christ which you cannot denie Metropolitanes must needs be as ancient and requisite without whom the Synodes of each Prouince can neither be conuocated nor moderated If to auoid Metropolitanes you would haue the prerogatiue of calling and guiding Synodes to run round by course which order you fansied before in Bishops our answere is easie we looke not what you can inuent after 1500. yeeres to please your owne humours but what maner of ecclesiasticall gouernment the Church of Christ from the Apostles times established and continued by the generall consent of the whole world and that we prooue was not onely in euery Church and diocesse to haue a Bishop chiefe ouer the Presbyters but in euery Prouince to appoint a Mother Church and Citie and the Bishop thereof to haue this honour and dignitie aboue the rest of his brethren that hee might by letters consult or call together the Bishops of his Prouince for any question or cause that touched the faith or peace of the Church and not onely moderate their meetings but execute their decrees and see them perfourmed throughout his Prouince This was the ancient and originall vse of Christes Church long before any Princes professed the trueth and when they began to vse their swordes for the doctrine and Church of Christ then did Synodes serue for the direction of Christian Princes and Metropolitanes had the execution as well of Princes lawes as Synodall decrees committed to their power and care throughout their Prouince This course if you disdaine or dislike you condemne the whole Church of Christ from the first encreasing and spreading thereof on the face of the earth to this present age and preferre your owne wisedome if it be worthie that name and not rather to be accounted selfe loue and singularitie before all the Martyrs Confessors Fathers Princes and Bishops that haue liued gouerned and deceased in the Church of God since the Apostles deaths How well the heigth of your conceites can endure to blemish and reproch so many religious and famous lights of Christendome I knowe not for my part I wish the Church of God in our dayes may haue the grace for pietie and prudencie to follow their steppes and not to make the world beleeue that all the seruaunts of Christ before our times fauoured and furthered the pride of Antichrist till in the endes of the world when the faith and loue of most men are quenched or decaied we came to restore the Church to that perfection of discipline which the Apostles neuer mentioned the auncient Fathers and Councils neuer remembred the vniuersall Church of Christ before vs neuer conceiued nor imagined We want not the witnesse of auncient Fathers and stories that reprooue the ambicious and tyrannous dominion of Metropolitanes and Archbishops Socrates saieth The Bishoprike of Rome as likewise that of Alexandria were long before his time growen frō the bonds of Priesthood vnto worldly dominion Nazianzene not onely lamenteth the mischiefs which follow these diuersities of degrees but heartilie wisheth there were no such thing that men might be discerned onely by their vertues His words are worth the hearing For this presidencie of Bishops all our estatetottereth shaketh for this the endes of the earth are in a ielousie and tumult both sencelesse and namelesse for this we are in danger to be thought to be of men which in deed are of God and to loose that great and newe name Would God there were neither prioritie of seate neither superioritie of place nor violent preheminence that we might be discerned onely by vertue But the right hand and the left and the midst the higher and lower seate the going before and going euen with haue to no purpose done vs much hurt and cast many into the ditch and brought them to be goates and those not onely of the inferiour sort but euen of the shepeheards which being masters in Israel knew not this You may soone find of the auncient Fathers that misliked the contention ambition and pride of many Bishops in the Primitiue Church but any that misliked their calling you cannot finde The sharper they were in reproouing their vices the sounder witnesses they are in allowing their office If either Socrates or Nazianzene had opposed thēselues against the iudgement of the Nicene Council yea against the whole church of Christ before after them their credites would not haue counteruailed the weight of that antiquitie authoritie which the others caried but in deed neither of thē dispraiseth the wisedom of the Council or custome of the church only they taxe the vices of some persons ambitiō of some places which not content with the christian moderation of their predecessors daily augmented their power and their pride by all meanes possible Socrates saith the bishops of Rome and Alexandria were growen beyond the limits of their Episcopal function 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vnto power dominion The fault he findeth in that place with Celestinus bishop of Rome was for taking from the Nouatians their churches and compelling their bishop to liue at home like a priuate man But herein Socrates leaned a litle too much in fauour of the Nouatians to mislike more then he sheweth cause why Would God the bishop of Rome had neuer worse offended then in so doing He toucheth Cyrillus bishop of Alexandria with like words for the same cause how iustly let the wise iudge If otherwise either of them aspired aboue the compasse of their calling I am farre from defending any pride in them or in whomsoeuer Nazianzene lighted on very tempestuous troublesom times heresie so raging on the one side discord afflicting the Church on the other that he thought best to leaue all and betake himselfe to a quiet solitarie kind of contemplation Of the councils in his time he saieth I am minded if I must write you the trueth to shunne all assemblies of Bishops because Ineuer sawe a good euent of any Councill that did not rather encrease then diminish our euils Their contention and ambition passeth my speach not that hee condemneth all Councils for what follie had that bene in so wise a man but he noteth the diseases of his time the Church being so rent in pieces vnder Valens that it could not be restored nor reformed in many yeeres after Euen so in the wordes which you alleage he traduceth not the vocation or