reasonably be doubted but that in all times those have been Examin'd in the Church which were to Labour for her Instruction and Edification and which were to serve in Preaching the Word and Administring the Sacraments I grant this Examination may differ according to the diversity of Places and Persons which were to do the Office of Examiners some doing it with more Exactness and Severity and others with more Mildness and Charity and I can't tell if ever there has been seen on this Subject a more strict and exact establishment than that which our Discipline doth prescribe Whatever it is it is most certain that is That the Examination of Life and Doctrine however 't was perform'd always preceded Ordination The 19th Canon of the 1st Council of Nice the 12th of that of Laodicea and the 1st and 4th of Carthage ordaining it should be so although the latter makes it more ample than the two others and declares distinctly the Questions which were to be made and the Articles upon which those were to be Interrogated which were to be called to be Bishops and I make no question but 't was with regard to this Examination That Gregory the first condemn'd in his Pastoral Part. 1. c. 1. T. 1. Paris 1586. The temerity of those which being ignorant and destitute of knowledg would presume to take on them the Office of Pastors never considering that the Conduct of Souls is the Art of Arts That is to say the Noblest and most Excellent of all the Sciences and withal the most Difficult the most Intricate and most Laborious and by consequence requires more Study and Care than any other whatsoever What a shame would it be for a Pastor to speak yet with the same St. Gregory Part. 2. cap. 11. in the same Treatise If he should go about to learn in the time that he should resolve the difficulties should be propos'd to him Whereas he ought always to be ready to give to Believers the satisfaction which they desire upon things which concern Conscience and Salvation This laudable Custom continued a long while after the Death of Gregory but since the Ninth Century the Examination of Pastors was insensibly brought to so mean a State that there needed not much Learning to Answer the Questions that were propos'd And to conclude The greatest part of the Vocation and Consecration of those to whom the Care and Conduct of Souls was committed consisted only in Shew and Ceremony or at least so little heed was taken of their Judgment and Capacity that there was seen to grow in a little time from a practise so different from that of the Primitive Christians that gross Ignorance which was the Spring and Cause of most part of the Evils and Disorders which have befaln the Western Church Not but that several Rules have been made to redress this great Mischief but it had got too deep root Besides Favour and Authority had a greater share in these promotions than the Glory of God and the Instruction of the People especially the Power of the Bishops of Rome who by degrees had gain'd to themselves the greatest part of Ecclesiastical Power bethought themselves about the XI Century to cause to be demanded or demanded themselves of the Bishops which were Examined and in the very moment of their Examination if they did not promise subjection and fealty in all things to St. Peter Tom. 10. Probl. Pat. p. 107. and to his Church to his Viear and to his Successors as appears by the Roman Order which in all likelihood was writ about that time and where is to be seen at this day amongst the Questions made to the Bishop which was Examin'd those which regard the Obedience and Fidellity which I but now mentioned and there is to be seen in the Roman Pontifical Printed at Venice in the Year 1582. Page 25. the Form of the Oath they were made to take and whereunto they ingaged themselves in doing it which are things quite different from the Discipline of the Primitive Christians I know very well that about the year 722. Boniface Archbishop of Mayence made an Oath to Pope Gregory the II. at the time of his Ordination and Promotion to the Prelacy but this Oath did properly contain no more but a Profession of Faith and the Essential Duty of an Apostollical Legat and of a Vicar of the Holy See as they express it which is to make Bishops observe the Canons and to give the Pope Information of the great difficulties which is therein I know also this Prelat Assembled a Council as he recites it in his 105. Letter to the Bishop Cuthbert wherein he made alike profession to the Bishops which there assisted but besides that all this was done but only by Order of the Princes and Bishops of the Kingdom as may be gathered from the very Letter of Boniface and from the 1st Canon of the Synod of Leptines where Prince Carloman protests That by advice of the Bishops and Nobles of the Kingdom he setled Bishops in all Cities and gave them for Chief and Superiour the Archbishop Boniface Legat of the Holy See Besides this I say these Examples now alledged went no farther if my memory fail me not before the time I mention VI. Him whose Ordination shall be signified to the Church shall Preach the Word Three several Sundays in publick but not Administer the Sacraments nor Celebrate Marriage in presence of all the People that they may observe his manner of Teaching The said People being expresly warn'd That if there be any one that know any just cause wherefore the Election of him so signified may not be fully ratified or that he be not liked of they may come and make it known to the Consistory who will patiently hear any one's Reasons to judge of the whole The silence of the People shall be look'd upon as a full consent But if there be murmuring and that the Party named is liked of the Consistory and not of the People or the major part of them his admission shall be deferred and the whole shall be reported to the Colloqui or the Provincial Synod to discern as well the Justification of the Person named as of his Reception and altho' the Person named was there justified yet he shall not be impos'd as a Pastor on the People contrary to their desire nor so much as to the dislike of the greatest part of them nor the Pastor in like manner against his will to the People and the difference shall be clear'd by order as abovesaid at the Charge and Expence of the Church which shall demand it CONFORMITY Although a Minister might be judged capable by the Synod or the Colloqui which have Examin'd him That is not sufficient to Establish him It is moreover requisite that the Flock that is appointed for him be satisfied with his Preaching therefore he is obliged to Preach Three several times before he receives the Imposition of Hands to the
endeavoured to be inspir'd in Believers amongst us by the directions which has been made about the administration of Baptism and the Celebration of the Lord's Supper There has no less care been had in preserving the Holiness of Matrimony from whence has been removed all manner of filthiness and impurity and all imaginable precaution used to render it legitimate To conclude As for the Advertisements which regard particular persons it has been made known to all the world that nothing else was intended but to dispose Christians to Piety and Holiness and generally to all Virtues which are worthy the name they bear and of the Religion they profess Behold here the substance of our Discipline which how innocent soever it be nevertheless has found adversaries who being animated with a spirit contrary to that of Christianity have traduc'd it and still daily rail against it declaiming against it in their Pulpits endeavour to render it odious by the calumnies they accuse it of and by the unjust reproaches they load it with as if those which composed it and which have reduced it to the form wherein we find it had no other design but to open the door to Licentiousness to foment Vice and to incourage Debauchery and Excess but let them say what they list God which bringeth to light the secrets of all hearts will be the Judge of our Innocence and will one day cover with confusion and shame those which so cruelly censure and injure us Nevertheless I trust with the blessing of his Grace that the reading of this Treatise will better inform them and that finding therein an intire Conformity betwixt our Discipline and that of the Primitive Christians they shall be forc'd to change their notes lest that condemning the one they also condemn the other they resemble one another too much not to approve and like of both 'T is true that the better to discern this resemblance Conscience must be consulted silence must be imposed on the Passions and all prejudice which blinds our sight and darkens our judgment must be laid aside by this means the Conformity here proposed will be easily discerned and having discovered it they will declare for us for there would be no reason to make that pass for blasphemy in our mouths which was esteemed Oracles in the mouth of the ancient Fathers neither to reject this rule of our conduct seeing it is the same that theirs was It is what I undertake to prove in this Book and to make the thing the more evident I have examined from first to last all the Articles one after another that none might think I had a design to cast a mist over the Eyes of the Readers in establishing a Conformity in too large and general a way and that to save the credit of our Discipline I would not descend to a particular search and examination In effect the first thing I do is to produce the Text of each Article then I cite the Decrees of Councils and Testimonies of Fathers as much as may be necessary to justifie the resemblance which is in dispute from this Article I pass to another and so go on unto the last and I can say with a safe Conscience that in this work I have not used fraud nor artifice that there will be seen throughout the whole Book a great deal or plainness and if in some parts more of art and skill be required I am perswaded that there never will be cause to desire more of fidelity because I had so particular a view of resembling these two Disciplines and to represent so plainly the features and lineaments that the one might easily be taken for the other as it often happens to two Twins and to find in ours a true Copy of the Prototype and of the true Original Moreover I warn the Reader that having done as I have now mention'd nevertheless I have dispensed my self in reciting at large all that I alledg of Antiquity fearing to deform the Edition because the whole Work is but a continued tissue of Canons and Testimonies therefore I have only done it when I thought it necessary and in those places which absolutely requir'd it Secondly The Reader may take notice I do not always write the whole Decrees but just what relates to the matter I examine reserving the rest for clearing some other Article if it be proper for it And to conclude In the things which are evident and approv'd of all I have not oblig'd my self exactly in all places to cite the proper terms of Authors but just the sense and substance which nevertheless I have done in such a way that none will have cause to blame my Conduct if they will please to compare with the Originals what I have transcribed Although what I have hitherto writ be more than sufficient to stop the mouth of Calumny and to justifie our Ecclesiastical Government nevertheless there are some such untoward and cross spirits and withal so full of prejudice against us that they make pass for Criminal the things which are most innocent and easily condemn what is well worthy the Esteem and Love of the best of Men For instance If we forbid Dancing Comedies the Play of Hazard Mummeries the liberties of Shrovetide Carnivals and other Follies of this kind They say we are Leaders of the blind and they injuriously compare us to those Hypocrites in the Gospel to whom our Saviour says They strain at a Gnat and swallow a Camel never considering that in acting after this manner they lessen the Glory of the Fathers which have so highly reproved the same things and pronounced severe Censures against all those which allowed themselves in these worldly pleasures were they not blinded with prejudice they would speak after another manner and they would infer from the severity of these Laws That those which made them were guided by the Spirit of God which inspir'd them with so great a Love to Virtue and so great a Hatred to Vice That they forbid those which lived under their Authority and Conduct the use of those things which were capable to infect the purity of their Lives and to stop the course of their Piety and Sanctification But the Censurers of our Discipline stop not there they pretend it favours Libertinisme because it permits those which separate for the cause of Adultery to Marry some other person and it may be said That this sole Article opens to the Preachers of the Roman Church a wide Field to declaim against us and that they take occasion or rather a pretext to accuse us as if we were favourers of Vice and enemies of Virtue There are also amongst them persons considerable for the Rank they bear which treat us with no less injustice for that having but little or no knowledg of the Ancient Discipline of Christians they imagine it was no way different from that which they at this time follow and on this wrong ground they look on them as Libertines which teach
Superstitions of the Church of Rome And as for private Actions and the corrections proper thereunto it shall be what the Consistory shall judge convenient CONFORMITY The same may be said almost of this as I said of the Third and add withal That after our Separation from the Church of Rome for things which we do not approve we cannot with safe Conscience practice any of those things which have been the motive and cause of our Separation V. Notaries Secretaries and others who by their Offices are obliged to Sign and Seal things indifferently which are presented to them shall not be blamed for receiving Testaments passing Contracts and dispatching Letters of things which concern Idolatry nor Judges for judging causes concerning Ecclesiastical Matters and the Execution of Edicts CONFORMITY The Authors of our Discipline have prudently permitted those of our Communion in preferrence to those of the Church of Rome to do all things as may be done without prejudicing ones Conscience or indangering Salvation VI. Arbitrators shall not meddle with any Matters that concern Idolatry directly nor Indirectly CONFORMITY There needs no other Commentary on this Establishment then what I have remarked on the Tenth and Eleventh VII Advocates and Attorneys may not plead in causes which tend to taking away Preaching and setting up Mass and generally they shall not be suffered to give Council to the Romish Clergy in causes which tend directly or indirectly to the oppression of the Church and true Religion CONFORMITY There can be nothing more just than to forbid all Persons of our Religion to Establish what we do condemn and to destroy what we set up VIII Neither Bishops nor Officials nor Arch-Deacons such as they are at present have by right any Jurisdiction Ecclesiastical nor Civil Nevertheless because Believers are sometimes constrain'd to appear before them to gain their Right which otherwise were not to be obtain'd they may thither make their address being referr'd by the Magistrate to whom they are first to apply themselves CONFORMITY One may and ought also submit to all the Jurisdictions Established in a Country by Consent and Authority of the Sovereign especially when one is appointed so to do by Order of the Magistrate under this condition nevertheless That the Service of God be not thereby injur'd nor the Conscience concern'd IX Advocates that are Believers ought not to plead on any account whatsoever before Officials but only in cases for which one may prosecute their Right before them according to the precedent Article CONFORMITY This Article depending of the former its needless to look for any other Explication X. It is not a thing unlawful in it self to exercise Civil Jurisdictions and Procurations under Ecclesiastical Persons which do not at all concern that which they call the Spirituality CONFORMITY Seeing it is permitted to acknowledge the Jurisdictions of Ecclesiastical Persons on certain occasions and in the manner above established it may also be permitted to Exercise them XI Believers may not obtain nor publish Monitories nor Excommunications of the Roman Church CONFORMITY The Protestants not acknowledging the Popes Authority to be Legitimate they ought not to have recourse to it Directly nor Indirectly XII Inasmuch as it is not lawful nor expedient to go hear the Preachers of the Church of Rome or others that intrude themselves without being lawfully called the Flocks shall be hinder'd by the Ministers from going thither and those that will go shall be summon'd before the Consistory and sensur'd as the case shall require CONFORMITY It 's above Thirteen Hundred years ago that the Council of Laodicea made this Decree Those which are Members of the Church shall not be permitted to go to Church yards nor to Oratories of any Hereticks whatsoever either to Pray or to obtain the healing of any Sickness but the Believers that have so done shall for a time be deprived of the Holy Communion and upon confessing and repenting their fault shall afterwards be restor'd again XIII Lords Gentlemen and others shall be advertised not to entertain in their Houses scandalous and incorrigible Persons and especially if they suffer Priests singing Mass or discoursing to debauch their Servants or if they do anew take and receive such into their Service CONFORMITY This Establishment tends only to the purity of Life and preservation of true Religion which are things to which every body ought diligently to apply themselves XIV Fathers and Mothers shall be Exhorted to take great care in Teaching and Educating their Children which are the Seed and Nursery of the Church And those which send them to the Schools of Priests Friers Jesuits and Nuns shall be prosecuted by the severest Church Sensures Those also which put their Children to be Pages or otherwise to Lords and Gentlemen of the contrary Religion shall be advis'd how they do so CONFORMITY This proceeds from the same principle the other did and was made by the same Motives which are Motives very reasonable and very conformable to the practice of the Antient Church XV. Those who have Brothers Sisters and other Relations who having quitted Monasteries to serve God with a pure and good Conscience shall be Exhorted to assist them and to do according to the Laws of Humanity and Affinity CONFORMITY If Christians are obliged and they are obliged by the word of God and by the Ancient Cannons to exercise towards all Men Works of Charity of greater Reason should they do them to their near Friends and Relations especially when they are reduc'd to necessity for serving God with a good Conscience in departing from a Communion wherein they were fully perswaded they could not be saved XVI Ministers nor any else in the Church cannot Print Books made by themselves or others touching Religion nor any way publish them without communicating them to the Colloque or if need be to the Provincial Synod and if the matter require hast to the Accademies or to two Pastors which shall be nominated by the Synod and shall attest the Examination by them made of the said Writings CONFORMITY This Ordinance is very necessary to prevent all the evil consequences as may sometimes ensue without the Examination therein prescribed the same thing is done amongst the Papists whose works are commonly approved by some Doctors and at Rome by the Master of the Sacred Pallace See what I have said on the Fifteenth Article of the First Chapter XVII Those which take Pen in hand to treat the Histories of the Holy Scriptures in Meter are advertis'd not to mix therein any Poetical Fables and not to attribute to God the Name of false Gods and not to add nor diminish to the Holy Scriptures but to keep as near as may be to the Stile of it CONFORMITY This Article will find it self sufficiently explain'd by the things I have remarked on the Twelfth Article of the First Chapter whether I refer the Reader XVIII The Books of the Bible whether Cannonical or Appocriphal shall not be transformed into Comedies nor
end that if his way of Preaching please the People he may be confirm'd in his Ministry but on the other hand if all the People or the major part of them declare That they are not satisfied with his Preaching and that his Teaching is not to their liking Our Discipline doth very prudently Order that all shall surcease In effect as a Minister cannot be forced to yield his Service to a Church for the which he has no inclination so in like manner a Church cannot be obliged to make use of the Ministry of a Man whose Conduct and Preaching is not acceptable It is a kind of Wedlock which requires the reciprocal liking of both Parties Tom. 1. Orat. 8. p. 148. Paris 1630. There is nothing more firm and profitable said to this purpose Gregory Nazianzen than to receive freely the oversight of those you receive as your Teacher or Guide and see here the Reason he alledges for it Our Law saith he speaking of the Canons of the Church requires not that People should be led by force it desires that all should be done of free-will and without constraint And because it often happens that Ministers give no cause on their part for the refusal made of their Ministry by the Churches although 't was appointed for them and that this refusal has no other ground but the humour of an inconstant People the Ancient Canons have provided in declaring that these Pastors shall partake of the Honour of the Office and Function of a Minister and that the Provincial Synods shall provide them some settlement elsewhere The 18th Canon of the Council of Antioch in the Year of our Lord 341. is clear in the Case If a Bishop go not to the Church for which he was Consecrated and that it don't happen through his fault but by the opposition of the People or for some other subject for which he is not the Cause Let him partake of the Honour and of the Ministry provided he causes not any trouble to the Church whither he retires and let him take what the Synod of the Province shall judge convenient All the difference there is to be seen betwixt this Canon and the Article of our Discipline is That then the Pastors which were sent to the Churches had already received Ordination whereas amongst us it is to be receiv'd in the Church it self whither one is sent Nearer to which there cannot a greater Conformity be desired The 36th Canon of those father'd on the Apostles prescribes in effect the same as that of Antioch After all by this Order of the Canons Pastors could not be imposed on the Churches against their liking so it is that Pope Celestin writes in the 5th Century to the Bishops of the Provinces of Vienna and of Narbona Let no Bishop be given to those which oppose his Establishment Tom. 1. Conc. Gall. p. 57. and let the consent of the Clergy and People be first had to know if they desire to have him for their Pastor Leo the 1st Successor to Celestin after Sixtus the 3d writes near hand the same to Anastatius Bishop of Thessalonica p. 84. c. 5. Lyon 1652. and pretends That the Bishop be desired by the Clergy and the People and that without it he ought not to be sent fearing lest the People having received against their will a Bishop that they had no liking to might slight or hate him and not being able to have him they desired to have they out of measure decay in Piety and Religion The 5th Council of Orleans in the Year 549. renews in the xi Canon the Ancient Decrees and pronounces Sentence of Deposition without hope of Restoration against those which intrude into the Ministry any other way and that do by violence usurp the Conduct of a Church against the Will of the Clergy and People whereof it is compos'd and without having been called unto it by any lawful Ordinance And the 3d of Paris Assembled Anno Dom. 557. Emplies also to this same effect Ibid. The 8th Canon contained in terms no less strong than that of Orleans There would never be an end should one undertake to cite all the Testimonies of the Ancients touching the part Believers had in Election of their Conducters for besides what I have hitherto writ there are a great many proofs of this Truth For instance L. 6. c. 43. p. 245. That which is said by Cornelius Bishop of Rome in Eusebius of the Ordination of Novatian unto the Office of Priest for 't is easily collected out of this Relation That the People were wont to give their Voices and Consent in these occasions The Fathers of the 1st Council of Nice speak fully of the Choice of the People Apud Theodor. l. 1. c. 9. Ibid. 1.20 p. 50. in the Letter which they wrote to the Church of Alexandria The Emperor Constantine writing to those of Nicomedia he says That 't is in their power to make choice of what Pastor they please and that it depends freely of their Judgment The Council of Calcedon in the xi Action speaking of the Church of Ephesus saith Tom. 3. Concil p. 410. 462. That a Bishop shall be given them as shall be Elected by the consent of all those which he is to feed And in the 16th Action there is also mention made of the suffrage of the People Those that will take the pains to read the 20th Chapter of the 4th Book of Theodoret's Ecclesiastical History the 15th of the 5th Book of that of Socrates the 19th of the 8th of Zozomen the 12th of the 2d of that of Evagrius with the 67th and 76th of Synesius will find several Examples of the Practice which I Examine The IX Century affords us a Treatise expresly about Elections of Bishops written by Florus Deacon of the Church of Lyons the which is contain'd at large in the 2d Volume of the Works of Agobard Bishop of the same place of the last Edition for which we are beholding to the care of Mr. Baluze Pa. 254 c. This excellent Writer Establishes throughout the whole Treatise the Right of the People and proves That they ever had their part in the Vocation of their Pastors and that this was also practised in his time and also in the Roman Church To conclude The Vocation of a Minister was not thought Legitimate if the Voice of the Clergy and People had not interven'd which practise continued also in the XIIth Century at least in the West as appears by a Treatise of Arnulph Arch-Deacon of Siez and afterwards Bishop of Lisieuz against Gerrard Bishop of Angouleme Tom. 2. p. 343 363. for he saith in the 2d Chapter That there 's no likelihood that the Clergy nor the People had any part in his Election And in the 7th wherein he reproaches him to have usurped the Archbishoprick of Bourdeaux he speaks after this manner The desire of the People did not precede no more than the
within his Jurisdiction Tom. 5. Concil p. 328. and if there shall be any one found so doing he shall be no longer Bishop and let him only perform the Functions of Priest XXVI The Minister which shall intrude himself although he were approv'd by the People is not to be approved by the Neighbour-Ministers or others but notice must be given of it to the Colloque or Provincial Synod CONFORMITY The Council of Antioch which I have several times cited absolutely authorises this Rule in the 16th Canon which is contain'd in these words If a Bishop out of employment intrudes himself into a vacant Church and usurps the place without the Authority of a full Synod let him be turn'd out although he may be approv'd of all the People which he shall have gain'd to him The 35th Canon of the African Code contains a solemn Decree against these Pastors which having by their slights insinuated into the minds of the People intrude themselves into Churches without any lawful Vocation so far that the 3d Council of Carthage which made this Decree in the year 307. appoints that they shall be driven away by publick Authority Pope Gelasius the I st enjoins almost the same in his 9th Epistle to the Bishops of Lucania Tom. 3. Concil pag. 936. XXVII Ministers shall not be sent to other Churches without Authentick Letters or other sufficient Testimonies from the places from whence they shall be sent the which shall be deliver'd into the hands of the Consistory whither they are sent to be carefully laid up CONFORMITY Besides the Canons I have mention'd upon the precedent Article and which do alike favour this there are also others which no less confirm it for Example Those which forbid to receive to the Communion in another Church an Ecclesiastical Person which cannot shew a Certificate from his Bishop and those also which enjoin Bishops to contain themselves within their Diocesses without intruding into another's as we have made appear and as may be farther proved by the 10th Canon of the Council of Carthage which is commonly called the 1st and which was assembled under Gratus in the Year of Christ 348 or 49. Tom. I. Conc. p. 566. To all which may be added the 33d Can. of the Apostles which expresly forbids to receive any Church-man without Letters of Recommendation and without due Examination and the 41st of Laodicea In the Ancient Discipline the Letters now spoken of were called Letters of Conge whereof we will speak more on the 4th Article of the 4th Chapter XXVIII No Minister for saying he is forsaken of his Church or persecuted shall thereupon be received by another Church until that by good Certificates he shall make appear to the Synod or Colloque how he shall have behav'd and govern'd himself and the whole shall be referr'd to the prudence and discretion of a Colloque or Provincial Synod CONFORMITY This Article also tends to nothing else but to restrain the Enterprises of such Ministers as shall insinuate themselves into Churches without being called or not having good Testimonies of their behaviour and of the cause wherefore they pretend to be forsaken of their Churches therefore it is that our Discipline refers the Decision of these matters to the discretion of Synods according to the Canon of Antioch in the year 34. Can. 16. XXIX When a Minister finds himself destitute of a Church having duly obtain'd leave and his discharge from that which he formerly served it belongs to the Colloque or Provincial Synod to provide for him in a months time and if in that time he be not provided for by the Synod of the Province or Colloque he shall be at his own liberty to provide for himself of a Church any where else without the Province where God shall enable him according to the Rule of the Discipline CONFORMITY This Rule intimates something more than the former for it speaks of Ministers destitute of a Church after having obtain'd License from those they served and of having for good and sufficient Causes been remov'd and who nevertheless are not suffer'd to settle in any other but by Authority of the Colloques and Synods according to the Ancient Discipline XXX Power is given to Provincial Synods to change Ministers for certain Considerations their Churches being heard and their Reasons well and duly examin'd but in case of Discord all shall be determin'd at a National Synod until which time nothing shall be innovated CONFORMITY The translating of Pastors from one Church to another has been strictly prohibited in the Ancient Church by reason of Abuses which have been therein committed and because these Translations were commonly the effect of Ambition and Covetousness for seldom any was translated from a greater to a less Church but frequently and almost always from a less to a greater the 15th Canon of the 1st Council of Nice the 21st of that at Antioch in the Year 341. the 1st of the Synod of Sardis in the year 347 and several others prohibit these sorts of changes which have no other motive as the Fathers of Sardis say but covetousness ambition and a desire to domineer Nevertheless all these Prohibitions has not hindered but several Bishops have been transferred from one Church to another Lib 7. c 35 36 37. Socrates in his Ecclesiastical History recites a great many Examples of these Translations made before and after the Council of Nice Pope Boniface at the beginning of the Fifth Century established Perigenes Bishop of Corinth Collect. Rom Part 1. p. 52. whereas before he was of Patras as appears by the Letter writ by this Pope to Rufus Bishop of Thessalonica Socrates also cites this Example But that it may not be imagin'd that all these Translations were nothing but the ill effects of the relaxation of the Discipline of the ancient Christians and that they were not countenanc'd by the Authority of some Canon it is to be observ'd there were some occasions wherein these changes were allowed as for example for the greater edifying of the Church in such a case it was permitted to translate a Pastor from one Church to another provided it was done by consent of the Synod as our Discipline doth prescribe The 14th of the Canons attributed to the Apostles explains it self after this manner It is not permittâ—â— for a Bishop to leave his Church to go to another altho he should be desired and invited thither by a great many unless there be some great reason that obliges him to it as that his Preaching might there tend to greater Edification and there cause a greater growth of Piety neither yet ought he to do it of his own accord but by the Exhortation and Judgment of several Bishops The fourth Council of Carthage assembled in the year 398 made a like Ordinance to that in the 27 Can. for having prohibited to go by ambition from one Church to another it adds That if the benefit of the Church be advanced thereby it may
be done by approbation of the Synod which shall put another in the place of him they send away Thence it is that Pope Gellasius the first doth not always simply condemn these Translations but only then when they are made without cause Hinemar Archbishop of Rhemes in the Ninth Century authorizes these Changes when there is good cause for them or necessity and that 't is done by Order of the Synod and he also produces sundry instances of this practise I do not mention the first Epistle of Pelagius the second who establishes or rather approves for the like motives these kind of Translations because I am perswaded 't is false and spurious XXXI When a Minister is persecuted or for some other cause cannot exercise his Office in the Church whereunto he was appointed he may be sent elsewhere by the said Church or an exchange shall be made of him for some other for a time by the consent and good liking of both the Churches But if the Minister will not submit to the judgment of both Churches he shall impart the reasons of his refusal to the Consistory and there it shall be judged if they are sufficient and if they are not found to be so and that yet the Minister persists to refuse the said Office the difference shall be transferred to the next Provincial Synod or to the Colloque if the Churches are of one and the same Colloque CONFORMITY The ancient Christians which had foreseen the inconvenience which regards our Discipline in this Article have made divers Rules to remedy it In the year of our Lord 347 the Council of Sardis in these terms set down the words of their last Canon If violence be done to a Bishop and that he be cast out unjustly through malice for the Discipline he has exercised or for the Catholick Faith which he confessed or for the truth which he defended and that being innocent and flying from danger he comes to another Church let him not be hindered to abide there until such time as he can return and that an end be put to the trouble which he suffers for it would be cruel not to receive with all humanity and good will him which suffers persecution 〈◊〉 20. The Council of Chalcedon which forbids to quit the Church one has served in from the first time of ones promotion Excepts those which having been constrained to forsake their Country have passed into another Church according to which Gregory the First established a certain Bishop call'd John which had been driven away from his Church by the Enemy which had taken possession of the place I say he setled him in another on condition to return back to his former Church as soon as it recovered its ancient liberty It was also in the same manner he served Agnellus Bishop of Fundi which upon a like occasion he preferred to the Church of Terracina the same was practised in France in the IX Century in regard of Actard Bishop of Nants the City having been sack'd and plundered by the Brittans and Normans he was made Archbishop of Tours as Hinomar affirms who lived in that time and at large relates the History in his 45 Epistle which we cited on the foregoing Article and all that he blames in Actard is That he would have held both Churches of Tours and Nants contrary to the prohibition of the Council of Chalcedon excepting this he approves that when a Pastor is persecuted and driven from his Church he should be provided of another The Frier Blastares is of the same judgment and he supports it by the 13 and 22. Canons of the Council of Antioch in Syntagm Lett. A. Cap. 9. pag. 22. XXXII Ministers may with their liking be lent by the Consistory as the Edification of the Church shall require but the Loan shall not be made without the advice of two or three Ministers or of the Colloque if it be for more than six Months CONFORMITY St. Paul saith Charity is the bond of perfectness and all those of one Communion being to be united by this Sacred Bond they are bound in conscience upon all occasions to shew reciprocal marks of sincere and true love and because there are none more sensible than those which have for their scope and aim our instruction and consolation they cannot be mutually refus'd without violating the Laws of Christian Charity It was by such a principle that when there was among the Primitive Christians any Church destitute of a Pastor That next unto it was obliged to take care and visit it from time to time to impart unto it Instructions and Consolations There are several Prescriptions to this purpose in the Monuments of Ecclesiastical Antiquity particularly in St. Gregory's Epistles and all these Rules in effect amount to what 's here prescrib'd in our Discipline XXXIII Ministers lent when the time for which they were lent is expired they shall return to the service of the Churches from whence they went CONFORMITY When a Church for some time borrows the Ministry of a Pastor which is setled in another Church which consented to this Loan there 's no need to doubt but that when the time of Loan is expired he may re-enter into the Church which lent him and which in lending him did not disclaim their Right in him In the Primitive Church at the very instant a Flock was provided of a Pastor he that visited it in the time of its Widowhood that is to say whilst 't was without a Conductor returned no more to it and exercised the Functions of his Ministry no where but in his own Church XXXIV If in one year after the time of Loan is expired the Church don't re-demand its Pastor he shall belong to the Church which borrowed him always provided the Minister willingly consents thereunto but if he be not willing he shall submit to the direction of the Colloque or Synod of the Church to which he had been lent And this rule also shall be in force for the Ministers which by reason of Persecution shall flye to other Churches and the persecution ceasing not being demanded by their former Churches in a years time the which shall commence after the warning which shall have been given to the said first Churches by the said Ministers CONFORMITY Because it may so sall out that a Church which shall have lent one of her Ministers does not recall him after the Expiration of time for which he was lent no difficulty is made of translating him wholly to the Church which had borrowed him the silence of the other being then look'd upon as a kind of Consent Which also is to be appli'd to those which joining themselves to other Churches by reason of Persecution are not redemanded by theirs when the Persecution is over for on these occasions it is as much as if they had granted unto them those Letters of Congé which the Ancients called Dimissoria's with the which a Church-man could serve in another Church in
it in due form and with the leave of the Churches which called them to this Employment VIII Neither Deacons nor Elders can expect Superiority or Dominion one over another whether it be in being nominated to the People or in taking place or giving their judgment or any thing else relating to their office CONFORMITY If Ministers cannot pretend precedency one of another as we have fully shewed on Art 16. of Chap. 1. It would not be reasonable that Elders and Deacons should pretend any Soveraignty over their Companions and Equals IX The Elders and Deacons shall be deposed for the same causes as the Ministers of the Word of God in their degree It being condemned by the Consistory if they appeal they shall remain suspended from their Offices until things are determined by a Provincial Colloque or Synod CONFORMITY The Deacons and Elders making up with the Ministers one Body that is to say one Consistory and sharing with them the care of conducting the Flocks it is just they should be punished with the same pains as the Ministers when they commit the same Offences whereof we have treated at large on Articles the 47. and 49. of Chap. 1. to which I refer the Reader X. The restitution of Deacons and Elders which have been deposed shall not be done but in the same manner as the restoring of deposed Ministers is done CONFORMITY This Article is a necessary consequence of the former for if the Elders and Deacons are deposed for the same reasons as Ministers it is evident that the restitution ought to be made in the same manner Read what has been said on the 35. Art of Chap. 1. CHAP. IV. Of the Deaconry that is to say of Administring the Poor's Money by the Deacons ARTICLE I. THE Money for the Poor shall not be given out by any but by the Deacons by the Advice and Order of the Consistory CONFORMITY What I have said on the 4th Article of the 3d Chapter sufficeth for the explaining of this and to establish the Conformity of our Discipline with that of the Ancient Churches to which may be added the Order given by Pope Gregory I. to Anthemius his Sub-Deacon That he should take care of the Poor of those places whither he sent him II. In the common Distributions 't is requisite one or two Ministers should be present if it may be conveniently but especially at passing the Accounts CONFORMITY Although I might refer the Reader for the Explication of this Article where I did for the former nevertheless I will add to what I have said some Rules which are not incoherent to the Subject we Examine for Example the 7th and 8th Canons of the Council of Gangres assembled in the Year of our Lord 325. as is commonly said but 't was later where 't is forbid to dispose of the Church-Revenue without the consent of the Bishop or of him he has appointed to distribute these Alms. The 24th and 25th Canons of the Synod of Antioch Anno Dom. 341. Tom. 2. Conc. Gall. c. 47. p. 146. Orders the Bishop to make this distribution by advice of the Priests and Deacons Charlemain's Capitulary in the year 789. renews the prohibition of the Council of Gangres III. The People shall have notice of Passing the Accounts that so every one that please may be there present as well to discharge those who disburse the Money as to make known to every body the Necessities of the Church and the Poor thereby the more to incourage people to contribute towards their relief CONFORMITY St. Austin practis'd something of this kind as our Discipline doth here prescribe for when the Church-stock fail'd he gave notice to the Christian People that he had not wherewithal to supply the wants of the Poor which in all likelihood he would not have done if on the other hand he had not given them an account how he had dispos'd of their Charity and of the Money committed to his trust Aug. Tom. 1. p. 13. and which he consign'd over to the management of Persons as he deem'd fit for the purpose as is related at large by Possidonius in the 24th Chapter of his Life IV. To prevent the Inconveniences which dayly happen by Attestations given to the Poor every Church shall use their utmost endeavour to maintain their own Poor and in case any one for his necessary Affairs was forc'd to Travel Ministers shall in their Consistories Examine if the Cause be just and in that case shall give them recommendatory Letters to the next Church in the direct way from the place whither they go expressing the Name Age Stature Complexion the Place whither they go the cause of their Journey and the Assistance which has been given them and the date of the Day and Year shall not be omitted Which Letters the Churches shall keep to whom they were directed and shall give them others to the next Church And all Attestations before granted shall be Void and Null CONFORMITY It cannot be denied but great abuses are committed and that at all times there has been abuses committed in the Church upon account of Attestations and Testimonies granted to those of the same Communion which desire to go from one place to another to the end they might be known to be Members of the same Church and to be assisted in case of necessity The Primitive Christians endeavour'd to remedy these inconveniencies two ways The first By ordering that each Church should maintain their own Poor The second In using a great deal of caution in granting these Attestations which is exactly the two things prescrib'd by our Discipline As to the former of these two Means Can. 85 101. Tom. 1. Concil p. 730. the 4th Council of Carthage in the Year 398. declares That the Poor and Ancient people of the Church ought to be more assisted than any others and that young Widows who are weak of Body should be maintain'd at the charge of the Church to which they belong In the 2d Council of Tours assembled An. Dom. 567. the 5th Canon's Title is That each City shall maintain its Poor and runs in these terms That each City doth furnish according to its ability Provisions sufficient to all those of its Inhabitants which are poor and incommoded and that as well the Curates of Villages Tom. 1. Conc. Gall. p. 332. as all the Farmers which dwell there do each nourish their own Poor to the end they may not stray and wander about to other Towns In the 3d Council of the same place assembled in the Year 813. there are several directions in this matter for the Fathers command in the 11.16 36. Canons Tom. 2. Conc. Gal. pag. 297 298 302. That Bishops shall be permitted to take out of the Church stores according to the Canonical Rules in presence of the Priests and Deacons what shall be necessary to maintain the Family and Poor of the Church That the Tythes which shall be given to particular Churches
we Examine That of Charanton I say in the year 1623. enjoins Exactly to Examine as well the Attestations as those which have them to have from their own mouth testimony of their Religion and Instruction As for the Order our Discipline prescribes to give and renew from Church to Church the Recommendatory Letters it is the same in substance of that establish'd by the Synod of Sardis An. Dom. 347. in the 8 9 10 and 11. Canons and particularly in the last where it appoints Bishops which are on the way to Examine these Letters of Recommendation and to ask of those which have them the Cause and Reason of their Travelling or to subscribe their Letters if they are just and to refuse them Communion if they have fraudulently got them CHAP. V. Of CONSISTORIES ARTICLE I. IN each Church there shall be a Consistory compos'd of persons which shall have the conduct of it to wit of Pastors and Elders and the Ministers in this company are to preside as also in all other Ecclesiastical Assemblies CONFORMITY From the very first Establishing of Christian Churches there was in each of them a certain number of Persons to whom the Government of it was committed and who were distinguish'd from the rest of the People by the Offices which they Exercis'd and by the choice which had been made of them for supervising the whole Flock and 't is what we call Consistory Origen calls it the Ecclesiastical Senate and makes it parallel with the Politick Senate of each City to shew that the Ecclesiastical Senate very much surpasses the other being compos'd of Persons of more virtue and knowledg than those which are Members of Politick Senates in Cities The Ecclesiastical Senate or Consistory is compos'd amongst us of Ministers and Elders and it ought not to be thought strange that we joyn Elders with the Ministers after all we have said on the 3d Chapter particularly on the 1st Article where we have at large prov'd that the Elders have had share for several Centuries in the Government of the Churches and that they in all likelihood would have still continued if the ambition of Bishops and their Clergy had not insensibly abolish'd this laudable practise The Deacon Hillary as has been shewn complained of it in his time But altho' the Elders partake with the Ministers in Governing the Flocks yet the right of precedency appertains to the Ministers therefore in these testimonies we have alledged to prove that the Church has had great advantage in the first Ages of Lay-Elders like ours they are for the most part named after the Clergy II. As for Deacons seeing the Churches for the necessity of the times hath to this day happily employed them in Governing the Church as Exercising also the Office of Elders those which hereafter shall chuse such or continue them they shall with the Pastors and Elders bear a part in the Governing the Church and therefore shall frequently be with them in the Consistory yea even at the Colloques and Synods if they are thither sent by the Consistories CONFORMITY The care of the Poor making one of the most considerable parts of the Church-Government it is with great reason we therein admit the Deacons because they were properly instituted to attend on this thing as has been above proved at large III. In places where the Exercise of Religion is not setled Christians shall be exhorted by the Colloques to have Elders and Deacons and to follow the Ecclesiastical Discipline and at the said Colloques they shall be inform'd to what Church to joyn themselves for their convenience and exercise of their Ministry from whence also they may not depart without communicating it also to the said Colloques CONFORMITY In the places where there is no publick exercise of our Religion although there are a considerable number of Families which profess it care must be taken they do not live without Discipline and to this purpose there must be Establish'd amongst them Deacons and Elders to take care of the Poor and to watch over the Life and Conversation of private persons whereof they shall give account at the Church-Consistory to the which they shall be joyn'd for the publick Exercises of Piety and the Service of God and there 's no question to be made but something of this Nature was done in the Primitive Church Apolog. p. 98. for instance in the days of St. Justin Martyr that they Assembled from the Country and Cities unto one place which sheweth plainly these Assemblies were not made every where although according to all appearance there was in all places one and the same Order for the conduct of Christians to the end they should do nothing unworthy the holiness of their Profession IV. There shall be but one Consistory in each Church and it shall not be permitted to Establish other Council for any Church-business whatever If in any Church there shall any other Council be established different from the Consistory it shall forthwith be suppress'd Nevertheless the Consistory can sometimes call to its aid such of the Church as shall be thought convenient when occasion requires and that Ecclesiastical matters be treated of only in the place where the Consistory doth Assemble CONFORMITY There was not anciently in each Christian Church any more than one Ecclesiastical Senate as we have heard by Origen and this Senate was not properly any thing else but what we call Consistory which is a company of Persons which the Church does invest with her Rights and Power to Govern the Flock V. It is in the Power of the Consistory to admit of Father and Son or of two Brothers in the same Consistory unless there was some other reason to the contrary of which the Colloque or Provincial Synod shall take cognizance CONFORMITY The Church being the Spouse of Jesus Christ and by consequence the Mistress of all the Power and of all the Ecclesiastical Authority which resides in Her as in its Fountain and in the Consistories as in Societies which she establishes for the use and exercise of this Power She may then have authoris'd the Ecclesiastical Senate and the Consistory to admit into its Body the Father and Son or two Brothers provided they are agreeable to the Church which has in general given this Power to the Consistory VI. It is also refer'd to the discretion of Consistories to call unto them young Students although they have no Office in the Church but not without weighty causes and considerations and when their Wisdom is known the said Students shall be there present not to have any voice in what Affairs shall be debated but that by their presence there they may the sooner become fit and proper to Govern the Church when it shall please God lawfully to call them thereunto Nevertheless it shall be at the Pastor's free choice to demand their Judgment to make tryal of their abilities which shall be done with great prudence and caution and promise not to make
it known abroad CONFORMITY Those whom we call Students are young Men which study Divinity and which resolve one day to exercise the Ministry of the Gospel and because this Office don't consist alone in Preaching the Word but generally in all things which one ought to do wisely to Govern the Flocks It is with great reason that under certain Conditions we suffer them to enter into the Consistories to the end they may there learn after what way they are to act when it shall please Almighty God to commit the care of some Church unto them VII A Magistrate may be called to the Office of an Elder in the Consistory provided that the Exercise of the one Office doth not interfere with the other and may not be prejudicial to the Church CONFORMITY What I have said to the 5th Article may very well be applied to this VIII The Government of the Church shall be regulated according to the Discipline as it hath been order'd by the National Synods and no Church nor Province shall make any Law but what in substance shall be conformable to the general Articles of the Discipline To this purpose the Articles of the said Discipline shall be read in the Consistories at least at the time of celebrating the Lord's Supper and the Elders and Deacons shall be exhorted to have a Copy thereof each of them to read and study it at home at leisure CONFORMITY In the Ancient Church It was not permitted to a Province much less to a particular Church to make any Constitution which was not conformable to the Canons which were the Discipline of those times contrary to which nothing was to be Establish'd especially after the Canons which compos'd this Discipline had been Authoriz'd by any Oecumenical Council as the Code of the Canons of the Universal Church was by that of Chalcedon This also shall be farther cleared by the remarks I will make on the 2d Article of the following Chapter IX The cognisance of Scandals and the censure of them appertains to the Company of Pastors and Elders and whole Consistories cannot be impeach'd nor above half However Accusations shall be of force against particular persons of the said Consistories as well Pastors as Elders admitted by the said Consistory and they being adjudg'd shall proceed on notwithstanding Appeal on admission or rejection of the said accusations CONFORMITY What I have writ on the 3d Article of the 3d Chap. serves as a Commentary on this without being necessary to say any more X. The Custom which is found to be us'd in some places of making inquest and a general censure of misdemeanours in the publick Assembly of the People and in presence both of Men and Women being condemn'd by the Word of God the Churches are advertis'd to abstain from it and to be satisfied with the Order contain'd in the Discipline as to what regards Censures CONFORMITY See what has been observ'd on the 51. Article of the 1st Chapter XI The Elders may be advertis'd not to report misdemeanors to the Consistory without great reasons for it neither shall any one be call'd to the Consistory without good cause or reason CONFORMITY The Elders having been Established to watch over the Life and Coversation of those which are Members of the Church as I have made appear there 's no question to be made but they should do it with Prudence and Charity XII In the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Discipline one shall forbear as much as possible may be as well from all formalities as from the terms commonly used in Courts of Justice CONFORMITY The Tribunal of the Church being of a very different Nature from Common-Law-Courts it is convenient the proceeding should be quite different and that in the Exercise of Ecclesiastical Discipline one should avoid as much as may be the formalities of the Bar Read the Discipline of the Primitive Christians for Example the Code of Canons of the Universal Church of which I spake just now and I am well assur'd they shall there find proceedings very different from the conduct and stile of what 's done in the Common-Law-Courts I know that the Tribunal of Bishops at this time have too great correspondence with that of Secular Courts but I know also 't was not so in the beginning and that the Ancient Christians Govern'd themselves quite otherwise XIII Believers shall be Exhorted by the Consistories yea requir'd in the Name of God to speak truth for as much as that don 't at all derogate from the Magistrates Authority as also the usual formalities in making Oath practis'd before Magistrates shall not be used CONFORMITY This Establishment has nothing in it but what is very agreeable to the use and practise of the Primitive Christians as I may prove by sundry testimonies I shall only instance in two which the Oecumenical Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon give us seeing that in one and the other Conc. Ephes p. 2. Act. 1. Tom. 2. Con. p. 264 265 Catch Acts. Tom. 3. p. 131. They Exhort and Conjure the Bishops by the Holy Gospels to speak the truth If these two Councils have made no difficulty to do so towards Bishops Wherefore should not the Ecclesiastical Synod as Origen speaks have power to do so to particular persons as occasion shall require XIV In differences which shall happen the Parties shall be Exhorted by the Consistories to be reconcil'd by all friendly means but the Consistories shall not appoint Arbitrators nor shall do the Office of Arbitrators If any of the said body are called to be Arbitrators it shall be only as a particular person and in their own name only CONFORMITY This Article is taken from the Doctrine of St. Paul 1 Cor. 6. which Exhorts Believers to compose their differences and Law-Suits in an amicable manner and to chuse out some amongst their Brethren to whose Judgments they might refer the Decision of all those things which causes debates and strife amongst them St. Chrysostom and Theodoret explaining the words of the Apostle do fully confirm what is ordain'd by our Discipline XV. Besides the Admonitions which are made by the Consistories to those as have done amiss if it so happens that greater Censure and Punishment must be us'd it shall be either Suspension or Deprivation for a time from the Holy Sacrament or Excommunication and Retrenchment from the Church And the Consistories shall be advertis'd to proceed warily and to distinguish betwixt the one and the other as also prudently to weigh and examine the faults and scandals which they shall be inform'd of together with all circumstances the better to judge what Censure it shall require CONFORMITY There is nothing more frequent nor better Established in the ancient Discipline than what ours doth here prescribe so that 't is not necessary long to insist on a matter the truth whereof it were easie to prove by a great number of testimonies were it not to spare the Reader a trouble The Primitive Christians did just as
we do they informed Sinners of their Duty they charitably represented to them their faults they applied to them fit censures they depriv'd them of participating of the Divine Mysteries they caused them to pass by certain degrees of Penance proportion'd to the greatness of their faults and when the crimes were heinous and the obstinacy stout and resolute they Excommunicated them in separating them from the Society of the faithful as persons who had made themselves unworthy of living within the pale of the Church Tertullian has in few words compris'd all this proceeding which I have now touched when describing the Assemblies of his times Apolog. cap. 39. he observes That therein was made Exhortations Reprehensions and Censures that therein were inflicted punishments that after having maturely weighed all things Judgment was given being perswaded God see them and it is saith he a great resemblance of the last Judgment if any one for his sins is deprived of the Communion of Prayer from the Assembly and from all holy intercourse Which will also appear yet more clearly if one considers that Peter Bishop of Alexandria and Martyr of Jesus Christ under Dioclesian has expressed the vertue and efficacy of the Communion Epist Canon cap. 8. by communicating in all things in Prayers in participating of the body and blood of the Lord and in the Preaching of the Word Origen has already spoke of the Ecclesiastical Synod and of those which had the care to watch over the conduct of Christians to encourage the one to do well and to exclude from the holy Assemblies those which lived ill Chap. 3. Art 3. upon which it may be noted there was two sorts of Excommunications amongst the Primitive Christians the former which was most frequent consisted in the being debar'd from the Sacraments to which sinners could not approach until after having done Penance for their sins as it happened to the Emperour Theodosius as is related by Zozomen Lib. 3. Cap. 25. for so it was that all publick sins were punished the other was a total exclusion from the Society of Believers which Tertullian expresses by Omni Ecclesia tecto Submovere XVI Suspension from the Holy Sacrament shall be used the more effectually to humble sinners and make them the more truly sensible of their offences This suspension nor the cause of it shall not be declared to the people neither also the restitution of the sinner unless it were in case they were Hereticks despisers of God Rebels to the Consistory Traytors to the Church as also such as shall be guilty of crimes worthy of corporal punishment and that bring great scandal on the whole Church as also those who against remonstrances to them made do marry to Papists Fathers and Mothers which do so marry their children Tutors Curators and others which supply the place of father and mother and do so marry their Pupils together with those which thither carry them to be Baptized or do present others to be Baptized it being necessary that all such persons altho there may be perceived in them some beginning of Repentance should speedily be deprived for some time from the benefit of the Sacrament and that the Suspension should be declared to all the People as well that they may be the more humbled and induced to repentance as to discharge the Church from all blame and reproach and also to give terror to others and make them tremble by this example to avoid the like Sins CONFORMITY There has ever in the Church a distinction been made betwixt secret sins and those sins which have been publick and scandalous in regard of the former the Church never exercised any authority for to the end she might act against sinners it is necessary that they confess their sins or that they may be convinc'd of them But because it may so happen that the sins of a private person may be known to some of the Governours of the Church and that he may not have scandalized the publick Orig. Hom. 7. in Jos pa. 185. l. 1. Aug. Ser. 16. de Verb. Do. c. 7 Tom. 10. in this case he may be censured in the Ecclesiastical Senate and if his crime deserves it may declare to him he is not in a state fit for some time to approach to the holy Communion which is just what is practised by us But when the sins are publick and scandalous we publickly suspend from the Holy Sacrament those which commit them and leave them in this state until such time that having given sufficient marks of sincere Repentance we receive them into the bosom of the Church by a publick acknowledgment of their offence which they are obliged to do in presence of all the People And herein we follow the Example of the Primitive Church Hom. 7. in Jos 21. 2. in Jud. Tom. 1. in Mat Trac 35. To. 2. which only subjected these sort of Sins to the Canons of publick Penance it is the constant Doctrine of Origen as appears in divers parts of his Writings where he formally declares that there 's only great Sins scandalous Sins which should be publickly punished and also he will have it done with a spirit of Charity and according to the Gospel precept for so 't is he explains himself in his third Homily on Leviticus Gregory of Nysse in his Canonical Letter to Letoius Can. 5 6. speaks no otherwise and tho he expresses himself in different terms from Origen yet he acknowledges that 't is only publick Sins which should pass by the degrees of publick Penance according to the Constitution of the Fathers St. Austin is no less clear herein than the two others Hom. 50. he teaches in the Book of fifty Homilies which is in the tenth Tome That when the sin is great and gives scandal to others the Sinner ought to do Penance in presence of all the Congregation especially if the Edification of the Church require it And in another of these same Homilies that is in the 27th he will have to pass by this rude and laborious Penance Murderers Tom. 10. Cap. 7. Adulterers and Sacrilegious persons And in the sixteenth Sermon on the words of our Lord he saith That the sins which are committed publickly must be reproved publickly and privately those which are committed more secretly I might add to these Testimonies what he writes in the Epistles Fifty four and hundred eight which are in the second Tome of his Works and in the 65th Chap. of his Manual to Laurence the Author of the Questions on the Old and New Testament Tom. 3. which is in the Appendix of the fourth Tome which shews he is in this of the same opinion as the true St. Austin is in explaining the 102. Question Caesarius Bishop of Arles Tom. 2. Bibl. Patr. a Writer of the Sixth Century in the first and eighth of his Homilies Pope Gregory the First in the 31. Letter of the 12th Book Isidore Bishop of
Sevil about the same time in his second Book of Sentences Chap. 20. and in the third Ch. 46. these three have followed the steps of others It is with regard hereunto that the third Council of Carthage enjoins Bishops in the fourth Century Can. 31. Tom. 1. Conc pag. 711. to prescribe to Penitents according to the nature of sins the time of penance The Jesuit Petau in the 2 3 and 10th Chap. of his 6th Book of Publick Penance acknowledges against Mr. Arnauld That it was the practise of the ancient Church where only heinous and scandalous Crimes were publickly reproved he acknowledges the same thing in his Observations on St. Epiphamus where he has a dissertation on the ancient manner of Penance Tom 2. pag. 238. on occasion of the Heresie of the Novatians which is the 59th in order Father Sirmond of the same Society speaks in the same manner in his Treatise of Publick Penance Chap. 2. 4. In the main all I have said regards the usual Excommunication of the Primitive Church of which I have treated in the precedent Article and by the Laws whereof scandalous Sinners were not admitted to the Holy Table until they had passed through all the Degrees of Penance which was then in use XVII If by such suspensions the Sinners were not reclaimed but continued obstinate and impenitent after long expectation and that they have been several times admonished and intreated proceeding shall be made against them by giving publick admonitions to the People three several Sundays being named if need be by the Minister to make them more ashamed every body advertised to pray to God for them and endeavour by all means to bring them home by repentance of their sins to prevent Retrenchment and Excommunication to which one cannot proceed without sorrow But if for all this they will not repent but persevere in their obstinacy and impenitence on the fourth Sunday it shall be publickly said by the Pastor That 't is declared to the said scandalous and obstinate persons in naming them by their Names That they are not any longer acknowledged as Members of the Church cutting them off from it in the Name and Authority of our Lord Jesus Christ and of his Church And the form of the Excommunication shall be as follows The Form of the Excommunication Brethren see here the fourth time that we declare unto you that N. for having committed several Crimes and for having scandalized the Church of God and for shewing himself impenitent and a contemner of all admonitions which have beén made unto him by the Word of God has been suspended from the Holy Supper of the Lord the which suspension and causes of it has been signified to you to the end you may join your Prayers with ours that it might please God to soften the hardness of his heart and give him true Repentance drawing him from the way of perdition But having so long time waited for him prayed and exhorted and conjur'd him to be converted to God and endeavoured all means to bring him to repentance nevertheless perseveres in his impenitence and with an incor rigible obstinacy rebels against God and tramples under foot his Holy Word and the Order he has established in his Church and glorying in his sins is cause that the Church for so long time is disturbed and the Name of God blasphemed We Ministers of the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ whom God has armed with Spiritual weapons powerful through God to the pulling down of strong holds which hold out in opposition against him to whom the Eternal Son of God has given power to bind and loose on Earth declaring that whatsoever we bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven to the end to purifie the House of God and free his Church from Scandals and in pronouncing Anathema against the wicked should glorifie the Name of God In the Name and Authority of the Lord Iesus by the advice and authority of the Pastors and Elders assembled in Colloque and of the Consistory of this Church we have Retrenched and do Retrench the said N. from the Communion of the Church we Excommunicate and remove him from the Society of the Faithful that he might be to you as a heathen and unbeliever and amongst true Christians he may be Anathema and Execrated let his Company be esteemed contagious and let his Example fill your souls with fear and make you tremble under the mighty hand of God seeing 't is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Which Sentence of Excommunication the Son of God will ratifie and make it efficacious until that the sinner ashamed and humbled in the sight of God gives him glory by his eonversion and being freed from these chains of Satan where with he is bound he bewails his sins with tears of Repentance Beloved Brethren pray unto God that he will have pity on this poor sinner and that this fearful Iudgment the which with great sorrow and sadness of heart we pronounce against him in the Name and Authority of the Son of God may serve to humble and turn into the way of truth a soul which is strayed from it Amen Cursed is every one that doth the work of the Lord negligently If there be any one that loves not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha Amen CONFORMITY Christians were not the first which inflicted the pain of Excommunication on Rebellious and Scandalous Sinners Pagans and Jews have practised the same thing I say Pagans Casar informs us in his Commentaries that the Druids in Gaul Excommunicated those which despised their Decrees and their Constitutions Lib. 6. pag. 134 135. forbidding them to approach near the Sacrifices after which they were lookt upon as impious and obstinate every one flying from their company and conversation fearing to receive some harm by infection and this punishment which was the greatest of all those they did inflict put into such a condition those which were subjected to it that they were refused the benefit of the Law altho they earnestly desired it and it also deprived them from all degree of honour As for the Jews every body knows Excommunication was in use amongst them who as 't is said had three sorts the first and slightest which they called Niddui this separated the guilty from those which were not so but for a little space and for thirty days only the second which they called Herem was attended with Anathema's and Maledictions and it was not permitted to eat nor drink with him that was so Excommunicated and 't is probable St. Paul had regard to this kind of Excommunication when he saith 1 Cor. 5.2 I write unto you that you should not eat with such a one The third kind of Excommunication was Shammatta by which was separated for ever from the Communion and Society of the Church him that was guilty Seeing then that Jews and Pagans have exercised this power methinks it would
left off as he doth testifie in his 80 Letter It may be thought that the Synod of Ries in Province had given some slight endeavour to the first practice Tom conc Gal. p. 69. Ibid. p. 74. in the year 439 when it confirms it in the Eighth Cannon but under condition that times were quiet That of Orange explains it self fuller in the year 441 Cannon 29 saying it was difficult to assemble twice a year by reason of sad and difficult times The Second thing I mean to observe is Ibid. p. 173. Ib. p. 268 284. That the Synod of Agde in Languedock made a Decree in the 71 Cannon by which it reduces these Synodal Assemblies to hold once a year and it declares in the same Cannon which is of the year 506 that it does so according to the constitution of the Fathers having respect it may 〈◊〉 to the Cannons of Orange and Ries but just now cite The 37 of the 4 of Orleans of the year 541 the 23 an◠〈◊〉 of the year 549 on the same with that of Agde 〈◊〉 â—he 18 of the 3 of Tolledo alleges for a reason in the 〈◊〉 589 the length of the way and poverty of the Churches To. 4 Conc. pa. 505 506. II. Ministers shall bring along with them one or two Elders at the most chosen by the Consistory and the said Ministers and Elders shall shew their Deputations If a Minister comes alone no heed shall be taken of the Certificates he brings along with him no more than there shall be of those an Elder shall produce if he comes alone without a Pastor which Rule shall be of force in all Ecclesiastical Assemblies If they cannot come they shall make their excuse by Letters of the which the Brethren there present shall be Judges and shall send their Memoirs signed by a Pastor and an Elder Those who shall fail of being present at Colloques and at Provincial Synods without lawful Excuse shall be sensur'd and the said Colloques and Provincial Synods may finally judge their Cause and dispose of their Persons CONFORMITY There are in this Establishment several things to be consider'd in the first place the deputing of our Elders with the Pastors to Synods which is very agreeable to the practice of the Antient Church which admitted the Layity into their Synods after the Example of the Apostles who in the Synod of Jerusalem make mention of the Church in distinguishing it not only from themselves but also from ordinary Persons which they design by the term of Elders Acts 15.22 to shew that by the Church they meant the faithful People which assisted at that Holy Assembly according to which the Fathers in the Council of Antioch distinguishes also the Churches of God Aâ—d Euseb l. â— c. 30. from Bishops Priests and Deacons in the Letter wrote to Dennis Bishop of Rome to Maximus Bishop of Alexandria and to all the Churches to inform them of the deposing of this Arch Heretick not that 't is necessary to think that the intire Churches assisted at this Council which was assembled from sundry Provinces but they assisted by some of their Body which represented them that is by some of the Body of the People But to say something more to the purpose I have shewn on the First Article of the Third chap. by Authority of Fermillian and of the African Code that the Elders such as ours were deputed to Synods with the Pastors against whom they sometimes pleaded the right of the People which deputed them The Second thing I observe on this Article is that the Deputies to Synods are obliged to be present there or to excuse themselves by Letter And if their Excuse be not sufficient they are sensur'd as shall be thought fit in the Colloques and in the Provincial Synods which have power to judge definitively of their Excuses and to dispose of their Persons which also is according to the practice of the Primitive Christians the Fortieth Cannon of the Council of Laodicea is conceiv'd in these terms The Bishops which are called to a Synod must not neglect to go thither and if any one does neglect he will condemn himself unless some Sickness doth hinder him The 19th of Calcedon requires that one should reprove in a brotherly way those which fail of coming although they are in good health and that they are hindred by any extraordinary business which might not be deferr'd In France no other Excuse will be admitted but that of Sickness as appears by a great many Cannons and amongst others by that of the First of Epaume by the 1 of the 2 of Orleans by the 80 Letter of Auitus Bishop of Vienna and by several other Decrees which I forbear to cite The Council of Agde in the 35 Cannon joyns to Sickness some command of the King next to which it deprives from the Communion of the Church till the next Synod those which have failed to be present at the former and as it deprives them for that time from the Communion of the Church it also deprives them from the Charity of their Brethren that is from the other Bishops to which the Council of Tarragona in the year 517 reduces in the VI. Cannon all the punishment of those Bishops which neglect to be present at the Synods where they have been called by the Metropolitans and excuses none but them which are hindred by Sickness The 15 of the 11 of Toledo assembled Anno 575 Excommunicates them for one year if they are not hinder'd by some Sickness or by some inevitable necessity the 76 of the African Code wills That they should be content with the Communion of their Church the V. Cannon of the Council of Merrida of which I will speak on the 10 Article of the IX chap. excuses those who are hindred by Sickness or by Order of the Prince As to what our Discipline saith That if the Pastor comes alone no heed shall be taken of the Memorials he shall bring nor of those the Elder brings if he comes without the Minister it agrees not ill with what we read in the 100 Cannon of the African Code where a Bishop complains of his Church but because the Elders the Church had deputed to defend its cause against the Bishop did not appear the Council referr'd the Judgment of this Affair to a certain Number of Bishops whereof some were nominated by the Bishop which was dissatisfied with his Flock and the rest were left to be named by the Elders although absent As for the Memorials whereof mention is made in this Article more may be seen of it in what I shall say on the Third Article of the Ninth Chapter III. Those Churches which have several Ministers shall depute them by turns to Colloques and Synods CONFORMITY This Article is grounded on that That Ministers may not pretend any Authority one over the other as I have made appear on the Sixteenth Article of the First Chapter and having no Power one
business wherefore should it not permit two Provincial Synods to choose a third to judge of their differences the First and Second Cannon of the Council of Turin in the Year 397 are yet more positive in this matter XII The Synods in each Province shall represent the Widows and Children of Ministers which died in the Service of their Church to be supported and maintained at the common charge of each Province as necessity shall require And where the Province shall be Ingrateful the Deputy thereof shall report it to the National Synod to take care therein CONFORMITY This Article is not only grounded on Christian Charity but also on the acknowledgment which the Churches owe to Ministers dead in their Service whereof they should shew the marks to their Families especially when there is occasion for it XIII Deputies of Churches shall not be gone from Synods without leave and till they carry along with them the Decisions which shall there be made CONFORMITY There are two things to be consider'd in this Article First That Deputies are not suffer'd to depart from the Synod without leave The Second Council of Arles made this Decree in its 19 Cannon Anno Dom. 452 If any one thinks he may abandon the Assembly of his Brethren before the dissolution of the Council Tom. 1. Conc. Gall. p. 105. let him know that he is deprived of the Communion of his Brethren and that he cannot be thereunto received until he be first of all absolv'd in the following Synod There may be seen in the Fourth Tome of Councils certain Fragments attributed to a Council of Sevil in Spain assembled about the time of Pope Gregory the I. in the X. of which is to be found word for word the Decree of the Synod of Arles which makes me believe that Burchardus pag. 521. from whom Garsias has taken this Cannon was mistaken when he attributed it to the Council of Sevil and I the rather believe it when I consider that the compilation of Cannons made by this Writer are full of this kind of mistakes The Fourth Council of Toledo assembled in the year 633 does defend also in the Fourth Cannon to depart from the Council until all things are decided by the major Votes and Signed by all the Bishops Tom. 4. Conc. p. 583. The Sixteenth of that of Worms of the year 868 prescribes the same thing To. 6. Conc. pag. 695. The Second thing our Discipline prescribes those which are Deputies to Synods is to carry along with them the Decisions which shall be made I find the same thing practic'd in the Antient Church in Effect it may be seen by the 29th Cannon of the First Council of Orange in the year 451 that each Bishop carried away with him a Copy of the Acts and Resolutions made in the Assembly and that the like was sent even to those as were absent to advertise them of their Duty by the Ministry of the Metropolitan and in the year 431 the First Oecumenical Council of Ephesus permitted each Metropolitan to take a Copy of the Acts whereof his Brother Bishops might have Communication by his means The Eighth Cannon where this power is granted to Metropolitans saying expresly that it is for their own surety that is to say for Conservation of the Rights of their Provinces and by consequence the Rights of all the Suffragan Bishops See what shall be said on the Tenth Article of the following Chapter XIV The Authority of Provincial Synods is inferiour to that of National Synods CONFORMITY There is no difficulty at all in this Constitution especially after what we have observed on the Tenth Article where I have prov'd by the Authority of several Cannons of Constantinople of Calcedon and the African Code that Appeals were made from Provincial Synods to those of the whole Diocess to which our National ones at this time do agree XV. Colloques and Provincial Synods shall be regulated according to the several Governments so that one may not pretend to be greater than another and for the present this shall be the Distribution of Provincial Synods 1 The Isle of France Country of Chartrain Piccardy Champagne and Brie 2 Normandy 3 Brittany 4 Orleans Blesois Dunois Nivernois Berry Bourbonnois and La Marche 5 Tourain Anjou Loudunois Le Maine Vandomois and le Perche 6 Vpper and Lower Poictou 7 Zantonge Aunis City and Government of Rochell Angoulmois 8 Lower Guyen Perrigord Gascogne and Limosin 9 Vpper and Lower Vivarez with the Uclay and Forest 10 Lower Languedock viz Nimes Usez Montpelier to Beziers inclusively 11 The rest of Languedock Vpper Guyen Tholouse Carcassona Quercy Rouergue Armagnack Vpper Auvergne 12 Bourgundy Lyonnois Beaujolois Bresse Low Auvergne Gex 13 Provence 14 Dauphine and the Principality of Orange 15 The Churches of the Soveraignty of Bearn 16 The Sevennes and Givaudan If it so falls cut for the convenience of Churches that one or two should be parted or to unite several in one it may be done in the Provincial Synod whereof notice shall be given to the National Synods CONFORMITY Those who please to read the Second Cannon of the First Universal Council of Constantinople and the Eighth of that of Ephesus will easily perceive our Discipline agrees exactly with the practice of the Primitive Christians And as for the dividing one Church into two or joyning several into one when necessity requires there is Examples to be seen in Antient Records As for joyning several into one Tom. 5. Conc. p. 430. the Eighth Letter of the Second Book of Gregory the Great gives us an Example and the Fathers of the Sixteenth Council of Toledo An. 693 in the V. Cannon Authorises the joyning and dividing and declares also in what manner it must be done The Emperour Charles the Bald in his Capitularies Anno 844 gives power to the Bishops to divide a Church into two when the Necessity and Edification of the People require it and if it gives them power to divide Churches Tom. 2. capit c. 7. p. 23. Edit Balux 1677 there 's no question to be made but it gives them power also to join several in one for good and lawful causes In process of time the Popes have assumed to themselves this power of Joyning and Dividing Churches although in France they are not permitted to exercise it without the consent of our Kings as the late Mr. de Marca has well observed in the Thirteenth chap. of the Fourth Book of the Liberties of the Gallcian Church where he treats of these matters XVI A Minister deputed by a Provincial Synod to go to a Synod or Colloque of another Province for some publick Affairs may have a deliberative Vote and that not only for the business he is come about but also during the whole sitting if his particular Affair be not in agitation CONFORMITY I do not think any need question but the same thing was practis'd in the Primitive Church Tom. 1. Conc. Gall. p. 27.
that here is to be an intire Separation both from Bed and as to Obligation The Second is in the 19th chap. of the same Gospel verse 3 c. The Pharisees also came unto him tempting him and saying unto him Is it lawful for a man to put away his Wife for every cause and he answered and said unto them Have you not read that he which made them made them at the beginning Male and Female and said For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his Wife and they twain shall be one flesh wherefore they are no more twain but one flesh What therefore God has joyned together let no man put asunder They say unto him Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement and to put her away He saith unto them Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffer'd you to put away your Wifes but from the beginning it was not so And I say unto you whosoever shall put away his wife except it be for fornication and shall marry another committeth Adultery And whosoever marryeth her which is put away doth commit Adultery As the Pharisees in their demand understood a total Separation it must not also be doubted but Jesus Christ meant it so also in the Answer he made them In effect amongst the Jews the term to repudiate comprehends an intire rupture with power to re-marry again Therefore in the Antient formulary of Divorces amongst the Jews the Husband spake thus to the Wife which he put away I send thee going and repudiate thee to the end thou mayest be at liberty to marry whom thou wilt Let us now see what the Witnesses do depose which I have ingaged to produce for establishing the matter in dispute I 'le begin by Chromatius Bishop of Aquilea one of the Holiest and most Learned Prelates of his time that is to say of the Fourth Century and the beginning of the Fifth This Learned Writer Interpreting the two verses of the Fifth chap. of St. Matthew above transcrib'd speaks in this manner Let them know how great the crime of condemnation is which those do incur in the sight of God Tom. 2. Biol Sal. p. 168. who being overcome with the unbridled pleasure of Lust and without cause of Adultery cast off their Wifes to pass on to another Marriage It appears by the reasoning of Chromatius that if they cast them off for Adultery they were permitted to re-marry and having shewn that though the Laws of Men suffer'd to repudiate ones Wife for other cause than Adultery those which did it were nevertheless inexcusable but their sins was so much the greater that they preferred the Laws of Men before the Law of God After this I say he adds As it is not permitted to cast off a woman that lives chastly and honestly so also 't is permitted to repudiate an Adulteress because such a one renders her self unworthy of her Husbands Company which in sinning against her own Body had the boldness to defile the Temple of God The Deacon Hillary a Writer of the Fourth Century in his Commentaries on St. Pauls Epistles in the Third Volume of St. Ambrose his Works Hillary Expounding these words of the 11th verse of the 7th chap. of the â— Ep. to the Cor. pag. 365. Neither let the Woman forsake her Husband he thus explains himself it must be understood except it be for the cause of Adultery because it is permitted for the Husband to marry after having repudiated his Wife for cause of Adultery St. Epiphanius is full in the case seeing he expresses himself in this manner Him who could not be content with one Wife whether she dyed or that he put her away for Adultery Fornication or some other Crime if he joyn himself to another Wife or if a Woman for the same cause takes a second Husband the Word of God condemns them not neither deprives them of the Communion of the Church nor of Eternal Life but it bears with them for infirmity sake not that he should have two Wifes at once the one being yet alive and in being but to the end that after having left one he may if he will take another lawfully The Jesuit Petau in his Notes on the words of St. Tom. 2. p. 255. Epiphanius does acknowledge this was the Opinion of this Antient Doctor but he adds That if at that time it was suffer'd to have it because the Church had not yet determin'd any thing in this matter it is not permitted at this time after the decision of the Council of Trent Sess 24. cap. 7. nevertheless he owns this Decree of Trent is not agreeable to some of those cited by Gratian causa 32. quaest 7. and also that Cardinal Cajetan and some other Doctors of his Communion have followed an Opinion contrary to the definition of the Fathers of Trent that is to say That they believed that 't is permitted to a Christian to put away his Wife for Adultery and to marry another in effect not only Cajetan on the 19th chap. of St. Matth. but also Ambrose Catharine in the Fifth Book of his Annotations and Erasmus on the 7th chap. of the 1 Ep. to the Corinth have been of this Judgment Auitus Bishop of Vienna at the end of the Fifth Century and beginning of the Sixth sufficiently manifests that in his time Divorcement was made for Adultery with liberty to re-marry Ep. 49. p. 110. observing in one of his Letters That 't is for that cause alone God permits a man to separate from his wife Upon which Father Sirmond who has Published the Works of Auilus makes this observation It from hence appears that in that time it was believed in France that the Husband might by the permission of Jesus Christ leave his Wife in case of Adultery and marry another Which he confirms by a Cannon of a Synod of Vannes which I will cite anon Loup Abbot of Ferriers in Gattinois was in the Ninth Century of the same Opinion with Auitus Ep. 29. pag. 54. for he says as well as him that 't is only Fornication can dissolve Marriage to which Monsieur Baluze who compleated the last Edition with Learned Notes applyes also the Jesuit Sirmond's Observation which I but now mention'd Isaac Bishop of Langres in the Third Title of his Cannons which treat of Adulterys saith plainly chap. 1. That the Husband whose Wife is an Adulteress has power to take another if he please This Prelate wrote and liv'd in the Ninth Century I now come to the Councils whose Authority may contribute to the Establishment of the matter I examin and I begin with the First Council of Arles which the Emperour Constantine assembled in the Year 314 a Council famous for the Decrees there made and for the number of Bishops which were there present for there was 600 if several Writers may be credited In effect there is in the Collection of Letters of Ireland by Bishop
Kings of the second Race Dances and Lascivious Songs were absolutely forbidden and it is therein declared that they which shall disobey this Ordinance shall suffer the punishment contain'd in the Cannon alledging for a Reason that they are the remainders of Paganism XXVIII Mommery's and Stage-plays shall not be allowed nor the Ceremony of King Drinks nor Carnavals nor Hocus Pocus slight of Hand and Poppet and Stage players and Christian Magistrates are exhorted not to tolerate them because these things only cause loss of time and entertains Idleness Curiosity and Expence Neither shall it be lawful for Believers to assist at Comedies Tragedies Farces Moralities and other plays acted in publick or in private seeing that in all Ages they have been prohibited amongst Christians as inclining to the corrupting of good Manners especially when the holy Scripture is therein mingled Nevertheless when in Colledges it shall be thought fit that Youth may represent some History it may be tolerated provided it ben't contain'd in the Holy Scripture which is not given to be dally'd with but to be truly Preached also it shall be done but very seldom and by advice of the Colloque which shall first see the composition CONFORMITY There may be apply'd to this Article as to what regards Mummery's the Liberties of Shrovetide and other the like Pastimes what the Fathers have said and done against Christians which allow'd themselves in Libertinism after the Manner of Pagans in the Callends of January that is to say the first day of that Month who used near hand the same Sports now practis'd at Carnaval but to draw to a Conclusion it suffices to refer the Reader to the first Cannon of a Synod at Auxer in the year 578 to a Homily of Maximus Bishop of Turin and a Writer of the V. Century Entituled A Homily on the Circumcision of our Lord or a reprehension of the Callends of January In this Sermon he explains the Follies and Debauches committed by Christians on that day and to what St. Owen writes of St. Eloy in the same Chapter cited on the foregoing Article whereby we find they abandon'd themselves to very great Extravagancy they put on Vizards and put themselves in the shape of sundry Beasts as of Sheep Stags Cows Bears and other Beasts to act with greater Liberty and Freedom until that at last these extravagancies being restrain'd by Ecclesiastical and Civil Laws Christians changed these Follies of the Callends of January to the time a little before Lent as if one were bound to commit Sin to have greater occafion of Repentance As for the rest of the Article which concerns Stage-plays and the Theater the Ancient Doctors of the Church incessantly cry against these worldly pastimes Tertullian and St. Cyprian have writ whole Treatises on purpose to divert Christians from them and has called them spectacles I actantius St. Basil St. Lib. 6. pag. 127. Par. 1669 Cyril of Jerusalem Isidore of Petlusta St. Crysostome St. Austin has highly condemned them and Salvian in his Treatise of Providence doth vehemently exagerate the evils that proceed from them and saith several things as may justly be apply'd to those amongst us as do frequent the Theater and Comedies The third Council of Carthage in the year 388 expresly forbids it in 11th Cannon And the 4th Tom. 1. Conc. pag. 710. which was assembled the year following Excomunicates in the 81th Cannon all those which on a solemn day abandon the assembly of the Church to be present at Stage-plays Ib. p. 730. therefore in another Council under Aurelius the Fathers of Africa resolved to beseech the Emperours to prohibit those worldly divertisments especially on solemn days set apart for the Exercise of Piety and Religion The 6th Oecumenical Council employes to this purpose the 51st Cannon at the end of the 7th Century Ib. c. 28. pag. 915. Thence it is that the Ancient Discipline excomunicates Stage-players Jesters Comedians and all those as mounted on the Theater to show these Divertisments to the people and worldings must not abuse what 's added at the end of the Establishment I examine saving the only scope of it was but sometimes to Exercise Scholars in Colledges XXIX All Playes prohibited by the Kings Edicts as Cards Dice and other Games of hazard and those of cevetousness immodesty scandal or notorious loss of time shall be suppressed and the parties reproved and admonished by the Consistory and Sensured as the Circumstances shall require Lotteries also are not to be allowed whither tolerated by the Magistrate or otherwise CONFORMITY The 6th Tom. 5. Conc. pag. 337. universal Council made this Decree contain'd in the 50th Cannon That no Christian whether of the Clergy or Laity do henceforth play at the game called Hazard and if any be found doing it if of the Clergy that he be deposed but if of the Laity that he be Excommunicated XXX To be present at Feasts and Collations of Weddings at Birth and Marriage of Children made by those of the Romish perswasion is in it self indifferent nevertheless Believers are advertised to use it to Edification and to consider if they are sufficiently able to resist the dissolutions and other evils which may there be committed and also to reprove them In which Feasts are not comprised those made by Priests at their first Mass to which it is not lawful to goe CONFORMITY The Council of Loadicea has proved in the 35th and 54th Cannons against the debauches which may happen at Feasts and has warned Christians not to participate thereof As for the Feasts made by Priests at their first Mass our Discipline had just reason to forbid those of its communion not to be there present because 't would be in some sort a silent approving of a thing which has occasioned one of the greatest causes of our separation from the Romish Church it was by a like principle the Synod of Laodicea prohibited Christians in the 37th 38th 39th Cannons not to communicate of any thing as they were wont to use in the Feasts of Jewes Hereticks and Pagans XXXI It shall be no means be permitted to be present at the Feasts or Weddings of those which to marry a Person of contrary Religion shall revolt from the profession of the Gospel As for those which have been a good while revolted or are wholly Papists it is at the discretion of Believers to do what they shall in Wisdom think convenient CONFORMITY What I have observed at the end of the former Article may be applyed to this XXXII Those which challenge or cause to be challenged to Duel or that being challenged accept it and even kill their Adversasaries although they might obtain their pardon or be otherwise claered shall be sensured to the being suspended from the Lords Supper which suspension shall be speedily published and if they desire to be received to the peace of the Church they must make publick confession of their Crime CONFORMITY Duels being expresly condemn'd by
CONFORMITY OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL DISCIPLINE OF THE Reformed Churches OF FRANCE With that of the PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS Written by M. LA ROCQUE Minister of Quevilly near Rouen With his Learned Commentaries on each ARTICLE Render'd into English by JOS. WALKER LONDON Printed for THO. COCKERILL at the Three-Legs in the Poultrey over-against the Stocks-Market MDCXCI LICENS'D August 10. 1691. J. FRASER To the Truly HONOURED CHARLES STAYNINGS Esq Of Honycault in Somersetshire SIR WHen one enters your Neat Habitation which for Conveniencies bear parallel with the proudest Palaces there appears a Scene of sundry Varieties A Cambden or Dugdale would be requisite to display the Antiquities of the many Honourable Families whereunto yours is related by Affinity and Marriage out of which Alliances has issued several who have been Famous in their Generations for their Heroick Actions in Peace and War which laudable Qualities have always been conspicuous in your self Sir Your Love of Learning and happy Familiarity and Intimacy with the Muses your constant Courtesie and Hospitality to Strangers and all your Friends and Acquaintance which I have several times personally Experimented as also your uninterrupted Love and Zeal for the Honour of God and the good and safety of your Countrey for which you have more than once Buckled on your Armour and appeared in the Field of Mars makes you like another Vespasian to be the delight of all that are happy in your acquaintance You have heretofore Sir been pleased favourably to accept and approve some of my weak Essays when I had the Honour of Living in your Neighbourhood near the famous Orchard Wyndham and knowing your deference for Pristine Learning and Purity I thought the Dedicating to you a Piece of that Nature and Stamp would not be excluded your Society and a place amongst the Venerable Fathers and Councils near your Chappel in your Library God has bless'd us with another King David to Fight our Battels and a Venerable * His Grace Dr. Tillotson Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Jehojada to Rule our Church so that I hope Peace and Truth will revive and flourish in our Days which is the hearty desire of Dear SIR Your ever bounden Friend and Most Humble Servant JOS. WALKER Covent-Garden Octob. 25. 1691. To the MINISTERS and ELDERS of the CONSISTORY which meet at Be'gle near Bourdeaux Gentlemen and much Honoured Brothers ALthough I have undertaken this Work for the Edification of all our Churches nevertheless I offer it to you in particular as a testimony of my due resentments for the Honour you formerly did me in inviting me to you I should willingly have imbraced your offer if my Conscience could have dispenced with it for besides that the Employment had been honourable and profitable to me it would have drawn me also a little nearer to my own Country for which I still retain an Inclination But the Providence of God which orders our Persons and Affairs as he pleases having otherways dispos'd of my Ministry bestowing it on a Church where I found a second Native Countrey by the marks of kindness I daily receiv'd of the goodness of those whereof it is compos'd I lose by little and little the hopes of ever seeing my Native Countrey and by consequence of assuring you by word of mouth the true sentiments of my heart But Gentlemen if I am at a distance from you in Body I desire you to be assured that I am present with you in Spirit seeing you are always in my remembrance and that I shall ever ardently beseech God that he will generally and in particular bestow on you his blessings Moreover the Work which I present to you will doubtless administer to you joy and comfort in manifesting the Antiquity of the Discipline under whose Maxims you live for as it scatters the false Aspersions of Novelty wherewith we are branded and the unjust reproaches wherewith you are dayly accus'd you will therein find such lively Marks and Characters of the Discipline of the Ancient Christians that you will bless God for seeing that your Fathers have walked so Religiously in that as well as in the Doctrine which their Ancestors had professed that is to say of those which had lived in the purest and happiest Ages of Christianity And indeed if you please to give your selves the trouble to compare together these two Disciplines you will soon find they are Children of one Father productions of the same Spirit and that drawing their Original from Heaven it is also their scope to direct men to Heaven in building them up in Sanctification and Holiness After which let men if they please blame your Ecclesiastical Policy hence-forwards you will have sufficient ground to stop the mouth of Envy and wherewithal to confound those which endeavour to censure it To justifie it 't will be enough to shew the Conformity there is betwixt it and that of the Primitive Church and this you may easily do because I think I have so fully evinced this resemblance that it will be visible to all those who will read this Treatise with an unbiass'd mind and that are not prepossess'd with malice against us As for us Gentlemen let us faithfully keep the holy trust our Fathers have transmitted to us let us diligently exercise this Discipline and carefully practise it but especially let us to our power conform to the Exercise of these Precepts by the Holiness of our Lives and the purity of our Actions this will be the ready way of baffling the many Volumes that attack your Morals and shew to all the World that these Instructions have no other scope but Justice and Piety Actions are of greater demonstration than Words and the Arguments drawn from Practice are more convincing than those that are borrowed from Discourse It was never better proved That there was motion in Nature than it was done by the Philosopher that walked about to convince him that deni'd it We cannot better justifie the purity of the Maxims of our Morals and Discipline than in living well seeing 't is very difficult if not impossible to live well under Masters which only teach Debauchery and that ingage persons in Extravagance Those who please to look on your Society will be convinced of what I say when they shall see in your wise conduct to shine forth the marks and effects of the innocency of your Discipline and the equity of its Maxims and Laws I hope you will favourably accept this Book which I Dedicate to you seeing its chiefest aim is to shew That 't is the same with the Discipline of the Primitive Christians for which all have so much respect and veneration The Father of Lights from whom comes every good and perfect gift be pleas'd to establish you more and more in his Love abundantly bless your persons preserve the Flock committed to your care and cause therein all Christian Vertues to abound to the end that you may be a pattern to others and that your Faith and Piety may be renowned
through all the Churches These are the ardent Prayers that are made for you all by Gentlemen and Honoured Brethren Your most humble Servant and Brother in Christ Jesus M. LA ROCQUE Rouen 24o. June 1678. THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE WHat Laws are in a State the same things are Canons in the Church All Societies of Men as well Civil as Sacred have always stood in need of some Rules for the conduct of those whereof it is composed and under their direction to attain the designed end which is pleasure of life with the repose of Conscience and tranquility of Mind Man ought of his own free will be inclined to the obedience of these in the main prospect of the pleasure there is in doing his Duty and in the delight which is to be found in the practise of Vertue besides that in so doing depends the happiness all men seek after but which few do find because they seek amiss Nevertheless according to the manner we are made it 's necessary we should be excited by other motives and be set a work by other principles these Motives are Fear of punishment and Hope of rewards the two great springs that give motion if it may be so said to the whole world and which do powerfully ingage men to eschew evil and do good Legislators have also employ'd it in the world the Apostles and their Successors in the Church and God himself made use of it in regard of Adam promising him Life and Immortality if he continued faithful and obedient to him and on the contrary threatning him with death if he were so foolish as to neglect the keeping his Commands and violate the purity of his Laws In the day thou eatest the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt die the death Man being a reasonable Creature it was suitable to God's wisdom to give him Laws to serve as a Rule and direction through the whole course of his life therefore he had no sooner created him but he imprinted in his heart those instructions which we call the Law of Nature the Exercise whereof was to constitute his joy and felicity so that had he always persever'd in his innocence he would not have stood in need of Judges nor of their Tribunals his conscience would have been sufficient for him its counsels would ever have been safe its decisions just and right and all its Ordinances would have tended to the practise of this important maxim of the Son of God which he drew from the very spring of Nature it self not to do to others but what we would they should do to us But sin having interrupted this Oeconomy and darkned the Lights which attended it all these directions of Nature have been ineffectual and these Instructions of no value Nevertheless 't is certain God preserved in Man after his fall or at least he stirred up in him anew by the efficacy of his Providence some little remains of that clear and pure light wherewith the understanding had been illuminated when 't was immediately made by his hand and thence it is that all men have the common and general Notions That there is one God That he governs all things That he punishes the wicked and rewards the good That to honour him is a Law that 's allowed amongst all men And that he must not only be thought to be immortal and blessed but also to be a Lover of Mankind of whose preservation he takes particular care in daily doing them good it was thereby that the Inhabitants of the Isle of Maltha concluded St. Paul was a Murderer Act. 28.3 they said when they saw a Viper on his hand Divine Vengeance followed him and would suffer him to live no longer It is also from this principle proceeded the knowledg the Apostle attributed to the Gentiles when he saith For when the Gentiles which have not the Law Rom. 2.14 15. do by nature the things contain'd in the law these having not the law are a law unto themselves which shew the work of the law written in their hearts their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts in the mean while accusing or else excusing one another But at length Sin having almost extinguished the light of Nature and made all its instructions unprofitable God was obliged to renew the knowledg of it by publishing his Law which in substance contains the same precepts as those did which God had writ at first in the heart of Men and seeing the greater corruption is so much the more need there is to multiply Laws to restrain its impetuosity and violence and so hinder its spreading and excess God who knew very well the inclination of the people of the Jews which were a people of a stiff neck and uncircumcised heart as the Scripture speaks a people inclined to disobedience and rebellion God I say not content to divulge the Moral Law he thereunto joyned the Ceremonial and Political Laws to the end the Israelites should the easier be retain'd in their duty under the heavy yoke of this severe Discipline Thence it followed by the Rule of contraries That the more Sanctification is advanced the less need there is of Laws which made St. Paul say That the Law is not made for the just but for the Sinners and wicked The first Christians had but very few Decisions and Decrees in their Discipline because being full of Piety and Zeal and that labouring with unspeakable diligence in the work of their Sanctification they disposed themselves voluntarily according to the nature of the Gospel and intention of Jesus Christ and conscionably practising the Maxim of the Apostle That all things should be done decently and in order in the Church of God they with ease were guided by the Divine motions of Grace and the inspirations of that holy Spirit which God had so plentifully and in great measure poured forth on his Church in the first Establishing of Christian Religion for as to the Canons attributed to the Apostles and the Constitutions which also go in their name they are things forged in the following Ages and after this new people had began to degenerate from the first heat of their zeal and that they had given some check to the innocence of their life and to the purity of their Manners and as corruption insensibly got ground so also was seen to increase the number of Canons and Ordinances for it commonly happens that ill actions do multiply good Laws without which it would be impossible to make head against the many Scandals that licentiousness does introduce where it predominates and where sins are not repressed and punished Something of this kind hapned in our Reformation which had a great resemblance with the first Establishment of Christian Religion for it may truly be said that by a particular blessing of Heaven the first Reformers were so holy in their life so pure in their conversation so wise in their conduct so modest in their words and so humble
him and if he appears and that he confesses or is convicted of the crime he is accused of they shall declare what punishment he has deserved but if being summoned he don't appear it requires to send two Bishops to cite him a second time and if he fails again that two others be sent to cite him a third time and if through contempt and rebellion he refuses to appear after those three Citations it requires the Synod to pronounce against him what they shall think fit fearing lest flying from judgment he may think to have gained his Cause I almost forgot to have spoke a word of Dancing and other Disorders which are prohibited to our Ministers in the 47th Article which is very conformable to the 45th Canon of the Council of Laodicea especially if also one considers the 35th of the same Council L. If a Minister be convicted of enormous and notorious Sins he shall speedily be deposed by the Consistory calling unto it the Colloque or in default of it two or three unsuspected Ministers And in case the guilty Pastor complains of wrong and injury the whole matter shall be reported to a Provincial Synod If he has Preached Heretical Doctrine he shall presently be suspended by the Colloque the Consistory or two or three Ministers thereunto called as above until such time as the Provincial Synod has determin'd the case and all sentences of suspension for whatsoever it be shall nevertheless admit of appeal until final judgment be given CONFORMITY Altho this Article hath been already explained in what has been deliver'd in the preceding ones yet I will add something for the fuller clearing of it I say then it was so done in regard of Paul of Samosatia Bishop of Antioch who being convicted of Heresy was presently Depos'd as Eusebius informs us The 25th Canon of the Apostles ordains to inflict the same punishment on Bishops on Priests and Deacons which shall be convicted of Fornication of Perjury and of Robbery and a Council of Lerida of which we have already made mention shews no more favour against Church-men convicted of enormous and crying sins alledging for a reason That their vicious examples are a scandal to the People of God The second Council of Sevill in the Year 619. decrees in the 6th Canon That it should be done by authority of the Synod to which it refers as our Discipline does the definitive Judgment of these Depositions Tom. 4. Conc. Pag. 559. LI. The Reasons of the Dposition shall not be divulg'd to the People if necessity don't require it whereof those which shall have judged of the Depositions shall do as they shall think convenient CONFORMITY This Establishment in regard of deposed Ministers is like that of Pope Leo I. in regard of those who were to do publick Penance for being inform'd that in several parts of Italy the Bishops caused publickly to be rehers'd the Sins of those which were to do Penance Ep. 80. he condemns this practice and expresly forbids to do so for the future Ep. Can. 2. Cap. 34. and a long time before Leo St. Basil declares That the Fathers had prohibited to divulge to the People the Women which were guilty of Adultery either by their own Confession or after having been convicted of it LII The National Synods shall be advertis'd by the Provincial ones of those which shall be Deposed to the end they should not receive them CONFORMITY In the Primitive Church when any Pastor was Deposed advice was given to all the Churches to the end that none should receive him Ersel Hist l. 7. c. 30. according to which after the Synod of Antioch had Deposed Paul of Samosatia in the 3d Century for Heresy it wrote a long fair Letter to all the Bishops and to all the Churches in general to inform them at large of all that had passed in the Condemnation of this great Heretick Alexander Bishop of Alexandria having Condemned Arrius and his adherents he also writ to all the Catholick Bishops To the end Secrat Hist Eccles lib. 1. c. 6. p. 13. ult Edit Pag. 27. Paris 1598. saith he that you should not receive him if by chance he should have the confidence to go to you and that you should not give credit to what Eusebius or any one else may write to you in his behalf St. Hillary Bishop of Poictiers informs us in his Fragments That the Western Bishops Assembled at Sirmium in the year 350. having Anathematiz'd the Heretick Photin they sent into the East the Decree of his Condemnation to inform them after the usual manner of what they had done against him Lib. 4. c. 9. Theodoret has preserv'd to us in his Ecclesiastical History the Letter of a Council of Bishops in Illyria writ about the Year 370. by which amongst other things they inform the Churches of God and the Bishops of the Diocesses of Asia of the Deposing of certain Clergy-men Tom. 3. Concil p. 468. infected with the Impiety of Arrius whose Names they express Accordingly the Fathers of Chalcedon say in their Relation to the Emperors that the Sardick Synod gave notice into the East of what they had done against the remains of Arrius as the Eastern Bishops did those of the West of their Decree against Apollinarius They went yet further for they published these Sentences of Deposition in the Churches which had been advertis'd of it In short St. Austin in his 3d Book against Petilien Chap. 39. makes mention of a Deacon called Splendonius which had been Depos'd in part of Germany and the Decree of his degradation was read in the Churches of Africa when they had received notice of it by the Prelates which had condemn'd him LIII Ministers which have been Depos'd for Crimes which deserve signal punishment or that bear marks of Infamy cannot be restored to their Office what acknowledgment soever they make As for other less faults after due acknowledgment made they may be restor'd by the National Synod however to serve in another Church and not otherwise CONFORMITY The 28th Canon of those ascribed to the Apostles appoints to separate wholly from the Communion of the Church the Bishop the Priest or Deacon which having been Depos'd for notorious Crimes has nevertheless the confidence to reassume the Ministry which had been committed to him the 4th of the Council of Antioch leaves him no hope at all of being re-establish'd no not so much as liberty to defend himself or plead his Cause in another Synod The 5th Canon treats not more favourably Rebels and Schismaticks the 14th and 15th confirms the judgment of the Provincial Synod unless in case the Opinions were divided in which Case they prescribe to call other Judges of some adjacent Province The 29th of the Council of Chalcedon speaking of Bishops which from the Episcopal Degree are descended to that of Presbytery it declares That if they are condemn'd for just Cause they are not worthy of the Honour of Priesthood it self
To this Settlement may be referr'd the Canons which descend to receive to the Communion in a Church or Province those which have been Excommunicated in another as the 5th of the 1st Council of Nice the 6th of that of Antioch the 32 of the Apostles and divers others After all the Constitution of our Discipline which we examine gives Power to Synods to restore after due acknowledgment those which have been depos'd for lesser faults but to serve in another Church which in substance Tom. 3. Concil p. 817. c. 10. is one of the Decrees of the Council of Lerida which we have cited several times there 's something much like this in the 11th Canon of the Council in Trullo at the end of the 7th Century Tom. 5. Conc. Page 329. LIV. Vagabonds that is to say those which have no vocation and that intrude into the Ministry shall be suppressed and whatsoever the Provincial Synods do as to prohibiting the Ministry it shall have the same virtue and effect as if the National Synod had enjoin'd it CONFORMITY The 6th Canon of the first Oecumenical Council of Constantinople may well be applied to this Article seeing it was made against those which endeavour to confound and overthrow the Ecclesiastical Order In the year 752. was held a Council at Verberie in Valois Tom. 2. Conc. Gall. p. 4. it was a Royal House in the Diocess of Soissons near Champaigne The 14th Canon of which is against wandring and straying Bishops The 22d of that of Mayence in the year 813 in the same Volume pag. 281. is also against wanderers as also the 101st of the Synod of Aix la Chappelle in the year 816. the same page 376. And to conclude the 5th of the 2d Council of Toul Assembled at Tousi in the same Diocess Anno Dom. 860. by Order of Charles the Bald and of Lothaire to all these Canons may be added the 13th of the Synod of Vernon under Pepin in the Year 755. Tom. 1. Conc. Gall. pag. 3. LV. Those which are declared Vagabonds Apostates Hereticks Schismaticks shall be proclaim'd in all Churches that they might beware of them and a List of their Names shall be deliver'd to the Provincial and National Synods CONFORMITY What we have said on the 52d Article is very proper for this therefore it is needless to repeat it LVI Those who have been put in the number of Wanderers by advice of the National Synod cannot be struck out but by another National Synod CONFORMITY There 's nothing in this Establishment but what is conformable to the method of Ancient Canons which frequently remitted differences to be determin'd at Synods to the end that being decided this way every body should acquiesce to their determinations especially when it was transacted by the Synods of the whole Diocess which comprehended several Provinces and to which do answer our National Synods this appears by several Canons of the Councils of Nice of Antioch of the 1st of Constantinople and others the 22d of the Council of Mayence alledged by us on the 54th Article does expresly refer the question of wandring Church-men to the Censure of the Synod LVII Those which shall insinuate themselves into the Ministry in the Provinces and Places where the pure Ministry is already Established shall be duely advertised to desist and in case they persevere they shall be declar'd Schismaticks as also those which adhere to them if after the like warning they do not leave them CONFORMITY No one saith the Apostle ought to assume to himself the Honour of the Ministry unless he be lawfully called to it therefore 't is with great reason that the Authors of our Discipline appoint That the temerity of those should be reproved which intrude into the Ministry without Vocation both in the Country and other places where the Ministry is already Established It is on this account that the Author of the pretended Canons of the Apostles L. 3. c. 10. Paris 1608. prohibits Lay-persons to perform any Function of the Sacred Ministry of the Church as to Christen to Administer the Lord's Supper and the laying on of hands and declares That those which shall undertake it without being called shall be punished with the punishment of Vzza It is for the same reason That the Ancient Canons forbid Bishops on pain of Deposing to meddle out of their Diocesses or there to make Ordinations to the prejudice of their Brethren It is just the same as is enjoyn'd in the 35th of the Apostles to the which may also be added the 12th and the 16th of the 1st Council of Nice which say something near the same matter The 8th of the 1st Council of Ephesus in the Year 431 is more formal for upon occasion of the Incroachments which the Bishop of Antioch made on the Isle of Cyprus the Fathers appoint That each Province shall enjoy its Privileges and forbids Bishops to incroach or make themselves Masters of places which have not been always under their Conduct with Express Command to restore those they had usurped that the Authority of Ancient Canons may not be trampled under foot To all which may be added part of what I have observed on the 18th and 24th Articles and besides what Socrates has writ of one Ischyras which was of St. Athanasius his Diocess and who never having been preferr'd to the Honour of Priesthood had nevertheless the impudence to assume the Name and do the Functions of a Priest which the Historian judged worthy of several deaths It 's true this inconsiderate Person in all likelihood acted after this manner thinking he should be favour'd by the Arrians which were Enemies to Athanasius which succeeded accordingly for they advanc'd him to be Bishop as appears by the 20th Chapter of the 2d Book of the same Socrates Zozomen calls him Ischyrion in the 12th Chap. of the 3d Book of his History CHAP. II. Of SCHOOLS ARTICLE I. THE Churches shall use their best endeavour to Erect Schools and shall give Directions that Youth be instructed CONFORMITY The instruction of Youth being of the greatest importance for establishing of the Truth for advancing the Glory of God and for the Edification of his People it was great reason to procure amongst us the means of doing it wherein our Fathers have exactly followed the Example of the Primitive Christians who neglected nothing for the Educating of their Children for not to insist on Grammar or Rhetorick to which Schools they sent them until the Emperor Julian the Apostate who gain'd this Name by his falling off from the Truth forbid the Masters of those two Arts to teach them to Christians which Amianus Marcelinus though a Heathen condemns as an Action directly contrary to the Laws of Clemency and Equity not to insist I say on these things no more than on other humane Sciences the knowledg of which they were no strangers to Who don't know that their principal study was to understand the Truths of the Holy Scriptures