of the Primitive Church where we shall find the whole matter so fairly and so easily accorded that it is next to a miracle how it should ever be made so great a difficulty in these later times But it hapned in this as it did in most other things at the time of the Reformation that men saw themselves wrapt up they knew not how in woful Errours and Corruptions but did not and indeed as the World then stood could not immediately discover the true original state of the Church as it was at first setled by our Saviour and his Apostles and received into protection by Constantine and the Christian Emperours So that though they had Eye-sight enough and God knows very little would serve their turn to discern the follies and abuses of Rome they were at a loss how to fix the right Reformation and for want of the ancient Records of the Church that lay buried in dust and rubbish at that time could make but slow improvements in it So that before the true state of the Church could be clearly and fully discover'd most of them were setled in some way or other and after any new settlement it is very difficult to make any Alteration and therefore they continue in their first posture to this day But the Church of England at the very first Attempt resolving to reform it self by the Example of the Primitive Church and having the good fortune to retain the Apostolical form of Episcopal Government in subordination to the Royal Power set it self in a right way to Reformation And so as the state of things came to light by degrees brought its work to some competent Perfection For the Reformation of the Church after such an inveterate degeneracy must needs be a work of so great bulk and difficulty that it is an unreasonable thing to expect that it should be finisht at the first stroke So great a design as that must be a work of time and consideration to be reviewed and amended as the Master-Workmen shall find most convenient So as that they who had a Power first to begin it have an inherent right when ever they think fit to take an account of their own Work and if they find any flaws mistakes or defects in it to make them up by an after-care So that there must be a constant Power residing in the Church to enact or abolish Laws as it judges most serviceable to the present state of things And that is truly and properly the Church of England the Governours of it acting under the Allowance of the Sovereign Power by its establisht Laws and Constitutions with a constant power residing in themselves and their Successours to enact new Laws as they shall judge most beneficial to the Edification of the Church And it is a very crude notion of the Church of England as common as it is that it is to be found in its Canons Articles and Constitutions for that is only the Law and dead rule of the Church of England but the Church properly so call'd consists in its living Authority as setled by our Saviour by which these Laws were at first enacted and are or ought to be still executed and may in some cases be alter'd And that is the great difference between the Law and the Authority of the Church that one is alterable and the other is not The Authority of the Church may make new Laws and cancel old ones but that lasts the same for ever So that for men to talk of this or that Church without a particular form of Government setled in it by our Saviour's own Commission is to turn the Christian Church into a Chimaera and imaginary state of Fairies But as for the Church of England according to the design of its Reformation it consists of a National Synod of Bishops together with a select Convocation of Presbyters representing the whole Body of the Clergy in subjection to the Sovereign Power and in communion with the Catholique Church all the World over as far as it can be attain'd And this is contrived so agreeably to the Primitive Platform the Interest of Government the Nature of Christianity that there is little else defective in it then the honesty and the confidence to own it self and put its own Constitution into effectual practice But of that I shall discourse in its proper place §. 9. At present for the practice of the Primitive Churches Government within it self and as it related to the Civil State it must be consider'd in the two Periods before and after the Conversion of the Empire and by comparing the true face and posture of things in these two so different states we shall have an exact description of the Rights of the Church in all estates and conditions whatsoever But most of all of its easy complyance with the Rights of Civil Government in Christian States and of the safest way for Christian Sovereigns to govern and protect the Church within their Dominions without invading its inherent and unalienable Authority And then last of all I shall compare that Royal Supremacy that is acknowledged and asserted in the Church and Realm of England in Causes Ecclesiastical with the sense of the Ancient Church concerning the Authority of Emperours and with the Practice of Christian Princes in the Exercise of this Authority And by shewing their compleat Agreement shall from that Topick distinctly prove that we have in this as well as in other matters attain'd a good degree of Reformation First as for the Period of time before the Conversion of the Roman Empire there are two things to be consider'd first their behaviour towards the Civil Government whilst it supprest and persecuted the Christian Faith Secondly the exercise of their own Authority within themselves From both which it will appear that the Church as a Society founded by Christ challenged a Jurisdiction distinct from and Independant upon the Civil State and that this Jurisdiction was so far from interfering with or abating of the Sovereignty of Princes that it bound them to the strictest Allegiance and Subjection to the most inhumane Persecutors And the Story of this Interval whilst the powers of the Church and the World were separate and indeed as much as it was possible opposite will set before us a much clearer State of the Nature and Extent of the two Jurisdictions then we can have from the Practice of Christian States in which the two Powers concurring in the same Acts of Government it is not altogether so easie to discern their distinct influences but will withal give us the fullest Character of true Christian Loyalty from their practice under the hardest usage and severest persecutions But most of all from their Principles upon which they founded their Obligation to their Practice and when it appears upon what grounds and reasons they submitted to the utmost cruelty of the Civil Government that will prevent the common shift made by all Factious Parties against the Authority of their Example
reprimeremus Audaciam Seeing it was beyond the memory of the People what was transacted almost an hundred years since with the Schismaticks necessity compelled us that producing the matters of Fact at our Conference we should rebuke their strange boldness and immodesty To this purpose Marcellinus a Man eminent both for Wisdom Learning and Piety and the same to whom St. Austin dedicates his Books De Civitate Dei though a Secular Judge is sent into Africa with a Commission to preside at the Conference and that he might do by the Laws and Custom of the Church because the Controversie was not about either a matter of Faith or rule of Discipline but only a matter of Fact Neither had he the Office of a Judge about that so much as an Inquisitor but was by his Commission only to Examine the publick Records and that was all that he undertook and perform'd In March in the year 411. he Summons both Parties to meet at Carthage in the June following and grants to all Donatists that would obey his Summons the free use of their Churches and provides all things necessary or useful for their Journey The whole number of Donatist Bishops in all 159 enter Carthage in a full Body with all the shews of Pomp and Ostentation and this being their full strength at that time it shews how their Party had shrivel'd away under this Emperor's Laws against them For in their Council at Bagaia where the Maximinianists were condemn'd by the other Donatists were present four hundred and sixty Bishops and yet now all their Force cannot make a third part of that number But when they came to Carthage they would not meet in the usual house of Convocation that they call'd the Synagogue of Satan and therefore met in the Gargilian Baths And before they enter'd upon the Conference the Catholicks endeavour to Court them with all manner of Civility and Condescention if by any means to prevail upon them to have some sense of the Peace and Unity of the Christian Church But all in vain they were resolved to persist in their Peevishness and therefore when they came together instead of fair and ingenuous Discourse they only endeavoured to spin out time with trifling and pettifogging Tricks For whereas the Catholiques first propounded for quicker dispatch to separate the particular matter of Fact concerning Caecilian's being Ordain'd by a Traditor from the general matter of Right concerning their present Separation from the Church Because that was only Personal and carried nothing in it that concern'd the cause of the Church it self at so great a distance of time and therefore they would freely grant tho nothing could be more false that Caecilian and Faelix were guilty of all their Indictment But that being granted they affirm'd that it was no sufficient reason for them at that time of the day to separate themselves from the Catholique Church though it had so many years past Communicated with them But the Donatists resolve to insist upon the old Nags-head-story and wholly baulk the matter of Right for here they knew that they could wrangle and amuse the People and this was not only their standing Artifice but as Baldwin observes 't is the last shift of all Schismatiques when they are bafled to throw dirt So Petilian served St. Austin so the Pelagians so the Manichees but he would not be drawn from his Cause by such foolish divertisements and still answer'd them all Quod ad mores nostros pertinet quemadmodum vivamus in promptu est eis cum quibus vivimus nunc de Catholico agitur Dogmate c. As for my Life and Conversation it is known to those with whom I live but our business is about Christian Truth that is the cause not I if you have any thing against me in God's Name Indict me according to Law but otherwise it is a base and helpless shift when you are Convicted by Argument to betake your selves to idle Tales and Slanders for that is the last Machine of all Hereticks And therefore 't is no wonder that the Schismaticks stuck so long at this point for to Persons of that Kidney Calumny is much dearer then their Opinion And it was a long while before Marcellinus with all his Art and Temper could bring them out of this Hold but being at last forced out of it they in the next place wrangle about matters that they pleaded ought to be preliminary to the Conference And first they cavill'd and excepted against the time viz. That the time limited by the Emperour's Summons was past to which cavil they are Answer'd That the Meeting was adjourn'd to the present time by their own Consent Then they except against Marcellinus and the Form of proceeding viz. That Ecclesiastical matters ought not to be determin'd after the manner of the Secular Courts but by the Holy Scriptures To this Marcellinus replies both that he does not take upon himself the Office of a Judge and withal that things should be determin'd by the Rule of Scripture as they desired And beside this the Catholick Bishops satisfie them by exhibiting the Injunctions that they had given to those Bishops that were to manage the Conference that they had taken sufficient care of that matter But then this the Donatists turn'd into a new Cavil that they would not trust their Cause to a few Mens management but would be all Speakers which they knew could not be done in so great a Multitude without turning the whole business into Tumult and Confusion And therefore it is with much ado over-ruled that Seven of each Party should manage the Conference of whom St. Austin and Petilian were the chief of each side But in the next place the Mandate of the Catholicks to their Commissioners being signed by 286 Bishops the Donatists object that there were not so many present and pretend that to encrease the number they had set down false names and therefore require that every Bishop should answer to his own name But all this trifling being at last past through Marcellinus with Hat in hand desires the Company that they would be pleased to take their Seats but the Donatists insolently refuse his Civility grumbling out among themselves that of the Psalmist Odi Ecclesiam Maligâ—antium cum impiis non seâ—â—bo Then the Instrument of the Donatists to their Commissioners is read which consists all of Accusation against the Catholiques both as Traditors and Persecutors and here they are immediately snapt in their own â—nare having subscribed many Names to it of Men that were not in Being and among the rest of one that upon the discovery they now pretended dyed on the way though before they had declared that it was drawn up after they came to Carthage and that was all the Event of the first days Conference that they ensnared themselves in two or three grand Falshoods The second Conference was spent in the same trifles and cavils with the first and so came to
intreaty to proceed to Tryal which the Council imputes not only to their knowledge of the defect of their Accusations against others but to the Conscience of their own guilt Seeing great numbers of Persons there present that were ready to testifie of their various Cruelties and tell sad Stories of their Imprisoning Banishing Beating Starving Strangling Persons in Holy Orders only for refusing to Communicate with the Aria◠Hereticks And though the Criminals refused to appear the Witnesses were Examined and they Deposed and both the Emperors written to that their Majesties would be pleased to set all such at liberty that were still under restraint and to order their Officers for the time to come not to use any force or violence against the Clergy for their Faith but leave them first to be tryed by the Ecclesiastical Judicature In the next place the whole Intrigue against Athanasius is re-examined the Stories of Arsenius and Ischiras farther proved by fresh Witnesses and so both himself and the rest of the Deposed and Banish't Bishops are restored and the Intruders thrust not only out of their Sees but out of the Communion of the Christian Church And then in the last place they enact some Rules of Discipline useful and almost necessary for the Present State of the Church as against the practice of Eusebius and other Bishops of the Faction that invade other Mens Bishopricks and though such Offenders were only sent back to their own Sees by the Canon of the Nicene Council this Council is so severe as not only to Depose but Excommunicate them so as not to be capable of being admitted to Lay-Communion even at the hour of death Another Canon they made against the wandring of Bishops and that reach't Ursacius and Valens who left their own Diocesses to carry on the Eusebian Faction in other Provinces A third Canon was That if a Bishop were oppress 't by his Com-provincials he might have leave to make his complaint to the Bishop of Rome who might judge whether he ought to have a new hearing or not and this beside some secret reasons was to relieve the Eastern Bishops from the Oppression of the Eusebians who carried all before them by force and foul dealing Though the Romanists will have it to have been made particularly to justifie Athanasius in his Appeal to Rome but beside that if it were true it would do their Cause no service it is certain that Athanasius made not the Appeal himself but that his Cause was first referr'd thither by the Eusebians and that too with no other design then to remove it as far as they could from their own doors for fear of discovery §. XIII But as vigorously as the Western Bishops proceeded at Sardica the Eastern out-stript them at Philippopolis they first take to themselves the Title of the Council at Sardica they draw up a new Confession of Faith and call it the Sardican Creed in which they Anathematise all the Positions of Arius and only omit the word Consubstantial And as for Athanasius they cunningly load him with the Authority of the Tyrian Council and the Sentence of Constantine upon it Qui omnia ejus flagitia recognoscens suâ illum sententiâ in exilium deportavit Who examining into all his Crimes banish't him by his own Sentence as they blush not to aver as if the abused Emperor had been acquainted with all the juglings of that Council when it was their only care to keep their proceedings altogether in the dark from him But from this they proceed to infer that Athanasius being condemn'd by the Suffrage of so many Bishops and the Judgment of the Emperor it was now but a trick to move for a new Tryal when so many of the Judges Accusers and Witnesses were dead and therefore they must have the old Sentence allowed and ratified before they would act least as they plead They should bring in that prophane Innovation Quam horret vetus consuetudo Ecclesiae ut in concilio Orientales Episcopi quicquid forte statuissent ab Episcopis Occidentalibus refricaretur vice versa That the Ancient Custom of the Church abhors that the Decrees of the Eastern Church should be reversed by the Western and so on the contrary That was the point they would still be at that whatever was done in the Eastern Church should not be submitted to the Judgment of the Western Bishops and then that secured the Authority of the Tyrian Council and as long as that stood firm so did their Cause too But to make short work of it for there are vast numbers of odd casts of disingenuity in their Epistle they Excommunicate Athanasius Paul of Constantinople Julius of Rome Osius Marcellus and all that had any hand in the Absolution of Athanasius and this they signifie in an Encyclical Epistle written in the Name of the Council of Sardica to their friends in all Parts of the World and among many others it is directed to Donatus the Schismatical Bishop of Carthage Gratus the Catholique Bishop of that City with 36 other African Bishops being present at the Council of Sardica and joining with it against the Philippopolitans who therefore think to strengthen their Party by courting the Schismaticks to their side And among other sweet flowers flatter them with their own dear Expression viz. That they durst not join with the Sardican Council Ne proditores fidei Traditoresque Scripturarum dicamur Lest we should be esteemed Traytors of the Faith and Traditors of the Scriptures thereby insinuating an approbation of their Schism from the Catholicks upon that pretence And this took so luckily that the Schismatiques pleaded it in the days of St. Austin to prove that they had ever been in Communion with the Eastern Church But both parties having done the business that they came about especially the Eusebians whose only project it was to shun the Council and make the breach more general with the whole Western Church they break up their Assembly and where-ever they come put to death all that refuse Communion with them particularly they make a great Massacre at Adrianople where they cut off the Bishop's hands and after that his head with innumerable other outrages recited by Athanasius in his Epistle to the Monks But as for the Sardican Council having settled things as well as they could they acquaint both the Emperors with the Issue of their Proceedings and send three Bishops Arm'd with Letters from the Emperor Constans to his Brother Constantius to intercede for the restitution of the banish't Bishops But whilst they attended the Emperor at Antioch Stephen the Eusebian Bishop of that place by his Instruments conveighs a common Strumpet by night stark naked into the Chamber of Euphratas that was the most eminent Man of the Embassy and famous for his great Vertue and Piety but the Woman who expected some debauch't young Gallant for her Companion as soon as she saw the grave old Bishop asleep and altogether ignorant of the matter being
their zeal yet for what they never understood nor enquired Insomuch that the Leaders and Writers themselves that followed after were utterly ignorant of the Nature and the Rise of the Quarrel as Optatus plainly proves that Parmenian himself was though he was the Metropolitan of the Schism And in the Conference at Carthage under Honorius when they were only put to it to shew in what they differ'd from the Catholicks and upon what grounds they divided the Party was so amazed and surprized with their own want of Pretence that they were utterly vanquisht only because they could not tell what they would have But of the Progress of this Schism we shall account afterwards as for its Birth â—â— sprung from no better Original then Pride and Peevishness supporting it self with a bold and bottomless Lye Some few persons had in pursuance of their own private Piques and Passions set up a Faction against their Bishop and then to justifie themselves load him with all the foul Stories that they could invent no matter whether true or false that is all one to the Rabble who easily run away with any thing that is Factious or ill-natur'd and if they can but once get in numbers enough to make up a Faction all Factions are Snow-Balls The Story is this upon the death of Mensurius Bishop of Carthage Caecilian was chosen by the Majority of Votes to succeed against the competition of Botrus and Celesius and received his Consecration from Faelix Bishop of Aptung and some of the Neighbour Bishops of the same Province but from none of Numidia which Optatus says was done by the contrivance of the Competitors presuming to carry the Plurality of Votes but St. Austin says it was done in complyance with an immemorial custom that the Bishop of Carthage was always ordain'd by the Bishops of his own Neighbourhood but because he brings no proof of his Assertion I am afraid it is one of his bold and lavish sayings when he is in hast or distress for next to St. Jerom his loose and fluent way of Writing has occasion'd more mistakes in the Records of the Church then any other of the Ancients and men that are so voluminous and write so quick cannot avoid stumbling into multitudes of hasty and careless slips And therefore the Authority of Optatus is here rather to be followed that the disgust was taken by the Numidian Bishops because they were not call'd to the Consecration this is made the more probable by the peculiar state of the African Church for though other Provinces were Govern'd by their own Provincial Synods by whom their own Metropolitans were ordain'd yet this Church notwithstanding that it consisted of three Provinces Africa properly so call'd Numidia and Mauritania as they reckoned up in the Council under St. Cyprian about rebaptizing Hereticks kept so close a Communion among themselves as if they had been but one Province And we find them all along not acting apart but all together as one Common-Council And that I guess to be the Sense of the words in St. Cyprian's Epistle to Cornelius Latiùs fusa est nostra Provincia habet etiam Numidiam Mauritanias duas sibi coherentes Where the mention of the Mauritaniae duae is supposed by the Learned to have crept into the Text out of some Marginal Notes and so it must have done for there was no such division of that Province that we ever read of till Constantine's new division of the Empire and therefore the true ancient reading must have been this habet etiam Numidiam Mauritaniam sibi coherentes but take which reading we will St. Cyprian's plain meaning can be no other then this That beside his own peculiar Province of Africk properly so called of which Carthage was the Metropolis he had two other Provinces Numidia and Mauritania inseparably annex't to his Communion by which means he tells Cornelius that he was able to do him so great service in Africk So that the words are not to be understood as they commonly are as if he had been the Metropolitan of those three Provinces but that he was Metropolitan of that Province to which the two other were United in a particular Communion But to let pass these Critical Conjectures Caecilian is no sooner entered upon his See but he demands of the Presbyters of his Church the Goods that he found delivered to them in an Inventory left by his Predecessor Mensurius But they having embezell'd the whole Treasury of the Church and finding themselves in danger to be call'd to a severe reckoning joyn Faction with his defeated Competitors and conspire to renounce Communion with him To this Lucilla a Rich a Proud and a Factious Lady joyns her self her Zeal and her Money out of revenge to Caecilian who whilst he was a Presbyter had reproved her for some affectedness and singularity in devotion and that sort of People if once they are any way disobliged are of all others the most implacable and therefore St. Jerom puts her in his Famous Catalogue of Female Hereticks Simon Magus had his Helena Nicholas the Father of uncleanness a whole Regiment of Gossips Marcian sent a woman before him to Rome to prepare the minds of the People for receiving his Imposture Apelles had his Philumine Montanus by Prisca and Maximilla debauches the Women first with Gold and then with Heresie And to come nearer our own time Arius that he might deceive the World inveagles the Emperors Sister and Donatus that he might gain Proselytes to his Schism in Africk is assisted by the wealth of Lucilla These were the Amazons and the Penthesileas of their several Sects and by them we may see that it has ever been the Policy of all Impostors to put their main strength in their Female Forces knowing their Cause to be better maintained by noise and talk then sense and reason I remember Livy somewhere tells us that the Romans in times of great Pestilence and Mortality when they burnt their dead bodies not in single Urns but in vast Heaps and Piles were careful to intermix the womens bodies with the men as being more unctuous and combustible in themselves and so more apt to conveigh the fire to the other Corpses that otherwise would have burnt but slowly without them This is the very practice of the Incendiaries of the Church in all Ages when they would enflame the men into a Combustion they always first set fire on the women and when they would burn down the House they thrust the Firebrand into the Thatch that both easily takes Fire it self and certainly conveighs it to the solid Timber But to proceed in our History The party being thus cemented together by Ambition Covetousness and Revenge they write to Secundus Primate of Numidia to the otherBishops of that Province that were not invited to the Election and Consecration of Caecilian to depose him as having been ordain'd by a Traditor They met at Cirta afterwards call'd Constantina upon
present they could or need not have done And beside that the thing is more then plain enough by the Appeal it self for if Constantine had been there present to what purpose was it for the Donatists to remove the Cause to him that would have been only to Appeal from himself to himself But he being inform'd of the design by the Letter from the Council replies to it with great detestation of the Schismaticks Obstinacy and Perverseness and wonders how they dare to Appeal to his Judgment when they were already Condemn'd by the Judgment of God in the Votes of the Bishops who in these matters judged in God's stead and by his appointment And therefore he esteems their Appeal as no less then Treason and Rebellion against God himself But however he advises them to patience and to give the Schismaticks some time to consider and if they persisted in their stubbornness to give themselves no farther trouble about them but to repair to their several Homes And seeing the Schismatiques had been so prophane as to make their Appeal to him he would take care to provide them Guards for their safe Conduct to his Court Ut ibi sibi mortem pervideant which whatever it signifies is a very high threatning So that after all I do not find that Constantine ever in the least accepted of their Appeal looking upon it as no less sin then an affront to God himself but only resolved now to proceed against them as a Sovereign Prince with all severity as factious and seditious Persons in the Empire And about this time was the business of Faelix of Aptung examin'd by AElian the Proconsul of Africa for though it is generally supposed that this was done before the Council of Arles yet it is evident by the Acts of the Court that it was done the same year and it is certain that there was no notice taken of it in the Council and therefore the first account of it that was return'd to the Emperour must have been after its dissolution And this it was The Schismaticks making such perpetual Clamours about Faelix his being a Traditor and though it was nothing to the Cause of Caecilian yet the Emperour having caught them in so many Factions and Stories suspects every thing that they say of falshood and therefore writes to his Proconsul to enquire into the matter of Fact upon the place where it was transacted He accordingly Examines all the Officers that had belonged to the Court of Inquisition at Aptung under Dioclesian at which time and place the Fact was laid against Faelix who all acquit him from any such Crime And whereas the main Accusation was taken from some passages in a Letter of one Caecilian a Duumvir of the City of Aptung to Faelix Ingentius a publick Notary confesses That he was hired and suborn'd by the Schismatiques to forge the Epistle and foist it into the Records of the Court. Upon which he is Committed to close Prison and an account of the whole matter return'd to the Emperour who now supposing that after so fowl a discovery if it were made publique over the Christian World it would so shamefully expose the wickedness of the Schismatiques that they could never have the confidence to appear more in a Cause so foul and base But what method to take he could not suddenly resolve one while he thinks of sending Commissioners but then considering the Obstinacy of the Schismaticks he fears nothing will be effectually done but by himself and therefore resolves upon a Journey into Africk to settle the whole matter there but upon what occasion I know not he changes his mind and summons the Parties concern'd to appear before himself at Rome and writes to the present Proconsul Probianus to send Ingentius thither with a good Guard That he might publickly shame those seditious and troublesom People that have the confidence to make continual Clamours and raise false Stories against their Bishop that so these Animosities and Contentions being quell'd the People may be brought to attend the Devotion of the Church with due Reverence and without brawls and discords They are the Emperour 's own words but for what cause 't is not Recorded Caecilian appears not and the Donatists that came either finding themselves discovered by the coming of Ingentius or for some other reason endeavour to make their escape but some of them are detain'd by force and sent in close custody to Milan But those that Recover'd AEgypt raised such Tumults there as put the whole Country into an Uproar of which the Emperour is informed by Celsus the Governor who orders him at present to take no notice of their disorders but to hasten Caecilian and his Accusers to Milan And here I have a strong fancy ought to have come in the mutilated Story of Caecilian's consinement at Brixia in Optatus for as it follows after the Chasm in which the whole Story of the Council of Arles is lost so it agrees with Constantine's account with the variety of his own Resosolutions and the Transactions at Milan For Brixia or Bress lay not far from that City so that both of them might make up the Scene of this Affair And therefore when the Schismatiques gain'd leave to return home and procured Caecilian to be detain'd it was probably upon their dismission upon some change of the Emperour's Resolutions But when they came home they betake themselves to the constant Artifice of all Schismaticks to keep up their Faction by tricks and lyes And therefore they raise mighty brags of their great Victory and tell the People that Caecilian was Condemn'd and Imprison'd by the Emperâ—ur and when once they had raised this lye among the Party it was easie to keep it up for ever insomuch that we find it confidently insisted upon in the Conference at Carthage an hundred years after Upon this Caecilian gets leave to return home for undeceiving the People by which means the Factions are raised and the Tumults enflamed and that occasions two Letters from the Emperor the former to Celsus to send Caecilian and his Accusers the latter dated from Brixia to the Donatist Bishops commanding their immediate appearance and withal assuring them that if they can but make good any one Article against Caecilian it should weigh as much with him as if they had proved the whole Charge and this I suppose produced the Meeting at Milan but whatever becomes of this conjecture of mine and fragment of Optatus it is certain that there they met where all the foul dealings of the Donatists especially the forgery of Ingentius being openly exposed it is needless to tell what was the event when it could be no other then that the Emperor should publickly declare the innocence of Caecilian and scoure away the Schismaticks as a combination of incorrigible Knaves But here St. Austin is concern'd to excuse the Emperour for judging an Ecclesiastical cause after the Episcopal Judicature and a thousand excuses are invented for him
dyed after the Council at Rome and before the Council at Sardica and that agrees exactly with the time of Julius his Letters which could not but strike him to the heart For by this Epistle he saw all his wickedness brought to light and his malice against Athanasius after so much pains and so many deep contrivances miserably defeated And so dyed one of the worst Bishops that ever lived in the Christian Church and Baronius his Character of him in comparing him to Ahab is very just and true though he saw not through half his wickedness that there was none like him before or since who sold himself to the practice of all wickedness in the sight of the Lord though Valesius is of the mind that he dyed a good Christian and wonders at the Cardinals severity against him when he dyed in the Communion of the Roman Church And that is too much the common sense of the men of that Church that whatever men are as to all other things yet if they are but good Roman Catholicks they are good Christians too But if he dyed in its Communion it was because he lived no longer in it for if he had survived till all his Train of Wickedness had been made publick to the Christian World as they would have been in a little time not only the Bishop of Rome but all the Bishops of the World must have denyed all Communion to so great a Villain This is the exactest Narrative of all this Affair that I can discover either by tracing and comparing the Relations out of the Antients of it or the Observations of the Moderns upon it Valesius indeed has used great subtilty to tell the Story another Observ. Eccles in Soc. Soz. way As if Athanasius had been but once at Rome and that there had been but one Council held there about his Business and that both were after the return of the Legates from the Council of Antioch and that it was then that Athanasius was first absolved But in my poor Opinion this learned man might very well have spared his pains when it is so plain from Julius his Letter that Athanasius had been absolved by him before he received the Letter from Antioch and that one of the main heads of the Antiochian Letter was to complain of Julius his irregularity in restoring a man to Communion that they had Excommunicated And yet Valesius says he can find no such thing in the Letter and thus it is a common thing when men are busie in searching after small matters that are difficultly to be discern'd to stumble at such great things as they could not but at another time have observed For otherwise nothing can be plainer then that Athanasius was Canonically absolved before the Antiochian Letters for when they complain'd that Julius had received him to Communion that is proof enough of his Absolution for without that having been once excommunicate he could not have been received to Communion And therefore it is but a poor shift of Valesius to help out his niceness that Pope Julius received him as he did the Eusebians de bene esse till he could enquire into the merits of the Cause For the Eusebians were under no Sentence and therefore were to be received in course but Athanasius being under Censure he could not be received till that was taken off But this is still more evident from the account that Julius gives of the reasons of his Proceedings viz. that having taken an exact Examination of all the particular Accusations against Athanasius and so reckons up the Calumnies and Perjuries one by one he asks them which was most agreeable to the Canons to Condemn him as they had done or absolve him as he had done And if after all this admitting an Accused Person to Communâ—on be not absolution upon legal Process I know not what is And if it is then the Story hitherto runs clear as I have set it down but by Valesius his over nice account it is so involved that I must confess that I cannot trace the Method of the History by it nor reconcile it with the Accounts of the Antients §. XII But Eusebius being dead matters were very little alter'd or amended by his fall for his five Confederates Theognis of Nice Maris of Calcedon Theodorus of Heraclea Ursacius and Valens succeeded him in the Emperours favour and the management of all Affairs And if it were possible these Commissioners Acted with greater violence in deposing and banishing of Bishops then the old Tyrant had ever done insomuch that we immediately find several of the Eastern Bishops in Exile and particularly Paul of Constantinople who poor man was all along second to Athanasius in the Eusebian Perâ—ecution and had suffer'd almost as much from the Ambition of Eusebius as Athanasius had from his malice For Paul having been Canonically chosen Bishop of Constantinople Eusebius had a strong fancy to his Bishoprick and therefore gets Macedonius one of Paul's Presbyters a man of a very factious and fiery temper to bring in a general Accusation against him for an ill liver 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon which meer formality of a general Charge without enquiring after any particular proofs he is thrust out of his See and Eusebius immediately leaps into it Though here the lying Philostorgius says that Eusebius immediately succeeded upon the death of Alexander and suppresses the foul Story of Paul's expulsion but Sandius though he takes notice of it is either so foolish or so impudent as to make use of the Calumny as a just Accusation against the good man at this very day and brings no other Authority for it because he durst not build upon the Testimony of Macedonius but that of ut aiunt i. e. as it is reported which is much worse especially when all good men ever report him to have been a very Religious and Pious Prelate and even Macedonius himself at the very time that he Accused him for form-sake to oblige Eusebius is well known to communicate with him which he ought not to have done had he believed his own Accusation By such little shufflings as these we may see how dully and slightly these Arian Advocates prevaricate with the Records of the Church But to proceed upon the death of Eusebius the Constantinopolitans fetch home Paul against whom the Eusebian Faction set up that Firebrand Macedonius this brings the matter to high Tumults upon which Constantius being then at Antioch sends Hermogenes Master of his Horse to Constantinople to force Paul out of the City but the Rabble taking head he is unfortunately murthered in a Tumult to the great scandal and dishonour of their Cause for which Paul as if he good man had been the Author of the Sedition is banisht and imprisoned and kept in Chains till Constantius was forced to deliver him together with the other banisht Bishops for fear of his Brother Constans who threatned War upon him if he did not restore
here a Courtier whether through ignorance or to divert any farther discourse about the Tyrian Council steps in and swears that he was deposed by the Council of Nice To which the grave Bishop could make no other reply then a scornful smile and so proceeds to represent the foul dealings of the Tyrian Council the Forgeries and Recantations of Valens and Ursacius but here he is again upon a dangerous point and so is again interrupted by the Courtiers with rude and impertinent reflections upon the drift of his discourse and there is an end of all the Conference upon that point The next great Jealousie that they had blown into the Emperours head was that Athanasius had so little Wit Manners and Religion as to have made it a great part of his business to make bate between the Emperour and his Brother and carried it on so effectually that if Constantius had not very much restrain'd his own Passion it had broken out into an open and Fatal War and he is so much possest with this jealousie that he professes that the Victory over Magnentius though he run mad for joy of it was not more acceptable to him then one over Athanasius would be But to this the Bishop replyes That if it were true it was most proper for the Emperour to punish such an Offender at his own Tribunal and not to force the Ecclesiastical Judicature to condemn a Person of any Crime unheard But when nothing will do he has his choice either to subscribe the Condemnation or leave his Bishoprick The first he peremptorily refuses and so is banisht to Beraea in Thrace and Faelix his Arch-Deacon put into his place And here it is again observable that Faelix was no Arian himself but a Stickler for the Nicene Faith only allowing the Arians a capacity of Communion with the Church And that is the thing that I affirm all along to have been the Eusebian Cause not to restore Arianism but to piece up the Peace of the Church by comprehending all in one Communion or by mutual forbearance So that notwithstanding that vehement out-cry that has been hitherto made of the Universal Predominancy of Arianism under Constantius especially at this very moment of time I do not find it hitherto so much as own'd nor any man preferr'd upon the account of his being an Arian Auxentius that was at this very time thrust into the place of Dionysius of Milan has as bad a Character as any man of the time yet St. Hilary himself though he were apt enough to make Arians by Consequences says of him that he always openly disclaim'd Arianism though he suspects that it was because he dâ—rst not own it so that whatever was at bottom it is evident that the Arian Heresie it self in all this Controversie never appear'd at top And those very Bishops that are represented as the most zealous Arians were rather Atheists then Heretiques The Head and Founder of the Party was Eusebius of Nicomedia and what a worthy Saint he was already appears from the Tenour of his whole life But when by his unfortunate favour at Court he had got the Power of the Church into his own hands especially the disposal of Bishopricks and made that the only qualification for Preferment to join with him and his malice against Athanasius in this case it is no wonder if the vilest of Men flockt in to his Party in as great sholes as Irish Evidences to a Plot. And such were Valens and Ursacius Men Educated in Villany and so hardened in their wickedness that they were past shame at its very discovery and when they could not stand out a Perjury they would impudently confess it and then â—ace it out and ask Pardon with as little remorse as modesty and when they had unsworn a Perjury they would the next opportunity swear it all good again And such an one was Epictetus as he is described by Athanasius a Neophite rash and daring and therefore dear to Constantius because he found him prompt and dextrous at all manner of Wickedness and so could by his help ensnare what Bishops he pleased for he would never stick at any thing so it were but acceptable to the Emperour And it is the same Character that is given of Cecropius and Auxentius that they were Men of no worth and prefer'd for no other merit then meerly their dexterity in wickedness to destroy good Men. And such an one was George of Cappadocia who was thrust into the place of Athanasius as he is described by Gregory Nazianzen his Countrey-man the most notorious Villain of the Age He was a Monster bred up in the Borders of our Country of an ill-bred but a worse Temper a Slave and a waiter at other Mens Tables and so of no value that he was sold for a Bushel of Corn and by this baseness he was inured to do or say any thing for Bread till at length he crept into some publick Employment though the vilest that could be to be Hoggard to the Army which he discharged with so much cheating and knavery that he was forced to fly and so wandred up and down the World till at length he setled at Alexandria where though he had made an end of his Travels he did but begin his mischiefs and though he were contemptible in all points of no Learning no Wit no Conversation not so much as pretending to a shew of Piety fit for nothing but to make mischief and disturbance he outed so great a Man as Athanasius and as vile a Wretch as he was presumed to get himself placed in his Episcopal Throne And yet this very Wretch is vehemently recommended to the Alexandrians by the Emperour 's own Letter as one of the best Divines in the World So miserably did his Eunuchs abuse the good meaning of this poor Emperor as to put the vilest of Men into the best of Preferments for Money and as he got it so he used it not like a Bishop but a Publican till his Oppressions cost him his life for which he had the good fortune in the barbarous Ages of the Church to be Canonised among the Principal Saints and Martyrs For in all the timely Records of the Church I can find no other St. George then this And this was the peculiar miscarriage of this Emperour 's unhappy Reign that the Preferments were got into wicked hands and then it is not to be doubted but that wicked Men would get into the Preferments and things were so basely carried at last that nothing seem'd to keep up the good old Eusebian Cause but the advantage that it gave ill Men for Ecclesiastical Plunder and Sequestration But to return to the train of the Story Liberius the Bishop of the great City being dispatcht the last Enemy to be overcome was the great Hosius that Father of Councils who by reason of that high Authority that he had acquired in the Christian Church both by his Age and Wisdom was
able by himself alone to keep up the Orthodox Faith against all the Power of the Emperor And therefore he is Summon'd to Court and courted to join in the Condemnation of Athanasius but he satisfied the Emperor so well by his reasons to the contrary that he is dismist with all Civility but by the importunity of the Eunuchs who feared that this escape would make an ill Precedent he is immediately followed with a furious Epistle commanding him to comply or to expect the fortune of his Companions to which the good old Man nothing daunted returns a bold but yet a civil Answer lays before the Emperor at one view the whole Train of Villany against Athanasius that had been so often proved and then leaves it to himself to consider whether it became his Majesty at that time of the day to suffer himself to be made a Tool by such Perjur'd Wretches as Valens and Ursacius and so in short he denies all compliance and defies his threatnings and upon it he is immediately seized and conveyed to Sirmium and there kept in custody till the meeting of a Council in that City the year following And though the fury of the Emperour 's or rather his Eunuchs Persecution in these European Parts is here somewhat interrupted by the Incursions of the barbarous Nations into Gaul yet he rages so much the more fiercely in AEgypt especially at Alexandria sending Syrianus with some Legions of Soldiers to murther Athanasius who besets his Church in the night where the People were then Assembled and are commanded by Athanasius in the Name of God to depart quietly and himself by a kind of Miracle makes his escape through the body of the Soldiers that had encompassed him at the Altar but he being fled and lying conceal'd in the Deserts Constantius is prevail'd with to put that Learned Divine as he calls him George into his Room but what a notorious Villain he had ever been is already described but now being got into Authority he commits all manner of outrages in the City makes divers slaughters in the Churches themselves imprisons Virgins Widows and Orphans seizes on the Orthodox Christians by night and throws them into Goal ejects all Bishops throughout AEgypt and Lybia that refuse to subscribe the Condemnation of Athanasius and of these some he banishes others he imprisons in short he sweeps all away before him like a Land-flood and bears away all the Orthodox Clergy out of their Possessions in the Church Athanasius reckons up no less then Ninty Bishops ejected in AEgypt whereof Sixteen were banisht But the worst of all is still behind their Bishopricks are sold to Heathens Soldiers or any Chapmen that would bid most Money for them and so all ill Men of what Profession or Religion soever or rather of none at all crowded into the Party for the purchase of a Bishoprick and so was the whole Church put into the hands of wicked and debauch't Men who could do no service in it but in the way of out-rage and cruelty and in short the sury of this Persecution through all Africk is described by Athanasius not only to have equall'd but exceeded any of the Heathen Persecutions both for rudeness and cruelty But still himself was the Man aim'd at in it all great rewards are promised by publick Edicts to the Man that shall slay him and blood-hounds are sent out into all Parts to scent out his Form but by a great wonder of Providence he lyes undiscovered all the time of Constantius And in this retirement he did himself and the World that right as to write those two excellent Discourses in his own Vindication viz. his Epistle to the Monks and his first Apology to Constantius in both which he has with that clearness of Reason and evidence of Record laid open the wickedness of the Eusebians in the contrivance of all his Troubles from the time of the Council of Nice to that very day that it is not so properly an History as a Demonstration for he has related nothing that he has not proved by undeniable Records And the truth of it is he is the only valuable Historian of his own Actions for all the Historians are so confused in their account of him that as they are not to be at all trusted when they differ from him so are they very little to be relied upon in any Report that is not vouch't by his Authority §. XV. Thus far has this long Controversie been carried on between the Eusebians and the Abâ—ttors of the Nicene Faith but now the Arian Cause is again brought upon the Stage in another guise by Photinus Bishop of Sirmium who revives the old exploded Heresie of Paulus Samosatenus that differs from Arianism only in this one Circumstance That it affirms the Son of God not to have been Created till the time of his Nativity whereas Arius will have him to have been the first-born of all Creatures yet they both agree in the main Poison of the Heresâ—e That he was a Being Created out of Nothing and then it is not much material in it self how soon or how late it was brought to pass But yet however this new-vampt Hypothesis appearing more bold and tending to bring down the Son of God into the same rank with every ordinary Son of a Woman whereas Arius allowed him great share in the Creation of the Universe and an eminency of Power and Dignity over all other Creatures This therefore alarms all Parties Catholicks and Eusebians and a Council is call'd at Sirmium for its Condemnation And here the Learned Petavius is as over-nice to disturb the plain History of this Council as I have shewn Valesius to have been in reforming the History of the Council at Rome and the Absolution of Athanasius For as he there took a great deal of pains to make but one Council of two so has our Learned Jesuite here to make two of one For though there is mention of no more then one in all the Ancient Records of the Church yet he has lately found out another that he says has hitherto lain buried under the ruins of St. Hilary's Fragments but alas they are so imperfect and confused that nothing can with any assurance be built upon their single Testimony much less upon remote inferences from them which yet is all the light that this Learned Man is able to strike out of that Rubbish Neither indeed is it tanti to spend so much Learning upon such a lean and barren Enquiry for whether there were two or one Sirmian Councils they were call'd upon the same Errand and as I shall prove were of the same mind and what that is we sufficiently know by the Records of that which he would have to be the second whereas the most that we can know of the first beside this is only that there was such a Council and if that be all I cannot see what Temptation the Learned Man could have to be so proud of his
complaint of St. Hilary and the oppress 't Catholiques so wrought with the Emperor that notwithstanding his outrage against them because his Affairs in France were then embroil'd by the Incursions of the Barbarous Nations he publishes that seemingly kind Rescript in Answer to their Request Mansuetudinis nostrae lege prohibemus in Judiciis Episcopos accusari c. Commanding that the Accusations of Bishops should not be brought before Secular Magistrates lest it should give too much encouragement to wicked Men to oppress them with slanders and therefore if any Man have a complaint against them let it be Examin'd before the Bishops that so every cause might be determin'd by its proper Judicature This is a singular Law and has scarce any other parallel with it in the whole Code for though there are divers Laws of other Emperors that refer all Controversies about Religion to the Episcopal Audience yet as for the Criminal causes of Ecclesiastical Persons I do not remember any beside this that wholly exempted them from the cognisance of their own Courts And therefore that this Emperor should grant such an Universal exemption seems a courtesie more then ordinary and is thought to have been meerly extorted by the importunity of the Catholick Bishops and the present difficulty of his own Affairs And that they then insisted upon the exemption of Ecclesiastical Persons as well as Causes it was for a reason peculiar to the State of the Controversie at that time that was then managed not so much by Arguments as Accusations though that weapon was chiefly employed against the great Athanasius into whose single Person the Controversie was at last contracted and the Parties were distinguisht by nothing but subscribing and refusing his Condemnation For he being the great Pillar of the Catholick Cause the Eusebians knew well enough that if they could but blow him up the cause must fall with him and for that reason is it that they all along labour'd so hard to overwhelm him with Criminal Accusations And therefore the Catholicks perceiving their fraud interposed as vehemently in defence of Athanasius as of their Faith because all the blows that were levell'd at him were supposed to aim at that insomuch that to subscribe his Condemnation was the same thing as to quit the Party as we have seen in the case of Pope Liberius And for this reason chiefly it was necessary at that time that the Emperor if he would refer the Ecclesiastical Controversie then on foot to the Bishops he should do the same as to the Criminal Causes of the Clergy because they were then universally join'd together And yet as kind as this Law might appear to be in relieving them from the oppressions of the Imperial Courts it was but a fraudulent favour and only design'd to ensnare the Catholicks For this gracious Rescript was publisht in the same year in which he call'd the violent Council at Milan that was on purpose packt out of the fiercest Eusebians to carry things thorough with an high hand and without any contradiction So that when in this Rescript he refer'd the Orthodox Bishops to an Ecclesiastical Judgment he designed nothing but their Oppression in this mad Council and that it is evident was so far from any kindness that it was the sharpest severity he could have contrived against them For if they had just ground of complaint against the unjust actings of the Secular Courts because they were not their proper Judicatures yet when they were so rudely outraged in Council as it was done in the proper Court so was it at their own request and that both took away all ground of complaint and left them without any means of relief Gothofred has a Conjecture that this Rescript was Enacted not before but after the Council and that in favour of the Eusebians who were overcome by the Orthodox at their own weapon of Accusation and yet by the partiality of the Council were protected whilst the Catholicks were oppressed and denyed the very formalities of Justice this says the Learned Man might provoke them to make their Appeals to the Secular Courts where they might at least hope to meet with some humanity and regard to the Laws And therefore the Emperor to spoil this shift brings them all back to the Ecclesiastical Judicature that if they would come thither there they might be heard but no where else But this contradicts the whole state of Affairs at that time when the partiality and oppression of the Secular Judges was the universal Groan of the Catholicks and when this Rescript was enacted upon or at least after their reiterated complaints against it and therefore there is no ground to imagine that the Catholicks how much soever oppressed in Council would think of seeking relief there But whatever was the intent of the Rescript and no doubt it was malicious enough it is certain that it was at least pretended to be granted upon the complaint of the Catholicks against the Secular Courts for taking to themselves the Judgment of Controversies of Faith whereas they ought to have referred them to the Synods of Bishops whom our Saviour had appointed to be the proper Guides and Judges in those matters And that is the meaning of Hosius and the rest in their reproofs of the Emperor not that he used his Authority in the Church but that he abused it by opposing it to the determination of a general Council by whose advice he ought both as a wise Man and a good Christian to have been directed in the use of his Power in such matters And that was the grand miscarriage of his Reign that he would not sit down satisfied under the Authâ—ntique and Solâ—mn determination of so great a Council which if he had done as his Father did he had escaped all that tedious risk of trouble which he created both to himself and to the Church through his whole Reign But however it is evident from all the Premisses that how enormously soever he abused his own Power in the Church he never attempted to Usurp the Churches Power and he never took upon him to make any Alterations in the Faith till they were first made and decreed in Council and though he destroyed the Use and Authority of Councils by denying freedom of Vote yet that was an abuse of his Power not an usurpation of theirs For that he ever own'd with a Religious regard in his most unwarrantable Oppressions And as I have observed at the beginning he shewed greater respect to the Power of the Church then any Emperor in the whole Succession when he called such sholes of Councils only to have his Will of one Man and one Word which he durst not controul himself because they had been own'd and justified by the Churches Authority And if we carefully observe his motions we shall find him a cordial friend both to the Church and to Religion and the end of all his mistaken Zeal was the lasting settlement of Peace and Concord that was