their faithfull obedience vnto all the Ostrogotti who did raigne in Italie among the which Theodoricke was so respected of the Sea of Rome chiefly of Pope S. Hormisda that they had almost canonized him as is written There was no seruice whereinto they did not obey those princes if they had any occasion to send any Embassadours they did vndergoe it as Pope Innocent the first tooke a legation from Alarico to the Emperour Honorius to negotiat his peace and to obtaine a dignitie to that Arrian King And further to declare how sacred they did hold their obedience to whatsoeuer King God did place ouer them they did vndertake Embassages from Arrian Princes in fauour of Artian Churches for conseruation of Arrians and in case of excommunication as Iean the second and Pope Agapet were imployed by Theodoric and Theodotus Now to him who will answere to this that these Princes were not excommunicate therefore the Church did serue them I replie that there was greater cause to excommunicate them then nor nowadayes is taken against Christian Princes and which is more we find the letters of Hormisda and others to Anastase as full of honor and respect as if he had beene free from the sentence of excommunication and of Gregorie the second to the Emperour Leon Iconomachus albeit he was excommunicate by that same Pope himselfe which things we must not imagine to haue bin done at randome or pro tempore but from good warrant appearantly since the iurisdiction spirituall is onely ouer the soules of men Church gouâ—…rnours ought not to transcend their ordinary bounds to meddle with the bodies or temporall states of Kings but their Fulmen Ecclesiasticum the thunder of excommunication should bee onely spirituall and like vnto the naturall thunder which can strike a man to the death without the meanest offence done vnto the apparell of his body For I would aske the Iesuite albeit the Church haue power ouer the Kings soule if it be so that they might rashly excommunicate him what right haue they for this ouer his kingdome and people If they haue why did Saint Paul in his time cry Querimus vos non vestra And why hath Saint Ambrose and Optatus Mileuitanus in his third booke Aduersus Parmenianum said That Emperours and Kings be within the Church but that the Empire is without it yea say they the Church is within the Empire in token that Antiquitie did exempt things temporall from the dint of excommunication when Pope Marcelline did sacrifice to Idols and Pope Honorio became a Monothelet Hereticke they were excommunicate but did not loose their Bishopprickes Pope Formose Bishop of Port was chosen successor to the same Pope who had excommunicate him And in the Counsell holden at Lions vnder Pope Gregorie the tenth it was concluded that Cardinals albeit excommunicate might assist the Pope his election by their vote and presence So modest were the Fathers in the point of Princely authoritie that Paulus Samosetanus against whom the Councell of Carthage was conuocate being deposed from Episcopall charge hee did yet possesse a certaine territory belonging to the Church but these Bishops demanded iustice thereof of the Emperour Aurelian albeit an Ethnicke because all that was ciuill and worldly did belong vnto the Empire The Church saith Augustine vpon Saint Iohn doth possesse no patrimonie nor goods but Iure humano Iure diuino she hath nothing This Iure humano is the Right Imperiall of Princes which being vsurped of any other it hath no more Title nor right vpon earth saith he So was it the constant meaning and doing of the ancient Fathers to thinke that they had nothing which they might refuse vnto the Emperours but the onely house of God Nor yet that saith Ambrose if I were assured that the Emperour speaking of Valens would not plant Arrians into it in which case onely I would presse to retaine it O what difference betwixt that and this blind ambitious and impudent age wherein Church rulers make open doctrine and profession to Master Princes lawfull and orthodoxall and to â—…reade vpon their neckes holie antiquitie would not aduenture to take from an excommunicate Bishop an house belonging to the Church but by the authoritie of the Emperour nor would not resiste the Emperoer by violence for the Temple of God to ane hereticke king although it were to giue it to heriticall pastoures whereas the plaine guyse of this time is to be Piscatores piscium non hominum and to abuse excommunication and the papall Thunder to spoyle a king of his cloathes to dethrone him of his kingdomes and to make him naked of his subiects Thirdlie we doe obserue of the primitiue Church that whensoeuer she did enioy good and godly Emperours they did not onelie not repute them as priuate members of the Church iudicable by the power Ecclesiasticall but contrarie they hold them chiefe members of their generall counsels vnder their misticall head Iesus Christ yeelding to them the authoritie of conuocation and whole exteriour Iurisdiction giuing them the tittle of common and externall Bishopes For we reade in Eusebius that Constantine the great was called so of the Church and said to bee brother vnto the fathers in which qualitie of a common Bishop he did exercise his power ouer the Church exteriorlie and ouer Bishops In like maner we find that in the Calcedonian councel the Emperour was called vniuersall Bishops yea Antiquitie did esteme no counsell supreame wherein an Emperour did not sit and praesidiat In all the appellationes of the primitiue Church which forme of Iudicatore is fittest to try where the maine sway of authoritie doth lie because it was absolute soueraigne and without declinatour hauing power against the Tyrannous gouernment of Popes against discords of other Prelats against vniust decrees of counsels themselues In all these appellations I say we finde that none was esteemed supreame but that wherein the Emperour did ouer rule as the only power vpon earth which is in dependant The first appellation we reade of in the Church was by Cyrillus Bishoppe of Ierusalem from the condemnatorie of one Counsel to another more general assisted sayth he with Seculare brachium with seculare power which he called a prouocation vnto a greater Iudgemement And so his cause was examined in the counsell of Seleucia As for the cause of Athanasius which did preceed that it was rather a remission of the processe to the counsell of Sardiâ—… then an appeale and went alwaies by the direction will of the Emperour Constantine to whom Saint Anthony write diuers letters directlie praying him for the restitution of Athanasius Saint Iohn Chrisost. in a second appellation did prouoke in the same tearmes with Cyrill to a higher iudge a more generall counsell assisted with imperiall authoritie as it cleare by a third appellation of Dioscorus Bishop of Alexandria the time of the counsell of Calcedon in which appeale he doth expresselie protest that the coniunction of the imperiall
authoritie of a sacred Emperour declaring therby that in the poynts of externall policy he did esteeme them as men ordinary subiects whō in their spiritual functions he had counted as Gods The same authoritie was practised by Charlemaine who in his time did conuocate eight Councels and by his sonne Lewis Debonnaire who did assemble one And to shew it more plainely that this power to conuocate was Imperiall and not Episcopall we read how all the Popes of those dayes did write to Emperours for that effect Pope Innocent sent to Honorius fiue Bishops two Priests to obtaine a Councell for the restitution of Saint Iohn Chrysostome as we read in Euagrius Pope Leo doth beseech Valentine the third to obtaine of Theodose the yonger a Councell against Eutiches and in token that the Popes did not so much as pretend this power to assemble wee finde in Sozemene that Pope Iulius complaines onely that the Bishops of the Orient did not inuite him to the Councell of Antioch saying that a law of the Church prouided that no Decree should passe without the opinion asked of the Bishop of Rome And in Theoderet Pope Damasus makes the same complaint and in the same termes against the councel of Arimini in which such honour was done to the Emperour Constantius and such reuerence to his authoritie that the Fathers conuened there being detayned too long and being pressed to put downe some Decrees which were not orthodoxall they durst not for all that depart vntill they had the Emperours leaue and permission Further now will wee obserue the very internall Iurisdiction of the Church and that which is meerely spirituall to wit the sentence of Excommunication and how it was exercised we doe finde two things in that one is we shall not see that the primitiue Church did excommunicate any Emperour or King albeit there were more occasion against them nor is now contained in the great Bul of the holy Thursday which is yeerely published at Rome against Christian Kings and States Constantius and Valeus persecuting heretikes Trinitaries who would haue forced the Fathers to confessions against the Catholike faith were not excommunicate Theodose the second and Valentinian the third Eutichean heretikes were not excomunicate Basilieius enemie to the Councell of Calcedon Iustinian and of Kings Chilpericke King of France infected with Arrianisme Theodoricke King of Gothes Atalarichus Theodotus Vittiges and many others of whom none was excommunicate no not Iulian the Apostata nor Valentinian the second who fell in an heresie three seuerall times nor Iustinian who fell twise no when they had banished Popes themselues for wee read in an Epistle of Pope Siluerius that beng banished by Belizarius at the command of Iustinian his Master he assembled certaine Bishops to excommunicate Belizarius but did not so much as murmurre against Iustinian by whose direction he was persecuted Neither yet if they did kill a Bishop a◅ Valens who caused some of them to be drowned Secondly we obserue on this point of Excommunication that Bishops in the primitiue Church did excommunicate by the consent and permission Imperiall for Princes fearing that Church Rulers should abuse the spirituall sword made an ordinance repeated afterwards by Iustinian that no person should bee excommunicate vnlesse the cause of their sentence were before the Emperour cleerely prooued to be agreeable to the will and meaning of the holy Spirit which Saint Augustine doth expressely acknowledge in an Epistle to Boniface saying that the Church doth exercise her power against heretikes vnder the permission and power of Kings Some Bishops haue questioned hardly with Emperours as a Bishop did commaund Phillip the Emperour that hee should not enter into the Church but remaine without in the place of the Penitentiaries Saint Ambrose Bishop of Milane dealt right so with Theodosius the great but they did not pronounce any Excommunication maior against them for then they would not haue enioyned them penance if they had beene without the bosome of the Church As for Anastatius albeit some Churches as that and the Church of Ierusalem did excommunicate him yet he was euer in peace and vnion with numbers of Catholike Churches in the Orient which did declare that it was not magnum anathema but rather a t◅merarious Act howsoeuer this be such two or three exceptions will not serue against one ordinarie rule for then to meete these we finde in like manner three extraordinarie acts of Imperiall authoritie which caused excommunicate or eiect the Popes Xistus the third of that name suspected for adulterie was excommunicate by commaundement of Valens the third Theodoricke King of Gothes did eiect from the Church Pope Symmachus And the people of Rome vnder the Magistrates did forbid Pope Pelagius the assembly of the Church besides Saint Iohn Chrysostome deposed and expelled from his Church by Arcadius As for the excommunication of Arcadius done by Pope Gelasius it is doubted of in the Ecclesiasticall histories but I doe not speake of such extrauagant acts but of that which was ordinarily followed whereby it is still verified that the whole sway of Iurisdiction Ecclesiasticall was in the Emperors The Conuocation was due to them the processe went by their permission and consent their persons were exempted from excommunication as wee haue heard which bee three maine points of soueraigne Commandement For the fourth which is the confirmation of the Popes it was also due to the Emperours Constantius the sonne of Constantine hee banished Liberius and erected Pope Felix in his place yea farther hee recalled that good Prelate did establish him with the other Theodosius the great a great pillar of the Church by the right Emperiall he setled at Rome together with a Pope a Bishop of a diuers religion I thinke for satisfaction of a mutinous people Laeonius in his time was Bishop of Rome for the Church of the Nouatianes Honorius his son again comming into Italie while Boniface and Eulalius did contend for the Pontificat he chased them both away and after placed Boniface making lawes against such ambicious competences Iulius Nepos the tyrant ouercomming Glicerius the Emperour he made him Pope as Euagrius doth recorde for some hold that he made him onelie Bishop of Milane because he is not found in the catalogue of the Popes Odoacre king of the Horoli being master of Rome he made an ordinance at the solistation of Pope Simplicius and to the imitation of proceeding Emperours That no Pope should be exalted without the consent of Emperiall authoritie When the Emperours had recouered Rome from the Goths Iustinian did not only eiect Vigilius but made him come to Constantinople to be iudged offering to the people of Rome his Arch-deacon Pelagius whereupon they thanked the Emperour willing him to suffer Vigilius and after his death to establish whom he pleased which right did so continue with the seate imperiall that Saint Gregorie the greate durst not honour himselfe with his titles before he had receaued the imperiall confirmation of
of his Church and a conspicuous marke of his extraordinarie grace vouchsafed vpon this great Kingdome I say extraordinarie for if the Papall Bishops while they doe impugne the truth of Gods word forbidding marriage to authorise the doctrine of their coelibat they do not the lesse contaminate the same with lewd and open pollutions and your Grace all in contrarie while you doe stand for the Euangelicall libertie of Matrimanie you doe in the meane time by the puritie of your life practise the perfection of the cloysterrall Caelibat taking vnto you that religious word of the more innocent and vertuous ages Si placet licet I thinke it is a cleere mirrour wherein the world may see that it is the good spirit of God who doeth freely distribute his extraordinarie giftes to such faithfull Prelates as worship him according to the trueth of his word and that no vsurped authoritie of Popish or humane traditions can doe so much And since there is no better meanes to make your GRACES Excellent and spirituall partes tanquam Thus redolens in Templo Domini as was said of that worthie Priest Symon Onia to smell as a sweete perfume in the LORDS house then by continuing your delight to cherish the studie of vertue where it is found in the most remote partes of the land which is indeede a sauorie presage of that perfect vnitie which God doeth dispose to bee in the whole Church of the same Therefore let it please your GRACE to receiue these first and tender Seedes of my publike Seruice to God to my most Sacred Soueraigne PRINCE and to this Common-wealth whereof you are the first vitall member and so to nourish them by the kindly ayre of your vertuous spirit that they may bee found to produce a happie fruite that is to say a fruite which hath not aborted nor hurt his bearer by vntimely partting with it but comming to maturitie prooueth wholesome to all those who taste it and leaueth the Tree in full vigour and reputation Your Graces humble and affectionate sermant P. Hay TO THE CHRISTIAN READER CHristian and curteous Reader this Treatise which I haue framed for the glory of God the comfort of his Church and the seruice of this common-weale wherein wee liue why it is Intituled A vision of Balaams Asse you may perceiue in the entry thereof It containeth in speciall these three First the cause of my voluntary recantation of Popery Secondly a cleere discouery of the tyranny of Rome mounted in our time to her Meridian or Altitude And of the treacherous trade and doctrine of the Iesuite who doth falsly maintaine the Papall Soueraigntie tending to the ouerthrow of Christian Princes and states Thirdly a discourse of the apparant approach of her reformation or downefall and of the probable meanes whereby the Lord God doth dispose the restitution of Christian people from the spirituall captiuity of this Babel with a sincere exhortation to you to honour aswell the meanes as the instruments whom God doth pointforth for the aduancement of this great worke as you haue them here set downe in particular In the which exhortation if any thing be that vpon the suddaine seemeth distastfull to you I do entreate you that you will not for that rashly reiect it but do taste it againe and againe remembring how oftentimes disgusts do grow rather by the distemper of our sence then by any fault which is in our meats As a diseased person must for the sake of his health controle his naturall appetite and as nature in generall who seldome doth erre by offering violence vnto her particular members for her common benefite doth proue a good Physitian to her selfe So if wee cannot straine our priuate humours for a publike weale wee are senselesse and cauterized members of the commonweale and our diseases when they come they shall be desperate and deadly It was a worthy saying of him who spake so Omnis magna lex habet aliquid iniquitatis that euery great law had something of iniquitie in it not that any expresse iniustice was in the law but because when so many liue within their own Spheares onely to themselues without respect to the commonwealth it is impossible to establish any great law which shall not bring displeasure to those particular members whose actions are not ruled by common equity common reason or common good If we doe grudge against our lawes or our lawgiuers because they are not pleasant to our peculiar taste we be farre inferiour in true vertue to the Ethnicks who thought it the chiefest mark of their vertuous mind and their greatest glory to remit proper losses proper grudges and proper opinions to the common wealth The precise Cato Vticensis who might haue brooked the first dignities vnder Iulius Caesar because it was not to his mind he chose rather to die then to liue distracted in opinion from the state That vpright Philosopher Socrates hauing in his choice to be banished or to die he embraced death saying that a man cast off from his common wealth was no more a man Is it not strange then amongst vs in whom that obscure light of nature which onely did guide them is made celestiall by the diuine splendor of Gods reuealed word to see that a Christian Pastor before he will quit singularitie of opinion and singularity of name to our common wealth spirituall to the peace and credit of our Church conforming himselfe to orthodoxall lawes established by the authoritie of a most Christian Prince a setled Church and well gouerned state he will first choose either to liue at home a seditious tribune In perpetuo obstrepitâ—… or a trasfuga exiled from his natiue countrey Certainely where there is no perfect vnitie there can be no perfect peace nor perfect loue and consequently no Church because these are the whole scope of the Euangell and of all true Religion Vnanimitie is the bond which maketh the Church strong Ecce circumdedi te vinculis saith God in Ezechiel Behold I haue hedged you about with bands It is the knot and sinnewes which tye the members of Christ together in one body and therfore is so diligently recommended by him to his Apostles and so oftentimes figured to vs in the old Testament by tipes By the vestiment of the high Priest wherof euery thing was tied to another all being but one piece By the Tabernacle wherof euery thing was iointed in an other the whole standing in coniunction for wee bee so called in the Apocal. Ecce tabernaculum Dei cum heminibus habitabit cuâ—…ijs The Tabernacle of God which dwelleth among men By the vessels whereof so many as were not closed together but were open in diuers pieces they were said by the spirit of God to bee vncleane as we see in the Booke of Numbers We are the vessels who be made by the hand of our heauenly Potter of whom Saint Paul saith Alia quidem in honorem alio verò vasa in contumeliam If we be
with such personages did grauut him Indulgences very large and bountifull that one would haue thought the ports of hell was not able to preuaile against them and when the Dukes Medalls and Beads came to be blessed vpon the Popes Altar according to the forme there was no famous Whore in Rome who had not also numbers put in for her saying which I haue heard with mine eares The French Indulgences should procure them both English and Spanish money This kinde of Marchandise and publike sale of sinnes is vsed in so lewd and vile a manner that the most simple man in the world would count it to bee a scuruie ridiculous inuention of insatiable auarice During my being at Rome there hapned to dye there a rich Venetian Merchant who left in Legacy a good summe of money to that Church standing vpon the Monte di Trinita for celebration of his Funeralls and seruices for his soule the same day which was appointed for those Funerall Offices I did finde my selfe soone in the morning vpon that Mount because it is a fresh and delectable walke when a number of Fryers with great Torches comming to enter into the Church was demanded of a Gentleman of Rome who was beside me whither they did goe to whom one of them did answere Andiamo cauare del purgatorio Láâ—…ima di quel mercadante Venetiano chi morse láltro iorno which is to say translated sincerely we go to hale out of Purgatory the soule of that Venecian Merchant who died the last day The GentlemaÌ„ replied in bitter speech against the Pope calling him Cuillione Morbidotto which be ignominious conteÌ„ptible words because saith hee hee doth not keepe in Purgatory to the worlds end all those wretched soules of Uenice who doe so disturbe the Apostolike Seat for it was in the meane time of those late broyles betwixt the Pope and the Venetians Can any iest in the world be more worthy of derision then this or any thing more like the pittifull Idolatry of the Gentiles where the Priests made the sensles people to thinke there was no way to make their gods propitious but by their rich Offerings This sort of doing is so frequent there that we see no other businesse and if it be true which they hold Quel che fa sua santita è fatto that which the Popes Holinesse doth is done certaine all those of those Countries must bee in heauen before their feete be cold as wee say because the most wicked and godlesse among them neuer departeh this life but laden with Pardons And this farre I thinke is enough to prooue that the abuse is not onely authorised but as it were married with Religion seeing vpon the meanes thereof they doe found Cloystrall societies And this onely speaking de facto for to reason Quo iure these are practised it is Theologicall alwaies the most learned among them haue said to me touching the Popes power Ilnostro signore è dio sopta la terra Our Lord the Pope he is God vpon earth hee may dispence what hee will Yea say they if the question were to marry the King of Spaine to an hereticall Princesse the Pope will first dispense him to marry his owne Sister Is not this to go aboue the power of God who hath said of his holy Law that a jot thereof shall not perish not be changed Well to vrge Theologicall Arguments I will not but I remit your Lordship to search-the Scriptures to see who it is there that doth sit in the Church of God and exalt himselfe aboue all that is called God And now I appeale to the diuine light of your Lordships conscience whether you doe not thinke that the contemplation of so grosse things first such Ethnicke Idolatry that while Paul and Barnabas being aliue did teare their cloathes and runne vpon the people because they would haue adored them saying they were but men like vnto themselues Now so much adoration must bee done to the Statues of their dead bodies that one shall not enter within Saint Peters Church at Rome but we must kneele to salute him where hee sits in brasse we must lay our head vnder his feete and kisse euery one of his toes seuerally Then such impious and base auarice in this trade of Purgatory and Indulgences that in their Camera de Componendis there sitteth Simon Magus vnder the name of Simon Peter making sale of the Spirit of God for money of the mercies of God of remission of sinnes and the Kingdome of heauen and that with such insatiable hands that if euer I who came from a remote Countrey to honour the Apostolicall Seat would giue him largely for dispensation hee would willingly embrace it as who knowes what I did pretend to bee the more assured I appeale to your Lordships conscience whether you thinke those were not sufficient to breede doubts of Religion in any man in whom God hath left a sparke of his feare or one graine of right knowledge Assuredly they mooued me to great iealousie and they were to me as the first sight of the Angell was to the poore Asse of Balaam terror albeit I confesse sincerely the strong opinion which I had drunken so long before the plausible shew of things did for a while violently hold me into the same way as Balaam did force his Asse to goe on after the first sight of the Angell But when I begun to looke vpon the manners of the people and to consider what were the faults which were so ordinarily and easily pardoned which is the third thing in number of those which I most narrowly obserued what shall I say I know not how to speake the trueth and therewith to prouide that my penne be not slandered for contumelies and Philippicke passions alwayes I shall so limitate my selfe that I shall not blot so graue a purpose with an humour of rayling or shamelesnesse In the day of visitation and punishment I shall beginne at my sanctuary saith the Lord and wherefore is this because Regis ad exemplum totus componitur orbis as the Prelates be so are the people the example of the Rulers makes the manners of the multitude as the Spirit of God doth testifie by the Prophet Daniel Egressa est iniquitas à Senioribus ab ijs qui videbantur regere populum Iniquitie hath gon out from the Elders and those who seemed to gouerne the people For this cause in a iust censure of the manners of Rome it cannot be auoided first to looke vpon the Court wherein is to bee seene such fastuous and intollerable pompe and such a degree of glory as hath neuer beene vsurped by any earthly Monarch to behold the maiestie of the Papall carriage borne one mens shoulders auro fulgens smaragdis shining amidst gold and Iewels those who beare him treading vpon fine cloth wherewith the Church pauement is couered accompanied with a fearefull guard the thundering of Canons the sound of trumpets and all
authoritie doth make the highest iurisdiction which cannot be denyed when all the authorities on earth are conioyned there can be nothing aboue that So we reade that Constantius did determine the processe of Saint Athanasius as his father Constantine had designed to doe before for he sent his will touching it vnto the Bishops assembled in the counsell of Tyre with the gouernour Archilaus who did sit and preside in the counsell yet in the ende the Empreour would needes banish that good father into Trâ—…ues After that againe Honoratus the gouernour with some other senatours assisted the counsell conueened in the cause of Aetius and in the counsell of Calcedon the Senatours brought thither by Ualentinian the third and Marcian did coniunctlie with the fathers iudge a great number of Bishops whose requests presented to the Empreour for that effect are yet to be read in the histories and if any man will say that these were but priuate Bishopes who were censured of the Emperours let him remember that Constantius did iudge and condemne to exile Pope Liberius at least he gaue Commission to do the same vnto Bishop Ursatius that Sextus the third did vnderly a criminall iudgement of Valentinian the third assisted with numbers of Ciuill Magistrates fortie eight Priests sixe Deacons That Iustinian made the processe of Pope Siluerius and banished him and of his successor Pope Vigilius accused of treason that Theodoricke King of Gothes did erercise the same iustice against Pope Symmachus assembling a Counsell where the whole Bishops did remit themselues vnto the wisedome of the Emperour And Gregorie the great behooued he not to purge himselfe to Mauricius the Emperor of a disorder fallen out at Rome and of the death of Bishop Malcus did he not in his ordinary letters to the Emperours stile them his Signiors and Masters how like to that is it that Rome is now become Naufragium Principum the rocke vpon the which Kings make shipwracke and the bloodie stage whereupon they act their Tragedies And this touching the forme of Ecclesiasticall iudicatorie in the Primatiue Church As for the power of Conuocation that it was granted to Princes as Soueraigns in the exterior policie of the Church it is as manifest we haue the testimonie of Ruffinus vpon the first Counsell of Nice hee saith it was assembled by Constantine the great with the aduise of the Fathers And Eusebius in the life of this Emperour for calling of this Counsell he doth not so much as mention any letter of the Pope Siluester solliciting the same contenting himselfe to say this Counsell was assembled by the honourable letters of the Emperour as a puissant armie of Christ Iesus in the which he did praeside glorying to call himselfe a common Bishop among them As for the Counsell of Laâ—…dicea Sard Selâ—… Arimini Millane and Rome which were not vniuersall Socrates and Sozemen doe testifie that they were conuocate by the onely commaundement of the Emperour Constant hereticke Arrian the same Authors beare witnesse that the second Counsell of Constantinople generall was assembled by the authoritie of Theodose the great and that of Ephesus by Theodose the yonger and that of Calcedon consisting of 630. Fathers by Valentinian the third and Martian of the fift Counsell was not the honour due to Iustinian and of the sixt to Constantine Wherein were excommunicate Pope Honorio Theodore Bishop of Phare Syrus Bishop of Alexandria heretickes monothelites these two preceeding Counsels are onely comprehended in one called Quinta Sexta Synodus because their decrees were not ample and seuerally particularised Alwayes we reade that the Emperour Constantine sent his letters to Pope Donus requiring him to direct his Legates vnto this Counsell and after his death Pope Agathâ—… his successor when he sent to haue the confirmation of his pontificat from him hee promised that his Legate should come to that Counsell conuocate by the Emperour As for the sixt Counsell Oecumenicke holden at Constantinople in Trullo was it not assembled by Iustinian the second The seuenth concerning the impugnation of images was conuocate by the authoritie of Constantine the sonne of Irene and so foorth through all the rest vntill the Empire became feeble and dismembred which power those Emperours did so absolutely keepe and vse ouer the externall policie of the Church that Theodose the great had once intended to conuocate an vniuersall Counsell of all nations and all sects of Religion to purge the Church from all sorts of schismes and heresies And this is the reason why Socrates in the entrie of the fift booke of his Historie saith he is constrained to introduce the Emperors because after their being Christians they did conuocate the generall Counsels and carrie the sway of Ecclesiasticall gouernement And this is the cause why Augustine in his ninth Epistle De correctione Donatistarum saith when it begun to be fulfilled which is written Et adorabunt eum omnes Reges Terrâ—… when Emperours and Kings became Christians then saith he what man can be so absurd as to say vnto Kings haue no rule of Gods Church within your kingdomes This it is which made Pope Leo to write to Leo Augustus wishing him deepely to consider that Royall power was not onely giuen to him Ad mundi Regimen sed praecipue ad Ecclesia not onely for the rule of the world but more of the Church as Isodâ—…re saith That whither the policie or peace of the Church bee diminished or aduanced vnder Princes they are to render count unto the Lord Qui ab ijs exiget rationem Ecclesiae sua quam corum potestati tradiderat who shall demaund from them an accompt of his Church which he hath committed to their power In Nouellis Constitutionibus 124. The truth thereof is so cleerely verified in the whole practise of this Primitiue Church that the Epistles Synodals of the first Counsell of Nice those holy Bishops did write them in this stile For as much say they as by the grace of God and by the commandement of the most sacred Emperour Constantine the great this holy Counsell hath beene assembled without any mention at all of Pope Siluester his letters the same tenor is obserued in the Synodall Epistle of the Counsell of Trullo where the Fathers did prayse Iustinian the second because he had assembled them foorth of diuers nations to the imitation of Christ who sought so carefully the straying sheepe in the mountaine This authoritie Temporall ouer the Church was exercised euen by Constantine the great himselfe who was the greatest zealator of the Church of any Emperour and who called them Gods in the Church so long as they did minister the Sacraments and holy things yet when he commeth after that to speake of the subiection and duetie of euery Bishop to him in that letter which he wrote for the assemblie of the Counsell of Tyre he saith that they should conueine vnder the paine of exile and that hee should teach all disobedient Bishops to know that they must liue vnder the