Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bishop_n	council_n	emperor_n	2,330	5	7.2461	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28444	The oracles of reason ... in several letters to Mr. Hobbs and other persons of eminent quality and learning / by Char. Blount, Esq., Mr. Gildon and others.	Blount, Charles, 1654-1693.; Burnet, Thomas, 1635?-1715. Archaeology philosophicae.; Gildon, Charles, 1665-1724.; H. B.	1693 (1693)	Wing B3312; ESTC R15706	107,891	254

especially the Eastern Part of it that the Followers of the Nicene Council were not equal to them either in Number Splendor Interest or Riches If you will believe the learned Petavius and others they did offer to be try'd by the Fathers that preceded the Nicene Council For at that Council they were rather condemn'd by a Party than by the general Consent of the Christian Church because Constantine out of above Two thousand Bishops then assembled excluded all but Three hundred and eighteen nor were those perhaps for Accounts vary all Bishops that made up this great Council They were all of a Judgment at first and so rather Parties than Judges the Arrians had not the Freedom to dispute their Cause And the Emperor Constantine was afterwards so ill satisfied with their proscription that he soon recalled Arrius and a little before his Death was baptized by an Arrian Bishop Constantius and Valens were professed Arrians and not to mention the Gots Valentinian Theodosius and other Emperors protected and honoured them both with civil and military Commands The Arrian Doctrin was not only confirmed by Eight Councils several times assembled at Tyre Sardis Syrmium Milain Selucia Nice Tarsis and particularly at Ariminum where six hundred Bishops were of their Opinion with only three which held the contrary but they also punished others their Adversaries who were of a contrary Opinion to them with Confiscations Banishments and other grievous Punishments Now whether the Power of their Party the Riches of their Churches the Magnificence of their Worship as the first that brought Music into the Church or the same of their Learning and pretensions to Reason which is always an inviduous Plea did raise Jealousie and Hatred in the Emperors against them as also rendred them odious to the Trinitarians or what most contributed to their first Depression and Persecution I know not Since to persecute for Religion was by the Trinitarians Athanasi●s Hillary and others then accounted an Arrian and unchristian Tenet It is not to be doubted but that after the days of Theodosius Reason of State did most prevail towards their Subversion left they should joyn with the Goths who at that time possessed of Italy Spain Afric and other Provinces were formidable to the Bizantine Empire Notwithstanding whatsoever it was 't is easie to comprehend that the Depression of them did facilitate the Conquest of the Goths and if you will credit Salvian the Goths were very pious in their Way mild to the Conquer'd just in their Dealings so that the Wickedness of the Christian Rulers of Provinces their Exactions upon the People and Insolence of the Foreign Souldiers whereby they ruled made even the Trinitarians themselves willingly submit to their Dominion and prefer it before that of the Eastern Emperors As for the Trinitarians of those Times I must confess I cannot but esteem them as Enemies to all human Learning for they had Cannons forbidding them to read any Ethic Books and a Zeal which disposed them to destroy all they met with of that kind Thus we may well suppose them universally ignorant except some few and as the Pastors so were the People Their Religion also consisted rather in an out-side Service than inward Piety and Knowledge their Faith was in a manner implicit the Mysteries of Religion for such I call the Doctrin of the Trinity and its Dependencies were scarce ever mentioned to them in Sermons much less explicated Hence the Vulgar became prone to Embrace Superstition and credit Miracles how ridiculous and fabulous soever Visions Allegories and Allusions to Texts were convincing Arguments and no Demonstration like to a feigned Story and Legend or what might be Interpreted a Judgment upon an Heretic Amongst the Trinitarians were a sort of People who followed the Court Religion and believed as their Prince ordained living then unconfined by the Dictates of the then declining Church And though the Trinitarians had resolv'd upon and subscrib'd to the Nicene Council and embraced those Forms of Speech which are now in use yet did they not understand what was meant by them The Latin Church allow'd of Three Persons and not of three Hypostases the Greek Church allow'd of three Hypostases and not of three Persons As difficult was it for them to Explicate Vsia or Essence which hard words produc'd a subdivision amongst them consisting of Nestorians and Eutychians The Nestorians believing the Deity of Christ held that he was made up of two distinct Persons and so perfect God and perfect Man The Eutychians averr'd that Christ had but one Nature and that upon the Hypostatical Union the Deity and Humanity were so blended together by Confusion of Properties and Substances that one Person endued with one Will did emerge thence Now these two Sects were of great Power in the Eastern Church and though they were both condemn'd in the third and fourth General Councils yet did they spread far and near through Palestine Aegypt the Kingdom of Abyssines and all Persia over Each of them had their Patriarchs Bishops and Churches contradistinct from the Melchites who adhering and subscribing to the Council of Chalcedon which all the Imperial Clergy did were called Melchites that is to say Men of the King's Religion The Authors of the Nestorian and Eutychian Sects were Learned and Potent Bishops Eutychius was Patriarch of Constantinople and with him joyn'd Dioscorius Patriarch of Alexandria Severus Patriarch of Antioch and Iacobus Baradaeus from whom the Iacobites are at this day denominated Nestorius was also Patriarch of Constantinople and his Sect very much diffused The Truth is such were the Ignorance of the People and Debaucheries of the Ages at this time that if a Man did but live a pious strict Life with great Mortification or outward Devotion and were but an Eloquent Preacher he might in any place of the Eastern Empire have made a Potent Sect instantly And to shew how ignorant the Clergy were at the General Council of Chalcedon in the time of Marcianus the Emperor we find that the Greek Tongue was then so little understood at Rome and the Latin in Greece that the Bishops of both Countries in all 630. were glad to speak by Interpreters Nay in this very Council of Chalcedon the Emperor was fain to deliver the same Speech in Greek to one Party and in Latin to the other that so both might understand him The Council of Ierusalem for the same Reason made certain Creeds both in Greek and Latin At the Council of Ephesus the Pope's Legates had their Interpreter to Expound the Words and when Caelestine's Letters were there read the Acts tell us how the Bishops desired to have them Translated into Greek and read over again insomuch that the Romish Legates had almost made a Controversie of it fearing least the Papal Authority should have been prejudiced by such an Act alledging therefore how it was the ancient Custom to propose the Bulls of the Sea Apostolic in Latin only and that that might now suffice