was afterwards improved into that which all Bishops c. take at their Consecration § IX 1. The fourth Council of Lateran under Innocent the Third An. MCCXV is reckoned the twelfth General Council in order by Bellarmin Possevin c. Cardinal Pole with his Synod at Lambeth owns it for General they frequently mention it and never but under the Title of General though they do not put it in the same rank among the General Councils they profess however to receive and embrace the Faith of the Church of Rome according to the Decrees of the General Council of Lateran under Innocent the Third v Decret 2. The Council of Constance * Session 39. requires all Popes to make profession of the Faith established in the VIII Sacred General Councils whereof this is set down for one and the Council of Trent x Session 24. cap. 5. it self calls this a General Council The Great General Council of Lateran y Session 14. cap. 5. and makes use of its authority again z Session 21. cap. 9. and which is yet more to the purpose a Council of English Bishops held at Oxford a Conc. Tom. 11. Part. 1. A. MCCXXII cap. 24 28 29 33. not above seven years after acknowledge the Authority of this Council of Lateran and several times quote its Decrees In short as this is placed by Bellarmin among those Councils which are received with full approbation beyond all dispute by the Church of Rome so he looks upon it as no less than Heresie to deny the Authority of it and therefore when he has produced the third Canon of this Council in defence of the Deposing Doctrine against Barclay he cries out with great zeal and vehemence Quid hic Barclaius diceret si haec non est Ecclesiae Catholicae vox ubi obsecro eam inveniemus si est ut verissimè est qui eam audire contemnit ut Barclaius fecit annon ut Ethnicus Publicanus nullo mode Christianus pius habendus erit What can Barclay say to this if this be not the voice of the Catholick Church where I pray shall we find it and if it is as questionless it is he that despises to hear it as Barclay has done is he not to be look'd upon as an Heathen-man and a Publican and by no means a Christian or a pious Man This Widrington b Discussio Discuss Part. 1. § 2. p. 28. complains of as intolerably insulting others may rather think he speaks as a Cardinal when he was managing the Popes cause so victoriously from so infallible evidence For such is the authority and esteem in the Church of Rome of this Council that it is usually called The Great Council of Lateran either from the great number of Bishops in it or from the great importance of the matters decided or both The number of Bishops was no less than CCCCXII or in Bellarmin's reckoning CCCCLXXIII and among these were the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem and the Delegates of the other two Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch LXXVII Primates and Metropolitans besides DCCC Abbats and Priors these were all there in person and proxies were sent innumerable The Emperour likewise of Constantinople the King of Sicily Emperour of the Romans Elect the Kings of England France Hungary Jerusalem Cyprus Arragon and other Princes and Cities sent their Embassadours hither so that never was there such a show perhaps in the world again 2. The matters Determined both of Faith and of Discipline were extraordinary and of the greatest importance The Doctrines of Faith defined were Transubstantiation c Cap. 1. the Articles concerning the Holy Trinity asserted and vindicated from the errour of Abbat Joachim and those errours condemned and the Procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son declared d Cap. 2. The Deposing Doctrine established e Cap. 3. The Church of Rome declared to be the Mother and Mistress of all Christians universorum Christi fidelium and to have by God's appointment the Dominion over all other Churches of ordinary Authority by her extraordinary Prerogative f Cap. 5. 3. The Decrees in points of Discipline are in their kind no less considerable against the Incontinency of the Clergy g Cap. 14. against their Drunkenness h Cap. 15. against the Negligence and Debauchery of Prelates i Cap. 17. that no Clergy-man should give Sentence in Capital Causes k Cap. 18. Auricular Confession enjoyned once every year l Cap. 21. That no Clergy-man should take an Oath of Allegeance to any secular Persons unless he held some temporal Estate of them m Cap. 43. That no Clergy-man should be obliged to pay Taxes n Cap. 46. The manner of proceedings in Excommunications regulated o Cap. 47. The Prohibition of Marriages restrained to the fourth degree p Cap. 50. Clandestine Marriages forbidden and that Children of Parents married within the degrees prohibited declared illegitimate q Cap. 51. Against Simony r Cap. 63. and many other things of like nature which are of the highest consequence and fall under daily practice 4. All this one would think were sufficient to put the Authority of the fourth Council of Lateran beyond all contradiction or debate for who can imagine that a Council celebrated with so much solemnity which decided Controversies of so mighty concernment in the Church and determined things of continual use among all sorts and Orders of Men should not immediately meet with the most entire submission and always retain an undoubted Authority and veneration Thus much would have been due if it had not been infallible but being infallible what regard must every Age and every Nation and every Writer at least every Traditionary Christian pay to it yet this very Council so famous and so renowned in its Members so extraordinary in its Determinations and Decrees lay dormant unregarded and unknown till the year MDXXXVII that is till above CCC years after it was held 'T is very surprising that neither Innocent himself nor his Nephew and next Successour but one Gregory the Ninth who published his Uncle's Decretal Epistles and these very Decrees which now pass for the Decrees of this Council among the rest should put this forth among the other General Councils 't is strange that no other Pope or Bishop or at least some Canonist or other learned man should ever think of it but 't is yet more strange that Merlin in his Councils printed but three years before the fourth Council of Lateran was published should omit this though he sets down the Councils of Constance and Basil But when this Council did come to light with what Credentials did it come what evidence does it bring for its Authority is it printed from some ancient Manuscripts in the Vatican it might then be wondred how it should lie so long concealed never published never quoted nor mentioned but 't is a much greater
they would have Request made to the Pope to confirm the Council It is subjoined Responderunt Placet They all desire it And there is no mention of the least dissent and presently follows the dismission of the Fathers And after this manner have all the Editions been printed ever since without the least intimation that one Bishop demurred upon it h Richer ib. Ex quo patet Curiae Romanae propositum esse omnia delere atque supprimere Acta quae juribus suis usurpatis adversantur hinc etiam fit ut nulla Apocrypha pro veris legantur etiam in antiquis Conciliis Whence it appears that the Court of Rome is resolved to suppress and abolish all those Acts which shall contradict their usurped Rights and hence it is that many spurious things are read as genuine even in the ancient Councils I need pursue this subject no farther nor seek for Instances to make good this observation of Richerius his Testimony may suffice instead of a thousand Instances Nor shall I make any advantage of the many other great Corruptions wherewith partly through Ignorance partly with Design the monuments of Antiquity are defaced as the Authour of the Preface to Paul the Fifth's Edition of General Councils complains who was Sirmondus as i Praef. ad Conc. Cossartius informs us nor of the great alterations under that pretence made in innumerable places of the Roman Edition which have been retained ever since besides the carelesness of the several Publishers that has made the best Editions extreamly uncorrect which put Baluzius k Praef. ad Conc. Tem. 1. upon a new Collection And we have some better hopes of him if his skill in the Greek Tongue qualifie him for such a Work notwithstanding the sharp Contest that has been between him and M. Faget concerning Peter de Marca's posthumous Works or the undervaluing l Gerbais de Causis majoribus Character lately given him by a Doctour of the Sorbon PART II. § I. PApists are not agreed in the Authority of Councils I mean they are not agreed what Councils are General and what are not so They differ as much about the Councils as they do about the Notes of the Church For as Costerus assigns three Coccius five Bellarmin fifteen Bozius an hundred Notes so some assign more some fewer General Councils though the common computation proceeds no higher than to eighteen of such as are without exception As the seventh and eighth General Councils were not a long time received into the Professions of Faith which I shew in the seventh so the number of Councils recited in those Professions not exceeding eight as is manifest by those Professions in the Diurnus Romanus published by Garnerius shew that eight onely were looked upon as truly General and the rest not as of equal Authority Cardinal Contarenus in his short account of Councils written to Paul the Third and presented to him on his calling the Council of Trent or that of the delegated Cardinals in order to it he being one of the number reckons that for the eighth General Council which deposed Photius and the Council of Florence for the ninth not so much as naming any of the Lateran Councils but the last and not esteeming either this or that of Lyons under Gregory the Tenth nor that of Constance or Basil General though he does name them m Contarenus Sum. Conc. Edit Venet. MDLXII Cardinal Pole with his Synod at Lambeth under Paul the Fourth A. D. MDLVI calls the Council of Florence the eighth General Council though they own the fourth Lateran under Innocent the Third for General as they doe likewise the fifth Lateran n Decret 2. They mention the fourth of Lateran frequently and never but under the Title of a General Council and that of Lyons under Gregory the Tenth they mention under the same Character o Decret 3. Abraham Cretensis the first Publisher of the Council of Florence gives it the Title of the eighth General Council and so the Approbation of Clement the Seventh prefix'd to that Edition styles it and so Cardinal Pole with his Clergy account it So that this was the opinion of the Members p Launoy Epist part VIII ad Francisc Bonum of the Council and of the first Publishers of it and of our English Clergy in Queen Mary's Reign whereas in the common account new style the Council of Florence is the Sixteenth Merlin gives us but eight General Councils which are the first six with those of Constance and Basil In the Vatican Library as it now stands and was erected by Sixtus Quintus A. D. MDLXXXVIII where all the General Councils are represented in painting with Inscriptions to explain them there are but two Lateran Councils viz. Those under Alexander the Third and Innocent the Third q Angelus Roccha de Biblioth Vatican p. 200. Roccha in his Explications reckons the Council of Vienne the fifteenth and then proceeds to the Council of Florence which he calls the eighteenth as it is indeed computing the two intermediate Councils of Constance and Basil but Sixtus Quintus thought fit to take no notice of them in the Vatican but Roccha makes them up a full Score though the Councils of Constance and Basil be onely supposed not expressed in the number So many differing accounts we have concerning the number of General Councils to which may be added one more by taking in the Council of Arles as it ought to be in St. Augustine's opinion and in the opinion of Launoy Albaspinaeus Marca Labbé Sirmondus and others r Launoy confirmat dissert de vera plenarii Concilii ap Augustin notione p. 96. in which Council the Bishop of Arles presided to examine the Cause of the Donatists which had been before determined by the Bishop of Rome and his Synod they confirmed the Judgment past at Rome but would have as certainly nulled it if the Sentence had been wrong The two latter Editions of the Councils for awhile continue the Tale of them and the last continues it longer than the Royal Edition does but afterwards they break off and cease numbering onely giving us them as they come which may be a farther evidence how little certainty and exactness there is in any thing that relates to a Catalogue of General Councils It seems then we are at last reduced to that notable Expedient which is said to have been in a late Preachment proposed about the Sacraments If we must have Councils my Beloved let us take the greatest number and then we are sure to have all and so for the largest Bible and the largest Creed that we may be sure to have enough of whatever it be But because Bellarmin's number of Councils seems to be most in vogue I shall consider his eighteen which he assures us are all over Infallible and fully approved whereas there are half a dozen that have had the ill luck not to pass muster though they are pretty tolerable in the
distinguish betwixt Latria and Doulia as Bellarmin himself and then proves that neither of them may be given to Images That the Council of Frankford could be ignorant of the Doctrine established at Nice can seem probable to no man who considers that the Pope had caused the Canons of Nice to be translated into Latin that his Legates were present at Frankford and that they refused to consent to the Decree of that Council as Bellarmin and Baronius affirm To imply that the Bishops at Frankford did not understand Greek might pass well enough from Sirmondus but might have been spared by men of no greater accuracy in that Tongue than the two Cardinals if not one among them all were skilled in the Greek yet why could they not read the Translation why could they not consult the Legates The Cardinals perhaps might be sensible enough how liable men are to mistakes for want of a little Greek and Anastasius a Praefat. in septim Synod Concil Tom. 7. Col. 29. says the Translation was very perplext and hardly intelligible but I can never be persuaded that the Legates would stand by and deny their consent and yet not endeavour to undeceive the Council and at least advise them to send to Rome for Instructors Pope Adrian wrote himself in defence of the Synod of Nice which he had confirmed and so must be allowed to understand it and Greek could then be no very strange Language at Rome nor consequently at Frankford neither among three hundred Bishops gathered together from all parts of the West when the Pope had so lately renounced his Allegiance to the Greek Emperour and yet still a correspondence was held between Rome and C. P. by Adrian with Constantine and Irene and Tarasius b Concil Tom. 7. as appears by their Letters 5. But 't is in vain to argue from probabilities if the Canon it self as is pretended be grounded upon a mistake Allata est in medium quaestio de novâ Graecorum Synodo quam de adorandis Imaginibus Constantinopoli fecerunt in quâ scriptum habebatur ut qui imaginibus sanctorum ita ut Deifici Trinitati servitium aut adorationem non impenderet anathema judicaretur qui supra sanctissimi Patres nostri omnimodis orationem aut servitutem eis impendere renuentes contempserunt atque consentientes condemnaverunt The question about the new Greek Synods held at C. P. about Worshipping of Images was then debated therein it was written that whosoever should not pay that Service or Adoration to the Images of the Saints which he would pay to the B. Trinity should be anathematized whereupon our Holy Fathers by all means refusing to pray to them or pay them service despised and unanimously condemned it Here is first C. P. mistaken for Nice and then it is said that the same Worship is under Anathema commanded to be given to Images which is given to the blessed Trinity Sirmondus c Not. in Concil Francoford Conc. vol. 7. Col. 1066. is so ingenuous as to propose a way of reconciling the first mistake of C. P. for Nice by supposing that the Synod is said to have been at C. P. not that it was held in that City but because it was in the Constantinopolitane Empire and at the command of the Greek Emperour Constantine and his Mother Irene This I must confess seems to me strained but it were yet a grearer force upon the imagination to be told that Charles the Great with three hundred Bishops met together to condemn the Worship of Images decreed in a General Council about seven years before should yet not be certified where this Decree was made nor be able to distinguish Nice from C. P. and that the same Pope should send his Legates to both Synods and yet give them no better instructions than to suffer them to be ignorant in so late a matter of Fact which must be known all over Europe For when the Worship of Images which had undergone so much debate and had been the cause of so great Troubles and occasioned the calling divers Councils but had never the good luck to succeed was at last in a General Council enjoyned under Anathema and when the Popes Legates at their coming from the Council brought a Copy of it subscribed by Constantine and Irene which the same Pope that now sent his Legates to Frankford commanded to be translated into Latin and placed in his Library when the Pope himself had answered the objections propos'd by the Emperour against this very Council of Nice who can conceive that the whole Transaction should not be noised abroad and talked of in all places and among all persons and in all its circumstances so exactly known that it would have been impossible to have picked out three hundred men of any tolerable rank and conversation who could be ignorant that the General Council of Nice had at length decided the vexatious controversie about Images If its judgment had been acquiesced in as infallible or but of sufficient Authority to enforce any submission upon the conscience it certainly had been taken more notice of than to be unknown to any man of ordinary observation in its less material circumstances of time and place and number of Bishops the Doctrine however had been taught and practised every where among all sorts of People or if it had been rejected by some yet these would have found themselves obliged to give an account why they rejected it and so to enquire thorowly into it but to suppose so many Western Bishops with the Pope's Legates among the rest and the Emperour himself in the midst of them so grosly and even stupidly ignorant as to know neither the Doctrine it self nor the place where the Synod was held but seven years before is to cast too great a blemish upon the Western Church and would be apt to make men suspect that the Western Clergy at that time could make no pretence to the least share of infallibility either in a Council or out of it The Emperour's Book mentions the Greek Council as held in Bithynia and it were extreme weakness to imagine that Charles the Great after he had been at the pains to write a Book upon the subject or had ordered one to be written had not intelligence good enough to set the Synod right in the circumstance of place at least if any will be so free with him as to say he was rash enough to oppose he knew not what 6. But to free that wise and great Emperour and the whole Western Church from so stupid an absurdity It can be no wonder that the Decree concerning Image-worship should be related in the Council of Frankford as made at C. P. to him who remembers that the first meeting of the Nicene Fathers was at C. P. and that there first they began to Anathematize those who were against the worship of Images but finding C. P. too hot for them were forced to remove to Nice And this may give a
hinder it from being so it was some time before the Fifth could deserve that Title however it came by it at last but the greatest fault of this Council in Trullo is that it approves f Can. Trull 36. and confirms the second Canon of C. P. and the twenty eighth of Chalcedon in which the Latins are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Balsamon observes However the hundred and two Canons of this Synod are cited in the second Council of Nice g Act. 4 5 6. And Adrian the First in his Epistle to Tarasius says that he receives the sixth Council with all its Canons by which he can mean no other but this for the sixth as it is distinguished from this made no Canons Nicholas the First in an Epistle to Michael the Greek Emperour says that they were confirmed by Pope John the Seventh at the request of Justinian the Second whom that Pope commends there as a most holy Emperour besides Gratian attributes them to the sixth Council and so does the Council of Florence h Sess 5. All which was so convincing to Caranza i Sum. Conc. that he sets them down as the Canons of the sixth General Council and after him Sylvius chose rather to distinguish and refine upon the thirty sixth Canon than to reject them all Angelus Roccha k Bibl. Vatic p. 71. says plainly it was a continuation of the former Synod not a new one since both were subscribed by the same Bishops The second Council of Nice A. D. DCCLXXXI vel DCCLXXXV vel DCCLXXXVII secundum Labbé as he proves out of the Second Council of Nice § VI. 1. The second Council of Nice which is the seventh General Council is a Council they find themselves as much concerned to defend as any of them all and have had as much trouble in defending it unless this be General the worship of Images is at a great loss for Authority from Antiquity and yet to defend this Council is almost as difficult as to defend the worship of Images without it 2. Gregory the l Lib. 9. Ep. 9. Great is well known to have been against the worship of Images but his Successours not long after were for promoting it what they could so zealous they were in the Cause that great Contentions arose between the Iconoclastae and the Iconolatrae for no wonder if some were moved to break those Images which they could not but abhor to see others worship These m Cedren Hist Zonar Annal. heats grew to that height that the Emperour Leo the Third forbad by his Edict the worship of Images following herein the Example of two of his Predecessours and commanded them to be removed out of all Churches considering that the lawfull use and ornament of Images might much better be spared than the worship of them suffered n Cedren p. 453. Gregory II. upon this calls a Council at Rome This some attribute to Gregory the Third who Platina says excommunicated and deposed Leo Hic statim ubi Pontificatum iniit Cleri Romani consensu Leonem Tertium Imperatorem Constantinopolitanum imperio simul communione fidelium privat quod sacras Imagines è sacris adibus abrasisset Statuas demolitus esset quodque etiam de Homusio malè sentiret Platina in Greg. Tert. So natural is it for every one to be made an Heretick who withstands the Corruptions and Innovations of the Church of Rome determines for Image-worship and anathematizeth the Emperour and moreover forbids that Taxes or Tribute should any longer be paid to him from Rome or any other part of Italy in short he denys obedience to him and betakes himself to the Franks Leo Isaurus being dead his Son Constantinus Copronymus calls a Synod at C. P. in which the worship of Images is condemned in DCCLIV In this state o Conc. Tom. 7. col 655. things continued till about DCCLXXX when the Empress Irene being left a Widow by the death of Leo the Fourth with her young Constantine the Sixth resolved to call another Synod at C. P. to null the late Council held there under Constantinus Copronymus and to determine for the worship of Images but the People and the Souldiery of the City would endure no such thing and they had most of their own Bishops so far on their side as to instruct and encourage them against such worship The Citizens were not difficultly persuaded to be constant in their old Professon which Edicts and Councils and their own Practice required them not to abandon but they were led by too violent a Zeal to betake themselves to a way not justifiable and together with the Souldiers were immediately in an Uproar upon these Proceedings of the Empress The Council was forced to adjourn to Nice no fewer than three hundred and fifty Bishops in number and there they did the business the following year There were none p Con. Tom. 7. col 55. from the West in it but the Pope's two Legates and such was the freedom used in their Debates that the Bishops who had been against Images abjure in the beginning of the Council and so are admitted to take their places in it This happened DCCLXXXVII as the last Editours compute it Adrian the First sent his Legates thither who brought a Copy of the Acts home with them signed by Constantine and Irene those the Pope procured to be turned into Latin q Anastas in Adrian I. p. 172 173. and put them into his own Library They were not so confined there but they soon caused no small debate in the Western Church The Pope sends them r Hincmar Rhemens ad Laudunens cap. 20. to Charles the Great to be examined and approved by him and his Bishops The Emperour opposed them and either wrote himself against them or however sent a Confutation to Adrian and caused it to be published by his Authority whether this was written in the Council of Franckford as Bellarmin and Baronius suppose or after it or before it has been doubted Labbé and Cossartius place it in the same year with the Council of Nice and Adrian ſ Ep. ad Carolum M. pro Synodo Nicaena II. Con. Vol. 7. styles it onely a Capitular without taking notice that a Council had any thing to doe in it which he would scarce have omitted of a Council in which his own Legates were present and dissented from the rest of the Bishops as Baronius and Bellarmin imagine or if they had agreed with them yet this probably had been intimated either by the Emperour or the Pope But that which puts this Controversie beyond all dispute is that the Book it self t Opus Carolinum p. 7. informs us that the Synod in Bithynia against which it is written was held not quite three years before whereas the Council of Franckford was held seven years after that of Nice so that the Book was writ above four years before the Council of Frankford However this be The Pope
subreptum est illis nullus contra eum subscriptiones vestras occasionem Schismat is habeat omnia enim ut infecta irrita facimus c. Ivo Carnut Prolog p. 5. had yet been received into Communion by another Council much more ought men of an orthodox Faith and an unblamable life not to be condemned but restored to their former dignity which must suppose Photius to be a man of an orthodox Faith and an unblameable Life or else we must suppose his Argument nothing to the purpose But he proceeds to say that his Predecessours Nicholas and Adrian had been imposed upon and that all that had been done against Photius was to be accounted as if it had been never done Nor doth this depend upon Ivo's Authority onely but the second Canon of the Council which restored Photius is inserted by Gratian as a Canon of the eighth General Council for which he is severely handled by Baronius though others of the Roman k Rader apud Binium Conc. Vol. 8. Col. 1496. Communion have been wavering as to this matter and have written uncertainly and confusedly about it and Innocent the Third l Lib. 1. tit 9. c. 11. himself quotes the same second Canon in his Epistles 4. Baronius notwithstanding Raderus and Possevin whose Arguments Binius has collected in his Notes and generally the whole Roman Church are for maintaining the Authority of this fourth Council of C. P. and this is the last of the eight General Councils which every Pope is sworn to at his Consecration m Vid. II. Profess fid apud Garnerium in Diurne They argue that the Acts of that Council which restored Photius are corrupted which is a sure Argument when there is nothing else to say Well but they prove it from John's Epistles which are quite another thing in the Vatican MSS. than they are in these Acts but how does it appear that these Epistles are more authentick than the Acts why because these have been abused by Photius and how does that appear because Photius was a Villain as he was indeed one of the greatest Monsters of impiety that ever lived if all be true that his Enemies relate of him They say that his Mother when she went with child of him dreamt that she should bring forth a Serpent which with his noisome Breath should infect the whole East and many holy Men foretold the same thing in plainer language to her that she should be delivered of one who would be the ruine of the Church this troubled her so much that she often endeavoured to destroy her self rather than that such a Brat should ever be born into the World but her Husband prevented the design and she was at last persuaded by devout People about her to submit to the Providence of God so she was prevailed with to live and to her great sorrow was Mother of a Son who outwent all these Prophecies For the Legend must not end here He was an Impostour and used Enchantments he got Ignatius removed out of his Patriarchate and himself placed in his room he bad defiance to Popes and when they excommunicated him to be even with them he excommunicated them again when they deposed him he deposed them and never was behind-hand with them in any kind offices and this is thought to have been his greatest crime though besides n Bin. Not. ad Con. IV. C. P. ex Possevin Rader c. Col. 1498 c. he held that a man has two souls while his enemies acted as if they thought men to have none The Popes it seems had every one a touch at him in their turn for he was condemned by nine Popes and was under Excommunication XLV years o Conc. Tom. 8. col 1423. which is somewhat longer I think than F. Widrington or F. Walsh All this to be sure made him an abominable Schismatick p Ibid. Col. 1108. a Fornicator a Parricide a notorious Liar another Maximus q Ibid. Col. 1098. Cynicus another Dioscorus another Judas Antichrist r Anastas Praef. ibid. Col. 967. To speak all in a word he was a very Devil 5. After this heavy charge what wickedness can be imagined that will not be believed of Photius 'T is none of my business at present to make his defence which would be now the more difficult to be done because all f Vid. Can. 6. Col. 1101 1130 1354. the Acts and Writings for his Justification were sought out and burnt in this fourth Council of C. P. 'T is sufficient for me to observe that Pope Nicholas at first interposed as an Indifferent Arbitrator between him and Ignatius which sure he would never have done if Photius had been guilty of so notorious Crimes he was mainly concerned that himself had not been consulted as for any thing else 't is not easie to observe which side he most inclined to He writes to Photius and tells him he is glad to understand that he is orthodox but is sorry he should from a Laick immediately become a Bishop without passing through the inferiour Orders and this is the onely exception against him His Legates so far approve Photius's Cause that they communicate with him and condemn Ignatius for which indeed they were excommunicated when they came home because the Pope said they had gone beyond their Commission whether this were onely a pretence or that they had really exceeded their Orders In his Epistles to the Emperour as well as to Photius the Pope finds no other fault but that of a Laick he ought not to have been made Patriarch though there had been so late an Example of this in Tarasius besides Saint Ambrose and Nectarius So that the plain truth is Pope Nicholas would have the whole matter reserved to his own decision and he should be the Patriarch whom Nicholas would appoint To say that Photius t Praef. ad Syn. 8. init usurped upon Ignatius is but a Cavil for Ignatius had served John so before as Anastasius confesses and Nicholas v Nich. Ep. 5. does not deny it onely he again urges that himself ought to judge between them In his Epist to Bardas * Ep. 12. he compliments him highly telling him he was exceedingly troubled that a man of his extraordinary character for vertue and piety should be concerned for Photius which sufficiently overthrows the slander that the deposition of Ignatius was procured because he would not approve the Incest of Bardas but excommunicated him for it Pope Nicholas is not consistent with himself in the account he gives of the behaviour of his Legates in this affair sometimes he writes that they informed him * Ep. 6. that they were under restraint and were told of very hard usage designed them but this was onely Rumour in another Epistle he writes that they had been bribed to communicate with Photius and to depose Ignatius but that they both denyed they had done any such thing till at last Zacharias confessed
that he had communicated with Photius and had deposed Ignatius but not a Syllable of any Bribe mentioned Rhadoaldus y Epist 7. Col. 289. 10. Col. 355. the other Legate stood out still and would not confess nor would by any means be persuaded to abide his Tryal but fled for it notwithstanding all the kind words and promises of fair dealing the Pope could give him though in the thirteenth Epistle they are said both to confess the Fact z Col. 381. and afterwards Rhadoaldus flies So little is there to be relied upon in the Invectives against Photius This is certain not a Act. 1 2 3. a Bishop was suffered to sit in the Council called to depose him till he had first subscribed a Writing sent thither from the Pope wherein they denounced Anathema to Photius and condemned his Councils and owned those against him then it can be no wonder if they libel him in the most bitter manner calling him by all the ill names they could think of and treat him in such Terms as could not become them to use whatever he might deserve that nothing might be wanting to the keenness of their malice they made Iambicks upon him which Anastasius has taken care to translate but the Greeks were ashamed of them for their Copy tells us they were ill Verses and so it has omitted them but Anastasius b Act. 7. in sin had no such nice Stomach he knew no distinction of good or bad so they were but against Photius At the end of the ninth Action the Greeks it seems were not so witty in their own malice but Anastasius has supplyed that defect and added some Rhimes of his own I mention this the rather for the honour and antiquity of this way of confutation because a late Authour has turned all the Papists Arguments and all their Railery too into Rhime In Conclusion c Nicetas in vita Ignat. ap Labbé Conc. Tom. 8. the Fathers subscribe his Deposition not with Ink but with Wine consecrated in the Sacrament which is a surer sign of the hatred they bare to Photius than of their belief of Transubstantiation for what malice could transport men to so extravagant Impiety as to profane our Lord 's own bloud to such a use What the Proceedings of this Council were may be sufficiently understood from this which has been but intimated out of it and I need not refer to the account Photius gives but to the Acts themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Phot. Epist 118. And if hitherto they were not daring enough yet it was an unexampled thing to change the Ambassadours and Servants of impious Saracens into High-Priests and to give them the precedency of Patriarchs and to set them up as Heads of their wonderfull Assembly to observe their heat and fury against him He complains of great terrour and violence used in the Synod and that certain Embassadours from the Saracens were received there and took their places as Patriarchs of the East And there is still exstant d Philippi Cyprii Chron. Eccles Graec. cum Com. Henr. Hilarii p. 137. an Epistle of Elias Patriarch of Jerusalem which confirms the Truth of what Photius says in this matter He makes frequent Complaints in his Epistles of the hardships and miseries which himself and his Party endured and declares how unwillingly he entred upon the Patriarchate and professes that if it had been in his own Power he would sooner have chosen to dye than to venture on so high and difficult a station and was now ready to resign and he makes these complaints not to any friend at a distance from Court or who could be a stranger to his Affairs but to Bardas the man who is said to have conspired with him to get Ignatius deposed if that were true what need could he have to make such pressing solicitations to one so deeply engaged in his Interest and how ridiculous would such Protestations be could he be so forsaken of all modesty and common sense as to tell the very man e Epist 3. 6. who contrived the whole business with him how great a force and reluctancy he had upon himself in consenting to be made Patriarch Theophanes f Epist 83. his Deacon and Prothonotary was put to the Torture that by any means he might be compelled to accuse Photius which he afterwards lamented and besought his pardon Photius g Epist 174. gives a large description of his miseries in an Epistle which he wrote to the Bishops while he was in Banishment And all this he suffered for his Loyalty h Zonar Annal Leo Grammat Chronograph to his Prince for he was deposed because he refused to receive Basilius to Communion after he had murthered Michael the Emperour Whoever considers his unshaken Loyalty and reads his Writings will not easily believe that he could be so notorious a Villain as he is represented but if so much wickedness could meet in one man in one Bishop yet how improbable is it that the whole Greek Church should respect and reverence this Bishop as a Saint or that Pope John the Eighth after his cause had been so narrowly examined and his Enemies had said and done their utmost should yet think him a man of an orthodox Faith and an unblameable Life and compare him to St. Athanasius St. Cyrill and St. Chrysostome But he had discovered that his Predecessours had been imposed upon or that something more severe must be said of them and so are all those imposed upon or would impose upon others who give us so monstrous a Character of so excellent a Man. He is charged with having corrupted the Acts of the Councils which restored him and particularly those passages which import that this fourth Council of C. P. was cancelled by that But is it a sure proof of Corruption and Forgery if Copies differ as the Greek and Latin Copies often do The next Question will be where the Forgery lies and who is to be taxed with it To go no farther the Version of Anastasius and the Greek Original of this fourth Council of C. P. differ very much for besides other Variations there are twenty seven Canons in the Latin and but fourteen in the Greek yet both of them must pass for authentick enough though the seventeenth of the additional Canons will give the French some pains to reconcile it to the practice of their Church For it appoints that all Metropolitans shall meet in Council at the summons of their Patriarch notwithstanding any prohibition from the secular Magistrate and that Princes should not be present in any but General Councils both which are contrary to the Practice of the French Church For their Princes are wont to be present in their National and Provincial Synods and their Bishops if they be detained by command from the King think that a sufficient excuse for absenting themselves from any Synod their Patriarch shall call them to Two eminent