Rome also approved of this Resolution of his of bringing to tryal so soon as they should be at rest this whole business touching those who had fallen during the Persecution in a full Assembly of the Bishops Priests Deacons and Confessors together with those of the Laity who had continued constant and had not yielded to Idolatry And that which in my judgment is very well worth our Observation is that St. Cyprian himself writing to Cornelius Bishop of Rome saith that He doth not doubt but that according to that Mutual Love which they ought and paid to each other he did always read those Letters which he received from him to the most Flourishing Clergie of Rome that were his Assistants and to the most Holy and most numerous People Whence it appears that at Rome also the People had their Vote in the managing of Ecclesiastical Affairs I shall not need here to add any more to shew how much the Authority and Example of the Ancients in this Particular are now slighted and despised it being evident enough to every man that the People are not only excluded from the Councils and Consistories of the Bishops but that besides that man would now be taken forâ—an Heretick that should now but propose or go about to restore any such thing But I beseech you now do but a little fancy to your selves an Archbishop who writing to the Pope should say unto him thus Most dear Brother I exhort you and desire of you that what you are wont honourably to do of your own accord you would now do it at my request namely that this Epistle may be read to the Flourishing Clergie that are your Assistants there and also to the most holy and most numerous People Should not the writer think you of such a Letter as this be laught at as a sensless foolish Fellow if at least he escaped so and met with no worse usage And yet notwithstanding this is the very Request that St. Cyprian made to Pope Cornelius But as the Bishops and the rest of the Clergie have deprived the People of all those Priviledges which had been conferred upon them by Antiquity as well in the Election of Prelates as in other Ecclesiastical Affairs in like manner is it most evident that the Pope hath ingrossed into his own hands not only this Booty which they had rob'd the People of but also in a manner all the rest of their Authority and Power as well that which they heretofore enjoyed according to the Ancient Canons and Constitutions of the Church as that which they have since by many several admirable means by little and little acquired in the space of some whole Centuries of years All this is now quite vanished I know not how and swallowed up by Rome in a very little time The CCC XVIII Fathers of the Council of Nice ordained That every Bishop should be created by all the Bishops of that Province if it were possible or at least by three of them if so be the whole number could not so conveniently be brought together yet with this Proviso that the absent Bishops were conseâ—ting also to the said Ordination and that the Power and Authority in all such Actions should belong to the Metropolitan of each several Province Which Ordinance of theirs is both very agreeable to the Practice of the preceding Ages as appears by that LXVIII Epistle of St. Cyprian which we cited a little before and was also observed for a long time afterward by the Ages following as you may perceive by the Epistle of the Fathers of the I. Council of Constantinople to Pope Damasus and also by the Discourse of those that sate Presidents at the Council of Chalcedon touching the Rights of the Patriarch of Constantinople in his own Diocess And yet notwithstanding all this the whole World knows and sees what the Practice of the Church of Rome at this day is and how that there is not at all left to the Metropolitans and to their Councils any true Power or Authority in the Ordinations of the Bishops within their own Diocesses but the whole Power in this Case dependeth upon the Church of Rome and upon those whom it hath intrusted herein either with their own liking or otherwise And indeed all Bishops are to make their Acknowledgments of Tenure to the Pope neither may they exercise their Functions without his Commission which they shall not obtain neither without first paying down their Money and compounding for their First-fruits calling themselves also in their Titles thus We N. Bishop of N. by the grace of God and of the Apostolical See of which strange Custom and Title you shall not meet with the least Trace or Footstep throughout all the Records of Antiquity not so much as any one of all that vast number of Bishops whose subscriptions we have yet remaining partly in the Councils and partly in their own Books and Histories having ever thus styled himself And as for Provincial and Diocesan Synods where Anciently all sorts of Ecclesiastical Causes were heard and determined as appeareth both by the Canons of the Councils and also by those Examples that we have left us as in the History of Arius and of Eutyches who were both Anathematized the one in the Synod of Alexandria and the other in that of Constantinople they dare not now meddle with any thing except some small petty Matters being of no use in the Greater Causes save only to inquire into them and give in their Informations at Rome Neither may any the meanest Bishop that is be iudged in any Case of Importance and which may be sufficient to Depose him by any but the Pope of Rome his Metropolitan and his Primate and the Synod of his Province and that of his Diocess in the sense that the Ancients took this word having not all of them any Power at all in these Matters unless it be by an Extraordinary Delegation and having then only power to draw up the Business and make it ready for Hearing and so to send it to Rome None but the Pope alone having power to give sentence in such Cases as it is expresly ordained by the Council of Trent I shall here pass by their taking away from the Bishops contrary to the Canons and Practice of Antiquity all Jurisdiction and power over a good part of the Monasteries and other companies of Religious persons both Seculars and Regulars within their Diocesses Their assuming wholly to themselves the Power of Absolving and of Dispensing in several Cases which they call Reserved Cases whereas in Ancient times this Authority belonged equally to all Bishops as also their giving of Indulgences and their proclaiming of Jubilees a thing which was never heard of in any of the first Ages of Christianity And as for the Discipline which was Anciently observed in the Church towards Penitentiaries whether in the punishing them for their offences or else in the receiving them again into the Communion
Invention being ashamed to make use of it any longer And to say truth that which these Men answer by way of excusing the said Popes is not any whit more probable namely That they took the Council of Nice and that of Sardica in which those Canons they alledge are really found for one and the same Council For whom will these Men ever be able to perswade That two Ecclesiastical Assemblies betwixt which there passed near twenty two whole years called by two several Emperors and for Matters of a far different nature the one of them for the Explanation of the Christian Faith and the other for the Re-establishing of two Bishops in their Thrones and in Places very far distant from each other the one at Nicaea in Bithynia the other at Sardica a City of Illyricum the Canons of which two Councils are very different both in substance number and authority the one of them having always been received generally by the whole Church but the other having never been acknowledged by the Eastern Church should yet notwithstanding be but one and the same Council How can they themselves endure this who are so fierce against the Greeks for having offered to attribute which they do notwithstanding with more appearance of truth to the Sixth Council those CII Canons which were agreed upon ten years after at Constantinople in an Assembly wherein one party of the Fathers of the Sixth Council met How came it to pass that they gave any credit to the Ancient Church seeing that in the Greek Collection of her Ancient Canons those of the Council of Sardica are quite left out and in the Latin Collection of Dionysius Exiguus made at Rome eleven hundred years since they are placed not with those of the Council of Nice nor yet immediately after them as if they all made up but one Body betwixt them but are put in a place a great way behind after the Canons of all the General Councils that had been held till that very time he lived in And how comes it to pass that these Ancient Popes who alledged these Canons if they believed these Councils to be both one did not say so The African Bishops had diverse and sundry times declared That these Canons which were by them alledged were not at all to be found in their Copies Certainly therefore if those who had cited them had thought the Council of Nice and that of Sardica to have been both but one Council they would no doubt have made answer That 〈◊〉 Canons were to be found in this pretended Second Part of the Council of Nice among those which had been agreed upon at Sardica especially when they saw that these careful Fathers for the clearing of the Controversie betwixt them had resolved to send to this purpose as far as Constantinople and Alexandria And yet for all this there is not the least Syllable tending this way said by them And certainly if the Canons of the Council of Sardica had been in those days reputed as a part of the Council of Nice it is a very strange thing that so many Learned and Religious Prelates as there were at that time in Africk as namely Aurelius Alypius and even S. Augustine that glorious Light not of the African onely but of the whole Ancient Church should have been so ignorant in this particular But it is a wonder beyond all belief that three Popes and their Legates should leave their Party in an Ignorance so gross and so prejudicial to their own Interest it being in their power to have relieved them in two words We may safely then conclude That these Popes Zozimus and Boniface had no other Copies of the Council of Nice than what we have and also that they did not believe that the Canons of the Council of Sardica were a part of the Council of Nice but that they rather purposely alledged some of the Canons of Sardica under the name of the Canons of the Council of Nice And this they did according to that Maxim which was in force with those of former times and is not utterly laid aside even in our own namely That for the advancing of a Good and Godly Cause it is lawful sometimes to use a little Deceit and to have recourse to your Piae Fraudes They therefore firmly believing as they did That the Supremacy of their See over all other Churches was a Business of great importance and would be very profitable to all Christendom we are not to wonder if for the establishing this right on themselvs they made use of a little Legerdemain alledging Sardica for Nice reckoning with themselves that if they brought their Design about this small Failing of theirs would in process of time be abundantly satisfied for by the benefit and excellency of the thing it self Yet notwithstanding this Opposition made by the African Fathers against the Church of Rome Pope Leo not many years after writing to the Emperour Theodosius did not forbear to make use of the old Forgery citing one of the Canons of the Council of Sardica for a Legitimate Canon of the Council of Nice which was the cause that the Emperour Valentinian also and his Empress Galla Placidia writing in the behalf of the said Pope Leo to the Emperour Theodosius affirmed to him for a certain Truth That both all Antiquity and the Canons of the Council of Nice also had assigned to the Pope of Rome the Power of judging of Points of Faith and of the Prelates of the Church Leo having before possessed them That this Canons of the Council of Sardica was one of the Canons of Nice And thus by a strong perseverance in this Pious Fraud they have at length so fully perswaded a great part of Christendom that the Council of Nice had established this Supremacy upon the Pope of Rome that it is now generally urged by all of them whenever this Point is controverted I must crave pardon of the Reader for having so long insisted on this Particular and perhaps longer somewhat than my Design required yet in my judgment it may be of no small importance to the Business in hand For will the Protestants here say seeing that two Popes Bishops and Princes which all Christians have approved have notwithstanding thus foisted in false Wares what ought we to expect from the rest of the Bishops and Doctors Since these Men have done this in the beginning of the Fifth Century an Age of so high repute for its Faith and Doctrine what have they not dared to do in the succeeding Ages If they have not forborn so foully to abuse the sacred Name of the Council of Nice the most Illustrious and Venerable Monument of Christianity next to the Holy Scriptures what other Authors can we imagine they would spare And if in the face of so Renowned an Assembly and in the presence of whatever Africk could shew of Eminency both for Sanctity and Learning and even under the eye of the great S. Augustine
and that there can be no great danger either in putting in or at least in leaving any thing in that may yield assistance to it whatsoever the issue of either of these may in the end prove to be And hence hath it come to pass that we have so many ancient Forgeries and also so many strange stories of Miracles and of Visions many taking a delight in feigning as S. Hierome says great Combats which they have had with Devils in Desarts all which things are meerly fabulous in themselves and acknowledged too to be so by the most intelligent of them yet notwithstanding are tolerated and sometimes also recommended to them forasmuch as they account them useful for the setling or encreasing either of the Faith or Devotion of the People What will you say if at this day there are some even of those Men who make profession of being the greatest haters in the world of these subtilties who cannot nevertheless put forth any Book but they must needs be lopping off or falsifying whatsoever doth not wholly agree with the Doctrine they hold for true fearing as themselves say lest such things coming to the eye of the simple Common People might infect them and possess their Heads with new Fancies So firmly hath this Opinion been of old rooted in the Nature of Man Now I will not here dispute whether this proceeding of theirs be lawful or not I shall only say by the way That in my judgment it is a very great shame for the Truth to be established or defended by such falsifications and shifts as if it had not sufficient Weapons both defensive and offensive of its own but that it must be fain to borrow of its Adversary and it is besides a very dangerous course too because that the discovery of any one Cheat oftentimes renders their Cause who practised it wholly suspected insomuch that by making use of such slights as these in Christian Religion either for the gaining to you or confirming the faith of some of the simpler People it is to be feared that you may give distaste to the more understanding sort and so by this means at length may chance to lose the Affections of the simpler sort too But whatsoever this course of Cheating be either in it self or in its Consequences it is sufficient for my purpose that it hath been a long time practised in the Church in matters of Religion for proof whereof I shall here produce some Instances The Hereticks have always been accused of using this Artifice but I shall not here set down what Alterations have been made by the Ancientest of them even in the Scriptures themselves If you would have a Taste of this Practice of theirs go but to Tertullian and Epiphanius and you shall there see how Marcion had clipped and altered the Gospel of S. Luke and those Epistles of S. Paul which he allowed to be such Neither have those other of the Ages following been any whit more conscientious in this Particular as may appear by those Complaints made by Ruffinus in his Exposition upon the Apostle's Creed and in another Treatise written by him purposely on this Subject which is indeed contradicted by S. Hierome but onely in his Hypothesis as to what concerned Origen but not absolutely in his Thesis and by the like Complaints of S. Cyril and divers others of the Ancients and among the Moderns by those very Persons also who have put forth the General Councils at Rome who inform us in the Preface to the First Volume That Time and the Fraud of the Hereticks have been the cause that the Acts of the said Councils have not come to our hands neither entire nor pure and sincere that which hath remained of them and before they grievously bewail that we should be thus deprived of so great and so precious a Treasure Now this Testimony of theirs to me is worth a thousand others seeing it comes from such who in my opinion are evidently interested to speak quite otherwise For if the Church of Rome who is the pretended Mistress and Trustee of the Faith hath suffered any part of the Councils to perish and be lost which is esteemed by them as the Code of the Church what then may the rest have suffered also And what may not the Hereticks and Schismaticks have been able to do And if all these Evidences have been altered by their Fraud how shall we be able by them to come to the knowledge of the Sense and Judgment of the Ancients I confess I am very much amaâ—ed to see these Men make so much reckoning of the Acts of the Councils and to make such grievous Complaints against the Hereticks for having suppressed some of them For if these things are of such use why then do they themselves keep from us the Acts of the Council of Trent which is the most considerable Council both for them and their Party that hath been held in the Christian Church these eight hundred years If it be a Crime in the Hereticks to have kept from us these precious Jewels why are not they afraid lest the blame which they lay on others may chance to return upon themselves But doubtless there is something in the Business that renders these Cases different and I confess I wonder they publish it not the simpler sort for want of being otherwise informed thinking perhaps though it may be without cause that the reason why the Acts of this last Council are kept so close from them is because they know that the publishing of them would be either prejudicial or at least unprofitable to the Greatness of the Church of Rome And they also again on the other side conceive that in those other Acts which they say have been suppressed by the Hereticks there were wonderful Matters to be found for the greater advancing and supporting of the Church of Rome Whatsoever the Reason be I cannot but commend the Ingenuity of these Men who notwithstanding their Interest which seemeth to engage them to the contrary have yet nevertheless confessed That the Councils which we have at this day are neither entire nor uncorrupted But let us now examine whether or no even the Orthodox Party themselves have not also contributed something to this Alteration of the Writings of the Primitive Church Epiphanius reports That in the true and most correct Copies of S. Luke it was written that Jesus Christ wept and that this passage had been alledged by S. Irenaeus but that the Catholicks had blotted out this Word fearing that the Hereticks might abuse it Whether this Relation be true or false I must relie upon the Credit of the Author But this I shall say That it seems to me a clear Argument That these Ancient Catholicks would have made no great scruple of blotting out of the Writings of the Fathers any Word that they found to contradict their own Opinions and Judgment and that with the same Liberty that they inform us
certain words of His only to render Him odious objecting against Him that He saith That the Carnal Form of Jesus Christ was changed into the nature of the Deity whereas all that he saith is That it was changed by the Deity dwelling in iâ— Whence it appears how much credit we are to give to these Men when they alledge here and there divers strange and unheard of pieces and on the contrary scornfully reject whatever their Adversaries bring as for example they did a remarkable Passage alledged by them out of Epiphanius which Passage they refused as supposititious Because said they if Epiphanius had been of the same judgment with the Iconoclasts he would then in his Panarium have reckoned the Reverencing of Images among the other Heresies And may not a man by the same reason as well conclude that Epiphanius was a favourer of the Iconoclasts for otherwise he would have reckoned their opinion among the rest of the Heresies by him reckoned up I shal not here say any thing of their refusing so boldly and confidently those Passages alledged out of The odotui Ancyranus and others Since that time you shall find nothing more ordinary in the Books both of the Greeks and the Latins than the like reproaches that they mutually cast upon each other of having corrupted the Pieces and Evidences wherein their cause was the most concerned As for example at the Council of Florence Mark Bishop of Ephesus disputing concerning the Procession of the Holy Ghost had nothing to answer to two passages that were alledged against him the one out of that piece of Epiphanius which is entituled Ancoratus the other out of S. Basils Writings against Eunomius but that That piece of Epiphanius had been long since corrupted and so likewise of that other passage out of S. Basil that Some one or other who favoured the opinion of the Latinâ—s had accommodated that place to their sence withall protesting that in all Constantinople there was but four Copies only of the said Book that had that passage alledged by the Latins but that there was in the said City above a thousand other copies wherein those words were not to be found at all Then had the Latins nothing to return upon them more readily than that it had been the ordinary practice not of the West but of the East to corrupt Books and for proof hereof they presently cite a passage out of S. Cyrill which we have formerly set down where notwithstanding he speaks not any thing save only of the Hereticks that is to say of the Nestorians who were said to have falsified the Epistle of Athanasius to Epictetus but not a word there of all the Eastern men much less of the whole Greek Church The Greeks then charged back upon the Latines the story of Pope Zozimus mentioned in the preceeding Chapter And thus did they bandy stifly one against the other each of them as may be easily perceived having much more appearance of reason and of truth in their accusation of their Adversary than in excusing or defending themselves I shall here give you also another the like answer made by one Gregorius a Greek Monk a strong maintainer of the Vnion made at Florence to a passage cited by Mark Bishop of Ephesus out of a certain Book of John Damascene affirming that The Father only is the Cause to wit in the Trinity These words saith this Monk are not found in any of the ancient Copies which is an evident argument that it had been afterwards foisted in by the Greeks to bring over this Doctor to their opinion Petavinâ— hath in like manner lately quitted his hands of an objection taken out of the 68. Canon of the Apostles against the Fasting on Saturdays which is observed in the Roman Church pretending that the Greeks have falsified this Canon But whosoever desires to see how full of uncertainty the Writings of this later Antiquity are let him but read the VIII Council which is pretended by the Western Church to be a general Council and but compare the Latine and the Greek Copies together withal taking especial notice of the Preface of Anastasius Bibliothecarius who after he hath very sharply reproved the Ambition of the Greeks and accused the Canons which they produce of the Third General Council as Forged and supposititious to make short work with them he says in plain terms that the Greeks have corrupted all the Councils except the First What then have we now left us to build upon seeing that this Corruption hath prevailed even as far as on the Councils which are the very heart of the Ancient Monuments of the Church Neither yet hath the Nicene Creed which hath been approved and made sacred in so many General Councils been able to escape these Alterations For not to speak any thing of these Expressions which are of little importance De Coelis from Heaven secundum Scripturas according to the Scriptures Deum de Deo God of God which Cardinal Julian affirmed at the Council of Florence were to be found in some Creeds and in some others were not it is now the space of some Ages past since the Eastern Church accused the Western of having added Filioque and the Son in the Article touching the Procession of the Holy Ghost the Western Men as senselesly charging back upon them again that they have cut it off Which is an Alteration though it seem but trivial in appearance that is of great importance both to the one side and to the other for the decision of that great Controversie which hath hitherto caused a separation betwixt them namely Whether or no the Holy Ghost proceed from the Son as well as from the Father Which is an evident Argument that either the one or the other of them hath out of a desire to do service to their own Side laid false hands upon this Sacred Piece Now whatever hath been attempted in this kind by the Ancients may well pass for Innocence if compar'd but with what these Later Times have dared to do their Passion being of late years so much heated that laying all Reason and Honesty aside they have most miserably and shamelesly corrupted all sorts of Books and of Authors Of those Men that go so desperately to work we cannot certainly speak of their baseness as it deserveth and in my judgment Laurentius Bochellus in his Preface to the Decreta Ecclesiae Gallicanae had all the reason in the world to detest these Men as People of a most wretched and malicious spirit who have most miserably gelded and mangled so infinite a number of Authors both Sacred and Prophane Ancient and Modern their ordinary custom being to spare no Person no not Kings nor even S. Lewis himself out of whose Pragmatica Sanctio as they call it they have blotted out some certain Articles principally those which concerned the State of France out of the Bibliotheca Patrum the Constitutiones Regiae and the
the other side Ruffinus had some Name in the Church though nothing near so great a one as Cyprian had and this is the reason why the afore-named Merchants have inscribed with S. Cyprian's Name that Treatise upon the Apostles Creed which was written by Ruffinus Besides the Avarice of these Librarii their own Ignorance or at least of those whom they consulted hath in like manner produced no small number of these spurious Pieces For when either the likeness of the Name or of the Stile or of the Subject treated of or any other seeming Reason gave them occasion to believe that such an Anonymous Book was the Work of such or such an ancient Author they presently copied it out under the said Author's Name and thus it came from thenceforth to be received by the World for such and by them to be delivered for such over to Posterity But all the blame is not to be laid upon the Transcribers onely in this particular the Authors themselves have contributed very much to the promoting of this kind of Imposture For there have been found in all Ages some that have been so sottishly ambitious and so desirous at what rate soever to have their Conceptions published to the World as that finding they should never be able to please and get applause abroad of themselves they have vented them under the Name of some of the Fathers chusing rather to see them received and honoured under this false Habit than disdained and slighted under their own true one These Men according as their several Abilities have been have imitated the Stile and Fancy of the Fathers either more or less happily and have boldly presented these Issues of their own Brain to the World under their Names The World the greatest part whereof hath always been the least subtile hath very readily collected preserved and cherished these false Births and hath by degrees filled all their Libraries with them Others have been moved to use the same Artifice not out of Ambition but some other irregular Fancy as those Men have done who having had a particular affection either to such a Person or to such an Opinion have faln to write of the same under the Name of some Author of good Esteem and Reputation with the World to make it pass the more currantly abroad Just as that Priest did who published a Book entituled The Acts of S. Paul and of Tecla and being convinced of being the Author of it in the presence of S. John he plainly confessed that the love that he bare to S. Paul was the onely cause that moved him to do it Such was the boldness also of Ruffinus a Priest of Aquileia whom S. Hierome justly reprehendeth so sharply and in so many places who to vindicate Origen's Honour wrote an Apology for him under the Name of Pamphilus a holy and renowned Martyr although the truth of it is he had taken it partly out of the First and Sixth Books that Eusebius had written upon the same Subject and partly made use of his own Invention in it Some such like Fancy it was that moved him also to put forth the Life of one Sextus a Pythagorean Philosopher under the Name of S. Sixtus the Martyr to the end that the Work might be received the more favourably What can you say to this namely That in the very same Age there was a Personage of greater Note than the former who disliking that Hierome had translated the Old Testament out of the Hebrew framed an Epistle under his Name wherein he maketh him repent himself of having done it which Epistle even in S. Hierome's Life-time though without his knowledge was published by the said Author both at Rome and in Africk Who could believe the truth of this bold attempt had not S. Hierome himself related the Story and made complaint of the Injury done him therein I must impute also to a Fancy of the same kind though certainly more innocent than the other the spreading abroad of so many Predictions of our Saviour Jesus Christ and his Kingdom under the Names of the Sibylls which was done by some of the first Christians onely to prepare the Pagans to relish this Doctrine the better as it is objected against them by Celsus in Origen But that which is of greater consequence yet is that even the Fathers themselves have sometimes made use of this Artifice to promote the Interest either of their own Opinions or their Passions We have a notable Example hereof which was objected against the Latins by the Greeks above two hundred years since of two Bishops of Rome Zozimus and Boniface who to authorize the Title which they pretended to have of being Universal Bishops and Heads of the whole Christian Church and particularly of the African forged about the beginning of the Fifth Century certain Canons in the Council of Nice and alledged them for such divers times in the Councils in Africa which notwithstanding after a long and diligent search could never yet be found in any of the Authentick Copies of the said Council of Nice although the African Bishops had taken the pains to send as far as Constantinople Alexandria and Antioch to get the best and truest Copies that they could Neither indeed have the Canons and Acts of the Council of Nice at this day though it hath since that time passed through so many several hands any such thing in itâ— no not in the Editions of those very Men who are the most interested in the Honour of the Popes as that of Dionysius Exiguus who published his Latin Collection of them about the year of our Saviour Christ 525. nor in any other either Ancient or Modern For at for that Authentick Copy of the Council of Nice which one Frier John at the Council of Florence pretended to have been the onely Copy that had escaped the Corruptions of the Arrians and had for this cause been always kept under Lock and Key at Rome with all the safety and care that might be out of which Copy they had transcribed the said Canons I confess this Copy must needs have been kept up very close under Locks and Seals seeing that three of their Popes namely Zozimus Boniface and Celestine could never be able to produce it for the justification of their pretended Title against the African Fathers though in a case of so great Importance And it is a wonderful strange thing to me that this Man who came a thousand years after should now at last make use of it in this cause whereas those very Persons who had it in their custody never so much as mentioned one Syllable of it which is an evident Argument that the Seals of this rare Book were never opened save onely in the Brains of this Doctor where onely it was both framed and sealed up brought forth and vanished all at the same instant the greatest part of those Men that have come after him having laid aside this Chimerical
his Discourse saith he he thought good to make use of his sword upon uttering with his mouth and writing with his hand Bloody Laws and thinking that a Law can command mens Faith And that you may not imagine that he himself thought that lawful which he found fault with in the Arrians he says in another place that in a certain journey which he made into Gallia he refused to communicate with those Bishops who would have some certain Hereticks to be put to death The Emperour Marcianus in like manner who called together the Council of Chalcedon and was a Prince that was highly commended for his Piety solemnly protesteth that He had forced no man to subscribe or to assent to the Council of Chalcedon against his will For saith he we will not draw any man into the way of life by violence or by threats And indeed Hosius Bishop of Corduba long before testified that the most Catholick Emperour Constans never compelled any man to be Orthodox And this is the course which is approved of by all the Ancients God saith St. Hillary hath rather taught us the knowledge of himself than exacted it of us and authorizing his Commandments by the wonderfulness of his heavenly works he hath refused to force us to confess his Name c. He is the God of the whole world He hath no need of a compelled obedience He requireth not any forced confession Which are the Reasons this Author brought with some other the like to disswade the Emperour Constantius from using violence and forcing the Consciences of Men. St. Ambrose saith Christ sent his Apostles to plant the Faith not that they should compel but that they should instruct men not that they should exercise the force of Power but that they should promote the Doctrine of Humility And hence is that which St. Cyprian hath comparing the manner of proceeding in the Old Testament with that of the New Then saith he the proud and the disâ—bedient were out off by the flâ—shly Sword Nâ—w they suffer by the spiritual being thrown out of the Church Certainly then they still live at this very day under the Old Testament in Spain and Italy and all those other places where the Inquisition is in force and I bâ—lieve he would find a very hard Task of it that should take in hand to reconcile this Passage of St. Cyprian to that Opinion of Pope Pius V. who said that Bishops might have their Officers and Executioners of Justice for the Causes that appertained to their Jurisdiction and might put their Sentences in Execution against Offenders and that the reason of their having recourse upon all occasions to the Secular Powers was not because the Church could not make use of its own proper Officers of Justice in such Cases but rather because it had no such or if it had they were so weak and so few in number as that for the suppressing and punishing of Dâ—linquents it would however stand in need of the assistance of the Temporal Power I shall shut up this Point with Tertullian the most ancient Author of the Latine Church whom Pamelius as we have touched before will needs have us believe to have been a Persecutor of Hereticks who yet was a man that would not allow a Christian so much as to draw a sword neither in war against a Publick Enemy nor yet in discharging the Office of a Magistrate upon Offenders whom all Civil Laws whatsoever punish with death Let us now therefore see what he says touching Religion Consider saith he to the Pagans whether this be not to add to the Crime of Irreligion to take away the Liberty of Religion and to interdict a man the choice of his God by not suffering him to worship whom he would but to compel him to worship whom he would not There is none no not among men that takes pleasure in being served by any against their will And some few Chapters afterward This is a thing saith he that seemeth very unjust that Free-men should be constrained to do sacrifice against their will For in the performing of service to God a willing heart is required And in another Book but speaking of the same thing he saith It is a Point of Humane Right and a Natural Power that every man hath to worship that which he thinks fit The Religion of another man neither hurteth nor profiteth any one Neither is it indeed the part of Religion to compel Religion which ought to be entertained willingly and not by force forasmuch as Sacrifices themselves are required only from willing minds Upon which passage of his Pamelius gives us a marvellous rare gloss saying That we ought not indeed directly to compel men to our Religion but yet we may punish them if they will not change their opinion Certainly he thinks it is no Compelling of a man to force him to do a thing under pain of Death Let any man that can reconcile the Practice of the Inquisition and the Popes Thunderbolts against King Henry VIII and his Daughter Queen Elizabeth and against some of the Kings of France also to this constant opinion of all Antiquity Now after they have thus boldly slighted the Beliefes the Ceremonies and the Discipline of the Ancients by changing and abolishing whatsoever they have thought good with what face can they still cry up the Fathers and alledge their Testimonies and besides place them upon the Seat of Judicature and make them the Judges of our Differences Or although they still do thus who would noâ— be ready here to bring against them those words of Tertullian which he made use of iâ— another the like Case I would be very glad saith he that these greatâ—â— and most religious Defenders and 〈◊〉 of the Iâ—wâ— and Customs of their Fathers would 〈…〉 a little touching their own saith 〈◊〉 and obedience towards the constitutions of their Ancestors whether they have not departed from and forsaken some of them 〈…〉 they have not razed out those things 〈◊〉 which were most necessary and most useful in their Science What is become of those Ancient Laws c. Where is the Religion Where is the Reverence which is due from you to your Ancestors You have renounced your Fore-Fathers both in your Habit Apparel Manner of Life Opinion and in your very Speech also You are always crying up Antiquity yet every day your selves take up a New manner of Life Whether therefore they of the Church of Rome have upon Just Grounds dealt thus with the Ancients or not it serves my turn however to conclude That by this their Proceeding they have given us a sufficient Testimony that they do not acount their Authority Supreme in Matters of Religion And if so what Reason have they to urge it for such against the Protestants Seeing they have weakned the Authority of so many of those Judgments touching Points of Religion which have been given