poison'd himself upon Zeno's recovering the Empire Peter Moggus was chosen his Successor by the Eutychian Faction but is deposed by the Emperor 's own Command and Timotheus Salophasiolus their Lawful Bishop is restored This Timotheus was chosen to the See of Alexandria upon the deposition of Timotheus Aelurus by the Emperor Leo was ejected by Basiliscus restored by Zeno and after 23 years from the date of his Election dyes And his keeping that See so long did not a little contribute to the Disorders of that Church he being a softly and unactive Man that would never put the Discipline of the Church nor the Imperial Laws in execution against the Hereticks and though Complaints of his remisness were carried to the Emperor and though the Emperor sent him particular Orders to break up their Conventicles he could not be prevail'd upon to act but instead of that suffer'd himself to be prevail'd with upon pretence of Peace and reconciling to put Dioscorus himself into the Dyptichs and by this gentleness he became very popular among the factious Alexandrians insomuch that as he at any time passed through the Streets the Rabble were wont to salute him with this out-cry viz. That though we cannot communicate with thee yet we cannot but love thee And the silly Man was so charmed with this childish Rattle that he parted with his Episcopal Authority to purchase it and by this means it was that the Faction grew so great in that City And certain it is that the Courtiers of Popularity are of all Men most unfit for Government in the Church they will certainly betray their Trust and their Duty to the applause of the People But upon his death in the year 482 the Clergy of Alexandria elect Joannes Talaia who is rejected by the Emperor's Command and who but Petrus Moggus put in his stead This the Historians say was done by the instigation of Acacius out of a private picque against Talaia for neglecting to send Synodical Epistles according to custom to signifie his election to him as he had done to the other great Sees But however outed he was upon pretence of enormous Crimes Perjury and Simony in that he had obliged himself under Oath never to accept of that Bishoprick and yet for all that had purchased it with Money as Evagrius reports from Zacharias Rhetor the Eutychian Historian And Liberatus says that he was Treasurer of the Church of Alexandria and out of the Churches Treasure purchased the Bishoprick of Count Illus at that time a powerful Man at Court It is certain that that was the occasion of the miscarriage of his Synodical Letters to Acacius they being inclosed in others directed to his Patron Illus who hapning to be absent at that time as far as Antioch the Messenger thought himself obliged to continue his Journey forward for the safe delivery of his Letters in which Interval of time Acacius being a very proud man was pleased to conceive his Jealousy against Joannes Talaia and procure his deposition upon the fore-mention'd Articles and then treats with Petrus Moggus and his Court-Patrons and receives him to communion upon his acceptance of the Emperor's instrument of Union but that was to please the Emperour for in private he obliged him to receive the faith and authority of the Council of Calcedon as himself like a time-rigling Knave as the Historian calls him declares over and over in his Apologetical Epistle to Acacius to vindicate himself from the calumny of his having contrary to his Faith renounced the Council And the same shuffling Arts are observed of him by Liberatus that he prevaricated with both Parties pretending to Acacius to communicate with the Synod and to the Alexandrians to defy it And the Emperour Zeno himself assures Pope Foelix that he was not admitted to his Bishoprick but upon his owning the Council of Calcedon in an Epistle extant in Liberatus But when the wicked man had gain'd his point he forswears all his subscriptions anathematises the Council and Leo's Epistle blots Proterius and Salophasiolus out of the Dypticks and puts in Dioscorus and Timotheus Aelurus And now here do we find by vertue of this Imperial Instrument of Union the whole Christian World involved in a Civil Warr one Party asserting the Council of Calcedon another anathematising it a third despising both and trampling upon all the Discipline of the Church in defence of a Court-irregularity But the quarrel run highest between the two powerful Bishops of Rome and Constantinople for Acacius Bishop of Constantinople having the Court and the Emperour to back him bids defyance not only to the Pope but to the Catholique Church and all its Laws For though himself was the first man that had appear'd against Petrus Moggus and convicted him of manifest Heresy and certified his conviction to Pope Simplicius yet now without any due satisfaction receives him not only to Communion but prefers him to one of the highest dignities in the Christian Church And thô after all these obliging streins of Courtesie Moggus discover'd his obstinacy by anathematising the Council and changing the Dypticks Acacius winks hard and will not see it but stands by him to the last drop of blood calls all the Power of the Court into his assistance to support him against the Discipline and Authority of the Church slites he admonitions of the greatest Bishops in it Imprisons their Legates defies their Sentence lives and dyes excommunicate and all this for a Man that himself could not but know to be a sâ—ubborn Heretick The full account of all these transactions beside the Relations of the Historians Liberatus and Evagrius is to be seen in the Letters of Pope Simplicius and Foelix the Breviculus Histâ—riae Eutychianistarum and the Acts produced in the Cause of Acacius at the Council at Rome all which are printed together in their proper place and order of time in Labbe's Councils The first correspondence about this matter against Petrus Moggus was as I have already intimated opened by Acacius himself in his Epistle to Simplicius informing him that upon the death of Timotheus Aelurus one Petrus Moggus an excommunicate Person being a Thief and a Son of Darkness had at midnight stoln into the Throne of Alexandria having only one Companion to attend him by which Act of madness he made himself obnoxious to greater Punishments than had been hitherto pronounced against him but however he was defeated of his Design for Timotheus Salophasiolus being restored to his Throne this foolish thief durst never shew his head more In answer to this Simplicius returns divers congratulatory Letters not only to Acacius but the Emperor Zeno exhorting him to banish Moggus out of the City But in the next Letters he complains of the neglect of his Advice and suspects warping and luke warmness in Acacius and the next news we hear is that upon the death of Timotheus Petrus Moggus is by the power of Acacius advanced
he was really of their Communion but desires that it may be kept secret and that they would seem to suspect him more than ever that he might have the better opportunity of doing effectual service to the Cause This is the substance of the Letter but Baronius and the Roman Writers suspect it to have been forged because in all his following scuffles about the tria capitula he was never upbraided with it But what wonder is that when the thing was to be kept secret though it might and it seems did come to the knowledg of some as appears by Liberatus an Actor in the business who procured and publisht a Copy of it But he having secured possession of his Throne by the death of Silverius he now writes a flattering Epistle to the Emperor for the Council of Calcedon damns all the Hereticks disclaims all correspondence with the Acephali assures him that he will live and dye by the Council and requests him not to believe any Information whatsoever against him to the contrary But after all he is so crafty as to send his main Message about the best means for settlement of the Church by word of Mouth to baulk as much as it was possible the full discovery of himself All which atheistical hypocrisie Baronius takes great pains to impute to his miraculous Conversion only by vertue of St. Peter's Chair But the Emperor having publisht his Rescript against the tria capitula and finding storms gathering upon it sends to Vigilius whoâ—e private sense he understood to repair to Constantinople with his advice and thither he comes being ready to sieze any opportunity to shew his Power but instead of joining in free Council with the Bishops in effect takes the whole judgment to himself Of his fraudulent behavior in that whole transaction Facundus who was an Eye-witness and indeed the chief Transactor in it has given us a particular account viz. That when he dissembled ignorance of the whole Controversie and Facundus offerd his service to give him full information he having afore-hand obliged himself by promise to give sentence against the Capitula and designing to excuse himself with pretence of Ignorance shamelesly refuses the proffer cuts off all farther proceedings and desires the Bishops that sat with him to give in their Answers singly in writing For they being newly come to Constantinople to consult with his Holiness and being not pre-engaged by any subscription were by this Artifice over-reacht to give in their Answer against the Capitula and the Council And to prevent their drawing back they are obliged to do it not by Vote but by Writing And when he had received their several Answers away he carries them to Court and there delivers them into the hands of the Acephali to be laid up among the former subscriptions that had been made against the Council And that he might not be thought a Traitor by his own Party for he hitherto pretended to side with the Orthodox he pretends that he would not keep them himself lest hereafter there should be found in the Registry of the Church of Rome so many Subscriptions against the Council As if says Facundus he could not as well have torn or burnt them or return'd them back to the Authors from whom he ought never to have received much less to have extorted them if he had been at all concern'd that nothing should be done in prejudice of the Council And thus says he by this his customary dissimulation counterfeiting a zeal in behalf of the Council he effectually promotes the designs of its Enemies And what could do it more than that 70 Bishops sitting in Council with the great Bishop of Rome should beside those many more that had before subscribed prejudg the Controversie All this prevarication Baronius out of his infinite zeal to the Apostolick See endeavors to excuse because before Vigilius heard the Cause he supposed that the condemnation of the tria capitula reflected upon the Authority of the Council but now upon hearing the reasons on both sides and being satisfied that it was unconcern'd in the Controversie he grew more moderate and indifferent and for Peace sake inclined to comply with the Emperor and the Eastern Bishops But what ever Apology this may be for his change of mind it is no excuse for his jugling and underhand dealing and withal as for his change of mind by the Cardinals good leave to condemn writings of Heresie by an Imperial Rescript that had been clear'd of the Charge by the Sentence of a General Council is plainly to subvert not the Authority of that Council alone but of the whole Catholick Church This was the blot of Justinian's Reign that no Candor can cover nor Excuse wipe off And his Holiness by his time-serving complyance with it did but give a cast of his old dishonesty when by the Cardinal 's own account he exceeded all Mankind in Wickedness and proves that he was still acted by his six-fold Female Devil Theodora as he calls her who was the great stickler in the design in favor of the Eutychians because whether the condemnation of the tria capitula were in it self any direct reflection upon the Council or not those that promoted it were resolved to make that use of it And that was the true ground of the zeal of the African Bishops against it as Facundus himself declared to Vigilius at the Conference Ego enim fateor simpliciter beatitudini vestrae non pro Theoâ—ori Mopâ—suesteni damnatione me à contradicentiae communione subtraxisse hoc enim vel si approbandum non sit ferendum tamen existimo nec tantam esse causam judico pro quâ deberemus à communione multiplici segregari sed quòd ex Personâ Theodori Epistolam Ibae Nestorianianam probare conati sunt quòd ex Epistolâ Ibae Synodum Calcedonensem à quâ suscepta est improbare nam quae alia causa fuisse dicenda est ut post centum viginti suae defunctionis annos damnaretur cum dogmatibus suis Episcopus in Ecclesiae pace defunctus I confess freely to your Holiness that I am not concern'd about the Condemnation of Theodorus for though it be not to be approved yet it may be born neither do I think the thing of that weight that we need to divide Communion about it but because from a Sentence against the Person of Theodorus they endeavour to charge the Epistle of Ibas with Nestorianism in which his Writings are commended and then from the Epistle of Ibas to strike at the Council it self by whom it was allowed for what other Cause can be imagined of all this stir that a Bishop who died in the Peace of the Churchâ— shoud be brought to Judgment above one Hundred and Twenty Years after his death And that was the reason that the Africans were so resty which Vigilius finding and withal his own Clergy offended he again shrinks back and in a Consult with Theodorus and Mennas
Clergy and upon it they Address to the Emperor with a Petition for Redress against his oppressions and for a general Council to settle the Peace of the Church which he immediately grants and so Summons a Council to Ephesus in the 24th Year of his Reign and in the Year of our Lord 431. And sends Candidianus one of his great Officers to the Synod to keep good order in it and not as he declares in his Letter to the Council to intermeddle with the determination of Questions or Controversies that should be debated about matters of the Christian Faith because it is not lawful for any man that is not admitted into the Order of the Holy Bishops to interpose himself in Ecclesiastical Affairs and Debates And so bids them proceed to a peaceable decision of the present Controversie and no other and as he gives them full Liberty and Freedom of Debate so he assures them that whatever they agreed upon he would ratifie The Bishops met at the time appointed to the number of above 200 M. Mercator who himself was present there says precisely 274. Only Capreolus Bishop of Carthage writes to the Council to have the African Bishops excused who could not Travel at that time because of the Incursion of the Vandals over the whole Country so that there were none wanting but only John of Antioch and his Eastern Bishops and after he had made the Council wait 16 days he at last sends them word not to stay for him because his coming would be altogether uncertain It was easie for him to foresee which way the Council would incline and therefore he was unwilling to be present at the Condemnation of his old Friend And so the Council suggest to the Emperor that he sided with Nestorius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as they express it in their Letter to Celestine that he avoided the Council either out of Friendship to Nestorius because he had been a Clerk of his Church or because he was overcome by the perswasions of others though the true reason was the disgust that he had taken against the Anathema's and a Compact between him and Nestorius by them to disturb and perplex the Proceedings of the Council as will appear by the Event For when the Council proceeded upon it Nestorius refuses to appear till the coming of John of Antioch but they after 3 Summons and 3 days patience go on to Judgment and upon hearing the whole Evidence he is Condemned and Deposed by the Unanimous Vote of the Council and his Condemnation is proclaim'd through the City by the publick Cryer and fixt up in Writing in the Chief Places of Resort to the great joy of the People And an Account of their Proceedings is with all possible speed certified to the Emperor beseeching his Majesty to keep the Condemned Doctrine of Nestorius out of all Churches cause his Books to be burnt in all places with such Penalties upon Offenders as he should think fit in his Royal displeasure to inflict and so the Apostolical Faith will â—e protected and preserved by your Imperial Power But this Letter was delayed by Candidianus who sided with Nestorius against the Council which Cyril suspecting informs the Clergy of Constantinople of the real truth to prevent false News and it was but necessary for before the Letter came to the Emperor's hands Nestorius and ten other Bishops that stuck to him had sent him a fair Story of the illegal and violent proceedings of the Council But as for all Letters from the Council they were diligently intercepted and as the Clergy of Constantinople inform the Council all ships were searched and the high-ways beset so that no Person that came from the Council was suffer'd to pass to the City whilst correspondence was free and open to the Enemy and this was done with that strange diligence that the Messengers who brought the Letter from the Council to them could find no other way of conveighing it into the City then by a begger-Man that had it closed up within a walking Cane But when John of Antioch comes to Ephesus a few days after the Sentence he protests against it requiring them upon pain of Deposition and Excommunication to acquiesce in the Nicene Faith to piece no Novelties to it and to reject Cyril's heretical Anathema's and by the encouragement and perswasion of Candidianus rakes together a little Council of forty three Bishops whereof the greatest part had been deposed and some were meerly titular for re-hearing the Cause And here he is solemnly inform'd by Candidianus himself that he was order'd by the Emperor not to open his Commission but in full Council and that when Cyril and Memnon and their Associates combin'd to meet before the arrival of the Eastern Bishops he forbid them in the Emperor's Name but they forced him to comply for fear of a Sedition and that he left the Council and protested against their Proceedings and that when he found the sentence of Deposition set up against Nestorius he caused it to be pull'd down and knew nothing of it till he was inform'd by its publication in the Market-Place And yet being farther askt whether they entred upon the Examination of the merits of the Cause before they past sentence he replys like a raw and unexperienced Evidence that they made no Inquiry at all and this he attests as an Eye witness though he had all along declared that he was absent from the Council and knew nothing of the Sentence till it was publisht in the City But though the contradiction of the Testimony did not convict it self of falsehood yet the Acts of the Council would the particular Votes and Debates of the several Bishops as they were taken by the Notaries standing there upon perpetual Record But upon thâ—s the Conventicle deâ—ose Cyril and Memnon anathematise the Anathâ—ma's and all that refuse to anathematiâ—e them and certifie to the Emperor the deposition of Cyril and Memnon in the name of the Council Though Socrates is here so far mistaken as to impute that to Nestorius which was now done by John of Antioch viz. that himseâ—f and his smaâ—l Council of 10 had deposed Cyril and Memnon immediatâ—ly upon tâ—e Sentence of the Council against him But the Schismaticks having charm'd the Emperor by their Letter and by his President Candidianus who sung the Chorus to their Song theâ— sing over the same Tune in several Addresses to the Clergy the Senate and the People of Constantinople and to clinch all to the Empress and Princess Royal. But about this time arrived the â—ope's Legates with Letters from his Holiness to the Council that fâ—r the greater State are only to be read in the Latin Tongue and afterward by way of Condescension in the Greek at the Petition of the Fathers though they were writâ—en in both Languages this was one of the most early Affectations of Lordly State in the Papacy The next day they require
it being so clear an Exemplification of my design to shew the right and the wrong ways of exerting the Civil Power in Matters of the Church In the Year 449 Flavianus Bishop of Constantinople who succeeded Pâ—oclus that succeeded Maximianus held a Council of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Bishops then Resident in the City for which reason in the Acts of the Council it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sâ—journing Synod according to the new and corrupt Custom of the Bishops of that City upon their Usurpation over the Rights of Metropolitans to receive Appeals from the Legal Sentence and determine them in the Synod of these Indwelling Bishops who attended at Court for their own Affairs and Preferments A device that the Bishops of Constantinople were forced to make use of because that See being at first but an inferior Bishoprick and subject to its own Metropolitan of Hâ—raclea it could not pretend to a Power of Convening Synods and therefore they seize this opportunity of consulting with the Bishops Resident in the City without any Summons and this by Time and a little Custom became a standing Synod superior to the Provincial Synods And that was the particular occasion of this present Council under Flavianus viz. A Contest of Florentius the Metropolitan of the Lydian Sardis with John and Cossinus two Bishops of his Province who had Appealed from their Metropolitan to Flavianus and his Court-Conclave though they upon hearing of the Cause were so civil and that was not usual either with them or any other Usurpers as to judge it on the side of the Metropolitan But that matter being fairly and easily dispatch't Eusebius the Bishop of Dorylaeum a City of Phrygia Salutaris and a man eminent for Piety and Learning rises up and accuses his old Friend Eutyches having long in vain endeavoured as he declares to the Council to reclaim him by private advice or discourse â—f holding and teaching Heretical Opinions or a different Faith from that delivered from the Apostles and received by the Nicene Fathers and delivers up the Articles of his Charge in Writing Upon this Eutyches is summoned to appear and is after three Citations and all the shifts of delay unkenell'd out of his Monastery and stript of his Orders But the great Eunuch Chrysaphius was his friend and before the Heretick would appear he flies to him for help and protection and he prevails with the Emperor to send Florentius a Courtier and one of his Creatures with a Rabble of Monks and a Guard of Souldiers along with Eutyches to the Council but for all that upon a full hearing and debating of the Cause he is again deposed and eased of his Abby Upon this he makes his Address to Pope Leo procures the Emperor's Letters in his behalf and among his many other Grievances makes that acceptable Complaint That his Appeal to the Apostolical See was rejected by the Bishop of Constantinople Leo was glad of any opportunity to exert his universal Pastorship but much more to break the Power of that Rival See and therefore he greedily takes the Judgment of the Cause to himself writes a very huffing Letter to Flavianus rates him severely for not acquainting his Holiness with his Proceedings but much more tartly for denying an Appeal to the Apostolical See and peremptorily Commands him to return all the Acts of the Council to himself as the only Supreme Judge or as he expresses himself in his Answer to the Emperor Ad praedictum autem Episcopum dedi literas quibus mihi displicere cognosceret quòd ea quae in tantâ causâ gesta fuerant etiam nunc silentio reticeret cùm studere debuerit primitus nobis cuncta reserare Flavianus knowing the Spirit of the Man and being afraid of giving him any Provocation returns him a very civil and submissive Answer â—â—gether with the Acts of the Council humbly requests his Concurrence and Approbation and assures him that Eutyches had never made any Appeal to his Holiness and therefore had abused him with a palpable falshood Leo upon this Information and the perusal of the Acts is satisfied and agrees to the Condemnation of Eutyches and returns Flavianus that Famous Epistle in confutation of the Eutychian Heresie that was afterward so magnified by the Council of Calcedon as to be made of equal Authority with the Decrees of the General Councils Upon this Eutyches flies a second time to his friends at Court and complains that the Acts of the Council had been falsified by Flavianus and upon that the Bishops that were present at the Council were re-summoned and are required to give in their Answer to the Interrogatories upon Oath but this they unanimously refuse as an affront to their Order because as Basil Bishop of Seleucia replyed it was never yet heard of that an Oath was offered to Bishops and therefore upon their word they vouch the truth and sincerity of the Record and declare that Eutyches never made any offer of Appeal to the Bishops of Rome and Alexandria as he pretended in his Bill of Complaint In short the Acts themselves being examined and compared with Eutyches his own Copy exhibited by his Procurators for he refused to appear in Person they were found to agree so exactly in all particulars as not only to put himself but his friends out of Countenance And therefore finding no shelter either at home or at Rome he betakes himself to Alexandria and there engages Dioscorus who succeeded Cyril in that See on his side And he being a man of an ungovernable temper and willing to put an affront upon the great Bishop of Constantinople according to the practice of those times for the top-Top-Bishops to endeavour to check each others greatness embraces the Quarrel with all possible Zeal and pursues it with as indefatigable diligence earnestly solicites the Emperor for a General Council to rehearâ— the Cause of Eutyches which he represents to him as nothing else then an opposition to the Nestorian Heresie and so the Emperor himself took it And though Flavianus and Leo opposed it with all their Zeal and Power yet Eutyches having the Eunuchs favour and the Emperors own aversation against Nestorius to back him he prevails and a second Council is summoned to Ephesus 19 years after the first consisting of 130 Bishops and the Presidency of the Council is by Chrysaphius his Power with the Emperor determined to Dioscorus by special Commission Pope Leo is invited but his Answer is That he neither would nor could come he could not because at that time Rome was distressed by the Huns and he would not because it was not becoming the State of the Apostolick Chair to appear in any Council but however he sends his Legates with Letters to the Council little suspecting those Irregularities that ensued but by the Artifice of Dioscorus they were not so much as suffered to be read and upon it the Legates quit the Council and upon that all
Reign of the Emperor Leo his Method of preserving the Peace of the Church by way of Encyclical correspondence Pope Leo's concurrence p. 260. § XVII Of the Emperor Leo and the Tyrant Basiliscus The great mischiefs of Zeno's Henoticon or Act of Comprehension Of the Acephali and the Haesitantes i. e. the moderate Men. Of the numberless Schisms occasion'd in the Church by this healing Instrument p. 296. § XIX The reign of Anastasius his outragious zeal for the Henoticon his persecution in pursuance of Moderation till at last the design ended in Wars Tumults and Rebellions p. 335. § XX. Justin's restitution of the Council of Calcedon The re-union of the Eastern and Western Churches thereby The Tumults of the Scythian and Acaemetan Monks His Laws against the Hereticks p. 349. § XXI A general vindication of the Justinian Code A short history of both the Codes Theodosian and Justinian Tribonian's Integrity vindicated in his reciting the Laws of former Emperors against the accusations of Gothofred p. 366. § XXII All Justinian's own Novels vindicated from any Invasion upon the Power of the Church and proved to have been nothing else than Canons enacted into Laws p. 376. § XXIII All his Actions vindicated against Alemannus and the Anecdota The history of the Contest about the tria Capitula with an account of the extravagant behaviour of Pope Vigilius p. 391. § XXIV The Contest between Paul the 5th and the state of Venice the cause of all the displeasure of the Court of Rome against Justinian The Anecdota proved to be spurious and none of Procopius his writings p. 426. § XXV Justinian vindicated from the charge of Cruelty p. 443. § XXVI The unparallel'd gentleness of his reign the Empress Theodora Antonia and the great Belisarius vindicated from the Calumnies of the Anecdota p. 455. § XXVII An account of Justinian's Persian Vandalick and Gothick Wars p. 479. § XXVIII The reason of his siding with the Venetae against the Prasmi i. e. the Tories against the Whigs p. 497. § XXIX His vindication from Folly and Knavery p. 502. § XXX Item From Covetousness and Prodigality p. 510. § XXXI Item From Oppression in putting the Laws in execution p. 523. § XXXII Item From inconstancy and falsehood to his Friends From Vanity from Forgery from Lust from Vnkindness and Overâ—kindness to his Clergy p. 547. § XXXIII An Answer to the whole Rhapsody of smaller Cavils and Calumnies p. 573. ERRATA PAg. 2. l. 3. They kept it themselves Read They kept it to themselves P. 192. l. 2. Welly r. well P. 200. l. 6. Hair r. hare P. 224. l. 2. tyed r. lyed P. 267. l. 8. rehearse r. rehear P. 310. l. 8. Possessions r Possession P. 336. l. 12. Syntax r. Sin-tax P. 354. l. 27. upon r. up P. 378. l. 29. and r. an P. 394. l. 28. onâ—y r. on the contrary P. 404. l. penult Summary r. Summoning P. 406. l. 7. Bishops r. Bishop P. 429. l. 19. Eusebius r. Eichelius P. 432. l. ult Helâ—sted r. Helmsted P. 439. l. 29. Oversâ—en r. Over-keen P. 456. l. 18. Patriarchate r. Patriciate Ibid. l. 22. Patriarchate r. Patriciate P. 466. l. 24. Theodorus r. Theodora ' s. P. 479. l. 20. use r. vie P. 546. l. friends r. fâ—nds P. 550 l. penult Solomons r. Solomon PART I. SECT I. UPon the death of Julian there was another quick and suddain turn of Affairs by the Election of Jovian a Christian to the Empire though the change was rather made in the Emperor than the Religion For Christianity was so universally entertain'd that Julian with all his Arts of Undermining and Persecution could make but very little alteration in the Church and at last left it in the very same or a much better Condition than that in which he found it And for that reason Gregory Nazianzen derides his folly and madness in endeavouring to destroy Christianity when it had so universally prevail'd and himself was so sensible of it that he was forced for a time to conceal his own Religion and as he marched out of France towards Rome he was forced to keep Christmas at Vienna that he might seem to be of the same Religion with his Army And so during his reign they kept it themselves so as to keep it in reality for when Jovian was chosen Emperor upon his death he refused it as being a Christian and so unfit to command Julian's Army whom he could not but suppose to be of the same Religion with their Master At which a great shout was made O Sir take no care for that for you shall command Christian Men and such as are educated in the Discipline and Piety of the Christian Church for the eldest among us were train'd up under Constantine and the younger under Constantius and as for the time of Julian it was too short to make any alteration as to the Principles of our Religion Upon which declaration when he had made them repeat it several times as Socrates tells the Story he accepts the Empire and immediately restores all the Revenues Privileges and Immunities that had been given to the Church by Constantine and his Sons and taken away by Julian And withal restores all the banished Bishops and particularly St. Athanasius with especial regard to his Person to whom he writes for Instructions in order to the settlement of the true Faith who upon it immediately calls a Council and to prevent the Application of the Hereticks sends him out of hand the Nicene Confession not only as the true old Apostolical Faith which Arius and his followers had endeavour'd to corrupt by their prophane Novelties and others i. e. the Eusebians endeavour'd to supplant though they durst not disown it But as the sense of the Catholick Church ever since the Nicene Council in Spain in Britain in France in Italy Dalmatia Mysia Macedonia Greece Affrick Sardinia Cyprus Creet Pamphylia Lysia Isauria Egypt Lybia Pontus Cappadocia and all the Eastern Churches a very few only excepted all whose subscriptions he says and many others more remote we have in our own Possession and therefore though there are some few scatter'd Dissenters that ought to be no prejudice to the Faith of the whole World And this is another clear Confutation of that uncatholick surmise from the mistaken Sense of St. Jerom that all the World were at that time turn'd Arians But the most pleasant Scene of that time was the Council of Antioch when all the Arian World if any such there were would needs turn Orthodox for the Eusebians that had been supplanted by the Acacians under Constantius finding now that they had a Christian Emperor they petition him in his return from Persia that the Acacians who taught the Son to be unlike the Father might be displaced out of their Bishopricks and themselves restored but they receiving no kind answer from him who understood them too well and the Acacians who resolved to keep their hold finding
which way his Pulse beat tamper with Meletius the Orthodox Bishop of Antioch and dear to the new Emperor who at that time resided there to call a Council and though they had in the time of Constantius deposed him for his Apostasie to the Nicene Faith yet now in this Council they unanimously declare for it and signify their Decree and the necessity of it to the Emperor in that they were now convinced that there was no other stop to be put to the Arian Blasphemy viz. that the Son was created out of nothing and by this false and dishonest shufling they out-witted the old Eusebian Knaves and riveted themselves in their new usurpt Preferments But this goes to the very heart of the poor outed Eusebians to be thus over-reach't and supplanted and to turn the whole Game it drives them into their old out-rage against the vir gregis the great Athanasius And so away post Euzoius the then deposed Bishop of Antioch and Lucius the pretended Bishop of Alexandria to Court and there take their old Method of ingaging some of the Eunuchs into their Party and particularly Probatius the Praepositus Cubiculi that succeeded Eusebius in that Office who had done so much mischief in the reign of Constantius and having secured their Patrons they accuse Athanasius to the Emperor upon these three Topicks First that there had been continual Complaints against him during the whole time of his Episcopacy Secondly that upon the truth of those Complaints he had been often banisht by his Predecessors Thirdly that he was the sole Author of all the present Troubles and Disturbances in the Church This is their old train of boldness but the Emperor was a wise Man and saw thrô their Designs and therefore sends them away with very severe threatnings and charges his Eunuchs never to meddle with such Matters under no less Penalty than the Rod and the Cudgel and entertains Athanasius with all the highest expressions of Respect and Honor and so for his short time setled the Church both in Peace and Truth This is the true state and story of the revival of the Arian Controversy under this Emperor that had slept under Julian And not as Sozomen suggests the contentiousness of the Bishops who he says under Julian when the Christian Religion lay at stake pieced together for the security of the common Cause as 't is the custom of all Men to make peace and join forces against a common Enemy but as soon as the danger is blown over to return to their old Fewds and Animosities The observation in general is too true but not rightly applyed to this particular case for the ground of the quarrel here was not the natural contentiousness of Mankind whilst in a condition of peace as the Historian remarks in that the Orthodox had never pieced with any of the other Parties either Eusebians or Acacians under Julian but as we have already seen casheir'd and condemn'd them both and setled the Nicene Faith So that under Jovian there was no new breach but even according to Sozomen's own account the new contest was raised by the Eusebian Bishops that had lost their Bishopricks under Constantius after the Councils of Ariminum and Seleucia when they were over-reach't by the Acacians And that is the Argument of their Petition to this Emperor that things might stand as they were left by those Councils and that all after acts might be null'd i. e. that themselves might be restored to their Bishopricks That was the present quarrel and no dispute against the setled Faith for they had already declared for the Nicene Confession And therefore the Acacians upon their complaint against them for the Aëtian Heresy immediately protest against it to secure their Preferments And that was all along the state of this Controversy both before and after this time the zeal of good Men on one side for the true Faith and the Arts of ill Men on the other for Preferment and Court-favor This is hitherto evident from the beginning of the quarrel of Eusebius of Nicomedia with Athanasius and will appear as clearly in all the same Contests as long as they lasted under the succeeding Emperors § 2. Jovian dying suddainly no body knows of what though several wise philosophical Conjectures are made about it by the Historians after him Valentinian is chosen Emperor with a Nemine contradicente being a Man as Marcellinus himself confesses of universal reputation And he deserved it though it were only for that Prince-like saying after his Election when those that chose him press't him to take an Assistant in the Government he replyed when the Empire was vacant it was in your Power to choose me Emperor but now I am in possession of the Crown it is my business and none of yours to take care of the Common-Wealth He understood the true Rights of Soveraign Power in all Monarchies whether Hereditary or Elective and unless it be supreme and unaccountable it is so far from being any Power at all that it is the lowest and most abject kind of Subjection and of a great General he would by his being made Emperor have only become the publick Slave of the Rabble But he coming to the Crown after so many suddain turns and supposing the Empire very much distracted about Religion by so many changes of Government publishes an Edict for Liberty of Conscience ut unicuique quod animo imbibisset colendi libera facultas tributa sit that every Man may have liberty to use what Worship he will according to those Opinions that he had suckt in But then again soon finding himself setled in the Empire in the very same year anno 364 he forbids the night Sacrifices of the Heathens but is prevail'd upon to tolerate all those religious Rites that were celebrated by day And having gain'd so much ground he proceeds to countermine and blow up the Crafts of Julian who made all his Laws with a malicious Aspect towards the Christians and particularly that famous Law that no Man should be allowed to practise Physick or teach any Art or Science but by the approbation of the Magistrates of the place with his own impeperial Consent and by that means he shut all Christians out of any learned or ingenuous Imployment and therefore Valentinian as soon as he comes to the Crown cancels that Law and restores all Professors of Learning to their respective Thrones But as for the Church the Emperor being setled the poor hungry Eusebians that had been so long sequestred out of their Bishopricks resolve once more to try their Fortune and they poor Men had hard luck to quit their Faith as they had done under Jovian and yet not get their Preferments But they hope to meet with kinder usage from this Emperor and therefore send Hypatianus Bishop of Heraclea in an Ambassy to him to request a Council to which he as he was a very civil Gentleman and obliged at that time to
much complaisance being as yet but green in his Government replyed that being but a Lay-man it became not him to meddle in those Matters and so left it to themselves to meet as they judged convenient And that was the Maxime of his Reign to leave Church-Matters to the judgment of Church-men and therefore he fined Chronopius a Bishop a great sum of Mony to be distributed amongst the Poor for appealing from a Synodical sentence to the secular Court Upon this they immediately huddle up a Council at Lampsacus on the Helespont in the year 365. And here they condemn all the proceedings of Acacius and his Party at Constantinople after the Seleucian Council declare for the Doctrin of similitude against them decree that the Bishops that had been deposed by them should be restored to their Churches as having been unjustly deprived But yet are so tender-hearted as to grant the Usurpers the Communion of the Church upon their Repentance for which no doubt they were much concern'd after they had recovered their Purchases This being done they according to custom signifie their proceedings by an Encyclical Epistle to all Christian Churches and fearing lest the Enemy should prevent them at Court as they had hitherto done they make all speedy application there But alass Eudoxius an old crafty Courtier lay leiger there and had so possest the Emperor Valens to whom his Brother Valentinian left the Estern Empire that when they came the Emperor commanded them to reconcile themselves to Eudoxius at their peril and upon their persisting in their Complaints in a fury drives them all into banishment And now have we the same game turn'd up and plaid over again under these two Brothers that we have already seen under the Sons of Constantine For the Acacians or Eudoxians having seized the Emperor Valens the poor outed Eusebians or rather Macedonians for by this time they were distinguisht by that name had no other Remedy left but by application to forreign Churches and the power of the Western Emperor And so among others they in the first place send their Legates to Liberius Bishop of Rome but he knew the Men too well by his own sufferings having been twice driven into banishment by their means under Constantius for no other crime than his constant adherence to the Nicene Faith and therefore peremptorily refuses Communion with them But alass they confidently reply that they are not the Men they were and that they came to join with the Catholick Church against the Anomaeans declare for the Nicene Faith and for his full satisfaction herein produce the Letter of the Lampsacene Council with all their subscriptions to the Council of Nice and defiance to the cheats of Ariminum The old Man being transported with the joy of their Conversion and as he dreamt the Re-union of the Eastern and Western Churches embraces them with both his Arms little knowing good Man that the bottom of their Errand was to recover their Bishopricks and that for their sakes they had left their Faith behind them And that is the Centre of this Controversy between the Macedonians and the Eudoxians not the Faith but the preferments They had both been of the same Party under Constantius against the Nicene Faith yet under Jovian the Acacians had subscribed it to keep their Preferments and now under Valens the Macedonians finding themselves by that means left in the lurch make the same subscription to recover theirs And yet they have so much imposed upon the Historian Natalis Alexander by the boldness of their Hypocrisie that he reckons this Synod among the Orthodox Councils and falls out with Baronius and Binius for esteeming them Arians whereas in truth they were neither but a pack of ill Men that knew no other Religion than Interest But their jugling was now too late for the Adversaries had not only got possession of their Bishopricks which they say in all Governments is a great many Points of Law but of the Emperor himself which I am sure in that Government was all as will more appear by the sequel of this Story The Legates of the Council of Lampsacus having sped at Rome and being arm'd with communicatory Letters from Liberius they sail to Sicily and there in a Council of Bishops make the same Declaration and obtain the same favor and from thence to Illyricum where they gain synodical Letters to the Eastern Bishops to certify or rather congratulate the happy Union of the Eastern and Western Churches by their conversion And this they send by Elpidius a Presbyter of Rome whom Liberius had join'd with the Legates to give them the greater reputation in the Western Churches as Baronius thinks or rather as Valesius conjectures with more probability an Illyrican Bishop for in their Epistle they recommend him as their own Legate and chosen from among themselves And the Emperor was so far from being concern'd for the Arian cause that he grants his Letters to recommend the Decree of the Illyrican Council and to settle the Nicene Faith where he declares against the Equivocations of the Homoioufians and proves them no better than Arians This Letter Valesius will have to have been written not by Valens but Valentinian who though he then resided in the West intirely govern'd the Eastern Empire Valens being wholly obedient to his Orders and rather his Under-officer than his Sharer in the Empire This is but a conjecture and 't is not likely that the Council should send into Franâ—e for Imperial Letters when they had their own Emperor so near but if it be true Valens was concurring in it and that clears him of Arianism By these means the Legates and their Companions get themselves restored to their Preferments in a Council at Tyana in Cappadocia But they having gain'd their point could not forbear discovering their old pick against the Nicene Faith as St. Basil informs the Western Bishops who gave them their first reputation It is not the old and open Arian that does the harm because that Heresy being condemn'd by the sentence of the Church it 's wickedness is known to all but it is the sheep-skin Men that under shews of Love and Reconciliation and upon pretence of being taken into the bosom of the Church take advantage to worry the Flock and seduce the less understanding These are the Men of Mischief that cannot be so easily prevented And it is this sort of Deceivers that we request you to use all diligence to discover and lay open to the World that either frankly declaring for the truth they may own intire Communion with us but if they will not let them keep their Poison to themselves and not be suffer'd to infect others by too careless communicating with them And particularly cautions them against Eustathius Bishop of Sebasta in Armâ—nia the chief Agent in the Ambassy from the Council of Lampsacus to the Western Church that he was a rank Arian and Arius his own Disciple had been
which all the Contest is on one side to recover and on the other to keep their Bishopricks and for that end they stick at nothing but all turn Ecebolians and change their Faith as easily aâ— Chameleons do their Colours with every turn of Wind and Weather Under Jovian the Macedonians that were the outed Party turn Orthodox but he dying so suddainly they lose their opportunity and therefore make their Applications to Valens the succeeding Emperor in those Parts but are prevented by Eudoxius and his Eunuchs and so are forced to address themselves to forreign Churches and by professing themselves great Zealots for the Nicene Faith are restored by the Council of Tyana and that being done as they believed again quit their Faith So here Auxentius the head of the Acacians in the West being call'd to an account for his Faith forswears it all and turns a Tory Nicenist and thus both Parties only make use of the Contest to supplant each other And that was the craft of Eudoxius here by a plausible Imperial Rescript to prevent the force of an Ecclesiastical Decree by which he knew that himself and his Associates must have lost their Purchases But which way soever the Game run the good Orthodox Bishops had ever the worst of it and here particularly the storm fell very heavy upon their heads and Athanasius is alwayes the first that is wet in it He is immediately commanded to be gon but the People vehemently interpose to keep him and in the heat of the Contest fearing a Sedition he privately withdraws is diligently sought for but cannot be found till he is restored by the Emperor 's own Letters for fear of farther mischief But all the rest that the Rescript reacht were effectually expelled and in the first place Meletius of Antioch Eusebius of Samosata and Pelagius of Laodicea who had been all along great sticklers in the scramble only Meletius was become an honest Man And here St. Jerom goes about to give a reason why Paulinus of Antioch and Epiphanius of Cyprus were not displaced viz. because of their great worth and fame in the World but there is another reason for it plain enough in that they had never been turn'd out of their Bishopricks by Constantius and therefore were not concern'd in the Rescript neither were they Bishops till afterwards Paulinus was not ordein'd till the second year of Julian by Lucifer Calaritanus nor Epiphanius till the present Reign But Meletius that was Bishop with Paulinus at the same time having from an Acacian Bishop turn'd Orthodox had therefore been banisht by the Eudoxian Party in the time of Constantius and Euzoius the old Arian placed in his stead was by vertue of this Decree removed And though probably as it always happens in such cases the Rescript was executed farther than it was intended as St. Basil describes it that the Bishopricks were exposed to the basest of Men The slaves of Slaves and particularly that his Brother Gregory of Nyssen was driven from his Church and a three-penny Slave placed in his stead as he calls him Yet it is evident that it was in good earnest no persecution of Faith but only a trick of Eudoxius to throw all that had been of the Macedonian Faction out of their Bishopricks And thô Eusebius and Pelagius were now zealous for the Orthodox Faith and much magnified for it by the Historians and not only so but by St. Basil and Gregory Nazianzen who good Men having been retired from the World and unacquainted with the train of Intrigues were by their own simplicity imposed upon not to suspect their douâ—lings yet they had been ejected among the Macedonians by Constantius for refusing to go thorough with the Acacians and therefore must now resign to some of Eudoxius his Friends of that Party But they having thus got the Field fall out again among themselves Eunomius will now have Eudoxius openly declare himself for Aëtius but he thô he were zealous in the Cause thought it not at that tâ—me seasonable and so upon that account they again break Communion But soon after Eudoxius dyes and this say the Historians raises new heats at Constantinople about the Election of his Successor his own Party choosing Demophilus and the Orthodox Evagrius who was ordain'd by Eustathius formerly Bishop of Antioch who say they then lay conceal'd in the City to keep up the Homousian Faith but I doubt they mistake Eustathius of Antioch for Eustathius of Sebasta the former was a very good Man and was present at the Council of Nice and therefore cannot easily be supposed to survive to this time which was forty five years distance and is reported by St. Jerom and Theodorus to have dyed in Exile under Constantius and it cannot be supposed that so eminent a Person should have lain unactive and conceal'd so long a time or that Paulinus and Mâ—letius would have invaded the See if the great Eustathius had been then living and therefore I suppose the Historians mean Eustathius of Sebasta who was a proper Person to act in the present Scene for at this time it is evident that it was not a Contest of the Faith but the Faction and thô Eustathius had â—rofessed the Homousian Faith it was only to recover his Bishoprick to which thô he were canonically restored by the Council of Tyana yet he was kept out of it by Eudoxius who had cut him off among the rest by an Imperial Rescript being in the number of those that had been ejected by Constantius So that he lay not leiger at Constantinople as the Historians dream in behalf of the Nicene Faith for before this time he had disclaimed it but only to watch Opportunities to recover his Bishoprick and therefore finding Demophilus of the Eudoxian Party set up for the Court-Bishop he indeavors to set up Evagrius of his own Party against him But the Eudoxians or their Patrons the Eunuchs had possession of the Emperor who therefore upon the first news of the Tumult raised about it at Constantinople he being then at Nicomedia in Bithynia immediately banishes both Eustathius and Evagrius and so for the present pâ—ts an end to that Controversy But however the Affairs of the Church go the Courtiers resolve to pursue their old Game to watch all Opportunities of deposing Bishops and then they were sure of chapmen and for that reason they continually blew jealousies into the Emperor's head about these Matters as they had dealt with Constantius for it does not appear that he had any more zeal in the Cause it self then only to preserve the publick Peace or acted farther than as his credulity or something worse for he was but a weak Prince that was never able to stand upon his own leggs and when he ventured upon one tryal perisht in it was abused by their tricks and underminings § III. But for their purpose in all the Church there was not an easier Game as they fancied than poor
of our times that there is no Faith in Man as he often does in his Epistles but especially in the 79 th to Eustathius himself And all this upon no other account Good man than because he could not compass a kind Office for an unworthy and ungrateful Man and this found him work to his Dying day especially as he expresses it with the Pride and Superciliousness of the Church of Rome But among these various Transactions the great Athanasius dies about the year 371 or 372 perhaps sooner or later for I am not concerned in Chronological Niceties my Business is to trace the Tradition of Christian Truth not to turn Hour-glasses or watch the Motions of Pendulums But his Fall was the occasion of great stirs in the Church both Parties being at such a time highly concern'd for a fit Successor to so great a Man and so great a See Peter a grave and ancient Presbyter of that Church was by the dying recommendation of Athanasius unanimously chosen but Euzoius the Arian Bishop of Antioch upon the first News of the Vacancy flies to Court to move for his Friend Lucius who had been join'd in Ambassy with him to Jovian against Athanasius and by the help of the Eunuchs succeeds and is sent to Alexandria with Magnus a great Court-Trader in the Cause but before they came the Praefect of the City a zealous Heathen had driven Peter into Banishment and when they came the People were so averse to the Intruder that they were forced to place him in the See by Military Power upon which what bloody Tumults and Disorders followed may be seen in all the Historians but most accurately in Theodoret. Somewhat before this time arose the Heresie of Apollinaris consisting of a great many Prophane or rather wanton Novelties the chief whereof was That our Saviour had no other Soul than the Divinity it self and the Conceit because it was a new one began to take very much among the People who naturally run after any thing that is strange and unusual But it is soon quasht by the diligence of the Pastors of the Church and that not only by Writing though all the Learned Men of that Age appear'd against it as Athanasius Gregory Nazianzen Gregory Nyssen St. Basil and Epiphanius but much more effectually by the Discipline of the Church A Council was call'd at Rome by Damasus the active and leading Bishop of his time though he was here more particularly concern'd because he had unwarily given reputation to the Hereticks by granting them recommendatory Letters And here every particular Article is condemn'd by an Express Anathema against it and an account of their Proceedings is given by Damasus in a Synodical Epistle to the Eastern Bishops the Epistle is of a very peculiar strein and shews that the Gentleman began to have some thoughts of advancing the state of the Apostolick See and it is the first that I have observed of that stiff strein But however the Heresie was soon quasht by that unanimous Agreement of all Churches to suppress it every where by executing the effectual Discipline of the Church upon all its Followers In so much that I can not call to Mind more than one Imperial Law against them at that time and that was enacted by Arcadius in the year 397. against their secret Conventicles at Constantinople they not presuming to appear in Publick And when a Sect is brought so low as that it dares not venture to make any publick Appearance it is vanquisht and scarce worth the Notice of the Government § IV. In the year following i. e. Anno 374. a Council was held at Valentia in France for reforming some Abuses and Corruptions that had crept into that Church and restoring the force of some ancient useful Canons In the same year hapned that strange Election of St. Ambrose to the Bishoprick of Milan after this manner Upon the Death of Auxentius the Emperor Valentinian hapning to be then at Mâ—lan calls the Bishops together and Exhorts them to take care to choose a Person of eminent Abilities for so great a See They in all humility refer it to his Majestie 's own choice No says he that is a Province not proper for me to undertake but to you that are inlightned by the Divine Spirit most properly belongs the Office of choosing Bishops Upon this the Bishops take time to debate among themselves but whilst they are consulting the People of each Faction flock together into the Market-place and there as it usually happens in popular Assemblies from Disputing proceed to Tumult St. Ambrose being Governor of the Place flies according to his Office to appease the Multitude Who no sooner appears than they all cry out An Ambrose an Ambrose for their Bishop at which he being astonish't ascends the Tribunal with an austere Countenance as if he were resolved to put some of them to Death but they still cry the louder Upon that he accuses himself of such scandalous Crimes as by the Canons of the Church render him uncapable of the Episcopal Office but that is all one to them neither will they believe him And therefore in the last place he betakes himself to flight by Night and designs for Ticinum but having wandred all Night and thinking himself near his Journeys end he found in the Morning that he had walkt in a Circle and was just entring into one of the Gates of Milan at which being surprized and fearing lest there should be something of the hand of God in it he returns home and submits they acquaint the Emperor with it for his consent because by the Constitution of Constantine the Great they were forbidden to take any Officers either Civil or Military into the Clergy without it lest the Common-wealth should be left destitute of able Men. But the Emperor is highly pleased with the Election and is proud of his own choosing such Magistrates as are fit to be made Bishops and through this odd concurrence of Circumstances is he made Bishop contrary to the Canons for he was then no more than a Catechumene which Learned Men think may be excused by the miraculousness of the thing as if it had been immediately brought about by the special Interposition and Authority of God himself and for such extraordinary cases the Canon it self has provided an Exception adding this Clause at the end of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless it be done by the special favour of God And that this was so done all Parties concern'd in it thought they had good reason to conclude from so great a Conjunction of Wonders Soon after this Valentinian dies of an Apoplexy or some suddain Death upon which Ammianus Marcellinus reads a Lecture with as much Gravity as if he were President of the College of Physicians as he takes all Opportunity of shewing his Knowledge in all sorts of Learning a fondness very incident to all half-learned Men. But in the mean time Valens goes on in
yet what he did was by the pretended Authority of Councils but this is the first time that any Prince challeng'd a Power to judg of Faith by his Imperial Authority And as it hapned it was as good a season as the Experiment could have been tryed in when the Tryal fell upon such a Man as St. Ambrose a Man of infinite Courage and Integrity and he has distill'd the very Spirit of both into his Reply the short of it is this Sir I hope I return you a sufficient Answer though I come not to Court upon the Errand that I am sent for neither let any Man judg me contumacious when I only maintain what your Father of blessed Memory was not only wont to say in discourse but to enact by Law That in Causes of Faith or Ecclesiastical Discipline he alone ought to be Judg who is qualified for it by Right and Office He would have Bishops judg of Bishops nay if a Bishop were guilty of Crimes of any other nature he was pleased to refer them also to the Ecclesiastical Judicature But when I beseech you Gracious Sir did you ever hear that Lay-men made themselves Judges of a Bishop in a Cause of Faith No Sir I cannot crouch to so mean a Flattery as to forget my Sacerdotal Trust that I should part with it to any other when God has committed it to my Charge If a Bishop is to be taught by a Laick let the Laick preach too Believe me Sir it is certain both from the Holy Scriptures and the practice of the whole Church that in matters of Faith Bishops are to guide Emperors and not Emperors Bishops Execute if you please your late bloudy Law upon me Ambrose is not so much worth that for the sake of his own poor self he should prostitute not only his own Priest-hood but the dignity of all the Bishops If there be any Controversy of Faith know that it is their business to decide it as was done under the great Constantine who prescribed nothing to the Bishops but left them to their own liberty of Judgment and the same was the practice under his Son Constantius thô what was well begun was afterward perverted For the Bishops agreed upon an Orthodox Faith whil'st some few would have the thing determin'd at Court whereby they at last imposed upon the Bishops who as soon as they understood the cheat recall'd their Sentence and ratified the Nicene Faith This has a peculiar reference to the Council of Ariminum In short Sir if Auxentius desire a Council though it is by no means fit that so many Bishops should be put to so much trouble by the petulancy of one Man who though he were an Angel from Heaven ought not to be regarded if he oppose the Peace of the Church whenever a Council is call'd I shall not absent my self This is the sum of his resolute Answer as far as it concerns my Argument where we see that the Power of Judicature in Matters of Faith was always own'd to be an unalienable Right in the Governors of the Church and was never challenged by any Emperor before this young Prince who was boisterously thrust upoâ— it by the importunity of a furious Woman and her Scythian Priest And they having now begun the Work resolve to go through with open force and for that end procure a Law for the ejectment of Catholick Bishops out of their Churches under Penalty of Death to all those that refuse to resign them and for the first execution of it send a Party to seize St. Ambrose and take possession of his Church But the People defend the Doors The Officers command him in the Emperor's Name to deliver up his Church and the Goods of it At this the People are afraid that he will comply No says he fear not that I cannot forsake my Flock and deliver it up to the Guardianship of a Woolf. If they will dispossess me by force they may carry away my Body but not my Mind I am ready to submit to any thing that the Imperial Power can inflict but as long as I can I must and will discharge the duty of my Priestly Office Why then are you troubled I will never willingly forsake you if I am forced I must not resist I can mourn and weep and pray my Tears are Arms against the Goths these are our Priestly Weapons any other way I neither ought nor can resist And as for delivering up the Goods of the Church he tells the Officers Gentlemen if the Emperor be pleased to command any thing that is my own I would freely present him wiâ—h it but I can take away nothing out of the House of God nor give that away which was only intrusted with me to keep And being often prest to a voluntary resignation this was his constant and peremptory Answer and withal boldly advising the Emperor to beware what he did in seizing the Goods of God and invading the Rights of the Church And thus things stood three whole days St. Ambrose would not deliver up his Church nor the Emperor durst not take it by force And when the Courtiers perswaded him to go in Person and turn him out he replyed I thank you for that for if Ambrose should command you to deliver me up bound into his hands you would obey him and therefore for fear of farther mischief he was forced to desist though by his proceeding so far he brought great disgrace upon himself in so much that the Tyrant Maximus wrote a smart Letter to him to upbraid him with the folly and dishonor of his Attempt it is very well written but sâ—mm'd up in this one short saying Periculosè mihi crede divina tentantur Believe me it is a dangerous thing but to touch the Ark. But this was done in order to his Invasion of Italy to ingage the Orthodox on his side as if he had taken up Arms to vindicate their Cause for the Rescript of Valentinian reacht not St. Ambrose alone but all Churches under the Emperor's Jurisdiction as appears not only by the Rescript it self but by the Tyrants Epistle Audivi enim novis Clementiae tuae Edictis Ecclesiis Catholicis vim illatam fuisse obsideri in Basilicis sacerdotes mulctam esse propositam paenam capitis adjectam et legem sanctissimam sub Nomine nescio cujus legis everti I am informed that by some new Edicts of your Grace force has been offer'd to the Catholick Churches that the Priests have been besieged in their Cathedrals that the punishment annext to the Law is no less than pain of Death and that the most religious Law of the Empire is destroyed under pretence of I know not what new Law of your own And so the next news we hear of the Tyrant is his declaration of open War by which the young unadvised Emperor being in a great distress supplicates St. Ambrose to undertake an Ambassy to disswade the Tyrant from his Design which he frankly and readily
with the Recommendation of Damasus the great Bishop of Rome and is restor'd with universal joy of the People and Lucius forced to fly for help to the Emperor and his Court-Patrons then at Constantinople that was at that time little better than Besieged and before the Emperor had any leisure to mind his Complaints he by his own rashness came to his Unfortunate end of being Burnt by the Enemy in a Cottage where he had taken shelter in his Flight And so from this time Lucius continued in Exile at Constantinople till Demophilus the Arian Bishop that succeeded Eudoxius in that See and all his Party among whom Lucius is particularly named were turn'd out of the City by Theodosius the Great in the year 380. At which time Peter dies and Timotheus succeeds him for Lucius now having but small hopes left of recovering his Bishoprick under such an Orthodox Emperor made no attempt for it And now comes the great Council of Constantinople where the Nicene Faith is establisht for ever and in pursuance of it an Imperial Law made to take away all Churches through the Empire from the Hereticks of all Denominations For which the Council of Aquileia soon after sitting in the West send him the foremention'd Letter of thanks farther imploring his assistance for the Settlement of the Church and this of Alexandria in particular where the present Bishop was overwhelm'd with inveterate Schisms and Dissentions In order to which they move his Majesty that he would be pleased to call a Council at Alexandria particularly to determine who of the Hereticks should be received to the Communion of the Church and upon what terms which they thought in such a vast number of Offenders too invidious a work for the Bishop to undertake by his own Authority What followed upon it I know not For the Rescript of this Emperor to the Praefect Optatus to give Timotheus full Power of Judicature in Ecclesiastical Causes and to be assistant to him is apparently forged for there was no such Praefect as Optatus at that time as well as all the other Laws under the Subdititious Title De Episcopali Judicio the unanswerable proofs of it may be seen in Gothofred's Extravagans But probably without any farther care things settled of themselves under so wise a Reign for Timotheus sat peaceably in his See to his dying day without any disturbance that we read of from his Enemies When they saw the Church defended by such an Emperor they were content to sit still for Men are not wont to make their Attempts where they have no hope of Success But still we see by the whole progress of this Alexandrian Schism that the Disorders of the Church proceeded not from it self but the Dishonesty of the Court Eunuchs The last great Schism of that Age that the Council of Aquileia mentions in their Letter to the Emperor was that at Antioch which began sooner and lasted longer than either of the other How the matter was composed between Paulinus and Meletius we have seen above that upon the Death of one of them the Surviver should have the Government of the whole Church But upon the Death of Meletius Flavianus sets up against Paulinus and his own Oath too for he had abjured the Bishoprick as long as either of them should live And he makes so many Friends as to keep it till the great Council of Constantinople and have it confirm'd to him by the Authority of the Council where the Business was transacted by a Seditious Party with such disorderly Heats and Tumults as almost put the great Gregory Nazianzen out of love with Councils whose angry words upon a particular occasion against the abuse of some in his time are peevishly and absurdly applied by our Innovators against the use of Councils in general The Ecclesiastical Abridger almost runs mad for joy of his Satyrical Expressions and though as an Orator the good Father represented his Complaints and Invectives bigger than the life for that is the use of that sort of Eloquence R. B. has pretty well improved it with a scurvy Translation and made it look more like railing than handsom Satyr But what would you have of a meer Abridger of Binius poor Man he never looks into the secret of the Story and the connexion of things but he finds in Binius that such a Council was held such a year and out of him he gives a crude Epitome season'd with some malicious Reflections against the Bishops and so has done But alas if he had but had any insight into the Series of the Story and understood the Mystery of the Eusebian Faction by whom all these Disturbances were raised in the Church it would have spoil'd the Malice of all the Abridgment For whereas his whole design is to load the whole Body of Bishops with the Miscarriages of the Church in all Ages it is evident all along that the Body of the Bishops labour'd against all those Miscarriages that he has ignorantly and maliciously charged upon them and that all those Disorders committed in the Church from the time of Constantine to the time of this present Council were the Acts and Contrivances of some wicked men that crept into the Church by Simony and Court-favour and were enabled to do all that mischief that they did in it in spite of the Opposition of the Good Bishops by the Power of the Eunuchs So that all these Disorders were so far from being the Acts of the Ecclesiastical Power that they were the meer effects of its Oppression And such were these very Men that labour'd to raise this Tumult in the Council as is evident from Nazianzen's own account of them and that in short is this He at first earnestly endeavour'd to perswade them to acquiesce in the former Agreement and to have but a little-Patience in that Paulinus was a very old Man had one foot in the Grave and could not long stand in their way upon the other But he is hiss't down by the factious Party as a Betrayer of the Supreme Prerogative of the Eastern Church that they said ought to be preferr'd above the Western because our Saviour was Born in that part of the Empire For that was the pretence of their Zeal in this foul Matter that Paulinus had been ordain'd by Lucifer Calaritanus a Western Bishop which they will needs have to be a dishonourable Intrusion upon the Eastern Church and therefore in despite to that Usurpation they will set up Flavianus and by their noise and clamour tire the old Bishops into a complyance but Gregory Nazianzen quits the Council through meer indignation and seeing how things were like to go and what troubles he was like to encounter in that great See he soon after resigns his Bishoprick of Constantinople Of which the Faction make their advantage of playing over their old Game for creating a Division between the Eastern and Western Church An Artifice as we have seen first started by Eusebius of
ancient Canons And that was the custom of all Popes at that time following the dance of Innocent the first to make the Canons speak what themselves pleased and when they pleased to speak Contradictions But in the time of Leo the great Hilarius Bishop of Arles and a mettlesom Man would not be content with his Metropolitical Authority but sets up for a Patriarchal Supremacy over all France and Independency upon Rome This transports that proud and jealous Pope beyond all bounds of revenge and outrage and upon it he writes in great fury to the Bishops of France to depose him from his Metropolitical Authority and cancels all Acts of his Government in that capacity And as for the Grant of his Predecessor Zosimus to that See he has the confidence to pretend that it was only temporary and personal though by it he imposed as grosly upon Zosimus as Zosimus himself did upon the ancient Canons and to ratifie all he procures this Imperial Rescript commanding absolute Obedience to all his Commands and in effect erecting an universal Supremacy for him But the matter the stile and the spirit of the Rescript too much betray the rough hand of Leo himself in it And it was no hard Matter for so bold a Man to extort what he pleased from such a softly Prince And yet this very same Man when Hilarius dyed got Ravennius a very weak Man to succeed him and then restored the Metropolitical Authority to him and his See and thus did these Men set up and pull down as served the ends of their own Ambition and all out of pure Reverence to the ancient Canons And to speak a plain truth plainly they meerly lyed themselves into their universal Supremacy as I shall shew more at large not only from this instance of Arles but from two other great transactions on foot at the very same time that is their Usurpation over the Churches of Africk and Illyricum And though in the first they were shamefully baffled by the Africans who exposed their gross and scandalous Forgeries to the World yet it shews that they trusted to nothing so much at the time of their usurpation as the Sovereign Power of lying But to keep to our present business His next Law is to confirm all the Rescripts of former Emperors Pagan as well as Christian to out-law the Manichees This Law was made upon the discovery and confession of some very foul matter by one of the Ring-leaders of that Sect what the Fact was it was not thought decent to express and it is only in general thus described Quorum incesta perversitas Religionis nomine Lupanaribus quoque ignota vel pudenda committit such a foul incest under pretext of Religion that it was not so much as named in the publick Stews His next Law is against the Robbers of Tombs and Sepulchres it is a very severe one and one of the most eloquent for the stile in the whole Collection Servants and poor People convicted of it are punisht with death Men of fortune with forfeiture of half their Estates and all their Honors Clergy-Men with deposition from their Orders and perpetual banishment And as for all Governors that shall neglect the execution of this Law they forfeit both Estate and Honor. His last Law is to regulate the Bishops Courts and to revive some Laws of former Emperors relating to the Clergy it gives the Bishops power of Judicature praeeunte vinculo compromissi by way of Arbitration but no otherwise It allows Bishops and Presbyters to appear in the Civil Courts by their Proxies for all Causes unless Personal Crimes and lastly it prescribes what Persons may or may not be received into Holy Orders according to several fore-mention'd Rescripts of former Emperors § XV. But the most material Law of this reign is still behind and that is the Law to confirm the Decrees of the great Council of Ephesus that was both call'd and ratified by Theodosius the Younger which I have reserved to this place to treat of it by it self because as it is the greatest transaction of this Reign so is it another eminent Instance of the right Concurrence of the Powers of Church and State in the determination of Ecclesiastical Controversies and enacting of Ecclesiastical Laws and Canons All the old Schisms and Heresies being vanquisht by the Methods already described such is the wantonness of Humane Wit that it fell upon contriving new Conceits for its own sport and entertainment There is such a natural Vanity in some Mens Tempers that they can scarce live without singularities and innovations from whence comes that necessity of Heresies that St Paul speaks of they are the certain effects of Pride and Pedantry and as long as there are and will be born in all Ages Men of that Complexion nothing can hinder them from venting their own novel and home-spun Metaphysicks And therefore it cannot be expected that the Church should be altogether free from Heresies for that cannot be done without an alteration of Humane Nature it is enough that it is furnisht with means to stop and cure the Disease whenever it breaks out in the body of the Church as we have seen great numbers of Botches dispersed and reduced to nothing by the right exercise and concurrence of the Civil and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction And after this time it is observable that Heresies were not so long-lived for now the Method of their cure being understood by experience which when all is done is the best Art of Physick it was so soon dispatch't that they rarely survived their Author and after one sentence effectually executed they scarce ever put the Government to a second trouble as will appear by the following History Nestorius being chosen to the swelling Throne of Constantinople by Theodosius the Younger out of the Church of Antioch to avoid or rather end a violent competition at home he brings along with him one Anastasius a Presbyter his inseparable Friend and Companion and Valesius is pleased to be so critical as to affirm that he was his Syncellus an Office in the Pallaces of Patriarchs who had power to choose what Presbyters they pleased to cohabit with them who were therefore stil'd Syncelli or Concellanei But I doubt this learned Man here derives this Office too high for we find no foot-steps of any such State in the Records of the Church till after the Institution of Patriarchates by the Council of Calcedon and then we have frequent mention of it in History though nothing but deep silence before But whatever he were whereas the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Mother of God had been so familiarly given to the Virgin Mary by the Ancients that it was by custom become her proper Title and always annext to her name against this Anastasius inveighs in a Sermon and affirms that she ought not to be stil'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mother of God but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mother of Man But
dear to him but the Truth of God and that as for Nestorius though he had received many injuries from him he was so far from bearing him any ill Will that what he did was out of kindness to him only to put him upon clearing himself from those errors in the Faith that were vulgarly and he hoped falsly charged upon him which if he would be pleased to do himself should be very glad of his Friendship But the Quarrel advances whil'st Anastasius pretending Peace undertakes to prove in a Discourse before the Clergy of Constantinople that Cyril in his Book against him was at last of the same Opinion with himself Upon this Cyril writes to them to convict him of manifest leasing and impudence and upon that the Clergy of Constantinople draw up a Schedule to parallel the Assertions of Nestorius with the Doctrines of Paulus Samâ—satenus as the Father of this Heresie from whence Suidas and from him Baronius rashly suppose him to have descended of his Off-spring and when they had so done they by common consent publish it in their Churches which could not but be an unpardonable Provocation to his Proud and Violent Spirit and indeed it was a just ground of displeasure against them it being a false and unjust Charge against their own Bishop But Cyril finding by his furious temper that he was not to be reclaimed endeavours to engage all the Bishops of the most eminent Churches against him and first he writes to Celestine the great Bishop of Rome to inform him of the whole matter and beg his Assistance and Advice Celestine immediately takes very high offence at Nestorius Condemns him in Council and by the Authority of the Apostolick See deposes him if he repent not within 10 days and writes to John of Antioch Rufus of Thessalonica Juvâ—nal of Jerusalem and Flavianus of Philippi to desire their Concurrence to his Sentence And no doubt he took the Complaint so much the more greedily as being glad of any opportunity to take down the Proud and Aspiring Prelates of that See of whom he had too much reason to be jealous at that time when they had made several Attempts to mount the Throne of the Imperial City above the Apostolical Chair it self But now Nestorius perceiving the Clouds to gather and that a Storm was like to overtake him by Cyril's Activity he follows him with his Letters to Celestine though pretended to be written upon another occasion viz. Concerning the Pelagian Bishops that had been cast out of the Western Church for their Heresie but were then at Constantinople filling all Peoples Ears with Complaints of their unjust Sentence and daily soliciting both the Emperor and himself for restitution and therefore desires to let him know their Crime that he may rid both his Royal Master and himself from their Importunity After this his own Controversie is brought in as it were by way of Postscript to prevent false Reports against him and soon after he sends him larger discourses in his own Justification Upon which he returns him a very stately and supercilious Answer as if he were particularly pleased in insulting over a Bishop of Constantinople cutting him off from the Communion of the Catholick Church allowing him only 10 days from the time of the Receipt of the Instrument to redeem himself from the Fatal Decree by a publick and open Repentance And as for the Cause of the Pelagians he rates him very smartly for giving them any Countenance or Entertainment and reflects suspicious of that Heresie upon him for his presuming to interpose in their behalf however it is not time for him to intercede for others but to take speedy care of himself This being done he certifies his Sentence to the Clergy and People of Constantinople letting them know that if Nestorius did not recant within 10 days they should no longer own him for their Bishop And the same thing is done by his several Epistles to the forementioned Bishops all which is seconded by Cyril who was glad to fortifie himself with the Authority of the Apostolick See and therefore he sends by the same Messenger that first brought Celestine's Letter to himself a particular account to them and to Acacius of Beraea of all the fair means that had been used for reclaiming Nestorius before they proceeded to this severity who all agree with him against Nestorius as it is evident by Acacius his Answer to it this he particularly assures him for himself and John of Antioch who upon it writes a very kind and prudent Letter to his old Friend Nestorius conjuring him by all the Tyes of Friendship not to disturb his own and the Churches Peace by contending about a word whilest himself professed to own the sense of it And withal tells him that if he would suffer himself to be perswaded to disclaim the Controversie it would be so far from the dishonour of a Recantation that it would be an eminent Act of Wisdom and Greatness of Mind to forego Contentions and his own Opinions that were not necessary to the Faith for the Peace of the Church and this he writes as the unanimous sence of divers Bishops that were his Friends This Letter might probably have made some impression upon his great Spirit had not Cyril spoyled all by his own over eagerness for now finding himself so well back't he would not be satisfied with the meer quitting his opinion but he must be obliged to anathematise it too and accordingly tenders him 12 Anathema's to subscribe which though they were Theological Verities were I think too nice to be imposed as Articles of Faith and necessary conditions of the Peace of the Church And I am withal very apt to think that if this new Imposition had not made the breach wider it might have been made up for both Nestorius and Anastasius seem'd by this time not to have been very fond of their Cause if they could any way have quitted it with honour But this new Imposition of Cyril so enflames his Cholerick Nature that he now forgets all Temper and encounters Anathema's with Anathema's and throws himself into an utter incapacity of Reconciliation upon the Terms of Pope Celestine and that which is worse it gave him the advantage and reputation of a Party for John of Antioch was so offended at their rigour that it made him side with Nestorius against Cyril and it was this that enflamed the Zeal of Theodoret who as appears by his Epistles to Sporadius and Irenaeus was before and after this time no Friend to the opinions of Nestorius but an irreconcileable Enemy to Cyril and his Anathema's and therefore though he were one of those Bishops that had subscribed John of Antioch's Epistle to Nestorius he could never after brook this Imposition of Cyril But now Nestorius having gained this advantage by this over Pursuit rallies with greater fierceness and rages with greater Cruelty then ever especially against his own
all the Acts of the Council to be read over as their Master Celestine had given them in command which being done they by the Sovereign Authority of St. Peter and his Successors in the Apostolick See give validity to the Sentence without which state of the Papal Veult Le Roy it could have had no effect But the Council were glad of their Concurrence to ballance it against the opposition of John of Antioch and upon it they write a second Letter to the Emperor informing him of the agreement both of the Eastern and Western Church in the Sentence against Nestorius and request him not to credit thâ— Letters that after the sentence of tâ—e Catholick Church so fully declared in Council were threatned to be sent abroad by some Men thaâ— preferr'd their friendship to Nestorius before the Peace of the Church After this Cyril and Memnon move the Council to call John of Antioch to account for the injury that he had done to them in their Deposition and to the whole Council in controuling its sentence Upon this they send some of their number to cite John to appear but by the favor of Candidianus he has his Guards as well as Nestorâ—us and by them the Bishops are affronted and repulst and finally refusing to appear he and his Associates are condemned and deposed and their deposition certified to the Emperor and Pope Celestine But the Schismaticks had the Courtiers to back them and therefore are so far from submitting to the Sentence of the Council that they both defie that and depose the Council it self and send their Complaints to the Emperor of the violent courses used against them as if they were in continual danger of their Lives and ply the Courtiers with dismal stories of barbarous usage beg them by all the motives of Humanity to rescue them from their dismal condition But their complaints to the Emperor being vouch't by Candidianus the Emperor sends Letters to the Council by Palladius to null all their Acts for which the Schismaticks you may be sure return their letter of humble thanks applauding the Wisdom and Goodness of his Imperial Majesty But the Council finding hereby that the Emperor had been abused with false tales write to him by Palladius to assure his Majesty of the truth of those Acts that they had sent him and whereas Candidianus had given him other Information out of his friendship to Nestorius they assure him that he was altogether ignorant of the Proceedings of the Council and had not so much as ever seen the Books in which their Acts were enter'd That the Bishops who join'd with Nestorius were either such as had been already deposed or such as knew themselves obnoxious to the Discipline of the Church and so must have been deposed though they had continued with the Council And as for their complaints of Violence they were so far from truth that all the Guards attended Nestorius and his Party that Irenaeus broke into the Council in a tumultuary way and with Military force to the great danger of their Lives and humbly petition his Majesty that five of the Council might attend him to give him farther Information in the presence of Candidianus Upon this Irenaeus who was a Courtier that accompanied Candidianus to the Council out of meer zeal for Nestorius is posted away to Constantinople by the schismatical Party with fresh Certificates of the wild and disorderly behavior of Cyril and Memnon Neither was he remiss in his Embassy and so improved their Tales by word of Mouth that though he had been prevented by Messengers from the Council who came three days before him and had pâ—epossest the greatest part of the People and stagger'd the Emperor himselâ— yet he so satisfied him with his Relation of the whole Matter that he confirm'd the deposition of Cyril and Memnon as well as Nestorius And sends John his Comes Sacrorum another favourer of Nestorius to see it put in execution who finding the City in a Tumult about those three Persons he commits them all to prison and then takes upon him to preâ—ch Peace and Reconciliation to the Bishops and censures them very severely for being so implacable in their Quarrels as he is pleased to call their resolution for the Orthodox Faith and the Discipline of the Church And setting aside the cause of truth in the case it was an unpardonable Affront to the Discipline of the Church that when the Controversie had been determin'd and the Hereticks deposed by the sentence of so great a Council this unlearned Courtier should presume to set aside their Authority and as if they stood upon equal ground after the sentence of the Church was pass't advise both Parties to shake hands and be friends and because the Bishops scorn'd to put such a childish slur upon their own Authority and the discipline of the Church as to admit Offenders to communion without Canonical satisfaction call them implacable Prelates But now the Council finding that both the Emperor and themselves had been abused in that the Letter of the Nestorians to the Emperor about the deposition of Cyril and Memnon was written in the name of the Council and the Emperors Letter to confirm their deposition as well as that of Nestorius was directed both to the Council and the Conventicle as if they had been but one body of Men they write two Letters to him to inform him of the Imposture but they are intercepted by the Courtiers who still persist to lay all the blame of all these heats and disorders upon the Council it self In which Office Count John was most busie at his return home thinking himself affronted by the Council when they would not prostitute the sacred Discipline of the Church to his illiterate device of Peace and Comprehension But the Council having no return from the Emperor to their Letters and suspecting their suppression they write to the Clergy of Constantinople to inform the Emperor by Address of all the Abuses that were put upon his Majesty and the Council But this falls short for the next Letter that we have is from the Clergy of Constantinople to the Council complaining of the want of Correspondence all Passages both by Sea and Land being blockt up and declaring that they were ready to do any service that the Council would be pleased to command them By which the Council perceive that the first came not to their lands and therefore send a second to the same effect that came safe and upon it they petition the Emperor and inform hâ—m of the true state of the whole Matter and the Emperor being puzled with al these cross Stories orders Commissioners from both Parties to repair to Constantinople that he might understand the real Truth of the Controversy Eight Commissioners are sent on each side and the Legates of the Council are commanded in their Instructions to insist upon the deposition of Nestorius and nothing else as the Article of Peace And the Legates from
they intended to make a new Creed but as a necessary declaration of the ancient Faith against his upstart Heresie The sixth Action is one of the most remarkable Instances of the right use of the Imperial Power in the Christian Church that we have upon record in all the Histories of it For the Council being fully agreed about the settlement of the Faith in the last Session in this the Emperor with his Empress attended by a great Train of Nobles comes to confirm their Decrees as he professes in his Speech to the Holy Fathers Nos enim ad sidem confirmandam non ad potentiam aliquam exercendam exâ—mplo religiosi Principis Constantini Synodo interesse voluimus He came into the Council not to make but confirm and ratifie their Decrees by his Imperial Power And therefore having the Acts of the last Session read before him with the Subscriptions of all the Bishops to the Confession of Faith he there immediately enacts this Penal Law to inforce the observation of their Decree The Catholick Faith being declared by the holy Synod according to the Tradition of the Fathers we think it both decent and our duty to cut off for the time to come all farther Debates about it If therefore any private Citizen Soldier or Clergy-man shall hereafter make any disturbance by attempting any publick Disputation about the Faith the Citizen shall be banisht the Soldier disbanded and the Clerk deposed and be obnoxious to further punishment at our Royal Pleasure And thus having with so much Prudency and Decency exerted his Imperial Authority in Controversies of Faith 〈◊〉 not at all to interpose his own Power in making the determination but to imbrace and confirm the resolution of the Holy Fathers the proper Judges in the Case in the next place he exerts his Authority in matters of Discipline For having observed some defects in the Clergy both against the ancient Canons and the Imperial Laws he propounds it to the Council that they would take care to provide for their Reformation And this he declares he does out of meer Respect and Honor to their Function as thinking it more decent that they should be canonically determin'd in Council then enacted and inforced by his own Imperial Laws And as it was a civil Decency so it was no more for the Abuses that he complain'd of were such as concern'd the Peace of the Empire as well as the Church as the Tumults and Disorders of the Monks frequent Instances whereof as we have met with through the whole progress of this Story so were they the Masters of these present Revels And certainly such Disorders concern'd his own Imperial Power if the Peace of the Empire did so As for his other two Proposals the first against the trading and the second against the wandring of the Clergy they were properly subject to the Imperial Power because though these and the like irregularities were first forbidden by the Ecclesiastical Canons yet they had before this time been often restrain'd by the Imperial Laws as we have seen above out of the Theodosian Code After this the Emperor in Complement to the memory of the Holy Martyr St. Euphemia in whose Church the Council was held gives the City of Calcedon the honor of a Titular Metropolis securing all the Rights of Metropolitical Power to the Metropolitan of Nicomedia And here some say the Council ended the Fathers having dispatcht the whole work for which they were summon'd the following Sessions being only taken up with casual and personal Controversies and therefore by some of the Ancients they are made distinct Councils and this latter part in some of their Writings goes under the name of the 5 th Council The seventh Session is spent in confirming the Agreement or Concordate between Juvenal of Jerusalem and Maximus of Antioch about dividing their Usurpations How Juvenal that had been all along such an active Confederate with Dioscorus and stood guilty of the same Crimes came to meet with so much favor is easie enough to conceive being a great Court-Parasite and Church-trimmer and so by his cringings and flatteries had wrigled himself into the good Opinion of the Fathers In the 8 th Action Theodoret is restored to his Church upon his anathematising Nestorius and his Heresie and that was a very easie matter for him to do when he had all along done the same having only opposed the unseasonable imposition of Cyril's Anathema's The 9 th and 10 th Actions were taken up with the case of Ibas Bishop of Edessa who had been accused to the Emperor Theodosius by some Eutychians as guilty of the Nestorian Heresie and by him the cause was referr'd to a Synod at Beryte in which he anathematised Nestorius and all his Doctrines and was cleared of his Indictment But in the violent Council of Ephesus he was again accused by Eutyches himself and without being heard deposed and imprison'd But now upon his Petition is heard in this Council and after the examination of all Records and Witnesses he is again found clear of the Nestorian Heresie all the Accusation being grounded upon his opposition to Cyril's Anathema's And the true State and Account of that Controversie between Cyril and Nestorius and the Eastern Bishops against both is best described by Ibas himself in his Famous Epistle to Maris Persa recorded among the Acts of the 10th Session The subject of the 11th and 12th Actions was a Contest between Bassianus and Stephanus for the Bishoprick of Ephesus but they being both uncanonically ordeined are both deposed Upon this occasion the Asiaticks move that the new Bishop may be Consecrated at Ephesus according to the Canons No say the Constantinopolitans but in this City according to Custom as they falsly pretended for all their Usurpations to do illegal things and then make them a Precedent to warrant their illegal doings This occasions a new Contest about the Prerogative of the Bishop of Constantinople to ordein other Metropolitans but he and his Party being conscious to themselves of the weakness of their own pretence they let fall the Controversie The most observable passage in this Action next to the Contest it self and the Constantinopolitan Plea to justifie their Usurpation by illegal Custom against Canon is the Plea of Bassianus to make good the Title to his Bishoprick viz. That he was Consecrated by the Bishops of the Province and his Consecration allowed and confirmed by the Emperor and that is an instance of the Custom of those times that the Princes Approbation was necessary to the Instalment of a Bishop though the Power of Election was placed in the Provincial Synod Upon what reason of State this Power of the Prince was grounded I shall shew when I come to argue the reason of the thing at present I only alledge this as an instance of the practice And of the same nature is the next Action of a Case setting up a new Custom and the pretence of an Imperial Rescript against Canon and Ancient
Emperor Leo he is restored and an Edict publisht against the tumults of Monks But the Monks so little regard the Emperor's Authority that upon it they increase their fury against the good Bishop till at length he being quite tired out quits his Bishoprick into which Petrus Fullo immediately leaps and is as soon thrust out by the Emperor but is restored by Basiliscus and again displaced by Zeno excommunicated by Acacius and Stephanus chosen to the See who being barbarously murther'd another Stephanus is chosen and contrary to the Canons consecrated by Acacius at Constantinople and Petrus Fullo the Author of all these Dis-orders is banisht into Pontus and Stephanus dying Calendio succeeds with the same illegal Consecration but falling into dis-favor with Acacius partly for siding with Pope Foelix against himself and Petrus Moggus and partly for being too stiff for the Council of Calcedon he procures his ejectment by Imperial Power upon an Accusation of Treason and Petrus Fullo after all these turns is placed by Acacius his own Interest in that great See And thus we see both the old Trade of Ejectments and Sequestrations return'd by prostituting the Discipline and Authority of the Christian Church to the Power of Court-Favourites and the whole World shatter'd into numberless Schisms and Heresies For when once the Authority of the Church and the Law is trodden down there is no other effectual stop aganst the rovings of fancy and wantonness and it is certain that men who differ in Opinion will never agree as long as they have liberty to differ And thus was it here when this unskilful Prince had once broken up the Pale of the Church as it was fixt by the Council of Calcedon and fenced by his Predecessors he could never after restrain the People from running into all the wild Conceits that Frenzy and Madness could blow into their Heads And whereas he only design'd to unite the Eutychians to the Communion of the Church he divided the Communion of the Church into a thousand new Factions The Acephali Severiani Theopaschitae Currupticolae Phantasiastae Agnóetae Tritheitae beside the horrible fewds between the Scythian and Acaemetan Monks The Acephali began at Alexandria being Eutychians that separated from Moggus uyon his owning the Council of Calcedon out of these were spawn'd the Severiani at Antioch so call'd from Severus who had ravish't that See and made himself Captain of the Acephali by Anathematising the Council but of him we shall give an Account under the next Reign as under the Reign of Justinian they sub-divided into the Factions of the Gaianitae and Theodosiani and the Heresie being transplanted by Jacobus Syrus into Armenia thence came the Jacobitae The Theopaschitae were the Disciples of Petrus Fullo who to the Eutychian Heresie added that the Divinity in our blessed Saviour was Crucified and Buried The Corrupticolae were the followers of Severus at Alexandria after his Banishment from Antioch affirming our Saviours Body liable to decay and therefore to have been really repair'd by nourishment but this was opposed by Julianus of Halicarnassus a Bishop of the same Party and flying to Alexandria for the same Cause who affirm'd that our Saviour never took any sustenance but only seemed so to do and therefore were called Phantasiastae and between these two the Rabble of the City were disputed into Tumults and Out-rages And out of the Corrupticolae sprang the Agnoitae that from the Corruptibility of our Saviours Body were pleased to infer some ignorance in his Soul The Tritheitae were the followers of Philoponus who was so far transported in the heat of disputation as to assert three distinct Natures peculiar to each Person in the Holy Trinity and one common to them all to which he was betrayed by his Aristotelian Philosophy of which he was an extravagant Admirer that teaches that there is one and the same general humane nature really common to all men and another particular nature appropriated to each individual And thus when all the Lords People were permitted the liberty of Prophesying every man took up his own Parable and believed his own Dream the Ass as well as the Prophet till the Church was shatter'd into so many chips and fragments that it was never after reunited as we shall see by the Progress of these Mischiefs that I have here only briefly represented And thus this luxurious Prince having ruined the Church by so many years licentiousness only because his laziness would not be at the pains to see it governed after he had Reign'd 18 years dies of a Debauch § XIX Zeno being dead Ariadne bestows both her self and the Crown upon Anastasius a small Officer about the Court and at his first coming to the Crown he was forced by Euphenius Bishop of Constantinople to declare for the Council of Calcedon For the Bishop suspecting his Religion refused to Crown him till he had made a publick profession of his Christian Faith which he registred and laid up in the Archives of his Church as a Testimony against him if he should ever relapse to the Haesitantes as he afterward did and turn'd a vehement Persecutor in pursuance of moderation banishing any man either for owning or disowning the Council of Calcedon But of that afterwards for at first having got the Crown Imperial upon his Head he endeavours to make himself popular and for that end in the first place he takes off that heavy and scandalous Tax called the Chrysargyrum It was a Tax by Poll not only upon Men Women and Children but upon all Beasts and Cattle both of profit and pleasure even to Dogs and Cats This was by immemorial Custom though Zosimus is pleased to impute its Contrivance to Constantine the Great collected every fourth year and being a Customary Impost without any Formality of Law to warrant it it was no doubt with severity enough exacted by the Officers not so much for the profit of the Crown as their own And this made it extreme heavy to the Subject but that which made it Scandalous was its being a Rent-Charge upon the Stews and publick Houses of Debauchery granting as Evagrius describes it a Licence to all their wickedness upon a certain Rate of Excise And for that reason it was commonly called Aurum paenosum the Syntax or Commutation Money which being so offensive to the People and so foul in it self as seeming to grant a Liberty to all manner of wickedness upon the reserve of a Pension to the Government upon that account as it was a just so was it a plausible Action in this Emperor to contrive its Abrogation And he did it with that Art and Diligence as to destroy not only the Exchequer-Records but the Collectors Books For counterfeiting a Repentance of his Folly in parting with so fair a Revenue he Summons in all the Collectors to bring in their Court-Rolls for retrieving a new Register out of them this they greedily comply with in hopes to recover their several Offices in the
the Court by great shews of Mortification succeeds He was a Man that of all things defyed all ambitious thoughts and designs of Preferment and yet was perpetually dreaming that he should one day be the great Bishop of Constantinople and by vertue of his own real dreams and one pretended by the Emperor who knew him to be zealous in his Cause and withal very manageable he is advanced to that high dignity And so it is that none gallop so fast to Preferment in the Church as those that creep to it And after his Instalment the first thing he does is to submit himself to Vigilius and so does Apollinaris of Alexandria upon the death of Zoilus whose Bishoprick he had usurpt and thus are Hypocrites and ill-Men always on the right side But Vigilius finding himself Master of the field and having forced all his Enemies even the Emperor himself to submit is resolved to shew his Authoâ—ity And in the first place he contends with the Emperor about the place of the Council one will have it in the East and the other in the West but at last they agree upon Constantinople upon condition that an equal number of Eastern and Western Bishops be summon'd But before the Council meets the Emperor desires the Pope to give his own Opinion and that was an hard task to put him upon declaring himself and therefore he desires to be excused but the Emperor presses so importunately upon him as to provoke his Choler and to be revenged he turns cross-grain'd and so affronts his tria capitula and when the Council meets is sick and sullen refuses to join with them and no Courtship either of the Council or the Emperor himself can draw him to any compliance but on the contrary he commands the Council not to presume to determine any thing till he had declared his own Judgment And that he does at large in an Instrument sent to the Emperor that he calls his Constitutum in which though he condemns and confutes the Writings themselves yet he will allow no sentence against the Persons because they dyed in the Communion of the Catholick Church and had been absolved by the Council of Calcedon and at last concludes with this peremptory threatning His igitur à nobis cum omni undique cautelà atque diligentiâ propter servandam inviolabilem reverentiam praedictarum Synodorum et earundem venerabilia constituta dispositis statuimus et decernimus nulli ad ordines et dignitates ecclesiasticas pertinenti licere quicquam contrarium his quae praesenti asseruimus vel statuimus constituto de saepe dictis tribus capitulis aut conscribere vel proferr aut componere vel docere aut aliquam post praesentem definitionem movere ulteriùs quaestionem c. But the Council regard neither him nor his threatnings and so condemn the tria Capitula and to expose him for an egregious Prevaricator publish to the World his own several Declarations against them Upon which Baronius has a very pleasant observation that this they were forced to because they knew their Decree would be of no force without the Authority of the Pope What Inferences will not Zeal and Partiality make when they produced his own testimony against himself to convict him of manifest prevarication to conclude that this was done out of dutiful respect to his Authority by which if they had regarded it they stood all at this very time deposed from their Holy Orders But things being carried so disorderly on all sides the Council came to nothing and the Emperor after he had once made a breach upon the Authority of the Church could never heal it again for the Hereticks instead of being reconciled made advantage of it against the Authority of the Church it self as Leontius a Writer of that Age informs us who argued thus upon it aut boni scilicet erant aut mali si boni curâ—anathematizatis Si mali cur à Synodo recepti sunt And as for the Catholicks some were for an expedient of Peace against the Authority of the Council and others for the Authority of the Council against trimming for Peace But the Emperor having proceeded so far in the business is now resolved to carry it through his own way and all that will not comply are deposed and banisht and this lights chiefly upon the Illyrican and African Bishops but they were soon reduced by the Emperor's severity whereas the Bishops in the Western Empire that was then under the Franks set up a form'd Schism especially in the Parts about Venice and Istria that lasted for many years and cost both the Church and the Empire a long train of trouble and vexation But as for Pope Vigilius when he saw there was no way of escape but by compliance though he loved his Will too much yet he loved his Bishoprick much more therefore after all his stubbornness he comes in and fairly subscribes and approves the Decree of the Council But here the Roman Writers are again at a great loss to salve his Reputation but I think it would be more for their own to let him alone For before he was in lawful possession of St. Peter's Chair they own him to have been a Villain and withal confess that he got into it by Simony Sacriledg and Murther But that being done out of duty and gratitude to his Patroness Theodora he beats down the Council of Calcedon but seeing the Emperor resolute in his Design he turns a fury on that side and publishes his Judicatum to damn the tria Capitula and then in a little time suspends his own Sentence till the meeting of the Council when the Council meets he contradicts them in his Constitutum But because he saw the Emperor in good earnest against him and the African Bishops beginning to scowr out of their Bishopricks he fairly comes in and renounces the Constitutum yet after all these turns of prevarication since the time of his sitting in St. Peter's Chair we must have him to be a very honest Man notwithstanding that he all the while stands guilty of the same Impieties that he did before In my Opinion they would much better consult the honor of St. Peter's Chair by confessing him so ill a Man that even his sitting in that could not mend him or rather that he never had legal Possession of it but was all his life-time a meer Usurper for by the Canons a Man that comes into a Bishoprick by Simony renders himself uncapable of it forever So that if they would leave him under his own disgrace it would be no dishonor to St. Peter's Chair but when they are at such mighty pains to prove that it was not defilâ—d by his sitting in it it leaves wise Men under a suspition that some indecent uncleanness was left behind But however the discovery of his last Conversion which was first brought to light by Petrus de Marca and was dated within six Months after the rising of the Council clears
that great and enormous difficulty that has so long puzled us to make out how this Council should be so received in the Church among the General Councils without the Popes Authority But whether the Recantation were spurious or genuine and that is still in the dark it will not salve the business for if it were genuine it is only a confession of his old Wickedness and that he was managed in it by the Devil after he sat in St. Peter's Chair but what the real Devil was that tempted him is too evident from his shifting sides as his Interest lay Though the greatest demonstration of it is his Plea that he had hitherto erred for want of information and right understanding of the Controversie whereas it is too notorious from the whole progress of it that no Man could be better acquainted with it than himself and whoever reads his Judicatum upon it at the conference at his first coming to Constantinople and his Constitutum sent to the Council seven years after will never of all Excuses allow that of ignorance If it be spurious then if the Apology were good for any thing 't is lost And I must confess it seems somewhat incredible to me that so publick an Instrument concerning so great an Affair should be altogether unknown to his immediate Successors that were so deeply ingaged in the Controversie against the Schismaticks especially Pelagius the second and Gregory the Great who never produced its Authority against them but most of all Gregory who transmitted the Acts of the Council to Queen Theodelinda But though the writing be forged it is plain enough that he actually complied as Eustathius a Cotemporary Writer affirms in the life of Eutychius and Liberatus broadly suggests when he says that Vigilius suffer'd much in the Cause though he were not crown'd which was then the proper Phrase for Apostasie But that he was received into the Emperor's Favor appears from the Imperial Grant of certain Priviledges to the Citizens of Rome that was sent by Vigilius to endear him to the City though in his return home he dyed of the Stone in Sicily and is succeeded by Pelagius the first who though he had been banisht by Justinian whilst he was Apâ—crisiary at Constantinople to Vigilius upon account of his zeal in defence of the tria Capitula yet before he is admitted to the Papacy he both owns the Authority of the Council of Calcedon and condemns the Capitula and after incites Narses then Governor of Italy to reduce the Schismaticks of Venice and Istria by the Secular Power and the same was done by all his Successors till the Schism dyed So that in short it was not the Pope that determin'd the Council but the Council that determin'd the Pope and if it was confirm'd by Vigilius as that does not make the Council good so it is only another proof of the shuffling dishonesty of the Man If it were not confirm'd by him but by his Successors and that was the only Plea in its behalf before De Marca's discovery then it is not the Pope that makes or unmakes a General Council for if so then this was none because rejected by the present Pope Vigilius and yet it was one by the approbation of his Successors Though when all is done the Notion of a General Council is but a Notion for there was never any such thing in reality and all those that bear that name were more properly Councils of the Eastern Empire there being very few Western Bishops present at them And they were only call'd General Councils in opposition to Provincial and ought rather to have been stil'd Imperial as summon'd by the Emperor himself whereas other lesser Councils were summon'd by the Bishops themselves And that places this Council in the same rank with the other four because it was summon'd out of all parts of the Empire and not confin'd to Provinces and Diocesses as the Metropolitical or Patriarchal Councils were But that the Summons of the Bishop of Rome was necessary to the calling of a General Council and his confirmation of their Decrees necessary to their Validity is one great branch of the Papal Usurpation as I hope in its due place to prove at large against Petrus de Marca But to proceed in the business of this present Council all Parties concern'd in it labor to clear themselves of all blame and lay all the burthen of these Disorders upon other Mens shoulders but though it may seem a severe yet it is an impartial Judgment that they were all too faulty As for the Emperor 's own part it is evident that the publication of his Imperial Edict was an illegal act because against the Authority of a Council owned by himself though had he understood it so he would never have done it but he was perswaded that it was no reflection upon the Council it self because it was no contradiction to any of their own direct Decrees but only concern'd the Opinions of some private Persons that the Council thought not fit to condemn at that time though seeing what use the Eutychians made of it he supposed it now useful to the settlement of the Church without any Affront to the Council it being only to change Counsels with change of Affairs This was all the Emperor's meaning and it could have done no great mischief had it not been abused by the craft of Theodorus and his Acephali who perswaded him that it could be no abatement to the Authority of the Council and yet when it was done used it as an Argument to subvert it And then as for those that fought so furiously as the Africans did for the honor of the Council against the tria Capitula though the honor of the Council was remotely concernâ—d in it yet because it was not so apprehended or intended by the Emperor they might and ought in duty to have complyed with his Royal Pleasure only adding a Sa vo to the honor of the Council that had been easily granted and that would have disappointed the craft of the Eâ—tychians and caught them in a snare of their own setting and they must either have own'd the Council or put off their Vizard So that which side soever was in the right they were all in the wrong when they made a Schism in the Church about it for the thing was not Tanti in it self as to warrant the breach of Catholick Communion Though at last the bottom of all these unhappy Quarrels was founded in St. Cyril's over-doing Anathema's against Nestorianism that yet he endeavour'd to impose upon the Catholick Church as so many Articles of Faith Which because Theodoret and Ibas supposed to be too hard an Imposition the Eutychians took advantage of to represent them as Favourers of the Nestorian Heresie though it is plain from the tenour of all their Writings that they were as little guilty of that as Cyril himself but were cautious of spoiling the Cause by too much niceness of Speculation and
not to say a greater only to avoid envy a Benefactor to Mankind as any Prince in the whole Succession He delivered Christendom from the Incursions of the Barbarians and when he found it not so properly invaded as besieged and in a great measure possest by them he not only subdued them all to the Empire but which was a much greater work to Civility and the Christian Faith and by that means he left the Peace of the World much better secured and its manners much more improved then they were before His next Improvement of the Creation were his numberless and prodigious Buildings by which he lest the World more habitable then he found it neither do I speak meerly of that vast number of great Cities that he built but of his great care to make Commerce easie and pleasant and remove the difficulties of travelling by building Bridges making High-ways founding Publick-houses for the reception of Strangers in all convenient places in these kind of works he was so munificent in all places that he might not improperly be stiled the Founder of the Roman Empire that as it were turned those vast Dominions into one City A Third Benefit to Posterity is his excellent Body of Laws and Rules of Government gathered out of the Records of that wise State for about 1300 Years A work so glorious in it self that it had been often attempted by the greatest men not only those of the more ancient Common-wealth but of the most polite and emproved Age it entertain'd the ambitious thoughts both of Caesar and Cicero But in vain so great a work was preserved for the glory of Justinian and though if we consider the remote Antiquity of the Laws the seeming inconsistency among themselves and the immense bulk of Books and Records in so long a Tract of time the undertaking must have seem'd an impossible thing to any other man yet he pursued it with that diligence as to bring the greatest work that was ever undertaken to perfection in a little time Now for all these good Deeds that he has done to all Posterity I think no man that pretends to any thing of gratitude or ingenuity can excuse himself from the obligation of doing honour but much more right to his Memory But beside all this his Cause is become the Controversie of all Christendom because the Power that he challenged and exercised in the Christian Church for which he is so much condemned by the Court of Rome is one of the inseparable Branches of Soveraignty and was always challenged by all Christian Emperors so that if the Princes of Christendom should suffer themselves to be stript of it they are thereby outed of one half of their Empire And the true rise of the Court of Romes displeasure against him was not upon the account of any of his own Actions but a late Contest viz. The Famous Quarrel between Paul the 5th and the State of Venice as Eusebius has very well observed about these three Articles 1. The Power of the Civil Magistrate to judge the Clergy in Criminal Causes 2. The Decree of the Senate to prohibit the erecting of new Churches or Religious Houses without the Consent of the State 3. Their Statute of Mortmain against settling Lands upon the Church without the same Consent How high this Quarrel run is vulgarly known but it was so managed by the Learned Men that appeared in behalf of the Senate as to refer its whole decision to the Justinian Law whereas the Pope on the contrary challenged a Superiority over all Laws and would submit to no Rule but his own Authority Now the reason why the Venetian Advocates insisted so stubbornly upon the Justinian Code was not only for the advantage of those several Precedents that we have seen above to warrant the proceedings of the State in the several matters of the present Controversie but chiefly because the Code of the Canons of the Universal Church were taken into the Justinian Code and made part of the Imperial Law and if they could but bring the Pope any way under the Canons that would carry their Cause for it not only proved in behalf of the State that the power of prohibiting Ecclesiastical Laws to be imposed upon their Subjects without their Consent was a right challenged by all Christian Princes but own'd by the Church in the General Councils it being the known Custom of the Fathers to send their Decrees to their Imperial Majesties for Approbation before they presumed to publish them to the World or impose them upon the Church This is the Argument insisted upon by Jacobus Leschasserius a Learned Civilian at Paris in his Apology in behalf of the Senate who recommends the Justinian Code as the Bull-wark of the Liberties of Christendom And this little Treatise first gave the hint to Christophorus Justellus to publish the Code of the Canons of the Universal Church Now when the Court of Rome had for so many Ages been used to an absolute and unlimited Authority it could not but gawl and fret their proud Spirits to hear of being brought into subjection to Imperial Laws and for that reason they set themselves with all the Arts of Malice to beat down the Credit and Reputation of the Justinian Code till at length from his Laws they proceeded to vent their Revenge upon his Person and that was the thing that gave so much joy and transport to Alemannus his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that now the World might see what kind of man this Justinian was who was so prophane as to take upon him a power of medling with Sacred Things and controuling Popes themselves But the indignity of so base a design soon provoked Learned Men to expose it to the World with that scorn that it deserved The first that appeared in the Cause that I know of was a Learned Man of our own Nation in the Year 1626 viz. Dr. Rive Advocate to his late Majesty a Gentleman equally eminent both for Learning and Loyalty in a little but a very ingenious Treatise upon the Argument Entituled Imperatoris Justiniani desensio adversus Alemannum The Book which is great pity is hard to be procured neither indeed had the Learned Author the advantage of some considerable Records that are now brought to light and though he was a Learned Man not only in his own Profession but all other Polite Learning yet I find that he was not so well acquainted with the Records of the Church as to be able to state that matter aright And therefore he is altogether mistaken in that part of his defence especially as to the Controversie of the tria Capitula but he followed the common opinion as it was stated by the Romanists against the Africans as I think all Writers have done to this very day But otherwise he has with great eloquence and strength of reason cleared the reputation of this great Prince from all their dull and dirty aspersions and Convicted the whole design of
Man ever dream't but this ignorant Barbarian These are the grand Articles of this foul Accusation and what credit they ought to have I may now safely leave to the Verdict even of an Ignoramus Jury The remainder of this Chapter is nothing but raving for who but a mad Man would seriously report that Justinian and Theodora were Devils in good earnest that his Mother had carnal Copulation with a Daemon that was his Father that he was often sâ—en to walk up and down without his head upon his Shoulders and that Theodora familiarly lay with Devils Happy is the Man that can be fond of such a pleasant Historian And yet Alemannus is in so good humour as not only to believe it all but to adorn it with large and learned Commentaries Never was Author and Commentator better met It is pity but he should have written Notes upon the Legend of St. Silvester and the Dragon that his Predecessor Baronius sets up as the best account of the Reign of Constantine against all the Records both of the Church and the Empire Into such absurdities will fanatick Zeal drive the wisest and most learned Men. But above all the rest his grave Apology to justifie this prudentissimus Scriptor as he stiles him in his folly is most pleasant viz. that it is a common Form of Speech in all Authors prophane and sacred to give the title of Devil to Men eminently wicked as our Saviour calls Judas a Devil That any Mans understanding should be sunk so low as to satisfie it self with such trifles as these When the wise Author says expresly That he was no Metaphorical Devil but a Devil in reality and the Son of a Devil in good earnest And there if his learned Advocate cannot prevail with himself to believe it notwithstanding his excuse he leaves his wise Author in the lurch to answer for the possibility of his Legend Had I been in his stead to plead the Cause I would have alledged the Precedents of Alexander the Great and Scipio Africanus the two greatest Men of Greece and Rome whoâ—e Mothers are reported to have told the same story of being gallanted by Incubuses for though they are equally incredible yet they have the Authority of Ancient Tale and have been frequently related by grave Historians and this if set off with a serious Countenance might have been taking and plausible but to raise a silly Metaphorical Devil to supply the room of a real one it is such a Rag of Excuse as utterly spoils the Story and makes it look much more ridiculous than the naked Lie it self But if he were not a Devil with a cloven foot yet he was a Devil of Lust and though he were very temperate and abstemious yet he out-did a Satyr in wantonness But what Instance what Proofs what one Example That a man should exceed all Mankind in the licentiousness of his Lust and yet no one Act of it ever be discovered This Vice is not so discreet as to secâ—re it self with that Secresie that it designs but especially in Princes it cannot avoid being publick The crafty Augustus as demurely as he look't and as severe Laws as he made against it was publickly known to have been one of the most notorious Sinners of the Age. But as for Justinian as he was more severe in his Laws against this Vice than any of his Predecessors so he was never charged with any one Breach of them The Wife the Daughter the Servant that he debaucht are to this day nameless Whose Bed did he ever defile whose Modesty did he ever attempt was he ever so much as suspected of Love to any but his Empress What rudeness then what Malice what Impudence is it in this Scribler to cast dirt upon such an eminent and unblemisht Chastity without so much as attempting to alledge any one proof or example of it and that alone is a demonstration of its falshood for if he could have charged him with any one Fact we know he owed him not so much kindness as to conceal it But as he introduces the Calumny he makes it more absurd viz. That though he were very much given to fasting and watching yet he was a Devil for Lust. These things hang very well together a man much given all his life-time to watching and fasting and yet the very Priapus of the Age an insatiable Satyr and exceeding the natural capacity of Makind in Lust. This is another fair contradiction and as consistent as his being black and white tall and low prodigal and covetous an Ass and a Fox a natural Fool and a crafty Knave so blind a thing is Malice when it is over eager in the pursuit of its rage The next Twins of Vertue are his great kindness to and great oppression of the Orthodox Christian Clergy His favour to them was so exorbitant that he would protect them in their frauds and oppressions whenever they invaded other Mens Rights and whenever the Cause was brought before him he always judged on the side of the Ecclesiasticks And so preposterous was his Piety that he Committed all his Rapins to enrich and endow the Christian Churches though but just now they were all swept into his own Coffers But with what cruelty he opprest the Christian Clergy the Author has several times promised to relate but it seems having a Treacherous Memory as we find by the inconsistencies of his Tale he at last forgot it notwithstanding he has so often rubb'd it up in Cap. 10 11 26 27. An ill Memory they say is very inconvenient for some sort of men but a false one is very useful it is an easie matter to excuse any ill-natur'd Story under pretence of forgetfulness and as easie to stab any innocent mans reputation only by suggesting some vile thing of him as by broad direct slander But here behold our Vatican Apologist at his old knack of excuse-making His Author he says had it all the while in his head but unluckily forgot to let it out and intended no doubt the hard usage of the Popes Silverius and Vigilius and the African Bishops in the Contest about the tria Capitula This excuse Dr. Rive caps with this Story of a Jockey not less happy in a forgetful Memory who putting a Pad-Nag into a Friends hands upon Reputation after the Bargain was ended the Buyer seriously ask't him as the Custom is what faults he had to which he replies that he knew only two that he paced too easily and eat too much upon this home he goes with great joy of his Bargain but he had not gone far when he found both Horse and Rider in the Ditch upon this taking a stricter Survey he fiâ—ds his Palfrey stone-blind returns to his Jockey and inveighs against him for so unfriendly a Cheat who replies thus upon him If Sir I had then thought of it that the Horse had lost both his Eyes I would have scorn'd to have put him into so good a Friends hands but
of Constantinople and the Queens Favourite at the instigation of Pope Agapetus for suspicion of the Eutychian Heresie and after that to confirm the Decree of the Council under Mennas against him by adding Banishment to his Deposition And being now upon a design of publishing a Rescript against the Acephali in behalf of the Council of Calcedon upon this Theodorus a friend to Eutyches as well as Origen having insinuated himself into the Court by the Empress and being endeared to the Emperor by his great Officiousness partly to be revenged of Pelagius for the Affront to his Master Origen and partly to divert the good Emperor from his Design against the Acephali craftily perswades him that he might spare his Pains and reconcile them to the Council at a cheaper rate If three Offensive things were taken out of its Acts i. e. if the Writings of Theodorus Mopsuestenus Master to Nestorius if the Epistle of Ibas Bishop of Edessa to Maris Persa and if the Book of Theodoret against Cyrâ—l's Anathema's might be condemn'd of Heresie though they had been absolved by the Council The Motion was plausible to the Emperor and he thought it a very easie Method to reconcile all Parties only by suppressing the Writings of two or three private Men so that the Authority of the Decrees of the Council it self stood unshaken as before for though the Council did not condemn yet it did not commend but onâ—y acquit them and therefore it was not directly concern'd in their suppression And Theodorus finding that by this Device he had decoyed the Emperor into his snare that he might secure him from a Relapse prevails with him in the absence of his Rival Pelagius who was then at Rome to publish an Edict of Condemnation by his own Authority but drawn up as Facundus Hermianensis tells the Emperor not by himself but Theodorus and his Accomplices that so having once publickly appear'd in the Cause that would be an obligation upon him to persevere in it against all opposition otherwise he understood the gentleness of his Temper so well that when he saw the Mischiefs and Inconveniences that follow'd upon it he would quit the Cause and leave them in the lurch to answer for their Affront to the Council of Calcedon And the better to secure themselves the Edict was as craftily composed as it was contrived All the Councils were confirm'd all the Heresies of all denominations condemn'd only in the tail of all these three particular Authors were apocryphised And that the good Emperor's design was meerly Peace and Concord is very observable from the conclusion of all Si quis igitur post ejusmodi rectam confessionem et haereticorum condemnationem salvo manente pio intellectu de nominibus vel syllabis vel dictionibus contendens separat se à sanctâ Dei Ecclesiâ tanquam non in rebus sed in solis nominibus et dictionibus positâ nobis pietate talis utpote dissensionibus gaudens rationem pro semetipso et pro deceptis et decipiendis ab eo reddet magno Deo et Salvatori nostro Jesu Christo in die Judicii By which it is evident that the Emperor accepted the Model after the security and settlement of the Christian Faith against all sorts of Hereticks as the only remedy expedient at that time against contention and curiosity without any design against the Council of Calcedon or any other determinations of the Church but on the contrary rather with a religious and intire submission to their Decrees and for this reason it is approved and subscribed though not without reluctancy by all the four Eastern Patriarchs and most eminent Prelates of the Eastern Church Whereas on the other side the Western and African Bishops concluded it a direct reflection upon the Wisdom and Authority of the Council it self to condemn those Writings of Heresie that it had upon a fair Trial acquitted And thus by this unhappy Legerdemain of that false and jugling Man Theodorus under which the Emperor suspected no ill Design instead of finishing the settlement of the Church after so fair a progress that he had made in it for it was he that govern'd and manag'd all things in his Unkle Justin's reign he brings all things back into the same Tumult and Confusion into which they were brought by the Henoticon It was but a slite and a very remote breach as one would think upon the Churches Authority yet it broke down all Bounds of Discipline and Government that it seems is a thing so tender that it can endure no tampering and unless it be made sacred and inviolable it loses all its force And so this great Emperor after this slite Wound in a matter in which it was so little concern'd could scarce make it up again by the Authority of a General Council Though I must confess that the occasion of raising the Quarrel so high was the turbulent spirit of Pope Vigilius who as he was guilty of all other Wickedness exceeded in Pride as appears not only from the Historian but the Sentence of Excommunication against him by Pope Silverius in the time of that Popes banishment Quippe qui nequissimi spiritûs audaciâ ambitionis phrenesin concipiens in illius Apostolici Medici cui animas ligandi solvendique collata et concessa potestas est versaris contumeliam novumque scelus erroris in Apostolicâ sede rursus niteris inducere et in morem Simonis cujus discipulum te ostendis operibus datâ pecuniâ meque repulso qui favente Domino tribus jam jugiter emensis temporibus ei praesideo tempora mea niteris invadere That by the instigation of the Devil being mad with pride he rebell'd against St. Peter and his Authority committing a new and unheard of sin in the Apostolick See it self and following the example of Simon Magus whose Disciple he shewed himself to be by his works by purchasing my Bishoprick with Mony and expelling me out of it for these three years And if we may believe the angry Africans he bought the Apostolick See of the Empress Theodora whose Creature he was and procur'd the banishment of Pope Silverius by forging treasonable Letters to the Goths in his name and when Justinian suspecting some Abuse recall'd him home this wicked Man caused him to be murther'd by two of his own Servants So that it is a just Character that is given of him by Baronius himself Cedit huic Novati Impietas Pertinacia Vrsicini Laurentii Praesumptio ac denique aliorum omnium schismaticorum Antistitum superbia artogantia atque facinerosa temeritas c He out-stript Novatus in wickedness Vrsicinus in stubbornness Laurentius in impudence and all Schismaticks that ever were in pride insolence and presumption But however by a train of wickedness mounting himself into the Apostolick See according to his Simoniacal Articles with Theodora he enters into league with the Henotical Bishops sends an Encyclical Letter to them extant in Liberatus to assure them that