complaint of St. Hilary and the oppress 't Catholiques so wrought with the Emperor that notwithstanding his outrage against them because his Affairs in France were then embroil'd by the Incursions of the Barbarous Nations he publishes that seemingly kind Rescript in Answer to their Request Mansuetudinis nostrae lege prohibemus in Judiciis Episcopos accusari c. Commanding that the Accusations of Bishops should not be brought before Secular Magistrates lest it should give too much encouragement to wicked Men to oppress them with slanders and therefore if any Man have a complaint against them let it be Examin'd before the Bishops that so every cause might be determin'd by its proper Judicature This is a singular Law and has scarce any other parallel with it in the whole Code for though there are divers Laws of other Emperors that refer all Controversies about Religion to the Episcopal Audience yet as for the Criminal causes of Ecclesiastical Persons I do not remember any beside this that wholly exempted them from the cognisance of their own Courts And therefore that this Emperor should grant such an Universal exemption seems a courtesie more then ordinary and is thought to have been meerly extorted by the importunity of the Catholick Bishops and the present difficulty of his own Affairs And that they then insisted upon the exemption of Ecclesiastical Persons as well as Causes it was for a reason peculiar to the State of the Controversie at that time that was then managed not so much by Arguments as Accusations though that weapon was chiefly employed against the great Athanasius into whose single Person the Controversie was at last contracted and the Parties were distinguisht by nothing but subscribing and refusing his Condemnation For he being the great Pillar of the Catholick Cause the Eusebians knew well enough that if they could but blow him up the cause must fall with him and for that reason is it that they all along labour'd so hard to overwhelm him with Criminal Accusations And therefore the Catholicks perceiving their fraud interposed as vehemently in defence of Athanasius as of their Faith because all the blows that were levell'd at him were supposed to aim at that insomuch that to subscribe his Condemnation was the same thing as to quit the Party as we have seen in the case of Pope Liberius And for this reason chiefly it was necessary at that time that the Emperor if he would refer the Ecclesiastical Controversie then on foot to the Bishops he should do the same as to the Criminal Causes of the Clergy because they were then universally join'd together And yet as kind as this Law might appear to be in relieving them from the oppressions of the Imperial Courts it was but a fraudulent favour and only design'd to ensnare the Catholicks For this gracious Rescript was publisht in the same year in which he call'd the violent Council at Milan that was on purpose packt out of the fiercest Eusebians to carry things thorough with an high hand and without any contradiction So that when in this Rescript he refer'd the Orthodox Bishops to an Ecclesiastical Judgment he designed nothing but their Oppression in this mad Council and that it is evident was so far from any kindness that it was the sharpest severity he could have contrived against them For if they had just ground of complaint against the unjust actings of the Secular Courts because they were not their proper Judicatures yet when they were so rudely outraged in Council as it was done in the proper Court so was it at their own request and that both took away all ground of complaint and left them without any means of relief Gothofred has a Conjecture that this Rescript was Enacted not before but after the Council and that in favour of the Eusebians who were overcome by the Orthodox at their own weapon of Accusation and yet by the partiality of the Council were protected whilst the Catholicks were oppressed and denyed the very formalities of Justice this says the Learned Man might provoke them to make their Appeals to the Secular Courts where they might at least hope to meet with some humanity and regard to the Laws And therefore the Emperor to spoil this shift brings them all back to the Ecclesiastical Judicature that if they would come thither there they might be heard but no where else But this contradicts the whole state of Affairs at that time when the partiality and oppression of the Secular Judges was the universal Groan of the Catholicks and when this Rescript was enacted upon or at least after their reiterated complaints against it and therefore there is no ground to imagine that the Catholicks how much soever oppressed in Council would think of seeking relief there But whatever was the intent of the Rescript and no doubt it was malicious enough it is certain that it was at least pretended to be granted upon the complaint of the Catholicks against the Secular Courts for taking to themselves the Judgment of Controversies of Faith whereas they ought to have referred them to the Synods of Bishops whom our Saviour had appointed to be the proper Guides and Judges in those matters And that is the meaning of Hosius and the rest in their reproofs of the Emperor not that he used his Authority in the Church but that he abused it by opposing it to the determination of a general Council by whose advice he ought both as a wise Man and a good Christian to have been directed in the use of his Power in such matters And that was the grand miscarriage of his Reign that he would not sit down satisfied under the Authâ—ntique and Solâ—mn determination of so great a Council which if he had done as his Father did he had escaped all that tedious risk of trouble which he created both to himself and to the Church through his whole Reign But however it is evident from all the Premisses that how enormously soever he abused his own Power in the Church he never attempted to Usurp the Churches Power and he never took upon him to make any Alterations in the Faith till they were first made and decreed in Council and though he destroyed the Use and Authority of Councils by denying freedom of Vote yet that was an abuse of his Power not an usurpation of theirs For that he ever own'd with a Religious regard in his most unwarrantable Oppressions And as I have observed at the beginning he shewed greater respect to the Power of the Church then any Emperor in the whole Succession when he called such sholes of Councils only to have his Will of one Man and one Word which he durst not controul himself because they had been own'd and justified by the Churches Authority And if we carefully observe his motions we shall find him a cordial friend both to the Church and to Religion and the end of all his mistaken Zeal was the lasting settlement of Peace and Concord that was
Priviledges all States that profess Christianity are bound by that profession to settle upon the Church I shall shew in its proper place but whatever they are the Church cannot challenge them by it's Original Charter So that if any Church shall be so presumptuous as to pretend to any such Power which way soever it comes in whether directly or indirectly by vertue of our Saviour's Commission that is not only a Contradiction to the Nature of Christianity but an Atheistical Abuse put upon the whole Design of the Institution But as to pretend to any such Power from our Saviour only over Subjects is no less then Blasphemy against him so to pretend to it over Soveraigns doubles the Blasphemy by adding the Sin of Rebellion to that of Impiety and utterly destroys not only the Being and Constitution of a Christian Church but of all humane Societies So that how many Marks soever there may be of a true Church this alone is an infallible Note of a false one And therefore every Church that refuses to disclaim any Temporal Power over Princes renounces the Christian Faith and forfeits all the Rights and Priviledges of a Christian Church but if it should be so vain as openly to claim any such power it bids open defiance to our Saviour and quits him and his Religion to follow Mahomet So that there is no one thing in the World can so effectually unchurch a Church as its claiming any Temporal Authority to it self especially over Soveraign Powers And this I doubt will light very severely upon the Bishops of Rome ever since the Hildebrandine Apostacy viz. That the Pope as Vicar of Christ has a power of deposing Soveraign Princes and absolving Subjects from their Allegiance this they have own'd whenever they durst and put in practice whenever they could and would never be brought upon any Terms to condemn it which Doctrine certainly is the greatest unkindness that they can do themselves and the worst thing that their greatest Enemies could desire to object against them and if any thing can prove his Holiness to be Antichrist this is the thing because it is an utter Subversion of the whole State of Christianity and makes our Saviour a false Christ by making him a Temporal Messias and placing him in the head of an Army to subdue the Princes and Nations of the World into subjection to himself I am sure for this very reason does the Learned Cardinal Baronius make Mahomet the Type of Antichrist because he promoted his Religion over several parts of the World by force of Arms Quod armorum potentia tot provincias nullo fermè negotio per suos posteros ejusdem sectae homines subjugasset He would have done well to have applyed this Censure nearer home and then he would not have justified all the Rebellious Popes in their violencies and outrages that they acted against Soveraign Princes and yet no man has done it with more diligence then himself as I shall prove when I come to consider his Performance Neither will this Charge of Apostacy light only upon the Church of Rome but upon every Church that maintains a right of resistance to Soveraign Powers upon a pretence of Christian Religion whatsoever for that is still to take to themselves such a power against their Prince by our Saviours Authority which is the same direct contradiction to the Nature of the Christian Faith and the same sort of Apostacy from Christianity to Mahumetism putting a Scymeter into our Saviours hand and under his pretended conduct waging War against their lawful Soveraign and that is the greatest dishonour that they can bring to their Master or themselves And yet we shall find some other Churches aś much guilty of this Apostacy both in Doctrine and Practice as that of Rome and though Rome and they stand at the greatest distance of Enmity out of Jealousie of one another who should carry the prize yet they both fully agree in this fundamental Antichristian Principle But this Charge will come home in its proper place at present we must take this Article of faith all along with us No Temporal Authority in the Church unless from the grant of the State §. III. But then secondly it must be granted too that the Power of Princes how great soever in Church matters supposes the Spiritual Authority of the Church that was as much settled by our Saviour without any dependency on the Authority of the State as the Authority of the State was settled by the Providence of God before there was any such thing as a Christian Church in the World So that it is undeniably evident from its original Constitution that the Church subsists no more upon the State as to its proper Power then the State upon the Church For as the Christian Church came into the World after the Civil Government of States was entirely settled in it so did the World come into the Church after its Government was as entirely fixed within it self And therefore as Christianity by its coming into the World ought no manner of way to abate the Civil Power of the State so neither when the Powers of the World come into the Church ought they to diminish any thing of that Authority that it enjoyed by Divine Commission before they came into it For they are received into it upon the same terms with all other Proselytes of the Christian Faith that they submit themselves to it as our Soviour's own Institution So that as our first point is That all Sovereign Princes have or ought to have an Imperial Supremacy over all Ecclesiastical Persons and in all Ecclesiastical Causes Our second is That this Supremacy which is the highest Power that can be on Earth is no Ecclesiastical but a Civil Supremacy For beside that it would be a dishonour to degrade a Sovereign Prince to the Priestly Office The Ecclesiastical Power is purely Spiritual and that is a Power that was never challenged by any Prince nor directly given by any Man though it is so by plain and undeniable consequence by all that disown an Inherent Authority in the Church from our Saviour's own Commission but only Mr. Hobbs who as he made the Prince his own Priest made him his own God too Now these two Principles laid together clear up the Nature and Title of the Supremacy of Sovereign Princes That it is none of that Spiritual Power that is lodged in the Church but a Temporal Supremacy over all the Spiritual Power of it within his own Dominions And now if these two Principles that are as certain as Christianity it self were but calmly attended to they would perfectly silence all the clamours of both the extreme Parties in this Controversie Those of the Church of Rome must cease their noise that we make the King a Bishop by acknowledging his Supremacy in all Ecclesiastical Causes and over all Ecclesiastical Persons when upon this State of the Question such a Supremacy over all things and persons within their Dominions
of the Primitive Church where we shall find the whole matter so fairly and so easily accorded that it is next to a miracle how it should ever be made so great a difficulty in these later times But it hapned in this as it did in most other things at the time of the Reformation that men saw themselves wrapt up they knew not how in woful Errours and Corruptions but did not and indeed as the World then stood could not immediately discover the true original state of the Church as it was at first setled by our Saviour and his Apostles and received into protection by Constantine and the Christian Emperours So that though they had Eye-sight enough and God knows very little would serve their turn to discern the follies and abuses of Rome they were at a loss how to fix the right Reformation and for want of the ancient Records of the Church that lay buried in dust and rubbish at that time could make but slow improvements in it So that before the true state of the Church could be clearly and fully discover'd most of them were setled in some way or other and after any new settlement it is very difficult to make any Alteration and therefore they continue in their first posture to this day But the Church of England at the very first Attempt resolving to reform it self by the Example of the Primitive Church and having the good fortune to retain the Apostolical form of Episcopal Government in subordination to the Royal Power set it self in a right way to Reformation And so as the state of things came to light by degrees brought its work to some competent Perfection For the Reformation of the Church after such an inveterate degeneracy must needs be a work of so great bulk and difficulty that it is an unreasonable thing to expect that it should be finisht at the first stroke So great a design as that must be a work of time and consideration to be reviewed and amended as the Master-Workmen shall find most convenient So as that they who had a Power first to begin it have an inherent right when ever they think fit to take an account of their own Work and if they find any flaws mistakes or defects in it to make them up by an after-care So that there must be a constant Power residing in the Church to enact or abolish Laws as it judges most serviceable to the present state of things And that is truly and properly the Church of England the Governours of it acting under the Allowance of the Sovereign Power by its establisht Laws and Constitutions with a constant power residing in themselves and their Successours to enact new Laws as they shall judge most beneficial to the Edification of the Church And it is a very crude notion of the Church of England as common as it is that it is to be found in its Canons Articles and Constitutions for that is only the Law and dead rule of the Church of England but the Church properly so call'd consists in its living Authority as setled by our Saviour by which these Laws were at first enacted and are or ought to be still executed and may in some cases be alter'd And that is the great difference between the Law and the Authority of the Church that one is alterable and the other is not The Authority of the Church may make new Laws and cancel old ones but that lasts the same for ever So that for men to talk of this or that Church without a particular form of Government setled in it by our Saviour's own Commission is to turn the Christian Church into a Chimaera and imaginary state of Fairies But as for the Church of England according to the design of its Reformation it consists of a National Synod of Bishops together with a select Convocation of Presbyters representing the whole Body of the Clergy in subjection to the Sovereign Power and in communion with the Catholique Church all the World over as far as it can be attain'd And this is contrived so agreeably to the Primitive Platform the Interest of Government the Nature of Christianity that there is little else defective in it then the honesty and the confidence to own it self and put its own Constitution into effectual practice But of that I shall discourse in its proper place §. 9. At present for the practice of the Primitive Churches Government within it self and as it related to the Civil State it must be consider'd in the two Periods before and after the Conversion of the Empire and by comparing the true face and posture of things in these two so different states we shall have an exact description of the Rights of the Church in all estates and conditions whatsoever But most of all of its easy complyance with the Rights of Civil Government in Christian States and of the safest way for Christian Sovereigns to govern and protect the Church within their Dominions without invading its inherent and unalienable Authority And then last of all I shall compare that Royal Supremacy that is acknowledged and asserted in the Church and Realm of England in Causes Ecclesiastical with the sense of the Ancient Church concerning the Authority of Emperours and with the Practice of Christian Princes in the Exercise of this Authority And by shewing their compleat Agreement shall from that Topick distinctly prove that we have in this as well as in other matters attain'd a good degree of Reformation First as for the Period of time before the Conversion of the Roman Empire there are two things to be consider'd first their behaviour towards the Civil Government whilst it supprest and persecuted the Christian Faith Secondly the exercise of their own Authority within themselves From both which it will appear that the Church as a Society founded by Christ challenged a Jurisdiction distinct from and Independant upon the Civil State and that this Jurisdiction was so far from interfering with or abating of the Sovereignty of Princes that it bound them to the strictest Allegiance and Subjection to the most inhumane Persecutors And the Story of this Interval whilst the powers of the Church and the World were separate and indeed as much as it was possible opposite will set before us a much clearer State of the Nature and Extent of the two Jurisdictions then we can have from the Practice of Christian States in which the two Powers concurring in the same Acts of Government it is not altogether so easie to discern their distinct influences but will withal give us the fullest Character of true Christian Loyalty from their practice under the hardest usage and severest persecutions But most of all from their Principles upon which they founded their Obligation to their Practice and when it appears upon what grounds and reasons they submitted to the utmost cruelty of the Civil Government that will prevent the common shift made by all Factious Parties against the Authority of their Example
pretence of Electing a new Bishop of that Diocess and having chosen one Paulus a very ill man and a known Traditor they proceed to the deposition of Caecilian But before they can pass sentence against him they were first obliged to clear themselves of the Crime But upon Examination of every particular Person they all Convict one another of Guilt and absolve one another by mutual consent This being done they adjourn to Carthage summon Caecilian to appear before them but he refuses they being only a Combination of his profess't Enemies and upon it they immediately depose him for his Obstinacy and put Majorinus who was Chaplain to Madam Lucilla in his place and send their Encyclical Letters to all the Bishops in Africa to signifie that they had renounced Communion with Caecilian and all his Adherents as Traditors And this being done the people were told that Caecilian was no Church-Officer that under him they could have no true Sacraments nor enjoy any means of Salvation but were in the same forlorn condition with Pagans and Idolaters But with themselves were the pure Gospel Ordinances and all that were Members of their Church were made Holy without spot or wrinkle Amongst them the most forward of the Faction was Donatus à Casâ Nigrâ who being the first that set up a Conventicle gave name to the Schism And he having a Natural Faculty of Canting and Insinuating into the Affections of the Rabble soon inveigled so great a number into his Party that they forsook their private Meetings and built publick Churches and there inveighed openly against the Idolatry of Caecilian and the Catholicks for that is the custom of all Fanaticks to improve every thing into Idolatry bemean the miserable state of all that would not leave that to joyn with them and scare the People with perpetual Alarms of certain ruine and destruction if they will not come out of Babylon By these Arts they prevail every where and the Schism is on a suddain spread all over Africk so as not only to enflame the Church but to endanger the publick Peace About which time Constantine having vanquish't Maxentius he thereby added Italy and Africk to his Government and for the encouragement of Christianity in Africa he sends Caecilian large sums of Money to be distributed by him among the Clergy of the three Provinces and grants them immunities from all publick Burthens And about the same time the Donatists finding themselves over power'd by the Catholicks present Anulinus the Pro-Consul with a Petition of Appeal to the Emperor and though afterward when they found themselves check't by the Civil Government their great Clamour was Quid Christianis cum Regibus Aut quid Episcopis cum Palatio What have Christians to do with Kings or Bishops with the Court Yet they were as St. Austin justly upbraids their dis-ingenuity the first Christians that ever fled from the Judgment of the Church to the Civil Government Though as for this first Appeal this is to be said for them that they did not Appeal to the Emperour 's own Judgment but only Petition'd him That he would be pleased to appoint them Judges of the Cause in the Church of France because that Church having wholly escaped the Persecution the Bishops of it would be more unconcern'd and impartial Judges of the Cause of the Traditors Whereas themselves were so divided and engaged at home that it was not possible to have any fair determination in Africa And though the Request hitherto was not very unreasonable yet the Emperour was highly displeased at it out of that tender care and solicitude that he ever had for the Peace and Concord of the Christian Church But however for once he Commissions three French Bishops together with Melchiades Bishop of Rome to hear the Cause who calling fifteen other Italian Bishops to their Assistance undertake its judgment in order to which Ten Bishops of each Party are commanded from Africa to attend the Council at Rome Where three days are spent in Examination of Witnesses but the Donatists bringing no proof against Caecilian himself the Council declare him innocent And whether Faelix who Ordain'd him were a Traditor or not they would not enter into the Enquiry as altogether remote from the cause of Caecilian because though he were to be deposed by the Canons of the Church yet till those Canons were put in Execution by the Sentence of the Church all the Acts of his Office were good and valid But on the other side Caecilian plyed the Donatists so home with their own Weapon of Accusation and their foul dealings at Cirta and the briberies of Madam Lucilla that they were forced to quit the Council And yet that was so moderate in the Sentence against them that it Excommunicated none of them but only Donatus à Casis Nigris that was found guilty of divers other foul Crimes and the Author of all this mischief But the rest were invited to return to the Unity of the Church and offer'd the continuance of of whatever preferments they had in it though they had been Ordain'd by Majorinus or any others in a State of Schism §. II. But here happens such an unfortunate halt in the Story as leaves Learned Men at an utter loss what chase to follow and every one takes his own way so as that by the great variety of Opinions they have run the whole matter into confusion All which is occasioned by a Chasm in Optatus his History for here it breaks off and skips over the whole Transaction of the great Council of Arles and hearing at Milan Of which it is certain that Optatus could not be ignorant who has so accurately described all the less material parts of the Story and as Baronius argues very well Tot tantaque Concio toto Orbe a tam celebri Episcoporum conventu facta ab Imperatore Edictis publicis definita in Donatistas nequaquam Optalum proeteriisse potuerunt Things so many and so great done in so famous a Council of Bishops known all the World over and publick Edicts made by the Emperor against the Donatists could not possibly be altogether unknown to Optatus And therefore this part of the story must needs have been lost either through injury of time or the fraud of the Donatists which is most likely for there was not any one Ancient Book whose Copies were so corrupt and confused as this of Optatus as Baldwin justly complains But which way soever it came to pass this part of the story being lost and so the Transactions that hapned some years after as the Appeal of the Donatists from the Council of Arles to Constantine at Milan and his detaining Caecilian at Bress immediately following in this place they are supposed to have been done at this time though they hap'ned not till after the Council of Arles Thus Baronius having procured from Petrus Pithaeus Constantine's Letter to the Catholique Bishops upon the Donatists Appeal to himself after the Sentence
present they could or need not have done And beside that the thing is more then plain enough by the Appeal it self for if Constantine had been there present to what purpose was it for the Donatists to remove the Cause to him that would have been only to Appeal from himself to himself But he being inform'd of the design by the Letter from the Council replies to it with great detestation of the Schismaticks Obstinacy and Perverseness and wonders how they dare to Appeal to his Judgment when they were already Condemn'd by the Judgment of God in the Votes of the Bishops who in these matters judged in God's stead and by his appointment And therefore he esteems their Appeal as no less then Treason and Rebellion against God himself But however he advises them to patience and to give the Schismaticks some time to consider and if they persisted in their stubbornness to give themselves no farther trouble about them but to repair to their several Homes And seeing the Schismatiques had been so prophane as to make their Appeal to him he would take care to provide them Guards for their safe Conduct to his Court Ut ibi sibi mortem pervideant which whatever it signifies is a very high threatning So that after all I do not find that Constantine ever in the least accepted of their Appeal looking upon it as no less sin then an affront to God himself but only resolved now to proceed against them as a Sovereign Prince with all severity as factious and seditious Persons in the Empire And about this time was the business of Faelix of Aptung examin'd by AElian the Proconsul of Africa for though it is generally supposed that this was done before the Council of Arles yet it is evident by the Acts of the Court that it was done the same year and it is certain that there was no notice taken of it in the Council and therefore the first account of it that was return'd to the Emperour must have been after its dissolution And this it was The Schismaticks making such perpetual Clamours about Faelix his being a Traditor and though it was nothing to the Cause of Caecilian yet the Emperour having caught them in so many Factions and Stories suspects every thing that they say of falshood and therefore writes to his Proconsul to enquire into the matter of Fact upon the place where it was transacted He accordingly Examines all the Officers that had belonged to the Court of Inquisition at Aptung under Dioclesian at which time and place the Fact was laid against Faelix who all acquit him from any such Crime And whereas the main Accusation was taken from some passages in a Letter of one Caecilian a Duumvir of the City of Aptung to Faelix Ingentius a publick Notary confesses That he was hired and suborn'd by the Schismatiques to forge the Epistle and foist it into the Records of the Court. Upon which he is Committed to close Prison and an account of the whole matter return'd to the Emperour who now supposing that after so fowl a discovery if it were made publique over the Christian World it would so shamefully expose the wickedness of the Schismatiques that they could never have the confidence to appear more in a Cause so foul and base But what method to take he could not suddenly resolve one while he thinks of sending Commissioners but then considering the Obstinacy of the Schismaticks he fears nothing will be effectually done but by himself and therefore resolves upon a Journey into Africk to settle the whole matter there but upon what occasion I know not he changes his mind and summons the Parties concern'd to appear before himself at Rome and writes to the present Proconsul Probianus to send Ingentius thither with a good Guard That he might publickly shame those seditious and troublesom People that have the confidence to make continual Clamours and raise false Stories against their Bishop that so these Animosities and Contentions being quell'd the People may be brought to attend the Devotion of the Church with due Reverence and without brawls and discords They are the Emperour 's own words but for what cause 't is not Recorded Caecilian appears not and the Donatists that came either finding themselves discovered by the coming of Ingentius or for some other reason endeavour to make their escape but some of them are detain'd by force and sent in close custody to Milan But those that Recover'd AEgypt raised such Tumults there as put the whole Country into an Uproar of which the Emperour is informed by Celsus the Governor who orders him at present to take no notice of their disorders but to hasten Caecilian and his Accusers to Milan And here I have a strong fancy ought to have come in the mutilated Story of Caecilian's consinement at Brixia in Optatus for as it follows after the Chasm in which the whole Story of the Council of Arles is lost so it agrees with Constantine's account with the variety of his own Resosolutions and the Transactions at Milan For Brixia or Bress lay not far from that City so that both of them might make up the Scene of this Affair And therefore when the Schismatiques gain'd leave to return home and procured Caecilian to be detain'd it was probably upon their dismission upon some change of the Emperour's Resolutions But when they came home they betake themselves to the constant Artifice of all Schismaticks to keep up their Faction by tricks and lyes And therefore they raise mighty brags of their great Victory and tell the People that Caecilian was Condemn'd and Imprison'd by the Emperâ—ur and when once they had raised this lye among the Party it was easie to keep it up for ever insomuch that we find it confidently insisted upon in the Conference at Carthage an hundred years after Upon this Caecilian gets leave to return home for undeceiving the People by which means the Factions are raised and the Tumults enflamed and that occasions two Letters from the Emperor the former to Celsus to send Caecilian and his Accusers the latter dated from Brixia to the Donatist Bishops commanding their immediate appearance and withal assuring them that if they can but make good any one Article against Caecilian it should weigh as much with him as if they had proved the whole Charge and this I suppose produced the Meeting at Milan but whatever becomes of this conjecture of mine and fragment of Optatus it is certain that there they met where all the foul dealings of the Donatists especially the forgery of Ingentius being openly exposed it is needless to tell what was the event when it could be no other then that the Emperor should publickly declare the innocence of Caecilian and scoure away the Schismaticks as a combination of incorrigible Knaves But here St. Austin is concern'd to excuse the Emperour for judging an Ecclesiastical cause after the Episcopal Judicature and a thousand excuses are invented for him
by the Roman Writers as his being then but a Novice in the Faith and not sufficiently inform'd of the Discipline of the Church or his being tired out by the restless importunity of the Donatists so that he could enjoy no quiet till he yielded to it These things may be true but they are needless for though it may not be proper for a Lay-man to judge in Ecclesiastical Causes yet it may not be altogether unlawful especially when the Peace of the State depends upon them and that was the Emperour's case at this time all Africa was in an Uproar and in danger to be lost by the Sedition and therefore it highly concern'd him to exert his own Power as he would secure so great a part of his Empire and upon that reason he might take the Judgment upon himself thereby to restrain the Donatists from raising Disturbances and Seditions in the State Though when all is done it is certain that the Emperour never accepted the Appeal nay that he protested against it as an affront to the Divine Authority and setting up his own Power above God's appears not only from his Epistle to the Bishops at Arles but his perpetual Declarations of it And therefore it is not to be supposed that he would be prevail'd with to take upon himself a Judgment that he so solemnly disavowed And therefore his design in hearing the Cause after Judgment was not to judge but to expose the Schismatiques or to suffer them to expose themselves For the cause was already so fully and clearly determin'd at the Council that it could not admit any Review but because they were so restless to have it re-heard before the Emperour himself he at last seem'd to condescend to their importunity when he knew it would prove their fatal overthrow for it is observable that he would not meddle with the business at all till he had the discovery of Ingentius his Forgery in his Pocket with which they were so surprised that instead of following their Suit it utterly dispersed them And for the very same reason he gave them other Hearings after his own Imperial Judgment only to give them the greater scope to lay open themselves and their dishonesty to the World as will appear anon in the foul discovery of Nundinarius the Deacon §. III. But after the Imperial Sentence against them instead of submitting to so great an Authority and such clear Conviction they raise high clamours of injustice and oppression and when they return home put the People into Riots and Tumults and seize a Church in Numidia belonging to the Catholicks and of the Emperors own Foundation Of which when complaint was made to the Empeperor by the Bishops of the Province such was then the fury of the Schismaticks and the disorder of the times that at that time he could send them no other relief then by exhorting them to patience and bestowing a new Church upon them not daring to inflict any punishment upon the Offenders for so long a Train of Sedition but leaving them as himself speaks to the Judgment of God And as he had not long before witten to his Lieutenant Celsus that he should forbear them a while till himself could have leisure to visit Africa sâ—re now assures them that when he comes the Schismaticks shall feel the Event of his Abused Patience and that he doubted not when he came to convince them of such manifest Villany that would utterly spoil all their Glory of Martyrdom For that they gave out to justifie their stubborness against the Imperial Edicts that whatever punishments the Emperor decreed against them they were ready to undergo as Martyrs for the truth of God and therefore that they were so far from dreading any severity that they desired the Execution of Penal Laws against them And so they persist railing at the Emperor for denying Justice and reviling the Catholicks for inciting him to Persecution Till at length he is forced to Enact severe Laws against them and first of all all their Meeting-houses are confiscated to the Crown and accordingly seized on and it hapned very luckily at that time that one Nundinarius a Deacon of the Donatists who was privy to the first contrivance of the Schism at their meeting at Cirta discovers the whole Conspiracy to Zenophilus the Pro-Consul of Numidia and proves both by publick Records and a great number of Witnesses that Silvanus whom they had made Bishop of Cirta and the most factiâ—â—s man of the whole Party was a Traditor and that my Lady Lucilla had given the Numidian Bishops a great sum of Money to depose Caecilian and bestow his Bishoprick upon her Ladyships Chaplain And this discovery being signified by Zenophilus to the Emperor together with a Catalogue of the Seditious Practices of Silvanus he condemns both Silvanus and all the other Ring-leaders of the Faction to perpetual Banishment and that is the utmost severity that he ever proceeded to for though some of them were sentenced to death yet such was his natural Clemency that he turn'd it into banishment and thus by seising their Conventicles and sending away their Leaders he gave himself ease and quiet for some time from their disturbances But now behold the constant ingenuity of all Schismaticks to be sure to beleager the State when ever they find it in any distress and to gain their own ends out of the publick Necessities and to make what demands they please when the Government is not in a condition to contend with them And thus about this time the War between Constantine and Licinius breaking out the Donatists presently accost the Emperor with a bold Petition both for granting liberty of Conscience and recalling Silvanus and his Collegues from Banishment are so confident as to tell him in broad expression that they would suffer a thousand deaths before they would be reconciled to that Prelatical Knave of his Caecilian And yet so involved were the Emperors Affairs at that time that he was forced to grant whatever they demanded and orders Verinus his Vice-Roy in Africk to leave them to their own Liberty And that they used with all manner of Insolence whilst the Civil War lasted neither now would they be satisfied with their own Liberty at home but endeavour to spread their Schism into all parts of the Catholick Church and poyson all the Emperors Dominions with the Spirit of Faction and Sedition What Emissaries they sent into other Churches is not so well known but to Rome they send one Victor as Titular Bishop of that See who took upon himself all â—piscopal Authority over his Party and had many Successors in his Usurpation but not having Liberty to keep their publick meetings in the City they betook themselves to Field Conventicles and Assembled in the Roks and Mountains and from thence were commonly call'd Montenses Campitae and Rupitani This is all that we have recorded of them in this Emperors Reign for he having overcome Licinius and being Master of the
was collected before the Council of Calcedon and have ever since been received both by the Eastern and Western Churches till Baronius and the late Romanists endeavoured to bring them into disgrace for the Affront that they had given to Pope Julius in rating of him so severely for intermedling with their Affairs For thô that transaction is one of the main passages that they insist upon to make out the Authority of the Popes Universal Pragmaticalness yet there is scarce a fuller Testimony against it extant in the Records of the Church For when he takes upon him to act out of his Province in giving Absolution to Athanasius they charge him with a violation of all the Laws of the Christian Church and tell him that when Novatus was condemn'd by his Predecessors the Eastern Church would never receive the Schismatick to Communion and therefore challenge him how he dares make so bold with the Discipline of the Christian Church as to reverse any of their Decrees and they afterward proceed so high in the Quarrel as to Excommunicate his Holiness for his uncanonical Presumption and to signifie their Sentence against him by an Encyclical Epistle to all the Bishops of the Christian World which no doubt is a very likely thing if his universal Supremacy had been then as well known and as much talkt of as these Men would make us believe when as it is not in the least challenged or any way intimated by Julius so is it denyed by the Eastern Bishops as an utter overthrow of the known Discipline of the Christian Church And whereas he cited them to appear before the Council at Rome that was by virtue of their own voluntary Appeal when they had refer'd themselves and their Cause to that Council for it was summon'd only at their Request and importunity Now after all this that was done purely to gratifie themselves first wholly to baulk and decline the Council and then whilst it was Sitting and the Cause depending that they had put to reference to pass Judgment upon it themselves was such a piece of foul dealing as is not to be endured in common Conversation And that is the very thing that Julius himself charges upon them in Answer to their objection against him for intermedling with their Affairs not that they affronted his Supremacy but that when they had put him to the trouble of summoning a Council and while the matter was under Examination they should put such a slur upon it as meerly to steal away the cause that themselves had seem'd so much concern'd after so many Contests to refer to its final determination And in truth the whole business was so involved by the Craft of Eusebius from the time of the Tyrian Council that Athanasius which way soever he turn'd to clear his Innocence found himself insnared by the Canons themselves For as he was deposed in Council so he could not be Canonically restored but by Council and that is it they press upon him notwithstanding the Emperour's Restitution in that though he had power to call him from banishment yet he had none to take off the Censure of the Church And the Plea had held good if there had not been so much and so exorbitant Villany at the bottom though by it we may see by laying one ill Action for a Foundation what a vast Pile of Dishonesty may be built upon it For granting the Sentence of the Tyrian Council to be good as it would have been had it not been so enormously base Athanasius was which way soever he moved catch't in the Canons and therefore in all his Pleadings he is so wise as to refer his whole Cause to the Acts of that Council and that at last got him the Victory by making known their Villany But granting them Valid his Restitution by the Emperour was Canonically void as to any exercise of his Episcopal Function and that was the point that they urged to the Emperour Constantius in order to his Second banishment but fearing lest if he should make enquiry into the whole matter all their Forgeries should come to light they carry their Cause a great way off as far as Rome and that with a mighty shew of fair dealing and ingenuity on their part that they were so far from desiring any partial Judgment that they would refer it to Judges utterly unconcern'd and therefore send it into the other Empire And now when this was done with so much plausibility Eusebius all on the suddain huddles up a Council at home and dispatches the business before the Council at Rome could publish their Sentence and by that trick he very artificially ensconst himself and his Cause in a new Quarrel that would engage one half of the Christian Church on his side For now it was become the Quarrel of the Eastern Church against the Western because when they had sentenced a Cause at Antioch what power had they to reverse the Decree at Rome This must be an Invasion of the Liberties of the Oriental Church and no less then an Attempt to bring them into subjection to the Western Bishops and thus were they all drawn in by this Crafty Man to back his own Quarrel And therefore it is observable that this Cause was ever after managed by this very pretence and it was the very Complaint of the Eusebian Bishops that parted from Sardica and sat at Philippi against the Sardican Council that they endeavour'd to introduce a new Law that the Eastern Bishops should be subject to the judgment of the Western And thus by this Artifice did this subtle man remove his Tyrian Villany out of the sight and then he might go forwardwithout fear or danger for nothing else but the discovery of that could ever expose himself ruine his Cause and defeat his Malice But the most cunning Stratagem of all was that at the same time that they proceeded with so much seeming Christian Severity against Athanasius they either Enacted or Ratified so many excellent Laws of Discipline that yet were but so many Snares to Athanasius and his Friends after his Tyrian deposition especially the fifth eleventh and twelfth In the fifth it is decreed that if a Presbyter refuse to Communicate with his Bishop he shall after three Admonitions be deposed forever and be punisht by the Civil Magistrate as a Seditious Person a very good Canon in it self but at that juncture of time it was only a Rod for the Orthodox Clergy of Alexandria who the Eusebians too well knew would peremptorily refuse all Communion with their new Bishop Gregory that was thrust upon them by this Council and a Military Force in the place of Athanasius their true and lawful Bishop In the eleventh and twelfth Canons all Appeals from Ecclesiastical Censures to the Emperour are strictly forbidden under pain of Deposition and it is farther provided that if any Bishop be Synodically deposed he is not to be restored but by a greater Synod of Bishops This reach't Athanasius to the
for project that he embraces it with both his hands and all his heart And grows so fond of the new Darling that when his old Friends Basilius and Silvanus and the rest came he refused to hear them and when Basilius thought he might freely discourse with him as he was wont to do he commands him silence at his Peril as a disturber of the Churches Peace Upon this Eustathius takes the confidence to inform the Emperour that those Men were not the Men that he took them to be but were Aëtians and held the Blasphemy of Dissimilitude and this he proves particularly upon Eudoxius of Antioch This turns the Tide of his Fury and puts him into such a Storm that Eudoxius to appease it is forced to throw his Friend Aëtius into it by laying the Book that Eustathius had laid to his own Charge at Aëtius his door Upon this Aëtius is immediately sent for to Court whither he repairs with all joy and speed thinking of nothing but the praise that the Emperour would give him for his subtle knack at disputing and no sooner comes into to the presence but upon the first question greedily owns himself Father of the Brat and upon it is immediately banisht into Phrygia All his Adherents are required either to anathematise his Heresie or follow his Fortune but they chose to quit both their friend and their opinion rather then their Bishopricks But then they are soon quit with the Eusebians for putting the Emperour upon this Test by propounding another for them that they knew would not pass viz. to renounce the words Substance and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this immediately takes the Emperour and done it must be out of hand To put this off Silvanus propounds that the Acacians may be made to renounce all the Arian Phrases but they stick at nothing and abjure them all But then their Adversaries must abhor too which refusing stifly to do are thrust into banishment But here the conclusion of all these Contests is very observable for the last words that were spoke by Silvanus in behalf of himself and his Brethren for not renouncing their own words were these If God the Son exist neither from nothing nor from any other substance then he must be of the same substance with the Father And thus after all our tedious and long travel are we just where we were at the beginning for this was the very Argument approved by the Council of Nice for setling the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and now after twenty years contest against it are those very Men that have all along made such stirs about it forced to take it up again and are convinced by so long experience that if they once quit the settled faith there is no putting any stop to the Progress of extravagant Opinions And after this Athanasius notwithstanding all the troubles that they had so unjustly given him and all the ill Names that he had so justly given them owns friendship with them and gives them the Title of Brethren that he says differ from the Catholick Faith not in sense but in words for when they acknowledge the Son to be of the Substance of the Father and not of any other Substance nor a Creature out of nothing but the true Natural and Eternal Son of the Father they are at a very little distance from owning the word consubstantial But the Emperour is so in love with this new Acacian Faith and so eager in pursuit of his old Homoousian Enemy that he at last quits the Party that he had all his life-time with so much vehemence abetted to joyn in with these very Men that he had always and even at this very time detested And they having got him into their possession they resolve to make their best bargain of him and so fall to the old work of the Eusebians Plunder and Sequestration tell the Emperour Tales and Stories of their Enemies that had fat Bishopricks and prevail with him to put his own friends out and put themselves in And in the first place they turn Macedonius that Seditious Incendiary out of Constantinople and place Eudoxius of Antioch the very Hugh Peters of that age for prophaneness luxury debauchery in his See And after the same manner that the Eusebians had ejected the Catholiques so did they displace them as Basilius of Ancyra Eustathius of Sebasta Eleusius of Cizicum Dracontius of Pergamus Silvanus of Tarsus Sophronius of Pompeiopolis c. And for their Malâ—ce they stood in lâ—ttle need of forgerâ—es the Eusebians being generally ill men that came into the Church only for ease and preferment no wonder then if they were so easily expell'd by these new Sycophants when they were so obnoxious to the grossest imoralities and such were the crimescharged upon them as they are set down by Sozomen in the place above-cited And thus after all these windings and turnings to get loose from the Nicene Creed is the cause run away by this upstart Sect the very dreggs of Mankind the Acacians being only the Rump of the Eusebians that had supplanted them as they had the Catholiques by out-reaching them in their own craft and wickedness and that is the natural event of all sorts of Sedition that the first Authors of it are at last devoured by their own spawn But these Wretches having got the Power into their hands as Philostorgius himself tells the story they fall out among themselves and endeavour to destroy each other by mutual Accusations The great Triumvirate of the Party Eudoxius Eunomius and Acacius accuse one another Eudoxius falls foul upon Eunomius and Eumonius upon him and Acacius upon both and slanders them to the Emperour supposing that only to accuse without proof wasenough with him as it ever had been to procure their condemnation but he hapning in a grave fit to enquire into the merits of the cause and Acacius having no proof to back his tale was forced to disappear So that the Emperor still finding himself abused by a new pack of Cheats resolves after all his disappointments to try one Council more but whilst that was in consultation Julian rebells and Constantius his heart breaks And thus by his unskilful tampering with the Church he leaves it at last buried and lost in its own confusions for instead of making up the breaches of the Church by this comprehensive and indefinite Creed of the Acacians it was every where broke into tumult and civil War In all Cities the People siding some with the ejected Bishops and some with the Intruders andeach party esteeming the other Hereticks though for what neither knew they set up distinct Communions and that soon fills all places with Noise Dispute and Contention and oftentimes with the fury and outrage of the Rabble But the Acacians having got the mastery they put off all disguise and now publickly declare both for Aâ—tâ—anism and Aâ—ianism For Meletius one of their own party whom they had made Bishop of Antioch
only Arius two Bishops and two Presbyters stood to the Arian Cause All the following troubles proceeded from the revenge and malice of the Nicomedian Eusebius His Plot against Athanasius by Ischyras and the Meletian Evidences The brutish and barbarous proceedings against him at the Council of Tyre pag. 370. § IX By what Stratagem the banishment of Athanasius and the Restitution of Arius was procured The fabulous reports of Philostorgius and Sandius Constantine's innocence clear'd as to the sufferings of Athanasius and the Charge of Arianism pag. 390. § X. Of the division of the Empire between the Sons of Constantine The Controversie under Constantius not managed between the Catholicks and Arians but the Catholicks and the Eusebians pag. 409. § XI The mystery of the crafty Proceedings of the Council of Antioch against Athanasius discovered his Absolution at Rome Pope Julius his Letter and Eusebius his death pag. 421. § XII The sufferings of Paul of Constantinople from the Eusebians An account of the Councils of Sardica and Philippopolis The craft of the Eusebians in dividing the Council pag. 441. § XIII The Issue of both Councils Athanasius his triumphant Restitution By what Calumny his second banishment was procured The wild Proceedings of Constantius at the Council of Milan pag. 451. § XIV The banishment of Liberius and Hosius The black Characters of the Ring-leading Eusebians Particularly describing the wickedness and cruelty of St. George of Alexandria pag. 465. § XV. The Photinian Heresie The Council of Sirmium against it It s right time stated against Petavius Made up of Eusebians Of the forged Creed of Valens in the name of the Council Of the Council of Ancyra Hosius vindicated from subscribing the second Sirmian Creed The ground of St. Hilary's mistake about it His Book against Constantius proved to be spurious Pope Liberius vindicated from Heresie but not from disingenuity pag. 476. § XVI Of the Anomaeans A Character of Aëtius Of the Conference at Sirmium and the reconciling Creed Of the Council of Arimnium Of Valens and his Conventicle Of the fraud and force put upon the Council pag. 502. § XVII Of the Council of Seleucia and the breach between the Eusebians and the Acacians The Emperour over-reach't by the Acacians Of the Banishment of the Eusebians Of the Acacian Council at Antioch Of the Fanatick Sects of the Massalians and Eustathians pag. 519. § XVIII The Power of the Church own'd though oppress 't by Constantius The great difference of his Reign before and after the Conquest of Magnentius All Councils before Free all after forced His ill Actings excused as proceeding from mistake not malice His great kindness to the Christian Church The Reigns of Constantine and Constantius compared Of the signal Loyalty and Passive Obedience of Athanasius pag. 533. § XIX Of the Reign of Julian his great zeal for Paganism His design to destroy Christianity by Liberty of Coâ—science The Church not only preserved but settled by the free use of its own Authority Of the Actings of St. Athanasius and St. Hilary for its settlement The Apostates fury against Athanasius for it The baseness of his Persecution The Passive Obedience of the Christians under it pag. 562. § XX. The gross impertinency of alledging their example to warrant Resistance supposing its truth It s horrible falsehood proved from the whole History of his Reign and their behaviour towards the Imperial Beard clear'd of all blame pag. 578. Errata PAge 33. Line 9. for a read any p. 42. l. 17. for a r. no. p. 80. l. 17. for effect r. affect p. 84. l. 22. for make r. makes p. 97. l. 2. for domini r. dominii p. 153. l. 9. for imminent r. eminent ibid. l. 25. for ought r. ought not p. 157. l. 4. for Castrian r. Cassian p. 163. l. 22. before sufficient strength insert want of p. 190. l. 29. for and r. as p. 241. l. 23. blot out is p. 254. l. 13. for Colledges r. Colledge p. 262. l. 25. for verity r. unity p. 272. l. 29. after sacrifice insert to p. 277. l. 19. after they insert are p. 294. l. 28. for factions r. fictions p. 306 l. 2. for whola r. whole p. 369. l. ult r. sanctions p. 392. l. 27. for the desired r. desired the. p. 410. l. ult for intrigue r. interregnum p. 470. l. 18. for ill-bred r. ill breed p. 491. l. 13. for in r. as p. 494. l. 23. for ferced r. forced p. 529. l. 24. for Photians r. Photinians p. 533. l. 7. for our r. once p. 537. l. 13. for lying r. flying p. 588. l. 4. insert though before they had PART I. SECT I. UPon the Dissolution of the Roman Tyranny under which all Christendom had groan'd for many Ages infinite were the disputes and controversies that were immediately every where raised about the true Constitution of the Ecclesiastical State and Government Some ouâ— of an over-vehement loathing of their late Bondage were out-ragious for its utter Abolition so as to leave every man to his own liberty and folly too to teach and practise what himself pleases in matters of Religion without being accountable to any Superior Ecclesiastical or Civil for any misdemeanours therein Others are as fierce to have all Ecclesiastical Officers though immediately Commission'd by our Saviour for the Government of his Kingdom through all Ages stript of all manner of Authority in the Christian Church and all Government of Religion vested only in the Civil Magistrate Others again were neither for its utter Extirpation nor confining the whole exercise of its Jurisdiction to the Secular Powers but for dividing it into its several Provinces assigning some part of it to the Clergy and some to the Civil State Because Religion being Instituted chiefly for these two great ends viz. The advancement of the present Peace and Welfare of Mankind in this World and their safe Conduct and Passage to the State of Bliss and Happiness in the World to come so far as it relates to the present quiet of humane Society it is but fit and necessary it should be subject to the Authority of the Supreme Powers over them whose proper Duty Trust and Office it is to provide for the settlement and preservation of the Publick Peace And therefore seeing that Religion has a prime and over-ruling influence upon that so as either to establish or disturb it by its good or bad management it concerns them in the first place to encourage such Doctrines and Principles as in their own nature tend to the Peace and Quiet of Government and to root out such false Notions as incline or induce men to any Turbulent and Seditious practices under any pretences or mistakes of Religion And if any such there be or if any such there have been nay if any such there can be it cannot be denyed by the boldest Libertines but that in such cases the Supreme Magistrate must be allowed power to defend himâ—â—lf and his Government against their Errors or Follies by
most Sacred Majesties Valerianus and Gallienus to him we offer up our daily Prayers for the safety of their Empire that it may continue firm and unshaken forever §. 10. And as for the Latins they kept pace with not to say that they out-ran the Greeks in the same Track of Loyalty Irenaeus Scholar to Policarp writing against the Gnosticks who taught that the Powers of the Earth ought to be obeyed because they were set up not by God but by the Devil has stated the Obligation to the duty of Obedience upon its true and proper Principles First from divers passages of Scripture expresly commanding it Secondly from the Providence of God who sets up Kings for the preservation of Mankind lest they should prey upon one another like the Fish of the Sea And lastly to prevent the Objection that God would not set up bad Kings he replyes that by whose command they were born men by his command they were ordained Kings fit for the times in which and the people over whom thâ—y reign for some are given for a Punishment others for a Blessing to their Subjects all to all People as they deserve the just Judgment of God equally extending to all Which is a full declaration not only of the Loyalty of the Primitive Christians but of the Principles upon which it was grounded Tertullian in the time of Alexander Severus under the rage of the fifth Persecution that was very bloody and severe writ his admirable Apology in imitation of Justin Martyr and for a Foundation of his Plea states the true condition of the Christian Church in this World Scit se peregrinam in terris agere inter extraneos facile inimicos invenire caeterum genus sedem spem gratiam dignitatem in coelis habere Unum gestit interdum ne ignorata damnetur She knows her self to be but a Stranger and Pilgrim in this World and cannot but expect to meet with Enemies in a Forreign Country but her Kindred her habitation her hope her favour and her honour all dwell in the World to come She has but one thing to request or indeed to challenge that she may not be condemn'd unheard Here is no pleading any exemption from the Imperial Judicatures upon the Account of Christian Priviledges but he offers himself and his cause to a fair and impartial Tryal and he is so confident of its innocence as to desire no other favour but only the Justice of being heard Neither does he any where complain of their punishing such Actions as belonged not to their cognizance but only of the Illegality of their Officers Proceedings in that they were condemned unheard and unexamined And though they were so yet he no where appeals from their Courts but only presses them to examine and search into their cause and so stipulates in the name of the Christian Church to stand or fall by their Judgment And as for their strict Loyalty to their Prince he farther pleads that they pray for the Emperors that God would grant them long Life a quiet Reign and undisturbed Family Valiant Armies Faithful Counsellors Obedient Subjects and whatever else they can desire either as Men or Emperors and then bids them proceed to murther them and tear their Souls from their Bodies whilst they are praying for their Emperors Happiness And therefore you that think that we have no concern for the Safety of Caesar look into our Books and learn from them with what Redundancy of Kindness we are commanded to pray for our Enemies and Persecutors and who are more so than those by whose Authority we are condemned as Criminals But beside that we are expresly injoyn'd to pray for Kings and all that are in Authority We revere the Wisdom of God in the Emperors that sets them over the Nations we acknowledge that Character in them that God has imprest upon them and therefore we will wish them safe whom he would have so But what do I say any more of the Christians duty and even Religion towards the Emperor whom they are particularly bound to honour as one chosen by their God so that I may well say that Caesar is most of all ours as being set over us by our God c. And a while after he boldly demands Whether there were ever found among the Christians any Casfii Nigri and Albini three known Rebels the first against the Emperor Verus the other two against Severus And in his Apology to the Prefect Scapiâ—la he tells him that we are slander'd about the Imperial Majesty and yet there could never any of the Albinian Nigrian or Castrian Rebels be found among the Christians A Christian is no Mans Enemy much less the Emperor's for knowing that he is apointed by God he cannot but Love Reverence and Honour him and pray for his safety and therefore we worship the Emperour as far as it is lawful for us and convenient for him viz. as a Man next under God only less then him and deriving his whole Authority from him It is an excellent Passage in Minutius Faelix who lived not long after Tertullian concerning the calm and peaceable Magnanimity of Christians How delightful a Spectacle is it to God when a Christian encounters Sorrow when with a composed mind he meets threatnings and Torments when with smiles he insults over the noise of Death and the dread of the Executioner when he asserts his liberty against Kings and Princes and yields only to God whose he is when with the Triumph of a Conquerour he has the better of the Judge who gives Sentence against him for he overcomes who gains what he fights for That is the only Christian Combat Courage and Submission And therefore it is very well observed by the learned Lawyer Baldwin in his Prolegomena to this acute Author that Caecitius the Heathen though he were in all other things a very bold Calumniator and insisted fiercely upon all the vulgar slanders against the Christians yet he never durst charge them with the least suspition of Disloyalty or Rebellion To which they might have added That though they were usually indicted of Treason by their Enemies yet the only proof of it was their resusing to Sacrifice by the Emperour's Genius And setting that one act of Idolatry aside there is not any one charge upon Record of any one act of Disloyalty and that as says the learned Lawyer was the glory of our Ancestors that they would be provoked by no injuries to any thought of Hostility against Lawful Sovereigns howsoever barbarously they were treated by them or enter into any Conspiracies against them though at that time they were frequent and plausible as being always mindful what became their Patience Meekness Modesty and Sobriety so far were they from being Turbulent and Seditious and running mad with a thirst of Revenge And in reality if they had behaved themselves otherwise they had laid wast the very Foundations both of their own Religion and all humane Society too And to mention no more
judicium neque nunc sibi praepositum Episcopum cogitantes quod nunquam omnino sub antecessoribus factum est cum contumeliâ contemptuPraepositi totum sibi vendicent ought we to expect from the divine displeasure when some of the Presbyters forgetting both the Gospel and themselves neither regarding the future Judgment of God nor the Authority of their Bishop Challenge what was never done under our Predecessors the whole Power of the Church to themselves to the reproach and contempt of their Bishop These are very severe words and the Crime it seems was look't upon as a thing so horrid at that time that it was till then without Precedent And therefore for the prevention of any further mischief and scandal he writes at the same time an earnest Letter to the People themselves to warn them against the disorderly Actings of his Presbyters But in his Epist. 17. next Letter considering the sickly Season of the year he gives power not only to the Presbyters but to the Deacons to grant Absolution in case of Sickness by vertue of this hisCommission for the Deacons had no Authority of their own to do it and therefore what they did was valid purely by vertue of his Deputation and the validity of Ecclesiastical ministrations depends not upon the outward Act but theAuthority by which they are warranted But it happened that about this time Celerinus a Confessor at Rome writes to Lucianus a Confessor at Carthage to grantAbsolution to some women that had fallen in the Persecution but had made ample satisfaction for it by their eminent Hospitality to the Confessors Upon this Lucianus with the rest of his Brethren Epist. 22. with great heat and rashness grant their peremptory Absolution and signifie their resolution to St. Cyprian with a threatning if he refused to joyn with them that they would not communicate with him To such a wild abuse was the customary priviledge of meer intercession grown that they came at last to supersede and over-rule all the Episcopal Authority Upon this St. Cyprian writes a peremptory Epistle to his Clergy commanding Obedience to his former Orders Epist. 26. to restore no man to the Church till it first pleased God to restore peace to it Instâ—tur interim Epistolis c. And the mischiefs of this licentious Practice to the Subversion of the Peace and Discipline of the Christian Church he represents in an Epistle to the Clergy of Rome That this did but expose the Bishops to the hatred Quae res majorem nobis conflat invidiam ut nos cùm singulorum causas audire excutere caeperimus videamur multis negare quod se nunc omnes jactant à Martyribus Confessoribus accepisse Denique hujus seditionis Origo jam cepit c. and envy of the People that when they would make particular enquiry into every mans case they would seem to the People to defraud them of that favour that was bestowed on them by the Martyrs which had been already the cause of some Seditions in his Province c. And they in an Eloquent Epistle Epist. 30. written by Novatian himself as St. Cyprian informs us in his Epistle to Antonianus approve his Judgment and declare themselves peremptory in his Opinion and so do Moyses and the Confessors then Epist. 28. 31. in Prison at Rome to whom St. Cyprian at the same time writ about the same matter Upon this he writes to the Lapsi themselves that had received Absolution without his Authority to let them know that whatever was done without the Bishop was void and good for nothing The Ordination of Bishops and the Succession Per temporum successionum vices Episcoporum Ordinatio EcclesiaeRatio decurrit ut Ecclesia super Episcopos constituatur omnis actus Ecclesiae perâ—eosdem Praepositos gubernetur Cùm hoc itaque divina lege fundatum sit miror quosdam audaci temeritate sic mihi scribere voluisse ut Ecclesiae nomine literas facerent Quando Ecclesia in Episcopo Clero in omnibus stantibus sit constituta of the Church run together hand in hand through all times and ages so as that the Church is built upon the Bishop and every act of the Church is authorised by the Bishops seeing therefore this is establish't by the Will of God I cannot but stand amazed at the bold rashness of some i. e. Lucianus the Confessors that dare write to me that they may give Letters of pardon in the name of the Church when the Church is made up of the Bishop the Clergy and the faithful Layity Novatus the first contriver of theSchism seeing himself and his Party thus universally run down sets Faelicissimus in the head of it by his boldness and impudence to keep up the sinking cause though Baronius is here so far mistaken as to make An. 254. N. 32. Faelicissimus the first Founder of the Schism notwithstanding St. Cyprian has so expresly given that honour to Donatus together with the occasion of his Quarrel which was nothing else then a design to escape the Discipline of the Church to which he knew himself so obnoxious that he could no other way avoid it but by raising Tumults St. Cyprian after a very severe Character of his wicked temper of Mind thus tells the Story plainly This is the Novatus that first sowed the Idem est Novatus Epist. 53. qui apud nos primum discordiae schismatis incendium seminavit qui quosdam istic ex fratribus ab Episcopo segregavit qui in ipsâ persecutione ad evertendas fratrum mentes alia quaedam persecutionostris fuit Ipse est qui Faelicissimum Satellitem suum Diaconum nec permittente me nec sciente suâ factione ambitione constituit Seeds of Schism and Discord among us that separated the Brethren from their Bishops that in the very time of Persecution became another Persecution himself to subvert the minds of our Brethren It is he that made Faelicissimus the Hector his Deacon without my knowledge or permission by Faction and Ambition And after this account of the Author he lets us know the occasion of the Schism That beside many other scandalous Enormities committed by him Not long before the breaking out of this Uterus uxoris calce percussus Abortione properante in paricidium partus expressus Hanc Conscientiam criminum jampridem timebat propter hoc se non de Presbyterio excitaritantùm sed communicatione prohiberi pro certo tenebat urgentibus fratribus imminebat cognitionis dies quo apud nos causa ejus ageretur nisi persecutio antè venisset Quam iste voto quodam evadendae lucrandae damnationis excipiens haec omnia commisit miscuit ut qui ejici de Ecclesiâ excludi habebat judicium Sacerdotum voluntariâ discessione praecederet quasi evasisse sit paenam praevenisse sententiam Persecution he had so wounded his Wife by a kick
upon the Belly that it caused a miscarriage For which bruitish behaviour he was cited to appear before his Bishop St. Cyprian but before they came to Judgement the Persecution overtook them by which means Donatus escaped his punishment at present and to avoid it for the time to come sets afoot this Schism to overthrow all the Discipline of the Christian Church Such was the Author and the Occasion of this pernicious Schism and he now seeing the Persecution begin to cool and St. Cyprian resolute to keep up the Efficacy of Discipline cunningly sets up Faelicissimus to be head of the Party who he knew would thrust himself forward enough into the quarrel meerly out of his factious nature and for the meer love of discord and contention as St. Cyprian expresses it That out of a natural instinct Instinctu suo quietem Epist. 41. fratrum turbans proripuit se cum plurimis ducem se Factionis Seditionis Principem temerario furore contestans to disturb the quiet of his Brethren he conspired with many others with the rage and rashness of a mad man to declare himself the head of the Faction and Prince of the Seditious Association And according to this Temper of his when St. Cyprian a while after sent his Commissioners to Carthage for the settlement of Ecclesiastical Discipline this Boutefeu with his Rabble openly oppose and affront them and threaten Excommunication to all that should obey either them or St. Cyprian Of which St. Cyprian being inform'd he immediately sends his peremptory Sentence of Excommunication against him and his accomplices Against him Because he attempted Quod cum Episcopo Ibid. portionem plebis dividere i. e. à Pastore oves filios à Parente separare Christi membra dissipare tentaverit to share the flock with his Bishop which is to divide the Sheep from the Shepherd Children from their Father and to disperse the Members of Christ. And against them that Not regarding Sed Augendus qui nec Episcopum nec Ecclesiam cogitans pariter se cum illius conspiratione sociavit siâ—â— ultra cum eo perseveraverit sententiam ferat quam ille in se factiosus temerarius provocavit Sed quisquis se conspirationi factioni ejus adjunxerit sciat se in Ecclesiâ nobiscum non esse communicaturum qui sponte maluit ab Ecclesiâ separari the Bishop or the Church they had associated themselves to his Conspiracy and therefore had brought the same Sentence of Condemnation upon their own heads that his Schismatical folly rashness had drawn down upon his and for that reason whoever joined with his faction was denounced excommunicate from theChristianChurch as one who had made himself so by his own separation This being done he signifies his Sentence to his People requiring them as Epist. 43. they would not ineur the same Sentence not to Communicate with the Schismaticks against their Bishop and presses them to it with this Argument There Deus unus est Christus â—â—us una Ecclesia Cathedra una super Petrum Domini voce fundata Aliud Altare constituiaut sacerdotium novum fieri praeter unum Altare unum Sacerdot ' non potest is one God one Christ one Church one Chair founded by our Lord 's saying upon Peter another Altar beside that one Altar Priesthood cannot be erected To divide from their Bishop as Faelicissimus had done was a breach of the Unity of the Priesthood and that was a breach of the Unity of the Church which is here expressed by the word Altar as it is frequently in the Ancient Writers of the Church but especially those that writ against the Novatians and the Donatists All the Christians under one Bishop were said to appertain to the same Altar because they belong'd to the same Communion and therefore when any separated from him they were said to erect a new Altar because they set up a new Communion And this Rebellion against the Bishop he farther aggravates as an utter Subversion of the Christian Church It is adulterous Ibid. it is prophane Adulterum est impium est sacrilegum est quodcunque humano furore instituitur ut dispositio divina violetur it is sacrilegious whatever is innovated by the passions of Men to the injury of God's own Institution And then passionately exhorting the People to avoid them he thus expresses himself Let no Man draw you Ghristians Nemo vos Christianos ab Evangelio Christi rapiat Nemo filios Ecclesiae de Ecclesiâ tollat Pereant sibi soli qui perire voluerunt Extra Ecclesiam soli remaneant qui de Ecclesiâ recesserunt soli cum Episcopis non sint qui contra Episcopos rebellârunt from the Gospel of Christ let no Man take away the Sons of the Church from the Church let them perish alone who have a mind to perish let them alone remain out of the Church who have departed from the Church let them alone not communicate with the Bishops who have rebell'd against the Bishops Thus we see how it is all along with him one and the same thing to be out of the Communion with the Bishop and with the Christian Church whilst the Bishop was in Communion with that But matters being thus prepared and the storm of Persecution laid St. Cyprian in a little time returns home and Summons a Provincial Council in which the Cause of Faelicissimus whose zeal had now made him proud of being head of the Party and his Factious Associates was Examin'd and after a full and fair hearing the former Sentence of Excommunication by their own Bishop was Synodically ratified But Schism never ends where it begins for the Incendiaries finding themselves thus defeated in Africa they fly to Rome and carry the flame with them from Carthage thither where they found combustible matter enough at that time to set the whole Christian World on fire from the contest between Cornelius and Novatian for the Bishopricâ— for as the Council of Carthage was held in the Month of May so this Contest happned the June following as the learned Annalist has made it evidently appear Cornelius being chosen Bishop by the much greater Majority of Votes Novatian Remonstrates to his Election loads him with a great heap of Crimes that would render him uncapable of the Episcopal Office but chiefly refuses Communion with him because he had Communicated with the Lapsi and upon this severe Principle that they were never to be admitted to Absolution he builds his Schism at which lucky juncture of time the African Schismaticks coming to Rome they join interest with him and set him up Anti-Bishop against Cornelius and by the severity of their pretence drew into the Party many well-meaning Men that had been eminent Confessors in the late Decian Persecution and by their Reputation for some time kept up the Schism with some credit and confidence But here the honesty of Schismaticks is not
a little observable in that though their Opinions were extreme yet they join in the same Schism against the Catholique Church For Novatus and his Party were so loose as to be for Absolution without any due course of Penance and Satisfaction But Novatian was so severe as to be against allowing any Absolution at all and yet in this distance from one another they both piec't together against the Catholique Church that taught and practised the middle way of Absolution upon Penance and Satisfaction But the Opinion of Novatian being the most plausible for that of Novatus was a meer inlet to all Debauchery it soon swallowed up the African Schismatiques into it for Novatus having by his Schism escaped with all his Crimes the Discipline of the Church he cared not what became of his Opinion Schism was his only business and therefore he would quit his Opinion or any thing else to strengthen himself by a stronger Faction And the Faction being now emboldned by their strength and number they signifie the Election of Novatian to the several Provincial Churches and among others to St. Cyprian But he and his Collegues then assembled in Synod having been before-hand certified of the Canonical Election of Cornelius by Synodical Letters like Men wise and stout are so moved with the irregularity of the action that they would not so much as give them Audience but immediately throw them out of all Communion When by their Letters Sed enim cùm ex Epist. 44. literis quas secum ferebant ex eorum Sermone atque asseveratione Novatianum Episcopum factum comperissemus illicitae contra Ecclesiam Catholicam factae Ordinatâ—onis pravitate commoti à CommuÌ„icatione eos nostrâ statim cohibendos esse censuimus and their Discourse we understood that Novatian was made Bishop being provoked by such an irregularity of an Ordination made against the Catholick Church we immediately forbid them our Communion And when they press't that the Cause of Novatian and accusations against Cornelius might be publickly heard the Council peremptorily rejected the motion Gravitati nostrae negavimus Ibid. convenire ut Collegae nostri jam delecti ordinati laudabili multorum sententiâ comprobati ventilandum ultra honorem maledicâ aemulantium voce pateremur We judged it unbecoming our Gravity that we should suffer the honour of our Collegue already chosen and ordain'd and approved by common suffrage to be farther prosecuted by envious and spiteful men And this he discourses with great wisdom Epist. 45. in his next Epistle Honoris enim communis memores c. For being mindful of our common reputation and bearing special regard to the honour and dignity of the Priesthood we refused to hear their Accusations sharpened with bitter Reproaches considering and weighing with our selves that in so great an Assembly of the Brethren in the presence of the Priests of God and before the very Altar they were neither fit to be read nor to be heard Neither are things to be rashly and easily made publick that may cause scandal in t he Hearers and raise an ill Opinion of their Brethren who live at a great distance off too great to clear their own innocence And now having rejected the Schismaticks with so much contempt and dishonour St. Cyprian writes to the Confessors who had given reputation to the Schism and Scandal to the Church and very severely schools them for their disorderly Epist. 56. Seditious behaviour Gravat enim me atque contristat c. It grieves and troubles me it pierces my very heart with unspeakable sorrow when I found that you even you against all Ecclesiastical Constitution against the Law of the Gospel against the Unity of the Catholick Church had consented to the Creation of another Bishop i. e. to erect another Church to tear asunder the Members of Christ to divide the very Soul and Body of the Lords Flock And so goes on pathetically to exhort them that as they would not lose the honour and reward of their past sufferings that they would speedily return into the Unity of the Church and out of that it was in vain for them so much as to pretend to the Confession of Christianity And for their more ample satisfaction sends them his Book de unitate Ecclesiae Where among many other effectual Arguments he represents to them that their Schism is a much more heinous Crime then that committed by the Lapsi and that they had offended God less if they had fallen in Persecution then standing in it to fall into Schism which he tells them is a Crime not to be expiated by Martyrdom it self Though they were slain for the Confession Tales etiam sroccisi in confessione nominis fuerint macula ista nec sanguine abluitur Inexpiabilis gravis culpa discordiae nec passione purgatur Essâ— Martyr non potest qui in Ecclesiâ non est of his Name yet their Sin is a blemish not to be washt off by their own blood The sin of Discord is heavy and expiable not to be purged away by Martyrdom it self Neither can he be a Martyr that is out of the Church The Martyrs being alarm'd with these and the like discourses for they received another Letter about the same business and much about the same time from that Wise and Great Man Dyonisius Bishop of Alexandria are awakened to enquire more narrowly into the matter upon which they find that Letters full of Calumnies Epist. 49. and Reproaches of which they were utterly ignorant had been scatter'd and dispersed in all Churches in their name and confess that they had been circumvented by ill men beg forgiveness and acknowledge their great miscarriage in the publique Congregation and submit to Cornelius as their true and only Bishop And that immediately broke the Schism and scatter'd the Schismaticks Hic enim quosdam fratrès nostros c. Epist. 51. For this was the thing says St. Cyprian that seduced some with us that they followed the Communion of Confessors which strong prejudice being removed they are able to see the Light and understand that the Peace and Unity of the Church ought not to be broke and divided neither will they be so easily perverted by every furious Schismatick for the time to come when they are now convinced by experience that these brave Soldiers of Christ could not long by all the Arts of Craft and Subtilty be kept out of the Church But if the Reader desire a more compendious Account of all the Scenes and Motions of this Controversy he may meet with it in St. Cyprian's admirable Epistle to Antonianus a Numidian Bishop who not throughly understanding the state of the Resolutions concerning the Lapsi nor the contest between Cornelius and Novatian writes to St. Cyprian for better information about them both Who returns him a full Answer to both but more especially to the whole Tragedy of the Contest between Cornelius and Novatian wherein he proves that
against them at Arles and divers other Papers relating to that Council because in Optatus they immediately follow the Council of Rome he has thrust them in there to the great confusion of the story as if they had been done immediately after that Council when they ought to have been placed after the Council of Arles And this is evident enough from the words themselves that immediately follow the Sentence of Melchiades Sufficit ergo Donatum tot Sententiis esse percussum Caecilianum tanto judicio esse purgatum tamen Donatus appellandum esse ab Episcopis credidit Ad quam Appellationem Constantinus Imperator sic respondit ô rabida furoris audacia sicut in causis Gentilium fieri solet Appellationem interposuerunt Now beside that this Answer of Constantine is certainly known to have been made upon their Appeal from Arles the Tot Sententiae against Donatus here mentioned could not be till after the judgement of that great Council for before that there was but one Sentence against him viz. by the small Council at Rome and therefore these Appeals from so many Judgments and so great a Judicature as Optatus speaks of must have been after the Council of Arles And that puts an end to the dispute among Learned Men when the Donatists first Appeal'd to the Emperor from the Episcopal Judgment whether after the Council at Rome or not till after the Council at Arles Baronius Binius Petavius Labbè and others will have the first Appeal to have been from the Council at Rome because it immediately follows so in Optatus But this is confuted by Valesius a Man learned and curious with many pregnant passages out of St. Austin expresly attesting that the Donatists only complain'd against the first Council at Rome but Appeal'd from the second at Arles And their different behaviour towards these Councils is every where so carefully remarked by him that the Testimonies cannot be avoided But then the Learned Man knows not how to bring off Optatus but by leaving him under an enormous mistake of Memory applying that which was done after the Council of Arles to the Council of Rome or by some defect and corruption in the Copies which he only suspects without assigning any ground or reason for his suspition But if he had only a little consider'd that the whole Story of the Council of Arles is omitted in the Books of Optatus and that this Passage of the Appeal to Constantine relates to divers Sentences which could not be till after the Sentence at Arles he could not but have easily seen where lay the defect of the Copies To which might be added that this defect reaches not to the Council of Arles alone but to some part of the Council of Rome for whereas that consisted of a double Sentence the Absolution of Caecilian and the Condemnation of Donatus the latter part is wholly wanting in Optatus and immediately after the Sentence of Absolution follow the words Sufficit ergo Donatum tot Sententiis esse percussum c. From all which it is put past all doubt where lyes the breach of the Copies and how far it extends viz. From the absolving Sentence of Caecilian at Rome to the Appeal of the Schismaticks from the Council at Arles And this being observed the story runs smoth and clear that has hitherto been so confused and involved as to be thought to report the same Appeal from both Councils though it is evident that it can agree but to the last Now this one difficulty being overcome our Passage after it will be easie and pleasant all the rest of the story lying in its due and proper order And what effect the Sentence of the Council at Rome had upon the Schismatiques we have a distinct account in the Emperors own Letter to AElasius or rather AElianus his Praefect of Africa For whereas we might reasonably have expected that they should have acquiesced in the Authority of so fair so grave and so gentle a Sentence they return home exasperated with rage and swoln with insolence raise new Tumults perpetually tease the Emperor with fresh Tales and Complaints against Caecilian and represent him as utterly unworthy of any Office in the Christian Church And when the Emperor replies that this was all in vain with him because the whole business had been so fairly determin'd by fit and unexceptionable Judges they cry out That their cause had not a legal Tryal that the Council was packt that the proceedings were clancular and the Judgment partial The Emperour such was the clemency of his Nature and his tender care of the Peace of the Church condescends to their importunity and Summons the famous Council at Arles of a much greater number of Bishops and more unknown to each other as coming out of the distant parts of Christendom to review the Decree of the Council at Rome This Council meets in the year 314 where the Schismaticks repeat their old Stories against Caecilian but without any other proof then Popular Report raised by themselves and therefore were not only condemn'd by the Council but rejected with scorn and derision And to prevent the like attempts of Forgery for the time to come they make Canons to suppress that general way of Accusation as Canon the 13th they Ordain That no Man shall be Convicted of having been a Traditor by bare Testimony but by publick Acts and Records and if any Man from that time be so Convicted that then he shall be degraded from his Holy Orders but if before his Conviction he have Ordain'd any that his Crime shall be no prejudice to the validity of his Ordination And Canon the 14th they Decree That whoever falsely Accuse their Brethren as the Schismaticks had Caecilian and Faelix should not be received into Communion even at the hour of death which was the severest Sentence in the Christian Church This shameful overthrow makes great numbers of the Schismaticks quit the Faction and reconcile themselves to their Bishop But the more stubborn and Seditious are not ashamed to Appeal as it is their first Appeal in the Council it self to the Emperor and this is signified by the Council to him by Letter to know his farther will pleasure From whence it is evident that the Emperor himself was not present in Council as 't is commonly supposed and Baronius Binius and most of the Roman Writers are so civil to him as to excuse his presence though a Lay-man because the controversie was not about any matter of Faith but a particular matter of Fact concerning Caecilian And it is agreed among them that of all such matters Lay-men are as competent Judges as Bishops But however that may be and what Right Sovereign Princes have of sitting in Council whatever the matter of Debate may be I shall discourse in its proper place It is certain here that the Emperor was not present in Council because they signified their proceedings to him by Letter which if he had been
measure of Peace and Unity Insomuch that great numbers of the Circumoellians themselves as St. Austin tells us were reduced Epist. 48. to Sobriety and here it is that he professes that though hitherto he had been an enemy to all Penal Laws in matters of Religion yet now he was quite baffled out of that Opinion not so much by Arguments as Examples and particularly of his own City that though it had been almost swallowed up with the Faction yet it was now so reduced to the Catholick Unity by the fear of these Imperial Laws that in a short time it so universally detested the Schism as if it had never had any footing or entertainment there How many says he that were engaged in the Party by Education and never consider'd upon what grounds they separated from the Church being awakened by these Laws to examine into the Nature of the Schism found nothing of moment enough in it for which they should expose themselves to so great Damages these were without difficulty made Catholicks How many that only followed the Authority of their Guides and understood not the difference between the Church and the Donatists How many that had been abused with Stories and false Reports of the Catholicks how many that thought it indifferent with which Party they sided give God and the Emperor thanks for frighting them out of their sloath and stupidity And that says he is the most proper use of Penal Laws to awaken men to a sight of their Error in which they have been detain'd by meer carelesness or wantonness and in all Schisms an affected Petulancy is ever the strongest Ingredient And so things continued in a quiet posture till the death of Stilicho in the year 408 but upon that the Heathens and Donatists that were all along one Party against the Catholicks raise a Report that the Laws against them were made and contrived Aâ—gust Ep. 129 ad Olimpium Comitem A Courtier whom he informs of the whole Business purely by the design of Stilicho without the Emperors consent and therefore as if their Authority had dyed together with their Author they break out into their old Out-rages against the Catholicks Which coming to the Emperors knowledge he immediately dispaches a Rescript to Curtius the Prefect of Rome De Hareticis leg 43. declaring that it was his Imperial Will that all the Laws against the Donatists Heathens and Hereticks should continue in full force strictly requiring him and all his Officers to put them in effectual Execution And this was followed by another Rescript to Donatus Prefect of Africa who obey'd it with that rigour that St. Austin was forced out of his meer good nature to write to him to spare their lives Ex occasione terribilium Judiâ—um ac legum ne aeterni judicii paenas Epist. 129. incidant corrigi eos cupimus non necari nec disciplinam circa eos negligi volumus nec suppliciis quibus digni sunt exerceri Sic ergo eorum peccata compesce ut sint quos paeniteat peccavisse Quaesumus igitur ut cum Ecclesiae causas audis quamlibet nefariis injuriis appetitam vel afflictam esse cognoveris potestatem occidendi te habere obliviscaris Upon occasion of the dreadful Laws and Executions against them we cannot but desire lest they should fall into everlasting punishment that they may be chastised but not kill'd that Discipline may be exercised upon them but that they may not be punish't with the utmost Justice that they deserve and therefore so correct their sins that they may not be past the State of Repentance And we beseech you that when you hear the causes of the Church though you will find it assaulted and oppressed with intolerable injuries forget then that you have the power of life and death But still the Emperour De bâ—reticis legib 45 46. proceeds with more vigour and the year following injoins the strict Execution of these Laws to his Officers and Judges under severe Penalties to themselves of loss of Place Fines and Banishment with a farther reserve of his displeasure And here he comes so close to the Schismaticks as not only to banish their Preachers but every one that shall but talk or dispute in behalf of the Schism And so by this means things continued quiet once more till the Invasion of the Empire and sacking of Rome by the Goths when Attalus sent an Army against Heraclian the Praefect for the Conquest of Africa and if he had Succeeded in it he had been compleat Master of the Western Empire In this streight either for fear that they should join with the Enemy or because they grew insolent in their demands as they did to Constantine in the time of the Licinian War the Emperor grants them liberty of Conscience for some time But being quit of the danger by the speedy Overthrow of the Goths in Africk he immediately dispatches a Rescript at the Request of the African Fathers who were already highly sensible of the mischiefs of this Liberty to the same Proconsul to reverse De hereticis l. 51. his former Decree that had been extorted from him by the necessity of the times and now probably being afresh incensed by their fawcy behaviour in his affliction makes the Schism it self Capital or to be punished paenâ proscriptionis sanguinis For before this time none were to be put to death but those that had deserved it by their Tumults Disorders and Infurrections but now the very frequenting their Meetings was forbidden under no less Penalty §. VI. But being now resolved to put an end to the trouble that they had given him from the beginning of his Reign he resolved in the first place to try if it were possible to do any good upon them by a friendly Conference which as himself says he did by the perswasion of the African Bishops and it was chiefly devised by St. Austin to undeceive the People For their Leaders still persisted to abuse them with old Tales and Stories notwithstanding that they had been so shamefully exposed an hundred years since but that was beyond the memory and by consequence the knowledge of the People and therefore St. Austin concluded that the most effectual way to reduce them was to let the People know what was done in Constantine's time in the Synods of Rome and Arles and before the Emperour himself at Milan and the shameful discoveries of their Forgeries about Caecilian and Faelix of Aptung by Ingentius the Notary and Nundinarius the Deacon And this he doubted not would make them see through the whole Cheat that had been put upon them from the beginning and forever expose the impudence and dishonesty of their Leaders Quod verò ante centum fermè annos Majores nostri cum iis Donatistis egerant jam populorum memoria non tenebat haec igitur necessitas compulit at saltem Gestis nostrâ Collatione confectis eorum contunderemus inverecundiam
reprimeremus Audaciam Seeing it was beyond the memory of the People what was transacted almost an hundred years since with the Schismaticks necessity compelled us that producing the matters of Fact at our Conference we should rebuke their strange boldness and immodesty To this purpose Marcellinus a Man eminent both for Wisdom Learning and Piety and the same to whom St. Austin dedicates his Books De Civitate Dei though a Secular Judge is sent into Africa with a Commission to preside at the Conference and that he might do by the Laws and Custom of the Church because the Controversie was not about either a matter of Faith or rule of Discipline but only a matter of Fact Neither had he the Office of a Judge about that so much as an Inquisitor but was by his Commission only to Examine the publick Records and that was all that he undertook and perform'd In March in the year 411. he Summons both Parties to meet at Carthage in the June following and grants to all Donatists that would obey his Summons the free use of their Churches and provides all things necessary or useful for their Journey The whole number of Donatist Bishops in all 159 enter Carthage in a full Body with all the shews of Pomp and Ostentation and this being their full strength at that time it shews how their Party had shrivel'd away under this Emperor's Laws against them For in their Council at Bagaia where the Maximinianists were condemn'd by the other Donatists were present four hundred and sixty Bishops and yet now all their Force cannot make a third part of that number But when they came to Carthage they would not meet in the usual house of Convocation that they call'd the Synagogue of Satan and therefore met in the Gargilian Baths And before they enter'd upon the Conference the Catholicks endeavour to Court them with all manner of Civility and Condescention if by any means to prevail upon them to have some sense of the Peace and Unity of the Christian Church But all in vain they were resolved to persist in their Peevishness and therefore when they came together instead of fair and ingenuous Discourse they only endeavoured to spin out time with trifling and pettifogging Tricks For whereas the Catholiques first propounded for quicker dispatch to separate the particular matter of Fact concerning Caecilian's being Ordain'd by a Traditor from the general matter of Right concerning their present Separation from the Church Because that was only Personal and carried nothing in it that concern'd the cause of the Church it self at so great a distance of time and therefore they would freely grant tho nothing could be more false that Caecilian and Faelix were guilty of all their Indictment But that being granted they affirm'd that it was no sufficient reason for them at that time of the day to separate themselves from the Catholique Church though it had so many years past Communicated with them But the Donatists resolve to insist upon the old Nags-head-story and wholly baulk the matter of Right for here they knew that they could wrangle and amuse the People and this was not only their standing Artifice but as Baldwin observes 't is the last shift of all Schismatiques when they are bafled to throw dirt So Petilian served St. Austin so the Pelagians so the Manichees but he would not be drawn from his Cause by such foolish divertisements and still answer'd them all Quod ad mores nostros pertinet quemadmodum vivamus in promptu est eis cum quibus vivimus nunc de Catholico agitur Dogmate c. As for my Life and Conversation it is known to those with whom I live but our business is about Christian Truth that is the cause not I if you have any thing against me in God's Name Indict me according to Law but otherwise it is a base and helpless shift when you are Convicted by Argument to betake your selves to idle Tales and Slanders for that is the last Machine of all Hereticks And therefore 't is no wonder that the Schismaticks stuck so long at this point for to Persons of that Kidney Calumny is much dearer then their Opinion And it was a long while before Marcellinus with all his Art and Temper could bring them out of this Hold but being at last forced out of it they in the next place wrangle about matters that they pleaded ought to be preliminary to the Conference And first they cavill'd and excepted against the time viz. That the time limited by the Emperour's Summons was past to which cavil they are Answer'd That the Meeting was adjourn'd to the present time by their own Consent Then they except against Marcellinus and the Form of proceeding viz. That Ecclesiastical matters ought not to be determin'd after the manner of the Secular Courts but by the Holy Scriptures To this Marcellinus replies both that he does not take upon himself the Office of a Judge and withal that things should be determin'd by the Rule of Scripture as they desired And beside this the Catholick Bishops satisfie them by exhibiting the Injunctions that they had given to those Bishops that were to manage the Conference that they had taken sufficient care of that matter But then this the Donatists turn'd into a new Cavil that they would not trust their Cause to a few Mens management but would be all Speakers which they knew could not be done in so great a Multitude without turning the whole business into Tumult and Confusion And therefore it is with much ado over-ruled that Seven of each Party should manage the Conference of whom St. Austin and Petilian were the chief of each side But in the next place the Mandate of the Catholicks to their Commissioners being signed by 286 Bishops the Donatists object that there were not so many present and pretend that to encrease the number they had set down false names and therefore require that every Bishop should answer to his own name But all this trifling being at last past through Marcellinus with Hat in hand desires the Company that they would be pleased to take their Seats but the Donatists insolently refuse his Civility grumbling out among themselves that of the Psalmist Odi Ecclesiam Maligâ—antium cum impiis non seâ—â—bo Then the Instrument of the Donatists to their Commissioners is read which consists all of Accusation against the Catholiques both as Traditors and Persecutors and here they are immediately snapt in their own â—nare having subscribed many Names to it of Men that were not in Being and among the rest of one that upon the discovery they now pretended dyed on the way though before they had declared that it was drawn up after they came to Carthage and that was all the Event of the first days Conference that they ensnared themselves in two or three grand Falshoods The second Conference was spent in the same trifles and cavils with the first and so came to
and cancell'd the Acts of another Bishop against his own Presbyter and endeavour'd to engage the Approbation of the whole Church to his irregular actings that was apparently setting up an open Schism in the Christian Church And so Alexander represents it in his encyclical Epistle and loads Eusebius with the violation of the Apostolical Canon viz. the 33d which injoyns that no Clergy-man Excommunicate by his own Bishop be received to Communion by another But Eusebius being a man of a proud Spirit regards it not neither was this his first breach of the Canons having skipt out of one Bishoprick into another which is there severely forbidden and he was the first man that I know of who was guilty of that boldness against that Sacred Law of the Church but instead of desisting from his Schismatical proceedings endeavours to spread the Schism as far as he could and his Letters fly abroad every where to engage the Bishops to his Faction by which means he being then a great Man and a Favourite of the Emperour the Court then residing at Nicomedia all the Bishops in the World were in a moment engaged on one side or other not upon the account of Arius but Eusebius whose Pride and Ambition was the only cause of all this confusion this so alarms Constantine that he dispatches away his great Favourite Osius of Corduba with his Letters to Alexandria if it were possible to allay the heats of both Parties Though Baronius is very earnest in it that Osius was first sent by Pope Silvester as his Legate into the East to Constantine by whom he was arm'd with Letters to Alexandria where he wrought great wonders by vertue of his Legantine Authority And in this the Cardinal is very vehement and often repeats it with extraordinary assurance though there is not the least intimation of it in all the ancient Historians who make not any mention of the Pope in all this business but impute the whole transaction to Constantine's own care and management Now the Scope of the Emperors Letters was to perswade and exhort them wholly to lay aside the Controversie as nice and unnecessary and not of weight enough to deserve a determination Though as Sandius tells the story the Emperour lays the blame of all upon the Bishop but this not only without any Authority but against the express words of the Letter that equally blames them both for their too much curiosity about a vain Question as he calls it And as for the Letter it self I shrewdly suspect it to have been the contrivance of Eusebius of Nicomedia who was very intimate with the Emperour and impos'd upon him all along in this whole Affair I am sure the Scope of the Letter is exactly agreeable with Eusebius his whole carriage in this Controversie which was not to have it determin'd either way but only silenced as an over curious speculation I know indeed that he is on all hands represented as a Ring-leader of the Arian Faction but it is a mistake that has brought confusion upon the whole History and made the Arian Heresie seem of a much greater extent then it ever was whereas Eusebius and his Party were no less Enemies to the Arians then to the Orthodox and yet it was they that all along made the greatest shew and noise in the Contest And as for the Arian Faction it was wholly supprest by the Nicene Council and all the Tumults that were made after that are owing to the Eusebians who were as forward as the Orthodox to anathematize the Arians but then they must have the Decree of the Nicene Council reverst and what work they made about it we shall see when we come to the Reign of Constantius all whose Persecutions of the Catholicks were meerly raised by these mens wise indiscretion and had it not been for their unseasonable tampering prudence and moderation the Arian Heresie could never have lift up its head more after the Nicene Council But to return to Constantine who finding the Contest too hot at Alexandria to be allayed by the mediation of Hosius and withal the flame too far spread into other Churches to be quench't by one mans industry he resolves upon a General Council to compose this and some other spreading Controversies particularly that concerning the time of Easter which though it had slept ever since Pope Victor began now to raise new heats in several parts of Christendom The Council being met at the time and place appointed he entertains them with an Oration exhorting to Peace and Unity but neither prescribes nor commands any thing only desires them to examine things impartially and by their Authoritative determination of the present Controversies to settle the Peace of the Church forever as appears not only from the Tenour of the Speech it self and the Emperours behaviour in the Council but from the challenge of St. Ambrose to Valentinian si conferendum de fide sacerdoâ—um debet esse ista câ—llâ—tio sicut factum est sub Constantino augustae memoriae principe qui nullas leges ante praemisit sed liberum dedit judicium Sacerdotibus If there be a consultation about the Faith that is the work oâ— the Priesthood as it was managed under the Emperor Constantine of Glorious Memory who prescribed no Laws beforehand but allowed freedom of judgment to the Bishops And the Council being fairly left to the free use of that Authority that thev had received from our Saviour they proceeded as fairly in the Exercise of it And in the first place The Acts of the Council at Alexandria against Arius are produced and the interposition of Eusebius in his behalf inquired into whereby it appear'd which side had actâ—d according to the Laws of the Church and the Arians are after a fair hearing with very little Debate condemn'd by the Unanimous Vote of the Council though Sandiuâ— affirms from no Authority but his own that they would not so much as hear Arius his Arguments much less Examine them But though the Council agreed in the Subscription to the Orthodox Faith yet the Eusebians for a time refused to subscribe to the Anathema against the Arians because they did not think them so bad as they were represented But here again our honest Arian Historiâ—grapher tells us from Eutychius and other Oriental Monuments i. e. Modern and Barbarous Arabick Pamphlets that there were above 2000 Bishops present at the Council and that all exceptingonly 31â— which was the full number of the Council according to all the true Records voted for Arius but that Constantine himself over-ruled the whole business by violence and force of Arms. And then whereas the Emperor to abet the Decree of the Council commands the Arian Books to be burnt and especially Arius his Thaleia upon pain of death and banish't some of the Arians into Illiricum this Sandius is not ashamed to say was done by the Authority of the Council it self and withal that the Bishops
you readily receive this Order as a true divine Command for whatever is agreed on in the Holy Councils of Bishops is to be taken as the Will of God But then it is remarkable that the Emperour only imposes this Decree of the Council by its own Authority and does not back it as he does that against Arianism with secular Penalties for what reasons himself best knew it is enough that it was not needful for by the bare Authority of the Council the controversie was laid asleep forever nor do I remember that after that time we hear of any material Contention about it Now by the whole management of this business the Conclusion is evident that the Emperour thought that Laws Ecclesiastick ought to be made by the Ecclesiastick State and when they were so that they were Valid and Obligatory by their own Authority though himself had power to enforâ—e them with Civil Snactions as he judged it serviceable to the advancement of Religion and the Peace of Government §. VIII And so the Great Council was dismist as well as summon'd by the Emperour with that success he desired in the unanimous Condemnation of the Arian Heresie insomuch that in that great number of Bishops that were there present there were no more then two that refused to subscribe the Decrees of the Council Secundus and Theonas as Eusebius himself informs us both in the life of Constantine and in his Epistle to his Diocess and it is from his Authority that Theodoret corrects the Errour boâ—h of Soorates and Zozomen who set down six Dissenters that is beside those two Eusebius of Nicomedia Theognis of Nicaea Maris of Calcedon and Eusebius of Caesareâ— but though it be true that these were the great Sticklers at first against the admission of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the Faith yet is it certain from Eusebius his own account of it that they all at last acquiesced in the determination of the Council and Athanasius is witness of this not only for this Eusebius of Caesarea but his Namesake of Nicomedia And here even Philostorgius himself who is miserably lost thâ—â—â—â— this whole Story and every where betrays his ignorance by his confusion of times places and persons as well as his imperfect and false Relations yet here I say he happens to report the matter accurately enough though his Disciple Sandius who always takes great pains to be in the wrong forsakes both him and all the ancient Historians to follow the imperfect Story of Nicetâ—s who sets down twenty two Dissenters and among them Eusebius of Caesarea But on the other hand St. Jerom tells us and that as he pretends from the very Acts of the Council that not only these Bishops but Arius himself and his two Companions Euzoius and Achillas the last whereof though but a Presbyter Sandius is so ignorant as to take him for the Bishop that was Predecessor to Alexander were upon submission received into the Churches favouâ— but this I take to be one of St. Jerom's hasty slips for as all Authors beside agree that he was immediately banisht so it is very unlikely that if he had recanted and been received into the Church that Constantine should at that time have publisht that severe Rescript against him that his Sect should be call'd Porphyrians i. e. Enemies to the Christian Faith and that his Books should be burnt upon pain of death But beside that is there had been any signs of Repentance in Arius we should certainly have had an account of it in the Synodical Epistle of the Council to the Church of Alexandria whereas on the contrary they bemoan the Calamity into which he had not only cast himself but drawn after him Theonas and Secundus two Egyptian Bishops and tâ—e only two Bishops that stuck to the Arian cause into the same Pit of Destruction And that could be nothing else but banishment as appears from the words immediately following in which they congratulate to the Churches of Egypt their deliverance from those wicked and turbulent men and accordingly the Historians Socrates and Sozomen tell us that Arius was recall'd from banishment not long after the Council and not long after him Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theognis of Nicaea who had been banisht from their Sees by the Emperous not at the time of the Council with Arius but some time after as is evident from the Emperours own Epistle to the Nicomedians in which he declares the reasons of their banishment viz. That though they had subscribed the Nicene Faith yet after their return home they had received some Arians into Communion that the Emperour had removed from Alexandria for the security of the Peace of that Church and that wasthefault of the Eusebians in this whole affair that though they were not Arians they thought that they might communicate with them as it is evident from the Synodof Alexandria in their excellent Synodical Epistle who do not in the least accuse the Eusebians of Arianism but only of holding Communion with them Not long after the just Banishment of these two trimming Bishops Arius is upon his submission restored into the bosom of the Church but with a peremptory command never to return to Alexandria upon which the banish't Bishops are awakened and encouâ—aged to endeavour their own Restitution in that as they plead in their own behalf when the person really guilty was absolved themselves who had never followed his Heresie but embraced the Decrees of the Council in all things and subscribed the Faith of Con-Substantial could not but be concern'd at least to deâ—â—ver themselves from the very suspicion of that Hereâ—â—e that they never own'd and therefore as they had before subscribed the â—â—â—th of the Council with which they â—â—y the Council was then well satisfied without subscribing the Anathema so now when they were ready to give an entire assent and subscribe even that too as well as the Form of Faith they hope 't it would not only give them complete satisfaction but move them to intercede with the Emperour for their Restitution And that was easily obtain'd from him who was desirous of nothing more then the Peace and Concord of the Church But Eusebius being of an haughty and implacable Spirit Studies nothing but revenge against Athanasius who was the chief man though in an inferiour station that had born down himself and his whole Party in the Council And beside his particular spite against the person of Athanasius his Party could not digest the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Socrates relates and therefore raised a new War about it notwithstanding that they agreed with the Catholicks about the whole Doctrine of the Trinity When both affirmed says he one Godhead subsisting in Three Persons yet I know not how it came to pass they were always contending about it And this we shall find exactly true that after the Council of Nice they never in the least appeared in behalf of
Bishoprick swears all over again that he had before forsworn but it seems though he stood not Convicted of Perjury the Court was ashamed of his Evidence for by the Imperial Law a Man that swore manifest Contradictions was supposed to have sworn himself a perjured Person without the formality of any other Conviction But after this they bring upon the Stage such a Plot that if Athanasius had not broken through it by a very lucky Counter-Comedy must have ensnared him beyond all relief On the sudden comes in a beautiful Woman a common Strumpet that had wit and impudence enough to act her part and she with abundance of Tears and all the Solemnities of Grief declares That when she had devoted her self to Virginity she was ravisht by Athanasius And now here you may think that the Eusebians were confident they had him fast enough but they were strangely out-witted for Athanasius stands careless and like a Person unconcern'd and Timotheus one of his Presbyters that stood next to him immediately takes the Accusation upon himself and with great seriousness and passion Expostulates with the Woman where and when he had ever been in her Company at which she directing her discourse to him and pointing directly at him answers Yes Sir it was you you I say that offer'd me this dishonourable violence and rudeness with other foul formâ— of Speech that are usual with such Persons in like cases And yet though this dash't the Court somewhat out of countenance and Athanasius requested that the Woman might be secured for farther Examination yet was â—he dismissed so as never to be found more and he is told that there are much blacker Crimes still behind of which he should be convinced not by his Ears but his Eyes and so out comes the hand of Arsenius for they now supposed themselves secure of him being fled for fear of his life for the Eusebians had threatned that if ever they could reach him they would make him pay dear for his discovery But such was the diligence and so great the Correspondence of Athanasius that he still had him in his Pocket brings him into Court demands whether they knew the Man and he being own'd to be the same both by the Judges and the Evidence he turns back first one side of his Cloak and shews one hand but they cry that it was the other hand that was cut off and to give them encouragement he keeps them in some suspence but after a while when they began to be confident he turns back the other side and brings out the other hand saying You see that Arsenius has his two hands and that is as many as God made him but from whence the third hand was cut off I hope the Evidence will prove and yet for all this his Enemies though as Theodoret observes they ought for meer shame to have wished the Earth to swallow them up quick finding themselves so wofully defeated they send some of the rankest Members of the Committee of Secrecy to Mareotis for new Evidence and in the mean while continue their Sessions from time to time where all things are carried with Tumult and Confusion the Evidence which were numerous and the Rabble crying out and raving for his blood the Emperours Officers that were sent thither to secure the Peace fearing lest as is usual in Seditions the Rabble should take head and tear him in pieces before their faces conveigh him out of the Council and he being tired with all these foul dealings and finding that they were resolved upon his ruine conveighs himself from Tyre and repairs to the Emperor at Constantinople to complain of his hard usage and implore his protection against all that inhumanity that he had suffered in the Council but the Emperor was so prejudiced that he would neither see nor hear him and withal so guarded by the Eusebians that Athanasius could get no admittance into his presence and is forced to accost him in the Streets but the Emperor regards him not scarce gives him any hearing but no answer in the mean time the Committee return from Maâ—eotis with Cloak-bags full of fresh Evidence not to be Communicated any farther then the Committee of Secresie and though all Accusations whatever they were were abundantly controuled and over-power'd by several unexceptionable Certificates from the place in behalf of Athanasius and though even Dionysius himself was at length ashamed of the whole business as he intimates in his Letter to the Eusebians perhaps frighted to it by the bold conclusion of a Letter from the Clergy of the Diocess of Alexandria wherein they tell the Council That they had sent Copies of it to the Emperor himself that so they might not suppress it as by all their unworthy and unjust actings they had too much reason to suspect they would but yet for all this the Committee pretending that they were satisfied of the whole matter Athanasius is in his absence Deposed and Excommunicated the Meletians Absolved and Ischiras made Bishop of his own Village and a Church built on purpose in it for his Cathedral and to compleat the Extravagance of the Scene Arsenius himself was taken into the Council and the Man that was slain by Athanasius voted his Deposition and subscribed it with the very hand that was cut off §. IX But Constantine considering with himself the modesty and reasonableness of Athanasius his request only that he would be pleased to hear him before the Judges that had condemned him it at length put him into some choller and so confident an Appeal made him suspect some foul dealing and therefore he Summons them in high terms immediately to appear before himself to give an account of their proceedings But they being conscious to themselves of the foulness of their actions send only a few of the Court-Bishops who craftily wave all their old and bafled Accusations at Tyre amuse and surprise the Emperor with a new Story That Athanasius should threaten to stop the Victualling Ships from Alexandria and boast that it was in his power to starve the City of Constantinople This was a very tender point with the Emperor that touch't his own darling City and this they very well knew he having not long before put his great Favourite Sopaâ—er the Philosopher to death for the very same Accusation So that here as Athanasius himself reports it the Emperour's fury took fire he immediately fell into a rage and without any hearing the cause or without any form of Judgment commanded my speedy banishment into France And shortly after the Emperor dies of whose intention his Eldest Son that best knew it informs us That his Father only removed Athanasius for a time to rescue him from the rage of blood-thirsty Men that were resolved to have his life intending in a little time to restore him to his Bishoprick but was prevented by death And therefore the young Emperor declares That it was in pursuance of his Fathers Will that
he commanded his Restitution And Athanasius himself is so far from Accusing the Emperor's rigour that he imputes his banishment purely to his kindness to deliver him from the Rage and the Snares of the Eusebians and therefore when they importun'd the Emperor to put another Bishop in his place thereby to prevent his Restitution he was peremptory in his refusal and would never hear of it without great indignation But however Athanasius being removed out of the way the next thing they endeavour is the restitution of Arius upon his pretended Repentance for it is all along suggested to the Emperor that he had renounced his Heresie and the desired Communion of the Church which was denyed him only by the peevishness of Athanasius and that it was his single wilfulness herein that was the cause of all these troubles The Emperour at their importunity recalls Arius and his Associate Euzoius and for the security of their Repentance they humbly present him with their Confession of Faith in which they come up to the Nicene Creed in all things but only the very word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for though they baulk the word it self they clearly assert the thing and instead of their prophane Novelties That the Son of God was made out of nothing and that there was a time when he was not that are the two main points of the Arian Heresie they now affirm 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Son of God to be God begotten of his Father from Eternity but if so it is undeniable that he was of the same uncreated Substance with the Father and this is so easie and intelligible in it self that it was a most unaccountable kind of perverseness in the Eusebians to make so much stir against the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that did but more plainly express the Notion that themselves profess't to maintain But upon this Arius is received and sent to Alexandria with commendatory Letters not only from the Council but the Emperor in which as Sandius adds of his own pure good Will he renounces the Nicene Determination and rejecting the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 recommends to them that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that Alexander Bishop of Alexandria subscribed the Letter and that a Reconciliation was then made between him and the Arians and this he proves with great gravity from Book and Chapter of Socrates and Sozomen but if you consult the places referred to there is nothing like this Story and they happen to treat of quite different matters as particularly the Chapter of Sozomen of the Conversion of the Iberians And as for the Story of Alexander's subscription it is as foolish as false for that good Man dyed long before this time viz. within five Months after the Council of Nice whereas this Letter was not sent till after the banishment of Athanasius that succeeded him and yet after this time does this injudicious Scribler make him to prevaricate his promise and then again Relapse to the Homousian Heresie But this he is forced to do to make something of the inconsistent Tales of Philostorgius who places all this Fable immediately after the Nicene Council but that being so apparently false and against all Records this Historian would thrust it in at this more obscure time but so unfortunately that the chief Actor that he brings upon the Stage was long since out of the World And after the same rate is he confounded and lost through the whole Series of this Story so that at this time he places the return of Eusebius and Theognis from banishment and to it tacks a pleasant Fable of his own pure devising viz. That the Emperor after their return enquiring of them the reason of their dissent from the Decrees of the Council when they had subscribed them â—â—ey answered That they subscribed not willingly but being afraid lest he being offended at the Quarrel should fall off from the Christian Religion as too uncertain and full of Controversie and then from an Apostate turn a Persecutor with which the Emperor being satisfied resolves to call another Council to mend matters but is prevented by death But a Man that can write thus confidently out of his own pure invention is a very fit second for Philostorgius and a fit Patron to make out the fair carriage of the Arians and Eusebians in this whole Story But to return to Arius when he came to Alexandria they shut their Gates against him and he is forced to turn back to Constantinople where was met a Council of Eusebians against Marcellus then an eminent Defender of the Catholique Faith for having at last Conquer'd Athanasius they now resolve to rout the whole Party In this Council Arius presents himself to the Emperor and complains of the affront that was offer'd to him by the Alexandrians but here he is again Catechised concerning his Faith and the Emperor to tye him fast is not content with his bare Subscription but makes him give in his Confession upon Oaâ—â— And upon this security he commanâ—â— Alexander Bishop of Constantinople to receive him into the Communion of the Church which the good Man flatly refuses and hereupon the Eusebians agree to accompany him to the Church with extraordinary Pomp and Triumph but in the midst of the Procession Arius was snatcht away with that strange kind of death that is well known to have been his singular Fate But here our faithful Arian Historians Philostorgius and Sandius are so wise and ingenuous as to say no more of the Stories of Ischiras Arsenius and all the other parts of the Tyrian Plot then that Athanasius was accused in Council of all the Crimes charged against him and by them found Guilty and that when the Commissioners from the Council appear'd before the Emperor they so convinced Athanasius of all the Crimes laid to his charge and so satisfied the Emperor of his guilt that he immediately sentenced him to banishment these are worthy Historians and proper Advocates for the management of the Eusebian Cause that have the confidence to out-face publick and undeniable Records the foulness of all these proceedings was made evident by the Acts of Court yet extant and the Confessions of the Witnesses themselves particularly Ischiras under Hand and Seal and all this within short time after the Transactions themselves published to the whole World by Athanasius himself in the face of his Enemies without any contradiction And now when the whole forgery was thus shamefully exposed in the face of the Sun and stood so upon Record to all Ages are not these wise Men to think that they are able to slur so clear an Evidence only by their trifling it as if all the World were so blind or so foolish as to read or believe nothing but their Fables And yet this incredible confidence is all the strength of these daring Historians This is the true State of the Arian Controversie during the Reign of Constantine and by all the premisses it is
evident that the Heresie it self could never openly appear after the Nicene Council and that all the stirs that were raised after that were occasion'd by the folly and malice of the Eusebians who profess't themselves Catholiques and that their contest with Athanasius was not about points of Faith but his own particular Crimes and Misdemeanors of which they falsely and wickedly accused him to the Emperor So that his actings against Athanasius after the Nicene Council proceeded not from any change of mind in him concerning the Faith as some surmise for it is evident through his whole Reign that he was highly tender of that as it was settled by the great Council and only proceeded against Athanasius as a Person of a Turbulent and unquiet Spirit as he was represented to him by the Calumnies of his Enemies Though how he could be so long imposed upon after such discoveries as were made of the Villarâ—ies of the Meletians appears somewhat unaccountable For what can be more so then that men Convicted of Forgery in open Court should ever after be admitted as Witnesses in the same Cause and the same Court But yet if we observe the matter carefully all this was done without the Emperours knowledge for after the first discovery that was made to him by Athanasius all the rest was transacted by his Officers for he knew nothing of the whole Comedy of the Council of Tyre in which the whole business was managed neither durst the Managers themselves acquaint him with any thing of theStory but when they appear before him at his angry Summons that he sent only upon suspicion of their injustice they on a suddain surprise and divert his rage upon Athanasius by a new and unexpected Accusation that they very well knew by experience he could not bear having for the same thing destroyed the man he loved And therefore as Constantine was not only not Privy to the Plot himself so neither was he guilty of that remisness in its Examination as is commonly supposed for beside his ignorance of the transactions in the Tyrian Council the whole mystery of it lay in the secret Confederacy between the Eusebians and the Meletians that the Emperour could have no ground to suspect in the Council for the Meletians were an obscure and contemptible handful of men in a remote and neglected part of the Empire and who could suspect a Conspiracy between these poor wretches and Eusebius of Nicomedia and some of his own Courtiers And yet this one unsusspected piece of Villany was the bottom of all Athanasius his Calamities Neither do I think the Emperour alone innocent in this whole matter but several of the Judges and Prosecutors that were imposed upon by the Forgery for it is not every one that Acts in a Plot that is privy to its Contrivance that is kept within the close Cabal and National Plots in which vast variety of Persons unknown to one another are engaged are not to be found in every age for it is but seldom that mankind are so madly extravagant as to venture their lives at so cheap a rate At least in the days of Constantine men were somewhat more wary and if any man had sworn a Story of such a Plot the very absurdity of his own Tale would have Convicted him of Forgery And therefore we may be sure that at that time the secret was kept among a few who till it was discover'd and brought into the Light might draw in many others to act very enormous things with fair and plausible Pretences This I take to be the peculiar Apology that wholly clears Constantines innocence in this Matter his utter ignorance of the Plot and the little ground he had to suspect it though beside that there are divers other Pleas that though they will not wholy justifie will very much excuse his Actions As first the great lenity and gentleness of his Nature that was abused and imposed upon by ill men who insinuated themselves into his favour by a counterfeit Zeal for Christianity and by that means gain'd the greatest places of Trust and Dignity in the Empire and such men would be sure to abuse their Power to the ruine and oppression of the People This is remarqued as the peculiar blot of his Reign by the Historians of all Parties Ammianus Marcellinus says that it was the Emperour himself that opened the devouring Jaws of his Courtiers And Aurelius Victor says that under him the exaction of Taxes was raised to the highest Oppression and though an Heathen that his Reign was in all other things like the Kingdom of Heaven had not the Chief Offices of State been given to unworthy Men which Miscarriages though they are often committed yet in a Great Prince and Good Government even small Vices appear a great blemish Eutropius observes the very same defect and Eusebius himself has left this Character of his whole Reign The two great Calamities of his time were the intollerable Oppression of wicked and covetous men that devoured all parts of the Empire and the false and hypocritical pretence to Christianity to sweep away all the best preferments and to this miscarriage the Emperours own good nature and the assurance of his own integrity betrayed him so that he would trust any man that did but dissemble Christianity or pretend any Zeal to his own service and by this means many shameful and dishonest things were done as if the Devil had out of meer envy to his Glory dasht this blot upon his other Vertues and Praises And the two remarkable instances of this defect in his Reign are Ablavius in the State and Eusebius of Nicomedia in the Church two as bad men as usually any age produces and the great power and wickedness of Eusebius was the great infelicity of the Church under Constantine for as Baronius has very well observed and I will say that for him he has been very just to this Great Princes Memory his Court was fill'd with Eusebians by the favour of his Son Constantius who from the time of his having been created Caesar though a younger Brother was the chief manager of Affairs of State in that he minded Business whilst his Elder Brother Constantine followed his Pleasures And therefore all the worship of the Court was made to this active young Prince as the Rising Sun So that he being Govern'd by Eusebius of Nicomedia as he always was he carefully stopt and guarded all passages of Complaint from the Catholicks to the Emperour as appears by the Address of Athanasius who could gain no admittance at Court but was forced to accost him as he rode through the Streets and the Emperour was possest with so ill an Opinion of him that he would neither then hear his Complaint nor order his attendance at Court which was a very unusual severity in his Government And yet his love of Justice appears in that when Athanasius Petitioned foâ— nothing else then that he might be heard by the Emperour before
where himself has not apparently determin'd us by an antecedent Countermand And such cases can rarely happen whilst the Primitive Constitution of the Christian Church is any where preserved and at least it is clear that this was the case of the Eusebians who raised so thick a dust against what was determin'd by the Authority of the Church only because they supposed the determination unnecessary and imprudent but what then and granting it were so it was not unlawful unless it had expresly contradicted something that was necessary But that themselves had not the confidence to pretend and if they had not then it is plain that they ought not to have quarrell'd with it but to have quietly submitted to it though not for its truth yet for the Peace and out of respect to the Sacred Authority of the Christian Church And that would have saved and prevented all that Turmoil that they brought both upon it and the Empire too for so many years only to persist in a peevish and at best a needless animosity against its Legal and Canonical determination §. XI But to descend to particulars Athanasius being arrived at Alexandria with all expressions of joy from the People and settled in the quiet possession of his See the Eusebians return to all their old Arts of undermining his Peace and Settlement And to this end they deal with all the three Emperors to have the Sentence of the Tyrian Council Executed upon him But all in vain for both Constantine and Constance are better informed of the Plot and acquainted with the whole Train of the Eusebian Villanies though Constantius his Ears are wholly possess 't by his Women Eunuchs and Courtiers as his Character is too truly and shrewdly set down by Ammianus Marcellinus Uxoribus ac spadonum graâ—ilentis Vocibus Palatinis quibusdam nimium quantum addictus ad singula ejus verba plaudentibus quid ille aiat vel neget ut assentiri possint observantibus That he was too much over-ruled by his Wives his Courtiers and the Effeminate Addresses of his Eunuchs that watch't to admire and flatter every thing he said and whether it were wise or foolish applaud it But these were only Tools and Instruments placed about him by Eusebius of N. comedia to be managed for his own ends though the first Opportunity that he could seize to compass his long'd-for design upon the Deposition of Athanasius was given him by the Solemnity of dedicating the great Church at Antioch that was founded by the Emperor's Father and finisht by himself at which were present Ninety Bishops which Meeting Eusebius craftily turn'd into a Council and in it deposed Athanasius And in truth it was but high time to seise the advantage for the year before they had as craftily referred the cause to Julius Bishop of Rome to which Judgment Athanasius had according to the constant simplicity and assurance of his own Conscience submitted himself But the Eusebians finding that after they had told their Story there all their tricks were too well understood and that they could not avoid a very shameful bafle move for a general Council of Eastern and Western Bishops to be assembled at Rome And now the Western were accordingly met where Athanasius attended in Person and whither his Enemies were summon'd by virtue of their own Appeal to appear to make good their Charge against him but Eusebius the grand contriver of all mistrusting the cause takes this advantage of the Meeting at Antioch and puts an end to the Appeal to Rome and the Western Bishops by passing the final Sentence upon him at home But by what subtilty they got it to pass the Council is not easie to discover and it is commonly apprehended from the supposed Authority of Julius Bishop of Rome that the intrigue was managed only by Thirty six of the whole number that was in all Ninety but this mistake is founded meerly upon a false Translation of Julius his Words viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Baronius and they that follow him understand of the Votes of Thirty six Bishops only whereas it signifies Thirty six days Journey as Valesius renders it Quia viginti sex mansionibus And that is Julius his proper reproof of the Ordination of Gregory that it was not done at Alexandria as the Canons required but at Antioch which was Thirty six Mansions or so many days Journey or nights Lodging from Alexandria And of this use of the Phrase Valesius alledges many Parallel Passages in the Writers of that time and then the sense of the whole Passage runs clearly thus I pray you who acted most against the Canons We that upon such convincing information received the Man Athanasius to Communion or you that at Antioch that is distant Thirty six days Journey from Alexandria choose a Stranger Gregory to be Bishop of that City and place him in his See by Military force So that from this Passage rightly Translated there is no ground of supposing any either stealth or division of Votes in the Council neither is there any need of it in that for any thing we know the greatest part might either be Eusebians or Orthodox But whatever they really were they all at least pretended to be Orthodox for the Eusebians themselves did not only quit but Anathematise the Arian Heresie as 't is evident from all the four Creeds that were framed in this Council in which they detest and Anathematise all the branches of it particularly in the last which they sent as the result of all to the Emperor Constans We Anathematise all those who say that the Son existed out of nothing or out of any other subsistence and not out of God himself or that there was a time when he was not And yet for all this express declaration modest Mr. Sandius boldly tells us That this Council expresly denyed the Eternal Generation of the Son of God But beside this Council of Antioch all the Councils under Constantius that are commonly accounted Arian till the last that over-reach't him against his own Opinion have as fully and clearly condemned Arianism as the Nicene Council it self It is true they could not digest the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but otherwise as for the whole Scheme of Arianism they have in all their Creeds Anathematised it with all clearness and fullness of Expression And therefore it has been but a vain dispute that has been so long agitated about the Authority of this Council in particular St. Chrysostom when he was kept out of his Bishoprick by virtue of a Canon made in it pleads that they were Arians who made it And for the same reason they are rejected by his Patron Pope Innocent the first Pope but with what design we shall see in its proper place otherwise the Council has been universally received in the Catholick Church St. Hilary himself reckons it among the Anti-Arian Councils and the Canons of it were received into the Code of the Canons that
intreaty to proceed to Tryal which the Council imputes not only to their knowledge of the defect of their Accusations against others but to the Conscience of their own guilt Seeing great numbers of Persons there present that were ready to testifie of their various Cruelties and tell sad Stories of their Imprisoning Banishing Beating Starving Strangling Persons in Holy Orders only for refusing to Communicate with the Aria◠Hereticks And though the Criminals refused to appear the Witnesses were Examined and they Deposed and both the Emperors written to that their Majesties would be pleased to set all such at liberty that were still under restraint and to order their Officers for the time to come not to use any force or violence against the Clergy for their Faith but leave them first to be tryed by the Ecclesiastical Judicature In the next place the whole Intrigue against Athanasius is re-examined the Stories of Arsenius and Ischiras farther proved by fresh Witnesses and so both himself and the rest of the Deposed and Banish't Bishops are restored and the Intruders thrust not only out of their Sees but out of the Communion of the Christian Church And then in the last place they enact some Rules of Discipline useful and almost necessary for the Present State of the Church as against the practice of Eusebius and other Bishops of the Faction that invade other Mens Bishopricks and though such Offenders were only sent back to their own Sees by the Canon of the Nicene Council this Council is so severe as not only to Depose but Excommunicate them so as not to be capable of being admitted to Lay-Communion even at the hour of death Another Canon they made against the wandring of Bishops and that reach't Ursacius and Valens who left their own Diocesses to carry on the Eusebian Faction in other Provinces A third Canon was That if a Bishop were oppress 't by his Com-provincials he might have leave to make his complaint to the Bishop of Rome who might judge whether he ought to have a new hearing or not and this beside some secret reasons was to relieve the Eastern Bishops from the Oppression of the Eusebians who carried all before them by force and foul dealing Though the Romanists will have it to have been made particularly to justifie Athanasius in his Appeal to Rome but beside that if it were true it would do their Cause no service it is certain that Athanasius made not the Appeal himself but that his Cause was first referr'd thither by the Eusebians and that too with no other design then to remove it as far as they could from their own doors for fear of discovery §. XIII But as vigorously as the Western Bishops proceeded at Sardica the Eastern out-stript them at Philippopolis they first take to themselves the Title of the Council at Sardica they draw up a new Confession of Faith and call it the Sardican Creed in which they Anathematise all the Positions of Arius and only omit the word Consubstantial And as for Athanasius they cunningly load him with the Authority of the Tyrian Council and the Sentence of Constantine upon it Qui omnia ejus flagitia recognoscens suâ illum sententiâ in exilium deportavit Who examining into all his Crimes banish't him by his own Sentence as they blush not to aver as if the abused Emperor had been acquainted with all the juglings of that Council when it was their only care to keep their proceedings altogether in the dark from him But from this they proceed to infer that Athanasius being condemn'd by the Suffrage of so many Bishops and the Judgment of the Emperor it was now but a trick to move for a new Tryal when so many of the Judges Accusers and Witnesses were dead and therefore they must have the old Sentence allowed and ratified before they would act least as they plead They should bring in that prophane Innovation Quam horret vetus consuetudo Ecclesiae ut in concilio Orientales Episcopi quicquid forte statuissent ab Episcopis Occidentalibus refricaretur vice versa That the Ancient Custom of the Church abhors that the Decrees of the Eastern Church should be reversed by the Western and so on the contrary That was the point they would still be at that whatever was done in the Eastern Church should not be submitted to the Judgment of the Western Bishops and then that secured the Authority of the Tyrian Council and as long as that stood firm so did their Cause too But to make short work of it for there are vast numbers of odd casts of disingenuity in their Epistle they Excommunicate Athanasius Paul of Constantinople Julius of Rome Osius Marcellus and all that had any hand in the Absolution of Athanasius and this they signifie in an Encyclical Epistle written in the Name of the Council of Sardica to their friends in all Parts of the World and among many others it is directed to Donatus the Schismatical Bishop of Carthage Gratus the Catholique Bishop of that City with 36 other African Bishops being present at the Council of Sardica and joining with it against the Philippopolitans who therefore think to strengthen their Party by courting the Schismaticks to their side And among other sweet flowers flatter them with their own dear Expression viz. That they durst not join with the Sardican Council Ne proditores fidei Traditoresque Scripturarum dicamur Lest we should be esteemed Traytors of the Faith and Traditors of the Scriptures thereby insinuating an approbation of their Schism from the Catholicks upon that pretence And this took so luckily that the Schismatiques pleaded it in the days of St. Austin to prove that they had ever been in Communion with the Eastern Church But both parties having done the business that they came about especially the Eusebians whose only project it was to shun the Council and make the breach more general with the whole Western Church they break up their Assembly and where-ever they come put to death all that refuse Communion with them particularly they make a great Massacre at Adrianople where they cut off the Bishop's hands and after that his head with innumerable other outrages recited by Athanasius in his Epistle to the Monks But as for the Sardican Council having settled things as well as they could they acquaint both the Emperors with the Issue of their Proceedings and send three Bishops Arm'd with Letters from the Emperor Constans to his Brother Constantius to intercede for the restitution of the banish't Bishops But whilst they attended the Emperor at Antioch Stephen the Eusebian Bishop of that place by his Instruments conveighs a common Strumpet by night stark naked into the Chamber of Euphratas that was the most eminent Man of the Embassy and famous for his great Vertue and Piety but the Woman who expected some debauch't young Gallant for her Companion as soon as she saw the grave old Bishop asleep and altogether ignorant of the matter being
surprised and withal confounded with his venerable look cries out so loud of the abuse and force put upon her as made a disturbance in the Court and so the whole business came to light and Stephen is found guilty of the Contrivance and is by the Emperour 's own special Command thrust out of his Bishoprick And this was the first thing that opened his Eyes though they soon closed again for by this says Athanasius he was induced to suspect the like Villanies against my self and the other abufed Bishops and so recalled us all from banifhment Though the Historians say he was compelled to it by his Brother Constans who threatned War upon him at a time when his Affairs were in a low condition and his Empire in danger to be lost to the Persians This might and no doubt did quicken him but the first thing that set his thoughts awork was this discovery if we may believe Athanasius who was in a little time restored to his favour and familiar Conversation and had opportunity to understand his mind For Gregory that was thrust into the See of Alexandria dying within Ten Months after the Sardican Council Athanasius is importun'd by Letter upon Letter from Constantius to come to Court in order to his restitution and it is a great while before he will trust him after the Experience of so many Treacheries but having all the Security that the Word or the Oath of a Prince could give him he at length repairs to Antioch where the Emperor then lay in attendance upon his Persian War and where he is entertain'd by him with mighty kindness and friendship and at last dismist with his own commendatory Letters to Alexandria and assured by the most Sacred and Solemn Promises That for the time to come he will never give Ear to any Tales and Stories against him And at his parting only makes this request that of that vast number of Churches that were under his Jurisdiction he would be pleased to grant one for the use of those who dissented from him Athanasius replies That he is ready to obey all his Majesties Commands only he requests the same favour for the Dissenters at Antioch i. e. the Orthodox who would rather set up a separate Communion then Communicate promiscuously with the Arians as the Eusebians did This request was so reasonable that the Emperor could not deny it but the Eusebians immediately stifle the motion as well knowing that they should loose more by this liberty to the Orthodox at Antioch then they should gain to themselves or their Cause by granting it to the Arians at Alexandria And so the banisht Bishops are restored to to their several Sees and they quietly enjoy them till the unfortunate death of the Emperour Constans who in the year 350 was barbarously murthered by his Rebel slave Magnentius who was the first man pretending to Christianity that ever thought of Rebelling against his Sovereign Prince though it is Evident that he was at best but a counterfeit Christian in that as soon as he had got the Empire he endeavoured the Restitution of Idolatry as appears from the Law of Constantius to abolish the night sacrifices that as Theodoret informs us were made for the dead that were allowed by Magnentius contrary to the Law of Constantine the Great who had taken them quite away And Athanasius affirms that he was much addicted to Magicians and Inchantments and for the same reason is he commended by Libanius in his Funeral Oration upon Julian that though he were an Usurper of anothers Kingdom he was a restorer of the Laws by which the Heathens understood the old Religion that had been supprest by the Christian Emperors But what do we talk of his being an Heathen when he was by the Character that all the Historians of all sides give of him scarce a Brute cruel and bloody in all his Actions sparing nothing in his rage nor scarce out of it inhumane in his very luxury and at last completing all the Villanies of his life in the murder of his Family and perhaps to expiate all the rest in his own But Athanasius having lost his Patron before he recovered Alexandria the Eusebians threaten him afresh so that Constantius himself was forced to write him Letters of encouragement and give him new assurances of security Upon which he goes forward and is in all places received with all the expressions of joy and triumph and in a little time is saluted with Communicatory Letters from above 400 Bishops and his Enemies everywhere fall upon their knees before him and implore his Pardon particularly those two vile wretches Valens and Ursacius confess themselves perjur'd Villains do publick Penance in a Council at Milan and then before the Bishop of Rome and declare to all the World under Hand and Seal that all those foul Accusations that were forged against Athanasius were meer falsehoods of their own contrivance to take away his life but though all this be attested by such clear and inevitable Records yet our faithful Arian Historians are so true to their own Story as wholly to overlook it But this dishonourable submission does but make the Party more outragious and implacable and they resolve that though Athanasius had hitherto escaped all their Snares that they will have his blood at last and therefore they only sit still a little while to hatch new matter for Calumny And that was soon done for whereas the Rebel Magnentius had sent Ambassadours to treat with Constantius or rather if it were possible mediate his Peace two of them were French Bishops with whome Athanasius had contracted acquaintance at the Council of Sardica and now he treats his old friends in their passage at Alexandria that is immediately made High Treason and he is Accused of keeping Correspondence with Magnentius against the Emperour though our Arian Historians are here so subtle too as to take no notice of this passage because the Calumny was afterward so shamefully bafled by Athanasius as we shall see in its due place But however by this and the like devices they once more enrage the Emperour against him though he is forced to dissemble his displeasure till he sees the Event of the War In the mean time Julius Bishop of Rome dyes and Liberius succeeds to whom Letters are sent by the Eusebians in the East to joyn Communion with them against Athanasius and others from Athanasius and the African Bishops to enter into Communion with them against the Easterns Liberius at first being ignorant of his Case denyes Athanasius but at length upon better Information rejects the Easterns and Communicates with the Africans But this was such an affront to their haughty Spirits that they ever after studied and watch't for Revenge against him as diligently as they ever did against Athanasius And Liberius foreseing that they would raise a Storm upon him dispatches away his Legates to the Emperour to Petition for a Council but
Creatura est filius dei Perfecta fides est Deum de Deo credere Et natum aiebant unigenitum solùm ex Deo Patre Quid est natum certè non factum Nativitas suspicionem auferebat Creaturae In the next place he subjoyns several Anathema's so frankly pronounced at the same time by Valens and his Confederates against all parts of the Arian Heresie that could not but prevent all Jealousie of any design to introduce it But the Council being dismist Valens and his Party insult over the Orthodox Bishops as if they had gain'd their point against the Nicene Council Dimisso Concilio caeperunt postea Valens Ursacius caeteriquenequitiae eorum socii palmas suas jactitare dicentes se filium non Creaturam negasse sed similem caeteris creaturis tum Usiae nomen abolitum est Tunc Nicaenae fidei damnatio conclamata est Ingemuit totus Orbis Arianum se esse miratus est The Council being dissolved Valens and Ursacius and the other Associates of their wickedness spread their Plumes boasting that they had not denyed the Son of God to be a Creature but to be like the other Creatures then was the Name of Substance abolish't then was the overthrow of the Nicene Faith proclaimed then did the whole World groan and admire to see it self become Arian But were they so No so far from that that as soon as the Cheat was discovered they run about like so many mad Men tearing their hair and taking the Sacrament upon it that by suspecting no harm they were merely over-reacht by wicked men and abhorred that ill use that Valens and his Villains had madeof their Condescention and begg'd pardon of the World for their Folly and Easiness Concurrebant Episcopi qui Ariminensibus dolis irretiti sine conscientiâ haeretici ferebantur contestantes corpus domini quicquid in Ecclesiâ sanctum est se nihil mali in suâ â—ide suspicatos Putavimus dicebaâ—t sensum congruere cum verbis nec in Ecclesià Dei ubi simplicitas ubi pura confessio est aliud in corde clausum esse aliud in labiis proferri timuimus Decepit nos bona de malis existimatio non sumus arbitrati sacerdotes Christi adversus Christum pugnare This is their Protestation and how well they made it good we shall see in the next Reign but however evident it is that St. Jerom never intended by this passage as it is vulgarly abused that Arianism had really prevailed over the Orthodox World but on the contrary that the Orthodox World was astonsh't to see it self over-reach't by it And so ended this great Council of Ariminum in meer fraud and violence And that in the management of Church Affairs as long as our Saviour's own settlement of it in the whole Body of Christian Bishops is regarded can never come to any lasting effect though an Ecclesiastical Monarchy is as lyable to corruptions and abuses as any other State or Government and particularly with how much ease and no power but that of the Church it self all these mighty Contrivances were brought to nothing we shall see in the Reign of Julian §. XVII But as ill as the Council of Ariminum concluded that of Seleucia ended worse and came to nothing but bawling tumult and confusion for it consisted of two Parties that fearing one anothers Accusations they both endeavour'd to disturb all Proceedings till that point of enquiring into Mens lives was laid aside and that being obtain'd they proceed to enquire and determine of Faith but as the Council of Arminium consisted of Catholicks and Arians this was made up of Acacians that followed the Blasphemy of Aetius and the old Eusebians that approved all things in the Council of Nice but the word Consubstantial whereas the Acacians defied the Council it self and all its Decrees and must have not only the word Consubstantial but that of Substance too abolisht But to prevent this the Eusebians at the motion of Silvanus set up the Antiochian Creed for the Standard of Orthodoxy and depose all that refuse subscription to it Acacius and his Party on the contrary give in a Libel in which they equally condemn all unscriptural words anathematise their own Doctrine of Dissimilitude that they might the better condemn their Adversaries for that they knew would take with the Emperour to take away the discriminating words of all Parties But when this new Faith was read Sophronius an Eusebian cryes out if we must be making new Faiths every day in a little time we shall have none at all But to that it is replyed by Acacius If you laid aside the Nicene Faith for yours at Antioch why may not we lay aside yours for one more unexceptionable and thus were they caught in their own Snare for not acquiescing in the first determination of the Church and after the infinite turmoil of so many Councils they are now convinced of their own folly But however they proceed on to wrangle so intemperately that Leonas who was appointed by the Emperour to see things fairly managed was so out of all patience that he turn'd them out of doors and bid them go trifle among themselves So both Parties had their ends having escaped each others Accusations and establisht their own Doctrine with the formality of a Council This being done both post to Constantinople to tell their own Story but the Acacians coming first they so prepossess the Emperour with prejudice against his old friends as to engage him on their side against himself and his own opinion They tell him that Basilius and the other Party were stiff and inflexible in their own determinations and would yield nothing for the reconciling of Dissenting Parties nor remove any of the Offensive Words that were the cause of all these Dissentions not so much as that of Dissimilitude now they knew the Design of reconciling to be the Emperour's Darling and the Doctrine of Dissimilitude his particular aversation Upon this he in great haste and fury calls a Council at Constantinople of Fifty Bishops where these crafty men gain more ground for themselves by seeming to promote his great reconciling project in order to which they present him with a Creed wide enough to take in all Parties in which they banish not only the word Substance and Consubstantial but that of Hypostasis and though they held a Dissimilitude in Substance themselves yet to blind him they now dissemble it and by leaving it undetermined they serve his design of comprehension and therefore instead of his own Sirmian Creed That the Son was like the Father in all things they put him off with this general and ambiguous Form That the Son is like the Father in the sense of the Scriptures i. e. as they believed in Will but not in Substance Now this Creed was a meer contrivance to let in Aëtianism of which of all Heresies the Emperour had the greatest abhorrence yet such was his dotage and infatuation to compass his long look't
them were nicely and religiously observed by both Governments The first evidently appears from the Emperour 's summoning so many Councils to gratifie his own Will For his only design was to amend and reform the Nicene Creed for the reconciling of all Parties which if he had thought that he might have done by his own Imperial Authority to what purpose need he have broke up all the High-ways in Christendom by conveying Bishops to and from Councils He might have proclaimed down the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by one Imperial Rescript if he had supposed that a proper Authority for it So that when he summoned such Variety of Councils by the Countenance of their Authority to compass his Will that demonstrates it to be a fixt Principle with him that the Controversies of the Church ought to be decided by the Authority of the Church And therefore though it was scarce ever more oppressed or abused by any Prince then himself yet his very illegal Actions are the highest acknowledgement that is upon record of that religious reverence that is due to that power that was setled by our Saviour upon his Apostles and the Bishops their Successours forever For though it so frequently crost his own design yet he durst never directly invade or usurp it but was forced from time to time to solicite their compliance with his own wicked Will or rather misinform'd judgement And though he carried things with so rough a violence yet he would never attempt any thing against the Liberties of the Church unless he could bear himself out by the Authority of a Council But if he so much own'd that how comes it to pass that the Ancients charge him so highly for usurping it particularly Athanasius Hosius St. Hilary and Liberius who freely and boldly reproved him for it to his own face And so they did and that too upon very just grounds for though he did not challenge the Authority of the Church to himself yet he endeavoured to over-rule it by down-right force and violence which is in effect to destroy it And that is the ground of their complaints that they were not allowed freedom in Council but that himself and his Prefects took upon them to forestall the Judgement of the Church by Restraints and Threatnings This is the standing complaint of Athanasius and all the Orthodox Bishops in all their Writings It is the grievance insisted upon by the Synod of Alexandria in their Synodical Epistle in behalf of Athanasius against the Tyrian Council With what forehead could they call that a Council over which a temporal Lord presided and where Spies and Notaries were placed where his Lordship determined and the Officers of the Church were silenced or rather lacquied to his Decree Where what was voted by the Bishops was over-ruled by him He carried all things by Power we were govern'd by the Guards or rather the pleasure of the Eusebians whose Tool and Instrument was the Secular President And a little after These worthy Eusebians shelter their forgeries speaking of the Villany of Arsenius under the pretence of a Council where all things were carried by the Emperour's Will where one of his Lords presided and the Bishops were under the custody of the guard and compell'd to say whatever the Emperour commanded The very same Complaint is made by Athanasius himself against the Council of Antioch in his Epistle to the Monks of Egypt That when upon the Appeal or rather Reference made to Rome by the Eusebians he had repair'd thither and the time of hearing the cause was appointed as soon as they heard they were likely to meet with an Ecclesiastical judgement where the Secular Governour was not to be present nor the Guards to keep the Council doors nor all things to be overul'd by the Commands of Caesar by which methods and no other they had hitherto born down the Bishops and without which security they durst never have made any appearance were so astonisht and surprised that they had no way of escape but to shift off their own Appeal And this is the Account that he gives of their lying off from the Synod of Sardica That when they had brought the Emperours Officers along with them and trusted to do what they pleased by their Authority but finding that all things were resolved to be managed there fairly and freely according to the Ecclesiastical Rule they quite baulkt the Council And to transcribe no more the same complaint is perpetually repeated by him in all his Writings as the fundamental miscarriage v. p. 833. 844. 845. 861. 862. This was the enormity of his Reign though he fell not so grosly into it till after the overthrow of Magnentius or the Murther of Gallus They were the Actions of that time that these good men particularly complain of and no wonder when he did all things more like a Mad-man then a Prince and Govern'd both the State and himself too as wildly as the Church As his Extravagance at that time is described by Ammianus Marcellinus Quo ille Studio blanditiarum exquisito sublatus immunemque se deinde fore ab Immortalitatis incommodo existimans confestim a justiti◠declinavit it a intemperanter ut AEternitatem meam aliquoties assereret ipse dictando scribendoque propriâ manu Orbis totius se Dominum appellare Upon the news of the death of Gallus he was so bloated by the flatteries of his Courtiers for his success against all his Enemies that he forgot himself and his own Mortality and sunk after so prodigious a rate from all sense of Justice that he was often wont in dictating Letters to subscribe himself My Eternity and Lord of the whole World They I say were the actions of this mad time that these good Men particularly complain of and as for all the time before he gave the Church reasonable fair usage and though the Eusebians drew him in to pack Councils yet he never proceeded so high himself as to forestall or over-rule their Decrees As for the Council of Antioch that was the meer contrivance of the Nicomedian Eusebius and his Eunuchs to prevent the Council at Rome in the cause of Athanasius In which it does not appear that the Emperor had any other concernment farther then to put their Sentence in Execution And was in all probability imposed upon as the good Bishops of the Council were in the Condemnation of Athanasius For it was all grounded upon the Acts of the Tyrian Council and had they been legal his Deposition had been but just so that their validity being as here it was supposed no wonder that the Bishops Vote so freely against him though for the most part neither Arians nor Eusebians The Council at Sardica was a full and free Council and though the Eusebians were forced to be cross and peevish in their own defence yet all things were managed in the Council it self fairly and candidly without any appearance of force or fraud in the Emperor insomuch
for his zeal to the cause turning Orthodox as it were out of spite and preaching up the Niâ—ene Faith they assemble there in the year 360 in order to his deposition and under that pretence take the opportunity of drawing up a new form of Faith In which they not only dash out the likeness of the Son to the Father as it was in their former Creed but expresly declare a dissimilitude both in substance and will this was the end of all this fatal Tragedy and above thirty years contention about one word against the Authoritative determination of the Christian Church and after all parties had tired themselves A tius a pert and ignorant Mechanick carrys away the ball Thus far says Athanasius have they trifled away our Religion and into what wild conceits they will wander no man can foresee for there is no stop to be set to their Extravagance till they shall return to themselves and say let us return to our Fathers Abhor the Arian Heresy and embrace the Nicene Faith for it is clear that all contention against this let Men pretend what they will at top is for the sake of that at bottom and if men will not stick to the sacred determination there is no way left to keep out the Heresy Nor indeed all the follys in the world for when once the Authority of the Church is despised and this Itching humour of dispute broke out among the People though the Civil Government keep their nails never so short they will be always scratching and drawing blood of the Church And thus was it here for though the definition of the Council against the Heresy would have put an everlasting end to the Controversy as it did during the reign of Constantine yet when it was once laid aside by Constantius to oblige and comprehend as he dream't the Dissenters by some abatement what endless factions did it create Eusebians Aetians Photians Eudoxians Acacians Eunomians Macedonians Psatyrians and Dulians and that was the lowest folly that men could sink into for after all the divisions and subdivisions of one from another some of them came at last to affirm that Jesus Christ was so far from being the Son of God that he was only his Serving-man And this Philostorgius is not ashamed to tell us was preached by his â—elebrated Eunomius in the Cathedral Church of Constantinople But beside these wild Opiniatours the Church by this Liberty was oveâ—run with Swarms of Enthusiasts the most dangerous of all Vermin and this broke out chiefly among the Monks and men of Devotion In Egypt there was a Sect that thought it unlawful to void their Excrements from that Text in St. Matthew 15. 11. Not that which goeth into the mâ—uth defileth a man but that which cometh out of the mouth So easy is it to defile and prophane a sacred Text by applying it to the wrong end and against these Athanasius writ his Epistle to Ammon the Monk And others there were in Palestine that beside many other freaks had this peculiar to themselves that it was not lawful to pray unless alone from that passage of our Saviour Matth. 6. 6. When thou prayest enter into thy Closet and when thou hast shut thy door pray to thy Father which is in secret But not to follow the whole swarm of Breezes the two Magots of great Note and Magnitude at that time were the Massalians in Mesopotamia and the Eustathians in Armenia The Massalians first set up with this one Principle That they were obliged to pray always and so do nothing else from that passage of our Lord in the Gospel of St. Luke 18. 1. That Men ought always to pray and not to faint From this conceit naturally issued such a swarm of absurdities as eat up all other parts of Religion for if this was the only necessary thing and so they applyed that saying of our Saviour to Martha the two Sacraments and all other Dutys became useless and they grew so drunk with self-conceit that they pretended to see the Holy-Trinity with their bodily Eyes and to be equal with Christ himself sometimes they would dance upon the Devils and sometimes they would shoot at them and sometimes be taken with suddain frantick fits in which they converst with Angels and foresaw things to come they dissolved all the bonds of humane Society made perjury lawful cancell'd all obligations between Husband and Wife Parents and Children and lastly admitted none to their Society but such as were mark't out by a visible descent of the Holy-Ghost upon them and they were so fond as seriously to fancy that they familiarly saw such appearances As for the Eustathians or rather Eutachtans for Baronius I think has very well proved that not Eustathius Bishop of Sebasta but one Eutactus was the Father of the Sect I have given some account of them above that they were a wild sort of Phanaticks that under pretence of a more refined Godliness degenerated into perfect Ranters and Levellers and the Practice of all kinds of Debauchery But the fullest Description of them is best to be seen in the Canons of the Council of Gangra by which they were condemned viz. that they Abhorr'd Marriage as unlawful and eating of flesh unless it were strangled or offered to Idols that they set loose all servants from subjection to their Masters that they refused to receive the Eucharist from a married Priest that they despised Churches and all Assemblies in them as Superstitious that they set up Meetings separate from the Bishop that they refused to make the usual Offerings or to be present at the Love-feasts That they distinguisht themselves from others by a peculiar Habit and would not Communicate with any that did not wear it that they required women to shave their hair and wear Mens apparel to forsake their Husbands and neglect their Children and Children to take no notice or Care of their Parents that they fast on the Lords day and despise the Festivals of the Church in short they seem to have held nothing unlawful in humane life but marriage nor decent in the worship ofGod but contradiction to the practice of the Church And thus when our schism grows too strong for discipline the Common People never leave wandring till they have tired themselves with roving through all imaginable Exorbitances for these kind of doctrines are not peculiar to that time or place but are the flye-blows of disputacity and the natural effects of unbridled liberty all the world ever § XVIII This that I have described as accurately as I could by comparing the best Records of those times was the true state of the Christian Church under the Reign of Constantius and yet notwithstanding those perpetual Enormities committed by him through his whole Government the two great Articles that I am proving viz. the inherent right of determining Controversies within the Church it self by its own Governours and its entire submission to the Civil Powers howsoever oppressed by
that when the banisht Bishops were restored to the Exercise of their Function by the Decree of the Council he restored them too to the possession of their Bishopricks by his Imperial Rescript The first Synod at Milan was wholly Western and under the Jurisdiction of the Emperour Constans where they had all free liberty both of debating and determining as they pleased So that hitherto all Powers Priviledges and Jurisdictions in the Church were preserved as far as the Emperours were concern'd but after the death of Constans the overthrow of Magnentius and the murther of Gallus when Constantius run mad either through guilt or insolence we read of nothing but Fury and Tyranny For in the year 355 when Gallus was murthered he summons or rather musters a Council at Arles for the Condemnation of Athanasius commands the Bishops to subscribe it and banishes Paulinus of Trevers for refusing the Subscription In the same year meets the second Council at Milan and that for the same purpose in which Eusebius of Verselles Liberius of Rome and at last Hosius of Corduba are sent on the same Errand after Paulinus for the same Offence In the year 357 follows the Council of Sirmium where as we have seen all things were carried by Force Then comes the Council of Ariminum in the year 359 where a Council of near 400 Bishops are compelled to subscribe and submit to the pleasure of Valens and his fifty Men. The Council of Seleucia came to the worst end of all being only a contest between the Eusebians and Acacians who finding themselves over-numbred appeal to the Emperor and are received by him draw up a new Creed in which they not only cashiere the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but as they phrased them all other Exotick words And this indefinite Faith is imposed upon all Christian Bishops by an Imperial Rescript upon pain of banishment by which the Acacians outed the Eusebians and so got themselves into the best and fattest Preferments In the year 360 comes the last Conventicle of Antioch in which Meletius Bishop of Antioch was deposed for asserting the Nicene Creed and that against the Publick Faith of the Emperour given him under Hand and Seal for his Security These were wild actings in the Church but they all followed the Magnentian and Gallian madness and that is the excuse that is made for him by Athanasius himself that after that he was not himself but was entirely govern'd by other Men that as he expresses it had no more brains in their Skuls then in their Toes But before this time of outrage and distraction he kept up that reverence and regard that is due to that Authority that our Blessed Saviour has committed to his Church Nay even after this loosing himself and his understanding by getting the whole World he kept up that respect to our Saviour's Institution as at least to Warrant all his irregular Proceedings by a shew of its Authority For though he endeavour'd to carry all things by force and violence yet he never attempted any thing without a pretended Council This was the Interval of time in which the Ancients complain of his invading the Power of the Church and as it were by these wild Practices thrusting himself into the Evangelical Priest-hood Thus was it in the year 355 immediately after the mad Council at Milan when the Dialogue between the Emperour and Liberius Bishop of Rome pass't in which Liberius insists upon that one Proposal that the Emperour would be pleased to call a free Council and not over-aw it by his own Sovereign Power Let there be an Ecclesiastical Synod Summon'd but not to Court where neither the Emperor himself nor any of his Lords or Judges commands by threatning but where the fear of God alone determines all things And for sticking to this Proposition and refusing to act in an Ecclesiastical Sentence till it was granted he is sent into banishment In the same year and upon the same occasion it was that the wise Hosius gave him that famous advice Tibi Deus Imperium commisit nobis quae sunt Ecclesiae concredidit Et quemadmodum qui tuum Imperium malignis oculis carpit contradicit ordinationi divinae Ita tu cave ne quae sunt Ecclesiae ad te trahens magno crimini obnoxius fias neque enim fas est nobis in terris Imperium tenere neque tu thymiatum sacrorum potestatem habes Imperator God has committed the Empire to you the Church to us and as he would rebel against God that should malign your Authority so take heed left by drawing the Affairs of the Church to your self you prove guilty of the same Rebellion for as it is a sin in us to challenge any temporal Authority so know O Emperor that you have not the power of the holy Function This was plain dealing and but necessary at that time when he had made so foul an inrode upon the Jurisdictions and Liberties of the Church and overborn all its Divine Authority by Military force and sury So that his meaning was not as the Romanists would have it to cut off the Emperor from all interposing in Church Affairs because he that had been so much employed in them under Constantine could not think it unlawful in it self But though that be no fault but a duty yet to use his Authority with meer force and violence to destroy the Judgment of the Governors of the Church by compulsion in matters of Faith and to take upon himself the determination of them as he had in effect done and that in contradiction to the Authority of a General Council was such a bold contempt of our Saviour's Institution and such an Invasion of the rights of his Kingdom that the good Bishop could do no less then threaten it with the Terrors of the last day About the same time St. Hilary address't his Apology in behalf of the Catholicks to the Emperor where among divers other abuses that he Petitions to be redress't this is none of the least Provideat decernat Clementia vestra ut omnes ubique Judices quibus Provinciarum administrationes creditae sunt ad quos sola cura solicitudo publicorum negotiorum pertinere debet à religiosa se observantia abstineant neque posthac praesumant atque usurpent putent se causas cognoscere Clericorum innocentes homines variis afflictationibus minis violentià terroribus frangere atque vexare That was the deplorable State of the Church at that time that the Emperor's Prefects and Officers took upon them a Power of Summoning the Orthodox Clergy to their Tribunals to give an account of their Faith and to banish them if they refused compliance with the Emperor's Will and not only so but to take the Accusations of their Enemies against them and right or wrong and without any regard to Justice or understanding the merit◠of the Cause inflict upon them their own Arbitrary punishments This just