business wherefore should it not permit two Provincial Synods to choose a third to judge of their differences the First and Second Cannon of the Council of Turin in the Year 397 are yet more positive in this matter XII The Synods in each Province shall represent the Widows and Children of Ministers which died in the Service of their Church to be supported and maintained at the common charge of each Province as necessity shall require And where the Province shall be Ingrateful the Deputy thereof shall report it to the National Synod to take care therein CONFORMITY This Article is not only grounded on Christian Charity but also on the acknowledgment which the Churches owe to Ministers dead in their Service whereof they should shew the marks to their Families especially when there is occasion for it XIII Deputies of Churches shall not be gone from Synods without leave and till they carry along with them the Decisions which shall there be made CONFORMITY There are two things to be consider'd in this Article First That Deputies are not suffer'd to depart from the Synod without leave The Second Council of Arles made this Decree in its 19 Cannon Anno Dom. 452 If any one thinks he may abandon the Assembly of his Brethren before the dissolution of the Council Tom. 1. Conc. Gall. p. 105. let him know that he is deprived of the Communion of his Brethren and that he cannot be thereunto received until he be first of all absolv'd in the following Synod There may be seen in the Fourth Tome of Councils certain Fragments attributed to a Council of Sevil in Spain assembled about the time of Pope Gregory the I. in the X. of which is to be found word for word the Decree of the Synod of Arles which makes me believe that Burchardus pag. 521. from whom Garsias has taken this Cannon was mistaken when he attributed it to the Council of Sevil and I the rather believe it when I consider that the compilation of Cannons made by this Writer are full of this kind of mistakes The Fourth Council of Toledo assembled in the year 633 does defend also in the Fourth Cannon to depart from the Council until all things are decided by the major Votes and Signed by all the Bishops Tom. 4. Conc. p. 583. The Sixteenth of that of Worms of the year 868 prescribes the same thing To. 6. Conc. pag. 695. The Second thing our Discipline prescribes those which are Deputies to Synods is to carry along with them the Decisions which shall be made I find the same thing practic'd in the Antient Church in Effect it may be seen by the 29th Cannon of the First Council of Orange in the year 451 that each Bishop carried away with him a Copy of the Acts and Resolutions made in the Assembly and that the like was sent even to those as were absent to advertise them of their Duty by the Ministry of the Metropolitan and in the year 431 the First Oecumenical Council of Ephesus permitted each Metropolitan to take a Copy of the Acts whereof his Brother Bishops might have Communication by his means The Eighth Cannon where this power is granted to Metropolitans saying expresly that it is for their own surety that is to say for Conservation of the Rights of their Provinces and by consequence the Rights of all the Suffragan Bishops See what shall be said on the Tenth Article of the following Chapter XIV The Authority of Provincial Synods is inferiour to that of National Synods CONFORMITY There is no difficulty at all in this Constitution especially after what we have observed on the Tenth Article where I have prov'd by the Authority of several Cannons of Constantinople of Calcedon and the African Code that Appeals were made from Provincial Synods to those of the whole Diocess to which our National ones at this time do agree XV. Colloques and Provincial Synods shall be regulated according to the several Governments so that one may not pretend to be greater than another and for the present this shall be the Distribution of Provincial Synods 1 The Isle of France Country of Chartrain Piccardy Champagne and Brie 2 Normandy 3 Brittany 4 Orleans Blesois Dunois Nivernois Berry Bourbonnois and La Marche 5 Tourain Anjou Loudunois Le Maine Vandomois and le Perche 6 Vpper and Lower Poictou 7 Zantonge Aunis City and Government of Rochell Angoulmois 8 Lower Guyen Perrigord Gascogne and Limosin 9 Vpper and Lower Vivarez with the Uclay and Forest 10 Lower Languedock viz Nimes Usez Montpelier to Beziers inclusively 11 The rest of Languedock Vpper Guyen Tholouse Carcassona Quercy Rouergue Armagnack Vpper Auvergne 12 Bourgundy Lyonnois Beaujolois Bresse Low Auvergne Gex 13 Provence 14 Dauphine and the Principality of Orange 15 The Churches of the Soveraignty of Bearn 16 The Sevennes and Givaudan If it so falls cut for the convenience of Churches that one or two should be parted or to unite several in one it may be done in the Provincial Synod whereof notice shall be given to the National Synods CONFORMITY Those who please to read the Second Cannon of the First Universal Council of Constantinople and the Eighth of that of Ephesus will easily perceive our Discipline agrees exactly with the practice of the Primitive Christians And as for the dividing one Church into two or joyning several into one when necessity requires there is Examples to be seen in Antient Records As for joyning several into one Tom. 5. Conc. p. 430. the Eighth Letter of the Second Book of Gregory the Great gives us an Example and the Fathers of the Sixteenth Council of Toledo An. 693 in the V. Cannon Authorises the joyning and dividing and declares also in what manner it must be done The Emperour Charles the Bald in his Capitularies Anno 844 gives power to the Bishops to divide a Church into two when the Necessity and Edification of the People require it and if it gives them power to divide Churches Tom. 2. capit c. 7. p. 23. Edit Balux 1677 there 's no question to be made but it gives them power also to join several in one for good and lawful causes In process of time the Popes have assumed to themselves this power of Joyning and Dividing Churches although in France they are not permitted to exercise it without the consent of our Kings as the late Mr. de Marca has well observed in the Thirteenth chap. of the Fourth Book of the Liberties of the Gallcian Church where he treats of these matters XVI A Minister deputed by a Provincial Synod to go to a Synod or Colloque of another Province for some publick Affairs may have a deliberative Vote and that not only for the business he is come about but also during the whole sitting if his particular Affair be not in agitation CONFORMITY I do not think any need question but the same thing was practis'd in the Primitive Church Tom. 1. Conc. Gall. p. 27.
setling of new Bishops instead of those which were dead Tom. 3. Bibl. Pat. p. 94 112. and says to them Write to these and receive from them according to the custom of Pacisick and Ecclesiastical Letters As for Ecclesiastical Discipline there are a great many Rules which oblige those of the Clergy to observe the Canons whereof the Discipline of the Ancient Christians was made so that neither Bishop nor Priest nor Deacon was admitted who had not first submitted to these Laws and who did not acknowledg in submitting to them that 't was by them he was to conduct the Souls which were committed to his care I should be too prolix to mention all the passages of Antiquity where Ecclesiasticks are enjoyn'd to the practise of the Discipline and observing of the Canons it shall suffice to mention some to justfy a Truth acknowledged by all those which have applied themselves to the Reading the Works of Ancient Doctors and especially of the Councils Cod. Afric Justell Canon 18. That of Carthage An. Dom. 419. Appoints those who are to impose hands on a Bishop or to any other Clergy Man to let them know first of all the Decrees of the Synods that so they might have no cause to repent of having done any thing contrary to the Statutes of the Council Pope Celestin about the same time thus begins his Letter to the Bishops of Poulia and Calabria which is the third in Course Tom. 1. Concil pag. 902. That if it be not permitted to any Priest nor Prelate to be ignorant of the Canons nor to do any thing contrary to the Constitutions of the Fathers for what is it may be worthy of our care if giving too great a latitude to the People at the desire of some persons the Rule of the Canons is infring'd The first Canon of the Council of Calcedon requires that one observe all the Canons had been made till then in the Synods Tom. 1. Concil Gall. the 33d of the 3d Council of Orleans in the year 538 and the 6th of the 4th of the year 541. with several others which I pass over in silence do enjoyn the same thing The Fathers stop not there for not content to have recommended to the Clergy the observation of the Canons which also they have formally requir'd of them at the very moment of their Consecration it is in this manner the Fathers of the 4th Council of Toledo have explain'd themselves in Canon 27. Anno Dom. 633. for they oblige the Priests and Deacons established in Parishes Tom. 4. Concil pa. 589. Ibid. p. 824. to promise the Bishop to live Chast and Holily and Religiously to observe the Laws and Discipline of the Church the 10th Canon of the 11th Council of the same place assembled in the year of Christ obliges all those which take on them Holy Orders to keep the Catholick Faith and wholy to be subject to Canonical Rules and that it should not be thought 't was only Priests and Deacons which were obliged to the strict observing the Canons and Ecclesiastical Laws the Council of Merida in Portugal Ibid. p. 802. extended this obligation to Bishops also and to Metropolitans in the 4th Canon Anno Dom. 666. X. Ministers shall not be ordain'd without assigning them a particular Flock and shall be fit for the Flocks which shall be assign'd them and one Church cannot pretend a right to a Minister by vertue of a particular promise made by him without Approbation of the Colloque or Provincial Synod CONFORMITY The Council of Calcedon made a considerable Decree on this Subject which is to be seen in the 6th of its Canons where the Synod forbids to receive Priest nor Deacon nor any Ecclesiastical Person whatever without assigning them a Flock that is to say without a Title to speak after the manner of the Writers of these times it makes void all Ordinations which is not made in the manner it prescribes and suspends the Ministry of those which have been establish'd in any other manner by this means to correct the boldness of the Ordainers But rightly to understand the sense of the Canon it must be observ'd that the Council calls absolute Ordination an Ordination which obliges not to any certain place it is what the Greek terms import used by him which amounts just to what we say to Elect without assigning a certain Flock See here the terms of the Canon You must not lay hands on any body neither Priest nor Deacon nor on any in Ecclesiastical Orders unless him that is to receive Ordination has been before published and named in some Church in the City or Country or in some Martyrs Chappel or in some Monastry and as for those who are absolutely establish'd the Synod appoints that the imposition of hands be null and that those which received it cannot serve in the Church which shall reflect on those which had done it France caused the Execution of this Decree to be demanded of the Council of Trent P. 639. c. 3. Paris 1654. as we find by the Memoirs of Mr. Du Puy and we have seen in the 4th Article what the Emperor Alexander Severus said of this practice of Christians which he mightily approved The Council of Valentia in Spain prescribes almost the same thing with that of Calcedon in the Year 524. in the 4th Canon Tom. 3. Concil p. 820. Collect. Rom. part 2. c. 14. p. 162. That none of the holy Bishops do ordain any body until he first promises to six in one place to the end that by this means men should not have liberty to shun the Rules of Ecclesiastical Discipline Pope John the VIII in a Synod of 130 Bishops made this Decree Him that thinks fit to establish a Priest let him assign him a Church where he may still reside serving the Lord. Atto Bishop of Verceill who lived in the Xth Century cites the Canon of the Council of Calcedon in his Capitulary chap. 30. and in his 31st he saith Tom. 8. Spirit Dach p. 13. Paris 1668. Churches ought to be built in Convenient places consecrate them by Prayers and settle Pastors in each of them However These Decrees hinder'd not but there were some Persons Ordain'd and Establish'd in the Ministry of the Church without being ingag'd to any particular Flock as Paulinus who afterwards was Bishop of Nole in Italy St. Jerom and the Frier Macedonius they were made Priests without assigning them Flocks but this doth not prejudice what hath been said for the two former accepted only the Employ wherein 't was desir'd to ingage them only on this Condition as appears by the 6th Epist of Paulinus to Severus by the 45th to Alipius and by the 61st of St. Jerom chap. 10. As for Macedonius something of constraint was us'd in regard of him if we credit Theodoret in the 13th Chapter of his Religious History To these Examples may be added that of the Friers Barses and Eulogius who by
confer with the Ministers and Elders if they have not been sufficiently instructed And in case the gainsaying Brethren refuse to make the said promises they shall be censur'd as Rebels according to the Discipline and the Colloque being assembled shall proceed as above And if the said Opposers have been patiently heard and refuted by consent the whole shall be Registred if not the Provincial Synod shall be desir'd to meet extraordinarily if need require at the time and place that the said Colloque shall judge most convenient after the Promise as above-mention'd reiterated by the said Opposers The Synod assembled shall first of all consider with good deliberation and consideration of the Matter the Places the Time and Persons whether it shall be expedient that the Conference with the said Opposers be made in presence of the People the Doors shut or open and that Audience be given to any of the Parties present that would speak or not and that in all Cases the decision should belong to others than to those called in the Province and the whole according to the Order contain'd in the Discipline And that then if the said gain-sayers will not obey they shall make the same Promise as above and shall be transmitted over to the National Synod ordinarily or if necessity require extraordinarily assembled the which shall hear them with all Holy Liberty and there the intire and final resolution shall be made by the Word of God to which if they refuse to acquiesce from Point to Point and with express dislike of their Errors Registred they shall be cut off from the Church CONFORMITY This Article shall be Explain'd in what I shall observe on that which follows XXXII A Pastor or Elder breaking the Vnity of the Church or stirring up contention about some Point of Doctrine or of Discipline which he has subscribed or of the form of Catechism or Administring the Sacraments or publick Prayers or Marriages refusing to obey what the Colloque has determin'd shall then be suspended from his Office to be farther proceeded against at the Provincial or National Synod CONFORMITY A Council of Africa Ep. 71. p. 121. ult Edit in the time of St. Cyprian Deposed those of the Clergy which by their Rebellions disturb'd the Concord and Unity of the Church St. Basil in his 1st Canon of his 1st Canonical Epistle to Amphilochius prescribes after what manner one should act not only against true Schismaticks but likewise against all those which stir up Divisions in the Church and which also make Conventicles and Assemblies apart He speaks in the same place of Hereticks and as these are three sorts of Persons very different one from another this Doctor doth also adjudge diversity of Punishments But besides what I have now remark'd we have also several Canons of Ancient Councils which do favour the Order of our Discipline the 6th of the 1st Universal Council of Constantinople is against those which endeavour to confound and overthrow the Ecclesiastical Order The VII first of the 1st of Ephesus which is the 3d Oecumenical were compos'd against all such of the Clergy as well as People which should depart from the Decrees of the Council and that should adhere to Revolt or Apostatize The 18th of Chalcedon forbids all sorts of Fraternities and Combinations against the Church observing That seeing this Crime is forbid by the Civil Laws that it ought much more to be defended in the Church It is for this Cause ought to be cited the 21st Canon of the 3d Council of Orleans in the year 538. Tom. 1. Conc Gal. p. 254. Ib. p. 480. and the second Decree made by the Synod of Rheims in the year of our Lord 630. XXXIII In each Church there shall Memorials be made of all remarkable things in Matters of Religion and a Minister shall be deputed to each Colloque to receive and carry them to the Provincial and from thence to the National Synod CONFORMITY Pope Fabian who finished his Days by a Glorious Martyrdom for the Cause of Jesus Christ during the Persecution of Decius about the year of Christ 250. Pope Fabian Tom. 1. Coâ—il p. 113â— I say Established persons to Collect the Acts of Martyrs as is to be seen in the Pontifical Book commonly attributed to Damasus and it may truly be said this was the principal subject our Discipline aimed at in the Article which we Examine as appears by this Establishment of the National Synod of Privas in the year 1612. The Provinces shall be exhorted carefully to recollect the Histories of Pastors and other Believers which in these last times have suffer'd for the Truth of the Son of God and such Memoirs shall be sent to Geneva to be made publick In the same Pontifical of Damasus Ubi supra p. 30. which I but now spoke of it is observ'd That St. Clement Disciple of the Apostles had a long time before Fabian divided the seven quarters of the City of Rome to seven faithful persons of the Church that each might exactly enquire in his District the Acts of Martyrs in the number of which he was put himself Ib. p. 110. about the year our Lord 100. Pope Anterus Predecessor to Fabian did near-hand the same as was done by Clement But if that was done in the Church of Rome it was also practised in divers others St. Cyprian testifies it was practised by that of Africa in his 37th Epistle where he ordains That the Day of the Death of Martyrs should be taken account of to the end to celebrate their Memory It is in this regard Tertullian speaks De Coron c. 13. des Fastes of the Feasts of the Church and the Letter of the Church of Smyrna touching the Martyrdom of St. Pollycarp gives us also a proof of the thing now in question and which ought to be looked upon as the Original of what we call Martyrologies which comprehend not the Martyrs of one Church only but generally of all as can be discover'd in which 't is thought Eusebius first laboured CHAP. VI. Of the Union of Churches ARTICLE I. NO Church can pretend Precedencie nor Domination over another nor one Province over another CONFORMITY Let the Reader see what I have said already on the Sixteen and Eighteen Articles of the first Chap. where he will find this Article Established and its conformity to the ancient Cannons II. No Church can transact any matter of great consequence wherein the Interest or Dammage of other Churches may be concern'd without the advice of the Provincial Synod if it be possible to assemble it and if the matter be pressing it shall communicate and have the advice of the other Churches of the Provinces at least by Letters CONFORMITY This Second Article is also very conformable to the Antient Discipline according to which the Affairs of each Province were administred by the Provincial Synods it is partly the Subject of the Second Cannon of the First Oecumenical Council of Constantinople
Wife if she will and if she cannot contain if after she comes to know the Husband committed Adultery with her Daughter she has no farther carnal knowledge with him she may marry another Person unless she will voluntarily abstain and in the Tenth Cannon If a Son has committed Adultery with the Wife of his Father neither he nor she cannot marry but as for the Husband if he will he may marry another Wife yet it were better to abstain That of Compiegne made this Decree Seven years after Ib. Can. 8. p. 43. If a Man has a lawful Wife if his Brother commits Adultery with her let not the Brother nor Wife which have been guilty of Adultery never marry during life But as for the Husband of the Wife he is at his liberty to marry again if he please The Fourteen and Fifteen Cannons Establish also the same Discipline The Eighth Cannon is also found in the Fifth Book of Capitularies chap. 19. it is apparently the Eighth Cannon of the Council reported by Gratian though in something different terms Caus 32. q. 7. c. Quaedam under the Name of a Decree of a certain Council In the Roman Collection printed at Rome Fifteen years ago by Order of Cardinal Francis Barberin Vice-Chancellor and Dedicated by him to Pope Alexander the Seventh There is found Two Synods held at Rome in the Ninth Century One under Eugenius the Second the other under Leo the Fourth and by the constitutions of the one and the other one may separate for reason of Adultery with power to re-marry See here what is contained in the 36th Cannon of the former That it be not permitted to any one whatsoever to forsake his Wife and to joyn himself to another unless it be in case of Adultery otherwise the offender must take the former The same Cannon is repeated in the Second in the same Terms and under the same Number of 36. Ibid. pâ—g 92. The Council of Tribur whereof I have already spoke on the 13th Article confirms the same practise in the 41. Cannon where the Fathers require that Bishops having regard to human frailty should comfort those who have been separated for Adultery and which cannot contain in suffering them to re-marry after having fulfill'd the time of their pennance The Frier Blastares whom I have already cited several times Let. G. c. 13. pag. 73 74. testifies that the Greek Church used so in his time that is in the 14th Century for amongst the several reasons for dissolving Marriage he reckons Adultery for the which he declares Marriage may lawfully be dissolved and contract another after sentence of the Judges It was in regard to this practise of the Eastern Nations Hist of the Council of Trent by P. Saovo lib. 8. pag. 920 921. that the Ambassadors of Venice caused to be read in the Council of Trent a demand they made on the Anathema of divorces which contain'd in substance that their Republick held the Islands and Kingdoms of Cyprus Candy Corfou Zante and Cephalony inhabited by Greeks who time out of mind have been wont to put away the wife guilty of Adultery and to Marry another and that this Custom known to the whole Church Was never condemned nor blamed by any Council and therefore that the Fathers would be pleased to dispose the Cannon that treated thereof in such a way as should not be prejudicial to them to which the Council had some regard for the Opinion of the Greeks was not there directly condemn'd It appears clearly by what has been hitherto said that the Establishment of our Discipline is very judicious and very conformable to the use and practise of the Ancient Church and also to that of the present Greek Church so that the innovation is in those which have forsaken the ways of their Fathers and have taken a quite contrary course in teaching that the band of Marriage is not to be broke not even for cause of Adultery yet I cannot think Pope Vrban the second was so severe nor that he would absolutely have forbidden Marriage to a man that had left his wife after having convicted her of Adultery and what makes me think so is for that in a Synod he held An Apud Marcam de conc li. 4. c. 14. pag. 282. 1093. At Troys in Poulle it was resolved in the first Cannon to dissolve the Marriage of two persons that were nearly related on this condition however That if they separated according to the Judgment of the Bishops they were permitted to contract other Marriages because they were young what likelihood that Vrban with his Synod composed of 70 Bishops and 12 Abbots should not have judged the band of Matrimony indissoluble in regard of those and that he would have thought it so after the Adultery of one of the parties I am confident if occasion had offer'd this Pope would not have done otherwise in regard of persons which separated by reason of Adultery then the two Roman Synods I but now cited in the 9th Century and the Councils of Verbery and Compeign in the 8th who permitted as has been shewn to the innocent party to re-marry when the band of the former Marrirge is quite broke by Adultery certainly the Fathers of these two Councils intended not to forbid Marriage to those which Adultery had separated seeing they allowed separation for things of much less moment than is that of Adultery and that at the same time they grant power and liberty to re-marry anew for Example the 3d. Tom. 1. conc Gal. pag. 3. Cannon of the Synod of Verbery is conceiv'd in these terms If a Priest has Marry'd his Neece let him leave her and be deposed If another takes her to wife let him put her away also because 't is a thing blame worthy that another Man should marry her which was put away by a Priest but if the man cannot contain let him marry some other The 5th cannon contains this Decree If a Woman has contriv'd the Death of her Husband with other Men and that the Husband in his own defence kills him that comes to murder him and that he can prove it he may repudiate his Wife and marry another if he please The 9th permits him that is forced to quit his Country to go to live in another and that his Wife will not follow him it permits him to Marry another In the 6th it is permitted to a free Man that shall have Marry'd a slave thinking her to be of a free condition he is permitted to take another if the first be put again under servitude and that she cannot be ransomed the same power is given to a free woman that shall marry a slave not knowing he was so unless he had been forced by famine to sell himself by consent of his Wife and that the price of the sale of the Husband had served to preserve the Wife from Want and perishing by famine besides this the Woman might put away her Husband